Borgen is great definitely watch it

Kasper (Pilou Asbæk) is a horny, deceptive, political genius of a spin doctor, a personality which to some degree was formed as a result of childhood sexual abuse...
great synergy with Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk), a horny, not at all deceptive, naval genius of a pirate king who (at least in the books) molested his younger brother when he was a kid and later in life crucified him on the bow of his ship

Great acting, great politics, a main character Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) who is both an idealist and realistically shrewd and politically savage enough. No Captain America solutions here, when there's a trolley problem you can bet at least one person's getting turned to jam under wheels


I have only seen season 1 of three but if you like house of cards or early game of thrones and you want something that's less flamboyant and love reading subtitles then get on board

who gives a shit about video games anyway?

can we get a new domain name? topdogforums.com or something.

It's hard to invite randoms to the forum because the URL : content difference is misleading and no-one I know wants to join a generic video games themed forum. if this just had a random meaningless name it'd be easier to invite people as like a general hangout, then you have ONE SINGLE FORUM and people mainly post video game stuff on it, but also politics/random and it's ok and everything will then work and everyone will be happy and live in harmony in a SINGLE FORUM SOCIETY free from dead forums and disorder.

so I was just looking around for ps4 controllers (for my PC of course, I'm not a peasant) and I figured I might as well buy an arcade stick while I'm at it, so I can eventually go to other peoples houses and play Tekken without raging about ps4 controllers. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hori-PS4-092-...Sw3dZc6-yI

http://stores.horiusa.com/real-arcade-pr...station-4/

looking at something like one of these. PC compatibility doesn't seem to be a major issue, so I'm focusing on getting the price range right so it doesn't feel cheap, but I'm not spending too much on my first stick..

Suggestions?

Bring an umbrella.

Risk of Rain 2 has been out a few months now, it's in early access and is pretty dam fantastic already and has loads of content to keep you playing. Go buy it maybe if its your jam. It is a rouge like though. So every run is different and death means you start again.



SilentSun and I had probably our best run yet last night. was so fucking good. But man, got to Hell for the 3rd time and the enemies were nothing but bosses right away and hitting hard.

I also suggested SilentSun pick up Glass (double damage, half health) and get 3 Infusions (+1 HP for every kill up to 100 kills, x3 = 300 more hp to make up for getting Glass) acting like it would all work out ok. It did not, he died immediately. And I died cause I stood still for a second.

Despite that, best run yet! 12 stages in a row and we had like 4 red items each and dam they were good items. I was Engineer and SilentSun was the new character, Rex.

Anyway, checkout how cool my character looked jacked up on all these items:






Typically, Engineer starts off looking like this:

Looks shit.

Fucking hyyype.
Go and watch made in abyss if you havent already

I got TW3 a few years ago on Steam. I couldn't really get into it, and after a few attempts, I gave up shortly after the tutorial area. It just didn't click for me.

Naturally, I bought it again when I got my PS4. I decided this time, since I already had a file on PC, I'd try to play the whole game on the hardest difficulty. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get past literally the start of the game (the fight with the ghouls). I dropped it again.

A month or so ago, I got a hankering to play it. I booted it up almost two years after my last attempt, and started fresh on the hardest difficulty. After a lot of attempts, I got past the start of the game. (Then I looked up how the speedrunners do it, and the answers is just "run away").

I just finished the main storyline tonight.

What a great game! There's so much content. There's basically too much content. After a while, I just had to decide to do only what interested me, and eventually I just decided to push through and finish the main story, otherwise I'd never be done. I'm happy now to go back and mop up everything I left over at my leisure.

Best part of the game? Getting drunk and megascoping for witches to sleep with.
Worst part of the game? Using Geralt's jump/climbing abilities to climb a mountain you're not meant to climb, and then having literally no way to get back down alive.

The main story, all in all, was pretty boring. Every main-story boss fight was pretty shit, Eredin included. Even though it was intense, once you get the rhythm of the fight down, it's a matter of patience and consistency. That said, I didn't dislike the combat system like almost everyone seems to.

After loving Axii and Quen for the first 5% of the game, I woke up and realised that Aard was just a more OP Axii. I tried to give up Quen, but it was just too necessary. My build was basically maxing out Aard's strength, maxing out Quen's strength, using the Griffin set, using the medium armour perk, maxing out the doge i-frames skill, and because I was on DM difficulty, I shoehorned in a vitality regen perk at the end of the game. Combat was basically 90% Aard, 10% quen. Eventually my stamina regen was so fast, I could afford to be super aggressive with Aard, able to re-up my Quen immediately after getting hit.

Thoughts, Ghost?

The Fargo film and series is an excellent exploration of mediocrity, and the way it manifests in the world.

The film, the first entry into the world, has three characters who each explore a different aspect of mediocrity.

Jerry Lundergaard

The reason for Jerry's misconduct in this film is ambiguous, but his ambition is clear: Illegally obtain a grand sum of money. I think the implication is that he's trying to pay off a loan he fraudulently took out- I'm not sure, and it doesn't matter. Jerry plans to get this money by hiring a couple of thugs to kidnap his wife, who will then ransom her back to his wealthy father-in-law. Jerry decides to be the liaison between the thugs and his FiL, telling the FiL that the thugs want significantly more money than he promised them, with the ideal outcome being that he can take the difference with nobody knowing.

Jerry is mediocre. Although he has a title at the car dealership at which he works, he seems to be a poor salesman (resorting to cheap tactics to boost his commission). He is also defrauding the lot by claiming on cars that he doesn't have- a scam so mediocre we watch it fall apart as the real plot goes on. Jerry is a mediocre businessman- he pitches a business idea to his FiL, and has it stolen off of him immediately with only a middling finder's fee offered. Jerry is a mediocre husband- he has his wife kidnapped. Jerry is a mediocre criminal- none of his schemes work out. Jerry's not a schmuck, he's just generally poor at whatever he attempts.

We can only assume that Jerry is scheming for money to escape the mediocre life he has built for himself, but his own mediocrity prevents him from doing so.

Carl Showalter

Carl is the criminal that Jerry hires to kidnap his wife.

Carl is not necessarily poor at what he does- he is actually the most successful person in the film (especially if you consider being woodchippered success). Carl, however, is surrounded by mediocrity, and he knows it. Carl brings along associate Gaear Grimsrud, and the two have a good romp kidnapping Jerry's wife. Everything Carl does stands out as a man who's trying to act as though he's above his surroundings. At one point, Carl hires a prostitute and goes out to dinner and a show. Carl tries to have a civilised discussion, and is visibly annoyed by the mediocrity of his company. Carl reads like a capable criminal who has great potential, but just isn't where he wants to be in life. Most of Carl's scenes have him juxtapose with Gaear, who is virtually mute and entirely thuggish. 

Carl represents those who recognise the mediocrity around them and try to rise above it, but are ultimately unable to escape their surroundings.

Marge Gunderson

Marge is a mediocre cop. Her husband is a mediocre man. Marge is the mediocre everyman.

Marge misses every opportunity to properly connect Jerry to his conspiracy. In fact, it's not until she finds out that an old acquaintance lied to her in an earlier scene that she, a cop, realises that people are capable of telling mistruths. Imagine that- a cop who doesn't suspect the prime suspect could lie to her. Eventually, after fumbling her way through the film, Marge does her job, and the film ends with her expressing her disbelief that someone would commit crimes over money.

Marge represents those who are mediocre, and are comfortable in their mediocrity.

Also, shout out to Jerry's FiL, Wade, who is presented as extremely successful, but gets in over his head and is killed. Not really relevant, but better than giving a shout out to that funny Asian guy.

In a wild slip Labour MP Raymond Huo reveals New-Zealand-Saudi Arabia plot to capture Jamal Khashoggi and instead of cutting him up and disposing of remains, something far more insidious: installing him as a secret member of parliament in New Zealand (who apparently voted against End of Life Euthanasia bill)

Thoughts? I think it will be bad