Where's the timeline where EA doesn't buy Bioware and make them release Mass Effect 2 as a corridor shooter punctuated by cutscenes and conversation prompts?

The difference between ME1 and DA:O and their direct sequels developed under EA's tenure is stark. Honestly, the trend never reversed as those series continued.

Everyone is whining about this requirement. Do you guys not have a hyperbolic time chamber to jump into? I'm already Super ChatGPT Plus God Mode.

The Left Hand of Darkness is great. I really need to get around to Wizard of Earthsea.

I'm not going to write .Net, you can't make me do it. I'm not going to write Python, you can't make me do it.

Is your backend Node?!? Let's go baby, I'm a full stack dev.

Halo: Reach, Halo: ODST, Halo: CE, Halo 2 - the familiar pattern of carving my way through hordes of enemies is very comforting.

There is something to be said about Abercombie's release of nine full books in the series in the past 18 years, plus a short story collection. I have a soft spot for Jezal—at first, because I didn't understand what type of story I was reading, and then later, because of how he reacts to his journey.

I think The Blade Itself pays off. In an attempt to not spoil things, the first book is mainly "getting the gang together." The second is "the gang goes into action," and the third is "the giant climax."

Of the three standalone novels, "Best Served Cold" is probably the best and an entertaining read. However, without having read the original trilogy, you'll likely be a bit thrown off by many of the names and events referenced and have a couple of plot points of the trilogy spoiled for you.

I am currently very high on the First Law series, but I will admit I first read The Blade Itself almost six years ago and did not like it. But I think if you take book one as table setting and let yourself get into book 2, the merry crew of Glokta, Logen, Byaz, Jezal, Ferro, Collem, and all the rest will give you an unforgettable story.

For a free piece of software it has no right being as good and as easy to use as it is.

A fucking sword.

I've had a Netflix subscription from before they even did streaming. I had the 4k plan, and even when I wasn't watching much on there anymore, my kids would use it often. The price hikes just would not stop. Then they started moving into video games, and I started seeing headlines reading "Netflix plans to open brick and mortar locations" - followed by more price hikes and ads being integrated. It started to feel like I was just funding their dumb business moves that I'm not ever going to benefit from.

So now I have a beautiful new NAS running Plex. Just accounting for the Netflix subscription price, I'll break even in 2 years, and I'm using it for a lot more than just a media server.

I love companies swinging between "we have to increase your subscription costs to allow us to offer more great features" and "our customers are excited about our new features so we need to leverage advertising to continue providing them". Just repeat until everything is loaded with ads AND costs twice as much!

• The Great Gundam Project
• Friends at the Table
• Get Played

I've watched so much mech anime this year...

While Mistborn is a great entry point into Sanderson for many people, to me, it really feels like a freshman effort. I can't ever bring myself to do a full reread of those books, as they don't feel as polished or as well put together as his later work. Well of Ascension especially feels like it's there because a trilogy needs a middle book.

A Memory Called Empire was a book I stalled on and had to restart, but was such a great read. It's so different from what we get in most space opera, but once I was in, it didn't let go. It took a while to start A Desolation Called Peace, but that one was an equally great ride that I couldn't put down. I'm hoping there will be a third entry!

Among my friend group it's House of Leaves.

"Wow, it's such an eerie unsettling journey. I really love it." "you started it last year, did you finish it?" "well ..."

I saw another lemmy user claim they had to take a 17 year break from it.

The big thing I've run into is regular use vs occasional use. I only use my PS4 as a Blu-ray player these days, and each time I turn it on, it has to figure out if it shut down correctly last time(of course not). Then, after a memory check, it boots. I sign in, and then it yells at me that it has a mess of OS updates to install, which I don't want to wait for because I just want to watch this damn movie. Plus, my controller barely holds a charge anymore, and if I don't use the right USB controller plugged into the PS4, the controller doesn't pair and control the damn thing. If I were using the PS4 every day like I did back in 2016, a lot of these problems wouldn't be there, but because I boot it once every 3 months, it's a hassle.

I would love to be able to just slide in a disk and watch in the rare cases I've decided to. As it is, I'm about to buy a dedicated Blu-ray player instead of using the hardware I already have.

I better sell my 1,000 copies of Celeste I've been sitting on then. I was waiting for retirement, but might as well take the tax hit.

Another vote for a backlit e-reader. Much easier on my eyes in a dark room than the dark mode on my phone.

Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, say he's a fun POV character.

Luckily Abercrombie has a wide cast of bloody-handed northmen, scheming wizards, cringing nobles, and other fun miscreants after the Bloody Nine has left the stage. A big thing I loved about The Heroes is how it managed to bring me a whole new crop of characters to enjoy, and lose, just contained in that book. I'm excited about the "industrial revolution" sequel trilogy with a next generation of characters. It's like my father always said: Once you have a sequel trilogy, it's better to read it than live with the fear it.

After all, you have to be realistic about these things.

I did not know that, I got a 2080 in the lead-up hype to initial release, don't think I'll be doing an upgrade just for this.