Wow knowing the asset reuse was by design makes me feel way less charitable towards DA2. (I don’t know if I’d go as far as the other commenter and say it’s “a bad game,” but I didn’t like it.)

Initial reviews seem remarkably positive given what we saw in the first gameplay reveal a few months ago. My impression at the time was that about half the voice actors sounded like they hadn’t been given enough context about the scenario and some of the cutscenes had questionable direction, which were bad signs for a curated ten minute slice. I still think it’s ultimately not for me—I don’t really want action combat in my Dragon Age—but I’m glad people are enjoying it.

How good of a friend are we talking? I care about my roommate’s new nephew. I know his sister, and we’ve played D&D with his brother-in-law. The baby is, like, a relevant part of being friends with them. Similarly, if he went on vacation I’d want to hear about how it went, especially if anything interesting happened.

On the other hand some of my coworkers at my last job liked to talk about this kind of stuff, and I didn’t really care, but it was nice to have something to talk about while I was setting up a new printer for them, or whatever.

It doesn’t bother me so much when a character in a show has to take a turn with the idiot ball, but when a video game wants me to hold the idiot ball it really makes me want to stop playing. Recently I was checking out Fallen Leaf and the very first level ends with a character politely but firmly indicating that I can’t go further in this random cave I’m exploring, because there’s something dangerous stored there… while standing under a stalactite that the game clearly wants you to drop on them. No, god damn it, I am not going to commit murder just to unleash the ancient evil that I would clearly spend the rest of the game stopping. I can just quit here and not be a murderer and the world can stay safe.

I did not even humor it by hitting the stalactite to see what happens, I just pressed alt-F4 and went to play something else.

The problem with this one is that, as a reader/watcher/whatever, it affects your experience even when it doesn’t happen. I was so convinced that Dumbledore was alive at the end of book six. Fell off a balcony? Point of view character gets dragged to the infirmary so we can’t see what happens after that? There’s a phoenix, a bird associated with healing and rebirth, conspicuously singing? That guy is pulling a Gandalf in the next book for sure.

So I spent the whole next book waiting for the dramatic reveal that never came…

He influences his followers to buy products. An influencer is like a freelance marketer.

In the opening sequence of Final Fantasy XII, two separate characters get stabbed through the “stylish” gaps in their armor… and somehow this doesn’t prompt anyone else to reconsider their armor choices.

“The mentor/parent has to die so that the hero can prove they’re self-actualized” or whatever. It’s okay for your hero to have living parents, even if their parents are also heroes. I promise your story won’t be less interesting if your character’s mentor figure survives.

Sorry isn’t “gender identity” the most common public restroom type in America, and also the opposite of the one they’re concerned about? They aren’t putting windows in the boys’ room or the girls’ room, which are segregated by gender. These are the gender neutral restrooms that they want to peek into (or really, discourage anyone from using). Up is down with these people.

Edit: Wait, I just looked at the picture again. The caption says gender neutral, but the actual signage on the restroom says “Boys” and then below that “Gender Inclusive” and I’m not sure how those two things go together.

I can’t believe how many otherwise seemingly reasonable people are still involved in the MTG and D&D content ecosystems after Hasbro hired the fucking Pinkertons to threaten a Youtuber. How little self respect do they have? Promote a game that isn’t made by someone who would send thugs to your house!

“Real world politics”? Did I miss the news that Undead Demon Margaret Thatcher is running in the next UK election?

The Build Mode features in 4 are pretty good if you’re into virtual dollhouse building, and there’s a ton of custom content for it (as long as you’re on PC).

Live Mode is not very good, but it’s functional enough to play dolls in the houses you built if you’re willing to do all the story writing to make up for sims not having very interesting personalities/desires/autonomy.

Ordered energy drinks on Amazon because I couldn’t find the flavor at the grocery store anymore (Monster Nitro Cosmic Peach). The estimated arrival day got pushed back twice, and then the status changed to say that the item was late enough that I could claim a refund. I punched the tracking number into the UPS website and it said that a shipping label had been created, but the package was never actually handed over to UPS. My guess is that the seller ran out of stock and decided to do nothing about it and just wait for me to refund, but I guess it’s also possible that someone at UPS swiped the package instead of scanning it into their system.

Either way, I did get a refund through Amazon support.

I mean, lots of people who aren’t particularly well organized manage to at least murder their victims without killing any bystanders. Doing the hit in public and also killing or injuring over 20 bystanders is either intentional or astonishingly incompetent.

The shooting may have been a result of a murder-of-hire plot, Police Chief Scott Thurmond was quoted as saying by local news outlet Al.com.

Isn’t this, like, just about the worst possible way to conduct a hit? Even if you have a callous disregard for human life, it should be obvious that more victims + more witnesses = more heat. Single murders go unsolved all the time. Murdering a whole street full of people basically guarantees that the police will eventually find you and whoever hired you, unless you manage to flee the country or something.

I know the murderers are real people and not, like, Agent 47, so they can’t be perfectly subtle, but they didn’t even make the smallest token effort to avoid collateral damage by, for example, jumping the target while they were alone. It’s almost like they were hired to do as much damage as possible… but who would be dumb enough to take a job that’s basically certain to be their last?

I had a Tamagotchi, but it was the original Digimon toys that I was really obsessed with. I got my friend into it too so that I had someone to battle with. We were even raising them in class. We had all sorts of hypotheses about what made them stronger, which were probably based on no real evidence. I had a bulking-cutting strategy where I force fed my 'mon to increase its weight and then trained it until it reached the minimum weight for its rank.

I picked up an anniversary digivice a few years ago, I should replace the battery and raise some more digimon.

It is part of the main gameplay loop. In order to keep your car in a state where it protects you and is reasonably driveable, you must gather materials to craft repair items and replacement parts, in order to maintain the car’s panels, doors, and bumpers (which together function as armor), its wheels (which are necessary to get anywhere), and the various add-on systems you can craft for it. Tools gradually break with use, so you’ll also craft replacement tools, which are mostly for scavenging materials or interacting with stuff in the Zone.

By collecting a certain resource you gradually unlock upgraded parts and tools for crafting, which is the main way player power progresses during the game.

There are definitely some things it is healthier not to know, and I’m pretty sure this is one of them. It’s why I don’t ask my mom questions about my dad, who I have never met since being old enough to form memories and I would like to keep it that way.

Why isn’t Echoes of Wisdom in the “upcoming” category? It doesn’t release until the end of the month.

The headline is a little misleading. The actual article is talking about why, given that Project 2025 is the culmination of 40 years of far-right thought, the media has only begun sounding the alarm bells since the publication of the book, and why the focus is on the most sensational aspects instead of on explaining the pernicious, foundational, fascist ideas it’s built upon.