pappafost

If you are at all interested in flight/military/naval things the USS Midway museum is highly recommended. It's the most interesting museum I've ever been too, because it's a relatively modern aircraft carrier that was decommissioned not that long ago, converted into a museum.

Speaking of brands. Has anyone gone to a mall lately? Holy $%^& is it a ghost town over there! It's almost as if there has been a fundamental sea change in retail, or something.

@deckard: You're not wrong but if anything amazing did happen to come out in December it would be a contender for next year's "Best 2018 game of 2019" category.

I'm 15 hours in and really enjoying Fallout 76. I maintain that if you liked Fallout 4, you will like Fallout 76. If you didn't like Fallout 4, or are burned out on it, you won't like Fallout 76.

It's currently being review bombed on metacritic with a ratio of 330 positive / 807 negative.

It's frustrating because when you read the text of the user reviews a lot of people have not even played the game. At least with Steam reviews, you can see if someone has purchased the game and how much time in-game they have. They think that there are no NPCs (a robot isn't a non playable character?). And that no NPCs = No Story. It's simply not true.

It's just a shame that there are a lot of Fallout fans out there who will probably not try this game because of a puzzling vocal minority of hyperbole fueled internet rage-monsters.

As for me, I'm going to go back to building my cottage now. It has a downstairs crafting garage, with an upstairs living area, complete with deck and BBQ grill. It's a great place to chill when I'm done reclaiming West Virginia from the supermutants.

Battlefield 1 is what made me a believer in high refresh rate monitors. The feeling of smoothness is uncanny. It's actually somewhat of an unfair advantage if you think about it. Two people see each other at the same time, one person responds at 144 hz and the other person responds at 60 hz. Try not to think too much about it ;)

I find that for anything competitive, try to prioritize resolution and frame rate over graphic settings. You could check out Ring of Elysium. It looks better than PUBG when set to low graphics settings, and has double the frame rate.

While 1440p isn't 4K (insert epic marketing music) it is the perfect sweet spot because it's a substantial visual upgrade from 1080p, and still achieves good frame rates.

Also, I increased the Windows 10 display scaling to 120% so everything wasn't so tiny.

It's easy to say no to the question in the abstract, "Is crunch bad?". Let's get very concrete for a moment:

-Is sitting in a non-ergonomic desk chair 80 hours a week bad?

-Is eating high-fat, high-salt catered take-out food every meal at the office bad?

-Is never exercising bad?

-Is only seeing your children once a week bad?

I kicked a dog I was trying to pet on accident. A witness runs off and I have a wanted level for animal cruelty. RDR2's control scheme is SO BAD that they made me kick a dog!

This game has frustrating controls and the game mechanics are overly complex. It looks like a 3rd person action/adventure game (ala Uncharted/Tomb Raider) but is actually a wild west outlaw simulator. It is a very slow burn. The game is still teaching you about mechanics 5 hours in. That said, the story and setting are very compelling, and it has hooked me. It asks a lot from the player, unlike most games. I recommend people try it out for 5 hours (a commitment I know) and if it doesn't hook them after that it probably won't.

They are going to need damage control for the damage control, because in the damage control response comments Houser implied that the 100 hour work week was from "being passionate" and it was "working hard", i.e., having a heathly, admirable work ethic. This is utter BS. A 100 hour work week has nothing to do with "passion" and "work ethic."

In my opinion this is a rare glimpse of Rockstar management mentality, where systemic crunch seems to be encouraged.

While this is not a dealbreaker for most of their customers, it is a dealbreaker for SOME, and as more people become aware of the effects of crunch on real people, the more they will care about it, speak out about it, and close their wallets.

If someone was a firefighter saving houses from a fire, they can crunch. If a team was in the final stages of curing cancer, they can crunch. Rockstar employees shouldn't crunch for a stupid entertainment product.

Walk away from any deal where they are trying to pressure you on time. Stay in control. Do not get emotionally attached to one particular car on the lot, or even one color. You lose bargaining leverage as soon as you "fall in love." I.E., "I can't LIVE without such and such."

They have four quadrants of making profit on you:

Sticker price - keep the customer as close as possible to sticker.

Loan - dealership offered loans that are more expensive for the customer when compared to something like a credit union loan.

F&I department - aftermarket warranties, "clear coat protection" plans (aka wax, LOL), undercoating, etc.

Trade-in - Pay out as little as possible for the car being traded in.

If you get a good deal on the sticker price, stay vigilant in the other three quadrants where you could get a bad deal.

My brother has a car buying strategy of not ever walking onto the lot:

He emails several dealerships asking for their best price on a particular car model. Beforehand, he checked their online inventory to make sure they have it. And he tells the dealerships he will go with whoever gives him the best price. This is a good way to skip the "gameshow" and go straight to the decision-maker at the dealership.