Ozzie

We do in German, too, actually.

All true. Though I will say, if you want to learn how to pronounce "ü", and you don't think of just saying the vowel in "free", but say the whole word, then it won't get you there, while "beat" does if you do with it the same (well, when you stop at the vowel, of course). So didactically, "free" just not a good word to use.

I wanted to write about my time with Life is Strange in the coop thread originally because I find it interesting how a friend and I play the game together, but I guess it fits in here as well. We started out playing very competitively. We would fight over the controls and more often than not I would wrangle them away from him, which resulted in me choosing decisions he seemed disappointed by. So then we (well, probably mostly I) learned to talk out every decision before sticking to one. We like the choices we deem unpopular! And we hatched a plan to be the absolute worst to Chloe. Though, what that actually means, still necessitated a lot of discussion at times. Playing Life is Strange together is surprisingly different than doing the same with Broken Age. If I were to play the game alone, I don't think I would use the rewind mechanic much more than necessary. It has to be said, though, that it doesn't allow merely taking back choices, but also learning something that could have been useful if you knew it beforehand. Still, I learned to live with the choices I make over the years (and in the game), so I was kinda annoyed at first at all the times my friend wanted to rewind.

For me it doesn't work with "free", but RyanCConnelly's suggestion of "beat" or "meet" made it work for me. I found it illuminating to consciously try to form a sound per instruction that I already know how to make instinctively. So I guess the vowel in "free" isn't formed the same way than the one in "beat". Or, alternatively, I don't know how to pronounce "free" correctly. I form the vowel in "free" not as close to the front of my mouth than I do with the one in "beat", presumably because of the "r".

Because it's exciting? Because it's the thing you want to make? Not everyone is so worried about reactions. Especially at Valve they seem to have a chill way of reacting to controversies. And that there's a social hierarchy at Valve: I'm aware of that. One ex-employee, iirc, compared it to high school. But there's that and there's the way the supposed source describes a moment which makes it sound like higher ups at Valve had a boardroom meeting to decide about HL3's future. Correct me if I'm wrong! Also, the recount of HL3's development seems to leave out important details. We know it must have started out as Episode 3, and development on Episode 3 started with the same people that worked on Episode 1, in tandem with Episode 2's development. The recount doesn't even mention how and why Episode 3 became HL3. I dunno, believe what you want, but this sounds far too sketchy for me. I agree with Twig: I wouldn't be surprised if HL3 never comes out, but I don't think it will be for the reasons mentioned in the video.

The talk of upper management makes me doubt the rumour. The only upper management is basically Gabe Newell, and while he does occassionally order how things should be done (like when he tried to figure out how to best make a Portal sequel), this is not how he regularly runs the company. And since basically he is the only upper management, it seems weird that the "source" doesn't mention him by name. Also the rumor makes it sound like HL3 never left pre-production, which seems ludicrous. That the script is already finished sounds like they wanted to make a movie? A script for a video game is made in tandem with the design, not put before it. Especially at a company with a collaborative design ethos like Valve has! And most damningly, nothing that is part of the rumor isn't something that I couldn't have pulled out of my own ass. There's nothing uniquely specific about it. And: From here. Anyway, NeoGAF has already a good ol' 12 pages long freakout about it. My favorite from the thread is this picture:

Done! I forgot to mention four more: It's quite the pronounced theme then! It guess it demonstrates how we can feel empowered, enlightened and inspired by pop culture artifacts. They may help us feel less alone in the world and possibly understood by an author far away. Maybe they even help us come closer to each other. I quite liked this aspect of the show!

I loved Sense8! I bingewatched it today. It didn't feel to me like it was going on for too long, except for in episode 8 and 9, there was the occasional repetitious moment, the occasional beat that felt too similar to something that already came before. But man, this was so fun! Much smarter and more nuanced than I expected. And that I grew to love every character surprises me as well. They were surprisingly well drawn. The actors were all perfectly cast in their roles, the performances were wonderful! I definitely recommend it for its life affirming qualities overall (they stand somewhat at odds with the high body count later on in the series) and its celebration of diversity which is deeply rooted on a philosophical level into the narrative. I love how free it is of grittiness and cynicism. A small aspect that I find remarkable is how characters connect over artifacts of popular culture. Nothing I share much love for myself, but the enthusiasm the characters show for these movies and this song is infectious!

Yeah, that's a telling detail! I edited my post a thousand times before I saw what you two posted in the meantime. I definitely got also the impression that the father is the shitty one of the two parents. My judgment of the judgment:

So, the children are punished for their terrible parent(s)? I don't understand what the crime is they actually comitted. Not wanting to see their father? That's against the law? Law aside, if it's allegedly the mother's fault that the kids don't want to see him, because, as is suggested, she indoctrinated them, then, uhm, shouldn't she be held responsible? I'm probably just stating the obvious, but I can't make heads or tails of it. How nice of the judge to force the kids to be with a likely abusive parent. Why the onus is put on the kids to have a healthy relationship with their father eludes me. What an absurd judgment!

It sounds absolutely awful.

Yeah, and the next episode will have a story that was already featured on the podcast Reply All. Meh. :/

I always love it when an advertisement undercuts the viewpoint of a publication: Of course, Polygon wouldn't know about this advertisement and its message necessarily. It seems like you only have a chance of getting it if you use a mobile browser and have a German IP address. To translate roughly: "Stop the gender craziness! An absurd ideology conquers our everyday life." The three words close to the kid: "Don't gender me!" This refers to a planned reform that wants to introduce into the classroom curriculum the idea that a diversity of equally valid sexual and gender identities exists, which the AfD (Alternative for Germany), a political party that is backwards facing, homophobic and hostile to foreigners, is strongly against. And this paper called "Junge Freiheit" (Young Freedom) apparently, too. I really should pay more attention to the politics of my own country, it's starting to get crazy! Maybe Vainamoinen can elaborate more, I'm not sure I even got the spare details I offered here right. :/ A friend of mine sent me this terrible video that argues against the reform and features a parade of white old men and a member of the AfD, presumably straight, saying that gays and lesbians already arrived in society (like WE had to walk there!). I didn't watch it past the first five minutes. My weakness, among many, is that I don't pay attention to what is going on directly around me. I prefer to observe what's going on in the USA since it is far away from home. Therefore it has a certain entertainment value and harmlessness for me. Edit: I just had an edit war just with myself. Gosh, it's always amazing how I manage to write the opposite of what I intended!

Nevermind. I'm tired. :/

I wouldn't hate the scene if Cooper didn't sound like a douche when he basically said "Now go make me some coffee Diane!". Otherwise the scene wouldn't be more than a tease, anyway.

Yes. Sounds like you've downloaded The Missing Pieces.

I'm ecstatic about this movie now! I love it!! This was the third time I watched it. The first time I saw it in German, on television, before I ever saw the series. I felt confused and frustrated. I thought it would help to know the series. Well, it didn't help in my estimation after the second time. But this time around? I think having listened to the weekly discussions might have helped, having read up on the discussions here, especially LostintheMovie's insightful posts might have helped, and just getting into the mindset to enjoy Lynch's visual poetry in motion might have helped, too. I could have argued before why the movie doesn't work in some ways when I didn't quite align with it emotionally, and now I could say why it works so damn well, too. You always know how to rationalize your emotions. Anyway, this movie really got to me. It depicts brutal situations, but is very empathetic towards Laura and portrays a lot of her inner life as her end comes palpably closer and closer. This story really needed to be told. And while some early segments of the movie feel like they set up for more, for the most part it has an air of finality to it. It feels more like an end to the saga than like a beginning. My only major complaint I still stand by and don't think I will ever change my mind on: I hate it that the convenience store scene and the Tremond boy aren't subtitled. It's just frustrating that way, and I feel what is said should be understood. On the other hand, that you can't understand the dialog in the pink room scene makes it feel even more intense.

I can only think of two scenes in which Donna's father appears in this episode, the Nadine self-realization scene and the Hayward familiy drama scene. Am I forgetting a third one?

I wonder if it would be a good idea to talk about the film in two podcast episodes: the first for the Deer Meadow segment and the second for the Twin Peaks one. I fear that too much of interest would be dropped from the discussion otherwise.

I liked how little the puzzles in Broken Age Act 2 relied on inventory item combinations. Generally a lot of the puzzle meat laid outside of messing with inventory items. Not only is that great for reasons of variety. Inventory puzzling is often easily exploited by just narrowing down all the options. I feel there is a subset of hardcore adventure players who is always disappointed when an adventure game isn't almost pure inventory puzzling, and I think that's because they have to really think then and not exploit the weaknesses of the mechanic. There was someone who seriously considered Act 2 to be a casual affair and called the wiring puzzles a "mini game". Poor guy...

Adventure games have to reward exploration to encourage it, right? For example with unique responses. Broken Age is overall pretty good in that regard! I had a lot of fun just exploring its possibilities. Sometimes I wonder why I'm a fan of the genre, because all the criticisms the first time adventure game player here has about Broken Age holds true for pretty much every classic adventure game, just even more so for the most part. Take Discworld: use an item on anything and Rincewind will mostly just throw a "This doesn't work!" back in your face. The same generic response over and over again becomes tiring and saps enthusiasm for exploration. Why should you try to explore the possibility space if you will merely hear the same line again? Even Day of the Tentacle had a few generic lines too many for my taste.

The idea of the show building up to a Miss Twin Peaks contest already seemed awful. How couldn't this turn out badly? What potential lies in a storyline like that? I couldn't see it, and I think I was right to doubt it. It certainly feels icky to me. It doesn't feel like these characters really should or would want to put themselves through this experience...and the dubious aspects of it are merely made fun of. Oof. Thinking about it, it could have had potential. I'm disappointed that Coop is into it. :/ Has Kyle MacLachlan stopped taking his role seriously? I can't blame him, but it looks like he parodies his character by now. Coop's and Annie's love scene...wooden, boring, unconvincing...heck, almost all their romance is boring to watch. Still, I liked quite a lot of the episode, it helped that it had momentum. The show isn't lost at sea anymore, though not in the harbor yet. I like the visual flair of the episode, but is it just me or is the acting generally worse than just the week before? Maybe the director didn't know how to direct his actors? Dunno...

So, I finished today. Can't say I ever had more fun with an adventure game before! While some puzzles are a bit wonkily implemented, the puzzle design in general is incredibly varied, inventive and ambitious. This is not cookie cutter, garden variety type of stuff. Honestly, the criticism Act 2 received just puzzles (ha!) me, it has me stumped (*snigger*). YEAH, THE GAME'S NOT PERFECT, BUT IT'S DARN AWESOME! Somebody say Tim isn't much of a designer again... Also, John Walker thought about the ending "oh, that's it?" while I thought "yes, that's it!". I felt the story reached its natural conclusion. BA is my favorite solo Tim Schafer adventure game, definitely.

I got some too for one of Mr. Stevens' performances in Germany! Convinced two friends to join me. I'm hyped, it's gonna be awesome!

I didn't read your spoilers since I haven't completed Act 2 yet. I can say so far though that in some ways Act 2 disappointed me, too. Some revelations go in too cliched or expected directions, and the reveal of who the mom and dad AI really are barely makes sense. Yet, in other ways Act 2 exceeded my expectations. I didn't expect the puzzles to become so complex and inventive, to make me feel so smart for figuring them out and have so much fun while doing so. I can't think of many adventure games that achieved this for me, even though I'm a fan of the genre (for reasons I don't understand myself really). Also it's just a joy to explore the world, to get lost in it, and while the story doesn't quite come together on the macro level, there are still countless little scenes that are priceless. I love what happens when you failed two times to answer Mom's last question: There are so many little touches like this that elevate the second Act for me. The puzzle with the tree is an example of a pure dialogue puzzle being actually really good! Can't think of many that are! It is because it's just fun to try out all the options and witness the tree's reactions. Act 2 is not perfect and it will fool nobody into thinking that it is. And yes, it's rather obvious were it falls short of its potential. Yet, since it still excels in so many ways I can't say that it is anything else than a great chunk of game. Edit: Man, I'm still on such a high from playing Broken Age yesterday. I need to get some work done, dammit! Maybe I should take a walk... I read some more opinions about the game. People who call the puzzles obtuse or terrible lack a frame of reference, I feel.