Roderick

I think this forum has a well-established love for Outcast. It's one of the best games I ever played, with a soundtrack that to this day brings me to tears. I'd love to support this Kickstarter if they supported PayPal or any reasonable alternative besides credit cards! Really excited about the stretch goal of an entire new area, as I'd like to see what they'd come up with. I also hope they'll fix the game-breaking bug in Okaar while they're at it. For all my love of it, I never finished the game since I always got stuck in Okaar!

*Raises hand* I'm one of those people who listens to this podcast while never having played Netrunner, nor even knowing what the hell this game is about. Apparently I just like to listen hear you guys talk about something called Gintechy.

Uh-oh. Ever since GoT season 3 there's been a growing feeling that I can't quite place. Watching the episode I'm very excited and I love seeing all the scenes, but then when I reflect on the total it rarely holds up. Interesting dialogues abound, but it's all just a bit of the same again, isn't it? Apart from the marquee moments (you know the ones), this show is all just people slogging through forests and having conversations. Wait, that actually sounds great, so what am I missing so sorely? Perhaps it's a sense of purpose to any individual episode. You know, like Breaking Bad had, where every ep had a specific theme and story arc. GoT always gets stuck in this never-ending mire of ensemble snippets.

That's good advice. Keep on pushing it, Frenetic, but also consider maybe doing it yourself? As in, start making the movie yourself. Hollywood is hierarchical to a fault, and usually very unwilling to take on outside work that has no pull to it yet (i.e. success in another medium, 95% of everything that gets made is either an adaptation of a book or a real life event). There are of course outliers, but they are exceptions to the rule. Really, if you want anything done, you're far better off doing it yourself. Gather a team of young, willing talents like yourself, raise some funds by whatever means necessary (Kickstarter, robbing Fort Knox through a daring scheme involving helicopters) and make the thing. That'll get you noticed, that'll get you somewhere.

That was majestic. And could've possibly been quite dangerous.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, for me, really set the bar when it comes to crazy track designs. What I see in this trailer seems terribly ho-hum and straightforward. Where are the insane collapsing and morphing environments? (Though we haven't seen Bowser's Castle yet, which is usually a high point.)

I hesitated to post this earlier as it seemed a little reactionary and circumstantial, but I, too, have never met a single person, online or offline, who wanted to destroy all men. It seems a patent caricature to me. I find it unbelievable people would actually think this is a real sentiment that is out there. In a more moderate way, the whole 'militant' aspect of any group, feminist or otherwise, is also often exaggerated.

Yikes, Mington. I saw the trailer for The Trip 2, with the new 'Michael Caine' bit, and it hurt. It felt incredibly forced, whereas the first one was so sparkly and fun. I'll approach this with extreme circumspection. Though I'm at least a little curious what arcs and themes will pop up. If they're doing another 'Steve is a sad, solipsistic overachiever whereas Rob is the funny, concerned family man'... «Gentlemen, to bed! For we ride at eight-thirty for nine!»

Wow, fantastic podcast. I think the setting really helped to relax you guys, though I agree with gatazhk that Sean is super fired up. Not complaining, mind. Danke Sean. Interesting stuff all around, Danielle is as ever a really fun personality to have on the cast. She complements the available knowledge because of her current occupation as PolygonTM journalist.

What... is up... with all these dragons? Where did they come from? Are they illegal immigrants? "Hey, you can't come here, you don't have a visa! Go burn your own country." [bassline, clicking sound]

Gormongous, it must be annoying to teach these incredibly interesting things from an objective/historic standpoint, but then have to constantly pre-emptively defend yourself from the possible accusation that you might be the thing that you teach. It's the hallmark of taboo: even the reek of association with things like socialism (in American culture) and fascism (everywhere) is toxic to a high degree, despite them being impartially totally fascinating and only become monstrous in the hands of men (and reality).

Synth: thanks! Justin: To be honest, I haven't even delved into the (official) business aspect of it yet. I already have a registered company, so perhaps it'll be as simple as giving a new description for it to the chamber of commerce. I expect it to be no more difficult than creating any old small, one-man company here: just fill in some forms and you're good to go. But who knows, maybe there are some arcane additional rules for publishing houses? I'll look it up next month when I get around to it. Should be no big deal, there are tons of people with their own book company.

Since this week I've begun working parttime. After a year of fulltime employment I've made the step to get two days in the week for myself and my writing. It's a little scary, but also exciting and not too risky. My income still covers all the expenses I make and I don't mind living frugally. More importantly, I now have the time to WRITE and publish my first novel Pindakaas en Sushi (Peanut Butter and Sushi)! It's a young adult novel about Japanese conventions in the Netherlands and it'll launch 2,5 months from now on the year's biggest festival. I've set up a publishing label just for it, Uitgeverij Leeuwenhart, and it's a TON of work to make and arrange everything. Very hard, but very fulfilling as well. I've created a (Dutch) Twitter account for chronicling and marketing purposes, so if you want to follow my progress: @LeeuwenhartNL / https://twitter.com/LeeuwenhartNL

That is a great mission statement. I think I've heard it from Ron Gilbert's mouth as well at some point in the past, at least, I recall it from earlier.

I hope he has some news about the future of Torchlight, now that he and his brother have parted ways.

Yes, and apparently it's topping the Steam chart in sales as well. Pretty cool! I wonder how much impact the super charming walkthrough videos had.

Really? I thought the Freeze design was a most original and impressive take on him. When I played the game a few years ago, I didn't for a second notice any of the misogyny that others found repellent. I'm not saying it's not there, I just wasn't looking at it from that angle.

Shit, getting a model will cost us some money. I've got this Barbie doll lying around though.

The sublime irony is that right now I'm in the thick of a review of Dark Souls II and up to my ears in work. Curses!

The Singaporean aunt was the worst human being in the film. I hated how she pretended to have her nephew's interest at heart while completely undermining his self-worth and confidence with passive-aggressive remarks and emotional blackmail. And then playing the victim. She's a bully.

Had a rather similar experience to dibs there. I rarely got a grasp for what the game was they were playing and found the extreme zoom things distracting rather than elucidating (and more than a little condescending). I see it as a missed opportunity that the film doesn't even attempt to explain what the game/sport is actually like. As a result, there's very little incentive for an outsider to start caring about it, beyond the Karate Kid plot of western underdogs against the scary and possibly evil Chinese players. What a weird undertone there, by the way. Why didn't the Chinese team get the same heartfelt background stories as all the others? They were set up purely as antagonists, and the way the story unfolded caused another strange thing. When Na'Vi won against Ehome it felt not so much as a miraculous victory from the jaws of defeat by some amazing strategem, rather it made DOTA look like a game of random chance: you can win by just picking any odd combination of heroes. That's another reason it would've been so much more interesting if they had taken the time to explain what the game was and what was happening. Unless you're already invested in DOTA, it plays like a relatively okay-ish story about a few dudes growing up and playing video games in a tournament. And menacing, machine-like Chinese.

It's the middle finger. No matter how far you think their reach goes, they have a telescopic middle finger that extends freakishly beyond any conceivable stretch. I see it with my little nieces every time.

Nice, I'd love to see her live. Is she still good though? I mean part of her act was the expressive dancing and the enchantment of youth.

@HeerRood https://twitter.com/HeerRood

Whoa there, that sounds like the fallacy that a critic should be a creator of equal skill before he may criticize something. What eot wrote was strongly worded, but a fair point which he backed up with a clear example of what would be better.