For the reasons so above noted, it doesn't. However, this is also why, say, Fahrenheit 451 is a much more relevant dystopia than 1984: the question isn't whether Big Brother is watching, it's whether there's any difference from that and when everyone is watching Big Brother.

To wit, if we can get everyone to voluntarily do something that's the functional equal, is that different than state enforcement? Better than state enforcement? @Belabras' reference to Gattaca is highly relevant, because it's a SF picture of a society where this problem is realize. No one's enforcing the rules for genetic engineering, just all of us together upon ourselves.

And what scares me about that future is our criteria for selection. I don't know that impressing our criteria on top of what's already there is a grand idea. I know how fashion, fad, and fable can deeply capture the human mind. But I don't really know how to stop it.

And what really worries me, oddly, is the exact opposite. Eugenics is about creating a better - or let's say more viable - next generation, a process that is always going on naturally. This only speeds it up. But how fast? What happens when we get to the point where the next generation is uniformly just plain better than the previous generation?

I do also want to note that, for all this handwringing, I can't imagine a scenario where I didn't opt for all the testing and wouldn't terminate in such a situation.

I mean, wow, an Asian girl as a protagonist? You're sure smashing through some divides there, DICE. Glad you gave her that Geisha eyeshadow, otherwise the whole thing might have been far too subversive.

Is there gross over objectification of women in video games? Hell yes. Precious few female characters don't get treated for their charms. Worse still, it's hard to find games where female sex characteristics aren't exaggerated, if not to unrealistic amounts, than certainly to unusual ones. So, Farrer is right, and steel bikini syndrome is alive and well.

But then, the protagonist is made an Asian woman, which is really what spurns this whole discussion on. Without the ethnicity issue, this is no more than silly fan art.

Instead, it's fan art seeking to claim racial legitimacy, over art seeking to claim gender legitimacy.

It also clouds the affair because everyone is showing up with baggage over what "Asian" is suppose to look like. Flat chested or no? The answer is, obviously, it depends, simply because race isn't exact and there's a lot of different ones, arguably, covered by Asian who all have different bodies.

Mark my words: a Latnia protagonist, even one with the most ridiculous sexual characteristics, would be more forward looking than Anti-Barbie up there.

Well, sufficing she wasn't just Vasquez from Aliens with different guns, which pretty well seems to be the only role one would get in a video game.

Also, I'm guessing that the sort of people who frequent a S.F. culture site aren't going to need the "Holy Avenger" disclaimer.

The thing is, there's no reason why classic literature and video games can't go together, or even do so well. Watchman in itself is no different.

The problem, however, is that the comic has a very specific anti-...er everything, really, all of this merchandising and what not message to it. This runs squarely against that message. It's like the All Quiet on the Western Front FPS.

I've been dreaming of an orchestral version of the Orc music from Warcraft 2 for many years now. I actually even bought some software to try and make it happen on my own, but I don't have the chops or the time.

Ever since then, I have been seeking to find out what movie it was that I saw.

This scene and some parts of the opening were all I clearly remembered.

I've always wondered "what was that movie? What was the rest of it like? What affects has it had on me, on my personality? What mysteries might I unlock, if I could find it?"

Thank you, IO9, for finally answering this question that's lingered in my head for years.

Therein I disagree. I don't think it's a bad game by any means, but almost all the charm is gone. The dialog is not as smart, the methods to solve problems not as clever. Even little things like the musical selections prove that they didn't quite understand the charm, but could mimic it with no little skill.

Of course, it's also an amazing game that I'm playing to virtually the exclusion of every other activity, but it's almost a shame that it's Fallout, where Bethesda could have struck out a new IP and really made it golden.

10% think it's awesome and totally appropriate.

10% are outraged that it's on a SF site.

80% have and will look at posts that interest them, and avoid ones that don't.

I have sympathies with position 2, but I'm firmly in position 3.