Drowsy Emperor

The Descendants. Okay drama, nothing special.

Katamary Damacy. Silly game but it grows on you.

A clarification. Users on metacritic are saying the game is crap for various reasons but no one (in about 30 scanned through reviews) is mentioning the gay romances. Articles citing gay romance as the reasons for the game's low score are more or less completely false. In fact, if the game is as bad as they're saying its just an excuse.

Of course Bioware gets ridiculed, its completely impervious to constructive criticism unless it consists of 75% brown nosing, 10% nodding and 15% clapping at their poor design choices and false advertising. Because you know, the dialogue wheel is so innovative. Strictly against bullying and opposing views.

Ahahahahahhahahahahah, poor Ashley. Mark my words people: You will be nostalgic for daddy issues and gay sex come the next franchise.

Then don't play it. The whole AC series is juvenile crap anyway.

Looks bad but I'd still play it. We need more giant robots.

Happy birthday!

Regardless, nothing in today's China was created in a vacuum - not even the PRC (which has changed a lot during its existence). There may not be direct continuity between the many empires that existed on Chinese soil but there definitely is a Chinese volksgeist that encompasses how they do things (including the government/military you mention) and they're entitled to it, just as much as everyone else. I don't see why they need to conform to our expectations or rules, written by European nations or US ages ago, for their own use. Besides, there is the simple truth that not all people want democracy or human rights. as seen by the West and that those are not timeless, universal values no matter how much you'd like to present them as such. Anyway, why don't you just stop trading if they're so bad?

I suppose the Chinese simply have to add a couple thousand more years to their civilization to get some respect, huh 4000 is simply not enough to catch up with US & UK's epic level morality

I want to play the Journey badly, but I don't know anyone with a PS3 I could hog for the 3 hours the game lasts.

And how hard is it to get thrown out of regular schools (and what are the most common reasons?)?

Wrong Gore. Those movies were directed by Gore Verbinski. That's right, my bad. Dunno why Vidal was on my mind.

So it is, in most things except in name a juvenile detention facility?

Rango and Hugo. Both are homages to films and both are okay movies. Rango has the same gripe I had with Vidal's Pirates of the Carribean: both have good ideas but they overstay their welcome. No matter how good the gags are they should have cut it down to a proper 90 minutes instead of including boring chase scenes and unnecessary plot twists. Hugo has a similar problem. It starts as an adventure mystery, but half an hour in it turns into a Melies homage spun into a stereotypical "kid saves the day" tale. Which is a pity because Melies really had a very interesting life to start with. On top of that it has a hugely annoying colour palette, the entire movie being coloured in orange and blue that screams "faaaaake!" in every scene, and the emphasized colours actually make it hard to see what's going on in the background sometimes. To Scorsese: Just because you can abuse just about every segment of the film in post production doesn't mean you should do it. 7/10 for both.

You know if you are getting into the Horror genre and don't mind graphics I would recommend the Parasite Eve series (specially 2) if you haven't played it already. Horror/Survival with RPG mechanics, why aren't there more games like that? It doesn't look too bad, I'll be sure to give it a spin.

Finished Silent Hill 2. Pretty good overall. I think I'll move onto Fatal Frame series now, recommendations for Silent Hill 3 and 4 are mixed at best.

Finishing Silent Hill 2. Overall, its not a very good game but its a unique, mature (for a game) experience. I like it.

The whole story is bizarre but if its true I wonder what the actual reasons are.

WikiLeaks emails suggest Bin Laden corpse

A conspiracy theory: the rich 1% want the the republicans to lose this election to keep social peace. As unpopular as Obama is now he's still a black president thus (in practice) representing the large non white American population - advocating (although not really going through with) a more lenient social policy. With the economy being what it is the traditional republican policies of favouring the rich and the rhetoric that goes with it might create more problems than necessary. So, the republicans drag out some of the worst loonies they've got and hand Obama another term. At the same time the 1% rub their palms as they have the perfect plebs representing president (who's growing a bit stale now) dangling policies in front of the masses he's never going to implement, while they get rich, rich, rich!

Silent Hill 2. So far so good. I certainly prefer psychological horror to Resident Evil's "boo!" scares.

I wish mine were a book reading generation. This really says more about the decline of sci-fi as a genre than it does about mass effect. Films are made and books are published but its all weak and dependent on old glory (just like ME, although it is a homage of sorts so that gets it a free pass). When the space race optimism in Odyssey 2001 and anti-utopian pessimism of Blade Runner had run their course, sci fi was basically finished. With the end of the cold war ideologies lost their draw and serious projections of a future society died with them. The dominant, unspoken illusion now is that we live in the best possible society so we don't need imaginary futures any more. Sci-fi kicked the bucket and fantasy stepped in its shoes (the success of LotR, Harry P, Twilight). Sadly fantasy is in every possible way, a step backwards, mostly a collection of fairy tales for grownups (isn't it obvious how many fantasy novels are instant bestsellers now, but how sci-fi is nowhere to be found?). But that's exactly what people like the one that wrote the article need, a toy to be dangled in front of their noses, to fill their empty minds and imaginations. Because thinking and any sort of cerebral experience is so out of fashion. Transhumanists are trying to pick up sci-fi but they have little new to offer and its mostly packaged in the obsolete idea of unconditional faith in the power of science to set everything right. PS: The article is ridiculous on so many levels its not even worth exploring. In happier times people would be fired after writing this sort of garbage.

I think the reason the US has such high stats of mental illness is because every other thing is classified as an illness. I mean, a kid that can't pay attention or sit still is mentally ill? That would put half my primary school on meds. Shrinks invent illnesses, the industry supplies the meds and everyone is happily doped up, social peace 100% guaranteed.

The entire conception of the game goes far beyond "some cool flavor text". Basically every idea that sci fi put forth is there in some way or another and it works as a cohesive whole. The factions are more or less accurate portrayals of major 20th century ideologies and have wildly different strategies. The ability to cutomize your own units is beyond cool - no more of that my zulu against your tank crap. The secret projects are great and the actual story has a nice satisfying conclusion. The best of all is social engineering, where you get to really flesh out your society.