Tigranes

Possibly - China is definitely easier to cross into right now, but if you asked North Koreans where would you want to LIVE, I'm guessing most will say South Korea over China. A lot of NKers currently cross to China *then* to SK, or alternatively, want to do so but are stuck in China. What happens when they do get to SK is a different question - we're now seeing a fair bit of secondary migration where NKers defect to SK, realize it's not all wonderful for them there, then move again to, say, Southeast Asia.

Actually, their 'formula' has changed dramatically from 'early Bio' to 'cinematic Bio', and will probably undergo another transformation once they wrap up ME3 & TOR. For me, the real core to the Bio formula that worked for me was the tactical combat. That wasn't particularly 'edgy' or 'hardcore' either but I liked it and it was fun. Since KOTOR their formula has changed to really deprioritize that, which is also coterminous with their turn towards sci-fi settings and much stronger emphasis on cinematics. I knew DAO's story delivery would be pretty much LOTR fanfiction + Porn, but I still bought the game for the tactical combat and enjoyed it. They threw that out again with DA2, so I didn't.

Of course. But it's not like we can invade and get it all over with right away - as far as we know that would be a very risky maneuvre. I certainly wouldn't advocate artificially keeping the KJU regime alive to postpone its collapse, but a quick implosion will have problems of its own.

Bought DOD for 2.50 yesterday. I like it, though the lack of visible equipment on sprites really sucks.

No, no, no, no. Twenty million North Koreans, most of them poor and malnourished, streaming over to a South Korea where Seoul is already one of the top ~3 highest concentrations of people in the world? The government caught in election year and likely with zero real planning done to establish legal and administrative frameworks for a NK that is *larger* than SK waiting for capitalists to go in and start randomly grabbing land, appropriating factories, buying up half of Pyongyang, putting North Koreans into Dickensian labour at half the pay of SK minimum wage? South Koreans who are by now a lot more ambiguous about unification, some of whom actually support a two-state solution, and in fact generally tend to treat NK defectors like second class citizens by not giving them decent jobs? One million North Korean soldiers and old generals that are going to look for something concrete before they all just hand over their arms and surrender? How about the fact that North Koreans now speak a significantly different dialect of Korean from the SK's? That since most of them don't know how to use a computer, etc., there's going to be a massive generational disadvantage leading to socioeconomic gulfs? It's going to be a lot more painful than Germany, and possibly even more expensive, which SK may be able to afford but certainly isn't going to like. I personally support unification and think in the long run it will be a great thing, and I don't know if SK will ever be 'ready' for it, but an immediate implosion now could be very bad.

Krezack, at a certain point, foaming at the mouth about people you think are stupid and wrong doesn't make you look passionate, it makes you look like an intellectually limited person that can only think one way. Which makes your arguments less convincing. The find is certainly interesting, though I don't have contextual knowledge - I wonder if the 25 hearths suggests this was used to host a rather large group of neanderthals, though at the maximum size of 26 feet that's going to be pretty crowded. Do we even have enough archaeological evidence to concretely suggest a linear sequence of human types, anyway? I always thought, at least at the pop science level at which I learned things, the human evolutionary history was a bit too neat and ordered.

Thanks. I've played King's Bounty, Age of Wonders, etc. and really, these types of games have a few small tips/quirks that I like to know before I start, or I just end up regretting. I will start with the campaigns then.

Less is often more, my friend. But what does an American know about these things... Now, now. Calling me an American? That crosses a big line.

Morgoth the Communist, more like. Burn him!

Orchomene, I have HOMM3 lying around but haven't tried it yet, or the series at all. Any tips on how to get into it?

There have been plenty of dictators and other leaders who ruled just fine at that age, you know, both ancient and modern history. 'Just fine' in the sense that they didn't immediately implode the country, that is.

Had a brief look but nothing I want to pick up. I'm kind of sad - I think I've played most games in the world now that I'm really going to like. There are a few I'm hoping will click for me (Jagged Alliance 2, HOMM3, etc), but otherwise, it's getting really hard to get "oh wow, this is great" moments like when I discovered Beyond Good & Evil.

As usual, I have no Christmas cheer. Of course, this time, I have a good reason. First winter in Philadelphia, I've made some friends at school but too busy/lazy to do so elsewhere, so now everyone's off to their families and I'll be all alone. Not a huge deal since I have nearly as much work to do during the break as during the term. I'll need to find a couple of games to hole up with, too. Funnily enough, I've so rarely *personally* seen a really properly/extravagantly done Christmas, so I don't even know how true/bad it is when people actually go all out consumerism. But hey, I guess Christmas sales get me too when it's on GOG or something.

20% seems a pretty large number to me. It's not like 70-80% of all who watch films or cook for fun engage in regular discussion online. In my case it's more of a things-add-up kind of deal; they started putting more and more emphasis on stuff I found to be really boring over the years (cinematic, romance, sci-fi settings...), and I was only prevaricating on DA2 because I really had a lot of fun with DAO. Sadly, I doubt they'll be looking to make something like that again for a while, if ever.

Yeah... I'm kind of relieved that after DAO Bio have gone completely away from what I want to play. Now I don't have to try and guess whether the game will still have enough stuff to work for me, I can just not bother at all. I still think they are an accomplished developer and am glad there's a powerhouse RPG dev out there, but everything in their lineup bores me to tears now. Of course, I'm not so sure about Diablo III either (Blizzard seems to have changed a lot, and it shows in the current cycle of games), have to wait and see on the South Park RPG, so... huh. Age of Decadence? 2013?

Still enjoying Skyrim, though probably only for another week or so. I'd like to get my sword/shielder up to dragon armour and break out with some really strong enchantments - at level 31 I'm still on Orcish armour with pretty meh enchantments (+25 health, etc). I've mostly put up smithing/enchanting with training and didn't grind at all, but now training costs +2k each time and realistically I'm gonna have to start smithing some stuff to sell or I'll never get there. I'm going to try and finish all the daedra quests, but I'm finding that they're pretty dumb. I hate how you can't skip through the daedra dialogue because (1) they have even worse voice acting than anything else, ROAR I AM A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD TRYING TO SOUND SCARY, and (2) they have even worse writing than anything else, I LIKE TO EAT BABIES HOW'S THAT FOR EVIL GRARGH FEAR ME. Then of course you get a standard go X kill Y quest. The faction quests too seem rather ho-hum; they're all interesting on paper but then you end up fighting random stormcloaks/legionaries spawning in plain sight like this was Dragon Age 2 or something. On Master things are still hard, I had to use potions of invisibility to get past a couple of snow bears.

Risen 2, April 2012. Good enough for me.

I couldn't stand Darklands' combat, and I suspect that was more than the fact that I couldn't make head or tails of it. But there seemed to be a great game, I'd love a remake with turn-based combat.

KB are great games.

Still playing my second character, sword & shielder is pretty fun and sometimes way, way too difficult. At level 20 had huge trouble with the mirror images draugr boss in where-i-forget, and also For one draugr overlord I had to whirlwind sprint to his throne seat then use up a paralysis scroll while he was still getting up, because he could kill me with a single shout (which knocks me back and he kills me while I'm getting up). But then I haven't abused smithing, only now transitioning into Orcish armor and having used all my money in training I don't have the bigger soul gems to enchant.

I haven't played any Monkey Islands but I liked many of the older adventure games I went back and tried (the something Longbow Robin Hood game, sanitarium, gabriel knight, etc). Should I get this pack? It looks like the remastered version where everybody looks Disney, is it still more recommended?

They don't. Some do, in some form, but not most, and not in this manner. Nationalism certainly isn't 'silly', though. If the EU tries to push itself as a superstate with that kind of dismissive thinking they'll be sabotaging their own project, fatally. I do think we'll see both regionalization and local fracturing at different levels and rates in our lifetimes, but not in the next 10-20 years.

You can already play FO1/2, HOMM3, etc. on android. The controls are just horrible. It's a pity. I might look and try to get FF6 on my phone or sommat.

Thanks Wals, it is rather valuable to have their perspective - they're far from stupid, after all. (2), of course, is a nightmarish thing to consider, because you could argue it's the fault of the sector as a whole, both the personnel and the structure, to check those 'few insane CEOs', but in reality that's a pretty damn hard thing to fix or even evaluate properly. I'm also curious as to what kind of role CEOs have in the sector - i.e. how much of the commandeering adventurist, how much of the wheels-greasing bureaucrat, how much of the Hollywood style split decision go-to man, etc. Same deal with (1), really. How do you go about resolving something like that? Give more autonomy to the financial sector to purely run the world of money by the laws of money? Surely not, both in the moral sense and that it would be politically impossible to enact short-term. Stop poor people getting homes? Well, that's a problem too, right there. What would the Occupy people say about that, in all their various stripes and colours? I wonder how many of them were personally effected by the housing crisis?

And how do you determine what is a loan too big for you, what is a loan you should not be taking? If it's like "takes 50 years, 100x your annual income", etc., it's pretty obvious. And we could go the other way and say really, the right way to live is not to spend more than you can afford. I like that philosophy, but I also know that the way our economies work make that practically impossible for most people, if they want to, you know, have a home and stuff. So we know people have got to take out fairly big loans at some point or other. Of course they should be responsible and they shouldn't take loans that are too dangerous. But again, how should they decide how big is too big? If the banks are saying "go on, you can take this loan, we think you can", and experts you talk to tell you "Yes", practically speaking (instead of some nonsensical dreamworld where everyone has all the facts, makes rational decisions and it's only a question of allocating blame), what's the message here? (Obviously, there are two messages implicit in this situation. (1) Everyone needs to be a financial expert as much as possible, given how important it is now. (2) You will never know enough to make the best decisions, stakes are high and loans are a necessary part of lower/middle class life, so borrow and hope for the best.)