WTF

I'll vouch for Nier. The soundtrack is good and the banter is pretty fun really. I mean yeah the graphics look a bit meh and there's one dungeon I dislike. But it has some unique touches like the village where everyone's asleep. Not to mention when you play Nier, people on your friendslist will get curious since it puts up some absurd status messages. The game though is just great. Let me know if you get stuck on the fishing, it's easy once you figure it out . But feels stupid hard at first and I remember almost giving up the first time but after that i was like Ohhh. I'd say it was probably one of the better games of the year. Waay better than Enslaved. I still have yet to finish it and it's all because you can tell the story is going the Simulacra way which to me is quite meh. They could've done a much better adaptation of journey to the west. However if you've never been exposed to that classic piece of literature then yes you probably would enjoy it more.

Hey man, Nice thread. I'd totally tag this if I could . Anyways this is one game that's semi on my radar. Less than Amy though.

You know there's something that I just remembered. I don't know if it's been discussed but entrée does not mean the second course/main course or what comes after the appetiser. It is the appetiser because entrée mean entrance which I'd hope is understood in the name . I know the French Canadians are probably the only N. Americans (I don't mean exceptions) who usually get it right. I was just reading through an OT thread the other day and someone was talking about having an appetiser and two entrees. That just means he had three appetisers to most people . Anyways I do know that these aren't strictly a US vs Brit thing but Penchant is pronounced both Ponchon and Pen-chunt. Schedule though is Skedule and shedule depending on where you're from. I know there was something my wife and I discussed last week that I knew should belong to this thread but I've forgotten it already.

I wouldn't mind in the future. Currently I'm not getting it since I have 3 huge edits to finish for clients for next week. I think I'd be up for April. Games like this would purely be for me, since my wife doesn't play strategy hence my delay :/. P.s on a scale of total war is it more like a medieval to 2 jump? Or Rome meets shogun. I didn't like empire much and have yet to play napoleon. Demo left me indifferent, but demos always do for rts games.

It depends. In England or rather British courts we have the Data Protection Act from 1998. I think I'll need TN to back me on certain legal aspects of this. As a film-maker I can tell you that certain media may not be used in any purpose without the consent of the people present in that media. These laws have come under greater scrutiny thanks to CCTV. I'm not sure those outside the UK are aware of how many CCTVs actually exist within London. Anything and everything you do is mostly on some camera somewhere. There are blindspots of course, but people are worried about the whole police state rubbish when CCTV has actually helped capture more criminals than harass more victims. It's the city with the most CCTVs and I'm sure most Brits would vouch for me on that. The DPA states personal data to be: "data which relate to a living individual who can be identified from those data; or from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual”. Let me try to define personal data in the context of CCTV first. If the person operating/owning the CCTVs finds an image of you on camera and then can link it to you as a person or physical description then that data is personal data. However if you are a face in the crowd and cannot be identified definitely then it is not personal data. All personal data held by public authorities is under the DPA. Even if you are a private authority you cannot use this footage without the consent of the person in the footage. Hence there was a film released a few years ago that used CCTV footage but removed everyone's faces. So we do have laws existing that protect personal data. If the data is held by a private individual or company then it only applies if it is stored on a computer or on a relevant filing system (which practically covers most systems these days). Photos such as those on Facebook can also come under similar scrutiny. However there is a clause which makes Ethan quite right in this case. If you have chosen to opt out or in other words not given consent to your data being spread then it is technically illegal to use such data in a way that might cause harm to that person. In other words if you lost a job because an acquaintance has posted a picture of you which you did not consent to and you had explicitly opted out of sharing personal information on such sites then there's been a violation of your rights. When it comes to textual messages, the laws aren't as firm though there are clauses for sensitive personal data which include your religious and political beliefs, if you belong to a trade union, what gender you identify as, sexual life, etc. There are occasions where you have the right to access a person's personal data and of course the first is when they've given explicit consent, Where processing is necessary for the purposes of exercising or performing any legal right or obligation in connection with employment (For example, like in cases of workplace discrimination), cases where they need to find your records such as mental health or criminal record to make sure you pose no threat to others, when you're going for legal counsel because they need to protect your legal rights and see if anything you've done is in violation, ethnic monitoring and in case you're an invalid. I think we should realise that in this particular case there are different laws in different countries. And to be honest, that's why I said that if they do make having the internet a basic or fundamental right then we could very well have a corollary that does ultimately bring about more privacy rights on the internet inc right to be forgotten. few basic edits.

Zaxxon at the arcades. Kung fu master next. Was too small to reach and play so my dad lifted me, so that I could see the screen and play. Arcades were awesome those days.

Hyperdimension Neptunia (Just trophy cleanup required for Platinum - few dungeons and need to make sure I've seen all cutscenes - feel like I'm missing something). Anyway ugh while the game has a lot of enjoyable things, there's so much about the game that annoyed me post-game. Mostly cause gameplay was terrible. Story was humorous though. At least the game is rare as NIS totally sold their first shipment (no more shipments) and it's gone out of stock at a few retailers even in the UK.

That I do agree. I mean I do buy games from GoG (rebought BG1 and 2, Psychonauts, Planescape etc) but if they could've been more competitive with the price and not do 'hey our version is DRM free but all the rest have DRM'. That's just leaves me feeling a bit irate. Though I can totally understand that they want to promote their other businesses.

I read about it earlier and figured that I'd risk the DRM. I mean really I know they want to push GoG but this is not the way... Disclaimer: Tainted with personal opinions. Buying from GoG is still around £2 more than buying the same version in retail. The price can come down further closer to release. Plus iirc The Witcher tends to go down in price fast at retail and this is not going to win any favours for an early purchase. I think they're forgetting that while The Witcher is a good title the other titles during release are Brink, F3AR (both better on the PC), Heroes 6 (which is my personal preference) and of course LA Noire. Of course the Witcher 2 and LA Noire will get most coverage. But I don't think this is a good incentive.

VG BAFTAs, the most pointless thing ever (in all honesty). And I'm saying this knowing a lot of people in the non-VG segment of the BAFTAs and working my way into FT membership, (. Honestly discussing games with most of the film members of the BAFTAs feels like slamming your head against a brick wall sometimes. At least it's different from how it used to be in 2007. But it needs to go on, so that gaming can get serious here. The UK gaming industry can use all the support it can get. It's a shame the NPA got shut down last year (it's main activities anyway).

I actually had this long thought process going in my head on my way to the 'domestic office'. A lot of misinformation comes from lack of the right guiding figures and in some cases the unwillingness to change or learn or in some cases adapt. On the subject of change, there's a tribe on one of the Andaman and Nicobar islands which belong to India that does refuse outside contact. They pretty much go around naked and I do believe that when people gave pants to them they ended up wearing them on their heads. There's also another island of cannibals. It's a very simple experiment that shows the unwillingness of a lot of people to change. I know that the Indian Govt has had programs to integrate certain tribes into society, giving them better chances to be educated and employed (they have reservations for the several tribes present on a schedule). The success-rate varies. Certain countries in Africa have programs like that but due to the general instability of most of the continent success-rates are lower. I think misinformation stems sometimes from the educator's lack of awareness and the fact that some educators do believe they know all. It's an issue of course when you assume you know all. It's no coincidence that a lot of racist and bigoted remarks come from people who aren't exposed to the world and limited in their world-view due to various factors. The first thing we should always do is reject world history taught in a country. It's always a little skewed and biased into making you believe your country is good. I know that the British education system glosses over the fact that the treatment they meted to the colonies was sometimes downright brutal. We even celebrate the lives of some of these thieves and crooks today. As they say one nation's hero is another's villain. There are lots of massacres too attributed to these people unfortunately. Of course it isn't the fault of the people but rather the fault of the ruling class of society and high-ranking merchants. Every country in the world has done good and bad and I think the modern world needs to place greater importance on teaching some of these to today's youth without a slant so that history doesn't repeat itself. However a lot of things will repeat themselves like trends,discoveries and the like. And of course the perennial debate - is X art? There's a lack of good educators around these days. I still get called by Teach to take up a teaching post since I registered interest some 8 years ago. It indicates that there is a lack of fine educators even here. Not to mention I've come across a divide between parents and teachers in some areas. Certain teachers using strange methods to isolate the parent and student and of course ridiculous arguments connecting being grounded to criminal confinement. There's so much misinformation and disinformation around us that it's staggering. Part of the reason is actually allowing people who have no clue on a subject to voice their opinion. Yes some opinions are valid, but we must really reduce the clutter. I'm glad that most of us here are smart individuals, but that's not a universal case. Youtube, comments in the places like the Daily Mail are all pretty much indicators of how low an opinion can go. It's like 1.8 billion (approx) people shouting at once. Those who don't have access to the internet can now hear about it in the news thanks to the 'hey you ordinary person tweet me your thoughts' attitude of the news-media. Of course with a few exceptions, the ones that are shown are the ones that can provoke a reaction. I'm sorry for the lack of a coherent structure.

I have no problem with BS, I'm just waiting for a drop in price because I dislike GFWL Edited to add: I think the game is fun, it's pretty much burnout paradise the FPS in my eyes. It's one of the few games where I dislike the OTT dialogue but know is fun to play.

I guess we could. I didn't see one via the search but mind you I just searched metacritic and not reviews. I was just responding to that image that I'd seen circulating around. I hate seeing this bizarre inflation in review scores. But yeah sure. On the subject of Dragon Age, I knew what it was going to be. And I got spoilered a bit via Gaf but the complaints are common now. In fact some of the stuff I'd posted as spoilers earlier in this thread are actually the complaints now from those who played. It's interesting really. Hence playing with zero expectations is probably the best way to get something out of it

It's winding down time for the day. Sort of. Hence the choices. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_TSvdmJNvo

The Day metacritic dies an ignoble death is the day I'll be happy. Of course I'll be sad for those who lost their jobs, but if they're good statisticians they could get a job in defence or worse meteorology. My issue is that means, medians and averages are in no indicator of the quality of an entertainment output product (Saying that since technically a TV, VCR,/DVD/BR players, consoles, etc can count as an entertainment device and those do need to be rated on basis of reliability). The weighted sum of opinions is just that a sum of opinions. How on earth can that be given a value, It's like going through an argument, weighing all the options and everyone's points and lifting a huge scorecard saying 7!!! Metacritic in other words is Numberwang. For reference: I'm sorry this is all so OT. On the subject of Dragon Age, I've no expectations but I'm pretty much going through the game with the same excitement I have for the Game of Thrones show (i.e. non-existent). So it's bound to end up being a better experience in the end.

The names are not what makes it like the Nazis but rather ironically enough the backstory. Didn't helghan lose a war? Yes the names are more ccp. But the imagery is there, the performance is there. 3 was most definitely like a movie from the 50s. I guess one could argue that it's generic USSR-German bit. Stahl though is a very German(Prussian iirc) family name. The Helghan logo isn't very Russian either. Basically they've fused them. At least it's better than the Russo-American Mercantile from Buck Rogers. They do have an interesting backstory which isn't utilised. Helghan-Vekta crisis does have a hint of partitioned India too with earth taking the role of the British. It's inspired by modern history nonetheless.

I agree with you Dean, though I get the feeling that what the others are arguing is that certain people use bad analogies and thus while trying to educate misinform a person. So essentially the newly taught become oddly enough a source of disinformation rather than simplify things or misinform. Disinformation is worse than misinformation though.

If you're in Oz tough luck. MK is not only banned but importing it can earn you upto 11k in fines. Oh and of course customs will confiscate it.

It depends. There is a growing voice for the Internet to be a basic human right. Mostly in EU nations with a credit economy. This could be very easily made into a corollary of that right. Which is why it's best to disregard this as a right. Remember copyright infringement and theft are different but the digital age treats them similarly despite it not being the same legally. Not yet anyway. Regardless people need to deal with consequences. This can be applicable only for removal of address and ph no which can infringe on privacy. The rest, frankly, deal with it. RealID has always been a pain, though it was meant for convenience.

That shouldn't be surprising. It's not like history paints a pretty picture of Germany's past. History is written by the victors. Helghan and Helghast are portrayed in the game like Nazis in WW2 movies right until the 90s down to the accent (at least films had a flimsy excuse of using British stage actors). People forget what effect the first war and economic depression had on Germany.

Just want to clarify that politician bit. While they have a right to be scrutinised, if their records have been erased by this and sufficient time has passed before they enter politics it might be impossible to gain clear info about their background. It can be done but it brings issues. Do we have a neutral reg body which in the western world brings in lobbying or do we leave it to the state which would bring another set if issues. I can't see a way for this to exist without bringing several new laws regarding privacy and it is likely that intellectual properties will also come to play in this. Errors attributed to iPhone at work.

Totally agree with cyber rat. Overexposure to personal works is an issue. The Internet is like a public fridgedoor in that sense.