Ah jeez, what can I say but 12 years old is the perfect time to be given a Megadeth album. I think it was Capitol Punishment.

Thanks for explaining, I wasn't on that page. Not used to thinking in terms of fictionalised personages in terms of current events.

Same page with regard to AI though, the point is well made. I'm all too familiar with slow violence.

He is rather turbulent

Gently recommending that he may not embody your/our political grievances in reality.

I don't know that there is any specific guidance on how to appear to have cut ties. When I was trying to distance myself from someone, I didn't want to keep defining myself in relation to them, even in terms of not being tied to them.

I see a time like this as a chance to learn more about yourself. Explore with different ways of self-expression within your means, see what fits, and take it as far as feels right. Gumtree or Craig's list are good places to start, see what calls out to you and feel free to repaint, redecorate, or modify as needed. Paint is cheap, so playing with new colours and patterns is a good place to start. Just make sure that whatever you choose expresses something real about you, not how disconnected you are from someone that isn't relevant to your life anymore.

It's correct. Atari is making modern games too, I'm excited for Fatal Run 2089. The art form is still quite new, and there's a lot of room for new ideas

Have we tried insisting firmly? Asking rhetorically because no we haven't

The magic system is better than the one in Skyrim, which is a low bar to clear. I was always disappointed by the rudimentary quality of the NPC AI in Oblivion because of the incredible (as it turns out, literally) promises Bethesda was making before release. I remember reading about it in a game magazine and being enthralled with the possibilities... Then it turned out to be what it is. Morrowind was the first video game RPG that I truly, deeply immersed myself in and the quality of that immersion depended on a highly textual approach combined with a world that often surprises and makes demands of you, while also giving you a great deal of leeway in how you negotiate its challenges. After that, Oblivion felt like a failed attempt to move away from relying on writing, and Bethesda has confined itself to failing in that direction ever since, while importantly never failing to make plenty of money doing so.

I liked the story and experience of Oblivion despite all of this, even though it felt like a very limited realisation of its own creative aims. I have high hopes for Skyblivion still, and will look forward to seeing a more lovingly, thoughtfully crafted rendition.

It's very much standing on the shoulders of Chrono Trigger, but in such an intelligent way that it ends up being the better game. Objectively (gameplay, art, direction, music, and writing are all much more ambitious in scope while remaining firmly rooted in the tradition of retro turn based RPGs) and subjectively (we got pretty emotional at some points and laughed pretty hard a few times, always stayed invested in the story) it's just a better game than CT, which is something I simply never expected to say about a new game.

I've also been playing a lot of Noita, but haven't beaten it.

What a list! You did all that this year?

I got through Sea of Stars this month. Really happy with it, glad there's plenty of endgame side-quests since I'm not ready to say goodbye. I'll be following Sabotage closely in the future.

If Ukraine builds a model that can pilot war drones, especially those nasty little grenade drones, it will be a modern day Manhattan project in its historical significance - almost certainly for the worse, though it is hard to blame them.

We're at 0.09 Antietams per day and rising. 🗿