I struggle to connect with any of those characters. I did like Niko Bellic, he was a “character”. Maybe it was his accent, his immigrant’s take on things, don’t remember, it was a while ago.

Review scores for this are shockingly high for a new RPG entry from a small team. Seems very Persona/FF-like, which isn’t exactly my kind of game (I tend to find most JRPGs a little stale in the game design department), but I think I will give this one a try. I’d rather support a new effort in any case than play yet another Bethesda remaster. I know they’re different games, but I hope CO will get the attention it seemingly deserves.

I wish they made a sequel already. Also so rare to have motorbike riding specifically as a mechanic woven into the protagonist’s story and not just an alternative to driving a car.

Such a shame that Coppola’s movie was bad. He was onto something there.

I remember liking GTA4 but getting burned out on its archaic in my view mission design.

Zuck puts out this weird “pick me” or “me too” energy lately, trying to fashion himself as one compatible with Trump’s world. His interest in Rome may precede Trump’s ascension to power, but his coming out is not a coincidence in my view. And yes, a fascination with Rome started as so many other things as an “innocent” meme and became a fascist dog-whistle.

Thanks for the correction, it’s Augustus Cesar. Still, what an odd connection. Good article btw.

I still haven’t played GTA5. Does it hold up (single-player) all those years later?

Zuckerberg wears t-shirts comparing himself to Julius Caesar? Why is that every time I think I’m up-to-date on the latest weirdness there’s more of it?

Huh had no idea. I still wonder how accurate this is though, like whether it can be used forensically as the word “fingerprint” suggests to identify a specific person/private machine. It’s kind of fascinating as a topic. I would think that given that most people use similar setups, similar hardware and software, similar routers and settings, it would be impossible, but perhaps with enough details of a particular setup, a specific machine and user can be identified with decent accuracy.

Usually fingerprint plays a supporting role for example when you do those “click here” captchas that’s actually just giving the browser time to fingerprint you and evaluate your trust to decide whether to give you a full captcha or let you through. So fingerprint is always there in tbe background these days tho mostly for security and ad tracking.

I’ve been wondering about those “click here” captchas and their purpose 🤔

So… how effective is it? The fingerprinting. I’m guessing there are studies? Also don’t know whether there’s been legal precedent, ie whether fingerprinting has been recognized as valid means of user identification in a court case.

I didn’t even know that was a thing :(

So I checked and could not find any review bombing. If there was one, it was tiny and not worth talking about.

They review-bombed BG3? For shame. Why?

I wasn’t aware, but basically this confirms my suspicion above regarding how this is playing out in the Chinese psyche so to speak.

While he comes off as a jerk, and possibly is one, I can understand the sentiment, having spent a few years of my life among ethnically Chinese people in Asia. There is this drive and aspiration to be recognized by leading brands in the West as equals, perhaps even betters. Due to a history of subservience and shame and a strong nationalistic current seeking to undo that.

This game is one of the most ambitious and accomplished to come out of China and they’re hungering for that kind of recognition. So it is likely that fans of the game feel it was ‘stolen’ from them and he seems to be responding to that sentiment. To us it looks petty, but to some of the game’s most ardent Chinese fans this may have been an appropriate response. Not sure how this was received in China though, just speculating.

Ah and for a moment there I thought it would have been so cool if a developer were to publicly admit they fell asleep during gameplay…

Because when US politicians advocate for a single, global market, and a single, global internet, it is with the understanding that US firms and allied parties will dominate the space anyway. When that is no longer the case they get about as nervous as the Chinese got when they went and built the Great Firewall and made a clone of every popular western platform. Now that US/Western dominance is seriously challenged, we are seeing more and more signs of protectionism.

May give it a try one of these days. But knowing nothing of the reliability of the tool in detecting the malware decreases my motivation to even try I must say.