Gwardinen

I would really like to be involved in this but the BB:LE price is still just so high every time I see it somewhere. Does anyone know of a relatively cheap place to find it? It's super hard to justify paying £30 for it when Fumbbl exists and is free.

This is how I feel about most of the Dota 2 heroes so far, but I'm gradually figuring it all out. That said I've been out of the country the past week and am still not back yet... hopefully I haven't completely lost my mojo when I get back.

Probably true, but I think the larger problem in this case was that the game was constantly telling him to move forwards and left and he totally ignored it almost all of the time. He was clearly having issues with it picking up his right arm, which if he was too far to his right for the camera would obviously have been the least clear to the game. Maybe it's their current setup that made him feel like he couldn't move, or something, but I feel like if both of them had taken another step to their left that whole thing would have worked better. Easy to notice when watching a video, though, I guess.

Definitely looking forward to that myself. I'm a bit of a Sorkin fanboy, and truly loved both Sports Night and Studio 60, which were TV shows of his that never became as popular as the West Wing. Hopefully this one survives longer than one season! If it deserves to, of course.

I'd go along with this. When I read literary fiction it tends to be things that are both somewhat older and very well known. Right now two of the books in my to-read list on my phone are the Brothers Karamazov and the fourth book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series (a long-running fantasy novel series). I suspect that one will be more life-changing than the other, but it's not necessarily a fair comparison because the Malazan book is something I picked up based on a random recommendation from a friend when I was looking specifically for fantasy. By contrast, the Brothers Karamazov is something that has been mentioned to me at least half a dozen times by individuals or publications as one of the greatest books ever written. I am definitely one of the people that reads literary fiction when it's accepted over a long period of time by many people to be really, really good, and that can definitely skew the perception of it. As you say, there are probably metric tons of literary fiction that are just as shallow and crap as the average book in any other type or genre.

If you're playing on PC, I'd suggest looking into finding a trainer to allow you to cheat your way past this particular moment. If you're not... how far back are your previous saves?

Yeah I have much the same thoughts on this. It's quite hard to get good book recommendations, for some reason. Even the book recommendation thread here on the forums can be a bit of a chore to sift through for things I think I might genuinely enjoy. I'm hoping the book cast will give me at least one book each month that I can take my time to look into and see if I want to read it. I'm heading to Germany on Friday and I always end up reading a lot while I'm over there due to being mostly disconnected from the internet, TV, games and so on. I already have a copy of Sense of an Ending on my phone - given its apparently short length I might even read most of it during the flight.

Yeah, I'm pretty much with juv3nal on this. Giving people the freedom to read more "adult" books is important, and even exposing them to said books if they might not otherwise look their way can be helpful. That said, I have no interest in being told what I should or shouldn't be reading. I also think a reasoning revolving around the idea that something that someone else does is embarrassing to you is total nonsense. What the hell do I care if some of my adult friends like Justin Bieber? That doesn't mean I have to, and it certainly doesn't mean I need to be embarrassed on their behalf. I might take the piss out of them but I would never tell them to stop doing it for the sake of my apparently delicate sensibilities. Finally, I'm surprised no one else has mentioned yet the part of that article that completely writes off films and video games as media that can engage the brain or be opportunities for learning. What the fuck? Those sweeping, ignorant generalisations kind of mingle with this article to create a pattern of thought that is both strange and unappealing to me.

So I finished Mass Effect 3 today. I was disappointed but not enraged by the ending. There's probably a lot to talk about regarding the ending, but most of it has been done more thoroughly by others already. Also, I just don't think it actually hit me as hard as many. So I'll just touch on a couple of points. Warning: Ending spoilers follow. Oh well, let's see if there's a game series next generation that brings a cast of characters through an entire trilogy in a meaningful way. Perhaps that'll somehow come up with an ending that makes people happy.

Co-optimus suggests the co-op is local only. It's not always right, but you should probably make sure.

My username is Gwardinen. Based on that picture, I am even more rubbish than subbes. Also, I agree that it makes me long for a screen that isn't mostly eclipsed by my inept fingers.

Staring at Cliff and Ken and trying to make my brain accept it.

Holy SHIT. I was entirely unprepared for that jump to the roof.

I thought that at first, but the payment term is actually COD - which, if I'm not mistaken, means "cash on delivery". So either the Retake ME3 people are going to be waiting outside BioWare to pay for the cupcakes and then try to give them to the employees, or they're attempting to stick BioWare with a thousand dollar cupcake bill.

I have a couple friends who would quite like to play, but if actual Thumbs wish to claim them first that's ok.

I think Netflix streaming has put a serious dent in pirating of films and TV. There are people I personally know who were torrenting TV on a daily basis who have switched to a Netflix subscription now that it's available in the UK, because it's faster and easier and they feel better about it.

The statement I read sounded way more like there's going to be DLC (as there always would have been) and that it may tie up some of the things people may have complained about as regards the ending (note: I don't know what these things are as I've avoided the discussion entirely until I can finish the game myself) rather than being totally separate as it may have originally been intended to be. I would be very surprised if any DLC was released that actually changed the ending of the game, and there was even a line in the statement about protecting the integrity of the story as it stands.

Check the announcement video and the attached article. There's also a premium member FAQ article up at the moment that provides more details. The gist is that Giant Bomb and Comic Vine are spinning off from Whiskey Media to join the GameSpot and GameFAQs network. Given Jeff Gerstmann's history, it's pretty bizarre. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it as a Giant Bomb fan as of yet. It is potentially troubling, but that said they do make the point that the people behind Giant Bomb are still going to be around, and frankly it's them that I've come to trust and enjoy... so I'm not going to panic just yet.

Yeah a lot of that is stuff we're probably just new to, or is very different from LoL. But I have to agree about the interface, and pretty much everyone I've spoken to so far has too. It's just generally pretty terrible. Orvidos seems to be of the opinion that Valve's current priority is just getting all the heroes in, then they'll start screwing with actual systemic/interface stuff. Hopefully he's right about that.

I believe he's going for the expression of a person as a set state at a given time while performing a given role, particularly when it is going to be recorded. Recorded media is mostly set in stone after all. You may hear someone refer to "a Brad Pitt in his prime" in a film, or "a more adult and nuanced Adam Sandler than we're used to" for example. Except you wouldn't hear that last one because I don't think he has any of those roles. Maybe in Funny People?

I didn't. Hmm... maybe I'll check it out as a game after all, though I still doesn't see myself actually playing it all the way through. After all, I still haven't actually played either of the Baldur's Gate games to completion - though that may change when this BG update comes out.

^Genuinely pretty worried about this. I've seen almost no good come from any of the policy changes since the last election, and at this point I just wish the rest of the politicians were doing damage control until the government can be changed again.

That's certainly an issue, but beyond that is the time investment that would be required, the compatibility shit I'd probably go through as it's an old game, the undoubtedly shitty user interface and the dodgy graphics. There's a lot of stuff to get over when playing older games, and I don't know if my interest in this particular game stacks up enough to counteract all that.

Yeah, I could see how that could be an issue. Nevertheless, I'll give it a go at least. Thanks!

Is the story of the game interesting enough to hold up on its own? I'd really like to know what the characters and plot and so on of Planescape: Torment are about, but there is no way I can actually make myself play it at this point. I'm vaguely considering trying to find a video series or something but I wonder if a good one even exists. In fact, if it's mostly reading, is there some kind of "Planescape: Torment as a book" site somewhere?