And a hundred reviewers clench their fists in frustration at it being worth the wait, as all their puns about trash now go unused.

I hear homing pigeons are pretty good at location lookup. Maybe that old IP-over-pigeon RFC is worth a second look?

Isn’t Shelob a spawn of Ungoliant, the closest thing Tolkein’s legendarium had to a Lovecraftian Elder God?

Miyazaki’s foot fetish couldn’t be contained. He needed a sexy lady with eight legs to satisfy him.

And you have to smack his hand until he stops discharging, even.

His former long-time friends such as Michael Cohen say he doesn’t have a sense of humor. At all.

Which makes it all the more galling when every insane thing he says is laughed off as “just a joke” - he means every word.

The White House Correspondent’s Dinner used to serve this purpose, with a headline speaker gently roasting the President and staff (or not-so-gently, as was the case when they had Stephen Colbert host for George W. Bush and he spent half an hour viciously mocking Bush directly to his face).

The Correspondent’s Dinner was neutered when Trump came into office. Not only can Trump not stand being the butt of even the most mild joke, but Seth Meyers’ jokes about Trump at one of Obama’s dinners are the root cause of why he hates him so much, and his go-to response is to destroy anything even vaguely associated with whatever humiliates him.

Osloboros.

Are you thinking of the Dark Alliance spinoffs? The main Baldurs Gate was a hardcore CRPG, the spinoff was a dungeon crawling action RPG.

Dark Alliance is definitely newbie friendly though, you’re right.

I wouldn’t recommend Overcooked to someone inexperienced and uncoordinated. It’s all about juggling several multi-step tasks simultaneously without making mistakes, all under a harsh timer. It seems like it would be incredibly frustrating for someone new to video games.

Though fair warning, Castle Crashers has some occasional forced PvP which might be frustrating for the less skilled player. There are no real consequences for losing however.

I get it. Anime noises killed my interest in the Final Fantasy 7 remakes.

Oh, definitely. Warframe’s movement mechanics are second to none and the combat is sublime, albeit unbalanced as hell (though in the player’s favor at least). It went from a good game to one of the all-time greats once they added the narrative alongside handcrafted missions.

I think another cause of early Warframe burnout is needing to unlock the starchart. Its mostly linear design forces you to play several of each mission type to progress, including ones the majority of the playerbase hates. And before we got open world hubs like Cetus and Orb Vallis with activities like spear fishing, hunting and racing, there wasn’t much you could do to unwind within the game when you got bored of missions.

I think the main reason The Second Dream hit so hard was because the game was so flat and plotless up until that point. Like, it’s a great story and all, but the “twist” would have been guessed within moments of starting it if players expected there to be any plot beyond the scraps of lore they’d been given thus far.

Though kudos to the devs for making that flatness part of the plot, as you’re basically just a machine going through the motions until you “awaken”. Still sucks from a gameplay perspective, of course.

A probable timeline:

• “We’re investing in artificial intelligence to boost our teams’ productivity.”

• “Our shift to AI has streamlined our development processes (according to middle management), so we’ve laid off a number of workers as redundant.”

• “The people who remain don’t know which AI assets were meant to be placeholders.”

• “We’re delaying our financials and suspending trading of our stock, but there’s no cause for alarm.”

That would be an interesting conversation.

On a completely unrelated note, they no longer have access to an army of mercenaries to send after anyone who’s wronged them, right?

I’m leery of putting all my most high-value stuff in one place behind one password.

Password managers (at least the non-browser based ones) use methods provided by the OS to protect themselves from screen recording, direct memory reading and keyboard-sniffing. Most password managers can also be set up to require a keyfile and/or physical passkey to unlock their databases.

A keyfile stores data necessary for decryption separate from the password database and means someone couldn’t get into your passwords even if your database was stolen and they knew the master password (assuming you stored your keyfile separate from the database - the file and its location should be treated like a password itself). A keyfile also lets you keep your database on cloud storage while manually transferring the key to trusted devices, allowing cloud syncing of your passwords without fear of leaks - without the keyfile it’s all just random data.

A physical passkey makes it virtually impossible to breach the database unless someone steals the USB device, since it uses a challenge-response model and the data needed to spoof it should never leave the device.

*after watching Embracer implode*

Krafton: “I can do worse, faster.”

Explanation: The Habsburgs were a powerful historical dynasty, though nowadays they mostly serve as a warning about the dangers of inbreeding. Their later members are known for their facial deformities, chiefly the Habsburg jaw.

Meanwhipe, pugs are a breed of dog that have been deliberately bred for severe facial deformities that are usually considered cute. They are an incredibly popular breed despite the many health complications caused by their shortened jaw and nonexistent muzzle, including difficulties with basic tasks such as eating and breathing.

(Attempting to channel the style of @[email protected] with this explanation, as is only proper for a post discussing both history and pugs!)

Same as it ever was.