legend

So fucking gross.

3 hours ago, darkness35 said:

I haven't gotten that far, but playing on the available hard mode and it feels like my shotgun is a horrible peashooter.

FWIW, I didn’t really enjoy the game starting on hard. Not because it was so tough per se, but because I was constantly running out of ammo and a shooter like Doom without ammo is boring. I dropped it down to normal after coming back to it about a year later and had a lot more fun. After you get enough upgrades so that ammo isn’t as much of a problem, going back to hard would be fine.

Just a thought.

3 hours ago, Nokra said:

I'm reading Pet Sematary by Stephen King. It's the first non-Dark Tower book of King's that I've read and I'm enjoying it a lot so far. I'm about 150 pages in. King may not be "high literature" but he knows how to create atmosphere and tell a story, and that's worth the price of admission for sure. 

 

I recently finished Less by Andrew Sean Greer, about a mediocre author who decides to avoid going to the wedding of his former boyfriend by accepting invitations to a bunch of speaking engagements around the world. The book follows him on his humorous adventures to Germany, India, Morocco, Japan, etc. It has a lot of humor while still dealing with some serious topics (loss, aging, relationships, forgiveness, etc.) and actually won the Pulitzer Prize for 2018.  Deservedly so I would say, it was a very enjoyable read. 

 

I also recently reread Foundation by Isaac Asimov. I know that @legend enjoys these, and I'm planning on reading at least the first four. I purchased them years ago and then keep getting distracted by other books, but I know they're good and easy reads. I'll try to remain focused this time.  

Excellent! FYI, 4th Foundation book is a bit of a cliffhanger, so it’s not a good place to stop. And if you want to go that far, my suggestion is read the first 3, then pause and reach the robot novels (Caves of Steel, Naked Sun, Robots of Dawn, and then Robots and Empire). Then read The last 2 (in universe chronology) Foundation books: Foundations Edge, and Foundation and Earth. You will thank me for that pause and reverse toward the robot novels  If you cant get enough, then read the prequel Foundation novels: Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation after the final two foundation books and robot novels.

Under no circumstances read Foundation and Earth nor the prequel Foundation novels before reading the robot novels.

Also, the robot novels are IMO better, especially the last two.

I distinctly don’t want X-men in the MCU. Maybe they could do it in a compelling way, but I think what makes X-men tick is that the mutants are a disruptive force in society. In the MCU, they wouldn’t be, and so the social ramifications wouldn’t work the same way. So while maybe they can find a way to pull it off in an interesting way, I think they would work better in their own universe (plus Deadpool)

This is the first Steam alternative that I might be able to get behind.

NASA is so fucking cool. It's one of the few remaining symbols of america that's positive.

Sucks. The Netflix marvel shows aren't as good as they were when they started so I'll probably just avoid signing up and buy the movies I want.

I think she's a great casting choice. Even though I've stopped watching these shows, I might check it out to see how she does in it.

Uttering the term "blockchain" in a promo for some tech currently raises my BS detector to 97% all on its own.

I've decided that I will not live in the south or south adjacent ever again.

8 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

The disingenuous first amendment argument increasingly being put forward is that people have a right to an audience. You should have a right to speak on a campus or have your content hosted by private company. I don't think they actually think through the legal ramifications that such an interpretation would incur. 

I personally find the freedom of speech appeal as some fundamental knock out a non-starter anyway. That "right" does not exist on its own as some natural force of reality. We imposed it as a law because we think it's useful for society to prosper. If appealing to it as as an absolute is *not* useful, merely appealing to "freedom of speech" does nothing to justify the position that Facebook et al., banning IW is bad.

And fortunately, our laws in place are not some absolute imposed even on private products, so we don't even have to change something fundamental about our laws to be in favor of the ban.

I mean, lets just be clear.

The alternative being proposed is that Facebook should be legally prohibited from regulating who can use its service even when the users in question clearly propagate harmful misinformation? Really? Is that the alternative we think is better?

I am intrigued.

9 minutes ago, atom631 said:

 

as of now the internet is not a utility, and that's certainly a different argument on whether or not it should become one.

Understood; my point is that legislation and the way people conceptualization it is more of utility than something like Facebook. For that reason, I don't think we have to worry about a slippery slope. There's a pretty clear difference between them.

Ultimately, we shouldn't feel compelled to put everything in a pre-determined set of boxes anyway, though I understand legally it is often necessary to do so, which is why I raised it as "through the lens."

28 minutes ago, atom631 said:

For the same reason that, lets say an ISP decides its going to block all domains that host pornography because they believe it adds to the moral decay of society (or some other nonsensical reason). Im a big boy, I can make the decision on my own as to what content I chose to view. And I understand no platform is required to host it if it goes against their views. On the other side of the argument, I firmly agree that a company should have the right to ban/block/Not serve cake if its what they chose. 

 

However, this wont suddenly make AJ/IW followers go away or stop believing his lies.  This in fact  will only further to strengthens their narrative. Also, so long as Youtube doesn't ban him, it wont matter. 

I don't think the ISP analogy would be pushed though because law and regulation of ISP is more from the lens of the internet as a utility. Regardless of how prolific Facebook (et al.) is, I don't think there is any reason to conceptualize it as a utility and therefore generalize the law across. 

This would, however, generalize to say, Youtube and Twitter. And I'm also okay with a world where they block content for the same reason I'm okay with a world in which cable channels choose their content and can kick shows off.

I *will* pay for this.

I've been looking at this one on PC for awhile, but I think I'll go Switch if I get it.

36 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

DOSEE is fully voiced too (unfortunately)

I suddenly have an urge to buy some cheese.

No thanks... Not because I have a problem with not owning the game, but because I have problem with latency in gaming.

If they want to open up a service where you still download the game, but only own while you pay for the service, I'm open to that.

T2 has a far more nuanced and compelling story that sadly doesn't really seem to reach a lot of people. T2 challenges the very idea of the first: that AI are dangerous monsters who will kill us if we develop them. The thesis of the second is that intelligent machines can be a force for good, or evil. It's a reflection of ourselves. It succeeds in building an actual relationship between the humans and the T800, including even Sarah Connor who is forced to confront her worst nightmares to do so. It makes you feel for the uncompromising emotionless machine.

T1 is just a monster movie.

That commentary was indeed great  

16 minutes ago, Dexterryu said:

As someone that played several of the games in the OP but only one sequel (Divinity 2). The reason being is that while I enjoy the worlds, exploration, and gameplay of PoE and Shadowrun, I hate the mostly text based dialogue and story and tend to get tired/bored because of it.

 

IMHO, just because the format and gameplay are a little more retro/throwback it doesn't mean you have to exclude modern conveniences like voice acting.

FWIW, PoE2 is fully voiced except for the "story book" elements (and some of them are voiced too)

1 hour ago, RedSoxFan9 said:

Employer mindset

 

Holy shit. Was this made as satire or did someone actually mean it sincerely?

9 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Play it with @legend and it will be closer to 30 hours  

 

Id suggest myself but like I’m already going through it right now and stuff... 

 No, I'm afraid not. Game is fucking tough. Many of the battles, even "mundane" ones, need to be independently thought through. This is not a game where you learn one or two strategies and just repeat it on each encounter. I had previously started a second playthrough with my wife, but having already played it with my friend did *not* make it a breeze to go through, because one play through is not nearly enough to remember how to play each battle. This goes doubly if you change your character designs.

How much political sway does the Catholic church have in the US? My impression (which may be wrong) was that the protestants had more political power here.