Monte Carlo

I've never played Mass Effect.

That picture of Mark Vanderloo drove me nuts in a "where do I know that guy from" kinda way. Then I realised that they obviously used him for one of the NWN1 character portaits, one of the fighter ones. I'm sure somebody here will see it too and post a linkie. There's also Katherine Zeta Jones, Angelina Jolie and Raph Fiennes lookalike portraits in NWN1 ports if you look close enough.

Eastern Promises is good. Not awesome, but solid and Viggo turns in an excellent, nuanced performance. His Navy dude in GI Jane was the best thing about the movie, period. It was a diamond in the rough.

I think Slowtrain's point about the increasingly hectic number of releases degrading games longevity is pretty important. I'm still left wondering why, in the current climate of rampant DLC / micro-transactional content, how releasing a toolset or encouraging modding is in anyway of benefit to the developer or publisher. I'm just saying that I suspect that modding has had it's golden age and will go back to what it was, a niche hardcore type of activity.

I think it's fair to say that a big part of the CRPG scene for the past ten years has been modding and, latterly, toolsets. I had high hopes for Dragon Age: Origins in this respect, but the modding scene has been uninspiring compared to many other games. Thinking about this, it seems clear to me that DLC and modding are clearly at variance... why encourage folks to make stuff you could make them pay for? What do you guys think, are modding and toolsets as dead as old-skool tactical gameplay and party-based games?

Yes, that forward-roll thing he's got going on made me LOL. As did the monster that looked like a giant killer artichoke at 4.30, that along with the 'Wyld Stallyns' style muscle-rock made this look like the CRPG version of Spinal Tap.

Desert Island Discs is a classic radio programme here in the UK, on BBC Radio 4. It's very simple. You are marooned on a desert island. You are allowed to bring eight pieces of music with you to play on a notionally magical device of some description, plus a luxury item. Interesting and / or well-known people come onto the show and explain why song 'A' or piece of music 'Y' is so important and makes it onto the island. So here we go, please post your eight pieces of desert island music with as much or as little explanation as you wish for it's inclusion. Luxury item optional. Cheers MC

Try it. Just the once. Then there's no going back.

I suffered a similar problem, until I discovered Just for Men. Since a friend recommended this product to me I spend an inordinate amount of time fighting off attractive single women. When combined with a splash of Sex Panther by Odeon (its got bits of real panther in it) I am literally a lurve leviathan. I'm not sure that's going to help you buy a quality used automobile though.

Just watched England beat France in the Six Nations. Next up is Scotland in two weeks, and they will play like a Tasmanian Devil on LSD to try to deny us the Grand Slam.

Like I said before, I so badly want to love Arma2 but there are too many controls.

Until of course they become fashionable again, the hubris in this statement is breath-taking (we're not making them so they are over). Bio has been on this course for several years, the volte face from the traditional elements of DA:O I guess is a legacy of the epic development cycle.

OK.

^ A bit rich coming from a scratched record like you. Saddam was up to his neck in blood. He made Gaddaffi look like an amateur.

Generation 'Y' entitlement complex 101.

I think we should expand our examinationof the causal economic and geographical factors that influence the deployment of cart-escalators in large retail developments. Anybody here from, say, Malaysia or Singapore? I bet you have them, lots of them.

That's interesting, actually, because to me the two are inextricably linked.

The effete, slightly fey otherworldy NPC is a wel-trodden trope, I give you Haer'Dalis from BG2 for example. The only difference, as per current EmoWare SOPs is that now you can bone them.

Zevran looks like he's auditioning for Adam and the Ants.

By Odin's raven! Where do you live man, 12th Century Persia? Even here in Third World Europe we have such escalators in Toys 'R' Us, Marks & Spencers (oh yes, we really do) and of course my local Waitrose.

Obviously, I choked on my kedgeree the other morning when I heard the BBC Radio 4 crew, the people who died in a ditch opposing the Iraq war, quizzing politicos about why "nothing was being done" about the Mad Dog of Tripoli. So let me get this straight, OK? Toppling sadistic dictators in totalitarian, oil-rich Arab regimes is OK as long as George W Bush didn't order it. OK, just so as long as we're clear on that one. For the record, it was a left-of-centre British government that got into bed with Gaddaffi and released the Lockerbie bomber. The current lot have FUBAR'd our defence budget even more than the last lot. And our liberal media are now, suddenly, sabre-rattling. Sheesh.

Alternatively, you could smother an old chamois leather in Marmite and chew on that instead. No difference.

Alpha Protocol. It's a great game, but the problem was probably an expectation deficit - people of course expected a MGS / shooter type game instead of a well-written, thoughtful, witty RPG where combat was part of the mix, not the raison d'etre. Anyhow, like I say it's more fun than a sack of kittens, the spiteful review scores say more about gaming journalism than they do about the game. The only thing I will say is that the hacking minigame is the most annoying thing in a RPG I have ever experienced, ever. It's like finding a dead slug in an otherwise perfectly executed Caesar salad. Never do that to me again, Obz, please. Cheers MC

And as they say, "a camel is a racehorse designed by a committee."

LOL you are all trying to apply consistency and logic to an argument with Magickal Volo. R00fles!