JBird

@sombre: you will very quickly become more experienced and comfortable as you drive, but for the first few weeks while you feel nervous look ahead at your journeys on google maps so you can look at any bigger junctions and know what you need to do.

@chamurai: I commented on your reply above but it’s been years since I’ve posted on any forum so forgot to ‘reply’ to you!

I have one son who isn’t yet old enough for gaming and yes I absolutely plan on limiting time and access to games. Games are no different to any other hobby In that it’s a great pastime but doing too much of any one thing can become unhealthy. - games have the added disadvantage that certain subsets like F2P iPhone games are literally designed to be addictive. I have no doubt that my good intentions are easier said than done but if I was able to set up a similar routine that @chamurai describes I’d be pretty proud of myself.

I've got both the QC 35 iis and the PS5 ones. I find the QC 35's more comfortable and better sound quality but i like the ease of the PS5 ones. i just turn them on and they connect easy, wireless. good battery. good sound quality as far as I can tell. (I'm by no means an audiophile) . I recommend them on ease alone

I'm probably running against the grain here but in my opinion, I find Jason Schreier's reporting to have a sanctimonious tone to it.

"A critical flop might help show Naughty Dog that this isn’t the best way to make games, that this level of sacrifice isn’t necessary, that maybe the project isn’t worth losing all of these people. That perhaps, no matter how many Game of the Year nominations they win or how high their Metacritic scores climb, all the individual hairs on Joel’s eyebrows or the grains of sand in a burlap sack just aren’t worth the cost."

Ok thanks Jason! You go and project manage a world renowned video game and tell the world how its done 'properly'.

That being said, the bulk of his reporting on the Last of us 2 appears to me to be balanced and he does a good job of explaining the competing aspects of crunch about the joy of a project, the creative freedom for those developers, the team mentally of pushing through on such a highly crafted project like the last of us 2 against the obvious downside of persistent hard work over a period of time.

I can understand the frustration of game developers who have worked really hard to create something so awesome only to end up in a conversation about how exploited they are. Crunch isn't good, but its not solely bad either and my criticism of Jason is that his reporting begins to identify the complexities of the issue but just reduces it to 'I hope they have a critical flop so they learn their lesson'. - then suddenly the studio is getting hammered on twitter.

Everyone grows up! I’m another ‘long term’ fan from pre giant bomb days. This site has seen me from school age into a career and a family and I’m only one of a large number. If Jeff left the site it would be very different, but also if Jeff has a reason for leaving then al power to him! giantbomb ‘a video game website’ has always really been about the people! I also find myself leaning east these days, that entire crew has a great dynamic, and when Jeff G joins as a guest it only gets better. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the west side stuff, but times change!

I did however stop listening to the recent bombcast with those English gamespot duo. They weren’t doing it for me at all!

@kylmar: You've found yourself in a very difficult situation. I'm pleased you have found advice here helpful, but nobody here knows you, nobody here knows her, and nobody here will be impacted at all by any decision you make. I would advise you to open up to someone close - you referred to your mother? - you're engaged and may even feel able to talk to her family. It sounds like there are issues here that are far complex than a usual relationship breakdown and you need support just as much as she does.

That sucks dude. I agree that as technology progresses this will just get worse. I think there needs to be a serious re-haul in how consumer rights are communicated to normal private individuals and there has to be some sort of easy and powerful way for you as a TV owner to actually stand toe to toe with companies like Samsung, because as it stands its such a huge inequality. They don't need your $1,500 so they get to dictate to you exactly how you use the product, even when its so egregiously unfair or exploitative. It's not like you paid $1,500 for the ad free TV...but even typing that sentence makes me shudder at the thought of the 'free to watch' TV!!!!

The whole situation brings to mind the Letting agent situation in the UK which makes me so mad. The government say they plan to address the imbalance but as it stands letting agents can charge huge 'admin' fees to prospective tenants and landlords. It's unregulated, and rarely matches work actually done for the prospective tenant but if you want to rent a house/flat its a question of 'Pay us £350 admin fees or you don't get to apply to rent the property'. The private individual can't do a thing about it, if they like the property it's not like its going to be on the market with a different agent.

I loved RCT so would love nothing more than to pick this up but just don't have the PC that can run it. I had to be sensible and buy a small work laptop which is perfect for my job but just doesn't have the graphical power. One day I guess.

@wwfundertaker: Funny thing is it did. What remained was bought out of administration back in 2012, so there must be something there, not that I know why, it is literally always the most expense place to buy a game. I remember queuing up for MW2 in Leeds years ago and an employee at Sainsbury's across the road wandered over and was like btw if you spend X the game is reduced to £30. Everyone walked across the road, bought crates of beer that they were going to buy anyway and then got the game reduced!