Steele Johnson wrote on Sep 6, 2022, 13:27:
"These included the difficulties in adapting to a new generation of hardware, the challenges in QA testing more complex games, and the fact that so many big games are now made with multiple studios."

Testing more complex games? Sure, graphics tech has gotten more advanced, but I don't feel like gameplay has. In fact, I've yet to play a story-based first person shooter that has better AI than Half-Life 2, and that was released almost 20 years ago. I think what he's really getting at is the grinding nature of the job and how it affects the turnover rate these days. Keep your employees happy and you'll release a quality product (with minimal delays)

I think the biggest issue is actually the size of the games not so much complexity. I can't imagine how godawful it is trying to test an Assassin's Creed type game.

As for AI for all its faults Rage had some solid AI, but generally I've got to agree with you on brain dead AI. For all the tech they bring to the table I'm constantly thinking of 90s/early 00s when devs were trying to make AI act better, add destruction and innovate on feel. It seems like the majority of that is just gone from much of modern game design.

I'm mostly waiting for a second revision because it ought to have all of the power enhancements from their 6xxx laptop cpus leading to a better overall experience on top of the increased performance.

I've been kicking around some sort of handheld for a while and the only one which was close to a buy is the Ayn Odin. The promise of a new Steam Deck has stopped me though since I really like what Valve seems to be trying to do.

I'm hoping this isn't the last gasp to get all the content they'd already made assets for out.

I played through the game shortly after launch and didn't have any of the issues that seemed to be complained about so none of that got in the way of my enjoyment. Biggest disappointment for me was really that your origin choices didn't really make a big impact. I know they won't change that now, but I'm hoping for a bit more from your choices with this expansion.

I always roll my eyes at this sort of thing, because this is a constant from what I like to refer to as the ignorant left. Military bad seems to be the beginning, middle and end of the "logic" applied. They're obviously *not* going to be working on weapons systems. As for the company itself the vast majority of their weapons of war have to be signed off on by the US government for foreign arms sales so their problem is really with the government.

There's also the fact that the vast majority of tech companies sell data, feed division, make better tracking technology, do business with china, and on and on. Nobody's hands are clean when it comes to corporations so these people need to grow up.

Noctua definitely makes some of the best PC fans, and is reliable across the whole stack. I got a bunch of Noctua Redux fans when I was redoing my server box since it's on 24/7 and has multiple fan sizes. Phanteks T30 is currently the best 120mm fan on the market though, and for my current machine I just bought a 5 pack of Arctic P12 pwms for case fans because that cost as much as 1 Noctua/Phanteks. I think I'd probably spend the extra money if I was doing fans for a cooler, but due to the price I decided to take a shot for the case fans and they've been very good so far (about 10mo in).

It's definitely time for a new CPU if you're looking at RTX 3080+ performance level. You wouldn't be losing a ton of average FPS, but your minimums would be atrocious.

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ampere-cpu-scaling-benchmarks

Conveniently AMD and Intel are both launching new CPUs in the next two months.

The whole SLS program has been an example of what happens when an underfunded agency is controlled by congressional pork barrel spending. It should never have been started and most certainly should have been canceled one of the many times it failed timelines. I can't help but wonder if their launch strategy isn't partly a middle finger to congress over how stupid the program has been.

Video card wise I too was in the same boat, but pulled the trigger when the RTX 3080 12GB dropped to $800. I was able to get an EVGA model with a closed loop cooler so I wasn't worried too much about further price drops. I would say that I wouldn't get anything below that VRAM capacity wise now so if that price is higher than you're looking to pay wait for next generation. AMD might have competitive ray tracing (the only reason I didn't go AMD instead this time) and/or Nvidia could have higher VRAM on lower cost competitive cards.

Simon Says wrote on Aug 20, 2022, 16:20:

thestryker wrote on Aug 20, 2022, 14:21:
Yeah this is one of the most common violations companies make. Perhaps if the penalties for violation were severe it'd stop.

You know what a more than adequate violation penalty would be?

- -50% on the salary AND NO BONUSES for the higher ups and management for 20 years and no salary increase allowed until 20 years pass. If people leave for another job among them, the penalty FOLLOWS THEM AROUND for the whole 20 years. New hires / sub-contractors get the same penalty. Unless they were among the whistleblowers then they get a 35% increase, indexed to inflation and 1% per year on top for 20 years. If they're laid off, the company will need special permission from the FTC.

- All shareholders lose 50% of their shares, to be redistributed equally among all employees of the 2 lowest rungs.

- +35% on the salary of the lowest rung AND salary indexed to inflation + 1% each year for the next 20 years, including new hires and employees ( or the sub-contractors of sub-contractors, anything so it CAN'T BE DODGED ) of sub-contractors until the 20 years expire.

- +20% a rung higher AND salary indexed to inflation + 1% each year for the next 20 years, including all new hires and employees of sub-contractors until the 20 years expire.

I feel anything else would just be a slap on the wrist.

But with this? There would be PLENTY of incentives for EVERYONE INVOLVED to make sure laws are followed to the letter.

Agreed completely, because it seems like every current punishment is a relative slap on the wrist.

Yeah this is one of the most common violations companies make. Perhaps if the penalties for violation were severe it'd stop.

For indies that are self published I always try to buy them through Epic simply because the devs get a higher percentage of the sale.

I'm not sure why anyone cares which launcher launches their games, but as someone who actually backed Phoenix Point I can say they gave out Steam keys once they were available and they did offer refunds. I ended up with 2 copies of the game (Steam one went to a friend) it's just that the Steam ones came later.

Yeah I'm not sure what the point of a dedicated piece of hardware that doesn't do anything locally is. The whole point behind cloud gaming is leveraging what you already have when away from your gaming hardware or if you don't have said hardware in the first place.

Security wise it is probably okay as long as the device isn't also being sold in China. If it is you can be sure their version would have all the spyware which means the other versions could easily end up with it too.

Cutter wrote on Jun 7, 2022, 13:40:
I just picked up a Black & Decker 40V cordless leaf vac/blower for $200 clams and it works amazingly well for the purpose it's employed - which is light duty work vacuuming up seeds and shells from the critter food I leave out. That's the sort of thing it's designed for and it does it amazingly well. Yet, I see people complaining in reviews it's not picking up huge piles of wet leaves. Well duh! There's a reason professionals used $500 gas powered Husqvarnas for that sort of work. A lot of people out there really don't understand the limits and intended uses of many tools and devices.

I'd say pick one up from Costco if you can - I still find they have the best return policy - and try it for a month. If it isn't all that and a bag of chips, return it.

We have the 40v cordless mower and I feel the same way about the people complaining about it: don't let your grass get high/wet then bitch about poor performance. We originally got it because at the time Black and Decker was the only company with swappable batteries between equipment. The only other one we have right now is the string trimmer which is also good. If we had more of a leaf/debris problem I'd definitely get one of the blowers.

jdreyer wrote on Jan 24, 2022, 15:00:

thestryker wrote on Jan 24, 2022, 14:37:
The game was amazing, but yet again shows that sudden death should have no place in the NFL.

Growing up watching football I thought it was absurd that a team could just get into field goal range and win because they'd won the toss. When they changed that, in I think '09, to only safety/TD ends it I wondered why they didn't go all the way. Since then we've had multiple key seasonal/playoff games decided by a coin toss and that will never sit well with me.

It's not guaranteed that the team that gets the ball first will score a TD. Someone has to go first. What would you prefer? 10 minutes of OT, and then let the score determine the winner? Give each team one drive? Especially due to the lack of granularity in football scoring, the potential for games to drag on for another hour or two in OT is pretty high. Sudden death prevents that. Football games are already quite a bit longer than a lot of matches in other sports. OT making games 4-5 hours would be pretty bad.

The change that FCS made this year seems like a very good, and fair, way to do it (overtime periods end after both teams score):

• Beginning with the second overtime period, teams must attempt a two-point conversion after scoring a touchdown.
• Beginning with the third overtime period, teams will begin to run alternating two-point conversion plays instead of offensive possessions.

Could even skip the first "normal" overtime period and force two point conversion attempt if touchdowns are scored and then switch to the shootout if both teams are still tied after the first period.

NFL under the current overtime rules (in place since 2010, regular season games has been since 2012):
11 OT playoff games, winner of the coin toss has 10-1 record, and of those 10, 7 were first drive touchdowns. As a fan I don't know how anyone could defend such an obviously bad system.

Edit: The competition committee has never seriously considered any real changes to the overtime rules despite KC and Baltimore coming up with reasonable changes in the last few years.

The game was amazing, but yet again shows that sudden death should have no place in the NFL.

Growing up watching football I thought it was absurd that a team could just get into field goal range and win because they'd won the toss. When they changed that, in I think '09, to only safety/TD ends it I wondered why they didn't go all the way. Since then we've had multiple key seasonal/playoff games decided by a coin toss and that will never sit well with me.

Cutter wrote on Jan 17, 2022, 13:25:
And none of it makes a lick of difference without removing that giant cancerous tumor at the top - and the others on the board - first. Who he hell is still financially supporting Actiblizz at this point?

Sadly I'd be surprised if there has been any measurable drop in revenue as fallout from what they've done. Had there been at the very least the board would have sacrificed Kotick to appease the stock market.

I won't buy anything from them, nor Ubisoft, because of their actions and flagrant inaction with regards to solving it. However my reaction seems to be a tiny minority as people just want to play their games and not think about it.

I can't imagine they could do this for an even remotely reasonable price, but I really like the concept. It's entirely possible to do all of this today DIY, but there are so many hoops to jump through as well as potential licensing type issues with VMs etc. Having a large company wade in could help with the software side of things, and maybe if they don't make a product out of it some of that may hit open source.

I'd guess most people probably don't remember Rage Software/Games and Incoming/Incoming Forces. This appears to be in the same vein as those, but with some modern gaming advances. I have no clue why anyone would resurrect that name, but I have a hard time believing its not intentional.

Take one gander at the lack of reaction these companies have had towards Ubisoft and it becomes obvious that all of this is happening simply because Acti-Bliz can't stop being in the headlines. It's disappointing that there seems to be no real repercussions, but that's the state of the world today.

Fun game, but I didn't really feel like engaging with their timed runs as I usually play games solo unless friends get it as well. This update seems to address pretty much everything problems wise and the transmog setup is great. I'm surprised that it's getting further support, but it's really nice to see.

So far (haven't seen the new one) I've only liked one of Craig's Bond movies as they've just been Hollywood Dark and Gritty™ for the most part. I do think he has made for a good Bond, but couldn't put him at the top of any list due to my take on the ones he's been in.

My favorite will probably forever be Dr No. It had so many limitations for the production, but they still managed to turn out something cool. My dad wanted me to see that first, because the Brosnan ones were starting to come out. Connery will always get my nod for number one Bond, but I love the fact that they've done a pretty good job with the actors in the roll over the years.