tberton

Yes, but that's not how it works in Dragon Age. Whether or not a deity or deities exist is left unanswered. There's is an ethereal world and there are creatures native to it, but questions about how that world or the corporeal one were created are still questions of faith.

They are definitely third-person limited, but they never show events happening that don't actually happen. People's interpretations differ, but the events are always described as is. The unreliability comes from inner monologues, not outright fabrications. Now, having just re-read the scene in question, it's kind of ambiguous of which way to read it. But, from reading descriptions of the scene in the show, it's definitely a lot more nuanced than straight-up rape.

On the religion note, while you do come across the founder of the game's main religion, you are never actually given hard evidence of the Creator she worships. You know that magic and the Fade exist for sure, but the question of whether there is divine intent behind them is left open. It's as though you met Jesus, but still had to take him on his word that he was the Son of God. I won't argue that it's a particularly nuanced take, but there it is. I agree that the use of wizards/elves/dwarves to discuss real-world issues is a bit hamfisted. However, I don't think that Dragon Age handling these things poorly means that games can't handle them at all.

That's an interesting angle, but there is no other point in the books that plays with unreliable narrators to that degree. People misinterpret things and there's a lot of dramatic irony, but generally everything shown to the reader is meant to be true.

I finally unlocked the Tektite. Now I'm that much closer to getting the Crystal ship.

Somebody needs to mock up some Super Nick Breckon 64 cover art.

Man, I really need to actually play some Civ games so I can contribute meaningfully to this discussion.

That's a good point. I still liked the movie though, although complaints about being all-white are valid. Also, the movie doesn't quite hang together perfectly in terms of plot or pacing. Still, it's fun and enjoyable and not cringeworthy.

Disclaimer: I have never played a Civ game, despite owning IV and V. But it's interesting that you make this connection with Cloud Atlas. One of the things that has stopped me from booting up Civ, besides the sheer intimidation factor, is the idea that, as Dualhammers said, they present history as a "progressive" force, constantly moving towards bigger and better things. While I understand the appeal of that metaphor, I think it's a fundamentally misleading characterization of history that people fall into far too easily. Cloud Atlas, in my opinion, brilliantly sidesteps this issue through its structure and its stories. The message of Cloud Atlas is not "we move toward good things but a lot of bad stuff happens along the way," but rather "good and bad things constantly happen in tandem, no matter when in history they occur." That to me is a far more nuanced and realistic look at history and I wish there was a game that made that its thrust.

I got about halfway through this game and stopped. I liked it, but there were too many gimmicky battles. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday though, although every time I play t I just find myself wishing for Skies of Arcadia 2.

Funny story: I found out about that right after I backed that game on Kickstarter.

FTL: Alien Emeritus.

Yeah, I realized that after SecretAsianMan posted. Or was that me posting and not realizing it? AHHHHH!

Who else was super freaked out by Sean's voice coming in at the end? Weird thing: I was trying to get that same achievement in FTL and thought about using the same tactic that guy did and then imagined the story it would create and how I would write into Idle Thumbs about it. So I think the writer of that email is my Tyler Durden. Also, I say "super" all the time now too.

That video is hilarious. "You're eighteen, aren't you?"

Didn't we discuss this topic in the thread for the Ananda Gupta episode of 3MA? He had said that he had an idea for a WWII board game like Twilight Struggle, but didn't want to make somebody play as the Nazis.

Yeah, from what I understand, most terminations are classified as "without cause." If you give cause, that opens up all sorts of legal issues.

The synchronization of the chains is only an issue for certain loadouts. If you're using all lasers, or lasers plus missiles/bombs to take out shields, it doesn't matter when the recharge is. Also, the Vulcanizer's fastest speed is 1 second, which is faster than shields recharge, so you just leave it on auto-fire (haven't had a chance to try that yet, but it seems like fun). The Chain Ion works differently too: instead of reducing the charge time with each shot, it increases the Ion strength.

Don't they say in that interview that they read everything Reynolds read for Alpha Centauri?

I feel like offensive drones have become far less useful with the introduction of the Anti-Combat Drone.

There's a mod that adds an Endless Mode, but it also adds a whole lot of stuff that I don't want. Here it is: http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3542

In Episode 2: The Fanboy's Lament, Jake mentions that Idle Thumbs should make a shirt that says "Wizard is Wizard". We're close, but not quite there yet.

For what it's worth, the only Marvel Movie Universe Movies I had seen prior to The Avengers were Iron Men 1 & 2 and I really loved The Avengers. I have a fairly decent knowledge of Marvel superheroes already, but I feel that the movie did a really good job of contextualizing everybody.

Any tips for using the Federation B? I'm having trouble.

Man, I just had an incredible run: Red-Tail, fully upgraded hacking, Flak I, Laser Charger I, Basic Laser and Halbered Beam. By the final sector, I had a fully upgraded engine, 3 shields, full backup battery and full crew. I was taking out those random Sector 8 rebel ships without taking a hit. And then.... I lost to the second battle with the Flagship. The problem was that my hacking was useless because of the defense drone and I couldn't get through their shields fast enough to do any damage. Mistakes I made: Lasers instead of Ions, no Mind Control or Crew Teleporter, throwing money into subsystems instead of saving for a fourth shield and mistiming some hacking in the first flagship battle.