floorswine
floorswine's last update: is looking forward to getting stuck into New Super Mario Bros Wii!
If you notice any bugs, please give us a shout in the forums.

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Nov. 20, 2009
Nov. 18, 2009
Nov. 15, 2009
  • I quite enjoyed the Godfather: Black Hand Edition.   I think everyone else has covered the worthwhile games, but as an old school Mario lover I'm very excited about New Super Mario Bros Wii. :)
    5 days, 23 hours ago
Nov. 11, 2009
  • If New Super Mario Bros is a as good as Mario 3 on the NES I'll be a happy man!
    1 week, 2 days ago
  • You're basing your entire conception of economics on faith-based, abstract nonsense. Austrian school economics has been widely panned and rightly so. Dispensing with scientific method makes the tradition at best a speculative experiment that has never been tested, and at worst an academic endeavour with all the credibility of scientology.   Believe whatever you want. I think you're completely delusional, but something tells me we aren't going to agree on this.
    1 week, 2 days ago
  • @Suicrat: The government didn't force people to invest in the stock-market before the crash in 1929. They did so as independent, free-thinking individuals. You aren't addressing the issue at all, instead falling back on the unproven assumptions of Austrian school economics.
    1 week, 2 days ago
  • @damnboyadvance:  It was directed to Suicrat.  @Suicrat said: " @floorswine: How can you attribute a problem to deregulation when the entire financial market was the captive of the Federal Reserve System? That's not a failure of deficient regulation, but of regulating the wrong things. i.e., interest rates need to be set based on amalgamated time preferences, not coercively imposed by a government-entrenched monopoly, the only role a government does need ...
    1 week, 2 days ago
  • @CL60 said: " Who the hell voted yes? "I did by accident actually! :-O
    1 week, 2 days ago
  • @Suicrat said: " @floorswine: If you are going to tell me to "look at history" and then assert that Government intervention (like, for example, government monopolization of the money supply and interest rates) were not the catalyzing force that caused the great depression, or that inflationary monetary policy didn't prolong it, then I will laugh, turn away, and wonder how someone so foolhardy could be a fan of a game ...
    1 week, 2 days ago
  • The vast majority of developed countries have accepted that climate change is a reality. The debate now revolves more around what steps should be taken to reduce carbon emissions.  Will Copenhagan lead to legally binding targets internationally?
    1 week, 3 days ago
  • @crunchUK: Professor Nutt. 3 more advisers quit yesterday too. This is turning into a bit of a shitstorm for the government, and rightly so.
    1 week, 3 days ago
  • I'm 25 next April, and for most of this year I had very little spare time due to working 32 hours a week as well as finishing a part-time degree. I finished recently though, so I've had a lot more  time to spend on gaming.
    1 week, 3 days ago
  • Good idea in theory, but I can't see how it will work in practice. The existing internet infrastructure just isn't good enough, at least from where I'm sitting. In ten years or so it might be more viable.
    1 week, 3 days ago
  • @Suicrat said: " @damnboyadvance: If you are talking about a government (which is a coercive institution) takeover of an industry (such as auto-manufacturing or healthcare), then you are talking about a coercive act. If Democrats wished the people they put into power to have control of these parts of the economy, so they could bring about positive, they should have invested their funds in these companies, instead of forming a ...
    1 week, 3 days ago
Nov. 9, 2009
  • I'm all for the Tobin Tax. It's the very least the financial sector can do to repay the "generosity" of the taxpayer.
    1 week, 4 days ago
  • floorswine replied to the topic Health care reform passes!
    Oops, looks like I've upset the Ron Paul brigade.  That scene in Bruno was comic gold.
    1 week, 4 days ago
  • floorswine replied to the topic Health care reform passes!
    I had no idea there were so many fundamentalist Friedmanites on these forums.
    1 week, 4 days ago
  • floorswine replied to the topic Health care reform passes!
    Just out of curiosity, do any Republicans here follow news sources other than Fox News? Because once again there seems to be a re-iteration of the same bogus and misleading arguments peddled by the likes of Glenn Beck.
    1 week, 5 days ago
Added by floorswine on Sept. 12, 2009

 
   
Who else remembers it? This advert resulted in me finally upgrading to the Super Nintendo following months of begging to my parents. On Christmas Day 1994 I became the proud owner of a SNES and Mario Allstars. Good times! 
 
On another note, why do British alternative comedians not advertise videogames anymore? I think Frankie Boyle should do the TV ads for the next GTA game following his cameo in IV:
 
Related to: Super Mario All-Stars


Added by floorswine on Sept. 8, 2009

I recently installed Mixcraft 4, and was eager to try my hand at a bit of videogame music remixing. Here's the first track I've done so far:
Related to: Mega Man 9


Added by floorswine on Aug. 26, 2009



Back from the wilderness

It's been about six months since I've really been involved with the site in any capacity, and I've decided now is as good a time as any to offer something of an explanation. So here goes. I joined Giant Bomb on launch week with a great deal of excitement about the site. It had (and still does have) the potential to be one of the best video game websites on the internet, and I was glad to be a part of that. In fact, over the past year the site has improved dramatically, and I've been really impressed with new features and content that the staff keep serving us up with. So why the self-imposed exile? Well, in short 2009 has been a really busy year for me. I've been holding down a full-time job whilst at the same time doing my best to finish a Masters degree in International Politics, and any spare time I've had has been devoted to spending time with my girlfriend or (attempting to) keep in touch with close friends - not to mention having to get through a mountain of coursework. As a result I've barely had time to devote to playing games let alone contributing to Giant Bomb, and there came a point when I had to pretty much walk away from the site for a while. Although I've taken time out to listen to the Bombcast and check out the new videos from time to time, I haven't been doing a lot else here and that's something I hope to change over the next month or two. So a big "Hi!" to everyone on my friends list and don't worry, I haven't dropped dead or anything. 
 

Videogame Backlog

So anyway, as of next month I'm going to have a lot of spare time on my hands for the first time in ages. The following titles are on my list of games to get through, and are either releases I failed to spend any time with last year or have yet to play:
 
  • Final Fantasy IV (SNES)
  • Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (Wii Ware)
  • Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
  • Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2)
  • Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
  • Chrono Trigger (DS)
  • Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii)
 
Recommendations anyone? In addition to these I also have the daunting task of going through all the other new releases pretty much since Christmas and seeing if there's anything essential I need to get hold of. I have a lot of catching up to do!


Added by floorswine on April 1, 2009


So, you're sick of your job. Your boss keeps giving you the crappiest, most menial tasks in the office, and every day without fail you get stuck looking after the phones while your co-workers are out having a "liquid lunch" at the company's expense. Worst of all, you've only had 3 hours sleep because you spent yet another week night online playing Team Fortress 2. I know what you're thinking - if only daily life at the office was as exciting as that time you got 5 dominations without dying. Well, now it can be! - with the all-new Wage Slave Achievement Pack! Unlock all 5 achievements to get the one thing you've been craving since you started the job - as much free time to play Team Fortress 2 as you like!!











Disclaimer!!  floorswine accepts no responsibility for any instances of contract termination, reassignment or redundancy



Related to: Team Fortress 2


Added by floorswine on March 20, 2009


...is just days away. Is anybody else out there as excited as I am? I hadn't really played much Fallout 3 since completing Operation: Anchorage, but a couple of days ago I started a new game with the aim of being the most evil son of a bitch in the wasteland. So far I'm really appreciating the way good and bad karma affects things - it definitely adds a lot to the longevity of the game. I had always been aware of this, but I've still been taken aback by just how different my experience has been so far this time around. In my first playthrough I saved Megaton and stuck mostly to the main storyline with a few side-quests along the way, but this time I blew it up straight after leaving Vault 101 and then did the Anchorage missions directly after that. Now I'm wandering the wastes with my Chinese Stealth Armour and Guass Rifle, and super mutants are suddenly not much of a problem at all. This time I'm planning on doing some more side quests (as well at the Pitt) before playing through the main storyline, and I'm then I'm thinking of maybe waiting for Broken Steel to come out before I play through to the end again.

So now I'm ready for the Pitt - what are my expectations? Well, to be honest the Pitt was perhaps the DLC that least interested me when they were all originally announced. I felt that the change of setting with Anchorage and new level cap with Broken Steel were more interesting than the Pitt, which seemed to be essentially more of the same. But after Anchorage, perhaps more of the same is not such a bad thing. Although I enjoyed the more combat-orientated approach (and I know plenty of other people hated it), I felt that the more open-ended nature of the main game - one of its biggest strengths - was lacking. This made for a refreshing change of pace in some ways, but this time around I'm mostly looking forward to playing some brand new content where I get to interact with new NPCs, loot people's corpses and go exploring. You can never loot too many corpses!!

What does everyone else think? Did you enjoy Anchorage? And what are you hoping for in the Pitt?

Related to: Fallout 3


Floorswine's Reviews
Democracy in action - kind of (PC)
Democracy 2 is a political strategy game from Positech that allows you to play as the elected leader of a country of your choosing. You will inherit a number of problems upon taking control of the country, and in order to solve them you will have to modify and formulate ...
Reviewed by floorswine on April 12, 2009
Despite the flaws, Fallout 3 is well worth a look (PC)
Fallout 3 was released by Bethesda at the end of 2008, and in the process quickly became a late challenger for countless 'Game Of The Year' awards alongside huge titles like Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4 and many others that had subsequently been hyped to insane levels. ...
Reviewed by floorswine on Jan. 30, 2009

1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
Wii Sports delivers fun for all the family - but not a lot else. (WII)
Wii Sports was Nintendo's primary launch title for their new console back in November 2006, and as the first game to demonstrate the console's innovative motion-sensing control system, it quickly captured the attention and imagination of a mainstream media that largely viewed videogames as a baffling and incomprehensible pastime beloved ...
Reviewed by floorswine on July 29, 2008

1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
Medic!! (PC)
The original Team Fortress emerged in 1996 as a mod for the game Quake, and was a cult favourite in fledgeling online gaming circles. A couple of years later, a version of the game known as Team Fortress Classic was created using the original Half-Life game engine. To this day, ...
Reviewed by floorswine on July 21, 2008


Date Joined: July 21, 2008
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Points: 1,726 Points
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- 494 points
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
game - 178 points
Political Machine 2008
game - 174 points
Super Street Fighter II
game - 111 points
Team Fortress 2
game - 76 points
Sins of a Solar Empire
game - 56 points
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II
game - 54 points
Democracy 2
game - 47 points

snide 36 minutes ago
The reason I still believe in PC gaming? I've played a dozen LFD2 pickup games now all with great people using voice chat and teamwork.
Jensonb 1 hour, 15 minutes ago
@GiantBomb just got prettier, that's for sure. And it was alread one of the best-looking sites on the web
Brad 1 hour, 40 minutes ago
Fired up Braid on a whim this morning and instantly solved the puzzle that had me stumped for a year. What the eff.
Jeff 2 hours, 13 minutes ago
My new power to change the GB homepage's tagline at will is surely going to lead to ruin.
coonce 2 hours, 52 minutes ago
new frontdoor looks sweet!
Ryan 3 hours, 12 minutes ago
play on, player! RT @FINALLEVEL: http://twitpic.com/qdjt0 - Daily Pic: Name this Bay Area Mack!
SuperMooseman 5 hours, 33 minutes ago
BANNED
tokyochicken 14 hours, 17 minutes ago
Hm since Dragon Age has issues running on my PC I might try Mass Effect again.