Bullmaestro's recent activity
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Comment on The mega-rich are turning their mansions into impenetrable fortresses in ~finance
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Comment on Tubi will start featuring Warner Bros. Cartoons on March 1st in ~tv
Bullmaestro Link ParentWe never had Adult Swim. The closest we've had to it was CNX (which lasted a year) and Toonami (which lasted four years) as dedicated side-channels. Both failed to gain traction. I was also wrong...We never had Adult Swim. The closest we've had to it was CNX (which lasted a year) and Toonami (which lasted four years) as dedicated side-channels. Both failed to gain traction.
I was also wrong about when Totally Spies was airing. For some reason it airs at 5:10 every morning on Cartoon Network.
Doubt that it's because the show has been deemed inappropriate for kids, considering the fact that it was one of the main staples of Fox Kids/Jetix back in the day. I think it's more like the people running the UK & Ireland Cartoon Network channel have zero taste and are just pen-pushers doing constant reruns of the same 2 or 3 shows.
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Comment on In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud in ~tech
Bullmaestro LinkI used to have a pair of Raycon earbuds and lost one of them when walking home from a night out drinking. The Earfun ones I bought to replace them cost about a third of the price and honestly had...I used to have a pair of Raycon earbuds and lost one of them when walking home from a night out drinking. The Earfun ones I bought to replace them cost about a third of the price and honestly had comparable sound quality. The only thing I didn't like about them was that they'd sometimes lose connection with my device.
This may be more of a dig at Raycon because I found their earbuds to be overpriced and actually quite bad in quality, but I thought I'd see more complaints about them, given how many YouTubers shill their brand for sponsor revenue.
I've since switched to Denon PerL Pro and the difference in audio quality has been subtle. But the best part about the new pair I got is that it comes with an app where I can enable noise cancelling.
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Comment on South Korea seeks multilingual talent to hunt down K-content piracy in ~tech
Bullmaestro LinkIf I understand this correctly, they're trying to curb international piracy of Korean shows? Genuine question: Are there any legal avenues to watch k-dramas and similar content? Or are we expected...If I understand this correctly, they're trying to curb international piracy of Korean shows?
Genuine question: Are there any legal avenues to watch k-dramas and similar content? Or are we expected to only watch the very few Korean shows that do get a localized Western release like Squid Game?
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Comment on Tubi will start featuring Warner Bros. Cartoons on March 1st in ~tv
Bullmaestro LinkVery good lineup. Looking at this has made me realize just how fucking dire Cartoon Network has become in the past two decades. I just had a look at the TV guide listings for the Cartoon Network...Very good lineup. Looking at this has made me realize just how fucking dire Cartoon Network has become in the past two decades.
I just had a look at the TV guide listings for the Cartoon Network channel in my country. It's like they only ever show Teen Titans Go, Gumball and The Regular Show on repeat, and for some reason, they're showing a Totally Spies episode at 2am...
Boomerang (the channel originally launched to host all the vintage Hanna-Barbera and Looney Tunes stuff) isn't that much better. Do you feel like watching hours of Tom & Jerry or whatever the fuck Mush-Mush and the Mushables is? Tom & Jerry I can understand but not Mush-Mush, Boomerang was meant to be the retro channel and their idea of retro is a babies cartoon from 2020? Either I'm geriatric or I've just discovered the reason why people turn to YouTube and online streaming...
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkVampire Survivors has gotten a lot more interesting since defeating the game's final boss and effectively unlocking the endgame. I have been using the O'Sole farm to farm gold (and golden eggs),...Vampire Survivors has gotten a lot more interesting since defeating the game's final boss and effectively unlocking the endgame. I have been using the O'Sole farm to farm gold (and golden eggs), which I wouldn't recommend because:
- It's very active. The idea is that you run around Il Molise constantly with O'Sole because his baseline ability has the unique property of healing the enemies (that can't damage you) and earning experience that way.
- Setting up this farm is a huge pain in the arse. You need to configure settings to only have one max weapon, have every stage modifier except Random events and Random level-ups enabled, and seal every pickup except for Gilded clovers, and ensure you have three particular Arcana and one particular Darkcana unlocked, then get very specific upgrades in a very particular order.
- Your screen is going to be constantly flashing with spell effects once you reach a criticial threshold of Area % and Duration % scaling. This is not only horrible for anybody who suffers from photosensitive epilepsy (Vampire Survivors does have an epilepsy warning on start-up for reasons like this) but also lags the hell out of your PC. I'm running this game on an RTX 3080, Core i7 and 16 gigs of RAM and I feel like I always get close to frying the rig if I farm for too long.
Old School RuneScape: I have spent just over a week playing Deadman Annihilation and let me just say... I'm not a fan.
Jagex made the frankly asinine decision to disable the ability to pickpocket NPCs in Guarded areas. While I kinda understand why they did this (there's a relic that lets you auto-pickpocket up to 28 coin pouches at a time and makes all attempts to pickpocket succeed, effectively creating a money printer and an incredibly easy 99 skill to obtain), the problem is that a vast majority of the game's pickpocketable NPCs are in Guarded zones. Half of the NPC types you can pickpocket are in East Ardougne alone and the entire city is a safe-zone, effectively making Knights of Ardougne, Paladins and Heroes impossible to pickpocket. Actually, you can pickpocket Knights if you have completed Mourning's End Part 1 and unlocked the ability for them to spawn in West Ardougne, which is a PvP zone.
To do this whilst simultaneously buffing some of the game's more egregious money printers is baffling. We literally have 5x to 8x rare drop rates, autocast High Alch, sigils that reward up to 6 times more resources from woodcutting/fishing/mining and high level mobs dropping shitloads of consumables from a global loot table and Jagex are concerned about inflation when progress moves over to the Permanent Deadman world?
I also think Deadman is a bit of an afterthought to Jagex, even now. It's telling when you look at the map of safe zones in the world and see that the only safe zones in Zeah (the Western continent exclusive to OSRS) are Kourend Castle and the Wintertodt - which was made safe in the current season.
Teamfight Manager: I think if this game remained consistent as a 4v4 MOBA management sim, rather than forcing 2v2 and 3v3 in early leagues, it would be a lot better. The game is clearly not balanced around smaller team comps with fighter and assassin champions utterly dominating early ranks. While I do like that balance patches are automatically introduced after each split to nerf overperforming heroes and buff bad ones, I think these patches aren't frequent enough to really emulate the pro MOBA experience and often miss the mark due to their automated nature.
My playthrough of the amateur league went like this. I barely won my first game, saw how busted Swordsman was and treated him as an immediate pick/ban, pretty much winning any round where I picked him. After the first split, Swordsman gets a ~66% nerf to his attack damage, yet somehow is still viable. Sniper is introduced to the game and every team picks her because she's FOTM despite having a really bad winrate. I then treat Ninja as a pick/ban because of his ability to blink on top of Sniper and one-shot her. Archer has the hitpoints to actually survive a Ninja gank and can defeat him 1v1, but nobody picks her. Meanwhile the game's myriad of support and mage heroes are basically worthless in this part of the game because they are only effective in larger team comps.
Unfortunately, the rest of Teamfight Manager centers around pot luck due to what I can best describe as braindead AI. Sometimes you will draft an assassin and dunk all over your opponent with 20 kills by the end of the round. Sometimes, your assassin will constantly focus the tank or bruiser and die repeatedly.
Another thing I don't like about Teamfight Manager is their egregious use of existing League of Legends and Dota 2 pro names in the randomly generated player names of their rosters. You'll see Dendi, Carzzy, Faker, Nemesis, Rekkles, Bjergsen, Puppey and so many others...
Agent 64: Spies Never Die: I got into the playtest for it and played through the first campaign mission to refamiliarise myself. I don't know if something changed for the worse since the demo dropped, or if A64 has always been like this, but the controls immediately put me off. There's an almost complete lack of responsiveness when you try to turn with your mouse, and excessive amounts of autoaim which trivializes the game. The only time I even used the right mouse button to manually aim was when I had to shoot locks off a door.
I really don't know how one could fuck up a Perfect Dark/GoldenEye 007 successor this badly...
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Comment on Poker Night at the Inventory | Rereleasing March 5th in ~games
Bullmaestro LinkVery surprised they made the effort to rerelease this. The novelty of watching Max, Tycho, the Heavy and Strong-Bad play poker was cool back in 2010 when their respective series were relevant but...Very surprised they made the effort to rerelease this. The novelty of watching Max, Tycho, the Heavy and Strong-Bad play poker was cool back in 2010 when their respective series were relevant but it's been over fifteen years now!
None of the featured franchises are still relevant.
Sam & Max had a VR game released five years ago, and their final episodic TT game released nearly sixteen years ago.
Penny Arcade is still going but hardly anybody reads it now. It may get brought up with some old memes like the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory but gaming webcomics are dead. Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik are nowadays better known for organizing PAX, a series of gaming festivals/trade shows which grew from the decline of E3.
Team Fortress 2 hasn't seen any major content updates from Valve in nearly a decade. In fact, the game has been overrun with hackers whilst Valve has done little/nothing to combat cheating.
As for Homestar Runner, it still gets updated from time to time, but the Brothers Chaps are more focused on other projects and only update the site & their YouTube channel with new content every year or two.
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Comment on UK retailer GAME closes all standalone stores as it enters administration in ~games
Bullmaestro Link ParentUnless things have changed, you can still buy physical games from Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda. Tesco discontinued game sales about two years ago, and I'm surprised they even announced it. The...Unless things have changed, you can still buy physical games from Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda. Tesco discontinued game sales about two years ago, and I'm surprised they even announced it. The last time I saw the games section in a Tesco supermarket, it was just a few shelves of empty Xbox and PlayStation branded Call of Duty and FIFA boxes. And there were a few cards you could redeem at the counter for a physical console.
I do agree that Mike Ashley is one of the worst things to have happened to the brand.
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (February 2026) in ~health.mental
Bullmaestro LinkFeeling miserable. I feel like nobody takes me seriously and I'm growing increasingly resentful of the world. But if I speak up suddenly I'm the asshole or nobody is interested.Feeling miserable. I feel like nobody takes me seriously and I'm growing increasingly resentful of the world. But if I speak up suddenly I'm the asshole or nobody is interested.
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (February 2026) in ~health.mental
Bullmaestro Link ParentAs a neurodivergent person myself, I actually find articles like these to be vindicating, because it's showing that we are not stupid. I've seen "autistic" used as an insult online far too often....As a neurodivergent person myself, I actually find articles like these to be vindicating, because it's showing that we are not stupid. I've seen "autistic" used as an insult online far too often.
Calling pattern recognition a "superpower" is a bit far-fetched though.
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Comment on Ashes of Creation founder resigns as studio begins mass layoffs in ~games
Bullmaestro (edited )Link ParentEDIT: Redacting my previous statement because there may be a lot more that has been going on behind the scenes. Kira, a YouTuber who often calls out crypto, NFT and Web3 scams released a...EDIT: Redacting my previous statement because there may be a lot more that has been going on behind the scenes.
Apparently there is a board of directors, and the reason Steven walked is that the board agreed to sell the company to private equity investors and planned to lay off a majority of staff and outsource positions overseas.
If Kira's sources are credible, it's possible that AoC may be revived but it'll probably be enshittifie, just like anything a private equity firm touches...
In other words, he's full of shit and just did a rug pull. There is no "board of directors." -
Comment on Waterparks - ICE (2026) in ~music
Bullmaestro LinkI like Waterparks and I think this song went hard, but this song seems like a legitimate call to arms that might put the band in Trump's crosshairs.I like Waterparks and I think this song went hard, but this song seems like a legitimate call to arms that might put the band in Trump's crosshairs.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Bullmaestro LinkCame back to the permanent Deadman world in Old School RuneScape, partially to scratch the itch left behind by the lack of temporary game modes. Literally spent an evening fighting NPCs around...Came back to the permanent Deadman world in Old School RuneScape, partially to scratch the itch left behind by the lack of temporary game modes. Literally spent an evening fighting NPCs around Varrock, thieving from the town's Tea Stall and pickpocketing guards, because I knew the moment I stepped outside the safe zone, I'd be griefed by a pure unless I made it to the 75 - 85 combat bracket that hardly anyone was in.
I felt like I've made good progress.
Speaking of MMOs that are in my Steam library but I hardly touched, I installed and gave Winds of Valen a go. It's another point & click MMORPG, its main mechanic seems to be switching shields to mitigate enemy attacks in a way akin to prayer flicking in RuneScape, and changing your weapon to counter enemy armor weaknesses. Other than that, the game is incredibly barebones, lacks a world map and much of the QoL that other games like it has. Definitely one to keep an eye out for.
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Anniversary is a lot better when you aren't trying to level a Blood Elf or Draenei. The other starting zones seem a lot more empty and I've actually been able to make some good progress on a few alts. I think my approach is to semi-casually level alts to max and exploit rested XP gain as much as possible, at least aiming to get a 70 character midway through Phase 1.
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Comment on Banjo: Recompiled | Release trailer in ~games
Bullmaestro LinkAs a PC gamer, I cannot believe that there is still no PC port of Rare Replay, and therefore no (legal) way to play Banjo-Kazooie without having to deal the shoddy bitrates and input lag you'd get...As a PC gamer, I cannot believe that there is still no PC port of Rare Replay, and therefore no (legal) way to play Banjo-Kazooie without having to deal the shoddy bitrates and input lag you'd get with cloud streaming.
I think that's what makes me the most sad about all these decompilation projects and enhanced PC ports I've seen lately. You need to effectively pirate the games (because let's be real, people aren't "making legal backups" here) to enjoy them. And as we've seen lately, the only people who seem to be getting away with rampant piracy lately have been AI bros who have been stealing tonnes of copyrighted works to train their LLMs...
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Bullmaestro LinkCame back to World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Anniversary yesterday as prepatch went live. Debating whether or not to fork out the money for a level 58 boost, level up a shaman in the three...Came back to World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Anniversary yesterday as prepatch went live. Debating whether or not to fork out the money for a level 58 boost, level up a shaman in the three weeks before the Dark Portal finally opens, or to just shelve the idea of playing. TBC is a lot more comp-dependent when it comes to endgame PvE, and since Bloodlust/Heroism would not yet become raid-wide buffs, it would make sense to play a Shaman for the almost-guaranteed raid spots, as each group would need 2 Shamans for Kara/ZA and 5 for every other raid for buff coverage.
On one hand, I never got to experience BC endgame first time around. I was a dumb teenager halfway through secondary school when the expansion originally launched and unfortunately I played on Turalyon EU Horde and had to deal with a lot of really toxic players and guilds who eventually bullied me off that realm by the time I was halfway through Wrath.
But on the other hand, I currently work in a temp job, do karaoke at least two evenings a week and feel like I'm not in a position to treat WoW like a full time job and dedicate 3 - 4 evenings a week to playing. And I don't think Burning Crusade is one of those expansions where the average guild will have content immediately on farm, unlike Vanilla which is practically trivial by comparison. Also, everybody and their mother are playing the two new races (Draenei & Blood Elf), so each of their starting zones are heavily packed with new players and the servers are genuinely lagging.
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Comment on Curl will end its bug bounty program by the end of January due to excessive AI generated reports in ~comp
Bullmaestro Link ParentI'm not a programmer and don't have anywhere near the technical understanding to review code, but even I can tell that report is AI slop.I'm not a programmer and don't have anywhere near the technical understanding to review code, but even I can tell that report is AI slop.
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Comment on Recruiter harassed me whilst off sick. Considering filing a complaint. How best to handle this? in ~life
Bullmaestro Link ParentI did some more research. We have a regulator in this country that oversees recruitment agencies, and the agency may be in more hot water than I realised... -
Comment on How have you changed in the last year? What are your goals for this year? in ~life
Bullmaestro Link2025 was a crappy year for me, but there were things I learned. First, sex is kinda overrated. My first time was eleven months ago and it didn't go that great. I'll just leave it at that. Second,...2025 was a crappy year for me, but there were things I learned.
First, sex is kinda overrated. My first time was eleven months ago and it didn't go that great. I'll just leave it at that.
Second, my new years resolution going into 2026 has been to stick up for myself more and stop avoiding conflict. I've had a few times where I really should have spoken up, whether it's putting someone (freelance civil engineer earning great money) who has belittled my complaints about my current job in their place, dealing with an asshole recruiter who thinks they own me, calling out a woman for pretty much leading me on big time, calling out my dad for his mollycoddling and toxic behaviour. Things like that, really.
But it's going to take a lot to unlearn my past behaviours...
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Comment on Hytale surges to the most-watched game on Twitch, attracting over 420,000 viewers with its long-awaited launch in ~games
Bullmaestro LinkThanks to me missing the forced Microsoft account migration boat and receiving hardly any communication about it, a game licence I've had since 2010 when Minecraft was in open alpha had been lost...Thanks to me missing the forced Microsoft account migration boat and receiving hardly any communication about it, a game licence I've had since 2010 when Minecraft was in open alpha had been lost just like that. Meanwhile third-party servers like 2b2t and MinecraftOnline which have no affiliation, partnership or funding from Mojang have also been issued legal threats and forced to adopt their new draconian community guidelines else face blacklisting.
Maybe wanting to stick the middle finger to Microsoft and their anti-consumer bullshit is the reason I've wanted Hytale to succeed.
And now that it's launched, I really do think Simon has been too modest with managing the community's expectations. Hytale is in a better and more playable state than a lot of slop that has released at full price in recent years.
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Comment on Recruiter harassed me whilst off sick. Considering filing a complaint. How best to handle this? in ~life
Bullmaestro Link ParentCorrect. I am based in the UK.Correct. I am based in the UK.
Understandably so.
Brian Thompson was assassinated fifteen months ago. Many sympathise with the alleged killer and there is a very real possibility that Luigi Mangione could walk free due to jury nullification when his case goes to trial in state and federal court.
I have seen a growing number of "eat the rich" comments online, and people genuinely calling for us to start guillotining billionaires and corrupt politicians. Wealth inequality in the US has reached levels previously seen in France pre-Revolution and I think it's only a matter of time until things kick off - and things are going to get much uglier than previous revolutions.