Keyrock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stRWtrmXkHo

The ol' the ends justify the means argument. I've already made it clear on here several times how frightening and dangerous I find that kind of mindset.

I love the character icons in these games. Like you, I tried to match them as closely as possible to my character portrait and projected gear as possible. For such an early game, the amount of customization available was really impressive. Rest assured, these write ups are entertaining and appreciated.

My favorite thing about the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games is the memorable moments they create, and not just scripted sequences like going into Lab X18 in Shadows of Chernobyl or the trip through the underground passage to Pripyat in Call of Pripyat, but also random moments coming together organically. Emerging from the Bloodsucker lair the first time and after visiting the nearby helicopter crash site, I'm poorly equipped, health at just over half, all out of medkits, with plenty of handgun ammo, but all out of assault rifle ammo and down to a few shotgun shells. As I slowly make my way back toward Skadovsk and safety through the night the blowout warning goes off. "****!" I'm overloaded and can't sprint for more than a second or two, but I'm too greedy to drop any of my spoils. I need the goods to sell to get patched up and better equipped. After a few moments I realize I'll never make it and quickly ditch a couple of my more worn assault rifles to lighten the load and allow me to sprint a bit. If I can't find them later, so be it, they won't do me any good if I'm dead. I'm making my way down the hill, near the pipeline, I'm getting close to Skadovsk and safety. Then a pack of freakin' blind dogs comes after me. In normal circumstances no big deal, but in this situation this could be my death. I don't have time to employ me regular dodge routine on them, I'll never make it to Skadovsk in time, I gotta head more or less straight toward Skadovsk. I squeeze off a few handgun rounds in full stride as they near me while strafing toward Skadovsk the whole time. When they're just about on top of me I switch to the shotgun. Gotta make these last few shells count. At this point I'm backpedalling toward Skadovsk only making minor serpentine dodges. I fire off my last 3 shotgun shells. 2 blind dogs are dead, but there's still one left and I've already gotten hit. I frantically squeeze off handgun rounds as I get hit again and see the bleeding icon appear. I drop the last dog with nary a few slivers of health left and losing health fast. Thank God I have a bandage. I stumble through the door to Skadovsk about 5 seconds before the blowout hits. Stuff like that sticks with you.

Agreed. Call of Pripyat is the most recent S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I played, so it's the freshest in my mind, and I thought the ballistics were good. I like games with realistic bullet drop and some accuracy variability at long range, especially for weapons not specifically designed for long range. They even had specific weapons behave correctly, like the Vintorez having significant bullet drop at long range, while the SVD had a much more flat trajectory.

That was a pretty crazy game in Cincy.

I could never get into Jeff Vogel's games. The graphics aren't the hurdle, I can stomach those, and I appreciate what he does, but I could just never get into his games. I'm not exactly sure why, since that type of game is generally right up my alley.

Touché

I kind of want to play Tales from the Borderlands. I tried playing Borderlands 2 for a while then gave up after a few hours of hating it profusely. The thing is, I really liked the setting and characters, but I very much hated the gameplay. An adventure game/interactive movie set in that universe seems very appealing to me.

Well Czech republic have almost same location as Austria (in relation to east/west), do you consider Austria east Europe? I guess my mind always goes back to the Cold War Eastern Bloc when someone says Eastern Europe, of which Chechoslovakia was a part of. You're right, though Czech Republic is pretty much smack dab central Europe. Regardless, let's not quibble about technicalities, since it's pretty much meaningless anyway.

Fair enough.

Y U NO LIKE S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ?

Obligatory Jerry Jones **** eatin' grin gif:

The game takes place in the Kingdom of Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic) in 1403, which, I think(?), qualifies as Eastern Europe. Either way, I was quite impressed with the alchemy mini game, I like it a lot. I also really like the map. Good to see this coming along nicely.

OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY! GSC Game World is Back in Business Please, take me back to The Zone. I need to go back.

Geaux C-Hox, I guess. I'm too lazy to try to figure out the playoff scenarios where Dallas can get a bye (I'll let ESPN do that for me), but I'm pretty certain a Cards loss would be beneficial toward that end.

It's a very good loot em up. It's still not completely finished, but it's getting there. All 5 masteries are in and the latest patch added the first part of the 3rd and final act. There's a good bit of content in the game as it is. They tinker with the balance every new build (as is customary with a loot em up), but they're very close to as dialed in as possible, IMHO.

The Cowboys are MASSACRING the Colts tonight. NFC East champs! Yeeeeeeeeeeehaw!

Just so I'm not misunderstanding, you're not comparing killing virtual people in a video game to abusing a real dog in real life, right? Because that would be ridiculous.

Who here has said killing and torturing people is okay?

I somehow read that as Maxwell Smart. Now I'm sad. I wonder if Derek Smart owns a Cone of Silence?

If you want to give her the benefit of the doubt, that's your prerogative. As I've written, I'm willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt for a one time mistake, after that I will not. Again, as it relates to her right to keep a pet, I don't think it matters. Whether it was willful abuse, ignorance, or stupidity, that doesn't make the mistreatment any less real, and the fact that she's done this multiple times leads me to believe she will continue to do it. The dog is still getting abused regardless of intention. Whether she's too cruel to have a dog or too stupid to have a dog, I feel she shouldn't be allowed to have a dog. Keyrock I'm worried you are going to inadvertently and unnecessarily end relationships in your life if you really only give people one chance...surely you have family members and friends where you given them more than one chance? My personal life is none of your business. If I wanted people to concern themselves with it I would broadcast it on social media like all the attention whores out there. Your feigned concern is neither appreciated nor welcome.

If you want to give her the benefit of the doubt, that's your prerogative. As I've written, I'm willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt for a one time mistake, after that I will not. Again, as it relates to her right to keep a pet, I don't think it matters. Whether it was willful abuse, ignorance, or stupidity, that doesn't make the mistreatment any less real, and the fact that she's done this multiple times leads me to believe she will continue to do it. The dog is still getting abused regardless of intention. Whether she's too cruel to have a dog or too stupid to have a dog, I feel she shouldn't be allowed to have a dog.

It's not that I want her to suffer, it's that I don't want the dog to suffer any more. Where's your empathy for the dog? Is the dog not part of your SJW pet project (no pun intended) so who gives **** all about what the dog is going through? And what does it matter what time of the year it is? Does animal abuse hurt any less on a given time of year? You get one get out of jail free (very much figuratively speaking) card in my book when you do something stupid and hurtful like this, just one. I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt one time and assume you've learned your lesson and won't do it again. Once it happens multiple times, I will no longer give you the benefit of the doubt because I can clearly see a pattern being established. This goes for anybody. If Total Biscuit, a guy I very much respect, had done this I would give him the same one time benefit of the doubt and would condemn him the same way if he had done it multiple times.

She's done this multiple times? I didn't know that. That changes things. One time I can pass off as a supremely stupid mistake, lesson learned, never do that again. If she's dyed the dog again and again and again then she clearly does not have empathy for her animal and, in my opinion, this crosses the line from simple stupidity to animal cruelty. The reality is we don't know if anyone ever said to her " this is cruel to do this to an animal" . People might have said how cute her dog was and respected how close she was to it. So its quite possible she was unaware what she was really doing My point is just because she did something multiple times there is no evidence to believe she knew she was abusing her dog It reminds of people who use fireworks during events, like Guy Fawkes. In South Africa this always upsets and terrifies pets yet despite this every single year people use fireworks. If you have to ask these people " are you aware that you are contributing towards abuse of animals " they will deny it or be surprised because there usage of fireworks is often cultural, like the Indian festival of Diwali, so they won't believe its abuse of animals So at times the words " abuse of animals " can be subjective Yeah... This sounds like you're grasping at straws in her defense. While what you suggest isn't completely implausible, sorry, I'm not giving her the benefit of the doubt. If she made that mistake once, I'd give her the benefit of the doubt. If she's done it multiple times, then sorry, she doesn't get the benefit of the doubt from me, I'm making the assumption that she's an animal abuser. In either case, the correct course of action seems the same to me. The dog should be taken away from her and she should not be allowed to own a pet. Whether it's through willful abuse or an astonishing level of ignorance, she's abused this animal, multiple times, which suggests she'll do it again. The animal shouldn't be subjected to further abuse, it's inhumane.