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I ran my first official half marathon today. It was pretty good, I put up a 1:35 time and ended up 3rd in my age group. We will see how the legs feel in the morning.

So, for some bizarre reason a Phoenix Point video showed up among my recommended videos on Youtube, and being bored, I watched it. Now I'm playing Phoenix Point, which I have don't since the 4th or 5th backer build. It's better than it was back then (I think the biggest thing for me is that soldiers seem way more accurate than they did back then), and I'm kinda enjoying it, but the missions are getting a little repetitive and the enemies don't really seem all that interesting/varied...though that's possible because I'm killing most of them before they manage to attack me. The geoscape stuff on the other hand...I feel like it's getting out of hand. I really don't know what I'm doing, what order I should do research in, etc., and the Behemoth from the Festering Skies DLC is wrecking the opposite side of the planet, and I don't have any way to get to it. I probably picked poorly on which bases to activate, and now I'm low on resources and can't really afford to activate any more. The most annoying thing is that I activated a base in Greenland, thinking that it would link me into North America (I started in South Asia, and have access to Europe and Africa at the moment) and there were like 3 scanning sites near it, none of which were in North America. I might have to try my hand at trading (though I don't really want to) and I'm hoping I can somehow improve my relationships with Anu and New Jericho (I just kinda got RNG'ed into siding with Synedrion at the start of the game.) The UI could definitely be better (the color of the Tech points makes it hard to read, and it would be nice if completed scavenging missions where more clearly marked...I finally realized that they're grey instead of white after about 20 hours.) It would also be nice if there were some sort of repeatable scavenging missions that I could go on, instead of having to trade (which just seems tedious.) All in all...it's not terrible. I don't know that I'll sink almost a thousand hours into it like I have XCOM 2, but I might play it more than once, depending on how the mid to late game is.

It's summer for y'all if I'm not mistaken, that happens on our summer days too. Not a good time at all.

We actually do get that, just not from AAA studios. Really good and reasonably priced games get released all the time, they come from AA and indie studios. I'll list some recent-ish examples: Neon White - $25 Hades - $25 Vampire Survivors - $5

Is there such a thing as a will wallet saving throw?

I shoveled the driveway this morning just in time for another ~4" of snow. :doh: Then I took a little nap on the couch and was awoken to the doorbell. Answering it revealed a little girl selling Girl Scout cookies! I almost couldnt believe my eyes, and I didnt buy anything, but I had to respect her hustle going door to door in this weather.

Spanish will send older variant of Leopard 2 to Ukraine. Rumours on the internet says up to 53, although Spain did not confirm any number yet. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/01/28/7386889/ Slovakia will provide to Ukraine all of our Mig-29. This means two things. - 0 jets in Slovak Army, until F-16 arrives. One of our industry companies has already transformed to be able to maintain and repair F-16s. - 0 Russian military personnel at our Air Bases. Up to 20 are still servicing the Migs, despite Slovakia being on the list of enemy countries to Russia.

Some RPGs still looke awesome. Lands of Lore 1 is still georgeous in this day and age, but 2 and three looks like manmade product after eating yoghurt with sausage, melon juice, mustard and canned fish...

Finished Uncharted 3. I suppose, it was somehow entertaining - the locations and graphics in general looked good, though the story, combat, and controls varied from ridiculous to horrible. I managed to punch my way through most of the opponents, because it was nearly impossible to aim with a controller. Binding the grab attack and rolling to the same button was a rather unwise decision by the developers, even taking the general lack of keys into account. The MC was completely unable to plan anything beyond "Nate wants the treasure", while murdering hordes of evil minions and destroying historical buildings. The said minions had no self-preservation, but were able to almost literally rain from the sky. The pacing in general was quite good in the beginning, but descended into arena battles in the late game. I guess, if it was a parody of the American action movies from the 90s, it was successful.

ME2 was awesome, so that's a positive, ME3 and MEA, not so much. Regardless of what I think of his track record, having a production director leave in the middle of production is never a good thing. It's like switching a director in the middle of filming a movie. Movies where that happens more often than not wind up being a mess.

Good thing we live in a capitalist world, where employee hard work and initiative is rewarded, so we get a constant supply of cheap, high quality games... /sarcasm

"Mac Walters, lead writer on Mass Effect 2 and 3 as well as creative director on Mass Effect: Andromeda"... do you *really* want that on your resume (not as bad as having Anthem on it, I know)?

By the numbers, 85%. By the feeling, well that's hard for me to say. I grew up here and am used to high humidity, so I don't really respond to it as I do the lack of it.

PGSM continues to be a little weird because the characters are somewhere in between their manga and anime counterparts, and it sometimes just clashes. It's just too weird to see Minako dressing down psycho-killer Rei for not being serious enough, only to then throw a really childlish, competitive fit over taking care of a stray dog with her, as Rei brings some dog food with her and Minako just has to run off and buy four large boxes of high quality dog food to one-up Rei. Next scene, Makoto is telling Usagi to not give up because who knows if that girlfriend of Mamoru's is going to stick around (I suppose Makoto read the script). Makoto, of all people, should not try to get Usagi to mess up other people's relationships. Minako totally would. It makes sense in context of the series, I suppose. This is by the way the fifth set of voices for the characters I've heard (Crystal and original German and Japanese dub, now PGSM). It's starting to be really confusing.

Sauna would be lovely, @Azdeus see below Back from Florida-land. It is -17 c (-30 with the wind-chill) and I am taking the hound for a 12k run shortly! #NuttyCanuck

I'm playing Control. I actually started playing this a long time ago, only got as far as the end of the intro, then stopped, not because of the game itself, other stuff came up and I just never got back to it until now. My feelings on the game so far very much mirror my overall feelings on Alan Wake, which makes sense given that not only are both games made by Remedy but Control is set in the Alan Wake universe, or Alan Wake is in the Control universe, whichever way you want to think about it. Anyway, the gameplay is... It's okay. It's a pretty bog standard third person shooter, maybe it gets more interesting later on when you unlock more abilities, but so far it's pretty ho-hum. However, I really really like the world and I'm very much invested in not just the story of Jesse Faden and her brother but also this world as a whole. I am happily going out of my way and scouring every nook and cranny for collectibles, not for completionist reasons, I don't care about achievements, but because I'm into the mythos of this world and I will gladly read all the text and listen to any and all audio logs if they help me get a clearer picture of said world. There's very much a SCP Foundation vibe going on and I'm all about that. My investment in the world and interest in the story are easily enough to carry me through mediocre gameplay and also have me excited for Alan Wake 2: The Wakening coming later this year. Edit: I should add that I'm weirdly enjoying the running commentary/narration that Jesse does during the game. It's something that potentially could get really grating really fast, and I suppose it still might, but so far I'm on board with it. Also, the Threshold Kids videos are really creepy and bizarre and I'm absolutely there for them.

MEA has jetpacks and a controllable car. And the Vaults (more platformer-like sequences). Also the MC not being a part of the military was refreshing, considering ME3. DAI certainly was very enjoyable when I had more time and the ability to focus. Tried replaying it for the 3rd or 4th time a year ago on Hard with some of the new difficulty options enabled. The combat was satisfying (everything could one-hit you), but there was too much of it (and exploration). A more concise (DAO/2) presentation would be preferable. Haven't played Anthem, not fond of online-only DRM and looter-shooters in general. After playing Expeditions: Rome a bit more the lack of maps and the presence of RNG and timers on activities (e.g. crafting, healing, resource capturing) are becoming more irritating, but the tactical combat is engaging enough. On another note, I missed the control and the exact numbers in DAI ("We don't have enough people to storm the castle" "How many people do we have? The ones at the courtyard?"), but in Rome the very same things feel overwhelming. I would prefer to know them still, but also to give the legion more general directions (e.g. to capture all resources in a conquered region, instead of clicking on each one then waiting), while micromanaging only the major battles.

Almost everyone was, even Emma Watson. Not sure if all of them did something illegal tho. You're right. That's why we should let russia rape and pillage the country. That's much better.

https://bagarenochkocken.se/koksredskap/kryddkvarnar/born-in-sweden-pine-salt-pepparkvarn-i-ask-valnotstra/ We're really making it waaay too easy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64401190 I know, this was tempting to put in the Ukraine War thread... but it's about politics, not military engagements and events from the frontlines At the time of typing this, 11 officials have either resigned or been sacked as Kyiv tries to tackle government corruption. It's led to some politicians in the US calling for aid to Ukraine to be restricted. President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to quickly restore public faith, but the allegations are serious, and the timing is bad. Ever since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has had a problem rampant corruption in all layers of society. Mr Yurchyshyn believes there's no better time to expose ministerial wrongdoing, even with Western help being put at risk. "Western partners understand we have two wars," he says. "The first is against Russia, then there's our internal war for the future of Ukraine." Edit: I wonder how much that influenced Germany's hesitancy in providing aid? They are notoriously stingy when they suspect aid gets monetized and pocketed by corrupt middlemen

Annnd 20 minutes after I post that, it changes. The non-animated and darker version of the banner is much more tolerable on the eyes at least, and looks good design-wise. I'll leave this one alone for now. Thanks.

Also Realms of Arkana. Still love how it looks and stuff. Played it a lot back then.

If you're roleplaying your Bleak Walker as written then the choice is obvious. Kill Llengrath in the most gruesome way possible. She sent assassins after you, by the Bleak Walker creed you are supposed to make an example of her that is so extreme that no one else would dare do the same again.

Fair to say that most people hated Enigma and either skip it or use a guide. Personally I thought it was OK. The puzzles aren't particularly hard, once you know what they want, but they're very badly (or barely) explained and there are far, far, far too many of them at once. Far too much combat too, though that's a general criticism of the game not just the specific area. Most of it is there at least trivial and easy to blow through in a few minutes at most, and the ones that aren't are better designed/ more interesting than most filler combats. And I actually liked the final fight despite it having what is usually a super annoying structure. Oh yeah, and their response was to ask if the 2nd tranche of dlc should have a dlc dedicated to puzzles. Pretty sure that was trolling. Pretty sure.

For the mildly disturbing:

Just before the weekend, it was 34C (92F-93F) here.... and raining. Greenhouses got nothing on Queensland

Yeah those games likely don't play very nice anymore, interface and controls included. What I'm missing is that they're offering scenarios that have since almost completely disappeared from RPGs and crawlers. Makes me sad. And it's kinda puzzling as well -- it's not as if horror-themed settings ever have went out of style elsewhere. There's a few Ravenloft user campaigns for NWN 2 though.