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I've rewatched this several times and it gets funnier to me every time. William Shatner's self-aware straight-faced humor/trolling (or whatever you want to call it) always cracks me up. I can't believe he's 90. Live long(er) and (continue to) prosper, dude.

It looks like any other X-Com clone from the past few years. Yet another Jagged Alliance game that isn't Jagged Alliance, this crap sure ain't funny no more. Guess it's the last straw, as this is the first time they seriously call it "3" and not make it seem like a spin-off. Honestly, I'm already pissed off now.

Brisket, ribs, wings, cole slaw, potato salad, and baked beans. Pretty good, gonna wash it down with some bourbon.

Vaccines do prevent getting corona, they just don't stop it in all people*. They also do prevent the spreading of the virus in most people, and greatly reduce it in almost everyone since there's significant symptom reduction (which includes main vectors like, well, coughing or sneezing). The flu vaccine also doesn't stop people getting flu and doesn't stop spreading that virus either, and it's in every single metric worse than even the worst approved coronavirus vaccine; it's efficiency varies year to year but is typically in the 45% range. No vaccine works with 100% efficiency, even the ones people think as being 100% effective are only that because enough people get vaccinated. There is also statistically far too much improvement in mortality rates when vaccinated for it not to be preventing deaths. *It's notoriously difficult to vaccinate effectively for respiratory diseases. Most 'lining' tissues such as found in the throat and lungs use a different antibody (IgA) from the 'general' body (IgG), and vaccines tend to not stimulate IgA as effectively, and not for as long as they do IgG. So you can get high viral loads in the upper respiratory tract even if vaccinated because there isn't much covid specific IgA there at the start of infection. But, the immune system is still primed, and you do get rapid production of specific IgA when stimulated so you seldom get infection reaching the lungs (--> pneumonia) nor moving into other organs (--> myocarditis, 'long covid' etc) as you'd get if not vaccinated and relying on the generalised immune response (--> inflammation, fevers; correspondingly, if you get infected when vaccinated it will probably be asymptomatic with no fever or inflammation). That's why you can still get infected and be infectious after a vaccine, but also why the symptoms are much reduced and you're a lot less likely to infect others. [I'm pretty sure that that's also why there's so much interest in aerosolising vaccines for covid, as that directly targets the relevant cells rather than being injected intermuscularly]

Not really. More like you don't enjoy

Version 1.4.9 is live. Include a bit of revamp to SC ressources giving abilities, Wildstrike Frenzy bug correction and bashing shield tweaking up.

One of the advantages of moving to Cpt, because it hasnt been financial, is easy access to walks and nature reserves within 20 minutes of where I live. These nature reserves are ubiquitous and all around the base of Table Mountain Today we went to a walk in Constantia reserve, some pictures below. This include a house owned by some fortunate person who lives on the border of the reserve and a photo of the sea from a viewpoint

What about snow. Think if you had to pick resources to survive a winter. Yeah no bugs but that also means no meat for dinner. Though I don't think you would want a 90 day winter. Maybe have a omnitech weather manipulation device?

Sort of funny that the protagonist in Gamedec owns a lot of ships in the ersatz Star Citizen game Also got to blow some teenager's head off, so good stuff. Had to redownload the game due to GOG somehow seeing my copy as invalid. Haven't encountered too many bugs. Did have one character speak to me in Polish and one puzzle seems to have glitched out but I solved it by fluke, looking back at it.

No really bugged, but implemened a bit weirdly so that visual cone AoE indicator can be misleading. It shows you the cone where it would be if you really hit the enemy in that particular angle you aimed for. But once the "real" attack and the AoE proc happens the cone will be aligned in a way that its center line would be a straigt line from your char's center point to the target center point. And this might place the cone AoE a bit differently than the indicator showed when you were choosing the target (clicking slightly left or right to the center point of the initial target to make the indicator "hit" the other enemies behind it). Unlike other cone attacks such as invocations, the cone of the WotEP is not bound to the ground but to the enemy you pick. And once you picked that enemy as target the game will use the center of that enemy's circle as anchor point, not where you clicked. But the visual cone indicator used the point where you clicked. It's not a great implementation of course - but I guess nobody really noticed before (and long after) release. Some cone-shaped cipher powers that have to have an enemy as initial target have the same "problem". But often there the cone indicator gets "centered" once you picked your target iirc. WotEP's cone indicator doesn't do this unfortunately. Clear Out/Clear the Path would have the same problem as well - but they have no indicator VFX in the first place so you won't get deceived. I made a quick drawing to explain it a bit better: The best solution to not "trick yourself" with the cone indicator is to pick your target right in the middle of its circle (see red X in the bottom pic). Moving a bit left and right just to bring the indicator to touch other enemies (see red X in the upper pic) won't work. Instead, if you need the cone to move a little bit to the left and right, just move your character accordingly. This might be a problem with disengagement attacks - another reason why I recommend Nomad's Brigandine (immunity to disengagement attacks) when you use WotEP - not only when you enchant it with Offensive Parry (but mostly).

Tales of Arise: Reached the point where I get a third party member, so still fairly early I think. Still overall/casually enjoying the game. Couple "not seriously negative but not overly positive" observations: ---at first I liked the skits. But there are so many of them and I keep playing them thinking I might miss something "good." (some you cannot choose when to play, they are triggered by events instead) More and more they feel a little like info-dumps vs.interesting convo's with campy vitality. So now I read quickly and click thru faster, not waiting for the VA's. It's not that I dislike them - it's just there's too many/too long winded for me. ---on Normal difficulty, early combat becomes too easy too fast. You don't even have to bother with dodging/evading. Which doesn't really bother me in my "old age" ways, but it makes me feel like I'm still in tutorial mode and thus I'm afraid to up the difficulty, certain that the next "act boss" is going to 3 second whomp me without warning as a "here's the REAL combat, don't you wish you'd spent time mastering that dodging/evading!" taunt. To balance that out: ---I have yet to feel a need to "grind" for anything, just to keep going/do the few early weapon upgrades, so that's nice such doesn't feel required. Seems well balanced in that regard. ---I really do like the graphical look (well, most of the time). It's not cutting-edge super high fidelity but that sorta cell-shading or watercolor softness or whatever it is, is pleasing. ---the owls, man, the owls. Must...find...all the owls.

I want this. XD

No clue if this game will be any good, or even what kind of game it will be, given the lack of gameplay, but that's one hell of a trailer:

Look at me! I am not super late for the party for once! I enjoyed Pathfinder: Kingmaker quite a lot - but as I was late for the CRPG party in general, I missed out on the legendary bug launch of it. I even pre-purchased Wrath of the Righteous (WotR) as I like Owlcat as a studio. Here's my small (wall of text...) take on WotR (with as little spoilers as possible!) primarily compared to PoE (1+2), but might include other titles as well for the sake of it. :] Here goes! Small background: So before starting anyone who actually bothers reading should know just a little bit of my history to understand my perspective and priorities. I am still pretty new to CRPGs (started fall 2020) and I have been playing all of the big (and some small) titles since then. DoS2 was my first CRPG game, and PoE1 followed shortly after completion and PoE(1) has been my favorite game ever since. I play CRPGs the way most people watch series or read a book (with the small detail of being able to design the main character yourself), and hence my priorities goes as following: 1) A lot of role-playing options and great immersion. 2) The general story setting and main story arc. 3) Companions, and how well they function with the game. 4) Character freedom - I am very fond of the PnP-style where my character is assumed with as little background as possible to not snare my character design. Anything else - be it combat, the actual appearance of the game or voiced (or non-voiced) NPCs/companions/PCs - I can make do. Also, I like owls, a lot. :] Alright, let's go! General Story Arc - I have never been fond of the story arcs that are driven by a chase of divinity - it just doesn't suit my most typical main character. This is one of the things that I did not appreciate about DoS2, and similarly - it is one of the things that I am not too fond of when it comes to WotR (granted that it can be mostly avoided with certain paths). As most PoE(1) fans could guess, this was one of the major points that I *ADORED* about PoE(1) - my character was not necessarily chasing after godly powers - the connection to divinity (that primarily came with PoE:D) is just the way the cookie crumbled when the PC wanted answers to their condition. I still get goosebumps thinking about the PoE story. Anyways - in general, I am kind of neutral with Owlcat's story arc writing in WotR. Similarly to in Kingmaker, I feel like the character that I have designed is an ill fit for the obviously very righteous path that they are pursuing (I felt the same way about "having to" my own Kingdom in Kingmaker), but that is kind of the point of the game so I'll just roll with it. RP will find a way! The WotR story has an INSANE lot of flavor driven primarily by your mythic path choices, and I guarantee that the different paths will feel VERY different, even those close in alignment. Combat - I am not a RtwP player. Infact, PoE(1) is the only game where I've played with RtwP without struggling big time. Thus, when presented the option - I will more often than not prefer turn-based. Same goes for WotR - however, some fights are just a complete mess for a TB-player. This is however a minor setback as I am well aware of that the game is designed for RtwP, and as such I am just happy the TB option is available and reasonably clean. Anyways, regarding the combat scaling, Pathfinder (at least from Owlcats) is well known for being merciless at times and I have read a lot of complaints about how many encounters are too difficult. However, in general I'd say that even on "normal"/"standard" (I forgot the exact term that they use) difficulty, the battles are more than fair and you are always free to adjust the difficulty if it is necessary. If you play on core or above, then you're asking for a challenge - so don't be upset when you get one. :'] Builds - Just like Kingmaker, WotR has an insane amount of builds available. It feels similar to the PoE:Deadfire in how one can multi-class, but in WotR you can do so with even more freedom than PoE:D (for the better or worse). :] Graphics - It is for sure an upgrade from Pathfinder Kingmaker when it comes to the actual game character designs, but you'll definitely recognize the style if you played Kingmaker. Loads of gorgeous portraits for both NPCs, companions and, of course, for player options (unless you wanna import your own :] ). Time for my favorite subject! Companions: Personality / Writing - It is no secret on any forum that I absolutely adore many (*cough* all *cough*) companions from PoE(1). They remain my favorites to this day! That said, I can appreciate good companion writing when I see it (well, in my opinion at least :] ). Many of the companions from WotR fill certain stereotypes, but imo they do so in a very good way. Even some of the evil companions are *mostly* bearable for a good aligned character, thanks to good writing and good character motivations. I'd imagine vice versa might be true as well. I personally feel like the romance options are a bit of a lackluster (for both genres, regardless of sexuality), so I'll be passing on the romance run - however, from what I've read the actual romances seem to be very well written, so if any of the romancable options fall into your (character's) taste, then do try it! I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised! And just as in KM, your interactions with your companions matter for their development. Without going into too much detail (and spoilers), I'll just put it out there that Ember (our elven child-minded witch) can respond very poorly if you continuously push her away from her character drive to help people. Companions: Interactions - As expected from Owlcat, the companion banter is superb and there is A LOT of interesting dialogues that open up depending on which companion you bring when speaking to certain NPCs. This is similar to the companion commentary that I've been so fond of ever since PoE(1) and DA:O, so I am delighted to see more games doing more of this (Larian, please take notes , _ , )! Unfortunately, similar to Kingmaker (and both PoE games), WotR puts much more focus on quality rather than quantity when it comes to actual companion dialogues (between the player and the companion). The times when you get to properly interact with a companion (often accompanied with them approaching you regarding some matter) are very few and often far between, and that is especially painful when the interactions often are so well-written. :'[ Truly the very same problem that I had with PoE:D! However, the companion commentary is, also similarly to PoE(1) + PoE:D, very well written and occurs often. They will often have comments about the situation that you're in, and sometimes about the decisions you do - however these comments are (more often than not) not something that the PC can respond to, however it still adds sooo much to the companion's character and this was one of my favorite things about PoE(1)! In short: Companion banter, check. Companion commentary, double check. Companion dialogues, mmmh... Half-checked with a question-mark. It is also worth noting that companions often react to each others commentary. If one companion has a comment, then another companion might respond to that particular comment. :] And that is it, folks! At least for tonight's wall of text. :'] In short, I'd say that Pathfinder WotR definitely is worth playing, at least for most PoE fans! I think Owlcat and Obsidian Entertainment have the same priorities in many important factors regarding cRPGs - and that makes me very happy! Of course, PoE remains my favorite by far and the series exceed both Pathfinder games in most ways - but Owlcat did, imo, a pretty good job with WotR. Fair warning though, if you're afraid of bugs (huehuehue), then I'd suggest waiting a little bit just in case. Owlcats have been very quick with the bug fixing so you probably won't have to wait for long though!

The Eurojank Legend Returns:

Well, that's unexpectedly good news, even if the trailer is 90% random dance party for some reason. Some may say that Elex is the most jank of eurojank games, but Outcast was in a class of its own. And it had the best soundtrack of all time.

I think we are to small for termites to be any more of a nuisance than an ant. However they do have a hive protection mode so maybe become hostile during rain if your around the house or shed

It would be cool if there was thunderstorms or rain which brought out certain bugs.

It's a great anime, very unique, Steins;Gate I mean.

Yeah, I don't outright hate it but I'm just not gripped by it. Which means that I'll be putting my sunglasses on and hoping nothing will be wrong by watching Steins;Gate then JOOOOOOOOOJO or the 90s Berserk.

You know, I was always under the impression that Steins;Gate was massively lengthy, but I just looked and there's the original 24 episodes season and then another 23 episode sequel (or was it prequel?) season as well as a movie. That's not that crazy. And then I looked at the "games", "books", and "music" section and then I go "ah, that's why I thought it was so humongous". Japan has a real problem with basically just making endless shovelware of every kind in every possible medium for flagship franchises.

Sometimes I just throw stuff in the oven and it works out alright. Chicken thigh, "pearl potatoes" (no idea what they're called in English, very small ones), red onion boats, garlic, turnip with chicken broth and lots of spices, dijon mustard and herbs. Paired well with a Grenache from A Tribute to Grace, a wonderful Californian-based producer who specialises in the Grenache variety. California has some of the worst wines in the world, but the best producers gives some of the best quality-price-ratio in the world.

Clannad 5 the starfish return I'm not really feeling it and going to try something else for a while.

Difference being nearly all anti-vaxxer deaths could've been prevented with the vaccine. Some die regardless, but they're in the 0,001%. Not getting it is selfish AND dumb.

I really appreciate all that you've been done! Thank you for keeping it up.

Hehe true. In all honesty if you weren't here @Boeroer I'm not sure I would be either. You have been so nice and helpful all this time sharing your knowledge left and right. So I'm trying to pass this along somewhat by trying to help people if I can myself, but I try to avoid giving pointless advice if I'm unsure. I wish all communities had a guy like you. I also can't believe I slept on this game. I think it's a masterpiece tbh. Not perfect, but I'd call it a mandatory RPG experience like BG, IWD, PS:T back in the day. I've read that sales were a bit weak/mediocre, but I personally think - as someone who has had gaming as a hobby for 20 years and RPGs being my favorite - that Obsidian should be pretty damn proud of this game.

Refreshing resources are huge advantage against megabosses. Monks, Chanters, Tacticians, Bloodmages, Ciphers - that's usually the best picks. Cipher has Disintegration, too - which makes a certain megaboss fight a lot easier. You can get to refreshing resources even with those classes that usually have fixed resources. You'd need a source of Brilliant then (Cipher's Ancestor's Memory, Shroud of the Phantasm, Least Unstable Coil etc) and stuff like Salvation of Time and/or Wall of Draining. Some of those classes also can refresh resources easily with some tricks - for example a SC Berserker can kill his Chanter buddies summons "accidentally" and will gain Rage from Blood Surge - or a SC Paladin can get Zeal when a summon dies (no matter who kills it). You can easily combine both. Other classes might be able to refund resources often enough - like a dual wielding SC Rogue with enough Guile so that Gambit has a 100% hit-to-crit conversion (do not graze though...). But generally speaking the classes I mentioned first have a clear advantage. If you are not against some cheesy tactics you can use the Strand of Favor trick to extend all buffs on you eternally (including Brilliant) which levels this general imbalance.

Episode 3 of Devil Lady...still feeling vaguely Miyu-ish. Big spoiler post that explains the episode incoming mainly for majestic's benefit, . Devil Lady has weird...and bad intro music. The best way I can relate it is if you took the second version of the "we're gonna duel" music from Utena (the darker, heavier version of it) but made it generic and then stuck some random silly and ultra-generic j-pop song at the end of it for like 30 seconds. It doesn't make sense...or sound good at all. Still not sure what I think of this show. I think I rather like the character stuff, but I'm not as big into some of the action (although the part here with specifically Kazumi was admittedly pretty good if a bit much - don't really ever want to hear anybody scream quite like she did anytime soon again). Hey @majestic, maybe this would be a good test for "is there a show Bartimaeus thinks is [good or at least half-decently enjoyable] but doesn't appeal to majestic", . @HoonDing wat

Yes, it was always like this. I guess you only realize that it's a problem if you a) invest some playtime with WoTEP, b) meticulously try to aim with the cone in order to catch as many enemies as possible (meaning: not much AI use) and c) pay attention to the combat log or the numbers on the screen. I guess during playtesting this combo wasn't too common and also players really have to be bothered by a behavior to report it. For example I knew about this rel. early but maybe didn't think it was worth reporting it - like... subconsciously. I even kind of forgot about it - since I mainly use the WotEP as parrying tool and not as an AoE dmg tool.

https://i.imgur.com/JnFcZ5M.mp4 I want this as weapon in Elden Ring

Just showing some scenery. Also, you can switch "party leader" at any time, meaning that's the one you control/skillset you use in combat and will see while running around. eg, you don't always have to be staring at only one character's behind outfit.

Complicated because what scenario. But in general I'd say there's not much that tops the combined dmg bonuses of a Marauder. Maybe if you take a Devoted and average the damage over several attacks (not only the one from stealth/invisibility) and use Clear Out - because the initial target of Clear Out gets hit twice. Which is a 100% multiplicative boost for the action. But in general I'd say it's difficult to pile up so many dmg bonuses (for more than one attack I mean) as a flanked & bloodied Berserker/Streetfighter Marauder, especially when using Barbaric Blow with a dual weapon setup and Blooded + Bloody Slaughter. You have to crit though to make it really good. And of course you'll also get knocked out a lot... I have played some Brutes in the past and they are just more reliable. Especially on PotD where higher ACC and even graze-to-hit is more important. Marauders start strong right away with the damage output though so I think they are more fun for most people. My current Brute + Amra is top of the food chain when it comes to melee damage so far (not counting Grave Calling stuff) and he's not too squishy - but that's because I cheese a bit with skeletons summons to trigger all the on-kill goodies such as Multi-Cleaving and Blood Thirst and so on. Without summons he would just be an ordinary Brute with more sturdyness but less dmg output as a Marauder. And the skelly-trick would also work with a Berserker/Rogue no problem (no cleave though which is kind of the trick).

If it would be dead you wouldn't have gotten answers for all of the topics you created during the last weeks, would you?

Sort of a toss up between here and the politics thread…. What it’s like losing someone close to you to a cult (QAnon) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57369349

Maybe that's just for the trailer? In an ideal world you import your save game from Elex (or answer some questions at the start) and an early cutscene or two is different depending on who you hooked up with. Then Caja/Nasty gets killed off for your standard revenge motivation and off you go.

I did witness three ants attacking a termite and the termite chopped one ant half. So they could be neutral mobs like the ladybugs, although they look quite nasty.

This is a great idea and I am all about transporting big quantities of water, however all standing water currently in the game has the prefix 'nasty'. If we had a way to filter water, or perhaps there was a game mechanic that produced more than a drop of fresh water at a time (rainstorms, turning on the sprinkler, tapping a garden hose, etc), then this idea would be a must have. If this came to pass, I'd like to be able to add lilypad wax to blueprints (mainly floors and walls, possibly foundations and ceilings) to make them waterproof. Then we could create our own pools of fresh water.

Ugggh carnivore snails probably the worst possible death. Being pinned underneath taking suffocating damage why they penetrate you with the radula. Hammerhead worms predatory flatworms will grow new head if removed. Can reproduce by fission. Normally eats earthworms Rain beetles come above ground in rain and fly. Red velvet mites are in game........maybe have them be more aggressive or spawn in greater numbers. Saw tooth beetles are another. Npt a bug but could be fun toads. They poke up from lairs in the rain looking for bugs knocked to the ground

I wish I could give multiple hearts for this post. You capture a lot of my own feelings about the game.

Things I really enjoy: - The graphics. By god the game looks lovely. - The fact that you can solve the same quests in different ways, often with or without violence. - Serafen. His story, his dialogue lines and his voice acting. This is extremely well done. Stands out from a group of well-written NPCs. - A change of scenery, i.e. the archipelago setting. A brave choice, and I applaud it. It works. - No big dungeons. Again, a welcome change. A brave choice, and I applaud it. This works, too. - The Beast of Winter. An extremely tight story that is written really, really well. (Btw, notice how Obsidian plays with the dragon encounter: it is displayed on the loading screen whenever you're in BoW. But when the encounter finally happens, the dragon is sucked away from you into the void. Once you get into the void, the dragon again escapes from you, diving through the ice into yet another layer of the realm. Then, only then do you finally get to meet the beast. This was very clever.) - Neketaka is right up there with Athkatla as the best city in all the cRPGs I've played. - Apart from Mirke, none of the characters are overtly cheesy (but Mirke makes up for it!). The characterization is really good. The writers have done an excellent job, in general. - The meeting with Eothas in Ashen Maw looks frigging fantastic. No wonder Xoti just about dies from astonishment, awe and other big words beginning with A. Things I don't really enjoy: - Well the story is all over the place, and there's a fundamental lack of logic at the heart of it: you're supposed to be in a hurry to stop this Eothas fellow, but he only ever does anything when you go to meet him. So you have all the time in the world to explore the entire archipelago. And if you actually play the game and explore the archipelago, you'll come to realize that the main story of this game is essentially reduced to an afterthought -- it's just something that happens while you're doing other things. I don't know the percentages, but someone could probably do the math, and I'm fairly certain that most players spend a lot less than 25% of their game time furthering the main story. - The factions. Obsidian should just ditch this line of thinking altogether. You're very clearly and strongly suggested to side with one of the factions, but I just wasn't interested. I didn't like any of them, but I also couldn't completely ignore them. In the end I did what I did to avoid having to side with any of them, and I wasn't entirely satisfied with that. - The difficulty curve. It's singularly odd. The most difficult encounters, by far, are on the first island: Gorecci Street and the Engwithian Digsite. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, comes even close. - I understand that there's been a conscious effort to create a balanced system, and I must say Obsidian has succeeded in this very well. However, this creates a problem: nothing stands out. There's no must-have loot, there was never a moment where I found something that gave me any kind of wow moment, because I knew this item was going to be good. Granted, some items are better than others, but the differences are minute. - You can do perfectly well without ever once using potions, scrolls, explosives and drugs. It's a bit of a pity, because clearly a lot of time and effort has been spent in creating all of that stuff. - The hugely annoying bug where a character spends all that time going through the potion-drinking animation but ends up not actually drinking the potion. Shame on you, Obsidian, shame on you. Overall: a superb game, one of the best in the genre.