Architecture

I was repulsed by GTA V's blatant sociopathy as well. While I understand Mr. Navarro's point, I think it's worth noting that most games don't have you murdering innocent people for fun. Yes, Mordor is excessively violent, but all of the orcs are trying to lop my head off as well.

Lockheed's Skunk Works division is saying they've cracked nuclear fusion. Via Forbes:

I think it's a blanket license for Tolkein's work and the films, as it depicts the Jackson version of both Sauron and Gollum. Either way, I'm still loving this game. It's just so much fun to play, and I really enjoy all the side bits of lore you get from the artifacts. I know people have complained about the story's rote nature, but I would take Mordor's narrative over the incomprehensible structure of something like Destiny any day.

My roommate of two years has a pretty severe alcohol addiction. He suffers from some fairly extreme anxiety and is generally antisocial. He does see a doctor and holds a number of prescriptions which help level him out, but every day is a drinking day. He works full time and doesn't drink before work but he has at least six beers a night, and on days off he might drink 12-18. Around the holidays, he was routinely vomiting every other day or so. He attributed this to "eating too much." This morning, I heard him cracking open a beer as I was readying myself for work. I've delicately broached the subject before, but I realize how hard it is to recognize the difference between concern and criticism. Has anyone here ever faced a similar situation? What do I do?

I got a new helmet and I couldn't resist getting photographed in it:

Appendices.

Yes, you can.

I had two reactions when I booted up Steam on Wednesday to play some more of Mordor: -Whoa, Styx is out already? And -It's a budget title? The lower price definitely has me curious.

While that's true, it's also true that Kickstarter's luster has started to fade a bit, and gaming consumers are no longer jumping in to these crowd-funding campaigns feet first. I think that, coupled with the Lynchian aspects of this game, make it a harder sell than games like Mighty No. 9 or Star Citizen. I would be surprised if this one didn't get funded; it's already gained an additional $5,000 in pledges since my last post in this thread.

Fellas, let's be reasonable here. They're already around 10% of their goal and have an entire month to finance the game. Expecting it to match the runaway success of earlier Kickstarted games is, well, irrational.

That footage looks amazingly polished for being about seven months' worth of work. I've never backed a Kickstarter, and I don't think I'm going to start now, but I could definitely see buying this as an impulse purchase when it comes out next year. I definitely dig how weird it is.

Well, then let me use some anecdotal evidence. When Battlefield 3 came out and the realistic lighting model made it impossible to spot players who were backlit by the sun, it made for a lot of frustrating deaths. I've always championed realism in my competitive shooters, but this is a specific instance of veering too far in that direction. That being said, I think everything you've written is understandable and valid. Per usual, Patrick Klepek's criticisms were better-expressed than most on last Friday's Bombin' in the AM, so I'm reticent to take the plunge just yet. Between the divisive critical reaction and the fact that I'm still engrossed in Shadow of Mordor, I'll probably wait until Isolation hits a $30 flash sale in a few months before I purchase it.

I think Bjorn might be referencing this post on Skeptic Ink, which is a re-posting from this Facebook page. It doesn't paint a pretty picture, but it also doesn't invalidate the criticism being leveled at Gamer Gate™ in general. Even assuming arguendo all of that's true, it doesn't justify rampant bigotry from angry white nerds screaming from the depths of the internet's cesspool. Basically, everyone fucking sucks.

I am so glad to say that I don't know who any of these people are at all.

It varies wildly depending on where you're driving in Austin. I work way out west (620 & 2222) and my anecdotal evidence points to the number Texas Classic plates at somewhere above 80%. I also prefer the style with the stars and shuttle on it to the newer sky background.

I guess the silver lining is none of these turds is likely to procreate, so there's that.

Texas Classic is the new default plate and I personally think it's far more attractive. Clean and simple, and the white is a pearlescent, reflective material. I really dislike the look of the Texas sky color smear abomination.

Can we just roll tanks into 4-Chan instead?

Fellas, I've got it:

Yeah, it's mostly due to developers finally flexing the muscle of the new consoles, and how much further they intend to push the PC ports. I built my rig in January and thus far it's handled everything I've thrown at it with aplomb, but I'm already scarily close (or woefully underneath) the recommend specs for some of these autumn releases. In some instances, it seems like hogwash (Wolfenstein) while in others it seems like something doesn't add up (Assassin's Creed IV, though I'm going to blame this on poor optimization). Mordor is one of those instances where I'm usually at a pretty solid 60FPS, but will spike down in certain areas of the game, even when using the in-game auto detection. I realize that PC gaming moves more quickly than consoles, but I'm already dreading the thought of buying a shiny GPU next year to keep up with the latest hotness.

This was my first time, and it was absolutely fantastic. I'm a lapsed wrestling fan (meaning that I loved it when I was about 13 for three or four months), but Inspire Pro is pretty different from WWF/WWE. It's much less about the feuds and more about the athleticism on display. I saw a guy who was probably 400 pounds do a moonsault off the top ropes. Anyway, I'll have to get my own Idle Thumbs shirt before the next exhibition.

Saw a dude wearing an Idle Thumbs tee tonight at the Inspire Pro Wrestling show.

Yeah, I realized after I'd posted that question that Bethesda was probably in no way involved with the actual development. Still, Mikami's games have stood out (technically speaking, at least) from most Japanese-produced titles in the last decade or so. I remember thinking Vanquish looked and played fantastic at the time. Still, Wolfenstein's recommended specs were way above my PC's guts, and it still ran flawlessly at nearly maxed out settings.

Are those recommended specs the usual scaremongering or should I anticipate it being another case of Bethesda's unoptimized code?