Bartimaeus

Man, I am so out of the game on the latest hybrids.

I'm glad Larian is continuing to at least play into my theory of the Baldur's Gate series essentially being an elaborate mind flayer alien invasion plot in the vein of the X-Files. It's the least they could do after making the game turn-based.

Hey, the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity is NOT worthless. Just ask Edwin!

what the hell is that abomination alright, new rule: AI isn't allowed to touch anything I like or care about ever again (though is that actually even AI, or just some random fan art?)

when is AI gonna make me new hand drawn characters in 80s/90s styles

With singleplayer games, there's a happy medium to be had between balance and fun, and it can hard to get enough of both, particularly when there are so many different (hopefully actually unique) options to choose from. When you're between a rock and a hard place with a fun vs. balance issue, I tend to lean towards fun, because worst case scenario, if the player finds the "fun" option to be unsatisfying because it's too powerful or otherwise unbalanced, the player can always just choose to self-restrict and/or go a different route entirely. How many different beloved games have some kind of class, item, exploit, or whatever else that long-time/hardcore players say is the "noob" way of playing? That's perfectly fine - if it's fun on the first playthrough, then great, and if the player that found it fun on the first playthrough later decides "wait, that really is actually too powerful, I'm going to do something else" for a second playthrough, then all is right in the world. It seems so much wiser to focus your energies on trying to get what's currently bad/unfun to be better instead. And of course these kinds of games devolve into mainly focusing on the gameplay (and possibly scumming thereof): these are typically very long games and most of the player's time is taken up by the gameplay. If you want players to focus more strongly on "roleplaying" and dialogue/characters/story/world, well...you probably need to be a different kind of game that takes up much more of the player's time with them, because those things haven't historically translated all that seriously into these overly scripted/railroaded CRPG video games that force the player down just one or two paths with little to no room for arugment. Frankly, it's very difficult to truly capture the experience of a tabletop adventure campaign where almost anything can happen, where most of the fun comes from the combined imaginations of the players and their DM constructing a world, characters, and a story together all by themselves while taking it to just where they want to go with it, so it's really no wonder that "roleplaying" must necessarily take a backseat.

I don't think you're ever given the opportunity: he just appears when he's needed and then disappears afterwards. But even if you were able to, I expect he'd just go on and appear the next time he's needed anyways. BG3: Sorry, I have no idea, as I haven't played BG3 for even a second and it seems very unlikely I ever would. Turn-based tactical combat makes my soul scream out in mortal anguish. P.S. Proofread your posts: my previous one was a disaster.

"I'M HERE WITH THE BOX IN MY HAND! USE THIS BOX!" You know, BG1 had Biff the Understudy that replaced critical plot characters if you murdered them, it's not really that different. The DM trying to figure out how to make everything work and play along with the player's fickle whims can be difficult, especially given that this is a game and requires all sorts of assets to account for every possibility, whereas a real DM playing tabletop can do just about everything from the seat of their pants if necessary (...even if it results in spontaneous, potentially terrible, and/or just downright silly writing in order to keep up). Sometimes, it requires having a lady appear from thin air and shove the all important artifact that you somehow missed a hundred times up to this point straight into your hands in order to not completely break the campaign.

Here's an argument you might understand: 2D anime girl > 3D furry dog demon ...Although, gosh, I'm looking over these Yeston cards again, and some of said anime girls are more embarrassing than others. But here's my final argument: if you only present the anime-less side of the Yeston card to somebody, it can actually look pretty sweet; no such luck with the dog card. ...Though, unfortunately, if it's actually currently being used in your PC, I do believe the anime side is the one likely being presented to your friends and family, who have now abandoned you out of fear and shame.

I don't think it does, actually. Yes, the Sakura cards have the terrible anime girls, but at least they have novel color design and...well, honestly, I just think the 3D furry demon dog thing is worse than the anime girls. This is the worst graphic design I've ever seen on a PC component...so far.

The only spiders I know of that leave me unsettled are the little ones with too long legs, like daddy long legs. Black widows look delightful in comparison, but the best spiders are the fuzzy ones, like tarantulas and jumping spiders.

Yeah, as a kid, I used to have pet black widows. Well, they were less "pets" and more "an infestation local to my home", but the same idea, really. They're pretty cool.

There's really nothing quite like your brain telling you that you're dying when you're perfectly fine (or some other equally calamitous feeling or imagining). For anyone who hasn't ever experienced it, I fully recommend trying it out at least once.

I feel like her outfit would be unbearably annoying to wear - between the parts that are too tight, the parts that are too loose, and all the different random pieces of garbage dangling and bouncing every time she so much as breathes, it would be absolute sensory overload while also impeding mobility and catching on things. I guess all that that really goes for a lot of current """cute""" anime clothing design, but she in particular seems to be a masterclass in disastrous design. But I suppose where I see an incredibly tasteless concoction of uncomfortable, too much, and off-putting, other people apparently see sexy. That's the way she goes.

I don't think the actual weebs would have me even if I were so inclined: from my interactions with a number of them online, it seems to usually be that I am repulsed by them, and they by me. It's a marvellous and perfectly natural symbiosis, I think. The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl (2017). I've had this on my watchlist for a number of years. It was an odd and interesting film, but they shoved too much annoying crap in and did little things wrong because it's a modern anime and it drove me up a wall. Yes, I suppose it was a predictable result.

Eh, I usually only stick with the Hepburn title if it's the title it's more known by even for English audiences. You don't see me ever calling Perfect Blue "Pafekuto Buru", Whisper of the Heart "Mimi wo Sumaseba", or Sailor Moon "Bishoujo Senshi". I edited the quoted text because I figured that name was more useful. I don't much like comedians myself, but I wouldn't call Bob Hope's act that bad. I guess. It's the dual-edged blade of modern anime: you're very occasionally able to get some odder and more interesting ideas produced that would've probably strayed too far from what was considered "safe" to make way back in the day, but then they shove in annoying crap and do little things wrong all the time because it's a modern anime and it drives me up a wall.

I know that Whoopi Goldberg has had some controversial opinions in recent years, but I don't know that she's quite Kissinger levels of bad. I kind of liked it too. There were some issues. I don't really think it would be KP's thing, though.

I think they did finally end up fixing that...months later, since more recent re-tests I just searched for seem to suggest much more reasonable numbers only mildly higher compared to their Nvidia equivalents. But, well, obviously the MTT's entire suite of issues is driver-related, so...I guess since they're a new player, instead of several months of leniency, probably several years would be fairer. If they ever get competitive, we'll surely hear about it.

114W idle power draw u wot

i wonder how they clinically prove which species have the most/least deadly venoms Some people just love certain animals so much they can't help but be deeply involved and surround themselves with them. The passionate lunacy is what makes them tick, and presumably how we learn so much about these things in the first place. Completely insane people putting their interests and talents to good use is what makes the world go round! I don't really care too much about snakes so I'm not terribly tempted to follow this guy beyond the odd video majestic posts in here, but if there was a YouTuber whose presentation that I liked that covered spiders in much the same way, I'd probably keep up with it.

Malleus. The key turning point here for me was when Eisenhorn was accused of heresy and taken into custody by his own order, something that had been set up by both the introduction and by what I believe was the very first scene of the book, when at the end of a battle some witch hunter just Kool-Aid Man-ed his way into the book while yelling "HERESY!!" for no apparent reason before then immediately disappearing with nothing much coming of it. I thought that was pretty weird, but figured we'd get back to it - rightly so, as it turns out. So finally, we're given the full basis for the suspicion of heresy: it's the scene that played in the introduction, the same demon just saying that he knows him. There's some fluff about how Eisenhorn managed to not get killed during the whole triumph disaster, but that's really all it is: fluff. After spending literal months of being interrogated, Eisenhorn is going to be granted a proper trial, Eisenhorn is all "I'll be glad to prove my innocence", and...Fischig just breaks him out and they go on the run, robbing of us of that entire sequence so we can have more hour-long fights? Why does Eisenhorn even go along with this? It's not like there's anything absolutely pressing that he needs to deal with, he's literally been imprisoned for months, so whatever trails he had been doing should've long gone cold by then. But really, the realization that the Inquisition's entire basis of argument for arresting the guy is that some demon, an entity known for the trickery and manipulation that Eisenhorn is precisely being accused of, just saying that he knows the guy, and the entire Inquisition immediately being all "alright, cut his head off" is just...bleh. Him being arrested was the point I was most interested in the book, particularly after most everything else prior feeling similar to the first book: I wanted to see how it would all play out, I wanted to see the Inquisitorial procedure...but instead, it was the whole house of cards collapsing and me realizing that it's all just a big joke, that the Inquisition is a bunch of baloney, that these are fundamentally just kind of dumb action books with a decent but not particularly remarkable coat of paint (and that if most other books in the 40K series are written significantly worse, must be truly deplorable). I don't think I'll be returning for the third book: as predicted from what @melkathi mentioned, these just don't seem to quite agree with me.

Just how bad can a Harlem Globetrotter really be?

I don't know if there's a single thing in the entire universe that I hate more than anime.

what is dead may never die

Dark Cat (1991). What an incredibly bizarre little romance/horror OVA. I was half-expecting Miyu to make an appearance at some point just to put everyone out of their misery, especially what with the weird (although somewhat competently foreshadowed) twist... Happy Birthday Inochi Kagayaku Toki! (1999). An hour and ten minutes long film that's basically an anti-bullying/suicide PSA for children. Kind of goes into the whole "cycle of abuse" with the main character's family and other students at school treating her horribly but eventually works its way around to explaining how they were victims themselves and trying to deal with it in something approaching a constructive manner...and with a good helping of trying to be kind to and patient with those less able than you. The "happy birthday" message in the title refers to a special needs child that has serious health issues that the main character befriends and appreciates in the face of the bullies. It has stretches that are very effective, but also stretches that aren't so much that feel less grounded and as though the film is treating the viewer like a child - probably because it's literally aimed at children, but it definitely feels like it would've been better off taking the more realistic and mature approach all the way through. I can't recommend it exactly, but it was an interesting novelty for covering some undercovered subjects.