badsmalltalker

Eh, I mean it might make things better without annoying teenagers, I'm just a fan of being able to go and do whatever I want if I'm not disturbing anyone.

My way of thinking tends to go straight to the worst case scenario of overzealous security guards asking everyone they consider young to see their I.D., and how irritating that would be.

The mall can do whatever they want since it's privately owned, but malls always feel like such public places and hangouts that not letting anyone take pictures and video in the stores, and making parental guidance mandatory starting fairly early in the evening seems a little over the top.

Northpark Mall, a somewhat higher priced but very popular mall in my hometown of Dallas, Texas has instituted a new policy:

After 6 p.m., children and teenagers 17 and under must be accompanied by a parent. If a security guard suspects that someone is underage after 6, he is allowed to ask to see your I.D. If you can't provide a valid form of I.D., you will be asked to leave or a parent will be called to pick you up.

Also you can't take pictures and video of the stores, and visible "undergarments" will not be tolerated (although that one isn't so bad I think it's just silly looking).

There's one little exception though, if you are there to see a movie, you must go straight to the theater, and leave immediately afterwards (because ya know, that's so easy to enforce).

Seriously what the hell? Is this not the dumbest thing you have ever heard? I can't wait for the perfect storm of lawsuit happy Americans, rebellious teenagers who refuse to show their I.D., and overall bad publicity to start.

Link: http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/New-conduct-polict-at-NorthPark-restricts-hours-for-teens-150855675.html

If this happens to sound like a rant, its because I really like the movie theater there and am above 17, and really don't want to have to show my I.D. just to get to the theater :(

Wha-WHY would anyone do that to their kid???

That would be so terrifying to me.

@Alphazero: Well definitely keep playing, there are still a lot of amazing moments to be had.

But yeah, I think we are all a little tired of talking about the ending, even if exactly what you are saying is something new and interesting. The subject has pretty much been exhausted.

I had the same feeling as I was working my way through the game. I was expecting to be blindsided with something horrible that would make me want to throw my controller or something.

But what happened was I got there, stuff happened, and I just went ".......huh."

It was a slow realization of what I had seen as I tried to make sense of it all afterwards, and that was when I was convinced that it was kinda unfulfilling. I never the joined the mob with my pitchfork, though. I just let it be, because even if the DLC coming up in Summer is awesome and really helps with a few of the problems people had, my first play through with my Shepard is done. You can't recreate the feeling of being really immersed in a story a second time.

I think the game mechanics they showed off could be cool, and I think they may be trying to capitalize on the found-footage trend with the timecode and the way the player camera actually makes it look like a videocamera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8tJ-onQQNM

I get what it was added for since AC2. It adds some replay value for missions for those who want an extra challenge. But I'm at the point where I feel like the story is really starting to ramp up and build toward the ending, and want to just let myself figure things out with the systems they have been giving me the whole game at a good pace, and not be having to constantly look around for exactly what the developers want me to do in each particular moment.

I don't wish the system was gone, but I wish it was less intrusive in telling you how you did. That might end up being more frustrating for some people: not knowing the exact moment you failed the 100% requirement, but if I wasn't interested in 100%ing every single little thing all the time and wanted more of a focus on story (at least on main story missions), then I could feel a little better ignoring the fact that I only got 50% and if I wanted to could go back later.

I had the same problem with L.A. Noire and the checks or X's it put on your notepad as you interrogated someone. If they want me to just let things play out and have an option even if I get everything wrong, then why do I have to know what I got wrong right at that exact moment? Of course I get why it's there, so you can actually know what to do differently to get everything right the next time, but it still really broke the immersion for me and tempted me to hit restart.

This could all be me struggling to not be a perfectionist and I know I can just ignore the optional objective, but is anyone else bothered not by the purpose of the sync system, but at how in your face it is at telling you that you failed when you would just like to keep the story going?

The original article sounds like it comes from some crazy conspiracy theorist with all the weird attempts to connect numbers to dates, but the concrete details of:

• the stuff in the background and at the end of the wheatley video
• the employees seen wearing half life 3 t-shirts
• and the cryptic tweets from the account that does ARGs for Valve...

...make everything as a whole pretty interesting.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Rumor-Half-Life-3-Announcement-Coming-60-Days-37744.html

Could be something!

"You're using a prepaid phone?"

That whole little exchange when you meet up with Chloe and Cutter in Syria made me laugh a lot for some reason.

One thing that makes the save system frustrating is how long it takes. Going through the game before I gave up from sheer boredom, the act of manually saving in the middle of missions, (which don't feel like RPG dungeons or anything, they feel like short, linear FPS missions that usually have a decent auto save system) was something I tried to remember to do, but on PS3 saving the game took nearly a minute. It broke any immersion I had so much that you don't look forward to waiting for that long save time.