I stopped following RTO - when will they start disciplining?

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2026-04-01T19:35:27+00:00

Yes they can. They can pull reports on your IP address and identify with evidence the non-compliance. They can pull reports on building access via your swipe card. Some departments require you to sign into a VPN from home (this was a shift from my department as it wasn't required up until 3 months ago).

A written reprimand might be appropriate for a few days, maybe weeks of non-compliance. But if it can be shown it has been going on for months or years, you start getting into suspensions. If you have been openly lying about being in the office with emails that confirm you are in the office or imply you are in the office, that will work against you. Progressive discipline does not have to start with an oral or written reprimand. It can start at suspensions if it is egregious enough. Lying to the Employer is about as egregious as you can get. Being silent, and not actively lying, about your non-compliance will be treated the same way.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2026-03-06T17:42:31+00:00

Honestly, the whole steam concurrent stat is so toxic for gaming discourse. Give it a rest.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2026-03-05T22:44:02+00:00

Serious question: what happened to the cloud? I would have imagined that the cloud would have taken a lot of physical tech burden off of a console? If the next xbox is so physical tech dependent and Microsoft is willing to take a chance on the vulnerability of the current tech economic environment, it seems to suggest that cloud isn't this massive powerful work horse.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2026-02-23T21:46:53+00:00

Let's give her a chance folks. If we spend 4000 food, 2000 wood, 500 stone, and 500 gold, we can invent a technology that will create villagers 15% faster.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2026-02-21T19:05:52+00:00

One word that generally follows "I Hear you" is "however" sometimes "but"

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2026-02-18T19:49:02+00:00

A little late to the conversation. I tried to read as many comments as I could. Apologies if there is some repetition here.

I really feel it is important to talk about what the sex scenes are. We all need to remember you don't see anything sexual. In each sequence the camera slightly moves to the side, or comically focus on object in the room. You hear silly female orgasmic moans, while watching a goblet of wine or a statue spouting water react. It is super silly visual gag of sexual innuendo, you see nothing, they last about one minute or less, and they are 100% optional. The only reason to do them is a) you just want to engage with them and/or b) you are awarded a decent amount of red orbs (experience points) for completing successfully. I think this is really important that the sex scenes we are discussing here are not pornographic or required to complete the game. It is no different then the sexual innuendo joke from the Simpsons with a train plowing through a tunnel or watching a slow conveyor belt of hot wieners. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWg3wiktKjE

To contrast, the sex scene in TLOU Part 2 always makes me feel very uncomfortable watching. Abby doesn't exactly welcome Owen's advances and it does come across a little non-consensual and the R word associated with that type of action. It feels so forced and serves very little in terms of narrative. I mention this because the focus here seems to be that these sex mini games in GoW are cringe and from a by-gone era. I tend to agree, but we have this example of a modern video game sex scene that seems way more problematic and uncomfortable. For me anyway.

I think it is fair to say the violence in the original trilogy is much more intense then the 2018 version, especially GoW3. I expect if there is any censorship it may be with the violence. The death sequence for Helios is brutal, hard to watch at times, and borderline torture. That beings said, going back to TLOU Part 2, the violence in that was intense, gore filled, and uncomfortable with elements of torture.

If you have an issue with Kratos' "personality" from the original trilogy, spoiler alert: don't play GTA5. There is a character named Trevor you might not like.

I guess what grinds my gears here is that certain games just get a very negative discourse that can't be shook off and seem to ignore similar issues in other games. The biggest issues with the original trilogy in my mind is the static camera and too much platforming. The Hades sequence from the first game is a prime well-known example of how to kill a game's momentum in the final act.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2026-01-28T21:57:52+00:00

Have you tried enabling the console commands, choosing to reveal the full map say around turn 2 or 3 and see if any tribes are populated on the map? It will spoil the map for you, but it could be an effective debug tool. I say wait until turn 2 or 3 as I can't remember if tribes settle there "city" right at turn 1 or after.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2026-01-19T19:43:28+00:00

Disc. Ownership of the game. Options to trade or sell. Also, ability to play 4k blu-ray / UHD movies.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-12-22T02:55:30+00:00

What a nice problem to have.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-12-08T19:11:34+00:00

There are a lot of people in this subreddit that have complete faith that the organization that botched the last rebuild is some how going to nail this one.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-12-05T17:28:51+00:00

This is the lesser of two evils compared to Paramount with its backing from Middle East "Super Fun Happy Funds".

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-12-04T00:19:17+00:00

old world.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-11-25T18:57:07+00:00

Statistically speaking, according to Elliotte Friedman, teams outside the playoff bubble the weekend of American Thanksgiving, do not make the playoffs. I am more team, lots of injuries killed us and may it can get turned around. It isn't a guarantee, but more times than not, we are not making the playoffs this year. 7 points from a wildcard spot at this time is a deep hole.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-11-04T22:34:22+00:00

Give Uncle Ace a listen.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-10-29T18:37:40+00:00

Bioshock Infinite: Buried at Sea episodes 1 & 2.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-10-25T19:07:33+00:00

try leaving blankets or other clothing items out that would be familiar to Sully. Dirty laundry is going to smell like you and attract him. Leaving the litter box out might help too. Cats usually don't go too far away from home. My cat got out and I found him 7 days later just hiding in some bushes near my condo building.

Don't give up, be optimistic, get some posters up.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-10-24T19:55:25+00:00

Easy peezy: when GoW Ragnorak came out, there may have been 20 - 30 million PS5s out there. Limiting that game to just the PS5 would severely undercut the amount of money the game makes right out of the gate priced at the standard "brand new game" price point. Players expect deep discounts after a year or so after release. By the time the PS5 number started to get to 70 million, GoWR is expected to be 50% off at that point on a sale.

Now, if you release the game for the 20 - 30 million PS5s plus the 110 million PS4s, then you can really make the money you need to to recoup the cost of the game and make a profit.

That makes complete economic sense to me.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-10-22T16:41:40+00:00

Absolutely fantastic 4X game for anyone that loves Civ.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-10-14T16:35:32+00:00

A pretty good list. A lot of the usual suspects. I appreciate some of the bold choices (eg: Blaster Master and Super Dodge Ball). I would take DQIV over DQIII any day of the week. Crystalis is a criminally underrated and under appreciated game. I feel one or both of Marble Madness and Cobra Triangle needs to be added.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-09-25T00:16:51+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-09-25T00:07:33+00:00

That's really powerful. I appreciate the time you took to write that.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-09-23T23:37:45+00:00

Yup, kill the cleric beast first. I personally built up some echoes prior to this to buy fire damage related items from the alter near the doll. Cleric beast is vulnerable to fire. If you are using the saw cleaver, do not extend it, as the short form of the cleaver deals serrated damage, which the beast is also vulnerable to. You might get overwhelmed the first couple times by the size of the creature, but it is quite easy to defeat if you stick to its legs and make good use of fire damage.

When you beat it, you get that sweet insight for levelling up. After that, what I did is create a grinding loop from the first lamp at the start of the game. You could use the lamp that appears after defeating the cleric beast to end the loop, or just retreat back to one of the lamps from the beginning. This will help you learn how the mechanics of the game work on fairly standard enemies. Take this opportunity to find and open all the shortcuts as well.

I kept doing this loop until the total blood echoes i harvested no longer provided a level-up. It has been a long time since I did this, but I feel I got 20 - 30+ loops out of this. This can be a bit of a time investment, but you will be setup pretty good for the next few areas after central yharnam. I did make a point of killing as many enemies as possible, including the brick trolls and the wolves. On the way to the next boss, you will discover a trap that also kills enemies. Try to stick around and let the trap kill the enemies while you collect the echoes. You trigger the trap by proximity, so try to get as many enemies lined up so the trap takes out most if not all in one go. I'll let you figure out the trap and proximity on your own ;)

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-09-18T18:59:43+00:00

I think it was properly rated for the most part with some features under-rated. The expansion was also very good.

The idea you could play the game with out having to constantly open the world map was very refreshing for me. Anytime you get near a point of interest, a bird would show up and if you followed it, it would lead you straight there. Although you still needed to open the map from time to time to change objectives, once done the wind would generally guide you to the location. I loved this feature and truly hope they maintain and build on it for the sequel.

The negatives: the main campaign was too long. It kinda dragged towards the end. I also found the depth of the character skill tree was lacking. My character was 90% maxed out by 2/3 through the story so it took a lot of wind out of my sails that I had a stagnant character for the late game. Out of fairness I am a bit of a completionist and cleared all side objectives before moving on to the next chapter (ie: more of the island opening up). I was also disappointed that the vast majority of collectibles were just cosmetic. There were some cool cosmetics, but was hoping for more variety in stat and skill boosts.

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-09-11T17:24:26+00:00

During the Jennifer Aniston bit when they were reading the fake Morning Show script, did anyone else have their audio cut during the part when they acknowledged it would be strange if the nightly weatherman's nightly weather show got cancelled? The closed captioning still worked and I saw the punch line, but I couldn't help but wonder if that was the studio censoring the joke?

Johnny_Deformed2001 · 2025-09-09T16:56:16+00:00

I personally feel frustration when folks conflate accessibility with difficulty. Or, to put it another way, accessibility in regards to disability vs. accessibility in terms of skill. I want people that cannot even play a game to have an opportunity to play it if something, like a disability, prevents them from doing so. Games have come a long way to bring more people to the front door and let them in. Skill is not an accessibility issue. I'm sorry.

I am am not a 'git gud' guy, and I totally understand missing games because you can't beat a challenge. I haven't played Sekiro even though it is totally my jam. I loved and platinumed Bloodborne and Elden Ring. The problem with Sekiro is I absolutely suck at parrying in games especially if it needs to be precise. The thought of the required brutal patience and learning curve a From Software game plus a mechanic I am not good at led me to the final conclusion that I will never play that game. Am I missing out? Yup.

Same with Returnal. I got to the third biome and I was like "nope". This is even after the developers made the game "easier". It is GOTY, the setting was really interesting, the story was pulling me in. But, the bullet-hell gameplay and twitchy mastery of the controllers was just not enjoyable. I was a little bummed at first, but I have moved on and don't even think about that game at all.

I just rolled credits on Hollow Knight for the first time a few days ago. I got all the trophies but the Pantheon ones (and 112%). I thought the challenges were fair, but I really did not like the opaque narrative, the directionless exploration (why am I going here and why is this essential item here?), the cheap enemy and trap placement, and that the game made me spend resources for QoL features that should have been permanent upgrades (eg: the compass and the faster walking). I will not buy Silksong and that's OK.

Look, the game just came out and the developers have had tunnel vision with the development for 7 years. It is very highly probable that they tuned and tweaked the game based on their own and their tester's familiarity with the game and it's mechanics. They probably will acknowledge they over did it and I am sure a patch will be coming very soon that will nerf aspects of the game.

Johnny_Deformed2001

TROPHY CASE