Thursday Next

EA seem to be quite pleased with the pre-orders for both this and BF3... Unless they do a Homefront and steal the most cancelled pre-order crown, both games should be successful by most measures.

Activate Smug Mode. Probably going to wait for Layton v Wright though. That's my system seller.

Certainly don't feel bad for them, but a 40% / $90 discount is pretty good really isn't it? *NOTE* I know that you can probably get the 3DS for less than $249 already, but assuming the discount will be in proportion to the actual price.

Alpha / Feature Complete means that all the maps, guns, levels etc are in the game and are testable. No new content should be added once a game has been declared Alpha. How those features work is still in flux. So while a new menu screen shouldn't be added the content of that menu screen could change. While a new gun shouldn't be added everything from its graphical appearance to its stats can change. Of course that's how it's supposed to work. In reality games will often be declared Alpha before being feature complete as dev payments can be linked to hitting such milestones. If you have any questions specific to the Alpha, I strongly recommend you drop them in the BF3 Alpha forums so as to avoid breaching any NDA that you may have had to agree to. I'm sure someone from EA / DICE will respond to you there. I'm not saying that any of that is specifically true for BF3, that's just how things work in the industry generally.

3DS going down in price: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/28/nintendo-3ds-price-drops-from-249-to-169-august-12th-current/ hopefully this will extend globally.

They still mean the same at EA. Alpha = Feature Complete. Beta = No unknown bugs.

Haha. Penguin is a cross between Bob Hoskins and Cartman doing his English (lil scheme) accent.

Nope. I looked at the picture. That's about it it. Did it say things in the articles?

You know these two groups are not mutually exclusive yes?

The BBC are running a campaign surveying 3G connections in the UK. To take part you can download the app here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.epitiro.uk3g

Was he giving out gold?

Ahhh! Yes. I've been caught out by these so called "hash browns" before. They are, in fact, short chips. UK hash browns are made with shredded potato formed into patties (normally a right-angle triangle shape not sure why).

It's such an easily subverted principle. Suicide bombers are standing up for what they believe in. Dictators stand up for what they believe in. If everyone stands up for what they believe in with no possibility of being swayed, then the whole world will end in conflict. How's about this for a belief, I believe that Captain America is the second crappest super hero ever. I believe that I would rather see a super hero film about the Green Cross Code Man than Captain America. You can believe that, even if it is bullheaded. Of course, who said there wasn't an opportunity for reason and debate. It's peer pressure if anything. For example, you're not giving up into believing the idea that you're the only one wrong while everyone else has a mild interest for the character. You're standing firm and trying to assert an opinion that bares more resemblance to extremism with how you derive nationalism and totalitarianism from a single quote. Really, who would have guessed ideals like "freedom of speech" could be such double-edged swords, or should I say "easily subverted principles." Freedom of speech is everyone's right to express themselves provided it does not infringe another's freedom to do so, one person expressing their views does not affect another person who may wish to do the same. Telling the whole world "No-You move." is oppressive it seeks to limit the freedom of others in favour of what one person thinks is right. It is also combative in tone. Whatever happened to "I may not agree with what you are saying, but I will fight for your right to say it."? With that. I'm going to play my "Agree to Disagree" card on this conversation. I can't stand Captain America. I hope he doesn't feature too heavily in the Avengers movie. I'm not telling anyone else to not like it, or not watch it.

It's such an easily subverted principle. Suicide bombers are standing up for what they believe in. Dictators stand up for what they believe in. If everyone stands up for what they believe in with no possibility of being swayed, then the whole world will end in conflict. How's about this for a belief, I believe that Captain America is the second crappest super hero ever. I believe that I would rather see a super hero film about the Green Cross Code Man than Captain America.

Huh? By no one, I mean "Not one of his fans." take the below quote: "Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — 'No, you move.'" Basically boils down to: "Captain America is always right. Everyone else can go to hell." How about, if the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, you ought to reassess your situation rather than trying to blindly impose your beliefs on everyone else? That statement from the Cap pretty much sums up the "world police" perception of America, it's not a good thing.

Maybe he doesn't stand for "The American Government", or "The American People", rather, he's held out as the personification of how utterly fantastic America is at it's heart hence the "This nation was founded". It's that notion that Captain America is a "pure" (and I use that word with the full weight of history behind it) or "true" American and that, as such he is the barometer of Freedom and Crap Like That. Not to mention that no one blinks when he measures the rest of the world against his morality and that grinds on me somewhat.

Bah, so it will be at least that long till PS3 I bet. L'ame as they say in France.

Corden should fuck off x2.

Quite. Not getting what a "Southern" Hash Brown is. The rest I get.

What is the difference between a tatertot (which I understand to be a hash brown) and southern hash browns? Do you name food based on it's location on your plate? Did you have a continent of tatertots to the north, necessitating the renaming of the southern tatertots? Why is your plate geopolitical? Why?

Hope we don't have to wait absolutely ages for the PS3 release. Really want this one.

So is it okay if I buy a game and then don't play it at the same time as I let a friend copy it to his hard drive and download a crack? Not at all. I'm saying that if it could only exist on one hard drive at a time then piracy would be the same as lending a disc. That is that for as long as the person you gave it to had it available for their use, you did not have it available for your use. I think I have five or six games lent out to various friends right now. The only reason I usually say "no" is if I don't trust that I'll get it back easily. You seem to have missed my point. Would you be willing to "share" a game if it was going to be downloaded by a random and you had to wait till they gave it back? Pretty much the same as, would you walk into a train station and offer to lend your games to any passer-by? Seems like you wouldn't. So all this talk of "I'm just sharing games" doesn't fly with me because it's not some selfless gesture for the good of the people, it's not even helping out a mate by letting them borrow your game. If pirates could not access their games without getting them signed back to them by the downloader, I think most people would stop "sharing" games overnight, or at least they would do it on a one to one basis. Not broadcasting them. Honestly I think the way BioWare does DLC is pretty horrible and takes me out of the experience a lot, not to mention that the quality of their DLC usually isn't up to snuff (Shale from DA:O excluded) so I'd rather they don't do it at all. But that's a different discussion entirely. Quality of DLC notwithstanding, my point is that companies don't wait till a game is released to make DLC for some very sound reasons.

Haha. Great minds think alike.

Well here at least it's primary school education... Yup. Same here. Even the dullards that skipped science got taught this in music. Maybe the sound is from Captain America's arm shaking because he is such a wuss.

Actually, I do get this one. Sweet things tend to go with meat generally, duck and plum Sauce, turkey and cranberry, pork and apple, barbecue sauce is pretty damned syrupy and ketchup is sugary too. I quite like maple syrup on sausages and bacon.