Monte Carlo

World War Z by Max Brookes (I think) Didn't think it would be my cup of tea but I thoroughly enjoyed it. A clever, occasionally witty, thoroughly entertaining exercise in world building. Recommended.

If you ever served with the British army of the Rhine then you'd know that BIELEFELD WAS REAL. I was there in 1989 and I think 1991. It was a sleepy garrison town, nice castle, decent beer. The only thing ruining it were all the British squaddies, TBH.

Has anybody completed inferno yet? In other news, I am marvelling at the economic literacy of the Auction House. it was clearly designed by the Greeks. How can fifty similar Legendary items vary so madly in price? Why do people put items up for about ten million gold?

Is Leah the most annoying JNPC ever? If she tells me about her fricking plan to build a tavern one more bloody time...

There is no comparison: my last monitor was a Samsung Syncmaster, perfectly OK but this one is in a different league. It's omni-adjustable, bigger and with very crisp, lush imagery and colour. CoH looks, frankly, stunning on it. I can't beleive what I was missing. Also, for writing the bigger monitor is good for me, less eye-strain.

This is my problem too. I love high-level skilled gaming but a.... sport? Gedouttahere.

There will be a basic Tunnel module, entitled "The Tunnel on the Borderlands." That was so completely obvious that it didn't need mentioning, whelp. After that you may purchase original, authorised and authentic (A)FIT adventure modules. I hope this clarifies matters.

Sorry Ros, I'm not one of the usual suspects but when the name **** is language filtered, and other normal words, then you have to call BS.

I maxed out everything on Diablo 3 which looks great on the new monitor. Next up is of course Company of Heroes, of course this ain't much of a systems hog either being over six years old. I think a maxed out Shogun TW2 might test things a bit better.

I watch a lot of CoH tournies and APM is pretty important, that and an almost sensei-like understanding of the meta-game.

http://www.gadgetroad.com/thermaltake-tt-esports-challenger-pro-gaming-review-4456/ LOL

The keyboard is from a company called Tt and I got a gaming mouse too from the same company. Basically there's a slot in the keyboard where a tiny fan lives. You slide it out and plug it into a little jack-plug on either side of the monitor and angle it at your hand. Seriously, it's a tiny fan module and quite powerful. Strange. I've never suffered from Hot Gaming Hand TBH but then again I'm not a l337 gaemer so whaddoIknow? The computer is very impressive. Virtually silent. Monitor is great (HDMI connection). I'm running umpteen apps at once (installing Diablo, Word 2010, AVG and Steam simultaneously and it's *very* fast, like whooooosh! Will be testing out Diablo then installing my Steam library overnight and keep you in the loop but bejaysus this liquid-cooled case is damn quiet. Makes my last rig sound like a Huey.

I have Das Beast am about to switch off this rig and consign it to a fate as yet undecided. Will let you know how things pan out with this new machine. I also LOL'd when I saw that the keyboard came with a tiny fan "to keep your hands cool whilst gaming." Srsly.

That was actually reasonably witty.

Hmph Battle.net is down anyway for maintenance... will catch up next time I see you online. I can trade you a load of top end gems, 'tis only fair.

Yes please.

Level 48, Nightmare, Act III and into The Breach, dear friends. I'm noticing that mobs are getting easier, although I suspect that is down to my Vitality maxing and 150,000 gp spend in the auction house. I've found one weapon in-game that's better than anything else I've bought (with gems). The drops are getting notably more valuable, lots of blues and more yellows. Of course, 99% of stuff gets sold immediately because it's either rubbish or for other classes. Shall we start our own D3 'Obz Mart' where we can swap items? I'm after a high DPS 1-handed weapon.

Bah, terrible lag on US servers this afternoon (GMT) and my high level guy is on there. I got my second ever legendary drop fighting Belial on NM, a pretty neat piece of armour. I can soak up a lot of damage now, highly-runed revenge is good and that earthquake thing just gets better. Hammer of the Ancients is my other win button on mobs.

It's the toughest bit. I do plotting and research and characters and love it. The hard yards is writing the bloody thing. The good news is that I did 3000 words today so I am having a well-deserved drink.

That's pretty good - an 80,000 word script takes me about 3.5 months.

Sent family to beach. Played some Diablo. Started writing. Tried not to browse internet whilst writing. Failed. Am now going back to writing.

Danaerys' story also felt a bit disjointed... ok I know it's tough adapting a book but everybody else is fighting / plotting and advancing but she's stuck in Quarth with her kidnapped dragons getting all shouty and upset. She's one of the best characters for me, along with Tyrion (he could have his own book / show / tee-shirt imo, called "The Land of **** and wine") I just wonder if they could have accelerated her story arc? (Haven't read the book so mebbe not). Edit: so now the perfectly acceptable word **** is language filtered? FFS, from the company making a South Park game? LOL.

My DPS is now 1500-ish and my armour is great having spent 15000 in the AH on some plate with 3 sockets (all with ultra-strength rubies). Am now, if not cruising, making solid progress through act 2. What are people's views on 1H and shield / versus 2H versus DW for barbs?

Hello As you know, I'm a massive fan of Company of Heroes and am following the development of the sequel with interest. The game has a ferociously loyal community around it, and Relic has a good relationship with them (for example, the last patch was more or less fixed via fan testing on gamereplays.org). However, a very vocal part of the community (in fact the part that arguably kept CoH alive via replays and tournaments) are pushing the esport aspect of CoH2. They want mirror maps / mirror matches (yeuch) and more features that will turn the game into more of an esport. I can't think of anything worse. The whole SC2 scene makes me shiver, gaming turned into Rainman-style math (for example, CoH has a very unpredictable random crit / outcomes component which makes luck an infrequent, but interesting element of play - esporters hate it). So what do we think of esports? Do they add to the longevity and appeal of a game or merely consign it to geek-elite twitch ghettos? Cheers MC

Better than me, I managed about fifty yesterday. #lazybastard