Musopticon?

We haven't actually thanked you, Matthew, for staying in touch with us through the development of this, have we? Well, thanks. I think what you've been doing has really helped to keep the fan-dev relations constant and reliable. I think I speak for all of us when I admit that it's admirable and respected.

oof, that hurt just looking at the picture. did he heal? taks He dragged himself up a mountainside for 2 kilometers with nothing but his hands, just to get back his lower body. Yeah, he healed, but I bet it hurt a bit. Anyhow, I just won an Altar of Luonnotar-victory in the Civ 4 total conversion, Fall from Heaven 2. Had to create 6 greath prophets, sacrifice each one in the same city to create a better and better altar(from basic to anointed to exalted to blessed, etc), gaining more and more benefits to priest specialists and happiness and culture boni throughout the empire. The seventh phase of the alter, the final phase, needs to be built normally. It required 6000 h in production, so naturally I first used 2 great engineers to get it down to an acceptable level(only 69 turns, lol) and then turned my great person farms to produce more great engineers. Eventually I had conquered almost half the world with my massive army of undead sea monsters and insane cultists, but I really wanted to see the Luonnotar ending. It's not often you resurrect a forgotten god.

When? How did she die? IIRC, Mariko died from a nervetoxin administered by an assassin hired by her brother Matsuo. Way back in 95 IIRC. She left a daughter though.

he's the only reason to ever watch Blade Trinity. That and the vampire pomeranian.

Screw Total Realism, get Europa Barbarorum. The only "total" conversion. There's even a faction for Arabia Felix, the only one in the history of computer gaming, iirc. On the other hand, it's a really hardcore mod, severely harder than the other mods, even on Normal difficulty and features so many new features, that I suggest first playing Rome:Total War for a while. It's still a good game out of the box, has a nice campaign and I can appreaciate the "collect them all" approach they made for the main campaign. Each time you defeat a faction, you get to start it's campaign. It encourages thorough playing, which I heartfully appreciate.

Probably not, this is a resurrection of a profit making franchise after all. They're going to take a very conservative approach when it comes to the atmosphere and general gameplay, I bet. Kinda wish they'd hire Emil though, he was easily my fave of the lot, along with Null.

Yay

Yes, I admit that typo was a silly mistake. 56m^2, heh.

More like Oceansize, but yeah. Anouar Brahem - Astrakan Caf

Started a last.fm-account and found out that just about everyone has already moved on, heh. Amplifier - Mongrel's Anthem I dunno, I kind of like the pre-Insider Amplifier more, but I guess it just filled my lack of good rock just when I needed it. This post-rock Amplifier is also good, just needs a different approach.

Well, thanks for the major spoilers.

Moving stuff mostly, I got a small time job to move an office from across the street and there's also the fact of moving together with the missus. The apartment is a nice 56 squarefeet loft in the innermost suburb area of Tampere, Kaleva. Living room, french balcony, fairly spacious kitchen, a snug bedroom and two large walk-in closets among other things. We paid the advance rent already, 1180 eur, but the landlord goes a bit steep by asking that the regular payday is every 5th. A bit too soon... I ended up borrowing a couple of hundred from an old friend, hoping that the electric bill doesn't increase too much in the next two months, eh. On the other hand, it's high time to actually have a place to fit all this useless yet precious junk we've acquired after moving to Tampere 2 years ago. That that place is in a beautiful and (relatively)safe location and has a good access to everywhere(1,2 miles from the centre) is a great bonus. We ended up getting an apartment that used to have a couple of weedheads though. One of the closets has an odd placement of shelves, one removed to have more space for something tall. The same closet also sports a removed grate for better ventilation, a second jury-rigged vent, an uv lightscheme, several odd hooks in the ceiling and a very distinct, yet faint odour of something green. There's also a nifty slot built under the kitchen's oven for drying something, there was even a pouch of silicate left there, hahhahha! I also have to mention the large plastic jar with an odour-seal in the cork, that I saw in the moving van when we first went to see our future apartment. Not like this is odd or rare though, it's Tampere after all.

I heard spell targeting is going to be iffy on the 360. Something about having a targeting reticle. Do you know anything about that? Otherwise, it's the co-op title I'm most excited about right now. And perfect fodder before Diablo 3.

Piratpartiet, eller hur, Kaftan? Anyways, I really wouldn't mind a new stealth game, but this looks like the bottom of the bargain-bin material. Might try it first though, Steam can be ciky.

Still playing Civ 4 mod, Fall from Heaven 2. It's pretty interesting how varied the civs can be. Especially since each one of the new 7 religions is a completely different affair. On one end of the spectrum is the agnostic Grigori, which have as their unique features the ability to generate Adventurer points - great person points that result in special hero units appearing in the GP city alongside Great Sages and the like. These dudes and dudettes start as 2a 1d template "units" and can be upgraded on any of the unit paths(recon, warrior, divine, mage). The trick to them is the "Hero"-promotion they gain automatically, that gives them 1 exp every turn until 101(8th level iirc) and the unique promotions(like permanent +1 attack or defense twice and magic immune) they can later buy. Incredibly powerful when fostered properly. On the other hand, the Grigori, being led by a turncoat angel, Cassiel(the portrait was stolen from Brom's gallery, heh), cannot adopt any of the myriad and powerful religions. For instance, there's the Lanun, a pirate faction with corresponding sea themed units and buildings, access to a unique commerce resource, pearls, and ability to completely rule on a nautical map. Their leaders, Hannah the Irin(Financial, Raiders, or "free Commando-promo to units and +100% when pillaging") and Falamar(Expansive, Charismatic, +2 to relations with every female faction leader expect a certain apocalyptic bitch) have very different foci, but thanks to the relative impunity of the Lanun to odd strategies, are of equal strength. The funny thing about the Lanun is their synergy with the only sea-based religion in the game, Octopus Overlords. Yes, that synergy goes far further than just the first and second Lanun cities being named "Innsmouth" and "Dunwich". Octopus Overlords corresponds to the Lanun leader alignment(another new feature) of Neutral, even though the first combat unit you can gain by adopting OO is the Drown, undead warriors roughly equal to the regular axemen, except being able to traverse coasts and shallow water. The main priest unit, Cultist, starts with the same water walking promotion, but also with the spell Tsunami, which causes percentage-based(random, but usually about 25 to 40) cold damage on every 2 tiles surrounding the caster, as long as it's cast on a tile next to water. It also destroys improvements. Brilliantly poweful, as long as your army is in the same stack as the casters. There's two dwarven factions, the other uses almost solely golems. Two elven factions, based around summer and winter themes, both of which can build improvements on forest tiles, gaining the yield boni. A desert faction with massive bonuses to divine units(and still not stereotypically arabic). Demonic and angelic factions, both of which only arrive to the game after certain conditions are met(building a gate, studying a technology), and both of which are immediately playable should the player wish to change their faction midgame. Demon cities don't require food and gain population every time an evil soul enters hell. Angels are immortal, but turn to a rather crappy unit type after dead and need to be upgraded again. There's a religion based around light and sun, giving immensely powerful heroes and the ability to scout the map very quickly. Another unique and nifty faction is the Elohim, a society of monks and lorekeepers, which leaders have the Tolerant feat, giving the ability to build the units and buildings of other factions, once you conquer their cities. The Elohim also have an increased chance of retreating in their cultural borders and the ability to produce the versatile Monk unit which doesn't require any special buildings or resources and has 6 str, 2 movement and Medic 1 from the get-go. Instant martial artists. Really, the most comprehensive total conversion I've ever played. For Civ 4 BTS, get it here.

No one uses that crap to learn pronunciation, it's completely pointless except if you are writing about language academically or some such. Yeah, I'm relieved to get rid off that course. It was one of the basic compulsory courses that all language students(of philology, not translation I think) have to take at basic level. Also, I never attended the classes, only went to the exam. Was horribly out of touch.

I like it, great movie.

I got 2 out of basic phonetics. Well, excuse me for not reading the IPA chart like Magna Carta. Or giving a heck over what labiodental friction means. Subglottal pressure lol

No it wasn't, it was just unlucky to have the most lauded fps/rpg hybrid game in the history as its predecessor. Invisible War wasn't crap, it was mediocre. My biggest gripe with the game is the completely butchered Unreal engine they use. Just like Thief 3, IW is an incredible resource hog and has godwafully small areas.

The music got me into the game originally. The composer is a genius.

Chicago - 25 to 4 Aww, love it.

I really like the feel that the controls and the body awareness give to the game. It's also present in Dark Messiah, so I'd have to attribute it to Source, I guess.

Dropped my BA thesis, I'll try again next year. Yes, it pisses me off, but I'm out of time and have to finish several tasks to even stay abreast in my study credits, writing the thesis any longer would have killed the rest of the courses. Hopefully I'll finally learn to not procrastinate half my time, starting with the Spanish exams today...

I wish there actually was a seafloor desert with shipwrecks and stuff in HL2, they just scrapped it in pre-beta. All we got was a rather dry beach. A very nice beach with interesting exploration, but a beach nonetheless.

Imagine that, almost like your face! Seriously, people and their opinions. Torment had an even worse control scheme and UI and it never gets this much bad rap.