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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1170 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 3, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Video game thread

What are you playing these days?

I will be playing through Half-Life soon. I noticed I didn't have it in my Steam library so I picked up the Anthology bundle for a couple of dollars. Only a couple of years have passed since the last time I played HL, but for some reason I'm drawn to it again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Still waiting for a reasonably priced 5120x2160, 39 inch ultrawide monitor to show up. I'm sort of holding off on some games until I can upgrade my monitor. Some games aren't well suited for playing on the TV.

PRAGMATA - enjoyable enough to finish, mildly disappointing on most fronts. Stunted by the indulgent approach to the core character dynamics. You'd think the obvious route, in a world where bots are an expendable commodity, would be for the player character to default to brutal, cold treatment initially, in particular in the emergency. Relationship then could predicably grow from "tool I will sacrifice as needed" -> "tool I need to be nice to to get results" -> "actually a gifted 'child'" -> "a child I am attached to" -> "my sweet angel I will die for without second thoughts". They apparently did not think the audience would want/could handle this, so straight to 'gifted child' we go, pacing jarring enough to lose me instantly. Examination of Dianas nature and limitations is off-limits beyond sentimental babble with predetermined conclusion, so the plot is padded with painfully stupid, shallow crap.

Life Below - pleasant, pretty, somewhat unusual. A little too railroaded, you can't overbuild and breeze past some bottlenecks, must simply wait. Ecology and reclamation themed, but not preachy at all (pollution bad, but humanity remote & not bad). Missed opportunity, for the Heart you begin reclamation from, and the Sprites that drive it, to be magical in nature (spirits or whatever), rather than an engineered, autonomous ecosystem building tech. The game is meant to be kid-friendly, why not instil some optimism? Guess that is too much to ask for from Norwegians?

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