TwinIon

Excellent cast, if true. Of course, the last one had a great cast as well.

No clue how actual Unity Devs feel about this given the games that typically use Unity, but I didn't think the demo is terribly impressive.

Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year - 9to5Mac 9TO5MAC.COM In a surprising move, Apple has announced today that it will adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard. The... Another win for the EU forcing Apple to do the customer friendly thing. We'll see what the actual implementation looks like, but I'm very happy to see this happen. My wife and I are the only "green bubbles" in our families and it can be rather annoying. I've tried to get them to use Signal, or at least WhatsApp, but have had no success. I don't care about read receipts, typing indicators, or location sharing, but high quality media will be a godsend. As our siblings have had kids we get a lot more media in messages, and video in particular is terrible over MMS. It had gotten to the point that I just decided to setup an AirMessage server, which I'll probably still do, but I'll look forward to it being made obsolete.

There's something so quaint about Santos' blatant and simple criminality. Just straight up using campaign funds at Hermes or for your OnlyFans sub is the kind of "I'm above the law because I don't understand it" attitude that should elevate Santos into a GOP leadership role.

I only recently bought Invincible as my first digital comic, but I don't really notice any difference in the two apps for simple reading purposes. I never really read regular books on my iPad, so I don't really mind intermingling the collections. Does seem like a pain for people with significant libraries though. They should at least have their own tabs in the app though.

Finally got through on my 512 OLED. The Windows Steam app store worked while I was still getting stuck in chrome.

Well, now I just feel obligated to watch a 4 hour docuseries about making a movie that isn't even 2 hours long, which will probably make me want to play this game.

Are there other examples of mod editors coming out so long after release? 9 years has got to be a record.

It might be fine for what it is, but that trailer did not sell me on Luke Wilson as a Batman voice.

Well, this first cut doesn't seem to be an instant classic, but I'm definitely still curious.

Apparently filming for this finished last year, and it will be releasing next year, which I don't think is a great sign. The trailer doesn't give me any hope that Sony is again capable of making good, live action, comic book movies. I'd also never even heard of this character before, so I'm guessing this won't have a ton of built in brand recognition. Still, Sony made pretty good money with two terrible Venom movies.

Alan Wake 2 - 4/5 Uneven, but overall I really enjoyed it. Now to go back and play Phantom Liberty and Mario Wonder. 2023 Games Alan Wake Remastered - 3/5 Spider-Man 2 - 5/5 Assassin's Creed: Mirage - 3/5 Starfield - 4/5 Final Fantasy XVI - 4/5 Diablo IV - 4/5 Tears of the Kingdom - 5/5 Jedi Survivor - 4/5 Shadows of Doubt - 3/5 Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores - 5/5 Cyberpunk 2077 - 4/5 Atomic Heart - 3/5 Hogwarts Legacy - 4/5 The Last of Us: Part 1 - 5/5 Doom Eternal - 4/5 Hardspace Shipbreaker - 3/5 Jedi: Fallen Order - 3/5

If Amazon actually wants to be in the games business, they should just buy an existing studio/publisher. They'd probably screw it up, but they'd at least have a chance of putting out something worthwhile.

Finished the game and I'm still very positive about it overall. It's a unique experience in gaming, and it's just exciting to play through something with real AAA production quality that is also so different from everything else. I think as both a storytelling exercise and as a game this one is an absolutely massive step up from the first. It really seems like the crazy ideas that they were chasing in the first game actually matter here so much more, and the way that the Alan chapters make you weave the story is both dramatic and a cool gameplay element. Unfortunately the same is not true of Saga's mind place, which never grew on me and I came to mildly resent. Unlike Alan's storyboard, there's no gameplay element involved, it's just hand holding you through the story. There are times where you can collect all the clues and finish your task without having to pin every little thing to the board, but most of the time that's not the case. I think the game would have been better if that storyboard was like the computer in the Outer Wilds, just a place you could go look at things in case you forgot something or needed more clarity. Just have it auto-complete with all the evidence you find and make it a useful reference should you need it, but something to ignore otherwise. Also, just make the profiling happen in the moment like a cut scene. I feel like every time I was forced to go into the mind place was an unnecessary break in pacing in an already very slow game. For the most part I think the combat was well done. It's intermittent, but more dangerous. It would have been better without the inventory management, which I've mostly already complained about in another post. Still, it's annoying that you can't pause to manage inventory at all. If you get into a fight and don't have something assigned to a quick slot, it's basically impossible to use fast enough. Still, most of the time it was well balanced and exciting. This is primarily a game about storytelling, and it does that well. It rewards attention and has plenty of both sharp turns and slow reveals. It's a bit overbearing at times, but it fits the genre well enough that it's hard to complain. As for the ending: While there are some rough patches, I really enjoyed Alan Wake 2. It takes big swings that make it a completely different experience from most AAA games, and most of the time those pay off. I really do think that playing Alan Wake (Remastered) and Control greatly enhance the experience of Alan Wake 2. Control is simply a great game, so that should be an easy sell. Alan Wake 1 is a 10 hour oddity that I don't think is great, but it is an interesting experiment and still worthwhile for anyone looking to get the most out of Alan Wake 2.

Thanks for the input. I suppose I'll go for the 512 OLED then.

Does anyone here have feelings about the etched screen on the higher end OLED model? OLED screens are typically glossy in order to best appreciate the improved contrast, and I've seen a number of recommendations to avoid the higher end one for that reason. Also, am I correct in that Valve doesn't sell their case separately?

For games I think the only way it makes sense to me for a decentralized token to exist, be it for money or items or anything else, is if the game is also decentralized. In any other situation, you end up with an outside token that is dependent on a single developer to continue to honor and support that token. If a game like Roblox could somehow exist as an open source project where anyone could run their own server, then storing value (money, items, full experiences) on some outside system would make sense to me. That way I could be the verified owner of something in a way that all servers could agree on. Of course, I can't think of any actual game that would benefit from NFTs. I can almost see a theoretical value in being able to build a market outside of a game, but when you're still dependent on a developer to allow that market to exist, but you're expecting a developer to support a market that doesn't bring them revenue, which doesn't seem like something sustainable in the long term. So yeah, NFTs were really never a good idea, and especially not a good idea in games. I'm glad that the bubble has finally burst.

It's been a long time since I've seen this one, so I'll happily watch a Cameron approved remaster. I hope tickets are available for AMC A-List. For special events like this they are sometimes and aren't others, if it goes to AMC theaters at all. Hopefully he'll get around to that True Lies remaster soon as well.

That is by far the most confusing omission from this device to me. I think streaming only handhelds are a small niche to begin with, but to do a streaming only device that you can't use with your existing game streaming service is just odd.

Very similar overall to the existing guidelines for federal judges. Here's what GPT4 thinks are the major differences between that and the new SC guidelines:

I think Spider-Man 2 easily deserves to be up there. If there is one I would bump off it would be easily be RE4. I never loved RE4 as much as most, but even if you do it's still a remake, which should probably be its own category.

Pretty good list. My vote probably goes to TotK, but it's not easy.

I'd definitely rank it amongst the worthwhile. Much better than Thor 4, Eternals, and Ant-Man 3, not as good as GotG 3. I remember liking Shang-Chi and BP2 well enough, but I haven't revisited them. Black Widow left no impression at all. I don't think The Marvels is essential MCU or should set a tone for upcoming films to follow, and it probably shouldn't change anyone's mind on the MCU, but it was a welcome and enjoyable diversion. A lot of it feels like something we've done before, but this one at least did it with a smile.

I didn’t think much of Captain Marvel, but I really enjoyed The Marvels. It’s cheeky and kitsch and very self aware. This is Kamala’s movie in spirit and tone. It’s joke heavy and isn’t afraid to fangirl out. The action is inventive and fun. There are some comic book movies that feel ashamed of their comic book origins, but The Marvels is really excited about it. That excitement in combination with some silliness reminded me of Star Trek Lower Decks. Lower Decks loves to wallow in how absurd Trek can be, but even as it mines that for laughs you can tell it comes from a place of love. I feel like the Marvels does that as well. Like an outlandish Trek episode, it isn’t afraid to present the bizarre with a straight face or to just throw some sci-fi gibberish at whatever you need to happen, and like Lower Decks, it wants you to know it’s in on the joke. I don’t think the film is entirely successful, but I think it largely hit what it was aiming for. There are a few moments that didn’t feel right at the time and don’t really hold up on reflection, but nothing big. Not all the jokes are going to land, but If you can get on board with Kamala’s energy and just be excited about the ride, I think you can enjoy this. It’s very much a Marvel movie (and certainly the one with the most out loud mentions of “marvel”), but it’s got a slightly different vibe from much of the MCU that I found slightly refreshing. It’s no masterpiece, but it’s a fun romp.

I think I'm nearing the end and I'm still really enjoying my time with Alan Wake 2, but I'm also beginning to take umbridge at some of the gameplay and design choices. I really think the inventory management was a straight up bad idea. It only serves as a source of frustration. The first game had limits to how much ammo you could carry, but there was no need to organize boxes or worry about what you could carry. Charms should absolutely be in the "items" category that doesn't take up space, and items should stack more. The existence of a physical inventory to manage is a step back in every way. The movement is generally acceptable, but not great. There have been a few times where I couldn't get down from to a main path because I was six inches higher up, but couldn't vault down. I also really wish there was an actual sprint. Give it a crazy short burst and long refill time or whatever, but there are a number of times when you're running for your life and your characters have no sense of urgency at all. I think the slow walking and "running" speed are fine most of the time, it's good for the pace of the game, but not having any real speed ever is annoying. I overall like the design decision to have a lot less combat and make that combat more difficult and more resource intensive. I think the combat is generally more exciting and fun in this game and the weapons overall feel pretty good. The boss fights are pretty intense and far more interesting than any of the combat in the first game. However, the occasional increased difficulty highlights the lack of saving locations and exacerbates the inventory issues. I went through a whole long section without one of my weapons because I couldn't get to a shoebox, and I don't see why. If you're going to make me manage inventory and only save at specific spots, they should be much more common. I do really like the narrative and what they're doing with it here. I feel like the concepts were very half baked in the first game. Here the ideas behind the storytelling manifest in much more fun and interesting ways, and they're telling a better story while they're at it. I also appreciate that this is a beautiful game that really forces you to look around. There's no ping to point you towards the thing you're told to find or to illuminate all the clues for you. I don't think anything is terribly difficult to find, but you do actually have to look around. There are a number of times where you need to follow a trail of some kind or other, and again, no hud elements point you, you just need to look. Even in this year of great games, this is a stand out experience.