Boo

Speaking of thick books, I finished Ayn Rand's magnum opus [i]Atlas Shrugged[/i] sometime this year. Took me long enough. 1300 pages of which about two-thirds could have been left out because they keep repeating the same ideas over and over again. Rand completely over analyzes her own theories and the characters, and she does that right there, word for word, in the book itself, explaining everything over and over again just to make sure we don't misunderstand her intentions. This sucks because some ideas are actually really interesting, but the way they are imposed upon the reading is really distracting. Only at some points was I able to connect in any way with one or two characters, and that mostly ended by them starting a speech on the glory of materialism. Ordeal: You do not have to read this. It's not worth it.

While we're posting... [url="http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/06/mass-effect-3-resurgence-pack/"]FREE DLC NEXT TUESDAY[/url]! Multi-player stuff. 6 new characters (2 Geth, 2 Batarians, Asari Justicar and Krogan Battlemaster), new weapons, new consumables, 2 new maps annnnd... that's it I guess. But it's free! They're on a roll with free stuff now, and they keep having weekly weekend extras. I wonder how long they'll keep this up.

Dear fellow members and colleagues of OB staff, Today it has come to my attention that we [i]still[/i] do not have a Shinmaru forum. This is strange to me and seems to be the direct reason for our lack of activity/members, and it also is the direct solution to this problem. It bothers me that something so obvious should miss from OtakuBoards. If this does not change, I don't think many members will be left by the end of the month. We have to fix this guys. Of course, we will need to give the community some kind of compensation as well for the time they had to spend without a Shinmaru forum. Any ideas? I'm looking forward to your replies, either positive or negative. Thank you for your time and have a nice day. Yours truthfully, Boo/Boris/Lady Shy PS: Now that James is a free man, his rights have run out to stall RPs. What will you - admins, super mods and theatre staff - do to make him start either his new EVANGELION RP or the next Almagest? PPS: This issue is so important that I have decided to post it twice.

Dear fellow members and colleagues of OB staff, Today it has come to my attention that we [i]still[/i] do not have a Shinmaru forum. This is strange to me and seems to be the direct reason for our lack of activity/members, and it also is the direct solution to this problem. It bothers me that something so obvious should miss from OtakuBoards. If this does not change, I don't think many members will be left by the end of the month. We have to fix this guys. Of course, we will need to give the community some kind of compensation as well for the time they had to spend without a Shinmaru forum. Any ideas? I'm looking forward to your replies, either positive or negative. Thank you for your time and have a nice day. Yours truthfully, Boo/Boris/Lady Shy PS: Now that James is a free man, his rights have run out to stall RPs. What will you - admins, super mods and theatre staff - do to make him start either his new EVANGELION RP or the next Almagest? [color=#5A5A5A][font=tahoma, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3]PPS: This issue is so important that I have decided to post it twice.[/size][/font][/color]

[quote name='Katie!' timestamp='1333732440' post='711305'] if I learned anything from being an RA, it's that you're not supposed to touch any student, ever. you never know if they'll get an injury from you touching them and then you could be held liable. just sayin' :\ [/quote]Same thing I learned from teaching. Though women get away with it more easily than men. Especially if they're short.

[url="http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/05/mass-effect-3-extended-cut/"]BioWare announces Extended Cut and to have no plans at all for different endings.[/url] So, I'm fine with this. My main problem of the absolute end was a lack of closure. Now we should get more of that.

Cyanide sounds pretty awesome, by the way. Speaking of Cyborgs, I just finished [i]Empire State[/i], which was pretty awesome and had the same kind of air at some points as this story, except it plays in NYC. It had jetpack super heroes and trench coats and gas masks. And cyborgs and big (flying) battle ships and police blimps.

ME3: [spoiler]I was expecting the story to continue on from ME2's ending, where they said "OMFG A HUMAN REAPER", which was kind of meh-inducing on it's own, and that in ME3 it turns out the reapers use the reaped civilizations to actually help create the newest batch (for whatever reason. I mean, what does any divine being really want from us?), instead of just preserving before you decide to kill all of us so we don't kill all of us. Though, like James said before, the story has never been the strongest part of the game. I had most fun doing the missions that were unCerberus and unReaper related.[/spoiler]

[quote name='Allamorph' timestamp='1333381248' post='711230'] [font=Calibri]I am so absurdly happy right now. I should not be this happy because I think it makes me kind of a bad person, and I can't even write why I feel such. But holy Moses in a mosh pit. This is a good day.[/font] [/quote]Who died?

Trench coats, old cities, corrupt governments. I am smelling the perfect opportunity for noirism, yes plz.

[quote name='Katie!' timestamp='1333301118' post='711201'] Will you be the Archer to my Lana? [/quote]That depends. That situation [i]does[/i] count as a one-way ticket to a certain location. A very dangerous location, or even a zone if you prefer.

OK, correction: NES-style Street View.

Now go make 8Bit Streetview.

Wait, I had an awesome reply for this. Meh, disappeared. Anyway: I love the link tag as it's kind of simple, but still not, and the colours and effects make the LInk stock seem more eh, fluent than it actually is. I also really like the Muse one, but it kind of... looks like something else than guitar playing. The text on this one and the Sora one are great though. The colours and shapes of the font match the tags really well, contrary to the "hello" and "pandemonium" ones, in which the text is just distracting and does not look really cool. For the "hello" one you could try using the pink that's actually already in the banner, or some shade of that one, with... white. Anyway: Lens flares and general light around stock are hard to get right, and you did excellent with the two girl banners (the one holding a blanket in the wind, or something, and the one using a bow) as the light amplifies the expression of the stock, and also the action in the latter one. The Riku one has a bit of a redundant flare on the other hand, as it kind of amplifies a cold shoulder and pulls the attention away from his face (eyes) and sword. The Sora one has a pretty cool flare because it looks like he's being all "WHAT?! FLARE!" but I think the flare could've been more to the bottom right, a bit further from his face, and then some extra lighting on his front upper body as if the light radiates from the ball he's looking at. I think the sprite tags are really cool. You manage to put the focus on them really well, especially in the Kingdom Hearts one. The one in your last post that you dig least I like a lot, but I think it would be even cooler if the light in the bottom right would be in the top right instead, amplifying the arrow. So if it would amplify the entire arrow. Think it would look really dynamic and POW like that. In general, I think your stuff's pretty much super cool.

[quote name='jayburnt' timestamp='1333238151' post='711177'] i like donkey shows and i hate being a newbie... ah well, everyone gots to be a newbie at least once (oh and by the way i've never actually seen a donkey show lol) i've never really been much of a poster, blogger, threader, or whatever them peoples been called but i'm willing to give a shot and see if i like it [/quote]Awesome, thanks to you I noticed how tall the avatars can be. High five. And welcome!

[quote name='Katie!' timestamp='1333242450' post='711185'] Nobody else posts enough for me to spam every thread! [/quote]Let's team up! For the world!

I would've been a Superstar now... :'(

[quote name='Shinmaru' timestamp='1333121544' post='711133'] [spoiler]I thought the **** with the little kid was terrible throughout the game, and seeing the kid representing the Catalyst is a facepalm moment. I agree with others who have suggested that the squadmate who dies on Virmire would have been a much better choice for that stuff. I don't really like Kaidan or Ashley at all, but they would at least represent a more personal connection for Shepard. And wouldn't that person's death haunt Shepard much more than some kid? The BioWare writers do such a great job of hitting emotion hard throughout the game that the kid stuff sticks out as being not so great.[/spoiler][/quote][spoiler]I hated that kid. I agree on the Virmire choice, but the Prothean might've been okay as well as Bioware's original plan was. Basically, the kid was completely random, didn't look very interesting, and was stupid. They should've just had the kid for stupid noobs who didn't import ME1&2, and the Virmire or an abstract something for people who did. Though I hate Kaiden, and he always died on Vimire, and I didn't like him living. Hm... Maybe some random thing then. Though I like the theory of the kid being just an indoctrinated hallucination as nobody else sees him and he causes Shepard some bad nights of sleep. Huhu. Ho.[/spoiler] [quote name='Shinmaru' timestamp='1333121544' post='711133'][spoiler]I also wish there were a bit more closure with your other squadmates. Presumably everyone survives, but mostly I'm just worried about Garrus, because he's been my boy throughout the whole series![/spoiler][/quote]QFT. [spoiler]Garrus, what happened to you on Earth?! How did they get into the Normandy that quickly, rushing off before a relay blast?[/spoiler] [quote name='Shinmaru' timestamp='1333121544' post='711133'] [spoiler]The one complaint I don't really agree with is about the ending not reflecting your choices. It totally does in the way that [i]all[/i] [b]Mass Effect[/b] endings have reflected the player's choices. In the first game, your choices could cause Saren to kill himself. In the second game, your choices affect whether your squad lives or dies. In the third game, your choices could cause the Illusive Man to kill himself. The major story beats, though? Always the same, no matter what your choices are. There may be a few differences in how they play out, but they're largely the same. Complaining about how choice doesn't play enough of a part in the finale completely ignores how the plots of [b]Mass Effect[/b] have been built from the beginning.[/spoiler][/quote]Well, I have to disagree on you here anyway. [spoiler]ME3 was supposed to be the ultimate climax of the series. Not just an ME1-3 or ME2-3. It is supposed to be greater and everything you do leads up to this. In short, nothing you do leads up to anything. Your actions of ME1 and ME2 don't have any [i]visible[/i] effect on the ending, except that they earn you like War Assets that make the ultimate endings possible. And War Assets are like... emails. Who cares? They could have at least added some amazingly cool cinematics during the last few moments of combat that would show Turians and Krogans butchering Husks side by side, protected by Asari shields, while Salarians would infiltrate around burning people, calling in airstrikes for the Quarians to bomb the crap out of things, while armies of Rachni tear the hell out of Ravagers. Stuff like that, you know. Now you fell into a black hole, and the climax parts of the game were when you saw your fleet come through the relay (OMFG ROCK ON) and getting butchered by 5 Banshees at the end before you get blasted and have to take out Marauder Shields, the real final boss. I didn't feel like my previous actions changed the course of the ending enough. Why didn't we see Jack back you up with her team of biotics, just because she's Jack and decided to disobey orders? Where was Grunt, pulling another ( <33333 GRUNTTT!!!!) stunt soloing some ravagers? I saved the Geth, why didn't they return the favour by sending in some Primes for back up? Stuff like that, you know. The ending was epic-ish, but I felt Tuchanka and Ranoch were more epic. And then the last 5 minutes kind of ... you know... didn't have much to do with the first two. It didn't feel like an ending to a trilogy because there was so much new information. Everyone knows you should put little to no new information in a conclusion unless it's really "OMFG I NEVER EXPECTED THAT" shock stuff, which this wasn't either. It was just lukewarm.[/spoiler] But altogether I loved the game. And the ending was fine-ish enough.

Haha, I saw the thread title and thought for a second that this was the Blue Pocahontas sequel, and intended on asking if it now comes in 6D. But no.

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif][size=3]Didn't we have an ME thread once? [quote name='Shinmaru' timestamp='1332954884' post='711108'] HUGE [b]MASS EFFECT[/b] SPOILERS FOR SERIOUS: La cucaracha [spoiler]Also LEGIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON *salutes*[/spoiler] [/quote][SPOILER]*SALUTE* Also: Legion galore! *confetti* But I was really happy with my decisions too. Afterwards I read the forums and I saw people who made like one wrong choice in the dialogue and completely got either one killed. :( [/SPOILER] Also! [Spoiler]I just found out how to save Mordin. Next playthrough! "Mordin can be saved during the mission if Wrex isn't alive, Maelon's data was not saved, which leads to Eve's death, and the genophage cure is sabotaged. If Mordin is saved, and the genophage cure is sabotaged as a result, the salarians will offer their support as well as krogan support under Urdnot Wreav, as the krogan will be unaware of the sabotage, with Mordin helping out as well." So basically if you do everything... wrong.[/spoiler][/size][/font]

[quote name='Lyndy' timestamp='1332953512' post='711103'] You were like "AHHHH NOOOO. GIANT SPIDER. ;A;!! I DONT LIKE GIANT SPIDERS! ;A;!!! *weeps*" [/quote]I'm pretty sure that never happened. You speak nasty untruths. I wish I knew a game like Amnesia that allowed for easy multi-player though. So a freak-out game, more than a zombie bomber like L4D2.

[quote name='Shinmaru' timestamp='1332951203' post='711100'] Wow, I still think the final assault on the Collector base in [b]Mass Effect 2[/b] is the most fun mission in terms of pure thrill (I loved sticking it to them with a superpowered group of badasses, but the mission on [spoiler]Rannoch[/spoiler], which I just finished last night, might be the best in terms of pure emotion. The feeling of going to that planet is crazy, the choice at the end is excruciating (I legit spent five minutes pondering over it), and the aftermath is insane to think about. Holy **** did I ever suck at fighting [spoiler]the Reaper[/spoiler], though. I went all the way through [spoiler]Thessia[/spoiler] and am bitterly cursing the name of Cerberus. I am looking forward to finally killing that Kai Leng asshole, and at some point I expect to confront the Illusive Man in person, and you can bet I will give him what for, that bastard. [/quote]See?! The emotional engagement building up to and in this game is insane. This was the first of the three games where I was really, passionately hating characters (except for ****ing Zaeed, that incredible ****) or almost crying about other stuff. :'( Shinmaru: [spoiler]I was really happy with the Ranoch outcome I had. What did you choose? (I'll extra spoiler alert the next part in case James accidentally reads this)[/spoiler] Extra MASS SPOILER: [spoilerblock]I wouldn't have been able to bear finishing the game if I had Tali jump off a cliff in case you let Legon upload and the Fleet attack them. [/spoilerblock]

[quote name='Lyndy' timestamp='1332945390' post='711096'] You started to scream and cry when a spider started to attack you in Skyrim. [/quote]Lies.

Oh you, Amnesia... [Member=Lyndy] got me to watch these kinds of videos, and I'm always suprised by how scared people get by something that looks so unimpressive. Plus, I still don't know what you're supposed to do apart from scream like a little girl! :S

'Alphonso' sounds like trouble.