Tigranes

Am i the only who wants him to continue to play? The level of drama that character creates is just too juicy to let go. If you think about it for a moment, though, watching some idiot bite someone then roll around then stop the game for 5 minutes isn't exactly 'entertaining'. Especially if you care about the football. Out of the World Cup would be the least they can do.

I originally pipped Belgium for a run to the semis, but they haven't got their crap together in the 3 games they've had, whereas Brazil have done a little bit. In terms of actual quality and tactical cohesion I still don't rate Brazil much but they should now have the momentum to beat Chile. Impressed with Oranje's ability to get a comfortable clean sheet win today too, they've got a clear run to the semis avoiding Brazil, Argentina and Germany.

Torres scores, and Robben does an assist. Now I've seen everything.

Robben completes about 4 passes on a good year. He is the most annoying good player I have had the displeasure to watch, even though I like the Dutch.

Or a U.S. - Russia match if Russia manages to win against Algeria. That ought to be fun too. Russia are so boring, and it will be made worse by US commentators going on and on about Putin or something. I do hope the US goes far to kick on the popularity of the sport in the country a little.

Well that wasn't good for Korea. Their lack of confidence and terrible centrebacks got shown up all too well by a really energetic Algerian side, who I think should go on to qualify. A US-Germany draw would set up a US-Algeria Round of 16 which I think could be a really fun match. I was waiting on the edge of my seats for some glorious Ronaldo tears, but he had to redeem himself in the last second.

No way Robben is a better striker than Van Persie or others, he's a bloody good one trick pony but he is still a one trick pony and his inability to pass to anybody is also a critical flaw. He's on great form this World Cup but one can remember many previous international games - and CL finals - where the same flaws made him just waste a lot of the team's chances. RVP with Suarez has been the best prem striker of the last 3 years and although United have been rubbish this season, he is a much more complete player with many different tricks up his sleeve. Also, in terms of great strikers, Sergio Aguero should be in any list without question. Costa Rica holding out 1-0 against Italy, filling that underdog hero role. Been very impressed with their tactical organisation and they've really taken their chances in a group filled with 3 pretty good but very rarely great teams.

They were never going to be as good this time, all their key players are old, younger ones like Fabregas are not being used properly, and why the hell would anybody take Torres anywhere near a football is a mystery.

Ghana looking better as time goes by, USA need to be careful or they'll become yet another team to score first and lose.

Every bad thing said about FIFA is true and this cup is particularly abominable in all the infrastructural, economic, political, organisational senses... but the football's the best it's been since 2002 (in a World Cup anyway, since world cups no longer showcase best football in the world in any sense). I hear the Ivory Coast comeback was delicious and the Swiss actually managed to be entertaining on the pitch for the first time in their history. And of course the Dutch rollercoaster. France have made the wrong decision in front of goal every single time, mostly due to Benzema and Debuchy, but now they've got a golden ticket to put a few more in.

Huh? There was always a marked difference in effectiveness, to the point that sometimes if you had the wrong sword by mistake it felt like you were slicing a tree with a butter knife.

Whoa, the Lair is alive? I was too young for the actual BISboards, DAC/NMA, etc. I mainly lurked in that dinosaur age, when Sol Invictus and roshan roamed the land.

Gromnir would obviously be the best mod in the universe, but we can't do it because the sheer excess of happiness enjoyed by all forumers would destroy us. I try to be a little more like him every day, but it's hard.

The one great prog rocker of this generation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csBEUb_eNp8

I still read the forums daily.

There. No, I am not fixing that thing properly, I need to get out of here before I get any 'What is an RPG?' on my shirt.

No video game list is ever going to be useful for seeing which game belongs in its rightful place, for many obvious reasons. I do think this one is not a bad list in the sense that it's a nice collection of many landmark RPGs and it's a nice place to go to to see what I should play next that I've missed. I'm just happy I got Alpha Protocol on there.

The Grove is the Bladedancer quest, and is therefore harder than the area around it. If you're lv18 and getting the blessings (Air is the most useful) it's time to go around and start picking up a lot of the unique relics, mostly housed in tiny little one room temples scattered throughout the world.

You can play with dynamic order where you just use F1/2/3/4 (IIRC) keys or click on portraits to quickly access each dude.

Big RPG. Good production values. A Slavic atmosphere that very few games even try for. Some memorable quest moments (no, not sex-related). Sword fighting which isn't complex by any stretch of imagination but works well and does have its internal logic. Go for it.

Fair enough, I haven't tried it myself yet. Guess reports shook my confidence enough not to pay yet.

Yeah, what I hear is that Warlock 2 is not much different from W1, while AoW3 seems a competent but ultimately boring replica. I'm still waiting for Eador to fix itself, to.

I don't know Nonek but everything you have mentioned that doesn't exist in your version of Deus Ex exists in the latest version I am busy with, you don't think the game will be too hard if you leave out some of those things in a modern game like the latest Deus Ex? You also don't want to ignore practicality with misplaced nostalgia "If you like old stuff you are being nostalgic" is unfounded, illogical and cliche. Besides, if he's actually playing the old game right now and enjoying the old design then you can't really call it misplaced nostalgia. I don't remember DX:HR being particularly obnoxious about this, though. The best example is a world where you can actually figure out where to go by talking to people, reading signs and making basic connections (Morrowind) and a world where you actually can't find people unless you follow the giant arrow (at which point I wonder why even bother building the environment, since half your eye and attention is focused on the arrow, as if you're walking around Paris eyes glued to Google Maps). Playing nothing these days after some dabbling with Gothic 2/3, I am disappointed that Age of Wonders 3 and Warlock 2 don't seem to be so great. I agree, for me the best way to find your way around a particular game world would be the Morrowind methodology. But I can understand the frustration if you aren't use to it. I like the way Dishonored handled finding quest objectives, you could disable them if you wanted so you were forced to explore which was cool But don't be too dismissive of the danger of unintentional misplaced nostalgia, its real and pernicious. This occurs when someone plays older games and then automatically dislikes newer games or doesn't give newer iterations of a game series a proper chance. I'm not talking about Nonek as he explained his view but I do see this view from others Nostalgia can distort your judgment, but it's not very likely if you are actually reliving those old experiences instead of remembering yourself playing them 10 years ago. I think there's an automatic reflex to ask 'nostalgia?' when someone likes something old or doesn't like something new (e.g. there was nothing in Nonek's views to warrant that question in the first place) and that is part of the culture that breeds this weird idea that gaming advances over time and newer game design is better than the old. One interesting thing I think is that the kind of people more likely to play old games again and again, or really get into games they like, are often less susceptible to nostalgia, and the kind of people who go back and play games they liked 10 years ago and find that they hate it, are exactly the kind of people who tend to move on quickly to the new game and not revisit old stuff anyway. It's not so much a question of nostalgia but what set of expectations and ways of playing you get accustomed to.

I don't know Nonek but everything you have mentioned that doesn't exist in your version of Deus Ex exists in the latest version I am busy with, you don't think the game will be too hard if you leave out some of those things in a modern game like the latest Deus Ex? You also don't want to ignore practicality with misplaced nostalgia "If you like old stuff you are being nostalgic" is unfounded, illogical and cliche. Besides, if he's actually playing the old game right now and enjoying the old design then you can't really call it misplaced nostalgia. I don't remember DX:HR being particularly obnoxious about this, though. The best example is a world where you can actually figure out where to go by talking to people, reading signs and making basic connections (Morrowind) and a world where you actually can't find people unless you follow the giant arrow (at which point I wonder why even bother building the environment, since half your eye and attention is focused on the arrow, as if you're walking around Paris eyes glued to Google Maps). Playing nothing these days after some dabbling with Gothic 2/3, I am disappointed that Age of Wonders 3 and Warlock 2 don't seem to be so great.

Sure, we can do 48 hours, there's no rush. That makes 3 or maybe 4 of us.