PhobosAnomaly

I can see where you’re coming from - if you look at Ultimate Doom or Doom II and put Doom 64 next to it, then there is a raft of limitations and shortcomings that make it appear to be an inferior product. I personally prefer Doom II as well, with the banging soundtrack and the iconic levels.

However, I’d argue you’re missing out by approaching it with that mindset. Aubrey Hodges score is less of a soundtrack, and more of an ominous hum in the background - and the overall art style is far more drab and depressing. I’d probably suggest it has more in common with Doom 3 than it does with the first two. I personally prefer the sound effect collection in Doom 64 - the shotgun sounds meatier, the Barons from Hell’s alert sound is a bit more worrisome, and the doors sound a bit more industrial.

Personally I agree with the N64 controller assessment - it feels like it was built by someone who forgot how many hands humans have 😂 but the adaptations in the Unity ports make it more than enjoyable now on Xbox or Dualshock controllers.

The laugh is, the Watch Me Die mode (the Ultra Violence of the 64 editions) is probably the easiest “hard” mode on original hardware, purely because the technical limitations prevented lots of enemies (of any tier, not just hitscan wankers) being spawned - and space limitations prevented difficulty spikes caused by Boney Bois (Plutonia-style) or Arch-Bastards ruining your day by not being included in the game at all.

It’s still a very, very good Doom game. 64 and PlayStation Doom should be played together for the alternative Doom experience.

The kids are our deciding factor.

If one of us going somewhere with the little 'uns, then the “family car” with the nicer booster seats gets taken by whoever it is that has them. Whoever is getting the peace and quiet, drives the little runabout.

I usually take the little car, and it surprises me sometimes when I jump into the family car and I’ve got another 50bhp under my right foot.

I get it - I think at this point Trump could empty an AK47 magazine into an orphanage and his core voters wouldn’t give a fuck.

I’d imagine there is a good chunk of silent “left-of-Republican” market though - people who have voted red because that’s what they’ve always done, maybe because their household is overwhelmingly Republican but they’re ready to break ranks, or even those who boarded the meme train in 2013 or 14 but are ready to get off.

I suppose an awkward analogy is being in a group of twenty people trying to get in to a bar with one or two cunts who are beyond mangled - the sensible ones looking at them and thinking “yeah I’ve stuck with them this far, but maybe I can make a change and enjoy the rest of the night with people who are largely sensible”.

Outsider view from across the pond:

It appears from the outset that the Trump camp is tripping over it’s own feet and stepping on landmine after landmine. Literally all Harris seems to have to do is stay on message, bat off anything too controversial, and let the opposition’s trousers fall down by themselves.

It’ll be interesting either way. The only real surprise to me will be whether I’ll learn about key moments from news outlets or from mad memez first.

Disclosure: I’m in the UK where the worker protections are half-decent.

was it ever not OK?

It was not OK to not take a jobby on work time when you had the opportunity!

I’ve worked shifts where my relief staffer has been in twenty minutes early (long commute, unpredictable traffic) so I’ve handed the shift over, and ensured that the remainder of my time was spent losing half a kilo of weight in five minutes. Conversely, it feels far more productive to leave the house half-needing to give birth to a brown otter, and nip to the bog once your feet are clear of your workload that you’ve taken on from the previous shift to go and perform the bowel movement while being paid for it.

Shitting in my own khazi on my days off feels like voluntary work now.

Sensibly though, any manager who controls bog time is just a bit of a fanny. Unless someone is obviously taking the piss like spending four hours of a ten hour shift, then people will perform better once they’ve laid a cable whenever they’ve needed to.

Newport city centre then wheeeyyyyyy

I suspect it’ll probably end up in the same places most other large hazardous industrial sites will be - rural, coastal just off an arterial road route somewhere. See also: Torness, Easington, Milford Haven etc.

That said, Tom Scott did a video (because of course he did) on plans for nuclear testing on UK soil - have a look if you’re interested - and it seems the answer to that was underneath a chunky section of Yorkshire moorland.

or , none of the cities were equipped, trained, or willing to deal with the additional security risks or associated public order issues that it causes - so rather than cancel the game, it got moved to a neutral venue?

I’ve heard some stupid shit in my time, but moving an international game that benefits Israel by removing the home advantage and then calling it “anti-Semitic” is pretty entertaining.

I have no idea who this geezer is and I hope it stays that way.

At the risk of sounding dismissive, I lost interest when he threw out the “social experiment” bullshit and his credibility went down the toilet with it.

Good on the dude for losing the beef though. Regardless of who you are, it takes balls and it takes effort.

The problem is a little more deeper than that - the very nature of mines is that they are indiscriminate. Whether you’re one force, another force, a civilian, or an animal - it does it’s job and goes boom without any further intervention by a human.

The remainder of your point is absolutely valid, but mines are a shit idea from the outset. Area denial is indeed a tactic, but alliances and boundaries change, and what was once a defensive line may be a suburban district in a hundred years time, until a future innocent party detonates one underfoot and is killed or severely maimed.

I thought mines were prohibited under the Geneva Suggestions, but perhaps there’s a loophole somewhere.

Do a credit card next!

Mater’s Tall Tales were absolute bangers. Not only were they funny in their own right, but the background details and cameos were awesome.

Eurobeat intensifies

I can smell the dying breaths of clutch mechanisms from here.

I can’t speak to her performance in FRECA, I’ve not watched it - but her recent races in the F1 Acad have been more than decent. She’s super consistent with whatever she’s given, even if it’s got a lot less power in the back than F1.

F2 or F3 would do her a world of good in terms of being marketable to F1 teams though, I can’t argue with that - but I can’t see Antonelli’s oodles of experience either, like Bottas or others before him who have been thrown in at the deep end.

I would absolutely love to see Pin or Abbi Pulling rag an F1 car about for a session and see what times they put in.

Reminds me of the mid2000’s era of British journalist Gary Cutlack trying to post every instance of a spiral in the real world, linking it to the upcoming announcement of a Dreamcast 2.

I miss that sort of journalism.

I mean he’s… good?

Aside from maybe Hadjar, Bortoleto who’s a bit Maldonado-esque, Gabriele Mini, and obvs Lawson - I’m not seeing any “chosen one” talents coming through. There’s nothing wrong with Antonelli as a choice at all, just all seems a bit meh.

If they were going to roll the dice, I’d have put Doriane Pin in that seat. She is rapid AF.

Brilliant, thank you - that’s really interesting and appreciated.

I still remember typing JPELC at the Mission: Shark title screen to toggle cheats.

Awesome.

I’ve no idea why, but the Polish could make the 800-series sing. An entire generation of bedroom coders getting their games onto top tier labels like Zeppelin, Mastertronic etc.

Janusz Pelc springs to mind, he (she?) seemed incapable of writing a bad game, super talented.

It fills me with hope that this RM800 will do well.

A bit of a radical view, but Albon has been one of the drivers of the season for me.

He’s put that car in places that a Williams has no business being, has made faster drivers in even faster machinery look daft on a Saturday, and has done it with the shadow of his time at RBR hanging over him.

Absolutely banging season and a half so far.