Bartimaeus

Heh, that took a second.

Is it any surprise that the game has technical issues and terrible writing? I mean, it's Beamdog: didn't any of you play BG:EE? Just the little bits of additional content they added in that were atrocious, and the game was broken on release... I mean, it's not like the BG series had brilliant writing or anything (BG1 generally ranged from poor to O.K. at best, with some parts that were truly atrocious - like, anything in TotSC - and only a very few parts that were maybe verging on good; BG2 was a bit better, but still had a lot of bland and boring bits all over the game, but only a few exceptionally bad parts - most of that being in ToB*)...but that's not the point: don't stick bad on bad for no dang reason, and don't buy crappy content from a terrible second rate (third or fourth rate would probably be more accurate) company that's just standing on the shoulders of giants - even if it's true those giants maybe weren't really that great to begin with, giants they were nonetheless. I have no interest in Siege of Dragonspear, personally...but it ain't because of the alleged politics mentioned in this thread: Beamdog is not a good dev for much better reasons besides that. *I say all of this as a gigantic mega-fan of Baldur's Gate, by the way: just because I'm a fan of something doesn't mean I'm bloody stupid and blind to its flaws, though.

Boo. That was my favorite armor from Dark Souls 1.

I'd probably be inclined to kill the other 6. The dog is one of my own, they're not This sort of statement causes me to reflect on what has gone awry with our species. A dog will never write a symphony, let alone appreciate one. They will never provide insight into the nature of reality. Its capacity to produce, appreciate, and relate are so comparatively inferior, yet somehow humans will frequently elevate them beyond their own kind. I don't understand this. Dogs have been selectively bred for social compatibility with humans for hundreds of years. Their affection has been cultivated the same way grapes have been selectively evolved by humans for enjoyment. Pinot Nior vs. Sauvengion Blanc. Doberman vs. Chihuahua. When people start valuing another species more than their own--let alone something as simplistic and inferior as a dog, I begin to suspect projection of a cognitively dissonant self-loathing. Somehow tossing human survivors overboard to their deaths is a sane statement, yet making an equivalent statement like, "I would murder half a dozen innocent sapient beings and feed them to my demonstrably inferior emotional toy should I deem it necessary" would be considered psychopathic. Bizarre. To sort of co-opt an argument Hurlshot made in a different thread: in the modern, Western world, we are given the opportunity to not need to kill or hurt anyone else to survive, and to survive at least well enough...generally speaking. When that changes, when our civil society falls apart, when we're no longer afforded that luxury...it's foolish to we'd be the same people: we won't be. We will look to our own. If by "[something] gone awry with our species", you mean "something that all other tribalistic species BESIDES humans do", then okay, sure, I guess you can say that.

Singleplayer-wise, no, there's not that much difference. But there was a huge difference for PVP (where who you can match up with is determined by level), which is probably why they got rid of it. ...on the other hand, pyromancies weren't really any good for PVP anyways in DS1, so I guess it didn't really matter.

fite me irl Drangleic was the best armor in DS2. Made me feel like I was playing a Roman soldier. From what I played of DS3, the movement feels much closer to DS1 than DS2, so I'm pretty happy about that. Controller's broke, though, so I currently can't play it.

That, and a x16 2.0 slot is still enough for current gen top end GPUs (or close to), and a 3.0 slot is...uh...I think double the bandwidth, so yeah, I wouldn't expect it to make much difference.

I don't think a cap of some sort is unreasonable. But if someone else's actions directly lead to the need for your cat to get brain surgery in order to survive (or even just to live as they had prior to that action), I would say at least some of the financial burden should fall on them. People shouldn't be doing damaging other people's stuff, whether they're pets or anything else: pay the price to fix what was damaged if they do. Each pet is unique just as humans are (though obviously to different degrees): I don't think, "Oh, I killed one of your children? Let me help you/your wife get pregnant to replace them! (and I'll cover whatever the cost was to raise the original child up until they were killed)" really works, and I don't think that sort of excuse should fly for pets, either.

Earlier, somebody called pets, such as dogs, "objects", things that, if damaged, the damage-doer should only have to pay the cost to replace. Given that pets are unique creatures with unique personalities and unique memories and unique physical traits, etc., I would argue that they are non-replaceable - you cannot get a dog exactly like one you already had. So...what's the legal precedent and normal recourse for someone damaging something that has no replacement?

I thought it was amazing, particularly since the crowd started out more strongly pro-Hillary, but seemed to end very much being strongly pro-Bernie.

Given that they still won't fix the vast number of issues in EU4 and CK2 that are a direct result of their meddling and not having any foresight (or seemingly doing any playtesting at all), I don't have high hopes.

And, if EU4 is any indication, then later be ruined by an overabundance of expansions being released that add new gameplay mechanics and also replace old ones that used to work just fine, some of which sound nice in theory but end up not working particularly all that well together with every other harebrained feature they decide stuff into the game throughout all ten of their expansions being released - and they keep doing this so much so until the game can barely be recognized as what it was upon release (...and also, they won't give you much of a choice whether you want the majority of those features, even if you don't actually bother to buy the expansions!). The end result, of course, being that some of us will end up no longer liking the game nearly as much as we used to. Harumph!

"Beautiful" isn't quite the first word that comes to mind for me... I assume the (to be horribly politically incorrect and also at the lack of a better descriptor) fetal alcohol syndrome-looking giant lady (who also looks like she has some pretty dreadfully used anime/manga influences...) is supposed to be "Lady America" (Columbia)? I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with such a poor artistic rendition of our country...

I see Bernie, I see Hillary, and that's about all I can decipher from this.

Four: 49ers, Rams, Chargers, Raiders.

I mean, to be fair, nobody saw Tom Brady or Russel Wilson period, either. You make do with what the draft gives you. ...That said, it's kind of funny that the Rams are now on the "to the top" end of this sort of trade, when they were the one receiving all the picks when RG3 was being drafted.

As I understand it, Wentz has very much impressed the teams he's met with, which is probably why his stock has risen.

Unfortunately, no part of our election system, from Congress to party primaries/caucuses to presidential elections is fully proportional, either...

I'd settle for just "open this week, come by 8AM to 8PM" (or 10AM to 6PM if you want it to be 8 hours...or maybe 12AM to 8PM would be better, to make sure everyone's off work by then). (e): Some states do do it this way (or at least close to)...but not enough.

In other news, touchbacks now allow the offense to start at the 25 yard line, not the 20 yard line. The idea is to reduce returns, which are apparently widely considered the most dangerous part of the game. ...However, many are saying that this may actually INCREASE returns, because now kickers may feel they'll be better off trying to pin it short of the end zone to gain a yardage advantage for their defense. The NFL didn't really seem to fully consider it's the kicker who generally determines whether or not there will be a return. If anything, it would've made more sense to bring it to the 15 or even 10 yard line - do that, and kickers will try to kick it beyond the end zone every time, and probably be successful most of the time. Overall, I would've preferred things stayed how the ywere.

Not everyone in past centuries were mass exterminators of the human species. The fact that most rulers were or were willing to be that doesn't really change that. It's not that I begrudge them what they had to do to preserve their kingdoms (there would be even more slaughter at the hands of others if their kingdoms ever exhibited weakness, I'm sure), but do I think they were "good" people? No, I don't think they were. Some were obviously worse than others, though...with Hitler and Genghis Khan and Stalin probably ranking among the worst.

I mean, I very much respect Genghis Khan and certain Roman Emperors and certain Holy Roman Emperors and Attila and Stalin and Hitler and Napoleon and...in a few certain ways (and some in more, and some in less, ways and to differing degrees than others). In most other ways, most of these people were truly horrifying and literally frightening people who deserve their own very special place in hell. The latter pretty much always outweighs the former when speaking of them except in but a very few contexts.

Will Smith, former DE for the Saints, was shot to death today in a road rage incident. Police statement: The 34-year-old male victim's vehicle was traveling eastbound on Sophie Wright Place when his vehicle was hit in the rear by a Hummer H2. The collision caused the victim's Mercedes G63 SUV to strike the rear of a Chevrolet Impala who was traveling along with the victim. The male victim and the driver of the Hummer exchanged words at which time the driver of the Hummer produced a handgun and shot the male victim multiple times and his 34-year-old wife twice in the right leg. The male victim was pronounced dead on the scene. The female victim was transported to the local hospital. The 30-year-old driver of the hummer is in custody and being interviewed by police. The gun used has been recovered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQjOkQZYmzA

I didn't realize it was a 1x slot - I figured 4x. In that case...nevermind.