Haiku, the Robot is a very fun metroidvania that you can blast through in under 10 hours if you want something in that genre, but also something short and sweet that wont consume two weeks of your life.

That’s pretty much my story, too. I was one of the biggest readers in my class at school growing up and even as a young adult, I still read a lot (probably 10 books a year or so). Somewhere along the way in the last few years, I just fell off. I think part of it is finding a book or genre that really reignites me in that regard. I had a book a few years ago that did do that for a few months, but I need to make it a habit. I want to reduce screen time in my life, in general, and getting back into reading will help so much with that, while still allowing my hyperactive mind to explore cool universes!

I actually just played the Telltale Expanse game yesterday, too, and that was excellent! And yeah, I heard that the books are different enough (and that there are 3 more of them), so that a read-through would likely feel new to me. I’ve actually had the first book on my shelf for 10 years after a friend gave it to me and I never started it, nor knew what it was until I started watching the TV show, ha.

I also have a hard time catching up with established shows. It sounds like a lot, but it averages to about ten 45 minutes episodes per season, so it’s not so bad. I had to get in the mindset of “nobody cares how long I take to watch it”. I just casually watched an episode or two a night for a few weeks. I recommend watching, it’s awesome! If you do start, I’d say that season 1 is slower than the rest and with lower production value, the show doesn’t really ramp up until season 2, I feel, but then it’s a wild ride the rest of the way.

Work is normally not complete shit, but it certainly is this week. I think the universe knows I’m going on vacation next week and then decided to make this week hell instead of a normal week.

That said, I finished The Expanse (amazing show and I just want more!!!) and I’m hopelessly addicted to Cobalt Core. I’ve completed about 6 runs now and have one more ship and character to unlock, and then I “only” have to beat it about 20 more times to get all the memory logs. It’s a very addicting game!

I’m going to have to find a show or two to occupy me in the next 2 weeks on vacation, though. I like traveling, but I’m skipping it this time to be frugal and I’m just having a staycation. I may drive somewhere for a couple days, but nothing crazy.

I’m also trying to get into the habit of reading more. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point of reading double digits books per year (my adhd riddled brain just needs too many vidya games), but I’m trying to at least read a few days a week. That said, with me growing increasingly frustrated with computers (a thing I’m calling ROBS, rapid onset boomer syndrome), maybe I’ll get more into reading to get away from screens (I work in software, so I really should be using a screen at home as little as possible).

I don’t work in games, but I do work in software and the people you describe are infuriating and have absolutely no idea what it’s like to work on a big piece of software. Thanks for the comment.

The issue here is that Counter Strike Global Offensive did have official Mac support. Then when CS2 came out, Valve replaced the CSGO client with CS2, rather than making it a new client, and then announced they’re cutting Mac support. There is still a weird way to launch GO, but good luck finding players to play against now. It was pretty shitty of them to not leave GO as its own client or to not continue supporting Mac. This isn’t quite a case of a new game not having Mac support, what happened from Mac users’ point of view is their counter strike game updated and now they can’t play it anymore.

As someone who loves RPGs and Star Wars, it took me about 10 attempts to actually get more than an hour into the game before turning it off. It’s just that dated. I did eventually power through the first few hours and then the non-aged moments (story and writing) became good enough for me to stick around. I can definitely see how most people wouldn’t want to play it for the first time at this point though.

People in the fediverse talking about how much they don’t use reddit anymore reminds me of people that are “totally over” their ex.

I know there are some out there who legitimately believe in the witchcraft they’re performing, spells they cast, crystals, etc., but for me, I do practice wicca, but it’s less about thinking that I’m having a physical effect on the world and more of a way to almost meditate and for sure a way to connect to my spiritual side.

Even though I know that me performing a ritual to bring a friend some good luck or something won’t actually do anything in the real world, it puts me in a space where I can reflect on my friend and what they mean to me, for example.

It certainly can be a bit silly, but many of us practice because we like the state of being and state of mind it can put us into, vs truly believing we’re performing magic.

Surprisingly, Baldur’s Gate 3. I absolutely love D&D, but I tried playing through the Pathfinder video games, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin 2, and nothing stuck with me. I just wasn’t a fan of the CRPG genre, despite me playing in-person tabletop RPGs multiple times a week.

I bought BG3 thinking I probably wouldn’t get hooked, but I didn’t want to miss out when literally every one of my friends is playing it. Well, I am absolutely hooked and have 40 hours in the game and will likely do multiple playthroughs, and I kind of “get” the genre now. I know PoE, PF, or DOS2 may not be as good, but I feel a lot more confident at the prospect of playing them now.

So in this case, FOMO helped me a great deal.

You are not only incorrect, but hypocritical and selfish if you want rights for yourself, but not for other LGBT people who absolutely exist, whether you like it or not. Keep in mind that trans people were side by side with gay people at Stonewall and ever since, always fighting for LGBT equality (never just trans equality), and here you are whining that they want equal rights just like you want.

Gender exists, including non-binary genders. I suggest using some modern sources to catch up on LGBT issues, as you seem to have some unhealthy, and frankly bigoted, views on portions of the LGBT community. I’ve seen you completely overblow gender issues in some of your comments with awful and ridiculous “examples” (“transfemme demisexual aromantic oceangender individual” and " transmasculine forestgender cat-boychick") and those shitty “examples” do not represent like any transgender or non-cisgender individuals. That’s just not what’s going on with gender issues at all. Maybe some person online said something like that, but that’s about 0.0001% of trans people.

Exactly zero of the non-cis people I know are anywhere close to your examples. They’re all just normal people who were born where their gender doesn’t match their birth sex.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359295113_The_Biological_Basis_of_Gender_Incongruence

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6748626/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6830997/

But you don’t understand, she’s an attractive woman and therefore must be an attention seeker and nothing more.

/S

I’ve sort of just accepted it. I work in a niche position in a software company that’s in a niche sector and while people do depend on me for their livelyhoods, I wouldn’t say the products I produce are, in the grand scheme of things, meaningful. What I do only exists as a job in the 20th and 21st centuries and humans got on just fine before that.

I instead find meaning in my hobbies and out of work activities. My job, while pretty meaningless in my mind, does pay me enough to allow me to have a good life outside of work. I don’t need my job to be meaningful, I just need it to not suck.

I know it’s probably been done in other games, but the drill charge solves so many issues. In past games, you can maybe get a camper with a grenade, but now it’s almost guaranteed (especially if you also run in to finish them off if it doesn’t get them). It was a brilliant addition to MW2 and I hope it stays in basically all CoD games.