In DA2’s defence, the game went from concept to release in 16 months. With a development cycle that fast, it’s a miracle it was even playable; I wouldn’t call its rampant copy-pasting “lazy”. I’d call it many bad things, because that game had tons of problems, but that’s what happens when the beancounters have an unexpected success and want to capitalize on it yesterday.

instead of just playing the game as intended.

I feel like you just unwittingly hit on the problem many series veterans have been having.

People are approaching bosses in Elden Ring like they’re Dark Souls bosses, and in my thousands of hours across the series, the only bosses I summon help for is Sister Friede and the Demon Twins. Everyone else I was eventually able to defeat on my own, because that’s how they were balanced.

But in Elden Ring, you have the open world to grind in and Spirit Ashes and crazy weapon arts that are far beyond any that were in Dark Souls 3, and the bosses are balanced around these things. It’s harder to make a good guess at how powerful a player is at any given time in Elden Ring, so in order to counter the player’s bullshit, the bosses need bullshit of their own.

This, naturally, throws a wrench into the plans of veterans who are used to bosses that are tough but fair and approaching them in that manner. They then promptly get their shit pushed in because they aren’t using the things the encounters are balanced around having simply because they didn’t used to need them.

It makes the bosses binary. Either you get your ass kicked, or you summon help, use a Mimic Tear, and run a train on them. They’re either frustrating or boring, and fights that are frustrating or boring just aren’t fun. I’m not having fun getting comboed to death or just pelting the boss with spells while my goons beat them up.

The magic is gone. Bosses used to be the highlight of Souls games, and now I just want them to be over.

The only time it was challenging was back when AI factions had a hate boner for the player and ONLY the player. Like how they would leave their settlements undefended to march halfway across the map, through territory belonging to a faction they were at war with just to sack the player’s settlements.

More rope to hang himself with…I hope.

We’ll find out in a little over two weeks.

It looks to me like they’re reusing the Link’s Awakening map, like they did for BotW.

I’m gonna pick it up, if only to encourage Nintendo to give Zelda her own full-size, mainline game.

Thank you, sir; I’d saved that a while back for a comment and couldn’t find the original.

That is a pretty good explanation of money laundering, actually.

I hated X because I found most of the characters sans Auron and Lulu to be incredibly obnoxious.

X-2 just made those problems worse by largely getting rid of the few characters I could tolerate, and somehow making Rikku even more annoying.

It says something about how good the combat was in those games that I managed to power my way thru X and a fair chunk of X-2 before it just got to be too much for me.

I hate X-2 with the burning fury of a thousand suns, and I’ll still praise the combat.

Thing is, all the other major manufacturers are just as bad or worse.

As a PC technician, HP still somehow has the best service and support, which speaks volumes about how bad everyone else is. Dell’s support tools are a generation behind HP’s, and Lenovo’s build quality is atrocious. Not to mention Lenovo’s technician support is so badly fragmented and poorly run, they default to having the customer send the device in for repair and avoid sending an on-site technician just so they can avoid dealing with technician support. Speaking from personal experience, getting to the right person when I have a problem or need to order additional parts is like pulling teeth, and even if I manage to reach someone, they’re usually equal parts incompetent and unhelpful.

And Apple doesn’t even want to service their stuff.

These days, you have to pick your poison.

Do it.

See what happens.

If I’m Judge Merchan, I’d cite Trump’s naked attempts to intimidate the jury, witnesses, and the judge (as well as multiple violations of his gag order) as an excuse to throw the book at him.

I’d point out that all Trump had to do to get a slap on the wrist was keep his mouth shut, because it’s my understanding that most people convicted of falsifying business documents don’t get jail time; they usually just get fined, get some community service, maybe probation if it’s bad. Most first-time defendants characterize this crime as an innocent mistake and behave accordingly, but Trump and his ego had to run his mouth.

I’ve been getting a lot of mileage from this.

I amar prestar aen.

The world is changed.

Han matho ne nen.

I feel it in the water.

Han mathon ned cae.

I feel it in the earth.

A han noston ned gwilith.

I smell it in the air.

Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.

TikTok isn’t doing anything that any other major social media company isn’t also doing. The only difference being that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, and not a US one.

Just banning one app does little to resolve the overall privacy and information nightmare that social media is.

Republicans have a huge and extensive propaganda network that feeds their constituents a steady stream of misinformation, fear, hatred, intolerance, and ignorance. Fox News primes them, Republicans parrot Fox or whatever right-wing news outlet people get their news from, and get elected because most people don’t have the media literacy to see that they’re being lied to.

We can’t reason with them, because they live in a world that has been carefully crafted to keep them compliant. The only way to fix this is to break the GOP’s propaganda machine. Until we can do that, they are lost to us.

Just get a second account. They’re free.

I have a second account for all of my filth, it’s easy.

I’ve always said that the Railjack in Warframe really deserved to be its own game instead of a shoehorned game mode.

This looks like what that idea could be. Just being able to play Sea of Thieves IN SPACE!!! is a home-run of an idea.

Their problem was they counted their chickens before they hatched. They went on a spending spree while expecting an influx of cash from the Saudi PIF. But the deal fell through and suddenly, they were short about $2 billion.