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I mentioned our Hollywood sign hike, but we also visited the new Mario World, went to the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, and went to a extremely good Crab house is Korea Town while we were in LA this last week. Here are some pics:

What a disappointment. I was so excited about the prospect of political chaos in Russia. I suspect Prig learned that as much as generals in the Russian military may dislike/disagree with Putin, they were surely not going to throw their lot in with him. But I do feel this increases the odds that someone within the regime/military with more credibility and standing will look to dipose Putin in the near future. Prig has been gutted like a fish here, but Putin has also been exposed as being weak and vulnerable.

I can end this debate with a single sentence. Sabin suplexes a train.

Oh god, I didn't mean to start one of those threads, again.

I have two FF games on my drives, that I bought on some ridiculously cheap steam sales (less than $10 iirc). But I never played either of them. I think the FF8 demo was such a traumatic experience I never felt like touching the franchise again, despite the blurb and screenshots looking interesting for the two I purchased (in the naive hope I might get into it some day). That was before I picked of Guild Wars 2, so there is some stiff competition for my game time. Edit: Checking my steam account, the ones I bought were FFXV and FFX/X-2

Hello! I guess you knew that when you use the Dire Talon (sabre) and enchant it with Wurm Call you will have a 20% chance on crit to summon 3 wurms? Did you also know that if those wurms die they will leave a body hat only disappears after combat ends - unlike the summons that you gain from your abilities (that includes summons from items that give you an active summoning ability like a Whale of a Wand's Fantastic Friends - they will disappear on being killed and leave no body)? I surely didn't. But those wurms' bodies will stay. And wurms are beats... That means that you can consume the body with Flesh Communion. All Corpse Eaters: This can help your Corpse Eater to use their Flesh Communion in every fight - you "only" need to crit often enough and then get a wurm killed. You can do so yourself by attacking it with the weapon itself (there's a chance that you crit and summon another bunch of wurms and so on - there's no hard cap on how many wurms can be on the screen) or by using some friendly-fire spell like Shadowflame or whatever. If you crit a lot (hello Swift Flurry/HBD) you can summon a lot of wurms - and some might end up dead even without your interference because they are just weak. The bodies will be there until combat ends. So nothing speaks against piling up some wurm bodies for later in the fight. Of course this doesn't have to be done by one and the same character. You just need somebody in the party who will crit a lot with Dire Talon in order to prepare a rather monothematic Corpse Eater buffet. I then also tried it with Hel Beckoning (summon Hel Imp on killing spirit) - and this also leaves the body of the imp when he gets killed. But alas: it doesn't work for Flesh Communion. I forgot that Imps are not wilders - they are primordials. And since Flesh Communion only works in kith, wilder and beasts... Off to Essence Interrupter you say? Right! It works, too: If you crit and then kill any enemy and let's say a Xaurip gets summoned (and then killed) - you can consume its body. Same with Ogre Pirates. Unfortunately there's several summons with Essence Interrupter that are neither wilder nor beast (oozes, guls etc.) - so it's not very reliable. Also some of the summons take some time to kill compared to the very weak wurms that Dire Talon gives you. And some summons don't leave a body when killed - like the Boars wouldn't do that for me for example. But still... it can work. I didn't find another suitable item for this interaction - maybe you know one. Anyway - with this you can make the Corpse Eater better in long fights that usually don't have "food" for him. Bringing your own targets for deliverering crits will make it easier (for example Many Lives Skeletons). Don't know yet if it's worth it though - or if it's too fiddly. We'll see...

I managed to get through the zombie infected fishing village with two characters. It was one of the best done lovecraftian villages in any game. But the gameplay *shudder* The demon infected motel I never got past. Just couldn't force myself. If they turned it into a Netflix show, I'd watch it.

I am thinking they are stretching what "near" means, have to scare people. Blue Team never lies though, etc. ,etc. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-167-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine "The IAEA is aware of reports of mines having been placed near the cooling pond. No mines were observed at the site during the Director General’s visit, including the cooling pond. However, the IAEA is aware of previous placement of mines outside the plant perimeter, which the Agency has previously reported, and also at particular places inside - which security personnel at the plant explained were for defensive purposes. “Our assessment of those particular placements was that while the presence of any explosive device is not in line with safety standards, the main safety functions of the facility would not be significantly affected. We are following the issue with great attention,” Director General Grossi said."

I do think it's credible, although you didn't ask me. Apparently, though, there's also this, whether it has meaning or not:

Do you think the corpses can be used with chanter' white worms spell? ps : nice to see you guys!

Secret World is one of my all-time biggest gaming disappointments. I wanted to love that game so much. It's like the game world was created specifically for me. Secret society conspiracy theory stuff is my jam and the writing was quite good, even if it was cliche as ****. Voice acting was solid, it looked good, for the time it came out. *sigh* You know, good writing and an interesting setting can get me through mediocre gameplay, perhaps even bad gameplay, but the combat in Secret World was so terrible and mind-numbingly boring that I just couldn't do it. I wanted to power through it to experience the game world, Lord knows I tried, but the combat was so off-putting that I lost the will to continue. Everything about it just felt wrong. There was ZERO feedback. Characters just floated around like they were skating on ice, everything had an input delay. Just awful.

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint demo Character customization is locked in the demo but you can choose from 1 of 4 presets. I went with wastelander. In the tradition of XCOM, at one point I missed 5 of 7 "70% chance to hit" attacks. Base management is mostly locked in the demo as is the market. The game's not going to win any awards for graphics, but it was the political machinations, trying to navigate a web of backstabbing and deception, that I really liked in Star Traders: Frontiers, and, from the bit I played in the demo, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint seems to have that in spades and will let you make choices that can take you down very different paths, for good or bad.

I don't drive[*] but I get your point. [*] True story: the only time in my life that I've driven a car was in New Zealand, when I was in car with a woman I'd only met a couple of hours earlier. Upon learning that my driving experience was at zero, she promptly stopped the vehicle and made me drive for a while (we were on a secluded country road near Motueka). It immediately struck me that something interesting might happen if I told her that I'd never had sex before, either, but since I was going to have to get along with her for at least two weeks, I couldn't really risk it, even as a joke.

And because it is Sabin, that does sound about right.

Yeah. His de facto amnesty for a treasonous act almost certainly spells serious weakness and vulnerability.

Gazprom created his private army around the time of fall of Soledar. Or more like first leaks about it emerged around that time.

Whenever Billy Idol's Rebel Yell comes on the Oldies radio station I have on in my car, I have to pull over out of traffic so I can go nuts.

Upon sharing this tweet, I very much wish to emphasize that it contains words like POSSIBLE and REPORTEDLY. However, I believe the general stance taken here is likely to be fairly accurate, even if the details are not, and this means that things have probably taken a turn for the worse. I couldn't really fathom a pretty end to the war in the first place, but I'd still say that things are now looking decidedly more sinister. (Btw, I didn't know that Gazprom has a private army, if it indeed does. But on reflection, it does seem fairly obvious that it must have one.)

Have The Black Hole on in the background as part of my lazy Sunday. Has some amazing visuals for it's time, and surprisingly dark for a 79' Disney film.

Oh dear, that Scooter thing was way more awful than I thought. (I went directly to about 1:00, which put me in the chorus, and was only able to listen for about five seconds.) Here's an interesting thing: Billy Idol was great in the 1980s. But I never would have thought that his songs would endure so well. The best of them are excellent! I mean, just really really good pop music.

Final Fantasy Legend II Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy VII Is my order.

A Russian citizen living in Moscow has been pseudonymously and surreptitiously reporting to a Finnish newspaper, describing the effects the war has in Russia, especially in Moscow. He continues to report on the almost complete indifference that Muscovites have towards everything. Today, he wrote that this is what the total lack of fear and even interest effectively comes down to: "It is extremely unpleasant to write this, but the reason is disgustingly simple. No blood has been shed in Moscow during the 'special operation' in Ukraine. No one has been injured and no one has died in Moscow - no 'ordinary person', that is." This is, he reports, in absolutely huge contrast to what it was like in Moscow in 1997-1999, before the second Chechnyan war. EDIT: @Chilloutman: If only it didn't look like that what you're saying is most likely true.

well this is for sure bad news for Belarus, 50K army of convicts with loyalty to Russia and Prigozin who now is in dept to Lukasenko is clearly not good sign for getting out of Russia's grasp

Apparently I should have spelled it out in more detail. Yes, I know that Putin faced a serious problem and he can't fight a war on two fronts, and I also know that there will be consequences. However, there are instances where if you don't clearly demonstrate your strength, you are effectively doing a clear demonstration of your weakness, and Putin's apparent volte-face is, in my view, a particularly good example of this: the fact that he let the whole thing go (as far as the public side of things is concerned) demonstrated, to me, that Putin is much weaker than I thought he was, and this was extremely interesting to me. However, there is the caveat that this is not over yet; we are talking about events that are still going on. Belarus is going to be extremely interesting in the near future. I wish that things could turn better for the Belarusian people; they have demonstrated so much will to be free of tyranny and it took such strong measures to bring them down last time. (And as sad as it is to say it, I have seen no indications that the Russian people wish to be free of tyranny, at least not any indications worth mentioning: no political opposition, no demonstrations, no "will of the people". I've said it before, but if only the Russians were as prone to demonstrate as the French: it would be a different world for them altogether.[*]) [*] Yes, I know, the whole thing is ludicrous. If the Russians were as prone to demonstrate as the French, things wouldn't have got to this in the first place. EDIT: I wonder what the heck is the deal with that strike on the oil depot in Voronezh. Apparently, this strike on Russia came from firmly inside Russia, by Russians, although I am of course prepared to be corrected. Films taken by panicking and crying Russian children don't make it seem palatable at all. And no, of course, I don't think Putin cares or would care one bit.

I think FFX is probably the best of the old FFs. It has some problems, probably because it's the first one on PS2, such as unskippable cutscenes and the english voice-acting is supposedly bad.

FFVI is the only FF you need to play . People are fond of FFX - never managed to get into it.

And this os the reason, why many people/analysts think, that this deal significantky weakend both Putin and Prigozhin, and that there might be a possibility of similar events in the neare/mid future. @Gorth I have not read all the stuff around current situation yet, but from what I understand, that only Prigozhin is going to Belarus, and most if not all Wagnerites have to sign contract with Russian MoD, as it was planned before the rebellion. But there is definitelly something brewing in Belarus, as Kaustas Kalinovski Battalion had a long speech yesterday targeted to Belarusian army, to not meddle into Russian in-fighting, and that the people should wait for some kind of signal. edit: one of the sources on the deal: On the other hand 3-4 hours ago have some Russian Telegrams reported, that the airports at Milerovo and Rostov on Don are still fully under Wagner control

One of the most interesting things was Putin's apparent volte-face in first calling the whole thing "treason" and then sort of just letting it go. A peculiar one, that. I can imagine a supreme leader letting a nasty remark go, just to show his munificence, but treason? Hardly.

What a strange development, I wonder what really happened to the end the insurrection? I think Prigozhin assumed he would get more support and when that failed to materialize he was provided a lifeline and some backdoor agreement from Belarus But it was legitimate, Putins "1917 " speech and the obvious tension between Prigozhin and Shoigu is real. Putin will never let this go and as I mentioned earlier Prigozhin is on borrowed time

I'm so sorry.

Prigozhin may find his next meal fortified with delicious and nutritious Polonium 210.

No, I'm pretty sure they're two separate things. Rey had just bought the game, and was going home to beat his kids. The best evidence for that is that Rey has beaten Dominik up multiple times on live TV, we've never seen them playing WWE2k13 together though.

Putin doesnt accept that kind of disloyalty and embarrassment, Prigozhin is on borrowed time He better avoid windows and food

you used to be able to CARRY cats and dogs back in 2006 (Twilight Princess), we've only gone backwards really

I really liked the ATB system that Final Fantasy used from V to IX and again in X-2 (though I didn't particularly like X-2), so the constant march toward more and more action-oriented combat is not something I'm a fan of. That said, I'm not particularly broken up about it because Squeenix has 2 venerable JRPG franchises: Final Fantasy that they keep changing and Dragon Quest that has remained mostly the same. Squeenix can tinker with Final Fantasy to their heart's content, turn it into a live service looter shooter, whatever. I can just play Dragon Quest, and I have, and I will again whenever DQ12 comes out.

I feel like pet the dog is pretty much industry standard now, I'm no longer giving a game points for letting me pet the dog, however I will subtract points for not allowing me to pet the dog. My new standard for 10/10 is scratch the kitty under the chin. I'm not giving points for standard running your hand along the top of the cat, that's same as the dog petting, in fact they could probably repurpose the dog petting animation into cat petting. However, if the dev takes the time to put in an animation to scratch the cat under the chin that's instant 10/10. Put a capybara in the game and let me scratch it under the chin and that's Game of the Year.

^ I think the folks who think FF16 is the bees knees are more likely action/combat fans vs lengthy rpg fans. By that I mean, the Devil May Cry side, so to speak. You're a solo, move-busting badarse. Main story/cutscenes are "great" (and probably much better than XV's piecemeal story, haha!) but sidequests are mostly stupid (MMO sort). They were clear they were making an action game and that's what they delivered. eg, if you want more depth to your mainline FF and were hoping 16 might at least bring at little of that back in some way, I don't think so. Fully modern era. But remember - you can pet the dog! That makes it 10/10 right there. ...honestly, the more I see/watch of it (asmongold has been running thru it), the less I want to play it myself. The combat may be fun and sure the story bits are visually astounding, but the rest seems kinda boring.

A petition to make Starfield a PS5 exclusive hilariously fails

Got a work outing to TankFest 2023 at the Tank Museum. Established in 1947, with nearly 300 vehicles from across 26 odd countries. A chunk of which are in working condition, including such as the German Tiger 1, and the British WWI Mark I. Technically it was started in 1923, so it's been around for a century, but the 1947 date is when it was opened to the public.

Finished Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. It is as good as can be expected, though the technical quality of the Sands of Time was higher. I think the boss battle against the twins was bugged (the Eye of the Storm ability turned off after one hit), I fell ~12 times on the jumping plate in the Middle Tower (it did not throw me far enough to reach the dagger-holding point), and there are quite a few differences between the pre-rendered cut-scenes and in-game graphics. Mixed feelings about the idea of accepting fixable mistakes*. The total playtime is around 5 hours, including 20-30 minutes away from keyboard. *

hm, @Constentin Lévine did some digging into weapons in general over here: I assumed they tested pretty much everything, so I assume the cudgel is buffed in a way that it only affects the weapon itself. (IIRC even the "judged" de/buff only affects the weapon)

Dragon Thrashed and Thick Grew Their Tongues only proc The Ranga (or avenging storm scrolls / spell) if you have Effort equipped with Hemorrhaging enchant, which I didn't show in this video. Because if you have Effort equipped you don't get the weyc's wand or scimitar procs (refilling phrases and cancelling recovery). You can use Effort and switch weapons to refill phrases. But mostly you have to choose between Effort cheese or super fast phrase refills. Whenever you hear the gunshot and see that green glow, if there's an enemy nearby Corrupting Beauty rolls vs will, and if it hits it procs one or more avenging storm bolts. You can see this clearly at e.g. 2:16 where the guys behind me get hit by the corrupting beauty pulse, which procs storm bolts and refills my chanter phrases (also adds duration to LUC inspirations but you can't see this). ------- you said 600 turns? Are you playing turn-based? I have no idea if these items work the same in turn-based.

Tourist couple walks past a graffiti of Jinx. He: "That's Lara Croft." I don't see much of a future for that relationship.

I have one just for you: