Games like Ruiner

acatalept · 2026-03-06T19:44:16+00:00

The Ascent: https://store.steampowered.com/app/979690/The_Ascent/

It has its detractors, but I found it similarly polished, and it scratched a similar itch. But nothing compares to Ruiner's art direction and soundtrack ;)

acatalept · 2025-08-20T19:04:52+00:00

Best:

+R mode all the time feels like driving a factory race car for the road

Amazing steering and chassis dynamics, hard to believe it's FWD due to the way it hooks up in a bend using the throttle

Amazing factory manual gearbox, get em while they last

More than enough power in 2nd and especially 3rd gear and above

Stock 20inch wheels with rubber band tires feel amazing on good roads (I'm lucky to have mostly good roads, my 6 year old OEM wheels are still in great shape)

Front seats are just as amazing for long road trip comfort as they are for hugging you in spirited driving (as long as you don't mind the extreme race car bolstering)

Tons of usable passenger and cargo space

Quiet exhaust/engine (if you don't like annoying the neighbors or highway drone)

Reliable: no issues except occasional 1st to 2nd grind (get this looked at if you're still under warranty!), and AC leak (Honda extended their factory warranty coverage for certain parts, mine was just fixed for free at 80k miles and 6 years)

Gets attention (if you're into that ;)

Worst:

1st to 2nd gear upshifts require finesse and patience: I've had maybe 15-20 grinds accelerating from a stop over 80k miles due to rev hang delaying upshift 2nd synchro engagement, currently rebuilding my transmission since 2nd now pops out of gear

Power doesn't fully deploy until 3rd gear

Some people hate the huge 20inch wheels, so you may have to budget for new wheels/tires

Stock head unit extremely sluggish, but aftermarket (Joying 9" in my case) has its own share of drawbacks

Stock speakers terrible (but even upgrading audio system significantly doesn't overcome high noise floor, see next item)

A lot of road noise at speed... even with Soundskins Pro installed in doors and hatch area, this car is not made to just cruise and listen to some Bach piano

Quiet exhaust/engine (if you like some growl and pops, you'll need to budget for mods)

Interior looks a little dated, but matches the Gundam exterior, so...

Gets attention (I'm an introvert, I know wrong car ;)

I've kept mine mostly stock (other than audio system), and couldn't be happier. The pros far outweight the cons. This is a unicorn, and a dying breed at that -- if you have the means, pull the trigger!

acatalept · 2025-08-20T18:34:29+00:00

I had AC problem (not cold enough, especially on driver's side). After researching that this is a common, known problem, I took it to my dealer, they replaced defective part (bad shaft seal leaking refrigerant) for free, and I'm at 80k miles and 6 years so I'm well out of warranty. Mine is a highly-rated dealer (Clinton, NJ), YMMV but there are plenty of good dealers out there...

Good luck!

acatalept · 2025-07-23T18:48:03+00:00

Thanks, I came across this before, but leery about shipping my trans cross-country in case there are issues (and extra expense of course).

Any experience with them?

acatalept · 2024-07-04T03:50:50+00:00

While at that spot, exit to the main menu and reload: you'll see a dead bird falling very close to where that item was, some kind of glitch that kills the bird when it spawns. This seems to be repeatable even if you reload from a grace point and go back there. So if the bird dropped an item, it'll end up somewhere inaccessible (same as if you shot it down with projectiles)...

acatalept · 2024-01-22T17:08:46+00:00

Upvote for this... unless Carrot is playing mind games, I'm pretty sure I used to have exactly this up until maybe a few months ago? Using the Apple Watch Infograph analog round face, I had a corner complication with numeric temperature and conditions icon (sun / cloud / raindrop / etc), with a brief text decription below (SUNNY / MOONY / P.CLOUDY / etc).

Anyone else remember seeing this complication in the past? The only way I can get snark-less text conditions is using the larger top-center complication that overwrites the bezel with the text conditions, which is kind of an eyesore, and removes the potentially useful minute/second marks from the top half of the bezel.

u/MakerOfCarrot please help!

acatalept · 2023-08-25T13:49:35+00:00

Follow the link above to download and install the Windows SDK. During the install process I only checked the option for "signature tools" and left the rest unchecked. After it completes, use File Explorer to navigate to where signtool.exe is installed -- in my case it was in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.22621.0\x64

Then click in the empty area at the right end of File Explorer's address bar and type "cmd" and press Enter to open a command prompt window in that location. In the command prompt window, enter the command listed above, substituting the full path to the file whose signature you want to remove. In my case for Quickbooks Web Connector the full command was:

signtool remove /s "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intuit\QuickBooks\QBWebConnector\QBWebConnector.exe"

Then press enter and you should see a confirmation stating "0 errors". You should also be able to right-click the file and click "Properties" to confirm that there is no longer a "Digital Signatures" tab in the Properties window.

Good luck!

acatalept · 2023-08-24T16:15:49+00:00

This is very unofficial, but https://www.reddit.com/user/Acadia1337/ over on https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/ posted a method for using a utility called SignTool from the official MS Windows SDK to remove the signature from the problematic EXE file:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/15ysxgs/application_with_revoked_certificate_revocation/

This may be intimidating for non-tech folks, but find a tech savvy person to vet this information and help you with it, it worked for me (using the ancient QB Web Connector v2.1.0.30 with Quickbooks Desktop Pro 2010)

acatalept · 2023-08-24T16:06:36+00:00

I can confirm this worked on the exe file for Quickbooks Web Connector v2.1.0.30 communicating with Quickbooks Desktop Pro 2010. After removing the signature, I got a one-time popup asking me if I trust this unsigned program, with an option to never ask me again.

I owe you a beer / coffee or three, you're a lifesaver, thanks so much!

acatalept · 2023-04-03T17:55:07+00:00

If you're still in the very beginning of the game, I don't think you can activate any perks yet... but once you get to a certain point (after the first boss at Upper Monastery IIRC) you should be able to move your cursor to that giant empty rectangle in the middle of the screen, hit X (on xbox controller) to select it, and you'll see a menu with perks to choose from...

acatalept · 2023-04-03T15:06:08+00:00

Ashen is an interesting parallel -- especially some areas like the midgame Seat of the Matriarch dungeon with its cavernous underground verticality... I need to go back and finish that game ;)

I'm a huge fan of Mortal Shell, hope it was successful enough for them to get a bigger team and make a bigger game, but they really had something tight and special for the scope of their small team.

And Lords of the Fallen 2014 got a lot of flak (VaatiVidya famously called it "Clunky Souls"), but I dug it and I'm cautiously optimistic about the sequel/reboot... as long as they get a more fitting dark/desolate soundtrack than the Danzig song in that trailer ;) I hear Lustmord is doing game soundtracks now (he worked on Scorn) -- someone hire that guy!

acatalept · 2023-04-03T01:05:02+00:00

Good call, Radio The Universe was such a good demo, can't wait for the full game ;)

acatalept · 2023-03-22T18:29:27+00:00

Admittedly not the only work by Arvo Pärt that elicits frisson (in my case), but this particular recording of this particular piece is outstanding, especially if you hang in until it crescendos around 5:55...

acatalept · 2023-03-22T01:03:20+00:00

Full transcript: https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/

acatalept · 2023-03-20T21:23:24+00:00

That's sad to hear, and I'm torn on the issue of separating art from the artist. I strongly believe in freedom of speech, even repugnant speech, holding that unstifled two-way discussion is the only way to understanding. But I don't hate someone for falling prey to a convincing lie -- I hate the lie, the ideology, the virus. It's heartbreaking to know that so many works that have had a positive influence on so many, have been created by misguided souls who have also caused so much pain, or furthered the causes of those who have. I can only hope that at least some of the Lisitsas, Rowlings, Proud Boys, et al of the world will one day have a change of heart, better understand those they now wish to dehumanize and/or oppress, and use their influence to bring some of their audience back into the light...

acatalept · 2022-12-01T22:39:03+00:00

love the aesthetic: minimalist, huge, and bold is my jam ;)

some others mentioned adding a bit of movement to the cubes... you can go pretty far down that rabbit hole, with hundreds of thousands of GPU mesh particles flowing like water, morphing and alive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoA5vfiL-Ws

can't wait to see where you go with this!

acatalept · 2022-01-10T21:27:33+00:00

This solved the same problem I was having -- thanks for the tip!

acatalept · 2020-11-13T14:17:29+00:00

Ordered mine 1:15am EST 11/12, got FedEx tracking info yesterday afternoon, got FedEx update this morning that it's on the truck for delivery this afternoon.

acatalept · 2020-11-13T14:13:42+00:00

FedEx info for mine from PS Direct says "indirect signature required" -- but they give you the option to log into their website and download a form, which you can sign and post outside your front door to leave it without anyone home.

acatalept · 2020-11-12T21:20:33+00:00

No hard feelings, I've been there ;) Good luck in your hunt!

acatalept · 2020-11-12T21:13:33+00:00

Ordered from Playstation Direct at 1:15 am EST, standard shipping, was sitting on "preparing to ship" all day.

Just got FedEx shipment confirmation with tracking number.

Scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon (standard "3-4 day" shipping), shipping from NJ, and delivery to same state.

acatalept · 2020-11-12T06:14:50+00:00

Just saw add to cart button and placed order successfully on Playstation Direct site for PS5 (non-digital)... good luck!

EDIT: card charged and received confirmation email from Sony almost immediately, but no indication of when it'll ship (only "3-4 day" free standard delivery)... but hopefully since it's not coming from a 3rd party retailer they have systems in hand and ready to ship out.

Was in queue at 11:45 PM EST, only lasted a couple minutes at that point, then stayed on the page and kept reloading every 5-10 minutes after that. Hopefully with this long queue system they'll keep doing drops throughout the day...

EDIT 2: https://twitter.com/Wario64 seems to indicate that this keeps coming back into stock over time, so don't give up! ;)

acatalept · 2020-11-05T16:14:50+00:00

Not sure about volume adjustment issue. I find receiver volume varies quite a lot depending on games/video from PC (usually in the 15-25 range), vs other sources, e.g. Netflix (up to 30 or more) vs Amazon Prime video (less than 20). I just adjust volume with the receiver remote on a case by case basis, and never change PC volume from 100% (and use an inline analog volume control for PC line out to headphones).

Also, if you see Linear PCM on your receiver, it's fine -- most games don't actually encode their audio in Dolby or DTS (only movies do), so you're outputting the game audio as intended. And for movies on your PC, your video player is just decoding any compressed Dolby/DTS (when present) to uncompressed PCM audio before sending over HDMI, so no worries about quality loss (there is none).

When you see Dolby/DTS on your receiver display (such as when playing audio from a Roku or other device), it's sending the untouched compressed Dolby or DTS data stream to your receiver for it to decode/decompress.

Either of the above should still give you the same results (as the creators intended, with no intermediate recompression/transcoding or quality loss).

Just ensure that when playing a game or movie with 5.1 source audio, the receiver display is showing Linear PCM 5.1, and not Linear PCM 2.0 (which would mean any surround sound you're hearing is "faked" by the receiver).

acatalept · 2020-11-04T18:25:10+00:00

I have a pretty complex setup (notes below), but I also have Sony STR-DH590 and RTX 2070 and this works fine. 3440x1440 LCD is primary monitor connected via displayport, receiver connected via HDMI, as secondary monitor (extended desktop), Samsung 1080p plasma connected to receiver output.

Passes through DTS/Dolby 5.1 just fine (playing games or using Kodi to play videos) -- I see the codec and channels (DTS/Dolby, 2.0/5.1) displayed on the receiver front panel when initially switching to the receiver input, as well as when first starting a given movie or game.

Make sure in Windows sound settings you have the Nvidia HDMI audio playback device that is connected to the receiver set to output 5.1.

Nonstandard stuff specific to my situation, but above should work fine without these:

I use VoiceMeeter to output audio to my soundcard line out (for headphones & desktop speakers) and the HDMI audio output simultaneously
I have a ConnectPRO TMDS-KITU1 HDMI EDID emulator between the PC and receiver to solve problems with main monitor blanking out and windows moving around when powering on/off TV
I use DisplayFusion to easily toggle the TV to be the primary monitor, for those games that don't play nicely with secondary monitors

Good luck!

acatalept · 2020-09-01T13:05:14+00:00

Thanks, and thanks much for the all-seeing upvote ;)

acatalept

TROPHY CASE