... No exe file? No modding? No way to use overlays, controller remapping programs, etc? Vsync always on? And for me worst of all, borderless fullscreen ONLY?? I have two monitors, that's like the worst idea ever. If you stick to this, MS, I won't be buying and I hope other people don't fall for this either. As much as I like Microsoft's operating systems, they make terrible decisions sometimes with things like Games for Windows Live, and this, hopefully, will be the latest such debacle.
PC games as a closed system with no modding, etc, etc, would be terrible compared to what we have now! This sounds like exactly the kind of PC gaming-destroying, corporate-pushed system that would be disastrous for this industry if it takes off on computers, so it can't be allowed to. That's all really bad stuff. And on top of that, borderless fullscreen only is like the worst idea ever for computer games, for performance, for people with multiple videocards and/or multiple monitors, etc.
So yeah, here's hoping this is the next Games for Windows Live in terms of success. I like some things about Microsoft, such as their operating systems, but they cannot be allowed to destroy the open format system that makes PC gaming great.
Well, after today's primaries it looks like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the definite leaders for the two party nominations.
Note: This is just a random collection of thoughts, not something organized.
On the Democratic side, I support Hillary over Bernie. He's great in a lot of ways, and is definitely best overall on banking, but there are more issues than just that and he is a very one-note candidate. Back last summer I went to Bernie's speech when here was here in Maine (huge crowd!), and it was good, but... he really is so one-note. I have never liked or agreed with the economics-driven-history argument, that is that economics matters more than anything else, and that's what Bernie speeches sound like, everything it the banks' fault and if we fix that everything will be better. I just do not believe that; the banks are one problem, but fixing banks and the economic system won't fix everything, not even close.
And probably even more importantly, Bernie can't win. Yes, some polls show him doing better than Hillary against Republicans, but that is because the Republicans have been hitting her with everything they've got for decades now, while they are being VERY quiet about Bernie, in hopes that Democrats nominate the guy. The attacks against him are easy and would be extremely effective -- he wants to massively raise your taxes, he went to the Soviet Union for his honeymoon, he's a socialist (and socialists ranked below all other terms, including 'atheist', 'muslim', and more, in a poll of whether people would vote for someone who was in various groups!), etc etc. I have relatives in Vermont and apparently Bernie does great constituent services, is at every parade and event, etc, and I can see why he's so popular there, but the whole country isn't Vermont and a Sanders candidacy would probably be disastrous in November. If he could win he'd be a good president, though I think Hillary would probably be just as good overall (better on some issues, worse on others), but how could he win? He calls for a "political revolution", but the numbers of voters in Democratic caucuses and primaries so far this year are apparently below 2008 levels, so he's not matching Obama in that respect. If he COULD get that kind of crowd reaction or more it'd be much better proof of his electability, but it's not there.
For anyone who hadn't realized it already, Scalia's death really highlights how important this election is. If the Republicans stick with refusing to allow a vote, or vote down any and all nominees Obama nominates to the court, this next president will have that choice to make for sure, plus likely more -- three other Supreme Court justices, two liberal and Kennedy, are also 75+ now and could retire or have health problems. The Supreme Court has apparently had a conservative majority for almost 45 years, since the early 1970s, and we can't miss this historic chance to turn that around! It could mean a better country... or a worse one, if a Republican gets into office. Sure, if it's Trump we have no clue who he'd nominate, but they wouldn't be as good as anyone Hillary would nominate, that's for sure.
On the note of Trump, seeing the Republican Party tear itself apart like this has been really interesting. The racist wing of their party is revolting, basically, and is backing Trump even though on so many other issues he goes against Republican party orthodoxy. Can the racist genie that the Republicans have been winning with ever since Nixon started the Southern Strategy be put back in its bottle, and will the racists go back to supporting conventional Republicans again someday, or is a major split in the making? It is horrible to see how far right the Republican party has gone on many issues, but this racists v. ultraconservatives split is a big one. (On that note though, Rubio is VERY conservative. He may be the "establishment" choice, but he's very, VERY far right.)
So yeah, it's been a very interesting election so far, and I'll be following it the whole way for sure. I hope things go well...
It has steadily become clear for all too many kickstarter games that if you've got a developer shorn from the original company and team working on their own promising an unrelated "spiritual successor", you'll get something about as real as a spirit.
This isn't a physical law I'm claiming here. There's some games that actually DO see the light of day, such as Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity. Yet for every project that actually comes out (and those last two to mixed reviews, deserved or not), there's a bunch more that seem to be in "fund us forever" limbo. Think of the sheer number that, frankly, should be DONE by now. We know from experience just how long it takes to make a 2D Megaman (6 on the NES alone) game, but here we are. Some just keep expanding in scope, and as much as I can respect their goals, one wonders if they're ever going to be able to merge all those otherwise completely separate games into one in a seamless way.
Now, I'm not saying none of these games are ever going to come out. I personally am really looking forward to a few. It's just worrying just how many have out and out been cancelled. Unsung Story, for example, is just plain GONE, with everyone's money. Considering that the person responsible for so many extremely good strategy games with amazing stories was behind it, it just makes you wonder. Perhaps we're all just a pack of idiots for ever believing the lie that a single person is responsible for ANY of our favorite games, even if they are the writer/director. Heck, the FF7 creators have said repeatedly they didn't want to even try to remake FF7 unless they could get the whole original creative team together on the project. Now they're doing it anyway, clearly without the whole team, and right out the gate the direction of the project is worrisome.
Some projects just look shady, such as Shenmu 3: Rise of Papyrus. Now, it could have just been an utter lack of a marketting team to advice them on what actually looks "good", but you see the numbers the original two games needed just to get made, and contrast it with what they're actually trying to make the game ON, and you have to wonder just what to expect.
As an aside, as glad as I am when I see some kickstarter promising the same "gameplay style" as a previous series, but not IN that series, there is a part of me that's disappointed. Here you've got a vast series of games spanning decades with a steadily built-up storyline and overall mythos, and bam, you get final confirmation it'll never be "finished", the story is dead in the water, but here's this brand new nearly identical copycat story. I'm not claiming Castlevania or Megaman have the most meaningful stories tackling important issues in the world today, but dangit, I've been with those stories since I was a kid and got kinda caught up in the twists and turns. I wanted to see how it all ended. I wanted to finally get to the final battle against Dracula in 1999 AD. I wanted to see what happened between Megaman and Megaman X. There is a reason Mighty Number 9 wasn't the character they added to Smash Bros. It was Megaman. Even with no future prospects for the series at the moment, people are more invested in Megaman as a character than Mighty Number 9. So, sure, I plan on buying these reinvented series, but it's a shame that we're basically sliding into some alternate reality version of the story, but starting from the beginning. This is a DC reboot, basically.
"Kickstarter", as a concept is really losing a lot of credibility these days. That sucks, because being able to bypass the normal investor method is a powerful tool. And heck, maybe this is just the calm before the storm and we'll see hit after hit come flying out of the flood gates, but until that time, I'm a bit worried.
Winter is, you may recall, my favorite season . I love snow, and cross-country skiing is fun. So... yeah. Warmest December ever, yet again, by a wide margin. Not a flake of snow until almost the end of the month. Barely over a foot of snow total so far this winter here, with no significant storms expected soon (that giant storm today is missing Maine to the south, unfortunately), and some of that snow we did get was wiped out in a giant rainstorm (two inches of rain, or something like that!) less than a week after the first snowstorm. Yes, there is at least a little snow on the ground, but it's mid-January, and many streams still aren't fully frozen over, and snow is infrequent. Not good.
So, it was an awful December in my opinion, and while this month is better, it's still a VERY mild winter. The last two winters were very snowy, but this goes fully in the opposite direction, and with how fast global warming is going we'll probably be seeing more of this... it's sad to think about. :(
So, Adonis is the son of Apollo, who died when a scientifically engineered superman broke him in Rocky IV. Rocky IV was released in, and presumably took place in, 1985. That would make Adonis pretty old for a young boxer, since the new movie specifically states on-screen that it takes place in 2015.
Well, the movie never makes clear the circumstances behind Adonis' conception, that is, Apollo's cheating, nor does Apollo's wife explain how she found Adonis and knew he was Apollo's son. I suggest he was in actuality the result of ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION! Sperm can be frozen basically indefinitely, so it could have happened years after Apollo's death. Yes, it ties things up quite neatly, as well as clearing Apollo's name (and Apollo is just egotistical enough to want to spread his superior fighting genes to all corners of the earth). Now, this doesn't quite resolve the "how the heck did Apollo's wife find out about this kid?" question, so I'll just suggest Paulie's robot told her.
Quote:In his final State of the Union address, President Obama announced a “new national effort” to put an end to virus once and for all—and that effort will be led by Vice President Joe Biden, who last year tragically lost his son Beau to brain virus at the age of 46.“It’s personal for me,” Biden wrote in a statement released Tuesday night in conjunction with the president’s address. “But it’s also personal for nearly every American, and millions of people around the world. We all know someone who has had virus, or is fighting to beat it.” While the president’s brief remarks about the virus-busting initiative were vague, Biden revealed in his statement that he has been meeting with researchers, philanthropists, and physicians for months to lay the groundwork for the plan. Last year, Biden personally lobbied for additional federal funding for virus research. In December, the federal spending bill passed included a $264 million boost to the National Virus Institute’s budget, which the vice president praised. While it’s not the first time politicians have vowed to defeat virus—including a similar call for action from Richard Nixon during his own State of the Union speech 35 years ago—Biden’s new effort is optimistic about making progress in light of advances in virus immunotherapy, genomics, and combination therapies. Biden wrote that his goal is "to double the rate of progress," and while the details of doing so are still sketchy, Biden laid out two main goals: increase resources both private and public to virus researchers; and improve communication between scientific and health communities. According to STAT, virus researchers who spoke with Biden’s aides last week reported that the vice president’s efforts were focused on solidifying a plan that can be firmly in place by the end of Obama’s term. Initial ideas for the plan included a national clinical data-sharing initiative and boosted federal support for gene sequencing. "They are on a time crunch,” Dr. José Baselga, the president of the American Association for Virus Research, told STAT. “They know that there is one year left of his administration. They had a sense of urgency.”
I think I might have gotten one or two details wrong, but I think you get the basic idea.
