JonCole

The matchmaking was fine in beta, not any perceptibly better or worse than the regular thing. I guess it's possible that rolling it out to Attrition and Hardpoint proper might have broke something, but I doubt that'd have anything to do with me not getting any CTF games.

Many US televisions do come with interfaces baked in that allow access to streaming video services. However, most don't offer such a range of choices, usually something like Netflix and Hulu Plus for video, Pandora for music, and maybe one or two other things. Also, if you have a receiver it can sometime be a pain for those apps to properly communicate 5.1 from the TV back to the receiver.

Objective error - Titanfall review Kraber can give a one-shot, one-bullet kill.

I've also had trouble getting into matches on PC (US East). Even at peak times, I'll seemingly only be able to slot into one match in a particular mode (like, the same group of guys in CTF or Hardpoint) unless I go for Attrition. It doesn't help that many modes have full, high-level parties that scare off single players and generally for good reason. I wish that they had a mode that wasn't compatible with parties, if only because I might be able to get a game with more regularity.

Huh, I wonder if there's any optimization for those Android apps. I think Google rightly tried to develop two separate ecosystems for TV and mobile, but ultimately failed in their TV offering so they moved Android apps to Google TV. Without optimization, I can imagine that certain apps certainly may work but I don't know if I'd actually want to use them if their interface is comparably poor to the baked in apps from Amazon.

I'm still not convinced that this is comparable. The Xbox was $300, this is $100. The primary advertised function of this box is video, Xbox was games. Xbox games were $60, the launch exclusive for the Fire TV is $7. Amazon will get an install base on the back of video much more easily than someone will pony up three times the upfront cost just for games. And the same money that could buy Amazon one AAA console game will buy them many more mobile games with just as much potential to succeed or fail. Take more, smaller chances, get more, smaller successes.

That's pretty much the conclusion we collectively arrived at in the Feminism thread, although with slightly more nuance.

I dunno, I think it's a little odd to simply dismiss Amazon as an also-ran. A game's success seems to be largely based on 1) quality 2) marketing. Amazon can easily buy both and not at such a ridiculously high price considering the target is a mobile-equivalent console with a narrowed scope compared to AAA console games (I mean, their premier game at launch is $7 so the games can't cost much to develop or they wouldn't make money) and the front page of their website is marketing enough for seemingly any product. If Ouya's pocket change is enough to sway some developers to go at least timed-exclusive and make their games compatible with Ouya, what will Amazon's deep pockets do?

Weird, it was just available earlier today. Perhaps if you wait a couple days they'll get a restock.

All phones running Windows Phone 8 will be upgradeable to Windows Phone 8.1.

Extensively - http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/2/5570866/cortana-windows-phone-8-1-digital-assistant http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/2/5570700/cortana-for-windows-phone-8-1-hands-on-video The buzz on Twitter from tech journos was that it's basically the one thing that WP8.1 has over Android and Apple in a serious way. In every other way, WP8.1 seems to be playing catch up, though this latest update seems to be it's Android 4.0/iOS5 in terms of cohesiveness and vision.

They dropped the license fee on Windows Phone, and they license fee of regular windows on devices with screens smaller than 9". Windows 8 is indeed going to have a traditional Start menu that does integrate the live titles found on the Start screen. I'm excited about Windows 8 Update mostly because 1) Metro apps that run Windowed in desktop mode increase the value of those apps to me by infinity percent and 2) cross-form factor apps mean that I may get interfaces for my Windows 8 tablet that are a little more tablet-friendly and are a little more desktop-friendly in their desktop mode, instead of an app that appears like it'd be good on a tablet but isn't and also is shit on desktop.

Oh yeah. Every time I've cheaped out on a router, I've regretted it. I bought a N66U after fiddling with both a mid-range $50-ish ASUS router and a N56U, and love it. I will either buy a AC66U or a Nighthawk when I finally make the AC plunge.

I think they changed their recommendation because the AC56U is more affordable ($120 vs $170) and doesn't trade off too much for that price (mostly the range, a slight decrease in speed) while still preserving dual-band and AC.

For me, I regard with barks with much more seriousness because a big problem in modern misogyny is the pervasiveness of it in even the most seemingly innocuous things. I think that most reasonable people would agree that the overt visual sexualization of the female characters is not productive, so that's why I'm making the argument regarding the less obvious offense. I suppose I would find the visual misogyny more offensive and more directly deserving of scorn, but for that reason I give the other aspect more of my personal attention.

My standoffish answer would be I don't know, isn't that the writer's job? My slightly more nuanced answer would be, are barks necessary? Games with better writing use barks as a means to convey information, not just for the purpose of supposedly enhancing the convincingness of the environment. Like, in Splinter Cell the guards say stuff like "hey, what happened to the lights" instead of just saying "I heard you were a pussy and I'm going to kick your ass, Fisher". Barks could be something like, "What was that shadow? Come out, there are more of us than there are of you" or something like that. Hell, it could even be something that enhances Catwoman as a character, like "don't go easy on the Catwoman, she can kick your ass just like the Batman can!" could be said from one AI to another.

The only apps it has at launch is Amazon and Hulu Plus. They promise all those other apps, but I'm not interested in buying it until it has them. Good to know they are using an RF/wireless remote.

I agree. Part of my point is that while it can be argued that bad guys using these words is what bad guys would do, I have to ask if it actually enhances the game in any perceptible way. Does it really make these bad guys more convincing as bad guys? If it's not really an effective form of writing and it can be argued that it supports bad gender-specific standards, why write it at all?

I come down in about the same place. I don't really have a good STB, only a 2-year old Roku that isn't at feature parity with the newest lineup. I'd like a box that would be always on and could do all that stuff without needing me to turn on the PS3 and eat up a lot of power. The price seems right, it's what I'd pay for a new Roku 3 with all the features I want. I would like some real impressions of 1) power consumption 2) wasn't clear to me if the remote is IR or RF, RF would be way better 3) how long will it actually take for those apps to come in, no Netflix at launch is a day-one dealbreaker 4) is there actually any value in the extra features the mentioned?

I don't feel like I have much to add on this, but if you have any more questions I'd be happy to move over to the Feminism thread.

Maybe endorsing isn't the right word, but displaying something before people does normalize the existence of that thing culturally. I wouldn't argue that violence in games promotes violence, but I do think that having violence be depicted interactively on screen makes people a lot more familiar with violence and expectant that violence exists in the real world and can serve a similar function as depicted in the medium. Gender norms with children strike me as analogous - before you introduce that boys like blue things and girls like pink things, there is no norm for what colors are attributed to what gender in a child's mind. Even if a parent isn't shoving it down a child's throat by buying them only blue or only pink things, they'll see in stores that those colors are attributed to those genders through products. So, whether or not the attribution is blatant, it happens just due to the fabric of our society. I feel similarly about misogyny in general. I would never say that Batman: Arkham City makes people be misogynists, but by creating a world where misogyny exists it normalizes the existence of misogyny and in my opinion, endorses it by means of that normalization. Finally, I think your intentional argumentativeness is resulting in some slippery slope business. I'm not comfortable smashing a man's head in personally. On the other hand, I also think that in general we (gamers) are fine with both smashing a man's head in and hearing a woman called a bitch. I do think that we (Thumbs, at the very least) have a responsibility to be more discerning and question whether it's okay that either of these standards is generally acceptable when they're not really adding anything except visceral entertainment value. Because really, is Arkham City enhanced by thieves calling Catwoman a bitch instead of something gender-neutral?

What I feel is that narrative justification doesn't necessarily excuse misogyny contained in a work of art. Regardless of who is saying those things in the narrative, the creators of the game created a situation in which these people exist so is inherently endorsing them by means of creation. The more I research the feminist cause, the more I realize that many elements of misogyny are so ingrained in culture that it's hard to properly contextualize the wrongdoing. In the case of words like the ones you mention, they're gender-specific - they're words being used directly to address a female, that is. There is no equivalent gender-specific jabs thrown in Batman's direction as a male, so there's an inherent imbalance in how women and men are being treated, despite there being a reason for the jabs to be thrown in the first place. In other words, there may be justification for why thieves and killers would say such things, but by having them say those specific things to that specific character there is a gender-specific imbalance. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think this is incredibly strong ground to stand on. In its best case, I think it's more of an indicator than evidence of harmful intent. I wouldn't indict a game solely on this, but there's something inherent to the misogyny of that situation that can contribute to greater picture. I personally feel that since these gender imbalances are more inherent than obvious, it imparts a feeling of uneasiness rather than blatant outrage. It feels wrong to me to hear those words being lobbed at a female character in this game, but until I really logic it out it's hard to express why the situation is not right.

Vlambeer's Rami Ismail has another interesting, highly depressing story regarding GAME_JAM and how shitty contracts for indie developers can be (in this specific, weird situation and in a more general publishing context) - http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/1/5570480/a-warning-about-contracts-from-the-sidelines-of-the-most-expensive

High end, ridiculously fast, amazing range - NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Gigabit Router (R7000) All rounder with AC support - ASUS Dual-Band Wireless Router (RT-AC56U) (Wirecutter write-up) All rounder with N support - ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router If you want something sub-$100, I'd wait for reviews of the latest-gen AC routers that can deliver some high speeds just with less amazing range/features.

I was saying that Arkham Origins would probably be $5 soon. The sale price of those games goes down like a rock, usually $5-10 within a year of release.