Monte Carlo

Hmmm, asking around at work, my suspicion that it was a Nero Essentials issue increased (every time I said 'Nero Essentials' our resident technical person shook his head and made gloomy noises). So I used the Nero removal tool to delete it from my system, re-booted and my DVD drive mysteriously and happily started working again. Not a SecUROM issue, although I'm sure it's as problematic as you describe. Cheers MC

I'd tried to uninstall Nero essentials today, and I couldn't. I think it might be linked. How can I get a diagnostic and how do I repair the problem? Cheers MC

I tried to boot up MTW2 Kingdoms when I got a SecuROM message pop up saying that it couldn't detect a DC/DVD-ROM drive. Sure enough, it's disappeared. No icon in 'My Computer.' I'd previously de-fragged my 'puter, a few hours earlier. I'm running Vista (I know), any ideas? Edit: In device manager I'm getting this message: Check for solutions didn't work. Who'da thunk it? Cheers MC

^ Upgrade to Kingdoms then download the Grand Campaign mod, that ports all the improvements into the vanilla game. It's excellent. Cheers MC

Some good 70's actioners: The Gauntlet & The Eiger Sanction (Clint Eastwood) The Warriors ("Warriors.....come out to pla-aaay!!!") Assault on Precinct 13 (actually, Ethan Hawke's remake wasn't too bad) Death Wish (Charles Bronson) --- The 80's though, is the decade of action movies (there are dozens, not all good, lots of pulp but a smorgasbord of fun) --- The late 60's had good action thrillers, my all time favourite being the uber-cool Lee Marvin in Point Blank. Cheers MC

As for The Eagle Has Landed... Donald Pleasance as Himmler is suitably sinister. Rutger Hauer gets his first screen role as one of the Nazis who drags Col. Radl off for execution at the end. The Rangers sub-plot is great in the book and one of the better parts of the film. I don't know if Higgins was influenced by Went the Day Well (1942) but it's on similar lines. Cheers MC

It is indeed Play Dirty. Didn't realise it was 1969, kudos to you. Cheers MC

^ I am obscure action movie geek. I'm not proud of it, but it is something I have to deal with. Can you name the early 1970's Dirty Dozen rip-off starring Michael Caine set in North Africa in WW2? As for The Eagle Has Landed - the first novel I ever read (aged 8 or 9) and I love it to bits. Have read it probably twenty times. The movie is OK and I'd love to see a remake. Cheers MC

The Guns of Navarone was probably the first WW2 action movie. Given that it was made in the mid-60's the war was still recent enough to be treated reverently by movie makers, if we take away propaganda pieces made between 1939-45. Then, all of a sudden, Hollywood decided that WW2 was a perfectly acceptable vehicle for action movies (the mid-late 60's gave us The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Battle of the Bulge, Where Eagles Dare, Tobruk, The Longest Day...). The 1970's gave us allegories (C'mon, Kelly's Heroes is clearly about Vietnam) and overblown (but enjoyable) epics like A Bridge Too Far. The thriller genre was a bit too tied up with the Cold War IMO, but still there are gems in there if you look hard enough (for example The Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood and the Dirty Harry movies). OTOH, the 1980's action movie can be enjoyed for what it is, i.e. pulp. Commando is a well-executed confection of cliche that is eminently watchable. Whilst Hollywood was agonizing over Vietnam, Arnie was making Red Heat and The Running Man! Keanu Reeves made Point Break and Speed (OK, early 90's) that are still great popcorn movies that trace their lineage to 80's pulp actioners. OK, there's more than enough dross to be getting on with, but in the same way Tarantino heavily references 70's pulp in his work, I'm hoping that Stallone will see the opportunity to do likewise. It's fashionable to mock the man, but there's clearly more to him than meets the eye. The last Rambo was actually very good from both a narrative and technical perspective. The man enjoys fine art and paints. He opened a bizarre series of burger restaurants with Arnie and Bruce. He married Brigette Nielsen. He's more than the sum of parts... go Sly, go!* Cheers MC *I can't forgive him the re-make of Get Carter, though.

Hurl, you must have seen Mickey in the awesome video for Enrique Inglesias' Hero? Where Mickey swats Julio like a fly? At that moment Mr. Rouke sealed the deal, honestly he will become a paragon of awesomeness in The Expendables where he plays a sinister arms dealer. Mickey was born to play a sinister arms dealer in an over-the-top homage to action movies populated by the steroid-addled heroes of yesteryear. This is so awesome I think that the premiere will result in the appearance of the Higgs Boson. It's that awesome. Even as I write I feel sheer hunger for this movie, and am planning the day I go to see it. Cheers MC

Guys, you're missing the point. This is a celebration of a genre that ranges from the sublime all the way to the so-bad-it's-good. Ronin sits comfortably with Red Scorpion on this thread. Cheers MC

^ Some interesting points... and I agree about Mann. Look at The Kingdom. Quite average, rescued by a superb, nail-biting action sequence at the end of the movie. Miami Vice? Execrable. Absolutely rotten. Great gunfight at the end. And so on. Forgot Way of The Gun. Extremely good shoot-outs, love the empty fountain full of glass sequence. I think you are still too cerebral to fully dig this thread, though. Retreat to your den with a couple of dozen straight-to-video action movies, anything with Dolph Lundgren is good, and drink heavily. Only stop to eat pizza. After a while, you will be One of Us. Cheers MC

Hello. I grew up on a diet of action movies, mainly set during WW2. My childhood revolved around Clint Eastwood's Lt. Schaeffer silently hosing down a gazillion Nazis with an MP40, Gregory Peck garroting SS men on Greek Mountains and Donald Sutherland driving the Sherman tank armed with paint rounds. A bit later, it was The Wild Geese or A Bridge Too Far and as we hit the 1980's I naturally loved brain-dead action movies (of which Arnie was clearly the Meister, culminating in Jesse Ventura's hopelessly camp but cool mini-gun wielding merc in Predator). Nothing, apart from perhaps jello-wrestling with Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johannsen, makes me happier than beer, pizza and a night in with action movie DVDs (last marathon involved The Dirty Dozen, followed by Ronin (naturally, Ronin aspires to higher-quality Euro-thriller status but is actually also a brain dead actioner. Not that there's anything at all wrong with that, of course). So, I actually fainted when I read about The Expendables.... check it out. Jason Statham is a worthy addition to the Hollywood action hero hall of fame, and of course he's British too so it's nice to see one of our own up there with the big boys. Naturally, I'm looking forward to Inglourious Basterds and adore Tarantino, but this is the film he should be making. And it's not released until 2010, filming starting in March. Please join me in this thread to share your love of the braindead action movie genre. Please post suggestions as to how this film could be even better. For example, love interests / cars / firearms and one-liners. Cheers MC

And now, JA2 The Movie - I give you, The Expendables...

Fair point, and I really liked Silent Storm. Unfortunately, I loved the corny 1980's action movie setting even more. OK, I love everything about JA2, it's as near perfect as a PC game can get in my humble. I'm amazed nobody has made an updated console version, because (whisper it), JA2 could work perfectly well as a console title. Hey, I played XCOM on the original Playstation with a PS mouse, after all. Cheers MC

I'm wondering if there's a Dante's Inferno graphic novel out there. Because that could be cool.

There's two ways of looking at it - 1 (Optimism) Hey, pop culture references classics - mebbe The Kids will dig it and read the original. Huzzah! 2 (Realism) The Kids will think that Dante was a cyborg-commando-assassin I suppose it's like hoping that too much GTA will make kids want to read Crime & Punishment. Problem is, video games don't make kids want to read. My generation came to computer games as a secondary diversion from reading (after all, there was only so much pong you could play before your eyes bled, and arcade games like Galaxians were just too expensive) whereas too many of today's kids are exposed to computer games in lieu of books in the first place. Oh well. I like the game Maria started - howabout The Canterbury Tales using the Assassin's Creed engine? Jeff 'Iceman' Chaucer is a katana-wielding 12th century assassin, slaying an assortment of medieval archetypes. Cheers MC

Furthermore, it's clearly time for a Hemingway version of computer Scrabble where you win bonus points for very. Pithy. Sentences. Naturally, it would be turn-based with extra points for words evocative of booze-laden, self-imposed exile in hot places and (naturally) bull-fighting. I'd also chance my arm on marketing a Court of the Sun King game, using the FIFA 2009 Soccer Manager engine. Use your points to skilfully choose the cream of the French aristocracy and play off against rival families in a game of sarcasm, nepotism and brioche. Careful though... Too many Musketeers does not a revolution postpone! The Dangerous Liaisons expansion pack, however, pixellates Uma Thurman's butt to satisfy the Moral Majority. Cheers MC

From that review, I can see me tabbing my way through the 'cinematic dialogue cut-scenes' with a righteous fury. Like the writer (correctly) identified - the gameplay is the guts of the thing - the camera, party control, urge to loot, look at tactical options... play the thing goddamit. Not watch fakespeare-laden cutscenes. At least on the important stuff, DA continues to show promise. The toolset and the promise of future content still makes me keep the faith as I have hopes for a fairly crunchy mod community gathering around the game. Cheers MC

Many thanks for providing us with Forum Quote of the Week

*spews tea at the monitor* I suppose you all think mocking the illiterate person is funny?

@ Maria: Thanks, that all makes sense. Like I say, as the gaming market changes I suspect this type of content will happen. I imagine it would work better in some genres rather than others. As for Hell kitty's point about immense popularity of Bioware's romances, I'll admit to being totally baffled about the appeal. I just am, I find them risible and unappealing. As long as they are (a) optional and (b) not detracting significant resources from crunchy content then I can co-exist with them. I'm at the point in my life where I know what I like and will lobby for it given the chance. Am certainly no social conservative, but I find a lot of sexual content and themes in popular culture dull. I appreciate that this issue is different from one of relationships - for example I'm sure there's room for a meaningful, platonic relationship in a CRPG too. As it is, the issue is just too off the radar for me personally. Cheers MC

Are people, honestly, asking for a romance simulator CRPG? In real-life, most people have romances. However, very few people in real-life cast spells, command vast armies, fight dragons, storm the beaches of Normandy, become axe-wielding barbarians, run crime syndicates, fly spacecraft... Do you get my drift? For me, this is not a million miles away from asking "why can't you enjoy a four course meal in a CRPG?" or "Why can't my character have a scented bath with candles while reading a book?" in a CRPG. It's stuff you can do in your home prior to starting your 'puter. I'm not being sexist, but I'd like to ask the female gamers if their expectations of thematic content are radically different from the guys? Am genuinely interested. Maybe in time, as gaming becomes even more mainstream than it already is, games that concentrate on relationships will find a niche but credible market. As it is, I don't think the core demographic is ready for what is being mooted here. To reiterate - I want to build empires, fight battles, create powerful characters and have fun. Romance doesn't figure. I am almost certainly in the majority. Cheers MC

:: sigh ::

Let's face it, it is largely American. There's nothing especially pejorative about that because the SEX = BAD / VIOLENCE = OK thing is a Western phenomenon. And where are the vast majority of games and movies made? America. Duh. Having said that, in Europe there isn't the Bible Belt / boycott Walmart thing going on. Well, not yet. Personally, I couldn't care less if I never saw a nipple in a video game, or anything stronger. There's enough sex in just about every other facet of Western popular culture, games are actually a refreshing break from it as far as I'm concerned. Cheers MC