You telling me I can painkiller my way away from the massive amounts of cringe I generate? Say less, lemme go buy a costco-sized barrel of excedrin

Oh hell yeah, I can get behind some good FOSS. Bo wonder he’s so recognized. Yeah, then I’ll give it another shot. Maybe there’s something I’m missing

Gotta carbo-load

Can anyone tell me what it is I’m missing that makes vlc so good? In my experience across several machines, it gives choppy playback with almost every file, especially after unpausing. Like, i get that it plays pretty much every codec out there at high res, but I all I remember of my time using VLC is frustration. Did I just repeatedly set it up wrong and it’s actually a godsend, or is VLC just not that great?

“Oh. I suppose that is you. So, did you want something, or…?”

Far Cry Blood Dragon’s tutorial section. The game is very aware of how impatient gamers are to get to the killing, and milks it for all the time it can while the PC grumbles about annoying tutorial sections. They throw in a ton of extra dialog boxes like accompanying reading recommendations, obvious tips,etc.

The whole game is meta and corny on purpose. If you like '80s action movies and sci-fi, they packed just about every trope possible into this thing. Heavily recommend if you haven’t played it.

Me cleaning the house when I should be getting ready for work. The motivation is there, im going to use it dammit

Meh, it was kinda a slog to get through the books. Like, it’s an interesting world and all, but the writing itself is where those books suffered the most to me. If they have their own vision for it, I can see why they didn’t consult him as much.

Contrast to Mike Pondsmith, who not only built the base for the world but also designed a game. Mechanics for all the things CP2077 wanted existed already, and they had to heavily adapt them for the game. But those mechanics still exist, and may be explored in future titles. Netrunning on the ttrpg is especially different. But if/when they decide to expand on that, Mike Pondsmith is going to be the first person they call. Would they call Andrzej for anything like that in the Witcher series? I doubt it, since that world was only built big enough to serve its stories. The Cyberpunk world was built as an arena for players to make their own stories, so it naturally needs to have at least some information already for a lot of seemingly disconnected places, people, and points in history. It leaves a veritable buffet for adaptations to draw from, all of which needs fleshing out rather than starting from scratch. And Mike may already have something cooking for that bit that ties together 4 others. At least, that’s the impression I get when I hear him talk about lore tidbits on Morro Rock radio.

“C’mon, honey, show them you’re one of the good ones.”

Got a drink thrown at me and a lifetime ban from Applebee’s, 2/10 do not recommend, mozzarella sticks were p good tho

It’s a bunch of stressed, impatient parents who just want to grab their kid and get out, but are apathetic to everyone else trying to do the same. If all these other people weren’t here they could do this so fast, why won’t everyone get out of their way? It’s a highly concentrated dose of the “Im gonna get mine and the rest of you can fuck right off” mentality. And, like most shitty driving behaviors, it feeds into itself. It makes good drivers make bad decisions because, if they don’t, they’re not going anywhere. “No one is letting me in, so if I dont cut someone off, I’m going to be stuck here another 15 minutes” type shit. I dont know why well-built pickup and drop-off areas aren’t required for building schools past 1990, but here we are.

She garnered fame for an incident in which she killed 140 rattlesnakes.

Um

an incident

Excuse me?

On October 28, 1925, Slaughterback singlehandedly killed 140 rattlesnakes. Slaughterback and her son Ernie were on horseback headed to a lake near her farm. Hunters had been there the day before, and she was hoping to find harvested ducks left behind. However, she instead found over 100 migrating rattlesnakes. She shot the snakes until she ran out of ammunition for her .22 caliber Remington rifle, at which point she grabbed a nearby sign (allegedly, it said “No Hunting”) and bludgeoned the remaining snakes to death.

Of her ordeal, Slaughterback later said:

I fought them with a club not more than 3 feet long, whirling constantly for over two hours before I could kill my way out of them and get back to my faithful horse and Ernie, who were staring at me during my terrible battle not more than 60 feet away.

Shooting and then bludgeoning 140 snakes for hours while your kid and horse just stare at you like

is metal as fuck. Almost as metal as making a dress out of 53 of them, which she also did.

I am the walrus

I find the best lore raises more questions than it answers, and Lake and his team do that in spades. And you absolutely should give it a play with some more Alan Wake under your belt. Even outside the DLC they have lore connecting the two games all over. And of course, it only leaves me with more questions than I had. Another dead letter:

To the Esteemed Members of the American Psychiatric Council,

I am writing you to inquire about the significance of dreams in relation to one’s mental health? I am aware that there are many books purporting to contain the True meanings of dreams, but I have reservations about their legitimacy.

I understand that this is not usually done, but if I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on my Condition. Ever since I was young, I have had intensely-vivid dreams. They only occur sporadically, but in them I witness very strange events. I understand dreams can seem real at the time, but these feel markedly different. They do not occur often, perhaps only one or two a year.

Last night I had one. I saw a small, empty town. It was utterly dark. There was a Lake at its center. Shadows of people moved around me, muttering odd things. A bright light woke me up. I was screaming in my sleep. My wife had been shaking me for minutes before I woke.

Because of this recent incident, I have decided to seek help. The doctor says I am physically fine, but I wanted to consult your Expertise. Thank you for your valuable time.

Yours Very Sincerely,

Richard Bowker

Like, how many people did this event affect? It clearly wasn’t limited to Bright Falls and close associates of the artists the Dark Presence is feeding off of. This is some unrelated schmuck living who knows where, and he’s having dreams of the Bright Falls event. And this wasn’t even in the DLC. The Lovecraftian web of influence of other planes of existence in these fictional games fascinate me so damn much.

I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. ███ █ █████ ████ ██ █ █████████ █████ I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world.

Absolutely, although I’m a Containment/Panopticon fan myself. Langston’s dialogue is great, especially in the AWE dlc. Dead Letters is close behind though. The fish letter is excellent.

Playing AW2 right now after having watched a Quantum Break playthrough, so I’ve got the Remedyverse on my mind constantly and see it in everything. Such a dope company, can’t wait for the next control. I think it’s next on their development list, so hopefully soon!

Write letters to the press. Ripped from Control:

Dear New York Tribune,

Airplanes aren’t real. I figured out how they do it.

The windows are TV screens. The whole thing moves on big tracks like a rollercoaster that moves through underground tunnels in the Earth. Airports are more like train stations.

They do this because the sky is full of monsters that they don’t want us to know about. The planes we see in the sky are the monsters. The government made the Earth-trains look like the monsters so they could lie to us better.

Don’t contact me.

Not real, obviously, but clearly the most effective tactic when no one takes your 100% legit theories seriously.

Oddly enough I have a reverse relationship with this game compared to many others in the thread. I played Dishonored first, and I feel like THAT game spoiled the stealth genre for me. I tried Thief chasing that feeling and was sorely let down. I think if I’d played Thief first like a lot of you guys, I might have that attachment to it. And I know that Thief is likely a large reason why Dishonored exists to begin with, especially with the level design in mind. It just didn’t feel compelling to play, game mechanic wise or story wise. I ended up wanting to just play Dishonored halfway through. I pushed through till the end, it just felt like a worse version of a game i loved. May give the second one a shot, might stick with me more. But the first one left a not-so-pleasant taste

I mean, idk about you but when I pay money to see a musician showcase their music, I kinda of expect them to, you know, use that skill. It’s why I’m here. If I wanted to hear a recording, I could do that on my own. I dont need to see the musician dance. Or be super well lit with a AAA light show. Or have choreographed anything. Im there to see the musician do the musician thing and play the music. If you can’t do the stunt or choreography while performing, it’s a poorly designed stunt or routine.

And yeah, when the body is unwilling the show gets canceled. That’s the way it works. Or if they’re part of a larger set, they may just get replaced. I’d rather deal with that than show up for essentially an overpriced pre-made DJ set. Had Black Sabbath get replaced by Judas Priest for a show I saw. Couldnt be mad, Ozzy was having health issues and i bought the tickets like 10 months out. Not likeq the band or promoters thought it was likely. And if i got there, and they said “Hey guys, Ozzy couldnt be here but heres the rest of the band with some vocal tracks” I’d be pissed.

It’s a rough job being a touring musician, and fans undertake certain risks when they get tickets. It’s not a company with 1500 employees who can call someone else in when someone is sick with uninterrupted service. It’s at largest a small group of individuals who are each integral to the main service being provided, working a very stressful job. For singer/songwriters it’s a person. Expecting the consistency and adaptability of a large company from a small group of individuals is just setting yourself up for disappointment. Support the artist, but recognize they’re just humans and be understanding when shit happens.