kanisatha

Heartbreaking to see those videos of Ukrainian dads saying goodbye to their kids as they stay behind to fight. God be with them all.

Yes looking out for yourself when your very survival/existence is on the line, which is not at all the same as looking out for yourself in the case of profits or expedience. Sorry, maybe I'm just not explaining myself well.

Not surprised at all. It would be downright stupid for both these states to not immediately apply for NATO membership (even though, and especially in Finland's case, NATO membership won't truly protect them). The main problem here is that the two big European powers, France and Germany, simply don't believe they should fight for the security/territorial integrity of anyone but themselves. This has always been the huge weakness of the concept of collective security, and NATO is collective security.

Yes a few, in comparison with the vast majority who have consistently been wrong with everything they've ever said. And those few are exactly the ones who are now saying the West's weakness on display this week will surely result in catastrophic wars a few short years from now in the Baltics and in Taiwan, as I have gone on the record to say as well. The Baltic states being NATO members will not protect them. Putin is surely coming for them, and sooner than you may think.

Not really. There are degrees of difference involved. True survival versus simply comfort or convenience or expedience.

Agree with so many of you guys' posts. I'll try to catch as many as I can remember. Yes, totally agree, the West's response thus far has been a complete disgrace. I am ashamed as an American. Everything is calculated in the context of "how is thyis action going to affect my country's profits bottom-line?" Germany led the charge to block action of SWIFT because they would stand to lose billions in energy investments they have made in Russia, in fossil-fuel investments even while talking big about how much they're into fighting climate change blah blah blah. Here in the US, having canceled Keystone which would just have brought Canadian oil into the US, we are now this year importing oil from Russia!! So Canadian oil bad for the climate; Russian oil magically okay. And this is directly why we have refused to go for a cutoff of Russia's oil and gas exports. But of course the worst of this is sitting pretty in our safe homes and shrugging off the Ukrainians' suffering and oppression by saying it is not our fight, just like a previous generation of feckless Western leaders said it was not our fight in Spain, Ethiopia, and Czechoslovakia. We in the West deserve to have all of this blow up in our faces down the road. I have zero doubt we will come to regret looking the other way this week, but only when it is too late for us. As for the story of Zelensky willing to negotiate, don't know if that is true, but I actually hope so. The Ukrainians have already demonstrated that they are plucky and courageous, way more so than NATO, in standing up to Putin. On three of Russia's four fronts yesterday, they managed to hold or significantly delay the Russian advance to where the Russsians ended up missing their Day 1 objectives. They have already damaged Russia and Putin far more than any NATO country. So no need for them to be martyrs, especially sacrificing themselves for the benefit of the useless Western states. Best for them to cut a deal with Russia and make it that much easier for Russia and Putin to go after Western interests and target NATO in the future. No need for Ukraine to pull a Melos and die for some silly principles and the false hope that the West will ever help them. Survival (and looking out for yourself) is the only thing that matters in the world.

Settled for now. I'm sure they'll be back. The Soviets are like a bad rash that never truly goes away.

Yes they are NATO members, which is why the test-run is using Ukraine. It's always the temptation to believe that if you can go so far and get away with it, then maybe you can go a little further. It doesn't really matter that Article 5 guarantees extend to those states. What matters is whether Putin is convinced the other NATO members will suffer sacrifices to ensure those guarantees for three tiny states with limited strategic value on the fringe of NATO territory, and also whether other NATO countries will truly go beyond lip-service vis-a-vis those guarantees. It is always about perceptions. And I can see Putin coming away with the perception that given how timid the West has been thus far, their claims of NATO solidarity and Article 5 are all bark and no bite.

The Ukrainians successfully counterattacked and destroyed a Soviet (that's what I'm calling them from now on to distinguish Putin and his backers from good Russians) air-mobile landing force at an air base near Kyiv. Way to go, Ukraine! Bleed the Soviets dry for every inch of Ukrainian territory and every Ukrainian life. 10,000 rifles handed out to civilians in Kyiv today. Beautiful! Saw actual footage of some Soviet T-90 tanks burning. Thank you Eastern European NATO countries that sent those Javelin ATGMs to Ukraine recently. 1,700 honorable and decent Russian anti-war protesters beaten up and arrested in Moscow.

And it's not gonna' happen that easily. Even if somehow Putin gets those "surrender" documents, nobody in the world will see them as legitimate and so they won't carry any weight in international law. So the physical implementation of any such agreements will still have to rely on the presence of significant Russian occupation forces long-term.

Heh you beat me to it. Was gonna' say this. And from their early January stream, the DLC is coming in "a few months." Looks like their approach to this game will be to release new standalone campaigns for the game as DLCs every so many months. Sounds really good to me, as my only major complaint about the base game so far is that it is too short/would've liked more places and content to explore.

Hadn't seen these posts earlier. Don't know how I missed this discussion. Russia's war in Ukraine falls squarely within my academic area of specialty. I've been giving news media interviews all morning, then talking with my students about it all afternoon. Will be discussing it on a panel of experts at my university next week. Everything that has happened has happened exactly as I've been predicting for a couple of months now. I even predicted the invasion would happen this very week, that it would be preceded by a Russian false-flag operation in the Donbas, and that the invasion would be full-on invasion and not some minor operation. I also predicted that the US response would be rather weak, and thus far have been proven right on that too. I fully expect the Ukrainians will put up a good fight and won't go down easily. Yes their navy and air force will get destroyed quickly, but on the ground they will fight for every inch of their country. Putin's goal is to completely take over the country, impose his puppet government in Kiev, and then have that government sign treaties giving Russia everything it wants. It won't work. The Russians are going to be bogged down in an insurgency everywhere within the country except the Donbas, and amazing right now are being supported by only a handful of other countries with the overwhelming majority being against them. The real question is exactly how far are Western countires willing to go to stand up to the madman in Moscow? Thus far only Boris Johnson has showed any real strength. Biden's feckless responses are especially puzzling as he has a long record of bombastic talk against Putin, about how he knows how to handle Putin and the like. And right now he has everyone in the political establishment, from conservative Republicans to liberal Democrats, all on the same page of doing everything short of joining the war to cripple the Russian economy. So why isn't he pulling that trigger? Should be the easiest decision ever. But mark my words. Ukraine is merely a test-run for Russia, China, and other aggressors in the world to guage how far the West will go to try and stop them. If Putin gets away with his naked aggression in Ukraine, in the very near future we will see China invading Taiwan and Russia invading the Baltic states, and very likely simultaneously in coordination.

Re. Elden Ring, it's my understanding the game does not have difficulty settings. Is this true? This worries me because I am very much a casual player when it comes to combat in my video games, and actively avoid hardcore hack and slash type combat-based games. What should I expect in this game?

Thanks for this review. If you have the time and are so inclined, I'd love even more detailed thoughts you have on the game. It is one of the games in my Steam wishlist but I am very skeptical about it. Seems to me like it would a game I would play just once and then never touch it again. So I want to know if I would at least get my money's worth for playing it once.

Yup, this I know. Just only running system processes and security/protection processes, I'm at about 4% of my CPU and about 27% of my RAM usage.

Thanks!! Very useful. Even though I personally am not very computer-savvy, as an academic I know how to research something and I did my research on this very issue and found pretty much what you say here. That's exactly why, even though I bought my current machine in 2015, I'm waiting on the next one because I want next-gen everything.

No, my gaming machine is a desktop, one of Dell's Alienware series with a 24" 4K display. By 'miscalculate' I meant I'm wondering if I should've gone ahead and increased my RAM even though I anticipate buying a new machine in a couple of years. I also have a laptop provided to me by my employer, but that is not at all suited for gaming. And my employer being the state, they actually spy on us through the computer!!

Well, my machine has an i7-5930, 16 GB RAM, and the GTX980 card. The videocard is clearly below their min specs. But I also worry about the RAM because I'm not sure I could free up 75% of my RAM for a game. Last year I thought about expanding the RAM, which seems to be the only component I can upgrade. But then I thought the machine is about 7 years old now, and prolly should be replaced in another year or two, so why bother upping the RAM. Did I miscalculate?

Go into gameplay settings and turn off somatic components for spells. Yeah that is a huge pain, especially if your cleric is a shieldbearer.

I just saw the minimum system requirements for Elden Ring. I have a pretty decent gaming desktop and yet I don't meet even those minimums. Might be the case with other AAA games coming up as well.

Late 70s and 80s was my pre-teen and teen years too! And Led Zeppelin is my #1 all-time favorite rock band. I have a large Stairway to Heaven poster hanging on my office wall, and it's funny that my students will often comment on it.

I agree, and I personally would be okay with some of those changes to the old, classic formula if they would bring in more people, even if I personally don't need or care for those changes. My fundamental philosophy as a person is in support of things that make the widest range of people happy (but without sacrificing core principles). For example, I actually prefer third-person perspective over the isometric perspective. I view high-end graphics as a luxary, but one I would be happy to have. Full voice acting; some form of multiplayer; release of a toolset so people can create mods; all things I can live with even though I don't want any of them myself. And having both RTwP and TB combat is especially fine, so long as they don't cave to pressure to make it only TB.

P:WotR season pass Patron DLC

The sales numbers for Grounded have had me doing some thinking. It is my understanding that TOW also has done extremely well in sales. So it would appear the sales numbers for PoE2 are a unique outlier for recent Obsidian games. As such perhaps all the theories across multiple threads in this forum alone trying to explain those numbers are all irrelevant. Maybe it was just a case of some idiosyncratic factors (including clearly also a bad marketing strategy) all coming together coincidentally in a 'perfect storm' for PoE2, where there really were no meaningful factors about the game itself driving those lackluster sales figures. Personally, I feel (very strongly) that Obsidian and Sawyer are having exactly the wrong reaction to those PoE2 sales numbers. If it were me, my reaction would be to be even more passionately motivated to do a third game, if for no other reason than to demonstrate/prove that the low sales of PoE2 were a meaningless aberration, a fluke. If Obsidian and Sawyer do come to their senses and stop wallowing in PoE2 self-pity, I would have one piece of advise for them. DO NOT try to yet again recreate the rules and mechanics of the game as was done going from PoE1 to PoE2. Just leave those things along. Okay, I suppose it would be fine to tinker with a few things where there is a broad consensus including with the fanbase that some improvements are warranted. But generally, let the rules and mechanics be. Focus all of the game development time and resources and talent on the story, the characters, and the world. Do this, and I am convinced they can have yet another hit in their hands.

A side-point and a caveat: Side-point: I never cared for the first NwN game because I love my D&D games to be party-based and that game, even with the minions you control, just doesn't sway me much. I did/do love NwN2. But, I always loved the 'regular release of modules' game concept of NwN, something akin to the old Gold Box games model. Caveat: I am only at level 3 in Solasta right now. The enemy combat strategies are quite sophisticated. Pretty good so far, I'd say.