Monte Carlo

I don't understand anime. I don't like anime. I tend to become slightly suspicious of people who really like anime. Unless they are Japanese.

I used to work with this tool who always came to work with a stinking cold. "I've never had a day off sick," he'd sniff proudly, then cough on me. He was a plague vector. He might not have had a day off sick, but the rest of the office did after he bloody well infected them.

Nah, I aborted when Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark were spat out into my study. I think those were the preceding patches. I think mod support will involve Finland and the Baltic States.

I am gearing up for Movember and am planning something like this...

OK, so this is a co-op Diablo-esque arena game. I've not played LoL or DotA but wonder if this game is (sort of) out of the same mould. I was attracted to it because it's an indie game, Kick-started and seen through on Steam on that Beta not-quite-finished deal (it cost me UK£9.00). Appearance-wise, it looks like a more attractive Torchlight, maybe a tiny bit less cartoony. The graphics are crisp, colourful and appealing. The spiel is that this race of evil badasses kidnap humans and make them fight in gladitorial arenas full of traps and monsters. Yadda yadda. What it really means is that you have an endless set of co-op battle arenas where the four character archetypes can race to achieve the fastest times possible in different challenges. The puzzles and challenges are different from most MOBA / ARPG games, of which this seems to be a mash-up. The four 'classes' (you can equip any in a ready-room before each challenge) are hammer-dude, shield dude, bow-dude and twin daggers ninja dude. All have big skill trees for modal and passive skills. Then you have this little orb that flies around and helps you activate stuff. I know. This game is crazy. Movement is on a sort of complicated WASD system that allows you to combine keys to shuffle, strafe, run, retreat and generally dance around. Monte sausage-fingers is still working this aspect out. In short, I can imagine this being a hell of a lot of fun. Plus, it's co-op which for me is much more fun that getting the snot kicked out of me by kids with nothing better to do than practice video games all day. It's early days for me but I'm enjoying what I've seen so far. The game is developing a lively community and new features seem to be dropping in all the time. If you like frenetic, light-hearted co-op mayhem this might be a good investment.

The Purge http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2184339/ THIS CONTAINS BIG SPOILERS It's 2022 and in a future America (scripted as a Libtard wet-dream of what a Conservative dystopia would look like) 'The New Founding Fathers' allow an annual twelve hour window where all crime is legal. The reasons for this are hinted at, part-political, part extreme-psychological control experiment, but never properly established. For me, this is a big problem but more of that in a bit. If I swirled this movie around like a glass of wine I'd detect notes of The Stepford Wives, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Assault on Precinct Thirteen. We are in a rich Californian suburb, where Ethan Hawke's security systems salesman is celebrating a big eve-of-Purge deal with his not-very-happy-family. Hey, Ethan Hawke starred in the re-make of Assault on Precinct Thirteen, right? Anyhow, Ethan Hawke, now tottering into middle-age is morphing into Kevin Bacon. But that's not important right now. His wife is the lovely Lena Heady, who plays the part with aplomb. Her character is a brittle facsimile of the perfect suburban wife and mother. I could critique this, but seeing as (a) I have the hots for Lena Heady and (b) I'm not a pro movie critic, I shan't bother. There are also two bratty kids, one of whom is a central casting sexy minx, the other a nerdy kid with a remote control tank that you know is going to become Very Important Later On. The family locks down for the night in their fortified mansion and waits for The Purge to end. A sequence of events leads to a shooting in the house, an escaped homeless man getting in and a hilarious gang of psycho-Yuppies besieging the house. They all wear Ralph Lauren and are meant, I think, to represent the inherent savagery of The Man. I've seen university Marxist agit-prop more subtly done. The homeless dude is African-American, which again gives you an idea of how obviously sign-posted the script must have been. BEAUTIFUL YUPPIES HUNT BLACK HOMELESS GUY. Wow, American racial and cultural politics are dull. Anyhoo, this takes us to the most successful part of the piece, a genuinely nail-biting game of heavily-armed cat and mouse around the no-longer-fortified mansion. Many yuppies die, which makes me punch the air with happiness. Kevin Bacon Ethan Hawke runs around in a die-hard vest with a shotgun. Big knives are deployed. Lena Headey goes guns-akimbo with a couple of chromed SiGs. Then there's a bizarre ending with the Stepford-neighbours, who are sort of Republican Scientologists. This takes me back to the biggest single problem with the movie - not the clumsy politics (which are forgiveable as the piece is genuinely entertaining), but the set-up. My suspension of disbelief was significant: The Purge wasn't properly framed. The tech level didn't suggest ten years hence. There was no hint as to why rich folks weren't living in gated communities. Hawke's character, a security professional, had no panic room and nary a kevlar vest to be seen. These things matter and could have been easily explained away. I agree by and large with the IMDB review score. I'd give it 3 out of 5 and suggest it's a good Friday night horror movie with dystopian elements. It could have been much better. Edit: The other near-future dystopian movie I really should mention is the original 1970's Rollerball with James Caan. The notion that channelled aggression can be used as a form of social control is a central theme of that movie. Except that the politics weren't as heavy handed. Rollerball was made in the post-Nixon era, so I guess I dig the sinister undertones. But this movie was made under Obama. Obama, right? I thought America was, like, really happy now.

Hey, I think LoLS should do a review of the new Conan movie. Which, despite the predictable hate from the Grognards, was pretty darn good and captured the pulp roots of the original books.

Bad haircut.

I just opened Steam and this patch the size of Norway initiated. Is the game actually finished yet?

Hey, thanks for that awesome review Lord of Lost socks. Please do another if you can find the time, that was a fun read.

Jesus, do you have a unicorn in your garden that craps rainbows, too?

I like a bit of co-op hack and slash nonsense... Is anybody up for trying this ? http://store.steampowered.com/app/249990

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-16-fan-harassed-writer-jennifer-hepler-leaves-bioware I don't know if this came up before... but I just stumbled across it. Nobody should put up with the type of abuse Jennifer Hepler describes. But that doesn't stop her being wrong, or Bio making crap games.

Well I could be wrong and you could think you're just posting a normal, harmless 'opinion'. Possibly I'm misinterpreting it as a spiteful expression of entitlement. In that case I would need to apologize. But you followed that up by the obviously trollish 'Fanboi Polizei', so I don't think I'm mistaken. Welcome to my ignore list. Wow. Someone on the internet doesn't like me. Come back when your balls have dropped.

I love the idea that voicing an opinion is 'trolling.' The Fanboi Polizei are out in force.

As if to prove the point... no one from Obz has commented in this thread.

Like I said, a rolling blog would be easy to do. I detect the dead hand of control freakery.

^ Yeah fair enough. My main gripe is what's (not) occurring on this site.

OK 'Tep... You may well be right, but it's ass-backwards. Backers are treated like anybody else because there are folks who aren't backers. Huh? This should be the primary forum for... everything. On Facebook, for example, PE is just... tumbleweed. If the corollary of this is a site / content / forum for Backers, where the hell is it? I remain baffled by the strategy. Except there isn't one.

Yes, that's really weird. Probably the weirdest thing in this whole situation. Sawyer makes so many "updates" via Formspring and he's active in quite a few forums, but not his own? (or at least the codex, for that matter?) Yes, Ropekid likes chewing the fat with lots of people. Mainly the ones not on this forum.

I think community engagement and feedback is one of those things developers love the sound of in theory but find irksome when they actually do it. Like going on a diet. At the moment we are meant to be grateful for crumbs. It's got to the point where this feels like the standard dialogue between fans and any other publisher-led title. I didn't know what to expect TBH, when we first had the KS. But I'm underwhelmed at the moment.

I'm not even remotely angry. My post wasn't angry. I'm merely pointing out that I'm disappointed the way the community engagement is heading on this project one year on. I've more pressing matters to get angry about.

^ I suggest you re-read my post then return with a less.... feverish response. This is the first time I have ever commented on the issue. As for NDAs.... what NDAs?

Work in Progress. First Art Update for example. Ah thanks. I get it now. Fan hysteria about stuff like that is part of the game. It's like a swimmer complaining about getting wet.

WIPs?