Gwardinen

Happy Birthday, Orvidos.

I just watched the Choosing to Die documentary, and yeah... that was a thing. When receiving such a bombardment of new information related to such important things, I think my brain applies a filter to itself so that I only slowly come to terms with it. I think I absorb it better that way. I'm sure I'll be thinking about assisted suicide a great deal over the next few days as a result. The death scene was certainly uncomfortable, and yes the water part was strange and troubling. That said, there could have been a great many reasons for that - with the sound of his voice and breathing at that time, I do wonder if trying to drink would have caused him greater discomfort and perhaps beyond that the "escorts" are instructed as to a point after which things should no longer be going into the stomach for one reason or another. I was actually very surprised that that couple allowed cameras to be there at all. They were clearly very much trying to hold to the British politeness and denial of emotion and I would have thought they'd have feared cameras being around and potentially capturing their reserve and control cracking. Perhaps I'm underestimating them and those like them, though, maybe that way of doing things isn't as much of a crutch as I'd assume and perhaps it lends its own strength. Perhaps they also wanted the cameras there for exactly that reason - to put them into the position in which they definitely couldn't crack. It's a very strange thing, choosing to end one's own life. Maybe I'll never understand it entirely. I hope I'm never in the position in which I have to make a similar decision.

Just played a game with Brannigan and his friend. I am now four for four with four different characters. Really beginning to wonder what's going on here. Pretty sure it's not that I'm some sort of uberskilled Dota player.

Yeah that last game was pretty crazy. That makes three proper games I've played now, all with Thumbs, all wins. I don't think it's anything to do with my actions that is getting us wins, but perhaps I'm a lucky charm for a while at least. Whatever's going on, I'm ok with it. I really need to watch an Earthshaker tutorial or something, though, because his Fissure follows some bizarre rules just from observation. Edit: Wait, Fissure doesn't have to be targetted on a hero, it can just be placed on the ground? Shit! Knowing that would have made my life so much easier! I hope Dota 2 starts incorporating overlays when abilities are selected, they make that sort of stuff much more obvious.

I kinda love this. Every time the Reapers find me when I'm scanning I mimic their BWOAAAARR noise.

Agreed, I thought you did great. Also, yeah, you were stomping as Juggernaut, Orvidos. I don't even know these characters but I know you were doing well. For my part, I felt like I didn't weigh the team down, which was all I was really shooting for in my first proper game. I felt a lot more comfortable playing against real people, they act more like I'm used to them acting in other Lords Management games. The bots were actually kind of a bad way to start learning the game, but I understand the patch that came in since we played has added easy mode bots and things so perhaps that's changing. Hit me up on Steam, anyone who wants to play. Turns out I learn way more and have much more fun when I'm actually playing with people.

Played a couple of games against bots. We all got stomped both times. Are the bots weirdly good or was I just likely playing with people just as bad as I was? Also, is there any kind of key for self-casting a spell?

Yeah, that's definitely a feeling I get with authors, directors, musicians and so on as well as designers. It's also worth noting that a lot of life is in timing. People can have their ideas at the right time, and they can have their ideas at the wrong time, and that doesn't have to diminish the worth of the ideas per se. Sometimes things just only come together once or twice.

I agree with most of your thoughts here, though I fully admit that I blinked in surprise upon seeing Starcraft II as your example of a game doing moral choices well. I see what you were going for, though. It's interesting to note that BioWare's other major property at the time of Mass Effect's development, Dragon Age, does morality in a way much more consistent with what you're asking for. There's no good/evil slider, and while all the choices have consequences, they don't have objectively better gameplay ramifications if you pick consistently. The only part of the choice system that was "gamified" was that of companions' feelings towards you as the main character, and even that could be somewhat sidestepped by way of gifts. It still wasn't perfect, but it's interesting to note how different it was to the fairly black and white Mass Effect system. That said, even Mass Effect is better than other good/evil systems because it at least does do the maintaining of heroic status that you were talking about. You're just either a very caring and conscientious hero, or a hero that doesn't take chances for the sake of feelings.

I just picked up an invite, so I'd like to respectfully request the assistance of the patient Dota Thumbs to help me learn the game. I'm Gwardinen on Steam, and already have a few of you in my friends list. I'm in the Idle Thumbs group, too, for easy finding.

That seems more like a bug than an oversight. Perhaps your save wasn't entirely read in properly or something, because all of the decisions and people alive/dead that I know of in my own game and others I've spoken to have been correctly interpreted. Again, somewhat bizarre that these bugs that affect those who have invested most in the series are slipping in though.

And yet, opening wine in any other way is now somewhat quaint.

Best part of that: "You're bloody right!"

Didn't we have this discussion already? I forget where or why, but I think this was talked about and I have a feeling the answer may actually be that it was originally a story from Fallout 3 or something like that. Then it was made famous by Famous translating it into an equivalent Far Cry 2 story. I may be way off here as these are mostly rearbrain memories seeping through.

Holy crap! I have checked the You Look Nice Today RSS feed on and off all this time, quietly hoping for a new episode. I think I may end up expecting a bit too much from it at this point.

Yes, that is what I meant. Contrary to the title of the thread, it seems like the game itself is simply being called SimCity, at least in the trailer and marketing releases so far.

Yet another game that is just using the title of the franchise. What's the statute of limitations on this sort of stuff? Is it because SimCity 4 was a while ago, or is it that the original was now long enough ago?

There are currently bugs with the face when you import a character. I'm not sure what the set of circumstances are (I've heard ME1->ME2->ME3 is bad but there appear to be problems for others too), but basically with some characters it will just not figure out what you used to look like and you need to (try to) remake them from scratch.

It is my understanding that it is possible to get the game to unlock early by using a proxy to make it think you are in another country that has it unlocked (such as Asia and North America, so far). It will then decrypt and you can unproxy yourself for normal play, I believe.

There was a meme a while back of taking Ctrl+Alt+Del comics and removing the second and third panels from them, implying that they were much funnier with just the first and fourth. I don't know if it works perfectly with that one, but I have seen strips that it has noticeably improved. As for CAD in general; I used to like it, but somewhere along the way I realised I was just reading it out of habit at that point and now I don't read it anymore. I don't consider it bad but it doesn't really give me anything that makes me want to remember to go there every couple days.

I was going to mention this when you responded to my most recent complaining session, but your signature really takes me to a weird place when you're giving advice. I was like, yeah I guess Rodi is right and I need to think about this shit, seems like he knows what he's talking about... "Carthage must be destroyed"? Yeah I guess Carthage is getting a little uppity- hey wait a minute.

Neat. Always nice to hear of things going well. Enjoy yourself and so forth!

I am not certain, not being a subscriber, but I believe those videos from Jeff alone from another location are actually recorded in his house, late at night. Hence the dodgy lighting, weird jar drinking and lack of any other dudes.

I've used the towel trick on 360s with the RROD many times in the past. It almost always does work, but it is only a temporary solution. How temporary varies, and it can be applied more than once, but you probably won't get more than 2-3 months out of it even if you do it multiple times. Even that would be somewhat lucky.

There didn't appear to be a thread for this game, but I've not actually started it for the purpose of discussing it per se (feel free to do so, though). Microsoft has sent out extra Gears of War 3 beta codes to those of us who were in the beta anyway, so I have a spare code and it's possible there are other Thumbs that do as well. If you have any interested in receiving this code, PM me. It expires on 15th May (Sunday).