Pop

You didn't like 40 Y-O V?

We always play Starcraft over LAN. The only map we like is "Happy Hunting Grounds", an 8-player map set up in such a way that you never have to leave your initial base (although it always pays to branch out, even if an outpost lasts 5 minutes you're likely to make your money back) every mineral deposit, of which there are 9 per site, and gas vent, 2 per site, are set to max resources. and it's designed to make frontal assault as difficult as possible. You play a melee game, use 3 or 4 AIs, team up with your friend, and amass forces. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes the computer gets smart and may well wipe one of you out, or get close. There's usually at least 1 dunce AI that sits and gathers resources until they're wiped out. Leave protoss out of your first few games, though. Early zealot rushes are impossible to stop (unfortunately that only goes for the AI, which always manages to create a dozen plus zealots before you've built your second defender unit).

Eh? Granted, nobody likes Calvinists for very good reasons, but I think you'll find, once you break out into the greater internets, that "organized religion" is as big, if not bigger, of a scapegoat for all the world's ills as America. And unlike America, "organized religion" (or just "religion") has very few intellectual defenders. Had the title of this thread been "Why people hate Christianity" it would have found a lot more favor. Speaking of communism, I got a new shirt today.

I liked PST, but it wasn't huge for me. I can really appreciate what it brings to the table that nothing else does. However, as far as IE games go I played BG2 first and it's my favorite of them all, which is problematic, as the cracks in earlier games seem pretty glaring to me. Both BG1 and PST, for example, lack the pacing of BG2. It's nice to be able to go off and do your own thing, that's what made Fallout so nice, but it felt like you could go through hours of gametime in PST while getting nowhere and gaining nothing. I didn't have the patience to scour the NPCs walking the streets to find the unique characters that factored into the plot. I wanted to know what the hell the game was all about, with the shadows and the memory loss and all, but whereas in Fallout you can intently go pretty straight into the main quest, PST's campaign was pretty meandering and drawn out. Add to that the feeling of being completely unprepared for anything and everything, and my disorientation with the UI and the tight resolution (all those busy Sigil streets convey the feel of an actual crowded city, and all the confusion that entails), and when I played through PST I'm pretty sure I didn't catch at least 50% of the game. I only encountered Dakkon, Morte, Annah, Falls-From-Grace, and Ignus, and I don't think I completed anything character-specific with any of them throughout my play, and even though I know the characters are well-written, perhaps better than any other CRPG companion in any game, I didn't actually like any of them, . I look at screenshots and say "what the **** is that?" When I got to the end of the game I didn't know the ghost lady was there, adding to my confusion. It didn't help that I was a thief, the most useless D&D class ever. And the game's enough of a slog that even though I know there's so much I missed that I'd like to explore I still can't justify to myself all the wordy fetch quests and the rat-tail collecting and the join-this-faction-to-use-this-item and zzzZZZzzz. It's frustrating. That's another reason I like BG2 - Once you get out of the first dungeon (easily modded out anyway) the game opens up. PST feels cramped the entire way through. It's got all the wide-openness of Icewind Dale and the 30 page to-do lists of Morrowind.

ANSWER MY QUESTION.

I used to play this game called Hunter Hunted, that you could play with one keyboard. It was a side-scroller action game with multiple "layers". There were doors and entryways you could walk through to another 2D map. I can't really say why I love it so much. The soundtrack is industrialicious, and as long as you've got a music CD in your drive you can use whatever's on it as background music. I think it came on the same demo CD as Fallout.

I'm playing KOTOR2, and got to Atris' fortress, but when I was told to lay down my weapons by the Handmaiden something broke in the game. Kreia and Atton remained where they were at the entrance but left my party, and the Atris cutscenes were all out of joint (Atris wasn't pictured, the camera angles were all wrong, etc.) and when I went to leave, Kreia and Atton couldn't talk, and thus couldn't be in my party, and thus I couldn't leave, thus the game was stuck. In place of dialogue, Atton's choices were "Cheat Node: Move to Atris Confrontation" or somesuch, in which the jilted Atris cutscenes and dialogue play but I'm restricted solely to dark side dialogue choices (and yet am given light side points for threatening Atris' life), and "Cheat Node: Continue Kreia dialogue", which does nothing.. Good thing I have multiple saves. Hopefully the last one isn't too far from the beginning of the compound.

Runway blooper gets some yuks on a local newscast. Blind man climbs Everest.

The new Iron Man stuff looks cool, but consensus seems to be that this year's Comic Con was weak in the film department.

They did once. That it was brought up as a counterbill to Murtha's "redeployment" bill, and that it was voted down overwhelmingly 403-3 suggests that it was never seriously considered as anything more than a stunt. They do the same thing with abortion, sometimes, drafting bills meant to fail. It helps to rally the base.

huh, I just noticed that link in your sig. Boss.

Leave condolences under this SCTV clip.

Might've been something that got lost in all the personnel turmoil. I remember how people hated the NWN1 Blackguard being given spell-like abilities instead of spells, and how one of the first things said about NWN2 was that they were going to fix the Blackguard mistake. I don't think that ever happened.

You all look the same anyway.

Hmmm, right, I forgot about the inherent powers.

How hard would it be to mod proper domains (if I understand you correctly, that would mean matching domains to deities and then having the player choose their deity?) into the game?

The Beatles were the first big pop band to actually write their own songs, which sort of separates them from pop music (makes them "pop rock", if you will) I find Pop music is best defined as music made by committee, with a group playing songs handed to them. Jessica Simpson never sings her own songs. I'm pretty sure Good Charlotte doesn't either. Fountains of Wayne, a good pop rock band, pen all of their own stuff, and have made a few remarkable OSTs. Boy bands are commonly known to be strangers assembled into groups by producers. By that definition, The Monkees were the first on both counts.

I knew the Democrats were in power again when Congress started trying to get troops out of Iraq.

I really hope the companions turn out well. At this point I'm getting Bioshock just to tide me over until October.

Uh, the whole boy band thing started in other countries. Remember Menudo? But I will give it to you, that we did invent Pop music. It just so happens that European Pop is much, much worse. Have you heard the new Knife record? Are these supposed to be lyrics? And as far as anti-American sentiment here in America goes, the rule should be that you aren't allowed to hate America if you're A. white and B. Middle or Upper-middle class. Go wear a Che t-shirt like every other self-loathing WASP.

Are there multiple endings / paths in Bioshock? Me 2.

God forbid that American foreign policy should be catered to Quebecois teens. When has the rest of the world ever really liked us, save for that bit after WWII? In and of itself, a positive world opinion is not worth changing foreign policy over. There's just nothing in it for us, and we can't be assured we'll get any more cooperation than we already have in our ventures. Our history alone is more than enough to counteract any goodwill we might garner, especially in those parts of the world with the most to gain from America as boogeyman (ie the entire Southern Hemisphere) and that's not even taking into account our support of Israel. How is it in our interest? Will a change in foreign policy prevent terrorism? Not drastically. As long as we remain the lone megapower, pressing up against the rest of the world, we can expect to be used as a catalyst for revolutionary or extremist sentiment whether or not we play nice. Depending on the goodwill of foreign populations isn't worth it. I think it's a little naive to think we can make headway in the muslim world specifically, because we've thrown our lot in with the jews, and they aren't going anywhere. Why try?

I'm falling back in love with Chris Avellone's writing, I think. It's like a good Kevin Spacey movie. That having been said, I'm still ****ing sore over the Miner's uniform being the seemingly only armor Bao-Dur is allowed to wear.

Got a PC copy of KOTOR2 (I'm surprised they still sell it, and for $20) now I just have to wait for Team Gizka.... Are they done yet?

The Brian Jonestown Massacre is playing a festival here in a few months. I'm going to harrass the lead guy and see if he'll attack me. Should be fun.