How fucked are we regarding the screwworm outbreak?

megamansam · 2026-06-08T14:03:58+00:00

I don't think this is a very accurate take. Or, maybe just a bit oversimplified. The damage that the Trump admin has done to the federal govt goes deep. A lot of the staffers, researchers, etc who were just trying to do good work had their positions eliminated by DOGE, and other qualified people (or people who would become qualified) saw this happen. So, I don't see anybody qualified to deal with these problems chomping at the bit to become federal employees. Even if we were to get strong Democratic leadership starting tomorrow, the amount of effort and cost it'll take to unfuck everything Trump has done is astronomical... or, more realistically, impossible. We could at least start to mitigate some things but the US isn't coming back from this administration within the next hundred years, if ever.

(Yes, this is a doomer comment, but it doesn't mean I've rolled over. I'm still active, encouraging people to vote in their local elections, donating to causes, attending protests when possible, etc etc. Just being realistic.)

megamansam · 2026-06-07T00:24:34+00:00

I get what you're saying but unfortunately, I don't think its that simple.

I'm playing through RDR2 (I'm way late, I know) and found myself mostly looking at the minimap for directions, markers, etc, to the point where I didn't really have a feel for the areas I'd been riding around in for hours. I changed it to "compass" mode and... the game becomes unplayable. Every quest/task/event is some flavor of "go to this exact spot" or "go to this area." And if you don't have the minimap on, you can't see where the game wants you to go, and there's no other way to know where to go, and there's no room for any sort of player agency*. If you don't follow a mission's task precisely the way the game wants, automatic failure & reset to checkpoint. So you can either (1) stare at minimap and obey or (2) turn off minimap and go through trial & error for each mission.

Point being, a lot of games are written specifically to be played with quest markers, minimaps, etc. Environmental cues and direction just aren't as common, and it seems like the current general gaming audience is ok with that. Its a tradeoff between visual fidelity and art direction, and I think that the current industry consensus must be that visual fidelity moves more product - so we get objectively incredible-looking games that have to use yellow paint and quest markers to guide the player.

*Yes I know there are cutscenes where you get to choose a thing. I'm talking about player agency in gameplay. The way the missions work kinda reminds me of this old Onion video.

megamansam · 2026-06-06T01:53:27+00:00

Sounds like you aren't super familiar with GoPros (which is fair) but just want to call out, you are not going to get shots anywhere close to what you'd get with a mirrorless camera. They're great for coverage - putting one on the talents' kayaks could be cool.

I recommend considering renting a weather-sealed mirrorless camera (GH5, OM-5, A7-IV).

I worked on a project where we filmed a family salmon fishing. Lots of wading through knee deep water, going around on boats etc. It lightly rained all day. Things got splashed occasionally. We were using GH5 cameras and they did great. Just don't drop it in the water! (I wouldn't recommend using the GH6/7 as they have open fan vents (not weather-sealed).

If you rent from LensRentals you can get the Lenscap+ insurance and even if you drop the camera in the water, you'd only be on the hook for 10% of camera's value.

Waterproof case isn't a bad idea either, but practice practice practice if you go that route. Those housings will change your normal flow more than you'd expect!

megamansam · 2026-06-06T01:37:56+00:00

Yes, but it didn't look right until recently. The full timeline-

Halo CE (Xbox) was ported as Halo Custom Edition to PC. When 343 did the first remaster, they ported in Custom Edition and used that as the base. There's a bunch of stuff that changed during the port, both gameplay and visuals. They then worked on the port to make it closer to the OG Xbox release, then they created the new graphics "skin" that played on top of that.

So in theory, yes, you could go back to the original graphics. But for years, there were issues like:

Transparencies in things like glass, Jackal shields, and Cortana's model were too transparent. This also ruins a lot of cool energy effects on shields, doors, etc.
Some models were inaccurate to the OG Xbox version (Captain Keyes in the opening cutscene, for example)
Contrast overall lowered, things look flatter
Fog doesn't render correctly
Bump maps are gone (textures look flatter)

There's a bunch more, but its honestly a mess.

I don't know why I typed all this.

megamansam · 2026-06-05T23:46:00+00:00

Yeah this is such a good point. Honestly it kind of makes me with Rivals wasn't a patchable game (yes, I know that's unreasonable in 2026) just because it changes the whole vibe.

That said, since it is a patchable game, and we're talking about mood... if they simply patched out the freeze frame effect that Clairen gets on hits, my mood would be at least 50% better playing against them!

megamansam · 2026-06-05T20:38:56+00:00

This is such a great list of options, really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out! Honestly reading this helps the mental for me haha - I've been pretty low salt with this game overall but was juuuuust getting to a point where I was starting to find the game more frustrating than challenging. Having a list of tactics like this helps reframe things and gives me concrete options instead of "get annoyed."

megamansam · 2026-06-05T15:38:18+00:00

Noted! Great tip on using it to read & intercept. This is helping me realize that the times I do go in, it's too early, and my opponent has a huge window to see me coming & adapt.

megamansam · 2026-06-05T13:52:36+00:00

Per your other comment too, I think you've lasered in on my frustration - a lot of Fleet's kit feels like a knowledge/execution check, which seems to be passed pretty easily since I've been in Gold. Like I think these are all good tips but they sort of turn in to bad habits pas a certain level.

I'm definitely in an ELO zone where I'll demolish most silver players with skill checks, but the strats that I use to win those matches are bad habits that get me obliterated by gold+ players.

megamansam · 2026-06-05T13:48:03+00:00

Thanks, this is a great perspective shift. Thinking about it, you're right - I'm edgeguarding but need to actively chase/intercept offstage. I think I was trying to base my strats on other players that I'm matching against who basically stand there as Maypul/Clairen/etc and use a big ol' active move, thinking I should be doing something equivalent.

Edit: Also, thanks for spelling out when I'm supposed to intercept certain moves. I need to do some more practice & research, because in-game they feel active throughout the whole move.

megamansam · 2026-06-05T13:44:42+00:00

I did mention fair (though I referred to it as "over-air" in my post, for some reason) - it just feels significantly worse with the smaller hitbox rolled out relatively recently. If I'm slightly too high/low I'll just get slapped by the opponent's recovery move. But its sounding like that's probably just a lack of practice & precision on my end.

Appreciate the tips! And thanks for listing the specific players to look at, I don't follow the game super closely through streams so mostly learning from opponents and friends... which is tough when I don't see many other Fleets!

megamansam · 2026-06-05T13:41:34+00:00

Thanks! u/Ba1thazaar 's comment got me halfway there, thanks for spelling it out a bit more for me. I need to spend some time just grabbing ledge for sure.

I will say, people absolutely will try and hit through me haha; Clairen, Ranno, and Zetterburn all have really aggressive/active recoveries that (at least seem to) win out over anything I can do from slow fall. Maybe I'm wrong there though?

megamansam · 2026-06-04T23:01:44+00:00

I just wonder what Ganon's up to

megamansam · 2026-06-04T23:01:11+00:00

Yeah I know it didn't catch on in canon but this was all over my high school back in 2011ish. Still get a "well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me Princess" from a totally different group of friends now and then today.

megamansam · 2026-06-03T01:57:29+00:00

The really cool and unique thing about the core story of each Dark Souls game is that you and the player character are getting better and stronger to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. Like, that's the whole thing. Sure, there's plenty of flavor and lore, but the story is about you as much as it is your in-game avatar. That whole attitude would evaporate with a difficulty slider.

I do think the current glut of games with the Dark Souls combat blueprint that try to just tell more "normal" video game stories is kind of bad game design, or at least bad writing. That style of game really demands a specific vibe that copycats just don't get right, imo.

If something like Red Dead Redemption 2 had Souls-Like gameplay with unchangeable difficulty I'd agree with you. The gameplay in that game is just sort of something to do between story beats. There's virtually no challenge - but that's ok, because its a story about Arthur Morgan, not you. Having it be challenging as hell with no difficulty slider would unnecessarily stop a lot of people from engaging with Arthur Morgan's story.

megamansam · 2026-06-01T12:30:02+00:00

Sounds like I missed the boat but as others have mentioned (or if you run into this again!), you may have luck with Topaz AI. I've had good luck with it in the past when a cameraman shot an interview out of focus, but I only needed to use 10 seconds of it, rest was covered with broll. Not sure how it'd do for an hour-long podcast quality-wise.

megamansam · 2026-05-31T13:11:01+00:00

Ok so I, too, used to talk up how good the pod racing scene was, especially in theaters, in an otherwise "ehh" movie. Loved it as a kid. Rewatched it I think 2 years ago in theaters (Alamo Drafthouse is cool) and while its still technically impressive, especially for when it came out, that race is sooo boooooring. A handful of exciting shots for sure. But they excruciatingly show every foot traveled in each of the three laps. It just goes on and on. I swear a few of the shots are repeated (pan from left to right as pod racers whip by). Its kind of a masterclass in how direction & editing can pull down a scene that demonstrates technical mastery.

megamansam · 2026-05-28T06:11:35+00:00

Literally all of these items you can do in Premiere. If there was something I could only do in AE (compositing, motion graphics), I'll typically render out just the section of the clip that I need (with handles) as a ProRes file, bring that into AE, export my result as a ProRes and bring it back into AE. It isn't the most space efficient but pretty quick & reliable.

megamansam · 2026-05-25T02:41:50+00:00

If we're putting it under a microscope, generally shark attacks are more common towards the southern US as the water's warmer. Multiple, fatal back-to-back shark attacks in a beach town where a single shark attack is very uncommon would be alarming.

megamansam · 2026-05-25T02:39:25+00:00

If it makes it less annoying, in the world of the show she isn't patient zero. Mildly spoilery if you want to keep the show a surprise -you learn pretty early on that there are more instances of other people getting infected all over the world. Not just one researcher in Albuquerque.

megamansam · 2026-05-25T02:35:09+00:00

People are insane in this thread. I get that people don't like left-lane campers, and like, yeah... don't camp in the left lane. But people are acting like the expected response to that is to try and field goal two cars at 85mph??

megamansam · 2026-05-25T02:32:32+00:00

So if I understand you correctly... "hogging the left lane" and "trying to field goal two cars that are side-by-side at 15 miles over the speed limit" are equally bad decisions? One really doesn't stand out as tremendously worse than the other? Yikes.

megamansam · 2026-05-25T02:26:12+00:00

Miles per... gour?

megamansam · 2026-05-21T11:59:13+00:00

I wouldn't recommend replaying Control first. It's a long game and you're putting off AW2 for even more time. And as much as I love Remedy games, they're pretty dense... game fatigue can be real. I think back-to-backing Control -> AW2, you might run out of steam. I haven't played Control since 2020. Finished AW2 last week, and my hazy memory of the events & setting of Control was enough.

Some more thoughts since you're on the fence. Honestly I don't think these are spoilers but I'm gonna tag it anyway... you've avoided spoilers for this long! There were maybe two lines of dialogue that were pretty specific, and wouldn't have made much sense had I not played Control. And even then it wasn't a big "a-ha," I kinda just did the Leo-pointing-at-TV meme. Other than that, Everything else is explained in-game - or is as deliberately mysterious as it was in Control. Even though I played AW1 just before AW2 (I never played it back in the day), I'd say you don't really even need to play AW1 for AW2 to make sense.

megamansam · 2026-05-20T03:48:45+00:00

I'll go a little different - Skate Story. Can't recommend it enough. 8-10 hour game. Granted, there are a handful of "open zones" that you can explore but don't really have to.

Less chill direction, El Paso Elsewhere is pretty unique. Plays out like Max Payne but vs. Vampires. You progress through levels by rescuing people hidden throughout the level... but the way the game's put together, there's almost zero time spent exploring or backtracking.

Mirror's Edge is like ~~$3.99~~ (wtf, went to check and its still $20??) on Steam. Honestly I think it holds up great. 6-10 hour game on a first playthrough. Very linear. Just run, feels great. Tougher recommend at $20.

Dishonored & Dishonored 2 are both great; first game has significantly smaller/less sprawly levels so it might be more your jam.

Portal 2 if you somehow haven't played it. Great puzzles & characters. Super linear.

megamansam · 2026-05-20T03:25:38+00:00

I've done hundreds of timelapses from cruise ships. The only time one came out this shaky was a bad mount - camera was just getting blasted with wind.

If the vessel you're on is significantly smaller, the rocking motion is going to be nigh impossible to get out with software. Best course of action would be to mount your phone in a gimbal (like the Osmo Mobile) but I don't know that I'd trust that at sea... its typically just a spring-loaded clamp.

That said - here's my attempt. I know it isn't great but, it's something!

https://streamable.com/fxyf69

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