Ferrum Aeternum

Yeah this certainly doesn't bode well for football and basketball either, seeing how close contact is mandatory in those. No way to keep it from spreading. Even players wearing masks, in addition to being impractical, wouldn't guarantee safety.

That's insane. This is basic stuff that no one should screw up this badly. Also, a Windows Store exclusive? Yikes.

Drack is one-note at the beginning - the whole squad is, really - but he grows a good bit over time. His loyalty mission "A Future for our People" is phenomenal. It shows how passionate he is about the success of the Krogan colony on Elaaden. And yeah, he's ancient even by Krogan standards, so that's going to come up a lot. I like how the other Krogan, particularly at the colony, show a kind of reverence to him. Dude's a living legend. I think we are of two minds here regarding the dialogue - PeeBee is seriously the only character who annoys me. Well, check that - Liam's curtness with the other squadmates can be a little frustrating. It seems like Ryder is the only character he's willing to open up to at all. I like that Ryder is a cocky smartass most of the time. The devs were purposely going for the anti-Shepard and I think for the most part they got it right. It makes sense to me that people willing to take a 600-year journey into the near-complete unknown of another galaxy would be a bit...different than the usual. I guess the humor and overall lighter tone mostly work for me. Some of the conversations in the Nomad are great. Certain combinations of squadmates work better than others, for sure. I haven't encountered the laughing dialogue you mention, although it does remind me of one of my biggest pet peeves with the game - dialogues getting crossed up and/or interrupted, often by SAM. I actually like SAM as a character, but there are times when he simply will not shut up. The lines he repeats at certain points (planet condition warnings, mining zones, etc) get old fast, but those can be modded out on PC.

I've been going back through it lately as well, and I'm enjoying it a lot more this time around (and I didn't hate it the first time). One thing that's different is I'm now playing it on PS4 instead of PC - I enjoy combat in this game more with a controller than K&M for some reason. I have to say also, on my PS4 Pro the environments are phenomenal to behold. Really makes exploring the different planets a lot of fun. The dialogue is pretty wonky in places, but I mostly don't mind it. I actually like all of the squadmates except for PeeBee - she's neither funny nor insightful nor entertaining. I would've preferred another Andromeda alien squadmate instead, because J'aal is pretty awesome.

Kim has certainly gotten a thrill out of her and Jimmy’s con games, and as the stakes have gotten higher that has intensified. At this point it seems she feels bulletproof. It’s clear to me that their game is about to hit a brick wall named Kevin. Fuck’s sake, he even TOLD her that he smelled a rat, he just hadn’t quite put it all together at that point. Schweikart knows she’s headed for trouble too - he tried to give her an out, but she still thinks that between she and Jimmy they can outmaneuver anyone. That hubris is about to catch up with her.

I thought he sounded under the weather in his address the other night. Frankly I don't have many points of comparison because I can only stomach listening to his stupid voice so much. White House keeps saying that he "hasn't been tested," despite all the contact he's had with confirmed cases. It would be the most Donald J. Trump thing ever for him to refuse being tested despite obvious warning signs, like the big giant baby he is.

I went to Kroger yesterday on my lunch break, fully expecting the store to be ransacked. In fact it wasn't that bad at all. There were more people shopping than usual, but not that many more. The shelves were a bit picked over but otherwise stocked decently enough. Bottom line was I found everything I needed, including toilet paper (I was down to two rolls at home). I must confess that I've never bought hand sanitizer in my life and didn't think to look yesterday, so I have no idea if they were out of that or not. What I focused on buying was non-perishable foodstuffs. I normally keep about a week's worth of canned goods in my pantry for emergencies. Now I've got 2-3 weeks' worth. I figure if the shit really hits the fan for longer than that, we'll all have bigger problems to deal with. I'm frankly a bit surprised that there hasn't been more panic-buying here, considering that any time there's a quarter inch of snow in the weather forecast the stores here run out of everything.

No because the first thing they'll do is trip over their dicks to dig up that goddamn Bryce Drew game.

You can bet they're doing everything possible to make it happen, in some form. If that's "May Madness," so be it. ETA: LOL well fuck that logic. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/28893285/ncaa-tournaments-canceled-coronavirus

The NCAA is as fucked as the cruise ship lines, then. The annual budget of the entire organization hinges on the revenues from the men's basketball tournament.

The flu didn't bring the entire world to a screeching halt the year of that game, is why. Also just to be clear, I don't believe Gobert is criminally liable for anything, but I can see how his extreme carelessness and flippancy could be seen as damaging to the NBA's brand, again given these extreme circumstances.

I think the NBA is certainly justified to levy a punishment. Just the optics of his behavior is a very bad look for the league, given the monumental impact of this thing.

I'm floored by this. How bizarre is it going to be watching these games in echoing, empty arenas? Bounces and shoe squeaks ad infinitum. Guess it may be interesting to hear players and coaches yell and cuss more clearly?

This is why I don't like jarring, out-of-place cameos in general. It's like that damn Wilhelm Scream. Every time I hear that in a movie I'm suddenly like "oh right, this is just a movie someone made, complete with an overused inside joke."

They're going to be playing Delos technicians, and given the track record of such characters I do indeed expect them to die horribly. But yeah, I'd prefer to just not see their smug faces at all.