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I have a theory that Bruce just pretends to be the forum's friendly nice guy and in reality his posts are all meant sarcastic. "Great decision to play DY2"

Now that your secret is out, you know you won't be able to convince people

Ah, that made sense why he defended BG3 so much.

you can already transport stems and planks via the zipline

Ivermectin does not prevent severe COVID-19, study finds This isn't really a surprise as we've seen similar study results before. It's still not clear to me why the right became all "religious" (in the dogmatic sense) about this drug.

Still trying to keep some creative edges going. As I mentioned the other week, I finished off sewing my Mando Flightsuit, I thought it might entertain you now I have pictures of it fitting: Now I'm plotting out my flak-vest to do, and I have a pile of materials ready to go... Just have to finalise making some patterns and the style of said flak-vest...

Elex 2 will be out this year, really. It's out in literally 9 days* (March 1st). Suppose I should even pre-order, since GOG will give me 10% off and I'll buy it for sure anyway. *I would have to admit I only found that out last week, and was pretty surprised myself it was so soon. And I thought I'd been following it pretty closely. They don't seem to have been exactly shouting the date from the rooftops.

In addition 2 changes for next version : Stag Companion : The AoE damages now also affects main target. I've changed this because it required having foes close to main target AND high crit chances (which is not obvious for the pet). This was quite annoying to get both conditional, especially with an 1.5m AoE and 5 INT. Now this version only require high crit chances. Having foes very close will make it better but is not necessary. This is still more conditional, but more rewarding than the 2 other "offensive" pets (lion and wolf) Protective Companion : +1 Engagement -> +2 I made this change to address 2 problems : - First, Ranger requires a lot of Talents to get their perks. Protective Companion is needed to get the Stalker's Link perk that is one of the main interest of ranger (stacking accuracy). And Protective Companion is really meh. I though that if a ranger has to spend so much points to get their prime speciality working, they deserve Abilities that are at least a bit good. - Second, multiclassing. Rangers aren't so good at multiclassing with casters because their main perk (Accuracy bonuses) only work vs single targets (that's why Seer is a good MC). With this change, it mitigates a bit this issue, granting Ranger a bit more interest for AoE users.

That's both fair and fine - it's not like anyone needs an actual reason for disliking certain character types or genres. It perhaps being an allegorical choice doesn't change that, of course, and I mean, assuming the interpretation is a valid one (although, in some ways, all interpretations are valid as long as they're consistent) it is at the end a personal reason to accept Suzu the way she is, not a universal one (and certainly not one where anyone could claim it is the one correct version and you're wrong if you don't see it that way). Like my experience of the film was certainly enhanced by the ending in a similar way as the Utena movie improved my disposition towards the series, while it did the exact opposite for you. Also, yes, something I wanted to add to the last post and forgot, for a 2016 war drama with a main character type you hate, that's pretty high praise. What did you think of the technical aspects, character models and animation?

Ah, but you see, as I've said so many times...for me, characters trump all. I won't care about your allegory, your themes, your plot if I don't like your characters, and I did not like that main character, the character which the entire film is framed around. I really, really did not like Suzu. So, in a sense, it's a credit to the film that I thought it was okay even given that I strongly disliked the singular protagonist...and that it was an anime film made in 2016, especially seeing as it is a drama. All of those put together should really spell out me hating this film, but I didn't, because it had other good qualities that made it so I watched the entire thing and didn't come out disliking it - I just thought my experience with it was was overall "okay" and that I wished the main character was...someone else. In other words, it was a good film hamstrung by issues of it failing to personally appeal to me, that's all. I have my reasons for not liking this particular kind of character - let's just say I had spent entirely too much time around someone who I would say is painfully similar to Suzu, and I unfortunately find that personality type incredibly grating as a result.

I'm going to borrow one of your favorites: And by that I mean I do not disagree on a literal level, but an allegorical one. I don't think Suzu is slow in the literal sense, that is shown at points in the films where she's quite capable of thinking and reacting like any regular adult. Oh, right, spoilers from here on out in case someone else wants to watch. If taken purely at face value, Suzu's antics, her way of speaking and quite frankly everything about her demeanor can be frustrating for at least the first half of the film, or potentially all of it. You'd facepalm at her idea of regularily visiting Rin at the brothel, wonder how silly you could be for wandering directly into a bulletstorm trying to save a bird, or any other of these scenes. I know, because so did I. I was wondering about that too for a while, and frequently paused the film in between, sometimes being nothing but frustrated. It's probably not the best setup, especially since it takes most of its runtime to become clear, and then it really depends on how much you're willing to accept this sort of thing in films - or any other works of art, i.e. how much leeway you're willing or able to give a work and its interpretations. Where does allegory begin and suspension of disbelief end? It sure walked a very fine line regarding verisimilitude, but I think it (barely, but still) stayed on the acceptable side of such works. It doesn't quite dip into inellectual wankery territory, unlike some other series and it's final movie that we've watched here. Or like this post. Help me, I'm becoming one of "those" critics. Yikes.

Completed Lost Words: Beyond the Page. Content warning: The black dog is impossible to pet. Lost Words: Beyond the Page is an adventure-platformer. There is no combat and very few sequences requiring precision or speed. The level design is very linear, collectibles are mostly close to the main path. There is little interactivity and the player's choices are insignificant, but they are reflected well throughout the playthrough, though there is only one ending. The main appeal lies in the story and graphics, not the gameplay, despite it being well integrated. The plot follows a young girl rushing through the five stages of grief at a breakneck speed, while writing a story in a fantasy setting. These two storylines are deeply interwoven and the fantasy part is affected greatly by the RL one. It also possesses the pacing and logic fitting for a ten-year old aspiring writer. The graphics are gorgeous. The RL segments use mostly water-colour-like style with fluid animations and words used as platforms - next platform/line usually appears when the main character reaches the end of the previous one. Also there are very, ridiculously easy “puzzles”, such as combining 4 mosaic pieces into an object. The fantasy parts feature 3D models, but they are 2D design-wise. The protagonist can interact with very specific objects in the environment by applying magical words to them (right mouse button click to open the list of the words available, then dragging one of them to the object with the left mouse button). The number of words is very limited and only one word can be used on an object - for example, it is impossible to “break” or to “ignore” a gate, only to “rise”. The symbolism is extremely obvious and transparent, e.g. a large black dog (whom I attempted to pet at every opportunity) represents guilt or depression. The controls are not rebindable, but comfortable and intuitive enough. The game saves the progress every few seconds and in the case of falling, the playable character usually respawns on the previous platform or the upper left corner of the page. I have not encountered any bugs. The soundtrack is beautiful and fits the game well. VA is excellent and all lines are fully voiced. They also appear on the screen, as platforms for the RL part and in the background for the story ones. The language used is specifically British English. Recommended on sale.

Why would you think that, I made a post a while ago about how much I was looking forward to playing DY2 and very few people were excited about it so its good when I read a post that someone is playing it and enjoying it because its bodes well for my experience I wouldnt pretend to like games and be excited about it, you have to just trust me on that Melkie

Yesterday I was idly browsing Netflix for funny recommendations for the post in the streaming thread, but there was one that actually looked somewhat promising. A quick googling also told me this won virtually every animation award in Japan and landed the director, Sunao Katabuchi (who was originally selected to direct Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service), film prizes usually not even given out to directors of animated films. この世界の片隅に, Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni (2016) Clocking in at an impressive two hour and nine minutes runtime, there's apparently also an extended cut running almost 2 hours and fity minutes that I actually planned on watching afterwards if it turned out to be a good film - well maybe not necessarily directly afterwards. Now I'm not entirely sure I want to. No, not because it's bad. It was crowdfunded, with over three thousand backers chipping in 39 million yen (impressive for a crowd funding campaign, but not a whole lot for a film). Anyway, regardless of the money involved, this is from 2016 and looks like this: Say hello to Suzu, protagonist of the film. So, anyway, Suzu is a nice, young girl who loves to paint and has an overactive imagination. She's a bit of a klutz, has her head in the clouds and sometimes gets lost walking around. When she turns 18, her family marries her off to a young suitor, and after moving from Hiroshima to Kure, Suzu does her best just living her life in an ever increasingly problematic time for her, her family and well, everyone else. She has a rocky start with her in-laws, is patently useless at household chores at first, and her sister-in-law doesn't like her too much. All that will change in time though. Life isn't so bad, all in all... The film's structure and use of artistic elements in certain scenes gave it a reputation of being somewhat hard to follow, which I don't really agree with, but I can see where the criticism is coming from. If you watched Grave of the Fireflies and wondered if it would be a good idea to spend the entire runtime of the film on depicting the everyday life of a normal family before dropping the (literal) bombs on them, wonder no more, and give this a spin. Well, or watch. It's a movie, not a record, after all.

So I'm trudging along in Dying Light 2, having fun. Then STORY happens and I'm caught at crossbow-point and have to make a timed choice how to negotiate the situation: -We could help each other.. or -Try me! Turns out this is a secret faction choice. 5 minutes after the game already gave you an obvious faction choice but apparently that one didn't count. And I won't even go into how dumb said faction choice panned out. Did I mention the game uses only one save and it saves after this cutscene?

The Fourth Geneva Convention disallows bombings that are indiscriminate or in the form of reprisals against civilians. https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/470-750065 I believe Russia is a signatory. The question then is whether the Aleppo bombings violate those accords. If there were military targets in the bombed locations, then it might be found legal, if inhumane.

Ah, hell, what am I doing, never mind.

this sounds like conspiracy theorists making mental gymnastics to find connections that validate their point

You were one that compared Russian Syrian mission to Nato's actions in Libya. So in this case whataboutism come from you

Hey fellow garden dwellers. The amount of food scraps from harvested hotdog/apple etc. It needs to be more. It breaks the immersion of being a small tiny guy chopping an apple, to get two scraps, when the apple is 10/20x taller than me. It should be loads, it kinda ruins it for me.

Nah, I just remember you mentioning him back then. Too lazy to use the search function here. My memory is just...something that boggles the mind. Sorry for being a nosy cat. My apologies.

I did actually appreciate both movie attempts at Hitman Agent 47. On other matters:

I think you have some bugs to work out in your game, your character model is T-posing.

That film never existed.

I might be adopting a cat. Vet friend had a 12 year old cat with diabetes brought in. The lady wants to have him euthanized. So the vet is looking into rescuing the cat.

Russia has not seek UN security council's approval on its actions. So I don't see any relevant comparison. It would better to compare Russian's actions to USA's actions in same area. Question was that Nato attacks countries outside its borders and against its own rules, not how justifiable its actions have been.

Wrong.

Started Horizon Forbidden West. Best looking game right now. Also replaying Cyberpunk with the new patch

I thoroughly enjoy going Devoted-Skald. Its built for crits. Choosing sabres and picking up monastic unarmed training, you should have all the weapon variety you need. The self-buff that Fights can pick up + their natural accuracy bonus can lead to a ton of melee crits to get chants back, and having that reliable and unconditional crit chance added to your offensive invocations like Thrice can make them crazy powerful. Later the Chanter can self buff with Energized, which makes the crit synergy even crazier. And theyre very sturdy. Between Armoured Grace + Sashas Singing Scimitar its pretty quick too.

Finished Death's Door. The start was slow - but the more time I spent with the game the more I enjoyed it. It's a simple, zelda-like affair, with a minor touch of mandatory Dark Souls influence but it's well done. Enjoyed exploration quite a bit. The only disappointment was end game - after main story there is "true ending" you can pursue. But outside two new combat encounters it is just running around empty maps 100% find-them-all chores. Payoff wasn't even remotly worth it.

I thought it looked...odd. If I'm recalling correctly, the backgrounds generally looked nice and fitting, but the character models and animations weren't exactly what I would have expected for a film of this type...but it was within acceptable parameters to at least get the job done. Still, it was strange looking to me - I especially remember that dumb look on the main character's face that they kept drawing over and over being a bit of an aggravation for me...but that might partially just be my dislike for the character speaking, . The pre-2000s era of animation we shall never return to...sigh.

Great decision to play DY2, Im glad you enjoying it and I have heard mostly good things about it I am going to play it in the next 3-4 months once the first patch\update is available

That's not as bad as the Kanye documentary series.

I'd be fine with Netflix not trying to get me to watch "Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai", which it does like every time I log on. It also told me Komi Can't Communicate has a new dub now. That's going to fix everything, huh? Let's see what else is in the recommendations then. Steins;Gate 0. Nope. Designated Survivor, apparently a TV show where Jack Bauer plays the only person left of the US government after a terrorist attack, and apparently the Harry Potter films are on Netflix now. Okay. Heh.