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    1. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      14 votes
    2. Half way through the 2020's. What's your favorite games so far?

      I have stolen this idea from a Reddit thread and thought it would be a good discussion here. I am placing these in approximate order of favorite to least favorite. Caves of Qud - Probably a top...

      I have stolen this idea from a Reddit thread and thought it would be a good discussion here. I am placing these in approximate order of favorite to least favorite.

      Caves of Qud - Probably a top ten game of all time. Greatest environmental flavor I have ever experienced. Great soundtrack. This was the very first traditional rogue-like I played for more than a few hours

      Wildermyth - I think the character creation/progression is my favorite of any game ever. Character age, befriend each other, fall in love, die, have children, and more. Also this is my favorite soundtrack of the decade, a very dreamlike and melancholic track that suits the game perfectly.

      Jupiter Hell - The second traditional rogue-like i played for a few hours. Incredible tactical gameplay

      Balder's Gate III - While not my favorite RPG (Wildermyth) probably the one I have played the most considering all the different ways you can play with story choices and character builds.

      Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - The game has many flaws, particularly the poorly designed combat scenarios and a story that differs quite a bit in quality throughout. But the combat adds a bit more crunch then BG3 and the variety of choices and builds is multitudes larger than BG3.

      Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020/2024 - Not much to say other than the flying mechanics are good and the entire Earth being mapped and populated is maybe my favorite technological feature in a video game ever.

      Dorf Romantik - Cute puzzle game. Released in 2022 but was a game that I am 99% sure I played in early access during the pandemic and was warm and quiet in a terrible year

      Spiderman Remastered/Spiderman Miles Morales

      Total War: Warhammer III - On one hand a culmination of all the Total Warhammer games. On the other hand by the time I had played it I had played so many Total War games that the formula wore on me and I found myself auto-resolving battles more often then playing them.

      Far Cry 6 - A step down from Far Cry 5 as far as I am concerned, but there is no FPS game with an open world that lets you approach things in any way you want. Guns blazing? Sure. Stealth? Four or five ways to approach a location? Yep. The only thing I did not like was the base design, which i felt was much more poor then in previous Far Cry games

      Starfield - On the one hand, a game with a lot of flaws that make it a hard game to love. Tons of loading screens that break immersion. A lack of depth in systems. A story with little/no sense of morale choices. On the other hand, no one does open world like Bethesda and their formula is like crack for me. Good gun play. Best stories Bethesda has told in years. The ending and new game + hit really hard for me as well.

      Here are other games that I play but are more of a 'annual series', so I am placing them separately
      Pokemon - Arceus was my favorite Pokemon game, with Scarlet being my favorite 'traditional' Pokemon game
      NBA 2K Series
      Madden NFL Series
      Out of the Park Baseball series

      36 votes
    3. Movies like Dream Scenario need a warning

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      post contains spoilers for Dream Scenario:

      I've become a big fan of the resurgence that Nic Cage is having, especially after watching Mandy, it was so wacky and surreal and just quite the mind trip.

      Saw the trailer for Dream Scenario and picked up on that same vibe.

      However, that movie really pissed me off. that story was pretty interesting and I really would have liked it but I kept thinking that they would find a way to wrap up the plot in a typical happy go lucky fashion that Hollywood typically demands. The closer and closer the movie got to the end, the more I was expecting the shoe to drop and for the writers to somehow find a way to end the movie on a happy note that makes everything OK.

      It does not, the movie ends on quite a weird and sad note, which I would have loved, if I hadn't expected it to end in a typical Hollywood fashion. Makes me wish there was a way to get a warning when watching a movie to not expect it to end in a typical "safe" fashion. Cause if I had gotten that warning, I think I would've love it.

      10 votes
    4. Fitness tracker smart watches that work well without a smartphone app?

      A family member of mine recently got a cheap smart watch online. They weren't planning to use it with a phone app for privacy/security reasons. They thought using it without a phone would be fine,...

      A family member of mine recently got a cheap smart watch online. They weren't planning to use it with a phone app for privacy/security reasons. They thought using it without a phone would be fine, since they just wanted it for the time and for the health features like steps, blood pressure, blood oxygen, sleep tracking, etc. and didn't need to see their texts or other notifications on the watch.

      Unfortunately, when we tested the watch, we found that basically all of the features required connecting to a shady no-name company's app. You couldn't even set the time! You can't set the time on a watch without an app!

      Also, the watch was a bit bulky for their wrist, and they would prefer a slimmer one.

      People of Tildes, do you know of any smart watches that allow you to use the health tracking features without ever connecting to a smartphone? If so, are there any that are slimmer instead of being bulky?

      11 votes
    5. What are your Windows 10 post-install and crap removal procedures and recommendations?

      I have an AMD processor that is not supported by Windows 11. I don't wanna deal with the consequences of workarounds. I have an old NVIDIA graphics card that was never even close to being a...
      • I have an AMD processor that is not supported by Windows 11.
        • I don't wanna deal with the consequences of workarounds.
      • I have an old NVIDIA graphics card that was never even close to being a flagship. It is essentially unsupported on Linux (I’ve tested it).
      • I intend to keep running Windows 10 for as long as possible, using either official or unofficial means.
      • My current Windows installation is becoming unmanageable, as Windows often does.
      • I am a competent Linux user, and I run Linux on my laptop.
        • I have WSL2 on Windows 10 and it is great. Especially because I am a heavy Emacs user. I cannot live in an OS that does not allow me the full power of Emacs over a Linux base. This greatly reduces the need for bare-metal Linux.
        • One reason to keep running Windows (at least in a dual-boot setup) is that WoW runs at around 30 FPS on Linux for me. Other games have different issues.
          • I often run games from shady origins that are not obtained from Steam and tools such as Lutris and Bottles are just not there yet in terms of ease of use. I don't enjoy doing a lot of work just to play a game.
        • I understand that there are ways around almost any issue on Linux; I just don’t have the energy right now.

      Any suggestions for post-installation cleanup and removing crap from Windows 10?

      Thanks!

      23 votes