Pop

Moving back to topic... Scott Tobias, one of the prominent writers for the Onion's AV Club, ranked TES4 as the best game of the year. Here's what he had to say about it.

Wait, the "RPG-like FO" thread isn't locked? Why would we want another thread about it? Moreover, when we use the word "contiginuating", do we mean that we are continuing, or using the verb form of "contiguous", or both? Does "contiguous" even have a verb form? I don't think it does. Can we really touch something and continue it at the same time? Hmm. Food for thought. I don't think these challenging questions can be answered in any one thread. So I would urge the mods not to see it as ultimately redundant and move to lock it, right now. This is just the thread for my New Year.

Wait, really?

Nerds. *edit - And that guy's shirt totally spells "repellant" wrong. ZOMG ALIEN IS A LOST CAUSE.

Worked better within the story, though. The assumption that Anakin would restore order to the force was part of the Jedi's hubris. Apparently nobody was smart enough to recognize that the Sith were just as much a part of the Force as the Jedi, and there were more Jedi than Sith. Or maybe nobody really knew the definition of the word "balance". Considering George Lucas' pop mystical aspirations and his terribly written characters, that just might have been the case. Seems to me that in a way, Anakin did bring balance to the Force, seeing how Luke sprang from his loins and all. But in another, more accurate way, he didn't. Unless I've got it wrong. I'm not a big SW scholar as it is. Anyway, there aren't any coincidences in SW, thus implying a predetermination of roles and thus, everybody is their own special Chosen One. What are we arguing about again?

Screw the brothel, where's the bathhouse? This is a slash, isn't it? Where's Hagrid? A.

High School CRPG. Seriously though, aside from TES and NWN1/2, I have a hard time coming up with the-world-hangs-in-the-balance games. Maybe I haven't played enough older CRPGs. Turned out in Fallout that the Master's world-domination plan was hopelessly flawed, and would have failed regardless of PC interference (Only would have been a "world" scenario had there conclusively been no life beyond Cali). F2, with its slipstream wind-of-death and whatnot, probably counts more towards the saving-world scenario. And BG wasn't necessarily a "world-saving" kind of deal. Sure, things would've been bad had Sarevok become a God and Amn and BG gone to war (or had Irenicus gotten his soul back / become a Seldarine, whatever) but it wasn't a cataclysm thing. Things wouldn't have been over.

I try to think of NWN2 more as a pop fly. Kotor is a foul tip that could have very well been a line drive. But really, I think it really depends on what kind of pitch it was in our analogy. This Alien game could be a screwball, or a curve, or something. We haven't really determined that yet.

For a second there I thought Meta was suggesting something nasty and very wrong. Another resolution I have is to get this Van Buren-esque PnP game I have going finished. I've never actually finished a PnP campaign before (rarely do we even finish adventures) but this is something I really want to get done. If we do, my friend is going to DM a more speculative F4.

Yes, let's go with Link B

I thought the whole point of the Wiimote was that it made the character "mimick" your movements. If you flick your wrist to initiate a generic slice or shake the nunchuk to do a whirlwind attack, it's a gimmick. You swing hard, swing soft, it all comes out the same. Meta's got the right idea about it. After awhile it becomes just like pressing a button and using a D-pad. the only "innovative" property Zelda has with regard to use of the controller in comparison to things like most of the games on Wii Sports is the bow system, and even then, most of the awesomeness comes from the fact that a light-gun dynamic has been integrated seamlessly into a non-light-gun game. I'm curious, as people have been practically fapping about possible light-saber / sword battle games using the Wii controller. But how would that work? What happens if you parry? The wiimote can't simulate recoil, only the swinging motion. I can't see that coming out as anything less than sloppy.

Congratulations, you totally called Meta's sinister corporate game. Clearly, you possess a unique intellect.

Can you name one that doesn't? I can't. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If a game sucks or not is a pretty subjective perspective. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Au contraire. ET 2600 is objectively terrible.

Interesting.

Wish I had that rulebook on me, I could look it up. Blasted vacation. Malks are still around in WoD, but as jorian said, they're a "subclan", but I thought they were Mekhet instead of Ventrue . I preferred the Masquerade arrangement, personally. Didn't somebody say they were working on a Vampire MMO? Not really my bag, I'd like to see another Bloodlines-esque game, but eh, it's something.

Yah, I took the "Moderate success" comment to mean that Fallout had been moderately successful both as a game and as a product, when it seems to me like it was pretty good as a game. Not sure how it sold, but I remember regretting getting F2 at full price when just 2 weeks later it was in the bargain bin could've saved $20. I used to think that F2 was better in all ways than F1, but then I played F1 again. Maybe it's nostalgia, but it's now back on top on my liar.

NO I THINK THEY SHOULD NEVAR MAKE ANOTHER KOTOR

low seduction score, though. Look at 'im. One of Grom's main beefs seems to be that Fallout wasn't good and Timmy still coasted to continued business on it anyway. "Fallout wasn't good" makes me giggle :D

I would say you should have waited at least a week, but at this point you seem to have given up on subtlety altogether. As for the structure of the clitoris, it's not a revelation. Sexuality studies at uni (fun class) looked pretty hard at stuff like this. There are all sorts of manuals that can educate you on this kind of thing.

Ah, goth music. Even I had a Skinny Puppy kick a few years back. God, that was so stupid. But for sure lyrical inanity, you can't go wrong with... Body Count. Those are actually the lyrics of two songs by the band Body Count, from their album entitled Body Count. There is also a track on the album that is called "Body Count" that is different from the two mentioned above. Ice-T never did get the recognition as a songwriter that he deserved. Sure, it looks bad here, but when you actually hear it, you die just a little bit inside. Headland - What Did You Say? Plaid - Zamami AFX - Pissed Up In SE1

Anybody have resolutions for the new year? Come on in, we'll trot them out in list fashion. Like this: 1. I want to start making rice that isn't dry. This probably means getting a better rice cooker. 2. In addition to that, I need to learn how to make good food, at home. Going out is killing me in the wallet, let me tell you. 3. Get some workout time in there, a few times a week. 4. Floss and flouride! This normally wouldn't be a reasonable resolution, but I still remember that last trip to the dentist, and I've been getting a lot of toothaches, so I can take the extra few minutes every morning.

That's all fine and good, but that would imply that the factions are fighting over something, influence or land or resources, and Denver is a hole Nobody really wants to be there, and none of the factions are really after the same thing. The salvagers are NCR convicts on work release from prison, they've got nowhere else to go, finding something valuable about the dangerous ruins is the only chance they have to improve their lots elsewhere. On the other hand, the Slavers don't want to be there either. There's nobody to enslave, nobody to sell their product to, and the terrain is dangerous. Everybody has to live high above the ground, there are so many scavenging dogs. They're only there because they have to be, as a waystation for their trade between the lands across the mountains and across the dustbowl to the Eastern US. So the best thing to insert at this point would have to be something like a Vault. An untouched vault is a scavenger's wet dream, and any CODE stuff or perhaps some inhabitants would be a goldmine for slavers/raiders as well. Gaining control of the vault would be a golden ticket out of Denver and into the highlife, and it's the only thing that's come readily to mind that both factions would readily clash over. Throw in whoever lives in the vault who wants the city to themselves, or just want to be left alone, and you've got a nice mix of intrigue. I'm open to suggestions that don't include a vault, but it's the best option I've got right now, outside of bringing in the BoS or the Enclave or such (the NCR comes in later) but that's way out of the PC's league.

If that original part of the program that allowed for self-modification wasn't a catalyst in any way, then yes. Maybe the changes become so frequent and byzantine that an origin can't be readily be identified. But in effect, the computer would still be a wind-up toy. The problem with free will is that it can't be given. Does any computer do things because it wills, outside of reaction to circumstances already accounted for in the program? Behaviorists might argue that men are slaves to the codes in our brains or in our DNA just as computers are slaves to their programming, but it's not nearly a neat enough comparison. There are differences as well as similarities between brains and CPUs. But I make no suppositions about a creator who winds us up. I'm not going there.

I'm suggesting that if a robot changes its behavior because it was programmed to do so, it's not spontaneous. If an AI changes itself when it was not given the capability to do so within the paremeters of its programming, that's something else entirely. But programs act dynamically all the time, that doesn't mean they're acting in accordance with their own volition, or as ends in and of themselves.