Relevant to our interests:
http://io9.com/5634183/na...ire?skyline=true&s=i

Well the DLC for Dragon Age has been a bit hit or miss, with the most recent ones being non-essential to the main games story line, let alone the addon pack. For they either occur before as in Leliana's Song or after (Witch Hunt, Golems of Amgarrak). Actually I think Witch Hunt is something peeps probably wish was apart of Awakening, even with it being the epilogue & link to Dragon Age 2. They were also very short.

Then we've Mass Effect 2 where to some the DLC was "Joy, content that missed the shipping date", "Heh! not more guns", "What! More clothes for Jack!?!" or "Oh noes Mako mish!" up till: Lair of the Shadow Broker. Which unlike what everyone's expectations is a in-main-storyline addition, not a "Oh, you've screwed over the Collectors & the Reapers, for now! Game Over!....oh have some more story" thing. I'm liking the Shadow Broker's base, it randomly gets sent stuff (minerals, upgrades, credits). Then there's the video archive system, it's an in-game youtube, probably has a limited number of clips they can use.

I must finish ME2 someday soon, I've still yet to travel through the Omega 4 relay, in any playthrough.

--Rod.H

Even if we did have to stop and take a break once...

In the depths of Dark Space, the Harbinger waited.
While the others had desired nothing more than to await the vanguard's signal, Harbinger had not been so complacent.
While the others had slept off the consumption of an entire galaxy, Harbinger had watched. Pondered. Prepared.
Organic life, mutating and changing constantly. Adapting to the new in an eye blink of a Reaper's lifetime. Compared to his brethren who saw it as an accidental mutation of random chemicals, Harbinger saw potential. Rather than the short term mutations of the numerous husks, Harbinger had taken the last of the Protheans and converted them into useful, reusable tools. As their flesh failed, he spliced in more technology, successfully bonding the two and creating more productive servants than the husks had ever been.
The Collectors were but the poor, insufficient prototype. There was not a large enough sample size for Harbinger's great work. His masterpiece, which would show the Others that his view was correct. But its proof would take time. Its core would have to be selected with the greatest care. The most worthy species would form the organic matrix that would allow the new Reaper to grow, adapt, and thrive.
Thousands of species were considered, and dozens of candidates almost made it to fruition. But always events strove to defy Harbinger's will. The Krogan genophage. The destruction of the Drell homeworld. The Quarian exile. All had introduced variables into the equation that left their species incompatible with Harbinger's goal.
Shepard.
It always came back to Shepard. She had defied the vanguard. She had derailed his plans, and the end, the death of Nazara was on her hands. She was a single, insignificant organic gnat, and yet she had defied the creators of her entire universe and won.
She was perfect.
Humanity...was perfect, and she the ultimate representative of it. A calculated gamble had taken her out of play early on, allowing Harbinger's Collectors to operate unopposed, but other elements had prevented Harbinger from gaining his true prize, her remains. Still, the experiment proceeded apace.
Then the unimaginable happened. She returned. Not cloned, like thousand, million of his servants. Not a surgical resemblance. It was her. It was the bright, shining beacon of humanity's potential that had drawn his eye to their species, reborn again. And reborn like the fiery creatures of a thousand organic myths. She defied him. Denied him his prizes. Slaughtered his servants. She was everything she had been against Nazara. She danced on a thousand screens within the Harbinger's interior, data from a hundred encounters reviewed and reworked. Dozens of Collectors were reduced to burnt out shells by his direct presence so that he could study her closer. So that he could inform her of what was to come. But the knowledge of her place in the grand scheme would wait. Wait until the very end.
And as she had Nazara, she defied him as well.
The Collectors, his most powerful servants, were insufficient against her onslaught. They fought and fell and died. And their base of operations fell with them. And with them, the proto-core of Harbinger's masterpiece. But Harbinger was undeterred. Shepard had proved beyond any doubt that she and her species were the pinnacle of organic evolution in this cycle. That the newest Reaper added to their number would carry the genetic legacy of humanity into eternity.
Though the vanguard had fallen, Harbinger relayed the message. He would awake his kin. He would bring war upon this galaxy. Stars would tremble and worlds would burn at the return of the Reapers.
But humanity...humanity was to be his. And in the center of it all, he would make a shrine....a temple....a throne to incorporate Shepard into. She was beyond perfect, a paragon...and in the end, he would take great pleasure in watching her realize what she was about to become just before the Reaper was completed, uplifting her and her species to a new existence that they had earned by the right of their unique nature. She would become utterly perfect...and she would be his.
It was the only fitting existence for one so exquisite.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Okay, my fiance has said to me in the past, "Why don't you write an original story?"
I've had ideas, but they all kinda stall.  Except earlier today I had another one.  It's a bit formulaic, but I think I can throw in enough interesting bits to keep it from being boring.
First, the history.
We have a set of binary planets - perfectly balanced at each other's lagrange points so there's no tidal forces to rip them apart.  Both worlds are Earth-like, with contenents, large oceans, and planted right in the middle of the sweet spot of a star system.  Inteligent life evolved on one of the worlds into a civilazation.  Eventually, they colonised their not-too-distant sister world.  Over the course of a century or two, the culture on the sister-world diverges enough that a war is caused by whatever means.  It matters not anymore because both civilizations bombed each other back into the iron age.
Time passes and both worlds slowly build themselves back up to their second space-age, but ancient-yet-vivid memories remain of a cataclysm brought on by demonic enemies from their respective sister-worlds.  Naturally, they start to pick up where they left off.
Now, along comes the Visitors.  They're not like the people on these two worlds, of course.  They're enlightened scientists and explorers who sometimes uplift species they deem suitable (i.e.: smart enough to know that the guys the just came down from the sky aren't really gods, nor are they your enemies) all in the name of promoting diversity and trade in the greater galaxy.  Of course, they have rules about this sort of situation, and for the most part they have to let these people sort it out themselves.  However, there is a proviso for setting the cat among the canaries.
Two infants are asked for, one for each world, and two families courageously sacrifice their newborn children.  (Yes, one male, one female)  It is a simple test - give them a child of your own and see how they choose to raise that child.  This will show if there is any hope to be had for the unwitting perspective client-race.
While the Visitors are different, they are not so different that each child cannot live a normal life, as they share some similarities in the number of apendages and basic biochemistries.  They are also telepathic, but the 'bandwidth' is proportional to range - at the maximum range, only the vaguest emotions can be conveyed.  Up close, though, it is not uncommon to form a gestalt-mind for when it is needed.  The cannot act as direct-repeaters, though.  They can pass along information, but the voice will be theirs and theirs alone.  Gestalts, even though they are completely networked, require at least one mind to be a focal-point - a ring-leader of sorts to take charge of the group.
At the range of the sister-worlds, the two children will be somewhat aware of each other's existence.  They won't have any concrete idea, except for the vague notion that maybe there is something like him/her self over on that other world.  They are also vaguely aware of the observation team that's been left in charge with this long-term task.  They wait at a temporary observation posts stationed at one of the other lagrange points.
The peoples of the two sister worlds are not heartless.  While the sudden appearence of the infant children is mysterous, they're not about to let that be cause to make the childrens' lives miserable.  While the envoronment they are raised in is not particularly controlled, it is closely monitored.  The families chosen are both military, and fully aware that this isn't simply a case of little-boy/girl-lost.  The families grow to love their respective children, and the children thus grow to love their adopted families and peoples, even though they themselves wonder about their mysterious origins.
Love of one's people, especially when raised in a military family, easily leads to a certain degree of pride and nationalism.  My people must be protected, they think to themselves, and of course they sign up for military service.  This leads to the usual sort of contradictory repulsion/attraction you'd expect when the two cross swords the first time.  Of course, with their telepathic talent, it also leads to the expected "Get out of my mind!" and "You first!" reaction. (^_^)
That can lead to two things: psychosis or just accepting it.  Since the two are pretty well balanced individuals, this leads to the latter.  And that, of course, leads to the seeds of understanding, then romance, and then, of course, a cluster-fuck as the two adopted children begin to speak out: "They're not so different from us!"
From there, we can go for several outcomes.  My least favorite being the total tragedy: both are executed for treason and the war continues unabated.  Another outcome somewhat less bad is the two are killed while on some mission to prove their point... but in the end, the two sides see what they were getting at and begin to talk to each other instead of just shooting.  Or, reverse it: they are picked up by the observation team after the two find that their peoples won't listen to reason - they live out their lives regretful of that fact even though they are in the comfort of their own kind.  And then, finally, the WAFF version (aka the Happy Ending): our two heroes succeed in their mission and become amabssadors between their peoples, negotiating not only their peace, but their uplift as well.
Thoughts?

I was just wandering, give there are hazard symbols for Radiological, biological, and chemical threats, what's the Handwavium hazard symbol?

(Spotted on the Daily Illuminator.)

BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11219411]Zombies take over Baltimore University curriculum

Just the one course, so you can't actually major in Zombie Studies...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

What do you think of this?
Time of Dying ( Three Day's Grace)
On the ground I lay

Motionless in pain

I can see my life flashing before my eyes

Did I fall asleep?

Is this all a dream

Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare

I will not die (I will not die)

I will survive

I will not die, I'll wait here for you

I feel alive, when you're beside me

I will not die, I'll wait here for you

In my time of dying

On this bed I lay

Losing everything

I can see my life passing me by

Was it all too much

Or just not enough

Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare

I will not die (I will not die)

I will survive

I will not die, I'll wait here for you

I feel alive, when you're beside me

I will not die, I'll wait here for you

In my time of dying

I will not die, I'll wait here for you

I feel alive, when you're beside me

I will not die, I'll wait here for you

In my time of dying

I will not die, I'll wait here for you

I will not die, when you're beside me

I will not die, I'll wait here for you

In my time of dying

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOCJWr97NO0 )
I'm thinking something along the lines of the above song being able to keep Doug alive when mortally wounded, although it might only work if someone's on their way to help him ("I will not die, I'll wait here for you").

It's awesome, but does anyone have any idea what exactly it is in honor of?  Or what it's supposed to be, for that matter?
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

Song: Got My Mind Set On You
Sung: George Harrison
Written: Rudy Clark

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you.

But it's gonna take money
a whole lotta spending money

It's gonna take plenty of money to do it right
child.
It's gonna take time
a whole lotta precious time

It's gonna take patience and time to do it
to do it

To do it
to do it
to do it
to do it right
child.

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you.

And this time I know it's real
the feeling that I feel

I know if I put my mind to it
I know that I really can do it.
I got my mind set on you
set on you

I got my mind set on you
set on you.

But it's gonna take money
a whole lotta spending money

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you.

And this time I know it's real
the feeling that I feel

I know if I put mv mind to it
I know that I really can do it.
But it's gonna take money
a whole lotta spending money
. .

Set on you
set on you
set on you
set on you

Set on you
set on you
set on you
set on you

Set on you
set on you
set on you
set on you.

Doug is able to mentally talk/understand anyone. However, how far he can reach and/or how much information
can be exchanged depends upon how much local currency he has on, not near, him at the time. Once the song is
done the currency disappears as "payment."