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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-59771186 Truly a SLAP IN THE FACE to Christendom.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I've seen a lot of people saying they needed more episodes, but in these circumstances I cannot really agree. They probably did in the absolute sense, but I wouldn't be confident that we'd get better out of an extra 2 hours rather than just more of what we got. It really did look like a badly managed project where the wheels fell off completely at the end, and they tend to expand their crappiness to fill all available time. OK, there was covid, but end of the day if a builder builds a house and it falls down in a week you don't care that he was going through a divorce or whatever; you care that the house fell down. And maybe that your neighbours builder, also going through a divorce, managed to build a decent house despite that. End of the day they decided that Stepin and the warder bond which becomes important in probably 2 seasons time was worth half an episode instead of more immediately relevant world building, or giving the main characters five minutes each of character development or whatever. There's nothing to say that we would not simply have got 2 more hours of such writing genius. And they did so little effective world building with the time they had... The main issue they have is how much better Witcher did in similar covid circumstances and, supposedly, with less budget. There have been some issues with it so far (I've not seen ep8 yet) but it's night and day on apparent quality, use of time and world building, and a significant step up still on script and storyline.

Don't know if this trick is known, but it's useful especially for people who try to solo Changeling's Dance encounter. At the start of the fight you lose the bonuses from items, however you can keep the bonuses given by some items at the start: Shifting Chroma (from Pearlescent Rhomboid Helstone) Kaul's Stance (from Eager Blade) Drawing Parry (from Duskfall) First to the Fight (from Furrante's Breastplate) Pelt of Many Kinds (from Changeling's Mantle) Indecisive from Orishia should have been also in the list but it's bugged. Bravado from Gipon Prudensko is removed when the armor is replaced. Special mention for Nemnok's cloak and monks. If the monk has Iron Wheel activated at the start of the fight and if his life is increased by more than 30% then he is able to trigger Spirit Shield from the cloak.

Did run a few tests because the last time I even picked Lion's Sprint was ages ago. I remembered that the ACC bonus didn't work well and not with spells I tried back then, but I also had the impression that it really didn't work at all - but was not completey sure about that anymore. So I made a level 20 Barb/Wizard/Cipher/Druid with the console in order to test some different types of attacks rolls (with no other active ACC buffs) and tested some actions: Essence Interrupter, auto attack: no bonus Essence Interrupter, Barbaric Blow: no bonus Mace, auto attack: +15 ACC Mace, Barbaric Blow: +15 ACC Mace, Tast of the Hunt: +15 ACC Concelhaut's Draining Touch, Barbaric Blow: +15 ACC Necrotic Lance: no bonus Minoletta's Bounding Missiles: no bonus Fireball: no bonus Jolting Touch: no bonus Grimoire Slam: +15 ACC Kalakoth's Sunless Grasp: +15 ACC Disintegrate: no bonus Miasma of Dull-Mindedness: no bonus Sunlance: +15 ACC While using ranged weapons or spells: distance to the target makes no difference (like with Backstab for example). First I thought it's melee-only - because the spells that got the +15 ACC bonus have no visible range and are basically melee "touch" spells. But then Sunlance happened... But then I remembered that Sunlance also works with Monk's Instruments of Pain (giving the spell *6 range) - same as the other spells above that count as "melee" spells and work with Lion's Sprint: they all work with Intruments of Pain, too. So I'm sure SUnlance is just accidentially labeled as melee spell. And all abilities that work with Instruments of Pain will also work with Lion's Sprint. So my conclusion is the Lion's Sprint only gets applied to attacks that are labeled as "melee" (not melee weapon, weapon tag not needed). So even if there's no filter on the actual Lion's Sprint ability: somwhere it gets filtered. Don't ask me where... Is it maybe so that the restriction is put on the base ability Wild Sprint and Lion's Sprint inherits that restriction or something? Just taking wild guesses here... I used the CP but not the BPM.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

LOL I love the Burger King logo on the USA!

Yupyup, we're spoiled here really. We've got a filter for debris but there's no pollution or such in the lake so no treatment needed. Yeah, I've got two, I can't offhand remember how much they contain though, but they were all spent since we usually leave the taps running a little bit to prevent the pipes in the house from freezing, we've never had the inlet freeze like this before. In all likelyhood it was already frozen down there when we opened the taps in the house and there was already low volumes of water.

As a huge ABBA-phyle this made my day.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59793726 Rest in peace, Desmond Tutu.

WoT Ep 8: Whelp... I has pretty happy with Ep 1-7. Yes they are majorly condensing the story and took a few liberties but that's adaption for you. They were still doing a pretty good job hitting all the beats. Then Ep 8 happened and they really went their own way. And it wasn't good. In fact it was s--t. Hey I get that there will be changes in a TV adaptation. And I also get there will be changes in the story and characters to suit modern tastes and expectations. But if you abandon the plot beats altogether this turns into a dumpster fire. It's not totally broken yet but it's getting really close to it. That is happened in the first bloody season does NOT bode well.

Brucie, you sounded a bit like that ABBA song there, Take A Chance On Me Not looking forward to anything in gaming really. Found most games too disappointing. I'll have a look at that Dune strategy game when it comes out naturally. But other than that I'm hard pressed to think of anything that could be in the works. Maybe Midnight Suns.

Went to bed at 10. Got up at midnight and put out Santa stuff. Kids woke us up at 2 AM. This is all my fault. I did the same thing to my parents as a kid.

I was just about to post the link: Webb Telescope away with two major hurdles cleared after flawless launch.

Well JWST finally launched. Before Star Citizen too

Merry Christmas to you all

Happy Holidays everyone.

Semi-automatic.

When laptops are your platform of choice, controller support is very helpful. Considering it is being released on consoles as well I'm reasonably confident Steam version will have controller support. In my personal experience controller support may be detrimental in online shooters (which I do not play but did in fact have l33t Battlefield skills back in the day) but not PvE shooters, they are just different. In Resident Evil Village, for instance, I found using Magnums and Shotguns to be more nicer to use with controllers but M/K more precise and consistent firing with the Assault Rifle (WMX) was better.

I just hope they don't screw it up, and they better add controller support this time around. They wanted to make it a NFT blockchain type of game where contributers received special benefits but huge public backlash compelled them to politely walk back on it (stuff like that seems to be hugely popular in Eastern Europe, I am into crypto personally but I think it's a stupid idea for video games, Paypal is quite sufficient). Sequels to games released over a decade ago are almost always a dice roll, and it doesn't matter what region its from, and the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has quite a cult following but it definitely wasn't perfectly optimized or coded. Minimalist to the extreme.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, Elden Ring, Avowed, TOW 2 The former two I'm quite skeptical of, the latter 2 I have a good deal of confidence of.

Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe should come out... eventually?

Yup. This was a big part of what I researched and wrote on in my doctoral project. And every semester I have to explain this to my students in my intro to international relations class. Also, I use WotR articles a lot in my classes for current world affairs exposure for my students.

This is not gonna end well. There is a significant number of people criticizing this episode, including some popular youtubers (at least in the WoT community), but the show is the number 1 in streaming so I don't think Amazon will see any problems with it. And even if they did, season 2 is already filming so whatever damage was done, it is too late to fix it.

This is why red states are awesome

Too bad Meteor Swarm didn't make it in then.

games I looking for in 2022: Total War: Warhammer 3 Dwarf Fortress Steam release Crusaders Kings 3 - Royal Court DLC Baldurs Gate 3 Maybe Diablo 4 - we will see

@Sarex Indira has been quiet but he is one of the numerous people, since I became active in 2010, who use to post relatively frequently on these forums but has now vanished. But thats generally the nature Internet forums and members, its strange to me that people who post for years on a forum leave without saying goodbye or explaining they moving on. Its not a big deal if people move on I just like to know why. But at least Im still here so its not all bad news ( and dont worry Sarex if I do leave Obsidian I will make a proper farewell post saying goodbye ) But what a great thread to raise " what are we looking forward to " and 2022 is going to be a big year for gaming. My list includes BG3 full release Cyb 2077 at a level to be played without too many issues or things left out Dying Light 2 Elex 2, cant wait for this one Dragon Age 4, not sure if it will make 2022 Elden Ring Oh yes 2022 bodes well for gaming

Initially I thought you were highlighting another example of someone trying to undermine Christian faith and the celebration of Christmas but what a great article Very cute and a heartwarming story One of my best Xmas stories of the year, I am going to share this one with everyone I know

Interesting read https://warontherocks.com/2019/12/why-russian-military-expenditure-is-much-higher-than-commonly-understood-as-is-chinas/

Finished The Witcher s2. Had some mhm moments for me, but all in all I think it's good. Just this time... I could not remember a single scene from the books. Then again, I can't even remember much from the books either. Always loved the short stories, because they were about Geralt, while the big books were all about politics and whatever, and I just didn't really care. In fact, now I remember that I had to force myself a lot through most of it, so maybe that's why I barely remember anything about it outside of the Falka-stuff.

Enjoy your season's best folks.

First two episodes (out of eight) of The Silent Sea/Netflix. Beyond my fangirlness of Gong Yoo, a lot of other stellar S. Korean cast as well. I remember the female lead from the series Stranger (and some movies), she can be very good. I'm watching with Korean audio/eng. subtitles but there is English dubbing. I tried it for a few minutes - it's not the worst but I think the other audio aspects changes quality subtly with the dub (not as good), plus I couldn't handle the American English voice coming from Gong Yoo's face haha. But if you're not used to actors voices already it might be all right. Anyway ... it's sci-fi but in seemingly the more drama/mystery/conspiracy vein, and more chr. oriented vs. action. The visuals are mostly nice and because it's space/space station, it's a good showcase for the blacks/contrast of the OLED. The pacing and dialogue is on the slower more sedate side, where I wish the camera would linger a tad less long on some bits, although a creeping sense of dread is done pretty well. So far, it doesn't suck, but it's not particularly compelling either. One ... plot-has-to-happen trope? ... aspect I didn't like right off the bat was that scenario of ppl only caring about whether air is breathable and not whether they should care about biological air contaminants so they're quickly running around without any masks/suits on etc. when they could have left them on. I bet that's going to bite them in the butt at some point, or I'll eat my dirty socks. Edit: started ep. 3 and yup, lol.

@rjshae I just got reprimanded by my sister in law and mom for talking about this article and the virus on Christmas day even though I consider this is a good news pandemic story because it really suggests the new variant is less lethal as hospitalizations are down and suggests new variants could be the same . I even tried to play the " its not my fault, its an American who posted the story " card Thanks for getting me into trouble, why you posting links like this on Xmas !!! You a very bad boy

Thats a good discount for Disco so well done for taking advantage of the sale Let us know if you enjoyed it, its one of those games that seems people either loved it or werent that impressed I mentioned this before but one of my brothers told me that I had to play it because it literally changed his view on games because he loved it so much. I played it and wanted to love it but the setting wasnt fantasy and I just lost interest. But I think you will enjoy it because you enjoy games that arent necessarily about combat or just fantasy themes

You probably already noticed that, but I have no mouth and I must scream is available for free on GOG for the next few hours https://www.gog.com/news/grab_your_copy_of_i_have_no_mouth_and_i_must_scream

Happy holidays to all!

God jul everyone

I always appreciate and enjoy in MMO and online games where the developers integrate holiday themes like Halloween and Christmas

Happy Merry Christmastime Holidays! And a Festivus for the rest of us!

I am Christian and I also am 100% sure that Jesus was NOT born in December. So that makes the whole "war on Christmas" kinda stupid IMO. The target must be Santa Claus I guess. Anyway, I hope all you fine folks and all your families have a merry and bright and wonderful Christmas, New Year, and I surely hope 2022 treats you better than 2021.

The celebration of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I have a lot of problems with you people! On a serious note, Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate, everyone. I'm technically Christian, but I'm not going to preach nor push a Bible in anyone's face. I just like spending time with family at this time of year. I'll leave you with the best Christmas song ever:

Was just thinking the same thing and I wasn't even looking forward to most of these games... On a side note, been a while since @IndiraLightfoot posted anything. Hope things are going ok.