Pillars of Eternity. It was released Thursday, but I was waiting for the physical media to be shipped to me...until I realized late last night that I had completely forgotten about the Steam key I had available. I don't necessarily mind beta or early access for strategy games (Gnomoria, Project Zomboid, Rimworld), but generally avoid them completely for games with a plot, so I hadn't been really hadn't been keeping tabs on things.
I've only just finished the character creation process. It's relatively lengthy. There are a lot of unfamiliar options to choose between. There's a chance I might start over after playing a few hours, depending on how much the choices actually impact the game.
I picked up Sleeping Dogs on sale recently for under 6 bucks. It'll have to do to scratch any 'open-world mayhem' type of itch since I mostly likely won't be getting GTA 5 until it's heavily discounted. Maybe the Steam Winter Sale, maybe later.
I find Rockstar's PC strategy completely baffling. If it makes them more money to significantly delay the PC version (or not release them at all *grumble*grumble*RDR*), why don't other AAA publishers follow similar behavior? If it doesn't, why annoy and anger their PC fans? Regardless, it's clear that even though I tend to enjoy Rockstar's games, I am simply not their target customer.
I actually miss watching Wonder Pets and Yo Gabba Gabba with my daughter (thought I think I enjoyed the latter more than her.) I remember far more of the songs and catch phrases than she does. She now prefers to spend her TV time on live-action shows.
I haven't flown in a while, but Games Magazine used to be my go-to. Do they even still make it? It offer(s/ed) a nice variety of puzzles on quality paper, as opposed to the 500-pages-of-word-search-on-newsprint type books. It allowed to me focus on something and forget about my surroundings without being overly complicated. My favorites used to be the battleship and the one where you had to figure out how to fill out a grid to make a picture based on the number of consecutive squares.
I have FIOS. My internet always ranks very fast on speedtest, but sometimes trying to actually use it is dog slow, especially for certain content providers like Netflix and Youtube. Turn out that Verizon is throttling traffic to those providers. The throttling can be bypassed by using a VPN (http://iamnotaprogrammer.com/Verizon-Fios-Netflix-Vyprvpn.html). I tried this myself and almost always get significantly better results with Netflix using the VPN. Unfortunately, the VPN limits overall speed to a fraction of what I'm paying for, so I don't leave it on all the time.
The bystanders in that video were clearly upset. As awareness and anger of these types of shootings increase, it's irresponsible for politicians and police to (at best) just say "the shootings were legally justified and that's that" and not directly address and attempt to alleviate the concerns of their respective communities, even if they believe the cops were completely morally and legally correct.
Something eventually has to give. I fear that eventually one of these police shootings will spark something larger and much uglier.
It wasn't just Farscape, I remember them axing other shows I liked at the time. MST3K, The Invisible Man, G vs E. I think that was around the time they started aiming for more mass appeal that eventually led them to bringing in things like wrestling. But now I mostly only know them for their schlocky movies.
I really just don't watch many TV shows anymore, and when I do it's usually from a boxed set or on demand from a show that has ended it's run instead of one that's currently airing. Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead are the only two exceptions I can think of in recent years.
"Three major climate organizations (JMA, NASA, and NOAA) have now released their official estimates for the 2014 Global Mean Surface Temperature. Both JMA and NOAA conclude that 2014 was substantially higher, i.e. outside the margin of error, of previous contenders (1998, 2005, and 2010) while NASA finds 2014 to be warmest, but within the margin of error of 2005 and 2010 (i.e. a “statistical tie”)."
The Daily Mail article only talks about NASA's results.
https://www.comic-rocket.com/ does keep individual bookmarks for each comic, which is very nice for reading in spurts (I'm not a paid shill, I promise, only found the site yesterday). I spent too much time last night catching up on stuff I hadn't read in a long time, Buttersafe, O Human Star, Cyanide & Happiness, Perry Bible Fellowship (I hadn't realized they were sill being made, however infrequently.) It's too bad the creator of Pictures for Sad Children may or may not have had issues and decided to pull the entire archive.
P4 - I've had the OPO for over 4 months now. Phones with similar specs were almost twice as much. I haven't had any problems, but my coworker (from whom I received an invite) might have been bitten by some of the early QC problems. Quite a significant upgrade from my old Galaxy Nexus, which was feeling long in the tooth.
I used to read Something Positive (among others), but I'm generally horrible at remembering to keep up with webcomics, so it fell by the wayside. About the only thing I read on a somewhat regular basis is SMBC, and that's because I see the author on social media.
Based on this post, I've been inspired to give Comic Rocket a shot, to try and keep up tabs on various comics.
I'm back to Dragon Age Inquisition after being disgusted by the interface and taking a break. A few weeks helps make it a bit more palatable as opposed to trying immediately upon finishing DA2.
I'm a few dozen hours into the game and am greatly enjoying it, but it's very much a flawed game.
Side-quests are problematic. The biggest issue I have with them has to do with the beginning of the game. When you get to the first real area, they throw a bunch of stuff at you with no context or meaning. It's telling me I need to find X of this and Y of that, so they must be important, even though I have no clue what they are or how they relate to anything that has happened so far. Also, the first area is so packed with stuff to do, the devs have admonished players to leave the Hinterlands and get to some of the other content in the game. This strikes me as poor design. Decades of playing RPGs has trained me to generally clear an area before moving on to the next, so I fell prey to this as well.
The path-finding is atrocious. You'd think they'd be able to do far better at such an old problem.
The way healing works bugs me, too. I understand why they would want to avoid the Skyrim "eat 37 cheese wheels in the middle of combat" mechanic, but couldn't they just use timeouts like the previous games? The results for me haven't been more action-oriented, but instead more conservative. I ended up abandoning 2-handed weapons in favor of a shield for my warrior, since he would take damage regularly. I tend to find boss fights more tedious than challenging. They're mostly battles of attrition as you whittle away the boss' hp while trying to keep your party's barrier/guard up so you don't run out of potions before the end of the fight. It's also annoying that there's no healing outside of combat, forcing many trips back to camp.
Load times are horrible. It's not so bad when loading a game within the same zone, but loading games between zones take a long time. Even with an SSD.
I typically tend to enjoy crafting in games, but in DAI, it all seems to random. The best schematics are apparently random loot, and I never have enough of the materials I want, so I left making whatever items I have plans for using whatever materials I have on hand. It's still almost always better than loot I find, which I don't even bother to pick up anymore due to the limited inventory space. With the whole inquisition at my disposal, can't I have a lackey or two to lug around junk for me?
Has there been any reported downside to the work stoppage? Obviously, revenue will drop without the tickets and fines. But has the quality of life in the city changed?
At an old job, someone had the ending to Armageddon spoiled (big loss, I know) and "Oehpr Jvyyvf qvrf va gur raq" became a running gag around the shop when discussing movies. When Sixth Sense came out, I hadn't seen it yet, but people at work were talking about it and someone said the typical "Oehpr Jvyyvf qvrf va gur raq" and my boss said "ab, ur qvrf va gur ortvaavat". At first I thought it was joking, but the look on his face told me otherwise. Given the ample promotion at the time, I was instantly able to figure out the movie's twist. I didn't let on that he had just ruined the surprise for me.
(They're old movies, but I don't know what the statute of limitations is on spoilers.)
I was surprised when they reopened Reagan National after 9/11. I thought it would have been the victim of increased security considerations.
I don't mind calling it "Reagan National", even if generally annoyed by the Reaganification of federal properties. BWI, however, will always be BWI to me and not the "Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport".
I had the same problem. I noticed it was working from a different browser, so I cleared the cache of the original browser and things are back to normal.
The first URL now apparently contains the original article, along with an editor's note:
Editor's note: This article was originally titled “We Can't All Just Get Along” in the print version of the magazine. The title was then changed, without the author's knowledge or approval, to “It's Okay to Hate Republicans.” The author rejects the online title as not representative of the piece or its main points. Her preferred title has been restored. We have also removed from the “Comments” section all threats to the author's life and personal safety.
On “Saturday!”
Yep. I've barely scratched the surface, but it definitely feels like an Infinity Engine game.
"
Pillars of Eternity. It was released Thursday, but I was waiting for the physical media to be shipped to me...until I realized late last night that I had completely forgotten about the Steam key I had available. I don't necessarily mind beta or early access for strategy games (Gnomoria, Project Zomboid, Rimworld), but generally avoid them completely for games with a plot, so I hadn't been really hadn't been keeping tabs on things.
I've only just finished the character creation process. It's relatively lengthy. There are a lot of unfamiliar options to choose between. There's a chance I might start over after playing a few hours, depending on how much the choices actually impact the game.
On “Saturday!”
I picked up Sleeping Dogs on sale recently for under 6 bucks. It'll have to do to scratch any 'open-world mayhem' type of itch since I mostly likely won't be getting GTA 5 until it's heavily discounted. Maybe the Steam Winter Sale, maybe later.
I find Rockstar's PC strategy completely baffling. If it makes them more money to significantly delay the PC version (or not release them at all *grumble*grumble*RDR*), why don't other AAA publishers follow similar behavior? If it doesn't, why annoy and anger their PC fans? Regardless, it's clear that even though I tend to enjoy Rockstar's games, I am simply not their target customer.
On “From Power to Explorer”
Tico is the squirrel.
I actually miss watching Wonder Pets and Yo Gabba Gabba with my daughter (thought I think I enjoyed the latter more than her.) I remember far more of the songs and catch phrases than she does. She now prefers to spend her TV time on live-action shows.
On “Repairs Under Way”
http://www.reddit.com/r/babyelephantgifs/
On “Saturday!”
I haven't flown in a while, but Games Magazine used to be my go-to. Do they even still make it? It offer(s/ed) a nice variety of puzzles on quality paper, as opposed to the 500-pages-of-word-search-on-newsprint type books. It allowed to me focus on something and forget about my surroundings without being overly complicated. My favorites used to be the battleship and the one where you had to figure out how to fill out a grid to make a picture based on the number of consecutive squares.
On “Help: Unbeliveably Slow Internet”
I have FIOS. My internet always ranks very fast on speedtest, but sometimes trying to actually use it is dog slow, especially for certain content providers like Netflix and Youtube. Turn out that Verizon is throttling traffic to those providers. The throttling can be bypassed by using a VPN (http://iamnotaprogrammer.com/Verizon-Fios-Netflix-Vyprvpn.html). I tried this myself and almost always get significantly better results with Netflix using the VPN. Unfortunately, the VPN limits overall speed to a fraction of what I'm paying for, so I don't leave it on all the time.
On “A More Modest Defense of Free Speech”
The bystanders in that video were clearly upset. As awareness and anger of these types of shootings increase, it's irresponsible for politicians and police to (at best) just say "the shootings were legally justified and that's that" and not directly address and attempt to alleviate the concerns of their respective communities, even if they believe the cops were completely morally and legally correct.
Something eventually has to give. I fear that eventually one of these police shootings will spark something larger and much uglier.
On “Linky Friday #99: Flaming Big Tex Edition”
It wasn't just Farscape, I remember them axing other shows I liked at the time. MST3K, The Invisible Man, G vs E. I think that was around the time they started aiming for more mass appeal that eventually led them to bringing in things like wrestling. But now I mostly only know them for their schlocky movies.
I really just don't watch many TV shows anymore, and when I do it's usually from a boxed set or on demand from a show that has ended it's run instead of one that's currently airing. Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead are the only two exceptions I can think of in recent years.
"
I lost all faith in the ability of the SciFi Channel to handle original programming way back in the early 2000s.
"
[E1] According to Michael Mann:
"Three major climate organizations (JMA, NASA, and NOAA) have now released their official estimates for the 2014 Global Mean Surface Temperature. Both JMA and NOAA conclude that 2014 was substantially higher, i.e. outside the margin of error, of previous contenders (1998, 2005, and 2010) while NASA finds 2014 to be warmest, but within the margin of error of 2005 and 2010 (i.e. a “statistical tie”)."
The Daily Mail article only talks about NASA's results.
On “Webcomics!”
https://www.comic-rocket.com/ does keep individual bookmarks for each comic, which is very nice for reading in spurts (I'm not a paid shill, I promise, only found the site yesterday). I spent too much time last night catching up on stuff I hadn't read in a long time, Buttersafe, O Human Star, Cyanide & Happiness, Perry Bible Fellowship (I hadn't realized they were sill being made, however infrequently.) It's too bad the creator of Pictures for Sad Children may or may not have had issues and decided to pull the entire archive.
On “Am I allowed to mock this?”
There wasn't enough time for the Secret Service to visit prostitutes and set up security.
On “Linky Friday #98: The E-Dition”
I had Verizon, but switched to T-Mobile with the new phone since it won't work on Verizon's network (among other reasons.)
"
P4 - I've had the OPO for over 4 months now. Phones with similar specs were almost twice as much. I haven't had any problems, but my coworker (from whom I received an invite) might have been bitten by some of the early QC problems. Quite a significant upgrade from my old Galaxy Nexus, which was feeling long in the tooth.
On “Webcomics!”
I used to read Something Positive (among others), but I'm generally horrible at remembering to keep up with webcomics, so it fell by the wayside. About the only thing I read on a somewhat regular basis is SMBC, and that's because I see the author on social media.
Based on this post, I've been inspired to give Comic Rocket a shot, to try and keep up tabs on various comics.
On “Saturday!”
I'm back to Dragon Age Inquisition after being disgusted by the interface and taking a break. A few weeks helps make it a bit more palatable as opposed to trying immediately upon finishing DA2.
I'm a few dozen hours into the game and am greatly enjoying it, but it's very much a flawed game.
Side-quests are problematic. The biggest issue I have with them has to do with the beginning of the game. When you get to the first real area, they throw a bunch of stuff at you with no context or meaning. It's telling me I need to find X of this and Y of that, so they must be important, even though I have no clue what they are or how they relate to anything that has happened so far. Also, the first area is so packed with stuff to do, the devs have admonished players to leave the Hinterlands and get to some of the other content in the game. This strikes me as poor design. Decades of playing RPGs has trained me to generally clear an area before moving on to the next, so I fell prey to this as well.
The path-finding is atrocious. You'd think they'd be able to do far better at such an old problem.
The way healing works bugs me, too. I understand why they would want to avoid the Skyrim "eat 37 cheese wheels in the middle of combat" mechanic, but couldn't they just use timeouts like the previous games? The results for me haven't been more action-oriented, but instead more conservative. I ended up abandoning 2-handed weapons in favor of a shield for my warrior, since he would take damage regularly. I tend to find boss fights more tedious than challenging. They're mostly battles of attrition as you whittle away the boss' hp while trying to keep your party's barrier/guard up so you don't run out of potions before the end of the fight. It's also annoying that there's no healing outside of combat, forcing many trips back to camp.
Load times are horrible. It's not so bad when loading a game within the same zone, but loading games between zones take a long time. Even with an SSD.
I typically tend to enjoy crafting in games, but in DAI, it all seems to random. The best schematics are apparently random loot, and I never have enough of the materials I want, so I left making whatever items I have plans for using whatever materials I have on hand. It's still almost always better than loot I find, which I don't even bother to pick up anymore due to the limited inventory space. With the whole inquisition at my disposal, can't I have a lackey or two to lug around junk for me?
On “A Physical Conundrum”
The laws of physics appear to be in abeyance in my house.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWxZm8WjlI8
On “Linky Friday #97”
Has there been any reported downside to the work stoppage? Obviously, revenue will drop without the tickets and fines. But has the quality of life in the city changed?
On “Semi-Stupid Tuesday Questions: Reverse Spoilers”
At an old job, someone had the ending to Armageddon spoiled (big loss, I know) and "Oehpr Jvyyvf qvrf va gur raq" became a running gag around the shop when discussing movies. When Sixth Sense came out, I hadn't seen it yet, but people at work were talking about it and someone said the typical "Oehpr Jvyyvf qvrf va gur raq" and my boss said "ab, ur qvrf va gur ortvaavat". At first I thought it was joking, but the look on his face told me otherwise. Given the ample promotion at the time, I was instantly able to figure out the movie's twist. I didn't let on that he had just ruined the surprise for me.
(They're old movies, but I don't know what the statute of limitations is on spoilers.)
On “Airports!”
I was surprised when they reopened Reagan National after 9/11. I thought it would have been the victim of increased security considerations.
I don't mind calling it "Reagan National", even if generally annoyed by the Reaganification of federal properties. BWI, however, will always be BWI to me and not the "Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport".
On “Not Good”
I had the same problem. I noticed it was working from a different browser, so I cleared the cache of the original browser and things are back to normal.
On “Linky Friday #95”
Reminds me of this.
On “For What It’s Worth, I Kind of Hate All of Y’all”
The first URL now apparently contains the original article, along with an editor's note:
Editor's note: This article was originally titled “We Can't All Just Get Along” in the print version of the magazine. The title was then changed, without the author's knowledge or approval, to “It's Okay to Hate Republicans.” The author rejects the online title as not representative of the piece or its main points. Her preferred title has been restored. We have also removed from the “Comments” section all threats to the author's life and personal safety.
On “The Flattening of Taste: The Rise (and Maybe Fall) of The Hipster-Foodie Chain”
I wonder how much has been flattened on the back end, and hidden from consumers, due to the Sysco-ization of the restaurant industry.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.