Yes, you can use a controller. And some say it does offer somewhat more intuitive controls than KB+M. But the devs are apparently also working on a patch they claim will address some of the concerns of PC users. I think I'll wait for the patch.
I can't help but think that if Gov. Nixon were a Republican, there would be many calls from prominent national figures on the left for him to appoint a special prosecutor. I wonder how much party politics factors into everything considering Nixon and McCullough are Democrats.
Dragon Age: Inquisition. I finished Dragon Age II after a late night/early morning session and starting downloading DAI so it'd be ready for the next evening. With the positive reviews coming in, I was stoked to start. I've played through the prologue (I guess) and to the title screen. My initial reaction was pretty significant disappointment.
Not so much with the story or game mechanics yet (though I can't say I'm happy about the way healing works and I don't understand why they added jump), but the flipping interface. It's horrible. I hate to sound like a snobby 'PC master race' guy, but it was clearly designed to work on consoles and TVs. If it had been some other game by some other developer, I probably wouldn't be complaining as much. However, 15 years of playing Bioware RPGs given me certain expectations on how the UI will behave. They've changed a bunch of them, seemingly arbitrarily. Spacebar is no longer pause, it's jump. I don't know how many times during the first boss fight I made my character jump inadvertently. Gone is being able to just assign targets to your character, you now must hold down the LMB the entirety of combat. Tab no longer highlights items, it's V to send out a sonar pulse. When you find an item to interact with, you can't just click on it and have your character move to it, you have to move to it first. Annoying when you're a step or two away. The limit on how far you can zoom out in tactical view reduces its usefulness. The inventory, character, and journal screens remind me of going from Morrowind to Oblivion. It was obviously designed to be easy to read and navigate when sitting 10' from your TV. Not quite as useful when sitting 2' from your monitor.
I could probably (and likely will, at some point) get used to the changes, but that first boss battle was very frustrating. I felt I was battling more with the interface then with the enemies on the screen. I just got South Park from the Steam sale. I think I'll go play that and return to DAI at a later date and hope a patch or mod is released that addresses some of my issues.
I recently got the Farscape boxed set and have started rewatching the series. All I can think of now when I hear the intro is: "My name is John Crichton. I used to be an astronaut, until... When you're shot through a wormhole, you've got nothing..."
I'm in the same boat. I recently dusted off a save game that was over 2 years old and am trying to piece together the storyline from the middle of Act 2.
Not a bad idea to wait. It's definitely the love child of SMAC and Civ 5. It's good and had me up late last night, but it seems to me that it lacks some polish. I was one of those who was initially underwhelmed with Civ 5 (coming from having played quite a bit of Civ 4, w/ expansions).
It kinda reminds me of the days of Microprose, when there was a running joke about having to wait for the 3rd patch before the games were playable.
1. Greatest American Hero - It's in the name
2. Groo - Emobidies the American fighting spirit. Powerful, well-intentioned, and unconcerned that the outcome is worse than before they started.
3. Dazzler - Flash over substance
4. A giant brain, representing all super-geniuses. They have the ability to quickly create fantastic new inventions to solve the extraordinary problems, and are completely uninterested in tackling serious issues faced by the mundanes.
The original Wasteland had been sitting on my HD, untouched, for some time. I did try it for a bit, not intending to play to completion, but just to get a feel for the game. My biggest problem when trying to play older games is not the graphics, it's always the interface. The interface for a game released in the 80s is horrible by today's standards. Early on, the characters have to climb over some rocks at a few different spots in a cave. It takes 5 keystrokes per attempt:
Press 'u' for use
Select character number
Press 's' skill
Select number of appropriate skill
Select direction to apply skill
I've also started playing Endless Legend. I'm quite fond of 4X games. Nothing makes the hours disappear for me quite like them.
While not a reboot, Journeyman did have similarities to Quantum Leap. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long.
They'd definately screw up an actual reboot of Quantum Leap. Sam Beckett was a boy scout (and Mary Sue), they'd undoubtedly go for a darker and grittier version.
I did know Gates was involved in some sort of education reform (and drawing the ire of people like Diane Ravitch), which is why I mentioned his name, but didn't know the exact context. I haven't followed Common Core too closely, as Virginia has opted out. It just seemed to me that people interested in improving education might see the value in reducing the costs of texts (as well as getting control out of the hands of the Texas School Board and publishers.)
I surprised some non-profit group or philanthropist (Bill Gates) hasn't killed the K-12 textbook industry yet. Certainly history is a bit of a moving target and can have regional interests, but the rest of the material shouldn't change much from year to year. It seems some sort of "open-source" textbooks could be developed. I would think it would have world-wide application. You could even make them modular, based on discrete subject areas instead of hefty tomes put together by some arbitrary grade level standards.
@davidtc Perhaps the result of breaking the law should be parenting classes.
This I could potentially get behind. Though I generally think preventive measures are better than reactive ones, such as a sustained campaign of messaging and education. Given the way public opinion currently stands on CP (not to mention the unlikelyhood of obtaining government funding), this would have to come from the private sector.
I suspect (hope) that international standards for the length of copyrights will decrease over the coming years (decades) as individuals who have grown up in the internet age come into power.
And for all the kids who then get placed in foster care and suffer far worse abuse, well, at least we have our morally absolutist position to fall back on.
Maybe we could just outlaw abuse in the foster care system.
The idea that we should tolerate child abuse in all put the most extreme situations because its potentially more harmful, if only for economic reasons, to jail or fine the abusive parent is similarly ridiculous.
I was referring to all forms of corporal punishment that rise to the level of abuse as extreme.
I realize it doesn't carry legal weight, but the length of copyright laws don't pass a common sense interpretation of "limited time". An entire generation was born, lived full lives, and died since Steamboat Willie was released, and its copyright isn't due to expire for almost a decade (until the next extension, anyway).
And as far as the "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" bit goes, nodoby is deciding on whether or not to undertake a given project based upon their projected earnings 50 years down the road. If corporations and artists "only" had, say, 20 years to profit off a given work, it's likely wouldn't change the calculus much, if at all.
I don't think it's a problem that can be addressed by the legal system. Apart from the extremes that most think is abuse, is corporal punishment more harmful to the child than jailing a parent and/or removing the child from the home? I don't think that's a satisfactory solution. Fines are burdensome on poorer families, who tend to me more likely to administer spankings.
True, boredom and complacency would likely become big issues. It would be a nice change of pace, though, to have at least one boy scout character who focused on always being prepared instead of just perpetually flying by the seat of his pants.
The second season is on par with the first. It has the exact same look and feel. It could just as easily be the next episode of season one. The major difference being the impact of the events in season one. The second season is a direct continuation of that plot line.
My impression is the impact of the decisions doesn't seem to be as great as in the first game. I could be wrong about this, I've avoided reading too much in order to try and avoid spoilers.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Saturday!”
Yes, you can use a controller. And some say it does offer somewhat more intuitive controls than KB+M. But the devs are apparently also working on a patch they claim will address some of the concerns of PC users. I think I'll wait for the patch.
On “Judging the Guilty in Ferguson”
I can't help but think that if Gov. Nixon were a Republican, there would be many calls from prominent national figures on the left for him to appoint a special prosecutor. I wonder how much party politics factors into everything considering Nixon and McCullough are Democrats.
On “Saturday!”
There are slots on some of the equipment, but I haven't progressed far enough to fill them.
"
Dragon Age: Inquisition. I finished Dragon Age II after a late night/early morning session and starting downloading DAI so it'd be ready for the next evening. With the positive reviews coming in, I was stoked to start. I've played through the prologue (I guess) and to the title screen. My initial reaction was pretty significant disappointment.
Not so much with the story or game mechanics yet (though I can't say I'm happy about the way healing works and I don't understand why they added jump), but the flipping interface. It's horrible. I hate to sound like a snobby 'PC master race' guy, but it was clearly designed to work on consoles and TVs. If it had been some other game by some other developer, I probably wouldn't be complaining as much. However, 15 years of playing Bioware RPGs given me certain expectations on how the UI will behave. They've changed a bunch of them, seemingly arbitrarily. Spacebar is no longer pause, it's jump. I don't know how many times during the first boss fight I made my character jump inadvertently. Gone is being able to just assign targets to your character, you now must hold down the LMB the entirety of combat. Tab no longer highlights items, it's V to send out a sonar pulse. When you find an item to interact with, you can't just click on it and have your character move to it, you have to move to it first. Annoying when you're a step or two away. The limit on how far you can zoom out in tactical view reduces its usefulness. The inventory, character, and journal screens remind me of going from Morrowind to Oblivion. It was obviously designed to be easy to read and navigate when sitting 10' from your TV. Not quite as useful when sitting 2' from your monitor.
I could probably (and likely will, at some point) get used to the changes, but that first boss battle was very frustrating. I felt I was battling more with the interface then with the enemies on the screen. I just got South Park from the Steam sale. I think I'll go play that and return to DAI at a later date and hope a patch or mod is released that addresses some of my issues.
On “Sunday!”
You rely on anyone who's still talking to you.
A trigger happy ex-Peacekeeper...
["Pull it out. Point it like a gun. And shoot."]
... a new friend who once try to kill you...
["Where is the human?!"]
... Royalty, too... if you're desperate...
["I am Rygel the XVI, Dominar to over 600 billion subjects. I don't need to talk to you!"]
... and down-and-out Nebari you met along the way.
["Don't tell me how to lie! It's one of the BEST things I do."]
Bottom line: until you figure out how to recreate wormholes, you're not going home.
"
I recently got the Farscape boxed set and have started rewatching the series. All I can think of now when I hear the intro is: "My name is John Crichton. I used to be an astronaut, until... When you're shot through a wormhole, you've got nothing..."
On “Saturday!”
I'm in the same boat. I recently dusted off a save game that was over 2 years old and am trying to piece together the storyline from the middle of Act 2.
On “Saturday!”
Not a bad idea to wait. It's definitely the love child of SMAC and Civ 5. It's good and had me up late last night, but it seems to me that it lacks some polish. I was one of those who was initially underwhelmed with Civ 5 (coming from having played quite a bit of Civ 4, w/ expansions).
It kinda reminds me of the days of Microprose, when there was a running joke about having to wait for the 3rd patch before the games were playable.
On “Mount Rushmore — Super Edition”
1. Greatest American Hero - It's in the name
2. Groo - Emobidies the American fighting spirit. Powerful, well-intentioned, and unconcerned that the outcome is worse than before they started.
3. Dazzler - Flash over substance
4. A giant brain, representing all super-geniuses. They have the ability to quickly create fantastic new inventions to solve the extraordinary problems, and are completely uninterested in tackling serious issues faced by the mundanes.
On “Saturday!”
The original Wasteland had been sitting on my HD, untouched, for some time. I did try it for a bit, not intending to play to completion, but just to get a feel for the game. My biggest problem when trying to play older games is not the graphics, it's always the interface. The interface for a game released in the 80s is horrible by today's standards. Early on, the characters have to climb over some rocks at a few different spots in a cave. It takes 5 keystrokes per attempt:
Press 'u' for use
Select character number
Press 's' skill
Select number of appropriate skill
Select direction to apply skill
I've also started playing Endless Legend. I'm quite fond of 4X games. Nothing makes the hours disappear for me quite like them.
On “Aqua!”
The Gathering - Great Ocean Road
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoR_i7XAh9k
On “On a Slide and a Prayer”
comments that Tebow does this “all the time” notwithstanding. In fact, I can’t find a single incident of him doing so.
Huh. Before this post, I would have sworn he did this as part of TD celebrations. But I can't find any images or video either.
On “Sunday!”
While not a reboot, Journeyman did have similarities to Quantum Leap. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long.
They'd definately screw up an actual reboot of Quantum Leap. Sam Beckett was a boy scout (and Mary Sue), they'd undoubtedly go for a darker and grittier version.
On “Saturday!”
How necessary is playing the original to understanding any references in the game?
On “Some Not-So-Random Thoughts on the Redskins Controversy”
I got to admit, the thought of him sitting back with wings and beer and watching the trainwreck strikes me as amusing.
On “Oh, Tennessee”
I did know Gates was involved in some sort of education reform (and drawing the ire of people like Diane Ravitch), which is why I mentioned his name, but didn't know the exact context. I haven't followed Common Core too closely, as Virginia has opted out. It just seemed to me that people interested in improving education might see the value in reducing the costs of texts (as well as getting control out of the hands of the Texas School Board and publishers.)
"
I surprised some non-profit group or philanthropist (Bill Gates) hasn't killed the K-12 textbook industry yet. Certainly history is a bit of a moving target and can have regional interests, but the rest of the material shouldn't change much from year to year. It seems some sort of "open-source" textbooks could be developed. I would think it would have world-wide application. You could even make them modular, based on discrete subject areas instead of hefty tomes put together by some arbitrary grade level standards.
On “Corporal Punishment, Race and Adrian Peterson”
@davidtc Perhaps the result of breaking the law should be parenting classes.
This I could potentially get behind. Though I generally think preventive measures are better than reactive ones, such as a sustained campaign of messaging and education. Given the way public opinion currently stands on CP (not to mention the unlikelyhood of obtaining government funding), this would have to come from the private sector.
On “Linky Thursday #2”
I suspect (hope) that international standards for the length of copyrights will decrease over the coming years (decades) as individuals who have grown up in the internet age come into power.
On “Corporal Punishment, Race and Adrian Peterson”
far worse abuse
Careless wording on my parent. I mean actual phsyical, sexual, or emotion abuse as opposed to any harm caused by relatively mild coporal punishment.
"
And for all the kids who then get placed in foster care and suffer far worse abuse, well, at least we have our morally absolutist position to fall back on.
Maybe we could just outlaw abuse in the foster care system.
"
The idea that we should tolerate child abuse in all put the most extreme situations because its potentially more harmful, if only for economic reasons, to jail or fine the abusive parent is similarly ridiculous.
I was referring to all forms of corporal punishment that rise to the level of abuse as extreme.
On “Linky Thursday #2”
I realize it doesn't carry legal weight, but the length of copyright laws don't pass a common sense interpretation of "limited time". An entire generation was born, lived full lives, and died since Steamboat Willie was released, and its copyright isn't due to expire for almost a decade (until the next extension, anyway).
And as far as the "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" bit goes, nodoby is deciding on whether or not to undertake a given project based upon their projected earnings 50 years down the road. If corporations and artists "only" had, say, 20 years to profit off a given work, it's likely wouldn't change the calculus much, if at all.
On “Corporal Punishment, Race and Adrian Peterson”
I don't think it's a problem that can be addressed by the legal system. Apart from the extremes that most think is abuse, is corporal punishment more harmful to the child than jailing a parent and/or removing the child from the home? I don't think that's a satisfactory solution. Fines are burdensome on poorer families, who tend to me more likely to administer spankings.
On “Saturday!”
True, boredom and complacency would likely become big issues. It would be a nice change of pace, though, to have at least one boy scout character who focused on always being prepared instead of just perpetually flying by the seat of his pants.
The second season is on par with the first. It has the exact same look and feel. It could just as easily be the next episode of season one. The major difference being the impact of the events in season one. The second season is a direct continuation of that plot line.
My impression is the impact of the decisions doesn't seem to be as great as in the first game. I could be wrong about this, I've avoided reading too much in order to try and avoid spoilers.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.