LadyCrimson

I may have figured it out - it's a keyboard character issue. I think I recall something similar happening before for something. That error happened again today. I sometimes separate thought/topic paragraph swings in longer posts with a line of "equal" signs. Sometimes I use a long line of "minus" signs instead, it's random/I'm strange. Anyway when it wouldn't let me edit, I removed the string of equal signs from the post and the edit went through vs. error message. Can't say for sure that's the problem ofc, or why a long line for them vs. only 1 might cause an issue - so as usual ... *shrug* At least I was able to make an edit.

If "sitcom" =30 min and/or comedy, there were always lots of 1-hr drama/action type shows around, maybe especially 60's/70's/80's. Bonanza, Perry Mason, The Fugitive, Little House on the Prairie, Rockford Files, Emergency, Columbo, The Walton's, Quincy MD, Lou Grant, Dallas, Hill Street Blues, plus all the later sci-fi like Stargates, Star Treks, Lost in Space etc. They'd largely air those after 9pm - after kiddie bedtimes I guess - so 30 min game/sitcom shows first, dramas later. But agreed on the mostly/all episodic, or maybe a 2-3 episode arc. It definitely was the 2000's where the never ending serial-plot tv series seriously took off in the US. I don't miss not being able to binge-whatever/whenever, but even back then, any cliffhanger wait was usually only 4-5 months - vs. the often 1-3 years of streaming-original shows. And I kind of miss the sit with friends to watch a couple fave drama/sci-fi shows together. It was a nice social-schedule perk. I had my group for watching ST:NG most of the time, for example. Not that one did that for every show, but before renting stuff/streaming, it was something besides going to a theater movie every week. Of course, these days I have no friends (some deaths, most moved, I moved etc) so I guess it works out for me. I would wildly guess that's one reason why "tv/movie reaction" videos on YT took off like they did - not only easy for the channel to make (ahem) but they speak to nostalgia for that kind of shared social interaction/reaction event. Other: ---Heroes, another show I saw the first 2-3 episodes, or half a season I forget (liked those well enough) but I didn't bother keeping up with week to week airing. I was too busy life-ing at the time, as sometimes happens. I mostly remember it introducing me to and the reason I initially thought Zachary Quinto would be a decent Spock. ---Wanting core characters always existing is one reason endless-season 1-hr drama shows become insanely plot-armorfied/power creep and suspense completely leaves the table. Even if a "main/important secondary" chr. is offed fairly early/occasionally, they can't do that forever or there is no consistency for audiences or advertisers to adore/hang upon. So a core few will never die (until the series closes).

I loved my Voodoo 3 3000. Just saying. Also, (very) slightly more on topic, Steve's sarcasm/shaking of head at absurd marketing ad terms cracked me up even more than that other video. Quality entertainment.

Avowed may be some fun but I never even finished Outer Worlds/didn't play Pillars2, so (for me) I'd wait until it's $40-50 or something. If I remember at that point. It gives me a sense so far, of colorful mediocrity (sorry, Obsidian). At least for my tastes. To be fair, I'm no longer really their target audience I suppose. Edit: nor any AAA's target audience, basically

Took a risk and ordered a PSU via Amazon that wasn't "sold by Amazon." Yesterday it said it was "shipped." Tonight it says "delivered in mail box." But it's not (wouldn't fit in our mailbox anyway). USPS tracking number says it was delivered somewhere in OK state. >.> Amazon says sometimes they get marked as delivered before they are and wait a couple days it might arrive. Maybe OK is where it shipped to first (1 day would be a very short shipped/deliver time for USPS). Good grief. Whatever. We'll see.

I noticed the d-x mod made the local MP/hosting be TCP instead of ancient-near-dead(?) IPX. So I wondered if I could still run two instances of the game at the same time .... and it worked. I now have eight D1 mule characters that can join the main instance of the game, pick stuff I drop on the ground and leave. Mostly jewelry, occasional weapon/gear, and all the gold. Alllll the gold. Wonder how long I'll play this game again, this time.

I seriously keep waffling between "wanna new PC" and "should quit pc-gaming." My pace of "try to fix my reboot-PC issue" has been super slow because at the moment ... I'm not sure I care. Or maybe it's that I wish I didn't care. Then next month I'll be all "but, but, Death Stranding 2!" or something. Then back to "I'll just play Diablo 1/similar if I need a game fix for a few hours, that bad." I'm getting "old" enough I could just buy a console for an occasional big release and forget about it otherwise. But but ... mods! Other pc-gaming options/control! Edit: and ofc, the TECH-FIEND inside me *tosses hands*

Oh look, a part of California is on fire again. If anyone's down there (W. Los Angeles area), stay safe. It's becoming so regular the state is going to have to regulate/force some kind of min. fire insurance from companies or something. edit: passing costs to consumers, which CA I think didn't used to allow, or something - eg, it'll get really pricey Watching old man James Woods relate rescuing an even older neighbor and sob about his destroyed house is a bit surreal.

Not news, but I found it hilarious watching him run around manhandling all the displayed gpu's, commenting on physical appearance/designs. Kept thinking "don't drop them!" And ... even as a 2-slot, 50xx gen is ofc huge - but the aftermarket ones even moreso. If I were to get a 5090, I'd want the FE if I could still get it when I wanted to buy - wouldn't care re: any OC and not keen on bigger size and bigger price, lol.

Fixed that for you. Honestly I think Jensen needs to hire an announcement spokesperson, because Jensen is absolutely terrible at it. When on stage it feels like he doesn't want to be there and his comments are only negative meme worthy. I don't mind a bit of DLSS, for 4k at least, so less artifacting with that is fine, but frame generation is LOL and using any upscaling as a benchmark brag is ROFL insulting. I think the true problem is the whole gpu diminishing returns+yet no radically new tech (whether because not invented yet or because of, y'know, maybe re: engineering physics), but still needing something to convince people to buy a new gpu every 2-4 years. It's like adding touch screens and netflix screens and cute music jingles to home appliances at this point. Edit: you can't keep moving upwards at a lightning pace forever and both companies/developers and consumers perhaps need to stop expecting/selling it.

I remember I was really liking Alice sn1, until episode 3 killed it for me. I tried a couple episodes after that but couldn't get into the characters/direction it went. Occasionally I get too attached too quickly and then when the rug gets pulled, I never recover.

Nvidia: "5070 is as good as a 4090!" .... "with the new DLSS 4/super-AI frame-gen4x all on vs. the old 40xx versions of such." From what I can tell (at this point/no actual benchmarks) the best thing about 50xx will be a big leap up for DLSS quality, and that the 5080 is a 2-slotted card instead of 3. eg, smaller. Wonder how that'll do re: gpu-cooling. DLSS 4 (not frame gen aspect) will also supposedly be ported backward to even 20xx, although ofc gains from it on older gpu's won't be as impressive. The MSRP pricing leaves plenty of room for a 5080ti or some such later - if it has 20+ vram I'd wait/buy that. Although 3rd party versions I'm sure will be 25% more than MSRP. But it all still makes me hope I can wait for 60xx. If I can fix my reboot issue. Pfft. Digital Foundry did get to use test-demo period of the 5080 for some hours or something to try some settings/record a little video/performance comparison graphs (not serious benchmarks, mind), but that's where the possible DLSS/frame gen uplift - less artifacts/smear/light angle/distance jitter/blur etc - info is from. And release versions could be different from what they got to look at.

@Bartimaeus In Diablo1, Warrior had the toughest time mid-late game/high difficulties, Rogue next, Sorcerer was op'd godmode by lvl 20-25. Sorcerer only has issues at the lvl1-10 stage or maybe if luck with spellbooks/gear was terrible, or if one made the mistake of putting too many points into anything other than Magic. Although at max difficulty/MP mode which was more map-open/much more enemies (vs. quest/campaign mode), Sorcerer could still easily die/1-2 shotted/mobbed in some cases. But yeah Warrior late-game/high difficulties sucked because of chasing those witches everywhere and stuff like that. Rogue was annoying (to me) because of the bow aiming with that tile movement system but her magic capabilties were at least a little better to help out. And of course, vs. today's games, it's all very simplistic anyway. Ranged - especially AoE ranged - will always outstrip anything melee (more pure melee, not magic-spell-melee, ahem). Unless one gimps the AoE ranged so much there's no real point in using it anyway. Even today they can't get a real arpg balance for it, having to use massive cooldowns stoppers and other methods.

I still occasionally consider buying Elden Ring when it's on sale. But you know me - I'd just use some trainer and romp around like an idiot and take screenshots. eg, admire the scenery/art but never care about any actual gameplay. Thus I've confined myself to watching long streams of dunkey playing it. Which were so hilarious I actually watched multiple hours of it without FFWing. I'd much rather watch someone else die repeatedly in a humorous fashion/narration then experience it myself. Games like that always look like fun to me when you watch snippets of others playing, but I know I'd toss a monitor out a window if I tried. Oh and if you've never seen those streams and have hours to kill, and like dunkey, it's this playlist. And now that I've needlessly chattered on that, I shall go back to panic-run-turn-fire from mobs of demon dogs (all at that put-put pace) and being killed by exploding barrels and packs of 20 bow skeletons you can't see across the room. Diablo 1's dungeon music and sound is still the best.

I haven't actually watched Lost. I saw the first couple episodes on ABC way way way back, went "seems interesting but not enough to wait every week for it (no streaming then). By the time a few seasons had gone by, I'd read enough to know it was nowhere near an end, so I kept waiting. When it ended, "everyone" said it sucked vs. how long they'd been waiting. So I never bothered. My record for liking/having patience for shows with never ending main plots/mysteries is usually low (1-2 seasons). Something like early Dexter, Supernatural, House, crime shows, as I've said before, that have 1-2 background season arcs but are generally self-contained episodes on top are fine. Nothing against something like Lost, I just lose patience or motivation to watch if I can't watch it all in 1-2 months to get the whole story. Although Lexx's point re: ever growing silly mysteries on top of mysteries - or patterns obviously designed to keep something going (can't have lots of red shirt deaths without constant influx of new people) - also makes me roll eyes. 2nd season an average busy busload. Does the 3rd season do 2 full tourbuses or 10 trailers of families all vacationing together? eg, such series, if they go on for a long time, run into ever growing power creep. Every season has to up the stakes/cliffhangers until it's just stupid. Supernatural ran into this after 5-7 seasons, in some ways Walking Dead, many others. It's why I respected Breaking Bad. Guy had an idea and knew where he generally wanted to go, and stuck to it. So we have a complete long form tale without (too much) filler or power-creeping just for the sake of power-creep/endless seasons stakes. Anyway, From is definitely good at making you wonder wtf is going on for a good while so I'd be willing to semi-binge it at some point to see if it keeps it up. I'll just probably wait and see if it ever gets finished, first.

Since it does not seem to make my PC reboot itself - - I turned on Diablo1. Using a modded version that gives fast walk in town at least. Put-put-putted around, killed stuff, sold stuff, spent any money I made on mana potions (sorcerer, I always play a sorcerer), poured all pts into Magic. Found lots of fireball and holy books. Cleared the Poisoned Well. Got to lvl 3, put-put-putted around, killed stuff, etc. Found gear with +10 STR, cool. Found gear with +4 VIT, cool. Full of confidence, I hit a barrel. 10/10, would get killed by exploding barrel, again.

So I was going to skim through From's 1st season as a reminder, then watch 2nd season. Hubby went "what u watching". So I had to rewatch whole thing, didn't skim through it. Then started on the 2nd season. I think we're about halfway through. There is then the 3rd season, and wiki top summary said it was renewed for a 4th season, and I read an article with the creator saying something like (totally paraphrasing) "have tons of stuff/ideas for endless seasons." I like the 2nd season enough - although the influx of new people pattern already feels a little old, plus it's getting weirder and more convoluted - but my thoughts on all of this is: "Is this going to be another Lost?" ... which I wouldn't be keen on. May watch all 2nd season and then wait again, see if they ever "finish" it, first.

When I built the 2080ti rig I thought "this will work for basic 4k a while, and in a couple generations they'll have a 4k gpu that will last at least me, even more years." Now I'm unconvinced that even a 5090 would "last" more than 2-3 years before AAA/big dev games would be all like "haha, no, you need 48 vram for even 1440/High settings, now, just upgrade your PC man."

I'm not convinced yet I like UE5 as an engine, from a player/customer point of view. But oh well what do I know. Edit: I'm sure I'd be able to run both Obs games, but yeah, 3080 is a little steep-feeling. They could've at least mentioned what that was targeting - eg, 1080/60/RT+DLSS on, or whatever. And never mind RT stuff - I'm still of the opinion that TAA is one of the worst things to happen re: overall simple graphic clarity. Sometimes DLSS/Quality with sharpening looks better in some ways than native, because of TAA - depends on game tho. Sometimes it's not too bad, other times it horrid. I don't mean pixel-hunting comparison type better, I just mean ... a clean sense of clarity, better contrast "pop", less smeary/soft lens sensation.

NOPE. Pfft. Zombie game did the reboot twice, once almost right away, 2nd after an hour. Guess a new PSU/power cables is next. After that it's not worth the bother spending weeks trying to figure it out etc.

My RAM arrived. Installed, winblows memtest at least said no issues found, desktop seems fine/usual etc. I didn't enable XMP. So now I get to see if new ram means games won't cause random system reboots in 1 minute or 2 hrs. Which means I have to turn on/play at least a few different games, for such sessions, multiple times to try to trigger reboots. It's a difficult task, but for the sake of knowledge, I shall endure. I really don't want to build a new PC (yet) and have to spend days/weeks setting up/refining all the stupid O/S, software and bajillion data transfers. So, please be fixed, gimmie another year or two, please.

TLDW: more testing needed but overhead issues, so don't pair with older gen or maybe lower end CPU, or something, may/likely get 30-50% less performance vs. picking/using, say, a 4060. eg, ryzen 5 2600 and one wanted to replace their 1660. It's not just simple bottlenecking. So decent budget gpu upgrade for some, not for others. (original reviewer/tester/vid they're referring to)

Tim Cain's recent videos on violence as default in AAA games and the cost of moddability were interesting. Games generally having violent actions as the progression requirement or simply the main gameplay loop irks me more and more as time goes on. I would like it if non or less violent option games could be something other than puzzle or farming/walking sims, if you get my meaning. But I still have no idea what to do instead. Stealth/avoidance is the main method I suppose but having to sneak around at a crawl pace gets old after a while.

I was watching a video on the Star Trek alumni (not just actors) who have passed this year and when they reached David Soul, I was gobsmacked. I never knew/realized he'd played an alien chr. in the ToS "The Apple." I knew him from other things but never recognized him from ST. Of course that was an episode I rarely rewatched, and the makeup, so.... Anyway, some were probably already mentioned in the thread when they happened, but a belated RIP to all the ST universe folks that passed in 2024.

Another year older, but I am still none the wiser. Best of luck in the new year.