Keyrock

Still playing The Talos Principle, 20 hours and counting. I could likely have finished by now if I wasn't trying to get ever sigil and star and without using any hints. As it stands, I'm almost certainly more than halfway done, but still have a ways to go. Some of the puzzles are fiendishly difficult, especially getting the stars. The biggest problem is finding some of the stars. Of the ones I haven't collected yet, at least half are due to the fact that I simply can't find them, much less collect them. I refuse to look up a walkthrough, though. The whole point of a puzzle game is figuring things out on your own. There have been puzzles that had me stumped for half an hour, which I gave up on temporarily, returned to, tried for another 10 minutes, gave up again, returned again, then finally had my breakthrough and solved it. I will figure everything out on my own if it kills me.

Fun Fact: I am pleased to see the game back on Greenlight. Fun Fact 2: I will not vote yes for it to be greelit. At first glance, fun fact 1 and fun fact 2 may seem to be opposed to each other, but they're not. I personally don't find the game appealing. In fact, I find it somewhat revolting. I have zero desire to play the game, and do not see any value in it, hence my refusal to vote yes. All those things said, I'm glad it's back on Greenlight. Why, might you ask? Because I do not feel my opinion of the game to be law. Just because I do not find value in the game (based on the trailer show so far, obviously, I haven't played it), doesn't mean someone else doesn't. My opinion is my own and it serves nobody else but me. I will not presume to pass judgement on the game for anyone else. Those people can do so on their own. If someone else feels they can derive enjoyment and value out of the game, and hence votes yes, that is their prerogative.

Like the Cynical Brit, what I'd really like out of Valve is an answer as to WHY they pulled Hatred off Greenlight. And not the "Based on what we've seen on Greenlight, we would not publish Hatred on Steam. As such we'll be taking it down." explanation they have already given, because that's a non-answer. The way I see it (and please, correct me, or provide an addendum, if I'm wrong/incomplete here) the only possible explanations are: 1) Valve deemed the game to be of too poor quality and didn't want to rip off their customers - Hard to take that possibility seriously given the massive amount of shovelware already for sale on Steam. b) Valve deemed the game broke terms and conditions due to the violent content/killing of innocents - Then why do they continue to sell Postal, Manhunt, GTA, etc? III) Valve felt a moral objection to releasing the game - See item b, Also, I do not feel it's appropriate for Valve to act as a judge of morality. D) Valve was pressured into it by an outside group - In this case I say Valve is chicken****. Five) Valve did it on a whim for no reason whatsoever - The scariest of all the options only added for the sake of covering all my bases (hopefully). If this is the case, that's ****ing frightening for a company with this much power to be making such decisions arbitrarily. Keep in mind that Valve is under no obligation to answer for their actions. Also keep in mind that you and I are under no obligation to purchase products from them going forward.

Looks like we're getting a Shadowrun Returns follow up!

The entire purpose of Greenlight was for the customer base to make decisions on their own without Valve's involvement, guidance, or judgement. Sure, customers make poor decisions sometimes, we're human. I mean, I bought Dragon Age 2, full price even, that was a terrible decision. The thing is, Valve needs to let the customers make their own decisions, good or bad, otherwise, what is the point in Greenlight at all? If you create a system whose purpose is to let the customers make their own choices without your involvement, then you get involved and override their choice, that system is completely worthless and serves no purpose.

Bruce with the predictably fascist "You people aren't fit to make your own decisions. Let Big Brother make them for you." argument.

Valve, of course, has the right to allow or disallow any game on their own platform. That said, this is a chicken**** move by them, especially since it goes 180 degrees against the very purpose of Greenlight. The whole point of Greenlight was to take the decision making process out of Valve's hands for smaller/lesser known/indie games. Greenlight's entire purpose was to let the customers decide for themselves what should and shouldn't appear on Steam. The customers spoke, they overwhelmingly supported the game appearing on Steam, yet Valve shut it down anyway.

Cool, young Ciri at Kaer Morhen. It would be pretty sweet if we got to play through some of her witcher training, maybe even her sorceress training.

Did you learn your lesson and are you ashamed of your pen1s?

CDPR has confirmed that the second playable character is indeed Ciri, and also that you will not be able to switch between the characters at will, but rather you will play as Ciri during specific parts.

You've got it all wrong, KaineParker. This whole thinking for yourself thing has got you all mixed up and discombobulated. This is why our enlightened and highly superior San Francisco moral overlords have deemed fit to grace us with their magnificant wisdom and faultless judgement. Set your mind at ease, turn off your brain, and just simply follow their lead and parrot everything they say and everything will be much better for everyone.

Last physical console game I purchased: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker a couple weeks ago Last physical PC game I purchased: Probably Rage in 2011 Edit: Crap, I just noticed this topic was necromanced and I posted in it months ago. Oh well.

That was a shockingly bad performance by Aaron Rodgers. Cowboys Eagles Packers Lions Seahawks One of those teams, at either 11-5 or 10-6, is going to miss the playoffs. Meanwhile, we're guaranteed that a team at no better than .500 will get in.

Awesome win for the Cowboys, the playoff race in the NFC is still super tight (damn you Vikes for not beating Detroit, you had so many chances) so they needed that win badly.

The Factory of Sadness is at maximum production. Meanwhile, in the NFC South

I'm continuing my playthrough of The Talos Principle. It's really good. Really really good. It's probably the best puzzle game I've played since Portal 2. It's been a really long time since a game has made me think this much. This goes both for trying to solve the puzzles and for pondering the philosophical musings. I'm also very apprehensive of climbing the tower. I've long had enough red sigils to at least go up to the 1st floor, likely several more floors by now, but I still haven't tried to do it. I kind of feel like I will eventually, but I'm... scared. It;s weird, I get conflicted whenever I think about it. There is a conflict between faith and curiosity that's one of the central themes of the game. Word round the campfire is that there are multiple endings to the game. What choices/parameters determine the endings I do not know, but I suspect that choosing faith or curiosity is one of them. This game does not have manual saves, it checkpoint autosaves and it does so quite often (whenever you do something of note). Normally, i'd criticize a game for lack of manual saves, but I actually am going completely the other way here. Not only is the lack of manual saves not a hindrance here, I think it's a benefit. In fact, I think it's critical to the game. The ability to manually save would allow you to metagame. While it's not something I like to engage in these days (I used to when I was younger), I generally am in favor of it being an option. However, i will make an exception in this case. There is a good bit of philosophical debate and conflict at the heart of this game and allowing metagaming would cheapen that conflict, reducing its impact. The fact that any choice I make is permanent for this playthrough, no going back to 5 minutes ago, I'd have to start completely over, adds weight to those choices and makes me think long and hard about them and makes them feel more permanent. I think this sort of thing is necessary if you want the player to struggle with philosophical conflict.

Should I or shouldn't I try to ascent that? Egyptian land, not only cool looking, but also lets Croteam reuse assets from Serious Sam. You'd think the Blue Screen of Death would be ****ed out as a joke by now, but I still got a chuckle out of it.

My theory is this, and I'm just some schlubby, basement apartment dwelling, Dorito Greek salad encrusted, neckbeard ****lord, is that all we, the reasonable GG supporters, need to do is stay strong, stay positive, refrain from engaging in the harrassment/doxxing/etc the opposition engages in (there will always be outliers, nothing can be done about that beyond denouncing and policing to the best of our ability), and continue the battle, no matter the cost, no matter how long it takes. In the end, the extremist zealots will always continue to shed their misguided moderate supporters the longer the conflict continues, continue to alienate the undecideds, and continue to burn bridges. The media smoke screen will only continue for so long. They'll keep supporting the corrupt scumbag radical far-left core as long as they feel there is still any chance of winning, as they have a stake in this. See, the thing is, media corruption and SJW infiltration goes far beyond just video games media, it's present in all media journalism, and, dare I say, all media in general. While the mainstream media doesn't give 2 ****s about what happens to video games media, if GamerGate succeeds it sets a precedent. SJW scumbags have rolled over individuals and corporations for years and years. I didn't reply in time (too far back now), but I found it funny when Bruce tried to dispute that excluding prostitutes from GTA would start down a slippery slope. We're not starting down a slippery slope, we're already a good way down the slippery slope. Myself and the other GG supporters (the rational ones, anyway) aren't trying to stop us from beginning down a slippery slope, we're putting our hands and feet out full force in an effort to stop, or at least slow, our slide down it. I personally (and this is just my personal belief, don't attribute this to GG as a whole) believe the totalitarian state is inevitable (Sucks, I know), we're already way too far down that path to prevent it fully (congratulations Bruce, it may not happen in your lifetime, but your Fascist "Utopia" will happen. Rejoice!), but that's not going to stop people like me from doing their best to delay that as much as possible. Bruce's hilarious assertion "we only want to remove female prostitutes, nothing more, that's it" made me both want to throw up and laugh. As if I hadn't seen that bull**** argument before, literally hundreds of times. Oh, only make this one little concession, that's it, nothing more. What difference will it make? 6 months later. Only make this one concession, what difference will it make? Maybe I'm being melodramatic and pulling **** out of my ass, or maybe history is littered with these exact kinds of "little concessions" on the road to totalitarianism. But it's only video games, who cares? Today video games, tomorrow a dress code, next year religious rights, the year after history books are rewritten. The year after all opposing history books are erased/burned. Ahem, sorry, I got off on a tangent. Apologies. Anyway, as I was saying, SJWs will continue on their present form of attack, that is, belittling, harassing, and shaming. The thing is, that tactic has proven, time and again, to be ineffective against us gamers, sling your mud, we don't care, but they'll keep doing it because there is no other option. SJWs are so convinced they're right, they're righteous,and they're better than everybody else that they cannot allow the thought that their tactics are faulty to enter their minds, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Since, in their minds, they are better than everybody else, their tactics cannot possibly be faulty, thus the only recourse is to double down on and get more aggressive with the same tactics. While more aggressive versions of the same tactics may break a few of the weaker spirited members of the GG resistance, if we hold strong and stay the course, it will ultimately have little effect on us, but it will increase the likelihood of them shedding moderates (appauled by the tactics and exposed to the reality of the people they support) and burning bridges. It's only a matter of time as long as we stay the course, stay positive, and not allow ourselves to be brought down by the feces being hurled at us. Over time, the SJWs will continue to get more and more radical in their approach, shed more and more moderates, alienate their neutral supporters, and burn bridges, until nothing but the rotten evil core extremists remain. At some point, the mainstream media, sensing the battle lost, will turn against them and denounce them in a last ditch effort to win back some of the people they've alienated. When that happens, the SJW extremists will lash out at them, labeling them as traitors (ironically, a very fitting label), which will only cause the mainstream media to denounce them more, perpetuating the vicious cycle of self-destruction. What I'm saying is, it's only a matter of time. As long as we hold strong, we cannot lose. They'll sling more mud at us. So what? I've got so much mud on me any more hardly matters. They'll get mainstream media to print some more hit pieces. So what? We've been the targets of over a dozen hit pieces already, what are a dozen more going to change? Stay strong. Stay positive. Keep the charitable efforts going (and not for publicity, but because it's the right thing to do, no mainstream outlet will cover it anyway right now). As long as we don't give in, the SJWs will sabotage themselves. Their elitist egos will make sure of it.

The ol' it's fine and even positive when we, the "good people" do it to the "bad people". Of course, we determine who the "good people" and the "bad people" are. Well, no chance that kind of thing could ever be abused and go awry. How could that possibly ever lead down a dark and dangerous path? There are certainly no precedents in history of people using such power of judgement and dishing out punishment with impunity for "the greater good" and it turning into horrific atrocities. Nope, not a single one. But hey, it's not like these "good people", these champions of justice could possibly be wrong in their assertions. They know what's best, for all of us. They can't possibly be wrong. That kind of power with impunity could only be a benefit in their hands. It's not like any of history's great monsters ever felt they knew what was best for everyone and used their power for "the greater good" with impunity, just like them.

I have a Steam copy of Serious Sam 3 to give away (I got it free with The Talos Principle and I already own it). Drop me a PM if you want it. First come first serve. Not sure how gifting works in Steam, but we'll figure all that out once a recipient comes forth.

I'm interested, because I'm obviously too stupid to grasp the nuances of this debate, You said it, I didn't. I would have used a different word, something along the lines of thick headed, but I'm not going to argue with you. They are expressing a satirical version of a United States city. I can only speak of my own experience and those in the United States (I was too young when I lived in Poland and West Germany to notice such things), but it applies well since every single GTA game since GTA3 (when the games went 3rd person perspective and took off) has taken place in the United States, or rather a satirical representation of a US city (Liberty City = New York, Los Santos = Los Angeles, Vice City = Miami, etc.). I am 38 years old, I have lived in the United States for 28 years. I've visited every single state on the east coast, a few toward the midwest, and California (mostly Los Angeles). In my entire life I have not met or even seen a single person who I was convinced of, or even suspected to be a male prostitute. Not one. Not a single one. I have seen hundreds, maybe thousands of people I was convinced were female prostitutes. Do male prostitutes exist? I have been told they do and I do believe that, on the other hand I have never actually met one in real life. Ever. Not a single time. In satire perception is reality. So the point is that GTA shows female prostitutes and not male prostitutes because in real life people see female prostitutes but they don't see male prostitutes (or if they do it's extremely rare). Edit: For the record, I would not be opposed to seeing some male prostitutes added to the game. It's not a big deal to me, because, as I've written, I've never seen one in real life, so not having male prostitutes in GTA is in no way jarring to me, but if they added some in, I'd be fine with that.

I think we should compile a list of the best active NFL player names. I'll nominate a few to get us started: Barkevious Mingo Frostee Rucker Ha Ha Clinton-Dix

/reaches for wallet When's the Kickstarter? How can I support this? I am looking forward to working through law practice and gaining skill in whose ass to kiss and sensing which political machine to back. Eventually I can work my way up to the Albany Regency and exploit the bejesus out of the spoils system.

I started playing The Talos Principle. I had played the demo earlier, so I already had an idea of what the game was like, but the full version, even in its very beginning stages, is already meatier than the demo was. In reviews, the game has been often compared to Portal. That seems like a reasonable comparison. The mechanics are obviously not the same, but you have the same 1st person perspective (you can switch to third person), puzzles sometimes require using items in non-straightforward ways, and there is a disembodied voice that talks to you from time to time, at least 2 of them, actually. Maybe my favorite thing about puzzle games is getting to a seemingly impossible situation, getting stuck on it for a decent while, unable to clear a mental hurdle, then finally having that aha moment where your brain breaks out of the rut its been stuck in, changes the way it approaches the problem, and the plain as day solution appears in front of you. Those moments, for me, rival (and sometimes surpass) even the greatest moments of overcoming an obstacle with twitch skill or careful tactical planning, and even early on I've already had multiple moments like that in The Talos Principle. I especially enjoy trying to hunt down the stars (extra goals beyond the sigils you are mainly collecting). Getting the stars often requires outside the box thinking, sometimes outside the puzzle thinking. The philosophical musings are also quite interesting, though they seem sort of, for the lack of a better term, scattershot so far. Hopefully, as I progress, they will start to congeal into a more unified whole. I'm starting to have ideas and theories, but they're based off minuscule scraps at the moment.