Thursday Next

I agree with Ethan and propose boxing day (27th Dec) as the last day for Gifting. (Because I'm a traditionalist).

It's fine you can re-download as much as you like.

Thursday Next's Christmas Wishlist <a href="http://steamcommunit...ranalogy">Steam ID: VictorAnalogy</a> <a href="http://steamcommunit....t">Wishlist</a> I've recently returned to PC gaming so any PC exclusive titles of recent years would be of interest. I actually like arty little indie games. I'm not so into competitive multiplayer, but co-op multi is good. Genre wise, I'm not fussy. Adventure games, puzzlers, RPGs, shooters are all fine with me. I'm fine with receiving things not on my wishlist, however, I'm fully stocked on EA games (which given the current EA - Steam relations shouldn't pose an issue). Hope those URLs look right... I'm not good at htmling. Fuck this noise.

Kinda takes the Santa-ness out of it, but couldn't you gift a code for itunes currency? If you were so inclined?

Even if you had, no one would have listened to you.

It will make precisely 0.01 of a fuck all difference to the way the media is held to account.

I don't want to be your nice friend, chum. I'm not your chum, buddy! I'm not your buddy, mate. I'm not your mate, nice friend!

I don't want to be your nice friend, chum. I'm not your chum, buddy!

I've just had the most amazing idea!!! Once P4 makes an official sign-up form and the deadline for sign-ups passes, he can send the whole list to everybody with Steam names and what not so we're all nice friends. Thoughts?

You missed the bit where the government are not actually increasing taxes on booze (so that the money goes to say... the NHS), but instead the money is going into the coffers of supermarkets. Yes, this could result in an increase in corporation tax that would benefit us all, but I think Tesco are pretty good at tax planning these days so any bump there would be minimal. Further, "premium" alcohol brands will love it because they are no longer being undercut so they sell more or can increase their prices further. It also presumes that people who are both poor and dependent on alcohol would buy less alcohol and not less food, less clothing, less heating, less medicine etc. All in all this idea is terrible, gods know why the government can't see that.

That Mutant Blob game thing for the Vita. A solidly entertaining roll-em-up.

I loved both those games. Really enjoyed the noire-esque tone. It felt almost like Silent Hill, but without the supernatural elements. That feeling of isolation, the really strong characters, the atmosphere.

signed up. Ho ho ho.

I'll take a wild, totally uninformed, stab at number 2.

Seems to be reviewing fairly well. I like a bit of local MP as well. Will almost certainly pick them up today.

Presumably this is why they are called Pik-min as opposed to LeaveShitThere-min.

If you've not played Mass Effect yet, the trilogy should be out next month.

Even the independents can't be trusted. Turns out at least two 'independents' were fully paid up members of the Lib-Dems. Conning bastards. :-O Sons of a bitches!

It's a funny thing. In my part of the videogame business there are tonnes of women. But, I could count on one hand the number of girls I've met testing games. Again, a chicken and egg problem. With hardly any women in the industry the arrival of a genuine female means that she is instantly a nexus for attention. Whether it is the well meaning kind of "Oh you're a girl so you must be struggling to integrate." to the more negative, slobbering, "I can't wait till we all get drunk at the Christmas party so i can book myself a trip to HR." sort. Either way, it makes you stand out as being different. Much as I would hate for it to happen to me, I do honestly believe that forcing the number of women in the industry to be higher by the application of quotas would be an effective means of redressing the imbalance. Once having a number of girls in the office becomes the norm, the novelty wears off so that girls are not made to feel uncomfortable by default, so more games will be made by people who think like girls, and more girls will want to get into the industry... At least, that's what would happen in an ideal world.

I meant the people making them rather than the people playing them.

So far as the eye-candy thing goes, that cuts both ways. Inaccessible body image is a staple of modern media and is not tied to a single gender. Chris Redfield's arms are ridiculous for example. There are few "ugly" protagonists full stop. As to the role women actually play in games, they do tend to be the support role at best and a plot device at worst. We can all rattle off games with decent female leads, but the majority of games are still "save the girl", even Ico was a "drag the useless woman around the castle-em-up". To be honest, there are still plenty of issues with getting women in gaming in the real world. Perhaps when there are more of them, we'll have more balance in the games that are made?

No, but they all seem rather chummy with the Doc. Maybe he transported them there, or something wibbly wobbly happened?

No worries. I'll be mindful to spoiler tag anyway. It's no bother and if it saves a jonny-come-lately (like myself) from a spoiled experience then it's worthwhile.

Given the show occasionally features time travel appearing in 2020 and then later in Victorian times isn't exactly hard to achieve.