EdIsCool

@Mageman: The ferocity of the Republican campaign is such that I cant think of another answer. iId love to be wrong. You stated in your op, that you dont follow US politics very much, so your reaction to my point is understandable. This is how bad things have got in the first modern democracy, politics is broken, the public discourse is poisonous, at the moment its the worst democracy in the developed world. Totally non functional. Greed as a motivation is much less well hidden than in other political systems.

I am amazed at the great trick that has been pulled where private interests flood Washington with lobbyists/fund puppet candidates to prevent government working, the trick is that government gets the blame for this, not private interests.Its brilliant.

Further great tricks, get the middle and lower classes to protest against things (Healthcare, Social security) which actually benefit them.

My favourite might be the Bush tax cuts, where in the first year everyone got a check! Hooray, by the time they were up for renewal almost all of the benefit had gone to the top one percent. The ultimate sunset policy: It looks great at first but by the end, when "the sun sets" the money has gone to the "correct" people

The destroying the country bit, is hyperbole in one way. What I really mean is that if a decision will hurt Obama and by happenstance will also harm the country, they will take the decision anyway. The fiasco over the debt ceiling is a perfect example.

Hi guys,

I was looking at the current threads and I saw one discussing Dark Souls and how aspects of it are unfair. This brought to mind one of my little neuroses; I cannot stand replaying sections of levels i.e I hate checkpoints. When given the option of quick saving, I tend to do it every 30 seconds if an encounter is any way tricky. I kinda missed out on the original Gears when it came out, I was playing it recently on the highest available difficulty and found it tough, but challenging and rewarding. What killed me was when they began introducing Boomers and the guys with the one shot bows...something guard.I ended up stopping at Marcus' house as this was definitely the difficulty I wanted to play at, but only if I could quicksave.

I've been tempted to give Dark Souls a go, but have sensibly always stopped as the amount of replaying involved would kill me.

I get that some people enjoy memorizing patterns, and perfecting a run. That's not me I want the new shiny(the next joke,plot line,cool set piece). I don't want to keep playing the same thing until my luck finally defeats my ineptitude.

Am I broken?

EDIT- I managed to double post the thread, no idea how that happened...

Hi guys,

I was looking at the current threads and I saw one discussing Dark Souls and how aspects of it are unfair. This brought to mind one of my little neuroses; I cannot stand replaying sections of levels i.e I hate checkpoints. When given the option of quick saving, I tend to do it every 30 seconds if an encounter is any way tricky. I kinda missed out on the original Gears when it came out, I was playing it recently on the highest available difficulty and found it tough, but challenging and rewarding. What killed me was when they began introducing Boomers and the guys with the one shot bows...something guard.I ended up stopping at Marcus' house as this was definitely the difficulty I wanted to play at, but only if I could quicksave.

I've been tempted to give Dark Souls a go, but have sensibly always stopped as the amount of replaying involved would kill me.

I get that some people enjoy memorizing patterns, and perfecting a run. That's not me I want the new shiny(the next joke,plot line,cool set piece). I don't want to keep playing the same thing until my luck finally defeats my ineptitude.

Am I broken?

@Korolev: You say that the Dems are no less partisan after outlining why Republicans must be continually opposed and reviled. They are destroying the country, to get at Obama(and yes it is because he is black).

Obama's presidency is the shambles that it is because he insists on being nice to people who stab in the back any chance they get. Current Republicans are so nuts there can be no bipartisanship.

@AZ123: What we have learned during the crisis is that markets are not self regulating, when you incentivise the brightest graduates to deceive each other you end up with the disaster we are currently living through.

Secondly even when this bubble had not burst real wages in the United States declined by over 20% from the 70s onward. While businesses posted double digit growth for the 90's.

So free markets do not generate prosperity for all and in fact heavily endanger the taxpayer by leaving him on the hook when they fail.

There is a lot of absolutism in this thread, if someone points out a flaw in Friedman, they are asked does Communism work. Are the problems in Honk Kong acceptable because its better than China? Thats not the question and is laughable.

Capitalism is the only method we have to generate wealth, unregulated it is the best way we know to destroy wealth. As shown by the fact that the derivatives market was 10 times the value of the actual output of the planet.

Its a review, its purpose is to tarnish i.e point out flaws...and burst hype. If the hype hadnt been burst, would there be hype? Seems to be your question.

@Aetheldod: this thread just got a twist.

@MikeinSC: They called it the American Dream, if you work hard, a good job and a good quality of life are yours. That is longer true, it is gone and with it is America's lustre, importance and position in the world. To me, thats very sad.

On a side note, why would anyone back Republicans/Koch Brothers/Wall St against Occupy. If you dont earn $1 million +, Republicans and the others have no interest in your concerns and actively despise you.

In my view the default position should be pro anyone who isnt the above, and only if the above can come up with a damn good reason, should that position change.

Social programs, free education,univeral free health insurance are the number one most successful ways to prevent crime as the Europeans have shown. Also as a raging pinko, I believe in them as it gives everyone a fair crack of the whip. Talent still rises to the top in the social democracies, wages are higher on average.Crime drastically lower.

Rage is pretty terrible in that its really,really uninteresting. The shooting is good, the driving is fun until it becomes completely unbalanced. The campaign completely fails to disquise the fetch questy nature of shooters. Its just a highly admirable achievement in engine programming with an average shooter bolted on. 6.5-7 out of ten. It has no place on a GOTY list.

EDIT- Also textures were borked for a long time and ID didnt handle the PR side of that well at all , PC version exposed no advanced video settings.

@Jost1: if you judge it by DS/Gameboy standards it is certain to be a flop and an epic one. Much much worse than PSP.

If you judge it by it making a small profit for Sony which I think it will. Then it will not be a flop.