BaRRaKID

If it's just a DNS block you can switch the DNS servers on your router/modem and you don't have to worry about anything. Just go to your router/modem configuration page, locate the DNS settings page, change it from automatic to manual and use the server 8.8.8.8 as primary and 8.8.4.4 as secondary. These are Google open DNS servers which are usually faster than the ones provided by your ISP and are not censored, at least not yet. Also did the ISPs just block thepiratebay.org? because TPB has switched to thepiratebay.se a while ago, maybe that one isn't blocked? And you can always use a VPN service, just be sure that you choose one that doesn't keep any logs (that's how some of the lulzsec guys where caught). See which VPNs are safe here: http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-providers-really-take-anonymity-seriously-111007/

In my opinion you should try to get some lessons even if it's just an online course. It's not easy to learn how to code by yourself, you will end out missing lots of basic principles like design patterns, common algorithms and data structures, memory management, etc. Also codding is one of those things that requires a different kind of thinking, you'll struggle a lot to get to a point where coding is almost instinctive and you can look at a problem and immediately see how to turn it into code, it takes lots of practice and patient until it "clicks". Nevertheless I would recommend that you start with C# since it allows you to easily build windows applications and uses the .net framework. Also the syntax is similar to other C variants (C, C++, Objective C, etc) and Java, so it makes it easier to switch to other languages if you need. Try to build some simple desktop applications in C#, look for example at Project Euler for some codding challenges, or go to open source repositories (like sourceforge or github) try to read the source code from some open source projects and implement it yourself (don't copy-paste) to try to understand how everything works. If you have any questions go to Stack Overflow or Code Project (you will also probably come across Experts Exchange many times and end up in a pay well asking for money to see the answer to the question, but if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page the answer is there without having to pay). This is all so that you can get comfortable with codding, once you start "felling it" try to switch to other languages that use different principles to see what their advantages are, and after all that start to look at game engines and build something with them.

I liked the part when the combine soldiers with strider legs fire crossbows with arrows that burn people

It's funny that the CVS article on wikipedia says on the first paragraph that "These symptoms can be further aggravated by improper lighting conditions (i.e. glare [1] or bright overhead lighting) or air moving past the eyes (e.g. overhead vents, direct air from a fan)." Don't the companies you guys work at have work safety and hygiene inspections/audits? Because the very first thing they do is an illuminance measurement. Besides having a bad chair bad light conditions are the worst thing for some one that works with a computer all day. It's not normal to get to the end of the day with red eyes, headaches and blurry vision. If that happens to you make sure that the office lights brightness matches the brightness of your screen. You would be dumb not to do it.

So Tiberium Alliances (the browser based game) just entered the open beta phase. Played it for a couple of minutes and it seems nice so far. It's available here http://alliances.commandandconquer.com/en/

Here we go. Now every American will start to think that anonymous = terrorist GG FBI

I think that the hacked FBI phone call is a good example of how they work. From the info that was released so far about it, it was just a guy that had hacked a random gmail account, found an email with the call details and then told Sabu about it (which at this time was already working for the feds apparently) and asked him for help with a VoIP software to record the call and distribute the phone call. I believe this is how they always work, some guy does something and then they put the anonymous stamp on it. It's wrong to call this an organized group or to suggest that there is someone pulling all the strings behind the scenes, they are just guys doing things, it's as simple as that. I would even say that most of the big hacks are accidental, or at least whoever did them didn't knew what kind of information they would get from it, and are due to the amount of people currently hacking under the anonymous flag, someone will eventually find a pot of gold it they are all searching for it.

It wont change anything tough. The hole point of anonymous is that there isn't a leader to the group, we can all be part of it, so even if they arrest the most prominent members there are still thousands of other hackers out there that will keep doing their work. Besides most of the big breaches are not done by the known members of anonymous, they are done by a random hacker somewhere on a ex-urss country that uses anonymous as an umbrella to divert attentions away from him. And these guys will never be caught, or at least not by the FBI. I'm betting that something big will happen next Friday in response to this

Basically this:

just my two cents. Yeah, I've seen that movie before, it gave me one of the weirdest boners ever lol. They're having sex but they're all so messed up that all the sex scenes become repulsive. But I think your interpretation makes sense

I think we all waited for a few minutes for the credits, kind of shows how good the experience was. First things first, the not so good parts: - Navigation could be improved. There where many times that it was hard to figure out where to go next specially on the sections before the cave, I'm guessing it was due to the low contrast between the textures, and that made me backtrack a lot and get a bit frustrated at the beginning. But let me say that the light/sound (the part where theres a loud seagull sound and you see the seagull flying to where you're supposed to go next was really smart) cues on the cave and the final sections where brilliant. - There where a lot of clipping issues that where made worst by the fact that you couldn't jump. I had to restart twice because i got stuck on the geometry. Also it wasn't always clear what rocks you could walk on and what ledges you could climb/jump off, and there where many invisible walls that kind of ruined the immersion. - I noticed some texture and shader issues but couldn't take any ss of them. I remember that in the final section I could see a big white semi opaque wall on the top of the cliffs from the "beach" that was probably a clip texture or something like that. - There was a bug with the water. When I entered the water everything turned black, which I think was intentional, but the "darkness" remained even after leaving the water which made me have to restart the game twice. Now the good parts I'm definitely going to play this again since I think I missed some important locations. I also noticed that when you restart a section some of the narrations are different, so I'm guessing the story is kind of dynamic and it wont be the same on every playthrough, so I'm curious to see how different the story can be.

It seems like I finally have plans for Valentines Day

The list of SOPA supporters was released, see it here: http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rouge%20Websites/SOPA%20Supporters.pdf GoDaddy is one of the supporters, so as a form of protest everyone opposing the bill is going to transfer their domains to other providers on Dec 29, and many of GoDaddys competitors are offering special discounts for those who which to transfer. So if you're a GoDaddy client protest the bill and save money by transferring your domain to another provider. Also be sure to contact GoDaddy and tell them why you're transferring. More info, and discount codes here: http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/nmnie/godaddy_supports_sopa_im_transferring_51_domains/ Also why the fuck is L'Oreal supporting the bill?! EDIT: GoDaddy no longer supports SOPA http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/release-view.aspx?news_item_id=378&isc=smtwsup

Yes, the combat system is clearly tower defense. You can see at around 00:45 that there is an "Attack Wave Editor". I'm guessing each square represents one of the base entrances, and you then decide which units attack which entrance on each of the four attack waves. Right after that you see an attack in which the defenses are basically the typical C&C towers. So it seems like this will be a Free To Play Tower Defense Persistent Browser Based Massive Multiplayer Online Game, or a F2PTDPBBMMOG

Tiberium Alliances Trailer This looks great for a browser game

The only thing I'm afraid is that it will probably be an Origin exclusive :\ About BioWare Victory, the guy behind the studio is the guy behind Heroes of Might and Magic, so he has some experience with strategy games and seems to know what he is doing. And RA3 was a great game, same for C&C3 (except the expansion, what a waste of money that was). C&C4 was a piece of shit, even worst than C&C Renegade (the one that was half FPS half RTS), and shall never be spoken of again.

I´m a big fan of the C&C series, and now there are two new C&C games on the way. First, Command & Conquer: Generals 2, a proper RTS made by BioWare Victory on the BF3 engine: http://www.commandandconquer.com/en/games/bygameid/cncgenerals2 Second is Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, which is a HTML5 MMO: http://www.ea.com/tiberium-alliances

That has been explained before, but the publishers are the ones that set the prices on steam, so it's not entirely valves fault, except for that policy they have (had?) that dollars=euros, so a 50$ game costs 50€ when it should cost around 35€. As to why the publishers charge as much (or more) for a digital copy as for a retail copy, I believe it's made so that the perceived value of the product doesn't change (which is also one of the reasons I think the latest COD games are doing so well). Basically, if you give a uninformed consumer two similar products the one with the highest price will always be perceived as being better, so if your digital copy costs less than the retail copy the consumer might think that he is buying an inferior version of the product. It's also the reason why a indie game costs much less than a AAA game. If you put the indie label on the game it's perceived value drops, so most buyers expect it to have a much lower price even if the actual quality of the game is on par with many pricier AAA games. You can see how the perceived quality of a product changes it's price by looking at the humble indie bundle. The average price of the bundle is around $3, but there are people willing to pay more than $100 for the same product. About piracy I still download must of my music, but that's because there are no real good music stores around here, and most online stores suck. I used to buy from a Portuguese online store, but after receiving a few albums with broken cases i started doing it less. On the other hand my ISP provides a music streaming service for 8€ a month that I love and use. Basically you have thousands of songs that are provided via streaming. You can add them to playlists that you can then listen to on your TV, computer/laptop and smartphone. You can also download 10 musics for free each month, but if you want more you have to pay for each song. I never felt the need to dowload any songs tough because their steaming quality is great.

The comments on this news post seem relevant to this discussion: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/11/getting-skyrim-skytrim/

The thing is, strange as it sounds, many hackers like and use steam, so I'm guessing we will know who did this very soon.

Bugs can be related to design. If the bugs are serious enough they can get in the way of the gameplay, and as such having a proper testing should be faced as a design issue, at least in enterprise software development testing is seen as a design issue. If nothing else it can attest to the quality of the product. If I were, for example, a level designer in a AAA title I would be ashamed if my map got to the client filled with bugs that made it unplayable.

I think the worst thing atm are PC releases filled with bugs that make the games unplayable. It seems like developers don't even care about the quality of their products anymore. Also developers insisting that I register on their content delivery platform, social network, and hundreds of other services before i can even play. I remember buying GTAIV on Steam, and besides having to lunch Steam, I had to login on Rockstar Social Club and GFWL so that I could save my games, it was the most frustrating experience ever. Even better, stop using GFWL, it's a complete piece of shit.

I think that's the main point, most artsy games are more about the developer than the player, and most of them are really pushy about it, and get offended when you question them. It's a bit like musicians who ask the listeners not to skip songs from their albums, saying that the album should be experienced the way they intended it to be, but in reality the album should be experienced the way I want it to be, if I want to skip a song that I don't appreciate (maybe it brings back bad memories, maybe it doesn't fit my current mood, or maybe I think it breaks the flow of the album, etc...), I will do it, and I don't care.

35min interview with Chet Faliszek about the game. There are some interesting answers there, and it made me feel a bit more optimistic about the game.

Meaningful as in does anyone still give a shit about them (not taking in consideration what they've done in the past)? And saying that RAGE is the best single player shooter (did you mean first person, or any kind of shooter?) of the year so far is a stretch... Crysis 2 and Deus Ex 3 come to mind. Hell according to Metacritic Critic Reviews (not user reviews), Rage is as good as Dead Island, which apparently (haven't played it tbh) is not that good. Have a look for your self. And about Doom 3, many adjectives come to mind, but best looking isn't on of them, quite the opposite actually, to this day I regret buying it along with Q4, although I grew up playing quake and doom and am a big fan of both series.