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claycle

@claycle@lemm.ee

I am an independent director and producer who likes to ride his motorcycle in dusty places.

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claycle,
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When looking for my last vehicle, I still needed a midsize very-light-duty truck for my business (film production), I drove the Chevy midsize truck (Colorado?) first on my checklist of trucks to drive. It was a piece of garbage (and this made me sad because I was [trying to be] open to finding an excellent US-made midsize truck). The sales guy was super-enthusiastic, of course, to the point of pushy obnoxiousness. When he asked me “HOW GREAT IS THIS TRUCK???!!!??” I was like “I wouldn’t complain if someone gave one to me, but I have other trucks to test.”

After test driving four other competitors, I ended up with Honda Ridgeline (which beat out my second favorite from Toyota), that I have now had for 4+ years and absolutely love it - it is a great midsize+ truck. It’s kind of a unicorn in Texas (so many Fords and Dodges), but I saw a ton of them in Arizona and other Western states. Great vehicle, and it has CarPlay. Sadly, it’s in the shop at the moment (I, uh, backed into a bollard, cough) and my rental is a brand-new Dodge Charger which drives like a lead brick on wheels compared to the Ridgeline. Interior finish isn’t bad though…and the UI, while not CarPlay, is polished).

claycle,
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Hear the AI generated narrator, tune that out immediately. Rubbish.

claycle,
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Just a rambling comment in general vis a vis Starfield. The loading screens mentioned in the article made me think of this.

I am a wierdo who really liked and played alot of FO4 (4 replays). My introduction to Bethesda games was FO3 and FONV just before FO4 released. After FO4, I tried Skyrim - which was ok, I was never blown away by it and have never replayed it. I have tried to play Oblivion but it was so ancient and janky I gave up. I played FO76 for about a year and generally enjoyed it to a point, but always wished the development effort had been applied towards a full-on single-player (or coop!) FO5 game.

I was looking forward to Starfield (I loved Mass Effect, replayed twice). But, I have not bought Starfield, nor am I likely to in the next year. I am going to wait for patches, mods that fix what Bethesda doesn’t, and a banging sale on Steam.

In the meantime, I am playing a game I never thought I would play because I never thought it sounded like a game I would enjoy - ELDEN RING. I am not a very good twitch-muscle player (ridiculously bad, in fact), and I play exclusive M+KB games as I never had a console growing up and don’t know how to use a control well. Am I enjoying ELDEN RING? Yes…I am with reservations, I still do not like “boss fights” (in any game really, when a boss fight boils down to a box you can’t escape with a giant thing in it that insta-kills you, I just roll my eyes in disappointment). But, I am enjoying *everything *in between (glorious seamless no-loading-screens self-directed exploration and problem/puzzle solving) and hate-playing through the bosses.

In fact, the overall seamlessness (ie, lack of loading screens) of ER has spoiled me (it has them, but only during fast travel/respawn). Unvarnished in-your-face loading screens for doing something like stepping into a cave mouth or opening a door will take a full point (out of 5) off a my private evaluation of a game from now on.

claycle,
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(Preface - I’ve not yet picked up Starfield, though I have hundreds [far too many] hours in other Bethesda games; Cyberpunk 2.0, though, has thoroughly captured my attention.)

I hear what you’re saying, but the YouTube commenter apparently loves Elden Ring, which I found to be an awful game and painful to play. Man, I love complex, deeply explorable games, but I played Elden Ring for 8 hours and never felt like I was making an inch of pleasurable progress. The commenter complains about games being a chore, but what about games like Elden Ring that aren’t chores, but are literal punishment?

I guess I had trouble accepting the commenter’s point of view after he rah-rah’d for Elden Ring…

claycle,
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I have been, up until very recently, a “Thanksgiving Traditionalist”, in that I loudly proclaimed that one should muck around with the traditional basics.

But last year, I changed my tune. We had a dinner based around Stanley Tucci’s timpano instead of turkey (yes, the famous timpano from the movie BIG NIGHT). That was a big success.

This year, because I have some very dear friends who are vegetarians and who kind of slink away when anyone discusses Thanksgiving traditional dishes, I wanted to make dinner with their needs/desires squarely in mind, so I am doing a completely vegetarian menu. I generally despise “meat analogues”, so no, we’re not having tofurkey. So, here’s the menu:

  • velouté de châitagnes (chestnut soup)
  • Spanish tortilla (the potato dish, not the Mexican flatbread)
  • my grandmother’s green bean casserole (very unique, not-what-you-expect, nod to tradition)
  • roasted root vegetables (catch-all, probably rutabagas, turnips, parsnips, etc…)
  • Jacque Pepin’s “easy” corn soufflé
  • a massive onion-mushroom tarte tatin as the centerpiece (onions, mushrooms, gorgonzola, walnuts, butter, pastry crust)
  • fresh homemade pickles (various)
  • fresh homemade bread (baguettes, sourdough boules, etc)
  • risalamande (Scandinavian rice pudding)

I am probably forgetting something. Guests are bring desserts and wine (one is a L3 sommelier, never disappoints).

Starfield group fixing Bethesda's bugs say their job is tough as mods feel an afterthought (www.eurogamer.net)

“What’s more frustrating for those working on SCP, and the wider Starfield modding community, is how difficult it is to work with Starfield’s code without official modding tools and support. This isn’t helped by the delayed mod tools from Bethesda, which the company says are coming at some point next year.”

claycle,
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I waited until CP 2.0 to play it. I can wait for SF 2.0 to play it. I am not a unicorn in this regard.

claycle,
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Yup.

One of the best FPS games I ever played. Marathon I and II. This was on a Mac in the early nineties, I guess.

claycle,
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I really dug the music in CP2077 (and, especially, Phantom Liberty). The use of leitmotifs lifted the score. More so than in a similar game (GTA5), I really enjoyed the radio stations, too.

I also fondly recall the soundtrack of RDR2.

Does all the great music in Fallout4 count?

claycle,
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Same, my friend and I gave up on Baldur’s Gate and will let the developer “finish” tweaking it. I like what Larian tries to do in its games, but I really, really despise the need to mash the quick save button after anything representing even minor progress because you might stumble into TPK combat while exploring. This happened to us in Divinity and when we got a whiff of the same in BG3, we wrinkled our noses and left the game.

I subsequently went on to play CP2077 v2.0 and really enjoyed myself, which I just “finished” yesterday with a satisfactory, bitter-sweet ending.

claycle,
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Just finished CP myself yesterday, with a 9 hour push through the “final day”. I had previously in my run rejected the (possible) helpful offer at the end of Phantom Liberty to find my own solution to my problem and, after spending far too much time debating over a single dialog choice, I settled on one that lead to a satisfactory, if bitter-sweet, conclusion.

The sense of finality was quite profound and pleasing. I have no wish to play my V anymore, as I think their story is done. While this means I may never revisit NC again (which makes me a little sad), I can live with that. I guess I can look forward to CP: Boston in 10 years :-).

claycle,
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And here I am deliberately working my way though Origins->Odyssey->Valhalla so that I can completely ignore Starfield for a while until the hype train settles down and some bugs are fixed :-). I keep my eye on NMS (I was a Day 1ish player) but I feel it is soooo wide and soooo shallow it would just bore me to tears now.

Really enjoying Valhalla…

claycle,
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I am going to finish AC Origins (Pharaohs DLC) then start AC Valhalla (I played AC Odyssey out of release order, but in “real time” order). I’ve never played any AC games before, but I am enjoying these large open world versions.

claycle,
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“Launch” and “Early Access” are mutually exclusive…can we collectively stop falling for this bait-and-switch?

I have nothing against “early access” - per se - but let’s not forget what it is: an unfinished product in a pre-launch state. Do not be surprised (or angry for that matter) it might really suck if you are gullible enough to pay to play-test an unfinished game.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered – Official Announcement Trailer (youtu.be)

Get your first look at the remaster of the classic 1995 Star Wars first-person shooter Dark Forces, which is being developed by Nightdive Studios, the same team responsible for the recent remasters of Quake 2 and System Shock. Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered is in development for all major platforms (PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and...

claycle,
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Nostalgia is a disease…

claycle,
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30% of the general population is sociopathic. I am not shocked. :-)

claycle, (edited )
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Although I delight when I hear Keith David in Mass Effect or any game, I can reach farther back in time memory: Keith David will always be this wonderful man to me:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN8Z7y_QcwE (slightly spoilers)

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