Lurker > CyborgSage00x0

MrMelodramatic posted...

Booking travel is on my own, actually. I just have to get there no later than my faculty guy, and leave no earlier.

The "suggested" cost to prepare for is 1500. But checking google, it looks like I can find some for about 1100.

Oh, in that case, you can definitely go cheap. Almost 1 year ago to this day I flew From Albuquerque, connected in Houston, to London, RT, for $900 ish.

Then again, it does technically get more expensive the closer to summer.

Then again then again, like I said, WOW and other airlines can still get you there for like 40% of the cost.

Looking at you budget...you said you were staying 5 weeks? As in, 35 days? Cause $52~ a day (before exchange rate, I assume) is manageable, but seems a little tight. But, if you just eat at the hotel for free for breakfast, that's not so bad.
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MrMelodramatic posted...

if you can get me round-trip tickets from Houston to Berlin in early July - early August for $600, I'd love for you to show me how.

Take a connecting flight to NYC first, and WOW airlines and others can easily get you there for $600 RT.

But I guess I should of read the topic. If it's a school thing, then you sadly probably don't have the option to book your own travel, and then just pay for everything else.
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LinkPizza posted...

CyborgSage00x0 posted...

Didn't read topic, but is there any reason WHY you're choosing to go to Europe this way? I can booke you round-trip tickets there for like $600, right now.

I think a majority of the money is for other things...

Even so, traveling to EU is by far the costliest part of it...then again, I'm guessing the dude ain't doing hostels.
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Didn't read topic, but is there any reason WHY you're choosing to go to Europe this way? I can booke you round-trip tickets there for like $600, right now.
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Zeus posted...

B&N had a 75% clearance on a bunch of stuff, including some Kidrobot and Funko items.

@Zeus any idea if that was just a locale sale, or B&N nationwide? Their website offers me no details.

I actually am sticking to some New Years resolutions this year, one of them being to save more money (I've almost completely stopped eating out and drinking beer, for one), but a 75% sale is too good to resist.
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I hope it turns hardcore bear for a while, I've been waiting for a nice time to buy some more stock.
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Zeus posted...

he new batch should have cohesion. In general, I've been nonplussed by the MCU's running narratives.

The Rian trilogy, yeah. Although considering TLJ, I'm not so sure that's a good thing.
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Well, as you can see, not only am I not shocked, but I predicted this would happen. Still doesn't make it anymore detestable.

It'd be more forgiving if there was a clear plan or connection with all the movies, like if they went full MCU and kept the tone and plots connected, but that doesn't appear the case. There will be no more identity to what Star Wars even is. It's just a brand brand name, with no meaning actually behind it.
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http://www.starwars.com/news/game-of-thrones-creators-david-benioff-and-d-b-weiss-to-write-and-produce-a-new-series-of-star-wars-films

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are going from Winterfell to a galaxy far, far away.

It was announced today that Benioff and Weiss, creators of the smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning television series Game of Thrones, will write and produce a new series of Star Wars films.

These new films will be separate from both the episodic Skywalker saga and the recently-announced trilogy being developed by Rian Johnson, writer-director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

On the one hand, the idea of these 2 paired with SW is a tantalizing one.

On the other hand....

Sweet Jesus Christ.

For those keeping score at home, here's what we still have coming:
- Episode IX
- Solo
- Likely a standalone for Boba Fett, and/or other standalones
- A trilogy headed by Rian Johnson
- And NOW a new "series" of films by Benioff and Weiss.

It was obvious Disney was going to whore out SW as much as possible as soon as they got their hands on it, but this is absurd. There won't be an ounce of magic left to these movies with them being scattershot across so many creators.
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Finished Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle.

A pretty damn solid game, and hearing about the background of the developer lead behind it made me like it more. One of those IP's where I'm excited to see what what the sophomore try would bring.
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Nope. But depends on how you define "to know" someone. Like, if I shook hands with some random dude at a party once, and never saw him again in my life, and that dude eventually ended up dying from a heroin OD, then sure, it's plausible (but still not 100%).

Other than that, I can't name someone I know, or know, that even does heroin, let alone to die from it (to my knowledge).
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VeeVees posted...

Lil69Leo posted...

VeeVees posted...

LOL, not allowing people to say nazi makes them more like nazis.

Germans don't like people making light of the Nazis and what they did wrong.

Yeah, so let's make it illegal to say it. Sure doesn't sound fascist at all.

They take "never again" pretty seriously, as they should. It's illegal to display the Nazi flag/swastika anywhere, except in art form.

I honestly don't mind it, in their case. But I get a certain form of glee of having someone carelessly call someone a Nazi get arrested over it.
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My top 5 probably are:

1) White Christmas
2) 15 Million Merits
3) White Bear
4) Nosedive
5) USS Callister

Honorable mentions to San Junipero, Black Museum, and Shut Up and Dance.
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Questions: Does any Geeks here have:

1) Steam
2) Borderlands 1
3) Want all 4 DLC expansions for Borderlands 1 for free?

I realized I bought a 4 pack of the DLC years ago and gave it to friends, and one friend never accepted it, and will never use it, so I returned it to my inventory.

So I'm just going to give it away, but I wanted to offer my fellow Geeks a stab at it before throwing it to PotD in general.
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Even for Nintendo, it's really pretty bizarre. But, if you don't like it, don't buy it. It's clearly being aimed at children.
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Because the GOP is a morally and intellectually bankrupt enterprise?

I think America would be less of a mess if it weren't so huge

Nah, just less stupid people. Or do away with gerrymandering.
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When Trump said "drain the swamp" and "make America great again", I don't think he was referring to the GOP and their horrid institutions, but that's exactly what is happening. lol
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So, flaming of all or any kind is no longer allowed, but almost all of it equates to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Less than that, even.

No nothing has changed, save for Mods having a lot more pointless work to attend to now.

Progress?

myghostisdead posted...

CacciatoPart2 posted...

The day I use ze/xe/hir/zir/etc will be a sad day indeed.

Mostly because it's completely pointless. Neutral pronouns, or using "he/him" as a blanket are grammatically acceptable, as they always have been. The "ze" jazz has basically no traction IRL, will guarantee to have no one know what you're talking about, and as much as I hate the term "SJW", is basically a silly concept by Internet SJW.

No flame shield needed (heh), come at me.
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Sahuagin posted...

CyborgSage00x0 posted...

Romania or that region has never been represented in a game before

in any game or in a civ game? in EU4, there is Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia, and you can form Romania.

there's also an achievement: Dracula's Revenge: Start as Wallachia or Moldavia, form Romania and own or have a subject own all of the Balkans.

In a Civ. Game.
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Unbridled9 posted...

...

Yes. ****ing yes! Would be better than throwing in someone stupid just to have another female leader or tiny nation no one's ever heard of before.

Tamar has been a fan fave pick for a long time.

yutterh posted...

Not if you make it reduce appeal to every adjacent tile.

There we go. Still need a unique unit, and a civ/leader ability.
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

They held the Ottoman Turks at bay. Add him and "the forest of the dead" wonder that would prevent enemy troops from crossing that hex.

I was gonna say it does something like gives -5 combat strength to all adjacent enemy units, and it'd be a building tile improvement (since there can be no individual wonders).
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The Wave Master posted...

But we dis not eat Tide Pods on a dare. My God.

I few it as a form of population control. It's a stupid, more dangerous version of the Ice Bucket challenge in a way, but with the added benefit of potentially killing those who try it, which is a net positive in my book.
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Romania or that region has never been represented in a game before, might be a neat new place to explore *is excited for the new Civ. expansion*
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...the fuck did I just watch?
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Oh man, I have't played Carcossone in forever.

Also, give Revolution! by Peter Jackson a try.
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Yup. Just did a board game night recently, heavy focus on Dominion (I have all of them), Resistance (ugh), and Codenames. My friend wants a rematch in Puerto Rico (which he has lost to me 7 times in a row), and Agricula, which none of us have touched in some time.
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The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Mateo is hated and reviled by just about everyone around him, except for one person: El Patron, druglord, and the ruler of the country of Opium, along what used to be the US-Mexico border. El Patron loves Mateo as if he were himself, because Mateo is exactly that-he is El Patron's clone.

She wrote a sequel about 13 years later called The Lord of Opium.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

CyborgSage00x0 posted...

We seem to be perpetually locked into a pattern of Republican Presidents fucking shit up royally, and the following Democratic President having to spend all his time to un-fuck everything.

Because Democrats don't fuck things up too.

To levels where it's worth mentioning in comparisons to GOP fuck-ups?

No, not remotely.
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We seem to be perpetually locked into a pattern of Republican Presidents fucking shit up royally, and the following Democratic President having to spend all his time to un-fuck everything.

It's impossible to calculate how much damage Dump and the GOP has already done to the US.

You know how armchair historians like to be smug and say America will fall like Rome, since all empires must fall? This is what it looks like: eating yourself from the inside out.
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Fair enough, PO.

I actually think all of the AYAotD episodes are on Youtube, actually. I found most to still hold up, despite some 90's cringe.
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PowerSurgeX posted...

... that the presidents job literally requires zero qualifications, and has no real power or meaning. President became a figurehead position like the monarchy in U.K.

lol
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Honestly, about the only "young adult" books I have any fondness for at all at this point is probably the Dark is Rising series

Animorphs, baby.

Also, random, and stolen from another board: Anyone here ever felt like going through all the film series that exist (Star Wars, Aliens, Indiana Jones, Godfather, etc.) and pick out their weakest/worst liked ones? The results would be interesting.
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Anyone seen the movie? Come on.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Has anyone actually convinced themselves of that, though? As far as I can tell, the last couple months have consisted of pretty much everyone growing more and more disgusted with it until it's more or less viewed as the worst game released in the last decade that wasn't from EA.

Pre-release, definitely. Both on this site, other sites, and IRL, I heard a pretty large amount of chatter about Destiny 2 building up to its release, when I barely remembered that the game was coming out at all. And it's not uncommon to hear casuals chip about something entirely meh like Destiny 2, but even more seasoned gamers I know, who should know better, were getting caught up in the hype.

Now that you mention it, though, I've basically heard nothing about it since it came out, so I guess balance has been restored to the Fo-err, world, after all.

Aside from Switch titles, Persona 5 and Nier are basically the only other stuff I remember being talked about all year. Horizon for a bit, but the BotW release overshadowed it hard.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I spent most of the year buying and playing older games, but I really enjoyed Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Same. I heard good things about Horizon. Oh, and I forgot I got RE7 on a sale earlier this year, with the intention of playing it. That never happened for whatever reason. But I do want to give that a crack soon.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Fractured But Whole was good, but it felt weaker than Stick of Truth in pretty much every way that mattered, and relied too much on newer episodes of the show (which I stopped watching years ago), whereas Stick of Truth seemed to be mostly referencing stuff from earlier seasons, or creating its own humor. I think the game definitely suffered from being rushed, though, as well as not having Obsidian make it this time around.

Kinda what I'm feeling right now. If I had to guess, I'm probably somewhere around half-way through. The battle and combat system is much improved, but still feels way too easy and a bit shallow. The humor and high-point moments (like the Canada bit) isn't as pronounced in this title. I do think the bosses are better, though.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

And it kind of feels like next year is going to be worse.

The more I drown in my backlog, the less I pay attention to games coming up on the horizon. Out of the 14 games I completed this year, only 5 came out this year, so...progress?
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adjl posted...

The WiiU's kind of a tricky one to assess. Objectively, the library was small. Probably too small, really. It did have some absolutely delightful gems in there, though, and it worked phenomenally well as a companion system to a gaming PC.

This, which is why I got my vote for worst one. The touch screen was also underutilized. Some games like Xenoblade X probably wouldn't be doable without it, and I did use it for "portable" gaming for a few times, but it wasn't a ground breaker.

And just checked, I already have half the games on the Switch as I bought for the WiiU (although, I did end up getting a lot of VC stuff via Humble Bundles, like Shantae and Affordable Space Adventures. But still).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollerball_(1975_film)
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I honestly didn't feel like 2017 was that great of a year for gaming. Lackluster, even, and if not for the meteoric rise of the Switch, I'd probably regard it as a bad year. And not even just from my perspective, either: When people have to convince themselves that Destiny 2 is a freaking killer ap for the year, you know you're in a lull. Pretty much all that was good for the year in gaming seems to have come from the Switch.

I think Cuphead, South Park, and Wolfenstein 2 were the only non-Switch games I got this year (DLC for Civ 6 not included), and I beat Cuphead, and am probably half-way through Fractured, But Whole now. True, I didn't touch Persona (and got to only play a little bit/watch a friend play some Nier), but that was it. Most of what I played was clearing my backlog, and I made a decent chunk in that this year.

By the way, my year end media results:
Movies watched: 83
From 2017: 32
In theaters: 27
TV seasons: 21
Games Beat: 14
Books Read: 3 (welp)
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I would say Pokemon, Harry Potter, LotR, and the MCU are all vying for 2-5th place.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

So while I tend to instinctively think Knives is probably right in that particular tete-a-tete with Cyborg, I can't actually say anything definitively until I actually bother watching it.

I should note that a fair amount of my problems with it actually have nothing to do with how Star Wars-y the film is, or how it meets my particular expectations of what Star Wars should be. A good deal of it is what I feel to be inexcusably poor story and creative/directional choices, which would be bad no matter what the film was about. The other half of my complaints are indeed Star Wars-y related.

That said, if anyone remembers, I was basically pessimistic, indifferent at best towards the new trilogy the very moment it was announced, so the fact that TLJ failed to win me over is basically a giant "meh" at this point. Sure, the return of Mark Hamill and still having the movie be a let-down for me sucks, but I wasn't exactly basing my fandom over the new trilogy, anyways.

That, and since TFA was a giant boring ANH rip-off,we basically all agreed that the only salvation the new trilogy had was going to be based off TLJ. Since it failed at that for me, it basically makes it impossible for IX to be any good, and I can consider this new trilogy basically a wash.

Don't worry, I won't be signing any petitions or declaring the Prequels are now OK by comparison. That said, I at least knew what the Prequels were about, and what the point was. 2 films into this new trilogy, I have no idea what the point is, besides some nebulous sense of "new era of Star Wars."
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The Wave Master posted...

Here's my problem. If Holdo tells that idiot Poe the plan when she had a chance instead of keeping him in the dark, which clearly wasn't smart or Leia's wishes, then we don't have a middle of the movie. A simple conversation and we don't have 50 minutes of a movie. Also, Poe sits around doing nothing the whole movie. He did that in the last movie too. Waste of time and an interesting character.

Yeha, this is a shining example of bad writing and story telling, plain and simple. The movie wants you to care and respect Holdo, despite literally just being introduced, and wants you to feel emotional over her sacrifice. Meanwhile, despite Poe asking point blank what the plan was like 5 times, her refusal to do something so simple is the only reason the extremely boring Finn and Rose buddy missions exists to begin with. The kicker is when Leia tells Poe the plans, and he's like "Oh, she-was-right-all-along!". Wrong fucking reaction. The correct one is, "Why didn't that dumb bitch just SAY SO?" It's extremely obvious that Rian didn't really have a good idea of what Leai, Poe, or Finn should do in this movie, so he contrived this entire dispshit plot point to give them something to do. It's like, really bad.

And why even have this Holdo character? Admiral Ackbar is right there. Give his a noble sacrifice death, if you really feel the need to kill him off.
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knivesX2004 posted...

I seem to be the only one on the internet who fucking loved TLJ.

Turn in your Geek card. Now.
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Well....(DON'T read this part until you see it, as it will spoil it) ---> That seems like what they wanted to go with , until Luke himself pulls a 180 in the movie and says "I will not be the last Jedi", obviously referring to Rey, and anyone else after her. Up until the end of the movie, it was Luke's plan to be the Last Jedi.

A case could also be made what "Jedi" means. To most people, a Jedi is just the good guys, Light side of the Force, with blue and green lightsabers. But Jedi is actually a particular term, and people that are Force sensitive, and "good", aren't necessarily Jedi. To be a Jedi is to follow a lifestyle, a code, an order, and follow a specific viewpoint in regards to the Force. In that sense, I think that's what the movie was going for and what the title meant...but...*again, spoilers*, the movie does a 180 and implies that Rey will basically follow the original Jedi way anyways, rendering even that take on the title name moot.
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Also, I'll smugly point out that I ended up being correct that The Last Jedi was a dumb and lying name, for the exact reasons I speculated months ago. "I will not be the last Jedi!" Yeah Luke, it was obvious to me that was never going to be the case. 2 titles in a row now that have just sucked.
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The inside leaks says he eats junk food and binges TV for large portions of the day, and this was said by numerous different sources. Not that it should be hard to believe.
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MrMelodramatic posted...

Someone agree or disagree with me please :(

You're wrong. There.
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Never. I only venture to the theaters if I know a film is worth my time, even if it turns out to not be that good.

I even sat through that entire god-awful Dragonball movie (to be fair, I had theater hoped with friends). I might have walked out on Green Lantern, since I didn't want to see it, and was only there before my work had free tickets, so everyone went. Didn't want to walk out of a work-sponsored event, though.
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madadude posted...

Her character is fine, but she had no point in the story. Realistically all of Finn's story could be scrapped from the movie and it would lose nothing of consequence. Would probably be the best option as most of my issues with the movie revolve around the stuff the two of them do.

He does offer intel on the First Order and stuff in a few scenes, but yeah, now that you mention it, you'd lose basically nothing by removing him completely. Pretty disappointing, when you consider that the ex-stormtrooper angel has many interesting possibilities.
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But man, what an amazing first year for the Switch. Zelda BotW, Mario Odyssey, and Xenoblade 2 aren't just great games; they're the best entries in their respective series. Picking a game of the year is gonna be very tough, especially considering the competition consists of god-tier gems like Nier and Persona 5.

Amazing first 9 months, you mean-it hasn't even been a full year yet! And it's expected to pass the lifetime sales of the Wii U in its first year. A lesson in how to not properly advertise a console for one and all. But yes, the game quality for the first 9 months is impressively good.

Korruptor posted...

I didn't know this until now but yeah Disney just bought a majority of Fox. I guess we will see a reboot of X-Men and Fantastic Four soon.

The deal will take a year minimum to complete, and that's if US regulators don't block it (they very well could). But Stewart, Jackman and Co. are already done with the property, so you'd basically have to hope Fassbender and McAvoy would still be interested at the least.

Alright, so I saw The Last Jedi. Ready to talk about it with spoilers tags with whoever.

My consensus: I liked it way better than TFA, mostly because it didn't completely ape Empire, but I still found it to be riddled with flaws and ultimately frustrating. And with nothing but the climax left in IX, I feel safe to say that this trilogy is a disappointment for me. It's suffering from something I predicted before this all started: That different writers and directors of each film would lead to wildly inconsistent structure and tones, with the films not really building off each other, and picking and choosing what is relevant. I thought each individual scene/arc was pretty strong, as if it was a vignette, and the acting of Hamill and Driver among others really helped me be invested when they were on screen.

But as to the overall plot, and where the story goes from here, I find little that is compelling me to care for all but maybe 2 characters, and I keep wondering where this will all end up, and what the overall point is. And not going to lie, I hated Luke dying. But HOW he died, and why, and the lack of a clear answer to either of those 2 questions, pissed me off more than anything. I can see why Hamill disagreed with what Rian did with the character).

So meh. A stronger movie overall than TFA, with good set pieces and plot points that failed to ultimately build anything of substance, had frustrating or bad answers to big questions, and left many more questions that now need to be answered. I think I would treated it slightly better if I saw it again, and shut my critical fan-brain off more.
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Empire>Return>Hope>Revenge>Last>Awakens>Phantom>Clones

Not sure where to put RO, probably between Last/Awakens
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