Yes and no: You cannot take your online character offline to roam the world (as far as I know), but there is supposed to be something called a Passive mode, which means you cannot kill or be killed by other players while in the Online world.

Can it be November 23rd now, please?

They do leave a lot to be desired, but if you move the left thumbstick during a jump you can usually right yourself in time. Doesn't always work, mind you.

In the right hands that could be awesome. My main worry is I can see Hollywood types being turned off by the underlying anti-capitalist message in the series, but who knows? In any case, you have some good books coming up.

Not only that, but I noticed that a few pictures that had, according to the game, uploaded to the social club, where not on my profile when I logged in on my PC. I was really annoyed by that, since I'd taken some cool shots.

You're so right. What should have happened, IMO, is Janeway and Chakotey getting together (much like Adama and Roslyn in BSG); it would have been far more believable and true to the characters, and there was real dramatic potential there. And it would have been more gutsy to have Seven remain single, with the Doctor…

"So say we all!"

That's one of the many things I like about io9 and Kotaku; if I can't find someone in person to talk to about things like the Culture, usually people here will. Have you read The Hydrogen Sonata yet?

Agreed, a thousand times agreed. The ending felt rushed and abrupt; though far from my favorite Trek show, I felt the characters deserved much more closure, hell, any closure than they got. And don't get me started on the out of left field pairing of Seven and Chakotey, which just felt false and was one of the poorest…

Apparently this is the very reason Ron Moore left Star Trek and went on to make BSG: he hated how the show was going and that the ship and crew were always so pristine as though they were never more than a short trip from a star base, as opposed to on the other side of the galaxy, cut off from everything and everyone…

I meant to add, i live in a biggish city, and they're mostly unknown here, too. I did turn quite a few friends on to them, and they all thanked me for it.

They're great books. To quote Neil Gaiman, even the bad ones are good. I started with The State of the Art, liked it and got Consider Phlebas, and was hooked. I struggle with accepting that there won't be any more :-(

In other words, the perfect video game character. I wouldn't want to know Trevor, but he's damn fun to play as.

I've seen this one a few times; I quite like it, even though yeah, it's not at all accurate. Very pretty though, like a cross between a starship and a kind of iceberg.

These are two rather great impressions of a GSV's interior.

No apology necessary. Yeah, I like how the older class of Ship are 'smaller,' as in only a few kilometers long, as opposed to around two hundred. So large they are held together by force fields, and essentially look like mirrored oblongs when seen from outside. There's sadly not too much in the way of concept art for…

And great conversationalists to boot. I wish I could live on a GSV!

He was a gentleman, though he had his demons. But yeah, I was really meaning the crazy Duke persona. I can't help but suspect that character was a partial inspiration for Rockstar.

You're right. I really should have just said Raoul Duke, and left it at that.

It depends on how you play Trevor (usually in free roam). And I should say I mean the caricature Raoul Duke persona at his most extreme; you can dress him a bit like Duke, get him a red or white convertible, go hunting, drink and do drugs, play with firearms and just plain old fire, and otherwise get up to all kinds…