Lurker > Eeeevil Overlord

You might've actually convinced me of Dinklage > Williams with those write-ups, when (as my predictions might suggest) I previously felt the other way round. That's presumably a sign you're doing something right!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Catch-up time! Not gonna talk about the actual write-ups 'cause they were either a while ago or I can't really add anything due to not having played the game, either 'cause it's in my backlog (MGS4, ME3) or is from some weird genre apparently to do with fighting or something.

Bonus Question: Who is your favorite Final Fantasy X character?

I love the vast majority of key characters in the game, but I think probably Auron on balance.

Bonus Question: What is your favorite Tales game?

In the battle between Symphonia and Abyss, Symphonia wins out.

Bonus Question: So what do YOU think of FFVII’s famous end of disc one spoiler? Do you like it? Hate it? Feel free to give your overall opinions of this moment!

It's good stuff. The first time I played the game I was a stupid 9 year-old kid and didn't appreciate it properly, but it was still pretty damn cool. Looking back now, it's brilliantly done, my favourite part being the music continuing to play as you mentioned.

Bonus Question: Who is your favorite video game villain?

Gonna go for Kuja like a moth to a flame.


Also, yeah, spoilers bother me. If I want to know the experience of playing/reading/watching through something knowing the plot twist that's incoming, I'll just replay/watch/read it. Experiencing something without knowing the twist is something you can only do once. For instance, I'm sure I'd have enjoyed Game of Thrones anyway, but if I'd known the big spoiler from that first season ahead of time it wouldn't've been nearly as powerful.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

"... if you ignore something that happened in the original game, everything is closed? The hell?"

Yes, if you ignore the scene they added after the initial game came out that they included specifically to give an excuse for (and to promote) a sequel, the initial game as it was wraps up perfectly. I'm not quite sure what the issue is here.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Yeah, FFX closed itself pretty neatly to the point that in order to have an excuse for a sequel they had to add in an extra scene for the international release. If you ignore that last scene and FFX-2, what isn't closed in FFX?

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Gonna suggest RVP had more than one good season, that the last season he had was more than just "good", and that he had a long meeting with Wenger before deciding not to sign a new contract because he didn't like the direction the club was going. It's not like he just wants to go for no reason.

Plus, what was it, two days before that Wenger said he was definitely staying? This is after last summer, when he said if you guys sold Nasri and Fabregas you couldn't be called a big club. Wenger's a fantastic manager, but he's clearly got a problem with man and media management when it comes to transfer deals.

Not like it's gonna stop you getting loads of money for him and still finishing top 4, either. Might stop a serious title challenge, but that was optimistic anyway.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Gleeson's a great pick for number one, as I mentioned when I made the predictions the only reason I didn't include him is I didn't know whether he counted as lead or supporting.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

So correct me if I'm wrong, but it's down to me/LOTM and Rex for the win now, right? If Tyrion > Arya he wins with 14 (with Kaxon and ML on 13 and 12 respectively); if Arya > Tyrion, LOTM and I both get 14 and noone else can overtake (closest would be Rex with 12).

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

If you don't know you're watching/playing/reading the first part of something, To Be Continued is by far the worst. It's as unsatisfying as it gets.

Spoilers for a GBA RPG below.

Golden Sun would be a great example - I wasn't particularly enamoured with the game anyway, but there was one boss battle where I thought "finally, the game's starting to get good!" - and naturally that turned out to be the final boss battle, and the game ended with the plot horrifically unresolved. Maybe it was widely known it was part one of a story, I don't know, but I certainly wasn't aware of it when I played it and it soured my whole impression of the game (which wasn't that high anyway).

So yeah, I don't mind as long as it resolves well.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Just wanted to say since I've not been commenting much, I've been really enjoying this topic, it's really interesting to read, even when I disagree! The quality of the cast on the show is pretty astonishing to me, so to see it venerated it so much is really cool.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Leon has cronies? I thought he just had people who mocked him for loving Miranda, Squall and Diddy Kong.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Uninformed and unpopular opinions time, hoorah!

Openers:
15 Step > Airbag > 2+2=5 > Bloom > Planet Telex > EIIRP > Packt Like etc. > You

Closers:
Street Spirit > A Wolf At The Door > The Tourist > Separator > Videotape > Life in a Glasshouse > Blow Out > Motion Picture Soundtrack

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

So if your keys are locked in your car, how does your front door being unlocked help?

Also, every car I've ever owned has been locked by the keys, so I'm still not familiar with the situation...

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

"Am I not the only one who's constantly going back and forth in and out of the house? Even to do things like garden, get the mail, walk across the street, take the dog for a walk, all that stuff. Sometimes it's just easier to walk back and forth.

Also sometimes I need to have a friend go over to my house to get something, would never have that option if I was constantly locking my door. I've locked myself out of my car and had to call my friends to get my spare 2 times since I've been living on my own. That means leaving my door unlocked has saved me 120 bucks in locksmith money.

Also when you lock something, you give the impression that there's something valuable inside. If someone breaks into your house, and sees a locked briefcase, and right next to it, an open briefcase with 100 dollar bills in the pockets, guess which one he's going to take?

I dunno I think you guys are kinda paranoid about the world."

I think you misunderstand (either that or I have) - A doesn't represent THE ONLY TIME THIS DOOR COULD EVER BE UNLOCKED IS WHEN I AM PERSONALLY IN THE ACT OF OPENING OR CLOSING IT. I'll happily leave it open for a few minutes when I go check my mail or go to the shop across the street or whatever, but I'm not gonna leave it open all the time, that's just careless unless you live in an area of zero crime. Which I don't. I refer back to my previous story where a crazy guy interrupted my dinner claiming people were gonna die tonight and wouldn't go away until the police arrived and took him away.

As far as the car thing goes, I'm confused - you get your friends to go into your house and get your car keys for you? How could you not have done that yourself? Surely your car is either near your house in which case you can easily go back and get the keys yourself, or it's far away in which case you must have had the keys to have driven it there. Can you elaborate?

As far as the locked thing goes, without meaning to sound like a snob maybe I have things of value behind the locked door of my house. More importantly, unless I had literally nothing worth stealing, I seriously doubt the would-be burglar is going to go into my house, go "oh, he let me in, he must want me to take his tvs, computer, dvd player and the like because there's something of more value hidden behind a locked door - maybe I'll break into the neighbours across the corridor at much greater risk, 'cause they bothered to lock their door so they must have more stuff to hide".

Taking care that your stuff can't be easily taken at no great inconvenience (seriously, does your house have a heavy iron-bar that barricades it or something? turning a key in a lock takes 5 seconds, and from the inside turning a latch takes less than a second) isn't being "paranoid about the world", it's just common sense.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

A, No

Used to alter between A and B depending on if I could be bothered to lock it on entering or not, then a random guy walked into my flat in the middle of dinner, clearly off his face on drugs, telling me this was a set-up and "people gonna die tonight". So now it's always A.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Yeah, I understand why you chose Renly as main rather than supporting, I just personally would've counted him as supporting in my book. That might be due to the nature of the characters though - Renly might be the focus of some scenes, but he never commands a scene like Tywin does.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

"Well, then I'll be very, very interested to see who is among your remaining characters beside Varys, Joffrey, Arya, Davos and Tyrion. I honestly have no idea who is left that is a top character in your opinion. Is it Rickon? The guy that pointing out how little Sam knows Craster's daughter ( I dun think he has a name)? Drogon? Grey Wind?"

Bronn

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

My biggest surprise as far as main/supporting goes is Renly counting as main. He had what, 6 scenes all season? I know he's a King, but so's a certain Supporting Character (or 2)...

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

I was unsure about including Dance on my list, thinking he might not count as a main character. Glad I did, because I was almost stupid enough to forget that the way Charles Dance plays him, he could never be classified as merely a supporting character, even if he barely appears for the first 5 episodes!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

People going crazy about Spoony's comments were idiots, Spoony was a bigger idiot and has serious issues and the sooner he fixes them the better for everyone, and people who say TGWTG sucks as a website haven't watched Todd in the Shadows.

Can we move on now?

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

In retrospect I probably ranked Sumpter too high, but I do love his performance as Luwin, probably at least in part because Luwin's a character I had a soft spot for and I think he got it perfect.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Bah, Jigsaw's top tier for me.

15 Step

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Favourite FFT moment is probably the same.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Tag

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Let's name all the things pjbasis is wrong about! We'll be starting with apples.

(sorry, that was really badly forced)

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Best game in the series so far. Free Mode isn't there any more (at least not in the same way), but the Story Mode is superb and the Conquest Mode is pretty deep too, can spend hours in there.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

They made it a LOT less linear. The story is enjoyably stupid (rather than facepalmingly stupid like FFX-2), there're lots of worlds to explore, there are towns, the battles are quicker, the level-up system is better, the characters aren't annoying. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Oh my God. I am trapped in an ATM vestibule with Jill Goodacre! ...Is it a vestibule? Maybe it’s an atrium. Oh, yeah, that is the part to focus on, you idiot!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

malyg posted...

Whiskey_Nick posted...

these English announcers seem biased

Most English commentators are, but Andy Townsend is always incredibly biased towards England. Especially when they're losing. God, he was horrible in that USA game during the 2010 world cup.
A lot are also very biased against Germany.
And then you get Mark Lawrenson who sounds bored in every match that doesn't feature Liverpool.

Fixed!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

"these English announcers seem biased"

That's surprising? English announcers are always biased, to an incredible degree. Andy Townsend in particular is notorious.

Also, yay.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Yuna for me, too. Also, I still don't get the issues with Hedy Buress's voice acting, but there ya go!

I think the reason people don't like Yuna (at least the most common reason) is that she's not believable as a person because she's too 'nice'. Not something I agree with myself, but there you go.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

This has been shocking from Greece, and I wasn't expecting much. They knew all of Poland's best players were on the right flank, and they've still allowed Poland to exploit space down that flank multiple times in the opening quarter. That goal's been coming, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were another 2 or 3 at this rate (and that's despite predicting a 1-0 win for Poland with Lewandowski as the only scorer pre-match...).

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

I don't mind if the late submissions are accepted btw, but I doubt my predictions are right anyway!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Winners: Germany
Top Scorer: Benzema
Player of the Tournament: Ozil
Overperformers (Team): Poland
Overperformers (Player): Llorente
Underperformers (Team): Italy
Underperformers (Player): Robben

As for today, 1-0 and 1-1, but both matches will suck. whoo.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Minor spoilers (it clarifies something you were confused about that, if I remember correctly isn't spelled out beyond what you've already said - if you don't like that, don't read it):

It was Roose Bolton's northern men. Roose is the one who kills Robb himself - the last words Robb's killer say to him are "Jaime Lannister sends his regards", a reference to when Jaime had met with him earlier and told Roose "send my regards to Robb Stark". On top of that the physical descripion fits, as I recall.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

I disagree, but I think it's more about interpretation of the character than anything else. I would quibble with what you say at the end though - Renly tries to convince Ned to attempt a coup, Littlefinger tries to convince Ned to seat Joffrey as King and kill Stannis.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Bah, now I kinda sorta want to play Sonic Generations.

Bonus Question: What series would you like to see experience a revival?

Gonna go with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, not just because the last game came out over 4 years ago and there's still no word of a new one, but also because the last 2 games were significantly worse than the games beforehand, in my opinion!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Surprised there's no mention in the Cat write-up of the scene with Littlefinger in Renly's camp. One of my favourite scenes of the season, and certainly my favourite Cat scene.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Wow, glad I didn't put Gemma Whelan as 3) in my predictions like I almost did. Put me down for a strong disagree there!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Awesome book, can't wait for more write-ups

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Really? I thought it was incredibly powerful myself. Beyond that I think the role was perfectly nailed from start to finish. I accept I'm probably in the minority there though!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

What is your favorite instance of getting to play as the bad guy in a game?

It's not something I really enjoy, to be honest. Rivetting answer, I know <_<. I normally wouldn't bother answering the question, but it's more than just "I don't have an answer", it's that I don't get any enjoyment out of it. I'm not entirely sure why. I guess I'm just too nice!

If I had to come up with an answer, I guess that, depending on how you play it HEAVY RAIN SPOILERS Well not really depending on how you play it, just said that to avoid it being a complete spoiler that Scott Shelby's the origami killer. Although you don't really know that he's the bad guy until the final scene you play as him in, but that's such a powerful scene that I'll still count it!

What is your favorite completionist reward in a game?

Not sure. An inner feeling of self-satisfaction? Trophies? I'm more of a challenge-mode gamer than a completionist one, I guess.

What is your favorite new series of this generation?

If we're going back to the DS and not limiting it to 3DS, can I cheat and say Ace Attorney since the DS is the first time it was released in English? If not, I guess Mass Effect. Uncharted is cool too, but I've only played the first one so I'm in no position to really comment on it properly.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Great idea for a topic. There's a few people I can't believe I've had to leave out of these predictions, but here we go:

Lead Actors
1) Maisie Williams
2) Peter Dinklage
3) Charles Dance
4) Alfie Allen
5) Lena Headey

Supporting Actors
1) Donald Sumpter
2) Conleth Hill
3) Rory McCann

A couple of people I wasn't sure what list you're intending to put them on so I left them off both, but otherwise would've been in strong contention (most principally Jack Gleeson).

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Tag for outrage

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

That Stage Pack is, I believe, the only DLC I've ever bought. Don't regret it, either!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Thanks! Haven't forgotten about this, don't worry, just that the last few days have been crazy busy. Should hopefully get some time to play later today.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

I'm struggling not to be painfully obvious for me and say Final Fantasy X for the soundtrack. Or an unoriginal soundtrack like Beatles Rock Band or something. Or a nostalgic cheese soundtrack like Sonic R, Dynasty Warriors or Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (if the last one can even be said to have a soundtrack given there's only, like, 3 songs).

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism