Larian is an unusual case. It's indie but it's huge. They aren't funded by or marketing through a bigger publishing company so IMO that's still indie. But they're hundreds of people so not really small, and BG3 can by all means be considered a AAA game because the difference in quality and scale is indistinguishable from AAA published games.

It baffles me how anyone can stand to preorder any game with the market being so oversaturated. There are SO MANY great games on a constant $20 or less sale rotation you'll probably never have a chance to play if you're a full-time working adult. I'm worried about grabbing a highly acclaimed title that's been out for 5 years before it fades into obscurity, and I have to stumble upon a shout-out 3 years later to be reminded of its existence. Not about some stupid launch skin bonus, or OST mp3s you'll never click open.

"Choose" isn't really an accurate term to use in your comment though, is it? Obviously high-realism AAA game graphics are going to come with a high budget outside the realm of possibility for the average indie dev, unless they have some super talented people with a passion for the project working for cheap.

A lot of us are willing to make this concession or adjust expectations for an experience that has great gameplay, soundtrack, story, etc. as easily as reading subtitles to enjoy a foreign film. The imagination can do plenty of the heavy lifting.

He couldn't even if the military did design fighter jets lmao.

Just saw a YouTube vid showcasing a whole damn multiplayer mod. A whole squad rolling up on the area with floating user tags. It looked fun as hell.

The bar is apparently low these days.

"They released it almost bug free!" is the new "AAA devs announced there will be no micro transactions!" Gamers as a group are basically abused spouses.

^Boosting this as it's the only non-anime suggestion atm.

I just watched this and thought it was decent. Directed by Hideaki Anno, known best for Neon Genesis Evangelion, and it's pretty apparent. The montages of button down politicians and scientists working in sync, filing into perfectly symmetrical makeshift office spaces, and standing at attention like they're military personnel felt very familiar. I saw a review afterwards that called it "The Dunkirk of Godzilla Movies" which I found hilariously accurate.

I'll also throw in the very aged, but influential Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

Meta never had a good thing. Oculus had a good thing. Meta WAS the bad thing. The writing was on the wall from the start and the open VR community has preached about it for years. It's a shame for the best outgoing PC-Free VR hardware.

What else can you expect, when those site redesigns are usually driven by the desire for increased ad revenue. Even idiots who don't know why, will know it somehow sucks more than it used to. Other times it's just a blatant removal of loved features. Funny skit aside, the simpler explanation is enshittification.

I've always used Free ver. of PowerISO to "mount" the disc image to a virtual drive like others mentioned. Anyone who's emulated PlayStation 1/2 games would be very familiar with this format. Otherwise any old software released on CD format you'll probably find as an ISO.

Excellent presentation, Chef. HANDS PLEASE, THANK YOU!

Crazy seeing that in a Vacutainer/Vacuette tube, the standard transportation medium you'd see in any clinic/hospital for routine intravenous blood draw.