Monte Carlo

I think we invented lasagne, just a sort of flour-and-water gruel version with bits of pork floating in it. To be honest, classic British cooking is pared-down Italian - simple seasonal food that relies on the provenance of the ingredients - i.e. game, roasted meat, cheese etc. Italian food is better because of the climate and Monica Bellucci.

There are three reasons I'm avoiding this one (1) the pre-defined character (2) the romances and (3) I liked Dragon Age. I wanted Dragon Age 2 to be like Dragon Age but better. This is completely different, it just leaves me cold. Although I will admit, as I previously posted, to being very interested in where Bio is taking this. That doesn't mean I particularly feel the need to play it.

Guard Dog I bet these women are in their thirties, right? Just play the demographics game to your advantage --- there's more single ones of them than there are single ones with your chromosome. Every single guy I know who should be married by now is taking some sort of revenge on womankind for the way they treated them in their twenties. The balance of power shifts at your age. I'd enjoy it while I could!

Apparently we also invented lasagne.

Pork pies, Pidesco. You can keep your rice-with-prawns-in and acorn fed pigs. Give me a pork pie, a piece of cheddar and a pint of Fuller's London Pride.

^ This is a Karmic consequence of supporting Ubisoft, I'm afraid.

No disrespect to the ladies, but occasionally men and women want different things from popular culture. There's stuff guys like and stuff women like, it's perfectly OK. The Sims is a chick's game. Company of Heroes isn't. It's the difference between catching My Best Friend's Wedding versus Ronin on the TV. But there's a tipping point. As an older, male gamer I have no interest in romances in CRPGs. Whatsoever. I find them puerile, embarrassing and tacky. As long as they are completely optional and are a marginal part of the game then I can deal with it. The tipping point as far as Bioware is concerned has now moved too far for me personally, I am now way out of what they perceive their audience base to be and the squeakiest wheels are getting the most oil. The Bio forums are just excruciating, emo-obsessed people wanting to cyber with anything and explore stuff that really belongs in another genre completely. I won't be buying this game, will be playing something with tanks in it, or maybe a sand-box RPG. Cheers MC

I suppose if you sleep half the day and eat at midnight then you've got the time to come up with... tapas?

Youth in Revolt Amusing teen comedy with a sort of Catcher in the Rye vibe going on. The protagonist's sinister French alter-ego Francois, a sort of low-rent Tyler Durden in slacks with a Gitane, is especially amusing.

They should be illegal, when I am Generalissimo it shall be one of my first decrees, we will send an Emissary to the Canadian government to ask them to do something about it lest we resort to armed conflict.

Prince Charles will become King Charles III, succession passes down via the eldest male. Elizabeth became Queen unexpectedly when her father (King George VI) died. With the change of monarch, EIIR (Elizabeth II Regina) becomes for Charles CIIIR, and the royal device changes on uniforms, letter boxes, mastheads and warrants. An expensive business, but luckily longevity is something the Windsors' are blessed with so it doesn't change that often. Cheers MC Edit: Although the postbox on my street is an ancient WW2-era specimen with GR for Georgeous Rex on it.

Care to give an example? I'm having trouble picturing a conversation between two people about weather that is longer than three sentences. Me to Mrs. Monte: "Is it raining where your office is?" Mrs. Monte: "No, but it looked like it might a minute ago." Me: "****ing Meterological office. Sack the lot of them." Mrs Monte: "What did the weather report say?" Me: "Slightly cloudy, twenty degrees, no rain. It's bucketing down here" (I work about six miles away from my wife) Mrs Monte: "I wonder what it's like down at my parents?" Me: "Raining. I bet it's ****ing raining, despite the weather report. They didn't get the weather wrong for D-Day and that was almost 70 years ago." Mrs Monte: "Calm down Monte, I think the sun's coming out over here..." Rinse and repeat

^ Don't believe you about the Indian food. Nicholas 'The Hardest Working Man in Hollywood' Cage has moved to Europe and keeps buying castles. Because he can. Like I say, Yanks love old buildings.

* Oh, and curry. Forget the Indian claims about curry, ours is a bizarre Bangladeshi hybrid created to pander to the infantile British palate filtered through distant cultural osmosis from the Raj. And completely delicious, best enjoyed with a drink (q.v.) Never had a good curry in the States. Never. Great Chinese food, but for some reason the Indian food isn't right there.

Cambridge. Picturesque, interesting, cultured. And bloody windy. The wind comes across the fens like a whip, and doesn't stop. It's really flat out there (then again, you are from Chicago, the Windy City, right?). I prefer the western side of the UK TBH, and I'm originally from deepest Sarf Lunnon. As for schools, a country the size of the USA is inevitably going to have an amazing diversity of provision, from superb to disgraceful. You'd call it a zip-code lottery, what we call a post-code lottery. It's strange for Americans to move here unless they are sent here for work reasons. Having said that, I've met a few (more Canadians TBH) and they all seem to like it. Unless they're from somewhere hot. I'd prepare myself, were I an American, for the following: * Very long conversations about the weather. This cliche is completely true. * Dreadful, prurient tabloid media that makes the National Enquirer look like the Washington Post * No guns, well not very often and certainly not anywhere nice unless you happen across one of these wierd rural death-wishes we've had recently * Football. Lots of football. Jesus I hate football, get into rugby it's far more interesting * Excellent beer. Good wine is cheaper than you find in the States, too. In fact, get used to British drinking. The British are drunks, we will look at you strangely if you are not partaking... * ... which brings me onto pubs. Find a good one, dig in, get known, enjoy and you won't go home. Literally. * Old buildings. Yanks get really freaked out by the old buildings. My local church is Norman. * Driving on the correct side of the road * The Queen. Don't diss The Boss * London. London is a post-modern Rome, a city state that is part Blade Runner, part 16th Century Venice and completely loopy * Walking. We walk. We don't drive everywhere, mainly because that gets in the way of us having a drink There's a starter for ten. Cheers MC

...as long as you don't make a wrong turn and end up in... (whisper it) Swindon.

You will find that UK house prices are heavily predicated on the quality of the local schools, if you see a bargain the first question you need to ask yourself is 'whats the local school like?'. There are some interesting things happening in UK education policy, I'm quite enthusiastic about the future. My son's school is excellent, and completely free (infant school). As for the general reasoning behind your idea to live abroad, I think it's good for kids. If I had the chance to work abroad for a bit I would, but I think you might find residency issues as a US Citizen unless you get a job and they sponsor you. My wife works for an American company, and they have some Americans at her office. They seem to like it here, a lot. They find it liberating that you can drink a bottle of claret at lunch and not be carted off to the nearest Betty Ford clinic. France and Italy are lovely, but the French hauteur might drive you nuts, and the Italian way of life (and I love Italy) although great means putting up with Italian local government. Which will drive you mad. At least here everybody will understand you. Cheers MC

Brighton is slightly bohemian and pleased with itself, to be honest the place gets on my nerves. It's populated by trendy Londoners who tend to crowd out the long-established Gay community there. I used to like it there fifteen years ago, before it became Notting Hill-on-Sea. It's also very expensive, consider areas slightly out of Brighton to get better value for money. Having said that, Sussex (the county Brighton sits in) is nice.

A few points from a veteran Londoner, born-and-bred. Edinburgh: Beautiful, fab architecture, lots of culture, great pubs. It's also the most expensive city in the UK next to London to live in and the weather is something else. Awful. Ireland: The economy is FUBAR. England is in the doldrums but nowhere near as bad. Avoid it for now. England: London, forget it. Very expensive, it's like New York in the early 80's - a place for the rich and the poor and tough for folks in the middle. You're an IT type, want a nice community, want to live in Europe, right? You need, like the person who said that he knew Americans living in Reading, to consider the Thames corridor that follows the M4 motorway west out of London. It's where most of our high-tech industry is located, you are on top of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and the West Country, are near some good regional airports / sea ports for your trips to France, Spain and Italy and it's not hideously expensive with good schools. You can still easily get to London if you want to see the sights. Furthermore, the lush green England you might have in your mind's eye, with pubs and people playing cricket does actually exist out that way. This website is a pretty good starter for ten, check out how far your dollar might go. Alternatively, if you know any folks in the military ask them what life's like here or expat Americans, there are lots of US airbases in the UK (I'm sure there must be an online community you can visit). Cheers MC

^ That's a fair point. Shame Bio is more likely to fling assets at soppy romances.

If he starts at 18 (and fit as a fiddle) and the game ends at the relatively tender age of 28 then I suppose the biggest potential obstacle is facial hair management and trying to avoid a nascent beer belly.

Just checked out some SC2 screenies. I like.

^ Try Company of Heroes. Seriously, and it's free online from September. It's awesome on very level.

I hear you brother. I'm not twitchy, smart or competitive enough for MP RTS versus humans. I love Company of Heroes, I've got a friends list as long as your arm for skirmish V CPU. But people? I get my arse kicked every time. So, yeah, the SP vanilla campaign for a RTS is crucial for me. Games like CoH deliver on that front, I've played the core allied campaigns two or three times and not got bored of them and love online but, as I say, not against the waves of pro / smurf ninjas.

I liked Starcraft 1 for lots of reasons but Starcraft 2 is just too.... overwhelming. At the moment I've only got time for one big game in my life, SC2 isn't it. What's the Diablo 2 release date, BTW?