sclpls

Trailer for the System Shock remake. Definitely looks like the Bioshock in space game that everyone wanted... and this time with mouse look from the getgo!

For whatever reason I thought Tacoma was coming out next year anyway, so I'm not really bummed out about this news.

I liked Myst when it came out, but ended up not really having fond feelings for the game down the road. I explained it in detail whenever this discussion last came up, but very briefly I think what struck lots of people as an impressive environment didn't age well, and the artificiality of the whole thing was potentially annoying. Robert Yang touches on this in a really nice piece about environmental art in video games: http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2016/03/a-history-and-triumph-of-environment.html

Played some more last night, and it is still working great for me. Everything is much faster (loading time between missions, and the actions in the missions themselves). While I wouldn't call it perfect, it is dramatically better. I'm not running the Stop Wasting My Time mod (which never worked for me), and I followed their instructions of making sure to press the button that optimizes the settings based on your graphics card. Also definitely make sure you check off the "zip mode" or whatever it is called which speed up a lot of the slower animations.

Yeah, this series was a breath of fresh air when most of the other Telltale stuff is heavy drama. Not knocking the drama stuff, just so nice to see the studio explore different tones for their games, and it was a real pleasure to play this one. It was all the more surprising since I never enjoyed Borderlands much.

Yes! That was a great episode, I wish I could remember which one it was. I want the version of that game where the voice is done by Noel Fielding playing his character from the IT Crowd.

Alright, played a bit this evening and the performance definitely seems remarkably better so far! Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Graham Smith wrote a persuasive piece around the time Assassin's Creed Unity came out that that game, and the series in general is no longer critically relevant. "In short, Assassin’s Creed is now the adult contemporary of video games. Assassin’s Creed: Unity is Michael Bolton." https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/08/14/assassins-creed-unity-2/ I think we're at the point now where we can extend that metaphor out to all of Ubisoft's major franchises.

Aww dude, this news is so sad! Thanks for all the great work you put into the show, it was always a pleasure to listen to!

I'm not familiar with the Japanese legal system specifically, but I assume it is similar to the legal system in most non-English speaking European countries, civil law (in contrast to the common law system that English speaking countries use). The main difference between the two systems is that precedent set by prior legal cases are extremely important in the common law system whereas in the civil system judges have more leeway to disregard precedence (this is a good feature of the common law system I think), and juries are much less common in civil systems (this is mostly a good feature of the civil system, especially when it comes to criminal cases). However I would still describe the civil system as adversarial. Lawyers still abide by similar professional ethical codes where maximally pursuing their client's interest trumps nearly all other considerations. Crucially, it wouldn't be the defense's job in a criminal case to not only prove their client's innocence (or at least cast heavy doubts), but then also discover the actual guilty party, which is a typical setup of a Phoenix Wright scenario. The civil system also has similar rules about submitting evidence (i.e. no surprise witnesses, or dramatic reveals). That being said, the point about the defense not necessarily being afforded Western standards of due process is well taken. I've been involved in submitting evidence for disputes in civil cases in Asian countries, and the amount of evidence needed for a successful judgment has always felt a bit lighter compared to what would be submitted in a European and U.S. dispute.

Yup, can't imagine anyone really wants to argue that the item wasn't too good.

Mimic beacons just got hit by the nerf bat. Price increased to 75, can't take cover, and shots always hit.

The funny thing is the use of the word "Objection!" is one of the less egregious things the series gets wrong about court proceedings. But it is totally in line with the whole courtroom/procedural drama genre that is probably the worst possible way to learn about how the legal system works. Steven Soderbergh's TV series, K Street (I believe he did that for HBO?) is probably the first and only work of fiction I've seen where it was like, whoa, this is actually how lawyers talk (I haven't seen The Good Wife yet though which several people have said is more realistic compared to the standards of the genre). Also Aviary Attorney is amazing! Personally, I think it is quite a bit better than the Phoenix Wright games.

Honestly I feel like the strongest argument for Sanders over Clinton in the Democratic primaries is that Clinton will have a more hawkish foreign policy agenda compared to what the average Democratic primary voter would want. Congress can obstruct legislative agendas but they can't interfere to the same degree with foreign policy so that is really where you would see the biggest difference. The legislative agendas are really more an exercise in affinity-based politics, and while I wouldn't say it is totally unimportant, I think it is a mistake when people get really wrapped up over whose healthcare plan would be better. We saw how difficult it was to get the ACA passed when Democrats had a majority in Congress (thanks to Blue Dogs, industry/lobby friendly politicians, etc.). The idea that anything besides small fixes can get passed strikes me as incredibly unrealistic. There's also the question of administrative appointments, which is incredibly important, and I am incredibly ignorant about how that process works so I don't know what to say about it.

That's the thing though. Bernie Sanders has done well in states with higher than average white voters. I don't know if it is possible to become the Democratic nominee without doing better among blacks, latinos, etc. because that is an important and significant portion of the Democratic base. The other interesting thing is Sanders does extremely well with young Democratic voters, whereas Clinton does much better with older Democratic voters. Young voters are much less reliable when it comes to voting in primaries however, so that's another structural disadvantage Sanders faces. There was sort of this theory he had that once the American people saw what Sanders was offering that would energize a lot of people that don't normally vote to go out and vote, but so far that theory hasn't panned out at all. Too bad though, considering the potential Republican candidates, I think Sanders would be a perfectly competitive general election candidate.

Yeah, not that I think Monopoly is really a fun game to play, but the house rules version that everyone plays is miserable compared to the actual rules.

Yeah, that's another cool thing about XCOM 2. Different classes are more appropriate for different mission types. I wish they had pushed that a little further, but I like that I would actually think about appropriate squad composition going into missions whereas with XCOM 1 I was just thinking about "what's the best lineup?" (the answer was always two snipers).

See I like that just because your gun consumes ammo. If the sword has a 100% success rate that makes it too OP I think. A weapon with perfect accuracy, no reload, that can scale well into the late game is just ridiculous.

Also shout out to Fnatic for taking out OG in such convincing fashion! This means the next day of games we're gonna see two European teams competing against each other, two American teams competing against each other, and two SEA teams competing against each other. What a setup!

I'm okay with the sword not being a guaranteed hit, but there should be some sort of parry ability from other melee attacks.

Turrican's recommendation to hold off on ironman until you complete a game is precisely to make the game more strategic. It is impossible to make any sensible planning before you understand the game's systems. Once you finally grasp the arc and design of the game, playing ironman is perfectly viable.

A ranger with blademaster is such a great counter to chryssalids though.

Goddamn Secret vs EG games always deliver.

I thought Chris Thursten's article for PC Gamer on the situation was very good: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-comedy-and-tragedy-of-the-dota-2-shanghai-major/

Yeah, those are fair points. To be clear, it isn't that I think the ordinance path is bad, but there are a lot of things from the machine gunner path that I really like. I don't prioritize grenades as heavily in my play style because I tend to favor raw damage output, and that's the one things grenades don't provide. Volatile mix is really good, and chain shot seems underwhelming by comparison, except for some of the larger mech units in the later game (that are hard to miss since they are large targets) and that is when chain shot becomes a god-like ability. Situational though, granted.