LadyCrimson

I'm generally a lvl 3 to lvl 4 sort. Occasionally some aspects of 5 appealed briefly in the past, rarely now. When you get up to lvl 6 (stuff like Factorio or anything that requires me to start thinking in spreadsheets or whatever) my brain now shuts down. Although these days, there's also a ton of the "don't want to spend 20 hours to learn systems of a new game even if (or perhaps because of) it's often similar been-there type systems from 99 other games." So I just play/stick to already familiar game. Edit: I was talking to hubby about this kind of thing the other day, and realized one thing I weirdly like is the pattern recognition in some games. That is, noticing AI or design patterns and taking advantage/abusing and amusing myself with them. Even that Minesweeper, there was a pattern recognition element that once you figured it out, you could beat it almost every time/get the speed records quickly etc :P Or old RTS games, abusing the AI patterns to win. Heh.

I wouldn't mind some heavily curated player reviews, but the allowance of just anyone who purchased the game to review at the drop of an emotional hat, or allowing reviews that are "Couldn't get it to run, uninstalled, game sucks" and that's it, yeah, how helpful, I don't like that. I mean they have put in various filters re: review bombing at this point, but eh. In a way probably better off just having a star rating players can give but no text input. :P Edit: also, shouldn't have thumbs up/down/cutsie award icon ability. I think some folks post reviews as popularity.

lol - hadn't seen that one before. I was thinking doc. narration would be a great occupation for Cumberbatch if wants a quieter more home focused life vs. acting-travel - guess he needs some pronunciation classes first. Heh.

@Sarex Missed that/didn't notice, earlier - sorry to hear about your pet. I think that's yet another reason this has been the longest time without a pet again, for me. 14 times (or something, lost count), it's been enough and I selfishly really don't want to go through it again. As always, they don't live long enough (vs. us humans) :/ With cats it's often some kind of kidney failure process (even with a no-dry food regimen), or heart failure, + simple general old age. Daily meds and such gave me a 2-3 more good years with Mr Black. Hopefully your dog gets some good news and you can have some months or more yet.

So that cat in our yard. When it first started getting physically closer, I noticed it had a funny ear. Like it had been almost sliced off at the tippy top. We just thought it was some old cat fight injury, although I did think it was pretty "clean" (not jagged) for such. Recently saw some video that mentioned ear-tipping. I knew of the v-shaped notch concept, but apparently this "tipping" is much more popular method now. So I'm guessing at some point this cat was trapped//neutered, maybe vaccinated etc and marked with the ear-tipping, like in this little random 'net pic. Whether she was ever adopted after, or is still a "neighborhood stray colony" type cat, I have no clue. There is the river/river parks within a few/several miles, maybe there's stray colonies around there. I feel less bad about giving her some food or her liking our yard too much (eg, I don't want to 'steal" someone's cat). Maybe in this case she really is a stray. Definitely not super feral tho. Initially months wary, sure, but now she rolls around/shows belly, plays. Doesn't like hands moving towards her face tho.

The title was not a lie.

Clicked for Benedict Cumberbatch narration. Stayed for Benedict Cumberbatch narration. Ok, it's a good doc, too - some segments are better than others etc. Think it had a "limited" cinema release in some fashion, now it's free on YouTube.

You missed the larger point. He already did that (test drove a dozen or so) and that's why he bought the (5-10 y.o used, still cost a fair penny) Lexus suv RX or BX or XXX or whatever it is. Which he doesn't like very much. He still uses it, he just complains ... that he should've bought something else, like ... a minivan. BEFORE he hurt his back, he bought three different vans (over several years) trying to find a replacement to his original ancient blue van and resold/got rid of all three because the seat or view or whatever didn't compare, and kept driving his ancient blue van. That was the point. If we were super rich instead of California sorta upper mid-class, by now he'd be buying a new car every six months, hating it, repeat forever. In terms of his actual back and long trips, I mean, even if his back was 100%, it's not like we'd go on long trips but a few times a year anyway, and probably stay in hotels. Whether I can drive "his" car is only about emergency use. We have always had "his/hers" cars (and chairs, and desks) with one of us doing 99% of driving depending what car we used. eg when I hear "lets go test drive" and hubby sticks me in as a reason, in my ears it's just an excuse re: he wants a new car. I suspect most long-term couples have at least a couple forever buggaboo roll-eyes at each other contentions, and this is one of ours, I guess. EDIT: if buying another car to try was $500 each time, at this point in our lives, it wouldn't be a buggaboo. When it's 10k-30k each time, and the way cars usually lose resale value super fast, I get a little impatient. My buggaboo re: wanting to wash dishes by hand, costs nothing.

Hubby: "Maybe we should spend the weekend test-driving some small mini-vans to see if there are any that you'd feel ok driving (he's tall, I am very short), re: long trips?" Me: "Is your back feeling better?" Hubby: "No." Me: "Then what's the point/purpose doing it now? You already bought that biggish SUV thing recently, and I can marginally drive that. Tired of that already?" +++ long pause ++++ Me: "Unless you were just looking for something to do on the weekend." Hubby: "Maybe." I can be like that. :D To be fair, in my mind, hubby has a history of being obsessively picky about vehicles for various reasons, even long before his back went out. He buys something (used, he's not a new-car-price guy) and it's never good enough (and nothing will ever be as "perfect" as that old blue van), then he gets rid of it or complains about it for months/years, wishing/thinking he should get something else etc. I kind of tune him out at this point. :P

So, I'm curious, since most here are more into story/chr driven rpg's than I am (and pay more attention to related news) - Have there been many really good story-driven rpg's in the past 10 or so years? Choices/consequences, not Diablo-clones/button mashing and loot, not remakes. With at least some mass appeal - eg, at least 3d-ish, some action, whether linear or open worldish. I know that's subjective - many might think BG3 (or TW3 if you stretch it to 11 years I think) was one, for example, while others would not. But just curious if the state of such games is even in a good place at all.

I think in my case it's mostly (maybe) that a lot of higher-brow, "serious", so to speak, sci-fi/social commentary films end up feeling too sterile to provoke an emotional reaction to me. It's like watching paint dry while being told that paint drying is the most interesting or meaningful action of the week. I do understand them rationally but it evokes no emotion. Arrival's end thing with the daughter did make me think a tiny tiny bit about Gattaca, re: whether knowing a child is going to end up with this or that condition = not wanting said child/quality of life philosophy. The "what justifies a life or decision and what is a meaningful life" stuff. Just done differently. A lot of such films have that kind of theme somewhere in them. Some of them I even like. Just sci-fi (or horror) tends to not be the right setting for me, I guess.

I think my main concern re: Obs/Beth/Fallout would be how much Beth might (if at all) kinda take over/semi-dictate any vision - eg, can Obsidian still be/feel like Obsidian. Whatever that even means anymore - I don't mean that last line to be necessarily negative - only that I haven't played enough of Obs more recent games to really know.

Obs./Beths - eh, for me it doesn't seem to change much (neither Beth or Obs seem to make games that appeal to me personally anymore) and yes not unexpected. I might buy the FNV remaster if it's mostly about graphics, QoL and some odds and end adds. And I'd certainly be at least interested to keep track of any other FO project of theirs, Beth or not, to see what they do with it. This forum - I've half-expected to try to load it some day and find it gone, or moved, etc, since the original MS thing. I mean, I hope it doesn't happen any time "soon", don't get me wrong but. :D

City builder - looks interesting. Mostly I like the build-a-county/area vs. 1 main city. But early access route etc (ea-date is Nov. 5, 2026). Supposedly a (new, updated) demo in October. I spent time removing a lot of wishlisted games today, and then added this one. Whether it'll still be in my wishlist another 5 years from now who knows. County of Fortune on SteamBuild an entire medieval county, not just a city. Found villages across a wide, varied landscape, weave trade along rivers and roads, and guide mayors, noble houses, and cultures as your region comes

It's not. But I'm also the type who didn't find Arrival or Interstellar or similar very entertaining or even philosophically interesting either. Although I can/do admire cinematography direction/artstyle, sound-design etc separately. I remember when Fatal Attraction inspired tons of articles re: stalkers and mental health/psychology etc. Didn't understand the mega fuss in that direction - I mean it definitely wasn't a "message" movie, heh - just thought it was a fun thriller and that Glenn Close was awesome playing a very OTP disturbed person (not the same/as good as, but akin to what Misery did for Kathy Bates). :D