I've got your Miscellaneous Links for ya, 2012! RIGHT HERE!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

A more thorough exploration of that particular glitch, among others.

http://lparchive.org/Breaking-Final-Fantasy-VI/

As a bonus, you aren't supporting Kotaku's "jouralism" by using your link. What was the thought process of that article, "I'm out of ideas and my deadline is tomorrow, let's write about this thing I saw last year on Something Awful"?

[superaielman]

Gaming journalism makes sports journalism look good. That is a truly impressive feat.

[Grefter]

Any site with daily assigned content is going to have its ups and downs.  So meh.  It is the way gaming news falls down with the big news that is the reason it truly fails.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Overdrift is the story of two brothers, united by a love of drift racing but divided by fate.  Everyone said Duke Kagemura couldn't do it, but then he decided he WOULD do it, only to be told he was drifting way too hard.  When tragedy strikes, his brother, the world's leading expert on Dinopictography, tries to put his life back together when a terrifying discovery shakes up his life and casts doubt on everything he knows.

LET'S DRIFT.

[AndrewRogue]

I'm bothered that the production values on that were so good.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

And yet the automatic transmission was okay?

DUKE OUT.

[Fenrir]

Windows 8 stuff

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57389397-75/how-to-uh-turn-windows-8-off/

With the new OS, Microsoft has set up a new hybrid boot-up process that lets you boot up more quickly. But to achieve this faster speed, Windows 8 actually needs to go into hibernation mode rather than a full shut down.

By moving the Shut down option to a more remote spot, Microsoft may be assuming that people will let their PCs hibernate instead of shutting them down completely. But I think users will be thrown by the lack of an out-in-the-open Shut down button.

Turning Windows 8 off is possible, just not convenient and intuitive. Habits will naturally change. Soon: Millions of computers always being in hibernation mode to avoid the terrible 1 minute long boot up.
This definitely wins "Most meaningless waste of electricity during an environmental crisis" Anything to stay innovative and competitive.

[Grefter]

The terrible threat of standby power is in fact pretty much a load of bullshit.  A PC with its monitors off waiting to boot up uses fuck all power.  Literally not even a thing worth caring about when trying to cut down on your power bill etcetc.  Getting people to turn off unused lights is a far more meaningful saving.

[AndrewRogue]

I seem to generally recall that I've heard a computer uses more power booting up then it does while hibernating for periods.

[SnowFire]

Yeah, to be sure, standby is an issue for some bits of electronics when everybody starts sticking it in (cable boxes, chargers for things that aren't being charged, etc.) but for computers it's fine.  Sure, in aggregate the cost is notable, but if people would just run washing machines on cold (or even warm/cold) that saves waaaaaaaaaay more power.  Or setting their thermostats one degree farther in nature's direction.  Or not using electric hair dryers.  Everything else is a rounding error compared to stuff like that.

[Fenrir]

Sure, there are worse things out there that can be easily changed, but that's not really the point. The point is that it's a change of habits for the worse that's engineered here. As opposed to all those changes for the better that could be done by everyone. (But we can't expect that to happen fast because old habits die hard)
And obviously, Windows' sales are so high even the smallest changes matter.
 
Fair point Andrew. I don't have any numbers to back this up, at all, but I don't think this compares to leaving a computer on 24/24 though.

[Grefter]

It is Pretty much the same though.  That is what Hibernate is there for >_>.

[AndrewRogue]

Welp, according to Energy Star...

8.   What’s the difference between "system standby," "hibernate," "monitor power management," and "turn off hard disks"?
There are 4 basic types of computer power management, or "sleep" features on Windows PCs:

"System standby"
Drops monitor and computer power use down to 1–3 watts each
Wakes up in seconds
Saves $25–75 per PC annually

"System hibernates"
Drops monitor and computer power use down to 1–3 watts each
Wakes up in 20+ seconds
Saves work in the event of power loss
Saves $25–75 per PC annually

"Turn off monitor"
Drops monitor power use down to 1–3 W
Wakes in seconds or less
Saves half as much as system standby or hibernate: about $10–40

"Turn off hard disks"
Saves very little energy

[Fenrir]

Hmm. (I really have nothing to contribute. Thanks Andy)

[Anthony Edward Stark]

He had a really great story in the old cartoon, though.  It turned out Batman was actually the bad guy in that story.

[AndrewRogue]

Update regarding Baldur's Gate 1: Enchanced Edition! Huzzah!

3 new PCs (Half-Elf Wild Mage (Romancable), Half-Orc Blackguard (Kit for PCs), Human Monk (Cloud Peaks area)), The Black Pits (some sort of standalone arena adventure?), and general game improvements.

Unfortunately, there is also some sad news. They have specified exactly what they cannot touch in the Enhanced Edition:

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/1588/bgee-please-read-list-of-things-that-cant-be-done

tl;dr:

1. HD and new animations are off the table (all old art assets are gone).
2. Contractually unable to alter old companions dialogue, etc. Can add new stuff from what I've gathered, but not really sure how far that extends,

Edit: Apparently all three NPCs are romancable, though I'll be damned if the announcements say that.

[Yakumo]

So what I'm seeing here is 'we're doing things modders already did for free but we're charging you for it.  Oh, and modders could do more with the game than we can.'  Am I missing anything here?  Aside from ports to other platforms I guess.

[AndrewRogue]

Indeed, direct engine integration makes absolutely no difference and, of course, the quality of what mods provides is on par with professionals. *shrugs* Honestly, this general line of reasoning confuses me. What were people expecting here?

 

[Yakumo]

I didn't expect anything because until you posted that link I'd never heard of this project.  That said, there's already mods that fix bugs, there's already mods that integrate BG1 into BG2's engine, there's mods that add NPCs, there's mods that add player kits.  The GoG version of the game makes it very easy to play on newer systems and is cheaper.  Also, there are mods out there that are on par with and better than what 'professionals' do(and a lot that aren't, sure).  Just because you pay for something doesn't make it automatically better.

I honestly don't understand what's confusing about this line of thinking.  Please, feel free to enlighten me as to why I'm wrong.  I like BG2, I just don't see any reason to pay for this version of it when I have a working version that does all of this and more already.

[AndrewRogue]

Well, setting aside a bit of my sarcasm and snark, having stuff directly implemented is, in general, superior to mods when making considerations for potential for conflicts and ease of installs/movement between PCs (as well as making sure said elements are optimized).

The NPC/Kit mod question is another can of worms entirely, but it kind of breaks down to the "you can read fanfiction for free, so why buy books" or "you can play flash games free, why buy games" lines of reasoning. And, of course, it also falls under the umbrella of additional content integrated into the game. And yes, while stuff from professionals isn't always good and stuff from amateurs isn't always bad, I really can't count more than a handful of truly good mods to BG2 that aren't the general fixpacks.

*shrugs* It is a convenience upgrade (as well as some new features) + content upgrade. It is fine to think it isn't worth the pricetag or the pricetag over your own purchase, but it is somewhat annoying to see that particular brand of snark about it.

All in all, I'm probably more overreacting to a perceived tone than anything.

[Yakumo]

Well, I'm not going to lie, I really did intend that to sound snarky.  These people are trying to re-release a game that's over a decade old and they allowed themselves to get into a contract that doesn't let them make much in the way of meaningful changes to it.  They can't even make a graphical update to appeal to new players that haven't played the original version.  A game that looks like BG/BG2 isn't going to draw a lot of attention.  I know that's not really fair but it's true.  So, it boils down to if you like the original game enough to pay $20 for a couple new NPCs, bugfixes without needing to run a mod, and whatever else they can shoehorn in without making drastic changes, when you can buy the original for half that on GoG(if you don't have it already) and run a couple mods to get basically the same game.

Also, bringing up flash games as an analogy here is not helping your case.  Flash games aren't even close to the same as modern games.  If a flash game and, say, Skyrim were this similar, of course I'd play the flash game, but they're not even in the same ballpark.  This is more similar to Cave Story+, which I also won't buy because I don't feel it has enough extra value compared to the original.  Obviously, other people disagree with me but that's opinions for you.

[Grefter]

I would say Cave Story+ is more about taking the chance to throw some money the Devs way.

Market penetration is a big deal.  We know and love(?) GOG.  Swaths of modern consumers don't.  Not everyone trusts online purchases on PC.  The work you have to do to get mods working can be an impenetrable barrier to entry to some.

Being able to tell my sister who enjoyed BG back in the day but never beat it or played the sequel because she was playing it with a couple of no lifing teenage boys that she can pick it up for $20 with an iTunes card and play it on an iPad she has access to?  Worth that price tag and development time in my opinion.  Especially if they leave PC version open to mods and if there ends up being a converter for them then omgwtfbbq happens I guess.

[NotMiki]

The work you have to do to get mods working can be an impenetrable barrier to entry to some.

Which is funny, because getting mods working is unquestionably easier than learning to play BG.

[Grefter]

If you don't want to play it well BG is amazingly easy.  You click buttanz and then the wolf kills you.

[Shale]

I would say Cave Story+ is more about taking the chance to throw some money the Devs way.

That's why I bought it. When the original game was given away for free that changes the calculus some.

Meanwhile you can throw money at the BG devs through GOG right now, and it comes with PS:T so you'd actually get something worth playing at the same time.  Unless you're getting it for the new platform, it makes the EE an even bigger waste of cash. Especially when they're saying they're reluctant to change encounters because it might introduce bugs. If you don't have the time to QA that shit, don't bother with the project.