Hurlshort

I appreciated Ciri a lot more after the Netflix show. Freya Allan literally grew up in between season 1 and 2 and it was a fantastic way to develop that character. It made me enjoy the Ciri parts of Witcher 3 more. Granted, I don't actually like Geralt.

I guess we need to get "Shoot CEO's, not schools" trending.

That is an excellent article. I am alright with health care executives living with some of the fears that classroom teachers and students have been facing for the last decade+.

Black Doves - excellent political/spy series set in London during Xmas. We binged it this weekend, and I rarely find the time to binge anything. Very festive and fun.

Pretty sure you can play it on Gamepass for a dozen bucks or so.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/42549609/inside-san-jose-state-university-2024-volleyball-season-gender-fairness-safety Pretty detailed breakdown about the controversy surroundingy alma mater. Spoiler alert, they ran the data and the transgender player doesn't hit harder. She isn't even in the top 150 in the country.

This South Korean story is crazy. Hopefully it gets resolved peacefully. Seems like a desperate power grab by an outgoing president, but I can't say I'm an expert on South Korean politics.

Makes sense from a GoG perspective. Deosn't make any sense from a Blizzard perspective. Do they think the old games are somehow competition with the remasters? So dumb.

Huh, I thought Kraven already came out and bombed.

No, GameFly is a blast from the past. I'm pretty sure Games for Windows changed their name like a week ago.

And then there is this: https://gamerant.com/dragon-age-the-veilguard-launch-sales-inquisition-comparison-analyst/ Neither of those sources are exactly official. They are just making guesses about expectations, which will be internally monitored at EA. Considering it is available on services like Games for Windows and Origin, it is going to be hard to really track performance. Good but not great is hardly a flop. It's no BG3, obviously.

Pretty sure Trump won because of the economy and because the people that voted for Biden didn't turn out for Harris. I doubt the election was swung by pronoun sliders. We've also talked about the game sales argument before, and there just isn't good evidence that going woke means going broke. Mediocre games do badly regardless of politics. Dragon Age is probably woke and I'm pretty sure it's selling well. I mean, I didn't buy it because it looks boring, but it had nothing to do with the politics.

I'm not sure why. It doesn't cost much to maintain these MMO's once they are settled. Heck, people are still playing Everquest 2, DC Universe Online, and LotRO. SW:TOR probably has another decade of life left. Every time a new Star Wars show gets released, they get a boost in players. And a new SW show seems to come out every 6 months.

I renamed some characters when I got the urge to play over the summer. It was pretty simple, since plenty of names are available with the smaller player base. The fact they opened up all the classes for the storylines helped. I didn't like the playstyle of a few of the stories, but I found it much easier to enjoy the smuggler while using the skills of a dual pistol merc.

Ok, so Matt Gaetz has already given up on his AG dreams, but didn't he already resign his spot in the House? What a circus.

Yeah, I actually enjoyed Starfield. The setting and story were more engaging for me than Skyrim or Fallout 4. I played through it 1 and a half times. It's far from perfect. The scale and procedural generated stuff is problematic. But I'd argue that a lot of people went in with unrealistic expectations and were surprised when they weren't met. It's still just a video game. It also sold extremely well, so all this talk about it being a flop is overstated. Bethesda is nowhere near being in trouble as a developer. Heck, it sounds like the Fallout TV show managed to even turn their biggest recent flop, Fallout 76, into a modest success.

Nah, it's a quarter life 'cause multiplication. Trust me.

The Outer Worlds seems to have done pretty well for itself. It surpassed expectations. It will get a sequel. It was well-reviewed. I understand that Avowed has higher sales expectations, but I doubt the expectation is Skyrim. I was just making a joke, since Fallout 3 was always referred to as Skyrim with guns. Heck, Starfield didn't hit Skyrim levels, and that includes tons of modding stuff. It seems like an unrealistic expectation. I just hope it sells well and tells a great story. It's hard to judge that pre-release. The Outer Worlds certainly didn't have a ton of buzz before release, but it came out and surprised people.

Have you read up on the Crusades? Religious fervor and weapons don't exactly have a great history. This guy will be in charge of the biggest military in the world.

Avowed is Skyrim with muskets. Honestly I'm not worried. It will probably share a lot with Outer Worlds. Art style, writing, etc. But we spend too much time trying to put things in boxes.

We bought a new TV, so I was looking for a fun action movie to break it in with. We tried Infinite with Mark Wahlberg. It looked great on our TV, but it was really bad. We got about 20 minutes in before giving up. We ended up watching Chernobyl on HBO Max. Much better.

David Gaider probably had a long term plan, but I doubt that exists anymore.

Hah, like anyone in his cabinet will make 4 years. 1 year is about the max before the quit and write a memior.

Thanks to you and Shady, and any other veteran's we have here, for your service.

I typically make an avatar that reflects the way I look, right down to being bald. Of course, now that I'm much older, it can be a bit harder to find the settings that add some wrinkles and gray in the beard. It's also a bit awkward making an avatar that looks 46, and then starting the game as a young squire or whatever.