Bullmaestro's recent activity
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
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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.
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Comment on Scott Adams dead: Dilbert creator was 68 in ~comics
Bullmaestro Link ParentI watched the cartoon series once when a re-run was randomly showing late night on a Freeview channel and honestly thought it was terrible. I mean as far as "shitty animated adaptations of comic...I watched the cartoon series once when a re-run was randomly showing late night on a Freeview channel and honestly thought it was terrible.
I mean as far as "shitty animated adaptations of comic series" goes, it's nowhere near as bad as Ctrl+Alt+Del: The Animated Series, but there is a very good reason it pretty much got dropped after a single season.
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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 ParentTheir complaints procedure is on their website and in the temporary contract terms and conditions. Not any contacts for senior business partners or directors.Their complaints procedure is on their website and in the temporary contract terms and conditions. Not any contacts for senior business partners or directors.
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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 ParentCartharsis and having a written record of the issues raised. Given the Trustpilot reviews this agency has, I don't see anything changing. While 70% of the 1-star reviews are clearly people salty...Cartharsis and having a written record of the issues raised.
Best case scenario is that you cause some systemic change at the agency which prevents similar things to happen to others.
Given the Trustpilot reviews this agency has, I don't see anything changing. While 70% of the 1-star reviews are clearly people salty about not receiving responses or feedback to advertisements they responded to, the others seem legit and like they correllate to my experience.
Also for the record, I don't like the job and I feel like the only reason I'm still working here is that I've been pressured to stay to the end.
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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 don't know who Ben's line manager is. He's also a management consultant in his own right who handles the temp recruitment team for my specific county. Maybe someone like a regional manage or...I don't know who Ben's line manager is. He's also a management consultant in his own right who handles the temp recruitment team for my specific county. Maybe someone like a regional manage or director may be above him, but it would take a lot of LinkedIn sleuthing to find someone like that and I dunno if cold contacting a random manager is a good idea instead of complaining via official channels.
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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 ParentOh very much so. I'd say I don't particularly need this job. The only thing that has honestly kept me there is that my colleagues and managers are nice people. But the pay sucks (£13.50 an hour...Oh very much so.
I'd say I don't particularly need this job. The only thing that has honestly kept me there is that my colleagues and managers are nice people. But the pay sucks (£13.50 an hour isn't that much above min wage here), the commute is too long and too costly, the head office is a 50 mile drive away from me, the systems kinda suck, and it's just repetitive invoice processing 8 hours a day.
As much as I agree with you on "many recruiters are scum", I think the industry is a bit more regulated in this country compared to the US or Canada.
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Recruiter harassed me whilst off sick. Considering filing a complaint. How best to handle this?
The recruitment agency I temp with are a major multinational player in the market, have a bit of a reputation for being sharks (based on feedback I've seen about them on Reddit and Trustpilot.)...
The recruitment agency I temp with are a major multinational player in the market, have a bit of a reputation for being sharks (based on feedback I've seen about them on Reddit and Trustpilot.) They're a publicly listed company who absolutely 100% should know better.
I caught a really nasty virus two weekends ago and had been practically bedridden for nearly a week. For the first two days of calling in sick, I logged into my work laptop and messaged my line manager via Teams. On Wednesday morning, I was advised that I should also keep my agency in the loop, so I instead sent her an email, ensuring to copy in the recruitment consultant who is my point-of-contact (I'll just call him Ben.)
At roughly 3:40 PM, Ben sends me a snarky WhatsApp message out of the blue. "you know we can see your details on job boards lol." I left him on read because 1. I'm in bed and 2. My job search is frankly none of his business.
He then called me and proceeded to all-but-accuse me of pulling sickies to attend interviews, going behind his back to apply for jobs. He asked me if I even considered how bad I was going to make him and the agency look if I quit my job, then proceeded to interrogate me about my contact I had with other recruiters and warned me to delist myself any job boards moving forwards. I complied, purely because I wanted to shut him up and didn't want to start a further argument, when in my head I just wanted to verbally chew him out.
I don't appreciate being intimidated and guilt-tripped about my job search, especially when I am genuinely unwell, and I am seriously thinking about lodging a formal complaint with the agency, but I'm also worried about facing retaliation for this.
AFAIK, I have not signed into a contract preventing me from applying for roles with other employers or agencies. I'm also on a temp zero-hours contract that is due to finish in less than three weeks where either party can terminate it without notice or liability. There is the possibility of the work assignment being extended, or me being offered a permanent role but I don't intend to stay beyond this. This was a decision I made to myself weeks before Ben's recent asshole behaviour. Other than that, I literally have nothing lined up.
Has anybody had experiences raising formal complaints with recruitment agencies? The agency does have a complaints procedure and a dedicated quality care team that investigates formal complaints.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkToram Online is a very interesting MMORPG and I'm not sure if I like it or not. On one hand, it's a uniquely charming game with a somewhat decent story, a great soundtrack and is somehow both...Toram Online is a very interesting MMORPG and I'm not sure if I like it or not. On one hand, it's a uniquely charming game with a somewhat decent story, a great soundtrack and is somehow both mobile-focused and actually having some depth to its gameplay. That's where my positives for it kinda end. It's very grindy, relies heavily on gaining hundreds of levels and doing dailies for progression and graphically it looks incredibly dated like an late PS1 game. Toram also aesthetically looks so similar to Final Fantasy XI and XIV to the point where I'm surprised Square Enix haven't sued for copyright infringement. There is genuinely a short humanoid race of people who look damn-near identical to the Tarutaru from FFXI or Lalafell from FFXIV. Even Josh Strife Hayes pointed out so many aesthetic similarities between this game and the Final Fantasy MMOs in his video review of the game.
I take some of my previous gripes about Vampire Survivors back. Ever since unlocking Hurry mode, the complaint about having to play a constant 30 mins through a stage has subsided. I still feel like progression through the game is confusing. It also feels like the game is 50,000 times better to play with a gamepad. Some weapons shoot forwards and it's better to have the more precise turning of a thumbstick than the 8 directions of WASD movement.
Old School RuneScape has been going rather slow for me. My current goal is to reach 62 Woodcutting and complete Sins of the Father to unlock Darkmeyer and be potentially ready for Blood Moon Rises when that releases. So far, I have one woodcutting level to go before I achieve the final minimum level requirement, and have completed In Search Of The Myreque and In Aid Of The Myreque but I have three more quests. Darkness of Hallowvale and A Taste of Hope seem super tedious by comparison.
Guild Wars Reforged disappointed me in the 20 minutes (thus far) I've played of it. Not because I effectively had to create another account because Steam licence keys are incompatible with existing ArenaNet accounts, but because for £17.99 this game basically looks the same as I remember Guild Wars Factions looking back in 2006 and I expected far more of a visual and QoL upgrade compared to what they actually packaged. The bundle doesn't even include Eye of the North or the Bonus Mission Pack, which you'd kinda expect from a 20th anniversary remaster.
Mind you, I hated Factions when I first played through it, but people have always told me that's the weakest of the three Guild Wars campaigns, and that Prophecies and Nightfall are so much better. My only experience so far with Reforged and playing through the Prophecies campaign has been doing a few quests, almost dying to a level 1 enemy because it turns out necromancer/warrior hybrids suck, and hitting a roadblock with a quest where I have to find an NPC in a location not even marked on my map in order to open a gate and progress. I mean I know excessive handholding is a thing in modern games, but if you're telling me to go somewhere that isn't even listed anywhere on my map without any quest markers (maybe because I haven't properly explored the zone), don't be surprised when I get confused and bored.
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Comment on Hooters | Bankrupt in ~food
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkIn short, a series of private equity acquisitions, a leveraged buyout (why have they not been outlawed already?), terrible economic conditions and an overall decline in food quality led to them...In short, a series of private equity acquisitions, a leveraged buyout (why have they not been outlawed already?), terrible economic conditions and an overall decline in food quality led to them filing for bankruptcy. A lot of people blame #MeToo for their decline but I don't think the movement and all the scandals they faced were significant enough to truly harm the brand, unlike American Apparel who were effectively torpedoed out of existence under similar circumstances.
The video mentions a similar chain called Twin Peaks who also have scantily-clad women as their main draw but haven't been in freefall. You could also say the same for Coyote Ugly who have effectively adopted the same concept but for bars.
I've only been to Hooters once for a birthday meal, and this was when they expanded their UK business. The food sucked, and to nobody's surprise, the location I went to shut within less than 2 years. Feminists celebrated the restaurant's closure, yet I see the Coyote Ugly Saloon that opened here months ago getting no flak despite them effectively running on the same concept (bar/restaurant staffed by predominantly women in skimpy shorts), and I genuinely think that if Twin Peaks expanded outside of the US and opened a restaurant here, it would go down really well.
Also, when looking up if Hooters still even had a presence in my country, I came across their UK website and saw this quote about their origins.
In 1983, six businessmen in Clearwater, Florida, who had no prior experience in the restaurant industry, teamed up to create a place where they couldn’t be kicked out. On April Fools’ Day that year, they opened it as a joke, never imagining it would turn into a huge success, let alone a global phenomenon.
Opening "a place where they couldn't be kicked out" sounds like a red flag motivator to for anybody creating a restaurant brand. It's weird that it's only the UK arm of the business mentioning this in their branding.
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Comment on Consumer Electronics Show 2026 in ~tech
Bullmaestro LinkFor me Dell stood out for saying what many could have easily predicted. Consumers don't want AI. It's made hardware prices skyrocket, has replaced a lot of workers despite the tech being pretty...For me Dell stood out for saying what many could have easily predicted. Consumers don't want AI. It's made hardware prices skyrocket, has replaced a lot of workers despite the tech being pretty shit, and is getting very justified consumer backlash as a result.
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Comment on UE5 Environment Art - Cliffwood Village (2023) in ~arts
Bullmaestro LinkLooked gorgeous but the water in this has so many problems. From far away, the waterfall looks like an incredibly low-res and flat animated texture, and then close-up it seems like it's spewing...Looked gorgeous but the water in this has so many problems.
From far away, the waterfall looks like an incredibly low-res and flat animated texture, and then close-up it seems like it's spewing around in very predictable but also unnatural patterns. And the stream looks too blue and is flowing too slowly.
Maybe it's an Unreal Engine 5 problem.
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Comment on What was it like for you and your partner when one of you was losing a parent "slowly"? in ~life
Bullmaestro LinkUnfortunately I'm dealing with a similar-ish situation with my 80-year-old dad and I've been witnessing his slow decline for years first-hand. He has chronic illnesses (COPD, kidney failure, and a...Unfortunately I'm dealing with a similar-ish situation with my 80-year-old dad and I've been witnessing his slow decline for years first-hand.
He has chronic illnesses (COPD, kidney failure, and a few others), plus complications stemming from a previous workplace accident and the cocktail of meds they've put him on since. He's been rushed to hospital a few times with respiratory infections because his blood oxygen levels have gone dangerously low. The main reason I'm still living with my parents even at my age is because I simply can't afford to move out and have been screwed over by the economy and by the last few governments.
My chance to buy a flat and move out over a year ago got delayed by probate, then outright torpedoed when I was made redundant because I chose to stick with a multinational vet care corporation whose executives responded to low sales with a "mass layoffs will continue until profits improve" mindset.
Don't want to go into too much detail about my home life but my parents are mollycoddling to say the least. I almost never cook for myself, never do my own laundry and even on days where I'm working from home they treat me like they're my servants. Even at 80 my dad has been particularly egregious about babying me through my day. Part of the reason I loathe my current temp job is the early starts, but even that's a problem on days where I work remotely and don't have to prep for a 2 hour commute. I often struggle to sleep and get woken up earlier than intended because he's up super early loudly moving things around, watching TV and setting up my desk. And if I ask him to stop and let me take care of myself he will throw a tantrum like I'm ungrateful.
If you couldn't already tell, I don't have the best relationship with my dad. But I am still greatly concerned for him.
A few years ago, he tripped, fell down the stairs and banged his head on a step when trying to answer the front door. I heard loud thudding and came out of my room to find him near the front door laying in a pool of blood. The man who rang the doorbell hadn't even noticed until I opened the front door in a panic, so I'm sure that if I went to the library as originally planned, he would have bled out.
That memory is still etched in my skull and had made me feel uneasy for a while. And I just know that when my dad inevitably passes away (don't know how many years he has left) it's going to break me.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkOld School RuneScape has been my main game of the week. Current goal is to hit 75 Attack and get a Godsword then hit 66 Herblore before I really start farming the Moons of Peril. Melee otherwise...Old School RuneScape has been my main game of the week. Current goal is to hit 75 Attack and get a Godsword then hit 66 Herblore before I really start farming the Moons of Peril. Melee otherwise feels far too slow to train for me, even with methods like Scurrius (only got good when the spines FINALLY dropped) and Sulphur Naguas netting me nearly 100k XP an hour.
When my work temp contract finishes, I plan to play and stream the new Deadman Mode season. I fucking hate PvP but I also feel like the only reason I hate playing on the permanent Deadman world is because it's full of a few griefing assholes who have genuinely chased any new players away from the server. I hated the fact that we didn't get Leagues last year and I didn't like how short Grid Master was, so I'm eager to get into another seasonal event, even if it's mainly for PvPers.
DMM is brutal. It's a version of Old School with 5x to 20x XP rates, where the entire map aside from a few sparse safe zones are open PvP. There used to be no combat level brackets whatsoever, but currently the brackets which determine what players can attack you is 3-75, 76-85 and 86-126.
This would be all well and good if the permanent worlds weren't full of mage or range pures, a.k.a. griefing sad fucks who min-maxxed their combat stats to minimise their combat level and maximise their raw DPS standing outside of every safe zone ready to 2 shot you.
And if you die on a Deadman world, good luck progressing your account. The PKer gets a key and can loot your 10 most valuable bank slots. Even if you found a way to travel between the mode's sparse safe zones, barely any of them have activities that are going to raise your stats or earn you meaningful gear.
Other than that...
Cookie Clicker has quickly turned into a slog. I last rebirthed when I had roughly 1 quadrillion heavenly chips and now it's taking me whole days of idling for me to even get a remotely sizeable amount of prestige levels. And all of this to unlock one, maybe two upgrades.
Vampire Survivors. Picked this one up yesterday when I saw a Hypixel Studios developer had created a mod for Hytale (releasing in 8 days) that was like a recreation of this game. I played a few rather shitty mobile clones of this without knowing what the OG indie game was. And I've been playing it mostly whilst in bed on my Steam Deck because I have a really terrible cold that has left me borderline bedridden for the past two days. Despite the Overwhelmingly Positive reviews, I'm not sure if I like Vampire Survivors that much. I just have a lot of nitpicks with the game, like:
- About 95% of your gold income will come from opening treasure chests which come from minibosses that occasionally spawn.
- The animation for opening these chests drags on for far too long, cannot be skipped and gets old really fast.
- 30 minutes is far too long for a single level playthrough. Even the mobile clones I've played have limited levels to 15 minute bursts.
- SteamOS's performance overlay is permanently on and cannot be deactivated. I get this problem in this game only. The overlay is genuinely disabled in my Steam Deck's options menu.
- It feels like the game demands maybe 10 - 20 hours of non-stop grinding for enough gold to buy all the upgrades before you can realistically start clearing past stage 2.
- Stage 2 is genuinely easier than Stage 1. I cleared it first on multiple characters.
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.