chummer

I say "yes" because- aside from the game being great- I imagine you can play another 30 hours of the game and manage to explore whole other spaces of the world.

So after posting in the Fallout 4 reveal trailer thread, I came here because Wasteland II is on sale on GOG and wanted to get an idea of what the game was like as I've got a hankering for post-apocalyptica. These last few posts have put me off tho. Curious if this skill check problem was patched out.

I'm of two minds about your post, with one being an enthusiastic "Yes!" and the other saying "Let's not sell FO3 short." While my memories of enjoyment from FO3 are fewer and farther between than those from NV, I think they might be more emotionally affecting. Agatha's Song and Temple of the Union are ones that always come to mind I think of Fallout as a whole. I also remember those random radio towers that you could power on, get a short range station that looped some desperate message, and led to a nearby bunker where a tiny, environmental story was told. I also loved the urban area of the game because you were forced to use the metros to get around. All of that stuff- except for the world navigating- existed on the margins though and Skyrim didn't leave me enthused about Bethesda's work, so I share your skepticism. That said, if I had to choose between the two, I'd choose NV, but I don't think we're going to get that because Obsidian is out there making an MMO.

Lore thoughts: While I don't like fantasy all that much, I really like knowing the technical side of how magic manifests in the world. Is it purely a mental action? Does it require words or actions to bring about? What is the source of power and who has access to it? Often this is just a starting point to thinking about how it parallels real world beliefs about the supernatural (I've thought a lot about the parallels between Dragon Age's positions on magic and Christianity) and it's really fruitful. That said, sometimes midichlorians happen and you just want to forget it all.

Was thinking about lore in the shower this morning, remembered the conversation from this ep's reader mail section, and absolutely the first place I went was to the time-stamped Youtube video of this episode. It was fantastic. Thanks, Driggs!

Also wanted to point out how good a bookend the fridge dream scene was to the series. In the first episode when Don is having dinner with Rachel Menken, he says One of the last important monologues in the show being about the importance of feeling loved is a great callback.

Loved Joan's ending. Her time on the show has been filled with disappointing men and it was incredibly satisfying seeing her dedicate herself to something that she wanted. I didn't like the Peggy and Stan ending. I think her closure works though in the context of defining Peggy as a person who manages to have Don's talent but not his problems. When she asks Stan what he thinks about the partnership, he leaves the room saying something about how there's more to life than work; I think that has been the thrust of her arc this season, so it makes sense that the promise of a fulfilling personal relationship is what we close out on with her. I think it was Chris who mentioned on the cast recently something about how season 4 was supposed to be the original run and later seasons are sort of a spin off. Looking back at it, Don spends time trying to be a better person. Drinking less. Swimming. Journaling to practice introspection. Starting a relationship with someone he respects. By the end of that season, he is asking Faye to compromise her integrity and impulsively marries Megan. I've met people in my life who know that they're hurting themselves with certain behaviors and even have the self-awareness to know why they do it, but continue to do it anyway. I think Don is this type of person. Without a doubt, something in Don has changed. I think this is evident in how he tries to use a "It will shock you how much it never happened" type speech with Stephanie like he did with Peggy and her baby, but gets shut down because he can't effectively pitch that line of thinking anymore. The depth by which he is affected by the man's fridge dream also reveals that he has had a similar epiphany. That said, Don's most memorable pitches (Kodak, Hershey) were delivered from a place of intense earnestness- it makes complete sense to me that he would take what he learned at the retreat as a 'great idea' for an ad.

I assumed that it was about cannibalism as well because one of the first details he gives is that they were starving and how he later describes one of the soldiers as 'skin and bones' or something like that. Maybe the story was supposed to be veiled though?

Been thinking a lot about Joan as well. Megan, Peggy, Sally, and Betty aren't in happy conditions, but they were all shown as ready to move forward through those circumstances. Joan was last seen being beaten and betrayed. That really broke my heart because of all those women, it feels like she has fought just as hard for what she wants, if not harder. What a cruel way for her story to end if the last we hear of her is Pete mentioning that she got bought out.

I really enjoy when you tweet about older episodes! I like being reminded of some of that stuff.

This sounds... really good.

It's neat! Like the arrhythmic, Sega Genesis feel.

Ay, ya'll. I post on Soundcloud, though I use it more as a place for sketches with only a few final versions of stuff. The latest thing I've done is technically a 30s clip of a calypso sample I've been messing around with on my MPD26. I've also been using Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch. I compose a little thing and then put it into the software and come up with some really neat stuff. Requires a bit of processing in Ableton to give it life, but I like it. I think my favorite tune to come out of it was a thing I made for Stuart's game- a track called Homeward. Thrik, I really enjoyed your Rising Joy track, particularly the swirling that comes in around the 16s mark. Patrick, you've got some good mash-ups there. ELO-40 is a jam. Glanced at the various chapters they provided and it reads like someone took advice off of Reddit and formatted it into a book you'd find in Ikea? If that's harsh, I don't mean it to be, but the format of solution/problem feels like it's a Buzzfeed article or something.

Recently finished up God of War 1, 2, and 3. Didn't own a PS2 when games were coming out, so I picked up the collection and 3 on the cheap (one of the many advantages of getting a console super late). 1 wasn't particularly impressive, but 2 and 3 have a really great sense of scale when they choose to highlight that. I can distinctly remember running across the giant chain that tethered those 3 gold horses in GoW2. 3 does that stuff even better, with the moving environments while being on various titans and big levels. It harkened back to similar feelings I got while playing Shadow of the Colossus. There's also some neat grappling stuff in 2 that I would love to see fully explored in its own game. Story was terrible. Combat got dull, though I kind of appreciate how much of that stuff carries over through the series. In the end, I'm not sure I'd recommend any of the games. I don't regret playing them and I can see how 2 was really impressive for it's time (still kind of is), but there's too little of that impressive stuff. I wasn't intending to, but I managed to pick up GoW: Ascension for free when the PS Store goofed. It'll probably be a while until I get to it, if at all.

The Ides of Max.

I'm mulling over a few things you've brought up so this isn't a full response, but: 12 Fundamentals Of Writing "The Other" is an article about writing, but can be applied to representation in a variety of different mediums. Worth reading the entire thing, but the most relevant point to this discussion regarding representation is: You can also learn from the mistakes of others. Read criticisms of Far Cry 4, for instance, which has a poc protagonist but still engages in exploitative, colonialist fantasy. Regarding the money thing: I'm of the mind that I don't mind doing something for free as long as everyone's doing it for free. I've made some music for game jam games and am satisfied with the experience and a credit on the thing. Obviously that's not everyone. I'll have more to add when I've thought about this a bit more.

I got Steam due to the Thumbs' enthusiastic endorsement of Torchlight 1 in late 2009. The only PC I had was a 2005 Dell laptop, but the game still ran pretty well.

Oh, did she?

Agreed! I feel like Twitter specifically has challenged me to both reexamine a lot of my thinking and be more compassionate.

On what platform did you play it on, eot? I picked up the collection from GOG or somewhere but I haven't booted it up because I'm anxious about playing it with a 360 gamepad :\

So someone is out there archiving tons of Vaporwave music: http://vaporwave.me/discover What a weird thing.

May I ask which subject? And what would a dream job consist of for you? Also, welcome! We've got a welcome thread you should pop onto.

Eidolon is really good, ya'll. And Intimate, Infinite by Robert Yang left a really strong impression. Damn. A good year for games.

Boy has only written a 'Hello' article and ya'll already left him in the shade. Kotaku does have a terrible user experience though.

Looking back, that definitely feels like a more accurate reading of her emotions, but it's still couched in the act of "putting her in her place with a good hit." My experience with anime is sparse enough that I still don't see how shows work against archetypes and conventions within the medium. Before six months ago, the extent of my anime watching included only Akira, Fist of the North Star, a little Dragon Ball, Pokemon (does that even count?), and Spirited Away. (I was going to jokingly list Jackie Chan Adventures, but I'll spare ya'll). I'm a few eps into Champloo and though the two aren't really comparable, I found Princess Jellyfish delightful right off the bat while the only thing that has gotten me really intrigued in Champloo is that Nujabes had a hand in some of the music. It seems a short enough run that I might stick it out. Perfect! Feel like I got my fill of that show anyway.