Gorth

Mistake #2.... assuming that "Iraqis" had a sense of national identity. I do think that one goes on the account of countries like England and France though, when they divided the old Ottoman Empire according to their own interests. If not of any interest, then the proverbial "lines in the sand", drawn straight with a pen and a ruler on a paper map, disregarding local history, religion and ethnicity. I'm not a fan of nation states and much less of nationalism, but the assumption that everyone else would think the same way was just old world arrogance (I think Gromnir explained the shortcomings of such assumptions better in one of his posts a bit further up).

Post war mistake #1 (second Iraq war) was a complete ignorance of how much Shia and Sunni hate each other. I know people love hating on Iran these days, happily ignoring the very same shortcomings in Saudi Arabia, because one has been labeled an enemy and one a friend. How does the saying go? With friends like these....

Space Marine Occulobes next!

Trump should just put up a wall with lots of "gaps", where people can pay with Visa or Mastercard to pass through. It will be as effective as a solid wall, yet result in "Mexico" paying for it. Win/win Sorry, it's Friday and it's been a long week.

I guess I'm technically "Ancient" although I really only feel like an Immature Adult

He was probably studying the deterioration of hyperlanes when exposed to prolonged solar flares and electromagnetic radiation when close to massive astronomical objects.

Steam is my go to platform for multiplayer games, but having the Bioware games on Origin doesn't really bother me to be honest. Where I did get pissed off a lot was when I literally had no internet for weeks and it wouldn't let me play any of my old, bought games. As mentioned, in DA2 the characters were the saving grace for me and it's probably, together with BG2 the games I keep replaying once or twice a year. ME3 was a mixed bag with some very high highs and low lows. Overall I liked it, just quit your game before the end :D Never bought Andromeda and failed 3 times to get into DA:I, failed less than an hour each time. I'll still see if I can't get an actual game going in the latter though, although it is up against some stiff competition in Witcher 3 for my limited spare time.

One of those European things I miss occasionally... watching Bundesliga matches on the weekends on TV

Nooo... I has an identity crisis! Good to see you again Allan and good to hear you not running around with a bullseye painted on you I don't generally share what people on my friends lists do

I feel this applies to both ME2 and DA2. I.e. a step forward and two step backwards from the original games. DA2 offered better characters, but completely gimped game mechanics, narrow corridors instead of semi-open areas and don't get me started on the rather obvious and heavy handed asset recycling. I still love Varric and Isabella though.

Aren't you a little short for a... erh, never mind. Maybe a durable, dirt resistant fabric that is marketable to settlers on remote colonies without laundry facilities.

A bit of background story for the (Guild Wars 2) pictures... The nation of Orr was once a significant human realm. The Six (human gods) lived there until they departed the world. Left to their own devices, humans succumbed to constant internal wars and weakened themselves, so when the Charr wiped out the realm of Ascalon and headed towards Orr, the Orrians despaired and a Vizier Khilbron did a big no-no. He used one of the artifacts left behind by the six and let's just say it backfired spectacularly. Cutting a lot of stuff about who manipulated events that lead to it all. Suffice to say, the cataclysmic release of magic not only wiped out the Charr High Legions, it literally caused Orr to be swallowed by the sea and the Island realm was now part of the sea floor. Much later, the Elder Dragon, Zhaitan used similarly powerful magic to tear Orr from the sea floor and raise it, building it's lair in the ruins and commanding the hordes now undead inhabitants. it's part the reason why this area looks like it sort of belongs on the bottom of the sea. When Orr was raised, the resulting Tsunami destroyed the human capital of Kryta and the humans built a new one, somewhere far away from the coast, calling it 'Divinitys Reach'. Thrifty refugees from multiple races rebuilt in the ruins of the old city and created a new free city which is sort of the de facto capital of the world, where all races meet and ply their trade. The 5 playable races have a local capital and a shortcut gateway to this city, Lions Arch. Anyway, Orr is still a comparatively dark and gloomy place with undead of all sizes and shapes haunting the place Just my necromancer girl trying to strike a suitably heroic posture, fiddling around with camera angles to use the light (which isn't sunlight, just an eerie glow from a magical source)

I still have him on my steam friend list, so I know he's online, alive and kicking every now and then. and for the record, Baldurs Gate 1+2 were Biowares best ever games!

Pictures... or it didn't happen!

Pretty much this. If a company (in this case EA and their Bioware subsidiary) is convinced their way forward is Battle Royale game and micro transactions, the only way to go forward is to do what they did. The market, being just as ruthless as any corporation, will then decide whether that model will stand the test of time. There are of course classier ways of commenting on it than just simple minded gloating and wishing people out of work.

My parents keep telling me it's a life time job...

I bought it and my life is filled with regret. Et tu, Hurlshot? No canvas bag for you! Meh, just kidding. I do enjoy some internet gaming. My current favourite is an MMO (Guild Wars 2) and when I need to bash something, Killing Floor 2 scratches the itch. Speaking of internet games, one of my worries at the moment is the lack of info about Borderlands 3. Makes you wonder what happened to it? Stuck in development hell?

Not going to touch Anthem by the looks of it. A shame it's almost impossible to find players for Starsiege Tribes (or the newer Tribes 2 from 2001) these days

I think one of the reasons "Life of Brian" is one of my all time favourite movie is, it pokes fun at organized religion. The trappings, the rituals, the lack of independent thinking... Call me a blasphemer, but I think Jesus would have loved the movie. It picks up where he left off 2000 years ago, chiding, scolding, mocking, showing the clergy up, revealing their short comings and fighting the established religion, the power structures, the abuse, the inflexibility of a rules based system. Speaking of rules... I can't remember who it was originally attributed to, but I love a quote that goes somewhere along the lines of "Computers are like an Old Testament God, all rules, no mercy"

I'm not really a Christian, but I do believe Jesus in many ways was a socialist and an anarchist. One thing to remember though, is those concepts are "new". If I had to put a label on the historical person, I would label him "rebellious". Not against Roman rule, but against Rabbi rule. He seemed against people accumulating wealth for wealth's sake and wealth hoarded was wealth wasted if it wasn't used to do do good for people. Main subject of his antagonism seemed to be the organized religion of the time though, which he had nothing but contempt for. Just my $0.25

Oh I'm sure the Americans know how to throw a tea party

@Koma i think it's fairly certain to say, he couldn't care less about your opinion (he died quite a few years ago)

Guild Wars 2... I love the desert maps. Well, most of them anyway. The Elon river valley and estuary area is gorgeous in-game. My little Asura engineer gliding upstream on his skimmer mount (effectively a "hovercraft")

Well, this is the 21st Century. Maybe she identifies as a cat?