• 1 Post
  • 110 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 7th, 2023

help-circle



  • If you’re playing FFX/X-2 on PC, consider installing the Untitled Project X mod. It fixes some stuff and adds more graphics/UI options, but one of the most significant changes is that it allows you to toggle exp to the whole party regardless of participation.

    It completely eliminates the “swap every character in to guard for 1 turn” hassle. You basically never need to grind, because every single character stays properly leveled. Basically, the game difficulty was balanced as if you fully utilized every single character in every fight. So the mod allows your exp gains to reflect that expectation, without needing to mindlessly swap each character out every time.


  • Currently working my way through Legend of Legaia. I’m shamelessly using some cheats to alleviate the grinding, because the American version of the game is ~4x more grindy than the Japanese version, and combat is much harder. (Yes, they slashed all of the exp and drop rates for the English release, along with making enemies significantly stronger.)

    In the American version of the game, you need to stop and grind quite a bit just to be able to afford the gear for each new area. But in the Japanese version, you can pretty much steamroll enemies that are at your level, even without proper gearing. And since you have more gold, you never need to stop and grind. Hell, you actually end up with an abundance of gold in the Japanese version, meaning you don’t need to worry about things like being able to afford healing items. Which, again, just makes the game that much easier.

    And quite frankly, I’m way too busy to be able to stop and grind. So I use cheats to level the playing field. I’m about halfway through the second area so far. No big hangups since I’ve played through it probably a dozen times.

    I also just beat Megaman Legends again, and have moved onto Legends 2; I haven’t ever actually beaten 2, so it’ll be an adventure. I had forgotten how much more smooth the controls in 2 are, so it has been a pleasant surprise so far. IIRC, Legends 1 was made before DualShock controllers were common, so they couldn’t rely on the controllers having twin sticks. So the movement is very stilted, with turning on your shoulder buttons. Legends 2 actually allows for a true shooter layout with twin stick controls, so I don’t feel like the controls are constantly fighting me.


  • Yeah, my wife’s family lives up in the northern US. We live in the south. The first time they came to visit, her uncle was stoked to see a mockingbird. It was funny to me, because they’re practically everywhere in the south.

    He was less stoked when he got attacked by said mockingbird, because it was nesting season and he was too close to the nest.


  • If this is the same Ghostery that makes the Chrome/Firefox extension, they were in hot water a few years ago for selling the extension to an ad agency. That ad agency almost immediately turned around and started selling usage data to the sites whose trackers were being blocked.

    Basically, Ghostery was selling info about how users were using the extension, how their trackers were being blocked, and which trackers were present on different users’ browsers. And the extension had this data collection quietly turned on by default. It also meant that ghostery was only acting as a middleman in the data collection process (and profiting as a result,) because the trackers were still able to get the info; They just had to pay Ghostery for access.







  • Which is deceptive, at best. Steam doesn’t have pricing clauses for developers’ games. The devs are free to sell their games anywhere they want, at whatever prices they want. But Steam does have pricing clauses for Steam keys. Basically, what allows you to register a game to your Steam account.

    You can sell your game for whatever price you want, as long as it’s not the Steam version of the game. They don’t want you giving away Steam keys for cheaper than you can often buy them on Steam. And this makes sense; Steam has a vested interest in protecting their own game keys, and encouraging players to shop on a storefront that they know is reputable; Lots of steam key resellers are notoriously shady, for instance.

    Basically, the dev can go sell it cheaper on GoG, or Epic, or their own storefront if they want. As long as they’re not selling Steam keys, they’re fine. But players like having games registered to their Steam accounts, because it puts everything in one place. So devs may feel shoehorned into selling Steam keys (which would invoke that pricing clause) instead of selling a separate version that isn’t registered to Steam. But that doesn’t mean Steam is preventing publishers from selling elsewhere, or controlling the prices on those third party sites. It just means Steam has market pull, and publishers know the game will sell better if it’s offered as a Steam key.


  • The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that they have authorized two charges against the defendant in the case – assault with intent to do great bodily harm by strangulation, as well as assault and battery, a misdemeanor. No additional details in the case were released.

    Worth noting that many jurisdictions have begun separating out attempted strangulation from regular battery/assault, because the statistics on attempted strangulation are incredibly harrowing. A victim who has been strangled by someone is 750% more likely to be murdered by that person within a year. Strangulation is a really really strong indicator of future murder. To the point that if you find out your partner has strangled someone in the past, you should strongly consider planning your escape.

    There may be some correlation ≠ causation here, but it’s also interesting to theorize about why it may be so strongly correlated. Is it because murderers are naturally predisposed to strangling victims? Is it because people who strangle are more likely to ”accidentally” kill their victim during an altercation, as compared to someone who simply uses their fists? Is it because murderers tend to fantasize about or fixate on strangulation? Regardless of the reason, the stats are… Not great. This former coach has no business being anywhere near a school.