Badfinger

I haven't gotten the will to load the game since I lost my Colonel. I don't think I was playing XCOM the right way.

Before I got to the end of your post I was also going to mention "soccer", which I have learned is one hell of a mangled word.

GOD DAMMIT. I have clearly been getting better rolls than other people have. I've been incredibly fortunate (and cautious), and outside of the tutorial I had only lost one solider and none that weren't rookies. I had carapace armor, light plasma rifles, and lasers all around for everyone else. I decided to assault the first alien base, and right away I start taking damage and know it's going to go bad. I clear 2 mutons and 3 floaters by the skin of my teeth, with one of my heavies busted up and my support's life literally resting on her own shoulders, as she was exposed, down to one health, and the only one with a shot left before the remaining muton got to clean her up. We survive, and move on. My snipers are in great shape, with plenty of high ground to lay waste every turn. Then All Day Dieter uncovers 3 chryssalids, and ducks for cover, but I've run up too far. One attack doesn't kill her, but the second does and my support is down. The only saving grace is they all rushed her, and they all get put down with a single rocket. The rest of the base is explored without incident, except the goddamn commander. I had a chance to finish it off without taking losses, and couldn't get more than 5 damage out of a 100% to hit headshot chance from my Col. sniper. My assault gets mind controlled, and blows my injured heavy's brains out. I am actually mad and frustrated right now and had to tell SOMEONE, even the uncaring, bored with only losing two soldiers internet, because far from everyone missing - everyone DID their jobs, and we still left with my most experienced soldier and first to reach colonel in a bag. I actually said "Hey, where's Guzman?" before deploying the next mission because he'd never missed one. RIP Dozer and Cpt. Yuan.

While I suppose I understand your point more completely, I don't think using the word "ghost" for a game of similar lineage means it should be beholden or even comparable to rules like that whether its use was coincidental in Dishonored or not. That sure does sound completely insane though! Still going to petition for a Ghost Dad achievement run.

I actually did close doors behind me. Both out of paranoia at alerting someone, and also because it seemed like the right thing to do. Also you have a very weird definition of what "ghost" means. To me (and the game), it means don't let anyone know you're doing anything while you're doing it. Why would you need to keep up the illusion after you're gone? Sleepy guards never know what hit 'em. It's ghostly, not ethereal. Unless you're joking and I can't tell. In which case there should be a second level of achievement above the "ghost" run known as the "ghost dad" run.

I have no idea what signing the guest book does, but it's an awesome touch and I totally did it.

Should it technically be Vid "Eog" Ames if we are following the convention of nicknames in the middle? VID AMES VS MAX IDES This November 15th, LA Coliseum

I think I read way further into the body count chaos than the game expects you to. More kills for me didn't mean more DEAD bodies spreading plague (although it does mean that to some degree), it means less LIVE bodies to combat the plague. The places you visit don't stop existing after you leave them. The patrols are going to be remanned even if you kill everyone. Someone has to clean up the bodies you do leave behind. Those guards have to come from somewhere, which could be pulled guarding a checkpoint from weepers, cleanup crew, rescue efforts (if they exist) etc. Essentially your chaos is stretching the infrastructure of the city, rather than adding more corpses on the pile.

I am. Oh in my enthusiasm to ask a question I forgot to say how impressed I was that the cast was held together for 5 straight hours. That's crazy!

You're mistaking my criticism of the character and direction with criticism of the actor. Although to be honest I'm not sure your video clip didn't reinforce my point.

The character is supposed to be completely fascinated with the natural world around him, and he has fears and hopes and frustrations and grudges. The weird voyeur scientist should maybe be the most interesting character of any of them, but his voice is just this slow, whiny drawl with no urgency or energy in it in the same dead flat delivery every single line. Anything I can do to help you, Corvo... I want Piero on fast forward. Inject some processed whale oil right into his veins or something.

RE: nakedness in games, I thought dishonored had an interesting little vignette partway through that dealt with the characters as actual people thrown together in one house dealing with their cooped up living conditions. I'd be interested in impressions on that if had an effect on anyone who's experienced it.

I think the plot is generic, but the characters are great if you allow them to be by exploring the world. Except for the voice acting. I think most of them are bland, but Piero's is outright bad and it frustrates me.

I thought it was interesting that Corvo isn't a silent protagonist, he just doesn't have spoken dialogue. I also found myself much more affected by the world and allowed the game decisions I made fit into it than some other people did it seems. What if you choose to take the non-lethal objective on the Golden Cat just because you have sympathy for the character that asked you to do it? You're clearly close with Emily, and that affected how I wanted her to see me compared to the rest of the world, etc. I was also a little surprised with the plot "twist" I found myself second-guessing some of my own decisions because they made playthrough sense but I wasn't sure they fit in the morality of the Corvo I created. I'm on the last level, and the only thing I've been explicitly disappointed with was that they surface the game mechanics of your "chaos level" right at the end. They did such a wonderful job of keeping everything at a world level and not referencing game mechanics right up until that point, and it was kind of sad that it shows up as a banner across your screen. OH the other thing that made me annoyed is that once the overseers with the music boxes start playing, apparently you can't sleep dart them? What the fuck, you guys.

I always thought "Wachowski" was pronounced with two hard "K" sounds instead of a ch and a k!

Basically, one is not enough hours to talk about books, and the natural additional conversation has to spill over somewhere.

Oh absolutely, it does sound dated I agree. Do you think it would be as jarring to you if the book had been written in 1994 rather than 2004? I'm not as taken out of the moment for older books set somewhat past their present day that talk about someone sitting down at their IBM for example. Do you think then, as kind of a blanket statement, someone writing about the future should not use current branding in their work? Exceptions as always if they are using it for a specific reason rather than attempting to give the writing a sense of place. I think a book can feel like it's old without necessarily feeling dated or out of it's time.

Pretty sure I've officially quit Dark Souls at this point. I could even potentially continue to progress I think, but one of the bosses I feel like I "should" have beaten and died instead. Screw all the talk about the game being fair.

I have not read the book, enjoyed the cast. A comment, and a question. Because I haven't read the book, I was shocked when you mentioned a character who was obviously male and then mentioned the love of his life, another man named "Luis Array". That sure was an interesting twist in the book that was completely not real! Chris mentioned the weird anachronism of calling a camera a "Nikon", a car a "Ford", etc. The book is less than a decade old, and you kind of have to re-remember that the iphone is only 5 years old. It's just one of those things that an author in 2004 could not know about the next 10 years. Do you think if you had first read the book 10 years from now, reading things like that would be less bothersome, more a look back in time at what the futures from the past look like? This is more tangential to the actual book conversation, but it's one of the stronger thoughts I had about reading and discussing books in general while listening.

Oh god dammit I was even having a conversation about Charlie Chaplin earlier this week. And then I read my post. And then I read your post. How the hell did Groucho Marx get in my brain? um.... The Great Dictator is satire though at least?

I no longer have any idea how "old" I am relative to the internet anymore.

Parody is Mel Brooks making Men in Tights, and Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin. Satire is Groucho Marx making The Great Dictator, and the Colbert Report. Satire is sometimes mocking a form or style, but it's not necessarily for laughs. You could possibly suggest that Spec Ops: The Line is a satire of modern military shooters. I'm stretching the bounds of comparison here, that's probably a dumb thing to say.

Oh wow. It struck me at the time that the opening scene was exactly the same except different, but I wasn't entirely sure why. I didn't even realize the difference of that first moment until I read this right now.

Since I brought up the internet fan feud in the last thread and have taken long long enough to respond that it's rolled over to a New Cast, I'll reply here. I figured this would be the case since there's been enough crossover you can pretty much tell. They reference you, you reference them. Also you're all adults. Not that something like that would prevent the internet from making wild assumptions and accusations based on where you breathe during a sentence. I was surprised and pleased to hear Patrick make an appearance on this cast, it was awesome and I laughed. Tokyo Jungle is insane.

MELEE Dear god in heaven, it's pronounced MAY-LAY