Agiel

Interesting analysis of a little gem from Ice-Pick Lodge: It's a game that has a special place in my heart for the reason that playing it helped me kick a bout of depression from a creative rut. Hope you guys enjoy!

About half of the first game's quests involved zombies of one kind of another, so really nothing new I think that comment was more a reference to how those faces might provoke a "Jesus! F***! Kill it with fire!" reaction in those when first confronting them.

Think I may find myself in a Dragon Age 2 situation for this game where great improvements in a certain area (ironically enough character models and animations, which were a big step up from Origins) are offset several-fold in others (poor environment art, re-used areas, bad encounter design, and regressive RPG systems) to make a game one of the few I actually loathed. It seems the effort to deliver on the initial promise of the big open environments to explore with the Mako from Mass Effect 1 will be overshadowed by the bad animations, uncanny valley faces, and poor writing this time around.

Is it a stand-alone game, or is it an expansion/DLC for the main Ghost Recon game released not too long ago? Stand-alone game separate from that F2P adversarial shooter that came out a while ago (and folded shortly after).

Well, take heart in the fact that your card will probably allow you to utterly beast the next big things of the next 2 years.

I certainly had a lot of fun with being cagey about being a Watcher at the start of Pillars of Eternity, too.

Played a pile of Ghost Recon: Wildlands in spite of what I considered such a massively wasted opportunity to make a fantastic story out of the premise (something like an Iran-Contra/Medellin parable of an illegal special forces team fostering ties with morally-questionable death squads to go after drug cartels a la Los Pepes and the Águilas Negras). However instead of going after the cartel my buddies and I instead went on a looting spree to pimp out our operators. On my shopping list was a Colt M4A1 with holo-sight, laser-aiming module, and M-203 grenade launcher, Mk.17 with ACOG scope and foregrip, Mk. 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle with the Mod 0 stock, and a Mk. 48 Mod 0 LMG (would have preferred the M-240B, but oh well).

Something actually disconcerting: Trump steps in to keep 30-year-old NSC aide

On my way in to work I was randomly thinking about that movie My Cousin Vinny. At that moment I decided to switch on the radio, which was tuned in to a talk news radio station and I kid you not they were talking about that movie at that exact moment. And the Twilight Zone theme suddenly played in my head o.O

Inxile just announced that the Toy companion will eventually be added to the game, which is heartening news. I, however, would love to see the Oasis implemented as a full-sized quest hub. Of all the cuts to the game I think that was the one that cut (har har) deepest for me.

Maybe just me, but I find it more than a little curious that Wikileaks rushed to the defence of Mike Flynn, who given an attitude towards Iran that can adequately be described as Ahab-esque and his lobbying on behalf of Turkey is hardly the paragon of an ideal WL has (or rather, claims to have).

Game is loaded up. The beta (and the godawful radio; I ask the buddies I play with who drive to shut it off every time we hop into a car) gives me the impression that the writing won't be very good. I guess I was hoping for the Killing Pablo moral ambiguity and Iran-Contra parable intrigue you saw in Clear and Present Danger:

You could go into stealth, so it'll be useful to go into it with Matkina, Rhin, or anyone with a great big speed pool. Note that you break out of it should you interact with the towers, so you may want to get everyone into position first, then throw the kill switches simultaneously. You get some additional bonus should you manage it without killing too many of the robits. The Hide strategy is also viable for a certain Crisis that takes place in the Castoff's Labyrinth as well. *edit* Raithe beat me to it.

Does it tell you your real name? Nah, but let's just say that for the story completionists this item is vital. It's funny. I presumed that it was just put in the game as an in-joke by the developers "Hey, Planescape fans! Remember this thing? Har, har."

... ... ... Son of a bitch.

A Russian pal once told me a joke that was being passed around when Sigmund Jähn became the first German to reach space that eventually people from the GDR would try to escape to the West by hijacking a Soyuz space mission.

I'd be the first to claim to being a defence budget hawk, but a boost to the defence budget is more than a little hard to justify in the minds of some given that Trump has shown little interest (some might even say contempt) in maintaining an international order based upon good order at sea. 355 ship navy? Great for making the Russians think twice about invading the Baltics and running roughshod over the Norwegians, making sure Iran's threats of closing the Strait of Hormuz are empty ones, and keeping things civil in the South China Sea, Strait of Malacca and the Gulf of Aden. Not so much against some loser 20-somethings from Belgium, Austria et al. riding around in Toyotas with DShks mounted on them in the desert of what is ostensibly a land-locked country (or the loser 20-somethings who shoot up night clubs and churches or blow up federal buildings in Trump's own country).

It took me until I reached the Bloom that I finally learned I could use the Bronze Sphere that was sitting in my Quest Items inventory, and when I realised its purpose... well... let's just say I almost made a great impersonation of a Shaolin monk when my head hit the desk.

On Trump's and Boeing's inevitable clash:

I can confirm from the beta that in the Sagus Cliffs portion of the game the number of combat encounters an average player might run into on a first playthrough could be counted using one hand. Make of it what you will.

Prediction: The contents of the new immigration ban Executive Order to supersede the one judged as unconstitutional by courts have already been leaked to lawyers so that when it is signed, it will immediately get slapped with lawsuits.

Can you actually play past where the beta version ends?

Twister? Come onnnnn, people. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h5iKf65xWhk

"Any landing you can walk away from..."