in 24th place among social media companies, a few spots behind YouTube Kids.

I like how they salted the wound there.

Hell yes.

All good, and picking it up on sale is a good idea. I finished it today. It’s a good game and the gameplay loop is fun, but the story was just… ugh, convoluted to fit into Final Fantasy canon. The plot suffered from “good idea, poor execution.”

Technically sigterm first says “please stop. Don’t make me shoot you.”

It only goes John Wick on a process when civility fails.

I’m enjoying it. I bounced off the game the first time I played as I was expecting maybe a more traditional Final Fantasy experience and it didn’t click with me. I’ve played a few souls-likes since and the gameplay is meshing better for me now, though it’s still difficult at times.

Combat is enjoyable, but the gear filtering and management is kind of annoying.

I’ve read it’s similar to Nioh’s gameplay but I’m not familiar with that one.

Been going hard on Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.

Besides that, I’m 10-11 hours into Stella Glow on my 2DS XL, and have been playing Grim Dawn and Slay the Spire 2 co-op with my wife.

This happened to me with three games:

• Hollow Knight
• Steamworld Heist
• Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

In each case the game just didn’t gel with me on the initial play, even if I could objectively tell it was a quality game.

Currently playing through Stranger of Paradise again now. I think I expected a more traditionally “Final Fantasy” game my first time through and dropped it at 10 hours. Started fresh recently and am tearing past where I was and playing it enthusiastically now, it’s a lot of fun.

I’ve played some souls-like games in the interim which helped with the general gameplay loop and control scheme. Also have upgraded hardware since my first run, which makes a big difference as the game was previously a shimmery mess full of slowdowns.

but we’re past the point of it being a big scary virus anymore

Just in the last 28 days, nearly 1000 people died of Covid in the US, and there have been over 7 million deaths from it over the last 6 years. And that’s only the deaths that have been reported. Doesn’t account for people who’s lives were cut short due or other complications in relation to the virus. There’s been way too many sentiments of “many of you will die, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take” around COVID-19.

My spouse and I have high risk conditions. Like, the flu nearly killed U.S. back in 2018, no way I’m risking COVID-19. Even just getting vaccinated gave me a bout of laryngitis and messed up my throat and voice for nearly two years. And my wife had worse side effects to the Moderna vaccine, to the point I was worried about potential hospitalization.

Also, I’m an IT Engineer and literally use my brain to make my living, and I’ve seen a massive drop in logical skills over the years among peers, it’s definitely affected people mentally to varying degrees.

As for social growth, I don’t care about that. I’m in my 40s and long past giving shit what random people who see me think about me. My wife is the one person who matters to me more than anyone, and I’m not putting her or us at risk for social cred.

Just a heads up, the appimage doesn’t work on Steam deck (or didn’t as of 1.0 release). Linux native and Windows version with proton work fine though.

the brain damage is already done too

Oh yeah, that part is clear.

As far as it being like regular flu… well I don’t want that either. It nearly killed my wife and I some years back a bit before the pandemic. We both have high risk conditions.

It’s 2026 and I still wear a mask when I’m out. I don’t know why people act like COVID is gone and somehow long COVID isn’t a thing anymore. It’s still mutating, and endemic now, and there are a ton of health consequences to catching it that may not be immediately obvious, including organ damage.

Sadly, it’s real. Direct from Nvidia: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-dlss-5-delivers-ai-powered-breakthrough-in-visual-fidelity-for-games

“Mistakenly.”

Sure.

I dunno, I’m not a fan and I expect there to be long term ramifications. Literally everyone I’ve seen pictures of after Ozempic/weygovy/whatever look ill. Screwing with your body’s natural process tends to be a bad idea.

Most people on it long term seem to end up looking like Skeletor. I’m happy to keep losing weight the slow old fashioned way.

This was in context to taking GLP1 medication (Ozempic, et al). 1200 kcal a day on those is probably even higher than is comfortable. Ozempic supposedly massively slows digestion.

I agree though, it seems like a terrible idea and I suspect many people on these are ending up malnutritioned.

now I don’t think I could enjoy certain political aspects of the story where the americans (the government, not the people) are the good guys…

As an American, I feel you on this.

All I can say is that Conviction is a personal story for Sam, and in that one there’s a terrorist threat, but it’s domestic terrorists.

In Blacklist, the Engineers seem to be global and evidence points to the Middle East, but it’s a misdirect. And while 4th Echelon is working to stop the attacks, I don’t think the American government is painted in a good light in that one either (the stated goal of the Engineers is to get US troops out of other sovereign nations and bring them home). It’s actually feels like a relevant and nuanced plot in the modern day.

Definitely. I miss driving sedans and small hatchbacks, up until a few years ago they’re all I’d ever driven.

I currently have a Kia Sportage only because I moved to a rural area and needed something that could deal with country roads and off-road. Otherwise I’d still be driving my old ‘07 Accent, that thing gave me zero problems in well over 100k miles.

90s/early 2000s Civics were great. Comfortable ride and well maintainable. WTF is mom on about here, an ‘04 Civic is a great car.

Been playing through Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne remaster. It’s been something of a white whale for me as I missed it in the PS2 era despite really enjoying Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2.

Also enjoying Ball x Pit here and there.

It’s often an upstream issue, and I’m not keen on people who suggest men in middle age (40s, 50s) should automatically jump to supplementing testosterone. I had low T for a while and it turned out it was due to a vitamin B deficiency (I’m a T2 Diabetic and my medication basically leeches vitamin B from my body, as well as blocking absorption). Started supplementing vitamin B and eating more foods with vitamin B and the next two tests over several months went from low, to the lower end of “normal” range, and seemed to be steadily increasing back to normal.