LadyCrimson

I don't really get the complaint re: flying between planets and/or it taking hours if you try to force it (altho I hear once you get there it's just a 2D image placeholder, not an actual planet). I mean, space is big, and likely pretty empty in terms of (human) landable planets, what do you expect. That's why so many movies stick ppl in hibernation, right? I can understand wanting a little more interactive visuals or whatever in terms of arriving and landing tho. Like having an option to manually land the ship, something like that (I think you don't?). At least for Achievement hunters, it appears they saved a headache by not having a "visit all 1000 planets" or something similar. I have withstood temptation re: early access pricing. So now I can take my time wondering if I want to try it at full price or wait for the likely repackaged to resell/improved thrice version six years from now. I think the main thing I'd interested is exploration, even knowing the random planets are nothing special. eg, find the 10% of planets that are more interesting/visually kewl. I'd also have to decide whether to rush to NG+ to use that mode as a main playing/building/goofing off field (there's reasons for that, but most normal ppl probably wouldn't care/shouldn't do that, but I'm not normal).

^ A lot of small bugs (and/or a few larger ones), "poor optimization", and whatnot, especially at release, applies to a lot of AAA/big hype games these days anyway. It's not like it's uncommon or overly unique to Beth, Obsidian or just a few others anymore. ...such is still funny, tho, whatever game. ...although I thought Beth should have given up on that engine long ago. I don't care how often they revamp it, they should have made/rent/use another one at this point.

So me.

Guys, I just learned of that new Atari 2600+ (I'd guess some combo of emulation+new hardware). Supposedly plays old cartridges (not that I have any). It's $130. If I could get Breakout with it, I want one. I mean, look at it, so sexy.

Would anyone care to share gpu/cpu and general performance of the game for them? The one advantage of the $100 early-access period is that apparently the 2hr refund window does not apply during that period. Which is tempting to folks like me who just want to fiddle, in case it's one of those that takes you four hours to get running the way you want, or something similar. Although who knows, maybe I'll think it's the best Beth game I ever played. Probably not, but never know. As to bugs/glitches ... from what I've seen, overall no worse - and possibly better - than the average Beth release. Although, it still makes for funny clip videos. The funnies notwithstanding, I think he's liking the game at least i"ok" in the first 6 hours or so gameplay he posted.

Sea of Stars demo: I've heard so much about this little rpg game, so even tho I typically don't like turn-based combat, thought I'd give the demo a whirl. What's shown off in that is all very cute, and I like the small environment interactions. Being a demo, there are ofc a lot of "can't do that in the demo" spots/points, and it sorta felt like it maybe fast-skipped over some things to show you certain stuff earlier. Could be wrong tho. Combat in the demo wasn't all that difficult per se, but, y'know, just the demo, no clue of later game. It was nice to see that for those that are less combat oriented, there's a ring/item you can turn on that gives a huge HP boost or something, so you can focus less on tactics or whatever I guess. The usual skills, items, cooking/food, etc. Anyway, I liked the throwback pixel (is that what you say these days?) artstyle, occasional goofiness, the demo's light "figure out how to get that thing over there" tasks, and I'd imagine if you love/d this type of rpg, it's probably a good one. Probably not something you'd play for hours and hours at a sitting, but good light fun. That said, I still don't like turn based combat in rpg's and this one didn't change my personal mind, so I'll probably skip. But I can understand the overall positive reception. Charming, is what I'd call it, perhaps.

^ I feel like so far early thoughts have been that the large cities and sidequests are nice, even if there are oodles of 1 second loading screens, but anyone hoping for grand planet hopping fun is going to be sorely disappointed. Edit: also, I can only imagine the performance nightmares of people attempting to use 600 mods on this, in any near future. Maybe 8 years from now..

...I do have fond memories of Morrowind. But I think it's mostly nostalgia of a lot of silly hi-jink moments (vs. any story/gameplay, I never came close to finishing the story). I'm pretty confident if I tried to replay it now, I would turn it off after two hours. I'd rather keep the nostalgic memories intact.

This is pretty much what has happened to me with the 3 Beth. games I bought after Morrowind (Oblivion, Skyrim, FO4). Often not even 20 hours. Which is not to say Morrowind was the beesknees. It was just the first one (and I was a lot younger/less jaded) so I was more open to it, and the Creation Kit was fun. ...I'd still be mildly curious re: how well (or not) I could get it to run on my aging (2080ti/9900k) system tho. I'm guessing 1080p medium with FSR might get me, oh, 50fps! The game defaulting to FSR on just makes me LOL. Also, at least early on before possible game and driver patches, AMD gpu's definitely seem to have a pretty distinct advantage for this game, perhaps not surprisingly. ...someone has already modded a DLSS function for the game, although it doesn't have built-in sharpening. Some say it's helped tho. https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/196

I'm soooo borrrrrreedddd... *stares at Starfield, even tho I'm totally not interested in the game* ....nonononoNO. Must resist. *looks for more freebie demo's or something...*

Per usual, apologies if already posted semi-recently, I don't keep track anymore. But I can confirm when you have a lot of cats (I had nine once), this can be a nightly occurrence. Fall asleep on the living room sofa at your own risk.

I was contemplating buying Immortals of Aveum, because hey, action with magic instead of guns, AND I'm a bit of a masochist where I get curious if I could even get it to be playable (without it looking like like a blobby, blurry mess). But then I realized it was EA published/account, so nah, went back to watching TV. I've been watching a lot of Chinese dramas recently. Either free ones via TencentVideo's YT channel or other streaming services. If they are more recent/modern series - past 2-3 years - with the 24-30 episode format, they've improved a lot. A little over-earnest and long to get to any "point", for me, but more easily digestible or background watchable re: pacing, dialogue and the like. So far I have seen no evidence of any trucks-o'doom, either. I still avoid the c-dramas that have 80, 100+ episodes. I don't have the patience for that. Edit: oh, hubby's back is about the same. They ruled out the common non-structural/organ stuff, and gave him a low dose round of that prednisone steroid. Plus more chiropractors, therapy on his own. I don't think any of it is an immediate help. He's looking for the magic pill right now, poor sweetie. Could try that steroid injected into his spine next.

Is the 5090 out yet? I was fine with DLSS/FSR/whatever being available as a way to extend life of older gpu's/allow lower end rigs to keep playing a while, or just as one user-optimization option. I'm less fine with dev's pushing it as almost the only user-optimization, where fiddling with (other) settings more and more often does very little to increase performance, plus at least on paper listing DLSS etc. as something you need on for the "system requirements." I love me some shiny graphics at times, although I've never cared about "Ultra" at all, but could we focus more on gameplay now instead of marketing uber lighting/shadows/effects and hyper real (but still uncanny valley) faces and figures while waiting for gpu tech or dev. engine programming skills to catch up a bit?

So a few days ago I clicked on a video that I thought was about one thing and turned out it was a "cancer journey" vlog. The person was charismatic and inspirational and I ended up watching the whole video. Anyway the main point is for no reason early this morning I chose turn on my other PC and check my email, something I haven't done in oh, a couple months. My brother's - who I haven't seen/talked to in over a year I think (my remaining family and I are not close etc) - plus all the extended family CC'd emails filled my digital mailbox. My niece - she's probably in her late 30's - apparently has brain cancer. They removed most of the original tumor/doing radiation etc. now but it's still progressing faster than expected/hoped for. Life is strangely coincidental - or something - at times. Edit: I can't do age maths.

Trump definitely practiced in the mirror for 24 hours beforehand. Either that or he's constipated. He's also now another person that makes me immediately think of the blue eagle (or whatever he was) from Muppet Show.

Every news anchor, every article: "(name) posted on X, formerly known as Twitter." "on the social media site formally known as Twitter." "the app formally known as Twitter." ^sorta reminds me of something.

^ Thanks for clarifications/correction re: car service requirements. I guess I don't remember anything beyond the emissions smog check stuff, since it's rare any issue has cropped up. I inquired of hubby and he said don't cha remember when the smog guy told you the chk engine light (or something) was on and instructed me to start/turn off/drive in some fashion to make it go off to pass, I apparently yapped about it for some time - and I was all ... "Nope, not an inkling of recollection." So many things falling into the dead zone now. ...well, at least I can still tie my own shoes.

@majestic Yeah, that all makes sense. I just hadn't heard of that before I guess - or per usual these days perhaps I just can't remember I've ever heard of such - hence was curious. California (I have no clue about other states) has gotten more like that re: smog checks, but there's no required general auto check-up yet. Edit: minor corrections

^ I still like to pull out Diablo1 once in a while. Although I also tend to play it for a few hours then go back to ignoring it. Running through the early levels with the squishy Sorcerer is always fun tho. I mean, it didn't take long (some hours) before the Sorc was an OP'd, teleporting, chain lighting, fireballing powerhouse, but those early more open MP levels. Having the Skeleton King out in the open to chase you all over the place. Good times. The fact I could play the MP levels offline/solo was appealing back then. D1's quest-campaign was fun, but I liked the MP design better. Although one couldn't leave all your gold on the ground/exit the game, like in SP. Heh.

You must deadline-fix it? To re-certify to the state/gov/insurance/whatever that your brakes are even working or some such?

Maui fire. I remember that big Banyan tree. W. Canada is on fire? Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hillary (insert political joke here) heading for Baja/S. California? Solar storm could happen "soon" that could knock out internet and stuff? Xan - "We're allll doooomed." Me: But at least I learned my lesson, and if the world "ends", I have plenty of toilet paper.

It was free, and I can like hidden-object challenges, so I tried it. It was cute, but it took me like six minutes, no hints used. Not even remotely a challenge, and only one picture/level. Once completed you can try to "speed run" it, but not much point to that imo. It looks like it wants to be a series, with others being a dollar. But seemingly same format, with each being one image. Maybe if it was 15-20 images and difficulty upped a bit, such might be worth a dollar. >.> Just my view, ofc. The art and meows when you find/click on a cat was cute tho. Edit: actually, I'd probably like the series more as a pencil coloring book.

^ Yeah, I generally still prefer written reviews/charts when I'm researching. Easier to compare, refer to. ...we live more and more in the age of "just go watch the (30+ minute) video". I wonder if 500 years from now, humanity will have developed a society that only uses writing for brief things like traffic signs. Your DiY assemble desk will come with a 3D virtual video explaining how to put it together.

Cocaine Bear via "included w/Prime" - tried to watch it because I heard it was stupid, but stupid-funny. I got the stupid, but not the funny, and turned it off half way through.