Firaxis just announced a new addition to the XCOM series in the form of XCOM: Chimera Squad. It takes place 5 years after the events of XCOM 2 and focuses on a specific squad of named human and alien characters trying to maintain the peace in a one of the new cities.

Game Reveal Trailer

Gameplay Trailer

It's currently $10 on steam, presumably since it looks like it was built on the XCOM 2 engine. The sale lasts until May 1st, so you'll have time to wait until some reviews are out before you buy it.

I absolutely loved XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, so this is a nice surprise for me. Some of my friend who have played some of the older XCOMs are comparing it at least thematically to XCOM: Apocalypse

Edit:
@cwagner provided a link to GMG where its currently $9.50

My mother is 65+ years old and loves everything Apple, but whenever I need to touch her computer I find myself questioning that choice.

The degree to which Apple abstract things from the user enables the most absurd behaviors. macOS gives little indication about which programs are open, and the red x on the top left corner just closes windows, not apps. Because the session persistence is so robust, the consequence is that my mother's Macbook Air keeps 12+ programs and their states open at all times literally for months. Every time she comes over from another continent, I close a bunch of stuff and get her an instant performance boost. Plus, she's never really sure if a program is open or not.

The concept of (work)Spaces, as well as the launchpad, spotlight, or even how Finder really works is beyond her. Because of her over-reliance on the dock, she never enabled autohiding, so her screen real state is always crowded.

Folders are entirely immaterial for her. Everything goes to "Downloads" with no organization whatsoever, and she's always looking for stuff "manually" by reading the filenames.

Her machine is running Mojave, and right now I can only see that finder displays two "Libraries": Documents and Downloads. Linux and Windows have Videos, Downloads, Music, etc. Those are easy to make sense of. What's the supposed Mac alternative? Buy stuff on iTunes. Well, if something is not on Amazon Video or Netflix my mother is a pirate like me (hehe), so she never made sense of it and I truly despise using iTunes for doing anything at all. She also downloads a bunch of media related to her job.

I'm not saying macOS is bad, I'm just asking: is it really the best choice for non-technical older people?

So, tonight as I was putting my young kid to bed, they listed every one of the places that they desperately want to go to, but can't. It broke me. This playlist is very much still a work in progress, but if you've been curious how things sound in my head when I'm working through some shit, it's a lot like this.

Videos were selected when possible, and I'm going to warn you: There's a ton of depressing shit in these videos. If you can't handle real videos of violence right now, I'd suggest moving on.

This playlist is best paired with a strong drink, deep feelings of sadness and anger, and a dash of mental instability.

Existential Crisis Playlist

1. Prophets of Rage - Hail to the Chief
2. KMFDM - Paradise
3. WAKRAT - Generation Fucked
4. Straylight Run - Hands in the Sky
5. Alexisonfire - Sharks and Danger
6. A Perfect Circle - So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish
7. Pink Floyd - Mother
8. William Shatner - You'll Have Time
9. Monty Python - Galaxy Song

Grandma is understimulated in assisted living, and while Mom is looking into ways to either bunk with her, or drag her back to our place, I'm exploring other options. Her apartment does have wireless internet, so we could set up some sort of telepresence or video calling device, but even something as simple as a Relay or a KC2 isn't great, because it loses power, and needs to be explained to her.

I'm thinking that we might have better luck with a Tablet or a PC solution, and I do have a Kindle Fire (5th Gen?) and an off brand Windows 10 tablet around, and I am open to a Pi Project or speciality devices, but it has to be simple enough to plug and play, and the dream would be if it could start a video chat without the receiver having to pick up, or at least as simple as a nurse being able to come in and start a call. Any suggestions?

Recently, I've been posting here about all sorts of theatre that's available for streaming during the pandemic lockdown. Sounds like fun! But when I actually try to watch some of it... I'm having technical problems.

My Lenovo Yoga tablet won't cast from Chrome. At all. The option just doesn't exist in the Chrome browser on the tablet. The only way to cast anything is to open an app - but the videos I want to watch are on a webpage. In Chrome. Which doesn't have a casting option. Not helpful!

So I go to my desktop computer. It can cast from Chrome to Chromecast. But the result is video only, because "casting tab audio is not supported on this device." I tried Googling that error message, but I ended up getting flummoxed. The Google Help pages don't even mention this error, and other tech blogs are too complex for me to understand.

The Chromecast works fine. It accepts input (with sound) from other sources. It's just webpages (like YouTube.com and Vimeo.com) I'm having trouble with. I managed to watch one video last week, but I had to resort to installing the YouTube app to make it work. But not all the videos are on YouTube.

Any ideas?