Drowsy Emperor

Hitler is long dead. It's time to reclaim the symbols that his regime perverted instead of engaging in Politically Correct self-flagellation. Go, Finland! No. Just no. Hitler was a gigantic monster, and the swastika is a symbol of that. It should continue to remind us of how important it is to be vigilant against evil. You also still have extremist groups using it to spread their hateful messages. Political correctness has nothing to do with it. If there was some big Buddhist movement to reclaim the symbol, I might get behind that. But I doubt you are Buddhist. Its also used in Hinduism, IIRC. And of course was a symbol of good luck in the west up to the adoption by the Nazi party, first use documented in Greece IIRC in the 8th century . Amazing how easily a symbol can be perverted in many ways. And a tile design in Roman houses. History has a sense of humor too.

I played through the first 3 missions of XCOM: Enemy Unknown While I'm still inclined to like the game (so far) its not making the best first impression. The technical issues: 1. There are a lot of scenes zooming in to very low resolution textures. We're talking about Half Life 1 type textures. 2. The facial animations and facial renderings are quite average Gameplay issues: 1. Arbitrary cover. Only two types without clear benefits. I never know exactly how good my chances are of not getting hit. 2. Linear missions on small maps. 3. Inability to use strategy because the game forces you to stumble around until the aliens show up. 4. Limited tactics when they do show up. Shoot, Grenade, Flank, take cover - rinse, repeat. 4. Limited equipment options. I had a man bleed to death because I chose to take a grenade instead of a medpack (why do I even have to choose?) Sid Meier once said that what makes strategy games enjoyable is "interesting choices". So far, there were none to be made. Every mission consisted of going from cover to cover (stumbling blindly really) and waiting for the aliens to show up. There is no way to really exploit positioning or surprise - a key feature in any small unit tactics game - its technically completely irrelevant where your men are in a firefight as long as they're in one of two locations - half shield/full shield. Full shield locations are scarce and often destructible, so most of the time you're not able to stack the odds meaningfully in your favor, which is the whole purpose of tactics and strategy.

Dunno, but its all the same game and they come out so frequently I don't know how come people get excited over it again and again. I stopped playing them with World at War.

Done with my SMAC game. Sister Miriam of the Believers has achieved conquest victory! Santiago and Lal were really obstinate, I had to fight them down to one base each, so I ended up with 30+ bases. I was gunning for a diplomatic victory but the appropriate tech wasn't discovered by the time Lal surrendered. Santiago could have had me there because she got her hands on needlejet technology. Luckily for me she only ever built one or two before I took over. 213% AC Rating

Seriously, I'm salivating. I want to play this so bad

Why won't they TAKE ALL MY MONEEEY. I like it. The terrain is a bit rough, but everything else is spot on. The premise is cool as well.

If you're really willing to get into some advanced strategies look up Velocyrix's guide on GameFAQ's. My game as Sister Miriam is proceeding well. I'm currently at war with both of the remaining factions, but the war with Lal is really a standstill because he's impotent and because I don't have enough troops to fight him with on that continent. Also he hasn't terraformed anything so I'm fighting the mindworms more than I'm fighting him. On the other hand, the war with Santiago is proceeding fine. She's going to be a tough cookie, all her troops are elite and she's got missile tech, but without orbital spaceflight thankfully. My commando gatling rovers are charging through Santiago's continent, so at least the fight isn't hampering my economy on on my territory. I've got both Deirdre and Zakharov researching for me so they should come up with Orbital Spaceflight before Santiago does.

Sure but now that its a problem, everyone is frothing at the mouth at the mere mention of a crackdown on immigration. Its crossed over from pragmatism (if it ever was truly pragmatic) to religious fervor in the span of a single generation. And because no one is willing to give way the keg of powder remains lit. I used to be a thorough leftist once but the way today's left (which isn't really left anymore, more of a centre liberalism with a few remnants of welfare state) solves problems by throwing money at them - I don't think its going to work I know its not going to work. Serbia is not a target for immigration due to low job opportunities but we get the worst of both worlds as a transit route. We intercept the illegal immigrants, but can't deport them back (because certain EU states are wringing arms on this issue and because their home countries don't want them back) - and they're piling up in the single center we have for this purposes. A couple of thousand of them... in a town of two thousand inhabitants. Loitering around without a job around street corners, in a country with an above 30% unemployment rate without any prospects for a job.

Nah, its all in the game.

Yes, for disaster, if I take Sister Miriam and we start on the same continent. We should play a multiplayer game some time, against the AI or something.

I think CoD is dead in the next gen. That franchise is so already so spent its not even funny.

And all that just so you can then play a game that's boring compared to AC :/ Well, considering I paid about 3$ for it I won't be sticking around in an attempt to get my money's worth out of it if its as boring as you say it is. I will, however nag them until I get the game I paid for Currently I'm really itching to play XCOM, not Civ V, but I need to study for exams - can't exactly bull**** my way through professors with my amazing gaming-fu.

...Waiting for 2K support to send me the proper cdkey. The bundle I bought on amazon activated Civ V instead of Civ V Gold. Amazon support sent me to 2K, and now 2K is having me send in screenshots of this correspondence while not making any promises to solve the problem.

The obvious question that presents itself is why so many unqualified workers were let in in the first place. Every government has all the relevant statistics for the job market, and knows approximately how many low income workers can be absorbed and what its needs are. Somewhere in all that someone must have seen how this was going to end up.

The stigma associated with genocide goes far beyond reparations. Fifty years after WWII and Germany still can't wash out the blame for Nazism. The Turks will fight tooth and nail not to accept responsibility for it, its practically been the state policy of every government Turkey's had. Turkey, like Croatia in WWII, got off easily because the focus was elsewhere in both post-war situations.

^That was helpful, I could have read a dozen articles and I'd still know less about what was going on. The inability of politicians to admit they're wrong will be our undoing.

Wouldn't put it past them, the bastards.

It'll be telling when everyone receives advertisements for lube.

I wouldn't say so and I'm an immigrant. There are some real ****heads that should be deported asap. Instead we decide to deport people that actually want to work. Three friends of mine were deported. They all had crap jobs, working 10-12 hour shifts just to be able to live here. Good enough? Nope. Let's bring in people that only get here because they know they'll get money even if they don't work. I was of course, being sarcastic. I know. The funny thing that there are people blaming them. They're a convenient scapegoat. Its easier to lay down the blame on a dozen skinheads (whom everyone hates and is apt to believe anything that they're blamed for) than admit every single policy and the entire ideology behind it - for god knows how many years was wrong and misguided.

I haven't read the thread, but I felt that I had to respond to this. I have nothing against Muslims in general. I have Muslim friends, I work with Muslim kids and I like them. But, I will always have a problem with Muslims like these. I come from a village that was almost wiped out by Muslims on several occasions. I guess you have read about what the Turks did with the Armenians and Assyrians? We migrated to Sweden because we simply couldn't live in our country simply for not being Muslims. Both countries we lived in had the same problem. When I see stuff like this, it reminds me of my family's past. We came to Sweden with barely nothing. My parents had to work their asses of to make it over here. I can tell you from personal experience that what you saw there is a regular thing in the Middle East. My friends' cousin was beheaded because he's not a Muslim. His head was delivered to his parents house. Tell me that isn't ****ed up. We got away from that **** and now it is following us to Europe. I don't mind living with Muslims, what scares me are the fundamentalists that want US to change. When I condemn these people and the way I do it, I think I have some God damn valid ground to do so. Yeah I always say that Serbia got the short end of the stick but what the Turks did to the Armenians at the beginning of the twentieth century and during WW1 is unspeakable holocaust level mass extermination: mass burnings, drownings, poisonings, deliberate typhoid infection, deportations, death marches, extermination camps - there was no crime that wasn't committed. And its rarely spoken of because Turkey is an important NATO member and has strong lobbying groups systematically quashing the issue at every turn.

I wouldn't say so and I'm an immigrant. There are some real ****heads that should be deported asap. Instead we decide to deport people that actually want to work. Three friends of mine were deported. They all had crap jobs, working 10-12 hour shifts just to be able to live here. Good enough? Nope. Let's bring in people that only get here because they know they'll get money even if they don't work. I was of course, being sarcastic.

Its been hard times since the BG2 cameo Drudanae. Unemployment, crack...

No, the evil far right nationalists are to blame. Right?

The media are partly to blame, they've been covering the story too aggressively. If you don't want to provoke a reaction don't post it all over the news all day long. No comment on the RAF thing. Its so stupid I don't know what to make of it.