Bjorn

*best Sigmund Freud voice* Tell us how you really feel.

I win this thread. Baby. Animal. Gif.

Oh, Ethan Carter guy wasn't done. There's a part 3. In part two we learn that the entire foundation of video games was laid by 1979, and anything from that year or later cannot be considered a foundational element of the development of video game design, or the narrative structures of video games. In part three, we are treated to an exercise in creative writing in which a woman being murdered by her husband serves as the catalyst for change and growth for a third man who was unable to save her. To see this story as having any sexist or misogynistic elements, that means you have doomed yourself to living in a world that can only be seen through the lens of sexism, and the lens of sexism is wrong. Because facts. Or feelings. Or something.

Wow, the changes in the Feb. 5th patch are actually really extensive. This stuff is really making me want to fire up DS2. I wonder if there is any chance of being able to import existing PC characters to the new version? I've got a half dozen themed characters I really, really like and would be super bummed to not be able to play without having to rebuild them in the new version.

Yeah, that makes a huge difference. I live 5 miles from the closest town and 15 miles from the town we spend most of our time in. Not having a running car can be a disaster.

I've generally kept an extra, shitty cheap car around (I know that's not a thing all people can do). When I just had roommates, I owned the car, but everyone chipped in for insurance and tags, as anybody who needed it could use it. For years it was a super banged up Honda Prelude I picked up for $400. Right now it's a Bonneville that was wrecked pretty good and has mismatched doors. The lady has a nice car, but the kid and I drive pretty old cars, so the spare is really nice to have.

That's going to be the next trend in remakes.

Oh god, the Ethan Carter guy has written a takedown of FemFreq. So big, it needed two parts. I haven't brought myself to read part 2 yet, my mind is still processing part 1. On the Damsel in Distress:

I haven't read any of those books since I was a kid, and clearly I had forgotten which ones were by Dahl. Makes me want to revisit some of those. Gorm's fascist comment did send me down a weird rabbit hole though, learning that the picture of the fake golden ticket holder was actually a picture of Hitler's private secretary. That is an odd and fascinating detail to drop into a "kid's" movie.

In the comments, a Polygon moderator clarifies that there are a bunch of things (specifically the ones I mentioned) that are exclusive to the re-release and not in the patched version. I was also confused when first reading the article. The stuff that was patched in is the new First Scholar npc, another npc, and a few other things.

It's not about one mistake for me. Bioshock Infinite ended up so tonally deaf to the problems it had with sexism and racism (not the thematic elements it tried to address, but the actual unintended racism and sexism in it). And that doesn't seem to be something that Levine has been able to recognize in the slightest. Which, hey, seeing the flaws in your own work can be hard. But that, plus the end of Irrational, plus his social media postings over the last year have just combined to really turn me off him. I have limited time to listen, and there are many, many, many more interesting voices than Levine's to talk about the gaming industry, gamergate and feminism.

I honestly hadn't realized that was one of his stories. In the movie the kid gets turned back, but in the book he's just screwed and stays a mouse, right?

1) I like a clean countertop with no more on it than necessary (so basically our knife block and that's it). All other stuff either goes in cupboards, the pantry or on top of our cabinets. 2) What is this, the pedantry thread!? Can't a man just occasionally sprinkle an "a" into a sentence if he wants, as one might sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on a toast.

Scooby Doo has always been one of my favorite cartoons, and one of the few that I enjoy as much as an adult as I did as a kid. I haven't watched any of the more modern shows. I'll have to watch the newest one though, thanks!

Levine has already put his foot in his mouth once over this. There was a series of Facebook posts where he tried to take a neutral, "both sides have valid things to say" approach. I'll see if I can dig them up, they were pretty much the final nail in the coffin for me paying attention to anything he has to say. Edited to add: I didn't quite remember that right. There was this post about there not being a "political test" to work at Irrational. Which sounds great on paper, but it's one thing to have ideological differences and another to employ bigots. Then there was also his advice (along with a bunch of other white guys parroting the same thing at the time), about how you shouldn't talk about threats. Because silence is the best answer. Seems like there was something else, but I'm not finding it.

I had missed the news that some of the new content from Scholar of the First Sin has already been patched into the old versions of DS2. The PS4/X1 versions are still coming, and the new PC version will split the player base. That finally makes a bit of sense. They basically claim that the upgrade to DX11, new enemy AI, upping the player count to 6 and the complete re-haul of enemy type and placement is too much to patch into the old version. Which, eh, probably true. If they could patch it in and charge for the update, they probably would. My two most played games from last year were DS2 and BoI: Rebirth. With this and the Afterbirth expansion to Rebirth, that might end up being true again.

You do in fact look quite badass!

Wat? When the fuck did that happen?

Best crossover ever: Scooby Doo and the Harlem Globetrotters. Second best crossover ever, Gilligan's Island and the Harlem Globetrotters. Are the Harlem Globetrotters the best special guests ever? Yes they are.

BG&E is definitely violent. Flower would be the most non-violent video gamey game I can think of. Pixeljunk Eden is another one worth taking a look at (and another flower related one at that).

When we remodeled our house, we put everything at a height suitable for someone who's at least 6 foot tall. Our kid is 5'3". She hates us, half the shit in the kitchen she can't reach. She's an adult, and has to come ask for me to get the toaster down in the morning so she can make herself a toast.

Earlier the idea of kids' stories often relying on wish fulfillment was brought up. That's what's happening in the factory. Shitty, selfish, bullying kids and their enabling parents are being taken down by their own arrogance. That's definitely a form of wish fulfillment for a lot of kids. Is it kinda evil? Maybe, but that doesn't mean it's not fun.

Argobot, I hope the treatments continue to go well, and you get better soon. You're an awesome person, and I'm sure you'll continue being awesome, even if your body does go through changes. And thank you for sharing your thoughts about it in the context of this thread. In the last couple of years, I've had two friends go through hysterectomies, and they talked about how that made them feel about their womanhood/female identity, but I've never really seen someone speak about the experience of breast cancer and how that made them feel (I know there are quite a few women who have written about that, just nothing I've ever gone and read).