Diablo and Divinity have me in the mood for a gritty dark fantasy story. Trying to decide between: 1. Feast for Crows 2. Black Company 3. Before They Are Hanged 4. Gardens of the Moon

It’s funny, Diablo IV is built around its endgame and loot chasing stuff, but I had a LOT more fun playing it just as a dark RPG. I sped through the second half of the campaign to grind with friends, and enjoyed it way less than my leisurely paced first half. Tempted to give it another go.

The long game for talking about the Adeptus Mechanicus around my wife is building up to pitching a cherub from Warhammer 40k as a costume for the baby

I'm excited to start Clair Obscur before the baby comes in January so I can presumably have *something* for my "best I played" list next year. Imagine I'm not going to have as much time for gaming until... uh, ever

Was absolutely howling with excitement and pumping my first into the air when this came up at the Game Awards: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVgC...

Just got one of my friend groups VERY into Warhammer and I couldn’t be more proud. There’s lore discussions going on every day in the Discord and I’m so giddy.

humans have been trying to do this shit forever and it's never worked out

One of the many reasons AI can't produce good writing is it can't hate its own writing. It can't think to itself "Maybe I'm illiterate" during the writing process. And that's essential

Have to write this up for a news story today and I’ve got a bit of vomit in my mouth the whole time. Readying to fight with my editors about how cynical my script is.

Not going to name names or throw an Arlington business under the bus but it seems utterly incongruent to post an ad asking folks to support their small, local business and to do so with AI “art”

Just started Rogue Trader and, first round of combat, discovered my Commissar's special ability allows him to shoot an ally and to either give them bonus damage or, if they die, give every all nearby bonus damage on their attacks. Brilliant

Reporter: I interviewed this person for the story Me: what’s their name Reporter: says here ‘Richard Johnson’ Me:

I’m on the second book of the Horus Heresy and, in addition to it fitting into the canon of one of my favorite tropes — friends/lovers to enemies — it also fits with another favorite: prequels where dread hangs over everything because the reader knows where it’s heading

Darktide came out in 2022 and every year since then “Immortal Imperium” has been somewhere in my top 10 on Spotify every year

I have only met two honest to god Libertarians in my age range and a lot of that’s obvious selection bias, but I also like to attribute that to Bioshock coming out in our very politically formative teen years

Watching ‘Hard Boiled’ tonight and this movie is SO sick

Aztec mythology is so cool and it's a shame more mesoamerican stuff isn't used in fantasy

I’m always baffled when someone says they’re not into history. It’s just so far outside of my worldview it’s just hard to understand. There’s SO much history, every corner of the globe for thousands of years, if you’re just focusing on written human history, and you’re not fascinated by *any* of it?

Reading ALXnow stories at Fox 5 makes me feel like Barbara Streisand at the end of The Way We Were.

Feel like I have time for maybe one more game before the baby comes. Thinking either Rogue Trader, Clair Obscur or God of War: Ragnarok

Finished CONTROL this past weekend. Absolutely incredible. Using telekinesis to rip chunks of concrete out of the wall, defend myself with them, and hurl them at enemies literally NEVER got old. I got giddy every time I launched myself into the air, floating around and hurling objects. What a blast

A good friend got me really into Jim Steinman earlier this year and not only is this album great, but I love the cheesy, painted fantasy art album cover

The machine spirits were angry tonight but quelled with proper benedictions. Hail the Omnissiah. (I *think* I fixed a crashing problem by fixing a heat sink that had fallen off a jury-rigged SSD)

You should have seen the massive grin plastered across my face during this scene. Love Nightcrawler (third favorite X-Men character) youtu.be/Yz_Fe1qGhqs?...

Finished last night. Absolutely loved it. Best X-Men adaptation by a mile and maybe Marvel’s best animated show (no offense Spectacular Spider-Man)

spoke with the executive director of my local food bank today and got this really incredible line: "if you donate 1 can of green beans, we can give away 1 can of green beans. but if you donate a dollar, we can give away 6 cans of green beans"

There’s a place in X-Men where there’s a famously devastating cataclysm and when one of the characters starts an episode with a cheery “let’s go to [place]” I spent the rest of the episode like this

Holy shit X-Men ‘97 is so good youtu.be/iUw9cIrhlIw?...

Hugo getting along with the neighbor

It's funny, what prepared me for TV news more than any other journalism experience was my Destiny Raiding/Overwatch friend group

Working on a news program at my desk and “I Want To Live” from the Baldur’s Gate 3 soundtrack comes up on Spotify

“Did you build the furniture for the baby?” “Yeah! … oh THAT baby-“

Finished watching the original X-Men animated show from the 90s last night and the last episode got me kind of emotional. A human tries to assassinate Xavier and he’s badly injured. It sparks a mutant revolt around the world with them calling for Magneto to lead them. He steps up and the X-Men-

My new work computers use Edge as the default browser and all the 'news' scrapes other sites into MSN. Silly question but does anyone know: how can they do that? Is this like a partnership with these sites, because it seems like this would massive impact site viewership

Juno MacGuff: I think I’m in love with you. Paulie Bleeker: You mean as friends? Juno MacGuff: No... I mean for real. ‘Cause you’re, like, the coolest person I’ve ever met, and you don’t even have to try, you know... Paulie Bleeker: I try really hard, actually

Finished The Devil’s Chessboard this morning. Incredible. The first two thirds are a devastating profile at Allen Dulles and the early days of the CIA. The last third is a haunting look at the intrigue connecting the CIA to the Kennedy assassinations. Amazing read.

Had to work tonight so pulled out the Snake Plissken costume (ten years after I first got it). Had a big smile on my face when one of the crew leaned over and said “Take me with you, Snake”

I had a great childhood and I worry a lot about not being able to provide the same quality of life for my son, but I’m surrounded by moving boxes and watching a 90s cartoon so I don’t think all that much has changed

The last third of this book is about the JFK assassination and, while I’m generally extremely skeptical (comes with the job) it’s had me like this

Everybody in the office turns into a 12 year old boy (myself included) during a flyover. Just pointing up with a big, silly “OOOOOOHHHH! LOOOK!!”

It's funny, the job this newsroom is reminding me most of is working at the comic shop. Most days it's insanely tense and busy from the moment I walk in until I'm finishing stuff up minutes after my shift 'ended'. Then Saturdays I'm begging for work because there's nothing to do.

Probably reading some fiction after the CIA book is done (maybe A Feast for Crows), but which biography should I pick up after that? - Autobio of Malcolm X - American Prometheus - Grant (by Chernow) - The Path to Power

Very lore accurate that I have to keep restarting my Skaven campaigns in Total War because I’m using like 200 mods and refuse to stop using any of them when they update and brick the game

It is 2001 and Microsoft is releasing Halo: Combat Evolved It is 2014 and Microsoft is releasing Halo: Combat Evolved It is 2026 and Microsoft...

In the last year I played both the Gear of War and Halo (Master Chief Collection) remasters. I was impressed with how well Halo 1 holds up and truly astonished at how much Gears of War 1 blows.

Everybody’s been incredibly nice at the new job except today when a producer sitting next to me had to frantically scramble to turn his phone off speaker when the reporter on the call started to talk shit about me over a *very* minor misunderstanding the day before.

It's kind of funny that Bethesda had an entire press rollout for "Fallout Day" with a live-stream and everything just to announce they didn't have shit. Like, brother, YOU called the press conference! You didn't have to do this!

I've been watching the 90s X-Men cartoon (I didn't grow up with it, but I want to watch X-Men '97). I just got to the Age of Apocalypse episodes and I can't stop laughing because the whole time I'm just reminded of this skit www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt-L...

Control feels a little too close to my new job, not for any spooky paranormal reasons, but because in both cases I go around asking a lot of questions and only understanding like 10% of the answers

Look, I'm generally not a fan of incarcerating people, but this is only going to stop once you start putting people in jail over this instead of fines that are a slap on the wrist for a property developer wjla.com/news/local/i...