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So we can all agree, Alpha Protocol was an educational game.

Sounds like someone isn't pulling hard enough on their bootstraps. GRAVITY IS A CHOICE. One of the things that are constant among personal fitness types is the mantra "Abs are made in the kitchen". I guess you could excercise all the weight away while eating cheeseburgers for every meal in the same way you could lose weight by eating nothing but ice cream, but such hypothetical situations are full of caveats that make them useless for most people. For most, weight loss is going to be primarily a result of diet, probably cutting down on sugars and calorie rich foods while eating more vegetables and lean proteins. Exercise is good and you should do it for a multitude of reasons, but a 30 min daily cardio and regular weight training aren't going to zap your fat away by themselves. I'm not sure why this is so controversial, but I guess it shouldn't surprise me at this point.

reversed. the spaghetti monster is the death knell o' all things, the final but ultimate unreachable end of creation. HA! Good Fun!

2nd Amendment honks are terrible historians. even the scotus Justices got their heads screwed on wrong whenever history and firearms becomes the topic... which is just one reason why the alito draft opinion killing roe is so problematic. 'course to be fair, those who push gun legislation are also kinda horrible at history. there were a 2008 scotus decision (heller) which addressed gun control. curious, before 2008, nobody had done a comprehensive study o' gun ordinances and laws. no joke. were literal no comprehensive written history o' gun laws in this country. as it turns out, pre 1900ish, near all efforts to restrict firearms were indeed directed at gunpowder and ammunition 'stead o' guns themselves. when state and local did get around to final addressing guns, those governing bodies, through democratic process, chose draconian limitations as often as not. have mentioned previous the myth o' the lawless wild west towns. reality is most municipalities other than a few notable mining towns in ca and other far west states, enacted extreme limits on gun possession w/i city/town limits, and such remained the norm 'til 'round ww2. is hardly as if the founders o' the US enshrined the right to bear arms in the Constitution and only recent has the libs messed with the god given right o' gd to hoard weapons and ammo. the second amendment, for much o' history, were considered a limit only on the fed government and a rather insignificant limit at that precise 'cause ammo and gunpowder were the main target o' legislation efforts. 'course the folks who says US doesn't do anything 'bout guns is also history challenged. the 1994 assault weapon ban were curious simultaneous effective and pointless. firearms with attributes described in the ban became non factors almost overnight. the ban were extreme effective at getting ar-15 kinda weapons off the street. huzzah! however, is inconclusive as to whether mass shootings decreased and firearm related deaths overall changed not a bit, 'cause as has been stated frequent by this poster, handguns is what is the cause o' the overwhelming firearms death numbers in this country. btw, 'cause is an issue folks never wanna discuss, but suicides by firearm is overwhelming linked to handgun ownership. believe it or not but suicide is an act o' convenience and making the means by which a person would kill themselves even a bit less accessible has a significant impact on suicide numbers. more than 50% o' all firearm related deaths in the US is suicides. HA! Good Fun! ps: we loathe wiki links, but today am just too lazy to do better. anybody wanna criticize our weak-arse wiki links? will get zero pushback from us.

Russian passports now on offer in occupied Ukrainian south-east. Of note is that Kherson region was included and even mentioned by name. A very strong 'here to stay' message from Putin.

In other news: Canadian national security task force is preparing for the collapse of the United States As if taking a queue from it's far northern trade partner Mexican President Obrador was head musing aloud than maybe paying to finish that border wall isn't such a bad idea!

Rumours says he worked for Wagners And three Kadyrovytes less as well. Also in Moldova, former pro-russian president was arrested and charged for corruption.

Downloading Biomutant, because it was on sale for like $20.

Reminds me of this one:

More thoughts on Swansong: At its core this plays like The Council; you walk around, collect information by overhearing conversations, examining items, making deductions (if you have the necessary skill), etc. Occasionally you will get into a confrontation, this takes the place of combat in this game. A confrontation is usually a test of will and cunning between characters. You can use skills and disciplines but so can they. You can focus a skill to increase chance of success, but so can they. Using skills and disciplines is not necessarily the key to victory, I have won confrontations by using regular dialogue options where I had the choice to use a skill and/or discipline. Willpower seems easier to manage than hunger, but that comes down to me using auspex quite a bit. I'm trying to avoid feeding if I can help it. Even if I could manage to lure a human to a secluded location, feeding still raises suspicion (more if you do it out in the open). I'm not sure what happens when suspicion gets too high, but I bet it's not good. Leysha is my favorite of the 3 protagonists so far. Her relationship with Halsey, her daughter, is really touching. I'm going to be super bummed out if anything happens to either of them. Given how suboptimal this first playthrough has been, there's a real possibility of just that. Edit: I've been going sort of jack of all trades with my protagonists. It's becoming clear that this is probably a mistake on my part, but I'll stick with it for this first playthrough to get the feel of how useful the skills and disciplines are.

Seems like an odd promotion. I guess its an alternative to reading it for the articles, I guess. Also brings new meaning to that bean ad slogan where the guy says "Roll that beautiful bean footage!" ... ... I'll get me coat. ...and hope I don't make a typo anytime soon...

Sometimes I feel a bit crazy because I feel like the 'Symbol of x' spells are clearly some of the best spells in the whole game but this isn't the first time on this forum that they seem to be forgotten or regarded as unimpressive. But yeah, Dismissal is sweet.

I'm a week or so late, but I just wanted to share my appreciation towards Dismissal. Vessels and Spirits make up 33% of all "creature" (as in non-kith) enemies, which means Dismissal affects a lot of enemies. It also helps that it becomes available at PL 8 and thus has little competition (Crowns and the lighting aura are nothing to write home about). Constructs typically have poor will saves, so Dismissal gets them very often. Currently playing The Beast of Winter and Dissmisal gets the MVP in almost any encounter. Abjuration, however, does not look as cool. Judging from the description, it does not affect vessels, just spirits and summoned creatures (and how often do enemies summon minions, anyway). And the price of 4 zeal is too steep, as I'm the kind of player who always need a pool of zeal for the occasional Greater Lay on Hands or (especially) Liberating Exhortation, which cost 2 zeal each.

HA! Good Fun!

No, I don't. Guess that was still too difficult. Okay let's try this some other way. This is a Mars bar. A Mars bar will last you for roughly half an hour worth of cardio exercise. Now, on to something our McDonald's sells here in Austria. Yeah, so this is a bowl of, well, lettuce and carrots. This actually weighs more than the Mars bar (70g vs. 51g), but will last you for... oh, well, walking to the toilet and back, basically. Now keep in mind that we're not talking about McDonald's Big Ceasar's Salad here, because that one will last you for an hour of cardio and you're better off eating a burger. Yes, they do, and they exercise upwards 30 hours a week, and are amongst the fittest and strongest athletes in the world. So, apparently, it can be your job to exercise and participate in competitions, and still have a good deal of body fat through eating habits alone. Hence, now, one very simple question: Why? Should that not be impossible by this magical exercise = weight loss formula that's been spouted here? The answer: Because consuming energy is much easier than exercising it off. You cannot fix obesity by making someone excercise, because in order to become obese in the first place, your kaloric intake per day must exceed your energy requirements by such an amount that you cannot realisticaly expect someone to exercise it off, let alone lose weight by exercise alone. Hence: Exercise helps, but not without fixing the underlying issue. Eating properly is how you prevent becoming obese. Changing your nutritional habits and going hungry is how you lose weight when you already are obese. Exercise can help with both, but it's not going to fix any ongoing issues without changing your eating habits. It will, however, improve your health and wellbeing in the long run, and as such is a good idea, regardless of anything else. Exercise will only help you burn off excess body weight if you're in the process of gaining a little and it's enough to whack your energy balance back to normal, or a little under your daily energy requirements. That's a very narrow corridor, and even that is better fixed by fixing what you eat, not how you burn it off. Can't change physics. That's the thing with math and numbers, you know.

Actually, muscle weights more than fat. Back to square one again I guess. It seems that all human failings circle back to lack of money, not the individual...obesity, illness (mental and physical), homelessness, lack of education, addiction, crime, etc. The only realistic solution is to throw money at it. Id really like if the UBI and UHC could start with me and my generation so I dont fall into any of the previously mentioned pitfalls of life. You dont want me to have a crack addiction do you?

Well since the last discussion used words, and words on their own are apparently too difficult for some people here, let's use pictures. Look at these two: How much do you think these two lardasses here exercise per week, and would you argue it's intensive or rather relaxed? Assuming they exercise at all, that is. And yes, that's pretty much a trick question.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the creator of Heaven and Earth, you heathen. Its noodly appendages are not seen by mere mortals.

Well would you look at that, when the Flying Spaghetti Monster closes one door, it opens a window: New Antiobesity Drugs Help People Shed Dozens of Pounds, but They Must Be Taken for a Lifetime - Scientific American

I don't see much synergy for this combo and I doubt you will go very far solo, especially on potd. Melees and casters are opposites and you can't play both well. Without very high AR and some sort of healing you won't be able to tank effectively, neither you or your pet. For solo melee I would consider to pair the stalker with a paladin (kind wayfarer or steel garrote) or a monk (FF or nalpazka). If you want to play a cipher ranger solo it's better to consider a ranged dps version using the pet as a distraction and lots of CC and kiting.

My Stellaris experience usually goes like that - I install it, buy bunch of extra content that was release since I last played it, then I play it for couple evenings, get distracted, try to return to it, but can't remember what is what and where, and why. I spend one session just trying to recall what I was doing, get frustrated, uninstal the game and wait for the next cicle like that.

I spent 20+ years stockpiling/hoarding ammo because of this loophole. They cannot outright ban it but they CAN limit availability and tax the living hell out of it. But I have far more than can ever use so feasibly I'll never need to buy it again! Except black powder/muzzleloader stuff. But that is not likely to ever be a target.

Guns. They've got guns in common. Yes, shootings are just one symptom of a bunch of problems in USA's society, but it would be much more difficult to express those problems in a violent killing spree if access to guns was more tightly controlled. Just give it a try, at this point the USA has tried nothing and they're out of ideas.

They all have a few things in common. Feeling ostracized from society and feeling like they have nothing to lose, thinking 5 minutes of infamy is better than die unnoticed. Edit: Hate (caused by living in constant fear if you want)

You may or may not notice a pattern in my list, they're items that contribute to creating a society living in fear. You could ask yourself, who benefits from a society living in fear and why does it benefit them? Some obscure mastermind worthy of conspiracy theories, is it small groups or individuals (or even an individual) possessed by a hunger for power, encouraging collective fear? I'm sure it's not just Murdoch getting an erection out of stirring up violence and a crackdown on progress...

It might not be fixable on a Federal level, but maybe some day, some state or community might decide it needs fixing. No, guns are not the main problem (even if they exacerbate the problem significantly), society is the problem and needs changing. Edit: You know, like somebody starts making a checklist of things to fix... - Poverty/Wealth inequality -Racism/Unfairness -Hopelessness/Despair -Mental health issues being taboo/Macho culture/Socially dysfunctional environments -Lack of education (not talking about reading, writing, math etc., but life lessons and wisdom being passed on and disseminated) -... -... (add to list)

I think that's the same one I'm thinking of, will have to wait until I can access a paywall dodging site to check but I didn't take the impression that they were demanding Ukraine give up land or anything but just that they may have to do that, and also the US support has limits which may or may not be explained clearly to the Ukrainians - I think it is, don't imagine either they are so dumb to labour under false impressions or the US would be so dishonest with a friendly nation. At least some good news - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/24/ukrainian-soldiers-captured-at-azovstal-plant-in-satisfactory-conditions

Teachers need to wear body armor. And the kids too, the added weight will help them build muscle!

I really like stalker, and soul blade would make a great pair with it. You'll have sky-high ACC, and your AC will make you a bit tankier, and you can buff your AC and debuff enemies, making it a plausible solo build. You could go with heavy armor or the Devil of Caroc breastplate (if it's available in your game) or ultimately the contender's armor with maxed athletics. If you're playing with a party, any weapons would be fine, but for ciphers in general Grave Calling and the Seeker's Fang are always great. If going solo, I'd recommend getting monastic unarmed training and equipping Tuotilo's Palm in your offhand. For the main hand, Griffin's Blade is ideal for your main hand. With it, you'll crit a lot, and when you do, you'll debuff foes by dazing them, which will improve your survivability since dazed foes will underpen and thus do little damage. With the bear companion (with extra AR) you'll both be very sturdy. Its loyal companion enchantment is also great for rangers. You won't need arcane magic to keep your AC alive, but naturally you can bring along a wizard if you're traveling in a party.

Thanks, @Jayd. I'll try it out and will let you know if I notice any issues. I downloaded it and tried it, and it works like a charm. Thanks again for sharing this! It's great for those who like to play shifters with maximum flexibility, allowing you to change shapes or return to kith form to cast a spell, and then shift again.

since we were thinking muppets, we got more o' the curious Gromnir brain linkages. paul williams is the guy who wrote (co-wrote) rainbow connection. we mock the 70s from time-to-time, but it is amazing the number o' quirky stars from that decade clear deserving o' their accolades who nevertheless woulda' had far more difficulty becoming famous at any other time since. side note: mr. williams is a guy who had a whole lotta rando tv appearances over the years. @Hurlsnot is possible gonna recall him from goliath. the trek fans maybe remember (or possible forget) williams were in an episode o' voyager where he curious played the leader o' a planet w/o music. etc. HA! Good Fun!

Here's a former superpower returned to action: out of shape, out of sorts, badly coordinated and utterly unprepared but still able to wreak immeasurable havoc in its apparent desire to ruin its reputation and destroy its legacy, thus essentially forcing anyone watching to hope that all this will be over as soon as possible. No parallels with anything in the world right now, of course.

A new low-cost gel film can pull drinking water from arid desert air (interestingengineering.com)

Now that the real-life football season is over, I can feel comfortable playing Football Manager again - specifically FM21 Touch. I'd forgotten where I was, having last played it the month that it was an Amazon Prime freebie, but turns out I'm manager of Excelsior in the Dutch second division, around a couple months in. Anyway, being a very hands-off manager, and this being the Touch version, I can motor through a season pretty fast, and I finished up the season in 2-3 days of play. Secured promotion by finished third place in the league, as while only the top two automatically promote, one was the Ajax youth team who are ineligible for promotion. Then I checked my staff at the end of the season to see who I could promote ...turns out I went through the entire season without an Assistant Manager. Umm, I don't know how that happened. Did he retire or get poached? Was no one there in the role to begin with? Who was giving me all my squad selection advice and handling training? It's quite the mystary.

It still works.

So this is the point in my life where I'm starting to think that Steins;Gate wasn't the bottom of the barrel for terrible ideas...

Josh Sawyer did an interesting talk on armor systems recently, with particular bits on PoE and Deadfire. nothing terribly new if you've been on reddit or on the forums here for a while, but it's interesting just to see how he thinks

I still wait to go on a date and the woman to say to me "I hear the Adirondack's are beautiful this time of year"

A man can dream...

I'd honestly much rather Obsidian made an Alpha Protocol sequel (Sigma Protocol?) rather than NV2. Granted, SEGA owns the IP, but it's not like Microsoft is hurting for money and SEGA probably wouldn't ask for an arm and a leg, given that they're not doing anything with the IP and probably never will.

Running some benchmark on loop for an hour or so would be a decent way to figure out whether it was a fluke or actual cause for concern. 3DMark or Heaven would work as both have a "loop" mode. As to what I've been playing, I started, and finished Subnautica: Below Zero (took me 1d7h40min, according to my save file, though I did leave the game running at times) My expectations were kind of low since there was a lot of negativity around the game. Personally I considered it more of a standalone expansion than a full game, and as a standalone expansion it was definitely decent. I mean, it's more Subnautica, which is good. Game world definitely feels smaller, which was a common criticism, but conversely it's also much, much more confusing. Early on I died quite a few times due to running out of, ironically, water, because I got lost somewhere in a cave system (and everywhere has cave systems). However, there's now these new plants that give you oxygen, and they're everywhere, so dying by running out of oxygen is actually pretty hard, which, eeeehhhh, I dunno, seems a bit counterintuitive and makes a lot of places a lot less claustrophobic and scary than they would have otherwise been. Smaller size and the tight cave interiors also means that of the larger vehicles from Subnautica only the Prawn made it into the game. Unlike many I never cared too much for Cyclops (the big sub), I did however miss the Seamoth. The Seatruck really isn't a good substitute for the Seamoth since without modules it has no storage. Furthermore each module you add makes the thing slower, and, obviously, longer, and thus harder to get around the tighter cave interiors. Combined with quite a few of the modules being really situational, I ended up only using three on the regular: the storage module, the one with the crafting station, and the docking one (so I could lug a Prawn suit around), and given how often I used the Prawn (basically only on land, or to mine) I could have done without that last one most of the time as well. Which brings us to the land component, Below Zero features quite a bit of surface exploration, and it is kinda "meh". Don't get me wrong, instead of air, you gotta watch temperature (Below Zero is the outside temperature, in Celsius), and the atmosphere is great. You also get access to the Snowfox, some sort of hoverbike you're supposed to get around in. Unfortunately it's just not very usable, for starters it has no storage, you also get knocked off of it by certain enemies, all the damn time (oftentimes you get knocked off immediately after getting back on, multiple times in a row. RRRAAAGGGEEE). Using the Prawn was a much less obnoxious way of getting around, sadly. So we need to talk about the enemies. They were...disappointing. Most of them are way more aggressive than they were in the original, unfortunately they're also way, way less dangerous. It really doesn't take long before most enemies are just an annoyance rather than a threat (yes, *those* too). This is especially true on land (see earlier Snowfox comment) Unlike Subnautica, Below Zero has a narrated story and a voice protagonist. In fact, there's two storylines that are not directly related, though they do intersect. The first one is the reason you're there in the first place: finding out what happened to your sister. This one fell really, really flat in my opinion. Supposedly they changed writers somewhere during development and I have no trouble believing it with how this storyline went. Started of pretty strong but totally dropped the ball past a certain point. The other storyline seemed a bit more fleshed out. I feel I should also comment on the voiced protagonist. I generally prefer the silent type, however for plot reasons, that wouldn't really have worked here. Aside from the character you play reacting entirely differently from what I would have envisioned (really, strong reactions to something should be a player choice, not something forced onto them, it is jarring) it kinda worked better than I expected. I didn't hate it. I'd give the game a 6/10, it's decent, but the story, land exploration, and lack of sense of danger (plentiful oxygen, most predators being more of a nuisance than a threat) make it so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who didn't like the first game. Tl;dr it's more Subnautica, If you liked Subnautica, can get past the story, and don't hate voiced protagonists with the fury of a thousand suns, I'd recommend it, certainly when you can get it on sale. For those who didn't enjoy Subnautica, well, doubt this entry will change your opinion.

Is here anyone who might be interested in Far Cry 6 and Resident Evil Village? It is probably on Epic... I got it as a gift to my AMD GPU, but I am not interested in these typo of games. The code should be redeemable at AMD until the end of this month (march 2022 ). Long time members of Obsidian community will get preferential treatment.

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