Patrick R

I am who you think I probably am.

Why listen to anything but disco covers of seminal 70's rock songs? EDIT: Um, is there a trick to getting videos to show up in your post? EDIT EDIT: Thanks!

I have to imagine this is what it's like to be an actual world leader.

Go to the menu tab, select "Galaxy" and it should list your star systems in order.

I am happy for vegans but also less likely to invite them to my house for dinner.

I hear you but I think that the point is that Franklin is the smart one and the guy who says "it's our heritage" is his foolish friend. Judging on the way he interacts with Michael in other trailers, I imagine most of his story is about what he does AFTER he graduates from gang-banging into the-thing-white-people-do-which-is-still-essentially-gang-banging-but-they-wear-suits-sometimes. Still pretty well worn territory, but done the right way it could be good. I'm mostly excited about returning to San Andreas in shimmering HD. Did GTA IV keep the same basic lay-out of Liberty City, or did they completely change it? I'd love to already know my way around the city the second I'm dropped into it.

I haven't played any of GTA4 at all. Thinking about skipping directly from San Andreas to this and having my head exploded.

Depends on how you define violence, I guess. I love a bunch of classic arcade games, but does Donkey Kong have violence because you break barrels and flame-dudes with a hammer? Does Burgertime have violence? Ms. Pac-Man? Going over a list of my favorite games, I guess most are kind of borderline. The Portal games are amazing, of course, but you do redirect missiles and knock over turrets. Most of the Lucas-Arts adventure games do require you to do some bodily harm to someone at some point, I suppose. Super Meat Boy has gruesome violence happen to you. Pretty much the only games that are consistently totally non-violent are simulations (which Harvest Moon is, to an extent) but I've never been huge fans of those.

It just occurred to me that the Idle Thumbs "a present every day" experiment would also be interesting to perform in Neptune's Pride. I'll have to try that out some time.

Found that earlier today. Blew my mind.

Isn't there a Dia De Muertos parade or something blocking a street at the beginning of Grim Fandango?

We can still do that. That's possible, right? (as long as we all agree death to Roll Fizzlebeef)

As long as being around drunk people doesn't annoy you, I think enough people would respect not drinking to make going out to gay bars a not terrible experience. Depends on the place, really. More clubby, popular, blasting house music gay bars are some of the drunkest most druggy places on Earth (and, not coincidentally, a ton of fun when you're in an altered state) but there are also quieter more reasonable gay bars. Honestly, in my (admittedly limited) experience lesbian-oriented bars tend not to be as nuts as bars with primarily gay men clientele. You can at least always approach people with the confidence that you will be the best hydrated person in the room.

Me and my girlfriend pretty recently started to have an open relationship, so we've been OkCupiding for a little bit. It sucks if you're a girl looking for guys on there because so many guys are creeps, and it sucks if you're a guy looking for girls because there's an assumed level of creepiness behind everything you say because most guys are such creeps. And it sucks if you are me and looking for men because I have tremendous anxiety talking to men in most parts of my life. It's why I pretty much have no male friends in real life, and the idea of the anxiety of first dates (seriously, even when you're with great people, first dates are so awkward) compounded with the idea of a first date with a guy just freaks me out. Not really sure if the site is commonly used by queer women, honestly, because my girlfriend has had very little luck talking to girls. That being said, I've met some pretty cool people. I've hooked up casually with a transwoman which was a pretty interesting and positive experience, and I'm dating a girl who recommended an amazing Troma movie about a gay yeti, which we bonded over. You can meet good people on that site, it just takes some work. I usually end up talking to them for a couple days about The X-Files or Gucci Mane or whatever easy pop cultural stuff we sync up with (a lot of people list their favorite video games as well, actually) before asking them to dinner or something. The hardest part is that transition but I think as long as you're not a creep, you keep the tone pretty casual, and you find enough stuff to relate to, it can be positive. All dating is crazy awkward in general, but I think OkCupid is a pretty good site, especially if you want to meet nerdy people. One piece of advice I would give is to answer a lot of the questions, and do them truthfully. I've found that more often than not I end up having a ton in common with people I have a high match percentage with. It's also a good way of weeding out people who you just fundamentally would not get along with, like if anyone is homophobic or sexist or something.

Oh man, that's a pretty great recreation of Chicago, though. It might be worth a rental for me on that alone.

CGI means that modern Kaiju will always be inferior to classic dude in costume Kaiju. You'll never have amazing stories like this. Just imagine intense screams of agony coming from this...

Oh man, I can't emphasize enough how much more fun role-playing makes this game.

You should read the tweets coming out of #DifferentGames. Was reading those all day, made me very excited.

Also, I do want to say that I am an incredibly non-competitive person and Neptune's Pride 2 has been tons of fun. I don't buy that it only appeals to a certain kind of gamer. If anything, the streamlined mechanics make someone like me, who's generally not into strategy games, to try it.

Sounds like Neptune's Pride isn't for you, but it's definitely the mechanics that make the game interesting for me. It's not even diplomacy so much (though I imagine it will be later on when things get more cutthroat) but the concept of a glacially paced real-time strategy game. It makes most of the game play out in your head, so you worry about it when you're away from your computer (though this could be just for people without smartphones like me) and it becomes this whole other thing. But everything about that game, from the emphasis on diplomacy and talking to the constant low-level anxiety it causes, is from the central mechanic of real-time strategy being slowed down. It's what creates all the hilarious backstabbing and chaos.

Playing this game without a smartphone is pretty nerve-wracking when you have to go to work. I've been toying with the idea of having a partner next time I do this, like a deputy mayor who I can consult and step in when I'm away from my computer for extended periods of time.

Also, you can set up your first moves and destinations of your ships before the game even starts.

Also, King of the Hill's barely exaggerated art style doesn't seem like it'd lend itself to Deviant Artisanship. How do you really "King of the Hill" yourself? Even celebrity cameos all just looked like accurate versions of themselves.

I would actually recommend people join a throwaway pub game before starting the Thumbs game. The interface is pretty simple and intuitive, but getting the hang of it before starting a game you really care about is better.

I definitely searched for "In the farthest reaches of space, there can only be one Lord of Space" on Twitter and found two player's Twitter accounts.