Monte Carlo

I haven't even played it yet but I know I'm going to love it. That's spooky.

Hey, I'm on the record as really liking DA1 but this game isn't even on my radar for some reason.

This contradicts what you're regularly posting in the threads about Bioware games. Boo has a job to do, dangit, and it's bigger than whether a game is good or not. He is the Anti-champion of Bioware! Go, Boo, GO!

We don't march on Parliament, we write angry letters to the newspapers. I might lose my job. It's a slim chance, but it's there. What can we do? The country is stony broke and the kids in their early twenties coming up behind us deserve a chance, so do my kids. The only way to do that is to grit our teeth now and fix the economy. Of course, the hedge fund managers will still be buying Aston Martins and yachts but vive la capitalism.

Still don't have my copy. Damn the internet.

So, what's new? I've been sort of drifting in and out of this thread. Does the game still suck or has some awesomeness descended from the Bio-Dome and saved it?

As a paying student of Gorgon's Self Defence Academy I endorse this message.

For the love of god, D1ck is short for Richard. Get a grip lanuguage filter nazis.

Sorry to be hyper-critical but this game is contrary to all modern CRPG conventions. Surely all this player choice, linearity and indeed a complex matrix of in-game mechanics are anachronistic in the extreme. The game needs to centre on a pre-defined character, a buff lounge-lizard called Shepherrd. **** Shepherrd. **** is fully voiced. He has mana-based chat-up lines ("get your coat love, you've pulled" or my personal favourite, "you don't sweat much for a fat lass") and is based on an award winning novelette by one of the dev team. You can download lots of potential dates that were cut from the original and re-packaged as DLC. Please try again.

You've got two archetypical movie war veteran options, Wals. 1. Taxi Driver.You wear an old combat jacket with somebody else's name above the breast pocket and do weird, spaced out stuff. You are destined to climb a church tower with a hunting rifle during your lunch break. Your best bet at romance is the crazy letters mad women will send you whilst you stew on Death Row. 2. You are dignified but silent, and spend much time gazing into the middle distance. You have a disfiguring, but not completely unattractive, facial injury. You spend a lot of time in a bath chair, wearing neatly pressed flannel pyjamas, reading Rupert Brooke. You will never, ever, forget Ginger (your trusty wingman) doing down in the drink near Dover. All of the nurses at the convalescent facility are MADLY IN LOVE WITH YOU but you are too distressed to see it. When you finally do you will buy a jaunty Mk.IV Jag, a blazer and a Terry Thomas moustache and roger the lot of 'em. Ding dong!

Two words: The Raj. We were in India forever, it is etched on our cultural DNA. Then in the 1970's Bangladeshis arrived in the UK and brought with them their food, which is very different from traditional Indian cuisine, including southern Indian vegetarian food. As a Londoner I am therefore familiar with Nepalese curry versus Bangladeshi curry versus more traditional Indian curries from say Kashmir. Of course this is before we explore the murky Balti connection from Birmingham. Personally, I am a big fan of tandoori food and also Pakistani curry house / kebab hybrids of the type you find in East London (where the kebab and sub-continental food collide in gloriously tasty gastro-colour). The curry is a British staple - it is consistent, generally good value for money, tasty and goes well with beer. Brits love curry. I can go to a local curry house and eat great food, I can eat Michelin-starred curry. I've not even hit on Thai, Indonesian and Chinese curries either. This is a big subject.

And, I trust, BEER.

Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, 1992. A naval officer in a bar told me on no account to stop for the Federales, "They will steal your car." Oh well, the scenery was nice, the people were great and the beer was cold.

That's the one, thanks!

Thanks Calax, but I must have the wrong game, the one I'm thinking about was isometric where you looked down on your units, it was more of a Mechwarrior RTS. My bad. But the music was awesome, I must have bought it in 1997/1998.

^ I had a cold. The answer was a very hot indonesian curry, the one with beef, potatoes, ginger, garlic, chilli, coconut cream, more chilli, some brown sugar and more chilli. And nuts. I had a large bowl of this with sticky rice and (yes) a shed-load of beer. My morale soared and the cold regressed. Curry is a massive source of happiness and I recommend it to you all with alacrity.

I can't find the stirring, bagpipe-tinged, Braveheart-esque music from one of the old Mechwarrior games for the PC, was it Mechwarrior 2? but it was awesome, would be great if anyone could find it.

I played QoS at a friend's house. Indeed, it was so-so although I'm not exactly an expert at shooters.

Seriously, Mexico is on course for failed narco-state status within twenty years. With all due respect to Hurlie, I'm sure there is normality in plenty of places. Then again, borders built to Berlin circa 1981 standards to keep out migrants are not indicative of a successful country. Corruption, especially when directed by organised crime, stunts the development of any sort of civic, economic or political progress. Mexico badly needs all three. Southern Italy almost ended up here in the 1970's, it took a serious concerted and ruthless anti organised crime effort (and lots of very brave, very dead anti-corruption magistrates) to sort it out. There is probably an entire cadre of politicians in Mexico who have been tainted by corruption for generations and are too far in to get out. Until the political will exists to root these people out the downward spiral will continue. And that will needs to be based on weakening the cartels... which is Catch 22. the US is too scared of upsetting the Latin American countries, and too scarred by their covert involvement there in the 70's and 80's. They need to get involved again.

I take it this game is turn-based, right? You can't real-time with pause lurrrrve. Am happy to be Agony Uncle, I have been married for many years and knoweth The Enemy and her ways.

I am watching as an impartial observer, critical friend, and team medic. However, given the level of karmic awesomeness emanating from this endeavour I find myself unable to actually be a playa.

Does Sweden actually have a tourist industry? Isn't Belgium one of those countries people just drive through? Isn't Holland famous only for seedy weekend trips by rowdy groups of blokes? Australia is the only interesting country on that list.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Vol works in retail.

Simple, don't buy it. I'm not. I'm no averse to DLC but Bio has taken it to a new tacky level of greed.

And as they say in showbiz: you can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter!