Keyrock

So the next logical step is Microsoft buying the Alpha Protocol IP from SEGA and funding the sequel that EVERYBODY wants, right?

Roundabout

Since I got Roundabout free on PS Plus, I decided to give it a try. The gameplay is, alright, I guess. I'm in it for the FMV scenes, which, so far, are just as cheesy as I was hoping they would be.

This sounds like the age old tradition of "I didn't like the conclusion of the study so run another study until you get me the conclusion I'm looking for." Classic.

Now I have this picture in my mind of Canada as a totalitarian state where all citizens are mandated to listen to a certain amount of Rush per day. I'm picturing police officers in Judge Dredd-esque armor breaking into suspected non-listeners' homes blasting Rush's Freewill (for irony purposes). It could be worse, you could be forced to listen to Celine Dion. On a serious note, one of the benefits of driving a truck for a living, especially now that I'm driving solo, is having full control of the music I listen to, which comes down to whichever of the 14 different Pandora stations I made I'm in the mood for. In previous jobs any music I got to listen to often came down to radio stations playing the same 6 popular flavor of the month songs over and over again. The amount of Cardi B and DJ Khaled I was subjected to back then... /shudders Those were dark times.

Dem's fightin' words! If it's Geddy Lee's vocals that put you off, Rush has a lot more AMAZING instrumentals besides YYZ (which is AMAZEBALLS BTW). Here's 3 nerdy as **** Canadians playing La Villa Strangiato for your listening pleasure: You know, I never got all the hate Rush got back in the day because I didn't start listening to them because of the great, but nevertheless overplayed as ****, radio hits such as Tom Sawyer, Limelight, Spirit of Radio, etc., I got into Rush because of their mid 70s Prog epics which you never hear on the radio because 10 to 20 minute long songs don't fit radio format. Also, 70's Neil Peart had a super manly mustache. How can you hate a man with a mustache that manly?

Speaking of trios of amazing musicians:

I should probably hate Canada for inflicting Nickelback and Justin Bieber on the world, but then I just listen to Rush again and all is forgiven. The lesson here; you can erase all the bad will from inflicting numerous terrible artists on the world with just a single OH MY ****ING GOD THESE GUYS ARE AMAZING artist.

I'm sure you're referring to Black Hole. Yeah, that ability is hilariously OP. I LOVE IT. I suffered so much in the early game that once I got my Psi Amp and discovered Black Hole I went mad with power and started exacting vengeance everywhere I went. Edit: If any of the other PB games are anything to go by, you're going to be essentially a God of Destruction in late game no matter what you chose. Heck, I chose the super underpowered voodoo over the ridiculously OP muskets in Risen 2, and I was still obliterating enemies in late game. Edit 2: Again, that's what I love about PB games. Because there is no level scaling and zero hand holding there is a very real struggle early on, one that may make some people quit, but if you push through that you can feel yourself grow so much stronger and being able to smash once seemingly impossible (nothing is ever truly impossible in PB games, even at lev 1) foes feels so good because you went through the struggle, because the enemies were not scaled to your level and you were frail and pathetic and afraid, rather than always somewhat evenly matched.

Joining the crazed cultists was the biggest power spike I have experienced in the game thus far. The only benefit I can think of for waiting is to get the practitioner skill so that you get slightly more exp from joining. Otherwise, or if you already have the skill (or an item that gives it) just join ASAP. In my game I'm lev 27 now and I'm 5 points in Int and 5 points in Dex away from being able to use The Redeemer, which is a pretty great plasma rifle. Once I can use that bad boy I'm murderating everyone that stands in my way. WAHAHAHAHAHA! Edit: I also love how Nasty ****s all over any town that's not The Fort whenever we travel there together and I pretty much always travel with Nasty, because Nasty best girl.

You can still do all the basic quests for other factions. Joining a faction locks you out of doing higher tier quests for other faction (i.e. the quests you would get only after joining said faction) but it doesn't lock you out of doing basic quests that you can do without joining. Once you figure out which faction you want to join just go for it. So they other settlements won't become hostile toward me if I join a faction? It won't turn into the "kill on sight" thing where if I join the Clerics, every Outlaw in the city will attack me? Nah. You'll get the occasional "Oh, you joined Faction X. That's a... choice, I guess." from a member of Faction Y or Faction Z but you can still come into their town and do business and stuff. There may be an odd character here and there that will refuse to do business with you because you chose Not Their Faction, but nothing major. I'm a Crazed Cultist and I go into Tree Hugger Town and Junkieville all the time.

You can still do all the basic quests for other factions. Joining a faction locks you out of doing higher tier quests for other faction (i.e. the quests you would get only after joining said faction) but it doesn't lock you out of doing basic quests that you can do without joining. Once you figure out which faction you want to join just go for it.

Yeah, GhostofAnakin, you're going to do a lot more things where you "take a side in the Abessa conflict" so I wouldn't get too worked up about any 1 choice.

^ I know you were being sarcastic, Mannock, it was more of a general question. I mean, I know those shows with the blowhards are popular, but I figure that most people watch them because they find those guys entertaining, in the same way a person might find a clown entertaining, because they act stupid, and they're silly and funny... And kinda creepy and scary and OH GOD I HOPE THEY DON'T MURDER ME. I wonder if there are actually people out there watching Skip Bayless for expert insight?

Hot Taek: I think Starship Troopers is a better satire on Nazi propaganda than WH40K. /hides

Some of Starcraft is essentially copy pasta'd from WH40K. Terrans are Space Marines. Protoss are Eldar. Zerg are Tyranids.

I just realized that the Return of the Obra Dinn came out a while back. For those unfamiliar, it's from the maker of Papers Please, and is also getting rave reviews like that game. Sadly, no Linux version yet, though Papers Please eventually came to Linux, and there's always Steam Play, so I'm hopeful. If and when it does come to Linux I'm all over it. It's a mystery puzzle game that's all about deduction and paying attention to details. That's squarely in my wheelhouse. Anyone here play it yet?

Did you just assume that adaptor's gender?

The big power spike is joining a faction. I don't know about the tree huggers or junkies, but when I joined the crazed cultists I gained 2 or 3 levels, got decent torso armor, and my choice of psi amp or psi thrower. I chose the amp since it has the amazingly OP black hole ability. That took me from I'm scared of everybody to killing low level stuff easily and being able to fight med level stuff if careful. Having a companion also helps a lot, if only because they can take aggro off you. I'm lev 26 now and there are very few enemies I still fear. I straight up obliterate most baddies.

Are there people out there that actually take blowhards like Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith seriously? :confused:

Was the bartender arrested for playing Xmas music before Thanksgiving? She should have been. That's a crime against humanity.

With the season effectively over for muh Boys, I'm actively rooting for them to lose all remaining games, or how ever many it takes to get Jason Garrett fired. No guarantee his successor will be any better, but he can't possibly be any worse of a coach.

This time of year the ads on pretty much any media are 100% political ads. So I was watching Super Animoo Fighters on YouTube (don't judge me) while at a truck stop, parked for the night, and an ad comes on and it says (I'm paraphrasing here) "Senator Bill Nelson is a terrific senator and a family man. He's been doing a great job and the Miami Herald declared him the greatest senator that ever served." 10 minutes later. "Senator Bill Nelson is a greedy scumbag. He steals money from you, hates babies, and he once kicked a puppy."

It's doable. I reached the Hort, the Fort, and the Domed City all on foot while a pathetic weakling. Granted, it took a lot of deaths and a lot of save scumming. There is a roaming patrol of Crazed Cultist recruiters that go around the land, most often in Abessa. If you run into them they will basically teleport you to the Hort. Getting to the Hort is the hardest journey of the 3 factions' home cities IMHO.