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Prepare to chase the stories through a raid in Final Fantasy 14, a collectible card game where you need 17 super rare cards placed in a particular order and a stage production of Le Miserable where part of the story is played through the intermission (and a manga series)

Lord Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office - BBC News

I keep falling through the map by the wolf spider spawn on the tire near the garden by The hedge and also the orb weaver eggs are not spawning in

can you use bashing shields on devoted? like https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Magran%27s_Blessing or https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/The_Best_Defense

As a main tank I really like Streetfighter/Unbroken or -/Devoted. Devoted is nice with swords as main weapon, especially the Gladiator Sword which already has +1 PEN (when fully enchanted) and is perfect for a sword & board build which is obviously nice for a tanky setup because it also provides extra defense and a bit of additonal dmg. With additonal +2 PEN from the Devoted you will have very few "no PEN" issues - if if there are you can switch to your fist + shield (take Monastic Unarmed Training). Unbroken is great if you go for clubs (namely Kapana Taga) as main weapon and if you have party members who can terrify enemies. The club+modal lowers the Will defense by 25 points, making is a lot easier to terrify enemies. Terfifies enemies disengage randomly and then catch the nasty disengagment attacks for the Unbroken/Streetfighter (higher Sneak Attack, higher PEN, Deathblows potentially - all unlocked by Persistant Distraction). Alternatively Unbroken/Trickster can do all that by himself and doesn't need another party member with terrify and be even tanker - but will lose quite a bit of offensive outpout (lower speed and supstancially lower Sneak Attack while flanked). The main reason is that a Streetfighter/Devoted or Unbroken Swashbuckler can tank at least a good as Edér as a Swashbuckler (which is absolutely suffcient on PotD difficulty) but will have a significantly higher damamge out put. This makes playing a tank a lot less "boring". Once you get flanked - as it's common for a main tank - your streetfighter passive unlocks immediately, giving you +50% Sneak Attack damage and -50% recovery time. Even with a weapon & shield setup this is serious melee damage output by itself. Add Riposte for the occasional free attack and also Mob Stance (more speed and free attack when killing foes) this tank becomes a decent werecking machine while not giving up much tankyness (if any). I played a Streetfigther/Devoted themed as a "gladiator" as main tank with Bronlar's Phalanx and the Gladiator Sword (and later the Contendor's Armor and helm - those just for aesthetic reasons) and had a great time. I really like large shields on main tanks because the modal + Adept Evasion makes them pretty much impervious to AoE attacks - even if they come from my own guys. ;) Other good tank combos are: Paladin/Chanter (most prolific maybe Kind Wayfarer/Troubadour - needs attention towards additional engagement slots though) Unbroken/Trickster (as I said) Unbroken/Furyshaper (Fear Ward + disengagement) Paladin/Forbidden Fist (I particulary like Steel Garrote Paladin: enfeeblement + life drain) Shieldbearer/Trickster any Paladin/Fighter (Goldpact/Unbroken can have insane AR) any Paladin/non-Berserker Barbarian (engagement via Barbaric Shout) Tactician/Priest of Wael (if flanked -> becomes confused -> is now able to cast Withdraw as auto-hit on enemies to remove them from the fight for a long time) any Paladin/Wizard (except maybe the wizard subclasses you cannot cast Illusions, can be extremely tanky early on but needs additonal engagement if not Shieldbearer) any Fighter/Wizard Fighter or Paladin/Stalker Stalker/Ancient (lots of bodies: Sporelings + Animal companions - who help tanking) Lifegiver (Bear)/Goldpact (Gilded Enmity + Bear's hide grants very high AR with 0 recovery + lots of healing - needs more enagement though. Later great "aura-like" AoE dmg while tanking dmg via Sacred Immolation + Nature's Terror) And lots more... ;)

To say the least. All of his videos are like that, except some are even more scary.

OMG! But what would be the story at this point? Prequel? I guess there is that multiverse scene near the end, so they could just follow that thread and do a different take on Eva. To be honest, to me EVA always went hand in hand with Anno, but I am open to being surprised.

I'm sure that guy knows what he's doing, but that looks so sketchy.

I'm looking to replay Deadfire with a coastal aumaua tanky-melee, what would you choose? Marauder, Crusader, Swashbuckler, I think some combination of barb-fighter-rogue-pala, maybe monk has some good synergy as well, but not sure. Fury shaper, Streetfighter, Unbroken or Devoted, Goldpact knight would by my choices. Want to use either sword+board, propably with a bashing shield, maybe a 2h like Whispers?

Unless one actually buys into my idea that all of Rebuild is Anno's piss take on the NGE fandumb - which I don't even fully do myself - then the answer is yes, because it can't get any worse from here. Granted, I am almost completely unfamiliar with Yoko Taro's body of work except for NieR: Automata, which I didn't enjoy all that much, but not for reasons related to the game's writing (except maybe trying to have this big reveal that was kind of obvious the entire time, but I can see that working for a lot of people). I know the game has many fans on the forum here, but the gameplay was just cra..., ah, let's just say not for me.

"The final program of the "EVANGELION:30+; 30th ANNIVERSARY OF EVANGELION" event held in Yokohama today announced that a brand-new anime series in the Evangelion franchise is in production at Studio Khara and CloverWorks. Kazuya Tsurumaki, director of the Rebuild films and Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, helms the project alongside Toko Yatabe, who was an assistant director on Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. NieR creator Yoko Taro is penning the script and series composition, and NieR composer Keiichi Okabe is providing the music." Written by Yoko Taro...perhaps a slightly lower chance of it being horrible than if it were written by Hideaki Anno? I'm not sure.

Yes, we call it the Government of National Unity There was this initial criticism from the parties not part of it that they cant call it a GNU for some obscure technical political reason but it was more about semantics Anyway that was ignored and we call it that One of the opposition parties even took the state owned broadcaster, SABC , to court to stop them referring to it as the GNU but they lost that case TimesLIVECourt dismisses application by MK Party to stop SABC from...The Johannesburg high court on Friday dismissed with costs an application by the MK Party and its leader Jacob Zuma which sought to prevent the SABC from using the term “government of national unity”"The Johannesburg high court on Friday dismissed with costs an application by the MK Party and its leader Jacob Zuma which sought to prevent the SABC from using the term “government of national unity” or “GNU” when describing the coalition government. Arguments on the application were heard on Monday. Counsel for the MK Party Dali Mpofu argued that the SABC, as a public broadcaster, had a responsibility to provide impartial reporting and that the use of the term was inaccurate. He said the SABC should refer to the current administration as an “ANC-DA coalition”. The SABC opposed the application and said the public broadcaster had not breached its editorial code by using the term."

Lately I’ve been revisiting some classic sci-fi and fantasy franchises, and it got me thinking about why Star Wars still feels so engaging decades later. Beyond the obvious nostalgia, there’s something interesting about how the universe is constructed. On the surface it’s a simple good vs evil space opera, but the setting itself feels unusually “lived-in.” Planets aren’t just backdrops, they have distinct cultures, economies, political tensions, and even architectural identities. You can jump from Coruscant’s endless cityscape to Tatooine’s desolation and instantly understand the tone of the story without exposition. Another thing I find fascinating is how technology and mythology coexist. You have hyperspace travel, blasters, and droids alongside ancient religions, prophecies, and mystical energy fields. Normally those elements clash in other settings, but Star Wars somehow blends them in a way that feels natural rather than contradictory. I’m curious how others see it from a storytelling or worldbuilding perspective. Do you think Star Wars succeeds mainly because of its aesthetic style, or is there something structurally different about how its universe is designed? And are there other fictional worlds that give you the same “this place existed long before the story started” feeling? Interested to hear different takes, especially from people who enjoy dissecting lore and narrative design.

Did they actually call it GNU??? 😎 I know GNU as one of two things. The animal also called wildebeest or a license for open source software

Coalitions can bring stability and legitimacy to a country because they seen as a fair representation of voting outcomes, especially with a 50% majority required But they can also fail if the terms of the coalition are not clear and if its members dont put the country first and understand they now working with other parties to govern In South Africa's example we seeing real maturity with the GNU and success around several economic metrics and the running of public sector SOE since we created a GNU after our last election The GNU was formed in June 2024 and for at least the first 3-4 months the local media would run a weekly story about irreconcilable problems between the ANC and the DA and how the GNU would never last because of " ideological differences " And this was almost entirely geopolitical differences which as expected get sensationalized and exaggerated around there importance The GNU partners agree on the most significant things which are about our many domestic problems and they all respect the Constitution and they all realize we need a stable government even if it is a coalition Thats why our GNU has maintained and seen real success

The Farmer Was Replaced I forgot I hate Python.

After their equally exhausting descend, the party arrives at the next town, which has a working hot spring facility 😎 Frieren finally gets to soak all day long in hot water. This means Fern and Stark ends up with time to spare the next few days... now what to do with all that spare time Fern and Stark discuss what to do and Stark completely missing the point (showing all the brain density of that magic nullifying crystal from episode 1), is oblivious to Ferns attempt at directing his attention to the fact that they both have spare time. Eventually she gives in to despair and hits Stark with a verbal clue so strong, even he can not ignore that Fern would like for them to do something together... Stark, a bit surprised, blurts out the first thing he can think of as a comeback, he asks Fern out on a date. Fern stops what she is doing, even dropping the magic book she was reading on the floor, turning even more stone faced than usual. Stark wonders if he crossed a line and expects to die... Ferm simply accepts the invitation with something along the lines of Ok, see you tomorrow. Stark panics and seeks help from the only person he suspects knows anything about what Fern might like to do, where to go and what to see. Frieren. The Elf that will tear the arms of her opponents at the shoulders, crush heads with her bare hands, the stuff of nightmares and the highest known kill count. She is... Frieren the Slayer! Stark tells Frieren what is going on and asks her for advice. Yes, the same Frieren that forgot about her boyfriend for 50 years and then got upset when he died from old age. I'm skipping the part where he compares her to a grandma and she threatens to throw a tantrum after his second offense (he called her an old hag in season 1 episode 6). Enough memes on the net about said tantrum already. Turns out, she actually remembers (as opposed to knows) a great deal, because Heiter share a lot of his knowledge with Frieren before he passed away Of course, Stark wasn't the only one with a challenging childhood, growing up with Eisen the warrior. Fern grew up with a corrupt priest and has no more skills at dealing with people her own age than Stark has, so she asks Frieren for advice too. A funny little dialogue ensues, where Frieren tells about her dating history with Himmel, Sein etc., because according to her master, those qualify as dates. Same master that taught Frieren her ultimate skill in seduction techniques, as well as passing on the knowledge that young men prefers potions that dissolves clothing for their birthday presents 😀

The Talos Principle 2 I cannot fathom how the team that made The Talos Principle made this. The puzzles were fine, everything else, from the story to visuals, was fairly horrible.

I think this was a microsoft cloud error and can probably be marked as solved. I started a new single player game, but was unable to save progress, I tried but nothing happened. I exited the game, got told about the exit save, when I went back in to load the exit save it too wasn't there. I then turned off the internet, restarted the game and all my Single Player save games were there. I have since exported them all to ensure I have a back-up, re-started the internet (a few hours later) and went back into the online game and again all my saves were there. There were discussions on downdetector about issues with Microsoft Live/Xbox services so I think it was linked to that. Weirdly I am still seeing only 3 days playtime, so something may be a little off or that actually means 72 hours.

Not much point in building a base perimeter if they just spawn right next to you. Please increase the spawn distance so they are coming to the base, not inside the walls.

One good thing about the Westminster system, can end up with coalition governments especially with PR. Perhaps unstable though

Romances in video games, and especially RPGs, is a very shallow and silly thing. I have absolutely no use for the utterly contrived system that is romances in my RPGs. That said, if including romances doesn't cost the developer too much, and it serves to sell the game to a whole bunch of people who otherwise would not have bought the game (which in itself says a lot to me about those people), then I am all for it. RPG developers should do whatever it takes to make it possible for niche RPGs to continue to be made, even if that means including in those games pointless and silly systems. BG3 is a great example of this. It is full of utterly ridiculous, pointless, and shallow systems that should never have been included in that game. But Larian correctly judged that including those systems in their game would help boost sales, and they were right about that.

Hi all, I have Gamepass Ultimate and have been playing grounded for several years. I was playing it yesterday and everything was fine, I came to load it today and all my save games are gone, all the game is showing me in the load screen is a Shared world save from November 25. I am logged into the correct account in the xbox app, and the xbox app is telling me I have only played the game for 3 days which is just plainly wrong as I have been playing it for hundreds of hours (and have the achievements/trophies to back this up). In the C:\Users\<MY USER DATA>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Maine_8wekyb3d8bbwe\SystemAppData\wgs\0009B0C30C30E75F_0000000000000000000000007D7CFB3C I see 120 folders detailing folders going back to Sept 25 (when I changed my PC). I have tried all the basic troubleshooting (logging out and into the Microsoft account for example, rebooting the PC, starting the game with no internet (where NO saves are shown to me)), all to no avail. I have not verified game files as this mentioned save files that have not been back up may be lost. Anything I can check or have I lost everything? Please feel free to ask for further info, I wasn't sure what to include. Thanks in advance!