Armstrong 1st MRB

Funny how Reagan didn't live up to his campaign promises either, in fact his actions may have even contributed to America's decline just as swiftly as Obama's have. Reagan succeeded so magnificently in the election because he was a master at being able to play off of everyone's desires, he didn't cater to one particular side of America in his election, he tried to bring them all to him, and it worked. Massive military spending the likes of which the US had never seen for its time, huge CIA scandals with them indirectly dictatorships in South America and Iran through cash and arms, and denial of Apartheid in South Africa are just a few things I can name of Reagan's legacy. Not saying Obama is any better, but I wouldn't be saying Reagan was all that was cracked up to be.

PC has always been King. Consoles have come and gone, but PC has still stuck around as a system which has always been higher quality in terms of games than most consoles. I mean heck, the modern consoles are basically mini PCs.

Considering how many people they have in their crews working on these games they're making you'd think that they would be pretty damn efficient at making such adjustments, and I think we can all agree that as gamers we can afford to wait if the game is good.

I felt that the message I got from by brief glances at E3 were that games were going to become more user-friendly in that the player would have more control over the game and what they did in them. Or at least that is what I got from the games I paid attention to, which were The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (which if they live up to what they're promising will steal the stage as one of the best single player RPG games of next year) and DA: Inquisition(though my apprehensions about EA and how it is slowly dragging Bioware into oblivion have me nervous). Nintendo seemed to be one of the stronger parties this year, but then the new Brawl and Zelda teasers were going to get people excited regardless.

Apparently Oberyn did enough to kill the Mountain, he just didnt' (pardon the pun) "see" it through heh. That's what I thought, but then Tywin just ups and fucks Tyrion at the end? I was really confused with that. In terms of a legal sense, Oberyn died first, and since he was Tyrion's champion it means he is guilty regardless of whether the Mountain dies or not (although it won't look good if the Mountain dies, Tywin could just get around it by saying that Oberyn cheated by using a poisoned weapon to give him an edge, because why should he worry about pissing off the Martells more at this point? Heh.)

Had a lot of fun with this game, already beaten the story missions as well as the QR codes, Serial Killer investigation, and most of the ctOS Breaches and Human Trafficking side missions, still have a lot of Fixer Missions, Final Weapon Shipment Mission, and all the Convoys. Multiplayer is a load of fun and had some pretty intense driving chases. I wish they could have made Aiden a little more personally customizable in terms of his morality aside from his reputation, because I would have loved to side with DedSec, but I understand why they didn't make it that way. I also had a couple issues with the story(SPOILERS:

Sad to see LucasArts go, even though I was never a diehard fan of the Star Wars movies, I always love them for the universe they created. KOTOR, The Sith Lords, and both the Battlefronts were my favourite games of the Franchise though. Hopefully Disney does the franchise justice, they've certainly made a lot of big purchases in the past few months besides LucasArts, so they'll have some big shoes to fill.

Aw man, I have always really loved space games. I never got into Eve but I liked watching the political and economic mechanics of the gameplay and really enjoyed Sins of a Solar Empire and the Star Wars KOTOR and Sith Lords. I have no idea whether or not I'll get this since I doubt my PC will handle it atm, but it looks and sounds really cool. If I were to play this I'd love to have one of the larger exploratory ships or trade ships and get a bunch of friends together and set out to explore the galaxy or enter a private business together. Or even just getting together in a private squadron of ships and working together as a company, I think that'd be pretty awesome with this.

Surprising that they're keeping the suspense on who picks who for the trial by combat. Can't wait to see the reactions to you guys who haven't read the books on what happens.

Despite the number of times this game has been pushed back, I must say this new multiplayer video Ubisoft released looks so fucking awesome its got me hyped for it again. I'm not a big multiplayer fan in single player games, but how they blend it in like this is just great IMO, just like in Dark Souls or Demon's Souls. I really hope Ubisoft creams GTA with this game, but even more simply I hope its worth the wait and I believe it will. For the moment, Ubisoft hasn't had a track record of making crappy games, maybe releasing new installments too quickly, but not necessarily crappy. That being said, anyone else hyped for this game?

I've heard the theory before, though not for the US, why the hell they would be firing missiles in SE Asia baffles me, its just as likely China or any other country in SE Asia shot the plane down and are trying to cover up such an embarrassing act as anything else. I personally hate the theory that somehow the plane is somewhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan and was apparently not spotted by anyone aside from apparently a couple special agents in Pakistan. These same people are saying WWIII is imminent and that a Terrorist group funded by a government is going to put a nuke in that plane after repainting it and use it somewhere else to spark a war with Russia or China and the US. This whole news story is FUBAR, nobody has any evidence of anything so people are just speculating out their asses like they're all apparently experts.

They've changed his storyline quite a bit from the books, which is somewhat concerning. In the book, Jaime was not present for Joffrey's death. He and Brienne were still traveling to King's Landing. When they arrived in King's Landing, Loras Tyrell (who joined the Kingsguard) wants to kill Brienne, as he believes she murdered Renly Baratheon. Jaime intervenes, and has Brienne arrested so she will not be killed. He then goes to the Sept (church) to see Cersei. There, it's a similar scene to the one from the show. She's mourning Joffrey, and they fuck in front of the corpse. But it was consensual, there was no rape. After that, their relationship is pretty much done. I seem to remember Jaime was rather uncomfortable with how the sex went down, and is rather dismayed by Cersei's accusations against Tyrion. It's odd in the show, I'm not sure I agree with the direction but with how heavily Martin's involved I still think they're moving along the way he intends it. It just messes up a lot of the situations I personally interpreted differently. I can't believe how much press this scene has gotten as a disturbing scene considering what the show has already shown in past seasons, I guess people respond more to what looks like a rape than just sexual sadism which is surprising IMO. I haven't seen it myself yet, but it still sounds to me like it wasn't too far off from the book, even if the dialogue was not kept the same to make the scene appear more consensual. Even in the book, Cersei was quite reluctant to screw Jaime for several reasons, and as for Jaime's actions considering how much they've changed his events by the sounds of things, it could be he was more frustrated at the situation than anything and was taking it out on her (despite himself having played a substantial part in making the situation so fucked up). Maybe that's why they shot it the way they did? I personally don't believe the idea that HBO is supporting rape as a punishment for women like Cersei, or are turning consensual relations into rape just because they can, they aren't that ballsy. I think people just aren't thinking outside the box on Jaime well enough. I personally don't think he is any more saintly than he was at the start of the series.

Very chilling compared to other versions of the Rains of Castamere I've heard, arguably closer to what Martin may have intended, as it isn't supposed to be a very cheery song by any means. The Three-Eyed Crow and rain of swords doesn't make the atmosphere any less dark either. As for the odd appearance of someone else for Tommen, it very well could have been a stand-in. They had the same child actor for the past seasons as far as I know, but it wouldn't be the first time in the series when a temporary stand-in was necessary to get the scene shot (a la one of Jon Snow's scenes in season 3 I'm sure watchers probably remember). Even Child actors have schedules and appointments to keep.

I'd argue that Faith has been used as an excuse for War while there were tangible reasons for the conflicts which aided the process. The Crusades would never have been successful in gaining attention had the Priests not appealed to the Nobles and their desire to prove their might in war and lust for land, power, and glory. Nobles could care less about praying and souls when their material possessions are of more immediate use. But I'm not going to turn this into a theological debate, because by the end of it we could very likely all be pissed at each other. We each hold our own beliefs, and we shall respect each others' right to hold them. None of us can truly prove to anyone else what lies beyond anyway, we individually reach that conclusion.

I had a teacher of mine tell me my soul must be ancient, says I was probably debating with Socrates back in Ancient Greece and have been reincarnated to this generation. I wouldn't want to be an animal though, not in this time. Personally, I'm a Polytheist because I want to be different, and because it makes the most sense to me.

I like aspects of Anarchism, it is definitely how I think the ideal society should work aside from Marx's idea of Communism. However, I don't believe that society cannot truly work through anarchy without having a whole society grow up with the values (which is impossible, since nobody teaches the younger generation the same thing, nor is every person going to receive the information the same way) of Anarchy and how to manage their own affairs. The problem is the same one as Communism though, there is no way to prevent vigilantism or abuses of the system (not that there are great ones today in Capitalist society, but still). Not that I don't believe in Vigilantism as a system of enforcing laws and morals, but the problem with it is that its very easy to degenerate into Mob Rule, which isn't historically rational or moral at times. But yeah, I'm all for the idea of people managing their own affairs without any overseeing body, but then there is no way to protect the individual aside from the individual and anyone else they can convince if anything goes against them.

This is the science of the invisible, Einstein and Freud started it with their theories of relativity and the sub-conscious mind respectively, the idea that just because we cannot see or sense individually something does not mean that it does not exist. However, I do not believe this guy is a really credible scientist as the idea of the material universe being created by our Consciousness denies the fact that we know that the material universe very likely existed long before life was created, therefore how can they be connected so vitally? If life were to all disappear, wouldn't it mean that by this theory that the universe stops existing? No way, jose. The idea of the conscious mind is interesting though. Rene Descartes tried to discern through his hypothetical meditations what was reality and was not, what he could prove existed beyond any doubt to himself, and he was ultimately drawn to the conclusion that even if everything else around him was false, he could prove that at the very least, his mind existed, and therefore he must exist. "Cogito, ergo, sum." "I think, therefore, I am." However, there isn't much proof of consciousness existing beyond death, since a person cannot really think without a properly working brain, unless we want to say that we can prove ghosts and that souls can think for themselves regardless of brains. As for multi-verse theory, this is nothing new. Its already been theorized that if one thing happens in this universe, there is a universe parallel to ours where something different or opposite happens. So I don't see how this changed anything in regards to that theory. Personally, I hope science never finds out the truth of whether or not we have souls, or how life after death works, if it does at all. I believe what Friedrich Nietzsche said in regards to Science and Religion, that the former will leave us disappointed and depressed at the lack of wonder and mystery in the universe, and that the latter will never be satisfying for us in this age of rationality and reason over superstition and blind belief in what people tell us. We have to find our own answers individually about these things, whether that involves accepting arguments from people like this guy and believing them truly, or choosing to believe something else nobody else believes at this time. Just don't get suckered in by salesmen of salvation or people who talk about these things with some kind of finality.

In regards to Daario being played by someone else, its because the last guy was considered not well-casted enough for the character after the fact. By the sounds of things, they've done a good job dealing with the problems they'd have right now concerning story lines and going over into multiple books now. However I don't understand the comment about the North being ruined by Greagor. The Lannister forces never break through the Neck until the Ironmen are starved out of Moat Cailan in the books, and never really leave the North in flames. If anyone is burning anything in the north, its Bolton's Bastard.

I am considering buying one soon for Watch_Dogs, even though I'm getting it for PS3 I'm pretty sure Ubisoft will include a Digital version for PS4 (they did that with Black Flag), but I'm hoping for it to come with deals before I try and switch over. How is it compared to the PS3?

Neo-Nazism seems to follow the path as the old Nazi and Fascist movements, wherever there is economic crisis of a serious nature there will likely be an appeal to extreme nationalistic and perhaps even popular racist and cultural stereotypes to try and find a scapegoat for their suffering, and therefore a reason for extreme change. Greece has had the same issues with the Golden Dawn Party whom are basically the German Nazi Party reincarnated except in Greek, and I'm sure its not alone. Hopefully the Ukrainians can sort them out, but I have a feeling we'll see another split again before this is over.

I've technically bought it with the season pass, though I haven't downloaded it yet. Part 1 left me more confused as to the storyline of Infinite as a whole with what the ending reveals to us from its perspective after I thought I had figured it out. Great DLC series so far though.

Its more provincially than anything, and I only really know about Ontario. I do know that lots of services jobs have been cut, along with education, and lots of doctors took a pay freeze. I just find it amazing that our government can claim that its trying to pay off our debt as foremost among its objectives when they're somehow finding boatloads of cash to send to Ukraine and makes ridiculous financial decisions which won't strengthen Canada's economy in the long run (the Keystone Pipeline being a perfect example). But this is getting off topic from Ukraine so I'll leave that for another thread.

I agree with Zorbanos, the US and other nations may whine and bitch at Russia for taking Crimea into their Russian Federation (I find that significant as it wasn't actually annexed by Russia as far as I heard) in a very underhanded manner, they aren't going to waste their time fighting Russia for it. I'm more pissed off about my own gov't over it (Canadian for those of you that don't know), because apparently we have over 220 million to spare to Ukraine's economy when we're supposed to be paying off our debt and are willing to take cuts on social services to do it, yet we apparently cannot cut our foreign aid spending. Not that I have anything against foreign aid, but I don't see why a gov't which I and many other people don't support should spend our tax money on something we don't support and probably will never profit off of. If Ukrainians or other people want to have their money spent to support Ukraine, then that's another story but I don't want to see any Conservatives claiming that they are saving money when they just spent a ton of it on something useless to our economy. Rant aside, I say we should just let Ukraine settle its affairs, if they want independence, they'll fight for it again like they did last time.

I remember Gauntlet: Dark Legacy so clearly, one of my favourite arcade games ever when I was little, and I was so pleased when I found a version for PS2 or Xbox several years ago. The boss fights were great, the environments and stages were excellent, and it was a great game with friends.

Its kind of tough for Ukraine's forces to do anything with their armouries mostly seized and bases taken so swiftly by the Russians. Putin planned this thoroughly and probably performed the idea of Blitzkrieg far better than the Germans ever did, his forces took over so fast Ukraine had no time to react at all. As for guarantees of safety, its one thing to say that, and another for the people to actually want it. More than a few Americans are unwilling to get involved in another war, not to mention global opinion of the U.S. getting involved trying to be the world's police officer isn't exactly in their favour. Besides, the US, nor any other nuclear-armed state has never had a history of actually fighting against states with nukes despite any rhetoric or sanctions they may spew out. They allowed China to basically have free reign in its African possessions, and have allowed Russia to take Georgia, Chechnya, and now probably Crimea. It just goes to show why some nations might want nukes in order to get in on this big club.