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I so desperately want S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 to be good. The Metro games were pretty good as was Chernobylite, albeit a somewhat different type of game, but they all pale in comparison to how awesome Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat were. I just survived some nasty encounters and an anomaly. I have a sweet haul of valuables, but I'm moving at a snail's pace because I'm overloaded. I'm battered, very low on ammo, and I'm desperate to get back to Yanov Station. Suddenly, I hear the blowout off in the distance. I should probably drop some stuff and make a run for it, but I'm greedy. I can see Yanov Station in the distance, I think I can make it. Just my luck, here come 2 pseudodogs. Given time and ammo, not much of a threat. I'm critically low on both. I drop the first dog quickly with a couple shotgun blasts, but the second one is slippery. I'm making sure to always move toward Yanov Station as I desperately try to line up a shot with my shotgun and the last shell. I fire at point blank range and the dog drops, but not before it got a swipe on me. I make it inside Yanov Station with seconds to spare and about 30% health. Emergent stories like that stick with you.

Humankind just got big upgrade and it seems to be much better BTW

"If you look at the people that have been arrested for that, by and large, I mean, it's the boogaloo movement or it's an association with QAnon. It's the right side of the spectrum. It is not antifa." She's unequivocal about this: "The threat of domestic terrorism is not from antifa. It is from these right-wing movements." am not sure how many times the but what about blm and antifa people need be reminded it ain't those organizations which pose a significant ongoing threat to americans or american democracy. when was the last s'posed blm led riot btw? once fed troops pulled out of portland, what happened to the protests in that and similar cities? yeah, the next time a minority dies in an altercation with police there will be more than a few people who instant call for reciprocal violence instead o' keeping their protests genuine peaceful, but in spite o' breitbart and fox news lurid images, most summer protests were (summers o' a few years past btw) peaceful... which is precise why fox got caught doctoring riot imagery and pasting in violence from earlier protests and even spain to give the weak-kneed pearl clutchers "proof" o' minority violence. Champaign Man Sentenced for Inciting Riot four years in prison and $1.5 million dollars for a facebook post. is not as if mr. betts were the only protester arrested and eventual punished by the courts, though admitted most state punishments for rioting specific and the like is kinda light and is often difficult to prove who exact were responsible for a burned down big-o tire store which were destroyed during the chaos o' a riot. summer protests were not quite having the plethora o' security cameras and visibility o' a daylight riot at the Capitol, eh? regardless lib and progressive Congressmen, as well as kamala harris who with her tough-on-crime resume don't check the lib or progressive boxes, got themselves in hot water for making donations to defense funds for those arrested during the protests precise 'cause so many people were arrested and eventual charged with crimes. nevertheless we see the same people trying to rehabilitate the same stoopid without even bothering to come up with a new angle. ain't worth the effort but we sympathize with gorth 'cause am also reflexive condemning the inanity, which is why we added numerous folks to ignore. unfortunate the ignore is not foolproof as we nevertheless see quotable and a few o' the worst purveyors o' stoopid is your fellow mods who are not subject to the ignore feature. so it goes. HA! Good Fun!

Stalker2 got an update during todays XBOX's extended showase (otherwiseit was devs talking more about projects shown two days ago - nothing that stand out to me). There is this potentially upsetting dev diary: And what I think is an opening cutscene: On steam game is listed for Decemeber 2023 release.

Don't be ridiculous. Russia always has the option to just stop. There is no way this can ever be taken away from them. The reponsible party is Russia who disregarded everything and just went on and started the war. I wonder what your agenda is, making claims that are so utterly against reality. If your argument against this is that Putin would lose face, that doesn't make any sense, either. If he stops the war or loses it, he can simply claim victory. If anyone inside the country disputes that, these people will be jailed or outright killed. Remember, according to Russia, there is no war, and there haven't been any notable demonstrations against this blatant lie. All other lies will also be accepted.

What do you mean by "just to punish Russia"? If the fight goes "to the last Ukrainian" as you write, then it surely must be a defensive fight, in which case there is no way it can be "just to punish Russia" as you also write.

The Deep would like a word.

There's some changes that I think work (like the focus on the VCU instead of comic books) and Stormfront but...

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021

Now a little bit of war rumours. It is said, that UA army is in their counteroffensive approx 10km away from Izyum. And they were able to trick RU army near Kherson and to the SW of the city, which means they are closing to the infamous Chornobaivka airport and to other smaller towns to the SW and N of the Kherson... IMHO, this news are in the category of to good to be true, but I will be awaiting evening reports with great deal of curiosity today...

Yakuza is the bestest OPEN WARLD EVAH!!! Despite taking place just in one single city quarter.

Guys, I watched Paddington 2 and it was great.

SpaceX’s Starship launch plan gets an environmental OK from the feds | Ars Technica Finally!

This traffic stop between a Black man and a White state trooper began with fear. It ended with a surprising act of kindness not sure if it qualifies as good news, but is close enough. HA! Good Fun!

@Elric Galad's Balance Polishing Mod buffed many meme abilities in the game, making more classes viable for solo. Fighter's Toughened Fury now trigger on most damage rolls instead of crits, suddenly SC fighters have near infinite resources. With the help of multiple defense buffs and Unbending Trunk, a fighter can protect themselves from most negative effects and regen any amount of damage thrown at them. Class: Devoted (Fighter), Sabre proficiency Race: anything except Godlike Attributes: max MIG, PER & INT, dump RES and average DEX CON PotD solo: only with CP & BPM. Skipping content is also needed because the build doesn't work before lv16. Active abilities: Knock Down, Conquerer Stance, Refreshing Defense, Unbending Trunk, Inspired Discipline Passive abilities: Arms Bearer, Monastic Unarmed Training, Determination, Two Weapon Style, Rapid Recovery, Bear's Fortitude, Bull's Will, Hold the Line, Weapon Mastery, Tough, Uncanny Luck, Armored Grace, Spell Resistance, Improved Critical, Reaping the Whirlwind, Toughened Fury, Critical Defense, Great Soul, Prestige No Rest Buffs: Konstanten's Boon (+2 CON, +1 PER & INT), Shark Soup (+2 MIG, +1PL, Body Afflictions Immunity) & everything else Gear: Scordeo's Edge - the go-to sabre in most cases Aldris Blade of Captain Crow (heal on crit) - when additional healing is needed, and the enemies' DEF is not super high Animancer's Energy Blade (Raw damage) - when sabres and fists both can't penetrate Grave Calling - anti-vessel Any good scepter - for sigils, also very useful to attack with one sabre all the time but at dual-wielding speed. Rekvu's Fractured Casque - combined with Wrenched Knee injury (-25% Stride, can be repeatedly acquired in Poko Kohara ruins), we can take every hit without being interrupted to death, a must for this build. Charm of Bones (+2 INT) Magnera's Chain (+10 Fortitude & Will, +2 Piece & Crushing AR) Ring of Minor Protection * 2, keep Ring of Greater Regeneration Boots of Stability (+5 Fortitude), Boots of Speed is useful in a certain situation The Giftbearer's Cloth with max History Woedica's Strangling Grasp (+2 MIG, +2 Burn AR), Gauntlet of Discipline (+2 max Discipline) Girdle of Eoten Constitution (+3 CON), some belts that give AR to certain types of damge can be useful too Pet: Hemp (+1 CON, +5 Fortitude), Kathrynn (+1 INT, +5 Will). Eviee (+2 RES, resistance to RES afflictions) when boss level enemies have Terrify The general idea is to have reasonably low DEF so most damage rolls can hit us, triggering Toughened Fury, giving Discipline. Fortitude and Will should be around 200 thanks to gear, Refreshing Defense and Inspired Discipline (all tier 1 inspirations, equals +5 DEF and +20 other defenses). Unbending Trunk combined with Dawnstar's Blessing and MIG bonus (I'm not sure about this) will heal more than the original damage taken, so in 99% cases we are literally unkillable. There're exceptions though. The first one is DoT. They don't trigger Toughened Fury (unsure) and don't count towards Unbending Trunk, so they're real damage for us. In most cases Rapid Recovery and the healing from Aldris Blade of Captain Crow is enough, but there're encounters where DoT can be a real threat: Young Porokoa's in SSS. They have a DoT attack that target Fortitude. That doesn't sound like a problem but in that fight every enemy attacks really slowly, so there's not enough Discipline to sustain every buff, resulting in occasional hits. 1 stack is acceptable, 2 is a reload. luckily the big Porokoa is not super tanky, and with 16 + 8 Discipline (empowerment) I was able to beat it without the use of Potion of Enlightenment. Frightened Child. The encounter is very tricky for most martial classes, but for us it can almost be automated if only for the child's Disintegration. I don't know how she had so much focus, constantly dishing out high level spells without even attacking me. Even with all the attacks on me I still couldn't afford Knock Downs on every Disintegration, costing me several potions and an empowerment Some random polarbears in BoW. I forgot which defense they target, but they attack pretty slowly and has good accuracy. I guess it's not impossible but after a few attempts I skipped them. An SSS fight where you need to protect some research. I imagine with many potions it's doable, I just skipped it. Another one is a single slow-hitting boss, namely Neriscyrlas. There's no other enemy, its attacks are extremely slow, and without interrupt on our side it's constantly at 21 AR, forcing me to use the Animancer's Energy Blade. It also has Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon targeting Fortitude, means we either take DoT that heals the dragon or we spend precious Discipline to defend against it. I think if I planned every buff more precisely, it can be killed with a lot of consumables and an empowerment. But in the end I just took a Potion of Enlightenment, the only use in the run. And of course there're dispels. High Will performed better than I thought, the only Arcane Dampener I took in the entire run was from Auranic, only once. The obelisk cleanses all the buff on us, but IIRC the healing part of Unbending Trunk can't be dispelled, we only lose the buff that applies healing. I only needed to make sure every time the obelisk activated, I was at full health and had some additional healing on. After punching it down the rest was a free win. I didn't notice it in previous runs, but there's a "dispel" that target DEF in the game - Luminescent Sporelings in FS has a Noxious Injection that target DEF, dealing huge corrode damge and applies -1000s to all beneficial effects, a perfect counter to the very basic of this build. Those in the Quarantined Section can either be blocked by others or lured to a choke point then killed one by one, but there're 3 in the Upper Bowels that I couldn't find a place to fight comfortably. In the end -50 damage from poison on Blackened Plate Armor (I was not sure it worked), Knock Down and a bit of luck saved the day. They're the toughest possible fights imo. The impossible fights are Hauani O Whe and Dorudugan. I couldn't outheal the DoT from the ooze and obviously don't have an answer for the splits. When trying Dorudugan I found that it's possible to sustain Unbending Trunk with Potion of Enlightenment, but it also has an attack that reduces max HP, so inevitably one-hitting me. I also coudn't deal enough damage to cover its self healing. And there's The Changling's Dance, since most defenses are active abilities. Overall it was pretty fun. Dual wielding is often risky in solo, the melee+ranged trick is even harder to pull off. With the changes in BPM finally I could take some liberty in weapon choices. Slowly chopping everything down while surrounded by a dozen enemies without even blinking is hilarious, more so if you do it with a broken knee.

Starfield looks like Star Citizen without the crowd funding and decade of questionable development, but with a dwemer ruin on every planet that falmer have tunneled into, and a quest sending you into a draugr infected tomb. Jumping to Lightspeed will trigger random events, but since there will be very few of them, jumping to Lightspeed will be pretty much a guarantee that the target system will have all vendor NPC eaten by space vampires before you manage to even land. PC players will fall back to the old habit of fixing everything through consol.

Looks like we are higher than I've anticipated

Hungary is something like a small Russia within EU, Slovakia was last 12 years corrupt as ****, with our ex-PM now being under charges of being a leader of organized crime group So we are definitely more corrupt than Czech, probably little bit more than Poland, and on par with Romania and Bulgaria... Oh and our current Minister of Finance, who started as a PM, but was sacked, is probably not corrupt, but with his incompetency, he did as much damage to our economy than the previous thieving scumbag...

Interesting you should mention the BLM protests; I am aware that there was a lot of press around them that made them out to be one step away from re-enacting Mad Max. However, the research suggests otherwise. https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news-and-ideas/black-lives-matter-protesters-were-overwhelmingly-peaceful-our-research-finds "When there was violence, very often police or counterprotesters were reportedly directing it at the protesters." "...most of the violence that did take place was, in fact, directed against the BLM protesters." One can only speculate why news coverage of these events might have led people to believe that BLM protesters were a bunch of lawless ne'er-do-wells. EDIT: While I'm here, some Australia election news! One of the minor downsides of having one of the better voting systems is that the votes can take a long time to count. We finally have the first senate results - in ACT and NT - and ACT officially have created history in two ways: David Po****(oh dang it they're still censoring the one that means rooster, ey? Gotta sort your word filter out Obsidz) (Born in Zimbabwe, ex Australian Rugby Union captain, captaincy cut short after he was arrested for chaining himself to a coal digger in protest) has officially won a seat in the ACT senate, marking: The first ever Independent senator in the ACT The first time since the introduction of preferential voting that one of the two major parties has been completely voted out of a state or territory. Get rekt, LNP.

It is just a candidate status, the full integration will take 10 years minimum, if the war stops tomorrow. We were in the same category, years ago, corrupt as ****, and the change of the government helped to get us into the EU. Th government at UA has already changed for a little bit better, but the corruption will need to be rooted out a lot. And to be honest, having the Slovak and Hungarian ancestors... If Slovakia and Hungary can stay in EU, so can UA...

The issue with Minsk was, that the Russia itself was never interested in that deal, due to it being against their imperial interests... The war with Putin acting as a Peter the Great of 21th century, the war would happen sooner or later. The later it would happen, the more would be Ukraine destroyed, due to Putin had more chance to modernize their army with NordStream 2 profits... The report on Russia says exactly the same doom and gloom for them, as soon as Russians get back home after the summer vacations, and will be hit with the ****ty reality at home

European Commission will recommend Ukraine for EU candidate status I wonder if western Europe will want to risk it.

You right, I do believe that the US would be very unhappy with Mexico allowing Russian military bases within Mexico But just remind me where in Ukraine are the US military bases and when did the US say they were establishing military bases in Ukraine, I am not an expert in Ukraine so I probably missed that? But lets say for argument sake Russia did setup military bases in Mexico, I doubt the US would invade Mexico because the US would win that war at the expense of the collapse of Mexico and that would only exacerbate the immigration crisis to the US So the point is the US would not invade Mexico unless its security was directly threatened, meaning the US is attacked first like in 9/11 Putins War is not about NATO, Nukes or Neo-Nazi...those are the famous lies and exaggerations Its about recreating the borders of the failed USSR as much as possible and Putin believing he can decide what other countries can or cant do. He doesn't believe that countries like Ukraine's democratically government should decide the future of their country And we should all be opposed to this because we all believe in Democracy

The film is a great example of what it takes for me to enjoy a comedic focus in a film. No or at least limited slapstick, not related to anything supposedly romantic, although we could argue that Nic and Javi have quite the bromance going on, and occasionally absurd, even if they shamelessly stole the joke with the wall from Hot Shots 2. It still works because it has this wonderful interaction attached to it. Plus there's this whole meta level that makes the film generally interesting for me, but it is not the entire movie. Might want to try 7 Psychopaths too if you haven't already. That one's a little more out there though. Not sure, didn't really expect you to enjoy this enough to call it a fun and cute movie, but things have been weird enough recently in this thread. Who knows.

You've just provided example, that US would feel threathened should Mexico invite Russians to build bases like the ones they just got approved to deploy in Nicaragua. I'm not saying that Russia was right to wage war, however you should also not dismiss their concerns, especially when something as simple as agreed Minsk accords were not followed through by UA side for so many years. I'm saying, that US and UK diplomats are ****, and have no idea how to run a diplomatic discourse... US is also doing a similar mistake around Taiwan. China clearly stated that weaponizing Taiwan will lead to escalation, and US is even more hypocritical, as they mention they agree with One China policy, yet on the other hand they want to support Taiwan on its own?

Started Dragon's Dogma, Japanese console action RPG that wants to be Eurojank. Made myself a pawn (a supporting companion of sorts) who accidentally looks a lot like company's system administrator (but with pink hair) and it makes for amusing but also uncanny experience. I think I'll dump him for someone else soon.

I can't sleep an iota, so why not? The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. I couldn't remember a single material word that majestic said about it besides something about the bees from the Wicker Man, so I figured now was an appropriate time - plus, I enjoyed his last film Pig. I have no idea if that was his last film, but I'm pretending it was. Also, that's no offense to @majestic's writing skill that I can't remember anything he said except for the bees and the fact that he really liked it, I'm just bad at absorbing information about things I don't immediately care about right this second - it's what helps make me resistant to the effects of most spoilers.

Strange... I could have sworn this was what you said You apparently know way more about Nicholas John Roske than the combined world press, as no quote worthy source has identified any political affiliation of the guy. Just a nutcase on medication, being mad about school shootings and the potential trip back to the stone age socially by reversing Roe vs. Wade. But... he was probably hired by the BLM top secret global head quarters to carry out the assassination

I love your definition of Putins War Its the fault of the West because they pushed Ukraine to believe it was a sovereign country and that led to poor, innocent Russia invading Ukraine ....Russia is clearly the victim here Its a great story and makes perfect sense if we lived in a world where international borders dont matter and where citizens dont get to decide their own future through free and fair elections

Ooh, kinky!

thanks for your work! so many stuff went from meh to actually worth trying

I read this with a lot of enjoyment. Somehow I didn't fail my design

Well... with a few more days like today and some shock in the economies/markets in the West, the Ukraine topic will vanish by the end of the month... https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/carnage I still keep my view that it will be post Q3 earnings and forward guidance season, which will create a true economic and social turmoil, but it might be an interesting summer ahead as well. Ukraine will be a sacrifice on an altar of trying to look strong agains a Russian bully, and this geopolitics is 80% fault of incompetent UK and US admins, which pushed Ukraine towards conflict by giving a false sense of security (as they needed to look strong and deflect politics from domestic issues) . Instead, should UA recognize and implemented original Minsk accords (autonomies of regions within UA) and accepted no NATO access condition, they would be much better off and we also in the West would be much better off economically. Now Ukraine will be devasteted in whatever state the stalemate will stabilize (most likely a whole south-east lost), with its economy crumbled, no EU access and no financial aid. Militarly they will also be depleted with 0 chances for NATO access. The large amount of freebies are not coming, amd thdir own stockpiles are runnig near depletion. (other than munitions, resources need to be conserved https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/kyiv-suspends-exports-ukrainian-gas-coal-fuel-oil-2022-06-13/)

I'm not panicking yet, but I am moderately worried. If nothing new surfaces by the end of the year I'll start to wonder if Avowed will ever see the light of day.

Recruited Sera - first impressions: I can't decide if she is my least favourite or the favourite Dragon Age companion. Did they try to make a ****ney elf? Edit. Lol I can believe they censored kockney

Well, still no Bruce, if the dev has an issue at making 1 small area in Maryland not boring, I have my doubts, that they will be able to deliver us nonboring 1000 planets

I like this idea, but there's sadly no way to implement it with what's available. Something like a reversed AttackLowestDefenseAbilityComponent (used for Barbarian's Brute Force) would've done the work but there's sadly no such thing.

Finished Disco Elysium - Best game of the year for me bar none. I would not call it RPG but more an adventure game but man, did I loved every bit of it (maybe except those dice roll skill checks)

For a different Quote of the Day: "If you ever feel bad about yourself, consider that three days trapped in a cabin with lord byron was enough to traumaspawn two *distinct* schools of supernatural horror story"

HA! Good Fun!

"My what cute and slithery water ferrets....."

The results of the world’s largest study on kindness are in. Here’s what we learned It's probably good to remember that only the worst things are reported as news.