Open Thread

Open Thread #320

Aaron "Sleazy" Elias

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82 thoughts on “Open Thread #320”

  1. I just learned that Israel is somehow able to shut down crypto accounts at Binance, a non-Israeli company:
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12640019/Israel-shuts-100-Binance-accounts-block-Hamas-funding-revealed-terror-group-received-41million-2021-2023.html
    It almost seems that there are some secret networks of influence that operate in utterly mysterious ways. I wonder if anyone will ever figure out how any of this works. I am totally baffled, though.

    Reply

    2. I haven’t seen that guy post for quite awhile come to think of it. I don’t suppose you’ve already banned him,Aaron? How many folks have you banned from this blog thus far? My guess is they can be counted on one hand. I get the impression you haven’t had to ban many thus far,but I could be completely off.

  2. You guys ever notice that the term “revisionism” is commonly used as a pejorative? Much like “conspiracy theory.” I saw an interview on YouTube with Vietnam War historian Pierre Asselin and a caller was upset with his views and kept calling it “revisionism.”

    So the fuck what? History can’t be revised? Especially when new archival evidence becomes available?? We’re just supposed to repeat what (highly politicized) writers were spouting decades ago? Ignore new evidence? It’s the typical bullshit mindset that people use when they think one label can end an argument.

    Reply

    1. I’ve personally not see people use the term with that meaning, like “you’re not allowed to revise history in light of new evidence”.

      Usually when people say revisionism, they mean people making up fake history, or revising history to fit modern (i.e. woke) guidelines and sensibilities.

    2. I am under the impression that “revisionism” is a dishonestly used term. The implication is that mainstream history is settled, thus you are not allowed to question, let alone revise it.

  3. I just watched the new Scorsese movie, Killers of the Flower Moon. Spoilers ahead! If you are tempted, maybe reconsider. Even for Hollywood standards, the depiction of whites as being pure evil is off the charts. The Osage are pure and innocent, and the white man collaborates to murder them. White men furthermore marry their women for their oil money, but also as a form of genocide. If 3.5 hours of pure white hatred is what you are into, go for it!

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Aaron. I was going to watch this and almost avoided your post. Very disappointed in Scorsese. He normally avoids politics. Have you seen Dances with Wolves? The only white man portrayed positively is Costner’s character, and only after he basically became a Sioux Indian.

    2. I watched Dances with Wolves as a kid and don’t remember much of it. Speaking of rewatching movies: Earlier this week I watched No Country for Old Men again, which I really liked when it came out. My updated view is that this movie is total garbage. Basically every white character is depicted as a low-IQ moron and the “ultimate badass” is of course some Spaniard who is at best borderline white-passing. There are also quite a few interactions that are completely implausible. Of course, the Cohen brothers (sic!) are above reproach. I wonder if they would have been able to make it on their own.

    3. Here’s a movie if you’re interested in watching. I’m not sure if you have seen it. Its called Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

    4. fuck if Javier Bardem is not white passing for you then i guess half of southern europeans are negros for your standards, So who is white enough? Erling haaland?.

    5. I wrote, “at best borderline white-passing”, which is a somewhat different statement. He does have a slightly darker skin tone, which contrasts with all the whites that are depicted as morons throughout the movie.

    8. No surprise there. She probably particularly liked the male lead poisoning his Osage wife by tainting her medicine. At that point, I was wondering if there will be scene showing the slaughter of babies.

    1. Isn’t this a perfectly fitting allegory for the US-Jewish relationship? It seems that a lot of funding also goes to Jewish organizations within the United States that solely focuses on suppressing Christianity, as well as mainstream society in general.

    2. Any Christian American who supports Israel is a dunce. The good news is that most Americans are in favor of a ceasefire by a wide margin. Hell, the US govt can end this war overnight.

  6. We are often talking about the benefit of rural life compared to city life.

    Would about the life in a suburb of medium sized city (200k inhabitants)?

    Reply

    1. A few years ago I would have said that medium-sized cities should be fine. However, there have been large-scale enrichment campaigns targeting those as well. The only areas that are normally spared are very expensive suburbs, i.e. places where the rich and famous live, and this bar is set based on local purchasing power. In Malibu, you probably need to have a net-worth of $100+ millions, and in your regional mid-sized city, one to two million may suffice to be part of this class.

    2. Aaron,
      1. One observation that I’ve seen over the last few years traveling outside of California is that a lot of the new development and new homes that are being erected in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming is that they don’t have backyards anymore. You can’t grow your own vegetables gardens if you like. A lot of these new homes are townhomes. I suspect that our tyrant government doesn’t want us to be growing our own food in our own backyard. Even here in California I’ve seen old houses, schools, commercial properties be demolish and get converted into either townhomes or apartments. Now, everyone is being packed in like sardines.

      2. Is it ever a good idea for a guy to move out of state, transfer jobs, or get a new job because his girlfriend wants to move back where she grew up and wants to be closer to her parents? Is there any hope for these types of relationships? I’ve come across quite a few stories about men who made the decision to move out of state because their girlfriend insisted. I believe that it was traditionally women who would move out of state and follow their boyfriend/husband because they got some job promotion that required him to relocate etc.

    3. Indeed, traditionally it is women who followed their men. This is the trailing-spouse phenomenon. I am not sure it is a good idea for a guy to follow some chick as it seems to imply that she is making major life decisions for him, so even though this may seem fine in the moment, in the mid-to-long term, she probably cannot help but detest him for this role reversal.

    4. Chris,

      When a woman wants to ‘move back home’, what she really wants is to break up with her man and have her family and friends as a support network to provide a soft landing for her.

      She won’t really give a stuff about what happens to the man. Marooned in a strange place with few prospects and connections, several bridges burned back home, the money he blew moving himself AND her.

      If a woman starts talking about wanting to ‘move back home’, tell her she’ll have to go alone.

  7. Gamer bros, you can currently get The Evil Within on the Epic game store for free, and in a few days you can also get the sequel for the same price. PC gaming is incredible value for money, even if you do not resort to sailing the high seas.

    Reply

    1. Signed into the Epic Game store just today with my Steam for that,and to take advantage of other future free offers.

      I think this will be my Modus Operandi for now in regards to game purchases. I’ve said previously that all my purchases on Steam thus far have been in the biggest sale seasons in combination with bundle deals,so I got a lot of games for a very cheap price. I can’t find my old comment anymore elsewhere,but somebody did an estimate of how much I’ve saved up with this approach. I have 50 games in Steam overall,but for the price I spent for these,it would seem like I only spent 4 dollars or under per game.

      So there is little to regret about my purchases even though I probably won’t even finish half of these in my life,but honestly,I’m still very much frustrated at the fact that there are games (whether in the store or elsewhere) that I am FAR more interested in playing over my 50 owned games. Persona 5 for example. I wanted to purchase this back in the day to go alongside the bundle deals,but this game just wasn’t released yet at the time.

      I lived my childhood sailing the high seas (That’s just one of the things that suck about living in a 3rd world country back then. thankfully,the game has changed. pun intended),so I suppose I’m still adjusting to living the clean way. Have to get rid of that Collector’s Mindset and accept that I can’t have everything.

    2. Ah,wait. I think I remember the exact figure now. For all those 50 games I spent an overall of 180 USD. (my currency converted to US Dollars)

      Its probably still a waste though if I keep on buying bundle deals if I’m not going to spend much,if any,time on the vast majority of these. so perhaps it would behoove me from now on,that during said sales,I should very selective buy specific titles. (unless buying a bundle nets me near the same price as buying the one title.)

      I never would have signed up for Steam had my kid cousin not peer pressured me into it. I should probably go strangle him the next time I see him,lol.

      I would have said I wish I saved that money for the new pursuits I wanna try out now,but I didn’t discover those until much later on and I probably would have just blown that dough eating fancy food. In that sense,maybe its not such a waste that I have virtually permanent access to 50 different games. (hopefully Steam never goes down)

    3. My ex-gf played both of these games. The sequel was pretty impressive at the time, I thought. Speaking of Shinji Mikami games, I just recently completed a new play through of REmake using Chris on hard mode. I’ve mostly beaten that game using Jill, and even though I think both campaigns are pretty balanced Chris is a bit harder to grasp especially early on. Some of the differences for Chris include:

      -Companions are Wesker and Rebecca vs Barry.
      -Starts out with only a knife during first zombie encounter (just run away with either character anyway).
      -Item slots reduced by two.
      -Unable to use lock-pick and instead has to utilize “old keys” which take up item slots.
      -Perma-slot features a lighter vs lock-pick.
      -Rebecca will grant quite a number of free heals in two separate designated areas.
      -Does not gain access to the grenade launcher at any point, but instead is given limited access to flamethrower for Black Tiger boss fight (basically gives you a “free” kill in terms of items cost).
      -Chris can’t play piano for Moonlight Sonata puzzle, so Rebecca has to practice the piece for you.
      -Chris is unable to mix V-Jolt for plant boss, so Rebecca must do it for him (this is contingent on whether you successfully save Richard or not. Doing so means no V-Jolt, but also means he’ll drop a fully loaded assault shotgun later which simply holds 4 extra rounds [no DPS boost]).

      I’ve been on a survival horror kick here lately. I just went back and started a new play through of Signalis and I’m still extremely impressed with that game. One thing I realized when I came back to it after REmake is that most of those old survival horror games had an element of campiness to them and even moments of comic relief, whether it was intentional or not. However, Signalis is brutally oppressive in its tone up to the very last moment.

    4. Doesn’t REmake also have several gameplay changes in repeated playthroughs, such as zombies becoming invisible? The effort Capcom put in this game was quite extraordinary for its time. Back then, game studios going out of their way to entice people to replay their games was an exception.

    6. The graphics look good, but I can’t say I like Snake’s face very much. The trailer is also quite poorly made. I remember the first few moments of gameplay of the original MGS3, which are replicated here, but I am not sure this would impress anyone born after that game was released. The music, unfortunately, is an utter disappointment. Overall, it looks as if this trailer was made by triple-vaxxed Bob who wanted to finish it before clocking out at 5 pm. Kojima would have fired such a guy on the spot. Compare it to the cinematic trailer of the original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGJ-vqsG4Js

    7. Goddamn it,MGS 3 was a game that I was supposed to have finished a decade or so ago,but my CD broke and I tried to get back into it via emulation during college but just could not get the momentum going. (I would have said “because life”,but I think I just have a bad habit of procrastination at this point that I need to break out of.)

      Is this coming to PC by any chance? If so,I may legit consider buying this during Steam biggest sales like I’ve been mentioning.

      Wanna guarantee that I never finish a game? Have my game or PC breakdown and have me lose my precious save progress when I’m close to the end. Happened to me too with Persona 4 (the original version),but I bought Golden on Steam via those bundles I mentioned (got the Persona 4 Arena ultimax fighting game,which is bigger than Golden itself it seems,lol).

      Maybe I’ll wait for yours and Aaron’s review/feedback though before making that decision. It looks like that’ll be awhile in the future though.

      Personally,I tend to only replay story-based games when a Definitive Version/Edition or some sort of enhanced/improved version comes out. Fortunately,Persona 4 got that treatment with Golden and I am interested. and if this MGS 3 remake is coming out on PC as well,well that meets my criteria. haha.

    8. Yes, MGS3 remake is coming to Steam. I had pretty good expectations for it until the MGS Master Collection just dropped. It just looks like a half-assed attempt to cash in on the franchise. It could have definitely been given a bit more love, and it’s funny that the PS3 era equivalent of this release featured 60 FPS gameplay for MGS 2&3 while the current version runs those games at 30 FPS on Switch today. I believe the PC version is pretty bad also. Not to mention that MGS 4 is missing from this supposed “master” collection, although I suppose that will release with volume two.

      If MGS3 remake gets is done right, is a 1:1 remake with the original voice acting intact, and has a more seamless gameplay experience with a streamlined camo system then it could possibly be the definitive way to experience the game. Not unlike Resident Evil remake.

    9. To the trailer’s credit at least it’s a gameplay trailer in the year 2023 and not an attempt at a Hollywood movie. So many game trailers come out today that are purely cinematic and leave you no clue as to what the game will even look like in-engine. However, Snake’s face does look a bit odd, and this could be a bad sign for when they unveil Eve (will her tits even still be hanging out?). Also, Harry Gregson Williams is probably missing of this re-entry. They should just use the original score in the game if they’re smart.

    10. These days,you can trick normies into thinking something is a great game with pretty graphics.

      I don’t want to sound as if I’m one of those “gRaPhIcS dOnT mEaN sHiT” nerds however. Take a look at this:

      https://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2019/06/JessieCompare.png

      I think its pretty easy to determine you are a lot more likely to connect/care about the character on the right than on the left. I couldn’t care about Jessie AT ALL in the original Final Fantasy 7 game,but in the remake,she definitely registers to me now. (alongside the other two guys) Of course,that isn’t the only reason.

      But yeah,purely cinematic trailers are probably an attempt for game devs to get normies to focus only on the shiny new graphics.

    11. “Doesn’t REmake also have several gameplay changes in repeated playthroughs, such as zombies becoming invisible?”

      Yes, as far as I remember REmake has at least two unlockable game modes. One is the invisible zombies mode you mentioned, while another is called “one dangerous zombie”. The latter features a zombified Bravo team member by the name of Forest who randomly enters rooms and chases you at full sprint with explosives attached to him.

      This got me to thinking about what I wish Capcom would have done for some of their titles. I could easily see myself playing REmake 2 once every month, for example, if there was a built in items randomizer. There are of course mods for this kind of thing, but a developer approved one would be great.

    12. Capcom also had the almost prophetic idea of adding a results screen with a grade and an in-game timer to the Resident Evil games. For some, this is motivation enough to play through the games repeatedly, first trying to improve their grade and then getting the time down. On a related note, I think that the in-game timer alone was a major reason for the longevity of Super Metroid.

    13. Not to mention there are incentives for beating some of those RE games with a high rank. The only one I haven’t managed to get yet on REmake 2 is the S+ rank on hardcore. To do so, you have to beat it within a couple hours or something while managing not to save more than a handful of times. Keep in mind there is no autosave on this mode. Your reward for achieving this feat is an infinite rocket launcher.

    14. I just remembered that years ago I used to watch a small time streamer livestream REmake several years back. He was a pretty young guy who regularly attempted to speedrun the game within a specific category. At that time he had broken the top ten, but at one point he was definitely on track to cracking the top 5. He ended up choking near the very end and messing up the inputs on the computer puzzle twice in a row. I don’t think he ever lived it down because he quit speedrunning seriously after that.

    15. I think speedrunning longer games takes a particular kind of personality. If your game is the original Super Mario Bros. where an “any% run” takes about five minutes for a very good player, it does not matter so much if you throw away a game but imagine wasting a few two-hour runs! This is also why so-called 2-alls in shmups are so taxing. Not only are those games incredibly difficult, messing up also means that you have put in perhaps up to an hour, with nothing to show for it. This is why a common approach in this community is to practice levels and bosses in isolation and only afterwards attempt full runs. People also often stop playing a particular shmup once they have managed to pull off a good 2-all run.

    16. I think one of the most masochistic speedrunners I can remember following back then used to run Silent Hill 4. That’s an insane game to try and run because you’re completely at the mercy of the RNG. Btw, just picked up a top-down horror game called Dark Wood. I probably won’t get a chance to try it for a little while, but I went ahead and got it since it was 75% off. It’s a pretty highly praised game overall, though I doubt it will be able to captivate me like Signalis was able to.

    17. Speaking of RNG, I am not sure that speed-running a game with item randomization is a good idea. Presumably, there will be item placements that are far better than others, so speedrunners would just reset whenever they get a bad roll of the virtual die. Thus, this approach would converge to a new “meta”, consisting of only completing playthroughs with the ideal sequence of items.

      Dark Wood looks interesting. I should probably try playing REmake before moving on to a game like that one or Signalis. On a related note, last week Alan Wake II was released. I expect this game to be a total sales flop. The original is crap. I played through it, despite the repetitive gameplay, hoping for the narrative to pay off (it did not). Also, the original sold poorly, so there is not much of a fan base to tap into. Remedy seems to think they have a hit on their hands, though. For the sequel, they race-swapped one of the key characters into a black woman who — how do I phrase this nicely? — is so ugly that it makes you wonder how this was green-lit at all. Larry Fink’s ESG pockets must be really deep. Reddit loves the black character, of course.

    18. One particularly masochistic aspect of Silent Hill 4: The Room is a certain boss fight know as The One Truth towards the end of the game. The way this boss fight works is a series of wall monsters will descend from the ceiling in series, loiter for a bit, then ascend back up before “shuffling” and descending back down again. You have to find the one true monster that when damaged causes all the others to flinch, then continue damaging it until the door unlocks to the next area. It’s completely random, however, and you could have a god tier run going and then lose everything towards the end because the RNG was unfavorable.

      Btw, I recently watched this video featuring an AI modeled after Jill Valentine that plays through video games via voice prompts and data drops (such as in-game memos and maps). What’s bizarre is that the AI adopted a “boss bitch” attitude somehow, which ended up being kind of hilarious at points. The video linked below features highlights from a complete Resident Evil (OG) run: https://youtu.be/rDOb8NqegiU?si=S5S8KwA_oPZB1hw7

    19. Oh, I just remembered that the Jill AI at one point becomes jealous of Rebecca Chambers for being younger and prettier, and even expresses disinterest in the event that she were to die. It’s funny how AI can be based at times.

    20. I watched part of this video. It is quite amusing. I find the cussing and swearing rather off-putting, though. Some of the sentences were quite unexpected like her saying that the roots of that tree “shriveling up like a penis in a cold shower” (this is at around 35:00). Such detours, however, seem to be very common with those large language models.

    21. I found some interesting games on this latest Steam sale so I splurged a bit. Here’s a list of games I picked up with approximated prices:

      -Dark Wood (previously mentioned) $5
      -Evil Within 2 (85% off!) $5-6
      -The Room (short puzzle game with overwhelmingly positive reviews—enhanced for PC) $0.69
      -Bright Memory: Infinite (50% off—the cheapest I’ve ever seen it) $10
      -What Remains of Edith Finch (story-rich walking simulator with overwhelmingly positive reviews) $5

      Blasphemous 2 is also 20% off, but I decided to wait some time for a possibly better deal on that one.

    22. It seems you missed my comment last week on The Evil Within. Both games in this series were available for free on the Epic game store. Five to six bucks is a steal. However, if you have played it for less than about two hours, you can still get a refund on Steam and pick it up for free on Epic.

    23. Aaron: “I should probably try playing REmake before moving on to a game like that one or Signalis.”

      For sure. It’s quite possible that you’re not even really a fan of the genre. I’d say that even REmake 2 is an easier entry to get into versus REmake. In the latter, downed zombies, if neglected (no spoilers), will regenerate into a faster and more deadly variant. It makes planning your routes much more essential. Also, the super aggressive Hunters fill previously cleared areas once thought safe after a certain point. REmake 2 is super forgiving on easy mode. The biggest “oh shit” moments in that game revolve around Mr. X tracking you to an area where there are zombies, or God forbid, lickers loitering. The game is designed to do just that, in fact.

      Speaking of Alan Woke, I did buy the game for cheap back about when I first got the Deck, and I agree with pretty much everything you’ve noted about it. I didn’t get very far at all in it before quitting it. The voice that guides you along from the sky was retarded, and the shadow enemies seemed very uninspiring and boring to combat. The combat in that game just plain sucks and the gimmick the game utilizes is lame. I imagine that when it first came out that it had some pretty decent graphics and visual effects (like the tornado scene) that people were impressed by. However, it just doesn’t hold up in that regard by today’s standards. The sequel with the negress makes it an immediate pass for me. The only exception for wanting to play as a black chick in a game for me would be the inevitable REmake 5, but she better at least be hot and light-skinned like she was originally. Btw, there are speculations that REmake 5’s setting might possibly be revamped altogether to avoid offending journalists and the like.

    24. Capcom should wait a few years with remaking RE5 because the left has been taking one L after another in recent months. The big promise that adding a bunch of faggots, ugly women, and trannies would translate into higher sales is also not coming to fruition, and if there is one non-mobile-first video game studio that really likes to make money it is Capcom. I just can’t see them willingly sacrifice sales. On that note, I have been wondering if, for instance, the inclusion of super-sexy Cammy was motivated by having tranny wrestler in the game, i.e. in order to not offend their fans too much, you get to play as this super-hot slut.

    25. I can tell you right now after watching the opening cutscene and playing for a few minutes that BM:I is not worth it. I don’t want to be super harsh on it because I realize the production costs of this game are super low and dev team basically boils down to one dude, but my issue it is that it is not a great value. I’ve watched this game for months and $10 is the cheapest I’ve ever seen it. If the game were $5 regularly and got a 75% off sale then I’d say go for it. However, for $5 you can get Doom 2016 and Titanfall 2 when they go on sale, and for the $10-15 you’d spend on BM:I you could just get Doom Eternal on sale. All three of those titles are much more polished obviously, and apparently BM:I also has a comparatively short campaign which I might not even finish.

    26. BM:I has enjoyed a pretty good reception. I don’t disagree that there is insufficient value-for-money considering that you can get full fledged competitor products that offer much more and, arguably, better content. Still, I think that BM:I is a very impressive effort for one single guy. There have been a few such success stories in recent years, which bodes well for the future of vidya.

    27. Oh, I remember you posted that about Evil Within 2, but forgot. At the very least I’d rather it launch from the Steam app than have to go through the Epic Games launcher or whatever.

    28. A horror streamer I follow was playing Alan Woke 2 recently, so I checked out the first 45 mins or so this morning. I don’t think this is a biased take but it’s very boring in the beginning. It starts you out as some nude obese middle-aged guy stumbling defenselessly through the woods before you get caught by some lame cult and brutally murdered. Immediately after, you’re rewarded by a cutscene of the black detective and her partner driving on a winding road as she converses with her son on the phone. The following gameplay sequence will have you walking around seemingly aimlessly doing detective work pertaining to the previously witnessed murder. This seems to go on for quite a while, but I got tired and went to sleep before anything exciting ever happened. Compare this to REmake 4 which, after a quick interesting cutscene, lets you jump straight into running around and then quickly to the action segments before dumping the intense village fight on you (sink or swim!). Also, the character animations and controls do not measure up to RE games, and they’re arguably the same sort of gameplay style in a lot of respects. Anyways, maybe the game gets better eventually, but I do not enjoy the very slow build up of such games.

    29. Evil Within 2 sure takes its time getting going. The opening sequence is controllable and really short. It teaches you how to interact with doors and crouch under objects, then takes control away from you for like 15 minutes for a long boring cutscene. I remember the actual game being good, but my memory may not be accurate.

    30. I have also noticed that I tend to not remember the boring, bad parts of games (EDIT: except if they are really bad). Also, I used to have a lot more patience regarding vidya, and generously give any game one to two hours before dropping them. Nowadays, though, a horrible tutorial is enough to make me quit.

    31. I tried to play some Darkwood tonight but my gamepad didn’t seem to work with it. I’ll probably end up playing it in handheld mode with headphones eventually and put it off for now. Anyway, I decided to play more of The Evil Within 2 and got pretty into it. It takes about an hour or more to get into the main gameplay area, though, which is really bad. Even if you skip all the cutscenes (like on a replay, which makes the replay value kind of low) there are a lot of boring segments to get through. One such example is running through a black void while the horror matrix world you enter boots up. However, once you get going there is a sprawling area to explore that is packed with things to collect and discover.

      Once you get into the main game finally you’ll find yourself playing a more interesting version of The Last of Us essentially. Also, the cheese factor in this game is high, which is kind of a trope in Japanese horror games at this point. Another thing I noticed is that the characters in this game are all pretty average to ugly looking , but not in a Western subversive type of way. It’s hard to explain. One last thought is that even though I don’t realistically expect this genre of games to all look and play like Resident Evil remake types of games, the latter really do make it hard to adjust to this game because they’re higher quality overall in terms of the way they feel to play at the very least.

    32. Thanks for sharing your impressions of The Evil Within 2. I wonder when (or if) I will play it. Your remark about Capcom setting a very high bar is obviously correct. I do not see this acknowledged often, outside of perhaps discussions on Devil May Cry 5, but they have really nailed controls. Despite not having played a lot of the Resident Evil 2 remake, I was immediately struck by how well this game plays. I walked away from briefly playing the Monster Hunter Rise demo with the same impression. Attacks feel weighty and quite satisfying if you land a hit.

    34. Given how frequently Capcom has been putting out Resident Evil mainline games since 2017, when Resident Evil 7 was released, I do not think that it is plausible that a lot of effort was put into Resident Evil 9. It is quite possible that the game has been in pre-production for years, of course. Capcom is also seemingly a very disciplined studio, so once they start focusing on Resident Evil 9, it will probably come together nicely within two to three years. After all, this is not a Rockstar situation where all the key talent has left.

  8. Aaron,

    According to Greta Thunberg, future wars will be fought using vegan technology. I guess traditional grenades will be replaced with avocados and lettuce will be used as canon balls. And future vegan wars will be fought in Brussels.

    According to other news outlets, the video was digitally altered, but it did give me a good laugh.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGsW0yLYao0

    https://www.logicallyfacts.com/en/fact-check/fake-clip-of-greta-thunberg-advertising-a-new-book-on-ecologically-friendly-war-is-a-deepfake

    Reply

    1. the women inviting you is actually the “bride” who’s into you. Have you had any crazy experiences like this?

    4. No, never. Years ago I looked up a few of the women I met and marriage did not seem to have been on their mind. They were following the whore playbook of fucking a bunch of random guys until the big-dicked Chad-billionaire who only wants their washed up 35-year-old self knocks on their door.

  10. I just started watching The Boys and it’s shocking how ugly all the female characters are. And everyone acts as if they were actually beautiful which makes no sense at all. Most male characters are portrayed as rich and powerful, yet they are getting seduced by women in their late thirties all the time. I’m in the middle of the third episode and there were at least four such cases already. This is just ridiculous. I don’t live in the West but things can’t be really that bad over there in terms of women, can they?

    At the same time, I like everything else about this series so far. Is it ((their)) intention? That people will get hooked at everything else and continue watching, so that the viewers will buy into the ugliness propaganda?

    How do you guys avoid series like that before investing time in it? I’m thinking to just drop any movie or series featuring an ugly woman anywhere within first fifteen minutes. I guess you could also screen by producer / studio name, but that requires knowing which ones are woke.

    Reply

    1. Yes it will get woke in the later seasons. Critics say that the series bashes both the right and the left, but of course it is not true. In the sense that the rightists are bashed for not being progressives while leftists are bashed for not being progressive enough

    2. There’s an entire episode devoted to bashing Christianity during the first season. Tons of Jewish names in the credits at the end also. Then there is a Nazi played by a Jewish woman in the second season.

    3. WTF is up with Jews playing Nazis in movies/series? American History X and Higher Learner are other examples.

    4. This kind of TV show seems to target the current-year deluded Western female. I tend to drop any entertainment product quickly when there is obvious propaganda. If the creators could not even wait for fifteen minutes before shoving their ideological crap down your throat, you can rest assured that you are not going to miss out on much. About one week ago, I thought of giving the RPG Pillars of Eternity a try, and the tutorial mission has you follow around an elite female warrior who is supposed to teach you the ropes. I chuckled, and deleted the game right afterwards.

      It has become a lot easier to find out how woke any game or movie is as there are now some cracks in the mainstream propaganda front. I would recommend waiting at least for a week or two before buying any game, and then checking the Steam discussion boards. Regarding movies and TV shows, this is even easier because even YouTube nowadays allows criticism of Hollywood’s woke garbage.

    5. I think Alek talked about it elsewhere here,but I also have the habit of only buying games once a Definitive Edition comes out. Persona 4 Golden for example.

      Its a habit that’ll definitely give you the best bang per buck. The only catch is being patient. Probably not very feasible though if video games are your only hobby.

      With my registration to the Epic Games store,I think I can see myself only being a freeloader on it for quite awhile. I wish I had known about this earlier.

    6. To be honest, I only made that point from a logical standpoint. I haven’t played games in like 8-12 years I think, not sure of exact timing.

      Even back then you already had the explosion of the DLC/buggy first releases model. Where effectively people pay a premium to buy the shittiest version of a game, and by the time 12-16 months pass from release, you get an ultimate version which is 3x cheaper, includes all DLCs, and runs at like twice the FPS, since everything has been ironed out.

      If I did play games I don’t know if I’d be able to apply it or be impatient and get them sooner. Though again I haven’t touched a game in a looong time. I think the moment you start getting serious about business, playing games becomes something that’s not even a thing in your brain.

      I think all men are created to run a business. Games tap into that same instinct of taking risks, defeating foes, all the ups and downs etc. When you’re getting them from an actual business, you don’t need games.

    7. “I think all men are created to run a business. Games tap into that same instinct of taking risks, defeating foes, all the ups and downs etc.”

      Aaron talked about this,yeah.

      https://blog.aaronsleazy.com/index.php/2020/03/07/what-avid-video-gamers-and-crazy-cat-ladies-have-in-common/

      In Open thread #260,I’ve spoken about how I’m against introducing children to video games too soon into their life,and that is because video games provide a risk free/less effort environment (especially with modern games) to satisfy/subdue what is supposed to be a useful biological urge in us for achievement. I don’t want to get too much into that topic again though since I feel I’ve already dissected the topic well enough on that thread.

  11. A horror streamer I follow was playing Alan Woke 2 recently, so I checked out the first 45 mins or so this morning. I don’t think this is a biased take but it’s very boring in the beginning. It starts you out as some nude obese middle-aged guy stumbling defenselessly through the woods before you get caught by some lame cult and brutally murdered. Immediately after, you’re rewarded by a cutscene of the black detective and her partner driving on a winding road as she converses with her son on the phone. The following gameplay sequence will have you walking around seemingly aimlessly doing detective work pertaining to the previously witnessed murder. This seems to go on for quite a while, but I got tired and went to sleep before anything exciting ever happened. Compare this to REmake 4 which, after a quick interesting cutscene, lets you jump straight into running around and then quickly to the action segments before dumping the intense village fight on you (sink or swim!). Also, the character animations and controls do not measure up to RE games, and they’re arguably the same sort of gameplay style in a lot of respects. Anyways, maybe the game gets better eventually, but I do not enjoy the very slow build up of such games.

    Reply

    1. I actually think that any kind of slow-burner, not just games, means the product is garbage. Great stuff is great all around. If I have to wait until it gets good, it’s certainly not great, and most likely not even good

    2. Not always true. Fate/Grand Order started out as complete hot garbage. I wasn’t around at the time,but I took a look at old clips and it was definitely quite bad. The fame of the Fate Franchise was the only thing keeping it alive back then.

      Today,its one of the best mobile/gacha games in history. I think its popularity exceeds even the best anime which is a more popular medium than gacha gaming,and that says something.

      That being said,I’m definitely not advocating getting games if they don’t already impress you the way they are now. As I’ve talked about with Alek,I’m an advocate of buying games when a complete definitive form of it is already out. You get the best bang for your buck that way.

    3. I think there is a difference between narrative-focus single-player games and constantly changing and gameplay-heavy mobile games. With the latter, you can implement a lot of gameplay changes, but with Alan Woke II, it seems you would have to completely redesign the game. You cannot easily fix bad pacing.

    4. Oh wait,I think I just realized you guys were talking about the PACING of a game,rather than it being improved over time with updates. lol.

      Some things just take time to pick up. Many VN’s are that way for example,although I wouldn’t blame you if you’re not really patient enough for those. I definitely don’t regret my experiences however with giving slow paced stories a chance.

    5. Some games come heavily front-loaded, though. Astral Chain is a good example of a game that starts out really good but peters out right after. Alan Wake first makes you feel helpless, then bored.

    6. Frontloading games has been one of the big trends in the last ten to fifteen years. Off the top of my head, I can think of the first four God of War games (1, 2, 3, Ascension), everything Platinum released, Max Payne 3, Darksiders, etc. In the past, games had some kind of buildup, and often filler at the end to pad the length. This afflicts basically every 3D platformer that has you look for collectibles. In terms of filler content, one of the worst offenders is actually by Nintendo. The original Wind Waker had a very tedious sequence at the end where you need to sail the ocean to look for Triforce pieces.

    7. I actually replayed Wind Waker on the Gamecube late last year and stopped once getting to the Triforce fetch quest. It was definitely originally meant to be padding, and they even streamlined that section of the game in HD Wii-U version.

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