BruceVC

Welcome back GB We missed you, I'm glad you enjoyed the rugby. We are passionate about the game. There is nothing better than watching the rugby and having a braai(barbeque) and a few drinks.

Its unusual but I agree with Volourn on this point, its irrelevant what caused it once he killed the daughter and her fiancé of the guy that failed to get him to keep his job. He lost any sympathy and moral high ground the moment he did this. Its like saying " lets try understand the causes of 9\11 because maybe it makes the attack okay". We know why 9\11 was perpetuated and the reasons don't justify what Al-Qaeda did( this is an example, I am not saying you said this). What do you need to understand about a cowardly murder? His manifesto is clear and there for you to read, so I don't get why you think we need to analyze his reasons anymore than we already do? He was a mentally unbalanced individual who posed a serious threat to society. He needs to be arrested or killed. Its not complicated. And, once again, you only read what's in your head and purport that I wrote something I did not. I never defended his actions, nor did I say those actions were justified in any way. I did say we need to understand why this happens. I did not say he should go free because he's "disturbed". I did not say he should not stand trial and I did not say "he's just misunderstood." What I did say is that we should be a little less gung-ho on the "kill the bad man" and a put more effort into capture, arrest and study of his condition. People don't just go crazy for no reason, there's usually a cause and effect, understanding what takes people from "I'm unhappy and upset with this situation" to "I'm going to kill everyone" is pretty important to society. When we know what causes "going postal" then we can perhaps find some way to prevent it's happening. For someone who claims people only read what they want I hope you realize you do exactly the same thing. I never said you said That you felt his actions were justified That you think he should go free That he shouldn't stand trial Its true, read my post again. My point in summary is why do you feel the need to understand his motives when its clear from his manifesto. He was a deranged person who chose innocent people to vent his frustration on. Personally I am more concerned with the families of the victims that were killed, but you are welcome to look for additional meaning around why he murdered people that had nothing to do with his actual issue, the LAPD. Please let me know what you discover. Okay, it's clear that I'm not being understood. I'm aware of the rationalizations he made for his behavior, that is understood. Why those rationalizations suddenly lack enough moral ballast from his conscious is what we do not. For example, when people get angry and might think, I'd like to kill that bastard for a moment. Then, almost as quickly they realize such an outcome is in huge disproportion to how they feel wronged. A person with an ego disorder might not think that, but instead consider the consequences of law or implications of their personal religious doctrine. How that moral off-switch gets flipped is what we really need to understand. He did not kill people at random, but his desire to hurt someone he felt wronged him was so great that he was willing to kill two people who had no direct involvement to exact that revenge. What made them different than the people in the cabin? Both caused him no direct pain but morals were turned on for two of them and turned off for the other two. Now, in response to your post: You didn't say I defended his actions, Volourn appeared to be saying that. The paragraph was indirect and wasn't meant as a tit-for-tat rebuke to specific things. I meant it in spirit as why what I think should be done is not a "moral highground" or an attempt at the "reduction of moral fiber" in society. I wasn't asking for exoneration, which is what some appear to think I was asking for. Edit: I feel for the families of the victims. But, they are gone and can't be brought back. Understanding criminally deranged behavior can and will help potential victims down the road. People lose their jobs all the time, but a very select few go bonkers, what's different? Is it chemical, biological, caused by some similar emotional trauma? Okay I think I understand your point, yes we have misunderstood each other

Good question, she is working on that documentary so I can't see her at the moment as she is too busy

Thats not my intention, I just respect the advice of many people on these forums Visitng an ex on valentine's? Sounds like a bad idea right there. Breaking routine is always good. That's what routines are there for. Food at Hooter's is 'sposed to be good. Valentine's Day is a silly holliday. This is what I wanted to hear, some insight. Whether I agree or not. Thanks Melk This is a serious scandal, good find. I'll be following this story

Happy Valentines Day All So has anyone got any Romantic plans for there partner, or do you feel that Valentines days has become far too commercialized and its just about the retailers making money. Do share your plans? I am in a bit of quandary. My ex-girlfriend works at Hooters and I really feel like visiting her. But if I go to Hooter after work I won't be able to go to gym, I have been to gym 3 times this week so I suppose its not a crisis. I just don't like breaking my routine. And I go to gym at least 4 times a week. If you were me would you go visit her at Hooters or rather leave it till the weekend? Its Valentines day so I am thinking its okay to break my routine?

Very few things make me laugh as much as seeing someone who is arrogant get knocked down a few notches in a game "Pride comes before a fall" . Then when he'd go down and none of us came running to save him, he'd start screaming into his mic, "nice teamwork, guys. Thanks for just letting me die". I don't think I could have contained my laughter if I had been playing when no one came to help him and he then subsequently complained Those are they types of events that I really find funny. For me I would be laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Him boasting in the beginning and then getting "owned"

Some interesting and scathing information around Aliens: Colonial Marines. Its actually funny when you read some of the bugs and issues. Some of them I listed below and its to do with the AI and the way the marines are suppose to accurately update you “One hostile remaining!” booms a marine as we’re surrounded by six or seven aliens. I’ve a feeling I should probably stop listening to their advice. LOOK UP! LOOK UP!” shrieks O’Neal, just after I’ve killed everything in the room Aliens run toward exploding barrels rather than you, but then, they’re somehow invincible to the explosion if they’re not already stood in it when you fire. Fire first and even though there’s a good two second delay, the bang won’t hurt them at all. They know the safest place is by that exploding barrel, the cunning beasts ( this craked me up ) This writing just gets better and better. “Raiders 6-5 will wait for you, but goddammit don’t make us wait for you.” Someone not only wrote that down, but an actor willingly said it out loud ( also hilarious ) http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/13/who-made-aliens-heres-what-we-sorta-know/#more-142273 http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/12/wot-i-think-aliens-colonial-marines-single-player/

Okay, I do know Jack Black. He is hilarious

Very few things make me laugh as much as seeing someone who is arrogant get knocked down a few notches in a game "Pride comes before a fall"

infidel! I got to be honest I had also never heard of it?

Well Melk don't you think this inevitable, I don't want to sound harsh but how long did you think you could keep using stolen credit cards?

I think he should have stood trial, since it would have shaken the whole thing up. I'm sure those are Luridis same thoughts, though I'm not going to assume on his part. Double post

I think he should have stood trial, since it would have shaken the whole thing up. I'm sure those are Luridis same thoughts, though I'm not going to assume on his part. I am not disagreeing with that view, I did say originally he should be captured or killed. But IMO he should stand trial to face justice, not because society needs understand why he did it. That has already been documented.

Its unusual but I agree with Volourn on this point, its irrelevant what caused it once he killed the daughter and her fiancé of the guy that failed to get him to keep his job. He lost any sympathy and moral high ground the moment he did this. Its like saying " lets try understand the causes of 9\11 because maybe it makes the attack okay". We know why 9\11 was perpetuated and the reasons don't justify what Al-Qaeda did( this is an example, I am not saying you said this). What do you need to understand about a cowardly murder? His manifesto is clear and there for you to read, so I don't get why you think we need to analyze his reasons anymore than we already do? He was a mentally unbalanced individual who posed a serious threat to society. He needs to be arrested or killed. Its not complicated. And, once again, you only read what's in your head and purport that I wrote something I did not. I never defended his actions, nor did I say those actions were justified in any way. I did say we need to understand why this happens. I did not say he should go free because he's "disturbed". I did not say he should not stand trial and I did not say "he's just misunderstood." What I did say is that we should be a little less gung-ho on the "kill the bad man" and a put more effort into capture, arrest and study of his condition. People don't just go crazy for no reason, there's usually a cause and effect, understanding what takes people from "I'm unhappy and upset with this situation" to "I'm going to kill everyone" is pretty important to society. When we know what causes "going postal" then we can perhaps find some way to prevent it's happening. For someone who claims people only read what they want I hope you realize you do exactly the same thing. I never said you said That you felt his actions were justified That you think he should go free That he shouldn't stand trial Its true, read my post again. My point in summary is why do you feel the need to understand his motives when its clear from his manifesto. He was a deranged person who chose innocent people to vent his frustration on. Personally I am more concerned with the families of the victims that were killed, but you are welcome to look for additional meaning around why he murdered people that had nothing to do with his actual issue, the LAPD. Please let me know what you discover.

That’s going too far in the other direction, it deserves low scores (by that I mean around 5/10) and criticism but people are going way overboard. It has genuine problems and it’s not going to last very long, the campaign took me 8 hours at most in co-op (But I plan to replay it today for whatever that’s worth to you). I tried the campaign solo briefly but didn’t get far enough to get a sense of how that feels in comparison to co-op. From what I hear the AI companions (usually there’s just one tagging along but sometimes there are as many as four running around with you and more marines for the big crescendo events) are not a great help and can cause a lot of frustration, especially when you have to expose yourself to weld a door or hack a pannel and they aren’t up to protecting you. The enemy AI isn’t entirely braindead, the aliens will flank you through vents and broken windows and by climbing under catwalks, the ceiling, behind stacked shelves ect. (Though not to mislead you, most encounters will have the swarm going for a direct approach and it’s only the only the odd few at a time that sneak up to cause interference. They’ll also pounce on you and you have to button mash to escape, leaving you vulnerable to everything else around you), and the enemy soldiers will take cover behind things and occasionally throw/fire grenades that can one-shot you. They’re not terrifically intelligent and in both cases it’s numbers not tactics that make them dangerous, but at the hardest setting most enemies have a high damage output and my entire team went down more than a few times. One of the reasons I may have had a better time than people playing single player was that in co-op if you lose all your health you are incapacitated and need to be rescued by a team-mate before a final life-bar runs out. You can still be hurt while incapacitated which makes your life-bar run out faster but if you do die you will just respawn at the next checkpoint. Having co-op partners could have saved me from having to replay sections that I may have been stuck on, possibly sparing me some frustration. There is a very short stealth section (5-10mins tops) without weapons where you have to navigate what is basically a sewer with blind, shuffling suicide bomber aliens that are attracted to sound. They’re the ones in the video Morgoth posted and it’s the only time you see them (which is kind of a shame because they do monstrous damage and would have been quite deadly thrown into a battle with other alien types supporting). It was the only time I was actually bored playing A:CM but it was over so quickly that it’s barely worth mentioning. You spend a lot of time fighting humans as well as aliens which people seem to be really annoyed about, which is fair enough, it’s an aliens game so you want aliens, especially if the game is short (I’m not sure what the ratio is for human/alien encounters but I’d guess around 50:50?). That said, I personally didn’t mind and think it works well enough. It changes up the pace, it allows for three way battles, gives you an excuse to use other weapons, provides opportunities for cinematic moments and it’s just fun to have firefights on Aliens’ backdrops like the Sulaco with enemies also weilding weapons from the aliens movies (Even if you feel it was executed badly here, you can’t tell me that seeing or playing Colonial Marines fighting other armies isn’t a fun concept). The story is passable for an action game but it’s wafer thin and the characters are all shallow marine stereotypes. The returning characters don’t sound like themselves and the story twists as mentioned in reviews are obvious. I should also mention that the co-op campaign tells the story as if it were a single player game and only the host is ever acknowledged, the other players are just there. That’s not a problem in itself but it relates to game design choices that are a little jarring sometimes like how they handle checkpoints, when one person reaches a checkpoint everyone else is teleported there. Any notion given in interviews that A:CM was a worthy story sequel to the film was false advertising frankly, but it wasn’t that bad. But one good thing that may come of it is a decent movie sequel if there actually were meetings with Scott or Cameron about the game and it’s place in the continuity, fingers crossed. Some bugs and gameplay issues; * You can equip two main weapons, a pistol and a grenade/claymore. Unfortunately when you pick up one of the legendry weapons in the campaign it goes to the slot that your equipped weapon was assigned to, the original weapon disappears and as far as I can tell, can’t be re-equipped, at all, even by starting a new game . I found myself with two shotguns for quite a time and lots of long-ranged ranged combat encounters where I was at a disadvantage because enemy soldiers do a lot of damage, especially when a bunch are firing at you making it difficult to close large open gaps and corridors. To add insult to injury you can’t even pick up pulse rifles from dead enemies, I had to wait a couple of chapters until I could pick up Hudson’s three-shot burst pulse rifle and frankly the fully automatic Pulse Rifle you begin with seemed superior to me. It’s also worth noting that you can customise the two original weapons with different sights and attachments (like an under slung shotgun for the pulse rifle instead of a grenade launcher) but the legendary weapons are not tweakable. * It’s not entirely clear how matchmaking works but if you’re assigned to be the host, you can’t start a co-op campaign until four people are in the lobby (and drop-in co-op is not an option for the singleplayer campaign), that can take some time as not many people are playing at the moment, and it can take longer if not be impossible if you want to play a certain chapter. Once four people join, even if someone then leaves the game can start and people can join a game already in progress. If you are another person are in a lobby but the other two slots are empty then you can be waiting forever before being allowed to start the game. I assume that everyone so far who has joined a session in-progress is doing it through their Steam Friends lists because I have always joined co-op sessions from the start of a chapter, but I may be wrong. * You can only mute people in the lobby and I don’t think you can kick people at all. If someone joins a match in progress and starts yelling, swearing and generally being really annoying there’s nothing you can do about it until the chapter/match ends and you are all taken back to the lobby. * The game uses the COD Door System where you frequently (but not all the time) have to wait for an NPC to reach and open a door for you before you can progress. The NPCs can be slow and while I and my group were never waiting long, we did have to wait sometimes. * In sections without the COD Door System you can run past enemies to the checkpoints and they will all disappear as the new set are loaded. This is poor design, I was lucky in that my group all actually wanted to play the game and didn’t take advantage of the exploit but if one person decides to sprint through the campaign it’s going to ruin the session for people. You can customise weapons, alien attacks and appearances with points you earn from playing the campaign and adversarial modes. The COD style weapon mods may sound like pointless fanservice but there are only a few options for each gun and almost all of them make a real tangible difference to the weapon. The pulse rifle for example has an under slung grenade launcher by default, that can be replaced with a shotgun or a incindiary grenade launcher. The magazine can be increased at the cost of a longer reload time and you can choose between a better scope for longshots or a red-dot laser sight which is more accurate that the aiming crosshair (which is also disabled on the harder campaign settings). I’ve mostly been playing campaign so I only have a sketchy view of the alien unlocks they look like they add some significant veriety too. You can choose between quick or heavy strikes, a tail spearing attack or a lower powered 360 degree attack, ect. with the warrior, different acid spit attacks with the ranged class and so on. You can also add traits like being able to move faster or being able to shug off some fatal damage. I’ve found the adversarial multiplayer to be fun, fast but small scale (6 players per team max, depending on the mode and the maps are sized accordingly) , the sides seem pretty balanced at the moment and both teams have a turn at playing marines and aliens in all the modes, but this is before people unlock everything and figure out how to use all the attacks and equipment. There are a number of modes including Team Deathmatch, Extermination - which is where marines basically need to capture as many areas as possible before a timer runs out, Escape- which is like a mini-Left 4 Dead mode, there are a series of checkpoint doors along linear levels that the marines need to reach and are scored based on how far the get. It’s my favourite so far. And Survivor - which is where 4 marines have to surive until a time limit expires, and fallen marines come back as aliens. There are no AI controlled aliensin any of the adversarial modes, it’s always 4v4-6v6. I enjoy the adversarial modes but I think that given how few maps there are for each and how limited it feels in terms of variety, the replayability just isn’t there. And there is already some waiting involved in getting a lobby together for matches so I’m not sure how long it will be possible to play CM online with random people. Personally I enjoy how the alien controls in this game feel, there are visual representations to help you judge acid spits and pounces,transitioning from surface to surface is easier in A:CM than it was in AVP2010 but you aren’t as fast so you have to rely on ambushes more than blitzing around like a muderous roadrunner. I’ve left some things out but I’ve written way too much here already, sorry about that. The reviews make it sound like there is nothing good about the game at all, and that’s just not true, I enjoyed it. But there are so many better FPS and action/horror games out there with a lot more content that it’s not worth buying A:CM at full price, especially when it’s been released within a week of Dead Space 3. Wow Serrano thanks for the excellent and comprehensive review, I don't think a person can ask for information than what you provided. Nice one For me in life there are far too many good games out there so based on yours and others peoples reviews I am going to skip this one.

Well I'm totally jealous, but I'd say you probably deserved it more if you grew up with Apartheid Exactly, for us to see someone like Steve Jackson was very rare because we had no celebrities who ever visited, and it was understandable considering the politics. I was too young to realize what we were denied or really know what apartheid meant but I could still appreciate Steve's visit.

Actually you right, I didn't notice her nose job?

Yeah, classic cover and monster. I think that Deathtrap Dungeon as my favorite book. Later on you get a chance to return to Deathtrap dungeon in "Trial of the Champions" which was also excellent. I also enjoyed " Creature of Havoc " where you awake as a monster and need to defeat Zharradan Marr( its amazing I still remember his name). This book was unique as you need to use a code to understand what people are saying, as initially you can't speak common tongue as you are a monster. I remember how hard it was. Do you guys remember the 4 part book series called Sorcery by Steve Jackson? That was my ultimate gaming book experience at the time , book 3 rocked!! The Seven Serpents was brilliant Pn lzb tr vfnf rdcb nrfbdt hj s! I used to collect the FF series and I have them all, including the Sorcery books - very unique flavor to them and not forgiving at all! I want to tell you guys an interesting story that I'm sure you will appreciate being fans of Fighting Fantasy books I lived and do live in South Africa and during the 1980's due to Apartheid and sanctions it was very difficult to get fantasy books and games. We did use to get the Fighting Fantasy books and they became my first love of the fantasy genre before I became aware of D&D. It was probably 1985 and I read an advert in a local paper that "Steve Jackson was doing a tour of South Africa to promote this range of books". He was going to be at a university just up the road from me and you can imagine my absolute excitement. I was going to meet my idol and my mom agreed to take me. We went to the university and were taken to this huge auditorium that could probably seat about 400 people. But obviously someone had messed up the advertising because it was just me and my mom waiting for Steve to arrive, there was no one else in the room. I'll never forget when he walked into the room and probably expected this cacophonous applause, but instead it was just us waving and smiling profusely. The person who was looking after him quickly surveyed the empty room and said " why don't we go to the coffee room, it will be more personal" So I ended up having 2 hours one on one with Steve Jackson. He was such a nice guys, he was friendly, sincere and very down to earth. He told me his history and at the time he was writing the Sorcery books. He shared with me the maps and told me the Sorcery series was suppose to be 7 books. The next week I went to see him again but this time he was at a prominent bookstore and thankfully there were other fans. I walked up to him to say hello and he smiled at me, chuckled and said " hey its you, my greatest fan". What a nice thing to say to a kid. I'll never forget meeting him, it left an indelible mpression

Interesting monster, it reminds of a Doppelganger from D&D. And you are right there is huge potential for quests. Nice one

I gotta say that Russian lady is absolutely stunning, seriously perfect. I doubt its any plastic surgery , my experience with Russian women is that they are generally really good looking. Of course I have only ever met Russian strippers and escorts but I'm sure my observation applies to normal Russian ladies who aren't in the entertainment industry

As far as I am concerned, no Batgirl = no play. I thought Poison Ivy, Cat Girl and Talia al Ghul were really hot. But the whole game was very aesthetically pleasing, I am excited about the next one.

Its unusual but I agree with Volourn on this point, its irrelevant what caused it once he killed the daughter and her fiancé of the guy that failed to get him to keep his job. He lost any sympathy and moral high ground the moment he did this. Its like saying " lets try understand the causes of 9\11 because maybe it makes the attack okay". We know why 9\11 was perpetuated and the reasons don't justify what Al-Qaeda did( this is an example, I am not saying you said this). What do you need to understand about a cowardly murder? His manifesto is clear and there for you to read, so I don't get why you think we need to analyze his reasons anymore than we already do? He was a mentally unbalanced individual who posed a serious threat to society. He needs to be arrested or killed. Its not complicated.

I see what you are saying. I don't agree with the logic but I see the reason, its always makes me laugh when you realize the irony. People are opposed to authority yet they live and prosper in societies built on the same authority. It reminds of that pointless movement " Occupy Wall Street", they were opposed to banks and institutions that "enslaved" them yet used there Iphones, Ipads and other devices to get there message across and gain support. So people are fine to use the same structures when it suits them but claim to be "bitterly against them"

Like I mentioned in the other monster thread, I'm hoping they give us some really exciting and different combat situations - a chase scene is something they haven't done before, but I think could work really well, especially if combined with elements of horror and suspense. I made an argument somewhere that respawns could work in this regard too: you reach the bottom of some evil crypt and disturb a certain tomb, and an endless undead mob starts spawning - too many to fight, you have to escape and bar the door behind you. Indiras post about Deathtrap Dungeon got me thinking about another monster in that book (the one on the cover) How about a scenario where the monster is gigantic but mostly immobile, protected by (acid pools/minions/whatever) with only one vulnerable spot - the leviathan could turn over in its pool periodically, moving the target area (and splashing those nearby with acid) and so forth. Yeah, classic cover and monster. I think that Deathtrap Dungeon as my favorite book. Later on you get a chance to return to Deathtrap dungeon in "Trial of the Champions" which was also excellent. I also enjoyed " Creature of Havoc " where you awake as a monster and need to defeat Zharradan Marr( its amazing I still remember his name). This book was unique as you need to use a code to understand what people are saying, as initially you can't speak common tongue as you are a monster. I remember how hard it was. Do you guys remember the 4 part book series called Sorcery by Steve Jackson? That was my ultimate gaming book experience at the time , book 3 rocked!! The Seven Serpents was brilliant

There is absolutely no justification for someone to want to start killing random people even if he was a victim of racism. Imagine a world where every time we felt aggrieved we got a gun and went out killing people who were or weren't associated with the apparent bad treatment. Society would fall apart I have been reading the timelines on this whole Dorner saga, IMO he is a coward. His first victims were the daughter and fiancé of the guy who represented him when he lost his termination appeal in the LAPD. Seriously, why target the guys daughter if you have an issue with him? It reminds me of suicide bombers, they have issues with the military and political decisions of countries but they are quite happy to kill people that may have nothing to do with those decisions purely because they are soft targets. If you have an issue with the LAPD and are prepared to kill people at least get your guns and bullet proof vest and walk into a police station and start shooting and make a stand. But why the guys daughter, he knew this would have the most hurtful and permanent cconsequences and she was an easy target, yeah big man shooting a defenseless women and man There is no reasonable modern country or military who would award someone for killing a person who has nothing to do with the military objective so can we stop trying to justify his actions with spurious comments like " in another time he would be a hero", it make no sense and it is not applicable to his rampage Finally as I mentioned in other posts I live in a country that is relatively more violent than most countries in the world, we have about 50 murders a day and about 360 rapes a day, these are just some true statistics so you get the picture. We have a large police force. There are many cases of police corruption and police committing crimes. However it does not represent the overall police force who are committed and hard working. Everyday our police put there lives on the line and go to work knowing that day could be there last. We respect and admire our police immimmensely. People tend to lambaste the police yet they are the first people they call when there lives are threatened. Dorners actions don't represent the state of the LAPD, its silly and unfair to label the entire LAPD or try to find some reason for his unacceptable actions due to the LAPD Last point, these events highlight the sickness I see in certain aspects of the US society. Apparently there are websites that consider this guy a hero. I don't get it. Maybe someone can explain how anyone can consider the violent actions of a mentally unbalanced person as heroic? When did killing innocent people and killing police officers make you someone to admire?