Monte Carlo

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).

I'd pay good money for a modded version of Avatar where the blue hippies get pwned by evil space mercenaries and their natural resources are pillaged to make more tanks, planes, bombs and stuff.

I'm so sorry. There is a support group for that, though, if it helps. I've seen... Knight & Day The critics hated it but I kinda liked it in a strange way. It's got a bit of an identity crisis going on, is it a black comedy a genre satire or a comedy-thriller? It's none and all of them and suffers as a result. Having said that, Cruise is actually a gifted comic actor and clearly enjoys sending up his action hero / Mission Impossible persona. Cameron Diaz is a 21st Century Goldie Hawn, and very good at it too. There is one laugh-out loud scene which, had the directors chosen to be a bit darker, shows what the movie might have been. In any case, a confused popcorn movie which was a reasonably amusing way of killing a couple of hours.

You know that Bio, really, want to make games where your pre-defined character is completely pre-defined in terms of weapons, attacks, attire... everything. It makes the game "more consistent with our vision of the game we want to make." The only thing you'll get to choose is, yes, facial appearance (Bio fans spend many, many hours playing with that it looks pretty and doesn't involve math, although why micro-managing your chin is more meaningful than your inventory is beyond me) and of course RomANceSSSSS!!! Damn your eyes Bio!!!

:: Sigh :: I'll probably be catching up with the past two years - The Witcher (groovy ultimate edition), King Arthur, CoD Black Ops perhaps (curious about the fuss) and if it's released Diablo 3. The wargaming / strategy sector is looking good from an indie POV, but that's an obscure subject for another thread. Curiously, nothing by EmoWare features in my list.

I used to be Grinch-like, but now I have children it's much easier because obviously they love the whole thing to bits. I am off to the countryside for the Holidays visiting family. I will be offline until next week I guess, so I'll take the opportunity now to wish you all a very happy Christmas wherever you are or whatever you're doing. Cheers MC

^ WoW is cartoony, lame and predicated on playing with other humans. It's a bit apples and oranges, Calax, but does illustrate how difficult it is to get such a game just right.

I'm old enough to know better, but I'm telling you now that gaming is a great hobby and perfectly valid. Evidence? * I'm a technophobe, but since I started gaming I've learnt how to install mods, use compression tools, install / update drivers, had advice on free anti-virus / spam / clean-up utilities, can now optimize my rig / ave got into and understood high-end PCs a bit better. If I'd never gamed I'm telling you now I'd never have done this. * It's a stress-buster. My work can get on top of me sometimes, but when I'm trying to pin down waves of enemy infantry on the Hochwald Gap or de-buff a lich with a gimpy character on uber-modded BG2 guess what? I'm kind of not bothered. * It's fun. You don't need to validate fun. * It gives me kudos with all the early twentysomethings I know because I might not look like I understand web culture and humour but I do. And that, by and large, is down to gaming. * If it weren't for gaming I'd never have known who Olivia Munn was. * The community here might have it's fair share of asocial pedants but I kind of like them and enjoy wasting my time online with them. That's down to gaming too. So the O/P needs to chill out.

I'm not a graphics whore by any stretch of the imagination, Wrath, but that game is uglier than an ugly thing wearing an ugly mask.

Today I hit level fifty in Company of Heroes Online, which was rather good. My level-up game was the shameless demolition of a lower-ranked team in a 4V4, unleashing rocket barrages, hordes of stealthed-up stormtroopers and hero armour units. Wahey! They were rage-quitting left, right and centre. Fifty is the level cap, I've made the top 3% of players in my commander class. I've never really been into competitive online gaming but this one is awesome. Now I've made an allied Airborne Commander, which is definitely not a power-build. Should be a challenge nursing him to level fifty, after the sheer armoured steamroller of my Blitzkrieg guy it should be fun playing a lightly armed mobile doctrine.

I liked the strategic overlay in Bulge, where you could move battlegroups inbetween missions, but yeah it wasn't as cool as the others. Did you play the D-Day one, BTW? In case you're interested, Matrix Games have re-engineered versions of all these titles.

The original close combat games are exceptional WW2 RTS games too. I love A Bridge Too Far! I love them, own them all. The Russian Front one is the best IMO, and the most heavily modded. They are dated now, but for a squad-level tactical combat sim the series remains awesome.

^ Awesome, I completely agree.