Calax

The first one was creepy in certain points. The problem was that you could identify creepy vs combat because the environment shifts with a very audible THUNK from one gear to the next. Probably the freakiest moment for me was either when Alma came out of her cage and slaughtered her captor, or when the little girl appeared at the top of the ladder you were about to go down (visual trick because you looked at the ladder as you mounted it allowed her to appear just as you look back at the top of the ladder which was freaky as all hell because you're stuck to ladders and can't shoot.)

honestly? I loved mirrors edge, short and a few moments where you asked the devs "Really? you thought that that would be possible on the first try?" But the games mechanics once you get used to them put you in an incredible groove, and often I could find jumps and other things like that without having the red highlights. Probably the worst moment in that game is attempting to escape the Mall, you get to the top and have to break glass, wallrun and jump to a bar then move from bar to a glass walkway zip along that and jump one final time into a maintence cubby hole. All the while a guy with the 1 hit kill gun is blazing away from below.

Basically you go to our steam page and friend us. Then we'll be able to see you through the steam system in the friends listing. Once there steam has a built in IM system to talk to people. As to it getting harder, Advanced is a cakewalk compared to expert with humans. The great thing about bots is that they have perfect accuracy, while Humans usually have some Friendly Fire happening. On Expert Friendly Fire does full damage which means you pop somebody with a shotgun and they loose half their life, also Zombies will hit you for 20 per poke, tanks and witches are one hit incaps (well Witches might be one hit kills). Advanced gives you much more room for error with the zombies doing 4 damage per whack and friendly fire doing at MOST 10 hp.

I think Fear 2 is going to be more about the horror elements (killing ghosts and stuff).

we do have a group of people on the PC side that play together alot, I'm Calax, Tale's Tale and the others have different names. Also once you start playing with other people your kill count drops like a rock.

not really, I know bombing of logistical targets (harbors, dams, and factories) took place on the european side, I don't know about the Japanese side because amazingly High school history generally glosses over the Pacific Theatre militarily and focus's more on the Japanese internment camps.

Meh, too bad you can't stage sub raids on stuff like dry docks and other logistical targets. Rebuilding a port would probably chop give the Japanese a Logistical NIGHTMARE.

wait Z virus? Are we going to be facing an enhance version of the Umbrella Corporations Tyrant? this time with special drooling action?

Saw a Daily Show (with John Stewart!) where they interviewed a guy from newsweek. According to said gentleman, Popular opinion polls show that a two state solution is supported by most Arabic governments, and the Civvies on both sides of this conflict. I'm not sure how the Israeli government is attempting to put a long term solution in place when their entire strategy is to allow terror groups to build up in Palestinian zones, then to show us all that they're capable militarily, they roll in and wipe out the stockpiles the groups made. Then they try to starve/make live a living hell for those not of their faith. Also the gentleman from newsweek said that the concept of Terrorism and hitting back after terror attacks is just a infinite loop, they attack you hit back hard, and make more of the terrorists than you took apart, and in retaliation for your retaliation, they attack again. What you're supposed to do against terror attacks is not to do what America did after 9/11 and declare war on anyone who remotely dislikes us, but rather to simply take it and do your best to move on. By taking the Bush stance ("We'll show no fear by beating the living crap out of a country that's so far below us militarily that they can't see our tanks!") we actually IMHO show that the terror attack worked and thus incite more people to attack us exactly because it sparks a reaction. And if you say I'm full of crap, look how India is responding to the Mumbai attacks.

I wasn't trying to say they should exclude it, but at least make the characters who believe it be consistent. In Enders Shadow it seemed like half way through the plot Card said "Oh wait, that's not my value system!" and promptly changed the main characters values. I also don't like heavy handed "My faith is the one TRUE faith!" books, where one religion (real, I'm willing to ignore fake religions... if you understand me) is elevated as the pinnacle of spiritual triumph. I know Tom Clancy has been accused of being a born again christian and changing his works to suit that, but I didn't really notice it. In the Ender series, it seemed like a lot of the moral values and structure were based around Mormon versions. Yes he did have good insights into humanity (for example, in Speaker he notes that Town's and their sibilings are designed specifically so that women can have a safe place while they are pregnant), but he starts to get heavy handed in his handling of his characters. The best way to integrate your love of religion into a book or other medium is not to make it seem like this particular faith is better than any others, or have stuff like all members of faith X survive the apocalypse because their god is the real god, instead simply have the characters live like you would in their situation. Let them have flaws and deal with those flaws, show that they're using their faith to be better people. I'm not saying that they somehow become Metatron and wipe the floor with gods enemies, but rather have them do stuff like help out at their church based soup kitchen, or do disaster relief through the church. Don't simply segregate the population to the "Chosen" and the unbelievers and have the unbelievers society fall into chaos while the "Chosen" maintain the way of life that we know today. In what we now term fantasy it is really easy to have heavy handed preaching via the story. Usually in order not to anger people the standard is to call the religion something very benign and have the primary idol/god-figure be female. Because (at least in english speaking countries) your average person ascribes to the same BASIC religion, one god, don't make false idols, seven sins, yadda yadda. Where Catholics and Protestants disconnect is how you worship and exactly how tightly you should follow the "Word of God". Most of the Religions in fantasy novels generally revolve around the same basic structure that we all know and are a part of in the west, One omniscient being who likes the value system that is set down in the Western Bible. ... I forgot where I was going... anyway, just a side not on religion: I'm not at odds with most of religion and religious values, what I'm at odds with is usually the practitioners and sometimes the leadership of the religions. Churches seem to be the only place where the public at large goes to be Altruistic, I don't know if they figure they can make up for being selfish bastards on that one day of the week but still. Through churches I've rebuilt homes destroyed by Katrina, I wouldn't have gotten the chances to do that without being attached to a church. What I do hate is that the Churches incentive system is simply "Be good or fry for eternity!" Also it's what religion sometimes does to people, Zealotry. I mean at what point does it seem like following the word of god also means that you toss the first commandment out the window? I don't know, I guess what I hate is the system, not the underlying tennants.... We need a religion thread.

You got the crap beaten out of you by the sounds of it. Probably shouldn't send destroyers up against CV's, Air power will usually win. Ever think of trying to harry the main islands with subs? I doubt they'd get through but if they did they could pump out a LOT of damage.

Recently Xplay (yes I actually watch it) has been doing previews of games you might not heard of Velvet Assasin and Love are two of those games, one is a WW2 spy game where you play as a female spy (who actually exsisted) and have the choice of killing your opponents or not (brutally too, in the preview the PC literally stabbed through the back of a guys skull) Love is an MMO being made by ONE guy, Eskil Stenberg. It's designed so that it'll have an evolving world (log out for a week and you might find that city you loved turned into a lake) and is primarily about exploration. No PVP but there is combat, and the only way to get items and gear is to keep exploring the world. QuelSlolar.com for Love http://www.velvetassassin.com/ for Velvet Assasin I also saw a disturbing video for an indie game called Coil (which is already out). It looks like you're literally inside the womb of a human and going through minigames to bring yourself to term. I saw sperm, eggs, and even a cute little embryo.

I have no real friends, the only ones I had forced me to play wow to interact with them.

These two paragraphs are really more to my feeling. The only reason I mentioned Folk of the Fringe is because I disliked it so much because of the HEAVY HANDED preaching about Mormonism being so wonderful and accepting of others and yadda yadda yadda. He does have some insights into the human condition, but at least in Folk the propaganda was so bad that I couldn't bear to read past the first chapter. Enders Game was great, the later two were much much different to the point where I think somebody who liked enders game (which actually broke down recruiting and training in a similar way, I think, as Starship Troopers) would be bored to tears with the other two because there was 0 action. The other two are written so differently about the only thing that the three share is the universe and characters, beyond that they are utterly different books. Enders Shadow (the first bean story) I was ambivalent to, it had the action and pacing of Enders Game, but it also started to get preachy. Shadow of the Hegemon turned me off from the rest of the series because it just got WAYYY too preachy for my tastes, it also changed how Bean worked, literally one minute he's destroying fertalized embryos because they have a genetic trigger that he didn't want active, the next he practically starts a war when he figures out that the embryos that he thought were destroyed were in somebody else hands and he wanted to protect them from harm (at least that was the lasting impression I got from it 5ish years ago). My point is this, Card was and probably still is something of a good writer, but I think he started to let his religion get in the way of his writing and change his characters. IMHO If you write a story, keep the characters personalities from changing drastically, yes you can change the character as they grow and mature as the characters, but don't transplant religious values one somebody who either doesn't ascribe to the religion, or has no connection to the religion. Probably the worst religious transplant I've ever seen was in a star wars book (Truce at Bakura), the writer (admittely not having much to go on) has Vader appear to LEIA and ask for forgiveness for his past sins. Now I can understand that Vader at the time of writing was somewhat of a blank slate, but having him go to the child he only new existed (not who she was) and ask that he be forgiven for his sins was a little heavy handed, and IMHO out of character for Anakin, particularly in retrospect given what we know from the prequels. As to me personally, I dislike preachy books. I dislike religion because generally it is found impeding progress, and for what it can do to people (not seek medical help for a dying child, that sort of thing). I have nothing against the practitioners, more against the idea that an establishment can decide weather or not your soul is safe. I figure, when all is said and done, we grasp our own destiny and determine where we go based on our own concept of what's happening. oye... I went alot longer than I thought I was going to. Edit because two posts were made while composing this one. I think that any book that elevates one group by saying they are all saints is extremely shallow. Folk of the Fringe (I have admitted I didn't get very far) seemed to elevate all Mormons to the point where they could do no wrong, and were the average "good" race in traditional Fantasy. I've not read a Forgotten Realms, or other DnD based tale in years primarily because the average hero in those novels isn't usually showing human failings (or rather, mortal failings), for example the Infamous Drizzt Do'Urden is the best warrior in the realms, and yet I get the funky feeling he's still a virgin. Admittedly most fantasy books are aimed at a younger demographic, but even the godfather of modern fantasy (LOTR) doesn't mention that Humans have more primal desires than your standard generic power. None of the heroes in LotR acts like a noble in medieval Europe would. I'm not saying that heroes should hook up with prostitutes every single time they get in town, but I think that's what draws people to the Song of Ice and Fire. It's probably the most popular tale about Regular humans, they have base desires, they're greedy, the Nobles act like their real life counterparts, politics actually occur. Your standard fantasy novel's idea of politics is that the evil Vizard or Chamberlain is making sure the kind and good king of GoodTown doesn't see that his people are actually in peril, and thus it's left to the selected rag tag group of adventurers to save the day, and usually in a Scooby Doo ending figure out that the Vizard/Chamerlain was evil.

Played Left 4 Dead with Tale, Bok and a friend (darkshape) on advanced. I don't think we restarted once, the ai director must have been nice to us (well we had two tanks in one level, and then 2 witches, I guess we were just THAT GOOD!)

Card is a Mormon. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but when you look at his tales after Game you can see that all of his characters develop Mormon values. And at least one of his other books is simply Mormon propaganda (Folk of the Fringe, I am not kidding. I read the first chapter, It has a guy with an abusive past helping a group of Mormons across a post-apocalyptic US to Utah because the Mormons will have the only intact civilization.)

eh, addiction is addiction, addicts will go to INSANE lengths to get a hit of whatever their drug of choice is. Videogames as an addiction is not as serious as say Meth or crack, but it can still be pretty serious. This kid obviously was an addict, he also probably had a massive emotional instability that led to him becoming violent.

Don't lie. You spent all day looking at Ed Benes' Red Sonja images. well << could look like a pair of red sonja's boobies She has more than one pair!? Well she is a comic book character and there is rule 34 to consider. Also << | | >> looks like a torso view of Red Sonja

Left 4 dead requires you to pay attention to your surroundings, alot of information is conveyed in the audio (the special zombies can all be heard before they are seen, and hordes/tanks all have a special music that plays to signify their appearance), also you need to keep in mind you have to stay with your team, this is actually harder to do in Singleplayer because no matter what you have to lead, in Multiplayer competant players will generally outshine any ai in terms of reaction and general intelligence. Also learn the weapons, the Tier one weapons generally you can pick either but it's often better to pick a shotgun when in an urban environment because the enemies are closer, in rural/open environs use an SMG for the range. Tier 2 it's really up to you, both the shotgun and assault rifle are effective at mowing down hordes, the Rifle on the other hand is for those who can aim fast, it's usually a one hit kill and it goes through zombies. I use the rifle when I'm outdoors or crossing a street. I stand in the doorway to the outside and pick off every zombie I see. If you don't do this, the moment you get boomered or have a horde arrive, all the zombies you passed will rush at you. Also conserve medkits as best you can, Take pills until either you run out or all you have left is a little bit of temp health, then pop the medkit. HOWEVER if you get incapacatated twice, you will need to use a kit because all the color will dissapear, if you get incapped again you instantly die.

Don't lie. You spent all day looking at Ed Benes' Red Sonja images. well << could look like a pair of red sonja's boobies

I think it's "Speaker for the dead". This is just me but After enders game Card SLAMS on the breaks. All the books afterwords were slower than molasses trying to move uphill in freezing temperatures, he ressurected that a bit with the Bean books but I got frustrated with his heavy handed religious crap.

While we're on the subject of Hades and his multiple alts, will Thorton have a cute butt? This is very important to our gameplay experience since his butt will have center stage for large parts of the game. Don't screw up Obsidian! Theres a reason my main characters in WoW are always female.

eh, anymore Warrior tanks that actually know what the heck they are doing are hard to find on my server (azgalore). The problem is that the guild I was in (I was in it because my IRL friends were there and are part of the "outer circle" of the leading crew) had 6 prot tanks. For "Progression" raids (25 man content basically) you always saw the Raid Lead (a Prot Pally) and then 2 other Prot Warrs in there as tanks while me and the other 4 prot tanks were left to find ourselves raid slots for 10 man on our own. I called them on this 2 weeks ago and they stated that it wasn't like that, but that they were always trying to do "what's best for the raid". Problem is, I think, they forgot "what's best for the raiders". When I called them on it in a rather volatile post about elitism and stuff like that, they swore sidways that they were going to fit me into a run, they did... a Naxx 10 man that fell apart after 4 bosses. So me and one of the other out of work Warrs (well mainly him) put together our own 10 man last week, ran fantastically. This week comes around and I sign up for everything I can to get spots in 25 man content, well turns out they had quietly posted a "raiding rules" thread on their forums that summarizes everything I had already known about it, so I skimmed it, and paid it no real heed. Well turns out at the very bottom of their post they told everyone to "sign" it, and you weren't going to raid without signing that stupid thread. So when 25 man stuff comes around today they only bring me in because a HEALER isn't available, we run through the wintergrasp boss (where, by the end of the fight I was out threating the 2 "standard" raid prot warriors), then they decide to do 25 man Sartharion, everyone goes there, when we get there they set everything up and we're waiting to start when the yank me up to their channel and say "Oh we're going to try this with one of the drakes up (making it MUCH harder), so we're going to ask you to sub out so we can get your best friend who's an AWESOME mage in to do more aoe damage... oh and we only brought you because the healer was caught in traffic." right, they ask me the only guy who could have gotten some MASSIVE upgrades to step out, for a mage, when I was arguably better skill wise at tanking than the other two tanks that they had. I said fine, went to dalaran and logged off, thought for a second, logged back in /gquit and logged out and applied to another guild.

Quit my guild in WoW because I felt like a second class citizen when it came to raids (today it was "we brought you in to fill a slot because person X (a healer) couldn't be here. And now we want to make things harder for ourselves and are going to try a boss differently, but to maximize our chances we're going to boot you and replace you with a DPS/CC character") No they couldn't ask one of the guys who didn't need anything out of the place to leave, they asked me. Who needed EVERYTHING that the guy dropped for me because my gear relatively sucks compared to the three other tanks in the group. And this is AFTER they say they are going to make an effort to get me into raid. :throws hands up in the air: that's it I'm done with them, may they rot in hell.