phx

Yeah, no. Has Russia taken a lot of fatalities? Yeah. But they're also a huge country and a lot of what they've "lost" has to some extent areas where they'd consider the population expendable.

The thing is, while NATO etc bicker about supplying Ukraine - while fighting against internal sabotage by Russia's unspoken allies - they've been actively working on a functional war-economy and production, as well as arrangements with regimes such as Iran etc.

The West has this far been in the "send some older hardware but only for defence" mode, which is just recently, slowly turning around. Committing actual troops to war is not so much, and the militaries of many members have been grossly neglected for decades. Russia continues to push the line of "you don't want nuclear war, do you?" while also actively preparing for a larger scale conflict and pushing boundaries They, and China, Iran etc have also been increasingly active in technological/cyber attacks. Eventually, I fully expect them to go for broke. This probably won't actually start at another invasion but rather as increasing/coordinated infrastructure attacks on infrastructure and technology.

What is it stopping, tossed grenades?

Cards had such neat names back then too.

Voodoo Banshee Rage 3D Pro Ensoniq Soundscape (soundcard)

I'm kinda glad it didn't get to the point of "throbbing purple speedster" or whatever, shit's kinda boring now

Yeah but by "connected" I'd assume that at least means with a public IP. Running a stock Debian 5 or 6 system with SSH vulnerabilities could result in the same thing.

That isn't too say that you SHOULD run an old winXP system, but absent allowing a way in or out going somewhere bad the still needs to be a way for the malware to initially interact with the machine

In some cases a wipe/reset of the TPM from the BIOS might do it as well, is it's still functional but scrambled

The only way I could see this not being a complete shit-show is if they integrate them into the game in a way that makes sense, which has been done in places before. Banners along the roadside in a racing game (which exists in real life), a sci-fi hologram advertising "new-new-new coke, now with added element-320" as you walk by, etc

But since it's EA we're more likely to get an ad for hemmoroid cream during a loading screen, and the loading screen will be extended to ensure it plays the whole ad

On the other hand, divorce is also expensive especially with rent costs so I wonder if some people just add to the relationship without moving out...

This is actually one thing I've been thinking AI and deepfake tech can potentially do good. Let's say you have an idea and can code.. You have an idea for music but no instrumental talent, so the best you can do is hum it. You can't afford voice actors or other professionals.

Or maybe you're artist with an idea who can storyboard but not code. Maybe you can make 2d designs but not 3D models, or aren't great at animate.

But... there is software that can take what you say and change it to a different voice. It can animate a model to match the words. Similarly, software that could generate instrumental sounds from humming is possible. An AI can generate interactive dialog. It could also provide assistance in the generation of music, debugging of code, and eventually more advanced 3D modeling.

A lot of game design software is much more a GUI to an environment/model and triggers etc than stuff like writing hardcore backend C++ code etc. AI could take that even further.

Then add VR. Drop somebody into a blank-slate where they can create a whole world with a word, a gesture, and a great idea.

One day, that might be a reality.

In remembering the original, I feel like the tone was similar in Intergrade. Yeah, we all probably have mostly memories of a certain "serious" scene with Aerith and a certain brooding edgy vampire type, but there was plenty of cheese to be had in the original.

I actually played through GoW just slightly before FF7. Yeah it's a more serious - and Christopher Judge is the boss (even if he didn't say "indeed") - but it had some weird bits of cheese too and overall, it had the advantage of being a new plotline rather than a remake/modification of something that originally had an audience with 80's-born teens.

I'm actually a bit of an initial naysayer on the remake. I didn't trust the change from ATB to ARPG style combat, chopping it up into episodes, or just the fact that Square has frankly been fairly disappointing in several of the last few released I've played (the plot of FFXV was a disconnected trainwreck and FFXIII was a grind).

That said, it came out on PC and then hit a sale and I quite enjoyed it. Yeah there are cheesy bits, but many of them feel pretty intentionally cheesy and overall I felt it paid decent homage to the original, especially the Don Corneo part etc

Yup. My DP cables at the back of my monitor are great, but the HDMI or USB-C flicker of I so much as touch a different cable that nudges them

Ha! Brave assumption there but I haven't seen them take down counterfeit LISTINGS let alone sellers that I've reported, at least until I provided info on the infringement to the MPAA (only time I've ever had a use for them).

Wait until the mechanic tells them that their transmission is having issues:

Stop turning my car gay!