Fallout, umm, live action roleplaying?

Every single one of these people wins an award for awesomeness.  I have no idea what is happening in these pictures since its in Russian and I can’t be arsed to visit a translation site, but check out the win.

The armor isn’t as cool as the one in the Headlines, but still pretty amazing on a grand scale.  The fact that Russia even has places to do stuff like this in makes me jealous.

MI6, Facebook and Privacy Settings

Various news articles about the disclosure of the new MI6 chief on Facebook have been making the rounds as of late.

MI6 boss in Facebook entry row

It seems like a good time to revisit a guide that new users to Facebook should take a look at:

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

I’ll summarize the high points here. Some of these are common sense. Read the article to get the specifics.

1. Use Your Friend Lists
2. Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results
3. Remove Yourself From Google
4. Avoid the Infamous Photo/Video Tag Mistake
5. Protect Your Albums
6. Prevent Stories From Showing Up in Your Friends’ News Feeds
7. Protect Against Published Application Stories
8. Make Your Contact Information Private
9. Avoid Embarrassing Wall Posts
10. Keep Your Friendships Private

Facebook has added some additional new privacy settings recently so take the time to poke around in there and tighten things down to a level that’s appropriate for you.

Though, I’d say the real lesson here is that when you work in that kind of business you can never completely separate your personal life from your business life. Work always follows you home. Your friends and family either need to be just as well-trained as you are or know nothing at all about the reality of the situation.

Mirror’s Edge 2 Confirmed

This makes me happy.

EA confirms ‘small team’ working on Mirror’s Edge 2

Mirror’s Edge was my most favorite game of the last few years.

Edge of Twilight

Being something of a trailer aficionado, I am posting this trailer not just because the game looks amazing, I’m posting it because this is easily the best video game trailer I’ve ever seen. And quite frankly it’s about time that video games are catching up with movies.

Via Hellforge, his review compares the setting to Perdido Street Station.  I’m not sure I really see that, though the city in the trailer certainly seems comparable to New Crobuzon.  I’d never thought of the book as steampunk but I suppose I haven’t read the others.  Still, looks exciting and should come out within the year.

In Defense of Terminator:Salvation

The Internets have spoken, apparently Terminator was a horibble movie that will kill the franchise.  The best proof of its horrible reception is the abysmal score it got on Rotten Tomatoes.

For full disclosure, I will enjoy any and every movie set in a post-apocolpytic future.  You make a High School Musical: 2038 set in a post-nuke Chicago and I’ll see you there opening day.  I came out of the theater quite happy with the final product.  (Compared to leaving Wolverine in a state of depression).  Why did I enjoy it?

(May contain spoilers).  Let’s start off with the first complaint, John Conner is a nobody.  In his first scene the commanding officer is telling him he isn’t in charge of the mission, a rebuke that Conner has likely heard many time before.  If this man isn’t even in charge of the opening mission, then why, many critics have asked, are the machines trying to kill him?  For starters, let’s look at the other movies.

In T2 Sarah Conner fell victim to the Cassandra effect as she tried in vain to warm humanity of its downfall.  In the third movie John’s ultimate revelation is that there was never anything he could do to stop it.  Judgment Day was inevitable.   As so was his own place in it, though even he didn’t know how he would some how end up the leader of the resistance.  At the end of the third movie, Connor ends up in a presidential bunker, helpless as the bombs begin to drop.  As people on the receiving end of the communications line in the bunker call out asking what is happening, John does not have to convince them of a future apocalypse.  He is the one and only person who is able to tell humanity what is happening.

When the bombs stop,  was John Connor supposed to just suddenly be the instant leader of the human resistance?  Were military officers and prominent figures going to listen to this prophet and say let’s put this guy in charge.  False.  (Even though an alternate version of the script had this element).  Just because the bombs have dropped doesn’t mean John Connor is the leader of humanity.  The movie takes place in 2019, a full 10 years before the very first Terminator is sent back into time.  John Connor has ten years to fulfill his destiny.

So why is he a top priority even in 2019?  And more importantly, why is Kyle Reese (John’s father) number one on the hit list before John?  Kyle is a mere teenager in the movie and will not go forward in time for another ten years.  How does SkyNet know about his importance?  While never explicitly stated, its safe to assume that one of the Terminators sent back into time at some point interfaced with a SkyNet system that made it aware of their future importance.  If I came home today to find my future self waiting to give me some important warning about the future, I might listen.  (Exhibit A).  So yes, while Kyle Reese nor John Connor did not have the significance to be the number 1 and 2 hitlist targets in 2019, its safe to assume that this list represented their future importance just as they did in Terminator 1-3.  Now that that’s out of the way.

The gist of the movie revolves around Marcus Wright, a part human part machine that is unique to the series.  He struggles to find  redemption for his human past, and identity in the present.  John Connor too struggles with whether or not to believe Marcus.  John looks into his eyes, and knows that Marcus thinks he is human.  But John also knows the warnings of his mother, and even knows the events of his death.  Or at least a possible death, where he is fooled into trusting a T-800.  So can he trust Marcus?  (Interesting enough, the character of Marcus resembles a remarkable similarity to Schwarzenegger’s character in Total Recall, with an equivalent outcome).

The movie was mostly plot driven, only really delving into the character of Marcus Wright, and only briefly into John Connor played by Christian Bail, but I didn’t personally see this as a failing.  I wouldn’t have objected to a slightly slower pace to explore the world of 2019 a little more than they did.  The action scenes were relevant and unforced. I would have preferred to see some more of Bryce Dallas Howard.  Her role in the movie was mostly as a placeholder, and I can only hope she has a more important part in the future.  Sam Worthington playing Marcus Wright was absolutely the best part of the movie, as even its biggest critics seem to agree.  And I could have used some more Common as well, who seemed to play nearly the exact character he played in Wanted.

The biggest complaint I seem to read is that Marcus’ sacrifice at the end of the movie seemed irrelevant.  Why self-terminate for a nobody?  I don’t know, why did the Terminator in 2 and 3 give its life for John?  Again, this just goes back to my assessment of John’s future importance.  That people seem to be getting hung up on this fact seems a little odd to me.  In my eyes, this movie complements T3 nicely on how John Connor becomes the protector of humanity.  Terminator: Salvation is a great addition to the series, and I really hope they continue the time line far enough where we can see John Connor in the role he was destined to play.

H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (aka no gardens for you)

From: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-875

To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.

This is just a House Resolution at the moment. The text here sounds fairly benign. However well intended it may be, as with many laws there are unintended consequences at times.

In particular the analysis of the bill here struck home with me. Though, I’m not familiar with the campaign for liberty site nor have taken the time to look around them to get an idea of any bias or slant (if any) on their analysis. I’ll quote the “red flags”:

* Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
* Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn’t actually use the word organic.
* Affects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
* Affects anyone producing meat of any kind including the processing wild game for personal consumption.
* Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal. There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.
* Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation. It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation. Who do you think they are going to side with?
* Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities. The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
* Section 207 requires that the state’s agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements. This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.

Read the text of the H.R. for yourself, there are more.

While I sincerely doubt this will pass in to law. I am most disturbed by the fact that legislation like this is attempted at all.

While most of us do not currently “need” many things the illusion that our distribution system is somehow stable is untrue. How quickly news of a “rice shortage” spreads and grocery stores have to start rationing bags of rice. Whatever happened to that anyway? Swine flu? Mass slaughter of pigs. Melamine is still being caught in food products from China. For reference: 257 refusals of Chinese products were recorded in April 2009. For comparison 140 were from Mexico and 23 from Canada.

At it’s root laws that take aware our ability to take care of ourselves, force us to depend on the government to care and feed us. I know some people disagree, but I don’t think the fundamental purpose of the government is to be our parent.

Coming from the other side, I’m all for standards. We are “told” by the government what kind of house we can live in, how dirty of a car we can drive, etc. These standards exist to keep ourselves and others safe.

Keeping a home garden?

How quickly we go from people starting gardens in WW2 to take pressure off the distribution system… to potentially making it a criminal act to grow your own food. I cringe to write this as it sounds like exaggeration, but seriously read the H.R. you can’t make this stuff up.

Fallout 3: Downloadable Content

This review will include the downloadable content of Broken Steel and The Pitt, as well as a sort of state-of overview of player made modules.

First the bad news.  This isn’t Steam.  If you are looking for the PC downloads, prepare to be ready for confusion and annoyance.  For starters, you need to download and create an account on Games for Windows – Live.  And to even play the official DLCs, you need to be logged in to Live from Fallout, which they never tell you in any step.  I ended up doing a workaround to be able to play without logging in after being confused for nearly an hour about why it wasn’t working.  Also a minor annoyance is that the amount of Microsoft Points each DLC costs.  You can only buy the points in increments.  Different increments that a DLC costs.  And don’t expect to download any DLC on its release day.  Broken Steel (and others) was taken off the PC version of Live for several days until they got it sorted out.  Ultimately, it might be less of a hassle to just get the DLCs from a torrent, but thats up to you.  Despite the hassle, cheap downloadable content is a good thing to support.

The good news, both downloads I played are great.  For starters, I am dubbing The Pitt the first true moral quandry for a karma based game.  I litterally had to pause and think about my decision.  It’s possible to take either path without a karma change for good reason.  I won’t spoil anything, but just be sure to crack the vault of The Pitts leader before you make your decision to make it even harder.  The Pitt isn’t super long, its just a handful of quests, but at $10 bucks, you can’t go wrong.

Broken Steel is the first DLC that continues on the same story line.  I did have a few disappointments, but overall it is very worth it.  The level cap is increased to 30 which is good, but the leveling process is slow and to be honest, there are only a handful of perks 20+ that are worth it.  Oddly enough, I haven’t yet found that any of my Purity Project decisions effect this mod.  I was assuming the “evil” path would have had more effect on the populace, but so far the only difference is that the Megaton quest is unavailable to me.  Likewise, I was hoping to see some presence for either EDEN or Colonel Autumn as you continue the fight against the Enclave, but it wasn’t to be.  Still, a mod that effects the main world and not just some other instance is a good thing.  I like progression.

No idea how many more of these official modules will be released.  There has been talk of at least one more, and one of the characters hints at the next step being to stop the Super Mutants, but I am hopeful that regardless of how many more they make, that the player made content will at some point catch up with the official modules.  Both of which are worth the price.  There is also a third module called Operation Anchorage, but I haven’t gotten it yet.  I’ve heard its the weakest of the three, but I still have plans to get it at some point.

As for player made modules, I ended up downloading a couple of packs which were combined to 5+ gigs, and I think I only installed 3 of them.  There just isn’t very much that is worth downloading at the moment.  It technically is new, but I figured modders familiar with modding with Oblivion wouldn’t have the learning curve with Fallout.  Or maybe all the good modders are still playing Oblivion.   Either way, you aren’t missing much.  Give it another three of four months and maybe there will be more out there.

New Section: Headlines!

For your viewing pleasure, we have added Headlines! to the right.  These are links or stories we find that we don’t necessarily want to write a post on.  Enjoy!

Review: Battle for Terra

Far into the future, there are two different civilizations on different planets.  Each follow the same path towards destruction of the environment and brutal war.  (Those are the same thing, right?)  One civilization snaps out of their destructive ways, frees themselves and goes and lives in the woods to be one with nature (Think The Village on a massive scale).  The other civilization destroys their home planet, and as a last resort, cast off in a massive spaceship towards the nearest planet which can support life.  One guess which civilization Earth belongs too.  This is the plot for animated movie Battle for Terra.

The humans were actually presented in a more favorable light than I was expecting.  The trip to this new planet is long, and has worn greatly on them.  When they arrive at the planet called Terra, they have about 2 months of oxygen to live.  Since the humans and the Terrans breath different types of atmosphere, this presents a dilemma for the humans.  Well, for some at least.  The human general seems eager to commit genocide on the native population and get humanity on solid ground in time for dinner.

The main character of the story is a human soldier who’s ship crashes on the first attack.  He is saved by a Terran who just wants to get her father back after seeing him taken by a human ship.  The relationship between himself, his brother back on the ship, and the native Terran is explored often as he is presented on multiple occasions with the choice of saving one and letting the other die.  This represents the larger picture, of assisting with genocide or letting his own people die.

I was hoping for a little more exploration of morality.  Despite it being an animated film, I still hold them to the same standard as I do anything else.  As with any scenario of morality, the easy way is most often taken.  The white general is eager to cease power from the black president and woman vice president who are eager to find alternatives to genocide.  (ugh and/or facepalm) This is to be expected, but not necessary.  The elements are all there.  Two months left of oxygen, a ship falling apart and a people desperate for survival, the evil military leader wasn’t necessary.  I would have liked to have seen a reluctant general, torn about between doing what he sees as necessary versus what is right.  But that is perhaps hoping for too much.

The movie is enjoyable though, if not a bit predictable.  In the end, both races get to live happily ever after in peace on the planet.  Diplomacy works!  You saw that coming right?  Personally I don’t think I’d be too thrilled about helping and letting an alien civilization live side by side with me after they tried to annihilate my people, but I guess I’m only human.  But maybe in this new day and age, an Independence Day 2 is possible, one where we build the failed invaders a colony of their own so that they can live with us in harmony.  But who knows, maybe that’s what District 9 will be about.

Deadpool Spin-off

Probably the one good thing to come from the Wolverine movie.