Pour an ice cold IRON

[Matt Miller]

The graphic which prompted the comment only referenced the GRE + FARK update counter-blitz.

I do not dispute that other AAs helped out. Your former largest nation tried to claim that you faced all of these AAs during your initial "sneak" attack.

You got counter-blitzed by just two AAs, whose total membership was less than yours, and got your arses handed to you. Deal with it.

I wasn't intentionally commenting on the others being part of on initial counterattack as I know the others came in later but I can see how my post came across that way. I was just commenting that I think it's funny that so many pretend like it was all some grand surprise and show of force on your part. The truth is, we attacked RoK and RoK alone at update leaving us exposed for your counterattack. We knew this was going to happen and chose to still go in guns blazing rather than sit many nations in peace mode. The funny thing is, there are two outcomes from the update blitz and choice of tactics at that time. On one hand you can hit with only a small amount of nations and watch your opponents whine about you being afraid to fight or some other propaganda related meme. On the other hand you can go in full force and watch the counterattack group eventually thump their chest about how they surprised the world with their epic counterattack. I don't see Gre doing it here on the OWF and I actually only see a very small group of Fark members that have done it so I won't pretend like it's reflective of your alliance as a whole. To act like either IRON's attack wasn't fully expected by your side or to act like the counterattack that occurred wasn't fully expected by us is just foolish on either of our parts; back channels between gov being what they are and all. That's the basis for my comment on the graphics.

As for you commenting on me being the former largest nation (I assume you mean in CN) I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that I somehow care about that ranking. I've never attempted to avoid a war and jumped into this one on the first day knowing full well that weeks of endless nukes and fighting outnumbered lay ahead. Fighting for IRON outweighs any ranking quite considerably, but I do thank you for pointing that out to me again here, the bold was a nice touch.

Beer thread turning combative--his makes me sad.

Me too, let's get this back on track shall we?

OOC: I have coeliac disease, which means I am unable to digest wheat gluten. Put that another way, 99.999% of all beers have me doubled over in the bathroom for a week.

I'm sorry to see you cannot drink 99+% of the beers in the world. Does that mean you've had one that you can drink, and if so what was it? Also, if there's not anything you've had then that doesn't make you feel sick, do you partake of other things such as wine or perhaps something stronger?

[King Chill I]

Having been in the thick of it i can confirm several things.

1 - IRON fully knew it was coming and in fact i personally negotiated Gre's entrance (through IRON's waving of the cancellation clause).

2 - IRON knowing it was coming in no way makes the little dog clip or the trash can surprise one any less funny/awesome.

3 - To a large degree IRON brought on itself the surrender terms crap. Had IRON pulled out after the first cycle (like we strongly suggested) we could have all saved ourselves a lot of energy and bad blood.

4 - Breaking beer terms is not cool.

5 - A beer on a cold day is the earthly substitute of entering heaven.

P.S. Glad someone mentioned Red Stripe (making white people dance since 1859) and I also note an alarming lack of Fosters in these lists.

Edited August 6, 2009 by King Chill I

[Fulgrim]

I cannot believe I have seen Harp and Fosters mentioned in this thread. May as well go the whole hog and include Carling

Anyway, My suggestions.

Furstenberg

Quite simply, the greatest lager in the world. At 5.3% ABV it is slightly more potent than most premium lagers. It pours a lovely golden colour, and has faint grassy hop aromas, great malt flavours and is very well balanced, clean and crisp.

Dog

The One and Only.

Dog? WTF is that? That, ladies, is what the world famous Newcatsle Brown Ale is called in Newcastle, my home town. Dark redish brown colour, looks especially nice near the light. The head is a light beige colour which fades after a while. A maly, slightly smokey, slighty sweet nose carries into the taste which takes on caramel notes. Very easy to drink, Dog has the balance between flavour and mildness perfectly.

The name Dog derives from the excuse miners used to give their wives as the reason for going to the pub - "Am ganna walk the dog pet!"

[idsfa]

I'm sorry to see you cannot drink 99+% of the beers in the world. Does that mean you've had one that you can drink, and if so what was it? Also, if there's not anything you've had then that doesn't make you feel sick, do you partake of other things such as wine or perhaps something stronger?

There are actually many gluten free beers available, though "available" is very dependent upon your local distributors.

Green's, makes a variety of beers, of which I can get three at my local store. New Grist and Bard's Tale are both decent enough quaffing beers. I have yet to try Redbridge (due to my prejudice against Anheuser-Busch).

I also enjoy sake, wines and most distilled alcohols without any problems.

Green's Explorer is a stout. I keep it in my wine fridge, so it is about 58 F when served. The head is more foamy than creamy, which is a disappointment to a former Guinness fan. The beer is a dark caramel color. The flavor is more lager-y than I would like and a bit simple. I'm still waiting for the recent revolution in mixed grains for gluten free beer-gone-bad (bread) to make its way into the GF beer market. Gluten free products often end up tasting sweeter because of the naturally higher sugar content of the grains used, and all of the varieties of Green's that I have tried run true to this rule. The result is something like drinking a beer while sucking on a hard candy. For this reason I wouldn't recommend drinking this beer without an accompanying food. A curry goes well and the sweetness actually helps quench the burn.

Sadly, they're not cheap and not quite good enough to rate the price on a regular basis.

[Matt Miller]

There are actually many gluten free beers available, though "available" is very dependent upon your local distributors.

Green's, makes a variety of beers, of which I can get three at my local store. New Grist and Bard's Tale are both decent enough quaffing beers. I have yet to try Redbridge (due to my prejudice against Anheuser-Busch).

I also enjoy sake, wines and most distilled alcohols without any problems.

Green's Explorer is a stout. I keep it in my wine fridge, so it is about 58 F when served. The head is more foamy than creamy, which is a disappointment to a former Guinness fan. The beer is a dark caramel color. The flavor is more lager-y than I would like and a bit simple. I'm still waiting for the recent revolution in mixed grains for gluten free beer-gone-bad (bread) to make its way into the GF beer market. Gluten free products often end up tasting sweeter because of the naturally higher sugar content of the grains used, and all of the varieties of Green's that I have tried run true to this rule. The result is something like drinking a beer while sucking on a hard candy. For this reason I wouldn't recommend drinking this beer without an accompanying food. A curry goes well and the sweetness actually helps quench the burn.

Sadly, they're not cheap and not quite good enough to rate the price on a regular basis.

I'm a huge fan of sake, we go out for Japanese at least twice a month and a pot or two of sake always makes its way to the table. Additionally, I think I'm going to try to hunt down some of the gluten-free beers you mentioned here and give them a try. Thanks for the tips.

[ChairmanHal]

You seem to have forgotten FCC, MHA, ARES, ROCK, IPA, and RoK. Oh, and some other alliances I'm forgetting.

Rok's assault on IRON and NPO should be near legendary. IRON wasn't so much taken down with one blow as surrounded and taken down like a mastodon. There were any number of other cool stories that came out of this war, and while a fair number of the recaps after terms were signed were civil, to a degree friendly, and involved a lot of handshakes and acknowledgments afterward, too many degenerated into people shouting others down for no good reason and pushing their own post-war political agendas and war spins. I don't know that we'll ever see an honest, complete analysis of this war as a result. Pity.

My hope is that this is the last of the "mandatory beer reviews" and life will, as it does for stretches on Planet Bob, return to something that resembles peace.

[idsfa]

I'm a huge fan of sake, we go out for Japanese at least twice a month and a pot or two of sake always makes its way to the table. Additionally, I think I'm going to try to hunt down some of the gluten-free beers you mentioned here and give them a try. Thanks for the tips.

If you ever make it to Minnesota, you should swing by Moto-i "The First Sake Brewery Outside of Japan". My wife and I celebrated our second anniversary there recently and tried the tasting flight they offer of their three house brews.

After that, I went for the Junmai Nama Genshu, while my wife enjoyed the Junmai Nama Ginjo. Yummy.

/Why yes, they do have a gluten-free menu ...

[Matt Miller]

If you ever make it to Minnesota, you should swing by Moto-i "The First Sake Brewery Outside of Japan". My wife and I celebrated our second anniversary there recently and tried the tasting flight they offer of their three house brews.

After that, I went for the Junmai Nama Genshu, while my wife enjoyed the Junmai Nama Ginjo. Yummy.

/Why yes, they do have a gluten-free menu ...

That sounds like my kind of way to spend a few hours. I'm never been to Minnesota, but I'll keep that little tidbit in mind.

[Ivan V]

Damn, I want some Boddington's now.

[wickedj]

Theres no way this is a Fark beer discussion, i've seen Fark beer discussions and this is FAR to civil

Also, Hal: the next surrender term thats enforced on planet bob should be a pie review.

[ChairmanHal]

Theres no way this is a Fark beer discussion, i've seen Fark beer discussions and this is FAR to civil

Also, Hal: the next surrender term thats enforced on planet bob should be a pie review.

Pecan. Pumpkin. Key Lime. Lemon Meringue. Boston Cream. In that order.

[Janquel]

Sake gives me a headache for whatever reason. And yes, I've tried the quality-served-chilled version, too. Just not for me.

[wickedj]

Pecan. Pumpkin. Key Lime. Lemon Meringue. Boston Cream. In that order.

Shens! needs more of this

(can you spot the non drinker in a beer thread?)

[Matt Miller]

Pecan. Pumpkin. Key Lime. Lemon Meringue. Boston Cream. In that order.

This man speaks much truth, especially with Pecan being #1.

[Draztikus]

I have stated on multiple occasions that I would like to build a healthy relationship with FARK post war but really calling us out in public? I assure you IRON is much more cooperative when alliances approach us in a mature manner behind the scenes with any issues they may have.

You are no longer the #2 alliance MADPed to the #1 alliance and 9001 others, and you can no longer intimidate other alliances into cowering in private channels so as to not give you bad PR when you mess up. Get used to it.

[Ackbarican Idol]

Why thank you for your olive branch handout. You speak as if you come from some alien civilization trying to convert the flocking peasants. Unfortunately for you IRON's membership is not stupid, do not think they do not know whats going on just because they do not run their mouths off like some of the characters on this forum.

Quite frankly you were told when we were negotiating terms that some of them were likely to cause bad blood, the fact that you thought that throwing in a beer review would in anyway soothe the wounds is extremely naive. We're not an alliance to hold grudges but when your alliance continues to get attacked for weeks because your opponents are not organized enough to turn up to the meetings they have organized it can become a little frustrating or when the payment of your reparations gets delayed and delayed because it is not convenient for the other side to accept then frustrations begin to build up.

By the looks of Bay's review he extended the same amount of effort as ragnarok did in organizing their nations to receive reparations from IRON. Quite frankly some of our members could not give a damn about your regards but not all of us. I have stated on multiple occasions that I would like to build a healthy relationship with FARK post war but really calling us out in public? I assure you IRON is much more cooperative when alliances approach us in a mature manner behind the scenes with any issues they may have.

As for my beer review well it's a working progress but it will be complete prior to the terms expiration perhaps you can post it when you announce or release from terms, it would have been complete already but unfortunately RL sometimes interferes and I have little time as much as I would like to, to sit and review beer. Now the way I see it you can continue your attempts to spin the actions of an individual councilor as reflective of a 530 member alliance or you can actually chat to us in private and we will look to work toward resolving the issue instead of inflating it.

If you spent half as much time writing your review as you did making excuses, you'd be finished by now.

[MCRABT]

You are no longer the #2 alliance MADPed to the #1 alliance and 9001 others, and you can no longer intimidate other alliances into cowering in private channels so as to not give you bad PR when you mess up. Get used to it.

Intimidating? I don't think so I viewed it more as a mature solution to the problem instead of sitting crying like little babies. But it seems that's the way this game is going of late, it's quite pathetic really. Instead of talking about any issues we have this community stomps it's feet in public like a four year old child having a tantrum. I suppose this suites you quite well though Draz.

Edited August 7, 2009 by MCRABT

[Bob Janova]

Can you people be polite and talk about beer

MCRABT lives in Scotland, he has to wade through a lake of Tennent's to get to anything resembling 'beer'

Boddington's is good for an industrial beer. I think my favourite brewery would be Black Sheep, from Masham, N. Yorks – they make a very good 'bitter' which is not too bitter, as some of them are. The Jennings brewery in () Lancashire is also excellent and when I've been over that side I've had some really nice pints.

Bavarian and Austrian beer (wheat and barley both) is also excellent as a rule, one of the reasons I like that part of the world.

[Volker von Alzey]

Can you people be polite and talk about beer

[...]

Bavarian and Austrian beer (wheat and barley both) is also excellent as a rule, one of the reasons I like that part of the world.

listen to this man, for he is wise.

Also, may I suggest Flensburger Pilsener as an excellent example of beer from Nothern Germany:

Very much pilsener-like, yet not bitter imo (some might disagree here) and very refreshing.

[RavingMainyYak]

We have another review from IRON gov for your education and entertainment.

While the terms of Article 10 call for a review of beer or bacon, sometimes exceptions are justified.

Friffon does not drink and lives in a part of the world where bacon is considered a fungible item, offered in only one style.

Admittedly, he could have used that generic smoked porcine backfat in three different recipes and reported on those, but he asked for and was given dispensation to provide another review which many of you may find of some passing interest. I, for one, applaud Friffon's enterprise.

DISCLAIMER: The links within this report are provided for information purposes only and are not intended as advertisement or endorsement of the sites listed.

And so without further ado, we move one step closer to IRON's completion of their surrender terms.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I know many Farkers were eager for another beer review, but sadly you won’t get any from me as I don’t like beer (in before flamefest ). So instead I could do a review about the delicious bacon, but there’s a problem, we don’t have bacon brands around these parts, just normal delicious bacon. So something else had to be found to be reviewed (for the rejoice of the vegetarian and alcohol avoiders), and as being a computer geek I’ll be reviewing games. These aren’t any kind of games, most of them are indie and you probably never heard of them (if you actually played any then you’ll win a free cookie).

So here goes my review (download links included on the freeware games):

1 - Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari in japanese)

Genre: Platform

Ahhh, old school goodness. The pixel art graphics and 8-bit soundtrack will bring back the nostalgia feelings, making the playing experience quite enjoyable. Your character wakes up in the middle of a cave, and when you leave it you’ll enter the Mimiga Village and meet the mimigas, bunny like creatures that have been hiding from… spoilers, etc, play it and find out , the story is interesting though. Multiple weapons to get/trade through the game (they can also level up by grabbing experience triangles dropped by enemies, you lose part of them if you get hit) and one of them is a machine gun, that if it’s fully upgraded it doubles as jetpack. Can’t point out any flaw in this game, it’s very well done.

Preview video:

Download link: http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/downloads_1.php

2 - Bunny Must Die / Chelsea and the 7 devils

Genre: Platform (Castlevania style)

In this game you control a bunny girl that throws knives and can control time, which makes perfect sense for Japanese game. It’s pretty much like Castlevania, but instead of having a special secondary weapon skill you can control time, and as you find time extensions you will win extra abilities such as reversing/slowing time or even get a healing ability at cost of time energy. The song is catchy but it might end being annoying as there is little diversity on that field. There are 5 different weapons you can pick up (knife, sword, boomerang, ball and chain and homing missiles) but you’ll only be able to carry one at a time, although the first 2 are the most abundant and you’ll be using them most of the time. If you have the patience to finish BMD you will unlock the Chelsea story, which is basically the same whole level with very few changes and using a different weapon/special system. The controls are a little stiff making it harder to do some platform jumping and the special moves.

Basically, it’s an interesting game to give a try if you are really bored, like this game genre and want a challenge as this game despite its looks is quite difficult.

Playthrough video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6wQxeTH3m8

3 - I Wanna Be The Guy

Genre: Platform

“In the year 200X, on his 15th Birthday… A child left home… On his dangerous and epic quest to become The Guy!”. Dangerous is an understatement as this is one of the hardest games I’ve actually seen, it also states “The game where everything kills you. Even the moon” and it does… 3 times. You will have to control this gun wielding double jumping kid that dies with one single touch to any hazard, and to make it worse, most of them are traps. Changing difficulty won’t affect the traps, all it does is changing the number of save points, from 1~2 per screen (medium) to none (impossible). It contains 8 bosses that you will have to beat through the game and several references to other games such as Punch-Out, Super Mario, Megaman, Metroid, Street Fighter, Castlevania and a couple more. The beginning of the songs might get burned on your head as you most of the time won’t hear the rest of them as you are too busy dying while trying to do tangent jumps through spikes. The perfect game to masochists.

Video preview on impossible mode:

Download link: http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/downloads.php

4 - Touhou Project

Genre: Vertical Shmup (Shoot 'em up) Danmaku (Bullet Hell)

The most known game of these reviewed, quite popular on the eastern community but not so much in the west. The entire game focus on girls flying around killing fairies and firing bullet barrages at each other… it’s weird but hey, its sole creator (known as ZUN) is know for being a beer lover (

). Being a bullet hell means it isn’t for everyone, the number of bullets (which can kill you with one single touch) on screen can easily go over the hundreds (and many more during boss fights). It may seem impossible, but your hitbox (your vulnerable area) is only a 5 pixel square, also contains an easy mode that is great to introduce this genre to new players without being too frustrating. This game series presents both an awesome soundtrack (3 of its songs managed to get into 2chan top 300 videogame songs of all time, one of them reaching the 20th place, which is an outstanding feat considering that ZUN made them all alone), amazing bullet patterns and the focus system, which by pressing shift you can see your hitbox, move slower (vital for precision dodging) and having a more focused firepower. All games contain 6 levels and an extra one (Perfect Cherry Blossom actually has 2) that can only be unlocked after you beat those 6 levels without using continues and playing on normal or above difficulty. Also, if you don't continue you are given an option to save the replay, so you can see what you did and learn from your mistakes.

For more info about the whole series you can check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touhou_Project

Preview of PCB's 4th stage on Lunatic difficulty:

Demo download link for PCB, includes the first 3 levels: http://www.acid-play.com/download/perfect-cherry-blossom/

5 - Battleships Forever

Genre: Arcade

Who doesn’t like spaceships, lasers and explosions? This is an indie game from Sean "th15" Chan that is on works for 2 years and is currently on version 0.90d. You are given 17 ships you can choose from for your missions (availability changes from mission to mission). On those missions you are given some points which you can spend on assigning what ships you want for your fleet (patrol ships cost 1 point, destroyers 2, battleships 3) and try to find out which is the best combo/strategy. Music is meh, skirmish and career missions are well done (you can upload your skirmish score), ships keep getting fine tuned to keep balance and contains a ship building program. The most notable downside is the lack of multiplayer, although it’s planned a sequel that will include it. Until then if you want to fight against your friend’s ships you have to get him send the ship file and place them on the sandbox to fight it out. Despite being an indie game and their graphics looking quite simple, it’s quite CPU/RAM demanding as it takes quite a while to start even on a fast computer and can freeze for a minute if you deploy a massive ship or lag when you have a large fleet in screen. Still the overall I give to this game is:

Download link: http://www.wyrdysm.com/games.php

As a extra gift for this review to be late, I'll give the link to the 2chan top 300 videogame of all time, in 13 videos, almost 9 hours of musical goodness :3

http://notabibito.blog34.fc2.com/blog-entry-595.html

[Shinfat]

Video game reviews in lieu of Beer or Bacon? I would have thought breast reviews were the logical "option C" - but I appreciate the effort that was put into this one.

BTW - you had me at "...bunny girl who throws knives and can control time..."

[Locke]

4 - Touhou Project

omg touhou D:

That will be the only game you'll see me use omg for...ever. Seriously....omg touhou D:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTaCtGONBWg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hS2TvzFP-A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5JHuB1z-mE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAstdw4GU8Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvhat12ksac

Yes, I have a slight obsession for all things Touhou, got a problem with it?

Cave Story and I Wanna Be the Guy are too. Platformers have never been my "thang," but this Battleships Forever game looks awesome. Gonna go for that right now.

[Matt Miller]

Oh lordy, "I Wanna Be The Guy" might just be the most frustrating game ever made. Please only try this is game only if you have a massive and I mean MASSIVE beer stockpile. Otherwise it might cause you to destroy your comp.

[wickedj]

WHAT!? YOU DONT LIKE BEER!!???! ZOMG!

Ok, thats enough outrage for one day. interesting video game reviews..how long till we have cola reviews?

[RavingMainyYak]

Ok, thats enough outrage for one day. interesting video game reviews..how long till we have cola reviews?

It is as if this leader of IRON was reading your mind.

Peron presents us with a review of the finest product from the back of that wonderful, magical animal, the baconater.

Something like that.

Let's read attentively to this contribution to IRON's fulfillment of the famed Article 10:

For my review, I chose to do bacon,

The first type of bacon I chose was this bacon sandwich:

I give it a 10/10 on the heart attack scale. After the first bite I could feel my veins clogging and my heart pumping harder. After about 10 minutes I lost sight in my right eye and my hearing failed. I think I had a stroke, but I was too involved in trying to chew the bacon to notice.

Good news? Well there isn't really any.... I wouldn't suggest this to anyone who wants to survive.

After spending a good 3 weeks in the hospital, I chose my second type of bacon:

After my last run in with bacon, I decided to go healthier and chose a DIET coke. Let me tell you, it was a bad choice. Not only did it make me vomit about a dozen times, I believe my stomach actually fell out and punched me in the face.

My third choice of bacon was as follows:

Sir Francis Bacon was an English philosopher in the early 1600's. He married Anne Cooke. Bacon served as both the Attorney General and the Lord Chancellor of England. He also played a big part in the scientific revolution.

Thank you Peron.

I'm not entirely clear, did you cannibalize Sir. Francis Bacon, or have a torrid long term relationship with him, or just a one time "I'm just experimenting" kind of thing?

Edited August 8, 2009 by RavingMainyYak