Happy Friday!

Marela · **Posted:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:57 am

Oh, Friday.

I know many of us love and play (or loved and played) Warcraft, but Starcraft II came out this week. Did anyone else get that? I loved Starcraft so much. <3

Speaking of space and such, here is an interesting recent story:

Quote:

Imagine a star so luminous that it would burn the Earth up if it were anywhere near, a star that outshines the sun as much as the sun outshines the moon. A monster even in the abyss of space.

The star is not some scientist's celestial dream. Astronomers used a Very Large Telescope -- the instrument's official name -- to detect the most massive star discovered to date. In scientific lingo, it's a "hypergiant."

Led by Paul Crowther, professor of astrophysics at England's University of Sheffield, the team of astronomers studied two young clusters of stars, NGC 3603 and RMC 136a.

R136a1, found in the RMC 136a cluster, is 10 million times brighter than the sun and is the heaviest star ever found, Crowther said Wednesday, with a mass that is roughly 265 times more than the sun. It was born even heavier, with a solar mass of 320. Astronomers previously thought 150 to be the upper limit.

Several of the stars studied had surface temperatures of 40,000 degrees, more than seven times hotter than the sun.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/07/21/monster.star/

and

http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1007/21massive/

Of course, it is probably not going to be around for very long. In the second article, they estimate its age at only a million or so years (compared to the estimated 4.6 billion for our sun). Still neat though.

Anyway, have a happy Friday and a happy weekend, all!

Vitruvius · **Posted:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 2:11 pm

I might be the only person on the face of the earth who didn't really care much for Starcraft. I suppose I just "didn't get it". After playing the game I couldn't see what the fuss was all about, to me it was just another RTS game. I always preferred the Age of Empires series. :roll:

Azshannya · **Posted:** Fri Jul 30, 2010 3:53 pm

Vitruvius wrote:

I might be the only person on the face of the earth who didn't really care much for Starcraft. I suppose I just "didn't get it". After playing the game I couldn't see what the fuss was all about, to me it was just another RTS game. I always preferred the Age of Empires series. :roll:

It would be Civ V for me! Oh, and the governor of Maryland has declared September 21, 2010 Sid Meier's Civilization V Day. (Sid has lived in Maryland for decades)

Quote:

"Sid Meier is known throughout Maryland and the world as a pioneer of electronic gaming, having co-founded his first studio in Baltimore County, Maryland in 1982, and today continuing a tradition of developing the talent and creativity of future generations."

Bllyth · **Posted:** Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:07 pm

Vitruvius wrote:

I might be the only person on the face of the earth who didn't really care much for Starcraft. I suppose I just "didn't get it". After playing the game I couldn't see what the fuss was all about, to me it was just another RTS game. I always preferred the Age of Empires series. :roll:

I am not a huge fan of Starcraft myself......played it for maybe a day and didnt like it at all...glad to know I am not alone....

Dathen · **Posted:** Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:27 pm

I managed to get through the Terran missions of Starcraft, but dang, that game was unforgiving. The biggest improvement would be a difficulty scale >_> I'm past my days of RTS, though; years of WoW and my current obsession with Bioware RPGs have made the part of my brain that can multitask to that level atrophy.

Tiare · **Posted:** Sat Jul 31, 2010 5:24 pm

I didn't even survive the Terran missions. The game is just to twitchy and with my slow thinking and bad eye/hand coordination I just could not play it. I had the same problem with the original Warcraft and the one C&C game I tried long ago. I want to like RTS games, really I do, but I just can't play them. OTOH, I can play XCOM and Alpha Centauri until the cows come home.

Dathen · **Posted:** Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:23 am

Tiare, having (months and months behind) just finished playing Mass Effect 2, your avatar fills me with joy. Just had to share that.

I pretty much grew up on nothing but RTS as far as computer games go, unless you count the random Carmen Sandiego educational games, and Starcraft -still- fries my brain. Warcraft was difficult for me but I managed it, and had a lot more fun on the way. My comfort zone, though, is still Age of Mythology, but as a gamer and a mythology nerd.

Tiare · **Posted:** Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:04 am

Alas, I cannot take credit for the avatar Dathen. I found it on a ME2 site someplace and immediately fell in love with it. As soon as I finish my current game of Titan Quest, I'm going to go back and play through ME2 again. Since the game got a lot more first-person-shooter-like on me as compared to ME1, I'll still have to play through it on the easy setting again though.

Marela · **Posted:** Tue Aug 03, 2010 3:23 pm

Yay for other Starcraft fans.

Dathen: I loved Carmen Sandiego, both the games and the snow. I always wanted to be on it.

Tiare: Yes, your user icon does indeed rock. <3

Azshannya · **Posted:** Tue Aug 03, 2010 3:46 pm

Marela wrote:

Dathen: I loved Carmen Sandiego, both the games and the snow. I always wanted to be on it.

I am a map-freak (was told I started reading maps before being able to read normally.), so I also loved the game, and (sans some countries in Africa) would ace, in an armchair quarterbacking sort of way, the last part in the show.

Oh, and what mention of the show would be complete without a link to Rockapella?

Dathen · **Posted:** Tue Aug 03, 2010 3:49 pm

@ Tiare: Yeah, I was dreading the shooter-ness of it before I played, but it didn't end up going too bad. Shockwave became my best friend. I did play on easy, though, but hey! I play for storyline and fun, so I've no shame in that. I do want to play it through again, though, especially since I'm planning on joining a Mass Effect RP soon and want to know the universe inside-out.

@ Marela: HECK YES. I was/am such a nerd. I have to say those shows and games were really effective; I remember memorizing the capitals of every state in the US when I was eight because of a board game I had--if you could name the capital of eight randomly drawn states, you caught Carmen Sandiego! Omg!

@ Azshanna: Loool, I did that exact same thing for the last part of the show. "Not that way!!! That's Chile, you idiot!!"

Vitruvius · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 7:58 am

Dathen wrote:

@ Tiare: Yeah, I was dreading the shooter-ness of it before I played, but it didn't end up going too bad. Shockwave became my best friend. I did play on easy, though, but hey! I play for storyline and fun, so I've no shame in that. I do want to play it through again, though, especially since I'm planning on joining a Mass Effect RP soon and want to know the universe inside-out.

There's no shame in that...or at least I hope not

I didn't have to turn the difficulty down in Mass Effect, but for Dragon Age there were some bosses that I just could not handle without "E-Z Mode." Games are supposed to be fun, and I don't find getting my butt kicked to be very enjoyable.

Speaking of Dragon Age, has anyone else played the new DLC "Leliana's Song"? It's a prequel to D.A. Origins and gives a little backstory to Leliana. I downloaded it last night and the first boss (the night commander) promptly stomped a mudhole into me

Dathen · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 12:03 pm

There's just too much DLC for me to really concern myself with; the cost of it all adds up quickly, and Warden's Keep was the only one that interested me enough to buy. Leliana isn't my favorite companion, so I'm not planning on getting Leliana's song, either.

I think that Dragon Age had a horrible difficulty curve. Some parts you could just sleepwalk through and then all of a sudden HOLY CRAP UNBEATABLE BOSS that had you chugging health potions on every cooldown. I think the friendly fire, though, was the worst of it. It prevented the effective use of the best spells, which just annoyed me.

Kirin Tor Roleplay.com

Happy Friday!

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