Love Ahoy’s essays. They’re so slick.

Blackgate.com - the remnants of Black Gate magazine, which was published from 2000-2011 and then continued in digital form since. It focuses primarily on vintage literary fantasy, though occasionally the an article will be published in films or new fiction. Of particular note to nerds is the Cinema of Swords column by Lawrence Ellsworth, who fantasy fans may be familiar with as the Principal Narrative Designer for Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m not so immersed in the fantasy world that I understand most of what is discussed on the blog, but it is a nice taste of the old Internet, one which might resonate with other fediverse users.

I’m circle jerking here, but Lemmy needs content so I’m gonna inflict it on y’all. It’s just nice to hear that the genesis of this project is a bunch of creative people experimenting and seeing what sticks rather than some suit writing “Live Service” on a white board and circling it a bunch. Maybe a dollar sign or two.

This is a factually accurate statement, but it reads like you’re encouraging someone to get into smoking cigarettes, which is (I thought) a myth invented by DARE types. Hey OP, speaking as someone with a 15 year off and on addiction to nicotine, steady on your course, bud.

I feel like this is the sort of thing that should make an appearance on LGReviews’ YouTube channel at some point, if it has not already.

I don’t understand diddly about the specifics of this article (I’m a member of the normie minority on this site who is neither working in IT, nor interested in the field), but I gotta say, I loved how it was structured and written. In a sea of AI generated crap, or simply parroting talking heads and calling it news, I found the way they laid out the article in two parts ("this is what happened, followed by “this is our subjective opinion on those events based on the wider context”) to be very refreshing.

Is this mean t as a replacement for, or in addition to the Adaptive Controller kits that were in the news a few years back? This seems like a logical end point for that program (i.e. I remember the adaptive controller looking relatively unpolished in comparison to this product). Another commenter pointed out that the actual cost of the adaptive controller is greater than the sticker price would indicate since you need to add peripherals to the base $99 controller to achieve functionality, but hopefully it’s still a feasible option for folks that maybe can’t quite swing a $300 purchase.

You’re correct, HR is there to benefit the company. However, in this case, the goals align. OP wants to stop being sent objectionable material while at work. HR wants employees’ actions to not open the company up for litigation. Being able to prove that dickhead is engaging textbook harassment while on the clock should be an open and shut case.

All of this is to be taken with a heaping handful of salt, since regulations differ wildly by jurisdiction, but this seems pretty clear cut to me.

Adding on to this, TECHNICALLY speaking the freshest butter bar (lowest ranking commissioned) outranks the highest warrant. However, just as it would be foolish for a lieutenant to try and pull rank on their grizzled platoon sergeant, it would be foolish for an officer to dismiss the advice of a warrant for all of the reasons stated above.

Also, I find the biggest distinction between warrants and other officers is their attitude on command, which I think fits very well with discussing Ripley’s role on the ship. The warrants I have worked with typically have little to no interest in being in charge of other people, outside of a small team of folks dedicated to a common mission (e.g. a vehicle maintenance shop, supply warehouse crew, etc). If they wanted to be supervisors, they either would have remained NCOs or commissioned as lieutenants rather than warrants. So, Ripley being put in a position where she is responsible for others is probably both not in her wheelhouse, and actually antithetical to her desires. That’s always gone a long way for me as for as explaining her prickliness early on (especially relating to Yafet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton’s blue collar “enlisted man” characters).

Those poor souls have suffered enough, don’t you think?

Oh, never you fear pal, I’m certain that Hasbro has no intention of leaving the cashcow alone. Larian might be moving on to other things, but those ghouls certainly aren’t.

For sure. My impression is that to focus on character work in the same way as BG3 (i.e. voice acting, mocap, cinematics, etc) would have been an impossibility for the studio that made Solasta. I would guess they did not have the financial support to make that happen.

Personally, I think of it as being of a piece with the old Infinity Engine games. There was the Baldurs Gate series, which, in classic CRPG fashion, was all about player choice and character. But, side by side with those games, you had the Icewind Dale series, which was almost completely devoid of the story focus of the BG games and entirely focused on dungeon crawling and seeing how far the ruleset can be pushed.

Fair. I felt I should jump in and provide some more context than the other poster for exactly that reason. The worst thing a movie can be to me is dull, and those sequels qualify, in my opinion.

Only do so if you have high tolerance for bad filmmaking. I’ve seen the live action sequels, and they are BAD. The second film feels like an unrelated script that got attached to the IP for name recognition. As I recall, it’s dull, poorly acted, ugly, and cheap. The third film does lean into the IP, complete with satirical propaganda gags and, yes, mech suits make an appearance. However, my recollection of the rest of the movie is that it is dull, poorly acted, ugly, and cheap, but less so than the second.

If you enjoy Sci Fi Channel original movies from the early 00s, these movies are birds of a feather with those.

Allow me to introduce you to Solasta: Crown of the Magister. It was the OTHER CRPG releases based on the DnD 5e system. Much smaller budget and team, but a pretty faithful recreation.

Including the fact that the game opens in a tavern with your party throwing back beer one of them might refer to as a donkey piss (depending on which personality archetype you selected for them) while they wait for their quest sponsor to show up and tell them what’s going on. In the meantime, each character introduces themselves to the others by discussing the adventure they had on the way to the present location (as an excuse to run through some tutorials). Doesn’t get much more classic DnD start than that.

Grim Dawn is the most fun I’ve had with an ARPG in years. The class system is very interesting and, as far as I know, unique to this game. Rather than just being a barbarian or necromancer or whatever other typical ARPG class you can think of, your class is determined by selecting any 2 archetypes. For instance, maybe you like being a pet class like necromancer, but you want to have a slightly more active play style than just watching your skellingtons paint the map red. So, you mix in the Nightblade (melee rogue) class at level 10. Your new, combined class is called a Reaper, and you have access to both skill trees, free to mix and match as you wish. Very interesting playstyles can emerge from creative pairings.

I am a casual player so I can’t offer any perspective on the endgame or anything like that, but if you’re looking for something to scratch the Diablo 2 itch with a fun twist on classes,you cant go wrong with Grim Dawn.

Don’t let her shitty politics get in the way of doing something you enjoy. Death of the author and all that. If you’re worried about fiscally supporting her, I’m certain you can find the whole series at reasonable prices in any secondhand bookstore.

I’ve definitely gone through the Harry Potter series a couple of times at different phases of my life. Definitely had a different experience with every reading. Not always positive, but at this point it’s part of the tapestry of my childhood.

Vogel’s GDC talk about his career is well worth the time, if anyone hasn’t watched it. While it’s obviously aimed at the conference’s developer audience, there’s a whole lot in there that is applicable to lay people.