thomasnash

I think the weirdest one I've ever encountered myself was when in GTA IV stopped displaying characters' heads during cutscenes. But it still managed to render their eyeballs, teeth and tongue.

You'd think they'd want to come up with something less silly, given that they basically make up 50% of the total combat encounters for the first two thirds of the game.

@fetchfox said:

I've only played two Bethesda games (skyrim and fallout 3), but in both the main story line is horrible, and it's only the secondary exploration stuff that has the potential to save it? In Skyrim I guess it's the guild stuff. In fallout 3 it's the stuff tied to specific locations - I thought the big town/little lamplight stuff was kind of interesting, as was the stuff with the nuke and tenpenny towers. There's other stuff too, but you get the idea.

I mean I think it's probably evidence of something I feel is probably a good thing - giving individual writers, artists etc. or small groups creative control over distinct areas, because that's probably how they manage to fashion meaty side quests that hold the player's attention. On the other hand the quality of some of this stuff is often used as a defense for the lack of quality of the main storyline. And I think in some ways that makes me think even less of the "main" quests because they end up hardly seeming to tie in to the wider world at all.

This is really different to the original fallout games I think, which had a good balance of distinct areas with their own stories and atmospheres, but which still tied into the wider world and the greater story you were experiencing in some way. (incidentally this is partly, I think, where Kingdoms of Amalur fails in the other direction. None of the areas seem to have any distinct identity outside of the player and their quest/story. This is why actually the dlc stuff was the best stuff in that game by a country mile, as they were a bit more creative with that stuff).

I performed a bunch of similar repairs to my old laptop. I had to replace the screen after it got trodden on. Had to replace the keyboard after it got a little bit of water spilled on it, and I had to replace one of the hinges after my cat knocked it off the sofa. It felt good to know I wasn't being wasteful.

But now it feels like it was a little silly. I probably spent about £80-100 repairing the thing, only for it to break totally a few weeks ago.

I work from home, so I think the worst thing is probably communications issues between me and my bosses. I have maybe 2-3 days worth of stuff that needs doing every week, and then the rest of the time there is usually one project or another that needs doing, and the arrangement works best when we can talk frequently about what needs doing and what my priorities are, but there are times when we don't manage to talk for 2 weeks and as the time stretches on I can start to feel increasingly adrift and directionless.

It can also be tough when we do manage to get time to talk about stuff, making ourselves understood over the phone isn't always easy.

Still, it's not the worst problem to have, especially compared to some of the other stories in here, and the situation has its advantages too!

I dunno, that basically just seems like post-structuralist/post-modernist dogmatism that doesn't really meaningfully engage with his argument at all, to me.

@2headedninja: it was a little unjust that Germany got a free kick out of it though!

@darthorange: yeah I felt that was a bit rum also! BBC commentary team seemed divided on it, Lawro adamant that it was totally fine but Tyldesley much less sanguine.

@mordukai: half and half I'd say. First half great, second half bit scrappier. Same again in extra time except for a really stunning goal right at the end!

I think he was talking about the fans? But even so, mocking people for being passionate about something is pretty low, and something you'd think devotees of the much maligned hobby of video games might want to avoid.

Also, on the subject of the goal - my favourite thing about it was how the keeper had obviously decided there was no way he'd be able to put the ball past him on the left side, so had committed right. He looked pretty bloody surprised to see it sail past him!

Beautiful goal!