In the Beginning was troublesome because it was very good but should not be watched before season 1, gives too much away. The other movies I'll grant you were weak. Lost Tales had potential but was cramped and uneven. I never wanted to see Lochley again.

The failure of Crusade, Rangers and other revival efforts just underscore how amazing it was we had four good seasons. I'll give season 5 a pass simply because greenighting it meant the season 4 finale got bumped to season 5 and the first episode of season 5 was aired in its place. Deconstruction of Falling Stars, worth the rest of that season.

Should not have been modded down. Shame on you guys.

Shit, accidentally modded your post as smart. Posting to correct this.

Agreed! I felt exactly the same way, when does the story start? HL1 was great. HL2, am disappoint.

The hammer analogy is quite apt.

Lots of things have changed about hammers. None of this would prevent a craftsman from a hundred years ago picking up and using a modern hammer. He wouldn't look at a screwdriver and no longer be able to figure out how it works.

Lets consider the nail gun. It's different, more expensive, more complicated, not really needed by the average homeowner but its a killer tool for those who need it and doesn't require that much specialized training. The ancient craftsman would be won over.

If the enemy doesn't have good targets, these missiles don't accomplish much.

According to Richard Clarke:

As early as Sept. 12, 2001, Clarke says, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged bombing Iraq despite repeated assurances from intelligence officials that the threat emanated from Afghanistan.

"Rumsfeld said there aren't any good targets in Afghanistan. And there are lots of good targets in Iraq," Clarke said on Sunday's 60 Minutes. "I said, 'Well, there are lots of good targets in lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with it.' "

Anyone have screenshots of the major designs over the last ten years? I'm remembering the original design looking the best but I'd like to see them side by side to confirm it.

TV watching in this country averages between 150 to 200 hours a month. The average cable bill is $150. So you could say it's a dollar an hour for some people.

In EVE, you earn as you play. Each hour of gameplay gives you in-game money to apply to your toys. So it's really more accurate to look at how many credits you make per hour and how many hours of time a ship represents.

If people were battling with model airplanes, you'd factor cost of kit and time invested. Since the subscription is cheap, it's the time lost that really kills.

Because you can buy in-game currency, you can either play 100 hours to get a great ship or just drop money and buy it now. Either way, losing one in a fight is expensive, in time or money.

"withdrawing [...] rights from lawbreakers" I don't think that's how rights work?

As was explained to me, it's a soup sandwich much like Syria. In Syria you have the choice between a secular dictator and religious fundamentalist rebels. Now there may be some rebel groups that aren't fundie but the fundie ones are getting some of the best outside funding. The official US position is to let both sides bleed each other white to keep the conflict contained. To me that seems a bit like firefighters not trying to fight a blaze, just keep it contained so it doesn't spread and wait for the fuel to run out. Works fine so long as the wind doesn't kick up: then you risk losing the whole block.

The Ukraine situation is described as one faction wanting to fall under the German sphere of influence in the Eurozone, the other faction wanting to ally more closely with Russia. Makes a big difference for those in power, for the little guys it's just a matter of who's getting to fuck them over.

How's their colony on LV-426 doing?

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I see, so Angelina Jolie used to be an academy-award-winning actress, but now she's just Mrs. Pitt?

She's an aging sack of bad plastic surgery who's been in too many terrible movies. A pretty good match for her hubby at that.

The closest I can think of is Civilization Revolutions. It's streamlined for console play, hardcore fans will probably call it kiddified, but I think that they really cut to the heart of the game without larding it up with too much cruft.

Beloved game sequels usually fall into two categories:
1) True fans who love the game and want to make their mark but end up cluttering the clean and elegant design of the original with entirely too much crap that bogs things down. See Master of Orion 2 to Master of Orion 1, later Civilization games on PC, etc.
2) Franchises purchased for IP name recognition but fundamentally different games are built, equivalent to when studios buy a stand-alone script and beat on it until it can become yet another sequel. Max Payne 3 was an entirely different game that they then stuck the Max logo on, sharing none of the original's atmosphere, play mechanics, or fun.

I can at least respect the true fans even if their efforts turn out like caked shit on the hairy ass of gamedom. I heard the new X-Com kind of straddled the line by being made by true fans who also tried to shift the genre and failed.

Netflix is undergoing another content purge. I'm perfectly willing to pay for the service. There are some movies I never got around to watching that are disappearing. Oh, well. I'll have to pirate them then.

It's important to note how my viewing habits have changed.

Before the Internet: Tape from live TV, borrow from the library, Blockbuster

After the Internet: Tape from live TV for broadcast shows, watch crummy encodes of anime leeched from napster and other early p2p services, would buy reasonable sets of DVD's for material I love and will be rewatching.

After Bittorrent: All BT, all the time

After Netflix Streaming: Is it on Netflix? No? Ok, now start searching torrents.

I've gotten away from buying physical media because I don't have the space for it. I do want to reward the creators, I just don't have a proper means to do so. Here's the kicker: Netflix is MORE convenient than piracy. For a small fee, I have shows on my TV, laptop, phone, tablet, and they all stay in sync. I don't have to remember my watchlist. Hell, for TV downloads I keep a text file in the directory that I update after I'm done watching so I don't lose my place. That's less convenient than Netflix.

I'm happy to pay for a service that's timely and reasonable. I'm not waiting six months if the shit's done and released elsewhere. I'm also not paying a bajillion dollars because some executive's wife needs new tits.