Monte Carlo

Sorry, I invested in a set of Global knives and they've lasted 7 years and are as good as new. I use all of them.

Dude, if the cap fits.

We are completely relaxed about who is English nowadays, pardner. Welcome to the club.

I am a reasonably accomplished cook. My advice to the newbie is (a) buy a decent set of knives (b) one decent cast iron skillet and one decent casserole dish © find a cook book you like (d) learn to marinade and slow cook, both techniques are easy and provide good easy-win results for the neophyte cook (e) taste things, not eat things when you cook (f) choose a cuisine you like and learn why you like it, for me generally this means Italian which in turn means the provenance of ingredients. Italian food is awesomely simple to make and provides a impress your friends divident far beyond the effort you invested in making the meal (g) eat actively, not passively. Why does that taste good? How was it made? What was the technique? Etc (h) buy a small herb garden, you will save a small fortune (i) learn your way around a very basic wine list --- Why make all this effort? (a) life's too short not to eat well (b) the opposite sex, and indeed probably the same one, will love the fact that they've met a cook © one of the most generous yet easy ways to engage with another human being is to make them something to eat (d) it's cheaper than going to a restaurant (e) cooking can be deeply relaxing

Clinton definitely wouldn't have. Clinton turned the US military into a risk-averse joke. Bush turned it back into an awesome war fighting machine. You can think of that what you will, personally I make it a good thing by the by.

Bioware are redefining the RPG by turning it into, as Boo says, into Tomb Raider. Maria makes an astute, well-observed point, WRPGs have lines in the sand. One by one Bio have eliminated them, hey they'll probably be making Final Fantasy type games within five years. Basically, Bio are making games uniquely tailored to make me not want to buy them, it's an interesting journey made even more odd by the fact that Dragon Age: Origins was so nearly there and a good game to boot. The pattern is familiar too - make a really good game, then five lame ones, then a good one... rinse and repeat.

If John Kerry had been President in September 2001 do you think he'd have ended up invading Iraq? Honest question from curious Brit, I suspect he would have. All I'm saying is that Democrats are just as up for foreign military commitments when the situation demands. Similarly, talking about blaming your predecessor, George W Bush inherited an anti-Jihadist problems that was fairly and squarely, 100% down to Bill Clinton and his tremulous, risk-averse White House. The Neo-Cons were in the driving seat not least because of the uselessness of the Clinton Whitehouse in the 1990's.

As long as my companions don't suddenly burst into a version of "The Lumberjack Song", then its probably OK. Face it, that would be awesome.

LOL! Try on 'it's a console game, inventories are for old farts with beards.' Which is the real reason.

I like this game because it feels sand-boxy. I might miss out on quests and conversations by killing certain factions but I'm not breaking the game. I'm assaulting the correctional facility at the moment because my chaotic neutral charmer-gunslinger doesn't like the cut of the power-gangers gib. I'm killing named NPCs but... so what? It's the antithesis of some of the stuff I had to put up with in Dragon Age.

I bought the Top Gun soundtrack in 1986 and promptly crashed my first car listening to that very song shortly afterwards.

^ I guess it would be dumb not to factor EA into that equation.

It was 2000. We really need to have a birthday party for it.

Those of us who predicted that an Obama Presidency would make Jimmy Carter look like FDR were broadly correct, not that I'm gloating or anything.

I just saw somebody on the TV called Nancy Pelosi. She's obviously one of those creepy liberals who talks to the public like they are completely stupid. Yuck. We have a few politicians here from the same stock but happily we voted most of them out of government earlier this year. In other news, Sarah Palin is strangely hot.

Not that I want to lower the tone in a serious political debate or anything, but am I alone in finding Sarah Palin strangely hot?

Go to London. The. Eat. Your. Words.

:: shrugs :: If DA2 was like Origins I'd be buying it, but the action-y direction and fixed protagonist are lines in the sand for me so I'm not buying it. No biggie. There are some other really good games coming out.

I'm getting confused Calax. Are you a soppy leftist or a die-hard macho libertarian? It cannot be both.

I like skirts and I'm manlier than Dolph Lundgren driving a Hummer whilst eating an ultra-rare steak topped with extra hot chilli sauce.

The Deep Roads were a moment of RPG awesomeness, evidence that deep in the soppy emo depths of Bioware still beats the heart of a strapping, virile gamer.

^ That's actually pretty cool.

I've been reading the instruction manual for my Alienware laptop. It's leather-bound with big brushed steel rivets. There's no plot and no characters but apart from that it's pretty cool.

They're shoe-horning yet another 'we love our NPCs so you must too' moment into one of their games. What happened to the kill-annoying-NPCs-and-that's-the-last-of-them principle that kept RPGs fun?