cerebralhawks

@cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Borderlands 4′s New $30 Expansion Pack Isn’t Winning Over Fans⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  For context, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out about 20 years ago in 2006, most notable for its controversial “Horse Armor” DLC, which added armour to horses and was mostly lampooned for being unnecessary. That game also featured a $30 DLC called “Shivering Isles” which added about 5-6 hours of gameplay across a huge island. Most of the time was spent running from place to place as it was way too big, but gamers loved it, and rightly so. You’re working for the god of (literally) madness, who is at war with (minor spoiler) himself, and you’re to be his pawn, whether you like it or not. (Shivering Isles is included in the Oblivion remake that came out a couple years ago.)

  I never thought Borderlands games were all that good, personally. The first one was a lot of fun, but it seemed like most people wanted to be either fake Roland (the soldier who could drop a shielded turret) or Lilith (the alien power infused Siren who could phase in and out of reality), and either way you were gonna have a good time. Then there was actual Roland, as in Roland Deschain from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, only he was called something else (“because ‘Roland’ was already taken! get it? he he”) and some other character we didn’t care about. I liked those choices. The choices felt weaker all around in Borderlands 2 (I went with the Mechromancer, the little girl who could summon the mech, because she was cool) but the stakes and difficulty were higher, with obtuse areas with more obtuse maps. And the story held my interest much less. Rather than treasure hunters and a back story with corporate greed, we’re still treasure hunters, but now we gotta save the treasure hunters from the first game for some reason. I never played 3 or Pre-Sequel (wherever that fits), but I tried BL4 on GamePass, and it just felt soulless? But I only played the first area.

  I feel like these games are best bought on sale at deep discount. I couldn’t tell you what I’d do differently with the newer ones but to gesture wildly at the first one. Either the first one got it right and the rest failed to do that, or the series is a one trick pony and they never should have made sequels. I’m open to that possibility, but I don’t like defeatism. I think there was something BL2 could have done better, I just can’t figure it out.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Should I use a "proper" password manager instead of Firefox?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  LastPass is shit now.

  Firefox is fine if it’s all you use. I use the Apple Passwords app, because I have all Apple stuff (Macs and an iPhone). It works very well.

  You can also use BitWarden. That’s free, it’s open source, and it’s highly regarded. It works whether you use iPhone or Android; whether your computer runs macOS, Linux, or Windows.

  You don’t need to pay for a password manager. Anyone who says you do has a vested interest in you spending money (it typically directly relates to them making money), and if they can’t respect you enough to be transparent about it, they don’t deserve your money.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Forza Horizon 6 requirements are out⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Now I wanna know where an Xbox Series X lands in those requirements. All I know is it has 16GB of RAM. I don’t know where its CPU and GPU fall, though.

  I probably won’t buy the game. It looks fun, but I never got much into the Forza Horizon games. I think they are worth playing, but I’m real picky about driving games. I played a bit of Horizon 5 because I had GamePass at the time. When it was $15, it made sense. Since it’s doubled, it no longer does. Maybe if they let you keep a game every 1-3 months, I could see it, but without ever owning any of the games… nah.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steve Wozniak says he's "disappointed a lot" by AI and rarely uses it⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  He’s relevant because he’s the one most people liked, but Steve Jobs did all the keynotes (until he got too sick to, and then he died) so that’s who people see. The balding windbag in the black turtleneck and jeans who talks like he’s your friend but just wants to own you. Steve Wozniak was his friend (and remained so until he died AFAIK) who was encouraging him to make products for humans, not shareholders.

  Wozniak doesn’t have to do a fucking thing. He never wanted to live like a king and he probably still lives in a modest house and drives a beater of a car. He’s also an Apple investor. He had enough shares to comfortably live on for life before he left Apple. He’s probably bought more. He probably has a lot of things that work very well, but he probably doesn’t have flashy things. I’m not saying he drives a 1988 Honda Accord, but he’s not driving a Bugatti or a Lamborghini to the grocery store. He’s you and I but with unlimited money (or at least more money than he’ll ever need). Maybe he’s got a vast Gundam collection or something like that, I dunno (something niche and expensive).

  But yeah, look him up if you want. I’m just spitballing. I really don’t know how he lives. He’s just never seemed extravagant.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steve Wozniak says he's "disappointed a lot" by AI and rarely uses it⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Steve Wozniak is our guy.

  If you like Android, if you hate Apple, if you don’t like the way things are going in tech… you probably have more in common with Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak than you think.

  Co-founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976 (-04-01, 50th anniversary coming soon) (plus an investor), Woz wanted Apple to make PCs for tinkerers with open ports, open source, all that good stuff. Jobs on the other hand, wanted a closed system end to end.

  Woz is also quoted as saying something like, “they send me the latest and greatest iPhone every year. They’re pretty, but I wish they did half the shit my Android phone does.” He doesn’t open them. He stacks the boxes in his closet, or he used to. He uses an Android phone. I think he’s rocking GrapheneOS on a Pixel. He probably posts on Lemmy under an alias. (No, I’m not him. He probably wouldn’t be on db0. Though, he might be.) (Please don’t say I’m him. I’m nowhere near that cool. And I use an iPhone 16 Pro Max 512GB. My Android phone is 7 years old, though I do like a few things about it more. If I were Woz and I used an iPhone, I wouldn’t still use the 16 Pro Max, I’d be using the 17 Pro Max, and I’d have the 2TB one.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do people call Fiji and Voss Water “Rich People” Water?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Because it’s fucking water and it’s $3 or more a bottle.

  Ergo, you’re paying for the name. The water is worth like 30¢ tops. The rest of the money is going to make some random asshole rich. Maybe go post in UnpopularOpinion about why that’s so important to you, but be wary of flames from people tired of everything going up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's your favorite ship or class of ship?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I actually like the runabout and wonder how many would fit in the Galaxy or Intrepid class shuttle bays.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do young adults (or rich kids in general) from wealthy families engage in illegal street racing?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Same guy? Or just same energy?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In addition to other tech forums named, there’s also the Ars Technica forum. That’s been around for over 20 years. It’s a freemium forum, so some of those members are funding it as well, and have been doing so for years. That should at least speak to the dedication of the community.

  But Reddit isn’t just a tech forum, it’s mostly casual stuff. If you go to Ars Technica’s forums, or some of the other forums, or hell, even /r/AskScience (and similar subreddits) and you’re not an expert, you will get burned. So with some of these places, there is a wall of IQ/expertise most users can’t surpass, and they tend to get weeded out. Reddit as a whole has a much lower barrier of entry, and you can avoid the smart areas if you aren’t. So it appeals to more people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Post that you think people who abuse children should receive stricter punishments under the law.

  Reddit will make the decision for you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a way out of an NDA after signing? It just seems people are so affraid of breaking it⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Bot? Or just bored?

  I’m not OP, I’m not the one asking. And in my case the game came out like 15 years ago. So, not sure why all the help, but maybe it’ll be useful for someone else? I surely don’t need a lawyer to tell me I can or can’t mention I was in a beta test for a game years ago… certainly don’t need to pay one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a way out of an NDA after signing? It just seems people are so affraid of breaking it⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So, you signed a legally-binding Non-Disclosure Agreement and now you wish to disclose something in it?

  You might think you can do it anonymously, but they may have a way of tracing the leak back to you. One thing Apple does and has done is put people on bogus projects that will never see light of day. Report on the Apple game system, the Apple scale, and the Apple running shoes, they can narrow that leak down to you, or you and a couple other people, and drop you (since you weren’t doing anything for them anyway). Stupid examples but you get the point.

  There’s also the canary system, a spy/counterspy method mentioned by Tom Clancy in his Jack Ryan books. I don’t know if it’s real, or if the CIA, Mossad, KGB, or any other intelligence agency actually uses it. The idea is, you tell three friends the same secret, but you change up the details each time and you keep track of who was told what version of the lie. When the lie comes back to you, you know who betrayed you because of the detail only one of them got (the canary that sang).

  (If canary is familiar, you may have also heard the term “warrant canary.” This is a case where someone, say a VPN provider, will put a line of text on their site that says “We have never been asked to provide records on our customers.” Once they get, and are forced to comply with such a request, they remove the line, and people watching it know what’s up. Same concept, actually.)

  So like the last person to reply said, it’s not a good idea. Even if you’re anonymous, you may spill something linked directly to you, and they know you leaked it and can prove it in court.

  I beta tested and signed an NDA about a video game that’s been out for over 10 years now. I still don’t talk about the beta test. I’ve played the commercially released game. I don’t like it. I’ve shared my opinion on those experiences. Only ever told my wife about the beta test. But even so, there was nothing really worth mentioning in the beta test. It was just a little more boring than the commercial version, because they added more shit to do. It’s still a turd, it just now has a couple chocolate sprinkles on it. Or, it’s still a pig, but now it has lipstick on it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK Society of Authors launches logo to identify books written by humans not AI⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They should label the ones made by or with AI.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Boss repeatedly shouted 'potato' at Irish employee⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, is he offering? I take mine baked. I’d rather be called a potato than to have no potatoes. Sorry if i resemble the remark…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do RICH people of color ever get harassed by ICE?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Think more like… people are getting arrested for simply having/seeing CSAM but the rich people who got exposed actually doing that stuff aren’t getting touched. It’s absolutely about money.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a game that combines Civ with Sims?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Off the topic title alone, I’d say Animal Crossing fits the bill. I mean, it’s Sims but you build up your island. You technically colonise the archipelago in the DLC, and you can put castle walls and turrets around your house.

  There are a bunch of games like that. Animal Crossing is just the one I play. It’s made for kids, but it’s secretly (?) post-apocalyptic (I was shocked to find out but apparently it’s kinda common knowledge in the fandom?), but there are others like that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pragmata is releasing a whole week earlier than planned because who cares, it's got April all to itself⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not touching this game with a barge pole until I read ending spoilers.

  Death flags all over the kid and frankly, I’m not putting in the time to get steamrolled like that. If I learn she definitively does not die at the end, or can be saved, I may play it. But Crapcom makes some stupid ass control decisions, and if the game’s not comfortable to play, I can’t be arsed.

  Another thing that’s just fuckin weird about the trailers… the guy is a human, but you never see his face. He’s always in the robot suit. The little girl, however, is a robot, but you never see her do robot things. Like she doesn’t pull her arm off and put an attachment on or disconnect her head so you can carry “her” more easily through a tough spot… I’m sensing a twist here. I think the whole point of her (why this guy trying to survive is hauling someone else’s child around) is that she’s the magic system, she gives him access to powers (hacking, I guess, but hacking was the magic system of Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex, and others, so it’s fine), but he seems to be the robot between them.

  At the same time I want all those preorder bonuses because all of her DLC outfits look better than whatever that thing is she has in the trailer (makes me think of the kid from Final Fantasy 9).

  Also thought this was PS5 exclusive for some reason. That it’s gonna run on Switch 2 gives me hope. Maybe they’ll do a Mac release at some point (the newer Macs are more powerful than the Switch 2, and cost about the same — I’d say Switch 2 is somewhere around M2 Pro or M3, and they’re up to M5 now).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to I prove to someone that the U.S. moon landing wasn't staged?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yay, it’s catching on, I don’t have to type it every time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I just want juice, is that so much to ask?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Look for 100% juice.

  While you’re at it, look for “zero sugar” products. They use sucralose, which is 600 times sweeter (gram for gram) than sugar, so they use way less of it. No aftertaste either, though it doesn’t have that “sugary” flavour, so it does taste differently. After a while I just think it’s better.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The ability to hide scores and sitter entirely by new

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Star Trek: Starfleet Academy • FlixPatrol⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  As someone who liked Discovery and the Abramsverse, I’m wary because I supported Section 31 until I saw it. The Internet was right this time, Section 31 was hot garbage, by far the worst Trek I’ve ever seen. I don’t agree with most of the Internet about a lot of things about Star Trek, but I’m with y’all on that one.

  I will still give SFA a 2-3 episode chance, but I’m waiting for it to finish airing, and we’re watching The Expanse first (in the middle of the first season now). Got a show or two on the docket after that, then we might work it in, but I don’t have high hopes. But I’ve been asking for this series to exist for over 20 years, so I want it to succeed. (Not enough to subscribe to Paramount though.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are Americans so hung up on Epstein and his egg head island and "the files"?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh, the off-topic “release the Trump-Epstein files” memes (or tongue-in-cheek references to them)?

  I guess it’s to remind those at the top that we still haven’t forgotten.

  Like the whole post-9/11 thing, “we will never forget.” Except a bunch of similar things happened around the world, Hollywood started cashing in on 9/11, and bringing it up while worse shit was going on kinda faded, but the “pride” of remembering 9/11 stuck around for about a decade. These things have a long shelf life.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are Americans so hung up on Epstein and his egg head island and "the files"?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Because if you look at any local news anywhere, poor people are being jailed for decades for merely looking at CSAM. And I’m not saying that shouldn’t be illegal. But we have proof the rich and powerful are actually doing the things in those photos and videos. It’s shocking, and it’s still shocking, that they’re getting away with it. And that people are still supporting them.

  That should bother anyone regardless of what country you’re from.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Should this be the year we finally try voting for other candidates?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No, because the Republicans are all voting for Trump. And they’re trying to split the Democrat vote so Trump wins. Nobody’s splitting the Republican vote. But Republicans are spending a small fortune to astroturf on social media to try to split the Democrat vote. I’m not saying everyone saying as you are is Republican funded — a lot of people are buying into the idea and reposting it for free.

  The problem is twofold: One, they think they’re smarter than you and they think you’re their tool. Two, you totally are. (Unless you’re one of the ones at the top pushing it, in which case it’s a similar twofold problem: One, you think you’re smarter than us and you think we’re your tools. Two, a lot of people are falling for it.) I don’t know which one you fit in and I’m not going to assume. I’m just leaving this to help others make up their minds whether or not they wanna get used by the Republicans.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘I think the franchise is dead’: Saints Row design director says IP owner ‘ghosted’ his prequel pitch | VGC⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I like the time travel idea. No one likes “it was all a dream” endings, so the second one’s out. The way the fourth one was, going back into the history of the Saints and all their relationships and problems, might have been better explored in a time-travel story. So it would be hard to do that again. Good points though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Day 587 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Goldfish was a pain in the neck to catch and it’s not even listed as rare.

  If you have Switch Online, find a free treasure island and fill your inventory with fish bait. Barring that, dig up a bunch of clams. The 3.0 update lets you craft 10 things at once now, so that makes grinding out fish bait honestly a lot faster. Then just throw bait and if the shadow isn’t the size you want (goldfish is small ~~but not tiny ~~IIRC), throw more bait to roll again. Know the times the goldfish can spawn (all day actually, and it’s 3/5 stars of rarity, and very small/tiny, just looked it up).

  Also note that a treasure island with fish won’t contribute to your Critterpedia, but you can fill the museum with “found”/“gifted” fish, bugs, and sea creatures. (If you catch the fish there, it counts, but if you find it in a container on the island proper, it doesn’t. Though note most treasure island don’t have water.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘I think the franchise is dead’: Saints Row design director says IP owner ‘ghosted’ his prequel pitch | VGC⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Pretty sure the franchise was cooked when

  Spoiler

  They blew up Earth

  I mean where TF do you go from there? And the reboot sucked. So yes. Yes it is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EA invents new microtransaction nightmare as it breaks paywall promise on Skate: rent a playable area for 24 hours or buy a premium pass, bucko⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I would say this tracks for Saudi Arab-EA, but they did this kind of shit before the Saudis owned them.

  Honestly from a business perspective, EA is one if the smartest publishers out there. They made a game and stripped away most of the functionality and then sold it for full price. They then slowly added the content back in content packs and people gladly paid. That was The Sims. And it’s had like three sequels, all monetized the exact same way. And people keep paying them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EA invents new microtransaction nightmare as it breaks paywall promise on Skate: rent a playable area for 24 hours or buy a premium pass, bucko⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Same logic as “Lottery is a tax on those who didn’t pay attention in math class.” And I agree.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Resident Evil Requiem's 'Terrifying Nightmare Set' sells out in under 5 hours and includes every gamer's biggest fear: exercise equipment⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Exclusive to Japan so does that mean only Japanese gamers fear exercise?