Raithe

Playing around a bit on Saints Row 2 - it's a touch more flippant then GTAIV... which I think makes it more appealing. What's kind of interesting is that in the midst of the humerously absurd, there'll be some standout moment of emotion. And to contrast that a few moments of totally nasty behaviour, whether on the part of a "bad guy" or the part of your character that will induce a total lack of sympathy... Going from the absurd of stealing waste from the Nuclear Power plant to mix in the tattoo ink a rival gang leader uses... to the attempted rescue of one of your "guys" who was being dragged on a chain from the back of a truck (which actually makes the bonds of connection between characters seem greater then any moment before that)... To the kidnapping of the manipulative gf of that rival gang boss and stowing her in the trunk of her car at the end of the monster truck jump her bf is doing.. (yes, making the bf realise just after that he crushed that car under his truck to the crowds applause..). It kind of bounces between the usual open-sandbox diversions, some amusing background notes and the occasional "yeesh, that's a sick bastard" reaction to scripted plot points..

Hm, yes.. I'd say communist russia really managed that.. How many homosexuals ended up in the gulags? Communisms wonderfully "united population" where the common man had meager possessions while the Commisar's had villas... Yes it destroyed the class systems that were present before hand.. it then created new ones in the form of "party faithful" and "everyone else who does all the work". I visited Russia back around '91/92 when it was starting to run into Glasnost.. And there was a strange mix of humour in how even the common traffic cop would happily sell pieces of his uniform to tourists for a few dollars because that would provide a few luxuries... As to the death tolls during WW2, do you have records that divide those into german soldiers killed by the russians, and those killed by the russian winter which they didn't have equipment to survive in? After all, I'd hate to see mother nature slighted.....

Hm, isn't that basic disease vs civilization areas, rather then just specific diseases in that environment? Any urban centers with large populations and poor/low standard sanitation is going to have greater troubles with the spread of disease... Part of the economic troubles are the large incidents of endemic graft in the majority of the government/civil systems. Heh, some of my family have worked for some of the big charity organisations that do a lot of work out in Africa and the internal reports about how much (or rather, what low percentage of) money/medicine/food/"whatever needed product" actually makes it to the intended places once it's docked is freaking hilarious or massively depressing (depending on your perspective on human nature).

Dangnabbit. I already picked up Ghost Master, Sid Meier's Pirates, Space Empires V, Port Royale 2, and Star Wolves earlier this week... They might be ridiculously cheap, but it does all add up. Heh, besides, I've got too many games installed at the moment. I need to go through and start uninstalling... I've got Civ IV + Warlords & Beyond the Sword, Vampire:Bloodlines, NWN2, Deus Ex, Fallout 3 + all DLC, DragonAge, Tropico 3, Baldur's Gate (tutu version), Alpha Centauri, Alpha Protocol, Kotor 1 & 2, ME2 and Batman Arkham Asylum...... Hell, I just spend about 10 minutes removing GTA IV, Prototype, and a couple of others from the machine.... It's kind of amazing how they build up over time.... then when you get an hour free you just slip on whatever the mood catches... (then if you're not careful the hour free actually turns out to eat away a chunk of the night....)

Damn it. Now I'm tempted to pick up Max Payne cheap from Steam just for the pulpy noir goodness.

Albatross- 20 Conrad Marburg- 12 Henry Leland- 20 Konstantin Brayko- 18 (-1) - But he was wearing that jacket, and that showed a serious amount of poor style. Omen Deng- 24 SIE- 22 - Ride of the Frikkin Valkyries. Nothing more needs to be mentioned. Scarlet Lake- 26 Sis- 26 Steven Heck- 21

I believe the Matrix coined "bullet time" which was inspired by the hong kong action genre, specifically John Woo's slow motion shots.... but then Max Payne was the first game to implement it...

I've got to say.. while I'm not a huuuge fan of Steam.. it is good for picking up a few odd games going very cheap when you just want to kill a few hours.. I mean, Ghost Master for 57pence was quite a good deal.. A few hours of amusing spectral strategy scaring people..

Picked up the omnibus Belisarius I - the first two books in the series.. now it's going to make me shell out for the next two omnibus to round out the whole collection for my personal library...

Then there's always the point where it reaches a "Am I someone on drugs who thinks they're a character in a computer game.. or am I just a character in a computer game who thinks they're on drugs" sequence...

Giving Space Empires V a whirl... Pretty much the standard, enjoyable space colonise, research, explore, and design ships..

"Mad dogs and Englishmen...." It's not unseasonably hot, but it's a touch uncomfortable...but then being right on the coast there's a mass of humidity kicking in as well. I like being able to breathe my air. Not having to drink it. Egyptian dry heat wasn't too bad. California was fun (hell, the sun goes behind some clouds, the natives would complain about the cold and rush for sweaters,while I'd be in a tshirt going "umm.. cold? where?") .. It's always kind of funky to see how growing up in specific climates can shift out your temperature tolerance....

As do I with yours. Well, to go with the quote from Armageddon : The Musical.. "What we really need is one of those neat, rotary machine guns like Blaine had in Predator..." Not that you can actually carry one by yourself.. but that's got to be good for zombie-chopping fun...

Sid Meier's Pirates off of Steam... Does provide a little of that "Avast Mateys!" atmosphere... "When I venture forth to seek my prey, I crush my foes in a royal way. The ladies yield and the ships go down, Or is it the other way around?"

"If you

Albatross- 18 Conrad Marburg- 12 (+1) - Any villain who can inspire such depths in gamers to kill.. has to be worth keeping on the list .. Henry Leland- 17 Hong Shi- 7 Konstantin Brayko- 17 (-1) - That jacket man. Just.. that jacket.. Mina Tang- 10 Omen Deng- 21 SIE- 21 Scarlet Lake- 24 Sis- 22 Steven Heck- 21

Because in nearly every film she's in, there is one scene where she isn't in anything?

Monolith was once a top notch FPS company. But since they got aquired by Warner Brothers they only shipped mediocre products. Like FEAR2 and Condemned 2. I tend to think of NOLF, NOLF2, and Tron when I think Monolith.. At least, they're the shiny dvd's that are firmly staying in my collection for years to come.. I still haven't gotten around to getting hold of Fear 2 yet..

To continue with my nostalgia kick.. a few hours on a lazy sunday afternoon with a little Tron 2.0... ahh, monolith productions, they always seemed to hit the spot..

Alan Parker- 4 Albatross- 16 Conrad Marburg- 11 Henry Leland- 12 Hong Shi- 12 Konstantin Brayko- 14 Mina Tang- 8 Omen Deng- 18 Ronald Sung- 7 SIE- 21 Scarlet Lake- 23 (+1) - Her mom was an intelligence agent outed by her own government, she turned into a freelance assassin.. What's not to like? Sis 23 (-1) - She just didn't have any decent lines.. Steven Heck- 20

I'm running it on PC, and I had texture popup issues happen once that was noticable...(during the entrance into the aircraft junkyard).. apart from that single instance... if it happened..it was so brief as to pass my attention... Apart from that.. I think I had a case of disapearing enemies on reload about..three times over the course of 4 playthroughs. Oh, and about half the time when I exited the game and closed it down.. I'd end up with the small popup in windows of "error in closing".. but since that didn't effect gameplay it was basically negligible... So..mostly bug free for me.. at least for anything that interfered with my game play and enjoyment of the game..

Hm, I'm not sure how well DLC would actually work well with the AP storyline.. I mean, there's so much put in the background to cause consequences in later missions and with other characters... Making DLC that would fit into that seems a bit more then the casual DLC "fit in anywhere" approach that Mass Effect and Dragonage can do... Plus the cost effectiveness of all the voice work for it.. That is, if it were extra missions rather then just simple "guns n gadgets".

Heh, I reinstalled Alpha Centuari a couple of months back because I was feeling nostalgic. I suddenly lost a weekend.

The Karate Kid.. Entertaining in it's way. On it's own it's a decent film of the type. Jackie Chan is more..hm, avuncular and outright comforting then Mr Miyagi ever was.. I think I missed the slightly snarky Miyagi attitude. That and that for a film titled "The Karate Kid" there is no Karate whatsoever, it's all Kung Fu. I mean, it makes sense storywise, but eh, they might as well have given it a different name for the reboot since they went with mainland China and Kung Fu.... But if you enjoy the whole.. training montage sequence and classic sports style film of untrained underdog set against bad attitude "elites".. you'll probably like it. Hm, and on the Leonard Nimoy thing.. I'd thought he'd just retired from doing anymore Star Trek, not a complete retire from everything...

It's kind of interesting to note all these post-E3 "reviews" seem to start off with the whole "after the letdown of IW, we weren't really expecting anything overly great now"... then promptly turn into gushing over the demo shown... Although it's nice to see the "that cool bit from the trailer? that was done in game and still looked awesome.." that gets mentioned by a few people.... So maybe the whole "cinematic trailer that has nothing to do with gameplay" isn't so significant with DE3...