Monte Carlo

I'm cool with a fairly vanilla setting TBH. It's easier to sell, and this project is selling well so far. I agree that the content within that world is what a game stands or falls on, the crunchy stuff. I find the Forgotten Realms, for example, to be pretty meh. But I loved the IE games. So what Sawyer says in his quote is on the money as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty confident that they will pull the old classic-with-a-twist trick, and do it well.

Which reminds me I do not want to be able to do everything first go. I want choices and consequences. I want to think about what I am doing. I want to be challenged. And I just want to fight in tunnels, but different strokes for different folks.

I really, really liked the SoZ overland map thingie / minigame. Would he happy to see something like that, but with bigger and more distinct wilderness areas.

Chainmail bikinis: good Romances: bad Comedy anime-inspired mega-weapons also suck.

Hi What type of movement will characters be able to do in this game? I know that flying and riding horses are popular demands, but actually one of the things I really enjoyed about Diablo 3 was jumping around. Diablo is an isometric game, right? Well, the barbarian gets to leap around. You can move to different areas / layers of the map with a mighty leap. It's visceral, fun and adds a dynamic that makes the character distinct. So will characters be able to go prone / jump / crouch / climb? Cheers MC

Good luck Josh, Chris, Tim and Ferg and all the other guys at Obz, we are all rooting for you to succeed. It sounds like you are planning the game most of us have waited ten years for. I hope publishers pull their heads out of their arses: I've just pledged my $35 and note that you are well over the $800,000 mark already. You'll have the money by next weekend, and probably then some. Am looking forward enormously to the dev cycle and learning more about the game. Brilliant to see so many new faces too. Cheers MC

He's got a great build going on there, I think I might try it. My Monk is level 53 on Hell difficulty and solo-ing is tough. I'm doing something wrong, might try to reconfigure skills to something like this.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/23/hands-on-company-of-heroes-2/ And I am rather excited.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/24/bwah-interplay-boss-speaks-out-on-black-isle-plans/ A little bit more on the BIS story, with a quote from Herve Caen ("It's like putting the band back together" he says... yeah, like Simon and Garfunkel, right?).

A lot of people were complaining that the D3 system didn't allow for gimped / unusual builds. Although I am a fan of a more locked skill tree system, I've just spent two hours farming with a level 60 (1) Demon Hunter with... a melee build. Dude was armed with spear and shield and was totally badass. So I suppose it can be done.

Ha ha ha. Am reading Reamde by Neal Stephenson. Bizarre thriller about a virus in a WoW-style MMORPG. Cut a (very) long story short, the lack of a meaningful in-game narrative and C&C leads to the players forming into Lord of the Flies-style factions based on the colour palette available within the game to customise your toon. So a massive war kicks off between the minority (and old-skool) "Earth-Tone Alliance" and the brightly coloured, Diablo-esque hack and slashers. So my view is now screw C&C and make the choice of avatar colour more interesting.

Just played for half an hour. Whisper it *very* quietly but Inferno is a _bit_ easier. Pre-v1.04 I normally get my arse kicked every five minutes and incur literally 25K in repair fees to earn 5K in cash. My level 60 Barbarian is basically the Greek economy. Just did a quick Inferno run, the start 'til level 1 Cathedral / rescue Deckard Cain. I died once and earned more than I spent in repairs. The drops were a _bit_ more generous but not stoopid. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.

^ I think I enjoy it more than you, I hope that the patch +XP make this the game and can and should be.

Facebook hand-bags aside, the fact of the matter is that the guy was right and that there were some massive design issues with D3 that were a retrograde step from D2 (getting rid of the Horadric Cube and nerfing unique items for starters). However, OTOH, the design team are addressing them. I'm pretty excited about the patch although one hundred Paragon levels (cue Doctor Evil voice: One Hunnndddreeeedd Levels!) is just cruel crack-grinding torture for some of the fans. And they reference my pet hate --- that a lot of my Inferno-level adventuring is revenue-negative (yesterday I spent 12000 gp on repairs and earnt about 5000. That's just dull).

I'm sure you've already made your mind up, but here is the reasoned debate about Iran's stance towards Israel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel#.22Wiped_off_the_map.22_controversy I know Generation Hipster are ambivalent at best towards Israel, mainly because of the paucity of history teaching in schools. As a Briton of Jewish heritage even I can find Israeli and it's political recalcitrance rather tiresome sometimes. Then again, you have to remember that the tribal memory of having your entire kin subjected to industrialised murder in living memory can do that to people. But you choose a side in these things, and I've chosen mine. I have considered the issues carefully. Ahmadinejad is a religious, one-party state extremist. I believe that he might well choose to use nuclear weapons, both tactical and strategic. In the interim he will use them as a bargaining chip to change the balance of power in a volatile region, in of itself a profound security risk. I have nothing against the Iranian people (and as a Londoner I suspect I've met more Persians than many folks on this board). As a people, Persians tend to value knowledge and learning. They have a tendency towards graciousness. They also, like all of us, have some less flattering traits within sections of their society (but now isn't the time to dwell on them). Sadly, since 1979, they are under the boot-heel of extremist Shia Islamism. The positives are more difficult to flower. I am a Western Liberal (I use the term liberal in it's original, not modern Gramscian context). I believe in the values of the enlightenment and democracy. Agreed, they are filtered through the imperfections of modern post-industrial capitalism but again we play the hand we are dealt. I'd rather live in 21st Century Europe than the 21st Century Near-East. Which brings me to my (admittedly trite) comment about military action. I do not, in any way, think invading Iran is desirable or even feasible (I'm a keen student of these matters - even the USA right now would be utterly unable, even if the politics allowed for it) to invade a country like Iran. What I *do* think is achievable and desirable is immediate, focused air attacks on all Iranian nuclear infrastructure. Anything that buys more time before Ahmadinejad gets his nuclear weapons. And there we have it: you either think it's acceptable for the Iranian regime to have nukes or you do not. You can sit around a campfire singing Kumbaya but it won't stop them. Bombing will. Choose your side.

There's questionable, then there's WTF. WoW falls into the first, dating that zombie falls into the second.

That wasn't even in the foothills Morgie. Please try harder.

Didn't he date Mila Kunis?

This film has my seal of approval already.

* Yaaawwwwnnnn * You and Krezzie should form your own club.

Why? I'm too bored of you to even attempt a justification. Were it that people like you were in charge, we'd let every whacko regime have weapons of mass destruction.

I know your country still has certain... issues with us Jeuden and our prospects for survival, so I'll let that go.

Try not to get robbed downtown.

Srsly, someone has to attack Iran and I think that should be the United States.

Gimme a break I ain't finished it. On my e-reader its 308 pages long... so I guess not.