Twilight Dirac

Because puns are unbearable.

I find it difficult to judge music that has been muted due to copyright claims.

This is true for games in general, but I have yet to encounter a final fantasy game you couldn't grind your way to if all else failed. Granted, many are not that difficult and you can probably play through without any grind at all. Heck, you could probably beat FF9 while in a coma. But when stuck, this seems to work.

Its a Final Fantasy game. I have not played this particular one, but if it works like all the others you can just grind a bit if things get to difficult. Losing combat and the odd minigame are usually the only failure conditions in Final Fantasy, and the minigames by their very nature usually let you just wing it.

Also on the subject of Legend of Korra, I hope you like "Professional Bending" because your going to get a whole lot of it in the first season. It just seemed to me that their time could have been spent better elsewhere. Remember those bender gangs Korra meets in the first episode whose plot lines ultimately went nowhere. They could have explored that. Instead we get a massive amount of time devoted to this bizarre sport.

This depends on who takes over which franchise and why. Electronic Arts is probably the worst offender. They took out Microprose, Origin, Westwood and Maxis among other studios and ran each of them into the ground. The loss of Microprose and Origin were particularly painful. Microprose was probably my favorite software developer of all time, responsible for the original Sid Meier's Civilization, the original X-Com, the Master of Orion series and the best game of all time Master of Magic. Origin was the maker of my favorite RPG series, the Ultima series, which instantly turned to crap as soon as EA touched it resulting in the awful sequels Ultima 8 and Ultima 9. EA recently disbanded Maxis after the latest SimCity was botched, with the always online requirement that was likely EA's idea being part of the reason for SimCity's failure. On the other hand, there are a couple of organizations that have proven to be good stewards of the property they acquired. Firaxis is now the owner of the Sid Meier's Civilization IP and they have done a exemplary job with the last two installments, and they have revived the X-Com series rather successfully. Wizards of the Coast obtained the rights to Dungeons and Dragons after TSR went belly up and I actually think their reboot of the pen-and-paper RPG series was the best thing that ever happened to it. Then you got the middle ground of J.J. Abrams. This guy has taken a crack first at Star Trek and now Star Wars. These beloved series had been driven into the ground by their former owners, with the last two Star Trek films Insurrection and Nemesis being on the whole pretty terrible and the Star Wars prequels being infamously bad. His reboots on the whole have been thoroughly mediocre (although I have yet to see Star Trek Beyond with I hear is pretty good) but they are still better than the likes of Nemesis and Revenge of the Sith and have breathed new life into two sci-fi series that otherwise would be dead, so on the whole it seems a net plus. So on the whole passing off a series seems to be a crapshoot. The only take away seems to be that EA sucks and should stop absorbing successful independent gaming studios.

There is a brand of hot dog I like called snappy grillers. These hot dogs lack the dye that makes them red so they appear white. Grill them and put them on a bun, no need for ketchup (which doesn't belong on hot dogs anyway) or anything like that, and eat the straight up They are delicious.

Research and development. I make all the stuff, armor and portaloos better than they already are .

I work as a contractor for the U.S. Army. Does that count?

A second checkpoint? I thought airport security was overbearing in the U.S., but thankfully there is only one check point. What the heck is going on in France that requires two checkpoints?

What is really interesting about this experiment is it has potential to invalidate Newton's Third law of motion, which would really shake up our understanding of physics. But like Blackshirt Brony, I remain skeptical about that claim. Do note that the actual prototype is a rather crap engine even if you do not require a propellant. The thing still only produces around a milliNewton of thrust when consuming 1 kW of power, so you would need 5 MW of power to generate a single pound of thrust. Maybe if you brought a nuclear reactor into orbit with it, but you would probably be better off with something like a VASIMR if you were going that route. The main problem with space travel remains escaping Earth's gravity in any case.

Firefly, Star Trek, Avatar, Stargate and South Park.

Sounds like you might want to pay a visit to gog.com. That site is basically a repository for old but very well designed games. My personal recommendation is Master of Magic, but there are a lot of good games on that site. Beyond that there are a lot of interesting a unique games that have been released more recently. Have you tried Kerbal Space Program? How about Cities: Skylines? Or RimWorld? Or FTL? These are all off the beaten path and they are all very good.

Britannia from the Ultima series. Ultima was doing open world games long before many of the aforementioned games existed and arguably a lot better. Where your typical open world game will often be little more than a small series of story missions buried in a sandbox full of unrelated side quest (see the Elder Scroll Series for that), in the Ultima series exploring the open world was essential to completing the game. You weren't just given a set of story missions, you were given a seemingly insurmountable objective like becoming a champion of virtue, overthrowing an authoritarian regime, determining why magic was no longer functioning, etc. Exploring the world was essential to simply figuring out what was going on and what you needed to do, in addition to gathering the allies and resources needed to achieve your goals. The world allowed unrestricted exploration yet was guided by a central objective and worked as a cohesive whole at the same time. It wasn't the sort of game where you just forgot what you were supposed to be doing an then 20 hours later looked at your journal and said "oh yea, I need to find my missing son." The open world was an essential part of the game, not just a sideshow when you didn't feel like doing the story missions.

Since I have been old enough to vote, neither of the major parties have once fielded a presidential candidate I actually liked. This election has been no different. America was offered the choice between two bad candidates, and they choose one. How can you blame Americans for choosing a bad president when all their options were bad to begin with? The election of Trump doesn't mean American are angry or racist or anything of the sort, it means that exact same thing as the election of Obama or Bush, Americans were given a crap decision and made the best of a bad situation. In any event the U.S. system of government is very good at minimizing the damage any one person can do. Trump will still need the backing of Congress and the courts if he actually wants to accomplish anything, and just because he is a Republican president does not mean the Republican Congress will automatically back him up, especially because he is a rather divisive outsider.

My picks are Overwatch - This game is simply amazing. Its a very accessible, fun and interesting team based PvP. I don't think I have played PvP FPS games this much since the original Goldeneye, and I don't think I have ever encountered an PvP FPS I have enjoyed this much in that past at all. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Sure, its not quite as good as Human Revolution mainly do to lack of story content, but Human Revolution wasn't released in 2016, and its a fine game. Civilization 6 - Its only been out about a week or so, but this is an excellent sequel to Civliization 5.

We still haven't adopted the metric system. It's like the country is committed to needlessly complicated unit conversions.

Or better yet, what if the U.S.S. Saratoga got lost in the delta quadrant. Bad things always happen to that ship.

But you can build artillery in all the settlements after retaking the fort and blow the every living s**t out of everything. Just in case you found something that you cannot take on in your Gatling laser toting, jetpack equipped experimental power armor.

This is exactly why you do not go around carrying sacks of alchemist fire just so you can make fire attacks every round. In the words of Spoony: "That guy is going to set you on fire!"

Ok, here is just the games I have on Steam, and just those listed under "A" Age of Wonders III Alien Shooter Alien Swarm Altitude ARK: Survival Evolved ARK: Survival of the Fittest Armello Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator Avadon: The Black Fortess Avernum 4 Avernum 5 Avernum 6 Avernum: Escape From the Pit Awesomenauts Axiom Verge

This is exactly why I no longer purchase cable TV.

Deus Ex Mankind Divided

Having played through every Deus Ex game save The Fall, I have enjoyed all of them, even the much maligned Invisible War, although that was clearly the weakest. The good thing about the Deus Ex series is that each game does seem to bring something good and interesting to the table, its not a constant decline from the original like what often happens with sequel entropy. Here are some thoughts on each iteration. The Original Deus Ex: Probably still the best. Its got the tightest design, the best story and the most content. Pros: Best Interface: Everything is done from a first person perspective with solid controls. Taking cover is simple of matter of walking up to a corner and leaning around the wall. The reticle expands when movement or another effect compromises accuracy. Its simple, reliable and you are never disoriented by pre-rendered BS or find yourself unable to take cover behind a wall because the game won't recognize the wall as a wall. Tight Resource Management: The player must carefully manage ammo, energy, non-regenerating health, "hacking" tools and other items carefully, as all are in limited supply. Smart play and careful management of resources are what yield success. It also makes exploration that much more important. Best Levels: They may look ugly, but the levels in this game are easily the largest and most expansive with the possible exception of Prague in Mankind Divided. And a great many levels are this way. Most Content: Far more levels and locations than in the other games. Best "Hacking": What is considered hacking in other games is actually divided into lockpicking, electronics and computers. Each which basically takes a one or more of a consumable resource and a small amount of time (where you can be spotted, shot etc.) and fits in organically with the resource and exploration gameplay the rest of the game is constructing around. No stupid minigames here. Best Bosses: Between the time devoted to get the player to know the bosses story wise, the ability to defeat the bosses at differing points on time throughout the game and the wide range of methods available to defeat the bosses, the original does bosses the best, although Mankind Divided does get close. Melee Weapons: The game features a wide variety of solid, useful melee weapons. Best Story: The story is easily the deepest of the four games and carries the highest stakes, with the most competing and intricate factions. Most Enemy Variety: Your not just fighting generic guards and robots in this game, you go up against mutant monsters, Roswell grays, Men in Black, and augmented cyborg soldiers. Cons: Weapons: For such a brilliant game, the weapons are kind of boring. Its got your typical pistol, shotgun, SMG, sniper rifle, rocket launcher setup with only a few stand out weapons, namely the plasma gun, crossbow and energy sword. Mods add some variety, but the only one that really stands out is the silencer. Augmentation Management: The augmentations in this game are quite useful, but every single one consumes energy, and every single one must be toggled on and off manually. This quickly becomes a pain, and even Invisible War has better management if only thanks to a few passive mods in that game. Graphics: The game hasn't aged well. A lot of things look downright ugly. Deus Ex Invisible War: The much maligned Invisible War isn't a bad game, it just falls far short of the high standards of the Deus Ex series. It is easily the worst of the four, though. Pros: The Endings: If their is one thing Invisible War gets right, it is giving the player a satisfying conclusion, something that the rest of the series seems to struggle with for some reason. The endings to Invisible War are varied, interesting and impactful. Silent Running Mod: This is kind of damning with faint praise, but making the silent running mod passive was an excellent idea. Even with low power consumption, you are constantly alerting enemies in the other games because you forgot to toggle the mod or didn't realize you were close enough that you needed to enable it. Or alternatively, you just walk around everywhere crouched and forget you even have the thing. Making this mod passive meant you were using it all the time. Bot Domination Mod: Not particularly useful, but super fun. Tag a robot, no security terminal required, and then you get to pilot the bot from a first person perspective for 30-60 seconds causing mayhem until the bot shorts out. Its a shame it never made a return in this format. Cons: Tiny Levels: Levels are a fraction of the size they are in the original despite this being a more recent release, and level design gets worse as the game progresses, as if the game got rushed out toward the end. It falls far short of any of the other games in this department. Story: The story is largely forgettable and the factions that are supposedly controlling the world behind the scenes are a shadow of their former self. Need to take out the Illuminati leaders, there is a small tent over there protected by two guards. Don't even get me started on the Knights Templar! Character Customization: This games scraps the skill system from the first and severely cuts down on the number of mods and the number of mods you can fit. Easily the shallowest character customization of the four games. Deus Ex Human Revolution: Almost as good as the original and a welcome surprise after Invisible War, this game kept the high standards of the original and brought them into the modern gaming era. Pros: Graphics: Perhaps obvious given its recent release, but this game is downright gorgeous. Music: The music is similarly amazing. Weapons: Its promising to see that the game does something to excel over the original in the gameplay department, and the weapons are definitely it. The game is field with nonstandard weapons such as the PEPS, crossbow, laser and plasma gun while unique mods such as exploding rounds for the revolver, armor piercing rounds for the pistol and guided rounds for the SMG make even the standard weapons stand out from each other. More conventional mods such as silencers and laser sights add further weapon customization. You will want to play through this game just to try out different weapons and weapon combinations, and each weapon feels truly unique. Augmentation Management: As most augmentations are context sensitive, it is far easier to manage them than the augs in the old games. The Tutorial: As mentioned above, the tutorial was excellent. Cons: The Bosses: The bosses are an exercise in frustration because they are the antithesis of what Deus Ex gameplay is built around, which is a variety of choices and approaches to each situation. But there is only one choice against the bosses: direct combat. No stealth, no talking your way out, no hacking, no nonlethal attacks. If you constructed character that wasn't built for direct combat, prepare to be pulling your hair out trying to beat the first boss, who has the added immunity to melee attacks. The Hacking: Easily the worst part of this game. While the hacking in this game is far more elaborate than its predecessors, that does not make it better. It breaks the games limited resource approach by not only being free to attempt an unlimited number of times, but by returning experience and often other resources. The trade off is that it waste a massive amount of the players time in an uninteresting minigame with poorly optimized controls that will have the player constantly selecting the wrong actions. It will sadly return in the sequel, but at least there the controls have largely been fixed. The Ending: The ending the Human Revolution is the worst of the series, and in the running for the worst ending of any video game every. Simply put, it doesn't have one. You simply push a button and listen to a monologue barely related to your decision while stock footage plays. Did somebody loose the budget for the ending or something, because this ending defies explanation. The Story: The story honestly felt kind of week in this game. A lot of it revolves around the kidnapping of Megan and the highly uninteresting group of mercenaries who kidnapped her. The more important story, that involving Darrow's madness inducing chip, sits largely in the background, making this story feel lower stakes than it should. The stakes feel higher in the sequel, even though they aren't, because the story is more focused on the important events leading to the climax. No Melee Weapons: The pre-rendered takedowns are simply no substitute for proper melee weapons. Deus Ex Mankind Divided: The direct sequel to Human Revolution has received several gameplay refinements and probably has some of the best gameplay in the series, but in hampered by a lack of content. Pros: The Augmentations: Refining the existing augmentations in Human Revolutions and adding some new augmentations which are fun, useful and interesting, this game has the best set of augmentations in the series. The Stealth System: The stealth system in this game is the most transparent and the easiest to understand, making in clearly apparent how to hide from or distract enemies. Hub World: Having a large single hub gives the game a freeform and open world feel. Boss Battle: While the original did bosses the best, this easily does the actual boss battle the best. The battle at the climax is in a huge arena where the player is free to used hacked robots, stealth, thrown objects, grenades, mines and anything else he can think of in a protracted engagement against the boss. It is easily worth the three crap battles of frustration found in Human Revolution. Cons: Lack of Content: While there is plenty to do in Prague to occupy the players time, there seems to be a lack of serious, challenging content and most of the games side missions are trivially easy. And is there any reason the two Jensen's stories that came with the game couldn't be included as part of the main plot? The ability to only do the Palisade Bank mission or the Machine Cult mission didn't help matters. Microtransactions: While the game was thankfully balanced without their presence, the temptation will be their to cripple the players progress in future sequels to encourage them to buy some of the "optional" character upgrades. This could doom the series if Square Enix gets too greedy. No Melee Weapons: I still want my melee weapons dog gone it!

How about the bullet that is used to kill Lenny then ricochets off a rock and just happens to hit a newborn baby in the head. Of course, that would be ridiculous.