BruceVC

Passive-aggressive armchair warriorism, if you please. "Passive-aggressive armchair warriorism".. I like that

Something tells me that if it were 2003, you would be arguing that the UK and US government officials wouldn't be lying about the 'WMDs' in Iraq and would buy the manufactured hogwash that Saddam was the antichrist of Arabia and the greatest enemy on earth of freedom and democracy who must be 'stopped'. And yes, if you forget, at the time, there were people, myself being one, saying they were lying and going to war under completely false pretenses. How many times do you need to be lied to before you stop believing the source? You right I did support the invasion of Iraq for the reasons given, I then changed my mind after it was clear the reasons weren't true. History will reveal if it was still the right strategic decision to invade Iraq. But I don't think it will be due to the political situation that now exists in the region. Of course the invasion of Afghanistan was and still is perfectly justified Were you really one of those that was opposed to the Iraq invasion? I don't suppose you have any proof..like an old forum discussion that you can link? I suppose even conspiracy theorists are right sometime

I do but I am an English South African so my understanding of Afrikaans is better than how I speak it I've always wondered, does this make you feel a little bit like a foreigner in your native country? A good question but no it doesn't. English is considered the most important official language, we have 11 "official languages" in South Africa, so people need to communicate in English. There are certain communities that only speak and understand English

Nope, I'm afraid not, people are still disregarding their obvious wisdom. Thats an excellent article and summarizes exactly the situation in Crimea. Malc Russia won't change its direction around the Crimea despite the veracity of these words. This information just highlights the obvious contradictions in Putin's reason for the annexing of Crimea @ Zora Yes we know that some of the justification for the invasion of Iraq was false, but that has nothing to do with the majority of statements from the UK being accurate and valid. Like this article

When I say cardio I mean gym, I do an hour of cardio at the gym. Its interesting that at times you also lack energy for no obvious reasons

I have just finished AC3 and I enjoyed it. Its scores a well deserved 65/100 on the much respected " BruceVC gaming rating barometer" The game definitely grows on you, playing the first chapter as Nathan Kenway I thought "meh" but once that chapter ends and you realize who Kenway is the game starts developing into a very enjoyable gaming experience All AC games suffer from the same game design fault IMO, you can only do the same side missions for so long before they get boring. But then I just stick to the main mission and its fine. I also always appreciate the way Ubisoft designs there worlds, you always get the impression of this grand landscape that you can explore and adventure in And finally i enjoyed the Desmond story and how that narrative is unfolding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO5Kfst50v4 Guys I saw this on RPS, I have known about this game for a while. Its called Murdered: Soul Suspect, what do you think? I think it looks like its got huge potential and seems to have offer a truly unique story...its about a ghost trying to determine who killed him.

Sure, but then the argument could easily be for an evil character "I'll just let someone else fix this" ...there are other Grey Wardens and kingdoms that would more than likely join forces if there was a threat that really threatened the whole world?

Yes for me I think people want to play an overall evil character, not just the option to "slit the throats of bound qunari because they follow a different religion" ( some people would argue this isn't evil but rather following the doctrine of a religion) But I suppose this makes the game design difficult, because fundamentally an evil character wouldn't possibly care if a region is destroyed by some archdemon., so how would you motivate an evil character progressing on the main quest of an RPG....why would an evil character care what happens to some benevolent kingdom or village or group of peasants being bothered by orcs?

I just had an excellent cardio workout from an energy perspective, its weird as yesterday morning I did the exact same workout but during my training I lacked energy. What are the reasons I wonder that some days you just seem to go through your training regime easier than other days. Its not obvious to me because I did the exact same thing before the session, for example I didn't eat either day before my cardio I went to gym the same time ...7:30 am I had 2 cups of tea in the morning I had more or less the same amount of sleep the night before ...6 to 6.5 hours Any ideas?

That brings back some nostalgic memories for me. When I first played F:NV on the main quest I was down on ammunition and hunted by Deathclaws and trying to escape through the desert...desperate to find this haven called " New Vegas". I remember going over a hill, it was night, and there was the town in all its shimmering glory. I have never been so happy to see a friendly location in any game

Plus there's the fact that though the EU needs energy, energy is all Russia has to give, as attempts to diversify have largely fallen flat. Though the 30% of energy that usually comes from Russia lost will be quite a loss, (relatively) short term alternatives exist for the EU. Nice summary Ros. Here are links to the RTS, MICEX and the GDR (select the 1Y charts) http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/RTSI$:IND http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/INDEXCF:IND http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/RUS:IM Here's an interesting article about the Russian oil and gas industry. http://www.aei.org/outlook/foreign-and-defense-policy/regional/europe/the-political-economy-of-russian-oil-and-gas/ It does an excellent job of laying out exactly how dependent Russia's economy and budget are on sales to Europe. and just for grins: Caption: Your credit card has been blocked: to Putin holding packages labelled Crimea, Kharkiv and Donestsk (from Navalny web site) Informative links, I hope this puts to rest any further discussion that the Russian economy has been, and will continue to be, negatively impacted by the Crimean invasion. I don't want to mention any names (2133, Sarex, Oby and Valsuelm ) but the debate around the state of the Russian economy is not subjective. Its not like we need to discuss the reasons for Putin's drive for Russian hegemony. Living in a global and interconnected world the reality of any countries economy is easy to see and its irrefutable as we have facts through websites like Bloomberg who track movements of major stock indexes

If they picked an engine that can't support an IE style games plot, then Obsidian should be bludgeoned to death for their incompetence. Same goes with them re-writing the central plot at this stage in the game. It's supposed to be released by the end of the year. I've only been playing games and watching their development for 25 years or so...but I'm pretty sure that's not how this works. Writers are always the first to leave the project and move on to other projects. I just wanna know if that project is the expansion, or tanks... Granted, the leads (Josh included) are in a bit of a different situation, given that they are managing the project and helping with the implementation by the programmers, etc. But they have already said that they had writers under them for the sub-quests and didn't write the whole thing or all of the dialogue themselves. What you saying makes sense to me

That looks excellent, I can't wait

Bad as in "evil" or bad as in "harmful to you"? Bad as in evil young grasshopper, bad as in evil

Though I agree that in today's economy sanctions are going to hit everyone and not only the recipient, the links you posted don't really support what you are saying. Private rating agencies have a proven track record of inaccuracy with regards to their predictions and their credit ratings are rather laughable. The other link just tells the story of travel bans and asset freezes of some of Putin's collaborators. No hard economic figures anywhere. Heavily financialized economies such as the US are going to be more vulnerable to geopolitical instability, too. 2133 please don't be lazy, all you need to do is Google "Russian Index loses 20 %" or do some similar search. I can't spoon- feed you So what I'm saying is irrefutable fact, the Russian economy has suffered since the Crimean invasion for a variety of reasons, but suffering it still is

Meanwhile dear comrade Obama promise moar sanctions for god of sanction. Oby here are real facts that since Russia invaded Crimea the Russian economy has been badly effected... your credit ratings have tumbled,your main stock market index has fallen by roughly 20% and your currency has hit historic lows against the dollar. No matter what you pretend to believe whenever the West gets hit hard economically because of Crimea Russia gets hit twice as hard http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2014/03/20/sp-cuts-outlook-on-russia-to-negative/ http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/17/news/economy/russia-crimea-sanctions/index.html http://news.yahoo.com/fitch-downgrades-russia-outlook-negative-over-ukraine-crisis-064301757.html;_ylt=A0LEVx.mDCxTljwAMKVXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzbThmbm1hBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNARjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1NNRTM4OV8x

Yeah, I rather suspect he's of the opinion that whatever he says will be spun negatively in the west ("cat lovers disgusted at Putin's pro puppy stance") so he deliberately trolls for the visceral thrill of bunching morons panties, rather too many half smiles after saying something controversial for it to be coincidence. Indeed, one of his old advisors said that he basically does do it deliberately on Al-J. You guys need to realize that despite what you think the concept of Trolling is an Internet phenomena, don't mistake behavior on forums with behavior in RL. World leaders don't " Troll" they make strategic decisions that have real consequences in the best interests of there country

Yeah, the hardcore aim was ridiculous. Sitting at the very edge of my Dragunov's scope, barely able to make out enemies, crouched down and in partial cover, meanwhile they are hitting me with almost perfect accuracy with assault rifles. Keyrock you know what they say " a bad FPS player blames the AI of the enemy "

I'd say she already raised the awareness about this, simply due to the hateful and hysterical reaction she has received. I find it stunning that when I started interesting myself in video games, the branche was in it self progressive and innovative and so was the people associated with it and playing the games. Sometimes nerds, sometimes geeks, but usually fairly open minded and tolerant people. After having watched the backlash at Sarkessian's kickstarter campaign, I wondered: What the Hell happened? So, obviously, I started looking into what it was she was talking about, and thus became interested in the debate. So while I don't agree with her completely, she does raise some relevant points and the hysteria surrounding her campaign more or less proves her point. You've raised some good points, I have a similar story to you. I always use to be concerned about issues around social justice but I gave it only a cursory glance. I live in a country with a high level of violence against women and children so about 3-4 years ago I became involved in various campaigns where South Africans publicly reject this form of abuse This translated into looking at discrimination on the Internet and the whole issue around objectification of women in games became another focus point. Its real and does exist and of course there are different interpretations of it but as you mentioned you can see by the vitriol directed toward Sarkessian some of the challengers around this. Certain people become very angry around any perceived change to what they enjoy...even if that change doesn't effect there gaming experience

I do but I am an English South African so my understanding of Afrikaans is better than how I speak it

..you funny Meshugger

Nationalism is an ideology Bruce... and it's not why wars are fought in modern times. Anyone who thinks that buys into the manipulations and propaganda of those who are behind the war. I don't know if I agree to that definition...but I could be convinced? For me the Cold War was a war of ideology but for example the Bosnian War was about nationalism

There are exceptions to what I stated, hence me writing 'almost never' but they are rare in modern times, and absent from most if not all major conflicts western nations have been involved in. Ideology/religion have played almost no role in almost all wars in the last half century other than to galvanize some support amongst the masses. Most of the folks who are calling the shots in this world at this point really don't give a poop about the peasants and are motivated by greed and power, things such as ideologies and religion are just tools for them. Most of the exceptions to this can be found in Africa, but even there it's often outside interests (usually European) manipulating the locals in a divide and conquer fashion to gain access to resources. Nah, less wars in this modern age are about resources or resources is just part of the reason and a smaller part.