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Saturday, May 21, 2016 - 19:27 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Soft Reboot

A low-intensity post was in order after all that US election hullabaloo, and with what should be a lull period in store (the first general debates are scheduled for late September), this should be an opportune moment to taper this blog away from that topic for awhile. The GOD-EMPEROR remains gaining, of course, and if planes continue dropping out of the sky, engendering the usual suspects, it's not hard to imagine how TRUMP's hardline stances might yet win it for him.

Now, it's obviously unfair to stereotype the average Muslim as responsible - no less than it would be to attribute the KKK, IRA or Breivik as representing Christians, killings supported by nationalist monks in Myanmar as Buddhist, etc. However, skirting attributions wholesale isn't very convincing either, despite best intentions, but when successful religions more or less have to sell primacy and exclusivity to survive, these conflicts ain't going away anytime soon.

One of the late LKY's lesser-appreciated top feats, then, stemmed from his foresight in rejecting Saudi funding for the promotion of their strain of militant Wahhabi Salafism, and fostering mandatory integration, credit where credit is due - compare all the effectively racially/religiously-segregated ghettos and "no-go zones" all over Europe. [N.B. Street talk's that LKY's comments didn't go down well with Deng, but from the explanation, he was screwed whatever he said anyway]

Anyway, with the Sauds apparently running of out cash - and political heft - this particular bugbear might well resolve itself to an extent. Sadly, there'll be a huge human price as and when it comes to pass, if Venezuela's ongoing collapse is any indication; Italy's decriminalization of food theft for survival, for example, sounds humane, but this only works when, well, there exists food to take - which soon might not be the case.

This makes one appreciate the simpler pleasures of life, with an elevated risk of diabetes due to starchy white rice often the worst that is faced here. But, lest one gets too smug from The State's Times' diet of self-congratulatory pieces, it's also good to be aware of the other side of the stories - you probably won't hear that Singapore's the fourth highest in crony capitalism according to The Economist, or the full extent of low-level corruption, in our feel-good mouthpieces...


Game State

Eh, no point getting overly worked up about the mess around the world - and what better way to chill, than with Steam?


[Hollens/Malukah cover]
[USA! USA! USA!]


Top of the news: Civilization 6 is due out on October 21, which sounds like an open invitation to take the following week off. Admittedly, I haven't really got started with Beyond Earth, but the main Civ series was always the meat and potatoes.

From the previews, some of the major updates are:

  • Territory-specific Research: Actions affect pace of picking up new techs, e.g. cranking out fishing boats helps teach navigation. Makes sense, I suppose, no reason why a culture with no access to suitable stone should learn how to quarry as quickly as one with

  • Tile Specialization: Yes, there were always tile improvements, but Civ 6 looks to be taking it much further with actual districts; given that I'm still missing Civ 4's (is it ten years already?!) towns, I'm quite sure I'll take to this particular improvement

  • (Limited) Unit Stacking: While the switch to hexagonal tiles was probably for the better, a hard one unit per tile restriction could seriously clog up the map - corps and armies might relieve that somewhat

  • Cartoony Art Style: Popular feedback is that it's looking like a cheap Android freemium game. Hopefully they do something about this

  • Improved Diplomacy, General A.I.: Ok, I'll believe it when I see it (sold short too many times already)

Dota 2 next. After being off it for months, I went back with a few bot matches, only to discover that there have been some pretty big changes. River ramps and neutral creep spawns - which have been fixed since, like, forever - apart, the influx of new items makes one feel that they're slowly trying to open up the mechanic space, and thus take away some of the unique selling points of certain heroes: siege from outside tower range? Move over Sniper, there's Dragon Lance!

Definitely, there's still nothing like the sport of battling it out with real human opponents, but the... unforgiving nature of getting back up to par, can sure be discouraging.

Mousehunt: finally got to Archduke on Friday. New Furoma Rift area just opened. Haven't even upgraded the basic Crystal Tower trap. Meh. Oh well, skipping trap tiers for the other power types to be further delayed now...

KoL, AdventureQuest, Hattrick, etc: Farm, farm. Story of my gaming life, come to think of it.

Something interesting: the evolution of long shots, from FIFA 94 to 16. For a franchise that's all but obliged to crank out some new fad every single year to drive repeat sales, EA hasn't done too badly on this one.


Link It All Up!


Too much of a good thing


Quote of the Week

"...he was half insane and half god. It meant that Kino would drive his strength against a mountain and plunge his strength against the sea. Juana, in her woman's soul, knew that the mountain would stand while the man broke himself; that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it. And yet it was this thing that made him a man, half insane and half god."

- The Pearl, John Steinbeck
[N.B. more recommended extracts]




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Next: The Ordained One


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