Hot Heart

I love it, except for that final crescendo. It's just too jarring. Partly because it sounds a bit like the ending of A Day In The Life without a final note, but mainly because it reminds me of what actually transpires at that moment. The extended cut wisely chooses to get rid of it, but the overall tracks runs on a bit longer, losing some of the impact.

Better than the original. Yeah, I said it.

NFS: Most Wanted for Android. Figured you can't go wrong for 73p. And thanks for the heads-up, Dean! EDIT: And grabbed Waking Mars too, because why the hell not?

Yeah, that's why I'm saying she's still strong without being a badass in Alien (and Alien Cubed *shudder*) and for most of Aliens (even then, she's using some kind of utility vehicle not a military one, firing guns). There are 'strong' females in other roles but, in mainstream films, they tend to be manipulators and, therefore, femme fatales/evil.

Ripley is strong in Alien (and most of Aliens) without being a 'badass'. Conversely, you could look at 'strong', badass men and find a lot of them are emotionally void.

Huh, where's War-Z? Why's that not on sale? I've heard really good things.

Cyrus. Part of me wants to put this under 'crap' but another part of me really wanted to like this film. It has a good cast ("MARISA TOMEI!") and the concept has potential, but the actual story doesn't really start until two-thirds of the way through. It takes forever to introduce any conflicts, and those are usually resolved with a simple conversation, where contrivances are matched up against naturalism. It does have its moments though, and the performances are solid; just a shame a lot of it seems a waste. I do actually want to punch the reviewer who described it as 'supremely funny' though. It's far closer to 'gently amusing'.

You're a shit mod, Ethan.

Congrats, nice one!

Hmm, I thought I remembered seeing they were half-elf or something. Guess it doesn't really make much difference. Sure about that?

On the orc//warg design thing, I am going off of Empire magazine's big special on the film. It's stated that Jackson wanted to tweak the designs. It may be that they are different races and such (like Uruk-Hai are special orcs), but that was not the reasoning behind it. I always figured the shorter guys with big pointy noses and ears were goblins (probably Warhammer influence), when I think they are just 'lesser' orcs. Heh, found this explanation: Wasn't aware of that. Damn you, Warhammer. As for the warg comparison: Two Towers The Hobbit Think this all needs bumping over to The Hobbit thread again.

I reckon the filmmakers are aware of that and have some sort of plan up their sleeve. At least, something that doesn't seem quite so odd.

Peter Jackson actually confessed that he was never happy with the design of the goblins and wargs; the former, because they all looked like skinny men in costumes, and the latter, because he wanted them more wolf-life. So now the goblins come in all shapes and sizes, and the wargs have bigger snouts. They were deliberate changes and I actually quite liked it. In terms of pacing, I think this fares better than FotR, simply because the journey does really get going in earnest a lot sooner.

I thought the CGI looked fantastic, and had no problems whatsoever. It was certainly much better than something like Legolas climbing over a troll or oliphant/onto a horse.

I saw it before that. Plus it shows Strangelove edited it 1 minute later, not 5 hours. Either way, yeah, I don't like to hotlink...and I'm too lazy to go through hosting it myself (plus it seems like unnecessary bandwidth wastage, even if it's minor), so I just write them out.

Those are achieved by completing Homestead missions, which involve a variety of (even more) little tasks. I found them amusing little diversions, but most of what transpires actually bears no relevance to your artisans' skills. Kill some guards who were after your blacksmith? He levels up! On another topic, I have to say, I do like how incredibly off-point, and perhaps deliberately misleading, the marketing was. Though I've only just started Sequence 10, so things are yet to bear out, the historical representation is a lot more balanced than a surface look would suggest. p.s. the modern Desmond stuff suffers because it tries to do away with HUD elements (since they are non-diegetic), yet still includes the guard awareness indicators...since it would be completely unplayable without them. Either Ubisoft needed to find a plausible way to justify Desmond getting some of these perks (put it down to an Eagle vision filter or something) or stop being such sticklers over the issue.

Doesn't BioShock Infinite also 'all come down to that girl'? Wonder if there are any more games like that next year. It certainly looks interesting. Plus, it's by the lead designers of Uncharted 2...though my main complaints with 3 would be the plot and bugs. We shall see.

No, I got the joke, but I figure the American pronunciation would make it sound more like 'pancing'.

The was meant to suggest that I wasn't fussed (though I admit, I find it funny to push your buttons). A bit of aggression clearly crept into your response. And as T-Next attests, it's not as clear-cut as you might think, particularly if you're not familiar with the whole story. Anyway, it's water under the bridge now. And I'm really not bothered either way; just figured it was worth explaining the perspective of someone going into the films fresh.

Etymologically it can be sexist and/or homophobic. And I forgot 'poncing about', I've heard that one, too. No, that's 'pancing'.

My, you do get defensive.

Oh, do Americans (or even, younger British people) know the word 'ponce' or 'poncy'? Was thinking about how people describe things as 'gay' (e.g. "that hairstyle's so gay"), whereas before they might have said 'poncy'. Obviously, I'm not advocating the use of either, but I found it an interesting linguistic thing.

For what it's worth...

For naval convoys you need your carpenter guy at a certain level, and have found a 'recipe' for making naval convoys. When you go into 'Crafting' you need to go to the large Recipe bubble, select that and scroll down to (I think) Special Items, where there are new weapons and upgrades, then scroll right to find Naval Convoy. You need a certain kind of Lumber, which can be bought from your Stockpile. Once that's ready, you go along to Trading and can scroll down to Naval Convoy (assuming you have a Land Convoy already). Then, you have to load it up with each single item (can't say 8 x bear pelts, for example) and location. On top of that, it's a good idea to have cleared routes for your ships (which is why certain naval missions say things like 'Reward: Risk - 25%' or whatever) otherwise they have a default 80% risk, and I don't think you can do anything if they're attacked. Overall, it's a really muddled and superfluous system...and the only reason I've engaged in any of it is to buy ship upgrades.