While I understand that I’m giving up “owning” the game, Steam has a good track record of trying to make users happy. It being a private company means that it’s beholden to users rather than shareholders. In this instance, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, at least for me. I don’t have enough space in my home for the 100s of games I have on top of not having to worry about disks getting scratched or corrupted. Then I also don’t have to worry about downloading game patches from a 20 year old site that may or may not still be up (AoE 2) to keep playing on a modern OS. Also, there’s a centralized space for users to communicate, upload mods, host servers, etc. without having to jump through different hoops for different games (Hamachi, GameSpy, etc.).

That being said, I appreciate that there are alternatives for people that feel differently. And I appreciate there are alternatives and competition (even people like you) keeping corporate greed in check and making Valve have to work to stay good for users.

When Gabe Newell dies or leaves the company though, I’ll be watching closely to see who the new CEO will be and figure it out from there.

I’m glad their chatbot is at least smarter than themselves.

The US desperately needs to rework its citizen ID system. I’m tired of having to spend hours freezing and unfreezing multiple credit accounts after so many of these breaches. It’s not too hard to have a secure system since companies don’t care to protect confidential information.

Also, it was disclosed to AT&T in 2021 and they’re just now admitting to it? Then only offering 1 year of identity theft protection?? If a SSN breach occurs, they should be made to pay for lifetime identity theft protection. Then if they don’t want to pay that, they can use the good ol’ lobbying system to advocate for a more secure citizen ID.

You’re right; it’s about pee.

Apparently cicadas send a stream of pee instead of droplets like most insects. Scientists studied them since a stream of pee should use more energy at their size and they are studying why/how they still use that method.

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-cicadas-unique-urination-fluid-dynamics.html

Just taking random assets from the Unreal store and jamming them together to make a quick buck or releasing a game with different-colored models is “ripping”.

After playing Palworld for about 15 hours, I can confidently say that it has gameplay elements from a lot of different games, but they are integrated together seamlessly (at least for an Early Access title) and expanded upon. Pals aren’t just something you capture and sit in a PC forever. They have different stats that actually help you while exploring (running/mining faster) or help keep your base running (water your garden better). You are also incentivized to keep catching more to level up your character and level up your party.

It also has elements from Zelda with the climbing, exploring, and gliding. It has elements from ARK with leveling to get new crafting recipes and upgrading stats. It has elements from Elden Ring, like you can roll to dodge. Wait, that’s a simple mechanic…

Just like every game I’ve mentioned so far, they have elements from other games or simple mechanics that other genres have. They’ve used them cohesively and expanded upon to build a better game. Palworld is no different. Is it game of the year? Probably not. But it’s a fun game that isn’t as derivative as people are trying to make it seem.

Being informative is one part to let people know what was going on, but I feel like the biggest part of his “bitching” is actually being one of the larger voices pushing for right-to-repair and consumer protection. And with that came new bills/laws that even Apple and Google are backing.

His messages are/sound aggressive because they are. We need that passion to actually implement change.

The Road to El Dorado!

I really liked the atmosphere and world of Vesper, but the story was contrived and bland I felt.

I’ve seen District 9 mentioned as kind of biopunk, so maybe if that counts, I’d say that’s my favorite.

Not just that, but there are great feint/death animations when you win a battle!

I’m trying to determine if this is satire or not. I’ll respond anyways if it is just to share a point of view for anybody else reading though.

EDIT: I just saw the username and saw you commented above. The below still stands for everything the average big truck American embodies though.

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Besides the fact you have an oversized, $30,000+ vehicle for just grocery shopping (as you say “so you get some use out of it”), the ideal walkable/bikable city will save you time plus has the added benefit of making you healthier too. The exercise you get and reduced air pollution will have a noticeable affect on health and lifespan.

As for time saving, you say you spend ~40 minutes traveling to the big box store, but a walkable city would have more stores closer to you so you could just take a short 10 minute walk or 4 minute bike ride to them.

The umbrella and bag situation is an easy fix though, just spend like $100 on raincoat, backpack, etc.; you didn’t mind spending $30,000 on a truck. I know some people need a vehicle for longer travel, but that’s the point people are trying to make. Having every American require a multi-thousand dollar more of transportation when $500 for a bike and equipment is just insane.

I could 100% see the terriers in Age of Empires.

I am very happy they’re doing this since it allows for more build diversity.

That being said, nothing really stood out as a big change to me (probably because I suck at theorycrafting). I feel like the specializations, weapons, and skills are tied so close together to really get good synergy. For example sword really only works on holosmith since you need that specialization to get the bonus effects on the sword. I’m sure some niche builds will come out of it, but I feel like they need tweak some skills and core traits to really open up the build possibilities.

I feel like the lack of karma system will 100% help in this aspect. No reason to comment/post dumb things since you don’t really get anything with your post/comment is at the top.