Fez

Saw that a new Supraland game is releasing on Friday. I had no idea it was coming, but I'm excited for it. The first game was a shockingly good adventure, puzzle game with a fun look to it. Its only problems were the lackluster combat and a few too many pop culture references. But the good certainly outweighed that. And it was just the right length too, at 20 hours. Which was enough time to regularly introduce new puzzle mechanics and master them, but not start getting repetitive. Meanwhile, God of War is finally releasing on PC this Friday as well; and Monster Hunter Rise is today. Plus next week comes another CRPG I'm interested in, Expeditions: Rome. Don't know when I'll get to any of these games considering the backlog I'm trying to get through. But it's certainly a strong start to 2022 for gaming; and looking at my list of anticipated games for the rest of the year, I think it'll keep going throughout.

Hoping for a Tenacious D cameo/third act role:

For me, the sword in Hades didn't really get rolling until I unlocked the 4th aspect of it. That version is crazy OP for my playstyle. I think the initial aspect is particularly weak though on purpose, as another way to gate new players from advancing too far too quickly.

I've also been intrigued by Wartales, but I've been burned by early access way too many times to touch it for now. Also, I'm simply overwhelmed by the games currently on my plate that I've mentioned before. And at some point this month after it releases on PC I'm going to get God of War (2018).

So what's everyone's Game of the Year? Mine's Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. No question. It's an incredible CRPG. My first playthrough took over 200 hours, I only finished it a couple months ago, and yet I've already started another game to see one of the other mythic paths. I tried making a top 10 list beyond that though, and I can't really. Most of the games released this year just didn't speak to me that much. I think my #2 and #3 for instance would be Disco Elysium: The Final Cut and Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. They did both release this year, so they "count", but it's hard to really call them 2021 games; and I've played all those games before this year. I did like Loop Hero a lot too. And so far I think FFXIV: Endwalker is a decent experience (I've finished the main story, haven't done any of the endgame yet), but I liked both Shadowbringers and Heavensward more. Most other 2021 releases that I played just didn't grab me for me than a few hours; games like Scarlet Nexus, Tales of Arise, Battlesector, Psychonauts 2, etc. I haven't played the Halo Infinite campaign yet, so maybe that'll end up in the positive column.

Not as such, but The Matrix Online did cover some events that could've been a precursor to the civil war, but the game ended/was cancelled before it could fully explain things. For instance, one early event was the introduction of red-eyed Agents that were attacking humans who were allied with the machines. Also, the Merovingians were a full-fledged independent faction which maybe or maybe not aligns with just how low they'd fallen in the new movie.

I always struggled with the Rail in Hades, unless I got the boon for unlimited ammo. I'm much more a dash-strike, always be attacking player; so the idea of needing to stop and reload messed with my gameflow too much. The highest heat clear I got on the Rail was only 2 I think, meanwhile I got past 20 with both the fists and the sword. To me, the most broken combo was getting the fists with the Zeus boon for lightning strikes on attack (or Artemis' extra arrow on attack) and the Athena boon for damage reflect on dash. You're unkillable and destroy everything immediately, I even beat the optional challenge version of the final boss pretty easily with that setup.

I've seem a bunch of people make comparisons to The Force Awakens, but I think the true Star Wars comparison is The Last Jedi. This is a movie that tried to do something different with the franchise, at least for the first act, and a lot of people who want the comfortable nostalgia of a franchise playing it safe react poorly to that. To be clear, I do think the movie had problems, but I think a lot of the vitriol stems from this.

Also, it's very gamey, but the first several rooms (at least) in each Hades run are seeded; and that seed doesn't change if you select "give up" in the menu. It only changes when you die. So something you can do, and this is what most speedrunners do in fact do, is do a "scouting" run to see what boons are coming up the first few rooms. And then give up and pick whatever weapon and trinket would be the best fit for that run (also, knowing what future boons are coming can influence what boons you want at he start.

The first time I played I Hades I was the same way; probably got stuck on Meg around 10 times too. Eventually you just figure out the tricks to her, like focusing entirely on movement rather than attacking when the AOEs pop up. And recognizing when she's doing her charge move. Also, once you've filled out the mirror of darkness a bit more, she's just not capable of doing enough damage to you to be a threat (at least, not until you unlock the pact of punishment challenges, which are a long ways off). Hades really is designed for you to fail a lot at first, it's why there's so much story in it. In fact, you progress too fast, there's a ton of conversations you'll never even get to see because the dialog priority system will have already moved on to the next stuff.

In Hades, I believe God Mode gets more powerful the more you die. Either way, it's certainly worth activating in the menu if you're struggling. Also, it'll be more of a grind if you're stuck on Meg, but you will still be slowly unlocking permanent upgrades to get more powerful as well. Stuff like having double the starting health and extra lives really makes a difference. Lastly, if you haven't unlocked all the weapons yet, you may find that there's one waiting for you that better fits your playstyle. E.g., they don't all require the same amount of button mashing.

To add on to that, apparently WB had been asking Lana and Lilly to make another Matrix movie for years, and they always said no. And there was never an attempt to make a movie without them, either because WB thought they needed them or possibly the Wachowski's somehow directly retain some of the rights to the franchise. This movie only happened because Lana finally said yes, for the reasons you say, and because Keanu and Carrie were on board. And, from some interviews, it sounds like the main thing she wanted to accomplish was to give Neo and Trinity a happy ending. Which, since now have that, possibly means she never had any intention of making any further sequels.

Partially (or entirely, if I misunderstanding something you're saying)

Hmm, 7/10 maybe? I thought the first act was incredible, and if it had been bold enough to keep that vibe going for the whole runtime I think it would've been a better movie. As is, it kinda turned into a slog for the rest of the movie. Also the action scenes were mostly pretty disappointing, the ending abrupt, and NPH was not a good villain. I do think Jonathan Groff did a good job, but I think Hugo Weaving would've been even better. And I don't understand why Laurence Fishburne wasn't even asked to be involved, he easily could've played that role. However, it had enough interesting moments in between the slog, and some really neat environmental visuals, to keep me engaged. And I really did like that first act a lot.

Oh fun. I'm not in any rush to get W11 at least; I just reminded it existed and figured "why not?" I also wonder if the issue is that I have an OEM license of Windows (originally 7, which I upgraded to 10), which has caused problems before. When I had to swap out my CPU and motherboard two years ago I had to dig up my receipts from 2014 before they would remote activate Windows for me. Back in actual gaming, the Steam sale is supposed to start today, and I'm off work the next 12 days so I might pick something up if anything on my wishlist actually gets a decent sale; I feel like 20% off is the most I see these days on the games I still want. I do have plenty to play already though, so it's not a huge loss if nothing catches my eye. There's also FF7 Remake, but $70 (or $60 with the Epic coupon) just seems like too much for a bad port of a game almost 2 years old.

Less gaming than a general PC tech question (for the PC I game on), but I've been trying to upgrade to Windows 11 and the PC Health App doesn't seem to be working. At first it told me I wasn't eligible to upgrade because TPM 2.0 wasn't enabled, so I went into the BIOS and enabled it. But now when I run the app it just says "To see if this PC can run Windows 11, check the system specifications, or ask the company that manufactured your PC." and the only button I can click on takes me to a Microsoft site that just says "We’re doing some extra testing to make sure Windows 11 is ready for certain PCs—yours included." Am I genuinely not able to upgrade yet or is this some sort of weird error that can be solved?

I just hope Ethan Hawke gets a few good opportunities for scenery chewing before his grisly murder kicks off the main plot.

One of my guesses for season 2 is that Sevika picks up where Silco left off in that plotline. I'd rather Silco stayed around, but I suppose the writers felt he needed to die to complete Jinx's character arc for the season. Also, since Sevika and Jinx are not on good terms, it would add yet another dimension to the Zaun conflict and the various goals that characters are pursing there. I do think something will happen though. It's worth noting that while Silco always called it "Zaun", everyone else just said "the undercity." But most coverage of the show calls it "Zaun" because that's what it's always been referred to in other LoL-related media. Since Arcane is in many ways an origin story (at least for Vi/Cait/Jinx/Jayce; though it would be great if they threw a curveball and Jayce is dead now), I take this to mean that the status of Zaun/the undercity is different now from where it ends up.

Not to fully wade into this debate, but Jayce did kill a kid, feel huge guilt, abandon Vi, and decide to work with the normal (i.e. the council) channels afterwards. It's not a fully embrace of the vigilante approach.

1. And then Republicans win the shutdown battle, like they did in the 2018 (not the 2019) shutdown. Whichever party is the one asking for ANYTHING in the funding battles besides literally just keeping the lights on is the one that gets blamed. 2. It's a few hundred billion in a single year, aka larger than the entire BBB. And only some of those programs are old and outdated, if you dig into it plenty are still relevant. 3. Right, the ACA wouldn't have passed, and Democrats would've been better off for it. The ACA is a perfectly fine bill; it has not remotely been worth the devastation of the last 11 years that all stems from absolute bloodbath that was the 2010 midterm. Anyway, I'm reminded why I stopped venturing into the politics thread. Peace.

Manchin wouldn't need to vote against extending the CTC, or anything else, because the votes just won't come up. The odds of the expiration occurring at a time when the Democrats have a trifecta are low, and Republicans will happily let it or anything else expire. And even if Democrats do have the trifecta, they've shown over and over that they'll let programs expire due to sheer incompetence https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57188 And I'm not saying things would be hunky dory if Democrats were more modest post-Georgia runoffs. But I think they would be in a better place then they are now, and with people more fired up about the midterms. I'm basically making the exact same argument Rahm Emmanuel made in 2010, and he was right then and I think I'm right now.

I mean, Biden himself did exactly this, and he won. It was only after the election, and after the Georgia runoff, that his staff started talking like it was 1933 or 1965. They dropped the ball. And when I made my comments it was during the primaries, when everyone else running was in fantasyland about what they'd do in office.

It is funny, because I said the exact inverse of that. What I said is that Democrats should lie about being as moderate as possible and then just quietly be as liberal as they can when they are in office. The way that Republicans (at least pre-Trump) never talked about the crazy right-wing stuff they wanted, they just ran on tax cuts and calling Democrats socialist. But then in office would be absolutely bonkers. I want Democrats to do the same, only be liberal instead of be bonkers. Which would work, because activists (who, by definition) are more active in politics would see what was being accomplished and judge Democrats on deeds, not words. While unengaged swing voters would just see the words and be fine with what was being said. And Democrats went and did the opposite, talk up a big progressive game and achieve moderate (at best) policy goals; thereby just pissing off everyone.

Where is the disconnect that I'm saying "Everyone lied" and you're just hearing "AOC lied." AOC did lie to activists about what was achievable, but Schumer lied about where things were with Manchin, and Biden lied about his negotiating ability, Manchin possibly lied about his support, Pelosi lied about the House's leverage over the Senate, and so on. They all lied! Either knowingly or because they believed someone else's lies.

I didn't say that progressives' fault though. Just the reality of the situation. It's Manchin's world and we're just living in it. At least until January 2023 when it'll be McConnell's world and we'll pine for the days of Manchin's world because at least Manchin gives us federal judges, a pain-free debt ceiling, and no shutdowns. ETA: The thing progressives, and everyone else in the party is at fault for, is lying about what was achievable. But that's not the fault of activists, just the people in the actual negotiating rooms.