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You misunderstand, at least in my case. I don't mind needing internet for gaming - if the online is needed for a gameplay function. Like playing with a net friend who lives in another state/country etc. Or downloading a digital game onto my drive. Kinda need the internet. Most of the time, games that require always online, I have zero interest in anyway. What I do mind is a company deciding I need to be online for a reason that is not specifically game circumstances required - like it's SP (or it's SP but online req. because they're too lazy or too telemetry or store app focused to create a SP/offline function). Nor would I wish to have to be "online" and login to Microsoft just to play Dungeon Keeper on my PC. --I don't mind if online/app is used for some gadget/device/service that no one really "needs." Those vacuum donuts, ringcams, house remote controls, whatever else. Do what one wants, use what one wants, up to individual. although I think people getting too used to/emotionally dependent on that stuff breeds ... well, Wall-E comes to mind. But that's very subjective/just me. --I do mind if companies start wanting to make online/app required to access something like a dishwasher cycle, a fridge setting, a car feature you paid for but can't access without online. This is what many companies seem to be trying to get people used to - almost grooming the public in some strange way - and I refuse to get used to it. I will wash my dishes by hand before resorting to this sort of nonsense. Pretty soon you won't be able to flush your toilet without being subbed to some flush-switch online-bootup for your bathroom waste disposal "device". And then there's Microsoft possibly trying to prep people re: needing to online-login to your O/S, just so you can utilize your separately purchased photo editing program, which is not ok. And more likely, it's all a precursor to then eventually making Windows a monthly pay service O/S.

Vance's defense, and thus MAGA, is that they are edgy kids. Well or Democrats said worse. Look at the proscribed groups and honestly argue Palestine Action fits in.

I guess it's a sign, Epic Store installer is erroring out. Both the standalone and MS store...

I ask this every couple year because I just dont get it, but what you guys resistance to login/always online while gaming? Several parts of my general life are already "always online" that I dont even think about it anymore. My phone is waiting breathlessly for me to utter "Siri" (or anything close apparently), my little Google pucks all over my house are waiting for me to say "ok Google", hell even the digital picture frame on my fireplace mantle is always connected to a cloud somewhere. Maybe its a data transfer limit for you all? Ive never once run up against mine so thats not a factor. You feel theyre snooping? I know someone will trot out "what about if the internet is down", and I guess that situationally valid, but cmon how often is that?

Yeah heard about that. Although I also saw some ppl posting new workarounds already. I don't really care much re: having to account register for the initial install permission or something but always having to login/online to that account for everything Windows related would suck gopher butt. I made a MS account re: Win10 but I honestly don't recall what I had to do with it. I know I used it once and haven't "logged" into it since, for anything, including the once or twice when I did Windows updates. I'm not sure I even know what my MS account is at this point. It helps I never use/never even clicked once on any MS specific programs/apps (gamepass, edge, store, etc). I figure for me it'll be like Win7 to Win10 - I'll use Win10 for 2-3 more years and then have to decide what I'm doing when building a new PC. I still don't think LInux would be my thing, but I feel more and more like I don't have a choice. Maybe I'll convert old PC to Linux for certain stuff, use Win11 NASA pc for gaming stuff only. Edit: heck I still have my old Win7 PC. Maybe I'll just go back to that/old programs/games and stay offline forever *echo-voice* and ever and ever and ever. Edit: the one nice thing about being older right now is I won't have to live as long with all this AI/own-nothiing brave new world. 2nd Edit: also, I'm still Crabby. Life is kind of sucky right now. Oh well.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/15/us-news/swastika-pictured-inside-ohio-congressman-dave-taylors-office/ "Stop calling them nazis!111" yeah yeah.

Wood Elf would be totally fine, too though. The added accuracy is nice. Nature Godlike isn't particularly good in general in PoE1, but since this build has low endurance to begin with and uses Deleterious Alacrity of Motion+ Dangerous Implement (both doing self damage), you will drop below 50% endurance often anyway. Might as well use that for Wellspring of Life (+3 to MIG, CON and DEX) for extra dmg per hit and a bit faster attack/recovery and casting speeds. I don't remember if I already recommended it, but using Infuse with Vital Essence can help you to "spend" some endurance (which also drains health) and then heal up the health back up so that you don't have to rest so often (because of low health).

I think the point is to filter away the activists and turn Labour towards the centre. So from Starmer's perspective it's worth the loss. The activists don't really have anywhere to go, they can't vote Corbyn in a national election. Labour is afraid of reform and pro Palestinian is a left wing academic or immigrant friendly place to stand. He's also afraid of the Pro Palestinian youth vote, the polling extremely bad for positioning yourself as pro Israel, which is probably why he reversed stance on the recognition of Palestine (a completely symbolic gesture) and there was also a genuine effort in the EU to cancel the trade agreement with Israel (actual pressure). That's going to fail though, that would be my bet. Defence cooperation and Ukraine as well as US relations will mean that any fig leaf or vague declaration of intent from Israel will be good enough to avoid it

The UK has never past broad laws that banned all people from protesting or arrested anyone who criticizes the governments and its policies. The constant criticism of the UK state and its leaders by many different groups on a wide range of issues occurs on a daily basis in the UK. Its nothing like Russia or China and its oppressive laws criminalizing basic freedom of speech Palestinian Action was banned because of constant criminal acts during protests and damage to property and it took months of these criminal acts before they were banned. We have discussed this before. Palestinian action was never banned for " holding signs " https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-09-08/debates/5FF141EC-DE6E-4A17-AD2B-121416D0681B/PalestineActionProscriptionAndProtests " Some of those holding placards in support of Palestine Action may not know the extent of its activities. It has conducted an escalating campaign involving intimidation and sustained criminal damage, including to Britain’s national security infrastructure. Some of its attacks have involved the use of weapons, resulting in alleged violence and serious injuries to individuals. Palestine Action’s members have been charged with violent disorder, grievous bodily harm with intent, actual bodily harm, criminal damage and aggravated burglary—charges that include, in the assessment of the independent Crown Prosecution Service, a terrorism connection.These are not the actions of a legitimate protest group, and for a Government to ignore expert security assessments, advice and recommendations would be highly irresponsible. Were there to be further serious attacks or injuries, questions would rightly be asked about why action had not been taken. "

You know, I was just thinking.. back when Pillars 2 released and they added voice over for every dialog, I was like.. why, what's the point of that? Such a waste! But now I'm kinda glad they did. Feels a lot better and interesting to play, also it stops writers from text bloat, which I find highly annoying and tedious to read. Same thing with Disco Elysium. With one of the later updates, they added VO to every single line of dialog, and while I hated it at first, now I think it's good and nice and I like it. I'm playing WH40k Rogue Trader right now, and it sucks that not everything is voiced. I get why, of course, but still... if I could, I'd prefer full voice nowadays.

Any time you walk a short distance away from some resource nodes and hostile bugs the game is respawning them. I first found this while playing coop, me and a buddy were getting clay. I dugg up a node walked a little ways away and when i turned around the node was back. With a little testing we found that it would respawn instantly if either of us walked past a certain spot and it was the same distance in a circle. As far as the bugs go i have only seen it happen with stinkbugs and orb weavers but if you walk far enough away to de aggro one then walk back to where it saw you there will be the one you just ran from and a new one as if time had passed. This ended up with me having 4 orbweavers and 3 stinkbugs by my base. Please fix

If so, I must admit I can't fathom the connection. Some sort of supernatural tether, perhaps.

Wow thanks for the thorough responses, I really appreciate it. So that’s why elf wasn’t considered either, it simply pales vs nature godlike or human bonuses, once those are triggered. Wohoo, one step closer to understanding the nuances of this game. Heh. Only 95% to go

Wonder when they'll ask serious questions about the US blowing up boats in the Caribbean. Hah, right. American pols caring about brown people dying

Wrapped up with Control. Again I got the bug where I couldn't upgrade all my weapons even though I did all the quests, ie. missing one endless potential. Not that it matters as I am not fussed about finding all the secrets, just the interesting ones. Probably going to play Alan Wake 2 next, but I kind of don't want to have epic store...

Ultimately it always boils down to Us vs Them, and Israel is incontrovertibly Us so far as the vast majority of political elites in the west are concerned. For that, Ukraine doesn't matter, at all. Whatever Israel has done previous* criticism has been extremely muted, if present at all. If it weren't Russia, it would be China, if it weren't China it would be someone else. As an obese former flying ace with a penchant for women's clothing observed, it's easy, effective and extremely tempting to use fear to manipulate the population wherever you are. Elites always need enemies and if one is not apparent it will be invented. (Dunno how successful the UK government has been. Designating Palestinian Action as big t Terrorist and having Brave Bobbies regularly arresting 80 year old grannies among the thousands of others for literally holding signs has been an international embarrassment moderated only slightly by the domestic media not being able to say outright how stupid it was because, of course, that would be... Supporting Terrorism. Now, just imagine if it was Russia doing... actually you don't have to imagine, because Russia has an equivalent law and we've seen the media reaction to them using it the same way) *excluding 1956, but that was mostly the US/ USSR wanting to make sure Britain and France were permanently Broken as world powers, Israel's invasion of Egypt was pretty much an afterthought and it was only the US part of the west objecting.

That depends way too much on your class and your choice of weapons. I played a mage and thought the 2-handed playstyle was slow, unresponsive and not fun to play, so I switched to dagger/orb Spellblade and never looked back, stacking burn, shock and arcane bombs while zipping around the battlefield was very satisfying. Rounded the build out with some burst damage attacks, and it was a hoot and a half to play. At least it was for me, but I like high dps glass cannon characters whose only defense is high mobility and good cooldown management. There's a reason I tend to play sorcerers in Diablo IV and used the Stinger in Everspace 2. But yeah, game is definitely too long. The mage's ranged playstyle with the staff and the entire Control tree is probably also a leftover from the days where you were supposed to have actual players keeping the attention of the enemies, instead of semi-braindead AI companions. Probably. You have your home base to upgrade your gear, and the Crossroads were most likely meant as a lobby of sorts where you could pick where you want to go and check for groups. Most likely the entire reason why you have to reach everything through the Crossroads and not have a more connected game world like in the other games. Pretty standard for the live service game they were going for before pivoting to a single player experience. All the level designs - especially the much maligned city maps - are also left from it being supposed to be a co-op crawl through dungeons, rather than exploring traditional RGP areas. Game's pretty decent for its chaotic development. Certainly better than the negativity heaped on it, but also not great by any means.

No, I just gave up and spam positivity everywhere. I blame it on too much Scooter.

Probably has to do with the imminent release of Bloodlines 2.

It's still sunny in Seattle. In October. This never used to happen. October was always cold and grey. Anyway, time for my morning walk.

In turn, I was being satirical. I tend to assume nothing coming from that man is serious until it is implemented. But his frequently undiplomatic utterances still have negative impacts on our foreign relations.

Im going Linux whenever they decide to force always online for logins, which might be soon.

Win11 is ok-ish most of the time if you change some config stuff first (like bringing back the original right-click menu and changing explorer tree view). However, it's still a terrible experience compared to 10 or 7.

Think I have gone as far as I can in D4. Playing WoW for Legion remix, is fun to make the game an ARPG or more so. Though the speed focus does make me lament the rush players are in constantly.