Just noticed Steam had a free 4.4 GB High Res Texture pack available for Skyrim. I have all of the other DLC, but I didn't know this existed until tonight. A very nice bump in the texture quality.

Heh, comparing Skyrim PC to Skyrim PS3 reminds me of when I played SNES Doom, and then later played PC Doom. Skyrim PS3 has about the same framerate as SNES Doom too.

Going out that late at night, Leo? Be careful, and watch out for creepers!

I've probably said all of these before --but-- yeah Smash Bros. is Christmas Morning good and it is the most "Nintendo" game Nintendo has made in a long, long time. The graphics are the best Nintendo has EVER produced. The controls are flawless. The moves are flawless. The sound effects are flawless. The stages are massive. The action is frantic. You --CANNOT-- play this game and --NOT-- immediately become a child again and start to re-live all of those "Who would win in a fight?" moments from your youth. Doesn't matter if I've had this same feeling on the 3DS version already, but seeing Mega Man take on Samus on a TV screen in full HD is a childhood fantasy come true! Mega Man has all of his 8-bit animations in a superb 3D model and his moves bring back so many Robot Masters, it's enough to make a grown man shed a tear of nostalgic happiness! ...and speaking of nostalgia, I shouldn't have scoffed at the Music Selection feature of the Nintendo Direct like I did. There are soooooo many classic songs packed in there, again, it's like having a soundtrack of your youth and you can't help but sit back, close your eyes and become 12 years old again...

AMAZING!!

Dvader said:

GTAV in motion is ridiculous, a massive improvement over what we played before. I watched some streams, I was blown away.

Since I wont be buying it for a long time I don't really have the inclination to watch the videos. Because of the HDD requirement mostly and because I always knew it would be out on 'next gen' eventually. Hopefully it will be cheap by the time I pick it up.

SteelAttack said:

gamingeek said:

the prayers said by orthodox Jews when leaving the toilet in which they thank God for the orifices used to defecate/urinate

I do this all the time! One must be thankful for the orifices.

I curse Shiva for the Indian rapage of my asshole.

edgecrusher said:

Whoa I was only bustin ya ballz GG....keep calm & accept my love.

You owe me one ballsack massage. That is all.

A few pics

Tin Mao temple in the centre of Kowloon, so much incense being burned I was coughing and choking.

There actually isn't that much to see in HK, the city itself is the sight as it were. It's just a very nice environment to be in. It would be nicer to live there than it is to visit as a tourist.

This is the Peninsula, one of the old colonial hotels on the very tip of the Kowloon Peninsula. HK is made up of 4 islands, HK Island itself is mostly a financial district and most of the touristy and shopping stuff as well as the best views of the HK skyline are actually from the Kowloon island side.

At night the view across the bay is pretty great, the buildings light up one by one and then at 8pm there is a light show every night. It's also just nice weather, tshirt weather at night, not too hot or cold.

I've seen many pictures of the Lantau Island Buddha but none have captured it like I have. We happened to come at just the right moment when the sun was directly above this massive statue and shining behind it. That was obviously why it was placed in that spot.

You can go up to the Peak, the highest point in the city. Pretty cool, before you were looking up at these buildings, if you drive up you are at mid-level and it feels like walking with giants. Eventually you come up above them and can look down on the whole of HK Island and Kowloon across the bay. My camera is not very good at night pics.

This is Guilin on the Li River, it was pissing it down but that also sent up a lot of mist. It was really quite jaw dropping and sureal, like actually being in a fairytale landscape. The pics dont do it justice.

This was my favourite pic as the mist makes it seem like there is a giant turtle on top of the mountain.

At the end of the boat trip you end up in Yangshao this cute quirky little town obviously geared towards the tourist industry. There are tons of quirky items and clothes to get, it's just a very pleasent place to be.

I much prefer Yangshao to Guilin, there are only an hours bus ride away. The mountains are far closer to you in Yangshao and it gives the place more personality. There are also lots of tour agencies there to book stuff with. And it's very English friendly.

Bangkoks Grand Palace is ridiculously detailed, so ornate it even puts the Forbidden City to shame in that respect but not on size or grandeur. It was sooooo hot though, if you go to Thailand bring am umbrella, you'll feel stupid for all of one minute before being relieved you did so.

This is the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, so big when I first saw it it was like that scene in Jurrassic Park when the Brontosaurus comes into view. I couldn't even fit the thing in my camera. I think it's nose is 4x bigger than a human head.

When it's not pissing it down in Guilin this is what the Li River looks like.

These are the Sun and Moon Pagodas in Guilin.

Inside of the Reed Flute Cave, this is not my pic as my cam doesn't do too well in low light. The cave is formed from water dripping down from the ceiling and depositing limestone, forming stalactites and mites. What was cool is that the process is still ongoing, I felt water dripping from the ceiling onto my arm and there are water pools at the bottom.

We did other stuff in Bangkok, can't be arsed t post it now. Last pic, I nabbed from the internet as my photos weren't always the best. HK skyline by night. I think the colours are oversaturated but it still looks nice.

Nice pics, gg.

Nice pics man. I know many people say they feel more at home in Asia than they do in the US or UK, I guess its the different culture and style of living. Japan in particular, I know one thing I would like about it is just the general pleasant attitudes and respect among the people. As opposed to here in the Northeast USA where everyone pretty much treats each other like shit and have zero respect. Especially in the more built up areas.

edgecrusher said:

Nice pics man. I know many people say they feel more at home in Asia than they do in the US or UK, I guess its the different culture and style of living. Japan in particular, I know one thing I would like about it is just the general pleasant attitudes and respect among the people. As opposed to here in the Northeast USA where everyone pretty much treats each other like shit and have zero respect. Especially in the more built up areas.

I find the Chinese public pretty rude, as an Englishman they just seem to do some things we would consider rude or selfish but it usually doesn't impact you too much. Stuff like bumping into you, sometimes repeatedly and not saying sorry. They cab driver back to the airport was literally ridiculous he looked seriously fucked off and berated his guests and treated the baggage like shit. And there's an all for yourself attitude at some of the tourist spots I've seen where us Brits were stepping back and waiting in line politely and stuff and the Chinese were rushing forwards all elbows in your face and ribs.

Koreans in the hotel in Bangkok were pretty annonying too, very loud at very early hours of the morning in corridors, cramming themselves and their gear into an already overstuffed elevator, being a tad too greedy at breakfast etc. The Thais were quite nice.

I just think the more I travel for more I realise that London is nice but nothing special and there are places I would rather be. I guess each person will feel more affinity with different places. China is really coming up in the world, Hong Kong is so modern compared to other places, these cities are newer and it really shows, Shanghai and stuff like that makes you say wow in your head.

gamingeek said:

I just think the more I travel for more I realise that London is nice but nothing special and there are places I would rather be.

I think that this is just a case of the grass being greener on the other side.  When you're abroad it's easy to forget that all the people you see there have the same worries as you, bills to pay, ...  The only reason I'd consider moving is if it was either somewhere with nicer weather, or if I could escape the ratrace and just open a small B&B on some tropical beach.

As for Asia, a friend of mine had to drive a Japanese journalist around a couple of years ago, the guy was flabbergasted by our way of life.  They have like 3 days off of work for the whole year, they work insane hours, their appartments were even smaller than the smallest home you'd find here, ...