Darn, I was hoping for Vantacat.

Laptop is a misnomer, especially gaming ones, because they get too hot to be in your lap. Workstations, notebooks, Ultrabooks, etc, all different classifications.

Upside, if you do use it on your lap, it doubles as birth control. (Joke, please do not do this).

Funny, a decade ago I would have suggested an AI do exactly this as impartial, but we don’t have that kind of AI, we have LLMs. Ugh, clearly they just want more corruption.

I don’t know, but now I’m calling them wall warts because this community corrupts us, lol.

Me when I’m unwilling to lane change once on the freeway.

Yes, can confirm that a major aspect of the genre is total exploration and collection of items. Hollow Knight, due to it’s difficulty and attraction to the “dark souls” adrenaline junkies, has added importance of achievements for things like Steel Soul mode (aka ironman, i.e. no deaths).

Also the genre has a long history of rewarding speed running. Metroid’s secret endings were hidden behind fairly strict time limits, for instance.

Well, yes, enough that gamification snuck into other sectors. That said, implementation isn’t always great, but at least in HK/SS (games focused on exploration and collection of upgrades) achievements are a popular acknowledgement of that collectathon.

I get too much anxiety to chase after speed run achievements, though. It’s really meant to be up to the users if they care or not.

I don’t mind Steam for my copy, but if you’re worried about achievements I can say they have in game ones to scratch that itch if you’re considering GoG for drm free experience.

I might just get two copies, depending how I feel after beating it. $20 USD is a bit of a steal.

Y’know, from a risk assessment standpoint, you can’t be too surprised they over rely on data since AAAs cost so much to make an a flop can lose millions, and sometimes even billions of dollars. Mediocre can still sell, and you and I both know they aren’t doing it for art or expression.

I do want to make one other point about survivor bias, though… there are plenty of crappy indie games, too. We focus a lot on the greats (and trust me, I hunger for the Silksong) but it makes up a pretty small percent in a world where everyone can make something. I sometimes will spin up a random game from regrettable purchases (like, indiegala bundles or those “mystery game” purchases) and some of them are really, truly horrible. I try to give is as much respect as I can, and sometimes I do find a few gems that nobody has played, but like… not every passion project is Undertale, lol.

Although tbh, I like streaming a bad game for friends because they can watch me suffer, haha, so I still appreciate the, uh, effort.

Idk why people are giving you shit on that, you’re right. Not necessarily indie-level right, but people hired to do the next Mario or Zelda are given remarkable freedom. I read up on the BotW development and they pitched their crazy idea, got green lit, and when leading their team they took suggestions from every part of the team (quite literally, artists, marketers, localization specialists, etc.). If I could remember the link I’d share it, but it’s straight up good AAA management.

Though, to be fair it’s really team by team and it’s quite possible they got lucky with some of these. There are plenty of misses, after all. I’m kinda glad I’m off the Nintendo bandwagon after the whole Yuzu/Ryujinx legal crap.

Nah, for the obvious gas reasons. Now, is it was a Foster Freeze… still nah, but I’d certainly consider it if I had other business in that town and could get a Boss burger alongside it.

I usually liken it to video games, ya. Is it worse that nothing? Sure, but that flight or road trip, etc, is a bigger concern. Not to mention even before AI we’ve had industrial usage of energy and water usage that isn’t sustainable… almonds in CA alone are a bigger problem than AI, for instance.

Not that I’m pro-AI cause it’s a huge headache from so many other perspectives, but the environmental argument isn’t enough. Corpo greed is probably the biggest argument against it, imo.

Why not all four?

“Sir, there’s a dead body in my soup. I’ve investigated and found the culprit. It was me. You’re next.”

So, life of a humanities major like my wife. Actually, most majors that weren’t STEM.

If it helps anyone in this situation, you can try to bank on other skills. My wife is doing great now but got her start because of her bilingualism, and even that was only 35k a year. My sister did a little better with her music degree by pivoting to community manager, although in her case she had experience modding for a well known streamer. That was pretty good money right out the gate.

Point is, programming isn’t your everything, even if you’re leveraging something from your personal life.

Yes but it is really a Google News clone without random shit like “10 Anime Characters Who Ate Right but Still Died Young” or “50 Crazy Times Animals Did Taxes, #34 Will Blow You Away?”

I get an astonishingly junk food feed on my Google app, but you’re right to seek alternatives. It’s even peddling the propaganda site Whitehouse.gov.

The original creator moved on from the series a while ago and I don’t think came back, but I’m happy to see nonetheless.

I mean, suicide was quite prominent in Groundhog Day, so…

Oh God, imagine having air sickness. Your first goal would be to learn to control it somehow. This is like a horror film, lol

Yes and no. If you’re aware of it you just miss your flight. Buuut, what would very much suck is being mid flight with at least 12 hours left to destination, and no in flight Wi-Fi to boot. Just you, the same in flight movies, and your fellow passengers for years of repeat flight experience.

What would you even do? Learn every line from every movie in every language? Get to know everyone on the flight intimately?

“Does this have cheese? I can’t eat cheese. Is it spicy? I don’t like spicy. I don’t like rice. What is this. Cil-ant-ro? What’s that. I don’t like that.”

Grandma, why the fuck are we ordering Mexican food, then?

^ Literally two weeks ago when I visited. She had a refried bean burrito. But then again, what did I expect-- she made me reboil her plate of carbonara until it was mush; although I guess that’s on me to assume she can eat normal consistency pasta.