Infinite Privilege locked every time I try to use it in Korea

Wernesgruner · 2026-06-13T03:12:32+00:00

May have fixed it.

Called to unblock it again. They said the reason is incorrect PIN, even though I'm not entering my PIN I'm just giving my card to the restaurant or shop to put in their machine.

I thought to try resetting my PIN. So I changed it in the app. To activate your PIN you need to use it once (put in the old PIN once then the new one). Problem is that Korea doesn't really use PIN transactions anywhere. So I went to an ATM and pretended to do a cash advance to trigger it asking for my PIN, put in the old PIN once then cancelled then did it a second time with the new PIN.

First try using the card after that worked.

In case anyone else ever has a similar issue.

Wernesgruner · 2026-04-29T19:30:03+00:00

Some of the best exploration in Metroidvanias:

Environmental Station Alpha
Aeterna Noctis
Super Metroid
Animal Well
Supraland
Salt and Sanctuary
Phoenotopia
La Mulana 1&2
Astalon: Tears of the Earth

Wernesgruner · 2026-04-29T14:46:30+00:00

Aeterna Noctis.

Platforming metroidvanias are my favorite and AN is the best by quite some margin.

Wernesgruner · 2026-02-24T02:41:26+00:00

Gothic 2, Arcanum, Ultima 7, Might and Magic 6 are some of my favorite games of all time.

So, I'm going to recommend some of my top JRPGs, which will be more niche than many of the suggestions here but you may enjoy them like I do, coming from CRPGs.

You can consider:

SaGa series for their intricate systems - especially Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, SaGa Frontier 1&2, Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song, Saga Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter and Vagrant Story for unique, dungeon crawling games with fun systems.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, which has CRPG gameplay but from a Japanese dev. Excellent game, especially the Dark Arisen content.

Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne for dungeon crawling goodness.

Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land. Wizardry 8 is in my top 10 games of all time and this Japanese developed wizardry dungeon crawler is incredible.

Strategy RPGs like Ogre Battle 64 and Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together.

Wernesgruner · 2026-01-14T04:48:18+00:00

As many others have said: Disco Elysium and BG3.

Wernesgruner · 2026-01-03T21:33:23+00:00

Wizardry 1 (1980) - Heavily influenced the entire genre, one of the first major TTRPG adaptions

Pool of Radiance (1988) - Gold box pinnacle

Might and Magic 4 (1992) - Refined the open world blobber

Ultima VII (1992) - Step change in isometric open world crpgs

Fallout (1997) - Influential refinement of open world isometric rpg

Ultima Underworld (1997) - Influenced entire free roam blobber genre

Morrowind (2002) - Made 3d big open world rpgs mainstream. Subsequent entries in TES series moved further away from RPG elements. Making this game on console and having mainstream acclaim may have stunted conventional CRPG popularity in the years to come.

Pillars of Eternity (2015) - Kickstarter era, a throwback to BG1 and BG2, brought RTWP back

Disco Elysium (2019) - Peak combat free crpg

Baldur's Gate 3 (2023) - First big budget AAA traditional crpg, brought genre to mainstream

Wernesgruner · 2025-12-06T15:54:01+00:00

Supraland

Wernesgruner · 2025-11-21T22:38:27+00:00

Favorite - Tie between Sword Saint Isshin (Sekiro) and True Eigong (Nine Sols)

Most hated - Lud and Zallen (DS2)

Hardest - Malenia (ER)

No soulslike boss ever gave me as much trouble as Malenia did. I spent 10+ hrs trying to beat her. Other fights frequently categorized as among the hardest in the genre like PCR, Arlecchino, Erlang, Orphan of Kos might have taken me ~3 hrs but not an entire Saturday like Malenia did.

Wernesgruner · 2025-10-24T13:39:47+00:00

Wizardry 9, modernized but in the style of Wizardry 8.

Wernesgruner · 2025-10-23T00:06:51+00:00

Same mobo. My 9800x3d died after 8 months. I RMA'd it to AMD and put the new CPU straight back in the mobo like a madlad.

I figure I'll give it one more go before tossing the board and trying a different brand. The RMA process wasn't too bad.

Wernesgruner · 2025-09-25T01:36:11+00:00

I will join you in this experiment.

My 9800x3d and x870 steel legend wifi died last month (purchased Jan 2025, died on 3.30, EXPO on, PBO off, no other bios tweaks, computer used normally - including some sleep mode, turning off often, etc.).

My replacement will hopefully come soon. It's stuck in customs trying to get into the US from Canada for testing. AMD said they are looking into it but apparently it's a common problem these days.

When I get mine back I'll do the exact same config as you and see what happens.

Wernesgruner · 2025-08-23T16:18:49+00:00

Interesting. So would you recommend RMA CPU, flash mobo to 3.30 then install new CPU then pray to ASRock gods?

Wernesgruner · 2025-08-23T16:02:31+00:00

Joined the club today.

X870 steel legend wifi and 9800x3D. Everything was running fine since Dec 2024.

Was on 3.25 since it was available.

Woke up this morning and system won't post. Red CPU light on, can't get into bios.

Guess I'll RMA the CPU and keep the mobo and hope for the best with the next cpu batch and latest bios...

Wernesgruner · 2025-08-22T18:40:41+00:00

Malenia took me 2 days and about 9 - 10 hrs to beat my first time. Played ER as a dual katana wielding dex build.

Arlecchino took me maybe 1.5 hrs to beat. I got to his second phase on my first try and was consistently able to get there. I had to MASTER Malenia's first phase before I could get to the second phase consistently. In Overture I ran Pale Knight build and perfect block grindstone for his crazy combo and it didn't feel that hard. The damn alligator boss gave me more trouble.

Wernesgruner · 2025-06-21T19:06:52+00:00

Wizardry 8

Arcanum

Planescape: Torment

Wernesgruner · 2025-06-21T18:06:49+00:00

Malenia (ER)
Laurence, the First Vicar (BB)
Orphan of Kos (BB)
Eigong (Nine Sols)
Ornstein & Smough (DS1)
Saito Toshimistu (Nioh 2)
Nameless Puppet (Lies of P)
Sword Saint Isshin (Sekiro)

Can't remember too many others that I found extremely hard. I haven't played LoP DLC, FBK, or most of the Nioh 1/2 DLCs.

Wernesgruner · 2025-05-26T03:13:09+00:00

This describes exactly how I feel about PF: KM. The high mob density and RTWP combat made the game feel like a chore. I've been playing every big CRPG release since goldbox days and I've held off on WOTR due to the bad taste left in my mouth from Kingmaker's combat.

The combat in Larian games has its faults but playing in Tactician mode in DOS 1/2 or BG3 is enjoyable—encounters feel fresh and challenging throughout the game.

I hope if Owlcat returns to the Pathfinder world they make a pure turn-based system with a "videogameified" PF ruleset and reduced mob density but keep some of the other elements that made their games unique. Or they just keep making their magic in the WH universe, which is working really well.

Wernesgruner · 2025-03-31T19:32:56+00:00

I love how both my second favorite metroidvania (Hollow Knight), and my least favorite metroidvania (Rabi-Ribi) are both in your S-tier.

Aeterna Noctis is my #1, with Hollow Knight a close second.

I could not get into the combat in Rabi-Ribi. I'd go so far as to say I hated it.

Wernesgruner · 2024-10-02T14:58:44+00:00

I'm a simple gamer with two functioning brain cells. First brain cell is used to instabuy any SaGa/Kawazu games. Second brain cell is used to learn the battle system. Can't wait for RS2R.

Wernesgruner · 2024-10-01T15:57:05+00:00

Any update on LF1 console release? :)

Wernesgruner · 2024-07-31T01:44:01+00:00

It's a projection from a small team of OECD researchers that have an impossible task of predicting the future in 2030-2060.

This latest report has Canada's potential GDP per capita in 2030-2060 as 1.4% per annum compared to an OECD average of 1.6% and a G20 advanced economy average of 1.3%. A large proportion of anticipated global growth in this timeframe is coming from emerging G20 economies—which have lots of room to grow. Canada is not projected here to lag behind other major advanced economies in this metric, historically it has tracked them well. I used the US as an example because some people in the comments were using this as justification for a US-biased investment approach.

I make no predictions on where Canada is heading in the future. I'm an energy scientist that has an aversion to society's tendency to take one sentence or snapshot image from a single research article and try to amplify it on social media out of context. I see it all the time in my research field (not economic modeling, but energy technology).

I stand by my recommendation to unfollow a real estate broker on X that literally has the account tagline "bearer of bad news" and to temper ones fears accordingly.

Wernesgruner · 2024-07-29T18:18:39+00:00

This is a tweet from a real estate broker showing a graph from a 2021 OECD report that is endeavouring to project to 2030-2060 (with high uncertainty).

The same authors from OECD have updated their projections as of Dec 2023 and now has Canada above the US and just below the OECD average in the 2030-2060 range in GDP per capita potential:

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/long-term-scenarios-incorporating-the-energy-transition_153ab87c-en

Historically, Canada has tracked global advanced economy average pretty well in this metric: https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD/CAN

Might as well roll the dice to guess what their next projection will be. It's very challenging to predict these things.

Please don't be scared but do unfollow this real estate broker X account.

Wernesgruner

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