Anyone else think the "NEW XBOX EXPERIENCE" is a piece of crap? They've replaced the previous dashboard design with this shiny vector-linedots box interface. Instead of being able to browse through your friends in a list you have this horrible scrolling one-by-one system through their "avatars."



The avatars are FAR too reminscent of that shitty wii feature where you create your own little wii person that waves at you from the logon screen or whatever. They look like junk and are a completely un-necessary feature.



Instead of having nice compact tabs for browsing things like marketplace/media/games you have this SCROLLING BOX SYSTEM and it just generally looks pretty ugly. There is less CHROME-GREYS or whatever but still, overall I have not been impressed with anything I've seen so far. It also forgot my entire games library... well done NXE.

On the plus side you can supposedly install games directly to your HD now for faster loading times and quieter performance which I will be doing as soon as I figure out how, but aside from that I have found nothing impressive about this update at all.

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/live/nxe/

now that welcomes and farewells is gone i'm outta here, fuck you pals.

Hey, Has anyone been watching this little TV mini-series. It takes the NOVEL IDEA of the big brother house and decides to base a zombie apocalypse around it. Featuring cameos from Davina and all the previous Big Brother Housemates. I thought it might be great to see all these people torn to shreds with budget special effects but it actually turned out to be a little distressing. I think I read somewhere the guy who writes it is also the co-creator and writer for the guardian newspaper.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BhGLM49k8ck

I'm not really sure what I think of it at the moment which is probably bad after 2 episodes. I mean it is so gimmicky the way it handles everything so far but I am a real sucker for ZOMBIE OUTBREAK films and survival horror shit. If any of you guys have been following it what are your opinions?

GW STEAM COMMUNITY



THE LOWDOWN
Basically the current GW steam community is pretty horrific. It is not updated ever, Mike is an admin and has not been online in nearly a year maybe? it is not clear that it exists, there are never any events and overall it is pretty poor and not managed at all. So me and Rowain who use Steam and play our Steam games everyday have decided that with the upcoming release of l4d it would be a good time to start promoting steam and set up a better steam group. GAMING WORLS was taken so we bring to you the google adsense discussion group (gadg)

Now that we are hoping to re-vitalize the steam community pitch in any suggestions you have for events or organizing of games and we'll definitely take it into account. Even if it is not a case of doing it frequently and you just want to say HEY LET'S ALL PLAY GMOD ON FRIDAY then throw it this way and hopefully we can get some GW community games going. Also when l4d is released I don't really want to play with random netjerks so we should organize group games between the lot of us so we can actually play with cool chaps and not idiots who are going to get us demerits by running in front of us while we are shooting.

WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS TO JOIN YOUR CLAN I AM NOT GOOD AT SHOTTER GAMES
This is not a clan, you do not need to wear a tag or any of that gay shit. If you enjoy playing games then just hit the join button and don't ask permission and don't wear a gaytag. We are hopefully just a group of people who play games and want to play more games in groups of cool people.

WHAT ARE THE POPULAR GAMES THAT YOU GUYS PLAY?
Once it becomes clearer what games people are playing regularly then I will update this list but currently we play a lot of this:

• Team Fortress 2
• left4dead (we will play a lot of this no doubt about it)
• Garry's Mod
• Zombie Panic! Source
• D.I.P R.I.P Warm Up

Other games that people might play but unconfirmed.

• Counterstrike
• Team Fortress Classic
• Day of Defeat
• Half-Life 2: DM
• Insurgency
• Synergy

Got something to add to this list? Let us know...

CONCLUSION
The old GW steam community was stale, old, boring and never updated... this one is better. Join us and let's play games.

Alright guys. Here is a little experiment to help people find cool new tunes that they might enjoy without going into in depth cock chugging conversations about POST-PUNK GENRE APPRECIATION. This is an A - Z adventure for people who might like to find some new music to listen to. Just follow along and chill out to some cool tunes. If you recognize a name then you might like some of the other names that you don't recognize and when you're done, and if you feel like it, post your own A - Z Adventure.

RULE: If you do your own A - Z only pick one artist from each letter of the alphabet. (I know it's tough but I have to follow this rule too!)

Disclaimer: These are not necessarily my FAVOURITE ARTISTS beginning with these letters but I wanted to get a broad range of music sound in there. Enjoy.

A is for Amon Tobin
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Bonobo
• Squarepusher
• Boards of Canada
• DJ Food
• Funki Porcini
• Aphex Twin

[/blockquote]

B is for Bonobo
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Thievery Corporation
• Royksopp
• Four Tet
• Nightmares on Wax
• Telepopmusik

[/blockquote]

C is for The Cinematic Orchestra
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Jaga Jazzist
• Jazzanova
• Morcheeba
• Thievery Corporation

[/blockquote]

D is for DJ Krush
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• DJ Shadow
• DJ Spooky
• Thievery Corporation

[/blockquote]

E is for El-P
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Aesop Rock
• Blockhead
• Company Flow
• Mr Lif

[/blockquote]

F is Four Tet
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Prefuse 73
• edIT
• Boards of Canada

[/blockquote]

G is for Groove Armada
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Fatboy Slim
• Autechre
• David Holmes
• Moby

[/blockquote]

H is for Hallucinogen
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• OTT
• Umberloid
• Loop Guru
• Bluetech

[/blockquote]

I is for I Monster
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Air
• Block Party
• ...other misc. electropop

[/blockquote]

J is for Jaga Jazzist
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• The Cinematic Orchestra

[/blockquote]

K is for Kid Koala
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• RjD2
• DJ Krush
• Gorillaz
• DJ Shadow

[/blockquote]

L is for Lemon Jelly
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Boards of Canada

[/blockquote]

M is for Massive Attack
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Tricky
• Portishead
• Bjork

[/blockquote]

N is for Nina Simone
<-- (This is a "Felix da House Cat" remix of the original song. (I like it))
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Aretha Franklin
• Billie Holiday
• Odetta

[/blockquote]

O is for Orbital
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Underworld
• The Orb
• Faithless
• Aphex Twin

[/blockquote]

P is for Prefuse 73
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Four Tet
• edIT
• Boards of Canada

[/blockquote]

Q is for Queen's of the Stone age
<-- Mark Lanegan is the coolest guy
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Kyuss
• Sonic Youth
• Smashing Pumpkins
• ...Other shit maybe?

[/blockquote]

R is for Rjd2
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Kid Koala
• Mr Scruff

[/blockquote]

S is for The Soulsavers
<-- Mark Lanegan is still cool when he sings christian rock.
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Mark Lanegan
• Tom Waits

[/blockquote]

T is for Tricky
<-- FUN FACT: Tricky was the evil sidekick in the fifth element.
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Massive Attack
• Portishead
• Costanza
• Bjork

[/blockquote]

U is for Umberloid
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Loop Guru
• Hallucinogen
• OTT

[/blockquote]

V is for The Verve
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Oasis
• Blur

[/blockquote]

W is for Weezer <-- I do not have many W in my collection
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• I think Weezer is the only band I have in my collection that sounds like this. Honestly I was jsut struggling to put something for W. Perhaps someone else can fit something in here.

[/blockquote]

X is for Xerxes
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Umberloid
• OTT

[/blockquote]

Y is for...  Wow, I really got nothing for Y :(​

Z is for Zero 7
[blockquote]Other Artists you Might Like:

• Morcheeba
• Groove Armada
• Royksopp
• Air

[/blockquote]

OKAY THIS ONLY TOOK ABOUT FOUR HOURS TO WRITE. Hope this helped at least someone find some cool new tunes to listen to.

I don't talk about them much but I have a lot of STRONG OPINIONS about shit. I just never voice them because I don't want to be that obnoxious, arrogant guy who ambles around telling other people about his opinions on how to be a better person and making other people feel guilty for DRIVING A CAR or EATING MEAT or something.

Anyway I am not a vegetarian because I really really love meat and I really really dislike a lot of vegetables. To the point where I cannot actually put things like Tomatoes/Cucumber/Courgettes in my mouth without freaking out and feeling like I'm going to be sick. I've always put it off with lame excuses like "I would be vegetarian, but they're gonna slaughter and kill the animals anyway so I may as well not put the meat to waste!" This isn't really acceptable for me anymore.

But due to some recent events I would like to make the effort to at least take some steps towards Vegetarianism. This is mainly from my trip to the farm and actually seeing how poorly these animals can be treated, but also because it's something I've always believed in but have never really had the willpower to do.

STEP 1: Was cutting out red meats, this was easy. I'm down to chicken and fish and I could probably live with this quite comfortably, but I don't want to eat just chicken and fish every day for the rest of my life. I need some OTHER MEALS that don't involve Tomatoes/Cucumber/Courgettes. I know some of you guys are avid HEALTH COOKERS so what kind of meals can you suggest to me that taste good and will help me make this transfer from meat lover to vegetarian quite painlessly? (that don't involve tomatoes/cucumbers/courgettes!)

Also I want to ask if anybody knows about any reason why being a vegetarian might be a bad idea healthwise. I know a lot of people do it but is there any PROTEINS/VITAMINS/MINERALS I am gonna be missing out on that could cause health problems later in life? I am pretty dumb when it comes to shit like this so knowing about it would be helpful.

Thanks guys, Point me to your WEBSITES and RECIPES.

I just replaced Flash FXP with FireFTP for the ease of being able to do all my shit inside of Firefox, someone told me it was free, lightweight and easy and my Flash FXP trial had run out. But my problem is, for the life of me I can't figure out how to queue/pause files. It will be really freakin annoying if I can't set up a queue from different folders, once you click download the download starts and you can't then access other folders on a server to go and add something to the queue from elsewhere. Also there is no pause button so if you want to break from the downloads and play some online games you can't pause and come back to it, you've got to exit out and then reconnect to the server, restart the download to resume.

Are these features possible or should I look elsewhere for an FTP client?

 

Come back sometime.

http://www.gamingw.net/pubaccess/24244/chef.mp3
http://www.gamingw.net/pubaccess/24244/rpg.mp3
http://www.gamingw.net/pubaccess/24244/sarevok.mp3










http://www.impeal.leafo.net/videos/100_0046.MOV

Season 2 of Dexter just started over here and since House, Heroes, Lost, Chuck and Dr Who have all finished I thought I would find a new TV show to watch. NEW TV SHOWS THAT LOOK GOOD STARTING THIS MONTH were Dexter Season 2 and The Wire. Anyway Dexter started last night but I missed Season 1 so I need someone to catch me up please! The season opening was pretty cool I guess, I mean I was not expecting something quite so brutal as CHOPPED UP BODIES so that was a nice surprise, it was a little edgier than what I expected.

So please, If you don't mind, what happened in Season 1?

Sorry I didn't get round to doing this ON THE DAY. I am a slacker and was hoping that Jeff would do it, nevermind! Here it is now. Basically, here are the suggestions for PIPS that were made by our users in the other topic. You get THREE VOTE, vote for the ones you like best. If I recall correctly, Jeff's idea was to take the TOP FIVE WINNERS and then put them into some kind of implementation draw to see which would work best.

DISCLAIMER:
This is not FINAL DECISION CHOOSE PIPS vote, it is just to help sway our administrative decision (because ultimately robert mugadmin over here doesn't care what your opinions are) and at any time we can close this vote and say HEH NONE OF THIS MADE ANY DIFFERENCE, OVERRULED.

The poll will close in 5 days, vote.

We have added OPTIONAL PREMIUM COLOURS to the list of features that you recieve as a premium member, although at the moment there is only a choice of four colours, Orange, Mint, Khaki or the Flower Boys group (You do not get to choose to be a flower boy right now sorry.) So if you are premium, click the colour you want and I'll give it to you no strings attached.

YOU CAN SEE THE COLOURS IN ACTION HERE:

HELLO

HELLO AGAIN

HELLOT

Dear Guests,
At the time of posting this topic there are 110 guests online performing a variety of strange actions like VIEWING THE PROFILE OF KENTONA and reading random topics. Do you guys have accounts and not log in or are you just browsing randomly? If you're just browsing randomly or came upon this site from wherever to do whatever do you INTEND to register an account and login and if not, why not?

I am just curious because this is a pretty significant number of people just performing strange motions while not logged in and I'm curious what WE can do to make it more appealing for you to actively take part in the community.

Or are you all just waiting for GW6?

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.

Horatio Jackson.

This is a long post about how I lost my marbles and ended up sweating and paranoid in a french port carrying a suitcase and my guitar, running away from french hicks and trying to convince the backwards people that I am supposed to be on a boat that I can't pay for and shouldn't really be on at all.

It all sounds very dramatic but aside from the moments where I really did think I didn't exist and this was all part of some twisted reality TV show I was quite confident in my ability to escape the backwards lands and make it home, and if I learned anything from this it was to NEVER LEAVE MY HOUSE EVER AGAIN. I am making this post for

The whole fucked up shennanigan started a couple of years ago when I developed a TASTE FOR HARD LLIQUOR AND ROCKIN DRUGS. This is not really the important part of the story so I'm not going to go into details (this is not lifejournals) but long story short I ended up in hospital bleeding stomach acid into my blood and I developed lots of crazy psychological problems like SMASH ALL TELEPHONE and SPIRAL INTO DEPRESSION GET FAT. I think these few sentences really sum up who I have been over these past couple of years. Congratulations GW you have just delved into my life, be gentle. OH HEY I GUESS I SHOULD MENTION that one of the major causes of stress have been my abusive step father who has bankrupted my mother at least twice and is in the process of doing it again. I will say now if agent graves ever gave me a gun and one hundred bullets I would not hesitate to unload every last one of those bullets into his chest.

Anyway for whatever hundreds of reasons and problems I had, I finally ended up on the SHRINK COUCH who very cleverly managed to surmise that I am "STRESS/DEPRESSED/ANXIETY RIDDEN." Thanks for your smashing Diagnosis doc.

So I spoke about this with a few people, friends first and when I finally plucked up the courage, family. Some of you have heard stories about my Dad. He is not really ALL THERE in the social department. I guess I would compare him to someone like Frank Fitts in his reaction to LIFE OCCURENCES.

"Hey Dad, my cat died I am pretty sad can you leave me alone and stop telling me that I am a waste of life for one day?"

"YOUR CAT? IT IS JUST A CAT... WHAT IS A CAT? FEELINGS OVER CATS? RRRRRRRRRR"

His reaction to my many life problems was pretty similar to the above line only it was more like: "You are depressed? Perhaps we should send you to France to do hard labour on a farm away from life, friends, alcohol and other things with chumps who you can't understand."

For whatever reason I agreed to do this I don't know why. I guess AT WORST it would give me a month of not having to be told I was a soulless waste of life drifting aimlessly through time by the man who's life sums up everything I don't want to be. In his mind of course it was SEND MY FAT LAZY SON TO FOREIGN COUNTRY GET HIM OFF MY BACK AND MAYBE HE WILL SHED A FEW POUNDS, HEH.

Either way I said to him I WILL LEAVE FOR FRANCE IN AUGUST DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT, and put the whole concept of going out of my mind entirely.

I had a few commitments so I let people know I WILL BE GONE IN AUGUST FOR A MONTH SORRY GUYS, at which point the phone rings. "Jake (this is my name, my crazy dad named me after a John Wayne film... Jesus Christ I have made a point to NEVER WATCH THIS FILM EVER I hate John Wayne, the film is called "Big Jake" tell me if it is good.) I am booking your ticket to France now but August is out of the question... Can you go in two weeks?" Sure why not two weeks. Hang up the phone. Back to my commitments, SORRY GUYS I WILL BE GONE FOR A MONTH IN TWO WEEKS. The phone rings again, "Jake, Change of plan... I have booked your ticket for Friday."

And so it happened that I was off on Friday, he offered to give me a lift out to the boat, I had some money and I could make my own way back on the 28th which was when my ticket returned. This wouldn't be too bad I thought, I mean I can chill out, I've got my guitar, it's sunny and when I get there I will be the only person around for MANY MILES except during working hours.

LITTLE DID I KNOW that I was actually entering a timewarp back into the 18th century where working hours were 6am - 11pm, everyone spoke in reverse and the only thing to eat was bread and water. This was going to be smashing I could tell. I will skip forward in time the boring stuff about ARRIVING IN FRANCE other than to tell you that the ferry was completely empty as I left save for the dregs of the GENERATION X. Scumbags reading literature like "High Fidelity" with ripped jeans and bags reading "Viva la revolucion" and "Fuck the government." Generally it was just REALLY BORING. I will get ahead a few days to the point in time where I found that I had developed a cough. This is probably just me using it as a chance to complain but JESUS CHRIST IT WAS PAINFUL. The exact date I don't know but it was 3am and I found myself unable to breathe. Not WHOA I HAVE A TIGHT CHEST unable to breathe I mean the breath really was not coming. (THIS IS WORRYING TO ME.) I figured the best place to find air was outside so I made a run for the door and found myself naked in the middle of a field, on my knees in cow shit throwing up all over my hands. (This is a pretty embarassing for me but I figure it at least adds some kind of entertainment to my story.) I was pretty ill and this is not great when you are LOST IN FRANCE.

The cough got increasingly worse from there, to the point where I was coughing up blood on a regular basis and if I knew where a doctor was I thought it would be a good idea to at least try and find one. The problem is the french farm workers were not exactly conversationalists and what little english they did speak was reserved for ordering me to deconstruct combine harvesters for six hours in the blistering sun. Pretty much this was turning out to not be the holiday I was expecting (and I was expecting it to be pretty shit in the first place.)

"Hey Guy! I know you want me to carry these milk churns to the village but I am coughing up blood. In my country we usually take that as a sign to rest..."

"Ooh blood huh? That sounds pretty bad, hey when you get back can you mow all the lawns."

I decided to ditch the milk churns and lay off my FARM DUTIES. It was time for me to take some serious solid snake action and find a MEDICAL MAN. I knew there was a computer in the farm and I didn't really feel up to hiking to the next city to get to the internet cafe. I would infiltrate the COMP CUPBOARD and look up a doctor.

I knew where the computers were, in a big locked cupboard at the back of the farm and I knew where the keys to the door were so this was pretty easy. The only thing I didn't know was which key it was and I was hunched over the keyhole, trying key after key, hunkering french man appeared behind me. He was talking french so of course I didn't understand him but I made damn sure not to turn and look him in the eyes for fear he would steal my soul, or at the very least be able to control my actions with the power of his mind and/or facial expressions.

This time the key worked and I closed and locked the door behind me leaving the backwards monster behind. He was probably furious but I had more important things to worry about, like surviving.

There were two computers in the room, something that looked like it pre-dated DOS from the 60's and a beast of a machine running windows 95, cabling a 56k modem. I took the windows 95 option because whatever the other blinking black screen was it was probably no help for me. (It was like a BBC Computer or something.)

Maybe I am just shit at the internet but my attempts to find a medicine man in any of the nearby villages fell short. Maybe it was because the computer was all french and the keyboard was backwards or because I was sweaty and paranoid. Either way I took this as a chance to space transmission something that had been on my mind. Paranoia was building and it was pretty  bad of me to do so but at the back of my mind all I could think of was STEEL'S COUGH WAS CANCER AND I AM COUGHING UP BLOOD MAYBE I AM DYING.

I broke for the village which had an english pub in the hope that one of the locals could help me find a doctor. I literally burst in through the door screaming "I NEED A DOCTOR, IS ANYBODY A DOCTOR IN HERE?" (As you can see I really am losing my mind at this point. It must be the lack of real human interaction.) "I'm a doctor" someone yells producing a card from his wallet. "A doctor of film studies at the local university, what do you need?"

If I had the strength in me to floor this man I would have done but I chose to ignore him, both due to the fact that he was a brickhouse of a man and also because I had just clambered ten miles up french hills to get to this place. "I need a real doctor you smart-ass. Where can I find some meds!"

Turns out he was a pretty friendly chap who pointed me in the right direction. I finally found the medicine man, or the medicine woman in this case and I was sweating, wheezing and coughing up speckles of blood all over her waiting room floor. She could only speak in the backwards language so I found myself shouting very loudly and drawing crude diagrams of my symptoms. "BLOOD YOU FIENDISH WOMAN! I AM COUGHING UP BLOOD." hammering my finger down on a piece of paper of a badly drawn man spitting.

Whatever the diagnosis was I didn't really understand it, but it didn't stop her bounding after me with a piece of paper sporting a big bold £50 on it. Apparently in backwards countries it is required that you PAY for your health service. Where do your fucking taxes go huh? Anyway this was a big blow to my funds. I did not have much money with me and I still needed to cash in my prescription and get those fucking meds. The pharmacy was next door and the woman did speak a bit of english. Enough english to say "THAT WILL BE £80!" (This is all euros okay, I do not know where my euros symbol is on this keyboard.)

ya shit. I did not have £80 with me. I poured out my wallet and scraped together what I had... £76. It was close. Maybe I could convince her to let me get away with it. The look on her face pretty much said NO, perhaps I could ditch half the course of meds but she'd already bagged it and I was in a pretty dire situation. I still don't know what's wrong with me but the backwards doctor thought that these tablets would cure me, I grabbed the bag and made a run for it leaving all £76 of my money on the counter. (I am now the proud owner of £0 entirely.) But I do got the meds. This is great, perhaps I will now live, or maybe the backwards medicine woman was telling me "YOU ARE GONNA DIE BUT THESE MEDS WILL EASE YOUR PAIN."

And I'm back on the farm. It's the end of the day so FARMHANDS are gone and I am up in my roofless bedroom with the birds and the bats trying to find something to wash down these meds. I am rummaging through cupboards around the farmhouse looking for shit that the previous owners might have left behind. Anything that's NOT WATER. I found two things. A full bottle of Calvados and half a bottle of cough syrup. (I think it was cough syrup, it tasted like cough syrup.)

This is deadly waters, I am supposed to be out here to become free from alcohol. But it's mighty tempting and the cough syrup is an added bonus. I have strong willpower so I decided to save the calvados for luxurytime and used the half a bottle of cough syrup to wash down my meds (I have a cough anyway, perhaps it will help.)

Let me tell you I had a crazy dream this night. This is the dream where I think I am asleep and I wake up in my room, which is empty. I feel confused and there are lots of emotions flying around but now I actually do wake up, and the room is full of cows and I am screaming and I don't understand how these cows got into my room and then finally I actually do wake up and I am coughing up blood and being sick still. The meds haven't worked yet and my marbles are rolling out the door. This is the spiral of Jake going out of control and you all have front row seats to the aftermath. Don't worry I've been decompressed.

I am feeling pretty tense and I am ready to make a break from the farm at this point, (around the two week mark.) but I've run out of money and I have no way of getting back to the coast. I know the general direction (north) and solid snaking back into the comp cupboard I check google maps and scribble down the names of the roads that will get me to Le Havre, my destination.

A FEW DAYS LATER (and things are much worse.)

I'm ready to make a break for it now, my bags are packed, I've got half a bottle of the calvados left and my guitar is broken at this point in time. The only problem is getting away before these french monsters realize that I am escaping this foul place. The best time to leave I assume is the middle of the day because they will not expect me to leave while they are here and I need all the daylight I can manage to get to the coast. So I run for it (for real) through the woods and down windy french country lanes to get to the village.

I HAPPEN TO KNOW that the french are big fans of hitchhiking and overcoming my fear of being sliced up into a duffel bag and fed to the pigs I manage to get my thumb to the road. That shit only happens in America anyway. It probably took about TWO HOURS OF AIMLESS WANDERING for some old man to actually stop. (maybe because I am filthy and bearded and look like I've just crawled out of the sewers, the people don't like me.)

"HELLO OLD MAN! DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?" I'm yelling into his window.

"Yes."

What luck! I do not know hitchhiking etiquette but I don't want to scare him off before I'm inside his car so I slam my suitcase and guitar into his backseat and jump in next to him.

"I will not give you sexual favours for this ride old man. I just want to be clear about that."

This makes him laugh but I don't see the humour in my words because I am genuinely terrified right now. I tell him I am heading to Le Havre and he tells me he is not going that far but he will drop me off at some place called Caen.

"So what's your name?" He asks me.

This is it, Danger at the first turn, this old man is trying to steal my name. Even worse, to steal my words. For whatever reason other than the fact I am becoming very paranoid I decide it is best to give him a fake name. "Marlon Brando" I say in a fit of panic and thank god he did not seem to get it. Or maybe he did and didn't really care.

"I am a fugitive of the eighteenth century old man. I am being hunted by french farmers and I am making my escape. I am not homeless but I want to thank you for assisting me because otherwise I fear I would be dead for certain."

SHIT HAPPENS IN A VERY LONG CAR JOURNEY AND FOR SOME STRANGE REASON HE DECIDES TO TAKE HALF AN HOUR OUT OF HIS LIFE TO DROP ME RIGHT OFF AT THE PORT IN LE HAVRE. I FEEL LIKE THIS OLD MAN SAVED MY LIFE AND I DO NOT KNOW WHAT HIS NAME IS IN FRENCH, MAYBE JEAN OR JEANE OR JEUNET OR SOMETHING BUT I CALLED HIM JOHN.

"You are a golden man John. Please take my well read copy of Choke in return for saving my life and learn life lessons of your own from the wisdom sealed inside it's pages."

He waves me goodbye and I curse him as he leaves because I have just given him my only form of entertainment over the six hour boatride a head. And I'm not in the clear yet for there is MANY MILES OF SEAWATER in front of me and I have not the money to bribe these ferrymen.

I pretty much stumble into the harbour and up to the front desk. "EXCUSE ME LADY, PARLAIS VOUS ANGLAIS?"

"Yes." This is the second time this has happened. I must be luckier than I thought I was.

"There seems to be a problem with my ticket. It says here I'm supposed to be coming back on the 28th but this is wrong. I booked my ticket for today."

I do not know if I am pushing my luck here but this seemed like a pretty well thought out plan for someone like me.

"Of course sir, there is a £15 change charge for any amendments to your ticket." (Oh dear!) "Now hold on a minute. YOU made an error in my ticket and I have to pay for you to fix it. I clearly stated when I ordered my ticket that I wanted to come home TODAY and it says here the 28th, and now you want to charge me? This is outrageous!"

So french ferry lady went to get the manager and it turned out through NEGOTIATIONS that this changing fee could be waved if the error was on their part. My ticket was amended and I am left sitting in the waiting room with the family people on their way home from holiday.

You might think that I am home free here but this is where shit really hit the fan. I had an existential crisis where I recognized every single person in that french port waiting room. These people are the extras to my life and I was becoming increasingly paranoid, anxious and irate. I must have looked like a lunatic because people seemed to be avoiding me. Passing glances at me and then whispering to each other. (Let me tell you this does not help paranoia.)

I'm creeping towards the check in and I see a big BAG X-RAY MACHINE ON THE OTHER SIDE. Thank god I don't have any dangerous materials in my .......

It clicks to me at this point that while working on the farm I did buy a VERY BIG HUNTING KNIFE, not because I am a thug but because you often needed to cut ropes and slice the throats of sheep. The knife was useless to me now but I did feel like it was about to get me arrested. The panic was creeping in and I made a break for the mens room trailing my guitar and suitcase after me. I locked myself in a cubicle and started to dig deep in my bag for the knife. I knew how to deal with this thanks to movies so I took the back panel off the toilet and dropped the knife in, out of my life forever. (It was pretty cheap anyway.)

Home free.

This all sounds very dramatic especially as I really did start to unwind during this experience but as dramatic as I make it sound I'm really just using at as a chance to complain and I knew that AT WORST I would have spend one night rough while my girlfriend transferred some money into my account. There was no real risk of danger and I just worded it like that because it is more interesting. Pretty much I had a shit time but it's not THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD. I am making this post because a couple of people asked me WHAT HAPPENED. Well now you know.

tomorrow i am leaving gamingw for a month, i wont have access to a computer or the internet or tv or phones or anything and in one month i will be back looking and smelling like a caveman. peace out guys.

pro-scubacoaster

This isn't a conspiracy theory topic or anything other than weird coincidences that I thought were pretty neat. We're chatting about it on IRC and I think it's neat enough to go ahead and make a topic.

I was watching some late night TV last night and I flicked onto the film "The Crow" which I thought was surprisingly good considering the subject matter/comic book adaptation and death in the film. I mean before the crow the best comic book adaptation was probably the batman films with Michael Keaton.

Anyway I was looking REALLY HARD to see if I could see the point in time that Brandon got shot, to see if I could see stunt doubles or strange cutting techniques and I'm impressed with the job they did on cutting that film. But it struck me as pretty odd that in the film, brandon lee looks exactly like heath ledger. I mean maybe it is the shaggy hair and makeup but I think it was pretty uncanny. So I brought this up in passing on IRC. OH YEAH and they both died making a movie (so what it happens all the time.) Still, it's getting a bit coincidental.

So at this point I take the time to mention that they look almost identical and both died making a movie that were also both comic book adaptations. At which point liman pops up to tell us all that they were both 28 years old when they died.

So the point of this topic is for me to warn you guys not to make movies involving makeup, based on comic books when you are 28 years old. What a coincidence huh.

To give this topic some other level of credibility I'd like to ask what you guys think of comic book adaptation movies. I mean I did really like the Tim Burton/Keaton batman movies and I did like the crow a lot, but recently I've been getting more and more annoyed with them. Let's be honest Spiderman 3 was ridiculous.

But I'm holding out high hopes for...

OKAY, Film coincidences, comic book adaptations past and present. There's enough discussion here to last us a lifetime...

I'll be the first to admit here that as an admin I kind of botched up my tact a little bit over the last few days and that will become common knowledge soon enough. As a result of this Jester has left. I guess if you are mad about this and want to know what happened, I fired him.

As for other news around the forum:

Long time global moderator Belross Has been removed from the mod team due to inactivity. (We think he is away with the army.) If he returns and continues to be active we'll reconsider re-hiring him but as long as he is away we don't see the benefit of keeping him on board.

We've replaced him and Jester with headphonics. For now this completes the gmod team which consists of:

• headphonics
  
• ASE
  
• ATARI

These guys are going to be breathing down your necks and banning you without hesitation.

Strangeluv will be replacing headphonics as moderator of the IGD forum due to popular request.

Finally, leafo has been made technical admin. leafo has been helping out with gaming world for a long time. He has helped out with a lot of technical problems including SMF modifications, skinning the current forums and developing GW6. He also has a lot of TECH KNOW-HOW and we want to try and make sure there is always someone around to resolve issues, as rami will be busy over the coming summer and Dave isn't always here. We all welcome him as an addition to the team. Everyone give him a big thumbs up.

This bring the current list of tech-admins to:

• leafo
  
• ramirez
  
• Dave

The tech admins would all like me to tell you that if you have any questions or problems, don't hesitate to contact them personally. There's only so much that they can pick up from posts around the forums so your best bet is to send them a PM directly or make a post in Site Feedback. Us other lowly useless admins do keep our eye out and try and pass on as much information as we can but if you want a quick response, IRC or PM's is the way to go.

And if I've remembered correctly, that's all that's happened and you're all now up to date.

Evening chaps.
I'm making this topic on the request of the staff. It seems they are looking for more people to contribute to the mainsite blog and if that's something that you're interested in then now's your chance to step up and be the man you always wanted to be... just like I have.

All you need to do is fill out this complicated scanning process form and send it back to SAREVOK or HANDSOME LAMB in PERSONAL MESSAGE format. They will then confer with each other and put you through a process of rigorous testing before you finally reach the first qualifier stage.

If you have the brass:

[blockquote]Why are you applying for the position?
As cool as they are "I want a green name" is not a good enough reason to apply for this position. (Although if you've got the stones to actually give that as a reason I'll probably make you staff anyway.)

What kind of articles are you going to write about?
As great as you may be at writing articles the staff have said that they are not really looking for anyone to write articles about music. Or at least the non-creation side of it anyway. It's always helpful to have more than one specialty of articles to write about but we have a lot of staffers writing about music so they are looking to branch out to other things: (See Gaming, Literature, Movies, G&D, Other.) Don't let this stop you applying if you want to write about music but please at least have a backup because right now it decreases the chances of the staff saying WE WANT THIS GUY... Unless you are badass good.

An Example of your work:
If you don't have experience in writing articles and don't have anything to link us to, you could provide us links to a forum topic you might have created that would have suited well for an article, or even just type something up here as you go.[/blockquote]

Best of luck to everyone who applies.

ahahahaha man, I just read 42 fucking issues of the walking dead on your recommendation after I asked for SINGLE COMPLETE CONTAINED STORIES and the last issue I had (42) ends on the biggest climax the story has so far, turning out the thing isn't even finished yet How could you do this to me!?

Anyway this topic is about the Walking Dead, wokipedias and what you guys think of it. I was enjoying it so far because it's a pretty digestible read. The issues are short and don't really require a lot of brain power to take in other than CHARACTER DIES, SHOOTER ZOMBIES, DRIVE AROUND IN AN RV. It's not a comic for kids but I would say it was probably aimed at teens because anybody looking for a serious read is looking in the wrong place, it's pretty silly in parts.

Anyway, WHAT GONNA HAPPEN NEXT?

I am probably a little late with this but I only just read Black Hole so that's why.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981202.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Set in the suburbs of Seattle during the mid-1970s the book follows a group of mostly middle class teenagers who over the summer contract a mysterious sexually transmitted disease known as "the Bug" or "the teen plague", which causes them to develop bizarre physical mutations, turning them into social outcasts. Several teens with the bug find seclusion at "The Pit", an encampment in the woods outside of town.

It's funny that I actually read this article when it first came through my RSS feed back then but didn't realize what the fuck Black Hole was. My first impression back then was just I don't think I've seen a Fincher film that I didn't enjoy, Fight Club and Se7en for gods sake and more recently Zodiac which is a pretty impressive portfolio. (And Alien 3... of course.)

Worryingly however there is no news about this on imdb at all as far as I know http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/ which is a little dubious and brings me to point two of this topic other than saying hey this is pretty cool check it out. Is this for real? Fincher has been "attached" to a few projects recently and this film has been in discussion for a long time apparently. Neil Gaiman has been WAY busy on Beowulf and Stardust and writing however many books and things he writes a year so if anyone knows more about this than the duplicate articles posted on the net that pretty much repeat the same thing the one I posted above do then let me know because I would really like to see this movie!

I just finished watching the Mist and god damnit fuck what the hell. This film is both genuinely distressing and hilariously comic. In one go.

The Mist (also known as Stephen King's The Mist), is a 2007 American horror film based on the 1980 novella The Mist by Stephen King. The film is written and directed by Frank Darabont, who had previously adapted Stephen King's work and had been interested in adapting The Mist for the big screen since the 1980s. With an ensemble cast including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Toby Jones, and Andre Braugher, Darabont began filming The Mist in Shreveport, Louisiana in February 2007. The director revised the ending of the film to be darker than the novella's ending, a change to which Stephen King was amicable. Unique creature designs were also sought to differ from creatures in past films. The Mist was commercially released in the United States and Canada on November 21, 2007.

Now, I usually wouldn't include spoilers in a discussion topic about a film like this but I really have to tell you what is going on in this movie. So if you haven't seen it yet and don't want it to get ruined then stop reading now or skip ahead some.

The basis of the film is pretty much that this "mist" rolls in over the town and people start dying. The survivors all hole up in this supermarket which is where it gets really scary. Not because it is a MONSTER movie because as cool as that is, that's not the bit that is distressing. The distressing part is the fact that this religious nut chick stirs up enough trouble to turn the majority of the survivors into primative religious fanatics with a need to sacrifice humans, at which point it seems more dangerous INSIDE the store than it does OUTSIDE with the monsters.

Either way, shit happens and the few sane survivors left decide they're going to take their chances in the mist so they load up their car, drive as far as the petrol will take them (which is apparently not enough) and come to a stop.

THIS IS THE SPOILER ENDING PART DON'T READ THIS BIT OKAY: And this is where the film gets ridiculous. Here is what happens... The Main Character, Drayton pulls out the only gun they have. There is 5 of them, and 4 bullets so as the hero he decides that he will just shoot them all and deal with the monsters himself. He doesn't really consult them on this he just blows them all away INCLUDING his own son who is just waking up from being asleep... "Hey Dad what's going I just took a nap why are you pointing a gun a- *BANG*" So he just killed everyone and steps out of the car resolved to his fate.

AT WHICH POINT the missed suddenly clears, tanks and soldiers roll in with trucks of rescued citizens and big GUNS AND FLAMETHROWERS just to slap him in the face and say WELL IF YOUR PETROL HAD LASTED YOU A FEW MORE FEET OR YOU HAD STOPPED TO CONSIDER INSTEAD OF JUST SHOOTING EVERYONE THEN IT WOULD ALL BE OKAY.

Which actually makes the ending MORE traumatic because god damn.

Anyway it's a pretty good film up until the ending, but you don't have to worry about that now since I've told you what happens so just enjoy it. It's pretty good up until that point which becomes a serious what the fuck moment.

Here is some links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mist_%28film%29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP-MHO_M6ik