Monte Carlo

That wacky Tim Cain! What a sense of humour Here's the RPG Codex list of RPGs of the last ten years to choose from - so who's played the most of 'em? 2000 * 2000-02-29 - Might & Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer * 2000-06-22 - Deus Ex * 2000-06-29 - Diablo 2 * 2000-06-30 - Icewind Dale * 2000-09-24 - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn * 2000-09-27 - Wizards & Warriors * 2000-10-16 - Nethack: Falcon's Eye * 2000-10-26 - Summoner 2001 * 2001-03-15 - Gothic * 2001-03-23 - Avernum 2 * 2001-06-27 - Anachronox * 2001-08-21 - Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura * 2001-09-27 - Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor * 2001-11-05 - Wizardry 8 * 2001-11-12 - Geneforge * 2001-12-04 - Gorasul: The Legacy of the Dragon 2002 * 2002-04-05 - Dungeon Siege * 2002-05-01 - Morrowind * 2002-06-18 - Neverwinter Nights * 2002-08-02 - Divine Divinity * 2002-08-19 - Prince of Qin * 2002-08-26 - Icewind Dale 2 * 2002-09-19 - Avernum 3 * 2002-11-15 - Prelude to Darkness * 2002-12-22 - I of the Dragon 2003 * 2003-03-07 - Mistmare * 2003-03-29 - Might & Magic IX * 2003-06-28 - Arx Fatalis * 2003-08-13 - Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader * 2003-09-16 - Temple of Elemental Evil * 2003-10-08 - Paradise Cracked * 2003-10-15 - Geneforge 2 * 2003-10-28 - Gothic 2 * 2003-11-07 - Silent Storm * 2003-11-19 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic * 2003-12-01 - Devil Whiskey * 2003-12-02 - Deus Ex: Invisible War 2004 * 2004-01-25 - Omega Syndrome * 2004-02-27 - Sacred * 2004-03-03 - Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade * 2004-04-27 - Dawn of Magic * 2004-04-28 - Beyond Divinity * 2004-10-15 - Space Hack * 2004-11-16 - Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines * 2004-11-18 - Seal of Evil 2005 * 2005-02-15 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords * 2005-12-05 - Hammer & Sickle * 2005-12-05 - Mourning's Wrath * 2005-04-12 - Kult: Heretic Kingdoms * 2005-04-12 - Jade Empire * 2005-05-05 - Dungeon Lords * 2005-05-18 - Fate * 2005-05-27 - Restricted Area * 2005-05-30 - Geneforge 3 * 2005-08-02 - Metalheart: Replicants Rampage * 2005-08-16 - Dungeon Siege II * 2005-11-24 - Knights of the Temple 2 2006 * 2006-19-01 - Aveyond * 2006-02-11 - Day Watch * 2006-03-02 - Avernum 4 * 2006-03-17 - Fable: The Lost Chapters * 2006-03-20 - Oblivion * 2006-04-07 - GODS: Lands of Infinity * 2006-06-26 - Titan Quest * 2006-06-26 - Night Watch * 2006-07-12 - The Fall: Last Days of Gaia * 2006-09-26 - Mage Knight: Apocalypse * 2006-10-17 - Brigade E5 * 2006-11-20 - Gothic 3 * 2006-12-08 - Neverwinter Nights 2 2007 * 2007-02-05 - Geneforge 4 * 2007-03-09 - Silverfall * 2007-04-06 - Loki: Heores of Mythology * 2007-05-09 - Two Worlds * 2007-05-21 - Nethergate: Resurrection * 2007-09-05 - Depths of Peril * 2007-09-28 - Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer * 2001-10-01 - The Chosen: Well of Souls * 2007-10-30 - The Witcher * 2007-11-19 - Eschalon: Book I * 2007-11-20 - Mass Effect * 2007-12-27 - Aveyond 2 2008 * 2008-02-17 - Avernum 5 * 2008-07-30 - The Spirit Engine 2 * 2008-10-02 - Sacred 2: Fallen Angel * 2008-10-28 - Fallout 3 * 2008-11-03 - Kivi's Underworld * 2008-11-18 - Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir 2009 * 2009-02-20 - Geneforge 5 * 2009-02-24 - Drakensang: The Dark Eye * 2009-05-05 - 7.62 * 2009-07-24 - Divinity II: Ego Draconis * 2009-08-09 - Knights of the Chalice * 2009-10-02 - Risen * 2009-11-03 - Dragon Age * 2009-10-27 - Torchlight * 2009-10-30 - A Farewell to Dragons Hat tip: RPG Codex

Do you mean the Anglosphere too? Aussie and Kiwi papers are OK, Canadian news sources are a bit stuffy but can diverge agreeably from dry-as-an-attic US journalism. I tried to read Indian newspapers, it's not their English that's the issue for me (they are well-written) but the staggeringly complicated politics, religion and society. A world where I had enough time to immerse myself in it would be great, but alas...

Both Slate (US) and The First Post (UK) have pretty good, unbiased, reporting on politics and current affairs. The Grauniad is an evil rag read by kool-aid drinking astro-turfers, supported solely by government recruitment ads for non-jobs.

I agree, but draw the distinction between guns and Guns (i.e. small arms versus fully auto military hardware)

You're already there, Wals, the BBC's spin on most matters is identikit to the Grauniad and Al-Jazeera. Hippy.

Saturday night, came back from a BBQ, switch on the box and something called Knowing with Nic Cage is on Sky Movies. Nic Cage is the hardest working man in Hollywood, but bejaysus he seems to be attracted to crap scripts. Because, movie fans, Knowing is one of the worst films I've ever seen. I know that's a big thing to say but it's true. It's not even so-bad-it's-good. It's a mish-mash of The Sixth Sense, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and a really bottom of the barrel episode of The X Files. and, (this is the killer) the first 45 minutes is interesting, in a just got back from a BBQ on Saturday night and want to watch a movie kinda way. Then, after you've invested that 45 minutes that your'e never getting back, the film degenerates into a complete farce. I actually laughed out loud at the end. I actually said to my wife "can you imagine having to pitch this movie to a studio... and they said yes." But she was already asleep. Honestly, this film inhabits it's own completely ludicrous circle of hell where the wheels fall off once you turn the ignition on. Avoid. Cheers MC

I don't want to open up another Pandora's box with online gaming - FFS Company of Heroes ate about 6 months of my life. I fear for my sanity if I got into WoW.

I haven't seen the new Sherlock Holmes movie yet, but the idea of Sherlock reincarnated as a Victorian Indiana Jones meets James Bond sounds like fun to me.

Dragon Age: Awakenings, am about 50% of the way through. It's ok, but the story doesn't feel like an XP. I'm saying that in a good way, I prefer some of the Awakenings NPCs (well, Justice and Sigrun) to the originals. As for WoW, never played it and never will but I loved the Mr T advertising campaign.

Deraldin hits the nail on the head repeatedly --- the USP of X-com being the game mechanics is crucial. For chrissakes, you go to major world cities to fight battles and they all look the same. Seriously, X-COM barely has a setting. The mechanics are completely meshed into what X-COM is. It's like making spaghetti bolognese with a strange fruity sauce and rice and insisting it's still spaghetti bolognese because that's what you wrote on the packet.

I like the + / - thing.

So you are offered the little red pill. Take it, and you can change all of your existing real-life skills, qualifications, strengths, weaknesses and other attributes. Of course, you can only change skills you actually have, but enhance them at the expense of others. I'd happily trade some of my professional qualifications for, say, a foreign language. How about you? Do a real-life re-spec...

Genius! New thread ahoy.

Still got a big ol' bag of hate for it. Unless... yeah, a multi-player co-op / online game where your team researches / explores and you go on mass squad raid missions... that might work. Basically a very big L4D with a nifty research overlay. But you know you are going to get a generic FPS with some alleged 'old-skool' credibility.

Studied Arabic part-time for a year, German at school for two. Arabic was easier by a country mile, but maybe that's just me. Note: I am rubbish at languages, but at least I can order a coffee / say hello in Arabic. The script is also a bit easier than it looks, especially if like me you are left-handed. It is also beautiful.

^ That is awesome, the man is a musical genius and I am barely worthy to listen to even five seconds of this anthemic masterwerk.

I have a big bag of hate for this already. And it's not a grognard reflex response, either. I have nothing against FPS per se. But... 1. XCOM is a squad-based game. That's the whole point. It's like making a video game out of chess where you're a Knight and can only zig-zag, until of course you level up to Bishop. 2. the XCOM game-world isn't exactly detailed or super-special, it's just earth under attack from aliens. Pretty basic. Pretty generic. Made awesome by the tactical TB squad-based combat and the exploration / tech research. So, this is nothing but trading in on the name of a once-great but now dead franchise. It's cynical, but hey this is the gaming industry. As the man said, make a great FPS, amke it about alien invasions, make it great... and call it something else. Remember the Command & Conquer FPS?

What makes it even freakier is the difficulty curve of learning German - it's a genuinely tough cookie to learn and the grammar alone is enough to make a hardened linguist cry.

I am an Englishman. Do a long weekend in London then go to Italy instead.

Whenever I get furious with Magical Volo, I check out his kamikaze missions over at the Codex and karma is restored. It's like a guy in a micro-lite armed with a hand grenade going on a bombing mission over Bremen in 1943. Magnificent.

I was going to compose a lengthy reply based on the collective wisdom of my four-and-a-bit decades of life. Then I read this post and realised that you're not going to get any better advice than this.

I've never openly criticised the moderation on this forum since the day I signed up, but your collective indulgence of LoFs blatant trolling is out of order. Re-read some of his posts, gloating about a tragic and fatal accident. Then try swapping 'Stalin' for Hitler and try on his posts for size, because for a lot of folks in Eastern Europe the two are pretty much the same thing.

For the record, I am a UFO sceptic. But this is a pretty cool video from the UK. The jets are, presumably, RAF Eurofighter Typhoon interceptors (am not a spotter, anybody with better recognition skillz please comment). Whaddya think? Guy in service station videos flying saucer.

That's what happens to counter-revolutionaries who "commemorate" the so-called "victims" of Stalin. Maybe you should try not being evil and commemorating villainous traitors who were executed according to the Soviet legal system? The so-called Polish "resistors" against Soviet "imperialism" were villains who can only appear righteous by ignoring that the Red Army flooding over Polish territory was the only thing that saved it from living its life under Nazi rule, whose stated goals were to kill everyone east of Berlin who wasn't German. You don't know much about Katyn do you, troll?

Cronicler, I suspect that we were taught completely different versions of the origins of WW2. There was no significant economic stranglehold on Germany, just a military one. You can't even blame WW1 for it: German imperial expansion was late and lacklustre and the British Empire pre-dates it by a good 200 years. As for Pearl Harbor - easily one of the most breath-takingly cynical and arrogant moves of WW2. Only Imperial Japan, in a frenzy of militaristic hubris, would have even dreamt of getting away with it. It is interesting if a revisionist school of thought is developing that drops a (superficial) Marxist analysis over the causes of the war (Capitalism gives birth to Fascism redux). I can't agree with it, personally. Flawed peace after WW1? Yep. Imperial hangover? Open to offers. Age of Dictators? Warmer. Economic stranglehold? Nope.