LadyCrimson

General combat in FFXV consists of three methods: ---rather mindlessly spam attacks and warp strikes, occasionally toss in a Technique, and stock as many heals/elixirs (elixirs are better but expensive if buying) as you can and just spam those constantly since they are "win buttons" ---learn/use the special directional and weapon type moves (I don't know how well those work with KB/mouse vs. controller), kite/move slowly to mostly block/parry vs. constantly directly attack, and utilize the bro's linkstrikes, use Techniques a lot for "invincibility frames" and hardly ever use healing (but this is a slow/patient method) ---get the nodes in the tree that let you switch which bro (assuming you have that available, it was added later, should be there on any PC version) and switch to/get good with Prompto and use his artillery. Boss fights and certain strong enemies block/parry does not work well and story bosses often have QTE's anyway. Daggers cannot proc the team linkstrikes, thus if you want those, do not use a dagger on Noct. The magic grenades can be very powerful for mobs like the soldiers. The soldiers are eventually fodder, but yeah they're very annoying to many in the beginning/middle. Their spawn point triggers/circles are always the same tho, so if you figure them out you can avoid them entirely outside of some side quests. Story - most of that is in the back 1/3 of the game. The story itself isn't terribly long really, like most such games. EditEdit: the fishing was definitely one of the highlights on first-run for me. Sometimes I spent an entire session doing nothing but fishing. >.>

Romantic Killer, on Netflix. Based on a manga, as usual unread by me. A kind of satirical otome flavor, turning a few tropes upside down, with magic fairies, silly premise, winking nods at many tropes, and an "anti-romance" female lead. That sort of thing. It sounds stupid and it sorta is, and yet... First episode isn't all that impressive or feels too over the top, and may initially make you think about turning it off. I'd give it three episodes before deciding tho. It gets better as it actually goes into chrs/motivations a bit more and goes slightly deeper/darker towards the end then one might expect. I found it a decent short binge. I'd give it a solid 3.5/5 and it made me want a 2nd season (the first has an ending but doesn't resolve the larger plot aspect).

The only reason I went to see Avatar was because I wanted to check out if/how well the (non-Imax/regular theater) 3D aspect worked. It was "eh, sorta works in a few scenes, but not enough to pay extra ever again." I was mildly entertained by the film (the cartoonish villain gave me some belly laughs) but nothing special. ========== After watching (or trying to) quite a few Indian films from my personally available streaming sources I have come to a few self-conclusions: ---In general I still don't like Bollywood films (there are always exceptions) and I think they've become even worse re: my tastes (last time I briefly tried was 6-9 years ago probably). ---Telugu/Tollywood is more successful in my book but often still don't appeal to me pacing wise (too drawn out for what I expect/like). ---One of the things I really liked about "RRR" (and to a degree, Bahubali) was the use of a lot of wide/full scene framing, even with action. I'll definitely keep an eye on that director. But I didn't notice that aspect being a general dominant Indian film style feature overall. I did watch Bahubali pt 2 at some point. It was a little better than the 1st part but for me it would've been far better cinema as a single 3hr or maybe two 2hr films vs stretched over 2 films of close to 3 hours each. It's interesting that they have largely kept up the tradition of actual "forced" intermissions in films (apparently often even inserting them into shown Western films) and I'd assume/guess length structure may often be based around that.

Finished Manifest season 3 - not quite as good as the first two, but yeah, that cliffhanger ending would have ticked me off a little. But I guess the new season 4 is going to be in two parts (10 ep. each) ... I have no idea when part two is going to release (a month? six?) so now I'm wondering if I want to watch part 1 yet. >.>

No no, I told you, my toes have spoken, I'm sure to win. Mine, all mine. ...today I made a pot of sausage/chicken/veggie soup, washed my 99zillion socks and everything else, and the rest of the time was spent wrapped in light blankies and watching TV or snoozing. Cause it's winter again and that's what I do in winter.

The Powerball Lottery is up to 1.2 billion. My left and right big toe and the tip of my nose tingled and itched while reading about it, which, y'know, is the divine sign that Imma fur sure gonna win, so I must buy some tickets tomorrow. It's a sure thing. Don't let me forget, now.

Re-watching the first two seasons of NBC-cancelled Manifest, then will watch the third season (which I skipped because - mega cliffhanger+cancelled), because Netflix finally decided to pick up and do a 4th final season (starts Friday). I was going to "reminder" blaze thru the first two seasons but then hubby decided he was interested so no FFWD'ing for me now. It's one of those series that grew on me over the first season - it has a little too much family melodrama and it's nothing super original (or logical...), but it has that sort of comfort food bingeable feeling, or something. Here's hoping that final season won't suck while actually giving viewers at least some answers.

Peanut butter cups ... to me it's not about rancid and more about moisture loss being more of a factor, so you lose the softening yet binding of the fats or emulsifiers, becoming kind of crumbly/chalky over time. Although for me it's seemed more like a year for store boughts. Hard candies/lolipops and some toffee and brittles etc are the worst when it comes to room air moisture absorption, imo, becoming not-brittle and a little outer-layer soft in 3-12 months depending on storage (hard cough drops do the same thing).

But isn't AM/PM needed as a result of the 12 number clock, where a 24 hours clock wouldn't even need that extra distinction?

Yeah, we're the same way. I think back in our early 20's I did the candy thing a few years but after that we became the "Halloween bah" curmudgeons of a neighborhood. I've also observed over the many years that less and less children where we've lived are out and about, too. When I was little I remember lots of us kids still being out long after dark - nowadays it's very few. Although, that might have to do with changing when daylight savings time kicked in, too. It used to happen before Halloween, not after. And I definitely don't have the willpower to not binge-eat any leftover candy - my "willpower" is having nothing sweet in the house - which for me is a no-no now. Speaking of DST, I heard one US govern. body let a "get rid of it" motion pass, but the other has let it sit stagnant for near a year or something. Just get rid of it. Maybe we should all go on "military time" too. Never looked up the history of 12 number clocks, but it's always seemed a bit non-sensical.

Jokes aside stuff like this is why I never rush to buy the first release of hardware. Initial drivers, connectors etc ... I let others be guinea pigs.

Most modern candy (where mostly sugar, with or without nuts) will keep a very long time as long as it's not in warm/humid storage conditions. I don't have stat facts but imo it's like canned goods - a year, maybe two it's generally fine, beyond that it's still perfectly edible but may not have the best consistency/color or flavor anymore. So a lot depends on how the candy is stored.

I was in no way suggesting CC shouldn't exist, only that I wish they would always have/use the options (as example) English English (CC) But as mentioned by someone already, this would likely end up with an unwieldy extra cost to time and cash which companies would often like to avoid I assume. I have no clue how subtitles are programmed, but maybe one could do some kind of programming which utilizes the CC subtitles (vs. separate translation) under "English, non CC" that just removes (again, re Netflix's seeming way of doing things) anything in brackets [ leaves rustling ]. I don't know if that's actually possible however. And even if it is/was, there'd have to be some standard (always using brackets, if that isn't standard). Subtitle options have become better - at least on major streaming services - over time but they're still lacking in the options area. I've noticed many, if not all, K-drama's, for example (US-Netflix anyway) have "English" but no CC version at all. Or other (to the US) foreign may have a CC but it's only in the "native" language vs. a common local (English). Edit: Netflix has been including "Audio Description" (verbal narration) on some titles lately, (for sight impaired?) too. I checked it out once, seems pretty effective.

Also - I watched most of Cabinet of Curiosities. I skipped Dreams in the Witch House and the Viewing because by then it was late and I was hunting for the Andrew Lincoln episode (which, ofc, was the last one...). My general viewpoint on the show is: well produced, lots of familiar/actor power, good acting and some interesting writing at times. Worth checking out. I didn't find it unsettling/suspenseful or super attention grabbing at all, at most a little weird (in a good way) here and there but I'm definitely very over-exposed to "horror" stories so that's just a me thing by now. The most fun thing, as with all anthologies, is how many different viewpoints there are on "the best episode/s" of the series. My favorite of the six I watched would be The Autopsy. The rest were decent to ok, with most of my personal pleasure coming from seeing some familiar faces again, more than anything else.

I don't like CC being used as general subtitles either, since I also find stuff like "door creaking", "leaves rustling" and "kettle whistling" visually distracting, since my auto-response is to glance at any text on-screen so it's hard to ignore it. I get the saving costs aspect tho. On the flip side, I also don't like "fan subtitles" where they "asterisk*-describe too many cultural explanations to the tune of long paragraphs that covers half the screen/requires pausing to even read it all anyway. Brief tidbits of extra info is cool/interesting at times, but some get carried away is all.

"Open the door! Now! Open the door!" ... "What? Oh, that's it, just wanted the door open." Yes, definitely a cat, all right.

The "expression" on kitty's face while on the motorbike cracked me up. OwlKitty rules. Now they need to post up the making-of video.

I still have never watched the last ... two? three? episodes of The Sandman, but I'd heard about the extra episode and that it had ... cats. So I watched that, recently. I very much enjoyed the animation section, not only the cats (haha) but the little story it was sharing, and the animation style. Then the live-actor story began, and while that was watchable/all right, I spent it mostly wishing the whole episode had stuck to the animation. Although I did enjoy seeing Derek Jacobi, because he's awesome.

Since it is on Netflix, it's the same director as RRR ( S. S. Rajamouli ), and often mentioned around the 'net, I watched Bahubali pt 1 (or Baahubli). It's a 2015 film, with part2 being from 2017. (Edit: fantasy/mythology/action) You can see the director's (or general Tollywood?) same penchant for full framing, action style, and love of slo mo/speed up etc. - as well as a similar "pacing issue", only more extensive. The first 10-15 minutes or so I liked quite a bit, but then it rather dragged for a while. I found I didn't care all that much about the characters. That last third or so was a long "what happened in the past" with a giant battle of armies type scenario. Anyway, the action and general visual style were still a lot of fun, if obviously a little lower budget but the pacing, for my tastes, was hard to get past. Maybe I would've liked it better if I hadn't seen RRR first. Or maybe the story/mythology didn't resonate enough for myself, in this one. It wasn't terrible or anything, but I FFWD'd a fair bit in the middle. I'll watch part2 over the weekend, maybe.

I'm sure many (many, many) videos have referred to this general topic (lack of experienced writers, differences between tv writing and series formats today vs. in the past) in some fashion, since half of YouTube these days seems filled with angry "Why TV/films/games/whatever suck". I appreciated Escapist's non-ranting version.

I've rewatched "RRR" three times (well, 90% of it, I skip a few scenes here and there). I've decided that whoever is the team largely responsible for it (director, writers, cgi-effects house? etc) should now be the ones responsible for any attempt at turning video games or anime into "live action" versions. ... ok that's hyperbole, but I bet they'd have a high chance of making a good one if they tried. I've read that India may have largely decided to (mostly) abandon DVD-sale/releases in favor of streaming, which is making it difficult for me to find/watch other, recent-ish films from there, since the streaming services I use don't have many. Shades of the early days of getting into k-dramas/access....

Re: cozy games - I guess for myself it's mostly that I like games with "cozy elements". I mean, I would consider 7 Days to Die with zombies turned off or at least settings turned down or modded to be a very minimal threat to be quite "cozy", with most goals largely self-created vs. game driven, which is why I return to it periodically. And while I don't mind there being combat, I don't want to have to be razor focused or super precise all the time or in a state of constant stressed anticipation. Something very one specific "thing" focused, like "Power Wash Simulator" is probably not my bag of tea however, unless it's 99 cents. I did love the original RCT, except overall I was terrible at creating/building impressive original coasters, and using the pre-made ones became limiting/dull after a while. So more a limit/frustration of my game-engineering capability.

Am I correct in the assumption that the power draw would likely be moderately less than 300w etc. for actual gaming? While modern games do hit more than single core these days they are not typically anywhere near "full bore" across all of them. Thus making the mega power load and cooling mostly a concern for those that want to heavily use certain work programs and the like?

Yes, I would like more "cozy" games, please. Although...I've had enough of "cutesy farming sims" already. But stuff that's more about escapism, cats, exploration, sim-elements, cats, design efficiency, not too complex...anything but pure combat power-fantasy. Edit: oh, and not MT-filled phone/mobile. (vid has language - it's Zero P after all)