Orv

Don't get me wrong. He was probably a fantastically bad person. But it's been years and what has he ever provably done? And I'm particularly irked by some reports that his entire family was killed with him. Quite possibly not true, but if so. . .where exactly is the line between us and him? (Sorry, I know this is the politics thread, not the philosophy thread.) VVV - America is full of idiots.

As much as I hate everything that comes out of that cesspit, this is the perfect situation for: And not a single fuck was given that day.

You know the whole Trekkie/Trekker bullshit? Both of which apparently pass Chromes spellcheck? Yeah, no, I just started calling them "Trekists" years ago. Which has lead to some awkward moments, but still, it means I just end up getting corrected instead of having to participate in an argument.

I'll have you know that my portion of Texas is in MDT as well. So there.

Amongst the Trekists that I know, it's typically Enterprise that is given a swift and thorough passing over when the topic comes up. Maybe it's different depending on which ones you grew up watching and who introduced you. Something to consider at least.

Voyager is probably my favorite Star Trek, but only just. Everything else vies for second, and third is just barely taken by Enterprise. Unlike the seeming majority of fans, I don't hate Enterprise, but it's not, say, The Tapestry from TNG, or False Profits from Voyager. It's not bad, and it has some fantastic moments, but it slips gently into third place for me. As for Voyager itself. . .I posted a video a page back or so, I believe. It basically accuses Voyager of being Lost In Space. Which I can't really deny. But I think, typical of 80s/90s Trek, the interactions are so good (mostly, you can safely ignore Kess for most of it), the settings and individual episodes hold their own for almost the entire run. My personal opinion is that it lags a bit in season 6 ( ) but it otherwise is fantastic through-out.

(For lack of a better thread to put this in, and it's certainly not deserving of its own.) Does anyone in the UK/greater Europe actually give a fuck about the "Royal Wedding"? Or is America just stupid?

There's this internet fellow who calls himself "Athene, The Greatest Gamer Ever" or whatever bullshit he's come up with since I last had one of his videos forced on me. There's ample evidence that he's not an annoying, know-it-all, holier-than-thou jackass with an intensely annoying way of speaking, but his crafted persona is such that I utterly despise his existence. Probably the same thing here. I believe I've posted this before but. . .

I'm happy to announce we now own a moon. I believe the technical term is "YA BITCHES" but I could be wrong. So, just two people? Surely more are interested.

If you'll give me about fifteen minutes, I can set up and declare the capitol of Morphostatic Ambiguity Inc, so you can join it without me having to be online. Alternatively, we can just start a Thumbs race, and while it wouldn't bother me overmuch to start over, I'm quite fond of my little hellhole. Capitol will be up at about 2:10PM MDT, 8:10PM GMT. At which point you log in, create a new character (the tabs at the top of the login page), choose Join Existing Empire, search for "Morphostatic Ambiguity Inc" and if I understand the system right, you'll pop right in. You won't have build rights right off, I'm afraid, but I'll check in every fifteen or so to grant people positions. E: Done! Fair warning, declaring a capitol shows your empire on the galaxy map, so there is a minor chance we may get lasored into oblivion. A very, very small chance, but it could happen. Just be aware. E2: Added a night sky screenshot and a list of pertinent Empire info to the second post. E3: Added link to the manual and updated Empire info.

Screenshots/Miscellany post. MANUAL: http://www.hazeron.com/manualf.html A view of the upper city, from overhead mode. The lower city, also from overhead mode. The lower city from the character perspective. The local gas giant and a habitable M-class beneath it. All of the brighter stars (those not obviously the skybox texture) are in our sector of space. Current Empire Info: Name: Morphostatic Ambiguity Inc Planet(s) Controlled: Tal Verrar III Member(s) And Rank: Orvidos - Emperor Gwardinen - Prime Minister Open Government Positions: Prime Minister Viceroy Senator Governor Prefect Citizen Populations (As of last Empire cycle): Tal Verrar III - 238 Tal Verrar IIIa (III's moon) - Carmorr - 24 Tech Level: T1

D-d-d-d-damnit me. So I'd totally forgotten about these guys after tuning a Pandora station to almost nothing but them a couple years back. I also apparently ordered most of their discography from Amazon at some point. . . That or there's something wrong with the space-time continuum. 2n_JYkI3Y-s

Fuckin' this. Star Trek may be Super-Camp Sci-fi, but damn if it isn't good. 03E68F6599Q

I'm kind of mad at myself. I really, for some ungodly reason, really enjoy the sound of punk rock, but the lyrics utterly annoy me. Solutions don't seem to exist, since punk isn't the sort of thing to have an instrumental version. Ah well. aBP6lFU-J2M

Just finished the thing entire last night and this morning, and this is pretty much how I feel. The series starts off kind of "bleh" as if they're not sure where they want to go with things, rockets into 5th gear for most of it and then kind of runs out of steam by the end. I'd still recommend it, though!

Ah, that makes a fair bit of sense, actually. Right, right, okay, got that now. Twig; Portal doesn't really count for me as part of the Half-Life saga. It's too remote, too disconnected. I checked the play stats for Ep1,2 and LC. Woops. Misremembered, sorry. They're all still relatively short, but no, I'm not one of those pricks who thinks that less than X hours isn't a game. They're just very short, and my already low opinions of Half-Life don't allow me much lenience for enjoying them. I should probably look into the HL1 expansions/what-have-you, but to be perfectly honest, I probably won't. I just don't enjoy HL enough to justify the purchase. That said, I don't know how much they are, I'll look.

I'm not sure I've actually played the HL-1 packs, fucking Portal is not HL, even if it's now confirmed to be a greater universe, and what? Demo? Please.

Not what I was implying. Lost Coast and Episode 2 are. . .incredibly short, and Lost Coast is a tech demo to begin with. I consider it to be 2 proper games, 2 mission packs (a la Doom/Quake) and the tech demo that is Coast. So 'games'. I'm really tempted to be angry, but I didn't bother to explain it, so heh. Also, Sno, yeah that makes more sense, I agree with that sentiment.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels that way, but I distinctly remember loading screens for all 4 'games'. Perhaps you've phrased that wrong?

The simpler reasons are thus: - The shooting is rather bland and none of the weapons (even the rocket launcher, for hells sake) have any sort of heft or feel to them. I'll point you to. . .I believe it was Escape From City 17, the fan-movie? The pistol in that was a fantastic replica of the HL2 pistol. Sound, look, everything. It's a pile of shit. It looks bad, it sounds crappy, it looks like he's holding a lego gun. Update to point one (Time codes don't work in our YT codes, go to 3:15): q1UPMEmCqZo#t=3m15s - The story is not particularly interesting, except for the inclusion of the G-Mans involvement. 1. Corporate scientists play with the nature and laws of time and space. 2. Fuck up. 3. Aliens invade. 4. Random low-level scientist becomes savior of world. Yes, that is condensing the plot, but it's not dumbing it down. . . - City 17 felt good, that's one of the things I liked a little when I wasn't be shepherded through the game by a friend over my shoulder. The Breen-Citizen PAs, the feel of the combine troops being basically an Alien Gestapo. All done sufficiently, but it's not, say, Assassins Creed 2/BH. The city feels appropriately desolate, but perhaps a little too much. Another game that got the city right would be GTA4, for a further reference point. (Even if the story in that was also questionable.) - The Combine themselves are. . .man. They suited troopers are interesting, from the KSH-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE when they die to the way they talk and interact, all done well. When they're actually aliens? A resounding "meh" from me. I could get more complex in my criticism of say, the story (I could dissect how horrible it is for some time, I imagine) but that really covers a cohesive idea of why it's not "THE STORYTELLING MONARCH/EXPERIENCE EXTRAORDINAIRE" for me. I fully admit I expect far too much from video game stories, at this point in the life of video games, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy the slop that they have.

I despise Half-Life (the series entire) as both a story and a game, and even after playing it all through I still feel that way. Even still, I warmed slightly to a couple elements when I was playing on my own time. I wish you luck, and want to hear your opinions, no doubt there, but. . .yech. (Though I will admit The G-Man is an oddly interesting character.)

I will point out the river/speedboat section of HL2 and invalidate your entire argument, Toblix.

Patters doesn't know if he's watched The Princess Bride, and doesn't know any of the quotable bits. Everyone mock and berate him! (Alternatively, convince him to fix such an oversight.) Also, Spartacus, both the original series and the spin-off, quite good.

My justification for Cave's I really, really liked Cave Johnson, so much. J.K. Simmons has such a voice it makes me happy to listen to him. Similar to say, Morgan Freeman, James Earl Jones or Jeremy Irons.

My issue with this is that she couldn't talk in the first one either (sans hibernation, story-wise, but she may have been prior) and at the end of 2 GLaDoS calls her so I really don't know what the deal with that is.