Agiel

'till somebody shows up with an M2 Bradley :D

And this is why 7 year old me quit Karate. I wanted to learn self-defence, not a glorified dance routine. "In combat, spontaneity rules; rote performance of technique perishes." -Bruce Lee

"Hey guys. I think we should go back to our old pin and spoon grenades. Vigilante black hats hacking into our new networked grenades and prematurely sending us into the company of forty virgins was not a problem we had with the old grenades."

LOL, one single measly dime. Can I send it to them in the mail? As I said the problem is that most pirates haven't got any money to give, ie. they are under someone else care or broke. Sure. And if you're so worried about it being traced back to you, send a pre-paid debit card in an envelope with no return address. Believe it or not, those pirates can live without the luxury of playing games, insomuch that I can live without the luxury of dining on lobster and prime rib every day. And hundreds of millions of people around the world manage to live fufilling lives without playing video games too. Hell, if they wait they can even get it at prices far easier on their wallets.

Pirated game =/= lost sales! Lost sale or no, one is still sending a message to the developers for playing their full game without paying for it without their express permission: "The hard work you guys put into making this game is not worth one single measley dime from me."

^ Don't know if you guys have noticed, but for a whole lot of the developers you know and love the livelihoods of the designers, artists, and engineers hang on a thread. Sure the lay-offs that happen once a AAA game is released is the result of poor and abusive business practices on the part of publishers*, but at least resolve to not add to the problem. *I have always held that the industry should not be so hasty to push the development of new tech (which is one of the biggest multipliers on the cost of development, before marketing, obv) until the costs of game development corresponds to a state in which the studios are nearly guaranteed to remain in financial good standing (if said studio had competent people in it).

Constructive criticism Hassat, but I think I would have preferred it on the Droid Planet that you simply used the generic, non-intelligible *beep*boop*beep*s for all the droid characters (or make new ones if even more variety is needed). I can't say that your voice actors have awful acting skills or that they're voices are grating, but the gain levels for the audio files and unimpressive direction sort of takes me out of it. I will say that the splicing of the existing voice acting is at least tolerable.

Could not help but notice that TrueNeutra's post count isn't all that high for the time he's been here... Guess it proves the adage "The less you speak, the more you hear."

On the Second World War, the Battle of Midway is happening on World War II on Twitter as we speak: https://mobile.twitter.com/RealTimeWWII

Yeah, the SSD part is happily already covered.

Uggghhh... hate how the transition to the new console cycle moves the hardware goalposts so much. Looking into an AMD FX 9350 that seems to give top-end-ish performance for even less than a mid-range i7, but all the Newegg reviews give me the impression I will spend as much just to keep it properly mounted, ventilated, cooled, and powered up. Looking for something for a build <$600 but will still last me a really, really long time (my budget for the video card is whatever is the Geforce x60 GT model is).

Modern understanding makes the penetration charts rather laughably anachronistic (though one might draw that conclusion given how inaccurate some of those drawings are). What is now known of KE-based anti-tank armaments and munitions dictate that the length of the gun and barrel pressure are more important in penetration performance rather than the mass of the round (the 88mm gun with 71 caliber lengths was longer than the 122mm gun with a mere 43 caliber lengths). This paradigm is even more pronounced today, as modern penetrators rely upon the principle of armour erosion rather than armour displacement of anti-tank rounds of yesteryear. In addition, one of the big flaws of Soviet tank design was that though the tanks touched upon the "Big 3" points of speed, firepower, and maneuverability, they showed little attention to the finer details that made a complete weapons system: http://operationbarbarossa.net/Myth-Busters/MythBusters2.html In the case of the IS-2, the 122mm gun had impressive firepower against other tanks, infantry formations, and fortifications. However, the round had to be loaded in two separate parts (the penetrator or the warhead, then the propellant). This had a tremendous impact on rate of fire, of which even a very well-trained crew could only manage three shots per minute at most (not even counting the time to identify and prosecute targets). In addition, after firing, the IS-2's barrel had to be raised in order for the gun to be loaded. In ye olden days of armoured warfare, the gunner's sight was hinged onto the gun barrel*. What that meant was that the gunner could not observe the round after firing, and if he missed he would briefly lose track of the target and the commander had to give him vague instructions to correct the shot (in the heat of battle, it's difficult to compute in your head things like "Short 200 meters, adjust lead 3 degrees right!" especially when those instructions are so imprecise). *In fairness, many tanks still retain a gunner's sight attached to the barrel and many of them do have to be raised after the gun is fired. However, those are the analog gunner's auxiliary sight and is used in emergencies when the electronic Gunner's Primary Sight (GPS) generally located atop of the turret and the ballistics computer is out of commission, or to ensure that the gun and aimline is clear of any obstructions to where the gunner has aimed using the GPS.

The randomised profiles on the people in Watch Dogs can be quite interesting. One guy I profiled had a statutory rape charge on his criminal record, which seems to be quite difficult to be charged with if the offender was 15.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War is now open for pre-orders on Steam. I cried a tear, or two, or maybe five. Ubisoft may not be the company that introduced such seminal experiences to me like Silent Hunter III/IV, Raven Shield, and Chaos Theory (as fun as Watch Dogs and Far Cry 3 can be), but it can't be denied that they're still full of pleasant surprises.

So apparently I was afflicted by the Uplay cloud save corruption bug in Watch Dogs, which is probably caused by me redeeming one of my Uplay rewards then trying to reload that save game. Lost about 24 hours worth of gameplay. Starting over now.

Oh, it gets better.

@Rosbjerg Like naval warfare? How about hellishly complex strategy games? Does your inquisitive mind demand answers to such pressing questions like how many Combattante missile boats does it take to sink a Kirov battlecruiser? Don't mind aesthetics as dry as Death Valley? Have a spare $80 USD lying around? My friend, I have the game for you! http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1101

1. Watch movies and sitcom episodes relating to people in the rain (one time it was the Married... with Children episode when the Bundys' house sprang leaks everywhere, last time it was that flick Hard Rain). 2. 3. Leave it. "My problems go away if I ignore them" (same approach I have with parking tickets). Addendum to number 1: There was this one time, here in the eternally sunny So/CentCal coast, when the biggest flash rainstorm I ever saw since El Nino of '97/'98 suddenly poured down. Everyone in my apartment complex (including me) stopped everything they were doing, laundry, partying, playing video games, studying, and just went outside and just marveled at how utterly random and out of nowhere this was.

Before heading back to uni, went to Ruth's Chris with some fellow soon-to-be-graduates buddies from high school. Dined on lobster bisque and a fillet mignon good enough to convert a vegan. Cost a bleeding fortune though, ~65$ for my casual entree and my portion of the bottle of wine.

Owing to my East-Asian ancestry, I've been of the belief that the use of additives of any type is for barbarians. Hot, straight, and "strong enough" is the way to go. Unless one were to count Xing Iced Tea, which has enough cane sugar in it to cause a diabetic coma. But in my mind it counts as a soft drink and not actual "tea".

Posting the URL instead of the actual image given that it's quite salty, to say the least. It is also horribly politically incorrect and though most of you won't find it offensive per se, you will probably harbour some contempt, especially if you loathe gangsta rap... That said, it can't be denied that they guy who made this totally nailed the voice: http://img.pr0gramm.com/2014/05/16/e8a82e438d1b883e.jpg

Colour me surprised with those pictures. Never thought Aiden would be the type at the head of a wholesome American nuclear family in a suburban two-story house with a nice hardwood floor. I can picture him having dinner - Aiden's Wife: "Honey, you're wearing that shady outfit. Are you dispensing vigilante justice again? You promised me you'd leave that and settle down." Aiden: *Distressed look on his face, voice cracks*...No." Aiden's Wife: "Awww... I knew I could trust you. *plants a kiss on Aiden's cheek* Muah."

Force Lightning all the way. Once you get to the second planet after Telos the Force point penalties for using a Dark Side power as a Light Side player (and vice versa) cease to matter. Though I guess that's my "munchkin" way of playing. However, there are some pure melee-related quests that may prove very difficult to finish if you are not invested at least somewhat in your Constitution and actual fighting stats.

Yeah, you mentioned this in the funny things thread a couple days ago. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66205-the-funny-things-thread/?p=1452080

Finished an 84 hour scenario (with some time compression, which comprised of about eight actual gameplay hours) of Command: Modern Air/Naval Operation depicting the opening stages of the Second Battle of the Atlantic in the War that Never Was in late 1990. The Soviets had invaded Iceland and based two fighter regiments and a regiment of Tu-16 Badger maritime bombers at Keflavik Air Station near the capital of Reykjavik. Taking advantage in a temporary breach disruption of SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System, fixed sonar arrays at the bottom of the ocean that serve as tripwires against Soviet subs), the Soviets attempt to sortie their fast attack and first-strike ballistic missile subs into the open Atlantic. Meanwhile, the forces of NATO are tasked with plugging the new holes in the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) gap and take the Soviet Union's decapitation strike capabilities out of play with their own submarines (the American Los Angeles class boats Providence, Houston, and Baltimore, as well as the British Trafalgar and the Norwegian Kobben with the assistance of P-3C Orions stationed at Stornoway Air Base in the UK. All the while the Carrier Battle Group around the Nimitz makes its way through the North Atlantic towards the Norwegian Sea to provide much needed naval and aviation support to the Norwegians holding against the Warsaw Pact forces at the Trondheim Bottleneck. At the end of three days the three Soviet Yankee-class ballistic missile subs are destroyed by a combination of submarines and the P-3 Orions and the aviation wing out of Keflavik have been nearly wiped out after vicious air battles over the Atlantic against American F-15s and British Tornadoes as well as F-14s launched from the Nimitz (including a huge furball between the Tu-16s and their Su-27 escorts and the F-14s scrambled to intercept them). In addition, the P-3s dropped enough sonobuoys between England and Iceland to enable the British Royal Marines to simply march to Iceland to liberate it from Soviet control (not serious). This battle was not without losses though, as the USS Providence was lost when it revealed its position when it fired upon and destroyed one of the Yankee-class subs, as well as a FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate to some AS-6 Kingfish missiles when it was caught outside the protective umbrella of the guided missile cruiser Bunker Hill whilst hunting a Victor-class submarine. And in the ensuing air battle several P-3s, F-14s, and Tornadoes were lost. To make matters worse, several Soviet attack subs have managed to break out of the GIUK gap and disappear into the vast expanse of the open Atlantic to threaten NATO convoys. Next scenario involves the REFORGER convoys heading to Europe to deliver badly needed men and material to the Central Front. Several of the F-15s based out of Stornoway, so crucial to the air war over the Atlantic, have relocated to Rammstein Air Base in West Germany. Capitilising on this development, the Soviets have managed to replenish their aviation forces in Iceland and their most dangerous maritime bombers, the Tu-22M Backfires, have been fully deployed and are ready to strike at NATO forces and convoys traversing the North Atlantic...