So I decided to run with the post by Lethn about looking forward to things in 2024, and decided to make a thread about both your favorite games (or shows, anime, movies, what have you) from 2023, as well as the ones you are most looking forward to in 2024.

For me, the best of 2023 (in no particular order):

1. Last Train Home: In essence, it is if you took the tactical gameplay of Company of Heroes, and combined it with the survival of Frostpunk. You are in charge of the last train out of Russia of the Czechoslovakian Legion. You have to make sure you have the food to keep your soldiers alive, coal to keep your train running, and ammo to keep your soldiers fighting (even grenades are a limited resource instead of just an ability). Honestly, I even find managing the train to be more fun than the fighting. Game is also very clear about showing the Reds/Bolsheviks are vicious, evil bastards instead of the whitewashing they get by many today. Highly recommend for RTS fans.

2. BattleBit Remastered: You want to talk about Indie succeeding where AAA fails? This is probably the peak example. A fucking $15 Voxel art game managed to feel more like classic Battlefield and Call of Duty than actual Battlefield and Call of Duty. Not much to say beyond that.

3. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon: I managed to beat Balteus before he was nerfed! Get gud, son! Being more serious, I had an absolute blast with this game, and will probably have to dive back in soon now that they gave it a pretty major update.

4. Jagged Alliance 3: Showing that just being true to yourself is all you need to do. It stayed in character of the series, with everything about it being stereotypes of every action movie you have ever seen, sold tactical gameplay, and characters that are actually fun and over the top.

5. WarTales: A tactical RPG where you play as the leader of a mercenary band. You start off with just 4 soldiers, a pony, and rusty gear and farmers outfits, but it is up to you how your band develops. You can be swords for hire for desperate farmers and townfolks, you can be extra muscle for a military campaign, you can become a merchant with your own private mercenary guard, you can be cannibalistic bandits roaming the countryside. It is all up to your choices you pick.

6. Age of Wonders 4: I got in on the Age of Wonders bandwagon late, but I will be hard for me to go back to other 4X games after it. There is just so much more to do and so much more to manage, as well as actually being the one who does the fights being a fun change.

As for upcoming in 2024:

1. Broken Arrow: Setting itself up as a spiritual successor to World In Conflict in terms of being a cinematic RTS experience. But it also draws on newer tactical RTS games to have more options for your units, with units being customizable with upgrades and loadouts. They also have said they intend to have military units be asymmetrical to match real life (the example used by the Devs is that Russian helicopters are tougher, have more guns/ammo, and are usually multirole, while US helicopters are faster, significantly more accurate, and have superior optics/sensors).

2. Frostpunk 2: There has barely been a dribble of information about this coming out at any given time, but it looks like they insist it will be coming out this year, and more information about the story and gameplay will show up then. We have already seen some gameplay and stills, and it looks both promising and interesting.

3. Homeworld 3: If you are an RTS fan, nothing more needs to be said. Homeworld is considered one of the kings of the genre, and a new game from the mold is greatly appreciated. Especially since it has been 10 years since Homeworld 2 came out.

4. War Hospital: You are in charge of a British field hospital in WW1, set up to be in the same vein as Frostpunk in that you are managing scarce resources against having to save as many people as you can.

5. MechWarrior 5: Clans: I enjoyed normal MW5, so I am interested to see what they do with this one, as well as the adding of Clantech to the game. I am also interested to see what they are planning for the campaign, considering they are having you play as a member of Smoke Jaguar (who are for all intents and purposes the "designated bad guys" of the Clans).

6. Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age: Made by the same devs as Cold Waters, but with surface ships instead of just submarines at your command. Very interested since Cold War naval warfare is criminally underrepresented, and even less so for surface combatants. Official date is still not listed, but the devs insist it will be in early access in 2024.

7. Manor Lords: It has been a long time coming, and I enjoyed the demo they released earlier this year. Will probably shake up its genre upon release.

8. 40K: Space Marine 2: Another one that has been running around and dribbling its release date. But they are finally at the point they want to be, and it looks like it will be a blast to play, with some pretty significant improvements to AI and game engines that could be interesting for future games.

About 7 months ago now, I created a thread that summarized a video interview from Legal Mindset (government name: Andrew Esquire), who is one of the few lawyers specializing in Florida Special Districts law, talking about how all of the attempts at gaslighting about the situation did not actually meet the truth of what was happening, and that DeSantis had actually bent Disney over and spanked their asses with virtually no way out, with a full TLDR of the reasons why listed in the other thread.

Now, there are newspapers and journo's putting out messages with supposed updates about Reedy Creek, spinning the info as DeSantis backing down and Disney winning this fight, especially now that Iger is back in charge.

So the same interviewer did another video with Andrew (one more in-depth about a month ago, and one yesterday with some further Post-Election, Post-Iger clarification). And at least according to Andrew, everything is happening exactly as he called it.

Basically, the "proof" that Disney is winning and DeSantis is backing down is that Reedy Creek will still exist and still have Disney property, and will now just have a board overlooking it. There is just one problem with this narrative: that is what literally every other Special District in the state is like! Part of what made Reedy Creek so unique is that they didnt have that sort of oversight. Now they will, and the board will consist of members from Orange and Osceola counties, as well as appointed representatives from the state of Florida, who are chosen by the Governor.

Now, if Disney wants to do anything, they will have file permits, pay fees and taxes on their work, and have their work approved by the board. Which also means anything they do is going to be going public within hours of them filling the permits, just like what happens with Universal Orlando whenever they plan on doing anything. This is some sort of "win", is it Disney? And the odds they get back their old cushy deal is practically gone now that DeSantis has won a crushing re-election and Iger is back (who has even less pull with Florida representatives than even Chapek did).

So why are they saying that Disney totally is owning DeSantis? Probably the same reason they did the first time: Political favoritism, shills, personal grudges, you name it. Still aint going to help Disney, especially as their financials continue to get worse and worse.

This is mildly old news by now, but I have still seen some people (usually of the type defending Disney) trying to say that DeSantis is a monster for getting rid of the Reedy Creek Improvement District because "It will cost Floridians! It will cause Chaos! DeSantis is basically a Communist and hates Free Markets!" Needless to say, that isnt true, but the exact ways it isnt true were explained here by one Andrew Esquire (aka Legal Mindset on Youtube), who is one of only a handful of lawyers in Florida who specializes in the laws around Florida Special Districts and the municipal bonds related to them.

The Extremely short TLDR: Florida is 100% in the right to do this, Disney has little to nothing they can do legally to stop it, and they are gaslighting and lying through friendly mouthpieces because they are seething over the fact that they are losing their own personal Ancapistan due to a few [reddited] employees.

The Longer TLDR:

1. Reedy Creek was entirely unique in Florida and had an absurd degree of power at its control. Their powers were actually more like a county instead of a city, which is what most Special Districts are. In fact, laws were changed to make sure it could never happen again.

2. Also unique of Reedy Creek, the district was created by an act of Legislature, not law. Which also means it can be destroyed by an act of Legislature without any risk of law.

3. There has actually been some will to try and renegotiate Reedy Creek for decades, but there had never been enough to actually push the button until Disney decided it was going to cockslap the Florida government and give them the finger because they wanted to push "the message." So Disney has no one to blame but themselves in that particular regard.

4. Reedy Creek is legally separate from Disney, which means getting rid of it can not be considered retaliation for Disney's "speech" in the state. This means Disney both lacks standing to sue over the issue, and if they tried to assert standing it would invalidate the bonds on Reedy Creek as they were supposed to be used for public infrastructure, not business use.

5. There is already significant amount of case law stating that if the district is indeed disbanded, the cost of the bonds are accessed against the citizens of the former District....which is still Disney. If Reedy Creek attempted to make Orange and Osceola Counties pay the bonds, it would be thrown out in 2 seconds by the courts.

6. The dirty little secret is that Orange and especially Osceola County would actually like to collect some taxes on Reedy Creek, because right now they are effectively subsidizing the cost of running the area and getting nothing from it. So they would love to get something out of Disney so they could pay for needed infrastructure and county running cost that they are short on right now.

7. In the legislation passed disbanding Reedy Creek, there is already a process allowing the district to be reestablished, it would just have to follow current Florida law instead of the vast powers originally granted to them, and it would take only about 2 weeks to get it approved. Disney is well aware of this as they have established new Special Districts since Reedy Creek, they are just seething over losing their little kingdom.

So these are just some things to consider based on what is happening. Just things to consider if you see anyone try to argue otherwise.

Its been a while since we have had any sort of gaming discussion, and with a new year, I figured it may be fun to see what are the games people are most looking forward to. For me:

Victoria 3: Probably the most hyped I have been for a game in a long time, and so far the dev AAR and diaries have showed that its coming along pretty well, short of some balancing and stability (they have had an issue with the last few games of the AI going full chaos when it wasnt supposed to). But other than that, everything about it has been exactly what I wanted, and looks like it is a pretty major step in a positive direction for Paradox games.

Kerbel Space Program 2: Loved the first game, and it looks like KSP 2 is just going to be more but better.

Elden Ring: Me and everyone else I am sure, but still looks like it could be a very fun time. FromSoftware don't miss, and it looks like it will continue their trend as long as you are willing to git gud.

Frostpunk 2: The original is one of my favorite games of all time, so you better believe I am interest. Unfortunately, not much is known about this one other than it will take place about 30 years after the first game, and that the main conflict will revolve around oil instead of coal.

Two Points Campus: A throwback to the old, silly tycoon games, which I loved growing up. And I enjoyed their other game (Two Points Hospital), so it looks like this one is shaping up to follow the same ideal.

This is for the record...

I feel as if I am preaching to the choir, talking about how there has been a lot of cause to fear for the future. Rise of tyrannical governments, the march of what is effectively a secular Leftist cult, and assault on Western Culture by those who desire a single Globalist culture.

But what if I told you, thats only what the powers that be want you to believe? As has been said before: if they were winning, the propaganda would be unnecessary. And with that statement, I can already hear the blackpilled doomers complaining, but I will deal with that later.

If you need some starting proof, a few months ago, the Fabian Society (the group responsible for much of the ills of our current world) tried to declare an end to the culture war, because they are losing in it. The Fabians have whipped up their mob into a frenzy, which has allowed them some short-term power, but it has made it obvious what they are doing, and it turns out that a lot of people do indeed see it happening, and hate it. But their mob is so whipped up that they are effectively a self-driving machine who runs on their own bullshit in a self-feeding cycle. And that is bad for their cause.

Perhaps you are still unconvinced? Done worry, I have more. We start with the fact that more and more non-Leftist are starting to notice that they are indeed our enemy rather than just someone with a different opinion. And its resulting in opinions shifting. Perhaps the most important one is that trust in media can be described as "apocalyptic." Oh sure, the Democrats/Leftist still trust the media and are being influenced by the Globalist, but they were going to be anyway so that hasnt added to their ranks. Meanwhile, Independents have started turning against it, and the Right/Anti-Left is turning actively hostile. And stuff like what happened with the attempts to pretend nothing happened in Waukesha just further moves it along. Because while the Left is willing to live in their fake media-driven world, most average people know that its not normal to have your care frequently broken into. In fact, pretty much every major thing the Left is currently trying to push, most people know its crazy, and they are starting to fight back against it. Why do you think the school boards went crying to the Federal government, complaining about how the big bad parents are bullying them and leaving their shithole schools to start homeschooling in vast quantities, because they would rather not have their children brainwashed.

And that is where it starts. The counter-attack is here. There is a smaller, but older and wiser, individual I watch for some of my political commentary that put it in an interesting light. Essentially, you see the same sort of things happen all the time in war, including in political ones. The Left surprised the Right, doing things the average person never thought they would do, up to and including "fortifying" an election. Then in the months after their surprise attack, they have been on the offensive, taking anything and everything they wanted. This is where the tyranny and censorship comes in. But a sneak attack only works once, and once the moment is gone, and the enemy knows what you are doing, you better hope you had a Plan B. As it turns out, the Left did not. Much like the blackpilled doomers, they relied entirely on their tyranny and their "fortification" to win. But the Right has adapted to that. Enter: Scott Presler. Gay man and in general very much "non-traditional" by old school conservative standards. And the man who may have ensured Florida may stay Red for the foreseeable future. Also heavily involved in Virginia, and helped flip it. And this is just one man. Steve Bannon has thousands of such men winning in local offices, which is allow the Populist to run the Republican Party as their own personal instrument of revenge against the Left attempting to destroy their nation. And they are getting smart. A not often talked about aspect of what happened in Virginia is that many right-leaning Rural and Suburban counties held back their reported votes until the Cities reported theirs. Which means the "fortification" was too little, and therefore effectively meaningless.

And this was merely one state, one election. Not talked about as much is that across the country, the Left was utterly routed even with fortification attempts. New Jersey was much closer than it ever should have been, and next time they may not have the luxury, as now you will have a lot of Anti-Leftist who know you can win. Especially after a trucker with a few thousand dollar budget beat one of the most entrenched members of the New Jersey Senate. In Pennsylvania, the Right won a sweep, winning every judicial appointment up for grabs, kneecapping the power of the Governor who is an insane Leftist. Large swaths of Texas, with large Hispanic populations, showed that their shift toward the right was not a once off thing. Almost every schoolboard was won by the anti-woke. And that will continue, because even though the Fabians want to step back and get back into the shadows, their idiotic pets dont have the control to do that and are running around like the idiots they are shouting the plan to everyone, and more people are starting to believe them.

That is the thing about sneak attacks. They are not supposed to destroy you, they are supposed to make you surrender. If you dont, there are very few paths forward. Which is what the blackpilled dont understand. They want to take the bait and surrender because they believe the propaganda, instead of standing and fighting against an enemy so weak they need you to not fight as their only way to win. If you need someone to dopeslap you so that you stop marching around screaming about how its game over, do it. But find a post and start actually digging in and fighting. Plenty of others are doing it, and you even have some of the smart Leftist trying to run and hide because they can tell their reckoning is coming, and they dont want to be somewhere they can be found. They are openly talking about it now, and about how a lot of the up and coming members of the Right are absolutely wise to their tactics and theories, and wont be tricked as easily.

And if you need the ultimate proof: Kyle Rittenhouse. The whole media declared him guilty, did everything they could to threaten the jury along with their foot soldiers, and ran with false news, demanding what they wanted. And the jury, made up of normal people, looked at them, spit in their face, and said "Get bent, weirdos."

So, to the rest of you apes, stand your post, Get some fucking hype, and Hold! The! Fucking! Line!

And we are now at the end. Once again, if they were winning, none of what they have done would be necessary. Take heart to that. And with one final meme to set the tone, this is TheModernDaVinci signing off, for now.

Well, its been a few months since the last "what is everyone doing" thread, so now seems as good of time as any. Plus, Steam is having Next Fest over the next few days and showing off new games and demos, so it could be cool to see what people are interested in.

For the currently out stuff:

Snowrunner: Offroad trucking game, have been playing a lot of the new hardcore mode for it, when I just want something kind of chill.

Anno 1800: This has the one I have been playing a lot as a before work game or when I am listening to Youtube, since it doesnt require constant attention and its easy enough to drop in and out. Very good looking game as well.

Wreckfest: It has been a while since I have played it, but I am starting to get back into it recently.

Hearts of Iron 4: I have been playing a lot of the Kaiserreich mod, and having a blast with that. I am always interested in the story of it since, IMO, its one of the most "believable" alt-histories. Almost every change in the timeline is something that almost went the other way IRL (instead of something completely out of left field), and a lot of the changes follow from those events.

Off of gaming, I have fallen down the Vtuber rabbit hole recently, so that has been taking up a lot of my viewing time. And its been great to see people who actually have fun playing their games instead of being sweaty tryhards like some of the gamers I used to watch have become.

As for the stuff that caught my eye on the Next Fest:

Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter": I am going to need to take some time with this one and see if there are any tutorials, but at least on the premise I LOVE it. We have plenty of games where you play as the submarine gunning for convoys (Silent Hunter, UBoot), but I am not aware of one where you play as a destroyer escorting the convoy instead. I also hope they give more options other than a Fletcher (IE, have a frigate or non-American destroyers like the Tribals).

Starship Troopers: Terran Command: Oh you better believe I am doing my part. It seems like the sort of game that is up my alley strategy wise as it is mostly focused on defensive tactics since, you know, a dedicated gun line and holding it is the most important thing when you have overwhelming odds staring you down.

Diplomacy is Not an Option: At least from what I have played so far, it is literally "They are Billions: Medieval edition." And that is not a bad thing. It also gives you some spells you can call down so that you have a little bit more impact when dealing with waves compared to TAB.

War Mongrels: Made by Destructive Creations (if that name rings a bell, they were the ones who made Hatred), its a Real Time Tactics game centered around a group of partisans and Germany Army defectors who discover what is happening in the East with the massacres and the Holocaust. So they set about waging their own little crusade to destroy as much German shit and kill as many German soldiers as possible. And being who made it, you can probably guess it is going to be bloody, brutal, and not pull its punches.

So what else is everyone else doing?

Link to the actual poll

So starting with the obvious one that is unrelated to the issue, we get a good look at how they stack the deck with these polls. The sample is divided into 49% Dem, 29% Independent, 21% Rep. Now with that out of the way.

Republicans and Independents were overwhelmingly in favor of him stepping down (77% R, 72% I), while Dems are only just barely in favor (52% D). Dems were also significantly more likely to think he had done nothing wrong at all (11% vs 4% R and I). Additionally, those living in NYC were the least likely to think he had done anything illegal and the least likely to think he should step down. Although strangely, those in NYC were the most in favor of impeaching him if he didnt step down.

Another strange one, for all we have been told about #MeToo and "Female Intersectionality" or whatever bullshit, Women were apparently much less likely to be in favor of Cuomo stepping down than Men (64% M vs. 55% W).

They didnt give an actual further breakdown of the racial divide on this issue, but apparently "non-whites" (whatever the hell that means here) dont really care, because they are one of the only groups that is under 50%, and significantly less than whites (67% White vs. 49% Non-White, though with Non-White it is still a plurality).

Yes yes, "Dems and their double standards" and all that, but I thought it was a little interesting to look at the numbers, and see just how hopelessly out of touch the Dems really are, as well as how much they crave the power, with your own eyes. Also, seeing how it really shows how heavy the polls can be stacked.