Leaderboard

Mexico’s president calls for parts of US to be renamed ‘Mexican America’

One of the primary reasons I continue to be drawn to Obsidian Entertainment, reaching back to the days of Black Isle, has been its commitment to great storytelling. This has been a quality that I believe has and continues to set it apart in the creative venture to tells stories through the gaming medium. I would like to delve into their artistic storytelling by highlighting just three examples that display their unique approach to narrative design. For me, I was hooked by their stories back in 1990s. When I discovered the stylised ‘isometric’ game of Fallout. It illustrated to me the importance to establish a foundation for narrative depth and complexity. In these early days, I believe Fallout telegraphed this hallmark of Obsidian's later works. The game's post-apocalyptic setting, moral dilemmas, and branching storylines captured my attention to the extent that much sleep was lost and it set my expectation quite high for storytelling in video games. And it all began with a water chip … Though the post-apocalyptic genre has always captured my geeky imagination, it has always been the fantasy medium to which I have been drawn. Some of the first books I dove into, as I discovered the power of the written words, were Tolkien’s and the vastness of Middle Earth. As I shared this passion with so many, Obsidian’s first foray into the genre, particularly through Gary Gygax’ D&D worlds, from Icewind Dale to Neverwinter nights, was amazing, but Obsidian’s ability to create its own IP was when they went to the next level. For me, the evolution of Obsidian has been their ability to create immersive worlds that come alive in dynamic ways. At the launch of the first Kickstarter for Pillars of Eternity, I knew that something amazing was happening in the maturation of the company’s ability to weave tales. The dedication to illustrating rich and detailed environments had me lost for hours. The world of Eora, which I believe will be further expanded in Avowed, exposed me to a living, breathing world with its own history, cultures, and conflicts. The depth of the lore and the complexity of the characters means my choices unfolded in meaningful and engaging ways. Beyond just the first title in the franchise, with Deadfire it was clear to me that my choices had consequences. This is a recurring theme in Obsidian's games, where my agency as a player is paramount. The storylines are often not linear path, but they present multiple divergent paths that lead to different outcomes. This approach not only offers opportunity to replay (if one had the time!) but it allowed me to feel like I was the agent helping the story unfold. Deadfire’s narrative, as an example of Obsidian’s narrative commitments, was further enriched by its well-written dialogue and memorable characters. The last example that I will touch on in this blog is the storytelling that shines in The Outer Worlds. If Fallout was post-apocalyptic, this recent addition to their creative library involves a journey through a dystopic future where the rich and autocratic corporations’ rule and individual freedom is intentionally oppressed. The story unfolds with satire on capitalistic greed. The satire presents a story that unfolds with a nimble wit and dark humour, which I believe is an essential component of Obsidian’s taletelling. As with their other stories, I felt I could become the Stranger. The character offered me a blank slate that allowed me to become the Stranger as I realised my choices would affect the fate of entire colonies, need alone my companions in dramatic ways. The writing is clever and thought-provoking, with plenty of twists and turns that kept me up much too late far too often! Let me conclude this musing, by focusing on Parvati’s Companion Quest. This component of Obsidian’s storytelling is what hooks me every time. Their ability to weave storytelling to liberate the player to see more widely through an artistic medium allows me to commit to the outcome of the story. Parvati’s relationship with Junlei is rich, human, and inspires me to see outside of the box. It allowed me to feel like I was hanging out with Kaylee from Firefly, recognising that in this dystopic future, love endures. The human connexion and emotion this questline evokes are profound, standing as a powerful challenge to the very real-life struggles we face outside the immersion of great gameplay. If a creative story can stir our hearts and show us options that translate into how we might aspire to be better human beings to one another, then those are the games I will passionately continue to play. And that is the true power of storytelling that I continue to experience from Obsidian after over twenty-years of my relationship with them.

(Ignore the messed up colors/lighting, someone that was not me didn't know how to take screenshots of an HDR source.) I don't know about great, but I guess there's some hints of retro design there, even if it kind of looks weird and off-putting to me...and then, we also have this... Modern anime literally scares me.

So? In a population of 335 million people, you can pretty much find an example of anything.

I noticed the d-x mod made the local MP/hosting be TCP instead of ancient-near-dead(?) IPX. So I wondered if I could still run two instances of the game at the same time .... and it worked. I now have eight D1 mule characters that can join the main instance of the game, pick stuff I drop on the ground and leave. Mostly jewelry, occasional weapon/gear, and all the gold. Alllll the gold. Wonder how long I'll play this game again, this time.

SpaceX to launch Starship megarocket's Flight 7 test mission on Jan. 13 | Space

Not news, but I found it hilarious watching him run around manhandling all the displayed gpu's, commenting on physical appearance/designs. Kept thinking "don't drop them!" And ... even as a 2-slot, 50xx gen is ofc huge - but the aftermarket ones even moreso. If I were to get a 5090, I'd want the FE if I could still get it when I wanted to buy - wouldn't care re: any OC and not keen on bigger size and bigger price, lol.

Panama should petition to join NATO to protect itself from its expansionist near neighbour. So should Denmark and Canada for that matter. It'd be hilarious, if Trump wasn't soon to be the most powerful man in the world. The Democrats managing to put up candidates that lost to Trump, twice, should be recognised as the monumental achievement it is.

The article you linked explicitly stated that Huawei could do any other business in the US, just not with government departments, the other is literally patent infringements together with threats of fines if they try to take the chinese companies to court, actually preventing foreign companies from doing business there. These things are nowhere near equal Whataboutism is never an arguement for anything

I was experiencing the same problem. Upon entering Kraken's Eye specifically I noticed unplayable stuttering on my 3080, 16GB RAM, Ryzen 5800X3D system running at 1440p. This was one of the only threads I could find with a similar problem. Sure enough, I went directly to Nvidia's website and downloaded the latest driver and opted for the "clean install" option. As soon as that was finished and I booted Deadfire up - the stuttering was completely gone. Unsure what the relation is, but hopefully this helps someone. And thank you for the suggestion.

Oh look, a part of California is on fire again. If anyone's down there (W. Los Angeles area), stay safe. It's becoming so regular the state is going to have to regulate/force some kind of min. fire insurance from companies or something. edit: passing costs to consumers, which CA I think didn't used to allow, or something - eg, it'll get really pricey Watching old man James Woods relate rescuing an even older neighbor and sob about his destroyed house is a bit surreal.

Did you know that a gram of Uranium has 20 billion calories? Yet another reason not to consume Uranium.