Decent review. A little harsh on the environments, given the engine. Still nothing about the crappy writing given there was so little of it. I thought the writing was pretty well on par with the comic. If you like the writing in the comic, you'd most likely enjoy the writing in the game too. I did. Plenty of people don't like the comic writing either though, so to each his own. I don't think those people should buy the game. For $20 it was a pretty fun game.
On the other hand, you can't increase your Gamerscore or collect achievements with the PC version >:) I still fail to understand the appeal of the Gamerscore. Why do people care about it? What does it mean to you?
So having completely blown the whole point, let's now make sure any thug who wants it can get a cheap handgun... The amendment probably should be updated. We don't even want other countries having nukes, let alone private citizens. It's not like the average soldier has access to such weapons. If citizens had access to the typical soldier's combat equipment, that should be sufficient. The populace doesn't need to have F-22s or Abrams tanks to be an effective deterrent. I think Iraqi insurgents have proved that pretty well. If we ever get to that point, we're most likely looking at a civil war anyway, and the armed forces will probably be split between at least two factions.
I, personally, believe that we should have the right to own firearms for defense purposes as well. That's more of a side-effect right now, but is also the reason that you'd get from most handgun owners. I'd like to see that explicitly laid out in an amendment.
The "thugs" can get whatever they want. If nobody else had guns, they would be even more powerful when they get one, making a gun worth that much more to them. The fact that they're willing kill others already gives them an edge. Combine that with any sort of weapon, whether it be a knife, baseball bat, chain, etc, and they are likely going to still be able to kill whoever they want, whenever they want.
We can't stop drugs from coming into this country in mind-boggling quantities, despite spending equally mind-boggling amounts of money on the problem over the last 20+ years. Why do you think we'd be able to prevent the bad guys from getting guns just as easily?
I, like any citizen, have the right to protect myself and my family from threats. The police have no obligation and no ability to protect me. Guns are simply the most effective tools available for providing the ability to defend oneself. Given the inability of most police departments in defending people against crazy former spouses and such, even after multiple reports and complaints, I'd think that it should be a given that protecting yourself is the only real choice you have. Anti-gun activists always seem to assume that the police are obligated to defend us. They aren't. Just ask them.
Do you know how many other elected officials AT&T supports?? Is it illegal to be a campaign supporter now? oooh 160 grand! Mccain (the millionaire) can finally buy that Taj Mahal he's been wanting. Just shows that there is a hell of a lot of conflict of interest in D.C. People like you just accepting it ensures the perpetuation of the corruption.
Seriously, these implications of wrong doing are idiotic. Mccain, though I hate him, is a champion of campaign finance reform. When we actually see some reform that fixes the problems, then I'll give him some credit. Until then, he's got the same conflicts of interest and appearance of impropriety as anyone else doing favors for corporate interests after accepting contributions from them. It's damn near impossible to prove quid pro quo, but the appearance is bad enough. Even if those contributions just mean that he'll take their calls, that gives them a level of influence that is much greater than anyone else. That's a corrupting influence as well.
There simply is not enough infrastructure to allow everyone to consume whatever they want, whenever they want, without making them pay for it. This is not the consumer's problem, but the provider, and to put the onus back on the consumer for using what was advertised to them is just wrong. Don't sell me 1.5Mbps DSL if you intend to throttle me down to 128Kbps on certain transactions. I am paying for 1.5Mbps. That IS my bandwidth and I am paying for it. Metering is just another way of adding complexity for the consumer and money for the telecoms. You're paying for whatever your TOS says you're paying for. If that includes the right for them to throttle as they deem necessary, then that's what you're paying for. They're going to charge whatever the market will bear, and use the various plans to make sure they can pull in customers at every price-point.
But most PC gamers would be able to follow "search for a torrent of a readily cracked game, wait, and install" If you've ever worked a tech support job or read the comments on a torrent site, you'd know that most PC users couldn't follow those instructions to save their lives. They get confused by things as simple as copying a cracked exe and overwriting the original, let alone using something like Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120%.
If by "buy an adapter" you mean buy a bircuit board, rip open you case (voiding you warranty) and solder it to some conectors, yeah, that's all you have to do. Most people aren't comfortable with that. Voiding the warranty is a given, but the actual modding is not that hard. You can even buy them pre-modded, or just pay the neighbor kid 50 bucks to do it for you.
There are fewer consoles out there than there are PCs. Yet consoles keep rising, why? Developers want to publish for the biggest platform that allows them the most sales. Most of the PCs out there aren't suitable for running the kinds of games that are being made these days. They don't run much more than the kinds of casual games you'd see from PopCap and the like. So your comparison is way off. PCs are bought and used for a huge variety of reasons, gaming being a rather smallish slice. Consoles are pretty much universally dedicated to gaming. Much easier market to target. Much less discerning customers. Much easier to develop for due to the uniform hardware. It has a lot of advantages, but piracy is not one of them. Piracy is easy on consoles.
The PC gaming industry gets worse and worse every year due to piracy. All of my favorite PC game houses went bankrupt. The PC gaming industry gets worse and worse because consoles have gotten so huge. Now every publisher wants to publish on all platforms so that they can make the most money possible. This leads to shitty, lowest-common denominator games that the console crowd thinks are awesome. PC gamers are used to different kinds of games, but those kinds mostly don't get made now, or get turned into consolized crap. They may try to blame piracy, but that's mostly bullshit. Some of them even admit that. I can't blame people for not wanting to buy most of the PC games that have come out in the last few years. They've butchered a lot of formerly great franchises.
Then there's the fact that piracy on consoles is even easier than it is on PCs. No messing with drive emulators or firewalls. Just buy an adapter that costs about as much as a game, flip a switch and you can play copies of any game you like.
One of the guys I worked with actually slipped on a banana peel a while back. He said that he saw it too late and as he slipped he could only think that this was only supposed to happen in cartoons and that nobody would believe him.
I haven't been able to figure out how to tell if a melon is sweet before I buy it. I've gotten pretty good at picking sweet melons out of the bunch. I do it mostly by smell, but color and texture play a part as well. A ripe sweet honeydew melon has a distinctive sweet scent. It may or may not be slightly more yellow than an unripe one, but be careful buying one if it's especially yellow-ish. It may be overripe. Ripe ones tend to have slightly softer skin too. Cantaloupe is harder to tell by scent, but can be done that way as well. If you have a ripe and unripe one to compare against each other, you can tell pretty easily.
q[The worst part about it is the fact that many of the people driving monoculture are trained scientists who, for some reason, are oblivious to its negative ramifications.]q When your primary and overriding concern is your next quarterly profits report, you can pretty easily dismiss issues like this as being nebulous and speculative. Of course when they actually happen, you've got a problem, but that's what the lawyers and spin doctors are for.
MEMO TO WORLD GOVERNMENTS: You can't stop the signal. Stop wasting taxpayer money. Unless taxpayers start making a stink about it, they'll keep right on wasting that money. They'll do that because the IP industry keeps throwing money at them to do so. As long as people are willing to turn a blind eye to corruption and accept the lame excuses we hear from politicians for their behavior, then we'll always be stuck in this situation.
Having said that, I think they did have some pretty interesting ideas on copyright, trademarks, patents, etc, ideas that would be called "Dangerous Subversive Liberal Commie Nonsense" nowadays, didn't they? That's kind of the point really. Current copyright law bears no resemblance to what the Constitution calls for. The goal was to ensure that the public domain was continually being enriched with new works. So they implemented an incentive for people to create new works, namely a limited monopoly on the distribution of those works. Under current copyright law, nothing ever becomes public domain and they have turned it into a perpetual right to milk a creation forevermore without ever giving anything back to the public that gave them that monopoly to begin with. As far as I'm concerned, copyright law, as it stands today, is unconstitutional.
There should be a law which states that for each camera in public, there should be a camera in each MPs house. After all they are public servants! You'd think that that wouldn't be that hard, wouldn't you? After all, the public went along with all the public monitoring without much fuss, why not propose monitoring of public servants wherever they happen to conduct the people's business, whether that's in an office, in their homes, or on a golf course? It's for the good of the state, right? Prevents corruption and waste, right?
Of course they'll hold up the state secrets crap again, even though 90 percent of them don't do much of anything that should be secret. We just can't be allowed to know how our government is really run.
See I have a hard time with the logic in use here. If I want a BMW M6 really really bad, but I find something about the terms of sale to be unacceptable See, I have a hard time with the logic people use to equate imaginary property with tangible property. Copyright is an artificially created monopoly that, while initially created with good intentions, has been perverted by decades of lobbying into something that no longer serves its original purpose. The original intent was to ensure that the public domain was continually enriched with new works. Today, copyright serves to ensure that nothing ever becomes public domain in the lifetimes of those who were around when it was created, if ever. Excuse me if I don't shed tears for those who have helped to bring about this sad state of affairs.
The only reason I can see for that distinction is that if you're entrapping someone and you're not government/law enforcement then you're aiding and abetting a criminal act.
However, since the cases pursued are all civil cases, and the claimant is the one giving away the product (or saying they will), then they can hardly complain that someone tried to take them up on the offer, can they? They aren't giving anything away, or at least not suing anyone for downloading from them. They just collect IPs for whoever is seeding a file, and possibly download it from them to verify it. Then that person gets sued for distributing the work, or at least "making available". Their problem now is that they are starting to get called on that last bit, as it doesn't jive with copyright law. I'm sure the PRO-IP Act will fix that though.
PS: With AllOfMP3, they are accusing them of letting people break copyright by downloading. It can't be because of AllOfMP3 uploading, because that is done in Russia, where it is legal. "letting people break copyright by downloading" = "making available"
The complaint is that the format is a standard in name only (i.e., it is vague and difficult to implement). Actually, it's more than difficult, it's currently impossible for anyone but Microsoft to implement it, and even they can't seem to do it.
(Yes, yes, I know that they "changed their minds" in regard to the phone home policy, but that doesn't mean they can't be the symbolic whipping boy until the next moronic company suggests this). They didn't change their minds about the games phoning home. They just backed off from having them phone home every 10 days or so. It's supposedly just a one-time call now, but still requires the net connection.
Sounds like entrapment to me, like the mafRIAA is "making avaible" the same mp3s they are accusing people of downloading... bastards. You can't entrap someone unless you're a government agent. They aren't suing people for downloading anyway, they're suing them for uploading.
Just a thought, but what about doing this for zombie machines? I think an idea like that has been brought up here on Slashdot before, like if your machine is not up to date patch-wise you get booted or restricted to say Windows Updates. But what about actively going after people who fail to maintain their computer to the point that it harms others? Just create a botnet that shares files and emails a record of it to the RIAA or the local equivalent. Problem solved:)
Have a day when everyone in the country sends an SMS to their senator and their representative and see how long the practice is allowed to stand when every politician has mobile phone bills in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
For the eleventy-billionth time, ISPs do NOT have common carrier status, nor do they want to be, specifically because if they were a common carrier, they wouldn't be allowed to pull stunts like this. It does illustrate one of the major problems with this subject. Most people have absolutely no clue about any of it. Even a lot of Slashdotters don't know the facts, so that would mean that the average person out there wouldn't have much chance at all. It's not like this stuff shows up in the newspaper or on TV.
Exactly. Why is it whenever I hear, "Republicans argue...", I immediately think, "Liars. Which corrupt industry are you shilling for now?" I tend to think that regardless of whether it's a republican or democrat doing the arguing. They may be in the pocket of different industries, but that's about the only difference.
I'd love to see how your e-book reader would hold up in my kitchen with a copy of "Joy of Cooking" on it. I'm guessing one good dousing in hot bacon grease would more than ruin the screen, while it only made my JoC smell funny, well... one page is a little see-through now.
Seems like there are a number of very substantial hurdles for e-books to overcome, I'm guessing the solution involves some sort of wood based material... One of the coolest things I just found out about e-book readers is that they don't actually prevent you from having real books around too!! In fact, there are some places where it really makes a lot of sense to have a real book instead. I bet you could come up with such an instance if you tried.
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I, personally, believe that we should have the right to own firearms for defense purposes as well. That's more of a side-effect right now, but is also the reason that you'd get from most handgun owners. I'd like to see that explicitly laid out in an amendment.
The "thugs" can get whatever they want. If nobody else had guns, they would be even more powerful when they get one, making a gun worth that much more to them. The fact that they're willing kill others already gives them an edge. Combine that with any sort of weapon, whether it be a knife, baseball bat, chain, etc, and they are likely going to still be able to kill whoever they want, whenever they want.
We can't stop drugs from coming into this country in mind-boggling quantities, despite spending equally mind-boggling amounts of money on the problem over the last 20+ years. Why do you think we'd be able to prevent the bad guys from getting guns just as easily?
I, like any citizen, have the right to protect myself and my family from threats. The police have no obligation and no ability to protect me. Guns are simply the most effective tools available for providing the ability to defend oneself. Given the inability of most police departments in defending people against crazy former spouses and such, even after multiple reports and complaints, I'd think that it should be a given that protecting yourself is the only real choice you have. Anti-gun activists always seem to assume that the police are obligated to defend us. They aren't. Just ask them.
Most people aren't comfortable with that. Voiding the warranty is a given, but the actual modding is not that hard. You can even buy them pre-modded, or just pay the neighbor kid 50 bucks to do it for you.
Then there's the fact that piracy on consoles is even easier than it is on PCs. No messing with drive emulators or firewalls. Just buy an adapter that costs about as much as a game, flip a switch and you can play copies of any game you like.
One of the guys I worked with actually slipped on a banana peel a while back. He said that he saw it too late and as he slipped he could only think that this was only supposed to happen in cartoons and that nobody would believe him.
oops... been spending too much time on other boards and retardedly used the wrong quote tags :P
q[The worst part about it is the fact that many of the people driving monoculture are trained scientists who, for some reason, are oblivious to its negative ramifications.]q
When your primary and overriding concern is your next quarterly profits report, you can pretty easily dismiss issues like this as being nebulous and speculative. Of course when they actually happen, you've got a problem, but that's what the lawyers and spin doctors are for.
Of course they'll hold up the state secrets crap again, even though 90 percent of them don't do much of anything that should be secret. We just can't be allowed to know how our government is really run.
However, since the cases pursued are all civil cases, and the claimant is the one giving away the product (or saying they will), then they can hardly complain that someone tried to take them up on the offer, can they? They aren't giving anything away, or at least not suing anyone for downloading from them. They just collect IPs for whoever is seeding a file, and possibly download it from them to verify it. Then that person gets sued for distributing the work, or at least "making available". Their problem now is that they are starting to get called on that last bit, as it doesn't jive with copyright law. I'm sure the PRO-IP Act will fix that though. PS: With AllOfMP3, they are accusing them of letting people break copyright by downloading. It can't be because of AllOfMP3 uploading, because that is done in Russia, where it is legal. "letting people break copyright by downloading" = "making available"
Ok, but where do I find their cell numbers?Have a day when everyone in the country sends an SMS to their senator and their representative and see how long the practice is allowed to stand when every politician has mobile phone bills in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
Seems like there are a number of very substantial hurdles for e-books to overcome, I'm guessing the solution involves some sort of wood based material... One of the coolest things I just found out about e-book readers is that they don't actually prevent you from having real books around too!! In fact, there are some places where it really makes a lot of sense to have a real book instead. I bet you could come up with such an instance if you tried.