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You spoke of "major terrorist attack in the last few years". Breivik's fits the description, like it or not, but I'm sure that the terms "major", "last few years" or even "terrorist attack" could be redefined to exclude it. Fallacious, but effective. Rigour is never a prerequisite when making appeals to emotion, anyway. Living peaceful, gainful lives and abiding by the law of the countries that host them is the definition of integration. You want them to do... what else, exactly? Where does it say that you have to "like" a country to live in it? I'm guessing they like it well enough since, well, they ****ing chose to go over there from whatever ****hole they were born in. I'm going to guess you mean peaceful coexistence, when you speak of integration. No, that's only going to get worse. An ever-increasing wealth gap, quickly deteriorating prospects for an entire generation that never learned to deal with frustration in a healthy way, a largely manufactured gender discourse that has led to identity issues for a lot of young men, anti-immigration sentiments and rhetoric coming to a boiling point, authoritarianism on the rise, etc. It's a recipe for disaster. If you think "the problem" is with Islam, you have an extremely narrow perspective.

Good read, Agiel. Thanks. "Every major terrorist attack in the last few years was committed by Muslims" -- you mean except those that weren't, or those you handwave away, right? I'm sorry, but facts just don't back you here. And they don't back you regarding the "cultural incompatibility" of Muslims at large either, because of the undisputable fact that the overwhelming majority of Muslims living in the west are peaceful, law-abiding citizens. We're talking about millions of people, but you insist in using statistical outliers to illustrate a general principle. That's... not very rigorous, to put it mildly. @Meshugger: "civil war" warnings are preposterous, but I wouldn't completely discount a wave of violence à la St. Bartholomew. Divide and conquer.

Cool story, but OP is specifically asking about Obsidian's freedom of expression regarding what they will be allowed to put in the game, not his own while playing it. That being said, Obsidz is not an indie dev. Making money and staying in business is obviously going to be a higher priority than making any sort of artistic statement or political commentary... even assuming they were inclined to do so. They've probably learned their lesson after the limerick debacle, so expect them to err on the side of caution. P'dox are also notoriously skittish when it comes to anything remotely controversial. Connect the dots, and make a decision. At any rate, pre-emptive controversies are pointless. This one is particularly baffling, considering the OP claims he doesn't even have time to pursue his own hobbies. Priorities?

So what's your theory? Clearly part of the motivation of the shooter was that he was pissed at police brutality against blacks. But that can't be all of it, because he's not alone in feeling that way, yet cops aren't picked off by angry snipers daily. So the rest, as he says, is better left to psychologists. What would you like him to say?

Good way to start a discussion about a game. I find myself wanting to disagree with some of your points but... can't, heh. ...except one, perhaps. Kindly Cheng is too much of a mother figure. You are told not to mess with the big bad red pole and in keeping with the setting's themes, you are little more than a tool to her -- useful, but ultimately disposable. However she actually goes out of her way to help you out and never sells you out; I think this is a weakness and it was also one of my complaints with Dragonfall. The game is mostly just fake grimdark. You can even get a happy ending for Ray, and it's not too difficult either. Cool review. Do more.

The single most ubiquitous "aspect that organically unifies people to seek live under single government" is force. Those who don't want to live under whatever single government you are thinking tend to get crushed rather promptly and become a footnote in some history book. Or they win, and get to establish their own "single government" complete with independence days, official language and symbols, curated glorious victor's history and so on, which ipso facto are pushed to the population as their new "national identity". Fun fact: in 1789, 50% of people in France couldn't speak French. So yeah, organic in the sense that it wasn't aliens that came and drew lines on a map. Generally not a spontaneous, bloodless, bottom-up process, though.

Not only that -- as a result of the financial chaos, he just got a pay rise of £8,000 pa. "Brilliant".

^ But did she? I remember reading back in 2015 that, if she had actually deleted stuff, or even failed to preserve it, given that it was subpoenaed, she (or, more likely, some hapless fall guy) might have been charged with obstruction, which is serious bad news, and easier to deal with for the prosecution than gross negligence. Eventually the IT firm that handled matters for her backtracked and said they didn't have knowledge of anything being deleted and handed everything over. I haven't since seen anything else regarding obstruction of justice so I guess she was just stalling for time or something.

*raises hand* Just next week we'll celebrate the 80th anniversary of the fratricidal struggle that gave us half a million dead and forty years of military dictatorship. That's what's most disheartening about all this -- no matter how many die, how indiscriminate the slaughter, how brutal the repression, we can't seem to learn the lesson. Fast forward a few decades, and we're always back to square one. We really are ****ing hopeless. Just bring Skynet online already.

From what I gather (I'm not subbed atm), the idea is that trash from the event packs unlocks in collections i.e. if you're lucky, you get an interesting piece with the 'event' character, and then you get to spend CC to unlock it for the rest. Disappointing is... putting it mildly. I remember getting chewed out pretty bad for suggesting that Yavin slicing nodes dropping two blue lockboxes was going to hurt the game's economy in the long run, and the resulting rate of price increases observed across the board was unsustainable. This was back when Tulak's chest was 20M. People countered with such well-thought out and articulate arguments that getting 12-15k per node was simply "fun", and "supply and demand bro". That and being accused of "attitude" and being "elitest" (sic) after offering to carry some crybaby through SM DF-DP so they could complete the Oricon arc, made me realize that it was in my best interest to blacklist the SWTOR forums. So now I'm your problem.

You really are a guzzler for trash "journalism" aren't you? The picture used in the "article" is a stock photo at least a year old. In the original piece linked by Mr. French, no mention is made of RPGs or even automatic rifles, just unspecified "war grade" weapons. How many mass shootings have occurred in Germany in the last decade and what has been done in response? How many in the US, and what has been done in response? Yeah... Seriously, stop reading that tripe. It's rotting your brain.

Well, the article is a bit off-base, I think. Here's the actual document: http://europa.eu/globalstrategy/sites/globalstrategy/files/eugs_review_web.pdf It's mostly a bunch of vague references to unspecified existential threats and political bull**** about closer cooperation in matters of security, fostering human rights, the rule of law and what have you. No mentions of a unified military chain of command, training procedures and standards at the Union level, EU troops, or anything of the sort. It suggests shifting the balance towards hard power rather than being mostly flaccid soft as the current status quo, but it doesn't make any specific recommendations as to how to do that. However: "In particular, investment in security and defence is a matter of urgency. Full spectrum defence capabilities are necessary to respond to external crises, build our partners’ capacities, and to guarantee Europe’s safety. Member States remain sovereign in their defence decisions: nevertheless, to acquire and maintain many of these capabilities, defence cooperation must become the norm. The EU will systematically encourage defence cooperation and strive to create a solid European defence industry, which is critical for Europe’s autonomy of decision and action." "With the US, the EU will strive for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Like the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, TTIP demonstrates the transatlantic commitment to shared values and signals our willingness to pursue an ambitious rules-based trade agenda" Stuff along those lines is common throughout the doc. To me, the takeaway is a push to consolidate an EU military-industrial complex rather than for a proper 'EU army' as such. It's a much easier sell, too.

Hopefully, the numbers may persuade Paradox to consider GOG as a viable platform for the rest of their releases (Stellaris...). A guy can dream.

Can... can they do that? Isn't the IP owned by someone? $30 is a bit steep for a KS, but what the hell. edit: cool, MCA is involved, doing somethingorother... <3

Hahaha. Classic. He's for free circulation of goods, but obviously not for free circulation of labor. That's not how free trade works, per Adam Smith. And there you have it, the plutocracy scored another one, and the workers will pay the price no matter what happens. "To decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament — this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary- constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics." The "trade deal" was a red herring. The strategic objective has always been the same: the encirclement of Russia, as evidenced by the expansion of NATO, the missile shield, etc. Ukraine has historically been a buffer zone between Europe and western Russia. Literally, it's where offensives go to die. Tearing that huge chunk of land off the Russian sphere of influence is a huge blow because in one fell swoop you do away with a large part of the problem that traditionally caused European land wars against Russia to fail. On top of that, you take away Russia's ability to operate in the Black Sea. Next to that, any trade deals are a mere footnote.

Yeah, I don't get it. He's butthurt about having a referendum to begin with, and the perspective that elected officials will have to... do work? Gotta love these (super-)statist leftards. Democracy is only cool when it goes your way, hmm?

You've got nothing but irrelevance on the subject at hand. Bring something to the table, or go away. Sorry your ego was bruised. I had thought you were above projection. That's some delicious irony coming from you, talking about irrelevance and bruised egos, considering that you can't seem to write two words without reminding everyone of how well read, well traveled and intelligent you are. So yeah, looks like I was pretty much spot on, and my advice to you bears repeating: get over yourself.

Historical context, please. The forward Christian thinkers that fought for religious tolerance and the separation of Church and state were a product of the aftermath of the incredibly bloody massacres that were perpetrated in Europe by Christians, for -on the surface- religious reasons, for over a hundred years. It is not possible to understand modern Western culture without the religion wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. So yeah, Christians. But only after they figured out that maybe, maybe, burning the heretic, killing the mutant, purging the unclean wasn't the best way to go about it. How about we try to foster the same kind of self-reflection within Islam rather than going full-on Der Stürmer at the drop of a hat? --- Regarding the Muslim rape gangs. While appalling, it's a drop in the ocean, sadly. Look up the numbers of child sex trafficking involving Eastern Europe. Hint: the mafias controlling that trade are run by white kingpins, and directed mostly at Western European white customers. edit: sure guv'nor, no more talk of Muslims. For all the good it does anyway... In the vast majority of the posts I ever make on any given topic on this forum, historical context is considered (frankly, hence my point of view on many things as I have deep knowledge of the history (I don't opine when I don't know, I listen)). The one you reference, is not one of the exceptions. I'm more than well aware of the situations which you bring up, however, in the context in which I was writing, they are a combination of acknowledged and irrelevant to the point I was making. Get over yourself.

What?! You mean votes on Twitter weren't counted? What's the world coming to? Oh, I am so pissed right now. I'm going to write the angriest 140-character post ever, just you watch. edit: oh great. He's at it again.

Historical context, please. The forward Christian thinkers that fought for religious tolerance and the separation of Church and state were a product of the aftermath of the incredibly bloody massacres that were perpetrated in Europe by Christians, for -on the surface- religious reasons, for over a hundred years. It is not possible to understand modern Western culture without the religion wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. So yeah, Christians. But only after they figured out that maybe, maybe, burning the heretic, killing the mutant, purging the unclean wasn't the best way to go about it. How about we try to foster the same kind of self-reflection within Islam rather than going full-on Der Stürmer at the drop of a hat? --- Regarding the Muslim rape gangs. While appalling, it's a drop in the ocean, sadly. Look up the numbers of child sex trafficking involving Eastern Europe. Hint: the mafias controlling that trade are run by white kingpins, and directed mostly at Western European white customers. edit: sure guv'nor, no more talk of Muslims. For all the good it does anyway...

From the link Zoraptor posted. Download the zip, from what I can gather, it's the "Clinton Foundation Donors (from Free Beacon).xlsx" file sorted by amount donated. (Free Beacon? Searching brings up a conservative newspaper. Did they post it themselves previously...?)

I found it to be incredibly grating, for reasons I've more or less elaborated on here. Does the writing get less edgy and one-dimensional later on, or should I just write it off as Not For Me? (Never managed to finish a Fallout game in my life either.) No, no I don't think the writing changes in that sense. Everyone is pretty much a **** in this game, and I don't think I've ever come across a single genuinely nice character who doesn't intend to rip you off somehow or has some skeletons in the closet. It's part of the mood-setting, but I can't find fault with your criticism. The game certainly doesn't lack things that may potentially piss you off, so if the writing feels outlandish, forced, or you just don't like it, don't bother. Time is too valuable to waste doing stuff you hate on your own dime, and this is one of those "love it or hate it" products.

Oh, there is a thread for this game? So, any good reason why the most important choice the player will make is the character build? That alone determines most of the consequences you will encounter. I've read this is justified because the game "is not a power fantasy", and "C&C bro" -verbatim from the devs- but this is absurd given a) the bodycount you can end up with and, b) the plot itself. It is also ill-advised on a conceptual level because by definition it is the complete opposite of an informed decision. This extreme fixation with locking the player out of not only certain quest and plot branches (understandable) but basically everything that is not their sphere of specialization right out of the character creation screen really baffles me. Apparently it is anathema to the designers that somebody could be a Navy SEAL *and* hold an engineering degree. One might argue that such a person will probably never win the world heavyweight championship or the Nobel Prize, but they will be reasonably competent in both fields. Not in this game: as a generalist, your experience will mostly consist of a long string of [failed] checks, interspaced with the "Game Over" screen. If in Fallout 3/NV it is hard not to be an unstoppable Gary Stu swimming in money and mastering every conceivable sphere of human activity, this game is the extreme opposite. As a specialist fighter, you will barely survive the toughest, optional fights, RNG permitting. You won't be able to make much sense out of the lore of the game with such a build, though. As a more social-oriented character, don't expect to survive an ambush by a bunch of hobos. That is, of course, unless you take metagaming and savescumming to the next level, learn exactly the what, where and when of the minimum checks you need to pass to open up options leading to more skill points, and exploit that. That's probably the only way to make it with a jack-of-all-trades character, and the Steam playthroughs I've seen seem to confirm it. With that out of the way, I'm enjoying it sufficiently not to put it down. After accepting that I will suck at everything except <build focus> I'm having fun and will probably replay once or twice. It is true that different character backgrounds and skillsets allow for different resolutions and outcomes, the lore is interesting enough to carry the story, and the game manages to portray decadence pretty well. I've even felt that "Fallout with swords" vibe a few times, inbetween fits of blinding rage. I'm actually digging the music too, but it can get repetitive especially in the cities. The division between social and combat skills is brilliant in its simplicity, and it's great that you get rewarded with combat/social points depending on how you handle problems. Combat is... serviceable albeit uninspired, as are most characters I've come across. Areas are generally small, both in scope and actual size, and the largest city in the world is large in name only. Skill/stat checks are ubiquitous but also wildly inconsistent in difficulty and application. I'd say worth the discounted price, but approach with the mindset that this game has some seriously rigid design, and unless you are willing to cheat, there is no way around the limitations imposed as a result. It's a role-playing game, provided you play strictly the roles the designers allow; otherwise it's an exercise in frustration. Tigranes' post describes the game well enough, but one has to wonder to what extent stuff that sounds good on paper actually makes for fun games... even if the execution were flawless. Still, an excellent effort for an indie studio's first game. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with for their colony ship RPG.

Well, we have this cavalier tendency to tell you how to run your country every day of the week and twice on sundays, so I don't think anyone will hold it against you. However, if you are still uncomfortable, you can always do it like a boss a member of royalty, and frame it as a leading question.

Thanks. By your description, it sounds similar to one of my favorite games -- Starfleet Command. I'll be sure to check it out... if it's ever released outside of Steam.