deanb

The resources to make spaceships that we're already making would have to come form earth sure. But we don't make spaceships from moon rock. Moons pretty mineable. It's just the logistics of mining it and sending that material back to earth. And it's not like the minds working on the solutions of terra-forming other planets can't have their work used on Earth after. It's not like scientists and their research are single use. Pull em out a vacuum sealed bag, good for one use. And Mars has a carbon dioxide rich atmosphere. Which is something that's starting to become a problem for us. If we can figure out a large scale solution that'll turn a 95% CO2 atmosphere into breathable oxygen, then that'd work wonders for turning our >1% CO2 atmosphere into a cleaner one.

But learning to make the uninhabitable habitable should help us massively down here. I agree that the moon should be a good idea for mining. But we can do that automatically. Robots n such, not worth colonizing. Mars in a long term thing should be a good idea. Even if just for population control.

All the trophies in Demons Souls. I played through that while my Housemate blasted through my copy of AC2. I watched him get a bronze for being put in a boot of a car. Then a bronze for being born. I got only a bronze for beating up FlameReaper or whatever that fucking spider thing is.

Well a takeaway thread with just folks mentioning the takeaway they eat may give the impression that that's all we eat, but since posting home cooking in a takeaway thread would be off topic, most of them put it in the What Are You Eating thread. edit: Whoops wrong BB code

Used some Xmas money. Gonna put some more on to a LotR Blu-Ray extended when it comes out. Also deciding if I want to either get a full fold up bike or one of the under desk pedals only affairs. Fold up one is on sale so they'd cost the same. It's just size:functionality that I'm having the balance.

First I'll point out the OP is maybe a bit too long and probably worth breaking up into several threads. Anywho on with the reply: The constant £40/$60 price for games is getting silly and as time passes is been shown to be more n more so. The PC DD market has shown games can be priced to suit all kinds of game budget n consumers pockets, yet console games continue to hit with 99% of titles costing $60. Some games cost $100million, some a tenth of that but the price at sale is the same. Games are not born equal, and publishers should look into being more flexible with their prices. I believe it's THQ who are knocking out a game some point, or have done, at $40 with DLC on the side should people want to buy that to bump up the price. Their hope being the lower price increases sales and the direct sale of DLC to the consumers also increases the revenue they can get out of it. It's a decent comprimise. As for DLC. I should point out that's been very dividing in the past. Some folks do feel that some games have features cut in order ot resell them later as DLC. Some of them quite clearly (especially when it comes on the disc) But some folks believe we're paranoid n entitled cos no publishers has come out n said "yeah we're taking stuff out that would normally go in the game to sell to you later". I'm in the camp that feels that yes with some titles they're taking stuff out the game to later resell us. ME2 being one of the topic that's had long n protracted conversation. They definitely weren't things developed post launch since they were both available in the roster lists on the game while shown off at trade shows n the like pre launch. The multiplayer map stuff is pretty annoying too. I don't have those games myself, but Halo I've had similar issues. It's why I like TF2's approach, where the patch gives everyone the maps. (though TF2's recent approach...not so much. But at least there's nothing stopping folks getting into the games) The Used stuff I'm on the fence with. If folks are perfectly fine for publishers n such to stick on DRM to attack potential pirates then it's only fair to fuck over used sales folks too. Personally I don't sell my games back, tend to keep em. Worth more as shelf space than whatever the shop might give me. And I'd rather have a game should I want to play it that want to play it n find I traded it in for magical beans. I also buy a fair chunk of my games though Steam and the like, so not too bothered with lack of physical ownership (though I can see how it could be an issue for console gamers) As for project $10, at first it started off kinda fine, I thought it a bit silly folks would buy a pre-owned copy just to save $5 or whatever, but they've started pushing boundaries a bit, especially the online pass. (which I believe is a THQ thing btw) The publisher n developer thing is slowly starting to change. It'll take a while for it to hit the AAA places, but on the bottom end many smaller developers, are realising they can go independent and self publish. Publishers are things you used to need because there was no way a smaller developer would be able to fund or distribute their game, but now it's becoming incredible easy. Minecraft is a great example of a single man, sans publishers, selling just under a million copies of a game. Publishers interfering isn't a VG only thing btw, it happens alot in hollywood n book publishing too, and I think that will remain for a while. The bigger budget stuff will always have that. I think part of what lets publishers get away with the extreme working conditions is the sort of status the game industry has as a great n free spirited place to work and insanely hard to get into. So folks will do whatever they can to keep their job. But as with the other stuff I think if folks realise it's not too hard to break out and go ahead n make a working job with a small man team on indie PC or phone titles and still make a decent buck folks might not bend under the heel of publishers so much. EA is a big one for the whole dumping an older game when a new one comes along. Even worse for EA since they run their own servers. BF:1943 still has a bar running along the bottom announcing the beta for BF:BC2. The release n patch later mentality is getting pretty annoying. Yeah games are more complex now, but the budgets are even larger and surely that allows for better bug testing. Hey sure the internet means patches can be dished to, but that only works for the 50% or so that have their console hooked up to the net. Those who don't will be dumped with potentially game crippling bugs forever. Even worse is so few games are called out on it. It seems if they stick out a tweet saying 'we know of the bugs and looking at them' then media outlets give them the a-okay n don't bother looking at it. I think folks should make more of a stink on games that ship with bugs, incomplete or with improper support.

Just to throw this out there but this time around they've now implemented unique download URLs (Last time they just emailed a single unprotected link to everyone), and added in bittorrent downloads and unlike last time they've given nary a peep on pointing out people are pirating the bundle. People clearly still are, but not as wholesale as last time to cause folks to pipe up about it being a huge issue. A bit of forethought the first time around would of helped with piracy sharing issues the first time around me thinks.

bu-u but. I'm already browsing through the old thread looking for good starter points. Meh we'll see where yours goes. We may have different things in mind.

He's not in any games but maybe. Though bear in mind he's SCEA only. SCEJ n SCEE don't have Kevin Butler. Which is a shame.

Yeah I'm a big fan of exploring every nook n cranny of a game. Hence my current like for the current Fallouts n Oblivion as they're very big worlds with lots of hidden off the beaten track places.

See I want to own HL1, buuuut tbh £1.74 while cheap just doesn't do it for me. 80p n we'll talk. Yeah it seems really weird, but it's an old game, and I did get HL2 and epsidoes for a £1-ish each back when they were on sale or what not.

Yeah I edited the post to have the acronym, I don't think Tali realizes most folks don't know the short hand for some of the posts: P

Yeah as I said the other day I go the game n installed the complete mod right away. The saving is the only main thing I'd have to remember to do on a constant basis.

Torchwood: New World could be interesting. Though I'm wondering what an Amercian spin on it will do. If it'll be a british production made in america, or an american production using a british show.

GOLDWINGS!! Also underline question? (I joined up before some tweaks to registration were made)

Well from what we'd been told most of those companies don't mind because when you go and work in the business that's what you end up using. And the company will be buying the legit stuff. They're well awarre the average home owner won't be able to pay. But it also gets the name out here. The cover of a magazine is photoshopped, not paintshop pro'd or gimped. As for skeptical I was sure it was a K but chrome carried on trying to correct me. Unless it's a US/UK thing and I'm trying to use a US spelling.

Well my piracy started back in college. We used programs like 3DMax, Photoshop, Flash, etc. And they cost a few thousand to buy. And thus our tutor introduced us to the concept you could pirate things. We'd had a dodgy cvopy of Office before then that my step-dad had brought from a work colleague, but the concept that you could do that stuff yourself hadn't crossed your mind. So yeah software piracy I have a semi-long history of, and still do it to this day since I'm currently using ...damn I priced this up a couple months back... something like £30,000 worth of software at the moment. VG piracy started back with Spore. At that time I was still young n naive. I followed the trailers n stories n reviews(ish). It sounded a great game. It wasn't. Oh and it took me a while to find that out since due to the SecureROM use on it I couldn't play it for half a week. Since then I've been somewhat sceptical, so pretty much only get games if I can play a demo beforehand or buy it dirt cheap. If there's no official demo, then the torrents provide. Now since my stance for most of these games are sceptical enough I'm most likely not going to buy it a publisher can only stand to gain from me pirating it. Because after pirating it I may actually pick it up. So games I've bought after pirating: Fallout 3 (Loved oblivion, wasn't keen it'd translate to post-apocalypse shooter) Fallout New Vegas (I thought it was going to be exactly like 3 just new place. Turns out not) Last Remnant (ran like shit on 360, this was more a benchmark) Sins of a Solar Empire Dragon Age Origins Borderlands Majesty 2 Games I pirated then never picked up: Elemental War of Magic. So bad I won't even pirate the improved version Medal of Honor: This I feel bad about cos I actually completed the SP. But in like 6 hours so not too bad feeling. Far Cry 2: I've mentioned this one on here already I think. But yeah it was actually near great. But some oh so annoying aspects. Trine - pretty shitty on PC. Was before I got my pad though. Sims 3 -This was more me just not been into the game anymore. 1 was great though at the time. All my PSP games. Which most are PSX games anyway, which I already own so fuck if I'm buying them again. Oh and the old fashioned CD sharing: HOMM V Witcher Own both. Now I buy a shit ton games on PC, substantially less on PS3 (the console you can't pirate on and has games that cost £40 a pop) Because I am able to pirate and demo a game I am therefore able to be confident in making a purchasing decision. So the publisher gets my money. Alternative for them is to make a demo. Which most of these are RPGs, which are kinda demo free. I understand there are people out there that wholesale pirate, get every game that hits the torrents. But tbh those people mean nothing. They are the ones that mostly skew the charts n such anyway because most of the time they won't want to play them, they'll just have RSS feed hooked up and let it download every game that comes out. Oh btw most of the time when cracking down on pirates it's not the little small scale guys, it's the folks who grab the big games pre-release n start burning them to discs n selling them on. Thats when the publishers are losing sales because it's someone willing to buy a copy, but they're not buying a legal copy. However that kind of stuff is getting smaller n smaller these days since most folks know how to do it themselves. As for the whole Piracy is stealing: Lets lay this out straight here and now, especially since we have like umpteen lawyers in this place: Piracy/copyright infringement is not theft. Which is why there are two separate laws for them. You can have the opinion that you think piracy is wrong, but not an opinion that it is theft. btw isn't sceptical spelt with a K? edit: @Hotchops: I had a topic on the last place called "The Games Industry as gone to shit" Which covered similar topics like all games costing $60 and the publishers having too much power compared to days of old. I could remake it here. I kind of enjoyed it. Even if the name was a bit too inflammatory

I'm currently debating giving this game another blast. Got it in the sales few months back. And I did actually get past the first gunfight, but something went wrong, and it turned out I'd forgotten to save (fucking years of autosave) so I ragequit

http://bnbgaming.com/2011/01/01/an-illustrated-guide-to-minecraft/ This is pretty sweet looking.

Well it can be nearly £8 for some things. Even the shitty little tub of popcorn chicken (which is really nice) costs like £3 or something. Whereas the chinese is £4.50~

So what kind of take-away food do you like? What preferences for certain meals and such? I'm a fan of Chinese. Nearly everything Chinese tastes amazingly good. It's kinda bad for you, but most has vegetables in it so it balances out. As I said in the other thread I tend to get either beef/chicken chow mien, chicken egg foo young, or Crispy Shredded Beef in either an O-K sauce or Cantonese Sauce (spicy). On the recommendation of some guys on steam I once tried Chicken in Kung Pao sauce, which was kinda foul. The chicken in the sauce was great, but for some reason the sauce was really horrible with everything else in the dish so I chucked most of it out. Part of the reason for this thread is for recommendations, try stuff new n all that. Like most brits I'm also partial to a fish n chips, but I hate my current local, the chips are a bit too leathery (though great if you can get them fresh) the fish is really nice though. Pizza wise I go with Pollo funghi/zeno, or a meat feast. I prefer thin crust, but most are pan Don't get chicken often, KFC is fricking expensive, but there's this 'megamix burger' one of the local chicken places do that's gorgeous. Tad pricey (but cheaper than KFC) so not something to get often, but the fries are from heaven, and the layered chickens pretty filling. Thai n Mexican is pretty non-existant around here. We once had a burrito place but it closed after about 3 months. I think Mexican just isn't as popular around here for take always (Old El Paso kits sell loads, so folks clearly like it at home) Oh and the Middlesbrough speciality the Parmo. Or Chicken Parmesan for long. Only had a few in first year, it's sort of 'one of those things you try'. It has about 2,000 calories in a portion. Tastes godly though and fills you right up. Looks foul mind, so you need to be a bit wasted: I'll probably have one before I leave. So yeah, what kind of things do you get when you can't be arsed to cook for yourself? What dishes do you enjoy and recommend others have a shot with?

Yeah beef is quite nice Chinese style. I'm a fan of prawn toast for Chinese appetizers. (though it seems we have slight variation to your version) I might actually try something Chinese sea foody. But I'm not keen on the big prawns that you need to rip the heads n tails of, just the small >1" things. So I guess I'd have to ask about that before I order. Sod it I'm gonna make the takeaway thread.

The 'actually' was I was going to make a Chinese food thread. But thought better of it. Maybe later. Pizza threads always a good idea. For Chinese I tend to get either beef/chicken chow mien, chicken egg foo young, or Crispy Shredded Beef in either an O-K sauce or Cantonese Sauce (the spicy one) Most of the time I get the shredded beef in Cantonese. All tastes great, though the chow mien portions can be a bit stingy. It's the best chow mien I've had, but I don't get it too often just cos I feel there's not much in it. The woman who runs the local Chinese is great, sweetest woman, and throws tons of free prawn crackers n fortune cookies our way too.

What did you order btw? Actually...