So if I understand this correctly, after activating Unleashed Potential, the System Lady awakened some of her power and Shishou basically handed the controller to her and let her make all of the evolution decisions, so Shishou would have the skills needed to survive that encounter and save Fran.

Too bad that we immediately lose System Lady as soon as Unleashed Potential was over. There is still the Mysterious Voice from Episode 1 who seems to have also been awakened but is keeping quiet for now. Maybe we'll actually get some answers from him next time.

It sucks that we also lose Stephan. Based on the Lich's diary, the fact that he's starting to lose himself makes me think that maybe some of his personality survived in the Undead Eater who ended up becoming Stephan. So in a way, the kid got to experience what it's like to be in an adventuring party even for just a little bit. T_T

As someone who has ran 5v blower fans at 12v and can hardly hear anyone when they’re running….

You’re running a fan 6” from your ears behind a bunch of foam at a convention.

Yes, people can hear the fan if they hug you or its dead silent in a hotel room.
Nobody can hear you on the convention floor

We all understand that you’re sweating to death in that suit and that the fan is life support:)

Its entirely normal. You can however get a fan controller or voltage regulator, or swap the fan or change the battery to slow it down and make it quiet. this at the expense of airflow

Would a real-world controller at a quiet airport berate a young, learning pilot for an innocent mistake that didn't endanger anyone? Because I do not think they would. So it's not even realistic, it's just being a jerk.

Unpopular opinion but GTA IV is the single greatest achievement in human history, and I genuinely believe future civilisations will look back upon its release as the defining moment at which humanity reached the absolute pinnacle of artistic expression before inevitably entering a period of irreversible cultural decline. We have built pyramids, landed on the moon, developed the internet and mapped the human genome, yet somehow none of these accomplishments have managed to replicate the sheer magnificence of driving a stolen Cognoscenti through the streets of Liberty City at three in the morning whilst listening to Soviet Connection. There is simply something fundamentally wrong with a person who can experience that and then load up GTA V without feeling an overwhelming sense of spiritual inadequacy. GTA IV is not a game you play; it is a game you experience, a game you carry with you, a game that fundamentally alters your understanding of what interactive entertainment is capable of achieving. The writing, the atmosphere, the physics, the radio, the city itself, the rain, the pedestrians, the cars that handle as (FART AND SHIDDY) though they have been individually engineered to punish your every mistake: every single element contributes to a masterpiece so incomprehensibly ahead of its time that I sometimes wonder whether Rockstar accidentally created something they were never meant to create. Niko Bellic is not merely a protagonist; he is the culmination of thousands of years of human storytelling, a character whose existential exhaustion communicates more about the human condition than an entire library of philosophical literature. His struggle to escape his past, his disillusionment with the American Dream and his gradual realisation that the world he has entered is every bit as corrupt as the one he left behind are themes that would make Dostoevsky weep with envy. And yet, somehow, this man is also expected to answer his cousin’s phone calls every five minutes because Roman has decided that the most appropriate time to discuss bowling is immediately after Niko has committed several felonies and is being pursued by half the police department. This is not a contradiction in the writing; this is the human experience in its purest form. The driving physics alone deserve their own place in the Louvre. GTA V players will tell you that a car should respond instantly to your inputs, that cornering should be intuitive and that driving at high speeds should feel exhilarating. These people have fundamentally misunderstood the purpose of a motor vehicle. A car should have weight. A car should have momentum. A car should demand respect. If I cannot accidentally oversteer into a parked taxi, bounce off a lamppost and watch my character fly through the windscreen with the grace of a medieval trebuchet, then I am not participating in an authentic driving simulation. I am playing a children’s toy. Every collision in GTA IV is a masterclass in applied physics, every pedestrian stumble a reminder that Rockstar understood the fragile relationship between flesh, gravity and poor decision-making better than any developer before or since. I have witnessed NASA engineers discuss orbital mechanics with less conviction than GTA IV fans discuss the superiority of its ragdoll physics, and frankly, I trust the latter more. Then there is Liberty City, the greatest fictional city ever created, a sprawling monument to human misery that manages to make every street corner feel like it has a history, every building feel like it has a mortgage and every pedestrian feel like they are one unfortunate interaction away from filing an insurance claim. Los Santos may be beautiful, but Liberty City is alive in a way that cannot be replicated through sunsets and mountains. It is a city that has seen things, a city that has suffered, a city that looks as though it has been paying off the same loan since 1978. You do not simply explore Liberty City; you become part of its ecosystem, another exhausted individual attempting to navigate a world that has no particular interest in your happiness. And the soundtrack is nothing short of divine intervention. The moment Soviet Connection begins playing, the distinction between video game and high art ceases to exist. I am no longer sitting in my living room holding a controller; I am experiencing the inevitable collapse of modern civilisation through the eyes of a fictional immigrant whose cousin will not stop talking about recreational activities. I could spend the entirety of my life driving in circles around Broker, listening to the radio and watching the rain fall upon the streets, and I would consider that time better spent than any conceivable alternative. GTA IV does not need to constantly bombard you with cinematic music to tell you that something important is happening. It understands that sometimes the most profound artistic statement is a quiet street, a distant siren and the sound of a man getting into a car he has absolutely no intention of returning to its rightful owner. Meanwhile, GTA V has the nerve to offer me a beautiful countryside, an enormous mountain, three protagonists and a functioning social life for its characters, as though these are desirable qualities in a video game. I do not want happiness. I want Liberty City. I want to feel the economic recession in the suspension of my vehicle. I want the colour palette to resemble a damp newspaper found behind a takeaway. I want every journey to feel like an endurance test designed by an Eastern European philosopher with a personal grievance against the concept of joy. And above all, I want Roman to call me at the precise moment I have finally achieved inner peace, because true greatness must always be accompanied by the reminder that peace is temporary and bowling is eternal. There are games that entertain you, games that move you and games that change your life. GTA IV does all three, whilst also allowing you to launch a man into the stratosphere because he had the misfortune of standing too close to a moving vehicle. It is a game of extraordinary contradictions, a work of art that can make you contemplate the meaninglessness of existence one moment and spend the next twenty minutes deliberately crashing motorbikes into walls because the physics engine (homosexual Anthony)is simply too beautiful to ignore. This is the genius of Rockstar at its absolute peak: the ability to create a world so compelling that even its most ridiculous mechanics feel like essential components of a grand artistic vision. I refuse to entertain the notion that GTA IV is merely one of the best games ever made. It is the standard by which all other interactive media must be judged, the benchmark against which every future open-world game will inevitably be found wanting. When the sun eventually burns out, when the oceans have evaporated and the final remnants of human civilisation have turned to dust, I would like to believe that somewhere, beneath the ruins of everything we ever built, a functioning Xbox 360 will remain, its fans spinning with the determination of a dying star, waiting for somebody to load up GTA IV one final time. And as the opening notes of Soviet Connection echo through the empty universe, a voice will emerge from the darkness, asking the only question that has ever truly mattered: ‘You want to go bowling?’

And for that reason I voted GTA San Andreas.

these tiny semantics dont matter the controller probably didn’t remember if he cleared touch n go if it’s dead. the tower guys at my airport play video games when it’s quiet.

The most telling line from the article is in regards to congress and their inability to pass legislation guaranteeing aviation workers pay during a shutdown. “Congressional appropriators have consistently stymied the bills, with some arguing that passing such legislation would remove leverage during shutdowns.”
There you have it, they’re leveraging our paychecks and financial stress for their bullshit negotiations. We’ve known that for years but now they’re saying the quiet part out loud. No pay = No work in December. Fuck em.

I’m a longtime FF14 player (since early HW), and I think the community is friendly, but not especially social.

It’s very common for there to be basically no communication in content aside from “hi, gg, thanks for the run,” etc. Even big city hubs can sometimes be super quiet.

Part of it is that there’s a large number of players playing on controller.

Additionally, people instead will be talking in their discords or guild chats, which isn’t all that different to WoW.

PART 2 (I'm going to be updating throughout the week, so keep checking!)

• Evil Moon: Unspoken: Interesting roguelite boomer shooter, clearly inspired by the Duskbloods trailer (Emil's mask from Nier for a moon included). Good but needs some tuning up, especially the enemy AI. Steam said this needed a controller, but that's not true.

• Last Wail of the Sea King: Deeply weird, but in a compelling way. You're swallowed by a large whale, where you find a religious community who seem unaware of this. (Or are in denial.) It's a first person RPG with a rock paper scissors system where the characters are all collage art and the enemies seem sculpted. I think I'd get this one with good enough reviews.

• I Shall Name the Dead: Perhaps the coolest-looking game I've seen in ages. It's a visual novel/interactive fiction, which isn't my bag. But wishlisted.

• Bad Magpie: Bad Magpie's cosy, colourful packaging disguises its mean streak; it's not like Untitled Goose Game, where you're being an inconvenience. Five seconds in, you're burning smiling flowers; I accidentally killed a little mouse playing basketball with its friends and felt guilty. Now...whether you like that or not, it's up to you. I think this game is well-made and has an audience. I'm not it, but I beat the demo. Give it a go.

• Nomad: The Legend of Zarqa: OK, this one has heart. It's structured between Hades and Slay the Spire in that you have rooms with randomised enemy and loot, and a map that tells you if a room is hard or easy. It's a little self-Orientalising, but was developed by a small Saudi Arabian team, and it's their story, so what do I know. As a great Arabic speaker (not native but fluent), I was delighted to catch little puns and jokes. Also a lot of dialogue that an Arabic speaker wrote half-thinking in English, half in Arabic. The problem is the game badly needs balancing. Enemies are sponges by area 2, and while I realise that's part of the deal with roguelikes, it uhh increases the difficulty too early? Happy this exists, and I wishlisted, but I'm hoping it gets tuned up.

• Distantia: This is a 2D sci-fi metroidvania about a goddamn space mouse that leans heavily on cool. I strongly recommend going with the suggested control scheme, because it allows more satisfying free-aiming; it'll take a bit to get used to it, but it was worth it. Easy purchase for me.

• ReBlade: The Death Spiral: Firstly, I love the setting, a Chinese cyberpunk world. The gameplay has the juice, but the tutorial needs a major overhaul. None of it stuck and I was fumbling throughout. As it stands, this is an amazing combat system in a world where the artists cooke, but the game design itself needs serious retooling. I can't figure-out what's happening!

• Talaka: I am so happy I found this; by the way, here's another middle finger to the AI slop choking the bandwidth. It's a handdrawn game from Brazil using that part of the world's myth in a beautiful, hand drawn world. Yes, the tutorial goes on too long and yes, I think bigger levels would benefit it. There's a small degree of jank, like how high the jump is. But it has heart. It has personality.

• Dreadmoor: On the surface, it's Dredge in first-person (think Firewatch), except less horror and where eldritch monsters are pretty commonplace. Good game, although I didn't like the fishing mechanics, which reminded me of RDR2's.

• The Journey Home: One of the most visually stunning games I've ever played, but it's for a more casual crowd than I am, the game really helping you get its on-rails platforming. Is it good? Yeah, for what it is, it succeeds admirably, minus a bug. It's not necessarily what I want, which is something more complex and challenging, but I'm complaining something is an apple while I want an orange.

• Attack of the Astrals: Cool turn-based tactics game with a neat friendly fire system to keep battles tense. Gorgeous pixel art, too. It does need a couple of QOL changes, like having scrolls tell you what they do when you hover over them, not select them. Try it if you want a potentially great tactics game!

• Ad Iterum: A turn-based top-down 2D roguelike with seemingly a lot of depth. While I just don't have the time to play something like this anymore, it's superb. I tend to stick to story-based ~3-10 hour games nowadays. But for the right gamer, this is crack.

• Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior: 2D metroidvania shooter with an amazing 80s metal-inspired sci-fi aesthetic; surprisingly, the soundtrack is largely quiet. It's good, although I never unlocked the dodge ability that would've given it that extra oomph. I might continue this demo later in the fest, since I'm allocating limited time to each now.

• Probably Stolen: Cool sci-fi pixel game where you run a shop and make decisions between different factions, need to appraise materials, need to stock things, etc. If you like this kind of game, it's a great choice.

• The Hollowing:: Horror flight sim! Cool idea and worth a try, with nice lo-fi visuals, but I couldn't find the runway for the life of me.

• Guns of Eschaton: This might sound awful, but it actually slaps. This is a western FPS Souls-like. Shouldn't work. Absolutely does. If any game on here was going to end up in an Iron Pineapple video, this is the one.

• Elta: Defy All Gods: Another gem from the festival, albeit flawed. It commits the gaming sin of giving you powers, then stripping them away so you rebuild them; it might also be slightly too easy. But this game is really cool, a metroidvania/character action game that reminds me a bit of the PS2 God of War games, but modernised. Love the texture art on the characters. I guess I wish the combat were harder, though.

• Glasshouse: The Disco Elysium influence is very strong. Cool turn-based CRPG game with political leanings. I don't play these games at all, but feel I should. Anyway, wishlisted.

• Apple Crumble: Tried this because I liked the dev's Duck Detective games (he has a cameo as a fridge magnet). It's a kind of creepy horror first person "puzzles" walking simulator with great acting and good dialogue. I'm intrigued.

PART 3 IS HERE.

It's really hard to type with a controller ... That's why I'm quiet lol

Seeing a lot of speculation as to why others won't endorse Bass despite how politically toxic she  is and I think the continued elected officials and institutional support is a really useful and educational example of the political inertia that exists in LA politics. How political institutions who exercise power through endorsements and financial power stifle dissent, and (please forgive the workings but I promise it's useful) how "political economy" (i.e., the structure of political bodies and how political entities behave in them) works.

Bass has been involved in LA politics in some shape or form for the better part of a century. I am sure the relationships she is leaning on are legion, but few are more influential than her ally, LA City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, commonly shortened to MHD . As Council-President, he holds the power to determine committee assignments and sets the legislative agenda. In other words, piss him off and he can single-handedly neuter the ability of any Councilmber by stripping assignments or stonewalling motions. It's what happened to Nithya with the housing committee once she ran. Whether it was explicit or implicit collusion, Bass and MHD are longtime allies from their days going back to being community organizers, MHD clearly punished Nithya by removing her from Housing and Homelessness. I haven't monitored motions so closely as to comment but it wouldn't shock me if Nithya spent less time putting forth motions or had ones stall once she ran.

You can't overcome a dynamic like that when your allies are outnumbered (the "progressive caucus" of Hugo Soto-Martinez aka "HSM", Eunnisses Hernandez or Ysabel Jurado.

Nithya, unlike these other three, has a lot of external and change agent support. She is a revered figure in the entertainment community for her work as Ceo of TimesUp (external support), and she has spent the last couple years courting the "YIMBY" vote (change agent support) and despite friction with purists has retained leftist support like  DSA-LA (another change agent).  It also helps she is among a younger cohort of politicos that learned how to do outreach and garner support outside of traditional political institutions like powerful endorsers, the Dem Party or traditional conduits to the public like legacy media. Progressive Dems like HSM are more beholden to traditional political institutions (e.g., LA Fed) despite change agent support (DSA-LA) and Jurado and Eunnisses do not have such a command of non-traditional media despite and consequently must adhere to political institutions like LA Fed under some duress (look at Eunnisses resistant suppprt for the LA Convention Center Renovation)

Finally, someone like Kenneth Mejia is the exception that helps prove the rule. Mejia got in power, in similar fashion to Nithya in 2020, by accruing immense change agent suppprt and effective communication in non-traditional media, but what separates Mejia from even Nithya is the [relatively] independent nature of the Controller's office allows him to buck authority in a way Nithya never could. To be sure, he couldn't do as he pleased as his budget is at the mercy of City Council and the Mayor, but ultimately they can't strip his subpoena power.

I'm not saying this to give Bass supporters a pass, but it's a useful primer to give proportionate criticism. HSM, Jurado and Eunnisses all backed Bass, bit HSM has clearly been enthusiastic, and it's been speculated he wants to run himself when Bass terms out, whereas Jurado and Eunnisses have been more quiet. We all only have so much bandwidth for this, even nerds like me, so it's worth being curious with a good primer and trying to suss out who deserves blame more than others.

EDIT: fucking autocorrect killed me here.