Monte Carlo

I heard it from an American. In the UK phonetic alphabet we'd call it Whisky Papa.

So, just to chuck some Willie Peter into the room, where are we all on the whole 'having kids too' thing?

In the UK Diablo 2 is commonly found for about UK

^ Fair point, but I should have made myself clearer - I am specifically referencing the single-player online requirement. I shouldn't have to worry about it whatsoever. But I do.

If I am seriously religious and married to a woman, how does gay marriage force me to do anything? It doesn't affect my beliefs at all, it doesn't lessen my personal experience in my wedded bliss. At least it shouldn't. As I said, if you are concerned about marriage as a religious institution being attacked, then you should be going after the atheists and the folks eloping in Vegas, not just gay couples. C'mon Hurlie, can you seriously not see how the entire concept is undermined by allowing same-sex couples to get married? I used the word existential for a reason.

^ Servers are still down and the shutdown period keeps getting longer. Blizzard have screwed up, the forums are melting with nerd-rage of a type that shocks even I. The online DRM for this product is a steaming pile of viscera-flecked swine poo.

^ A bit of both I guess. If you take the position that marriage is existentially a union between a man and a woman then both come into play. Which I do. I am uncomfortable with forcing people with sincerely-held religious views to accommodate something that is already more than adequately covered by civil ceremonies. If people want to call that 'marriage' then the sky won't fall in. There is no easy answer to this question. But I'm a bit pissed off at people trying to play the bigotry card at those of us who have a more nuanced position. Men and women entering into a lifelong union and having children is a bizarre development in our story as a species. It's also been extremely successful. Why take it away for reasons of social engineering. I'm sure Prez Obama has honestly held views on this one, but let's not kid ourselves the guy wants Hollywood dollars for the forthcoming campaign, and also wants to position himself against a dull white guy with unorthodox religious views. This is the gift that keeps on giving.

^ Noooooo. Dolph never wears armour in the movie. Not once. He wears and old olive green army jacket and an Arab shemagh-type scarf. You never see the castle either, just a polystyrene wall with some fat Ren Fair guards idling about outside. The biggest pitch battle in the movie involves about twenty people. It's like a bad D&D LARPing session gone horribly wrong. So that poster is slightly misleading. And there's no bad King-wearing toupee either.

Er, because a marriage requires a husband and wife. Duh. Sorry, but I'm a doughty defender of gay rights. I'm best man at a civil ceremony in the Summer. I'm also an atheist but I respect the religious aspect to marriage too (see what I did there?). I see no contradiction in being pro-Gay rights and not supporting Gay 'marriage.' As for Obama, meh. He talks the talk but will go down in history as a Jimmy-Carteresque lightweight.

My excuse for this is that I was drunk. I saw this Uwe Boll movie with Dolph Lundgren. Dolph is a martial-arts expert commando who is sucked into a parallel world, one that closely resembles a Ren Fair with very low production values. A king gives him a mission to kill a witch. The king is wearing the worst toupee I have ever seen in a movie. He keeps adjusting it. Anyway, the witch isn't really a baddie at all: the king is. I suspected as much, based mainly on the hairpiece. There is some very poorly choreographed fighting in a forest, then Dolph runs away from a big rubber dragon. This dragon is to special effects what Saddam Hussein was to civil liberties. The dragon attacks a castle made of polystyrene and Dolph ends up in modern Canada where he drowns the king in the bath. I cannot remember what this movie was called and I don't want to know. Dolph Lundgren, bad wigs and rubber dragons. Sheesh.

^ LOL. But you know when a game is good when server meltdown makes you itch because you want to play. I think it might be a late night tonight...

I spoke too soon: the servers are down. This SP online thing is a terrible idea and I suspect Blizzard might regret doing it. Anyhoo, the game itself is great. I love the exploration, big dungeons and outdoor areas, visceral combat with heads and body-parts flying everywhere, the classic spooky muzak, lots of different enemies and phat lewt. Even the crafting mechanic is fun. The side-quests and dungeons are there too if you want to look for them. All in all I love it, but then again this is the type of click-tastic stressbusting game I enjoy. I appreciate that it ain't going to be everyone's cup of tea and, yes, the SP online thing sucks donkey nuts. At the moment 7.5 - 8 out of ten. When they sort out launch issues and give us some more classes in an XP it will be trundling towards greatness.

I'm having no problems at all, it's very smooth. Then again all big launches are like this. Player 'A' has a breeze, player 'B' has a nightmare.

^ Hey, it is what it is. The narrative is fairly simple but I like my character's gruff persona (barbarian). But it's OK. The music and visuals are nice, the combat is exciting.

I love Diablo. Friend me, my tag is earlier in the thread. I am Hackmaster the Barbarian on the US server, I will make a Demon Huntress on the Euro one later. DIABLO! FiGHTinG iN TunnELz FTW!!!

No I'm downloading it from the Blizzard site, decided I couldn't be bothered to go to the store #whatalazyfatbastard

I decided to let it download instead... does the game key get emailed to me with my receipt?

Mine is earlier in the thread, will be getting a physical copy on the 15th.

Halfwit. Do you really,*honestly* believe drivel like 'the suits' FFS? Trust me, whatever happens 'the suits' will turn a dime. The people you and people like you are *really* screwing are the likes of Avellone and Sawyer and Ferg and the guy who designs the cover art or manufactures jewel cases or drives the delivery truck or designs the architecture for the website that delivers the digital version... Piracy robs people of their jobs. Period. The ****ing adolescent squealing of the pro-piracy lobby (or, 'thieves' as we call them in the real world) actually turns my stomach. Srsy, grow the **** up. Because you sound like a tard. It doesn't really matter how wrong it is or how angry you become about it. As long as pirates offer better service than the publishers, people will pirate the **** out of anything. There's an example from the other end of the spectrum: People prefer to buy electronics from trusted manufacturers because of the reliability, stability, quality and warranty. Pirates can't provide that and thus the market is in the manufacturers favour. Reality doesn't bother me. Puerile excuses do. People should just say "I want free stuff - yeah I'm a thief." Then we can move on and discuss. At the moment you've got these ****tards in denial about reality.

^ Games are a product. They aren't a necessity. You could compare it to music. I don't like live music gigs. I find the oppressive security, crowds, merchandising and travel onerous (yep, like online activation etc). So I buy a CD or digital copy of an album instead. Am I missing out because of a condition of buying the product (i.e. live music at a gig)? Yes. Is that my choice? Yes. If you want to sock it to 'the man' wait until the game is DRM free on a site like GoG or go buy small indie games and flip the big boys the finger. Then they might listen. Stealing only makes them build up their security. Legitimate lack of custom doesn't. In reality this is about wanting free stuff. The rest of these arguments, albeit ingenious, are exactly the type of thing you'll hear in mitigation from shop-lifters, burglars and fraudsters of every stripe. In short? Not liking the way a product is delivered or administered does not excuse theft. That I even have to explain this is astonishing.

Halfwit. Do you really,*honestly* believe drivel like 'the suits' FFS? Trust me, whatever happens 'the suits' will turn a dime. The people you and people like you are *really* screwing are the likes of Avellone and Sawyer and Ferg and the guy who designs the cover art or manufactures jewel cases or drives the delivery truck or designs the architecture for the website that delivers the digital version... Piracy robs people of their jobs. Period. The ****ing adolescent squealing of the pro-piracy lobby (or, 'thieves' as we call them in the real world) actually turns my stomach. Srsy, grow the **** up. Because you sound like a tard.

I wanted to love it but the controls were too complex for my little brain.

Now this only needs a German campaign too and I'm sold. Well, the original had two German campaigns in the expansions, including Arnhem so I guess they'll do it eventually. There's certainly enough scope to do it. I'm interested to see the new engine too, CoH was all about platoon level combat. CoH2 is promising bigger battles, I hope they ain't too big. Although obviously I'm looking forward to rumbling up to the Brandenburg Gate in my Stalin tanks... If you haven't played the existing Eastern Front mod, that's pretty good and the Soviet unit rosters are very well thought-out. But CoH really shines in multiplayer, which is what many of us are pretty pumped about.

Oh, and PC Gamer UK is giving away the first CoH game free with the May 9 issue.

Company of Heroes 2 will be Stalingrad to Berlin, coming 2013. http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/04/company-of-heroes-2-first-details-its-in-russia-its-snowy-it-looks-amazing/