Sledgstone

No microtransactions or DLC. I'm surprised. I assumed every looter game was designed to have DLC come out every three months to wipe all your gear progression and make you start the grind all over again to keep everyone playing endlessly or be left behind. I like that Godfall won't be doing that. It actually makes it more interesting to me now. I like the shield combat. As long as there is a good campaign I would like to play this now. I hope they implement a decent UI, I noticed there's no map, no hit point indicators for enemies and no screen to equip gear. Regardless I like where the game is headed now.

Either I completely forgot about pogs being a game or I never played it a single time. I don't think I've ever seen a slammer pog or the board until that video either. there's metal and plastic slammers?  how'd I miss all this?!  I remember having some ninja turtle pogs. I bet I still have some at my mom's house. From what I remember of the early 90s I was infatuated with my SNES, super Mario world and rpg games.

I just watched that Pogs video. lmao. I had no idea it was a game.  I owned a bunch of them somehow. I got them as gifts, from friends, they came free with other purchases.. I had no idea it was a game.  I always wondered what they were used for.. and its basically just gambling.  Playing marbles for keeps actually requires more skill than this.

Mars looks great in 4k.

On 7/10/2020 at 7:28 PM, slippers said:

never watched the show itself but it made enough headlines over the years to know what it is. its eerie how their young cast slowly die one by one while actors from friends and seinfeld are well into their 50s and 60s enjoying fruits of their labor

That Glee curse.. damn. I never watched Glee either. Melissa Benoist was in that show and shes been playing Supergirl for years on the CW. Hopefully that curse stays away from her.

I need to see this movie.  

Quote

From Frank Miller and Thomas Wheeler, Cursed is a reimagining of the Arthurian legend told from the perspective of Nimue (Katherine Langford). All episodes of Cursed arrive July 17th on Netflix.

I watched this over the last week and its really good. Decent sword fights, plenty of action and alot of blood. No nudity except for a butt cheek. But overall good acting, great sets and costumes. The guy that plays Floki from Vikings is Merlin and he does a great job too. And Katherine Langford is a good actress. Now I know shes not just some one off actress with 13 Reasons Why. I hope season 2 goes into production soon.  With this and The Witcher, Netflix has nailed two great series with fantasy themes. I hope they keep it up and make more shows like this.

The signatures don't show on the front page either for some reason. I need to look into it some more.

A couple remote hosted signatures were throwing off the https for the site and causing a "some items are insecure" warning to appear on browsers. I had to make some changes to the signatures. Remote linking images is ok and all "insecure" images will now be downloaded into a cache and served from this server instead of remotely, but everyone can feel free to upload their images, either way it should be all good now. Oh, and apparently its been a while since I've looked at signature settings... there is a setting to allow signatures in mobile view. I turned it on for now so we can all see if we like that or not. And heres a poll.. keep signatures for mobile view on?

 You get 2 raises per year? Nice.

$100 gift card at a grocery store is the same as cash to me. Like you said, everyone has to buy groceries.

Having a store open on Thanksgiving for black Friday sales seems pointless to me and it just keeps people from spending time with their families. Nowadays almost every company starts their black Friday sales online 2 weeks before Thanksgiving anyway.

My niece in ohio has covid. She was sick back in january like alot of us. Either she didn't have covid back then or she did and she got it a second time. If that's the case then everyone who thinks they had it earlier this year might be susceptible to getting it again now. Stay safe because that immunity from having it could be completely temporary.

I had a liver sonogram done and it revealed nothing but a large bill to pay.  Getting your bloodwork done for liver enzyme tests is alot cheaper than a sonogram or xray. It might be worth getting done just to know where your levels are and then again at the end of the 2 years to see how much improvement has been made.

Walmart has had hand over fist profits during the entire coronavirus. All that extra $600 a month along with people furloughing their mortgages for a year let a massive chunk of people with nothing to do and a crap load of money to spend at walmart, home depot and amazon since no where else was open. I think walmart made more profit in the last 3 months than they have in the last 3 years. They gave out bonuses to all employees twice already and they made so much money they can afford to shut down for thanksgiving pre-black friday sales and give out bonuses to all employees a third time. All that stimulus money meant to shore up the economy only benefited large businesses because all the small businesses were closed. They should have held off on sending out those initial stimulus checks until everything reopened. Now that the extra $600 a week is going away right when small businesses have only just begun to reopen in the last 3 weeks, all their potential earnings are going to dry up quick. 

I read an article that alot of the PPP small business loans went to large companies that were owned by private equity groups that shouldn't be considered small businesses. The majority of these PPP loans don't have to be paid back as long as the companies followed the rules, so it was basically the free stimulus money sent out to all the small businesses. If all that money actually went to small businesses, maybe it could have helped them more.. instead big organizations like the catholic church somehow got around $1.4 billion of those small business PPP loans for all their multiple churchs across the country... Our taxpayer money is either helping to pay off all their child abuse lawsuits / settlements or at least shore up the foundation of their bank accounts to prevent them from closing as a result of all those lawsuits. Imagine if $1.4 billion went to actual small businesses that employed an actual work force instead of some churchs, that could have helped saved alot of independent restaurants. Since the PPP loans had no oversight, all the money just went out to whoever just like the $600 a week going out to everyone. I've never seen the US government just give away money like this before. Its crazy. And another article I read said they want to convert a large chunk of the PPP loans into grants so they don't have to pay anyone to do the paperwork to confirm if any of the PPP loans were none fraudulent. wtf.

Links for references:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/06/sba-ppp-loans-data/

https://time.com/5865746/catholic-church-billion-ppp-loans/

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-wave-of-sexual-abuse-lawsuits-could-cost-catholic-church-over-4-billion-2019-12-02

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/ppp-small-loans-forgiveness-368551

This game looks hilarious and fun.  

On 7/18/2020 at 6:45 PM, slippers said:

^ they moved out already? damn time flies huh. how old are they now?

28 and 25. They're adults now. Lol.

I'm glad your healthier now. Congrats on 1 year sobriety! If you get the chance to go to a doctor maybe get a physical done? They do full blood work with a physical, that's how I found out my liver was crap years ago. High liver levels, I started getting headaches from drinking. Headaches before I even went to bed. I saw a gastroenterologist, more blood work, etc. Aside from getting a biopsy done to confirm, the doctor said I have fatty liver. Fatty liver sucks, I can't drink worth a damn and drugs like tylenol and ibuprofen can wreck it further. I still occasionally drink at social events or maybe have a beverage once or a couple times a month. I swapped drinking with exercise and now I drink more protein than I ever did alcohol.  btw, just a heads up, losing weight doesn't seem to help fatty liver. But my gastro dr did tell me to take vitamin E once a day with a meal and that does help reduce my liver levels.

On 7/18/2020 at 6:45 PM, slippers said:

i like this one safety measure of what best buy is doing by designating a certain day of morning to at risk customers only. i think thats better than lining everyone up outside and make them wait for almost an hour to shop, which i think is pointless bc other stores dont even follow that policy and lets everybody in anyway

That's good, they do the same thing at most of the stores here. I think it's Tuesdays only from 8-9 am at the local grocery stores, walmart and wegmans have a seniors only morning hours too on certain days.

I read an article a while back about the majority of businesses that are going to shut down permanently because of covid wont be shutting down until late this year and they're basically hoping to make up sales by black Friday and if they can't pull enough profit in they'll be shutting down, including alot of restaurants that won't make it through winter months. With second shut downs happening these at risk businesses probably won't even make it that long and we'll get way more unemployment right before the holidays.

With the end of the $600 unemployment bonus happening this week I'm betting alot of people are going to start raging soon and crime will go up. A large chunk of citizens have basically been on paid vacation for the last 4 months and not giving a damn about the state of country. Once their paydays end the shit will really start hitting the fan. I bet we'll see an advertising blitz of manipulating bullshit to try and control all that rage politically. It'll be a mess of horrible real news, fake news and lies soon.

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/864515630/the-battle-between-the-masked-and-the-masked-nots-unveils-political-rifts

I stumbled on this article from back in May... wearing a mask is political?

Everyone truly does get offended by everything.  "Wear a mask for public safety"... *offended*  I saw some other articles about Georgia's governor overriding mask mandates.. It boggles my mind. Honestly, its in the best interest of these states to force a mask mandate since it's their own base that could potentially start dying off over the next couple months leading up to a major election. Sure people aren't dying now, but in a few months when schools reopen shit will start hitting the fan with more hotspots. When we had kids in school, I'd get sick from them all the time, I'd never have sick time saved up, I'd almost always use it the moment I got some available.. After the kids moved out I only get sick like twice a year.. hell my PTO time was banked up to 120 hours a couple months ago and I had to use some. Kids in schools is a germ factory of contagion. I'm sure they can reopen safely with proper measures and I hope they do, but I'm just saying I'm glad I don't have kids in school anymore. But without proper measures, covid is going to go rampant. BTW, my older brother in Ohio had to go back to working from home because someone in his office tested positive for Covid. Hardly anyone in Ohio is wearing a mask either.

Turns out walmart is limiting their entrances to just the grocery section entrance now with two employees in black shirts called "health ambassadors" that will enforce their mask mandate at all their stores nationwide. Menards has been doing that to begin with and other stores like Target and some others are enforcing it to. Its probably a good idea since at some point somebody will sue one of these stores for exposure.

I read that the extra $600 a week federal unemployment bonus will still expire in a couple weeks and any extension to it will force that extra federal bonus to be capped at whatever the salary was of the unemployed person if it even gets extended. Thats how it should have been to begin with. I do think we might get another stimulus check to at this rate.

I purposefully haven't watched this trailer yet because I'm still multiple episodes behind. 

I watched Yong's review and damn thats a solid review. If I had the cash to justify another game purchase I'd buy this today. 

On 7/14/2020 at 8:24 PM, Strider Hiryu said:

(I love Samurai and everything but you don't shoot off Tenchu vibes like this and not expect me to play it like a Ninja).

While watching Yong's review I completely had flash backs of Tenchu during the assassin segments.  Assassin play looks amazingly fun.

What happened in NY is all the lock down kept the mortality rate low. We all started wearing masks way early on so when they started lifting the restrictions the virus stayed in check since we weren't spreading it. If Houston is getting that strict then their experts must think they'll hit max capacity of ICU beds way too fast. The mortality rate is low now, but once ICU beds gets filled the mortality rate will spike and thats when people will start dying off. Covid doesn't seem that lethal around here as long as theres medical care to treat it. We have alot of increased testing too and we're still not getting any spikes in covid. They announced we'll have schools reopening in September (thats when school starts here). We'll find out all the new restrictions for in person school in 3 weeks. So far they did say all kids will have to wear masks except when eating and for eating theres going to be assigned seating so only the same kids are potentially near each other day after day to limit spreading to different groups, something like that. Still no word on when we'll have gyms or movie theaters opening yet. Gyms were supposed to open wednesday last week but it got delayed. My niece and nephew in Ohio are getting their new masks prepped and ready for the next school year since it'll be required there. As far as I know they'll be reopening their schools in August and will announce their restrictions in a week or two.

Btw, this is a pretty good video about masks that PBS made. Pretty informative for showing air flow.

I can only imagine wearing a mask all day for work tho. That has to suck.

That was a great video. I never realized any of that when I watched it.

The first game was really fun but yeah you could get OP easy just exploring all over the place halfway through the game, but that final mission was BS difficulty that I had to cheese by jumping in water to avoid all roads because it was insane. The second game didn't look interesting to me because it's a different protagonist. Since I have it free now I'll give it a shot. I'm not really interested in the third game so far.

Their login servers screwed up during the event. If you were logged into your ubisoft account during the stream you could claim the game for free. Since nobody could do that they have a form right now to login from to claim the game for free for PC.

https://support.ubisoft.com/en-US/News/000056669/Ubisoft-Forward-Rewards

I don't know if this form will be available for 24 hours or a week since they didn't say yet. I don't know how long it'll take for the game to get loaded in either. I think someone might be DDOSing their servers still.

The malls around here will be opening back up this friday. No news so far about when movie theaters will open back up yet. The numbers here have still been good and we've had no deaths in this county for a week straight.

https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/07/coronavirus-update-no-covid-19-deaths-for-a-week-in-onondaga-county.html

https://www.syracuse.com/destiny-usa/2020/07/destiny-usa-cleared-to-reopen-friday-county-exec-says.html

This thing is a disaster.

I watched the entire season a month ago but forgot to update this topic. It was good. A direct sequel to TNG. The CGI for the ships was ok but not as good as a full on physical set, but I guess they were going for that more futuristic feel, but overall the CGI was actually really good for the entire season. The acting was great and I love that they brought Seven of Nine back and a few others I won't spoil in case they weren't in trailers. But man, Patrick Stewart is so old now. lol. Its like he didn't age at all for years and then Picard came out and he abruptly became an old man to me. There were many scenes I kept thinking.. Oh no Picard, don't break a hip! It was a good season but the ending was a bit whacky. The highlight of the season was all the Borg and Romulan story.

Rotflmao!

That video is spot on. and that woman Abby, really is that buff.

I honestly would have liked a different story for the sequel. It could have gone very differently and been a much better game. I would have loved to have seen the sequel be a continuation of the firefly fighting and a potentially new character that was also immune and a fight against opposing sides fighting for control of a vaccine.. instead we got a depressing revenge story. I enjoyed the game for what it is but there's so many other ways they could have continued the story to further the overall plot with a setup for future sequels.

We finished the game today. And avoided all the spoilers to.

This game was emotional as hell. Brutal as f*ck and extreme violence. Some parts are uncomfortable and other scenes can be downright disturbing.. I was confused initially as to why the game would switch over to playing as Abby for roughly half the game, but playing through the entire game puts it all into perspective. And damn if it wasn't depressing by the end. The game mechanics were great, same with the characters and plot.

Sometimes a good song will give you that happy feeling but sometimes a good song will make you depressed and cry.. this game is like that depressing song you know will make you cry but you still listen to it. It's got this sadness and violence combo that is unique. An experience I have not felt from any other game. Well done Naughty Dog. You have to have played the first game and it's DLC to fully understand the motivations of the characters and the ensuing depression that follows.

I still haven't watched any of the hate videos that filled up YouTube for clickbait and anger spreading, I'll watch some reviews from Jim Sterling and others now that I've seen it through.

Btw, I'm sure there's alot of people saying it's woke, but Ellie has been a lesbian since the original game came out on PS3.

Also for a game that got review bombed its actually selling copies faster than God of War. 😮

https://blog.playstation.com/2020/06/26/the-last-of-us-part-ii-sells-more-than-4-million-copies/

Spoilers about some harsh scenes:

That's a good way to do it. Around here they just tell everyone to self monitor and keep the business open after the staff disinfects everything.