213374U

HA! If only.

That would be a good idea for them. Paradox fans going loco is an added bonus. Yeah, and also for those of us who are acquainted with the state of PDS products at release vis-à-vis one year later.

Yeah, but what other turn-based tactical games are being released? Legit question. I suppose they could court Goldhawk, but Xenonauts' footprint isn't much bigger. The obvious alternative is Firaxis, but I'm guessing Epic would have to offer 2K more money than an exclusivity deal is worth to them. Poaching small and medium size developers is likely to get them the most bang for their buck, and megapublishers are notoriously risk-averse anyway. I would be surprised if they haven't contacted PDX regarding Rome. Just imagine...

Possibly to diversify their user base beyond "Fortnite teenage wangsters". **** move considering that this is altering the deal people went into shortly before it's their turn to deliver. Worst case scenario, they've effectively received a 0% interest loan from you and a few thousand more suckers. I'd bet most will cave and install EGS because "gamers" just can't go without their fix, and we don't know to what extent Snapshot are covered by their deal with Epic anyway. However, do look on the bright side. When you finally get your Steam or GOG key, it'll be extra polished and complete with all bells and whistles. And there's always Xenonauts 2.

Was it Ben Irving who said that? Anyone familiar with his tenure in SWTOR can tell you to take any such assurances with a grain of salt.

There is no place for half measures, compromise or moderation (cough) on the road to greatness.

Here's an idea. Since this feature is clearly not going anywhere, why not work around it? Simply use the edit function on every single one of your posts, always. That way the footnote is rendered pointless and redundant, since technically, all of your posts have been "edited" by you anyway, regardless of whether you've altered them after hitting the post button. It could become a sort of protest schtick. This could easily be defeated by the admin adding an "edited X times" to the notice, but I think we'll see a full revamping of the forum software as a result of the MS acquisition sooner than small changes or bug fixes...

Funny, because IIRC he hates the setting.

Agreed. I am not opposed to the concept of GaaS. However I am opposed to it being code for overmarketed, cookie-cutter products, working on a "release now, fix later" philosophy and a business model strongly reliant on nickel-and-diming. I preordered Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Shadow of Revan. Didn't regret either purchase, or the subscription money I spent throughout the years. I would support more of that, but it was apparently decided that that strategy just isn't profitable enough, so instead we have free expansions of substantially lower quality and the perception that the product is being catered mainly to "whales". Was that Bioware? Was it EA? The distinction is academic because it says it right on the package that Bioware is a division of EA. *screech*

I don't remember much about Origins' music, but Arkham City had some seriously great music alright. Good to see you, by the way.

https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1099726515292508162 Time for some freedom, bitches.

I think I have close to 200, most of that in the multiplayer, though I did finish the campaign. I keep telling myself that I did it so you wouldn't have to. Ouch. I wonder to what extent the game's (technical) problems are down to the choice of engine. Are the shooter mechanics any good at least? How's the AI?

Or latish Roman Republic: immense capite censi with low political engagement, lots of gerrymandering and back room deals, a political system that was designed well before the country got so big, huge vested interests that effectively controlled the Republic, colossal income disparities, massively disproportionate weight of military enlistment on a specific subgroup of the population and a lot more long term military engagement than was ever considered at the Republic's founding. Which probably makes Bernie Sanders Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus reborn, hopefully without the getting beaten to death by Mitch McConnell part. The morale of this story is of course that socialism failed even before it was invented, because the Gracchi bros laws to have the state give handouts of land and wheat (eventually) led to the fall of Rome. Checkmate, commies!

Mass Effect: Andromeda had terrible animation glitches and was generally lacking in quality control but it wasn't a bad game. Certianly not a good game either. Perfectly average with a dose of hilarity and some tired faces. You're way more lenient than I'd expect. To me, utterly forgettable characters, nonsensical yet unoriginal plot, a grindy, repetitive gameplay design and shooter mechanics worse than ME2's (on top of the QA issues you mentioned) are sufficient reasons to declare a game "bad". I mean, strip away the (patched) visuals, and what's left? It could have been a good game, and it had a few moments, mostly related to the exploration and vistas. But what I remember most about it was being bored. I'd urge anyone who's in the least concerned about what to do with their free time to give it a hard pass.

I remember you and I having a conversation about how MCA wasn't blameless for the mess that was KotOR2. For some reason, that sprung to mind just now. Funny how the mind works. In any case, I am frankly way past the point where I care about companies crashing and burning and people losing jobs as a result. I've been there twice, it wasn't the end of the world. If they are as "talented" as people constantly claim, they should have no problem finding other work, in the industry or elsewhere. And, if losing one's job is in fact the end of the world in 2019 America/Canada, maybe ask yourselves why instead of lashing out at people celebrating the fact that a business that has been producing nothing but broken crap that wouldn't fly in any other industry for close to ten years, may be about to cease to exist. I don't expect "EA" to learn any lessons if Anthem bombs, of course. Best case scenario, the current CEO realizes that not every genre is FIFA, and you cannot produce an instant classic through design-by-committee -- only to be replaced a year later by some other faceless suit who's confident that he can turn Divinity 3 into a billion-dollar-a-year "service". The only way anyone's going to learn any lasting lessons is through the bubble bursting. And that's never pretty.

You know, I was going to post a snide rebuttal, but I thought to myself... **** it. Just gonna ****post commie memes from now on, since it's a more productive use of everyone's time. Or at least mine's. Enjoy.

I don't know about Destiny, but it never felt like a grind to me in ME3MP. I just played casually, and unlocked things along the way. Everything felt distinct and was fun enough that I didn't need to have level X weapons to start enjoying the game. They did manage to screw that up in Andromeda, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if the endgame is indeed a grind. Especially considering their need to keep players busy until the next content pack, because everything is now a "service".

Wrong.

Bought and paid for self-styled "centrists" switching sides and suggesting that the no-deal bogeyman is the cause of all woes of the "most vulnerable" in Britain... despite them not giving a toss about them before and their doom and gloom predictions being so far false? Well, it's interesting in the sense that their "pro-business" talk strains credibility in regard to who they actually represent vs who they claim to serve. Since they keep cranking the hysterics up to 11, I guess it's just a matter of time before they start pushing for a law that allows Unilever and HSBC to appear in the ballots directly -- so that the interests of the truly most vulnerable can be properly safeguarded. Vote NOW! and get .6% on your mortgage or student loan. Terms and conditions apply.

Sort of wish that would happen, all this crying about 'anti-consumer' aside. Would be nice to see the reaction from the gamer community Yeah yeah, we get it. You don't actually play games, you're just here for the laughs. Would you blame him, if that were the case? I mean, I try to play new stuff. Most recent example, I got Far Cry 5 from Humble for $15. Turns out progress in co-op is saved only for the host, locking me out of many upgrades. This is an absurd decision that made me quit the game, as I have no interest in slogging through this crap *again* and by myself. And the reason this is a huge headache is that they bundled the exe with EAC to protect their lame ass single-player MTX scheme. And much as I despise Ubi for that, they are only offering what the morons who howl for blood over trivial **** but still gobble it up really want, because otherwise it would fail. So every time the gamer "community" makes a laughing stock of itself again, it brightens my day a little.

He doesn't mention class struggle by name, but the references are there. It's a pretty weak communist manifesto that doesn't mention centralizing control of the means of production, though. I doubt Bezos is in any imminent danger of having his property nationalized and himself being deported to AK -- even in the unlikely event of a Bernie-Cortez ticket victory in 2020. A coup by reactionaries, on the other hand...

The pain will only be passing, you should survive the process.

But... Burnham isn't a captain (yet). To be honest, I don't find her all that unlikeable. If they can hit the sweet spot between the silly robot-like behavior of early S1 and her "i cri evrytiem" S2 demeanor, she might grow into something interesting. The concept of a human child being raised as a vulcan isn't bad, but they didn't need to make her Spock's never-spoken-of sister. Yeah, me too. Spin-offs, reimaginings, reboots, whatever works. Continuity shouldn't impede creativity, but breaking it has to be warranted. Just don't give me fan fiction-level writing and pet characters and I won't spend the whole hour groaning. Same thing with the new Star Wars. I don't care that they nuked the EU except that they did it to make room for Leia's space Jesus moment, Ben Swolo's teen tantrums and toilet cleaners that just so happen to know about critical structural weaknesses. Kyle Katarn would roll over in his grave... if he could even be killed by something as silly as his entire universe being deleted. I do take exception to your lack of appreciation for captain Archer, though.