BeardyHat's recent activity
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Comment on Human contractors are seeing all your horny â and creepy â AI prompts in ~tech
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Comment on CGA-2026-09 đšī¸đââī¸đš REMOVE CARTRIDGE âī¸ Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 in ~games
BeardyHat LinkI wouldn't call myself a completionist, but I am obsessive about completing projects I've started, which is how I ended-up playing this game and not necessarily making it very far. I unlocked the...I wouldn't call myself a completionist, but I am obsessive about completing projects I've started, which is how I ended-up playing this game and not necessarily making it very far. I unlocked the second level, but had to obsessively finish Hanger before I could move on, which I eventually did. I later unlocked France while playing the School level, but only actually tried it once, because I got focused on trying to complete the School.
Ultimately, I didn't make it very far and probably played less than 4-hours of this game. I did expect to play more, as I did enjoy what I was playing, but I do find the timer pretty off-putting. I'm an Explorer at heart and to have to restart a level every 2 minutes so I could continue trying to find stuff just put me off the game ultimately. I can see why it's appealing, as it gives you little chunks to play the game in, which should appeal to me, but I always felt like I was just getting started exploring when the level ended and I needed to restart.
So, it ended-up being fun enough, but I ended-up getting distracted by other things.
I kind of also think I have a mental block where when I feel "obligated" to a thing (such as with the CGA), my brain automatically just begins to reject it. But also, I tend to flit from game to game anyway and don't tend to fully complete much.
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Comment on CGA-2026-09 đšī¸đââī¸đš REMOVE CARTRIDGE âī¸ Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentYeah, maybe I needed to do the Free Skate a little more (never actually did try it), but the 2-minute timer never left me enough time to really explore the levels and enjoy myself. I probably...Yeah, maybe I needed to do the Free Skate a little more (never actually did try it), but the 2-minute timer never left me enough time to really explore the levels and enjoy myself. I probably would have had more fun with the game--I still enjoyed my time--if I could have just gone at my own pace and not repeated the levels in 2 minute increments.
I never found the third rail in the second level, because I never felt like I had enough time to simply explore and tinker. I can see the appeal of the timer, but it just doesn't do it for me.
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Comment on Wikipedia's list of the best video games: how many have you played, and what's missing? in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentIt's excellent and not too long. It quickly became one of my favorite games the moment I played it and I love the choices it foists upon you; Obsidian is unmatched when it comes to that stuff.It's excellent and not too long. It quickly became one of my favorite games the moment I played it and I love the choices it foists upon you; Obsidian is unmatched when it comes to that stuff.
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Comment on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt â Remastered - performance benchmarks in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentI think it's just the long game problem. I've played hours upon hours of it, but after something like 50-hours or whatever, I find my mind wandering to other stuff and just wanting to other spend...I think it's just the long game problem.
I've played hours upon hours of it, but after something like 50-hours or whatever, I find my mind wandering to other stuff and just wanting to other spend time with other things or finding myself wanting a different gameplay experience.
I generally game maybe half an hour to an hour at best a day, sometimes not at all. But even 50-hours means multiple months of playing the same thing, so to extend that further to 100-hours is just a big ask. I want to play and finish those games, but I also want to take breaks and when my break consists of months to a year or more, by the time I'm ready to return, I can't remember what's happening or what I'm supposed to be doing, so it just seems more prudent to start over, which kills any and all motivation.
The only long, RPG game I've really found recently that I've been able to stick with, quit for a long period and return to, is Pillars of Eternity. While I like Witcher 3, the characters and the world don't compel me in the same way. I have the memory of a fish, so I often forget story beats, but one thing I don't often forget are characters and Pillars has very strong characters, compared to Witcher 3's strong story, which my brain just will not hold on to.
Also, I think I just generally like the gameplay more in Pillars, especially given the turn based mode added earlier this year. Turn based games just click with me in a different way these days.
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Comment on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt â Remastered - performance benchmarks in ~games
BeardyHat LinkWould have been curious to see how it performs on older hardware. That said, Ray Tracing looks good, but once I'm playing the game, I'd be unlikely to actually notice that path tracing "looks...Would have been curious to see how it performs on older hardware. That said, Ray Tracing looks good, but once I'm playing the game, I'd be unlikely to actually notice that path tracing "looks worse" as per this video.
Performance overall seems pretty good and I'm curious how it'll perform on Steam Deck, though I have several PCs with which I could run this on. I still have never finished this game.
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt â Remastered - performance benchmarks
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How mods changed video games forever
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Comment on Do you think you're special? in ~talk
BeardyHat LinkSpecial? I'm not sure what that means. Incredibly fortunate and lucky? Absolutely. Does that make me special? I'm not sure. I'm in a better position than a lot of my friends and cohorts, but I...Special? I'm not sure what that means.
Incredibly fortunate and lucky? Absolutely. Does that make me special? I'm not sure. I'm in a better position than a lot of my friends and cohorts, but I don't believe I've worked particularly hard or sacrificed much to be where I am.I guess maybe I'm special in so far as I tend to get along with most people and am able to empathize and find common ground, which seems generally uncommon. I think that's helped me be lucky and fortunate.
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Comment on Wikipedia's list of the best video games: how many have you played, and what's missing? in ~games
BeardyHat Link208 out of how ever many there are. There's definitely some smaller things from more recent years that aren't on there. Two that come to mind are Pentiment and Skald: Against the Black Priory....208 out of how ever many there are.
There's definitely some smaller things from more recent years that aren't on there. Two that come to mind are Pentiment and Skald: Against the Black Priory. Undoubtedly there's more, but I'd have to sit and think for awhile on it.
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Comment on Colorado's Tildos - How-does it suit you? in ~life
BeardyHat (edited )Link ParentYes and no. There's lots of health conscious people, but it's a mix, as anywhere. And people are very concerned about image, as anywhere else as well, it's just different. You have the people that...I guess I imagine that it's a place to live healthily with people whose interests are less concerned about image and more concerned about health and nature?
Yes and no. There's lots of health conscious people, but it's a mix, as anywhere.
And people are very concerned about image, as anywhere else as well, it's just different. You have the people that project a crunchy granola image of themselves but work a standard corporate job and live that standard corporate life in a million dollar house. And you have your standard yuppies, etc. People are people and you'll meet all kinds; it's not necessarily anything special here.
Walkability is so-so, I'd say. If you live downtown, yeah, but rents there are unaffordable anymore. When I was in my 20's, my girlfriend and I had an apartment we split the rent on for $750 a month. That same place is likely $1600+ these days. The town I grew up in next to Boulder wasn't walkable, still isn't. Boulder itself isn't terribly walkable (bikable, I'd suppose) and the city I live in now (right on the edge of Denver) is not at all walkable.
There are definitely jobs in software. My Dad has been a Software Engineer my entire life and though he's been laid off numerous times through the 80's, 90's, 00's, etc, he's always found a new job. Though, I think a lot of those jobs (I'm looking as well, but I'm a Sys Admin), depending on how close to Denver you are, are in Defense Contractors.
International travel isn't bad, honestly. Not that I do a whole lot of it, but DIA is an International Airport and you can take direct flights to Europe and elsewhere. A couple of years ago my wife and I flew directly from Denver to London.
I like to bike, but I'm not a biker. I don't wear the gear or anything. But I find most bikers exceptionally obnoxious and hoity-toity. Last bikers I talked to at my wife's high school reunion two years ago were some of the most tedious people I've ever met. But again, that all depends, I've known plenty of bikers who were/are perfectly normal people, so again, people are people.
Gardens are definitely a thing. I had one this year, but it never really took off and watering it wasn't really an issue, because it doesn't use as much as a lawn with sprinklers, if you're using something like a watering system with drip hoses. But the climate definitely is particular as far as things you can grow. But again, you're going to need a place with space and a yard and real estate isn't cheap. My neighbors next to me are three guys that own a house together, they're all software engineers and had to pool their resources to buy one house.
I'm not trying to shit on your dreams, just want to be realistic. Colorado is a cool place and I never intend to leave it, but it's a place like any other, in my experience. Wherever you go, there you are.
Edit: I will say, we do have good choices for food, as I mentioned in my prior post. But it's also not everywhere. Friends that live in suburbs have standard bland choices; my parents are constantly complaining that there's nothing to eat in their suburb; but where I'm at, my wife and I rode our bikes to an Eritrean Restaurant the other week, which is next to a new Korean Restaurant. Next to my neighborhood is an Arabic market, along with an H-Mart, as well as Pho, Korean Donuts/Ice Cream, Brazilian food, dim sum, Yemeni food, etc, etc. I could go on, but there's so many options here. Honestly, we have better choices here than in downtown Denver, honestly. Lots of little holes in the wall here, versus all upscale type stuff in Denver proper.
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Comment on Colorado's Tildos - How-does it suit you? in ~life
BeardyHat LinkBorn and raised here, my kids now exist here too and all my family are here, so I'm not going anywhere. Water does concern me, but I'm hoping we'll get closer and closer to better water use and...Born and raised here, my kids now exist here too and all my family are here, so I'm not going anywhere.
Water does concern me, but I'm hoping we'll get closer and closer to better water use and management. This year, I was abiding strictly by the watering restrictions, which was disappointing for my lawn, but ultimately I want to get rid of it anyway and have more xeriscaping.
The only place I can really compare it to is New Mexico, because we vacation there semi frequently. I've really only spent time in Santa Fe, but one of the things I like about the areas I've visited is that it feels like Colorado when Colorado was far less populated. These days traffic sucks, real estate sucks and everything is generally crowded.
That said, the one benefit is there's lots going on and interesting food and people. My oldest kid attends a Korean Taekwondo class, we have lots of Korean food and people around us. We have a pretty large variety of different African food around us, with a large African and Middle Eastern population. So there's lots of different people and things my kids get exposed to which I'm very appreciative of.
What fascinates you about it?
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Comment on World of Warcraft: Forever | Cinematic trailer in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentObviously they'll just keep pumping it until the damn thing explodes. Too bad, honestly. I've been playing Vanilla WoW for decades now, only officially quitting when Cataclysm came out and they...Obviously they'll just keep pumping it until the damn thing explodes.
Too bad, honestly. I've been playing Vanilla WoW for decades now, only officially quitting when Cataclysm came out and they wiped the original world.
I love the original world and even after 22 years, I still find new things here and there, as well as I find new ways to play in it. If they just added some stuff and left it in stasis, I'd be pretty happy. I just enjoy leveling characters, going though the world, making money, doing dungeons with my friends, etc. I don't even need a drip feed of new content.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentYeah, I think it's just that we've all played a lot at this point and repeatedly made it to stuff like Plains, but not further. I turned up the resources to 2x on my server and it is faster, but...Yeah, I think it's just that we've all played a lot at this point and repeatedly made it to stuff like Plains, but not further.
I turned up the resources to 2x on my server and it is faster, but things are still very much a grind, especially trying to get stuff for 3 people.
We'll see if we get back to it. I've still got my server up, as it doesn't cost me anything to run it, so I periodically take a peak at it to see if anyone is on, but I think they're hooked on WoW Forever now, so I doubt if they'll log back in.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
BeardyHat LinkIn the past two weeks I've put a ton of time into Valheim; I'd been wanting to play with the new 1.0 update and that Friday I saw my friends had jumped on, so I joined them and we played for a...In the past two weeks I've put a ton of time into Valheim; I'd been wanting to play with the new 1.0 update and that Friday I saw my friends had jumped on, so I joined them and we played for a good long time.
But I got antsy; I wanted to play more and my old worlds I'd left behind weren't doing it for me, so I spun up a server at home and gave my friends the information and then set to work getting things up and running there. Queue the weekend and we spent a good amount of time on Friday and then Saturday night playing and progressed into the Swamp and acquired some iron. We then went on a quest to find the Merchant, which resulted in us accidentally finding Plains and getting killed over and over again, which ended-up taking us about an hour and a half or more at the end of the night to recover our corpses.
I think that's the moment my friends burned out on it and I was feeling pretty similarly at that point. I logged back on Sunday, but my friends were nowhere to be found and I got the sense that this server was going to be abandoned. Feeling like there's no point in playing by myself now--which is weird, given I played over 100-hours of the game solo--I started looking for other stuff.
Which got me back to Teardown. I haven't played in maybe two years and to be honest, when I booted it up, I really wasn't feeling it. I kind of was just exploring and wasn't sure where to start on the mission I'd left it at, so I just started making some holes near the items I needed to extricate and before I knew it an hour had passed and I was hooked again.
I took about 62 minutes of planning and tweaking, but I finally was able to grab all the items in the level, 4 required, 2 optional and make an escape; damn it felt good. I took a quick break, because that game gets my heart pounding and I need a minute to calm down afterwards, but I then jumped back in and finally completed a mission no problem that I'd been struggling with two years prior when I eventually stopped playing the game. Now I've just spent another 65 minutes or so on the next mission and managed to complete that one with all the optional objectives.
My kids will be excited because they've been playing it more again--sandbox mode--and were wanting new levels and tools, which I've just unlocked. And honestly, now having played a couple of hours of it again, I have zero desire to go back to Valheim at all.
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Comment on World of Warcraft: Forever | Cinematic trailer in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentMy friends have been all excited about it for the past day or so and been sending me stuff, as I'm the resident WoWhead. They ended up buying it, but I've just joined the opt in to see if I can...My friends have been all excited about it for the past day or so and been sending me stuff, as I'm the resident WoWhead.
They ended up buying it, but I've just joined the opt in to see if I can try out the beta with them. I am a patient man and my lack of trust in Blizzard and Microsoft doesn't have me chomping at the bit to throw money at them and beta their product.
We'll see. I remain skeptical and I'll keep playing other games until the opportunity comes along to try it with minimal investment.
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Comment on There is no epidemic of loneliness, but there is an epidemic of social scurvy in ~life
BeardyHat Link ParentHave you tried other TCGs or even Wargames + TTRPGs to fill the void when the Meta sucks?Have you tried other TCGs or even Wargames + TTRPGs to fill the void when the Meta sucks?
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Comment on World of Warcraft: Forever | Cinematic trailer in ~games
BeardyHat Link ParentI am skeptical of what Microsoft-Blizzard says. I feel that they have a history of this kind of thing. My interest is piqued; I've been playing WoW off and on for 22 years now via legitimate and...I am skeptical of what Microsoft-Blizzard says. I feel that they have a history of this kind of thing.
My interest is piqued; I've been playing WoW off and on for 22 years now via legitimate and illegitimate means and I still want to play it; it's just I've had much better experiences on private servers in the last ten years than anything Blizz has done.
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Comment on World of Warcraft: Forever | Cinematic trailer in ~games
BeardyHat LinkNot interested. I've been playing on private servers for a decade or more now and they're just a better experience overall. Actual GMs, less toxicity, less sweaty players, no bots, no pressure....Not interested.
I've been playing on private servers for a decade or more now and they're just a better experience overall. Actual GMs, less toxicity, less sweaty players, no bots, no pressure.
I'm not sore about Turtle WoW, I knew it was only a matter of time from the day I started on it, but it was better than the micro transaction laden, pay to win slop that WoW has been for ages now.
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Comment on The American religion of self-storage facilities in ~life
BeardyHat LinkMy parents don't have a storage unit, but have collected a lot of stuff over the years and move it from house to house when they were doing that. I've told them repeatedly I'm throwing it all away...My parents don't have a storage unit, but have collected a lot of stuff over the years and move it from house to house when they were doing that. I've told them repeatedly I'm throwing it all away when they die.
For myself, I also have a lot of stuff, but most of it either gets picked through, donated or sold and a lot of it is for ongoing projects that do eventually go back to where they're supposed to (such as a transmission). I just spent three weeks reorganizing my own office, which included going through all my storage spaces, throwing away a lot, doing a better job packing stuff I'll use at a later time and now I'm in the process of selling stuff that has value, but I have no more use for.
Nothing bothers me more than having stuff floating around that isn't being used.
Depending on what you've got, you may be able to use it as is.
I have an all AMD desktop from last generation, Ryzen 5600 (since upgraded to a 5800x3d, but haven't tried that yet) and a 6700 XT. I installed Zluda, which is an open source implementation of Zluda via software, a translation layer or something (I'm not a programmer) and local LLMs ran pretty well on that. It's not blazing fast or anything, but even just running off the CPU, it worked pretty well.
It's not going to be as quick as having a conversation can and forth with a corporate LLM, but it keeps your data on your machine.