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Let us recall what the historian Timothy Snyder said: Russia's #1 import is corruption, and because it is incapable of improving the general situation inside its borders, it tries to weaken everybody else as much as it can. Apart from all other considerations, it saddens me to think what a petty way that is to spend one's time / life / whatever. For instance, how thoroughly cynical and joyless it has to be to work at a troll factory in St. Petersburg.

Nope, you have to take them very seriously. They are slowly moving their narrative of Putin’s endgoal for the next decade or so. If the west would not ignore their propaganda against Ukraine last two decades, we would not be where we are today… 🤷‍♂️

Here you go, a game called picnic https://store.steampowered.com/app/805260/PICNIC/

Oh, absolutely. Our speaker of the parliament already pointed out that there is no way for us to know whether they are Wagnerites, GRU folks or whatnot. His main point was these people have not suddenly found an interest in a potential asylum provided by Finland, but it's Russia that has suddenly found an interest in getting them into Finland.

Precisely. If they all die in Karelia, this is perfectly fine with Russia. Let us keep in mind that this is a win-win situation for Russia: if Finland didn't close its borders, it could rejoice at the weakness of Finland / EU / the West. Now that Finland is taking measures, Russia is a) claiming Russophobia, b) accusing Finland of human rights violations, and b) using rather touching rhetoric to lament how the relations between these two countries close to each other have suffered an awful lot because of Finland's duplicity. And please note, Russia really is doing all those three things right now. Point B is especially cool, given the circumstances.

>>>Insert the obvious announcement of giveaway on GOG here<<< : Styx 2. And first game of the series, if you do not have it and want to have a nice pair, is currently for sale for 1.99EUR and probably same amount in USD 🙂

Indeed! Excellent point. This is what was being analyzed in the Foreign Affairs article I recently linked.

I'm with @BruceVC on this, but I also want such games to depict people and the environment in a real way. I just cannot get into games that have cartoon-like art styles/imagery. Just can't seem to be able to gain immersion in the game if things don't look at least somewhat realistic (but not necessarily talking high-end graphics here).

In anticipation of Mamoulian War informing us of the giveaway, I have claimed my free copy of Styx.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1091500/view/3873720583808974567?l=english Does this mean no more DLCs?

@BruceVCYou could give Stardew Valley a try. It's essentially Animal Crossing sans Nintendo. You can even marry in that game.

Russia is already threatening Finland with tanks 🤷‍♂️

You also get all those cool adventure games that are basically non-violent. Especially Monkey Island comes to mind with the dueling.

I don't think there's any doubt about this. However, whether "public sentiment" had anything whatsoever to do with pulling out of Vietnam is a completely different question.

What a happy coincidence one can be used as cover for the other... 😁

I cant play these very violent games anymore, I just cant Why cant they develop games where we all go for a picnic and the mechanics of the game is about making sandwiches and stopping ants from eating the cheese or cookies Why must everything be about violence?????

Blue Eyed Samurai episode 1. Idk... There is potential, but I dislike the art style and the cliche story. On the other hand it's just the first episode. I'll give it an episode or two more, as they are an hour long. Then good news for you.

After doing some non-ship hunting stuff for a while, I did more ship hunting today. And then, I finally found one I might keep! But ... IT'S ORANGE again. 🤣 Oh well, it's cute. Meet Hopper Tank (the top shape makes me think of leaf hoppers). Look at those feet. I feel like it should both fly and be a ground roamer, but sadly no. Also, tried to salvage/get rid of that Living Ship. Game told me "Can't salvage a living being!" So I traded it with some random NPC pilot for his cruddy ship (and got rid of his), but since he was still standing there (vs. disappearing like usual), I found I could still hire him for my fleet squadron. So he flies the Living Ship now. 😛 You can actually observe it.

I'm still half asleep and with the way the embed displayed, I read the title as "Dine Hard". Now I'm disappointed it's not that.

I know @Guard Dog doesn't come around very often anymore and @ManifestedISO hasn't been around in forever but happy birthday nonetheless.

Yes, this would be a choice once I've gathered everything. I didn't grab Blackened Plate until level 16, and I don't think I can at least post level 13 at the earliest (but even that's doubtful). What enabled me to kill the Fampyrs painlessly was to spam scroll nukes by multiple characters, and I can't reach high enough Arcana for a while. In contrast, I grabbed Patinated Plate at level 8, so it is the default armor for a long time. Ironically, it's the very speed advantage that Patinated Plate gives that makes me not like it as much! (Of course, I can opt to avoid the speed enchant though.) With the speed enchant (and bonuses from MC Berath's Blessings, Alchemical Guile, and Swift Flurry), I was going ahead of the main tank, and I definitely didn't want to do that. Instead, I like to set things up with my main tank (Swashbuckler) putting Persistent Distraction and Lower Their Guard on multiple mobs and enabling my MC to do massive damage with Clear out>

Blackened Plate comes fairly late though. I mean you have to kill some powerful fampyrs to get it. The Bloody Links with the enchantment "Crimson Steel" gives +2 Armor Rating when bloodied and thus gives the same base AR as plate armor - and at the same time gives all-stackable +5 to all defenses which is great. And it comes quite early (buy it in Fort Deadlight from No-Nut Ned). Devil of Caroc's Breastplate has a somewhat similar enchantment (+2 R when bloodied, but limited to 2/encounter) and will give you more resources (+2 Discipline and +2 Mortification). Reckless Brigandine has "Into the Breach": more melee weapon dmg as you lose health (but max +20% damage). AR increases as you lose health (max +2 AR). So it works a bit like the Bloody Links - but this requires to beat the Deathguard in the Forgotten Catacomb (which is a lot easier than killing the Fampyrs in Splintered Reef though). With "Constant Rebound" and "Bronze Juggernaut" as enchantments I also guess the Patinated Plate is great in TB mode (since the recovery penalty doesn't matter that much). Which you can also get quite early. Another heavy armor that could be nice for a damage oriented Brawler in TB mode is Kāhako Nihi. But also late ad it's best used with unarmed attacks.

Just trying to think like Podolyak.

Slightly tangential, but I was immediately reminded of this: There is a school of thought according to which the US ceased its campaign in Vietnam because it was hugely unpopular and caused such uproar among the public. There is another school of thought according to which the above had absolutely nothing to do with it and the US ceased its campaign because it became too expensive to maintain.

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/tww3-update-410/ after 7 years dev finally added respec skill point

Just a pic as an excuse to say: GRAVITY IS FOR CHUMPS. ...or as subtitle: "What everyone does after they go back to a forgotten base and discover terrain and features have respawned, with a giant tree or boulder sprouting in the middle of your stuff." Every single base of mine that is more than the "base registration computer" is off the ground. ...7 Days to Die with structural integrity building rules this ain't.

It's football so I automatically assume they're all domestic abusers and sex pests. That way I can be impressed when they approach normal levels of decency instead of almost always being disappointed. Probably mentioned this before but I had a cousin who played pro ball and he definitely checked both boxes. e: Now that I think about it, one of my dad's best friends played briefly for the Cowboys... his relationship with his now ex-wife and kids makes so much more sense to me now.

During this visit to OBS got play a bit of a Mystary project ... so good. I think all will indeed be pleased! Also got to be reminded what 20 years with the community and OBS has seen artistically! Finally, Extra Life is this coming week ... super excited to be part of one of the sessions. Will post about that too!