Zoraptor

They also brought a resolution to the UN today that garnered a grand total of one vote, their own, and they must have known that that was all it was going to get- and they spent ages lobbying for it and tried all sorts of procedural tricks as well. At this point the 'bad' diplomacy looks like it's 100% deliberate and intended to make the US look isolated. What was the resolution? Blaming Hamas and PIJ for Gaza violence. The US was also the only country to vote against the previous resolution.

They also brought a resolution to the UN today that garnered a grand total of one vote, their own, and they must have known that that was all it was going to get- and they spent ages lobbying for it and tried all sorts of procedural tricks as well. At this point the 'bad' diplomacy looks like it's 100% deliberate and intended to make the US look isolated.

They could reuse it, Civ IV was on gamebryo and it was isometric.

Jordan got 'stuck', the first 5-6 books came out near yearly, then the later ones took comparatively ages while the quality declined due to him having too many characters and having to move people around to get them into the positions he needed at the right times which left half the cast treading water plot wise at any given time but still getting chapters- near exactly the same problem Martin's Song of Ice and Fire has battled for the last decade, though at this point Martin's just taking the piss. Pretty sure the 'recap' type chapters were added to the later books to make sure existing readers remembered what happened 2+ years ago when the last book released rather than for new readers, but they definitely hindered the already glacial pacing even more. It wasn't so much he got "stuck" as he was technically dealing with a life-affecting disease, which actually did result in his death. That was one of the reasons the writing got slowed down by so much, he was dividing his time between actually writing the story, and making sure there were details and explanations for how the story should go if/when he died before completing it. Apparently, he did make a couple of raaather large spreadsheets detailing characters, arcs, appearances in previous books, plots and subplots they were involved in, etc. Along with copious notes on the world and cultures. Although he did get a wee bit irritated over fans who kept moaning about Matt being "missing" from most of one book - he was all "The previous book ended with a rather large wall falling on him and injuries resulting from it. I didn't think anyone would be that interested in large chapters involving Matt covered in bandages, laid in bed, sleeping and recovering and not doing anything actually story affecting." The disease slowed the actual writing down for sure- but it didn't result in less happening per book, which is what I mostly meant by him being 'stuck'. A book of their page number every two years is not something I would complain about and Jordan kept things well organised and had almost no outright editing mistakes despite the series size. However, the disease had nothing to do with the drop in amount of meaningful stuff happening per book which is what I meant by him being 'stuck'. It was not writer's block, and I doubt it is for Martin either, it's just the difficulty in getting people from place A to place B at time C without it becoming turgid prose for the sake of it. He knew the start and the end and had most of the main plots obviously plotted out ahead of time, but getting from the various points along the journey was the problem. If anything he probably planned too well, and had problems getting meaningful feeling filler in when needed, main symptom of that being the addition of lots of disposable characters; the Martin equivalent was the aborted five year gap between Storm of Swords and Feast For Crows where a lot of positioning stuff would happen 'off camera' to keep the rest trim. Not really any easy solution to it except to reduce the scale of the series. The Mat quote is actually a good indicator of the problem he had- too often he didn't leave X out of the book even if they had nothing meaningful to do, and that bloated it badly and when he did people didn't like it.

That's a VSS Vintorez sunshine and don't you forget it. And if they use real names it'll be $6.99 to cover the licensing fee. WW3 people could at least use a 'cool' russian gun like a groza or vintorez instead of a boring old AK74. Just to step in here on this important discussion. Mediocrity sells. How many CoDs have been lambasted for being bad and the next on sells like hotcakes? I haven't bought a Bioware game since ME3, and that doesn't seem to matter to the overall sales. I, personally, have no interest in Fallout anymore outside of booting up NV, 1, or 2 whenever the whim takes me. However, there will be 30 people lapping it up. This will counteract my 1 purchase with 30. We can continue to whine about games not being as good as its predecessors, but until sales dwindle you can hope all you want but you will likely be incorrect about sales. Gamers cry today, and turn around and preorder the next title after some videos and hype from E3. Consumers... Consumers never change. CoD sales have been declining though. They still sell well, but not as well as they did (from memory, CODIW/ WW2 each sold <40% of peak CoD titles). If there is a drop in quality a drop in sales tends to lag behind by at least one game as people largely buy the immediate sequel based on their experience of the previous games and expectations based on that. If F4 was received poorly by the players then it would be F5 that would suffer the consequences of it. That also means that F4 may have sold well based on reception of F3/NV and Skyrim, rather than because people liked it for itself. Again, best indicator would be comparative sales of F5, and they're conjecture.

Jordan got 'stuck', the first 5-6 books came out near yearly, then the later ones took comparatively ages while the quality declined due to him having too many characters and having to move people around to get them into the positions he needed at the right times which left half the cast treading water plot wise at any given time but still getting chapters- near exactly the same problem Martin's Song of Ice and Fire has battled for the last decade, though at this point Martin's just taking the piss. Pretty sure the 'recap' type chapters were added to the later books to make sure existing readers remembered what happened 2+ years ago when the last book released rather than for new readers, but they definitely hindered the already glacial pacing even more.

The french not wanting a competing currency in Africa isn't a conspiracy theory- they still muck around in west/ Sahel Africa as badly as they did when actual colonial masters and the 'franc' is a critical part of that- the US doing anything because of it is extraordinarily unlikely though. The currency wouldn't have worked since Gaddafi was not well enough liked/ trusted in Africa due to his other pan African ambitions which, much like his and others' earlier pan Arab ambitions, were fairly transparently aimed at getting him to be head of a more important entity than Libya. Plus he'd monkeyed around in other countries pretty liberally including fighting a literal war against Chad. Yuan maybe if the Chinese weren't so very obviously intending to leverage every bit of influence they can get with it, but the yen is tied to an economy that has been moribund for two decades and a country with a massive debt and declining population. The USD is a pretty dumb reserve currency in theory and is also tied to a massive debt and a country intent on leveraging its influence, but it has the very large advantage of inertia. The Euro isn't really an alternative either, as it has a bunch of problems with debt, it being a 'wonky' set up with a weird central bank structure and the still credible threat of countries dropping out of it. Guess there's always cryptocurrency as a potential reserve ahahahahahaha.

Obama was dragged into Libya by Hillary and Sarkozy/ Cameron. Sarkozy especially, since he wanted Gaddafi's illegal contributions to his election campaign kept secret. What has come after is the fault of Europe having neither plan beforehand nor spine after while making policy based on fantasy rather than reality, and the ludicrous internecine arab rivalries between secularists vs the ikhwan vs salafi/ wahhabis; all of whom Europe was relying on to keep the country together because... Europe is stupid and lazy, basically.

"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to". Then proceeds to make half a dozen Star Wars movies all centred around 'the past'. Ironic. 24 years since Once Were Warriors. I feel... old. I guess that Daniel Logan would be as appropriate as Tem given he played young Boba, but realistically we'll probably get The Rock smelling what Taun We is cooking (better be eggs) being a simple clone making his way in the universe.

Sad, but not unexpected. I didn't agree with him on everything but he seemed to be genuine, which is more than can be said for many games journalists. Renamed Disco Elysium, due to too many jokes about fursonas.

Did they say anything about PoE1 sales numbers? I don't blame Mr Galyonkin for keeping it going since he's put a lot of work in and it was a pretty decent statistical model he was using, but the privacy setting change has destroyed Steamspy's accuracy almost completely. Its strength was that as the default setting was to expose ownership the sampling method was independent (not wholly so since it wasn't the full population available, but good enough) and its sampleable population huge, however as an opt in system it's neither independent nor is the sampleable population large. Green Man Gaming is grey-market at best and your sale probably gave Obsidian $0. Sure you aren't thinking of G2A? GMG is almost always* an official reseller. G2A is not at all reliable and seldom an official reseller. *Witcher 3 is the only example of grey market selling I know of from them, and there were special circumstances there

That Pompeo facepalm sums it up perfectly. Bolton was a moron for bringing Libya up in the first place since it's obvious to anyone and everyone that no one in Kim's position wants 'the Libyan model' in any way, shape or form- hand over your weapons; then get raped to death with a bayonet when politically expedient while Hillary cackles- and DPRK going for nukes was largely a reaction to the earlier 'Saddam model'. Bolton may be the only person on the entire planet (ok, Bruce as well) who thinks Libya was a great idea. Trump's a moron for obviously not knowing about Gaddafi handing his weapons over, but had been doing a decent job of soft balling it prior to that and should have kept at it since that also would have hidden his ignorance. I'd have eaten my hat if Kim had handed over his nukes, but that's just handing him political ammunition for when he refuses to do it whether or not it's after a meeting with Trump.

Didn't most of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. team end up elsewhere by now. So it's basically a game using the name but made by different people? Or am I getting that wrong? Not sure if I should be excited or scared right now, so I'll just go for both. The whole studio was basically shut down for a few years so it would be pretty much a new team unless some return. Having said that, the people who left largely seemed to be obsessed with turning Stalker into a MP game except the Metro guys who left earliest, and Sergei G himself seems to have a decent idea of what made Stalker memorable. They have done Cossacks 3 since re-opening which seems a poor fit for Stalker, but then again they'd only (?) done Cossacks1/2 prior to StalkerSoC as well and that didn't do it much harm, ultimately.

To be fair, since serial codes are usually associated with some form of drm they are very rare on GOG as they're only needed for external MP- and since gamespy died often not even that- and occasionally for things like forum access so they won't be prominently displayed. The only retail game with a serial code on GOG is Witcher 3 (?), on steam every retail game with steamworks has to have one.

Set volume contracts is the reason iirc with Venezuela struggling to fulfill their commercial contracts due to poor maintenance. They do get some reciprocation from Cuba though, since Cuba has an excess of medical personnel and also makes a lot of drugs etc and they're things that Venezuela needs. Heather Nauert looked the most nervous I've seen her in her press briefing when asked about it, fluffing lines and fiddling with a disorganised sheaf of papers. NK has already cancelled the meeting with Moon scheduled for tomorrow. That's the problem with bigging up the meeting as a Trump masterstroke, it give Kim a whole lot of PR leverage if he threatens to pull out as that would make Trump look weak and not like the master negotiator he wants to look like- Kim is meant to be desperate to have it, and Trump is meant to be the one threatening to walk out.

Most likely Israel would be busy invading Lebanon and Syria, and the US will have the 'help' of Saudi etc instead unless they get them to go draw an F15 in the corner while the adults are working. Six months later we'll get "who would have thought international relations were this complicated?" It certainly doesn't help that the only time the US media as a whole ever gets behind Trump is when he's firing missiles at people. The preference for stupid 'strength' over nuanced sense isn't just from Trump. Israel trying both would be a disaster, I would wager, as well. Heck even one. Israel would 'win' even against both, but very much with the air quotes. Their main aim would almost certainly be to restart/ exacerbate the civil wars there to get their enemies fighting each other rather than doing prolonged fighting themselves. They might achieve it, but it seems unlikely since the single unifying strand in Syria and Lebanon is hatred of Israel, so anyone helping them will be viewed as a traitor. Plus there's the question of what Russia would do under such circumstances, and while Putin seems OK with some limited strikes by Israel he's temperamentally unlikely to back down if Israel tries more than that. Fundamentally though, any invasion of Iran will result in their proxies fighting whatever 'coalition' is scraped together throughout Lebanon to Iran, and that practically means that Iraq, Syria and Lebanon become involved whatever anyone wants; and that will involve Israel either invading pre-emptively or being dragged in.

Most likely Israel would be busy invading Lebanon and Syria, and the US will have the 'help' of Saudi etc instead unless they get them to go draw an F15 in the corner while the adults are working. Six months later we'll get "who would have thought international relations were this complicated?" It certainly doesn't help that the only time the US media as a whole ever gets behind Trump is when he's firing missiles at people. The preference for stupid 'strength' over nuanced sense isn't just from Trump.

Early Iraqi election results don't look good for the US either- Moqtada al Sadr leading and the head of the PMU Al Ameri and Abadi fighting over second. Probably not as good for Iran as they might have hoped though, Sadr still holds a grudge for them over not supporting him vs the US, though the PMU leader is pretty proxy like. Still, the grudge Sadr holds against Iran is nothing compared to the one he holds against the US even a decade+ after the Mehdi Army, and Al Ameri doing well is even worse since he's the closest to a direct Iranian proxy in the race. Sad for Abadi if he doesn't make it, he managed the juggling act better than anyone else has since Saddam (who'd just shoot anyone who noticed if he dropped any balls) and probably ought to be regarded as a near Churchillian* figure right down to potentially losing an election after winning the war. *stereotype Churchill, not reality Churchill of course.

I'm sure it is easy (or easier, at least, as we're habitual RPG players) since just about everyone is saying that. I'm just speculating on the reasons why it's easier, ie lots of complaints about combat and difficulty in the first game, and its low completion rate.

It's also a six month old article reinvigorated now because Donny took a dumpikins on international relations again so some PR firm wants a way to slander everyone who disagrees with him. The Politico article it's based on reads like a tin foil conspiracy where everyone except the US and a couple of its client states is involved in the scheme from the usual rogue gallery to Europe and Africa and the author is outraged! outraged! that anyone might have a foreign policy independent of the US or that Iran and Lebanon had the sheer temerity to place their countries near US bases. It's exactly the sort of article that makes me want to reach through my monitor and give the author an atomic wedgie for his troubles, and for wasting my time reading that overly long load of tosh and old cobblers; starting from the conclusion and working back from it is exactly the sort of approach which got US soldiers blown up in Iraq in the first place Mr Meyer. The NYP article on in contrast is at least brief and doesn't repeat itself a dozen times even though it's been Murdoched, as expected.

I didn't find the combat in PoE1 particularly hard, but there was just so much of it and 90% of the time (or it felt like it) you got nothing more than slightly meaningful from it as you'd already maxed the xp and the loot was ultra generic. I think I got roflstomped by Raedric first try then went back later and crushed him easily so I will say this for PoE1, though it didn't feel like your characters were improving much each level practically they were. While I'm not playing PoE2 the lowish difficulty seems to be a common observation. I presume that's from feedback and an attempt to get more people to actually finish the game.

95% of paywalls (including that one) can be bypassed with noscript, private window or clearing cookies. That article is... lol, and in a good way. Not what Bruce meant to link to, I suspect That is literally the lead, I'm not making that up, honestly. To be fair, digging deeper involves sophisticated techniques not available to most journos like, well, google searches, google earth, making phone calls etc instead of just repeating the good oil some dude in the pentagon gave you and waiting for your resultant pulitzer to arrive. Syrian nuclear centrifuges: Iranian centrifuge site: DPRK 'nuclear site' Not a bad reference for the next time someone tells me that leaks from 'unnamed official' are 100% accurate, ta Bruce.

You can make your own, it's very easy since it's just vodka, sugar, lemons as the three essential ingredients. It's also the easiest way to get the right taste for you if you're having difficulty, since you can vary amount of lemon and sugar and any additions you might like such as cloves. Then again I like a strong tasting and fairly sour limoncello so my options are limited if I'm not willing to make it myself. The only commercial limoncellos here are imported Italian ones I've never tried and local ones which won't be available internationally unfortunately.

If you took possession of the keep and explored the weird statue levels, you are pretty caught up on the story, I think. Although I'm playing through again because I didn't like my character and never really did White March. White March is better than the main game as it's far better focused, but you can expect to hit the level cap only about half way through it, which is a shame. I'm holding off on Deadfire until a couple of patches have dropped. I didn't have any particular attachment to my character but I'd like to import anyway and that seems to be fundamentally broken at the moment. Plus I have both Andromeda (which is OK but clearly will get boring much as DAI did) and DivOS2 (way better than 1st play through; still deeply flawed) on the go.

The missiles were fired by 174th (?) Brigade, Syrian Arab Army, they even filmed themselves firing them in response to Israeli tank and artillery fire from the Golan. The Israeli military also said it was a pre-planned attack, and since Bibi landed 20 minutes before it was launched it was pretty obvious he went to Russia to ask Putin for permission for it, so it was coming days ago. Won't stop the media from reporting it as an Iranian attack starting the whole thing of course, even though they were all reporting an Israeli attack literally yesterday as well which they have forgotten about. For a country that supposedly wiped out half of Syria's air defences in February Israel seems inordinately proud of getting a single pantsir as well. And for those saying that you can't shoot down missiles, this time they clearly got at least one SpikeNLOS which weighs less than a sixth of the tomahawk's warhead alone.