Monte Carlo

The Lord of the Rings Third Age mod for MTW2. I'm finding it tough, even on Medium / Hard. Playing as Rohan I just get hordes of orc armies marching all over me. Having said that, as a mod, it's an impressive achievement. Art assets, music etc are excellent. They capture the cinematic LotR battle vibe (the first time you charge your Riders of Rohan heavy cav into five hundred Uruk Hai is pretty special). It's just that it's obviously designed for the hardcore, grind-house TW crowd, of which I am at best a fair-weather member. Cheers MC

Volourn. He is the twisted sports title master, in addition to his CRPG mentat duties. He buys hockey games in multiples of fifty, honestly it dwarfs his Bio loyalty

^ Domino Champion '09 Gin Rummy Master Skittles Manager Elite Darts 'n' Snooker Legends ---

The thing is, nobody wins. CRPG fan sees fairly crude action title marketing... might not buy title. Action / console fan sees beardie-dwarf'n'elf tastic CRPG... might not buy title. Action / console fan has more to lose, because I suspect as others have said there is a reasonably old-skool game lurking in there somewhere *fingers crossed* EA marketing department seems confused about this strange game it has inherited from Canadian fantasy craftsmen. Therefore the orders from the high command for gore, rock muzak and chainmail bikinis* They are trying to sell a muscle truck to folks who want a volvo, and vice versa. Ha ha ha. * There's nothing worng, BTW, with games featuring these things if that's actually what they are.

What were the respective unit sales of BG2 (+ToB) compared to NWN (+ expansions) and Mass Effect? I accept that in, in the context of this discussion, BG2 has iconic importance that might transcend the profitability of the title. OTOH Show Me The Money. Cheers MC

Not personally, I'd like to see something completely new. Magic Eight-Ball tells me, however, that Obsidian will inevitably end up making Dragon Age 2, whereupon they will fix all the dialogue, engine problems and art assets and make it the game the original was meant to be Cheers MC Nonsense. Why would EA outsource Dragon Age 2 to Obsidian. If everything goes well, Obsidian is gonna work on their own fantasy property. Perhaps they continue on that "Seven Dwarfes" game as we speak. Er, it was a joke.

Not personally, I'd like to see something completely new. Magic Eight-Ball tells me, however, that Obsidian will inevitably end up making Dragon Age 2, whereupon they will fix all the dialogue, engine problems and art assets and make it the game the original was meant to be Cheers MC

You can't soar to the skies if you've got the hundred tonne ball of dreck that is 4E chained to your ankle.

The original, pre Bioware, Nevewinter Nights was.... a very early MMO. You could just as easily argue that it's going back to it's roots.

Wow, whoever designed that was drinking absinthe or something... the touching tale of a boy and his feathered-wolf-monster buddy. Who teaches him Barrel-based combat techniques. At the end of the day, it's always back to barrels. They are the comfort prop of the video game designer. Cheers MC

Official thread? I've been busy, sorry I didn't spot that. Nonetheless, there is clearly room for another thread so seasoned Bio watchers can observe the mores of the video gaming industry from afar. And, for the record, I'm not a troll. There's just something about this project that bemuses me more than usual. Cheers MC

Check out the new DA website. It's an epic tale of (and I quote) Violence! LUST! Betrayal! The site is covered in blood, as per the "This is the New Sh*t" trailer, has clear, easy-to-read text for console fans and, if I didn't mention it before, IS COVERED IN BLOOD. It's like Carrie meets Kill Bill meets a documentary about abbatoirs. The LotR imagery has been usurped by quasi-300 style uber-violence. And this is now, unambiguously, an EA joint. It's like a marketing dude in ironic glasses and vintage sneakers turned up in Edmonton and kicked the snot out of the bearded Canadian RPG-lovers. BLOOD! raged Marketing Dude. BLOOD! THERE'S A RECESSION OUT THERE! SHIFT UNITS. OMG BLOOD! And.... LUST. GIMME LUST! "Yes master," whimpered the Biowarians, scurrying around and pixellating more gore and cleavage. Can anybody else wait for October 20th, a free Level-Up Fast Ring +5 and DaRk hEROic FanTAsy? Cheers MC

We should be represented by our head of state, to wit Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Brown is merely first among equals in the House of Commons (albeit that the only people who have ever voted for him are the people of his Scottish constituency, making his mandate even more negligible). He is not, nor is any Prime Minister, our head of state. Tony Blair wanted to be, and behaved like, a president but even he showed due respect for the Monarch. Unlike Brown, who is a disgrace. Cheers MC

^ Yes, Mister Blumenthal, you are mad.

I struggle with vegetarian food, but try this one. Monte's Vegetarian Mediterranean Meze Concept - a little bit of everything and extremely easy to make, the veggies I know love this. Serve a large platter of the following - Home made houmous (there are a million houmous recipes, you could literally start a war arguing about it but this is mine) Add chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, freshly ground black pepper, garlic and paprika into a blender and blast it until it is just slighty lumpy. Serve with some chopped parsley on top with some grilled pitta bread. Pan-fried Halloumi Slice some halloumi cheese into one inch thick strips and sear in a frying pan with a very small amount of olive oil and lemon juice. Cook until brown and crispy at the edges on both sides. Serve garnished with lemon wedges. Salad Finely dice tomatoes, red onion and cucumber and make a salad, dressing it with olive oil (this is really good with chilli oil, actually, the heat plays of nicely against the cold veggies). Home-made dip that isn't tsatsiki but almost Take some low-fat natural or Greek yoghurt, a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and some finely diced cucumber left over from the salad. Mix and use as a dip with your pitta bread. Miniature Veggie Moussakas Fill some tiny dishes / ramekins with a mixture of fried onions, courgette, tomato puree / stock, mushrooms, garlic and some chilli or paprika. Top with a cheese sauce (buy some, it's only dinner, or use pre-made bechamel with some grated cheese in it) and top with some aubergine slices that you've rinsed and dry-roasted in a hot frying pan. Put it in a hot oven for fifteen minutes and serve. Hot chilli and Celery Cous-Cous Finely slice some celery (peppery) and carrots (sweet) and fry them in olive oil until soft, adding some chilli oil, powder or flakes depending on what's in the larder. Add to some pre-prepared cous-cous and pan fry with this mixture and a knob of butter. Serve in a dish with some finely chopped parsley and lemon. This would all go nicely with some chilled beer or a cold New World white wine. Pudding would be Turkish pastries, pistachio nuts with a very sweet dessert wine and some grapes. Then put on some Barry White and let nature take it's course

Yeah, war is preposterous. I mean, declaring it on Nazi Germany in 1939 was, like, total FAIL! The only reason that War isn't as optimal as it used to be is squeamish media and infantilized Western electorates. Can you imagine CNN on Omaha beachi n1944? The focus groups in Iowa and California would have resulted in the invasion forces hopping back on their landing craft and heading for Portsmouth. Howabout Serbia and the great UN Balkan 'peace-keeping' operations of the 1990's (yeah, the ones where Western troops were ordered to sit back and watch genocide)? A war would have solved that with palpably less casualties and a clear mandate afterwards. War is a constant. It's not very nice, but then again lots of other things aren't either. It should be like any emergency surgery - quick, focussed, proportionate. The Allies defeated the Axis in five years - the US will be in Iraq for twenty five and achieve much less with greater technology. I wonder why? As for all your other arguments - meh. You clearly only answer the points that suit you.

^ Hmmm. Am VERY interested. Is that an easy install?

Christian Bale will be, for me, the guy who appeared in the Dragon Movie (Reign of Fire) with Matthew McConaghey (spelling?) as the butchest skinhead Yankee redneck dragon-killing uber-commando EVAR. He drives around a post-apoc Scotland in a tank. His dudes kill dragons by free-falling on top of them from helicopters. And he dresses like an extra from an old Duran Duran video. It's so awesome my eyeballs literally imploded, Bale could only ponder Matthew's utter brilliant screen presence. I watch it about twice a year and get all sad that McConaghey concentrated his career on light romantic comedy instead of the OTT sci-fi route. Bale, OTOH, continues to have an interesting career but does come across as a bit of an ass. Cheers MC

I should have added an important qualification to my last post - I really am rubbish at FPS games. I mean, dreadful. In the middle of a hectic firefight I'm looking at the keyboard for the strafe button. It's like discovering a passion for choral singing when you're tone deaf. Cheers MC

UPDATE - Crysis is the first game I've ever uninstalled because I was getting too addicted to it. I have discovered, relatively late in life, that I am in fact a FPS crack-fiend. Nooooooo! Also, for some reason I have this almost overwhelming urge to play Doom2. Will check out Farcry, I really like the idea of sniping. For some reason the SCAR rifle in Crysis with scope was a terrible sniping weapon. Cheers MC

^ As far as I'm concerned Chavez is on the same continuum. He's currently at the slightly warm and fuzzy adopt-absolute-power-and-attack-free-media phase of his left-wing authoritarianism. That's sort of phase one. Just watch, there will be secret police vans rocking up in the middle of the night any time soon. He doesn't need nukes, he can just play with the on / off switch on the oil pipelines instead. Funny, when you think about it, that the only genuinely authoritarian states left (Middle Eastern theocracies notwithstanding) are Commie throwbacks like Belarus, Zimbabwe and Venezeula. And the liberal-left fellow travellers and useful idiots in the West can't really bring themselves to admit that their bien pensant views actually support dictators, or those on the early stages of that journey. Cheers MC

Lord of Flies, you can try banal Fisking as much as you like, but you are still issuing an apologia for totalitarianism. Meanwhile, I now eagerly await your robust defence of Kim Jong Il, the much-misunderstood redistributionist of North Korea, currently harrassed by the running lapdogs of Neo-Conservatism.

I'd love to do the speedboat thing in Crysis (why didn't I spot that - it's obvious now you mention it) but, honestly, I'm crap at these twitchy games. All of a sudden I'm thinking of digging Silent Storm out of the loft instead. Cheers MC

I am currently playing Crysis and really getting into it. Problem is that I'm playing with WASD and a Mouse - I'm also rubbish at FPS games and have the twitchy hand / eye coordination of a small boulder. Nonetheless, I'm getting there and enjoying the lovely graphics and sniper rifles and speedboats. I'm also quite smug that my puter can run it very smoothly Any ideas how to take out those darn tanks though? I'm on the mission where you save the CIA chick in the village surrounded by the minefield. Cheers MC