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https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/classic-90s-space-sim-star-wars-x-wing-had-one-mission-that-was-so-brutally-hard-a-fan-cut-up-his-floppy-disks-and-mailed-them-back-to-lucasarts/ Knew what mission it was just from the headline.

https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/news/50098/introducing-a-limited-floppy-edition-of-cyberpunk-2077

Sleepwalkers (1992) It's a 90s horror flick. Not really much else to say, it doesn't do anything particularly noteworthy. The Devils (1971) I think this is the film Ken Russell followed up with The Boyfried (1971) that took @Bartimaeus last shred of sanity. So I went into this mostly blind and was expecting something completely unhinged and got something that was all too hinged. It's an incredible film, perhaps one of the best I've seen, but it hits much closer to what The Crucible (1996) wanted to be than the hyper-sex crazed Excorcist I went in expecting. There are some truly striking scenes and transitions filled with top notch acting and dialogue that hits wonderfully. I'm just at kind of a place where my brain is so broken that "wildest film evar" doesn't really move my weird-o-meter....but I guess that's just me being a big ol weirdo. Altered States (1980) I got to say that it very much reminded me of another Ken Russel film, Lair of the White Worm (1988) in terms of composition of the hallucination sequences. Observation aside, movie is god damn incredible. I love when time jumps are handled relatively organically instead of just plastering "5 years later" over the film, Altered States does this several times which helps reinforce the psychedelic atmosphere by playing with the viewers' sense of time. Definitely enjoyed the shift from depicting hallucinations from the perspective of the hallucinator to that of the one viewing them, particularily when the main character started to.....deconstitute???? It's a very weird ride

Our company is closing our local office so we all get to be full time remote instead of 2 days in office. I already was fully remote but I'm glad for the move.

And poor Chris does not have Juana Villalobbos doing News Flashes about his unhappy accidents?

Happy Easter

There's a thread at Obsidian Entertainment that stretches all the way back to Black Isle and Troika Games, and I'll always tie them together. They have long been some of my favorite studios, and I admire them for maintaining such a high level of craft and creativity. Obsidian games I play: KotoR 2: I loved the first game and the sequel is at least as good. I didn't delve much into the gray and stuck to killing Sith. There are some nice UI improvements that make it hard to go back to the original. NWN2: NWN was not for me, so this was a nice surprise. It's a solid, party-based RTWP RPG, hampered by the early years of 3D graphics. The camera and UI are aggravating. I restarted several times but never finished it or even tried the expansions. I'm thinking about starting again. Alpha Protocol: This is a great game and I'm glad it's available on GOG. Severely underrated, partially because of release day bugs. Bugs were part of their reputation back then, but I'll give Obsidian credit for patching their games into a good state. Fallout NV: One of my favorite games ever. I love Fallout 1 and 2 and I thought Fallout 3 was incredibly immersive. Fallout NV added good writing and a better setting. I can breathe under the desert skies so much easier than down in DC's subway system. Pillars of Eternity: Kickstarted and happy about it. Isometric, party-based RTWP RPGs are my favorite style of games. I like a lot of turn-based games, but RTWP feels more alive to me. I was hooked with the promise of 2D painted backgrounds and the extensive spell list (the best since Baldur's Gate). I badly wanted this game to succeed, and it did. I also credit Obsidian with helping to reignite an interest in crunchier RPGs. PoE 2: I waited for the complete edition to come out before I played it, and it's a masterpiece. The first game was really good, but also felt a little limited by its budget. This one takes the good from the first and makes everything bigger and better. The Outer Worlds: I was really into this for a while, but something weird threw me off about the level design. I'd run right by doors and stairways and not see them. I'd wander through the same building and keep discovering important stuff that I'd already walked past over and over. Now I'm wondering if the FoV was set too low for me... It was great that the companions had unlimited ammo. It was so freeing that I could give them giant machine guns and not go broke in 2 minutes, that I went back and played FO:NV with a mod that does that and its hilarious fun. Obsidian games I've missed: Dungeon Siege 3: Not Obsidian's fault, I didn't like its predecessors either. South Park: I didn't have the console at release, and by the time it was on PC I was over South Park. Tyranny: Don't want to play the bad guys. Grounded: Great concept, but too resource collection/crafting heavy for my taste. Pentiment: I planned to buy on day 1, but then I read a Josh Sawyer interview describing how the murder can't be solved and you pin it on whomever you choose. Something like 'the truth is what you make it', and I thought, "that is bull****". It's possible I misinterpreted this badly, but it killed my interest. Feel free to correct me.

That’s a nice summary of the Periodic System

Been plowing through Horizon Forbidden West on pc now. Completed the main quest and moved onto the Burning Shores dlc. Pretty good all in all, though possibly not quite as emotionally engaging or as deep a story as the first one. The music score still adds a lot of depth to the game and the emotional story beats you do get. Some of the context sensitive controls can be a bit finnicky, and I've sworn a bunch of times where I've meant to take several small steps carefully at climbable edges and it's read it as the double click for dodge-roll and launched Aloy off a high surface. Possibly because of the nature of the story this time around, since you aren't plumbing the depths of so many ancient ruins looking for answers you also don't get quite so much of the bittersweet and melancholic datapoints and holo/audio recordings of last moments from the fall. And I have to say, the end sequence for the main story is incredibly cinematically done for the credits. Aloy on flying mount going across the landscape, looking across glorious vistas as it slowly covers the entire game world map in lazy S paths, end credits emerging from the landscape only to scatter into glitter on the wind as the you move into them, finally reaching the point of the map the final mission occured just as the sun is setting behind that location and the credits morph into a "thank you for playing" all set to slow, epic orchestral music.

Note: I'm a product of my time - while I try not to overuse/buy plastic packaged products, will reuse packaged containers, am aware of microplastics etc, it's pretty difficult to avoid as a consumer, and I'm sure I don't do as well as I absolutely could. eg, I'm a part of the problem, as a consumer, no denying. That said, the mantra of "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" has not taken the "reduce" part to heart at all, especially when it comes to manufacturing. We could go at least go back to glass for a lot of products. I'm not entirely sure if using more paper - eg, liquid detergent vs. powder packaging - is better or worse (trees, processing process), but I'd guess (?) better at least in terms of overall environmental waste/poisoning. Maybe I'm wrong. But for gosh sakes, does stuff like small wires, cpu's, every beauty product ever need to be surrounded with five+ inches square of plastic, and do we really need plastic container "six packs" of tomatoes etc?

Agreed. I'd blame the lack of keys on controllers. On the other hand, Dragon's Dogma (originally a PS3 game) on PC allowed to use several abilities as combinations of keys, while Dark Souls, as mentioned above, allowed to scroll through spells (it was not convenient). Also, I think, in Dragon Age: Inquisition, the number of active abilities was 8. So, it can be done and, hopefully, will change before release.

Whilst I'm sure there are lore implications that explain why we can only be a human or elf, I can only assume that the main factor is a case of the other races being a little more challenging for a first person title. Aumaua and Orlans vary greatly in height compared to Humans and Elves and would require a bunch of animation variants if we see any first person interactions with the world space at any point. Level design in a first person game you are constantly mindful of scale, making sure that the dimensions of environments and assets make sense. I can only imagine the nightmare that would be trying to get this right while also factoring in different camera heights. Shorter players would be able to fit into smaller gaps. Larger players could surmount obstacles that other races shouldn't. You'd be tripling the QA team's work.

From what I understand, you also missed the best gun in the game: the pinata launcher.

The Boy Friend (1971) by Ken Russell. Ken Russell said he made this film...um, "[...] to prove to people I'm not totally deranged; I love the innocence and charm of musicals", but I came away from this becoming certain that he must be. I think it's one of the most fun films I've ever viewed, but I feel I lost my sanity watching it through. I don't know what I was expecting after having seen Altered States and Crimes of Passion, but I certainly wasn't prepared for whatever that was.