Hurlshort

Eddie Murphy hasn't missed since he's come back, so I'm down. Also, Bronson Pinchot!

Huh, USA today is reporting they passed a bill with funds, but I'm not seeing many other reports on it. Weird.

But we do live under confinement. The cambridge definition you posted states: Games allows us to do impossible activities regularly. I don't figuratively cast spells in a game. I'm literally a wizard who can throw a fireball. That is the fictional setting that we are escaping into. I didn't start this nitpicky conversation. You went after Azdeus' use of the term escapism. Don't worry about being off topic, it's a random video game news thread. Words are interesting and layered, and I thought your definition of escapism was too limited. I can't say I love the Cambridge definition. This is the American Dictionary version: That feels like a clearer, simplified version. It removes the 'unpleasant or boring life' part which comes across as hard to judge. The vast majority of people enjoy escaping reality on occasion, no matter how grand their reality may be. edit: I'm completely willing to meet you halfway on the literal-figurative argument, now that I think about it. Sure, we are not literally becoming wizards when we play a game. I'm still not sure that the word figuratively fits here though. The game is allowing us to do impossible things, but it is limited only to that construct. I guess I will have to wait for the lethal VR headsets to become more common to use the term literally.

Conan Exiles is a good example for me of how to do microtransactions without making it pay to win. All of their store stuff is cosmetic. But they are so cool looking, everyone wants them. They don't affect the stats in any way. You can even play single player or your own server and cheese the system to get a bunch of the stuff unlocked. It doesn't matter that you are exploiting the system because it is just cosmetic stuff. It doesn't break the multiplayer side of the game.

I feel like you are the one using the term wrong. Escapism isn't usually considered unhealthy unless you are neglecting the real world while doing it. Most games are about constructing a new reality over the one you live in. It's a literal escape. Books and movies do the same thing.

I'm curious how Nikki Haley will do if she manages to secure the nomination. That might be the hard part. My instinct is she could beat Biden comfortably if she gets past the crazies in her party. She likely brings back the more moderate republicans that refuse to vote for Trump.

Have you been on social media? Have you been to Miami? I am pretty sure it is mostly just butt shaking. GTA has always been a parody of American excess, so I'd say they nailed the feel of Florida in that trailer.

Since Jodi Foster was mentioned, I thought I'd throw out a film called Nyad I watched recently with her and Annette Benning. It was a fantastic biopic. If you enjoy swimming, it was probably a more interesting film, but I expect it holds up well regardless. Diana Nyad is also just a complete badass. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/magazine/marathon-swimmer-diana-nyad.html

Sorry Kanisatha!

Kanisatha should probably add that she's never played BG3. The storytelling is silly, much like all of Larian's works. So it's safe to say if you didn't like the Divinity games, you won't like BG3. That being said, it is a big step up from D:OS2. What they do well in that game has been put on steroids in BG3. If you enjoy TB combat that uses a ton of environmental effects and a wide range of possibilities, this game is very impressive. It's not JA3, but it's still pretty good at that.

Pretty good mix of information, but it smacks as much of rampant nationalism and imperialism as it does white supremacy. Not that those things make it any better, but they definitely fit with the times. It's also a pretty mixed bag, with this quote: Contrasted by this: His comments on India are even more contradictory. So it's safe to say Churchill was a pretty complex case, rather than an outright bigot or racist. I'd also say it is safe to say that when it came to the politics of race, he tended to stick with what was politically expedient over any specific morality. He's not exactly a paragon of virtue, but I don't get the impression that he is seen that way by the British. That being said, I'll stick by my stance on politicians and statues.

Owning actual people is also a bit different than being racist. Not that it should be minimized. It's just good to keep it in perspective. Did his racism come across in any policy decisions? (In regards to Churchill.) My opinion is that statues of people are stupid. The exception might be sports heroes outside of their stadiums. If we are going to immortalize someone, it should be for cool stuff and not politics or war.

It will be interesting to see if we get a new city after this. They've now re-done all 3 of the cities from the previous generation, and I doubt they go back to New York for numero siete. But at this rate it will be over a decade before we find out. What did they call their fake London? I could see them doing that next.

Uh, I think they are just revealing the game in 2024. It will probably come out in 2026.

So excited to return to Vice City, but 2025? I need to forget about this for at least another year.

This cameraman story is hilarious. The NFL (No Fun League) suspends a young photographer for some silly stuff, and now he is blowing up. Best of luck to the kid.

Done.

I don't know who lectured you on Kobe, but I never got the worship for that guy. I felt bad that his daughter, another family, and a pilot went down with him.

I've always been curious if the Sharpe series the BBC produced was as good as the books. Netflix adapted Cornwell's Northumbria stuff pretty nicely for The Last Kingdom. Those books fit the episodic tone of a TV series, so it makes sense that they adapt well, but most books aren't really written to be drawn out like that.

Attila the Hun doesn't actually have that crazy of a rap sheet. I mean, he was a bad guy and killed his brother for power, but he isn't really much worse than other military generals that were carving up Roman territories at the time. His name does benefit from a magnificent propaganda campaign by the early Catholic Church, however. He was the foil to Pope Leo the Great's majesty.

I never read The Shining, but I'm guessing the movie fares well in comparison. It seems like Stephen King has decent string of his books becoming good on the screen, but he's also pretty involved with that aspect. I'd probably argue that The Hunger Games were fairly mediocre books that looked pretty good on the big screen.

I'll second jogging. I started running in my 30's and it helped a ton. I assume people that don't like running just don't have enough problems to run away from. I really enjoyed rescuing thralls on Siptah and I didn't understand why they didn't add that to the main map. It would crack me up when I rescued a thrall and was like, "If you can get back to my camp safely, you can join my team."

I've started in on Conan Exiles. Apparently the next updatw gives us the ability to build pubs, and then people will show up, and you can even recruit them. I guess that is a good option over the wheel of friendship.

Huh, green foliage? Don't they know everything is brown and gray in Fallout?

Yeah. I'd probably actually vote for Chris Christie if he had any chance of winning the nomination. He tends to be a fairly reasonable voice. But that won't get him out of the primaries.