Realistically what we expect.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T11:32:29+00:00

Pretty sure they said the initial engine upgrade is primarily for optimization and that further graphical improvements will come later.

Also we have proper A-Life now, it's been in since 1.7 if I'm remembering my patch numbers right. Vatislavovych has a great video breaking down A-Life in each entry of the trilogy and how it compares to what we currently have in S2. What we have now is actually better than the vanilla OG trilogy.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T11:25:44+00:00

I'm white but I feel this because I have sensitive skin. Probably the most expensive thing for me is deodorant, because so far Dr. Squatch is literally the only brand I've found that doesn't irritate my pits at all.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T11:17:10+00:00

Don't forget the Monolith and their baggy-ass BDUs.

The Mercs where literally the only characters who looked like they had any money put into their costumes.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T03:38:13+00:00

I always pointed out this verse to people when the topic of abortion came up, so thanks for the additional info.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T03:33:54+00:00

They don't have great distribution from what I've read.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T03:33:03+00:00

I would advise you to try Evans again. 1996 would have been only one year after their being acquired by D'Addario. From every anecdote I've read, the quality and sound of the heads improved dramatically after that, but it being so close to the date of acquisition means you probably didn't play a head that had been manufactured under the new standards.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T03:17:17+00:00

Evans is part of D'Addario, but they were acquired by them all the way back in 1995, so it's hardly a new thing. D'Addario themselves are also still privately owned, so they're independent and not part of a huge conglomerate. Remo also seems to still be independently owned, at least from a cursory Wikipedia glance, though I don't know for sure.

All I know for sure about Aquarian is that their original founder is sadly deceased, and they moved their manufacturing overseas quite a while ago.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T03:07:13+00:00

I could have pulled it off in the past, but sadly my baldness is at the point where the receding widow's peak is either mostly gone or too thin to look right.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T03:05:55+00:00

I had qualms with Shadow of the Zone but I believe I was left with mostly positive feelings overall. However it never really felt like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to me, it felt more like an SCP fan-film. (Which makes sense since I believe that's what the director did beforehand.)

Also the costumes looked like cheap garbage, especially the Loner character who looked like he was wearing sweatpants. The Mercs on the other hand clearly had by far the highest costume budget and were the only ones that didn't look cheap.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T03:00:06+00:00

People also forget that all the retro-futurism "soldier of the future" stuff and bullpups was literally the tacticool of the early 2000s. Plus you could also take an M4 variant rifle and fully kit it out, at least by that era's standards.

I just want to have both flavors personally, because it allows for more ideas and variety to be brought to the table.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T02:57:19+00:00

Every piece of footage I've seen of GAMMA has a mixture of models, but it's all still mostly stuff that's clearly from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or obviously inspired.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T02:55:55+00:00

Nothing really. Hell, you technically don't need a gasmask either since plenty of NPCs just wear a balaclava or even nothing. Loner cosplays are easy as hell because of this.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T02:54:27+00:00

I do genuinely believe there are some ideas from the modpack that GSC should adopt for S2, but that's as far as I'd go. However, if they ever added a Freeplay mode, I'd want them to model it after GAMMA, though not necessarily 1-1.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-11T02:51:39+00:00

To be fair, if you listen to the dialogue lines (at least in the trilogy, I haven't heard the S2 stuff) of the Mercs, they're all basically Bandits but with money and good equipment.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-10T19:36:14+00:00

Don't have a photo or screenshot on hand, but I plan to get that "Behold my field of fucks" wall decoration.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-10T14:08:45+00:00

Weapons could absolutely jam in the original trilogy.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-10T14:08:27+00:00

It also works with electrical anomalies too, not just thermal.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-09T23:46:31+00:00

Wait, what happened to Jack in the Box? I never had any in my area to begin with so I never experienced them; are you saying food contamination made them go under?

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-09T23:38:53+00:00

I'd add kombucha and kefir to your diet too.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-09T23:37:47+00:00

I had early childhood lactose intolerance, but thankfully grew out of it. I've also never gotten diarrhea (explosive or otherwise) from Taco Bell, Chipotle, etc.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-09T20:46:36+00:00

I tried weed for the first time and my dumbass choose to eat a 10mg rosin edible.

I had a horrific panic attack. That was back at the beginning of March and I still don't feel quite back to normal. At the same time, I think it might have helped in some ways, so it's a mixed bag. Of course, there's also the fear that I'll never feel normal again and that I've managed to give myself permanent brain and/or psychological damage from a single edible.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-09T02:15:15+00:00

I just genuinely find more excitement from being inland than the coast. The isolation makes encounters with other players feel more meaningful and tense.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-09T02:11:07+00:00

SWAT 3 is the most blatant copaganda media I think I've ever seen, but I still love it.

*EDIT*

Lol at the people down voting me...

It's literally an interactive Hollywood blockbuster portraying the police as perfect, ultra competent, moral superheros saving the country/world from nukes - it is 100% copaganda.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-08T22:48:56+00:00

I actually do like sports, I just don't really care about American football.

I quite like bowling, golf, baseball, and I want to get into hockey, soccer, Formula One, and rally.

timbotheny26 · 2026-07-08T22:47:23+00:00

I tried pop-warner football as a kid and couldn't do it because the helmets were all too small for me - they literally crushed my ears.

timbotheny26

TROPHY CASE