There was so much fucking potential in this game. Execution was... meh.

It always struck me as odd that, the pilot, the linchpin of their entire fucking plan, was CONSTANTLY in the line of fire.

I never made it much past the white phosphorus bit. I saw the potential being squandered and the gameplay was, as OP said, textbook for shooters at the time. A bit janky, if I'm remembering right, another nail in its coffin for me.

I saw the second one release and never bothered to look into it.

That's a goosh. Look at that bill, it's not even close to the right shape for a dish.

Meh, we'd probably all die anyway, so then it's no longer our problem.

Video games should have taught us this. Food is a healing item.

My brother in the force, it's at least once a week.

I would do borderline illegal things for some fucking Cra-z-bread.

And while I understand where you're coming from about Olive Garden's sticks, I frankly don't care. Those be some tasty mass produced bread product sticks, especially when dipped in their chicken & gnocchi soup. But I get it. The hype is too much for them to live up to. They were probably REALLY good about 20 or so years ago. Enshitification to cut costs.

But today, I don't care, I have a very unhealthy relationship with bread and will shove them in my face whenever I get the chance.

I just spent roughly $400 on paints, a combat patrol, a box of Harlequins for my wife, and a handful of DIY hobby bits last night.

This hobby is already bullying my wallet...

I'll never forget the words of my drill sergeants regarding chocolate milk.

"It cures the AIDS, privates! Drink up!"

The movie is... fine, if you haven't read the book. I saw the movie first myself but had a change of heart about it after reading the book. The series has more of a cult following kind of feel compared to say, Harry Potter, but I'd say it's worth a read.

As for To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, as it stands, I'd recommend it, despite my 18-ish hours still to listen to. It's entertaining for what it is, even if it doesn't seem to be breaking new ground for the genre. I'm no expert in summary or buzzword-salad tossing, nor clever enough to pick up all of the nuance on my first read, but I know what I like, and this book, I like.

I'm noticing similarities, as one would with the same author. I had noticed a marked improvement by the end of Inheritance compared to Eragon, and To Sleep in a Sea of Stars seems to have taken a few steps from there.

It starts with a fairly generic sci-fi setting, humanity having colonized a handful of star systems closest to Sol, our protagonist is a xenobiologist by trade, zero-g interactions, faster than light tech, vacuum of space. Nothing really groundbreaking for the genre but the tropes of science fiction seem well done in my opinion. But it is a departure from the Inheritance Cycle, both in genre and this feels more like adult fiction, though perhaps not too far out of the young adult sphere.

I'm enjoying the book. It's fun, things make sense within the context of the universe that's been created.

Oh, and the audio book is narrated by Jennifer Hale, so there's that.

"Reading" might be a stretch, but listening to the audio book of "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars," a sci-fi book by Christopher Paolini. I'm maybe 1/3 to 1/2 through, and it's a far cry from Paolini's other books about magic and dragons. Not that that's a bad thing, the book has been very good so far.

I recently download an app that uses AI to identify bird calls.

Merlin Bird ID

Start top left, freestyle, end bottom right.

It's... wild.

Can't be bothered to add that much complexity to my memes.

I don't know if the blight resistant ones are ready just yet. Last I knew, the results were promising but inconsistent.

Ah, I see you're a man of culture.

Open and closed betas are PC only, but full release with include a Switch release, with cross-play AND cross-progression.

MMO farming sim seems to be the consensus from the devs on genre.

I love 40k in 40 Minutes. I don't think I can watch any other battle reports. And they seem like they're just having a blast the whole time.

PlayonTabletop for battle reports, Poorhammer for just generic 40k entertainment, Luetin and Weshammer for lore, Auspex Tactics for rules updates and news, and Ninjon and Eons of battle have become recent favorites for the hobby aspect along with Midwinter Minis.

Pile all that on with the rest of my interests and my algorithm is having a seizure...

LF5 Vault of Glass, bring Gjallarhorn

As much as I want to stay away from reddit, the fediverse doesn't yet have the same breadth of knowledge that reddit does.

I won't interact, but for some things, I need to visit the cesspool. There's information I need hiding in there.