baron8000

Solution: attend and celebration any religious or otherwise festival you can get your hands on :D Whilst Christmas and Easter will always be the usual for me, I will quite happily head along to a Diwali ball, Catholic Confirmation, or most religious festivals you care to name - you don't need the religion to enjoy and almost all the people there don't care at all that you aren't Islamic/Hindu/Christian, at least in my experience. Also, all the media fluff is insignificant press-waffle; the UK at least isn't approaching a situation where you can't celebrate what you want, and hopefully never will. If stores and councils choose not to deck their halls with apparel (of any kind) then that's their choice, its not like they have to.

Just to add another way of grading to the thread University grades go: 1st - 70% + 2.1 - 60-69% 2.2 - 50-59% 3rd - 40-49% Anything below = fail Never had an essay below a high 2.1, and plenty of 1sts :D

You wouldn't go to jail for that, at least, not in the UK. In fact, I think it would be perfectly possible to kill a robber just because he is on your land in the right circumstances and not go to prison at all. It all depends on the situation, and almost all of the cases of "man shoots robber, man goes to jail" have extra details the press conveniently ignores (read: Tony Martin). On topic - guns...are an incredibly complex issue. I for one greatly enjoying clay pigeon shooting - a 12 bore shotgun is my shooter of choice, so I can see the argument for allowing guns for sport - its an incredibly enjoyable thing to do and highly rewarding when you shatter a clay at 400m in the fog (I exaggerate :lol:). On the flip side, I see no reason for a general member of the public to own a gun simply to keep in his wardrobe in case a robber should appear; not when the downsides (read: massive numbers of weapons circulating, often unchecked) are so obvious. I think the UK's stance works well - we do not ban all guns, but we make them as hard as possible to get hold of without a good reason - criminal record checks, massive amounts of information and more are needed for a UK gun licence. The basis of banning handguns is also clear - they are the most easily concealable guns (even if my shotgun was sawn and the stock changed, which would make it nigh unshootable, there is still no way to conceal it) and thus the most likely to be involved in crime. Also, correlational data sucks guys - showing countries without/with guns having higher/lower crime rates is pointless - you all know very well that hundreds of variables make up crime rates, don't be silly :lol: .

Am I the only one who hates 2Fort? Its such a boringly easy to defend map. Put a sentry just outside one of the spawns [by the stairs], another by the intel and another somewhere in between, dont ever leave their side, ???, STALEMATE. And I swear demomen are really powered. I wouldnt say overpowered, because they lose out in accuracy and speed, but explosions have a huge radius and do large amounts of damage. Its also incredibly easy to camp with them, especially 2Fort. Yeah I was never a fan of 2Fort. Well, ok, maybe it's because I played 2Fort for years and years prior to TF2 (probably same reason I hate De_Dust and De_Dust2 in CS:S) 2Fort does indeed need to struck from the server list - ESPECIALLY insta respawn ones #-o I miss tf2, my uni connection works fine with L4D but cannot cope with TF2, and this makes me sad :(

Shooting and missing the heart is attempted murder,I'm pretty sure some other part of his chest cavity would be harmed. Yes, but in your example, harm was done. If the assailant did not even manage to get anywhere near the person he/she intended to kill, I would not convict that person. Paranoia. I recommend a psychiatrist. So, when a lunatic sends you threatening letters and messages and openly tries to murder you but doesn't make it say, into your house, you would be quite happy with the police saying "yeah, we're just going to let him go free, no harm no foul! Call us again when you're dead". Also, this issue doesn't exist in the UK - attempted and actual murder can both be awarded with a life sentence if the facts require it (although actual murder always will be). Discretionary punishments, for ALL crimes, are the way forward - to say "you have done X so must serve Y jailtime/pay Z amount of fine" is such a blunt tool it should only be used in the most simple situations. Also, if anyones going to argue what the law is, it would be really helpful if you state the jurisdiction - UK and US law may be very different on their definition of murder.

Versus really does make this game, although, almost all unorganised teams have a terrible habit of sending just one man to rescue someone pinned/smokered - usually into a hunter waiting right around the corner. It worries me people still havent mastered "stick (fairly) close together"!.

Just spent a few hours (its 2am here...) playing with three mates with mics...I couldn't tear myself away, this really has taken the no1 multiplayer experience spot for me (sorry TF2 :oops:) Finale of blood harvest, the other team didnt even get out of the saferoom thanks to a boomer drop off the train onto all four of them - cue ravenous horde of zombies + blind shooting, plus team members disappearing from hunters and smokers. They were all in the red before they got back inside, they all heal. 0 medkits left, 0 pain pills. We work out we can smoker lasso through the gaps in the roof of the train, more pain for the survivors. They finally reload and calm down enough to make a break from the train safe room...and I get control of a tank. It was epic, and I'm now going to play some more :D

Just bought over steam...this game is all kinds of awesome, especially coming up against a horrible team of survivors when infected. It really shouldn't be possible to KO one from one hunter attack at full health surely. :lol:

I don't want nintendo to change or go on a massive "we MUST ADVANCE GAMING" crusade. Nintendo does what it does brilliantly, colourful, casual, relaxing platformers, epic fantasy adventures and the odd RPG. I can remember back when Sony could compete here but recently...I've been unimpressed, the original jak and daxter/ratchet and clank kind of fitted this description (as did say, crash bandicoot - god I feel old) as did the old final fantasies. Recently however all these series seem to be dragged down a "MUST BE DARKER" path and lose all their charm. That and I've personally found most recent Final Fantasies unlikeable - for the life of me I can't think of anything that fits the bill on the ps3 (correct me if wrong, please) Note that I'm not saying that any other games are inferior and failures - I enjoy GTA, Half life, RTS and the more traditionally "gritty dark" games as well as anything else but I think nintendo needs to play to its strengths. If I want to play a tense first person shooter I'll turn to my PC and play bioshock, half life 2, same deal with RTS and the total war series/supreme commander. If I want to play a platformer, something casual or colourful, or something mulitplayer - I'll fire up the wii and SSBB/zelda/mario etc. I'd much rather each platform stuck primarly to its niche and did it well, rather than trying to over extend themselves and create sub-par games that just dont fit well. In terms of Nintendo working to its strengths I must admit I couldn't come up with anything new :lol: I still think developers haven't used the full potential of the wii system but I'm damned if I can think of anything myself. All I want is that Nintendo don't move massively away from their strengths just to satisfy the need for something new and exciting, but with no substance.

Escort missions in any form,

Locking this topic, feel free to repost it in the correct forum here viewforum.php?f=30

I live with 4 geography degree students I'm practically crucified every time I don't recycle/buy from a large corporation/do anything remotely unethical We had an enforced household meeting because I bought something Nestle, I wish I was joking :(

Well, had some snow here in Oxford but only a lame amount so far, a huge amount would be great because my college looks beautiful in the snow. [hide=] Mansfield by snow and the lake :)[/hide] Pretty snow pictures contest time :

Locked on request

Dungeon Keeper 2 I bought a windows95 PC just to run that game, that game, nothing else.

Yes, good point. One of the older concepts of freedom is a Roman one - neatly described as "Usus, Fructus and Abusus". Whilst originally based around ownership, it stated that you should have the basic freedoms to use, profit from, or destroy/not profit from anything you own. So, imagine I have a plot of land, I may use it how I wish, I may grow crops upon it, or I could just entirely ignore it. Its my thing and I can do as I wish with it. This analogy can be transferred over to my voice and freedom of speech - I may use it, I may profit from my speech, or I can choose not to say anything. Simple so far. The Roman jurists however, realised that these principles required limitation. Say I own a sword, I certainly cannot stab somebody with it just because it is my sword and I should have the freedom to use it as I wish. It works the same way with your voice and speech, just because you generally deserve the freedom to use it as you wish, there are areas of use that must be limited - say if the use is to another's (or societies) detriment. From a very technical point of view therefore, we have no complete freedom of speech, but, as any sensible person would agree, complete freedom of speech would be more harmful than beneficial.

Pretty much my view, luckily this statement is hardened law in the UK. Essentially says you can say what you like provide you do not provoke violence (or of course, become violent yourself, then it'd be assualt). We in the UK most definitely have freedom of speech :)

Some title think they outsmart me...maybe...I yet to meet title that outsmart mod edit ;)

FPS - Bioshock (although if you have orange box already, you may have enough FPS) [hide=][/hide] RTS - Supreme commander is always good fun and graphically awesome, maybe Rome/Medieval 2: Total War if thats your kind of thing [hide=][/hide] [hide=][/hide] Those are my votes at least :) Also, get yourself a steam account and have a browse, theres some real deals and gems on there (I picked up my childhood fav Abe's Exoddus and prequel for less than £8 recently)

I appreciate this is a different game but I think its best if we try out a general Halo discussion thread rather than have one per game. Of course if the thread gets too crowded then I'll willingly change the policy back. Please post all Halo things here viewtopic.php?f=151&t=702590 in future :) Thanks, Baron

here's the thing, NO ONE wants nationalized healthcare. It is a horrible horrible idea; the waiting lines are so long in places like France, Canada and Britain, my mom once had a friend die waiting in line to get some simple healthcare in Britain, it woulda taken her 30 mins to get in US, and would have saved her life. But she died wating DAYS to recieve the treatment. The problem is, while yes, nationalized healthcare is a good *idea* realisticly, it's just not probable. Also, you didn't really answer how, if you're a marxist, and you agree with Obama's economic policy, that doesn't make his views similar to yours? (marxist?) You realise we have both nationalised AND privatised healthcare in the UK right? Its just as possible to pay money and recieve instant healthcare in the UK as it is in the US. Thats the brilliance of the system - those that can afford a higher level care will pay for it and people that cannot pay for medical treatment are not chucked out on the street and ignored.

Whilst it doesnt fit so much into the concert archetype, I can highly advise Glastonbury to anyone getting the chance to go.

Just a quick notice guys - whilst I'm certainly not about to be such a killjoy as to prevent free gifting of this kind of thing, please be VERY careful about making promises or trades that are irreversible. Firstly because Tip.it cannot and will not police these things and secondly becuase you may end up on the bad end of the trade. Thats all, continue gaming ;)

Right, just because of this thread, my next post will be composed ENTIRELY of legal-terminology...LATIN legal terminology ;)

Well, the criminal liability age in the UK is 14, and in fact anyone over 10 can be charged and found guilty of a criminal act if the judge decides the child knew what they were doing at the time. The number of cases that have kids as defendants is actually quite large (if you look through criminal case law any case with a party named only by initial is usually a child, the exception being R.) The punishments are different of course, but no one in their right mind would suggest putting a ten year old in a prison with fully grown men.