LadyCrimson

Saw someone trying a 7 Days run where one can only use items/resources from zombie lootbag drops - zero containers/chests of any kind, no whacking things for wood/ores or any resources etc. 500% loot bag drop rate setting. 50% workstations in the wild (since one probably won't be able to craft any). Can scrap lootbag items for certain resources, that's it. I went "oh, that sounds interesting." 1st try - punch two dozen zombies to death, but in also get hit by them and constantly debuffed into my own death (multiple deaths). Also, no loot bags dropped. 2nd try - punch a dozen zombies to death, a few lootbags, get a stone axe, some cobblestone, perk magazines etc. Whack some more zombies, but die of thirst because I can't build a campfire (no wood) nor do I have a pot (rules are can't pick one up even if one is lying in a house) or make enough coins to buy enough water. 3rd try - similar to the 1st try 4th try - punch half a dozen zombies, a starred/high stat lvl 1 shovel drops! Use that to whack zombies. Lootbags galore! Starred boneknife drops and I can bleed zombies to death! (don't ask). Still playing that attempt. Killing is now easy. But I can't build even a small base, nor repair/alter a POI (I can hide/shelter in POI's tho). I can't even build a door (no wood). Loot bag contents don't work like that. Took forever for enough pistol-parts to drop to craft a pistol. Most fun I've had in a while. I think I like this challenge run.

I'll be honest. For most of this trailer, I was thinking "absurd but for what it is, might a fun watch, at least." I mean, it felt like it might have a bit of a dark/tension edge to it maybe. Then the final several seconds of the trailer destroyed any positive impression, wholesale. But at least it was a hilarious several seconds. Heck I might even still watch it on streaming. :D (I guess it's based on some book)

Elon Musk: "one billion huge AI satellites, please!" I have no idea how true this could all be (in the video, re: causing so much light it'd lighten up nightsky and other issues), but even just the constant resources/pollution factors re: having to maintain/repair/replace 1 billion all the time seems, y'know, stupid. Seeing how I'm very slightly older than Musk, I guess I can't hope he'll die of old age "soon"/before actual world approval/in my lifestime. I suppose I'll just have to hope I die before AI Judgement Day, first. ;p

The Bombing of Pan Am 103 (Netflix) - well made series, good acting and direction. My personal problem is that I already know oodles about the real plane incident it's based on, since I'm a disaster/crime nut, so that aspect holds no surprises/mystery/interest. Thus I'm left with the series chr. "drama" part. It's ok.

Project Hail Mary bluray purchased/acquired. I was pleased - since I don't have a 4k bluray player - that the quality of the plain bluray is pretty good, even on a 55" screen. The "4k" bandwidth streaming these days often beats non-4k bluray re: clarity impression (less slightly "soft focus"), on very big screens. Anyway - I doubt I will rewatch it too often, but in the days of own nothing, still nice to have a decent copy of it lying around.

How often do y'all replay a game you like? I mean, over many years, not just right away. And I mean a whole restart, not just endless end-game. I'm sadly feeling like replaying a game is going the way of rewatching fave films, for me - eg, almost never. Gone are the days I'd start a new chr. in Diablo/Diablo2 or Ceaser3 campaign or BG1 campaign or whatever over and over and over. 7 Day's easy/simplistic moddability (and now, 150 in-game settings) to at least change up minor things here and there is the main reason I revisit it. If I could mod No Man's Sky or Enshrouded as easily, I might replay them more often too. But I can't. So they're retouched a lot less often. Enshrouded "1.0" supposedly this month I think. I wonder if I'll care. Hubby continues to play Borderlands 4 occasionally (an hour or two a few times a week) and while he isn't that impressed, he's still fine with that, but I've mostly given up on it. It's not that it's bad or occasionally aggravates me like BL3 sometimes did - it's simply boring, outside of 1st discovery/several hours. :D

Titan Quest's 2 latest big update added a Spirit Mastery, which finally sounds like a more serious "summoner" tree. I haven't touched the game since I bought it on ea-release and ran it for maybe 90 minutes to make sure it would run on my PC. I'm still trying to wait for it to be finished. It's not the kind of game I'm likely to replay 30 times (maybe once or thrice) so I don't want to get bored/annoyed of it during ea. Not expecting spectacular, it'd just be nice if it was "decent."

there was this time where we had like, four plates, four bowls, and maybe four each of fork/spoon/knife. One small (ramen/soup size) pot, one large pot (spaghetti), two 13x9 pans. One large frying/wok pan, one small egg pan. Measuring cup, wood spoons, (edit: oh yeah, ofc one cheap butcher type knife). That was about it. Years later maybe it was 8 each of silverware. When we moved last time, the previous owner left tons of old/cheap silverware, most of which I tossed, but suddenly I had 12+ forks and such. This discussion makes me feel like that's too many (re: using vs. washing) and I should toss half of them. ;) Hehe.

I still wash most dishes by hand. >.> I've had/grew up with dishwashers etc, although no pricey fancy ones. But I often found myself rinsing them first (the old days where almost everyone did that), plus we mostly use specific dishes (bowls/silverware mostly) all the time and it doesn't even half fill up the entire dishwasher before we need what we use to be clean - so I'd just wash them (by hand) anyway, and any large pots/pans by hand always, and dishwasher became a rustbucket. (edit: we aren't the type to have multi-sets of dish or cook ware etc). Hubby thinks I hate them, but it's not that at all. I've noticed that he complains "why don't you like dishwashers" and yet he never puts a single dish into them/does many dishes himself. He's free to use it/run it if he wants. Just saying. EDIT: these days we both largely try to hand-wash whatever we use, as we use them vs. any piling up, whether in sink or a dishwasher anyway. Just the two of us, not a lot of dishes usually.

Hubby recovering. This wasn't a giant-incision type surgery btw - they basically made 4 large icepick holes in his back (to the bone) that I assume they then stick skinny laser and hammer/chisel (so to speak) instruments into. So deep wounds (to vertebrae) but not wide. They didn't even need stitches - they used some kind of glue sealant over them, which is weird. The original bandages didn't even have blood-spots because of that - plus he couldn't take cloth bandages off/shower for 4-5 days. Just 4 big red bruised dots on his lower back, all shiny from glue-pressure. Anyway - they used anesthesia but not fully out - more of a twilight half asleep zone - and hubby said at some point he woke up more fully and they kept him there, so it was kinda painful. They said he kept coughing (he was on his stomach) which made the fine surgery work difficult and I guess him being more awake meant less coughing. Just before surgery, waiting, hubby got some dust in his throat or something (akin to getting that 1 water droplet into your lungs, say) and I don't think it cleared up before wheeled him into OR. So right now it's still surgery-pain healing before one can judge if it did anything for the back itself. 4-8 weeks is not uncommon before one can figure the latter out. The procedure is relatively new in terms of usa "approved" (a couple years, maybe less than 10 re: study/observation/info), hence why there's very few surgeons who do it/the long wait.

I'm a nerd/geek, not a comedian. Although at least I find more things amusing than my hubby. 99.9% of the things in this thread he'd just look at and go "what? eh? so?" eg, he doesn't "get" it at all. :D

Just to say/report, I currently get the bot check one or thrice per starting a session than it stops (desktop and tablet). Which I find tolerable. Sidenote: oddly my phone freaked out trying to load this forum on an older (but not ancient) phone-chrome app. I had to update chrome app for it to work properly. The odd part is that on my tablet, which has a super duper much (much) older "chrome app" on it (haven't updated the app in years and years on tablet), this forum still works just fine. I guess something is aware the tablet is old android/chrome app versioning and allow it or something, where the phone didn't. Dunno, it was weird tho.

Drive, cheap hotel, poor sleep. Hubby in surgery. Maybe couple hours. Sitting in parking lot wondering if Im going yo nap or find a snack. Hopefully drive home tomorrow.

--Borderlands 4 - supposedly about 30 hours played. I think the first large region is the best thing - going into the other two regions the MQ sends you on are a snooze. Gunplay is even better than BL3, exploration ok, they tamed the "loot explosions" a lot (a good thing) and other positives, but it feels more repetitive for some reason (all the fight areas feel the same), loot hunting is meh. The "story" chrs are at least better than BL3 but not by much. --7 Days to Die - 3.0 is now my favorite 1.0+ version. Although the pure cheese of stealth in early 1.0 is still a fave mechanic, ha. But overall, all the options = easy to make the combat/gameplay feel more like A10-A12. More Walking Dead, less sci-fi looter-shooter/zombie-Skyrim wannabe. It was getting to the point where I turned zombies entirely off half the time, and 3.0 (after fiddling) is the first time I like having them on all the time, again, and I play a map far longer. I keep the zombie spawn level to "strongs", increase density of spawns, and none of the sci-fi/weird, bee-spitting, acid-exploding/spitting, bomb tossing or whatever else zombies are allowed to spawn. And no zombie digging. I've been playing it way more than BL4, still.

12:00 - 16-ish is the cat sleeping bag, and it's hilarious. To be fair, if the product was actually very close to like shown, I'd probably want one (but it'd probably be priced more like $500+ then).

*watches that Blade Runner series trailer Either the show is terrible - a "teaser" that is near 2 minutes long isn't always a great sign, imo - or the trailer editor should simply be fired. Lanterns looks a little more promising, from my "tired of superhero universes" perspective. Maybe I just like the "old" guy playing Hal.

Tried that Netflix Little House. I managed about a third or half the first episode, more or less - with my interest was not very engaged - to where there was a super obvious CGI wolf attack scene, and I noped out after that.

BL4 - ---If you like starting new characters from scratch, don't use Player Shared (or something like that). I picked that on 1st chr because I thought it would be like the BadAss ranks of previous BL's. It's not. It's more like a chr-stats NG+. So if you make a new chr that also has player-shared active, you'll start game with increased SDU's already, and all quests the other chr. has done (that give rewards) are marked as done on the new chr. You could still do them, but the rewards are already "claimed." Which is not at all what I wanted re: trying other classes 1st time. And you can't change it later, the choice is perm on the chr. --This would be useful if you want to make new chrs and just rush it to max lvl without having to do all the side stuff, so having one chr. like that would be fine. Just don't choose it on new chrs. unless you want that. I learned there are no other separated maps like before. It's one large world/map, with different regions, or something. Also, supposedly level scaling applies pretty much everywhere. Regions can have higher than you starting-level of enemies (if you get to areas early) but once you match that level, they'll scale with you. Although I'm not sure if this is true in the super starter region or two. And you can pick Easy/Normal/Hard at the start (and change it whenever). There is a TVHM at some point. It's all quite different vs. all 3 previous games. Certain mission/side bosses, you can't endlessly "farm" them, either. You have to pay Moxxi money to replay them, and the cost goes up. Interesting. EDIT: also, Legandary gear really is way more uncommon then in BL2 or BL3. Blues/purples feel about the same.

Ok - played more of BL4, a bit at a time. Still in the first map. I'd say this game "does get better" after the first 2-4 hours. Then ofc as you lvl and get more perks/gear to play with. Mostly, after that prologue and early few missions, where you start to feel like you can go do whatever you want and ignore the main mission for a while. The world design is somewhat denser than previous, in terms of both small/not much to larger bits smushed together. The double-jump and short jump-glide make exploring "what's over/up there" more engaging. The 1st vehicle (a sort of motorcycle I guess) you get drives 100% better than any BL game, although I still have little use for it vs. running. Because of a lot more heights (there's even a zipline system as well as teleport station), snipers seem more fun to use again too. I guess there's a big-bad villain but I keep not caring. Better than BL3's silly plot stuff but still not Handsome Jack. Main problem is I still don't really like any of the playable chrs. Tried 3 of them/their action skills. They're not bad, but don't fit my playstyle, not even the pet-chr. Usually I like at least one a lot. This time around they're all "eh." Also, while exploring is more fun than in BL3, I don't have a sense I'd want to replay it much, like it'd be a 50-100hr game and then over. And that might be ok. But just saying. Early conclusion: it's nowhere near as terrible as reputation might lead one to believe, but it's also not exactly compelling. I actually think in the long run I might prefer it over BL3, but not sure that's saying tons.

I've liked him since Omen 3, although more from Dead Calm, after. Jurassic Park ofc - Hunt From Red October etc. Guess it's that time where most of the then-famous I grew up with, who were typically 12-25 years older than myself, are all going to start appearing here. :/ Life is too short. Ah well.

Is the right to use the IP the same as the right to use the engine (Beth's). Dunno how they worked it out. I don't know how much MS is/feels re: mega-user access re: modding. Especially MS-Store. I picture it being fairly limited plus maybe Steam workshop integration. Maybe they'll go for it tho. As to FNV popularity - well, yes, but that was the Obsidian from 15+ years ago and pre-MS. I'm sure some faith re: Obsidian remains (or at least the hope) but at this point the "it's not the same Obsidian" negativity outlook is also fairly widespread. Could end up a neutral wash re: any hype or early sales.

I think if I was Obsidian, my umbrella fear would be that this changing of things around by MS is their hail mary. eg, they (mostly, kind of) survived this round of MS cuts/restructuring etc, but if this new Fallout game they're being told to make (while canceling the others on top) doesn't hit big, Obs is gone (from MS anyway). I'm not sure if a new Obs-Fallout is going to be the actual marketing/sales success win-button re: the numbers that MS probably envisions/wants. I mean, I'd assume MS wants better than Avowed or Grounded sales and sees this path as the potential avenue for it. As others said, much probably also hinges on how much MS dictate/interfere with an Obs-vision. More big studio slop feeling or more old-school Obs-unique take etc.

Mirror in the Bathroom was great, but the only album of their I bought back then was the one that had this one it. I liked it a lot (the album) And of course, because.

^ It's a heartache, nothing but a heartache.

Hm. Obs doing another Fallout. Well, it's interesting news, if it turns out to be valid/happen. Not sure how interested I am in a possible Fallout: the Avowing (haha). I guess I'm a little dubious whether it would actually feel like a Fallout game - and I don't just mean re: Obs, but, y'know, changing times, what constitutes a "RPG" these days in style/structure/substance development (that I often don't like a lot), all of that. We shall see - could be a fantastic RPG, or more "eh." :D But never know - hopefully it'll be best sliced bread with the creamiest butter and a dab of fave jam! Oh and yeah - if it's fairly and easily moddable (doesn't have to be Creation-mod level) that would help. If it's not, my interest would be low.