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She is a genetic anomaly, which around 5 percent of the population is. But she was was born female and didn't ever transition, which people seem to be struggling to understand. But that's the whole issue with all of this gender politics stuff. Genetics are not black and white. They are complicated.

Speaking of which: Avowed has been delayed to February. Now, aside of Avowed, I had to chuckle about the PR reasoning though: It's all done to give players some quality time with their backlogs! So many games coming, after all. Lemme see: Thief. Grim Fandango. Baldur's Gate. Starcraft: Brood War. Myth II. Half-Life. Ocarina Of Time. Final Fantasy VII (PC port). Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus. Unreal. Metal Gear Solid. Tomb Raider 3. Fallout 2. All released with a mere weeks between them. But then neither of those took a lifetime and a team the size of Candlekeep HQ to get off the ground running. One can only drool about how many games there's gonna be in another 25 years. Sometimes you've got to admire Nvidia marketing wizardry though. Able to ship 2,000 bucks GPUs to people who evidently have fewer need for them than any generation of PC master racers before. Selling ice to eskimos has been replaced as the benchmark truly. tldr; thanks to the Woodsie Lord, Shodan and Thy Builder indeed that blockbuster gaming isn't the only noteworthy thing around.

as many have predicted because the population of trans people are so incredibly low great number of other discriminated people will become the victim of transphobia

Long time no see! I need some help with what class to play for a POE and Deadfire playthrough. I completed both games back when they came out. I used a Monk both games, SC Monk in Deadfire. I will do a roleplaying playthrough with reading all the text and enjoying the story since it was so long ago I played. I will play on Hard difficulty. I want to play the same class in both games, though I may multiclass in Deadfire. For POE I am down to Rogue or Barbarian. I am trying both now for a few hours each. So far I like them about the same. I have a feeling I will think Barbarian is more fun later on however. I need some help with a build for Deadfire. I think some combination of Rogue, Barbarian or Monk would be what I want, but I don’t really know enough to decide witch one, and it would be great to get some input on fun builds using these classes. The only one off the table would be SC Monk since I played this already. Monk multiclass is fine. In my research for this, in this forum mostly, I have read about Berserker / Nalpazca (Ravager), this seems fun and also great from RP point of view. You come back in Deadfire with PTSD, are a bit unstable and use drugs to cope! This build would mean I would choose to play a Barbarian in POE 1. Not sure how Barbarian / Rogue (Marauder)or Rogue / Monk (Shadowdancer) are compared to the one above? What the differences in playstyles and how strong are the builds? I am looking for a melee TWS build. All thought are welcome!

Basically anything with a computer suffers from similar issues. The one that got a lot of traction (ohoho) here was John Deere being able to brick their tractors' control/ management computers if you decided not to pay their annual licensing sub or got an unsanctioned repair. Certainly not a recent phenomenon even outside gaming, eg here's an article from 2016 about John Deere's shenanigans.

Yep, show was good and was pretty consistent with the games imo. There's a potential lore mismatch with Fallout 1 I noticed, though it isn't serious- the way the show vaults are shown and where they are located the Master would have found them when he started looking well before the events of F1. I tend to pick things apart for verisimilitude/ 'historical' accuracy and if that's the worst I could come up with there isn't much cause for complaint. The one most people complained about was the date for a certain plot point regarding the NCR that was shown on the classroom whiteboard not matching up with New Vegas' timeline, but that was clearly indicating that said plot point happened after the date indicated, not at it, so no actual inconsistency.

Not quite gaming, but I finished the Fallout TV show. It's good! Way, way better than I expected. I was quite surprised how tight the script is, with good set ups and pay offs. I wish violence was used with a bit more purpose - as it is, it just style, and as such I numbed myself to it rather quickly, but am weary to recommed the show to some folks that I know might enjoy it otherwise. As for the future - there is perhaps an overarching consipracy thingy going on, that I am not a fan off. I fear the interesting potential of the wasteland (Fallout's wasteland, not The Wasteland) can get lost if there is a big, bad pulling the strings of the ENTIRE WORLD! I also feel like some lore might not be matching up, but frankly it's been so long since I played a fallout, and I skipped couple recent titles, so who knows (not me!).

Barbarian in PoE starts of... weak I must say. The main reason is the relatively poor accuracy (especially for Carnage) and the bad deflection which makes him squishy. At lower levels the impact of his big endurance/health pool cannot realy be felt and he cannot really make up for it because he misses or grazes often with Carnage. Fortunately Carnage counts as an active ability und thus gains accuracy with every level - up to the point where your Carnage has better accuracy than your normal attacks. And with a few levels and more endurance and health he doesn' feel as squishy anymore, especially if you give him decent CON. So do not get discuraged if he feels a bit meh at first, it will get much better. In the beginning it can help to give him a single weapon (+12 ACC) - the impact of the added accuracy is highest in the early game. Later you don't need that anymore. If he feels too weak and gets knocked out a lot another alternative is to give him a pike or quarterstaff. The most fun I had with a Firebrand Barbarian (no need to go Fire Godlike, was mainly for the fire theme): All weapons which have an "on hit" or "on crit" effect are good though. Also ones with "speed" because they let you reach 0 recovery time fairly quickly in combination with Frenzy (and Bloodlust and maybe dual wielding + two handed style).

The fourth addition is coming to the Community Blog on August 7th. Please check out the previous contributions and also DM me if you have a musing you would like to create!

Outside of the cases @Boeroer mentioned, melee + ranged is only useful if you really want to only attack with a specific weapon and also get the dual wielding speed. And if you are not using full attack abilities as the core of your build. It's not like you'll be regularly alternating between swinging the sabre and shooting. For example when fighting vessels, using Grave Calling + ranged weapon is something I often do. Since there's hardly a better weapon in this scenario, why not attack with it all the time. Scordeo's Edge is an all-purpose weapon that's also probably worth doing this, Adaptive stacks significantly faster and Blade Cascade triggers more often this way.

Thanks! Based on your feedback I feel that I can proceed with the Barbarian in POE 1 and I have several cool options for Deadfire!

Ok, now that looks much, much better than the awful thing they released a long long time ago. I still want to see more of how they are handling individual systems, but the combat seems more representative of the original game (do I spy awkward two handed stabbing with a short sword for unskilled fighter?) At the very least they renewed my interest.

Hi! edit: the follwing is about Deadfire: I personally prefer Barbarian/Monk, especially Berserker/Helwalker. The self damage of the Berserker's Frenzy directly fuels the wounds of the Monk which makes this a very enjoyable combination: you always have wounds to spend. There are other nice synergies like the higher crit chance combined with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming of the Monk (causing crit chains) or that Rootig Pain fires off all the time (get rid of the Berserker's Confusion though because you will hit yourself if not). However: it's very risky because the self damage of the Berserker scales very steeply. It will kill the character if it's not countered with healing or damage resistance (or both). A really big health pool helps, too. I enjoy it immensely - but instead of a two weapon etup I would very much recommend to use a Morning Star (in Deadfire at least): Both classes profit a lot from the modal which the Morning Star's weapon proficiency offers: it reduces the fortitude defense of enemies a lot. Monks and Barbarians have abilities to target fortitude instead of deflection (look at Force of Anguish and later Brute Force). You can then see which defense is lower and attack the weaker one which is very helpful. Also there's an early unique Morning Star in Deadfire that is perfect for this character combo (Saru Sichr). It works extremely well with those crit chains I mentioned above because it rolls two attacks per swing (because it has a separate poison attack roll). Anyway: it can lead to a lot of "oh my god what just happened?" moments. The build requires attention but is a lot of fun imo. For me it's okay if the main character needs more attention than the rest of the party and I enjoy the challenge to keep him alive as long as he's so much fun on the offensive side. Watch out: Nalpazca cannot heal when on drug crash - so using Frenzy when not on drugs = certain death. Helwalker suffers increased damage with every wound - so Frenzy hurts even more (also means more wounds but also quick death if not healed). Both have incredible wound generation as one might suspect. They all have pretty brutish vibe imo. --- Monk/Streetfighter is a very good damage dealer (and can also be an extremly good dps and crowd control character using two "mortar" blunderbusses which deal AoE damage - so basically a medium ranged Shadowdancer... just look at the Monk's ability "Stunning Surge" and imagine the implications when it's used in an AoE) but it can be fragile. The benefit of using blunderbusses is that they allow the use of "Poweder Burns" which immediately unlocks the Streetfighters passive which makes him superfast - without actually getting flanked by enemies or bloodied. I'd say mortar Shadowdancer is the best option but of course melee also works very well. Trickster/Forbidden Fist is an excellent tank/damage hybrid using a weapon + a great early bashing shield made for monks. Maybe not main tank material but a great frontliner who's holding his own while dealing a lot of damage. Ah... note that one companion in Deadfire can be a Monk/Streetfighter (a so called sidekick though, not a full-fledged companion). That may be a reason to not pick that combo as main character? Shadowdancers don't feel as brutish as Ravagers to me. --- Berserker/Streetfighter (for example with a certain set of daggers) has insane attack speed and dps output and in the early game can dominate fights with a hunting bow (+modal), too (makes some tough fights in Deadfire so much easier). But is also very squishy as one can imagine. Like the Berserker/Monk I mentioned above. It's also very good with two battle axes. I haven't much experience with other Barb/Rogues. Another plus is that Barb/Rogues can be the best lockpicks in the game. The reason is that you can use the ability "Leap" outside of battle whenever you want. You can stealth in a drak corner, then leap across the room/area right beside a chest, pause and pick the lock and grabbing stuff without anybody noticing you. Same goes for doing stealth/invisible attacks - so maybe a Barb/Assassin could be fun, too. There's a great early assassin dagger in the game which does great things when used from stealth. And assasin's boots that make you invisible if you kill somebody (1/encounter). Maybe even a Mageslayer/Assassin build would be fun as a thematic build - getting rid of casters from stealth and as soon as possible. Never tried, but sounds fun. --- In PoE I enjoyed barbarians a lot more than rogues. Because Carnage procs all weapon effects in a AoE you can do a lot of fun stuff with a Barbarian. This doesn't work in Deadfire anymore, but they have other cool stuff there. Examples are a draining weapon with a Barb (drain from all enemies in the Carnage area), weapons that cause prone or stun on crit (in an AoE bc. Carnage), weapons that just do a lot of base damage per hit (like the summoned Great Sword Firebrand) in combination with Blood Thirst, weapons that leech buff durations from enemies and so on.

Kind Wayfarer + Forbidden Fist sounds like a good synergy because of the healing from White Flames and Lay on Hands and Exalted Endurance that can support your health while under the curse. And Eternal Devotion's lash will stack with Turning Wheel's, too. Slap on the Ring of Focused Flame and your White Flames will have great accuracy, too. Pick Scion of Flame and the PEN will be great, too. Only thing that feels not so nice to me is that White Flames (the KW's Flames of Devotion) is best with dual wielding because the healing procs twice then. This is a huge advantage imo. Forbidden Fist attck is not a full attack so shield setups make a lot of sense. BUT: once you pick up Tuotilo's Palm you'll have the best of both: weapon & shield AND dual wielding AND great enchantments for the Monk's side of the build. On top of that - since Forbidden Fist profits so much from maxed RES - they also fit very nicely thematically. Paladins with high RES make a lot of sense, too. All in all you can become very, very tanky while also having great offensive capabilities. And let's not forget that White Flames also heals your allies in range (and that range is increased by +10 INT from the Monk's side of course). Just don't pick the resistance passives of the Paladin! Sacred Immolation's self damage is a separate effect from the offensive part - its duration gets shortened by high RES and stuff like Clarity of Agony. So using Sacred Immolation (which is a great damage boost) isn't as risky as it usually is with "normal" paladins. Paladin/Monk is like it's made for Sacred Immolation (or the other way round). The self damage will wear off pretty quickly and even grant you a wound when it's ending. The burning part will still carry on. Like with the curse though the hostile part will get prolonged with higher INT. I think all in all it's a great combo - it's not very "gishy" though? --- Street Fighter (I'll get to your question below) has an enormous potential for weapon damage. And with the Forbidden Fist it's quite easy to lower your health to 50% willingly in order to trigger the Streetfighter's passive without getting flanked. Combine with Human to also profit from Fighting Spirit at 50% health. But since operating at 50% health is risky one might - in this case - use Iron Wheel and a lot of CON + Tough and maybe even an Amulet of Greater Health in order to make the 50% of health still be a lot of health. Streetfighters don't profit a ton from high INT as they usually don't use a lot of AoE or duration-based stuff (except maybe Toxic Strike) - and while the loss of a multiplicative burning lash in combination with such high damage bonuses does hurt your dps, I think the convenience of a much bigger health pool and thus the more reliable approach to "keep me under 50% health for massive dps gains" is just better. Getting knocked out all the time is no fun after all. I made the same experience with a Helwalker/Berserker: very potent but dropping dead all the time. As soon as I rampoed up the health pool to the max it became much more enjoyable and performed actually way better even though on paper it had less dps potential. But it's only potential. What is that worth if you cannot make it happen? Using a pet that does high "heal on kill" makes a lot of sense here. If you have Eder you can make sure he picks one that does a weaker version of that effect for the party, too. You will kill quickly so you will heal a lot, too, giving you access to even more "risk free" FF attacks. By the way: Trickster/FF is an even better combo overall imo because you can lean into the defensive side more, become very tanky and still have great damage output. Also seems to be more on the gish side with the spells the Trickster gets. --- What about FF/Berserker? You can shorten the duration of the confusing part of Frenzy a lot so that you only become confused for a very short time - and the nyou'll get a wound + healing when it stops. The duration of Frenzy will not suffer. The self damage part of Berserker Frenzy cannot be shortend (it's directly tied to the frenzy duration) but iirc it will also give you wound + healing once Frenzy ends. With such a character you'd also need a lot of Health and a pet with heal on kill is very benefical here, too. --- With all those I would recommend using Tuotilo's Palm and a weapon that does other damage than only crush (so no clubs and maces). For Skald Sasha's Singing Scimitar seems like the obvious choice. With Swift Flurry: Stalker's Patience (with Mercy Strike!) as well as Mohora Tanga (super high chance for crit chains because Red Flag Flying can proc itself!) are excellent choices. Watch out: Mohora Tanga can crash the game if your accuracy is much higher than your enemies' defenses (beause an endless loop of crits can occur that will shut the game down immediately without warning). If you don't overdo it with the accuracy/debuffing enememies defenses you should be fine though. --- Best use would be both of serafen's mortars. hybrid use (1 melee + one ranged weapon) if often just worse than 1 dedicated melee set + 1 pure ranged weapon set. You can def. keep up the distraction if you don't use Clarity of Agony too often - because you will be shooting/reloading superfast with Swift Strikes + Streetfighter's passive. And Mortar's AoE + INT + Stunning Surge is an excellent, excellent combo. High INT also makes sure the distraction lasts long enough even if your RES is very high. On the otehr hand using a ranged setup is a bit detrimental to the FF attack. I suppose one can use it as a great way to dispose of enemies who come near you though. You don't even need to switch weapon sets in order to deal melee damage then. Blunderbuss + melee weapon can make sense with FIghters (Clear Out can use the Blunderbuss if it's in the main had when a melee weapon is in the offhand), Rangers (Whirling Strike) works the same, Barbarians (Heart of Fury works with ranged and melee weapons, both will execute no matter what). If you count Blunderbus + bashing shield a ranged + melee setup it can make good sense for a lot of characters because you get the defensive bonus AND the dual wielding bonus that also speeds up the reloading. But usually I think pure ranged or pure melee beats hybrid in most cases.

From what I read, the Algerian and Taiwanese boxers werent disqualified until they beat specific boxers (a Russian and Bulgarian) at the IBA championships but the disqualification was on failed results the IBA already had from earlier tests. Further, the IBA has denied requests to provide the Algerian boxer or her coaches the test results, have not described what test were done and if translations I've read are correct haven't been consistent with what the tests showed. If that's true, seems like there's more reason to be suspicious of the IBA here than 'lol Russians'.

As the conversation is unfolding, I will remind all community members that OBS' fora are grounded in an understating of inclusivity and celebration of diversity. Do indeed debate but also remember that discriminatory or (ex)implicit argumentation that diminishes the dignity of others is contrary to the ethos of this community and the Forum Guidelines.

The Outer Worlds. Reached the Groundbreaker and was getting a very immersive experience, considering the weather. Looking for recommendation of games where 1. The human NPC AI reacts differently to the player's actions depending on whether the NPC is armed or where it is located, e.g. when attacked by the PC, a NPC civilian tries to run or alert other NPCs instead of fighting to the death with their bare fists. 2. The non-human/animal NPC AI does not try to kill itself against the player if there is obviously no chance to win, unlike the infamous wolves in TESIV. Pumpkin Jack. There are more variations of racing gameplay sequences with fixed camera angles. The one with the Witch currently holds the highest number of deaths due to me running into the walls heads-on (I clipped through one of them, which turned out to be the correct action). The boss itself and the boss in the following chapter took 2 attempts each. I suppose, I could say that each area is very distinct and the gameplay is reasonably challenging.

Thanks! I think I’m leaning towards either priest or chanter, but I’m still tempted by street fighter(I’ve never played one) or kind wayfarer (I loved them in PoE and have never played one in Deadfire. But with street fighter, would it actually be possible to keep distracted up from powder burns? It seems like the duration would eventually get too short to be sustainable, though I guess it could still be a source of wounds. Other than street fighter, is there another class where it makes sense to use a blunderbuss together with a melee weapon? I’ve never really figured out another use case for that combo.

In today's gaming world Lost Vikings 3 will be F2P but all but the first viking will be in app purchases.

Chuck Tingle writes SFW stuff? What is the world coming to? Where is the outrage?