Lurker > Thorn

XB3 Chapter 1, still in it, but I seem to be right where TRE's spoiler was:

No, the power of death flags is eternal. Even when retirement literally is death also. Was hoping to switch to Mio's team after that fight/meeting with them but oh well. I'm sure we'll get a hero's welcome at Colony 9 there was nothing ominous about those cutscenes at all.

StartTheMachine posted...

Maybe I haven't been paying attention to Yang. He didn't do some Tulsi like right-wing shit did he?

Not Gabbard level, no. But back during the NYC mayoral campaign he kept saying some... not great... stuff.

I think the turning point for a lot of people was when he tweeted out a "I stand with Israel against the Hamas terrorists" type statement after complete silence when it was the Palestinians getting bombed back during the May 2021 conflict.

AOC directly came at him for it for not just that, but to do it during Ramadan and when he was scheduled to have an event in Astoria.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1392220241472720897

By contrast, Yang got praised for the same statement by Cruz and Stephen Miller.

Then he had this to say when he tried to outflank Eric Adams on crime: "Yes, mentally ill people have rights, but you know who else have rights? We do: the people and families of this city. We have the right to walk the street and not fear for our safety because a mentally ill person is going to lash out at us."

It'll die in the Senate, but the House passed an assault weapons ban.

https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1553145908703166464

217-213

Dems: 215-5
GOP: 2-208

Xenoblade 3 has arrived!

Now to download the Day 1 patch and Switch probably has a system update too but soon.

o ya it's here

Expected to arrive today for me, standard edition tho.

Yeah, they're not the greatest. Tsugumi being brainwashed until like basically endgame doesn't help. Her account combined with the Secret Reports make it sound like they could set a whole interquel with her as the protagonist tbqh. She probably has the most potential, but again, brainwashed into a zombie for 95% of the game. Shiba's hamminess entertained me as Week 3 went on though. His boss fight was pretty cool too.

Oh. Yeah, saw that one too.

TWEWY2: Greetings, sheeple of SELF. Got some red-hot news for ya. I got the platinum in TWEWY2 and watched the secret ending which is really like just an extra scene and not that hype tbqh. Fun game, worthy sequel to the original.

Characters (Being pretty arbitrary in who makes the cut here): Rindo > Shoka > Sho > Nagi > Shiba > Neku > Beat > Matoi > Kanon > Susukichi > Fret > Kubo

Best Psych: Psychic Shotgun. HM: Dynamite Darts

Best Songs: Unpainted, Breaking Free, Transformation (NEO Remix), Hustle and Bustle

Best Beatdrop Banter:
Neku: "That factored out nicely."
Sho: "Like it always should.".

Anyway, timing-wise this all worked out basically perfectly. Bring on Xenoblade 3. Which better arrive tomorrow.

And with that, I bid you adieu.

Drakengard

Senate GOP flips on a *reads notes* bill to expand VA benefits for veterans exposed to toxins during their service. Filibustered it ("fails" 55-42, 41 true "no" votes because Schumer flipped to No once the GOP hit 41 because arcane Senate rules means he has to be there to bring the bill back later) after having it had previously passed through the Senate 84-14. (It's back because the House made some minor changes to the bill when it passed it 342-88 so they have to reconcile the two)

https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1552410858092990468

More seriously on the reconciliation deal, I imagine the primary hurdles are the parliamentarian and Sinema. Gottheimer (the SALT group), when asked, didn't draw a red line on SALT, at least not yet. Plus, I really think if the chips are down Pelosi can strongarm them into it. Senate is the danger zone. Aside from the aforementioned Sinema, Menendez raised "concerns" over SALT.

LordoftheMorons posted...

Apparently this happened right after the Senate passed the bipartisan CHIPS bill that McConnell had previously been holding up until reconciliation was dead (of course, theres still a chance this fails in the House because of the small group of Dems willing to take hostages to bring back the full SALT deduction)

manchin redemption arc?

j/k but still lol

Robin is great. Both her and Max were great additions who just fit in so seamlessly.

And that Steve/Dustin/Robin power trio is so OP.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Torna scored that low?

reviewers be crazy

remember when there was a leak of a scotus draft opinion and republicans demanded to know who the leaker was

weird how that all disappeared

https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1551920534601990150

SCOTUS won't even tell the AP if they're still investigating, or if they figured out who the leaker was.

TWEWY2: Another Day (sorta) beated.

Dang, I knew it'd be too much to hope for something on the level of TIN PIN SLAMMER but this was really underwhelming. I did, however, miss stuff it seems. My chapter list was only at 99.5% completion and it showed an uncompleted dive so I looked it up and... oh. I ran through the city looking for stuff right before the trigger that opened the hidden quests. whoops. We'll see if this can redeem this but I'm sorta doubting it!

Yeah, some of it felt a bit needlessly long/padding but overall I liked how it played out. It played on a lot of time travel tropes I enjoy so yeah.

TWEWY2 Week 3 beated:

bruh

I made the right decision when I stopped before because I was worried I might not have the time because I wasn't actually near endgame at all lol. I had stopped on Day 7 right before talking to Shiba before. Shiba was a cool fight and while I was expecting a reveal of what was behind Shiba I wasn't ready for the full ride of that betrayalton lol. kubo really. The whole dissonance tied to Rindo's time traveling was cool. Day 7' was fun in getting the pieces lined up to beat Kubo and I was mostly bought in that it was going to happen even as I felt there was still too much with Rhyme/Shiki still on the table. Day 7'' was really good though, from the "bad present" to Hazuki being the most sus tourist, to the true rallying of the cast to overcome the noise.

The gall on Joshua showing up at the last minute and saying he vowed to intervene if things got worse lmao. My dude, what the heck did you call the first two runs of Day 7? Also lol just yeeting Shoka into the RG to loophole her situation. But also like... Shoka raised this herself earlier so the writers are aware... like the heck is her living situation given Shinjuku is still gone?

Also, revisiting Shiba for a moment, while I didn't like the whole leader of the Ruinbringers being the GM thing at the time, I do think the later Kubo twist actually justifies it and makes that better in hindsight. That said, it introduces a new issue where I feel like they loaded Shiba's character up with potential in doing that but right at the final minute so it can't truly pay off unless there's a third game/Shinjuku prequel. However, I forgive all of that because "Unpainted" is my new favorite song from the game so it's fine.

Anyway, Another Day up next. The OG set the bar impossibly high so I won't hold it to that standard but looking forward to that next time. Still might get some of my questions answered there! Also the Secret Reports. Still, assuming that the story was mostly contained to what I've played, I really enjoyed it and the ending. A+.

My Switch's Joycons are finally kinda giving up. The drift was espcially noticeable the further I got into Xenoblade with the camera constantly out of control and wanting to move so I went and ordered a Pro Controller for Xenoblade 3 (and future games) rather than see if it could hold together for that.

Glad user SaveEstelle seemed to like it. IIRC one of the times he popped in was during my playthrough because I think I recall mentioning one chapter started "going full Xenogears" or something and he was pleased to hear that because I think he was more uncertain at the time.

Do you know if he's played Torna (the DLC?)

And yeah, I assume I'll finish TWEWY2 pretty soon (assuming there's Another Day type postgame since there's still a bunch of things still left on the collection tab and I don't think I've simply missed them!) and might just idle around with it or go for the platinum to kill time until XB3.

freedom

Now time to see how long before I second guess and regret this username choice!

TWEWY2: On Week 3 Day 7. Possibly right at endgame, I don't know. I stopped where I did because depending on how long endgame was I didn't know if I'd have time for it. Looks like I was probably right about something happening to Shiba before he decided to destroy Shinjuku and now Shibuya but still no answers on what that could be. Tsumugi the MVP for sending visions out even while brainwashed/possessed. Susuki making the dumb decision of thinking it'd be better to lock us up and almost destroyed the city. And probably actually made things worse now that Neku is like "uh that power is super sus" and forced us to use it to fix things. Also everyone seems to be looknig for someone now. Kaie is probably talking about Rhyme but I'm curious what Hishima is up to. Joshua? Hanekoma? Well, I'll probably get my answers next time. Probably. Maybe. ...Okay like half of them will probably be Secret Report material lmao.