sclpls

Count me as a fan of the look of Betrayer. I like the high contrast, it reminds me of the look of the movie Dead Man. If it was just gray scale like the last picture TychoCelchuuu posted it might be more legible, but the tradeoff is it is more flat and uninteresting looking.

I just want to say the image for this episode on the front page is completely mental.

The detail about him stealing sun-tan lotion in Hawaii is what gets me.

It's weird how like every single Google hardware move is towards a future that no one wants. It's like people that read a bunch of cyberpunk novels and didn't realize that the setting was like this horrible world.

In 1902 racism was a neologism that was coined by a guy that was in favor of "reeducating" American Indians so that they would behave more like white people. But the issue feelthedarkness described is certainly what Henry David Thoreau described in his letter "Slavery in Massachusetts", and it's what Frederick Douglas described in his autobiography. They didn't use the term racism back then because the word didn't exist. Maybe they are both too academic to have anything interesting to say about race relations in America, and they are just too confusing.

I don't have any absolute rules about this. To the point about a boring passage in a film or book, for example, there are instances when I think a boring section absolutely is justified (An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter is a masterful example of boredom used for a heightened literary effect), but people will naturally disagree based on their idea of what a particular work is about, and how it accomplishes its effects. I also am glad CLWheeljack brought up the unreliable narrator, as its something I've been thinking about a lot! My favorite short story, Melville's Benito Cereno has one of the great unreliable narrators of all time. By contrast, the book I'm currently reading for my book club, Swamplandia! has an unreliable narrator effect that is causing a lost-at-sea feeling among our group, and has made us deeply ambivalent about the merits of the book.

Civ 5's mod scene is not very inspiring. It is almost exclusively new civilizations which is not something I get very excited about especially since I feel like the game has more than enough civilizations as is. I haven't seen any mods that really change up how the game is played. It is quite underwhelming considering all the amazing mods that exist for Civ 4.

They are playing the entirety of that Smash Bros documentary at the Roxie in San Francisco in like two weeks. I'm debating whether or not to make a day of it.

That's a good point. In Far Cry 2 I'm always able to barely escape most of the crazy scenarios I find myself in. In STALKER I just tend to die a lot. STALKER is rad, but yeah, it's a much more oppressive experience.

I don't think you need to be cynical about this to be skeptical about how this plays out. Even if Facebook has a hand's off approach to Oculus (and as far as we know that is the case, and that's pretty much how their other acquisitions have played out), this still is a pretty strong signal that games are no longer going to be the focus here, and so that's just a very different vision about what was exciting about this technology.

My interest in Oculus Rift just took a dive.

That is some exceptional work atte!

Interestingly, the latest Idle Thumbs cast starts off with a discussion about why this sort of open communication about work process in game development is valuable.

I picked up CS: GO last time it was on sale for $3. I've never played a Counter-Strike before. I played some bots the other night and it seems fun. How long will it take me until people stop universally hating how awful I am?

At a minimum, you still have a really amazing board game with a theme that is way better than that Twilight Imperium knock-off!

Might not exist if Chris is anything like me, and rather than simply admit that I was too dumb to hit record, instead create an elaborate story about a "corrupted" audio "file", complete with sweet cyber voices. Anyway, bummer about the lost episode, but yay Tom Francis!

RoI looks great. I have a hard time with CK2 because I just suck at following the web of individuals that make up the feudal system and that ends up being a frustrating experience for me, but I'm definitely considering picking that up, and jumping in again.

Yakety Sax soundtrack confirmed.

Yeah, that's true, I have a similar issue with Don't Starve (very different game obviously, but similarly a game where the permadeath setup results in some odd design outcomes).

Whoa, Miller Lite, gross

I'm hoping they ditch the last game's frat dude vibes.

Julian appeared on the most recent Gamers with Jobs podcast. I recommend checking it out for a good discussion about the game. I was also pleased to see he has been enjoying the game Hoplite, which is a pretty rad tactical, puzzle-y roguelike for the iOS.

This is my experience reading outside of college as well. Unless I am writing a paper on something, I'm going to give up on end notes fairly quickly, especially if I'm reading something that was extensively researched and every other sentence contains a citation.

I was hoping for the Russian Revolution, but this could be good too! I've been playing AC: Liberation, which is kind of rad because according to the game I'm about 30% in and it has just completely ignored all the animus stuff the whole time. Totally great when you strip that stuff away. Now if they would just remove all the obnoxious instant fail states they might actually have a rad game.

Thanks for the link, sounds like a good video!