Honestly not planning anything crazy either. And thankfully I do know how to use command line so it doesn’t have to be 100% newbie friendly, the reason those two are my top choices is due to the included nvidea drivers. Mint was on my mind too, but from what I read it is better suited for older hardware, whereas I am using a decently modern system (Ryzen 7 3700x & RTX 3060 Ti).

If I may ask, from a user standpoint, how easy was it to switch from GNOME to KDE on Pop! and what were your problems with GNOME in the first place? Browsing both choices, it looks like both are very customizable, and those plugin options for GNOME look pretty neat. I am aware that GNOME does use more resources, but given my system specs it’s not my biggest concern.

Windows 10, still using it but am browsing distros and aim to switch before August. Most likely candidate for me right now is Pop! OS, but given that they have halted development for it to work on their own DE (by the looks of it at least) I may go for Fedora or regular Ubuntu instead.

One of their last few products that was actually quite good. I bet gmail is next.

Not anymore no, the initial reaction was justified. But yeah after nearly 8 years of free content updates they have certainly redeemed themselves

I thought they were a fictional group created by the series Inside Job. I had never heard of them and thought “lol clowns and rap together is so random, very creative!” Today I learned it’s an actual thing…

Don’t forget the Beef Stroganoff!

Yup, I have. I liked it, but it did not make the top 10 for me, purely because two of the storylines were amazing imo (Connor & Kara) and one was centered around a trope that I absolutely despise (Markus). It didn’t ruin the game for me, I still loved it and will play it again at some point, but because of that I cannot put it in my top 10.

Enjoy the new games!

Ranking is tough but I’ll give it a go. The ranking is based on the impact and enjoyment I got out of them regardless of playtime.

1. What Remains of Edith Finch & Kentucky Route Zero (shared 1st place)

2. Life is Strange

3. Stray

4. GRIS

5. Cyberpunk 2077

6. SOMA

7. Heaven’s Vault

8. The Town of Light

9. FAR: Lone Sails

10. Portal 2

That last one is a bit of an outlier but I have laughed so much while playing it, it deserves a place at the table.

Also the “I think A”

“Oh so you think B?”

…no?

Had a whole argument once about capitalism v/s socialism only because I stated that, while neither is desireable, if I HAD to choose, I would rather live in the States than in Russia. Somehow that must have meant that I love the US and it is doing nothing wrong in my view but they are wrong because capitalism etc etc and I was just standing there like “…I literally did NOT say anything to do with that.” And then they had the gall to claim that I am the one blowing up arguments. Yeah right.

Her life is not your choice though. Thankfully.

While it does indeed kind of smell like an ad, keep in mind this is not some triple-A bullshit. It’s made by a single dev and has a heavily involved community on reddit and discord where competitions are hosted and suggestions are made. Regardless of tankies reputation, that kind of behaviour is not tolerated in either of those communities. I’ve been playing it on and off and have over 500 hours into it by now. It is a very niche game, but for those that like tanks and military games in general, it is a real gem.

Damn I did forget!

2020/2021/2022 were so bad we all forgot about 2016. The clowns, trump being elected, Harambe. It was considered a wild year back then.

I too love emotional games. Here are my personal favourites. Some of these have been recommended by others but idc:

What Remains of Edith Finch - as Edith Finch, you go back to the house you grew up in and explore your family’s history. The Finch family have had much misfortune, and many did not grow old. As you explore the house room by room, you see that person’s last moments. I cannot recommend this game enough. It’s only 2 hours long and best enjoyed in a single sitting.

Life is Strange - you (Max) have recently returned to the town you grew up in for a prestigious art programme at the Blackwell Academy. One day, you discover you have suddenly gained the ability to rewind time. In this game, you explore your powers and reunite with your old childhood friend, Chloe. Don’t worry too much about the superpower thing, it’s without any Marvel BS.

Detroit: Become Human - in this game, you explore a world where robots are servants to humans from the POV of three robots. There are three stories that you follow that do meet each-other at some points. Not all stories are equally exciting, but two of the three are pretty great imo. It really makes you think about what it means to be human.

Kentucky Route Zero - this is an odd duck that you may enjoy as well. You start as Conway, an old man driving for an antiques shop doing his last delivery, as the shop will close down soon. As you try to find your way, a gas station attendant gives you cryptic directions to Highway Zero. As Conway and several other characters, you explore the surrealist world beneath Kentucky. It’s a game filled with mystery, grief, loss, and being lost. This game is more like a strange dream rather than a videogame, and is therefore best played in the later hours of the day.

I hope there are some interesting picks here for you. Enjoy!

Trafficking humans, putting them in tiny 1x1m cages where they cannot sit, force them to do cheap labour, separate their children at birth, and kill them if they are too expensive…

Fuck I love Minecraft!

The level of detail in general is insane, so I am not too surprised. They even have an option when you are a Paladin that broke the oath of the ancients when conversing with that druid tyrant (forgot her name). I was very happily surprised when I saw that.

A bit of an obscure one is Roadwarden. If I remember correctly, it was made by a single person. The grafics are pixelated style, which is usually a bit of a turn off for me (I don’t need hyperrealistic, just don’t like big pixels), but the gameplay is amazing. It is a combination of a graphical novel and an RPG where choices matter. It does not have spicy real-time combat or a leveling system, but your choices in the story and of your class matter.

To give a quick introduction to the story: You start as a roadwarden, someone tasked with keeping the roads safe. You are tasked by the elite in a rich city to assess the trading prospects with a poor province up north; assess its people, infrastructure, and resources that they offer. You have a limited time to complete your task, as autumn and winter are closing in, and the nights are too dangerous to venture on the roads.

In this game, you cannot help everyone. Helping one group can condemn another, and actions that may be noble in spirit may fail spectacularly. I’ve had a lot of fun playing through this, and it is my recommendation if you don’t really care for real-time combat.

I think that it could distract in the forefront, certainly. However, the ideological discussion it sparked in character was a great moment for everyone to roleplay according to their differing values and cultures between them and the locals and between each other. Therefore, in our case, it worked quite well.

It certainly has a basis in real-world history, I simply feel it is underutilized in fantasy worlds, especially for a society that is deemed civilized, as these rituals are typically used by societies which are depicted as “barbaric.” In this case, the country that uses it is the richest one in the region, and has very distinguished high, middle, and lower classes like in 1700’s/1800’s Europe. Not a society typically associated with those kind of rituals, which made it extra interesting to me.