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  1. Yesterday
  2. The Gentlemen - Guy Ritchie decided making a movie about an british aristocrat getting involved in the drug world, and thought "damn I need to remake this into a series." If you like Guy Ritchie stuff, you'll like this, it's very "turn your brain off" type of show. I thought it was middling at best and does unfortunately use one characters extreme incompetence to help move the various plots forward, which I didn't appreciate. Masters of the Air - It was a good but not great series set in WW2 about the bomber pilots and crews and the problems they faced. This is a noticeable step down from Band of Brothers / The Pacific even if it's produced by some of the same people. The acting is fine, and some of the larger set-pieces are cool but the storyline isn't particularly engaging. The sequences that cover the various prison camps were the worst part of the show and felt like a drag that didn't add anything. This is totally skippable. Currently Watching: Shogun - It's a very solid show, you can tell the showrunners and actors took this seriously. I think this is a better / higher quality version of Last Kingdom set in Japan. I would love to see more historical fiction like this, but I assume the budget constraints make that difficult. I know this is technically a remake of an older "prestige tv" show from the 1980's but I think remaking a show 40 years old is more than reasonable. Tokyo Vice Season 2 - Great show. I've heard this may be the last season (intentionally) and I hope they planned this all out so it resolves well and doesn't overstay it's welcome. I still have some slightly mixed feelings about some of the actors performances, but nothing that takes me out of the show. X-Men '97 - I have some nostalgia for the old show, but if you asked me to describe the various plotlines I'd be hard pressed to remember much. The show is a direct continuation from the original show, but you don't need any context other than basic understanding of the x-men to appreciate the show. The animation is 2.5d, which is to say it's clearly 3d models that are being flattened, and there are some sequences where you can see a much more dynamic camera that they make use of because of the 3d models. I've been very impressed by the animation work, and the showrunners / animators certainly love the IP because each of the characters feel like bigger and better versions of their original series versions. Cyclops in particular is made to look super awesome, which is neat to see considering how lame they've made him in all of the various movie iterations. I don't know enough about the various comic storylines but it seems like they're basing the show on some of the existing storylines and since they've already done the phoenix saga in the old show they aren't rehashing that (thank god). Invincible Season 2 (second half) - I'm still enjoying it but the animation quality and action sequences aren't doing much for me. I'm still interested in the story but I feel like the large gaps between each season, and splitting this second season up has dampened my enjoyment. I hope they figure it out and keep the show going through the entire storyline of the comics, because I've heard it gets wild. Anime Stuff: Frieren - This just finished airing. It's getting tons of hype (for good reason) and will probably be regarded as anime of the year, or at least be considered an instant classic. Between the great animation quality (madhouse is back baby) and a serviceable storyline that pushes some deeper themes, the show is fantastic. Strong recommendation. Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon) - Set in a prototypical dungeons and dragons style setting, the show is a mix of weirdly comfortable cooking and classic dungeon crawling. The characters are the right amount of silly and competent. The animation quality is solid, and they especially took care to show some well detailed cooking elements (almost every episode has at least one "recipe"). This is another strong recommendation with the caveat that this won't appeal to everyone. The show also feels decidedly more western, mostly because of the specific fantasy setting, I think this helps the show avoid some traditional anime tropes. Solo Leveling - This is shounen power fantasty trash. The manwha (Korean) it's adapted from is well regarded and the animaiton is good enough but it's nothing special at the moment.
  3. Three body problem - I have a skewed view of this series because I knew enough about the book series and had read a few synopsis of the books to not be going into this completely blind. Even without any knowledge of the books, the show works well on its own. I had some trepidation since this was being adapted by the same people who did Game of Thrones, but the bright side was they had a completed series so they couldn't go too far off script. The concepts were fairly well executed and they did a solid job showing some terrible events and how the characters react to them. I think some of the actors are a bit middling, but passable. The main thrust of the story is solid and certainly works to set up additional seasons (I assume adapting the rest of the novels). I'm always happy to see high budget scifi, and this is certainly more grounded or "crunchy" than most scifi I watch/read. I do find it amusing that nearly every single fantasy/scifi fiction I've come across that has to deal with major problems often resort to ultra-authoritarian organizations/characters. I've seen more than a few scifi series where there's this magic "get shit done" character that somehow amasses ridiculous authority, but mostly exist to help move stuff along and allow for unrealistic projects to be given unlimited resources to make them seem achievable. I still have no idea how a Chinese author was able to write this series, and remains lauded by the Chinese government when an entire plotline of the show is basically showing how awful the Chinese government of the past was.
  4. Last week
  5. I read through the Convenant of Steel series (The Paraiah, The Martyr, and The Traitor). It's a very low magic medieval style fantasy setting. The writing was solid enough, but the final book felt a bit rushed. I always appreciate low (or no) magic fantasy as a palate cleanser, they often feel like big budget sword and sandals style movies rather than something grandiose and magical. The series also plays a bit with ideas of prophecy, as well as religious zealotry - nothing particularly deep but that also struck me as ideas I've seen most fantasy books skirt. I'm moving on to The Divide series, which is a military sci-fi with a crew of rag-tag individuals facing the impossible (if this sounds like tropes you've read before - yea that's how I feel so far). I'm trying to tack back to sci-fi because I've been hitting the fantasy stuff pretty hard for a while and would like to shake things up a bit. Offtopic book stuff: 3 Body Problem has a series out (two actually, one from tencent, another from Netflix), I've read some basic synopsis about the series, and some reviews that mention the show is taking some liberties with the adaptation. I don't know that I'll ever read the books. The Murderbot series is getting an adaptation. I'm excited but concerned, huge sections of the book are internal monologue and I'm not sure that's an easy adaptation without voiceover, which could end up being cheesy. Also I'm a bit concerned that they're casting Alexander Skarsgard as the titular Murderbot because the character is aggressively asexual and their monologue reads slightly feminine (it's a female author, I assume that's just a bit of bleed through).
  6. Earlier
  7. https://www.vw.com/en/models/golf-r.html so I've been wanting this car when they introduced it on 2022. obviously post covid bullshit its been really hard to land a deal that does not involved dealer add on packages and markup. pretty much gave up looking and continue enjoying my non car payment life and just kinda cross shop with other vehicle but of course everyone else also have markup and dealer bs. i was pretty much set with the golf r and i know i wanted a White Golf R manual transmission. but here's the shortlist that was a potential and some are longshot https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-7.html <---- not out, like the look and prob within the budget https://www.polestar.com/us/polestar-2/ <---- need mods to make it somewhat look the way i wanted, within the budget https://www.polestar.com/us/polestar-4 <---- not out, if i eat rice and beans this is this the way. out of the budget https://www.volvocars.com/us/cars/ex30-electric/ <---- i like the look, within the budget, coming out soon, its a lifted hatchback. meh. https://www.audiusa.com/us/web/en/models/a5/s5-sportback/2024/overview.html <---- kinda hard to find used within the comfrotable budget and its getting outdated. https://automobiles.honda.com/civic-type-r <---- Rice and every single dealer wanted 5k-10k markup To be honest i dont think im ready for a full electric; granted that most of these cars prob go above 300 miles on a single charge but i just don't want to deal with range anxiety and sitting around just to charge my shit, and plus its prob a terrible time to buy since all of them still busy converting their line up to the tesla charging standard. soo how did i get here. beginning of the year i did a search on vw website and i send email blast to local dealers with in stock or incoming White Golf R manual. 2 dealer spamming me instantly. vw pasadena, and vw moreno valley. I drove to pasadena and checkout the car, talk to salesman and i'm like ok it's either now or more waiting. sales was easy to deal with with the obvious cringe sales tactics i was ok with MSRP because other dealers wanted ADM. finance tho; the guy is trying to sell me all this addons; from protection this, protection that, extended warranty for your extended warranty. it was obvious that he was upset and disappointed because i denied every single offer he threw at me. I'm already disliking paying a car at MSRP i don't want extra crap and just get me out of here. it was so uncomfortable tbh, why does buying a car needs to be like this. so dumb. i'm just imagining people who doesn't know better getting raped, and pressure into buying this extra stuff that they prob do not need and the dealer profit a few more thousands dollar out of you. i got ppf full front done and prob window tint to follow. The new tech is fun to play with. i have not try lane assist, dynamic cruise control, and parking assist. will add those impression once i get to try them. including the touch capacitive btns. car comes with hankook Ventus s1 evo 3 from the factory.
  8. Malaphax

    SCUBA

    Did two dives out of Dana Point. First dive was a surprise dive on the ACE wreck. We had a small number of divers who were all experienced enough that the captain took us here, normally dives on the ACE are planned in advance. The wreck itself is on the deeper end with the top being 115' and the sand being 140', this translates into a rather short dive due to decompression limits. My mask was misbehaving at the start and I ended up swapping it out so I started the dive a bit later than everyone else, but I still got a solid bit of time on the wreck. It was teeming with life, tons of rockfish hanging out on the wreck, but there's also a fair bit of fishing line that you need to be careful around. Visibility was great, 50'+ Second dive was a seal rock, which is fairly shallow reef with a few valleys and small caverns around the rock formation. The shallow nature of the dive plus the usual California conditions (surge mostly) made it difficult for me on the rebreather. Overall we got great conditions, with very flat seas, fantastic visibility and some good dive sites. The Riviera dive boat isn't really set up for my double tanks, but they were accommodating. I also climbed the ladder with my full kit, including the rebreather, so I'm glad to know I can do that without issue. Supposedly the local dive group will be setting up some additional trips to Catalina in 2024 on a new boat. So I'll look forward to that as well.
  9. I ended up jumping around different books on vacation. The Sunlit Man - Another branden sanderson book. It's tied into his wider worldbuilding, but set far in the future - it technically is about a very minor character mentioned in one of his mainline series. The premise was a small planetoid where the sunlight was deadly and the entire planet's inhabitants live on ships that constantly move just ahead or just behind the sunlit areas. Neat little story, but due to the interconnectedness it doesn't really work unless you've read large portions of his other works. Piranesi - It's by the same authoer as johnothan strange and mr. norrel. I didn't like the book, the whimsical nature was mostly ok, but the entire premise felt wasted and the plot was minimal and slow. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue - I've enjoyed books by the author before. It's a rendition of a "deal with the devil" story. It's been a plodding journey and depending on how much longer this takes I might just drop it.
  10. Malaphax

    SCUBA

    Dear diary: A while back I started doing research on some amazing diving locations and putting together a sort of "bucket-list" that I wanted to work towards. When I started to read into some of the more interesting dives I realized some of them were beyond recreational scuba limits. So I started looking into what it would take to get the training and equipment to handle "technical diving" and set myself up to dive some of these more extreme sites. That started another whole topic of research regarding technical diving and eventually landed on rebreathers. After doing a rather substantial amount of research I decided to take the plunge and buy a rebreather along with the entry level training to operate it. There are two schools of thought on technical diving currently. The first is to progress down the technical courses with regular open-circuit scuba and gain comfort before possibly moving over to a rebreather. The second school believes that the rebreather is a unique and different device and if you're planning on eventually switching, you should make the jump early and build as much time and experience as possible, starting from the bottom and eventually moving into the more technical heavy elements. I elected to jump straight to the rebreather, I felt this made more sense. The training: So I found myself down in Mexico learning to dive a fancy piece of equipment in some caverns / cenotes. I selected my instructor based on some specific criteria, he's an instructor trainer, and has experience north of 2000+ hours on the unit. I believe he's one of the most experienced people regarding this rebreather, other than the people that own the company which make the rebreather. I was the only student in the class, which meant I ran drills all throughout the dives. I also scheduled some fun diving after the class to help build some additional time and familiarity on the rebreather. The class itself was less intense that I had imagined, but still very in depth. I was only taking an "introductory" class which did not involve decompression stops (although we did a few) and involved fairly reasonable depth limits (which we also exceeded, but within reason). After taking the class I'm reasonably confidant in the entire process, from building the unit, diving it, and post-dive maintenance. Now I have to log a specific amount of hours & dives before moving on to the next level of the class. My instructor mentioned that my skill level was fairly close to what would be required by the next class level, and he felt confident that once I accrued the experience I should have no issues passing. The progression is something like this: Entry level (100' limit, no deco) > Deco & Helium (150' limit with deco) > Mixed Gas / Mod 2 (200' limit) > Advanced Mixed Gas / Mod 3 (300' limit). There's a chart about it here. I'm obviously at the very beginning of this training journey and I expect I'll be working towards this over the next few years as I continue to accrue experience and time. I also plan on reaching out to some local divers to try and join them on dives and gain experience working with others as part of a dive team. The diving: I don't want to over-sell the cenotes in Mexico, but they're certainly unique and beautiful. Almost all the diving I did is considered "cavern" diving, where you may be in an overhead environment (cannot ascend straight to the surface) but there is some level of natural light within 60m. I think to the average untrained idiot (like myself) this is cave diving-lite. There were a few of these caverns where I could not easily see the natural light, and if I did not have a flashlight I would have been in near perfect darkness. Several of these caverns had paths that were pre-mapped and had nylon lines which guided you, but I totally understand how that could still be dangerous if you got turned around or lost during your dive. There were other cenotes which were small lakes/basins with no caverns/caves branching off. These felt more like giant freshwater pools (100'+ deep and very very large), two of these were super cool. The cenotes are freshwater, but most have a halocline, as it transitions from freshwater on the top to saltwater at depth, this also changes temperature (the saltwater is noticeably warmer) and the shimmer effect is cool to look at but can be a little disorienting. Not to mention the difference in buoyancy can be felt, leaving you skipping/bouncing on the salt water layer if you're not careful. I chose to bring my drysuit and doubles wing so I could train in the same gear configuration as I would be using here in California. My instructor matched my configuration. My drysuit actually had to have a repair made during the trip but worked great the rest of the time and kept me warm in the cenotes (the water temp is about 75F). We did one day of boat diving which was fairly easy drift diving, we chose to do this in a wetsuit (it would have been way too hot in the drysuit). The boat diving was very meh, their reef system isn't great, Cozumel has better reef diving. Weather closed the port most days except our single day of boat diving where we got completely calm seas. The cenotes are world famous and were more interesting diving, even if there's no wildlife, strictly geological stuff to see. Two of the cooler dives were Angelita & El Pit, which was more of the lake style. Angelita was smaller but at ~90' depth there's an acid cloud sitting on top of the salt water layer, it's caused by leaves falling into the cenote and sinking through the fresh water before decaying above the salt water. This acid cloud looks like a milky fog, similar to what you see in cheesy horror movies. We went through the cloud, which was interesting, but due to the cloud being thick it's pitch dark beneath it, so you need your flashlight. El Pit was a much larger and deeper cenote, with a few caves that branch off from the bottom. This felt like a gigantic ball room, with one side having stalactites and an overhang, along with some old fire pits and felled trees in the middle. This dive site was more busy, and at one point some free divers dropped a weighted line about 10' from us, which was a little disconcerting. I enjoyed the diving, but struggled with learning the new buoyancy of the rebreather, as well as the often shallow diving of the cenotes. The trip itself was enjoyable, but I personally prefer diving on a liveaboard or all inclusive style resort. I'll have to start dreaming up the next vacation and working towards my next training level.
  11. Castlevania: Nocturne - Solid show, obviously a setup season with more greenlit and in production. They still have a unique low framerate but high detail style of action sequences which is a change of pace. The side characters were slightly more interesting this time around. I'm not entirely sure I understand the villain other than "generic powerful vampire" I'll be excited for the next season of this when it comes out. Gen V - This was meh. They had some mildly interesting ideas but leaned too hard on the obnoxious college tropes. They had a few cool reveals for the main show, but otherwise it's not worth the watch. Loki Season 2 - Really solid season, the last episode in particular was poignant and well crafted. I'm glad they chose a two season arc and decided to end it where they did. Still the best marvel tv show they've produced. Currently Watching: Invincible Season 2 - Looks a little better than the first season, curious where they're going. Blue Eyes Samurai - I clicked on this randomly to kill some time and have been pleasantly surprised by how good it is. I still dislike the comedic relief character. The show is like a better version of kill bill without the tarentino nonsense. I'd give this a subtle recommendation. For All Mankind Season 4 - I've downloaded this, but it's very low on the priority list. I was disappointed by the trajectory of the show and don't want to waste my time. Anime Stuff: Frieren - Just go watch the show. It's really well animated, the storyline manages to avoid some of the sillier tropes of generic fantasy but still delivering a cooler and interesting world. There are cool slow paced sections reminiscent of mushishi. It's just really good. Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 - This whole season is bonkers and fantastically animated fight sequences.
  12. Finished up Act 2, which felt like a smaller and more focused act. You find yourself in a hostile environment and need to make your way towards bringing down a big bad. Mechanically this is somewhere around mid-game in terms of power level and also when you have multiple different types of skills to handle combat and non-combat scenarios. Combat - I play this game fairly simply. My wizard uses fireball more often than not, (or control abilities like slow/hold person). My fighter uses "hit stuff with pointy stick" until it falls over. My cleric does a mix of damage and minor party support. And my paladin goes crit fishing for big single target damage. I'm not doing anything fun and exciting and I'm mostly ok with that. The combat design still feels really strong and I'm just scratching the surface. Non-Combat - I've been actively save scumming some conversations to get better outcomes, I also try to maintain certain buffs like speak with the dead or speak with animals. I know there's a mod that gives you permanent speak with animals/dead and mind-reading, and I understand why, they're all cool side conversations that might otherwise be completely missed. Like when you talk to a courier pigeon that considers himself a military leader commanding his flock / troops. I'm also fairly happy with the number of race/class options I've run across. It's arguably better than cyberpunks lifepaths. Sidequests are solid, but sometimes a bit hard to understand. There are often multiple endings to side quests and occasionally multi-stage where those same characters show up later in different acts. Gear & Weapons - At this point I'm running into end-game level gear, which can be quite powerful. I'm far from optimized, but there are some awesome pieces of gear that can entirely change your gameplay, like a spear that does bonus AOE damage when throw it and also returns to your hand afterwards. Baldur's Gate - Yea I finally made it here and the number of NPCs is dramatically higher, it certainly has affected my framerate but it's still well above 60fps. I'm also running into a small issue that this game has with multiple vertical levels. Basically in a city with 4-5 story buildings the game struggles with stairs and moving between levels. It's been minor so far, but I'm mildly concerned when combat on 3 or more levels will end up being. Overall the game is still amazing. It's arguably too big, with my playthrough over 65 hours so far at about 2/3s the way through. I'm hoping they do end up releasing some DLC or additional content, because I feel like this game is an excellent foundation to build from.
  13. T1no

    Keyboards & Mice

    to follow up. the pulsar x2v2 is solid so far. no double clicks no random spin the coating still good battery is ok software is ok installed the superglide v2 skates. way better than v1. the v1 gets muggy after a while. slow down alot. affected with humidity, dirt,oil on the pads. v2 way more consistent. will buy again
  14. Winter King - Continues to be very meh. It's not bad enough to drop, especially since this is a standalone mini-series, but bad enough that I would recommend last kingdom instead and just avoid this series. Ahsoka - I would actually revise this, to a 7/10 show if you're a casual star wars fan (or more accurately have not seen rebels and clone wars) and an 8/10 if you've seen the aforementioned animated series. The costuming is really neat, Balon Skoll and Shin Hati have a cool knight motiff complete with a few clone wars era armor pieces and a layered/stitched cloth style that carries that "armored" look which I enjoy. It's distinct from the more flowy jedi stuff but still fits. Thrawn's troopers and ship looks absolutely sick, really solid design choice. I still think there's some goofy shit (space whales, making hyperspace rings EVEN BIGGER) but it still feels solidly star wars. Foundation Season 2 - Nailed the landing, this season was dramatically better than the first. Enough that I would tell people to suffer through / fast forward through the first as needed so you can get to season 2. Wheel of Time Season 2 - Another big step up from the first season. I don't want to use the pandemic filming as an excuse, but... I feel like there are more characters on screen, and better sets combined with stronger acting and a more engaging story. Anime Bullshit Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 - After the flashback they're diving straight into a major arc with big combat moments. I think this show (and more modern shounen) really has learned how to cut the fluff and really streamline the story to favor action. The downside of that it's harder to animate when there's so much action. Bleach - Still fantastic, also had a great recent episode. There's some issues with how many side characters are being juggled in which can be a bit exhausting but they've managed to keep these minor character fights interesting and quick enough that it hasn't dragged down the story and pacing. Mushoku Tensei - This was a much slower arc and did suffer a little bit as the focus was on setup for future seasons. It's still one of the best animated shows I've seen. I'm still excited to see where this goes and would give a strong recommendation for this show. Upcoming Shows Castlevania: Nocturne - Hell yea can't wait for this. Gen V - Spinoffs are very hit or miss. I've enjoyed The Boys but I'm not sure a super powered high school is the way I would have gone with this. I hope this leans more on the superpowers and less on the high school drama. Loki Season 2 - Absolutely the best marvel tv show that was produced (by a huge margin), I'm hoping they keep the quality level up. I think Disney has pulled back on some of their marvel offerings (and several have underperformed - relatively) which might translate into fewer but higher quality/budget offerings.
  15. Malaphax

    Cyberpunk 2077

    Here's the review thread since the DLC launches September 26 and the 2.0 patch launches tomorrow on the 21st. https://old.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/16nnhaw/cyberpunk_2077_phantom_liberty_review_thread/ tl;dr - The 2.0 update is really good and the DLC is a solid excuse to dive back in and experience the game. I believe they also have an option to start a new save/character at the correct level to jump right into the DLC. They did this previously with witcher 3 DLC. I'd be more inclined to play through the entire game (once I finish Baldur's Gate 3, so it might be a while). The 2.0 update is a huge revamp which I'm not going to detail, but the major changes that caught my eye are: Revamped Skills & Cyberware, Vehicle combat, unlimited generated side missions, police revamp - including max tac. I think this is also one of the few releases that make use of DLSS 3.5 (details here).
  16. I stumbled across this rather neat article regarding stock and bond correlation. https://mailchi.mp/verdadcap/an-update-on-the-stock-bond-correlation Traditional thinking is that stocks and bonds should be negatively correlated, when equities go down, fixed income goes up and vice versa. My issue is that we've seen at least a few instances of this not being correct. 2022 was a great example where both equities and fixed income both declined. These charts give a bit more color on what stock-bond correlation actually looks like. The rolling 3 year stock/bond correlation shows a change from a strong negative correlation into a strong positive correlation currently. This includes the rolling one year as well, which adds a bit more noise to the chart. Here's an even better chart showing inflation vs stock/bond correlation: Low inflation = low correlation. High inflation = high correlation. Now that's rather interesting. Just a note: we haven't seen inflation above 5% since 1990 during a recession caused by the savings and loan crisis, so the right hand side of that graph is overrepresenting data from 30+ years ago. Random Commentary: The financial industry always looks for uncorrelated assets or ways to mitigate downside risk, this has traditionally been done through fixed income investments. I have been less than thrilled with fixed income investments, especially as a negatively correlated asset; I think they still serve a purpose I just wouldn't count on them to help reduce downside risk. This article might just be confirmation bias (throw in some recency bias too for good measure), but it's interesting to see people far smarter bring this up.
  17. CPU: Ryzen R7 5800X3D COOLING: Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 GPU: PNY RTX 4090 MOBO: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB(2x16) DDR4-3200 NVME: Sabrent Rocket 2TB (x2) CASE: Factal Design Torrent PSU: Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 850W Display: LG 34GK950F-B (Primary) I ended up going big and getting the 5800X3D and 4090. I felt with the very reasonable 5800x3d pricing it made sense to take advantage of the AM4 upgrade path to really stretch this system. I went with the 4090 for several (admittedly dumb) reasons; partly because of the price to performance of the 4080 being mediocre, with the 4090 being very close in cost per frame, and just a general feeling of: why shouldn't I - which stems from the absurd cost of the 4000 series. Something about in for a penny in for a pound. System is running great, everything is maxed out and humming along. I played with some fan curves and mostly feel like I have everything as quiet if not quieter than before. I've briefly looked at temps but didn't see anything weird. I made extra sure to jam the power connector in very tight and not bend the adapter too much, thankfully I have a large enough case to accommodate this without issue. I also made sure to adjust the built in GPU anti-sag bracket.
  18. Malaphax

    Baldur's Gate 3

    I've played a fair bit of this and I'm close to done with Act 1 (of 3). I'm level 5 (max is 12) and playing a vengeance paladin. I'm sure glad I know a bit about Dungeons and Dragons Some people claimed that you don't need to know anything about D&D, they're full of shit. The entire game is built on the underlying systems of D&D and understanding what type of dice is being rolled, how to influence that dice and other key mechanics are fairly critical to your success in both combat and roleplay/conversations. You absolutely can play as anything, but I do feel like you should strongly consider playing a class with an emphasis on charisma. Because that affects the majority of conversation checks, including persuasion/intimidation. The game gives you other opportunities but it still leans heavily on having a "face" character that can handle the talking. You can start a conversation with anyone in your party but I do feel like having someone other than your character as the person making decisions in conversations is weird. Paladin, Warlock, Sorcerer, and Bards all take high charisma and therefore have some advantage. You do get class specific prompts, along with racial and background prompts as well but I still feel like charisma is emphasized. Combat can range from cool immersive sim style stuff to basic - I hit them with my sword. I lean more towards the simple variety, but I may explore a bit more as I progress deeper into the game with more levels and potential multi-classing opening up. Even simple combat can have some depth with various magical items, battle maneuvers, or just plain shoving people off high places for big damage (or instant death). Graphically the game holds it's own, I'd argue the characters and lipsyncing is better than some bigger budget games, but honestly that pales in comparison to the fact that the entire game (minus the protagonist) is voiced. While this game feels far more like the witcher 3 than mass effect in terms of how morality is portrayed (more gray), it's clear that a more good aligned path is the preferred path. I think the solution is playing a bit like renegade Shepard or Han Solo, be sleezy when it suits you, but stick mostly to the good path. There's no game mechanics stopping you from becoming a murder-hobo but I can't say I recommend it. All of the quests feel properly crafted. There's no simple fetch quests, and the game doesn't feed you the answers. I have used the wiki and looked stuff up, that doesn't bother me but if you're very opposed to that idea you will miss some content and find certain parts of the game annoying. The game throws a ton of magic gear at you. In fact one companion's quest involves consuming magical gear, and without that magical garbage disposal I think you'd just end up hoarding more loot than a dragon. I'm still overrun with magic gear and spent a good chunk of time doing inventory management. You can respec yourself and your companions for very cheap - I found this useful and I suspect I'll use this even more later in the game to try out a few different builds. You can also resurrect people if they fully die in combat, basically the only way to game over is a full party wipe. The game is super impressive and will almost certainly be considered a genre defining classic. But for all the impressive nature, it's not an easy recommendation.
  19. While I liked the series, I didn't enjoy the ending. There's a bit of deus ex machina combined with a major character revealing all of their secrets and having an emotional breakdown, which is the complete opposite of the character in question. The fantasy setting with zero magic* was a nice change of pace compared to most fantasy I've read, but the pseudo viking inspired setting didn't really go much deeper than that. I appreciate that each book is told from different character perspectives while still having characters from earlier in the series be present, but the third book added multiple pov characters and felt muddled. I guess I'd give this a soft recommendation. Currently reading: A Memory Called Empire - This won the hugo award for 2020, so I'm hoping it's a solid piece of scifi. The premise is sort of interesting, and the initial chapters seem to set up a very intimate portrayal of the "stranger in a strange land" trope.
  20. That totally long ass post right above you goes over it. California (and the US) does not track foreign buyers or corporate buyers. At best they survey mortgage brokers and agents to get a loose approximation. Source: https://www.car.org/en/marketdata/data/countysalesactivity Currently the quantity of home sales is on the decline, down 10% Y/Y and 3% M/M. The price Y/Y and M/M are either flat or very slightly up. It's because the people who do have money (existing home owners with high incomes) are the few that can afford anything and they're buying at the top end which drags up the median, while anyone at the lower end is priced out. If you're wondering if these are all cash buyers, that's possibly the case, but I suspect anyone who's buying a home for $1M+ can afford the mortgage. I doubt this is majority foreign buyers, and I especially doubt it's majority chinese buyers - the chinese real estate market is in the shitter and it's dragging their entire economy down. Anecdotally, I'm seeing price reductions on zillow and redfin at the lower end. I think with the current interest rates being ~7%, new home buyers can't make the payments they could a year or so ago, which is deflating the housing market. Inventory is very low at the lower end of the market, which despite the high mortgage rates and general unaffordability, is helping maintain a price floor.
  21. Any details on California's Foreign buyers? https://www.dailybulletin.com/2023/08/30/inland-empire-homebuying-drops-22-in-a-year Doesn't make sense that home prices in the area up while home sales are down by approx. 1/3rd? I hear cash buyers but I doubt that's most Americans. This looks like a Bubble.
  22. This year just feels too stacked with great releases, I feel like I'm drowning with gaming options (mostly single player). I think between covid delays and some funky release windows I think we're going to see smaller games get canabalized by larger/popular releases. A non-complete list of major releases (and a few games I'm into): More complete list here: https://www.polygon.com/23493762/new-video-games-2023-release-dates-calendar-upcoming Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom Harry Potter - Hogwart's Legacy Atomic Heart Dead Space (remake) Resident Evil 4 (remake) Company of Heroes 3 Darkest Dungeon 2 Star Wars: Jedi Survivor Street Fighter 6 Diablo 4 Final Fantasy 16 Remnant 2 Expanse: Telltale Series Armored Core 6 Baldur's Gate 3 Blasphemous 2 Coming soon(ish) Starfield Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (DLC) Mortal Kombat 1 Payday 3 Assassin's Creed Mirage Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Alan Wake 2 Spiderman 2
  23. Winter King - has been... meh. It's not quite as pulpy as the Last Kingom. Instead it feels like its taking itself too seriously, which I'm not opposed to but I don't think they're hitting the mark. Also the action scenes are suffering from severe shaky cam syndrome - I can't tell if they're trying to cover up poor stunt-work or just making a poor design choice. I'm hoping this picks up because so far I've been disappointed. Ahsoka - I'm severely biased because I've watched all of the clone wars and rebels. I felt so far this is a strong 7/10 star wars show. It's not as bad as some recent star wars offerings and also not even in the same discussion as something as good as Andor. There's also some valid criticism being leveled at the show. I do think Rosario Dawson is playing a bit too stoic and aloof, which is a different take on the character, but I also understand this is an older version of that character. I think we're seeing a return of the completely inept ruling faction (in this case the new republic), which is not just tedious but annoyingly so. We've also seen a few instances of weird space maguffins involving maps, in this case a map to a person's location which is just... so dumb. Not to mention light sabers are dramatically less lethal now that we've seen multiple series show characters get stabbed in the gut and just seemingly walk it off (RIP Qui Gon Jinn), this is even more wacky when we could have seen a lesser and more believable injury like slashing the meat of someone's leg so they can't chase you. Despite all my critical feelings of the show, I still want it to succeed, and not just because of my nostalgia regarding the character. Foundation Season 2 - This has been surprisingly engaging. I still have sincere issues with some of the acting of Gael and Salvor, but at least the plot seems to be moving briskly and not just retreading old ground. All of the additional characters this season have also been solid. The Knick - I picked this up on a random recommendation from the internet and so far this has delivered. I think this fits the "good show, but nobody watched it" category. Which is ironic considering the writers/creators of this show also did Perry Mason, another good show that nobody watched and that was recently cancelled because of the poor viewership. This is also one of the few tv shows that used a single director for the entire run (Steven Soderbergh) which I think leads to a more cohesive style and less variability in the quality of episodes. We get season 2 of Wheel of Time this week. I'm going to give this a second chance even though the first season was pretty bad. Considering Amazon's track record of high budget fantasy shows, I'm not holding out much hope.
  24. I'm mostly interested in the X3D chips due to the increased game performance, I know it's not across all games but I've seen enough benchmarks to see the benefits. I don't have need of the additional horsepower that a 5900x would provide, but thanks for the offer. I'll mull this over for a little bit longer. I might also check that my RAM is put in the preferred slots (you never know). Again, if I was getting more issues with bluescreens or other weird stuff while using the PC I would be dramatically more concerned but I don't have crashing issues or other weird performance problems - it's just the occasional boot looping that quickly fixes itself. I should probably take your recommendations for a full CMOS clear after a clean BIOS update. I don't think it's PCH temps or anything like that but I'll take a look. I'm not on windows 11 and I'm not particularly inclined to upgrade from windows 10.
  25. Regarding a 5800X3D. I've been considering moving my rig to a 7x00 series right now and I have a great 5900X + mobo + ram config (or if you just want the CPU), I could let it go for cheap. I upgraded from the 3900X to the 5900X when the opportunity came around, and it was a small noticeable upgrade, but my new display situation has pushed my CPU needs even more. #2 and #3 would be the cost effective way of managing this. I've been debating #3 myself, but its annoying right now to turn off game mode based on what I'm doing with my PC regularly. If there is some type of annoying issue It sounds that equivalent for you is the bootloop issue which I'd consider the following options to get it addressed: BIOS update (duh) - do a clean clear CMOS and reconfigure your settings. Do a complete CMOS/EEPROM wipe with a battery pull + jumper clear. Also check your PCH temperatures, I had to repaste motherboards heat spreader because it was overheating initially. Do you have fTPM enabled with WIndows 11? That caused a lot of issues with me, and might be another source of problems.
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