Monte Carlo

Of course, my blisteringly accurate prediction was largely correct, not that it took too much meta-knowledge of England's woeful team to achieve that. I took my wife and son for an agreeable dinner in an eerily empty London, a la 28 Days Later. We went home before the zombies staggered out of the pubs, as if they couldn't work out the likely result as easily as I did. Cheers MC

Oh, and keep an eye on Donovan (USA), my money is on him scoring today.

America boasts a capable football team (guys like Clint Dempsey are easily as good as the second tier Premiership England players in our squad). They will give England a run for their money. England 2010 is in a mess, and usually disappoint in the early stages of World Cup tournaments. No Rio Ferdinand, no palpable team spirit and an overpaid, underperforming squad. Only Rooney really shines but the traditional mid-field problems threaten to undermine him. I think a draw is on the cards, my football mentat friends suggest 2-1 to England as a good result.

Obama is playing a dangerous game - grind the profitability of a major multinational into the ground for short-term political advantage this November. BP employs more Americans than Brits. The British economy would be even more in peril if BP crashes. Britain is meant to be a pivotal ally of the US. Personally, if I were the British Prime Minister I'd be reading Obama his fortune and threatening to withdraw UK troops from the 'Stan. Of course, this is also Halliburton's mess, but that doesn't play as well with the anti-UK schtick the Obamamessiah is pushing, does it? Nobody is suggesting that BP is anything less than completely culpable. Yes, they should be made to put right everything that's gone wrong. But the public vilification for nakedly political reasons might make Naomi Klein swoon, but it shows how Obama is prepared to screw the economy of a friendly nation to feed his machine politician instincts. My extremely favourable view of the US is on hold until you get a new President. Yes you can!

Or a Returning Frost Dart.

^ +1

Don't impress the media, crazy fool. They get their copies for free. Impress the gamers - they have to pay.

^ it wasn't a bad guess.

^ Don't tell me, OK, but sadistic vampire aliens, using Bill Gates as their avatar, designed a new level for Pacman? Right? Riiighhhhtttt?

I think that until we know how story-based the game will be this is difficult to guess. DS is, I guess, primarily hack'n'slash and maybe the co-op play will differ slightly from the SP experience?

This is what I'm talking about, baby!

Al Gore, like, invented the internet. So if he wants to dig up bits of ice to convince me the world is melting then I'm all up for that.

^ Most CRPGs that are story-based with co-op will tend to have a protagonist (i.e. the host) who is the 'choosing character'. This is how the Infinity Engine games managed it, I don't play MMOs so maybe they have a different method.

I am pleased with the generally awesome direction in which this thread is now heading.

I am planning on re-installing IWD1, KoW and TotL this weekend and playing it to death with a gimpy party. It's fabulous, capture 10% of it in Dungeon Siege III and it'll be better than the previous 2.

Please don't diss Jason Statham, the finest action movie actor of a generation.

Am happy to admit that I am a complete sucker for matching armour sets a la Diablo. I want to see some rarer weapons - exotic polearms, falchions, proper warhammers (like vicious little spiked ones) and the ability to use the severed limbs of enemies as weapons of last resort.

This thread is about tunnels, dammit. And fighting in them. Please stop being so high-falutin' and discuss the benefits of the 10'x10' room, spike traps versus poison gas clouds, statues that tell riddles, secret doors and other stuff.

I like Ramza a lot, he's a nice guy here on the forums. But seriously, Jonesing after a piece of six-year old vapourware is a waste of time. Move on, dude. :: sniffs :: Just.... let it go.

^ I would LOL if it weren't so likely, mind you it could be a Bio game. Then you'd have a mule with a ten-foot high glowing exclamation mark over it's head, a mule-themed anime Mule comic and of course the opportunity to romance the mule.

I don't know where you live, but in The Smoke if a dog is that savage a police car turns up, a copper with an MP5 gets out and slots fido.

^ Obviously Grom, it is difficult to divine your origin from your mangled syntax When I say 'proper old-skool values' I bridle at the suggestion that I am asking for the developer to adhere to a slavish notion of what is right. I'm talking about something more inchoate, I think. To wit: * A sense of humour * An understanding of the conventions of the genre (so they can be broken effectively, you cannot break a rule unless you understand it) * Fun * Elegant design These to me are old skool gaming values in this genre. They're not rules or mechanics, they are principles. Is there oil in Chicago, BTW?

Let's face it, commercially and critically Obz picking up franchises as diverse as Fallout and Dungeon Siege can't be a bad thing. Talk about a man for all seasons.

Sorry, just spent a few moments thinking about this. Dogs are domesticated animals. The owner is responsible and, in the UK, legally liable for anything that dog does (q.v. The Dangerous Dogs Act). So if Fido bites you, yes you get fined and the dog gets put down. Now, foxes, OTOH are wild animals. The comparison you make is so disingenuous it must be deliberate. In any case, dogs are by and large domesticated animals. I doubt country folk worry about the average Collie getting into a chicken coop. Foxes are annoying, fairly vicious predators. A cultural activity (which in other countries the average liberal would probably find patronizingly quaint or culturally valid) has grown up around it, a splendid confluence of community spirit and getting rid of a pest. Like I say, I'm a townie but that doesn't mean that I can't see why people would want to indulge in hunting with hounds.

I'm a townie. Foxes are vermin and they should be destroyed, with alacrity. How that is achieved is of little interest to me. The reason people like hunting with hounds, I suppose, is because it's been done for hundreds of years and people enjoy it. Why, for chrissakes, are people like you so squeamish?