clyde

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Everything posted by clyde

  1. Far Cry 5

    This game is a story-engine, but the characteristics of the stories seem to be the most interesting thing for me to analyze. Mostly the sequences of events that entertain me are not relatable enough that the person I communicate them to is entertained, but they will typically understand what was entertaining about it. There are two main references which seem to anchor meaning in these stories: my experiences with rural America, and the goofiness of computer games. I'm not cynical about this at all, I love the combo.
  2. Is It Wrong To Eat Meat?

    This article was educational for me. It seems that there is debate among muslims about whether or not halal-certification is bending too much in order to allow for industrial meat-production. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/18/halal-food-uk-ethical-organic-safe But I guess this means that the living-conditions (tayyib) is not currently being enforced. This site appears to be speaking of the schism. https://www.animalsinislam.com/islam-animal-rights/bismillah/
  3. Is It Wrong To Eat Meat?

    To be honest, it was just some Youtube video that seemed like a person with progressive-politics trying to combat a particular strain of islamophobia. Not the best source of information. I'll look into it more.
  4. bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

    It's interesting that you value it in U.S. dollars rather than in BTC. A similar argument would be that U.S. dollars are the future because the price is currently 0.0001 BTC
  5. Is It Wrong To Eat Meat?

    Lately I've been getting into nice cheeses all the while knowing full well that dairy in America is a hellscape for the animals. I'd love it if science delivered some way to make nice cheeses without animals suffering. I also recently found out that part of halal is providing good lives for the animals and what islam considers compassionate slaughter. It's made me consider getting it when I do eat meat.
  6. Is It Wrong To Eat Meat?

    Corn-subsidies for animal-feed in the U.S. is something that bothers me because it makes meat cheaper. We are all losing our antibiotics and compassion.
  7. Far Cry 5

    I've been enjoying soundtrack (in-game) myself.
  8. Is It Wrong To Eat Meat?

    In my experience reducing meat consumption is not significantly more expensive. Were you buying processed foods or cooking it yourself?
  9. Far Cry 5

    OK, this is the best Far Cry game I've played. I played 2 and 3. There are significant mechanical systems that I have not experienced in an open-world shooter before that I am just now understanding the synergy of. I'll preface everything I say by mentioning that this all might be the way I imagine things are happening and not the actual mechanics. So I'll list the mechanics that seem to be working well together: 1: Sphere of influence: I get the impression that enemy respawns are based on the general amount of progress you have made in the game and the proximity of "liberated" areas you are surrounded by. Progress you have made seems to effect the difficulty of the enemy units and the liberated areas effect the frequency of enemies arriving on the scene. At first I was kinda working outpost-to-outpost and everything was easy (but that is fine, I don't care if it is easy). But then I decided to just drive a truck way into enemy territory to get a specific story-NPC that I wanted to recruit. I was startled by how many enemies kept showing up, like they didn't stop. I realized that it may have to do with surrounding territory not being liberated, so we have been fighting our way back to friendly-held territory all night. The next point makes that more interesting than expected. 2: The friendly NPCs. So currently, I can only have one friendly NPC fighting alongside with me. They can either be a story-NPC or just some random schmoe I rescue from a bear or a cult road-block. It seems like I can have as many story NPCs as I want in my roster and 3 schmoes available at any given time, but I can only have one present at the time. But what I'm starting to realize is that even if I rescue a schmoe and I don't hire them, they still pick up weapons and just start roaming the area. So as we are fighting our way back to a friendly town, I'm rescuing tens of schmoes who all grab weapons and then get on a vehicle and go their own way. But they fight without me commanding them. As we have been moving back to friendly turf, more and more I will hear gunshots in unexpected directions, go to investigate only to find a few schmoes I rescued an hour ago have gotten into an altercation with the cult. This feels significant just because it affects how I have to approach the skirmish, I can't just assume the fire comes from enemies and blow the traffic jam up. 3. The environment and setting are hand-crafted to a high level of fidelity that is not apparent at first. At first it seems like generic woodlands, roads, and farms with big red Just Cause silos that you are to blow up in order to gain piss-off-the-enemy points. But as I find more areas and traverse agricultural fields that initially look just like an agricultural field I've already traversed, I'm seeing that it is just a geographic culture that is consistent and not something akin to repeating tiles. What this means is that the pacing/spacing of gulleys, fences, creeks, fields, farms, woodlands, and roads creates as sense of space denser and more immersive than any open-world game I've played. This becomes more apparent as I go into barns and houses to loot and perhaps end up defending the area from a few enemies who show up. When this happens the space becomes more detailed an intimate as I think about its layout at first for a battle-plan but then as I imagine it lived in as an operational farm as I move around looting bodies or try to Assassin's Creed my way into a hard-to-reach spot that hints at an easter-egg. These systems interact in an endearing way. An extreme example of this is me and Grace running across a field as a , finding cover on a pine ridge with shrubbery from which we see an at the river below. We clear them out then I begin to fish from that shore. Grace covers me while I reel 'em in. When I say Grace is covering me, I mean she is putting beads on schmoes we freed an hour earlier as they drive their 4-wheeler to a spot that overlooks us. Those schmoes drive off and we hear gun-fire and it feels like a real possibility that Grace will go help them out while I finish bringing in this sturgeon I've had on the line for the past minute. This is my favorite Far Cry.
  10. Far Cry 5

    Seem like they are just on a cool-down when they die. But you still have the ability to try and revive them when they are dying. Something worth mentioning here is that there are buddies who are actual characters with stories, and then there are just towns-people you can hire who are pretty much just like buddies but you have to unlock their upgrades. This is a fun part of the game for me. I tend to enjoy running with lady-archers. Sometimes I run into someone and I'm like..."I'd love to have you on my team, but that means I have to let someone go." these potential hires are everywhere. It is overwhelming how many people you can hire. I feel like sometimes I run into the people I have since fired. It's awkward.
  11. Far Cry 5

    Nah, I'm fukin with ya. But this would have been better and now when people see what I'm talking about they won't be impressed because their expectations are too high! 😜
  12. Far Cry 5

    I'm enjoying this a lot. I turned off the waypoint and compass HUDs and the world being stuffed full is no longer a problem for me. If you've played a Far Cry game you know how an altercation on the road ends up continuing as more cars arrive and such? Well add an NPC that fights with you along to that. This game has a Red Dead Redemption feel for me. The setting is lovely (I have a GTX970 and the foliage and lighting are very nice) and there are a lot of little things you run into where NPCs need help because they are being beat up. So me and this dude with a bow that is running with me came down a hillside at night because we saw three enemies with a pickup beating a civilian up on the road. When I start attacking my buddy lights his arrow on fire and shoots it at them which of course spreads. I should have known this would happen; I asked him to shoot a deer when we were in a field on top of a mountain and he lit his arrow then too and set the deer on fire. Anyway, fire is spreading, it's fine, more enemies come, we kill them too. But me and my buddy are using a truck for cover and all of a sudden the right side of my screen is lit like by a torch and I'm like "what is that?" My Buddy has a flaming arrow and he's aiming it saying "Don't worry, I got 'em" and I'm thinking "O.K. I'm glad you see one cuz I thought they were all taken care of (I had a lot of the HUD off at this point)" and he then shoots the civilian we were rescuing point blank with a flaming arrow. Fire is spreading, I go to the civilian to revive him (still on fire). We are beside a truck that is on fire, it explodes immediately after the revive. The explosion blows my buddy into the woods, so all I hear is "Help me, I'm not going to make it much longer." I don't have the HUD on so I'm moving around searching for him by the sound of his suffering. I find him and revive him. It was really fun. It is very similar to Far Cry 3 but I think the setting is FAR MORE interesting, not just the militia/prepper stuff (which I do enjoy) but mostly it's the hunting-cabin/U.S. national parks feel of it. The characters are written and performed in a Rockstar style. They are mostly parodies, but I don't play many games with that anymore so I'm enjoying the qualities of these performances that time will not be kind to. I like the theatrical nature of the goofy characters and their parody circumstances.
  13. Far Cry 5

    Ben X got it. I didn't want to ruin it for Cordeos, but here we are 😕
  14. Far Cry 5

    I don't think there is much urgency. I haven't played a Far Cry game since 3 and this is a very pretty iteration of that lineage for sure. I played about 2 hours and the world is stuffed with common mission types, nice looking settings, and rare one-offs that are quite neat to discover. The gameplay feels very similar, but the NPCs are janky fun. I got in a car with some guy because it seemed like the right thing to do and it was absurd in a fun way. There is some fun to be had for sure. I suspect I'll be playing this slowly for a month or so. It's a nice world to hang out in when a cut-scene isn't happening. If you are afraid of some legitimately surprising one-offs and one reference amazingly specific to this community on the tutorial-island being spoiled, then it may be urgent for you.
  15. Far Cry 5

    I have it preloaded, but I lost power in a snow-storm and it isn't scheduled to be back til Thursday. I'm in the U.S. and I can sometimes play games on voice-chat between 1pm-9pm GMT on weekdays. If you don't have anyone you want to play with on PS4 and those sometimes are good for you, I'd be interested in doing some co-op on PC. I have no idea if the server-connection would be good enough if I'm on the east-coast of the U.S. and you are wherever you are.
  16. Safe Words

    The second "Really?" We are both gullible and it is fun for us to fool each other, but it can feel like a betrayal if it goes to far. The first "Really?" we are allowed to embellish the lie. But on the second "Really?" we say "No, not really." I find that this constraint makes the joke much better. I think it encourages us to see how far we can push that one and only opportunity for embellishment while maintaining a sliver of belief in our mark.
  17. Socialism

    So I joined the D.S.A. because it seemed like something I should do and then I panicked a bit because I don't actually know what socialism is. For the last couple of days, I've been watching a bunch of Youtube videos and reading documentation on the D.S.A. website. It has been a good use of my time, but it's harder to find concise and clear info on socialism than I expected. Y'all know how I am with this type of thing; I like to document the process of learning on small, public forums and crowd-source critique/reference-suggestions. Here is a nice audio thing that gives you an idea of what the D.S.A. is. Here is a video I found helpful. If y'all know of ones that helped you understand socialism, please share them here.
  18. I just saw The Greatest Showman. I'm struck by how much I disliked it while feeling empathetic with the decisions made in the movie's making (I haven't read anything about the production, I'm just talking about what I see in its presentation). Something felt wrong. It made me like La La Land less.
  19. The Greatest Showman

    Is the shallowness of the characters an acting problem or a writing problem? I don't have the tools to figure out why I dislike it so much; if I describe any part of the movie to myself, it sounds like something I would love.
  20. Far Cry 5

    I'm playing through Blood Dragon for the first time while I wait for 5 (I got it for free at some point). The first mission was a slog and I don't think the way they did the neon aesthetic, cut-scenes, or character design holds up in 2018. I'm going to play more though. I'm looking forward to seeing how much things have changed since 3 by butting these up against each other.
  21. Chris mentioning the drummer matching the cadence of a rant makes me think he may enjoy MonoNeon's work. This is one of my favorites.
  22. Intoxicated:

    I'm intoxicated. I enjoy the forums, but I have a rule on the internet, I don't publish or reply when intoxicated. Except now. Intoxication has it's own benefits, but I suspect that the benefits of intoxication are complemented by context that mentions said state. Hence, this thread. This is where everybody knows your name. Sober people are welcome to post, but be aware, that some of the posts here are hibited. Is this against the rules? I'm a bad boy, but I'm nice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8d5QEWdHchk Top is so cool. He is (like) the personification of high-class. He's the one drinking champagne in the car and the one who says that it's a "bootiful night" at the end.