It's depressing how bad Android tablets are right now. Both iPad and Android tablets suck to repair and take a lot of user control out of your hands, but iPads are ridiculously more powerful, have better "official" software support in the world, and age a lot more gracefully.
I'm increasingly tempted to drop my Android tablet altogether - the only thing stopping me at this point is the support for "non-official" apps distributed outside of the play store that I enjoy so much.
I've spent a lot of time on both windows and a bit less on Linux and I can firmly say I've spent far more time troubleshooting on Linux than on Windows.
Windows tends to give me bullshit like audio crackling or nvidia's stupid fucking software. With Linux the issues tend to be far more drastic, such as UI problems with every window, or misconfigured packages fucking with the entire OS, or an entire operating system just not functioning correctly with my hardware.
A lot of this I could fix by not being such an idiot by how I use Linux, but in my defense at the time I didn't know best practices for using Linux as a general user, and a lot of internet guides sure didn't explain the dangers of what I was doing. Meanwhile, I've never fucked myself enough to need to reinstall windows by reading online guides.
I'm glad I stuck with Linux long enough that it's what I always put on my laptops no matter what, but man I would not want to put that on others, especially people with working lives.
I say this over and over again, but I'm going to say it again. I disagree firmly with the second point because there is such a lead and usability and ease of use for popular commercial software such as Microsoft office and Adobe software. It's available in so many languages, it has so much functionality, and yes, both surpass FOSS solutions by a wide margin in functionality.
If you don't need Excel, I think Linux and libre office might work fine for a lot of people, but there are still gaps in usability and accessibility. I don't really see the same for anything Adobe does in the Linux space however.
Linux is like 90% of the way there, but these are people with jobs and families and shit. You can't expect them to spend time having to overextend themselves with technology.
Plex is better at looking up show names, has an easier UI to set up more complicated stuff like hardware acceleration, has better clients across a variety of platforms... the only reason I'm using Jellyfin over Plex at this point is because I anticipate Plex shitting the bed. If you're on Plex, there's no reason to swap from it, and honestly if you're comparing the two as a newbie, Plex is still a much easier option.
You say the first paragraph is if I don't agree with the idea that you shouldn't have sex with people who are considerably dumber than you. It's generally a little icky if you have sex with someone who is mentally deficient.
You can't really solve the problem of isekai protagonist not being able to have sex. But when you can't have sex, it doesn't give free license to have sex with children.
The thing that makes pedophilia wrong isn't the body types- its the inherent mental advantage and power you have over others with it, alongside the potential harm it can do to a person's growth. I will admit that it's diminished by him being in a child's body that has no authority over her. But it's still not right. I posit that yes, he shouldn't have sex with someone until he's an adult, and that Roxy is a far better match for his true age than the children he would perv on.
You don't have to fuck. It's great and good for your mental, but it's not more valuable than not being a pedophile.
I acknowledge the crudeness helps attract attention to the series, but it still does not make it right.
I will be a "mouth breather", as you say, and posit that the problem isn't his perversion, but the series inability to fully grasp the wrongness of it, and acknowledge that. You don't need some fairy tale with a moral, but it is troubling when it doesn't seem like the creators would have a problem with an adult passing as a kid having sex with kids.
Yeah enjoying the show really does require being slow boiled on garbage anime, like the old tale about the frog and a boiling pot that isn't true.
It's very gross! It also felt like a perfect summation of who he was as a person, though I'm sure that wasn't the intended message that's a creators sought to portray. He nearly held back like he should have and wanted to avoid doing so because he feared she was making a mistake, which she was!
I'm curious why you feel that way. I absolutely adored the ending of the first season- felt like a perfectly human misunderstanding between Rudy and the princess.
The cringe barrier is definitely hard for me to get through. There's a lot of good anime with very dumb moments that I struggle to move forward in.
Key contests and ballot questions are being decided in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Mississippi. Our reporters are at the polls.
It's actually a really big election year for us in Ohio. We're voting on legalizing abortion and weed in the state, which is insane for an "off-year" election. What's even more crazy is that both look likely to pass.
During HisWattson's 14 hour stream on the first day of competitive, he and his team were duplicating armors a lot at the start. By beating a team, killing the dogs and spiders nearby, and then crafting the evo once or twice, they could guarantee a red evo that would then get duped.
You dive off the map, teammate grabs that evo and then dives off map, then both of you get respawned with red evos and even duplicate items (sans attachments, of course).
They actually got dove by a pred team from last season doing this, but since everyone on the team had red evos, HisWattson's squad beat them. It was actually pretty funny, if a little bonkers.
And since this season incentivizes placing over kills by a significant margin, this isn't a braindead strategy, though it requires your teammates cooperating and your squad's speediness in getting that higher level EVO.
Yeah. It's sad to say but I've kind of given up on playing the game on Linux at this point. "Fortunately", I have to use Windows for WFH so it's not a huge deal if I want to get some Apex in.
It's the same weapon, and some armor. It's actually lead to quite a bit of amusing cheese, where you can duplicate evos using this one simple trick!
Lifeline's still pretty good if you play aggressively with a team though- she's great for kind of immediately picking everyone back up for any incoming third parties. I suspect she'll see more usage again if the new legend isn't too overpowering a support.
Wikis like Fandom typically make it easy/easier to create and edit pages. Wiki editors are rare and you want to make it as easy for them to latch onto helping and volunteering as is possible.
Maybe a fediverse option isn't needed (though the below comment's point about having a central account would make it easier for a lot of users), but having a convenient and easy way to create a wiki for your favorite fandom, without using Fandom would go a long way toward breaking Fandom's hold over the entertainment sections of the internet.
We have gotten a lot of changes this season of Apex Legends. A lot of good, like the revamped Storm Point, new legend, and a really fun care package weapon in the wingman.
We've also gotten a lot of other changes that people may have stronger opinions on, such as R301 in the crafter, respawning with a weapon and full armor, and no longer being able to put heat shields on tridents (such a fun, if niche thing to do).
So all in all, how are we feeling so far this season? Good, bad, iffy?
I was using an 8bitdo Ultimate Bluetooth controller on PC. I don't know why the right stick didn't control the camera, if it is supposed to actually work correctly. I guess I must have pressed the wrong button or something. Guess I'll never know now 🤷
It probably is legal, and if it isn't no one has the resources possible to fight against Nintendo. At least, no one who would be interested in taking that fight.
My prediction- someone's going to try running a major tournament, and we'll see if Nintendo is serious about policing things then (they probably will be, unfortunately). It does mean that any outside investment coming into Melee will be nil from here on out, so it's effectively capped the growth of Melee forever.
I don't even know where to begin on the question of "reining in my personal bias", other than to note all reviews are based on a person's personal bias, and what they know about the gaming format and industry as a whole. I know it's a tired trope, but everyone has personal bias, and game/game demo reviews should not try to be objective looks at games (it's near useless). Reviewers should instead make their experience and opinions known from the start, or throughout the review. That way if their opinions are diametrically opposed, readers who don't share the same opinions can readily discount it.
Also, while you can empathize with and realize that someone might like a game if they're into that genre, you can only go so far. I have not played Vampire Survivors, but if it's anything like FatalZone, I will gleefully state it's not really a game. Or if I want to be less glib, not really a game I'd recommend for others. Again, for you this might be a good cue to discard my reviews as worthless for you. You should make your own reviews in this subreddit in that case, as it could certainly use more posts.
Thanks! As someone corrected me, it it "Microcivilization", my b on the misnaming.
The demo really was an excellent content warning in itself. I hope that's the actual opening- that way people who buy it and don't know what they're getting into can find out real quick, and get their return.
Ah, I only played the first level, I didn't finish every demo.
And I've rated them all below. I'm very glad Steam decided to do a big promotional event around them- it helped point me toward a lot of games I would have never tried/heard of otherwise. Some of the good ones might not be good the entire game, but they were at least good in the demo.
I would recommend trying any demo I rate 4/5, and maybe purchase the full game if you like it. Anything lower, and it's probably down to personal taste, or willingness to hurt ones self.
Robocop Rogue City
It's been years since I last saw a Robocop movie. It's good to know that Robocop has still not gotten over the death of his family.
Gameplay consists of trudging heavily through densely decorated levels, gunning foes down in the dozens. The developers make sure to dress this gameplay with a cheesy story, throwing campy voice acting on top. It should be the kind of FPS I hate, but I loved the feeling of being a strong robot boy destroying everyone. Recommend getting it on sale, but demo is well worth the effort.
4/5
Last Train Home
This is one-part squad RTS, one part resource/base manager. I've not played many RTS games, but I would say the game controls like those single-man units from Red Alert, except you don't really get to feel like an invincible badass. Game is stupidly gorgeous as well, with a strong and interesting historical base where you are a group of Czech soldiers looking to get home in the middle of the Russian Revolution.
Good challenging gameplay, while feeling very fair, or at least "accurate" to the grim reality of this era's world. I'm definitely going to be playing my way through it on release, or shortly after.
5/5
EMPTY SHELL
It's meant to be a mysterious and sinister horror game about exploring a strange and abandoned industrial facility. The game depicts you as an obscure grey figure, being chased by monsters your brain can only envision from lack of detail, as if captured by satellite footage. It's a very stylized game.
The gameplay is that of a top down shooter, where you aim with your mouse and gun/hack down the horrible monstrosities in this place. It's one of those great horror games where the controls are good, and it means nothing in the face of the overwhelming odds you face.
However, the demo was held back by lack of interesting story beats after the start, and overall samey gameplay. I could already find myself getting sick of it without anything new to provoke my interest.
There could be something better further beyond, but I didn't find it.
3/5
Interregnum Chronicles: False Prophet
Somewhat iffy review. The demo begins with you in a freezing apocalypse with mysterious stuff being hinted at around you. You launch immediately into the strategy game, which seems to be based off of stuff like XCOM (which I've never played). Once you die (if you're bad at video games like I am), you find yourself as someone new exploring in an overhead map where you get to make fun and horrible choices, before going off to pick further fights. When you get into fights, you go into that XCOM-like battle system.
I didn't get a tutorial in the demo or a good idea on how to play, so I kind of got fucked early on, and couldn't figure out how to progress meaningfully. If you've played this kind of game before, you'll probably have fun with it. The story itself seems pretty intriguing, albeit with mid voice acting.
3/5, but barely. Worldbuilding really saves it.
Microcivilization
This was the most dangerous game in the entire Steam Next celebration for me. It's one of those addictive kind of "cookie clicker" style games, and it even adds some actual management gameplay into things. The moment I launched the game and resized the window so that it looked right (it can't be stretched to alternative resolutions without messing up the pixel art), I immediately groaned because I knew that I was doomed. I ended up playing for five hours straight until I accidentally closed the game and lost all my progress.
Potential detractors include an inflexible resolution, lack of explanative demo (I still don't know what some of those icons and stuff means), and the complete ability to absolutely cheese the hell out of invasions in this game.
5/5. Don't play this if you've gotten addicted to Runescape in the past.
Cobalt Core
This is probably the cutest game of the bunch. It features a pixel art aesthetic with cute animal friends. You're in a time loop (established from the start), so have fun with your new animal friends in your endless runs. Gameplay is FTL, but with cards and deck building instead of opportune weapon and personnel management.
It's a very simple premise. At the start of each turn, you get three energy. You also get to know what your enemy will do. Each card costs some level of energy, show in the top left of each card. Maybe you get some energy so you can move out of the way of an oncoming attack. May you put energy into your shields if you can't dodge, or just want to tank it. Maybe you just take the hit to your ship health without worry. It's great strategic fun. The game is as much about preparing for the future as it is fighting the current battle, but the current battle stays fun.
There is a small level of indie clunk. Video settings are missing for the game, and it's automatically fullscreen at 16:9- not that I think my ultrawide monitor would be needed for a game like this. Despite these technical limitations, it was an amazing demo. Really hoping the rest of the game will be as good when it releases.
5/5.
The Crust
A promising RTS about managing a colony's energy and infrastructural needs on the moon. It has an ok story, albeit with awkward voice acting, and audio jank (background music plays while characters talk, alternatively getting loud between their lines and making it awkward to listen to. There are a few other weird moments with audio as well). In addition, it's lacking a few nice hotkeys, such as the ability to select the last building you placed to place again.
It might be alright with another six months of final polish work, though I'm not sure if it will ever get it or not. The in-game bug reporter links to the game's Discord server, which is nice to have as an option, but should not be the only default way to report them. I may have gotten explosively angry with the world when this occurred.
Like Anakin Skywalker on the council, it has the honor of going on my wishlist, but does not receive the title of imminent purchase.
3/5.
Forgive Me Father 2
This is one of those 90s-inspired FPS, but actually good. You romp around with gameplay strongly influenced by Doom, shooting undead horrors in wonderfully creative levels, all painted with a fun comic-like style.
Potential detractors include:
- A stupid flashlight recharging system where you have to wind it up, immediately teaching you to babysit the stupid thing every moment you get and creating busywork.
- Problematic audio engineering, where music would play at odd times, in odd beats, with the occasional string (audio punctuation) becoming jarring as you dip in and out of combat with single foes on the first level.
- And it's one of "those" horror games where you're in an asylum, and you may or may not be hallucinating or something, as implied in the demo. Shmeep shmop!
Fortunately, I came for the fun FPS gameplay and not the story. This is Doom but Halloween. I'm definitely picking it up on release if it's for a good price.
4/5.
Hollow Cocoon
A horror game about visiting Gam Gam's house in the Japanese countryside during the 1980s, before they invented compact mobile fun devices. It has a beautiful and seemingly-authentic aesthetic. You only get about 20 minutes of demo though, with hints of stuff like hiding in cupboards and a drain puzzle to look forward to in full release. This is including my earnest exploration of the game, time that was also stretched by being one of "those" horror games with standstill walking, and walking "running".
The demo ends with a long and solid pan of the monster that's probably going to be haunting you in clear sight, ruining a good deal of the scariness. Not promising for the horror. Maybe the game is better, but the demo wasn't!
3/5.
TEVI
A platformer game about being a cute bunny girl. The bunny girl's apron appears to be a one-piece swimsuit, and the demo hints rather charmingly at a lesbian undertone romance.
The gameplay is a fun platformer where enemies have health that you attack, with about a million different surrounding systems that probably enhance the gameplay, but feel distracting to me. If you like a lot of added complexity with upgrade systems, equipable slots, and gameplay that feels a little like modern Shantae games, this might be for you. It's not for me though!
3/5.
The Thaumaturge
An incredibly ambient game about being a man wielding spirits and very subtle magic in early 1900s Eastern Europe. Has strong personality literally built into the gameplay in a very cool way.
The demo's gameplay consists of exploring around in an overhead view similar to Disco Elysium, through 1900s rural Georgia. You get little points and evidence pointing you onward toward other clues/mysteries, with cute Unreal Engine scenes and strange turn based combat in between. The story is well on its way toward developing into something very interesting before I stopped.
Unlike so many of the other games here, it had an incredibly strong audio backing too. It does have mildly janky performance, strange hitches, and a few other minor issues I really hope they iron out before release, because I desperately want to play this game in full.
5/5.
Europa
They made a Miyazaki movie into a game. You're a kid adventuring in a world cultivated by robots into bearing life. They were very successful. Gameplay is like a floaty, forgiving platformer. Kinda cool, but lacking any challenge. You could probably throw this at a kid for baby's first 3D platformer. I'm not a fan of games without any challenge, though the graphics and music carried it pretty far for me, questionable audio triggers aside.
3/5.
Japanese Drift Master
I probably shouldn't have bothered with this since I'm not into racing games, but this seemed like it was a little different. I still got lost and confused. The right stick isn't controlling your camera in this game strangely enough, which really screwed with me and my bad steering. At one point my right trigger started moving me backwards as well, which didn't help. Maybe I'm missing something as a non-racing fan, but I don't think so.
2/5.
Apocalypse Party
You start out with this bog standard, but really sad intro of a father watching his daughter get devoured by his zombie wife. It's an incredibly gruesome and sad comic-book intro. You then flash to him staying behind as the quarantine zone is bombed, as a sort of suicide.
Flash cut to this grief-stricken father landing in a medieval zombie village, drawn in Facebook-like graphics, with happy pinging noises erupting as you collect a score gunning down zombies. You can even turn on auto-aim if you want less of a game. It reminded me of Army of Darkness from the Evil Dead series, and that's not a great comparison to draw. Very disappointing.
2/5.
Enshrouded
A horror game about how terrible poorly implemented FSR 2 is. Playing the game at native resolution results in incredibly poor performance, even at lower res. Playing the game at reduced resolution in FSR is a jagged mess that performs kinda ok. No matter what, your player avatar is going to look weird.
It's a survival game about building a survival base, with a makeshift story around it. There's a lot of other multiplayer survival games out there these days, don't bother with this one.
1/5.
FatalZone
I don't know what you call this kind of game. You run around in an open field dodging zombies as your character automatically shoots at them, and occasionally grabbing loot where you are able to.
It's the kind of game that's not really a game. Don't play this.
1/5.
Echoes of the Living
The game launched promisingly, but at the wrong resolution. No biggie, right? Except that you have to click through each resolution like an old, bad PC port. And also, every time you click through a resolution, you change to that resolution. No confirmation asked or required! At one point I landed on the resolution I was looking for and then accidentally clicked again. Then I realized the game has a weird habit of greying out the resolution option and preventing you from selecting it. I never got to the actual game.
1/5.
Astra: Knights of Veda
It asked me for my Google login to play. Whyyyyyyyyyyy.
1/5.
The Inquisitor
A game about Jesus kicking the shit out of the Romans who tried to crucify him, and then many years later you're one of his disciple inquisitors, being a dick to others. Not really that different from the real inquisition, to be honest.
Everything in the game was super ugly. The people sucked and looked terrible, the main character looked terrible, and the voice acting was mid-to-poor. Even when you got into a nicer part of town, it still looked kind of gross, like that era of AAA games when they weren't allowed to look nice (see the COD MW3 era). There seems to be some cool worldbuilding in the game, and probably even a good story. I couldn't make it past the presentation, unfortunately. It didn't help that the gameplay (especially the chase section) was a boring QTE.
3/5, but only because of the worldbuilding. It probably isn't good.
Pioneers of Pagonia
It's weird how many management games I've played now, without any guide whatsoever. And here I've found another one. Why do indie developers keep doing this?
Game also has indie jank, such as poor support for higher resolutions with its text, and some weird exit menus with visual clutter obscuring the actual UI.
1/5.
Laika: Aged Through Blood
Trigger warning: This game has some serious content warnings I'd advise checking before trying the demo.
A morbid motorcycle apocalypse story about vengeance, blood, and how dogs are awesome. I deliberately avoided going too far in because I definitely want to beat this game in full. It has a great story, complimented by artwork that resembles a child's show based in the Mad Max universe. The gameplay is Happy Wheels with bullet parrying and wheelies to reload. My only concern so far is how easy it is to get lost in the expansive levels- there's a lot of "look-alike" areas and I hate getting lost in non-open world video games.
5/5.
Ghostrunner 2
A game about parkouring through mostly linear levels, through a Cyberpunk aesthetic. I've never played the first one, but this demo was alright. Was a little difficult, which is a nice change of pace from other demos. Expecting you to react immediately to being able to ignore gravity was a little iffy of a decision, admittedly.
Some parts were great little sections where you had to use creativity, and some were just on rails action. The former was a lot better than the latter.
4/5.