majestic

I quit my addiction to MMOs cold turkey after an epiphany (read: guild drama so bad it makes me physically ill to even think of entering multiplayer with any form of required interaction with other players). It feels good, it gives you more free time, but I still don't play more - or replay any even though try I might. I'm not sure why, but at least my Kindle is getting more use. Here's to hoping Wasteland 3 will be interesting. And with me having refused to participate in any prior playing even though I was eligible I'm still hoping they dropped the requirement of a master's degree in character building from the game. People said AD&D 2nd edition was confusing. Try WL2. Sheesh.

Joe originally wanted to post his entire Witcher analysis as one single video. It broke YouTube. So now it's three parts, and each one longer than the one before. So, guessing, the third one's gonna clock in at at least 6 hours. edit: Goes without saying and at the risk of sounding like a shilll: His videos are lengthy but well worth it. Might not always agree with him but he definitely knows what he's talking about. edit 2: Also, in REALLY random news I just got my Wasteland 3 CE box. The game won't be out for two more weeks though, so not sure what's up there. This is a first for inXile, the last batch of CEs were delayed a bunch. I mean, yeah, the entirety of Tides of Numenera was delayed, but the delivery of the goods even more so. Oh, yeah, and just like with everyone else the box was shipped without any prior notification. At least SOMETHING went wrong, would have been weird otherwise. What's next, a bug free Obsidian release? Hehe. I'm kind of wanting to open it to see if the key already works but who opens CEs?

That sounds familiar. Oh, right, one of the last games I backed on Kickstarter. It seems I chose a Steam key though, why would I do that? Or was that the only option at the time? Hmmm.

Play roguelikes (or roguelites). That way remembering things isn't in the way. But I can empathize. I too seldom find games to come with a lot of replay value, even if they have (seemingly) a lot of choices and appropriate consequences. Remembering a lot of details doesn't help either, sure. Did you know that Fael in Baldur's Gate 2 has 40 copies of History of the Zhentarim in stock? Heh.

Beans are nice insofar as they have complex carbohdydrates and a lot of protein. They're a good substitute for meat, but they're generally not low carb. I used to consume a lot more carbs than I do these days. Nowadays I prepare dinner with a kitchen scale. 50 grams of whole grain bread, a hundred grams of protein (usually some lean ham) and whatever fresh vegetables I have at hand and pickles if I have none. The idea of having twice as much ham (or any other sort of cold cut or sausage) than bread in my sandwiches was ludicrous at first. It gets easier... in time. As will having less rice. *nods sagely*

20XX was free on Epic (I think last week) so I went and checked it out. A Mega Man roguelite seemed too good to pass up, although initially I wondered how and why they could get away with such a blatant rip off. Yeah, I guess they got away with it because it plays like arse. Them jump controls are awkward. Press A, jump, so far so good, but it just feels wrong. Pity. Back to Dead Cells then.

Isn't that four letters? I mean you ARE talking about Majestiy, right?

Wow, my brain hurts from reading that thread on the GOG forums. Seems like there are two issues: First that this is a giveaway where Linux users miss out on wallpaper artwork (!) due to not having the Galaxy client even as an option. I'm sure Keyrock and the other guy on the planet who is exclusively playing on Linux will be fine with that. And if not, they can voice their protest by not buying from GOG. I'm suspecting building and maintaining a Linux version of Galaxy might cost more than the expected increase in sales or usage will rake in. The other one is sharing your stats on social media. Which I get, and is the reason why I am not participating. If nobody participates then promotions like those will go away on their own. I'm sure a hell not sharing my GOG stats with the world, then everyone would see the thousands of hours I've put into Master of Orion 3. Talk about embarrassing. There's a third ridiculous complaint that I see all the time when it comes to development. People who say that they should not spend their time making silly promotions but rather finish Cyberpunk. Yeah, sure. Because CDPR's game developers double as marketing team, right? Sigh. edit: And before someone from PETL (People for the Ethical Treatment of Linux :p) comes around and berate me for passive-agressive penguin hate - I've been an avid Linux user for longer than most. It's kind of a requirement in my line of work, although it's been a while now, I just never bothered playing games on it. Except Tux Racer.

Was freey available for a while as a pick me up in Nazi Germany. Seems like a good idea.

Out of curiosity, did you watch A Night In Sickbay and if so, what did you think of it?

Played a bit with the new Dead Cells patch. I see potential in stacking bleeding sources. I just trashed 1.9 Giant with a Blood Sword, a Cleaver and Open Wounds. He only got two attacks off before dying. The only time I saw Giant die that quickly was with a Networking setup specifically tailored to kill him. Promptly skipped to the Throne Room to properly die to Hand of the King, of course, but I think I have a new favorite build.

Oh, the sound is still there. Just a lot... and really, A LOT less than it was at launch. Smugglers and Agents where essentially laughing maniacs depending on their specs. Scoundrels and Operatives were also capable of stunlock/instagibbing anyone regardless of tankiness from stealth while giggling like that. People complained. A lot. And so Bioware toned down the laughter and nerfed the stealth burst, removing the one thing that melee Smugglers/Agents excelled at, leaving them playing healers or bringing their team down in PVP for a long while. Well, for as long as I played., not sure how the balancing is right now. edit: The melee spec of the class was pretty useless in PVP outside of the stealth stun/burst, and that had a cooldown of two minutes. They never recovered from that nerf in the years that I played. Bioware managed to fix the class for PVE though - as much as you can fix a melee spec in a world of MMOs where every boss encounter seems to have been designed with the prime goal to make melees as useless and difficult to play as possible in mind. If it weren't for Bloodthirst we'd have gladly dropped our Marauder. Nice guy, sure, decent player even, but eh. Yeah...

To be fair, they also removed the Agent's laughter. Well, or toned it down, really. But it was fun in the beginning when every procc caused the sound effect for everyone around you.

I'm curious how it will continue. I expect Inner Light and Darmok having prominent placements on both lists. Can't have a TNG best of without them, right? I have to admit that I've seen Inner Light so often that I'm almost tempted to skip it whenever it comes up at a rewatch. Used to be that whenever I caught an episode of TNG on TV, it was... Inner Light. The Drumhead and Measure of a Man was already there, also Best of Both Worlds. Hm. I'm almost expecting Mike to troll Rich and put Sub Rosa on the list. edit: I'm curious if one of them has Schisms on their list. I love that episode, probably a bit more than it deserves, but the first time I watched it as a kid it was creepy as hell.

I just found it extremely hilarious when you meet the Jedi that are hunting you as a LS Sith Warrior and you can basically tell them that revenge isn't the Jedi way, then they look dumbfounded and start arguing with each other. Had me rolling on the floor for a bit. That and one piece of voice acting from my Imperial Agent on Taris. My agent was someone who was very much pro Empire but, let's say, sceptical of the Sith, the story starts out with the Sith silliness almost ruining your very first assignment after all, and you'll meet a guano-insane one on Taris who talks about fire and her children - meaning the Rakghouls. One of the reply options to this is "You're insane!", and I of course clicked on it, and the IA says in his incredibly awesome voice in an absolute deadpan: You really are Sith, aren't you?

Like the others said, Imperial Agent is really good. Sith Warrior is a lot of fun if played light side. Stay away from the Consular and Bounty Hunter for the moment. They're among the weaker ones.

I was a bit disappointed that Classic players didn't get the full Paladin package. Having a damage only Holy Shock as Holy ultimate or 5 minute Blessing of Kings as Protection ultimate. Those were the days. *nod* In all seriousness I tried playing Classic for a bit and got my Holy Paladin to like level 56 before I quit. Ain't nobody got time for this. That was fun back in the day* because I was working a brain dead part time job, but now that real life has me firm in its terrible grasp I'll just risk being called a filthy casual (although Classic is easy, just slooooow) but being able to get around the world a lot quicker was sure a blessing of the later expansions. Alas, Andorhal, you won't see me again so quickly. *Gotta admit I played a lot more Everquest 2 than WoW though. I quit early in Classic as most of my friends played EQ2 exclusively. EQ2 used to be the more interesting MMO, imo.

And the bourbon. Beer and vodka is all you ever need.

I still have the second book in the series on my to read list. I began reading it a while ago after finishing the first book in the series and then just stopped. It's one thing to have the books have as little exposition as possible or only where it makes sense to make them more immersive but Malazan takes that to a level where it's bordering on hard work to keep track of everything. Unlike with A Song of Ice and Fire where at least the kids have things explained to them once in a while and you have somewhat interesting allusions to the past (e.g. the tragedy of Summerhall) Malazan feels like you're on the outside of one long ass in-joke.

For me that certainly isn't true, and on a rational level I can understand writers not owing their readers anything (or their publishers, as talked about in the Rothfuss article). But on a somewhat more subjective one I'm not sure that's correct. The writers owe us their livelyhood, and in exchange it's not too unreasonable to ask for some effort, yes? I just would like to have a somewhat timely continuation of series left not just with a cliffhanger but the most unsatisfying ones you can possibly imagine. In the past 15 years we've gotten two books by GRRM, and both were preludes, setups, some more preludes and some more set up and then the last one ends before two pivotal events that were actually already written but moved into the next novel due to space and pacing constraints. A novel that looks more and more like it will never be finished, let alone the entire series which has one more novel. Planned, at least. It already overran from a planned trilogy into having 4, then 5, then 6 and now potentially 7 books. Not that I ever expect 6 and 7 to come out unless George dies and either Sanderson or Brian Herbert finish them (yeah... I went there. :p). There's a bright side, not even these two could come up with something worse than the ending of the HBO adaptation. But who knows, strangers things certainly happened. Stephen King finished The Dark Tower eventually. Although with that ending, I'm not sure people enjoyed it having an end all too much. Heh.

Probably sitting somewhere with GRRM, living the good life and not giving a damn.

's a quick way to tell MMO veterans apart from regular players.

Further proof:

PooZooka sounds like something the Golgothan would use.

Well to explain that, this was lunch: While tasty that wasn't very, say, satisfying. Dinner wasn't much different either (well less tomatoes and more picked peppers with sauerkraut and some bread with ham). Plus an awful lot of stress at work right now. Yeah...