Dear Giant Bomb,

I am writing this letter to the site, to the community and all those who read the internet on a regular basis. This is a letter with a plea and a warning, from a user whos been around this site and before from a long time. I didn't know how how I could start this or even end it but there comes a point when it becomes upsetting and emotions overtake judgement. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this, maybe I should just sit quietly in a corner and watch my favourite site desolve into just another area of the internet that just revolved around abuse and terror. But no, I will not.

This is a plea from the small person, just a user with a heart for computer games and the many emotions they bring.

Currently, in countries across the world they are looking at the effects that computer games are having on a person. Should we have violent games? Should we have games that glorify violence? Can we justisfy what we enjoy as a hobby? These are a few questions that have been asked and will probably be studied for years to come. But then there is this site.

This is our home. A home of gamers who have been moved from gamespot and back again following the fun, trials and tribulations of guys who care about what we play. Who do more than their job to bring us the entertainment and comments that other sites could only dream of. They make us laugh and cry. I'll never forget hearing about the guys talking about Journey multiplayer and companions disappearing, leaving them all alone. It brought a tear to the eye as a was driving alone from Wales to Scotland.

Yet now more than ever there is hatred in the comments. I, for one, have felt the bulling nature as a grew up. High School was difficult for me until I was moved to somewhere where I could finish my exams without being picked on. I read the comments sometimes and frankly it upsets me. This is our home. A home where we can be critical but always with a giant bomb smile on our faces knowing we are a part of a community who will respond constructively and with respect. Unfortunately the community is changing. Changing into the rest of the internet. Changing into Youtube comments and CallofDuty and LoL chat. Is this what you want?

Should we ban those who abuse? What level of critisem becomes abuse? I feel the community recently has almost opened it's doors to more people. It's almost having a party with people you don't know. Or has this level of abuse always been here and i'm just nieve to what goes on? This is our home. If this level of abuse continues I can see people not using this site or the guys just calling it a day. It's not as if any of them would find it hard finding a new job. Their good at what they do.

What kind of reputation do you want for this site?

I know no one will read this or i'll just get things thrown at me but I just want to say thankyou to everyone who works at Giant Bomb for all your years hard work. I appriciate it.

Always in communication

Julian

A Welsh Gamer

At last a Co-Op patch for settlers 7. As someone who enjoys business games and especially with my friend and I LAN, its nice to see the game might actually be listening to their community and releasing something that has been screamed for a while.

Information taken from 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/20/new-settlers-7-patch-adds-free-co-op-mode/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rockpapershotgun%2Fsteam+%28Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%3A+Steam+RSS%29
 

So the patch will update the game with the new mode, as well as bring in a few new features that make the current maps playable in a co-op form. They are:

- Allies can donate sectors to the team partner

- Allies can send resources and goods to the team partner

- Allies share technologies with the team partner

- Allies share tradeposts with the team partner

- Allies share victory points and all calculations, that count towards gaining victory points

- 2 brand new multiplayer maps

o Tower Island – This is a menacing place, where four rulers challenge each other. The island is dominated by the central Tower of Tandria. Gaining access to the tower may be key to your success. Distances to your opponents are very short, so keep an eye on your defence.

o Throne of Tandria – In this realm two teams compete for the Throne of Tandria. There are different starting conditions, so adapt your strategy according to your position. One Ruler has access to plenty of fertile building ground, but has only few mines in his reach. The other ruler has access to plenty of mines, but only limited fertile ground.

- A brand new 2-player map

o Forest Realm – The Forest Realm is located in a wide open mountain valley marked by thick forests and very spacious meadows. Two kings face each other on opposing sides of the valley. The king-sized home sectors are characterized by central marketplaces, where you can increase your wealth

This is becoming more and more common and starting to get annoying. As well as the PSN Network the Fallout 3 Nexus and Warseer (the Gamesworkshop rumour site) have both been hit by hackers. Makes you wonder what has happened to computer security these days? Is nothing safe? Should we be worried about our private information? What is privicy as we're phoned by marketing companies all the time across our normal telephone lines?

Makes you wonder really what is going on and if there was someone who wanted to go into internet security, they could make an absolute killing. Considering to unblock your microsoft e-mail now takes an act of god, are we now so distrusting of each other than internet will just implode as no one will believe in free speech any more?

In economics, a country can put up barriers to prevent imports from other countries. Is the internet going to get this way with each area being its own hub where others will have a high barrier to entry. The argument then is as long as there is a single barrier, won't hackers exsist and find ways across that barrier?

I understand some hatred for multinational companies and capitalisation but look at what your wearing and using. New technology does cost a lot of money but devalues quickly, nearly as fast as when you buy a car and drive it off the forcourt. There needs to be money in the market or our form of entertainment will just go back to throwing marbles into circles.

As a user of many electronics, it disheartens me to hear about all this, when at the end of the day we are all here for one thing, to be entertained.

Its been a while since i've modded a lot out out of something. I remember almost failing my a-levels because of doing it to quake 2. But here I am, modding fallout 3 and boy there are some really good mods out there.

Currently mod which has reallly caught my eye - Owned

I own the houses and gain an income every 3 days. Very useful in a world where everything costs a ton.

Though my friend has said I should buy New Vagas, I am rather short on cash at the moment as there is a lot coming out this summer across the many hobbies I do, so I think I will wait.

Why oh why are AI personalities so bad. I've been through:
fallout 3
Oblivion
The Saboteur
Just Cause 2
Informas

Yet always when I meet npcs their either thick as two short planks or just plainly bugged. Is AI scripting so hard?

The other trend i'm seeing in open world games is copy and pasting of areas or just plain nothing... lots of nothing. I thought the whole point of a sandbox game is so you can go anywhere and see anything, but there needs to be something to see. I know fallout 3 is supposed to be apocaliptic wasteland but even in cities, where there are people eg megaton, there are large areas of nothing.

Maybe i'm just getting old and cynical but if anyone knows any decent open world games where the AIs have more intelligence than a field mouse on rails then please do say.

I really don't understand pcs at times. I fixed fallout 3 by reinstalling the game and patch. No difference to what I did last time.

So I jumped in and proceeded to make a very talky character. Ran past most of the rouches and exited the vault. Just got to megaton and started to chat with the lady who owns the store. Lots of information to take in so going to carry on today.

Installed Fallout 3 looking forward to going back into the wastes.

First games for windows wouldn't log in saying my hotmail account has been locked

Then after running a game, fallout 3 does nothing beyond choosing whether i'm male or female..

going to be one of those days