BruceVC

That's not great news and who really cares about games for phones ? Oh well the last Hitman wasn't that well received so I suppose this was inevitable

Walsie I just believe that human beings would rather do the right thing in life than the wrong thing, I believe in the inherent good of people. And even though this may make no sense in the political bedlam of places like the Middle East I still think people would rather live in a prosperous and stable country than a country wracked by violence. Its up to the leaders of those countries to make the correct decisions to uplift there citizens to the standards of Western countries, yes it will be hard but its not insurmountable

That's cute

Wow I find myself actually agreeing 100 % with you Malc, that is a weird but refreshing change. Now we just need you to become more concerned with social justice issues and we can become BFF

Is this your sister?

You make some good points, but we need to ask why Iran wanted ideological domination of the Middle East? They believed that the West was there enemy and they followed a fairly belligerent course under Ahmadinejad. But Rouhani seems much more of a moderate and appears to want to reconcile with the West and end the sanctions that have had serious economic consequences for Iran. Iran will have to make political changes to how they operate in the region if they want to get back on the right economic track and that would mean the ending of funding of extremist groups and they need to stop making public comments like " Israel doesn't have the right to exist" I'm optimistically hopeful they will make the right decisions and this will be good for the whole region

I think you are underestimating the influence of ISIS and there impact on the security of Iraq. The two are inextricably linked. For the first time, the last few months, the Al-Qaeda associated Sunni groups in Iraq and Syria now have formed a coalition under the name ISIS. Not all Sunni groups in Iraq are associated with ISIS but they are danger and threat to both countries. Fighters from both countries cross the borders and help in the various conflicts in Syria and Iraq. This has been building the last 6 months or so. They are more of a united threat than ever before as the various fractured extremist groups are now united. This is a problem the West really shouldn't ignore and I know this is causing concern

Interesting points and you have inadvertently raised a possible solution. If the USA continues with the peace talks in Iran then Iran will eventually reduce there funding of Shia extremist groups and there objective of hegemony in the region. This should lead to Sunni dominated countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE reducing there sponsorship of there own extremist groups. So you quite possibly could have a cessation of violence without the big backers? And I know you guys are joking but Drones wouldn't help the situation

Yes what you are saying does make sense and the solution is complicated. The Americans had to eventually pull out of Iraq and when they left there was a security vacuum. We know that sectarian violence continued in Iraq and has been exacerbated in the last 12 months. Add to that the Syrian conflict and the increased number of Islamic fundamentalists and you have the rise if ISIS in both countries An understandable response may be something like " leave then to resolve there own issues" but we know from history that doesn't end well as Al-Qaeda is then able to create an area where they can operate and proliferate from. So the question is really what can the West, under the circumstances, do about this group? I would think the civil war in Syria needs to be ended as that would weaken the ISIS powerbase but we know that this easier said than done. So we need to watch this spot for developments

ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and is basically the Al-Qaeda linked groups that are currently perpetuating terrorism and destabilizing Iraq and they control most of the strongest groups opposed to Assad in Syria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq This concerns me as we are seeing them grow very powerful in both Iraq and Syria where they can operate with impunity. They have been responsible for some of the most violent insurgencies in both countries. The USA has already said they won't be sending anymore troops to Iraq and we all know the situation in Syria where a lack of response from UN security council, due to the Russian and Chinese veto, has lead to a protracted and destructive civil war So yet again this is the result of allowing the civil war in Syria to continue. You get a group like ISIS able to train and gather recruits to implement its own interpretation of radical Islam, I watched a documentary on ISIS on CNN and it was scary to say the least, it reminded me of Afghanistan under the Taliban and the anachronistic laws they implemented. ISIS seems to threaten the security and stabilization of the whole region

I'm tempted to say that if you want horror then try playing Oblivion. I find it amazingly horrifying that so many people liked that game. " try playing Oblivion" funny comment I have also heard a few bad views around the latest Amnesia but I suppose I need to see for myself

The poster offers mixed advice, some of it is fine (be polite, respectful, and avoid antagonizing the police), which is useful in life in general, and some of it gives the impression of being designed to be obnoxious to the police officer. It may be an artefact of U.S. popular culture, though, with its anti-governmental vibe. I can only report positive encounters with police officers, though they were generally limited in scope, since I play my life safe (especially when I drive). I have had many encounters with police and almost all time I am respectful and calm when dealing with them. I live in a country of relatively high levels of violent crime and the police are under immense pressure. The last thing you want to do is antagonize them or get cheeky, as mentioned before most of the time they are just trying to do a difficult job.

I haven't played Stanley yet but I intend to so I wouldn't spend time on this thread in case someone let something slip around the story

Nice one for rubbing it in that you can play the ONLY game that I ever really wanted to play on PC that isn't going to get released on PC I just finished Dead Space 3 and I enjoyed it, it followed the same formulae as the previous ones but they improved it through some changes like crafting and the optional side quests. I'm not sure why it did so badly from a sales perspective, I give it a solid and entertaining 65/100 I'm going to play Amnesia : A Machine for Pigs now, I feel like a bit of horror and then I'll move onto Skyrim

That's a good list. I like the forthcoming RPG

Tonight I'm heading to a friends place for Lamb on a Spit to see the NY in. I have bought a good bottle of vodka but I'm getting huge pressure on me to go to various NY parties which I need to resist as I actually want to wake up this NY and not get home in the afternoon But more importantly HAPPY NY EVERYONE

Well done for setting some positive and realistic goals

You must search all the rooms carefully, furniture is not what it appears to be Scan every pixel with your cursor, no "hold tab to highlight all interactive objects" here. Probably not a good idea to play at a resolution greater than 640x480. Playing at 1366x768 here These mods make the game look prettier than any Triple A Game I've played. As for the quests...I think I need to pay the curiosity shop a visit. Yeah I used the exact same mods, there was one bug in the art gallery where the game keeps crashing but there is a fix for it in the GOG forums

You made meat pampushkii? I had to look up what that is*, but yes, essentially. It was surprisingly good too, it was just a moment of "hrm, I have a bunch of leftover cheddar and nothing to do with it..." Gonna try the potato variant sometime. Thanks. *To be fair, I have to look up what most things in this thread are because one thing that still has a language barrier for me is the names of foods and ways to cook them. I had to look up what a freaking bell pepper was because we just call them the same as the spice you make out of them - "I've got a bunch of paprikas!" That's one of the advantages of a forum like this, we learn things regularly. I often look up certain phrases and words that people use, its a real global community

This is my first post on this thread, I'm a little nervous so please don't me too critical One of Xmas presents was a 10 year bottle of Cognac that I plan to relish later. Now in South Africa we drink Brandy and Coke-cola, Brandy is basically a cheaper version of Cognac and is often abused by South African drinkers and that brings me to a story. We use to go skiing every year in Austria and the one night my dad said to me " lets go for a drink in the hotel pub". My dad loves his beers so I joined him. To be honest I'm more of a binge drinker and drink for effect rather than taste but anyway I digress from my story. So we went to this quaint bar and I asked the waiter for a "Brandy and coke". The hotel bar didn't stock Brandy and after some explanation the waiter thought I meant Cognac so he brought me this expensive Cognac in a goblet with a coke-cola separate. As any experienced drinker knows you slip Cognac and you don't mix it. I took the 2 drinks from the waiter and promptly poured the coke into the Cognac to the waiters utter dismay and horror..."how could I destroy this fine Cognac". I didn't realize what I was doing as I assumed it was Brandy. But my dad was watching the waiters face the whole time and never told me. That night I ordered 4 Cognac\Brandys and mixed coke-cola with them all My dad only told me what I did much later Yes I'm clearly not a very mature drinker

well 5 minutes is still something to be proud of

That does sound tasty

Pfft, it's going to be 2014. Shouldn't you be going at least 1440p? Don't quit smoking, that's dumb, smoke slowly instead. that's funny

You must search all the rooms carefully, furniture is not what it appears to be

I had Coq au Vin last night which is basically a chicken stew simmered in red wine. I am a big fan of these types of stews, you throw all the ingredients in a pot and let it all cook for a few hours. Nothing could be simpler and it tastes great as the various ingredients infuse all there flavors together