“Oh. I suppose that is you. So, did you want something, or…?”

Far Cry Blood Dragon’s tutorial section. The game is very aware of how impatient gamers are to get to the killing, and milks it for all the time it can while the PC grumbles about annoying tutorial sections. They throw in a ton of extra dialog boxes like accompanying reading recommendations, obvious tips,etc.

The whole game is meta and corny on purpose. If you like '80s action movies and sci-fi, they packed just about every trope possible into this thing. Heavily recommend if you haven’t played it.

I find the best lore raises more questions than it answers, and Lake and his team do that in spades. And you absolutely should give it a play with some more Alan Wake under your belt. Even outside the DLC they have lore connecting the two games all over. And of course, it only leaves me with more questions than I had. Another dead letter:

To the Esteemed Members of the American Psychiatric Council,

I am writing you to inquire about the significance of dreams in relation to one’s mental health? I am aware that there are many books purporting to contain the True meanings of dreams, but I have reservations about their legitimacy.

I understand that this is not usually done, but if I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on my Condition. Ever since I was young, I have had intensely-vivid dreams. They only occur sporadically, but in them I witness very strange events. I understand dreams can seem real at the time, but these feel markedly different. They do not occur often, perhaps only one or two a year.

Last night I had one. I saw a small, empty town. It was utterly dark. There was a Lake at its center. Shadows of people moved around me, muttering odd things. A bright light woke me up. I was screaming in my sleep. My wife had been shaking me for minutes before I woke.

Because of this recent incident, I have decided to seek help. The doctor says I am physically fine, but I wanted to consult your Expertise. Thank you for your valuable time.

Yours Very Sincerely,

Richard Bowker

Like, how many people did this event affect? It clearly wasn’t limited to Bright Falls and close associates of the artists the Dark Presence is feeding off of. This is some unrelated schmuck living who knows where, and he’s having dreams of the Bright Falls event. And this wasn’t even in the DLC. The Lovecraftian web of influence of other planes of existence in these fictional games fascinate me so damn much.

I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. ███ █ █████ ████ ██ █ █████████ █████ I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world. I’m a plaid suit in a pinstripe world.

Absolutely, although I’m a Containment/Panopticon fan myself. Langston’s dialogue is great, especially in the AWE dlc. Dead Letters is close behind though. The fish letter is excellent.

Playing AW2 right now after having watched a Quantum Break playthrough, so I’ve got the Remedyverse on my mind constantly and see it in everything. Such a dope company, can’t wait for the next control. I think it’s next on their development list, so hopefully soon!

Write letters to the press. Ripped from Control:

Dear New York Tribune,

Airplanes aren’t real. I figured out how they do it.

The windows are TV screens. The whole thing moves on big tracks like a rollercoaster that moves through underground tunnels in the Earth. Airports are more like train stations.

They do this because the sky is full of monsters that they don’t want us to know about. The planes we see in the sky are the monsters. The government made the Earth-trains look like the monsters so they could lie to us better.

Don’t contact me.

Not real, obviously, but clearly the most effective tactic when no one takes your 100% legit theories seriously.

Oddly enough I have a reverse relationship with this game compared to many others in the thread. I played Dishonored first, and I feel like THAT game spoiled the stealth genre for me. I tried Thief chasing that feeling and was sorely let down. I think if I’d played Thief first like a lot of you guys, I might have that attachment to it. And I know that Thief is likely a large reason why Dishonored exists to begin with, especially with the level design in mind. It just didn’t feel compelling to play, game mechanic wise or story wise. I ended up wanting to just play Dishonored halfway through. I pushed through till the end, it just felt like a worse version of a game i loved. May give the second one a shot, might stick with me more. But the first one left a not-so-pleasant taste

I mean, idk about you but when I pay money to see a musician showcase their music, I kinda of expect them to, you know, use that skill. It’s why I’m here. If I wanted to hear a recording, I could do that on my own. I dont need to see the musician dance. Or be super well lit with a AAA light show. Or have choreographed anything. Im there to see the musician do the musician thing and play the music. If you can’t do the stunt or choreography while performing, it’s a poorly designed stunt or routine.

And yeah, when the body is unwilling the show gets canceled. That’s the way it works. Or if they’re part of a larger set, they may just get replaced. I’d rather deal with that than show up for essentially an overpriced pre-made DJ set. Had Black Sabbath get replaced by Judas Priest for a show I saw. Couldnt be mad, Ozzy was having health issues and i bought the tickets like 10 months out. Not likeq the band or promoters thought it was likely. And if i got there, and they said “Hey guys, Ozzy couldnt be here but heres the rest of the band with some vocal tracks” I’d be pissed.

It’s a rough job being a touring musician, and fans undertake certain risks when they get tickets. It’s not a company with 1500 employees who can call someone else in when someone is sick with uninterrupted service. It’s at largest a small group of individuals who are each integral to the main service being provided, working a very stressful job. For singer/songwriters it’s a person. Expecting the consistency and adaptability of a large company from a small group of individuals is just setting yourself up for disappointment. Support the artist, but recognize they’re just humans and be understanding when shit happens.

Ngl sometimes I swing by the store, buy like 5lbs of various fruit and gorge myself all evening until I feel like a fat fruit bat. I am a slut for fruit, I wish I was in an area where I could actually get some foraged stuff

Absolute fucking classic

Fun fact, urchin originally meant hedgehog, so this actually works. From Etymonline:

Urchin

c. 1300, irchoun, yrichon “hedgehog, small spiny mammal of the Old World,” from Old North French *irechon (cognate with Picard irechon, Walloon ireson, Hainaut hirchon), from Old French herichun “hedgehog” (Modern French hérisson). This is formed with diminutive suffix -on + Vulgar Latin *hericionem, from Latin ericius “hedgehog.” This is reconstructed to be an enlarged form of er, originally *her, from PIE root *ghers- “to bristle” (source also of Greek kheros “hedgehog;” see horror).

SOURCE

That’s only because you forgot to add your proficiency modifier. Don’t forget to take your own skills and circumstances into account! You have more to contribute than you think!

I mean, it’s not the first option I’d go with but it is certainly one of the ideas I’ve ever heard

You dont need to know yourself, just follow the instructions the doctor gives you before the procedure. Usually fasting, maybe a rinse.

I’m a slut for rosemary and garlic, with paprika being my go-to for more robustly flavored dishes. Herbes de Provence is a nice blend as well, if you like those, but it is on the lighter side. Good for chicken salad and whatnot

Doing something to make money and making enough from doing it to keep doing it full-time are two very different things, and I would argue the latter would be more difficult, not less under your proposed system. Yes, corporations do that already because they can throw enough money at the case to wear down the plaintiff into settling. But how much more do you think they would steal if they didn’t even have to do that?

Why do most people lock their doors at night? Do they really think that a piece of metal stuck in a slab of wood would stop any thief who really wants to get in? No, of course not. But the amount of effort and risk required is enough of a deterrent that most thieves won’t bother.

Copyright law is similar in my eyes. Will it stop a huge corporation that is willing to dump huge sums of money into any one case? Not really. But the effort and money involved is enough to deter them in most cases. Remove that they have no incentive not to steal work. Find a catchy song? Get one of the thousands of artists on contract to re-produce it to a T, send it to your millions of online viewers, and rack up 100k views in 12 hours. Congrats, you beat the artist to their 15 minutes of fame and any chance they could get at exposure, their potential earnings are yours now and it hasn’t even been a day. Any future web searches for the song will show you as well, so the original artist will likely be very quickly lost to time, and everyone remembers that one track the Capitol Records conglomerate put out that one time. That’s the kind of stuff I envision happening with literally no safeguards.

Not the person you responded to, but how would a recording artist earn a living in that model? If their work can get scooped up by a mega corporation and sold for pennies on the dollar due to the massive existing resources, reach, and infrastructure available to the corporation, what protections would there be against that happening?

Fuck, first I’m hearing of the sale or anything. Like most things in my life, I picked it years ago and never bothered to switch because it works. Might have to give some of these alternatives a shot. I just want pretty phone

I once rented an apartment that explicitly banned cats over 35lbs. Either the person who wrote it doesn’t know how units/cats work or there is a story there that I really want to hear.

Ffs one of the few games I was actively but patiently excited for, pretty much down the drain. I can only hope they make their own studio with blackjack and hookers