TheLastBaron

Yeah I've read all the issues of Optic Nerve, which I love but would also compare to Stray Bullets in that it probably won't appeal to everyone as it's super nihilistic and depressing a lot of the time. He's definitely really good at capturing very small and specific moments in a way that's incredibly personal.

I was talking to a friend who's been playing a lot of the game recently and he was saying that the game starts to feel really shallow when going for other victory conditions because he felt the game depends a lot on you having a fully outfitted army regardless. How accurate is this? He's the kind of thing person that likes to do things like play Civ V and win with a cultural victory as a single city on emperor, so it's very possible I'd still enjoy the game since I'm not that kind of person.

Got two books in the mail today from Drawn & Quarterly. Been meaning to get both of these for a while.

So the Image Bundle had stuff added and I'm going to post some thoughts. Number one is that the first arc of Southern Bastards was added. This was far and away my favorite thing I read all year and while it's only 6 issues in it's my favorite series that is currently ongoing. It's the only book that I actually care about picking up ASAP the Wednesday it comes out every time. It's a story in the south about an old man returning to his small home town in the south after being away for a long time and seeing how it's changed (and not changed). It's got some Gran Torino type moments at times and for me it is to the South what Essex County was to rural Canada. There's also great essays at the end of each issue where the creators talk about what the series means to them as they're all from the south (Jason Aaron is from Alabama which is where this story takes place and Jason Latour is from the Carolinas). You can currently get the first issue for free today and see if you think it's your type of thing, the first issue gives you the complete feel for what it is you're jumping in to. The other series that I have strong feelings about is Stray Bullets which they have the first 7 issues of the original run. This series is something that probably won't appeal to most people, it's super dark and violent and nihilistic, it's basically bad things happening to normal people and just watching them. In that regard I guess it's like A History of Violence. I personally love the series and while it's not something I can read a lot of at once I was super excited to see it start up again at Image last year (the new run/volume is subtitled Stray Bullets: Killers). I wouldn't recommend picking up the bundle for this series in particular unless this sounds like something you'd really like. The first issue I believe is available for free on Comixology and that issue in particular gives a very clear depiction of what the series is about. I haven't read the other series', but I've heard good things about both Nailbiter and Wytches, I just personally am not into horror. I do love Scott Snyder though and Jock is fantastic so I might end up checking out Wytches later on in the run.

I really liked Harvest Moon for a long time, HM64 is one of my all time favorite N64 games and I also loved FoMT on the gba as well as A Wonderful Life. Everything since then I haven't been into though. I enjoyed Magical Melody, but it didn't have the same charm that the other games had for me and every single game after that I've straight up hated (I haven't played all of them though because I've given up mostly, so I haven't played the Wii games) I'll get excited if I hear good things, but I feel like every time I try a new Harvest Moon game I'm disappointed.

Medallions Stones Trials, so you still play through most of the game since you have to get all the stones and medallions and do the Ganon's tower trials, but the run is ~2.5 hours shorter than the 100%

OoT 100% seems excessive, MST would have been a better choice imo

The ones that I've read and can comment on: Deadly Class: so the premise is that the main character is a homeless kid who joins a secret highschool for assassins, but that's kind of just a backdrop and it's actually a teen drama. It's got a lot of angst and Rick Remender has said that a lot of the things that happen are based on his life in the 80's as a kid in a bad part of Phoenix. I really like it and actually need to pick up #10 that just came out. Minimum Wage Slice of life comic about a comic artist living in New York. If you've read Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson it's right up that alley. God Hates Astronauts Super funny and super surreal. I don't really know how to describe it, I'd say just look at pages from it on Google and that'll tell you everything you need to know. Satellite Sam Murder mystery at a TV studio in the 50's. It's one of the few things Matt Fraction has written that I really like and it has art by Howard Chaykin so it's very much in the Black Kiss vein at times (as can be seen by the covers). Image sells it as "Sex-Death-Live TV-New York City, 1951" and I think that's a good description. Knowing about live tv definitely makes this more enjoyable. The Manhattan Projects Jonathan Hickman high concept sci-fi (redundant) about an alternate history around the end of WWII where the Manhattan Project is actually a bunch of much bigger things than the atomic bomb. It's pretty funny at times and all around interesting. I dropped off of Hickman's East of West after a while because I didn't see where it was going and was having a hard time following it, but this I've stuck with. Velvet It's by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting who did the run on Captain America that The Winter Soldier was based on. It's an espionage story with the main character being a woman who used to be a top field agent but is now older and has been working a desk job for a long time. Really good. The Fade Out Another by Ed Brubaker, period mystery/crime dramas are definitely his forte and this just started but it looking to be just as good as his other stuff with Sean Phillips (Criminal, Fatale, Incognito, ect.) it's a murder mystery in 1920's Hollywood. One thing to note about Brubaker is he always has really good essays and other stuff in the back matter of his issues. I don't know what's going to get added but if they add Lazarus I'd also recommend that.

The Hurling Day episode of Dinosaurs is the first thing in such a long time that I had to pause while watching because I was laughing so hard I couldn't see.

Watching Dinosaurs for the first time since I was a kid/it was originally on. I wasn't sure how it would hold up, but I really liked it back then. It's better now.

So I actually finished a game, which hasn't happened in a year or so. I actually finished two. I played through The Shiva and the first Blackwell game which granted is a grand total of a few hours. I was expecting to like The Shiva more than I did since noir and Judaism are two things that I enjoy a ton, but it was still alright. The Blackwell game I had actually played most of the way through and then never gotten around to finishing, which is what always happens and why I never finish games. It was good, I'm interested in seeing where the series goes and I have the others except for the final one which I should have picked up in the sale. I think being able to finish games in one sitting is what's allowing me to actually complete anything. Also this was my first time using the steam in home streaming, it worked great but these were both games that were super low resolution and would have run easily on my old laptop anyway so I don't know how it would have worked playing something more hi-fi.

Anyone here have a high refresh rate TV? I just got a new TV that's 240 Hz and it's so weird. Do you get used to it eventually?

I would say gathering professions are still decent for making money probably, but only really if you want to have an alt for farming. All the draenor mats are super flooded, but since a lot of people have dropped gathering professions in favor of two crafting professions there aren't many people farming the older mats so on my server (Tichondrius which is I think the highest population NA server) all the old herbs and stuff are selling for a lot, more that draenor mats by far. That being said there isn't a lot of need for gold so unless you like to farm for fun it's probably not worth it. I have two crafting professions, but I've always done that anyways and used fishing as an income/gathering profession. In my garrison I have a salvage yard and the two buildings for the professions I have so I can get more of the mats since it's all time based now. Having a building with a worker gives me more of the stuff (in my case leather and gems) than the daily cd so it's pretty nice.

Okay I decided my favorite album this year was the new Ben Howard album.

Dang, out of all of those I only listened to Interpol, Augustines, the Antlers, Kishi Bashi, and Kurt Vile which didn't come out in 2014. Of those I only liked Interpol (I'm not counting Kurt Vile because it's basically just part of WoaPD). I think if I had to pick an album of the year it'd be La Dispute which I thought was pretty good, but I was underwhelmed/disappointed by the majority of the albums I listened to this year. I need to go through my music though and actually take stock of what came out this year. Albums I remember listening to off the top of my head: These ones were between bad and not great: Trentemøller Cymbals Eat Guitars The Antlers Augustines Tokyo Police Club DFA1979 (didn't finish listening to it to be fair) Cold War Kids These ones were alright: This Will Destroy You Manchester Orchestra (non acoustic album) La Dispute Mastodon (tracks were super hit or miss) Every Time I Die Jamie T Animals As Leaders Heartships Interpol Rx Bandits Favorite music video is definitely PPL MVR though

No, well you might be, but I'm right there with you. The paragraph you quoted sums up pretty much exactly how I feel.

Seinfeld The Simpsons through season 9 The Wire I don't really know what the rules of this thread are so I'm just going to include other shows that I like a whole lot. Venture Bros Home Movies Scrubs

http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2014/12/14/modest-mouse-lampshades-on-fire-song-premiere New Modest Mouse song!

Dang those are sweet.

Wow, I am well aware that I suck at both starting games (I pre-ordered Portal 2 and still haven't gotten around to it) and also finishing them, but I've gone through this whole thread and out of everything mentioned I played Darksouls 2. I guess I also played Valkyria Chronicles, but it was super early in the year on PS3 so I don't think that counts. I kickstarted Banner Saga and Broken Age, but haven't gotten around to Banner Saga and am waiting on Broken Age to be all out to start it.

Yeah Wicked + Divine really is gorgeous, Jamie Mckelvie is so good. If you like it and you didn't read Phonogram, which is their older series which is very much in the same vein (I just think of W+D as Phonogram 3). Btw,just a heads up that the next issue of Private Eye went up yesterday, and Panel Syndicate put up the first issue of a new series by Albert Monteys who's a Spanish comic creator Marcos Martin invited to do something for them.

Yeah I definitely get that, I have a Kindle Fire hdx and while I like the screen I can't just sit and read a bunch of issues in one go like I can with a trade or a big OGN. That being said some things just look amazing on a good screen, I bought the deluxe hardcover of Daytripper and it's great, but I also have the issues digitally and for just admiring the art it's my preferred way to go.

Re: Wonder Woman the whole new 52 series by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang that just wrapped up at issue #35 is good. It's very much like an old Vertigo series in that it's a long form finite series that has one long arc rather than the typical mainstream ongoing series that's mostly just a bunch of short arcs made to be packaged as trades. I personally haven't finished all of it since I haven't had time to read anything in over a month (I haven't even been able to read Southern Bastards #5 despite #4 being absolutely nuts at the end), but I heard very good things about the last issue.

That's really awesome, I actually played games on my calculator a lot junior year of high school. I felt cool because I had a TI 89 Titanium so I could play Ultima V.

I saw Birdman and I enjoyed it. I don't really know what else to say because I think it's the kind of movie people should go into completely cold. It's a shame it's not playing in more places.