texashogride

I guess it's one of those American things. In Australia you're expected to take your fridge and your washing machine with you when you vacate a rental. Ovens and dishwashers are kinda fixed so I never had to worry about them. Unless you're getting into a fully furnished apartment, which aren't that common, you definitely need to get most of your own stuff. I've moved a lot of fridges and washing machines in my time...

Is it really normal in some parts of the world to expect a fridge when moving to a new rental property? What happens if the fridge sucks? Sell it and buy a new one, only to leave it behind when you move again?

Something about the MGS series has always just made my shy away from it. The stories about ground zeroes didn't help either. The series just seems like a complete mess tone- and plot-wise. I'm intrigued by the FC2 comparison (who isn't?), but I can't convert that into putting up $100 to buy it. That said, this is coming from someone who has never played a single entry in the series, yet bought MGS4. Maybe if the feminist cabal stream some of it I might finally understand what's going on.

The most important lesson is, to paraphrase Nick Breckon: "don't be an ignoramous". And have fun! My psn id is readysetgauche if you want to ride together and are on the playstation, but my Aussie timezone probably doesn't match up well with yours.

I just quit Dragon Age Inquisition after about 5 hours. I wasn't even paying attention to the story, just going from quest marker to quest marker doing stuff without paying attention. I then thought, what am I doing? It was weird because I don't think I went into that game expecting to enjoy it, but I played through every origin story and every possible permutation in Dragon Age Origins. I guess I'm just in a different place in my life now?

I don't think I would ever go back to that level, but yeah, I had the opposite reaction to you. Then again, I was never that concerned by the guards. The giant spiders in that level though, they paralysed me out of fear. I took a lot of replays before I could comfortably go near that particular area. Later levels in Thief 2 still stick out to me as being more closed off, but still incredibly well-designed heist missions. The bank robbery and mansion break-in are really good - but again, I don't think I could go back, those experiences are better off as nostalgic fragments of memory..

I guess my favourite level is Thief 2's Shipping and Receiving level. As the game's second level, it introduced me to the concept of free-form, organic objectives and story lines outside of the critical path in a combat-averse stealth game. Up until that point I had largely been playing very focussed driving sims, and doom/duke nukem 3d, and then this level came along and said "Here's a large shipping yard with a bunch of guards. Steal some stuff to make this month's rent, don't kill anyone, don't get caught" As a piece of level design I don't think it's all that special in comparison to what happened later in the game, or other games like it, but my experiences in that level became very influential in defining what I now prefer to play.

Is it weird that I don't know of over two-thirds of these levels? I'm 30 and all of a sudden I feel like I haven't played anything

Oh man I might need to retire from this game on a high. I just got a long message from some random player telling me that I was awesome to watch me play the game. All those hours spent practising goal keeping have finally paid off! It is one thing to feel great playing that game and another thing to be told you're great to watch playing it. It was almost like I got to feel like I was a pro-athlete, and the ego-trip was HUUGE... It's definitely true that Rocket League is different to most sports games. When I have a good game, the pay-off from controller input to in-game result is just so visceral and intoxicating, and when I screw up I feel the same shame I felt as a kid failing at actual physical sports. Other sports games are so focused on recreating the TV viewer experience that they forget about that experience of actually being an athlete.

Chris...you didn't really need to burn those poor people in an abandoned room in your vault did you? You just wanted to! You had the perfectly good option of setting them free, out into the wasteland with no hope of ever returning. At least that way they would have had a chance to control their own destiny. Sure, the game makes this final act of self-determination a futile quest that always ends in death, but surely it's better to let them live the last few hours of their life with the irradiated wind in their hair, not trapped in a sealed room? For shame.

Systems-wise, sure, Fallout Shelter is now pretty solid. But it's not without problems. I have a vault of bad-ass ladies who automatically eject any male babies out into the wilderness to die that is now unplayable because every time I load that vault, the game crashes to desktop. And fool that I am, I bought a bunch of lunchboxes that I can't open any more because they're locked to that un-recoverable vault. All that aside, this game is at it's best when you whole-heartedly commit to role playing it. Your people queuing up outside a vault door waiting for someone to die is crying out for an lego Eddie Izzard deathstar cantina adapation. If only Lego made religious items for the bishop's hat, I would attempt it myself

It strikes me that game developers would be better off targeting their games at dogs to avoid using colour at all.

Idiots laughing is very appropriate. Your fallout shelter discussion caused me to break out in laughter on the train, thus making me look like an idiot too. I would argue that co-op Selfie-stick Doom kind of already exists in the back-to-back bro gameplay of Army of Two, just in a slightly less ridiculous fashion and attitude.

I made a horrible vault by not allowing anyone to have sex until I had two SPECIAL-maxed black dwellers. I then ejected any white people out into the wasteland to die and started breeding super-human black babies from the alpha-male and -female pairing. I have no idea what life would be like in that vault but it probably started off super friendly and that got real bad real fast.

I've heard similar responses to the "it's not her story to tell" misgiving about Serial, but then again, wasn't she asked to tell the story by Adnan's family? For all the doubts I have about using true crime as entertainment, I think we might be having a different discussion about the podcast if Sarah's investigations led to a clear exoneration of Adnan, There would always be criticisms about the process, but as in sports, a good result tends to wash away any criticisms, a bad result attracts them even if the process was correct. Of course, criticism about the investigation's treatment of minority communities started before the final episode, but I tend to think that if the key people involved were white then we wouldn't be having this exact conversation. I think we would still be having a conversation about treating tragedy as entertainment (which isn't new), however introducing minorities tends to lead to a skewing of the examination to a different place. I don't that's necessarily a problem - being cognisant of how you might be harming minorities, even unintentionally, is an important process. I'm just not sure it's as pertinent as the argument against true crime as entertainment, and the problems with having anyone's life brought under intense internet speculation and scrutiny, especially when they didn't invite it. This is all said from the point of view of a non-american who doesn't have to deal with that society's ills (although we obviously have our own), so perhaps that's why the more universal issue speaks to me.

Princess Peach needs arms to smack Mario upside his head after he consistently goes to the wrong castle. Also for other Peachy stuff. Real question: What possible role would Wachu-Peachu have in a game, considering Princess Peach doesn't do shit to begin with? Maybe she trolls Mario by saving herself and the game ends after world 1-1?

Why does Wachu Peachu have no arms?

What?! What kind of anarchic behaviour is that? I definitely only go the movies if I want to see a specific film. I also usually buy my tickets online, then show the receipt on my phone to the ticket selling person having swiftly passed through the priority ticket lane. Why would I want to stand in line with the normal people line and have my seat allocated for me?

What's that saying about never being able to go home again? "You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory." I don't think I would be able to return to where I grew up because it would give me the idea that my life was going backwards, which terrifies me. Standing still is deceptively ok, but definitely not going backwards. Either you stay in the same place your whole life or you just keep moving, like a shark. Or a jellyfish. Of course, circumstances change, but I definitely hold this to be true for the most part.

As someone who experienced Alien Isolation purely from Danielle's stream, I definitely agree with the sentiment that the alien showed up way too much to be truly scary, although the constant swearing from Danielle seemed to indicate that at least she was scared by the experience... I thought the genius of Alien the film was the distinct lack of screen time the alien has, ala Jaws, but when your game is 25 hours long (give or take 90 minutes) the alien screen time is by necessity longer too. I wonder if we'll ever see a director's cut to rectify this? Probably not. I wasn't sure about your analogy either. Putty covered in cat hair only brought to mind putty covered in cat hair and I can't get that image out of my head now, so thanks I guess?

Holy Hand Grenade! I thought I was an ace with the ninja rope, but that display of skill was insane. Also I think Worms 2 was the superior game for local multiplayer, but Worms Armageddon introduced a lot of cool weapons and a better single player campaign. Also also, the custom soundbank feature was probably the best thing. I had a spaceballs set that amused me for hours on end.

Hnnnnggg... How do I get good a making games so I can make this idea happen? Helping some oblivious incompetent idiot to accomplish their quest completely unbeknownst to the entire world, and never receiving any recognition for it at the end of the game. Imagine if Luigi was doing this for Mario and was secretly in love with Peach but was constantly foiled by his own pathetic social skills and pathological helpfulness in helping Mario stop Bowser, leading to Mario getting the princess every time. And the only person who knew about Luigi's true heroism was Toad, but he refused to support him because Toad hates Luigi due to something secret that happened in the past. This of course leads to Luigi becoming more and more repressed and passive-aggressive, until he lashes out in Mario Kart races, which he secretly feels should be called Luigi Kart. Hire me Nintendo!

I feel like I just found buried treasure. What's the story?

When the phrase "you know what you could do with that *********?" was uttered, all I could think of was the not-to-so-popular Australian saying "to be hit with the wrong end of a *********". Not really sure whether I'm secretly wishing for thumb-on-thumb violence by fruit, but there you have it. Edit: Anyone want to explain why the word p i n e a p p l e is being replaced?

That's what makes it weird for me too. They had to know exactly what they were getting themselves into right? It would blow my mind if they thought the sexualisation of their character models was at an ok level. "I think we're at a good spot, keep the breast enlargement at this size, wouldn't want to overdo it. Also the way these ladies moan is totally going to resonate with our audience, let's ship it!" I am frequently confused and dismayed by the way some people think. I am also frequently amazed by other people's dreams. What the hell is going on in those noggins?