Chris the Human

Here's hoping the almighty pile of suck that has been the post strike episodes is out of their system by then

In its original format, sure. But how does a US made show expect to be anything like the original when, I'd imagine, they'll have to change virtually everything about the characters? The Kath & Kim characters are classically Australian bogans. They could make them rednecks, I guess, but it's not really the same thing.

Best episode of House in a long time. Though it would have frustrated me, I'd have loved for it to be the season ending cliffhanger. Wonderfully put together, suitably zany, and it had the Cuddy pole dance I know we've all been waiting for. Has me buzzing for next week.

BUUUMP I've got to say, season three has been so up and down for me. The opening couple of episodes (about Robin and Ted's breakup and the Argentinian) were good. How I Met Everyone Else is one of my favourite episodes by far. Spoiler Alert, Slapsgiving, The Yips, The Platinum Rule, No Tomorrow.... all awesome. The writer's strike seems to have killed what I loved about the show. In fact, with the exception of Sandcastles in the Sand and The Chain of Screaming, most every episode since the show's return has been fairly weak. Sarah Chalke just seems to be a slightly less neurotic Elliot, Britney Spears is horrible, and the greatest part of the show (in my eyes, the group dynamic) has been foregone for a bunch of nonsensical, largely uninteresting side plots. Robin hasn't had anything meaningful to do (except Barnet, boom tish) in a while and seems relegated to cameo appearances. Ted's relationship with Stella is boring, and even Marshal and Lily, who I love - aren't clicking like they were pre strike. In fact, the sole thing I tune in for is Barney, and tonight's episode (Everything Must Go) was substandard even for him. I blame Britney. The season's got one episode to go, and hopefully that will see Stella out of the picture (since it's obvious she's not the mother) so that the writers can stop, think, and work on making sure season four isn't anything like post strike season three.

I joined up to this the other day, despite having next to zero interest in American football. Got a fullback by the name of Bill Soulblighter playing with the abysmal Sante Fe Supreme. CWBush83 is the username. Anyone running an EWB team and want to buy me up?

Dammit! I dug the new setup for civics!

I cannot even begin to imagine how Kath & Kim might work in the US. The entire demographic that the show parodies (and, in a way, targets) doesn't even exist in the United States.

Living in South Korea, I go by the impression that most everything I watch, nobody's watching. Lost The Office House Reaper Chuck How I Met Your Mother The Big Bang Theory

This makes me a sad panda. The only title I'm mildly excited about is Fable 2. I might pick up Civ Revolution for my DS, but I can't imagine it being a great deal of fun to play handheld. Side thing, but man, I want Civ to include some different nations. Wallachia! Transylvania! The Dutch! Portugal! Is StarCraft II due out this year? I'm mildly excited about it. TotLK for WoW is something I'll buy, but I'm probably the only player not excited about it. I'm just a bit disillusioned with the fact that these expansions just seem to tack onto the end of the game, rather than broadening or changing the world in a meaningful way.

That game was quality, but I don't know how they could hope to recapture it without just making an entirely new game in the same setting. The story and the ending didn't really leave much for The Nameless One to do. I'd settle for a D&D RPG game with a storyline that was something above 'You are the prophecised chosen one'. Mine: Rollercoaster Tycoon: Three looked nice, but kind of sucked. I'd kill to have an RC4 that played like RC2. Myth: Bungie sold the rights when they got bought out by Microsoft, and the new owners just took a steaming dump over the franchise with their weak as piss Myth III. Marathon: The shooter that put Bungie on the map. One was breathtaking, two was intense, and three was just kind of there. But the storyline and setting, like all things Bungie, was tremendous. Escape Velocity: Ambrosia's very awesome space RPG. The first was leagues ahead of its successors, but Nova had its good points. Diablo: There are rumours, but I'd spooge if I saw a D3 was due out.

How is it that a game this awesome only has one topic in which one guy has psoted twice?

You fucking take that back! I've seen Iron Man now, so I'll exclude it from my list 1. Dark Knight 2. Hancock 3. Wall E 4. Tropic Thunder 5. The Incredible Hulk 6. Prince Caspian 7. Pineapple Express 8. Kung Fu Panda 9. Step Brothers 10. Wanted

Very, very good flick. Best Marvel movie I've seen since the second X-Men or Spiderman.

I marked out like you wouldn't believe when the smoke monster rushed out of the house and went after the mercenaries. I find myself liking Benjamin more and more each week in spite of all of the horrible things he does.

'Tis a good read. I picked it up on sale for $2 out the front of a bookstore and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not sure I could read anything else from him without getting annoyed with its semi preachy, 'I'm so smart' tone - but it's tolerable for the first book.

Holy crap. Getting a phone call at 2.30am in the morning from Jim Gordon just made my fucking week.

http://www.nationstates.net It won't devour a heap of time each day, but you'll find you get quite involved in managing things. They've just announced Nation States 2 for later in the year, too.

I can't really boast about it being easy. I've had it nearly a week and I'm only in the third world, although I do work full time and don't play it outside of breaks at work. It's challenging at points, but when you can continually re-run the first level, pick up the giant mushroom, and gain 3-4 lives a pop to build up a stockpile of 99 lives, you're never really going to fail.

I play WoW on and off these days, but I get the feeling I'm done with the game, for now. I'm not a huge fan of world PvP, since it generally exists only as ganking - and there's no real roleplay or character development to be done beyond number crunching. Even that would be bearable if the storyline was compelling, but too often I find I go from something epic in feel to something that is, at its heart, 'collect twelve of these mushrooms and bring them here so I can cook them for you'. The world is too static. Nothing changes, aside from the opening of an occasional instance or the addition of a new, high level area. A little progression that didn't come in the form of 'OMG! NEW AREA YOU CAN REACH' would make things interesting. After a year away from the game, I come back to the same aimless lowbie missions and the same exodus from actually interesting places like the Plaguelands and Silithis. That, and finding a guild I enjoy playing with is nigh on impossible. Everyone's either a twink or a hardcore raider.

Mario 64 on DS is utter shite. I love the game on 64, and could appreciate the new features, but the controls are just shithouse. Using a touch screen to alter the camera angle while sprinting around is retarded, as is the lack of a full axis of movement with the D-Pad. New Super Mario Brothers is easy, but a lot of fun. There's a horde of fun little mini games on it, too.

I've got a sudden hankering to play a game that is based around space colonization. Alas, the only ones that spring to mind are Space Ho! (awesome, but a little simplistic) and Homelands (shite, and not really the style I mean). Anyone know of any games about space exploration and colonization - free or otherwise?

We want a Big Gay Playlist!

I was a little iffy about it, having read a bunch of 'OMG! It's shit' from pretentious wankers on a music forum I occasionally frequent. With two of my favourite artists involved, I did enjoy it. Good to see people other than me can recognise Mayer's tremendous guitar ability even if they're not fans of his actual body of mainstram work. He's an amazing guitarist who, in recent years, has taken steps to distance himself from the syrupy sweetness of stuff like 'Your Body is a Wonderland'. Diggin' it.

Maybe it was because I was running while I watched, but I didn't realise until just now that we were seeing flashbacks for Jin and flashforwards for Sun. It makes far more sense than believing they had a divorce and/or faked Jin's death. But yay for an episode set in Korea. I was able to understand without subtitles!