LadyCrimson

Death Stranding on PS4 is on sale for $35. I'm super tempted, someone stop me from maybe double-dipping again. I was going to wait for it on Steam but that's not until "summer" - no idea what that will mean date wise. Seems like a game that would be fine for console too, since it's a slow paced delivery/strategy/management game.

I'm in late Act2 of Wolcen and starting to feel like they shouldn't have made it "full release" yet. Act1 clearly got the most attention. It's still fun but feels more half-baked/draggy the longer you play. The bosses/mini-bosses, btw, tend to be a lot tougher than some may be used to re: arpg's, especially for non-tanky builds. As a simple no-brain grind and loot I may like the end game stuff more and right now I'm considering putting it on Story (easy) mode and rushing to that. Haven't encountered any major noticeable issues in Offline but I am saving the save folder constantly just in case. For some reason playing Wolcen has made me want to play the ancient Darkstone again. It was so fun playing it with the team of Monk and Mage...

Reached Act 2 of Wolcen, and a little ways in, I thought I'd suddenly switched games to Titan Quest. Also, my chr's current look. Haven't used any color dye yet - not much point when you're changing gear all the time still. And of course most of the time she's like an inch high on the screen....

Wolcen: It took a little while to get going but around level 10 or so the game became much more "one more level" for me. You have to either find or buy actual new skills. Building a tanky mage w/summon help. I think this game is not going to be friendly to "glass cannon" types, you can't ignore health/Toughness for pure damage or you'll die. Overall in Act1 so far you can faceroll most things but the mini-bosses (and I hear) the Act bosses get tougher. The bigger enemies have nice tells and animations for big attacks and there's a bit more than most arpg's in terms of having to pay close attention. In Offline if you die seems like you get 3 chances (?) to revive yourself since you have no play partners to help you. I've "died" a few times, mostly to surprise/being unfamiliar. As a caster the one thing I find annoying is the only way to get "mana" seems to be from a potion (which are like in PoE, with "charges", vs. endless pots) or by using a staff (reg. staff attack replenishes it fast). Every other weapon type only builds Rage. Thus you have to either always use a Staff or rely on the potion charges (can only have 2 equipped so 1 health, 1 mana potion usually) if you want to be a caster-only (vs. melee or a gun etc). Or have insane amounts of "mana" regen passives/gear maybe.

Missed me! (in the center) I like that most of the mini-bosses have big "tells" or animations. I still haven't used the actual dodge button, I keep running (or use a teleport spell when I actually remember what hotkey I set for it), like I've done in every arpg, instead. I "possessed" an enemy summoner. This resulted in total hilarity as his summons kept automatically moving slowwwllly forward in a huge tide to the nearest enemies on the map. Sometimes it was summoner against summoner. it did drop my (4k/ultra) fps. But it was so worth it. The skill is called "Parasite" - only one possessed minion at a time and ofc it's only as good as what you posses, but they last until they die/you exit the game (or alter gear too much I think?). Purchase it immediately when the shop (randomly) has it, it's the bomb. In terms of "summoning" in this game, the golem is good/decent at holding aggro/surviving. But the melee zombie sucks (low low hp). The ranged zombie is slightly better but still sucks. Don't think there's going to be a "pure summoner" build -you're going to still be casting a lot of spells as a main offense (which is fine, imo), but man Parasite is entertaining.

I often feel like "goofs/slip-ups" like these are anything but.

Hubby: "$2700? No no, it was $2300" Me: "Oh ok, I swear you said $2700, whatever." (couple hours later) Hubby: "I double checked, it was actually $2600, I have no idea what I said then." Me: "I still think you *said* 2700, but who knows." (we stare at each other a few beats) Me: "Happy Valentine's Day. We're truly getting old together." (another beat) *huge simultaneous guffaws*

Wolcen - still in Act 1 -spent a lot of time staring at the passive tree and figuring other mechanics out. Once you can access the town/your town portal the areas become more interesting, although not as "open" as Path of Exile or even Diablo3. Still might open up yet more in Act 2 and 3 of course. Overall I am liking the game a fair bit. But there are a bunch of little things that start to become vexing. Examples: --The biggest one: can't figure out how the auto-saving works. Sometimes you quit, come back and it loads you at the beginning of last mission like you never did it (but all your gear/lvls gained remain). Other times you quit and it saved quest progress just fine. I'd guess there's an issue between quest saving vs. character saving (gear, stats) not always syncing, even Offline. If you're Offline, backup your save file. --some smaller or flying enemies do not hover-target well from up close. So melee folk will have a hard time hitting them at all. As a mage I can target/hit them from a distance most of the time, because of AoE, but it's still weird. Hitboxes and combat flow in general feel a little off sometimes. Basically, it feels like a fun arpg but still rushed out the gate a bit, perhaps. Too many small/minor weird things that should've been dealt with. Possibly moreso for Online than Offline. Number of things like stash glitches being reported. Hopefully they'll patch enough over the next couple weeks.

Or live in a place where local area transportation kind of still sucks because everything/neighborhoods is/was almost specifically and originally designed around cars. I mean for long work commuters there's a main trainline that is ok these days. Or if the only places you frequent are specific shop spots on one or two main roads it's workable. But if we're talking a dentist 12 miles away not on a main road, then also wanting to run an errand on the other side of town after, not so much. It'd take three or four times as much time for one thing. We have no subway either. Can it be done where I am? Sure, if you really want, and don't mind some lifestyle compromises. But it's not convenient or practical at all most of the time. Eh, I don't think it really matters what "kit" type thing is being used, that's going to be a tiny tiny bit of the cost. The point is neither hubby or I are going to/want to do it at home, so pay for labor we are going to do. :P It's also fine since if he's going to take the whole engine out, he can also do other things that a 21+ year old car could have done, while it's already out. Like some seals - nothing drips yet but you can see a tiny bit of seepage around edges, the timing belt, etc.

Well I went ahead and bought Wolcen last night. The release price went to $40, not $45, btw. The latter is the price for the 'bundle' that includes the soundtrack, which I never care about. Installed fine, loaded up fine, graphically looks pretty nice. Cutscene heavy at the start, but they're pretty to look at. Voice acting seemed more than ok if a bit on the over dramatic side. Running with everything max except my usual disliked effects turned off (bloom, DoF, blur, blah blah). In 4k with vsync off the fps fluctuates a fair bit between 60-90fps mostly. Didn't get far (hubby brought tacos for lunch so I quit) but so far so good. Female chr. appearance is rather weird/bizarre/freaky (reminds me of Firefall beta w/tiny heads/super long legs/high heel, odd posture) but since most of the time you look at your chr. in full armor + small size, I don't notice or care when playing. Does look like a fairly linear campaign, at least to start, not sure how much it opens up. Am using Offline play - I think the Online server connection stuff is borked right now, too busy or something, unsure.

I was joking. Y'know, because I'm "old" and not with it. Electric cars aren't for me, plus I'd refuse to pay more than around $28k-$30K for a brand new car and even that's pushing it.

That old thread lasted a very long time. Guess I'll add my current/newer one here as well. i9-9900k EVGA 2080ti ftw3 2x16(32), Corsair Vengeance LBX Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master LGA 1151 Samsung 970 Pro 1TB Two 4TB HDD Corsair RmX850 Corsair Obsidian Series 750D case (a lot of Corsair...) 43" (not expensive) 4k led LG TV, 27" 1440 IPS Dell monitor, 27" 1080 IPS LG monitor, so I can play games, do web or graphic stuff AND watch cat videos all at the same time.

Ok, got more info from hubby. The repair estimate *is* for pulling the whole block out, so a lot of labor and hourly labor rates here are very high. >.> Both hubby and he know of those kits - repair guy says they're not strong/reliable enough (on average or for Subaru, no clue). He sent photos of what he uses to hubby. I personally can't really tell the difference from the kit but something about an actual solid insert (not a coil sleeve like in the kits) that has a rim to lock it in place or something. Similar yet different, dunno. I think he and hubby talked a while re: how the late 90's/early 2000's were the last "good" years before hi-tech took over. Ha. The dealership had better workers than last times we were there - they normally charge $350 just to look/diagnose and he waived it because he felt bad or something about our past experiences w/them, lol. Guess that was nice. Anyhoo, since I really don't want a car that runs by app (hahaha) with tons of electronics/software I don't need/want and envision needing repairs/rebooting/whatever I'll just try the repair first. Altho a Tesla would be fun to get just because. Wouldn't fit my lifestyle/needs atll, but it's the "it" thing to get so I could finally be WITH IT again!

^ That Husbands of Target video was great, so I looked up the channel and found this one too: This is so my husband and I. Which is why we stopped holiday "gifting" anyone, including each other. lol.

Since hubby's vehicle is a van I can't physically drive at all and I have knee/hand arthritis and upper back issues that make carrying anything remotely heavy not easy anymore, and I do pretty much all shopping/errand running, even if it isn't much in miles, yes I do. Also, hubby uses it whenever he has to work on-site at a place with a parking garage that his van barely fits under, or whenever we need a car that's more worry-free. Edit: I suppose I could call Uber or a taxi but ... nah.

1998 Legacy 2.5L GT (wagon). I'm not the one who talked to all the mechanics since I know jack. It could be the mechanic meant "bore" in the sense of what I'm seeing in YouTube videos for the HeliCoil kits I just searched for, where they're all using drills at some point for some reason (not to get a broken plug out). Assuming, of course, that I've looked up the right thing, like in this video (he has the block removed for ease of access) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIL-cQLYiow Those kits look like they run anywhere from $20-$50 maybe. I doubt hubby would want to attempt it - he's never worked on a Subaru engine (not enough hand-room, in his large-hands opinion) and he's reached the point where he rarely does engine stuff himself anyway. So I'd guess either the $2700 is a rip off price or maybe it's a quote for removing the entire block to do it vs. doing it while it's still in the car to make keeping "bits" out easier. But where I live, it wouldn't surprise me if at minimum it'd be $600-$1000 regardless, because that's just the way it is here 95% of the time. I'd tell you how much the dealership charged for a tuneup/oil-change etc - that did NOT apparently include changing the spark plugs because they go by mileage and they saw my odometer and didn't change them even tho we told them to - but you'd probably faint. Which is why hubby tried to find someone else to change the spark plugs.

While back hubby found some mechanic to change the sparkplugs in my car, since the dealership is uber-pricey and always too busy. My car started making a rough engine noise after a while. Finally had the dealer at least look at it. Turns out the spark plug ... holders? ... are sorta stripped (that mechanic did it wrong ...) so the plugs aren't staying in place properly. Hubby found one of the wires almost completely off not long ago cause air is pushing/pressuring them off. Anyway, dealer wanted $8k-$10k to fix since they want to replace whole block. Expected, no thanks, car's not worth that much. So hubby found someone else who claims he can bore it out, put in brass inserts that will work. Guy says he's done it before. $3k estimate for that option. My car is very low mileage (40,000ish) but over 21 years old. I'm not sure what I want to do, now. Low mileage and (was) a nothing special but reliable thing, yes but ... is it worth the $3k and do we trust another mechanic, haha? I swear most mechanics don't know how to service Subaru's engine design, here. Maybe I should just get a new-ish car. Not sure I'd like that either tho, don't like most new car designs. Bah. I don't like decisions.

I heard of Wolcen Lords of Mayhem recently, which is going full release on Steam tomorrow. Searching, I see a couple mentioned it here in the past ... over three years ago. It looks like a nice blend of Diablo/Grim Dawn/PoE (with a similar styled but more manageable, smaller passive tree). I was considering buying it now when it's cheaper ($30) (goes up in price on release to maybe $45 I think). But there are some concerns, like length and how long (if ever) for future planned content/polishing, buggy state, etc. Does anyone who has it already have an opinion re: whether one should wait some months and a possible even cheaper sale to buy it, instead?

After I built a new rig I want shiny packaging sometimes. Because it looks great on the 4k TV and is super immersive in a visceral way, and I like having that experience. Problem is, 98% of games that have such shiny packaging aren't games I want to actually play, or don't have an art style/setting I like. Thus I either fire up FFXV for the millionth time or I'm playing an older game I could've played on my ancient previous rig and I wonder why I ...

Hadn't played Path of Exile for maybe a couple years. Sheer boredom had me d/l and install it. Lost a few chr. names for being away so long (not the chrs, just the names) so pfft, I deleted them and some other mid-levels. Made a new chr. so I could figure out any changes to the tree and gems etc. before I use the "forced" reallocation of points on a few past high lvl characters. Still addicted to the Scion class, it's flexibility means it's basically the only class I play, outside of a single Witch as a stronger summon build. Don't care about the end-game stuff much (the maps and whatnot) but it's fun to run through the Acts . The first difficulty is so easy now it's almost sad. I found myself oddly missing Diablo 3's current ability to skip difficulties at whim. But otherwise ... since it's been so long, PoE might entertain me for a few weeks again...my current rig maxes settings at rock solid 140fps at 1440, smooth as butter. Haven't tried it in 4k. EDIT: I just tried it. Oddly it's seemingly still gets 120fps in 4k. First game that's done that.

Dear Path of Exile: stop making cute pets that serve no game function but I idiotically must have them anyway, k thx. (that's been over seven years, not all at once....)

Every game ever is over-rated.

It looks cool, is all.

Is that an upcoming Loki series? Dang it, why is there always this *one* show I want to see on a sub-service but I don't want to sub until there's at least three or five shows. Especially when they're very short seasons. Oh well. Watched Eps. 4 and 5 of The Outsider/HBO. It sort of feels like this should have been an eight episode series instead of ten. I'm still liking it overall but the pacing is so stretched out at times. Despite that, so far it keeps my attention enough that I haven't felt like resorting to any ffwd'ing, but with it being half over, I might start doing so, if it doesn't pick up from glacial to at least snail pace.

Outside of his most obvious famous roles, is it wrong that my fondest memory of him is from Tough Guys? Him and Lancaster - I loved that movie when it came out, cheese and all. And dang he was already old when he made that 34 years ago! RIP ... legendary in everything.