My Shepard wasn't even from Earth, let alone America. May want to take a look at those backstory options again.
I agree that the overall narrative of ME1 was superior to that of ME2, but I found Mass Effect 2's characters - both original and returning - to be far better developed and significantly more interesting than those of ME1. Other than Jacob, that is. Christ that dude was boring.
Yup, Windows Phone 7 does the same thing. And it supports more useful protocols than Messages; far more people, at least in my experience, use Facebook and Windows Live than any of the clients mentioned in the article.
Even including non-iPhone iOS devices, I only have around two friends with devices that support iMessage. But that's not the point.
I could get into how ridiculously hyperbolic this article is, but I have a far simpler way to derail your argument: the friends I have who own non-iPhone iOS devices really don't spend that much time on them. They don't have a mobile data connection, so I couldn't message them while they're out and about, and once they get in, they tend to just turn on their computers and start up Windows Live or some other multiprotocol I.M. client, because they'd rather type on a keyboard than a touch screen.
As such, this is almost completely useless for people who don't have many friends with iPhones.
(Just so we're clear, I actually own and use a MacBook Pro, an iPad and an iPhone, and I still think this article is ridiculous.)
[itunes.apple.com]
My iPad would have to disagree with you on that one.
I'll agree that the degree of vitriol directed at Apple can be ridiculous at times, but wouldn't you agree that this article is somewhat ridiculous?
It's a multiprotocol IM client that integrates with iMessage. I really don't see what's so special about it. Particularly since it doesn't support any of the chat clients used by the majority of people in the UK, like Facebook chat and Windows Live. And the iMessage integration's only useful for people who have an awful lot of friends with iPhones.
The one guy I know who has an iPhone always has an I.M client open on his phone anyway, and other smartphone platforms, like Android and WinPho, either have their own multiprotocol I.M. clients available, or integrate instant messaging into the Messaging application.
I just don't see what's so special about Messages. It all just feels like hyperbole.
... iMessages is only available on iOS and OS X devices... Which makes it better... Somehow.
Seriously, this article is ridiculous.
I enjoyed the second one, simply because I tempered my expectations; the first TRON was hardly a masterpiece of story-telling, and I'd say the second actually improves on it in that respect.
Combine that with the gorgeous visuals, fantastic soundtrack, and - if you'll pardon my crass words - the incredible hotness of Olivia Wilde in a TRON-suit thing, and you get a thoroughly enjoyable film that more than lives up to its predecessor.
It wasn't a joke; Kotaku is the only site pushing the "half joke" angle - they took a quote out of context and used it to make a title they knew would pull in page views.
Take a look at these versions of the story:
[www.giantbomb.com]
If you separate the story from the sensationalism, it's clear that Notch made the offer seriously, and was simply unprepared for the amount of money that would be required. Now, you could certainly fault him for that, but Kotaku's headline is misleading.
My only real problem with the demo was the lack of control I had over Shepard's dialogue. He kept going on about Earth, when in the two previous games, I've always played him as a massive supporter of galactic unity, who values the entire galaxy, not just the one planet.
My Shepard's isn't even from Earth, for christ's sake.
In Mass Effects 1 and 2, some of the dialogue was automated, but it was just the fluff, the random little words that made up the conversation. I had a say in all the important decisions that determined Shepard's motivations and personality. I could control, at least to some extent, all the character-defining moments in the series. I fear that some of that control may have been wrested from the player in Mass Effect 3
From what I remember, it was only slightly worse than it is now, with regards to crime and the like, and even that was only in certain areas.
Earthborn Shep had a rough time of it, but the entire planet certainly isn't a shit hole. The majority of people aren't even all that eager to pack their bags and move off-world; the Alliance has to offer massive incentives to prospective colonists to get them to go.
Ah, but we can't fling solar panels at the Russians!
Nuclear power makes the satellites multipurpose!
Are you Red, son?
The hackers used some very specialised hardware to sever the servers' connection.
The hackers used some very specialised hardware to sever the servers' connection.
Every plug socket in my country.
And one for the man who broke his penis while attempting to penetrate his wife with a flying leap. That shit just deserves a section all of its own.
Halo Wars was released before Microsoft created 343. It was developed by Ensemble Studios (who are, sadly, no longer with us) and published by Microsoft.
Nanotechnology could well be 343's explanation for the armour changes, but I could see them easily coming up with any number of other explanations, from Forerunner upgrades to Cortana getting bored in between games, releasing the Chief from cryo, and fucking around with his armour using salvaged tech from the Forward Unto Dawn and some maintenance bots. Or any combination thereof.
I, too, hope the explanation is at least plausible under established canon, and I'm at least reasonably confident that it will.
When did they say - or even imply that - humanity now had better technology than the Covenant? As far as I'm aware, 343 haven't even released a Halo game yet, unless you count Anniversary.
A fair few British teenagers know what Space: 1999 is; I used to watch old videos (that is, video cassettes) of it all the time, and I've seen a few episodes rebroadcast on the more major channels as recently as last month. Gerry Anderson's stuff is still very big over here; the 'cartoon' I remember best from my childhood is Thunderbirds, closely followed by Stingray and Captain Scarlet.
I'm 17, in case you were wondering.
It doesn't, but there's a rather sizeable difference between compelling characters and human drama, and shitty, formulaic soap opera plots. I don't want my space heroes to be constantly at each other's throats about who slept with whom, or who stole such and such's doohicky, or acting like the biggest dicks in the universe simply because that's the way television works these days.
The characters in B5, Farscape and TNG were compelling; compelling does not equal angsty, angry and completely fucked up. My issue is that, in modern science fiction, writers seem to just use those qualities to make their characters seem deep and interesting.
