Ever since watching the latest season of Clarkson’s Farm, I can’t help but hear him say ‘space penises’ any time I read the word mishrooms…

I doing think it was an one thing, but more-so a build-up over time - a death of a thousand cuts, if you will:

It was a cultural moment generally, just think back to all of those celebrity commercials (“I’m Mr. T and I’m a Night Elf Mohawk”). All cultural moments pass eventually.

The third expansion (Cataclysm) was quite weak to begin with; coupled with a lack of content in the tail-end of the second (Wrath of the Lich King), which itself was incredible - narratively wrapped up the story that began all the way back in Warcraft 3.

So a lot of people chose that time to bow out of the game, as it required a fair bit of time dedication and seemed like an appropriate time to do so - given the narrative pay-off.

Lastly, the introduction of a number of game tools to automate the group composition process meant that the impact of player reputation on servers was severely diminished. Before then, there players who were toxic (stealing items, intentionally killing the group, failing quests) were infamous on a server.

Once this tool was further opened up to allow for groups to form across multiple servers - the sense of community was shattered as you would have no way to know if the person from another server was good/bad etc. it stopped being about bringing in the individual player, and just getting a body in to fill a role.

As someone who was lucky enough to get to experience those first ~6 years; it truly was lightning in a bottle.

20 years on, I am still friends with a number of those I met in WOW - and an in contact with a few more beyond that!

Unfortunately, it does feel like that sense of community those early years fostered are long gone, save perhaps a blip when Classic first launched.

Who knows when the next game will come along, which will be able to foster such relationships.

If it’s within your budget, grab a Steam Deck and use it in docked Desktop mode. It’s a pretty great introduction into Linux IMO, especially due to the fact that Valve themselves are maintaining the OS, and since it’s running on a fixed hardware platform - most online solutions should be applicable to any problems you may encounter.

Worst case, you don’t like it you can always eBay it off to recoup most of your costs?

It was called Kurushi here in our neck of the woods; and I’m glad I’m not the only person who still intensely remembers that game from a demo disc.

I ended up picking up a mint copy to add to my collection; well worth it IMO.

Ill give you this; it was so bad that it looped all the way around and ended up good despite literally everything.

I definitely enjoyed the hell out of it as a kid, but let’s not pretend that it was anything approaching a faithful adaptation.

It really depends on where you draw the line e in the sand, I suppose?

If you’re not too heavily invested in the game series (so you’re willing to accept retcons/story divergence), and are able to switch your brain off for ~100 minutes you’ve got a decent enough chance that you probably won’t hate it.

More than anything, it just has a lot more in common with the ‘bad old days’ of video game adaptations (live action Mario Bros., anything Uwe Boll touched), than the newer crop of more faithful/reverent adaptations (Sonic, animated Mario etc.).

I have the same feeling after watching this, as I did the Mario movie and the Angry Birds before that…

I’m going to remain skeptical, but somewhat optimistic that this will be relatively watchable and hopefully not a complete dumpster fire like Borderlands…

NFI how you managed to get purple first, honestly! 😅

…just!

Connections 
Puzzle #447
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I got Hexcodle #383 in 3! Score: 84%

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https://hexcodle.com

Wordle 1,165 2/6

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I’d love to see a modern take on Cannon Fodder, as well as another entry in the Desert/Urban/Soviet/Nuclear Strike series.

Lastly, there was a very fun demo/mod to Sensible Soccer for the Amiga that set the match between UK and Germany, and replaced the ball with a bomb that would periodically explode and eliminate any nearby players. I’d live to see a modern-day version of this, honestly - just some goofy fun!

…and yes, I am fully aware of just how old this makes me all sound.

In a similar vein to another commenter wanting a pre-Paradise style Burnout; I’d like another NFS:U entry, but honestly am so over ‘open world’ racing games… give me a good ol’ fashioned menu any day of the week!

I liked the ending of FC5, and think that it lead rather well into the subsequent New Dawn expansion pack.

On the other hand, while I also loved FC3 - I couldn’t get into FC4 at all…

I guess we can conclude that Far Cry is just a very strange series that seems to alienate its fans just about as often as it attracts them!

Connections 
Puzzle #442
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Gaps #113
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https://gaps.wtf

First time playing this; feel ashamed for not getting it earlier…

Wordle 1,163 4/6

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Strands #175
“Into the woods”
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Connections 
Puzzle #441
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