Fez

I just hit level 5 and I'm still in that opening zone too. I am trying to be a bit completionist though. I think I've only got a couple things left, then check out the underdark, and then move on to the next zone. Game is massive, especially considering I know there's alternate paths for some of the big quests I've finished. But even setting aside that aspect, I don't understand how Larian estimated a playthrough would be only 40-50 hours. I guess you can skip a lot of stuff, but it feels like you'd be too underleveled for the critical path fights if that's all you did.

Generally yeah, it's when you've run out of spell slots on your casters or run out of short rests to refresh martial abilities and heal (you generally don't want to use potions outside of combat to heal, they're a bit too limited and pricey for that). There actually are a small number of triggers that can go off, apparently without warning. And, once they do, you are on a long rest timer for things to happen on their own. E.g., Act 1 goblin spoilers.. It seems like usually you're safe, and the game certainly encourages long resting since most companion events are tied to it. But sometimes it can cause unintended quest advancements.

But it's not new. And its become pretty standard, at least on PC, that straight ports of old games are heavily discounted. E.g., when Atlus finally brought Persona 4 to PC it was for $20.

Are you playing with a controller? Because yeah the radial wheels are how the UI functions with them. It's what I'm doing and it's not great, but it's not terrible either. At least, it's not since I spent a bunch of time customizing the wheels rather than the awful auto-add system they have by default. The UI is much more intuitive, and faster, with mouse and keyboard. But I just prefer playing games with a controller whenever I can.

Sounds like we're about to get some real "wrath of god" level t-storms and tornados here in the DC area in a couple hours. OPM just announced at 245 that all federal offices were closing at 3pm so people can get home in time. I've never seen that happen outside of blizzard events and never with such short notice.

I do generally agree with this. However, the game does give you the tools to break free of the mold somewhat. For instance, I've found a necklace that lets a character cast guidance at-will and another that lets a character cast a heal 1-8 HP at will (to prevent it from being OP, it's basically unusable in combat; whoever is healed has to pass a saving throw to avoid falling asleep for 2 turns). With those 2 things and Paladin you don't need a cleric anymore and you've already got your tank. Likewise, to compensate for the change in how ability scores are assigned at character creation, Humans and Half Elves were given the 'civil militia' trait, which grants several weapon proficiencies and shield proficiency. Which means you can slap shields on to Wyll and Gale and it doen't hamper their spellcasting at all. In fact, Wyll can end up being a decent tank himself while also being your arcane caster (or your martial DPS, they gave Pact of the Blade several of the benefits from Hexblade to buff it). Basically, you still want to be able to buff and heal, cast arcane spells, take hits, and do serious damage. But there's more flexibility on which classes can fill each role than 5e usually allows.

Nope, they stick around. I actually restarted because I was playing a barbarian but liked the barbarian party member too much to bench her all game. The Gith is pretty close to the crash site. It is a little off, especially when you can do it freely in areas where there's lots of potential hostile enemies. It is cool though that there's multiple camp layouts depending on where you are. Anyway I encountered my first progression bug and looking online it seems like lots of people have many different issues with the quest (it's a big quest it seems). Which is very unfortunate. I don't want to roll back my save (also I've no idea how far back I'd need to go) but I don't want to push on either. It's not a main quest (I don't think) but if I don't finish it I believe I will miss out on the first of the non-origin party members you can obtain. And I don't mean the mercs/hirelings; there's some number of full party members that aren't origin characters that can join you.

The issue is that real-time fights go a lot faster. So games designed for real-time at first (like Pathfinder, or PoE) have a lot of filler fights so that players get plenty of combat time. But those quick fights become extremely tedious when you're doing them in turn-based mode. Whereas in games designed for turn-based combat it generally means (at least for Larian) that there are no filler fights. Every fight is custom designed and more involved, and there's a lot fewer of them. I'm about 8 hours into the game (I restarted once already) and I think I've had fewer total fights than just the Market Square map in Act 1 of WoTR. But each fight has so much more going on. Not relevant to this specific issue, but, speaking of dice rolls, I strongly recommend everyone go into the setting and turn off 'Karmic Dice', which is on by default. Karmic Dice mean that the dice rolls aren't really random (for both you or the enemies). Instead, there's increased odds of successful rolls if enough failures happen. Not only does this go against all laws and spirits of DnD, it has some practical negative effects. For instance it means AC becomes less valuable because dice will start getting weighted to roll high enough to hit. Anyway, the game's incredible and pretty much everything I'd want from a DnD game. The amount of reactivity seems insane too. I feel like I've avoided several big fights simply because of my character's race and right now I'm freely wandering an area that it seems like most races would need to fight their way through.

I've been playing a non-Lolth (forgot the other name) Drow Barbarian and it's great fun so far. Tons of class and race reactivity too, which is very cool. One basic tip: like all Larian games being able to talk with animals unlocks a lot of stuff. It's a very nice buff to classes that can get it.

If the next Republican president isn't Trump, it means something has happened that has weakened Trump so much in the party that they don't need to worry about or address him every again. There's not going to be any nail-biter finish to the primary where Trump loses but remains a lurking threat. Trump is going to romp his way to the nomination unless something (and I have no idea what) causes him to completely collapse.

I still suspect Thune beats Barrasso in a vote, especially if someone like Rick Scott runs again as well and gets the 6-7 absolute worst of the senators. But I guess it also depends on how anything goes down. Like is McConnell eventually forced out or does he step down while most GOP senators still have good will for him.

Yep. WaPo actually put out a graphic this week on it. The House is getting older too, but isn't quite as bad yet.

There are 33 senators who age 70 or older. Arguably every single one of them should retire. Another 21 are between ages 65-69. Fully over half the US senate is past the traditional retirement age. The senate's always been old, but it's gotten really bad.

Eh, John Thune is their minority whip and is basically McConnell Jr in all respects. He's also only 62 (crazy young for a senator) and been in the senate for 18 years already. I think he'd pretty easily win the election to led the Senate GOP.

I don't know anything abut Fravor or his credibility. But Grusch has made some pretty extraordinary claims (I dunno if he's gotten into them in this hearing). Basically how there was an alien crash in Mussolini's Italy in the '30s (which apparently he and/or the Nazis kept quiet) and then in 1944 the Vatican helped the US obtain possession of the wreckage. Which, I mean, maybe. But that seems like some real crazy conspiracy stuff. Two conspiracies actually (at least) and nothing got out about either one until now. Whereas, actual end-of-WWII conspiracies, like Operation Paperclip, became public knowledge by the 1950s.

I would assume so. That's what the opposition lawmakers seem to think will happen (and they've asked that protestors don't do anything too dramatic in the meantime). But I dunno what happens after that if it does get struck down.

I saw it with my girlfriend. I thought it was a fun, breezy movie with a lot of great jokes. Yeah, it had a deeper message it was trying to get across with zero subtlety. But it's a worthwhile one and the heavy-handedness didn't take away from how fun the movie itself was. The gags, the visuals, the singing numbers, it was all great. It did feel like maybe three different movie ideas jammed into one, but I didn't think it detracted from the movie. Except the final scene (not counting the gag at the very end), which really felt like a conclusion to a different movie. Also, Ryan Gosling completely stole the show. Margot Robbie was good, but she was given surprisingly little to work with I thought.

Asa Hutchinson ("who?" "exactly") has already released a statement saying Trump should 'suspend' his campaign. I wouldn't be surprised if Christie says something too. The rest will probably say nothing or even support Trump because they are dumb and/or have no strategy for beating him.

Officially? Marianne Williamson Unofficially? We'll see about Manchin.

Well with Washington I feel like its because he's generally so revered in the US that you can't really make a movie about him. He'd have to be portrayed as a flawless, perfect human; which is boring. And he's not really interesting enough for any other country to make a movie about him. As for Napoleon, I think you've just missed them. Waterloo (1970) was a pretty massive movie with Rod Steiger as Napoleon and Ian Holm played him in Time Bandits (1981). There's movies of War and Peace where he shows up, and various other dramas from time to time. And he shows up comedies a fair bit too.

I think it could be. But they'd need to jettison the books entirely. The rest of the original series is too weird, and the various books written by his son are trash. I think there'd be too much controversy over changing the existing story of the sequels. But there are a lot of interesting hooks for side stories and prequel stories if the movies do well enough, and I don't think anyone would care if there was ground already tread by the son's books that were ignored.

Maybe! There's a new (long) interview with the lead writer of the game (some light Act I spoilers for people who haven't played the early access) https://gamerant.com/baldurs-gate-3-interview/ and the scope of the writing sounds absolutely bonkers even if there was only 1 type of character you could play. If they pull it off though, this might be the most impressive RPG game ever.

My dark horse (but certainly not the favorite) is Tim Scott. He's been going all in on Iowa so far, and while he is a distant 3rd he at least is showing signs of some real support unlike almost everyone besides Trump and DeSantis. If he can hone in on the evangelical vote enough, and capture the non-Trump vote away from DeSantis, that would at least position him to win Iowa if Trump fades a little bit. If did, and then he went on to win home-state South Carolina (probably only possible if Haley drops out) that sets things up pretty solidly for a two-person race going into Super Tuesday. And, much like we saw with Democrats in 2020, I suspect a bunch of the also-rans would drop out in advance of the day in that case. Not saying it's likely. But I do see path for him at least, which is more than I can say about any of the others.

Also on the Turkey front:

I get that view. I disagree, but I get it. The thing is though, BG3 has three types of protagonist you can play, and I think that view only holds true for one of them. But all three types are voiceless: 1. A truly custom character that can be any race/class/background. 2. A specific custom character. You can be any race or class, but you have a set, defined backstory. BG1 and BG2 spoilers 3. One of the other characters that would be a party member if you don't play as them. You have a set race, class, and backstory. And just like they did in D:OS2, even though these characters are voiced if they are companions they become silent if you pick one to be your main character. This is the one that annoys me the most.