Drowsy Emperor

OMG

You're still stuck in the 90's "end of history" Fukuyama thinking. That period is gone. BBC and the more sophisticated British media are masters at presenting biased news as impartial although with enough experience picking up the agenda behind the news becomes easier. Russia Today seems so biased to you because you're not used to hearing anyone's viewpoint other than your own media, which is in anything pertaining international relations usually in total collusion with state politics.

Its a really really good casual RPG. I played 10 hours straight yesterday and I enjoyed every minute of it. The combat isn't my cup of tea but it serves the game well. The quests are standard fetch and scavenger hunt fare, but since the city is so much fun to explore it doesn't really matter.

@Bryy I don't have an argument, I don't care one bit for the whole discussion. I've never a person who does and that includes the few gamer girls that I know. If you have no cause in your life to rally around apart from witch-hunting in a very transitory medium that predominantly caters to teenagers, then your life is in serious trouble bro. ...Volo the voice of reason, now I've seen it all.

"For what it is"? That strongly implies some sort of unstated corollary like "I like it in terms of **** standards, this is premium fecal matter, as feces go." Anyway... Finished B:I Burial at Sea ep. 2. Quite good overall, although it was clear that the connections between it and the original game were just made up on the spot, the idolization of Bioshock's faceless protagonist was just weird. The ending totally clashed with the established paradigm of infinite parallel universes. "For what it is" means that I don't accept it as a game because its not - its an interactive movie masquerading as a game. But its got good characters and it drew me in so I can't slam it for that (too much).

**** you. Guess that one

Some people take the medium too seriously. I say that one can never have enough **** and ass.

The Stick of Truth and I love it so far. The graphics are a major success, its like watching an episode of the show.

I think it looks nice. There definitely is a bit of hype train going there though. Independence War 2 pretty much ruined Wing Commander type gameplay for me. That game was almost perfect. But I'll play this regardless. If they don't jack the sys req up too much. Based on appearance only the game shouldn't be all that demanding.

Only that's not at all what's being suggested in this thread. I'm curious, why do people insist on putting stock on what official and mainstream sources say, by default, without any sort of critical review or personal fact checking, when said sources have been known to stretch the truth, misrepresent, make mistakes and outright lie in the past. I suspect this is related to the theorised innate psychological vulnerability of people to authority figures, but there has to be more to it than that. Because you seem to lack any "critical review or personal fact checking" leaning on official and mainstream Russian nationalized news, which has proven track record of completely slanted propaganda reportage according to a script provided by the Kremlin. While dismissing every other source as biased. You guys are like a religious people on an atheist board, who suffer from major cognitive dissonance and lacking any proof to validate their system of belief they lash at foundations of the "other side" trying to diminish it or de-legitimize it so they can feel like they are both on similar footing. Similarly here, you started by attacking the "west", the "western media", trying to claim that Russian nationalized state media instead of providing one sided regulated POV is more open and diverse then the media across the "westren" world. Then you tried to deflect from Russian actions with apple and orange scenarios (which to you feel the same), trying to blame the west for the situation, legitimize it by claiming that its better off this way, had a little streak of Russian super power national hard on, and defaulting to internet conspiracy crap. Because :/ I suppose you feel that if you can google some crap to support your argument your are still in the game or by dismiss this whole thing is our mental issues due to some aversion from authority figures it sits well with you or something of the sort .. And BBC and CNN have a track record of unbiased journalism. LOL

I don't understand what the guy's case is, from what I understand he let his cattle graze on federal land and didn't pay the tax for it.

Watching the danish TV show "The Killing". Enjoying it quite a bit so far, though I think they drew it out a tad.

Don't be a dunce, its natural that some of the soldiers remained allied to Kiev and had to be forced out. This is the real world, not Kim Jong Un's election by 101% votes in favor. The fact is that the intervention had an overwhelming support in the populace and most of the Crimean forces defected. If it did not, they would have fought or rioted. No one did because the majority finds the government in Kiev detestable. Not to mention that Russians are willing to pour much more money into Crimea for salaries and pensions than Kiev ever could. Oh and they didn't fight a battle of "non-violent resistance" they just weren't able to use violence, although the leaked Timoshenko call made it clear she at least wanted to. They went through with full military mobilization and found (unsurprisingly) that no one wanted to fight. They sent armed men to Crimea that were intercepted by Russian checkpoints. Finally, someone sat down in Kiev and explained to the pawns in office that most of their army exists on paper only. So they folded and gave up. Get your facts straight.

I don't know what the west expected to happen in Crimea, apart from using it now for anti-russian propaganda. The overwhelming majority of the people living there identify themselves as Russians and want to live in Russia. Crimea has long been a part of Russian history, but only a few decades in Ukraine and that only because Khrushchev had a guilty conscience and not due to any natural development. The likelihood of its defection to RF, considering the Russian military presence there was 99.9%. Ukraine's control over that territory post USSR break up was questionable at best. I honestly did not expect the Russians to integrate Crimea so quickly because they always had over a million votes there for any candidate they chose in Ukrainian elections. The fact that they did intervene speaks of how threatened they feel. I feel sorry for the Ukrainian people, they swallowed the EU mantra hook line and sinker. They're never going to be a part of EU but they're going to be plundered now down to the last plot of land or piece of industry they have.

I posted a link to that a while back. The gameplay looks boring but the art direction is superb.

Dunno, I liked ME2 more than I did ME1. Never played the third one.

The Walking Dead season 1. I like this game for what it is. I could never enjoy gameplay so streamlined in the long run though. I also feel that some of the situations are contrived.

Much of what is happening is out in the open for the more informed reader, I don't see a conspiracy in it. Political interests are part covert and denying their existence just because you couldn't prove your case in a court of law is senseless - much of what happens in international relations can't be proven in the legalistic sense without access to classified information. That doesn't make it any less obvious. If the talk of the Ukraine crisis shifts from "people yearning for freedom on the Maidan" to US-RF showdown in a day, you can pretty much be sure it was a showdown all along. The various leaked phone calls that no one really bothered to deny pretty much exposed what is going on behind the scene. I do wonder where the Russians are going with this though. The people in eastern Ukraine are counting on their support, if the revolutionary government in Kiev starts using violence, which it will - they'll have to intervene. And that could directly lead to war. On the other hand, if they don't intervene those regions will be crushed and their doors to further influence the way this is going will close.

Back on topic. The environment graphics look really nice but the reddish brown color palette that Bioware is insisting on for some reason is still present. Some of the models are really crude too. But it does look much better than DAO and DA2. I still think the overall art direction of this series is poor considering how good Mass Effect was in that regard.

All the discussion regarding RF armed forces is armchair generalissimo nonsense with the nuclear armament that's in play. It doesn't matter how good they are, it only matters how good they are relative to the other forces in the region. And apart from China, they could easily win a war with anyone else if it were really necessary. Except its not and there's not going to be a war because no-one wants 7000+ nuclear warheads aimed at them. Besides, all that the US is doing is posturing. They're not really going to fight for Ukraine and everyone knows it. Why would they? Its just another piece of territory in the RF NATO struggle and not a critical one at that (for the US).

Is this a joke? The opposition forces signed a deal with Yanukovich which the EU brokered and then broke it, literally 15 minutes later, the ink on the signatures didn't even have time to dry. Are those the sort of people one can trust? Of course, that all based on the wrong presumption that they're actually choosing anything themselves when all they do is take their orders from Washingon and EU. Naturally Russia isn't going to sit idly by an let Ukraine be removed from its sphere of influence, because even half of Ukraine is better than no Ukraine. They're between a rock and a hard place. The revolution sets the stage for the acceptance of Ukraine into NATO which means that the missiles the US wants to place to threaten Russia can be placed close enough to render the Russian response system meaningless. Its like a prelude to a Cuban crisis. So they had to do something drastic and they're doing it. The EU/Washington is wholly to blame. When Yanukovich accepted Moscow's bailout deal they immediately organized a coup to bring him down. Washington doesn't accept the existence of Russian interests anywhere in eastern europe and does everything to push NATO ever more eastwards right up to Russia's borders. Europeans, in their infinite stupidity are playing along and antagonizing Russia for the sake of the US even though they themselves have no conflict with Russia, which isn't threatening them in any way. In fact what Washington and London fear most of all is the possibility of a tight alliance between Germany and Russia, so this whole crisis has the added benefit of souring the relations between the two countries. A serious German-Russian business and political alliance would throw the continent right out of US dominion.

No.

Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge God they knew how to make fun strategy back then

Leave Volo alone, he thinks the JRPG is the "traditional japanese type", probably made by the samurai on Mt. Fuji. Where they got wizards with pointy hats and knights in medieval armor is totally unimportant.

I was stuck using a netbook as my primary PC, seeing as how it can't even get a decent frame rate in Counter Strike there wasn't any point participating in a gaming forum, when I, uhh, don't... game. I'm still on the netbook but in a few days a new laptop should arrive and I'll finally have something to waste my time properly on. Its good to see you too Bruce. This place is oddly appealing, its the only forum I still frequent. None of the "we forgot to take our medication" Bioware network crowd here, thank god.