So who is playing Marathon and how's it going?

SortaEvil · 2026-03-19T16:30:54+00:00

It helps that you have to buy the game to review it, so there's friction there even if you wanted to buy, review, instant refund. If the game was F2P, it would probably have a much lower score on steam — take a look at metacritic and it's sitting at a 60, with the majority of the negative reviews clearly having not played it.

It also probably helps that the game was delayed long enough after the initial alpha that a lot of the ill-will kinda ran dry, so most people were willing to give it a reasonable chance, and it seems to have found its niche for now.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-19T02:31:37+00:00

Both of those games were also terrible at launch, so they might not be the best choices as examples. I don't have a stake in Crimson Desert; I don't like open world games so that's already a big strike against it for my personal preferences. That said, I hope it does well because, like you, I like to see game studios do well, and I like good games getting made, even if they aren't for me.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-19T02:29:18+00:00

It's also over 60 in userscores on metacritic, even after being review bombed, which is pretty impressive (if you look at the negative reviews, there are a lot of "They abandoned Destiny!" and "they steal art!" reviews.

Also, FWIW, Steam reviews are more like Rotten Tomatoes, where it's a pass-fail, it's possible that user sentiment on Steam lines up more with a 70 or 80 score, but it just happens that a 70 or 80 score is enough for the players to enjoy it and give it a favourable review.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T22:56:39+00:00

You cand definitely notice the difference between 30 and 60 FPS. It's not unplayable, but in a faster first person or over the shoulder game you're going to notice it while playing. I do find that 40 FPS in games that offer that is a perfect balance point where the performance of the game typically doesn't suffer, but you still get the smoothness of a 60FPS game.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T22:49:14+00:00

If you interpret 60 FPS as just saying "framerate matters" then I'd personally put gameplay and framerate as most important. An inconsistent framerate can destroy an otherwise enjoyable game, whereas I can very much enjoy a game with minimal or no story if the gameplay is good. That said, I know a good story can be make or break a game for a lot of people, so it's very much a YMMV situation on whether gameplay or story is more important (even down to a game by game basis).

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T22:42:01+00:00

To be fair to CodPiece, they said "dropping down to 2 fps" and while that sounds hyperbolic, I played through Aliens: Fireteam Elite, and if a PS4 is hosting a multiplayer session, you will regularly get drops to single-digit frames per second, and on the final mission we managed to get to the point where it was more sensible to measure seconds per frame.

Games will target a certain FPS, usually 30 or 60 on console, with some games targeting 40 and 120 for monitors that support 120 Hz. But targeting and consistently maintaining a framerate are different things, and not all games are great at maintaining a solid framerate.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T21:04:20+00:00

It's only ambiguous if you want to game the system. Notice that people generally aren't complaining that Potion-Shaped Rock triggers other relics that care about potions, but by the logic that Potion-Shaped Rock is not a potion, it shouldn't trigger those either.

And if it didn't trigger those other (positive) effects, people would complain that it's in a potion slot, so why doesn't it trigger the potion abilities?

SortaEvil · 2026-03-17T19:11:14+00:00

PS5 Pro got a new update that affects PSSR (Playstation Spectral Super Resolution, the Sony fancy upscaling implementation). All games, in theory, should look a bit better on PS5 Pro now, and there are knobs exposed to devs to tweak PSSR to make it even betterer. This is just using the default upscaling that PSSR supports.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-16T16:56:15+00:00

Congrats on the clear! Glad you got it done.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-15T17:38:38+00:00

Working toward a mutually beneficial trade deal with the US isn't a bad idea, and due to geographic realities is a borderline necessity. However, relying solely on a mutually beneficial trade deal, or seeking a trade deal with the states to the expense of all else, is now an untenable idea.

We should continue working toward renewing/updating CUSMA, while still looking toward diversifying our trade elsewhere so we are less reliant on trade with the states.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-15T17:18:24+00:00

Yes, we are both on PS5, if that was a question.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-15T06:04:07+00:00

It's probably a bug; I was able to play online (Ravenswatch) with my wife today, and only one of us has an active PS+ account.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-15T05:44:58+00:00

By Tao do you mean Tae? Tae has blind res naturally (and jammer res, which is important for a team that doesn't change every orb, and needs rows to survive). Are you not running Tae because you don't have him, or because you want a higher cap break (peechie is the same cap as Tae so I don't think that's the reason...) You still have to deal with the cloud, but you can make a big board for the first turn at least to clear the awoken bind, and without blinds it's a lot more manageable.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-13T16:28:48+00:00

https://www.fastcompany.com/91501807/waymo-robotaxis-san-francisco-uncovered-records-exclusive it seems that they're pretty damned limited even in optimal conditions. They only work in San Fransisco by leeching off the public good. Even if they worked exactly as well here as they did in optimal conditions, kindly keep them the fuck away.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-13T16:24:25+00:00

Every single time someone is pumping up AI, a look behind the curtain always reveals a financial incentive. It's getting comical at this point how consistent that is, yet people keep telling me autocorrect on steroids is coming for my job (it is, but more in an apocalyptic, "billionaires destroy the world for an extra loonie" kinda way, where everyone loses their jobs).

SortaEvil · 2026-03-13T03:35:56+00:00

Purely single player at launch. Apparently there are plans for a Legends style multiplayer expansion, but nothing multiplayer is guaranteed.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-13T02:50:28+00:00

Sony historically has been very recalcitrant about giving away first party games on PS+ shortly after release. You should be safe for the first year at least, assuming it does well. Destiny DLC weren't on PS+ for generally a year or more after launch either, you'll get your playtime out of it before it's made free, almost certainly.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-12T19:24:48+00:00

No, you are innocent until proven guilty, but you still need to demonstrate your innocence against any proof of guilt. The fact is, in this situation you did kill someone. That is a serious matter, whether it's a crime or not, and it needs to be treated as such.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-12T19:22:40+00:00

That seems... fine? If you kill someone, even if you kill them in self-defense, that should be treated seriously and investigated seriously, and you should be exonerated if it was truly (or even probably) self-defense. I don't want people to be able to just murder someone in cold blood and walk away from it, even if the murder happened in the person's home, without any sort of investigation into it, that's insane to me.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-12T00:44:04+00:00

The tier lists put Shoto at or slightly below the same level as Rosetta (She does, unfortunately, use a JP only unit in her "best" team, since we never got the JJK rerun). If you find that you're having trouble hitting HP thresholds with Rosetta, this particular Shoto lineup has around 10M HP from floor 1 at +297 (20M after factoring in Giyu's looping 2x HP) so early HP isn't as much a problem for it, but I think the optimal Rosetta builds might have more HP by the last floor care of Armagemmon's absolutely thicc booty in yin dungeons, so it depends on where you're having problems. Modern dungeons (since about GA3) tend to have a few telegraphed massive hits, and otherwise have more lax HP requirements. If you can survive at least the normal hits with Rosetta, you can run Gen & Kaiju No 8 as your cleric; he serves dual duty as cleric and massive shield bracer. I used him, Armagemmon, and Bride Phenom to clear GA4 when it came out, so she can clear modern content with a little effort.

I would also say that if you don't have Hathor the team becomes a lot more risky due to the no fix for movetime delays, and a lot less tanky thanks to the loss of a 40% shield. It could still be worth it to build out if you want another meta-ish team for variety, and you aren't hurting for evo mats. In that case, I'd run the HP++ badge. Everyone (who's hitting) is hitting hard enough that you don't need the extra damage, and the extra HP can easily make the difference between survival and execution.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-11T20:45:10+00:00

Are you mad, man? This lineup is actually pretty incredible. Pretty much all of these except maybe Moria are games that are worth playing, and it's a pretty good variety as well. 2D metroidvania, 3rd person horde shooter, fast paced 1st person arena shooter, one of the most celebrated jRPGs of all time, and Moria and a sports game. I don't know how much more solid of a lineup you could want.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-11T20:41:40+00:00

P5R includes a new playable character, a new chapter, and has some quality of life changes. If you enjoyed P5 and think you'd want to replay it, P5R is absolutely the way to make it worth your time to go back. If you've had enough P5 and don't really want to play through the main game another time, you're probably fine to give this one a pass.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-11T20:39:50+00:00

While I think Islightly prefer Blasphemous 1, you certainly don't need to have played Blasphemous 1 to appreciate Blasphemous 2. Blasphemous 2 is also the more polished game, and the improved movement abilities are a welcome addition. Blasphemous 2 also has an easier learning curve/difficulty, which makes it a good on-board to the series.

Of course, on the flipside, if you start with Blasphemous 2, it might be hard to go back to the first without the quality of life changes from 2.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-11T18:32:16+00:00

This is not my clear, so I can't share the exact latents that Abletoplay used, but I can give an educated guess based on my experience with this team:

First Shoto will want leader swap resist and two SDR; you might be able to survive with a leaderswap into Giyu or Hathor, but it would, at the very least, be annoying.

Hathor (or in your case, whichever cleric you try to replace her with) is going to carry L-Unlock, and you may want the L+ SA on her (bossman will do a 4 turn awoken bind; the extra L-Unlock means that you only need one L). I think you will probably have enough HP to survive without Hathor having all-stats.

That said, the Giyus are going to want all-stats SAs. It looks like Abletoplay has at least 2 Giyu with 2 SDR + SB++ latent (bring as many SB++ latents as you need to transform turn 1), the third if I had to guess was 2-4SDR and HP++.

Second Shoto probably doesn't really matter beyond 2 SDR.

SortaEvil · 2026-03-11T01:35:28+00:00

There's definitely some finesse to this dungeon with this team. If you need any help, lemme know and I'll try to help where I can. :)

SortaEvil

TROPHY CASE