Zoraptor

I was talking specifically about the recent, well publicised, incident, as was Farbautisonn from his description. But no, Hamas certainly ain't any shining light for justice and due process and are pretty typical in that regard for an organisation of their type. It's simply that they are within their rights- as historically with most countries- to execute collaborators/ agents provacateur/ spies in times of war without due process.

Hmm. Wrong (Fatah has killed off/ suppressed most of the antagonist factions in WB, much as Hamas has in the GS); yes, but irrelevant as all it does is give Israel far larger buffer strips around palestinian areas; it has far worse access to weapons as Israel controls all the border to a significant depth as opposed to Egypt controlling some of the GS's border; and no, the WB has ~600k people, the GS has 1.2 million and is the most densely populated region on earth. Not a great start there. It's not in Hamas's best interests to spend their time fighting their 'friends', much as it wasn't worth Israel's time fighting the Phalangists and SLA despite them merrily torturing and murdering their way through southern Lebanon for 20 years, or it wasn't worth it for the US to rein in the rightist paramilitaries in Latin America. That's realpolitik for you, and if you're going to criticise one you gotta criticise the other as well. As for the rest, governments gonna govern. Executing agents of a foreign power in times of war is not illegal- I can provide a list as long as your arm of Western examples, should you wish to push the point- and if it weren't Hamas those levies would be called... taxes, levies and the like, without the quote marks. No. Not to the act itself, but to any moral plusage to be gained from it. Israel has an absolute obligation under international law to provide the means of life to its occupied territories, and under international law that is what Gaza is. Failure to do so would be a Crime Against Humanity and is the sort of thing even the US would probably not be able to insulate Israel from. It's also used as a further cudgel to bludgeon and control with as they can, and do, turn stuff off on a whim. Run down the whole area with your blockade, refuse to allow in basic constriction materials or for the palestinians to get money or construct stuff themselves, then claim credit for alleviating the suffering you yourself caused. A great strategy to convince the ignorant, not so much the well informed. Apartheid or Bantustaning are far more accurate accusations. There are massive issues on the WB too, but that is ratcheted down because the Palestinians are far less there population wise and they are corralled into regions surrounded on all sides and in depth by checkpoints, settler only roads, settlements themselves, a 30' wall, and the like.

Yet Steam is often about the only place to have the localised prices- albeit some other places like Impulse/ Gamestop will simply refuse to sell some games at all to certain regions. If steam really wanted to avoid it they almost certainly have the clout to, but it does benefit them, so they won't push it. I'm not in Australia (in NZ, but we tend to get lumped in with them) so I cannot speak directly for Aus, but in the vast majority of cases it is perfectly possible to avoid the localised prices by avoiding steam and using either another DD or a remailer, let alone a key reseller. But a lot of people simply won't do so. That ain't intended to exonerate the publishers though, given that Namco went to court to force regionalisation on TWitcher 2. Of course, I could still buy a non regionalised copy from Gamersgate, even then...

Ignorance and herd mentality, largely. Lots of people think that steam is- literally- the only place to buy from DD and others don't want to make accounts at multiple places or are compulsive about steam achievements or whatever. It's also one of those things where some people get really upset if anyone blames steam for it as "it's the publisher's fault!" only, despite other DD outlets often not having the same differential. Truth is that the situation benefits everyone but the consumer as retail remains relevant, sort of, and both steam and the publishers get more money. Thus, price gouging.

So far as I am aware the only way to get it at the moment is as part of the NWN bundle (which I think only Gamersgate has). That is of course a bundle rather than a separate download though, and is currently rather expensive considering it has been in the $6 range before. You can get GG to send you email alerts on price drops and the like, since they are having a Thanksgiving sale- despite being Swedish- that supposedly extends right to christmas it may well be part of that at some point.

Your government hates you. It's price gouging, pure and simple. Nothing to do with their (or our) government.

Sports games have a huge advantage (as part of not being "creative") in that they are tied to a reality that changes with, well, reality. If you want the updated team rosters, team colours or even in some cases teams themselves you need to get the updated game. There's very little creative with regards to them as- by definition- they're not supposed to be creative, they're supposed to model a reality.

I make pizza 2-3 times a month, usually two at a time. I tend to make the bases myself though unlike Cant I tend to use a bread maker rather than the traditional method- though I do make Naan the traditional way once or twice a year. The two usual toppings set ups I use for pizza are: Plum or Apricot sauce base- I've also used Tamarind for the more orientally inclined Blue cheese Tuna Leek or red onion Whatever veg I have available (usually 2+ of bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, peas or courgi/ zucc) Sometimes spinach and feta; or chilli peppers. Tomato base Bacon Sardines Capers Gherkins Veges as above Olives Good old fashioned tasty cheddar cheese as I prefer the extra taste to mozzarella.

That's pretty typical of western democracies though. Our government got elected by 26% of the population due to a low turn out and we don't have most of the US specific issues, ie minor party votes usually will count and have a point. Wikipedia (heh, it gives our historical turn out as 89% and it was way less last election) gives Australia's historical turn out as 81% despite it being illegal not to vote, for example.

Have to admit that when I played MOTB I cheated to give myself the full party roster due to not wanting to miss anything, and it is only one character extra. The game sold fine, though not blockbuster numbers. Their problem was continued funding for the other game. I don't believe that is correct ? http://www.shacknews...s-to-break-even EA said that the game sold above expectations, which is probably the closest you can get to an informed opinion on its objective success. I think the estimate from the governor was probably accurate in terms of how many they needed to sell to get through to the MMO's release and keep the company alive, rather than being a realistic expectation of actual sales.

That is largely confusing symptoms with causes and treatments. 'Money printing' didn't work well in Japan because the population is (generally) abstemious and would rather save than spend, as such providing them with excess cash doesn't tackle one key problem, that of low internal demand. Thus 'printing money' was not inflationary there, but neither did it cause much if anything in the way of growth and henceyou you could have the theoretically antithetical processes of both providing cheap money and having deflation at the same time. The response in a country like the US where there is a lot more historic emphasis on spending should (should) be significantly different, and cause the classic response of both growth and inflation. Certainly there's no evidence of deflation in the US, quite the opposite. I tend to compare the value of currencies against my own. On that metric Japan's has barely changed (and on a more objective measure is at historic highs against pretty much all their major trading partners; same as here) while the USD has lost around 30% of its value. It could be argued- and I'd agree largely- that the USD is still overvalued in absolute terms but the fact remains that the supposedly similar situations between Japan and the US have resulted in a very high Japanese Yen but a comparatively weak USD. Simply put Japan's response to stimulus spending is atypical and cannot be used as a yardstick for expectations elsewhere. Except, ironically, China which is likely to hit exactly the same sort of issues at some point.

Volo's source is an EA press release stating numbers shipped. Yours is VGChartz. Irrelevant, I'd like to introduce you to inaccurate.

The west only has two takes on Russia; "Oh no the slavic horde coming to crush us!!!" and "hahaha look at that funny Boris dance hahaha Russia so funny!!!". Been the same since Ivan Grozny.

It isn't really appropriate to compare the two. Japan's problems are fundamentally different from those in the US- the Japanese oversave rather than overspend, their currency is greatly overvalued and they have a historical problem with deflation. That's pretty close to the exact reverse of the situation in the US. The thing is that- even as someone who drops off the scale of the political compass at both the left and libertarian ends- it would be eminently sensible to actually run a government like a business. The thing is of course is that politicians gonna politicise and, as always, telling people that they can have their cake (entitlements for the left, tax cuts for the right) and eat it too will always win more elections than grim realism. If by some miracle a properly responsible bunch were voted in they'd have to deal with large scale historic debt immediately putting them at a disadvantage for being re-elected and inevitable myopic populism and promises to reverse everything from the opposition.

I am onto Storm of Zehir now, having left MOTB for last. I'd largely forgotten how much I liked some of the ideas behind SoZ and I certainly hope Eternity uses some of the better ones, mainly the overland map exploration as opposed to the OC/ BG style static locations. I actually enjoyed the OC a lot more than I thought too. Up to the Old Owl Well ain't great, with a trite storyline and repetitive trash mob combat but the last two acts are a lot better in terms of pacing and variation. I still hate the AI though as I find it impossible to get a happy medium where characters won't charge off through multiple traps after a random enemy miles away nor passively stand still and get chopped to pieces.

The obvious thing for MS to do is to make the nextbox use 11.1; or a win8 SP1 exclusive 12 having ported 11.1 to 7 to show how nice they are. If all the new cross platform games need a win8 exclusive DX version then the push to upgrade gets a lot stronger than just for '3d'. That didn't happen last time but if they are serious about trying to unify operating systems across hardware and bringing Live to PCs etc and all the stuff they seem to be serious about then that is what they will do.

If the US and Europe really get into trouble Australia will follow anyway. They're already having problems with most anything that isn't mining boom related, and if China et al suddenly find that the west stops buying from them then they'll stop buying from Australia and it'll be a hard stop for everyone. That's probably the only really 'positive' thing about the world economy at the moment, nobody really wants Europe or the US to have a fiscal implosion due to the collateral (hoho) damage that will ensue- the exporters won't have anyone to export to and the big surplus runners will find the bonds and a lot of the assets they hold to be near worthless. The US or Europe going belly up would have enormous repercussions for everyone else, and everyone knows it.

I can't see the kinect thing actually being used. Too many obvious ways to avoid or subvert it, too many potential problems. Though at least for once it seems that it is actually a proper patent, for a proper invention.

For reference, since it may be useful as an illustration. I've actually thought that games arguments are useful in seeing exactly how people end up with stuff like the Inquisition. It's completely trivial yet some people (at least seem to) take it so very very seriously. Makes it easy to see how people end up taking more serious stuff even more seriously. Can't say I've had any problem with Boo's attitude, or anyone else's here on this topic which is close to a first for a console war. There's been some mild hyperbole on occasion, but who hasn't been mildly hyperbolic on occasion. I don't think anyone (myself included) could cast the first stone on that front.

A PS3 in New Zealand was as much as ~1050USD on release, and a 360 wasn't that much cheaper. You can build a very decent PC for that (or a slightly less decent one and get someone else to assemble it) though it's more difficult if you're buying beige box retail. That costing was an extreme case but even now if you have a decent baseline PC a very reasonable quality video card costs less than a PS360- which are in the 300-350USD range unless buying a non HD non kinect 360. Really though it's a Total Cost of Ownership thing, I doubt anyone really believes the PC can compete on pure price except in extreme cases like the one above. If I were to be buying new release games here I'd expect to save something like 200USD a year on PC over console just from price differentials and even taking into account using UK remailers to get around the consoles' ludicrous regional game pricing; that and the added flexibility and utility of the PC are the sort of things taken into account.

I think it probably has occurred to me since... I'm not using that sort of set up and bought a militantly mid range replacement for my militantly mid range original card. Besides, anyone who looks down on someone because they own/ don't own a certain piece of hardware is in desperate need of some perspective in life (but that is inevitably where this sort of discussion ends up so might as well get it out of the way while making it look obviously stupid). If you'd like the hyperbole stripped away then for me, getting a computer capable of playing games has saved a lot of money over buying a console. Chances are that if you actually bought a 360 six years ago you will have had an RROD or had to replace it out of warranty, and you will have paid more per game on average, paid a lot up front and had something that is a lot less flexible than a PC. And that is without considering whether you'd have needed Gold Live. If you need a computer anyway then a console is a false economy, especially a new generation one- so long as you aren't in it for the epeen then it's perfectly plausible (perhaps even likely) that a computer is a better economic choice because you'll be spending the bulk of the money required anyway. After all, people don't include the cost of a 40+ inch TV in the cost of a console.

Okay, I picked up a fairly bleeding edge pc 6-7 years ago. Apart from having to replace the graphics card twice (because they died, not because of a need to make them better) , and a hard drive that also died needing to be replaced, I haven't had any issues and it still chews up modern games with no problem. And no, it still runs on the OS it came with. My computer is six years old- celebrated it's birthday last week, I gave it a compressed air clean and a new internet connection as a present- was decidedly mid range and still plays everything I want absolutely fine. It's gone from a (nVidia, since it's so old now the numbers are overrunning) 7600GT to an (AMD) 5770, from 2GB to 4GB and from XP to Win7. All those additions cost less than a console does- going from 2 to 4GB RAM cost less than a cafe meal- and less than 200USD in total. And it's never once had a Red Ring of Death unlike those highly reliable safe as houses built to resist anything 360s. Also what the ravening, unwashed console hordes* tend to forget in their desperate quest to discover fire, writing, abstract thought and the other things that the glorious PC gaming master race takes for granted is that their games don't even play at proper HD resolutions. While I am playing Dragon Age: Origins as God Intended at full detail 1920x1200 60+ fps with flashing bells, blowing whistles and clarion trumpets the poor unfortunate consolers are crawling in the dirt picking up the chaff of mere 720p and 30fps. That is after all why they're called consoles in the first place, their owners need to be consoled over their poor performance. Of course what I actually buy a computer for is to do stuff on that ain't gaming. Gaming specific costs for this computer are actually zero, as I would have bought all the upgrades whether gaming or not. Since I need a computer anyway and there is no way I'm going to go the false economy route and deliberately buy something rubbish just to save a few short term dollars the only extra cost associated with making the computer a games one is- maybe- a better video card. Everything else I need anyway. And I can guarantee I'll be able to pick up a decent video card for less than the cost of a current gen console. I might actually get a whole system for less than a next gen console's starting price, given how much the PS3 was at release. I'm actually likely to get a new computer this or next month, then I will probably put Linux onto this one. Just another thing I can do in the libertarian utopia of PC land that people living in regimented, totalitarian consoledonia (excluding hacked PS3) can only dream of, had they the imagination and ambition to dream. *I did rather enjoy playing BG: Dark Alliance co-op on the PS2, and SSX was pretty cool too, but like Luke Skywalker I ultimately resisted rather than fell to the dark side and I totally do not own a 360 which if I did own I was certainly given and only use to play proper PC games that happen to be inflicted with steam and to totally stick it to The Man I would buy them 2nd hand as well. Hypothetically speaking.

I only get annoyed at bad science if it's both unnecessary and obviously bad science. Something like the FEV in Fallout is... implausible but since it's necessary to the story and at least vaguely possible I tend to give it a pass. On the other hand, for something like the grove in System Shock 2 having reached Tau Ceti V at relativistic speeds or the weapons in the game falling apart like they're made of cardboard I can't help but wish that they'd included some sort of explanation rather than hoping that people wouldn't notice. One thing which does tend to annoy me and is somewhat similar is including ahistorical stuff just for the sake of being ahistorical. I'm not really talking lost Maori tribe invade western europe in world war two with neutronium waka and mecha Hitler fights them off the beaches (that will be $100 for the idea, ta Paradox) which is just silly, but either hammering square history into the round storyline or airbrushing like crazy so as to have nice clean good guys and bad guys.

Russia? Maybe if they could reabsorb Belarus and Ukraine (and some of the -stans as well), but the only one which is even a slight possibility is Belarus post Lukachenko. Else they'll just stay treading water and dropping back further relative to China. They only have one card (energy) to play on Europe, and they can only play it sparingly lest they give enough incentive for Europe to seek real alternatives. Big thing from this US election is how much of a drag the Tea Party is on the Republicans. Romney actually did well campaigning, and far better than I expected him to, but while the Tea Party may be great at mobilising a certain section of the party base and raising money a lot of their policies are anathema to the swing vote moderates who are essential to actually winning. In particular the Akin/ Mourdock 'controversies' while it may have actually appealed to some core republican backers cannot but have damaged Romney by association with precisely the demographics he needed to win.

Volourn is a dirty commie! What would Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara have achieved without their shadowy PR master delivering cutting barbs against their enemy? Ultimately guns and bullets are secondary to reducing your enemy to a quivering mess with a well delivered insult. I also hear that Fidel credits his oratorical skills to input from said shadowy revolutionary presence...