Tigranes

Numbers: fair enough. As I say, I continue to try out the church and Christianity but can't seem to work out how that leap of faith works, so I'm not the one to say. I don't know, there very very clearly is an evolution / shift from OT to NT, i.e. God is meant to be timeless and always the same, but in fact there is a recognition that Jesus' resurrection was a 'landmark' event rooted in the temporal order of things and has apparently changed everything. Some point to the very skilfully scattered and integrated bits of the messiac prophecies in the OT to argue that it is harmonious and planned, but following Grommy's interp, they also seem to emerge from a historical foundation; i.e. after Moses' books, which under any interpretation are written retrospectively in a 'how things came to be this way' way, Israel goes through a lot of tough times, get invaded and all sorts, and that's when we get more future-oriented, looking for the messiah. It could equally work either way...

By the way, I don't see anyone drawing comparisons with Colonel Custer, an old American game where you played Custer, and the object of the game was to walk across the screen to an Indian woman tied to a stake and rape her gratuitously. *shrug* New Zealand follows Australia's censor decisions and we've banned the likes of Manhunt and Postal 2 in the past, which I have zero problem with - it's just as gratuitous as RapeLay, just about violence.

*shrug* If you're determined to see it that way. The point is not that you should accept this as viable or 'reasonable' - but that God is not defined around being a bunch of 'un-'s, but is defined around a very focused set of core values and principles. I think you could much more easily accuse God of being an unreasonable being abusing his exemption clauses if he had a direct hand in human affairs and kept telling us what to do with this and that.

Logos is not logic; it's quite different, especially depending on its context of use. My ancient Greek is limited but in most interpretations, λόγος in the bible loosely refers to the order of God, the divinely mandated way of things, or, as we say now, the Word of God. That only really confirms the familiar religious assertion that God is above all rules because his rules are the ones that matter, not that God is 'logical' in the sense of modern Western logic. On that thought, and this is for numbers - I think we get so hung up by, way too hung up by, the argument of whether God is 'above' or 'exempt from' some man-defined law or not. We get so hung up on it, that when the conclusion is that God simply is not defined by all of our science and logic and common sense and whatnot, God seems all the more un-real; he just seems to be a giant, well, deus ex machina, can-do-anything-your-rules-don't-abide-nya-nya. But I think this only happens because we look at it from a flawed perspective, a perspective that is sort of guaranteed to make the idea of God sound stupid by default. Key point is, God isn't 'lawless'. God does have rules and order and a logic of his own (i.e. the logos in the bible). The point is not that God is outside human logic, the point is that God has divine logic and it takes precedence for Christians (and I guess Muslims?). Maybe that's still not palatable at all for some. That's fine. I'm not exactly a no-turning-back born-again devout believer myself, more trying it out. I just think "God doesn't make sense according to contemporary logic" isn't really a valid reason for dismissing him. Of course, practically speaking, we're always going to end up using contemporary logic and other built-in judgmental processes to understand God, so it is a bit of a dead end. Not too sure about that myself. But just wanted to unravel this and say God not following our logic doesn't make him any more unlikely.

Looking good, I think they're doing a better job of making it look 'cool' now.

It's all over! They is not polish enough!

They translated it? Bastards

Of course he does. Nobody ever said he didn't.

I'm starting to think kotor is the hidden antithesis to LOF.

This is pretty trivial, and getting way too complex. Simply put, the integrity of most of the features in hardcore mode would evaporate if you could flick it on and off, it makes zero sense. What would make more sense is the option to choose which hardcore features to start the game with. e.g. I'd probably untick 'drink water'.

The article's trying to consider the credibility of Casker with his two 'official warnings' (and fair enough, I guess), but we already know for a fact that video game journalism in general is corrupt. Sore Thumbs probably had the best 'inside look'. Hurlshot, that one probably wasn't a threat - but more like a reminder of what the journo should be doing and what his place is. The tone sort of betrays a sense of entitlement.

As everyone knows, one of North Korea's most important principles is 'Juche', which roughly means self-subsistence, independence, etc. That everything North Korea needs and wants should, and can, be produced within North Korea using its own resources and technology. This has led to some debacles with cars, fridges and such, but on paper, the principle continues... and very interestingly, in the West, produces a range of hilarious memorabilia that is a fashion trend all on its own. Now, we discover that North Korean computers - what few there are - use their own operating system called Red Star. You can go to the Russian student's blog to take a look. I can't read it, but the pictures have Korean on them; "Red Star", then "User System 2.0" The tabs along the top basically say "File", "edit", etc - pretty standard. This screen is a program installation one, some sort of storage program - literally they are called "National Storage Unit" and "Remote Storage Unit". The webpage shows Firefox 3.6, with the typical firefox welcome screen simply in Korean. Funnily enough, then, on the bottom right, there is a pop-up which introduces this browser as "Nae Nara" (My Country), with the words "Nae Nara browser is a very light and fast web browser made with the users' convenience in mind." "Document Process System 2.0, Pyeongyang Printing Industry University Information Centre, 2007-2009. This product is protected by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Computer Software Protection Law." Even North Korea has DRM! edit: stupid img tags that i can't use

But that is the case in the U.S. too. The bar is just a lot higher (lower?).

Dragon Age > Volourn

It is proverb. Do not take it literally Uh, the point was your use of the proverb is not logical at all. Always wonder about Torn. If it were eventually released I think I'd probably have felt the same about it as NWN - everyone wanting to go to 3D way too early so it's butt hurt ugly, horrible performance and generally worse off. At least NWN had a pretty good engine for modding.

Would you, really? I don't think so. Anyway, Orogun's point that Satan and Hell seems to have really come into full force with the New Testament is the best place to start off with, I think. I can't pretend to have thorough knowledge of the Bible but in general, and in the way it is 'taught' across the world these days, there is a clear shift into the compassionate God through the sacrifice of Jesus, and simultaneously, the emergence of Satan/Hell as a very clearly defined and prominent role in the theological spectrum. It's my impression that in the discourses of the New Testament are the primary forces in the production of Satan - replete with hellish symbolism and the counterpart to the divine. This prominence is necessary, of course, because the way in which many people experience or perceive the Christian God appears to be through the mechanism of the confession - that sin has been committed (by default), the consequence of sin is hell, sin is always a possibility (again, by default), and thus God is necessary and gracious. Going by Illuminator's interesting explanation on the Islam side of things, it's a similar structure, but perhaps a slightly different mentality - maybe a little more explicit about the fact that God/Allah is not always going to say 'there there' and take care of your mess. To be honest, I don't consider Satan terribly important. If you are going to be religious and believe in a higher being, you might as well worry about becoming a good person, not dodging the fires of hell. Killian's dismissive comments show how easily Christianity is misunderstood - in part through what I feel is a massively bad PR from Christians themselves. As far as I can see the Christian God is mainly about helping you get some good principles in you, see things in a way that isn't clouded by your emotions or the ideologies of the day, and lead a disciplined life where you can do what you think is right and not let your principles slip by. Bypassing debate about whether you need God to do that or not, etc, etc, that's very different from 'God must be believed in because the alternative (the default consequence of life) is hell'. But that's what a lot of the evangelising and a lot of christian discourse sounds like.

So, uh, the tools hire and pay the workmen? Okay.

Leaving aside the other stuff... That is a "breach" of free speech? Seriously? Free speech is a principle, not an idol of worship.

Dunno, but my experience with "Free Shale" is that it's not actually 'free'. I'd rather pay 5 bucks than spend hours trying to get it to work and have it ruin my 20 hour savegame.

If you're just coming from Oblivion & FO3 and want to know what kind of experience AP will give in comparison, yeah, there will be no free roaming - but there will be that same sense of building your own character, making decisions that affect the world, gaining levels and becoming powerful in the area you want to specialise in, gaining loot and feeling good. The main difference is that instead of doing this roaming in the world, it'll be more focused, it'll be a bit shorter, but there will be a lot more changes in the world and a lot more different ways you can play the game. Sort of imagine the Megaton blow up / not blow up decision in FO3, but imagine that if you did blow it up the rest of your game changes, not just 'can you do the Tenpenny quest'.

But he never does shirt signings.

If there is a key to drop grenades behind you as you run forward, as it sounds, that's going to be my favourite move.

ME2 coming out in January isn't really a factor, post-EA Bioware are really in a different ball park now. They can release it in January because then the entire gaming media will gravitate to them, in the absence of other heavyweights. Alpha Protocol, as a new IP especially, can't really do that. It does look like the delayed release helped it get more attention - just wonder whether June wasn't overkill.

"Mike, you didn't decide to kill the arms dealer. Therefore, instead of meeting at the pub, we will now meet at the pizza store down the road. I will also be disguised in an alpaca costume."

Links would be nice obyknven, so people can follow it up if they want. Anyway, everybody can dig up dirt about every country, but it just takes us away from the core point: Putin and democracy in Russia. I don't know enough to have a good opinion of it - I am acutely aware of the bias Western media sources have against Putin and the Russian government, portraying them as enigmatic, self-interested, opaque and internally corrupt, always insinuating there are things going on we don't know about (same with China, really). But that doesn't tell me what the reality is (i.e. some of that bias might be true nevertheless, maybe not). The thing is, the years after the end of the USSR was a very tough challenge for anyone and to have made such a massive country emerge through it fairly strongly, as Putin did, is nothing to scoff at. Question is whether it's a good idea for Putin to continue to run the show, as he clearly plans to.