Monte Carlo

Is she... strict if you forget your gym kit Run Hurlie! RUN!

Blimey, do you have a chip on both shoulders? Please, try to escape the gravitational pull of sunny Guildford and return to that hot-bed of tolerance, economic and creative activity which is the North of England. There you can attach yourself back to the teat of the state and die ridiculously early of heart disease or whatever.

Now you really are stepping into territory where you haven't got a bloody clue what you're talking about. I presume you're talking about the South African / Boer War 'concentration camp' system. Not Britain's finest hour, I'll grant you. A clumsy, nasty attempt to manage an insurgency. What it wasn't was a mechanised attempt at deliberate genocide driven by ideology. I'm Jewish, by the way. Most Jews would be offended by childish comparisons between the two. So, please, brew a big mug of STFU.

Cream cakes and fascism.

All three! Why not? What's your preference in each? Being an uncivilized brute that is an American, I must confess to ignorance of the distinction. Generally British beer is distinguished into three main groups (I'll talk about cider separately). Yeah, there a sub-groups within these three, but I'm going into general man-in-the-street definitions as if you'd walked into an English pub. Bitter - Bitters are generally darker, hoppier beers served at or just slightly above room temperature. They tend to be less carbonated / fizzy than lagers. My favourite, personally, is Fuller's London Pride and yes, I also like Newcastle Brown (known in the Northeast as 'Dog' or 'Brown Dog'). IPAs (as Wals mentioned) are known as Indian Pale Ales and are lighter, cooler ales. It's important to remember that there are, literally, thousands of regional varieties of bitter. Well-known real ale brands include Hobgoblin, Brakspear, Worthingtons, Abbott, Badger... the list is endless. The nearest thing to it in America is the darker, hoppier beers you find in micro-breweries but these all tend to be chilled. English beer is seldom chilled. Lager - a continental, not native, brew, lager is very popular. I prefer Czech, Belgian and German beers personally. American (domestic) lager is internationally renowned as being the worst in the world, I give you the hyper-chilled, tasteless piss that is Coors or Bud. I'm not talking the perfectly quaffable Sam Adams and it's ilk. Stout - the 500lb gorilla here is Guinness, but there are other varieties of stout and porter. There are also hybrids like McCaffrey's. Cider - madly popular at the moment as a summer drink, perry (i.e. pear cider) is also popular. I used to live in the West Country, the home of real cider (aka 'Scrumpy') which is usually poisonous, hallucinogenic apple gunk with bits of dead animal floating in it. It's fab. I hope that helps, if you see what's available locally where you live that's from the UK let me know the brand and I'll give you a view. Cheers MC

And the Nazis were a German party. The Austrians had nothing to do with the Nazi party? * snorts * Denial ain't a river in Egypt.

You are a troll and I claim my ten pounds. Comparing the British Empire, even warts and all, with the Nazis is idiotic. Still living in denial? Is it true the Queen wears a diamond stolen from India in her crown named "Spoils of war"? How very tasteless. I note that you avoid your ludicrous Nazi comment. Hapsburgs to Nazis is hardly a position to criticize national legacy, is it?

You are a troll and I claim my ten pounds. Comparing the British Empire, even warts and all, with the Nazis is idiotic.

The American War of Independence was a civil war. Period. The separatists won and forged a superpower, but please don't suggest it was an 'American' war or sense of identity in the way it is now commonly bandied about. On a side note, I once visited the Alamo. The place was defended by Brits, goddamit, loads of them with English, Welsh and Scottish names.

* sigh * After conquering my CoH addiction it's back, the new patch lured me. In five minutes I started free-basing on Panthers and injecting Pershings with dirty needles. Baby, it's so good, enveloping me in a warm soft blanket of WW2 savagery, half-tracks and artillery. * sigh *

Morcheba, Charango. It's so freaking mellow, it's perfect summer music.

AwESomE phOTo ShOP SkiLLz

You know it makes sense. You're just jealous.

I once saw a woman hurl herself off of a tall building and hit a Volvo once. Probably twenty years ago. It was genuinely dreadful, but my mind wandered (as I suspect it does in unusual situations to distract you from the awfulness) to how durable the roof of a 440 estate is.

ty

Happy Independence Day to the Americans on the forums. We are unveiling a statue of The Gipper in London to mark the day, hope you have a peaceful holiday with friends and family. Cheers MC

Search for the reviews we all did... personally I found Origins good fun and gave it a solid 8/10. Then again, I usually played with a bottle of vino to hand so please share your sober observations.

Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down. I've read it three times since 2000. He's a brilliant journalist, the book is thoroughly gripping.

Google it. I did and I still don't understand, really, WTF it is. I know the IT mentats on this board are insufferable, intolerant snobs but back in the day they would happily share their knowledge with others.

I so badly want to love Arma. I really do. Superficially it has absolutely everything I should love in a game. Sadly, I only have two hands, ten digits and one brain. This precludes me understanding the bloody controls.

FO:NV is Obz's best game to date, period. Although I haven't played DS3, I didn't like the demo much.

Volo is freaking bullet-proof. He gives as good as he gets over there and there's grudging respect for him. He drives me nuts and he's on ignore, but bejaysus he's a natural Codexian. Folks like him can thrive over there, a bit like fungal infections

"2 data points?" please tell me you're human.

I dunno. The reason I posted the image was because the first FPS I fell in love with was Doom on the PS1. I loved getting lost, FPS to me seems to be the perfect genre for exploration and showing off 3d environments, if not the best for tactical gameplay. I played Bad Company 2 recently and realised that although it isn't a corridor game, it ain't far off in places.

Pop am looking at dialogue but to be honest it's OK and I don't want to tinker with it for the sake of it. Am making some adjustments and working on a legendary Monk V Edwin lawful neutral / lawful evil banter-off.