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So I take it, starting the 24th, I'll be all alone in the forum because everyone else is playing this at launch, right?

Started Outer Worlds 2 (using Gamepass) and played through the tutorial. It was great. The graphics are improved from the original. So far so good. I don't think it will win you over if you didn't like the original, but it seems like a solid sequel so far.

At least their hips won't lie

I bought the deluxe edition, beat the tutorial, got no bonus packs. deleted and re-download 3 times, play thru tutorial again and still no dlc. please help, I did give you 100 dollars it would be nice to actually receive some content.

I signed up for a full Ironman with my wife. I did one in 2019 in Santa Rosa and it was pretty miserable. It took me 15 hours. I had a good swim, an ok bike, but terrible run. My stomach was a mess and I walked most of it. Anyways, my wife watched me suffer and has been bugging me for the last 6 years to do one with her. So we signed up for Ironman California, which is in Sacramento. It is still a year away. We volunteered at the race this year and paddle boarded for the swimmers in support. The swim looks amazing, it is downstream and should be fast. It also looks like a fun run snaking around the Capitol Mall. But now that I've paid for it, I'm in training mode, and that is a different lifestyle. I'm not out of shape, but I'll be pretty much doubling my training hours over the next year. It should be fun. I hope I can nail the nutrition this time.

I'm pretty busy. Maybe in November. 2026

our disappointment in fellow americans who has not expressed outrage and horror over the cecot efforts by the trump administration is impossible to fully communicate... and somehow seven months past might as well be a century removed in our new attention economy. that trump would do this kinda thing surprised us not at all, and you may review our posts since 2017 to confirm that claim. project 2025 was, in part, an effort to assemble a group o' at least marginal competent people who would be willing to advance tribal values either for personal power or 'cause o' a genuine ideological commitment regardless o' legal niceties, so am not surprised there is lawyers and burecrats carrying out the sinister marching orders o' the tangerine tyrant. am not shocked that hardcore maga people who have utmost faith in trumpism and is ok with any excess as long as the libs is being owned would choose the steven miller narrative regardless o' any evidence which might challenge their increasingly myopic world view. where is the rest of america? what serious bothered medicine dan, and others like him who somehow see themselves as reasonable trump voters in spite of hundreds o' examples o' trump excesses, were defund the police, white privilege accusations and talk of reparations for slavery... am thinking the subtext o' the underlying motivation need not be stated aloud for that kinda trump apologist to be understood. folks such as gd is sudden tired of all the negativity, but he somehow still sees equivalency 'tween trump and the dems ordinary incompetence? joe rogan now thinks what trump is doing to immigrants is crazy and inhumane, but is not as if trump hid his plans when he promised a mass deportation of 20 million people. even so, am not certain rogan and the kinda low information bro culture people who helped make trump 2024 possible is capable o' enough self reflection to recognize that their mind blowing gullibility is the cause o' the ice excesses near as much as is kristi noem or tom "cava bag" homan. ... but where is everybody else? even if you subtract the willful obtuse and proud boy adjacent crowds, where is the outrage from the rest of america? am pleased + seven million people came out for no kings. we saw a whole lotta gen x and boomer representation with their fanny packs, npr totes and american flags... not quite the sorros terror campaign republican leadership and fox news described. maybe the next no kings reaches nine million? even so, am not sure how we got past cecot with only a relative small number o' folks showing outrage. disappointed. HA! Good Fun!

Breaking news: Mexico has agreed to pay for the wall, and Canada wants one too.

For me, I don't want to give them something for nothing. What will I gain by connecting my Windows to an account. They need to actually offer something worthwhile for doing that.

Right, well, I'm a customer too, and this customer says "Great job Obsidian for ditching stupid, useless romances in your RPGs." Their developer resources are much better spent on pretty much anything else.

Niles doesnt construct the explosive to breach the vault door and becomes bugged instead making me stuck in the mission Do More Harm

I can't progress this quest. Im on PS5 and the game has the latest patch installed! To continues the Faction Quest "An Equitable Arrangement" I have to complete the Side Quest as mentioned in the title. To do this I have to interrogate the Man in the Moon Mask. After I start the dialogue I have two options. The standard and a Professor option. No matter what I choose the next dialogue options are the standard one and one that needs 9 observation. What I don't have. After being forced to choose the first option I get another dialogue option. The standart one, a professor option and a Science 9 one. I dont have 9 science. So stuck with either of the other two options. But no matter what combination I choose or companions I bring along. I am left with the "Think I will slink away option." In other words I cannot progress this side quest or the Faction quest that's tied into this one. According to the patch notes, this quest was patched. But it seems it not. Am I missing something or am I screwed? Not having enough points in specific skills should not force you out of a side or faction quest!

When loading a save file, being able to select the character and see only their save files would be an incredibly helpful QoL feature, especially for those of us who have multiple concurrent playthroughs going.

More humourous I guess

It was 'very honest' that Trump told the electorate he didn't know what Project 2025 was despite his VP candidate having written the introduction to the published version and having several of its key architects of said document working for him and which he has subsequently went on to implement Project 2025's agenda without fail? Doesn't seem very honest to me.

Playing a game called Seance of Blake Manor. It's an adventure/investigation/deduction game with a horror theme, set in late 19th century Ireland. It's first person view and lots interactable things, but the major twist is there is a time limit. Time doesn't go forward in actual time, or movement or even changing areas, but only by interacting with things. So instead of clicking everything and then trying to figure out what to do, you have think about your actions constantly. The mechanic was a huge turn off for me at first, it felt very arbitrary because it wasn't always obvious what thing had important info attached to it, and felt it encouraged save scumming. But once I got past the prologue, it seems there's much more leeway and it works fine. But maybe it'll all come crashing down on me later, when I find out I shouldn't have spent all that time going through ladies pants drawers.

This thread really is quite slow when I'm not around... So, quote for the day: "In America you call it the Alt Right. In Germany, we call it 'Why Grandpa lives in Argentina Now.'"

Indeed, it is way better to have a vindictive, narcissitic asshat with the intelligence of a seven year old as POTUS. Or worse, imagine if Biden had become president and stepped aside after his cancer diagnosis, it'd be a mixed race femoid with a weird laugh running the country. Unthinkable.

Sometimes a solid sequel is all we need. Just have more fun of the fun we were already having.

--Mood: crabby, pessimistic, avoidant yet paradoxically also confrontational --Physical state: ok/adequate but maybe typical aging, post-menopausal and other such woes, 57, and oh hey am I finally starting to get slight eye bags and slightly droopy cheeks? Bummer. --Mental state: rut, exhausted, withering --Hubby's health (physical and mental): nothing super dramatic, but not great either. I think a lot about "what if's" lately. --Reason for writing/sharing: not sure. Just felt a brief need. That is all. I will aim for happy thoughts this week. And I will be replacing the awful kitchen faucet the house came with tomorrow. It'll be the 1st time trying it on my own - watched hubby twice over the years, and he can advise. Something small but mentally satisfying/productive, at least. Maybe I'll try fixing part of the shower's tile grout, too. Wish me luck.

@Hurlshot is looking for rational and reasonable, but what too many people ain't figured out yet is that rational and reasonable is incidental concerns which 90% o' the time may be deflected with whataboutism or bible verse. the remaining ten percent? the maga faithful, when confronted with clear evidence o' mistake and/or hypocrisy, will final admit, "nothing you say or do will change my mind." even before hillary's deplorables remark, libs like hurl made real americans feel shame. all too frequent you (not hurl specific, but libs in general,) dismissed their beliefs as conspiracy theories and religious zealotry. recognizing that minorities commit more crime and are habitual leeching off o' government welfare programs is facts according to tucker carlson, but libs identify such truth telling as racist. real americans worked harder and got less every year, but libs ignored their problems and instead focused on providing free transition surgery to prisoners. etc. hurl being annoyed and confused is the point. immigrant suffering is also the point. precisely because immigrants is part of the them as opposed to the maga us, their suffering is justified and righteous. additional, hurl's impotent displeasure is in part why ice has videographers following around their ice teams. seeing them suffer is swell, but hurl qqing about the unnecessary cruelty is delicious. children crying as their parents is detained with excessive force is the point... but hurl predictable complaining is also a motivating factor. vol's transitive property stoopid which resulted in every act o' violence being the fault of blm and antifa has been coopted by the trump administration. 'ccording to 47, antifa is a terrorist organization. if you suggest that a member o' the trump administration is fascist, authoritarian, or you accuse 'em of using unnecessary violence to achieve illegal government goals, then you are a member of antifa and as such a terrorist and an enemy of the state? hurl being outraged by this kinda stoopid is as much the point as is the genuine authoritarian effort to suppress dissent. etc. maga wants trump to lower prices of groceries, housing and healthcare, but they don't need it. what maga needs is for them to suffer and for hurl to complain without being able to do anything about it. HA! Good Fun!

Same here, made an account for this reason.

It was more about how early in the game the bugs apparently start

Solasta 2 is possibly the one game I want to play at launch.

$160 special edition rerelease of FNV with some crappy merch, lol. Does the game even work on a modern PC without mods? This is so.. I don't even know what to say man. Bethsoft didn't give a **** about the game for 10+ years. Guess they finally realized that people actually like FNV. Time to power up the milk machine!

I understand why people want romance in video games.. However, I've never been a fan of how romance is handled in most video games, especially RPG's. It's always extremely lame, takes minimal dialogue and effort and the main objective is usually just to get them in bed. There's then sometimes some idiotic reward for doing so and the relationship is never brought up again. It's just so stupid. Unless the developers are going to put real time and effort into an in-game romance, then there's no reason for it. And if a players imagination is good enough to find actual substance in past lame RPG' romances, they shouldn't need any prompting or hints of romance to create one themselves in any RPG. Just let your imagination go wild, create your own romance stories and dont' worry about there being no dialogue in the game for it. I mean, there are beloved companions from past games that seriously have no substance or backstory whatsoever, people just love the characters because of what they created in their head while running around with that character for 60 hours.

I started over "those who rule" due to FOMO. Turns out one of the people i thought was receuitable was not. I did save him and let him live though, so maybe there will be a call back to it at some point. I am stuck on a level I struggled hard with the first time. If I just wanted to beat the level it would be no problem. It is the side objectives. Main mission is "survive for 12 turns" easy. Side missions: "Save the villagers" this one gets me occasionally but for the most part it's easy to save them unless you get some bad RNG The hard part comes with there being two boss type characters on opposite sides of the map. These boss characters are holding useful items. You don't have to kill them but FOMO. You have to defend a church from waves of enemies coming from two directions. All while pushing forward towards the item holding boss characters. These boss characters are standing behind where the waves of enemies spawn in. Even all this would be doable. But 12 turns makes it very difficult. You essentially have to get close enough by turn 11 to have the boss come out of his spot and attack you. While hoping that does not kill any of your characters. I have gotten close so many times but then an archer comes out and kills one of my characters and I have to restart. The worst part is that you can't skip the enemies turn, so after failing my self imposed mission, I have to watch the rest of their dang turn before restarting. Edit: also the AI is not stupid so they will attack the person closest to death

Well, finally ran across my own colliding planet system in NMS. I knew of them, but it's rare. Sadly, since every planet is its own "instance", so to speak, you cannot run across from one to the other. The closer you get to the collision line, the more the game felt like it wanted to crash, lol. The world you're on stayed "tilted" in perspective, too - like it's stuck in a sense - vs. the illusion of horizon moving so you feel land stays level. Neat to see "in person" tho.

In regards to games, it's no longer all about "WoW's servers are down" or "my personal ISP is down" - it's now AWS or Google or whoever else is down. 7 Days forum (and some other games) was full of "can't connect/can't play" - I would guess for 7 Days, Epic Online Services (which 7 days now uses for crossplay and other online features) was connected to AWS in some way - I disabled 7Days EoS myself ages ago, since I only SP, btw. When something way worse than this time goes down, it's gonna be fun. People forget how fragile and wholesale/controlled by too few companies, the whole 'net interconnection stuff is.

I get what you mean. Romance in a lot of RPGs feels forced, shallow, and almost like a checklist feature. You talk to a character a few times, pick the “flirty” dialogue options, give them a gift or two, and suddenly they’re in love with you. Then after the predictable “romance scene,” the story basically forgets the relationship ever existed. There’s no actual depth, no growth, no conflict—just a lazy mini-quest that pretends to be character development. If romance is going to be in a game, it should matter to the narrative, not just exist for a cheap reward or fan service.

Having played both they're pretty much entirely unconnected, except for having a similar establishing concept/ mechanism. They're both also better Star Trek than most of the recent TV shows despite lacking the licence.

The first one: https://www.gog.com/en/game/starcomnexus

Depends on game mode and/or custom settings. One of those games where there's the default pre-set modes, but there's like 3 screens of difficulty game settings and you can mix/match as you wish It's a giant sandbox - once you figure out what you like, you can do it almost exclusively if you wish. There are predator type fauna that will attack - but not all fauna will. Or you can set them to be defensive only so they only attack if you attack/hit them first. Or never at all. You can turn on-foot and ship combat off/minimal/standard/hostile, which has affects on planet/space sentinel hostility conditions and certain system warp random encounter stuff. That said, outside of very early game, most of isn't really much threat. As to base building - if you don't want to ever build a base, you don't really have to, outside of any quest, or a weather/temperature shelter. Some ppl go super all out on bases ofc. It can be fun but is has no purpose (don't need to defend etc). Most of the time I just build 1-2 prefab room shelters with a few crafting/storage tools in them and that's about it. You could also disable the ability to alter difficulty settings entirely (can't change on the fly). Very wide, not very deep.

For gaming, I don't really care unless it's an offline game, because then I'm questioning why I have to log on. For what made me this way, I give you the NBA 2k series, in which each new edition was more and more online until now, where it's basically a requirement (if not one in fact at this point) even if you never touch multiplayer modes. The offline game has been gutted and has been stripped of features to "encourage" online play where they can sell you stuff and show you more ads. Oh, and if you lose connection while playing the game dumps you out without even saving your progress.

You misunderstand, at least in my case. I don't mind needing internet for gaming - if the online is needed for a gameplay function. Like playing with a net friend who lives in another state/country etc. Or downloading a digital game onto my drive. Kinda need the internet. Most of the time, games that require always online, I have zero interest in anyway. What I do mind is a company deciding I need to be online for a reason that is not specifically game circumstances required - like it's SP (or it's SP but online req. because they're too lazy or too telemetry or store app focused to create a SP/offline function). Nor would I wish to have to be "online" and login to Microsoft just to play Dungeon Keeper on my PC. --I don't mind if online/app is used for some gadget/device/service that no one really "needs." Those vacuum donuts, ringcams, house remote controls, whatever else. Do what one wants, use what one wants, up to individual. although I think people getting too used to/emotionally dependent on that stuff breeds ... well, Wall-E comes to mind. But that's very subjective/just me. --I do mind if companies start wanting to make online/app required to access something like a dishwasher cycle, a fridge setting, a car feature you paid for but can't access without online. This is what many companies seem to be trying to get people used to - almost grooming the public in some strange way - and I refuse to get used to it. I will wash my dishes by hand before resorting to this sort of nonsense. Pretty soon you won't be able to flush your toilet without being subbed to some flush-switch online-bootup for your bathroom waste disposal "device". And then there's Microsoft possibly trying to prep people re: needing to online-login to your O/S, just so you can utilize your separately purchased photo editing program, which is not ok. And more likely, it's all a precursor to then eventually making Windows a monthly pay service O/S.

made chicken soup. we don't have a recipe for chicken soup but we do have a process with multi variations/options. however, we did learn that skimp on carrot is an auto fail. only had three mediumish carrots and we used 1.5 for the stock, which were a mistake. am recognizing, belated, that more carrot is essential for our chicken soup regardless o' customization. unlike many folks, we break down the chicken before boiling. is so much easier to work with smaller pieces as 'posed to a whole chicken carcass, particularly once the chicken is cooked and falling apart, so we always break down the chicken as a first step. also, we often put the chicken pieces in an oven set for convection or in an air fryer for ~20 minutes just to create a bit o' browning o' the bird. am not trying to cook the chicken with the 20 minutes o' browning, but a little color adds depth o' flavour to our soup and am preferring to do the chicken browning in the oven as 'posed to browning in the dutch oven/stock pot we will be boiling the chicken. try and brown the pieces o' a whole chicken in a dutch oven involves avoiding overcrowding, occasional flipping o' pieces and potential greasy splatter. 'course as often as not, we simply cover the the chicken pieces with a few litres o' cold water and then boil for a couple hours to produce the stock for our soup as well as to cook the chicken. to the water and chicken am adding... whatever. couple bay leaves, a bunch o' pepper corns, crushed garlic cloves, carrots, onion, and celery is the most common additions, but no salt. we ordinary make salt free stock nowadays and then add salt later in the cooking process. the thing is, what genuine goes into the stock is gonna be determined by the sad looking veggies in our fridge am trying to use before they become compost material... sans stuff such as bell pepper. ick. am also typical avoiding adding older mushrooms to a stock but not 'cause o' flavour concerns but rather for aesthetic reasons: old mushrooms will make for a kinda fugly grey-brown stock which tastes ok but appears less appealing. curious, our recent soup used only those ingredients we earlier identified as "common additions." while am making stock/cooking chicken, we do periodic skimming with a slotted spoon to remove scum, but am suspecting doing so is unnecessary save for if you want a prettier stock. meh. am no longer so precious as to worry overmuch about whether or not our stock is the ideal hue or perfect clear, which is why after 1.5-2 hours o' simmering, we pull our chicken pieces outta the cooking pot and then strain the stock with a fine mesh colander, but we don't go to any extreme effort to make our stock a clear and perfect amber. ... can make this a two-day thing where you chill the resulting stock and cooked chicken in the fridge and then finish day two, but am old and lazy so... because our chicken is already broken down, am able to make quick work o' separating the meat from the carcass and skin. we give the chicken meat a rough chop, and we save the bones and skin, which am typically throwing in the air fryer and browning once more before we then freeze. the frozen bones and skin is utilized when we eventual need make stock sans chicken soup. to our strained stock, which we return to the dutch oven/stock pot in which we made the stock, we add veggies and salt. chances are we don't need much pepper as we used a fair amount o' peppercorns when making the stock. for our most recent soup we had on hand a couple smallish turnips, a couple largeish parsnips, onion, celery and not enough carrot. boil and simmer the vegetables (this is also when we add pasta if am making a chicken "noodle" soup. we were gonna add datteri baresi pasta 'cause we were gifted excellent datteri pasta a few months back, but we decided at the last minute that we would skip the carbs,) until they is tender and then return the cooked chicken back to the pot as well as the chosen chopped herbage, which for Gromnir were italian parsley and dill. when returning the chicken and adding herbs, you might consider stirring in as little as a quarter teaspoon of tumeric as this will give you the vibrant yellow hue often associated with deli-style or canned chicken soup. *shrug* regardless, simmer until the chicken is warmed through. salt-to-taste and then plate and serve. one decent sized chicken and an equal weight o' veggies is gonna result in a rather copious amount o' chicken soup that refrigerates for days but freezes for months. 'course if you don't have enough carrot for the soup, that means you will potential need suffer the same minor disappointment... for months. good soup, but just shy o' greatness for want o' one large carrot? le sigh. HA! Good Fun!

Seems the most exciting prospect of this game coming out are all the inevitable exposé pieces that finally reveal just what the hell happened with this game's development.

Dragon Age: Veilguard was added to GamePass so I played it while I wait for Outer Worlds2. I thought it was pretty alright. Easily my favourite of Dragon Age sequels though it is not a high bar to pass. Few complaints, sure. Tonally, it is a bit inconsistant - but that's something I would say about every Dragon Age game, but Origins. The game is probably quite a bit longer than it should have been (again, Dragon Age staple). Combat sucks and gets really boring - again nothing new to DA... though as it tries to pivit a bit more into action-RPG territory it hurts it by how clunky and unresponsive it feels. There is also artificiality around the quests and systems which I found really detracting from the narrative. I don't know if it's because game's origin as liveservice, or just current Bioware team sensibilities, but how game was structured, how quests were presented I felt really made it difficult to feel immersed in the narrative, and therefore care. But it is not all bad. Like Inquisition I think story has more potential than Veilguard takes advantage of - and I do feel they are playing loose with some established lore. But for a very casual and distanced DA player it felt like it actually paid off on many things that previous games were establishing. Companions were alright, and I quite enjoy some of their banter. Finale is pretty alright, if contrived at times. I don't think it is a great game, but frankly best I have seen from Bioware since Mass Effect2 (didnt' play Andromeda nor Anthem though). I enjoyed most of it, but it's overstayed it's welcome and I am glad it is over.

I've heard from a few people whose opinions I mildly trust that it's good to great, but I've also heard from a few other people whose opinions I trust at least a little more that it's pretty bad. I can only assume it's one of those things where if it clicks, it clicks, and if it doesn't, into the trash it goes.

My shake at venison au poivre vert with (store-bought) spaetzle and creamed spinach: Half-serious question: Does the Rémy Martin for the sauce count against my Sober October?

better combat than morrowind such high praise

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1154960/Ardenfall/ I've played for 40 minutes or so (got through the tutorial cave and walked around the first town). Looks like Morrowind with (much) better combat.

I didn't know there is a new Heroes of Might and Magic in works, and there is even an early demo to try out. It looks like it's being done on budget, but it is actually quite snappy, and seems like could be a nice entry to the series. As the series have been in limbo for a while, it is nice to see a return to form, though it might be a bit too conservative. HoM&M3 die hards might not be willing to move on at this point, and I am not sure how much new blood with a budget title like this one attract.

The Last of Us Part 1 Maybe my third or fourth playthrough, but first time on PC. Never actually finished Part 2 and decided it's time to do it. It's been long enough that I really don't remember some of this.

I got the email today that I am officially verified as run #16! It's hard to believe its been over 6 months since I finished my run. Something fun is Sam said in his email there have been a surprising number of submissions recently. Looking forward to seeing what people have done.

As somebody who enjoyed Baldur's Gate 3, I would argue that even that game handled romance poorly. Characters that I had given little to no focus where suddenly looking to jump my bones by the end of the first act. What started as a polite conversations with Gale and Wyll turned into these weird moments of sexual tension. I'd spoken to each of them an entire three times, including the time I met them. Then again, I can't say that I personally understand the fascination with romance in games like this. Were I in any way interested I'd just play one of those dating sims.