Squid Division

I thought the same thing. EA branded rockets might be the worst possible media scandal. Also I am perfectly willing to put money down on an Activision/Assassin's Creed branded tomahawk or bow at some point during the 4 or 5 games they release as a sequel to 3.

hm apparently a few people have heard of this game because I'm downloading at 65 kb/s.

Yeah I think that the size of people interested and the timezones involved mean that separate EU and US groups might be best. Also, I'm definitely interested. Is this out, or when does it come out?

I didn't know the demo was out, I'll have to check it out tonight. I haven't played a Madden game since 10 I think, but I was planning on picking up this one. Sounds like it'll be one of their more 'on' years.

Thanks I_Smell and Poo for those tutorials. I watched most of the first two WUUG videos and I'm going through the Walker tutorial now. It's very thorough and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of being able to pick it up. Problem is, it's not going to make me a better 2D or 3D artist.

I've been looking at getting into Unity. All I've done so far is watch a few tutorials and download the editor. They apparently offer online classes as intros, but they're always on weekdays when I'm at work. Damn timezones.

Well they own the IP I believe, so we'll see...

Damn, I'm tempted to rebuy it to go back through it with Thumbs. Regardless, it's a great game and everyone should get it.

I think this is different in Europe than in North America. There aren't that many bicycles in the US, so people never look for them. I've seen a couple cyclists get creamed pretty hard by cars switch lanes suddenly without looking. So while it's legal in DC, I don't really ever lane-split unless it's some catastrophic event (like the slight jiggle from the earthquake last year) that brings traffic to a grinding halt. Even then that only gets me 2/10 of the way home. While we're talking about all the stuff that makes us superior to other, lesser, humans; I love the demonstrability you have on bikes. When some asshole decides to cut me off or something, he and everyone around him can see me gesturing at him. It's not like in a car where it's just a box you might happen to see through to see them waving madly. Still, my favorite thing about riding is when someone finds out you ride and says 'oh that's so dangerous! be careful' as if I don't know that I could get hurt. In actuality, they never have the slightest clue how many times I almost got run off the road on the way into work that day.

I do obviously. I have a problem when games (usually RPGs) have really good character art direction and their development of that is to just make everything xTreme!

My playtime is split up between about 5 different characters because I'd get bored and restart a few weeks/months later. I'd always get to the same point and just lose interest. One of my pet peeves with the Elder Scrolls games is that when you upgrade your armor/weapons, they always look different. I want to be able to dress in amazing armor that looks the same as the Iron Armor I wore from the beginning of the game instead of the godawful Ebony or Dragon armor. Same with the weapons. It's mitigated a little bit with the blacksmithing, but no iron armor set I make will ever be as good as the same amount of effort put into a dragon set.

And because it's Friday:

Yeah I agree with that. I think the best game to best capture the relationship of the rider and the surrounding world is with the opened up wranglers, dune buggys, and ATVs. You're almost completely connected with the rest of the world, but you still have to get out/off to do it. If you were to make a comparison between games and riding I'd also bring up e-sports type games for when you hit a really good twisty road. Something that's a lot of muscle memory and reaction with a moderate amount of planning ahead. But I guess that's because I think riding has a lot more in common with actual sports than games. The Bonneville is definitely a 'right in between' bike. With the standard riding position the rider is halfway between cruiser and sport bike - almost as maneuverable as a sport bike, almost as comfortable as a cruiser. The engine is the same way - revving higher than a cruiser, but lower than a sportbike. I can put highway pegs or billy-bars on my bike and basically make it a cruiser; or I could put rear-sets and some cafe bars on it and have a streetbike. But to answer your question, yes, I want every bike.

For me, achievements are good when they provide you with something else to do in a game you love otherwise. I got all the achievements in Fallout 3 and Assassin's Creed 2 because I loved being in the world and just screwing around in the game. Achievements set a goal for the thing you'd be doing anyway.

I go to the park and read (and eat) on my lunch hour. Last year I was doing that and reading on the bus on the way home. I can't really read at home though, so I didn't really start reading until I started working fulltime.

My timed-dialogue choices are always panic/first reaction ones. Basically as soon as the timer starts going down, whichever answer my eye passes over first that sounds pretty much like what I think Lee in this instance would say, I choose. So I don't even know what the other options are for most of those. I don't really have a problem with that either - they really help lend a sense of urgency to something that should. For instance, at the beginning of Episode 2 when

To me riding has always given me the same feeling as camping - as far as the feeling of fresh air and wilderness. So I've always likened it to camping at 80mph.

Since Sean apparently likes crash videos: (All parties concerned were apparently fine)

Awesome! I'm very jealous. What are you riding on?

Yeah I've got some spray in stuff that works alright. You could probably get some stuff that works for scuba/snorkel goggles and it'd be the exact same and probably cheaper. Even fancy helmets fog up a lot as my Shoei has taught me.

Shogun 2 will have a persistent multiplayer map for clan battles. I've seen a few people bought this on steam and was wondering if anyone was interested in a thumbs clan. I know The Killstar and I will be starting one, so it's an open invitation. The persistent map system is explained more in depth here, and a video: 25W8CvphGxs

Care to sell me on this one? I got it in one of the Indie packs with no intention of ever playing it.

re Jake

Same with the Bookcast I presume?

Presuming you ever get your account situation sorted out - no, vanilla Shogun and FotS are so completely different, it's not essential at all. A lot of FotS was really unintuitive even to me (an obsessive Total War player) but Shogun 2 is probably the best game in the series.