Tale

The screenshots are pre-release stuff. That female "cop" in the screenshots? Not in the game. Unless that's a PC costume I never saw.

No. Wait, scratch that. I don't know. I was thinking like New Vegas DLC. You could do this in DAO, so maybe you can in DA2.

As if there weren't awesome driving games. Have you tried Carmageddon, Flatout, NFS: Most Wanted, Burnout: Paradise? None of those are Mario Kart.

Depends on the source. It's always important to be critical of sources. Because while there is a bad track record within the Catholic heirarchy for pedophilia and coverups, a Christian bringing it up is more likely to be stating it objectively, while an atheist may be using it as fuel for ALL RELIGION IS BAD. It's similar to the black man/white man saying the n-word controversy. You talk about track records and not making broad strokes with statements like that, but it seems like the same thing. "Americans/Whites/Christians have an anti-Muslim agenda! I'm not implying that ALL Americans/Whites/Christians have this agenda..." Best way to discuss it is to not use the general term at all. If you're just wanting to discuss militant/radical/violent Islamists, why are you using the term Muslim? Why would I say "Christians" when I'm talking about Jerry, the redneck from down the street? Bonus points in that when being more specific, it not only requires you to be more informed as to specifics, it makes it look like you're more informed. I tend to roll my eyes at people who speak about Catholic controversies in the broad, but if you want to talk about "NAME priest was moved from his congregation after allegations of misconduct with a child, to another congregation. Which is a controversy in itself. And the # of incidents reported like that in the past year" it comes across better. Compared to "Catholic priests molest children and the church covers it up!"

I guess I can give my impression of Catherine. Oh, look at me, I'm a cute blonde. GIGGLE Oh, that's not the kind of impression you were looking for? Fine! Anyway, Catherine is about a guy named Vincent, who ends up cheating on his girlfriend. There's a rash deaths of young men that seems tied to a nightmare he's having where he must climb up blocks to survive. It definitely falls into the WJT category. The plot is mature, dealing with issues of becoming an adult in relationships, infidelity, and a couple other themes. But it's not exactly deep. There's a sort of karma system, red and blue. Depending on responses to questions, your phone texting, and things, it will slide one way or the other. One side, blue, seeming to correspond with Vincent's girlfriend and maturing. The other side, red, seeming to correspond with cute girl 10 years younger than him and him preferring a more carefree lifestyle. The consequence of these choices isn't transparent. I've been siding with blue and while Vincent will occasionally make comments that take from that (the meter pops up to show me it's recognizing where he is on the scale), the rest of the time, it doesn't seem to care. If you expect C&C from what I've described, I may have misled you, but I don't really know. The meat of the game is definitely the climbing. Push and pull blocks to make your way up a tower that's slowly falling away. Essentially a puzzle game. This part is hard for me to talk about. They are timed segments and largely seem to be a trial and error. Simple mistakes can get you instantly killed. But it's pretty generous with the limited retries. I am no fan of trial and error most of the time and this seems like no exception. But it's not as bad as it could be. The block climbing system does have some depth to it. Some tricks and techniques you can use, that other characters will tell you about if you talk to them between stages. So, the intellectual component is there, but it's easy to miss out on with the time pressures. The learning curve doesn't feel very smooth and I don't know if that's because they don't manage the curve or if the time pressure is just not letting me actually learn. It's very much a game you'd expect from the Persona team. Very VN-like social activities during the day, drinking at the bar, talking with people, then going to the macabre dungeon to climb at night. If you don't like Persona 3 and 4, for whatever reason, I can't recommend it. If you do like them, I can only half-heartedly recommend it. The climbing isn't too exceptional. It has a depth that is hard to get into.

RIIIISE Got the entry level for my volcano lair finished. Central heating included!

I agree. Slider systems make me want to flip off a box of kittens. It's the number one reason I'll never play a femshep past character creation. At least in Oblivion I never had to look at my character. Ever.

It is Steamworks. Crap! I was really looking forward to this game too. If I buy it then use a crack so I don't need Steam is that still bad? Illegal in the US, and likely in many other members of the WIPO.

That's almost double the sales tax here in Dallas, Texas.

It is Steamworks.

The MX518 is what I just ordered to replace my Intellimouse Optical.

Lucky for you. It looks like I'll be starting early, since I need a new mouse. I thought New Vegas was having a bug where it double clicked on menu items. Nope, the mouse is going out. And now I find out that Microsoft has discontinued the Intellimouse Optical that I've been rebuying for years. Time to move on.

Catherine releases today. Looked quirky and I had some cash to blow. Current plan is to finish Old World Blues, maybe wrap up a loose end in Terraria, then play Catherine. Expect impressions sometime this week, if you care.

From the first moment, Old World Blues proved to be the best DLC. Why? The Sink. When the first room you enter has a bed that gives well-rested next to a container that's a safe, I'm happy.

This is the problem, Wals. It wasn't using jihadi principles. It was using general terrorist attack principles. Heck, the kids at Columbine planned a very similar thing, only their bombs didn't go off. It's the misattribution that all terrorist strategies for attacking civilian populaces are automatically jihad-based. It's as jihadi as the Bath School disaster of 1927. Which included a fire, an initial explosion, then a follow-up suicide attack on rescuers. Well before anyone in the US cared about jihadi terrorists.

Confirmed http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-07-...ate-pushed-back August 17. No explanation offered. 360 still sounds as if it'll be on track for tomorrow.

That was such a great tool for gaming back in the day. I wonder how they'll link up to the original, maybe you'll come across Simmons, Page, etc. ?

Yeah, there are still people out there hoping to find a group behind this. http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_ol...through-norway/

Groups of people working in concert to nefarious ends? Sounds like a conspiracy to me.

Is that confirmed? I suspected it when , but it seemed to be trying to be very vague. Which makes me suspect that either I was reading too much into it or maybe the Courier isn't supposed to realize it, even if the player is supposed to.

To be honest I really will be irked if the game doesn't contain a ton of real world conspiracy theories, that's one thing that really drew me into the first game, they treated their source material very respectfully, regardless of how over the top some of it is. The trailers already talk about "corporations have more power than the government." Which, true or not, is the most discussed real world conspiracy there is. I'd be content if they stuck with just that, without tossing Freemasons into it or going back to Illuminati. Yeah, the Illuminati will surely be in the game somewhere, just because it's part of the setting, but I'm kind of hoping they don't focus on the fact that the corporations in power are the Illuminati.

Here's the juicy bit from HK's second link.

From Dust may be getting delayed on the PC. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/show...d.php?t=1992795 D2D UK is saying August 17th. GamersGate is also listing August 17th. http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-FD/from-dust

Finished Dead Money and loved it. Only issue I have is Started Honest Hearts. Breathtaking vistas. Though I'm running out of ammo for the guns I've brought. And I'll be surprised if the .45 Autos will be competent for the White Legs.

Ooh, saw this too. I thought it was absolutely hilarious.