Monte Carlo

Why is a rogue wearing steel-soled boots like he's a member of a Scandinavian heavy rock band? I suppose sneaking, like er, a rogue about is too old-skool.

The issue is not only about combat effectiveness (although it should be). Western, regular armies have increasingly been subjected to civilian employment laws, this along with the Human Rights agenda (Frankfurt School, anyone?) means that: Our fully-integrated infantry company needs to consider a diversity audit and childcare considerations (why did Corporal Smith get promoted, he's a guy? We've only got one female sergeant, but she can't deploy she's just had a child). Unit cohesion would soon suffer as the equal ops brigade dismantled almost every stress-breaking, non-PC area of the unit. What about other parts of the army? I hear you quite reasonably ask. Well, to a certain extent they've got atop these issues but the infantry is different. You want the tip of the spear to be sharp and lean and to hell with civilian social convention. I'm sure some of the moonbats out there would find all this quite enervating, but seriously it's no way to run an infantry battalion. The sort of personal restrictions that would be required on female soldiers to ameliorate these issues would be unacceptable and unlawful, i.e. the issue of child-bearing (in the 1970s you had to leave the army if you had one, which is clearly unfair). The Israelis have tried it. Israel is a far from perfect example, as theirs is a national defence force in a unique culture. Even there, the results have been mixed. I say work to the gender differences that are obvious: women make excellent service personnel in many areas and in some are superior to men. The infantry isn't, I would contend, one of those.

^ Is it because Bioware is guilty of at least fifty percent of those, not least 'making an announcement about an announcement?'

I'm not on Facebook, but Rosbjerg is spot on with his analysis. Personally, if you want to own all my personal data, preferences, images, opinions and suchlike then I'd ask you to pay for them but that's just me. The rest of the world gives it away for free.

"Let's Play Neverwinter Nights" Which to me is akin to, "Let's nail our testicles to a coffee table"

I sympathise with anybody who has suffered from mental illness and am aware that it is exactly that... an illness. I deplore the stereotypes about the subject. But an illness can preclude certain activities. A blind person is unlikely to be allowed to fly a plane and a person with a back injury is unlikely to be found carrying bricks up a ladder. It stands to reason that a person who has an illness that can interfere with their reasoning should be barred from possessing a firearm.

Hmmm it's one of those movies, OK I see where you're coming from. Thanks. OTOH the snow fortress, like a level from Medal of Honour, was pretty cool too.

Sure, but why the very old Japanese guy, how did he rescue him and why was he in the same dream level / world as his dead wife? Maybe I missed something.

I sort of guessed that it was open to interpretation but the bit with the old Japanese guy at the beginning and end confused me, I dig that he was the dude who got shot and that time lags the deeper you go into the levels of the dream (lol what a load of nonsense I'm typing, must have been a cool movie!) but why was he so old and does it impact on the ending. Also, is Leo's character the only guy in the history of guy-dom who has erotic dreams about his freaking wife? Most of mine involve Monica Bellucci in an air hostess uniform and an inflatable paddling pool full of jello.

Sorry if there was a thread about this before but I saw Inception last night. Loved the premise, enjoyed the moving, had a serious WTF moment about the ending. What is the consensus on what it means? Hey use spoiler tags if you wish. Thanks.

Since Company of Heroes online came out I've spent about UK

^ I see what you're saying, but it seems to me that the whole point of the piece was that he loses it. Jamie Foxx's (why the extra 'X' Jamie, WHY?) character was loathesome, yet we were meant to be rooting for this cynical, over-ambitious, do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do lawyer. But overall, it didn't work I agree. It just became silly.

The scene in law-abiding citizen where he argues for his release on bail, wins then berates the judge for her stupidity made that movie worth the price of admission alone.

Mrs. Giffords sounds like an able, decent person and I wish her a speedy recovery. This is a tragedy that, sadly, is hardly unprecedented. The American Left of course have been quick to blame the (quel surprise!) Tea Party for creating a climate of hate (very tawdry). This seems odd given that (a) Mrs. Giffords is a moderate Democrat and (b) the gunman's political views are, to say the least inchoate and he appears to hail from the tinfoil hat brigade in any case. I wish the rabid fringes of both ends of the US political spectrum would forget their boring kulturkampf for ten minutes and STFU. People have been murdered, including a child. I Read this quote in the paper, which seems to sum it up:

Your ability to completely miss the point can only be described as epic.

With regards to the dual-wielding warrior thing (or not, if you see what I mean) it seems like a bit of a throwback to old-skool D&D. Sadly, the bad bits of old-skool D&D (2E). Arbitrary rules there to 'make the class more distinct' and reinforce a mistake, in this case the poor class implementation. I'd have had more time for them if they'd got rid of the classes altogether, or made the classes a base skills template you can mix and match from later. As for the straight-jacketed NPCs skills / equipment choice, as Gromnir points out it's Bio painting a restriction as an innovation. DaRk HEroiC FaNTAsy!!!!

The A-Team. The critics slated it, the fans went meh but I loved it. It was more fun than a sack of kittens. Also, finally the A-Team developed some weapon-handling skillz and actually shot someone, which made some people completely crazy but seemed right for the movie. The guy who plays Howlin' Mad Murdoch captured the part brilliantly, he was always my favourite character. Anyhow, with dialogue like this you know you're onto a winner: MP in control room: "What are they trying to do with that tank?" Ridiculously hot Jessica Biel: "Fly it."

Dude, another one of the faithful! See you down at the coven on Friday.

I am back at work tomorrow, today I am sitting about reading a good book, posting on here and winning occasionally playing CoHO. Am eyeing the wine rack wondering what I'm going to have with dinner later. Quite a nice start to 2011, all things being equal, am even looking forward to going to the office and checking my emails.

Very wise choice. PM me if you ever play online as I still frequent the old vanilla Relic servers. Let me know if you experience any technical glitches, I've been through most of them myself and I might be able to help. EDIT: FYI, if you ever decide to download and play the (free) Company of Heroes Online, your vanilla game CD key will give you a load of free supply, basically in-game currency and hero units.

Even the new Jagged Alliance game is ditching turn-based. It'll suck. I mean really suck. Every JA-themed game after JA2 has sucked as people try to bend the core principle of the game to their will, the core principle being that it's a hyper-tactical squad-level, turn-based wargame. It's a testament to the elegance of the design and story that people actually miss that. Nonetheless, even I (up here in my Grognard Lair in the backwoods) accept that TB is dead in WRPGs, and as I don't play JRPGs I haven't played a turn-based game since TOEE (which had great TB combat). Dragon Age: Origins had pretty good combat, one of the more satisfying RtwP systems I've seen although it's integration with the clunky skills / class overlay left much to be desired. But it was definitely on the right track, DA2 could have nailed it but instead they've chosen to make a console Ren Fair dating simulator. Nevermind, others will pick up the torch, I think Europe is the last bastion of old-skool games development now.

I'd pay good money to see your face when you realize that Avatar is planned as a trilogy. Why?

Actually, in a silly long-haired, lock-yourself-in-your bedroom and play air guitar kinda way, that was quite good.

Yeah, all the worlds developers got togeather and said "Screw this, lets make really crap games". No they dont! They just end up making crap games by accident.

You would say that Vol, wouldn't you. You don't want the truth YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! (apologies to Jack Nicholson / Col. Nathan Jessup USMC).