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The celebration over Tomahawks (apparently invincible weapons) seems premature given Trump's waffling statement (before senile rambles)

Silent Hill f has been added to GOG as a last anniversary deal today. After Crysis Remastered Trilogy yesterday. https://www.gog.com/en/game/silent_hill_f As always no new MS titles like Awoved or Pentiment

One thing that nobody warns you about when you get a job in the gaming industry is just how many meetings there are. There’re daily standups, gate reviews, sprint meetings, post-mortems, sign-offs, bridge meetings, war rooms, and the list goes on and on. But one of the most important meetings is called Triage. It generally occurs on a daily or weekly cadence, depending on what part of the dev cycle you are in. This is where Production, Design, Engineering, and QA get together and discuss the latest bugs. We go over each bug written since the last Triage and decide as a group how important the bug is, who is going to fix it, and when they need to fix it by. There are three main ways that this is measured. Severity: How bad the bug is, in the eyes of the user. Priority: How soon a bug should be fixed. Repro Rate: How hard, or easy, is it to run into the bug? How likely are players to see it? This is usually measured in attempts. For example, a crash bug could happen 100% of the time, or it could only happen under very specific conditions. And one thing that is easy to forget when you’re lost in a sea of bugs, is the scale of the audience. Sure, only 10% of the testers may experience a specific issue. But 8% of the modern AAA audience is hundreds of thousands of players. You would think, with that in mind, anything that affects at least 5% of players would be treated as a serious concern. But what if I told you that while only 0.5% of women are color-blind, 8% of men are? And how many modern games have color-blind filters? The answer is not nearly enough. Accessibility features are about giving players the tools they need to enjoy the game in whichever way works best for them. If you can add color-blind filters (https://colorblindgames.com/2021/03/29/colorblind-gaming-101-the-basics/) that’s roughly 5% more potential sales. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 85% of Americans under 18 play video games at least once a week. That comes out to 205 million players in the US alone. Five percent of which, comes to 8,000,000 people. Multiple that by $60 and we’re talking serious money. So why, in a world where the dollar drives everything, are accessibility features not standard? Why are so many developers leaving so many potential players behind? It would be easy for me to blame big bad CEO’s or shareholders for the problem. But the reality is, it’s not malicious. Like most issues in life, it’s more ignorance than anything else. People just aren’t as informed on the subject as they could be. But that is starting to change. The industry is starting to come around and they are making serious investments in multiple ways. (alt text: Ishihara test was invented to measure color blindness. The image above uses different shades to create the image of Toadstool from Super Mario Bros) source: Obsidian has been leading the way for longer than most. Well before it was “cool” to make accessible games, titles like Pillars of Eternity (2013) were giving players multiple color-blind filters, detailed difficulty options, and a large suite of audio/video settings to let players decide what “good” looks like. Back in 2020 Grounded introduced the Arachnophobia filter. A setting that is now becoming default in many horror/survivor games. Hogwarts Legacy added it, but only after NorskPL released a community mod for the setting. My favorite is actually from the most recent version, Grounded 2. Can you detect the feature? It’s one of the first things you see when you start the game. (alt text: Screenshot of Grounded 2 main menu showing custom face button graphics used to inform the player where on the face the button is located.) Many of you probably pointed to the Accessibility shortcut. And that is a great example of mindful design. How do you expect people to turn on the accessibility features if they need the accessibility features enabled to get to the accessibility features? But that’s not my favorite. My new favorite is the A and Y buttons. Notice what’s different? I bet you Xbox Certification noticed that these are not authorized representations of the face buttons on an Xbox controller. But I love that they saw through the rule to find the intent. Instead of confusing players, these actually provide more information. It’s a tiny change that can have a big impact. Heck, I’m not even color-blind and these helped me after I spent the previous few weeks playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where the A and B buttons are swapped. And that’s the key to accessibility features. Not telling players how to play, but providing the options for them to play how they want to play. And they are not alone. The industry as a whole has finally seen the benefits of expanding their games and tearing down walls. For example: the Entertainment Software Association (a trade association representing the major video game developers and publishers across the industry) recently rolled out their Accessible Games Initiative. They are leading by example and starting with updating their storefronts to include Accessibility Tags. Much like you can browse by genre or feature, now you can filter games by which ones support the accessibility features you care the most about. (alt text: A black background with brightly colored stickers in the shapes of Xbox icons and accessibility products like prosthetic legs, wheelchairs, and seeing eye dogs.) And they are not alone. A whole market is forming around consulting, reviewing, and teaching about accessibility. People are getting together and demanding “Never about us, without us.” From Accessibility Labs, a startup in Tempe, AZ of former QA professionals passionate about Accessibility testing. To Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guidelines, requirements that titles they publish must meet. But Tommy, I’m a developer and I want to do better. How can I make sure everyone is able to enjoy my hard work? Well, I’m glad you asked, imaginary developer person. Because while I’m passionate about the subject, I also acknowledge I’m just as ignorant as most. But together, we can work towards fighting that ignorance, in our own minds, and in others. Even the smallest changes, like the button prompts above, can have a huge impact. Bring on Accessibility experts during your design phase, don’t wait until you’re about to launch. Don’t be like so many others before you that designed fully fleshed out UI’s that rely on a cursor to navigate. Only to find out down the road this is not very accessible for people with fine motor issues. Making these changes during the design phase will save you thousands, if not millions, of dollars down the line. Embrace your lack of knowledge and seek out the experts. There are resources available to developers of all shapes and sizes. Are you a small developer that wants to do better, but just doesn’t know where to start? Support other independent gamers like Accessibility Labs. Have a good idea of what you want to do, but want to make sure you aren’t forgetting anything? Check out Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guidelines. Want to support the effort in other ways? Reach out to AbleGamers, who have been fighting this fight for over 20 years. Enjoy this article and want to know more? Check out Derek Gruber on Seattle Indie’s Accessibility Awareness Month episode. The last thing I want to do is trivialize game and UX design. Accessibility is just one of countless aspects that must be considered when designing a game and it’s UI. What’s most important is that you are making the effort. Instead of asking why you should add an option, ask why you shouldn’t. When in doubt, trust the player to decide what is best for themselves. Not every feature is going to be a home run. But as long as we, as a community, are working towards improving, the rising tide will raise all ships. Sources & Resources Game Developer - Nintendo, Microsoft, EA and others unite to make accessibility messaging a priority Washington Post - Accessibility option in survival game ‘Grounded’ turns my arachnophobia into a thrill Colorblind Games - Colorblind Gaming 101: The Basics Mashable - Video games taught me I was colorblind but it's not always a friendly lesson Nexus Mods - Arachnophobia mode Seattle Indies - Accessibility Awareness Month Interview Series: Steve Saylor and Derek Gruber Able Gamers - Combating Social Isolation Through Play Accessibility Labs Microsoft - Xbox Accessibility Guidelines Entertainment Software Association (ESA) - Entertainment Software Association Introduces the Accessible Games Initiative to Provide Players with Information About Accessibility Features in Video Games

at least the art style is good wonder if they will use pf2e item since there are not many for sf2e yet

You have to do research on any mod collection that interests you so you avoid that type of unexpected change I use YT because if a review of any mod collection is not on YT then its not very popular and then not worth the risk of installing it Almost all these mod collections have readme files and Discord links which I use but I still consider the YT reviews more credible and informative

Nanotech ‘switch’ reverses Alzheimer’s in mice by restoring brain’s protective barrier If this works in humans, it would be a revolutionary medical treatment.

Decided to finally get Warhammer 40K Space Marines 2, since it was 50% off in Steam sale. So far I like it. The graphics are very crips and sharp. Can't really remember much of the first game, tbh, but I think they added lots of new stuff like combos, parry, dodge, etc? Anyways. So far not bad, but I can't play for more than an hour or so, then it starts to get a bit much for me.

Looking in to flashing a modded bios with rebar enabled. Is it worth the hassle?

Only seen S1 of RoP, and it was OK, unless you care deeply about the established lore as that it absolutely butchers. It did have some of the modern writing issues (shoehorning mysteries, including set piece spectaculars even if they made no sense, nobody talks like the dialogue in reality/ no one ever seems to directly answer a question) Personally, I'd compare it to Star Trek Discovery in many ways- and I did end up watching all but one season (S4, and never watched the last ep of S3) of that, despite my reservations. It's mostly... frustrating in that it ought to be better than it is. If it were a choice between that and experiencing WoT, RoP wins out by a country mile though. Then again, getting injected with 2mL of 5 in 1 sheep vaccine under the kneecap was a better experience than watching WoT. I haven't died of pulpy kidney or an other clostridial disease (er, yet, so as not to tempt fate) after all.

Correct. Main or offhand hand makes no difference for Pukestabber.

I seemed to have successfully used the console commands to add a talent to my main character as well as adding a few skill points however upon reloading the game after saving it the skill points were reset back to the baseline yet the talent seems to have remained. Is this normal behavior for both of these things and is there any way to use the console commands to permanently add skill points?

The next Community blog will land tomorrow. Until then, (re)visit some of the contributions that have been submitted thus far ...

Thanks for that, I needed that push to give it a try.

It's decent; more story than combat, IIRC. Some likeable characters. I enjoyed the concept of the hobbits as migrating eco-tribes.

Rings of Power is great, so you should give it a try.

I keep hovering over the play button for Rings of Power and then noping out. I thought about giving WoT a try because I never read the books but it just looks so bad.

I bought this one but never played much of it. I'm not a big graphics person but the character models looked so bad at launch... either my standards have lowered or they improved. Maybe I'll have to give it a other go. Are you enjoying it? Also... it is black geyser right?

We might have reached the point of exhaustion for both parties. If so that will be the reason rather than Trumps pretty basic ploy of taking a maybe from Hamas and Netanyahu as yes from both.

WoT was less than zero, so I don't know what that does to your math. Negative number x 100%?

Halo got good ratings (and is apparently doing very well on Netflix now) but not as good as they wanted. It was very expensive to make, had a... divisive critical reaction and was of course a 3rd party IP owned by and licensed from MS rather than being owned by Paramount. Rough first season, much improved second, and I thought it had a decent conclusion for a series that was clearly hoping for another season. I'd say it was 100% better than the Wheel of Time adaptation but 100% better than zero is still zero.

I'm not sure anything above a tiny minority expect the deal to actually work and a vanishingly small one for all its points to be fulfilled, including almost everyone who wrote it (maybe not Trump, depends how much his delusion is apparent rather than real). The hope from the vast majority- and almost all the politicians- of the west is that it goes back to status quo ante. For the non politicians so they can stop feeling bad about it and for the politicians so they can stop being criticised about how the situation is now and how weak and hypocritical their response has been.

Today I slashed my wrist. I was cutting custom tiles to make a table with my art. On the very last tile the cutting line hadn't been deep enough so the tile snapped badly and went straight for my wrist. Good thing the pharmacy is only a minute away, so they patched me up. Lesson to be learned from this: When the internet says "wear gloves, accidents happen", wear gloves, accidents happen. Of course when it comes down to it, it's a win win situation: I got an awesome table and I can impress the ladies with my bandages hand

Pukestabber in off hand dont lose anything right?

You have to put Lover's Embrace in the main hand if you want to apply its neverending damage over time effect from stealth (True Love's Kiss, it only works from true stealth at the start of an encounter, not invisibility!). So if you sneak up to an enemy (maybe the boss or the strongest foe of the group) and do a Gouging Strike or Vanishing Strike for example, the main hand will hit first (with Lover's Embrace), it will apply the DoT but also break stealth. The second attack with Pukestabber will already be out of stealth. If you put Pukestabber into the main hand it will deliver the first strike, break stealth and then Lover's Embrace with the second strike will not apply the True Love's Kiss DoT. That's probably not what you want. But that's the only thing where it matters in which hand you put which dagger.