BruceVC

I will definitely play it but in a couple of years when I can mod it and when its on a sales special I play all Bioware games eventually

Every country changes as years go on and domestic and geopolitical events of the time influence that and then governments respond to that For example the US now is not the US of the Cold War and or the US when 9/11 happened The point Im making is another 4 years of Trump winning or Harris winning is not going to fundamentally change the US or the world But maybe give some examples so I can understand what you mean?

I dont think most statistics or some university study should ever be more credible or relevant than actual lived experience of someone who lives in a country. Its all about context Politics is typically about grandstanding and theatre and you hear complaints about things that often dont represent the reality for everyone In South Africa its common to hear things like " we the MOST unequal society in the world " as if we the worst country in the world around the reality of our economy and what that translates to for all citizens It doesnt really matter who wins this US election, the US is going to be fine and still standing 4 years from now despite the " end of the USA" predictions from both sides if the other side wins

The irony with any pro-Palestinian American voters is Trump will support Netanyahu around any escalation around Iran and will be even less concerned about the Israeli strategy in Gaza So they dont have to vote for Harris but then they mustn't complain about what happens in the ME if Trump wins

https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2024/10/27/trump-vs-harris-2024-polls-trump-up-in-3-new-surveys-harris-leads-in-2-others/ End of the day its still neck and neck and within the margin of error Is anyone prepared to predict who will win? Im not going to predict, its too close and the final influence from undecided voters too uncertain Exciting election in any regard

Im about 15 hours into Dark Messiah of M&M Im really enjoying it, I think the myriad of combat mechanics are well done and Im enjoying the overall narrative I like Xana, she makes me laugh and I have just found out who I really am. Very unexpected twist

I agree, the ME over the last 25 years has definitely been the most overall unstable and violent region on earth. The Israeli vs Palestinian conflict is just one aspect of conflict but you had the Arab Spring, Shia vs Sunni tension and then sectarian conflicts and Islamic extremism and then the US Iraq invasion in 2003 added to the chaos But then you find stable and prosperous countries like the Gulf States and you can live and work there. Almost no crime or outcomes of poverty that you find in many countries like South Africa or many Western countries But going back to the Israeli response , I think Israel had to respond after the Ballistic attack but not in a way that would force Iran to respond heavily which is why they were selective around military targets only and yes it was also psychological I also think Israel is waiting for the US election outcomes. Because Netanyahu wants Trump to win because then he will be guaranteed US support around any military decision Israel takes The Dems have lines and decisions they wont support Israel on What did surprise me is I was always under the impression that Iran had effective anti-aircraft defenses. I always assumed Iran would be able to shootdown some aircraft if they were attacked?

There are multiple articles about the Israeli response being targeted and specifically not about energy and nuclear sites https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-iran-strike-retaliation-live-updates-rcna177303 Israel confirmed that it had launched "precise strikes on military targets in Iran" early Saturday local time. The Israel Defense Forces said the strikes were in response to "months of continuous attacks" from Iran. On Oct. 1, Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. The initial strikes appear limited to military sites and not Iranian nuclear facilities or oil fields, sources say. Because that would be seen as ramping up the escalation and then Iran feels compelled to respond but military targets are considered "acceptable " And this was what the US was expecting Israel to do if it retaliated after the Ballistic missile attack

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c704w7d3997o The long awaited Israeli response to Iran but it was a measured response and what the US wanted on military targets and not targeting energy or nuclear targets The "war ball " is now back in Irans court or at least until after the US election because I cant imagine Israel escalating its bombing campaigns without US support and only Trump will provide that

The Taliban controlled the country before 2001 and they were the main reason the country was unstable because they created the insurgency How would bringing back the ex king Zahir Shah helped placate or stop the Taliban in anyway? Would the Taliban allow him to govern the country peacefully?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c624m4kgrg3o An interesting, unexpected but appreciated BRICS development Brazil has basically vetoed Venezuela's attempts to join BRICS because of the rampant cheating and lack of credibility in the last election in Venezuela and Maduro is seriously butthurt " Venezuela has criticised Brazil's decision to veto its admission to the Brics group of emerging economies. Venezuela's foreign ministry described the move, which came at the group's summit in Russia attended by more than 20 heads of state, as an "immoral aggression" "The Brazilian foreign ministry has decided to maintain the veto that [former Brazilian president] Jair Bolsonaro has applied against Venezuela for years, reproducing the hatred, exclusion and intolerance promoted from the centres of power in the West," the Venezuelan foreign ministry said in a statement. "The Venezuelan people feel indignation and shame at this inexplicable and immoral aggression," it added. Venezuela had lobbied hard to join the Brics, with Maduro even making a surprise appearance at the summit in the city of Kazan and declaring that his country was "part of the Brics family". But whats also interesting is Putins comments about this " Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hosted the summit, said he agreed with Venezuela's position, but added that it would only be able to join the Brics if there was a consensus in favour among its members. We know Brazil's position. We don't agree, Venezuela is fighting for its survival," Putin said at a news conference on Thursday." And thats the perfect example of the Russian definition of how Putin sees the "new BRICS world order " He is basically saying free and fair and credible elections dont matter. As long as you stay in power thats all that matters The Venezuelan election was never about the survival of the country, it was simply about Maduro staying in power like all elections And its good to see BRICS members rejecting this type of sentiment from Russia

I always find this type of view to be the strangest criticism of US military campaigns and efforts over the last 20-30 years Its fair and legitimate to criticize the invasion of Iraq but the efforts to stabilize Afghanistan were real and substantial The US basically spent 20 years trying to stabilize Afghanistan, they spent something like $1 trillion dollars and for years Afghanistan had a legitimate and internationally recognized government They failed to end the Taliban insurgency for a variety of reasons and the country was never truly stable and then you had constant corruption and inefficiency within the new Afghan government But its hard to think of what more follow through the US could have done in Afghanistan short of making Afghanistan part of the US because end of the day only the Afghan government like all governments can truly stabilize the country And the worst reality is there were many people saying the US must leave Afghanistan and when the US did leave the new Afghan security forces collapsed and Taliban took control and the country is worse than ever with no economic or positive future for its citizens and particularly no future for Afghan women But the US had to leave at some stage. I support that and it couldnt indefinitely sustain Afghanistan Im really questioning what else the US could have done to support the new Afghan government after 2001 because hindsight is 20/20?

But most people arent really influenced by wars that they dont have lived experience around or direct experience South Africa was involved for decades in the border war and Namibia and I remember older people doing conscription, I lived through South Africa's wars during Apartheid the first 15 years of my life but it had no impact on me because I was too young or not involved I would argue many people forget very quickly or selectively dismiss why certain wars were necessary like the US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11. You can find people in the US who claim that war was unjust and conflate it to Iraq 2003 But the invasion of Afghanistan was perfectly legitimate considering 9/11?

Thats interesting, as you might remember I played F:NV recently but it was a heavy modded game and there were definitely regions with enemies I couldnt defeat until higher level and that included Deathclaws

But the F:NV design of open world is what I prefer anyway You can go north and escape the Deathclaw in the beginning and get to NV but you will be very low level and wont survive most battles in the NV region Its a choice but its a bad choice to make and taking the longer route just makes sense

I have decided to buy Dark Messiah M&M and UnderRail I have only heard good things about both these games. I am going to play Dark Messiah first and then UnderRail UnderRail really seems to be what I enjoy around exploration and open world and I always appreciate post-apocalyptic settings like Fallout, METRO and STALKER

Geez Elerond, you sure know how to ruin someone's day ...what a depressing post

Gorthfuscious did you guys see that Trump worked in a McDonalds Trump is a man who identifies with the working class because he works in a menial job. The first billionaire who also works in a McDonalds Not a staged photo-op at all

https://apnews.com/article/moldova-elections-eu-referendum-russia-325cb2c13beb1d76565a6e2aadef971a It looks like Moldova is on track to join the EU despite Russian interference in the referendum " With 99.41% of votes counted in the EU referendum held Sunday, the “Yes” vote stood at 50.39% and the “No” vote at 49.61%, according to the Central Electoral Commission. " Very close result but definitely the best outcome for the future of the country

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-north-korea-deserters-meat-assault-1972200 NK soldiers in Kursk are already deserting and they not even in the Russian meatgrinder yet

Im not with you, why would NK soldiers being deployed to Ukraine be about the US response after the election irrespective of who wins ? If Harris wins US aid will continue in the same way, if Trump wins he will try to create a peace deal by offering a carrot or stick for both countries Im not getting how NK soldiers fit into this?

Yes that part I understood but this debate was about NK soldiers being deployed to the current arena in Ukraine and why would Russia need NK soldiers if they had no manpower shortages? We will never know the truth because we will never get confirmation about real Russian losses and its impact on the battlefield

I completed TW2 after about 50 hours As I mentioned previously its a fun RPG and it has some worthwhile mechanics like crafting, skills advancement and a myriad of quests and an open-world to explore with no level scaling . Im not going to mention what I didnt like about it I enjoyed and was surprised how the narrative ended ...I was hoping to Romance the prophetess I spent about 2-3 hours on the final battle, I dont like those kind of end boss battles where you have to adopt a different strategy to normal combat But its a good Eurojank RPG and definitely worth playing It gets a well deserved 65\100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system " I then played another Fighting Fantasy PC game, The Citadel of Chaos and it was another fantastic nostalgic sojourn back into the world of " choose your own adventure ". It was just quick, I finished it in 4 hours I decided to play a DLC for TW2,Call of the Tenebrae. It has similar mechanics to the OC but it improves on some things and is higher level

Im not sure what your point is? Are you saying that Russia doesnt have military resource and manpower shortages and they not getting these resources from the likes of Iran and NK? Or are you saying they are accepting NK boots on the ground but its not because of manpower shortages? Or are you saying something else ?

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/early-vote Some early voting in around mail-in and early voting Dems are ahead overall but the swing states that matter are mixed with GOP ahead in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada and the Dems ahead in Wisconsin , North Carolina (barely )Michigan and Pennsylvania And this will change but its an interesting first glance