Humodour

(R.W. Thompson, p346) (Unknown officer, 1st Royal Scots, p348) I should like to contrast the spirit of these remarks unfavourably with the remarks with the attitudes so far displayed in this debate. The latter in particular shows an entirely contrary spirit. The officers of the battalion did not risk their lives to send forward an instructive pamphlet on the dangers of smoking. They accepted there was a need and provided for it without censorship. Those remarks have nothing to do with any special property of value of cigarettes and everything to do with mateship in battle, Wals.

I'm pretty sick of Israel's holier than thou attitude. If they continue to renege on peace deals with Palestine then America should condition continued aid to them on whether or not they sign the peace deals. Honestly they're acting like spoiled brats at the moment and playing right into the hands of the extremist morons in Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Which is hardly an achievement. That's what she said.

Revolvers are extremely practical and dead reliable. AP's firearms are a little on the "fantastical" side of realism, but video games in general tend to be pretty forgiving about how ammunition is loaded into weapons. You pick up endless magazines of ammunition and it magically gets sorted into full mags by the time you need to reload. Yippie! Yeah, right. But a real Agent would look silly when engaged into close combat, say within a house. I mean you get one shot with your revolver while your opponent can pour 7-8 shots with his Glock 19 into your direction in the same amount of time. Ever heard of a double action revolver? Ever heard of a pump action revolver? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver#Double_action Booooring. Pump action revolvers are way better. Automatic revolvers are also cool. Cooler than your mum.

Berlusconi is ****ing creepy in that picture - like an old priest moving in for the kill on an altar boy. Sarkozy isn't so bad - more like a gleeful schoolboy perving on a hot teacher. Harper looks autistic.

On that note, let's all enjoy some Zero Punctuation.

I'm really bored so I got around to playing this game. And I'm trying to like it; I really am. But the game is a steaming pile of rubbish. It's even worse than Morrowind. The graphics are adequate... if you stand completely still. The voice-overs are mismatched for the NPCs and often poor quality. The quests are mundane, predictable, linear and simply unmotivating. The Leveling system is identical to Morrowind's (which is already a bad thing) yet somehow seems even worse inside Oblivion. The open spaces barren and lifeless and the engine doesn't even render grass for half the screen because it's too far in the distance, producing atrocious looking long shots. Did I mention the dialogue system? Yeah, it's basically unchanged from Morrowind's, except now its stupidity is conspicuously obvious inside reply list instead of embedded inside monologues from NPCs. And the combat... ah, the combat. I didn't think Bethesda could **** it up any worse than they did in Morrowind, but they certainly surprised me there. Not only did they make it **** but they made it unmotivating. It becomes something you want to avoid because it's so tedious and annoying. So how exactly did those morons at IGN and Gamespy and such end up giving this POS ratings in the high 80's and 90's? I will never trust game reviewers again.

Revolvers are extremely practical and dead reliable. AP's firearms are a little on the "fantastical" side of realism, but video games in general tend to be pretty forgiving about how ammunition is loaded into weapons. You pick up endless magazines of ammunition and it magically gets sorted into full mags by the time you need to reload. Yippie! Yeah, right. But a real Agent would look silly when engaged into close combat, say within a house. I mean you get one shot with your revolver while your opponent can pour 7-8 shots with his Glock 19 into your direction in the same amount of time. Ever heard of a double action revolver? Ever heard of a pump action revolver?

Only discussed? Why? Just how hard is it to add already existing content to some PC versions of the game? It'd seem the only reasons not to deploy the bonus content to PC users are arbitrary ones. It's not your problem or area, but still, if it gets discussed at Obsidian that implies you guys actually have control over the decision. So what's going on there?

Cheers Matt. You're going from more information to less information, so of course they will. If they come out blurry that's probably because an algorithm is run on the image to cancel pixelation. As to the avatars, any chance we could get versions with the 'Alpha Protocol' label at the bottom? I'm a fan of the game and all, but the label is a bit gaudy.

Lots of things are bad for your health in numerous ways. Contact sports is the leading cause of permanent damage/injury to young people. Should we ban contact sports? This isn't about banning smoking for everyone. It's about barring it in the military. It's not "nanny state intervention" because it directly costs the US government - the employer - billions of dollars each year, and those are billions of dollars which come from the tax dollars of US citizens. Frankly I guess I'd be OK with random n00b's idea of instead not giving government-funded health insurance to those who smoke but I think that's a bit harsh. You're really trying to argue for something else (namely banning smoking for everyone) with almost that entire post, Di. Why do that? And it's hilarious (because it's so ridiculous) that you think alcohol is more damaging to your body than smoking. I'm not really sure where to start on that one eh. Personal grudge or sincere belief? I don't think that is true. Every single exposure to smoke (whether from cigarettes or marijuana or what) impairs lung capacity a little bit more, and it's permanent and irreversible. It's called emphysema (a type of lung disease). I'm not sure about the extent and reversibility of the other health impacts of smoking (gum disease, cancer risk, cardiovascular disease, bone weakening, etc), but emphysema is a big enough one by itself that you really want to avoid it. Can't say I stick to my own advice though since I smoke when I'm drunk.

Yep. And as far as I'm aware the only major health detriment of cheese burgers is the potential for heart disease if you eat too many (i.e. get fat). But that's pretty trivial if you eat a balanced diet and keep an active lifestyle like, say, somebody in the military. Unfortunately, a balanced diet and an active lifestyle doesn't prevent cigarettes from doing their damage. The "lots of things are dangerous so smoking should be allowed" argument is ridiculous and deceptive because it presumes all things are equally dangerous. No, some are just slightly risky (fast food), some are mildly dangerous in specific ways, and some are extremely dangerous in a host of ways (e.g. cigarettes). Guard Dog also mentioned video games and swearing as things as bad as cigarettes (and hence some sort of reason cigarettes shouldn't be banned). I have absolutely no idea why. I've read countless studies showing computer games and swearing either improve cognitive functioning or improve mental health (heck, video games are USED to train soldiers) and they certainly aren't lethal to you as cigarettes are.

So by regulating tobacco use by armed forces personnel, potentially billions of tax payer dollars will either be saved each year? Sounds good to me.

Link:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/11...trike-military/ I'm curious what everyone thinks here. I have my own opinion on this of course but before I elaborate I'd like to hear from you guys first. I think this story is very telling about more than just banning smoking in the military. What's the problem? Stringent health requirements are required to enter the military. It's well known cigarettes destroy your health in like 10 different ways (cancer, emphysema, bone degredation, cardiovascular weakening, gum disease, etc). It should be obvious why the military would ban its consumption by soldiers. Like to make up claims much? Obama's been struggling with giving it up for a while. His wife and daughters hate it. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/20...bacco-bill.html Please, please don't try and assert that he's lying and is just saying all that because he likes to "expand the role of government and keep the little guy down" or some rubbish.

I'm gonna buy all three regardless, 'cause I need RPGs.

Well I'm not fat, so hopefully low.

Technically it's not what I did today, but yesterday I caught swine flu. Lame. I should be over it within about 3 days if it follows the same pattern in my body as seasonal flu. I know why I caught it, too - a massive night out on Saturday with my sister and her mates for her birthday. Hangover + dehydration = dead immune system.

Considering what reviewers thought of the piece of **** that was Oblivion (i.e. they ate it up, similar for NWN1 OC), why do you give a rats what they have to say about the game?

Amen.

Oh, is Turkey a Western country now? Turkey attacks China 'genocide'

I wrote that after 36 hours without sleep. Still, I'm curious why you think people will soon consider Google evil? Microsoft did have to earn that rep.

I'd love a vampires or changeling game!

MechWarrior 4 will be freeware shortly.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/1...-Free?art_pos=9 I've never played MW before, but I'm going to download MechWarrior 4 once it's free and obviously if I like it I'll buy the new one. Shame more companies aren't smart enough to do this kind of thing. The games from the year 2000 for those interested.