Skip Navigation
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 11th
  • I'm playing a Necromancer in Diablo 4: Season 5, and I usually play with the blood aspects, but this round I decided to focus on bone. So far I'm liking the season campaign. It feels like a prelude to the DLC coming out in a couple months.

    I have only two achievements left for Ghostwire: Tokyo, both dealing with the extra content The Spider's Thread. I thought I'd just be able to run through it, but it's been a grind. But since a lot of my focus has been on the new Diablo season this week, that's ok. I don't think I have the mental bandwidth for a new game right now.

    Had a virtual get together last night with some friends and played Worms W.M.D.. Tremendously fun, and I even won one round.

  • Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake is in full production, Control 2 is now in a playable state [VGC]
  • Maybe they got his lines before he passed? Iirc Remedy was working on the Max Payne remakes way back in at least 2022. Even if not, McCaffrey's relation with Remedy goes back so far that I'm sure they'll do him justice.

  • What's the hardest you've ever hit your head on something or something hit yours?
  • When I was younger I fell off a homemade merry go round some neighbors had built. Got hit in the back of the head by one of the horses as I tried to get up. Ended up with staples and a lovely scar.

  • Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 4th
  • It's an Unreal Engine 4 remaster! I haven't played the original so I can't really compare, but I have read that they added some additional dialogue lines as well.

  • Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 4th
  • I managed to complete one round in Monstrum . I nearly quit a couple times, because wow this game can be frustrating. But I made it through in the end, once I got a better idea of where certain items would be and how the monsters vibe. I'm kind of glad I stuck with it for a couple days; it made escaping that much more satisfying.

    The Spectrum Retreat seemed intriguing, so I gave it a go. It was not quite what I was expecting, and I'm not sure I really liked it. The set up was a little odd, in my opinion, where you would have a bit of story and then a block of Portal-like puzzles, sans the humor. The puzzles weren't really all that difficult, but they seemed disjointed from the story, which in itself was vague and left me with a lot of questions. I guess I shouldn't have expected much for a game built around puzzles, but still.

    Also played through The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux. I gotta say, the story is not at all what I expected, in a good way, although I'm not sure I'm a fan of the ending. Walking between areas was a little tedious, but the scenery was absolutely beautiful, and the sprint speed was a lot better that most walking sims I've played. It kind of reminds me of What Remains of Edith Finch or Dear Esther, both of which I also enjoyed. I think I might play this again sometime just to take screenshots.

    I'm not sure what game I'll be playing next, but Diablo 4's Season 5 is coming up next week, so I'll probably dip back into GamePass to see what's on there.

  • What are something you immediately took for granted and were surprised about?
  • Controlled temperature seats in the car. My first car didn't have anything like that, so I never really thought about needing it. But then I got my second car which had heated seats, and when winter came, oh man, I finally understood the appeal. And then summer came and I had to borrow my parents' car for a week, and it also has cooling seats... They are fantastic.

    On that same note, Bluetooth in the car. Going by aux isn't bad, but it is less cords I have to fumble around with when I first get in. That being said, I still carry a couple backup CDs just in case, lol.

  • Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 28th
  • For sure, I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. There are a couple insensitive moments, and sometimes the game mechanics involving the Darkness itself are a bit of a pain, but I think the overall story and some of the settings (especially the whiplash you get about halfway through) are really compelling.

  • Looks like Subnautica devs have been sneakily posting Subnautica 2 screenshots in the original game
  • Dang, I just finished playing this about a week ago. Wish I could have found something, but I didn't find very many time capsules.

  • Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 28th
  • Finished The Darkness, and still didn't find all the collectibles. But I did get a bunch of other achievements, so it wasn't a loss as far as that goes. I am a little sad that this game has multiplayer achievements though, because since this game is so old (and really didn't need multiplayer to begin with), there's no one available online. Multiplayer achievements in a primarily single player game are the bane of my existence.

    I've also already played through The Darkness 2. It's crazy how the vibe is so different than the first one. The first game had a really gritty feel, meanwhile this one has a polished and "clean" feel to it, probably due to having different developers and art styles. I love them both, they are special in their own ways. While I do miss the "open" world and side quests of the first Darkness, I do love this game. It's so fun, and so is the extra content Vendettas. It's like extra story without taking away from the story, if that makes sense? Like you don't need Vendettas, but the extra bits are still fun to have.

    Now I'm attempting Monstrum for the first time. I was a little wary at first because it seemed to start out boring since I was just walking around, but once I ran into the monsters it got a lot more interesting. I'm not sure I'll actually get all the way through it, but it's a fun little ride while I decide on what my next game is going to be.

  • Inside the two-year fight to bring charges against school librarians in Granbury, Texas
  • Do they not have actual crimes in Granbury? This is so much time and effort. I wish I could fuck around like this in my job.

  • What is something people you encounter at your job say that makes you want to scream? (Job, person & quote)
  • 100% this guy would have turned it around to make an issue about me recorded his meetings lol

  • What is something people you encounter at your job say that makes you want to scream? (Job, person & quote)
  • I kinda think this particular guy would get flustered and extremely frustrated whenever something would go wrong or there was a tight deadline, so he would take it out on everyone around him (dude would regularly threaten to have people fired for small mistakes that could easily be fixed). And since we were in an IT department with aging equipment/tech, there was always something broken or an effort to upgrade going on. It also didn't help that he thought and firmly believed that he knew better than everyone else. After I got transferred, my manager had to take over his team because the rest of the PMs were either full up on bandwidth or just straight up didn't want to work with the guy.

  • What is something people you encounter at your job say that makes you want to scream? (Job, person & quote)
  • At my last job as a project manager, I had a director that I worked with that I absolutely despised. On a regular basis we would have this (abridged) interaction:

    Director: I don't understand what this report is trying to say. Take out abc and include xyz. Me: Ok. includes changes in meeting notes next meeting Director: What is this? Why does the report look like this? I don't even understand why you would make it look like this. Change xyz and include abc. Me: But... Director: No buts, this is my team's project. Me: ...Ok. includes changes in meeting notes next meeting Director: What is going on with this? I don't understand what's going on. Why does this report change every time I see it? Me: ... Bruh.

    This happened so many times that eventually I had to start including my manager in meetings with him, because this dude was insufferable and did not want to accept it when his ideas and changes were shit. He'd always deny he requested changes (even though I documented them in the meeting notes), and everything was everyone's fault except his. Luckily another director that I got along with really well requested me to work on their projects and I got transferred.

  • Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 21st
  • Teamed up with a couple friends this week and finally finished out Diablo 4: Season 4 by taking on Tormented Duriel. I love Diablo, but it is such a relief to be able to focus on something else for a little bit.

    Like Diablo 3: Season 32, lol. I am now worried about the progress I'm making. Yes, it's only been a week, but I forgot how... not good I am in working with the Necromancer's Trag'Oul set. I feel clunky and underpowered, but I don't have the full set yet, so maybe once I finished chapter 4 I'll be able to utilize it better.

    Had no idea you could watch whole movies in The Darkness. I learned that when I got way too nostalgic and then invested watching To Kill A Mockingbird. Right now I'm pretty close to the end of the game, but I've been taking my sweet time combing over areas for collectibles. Even then, I'm still missing some, and they can be pretty well hidden. I'm having a lot of fun, but I am ready to pick up the sequel, if for nothing else but less stiff controls.

  • Polygon - Was Bioshock Infinite good?
  • I think the main drawback for me was how unlikable I found Booker and Elizabeth to be. It didn't help that Elizabeth would start talking every time I tried to listen to a voxophone. I remember having to take a break from the game after attempting to listen to one 3 or 4 times, but she wouldn't stop talking. I really like the gameplay though. I'll boot up Infinite every once in a while to play Clash in the Clouds.

  • Why do car repair shops always assume you can leave while they work on your car?
  • But this is exactly what I'm talking about. You're assuming everyone lives in the cities and suburbs while forgetting that there are people who live in rural areas and are more than 10 miles from the nearest shop.

  • Why do car repair shops always assume you can leave while they work on your car?
  • A lot of these replies are tone deaf. Not everyone lives in a place where walking, biking, or even ride share is viable.

  • Why do car repair shops always assume you can leave while they work on your car?
  • Not everywhere has decent, if any public transport, especially if they're in a more rural area. And not every repair takes less than a day to fix.

  • Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 14th
  • I wouldn't say it's as good as the RE2 remake, but it's a fun little ride and I enjoy playing it. Like I said, it's really short, and from what my friends who have played the original say, it cut some areas and isn't quite as faithful to the original as RE2 is. To me it's a nice little supplement to RE2, since it also takes place in Raccoon City, as well as giving more to Jill's story in the RE universe as a whole. I wouldn't recommend buying it full price, but if there's a good sale I'd nab it.

  • Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 14th
  • Still wading through Diablo 4: Season 4. I have one more objective to get all the rewards for the season, but I gotta choose between beating Uber Lilith, Tormented Duriel, or Tormented Andariel, all of which are a bitch to fight. I have all my glyphs upgraded to the absolute max, and most of my items are in a good place, but I need to go through The Pit some more to upgrade them further, but it's such a grinding pain that I get bored quickly.

    Diablo 3: Season 32 started this week, and I decided to go with a Necromancer after the disaster of a time I had with the Witch Doctor last season. It's only been a day, but I'm already feeling better about this round.

    Finally finished Subnautica! While the last stretch was a little grindy and tedious, the ending was nice, and overall, I'm really glad I stuck to it and made it through. I can see myself revisiting this in the future, if nothing else that to see how building different bases in different locations would affect how quickly I could get things done. Or to just see what amazing base I could build in general. I thought about playing Below Zero, but I haven't heard as great of things compared to this one, and I'm also not sure if I could stand another 60ish hours of swimming around lol. I did end up getting it on Steam anyway during the Summer Sale, so at the very least it's on the To Play List.

    Had the urge to play Resident Evil 3 REmake again, so I did. I forgot it was so short, especially for a Resident Evil game.

    For my next non Diablo game, I think I want to revisit The Darkness series. I've only played each game once, but I had a fun time with both, so I might see what achievements there are and do some hunting.

  • Alan Wake 2 Night Springs Expansion Announced, Releasing June 8
    www.ign.com Alan Wake 2 Night Springs Expansion Announced, Releasing Tomorrow - SGF 2024 - IGN

    We've at last gotten a proper look at Alan Wake 2's first major DLC. At Summer Game Fest, Remedy made an appearance to show off Night Springs — and even better, it releases tomorrow.

    Alan Wake 2 Night Springs Expansion Announced, Releasing Tomorrow - SGF 2024 - IGN

    Really excited we're getting more content for Alan Wake 2! Not so excited that they're just now offering a physical edition.

    2
    "John Wayne" by Whiskey Myers

    From the album 'Tornillo'.

    1
    CharlesReed CharlesReed @kbin.run

    PI currently working out of Oakmont, Massachusetts.

    Backup account for https://kbin.social/u/CharlesReed

    Posts 3
    Comments 59