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 Updates to Xbox Game Pass: Introducing Essential, Premium, and Ultimate plans in ~games
Bullmaestro LinkGonna keep an eye on the UK pricing, but if they hike it similarly here, I'm cancelling.Gonna keep an eye on the UK pricing, but if they hike it similarly here, I'm cancelling.
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (October 2025) in ~health.mental
Bullmaestro Link ParentIt sure is. But the job market is so bad that even someone who has full AAT membership and is ACCA part-qualified like me is desperate enough to take crap like this.It sure is. But the job market is so bad that even someone who has full AAT membership and is ACCA part-qualified like me is desperate enough to take crap like this.
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
Bullmaestro Link ParentI've always seen Active as a punishment for taking your time to navigate menus and select abilities. But the argument about dual-techs is certainly valid.I've always seen Active as a punishment for taking your time to navigate menus and select abilities. But the argument about dual-techs is certainly valid.
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
Bullmaestro Link ParentThere is a saying that "your favourite Final Fantasy will be the first one you played." That one for me was FF9. I could never get into the previous PS1 ones.There is a saying that "your favourite Final Fantasy will be the first one you played." That one for me was FF9. I could never get into the previous PS1 ones.
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (October 2025) in ~health.mental
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkOverall it's been a really mixed month of ups and (mostly) downs. I finally have a temporary purchase ledger job after six months of unemployment which I started on Monday, and which should tide...Overall it's been a really mixed month of ups and (mostly) downs.
I finally have a temporary purchase ledger job after six months of unemployment which I started on Monday, and which should tide me over until the end of the month, unless this place decides there is money in the budget to hire me permanently, and even then I'm not sure yet if I would take that.
The downside is that I work longer hours (8pm - 5pm), am dealing with the horrors of working with Oracle Fusion, and have to commute to another office 50 miles away from home on office days, which is an almost two-hour journey each way regardless of if I take the bus/train or drive there, and that is a pain point for me. I also unfortunately had to call in sick this morning because the stress of this commute (which I would have done for three days straight due to my training), my dad being a selfish arsehole and keeping me awake by watching TV very loudly in his room, and a really nasty sunburn on my neck had been leaving me sleep-deprived and genuinely unable to function. I also nearly crashed my car on the motorway yesterday morning when I almost missed a turning and that has spooked me.
My social life hasn't exactly been great either and it feels like I'm either being dragged into unnecessary drama or being forced to choose between people. I won't elaborate too much on this...
Last Tuesday I was kicked out, possibly even banned from my local pub by the landlord's daughter when I went there for a few drinks. For context, they have a large dog who is technically registered as an American bulldog, but may come under the UK's XL Bully ban due to how it's defined. That may also be a lie and that he may actually be an XL Bully due to the argument that later ensued. I showed my ex-girlfriend (she wasn't physically present, and I'm on great terms with her) a picture of him that the pub posted on their Facebook page a few weeks back and she mentioned that his nails seemed ridiculously long and urged me to raise it with his owners, because long nails can be really uncomfortable for a dog. I did exactly that, not to criticize them but to just point that out. She did not take things well, pretty much vowing she'd kick the shit out of my girlfriend if she ever saw her, and then telling me to "get the fuck out."
Even if I'm not barred. I'm very apprehensive about going back there for karaoke or open mic. Her response was way out of line and as far as I'm concerned I'm not coming back unless somebody apologizes, and that person isn't going to be me. Some of my karaoke friends are blaming my ex for this and telling me I should cut all contact with her, but in my eyes she did absolutely nothing wrong. Some of my other friends agree that the dog's nails are too long and really need clipping.
It's a shame because I met that dog and I really like him. Staffies and American bulldogs are like huge muscly and highly affectionate babies in terms of their temperament around people and this one is no exception.
Maybe this is a very delusional way of looking at things, but I've gone back into studying Neville Goddard and the Law of Assumption again (been reading through At Your Command and watching a lot of Be Something Wonderful videos.) A large part of me does genuinely believe in the Law and that I have manifested certain events into my life over the years, i.e. COVID, being gifted a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita, meeting people who also believe in the Law, the purchase of my flat falling through (and by extension my job loss), improving my singing voice, even a lady who I was attracted to snogging me six weeks ago. But it isn't something I have figured out how to control. If I could do that and live in the end with the life I want, I would be well and truly happy.
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Comment on EA is reportedly about to be sold in a record-setting $50 billion buyout to an investor group that includes private equity and Saudi Arabia in ~games
Bullmaestro Link ParentToys R Us is one of many examples of how private equity has poisoned a large company. Manchester United is another good one. At the time Malcolm Glazer acquired them through a LBO, they were at...Toys R Us is one of many examples of how private equity has poisoned a large company.
Manchester United is another good one. At the time Malcolm Glazer acquired them through a LBO, they were at the top of Premier League football. Now, they're saddled with a massive debt bill and are close to relegation, even to the point where Wayne Rooney has spoken out about their spectacular fall from grace
Jagex (creators of RuneScape) have also been passed around between multiple American, Chinese and European private investment firms, and this is a large part as to why the "flagship" version of their game (RuneScape 3) is littered with so many predatory pay-to-win microtransactions.
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Comment on EA is reportedly about to be sold in a record-setting $50 billion buyout to an investor group that includes private equity and Saudi Arabia in ~games
Bullmaestro Link ParentYes, I do remember the outrage towards what happened to Blitzchung. I had some friends pretty much threaten to disown me if I played any further Blizzard games after what happened. Same people...Yes, I do remember the outrage towards what happened to Blitzchung.
I had some friends pretty much threaten to disown me if I played any further Blizzard games after what happened. Same people also played Genshin Impact religiously and defended Riot's response to similar controversy amid accusations they censored the name of Hong Kong Attitude in light of the city's democracy protests (HKA qualified for the LoL World Championships that year.) The only real differences are that Riot pre-emptively banned the discussion of politically sensitive/controversial subjects, and that Riot are fully owned by Tencent, rather than being 25% owned like Blizzard were. They also ultimately ditched their boycotts the moment Diablo 2 got remastered.
But I think all of that was greatly overshadowed by the sexual misconduct and gender discrimination allegations that came out a few years later.
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger in ~games
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkChrono Trigger is a masterpiece and easily the best JRPG of all time in my eyes. Apart from the mobile releases, there isn't really a bad version of this game to play. SNES & PlayStation were only...- Exemplary
Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece and easily the best JRPG of all time in my eyes. Apart from the mobile releases, there isn't really a bad version of this game to play.
- SNES & PlayStation were only released in North America and Japan, as the game was never officially released in Europe until 2009 with the DS release. SNES is the original whilst PlayStation (bundled with FF4 as part of Final Fantasy Chronicles) also gives you FMV cutscenes. I am one of many Europeans who pirated the original from ROM sites simply because the game wasn't available in my region at all. Which is why I supported the official release by immediately buying the DS version the moment I saw it on a shelf in my local supermarket.
- Nintendo DS is the best and most feature-complete version with slight translation changes (i.e. Power Tab being renamed to Strength Capsule), font/sprite changes to fit the lower screen resolution/size of the DS, and a new dungeon/ending which appears in all subsequent releases, that focuses heavily around Magus and may/may not tie into the story of Chrono Cross, depending on your interpretation of one of the game's many characters who seems to look a lot like him. The only thing exclusive to this version (not in the mobile/Steam ports) is a monster-raising and battling minigame called Arena of the Ages which rewards you a few items at best. Unfortunately no mods exist for subsequent versions that restore this minigame, but it's not the end of the world.
- Android and iOS was a lazy touchscreen-focused reconstruction of the DS version which used to be hot garbage and probably still is. It released with a really ugly user interface, poorly upscaled/smoothed sprite graphics and no way to turn off graphics filters. Based on the reviews, it seems to still be quite buggy with frequent crashes, black screens and compatibility issues with certain OS versions reported.
- Steam was originally a 1:1 port of the Android/iOS mobile release, but was review bombed so harshly that it sprung Square Enix into action to improve this particular version. Graphics filtering options were added and the UI has been improved to more closely match the DS release, and overall it is the only way to reliably play the game on modern hardware. If you prefer the original SNES interface and don't like some of the remastered sprites, there is a Pixel Demaster mod available.
If I had to give some bits of advice for new players:
- If you see a save point somewhere in a dungeon, there is a decent chance that it's been placed in the room right before a major boss fight. Chrono Trigger is one of those masterfully crafted games that is quite forgiving about where it places save points.
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When you return to 1000AD and return to Guardia Castle,
you are arrested and tried for the abduction of Marle. The courtroom trial takes into consideration your actions during the first part of the game. It ultimately doesn't matter what dialogue options you choose or what you did. You can theoretically be sentenced to as little as a single night in prison, but the Chancellor will overrule it and condemn you to a death sentence regardless - With most bosses, you generally have to defeat their adds before you can wail on the main boss. Failing to do so can lead to the boss either taking virtually no damage or unleashing a hefty attack on the party as punishment.
- Heal up party members when their health bar is less than 40 - 50%, either through Cure or items.
- Haste (halves turn times) is amazing when you unlock it as a spell, but Haste Helms are the ultimate upgrade for maximizing uptime and damage output, as it permanently applies Auto-Haste to any party member who wears one.
- If a boss takes next to no damage or heals from damage you try to inflict to them, try attacking them with a different combat style. Some enemies are weak to magic, or certain types of elemental attacks, which are unlocked at later points in the game.
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When your save file shows "The Fated Hour", this is the endgame where you can do the sidequests for each character and unlock their ultimate weapons (which is highly recommended for item & story progression reasons.) The Old Man at
the End of Time will give you a hint as to where you need to go to progress each story. - There is no bad character, they all have their strengths, weaknesses and ideal synergies with each other.
- The game has 14 unique endings (including one for losing to the final boss, and another tied to the bonus dungeon/boss available in all versions released after 2009.), You can take on the final boss fights
as soon as you reach the
End of Time on your first playthrough (or far earlier on NG+), but this is not recommended. - The last boss is meant to be mathematically impossible to take down until you reach the endgame on a typical run.
- Clearing the game's final dungeon is optional, but recommended on your first playthrough, due to the increased EXP, further story progression, and to actually unlock New Game Plus.
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Comment on Timasomo 2025: Roll Call in ~creative.timasomo
Bullmaestro LinkWith NaNoWriMo officially dead as of a few months ago, I'll throw my hat in the ring and do a novella for Timasomo. Not sure about the exact length of the story though. A full 50,000 word novel...With NaNoWriMo officially dead as of a few months ago, I'll throw my hat in the ring and do a novella for Timasomo.
Not sure about the exact length of the story though. A full 50,000 word novel would have been much for me to handle, espeically with me having started a temp job two days ago.
I'm not gonna revive a project I had failed to complete for NaNo, but rather write something I had considered doing in the last few years. A story revolving around a vigilante/serial killer who murders their victims with golf clubs, known by the police as "The Caddie."
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Comment on EA is reportedly about to be sold in a record-setting $50 billion buyout to an investor group that includes private equity and Saudi Arabia in ~games
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkThere's a lot of fury over the Saudis "sportswashing" their image by holding sporting events and even trying to make the Esports World Cup a thing on their turf. I think this anger would be valid...There's a lot of fury over the Saudis "sportswashing" their image by holding sporting events and even trying to make the Esports World Cup a thing on their turf. I think this anger would be valid if it weren't for the double standards everybody had been displaying.
China has not only hosted numerous sporting and esports events, but Chinese firms have invested heavily in and even outright acquired some US developers, yet nobody bats a fucking eyelid.
I'm guessing people don't care about the Uyghurs or Tibetans they've persecuted, nor the crackdown upon civil liberties in Hong Kong.
And before people tell me "this is totally different, the Public Investment Fund is a state-owned org unlike Chinese firms", Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba, can't even criticize Chinese economic policy without the state apprehending him...
On the subject of the EA sale itself, leveraged buyouts are fucking terrible and need to be criminalized because nobody should be able to acquire a large business with high sums of debt. It's the reason Manchester United have had a spectacular fall from grace and why Toys R Us went bust.
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Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health
Bullmaestro LinkUnfortunately due to a mix of mollycoddling parents and depression, I haven't found the energy to go back to the gym. Part of the problem is that I don't have a lot of control over my diet. But I...Unfortunately due to a mix of mollycoddling parents and depression, I haven't found the energy to go back to the gym. Part of the problem is that I don't have a lot of control over my diet.
But I have thought about doing an experiment where I'd do arm and leg exercises in my room with dumbbells and drink a protein shake maybe 2 or 3 times a day.
It's similar in concept to the 8 Hour Arms workout that Rich Piana came up with, but of course I'm not gonna do sixteen sets of this with super heavy weights.
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Comment on Jimmy Kimmel to return to ABC on Tuesday after show’s controversial suspension in ~tv
Bullmaestro Link ParentI hope he addresses this directly in his opening speech, and makes a donation to the ACLU instead just to spite Sinclair's board.I hope he addresses this directly in his opening speech, and makes a donation to the ACLU instead just to spite Sinclair's board.
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Comment on What "one-hit wonder" do you think has a discography worth exploring? in ~music
Bullmaestro LinkHanson were only ever known for Mmmbop. But they have a load of other good songs and have evolved a lot over the years. Cases-in-point: Where's The Love, Penny & Me, Thinking 'Bout Somethin'Hanson were only ever known for Mmmbop. But they have a load of other good songs and have evolved a lot over the years.
Cases-in-point: Where's The Love, Penny & Me, Thinking 'Bout Somethin'
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Comment on Does anyone here enjoy a whisk(e)y ? in ~food
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkAside from Jameson, the only other Irish whiskey brand I've tried is Perase. I went to Dublin for my birthday four years ago and visited the Guinness Storehouse and Pearse Lyons Distillery. We...I’ve since moved back to Ireland and am on a quest to find good Irish whiskey.
Aside from Jameson, the only other Irish whiskey brand I've tried is Perase. I went to Dublin for my birthday four years ago and visited the Guinness Storehouse and Pearse Lyons Distillery. We originally planned to tour the Jameson distillery but they were heavily overbooked.
It was a really nice tour where they went through the history of the church it was built upon, and talked about how they restored the nearby graveyard and converted the building into a distillery.
My only regret was that we went to Dublin while COVID restrictions were in place. There was an 11pm curfew in place on all bars, you had to show proof that you were vaccinated to enter most places, and the whole tourist experience felt pretty watered-down. Had we gone just two months later after we saw just how mild the Omicron variant was, none of this would have been in place.
I'm not much of a whiskey drinker but I do recommend Pearse.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Bullmaestro LinkRuneScape 3. Catalyst League started today and I don't know if I like it. I'm one of those people who hates the fact that Old School RuneScape isn't getting Leagues this year, but its MTX-ridden...RuneScape 3. Catalyst League started today and I don't know if I like it. I'm one of those people who hates the fact that Old School RuneScape isn't getting Leagues this year, but its MTX-ridden older sister game is; probably because RS3 is in crisis mode and was pulling about a tenth of OSRS's playercount prior to this league's launch.
To explain why I don't like RS3 and why the game is in dire straits, I'd have to give a very brief history lesson on how things got that bad.
RuneScape 2 went through years and years of bad updates which had led to the game hemorrhaging players and the developers adding increasingly predatory microtransactions and lootboxes to the game to make up for lost revenues. But the straw that broke the camel's back was the 2013 Evolution of Combat update. Jagex had effectively tried to transform a point & click MMORPG's tick-based autoattack combat system into one based on abilities and action bars, more akin to World of Warcraft. The update was very poorly received, made a lot of people quit the game and utterly trivialized content which wasn't designed around abilities. Jagex ended up scaling it back (first via adding Revolution combat, which effectively automated your rotation for you, then via adding Legacy Mode, a combat mode that replicated how the game used to play pre-EoC with the caveat being that it's wildly inferior to using EoC/Revolution.
EoC is more akin to Star Wars Galaxies' New Game Experience update in terms of how badly it ruined the game.
Then they did all this dumb lore-breaking Sixth Age God Wars crap, rebranded the game to RuneScape 3 for very dubious reasons (the game wouldn't improve graphically until a few years later with the NXT engine update.) When the rise of a private server running on an older version of RuneScape 2 (and its shutdown via C&D) led to them launching Old School RuneScape, and OSRS getting content added, everybody started flocking to that game instead.
As for my thoughts on Catalyst League and RS3 so far? I've already hit 321 total level and my second relic as of writing. The game is not only too easy and trivial to progress in, but has one of the worst and most overbloated user interfaces of any MMORPG. The game is such a clusterfuck from a UX perspective that it would even make Linux nerds wince.
Want an example? Changing attack styles and how you gain XP in OSRS is as easy as clicking the Combat tab and left-clicking a style to change it. For RS3, I realised I wasn't gaining Defence XP at all and had to google the solution because I couldn't find the combat tab. Turns out the toggle for what XP you gain from combat is buried deep in the fucking Settings menu, under the Gameplay and Combat XP tabs.
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Comment on Super Mario Bros. Remastered in ~games
Bullmaestro LinkI saw the trailer for this two months ago and was blown away. This is far more effort than modern day Nintendo would put into a retro port or remaster.I saw the trailer for this two months ago and was blown away. This is far more effort than modern day Nintendo would put into a retro port or remaster.
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Comment on What are some “sore thumb” lyrics for you? in ~music
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkInvisible by D-Side. The lyrics in general read like a stalker's anthem, and it's a bit weird that Clay Aiken did a cover of this song for the US crowd after being the runner-up of American Idol....Invisible by D-Side. The lyrics in general read like a stalker's anthem, and it's a bit weird that Clay Aiken did a cover of this song for the US crowd after being the runner-up of American Idol.
Two examples of what I mean, one from the very first verse
What ya doin' tonight
I wish I could be
A fly on your wallAnd the chorus...
If I was invisible
Then I could just watch you in your roomDo I even need to spell out how that's creepy as fuck? I mean I get what the songwriters were trying to go for here, the song is basically about falling for someone who doesn't even notice you. But I don't think there's a context where you could tell a lady that you want to be a fly on her wall or to watch her in her bedroom unnoticed without being labelled a creep.
Maybe the early 2000s were a different time? Or... these lyrics hit different when the guy singing them is actually physically attractive and a genuine chick magnet?
Besides, Radiohead did the whole unrequited love song better with Creep, and theirs was intentionally meant to have obsessive stalker vibes.
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Comment on Give us your hot takes on the latest Nintendo Direct in ~games
Bullmaestro LinkThe Direct overall was quite shit. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book looked amazing and I know people that would be happy with a new Fire Emblem, but other than that, it was mainly Switch 2 Editions...The Direct overall was quite shit. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book looked amazing and I know people that would be happy with a new Fire Emblem, but other than that, it was mainly Switch 2 Editions and ports of existing games.
The Switch 2 exclusive DLC for Super Mario Bros Wonder seemed like a blatant cash grab to me. Wonder had no problems running on original Switch hardware, so adding multiplayer DLC that legitimately could have worked with the base game and locking it behind hardware requirements is just bad.
Similarly for Pokémon. Pokopia looks like the same generic sandbox life sim surivival game slop you'd see everywhere on Steam, while it's shocking that they're already announcing paid DLC for Legends Z-A over a month before its official release date, with the main draw being two forms of Mega Raichu...
And the addition of Virtual Boy games to Nintendo Classics...
Why the fuck do I have to either spend £66.99 on a plastic replica of the Virtual Boy headset or £16.99 on a crude cardboard cutout just to play these games? Why aren't the games playable in 2D or in black & white mode rather than the headache-inducing redscale graphics of the original hardware? If emulators can accomplish this, why can't Nintendo?
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Comment on Charlie Kirk shooting: US President Donald Trump says suspect in custody in ~society
Bullmaestro (edited )LinkAlso reported across multiple news outlets, four bullet casings had the following messages inscribed on them: “notices bulges OwO what’s this?” (this was on the fired casing of the bullet which...Also reported across multiple news outlets, four bullet casings had the following messages inscribed on them:
- “notices bulges OwO what’s this?” (this was on the fired casing of the bullet which hit Charlie Kirk in the neck, it's a reference to a furry copypasta which I won't link here.)
- "Hey fascist, catch! ↑→↓↓↓" (a reference to a Helldivers 2 meme about the Eagle 500kg Bomb stratagem, BBC News seem to have misinterpreted it as an antifa symbol.)
- “Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao” (lyrics of a song about the Italian Resistance, who fought against the Nazis and Italian Socialist Republic in WW2, also featured as a pre-order DLC bonus in Hearts of Iron 4)
- "If you read this you are gay LMAO"
He seems more like a terminally online shitposter who has spent too much time on Twitter or the /pol/ board of 4chan than a calculated assassin, which is probably why the FBI were so easily able to catch him.
Why do I get the feeling that furries, gamers, radical leftists and the LGBTQ community are going to come under the Trump administration's crosshairs?
NGU Idle
Finally taken down the 12th Titan on Brutal difficulty and 13th Titan (who doesn't have difficulty settings, let alone drop any rewards.) Despite doing a month-long rebirth, and then doing another rebirth (which I'm 5 days into) for the increase in number, I still only have a third of the stats needed to actually defeat the final titan in Adventure Mode, and am on the 297th boss in Boss Fight.
Starting to think Sayo's guide was inaccurate on recommendations and timings and that I should have done far more 24 hour rebirths to get to 12v4 level.
Skate
EA's Skate revival was a majorly anticipated release for me. But after playing 90 mins I'm just... underwhelmed. It could be that I'm playing with a cheap third-party Xbox controller (I can't be arsed to plug in my 8bitdo SF30 Pro and try with that) but the stick controls do not feel accurate at all and leads to situations where you do kickflips, heelflips, even other unintended tricks when you're trying to do a mere ollie. The game otherwise just feels lifeless and artificial with a very cringe premise. The dialogue is genuinely so bad that whoever at Full Circle wrote it should be ashamed of themselves.
RuneScape 3
Finally unlocked the fifth relic in Catalyst League and haven't had much desire to play since. I take my previous comments about RS3 back. What puts me off about this version of the game and its league compared to OSRS is that it feels the game has taken one step forward and three steps back.
A good example is with the Agility skill. Old School has rooftop courses for training Agility which, yet for RS3 the best way to train your Agility level up to 30 is to start the Nature Spirit quest and repeatedly leap across the broken bridge outside the grotto. After this, you can either do Anachronia's beginner course to 52, or do the Penguin course if you've unlocked and completed the Cold War quest.
Lots of RS3 content is gated behind quests, and unlike with Old School's most recent league, relatively few of these are auto-completed. Catalyst League would be "sneeze and you get a 99" difficulty, if the main timesink wasn't completing the game's tedious-as-fuck quests.
Fellowship
Played a little bit of their open beta, but was met with long login and instance queue times and the few dungeons I did do had people leaving part-way, so took a whole lot longer. My time playing this wasn't so fun this time around. I am still looking forward to the Early Access launch later this month and really hope this game succeeds, because I want Fellowship to scratch that Mythic+ itch in a way that World of Warcraft and its toxic-as-fuck community hasn't.