Yeah I have a mortgage and car payment, and I’ve been a lot less stressed than a few years ago. Nutrition is good, working out 3x a week, ideal weight, 6-8 hours of sleep (but I don’t need more than that).

Probably more to do with RAM prices in this case. They already bumped the price up for tariffs.

TotK swapped out all the main abilities and made Gary’s Mod the main focus with the battery power being a new primary stat meter, so it does feel quite different. Also you have a full party fighting with you and two new maps to explore using lots of crazy machines.

Mario Kart 8 introduced tracks that go upside down and underwater, and gave kart customization. Mario Kart World made every track part of an open world map and made open world challenges. Sure the main gameplay is very similar, but it’s definitely not just Mario Kart 64 again and again.

Compare with something like Star Fox, F-Zero, Punch-Out, or Pikmin where the series just languishes until they feel they have a new enough spin to give it. Those games could have much bigger franchises if they changed their philosophy a bit.

I don’t even think it exists much in practice, just in art

That’s genuinely not true. They’re actually infuriatingly devoted to only putting out games with new ideas. We don’t get regular sequels often because they wouldn’t deviate far enough from the previous one.

The spin for this new Star Fox is clearly the camera tie in, getting to basically be a vtuber in their chat system. It also utilizes mouse controls, a series first.

Anime

Inform the National Agency for Zero Immigration!

Perfection has been a really big enemy of good lately.

Sure you can. Grogu is a rare and powerful species, but nothing about the story necessitates meeting CGI Luke Skywalker.

That’s just a scene from LotR extended edition, I don’t think most settings have this take on elves.

Well, my exposure to the setting was the aforementioned podcasts Bylaw and Order and Under Torchlight by the LRR group.

In the first, a group of food safety bureaucrats have to get guild signatures to codify the life’s work of their boss, a unified standard for sausage composition. Typical D&D hyjinks ensue, like a jail break, stopping a haywire college thesis project from exploding, etc. In Under Torchlight, a group of food service workers have to keep the shop running in spite of a shipping delay, criminal dealings, and guild infighting.

Both podcasts are very lighthearted and show that the setting is fertile for telling modern stories with a fantasy twist, aided by the rich details of the setting. I’m sure other stories focus on the dark parts.

DCC. I was expecting it to be a little more traditional in terms of ‘fighting through a dungeon’ but things immediately got more interesting when Carl started engineering exploits and has the added wrinkle that it’s also being livestreamed. As someone with far too much time spent in MMOs, this was actually a remarkably realistic take on how someone would approach challenges in the dungeon. Though, it’s not as laugh-out-loud funny as I’d hoped, it is amusing.

I just finished book 1!

Just start the game on time without them? They can hop in when they arrive.

The shitpost was that we both wasted our time

The formatting of this joke is divine

Think about moving a stick veeery slowly through water. No ripples or wake. Move it faster and one appears. Same thing with the air here. But I also find this a little unbelievable!

This is a really complicated statement to refer to test questions that probably say shit like “The ball is blue on Tuesdays. It’s Saturday today. What color is the ball?”

I’ve really dragged my feet on Prime 4 and Bananza, but that upcoming slate is pretty bare

Ravnica setting is what you want. I suggest the “Bylaw and Order” series!