deanb

http://www.oculusvr.com/ Seems to have sparked a fair bit of hype within the gaming community. Personally I'm in the "VR has flopped a thousand and one times before now" camp, so not got much hope for it (especially as it's £200+ for the DIY devkits). Seems more iteration (newer smaller/high res screens, tad more responsive n so on) of prior VR than meant to be anything mind blowingly new, but I guess it's that time again to be sparked with this. So, thoughts?

So played a chunk of this (might play a bit more but it finishes tonight). Kinda neat, quite liked the character creation though I'm not sure what's counts much towards how that pans out for the rest of the game though in the Instanced story quests bits of my creation choices got referenced. I quite like skills changed depending on weapon equipped, and use opens new skills. Haven't got far enough to open up much other skills. Another thing I liked was purchasing using items with "Karma" (especially good because you don't seem to get much money). Overall it's quite neat, but I don't think I'm the right mindset for MMOs, though I do like GW2s subscription model, aka the lack of one. My dude, Malchani:

"Ghostbusters meets Men in Black". Also I've watched the Superman trailer a dozen times, so I think I know a film I'll be seeing this year.

Apparently a couple are slightly wrong mind.

...just substantially prettier looking. But yeah certainly a good one compared to the past few.

Kinda bummed I'd not fully thrown myself at Endless Space last year or the soundtrack would have made it to my choice for top soundtrack of 2012.

Looks like the anti-shake tech is coming to CS7 then. Space!

And it's not as simple as "Let's just not do anything about it" either. I'm a brit, we don't have a written constitution, just a nebulous bunch of laws, edicts and bills over the years. So I'm probably a bit callous in saying this but; it's an amendment, it's a change to the constitution. If it can be changed once, twice, nay twenty seven times, then it can changed just one more time. Just gotta get over treating a bunch of two hundred year old laws as sacred texts. As for taking the guns away, I'm to understand getting a gun legally means registering, which means there should be a handy list of everyone who owns a gun and what guns. Then all you have left instead of the current mix of legal guns, illegal guns, and legal guns used for illegal purposes, is just illegal guns. With no ready access to weapons at the shop on the street corner, there's a diminishment in the amount criminals can have access to as well. Main supply of guns in the country becomes police and armed forces, and they're keeping much better track of guns than the shop down the street and the bumbling office worker who was just sold one. The barrier for entry to gun possession shoots right up. Crimes of passion using guns becomes a lot harder, and I'd reckon those homicides account for a lot more than gang warfare. You're a random crazy and decide to go on a killing spree and your mothers gun isn't close at hand your next best bet is a baseball bat or a knife. You're suddenly substantially less dangerous. Which is the big thing worth taking note of. Most people with a gun that kill, aren't criminals until the moment they take that legally acquired gun, filled with bullets from the local supermarket, and shoot up a bunch of people. Take away the gun and the bullets, you've still someone about to become a criminal. But likely not a killer, and a dozen kids to grow old to boot. In fact there needs not just to be social outreach programs to keep kids out of gangs, and make people know the police are around to help, and get the community comfortable with going "yeah my mate seems a bit messed up, fear he might do something silly, want to have a word with him". But also work on the mindset of weaning of most of the nation on this notion that civilians need access to weapons of war.

Nothing stopping doing both. Take away the shooty death tubes, and do the above social outreach programs too. It's not an either-or kind of problem.

http://www.gog.com/promo/telltale_weekend_promo_190413 Bunch of Telltale games on sale for 84% off (basically all except Walking Dead n Jurassic Park)

Surely "FUCKING [crazy/insane/inhuman] PEOPLE! WE'RE GONNA MURDER YOU!!!" Would be a slightly better message? And toning down the world police stuff might be a bit neat. Sure when they're like NK and threaten first it's fine, but in most cases I'd let local regions thrash their own problems out amongst themselves.

The series finale "film" poster. Incidentally this was how my "oh yes" was meant to be read on the last post.

...and then there's the different sales tax on top of that too!

Eh, I'm allowed to not fully grasp the whole three tier "cheques and balances" stuff US has in place. And yeah I've heard Obama will veto it, which seems somewhat unbalanced. (Though we have the House of Lords, and Queenie, which can veto things, there's not really much of a claim of being balanced). As for domestic policies changing I can't see it doing as much as 9/11 if anything at all. Especially if it's domestic attack since US law has failed to respond to dozens of high scale domestic attacks so far.

My gran has had a speeding ticket once, was a funny time. Also US doesn't have fixed fines? Over here (unless it goes to court where it's up to a grand) it's pretty much a fixed £60 for everything; speeding, skipping the lights, being on your phone, etc. (You also get points on your license and insurance goes up too mind, but that's not quite part of the fine) Personally I'm in the "don't drive" bracket, and yeah public transport and walking does me fine for most things.

What the hell is going on in America dudes? Last week it was all "lolol Kim Jong-Un" and now it's all Boston Bombings, Ricin attacks, grenade police chases, sinkholes, Waco explosion. In other political news: CISPA Passes http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22213379 Gun Control doesn't - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22194299

Oooh Yes!

Yeah, it's stirring up a bunch of shit on my feed too. For one Mass Effect is about as far as you can get from an "indie" game in all sense of the word. On top of that it's funding:

Wow, not sure I've seen a video game feature two of the VA so prominently. Also it's a David Cage film game, of course it's going to have reviews and reception all over the park. It's one of those "what do you look for in a game?" type games.

Hunger Games It's pretty enjoyable, and watchable, and considering how it could have gone not really any turn away and wince moments either. That said it does have plenty of flaws, mostly stemming from being teen fiction, many heavy handed plot elements, lots of things you see a mile off, and way too much early focus on the lass pretty much set up to win from the get go. It's kinda like if you took Willy Wonka and removed the Fizzy Lifting drinks and "You get nothing!" bit. Very little tension, about the only part where it was "ooohh!" was the scuffle with the girl at the table with the four bags laid out, and then as the girl wins, pinned down with a knife to the neck, then she starts monologuing. Then dies. So yeah, that could have been worked upon. Probably more an editing issue than anything. It should maybe have focused on a bunch of the other kids in the training period or something.

Keep Calm and Something Unfunny Here.

So making some use of the fact there's Netflix plumbed into housemates PS3. Watched Iron Man Extremis. It...was different. In a lot of ways actually. The animation style is the big one, it's somewhat highly detailed which means most of the animation is like the lips being stretched for talking, or just whole bodies moving for a couple frames. It's also seems a tad more..mature/darker than other Iron Man stuff. He repulsor beams a guys head off being the big one. Sure he kills people, but it's a thing rarely directly shown. I guess I liked it, might hunt down the comic arc to flick through.

I'd pretty much assumed it'll be wrapped up for now. Maybe come back in like 9th gen maybe. Or another "spiritual successor", but I'd somewhat hope they'll move onto new titles. If only because there's a new gen coming too.