I was in the mood to turn my brain off witch an action movie I hadn't seen before, so did just that.
I won't do a full review since I'm only 30 minutes in, but the movie is Ambulance, 2022; Jake Gyllenhaal, some black dude, and some hispanic chick.
It's competent enough so far, generally. It's not doing anything too fancy, but I appreciate that from an action movie. But the Modern Audiences™ nonsense is unavoidable. I wish I didn't notice this but, once you know, you know.
Every black person is competent and in a position of power. Every white person is some combination of psychopath, loser, or incompetent. There's only been one woman in focus so far, but she's - no kidding - "the best paramedic in the city," and extremely competent. Hobbled with some newbie white dweeb...who's probably going to die or otherwise get damseled, at a guess.
Gyllenhaal and Black Dude are brothers. Black Dude was adopted by, wait for it, Gyllenhaal's psychotic criminal father. Black Dude is a patriotic veteran who's trying to get his life together, while his white brother is a criminal who drags him into shit. Gyllenhaal's criminal crew are, I believe, all white...and some of the most ridiculously incompetent or insane people around. Hilariously, they're also a very diverse set of whites for some reason; you have I believe an Italian, Irishman, and some sandal-wearing hippy hacker or something. It's bizarre.
It's all so tiresome.
I know we all get tired of meta posts, but this has been a complaint for ages.
Can we please simplify the rules and then enforce them equally and consistently? As is, we've had pretty sporadic enforcement, where bad stuff - porn, clearly bad faith trolling, and pedophilia advocation, to name a few recent standouts - have stayed up for around a week. Meanwhile, some much less offensive stuff, from established and active members, sometimes gets taken down immediately, which just stifles discussion. (And, no, I was not moderated, this isn't me bitching about something done to me.)
This isn't Reddit; we don't need these rules. We can simplify this all down to 'no porn, no advocating illegal activity, and if you're a handshake you don't have human rights.'
That's all. That's the thread.
Disclaimer: I went for a memey title, but hear me out. Also, I want to stress this is a theory, not something I think is reality...just something that could possibly be real. I don't think it's the likeliest explanation, but it's something that popped into my head. We'll see what happens if she drops out today, too.
What this comes down to is the age old question: Is an organization - in this case the GOP - more evil, or more stupid? Essentially, are they running things competently?
They don't seem to want Trump. But they know swapping him out would be a disaster. What if Nikki Haley is a sacrificial cutout to try to dampen the blow? Here's my idea: They're pushing Haley to stay in, precisely because she's hated but, if Trump gets taken out one way or another, they're not going to put her in as the candidate, even if she's still in the race...they're going to swap back to DeSantis, who recovered some of his popularity after dropping and endorsing Trump, and was also polling higher. It would make the whole process seem much more palatable to some. I personally don't think it would be enough, but it's certainly better than running Haley.
Essentially, Nikki Haley is in the race to be hated, so the GOP can stab Trump in the back and swap back to DeSantis or something, and pretend it's for the good of the people and the party.
And, since I know we probably still have some DeSantis fans, I'm not even saying he's in on it in this hypothetical situation. He could be, in one version, but it's certainly not required. Dropping out and endorsing Trump was a fairly natural move, and is in no way a condemnation on DeSantis.
No matter what happens, this election cycle is going to be a chaotic mess. The cleanest option is somehow a Trump v Biden rematch. Anything else gets even stupider, and even less representational.
Firstly, despite the name...no, it's not horny, and is in fact quite wholesome.
I'm only halfway in, but so far it's one of the better comedy animes I've see. In my opinion, comedy isn't one of anime's strong suits, and only a few have seriously amused me. Those being things like KonoSuba and Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious.
This has been funny so far, though. Basically, an antisocial sorcerer who lives alone in the woods happens to rescue a, well, as the title says, disgraced noble lady. Due to his antisocial nature, he's known to the nearby town as the Demon Lord, and he often cackles manically over his totally evil plans to...try to make this lady happy by "corrupting" her to enjoy life.
That's the sales pitch. If you're curious, check it out.
By the way, two other animes I'd recommend, but won't go into full detail about in this post: Synduality Noir and Dead Mount Death Play.
Thought I'd let people know, in case they were curious.
I've only played a few minutes but...I'm very underwhelmed. For all the hate a lot of woke games get, you're often hearing only one side, and so they're often better than you might think. Not excusing wokeness, and I hate the state of modern gaming, but point is if you just hear the negative sides of a game, you might be impressed on playing it, even if there's plenty that annoys you.
This is not the case with D4. It feels like a fucking mobile game. I'm only a few minutes in, as mentioned, but it starts with a decent cinematic (not as mindblowing compared to past Blizzard games when compared to the technology of the time, but not terrible or anything), then hits with "connecting to servers" and stuff, with "accessibility" options turned on, including text-to-speech. It has an AI voice telling you it's connecting to servers, that's your next intro to the game. Already leaves you with a weird taste. Next thing is it pushes you right to the aforementioned accessibility options. Next is character creation. I suspect the characters are randomly generated, but I had four blacks, and one fatass female (Druid is always fat.)
As to the actual gameplay, as I said, it feels like a mobile game. Not far enough in to fully judge, but my initial impression was very underwhelming. And, again, was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, as I think a lot of woke games get an exaggeratedly bad image, since we're hearing only the one side. But, yeah, just feels kind of clunky so far, and zoomed in a bit too much. Music is good, though, from what I've heard. Classic Diablo-style music. Mutes on Alt-Tab by default though.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling. I don't want to color anyone's opinions and, if you are curious, I do actually suggest you try it while it's free. But I was surprised at just how much I didn't like my first dip into it, and thought I'd share. For all the woke nonsense, I expected to like it more than my initial impressions.
I ended up on the Yahoo main page after reading an article that someone had linked here.
I saw this, and was curious how obnoxious Pence would be.
Headline #2: After Israel attack, Pence slams Trump and DeSantis as 'voices of appeasement'
When I clicked on the article, I got this, and what immediately stood out to me was DeSantis was no longer mentioned in the headline. It just said Pence condemned Trump and "the GOP."
Headline #3: Pence slams Trump, GOP ‘voices of appeasement’ as Israel comes under attack
I couldn't find an earlier Yahoo archive, so I tried to hunt down the original Politico article, and was surprised to find this.
Headline #1: With Israel under attack, Pence decries GOP isolationism
So, as far as I can tell, the headline initially had Pence "decrying the GOP," but then the headline was shifted so he "slams Trump and DeSantis," but I guess that still wasn't the right message, so they shifted it to "slams Trump, GOP." They either wanted to focus exclusively on Trump, or protect DeSantis.
Anyway, I thought it was interesting. I wasn't expecting to find a third headline.
He's getting more active again, doing the media rounds and the like. How's everyone feeling about the dude?
I will say, despite his bumbling retard routine, I find him ridiculously charismatic if nothing else. Even if I don't agree with him on something, I can often appreciate how he says it. I've criticized him for it for years, but I just wish he'd be a bit more clear, so people who aren't in the know actually understand what he's talking about, but perhaps it's part of his act. Say something true, but in such a way that it just seems stupid, get the media to focus on it. Seems to have worked for him for many years.
Did people listen to his recent interview with Kristen Welker? She did the standard "get Trump" routine and, as per tradition, largely just got Trumped.
I wish we had better options, but I personally think Trump is far from the worst.
So, yeah, how are people feeling about Trump?
I haven't followed this game, the drama actually just showed up from related threads of people freaking out over other fictional characters' heights. So I don't know too much about the range of drama, but people are absolutely pissed that, among other things, Amazon localized away an entire body height. Also removed jiggle physics for the remaining female characters heights. Probably more, but that's what most of the current drama seems centered around.
Yeah, Amazon deleted short characters from their localization of the game.
Funny thing is, I'm thinking the removed character height is still represented on the Steam page, in the very first screenshot, in fact. Also down below, where it tells you:
Deep Customization
Become your ideal self: choose your facial appearance, hairstyle, clothes, accessories, weapons, and mounts for a combination that's uniquely your personal style.
Apparently unless you're short, or want a short character.
Steam forums are, as per usual, having a fit. As is Reddit.
I saw a very amusing thread, here. I think that's a liberal woman, based on some of the language (Usually I keep to my small Discord server which is the safe haven for around 40 women of all age that enjoy gaming...I'm just going to start by saying one thing: Women comes in all size and shape.) But I could be wrong, apologies to her if she's actually based or whatever.
Anyway, assuming she is a liberal, it amuses me how she takes offense to all that shit that was done specifically to pander to people like her. She correctly calls out the uglification of women, and the plague on Western entertainment. I can't help but take some satisfaction from it. "I'm just a disgruntled woman who is simply tired of seeing western game treating their female characters like it's almost a sin to have boobs." That's exactly it, and it was done to appeal to people probably much like you.
Also, it being Reddit, the comments are "you go girl" levels of cringe. Apparently having an opinion while female on the internet is some amazing accomplishment, and she should probably be given a Medal of Valor or something.
Here's an archive of Steam forums from months back, I think after Amazon was involved. People were already unhappy. And here's today. Very displeased now.
Oh, and some are pretty based:
"GUYS PROTECT THE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS GUYS!!!! BUT LET'S NOT GIVE A CARE ABOUT THE REAL CHILDREN BEING GROOMED BY MAPS!!!"
And apparently 50% of female avatars during Japanese playtests were the removed Small body type. But Amazon said no.
Oh, and u/Bruvazz/ predicted this back in the day, as well as had a thread detailing more of the changes from last week.
Sorry if this is a bit rambly, I just saw all this and was both annoyed at the censorship, and amused by (presumed) libs being pissed that the fucked up culture is messing with the stuff they care about. NIMBY.
The cowardly police force who did jack shit in Uvalde are now claiming the shooter had a "battle rifle," and the libs can't decide what retarded angle to take. They seem split between a few choices. Ironically, "ACAB" is the least objectionable when it comes to gun rights.
The other options are "hahaha, myth of good guy with gun busted," which ignores that at least these cops were bastards, and my favorite "hahaha, and they said there was no such thing as a battle rifle!" which ignores that...well, it ignores a fuckton.
There is a battle rifle. But the shooter didn't have one. The cops are just absolute retards. Everyone is spinning up over a comment by, and giving credence to, the people who fucked up in every way imaginable.
For a few examples:
"AR-15s" is trending on Twitter. Always a good time.
My favorite Reddit comments are the idiots saying they know a lot about guns, but all of them get it wrong. Calling M16s battle rifles. Talking about 5.56 vs 9mm penetration while ignoring tumbling. Acting like anyone ever claimed that there was no such thing as a battle rifle. The whole thing is amazing. The biggest mistake aside from their general ignorance, is taking the lying Uvalde cops at their word about 'battle rifles' and armor piercing capabilities, or that the existence of rifle could sensibly result in the tactical holdoff of a freaking army of (allegedly) trained law enforcement officers.
Here's a good one:
The gunnit line for years has been "AR-15 isn't an assault rifle, it isn't a military weapon, it's chambered for the same rounds as a handgun, it's a peashooter, it's harmless" apparently they don't believe that bullshit themselves and boy howdy am I not surprised.
For the first part, it's not an assault rifle, it's not military, and I've never heard the other load of nonsense. And then they finish by, once again, giving credence to a bunch of losers who stood around while kids were murdered. Yeah, I'll take their opinion on anything with a grain of salt.
Basically, Uvalde cops are shit, anti-gunners know they're shit, but will still believe their lies wholesale if it means they can hate on guns. Disgusting. And stupid, very stupid.
