bugarup

Bioshock 2: moar Bioshock. Devs stuck with "Don't fix it if ain't broken" formula for this one, so it's just the same Bioshock with a bit updated weapons (for good or worse; I miss my wrench which did not require ammo), a new type of rather annoying baddie, entitled collectivist egomaniac instead of entitled capitalist egomaniac and your shifty helper ain't a traitor this time. No levels that would stand out though, like Sandor Cohen's kitsch galore in B1. And way too long ending slog. Done with that, started Infinite. Nice of you to warn me upfront about your disgusting save system, game, but it doesn't help against being mildly annoyed all the time. Setting is very pretty and colorful, but that Americana thing feels, like, seen 500 times before and its overexposed themes of racism, greed and religious nuttery doesn't help any. Shooting part is fun and cool, enemies are less braindead than crazy undersea junkies and with a few exceptions less bulletspongey, but because of that stupid save system I play it safe (i.e. with a sniper rifle from behind the cover). Vigors so far are same old plasmids with some repaint, melee attacks are ridiculously brutal and gross, our protagonist is once again a dad figure, only now he apparently is a bit of a piece of sh†t, talks quite a lot, does funny things like moodily strum a guitar in the cellar of the bar whose owners he murdered minutes ago, and his daughter figure tags along with us all the time. Now, Liz I really like, and not just because her part time job is cheat mode. Liz is cool.

Well, there is stylised, and then there's this:

Well, "Ukraine noise" is kind of deafening from where I am, so. You know. In other Kafkaesque news, russia puts Ukrainian army chief Zaluzhny on wanted list. That blunt American senator should be happy about the company methinks.

Binary extremities aside, it's not NATO that is right now flattening neighbouring country's cities, bombing civilians, abducting kids and trumpeting that genocide against Ukrainians is a good and even neccesarry thing via their propaganda channels.

Prussia doesn't exist anymore, Sweden and Germany got civilized (though you'll probably disagree as is expected per Europe's traditions ), while that Xzar's and mine neighbour still is homicidal, imperialistic, entitled, delusional and dangerous madman. P.S.: I imagine perspective is quite different from the safety of Sheep'n'Hobbit land.

That's tame compared to Nozzies, who get to wear bondage gear. Ventroos look like boring office drones which is fitting because they are boring office drones. My favourite lady would be Tremere and dude Toreador. Also, I want to play it again. Of course. Good thing I never uninstall it anymore.

Nozzie playthrough was fantastic. All reactions from everyone and sarcastic responses to them were priceless, Andrei the Tzimisce and food critic in particular, oh and also Fat Larry. Kinda weak combat-wise though, but then I always cheat in that final boring combat strech, so eh, whatevz.

Altered Carbon. Went in blind and liked quite a lot. Good solid cyberpunk science fiction, even if it borrows quite a bit from Blade Runner and sometimes from Fifth Element, but those aren't bad places to borrow from. It appears I'm so used to stupid asspulls in TV that when things that happen actually make sense within setting's rules and story's framework it feels so unexpectedly good. First season: bad guys are exceptionally easy to loathe with a burning passion, protag's of my favorite flavour - an irreverent, sarcastic ass who doesn't take things too seriously, poignant stuff (mostly) doesn't sink into cheesy sentimentality, and one episode's culmination even had me loudly cheering. Second season...eh, story still tight and engaging if predictable but shows importance of the cast. New actors, protagonist's in particular were just...not very interesting to watch. Netflix apparently canceled it but it's a good thing, because its series inevitably decline with each season, and I bought the books anyway.

Is it unpopular to hate on new but deliberately pixelated games? In any case, do I hate those things. It's like using rotary line phones in 2023, also if I wanted a blotchy, blurry incomprehensible mess on my screen I could simply take my glasses off.

A short video of one of them going down is here: https://english.nv.ua/nation/coverage-of-all-downed-aircraft-in-bryansk-oblast-nv-live-ukraine-news-50324289.html TASS gives "engine fire" as preliminary reason of the copter crash. Can't argue, engines do catch fire when they're fired on.

Hey, maybe Katphood likes his booze rancid.

3 years have passed and hipsta microbrewieries production is still dominated by IPA. ...right, unpopular gaming opinion. Soulslike formula sucks balls. If I wanted to fail again and again (and again and again and again...) until I get something right, I'd take up craft so that I might get something useful out of it IRL eventually. Like brewing.

What about water on mint leaves? Or mint & lemon? Not sure about vanilla, but I can testify for a drop or two of quince syrup, gives nice, subtle taste and pleasant aroma. Never even heard of watermelon rind pickles until today, but kind of makes sense as those rinds taste a bit like cucumbers, that is, really bland. Watermelon with vodka is a very good thing, though.

That's because both are true. This year's ghoulfest might've been subdued and half-arsed, while previous ones were overly pompous and blowhardy, with slogans "We can do it again!" and such. Mind you, did anyone spot "We can do it again!" this year? Would've been particularly funny. Anyway, fingers crossed that everyone and their dog keeps mocking russia for anything and everything, because if there's one thing tyrannies hate with a passion, it's being laughed at.

I remember moonshiners discussing these things and looking down on taters something bad. Like, you only use them if you really can't get grain at all because taste is

Wish all those popcorn entertainment bozos would just stop rethreading the same old stuff over and over. Like, before clapping yourself on the shoulder for colorqueer cast in some Agatha Christie's adaptation, maybe ask yourself if the world needs the 114th Agatha Christie's adaptation? And there are whole genres where a cast of diverse people would be a default, like science fiction or cyberpunk...with its signature hatred for corporations...yeah ok, this one's not happening.

Toca Boca. What? Best way to bond with family tree's younglings! Jeez Louise, I knew "free" mobile games are predatory, but didn't expect them to nickel and dime that bad. Also how comes EA isn't trying to worm its way into that market? The game itself is not much of a game and got me thinking if I should introduce them to Fallout Shelter as a gateway drug.

Бабы нарожают. Translates roughly, like, "Broads gonna spawn" and whoever is using this now should take a good look at russia's birth & death statistics.

I dunno, I kinda prefer necro threads to creating new and short-lived microthreads. It shows that the necromancer bothered to read quite a bit instead of just plopping a lazy question, and reading is good.

From my experience this is caused by a NPC touching your AoE. Just had the same thing with Cotta fight, when some dunce blithely traipsed right into soft winds of death. So to be on the safe side it's better to turn AoEs off for the fight duration. Also let those idiots pass by when it's your turn and you see them coming by. Oh, and another very important thing: if you reload from a quicksave, guards auto-aggro regardless. Gotta go back all the way to the start screen. Shipwright doesn't offer you discount if you don't off Cotta though, and if there's a shop where a discount, heh, counts, it's the one that sells ships.

Oh they absolutely would. And then get all butthurt if Ukrainians for some mysterious reason would not reciprocate their love and friendship and blame it on Ukrainians being petty and unreasonable. Prigozhin, by the way, is very candid about russia's goals, none of that denazify crap for gullible idiots. Like, quoting, "We minced the huge amount of Ukrainian armed forces and can tell ourselves the goal of special operation was achieved. Theoretically, russia got its fat loot by obliterating a large part of active Ukrainian males and terrorizing another large part of population into fleeing from Ukraine. russia cut for itself Azov sea and large chunk of Black sea and created a land corridor to Crimea. Now there is only one thing to do: to take root, claw in those territories we already have." So yeah nah, I'm not wringing my hands about how those greedy 'murican corporations get even fatter on weapon supplies as long as these people are at the very least pushed back into their borders.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65271302 The leaker was arrested, he's an unbelievable moron and this whole incident one day will provide comic relief for far future TV series about this war. In present time it's a bit less funny; here's hoping people leaking russia's secrets won't get exposed.

Love, Death & Robots, a series of science fiction animated shorts. Some good ones that lingers in the head, some others that are pretty but kinda "Huh? What was that about?" Made me think of things like how much I miss reading science fiction short story anthologies and how sanitized and sexless mainstream TV normally is nowadays.