Thursday Next

You do get used to it. Gravity Shifting around feels pretty natural, combat can be a little staccato at times. I still feel that sliding is a rubbish it just doesn't feel responsive enough (maybe need to upgrade sliding more).

Because the Fibonacci Sequence. Count the syllables. 1 1 2 3. Good cadence, yo. You mean the syllables in the title? Because if so, one of us needs to learn to count. Me-tal - 2 Gear - 1 Ris-ing - 2 Re-venge-ance - 3

It works because they are fucking parasites. You have to get the artist to sign a waiver officially telling the PRS to fuck off. (It's an area I feel passionately about).

That's it though. Alien had a very straight forward plot with a decent amount of complex subtext and imagery. Prometheus has a convoluted unseemly mess of a plot plus a huge amount of complex, vague subtext and imagery. You need to know the entire background of the whole Alien franchise to even hope to grasp what is going on in Prometheus. You can watch Alien as a monster movie. People go to space because their employer tells them to, they find a monster, it kills nearly all of them. Motivation is not an issue, the Alien is a monster. It kills things. It doesn't need a higher purpose. It's never even established if it even eats what it kills. It just kills because it is a monster. Beyond that you can look at the subtext, the way that the Alien perverts recreation, the themes of rape and all that. But on the surface, it's just a brutal simple monster movie. I don't think you can sum up Prometheus in such a concise way.

Agreed. Though I could put up with any of it if they'd just made everyone's motivations clear. There had better be a sequel that explains it all.

No way. It was entertaining but it was crap at story telling. Prometheus does not get a free pass just for having heaps of atmosphere. Despite all that, it was a very entertaining 2hours. But man did it lack the brutal simplicity of Alien / Aliens.

Yeah, I'm just being overly dramatic. In all seriousness, I grew up watching a variety of different shows but I want my kids to end up less involved with whatever the media trend du jour is. I mean, I hate how most toys these days are branded. Want to buy LEGO, it has to be Harry Potter or Star Wars etc. Because "lego" (and I notice that you all-capped it) isn't a brand? There's plenty of LEGO® sets that aren't cross promotional. You're just blinded by your cantankerous old gittishness.

Sounds like Performing Rights Society. They can go suck a dick, fucking parasites. There have been occasions where we have had someone write music for us and then PRS have come knocking demanding money so that we can use the music that we paid someone to make on our behalf. Still at least in the UK weddings are an exception. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRS_for_Music

This is true, though I'm not sure how long that bandwaggon hopping will last. EA has always been a big-ticket publisher. As much as the higher ups may want to change that, the people in the middle are fantastic at blocking those opportunities and not getting digital generally.

Haha. The Zone of the Enders bit was pure class. Advert felt like Edward Scissorhands. I like what I've seen so far, but I dunno, seems like Raiden might be a bit... OP?

Well, I was trying to pick non-contentious numbers otherwise I'll have people pulling real figures from Steam and Origin and shoving them down my throat. What I was trying to get across was, if you are unestablished, you'll take the hit to your margins in order to build a fan base. CoD etc. do not need to do that. I'm just extrapolating on what De Martini seems to be driving at, that he wants Origin to be a place where you get quality and pay a higher price because of that. I'm well aware of Origin's short comings with regard to features and community (and even basic functionality at times), but at the moment I'm just thinking about price and volume of sales. I should also point out that I have no idea how Steam conducts its business. So I'm not sure if they set the price, or if the developer does, or if it depends on who the developer / publisher is.

The reason that isn't a defence is because you can see an idea, copy it, but implement it in a different way and you avoid the patent altogether. Two things I would do with patents: 1. Make all patents subject to FRAND rules. That is, you are not allowed to stop people releasing products with the same tech, but you do have the right to demand they take a license and pay you on "Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory" terms. 2. Make patents waaaay shorter. A couple of years is more than enough time to have an effective monopoly in the technology world. Oh and I'd ban companies that exist solely to exploit IP rights. This company is no different to that Tim Langdell arsehole.

Hipster.

Maybe Americans like the Daily Mail because it reminds them of Fox News so much?

Steam sales make it harder for other publishers to charge what they want to charge. It's a free market. If you don't like the "Stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" model, then don't let Steam publish your games. I think (personally, not related to anything overheard in my employment) that this is a message to developers. Basically EA are saying, "If you want to sell a million copies of your game at $4.99 go to Steam. If you want to sell half a million at $10 come to Origin." owtte. Developers will decide which they prefer. I think we will see some shifting towards the traditional publishers with an established consumer base leaning toward Origin, where their profit margins will be protected. Smaller, more nimble, indie devs will gravitate to Steam so that they can shift more units and establish a larger fan base.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_Regum_Britanniae This book, a "History of the Kings of Britain" was accepted as true until people got smart enough and communicative enough to see that it was just a bunch of stories. It took about 500 years for people to see through it. Not quite up there with the Bible, but a good innings none the less. One day this page will link directly to the Bible under the category of "books that people used to believe were factual but are now classified as fantasy novels."

Couldn't see a thread for this but since it is out soon... That Swift girl has got together with some people and made: http://store.steampo...com/app/200010/ Looks puzzletastic. Here are some early puzzles...

Why not just "Revenge" or "Vengeance"? It is bizarre.

You can't sue for stealing an idea anyway (unless it is patented). For it to be copyright infringement you have to COPY the expression of the idea. Adapting it into a totally different story is not copying.

Nooooo! Why would he do such a thing? Does that mean that Joffrey will have Batman beheaded at the end of Dark Knight Rises?

I'm thinking that was an Oracle = Soothsayer / Prognosticator joke. As in "An entity with supernatural knowledge of everything would in all likelihood have foreseen your departure." Anyways, here's a way to get a job... If you can get to Guildford, are available from June to September and have a qualifying law degree, I've got a 3 month internship coming up. It's only minimum wage and short term unfortunately, but it's still a great opportunity, and much as many of you hate on EA, it'll look good on your CV and I write a kick-arse reference. Feel free to spread the word amongst your friends.

I was seriously kidding (oxymoron?). I think that if you go reading a forum topic about the third film in a trilogy then you should be expected to at least have watched the first two. Same goes for books, e.g. the A Dance With Dragons thread. If you're in there and read a spoiler about the show, or one of the earlier books, it's your own fault.

Just so.

Someone gave me a copy of Witcher 2. Thereby forcing my hand.