Monte Carlo

The widescreen mod works just fine for IWD.

Wow, just read that recently the Turkish premier gave a warm welcome to the benevolent and wise ruler of Sudan. That's right. Sudan. Every Hollywood liberal is up in arms about the borderline genocide there, but good old peace-flotilla sponsoring Turkey ain't that bothered for some strange reason. The double standards here are so outrageous it's hilarious.

The experience of posting on here and, before that, on the BIS forums has taught me what is realistic to expect from games developers. They live in a trash compactor of reality - as gamers we largely live in an open-spaced omni-dimensional cloud of optimism. So, with that in mind and considering that I love BG2 as much as the O.P... 1. D&D is dead for the time being. Video killed the radio star: PC games copied pen and paper rulesets now pen and paper rulesets copy PC games. D&D4 = WoW it is not even recognisably a RPG as many of us know it. Expect an original IP / ruleset and you won't be disappointed. Somebody will eventually make a D&D4 game, probably a quasi MMO. And it will suck. 2. If you switch on the TV you will see that the world economy is more screwed than a Plymouth hooker on Navy Day. Developers will be expected to toil in the games mines to make profitable, mass-appeal games... ... which leads me to 3. Consoles. A lot of the things you loved about BG2 aren't really console friendly. All successful games are cross-platform now. You seriously need to lower your expectations. 4. The future for the likes of us lies with smaller indie titles and modded games, other fans are more in tune with what have become niche and not very profitable tastes. Dragon Age was as good as it's going to get. Even though it wasn't, for me, good enough I was still grateful for the gesture. Cheers MC

I, on the other hand, was simply looking for a CRPG-lite, fun gaming experience with some old-skool features. I didn't expect much else so was quite happy with the result. My main criticism was that it needed more FiGhtINg In TuNNelS, there wasn't one big mega-dungeon centrepiece, a Durlag's Tower or whatever. I know DA / SoZ is apples and oranges. It's just that games nowadays take themselves so darn seriously. I don't want to feel like I'm in an epic fantasy novel, I want to feel like I'm having a laugh in a mate's garage with pizza and beer and D&D. SoZ got nearer to that than a lot of games I've played, including DA:O and Awakenings. SoZ has been villified for not being a michelin starred meal when all that was promised was a slice of straightforward D&D pie.

Because they're not Israel. This is what I've been banging on about for ten pages. Israel is important, it stands for something bigger. It's Fort Laramie, a dirty, battered outpost of Western democracy. Those who would see a shadow of Iranian-style dictatorship descend over the entire region want it destroyed. They are using multiple tactics, including this old favourite from the KGB playbook of using 'progressive elements.' Am I suggesting that this flotilla is on a hotline to Tehran? Hell, no. Am I suggesting that the European liberal left is being subtly manipulated, that it's acidic self-hate is being hi-jacked? Hell yes.

Maybe next time they can hire a fleet of lorries and take stuff to, say, Zimbabwe?

By the way, maybe these guys will take much-needed food supplies to the People's Socialist Nirvana of North Korea next. For some reason, this regime never seems to trouble them, even when starving their own people or torpedoing foreign naval vessels.

^ Where did I say it excused them? Straw-manning.

Hmph.

There are a number of points made above that illustrate what I'm talking about when I mention the Holocaust. To wit, that for younger people the event is losing it's significance. Conflating the Shoah with other current crises is a good example, so is the inability to conflate the mindset that led to this incident with the events of the past. Guys, please think about it. I genuinely don't mean to be patronizing but I'm prepared to be. The philosophical wellspring of your society, the paradigm of existence fed to you with your mother's milk is this: We are alone. We are beset by enemies. We allowed ourselves to be put into cattle trucks and taken to death factories. Never again. Seriously, forget the whole God / Chosen People schtick (and remember, some Hasidim are virulently opposed to Israel). So, Calax, yes we need to unambiguously tip-toe around the issue of the Holocaust. It's in living memory. No, none of the African dictatorships you reference are as bad as the Nazis, not even Rwanda. Yes, the idea that this tactic, this flotilla, is the thin end of an ingeniously constructed wedge to weaken the state and people of Israel is utterly relevant. Please note that I'm not defending Israel's action in this instance. I am, however, understanding it. Just as I understand Hamas. And having done that I've made my mind up who is the least worst, who I'd prefer to prevail in the Middle and Near East.

These people have already stated that they are going to do this again to force confrontation. They are actually quite clever, this tactic is working and will work. I don't think they see the big picture, but then again single-issue obsessives seldom do.

@ Nemo. Are you an economist? Because they too are more comfortable arguing about what might or should have happened as opposed to what actually happened.

So it'd be OK if the police in America opened live fire on, say, tea party protesters who hurled rocks or tried to take their guns right? An eye for an eye is neoconservative policy these days, right mate? if the tea party protesters were attacking the police with knives and metal bars, we would expect the police to respond with deadly force. Don't be a ****, you'd expect them to use tasers and tear gas. Krezzie, your Tactical appreciation and experience comes via a PS3 I suppose.

If Sweden declared war on Denmark I guess both sides armed services would go on strike and a peace conference would be announced before the first tank reached a border post.

Am I alone in finding Turkey's new role as international paladin of human rights slightly ironic?

Yep, the three series is a bit narrow inside but a station wagon (sorry, we call them estates here) has a good cargo area. The five series is perfect, but it has good residuals and might be a bit too pricey for what you have in mind at the moment.

Naturally, because Israel is the bogeyman du jour for da kidz, they all kicked off as soon as this was announced. Some of us were sanguine. I've seen the footage. The commandoes rapelling to the deck were attacked by a mob armed with iron bars. Were I the section commander I would have authorised the use of firearms. The evidence will not persuade the haters - it never does. I would ask, though, just whose tune they are dancing to (answer for the dull - Iran / Hamas / The Muslim Brotherhood). I'm not a pro-Israeli stooge. My country was at war with Israeli terrorists in the late 40's. But, and... but. Memories are fading. Forget the Balfour declaration and Zionist settlers. That's all window-dressing. The rapidly fading elephant in the room is the industrial extermination, on an epic scale, of six million people. Just think how that forges a national psyche. The Jews of Europe tried reason in the 30's and 40's and it led to the gas chamber. Never Again isn't just a slogan, it's woven into Israel's DNA. They see the Palestinian question directly through this prism. Has this turned Israel into something sometimes unpleasant and arrogant? This is a reasonable point of view. But the Che Guevara T-shirt crowd beating their chests and crying foul need to (a) learn some history (b) learn to see stuf from the other guy's POV and © wonder how the other side would act. A more astute critic might ask if the 'other side' is as homogenous as I've suggested. The answer is yes and no, but when it comes to the mission to undermine and destroy Israel I'd say pretty much yes. Big picture time: It boils down to this: like it or not, Netanyahu has his finger on a nuclear trigger, reined in by the USA. Ahmadinejad does not. The plan is to get his finger on one reined in by nobody. Who knows if this flotilla is the anarchist throwing a grenade in Sarajevo moment? I'm not saying don't protest against Israel, or criticise them. Just prioritise. These guys aren't dug in, full of fear and suspicion, for fun. Cheers MC

Er, I did in my first post on the subject.

I'd go Japanese from what you were posting, but if you wanted to go BMW go for an ancient 3 series.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this, the IDF didn't attack the ship. They boarded it. Which they were perfectly entitled to do.

The most forgiving interpretation I can think of is that they thought they were at an anti-capitalist demonstration in a nice, safe western European city. Which they obviously weren't.

I applaud Heathen's attempt at sarcasm, which earned him a rare smirk over here at Monte towers, although it might have been down to the rather excellent 1995 Bordeaux I've recently opened.

I am utterly aware of how multi-faceted Hamas is. Which doesn't change the fact that it's objectives and tactics qualify it as a terrorist organisation. I'm not biased. I'm not exactly an Israeli fanboy. I do however think they are the least worst protagonist in this sorry saga.

^ Which is like saying the Rainbow Warrior had nothing to do with nuclear energy. This has everything to do with terrorism. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Terrorists want Israel to fail so they can set up camp along the Med with impunity. The fellow travellers in the European liberal left are part of a 'soft power' tactical toolkit.

The Rainbow Warrior changed the political landscape in New Zealand and Australia permanently. The agents might have got away with just a few years in gaol, but it was not without political repercussions. Will we see the same thing happen here? No. I don't want to sound rude, but in Europe the global impact of the political landscape in the Antipodes is near.... zero. France got away with it. France probably became more cunning. This isn't a sum zero game. Israel is important because it's Israel, as I described. Cleverly, the opposition (an alliance of Jihadists, cynical Middle Eastern tyrants and genuine if not misguided liberal leftists) are trying to goad Israel into pariah status. This worked brilliantly against South Africa, I suggest the anti-apartheid campaign rulebook is being carefully thumbed through in Damascus and Tehran. EDIT: My generation, i.e. pre-Gen X now in their forties, held the Holocaust dear, it has religious status as an act of unique barbarism. I personally cannot imagine anything as awful or as evil. This is, with the passing of years, becoming less potent in my opinion, and the middle east has always held a warm welcome for deniers. This is significant.