Chris

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Posts posted by Chris

  2. Posted

    Idle Weekend June 18, 2017:

    Idle Weekend June 18, 2017


    Madness Mechanics
    We survived E3! That's reason enough to do a horror-themed episode this weekend, thanks to a nifty demo for Distrust. We take a lovely tour through some of our favorite, terrifying game experiences, with a light sprinkling of film. Then, we move on to our mailbox and dig into two very exciting weekend projects. Note: we had some slight mic issues this episode. Discussed: Distrust, Alien: Isolation, It Follows, Alien, Lost, The Babadook, Prey, System Shock 2, Alan Wake, Soma, Her Story, Doom III, Gabriel Knight II, Xena: Warrior Princess, 24 Hours of Le Mans, Orange is the New Black

     

  3. Posted

    1 hour ago, Goose Malloy said:

    Thank you very much, I'll definitely check out some of those. That's a super impressive list, I'm British and try to stay reasonably up to date with current affairs and I reckon I've listened to maybe two of those, clearly I need to up my game :-p

     

    For what it's worth, my favorites are probably:

    - The Times Red Box (although The Times is right-leaning, they do a good job getting a good variety of guests from different angles and it feels pretty even-handed)

    - Talking Politics with David Runciman (I like how calm and measured Runciman is, and that tends to rub off on his guests)

    - New Statesman Deep Dive (this is a pretty new podcast; they choose a specific topic for each episode, which means there's less overlap with other shows)

    - The Guardian's Politics Weekly (it's shamelessly partisan, which can be annoying, but it's partisan in the direction I lean, and the people are smart)

     

    The BBC Radio 5 Electioncast seems good but I've added it more recently than the others and I'm not sure if it will continue indefinitely; I assume it's a limited series.

  4. Posted

    6 hours ago, Goose Malloy said:

    Swiftly moving on, Chris you mentioned that you'd been listening to a podcast about British politics on an episode a few weeks ago, do you remember what it was? 

     

    Here's a list of the British politics podcasts I have been listening to during the campaign and in the aftermath of the election:

    - Deep Dive from the New Statesman

    - Electioncast from BBC Radio 5

    - Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 (I mainly just listen when it's the News Quiz)

    - FT Politics from the Financial Times

    - The New Statesman Podcast

    - Politics Weekly from The Guardian

    - Pienaar's Politics from BBC Radio 5

    - The Political Party with Matt Forde

    - Political Thinking from BBC Radio 4

    - Polling Matters with Keiran Pedley

    - Red Box Podcast from The Times

    - Talking Politics with David Runciman

    - Week in Westminster from BBC Radio 4

    - Westminster Hour from BBC Radio 4

  11. Posted

    20 minutes ago, jamesklambert said:

     

    I'm not going to play this game. I have agreed that there is sexism in the show. I have simply pointed out it is not 100%, clearly "misogynistic," or even overwhelmingly so. I have tried to give several examples of other things that might be considered or seen differently by reasonable viewers. Rather than acknowledging my overall - glass is half empty, glass is half full - argument or 9 out of the 10 bullet points examples I gave, she focused on one and told me again how I'm clearly wrong, because "reasonable people" would only think the way she does. Now you are telling me that I'm not not being "intellectually flexible" because I am daring to say that reasonable people can see it differently?

     

    Sorry I bothered to post anything.

     

    All I'm saying is that you are expecting other people to conform to your view in a way you are not offering to do yourself. She replied to the bullet point with which she has specific firsthand experience. That seems pretty fair to me. You obviously don't have to agree, but by the same token I don't know why you seem to think your perspective somehow carries a weight that other people's don't.

  12. Posted

    2 minutes ago, jamesklambert said:

     

    Because every "reasonable person" thinks exactly like you and always makes perfect choices, never impulsive ones? 

     

    I simply tried to give you a number of ways of looking at this. You don't need to agree with everyone of them or any of them. I simply hoped to point out that reasonable people can disagree and maybe, just maybe, the show isn't as sexist as you are making it out to be. I hope you can see some validity in this, rather than simply looking for more things to object to.

     

    You should also consider taking your own advice. You are expecting other people to consider your frame of reference but considering someone replied to you with her experience as an actual person in the situation you are describing, and you still are acting as though they are the one who needs to reframe their position, maybe you aren't extending the same intellectual flexibility you're asking other people to extend.

  13. Posted

    I'm no authority on representation of women in media obviously, so take this with a grain of salt, but to my memory, several of the women in the original run of the show were represented with a pretty high degree of interiority and agency, without being routinely sexualized or exploited in obnoxious ways, including Norma (my fav!), Donna, and Catherine. There are other women characters who arguably meet some or all of these criteria but are (like several male characters) fairly one-note or who serve a more specific recurring function either narratively or tonally. The characters I mentioned—and I'm sure other people will have their own opinions—are to me very multi-dimensional, complex, and central to the parts of the story with which they intersect. I don't think you could find comparable examples in the new series so far. Hopefully that changes.

  14. Posted

    Idle Weekend June 2, 2017:

    Idle Weekend June 2, 2017


    Pushing Our Buttons
    This weekend, we decided to talk about hard-stops in games. The things that make us look a game in the face, in disbelief or exasperation, and break up with them on the spot. We also dig in on music we love in games, sexism in sports and action movies, and two films we are feeling hot and cold on, often at the same time!

    Discussed: Endless Space 2, The Witness, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 3, The Longest Journey, Yooka-Laylee, Prey, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Max Payne, Mission: Impossible 2, Godzilla (2014), Alien: Covenant, Prometheus

     

  17. Posted

    14 minutes ago, SecretAsianMan said:

    I haven't listened yet, but there's also a prequel game to A Dark Room called The Ensign.  I believe that one is only on iOS.  Coincidentally enough, I also downloaded A Dark Room on Android last week (it was on sale for free at the time).  I had played the web version years ago and it was neat to revisit.

     

    I've completed The Ensign as well. I didn't mention it on the show, because it's not really as impactful as A Dark Room, but it's fun. And yeah it's only on iOS because it's a new game by the guy who did A Dark Room's iOS port; it's not by the original author of ADR.

  19. Posted

    24 minutes ago, dbgdbgdbg said:

    It's also available... online. For free.

     

    http://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/

     

    I don't know if they've added anything new in the app versions, i think unlikely.

     

    P.S. Finished it (the website version) years ago. There are many other web-games like this, in particular: Kittens. 

     

    The iOS version was made by a different person who did make some interesting changes and additions. When you complete it on iOS there's audio commentary from both the original dev and the porter, and it comes off as a really interesting collaboration. But yes I should have definitely remembered the original web version and mentioned it, my bad.

  25. Posted

    Idle Weekend May 18, 2017:

    Idle Weekend May 18, 2017


    Eat, Prey, Love
    This episode is either really early, or really late, and either way, you can place the blame entirely on Prey for being so goddamned awesome. We talk Prey, space lesbians, immersive sims in general, and, a little more about problematic media! Content warning for mentions of partner abuse in The Witcher 3, and a reference to sexual assault in Ghost Recon: Wildlands. Discussed: Prey, The Witcher 3, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, American Gods, Side Effects