JonCole

Anyone care to schedule some time for the 4-player co-op mode? I'd really like to try it.

One of the most interesting parts of that discussion was Totilo's view on what the purpose of a review should be - namely, "persuasive". He tried to ask TB what exactly made "politics" less worthy of discussion than how the review may feel about the score/soundtrack of a game, which is another fully aesthetic and thus relative thing to benchmark. TB went on and on about how an "authoritative" stance on political issues in a review was irresponsible. He said that Bayonetta 2's review on Polygon, for instance, had about half of its content dedicated to pontification about sexism. I read that review and didn't feel like it spent all that long on the issue, but TB insisted that such treatment of a single element of a game should be sequestered to an "opinion piece" or editorial. It struck me as really odd, because Totilo's point was convincing - I've read plenty of reviews that took a single element of a game to task that wasn't fully objective. For instance, plenty of "real gamers" took LoZ: Wind Waker to task for its art style, which wasn't objectively better or worse than the more realistic style of OoT/MM. What about the art style makes it more worthy of discussion in a review than a game's problematic politics?

I like how he refers to Internet Aristocrat as a "monster", as though it's up for debate. There are some people that don't deserve to be given a voice at whatever table he purports to be building.

It's also not compelling because GG has a pretty stellar track record of editing text posts and images to misrepresent people.

I honestly can't even keep up with all that shit, I'm more interested in hearing TB insist on something unreasonable, Totilo offer some other perspective, TB restate himself slightly differently, and then Totilo basically say they're at an impasse and should move on. I get a distinct feel that TB is just out to "win" while Stephen is more interested in showing that there is/can be nuance to some of these issues/"issues".

I'm only about a half hour in, but Total Biscuit invited Stephen Totilo onto his show to talk about ethics (lol) and Totilo frankly makes him sound like a dumbass - Notable Points - TB asks if a public apology is warranted for Patricia Hernandez's disclosure faux pas, to which Totilo says that having corrections issued to your article is shameful enough and he feels that demanding a public apology of her is simply a means of wringing more shame out of her. TB says that he thinks apologies are just a sign of good faith, which is pretty silly in context. TB goes into somewhat exhaustive detail about some of the "worst" points of the GameJournosPro thing and almost every incident he mentions leads Stephen Totilo to basically ask - this is a candid email discussion, the reporters were often crafting their stories as they got input from others in the press, so why would we hold them to the highest standards of journalistic integrity when this kind of interaction doesn't dictate their final decisions? Does an EIC saying "don't give this journalist any work" necessarily mean that every other EIC will follow in lockstep? At this point in the interview, Totilo seems a bit exasperated because every one of TB's questions seems to be assuming the absolute worst from everyone involved while Totilo feels that a vast majority of reporters are simply acting in good faith and make mistakes like any person. In a discussion of Bayonetta 2's review on Polygon where TB says he agrees with the "sex-positive feminist view" that Bayonetta is a strong female character, Totilo says, "Do you (TB) consider yourself a sex-positive feminist?" TB response, "I consider myself a sex-positive egalitarian." What a fucking twat.

I agree with all of that. In some ways, I feel like Fusion is the most linear because it has the most plot points that kinda drive it forward as well as an overarching map design that leads you from one environment to the next without ever having to do much of the Metroidvania thing of "which direction should I actually be going?". Because of that, I have a lot more ease recommending that one over the others to newcomers.

Well Rubixs beat me to it, except I think that they're all pretty much equally good.

Gamergate can't tell two Asian guys apart - https://storify.com/turnoffthenews/gamergate-can-t-tell-two-asian-men-apart?utm_source=t.co&utm_campaign=&utm_content=storify-pingback&utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter&awesm=sfy.co_rmYp

I dunno, I enjoy the show more than the books so I imagine I'll keep watching it. Plus, the path of the show seems to be veering off enough that I won't feel like I'm being explicitly spoiled on story content by watching it ahead of any content that theoretically hasn't been covered in the books yet. I know that GRRM is working with the showrunners to some extent, but I don't feel like if he tells the showrunners the broad strokes that whatever they think up to be the plot of the show has much bearing at all on what GRRM writes.

Christmas is the worst now that I have in-laws, it creates a tension where I feel like my biological family perceives that I'm making a judgment about which part of my family I like more. My family has this tendency towards introversion that I didn't even notice until my girlfriend and now wife started attending family functions. Basically, we all just exist in the same space but nobody feels motivated to actually spend time with each other. It's not uncommon to go to my parents house for a weekend and only eat two meals with them. When I inevitably leave early, they act like they're sad to see me going but there's a good chance they hadn't actually even seen me that day to begin with. But yeah I'm going to Sweden for Christmas woooo!

For what it's worth, this is the HDMI converter I got for the Wii and it works pretty well - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007RKXN46/

... we're all in the Illuminati, right? I'm actually a Templar.

I started playing The Secret World and they ask you for a "nickname" which I guess is effectively a username. I tried anything I could think of, NPCs from all of my favorite games, cool TV show characters, etc. I tried probably... 50 different things that were all taken. By the end I was relatively frustrated and putting in random stuff. There was no confirm screen or anything when I actually made one that worked. Unfortunately, my username in TSW is... Gamergate. FML

I highly, highly recommend Monoprice for cable needs. Pretty sure they cut all their own cables in house from huge spools with quality connectors. They don't have the very highest quality of product, but they're consistent and widely used by geeks whose reviews I trust. I love getting cables from them to fit the exact needs of my setup - for instance I have all the components of my home theater setup hooked up to my network via HDMI and I have the cables color coded so that my Xbox 360 uses a green HDMI cable at the exact length to reach my receiver and a green ethernet cable at the exact length to reach the ethernet switch. Same goes for all the USB, audio, and video cables for my computer. No cable slack really cuts down on the cable clutter of my setups, plus I can get it all relatively cheap. They even list the gauge of the wires where necessary, and offer cables with or without ferrite cores on the ends if signal degredation is a problem. Anyways, I just <3 Monoprice and am an unapologetic evangelist for them.

For the hell of it, I looked it up - you can get a 50ft Cat6 cable from Monoprice overnighted within CA for $14. Remember that for next time, I guess.

I pretty much buy everything from Newegg. Tigerdirect is also kinda big in Florida, as far as physical stores go, so sometimes I get parts there if I need them in a pinch. Amazon is okay too, but they don't tend to have very many good deals unless they're price matching. If you're in CA, I'd recommend keeping an eye out for deals at Fry's. They often have amazing processor or processor/mobo combo deals. Basically what I did when I made my computer was plug the whole thing into PCPartPicker as a means of monitoring sales on the exact components I wanted. Then I looked at Newegg Shellshocker deals every day, plus subscribed to their email deals that go out weekly. If there's a good enough deal, it changed my mind on various things. I was prepared to buy a budget Corsair case (200R), but there was an amazing deal on a Fractal Design R4 that cut it's price to about $15 more than the 200R. The R4 is a top-tier case, so the deal swayed me. Also for parts like power supplies, I'm not incredibly picky with brands so if I see a 80 Plus Gold/Platinum 500+ W modular supply go up I'm going to grab it unless reviews are poor.

I tried to give Shadow of Mordor a shot, but I had it rented for two weeks and only played it for about 5 hours so I think now is just not the right time for me to play a sprawling open-world thing. My next GF game is Phoenix Wright vs Ace Attorney, which I'm very excited to start this weekend. I'm still playing Destiny, although a bit less now that I hit level 29 and my armor is fully upgraded. I also have three exotic weapon bounties so bounty stuff is slow at the moment. I will definitely get back into it a little bit this weekend, if only to explore the event-based stuff. I've been drawn away from Destiny due to Payday 2, which I've been playing with Thumbs as you could have learned on the MP forums. JOIN US. Civilization Beyond Earth is a thing that's happening, though the games are so long that I'm only playing it sporadically. On my phone I've been playing Puzzle and Dragons as always. I just hit my 400th consecutive day of play a couple weeks ago, so yeah I still love that game. I've also been playing Marvel Puzzle Quest, which I've actually liked quite a bit. The F2P stuff is not particularly egregious and the energy mechanics don't seem to hamper my play. I have spent a few bucks on it, mostly so I can get the most out of the non-paid rewards I've been racking up. I've also been playing the "build a new computer" game. I decided I'd step my PC down slightly and give my Core i5 to my wife, because she's basically a PC-only gamer while I have the PS4 to play AAA games on. So I've got an overclocked Pentium going, Windows 8 installed, and now I'm doing the laborious thing of triaging my hard drives so I can figure out what I want to carry over from one computer to another.

Brianna Wu is trying to set up a fund for civil legal defense of women who have been harassed - http://spacekatgal.tumblr.com/post/101422081503/standing-up-to-gamergate-bullies Of course, the very first thing GGers are saying is stuff like WHAT ABOUT TRANS PEOPLE, ARE YOU TRANSPHOBIC?

If you still have it, I'd love to give it to my wife. But if another Thumb wants it for themselves, I'd say they have higher priority.

I wish I had a Gameboy Micro. Though at this point, I really wouldn't have much to play on it except Pokemon. Actually, that's probably enough.

Just tracked back on Jeong for context, so here's a friendly reminder that while Gawker has been cool about GG in a few instances and Kotaku seems to have ramped up their content production to something slightly more respectable, the culture of Gawker is still poisonous and very capable of producing the worst of the hateful pageview headline producing internet scum.

Yeah, I think it's supposed to go stock/meat/veg -> udon noodles -> bok choy. I might even reserve the mushrooms to be added at the same time as the bok choy, as it really doesn't need to be cooked very much either. Also, you should really get some dashi unless you're opposed to fish stock. It's the best way to go. Don't really know why you're going with a mix batter for tempura, either. I just have the recipe in my head because it's so simple - 1 egg, 1 cup of cold water, 1 cup of flour (I use rice flour if I have it), 1 pinch of baking soda. Whisk them all together and you're good to go. In other news, I have a Chinese restaurant near me called Wok 'n' Roll.

I got in for the PS4 version.