That’s how Handsome Jack runs a company!

“I’m… not… choking you! This… is called… strangulation.”

You know what, I remain not at all sold on Firewatch, or Edith Finch. I get that it’s a new genre, but they just didn’t do anything for me. Weirdly, Come Home did work for me a bit more, despite not being all that different.

Oxenfree on the other hand, I thought that game was really brilliant. It really evoked that feeling of being 16, hanging out with friends trying to be cool, sussing out who likes who, etc. There’s a sense of adventure and terror in being that age, and with the addition of just a little bit of creepy mystery, you’ve got a real great recipe for a unique experience.

I also really liked their system for interrupting characters’ monologues and being able to get back to them later with a quick “oh, what was I saying?”, it’s essentially like being able to pause a cutscene, actually play the game for a bit, then return to it.

I couldn’t finish it.

This is certainly on me, but I just couldn’t handle the story. Without too many spoilers, the game’s story includes a tragic death, and when I played the game I was actively dealing with a recent death in the family and when I got to that part of the story… I just couldn’t go any further.

And while this is a special case, it’s also typical for how I play games, I play to escape the emotional social dilemmas of my life. Give me a strategy game, a puzzle game, a factory game. Give me some abstract puzzle to solve, a system to optimize, an army to outmaneuver; the last thing I want is a deep story with complex characters. Emotions just add weight to the experience, and my whole objective is to try to shrug off some of that weight for a while.

It’s sad, but this is the world we live in. It’s constantly disappointing.

But I do want to push back a bit, the people getting scammed are not incredibly stupid, they’re incredibly vulnerable. They’re often people who are generally less tech savvy, but also they’re people who don’t have a lot to lose, it’s a bit counterintuitive, but it’s easier to scam people who take money very seriously.

Trust the math. You don’t need to accept risk if you can check the math yourself.

That’s what cryptography is about.

I understand this happens to a lot of apps…

Yeah, what does that even mean? And why would anyone want it?

Should someone tell him you can already play gta V on the PS5?

Now if he used it to play Baulder’s Gate 2 or Ski Free, that would be new.

While I don’t have an answer for your first question, there is a really good answer to the second.

A delay is a perfect solution for eliminating the tactical advantage that its imagery could offer, while still maintaining an eye on the region, not letting war crimes go unnoticed.

The delay rather than a blackout actually reinforces the idea that this is really about not providing intel to Iran. Three day old troop positions are totally useless, those troops are somewhere else now. A delay is totally sufficient to make their imagery non threatening. But if they were trying to hide the actions of either side, a delay wouldn’t be enough, they’d need to hold those images back forever. Meaning, they aren’t trying to hide the truth.

Well that’s actually a really good point. We already know that Russia is sharing intel with them and even if China wasn’t doing the same, I’m sure they have no problem with “sharing” that intel at a price.

With this perspective I’m actually somewhat convinced that the move could have more to do with outside perception (be it for Americans or for the rest of the world).

Still, there’s no telling what the quality or timelines of the imagery they’re currently getting is like. The difference between having 10 second old images and 4 hour old images is huge, and we really don’t know what they’re getting from Russia. So with that in mind, they don’t need one more avenue to get that data, especially one that could be more immediate imagery.

Edit: As another user points out, these images aren’t being blacked out entirely, they’re just being held back on a 72 hour delay. This does indicate that the company isn’t trying to prevent their images from being seen, they will be seen. But they can’t be used for tactical advantage on the battlefield, 3 day old information is not very useful for that.

So, make of all that what you will.

That’s completely detached from reality. You could confirm that by talking to anyone in the military.

Probably half of our service members joined up just to pay for college. They’re not in the military because they’re psychopaths… it’s just a viable option for moving up in life. Many Americans hope to pursue advanced careers, but they can’t afford college and don’t have many job opportunities in their home town. Well regardless of what your town is like, the military is always hiring; and the recruiters are convincing. If you’re 20 years old and stalled out in your career, it sounds like a real good deal. Again, that does not make you a psychopath. AND regardless of what you think of service members, the effectiveness of the US military is exceedingly evident, they hardly need me to speak for them.

I mean, you could have that opinion I guess. But the stated reasoning is perfectly valid. After you launch a long distance attack, it is in fact important to know how effective it was. This is a very strategically useful ability. Leaving your adversary in the dark has always worked to your advantage in war.

Look, we all know this war is stupid, there aren’t many who would deny that. But to be perfectly honest, despite the political leadership at the very top, the US military and it’s leadership are actually pretty good at what they do. I doubt they’re trying to cover up a failing war. To me, this looks more like operational security than a cover up.

I hate Battle Royale shooters, all of them.

There is nothing I find more unpleasant than inventory management under pressure. I don’t even have time to look at what I just picked up and figure out what it does before people are shooting at me. I say just pick a lane, you can be a competitive shooter, but skip the loot. Or go maximum inventory management, like borderlands or stalker, but not in a competitive multiplayer game.

I love these games, but I totally agree with you. I missed hestu and didn’t find him for probably the first 15 hours of the game. Basically it took someone having pity on me and saying “just go here”, Very frustrating.

Oh man, I love all of it so much! I thought Silverhand was a riot the whole time. And I thought the whole “I’m dying and I need a fix right fuckin’ now!” plot line just fit the world really well.

But you know, just cause I dug it, doesn’t mean anyone else has to.

Well it sounds like you’re not that into this sort of abstract puzzle game. That’s fine, to each their own.

It’s interesting, perhaps it’s something about my personality, but I find that often I’m looking to escape from any sort of emotional engagement, so the last thing I want are deep characters. But interesting puzzles, a complex system with a definite solution, that’s my jam.

I played a game once called Firewatch, a truly beautiful walking simulator style game with a whole lot of story and dialogue. As the story went on your character is building a relationship with a coworker, and at some point she starts to confess about being involved in something truly tragic, like no joke it got heavy as hell. And despite mostly enjoying the game up to that point, I just couldn’t go any further. It was like, it’s a walking simulator, I can’t “lose” this game… but still, this feels too hard to play.

Side note, if these puzzle games aren’t for you, probably skip Return of the Obra Dinn, also Tunic

That’s exactly it though, progress isn’t reset on the timer! The only progress that matters is what you’ve learned. If you’ve already figured out how everything works, you could start a new save, and finish the game on your first cycle.

Here’s the secret to Balatro, there are basically two strategies that work. Focus on flushes, or focus on two pairs.

Also, if you get that joker that makes all red cards the same suit and all black cards the same suit, then a 9 card hand always has a flush.

Likewise, two pair is extremely reliable, it’s hard not to have it. Just get a bunch of blue seals and pump that two pair up to level 20+.

Finally, jokers that give you flat bonuses are fine, at least early on. But you really want jokers that have increasing bonuses, that get better every round.

Buy a fairphone

Historically, the problem with Motorola hasn’t been their os, it’s been their hardware, it’s just usually not very good when compared to the competition. And often the price is higher for what you’re getting.