Monte Carlo

Still playing the CoHO beta, which is awesome. BG2 on my new laptop, which is the perfect size for IE games (also have IWD / HoW / TotL on it). Installed Titan Quest on the lappie to see how purdy it looks (very) and played a bit more of it. I have to say that I really like the pick and mix skill tree system which allows you to be as gimpy / specialised as you like. It's a bit too hack and slash (not often you hear me say that) and certainly not enough tunnels but the ancient Greek vibe is groovy.

I am pleased with my progress thusfar, please post that stats screen so we can see more forensic evidence of my awesomeness.

^ Night, Is it true that they've got central heating up there now?

Because, like, it's about marines. In space.

It's a nice county with some lovely countryside. The university is well-regarded and it's easy to get to London. That depends where you live. I live in the South so travel to Europe via ferry or Eurostar is easy and I am a frequent visitor to France, Switzerland and Italy. I rarely fly, driving around Europe is brilliant the French have excellent toll roads. Even as a foot passenger on a ferry you can visit France cheaply, cycling is very popular. Normandy is good for that, it's one of my favourite parts of France. OTOH if you live in the Northeast then really you are nearer Scandinavia than France, travelling by road to the South coast sea ports wold be a bit of a pain.

... There you go, newc, seek and ye shall find.

I'm confused. Is this an issue about equality or the minutiae of the US federal vs state constitutional arrangements. My view is that sexuality is fixed. And in aby case, denying people the right to form a legally-binding partnership because of their sexuality is contrary to their civil liberties in a free society. Religions do not 'own' the concept of marriage. There, that's it. The rest is obfuscation.

^ What he said. Different companies aim different franchises at different markets. DA:O seemed like Bio's olive branch to PC gamers: a game that played to the platform's strengths that was also, and unashamedly, a satsifying but secondary experience on console. AS I've said before, I was sceptical about DA:O after NWN (why Bio? WHY?) but happily ate crow pie once I saw Dragon Age. A classy move, IMO, from a company that lost it's classiness in the eyes of a lot of PC gamers. OK, they're chasing the money and going for a console-feel. Not a problem. They are there to turn a profit. But wouldn't it be refreshing if they actually acknowledged that, even in veiled terms, rather than try to present the cuts / weaknesses as some sort of evolution. I'm not buying it, as I've said previously but I love PC games. So for me this is like watching a wildlife documentary about a strange creature shedding it's skin.

I'm sort of dabbling with a bit of this and a bit of that... BG2 / ToB Company of Heroes Titan Quest Medieval Total War 2 Fallout 3 Dragon Age I'm also planning on getting Alpha Protocol to play on my awesome new laptop next week.

Yes, precisely. Although that website has enlightened me as to what unemployed cultural studies and media graduates do all day.

So, 20 minutes into the future? That's interesting and sort of where I'm going. Look at Fatherland by Robert Harris. It's the 1960's. There's the beatles. TWA jets landing at glamorous airports. Oh, and the Nazis 'won' the war after a generously negotiated peace with the British Empire and USA. It's the world as we know it but completely different. Children of Men is another great example, that's the sort of thing I'm getting at.

I'd like an alternative history RPG, which would be 'real-world' enough to capture what the OP is talking about but different enough to explain the lack of everyday constraints that inevitably hinder immersion in a modern setting.

Hmmm. I'm actually winning games. So time for a non-NDA breaking AAR. Played a US (Para support coy) guy earlier. He was doing the right thing initially (rifle spam) then I noticed he was making machinegun teams. Lots of them. For Wehrmacht players MG teams are a really important early build unit (mine are enhanced with SPESHUL POWAHZ I'm not allowed to tell you about) but not so much Amis. So I wondered if he was a complete noob but noticed he was pathfinding engies to capture strat points so that was worrying. Then he went early Greyhound, again exactly what I expected him to do so I went straight to T3 for an up-gunned puma which would really ruin his day. My Pumas also have ToP SecREt SPESHUL POWAHZ I'm not allowed to discuss on pain of death). He captures the centre victory point (1 V 1 map - Langres) and... waits. A sneaky attempt up my right flank with the Greyhound is frustrated by two up-gunned Pumas and now I'm going T4 which I can't believe. By this point he has enough MP for a Sherman but he's wasting it on inf units. CoH can get pretty paper / scissors / stone and it's all about capturing resources and second-guessing your opponent's build order / tactics. Being a para I'm also expecting a pesky airborne inf team with RRs to mess up my light armour. Basically the guy just went firm and defended his middle strat point, by which time I'm holding fuel points with flame pios and MGs and deploying a flakpanzer onto the field. I trundle down his (unprotected) flank and into his base and it's goodnight Vienna. I think the guy was a semi-noob who was almost there. We had a chat and I told him that he needed to keep advancing - Americans can spam units but need to keep going. If you let Wehr build up petrol then we unleash horrible armoured forces on you (I always play Blitzkrieg and go for fast armour with tough inf support and don't rely on arty spam). Anyhow, it was just like a regular online CoH game just with knobs on and me winning!

Another dividend is, ironically, the small screen size (15"). I installed Baldurs Gate 2 / ToB tonight. On my desktop rig I use the widescreen mod which can cause issues with BG2 / ToB and especially other mods. On my laptop BG2 looks fabulous on the unlocked, maxed out resolution that comes with the vanilla config programme! Am busily building v. modded BG2, Windows 7 has none of the crappy Vista issues with compatability, it loves IE games. Company of Heroes looks great and runs smoother than a smooth thing in a velvet bag. For some reason I can't autopatch, suspect it's an anti-virus firewall issue as opposed to the rig itself. Still, I can play offline skirmish and campaign games. Crysis, which I installed purely as a performance test then uninstalled, was fine. Apparently the Alienware notebook will run this fine too, I've seen one and it's freaking tiny. Medieval Total War 2 / Kingdoms, with a load of mods, installed with no problems. Have yet to play but if it runs CoH and Crysis.... and I've still used only a fraction of the available memory. I have to take my hat off to the designers, the dynamic power use and stealth modes mean that the thing doesn't heat up and is very quiet. I'm amazed theyve packed this much performance into a lappie and made it so elegant and quiet. If I have small criticisms it's that (1) there are only three USB ports and (2) the speakers aren't as Gucci as I'd hoped. These are minor issues, I'm going to buy some small but sublimely expensive travel speakers and / or headphones. The MX17 I would suggest is a viable desktop replacement, the MX15 for me is almost there and a fantastic addition to my home tech / gaming set-up. All in all I am delighted with the product, bravo Alienware. I know it's expensive, but if you were thinking of going down this route then I'd say do it. I'm too old to wear baseball caps but there was one in the box ! Cheers MC

It was a maxed-out resolution but I wouldn't have a clue about gauging FPS.

It means it ran smoothly with no problems.

Yes, the webcam recognises your face in lieu of a password, it's part of this alienware control centre thingie that lives at the centre of my machine like HAL in 2001.

Follow the link on the official site, sign up for a raptr account and you get a key. I've been playing for two days, I'm sure I'm not breaching the NDA by saying it's like CoH but with added win bolted onto it. And, yes, you get the original SP campaign for free.

I've been playing around with the machine for a couple of days now. It's awesome. Fast, responsive, quiet and loads of memory and eats Crysis for breakfast. I even love the leather-bound manual (really). It's a totally self-indulgent purchase, from the control centre to the facial recognition but I am completely smitten with it.

^ That's one of the few things I liked about GTA --- you decide when to steal cars and there are consequences.

It would appear that meaningful enforcement in those jurisdictions is impossible, which is odd seeing as China can get Google to bend to it's will on political content. But not warez. Hmmm.

I'm like that with movies: I prefer them to have car chases and gunfights. If they don't I generally don't dig them. Same with games. They need tanks, explosions, tunnels, fighting in tunnels, treasure, more tanks and blowing stuff up. A game where you blew up tunnels in a treasure-harvesting fighting vehicle would be the best.

^ And the bad news is that they can only run PC games as a loss-leader into consoles for existing gamers for so long.

Wendy's was the best, the used to serve square hamburgers in the UK which is wacky but in a good way. Especially if you like geometry and processed meat snacks. Talking of which, the UK took the doner kebab to it's dangerously cholestorol-choked heart. Forget burgers, the traditional apres-beer repast of the proud Englishman is a large doner, extra-strength chilli sauce and chips.

Am trying to read D-Day by Stephen Ambrose but his hagiographic treatment of Eisenhower is making it a bit difficult, dragging us firmly and uncomfortably into fanboi territory.