Agiel

Yes, Stephen. But I think you meant: (Still, not as bad as Candidate Obama vs shambling soulless shell Pod Person President Obama who can't even shoot free throws any more) He really hasn't left himself much room for the outraeg!!! in 2020 at Qatar's laws on homosexuality if he's already playing the Nazi/ Hitler card for somewhere where they won't actually kill you for being gay. Nobody ever said countries like Uganda (see the Christmas law of 2012 and the truly bizarre Youtube "justification" for it) ever get a pass for draconian laws like that. As a fellow industrialised nation with a comparable literacy rate, a growing college-educated and young professional populace, and for the most part good women's suffrage record (unlike most Gulf States) many of us do hold Russia to the west's standards of human rights.

While I find Russia's homophobic laws totally medieval and backwards and I think Putin can hardly get any lower than cozying up with the Russian Orthodox Church to the degree that he is (mind you, I hate the idea of a government getting cozy with any religious institution, regardless of stripes), I still oppose a boycott of hosting the Olympics in Sochi. While one certainly has the right to express their misgivings about a country's discriminatory policies, keep in mind it is the one time every two years we as a species almost forget we hate each other, and boycotting the competition also affects other competing countries and their athletes who still elect to attend. It is for this reason that in spite of China's treatment of Tibetans I opposed a boycott of the Beijing Olympics back in 2008. However, whatever surreptitious some athletes can find to express solidarity with gay-rights cause I'm all for.

Do any of you really think the negative reaction really stung through EA's thick leather skin to fan backlash to the degree that because of it they abandoned the idea of turning Dragon Age into a bi-annual franchise a la Call of Duty.

Reminds me of this scene from "Goodbye Lenin!"

Wonder how much effort would be required to import the horse-riding code and Deadly Reflex mounted combat mod from Oblivion into New Vegas, that way I can say this to Vulpes on meeting him in Nipton while mounted on a steed with a Cold Single Action in one hand and a lever-action carbine in the other: "I aim to kill you in one minute! Or see you hang at Camp Golf at Chief Hanlon's convenience! Which'll it be?"

I quite like this:

I speak French and Cantonese Chinese (by the time my parents realised they should have been teaching me Mandarin instead, it was too late) and I actually find German quite pleasant to listen to so long as it isn't being spoken by some failed artist with a toothbrush mustache. Rather unfortunate when one speaks of how the German language sounds many immediately think of Rammstein and Triumph of the Will

Some people have sort of done that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BBQ2mflwnEU#at=68

I just hate the idea of anyone thinking their country in any war were angels and denying that it is an ugly business. I would be the first to admit that the fire bombings of Dresden and much of Japan (as well as many other war crimes that it would be pointless for me to list by name) were totally unnecessary and that in a just world men like Curtis LeMay would have been held accountable. As for Company of Heroes 2 I believe that it does enough to venerate the soldiers who were the true heroes of World War II and decries the politicians and generals who do not see the human costs of their actions and who twist noble causes for their own ends.

The liquidation of the original Polish Communist party by Comintern prior to the war for harbouring Trotsky-Zinoviev leanings? The Katyn massacre? Or what about the persecution of loyalist Home Army veterans after the war? What about the unstoppable Red Army conveniently halting right at the Vistula just as the last throes of the Polish resistance in Warsaw were being crushed by the SS Dirlewanger Brigade?

...or get me one of these set-ups for Falcon 4.0. http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2919477/Re_Please_show_off_your_pit#Post2919477

Was Jacque Chirac not referred to as <<Trois minutes-douche comprise>> ("Three minutes, shower included") by the French press?

I like to think the overwhelming majority of people eventually outgrow that phase and become very well-adjusted people. Some people I talk to say those kinds of people are lost causes but I always say that as long as I plant a seed of empathy and inclusivity in them, I will have made a difference that will pan out somewhere down the line. For instance, in high school a new student from Kansas had come into my class (I live in a very liberal part of Southern California) who had admitted to have been raised to be racist, which manifested itself in some casually racist jokes he told; by the time we graduated he grew out of it and his best friends were a black guy, a Jewish guy, and an Asian guy (me). And now I await someone who will tell me: "Silly rabbit, idealism is for kids!"

It's with trepidation that I wonder how much Bethesda will take from New Vegas into Fallout 4. I dearly hope that Damage Threshold will supplant Damage Resistance for future Fallouts, and to me it would reek of extreme arrogance on Bethesda's part if they don't include things like skill-checks in dialogue and a Hardcore Survival mode in the box.

A friend of mine introduced me to his new roommate today, an exchange student from Germany. We decided to go out to eat and asked him if there was anything in particular he wanted to go and he said to us: "There was a place called 'Chi-po-tel' I ate at when I was in New York, do you have that in California?" Puzzled, I asked: "A place called what?" "You know, 'Chi-po-tel." We asked him: "What the hell is a 'Chi-po-tel?'" "Chi-po-tel! Chi-po-tel! You know, they make a burrito right in front of you!" "Ohhhhh... you mean 'Chi-pot-LAY.'" We spent the next minute or so trying to get the right pronunciation into his head. Needless to say, he's an awesome dude to hang around with.

I think there is definite cause to be concerned (and I say this independent of Obsidian's track record). The Double Fine Kickstarter was among the most successful in money raised, even if it was blown out of the water by P:E and T: ToN. As someone not enormously fond of point-and-click adventure games (quite the opposite, so I'm biased), that form of games don't strike me as being even nearly as difficult to develop as a sprawling cRPG as Obsidian and inXile are making. Engine development wasn't really a factor with Double Fine, and compared to many AAA games asset creation isn't nearly as time and resource intensive, and trigger and scripting issues aren't terribly difficult to resolve as point-and-click adventure games to my untrained eye are relatively binary in that respect. Playtesting isn't that high of a priority (if it was, then I'd like to know what the QA team for Funcom was smoking when they were making the Longest Journey). Yet Schafer has disclosed that despite the Kickstarter blowing his expectations out of the water. , Double Fine was only able to make 25% of the game they wanted to make, which in my mind puts its prospects of having the rest of the development being funded by post-release sales seriously into doubt. That said, there have certainly been quite a few very professional products released via Kickstarter funding, and Obsidian's transperency and willingness to share its progress to all and not just to "hardcore backers" is definite heartening. I guess what I'm saying is that constructive criticism to Obsidian on their design process can only help them, even if they have so far demonstrated a great deal of professionalism. Though someone may remind me that Obsidian has given my admittedly poor memory, but I dearly hope that they budgeted all the stretch goals before they had that Kickstarter up (which given how the DA Kickstarter took everyone by surprise makes Schafer's situation a *little* more excusable).

Some relevant articles with sort of contrasting opinions. While it may seem a bit callus of me, I put more stock in the latter one. http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/07/04/hazem-kandil/the-end-of-islamism/ http://www.madamasr.com/content/sheep-and-infidels

Favourite was thet pilot saying "thanks" to the ground crew.

I didn't much care for Myst either, or for point and click adventure games with moon-logic puzzles, which hopefully this game doesn't have, for that matter (the nightmarish experience in which my little brother had to read the GameFAQ on his computer opposite of mine to walk me through the Longest Journey, which I received as a birthday present, forever put me off from the genre). The main attraction for me is that it's a quirky Eastern European thing, of which many scratch a lot of itches I have and despite their shall we say wildly variable states of stability and general playability, playing them give you the sense the developers made it out of the love of making games, or plain making something creative at all. In addition to the usual suspects of STALKER, Metro, and the Witcher series, I highly recommend games like Cryostasis and the Ice Pick Lodge catalogue (The Void, Pathologic, Cargo). Also, titanium nipples, natch.

This game has had a depressing dearth of progress updates from the developer, but this latest trailer has re-ignited my interest into a bonfire. Really astounding animation work, and that would be praise I would give even if this was from a AAA studio, which says something about these developers. For those of you who don't remember, this is made by a Ukrainian company called "Flying Cafe for Semi-Animals," composed of some ex-STALKER developers, and the attention to atmosphere shows, even if it isn't necessarily as melancholy. That and the vibes of Ice-Pick Lodge I get from this game makes me a true believer.

There is the concern that this might (no offense, Obsidian) go the way of the recent Double Fine Kickstarter and that Obsidian might find that despite the impressive Kickstarter numbers it won't cover the costs. Of course this is no massive budget game in which a team of animators might spend months on a single (albeit quite impressive) scripted scene a la Call of Duty; graphical fidelity isn't necessarily a priority for this form of game so the costs of asset development theoretically shouldn't be that high, but on the other hand, we might have thought the same way about a point-and-click adventure game (an astounding figure I saw said that with all the money raised through Kickstarter Double Fine was only able to make 25% of the game they wanted to make, which seriously puts the prospect of raising enough money through post-release sales in doubt).

Bit of a long shot, but here goes: As of right now that the Lever Action Shotgun in New Vegas has a sawn-off stock is really starting to bug the hell out of me. I have very little knowledge of 3D modeling, but I don't suppose anyone can do a quick edit of the model so that has a proper rifle stock? Yup. In the stock game I'd rather take my chances with a pride/school/herd of Deathclaws than a Cazador. But with the AMR with explosive rounds what you have is an 8,8 Flugabwehrkanone 41 and you suddenly feel a lot safer confronting them.

"Believe it or not, Agiel isn't at home Please leave a messaaage at the beep I must be out, or I'd pick up the phone Where could I beeee? Believe it not, I'm not hooome." Alternatively: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsSROvcZWhY I think I do a stellar job with phone interviews because I do insist on calling everyone; in fact, I'm a bit annoyed whenever someone resorts to texting rather than calling on me at a time he or she ought to know I'm free at.

I see what you mean. That the devs are chaps with families. I'd really like to know what 'our' devs think about this. On some level it makes sense. (in the way that ideas look good on paper) I think we need, and can expect, to see more of this. The average age of gamers is supposedly somewhere around 30. This puts them at late teens/early twenties to play Baldur's Gate II, the game that really kicked off RPG romance. But also at the right age to play games like Lunar and Final Fantasy VIIat the peak. And now they're the same people raising children. I expect in about another decade we're going to see the mid-life crisis as a topic in videogames. I'm sure there are. I'm not trying to paint the now as if it's a revolution. But I suspect there's a bigger audience for it than ever before. We saw shades of middle-age being a factor in a character like Sam Fisher in Chaos Theory (The much younger techies in Third Echelon kept joking around with him because of his age, and his boss had started looking for his eventual replacement), though Sam Fisher did have a daughter which became a motivation in the following two games. Sadly, this aspect of his character seems to have been forgotten in the latest Splinter Cell.