LadyCrimson

Is there some tech reason why a game/devs wouldn't include even a simple Brightness slider? Ok, $10 pixel or 2d-ish games usually don't need such, but for 3d modern graphic shadows and light engine games? Is it a big deal? No. Especially if your display has a remote. But I don't understand why a game in this day and age wouldn't include it.

Bokishi saying something like this makes me feel like the sky has fallen. And good lord, everything going to cloud ai or something. Hopefully I'll be dead by then. But it's feeling more and more like maybe I won't be.

@Bartimaeus I'm not sure if I'd qualify as a true hyper visualizer, but I was probably close. If someone says "mom" I think of a specific image of my mother sitting at kitchen table when she was in her 50's. It's pretty much a mental photograph, or sometimes, video. I could tell you what was on the table, what fruit was in the bowl, what color the floor or her dressing gown was. From there other "photographs" might pop up, leading me to other memories. Which is great and immersive with good memories. A downside however is it can be quite terrible re: ability to distance from negative memories. History/books were always my favorite/I'd remember better because they were like mini-stories. I can't visualize tech/math/programming/language manuals so the text in those literally starts to blur after a while, like my brain gives up since it can't visualize anything and just wants to blank the screen, heh.

@Hurlshort My teacher made us read Gatsby and I thought it one of those required readings (well, back then, no clue today). I was always placed in AP English most of my life tho, for some reason (it definitely wasn't for my grammatical ability, haha) so maybe a different routine. That teacher also made us watch the Redford movie. -- Not reading but I saw this video re: Aphantasia (inability to visualize). Which made me wonder again "so not everyone sees a movie in their head when reading?" I probably was aware of this already on some level - hubby is likely someone who doesn't visualize much, if at all (he also doesn't vicariously attach/emote re: films) but it was interesting learning a label for ppl like hubby. The reason I used to read non-stop as a kid (finish novels in one 5-16 hour sitting barely ever looking up) was because after one or two chapters I no longer saw the text, just a movie, and I couldn't "turn off" the movie because too much disruption. It would've been like trying to watch a film in 10 minute chunks over several days. I find the text to visualizing has lessened somewhat for me as I've aged tho. It's still there but less immediate or affecting. Perhaps another reason I don't get as into books as I used to.

Hm, looks like a dark creepy stalker type thriller ... (review quotes later in trailer) "FUNNIEST THING I'VE SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE" "HILARIOUS" --- I'm confused. And intrigued.

Watched Elevation (Netflix). Decent cast. Felt like a long pilot for a cheap sci-fi cable series. Hubby kept making me laugh with some sarcastic "logic" comments. Watched 1 episode of Zero Hour (Netflix). Mostly because DeNiro, curious. Hubby's more the political drama/thriller type then myself. The premise itself is kind of intriguing but by the end of that episode I was wondering if DeNiro's chr was insane. It's all quite over-dramatic, reminded of the dramatic pacing of something like that old 24 series, except without bomb threats. --The best moment was when there was this brief bit of DeNiro/other going into a room, sat down, and walls moved up to surround them and glowed, indicating uber anti-tech privacy. Hubby hollered "CONE OF SILENCE!" I laughed for a minute. (Get Smart reference/joke). I haven't seen hubby watch a 2nd episode of it, if that says anything. Watching TV with hubby is always better than by myself.

"I am ... I think 1980 was 20 years ago, years old." ---it wasn't?

So, don't buy 50xx, period. Got it. Glad I was able to fix my PC earlier. 60xx (or whatever other brand) generation here I come!

Well from my outsider perspective, I think you succeeded. --Closest I got to NYC was Boston. A long time ago. --I'm not a collecting type, but I now really want a giant deco Mimic for my living room. --college age already, time flies. Wonderful pictures, thanks for sharing.

1: Nothing beats the original for me, but on the other hand, I also like many cover versions. Probably because, y'know, it's such a great song. So, not bad, Joe, not bad. 2: Every time I see Rick Allen (the drummer) is still doing his thing, I still get a little emotional. 3: *thinks about that "Photograph" video* - dangit, I guess we all got old. The music doesn't tho. Rock on.

I found my new/current "planet exploration" mellow vibe song. I guess people call this "B1" bass. Lots of good ones out there. I like Avi's higher register songs too, but yeah. B1 and the composition. Love it.

Hello, how are you today, I hope you are well. I am wide awake but it's that periodic and persistent moment where nothing engages, so I sits. The sun is out and I could roam the neighborhood for sights and smells but it would probably just be car exhaust and dog peed lawns, so I sits and stares instead. Maybe in a bit I will get some yummies for dinner and watch a movie, so many movies to choose from, not sure I can decide, so maybe I will just sits some more. Tomorrow I have a lot of errands/things to do, so perhaps sitting while I can is best. Have a nice weekend.

^ I'm kind of interested in both of those movies. I did like Moon quite a lot, and that trailer does remind me of it a bit conceptually, just x17+more action/conflict or whatever you call what it's showing. Plus I like Shovel-Face a fair lot as an actor. One of those teen/YA movie actors (Potter/Twilight) who made it out of a potentially limiting typecast hole. The other one ... well, it's late 80's/Oakland setting, so there will be lots of references I'll probably get. I'll be interested in cinematography for this reason (supposedly filmed entirely in Oakland) and it looks at least partially in my adventure/slice of life wheelhouse. Mr. Leather Jacket, Scar-Face Pedro has nothing to do with it. Oh who am I kidding, I'm in.

I guess this counts as a gameplay trailer these days. ---I don't like the song that much (subjective) so trailer doesn't pump me up at all ---some of the scenes look like arenas vs. campaign play. ---I'm not sure if a chr is shown swimming or is shoulder-high water gliding. If swimming becomes an actual true traversal mechanic - vs. cutscene falling into water and then jesus-gliding out - that could be interesting. ---it looks like more Borderlands 3 style. eg, "eh."

No Man's Sky - Worlds 2 is pretty fun/improved exploration pretty, etc, but it's also the most glitches/small bugs I've had in the game since I originally played a year ago. Most of it's nothing major and an exit/reload may solve things in some cases (like building placement issues or invisible/clipped ships) but they're enough and often enough to be a bit annoying. But I'm glad I waited for W2 before diving into it again. The graphical changes are worth it alone, if you like to explore/admire stuff. The graphics are a lot better in certain ways. More immersive. I could do without the localized tornado storms that lift you a few miles into the sky, tho. I mean, it's kind of fun, but all such storms really like to "follow" you around for a while. And that one you have to time your jetpack just right or you're gonna crash to ground and die.

Just pretty. Apparently it's a lot of reelin' effort to reel in a ... singing snail? Is that a monster peeking at me, wondering if I'd be tasty? No, just my latest "can I tame it" pet. Which was so large that when riding/dismounting it, the game couldn't land me on the ground and I ended up standing in the air on its back. It was also one of the attached/devoted types so it would follow me very closely, but its size = consistently on top of me while following, so I was often "under" it and often it would bump me to the side. Quite the impediment to view/movement/exploration. Thus I abandoned it.

I don't have the game but I heard about this. I understand more unique enemies/story bosses or maybe if there are quest bandit camps that you clear out, why those would not respawn. But do general world creatures or more random population enemies not respawn either? Anyway, perhaps one could make an option that's only available after having beaten the story once. So a 2nd playthrough you could toggle a respawn on/off if you wished.

I guess No Man's Sky added a new "Abandoned" mode/difficulty for experienced players. So I tried that. It basically removes all NPC's from the game. This includes all space station or ship encounter shops, no npc given missions, etc. Animals on planets are still around, and the robot sentinel enemies. Can't call/use the special station to shortcut quests re: upgrades. No npc fleets filling the skies above planets and no player freigher to be had. I think it also means the new purple systems are impossible to get to since it requires NPC quests to get there...you can change most of the difficulty settings on the fly still if you wish, but the Abandoned part sticks to the save, no going back. This forces one to wander and be at mercy of RNG re: having that 3% chance of getting a good suit-mod out of something, Or bumbling randomly into a crashed ship that has more storage slots, that you can struggle for the resources to repair, if you want something besides the clunky starter ship. They do give you a way to research most tech from your base, eventually, but some things are missing. And it'll take one forever to find high grade upgrade modules in the wild. I remember playing sort of this way on my own - self-rules. No Anomaly station, or even "how far can you get never leaving the starting planet, ever". The zero NPC's thing is kind of interesting tho. I feel truly alone. It's great.

Re: color/lighting - of course it's all very subjective. And I don't mean just Avowed. Dragon Age Veilguard, Outer Worlds, even some aspects of Baldur's Gate 3, a lot of farm/other sims. something just bothers my eyes. It's not as bad in wide view isometric, and ofc I'm sure all of them have places it's more mellow. It's not only palette but lighting on top they do for "bold and colorful" emphasis or something - everything is so god rays bright/glare-y, or glossy/shiny. and in day scenes I get literal eyestrain if I stare at it too long. I mean Torchlight didn't bother me back when. I guess the more "realistic/hi-def" they try to make chrs and environments, the less I like such (imo) OTP colors. But I'll give any game extra credits if you can make chrs. like these. When I saw WAB's video, I burst out laughing when he showed his chr. Fantastic.

I have no clue on gameplay, which is arguably the most important thing, but in terms of art aesthetics, I would much prefer romping around in KCD2 then Avowed, from what I've seen. I mean, I like fantasy, and sci-fi, but lately there is too much over-garrish color palettes and over-bright color tones/lighting conditions in some games. It hurts my eyes. Not saying everything has to look like a dank dungeon or be dark and stormy all the time, but eh. And before anyone says anything - yes, No Man's Sky does this too. But at least in NMS I don't have to stare at the crayola colored space station NPC's for more than 2 seconds, and if I don't like the aesthetics of some planet, and I can just leave and find another one. Also, re: fantasy/sci-fi rpg/games, I also long for non-humanoid companions to be regular thing. I feel like we're still getting the simple Star Trek method of stick some funky prosthetics/tattoos on the face of a humanoid figure type of thing. At this point I would rather have an actual space hamster (who wears a tiny space helmet!) who sits on my shoulder during gameplay and is, say, a psychic-mage who chitters to me inside my head and demands cheese. Or a party companion (not a deco pet) made of geometric triangles and circles, or is a walking pillar. Anything.

Heh, that's adorable. Reminds me of that one (single) time it snowed in California/Bay Area (at basically sea level, not hills/mts) when I was ... uh ... 8? A houseguest of my parents made three very tiny snowmen and stuck them in front of the planter boxes on the back deck. So i woke up and saw those. I've been waiting for it briefly snow around here like that one more time, in my lifetime. Hey, it could happen.

I was able to log in and load posts etc just fine today, so that's a good sign re: forum performance capabilities. Although the game hasn't wide released yet. The reviewers and those who paid for early access, I think. = In other news, while generally speaking I keep to a decent food regimen, day to day, and have kept my weight low and level etc, excess sugar snacks is still a constant "addiction" I fight against all the time - and sometimes lose. 1st couple years I did really well. (edit: still off/don't need insulin tho) The past couple years I've done "all right." Death by Costco's Kirkland macadamia-nut, chocolate/caramel clusters has more appeal all the time.

More reason to wait for next generation (any gpu brand). Or never play any new games, forever. I don't think all of this re: gpu/performance value/cost/AI-upscaling reliance stuff (not just nvidia related) is going to get any better any time soon. Oh well. I'm just an ossified old fart, what do I know.

Only if you want there to be. Note I never story-finished the game but I did explore/move around the last big "open" section so I did get pretty far. It's more of a stealth game in many cases and you can avoid or sneak-deal with enemies most of the time (not always but often). Or if you really want to, you can charge in or do something non-stealthy and attract a lot of enemies for chaos. It's up to you. Generally speaking trying to take on lots of enemies at once is often not a great idea, partly because of certain mechanics but also just spatial jank sometimes. There's some "boss" fights of course.

And that's why I never like to be the one to stand in line to get first-day new gen cards. There are apparently always enough willing to be "beta testers" that I don't need to be one. Wait a year works for me. If only that worked for the prices these days, too. Ha.