tberton

This I can get behind, although for me a lot of it has to do with not being too interested in punchline-centric humour. I agree with the above posters that Blazing Saddles is awesome.

I don't know if something aging makes it necessarily bad. If it's good in the moment, what's the problem? Look at The Daily Show: it's built entirely around references to current events that will soon be out of date, but I don't think anybody would say that it's worse for it. Now, the counter-argument to that would be that The Daily Show runs four nights a week for most of the year, so it can afford to be disposable, while something like a film or book is more standalone. But what about Shakespeare's works, that have tons of references that don't work for the average reader now without footnotes. Are they worse because of those references, or does that specificity to the society they were created from make them more interesting?

The only installed cards the Runner can trash are programs and then only when they are installing another program.

There is also the Puffin binder in the closet. Okay, I can buy that the stuff in Gone Home is not exactly "referential humour". But then what is? Are Mel Brooks movies referential humour? Most of the jokes in them rely some knowledge of another source. What about a stand-up comedian who makes reference to a current event? I just don't see what's wrong with either of those things. It seems that it's like anything: referential humour is fine when done well and bad when done poorly.

So how did you guys feel about the Idle Thumbs references in Gone Home?

Yeah, you were dead in that situation because you had a negative handize. However, Hastings was wrong: you cannot just trash resources willy nilly. The only way for resources to get trashed is through the Corp trashing it when you're tagged, a card effect (like Elizabeth Mills on the Corp side or Aesop's Pawnshop) or an effect on the resource itself (like the trash ability on Decoy, Fall Guy or Sacrificial Construct). Otherwise, you are stuck with that resource staying installed. That's why any deck that has Wyldside needs Aesop's Pawnshop in it. As a side note, I really hope they release another Pawnshop-like card in the Lunar Cycle.

Weird, Latrine, I haven't even noticed the checkmarks you're talking about.

In a competitive situation, where you're playing against somebody whose deck you're unfamiliar with, it's really important. You want to figure out as quickly as possible what type of deck you're up against. It's less important in casual scenarios, since there you are more likely to know a lot of your opponent's deck.

No, I don't think it's overpowered, for several reasons. First, it's four influence, making it fairly easy to tell if your opponent is running it: if they're Weyland, they are running it; if they are anybody else, look for tagging ice and count their influence. Second, it requires a tag and tagging the runner on the Corp's turn is really hard: the most common method is SEA Source, so if the Runner only makes successful runs when they've got more money than the corp, they are good. Third, there are several soft counters to it: Imp, Keyhole or Demolition Run to trash it; Vamp, Account Siphon or various ways to make ice more expensive in order to keep them poor; Decoy or New Angeles City Hall to avoid tags. Finally, Plascrete Carapace is a hard counter to the card: even one Plascrete makes it much, much harder for the Corp to Scorch you.

A lot of the value of tags comes down to Runner deckbuilding decisions. If the Runner uses a lot of valuable resources (Kati Jones, Professional Contacts, Mr. Li, etc.) then they are going to want to get rid of their tags, making tagging ice like Shadow, Hunter and Data Raven a pretty good deal for the Corp. However, some Runners run few resources or ones that aren't valuable enough to be worth trashing, in which case tags become less valuable. However, if you really want to know the power of tags, start playing as or against Weyland. The first time they burn down your house because you let a tag stick you'll understand the benefit of not letting the Corp know where you live.

I just tried out Jaunt(Get())* and it seems really great. It makes a well from where you Jaunted that sucks enemies towards it. I think it would make kiting a lot easier. *I don't know if this is the right way to write functions, but it's how I'm doing it.

A nice touch is that if you go way overboard on overkill, the text starts to change. I got all the way up to "You're really mean" once.

The bolded portion seems like it might be the problem. Bastion is way more fun with a controller. So far, Transistor is a lot more amenable to mouse and keyboard, due to its more tactical combat.

I nearly died completely on the first boss as well. As for Jaunt (the Dash ability) I can attest to its usefulness outside of Turn. I always have it equipped when I can. I use it in Turn sometimes as well, since I think it often uses less time than just walking. I didn't know about that combo thing though, that's awesome. I had noticed combos sometimes but didn't know what triggered them.

I don't know, it's a big ass sword, swords are heavy and neither singers nor linguists need a lot of arm strength, so it makes sense that Red wouldn't be able to carry the Transistor. I like the choice: it emphasizes that while Red is cool and badass, this is not something she was ever prepared for or perfectly suited to.

They did discuss Burial at Sea in Episode 153: Blondie, Freckles and Glasses. Anyway, great episode guys. Danielle needs to be on all the time.

Sweet, Junior Mints is back!

Jake: the hard drive wasn't removed from the Xbox 360. The "core" version of the system, without the hard drive, was available from day one. So your timeline with that in parallel without the download limits doesn't really make sense. What seems more likely is that the limits were there because Microsoft didn't want the hard drive to be essential, so they didn't want downloadable games that couldn't easily fit on a memory card, not realizing how big that market would become.

Just caught up on the last couple pages of this thread. Two things I wanted to add: The Lost Room is freaking great, and the stuff that Gormongous and Tycho have said articulates better than I ever could my problems with the whole "I Fucking Love Science" mentality that's cropped up on the Internet over the past few years.

Yeah, sorry, I meant Jinteki: Replicating Perfection. I have to remember not to use acronyms so much.

You're getting confused with the ruling on Fetal and the ruling on Personal Evolution's ability. Personal Evolution's net damage triggers after the agenda is scored or stolen, so in that case, the points are counted first and if the Runner wins, the damage is meaningless. But Fetal AI triggers on access, meaning that its net damage hits before the runner can steal the agenda. Komainu->Fetal would still kill, even if the Fetal was the game winning agenda. In other news, Mental Health Clinic is incredibly good. So much better than PAD Campaign. As an RP player, I love that Jinteki has the two best drip economy assets in the game.

There's a fair bit of video content from the demo at this year's PAX East. Searching "Transistor" on YouTube brings it up.

Also Thomas "Call-Me-Risley" Wriothesley, Thomas Audley, Thomas Wyatt, Thomas Avery and Thomas Seymour (although I don't think you actually meet that last one until Bring up the Bodies. My name is Thomas, so I noticed it and thought it was hilarious. I'm pretty sure there are a few comments throughout the books about how many Thomas' there are, too. However, I was already familiar with most of the names and she rarely refers to them by first name, so I didn't find it to be a problem. Also, I grew up on A Song of Ice and Fire so I got really good at distinguishing between similar names.

Oh whoa, your read Smiley's People before Tinker, Tailor? That must have been weird. But I agree, it's a fantastic book. I think I liked The Spy Who Came in From the Cold more than you did, though. I agree that it's very different, but I like its lean and focused story. And Le Carre masterfully keeps you in the dark about what's going on the whole time.

For some reason, Nels' voice sounded higher pitched here than it does on Terminal7.