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.

Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

Rules:

• No grey market sales
• No affiliate links

If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.

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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

Is it just me, or is it weird that every terminal starts at the top-left? After three commands, your prompt stays at the bottom of the screen for the rest of the session anyway.

I added this to my fish_greeting last month. (You could add something similar to .bashrc / .zshrc):

printf "\033[$LINES;1H"

If you want to print a status line or two after this then subtract the number of extra lines:

printf '\033[%s;1H' (math $LINES - 1)
cat /proc/loadavg

It might take some getting used to but it feels a lot more natural. When opening a new window or pane, the prompt is always closer to the previous one so my eyes don't need to move as much.

It's a small subtle thing but I think it is an improvement. Return to teletype.

Australia vs England, 4th Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground: Day 1: Stumps - Australia lead by 46 runs

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Australia Inning 1                    - 152/10           45.2
Australia Inning 2                    - 4/0           0.6
England Inning 1                      - 110/10           29.5

50 Over Matches

Bengal vs Baroda, Group B at Niranjan Shah Stadium C: Baroda won by 4 wkts

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bengal Inning 1                       - 205/10           38.3
Baroda Inning 1                       - 209/6           38.5

Mumbai vs Uttarakhand, Group C at Sawai Mansingh Stadium: Mumbai won by 51 runs

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mumbai Inning 1                       - 331/7           49.6
Uttarakhand Inning 1                  - 280/9           49.6

Saurashtra vs Haryana, Group D at KSCA Cricket (2) Ground: Haryana won by 6 wkts

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Saurashtra Inning 1                   - 253/10           48.1
Haryana Inning 1                      - 256/4           38.6

Delhi vs Gujarat, Group D at BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 1: Delhi won by 7 runs

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Delhi Inning 1                        - 254/9           49.6
Gujarat Inning 1                      - 247/10           47.4

Uttar Pradesh vs Chandigarh, Group B at Sanosara Cricket Ground A: Uttar Pradesh won by 227 runs

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Uttar Pradesh Inning 1                - 367/4           49.6
Chandigarh Inning 1                   - 140/10           29.3

Bihar vs Manipur, Plate at JSCA International Stadium Complex: Bihar won by 15 runs

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bihar Inning 1                        - 284/10           49.6
Manipur Inning 1                      - 269/9           49.6

Arunachal Pradesh vs Mizoram, Plate at JSCA Oval Ground: Arunachal Pradesh won by 35 runs

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Arunachal Pradesh Inning 1            - 254/10           49.4
Mizoram Inning 1                      - 219/10           44.4

T20 Matches

Durban Super Giants vs MI Cape Town, 1st Match at Newlands: Durban Super Giants won by 15 runs

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Durban Super Giants Inning 1          - 232/5           19.6
MI Cape Town Inning 1                 - 217/7           19.6

Sharjah Warriorz vs Desert Vipers, 28th Match at Sharjah Cricket Stadium: Desert Vipers won by 5 wkts

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sharjah Warriorz Inning 1             - 140/7           19.6
Desert Vipers Inning 1                - 144/5           19.3

Sri Lanka Women vs India Women, 3rd T20I at Greenfield International Stadium: India Women won by 8 wkts

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sri Lanka Women Inning 1              - 112/7           19.6
India Women Inning 1                  - 115/2           13.2

Bhutan vs Myanmar, 3rd T20I at Gelephu International Cricket Ground: Bhutan won by 82 runs

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bhutan Inning 1                       - 127/9           19.6
Myanmar Inning 1                      - 45/10           9.2

Cambodia vs Indonesia, 5th T20I at Udayana Cricket Ground: No result due to rain

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Cambodia Inning 1                     - 157/5           19.6
Indonesia Inning 1                    - 14/0           0.6

Perth Scorchers vs Hobart Hurricanes, 12th Match at Perth Stadium: Hobart Hurricanes won by 4 wkts

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Perth Scorchers Inning 1              - 150/8           19.6
Hobart Hurricanes Inning 1            - 153/6           19.3

Auckland vs Northern Knights, 1st Match at Seddon Park: No result due to rain

Innings                               - Runs/Wickets    Overs
--------------------------------------------------------------
Auckland Inning 1                     - 201/8           19.6

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like christmas, sermons and 60 minutes. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was inquisitive.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

Democrats have a huge advantage in coming elections given how much of an unmitigated shitshow Trump 2.0 has been, but the party itself still doesn't know what time it is and has very little of substance to say on anything (except the younger DSA wing). The field of Democratic candidates is also pretty abysmal. AOC is seen as radical and unlikable outside the left (unlike Bernie who was seen as radical but likable) and doesn't have the same excitement around her that she used to even among progressives. Bernie and Warren are too old. Kamala Harris would be a disaster for obvious reasons. Gavin Newsom is overtly corrupt and insincere.

It seems to me very plausible that Democrats could still fumble the bag in 2028, especially if Kamala takes the nomination or if some other black swan event happens (Trump dies in office, JD takes over and runs a relatively competent administration; or Trump and JD become horribly disgraced even among MAGA, leading to Tucker Carlson running—in which case I think he'd win handedly against a generic establishment Democrat).

There's also the problem of the main Democratic contenders simply being not very good. A Democrat in office would be miles better than a Republican, but I'm not at all convinced that a generic Democrat would be prepared to face the enormous challenges we as a country face (soaring debt, money in politics, AI, eugenics/transhumanism, Israel/Russia/coping with multipolarity, a highly fractious cultural and political environment, a public that finds classical fascism/white nationalism increasingly enticing).

The only person I can think of that is both electable and suited for the current moment is Jon Stewart. He's a political moderate who's comfortable calling out the establishment. He's well read. He's broadly liked and respected, even among people who disagree with him. He has a highly dialectical style to politics (ie. bringing people together to hash things out), which I think is sorely needed right now.