The Bard

Man, the riff that kicks at 2:35 is still one of the best ever written.

Perhaps dumb is extreme. Of subnormal education is definitely appropriate though.

I just bought Mass Effect 3 twice. On a digital distribution platform. Fuck you EA, fuck you.

Slaughterhouse Five is amazing. Remember the scene where he's in Tralfamadorian captivity, and he watches the WW2 film backwards. It's all just Tanks rolling in and soaking up damage and then leaving, but it's really cool and well done. As for Hemingway, I'm reading For Whom The Bell Tolls at the moment. I'm pretty compulsive in the way that I can't start another book until I've finished the ones that I'm on, and fuck me, this is beginning to bore me shitless. The man has no taste for the expressivity or aesthetic of a sentence. Either that or the words are purposefully constructed to induce a cold, desolate deadness in my soul.

Girl that looks like Eddie Izzard messaged me on OkCupid. We struck up a conversation, after a while she commented on the lack of personal detail in my profile, and asked, in basic terms, what I'm actually like. I responded with this: "1. I often get disastrously drunk and insist on everybody taking their shirts off and dancing to Bomfunk MC's Freestyler. 2. I occasionally communicate mood in Shakespeare quotes (I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth...) 3. I am an embarrassing nerd." Haven't heard from her in two days

It would be simplified in all the worst ways, and complicated in unnecessary ways. WHAT PART OF THAT DON'T YOU GET MOOGLE JEEZ.

So your idea is to further complicate the amount of things you need to pay attention to - dividing visual attention between two screens - as well as keeping track of the unbelievable amount of things going on in the game such as capture points, resource caps, choke points, garrisons, bunkers, skirmishes, base tier progression etc, while actually decreasing the control precision? Do not want.

I think the Wii U is a very plausible candidate for a breed of RTS games, I just don't want CoH soiled or reduced in any way. Regardless of the input methods available on the Wii U's controller, it still isn't any sort of match for the expediency of a mouse, keyboard shortcuts, control groups, not to mention that the level of detail available on that tiny screen would put a Company of Heroes game back several years in terms of graphical capabilities. It's a similar situation with FPS'. Pit a person on a controller against one with a mouse, and the mouse user will smoke the controller player every single time, it confers that much of a competitive advantage. It's all fine and good when the game is designed around the limitation, but in for example Shadowrun, they had to actually hobble the mouse users with mouselook penalties, while enabling controller users with incredibly aggressive autoaim to level the playing field. CoH 2, is designed around a mouse and keyboard setup. There are fundamental differences that a change to Wii U controls would confer on the design of that game, and that's just not something I care to see, because I'm convinced that would be a negative. Instead of Company of Heroes, why doesn't a company design an RTS around the specifications of the Wii U controller? That, I would like to see.

Happy Ruddy Birthday, Old Man!

My god, there are so many procedural, interactive elements in this game that it's overwhelming. Just distracted and lured two outpost guards with a tossed rock before shooting the door of a tiger pen and backing out of a crevice in the wall, finding a perch atop a hill and watching the mayhem unfold. And then the Tiger came and mauled me to death, despite all my careful planning.

I read books. I know, I'm weird like that. Also I write music. Although a lot of the time I have to pry myself from in front of my computer screen to go off and do something that I think would be more beneficial for me.

No they couldn't. True RTS' have never and will never work without a mouse. Especially a game like CoH, which to be played on any level beyond the absolutely basic, has to involve a great deal of precise and swift micromanagement, involving identification and proper utilization of cover, garrisoning units at just the right angle to create choke points etc. There is no way it would work on the Wii U, nor would it find an audience. We saw attempts at RTS type gameplay on the DS with Final Fantasy and some others that simplified the design a great deal and made it massively slower - something that would ravage a game like CoH which is several degrees of magnitude more complex. Swapping formats is not the point here; it's the fact that anyone who insists that RTS' can be played on consoles doesn't play them to any level of proficiency. Look - CoH is a series to be lauded and celebrated for its complexities and depth, and risking anything that could tarnish the legacy of one of the best games ever made should be anathema to any gamer who intends to do more than play it for an afternoon as a quaint curio and then set it down forever. Finally "Nintendo need to use every dirty trick in the book." I don't give a fuck what Nintendo need to do, their strategy for success is not something I care to be privy to. All I care about is the games, not the continuing success and vitality of a corporate giant, so to me, and anyone else who is a gamer first, it is not what the acquisition of licenses will do for Nintendo's longevity, but rather the quality of the games that they'll be playing that matters most.

CoH 2 Wii U exclusive has to be the worst idea I've ever heard. In fact it's so bad that my brain cells tried to drown it out by simultaneously committing mass seppuku.

I remember the QMUL gym being pretty good and fairly cheap. Why don't you go for that and then go to Mile End Pools for a swim occasionally?

These are undoubtedly people who don't have the brains and common sense that get the rest of us through the day without violent death, so it's understandable that they might be exposed to the possibility of embarrassing faux pas if trusted with separate and easily detachable items of clothing.

Get a job. Or maybe not, who knows. Might just stick my hand down my pants and absolve myself of the impulse to do anything at all.

I don't think there would have been any bugs to iron out really though, since many of the scenarios involve going through the same geometry and performing different tasks later in the game. The source of the games increasing difficulty really relied on progressively greater quantities of enemies spread over larger danger zones, so I don't think the availability of more skills would really have done much other than make it easier. Of course I'm not a designer, so I'm sure they had their reasons. The games you do see a skill carry over tend to be shooters like Dead Space and Resi, where the extent of your abilities really only revolve around the fire power of your weapons rather than traversal speed or ability to stop time... I'm just a little gutted that I didn't get to max out all my skills in the same save.

Must have been that booty call last week babe.

Nah Charlie, they only thing I take on a regular basis is a pretty bog standard pea protein isolate shake. I think it might just be to do with the fact that I have generally elevated cortisol levels, which running doesn't really help over the short term. It's a pretty great mood booster though, so I reckon after a few weeks it should balance out and my sleep won't be too erratic.

Liking the jumper Goron. I can't pull that kinda stuff off, it doesn't go with my general demeanour. I'd love a nice wooly jumper at the moment though, it gets a little chilly being in my birthday suit 24/7. I just got a haircut. Pretty crazy, I can't remember the last time I had one. Good or shit? Edit: Ignore the pink tighties. They're not mine...

The one thing in this game that sort of annoyed me was the inability to play through again with all the powers you had collected from a previous playthrough. I appreciate that it would muddle with the balance and the pacing perhaps, but to be honest, I've already experienced all that and I'd rather play through a second time with a feeling of ease.

I've been doing 5k on the treadmill after my weights routines and frankly, it's beating the shit out of me. Does anyone have trouble sleeping after a hardcore workout, because I've been waking up two to three times every night and having difficulty getting back to sleep?

What? People on this forum occasionally voice opinions that are less than measured? Preposterous!

I'm not pessimistic at all, I just have a tendency to want to express my opinion regardless of whether it's about something I like or dislike. When it's about something I dislike, people always assume the attitude taken in that instance is indicative of my whole outlook, when really it's more to do with the fact that I know shit when I see it.

You're right. I don't like the Zelda franchise. I think select games from the franchise are exceptional, but as a whole, it's become tired and retrodden to oblivion. The art is pretty shit across the board though - Wind Waker being the noted exception.