Monte Carlo

Meanwhile Amazon thinks the Kindle business model will work for games... using their purchase of Double Helix they are limbering up for a blistering assault on the gaming market. ****'s about to get interesting... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/amazon/10686685/Amazon-to-develop-its-own-computer-games.html

LOL. Proper LOL.

^ Yes, but IMO there's nothing intrinsically wrong with a movie sold on stunts... as long as the stunts are really good.

Rhona is ten times hotter and doesn't have prison ink.

It felt too browser-ish if I can make up a word just like that. And too brash. I can see why some people might like it, and maybe I'd play it on my tablet now and then. But it was just too dumb and cheesy to hold my attention - I saw very little originality in there. FFS my son's Clash of Clans game is more engaging.

Hello Adam, thanks for taking time to answer questions. Can you tell us anything cool about the mega-dungeon? No problems if you can't. Best, MC

I played it for five minutes. Then I had a little cry and un-installed it.

I married one. They make no sense whatsoever. The entire subject is bunk. We occasionally have minor spats over this reality, but they are of little consequence as I know I'm right. I am, naturally, a History graduate, the Discipline of Kings. Edit - I shall add context, as I love pop culture and am given to being a pretentious wanker about movies and books. As a historian I am like a baker. I know about the stuff from which everything is made. How the flour is made. The means whereby it's leavened and baked. The way different cultures make their bread, how they season and eat it (I warned you about the pretentious wankiness). On the other hand, the CS student has done a couple of classes in cupcake frosting. Bad cupcake frosting. They think this arms them with the knowledge they require to be wankily pretentious about pop culture. Bah.

Trying to tease logic from a cultural studies student is, indeed, futile. Enjoying the contradictions inherent in their ramblings, OTOH, is priceless.

i09 is good in parts, but wears it's social justice warrior colours too heavily for me.

Obamapus. Jesus, KP, I just pebble-dashed my monitor with Fanta.

Kirk had more of a twinkle in his eye and more knowing swagger, but of course Pine's Kirk is meant to be younger. Still, I find myself agreeing with Gorgon. I'd like to see the character change over the story arc. At the moment we've two whole movies of stoopid-but-brave Kirk.

Er, I accidentally logged into my son's copy of Terraria and spent two hours... er... tidying up. It really is addictive. The kid is going to kill me when he sees all the stuff I've dug under his precious dungeon...

You have to understand the medium you work in. I can't stand Jane Austen or the Brontes. Charles Dickens makes my eyes bleed. But I've read some of their stuff to (a) see what the fuss was about and (b) learn how they use language, characters and plot. With movies, well I'm more interested in screenplays. That's a mad-crazy discipline. You'd have to study the form and drink it in. So for games developers - yes I'd expect them to have played a shedload of games.

Anything by Michael Bay?

Man, you should have voted in Sarah Palin. It would have been so much fun.

Star Trek - Into Darkness. Disclaimer - I'm not really a Trekkie and can take or leave the franchise. However, I grew up with Star Trek on the TV and have a strangely emotional investment in certain aspects of it. For example, I love the bromance between Spock and Kirk and dig the hokey Scottie / Bones / Checkhov characters. So I like the characters more than the space opera I suppose. Anyhoo, like the other Star Trek movie with Chris 'OMG-is-that-really-his-forehead' Pine, it's a bit too... fast. There's too much happening and it's all crash-bang-wallop. And Benedict Cumberbatch... why the fuss? He plays a copperplate English villain in a Hollywood movie. It's like he's the new Alan Rickman but without the talent. So the movie moves too fast to let us enjoy the great stuff in it. For example, Karl Urban is so ****ing brilliant as Bones, man he could have his own movie. He skates so cleverly in the line between impersonation and... falling off it. It's those little touches that make these movies great but here-comes-another-spaceship-crash. Sigh. Chekhov is great as a bumbling youngster. Uhura is sassy and sexy and just-right. Sulu sort of simmers as a man who knows he can do the job better than his boss. In fact, the only guy not really pulling his weight is Chris Pine. But he's the beefcake, so it ain't his job I suppose. If only these movies were a bit more, well, Star Trek. The start of this piece, a groovy piece of exploration on an alien planet (with a nod to Raiders of the Lost Ark at the start) is a skilful prologue that only teases us with what might be. A slice of not-too-serious, character driven space opera. What's not to love? But noooo we have to have spaceships crashing, buildings collapsing and Benedict-bloody-Cumberbatch as a pantomime villain. Double sigh. 6.5 / 10. There's a great film utterly dying to get out of this franchise, and the dead hand of JJ Abrams. Monte says - the first one with Eric Bana is much, much better.

Happy 40th birthday Kate Beckinsale...

Why, Bio, Why?

^ That is the exception that proves the rule.

Here you go, guys... http://social.bioware.com/forums/

The choral / vocals in DA:O were great.

Act two is my least favourite, but I like the Oasis onwards.

Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough. This is *my* Victory Point.