Bjorn

I'd actually say the books skew much closer to limited, subjective third person, with each chapter having the interior thoughts of a single character, which completely allows for an unreliable narrator effect.

Oh yeah, that's right, I had realized that it wouldn't work as I originally planned because the helpful sods can walk through your doors and take over a station. I had taken to mind-controlling enemy boarders, and would be so annoyed when they would make a beeline to take over the nearest unmanned station instead of helping kill their former friend. They especially view the Pilot position as critical, even when there is no enemy ship and no other threat that requires a pilot to worry about. I've actually been avoiding the ships with teleporters built in to try and break myself on relying on them. But I've had a bunch of runs without teleporters, I may have to go back now.

I'm pretty sure the podcast added the word Gross to my vocabulary as a general, one-word reaction to things I find distasteful.

It honestly felt like they were going for an enigmatic "Joker" with Khan, even down to the convoluted plot to get himself captured to further his evil plan. The whole idea to use Khan was a mess. The character has a history with audiences, but no history inside the new ST universe, which creates a dissonance that's simply not pleasant. And that's not even getting into the whitewashing of Khan as character and totally cocking up one of the best villains in all of sci-fi.

I didn't find an existing thread on this. Anyone read this book? It's been one of the most pleasantly confusing books I've read in awhile. I thought I had a handle on the whole nature of the cities, but now as I'm getting deeper into it, I've completely given up on my original theory and have no idea what's actually going on.

Good to know! I hadn't really had the right combination since I mentioned it, typically seems like I can never get both Mind Control and Teleporter at the same time.

I'm a candy fiend, it is likely my biggest single weakness. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups would be my de facto standard for a perfect candy. When I went to a gluten free diet, one of the biggest bummers I discovered was that fucking Twizzlers have wheat/gluten in them. Those were a movie watching necessity for me forever. Twizzlers and a soda, best move combination.

AV Club actually has a second article about the episode that makes a pretty strong counterpoint against the first linked AV Club article. Personally I still think the show producers are simply erring on the side of delivering "shocking" visuals for effect, but I think the AV Club's other interpretation likely has a bit of merit there in the source material as well.

The basic club may well be the single best Strength weapon in the game. Not as quick and flashy as Dex weapons, but none of the downsides of the big weapons. Two handing it or powerstancing really makes it shine even more. Fantastic scaling and lots of enemies are weak to strike damage. Umm, did you find And congrats on finishing it!

I think pound for pound dex builds are objectively better. They get access to more weapons, with more move sets, use less stamina, swing faster, do good damage and weigh a ton less (to the point that you could equip 3 radically different dex weapons in DS2 and have them weigh less than equipping one big strength weapon). With the changes to Dex scaling in DS2, you arguably need less of a stat investment for Dex builds as well, since they don't scale as well, no need to worry about cranking dex up a ton. My love of strength builds is purely for my own entertainment and not any efficiency. As for pre-ordering, I'd only do it if you want to pre-load and get the soundtrack. The bonus weapons are not particularly useful, and arguably worse than a lot of the starting equipment you can find/buy in the opening hour or two. Apparently there's a coupon for 25 percent off on Green Man Gaming right now that you can use on DS2, and get the price down to $37.50, so that's a pretty amazing deal for a pre-order. And GMG is already sending out keys so you can pre-load. I'd do it if I hadn't already pre-ordered on steam and didn't want to screw around with canceling and re-ordering.

Pretty much the best emoticon ever. Yep. For all my love of the big strength weapons, I actually didn't use it in my first playthrough (probably because of my silly love of the Malformed Skull and fists). It will have to go back onto my list of shit to try once the PC version is out.

Lonely hipster just made me think of Sad Keanu, and I figured there had to be a good music related picture of the Sad Keanu doll out there somewhere. My daughter and her friends constantly make me feel old. It is one of the joys of the young to torture the old with their gleeful ignorance.

Yeah, I already spoiled that for myself just browsing the DLC. I was looking at it just to see what was there, saw the dog, looked up some stuff about it, and thus spoiled. This isn't a game where I'm terribly invested in the story, I'm more interested in the experience of playing, so if the robo-dog makes that better, then I will probably pick it up. Plus I have like $2.60 in my PSN wallet and it may never get spent given how rarely I buy stuff on the PS3 store. At this point I think its been there for more than 2 years, when I deposited like $20 forever ago. The thing with co-op I found most frustrating was both of us having to mate. The way it played out, it seemed like we were in an almost constant cycle of one of us aging and not being able to really pursue challenges very effectively because of that. Maybe once we're more skilled it wouldn't be that bad, but for now it takes some of the fun out of just being able to pursue challenges or do whatever the hell we want without being tied to a 7-8 year cycle of mating.

Finally finished season 2 of House of Cards last night. Fantastic show. I do feel like the overall conspiracy and some of the specific actions in it started getting a little unbelievable, but the characters continue to help sell everything and make it worth watching.

What are the odds that there are regular Idle Forum members who don't already own it?

You can now pre-load the PC version through Steam.      ☼ \[†]/

I just got around to watching Black's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and that's just a terrifically goofy, wonderful film. I don't think it's terribly surprising that he got IM3 with a positive history with Downey Jr, and being involved in one of the projects that helped Downey get his feet back under him and to have other directors have faith that he wouldn't meltdown mid-shoot. If Downey had any input in director, then Black likely had a huge bonus in his favor. In Naughty Dog news, another big name has left though studio, although Nate Wells had only been there a couple of years.

I have what was historically a non-gendered first name, that has become almost entirely female dominated in the last 20-30 years. So well over half of my online/email contact online results in people assuming they are talking to a woman. It's steadily getting worse, I get ID'd just using my credit card, questioned when I pick up a prescription, etc. It's not something that makes me mad though. I mostly just find it fascinating to see the reactions when people are corrected, and if there are any differences in how people communicate with me.

I played a few more rounds, and unlocked a few more animals (gazelle, cat and pig). Once I realized how to focus on certain of the random goals to achieve unlocks, it made survival make more sense than trying to milk each run for as long as possible. I did do co-op with my wife a bit. I'm tempted to spend the 99 cents on buying one of the robo-dogs through DLC. Not having to manage age or mating with one half of co-op would make it more enjoyable for us I think. Plus this is one of those games I almost feel bad having bought on such a cheap sale, seems more fair to spend a bit on the DLC given how much I am digging it.

I'll have to go back and try that, it sounds fun. After my initial suicide Zoltans didn't pan out with their explosive damage, I hadn't used it again.

Anybody else pick this up on the 99 cent sale this weekend? Game is great, but I feel like I'm terrible at survival mode.

Oh, there are absolutely sub-cultures, and some very fascinating and interesting ones. I just don't think those sub-cultures necessarily rise to the level of counter-culture. Even the hipsters of Jazz age were not themselves inherently a counter-culture, its just that some of them were also visible members of the Beat Generation, which was the wider movement. A current group I'm fascinated by would be those pushing against the bounds of traditional relationship definitions. Those who push back against marriage, who promote polyamory or swinging. Double fascinating as this is going on while a historically ostracized group (homosexuals) are fighting for the right to be able to participate in the traditional norm. These groups are challenging one of the deepest held beliefs in western culture, the very structure of relationship and family. And yet I would not describe these people as being part of a counter-culture, because many of them otherwise support the other traditional norms of western society. They are just challenging this one, specific area. So interesting sub-culture (and one with thematic ties to previous sub-cultures like Hippies and the Beats), but not a counter-culture movement. It's a bit on the pedantic side, but widening the phrase counter-culture to the way you seem to use it robs it of the ability to accurately describe the larger movements, when you can just use sub-culture or other specific language to describe other groups.

Some occupiers would probably bristle at being labeled a counter-culture, as they view themselves as representing the vast majority of society, the 99 percent. That they oppose those with power, money and influence does not mean that they oppose the overall norms of society. Hashtag activists: Not a culture. Not a movement. An action taken by some people who may be part of a culture or a movement, but better to talk about those specific groups. Microtonal musicions: They may be an opposing force in a particular community, but that's something different than being counter-culture. Hackers: Similar to the hashtaggers, hacking is something you do. Lots of hackers are totally pro-dominant culture. I can think of a lot of interesting groups that stand in opposition to a norm, or a few norms, but those aren't necessarily counter-cultures. Being a proper counter-culture movement is more than just going against the grain on a couple of issues. It's about developing a culture-within-a-culture that challenges the very foundation of the parent culture. The fractured and niche nature of a lot modern groups and movements would seem to make that unlikely to develop. I'd tend to agree with ariskany_evan. I'm not sure that we'll ever see another true widespread counter-culture develop, at least in the US. Or if we do, it's going to come from a marginalized portion of society that no one thinks they can significantly profit from. Any other group that develops will be quickly assimilated, dissected, and marketed to with their own boutique stores and series of reality TV shows.

I take it you didn't have your own hacking system? I've reached a point of deciding that Hacking is close to a requirement for the Flagship, so that I can counterhack it if its initial hack is that crippling.