Rostere

I would like to propose the Chris Avellone Let's Play Arcanum Drinking Game, in which you drink whenever either Virgil or Lady Whitmore is killed. I think these episodes have been hilarious. I am shifting between agony and laughter as I watch Chris' attempts to make sense out of the Arcanum UI, and his commentary is just great as well.

As an old Toto fan for me it was the other way 'round. That song made me like Vice City Vice City was the only GTA I could really get into, which I largely credit to the music. It was the kind of soundtrack I need to inspire the sociopathy that game requires. I'm not normally into running down pedestrians and blowing up speedboats with rocket launchers, but when the pedestrians are wearing legwarmers and Members' Only jackets, and when that speedboat is blaring Mr. Mister or Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the resulting annoyance and rage gets me into the proper GTA frame of mind. Anyhow, this is the only song named "Africa" worth remembering: Reminds me of parts of the Sacrifice soundtrack...

So... you change the voice actor for Garrett because you want to capture the facial animations and lips ON A FIRST PERSON GAME and because you need A VIDEO GAME CHARACTER to have the voice of a guy who can also do motion capture? From this, we can conclude: (1) Oodles of kool cinematic cut-scenes of Garrett being kool which will be even kooler because his lips will move right (2) That apparently, people who can do stunts just have a different voice, their larynxes have evolved differently from all the jumping they do. I liked DX:HR but just about everything they've been saying is so silly. I'm usually a firm believer in wait till gameplay videos before judging, but these guys are really going all the way with the dumb ****. DX:HR was made by a different team. The new Thief game has a completely different team who have been working on this game in pre-production in several years with many scrapped ideas. Apparently they settled for this horribly, horribly awful approach. I'm currently expecting Thief 4 to be to the Thief franchise what Star Wars Episode I was to the Star Wars franchise. That Sean Connery comment also fatally reveals their lack of class...

Why do you guys need on-phone file handling and open installing? Are you pirating stuff? Ah, but I want a phone that doesn't explode into billions of pieces when it falls to on concrete from 1m. And a nice camera. And really, screw Google. Plus, if I wanted a Linux phone, I'd get a proper one - Nokia N900 . I'm aware I can't do those things on iPhones, which was one of the reasons why I went for Windows. Sadly, it turns out it's almost the same thing. How can people be OK with that (considering some phones that are years old could do more) is beyond me. Music player sorts songs by "album artist" instead of "artist" tags without any option to change it and it doesn't allow to filter music by folders. My Sansa Clip can do that. About contact synchronization - yes, it might be great if I was willing to trust Microsoft clouds and if it wasn't forced. What would I do with file explorer? Well, open files I want, move, copy and delete them, send them over BT, open them without having to search for an application it uses and use poorly designed search function of said application. Heh, by "options" I didn't mean mere looks of the phone. I mean, you can't even lock the automatic display rotation! :D Metro is pretty nice on cellphones, I've been saying that ever since I saw it Music should be tagged properly. Even though folders are easier, I'm a bit nazi myself on that part It sure seems a bit retarded to sort music by "album artist" instead of "artist" in the "artist" window. However since I don't have any albums with different artists on my phone, I haven't experienced that myself. Sending files over Bluetooth easily would be neat, I'm sure we'll see a solution for that soon if there sin't one at the moment though

What the **** is up with the US and "pro-West" dictatorships? You would think that their entire foreign policy is based around wiping the ass of every banana republic there is, when they even do so at the expense of their relations with allied democracies.

Just read this: http://martwhim.tumblr.com/post/40061546009/why-do-you-hate-the-shape-of-breasts-in-plate-armor-so Sorry if old.

It would be pretty stupid to first effectively lower the value of your currency by going into fiscal union with a "Berlusconi" country, then become dependent on exports to the very same country financed by loans from yourself. I definitely agree that some German politicians must think that keeping their currency artificially low helps their export economy (in it's current shape). This is also true, but it's only a short-sighted goal (and let's talk about that some other time). So the real advantage of this is only for exports to non-Euro countries. If the money used to buy your wares comes from your own printing press, you obviously don't gain any real money, just inflation. Just think about it. Obviously these German politicians do not want to "crush" the less competetive Euro economies, just keep them on a certain level below Germany's. If things get ugly Greece would just leave and write off their debts in drachma or whatever, and Germany would lose all they've lent and indirectly after that, their export market. So after Germany started lending money, all they can do is really take it cool and hope that's not what's going to happen. The Greek economy has under the current mismanagement regressed to a more uncompetetive one. Having your own currency changing the harmful side effects of this by adapting your import/export strength to you current situation - if the Greeks left the Euro, people over there would be hard pressed to afford modern electronics, but at least they would be employed, competing with Moldavian and Albanian workers instead of Spanish and Italian. As things look now with a common European currency, they must FIRST make their economy competetive, and THEN they can get decent employment figures. On the other hand, the people who are employed can afford their "luxury imports" as usual. Since a significant amount of the Greek economy is centered around tourism from the EU, they could avoid the harmful effects of being uncompetetive in other areas for a rather long time.

Sigh. What can you say, it becomes clearer and clearer who benefits from the EU and who doesn't.

I always think people are referring to the original when I read about King's Bounty on forums. I guess I need to get with the times on that genre. Personally I've only played the MD version of King's Bounty which is pretty retarded, but was a cool game if you had not played the PC version or the Heroes series.

Several of those issues are ones which would still trouble you on most modern phones. The music player is actually not so bad at all. Synchronization of contacts over different platforms is great! I don't see how that could possibly be an issue in the first place. What would you do with a proper file explorer on the phone? If you've really got to do something then you can always do it from your computer. I agree in that the ability to customize the look of the phone is very limited. On the other hand I like the look of the UI, so I'm not complaining

I'm against having any material story connections between the two games, on the the other hand it would be interesting to have thematical connections. For example, a character in PE could be the complete polar opposite of a character in Numenera, and so on. Characters could also be identical, yet under different circumstances. A side-quest could explore the same issue through two angles. All of this would increase the value of playing both games without making references banal and too obvious.

I also have a Lumia. How is it getting on your nerves?

By "anti-sex", I assume people mean to say that Anita is not a sex-positive feminist (look it up on Wikipedia). I'm with her on that, but it's important to remember regarding her that she is also not the sharpest tool in the shed. I agree with her general opinions that's pretty much it.

The worst thing is that the futility of throwing lives away is also retroactive, i.e. in hindsight all the people who have died there effectively threw their lives away. It's a human tragedy that people might go into war with the most selfless of intents and make the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and yet the war taken as a whole is just a meaningless act of random aggression. In the end, the heroes will be forgotten and all that remains will at best be the memory of a pointless conflict. One can only hope that society back home will at least treat the veterans with respect. There are a lot of anti-war people who really try to portray the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of some sort of sinister affair where the US got advantages (oil, geopolitics, et.c.) by using military might, which could not be further from the actual reality. If you look at the situation now, you've got an Iraq which is BFF with Iran and an Afghanistan which is polarized against the US and potentially sliding back towards the Taliban. Meanwhile the conflicts have turned large parts of the Muslim world against the US and parts of the West increasing the risk for terrorist activities. I can totally visualize China and Russia sitting on the couch gloating as the public humiliation of the US in the Middle East continues, like if they're watching some awful episode of "Big Brother" or "Survivor". People have a tendency to believe that large and powerful nations are surely being governed/controlled by intelligent people whose plans might not immidiately be obvious to the common citizen, in the same way that people believe in gods or conspiracy theories. Really, the only thing I sense behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is misdirected, irresponsible bellicosity. "I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the Twin Towers I've been beating them up" - could as well have been a quote by George W. Bush back in the days as far as his policies are concerned. And as always, the blood of heroes is cheap and plentiful when we wish it wasn't, and rare when you really need it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine

So, what do you think, how many years will it take before it's official that Reagan sabotaged Iran hostage talks under Jimmy Carter in the same way?

I wouldn't be surprised if Hamas' rockets hit "friendly targets". They aren't exactly known for their accuracy. The large majority of all rockets hit nothing and the very few which manage to hit something (in Israel) kill more Bedouins than Jewish Israelis, which could hardly be the intent of those firing. That said, it appears there was never really any hard evidence for either case in this matter. I guess people just assumed from the start they had been killed by Israeli fire (we're talking about Gaza after all), and a later investigation showed that there could have been other possibilities. We really need more information to be able to shed any light on the matter, so I guess it's kind of pointless to discuss right now.

I definitely know that. Let me make a clarification: AIPAC's views on the Israeli-Palestine reflect those of the Israeli Right (Likud, mainly). So, I didn't mean to connect them to a Left-Right scale in American politics. I'm sorry if that bit was a little unclear. Nonetheless, in recent history Republicans seem to have been the ones in American politics who are closest to Likud - but you're right, it might have only appeared that way during the recent election due to Netanyahu's support for Romney. So what do you think, WoD? It's my impression that AIPAC's views are held my most Republicans, but incidents like this show that Democrats have another take on the issue. Do you think it's possible to change? I think centrist Democrats are mostly pro-Israel, and certainly most Democrat members of Congress are. But the further to the left you get in the Democratic party, the more anti-Israel they become. The party activists in both parties are more extreme than the party itself, and that's who tends to go to the conventions, so that's what you saw at the Democratic convention (plus they're Obama delegates, another indicator of their left wing tendencies). I don't think most Democrats would've booed God either. I don't really like the "pro-Israel" label. You might have noticed that I've used quotation marks on that word in older posts, as I find most current uses of the word rather misleading. "pro-Israel" seems today to be synonymous with "pro-Likud", which is about as bizarre as if I would call you anti-American because you disagree with Obama's policies. I don't think there's a single anti-Israel politician in the American congress by my definition of the word. Those masked far-left demonstrators you saw in the video above are probably anti-Israel, though. There's an awful inflation going on regarding the meanings of words such as "anti-Semitic" and "pro-Israel", which for example Chuck Hagel's hearings showed.

There's no doubt that some previous settlements on the Falklands by various nations have been evicted by means of violence. Regardless, are there any now living persons outside of Britain who lived on the Falklands or knows an ancestor who lived there? I don't think that group is very large if it exists at all, and I think the islanders should decide themselves which nation they want to belong to. (I don't know much about this conflict but that's what I think)

Oooh. I'll be watching this!

I definitely know that. Let me make a clarification: AIPAC's views on the Israeli-Palestine reflect those of the Israeli Right (Likud, mainly). So, I didn't mean to connect them to a Left-Right scale in American politics. I'm sorry if that bit was a little unclear. Nonetheless, in recent history Republicans seem to have been the ones in American politics who are closest to Likud - but you're right, it might have only appeared that way during the recent election due to Netanyahu's support for Romney. So what do you think, WoD? It's my impression that AIPAC's views are held my most Republicans, but incidents like this show that Democrats have another take on the issue. Do you think it's possible to change?

I haven't played Amnesia, but the Penumbra series were very good games.

So, coming up: http://forward.com/articles/172475/aipac-tries-to-brand-israel-as-liberal-cause/ AIPAC, the lobbying bureau of the "pro-Israel" right-wing, now tries increasingly to sell their "pro-Israel" stance to liberals instead of conservatives. They've probably made their math about which party the next president will come from. Also, I read an article some time back which detailed a trip some Chinese students made to Israel, probably organized by another lobbying institute. What do you think, will "pro-Israel" groups manage to shift their PR efforts when the power shifts in the world?

Interesting. Care to elaborate? Like what is typically Swedish? Or German, French, English, Japanese or Chinese? For example, should Scotland declare itself independent from the UK? Why or why not? It is still somewhat topic-related since it goes back on how you should identify an Israeli/Palestinian nationstate. When I've removed all the stuff which I consider traits of any advanced democracy, I don't really know what's Swedish, that's my point. If the Scottish feel oppressed by the English I think that they should declare independence. But if I were a (true) Scotsman today I'd probably think that was not the case. In a larger perspective, I think that countries should approach each other and try to unite instead of splitting apart, which is why I'm for one single democratic state on the land of Israel/Palestine. Even if the Scottish were actually oppressed by the English I would as a Scotsman view my declaration of independence as a tragedy and a temporary historical setback rather than a victory. And it would seem that you've answered your own question, correctly I might add. Another reason that they'll vote for the Left is because the Left is interested in showing its--*AHEM*--moral superiority through the enlightened values of tolerance and multi-culturalism. The Right would, quite sensibly, tell the damned Third Worlders to shape up or go back where they came from and that's not something that the Third Worlders care to hear. Personally, I'd begin the mass deportations immediately and shoot dead any who resisted. These people have no interest in becoming Swedes--embracing your ways and mores; rather, they wish to intimidate and come to dominate Sweden. This is nothing less than an invasion by a hostile people and should be treated as such. Just don't conflate "Muslim" and "Arab" which are not at all the same thing. Actually, most of the actively believing Muslims in Sweden are probably from Somalia and Eritrea, so, they're really Africans. I have an entirely different perspective compared to yours. I would rather liken Sweden to an incubator to which religious Somali families (for example) come, and when they leave (which they have been doing in increasing numbers since the situation in Somalia has stabilized), their children have grown up with McDonalds, European and American TV shows and movies, and clothing from Nike, Levi's and Adidas. So when they come back to Somalia they are imprinted with Western culture and when they look around themselves they are going to compare Somalia critically with a modern democracy. It's no hidden fact that immigrants from the Middle East have strengthened the position of the left- wing radical "Vänsterpartiet" (the formerly Communist party, furthest to the left in the Swedish parliament). But that has only led to that they are polling a stable 5% which does not look to increase today, they're a very marginal party which has never been part of any Swedish government. As long as immigrants respect democracy, they're fine with me. Also, I just want to say that I've made some generalizations - of course not all Arab refugees are PKK Kurds or from other left- wing movements, but they do vote for these parties more often than today's Swedes do. If that's a Global Left conspiracy to you, fine, to me it's a side effect of a humanitarian refugee policy. Also, Sweden has had a Rightist government since 2006, so if it is a conspiracy, it's failed miserably.

I agree with the last posts. I am very pessimistic about the outcome of this war, and sadly, the longer they fight, a healthy democracy at the end of this becomes less likely.