Feels like that could be a minor villain from Captain America’s Silver Age rogues gallery.

The desperate helplessness in that man’s voice during that call never fails to make me laugh.

Idk man, could be I’m just projecting on you conversations I’ve had with myself, but fondly remembering the sense of discovery you had with the Infinity Engine games while being sour on BG3 because it was “spoiled” for you seems like it has a lot more to do with your sense of nostalgia than any rational critique. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the sorta person who will break out my soapbox to yell about Morrowind’s virtues vs Oblivion or Skyrim, and I’ve also attempted to cajole several friends into giving BG1 a shot in the lead up to and wake of BG3’s release, so I’m sympathetic to your broader point. I just think, unless you’ve been out here reading reviews, watching Let’s Plays, opening discussion threads, and sucking down all in-house marketing Larian did, you vastly overestimate how much of the game is spoiled for you. And, frankly, if you’ve been doing all of those things, then the real culprit is how you spend your time online, not being online in and of itself.

Besides, the game is massive. Even watching multiple Let’s Plays of Act 1 would still leave room for discovery, simply because there are so many paths to pursue, many of them mutually exclusive. Hell, my big critique of the game is that I find the plethora of choices to be overwhelming, as I’m the sort that likes to consume all content in a single playthrough, and that’s literally impossible.

Are you really so arrogant as to believe that perception of socio-economic class is exclusively an American consideration when it comes to dating?

There’s practically no chance this knowledge will ever benefit me, but I’m happy to learn something new regardless. Thanks for sharing!

You might like Burn Notice, depending on your tolerance for network television tropes of the mid-aughts. It’s a “monster of the week” format, rather than the serialized approach of Reacher, but it typically includes a scene or two referencing the season arc in any given episode, so you still feel like the narrative is advancing, even if the majority of the episode was a side quest.

The gist is that a US government spy gets “burned” and turned loose in Miami. He, and the few contacts he has who will still speak with him (which include his mother, an ex-gf with a bombastic personality, and Bruce Campbell at the height of his smarmy powers), attempt to figure out who burned him, while also getting wrapped up in “favors” for various folks about town that inevitably wind up more complicated than was initially let on. Antagonists run the gamut from international terrorists to con artists who target the geriatric (it is, after all, set in Florida).

It’s not high art, but it’s got a winning cast, decent action (for network television), and, on occasion, I think some pretty clever solutions for problems which leverage the “spycraft” gimmick. Worth a shot.

I checked out their FAQ, and it seems like the HoMM3 version of the fheroes2 project (or maybe vice versa, I’m not sure which came first).

I noticed that one of the features of VCMI was a totally reworked AI. Do you have insight into how that feels vs base game AI? A minor concern I have about these sort of fan projects is that the contributors tend to be among the most passionate and knowledgeable fans of the base game around, and their tweaks are balanced around that level of game knowledge.

I agree. That’s why I felt compelled to write this post. The gameplay is far better than its wrapper makes it appear.

Was Xeen the M&M setting with the explicit science-fantasy inclination? I’ve never played any of the straight RPGs, but I’ve trundled through enough wikis to discover some bonkers concepts in those games. Like, one ends with your party fighting through a dungeon only to discover that the dungeon is actually a buried space ship or something like that?

I am certain that I would love HoMM3, but it’s just one of those games that I’ve never gotten around to sampling. As a kid, it was purely an access thing, but, as an adult, it’s a case of wanting that sweet nostalgia sauce drizzled over the meat and potatoes HoMM gameplay. Therefore, when the SRPG urge strikes, I find myself reaching for 2. I’ve heard nothing but good things about 3 though, so perhaps it’s high time to advance a little. Besides, I can only betray Roland for that sweet Archibussy so many times before it gets a little old.

My reservations about the art style aside, I think fans of the series would do well to check out the demo. I don’t pretend to be an expert, but, the price is right, and the gameplay feels very solid to me.

Full disclosure, the last time I studied chemistry was 20 years ago, and I was not a particularly good student, so take this with a heaping helping of NaCl.

It isn’t the direct reaction of Drano + PVC that causes the issue. Rather, it’s the heat given off from the reaction of the clog and the lye. Apparently it’s significant enough to be an issue. I tried looking up how much heat might be released by the reaction, but I went crosseyed reading the formula, so someone else will have to do the math on that one.

Also, I know you said caustic material doesn’t react with metal, but Google doubts you on that front, for whatever that’s worth. In fact, zinc is specifically called out as a metal with which sodium hydroxide reacts pretty strongly, which is important because many water lines are steel galvanized with, you guessed it, zinc.

Mmos and arpgs are intrinsically linked by their gameplay loops. Admittedly, this can vary to a greater or lesser degree depending on the specific games being compared, but Diablo 2 was, in many ways, proto-WoW.

I was told it was never about the size, it was about how you used it!

After VtM 1’s tumultuous release, not to mention the drama surrounding the sequel’s development, that makes sense to me.

That being said, I don’t think it’s quite as big a leap as the person above is making it sound. To use their words, The Chinese Room are known for “strong art direction, atmosphere, and story, [and] weak gameplay”. They also suggest that the games TCR make are “the exact opposite” of Bloodlines 1. Which is kinda boggling my mind, cause I’m pretty sure the critical and user consensus of that game is that it excelled in its art direction, atmosphere, and story, and fell comparatively short in its gameplay. In fairness, I think he was referring to the limited open world nature of VtM 1 vs the straight linearity of the “walking sim” genre, but still. I’d argue the most memorable section of VtM is the Ocean House Hotel, which is, basically, a linear walking sim level, and it’s not as though the og game did a ton with its open world.

Now there’s an argument to be made that Paradox made the wrong call by doubling down on the peripheral elements of the game, rather than hiring a team that has ARPG gameplay bonafides, but I think that’s only an argument that can be made with the benefit of hindsight. Additionally, is it true that the gameplay/combat of VtM2 is glaringly bad? I can’t speak for myself, but the handful of reviews I read characterize it as serviceable at worst. Which, again, seems right in line with the first game.

I’m very much on the outside looking in though.

Apropos of nothing more than my idle speculation, I’d guess they will return to the transport tycoon genre if they are able to do so. Before Skylines took the crown from SimCity as the preeminent example of the genre, they made the Cities in Motion games, which were narrowly focused on improving the mass transit of existing cities (as opposed to building the city itself). I know the second CiM game had some interaction between the city and your efforts as transportation czar (in the same way you could indirectly influence a citiy’s development in, say Railroad Tycoon), but the emphasis was always on transit. I imagine the newly independent team will want to keep their focus narrow, unless another publisher swoops in to replace the safety net.

Lol you’re correct. Idk what happened there, meant to say fun!

Tremors is up there for me. Every couple of years I revisit it and have just as much time as the last.

Tyl what til means!

Man, if they aren’t putting “It’s David Cronenberg’s Kenshi, more or less” on the metaphorical box, they’re making a mistake.

I typically turn the water off if I’m brushing in the shower. Hop in, shampoo, rinse, apply conditioner, turn off water, brush teeth, scrub body, turn water on, rinse, done. Makes use of otherwise dead time I’d spend waiting for the conditioner to work, and is comfortable enough with the residual heat from the walls and steam.