More Random Babbling: 2015

[bobdog]

I agree, I've found few real bargains with this Steam Sale. And it's infuriating the number of companies who jacked up their prices in anticipation of the sale. 2 year old games that were selling for $30 last week now start at $40?? C'mon. The thing with Steam is that it can generate tons more revenue by hitting a lower price point to a larger number of people; their Sale model has been proven to work. Unfortunately, companies get scared that they'll lose an extra $5 per sale, so they bounce up their base price. The net result is that they will get fewer people buying their product, who might have looked at it at the lower price.

I found a couple games I'd never heard of like Grow Home, which looks really cool. I got Aperture Tag and Polarity, two paid add-ons for Portal 2, as well as Lily: Child of Geos, which looks like a cool adventure game. Also, got A Story About My Uncle and I'm excited about it as well.

[Starfox]

And it's infuriating the number of companies who jacked up their prices in anticipation of the sale.

Unfortunately this practice is neither new nor limited to video games. I remember when I worked as a shop clerk in the 90s (computers, TV and the like), each year the company increased the prices about two weeks before the sales to compensate. A despicable practice and one of the many reasons why I abandoned this line of work. Sadly most companies prefer winning big bucks fast rather than an even bigger amount of little bucks on a longer term.

There were relatively few occasions for me as well. A bunch of old games that I got on GOG but the newest entries I might be interested in are too new for the sales to make any real difference. Got from Steam  The TALOS principle which is an interesting puzzle game with a story by the guys behind Serious Sam, Ryse: Son Of Rome by Crytek (I'll see what these guys can do with the sword stuff). I'll possibly get a couple more before Monday, but in the end one realizes that this year Summer sale offering is inferior to the normal weekly Steam sale which is disturbing.

I still have yet to get the Witcher 3

So I assume you finally played through the two others? 

[Silver Sorrow]

So I assume you finally played through the two others? 

Well...that is to say...okay, I just reinstalled the first one yesterday, so that's a step in the right direction, at least. 

That's the real reason I haven't snapped up #3 yet, as I didn't want to shell out $50+ on a series I haven't put any serious time into.

Relevant Selected Questions And Answers From The FAQ:

Q: Okay, so why haven't you finished the first game?
A: Because there's something seriously wrong with me.

Q: Well...what's wrong with you?
A: If I knew the answer to that, I would have finished the game.

Q: Did you REALLY forget Mother's Day this year?
A: Of course not. It just looked that way to the uninitiated.

[Starfox]

I'll PM you a little something as an incentive to at least go through the first witcher game... 

Another point... I mentioned in my review that I thought the graphics of The Witcher 3 were prettier than those of Dragon Age Inquisition... I didn't know then how much of an understatement that was. See It seems my memories of the graphic quality in DAI were more than fuzzy until I booted it up again this week-end so let's get the thing straight.

The Witcher 3 is burying DAI graphics so far down below that it would take a century for Bioware to dig themselves up to daylight (ok maybe it's exaggeration but it truly felt that way when I rebooted DAI this week-end... I was like "what's wrong with this game?"). What's more; I had both titles with ultra settings. At this level TW3 performs around 40 fps most of the time. DAI performs in the low 30 occasionally dropping as low as 27 and still has graphics that are not even close to compete. Makes you wonder about the optimization efforts put in by Bioware.

So yeah, for those who have still both games to play, do yourself a favor and play DAI first because at least you'll first have the impression to be in a great looking game. Then play TW3 and witness what true awesomeness is 

[Silver Sorrow]

In celebration of deleting my Facebook page, I hereby proclaim today, July the 17th, to be forever hereafter known as "I'm Free Of Social Media!" Day (To be known informally as "Just Leave Me The Fuck Alone!" Day.) Other names for this great day occur to me...

"I'll Bet None Of My So-Called 'Friends' Even Notice I'm Gone" Day

"If You Want To Talk To Me Just Pick Up The Goddamn Phone And Call Me" Day

"I Have No Interest In Your Ugly Inbred Kids" Day

"You Can Marry Both Of Your Parents And Have A Huge Incest Orgy On The Front Lawn Of The White House For All I Care, Just Shut Up About Being Able To Marry Your 'Longtime Partner' For Christ's Sake" Day

"I Told You That I Don't Want To See Pictures Of Your Stupid Kids!" Day

"Okay, I Get It: Your Life Is Great And Mine Is Complete Shit. Point Made." Day

"The Only Time You've Called Is When You Accidentally Butt-Dialed Me, And Now You Want Me To Vote For Your Daughter's Basketball Team In An Online Poll? Yeah. I'll Get Right On That" Day

"Seriously...Why Are Your Children So Goddamn Repulsive?" Day

"No, Aunt Left-Wing Nutjob, I Don't Think It's A Good Idea To Amend Our Laws Just So Obama Can Serve A Third Term. You Dipshit" Day

"NO MORE FUCKING RAINBOWS EVER!" Day

"American Flag, Confederate Flag, Rainbow Flag, ISIS Flag...Flags Of Contention Unite!" Day

And so on. My only problem was that Facebook has a 14-day cooling off period before they permanently delete your page. It expires today, so that's why I'm so...so...happy.

[Starfox]

I wish I could delete my own Facebook Page but I never had one to begin with 

I Don't Think It's A Good Idea To Amend Our Laws Just So Obama Can Serve A Third Term

But I'm all for the "presidential collar". See, you take a collar, you stuff it with explosives then you put it around the neck of the guy who just got elected. And Each week, people get to vote on the Internet if they think their president is good or bad. And when the bad gets to say... 81%... BOOM! Great way to get rid of the people who just want the job for the money... great incentive too... do your job right or get vaporized. Sure there could be a problem with hacking but hey, nothing's perfect. (I wish I could credit myself with the idea but I just read it in a Sci-Fi story some times ago, still good idea).

Of course the drawback would be having to force people into the presidency because no one would want it after the first explosion.

[Silver Sorrow]

A grand idea.   I think it should be extended to ALL politicians.

Y'know, Washington DC used to be a hardship post. I see no reason why it shouldn't be that way again...

As for Facebook, I only wish I had multiple accounts so that I could experience the joy of deleting them all one by one. I may even sign up for Twitter and Instagram, just to delete those, too.

But I did find one thing on social media I liked:

Pretty much sums up society at this point, too. 

[Starfox]

Okay, let's go for some babbling of my own, although I would call that more of a soapbox.

EA/Bioware just released Spoils of the Qunari a DLC for Inquisition that according to the meager attempt at a description contains things like armors, weapons oh and a new throne ([irony on]huzzah, so desperately needed a new throne![/irony off]). Last month they also released another DLC aptly called Spoils of the Avvar and do I really need to tell you what it contains? Following this scheme I wouldn't be surprised seeing a Spoils of Orzammar, Spoils of Orlais, Fereldan Spoils (just for the sake of variance)... possibilities are endless. All of those having in common (beside being pretty useless) the price tag of $5 each.

Since the Witcher 3 was released, CD Projekt RED released 15 DLCs (and a 16th is in the work they are all part of the same package but released at different dates) some being armors (including the one which is in my opinion the best looking but that's entirely a matter of taste as everything in TW3 looks awesome), some weapons; some sexy outfits for the main ladies of the game but also a few new quests. They also have in common a same price tag which is... FREE. They could have released the whole bundle for $15 (and believe me, considering the competition offering for $5 each small pack of crap, $15 would have been a pretty low price) but no, they go and give away stuff.

I guess that from EA point of view, CD Projekt RED are a bunch of morons who do not know how to properly milk the consumers. From the user point of view however they are people who are considerate enough of their users to offer something as a "thanks for buying our game" (even if things might be a tad more complicated than that because they also have another DLC scheduled for this Fall with 30 hours of new gameplay but this time for nearly $30 so I guess the free content also serves as a coating to make the pill easier to swallow).

I sincerely do hope that CD Projekt RED will never ever be bought by Electronic Arts... each DLC would have been sold at least $2 and the big one would still have been $30   

That aside Bioware... Are you considering another story DLC any time soon or are you still planning to feed us crap until the next game? 

[Silver Sorrow]

See, that's why I don't have a whole lot of interest in the upcoming Mass Effect game. You know that EA is going to cut/withold features for the purpose of DLC, they're going to charge a lot for that DLC, they'll patch the living crap out of it, they'll put far too much emphasis on the MP side, their marketing strategy will continue to look more like a Nazi party manifesto than anything else ("...and then we'll invade Poland!"), and the end result will have dodgy graphics, ugly characters/chargen with weird, godawful shiny plastic hair, a mediocre story with romances right out of Twilight fanfic, and...well, at least that Casey Hudson dipshit is gone. There is that.


Here's a question that never goes away whilst dungeon-delving:

Just how reliable is a health potion that's been sitting in a 1,000+ year-old crypt, anyway??

I don't know, it just bothers me. Same thing with armor. Actually, there's three things about armor that bug me:

1. How sturdy and useful is the perfectly shiny armor in that Dwemer ruin that hasn't been touched in 4,000 years or so?
I ask because it may be important. Although I admit there's great comic value in a bandit smacking you with a warhammer and all your armor just disintegrates, leaving you naked and bleeding and cold.

2. Why does every piece of armor that I craft look exactly like the raggedy-ass crap that's freely available in the world?
Because showing shiny new armor undergoing wear and tear would be far beyond the meager capabilities of an aged, obsolete engine.

3. Why can't I remember what the third thing was?
Because I live in Allergy Central and thus feel like I've been punched in the head repeatedly all the time.


Random Thing:

Bad: Being stuck in a banquet hall with Vegans...

Worse: ...who are also atheists...

Nightmare: ...and they're Apple employees.

(This came from a question: what's the most smug environment you can imagine? "Atheist Vegan Apple employees!" was my answer.)


Finally: Half-Life 3 is never going to be released, is it?

[bobdog]

RE: HL3, honestly, I'd be afraid to do it if I were Valve. Too much pressure to make it "best thing evah" after such a long time, similar to what Duke Nukem faced. And how do you innovate on such a scale after creating the physics elements that defined HL2? What could possibly top that? Sure, engines have gotten prettier, but we're still just shooting the same damn guns, just with more sparkles. So Valve should look at a) having another qualified studio do it instead, and take the blame when it's not a 10 out of 10; or b) find something unique as the hook.

My idea is to make HL3 an open-world (or better yet, open-GALAXY!!) game, where you have to take down the Xen worlds one at a time until you've reached a strong enough base of operations to take down the Xen hierarchy for good. Imagine a concept like Far Cry 3 or Assassins Creed, where you have to take down key installations to unlock the final leaders on each world, and then multiply that by six or seven worlds at a minimum. So it's a mix of Mass Effect, RTS games and AC, on a huge canvas spanning the galaxy, with the fate of the galaxy in your hands, upping the ante significantly from HL1 and HL2 and taking the fight to the Xen worlds themselves.

Gabe, I am available for consultation. 

[Silver Sorrow]

I think it may have come to that. It's gotten to the point where Gabe is going around with a fake handlebar mustache and answering questions with a weird accent. "'Hoff-lahf'? Vut eeees theees 'hoff-lahf'??"

Farm it out to a third party, someone with ambition and drive. Really...HL isn't exactly the most innovative of narratives, so it shouldn't take a room full of Nobel winners to pull out a decent sequel.


In other news...ah. Masterchef just finished up. And for those of you who don't want spoilers...look away now.

WARNING WARNING WARNING MASTERCHEF SPOILER AHEAD

...keep scrolling...

Because Claudia won.

See? You should've looked away when I told you.

I admit to some...well, a *lot*...of disappointment at Derrick's loss. Then again, Masterchef is somewhat engineered (that's like saying that the Hoover Dam is "somewhat engineered"); I guess the win goes to whoever has the best sob story or the best legs (case in point: last year's winner, the stripper with the huge nose and great legs). So it should come as no surprise that the winner is the person who is the least qualified of the final two.

That's gotta sting, though. It wouldn't be so bad if it was:

"I lost, yeah. But she's an amazing, well-rounded cook who can take something from any given culture and turn it into something outstanding."

No, it was:

"I lost to a Mexican woman who can only cook Mexican food. And she looks like the Joker when she smiles. It hurts, Steve. It really does."

Seriously, that was all she could cook: Mexican food. Let me underline that point: she's Mexican and was only good at cooking Mexican food. If I had a peso every time she said she was putting her heritage/culture/roots into her dish, I...I would still be poor. Because the peso is the Canadian penny of Hispanic currency.

That may be insensitive. And inaccurate. But I'm beyond caring.

So anyway, it's over now. Hooray.

[Silver Sorrow]

And that's another thing: someone at Frito-Lay must have a screw loose. Because when I buy a "Family Size" bag of chips, I expect it to be able to feed a family of eight comfortably, with some left over for poor relations. No. The "Family Size" will probably serve a family of two, at most.

No, my friend...you want the "Party Size" bag! It has almost TWICE as much as the "Family Size!"

Well, that's good...I mean, if I have a party, I could grab a bag and--

Whoa there! That won't be enough! You might need to buy a few "Party Size" bags if you plan on inviting more than three people!

You know what? Maybe I'll just take out a mortgage, buy a few "Party Size" bags -- no, they aren't cheap -- and sit in the dark all alone and eat them myself. And I don't even want to talk about dip.

[bobdog]

Someone's having a grumpy 41st birthday!! The sting does get easier after a couple of years. Then you start facing the 50th milestone and you're like -- where the heck did my life go? And where are my car keys?

[Starfox]

Then you start facing the 50th milestone and you're like -- where the heck did my life go? And where are my car keys?

More like 45. I don't know what 50 feels like yet but I get the feeling I won't like it. Just a bit more than a couple of year before verifying that theory.

Wow! We're a sad bunch   

But hey, Silver!

 

 

 

All those smileys we actually never use 

[Silver Sorrow]

Someone's having a grumpy 41st birthday!! The sting does get easier after a couple of years. Then you start facing the 50th milestone and you're like -- where the heck did my life go? And where are my car keys?

You think I'm grumpy now, just wait until they "adjust" my medication again. Stick a shiv in just one orderly and everyone loses their damn minds. Yeesh.

But I'm prepared for 50...it's 41-49 that I'm not too happy about. And, I already feel like I'm 75, so...

But I've been practicing! When checking the TV guide for talk show guests, I ask "Just who ARE these people? I don't know any of them!" and, inevitably: "Why don't they have any of the people *I* like on these shows??" And then I'll go into full-on existential depression mode: "Because all the people you like are either dead or retired, that's why."

I haven't quite graduated to yelling at kids to get off my lawn, but I have a solution that would save time: just put a few of those "Registered Sex Offender" signs on the lawn.

But hey, Silver!

 

 

 

All those smileys we actually never use 

Merci! Colorful balloons, new medication...now, if I could just acquire the Holy Grail: Lynda Carter's sex tape.

Again: This proves that yes, I'm old.