Agiel

Tom Chick, curator of the Quarter to Three site and, more notoriously, divisive and contrarian game critic, has Stage IV hypopharyngeal cancer. Though his doctor has given his treatment regiment an 80% chance for a cure, we all know those aren't odds to toy with, and regardless he's going to be out of commission for a while. That said, there's a Fundgate fundraiser for hm to "kick cancer right in the balls and be back podcasting on Quarter to Three soon." It had reached its $10,000 goal in 118 minutes. http://www.gofundme.com/excvko A lot of people might have their beefs with him, but I will say that his words are the most enjoyable pieces of games writing to me even though I disagree with at least half of what he says, and I can't say that about any other writer out there whether they write about games, music, or movies.

I find it more refreshing than Jihad porn: ...I take that back. *I lost it at the washing machine and the monkey with the AK, starting at 4:26.

USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) launching Tomahawks at IS targets: View from the bridge: Which kind of reminds me of this image (censored for the benefit of the mods): Similar footage from launches by DDG 51 Arleigh Burke.

For those who have a spare $80 lying around and are interested in push-button warfare, Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations, the successor to Larry Bond's Harpoon series is coming to Steam on the 26th, 0600 Zulu.

I think you will find that many young jihadists these days have only a very superficial notion of Islam: I think one would-be IS fighter trying to book a flight to Syria was arrested with a copy of "Islam for Dummies" in his personal effects.

For those of you who are interested in how the character creator is going to turn out, a peek has been unveiled on the official website. Mix and match race and class combinations and learn the different backgrounds for each of them here: http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/inquisitor

From.. http://youtu.be/gnIH5rt6giY

I was like that when I got my leathers and wore them on campus before I actually had my bike. It was a fantastic way to pick up chicks... until they asked to see the bike :D

Do love modern helmets with HMDs. Speaking of helmets...

Wonder if the "No" vote wins Firaxis is going to have to patch out the Scottish flag from XCOM.

Got the urge to re-play MGS 1 and 2 after watching Giant Bomb's in-progress Endurance Run of Metal Gear Solid 1. I think people can say what they will about how the surface level plot was executed, but second only to Planescape: Torment, I don't think there's any game whose gameplay and narrative takes advantage of its medium as well as it does. And now I realise I liked the series better when it was Post-Modern weird up to MGS2 than when it became regular Japan weird after that. And, it's a bit mindblowing in a sense that seven years before Mass Effect, Commander Shepard was a whiny teenage computer whiz spouting Anon conspiracy theories.

I think that's an underlying theme for Arcanum, PoE, and to a lesser extent Dragon Age, where firearms and gunpowder are poised to alter the calculus of battle since death from afar is being brought to the masses, not just to a privileged few.

Decided I hated myself, gritted my teeth, and am now trying for the third time to complete Dragon Age 2 once and for all (the first time I failed to do so because I tired of the banality of the parachuting enemies, the second time because the main story bits in the third chapter that consisted wholly of people making the worst possible decisions sapped my will to continue). I think my stomach is going to hold out to the end this time since from my previous two playthroughs, and the aide of the wiki, I've discovered the gamebreaking stuff that lets me power through encounters, and also because this is the first playthrough in which I tried the Legacy DLC that I genuinely had a good time with. Just one observation; I've always loathed Anders in this iteration of the series, but I finally realised that listening to his party banter was a bit like John Malkovich inside his own head, as in all of dialogue can be summed up in: "Mage mage mage, mage mage mage mage mage." I play mostly pro-mage (given that my Hawke is a mage), but now I'm beginning to think Anders was written as such so as to make that path in the game less appealing.

Madness - Project Nexus 2 Kickstarter has a week to go with $10,000 left remaining for its goal. http://youtu.be/JNrpICfj4BA For those unfamiliar with the Madness series: http://youtu.be/hkYRmCKMCLo

Oh geez, that was actually a thing? I thought the proposed adaptation would go the way of many live-action adaptations of classic anime of development hell as has been the case with NGE, Battle Angel Alita, and Bubblegum Crisis.

In my time playing MMOs of late, I'd say that ratio has grown to 1/3rd of a given guild, though admittedly global chats give the impression that it's not the case.

For something called "Journey to the West," the trailer dedicates astoundingly little camera time to the Monkey King.

In honour of the release of Destiny, Tom Chick writes a piece on Halo: Combat Evolved espousing his belief that "The Library" was one of the greatest FPS levels of all time... which I actually think is bang on: http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2014/09/09/defense-halos-library/ For me, I actually really enjoyed the level since playing it co-op, it was the experience of playing Left 4 Dead an entire seven years before Left 4 Dead came out, and Chick hit the nail on the head about the shotgun.

Picked up the two volumes of <<Lune d'Argent sur Providence>> ("Silver Moon over Providence"), a <Western fantastique>> (fantasy western) about cowboys and girls fight werewolves, which for reasons that escape me takes place presumably in Rhode Island (that I was under the impression was the most un-cowboy place in the United States at the time it took place in). In any case, the art is superb and the writing (as far as my admittedly diminishing command of French can tell) keeps me engaged.

Stardock boss Brad Wardell's take on the recent debacle: http://forums.galciv3.com/457616

A coder friend relayed this story to me.

That's as paranoid and as nonsensical as if I were to say "Russia is sabotaging the USA by funding the KKK and Westboro Baptist Church." Actually, not too far off the mark as it is.

Played a Kuril Islands scenario in Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations wherein my Japanese Amphibious Group of destroyers (including two Kongo Aegis guided-missile destroyers) must traverse to Akula*-infested waters of the Sea of Japan, brave missileering Naval Aviation bombers, and confront a Russian KUG (Surface Striking Force) including one Slava guided-missile cruiser, a Sovremenny guided-missile destroyer, and two Udaloy anti-submarine destroyers, to make it to Sakhalin/Karafuto island. Thankfully, with the assistance of the submarines Soryu and Arashio, and P-3 Orions out of Hachinoche the sub threat was greatly diminished. F-15Js out of Chitose, and Mitsubishi F-2As (popularly referred to as the Viper Zero due to its more-than-passing resemblance to the F-16 that is nicknamed the "Viper", and its astounding manueverability harkening back to the famed Mitsubishi Zero of old) out of Misawa and Matsushima kept maritime patrol and ASW aircraft at bay as well as splashing their share of pestering Su-27s and MiG-31s. As a result of my surface forces observing strict EMCON, they were never located by the Russians until they were off the coast of Sakhalin. As for the Russian KUG it was crippled by two dozen F-2As flying below the radar horizon firing IIR-guided ASM-2 anti-ship missiles before finally being sent to the briney deep by the Soryu. Final tallies of losses and expenditures: *Russian for "shark," but in US naval parlance, a Russian class of nuclear attack subs.

...and meet the PLA's elite team of... architects:

Grand Ayatollah of Iran issues Fatwa against high-speed internet: http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2014/08/makarem-internet/ Khamenei: "No HD porn streaming for you! Come back one year!"