Drowsy Emperor

The thing with Steam is that its the absolute worst place to get new games. Yeah you get great discounts, 6 months, a year or even more down the road, but otherwise its horribly expensive. I could have preordered CoH2 for 30 euros retail or bought it on Steam for 60. The retail is still half the price of digital! We all want to get our hands on certain games the day they're released. So if MS implements a digital only service who's to say they won't price gouge for new games like Steam does? The current status quo is better for a gamer. At least a PC gamer. PC games are more affordable now than they've ever been. We need these people at each other throats to get the best deals. What we don't need is Microsoft with a vertical monopoly. Controlling the developers, being the publisher/sole seller and the hardware seller at the same time. Economic theory says that scenario would be cheaper for the consumer, but lets get real - the moment they control the whole process they can set the price to whatever they damn please.

Not likely. There was no one to back Libya which is why it fell so quickly, but Syria is of vital importance to Iran and to a lesser extent Russia and China. If it could have had its way the US would have already toppled Assad, its obviously not working out.

Because its not about Syria but about driving Russia, China and Iran out of the middle east. In the case of Iran its a win either way, because the US backed rebels win, Iran loses an ally and its borders are threatened, if they lose Iran still has to waste resources in that fight to reestablish its influence. Syria is just another battleground of even less importance than some other, recent ones. The EU is a joke, only the US can play that game with Russia/China/Iran, the EU countries know it which is why they don't dare act on their own, and the US knows it but it lets them on the boat so they can feel influential (and to use their resources in the fight obviously). Israel wants a more aggressive approach because they're interested in busting up Iran and their nuclear program but the US is hesitant to deploy troops because they're already weakening Iran and fulfilling their goals and there is little to gain from having US troops return in body bags in the process.

If any of them win we lose so I wouldn't rejoice just yet, if I was the pc gaming master race. I had great faith in Sony to back a few "artistic" projects like they did with Ueda's SoC back in the day, which really gave credit to the notion that console gaming has more potential to deliver a unique experience than its usually given. But that just didn't happen with the PS3. Even after so many years, truly great games on the PS3 are very few and the overall catalog diversity still is nowhere near the PS2. No Ueda game either. Still, I respect Sony more, because if you look at the XBox catalog for both XB consoles over the years, there is an overwhelming number of shooters relative to everything else. The north american audience has a much narrower taste on the whole and the developers are much less prone to experimentation than japanese ones, so my interests in the XBone were never high to begin with.

Played a bit of Devil May Cry on the PS2. I realized how much I suck with the gamepad. It takes 15 minutes for my thumbs to start hurting from these types of games and I'm not even playing all that well.

Don't you think your generalized opinion of the people who frequent BSN is a little insulting and fatuous? Tsk, tsk, Bruce... are you trying to out-troll the troll? Okay, I don't really get trolling when people do it. I generally believe people mean what they say when they post something so I respond accordingly. I need to work on that Oh I do mean it I just don't hold it against them. :D ^See what I did there. As for the half serious part of the discussion, people occasionally complain (me among them obviously) that Bioware does more to cater to particular niche groups than its core audience. Much of it is the result of aggressive lobbying on BSN forums that Bioware allows. The problem with minority groups is not in their otherwise legitimate claim for some features or others (like gay romance for example) its in the "holier than thou" attitude that is utterly hostile to any opposing opinion that shows up. Bioware employees back them in this regard openly on the forums leading to an unhealthy "only head nodding allowed" mentality. My way of expressing my opinions couldn't be described as mild, but I've seen respectful people on BSN terrorized by other forum goers for making "dissenting opinions" with the silent approval of BW staff and this soured the whole experience for me.

Don't you think your generalized opinion of the people who frequent BSN is a little insulting and fatuous? Tsk, tsk, Bruce... are you trying to out-troll the troll?

They have to be inclusive because..I guess those people can't step out of themselves or something. And it's great PR to do stuff like that - SJWs will flock to you. But anyway, not like he'll listen to your opinion - you're just some hate-filled, fascist Slav I'm just trolling him, he's beyond salvation anyway

I don't know about liberals but the core gamer demographic is still overwhelmingly male Having testicles is where all similarity ends, between a regular male and a BSN "male" forum goer. Go on, check it out. We'll see how long it'll take you to come back screaming for the Spanish inquisition.

Maybe, but if they were to drop the price of games they'd have to take it out of their own cut, and that's the only thing that makes a typical console profitable.

Microsoft sell something cheaply? Hihihihihihi

Sometimes its best not to open one's mouth. Although it does take thick skin to say DEAL WITH IT and attempt to sell another product at the same time.

I need 10c more on my debit card to buy the game. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

The Witcher franchise on 66% discount on Steam. There were better discounts on GoG along with the no DRM advantage but I haven't seen them in a while. I have the original box copy & GoG version, but I'm tempted to buy the second one on Steam...

Isabela is created as a juxtaposition. Her appearance is meant to illicit a stereotypical reaction. The thing about Isabela, however, is that her presence in the game is much more about female empowerment than female fan service. In fact, she's utilized in a variety of ways to throw the gamer off kilter somewhat. If you listen to Isabela's conversations, she is very much about empowering not only herself, but the other females of the group. She recognizes Merril's naivety, and takes her under her wing. Her and Aveline don't get along at all, but in the end she's still about smacking sense into Aveline for some of the absurd preconceptions and reservations that she has - and does so in her decidedly crude and Isabela sort of way. Yes Isabela fits a common trope, but her creation was done so in a way to challenge the stereotype, as opposed to simply being an attractive woman that exists solely to serve male love interests. She initially rejects Hawke, and ultimately isn't actually interested in any sort of maturing, serious relationship unless you happen to be rivals with her, a position that many gamers are unwilling to take (especially since most assumed Rivalry = bad). In my anecdotal experience, Isabela is typically a character that resonates quite strongly with female gamers actually. First impressions were typically not very favourable, but I think that is why many ended up really enjoying her as a character. At least in the discussions I have had. /shrug That said, I actually agree that BioWare can make much bigger steps in this direction and I hope they continue to do so. I don't doubt that Isabela was used in marketing because of her appearance rather than her character, and stuff like that is much less interesting and I'd like to see us be more bold in the ways that we approach appearance and marketing, rather than falling on the safe and easy tropes. So its true, you are purposefully making games for the gay/liberal/feminist/hipster crowd. And here I thought it was a sort of subconscious thing that worms itself in through no fault of your own, how naive of me. By all means, empower away. But you could also try writing some normal lines for your protagonists, something between the usual soft spoken ass kisser/child murderer. You know, so that the rest of us playing the game get to feel empowered too.

That has been thrown around so often that people actually believe it. the scenes are in the book. But they are part of thousand pags long books. In that they carry far less weight than they do when they are put in tv episodes and suddenly have a far greater relative length to the rest content. The failing here is that of the HBO audience who thinks that to prove how progressive they are, they need porn in their normal tv shows. Well that's what I said - they are in the books, but sure they're disproportional compared to the rest of the content in the tv show. That's typical HBO **** and gibs policy. A bit of realism served the Wire well. I think it was well integrated in the theme. But from that point on, (or even before, I don't know) its become a feature of all HBO shows. Its the same drop in standards that happened when reality shows came about, a new low to titillate the crowds. The irony is that they're calling it progressive. From a western where a man keels over when shot to zoomed in stabbings of pregnant women in less than 50 years - yay for progress.

The PC crowd just has better friends.

I don't follow. They released it to the press, so effectively, everyone in the world. Can you expand your thoughts on this? He was saying they should have blown the whistle responsibly to institutions within the system. I'm saying they were aware of these institutions and chose ignore them, and asking why they did so. One possible answer is that they're after fame, something that's commonly said about Assange. But that doesn't make sense considering the risk of it all. The other answer is that they didn't trust the system to work as it should so they went around it. And it turns out that Manning's presumption wasn't wrong - the soldiers that shot up the reporters and civilians were later acquitted or never in fact charged. He's basically saying they should follow procedure instead of their own feelings, because unlike them, he isn't disillusioned. Is it a "responsible" act to dump sensitive information for all to see? No. But if you think that's the only way to get it out in the open, at personal cost, well that's what the word "responsible" means.

I agree actually. Most of the failings of the tv show (the pornographic display of violence and well, regular softcore pornography) are Martin's failings. Some of the characters are far more watchable in the show. Many completely unnecessary scenes have been removed much to the benefit of the overall plot progression. Its a rare moment that filmed material trumps any book, but this definitely is one of them.

For those that need proof of something so evident. So what you do is you speak to the boss two layers up, or you speak to another government department, or you speak to a member of Parliament from an opposition party in a relevant area. What you don't know is skip off to the nearest internet portal and datadump everything you know into the laps of every man and his dog. This isn't the wise musings of Walsingham. We got told this in the _first week_ of my military training. At some length. With examples. Go up the chain, unless you think it's broken, then jump the broken links. I have to say that I think your suspicion of modern democratic government say more about your own poorly veiled agendas and hatreds than it does about government. And I have to say that your lack of suspicion is utterly unsurprising coming from someone who constantly stresses his military experience, admiration for armed forces and advises obedience to authority and "proper procedure" at every turn. Just because you have been drilled to think in a particular way doesn't make everyone else fools, "goddamn hippies", extremists and haters. I seriously doubt Manning and Snowden are either after fame and personal exposure, or so stupid as to not be aware of political circles they could have brought their story to. Yet they chose not to. Do tell me why?

Gaming hipsters play obscure indie side-scrollers and look for the meta-narrative in Bioshock Infinite. Although they don't really remember the 80's they are convinced that it's kewl to like games that look like ****e. Gaming hipsters White Knight on the internet and think that liking breasts is a sign of Taliban-esque oppression. Gaming hipsters try to shoehorn their inner geek into a pair of vintage trainers and a stupid haircut. Gaming hipsters like ultra-niche anime, the ones that don't objectify women (although they secretly like tentacle porn). I hope this helps.

Why is being remembered - even in a negative connotation - considered a positive? It's redicolous. Being average is definately better than being bad (and DA2 was average overall) Bad games can be amusing, like a bad movie. Average games are irritating because of the unfulfilled potential. Of course, as the lawyer said, YMMV.

I think this is, from my subjective point of view, the most accurate review I've seen of the game. That's even worse than a game being branded as bad. At least a bad game you're likely to remember.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/10/whistleblowers-snowden-truth-sets-free Ex MI5 officer For those that need proof of something so evident.

Which is typical GW behaviour. True. They're as dumb as a rock in the world of gaming. I think a good WH40K game is made in spite of them. Proof = Starcraft.