Man I’m still trying to get one part for a gun that only spawns in a certain kind of weekly mission.

I log on, see that mission isn’t available, log off. Such engage, much gameplay.

If this helps the flame train derail a bit:

Most Source engine game trailers, like Half-Life 2, are “pre-rendered”. If you record a sequence of gameplay as a “demo” (kb-level file that records player movement in a level) then you can record that demo into a video at a much slower rate than the gameplay, capturing every frame; as well as add camera motions to it. There are guides for individuals to do this using the “startmovie” command.

It’s just a logical way to ensure the video is seamlessly presented, especially since framerate optimization comes late in development.

I’ve pretty much abandoned Xbox over this issue, and I’ve been an apologist for them for a lot of things.

This might actually be a very good idea.

My first thought was to abuse something that rhymes with “Mild Topography”. But that would likely lead to legal repercussions for both you and Microsoft. A better solution would be to store hundreds of medical records in your Documents folder. You have a right to store your own medical information. If Microsoft is uploading those to their servers without your consent, and without appropriate HIPAA measures, that smells like an extremely silver-wrapped lawsuit.

Ironically, I was already using OneDrive but that very push is likely to be the thing that gets me to stop using Windows in the next few years.

My idea for it is a social network that heavily relies on webcam-recorded opinions and the occasional hand-written letter.

Yes, that’s super high-friction and inconvenient. I’d argue social media has become so lazy, incorporating effort into it might improve the experience by changing the quality of posts you see.

Just to pose a thought; how practical would it be for a small subject owner to run a FediVerse instance intended to stay localized to their domain?

For example: Indie game owner makes a reasonably popular game, they set up a website that Lemmy users can subscribe/join directly, and use that for forums/tips/discussions related to their game. People don’t need to register as long as they have an account somewhere. Some number of users would be new to Lemmy and use that site’s registration for later discovery. And, someday when X instance (the game, or the next popular one) gets infested by neonazis, everyone just moves to another and/or has other discussions backed up.

I don’t know how practical or convenient that is though. I imagine a lot of groups don’t want to risk lost users.

If they’d been around when I was first considering an Xbox, I probably would have gotten the 1TB Series S. Now, it’s probably not worth a replacement.

I’d say a good negative use case really fits in the “reliability” category. So often at work, coders expect everything to always succeed, and have no thought towards what happens if one cog ever falls out of place; but good systems can react well or even help you get to what you generally need.

Interesting that X only pays you that much to include their integratio-

Oh, they want YOU to pay THEM…!?

• For anyone done buying discs, it’s a removed point of failure in the device. The Series S sold well, so if your point is “No one wants a digital console”, then no, you are wrong.
• People wanted more storage in existing models
• For a lot of people, the $100 difference between models is a heavy consideration. Anything that can get trimmed out may make them more likely to buy.

I’ve heard it said Doom 3 is sort of meant to be a Doom 1 remake - same story, just told in a more detailed, graphically-enabled way.

You and me, man. Prequels are what they do when they’ve given someone a satisfying conclusion but still want more of him/her in media.

Or, in the case of Black Widow, an unsatisfying conclusion. Don’t forget, you don’t get to surprise kill any connected characters.

If they add any patches, then Series S owners won’t be able to install it at all, much less own any other games.

I guess if you want to verify the truth of this statement, look at Unity. They walked back their per-install system, but the indie community still moved away from them because it seemed clear they might try to do that at some point in the future.

The article was revised with a PR release from Microsoft saying they’ll make the feature opt-in.

Let’s of course not forget that things like upgrades to Windows 11, and use of an MS Account instead of local account, were opt-in…until they weren’t. Require them to sign a contractual agreement that this feature will remain opt-in forever.

Some things to say back to this:

Most people now have the console they prefer, and it’s lasting them. They don’t necessarily need new consoles. This is true EVEN if that console is a PS4, Xbox One, or Switch. They don’t get everything, but a surprising number of major releases still come to all those destinations.

It’s still nicely convenient to have consoles for less setup and configuration. Some people manage really complex problems for their work and home projects already - a desktop computer may be beyond their tolerance.

It could be that anything you encrypt has to have its encryption key in some place inaccessible to these same hacker tools. If your computer uses Bitlocker, for instance, you need to enter a 6-digit code each time you turn it on.

Best guess, they had such a high expectation of “convenience” for this feature that they couldn’t justify any kind of security key. Which is still a dumb explanation, obviously.

Video Games.

I do not enjoy Soulslikes, but I really liked Tunic. Some things it has going for it:

• It is extremely nonverbal, but what it does give you is invested in helping you figure out a path to success. By intention, that’s not always obvious. You may need to work out for yourself when to dodge or to block.
• The atmosphere is bright and cheery, though it has its spooky and atmospheric bits.
• The camera is top down, so you don’t need to manage the camera while playing.
• Dying is not very punishing. You lose a bit of currency, which you can retain at the same spot; and that currency isn’t often critical to progress