vulgarcynic

Posted above, I'll drop it here as well, requestarr performs the same service but via discord.

Layering on top of that (I'm sorry to recommend a discord app) but, Requestarr is awesome as well. It allows you to attach a bot to a channel and request up through Overseer, Sonarr or Radarr. Works for local and remote users.

Signal is available on all those platforms.

At least we elected another octagenerian... ffs. Also, Mike Johnson can go fuck himself while his kid monitors it on their weird repression apps.

Bend Team can't catch a break. Days Gone sequel never got off the ground and we're finally starting to see a reappraisal of it just in time for a sequel to have dropped and likely seen success. Which could of easily led to a decent multiplayer game in that universe.

It'd be pretty rad to roll around eastern Oregon on customized bikes hunting hordes with some homies.

Thanks for this comment. It perfectly conveys empathy for the fans and respect for the artist. I needed that little dopamine hit.

Alcohol and drug use are both able to kill you directly through unchecked addiction.

Social media kills you via long term mental health damage. There is no direct way it can render you physically dead.

That said. Social media has fucked up more people in irreparable ways in my lifetime than alcohol or drugs ever could.

Its been interesting watching this franchise evolve. Every new sequel feels like its wrestling with the fabric of artistry and cynicism in tandem. The result is somewhere around... ok. I can't think of any standout, memorable moments in any of the recent entries.

Might be time to give 4-6 a revisit and see if it's true or just recency bias.

Interesting watch. I'm awaiting an order from Japan of some PS Vita USB-C adapters that are in line replacements. Was rather excited to find them after dusting the vita off for a revisit.

Live service means there are constant "content" updates being released by the developer/publisher.

This can be character skins, weapon skins or other cosmetics, new maps or modes, new classes, skills or really anything. A lot of times these are wrapped up in to "battle passes" time limited, purchaseable collections of stuff designed to keep players engaging with the game daily for carrots being dangled in front of them. Most of these are also time limited so if you don't jump through all of the Hoops before the timer expires you no longer have access to the content that you were playing for and paying for.

To relate to old school gaming think of them like mini-expansion packs. The part that most people take issue with is the strategy behind the majority of them.

Almost all live service games are designed to keep players running on the hedonistic treadmill looking for the dopamine hit of that next unlock. In the more egregious free-to-play games you see that crafted through dark patterns in a way that incentivizes users to buy shortcut items through the marketplace to either automatically collect the ranks needed for the unlock or provide double accrual rate for whatever the experience marker is.

The reason they are coined lives service is due the nature of them receiving this constant update drip in a manner that would be live as opposed to static in traditional, Old School multiplayer games where you may see a large expansion every once in awhile but certainly not a weekly or monthly drip feed of new shit for the players to grind away at trying to unlock.

Aye, that was my suspicion. Really awesome to be stripped of options for privacy so they can suck down that data.

Yt-dlp still works thankfully.

Bloodborne is my favorite of all From's games in this run. With Elden Ring taking a good 2nd thanks to some great coop moments.

With that in mind, I recommend Mortal Shell

It's a smaller, indie Dev made game but has some fun systems and doesn't over stay it's welcome.

I've played through it a few times on Xbox and PC. Runs well on both and doesn't waste time getting to the combat.

As an added bonus, there's an alternate soundtrack DLC (was free originally, might not be anymore) composed by Rotting Christ that adds a pretty cool layer to the bosses battles.