Pop

I love 2001, just for the ending freakout. But then, I read the book before I saw the movie, so I had a kernel of an idea of what was going on. He's right, though. Much as one might like Sunshine (the most recent sci-fi movie I can remember), it's still heavily indebted to movies that came before it, particularly Alien and 2001. If you're doing any movie in space, it's difficult not to crib from either of those movies, because they're both archetypal takes on sci-fi. If you want a squeaky-clean, optimistic future, you go with 2001 (you could make concessions to Star Trek as well). If you want a dark, dystopian future, you go with Alien (or alternately, Blade Runner), what with its future-class tensions and free market tyranny. But as much as Ridley Scott practically birthed modern sci-fi himself, I'd have to disagree with him. Children of Men was a sci-fi movie and **** if it felt trite or played out.

What, are you a populist now? Eh, there's no accounting for taste. But you could be right, and I could just be disliking it because of all the money it's made, instead of the fact that it's a big, loud, stupid game. If Uwe Boll went to film school and learned how to make the perfectly shot and composed movie on a technical level, learned mis en scene and how to light shots just so, it wouldn't matter, because his movies would still be dumber than ****, and we'd still hate them. That Halo has polish isn't something we should give it too much credit for, there's enough money spent on it that it would be outrageous if you couldn't see yourself in it. Excuse me if I'm underwhelmed by this Jerry Bruckheimer-meets-Ringworld juggernaught.

Coil - A Golden Hare with a Voice of Silver (kinda hard to read there) is a 2-disc "career retrospective" of the avant-garde industrial band. Many good songs. And, as an added bonus:

In that case, what shape was the build in when you played it last? If that build were to be released, would you have bought it?

Sure, they know Fallout like Fox News knows the news, and I know I'm getting the same level of commentary when I go to either of them.

Just for clarification: Is MotB still slated for October or is it being pushed to December?

Had this copper drafted legislation to discharge all coppers who did the same? It's not a perfect analogy, but your copper ain't such a hypocrite tosser as Sen. Craig.

I have heard talk of Bioshock containing a "rootkit" that attempts to alter Windows admin settings, supposedly to make Bioshock playable on all XP profiles, that cannot be removed short of a reformat, but I don't actually know if that's the case. You never know with these newfangled programs.

Turn it on and space out for awhile.

Well, yeah, but is that gonna stop him complaining? I understand the logic but I think 3 is *too* small. For that number, it better have a huge and real impact responses to the PC unlike anything we've seen before. Which would be very nice. Somehow I doubt that, since most NPCs wouldn't really care what his background is, they'd be caught up in how the PC is currently "first human (space cop whatever)" I'm expecting the background to be just like NWN2's - only really relevant to stats and to what NPCs say at the very beginning of the game.

*checks watch* where have you been?

I would have preferred it had they actually accommodated different playstyles outside of combat, instead of making only 1 playstyle really significant and throwing every other playstyle as "bad". It just seems a tad anticlimactic, seeing as how the hype was all about "moral dilemmas" when it's really not even a balancing act, but an on/off switch that they tempt you with throughout the game, and making one bad decision out of many good ones is indistinguishable from being the worst guy imaginable. Except for different music at the end. What they should have done was ask if you'd rather save or harvest every little sister in the game at the beginning, and make that your default action throughout the game. Same difference. I've already played this game once, it was great fun, yay, now I'm having a hard time not throwing it away. As one-night stand games go, it's damn near perfect, but what matters to me is being able to go back to it later. I can't do that with Bioshock. It's an artful flash in the pan. I thought it was fun how you had a better than binary choice in, say, Gecko in Fallout 2. You could do nothing, destroy it, save it, or push too hard to save it and end up dooming it (although this doesn't happen in-game) I don't know if you'd call that "complicated", per se.

That doesn't make it any less simple. Which makes the game nothing more than a prettier-than-average shooter with a better-than-average story and much-better-than-average immersion.

There's only one real choice in the game as well. As soon as you harvest your first little sister you close yourself off from the "good" ending.

fixed for spelling and Ron Paul.

DONNY YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR ELEMENT.

Be sure to take some film classes (NSFW)

I saw that. Clever, clever. You'd think Bethesda would know who to look for. Haven't read the Q&A. I could barely sit through Borat :D I suppose I'd trust Brother None's word, he seems a level enough sort, but there's honestly nothing described from the demo that I either didn't know already or couldn't explain away as fixable in the time up until release (the AI problems) or things that I can't make peace with (the combat system). Then again, if the game came out just like they described, I'd probably be bored by it. Besides, I've got my VB campaign up and running again I wonder what actions, if any, Bethsoft's going to take given they were hoodwinked.

Harumph, I'll expect you to rewrite this when the game ships. Too much vagueness = not much meaning. I'm sure it works for you, however. You've seen things we haven't.

Time for another game of... GAY OR EUROPEAN?!!

Mike Rogers, a gay activist who's outed a number of homophobes, caught onto Craig's habit of meeting guys in public bathrooms (there's a term for this, but I can't recall it atm) from people Craig rendezvoused with. Apparently the evidence was credible enough for the cops to get involved. Had Craig been more careful and hired escorts or such and brought them to private places, none of this probably would have happened.

Other people have gotten broken figurines, and 2K is sending out replacements, with complimentary artbooks. Don't know how it works, though.

Depends on the town. It's almost stupid to have a car in Boulder whilst attending CU, considering the way the city itself is set up, but up here in Fort Collins it's best to have your own car.

Ultraconservative Senator Craig has been quite vocal about those dastardly gays. But he was recently caught in an airport bathroom attempting to pitch a tent on the isle of man, by soliciting a policeman.