alanschu

How does it compare to animal deaths related to dirty energy sources such as oil and coal?

Yup, I loved the cover mechanic, although I ended up learning that the 3D aspect of the terrain was just a ruse (You can actually shoot through hills). But the game has specified cover points (soft and strong) and it makes a world of difference to the tactical elements of the game. Some people prefer to less randomized elements that COH has, however (I can't speak for the second I guess), since it removes luck from the equation entirely.

I'm getting the impression from some people that someone, in general, saying they have no beef with police officers, is an implicit consent to the officers that go too far.

COH is pretty much the only RTS I have enjoyed since......... StarCraft? I didn't mind SC2, but RTS and I were no longer aligned, but I still played a ton of Company of Heroes because it's a well done game.

I honestly don't know (my question was genuine). For the PS4, it is a novel thing as the PS3 did not have unified memory. The 360, however, does. I'm curious if there's any knowledge that that PS4 does it in a more magical way than the 360 does, as it was still possible to get the GPU on the 360 to do "non graphics tasks" as well. It was possible on the PS3 too, although much more complicated, requiring some creative memory work.

Lets just take a look at that link. #1: Controversy: Cop stands up against corruption in department #2: A cop pulls over another cop, argument ensues (controversy/drama) #3: Controversy: A cop sides with protesters in Brazil #4: Bizarre event: Monkey attacks a police officer, police officer doesn't over react #5: Former police chief talks down war on drugs (i.e. controversy/drama) #6: Police officer buys a kid a cookie (well that's nice) and is gunned down when leaving the building (well that sort of takes some of the wind out of the sails) #7: Cop saves a fawn after tornados (A feel good story after tragedy? At least this one is one I'm willing to admit is legit. Still has a bizarre/unique element to it) #8: Crying duck looks on as officer saves duckling (although this just appears to be a broken youtube link, not a news article) #9: An anecdote posted directly on Reddit - (not a news article) #10: A youtube video link showing a police officer doing a good thing (not a news article) So 1 of them is a feel good news story. A couple of them are some youtube stuff (one was taken down it seems) and an anecdote. Yes, police officers do good things, and occasionally they will get reported in the news. If you felt like taking my statement at the absolute literal, uncompromising truth (that they will never run a story about a police officer doing something nice - note, however, that this is your interpretation of my words. At best one of the top 10 links on that reddit at the time I wrote this could qualify as "Police officers talk with a man. Officers are polite and cordial and everybody goes about their daily lives afterwards, with no ill feelings towards one another" and it wasn't a news article), then I guess that's your prerogative. My experiences with police officers have never been a negative one, even in the times when something bad could have been done towards me. I'm of the opinion that most police officer exchanges occur like the one in the #10 video. It's not what typically gets reported. And yes, authority figures abusing power should be talked about. I said nothing to the contrary. In fact, I have an implication with my statement that since it's not newsworthy to discuss a police officer being polite, it may be newsworthy in the incidents when a police officer is not being polite.

Nah. It's just not newsworthy to write an article: "Police officers talk with a man. Officers are polite and cordial and everyone goes about their daily lives afterwards, with no ill feelings towards one another."

I remember writing an in class essay on Operation Market Garden where much of my information came from the weekend long marathon of Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far the weekend before Thank goodness for the historical recaps between days in that game!

That's ultimately what matters, and ultimately, why I feel consoles will maintain the bulk of gamers, regardless of the superiority I feel PC must have.

I'm not much of an ultra technical person anymore. How, specifically, does the architecture differ in terms of the ability to read/write to the unified memory pool for the PS4 compared to, say, the XBox 360?

I remember Oregon Trail too, although it mostly taught me the pioneers hunted a lot.... The article is interesting in that the creator acknowledges that it may just be kids learning the rules, without really fully getting the general problem solving skills, but it's still big on establishing the foundation.

I was reminded of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj_inlzsDhQ

I actually felt that the article was more about how stuff like MD5 is still used, despite not being very secure. There IS a benefit to the tougher encryption algorithms, in that the number of searches you can make gets slowed drastically, but if the hashing algorithm gets cracked, then the issue become moot. Having said that, the hash function for MD5 encryption given wasn't cracked either (otherwise they'd have had a 100% success rate), and it's a good bet that the ones they aren't able to crack are the good passwords. The tougher hash algorithms keep the less than awesome passwords safer, because it just takes more time to brute force the system.

You're right it does. The problem, of course, is that by creating weak passwords, it compromises the integrity of better hashing systems, as they now have libraries of commonly used poor passwords that they can brute force attempts with to help crack the hashing algorithm. The best encryption system in the world doesn't save people from using "123456" as their password and having it compromised.

I found this article interesting http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2013/07/01/it-only-takes-about-42-minutes-to-learn-algebra-with-video-games/ I know for a fact that turning something into a video game finds that special way to make it extra engaging for me. There's a sense of pride and motivation built into my psyche about mastering video games. How often do you use games to assist teaching, Hurlshot?

I actually have no clue.

Chris is leaving BioWare.

Do you happen to know if offloading the processes onto the GPU requires developer work or not?

The value consoles tend to provide later in their cycle is that development has matured and there's a good library of games that are now available for it. What you describe happens every console platform, and the consoles still get the big booms in terms of software sold, while the PC tends to keep on chugging along. Yes, you and I can go "hey, the console won't be as powerful in a few years." But I don't think most people care. Whether or not the perception is accurate/fair, consoles tend to push a lot more in sales for this reason and I would contend that it's mostly only the more tech savvy that will even recognize that their PC is more versatile, let alone have the desire to actually set it up in the living room as the multimedia entertainment box.

Least expensive?

There's one DLC where you're on a film set. Seriously copious amounts of roflcopter during that one hahaha.

Actually a lot of league of legends haha

The ars article more addresses that people create poor passwords.

Consoles have typically always been technologically stomped by the PC in a year or two. Console advantage here is consistent platform. This particularly helps developers. That they are the same technology as the PC will make development less cumbersome too. Eh, I just bought a new computer (yesterday) and it still cost me $1400 (Canadian). i5-3550, Radeon HD 7950 3GB, 16 GB of DDR3-1600 memory, 128GB SSD, 2 TB HDD. Now some of that stuff is beyond spec for the console (the SSD in particular). Now if I was ridiculously diligent and shopping around, I might get a better price, but I went to the local Memory Express because they also build it for me cheaply and it's super convenient. Which is how most people do their shopping. I agree that the PC architecture will make games more likely to come to the PC. I like this, as I'm a PC gamer. It's still not a costless endeavour, however, and you will still get games that are console exclusive. It'd still require me to hook my computer up to the TV. I'm a gaming enthusiast, and have virtually no interest in doing this because moving my box is not something that interests me. I don't know how unique I am in my perspective. Hmmm, I don't know if this is necessarily the case. There's still a multitude of hardware configurations, and by the sounds of it they still want console games to be able to run off the disc (not necessarily an advantage, IMO) however. This could go either way. Not all equipment is built equally, and if Sony/MS cut corners (or definitely do not) then rates of failure will not be consistent. Spoken from someone that had a motherboard with poor capacitors that died horribly on me in 2010 (although I did get 4 years out of that computer). Steam sales and whatnot could be an issue. Though at release PC gaming for the big titles is pretty much the same $60 at this point in time. PC gaming is more affordable in the long run if people are willing to be patient, but I think that that is an uncommon trait among a large chunk of the gaming population. There's also perspective and simply habit. People need to see the gaming PC as an equivalent alternative. I'd be skeptical if they will en masse. And I still think that they'll have improved reliability, simplicity, and comfort for the majority of people that will use them. I certainly think that they'll still have the perception that those traits are true, however, even if they aren't.

As long as I can still twink out an Attrazione and some Kenshen and Kanedas, it's all good ^_^