I had a chance to play for a couple hours this morning, and I’m impressed so far! It’s a metroidvania game, but with a souls-like bonfire/estus flask/lose experience on death and try to recover it mechanic. Movement and combat feel fluid, and deflecting attacks feels great. The combat system seems simple right now, but I have barely unlocked any of the systems in the game and it’s a metroidvania so I know the complexity will only grow.

The world is beautiful and has a complex history that I want to learn more about, although the dialog is a little bit jointed, probably due to localization issues. There are definitely some aspects of body horror to the game, with humans Apemen from the Big Blue Planet being used as livestock in a creepy, gory, ritualistic fashion in the first level. It’s definitely not a horror game, though-- the protagonist is powerful and can fight back against enemies without fear of running out of resources, although combat is definitely unforgiving.

I can tentatively recommend it right now, although I haven’t played it enough to give it a full review yet. I haven’t played it on my steam deck yet, but I’ll give it a shot tonight and give my thoughts over on the steamdeck community

I ended up grabbing this, I’ll come back soon and let y’all know what I think. Gonna mostly play on Steam deck

Maybe Cory Doctorow?

Porno for Pyros, is that you?

I know this is a weird observation, but the covers on those games are all red and I can’t help but wonder if there was an unofficial industry-wide standard of color psychology when these were released

Throughout the jam-packed season of this free-to-play game, contestants can experience new weapons for each class, the hacked new map SYS$HORIZON, the all-new 5v5 game mode Power Shift, a new skill-based League System, rewarded weekly career progression, private matches — for now in a feature-limited beta version — and the new Hacker Playstyle, which adds several ways for contestants to alter the arena to their favor. THE FINALS’ new Hacker Playstyle lets players step into the shoes of CNS, with a set of new gadgets and a new specialization that can be mixed and matched with players’ existing toolset. Remove walls, defy gravity, tunnel across the arena, and transform items — become the glitch in the system, the ultimate cyber tactician, and bring a new dimension to the game.

The Dematerializer for Mediums: a specialization that temporarily erases physical surfaces, like walls, ceilings, or goo — allowing contestants to see, shoot, and pass through them. Create new passageways and close them back up again —turn every obstacle into an open door.

The Anti-Gravity Cube for Heavys: a deployable cube that manipulates gravity in its immediate area, lifting contestants and objects upwards! Is it a traversal tool? Or a defensive gadget? It’s up to each contestant!

The Gateway for Lights: a pair of limited-range deployable portals! When both are thrown and activated, contestants and objects can move between the two locations. Anyone can use a portal, but players can’t see or shoot through them! Perfect for a quick getaway, when things get hairy.

The Data Reshaper for Mediums: a gadget that changes enemy fortifications (or any random objects for that matter) into something else entirely — like turning an enemy mine into a chair. Or an enemy turret into a table. Great for breaking through enemy defenses!

All builds are getting new weapons, with the Lights getting the 93R burst-fire machine pistol, Medium getting the new FAMAS burst assault rifle, and Heavys able to wield the new KS-23 slug shotgun.

With access to assets and source files, CNS has introduced its own Arena, SYS$HORIZON. This glitchy, neon-filled cityscape exists in the loading realm of the game show and features a mix of vertical and horizontal gameplay. Voxel bridges create pathways between buildings, and pieces of floating, glitched geometry allow contestants to parkour through the arena. Partially loaded and out-of-place, SYS$HORIZON is a sight to behold, especially at night.

Moreover, THE FINALS Season 2 comes with Power Shift — an all-new, casual, 5v5 game mode where two teams compete to escort a platform through the arena. If interrupted by an enemy team, the platform grinds to a halt — or will switch direction entirely. Watch out, the platform will tear through anything in its path and can be rocked by physics. Players can switch their contestants between respawns, allowing them to balance their teams on the fly and hone their skills to perfection. In Season 2, contestants can compete in a revamped League System that improves the ranked play experience, with league rewards that up the stakes. A new Career Circuit system offers weekly rewards from Seasonal Sponsors, allowing contestants to move from Rookie to Master by completing contracts throughout the season.

Is that how you think reading works? Like, you can just cut off the end of a sentence like you’re out here doing blackout poetry? If that’s the case, check out what John Lennon said in his famous song Imagine:

You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not!

I must not get the joke. What’s non-antagonistaclly funny about that?

What? I’m shilling for a show, not a game. You’re letting your anger get in the way of your reading comprehension, my friend.

Yes, they did, and that’s why I posted my comment. Why’d you post yours?

I guess this is my excuse to watch the anime again, that music and that opening are so damn hype that it’s got me considering installing Overwatch of all things

There was a good Royalist? I’m guessing you mean Rene, because it sure wasn’t Gary the Cryptofascist or Measurehead or the Racist Lorry Driver. Imo the only thing that stopped Rene from becoming someone like Dros were his relationships with Gaston and Evrart. If he had been “alone” the way Dros was then the investigation may have gone quite differently

Just because a minority is depicted in a work of art does not mean that depiction was made in good faith. Americans are familiar with that concept because of our dark history of minstrel shows and blackface performances.

When the trans woman character’s name is Sirona Ryan, it calls into question whether she is meant to be a character or a caricature.

Absolutely, and thanks for pointing this out! I don’t have anything to add, I just wanted to let folks know that you’re 100% correct.

It seems like in this situation, it’s reasonable to just use the word “trans”. I really appreciate how much thought you’re putting in to inclusiveness, but it seems like it isn’t the queer community at large who your older coworkers are struggling to accept, but specifically trans people.

I don’t know all the details, but I would recommend two things:

First, you need to help trans people feel safe while they’re in your place of work. They are the people who are at the center of this conversation, not you and not your older coworkers. Get a small Progress Flag and put it somewhere in your workspace where it is visible to the public and also clearly associated with you. Your goal here is to put up a little flag that says “if you’re in the queer community, come to me and I will make you comfortable”. These statements of inclusiveness are aimed to the public, not your coworkers–your coworkers already know that you’re an ally because they know who you are and what kind of actions you do, but the general public doesn’t have that luxury so this is where your efforts for inclusiveness should be focused.

Second, if you do want to buy clothes or accessories to show your older coworkers that you support trans identities and try to change their minds about doing the same, make sure you support trans artists when you do so :) don’t “get them made”, buy them from a trans artist who has already made them. Not only will you be financially supporting the people you want to support, but you’ll also be elevating the voice of an actual trans person–which I think is what you wanted to do when you made this post.

That being said, hostile phrasing like “I’ll identify as a problem” may not be the best way to change someone’s mind. I don’t know a lot about your coworkers, but you might be the only person to ever speak to them with empathy about empathy for trans people. You’ve got an opportunity here to prove wrong the stereotypes about “screaming SJWs”, stereotypes that are so baked in to our society that they have even managed to enter the discussion we’re having here. In a world like the one that we live in, kindness and patience are radical and powerful tools, if we choose to use them.

Exposing my own ignorance here, but is “gay” necessarily gendered?

The difficulty of answering that question, and the fact that both “yes” and “no” are both valid answers that individual people of every gender could sincerely give, are two of the reasons why “queer” has become more popular than “gay” as an umbrella term. The people who do think “gay” as an umbrella term is gendered prefer the word “queer”, while the people who don’t think “gay” as an umbrella term is gendered are not upset by the word “queer”.

Another reason that “gay” isn’t used as an umbrella term is because it’s also a specific term. Imagine being a man and saying “I’m gay” and having someone ask you, “ok but are you gay or are you gay gay?”. Sexuality and gender are already sensitive and difficult things to explore, so removing ambiguity from the language surrounding those topics will make things clearer and easier for everyone involved.

That being said, you should always respect the way that people want to be identified. If you know a lesbian woman that identifies as “gay”, then just accept it and use it while understanding that not every lesbian woman will feel the same way.

The best term you can use is just “the queer community”. It’s a broad and vague word that asks no questions and offers no answers beyond “these people have sexual orientations and/or gender identities that are not exclusively heterosexual and/or cisgender”. It’s gender-neutral unlike the previous catch-all term “gay”. It includes people who were originally excluded and unrepresented by the original LGBT acronym, such as intersex and third-gendered people. It also includes people who find it culturally difficult to put a label on what they do, such as same-gender-loving Black people who don’t call themselves “gay”.

That being said, it is not always the perfect, use-it-all-the-time panacea that you’re looking for. “Queer” was originally a pejorative term, and although it has been reclaimed as positive terminology since the Stonewall Riot days (think of the chant, “We’re here! We’re queer! Get used to it!”), some older members of the queer community remember it as hurtful.

In addition, sometimes it’s important to be specific. Exclusively using the word “queer” to refer to the queer community flattens the queer experience to one single uniform word, when reality is anything but uniform. For example, when trans people are targeted by executive orders and bathroom bills, it’s important to be specific about who those actions harm: trans people, intersex people, and so on.

For these reasons, while it is safe to use “queer” as a blanket term, some individual people don’t like the term and some individual circumstances call for a more specific word.

As far as your flag question goes, if you’re looking for a visible signal to signpost that you’re a queer ally, you’re probably looking for the Progress Flag. It’s the original rainbow pride flag, but with added representation for trans people, intersex people, people of color, and those who died during the AIDS crisis.

Yep! I wouldn’t say it would be “yours” exactly because you would never have actual ownership of the thing while you’re using it, but it would be your right to use it and profit from it so long as you don’t destroy it. A good example would be the way Native Americans viewed land use, following herds of wild animals wherever they went and moving from depleted areas to more fertile ones. This clashed heavily with European and American colonialists, who enforced their views of exclusionary ownership with barbed wire fences and violence.

It’s the idea that because you own something, you’re the only one who is allowed to use it, whether you’re actually actively using it right now or not. You can contrast it with usufructuary rights, which are based on the idea that you only have rights to something while you’re actively using it

That’s pretty fair. It may feel impossible for me today to afford any capital, but if I were somehow able to accumulate enough money I would be legally allowed to own capital. Under monarchy, even if I got that much money, it would be illegal for me to purchase capital as an individual. That’s enough of a distinction to make them different for me, thanks for bringing it up.