feelthedarkness

I think one of the cooler aspects is how much backstory they imply but leave on the table. Every character has a name even if they don't get said. It's something I think is a hallmark of good science fiction when people don't explain their everyday items/experiences to other people who those things would be common to (or the local amnesiac).

you're friends with Kingpin?!

The way EVERY headline phrased as a question is meant to be answered "no"

Yeah, that was good.

As a first time viewer, I haven't strongly disliked the 2nd half, but now I definitely feel the first 40% has been diminished by working through the rest. I didn't have the gut hatred of James that other people had. In his world he has a place, even in his woodenness, and I don't think they're significantly better off without him. The BLACK LODGE EVIL NEXUS is not really better than his clunky noir. If I had one specific gripe it's that for its focus on lore I can't believe they abandoned the chess metaphor. They build it up, Earl accused Coop of cheating when he really isn't and then Earl totally abandons the chess thing? I did like the strobe sequence, and Bobby getting konked for mouthing off to Fauxg Lady.

I definitely had a group of game pals that had been together since WoW launch totally disintegrate over a mobile Diplomacy game. I think we only made it like 2 or 3 turns in before 3 separate people stopped speaking forever.

I have to assume Ripley's stoicism has to be partially informed by that fact that she's basically a space miner (Supervisor? i'm not totally clear what a warrant officer does on a mining ship). It's odd to think how rare these types of explicit display of working class have become. I don't have a ton to add (to the already good stuff), but I just wanted to say that Apple Cider has done a bang up job, and there are some great posts here!

i was really skeptical at first. i thought it looked too clean (immaculately placed stylized dirt) and pretty the way modern grimdark movies are. what happened to all the ugly people in hollywood (and hollywood worldwide)? but something about the slo mo destruction ballet has piqued my curiosity.

I think Japanese material is also severely complicated by a totally arcane production process (compared to the US), based on conversations with my Anime convention running friend. We were talking about their difficulty in establishing independent production, and what I was told was (you might/probably all already know this. it was totally surprising to me). These things get designed by committees where each stake holder has a unique stake in the pot and they have total control over their aspect. The soundtrack is produced independently, and those people own the proceeds of that, where the creators only get paid off DVD sales, and not at all off TV broadcasts, if anybody gets paid at all for that. Anyway, I think this is one source of the grossness, that different aspects (the toy makers) don't answer to the creator. It's also why DVDs are like $60, because they calculate out what the creator needs to take away, what the diehard audience is, and then just divide those numbers.

Yeah the first game was one of those eastern bloc oddballs that totally hooked me a few years ago. The first game was an odd combination of rock paper scissors and action. Some things (weapons/skills/magic) worked super well, others didn't at all. I can't think of much else like it. Like the others said, 2 is a much more polished game with pretty well done action combat. Also, I've got an extra copy of Witcher 3. I preordered a long time ago, when they offered the discount for owning the first two, and I just upgraded my GPU and got a free key. Would anybody trade me an "expansion pass" for that key? Is that crass of me to ask? hah. still half price!

J Allard Bike Hunter is a solid game concept. The other thing about Dragon Age two is you have this very old port city, but the inside of every house is like a condo complex with one layout.

The Romulans always seemed like the race they were keeping in a back pocket for another series. The empire was huge and prosperous but they only gave you a few inside looks to their society, then Nemesis comes along and ruins them.

Finished Picketty's Capital in the 21st Century. Big thanks to the Idle Thumbs Poster who's name I sadly forgot that told me it would be a fine audiobook. You were totally right. It's spectacular, and fills me with righteous anger, and also a sense that we are fucked beyond repair.

these posts and yesterday's podcast really makes me want to reread this!

I agree on his reprehensibility, but I think they're all also shaped by (victims of) Himself. A lot of the book is about the pain being paid down the line, the people who are secondary victims of addiction.

Wait, why wouldn't you eat the tomato? If you weren't going to eat the tomato why would you subject yourself to all that hassle?! (i mean running)

It's pretty deeply flawed, but Generations is my favorite TNG movie. Granted that is starting from a baseline of "they're all pretty bad and not Star Trekky." I think a lot about it could be fixed with a re-edit, most notably changing the near end so it doesn't look like Picard chooses to come out of the nexus needlessly stuck under a boulder.

I have no horse in the superhero race but those Batman pictures give me a really shitty WARRIORS vibe in a way that I find kind of appealing.

Congrats! Yeah it's meaty, and for me sort of transformative to my interest in modern (as a style) literary fiction. Something worth revisiting through life. Pale King is an amazing glimpse of might what have been. I think I posted this here or in another thread, but you hear "unfinished book" and you (me) are inclined to think 80% finished, but after ~500 pages I feel like he was maybe 30% there?

http://www.pcgamer.com/mysterious-countdown-clock-appears-for-black-mesa/ LETS DO THIS!

This is come up on the podcast a bunch, the idea that games/media can effect you and your outlook. If you went through your formative years in the last 15/20 years games shifted to that "YOU'RE AWESOME!" mode for clearing obstacles designed specifically to be cleared. It's really weird when you think about it, very little in games are designed to actually stop a player absolutely. Then you get these indie games that tell you things aren't so great. I don't think people are reacting that directly, or that clearly, but I think there is a subconscious effect that feeds into the notion of "what real games are."

I'd like to think I groked a fair amount of it, and agreed about the first two, but it really clicked with me the extent of the depth I was missing out on, when I looked up something on the Kenosha Kid chapter, and it turned out to be a reference to Slothrop meeting Malcom X in a Chicago bar. I'll also add: • being a little shocked at the degree of transgression, coprophagia and pedophilia.

it's the weirdest feeling! like being excited to start something new and then having it turn into the same thing. i guess some books transcend that, but unless you are some kind of super genius GR can't reach that immersive clip.

all good stories are based on many secret truths nobody but this mob will tell

Finished Bleeding Edge. I'm of mixed feelings! It's a strange bird of a book, in some ways taking Inherent Vice and even further simplifying the cartoonish aspect of his writing, the flippancy, but in terms of plotting I think it's knottier and more vague like some of Pynchon's earlier work. There is seemingly no climax or resolution, which is fitting in a way. I did get a strange feeling where I understood almost all of the various cultural references, which is a first for his work, if only to illuminate how much I probably will never catch in the others. I also dig the Snow Crash/Neuromancer trip into VIRTUAL SPACE, though given the way writers seem to love Second Life, I bet that is the more likely touchstone.