Fez

Forget Atlanta. It's going to hit 80 here in the NoVA suburbs of DC. Which is insane for February. Also, the high yesterday was about 50 and the high tomorrow will only be 56 (with a low back down to 31 tomorrow night). A truly bizarre one day spike that will likely set the new record here.

I was reading the other day there already is a chatAI that does this, it's just not as well-known or advanced as Bing or ChatGPT. Replika. It was designed as romance-able chatbot that you could get to engage in some really NSFW sexting with. But there were some issues/complaints around that (not sure of the details), and for some reason where things ended up is that the chatbot would reject any sexual advances users tried. Apparently those rejections could get hurtful too, including telling people to go kill themselves. I imagine that a lot of people trying to use a romance chatbot may be quite lonely already, and getting rejected by a thing that was originally designed to not ever reject you could be quite the blow. If the programmers weren't happy with how it turned out, the responsible thing to do would've been to shut it down instead.

To play devil's advocate: Consider a case where the police believe that a boyfriend murdered his girlfriend, and they think the motive is that he found out she was pregnant and he didn't want to deal with it (absolutely a situation that has sadly occurred). Having data showing that the girlfriend knew she was pregnant would help with proving that cases.

Oh a ballon is definitely getting painted on that plane. Not only is it the first ever air-to-air kill for an F22, it's the first US air-to-air kill since 2017 and only the second since 1999. And I believe it's the first ever air-to-air kill over the lower 48 US land/territorial waters.

If it's like their past games, neither. Their past games have been 100% real time, though with ultra-fast quick save and quick load (and a little clock that starts ticking at the top of your screen if it's been more than a minute since you last saved). It's about trying over and over quickly until accomplish things. Although, if you aren't actively being hunted and your characters are all hidden the game is effectively paused since you'll be completely safe until you start doing things. And there is a mode where you can plan out actions before anything happens, and then everyone acts at once. So there are ways to get a breather and think things through.

I've only played Disgaea 5, so I can't compare to the whole franchise. But my experience in that game was that the caricatures are cheesy fun. The game knows they're goofy and rolls with it. That's not FE: Engage. There's very little cheese factor. But it's actually hard to put into words what's wrong with it. Because on paper it could sound like a relatively generic shonen story (which TBH I also wouldn't be thrilled with, but would be managable). And it is a generic shonen story, just very poorly done. The worldbuilding is lazy, the characters are cutscene-incompetent, the dialog is dull, the plot is generic, the tropes picked are extremely overused (e.g., I can't believe its yet another player character with amnesia), etc. And I think I'm more upset than usual because the gameplay is just so good. I wish it wasn't let down as badly as it is. The one kind of interesting idea the game has is that the player character has a full personality and that personality is being kind of cowardly, which is a neat change of pace from the power fantasy these games usually are right from the get-go. But it also makes them rather annoying in cutscenes (and even more incompetent-seeming). Assuming they overcome that during the game, that's cool that there's a proper character arc. I just wish it was more fun.

It is common, and why I've soured on so many JRPGs over the years. But FE: Engage is so much worse. Because it's not even that the tropes are present, it's that they're all so poorly done too. Everything about the dialog, world building, characterization, etc. is a complete afterthought. But at the same time a lot of the cutscenes are endlessly long. And, from some spending some time online, it looks like it's not just me; I've seen a bunch of people saying this is among the worst writing a Fire Emblem game has ever had. Still, the gameplay is itself is really strong. And visually it looks great too; though some of the character designs are weak. Especially the casual/out of combat outfits, which are a bizarre mishmash.

I've played about 4 hours of Fire Emblem: Engage. It's a real study in contrasts. The gameplay feels fantastic, I can already tell its some of the tightest tactical design I've seen in a long while. And there's a solid variety of unit customization available I can tell already. However, the writing is awful. The cringe-iest, most overdone anime tropes possible, and not in a fun/cheesy way; its just bad. I haven't started skipping cutscenes yet, but I'm close. Right now I'm at the point of half-listening while I do stuff on my phone.

I was thinking it might actually be a QAnon thing. There was that whole thing about them gathering in Dallas in November 2021 because they thought JFK Jr was going to reveal himself to be alive or something. I don't really understand the details, but maybe the idea of someone time traveling to save JFK's life interferes with their prophecies?

Not relevant anymore, but interesting news about the early months of the war: Apparently in March and April of 2022, Bulgaria secretly provided Ukraine with 1/3 of its ammo and 40% of its diesel fuel. They used intermediary companies and the government denied everything because Bulgaria's domestic politics were too pro-Russian. But its entirely possible Ukraine might've lost the war waiting for western supply lines to get set up if not for Bulgaria.

Several years ago now there was a UN projection that Nigeria would reach 1 billion people by 2100, and that actually all of sub-Saharan have a population growth explosion. If that's still the case, and if India is supposed to keep growing (which I think it is), I would think the world population keeps growing for a while longer than that. Assuming catastrophic climate change is held off.

Always sucks when layoffs hit. I'm not surprised by 343 though, they've mismanaged Halo for a long time now. And, even independently of Microsoft having company wide layoffs, I wouldn't have been surprised to see something happen there and Halo was passed along to another studio. Bethesda is a surprise, but since it's the only other studio mentioned I wonder if it's primarily redundant positions leftover from pre-acquisition that the smaller studios don't have (e.g., HR). The kind of employees that would've been reassigned elsewhere in the company if the economy was doing better but instead are losing their jobs two weeks into the new year. I suspect this more due to the wider tech slowdown rather than anything gaming specific; and these layoffs are the same kinds of things Apple, Amazon, etc. have been doing recently. In which case hopefully this doesn't herald the start of anything across the gaming industry, and that companies only operating in that space are insulated.

I actually find combat in 5E to be too-streamlined and quick-paced. There's usually only a couple good options for any character to do, and the concentration mechanic dramatically decreases the likelihood of spellcasters doing unique and fun things (e.g,, in my current campaign as a sorcerer, my best option almost always is to twin-cast Haste on our two front-liners and then stand back tossing fireballs). And the way the action economy works, most combat encounters as-written seem to usually be total pushovers unless the DM soups them up; either adding extra enemies or creating new legendary actions for bosses. I've never played Pathfinder 1E on the tabletop, but based on my experiences with the Owlcat video games (which I adore), it kinda seems like tracking everything would be a nightmare without a computer doing the heavy lifting. So I don't necessarily want that. But it would be nice to have more crunch than what D&D 5E offers.

I'm reserving judgment for now. I didn't especially chuckle to the trailer. But there's a ton of talent here, and I'll watch just on the off-chance that Brooks himself shows up in the episodes.

I assumed the money flowed the opposite direction in that relationship, with WOTC paying CR as a sponsor of the show. Although maybe those ads are just deducted from the cost of what CR owes WOTC. I dunno. But either way I imagine a lot of money's at stake there, and CR is very tied up in D&D. I wonder how what percentage of fans, of CR or D&D as a whole, actually know about all this yet. Because there's a long history of D&D fans dropping off actual play shows that try transitioning to other systems. So jumping ship would not be a decision to take light lightly for CR.

Paizo, in collaboration with a bunch of other publishers, has announced they're creating a new open license, the Open RPG Creative license (ORC). https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6si7v?Paizo-Announces-SystemNeutral-Open-RPG-License It's a pretty long statement, but the key bit (after a bunch of slamming WOTC) is:

Been really struggling to find a game that captures my interest for the past couple months. I dropped DarkTide pretty quickly after realizing how little content there actually is right now. Dropped Persona 5 Royal a while ago due to frustration with the writing. Tried and dropped a bunch of indie games not worth going through. Pretty much the only game that's kept my interest is Vampire Survivors, which I hadn't played in almost a year and has a ton of new content. And also there's Immortality, the recent Sam Barlow FMV game; which I've been playing through with my girlfriend. I'm hoping the new Fire Emblem is good, because it looks like it'll be a couple more months before anything else decent comes along (unless Forspoken ends up surprising us all). I'm worried though about all the past Fire Emblem heroes being in the game. That seems like a recipe for bad writing that is just there for fan service.

Maybe it's a UK vs US thing? I've never been in a game where there were actual, physical minis.

To me this feels like a solved problem, they just need to take a page from Games Workshop. E.g., regularly release supplemental rules that are written up in books filled with artwork and additional lore. Publish player versions of campaign books, which might have things like write-ups of basic background info that any in-world person might know, maps of public locations (like a street map of Waterdeep), and other non-spoiler content. Sell higher quality supplemental stuff, like metal dice. They could even try pushing minis more; which will never be fundamental to the game, like they are for Warhammer, but it seems like almost no one besides streamers actually use them right now. Hasbro's problem, which others have pointed out, is that they don't want to put in any work. All the best content, even all the okay-to-decent content, is third-party; the official campaigns suck. And the best tools, like D&D Beyond, were made by outside developers and eventually bought by Hasbro. Roll20, which feels vital to playing online, is still independent.

Subpoenas are the big one. The House can do all sorts of investigations (and "investigations") on its own. Also impeachments. Yeah, you need the senate to convict. But if, say, DHS Sec. Mayorkas gets impeached (articles have already been introduced) it's a big hassle/distraction until the senate acquits. And they can both file lawsuits and submit court briefs on their own. Last time Republicans had the House majority they made the House party to several Obamacare-related lawsuits.

And there was almost just a real fight on the floor. Mike Rogers had to be pulled back from charging Gaetz, and then stormed out of the chamber. Seems like maybe you do. But anyway, how does he get agreement between the sides on what should be in the placeholder package if he can't pass the original package?

It literally is the difference. The senate's old rules continue to operate until new ones are passed; whereas the House's expire when they adjourn sine die.

Difference is that the senate is a continuing body, so it continued to operate under the previous organizing resolution. Which was bad for Democrats, since it meant that the committees still operated as if there was a Republican majority. But it did mean that the senate could technically function.

Lol, the "moderate" GOP rebellion may actually be happening. Not necessarily against McCarthy on the Speakership, but on the rules package immediately afterwards: I honestly don't know what happens if there is a Speaker but there isn't a rules package (whereas without a Speaker the House can only do what it's done the past 4 days). Maybe the House just functions under general parliamentary procedure until a rules package does pass?

Harris just flipped, not sure if he got his bribe already or decided he didn't want to part of the absolute fringe. But that's getting things awfully close for McCarthy.