Gaming Thread

[Pitiless Wanderer]

London is ridiculously expensive to live in. Everyone says 'yea but there are ways you can make it cheap'. Uh yea, so I'll save a few pounds here and there by being a cheapskate. The city is also catered to the wealthy. Recent price increases are reflective of the desire to keep out immigrants. I mean, who wants to come to a place where some people have to pay 10,000 pounds sterling annually just for transportation? For some, for A LOT of people actually, that's half their annual salary. It's total bullshit. Don't get me started.

That being said. Is London cool? It's the best city in the world (aside from Rome maybe...maybe). But yea...London, despite the bullshit, has it's charm. The diversity is incredible.

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

That's just it, though. I agree with you that English is an international language, and maybe it's just a southern thing that no one there speaks English, but literally everyone I know speaks at least some English here. It also could be an age gap issue. Older people don't speak English here, but nearly every single young person I know speaks it enough to get by. Hell, they're constantly traveling to the UK on weekends so they have to know at least some.

I'm not saying it doesn't need to be improved and diffused more throughout the country, but I don't see where Italy gets this reputation for being unable to speak English when literally everywhere else I've been has just as many people lacking in English-speaking skills. Germany and the Nordic countries all speak English quite well, but I've even come across Germans and actually a lot of Austrians who don't speak it at all. The Spanish? Forget about it. The French? Not a chance. Portugal? No way. Yet for some reason Italy gets the brunt of it.

Of course, it could be that everyone wants to go to Rome and Florence and Venice instead of Madrid or Barcelona or Lisbon or Paris.

Maybe I see it differently because I live here and know people here.

I have had encounters here with Italians who came up to me and spoke Italian immediately, simply asking some very basic questions. It didn't get me mad or frustrated; I actually found it fascinating. I don't think I look Italian so there's hardly the chance they thought I was a native. Luckily I can speak it a little so it was ok. But, it has happened more than one occasion. I've never had this happen with Spanish or French, German or Greek or Brazilian people. I'm not saying it's exclusive to Italians because it isn't...but it does seem to happen quite frequently. It's an awesome language. It's like listening to music, and with the hand gestures, it's like watching a mime. The whole thing is quite theatrical and I love it.

 

[Dead Winter]

Haha, were they surprised when you spoke it to them? The cool thing about them is that they're really, really appreciative if you help them out when they're abroad. They'll invite you to the restaurant for which they're asking you directions. They're so self-conscious about their linguistic skills, or lack thereof, that any lessening of their embarrassment is greatly appreciated.

Then again, I hear London is full of Italians these days. I know most of my friends travel there often on weekends because they love it. They really love how organized and ordered everything is, which is something they're not used to but would really enjoy. I normally don't like eating out with Italians when they're abroad, though. They're not the most adventurous of people, and will just go to an Italian restaurant, only to complain that it's inferior. That shit gets under my skin.

 

[ShadowsWithin]

I would LOVE to speak multiple languages, pronunciation comes really easily to me in different languages. I remember having an encyclopedia program that had language basics in it and various natives saying them and I would look at the words, sound it out, press the button and be 100% on the ball. I've always had a fascination with languages especially European languages but never the drive to learn them.


It always surprises people at my job when we get foreign camp councilors especially Israeli (Modin, Jewish camp) and German councilors in my line and I direct them to their movie in my extremely limited knowledge of Hebrew/German.

 

[derek]

I can't recommend learning a foreign language enough. As English speakers we are neither driven nor pushed to do so and it's a great shame. It has a pragmatic side, of course, but it's so much more than that. The way languages represent the people who speak them and how they reflect back upon themselves never ceases to amaze me. Further to that, the more you learn about another language the more you can understand your own.

Also, my two cents on the discussion above - if you remove cultural misunderstandings/ignorance etc etc and are willing to accept that some nations are so different as to seem alien then I have found that every country has an equal mix of nice people and twats. We're all of the same species, after all, and our differences pale in comparison to what we have in common.

 

[derek]

Oh and I'll increase my post-cock and get us back on topic at the same time:

Has anyone played Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines and would recommend it? It's the deal of the weekend on Steam but I'm not sure whether to get it or not.

 

[Dead Winter]

GET IT DEREK. JUST GET IT. TRUST ME.

It's a little dated (2004) but it's a great game with lots of replayability. I bought it when it came out and was glued to it for weeks. In fact, I tried to reinstall it but I ran into a problem...for some reason my pc doesn't like it. I'll try and figure something out.

GET IT!!! Great story, great gameplay, great everything. It's a solid 8.5/10

 

[Dead Winter]

As for what you said above, I have never felt so enlightened as when I learned to speak Italian fluently. Learning a foreign language (and I mean TRULY learning it, not sitting in high school Spanish/French) opens doors for you that not even a degree can compete with (unless you're a scientist or something, and even then you need Latin!). You can not only learn about a certain culture, you can completely immerse yourself inside it and quite literally become a part of it. You become part of an elite club that is open only to speakers of the language, not because it's elitist but simply because it's the nature of human beings. You automatically make yourself more accessible to people and things that before you were not. You are literally assimilated into their culture and it opens new pathways of thought that you had never known existed.

I cannot stress enough how fulfilling it is to learn another language fluently.

 

[derek]

It's on steam for Euro 4.99, so I might get it then! Cheers!

 

[Talking Backwards]

I typically never put any stock in "exclusive" reviews for games, but the first for DE:HR is 94%. Then again, this is also coming from PC Gamer; who, if you'll recall, gave that exact score to the much maligned Dragon Age 2.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been getting us all giddy for quite some time now, and the world’s first review – courtesy of PC Gamer magazine – has finally dropped.

The review’s not available to read online yet, nor can you buy the mag in the shops, but subscribers have started to receive their copies as of today, and BeefJack has received word of a big score.

It’s 94% – making it among the highest-scoring games in PC Gamer’s history. The original, released back in 2000, earned itself a 95% rating, and the mag has repeatedly referred to Ion Storm’s classic as the best game ever.

“A dark, cool and beautiful revival of an incredible game,” writes reviewer Tom Francis of Human Revolution. “Smart, substantial, funny, creative and endlessly entertaining.”

We’ll have our own review of Eidos Montreal’s beast nearer the time of its release next month. The game will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on August 23rd/26th.

UPDATE: Gamer’s just lobbed up a news post which contains some more details. Here’s another quote for you: “[it's] absolutely the Deus Ex of our age, a genuinely worthy prequel, and a game that puts almost everything else in the genre to shame.” Wowzers!

Pretty much everyone who has been playing the beta leak is saying the same thing.

 

[El Stormo]

Oh and I'll increase my post-cock and get us back on topic at the same time:

Has anyone played Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines and would recommend it? It's the deal of the weekend on Steam but I'm not sure whether to get it or not.

But it you dirty Scot! BUY IT!

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

Then again, I hear London is full of Italians these days. I know most of my friends travel there often on weekends because they love it. They really love how organized and ordered everything is, which is something they're not used to but would really enjoy.

I was just talking to one of my friends the other day about how there seems to be more Italians in London than Englishmen. Everywhere you turn you hear the language. All my Italian friends in Italy love London. They love NYC, too. London is great because, like you say, it's very god damn organized. Everything is usually on time (though in recent years this seems to be getting worse, though...train delays, signal failures etc), and things are structured. It takes months to properly visit, and I'd say years to fully appreciate. I've been back and forth living there on and off for like 5 years now. I'm home now, in America, and won't be going back for a while. A long while. It miss it already.

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

there's apparently a massive nintendo ds price cut. is it worth getting one?

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

holy shit. has anyone seen this??

http://pc.ign.com/articles/118/1184814p1.html

 

[Talking Backwards]

there's apparently a massive nintendo ds price cut. is it worth getting one?

Are you asking about the DS, or the 3DS? The 3DS just took a huge price cut because it's sucking something fierce in the software department right now. It literally has one or two "must play" games if you own the system.

Those GTA mod shots look pretty fantastic. Too bad it wouldn't run smoothly at all, and still wouldn't make the game worth replaying. Rockstar is just as bad as #9023940234234 FPS developer. All they do is recycle the same crap every iteration, not matter what they want to call the game, and they sell like no tomorrow.

 

[Det Som Engang Var]

there's apparently a massive nintendo ds price cut. is it worth getting one?

Absolutely.

All the Pokemons are great, Phoenix Write:Ace Attorney series, the new Mario Bros is really fun, Animal Crossing, The Zelda's are decent. Lots and lots of RPGs.

But the number one reason you should buy one is Devil Survivor.

 

[Enemy242]

I typically never put any stock in "exclusive" reviews for games, but the first for DE:HR is 94%. Then again, this is also coming from PC Gamer; who, if you'll recall, gave that exact score to the much maligned Dragon Age 2.



Pretty much everyone who has been playing the beta leak is saying the same thing.

It will be amazing, you must buy it. Aside from the beta being fucking outrageously good (and it's not even the finished version), the reviews I've seen have been great: PC Gamer: 94%, some german magazine supposedly: 88/100, OXM: 10/10, OPM: 8/10 (this one people have been raging at because the reviewer was a complete idiot and compared it to games like cod and killzone and clearly didn't know shit).

I expect just top rating reviews and a fucking amazing game, I cannot wait to get my hands on this. The only thing people can bitch about is the graphics, but if you're shallow enough to need photo realistic COD graphics and can't deal with a game that actually has a unique and planned art design that draws you into the world and makes you feel really engrossed in the game, well then maybe the deus ex games just aren't for you (deus ex one didn't have amazing graphics for it's time when it came out, deus ex invisible war did and still holds up pretty well today if you max it out but it lacked in all other gameplay elements and was hated on from tonsss of people).

 

[Det Som Engang Var]

This new tidbit about Skyrim makes me very happy.

"Wards" will be an active defensive magic system. Holding down the button keeps it up, if it's kept up too long, or broken through by your opponent, it will cause you to stagger.

I guess Battlemages won't be fucked without blocking after all.

 

[Enemy242]

I'm going to start playing Oblivion again so I can finish Shivering Isles (just finished my playthrough of both dx1&2 in prep for HR) and I was wondering if you guys had any graphics mods that you think are good? forcing anti aliasing in catalyst is a real pain so is there any mod/hotfix that makes it more natural to the game and less resource consuming? also what about oblivion graphics extender, easy to use?

after this i'm going to replay morrowind again basically up until HR and then after that until the other games coming out (since its so fucking huge a game and will take forever) and i was wondering if you guys had any EASY to use graphics mods for that. I hate dealing with difficult mods that end up crashing my game because i fucked shit up, but I'd really like morrowind to look as close to vanilla as possible in terms of style, yet have the best graphics possible. I have a top of the line pc so performance isn't an issue, just ease of use so i don't have to install/reinstall a billion times when something fucks up. morrowind graphics extender seemed good but it seemed a bit complex and had other things that need to go with it so i'm kind of lost.

tl;dr retard proof graphics mods as close to vanilla but highres and good that i can not possibly fuck up installing, thnx.

 

[ShadowsWithin]

qorls texture pack - redimized
real lava
illumination within
any of the better bodies mods



ill think of more