deanb

I'm in the Beta. Nexus is too.

Well it's not stopped others. As long as it's not commercial you're generally fine without asking.

His reputation precedes him

So I've done my Pratchetts for now. Since I now have a ton of my books from home I'm reading The Spellsinger series again. Only read it once many years back, was pretty good. Now I'm re-reading I'm seeing that it's maybe a furries dream, but given the wage it came from I'm doubting it. Basic premise is student from UCLA is accidentally transported to a fantasy land where humans and animals live as equals (though rats/mice are a kind of underclass, and Lizards are regular wild/domesticated animals) After finding he's not what was wanted he's sent off with a less than respectable Otter to find work since it'll be a year before the transport spell can be done again. Finds out he's a "spellsinger" and able to do magic through the use of singing. Various fantasy hijinks ensue. It's got a thing where science and magic are one and the same. For example when trying to explain differences between humans n animals he says "It's genetics" where the captors then claim he's attempting to cast magic. Oh there's also a marxist dragon too. It's not high calibre, but it's fun enough. The books are pretty slim though meaning they are burned through very fast.

Is it an American thing or just my course, cos I've never had anything with textbooks. Only book that was ever strongly suggested was "The Animators Survival Kit"

Yeah I'm not seeing why it's the publishers that are taking issue with this? Surely they still sell the product to them in bulk at the same price, regardless of how low the retailer then sells it on for. Unlike having a single major retailer like Gamestop can be, there's no one to really have the publishers by the balls (like how publishers supposedly hate gamestop, yet still give them pre-order exclusives). I can see how publishers may have hurt feelings on how it may devalue their product, but maybe it's just a sign that aiming for £40 every time just isn't the way to go.

http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Cries+About+Samsung+and+Motorolas+Patent+Monopoly/article22586.htm

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/stop-the-price-war/084060 So after yesterday picking up Skyrim for 50% off I can say that it's definitely happening. What it like in other countries (specifically US, which is mentioned as having only a couple major games retailers) What's it like from publisher perspective. Personally I'm a fan since it means I can get cheap games, and as mystery UK man says it means shipping more units, which in this day n age means more people to sell DLC too, which isn't slashed in price.

Do you not like Steel Book editions?

http://www.fitocracy.com/ via http://xkcd.com/940/

http://nerdtrek.com/skyrim-answers-bethesda/ A bunch of info on the game, maybe some spoilers. Depends on what you count as a spoiler for a game like Skyrim (We discussed it in chat the other week, and reckoned most of us didn't give two shits on story since it was such a small part of the game, but knowing you can snare and ride dragons would be counted as a spoiler)

So restarted the game, thought I'd see if I could ace the first mission. Didn't notice the first time round that when you're in Sarif at the start you have no hud at all.

First 2,500. I'm sure I did say it was limited when I posted it in Game Deals. Anywho:

Yeah I would have thought the obvious question would be why Origin needs to collect all the information it wants to collect? As others have said Steam collects hardware information, but only optionally, and the rest of it's information is restricted to within Steam and the games it runs. Which I'd assume would be so they can do this: http://steamcommunity.com/id/deanbmmv and these http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ Of which Origin has neither.

Which build did you use at the start? Main reason I had the remote mines was cos I was given them at the start. (I went with Stealth, close quarters)

I defeated final boss by:

Yeah I've only gone on to Win 7 cos my Uni has it for free (got Win Vista too)

http://www.computerw..._8_file_manager Finally. Shame it's still not tabbed (from what I can tell). I do agree that it eats quite a bit of screen estate, though it's only with Aero that it got quite slim. e.g XP: (god XP's UI is horrible) There was some proper talk through on their reasoning somewhere. Can't find it at the moment, but from a usability/productivity point of view the ribbon works really well. Essentially the most common tools are put right there on the fore front instead of cramming it away in menus or right click. Also Windows 8 supports ISO's and VHD's out the box. (To do with it being on tablets and DVD drives starting to become a tad optional). Also App Store is confirmed. edit: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/ more stuff here including the breakdown on why they're using the Ribbon. It's all very wordy. But also has screenshots too.

This isn't just any cheese and pickle sandwich. This is a Asda Mature Cheddar and 2-year-aged grandma-made picalilli sandwich.

Skyrim and Batman Arkham City on PC. £20.45 each. (the pre-order deal is in the Game Deals thread if any UK folk want to use it. Works for console games too.)

Now I've finished I've gone back through the thread Oh, and my preferred weapon is my 10mm Pistol. Silenced, damage and reload upgraded with AP modification. It pops helmets like balloons. I like playing it quiet and stealthy. I fucking loved the turrets. The part with the lift Yeah, the 10mm becomes (dare I say it?) somewhat overpowered once you pick up the armor-piercing upgrade. I tend to play stealthy as well - typically carry the tranq gun, 10mm, combat rifle, crossbow, and heavy rifle with me. 10mm and combat rifle both have silencers on them (10mm is by far my most used weapon). The 10mm is my preferred weapon throughout, but towards the end the ammo started to get really rare. Also it wasn't as good at popping helmets so I'd get a headshot but all it would do is alert the guards. Even welding helmets started to become effective against it. Actually towards the end it basically became "fuck the weapons you've used all game. You're using the plasma rifle now". I didn't, but the ammo laying about was pretty much "yeah toss your upgraded weapons now, they're now just hunks of metal you can throw". Slightly annoying. My main weapons were the 10mm, stun gun, assault rifle and the silenced sniper I got at the start (which appears to be a pre-order thing so :/) Towards the end I also got the Grenade Launcher which was neat. As for grenades I mostly used EMPs and Gas. Especially as the gas was good against "don't kill them" targets. I did have the PEP n Heavy Rifle for a while. The PEP I never used, the Heavy Rifle I used now n then but it was pretty useless. tbh so was the Assault Rifle most of the time. It's a good "get out of my face" weapon in case you fuck up stealth though, but not much damage. I'd change my stance on what I'd do depending on if they were shooting at me or not. And how "army" they looked. So Derelict row was mostly tasers and takedowns. later on they'd get a 10mm to the head. Also when I realized most folks had pocket secretaries on their bodies I didn't just sneak past everyone when I could either, cos otherwise I'd screw myself for later. Yeah the ending is a bit of a bummer. I saved and went with all the endings. Ha I had a few like that. I'd miss with the sniper, they'd turn and look at the bullet hole, meaning they just lined themselves up for a shot. There was also a fun time towards the end at the WHO, two guards talking then go separate ways. Guard that stays closer to my position stops and takes out a cigarette. Damn I wish I was streaming then. "Smoking kills" then a bullet passed through his brain. The AI was pretty dumb tbh. They'd rarely check the open vents (I think I saw one do it. A couple did throw grenades into them though) and they only ever went to last known location than scouting the area. Though maybe they get smarter with "Give me Deus Ex". I see tons of people say this but I got the first boss, expected something a pain in the ass. And all he does is run in lines. He's piss easy. Drop down remote charges and pump bullets in him when he's running at you or dazed. The columns provide tons of cover too. Unless you've stupidly stripped your backpack of all but a 10mm/stun gun (in which case there's weapons in the side rooms) he shouldn't be hard. So yeah Human Revolution is pretty damn awesome. Definitely a game with repeat playthroughs. Here's hoping for some more in the future. My only big issues is I have a feeling I'll never be able to finish Deus Ex now. There's still Skyrim to come but I'm thinking that my GOTY choice is currently in the bag. It was a pretty damn fine game. The stealth worked quite well. The areas were fantastic. You could go explore a shit ton, and it was all nice n 3D. I kinda disliked the loading of areas in Shanghai mind. It would have been awesome if it was one continuous area. The game did fall apart a bit towards the end. Especially with the zombies. And the above mentioned lack of ammo for early/mid-game guns. But other than that all very fun. Also gfiven I'm playing FFXIII at the moment I would say that I think the "codex/datacore" thing (can't remember the name atm) would have been better if you came across info scattered around. There was also ample refrences to various odds n sods too without being too "nudge nudge, we're a game" type "humour" you see these days. Fun. I shall look forward to being able to afford it. edit: Just saw Thursday post in the "Games you've bought" regarding mission 1.

http://savygamer.co....kyrim-pc-22-90/ This is a tad limited though (oh and UK only) (Oh and even if you have a tesco account you still need to make a separate Tesco Entertainment one ¬_¬) http://savygamer.co.uk/2011/08/31/15-off-when-you-preorder-any-two-selected-games/ Better deal if you want 2 games.

I was going to borrow the PC version of this off ben, but he warded me away from it saying it's not aged well (i/e widescreen n stuff) And thus I've yet to play it.

I really want like an Android Tamagotchi app or something. Surely it can't be hard to make?