Haiku, the Robot is a very fun metroidvania that you can blast through in under 10 hours if you want something in that genre, but also something short and sweet that wont consume two weeks of your life.

That’s pretty much my story, too. I was one of the biggest readers in my class at school growing up and even as a young adult, I still read a lot (probably 10 books a year or so). Somewhere along the way in the last few years, I just fell off. I think part of it is finding a book or genre that really reignites me in that regard. I had a book a few years ago that did do that for a few months, but I need to make it a habit. I want to reduce screen time in my life, in general, and getting back into reading will help so much with that, while still allowing my hyperactive mind to explore cool universes!

I actually just played the Telltale Expanse game yesterday, too, and that was excellent! And yeah, I heard that the books are different enough (and that there are 3 more of them), so that a read-through would likely feel new to me. I’ve actually had the first book on my shelf for 10 years after a friend gave it to me and I never started it, nor knew what it was until I started watching the TV show, ha.

So, the car I was talking about in my story (where the hood is above my roof) is a Jeep Wagoneer and it’s just insane!

With how big cars have gotten, I just don’t feel safe on the road half the time. Tanks like that block line of sight both from me to lanes of traffic if I’m trying to turn and from traffic to me, so I have to be extra careful at nearly every intersection in my car. Nobody needs a car that big and it’s a constant source of annoyance for me.

I also have a hard time catching up with established shows. It sounds like a lot, but it averages to about ten 45 minutes episodes per season, so it’s not so bad. I had to get in the mindset of “nobody cares how long I take to watch it”. I just casually watched an episode or two a night for a few weeks. I recommend watching, it’s awesome! If you do start, I’d say that season 1 is slower than the rest and with lower production value, the show doesn’t really ramp up until season 2, I feel, but then it’s a wild ride the rest of the way.

Work is normally not complete shit, but it certainly is this week. I think the universe knows I’m going on vacation next week and then decided to make this week hell instead of a normal week.

That said, I finished The Expanse (amazing show and I just want more!!!) and I’m hopelessly addicted to Cobalt Core. I’ve completed about 6 runs now and have one more ship and character to unlock, and then I “only” have to beat it about 20 more times to get all the memory logs. It’s a very addicting game!

I’m going to have to find a show or two to occupy me in the next 2 weeks on vacation, though. I like traveling, but I’m skipping it this time to be frugal and I’m just having a staycation. I may drive somewhere for a couple days, but nothing crazy.

I’m also trying to get into the habit of reading more. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point of reading double digits books per year (my adhd riddled brain just needs too many vidya games), but I’m trying to at least read a few days a week. That said, with me growing increasingly frustrated with computers (a thing I’m calling ROBS, rapid onset boomer syndrome), maybe I’ll get more into reading to get away from screens (I work in software, so I really should be using a screen at home as little as possible).

I am not surprised in the slightest. New vehicles, especially in the US, are way too fucking big. I drive a Miata, which is small, but not diminutive, and there are SUVs on the market who’s hood is above THE TOP OF MY FUCKING ROOF, above the roof of my fully functioning car that takes care of 90% of my driving needs. Absolutely nobody needs a car that big, it’s dangerous and wasteful. I hate the trends of modern cars. I also have a 2001 CR-V for when I need to haul shit and I firmly believe that 99% of people don’t need anything any larger than that.

Big cars are dangerous for pedestrian, dangerous for cyclists, dangerous to other drivers, are wasteful, and are just a dumb status symbol. It’s infuriating!

I don’t work in games, but I do work in software and the people you describe are infuriating and have absolutely no idea what it’s like to work on a big piece of software. Thanks for the comment.

The issue here is that Counter Strike Global Offensive did have official Mac support. Then when CS2 came out, Valve replaced the CSGO client with CS2, rather than making it a new client, and then announced they're cutting Mac support. There is still a weird way to launch GO, but good luck finding players to play against now. It was pretty shitty of them to not leave GO as its own client or to not continue supporting Mac. This isn't quite a case of a new game not having Mac support, what happened from Mac users' point of view is their counter strike game updated and now they can't play it anymore.

As someone who loves RPGs and Star Wars, it took me about 10 attempts to actually get more than an hour into the game before turning it off. It's just that dated. I did eventually power through the first few hours and then the non-aged moments (story and writing) became good enough for me to stick around. I can definitely see how most people wouldn't want to play it for the first time at this point though.

Surprisingly, Baldur’s Gate 3. I absolutely love D&D, but I tried playing through the Pathfinder video games, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin 2, and nothing stuck with me. I just wasn’t a fan of the CRPG genre, despite me playing in-person tabletop RPGs multiple times a week.

I bought BG3 thinking I probably wouldn’t get hooked, but I didn’t want to miss out when literally every one of my friends is playing it. Well, I am absolutely hooked and have 40 hours in the game and will likely do multiple playthroughs, and I kind of “get” the genre now. I know PoE, PF, or DOS2 may not be as good, but I feel a lot more confident at the prospect of playing them now.

So in this case, FOMO helped me a great deal.

But you don’t understand, she’s an attractive woman and therefore must be an attention seeker and nothing more.

/S

I know it’s probably been done in other games, but the drill charge solves so many issues. In past games, you can maybe get a camper with a grenade, but now it’s almost guaranteed (especially if you also run in to finish them off if it doesn’t get them). It was a brilliant addition to MW2 and I hope it stays in basically all CoD games.