The Bard

No. I want you all to myself.

Watched the first ep a couple of days ago and I thought it was really great. They seem to be making a concerted effort to humanise the zombies. Although we'll have to see how it progresses. The comics weren't really about zombies, they were about the people.

That last paragraph wasn't addressed to you, but to whoever wrote that set of impressions. Which I hope wasn't you, because you're better than that As for the point regarding intimacy, I find it to be the opposite of that, since a great deal of the game is spent getting to know your team. From direct interactions, to the way in which your decisions are interpreted by each member, and the fact that you spend a large majority of the game actually developing your relationships with these people, and your need to weigh the need to gain their loyalty being against your moral considerations. I did enjoy it a great deal. I understand your point on the "rigidity," of some of its elements, but the rest of the game drew me in so completely that I completely didn't register this. And this small shortcoming only serves to show how comparitively well designed the rest of the game is. Anywho, I got a bit carried away, but I kinda found it funny that you thought the fact that I liked the game reflected poorly on me as a person . I just think that there was nothing substantial to that guys review, and that it was reductive to the extreme. Also: Vapid Troglodyte. Stealing that for future use. I do what I can

I saw that a few days ago. Fucking hilarious.

Man...contraceptive statistics indicate that there's a good probability she should be pregnant by now

Daft, while I respect your opinion on things, there are times... I find the fact that review cited Assassins Creed as a counter to the contrivance of Mass Effect 2's story an instance of the most bizarre stupidity imaginable. Yeah, let’s basically make the Matrix, as an absurdly convenient excuse to let you run around in renaissance Italy with minimum exigency, because that's not the lowest hanging narrative fruit imaginable, right? The fact that Mass Effect harvests practically every cliche in the Sci-Fi book is not beyond my understanding, from the Protheans to the Mass Relays being essentially adaptations from the Ancients and Gates in Stargate, to the Geth which are reminiscent of the replicators. The thing is, Mass Effect is just another Sci Fi world, but having said that, it is well contained and fairly holistic. There is always an explanation for everything that is consistent with the Meta logic and world of the game. Nevertheless, the idea that the game has no soul is both narrow minded and ignoring the very element that gives its story shape; the fact that it is the game at the forefront of my mind when I think of player agency and impact on the way the narrative unveils itself. This is why we play games; collaborative storytelling. You cite Uncharted 2, which is heavily scripted and essentially linear. Any capacity the player has for self expression in the narrative comes from the mechanics themselves, and these have little consequence in the world, other than the way in which your proficiency affects your progression. Hell, there is more capacity for expression in something like Team Fortress 2, which, in the absence of story is abstract enough that you can create your own mini narratives within the microcosm of every death match, just because of the emergence of it all. You’re familiar with the theory of emergence right? The idea that a small set of simple rules can lead to a greatly complex set of possibilities. Still, Mass Effect was fantastic in this regard; you could approach every combat encounter from a multitude of different angles, depending on your character class, the skills you’ve chosen and upgraded, and the weapons you’re holding. On top of this is the fact that you could also choose from a fairly sizeable host of characters to take with you on missions, all of whom have their own peculiarities and traits that affect their attributes, and by extension, the attributes of your group in a combat situation. Even though this is the case, this is not even close to the main reason why Mass Effect 2 holds so much esteem in my eyes: You are the very thing that gives it soul. Unlike a film, you can’t just sit there and let it happen at you, you have to participate, and the more you invest, the better you’re rewarded. Mass Effect 2 is a huge progression within the sub genre of what I like to call “morality games,” that Bioware seem to have something of a monopoly on. When you talk to people about how they played Fallout 3, or Dragon Age or even the original Mass Effect, it was always set of categorical imperatives in mind. I will play this as a saint, or I will play this as fuckin’ Hitler, and this was because the mechanisms by which the morality system work weren’t nuanced enough to reward weighing every decision on its own merits, and your progression was only really accelerated by consciously choosing to act on the extreme ends of the moral spectrum. You never really played as “yourself,” or a projection of yourself into the game world, because there was no real means to do so. This was completely overhauled for Mass Effect 2, partly by virtue of the fact that neither the combat, nor your moral alignment had much of an impact of your stats, and levelling was staggered so that it only occurred at the end of each chapter. In this way Mass Effect 2 is a true RPG, because you are actually playing a role, instead of ramping up a series of abstract statistics and declaring that these constitute your character, and letting these be what drives your play. What was even better is the fact that within the cut-scenes that detailed parts of the story, you were given the ability to make quick split second decisions regarding the course of action your character would take. Just the very fact that these have to be made on the fly means that you don’t have time to sit there and hypothesise on values alien to you, you act on your gut, and it is these split decisions that most greatly characterise you as a person (at least if you believe Malcolm Gladwell’s theories in Blink). And finally, because in most games, your considerations are usually tied to what the immediate reward of an action is going to be, as well as how it affects the usually binary outcome in the ending. This is not the case with this series of games, since even what you did in the first Mass Effect had extensive reverberations in the second game, and these are only amplified by the additional agency you are given in Mass Effect 2. Everyone whom I have talked to has taken completely diverging paths throughout the game in terms of their reactions to events, and their inevitable outcomes, especially the ending which I’m sure will have huge implications for the following game. Not only this, but the character interactions can be fucking fascinating. For example (and this may seem far-fetched initially, but stick with me) I was reading as part of my course, some Ralph Waldo Emerson, and his theories on epistemology, which is essentially like objectivist epistemology, wherein he believes that the world is like the Rosetta Stone, and we as humans have an innate ability (as long as this isn’t hampered by too much social and cultural nurture that distorts this ability) to correlate our understanding with the natural world, and therefore come to the same conclusions, and fill in a directly correlative understanding of the world, piece by piece. Personally, I call this bullshit, because every human has a different interpretive paradigm built in, but imagine my surprise, when Legion, a machine comes and tells you this very thing about the way in which his race interpret phenomena, and have a collective consciousness with which to piece it together. What is even more exciting (to me...I’m not sure that everyone else is riveted by this so far...) is how he asks you, a human, to make a crucial decision on the fate of a divergent sect of his race... well...my mind was a bit blown, but I may just be insane... The beef that guy had with the elevators being replaced by loading screens is absurd. This is a videogame – one that is incredibly impressive in terms of visuals, sound and presentation – what does that guy expect, gold, frankincense and myrrh on a platter? On top of this, the presentation of the loading screens only serves to distract you from the fairly minuscule loading times as it is, since they’re always blueprints or diagrams detailing things from the way that your ship docks, to, the external structure of the Citadel, combining to create a sense of the game world being one that isn’t fragmented and poorly glued together, but one that is very cogent. The final point about the Asari who kills by mating, well, that is entirely consistent with the race in question. Come on, their sexual morphology shifts to accommodate any gender and race, their elders are call “Matriarchs.” Yes. Feminine over sexualisation is fairly explicit in these creatures, but then again, every Sci-Fi universe in existence has some equivalent, from the Twileks in Star Wars to the fact that every green ass puke coloured alien in Star Trek had a humanoid supermodel physique. It’s just a trope, and I thought that Mass Effect did something pretty inventive with it. And hey, I’m no xenobiologist, but I thought the games internal encyclopaedia provided some sustainable explanations. I think that guys reference to “mother issues” was totally redolent of the reflexive nature of vulgar Freudians wherein everything has to have some implications within their insipid discourse of understanding. Fuck off you utter twats. In conclusion; if you don’t like Mass Effect 2, that’s all fine and good, but don’t come and present utterly philistine arguments, that are nothing if not petty reductions, for why that may be the case. Edit: Urr...shit. Didn't realise the post was that long...

The ladyfriend and I in the computer labs

FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

That may be the case, but I'm sure the absence of any good songs must have been a hamper . Haha, I donno, I've never really been a fan. You gonna go Sonisphere this year then? I'm gonna wait and see before I decide between that and Download, last year was an absolute logistical nightmare, getting in and out of the stage areas, as well as the fact that a shitty quarter pounder with cheese was fuckin £8.50. I've always wanted to go Pukkelpop in Belgium too. They had an amazing amazing lineup in 2009. Man, even Kraftwerk were there! Can't believe I missed it .

Anyone who posts Johnny Cash's version of Hurt is getting a shiv in the cock shaft.

Yeah man I agree. I guess its still a cool show piece for what the iOS can do, even though the interaction is limited.

Oh wow, the big four at Sonisphere (really it should be the big 3 plus sideliners Anthrax because they kinda blow). Fuck download this year, think its gonna have to be Sonisphere.

Do not want.

Well, it might detract from the amount of time they spend on the single player. It will be a real bummer if the game doesn't match up to Mass Effect 2. That game was near perfect. Multiplayer in the sense of drop in/ drop out co-op would be a neat little extra, but I don't feel as if the powers and shooting mechanics in the second game were really honed for multiplayer combat.

Didn't like Oblivion partly because of the swords and dragons and all that silly ye-olde-world bullshit, and partly because the interaction was hampered by a fairly awful connection with the world of the game. The way your character walked, or rather, slid awkwardly over the terrain, and the way the combat felt like there was a definite lack of impact to your attacks... just didn't grab me. Fallout was kinda the same way, but it made up for some of its shortcomings because it was made more visceral just by way of the visuals and the impact of disintegrating some fools skull with a headshot. Really hope this is in a new engine because I kinda want to get into it. Yeah man, I didn't get why everyone in that engine had to be so ugly. Its like that engine is incapable of rendering anything other than a burn victim or a leper.

I don't like Infinity Blade too much apart from the fact that it is something nice to look at and show off the graphical prowess of your phone. Just the fact that its running on a phone is boggling. The act of actually playing it is kinda dull though.

That sucks man, hope you're aight

Although I've never been someone who has fit well into cliques on here (or anywhere), mostly because of the likelihood of pissing someone off sooner or later, I like to flatter myself and see a bit of myself in everyone. And its changed over the years, especially since after I met some of you guys in real life. There's definitely a group of people that I feel like I consciously moderate my responses to, especially when we disagree, since I can be somewhat caustic in text (which is intentional, as those that have met me in real life can maybe vouch for), just because, hey, I like them, and am making a concerted effort not to be alienating . Goron 3 comes to mind. We share tastes in videogames and the way we like to play them, get super competitive and talk a lot of trash, as well as the fact that he is a super super nice dude. The first person on here that I got to know a bit off the forum. Kinda sucks that he doesn't post as much anymore. Oxigen_Waste and I used to talk loads back in the good ol days when he first joined and I was but a wee teenage metalhead, overly enthusiastic and abrasive in my need to convince others. I think there's a general sense of "good taste" that we share. Also one of the funniest, most knowledgeable members on here. DanDare because of awesome. I think I've developed something of a rapport with Paj and Chair recently, partly in due to the convergence of the aforementioned "good taste" (although debatable on some counts gaiz). I kinda don't like that I've clustered them into the "Pajchair" dual headed mutant persona that they share a little bit, because they're very much individuals, but its cute in the way that it makes me pine for a bro that I could use as a sounding board. Daft because he's a smart chappy who knows his shit, and often disagrees with me, which leads to some productive butting of heads. And a mutual love of The Infinite misanthropy of Theodor Adrono Jayseven because of our alcoholism and ability to meander any conversation into a spiralling cavalcade of doubt and cynicism. Can't think of N-E meets without Jay. Flinkeh! I remember specifically getting really drunk on my uncle's supply and having lengthy msn convo's with him about random random shit. What always struck me is how great and easy the dude is to talk to, which was just re affirmed when we met at this years meet. Also used to have fantastic deathmatches with the man on Metroid Prime: Hunters along with my mate Ben. I miss those days brah. Ashley, cause, well, we love Scrubs, and also being sarcastic assholes. I do like the dude's humour. :p. Eurgh, get me a towel. I'm covered in this shit... (If I forgot you, suck it up.)

(sorry, I had to )

I was made to see Bullet at Download, because my friend wants to cause me psychological harm, but on the plus side, their Guitar and Drum sound was absolutely incredible, and they were tight. Although that's to be expected when all you're doing is playing 4/4 metalcore riffs.

Got 75 on my Foucault essay. That's good I guess. Now I can stop talking like a douche =p.

I thought that by cupping my hands and yelling "Mastodon!" like someone who rides to school in a short white bus, I would be able to summon and command the faculties of a large mechanical mammoth . Trial and error is a harsh teacher

Yeah, but the discourse isn't going to change for something as comparitively insubstantial as a bunch of disenfranchised students getting pissy at a education fee hike. Chair gave the example of Lui Xiaobo, a man who spoke out against an autocracy where a person's rights and privelliges are dwarfed by his duties to the state, where the law will cudgel you remorselessly for stepping out of line. We are not blind... in the present we are more connected to the world than ever and are capable of seeing that within our wider context, we have it really fucking well off. And of course, one's own happiness is always informed by one's context. Hilariously, nobody outside of a very small minority is going to want to risk jail time or personal injury for one of the things that marks this country out as being privelliged. Its a psychological issue. As long as our personal comfort and health isn't challenged in a fundamental way, there's nothing that can move us to act in the way that is needed to sway a discourse to our advantage. What I do think, is that this government is using the recession as an excuse to instate policies that are more in line with their world view rather than an entirely necessary result of being in a bad way financially.

I really hate cider, it has a really sour taste, that reminds me of the way piss smells in a rail station cubicle.

Me and my gf lived together, so and we never really had clothes on most of the time anyway. I usually take em off with the trousers though, when the opportunity presents itself.