BruceVC

At first I thought you were saying " I met my wife through a magazine " like a Russian bride But I see what you mean, great photos

The point is there was story posted on this thread around Musk getting this deal and it was concerning because of his proximity to Trump and it could easily be seen as conflict as interest The story wasnt true and fake news stories should be a concern to everyone

https://www.wral.com/story/fact-check-is-the-state-department-about-to-pay-tesla-400-million-for-cybertrucks/21860274/ There are real developments to be concerned about around Trump but we should also we aware of some of the fake news and misinformation This one is about the $400 Tesla contract that Musk was getting

Thanks, I will go through this because I want to clear if these points are a real issue or its an exaggeration For example just from a history perspective do US schools not teach the Civil War and the reality of slavery from history ? @Hurlshort Apartheid for example is an included part of our history perspective because it is part of our history

It would be a great idea and it just has to be similar to PoE2 around design, narrative choice and mechanics But I remember an article about this and Im sure Obsidian said its not in the pipeline because they not focusing on Isometric games but it could be possible one day

I appreciate you going through this because now we can discuss what is the issue around some of the points you mentioned, I just want examples because Im not sure what the is issue about What do they mean by Christian beliefs in public schools, do they mean having a new subject in schools ? Ban African American books? What is an example of a African American books What books would you ban about Slavery, do they mean they will ban the discussion about slavery in schools as a subject? What is meant by condemn single mothers, would this be speeches. I dont see a single women being concerned with this. I know lots of single mothers and the last thing they would be concerned about is some condescending conservative politician who doesn't know them

Thanks, this link provides the best way to understand Project 2025 because they have put immense effort into making it easy and using categories and then you can see examples around what exactly he has done. It really creates the best approach and way of tracking Project 2025 But I also clarified a few times what I was saying about Project 2025 and I will explain it again because its weeks after the last debate My issue was always how certain media houses were talking about it and they used a specific image that contained the most controversial points of Project 2025 Here is the same image that @Pidescoand I posted and my issue was this was a selective list of Project 2025 and it suggested Trump was going to implement , so go through this list then confirm what Trump has now implemented? But this specific view of Project 2025 is not necessary to understand because your link is the way to do it because it clearly was built for that So that would be my suggestion for anyone who has concerns about Project 2025 but now any concerns can tracked and seen if they are real

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/obsidian-plans-to-make-rpgs-for-100-years-by-not-trying-to-grow-aggressively-expand-our-team-size-or-make-super-profitable-games/ Here is a really good link from Obsidian around there vision of the company and how they plan to survive and ensure profitability in a reasonable way They have learnt lessons from the likes of Bioware and Veilguard and its sales failures and they plan to avoid that type of financial crisis for the company " They didn't call out any examples themselves, but the duo was clearly setting themselves apart from companies that pour enormous budgets into long and turbulent development cycles and then announce that the resulting game underperformed because it didn't immediately sell tens of millions of copies. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the most recent high-profile example of an expensive RPG that didn't meet its owner's sales expectations, and EA cut jobs at BioWare after the miss. "

Yes its biggest fault for me was the repetition of dungeon design , it was lazy But I enjoyed the narrative and how it involved over years and I liked the companions and Romance arcs. Especially Isabela

Please provide a detailed review of this game as you progress similar to how you review other games I really want this game to succeed and we can assess sales numbers later because we wont know that now

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/13/middleeast/hamas-hostage-release-israel-gaza-intl/index.html Some good news, it looks like Hamas will release some hostages on Saturday Hopefully the war reigniting doesn't happen?

Yes and its up to Hamas to release the hostages or the war will continue like we discussed in the other thread And the tariff threat being effective was more about South American countries that initially didnt want to accept there own citizens back But the Canadian tariff threat was a silly example of Trumps theater and grandstanding

I agree he doesn't have a deep knowledge of the reality of most geopolitical events but then he seems to achieve results through his grandstanding and hyperbole Im not saying everything he says he commits to he delivers on especially around US voting issues, for example he won the election on 2 main issues. The border\illegal migration and US inflation and we dont know yet how successful either of these objectives will be because its too early to gauge But he does have more measured success on geopolitical events like the current ceasefire in Gaza and the tariffs threat and how several countries have already agreed to his demands and expectations It remains to be seen if the Gaza ceasefire maintains and we dont know enough real details around the Ukraine peace deal to understand if it is realistic and sustainable?

Yes he is notorious for these types of selective speeches around his understanding of geopolitical events But I do think its in the best interest of everyone for this war to end but particularly Ukraine themselves and concessions have to made but only Ukraine can decide that and I will support Ukraine ether way Hegseth said a lot yesterday and Im sure several things he said we can agree on like Ukraine not joining NATO and accepting it wont gain back regions Russia has illegally annexed and the EU taking more responsibility for the future security of Ukraine https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0pz3er37jo But he also confirmed that US focus will be China as there " real " geopolitical adversary. And this is something that Trump raised during the campaign so its not a surprise https://www.aol.com/hegseth-warns-europeans-realities-china-161245465.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACn3vDgTVKBK663q_1TsuPd9dexUFoa2eTWDOPdEhVANLH-vsoXXpaDUUE-d4PQM8kXQkAlseJStsxk3NlGkeoFfyvcdyClwgqBstCvqNvyLlnCSXbswPWhkW3S-z9FSRpZ3JkkABEiWgOJTjvi_eLhZaGYqrpDG3IW_jMtDcEGm " We are focusing on security of our own borders. We also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific," Hegseth told a meeting of a Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Belgium on Wednesday. "The U.S. is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific. Recognizing the reality of scarcity and making the resourcing trade-offs to ensure deterrence does not fail. Deterrence cannot fail."

Yes thats basically what I think. Even though there is no guarantee that Israel will not continue the war once the hostages are released it will change the US views and how Trump understands a permanent ceasefire Its going to be even harder for Israel to justify continuing the war once the hostages are released

Do you agree with me that all the hostages should be released or do you think Hamas should not do this and then we see what happens with the war in Gaza starting again as the most likely scenario?

But we dont know that and thats the problem with not releasing the hostages, there is a current ceasefire in Gaza But we do know Israel will more than likely continue the war if the hostages are not released I do agree thats its possible Israel will continue the war even if all the hostages are released but thats not Trumps view on this Trump has a simplistic and binary understanding of this war and he does have influence on Netanyahu and in his mind " Hamas needs to release all the hostages to demonstrate they are taking the ceasefire seriously " It makes it much harder for Israel to get US support for the war if Hamas releases all the hostages and then Israel still continues to fight in Gaza Its really in the best interest of a permanent ceasefire to release all the hostages because failing to do that plays into hands of the Israeli right -wing warmongering objectives and justifying the war continuing?

Why doesnt Hamas just release all the hostages? Why take the risk of the war starting again?

No Im not going to go into more details. Its not like you really want to have this debate in a constructive way As usual your standard response is " you a racist\fascist " and that's why Im saying what Im saying No point wasting my time with this type of engagement Anyway it doesnt matter what we think the reasons are the game failed to make its sales target, either it makes its target or it doesn't It doesn't seem like Bioware is going to be around much longer and then these types of analysis become irrelevant anyway

I ended up loading a mod that increased my party size to 6, I like 6 people in my party https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/288?tab=description

KCD2 sounds amazing, I can only imagine how much more fun its going to be once we see the mods that get created

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dragon-age/bioware-has-reportedly-lost-at-least-half-its-staff-with-fewer-than-100-people-left-and-the-studio-a-ghost-of-its-former-self/ Bioware now has fewer than 100 staff after Veilguard missed its sales target by 50% So the question is really why did Veilguard fail at what matters the most which is always about sales? And I firmly believe that the whole woke design of the game is a big part of this. If you create a game where a big part of that game is party based interaction and you dont create any real options for your biggest target market which is straight men then you are limiting overall interest in the game You can create a game that is inclusive and that game can absolutely be financially successful. Both KCD2 and BG3 are examples of this but these games dont exclude straight men The moment you confuse inclusivity with exclusivity you create a massive problem for yourself

Im 45 hours into W3 and Im loving all the different side quests and activities apart from the main narrative. W3 really is the best example of an open-world RPG that aligns with the broader Witcher narrative and lore. Some key points I have just completed the Bloody Baron quest and it was brilliant, very nuanced and thought provoking around what the Baron did and the botchling. I also decided to help the Baron free his wife from the Crones. The Crones really are diabolical even though I worked with them around killing the tree\druid evil spirit but I now want to kill them. I laughed how they flirted with Geralt..imagine having a foursome with them I like how you can get so many different Witcher contracts, this is exactly what the Witcher is about. Killing beasts and monsters and having to plan how to do this before you engage EE and Redux makes the skill advancement realistic and I prefer it to level advancement. You gain skill points when you use them so you have to focus on the type of build you want if you want to progress The economy has been rebalanced with EE and Redux and I like it, you cant sell everything for maximum money and special item upgrades and crafting is expensive but thats a good thing because Im always short of money and I have to go on quests and hunt for gold. It encourages exploration Triss is so beautiful aesthetically with my advanced graphic settings and 4K mod , its going to be difficult to decide who to support between her and Yen but that is a decision I will make later once the narrative unfolds

Its funny you mention that because other people have said the exact same thing about Xoti, her accent was the biggest criticism about her I loved it, I cant recall another game that has that pronounced Southern accent for a character? But I like the Southern accent so it worked for me

I still dont get what your point really is around how some media houses get foreign funding, that shouldnt change the reality of what they report on if the problems or issues are real I will use South Africa as an example. We have lots of media houses reporting on corruption and state inefficiencies and they sometimes report on the links and corruption that we see from some in the ANC around corrupt public sector tenders with Russia or other countries. Here is an example https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-01-22-gazprombank-reneged-on-r3-7bn-deal-to-restart-mossel-bay-gas-to-liquids-refinery/ Now Daily Maverick (DM)is sometimes accused of being a "CIA\Western " controlled media house with an agenda to destabilize the country but this story is true, the way the tender was awarded to Gazprombank had massive and egregious irregularities but the only reason this project fell apart is the Russians wanted complete control of the refinery and the SOE wasnt prepared to agree to that but the tender was initially awarded to Gazprombank So my point is it doesn't matter if DM gets some of its funding from USAID, they dont get any but they have been accused of getting some, because they report on legitimate and real cases of corruption within the country Is your overall point that independent media houses that get USAID cant be considered legitimate and objective because of this funding or are you just pointing out they do get funding from the USAID which might have been denied?