Domgrief wrote on Oct 31, 2020, 03:58:

VaranDragon wrote on Oct 31, 2020, 03:10:
I've played through Half-Life so many times I don't even remember if I played through Black Mesa 1.0 I know I waited for it to come out for ages, and that's pretty much what I remember about it. Hmmm.

The highest praise I can offer for Black Mesa is that it was like playing the game as I remembered it (with all of the great moments and surprises), and not how it was. That said, I still haven't checked it out since they added Xen... if that plays like I remember it I'm going to have to reassess my praise.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Oct 28, 2020, 13:16:
People. What a bunch of bastards.

Verno wrote on Oct 23, 2020, 13:07:

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Oct 23, 2020, 13:02:
Excellent, I'll most likely pick this up on Gog, regardless of the negative reviews of it on Bluesnews. I must see for myself!

It's not a bad game at all but it's very front loaded content-wise and a bit shallow on gameplay systems. They kind of lull you in expecting a Fallout style game but it's a lot lighter than that. I had a decent time but it quickly becomes rote and you get godlike way too quickly. The dialogue is still vintage Obsidian but they went a little too zany with corporatocracy in space. I would give it a 7/10, it's solid but unremarkable.

jdreyer wrote on Oct 3, 2020, 20:43:
Hmm, there are already caves. And the Extreme Hills environment is pretty mountainous. I guess it will be interesting to see what they add.

Kxmode wrote on Sep 29, 2020, 21:13:

RedEye9 wrote on Sep 29, 2020, 21:06:

Bill Borre wrote on Sep 29, 2020, 21:04:

we’ve extended all other possible means of navigating the situation

Why not just push back the launch date and blame it on covid like everyone else is doing?

They could but work always expands to the time allotted for it.

Almost everyone will understand COVID-19 impacted the project's scope and scale with CDPR's signature quality. It really needs a full year more. I think the best option is to push out to their original April 16th date... 2021.

Kxmode wrote on Sep 26, 2020, 15:19:
For goodness sake, EA, just tell people BioWare is working on this. Don't be foolish.

Primalchrome wrote on Sep 25, 2020, 10:28:
Is the long game of 'streaming gaming' supposed to capture the Farmville/Clash of Clans sector of gaming? The titles of that genre that actually *hit* make bank...and they're not really affected by latency.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 19:20:

Wolfen wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 18:31:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 18:11:

Orogogus wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 17:22:

Wolfen wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 16:57:
In early 2000's games were 20-50USD. In 2006ish (when the xbox 360 came out) Microsoft pushed the game prices up to 60. It's been less than 20 years since game prices were hiked up.

Looking at Computer Gaming World's Dec 99 issue, the Chips & Bits ad (PDF p214-215) seems to show PSX games at $40-50, Dreamcast at $50 and N64 games at about $50-60 (including Donkey Kong 64 launching at $60). PC games were cheaper, with Diablo 2 launching at $49.

Adjusted for inflation, a $50 back in 99 would cost about $75 today.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa... nobody here was asking for your logical input buddy.

Spock: "May I say that I have not thoroughly enjoyed serving with humans? I find their illogic and foolish emotions a constant irritant."

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 18:11:

Orogogus wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 17:22:

Wolfen wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 16:57:
In early 2000's games were 20-50USD. In 2006ish (when the xbox 360 came out) Microsoft pushed the game prices up to 60. It's been less than 20 years since game prices were hiked up.

Looking at Computer Gaming World's Dec 99 issue, the Chips & Bits ad (PDF p214-215) seems to show PSX games at $40-50, Dreamcast at $50 and N64 games at about $50-60 (including Donkey Kong 64 launching at $60). PC games were cheaper, with Diablo 2 launching at $49.

Adjusted for inflation, a $50 back in 99 would cost about $75 today.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 15:56:

eRe4s3r wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 12:37:
I am not buying any game that is 60€ (70$)....

Not even Cyberpunk?

roguebanshee wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 05:06:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 00:43:

Dacote wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 22:07:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 21:36:
Had WeChat installed when DreyerDaughter was doing homestay in Chengdu so I could communicate with her. Uninstalled it as soon as she came home, and ended up wiping the phone and doing a factory reset soon after.
There are stories that either TenCent or the Chinese government hold onto the data.

The post is a rare admission by the Chinese regime's judicial agency that it could access private WeChat messages even after users have deleted the corresponding chat history on the phone, which would indicate that the messaging app is storing private data elsewhere.

NPR:

As Chinese technology companies expand their footprint outside China, they are also sweeping up vast amounts of data from foreign users. Every day, millions of WeChat conversations held inside and outside China are flagged, collected and stored in a database connected to public security agencies in China, say cyber researchers.

DreyerDaughter left it installed however, so she could communicate with her host family.

The NSA saves all of the exact same data.
It's a good backup plan if you can afford it.

The US government does not collect all of your texts and store them on a central server. China does.

That is some high quality naivety. Every intelligence agency in every nation collect as much data as they can get their hands on, regardless of local laws. Their reasoning is usually that they need as much data as possible to have a higher accuracy in preventing threats to national security such as terrorists or enemy spies. And even if they do get caught in breaking their nation's laws, they will be right back at it once the waters have calmed.

And with as large amounts of data as we're speaking of here, you should in general not be worried that your local government homes in on a single instance, nor that they're rifling through your personal emails or texts. They are instead using big data analysis tools to find patterns to identify what they classify as troublesome behaviour.

The real differences between totalitarian regimes and most western nations are what they consider troublesome behaviour and what actions they're willing to take.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 00:43:

Dacote wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 22:07:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 21:36:
Had WeChat installed when DreyerDaughter was doing homestay in Chengdu so I could communicate with her. Uninstalled it as soon as she came home, and ended up wiping the phone and doing a factory reset soon after.
There are stories that either TenCent or the Chinese government hold onto the data.

The post is a rare admission by the Chinese regime's judicial agency that it could access private WeChat messages even after users have deleted the corresponding chat history on the phone, which would indicate that the messaging app is storing private data elsewhere.

NPR:

As Chinese technology companies expand their footprint outside China, they are also sweeping up vast amounts of data from foreign users. Every day, millions of WeChat conversations held inside and outside China are flagged, collected and stored in a database connected to public security agencies in China, say cyber researchers.

DreyerDaughter left it installed however, so she could communicate with her host family.

The NSA saves all of the exact same data.
It's a good backup plan if you can afford it.

The US government does not collect all of your texts and store them on a central server. China does.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 00:51:

Wolfen wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 23:41:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 21:36:
Had WeChat installed when DreyerDaughter was doing homestay in Chengdu so I could communicate with her. Uninstalled it as soon as she came home, and ended up wiping the phone and doing a factory reset soon after.
There are stories that either TenCent or the Chinese government hold onto the data.

The post is a rare admission by the Chinese regime's judicial agency that it could access private WeChat messages even after users have deleted the corresponding chat history on the phone, which would indicate that the messaging app is storing private data elsewhere.

NPR:

As Chinese technology companies expand their footprint outside China, they are also sweeping up vast amounts of data from foreign users. Every day, millions of WeChat conversations held inside and outside China are flagged, collected and stored in a database connected to public security agencies in China, say cyber researchers.

DreyerDaughter left it installed however, so she could communicate with her host family.

Out of curiosity are you not using google, Facebook, twitter, Instagram, etc etc etc? I mean nearly everything free... and sometimes even premium is storing your data. I would think that anyone thinking the U.S. doesn't have access to this overtly or covertly is probably a little bit gullible.

I have a Gmail account, but none of the others. I usually surf on a non-logged-in non-tracking browser like Brave with encrypted DNS. I often, although not always, use a VPN.

Is the US gov't trying to hoover up a lot of this? I'm sure that they are. One difference is that in order to access it, they need a warrant. Companies don't automatically deliver customer data to the government, they often fight them in court as Apple and MS have done. Accessing the data without a warrant, and then building a case using other means is called "parallel construction" and it's illegal. Lastly, the US government doesn't try to leverage your browser history in order to affect your social credit score. So there are a lot of differences.