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UK/R.O.I GAF - Thread of geopolitical confusion
- Thread starter Meadows
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CHEEZMO;42852856 said:
Freddie Starr as well then. Saw a tweet from some journalist who said his 4 kids have disowned him, whatever it was.
lucy manning ‏@lucymanning
ITV News has successfully overturned an injunction obtained by TV celebrity Freddie Starr.
We went through simple states: Prostitute waiting for client, negotating, "the magic", money, back to hooking with a few off shoots in between.
We neglected killing them for the money.
EDIT: Can any UK GAFfers help me out here? I know a few of you are very clued up on good TV and Movies.
I'm looking for some good scenes of Lawyers reading wills to people in movies and/or TV.
Vivalaraza
Member
This is cool. Spot the tube stops.
N
NinjaFridge
Unconfirmed Member
Red Dwarf on Dave tonight at 9.
Gran Torino (terrible film)
Musha_Soturi
Member
Holy shit at the last episode of season 4 Breaking Bad!!!
Must download first half of season 5 immediately.
Must download first half of season 5 immediately.
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
Yes. You MUST.
Musha_Soturi
Member
That bit with Gus, very Nolan-esque.
I totally sussed the last frame though.
I totally sussed the last frame though.
Hot Coldman
Banned
Since the Internet
Hot Coldman
Banned
I'm slowly realising that I lack the ability to communicate any opinion I have clearly and concisely. It's driving me up the wall. Am I alone in this? Does anyone else have a regular lack of understanding how to express themselves when making a point in a conversation, or a debate?
It's not fun. I always seem to have something to say, but nary the means to say it.
It's not fun. I always seem to have something to say, but nary the means to say it.
N
NinjaFridge
Unconfirmed Member
This is me all over. It's why I avoid any 'serious' threads on GAF.
I used to have this problem, probably a mix of being an introverted person who finds it difficult to really resonate with others sometimes and because my mind races through things without slowing down to fill in the details sometimes.
I find it helps to practice debating with other people and to write things out. If I write something out I can review it, then edit it until it makes sense and flows well.
It's really helped me - I feel a lot more confident and self-assured when I get into debates since I started making the effort.
You just need to find some people to have those debates with who aren't going to douche it up on you if you find it hard to express your opinions at first. Hit me on PM, Steam or in here if you'd like to chat about it!
Hot Coldman
Banned
It's not a pressing concern, just something that occasionally peaks its head to get on my tits. But yes, Mike, that's me all over. It's rarely the thing where people get douchey with me- I do not let people get douchey with me, my world is free of bullshit like that- but it's more the confused face people occasionally pull that kinda agitates me.
*Hand up* My best friend is a politician which doesn't help my situation either. :/
Fair play - as long as you're not just taking shit then it's not such a problem!
The offer is still open in general - I enjoy debating without the risk of people turning down pathetic avenues or taking things personally.
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
Borderlands is shit - DEBATE!
Musha_Soturi
Member
Morning Gaf and Happy Friday!
Still feeling ill but dragged myself in to work yet again. In a happy place though so trying not to let it get me down.
Apart from going out to dinner tonight and a bit of shopping in Westfield tomorrow, I actually have NO PLANS this weekend! For the first time in a very long time. Will be nice to just mooch around and do want I want with no time constraints!
So for once everyone has the opportunity to be doing something more fun than me. Who has the most interesting weekend?
Still feeling ill but dragged myself in to work yet again. In a happy place though so trying not to let it get me down.
Apart from going out to dinner tonight and a bit of shopping in Westfield tomorrow, I actually have NO PLANS this weekend! For the first time in a very long time. Will be nice to just mooch around and do want I want with no time constraints!
So for once everyone has the opportunity to be doing something more fun than me. Who has the most interesting weekend?
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
I loved it, and only played single player.
The DLC is an exercise in frustration though.
Work this morning, then a couple hours of Uni.
House party tonight for a friend of ours' birthday, possibly followed by Newcastle. Probably see just how fucked up everyone is at the party.
Another house party tomorrow night, followed by night out at the Union.
Sunday = Hanging out of our arses watching football.
House party tonight for a friend of ours' birthday, possibly followed by Newcastle. Probably see just how fucked up everyone is at the party.
Another house party tomorrow night, followed by night out at the Union.
Sunday = Hanging out of our arses watching football.
I think I'm croaking it. Hangover + sore throat suggests I did some singing at some point last night.
YOU're shit.
I'm not good with debating.
YOU're shit.
I'm not good with debating.
1 or 2?
both are flawed, far more than the hype would suggest. The Penny arcade comic nailed my feeling:
Once you get passed the loot, the shooting mechanics are not great, many of the guns feel janky and look terrible. The quest system is pretty bad, especially the save mechanics which punish you for being interrupted mid-quest by real life (spawn you back at the fast travel point). If they gave you a quicksave option when playing offline it wouldn't be so bad.
The masses of mele "rusher" mobs in a ranged game is annoying as it was first time out, forcing you to backpedal / circle far too often. It's a cheap mechanic and not needed when the AI seems good enough to have pretty decent firefights.
I know you're joking, but I have loads to say about that, so I will
Borderlands isn't shit, but it does have some huge failures.
The first problem I have with Borderlands is that as a single-player game, there's not enoguh atmosphere. When you're playing co-op, there's just enough character and charm to the world and everyone in it. But when you're playing co-op, you're just a tourist, breezing through the world with your friends. You might enjoy the scenery and half-listen to whatever is going on around you, but primarily you're chatting with each other, making jokes and keeping things interesting.
Single player is a whole other story. Instead of being a tourist in a group, you're living in this world, so the story, the characters and the locations are all you have to keep things interesting. This is where Borderlands fails, because what's there is generally all too shallow and painted on. I think that's the primary reason that a lot of people didn't end up liking Borderlands. Luckily, Borderlands 2 is far more interesting. The world has so much more fleshing out. Characters from the first game come back and have interesting things to say and do, but more importantly, they've developed relationships with each other so everything seems more dynamic. New characters like Tiny Tina and Handsome Jack may seem to exist in a vaccuum, but at least they've been shoved full of jokes and, in Tiny Tina's case, a pretty dark side-story about why she's an orphan and how fucked up it's turned her.
Another key problem with Borderlands is that the reality of NEAR INFINITE GUNS!!!! isn't half as cool as the promise. If you're lucky enough to find something that's actually useful to you before level 15 then you're doing well, and you'll probably love the game. That's not always the case, though. My first character, the Siren got some pretty sweet SMGs early on, so I had a blasty-blast playing her. As she levelled up, there were obviously more guns to find and choose from, so it just ramped up and up.
In contrast, my second playthrough was with the Soldier. I just wanted a decent shotgun and/or a decent assault rifle. I didn't find ANYTHING I wanted to use until about level 20, so I was stuck with a pistol and an SMG that "were kind of OK". This absolutely ruined my enjoyment for hours because I never felt like a badass shootybanger, which is the whole point of Borderlands. Again, as I levelled up more guns were available which means the problem went away, but it's a shitty way to introduce players into the game. If this happened on my first playthrough, I doubt I would've carried on and I definitely wouldn't have bought Borderlands 2 sight unseen.
Unfortunately, Borderlands 2 doesn't really fix this issue too well. Once again, it all comes down to luck, though I will say that B2 DOES seem to throw a lot more guns at you, giving you a better chance of finding something serviceable early on. Though having so many guns available early on can be a bit daunting, especially if you skipped the first game due to all of the issues.
The last problem I have with Borderlands, and this absolutely didn't get fixed in the second game, is the vehicle stuff. It's supposed to feel like Mad Max, right? I'm pretty sure it is. The only reason I'm so confused is because it totally doesn't feel like Mad Max.
Vehicles control horribly on mouse & keyboard. Something I can understand as the game is just a port, but to be honest, they control like shit on a gamepad too. It's laborious and annoying. I'm genuinely not sure how it didn't come up in ALL the playtests that this shit desperately needed to change.
Aside from the actual controlling of the vehicles, I hate how easily and how stupidly vehicles can become stuck on terrain. It feels like an early PS2 game when you're driving along and come to a SUDDEN STOP because you clipped a rock or a bush. What the fuck?! At least let me bounce off of the fucking thing?
Then we come to the vehicle combat. Did I mention laborious? I actually ended up getting out of the car and blasting the fuckers with grenades and a rocket launcher just to avoid it. It doesn't help that any kills you do in a vehicle give you less XP, which just says "don't bother with vehicle combat" to me.
So, with all of these negatives, how can I say that Borderlands is a great game? Because it absolutely is... with a slight condition.
Borderlands is a GREAT co-op game.
Everything comes together - good and bad points about the game - beautifully to make this incredibly fun to play with friends.
The shitty vehicle controls go from frustrating to hilariously enjoyable because you can berate each other when you fuck up and probably more importantly, you can make somebody else drive.
The lack of weapons isn't a problem, because it introduces a fun trading dynamic where you're all looking out for each other. Playing through Borderlands with 3 friends, for each person I knew exactly what kind of guns to look out for and they all knew exactly what I was looking for too. We had some great times comparing stats (sounds boring I know) then taking a hunting party out into the wilderness to test our our new arnaments.
I've already mentioned the hollow, painted-on character that the world in Borderlands has and how this is actually more enjoyable in co-op. You never feel like you're missing anything when you're fucking about, chatting and joking, because the story is basically non-existant. This just serves to make the game that much more sociable & smooth for co-op play.
I would say that's actually where the sequel falls slightly short of the original. By having so much more to give with story, character and humour, I constantly feel like I want my mates to shut up so I can soak it all in. This makes Borderlands 2 a less socially enabled game for me, though I can obviously just play through the content on my own first and then come back to it in co-op.
So yeah, lots of points there - I'd be interested to hear anybody elses take on it. Especially if there's anything there that you especially disagree with.
Edit:
In reply to this, I will admit that the shooting mechanics in the first game aren't really tight enough to compete with how polished a lot of modern FPSs are, but I really think the gunplay shines in the sequel, to the point that I enjoy it far more than the CoDs and Battlefields of this world.
As for the guns looking shit, I disagree. Though there really isn't enough variety in the first game with the weapon models or scopes etc. Again, hugely fixed in the sequel - so many original looking guns, so many different kinds of scopes! Bayonets!
I never had a problem with the quest mechanic, but I understand that if you're looking for a shooter, not an RPG then you're probably going to be disappointed, because that's what this game is - a loot RPG that happens to be a FPS.
Hell yes, they force it on you as well, they need to realise it sucks and leave it out for BL3.
I played 5 years of WoW, I have no issue with RPG quest mechanics, but pushing MMO style quests that you can't pick up and put down on a single player game (which it is) sucks. Also, I am looking for both, since thats what they are selling.
The guns in 2 are much better yes.
So what's the plan for this?
*Pub - whatever that one in Camberley near the Agincourt is...
*Agincourt
*Muzzy's kebab
*Herbal nightcap
*Homeward bound
I think this comes from the difference between Borderlands as a single player game and Borderlands as a co-op game.
I didn't explicitly say it, but I will - Borderlands isn't a very good single player game. It hugely falls short as a solo experience and I think that needs to be acknowledged more by reviewers & the general gaming population.
In this case, about the quests, I absolutely agree with you - some of the quests are annoyingly WoWlike and I hate having to turn in quests for absolutely no reason but to pull you back to the hubs. Surely they could have made the hubs a more enjoyable place to be so you'd go back anyway?
But as a co-op game, I think the MMO-style quests are just right. You split up, rush to all the quest-givers, sign up to everything and then gleefully hurtle toweards the quest areas, ready to deal out death and destruction. Beautiful.
Again, I think the sequel fixes this to some degree. The quest system is pretty much the same, but there's more interesting backstory and character to the things that you're doing (particularly after a few hours in - the intro chapters are still fairly dull
) but they can't totally change the quest system to something more akin to an FPS because that wouldn't be optimal for co-op play, which is obviously the focus of the game.That's what I liked about Totalbiscuits WTF is, he went into the fact that every game is better co-op and that it isn't a selling point.
Having to turn in at the hubs isn't so bad when you have town portals / hearthstones, but there are some parts of BL2 where a fast travel point isn't available and you have zoned out of where the nearest one is, so you have to fight your way back through a ton of re-spawns or just sprint through and hope to live...
I don't think ALL games are better in co-op. I'll be controversial here and say that I don't really care for NSMB Wii in co-op because I think it turns a great series of platformer games into a party game which I don't enjoy anywhere near as much. There's nothing that co-op adds to that game other than fucking around and jumping on each others heads.
I never really worried about fighting through respawns because I really enjoy the combat in both games. Except for the 'invisbl bastards' in B2, which I just run past every opportunity I get.
Borderlands is shit because Gearbox can't make good games. They had a good thing going with the Brothers in Arms games until they fucked it up with Hell's Highway. I bought Borderlands on steam and played for about an hour and thought to my self "wtf is the point" then bailed. The world feels more shallow than an African puddle.
Gearbox should stick to porting games and leave proper game development to better studios.
Gearbox should stick to porting games and leave proper game development to better studios.
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
I know you're joking, but I have loads to say about that, so I will
SNIP
Holy fuck look what I made you do!! 8O
tbh mate I'm a bit pushed at work today but I'll try to rebut your craziness when I get home later this evening.
Now I feel super guilty
I think my issue with this is coming from being 32 and having less time to game, I like to wrap up a quest before I quit and when I then find out I have another 45 mins of fighting back to the hub first I think "wtf isn't there a town portal???"
I agree. Its clear gearbox aims there games at teenagers who have more free time than the rest of us. They also don't mind playing shallow games.
OK, I can't help but hugely agree with you here, though it isn't something I'd really considered before.
I'll even go so far as to argue that in a co-op game like Borderlands, you really should be enabled to log on for an hour with your buddies and, with as little fucking about to get set up as possible, be able to blast through an hour of gameplay and be done, ready to dive back in the next night for another short, sharp burst of action.
Anything short of enabling this kind of gameplay is making the game less accessible.
Holy fuck look what I made you do!! 8O
tbh mate I'm a bit pushed at work today but I'll try to rebut your craziness when I get home later this evening.
Now I feel super guilty
That's alright, I've been in an argumentative mood lately so it's good to have a few 'safe arguments' I can have without danger of me taking it personally and getting pissed off.
This is keeping me out of the booth babes thread, lol
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
Yup, sounds cool to me! I reckon if we rock up to the pub about 830-9ish then that gives a few hours drinking and chatting time before we descend drunkenly to the dancefloor - best not to get in there too early, it's even more tragic that way...
I was thinking last night, I should check to see when their halloween bash is - it might make more sense to go on that night because it could be more fun. And I like dressing up, sue me. But I don't know if that'll be the 27th or the 3rd, I'll have a check later. I get paid on the weekend pre-Halloween and can shout some drinks if you're cashstrapped.
Being 32 his buddies probably don't have the time they used to to jump on and co-op game any more.
It must have been an oversight I assume, that or your are supposed to fight twice the mobs for a quest to end up at the right level. Diablo with guns? well Diablo (and Torchlight, WoW, Titan Quest etc...) all have a little button that takes me home. Hell make it a consumable if needs be.
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