LadyCrimson

I got to about the middle of episode 7 of Three Body, where they are gearing up to play some VR video game or something. But I was sleepy so I stopped it before they got into any exposition on that. ....I still find it interesting to watch, and the two main leads (I think they are) are starting to form a nice working pair, but I'm hoping they'll get to more actual ... er ... story? ... points now. I think they spent enough time on Wang Miao freaking out about his countdown and whether physics actually exists.

Me: "Did they post your MRI results yet." Hubby: "Yes." Me: "Well, what does it say." Hubby: "It's full of medical speak, I'll just wait for the docs to..." Me: "Print it, gimmie." --T12 and L1, nothing. --L2-S1, all variations of: Broad-based disc bulge/left lateral osteophyte and facet hypertrophy. Mild to moderate central stenosis, minimal right foraminal stenosis and severe left foraminal stenosis with impingement of the exiting left nerve root. *GoogleFu* Me: "All that just to say "your lower spine/discs and nerve pathings are rather ****** up." Anyway. Maybe the 10% better hubby felt was from the round of oral steroids. Now we have to wait for the specialist back doc to have appointment space.

Hadn't played Stranded Deep since early early-access days, years ago. Why not. Plane crash intro, sitting in the raft. "paddle to the island." Ok, I start paddling. The boat paddles in the opposite direction of the shore. I press all kinds of keys trying to steer the raft in another direction - I recall I used to be able do that (edit - I also googled, no help). Nope. I could seemingly only paddle in one direction. The wrong direction. I finally leapt out of the raft into the water to "grab" it and swim-drag it to shore, which did slowly work. But since I'd paddled so far from shore, the shark that was apparently tailing the raft decided to eat me for lunch. 10/10, best money I ever spent on an (ea) game.

Re: Unity - on the one hand, pretty sucky move by them. On the other hand, maybe this will mean 7 Day to Dies dev's will suddenly be in a rush to actually freaking finish their game and move on. Either that or they'll spend 4 years moving to a new engine and Beta will happen in 2030. Also - there's going to be a Titan Quest 2? The teaser trailer was useless, the few screenshots are ok. But I am a bit dubious.

For the past few years, the main reason I buy any game now is "I'm bored, I'm willing to give (insert title/genre here) a chance." I really wish I could feel a sense of magic with more games like in the old days. Game has to have some aspect to it that's in some way very different from what I've already seen/heard/done 1000 times. It's almost to the point where only the artistic aspect appeals to me occasionally (art/world/atmosphere design, sound design) vs. any actual gameplay loops. Like I keep checking to see if Ghostwire Tokyo is on major sale because I'd like to wander around in it, even if I don't' care about the quality of mechanics/gameplay, per se. Although, it does have the 1st person sorta-magic caster feeling I think.

Yeah, stuff like that is why - well, let's say that in my experience, generally speaking - plus including "female" things and my parent's experience with father's multiple sclerosis - doctors have this tendency to assume/brush many things off (initially) without even really checking anything, and you typically have to be pretty aggressive even re: insisting on diagnosis and elimination from the get go. I'm not all that concerned, he has a history of his back "going out" so it's not completely out of the blue/new or anything. But I'd still insist on the elimination processes available, because you don't want to waste your time if the assumption- even if it's a good assumption based on history - is wrong.

^ Ever since the diabetes stuff and I got into their "now all computerized systems" Kaiser has been sending me these packets in the mail every 4-6 months as part of their general preventive program for colon cancer screening I think. I have no desire to send them regular fecal matter thru the mail, so I have so far ignored them.

My solution was to stop riding a bicycle/anything that needs a helmet. Hope your friend continues to recover well, @Bartimaeus --------- Hubby had an MRI yesterday, which means they're finally taking him more "seriously" - eg, he couldn't see one of their specialists or something without the MRI. They also mentioned something about finding trace amounts of blood in his urine from a while back so they want him to come back and do that again, after a couple weeks. Nothing alarming, probably nothing, just to make sure/see if it resolved itself. On the bright side, he's been saying that the past week he's been feeling "maybe 10%-15% better, most of the time" - so I guess that's something?

I think not directly the same, but related to your point, I saw a video where the reason planet exploration didn't feel contiguous was because the map markers actually covers the adjacent pixels of the planet view (where those pixels = a map tile). So if you're trying to go to the very next tile in the pixel sequence, the "you are here" map marker covers it or something. So you'd have to use a console command to disable/remove all map markers and pixel hunt. eg, Beth. didn't design for people to be allowed to do it, but it does prove design-wise they are contiguous and it's technically possible. Edit: using console commands disables Achievements, just to say - unless one installs a bypass mod maybe. Starts around 3:00, if interested.

^ Yeah I think it's the length mostly, for me. It feels too extended. I love that film to pieces, but it's largely because of the music/soundtrack vs. plot/chrs - still have a cassette tape of that - and the humor bits. Levi Stubbs as AudreyII was so awesome (Mean Green is great but Suppertime is probably my fave). I've also listened to some of the broadway/stage versions - they have their very good moments performance wise, but Levi Stubbs is AudreyII, for me. Also:

I remember in MW, before they did some patches, when you could abuse potions of speed or flying or levitation or something (I don't recall) by stacking them to silly levels. I tried it once and made my chr. take a "step" - he flew up to the sky in a flash and the game crashed. I think you can still stack stat potions like that, but my memory says they patched out high stacking non-stat ones. Maybe I'm wrong tho. Anyway, it was funny. Edit: *google* ... dang that was 21 years ago.

Well, I don't have Starfield, but I felt like being a cat again. Didn't last too long, just galloped around a bit, but yeah ... it's still cute.

Yeah, I remember all of that. The original ending was not a happy ending and test audiences absolutely hated it or something. You can see the original ending on YouTube if you look. There's the original "workprint" version and the cleaned up version used in the Director's Cut. I think the differences were fairly minor. Original ending fits more thematically, and is closer the Broadway play. But there's something about it that I find a little offputting on a technical level (too long? effects? not sure). Did you ever try watching the original 60's film, with Jack Nicholson in the tiny role of being the patient masochist? It's a weird movie. The musical is much better, heh.

Not in the mood to binge watch TV, so haven't watched more Three Body (may try that tomorrow tho). But I did try watching the first episode of Succession, the HBO series. I heard it's really good. And more importantly, finished (4 total seasons). The first episode was interesting, occasionally amusing, but also pretty dense re: oodles of chrs and plot/situation setup. I can picture it being the type of show that after some episodes one may get really into chrs and love it for that but I don't think either hubby or I found that 1st episode a "wow, gotta watch more." Maybe if we're bored over the winter.

"It just works." ... even if it isn't intended. ...and yes stuff like this is utterly hilarious and should not be "fixed". I mean, ppl who don't want cheese, don't have to build it.

Often the same. Although usually earlier. Sometimes the initial learning process keeps me interested but after that part is over. whatever is the general game loops of most games no longer keeps me going. I am so hoping that Death Stranding 2 is at least close to as good as the first one was, for me. It may end up as the game that'll actually push me to build a new rig by the time it reaches PC in, oh, maybe 2026.

Not really funny, but yet it sorta is. Prisoner had skillz the prison designers didn't anticipate I guess. It's just in the first 16 seconds:

I feel like per usual in these cases, there was too much hype/expectations with it being a new IP (not Elder Scrolls). Many were probably hoping it would be a larger and sharper gameplay departure vs. mostly "it's their typical rpg with some refinements." I think I'll be more interested in the game whenever they release the Creation Kit for it. Other people's mods are good for certain basic ez things but I prefer when I can personally break the gameplay to my personal quirks, not someone else's.

Can't really say with certainty with 5 out of 30 episodes watched. Looking at it, most episodes seem to be around 42-45 minutes, with a few over 50minutes and I only noticed one that was 30. The ones I've seen felt paced ok, no big urge to FFWD. But I don't know what the pace of the book is like, plus I'm liking the visual cinematography/audio mood of the TV series, so maybe I'm more willing to sit through extended scenes of chr. walking thru the city or freaking out about his circumstances. The main thing I dislike about many past C-dramas I've seen is the purposely minutes and minutes and minutes long-winded/extended and usually useless conversations or lectures between chrs. to pad out time. Three Body has not suffered from that at all - but some scenes - and perhaps "getting to the point" overall - do seem to linger a little long. Like, I get the sense the early Wang Miao arc/mystery+his interactions with this other character could have been more condensed. But so far, not really any worse than what many shows do on average. Certainly still plenty of time to switch into something aggravating to me in that regard, tho.

My "I'm bored" motivation to try this game sooner rather than later has mostly disappeared and I've gone back to feeling neutral and reminding myself that I don't find Beth. rpg's very inspiring. Note, I don't actively dislike them, they just never trigger any sense of "just one more level" type of feeling so I end up forgetting about it/never turning them on again. Btw, is it true one has to do specific ... missions? ... to level up/put a point in skills, every time, or something along those lines? Kill everyone with melee, or a pistol, or whatever, that kind of thing?

How would you describe the writing style (in whatever translation language you read )? In novels that's one of the biggest things for me. There are many well known/famous/revered sci-fi books I have either never read or didn't get past a few chapters because I disliked the writing style or already knew I didn't like the author's style. I never read the other book you mention, but I did see the movie, and it was terrible (as a movie - the base story behind it might've been ok, I forget), haha. I'm still liking the C-series version of Three Body so far (I'm on #5 now) however. It's a bit odd because I don't think the plot - what they're revealing/I'm understanding so far - enraptures me at all that much. It's more the visual/auditory mood. Or something. So it may end up being the opposite where I like a visual interpretation but would not like the original printed work. Being a C-series however, it would not surprise if by the end I will at least think "it should have been 4, 6, 8, episodes shorter."

Well, I watched three episodes of Three Body so far. I checked and the subtitles on Tencent's YT vs. Viki are exactly the same, at least 1st episode. But I liked the formatting/pacing of Viki's subtitles more. So far I find the show quite fascinating. It's kind of surreal, kind of physics-speak tech (but not really?), I'm not entirely sure what's going on yet but it's doing a good job of making me want to know. Visually it's better than I expected. Nice imagery, scene framing, pulls me in. Haven't FFWD once. I think it's a keeper. I definitely need to buy the books.

Anybody read Three Body Problem (sci-fi-drama-mystery)? I have not. I probably should, from the sound of it. China apparently made a 30 episode adaptation, that is rated really well. Anyone seen that yet? Although given C-drama's typical styles, I'm not sure how much it would appeal to US audiences (lower budget, subtitles etc). Netflix is also making a version, not released yet. I would expect that to be flashier and, er, well, Netflix. Likely less book-faithful etc. I'm going to try the Tencents YT channel playlist first. The subtitles may be worse there (I hear) so I may move to Viki if it's too funky. Will report back.

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.