Lemmy.ca

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Welcome 🍁


Lemmy.ca is run by Canadians, hosted in Canada, and geared toward Canadians. However, it is not restricted to Canadians, or Canadian culture/topics/etc. All are welcome!

To learn more about what Lemmy is, or how the Fediverse works, you can visit our simple Getting Started Guide.

This site is run by the non-profit Fedecan and funded entirely by user donations. You can help support us by visiting our donations page.


Rules and Guidelines

1. No BigotryIncluding racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.

2. Be CivilArgue in good faith, attack the argument; not the person, and promote a healthy debate. That includes implying violence, threats or wishes of violence and/or death.

3. No PornThis instance is not made to host porn communities. You're free to access porn communities on other instances through your account, but be mindful of Rule 4.

4. Use the NSFW tagUse your common sense: if you wouldn't want this image to show up on your work computer, tag it as such. In comments, use the
spoiler ::: tag for NSFW images, and put a NSFW mention beside links. Do not use NSFW images as your avatar or banner. :::
5. No Ads / SpamThis instance is not there to act as your billboard. If you want to promote your personal work, at least make the effort to be a contributing member of this community. Your account purpose shouldn't be to only advertise, make it natural.

6. Bot accountIf you are the operator of a "bot" account, make sure to flag is as such in the account's settings.

7. Right to privacyDo NOT distribute the personal information of someone else without their consent (aka doxxing). Information that is public domain can be shared, provided it is in good faith.
ex: The official email of an elected official is fair, the private phone number or the real name of a non-public person is NOT.

8. Report abuseThe report function isn't labelled the disagree button. You might not agree with someone, but that doesn't mean what the person says is against the rules. Using it repeately in this fashion will lead to actions being taken against the reporter.

9. ImpersonationDon't make an account with the intent to negatively deceive or defame someone on the fediverse.
ex: Parody of a famous person is okay, submitting outrageous content as appearing like another user, mod or admin isn't.


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Guides:

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Fediseer: endorsement


founded 4 years ago
ADMINS
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submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by otter to c/main
 
 

We have gotten a lot of new signups over the past few days, and we're all very excited to have you joining us! You'll find that people are more than happy to help you get started and learn how to use the site.

If you feel up for it, you can introduce yourself or ask questions below!

We have put together some resources to help new users get started:

You can also read:

These guides were published very recently, and we will be updating them over time. If you find that something is confusing or missing, please let us know and we can improve them further.

For an organized list of Canadian communities (provinces/territories, Cities / Local , Sports, Schools, BuyCanadian, CanadaPolitics etc.), see this post on [email protected]. You can also ask about communities in places like [email protected].

We also encourage you to check out [email protected], so that others can help you / learn from your questions.

Welcome to Lemmy :)

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I have been using some brands for decades (e.g. Paula's choice) but would rather shop local. Does anyone have any favorite Canadian skincare brands they'd recommend?

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Today, I finished Alien Breed 2: Assault, the second game in the second Alien Breed trilogy. But before I get into that, I want to take a moment to talk about the pedigree of the entire Alien Breed series.

Now, if you’re American, you might have no idea what I’m talking about. But if you owned an Amiga—something far more common in Europe—you probably have fond memories of Alien Breed. It was one of the best games on the Amiga, and for a long time, the Amiga was the best computer gaming platform out there. It was miles ahead of DOS, Mac, and even the Atari ST in terms of pure graphics and sound. You have to understand: the Amiga was delivering 16-bit gaming all the way back in 1986—years before the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. At a time when most DOS users were stuck with CGA graphics, the Amiga had a full color palette.

The original Alien Breed was released in 1991, around the same time as the Super Nintendo, also during the height of the Amiga’s popularity. The main trilogy consisted of Alien Breed, Alien Breed 2: The Horror Continues, and Alien Breed: Tower Assault—all classic top-down shooters. The game was heavily inspired by the movie Alien (1979), and it wasn’t alone in that. Metroid took influence from Aliens, and so did Alien Syndrome, another top-down shooter from Sega that was an arcade hit before making its way to the Master System, Commodore 64, DOS, NES, and even the Amiga.

All these games—Alien Syndrome, Alien Breed—were inspired by Alien the movie, but they also owed a huge debt to Gauntlet, Atari’s arcade classic. Gauntlet was really the ancestor of this style of game. But while Alien Syndrome was good, Alien Breed was in a class of its own. It was so influential that it spawned clones, especially on the Amiga’s main rival, the Atari ST. Since the two systems were so similar, there were a lot of unofficial Alien Breed knockoffs for the ST, like Alien Thing, Alien Blast, and Storm 94. None of these would have existed without Alien Breed.

But then the Amiga died. And the reason? Doom.

In one fell swoop, DOS leapfrogged over the Amiga and became the go-to gaming platform, thanks first to Wolfenstein 3D, then Doom. The Amiga simply couldn’t compete with what DOS was doing in 3D, specifically with VGA graphics. Sure, the Amiga still had better 2D sprite graphics, but by 1993, that’s not what people wanted to play anymore.

That didn’t mean Amiga developers didn’t try. Team17, the company behind Alien Breed, made an FPS version called Alien Breed 3D. And for an Amiga FPS in 1995, it was pretty good—arguably the best Amiga FPS up to that point. Since then, people have found ways to push the Amiga further, but back then, Alien Breed 3D was about as good as it got.

But there were huge compromises. You didn’t get full-screen FPS gameplay. Then again, the Amiga wasn’t alone in this—Marathon on Mac also ran in a window, but Bungie made it work. Marathon is still one of my favorite FPS games of all time. Team17 did an okay job with Alien Breed 3D, but graphically, it couldn’t hold a candle to Doom, and that was the writing on the wall for the Amiga.

After Alien Breed 3D, Team17 mostly focused on Worms, which became a massive hit. For 15 years, that was pretty much all they did. And as fun as Worms is, making the same game over and over for that long takes a toll. Even Team17’s management got tired of it, which is why, in 2010, they decided to reboot Alien Breed with a new trilogy: Alien Breed Evolution, Alien Breed Assault, and Alien Breed Descent.

These games were originally Xbox Live Arcade titles. A lot of newer players don’t fully understand why this second Alien Breed trilogy was made, but the short version is that Team17 finally wanted to move beyond Worms. This was their first attempt at doing something different in 15 years. It was a cheap, digital-only game for a long time, selling for $10.

At the time, Xbox was known as the shooter console, but it was also known for indies—smaller games that publishers weren’t willing to put on physical discs. And top-down shooters weren’t exactly in high demand; people wanted first-person shooters. So, the Alien Breed trilogy was released piecemeal over a year. Despite being marketed as a trilogy, it was really one game in three parts, much like how Doom and Commander Keen were structured.

What made these games stand out was their use of Unreal Engine 3. At a time when many XBLA titles looked rough, seeing a top-down shooter flex with the same engine that ran Gears of War was impressive. The trilogy proved to be a hit for Team17—so much so that it eventually got a physical release, which was rare for XBLA games. Even today, the disc version of the Alien Breed trilogy sometimes sells for $100 on eBay. But if you want to play it, the PC version is the way to go—especially on GOG, where you can often get all the Alien Breed games for just a few dollars during sales.

Some reviewers have criticized the second trilogy for being repetitive—fetch quests, keycard hunting, opening doors. But that is Alien Breed. That’s always been Alien Breed. If you don’t like that, you don’t like Alien Breed, period. That said, compared to the originals, the second trilogy is a huge gameplay improvement. The original games had aliens that just ran at you. In the reboot, different aliens behave differently—some rush you, others spit venom, some burst out of the floor or walls. I love that element of surprise, though I get why some players find it frustrating.

The story is also a slow burn. If you only play for an hour, you might think it’s repetitive, but stick with it. The plot unfolds gradually, and by the third game, things really pick up—which is why many consider Alien Breed 3: Descent the best of the trilogy.

So how does this hold up today? Compared to other top-down shooters, the genre has only improved, especially after Hotline Miami, which set the gold standard. Alien Breed isn’t as good as Hotline Miami, but very few games are. It still holds its own as a solid, enjoyable shooter that honors its legacy.

And in the bigger picture, this trilogy marked a turning point for Team17. It broke them out of their Worms rut and led to even better games—like Yoku’s Island Express, one of the greatest pinball games I’ve ever played. Or Sheltered, or The Escapists. If Team17 had never made Alien Breed, they wouldn’t exist today. And if they hadn’t made the second trilogy, they’d probably still be making Worms.

And as much as I like Worms, there’s only so much Worms a person can take. So for that, I’m thankful.

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Great remakes? (self.Horror)
submitted 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) by ACalmGorilla to c/Horror
 
 

Sometimes a remake is done really well, on par or close to the orignal even. What's some of your favourites? Personally..

-The Crazies (2010)

-Dawn of the Dead (2004)

-Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

Feel free to point out terrible remakes if you like as well. Why not.

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submitted 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/lemmyconnect
 
 

This is a bit odd. From my feddit.uk account (this one) I get the above for posts on [email protected].

If I log into the account they were posted with (this is my bot) on lemmings.world they display as expected:

If I log back in as myself on feddit.uk website, the images also display as expected (Connect doesn't seem to want to upload this one, but you'll see it without logging in at feddit.uk/c/[email protected]).

What's different?

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Rattled by a horde of MAGA trolls, here’s what I learned about today’s social media miasma.

Last Friday I made a post on Bluesky and X, concerning U.S. President Donald Trump’s description of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor.” It occurred to me that, numb as we are to Trump’s stream of blather, the importance of that remark was being overlooked. It was an overt declaration by the president of the United States that he does not recognize Canadian sovereignty. That’s scary.

So, my post: “For a US president to refer to the Prime Minister of Canada as ‘Governor’ isn’t just rude. It’s a hostile act.”

The post got little attention on Bluesky. On X, for whatever reason, it went berserk. Over the weekend it racked up close to 3,000 reposts, over 29,000 “likes” and more than 5,000 replies. Those replies came almost entirely from Trump-loving trolls, piling scorn and abuse on my concerns. “Yeah but it’s Canada so who gives a fuck?” said one.

Do the responses represent a genuine glimpse of U.S. opinion on Trump’s bully-boy act?

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Why not start your own instance today!

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