Humodour

Germany is probably the very last country responsible for Europe's current crisis. The USA is in large part to blame for wrecking the joint in the first place, but certainly each EU state (apart from some such as Germany) should have been more resilient to that possibility. For instance, Greece was always a house of cards that simply hadn't encountered a slight breeze yet up to the GFC.

Bread, sliced banana, with honey on top. Add some cinnamon if you've got it.

Your build sounds interesting. I might try it just for a significant change of pace one day. There is good reasoning behind getting every stat to at least 50, although Strength and Focus are by far the two dominant stats in the game. Which is itneresting, because Focus's equivalent, Energy, from Diablo 2 was one of the most useless stats. Critical chance increases very quickly for the first bunch of points in Dexterity, then tapers off rapidly. Since crits proc so frequently with Blast Cannon and Flame Hammer, this is a huge boon. Focus and Strength never taper off, but this isn't a Focus build, so 50 is good. I still do some elemental damage, so it's great to have a fairly cheap and huge elemental multiplier from Focus. Sometimes the level required to use an item if you don't have the stats is like 10 levels away. By that point the item is generally obsolete anyway. But if you've patience, it is definitely viable. The next build I try (if I play as Engineer... might get bored of it) will be elemental focused. Fusillade is **** at first, but when maxed and when combined with Fire and Spark and Heavy Lifting (stun) plus Coup de Grace apparently it can own. It does fire damage and Ember Hammer does electrical damage. So the build idea would basically be focus on Focus (Strength is irrelevant since these skills don't do physical damage).. 50 Dex (crit hits) Vitality for gear Strength for gear Max focus 15 Fusillade 15 Ember Hammer 15 Fire and Spark 15 Heavy Lifting (apparently the stun procs really well with the two attacks above) 15 Coup de Grace 15 Heal Bot 15 Forcefield (not enough room for Bulwark + Aegis) 1 Blast Cannon (a lot of its utility comes at level 1, since it does piercing and 120% weapon DPS) 1 Stun grenade or Seismic Slam just for the stun What I am very interested to see about this build is how Coup de Grace works with Ember Hammer and Fusillade. Coup de Grace says it only triggers once per second. However, I've been told by people who've combined Ember Hammer with CdG that a single Ember Hammer swing can proc CdG on EVERY target, if every target is stunned. It's as though the game considers the single Ember Hammer swing one attack for the purposes of proc'ing CdG, rather than each time it hits a target in the swing. And I suspect this applies to each salvo of rockets in Fusillade as well. Even if the above isn't the case, CdG is still a nice addition for to damage output. I only play on elite, so I'm not sure this level of defence would be enough, though. Especially for Ember Hammer. Not that I know of it. You can only save gems, destroy gems (save items), and destroy enchantments (as well as give totally new ones). Torchlight also has spells anybody can find and learn. I currently have "Heal All Level 1" on tab (alternates between the two skills assigned to the right mouse button) just so I can support a bit more.

The sad thing is that none of this is relevant. The elephant in the room is global warming and it's not getting better, it's getting worse. In a world where Western crops regularly fail, famine and war can decimate us just as easily as it can Africa.

What's cool about Torchlight 2 is that you can do different builds and actually make them viable because the skill system is flexible enough to accommodate that. For example I play my Engineer as a Support/Summoner Tank. My role is to absorb damage, summon tons of troops, and protect my allies with force fields and heals (via Heal Bot). You could also build an Engineer as an offensive juggernaut smashing everything in sight with a 2-hander and AoE damage skills. You could go all out defense making a Dexterity and Vitality focused cannon wielding Engineer that will be dodging and blocking everything in sight. All 3 of those builds could work well and I'm sure there are other weirder builds that can be made to work, and that's just that 1 class. My Engineer is a Flame Hammer + Blast Cannon physical damage build (weapon switching). The plan is to get Focus to 50, Dex to 50, Vitality to enough for gear, then max Strength. The extra Strength will increase my physical damage, and the points in Dex will give me a big critical hit chance boost. Both Flame Hammer and Blast Cannon cause Coup de Grace to proc. So when anything is stunned, it will kick in and cause a huge amount of Strength-dependent damage. It's a significant boost to damage output, and makes the playstyle more tactical - you try to ensure enemies are constantly stunned so that Coup de Grace nukes them. Attack: 15 Blast Cannon (weapon DPS based means it is physical governed by the strength stat! also, this skills reduces enemy physical resistance when it hits them! and makes them blind!) 15 Flame Hammer (physical damage as above... yeah, I know it's odd. The burning status does however cause fire damage... which I estimate to be about 1/3 of the total damage of this skill... not enough to justify Fire and Spark, as it would only increase damage output by 25%, and wouldn't work at all on Blast Cannon I don't think) Other: 15 Tremor (a huge, multi-facted skill that complements every aspect of this build, especially with stun and physical damage increase) 15 Coup de Grace (if an enemy is stunned when you hit them, you cause damage equal to a large multiple of your strength (around 15 times your Strength I think at max) Defence: 15 Heal Bot (mana regen! life regen! armour boost for aegis!) 15 Max Bulwark (much coveted percentage damage reduction as well as an armour boost for aegis) 15 Max Aegis (tanky tank tank! forcefield costs mana and this build will likely need mana. also, forcefield feels more like being a glass cannon... not for me at the moment. Also, forcefield eats charge, which I want to save for Flame Hammer) If by any chance any skills remain, I will put them in Heavy Lifting for the extra chance to stun.

This is beautiful, but not very practical. Methinks you haven't actually immersed yourself in a society that has attempted to get "multiculturalism" to work, or any society other than your own, for that matter. I live in a country that has significant (as in, you couldn't imagine how much up there in comfy Scandinavia) immigration, and have had the fortune of coming into contact with many due to jobs I've held. And let me tell you, being nice just doesn't cut it. There's no way to write "being nice" into law, and laws, my friend, are the structure that keeps chaos and anarchy at bay. The are also, by their very nature, a tool and a means to bend wills. There's this little thing called moral minimums where tolerance simply has no place, and as Mes suggests, moral minimums differ from culture to culture. "Democracy" is nice, only there's no true democracy anywhere, and the devil hides in the details. I think it's quite telling that you speak so fondly of "tolerance" but are so quick to dismiss conflicts arising from cultural differences, the solution apparently being simply general niceness. Do you believe people don't love their culture, their customs, their ways? I think your stance is deeply arrogant; those people and their little cultural idiosincrasies should simply drop their generations-old beliefs and customs and "be nice". What if they'd rather continue being who they are instead of conforming to your poorly defined idea of "nice"? Tolerance only goes so far. And, historically, multiculturalism has been proven a failure as a foundation for state-building. Deep down, humans are still deeply tribal. Yes, even iPhone-toting humans. Sad but true. What he said. Except I don't think multiculturalism as seen in Europe was conceived as an idealistic project. Its a result of the failure (or overt success, depending on your point of view) of the capitalist system whose culture of hedonism left Europeans without the adequate birth rates to cover their aging work force. The German green party program (which I had to write a piece on) pretty openly states that the immigrants are necessary and if you read between the lines it turns out that multiculturalism (as seen in our time) is a concession that had to be given for them (immigrants) to be better integrated into the political and cultural system. There are other reasons as well, certain countries were more open to certain immigration as a way to preserve influence in their ex colonial states. Its a weak and short sighted policy because it tries to solve a problem, not by addressing the underlying cause (the capitalist system of production and its ideology of hedonism) but in typical businesslike fashion it looks for the quickest and cheapest solution to patch up the holes and pronounce the end product, a leaky ship, the new Titanic of freedom and multiculturalism. A system where a single child costs such obscene amounts of money to rear and educate, a system that lets its basic unit (the family) be dissolved and crumble while at the same time accepting that the only solution is to import "other people's children" wholesale can only be pronounced a failure in the long run. lol. And I suppose you also think that Breivik was just fighting the good fight, albeit in a misguided manner. Oh, and FYI: there is nothing wrong with hedonism. Enjoying oneself isn't modern society's problem. Enjoying oneself without giving a damn about others is society's problem - and in that regard the root of the problem does indeed lie partly at insufficiently regulated capitalism. But hedonism ain't the cause here buddy. Sex ain't the reason society is in trouble. Drugs are not the reason society is in trouble. Increasing acceptance of the fact that two men can love each other as much as a man and a woman is not the reason that society is in trouble. And you know what? Muslims aren't even the reason society is in trouble. The reason happens to be far less bigoted, and far more logical: people being greedy is the cause of society's problems. Sound like hedonism? It's not. For example: I can **** my girlfriend all day if I want to. It's completely hedonistic. But it doesn't cost anybody anything. (And I'm sorry to break it to you, but yes this is true of two men ****ing as well.)

By catering to the most base sexual whims of males, Obsidian loses more than half the population as potential customers straight away. Sure, many of those potential customers were lost anyway by the nature of this niche game. But any business which ignores potential customers is never going to grow and is probably destined to fail. I am not supporting this game so that Obsidian can fall back to the crudity of games past (and I refer to the game industry in general here, not necessarily Obsid). I am supporting this game because I figured Obsidian is one of the few intellectual RPG developers left. Intellectual RPG developers don't cater to immature sex-crazed males by plastering boobies everywhere and trying to show as much skin as possible. "But I like the eye candy" is not an excuse - it's just immature. Get a girlfriend (or **** buddy) if you like the eye candy, and then you can screw each other's brains out. I am a heterosexual male, too, but I have a girlfriend (who is a gamer) and have rented with a bunch of women in the past. Every time I have played a computer game where women are objectified, and any of the girls have been watching me play, they often make some pretty scathing comments about the treatment of women in computer games. And I whole-heartedly agree with them.

This is what I love about my country. Define "common." Perhaps the Canadian culture is one that cannot be strictly defined based on some type of profiling. Or ironically, our culture is more the lack of defined culture. Furthermore, perhaps this is ideal and your way of thinking is backwards? I don't know who you're quoting, but what they are promoting is called 'assimilation'. It is a racist immigration policy which Australia officially dumped in the 60's (although subsequent immigration policies remained racist until 1972 when full multiculturalism was introduced). And thank god Multiculturalism was introduced. It is what makes this country so amazing. And I much prefer dealing with Asians, Indians, Africans and whoever else, rather than my racist, bigoted white bogan kin here (which is obviously stereotyping us white Aussies - a large minority are genuinely great people). When I say bigoted white bogen, I'm talking about the kind that like to hurl abuse at fine upstanding citizens who happen to have a different skin colour or hold the hand of someone of the same sex. **** them. Also, multiculturalism has given Australia one of the best gifts of all: amazing food. And hot half-breed women. *cough* Eurasians *cough* Actually, it's amazing how free your country can become when it's not held back by some small-minded nationalistic notion of "cultural identity". We're all just humans. Bigots need to stop trying to label and divide us.

Your username is 'NerdBoner'. So excuse me if I flat-out ignore anything you say about gender representation.

It's still just Shift. Like it was and is in every other Diablo clone, including Diablo 2. I recommend people play up to at least the end of act 2 then decide. The game throws so many cool things at you by that stage that you'll definitely know if it is your cup of tea or not. Specifically, the devs took anything that was boring in Torchlight 1 and gave it some variety (particularly to try and remove the 'grind' feeling of TL1 and previous Diablo clones). I'm sure not everybody will feel they have succeeded, but this game is NOT Torchlight 1.

Which probably still makes Japan a bigger market than most other countries in the world. Even if the Japanese purchase western CRPGs at a rate of, say, 1/4 that of your average Western country, per capita. Since Japan's population is about 130 million, then Japan would be, in this example, a larger market for this game than any 'average Western country' with a population of less than 32 million or so. That's a lot of Western countries. Now I don't know the exact ratio of how much less likely the Japanese are to buy Western CRPGs than Westerners, but Japan's huge population gives it plenty of room to be both "not interested in Western cRPGs" while simultaneously being one of the largest world markets for Western CRPGs. That's not what knowing English perfectly fine means. He explained to your very well why he needs a Russian translation. Russia is a huge PC game market (ask Valve). Why do you have to be so damn rude? So maybe you were born in an English-speaking family. Lucky you. Get over it and stop sniping at people requesting translations (which are some of the most genuine requests I have seen on this forum between the constant complaining like 12 year olds that feature X doesn't suit people or houses should be fortresses or whatever rubbish is floating about at the moment). Glob, what are you, some sort of GoP-loving redneck yank?

Don't be so damn rude.

I <3 Pirotess.

Yeah, it was as easy as a Google search: https://www.google.c...my of the state Good. What, did you want to me to weep tears for tyrants and authoritarians (and I don't just mean in the Middle East)?

Existence requires a porpoise.

I played 2 player LAN with a mate. It's identical to single player, but with scaling monster difficulty and loot drops, as per Diablo 2. It was ****ing fun. Really fun. More fun than Diablo 2 multiplayer. Teams are automatic. If somebody is near you in an area, you're considered to be one their team, and monsters become harder. This game is extremely maths heavy if you want it to be - that is, if you want the values and figures they're all available SOMEWHERE on a game screen. I like that.

Torchlight 2 has recieved aggregate ratings on Metacritic of 90% from critic reviews and 92% from user reviews. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/torchlight-ii That's pretty fantastic. And I agree with those reviews - this game is everything I wanted Diablo 3 to be. Everything they got wrong in Torchlight 1, they have improved on. For comparison the first Torchlight game got 83% for from both users and critics.

God dammit, please just leave lockpicking to something like either Fallout or KOTOR. We don't need a bloody lockpicking minigame screwing with our flow!

This is a really interesting piece about the 'bubbles' that politicians and rich people live in that disconnect them from everyday life. The author should know, since she was a state governor for 8 years and had servants and security to do everything for her. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81627.html?hp=l3 Makes ya think about what Mitt Romney's life must be like.

All he's saying is that people without insurance still get medical care, not that it's necessarily the best solution. Also, the "poor" are covered by Medicaid in every state. Oh nonsense. He doesn't bloody well know what he is saying - as evident by the flip-flopping exposed by his previous quotes in that link. I'd wager a guess that, like Aeroplane windows and air pressure, or income taxes for the poor/elderly/soldiers, Romney doesn't have a clue how emergency rooms work - or how exorbitantly expensive they are. I mean, it's not like he's ever likely to be in one himself given how stinkingly rich he is. Emergency rooms are there, generally, to prevent death and other unforeseen and potentially permanent complications. THEY ARE NOT PROPER MEDICAL CARE. They are NOT preventative! They are there to patch up immediate problems, charge people a fortune (as I understand it goes in the USA), and then send them on their way only to return later BECAUSE THE UNDERLYING HEALTH PROBLEM HASN'T BEEN SOLVED! Talk about a burden on the public health system. Emergency rooms are not health insurance. By implying that they are a viable substitute for people who can't afford health insurance, Romney is yet again showing just how ****ing clueless he is when it comes to the conditions people poorer than him (which, coincidentally, is like 99% of the population) have to live with. But he's also showing how ****ing clueless he is when it comes to basic medicine. Prevention saves the economy and public purse loads of money! It prevents sick days for employers, thus increasing productivity, and it lowers the load that emergency rooms have to deal with by eliminating problems before they grow into larger, worse, more expensive and time-consuming to solve complications.

I dunno about everyone else, but this is definitely why I haven't walked off my 4th storey balcony yet.

Romney's bizarre and callous comments on healthcare for poor people: http://www.inquisitr.com/342436/mitt-romney-says-emergency-room-is-viable-health-care-option-for-the-poor/

Bad idea. First, we know too little about the storry, setting etc and therefore our choice would be a random one. Besides, the task of choosing a game title shouldn't be left in the hands of the masses. It's too important. Actually, considering it is precisely 'the masses' who are buying the game and since we know that names help sell products (sometimes strongly), I think that the name of the game is one of the decisions that SHOULD be left up to the Kickstarter backers. Although not yet.

So I just played it to level 10 with an ex house-mate. I'm sold. The game's a fantastic improvement on Torchlight 1 and incorporates lots of improvements from other games. I love playing it. SadExchange: adding you now

Pretty much, those are just organized protests for PR purposes. I can't prove that of course, but hey everyone's going to believe whatever they want to in the long run. How does it feel to be so bigoted?