A lot of the issues you mentioned get solved in season 2. I think there was a network shift and the camera work got better. Later on Amazon pumped a lot of money into the show as well. It’s really worth the watch and I’d love to hear back from you if you do.

If you’re a gamer there’s a Telltale game that follows this account’s namesake. Camina Drummer.

The writers did a fantastic job writing all the dialogue in the books. I would argue it’s on par or even better than the show. Which is hard, considering the writers for the books produced and even wrote the screenplays for the show.

As someone who shares a line of work with Bobby Draper and many other characters, the military jargon and quips are also spot on. Never have I heard such accurate lingo and expression in sci-fi.

The Expanse may be the best bit of sci-fi I have ever had the joy to watch and read.

Reading this felt like the computer version of whatever the SAW movies are.

Torture porn? It’s so repugnant but I want more.

Wished’I’d’ve

That they are. I just found them recently. They’re certainly out of my usual wheelhouse but I’ve really been enjoying a lot of old folk and country. This kinda bridges the gap perfectly.

You may really enjoy Bridge City Sinners then!

They do mostly Bluegrass/Folk but they have this metal vibe to a lot of their stuff. Their vocalist is fantastic and the song I linked feels like I’d be in the middle of a Cowboy Saloon barfight.

$3.94 CAD/2.74 USD at food basics in rural Ontario.

$2 for 12 eggs from a friend’s chickens.

Yeah, explain the shitmobile then.

I think you have a bad impression of how souls games work and I’m not sure how to address that.

Did you ever play Rogue or Thief back in the day? Maybe the Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, Cuphead or Balatro? Loss is part of the game but it still progresses the story. You’re never “stuck” as you say. Dying, making mistakes and retrying is part of the game.

Old RPGs that just gave you nothing sucked because they were directionless. Which is not a word I would ever use to describe a souls game. Sure, they’re difficult but there’s certainly a flow to them. I think a lot of people get hung up on the mechanics of the games and drop them immediately.

As you said, RPGs are centred around the story and role you play, mechanics are built to aid that. Once you get into a souls game, that is made abundantly clear. They just don’t hand it to you in the first 30 seconds and they expect you to be able to figure some things out as you play because the game does a good job at that.

And yes, fromsoft/soulsborne games most definitely feel like a videogame and they should. This Harkins to the story elements where you play as a literal nobody, worthless undying but you somehow ascend to godhood despite the odds and it breaks the world over and over again. We, the player, are the god. But the characters don’t know this. It’s unfathomable to them that something greater than they, exists. To us it’s a videogame but to the characters it’s the end of the world. Over and over and over again. No matter how insurmountable the odds, we get infinite chances to topple pantheons and change everything.

Some games not having trial and error doesn’t invalidate my point though. At a fundamental level videogames reward knowledge of mechanics the further you progress. One mechanic may work well in one game and horribly in another.

I’m certain the more you play Disco Elysium the better you get at the game. Same applies for any game. Not being able to grasp a repeated mechanic in a game doesn’t make it a bad game either. It just means it isn’t a game for you.

I mean, that’s RPGs for you. Level up, buy equipment, wear armour and cast spells.

Any part of the equation is the solution. Just depends on how you want to play. The story is what you make of it along the way.

Are there any video games that don’t involve some level of trial and error? I suppose respawn mechanics should be removed from all games then?

I guess what I’m saying is that the souls games reward experience. The more you learn, the easier it becomes. More akin to a roguelike in learning curve than a puzzle game.

The barrier for entry may seem high but I genuinely think after an hour of playing you’ll quickly get the hang of it and be just fine.

People beat the games blindfolded. People beat them one handed and without dodging or leveling up.

There’s no need to dive deep either. The souls games have to be some of the best thought out games I’ve played in a long time. Progression makes sense as you play. If an enemy is too tough just walk away and come back later.

Stats scale pretty simply with the game and you can play as you want. Dark souls doesn’t need a story mode and not every game does either.

If you want to make the argument for accessibility, fine. But asking for the bar to be lowered because you can’t or won’t learn the mechanics of a game is wild to me. It’s like asking the devs of Overcooked to make the dishes cook themselves because it gets hard to play.

The game provides everything you need to know that though.

If one hit takes most of your health away, then clearly you need more health. So buff your health stat.

Still learning and need to survive better? Wear armour.

Casting magic? Maybe you need more Mana.

Maybe as a person who’s been playing games my whole life I have a cognitive dissonance or something when it comes to people not understanding game mechanics.

Here’s a good video that helps me understand a bit better.

But like… You can literally see what each stat buffs and by how much each time you sit at a bonfire to level up.

The game doesn’t hold your hand but it’s not difficult to understand enough to play the game.

The difficulty settings are your stats. Literally.

Depending on your build and your personal skill level the game becomes easy or hard. The souls games are notoriously difficult because people don’t have the attention span to learn boss patterns and want to kill every other enemy they see. The game punishes arrogance and forces you to figure out the mechanics yourself.

Once you get a hang of it the games become really easy. Not even joking. I have a harder time playing Space Marine 2 than I do Dark Souls.

For anyone who doesn’t get it: The joke relies on understanding how Latin languages gender words (Un v. Une, Masculine/Feminine form).So it literally doesn’t work in English. It’s also a common translation error non native speakers have because you only know the “gender” of a word by… Knowing if it’s masculine or feminine through experience.

Best way to carry the joke is:

“Oh look, a/un(male) fly.”

“No, it’s a/une(feminine) fly.”

“Wow, you have good eyes/Wow, you can see it’s genitals from here?”

Certainly clunky but hilarious if you speak French.

So… About that. We were going to do that.

The government fast tracked the order of 80 F-35s because they fit our needs perfectly. There were complaints and lawsuits.

We cancelled the project (that we helped start with the US), lost like 100bn, did our contract hunting then settled on half the amount of F-35s for nearly double the cost.

All because we broke contract and lost our early purchase deal.

It’s all very short sighted and to be honest I can’t blame them for their brainwashing most of the time.

They hear if places with 30, 40, 50% tax rates and are appalled but they don’t realize that the combined income of a nation can more than subsidise education, healthcare and so much more while still affording an amazing quality of life.

They call Europeans poor because they don’t own 50 acres and a McMansion with 3 mud crawlers in the garage.

My buddy’s wife just doesn’t understand how far out tax money goes and thinks our government is just as corrupt as hers.

Significantly less so when you don’t have to worry about copays, premiums and other services.

Civilised countries ask everyone to chip in and take care of one another. Your kid’s booboo tomorrow and your neighbours cancer the next. All taken care of because we can. No medical poverty.

Typo on the F-16. Meant to write F-18.

As for F-35s we have a few lent to us at this time for training with 40(?) more on the way.