Ne0

I usually take my vacations (9-10 days including weekends/holidays) in April/May or October or December last week. Usually prefer to take 2 such vacations in one year where I prefer to travel to a new place. I prefer to travel on week days so that the roads are not congested. Like someone else mentioned, the schedule is usually based on the holidays for the kids as we need to plan around their school schedule. Also, I don’t wait for these travel vacations to reboot. I take a day or two off in between if it happens to coincide with a weekend+holiday so that I get some 3-4 days off at a stretch to form a long weekend for a decent time off from work. To make it count, I usually plug out completely from work the night before the long weekend (shut down my work laptop, don’t have teams/outlook installed on my phone, I silence most work related WhatsApp notifications and make sure my team knows this). These mini-vacations are mostly stay-at-home for self care / family time (eat out at restaurants, visit relatives, go shopping, watch movies/tv shows/play video games etc). So, when I login back to work after the long weekend, I’m completely rebooted.

Saw the movie AIR on prime video. What a fantastic movie man , it’s such a joy to watch Matt Damon and Ben affleck on screen together…. One of the best no nonsense sports/business movie I’ve seen so far…. Why don’t our Film makers make movies like this ? Don’t we have such interesting stories to tell ? All we get is emotional over dramatic excesses with song and dance routines :-/ I think 83 and Dangal are the only good sports dramas I’ve seen in Bollywood in recent years !!

There are more than 4 stances 😮?? Yeah, I’m loving the game, it’s not just the combat, the soothing music, the serene countryside grasslands, flowers and leaves blowing in the wind as Sakai gallops on his horse, the short quests like haikus and health springs, the gong sounds at the beginning and end of every quests, all these add a lot of immersion. I’m finding that the game is a joy to play !!

Ghost Of Tsushima -PS5 : This game is deceptively long and the map is quite large. I’m at act 2 and the no of side quests have been piling up. Almost upgraded the 3 stances and only one stance need to be unlocked and maxed out. This game alone makes the ‘ps+ extra’ membership I purchased last year at discount completely worth the price. Glad I didn’t play it on ps4, the game looks gorgeous on ps5 🤩!! Gears of war 5 - PC : On act 2 and it’s such an amazing game. Like playing thru a blockbuster movie. Makes me wonder why MS didn’t bother with a sequel !!

Yep, that looks to be the end game, an online/ott video game distribution/playing service. I’m not surprised they are going cross platform, I think their aim would be to have gamepass on every major platform eventually ! With the computing power increasing on handheld devices significantly and the network speeds crossing Gbps now, I think by next decade cloud gaming will be far more ubiquitous like Netflix is today, and ms is putting themselves in the pole position !

I think the validation is not about your language prowess, but your intent. They just want to weed out spammers and people who have no interest in automobiles. Try it might just work, worst case- one more rejection 😂

I had to fast fwd some scenes though, made my stomach turn, I think there was no need to be so graphic ….

Saw ‘Obliterated’ on Netflix …. a real trippy ride , one of those shows where you wanna leave your brains behind and not really even attempt to find an ounce of logic, just watch the craziness unfold and laugh it off

So, completed the game today and frankly I’m having mixed feelings. It would perhaps have been my goty some 10 years back, but in this day and age it feels dated. I felt the main quest was pretty weak, it started with some good ideas but the way it’s ends, I at least was not satisfied. The gameplay mechanics are very dated as well and inventory management is a nightmare. Overall, I spent some 60+ hours in the game. I stopped playing the side quests and switched gears to complete the main quest in the hope they patch the game in the coming days(like what cdpr did with cp2077) when the game becomes more playable. In the current form, I found myself wasting a lot of time walking back and forth and managing inventory which really took the fun out of most quests !! To summarise, I felt it’s a lot opportunity and the game could’ve been better with better gameplay mechanics and a stronger main quest. I think mass effect (the original trilogy) is still perhaps the best space (soap opera styled) video game !!

As per my understanding, a regular savings account needs a minimum balance to be maintained. Else they charge a penalty. Corporate savings accounts are zero balance accounts. I may be wrong so, just to be sure check with some finance expert or with the bank itself.

To each his own I guess 😀 I’m interested only in like a dragon: infinite wealth, Star Wars: outlaws and ronin from that list. I think infinite wealth would come to pc gamepass, so might buy the last 2 at discount sale if the reviews are good.

Wow that looks bleak, especially considering 2023 was perhaps one of the best years in video games. On the bright side, it gives me some time to catch up on my backlog 😄

Even Reddit gaming threads have some good quality setups (even the Indian gaming one). I don’t think there’s a setup pics thread in ivg, is there ?

lol the game is 2D /2.5D ?

So any good recommendations for the new year ? Books I typically enjoy are fantasy, sci-fi and thrillers (esp whodunnits). I’ve read the stormlight archives (read the 4 books released so far in the series) and currently reading mistborn series.

I did explore, I think I upgraded almost every weapon of every character to a large extent (except that of Vergil) , except those that cost upwards of like 35000 red orbs. I even used them in most battles and I do agree it’s great to chain combos and get that sss rating ! When I said it’s shallow, I meant that except for the rating, there’s no real need to actually play the game that way. There’s no special tactics or special weapons required for any enemy or boss type. There’s no parry or block, no abilities/magic and the game just relies on incessant button mashing to defeat almost every enemy type including bosses. The only differentiator is how well you can chain those combos to get the perfect sss rating in battles ! I understand this is how this series is built (style over substance), which is also why I’ve always found dmc games inferior to ninja gaiden or god of war !

Started and finished the game as I got to know it’s leaving ps extra in Jan. it was quite short, I think it took me like 12 hours or so, although it has like 20 quests in it. I think the game plays quite similar to its predecessors with the same shallow button mashing combo-chain raking combat ! The game is lot of fun though, the cut scenes are bonkers and some of the best choreographed I’ve seen. Also the last 4-5 quests kinda damaged my l3 button on the ps5 controller. Stopped before my ps5 controller becomes a mess with Vergil in Sparda difficulty ! Overall, I felt it’s quite average simply because of the shallow combat and the cheesy same old sibling rivalry story , also the ending is pretty silly ! Not bad for playing on subs like ps extra though. I didn’t really get bored even for a second, but not really a game I would remember after I’ve played.

Watched both seasons of Foundation on Apple+ and man, what a show ! Was completely blown away by the production values and the sheer scale of the series. Although it’s more of a scifi and not really in the same genre, I would say in terms of complexity of the plot, narration, visuals and the massive scale it’s built on, it rivals GoT as the best fantasy show I’ve seen in recent times. And definitely, I felt it’s head and shoulders above house of dragon season 1 ! Can’t wait for season 3 now. BTW, minor spoilers: for those who’ve seen the show, do you think the mule could actually be the son of Constance and mallow ? I mean the eyes do match !

Pardon my ignorance, but aren’t consoles sold at a loss and isn’t profits in console business mostly driven by royalties received from sales of third party games being released on it ? If so, then even if fp games sell well, there’s no guarantee that it increases the overall console division profits. FP games might sell well and bring in revenues but I think the purpose for which they were built by console manufacturers was mainly to drive adoption rate and thereby increase TP game sales. Along with the exorbitant costs involved in building quality AAA games and stiff competition for marketshare of TP game sales (they still might sell more on PS, but a chunk of the profits is now taken by gamepass and PC as well), I think it kinda explains that Sony wants to cut costs in their fp studios.

Started DmC5 since it’s going away from ps extra next month, but what’s up with all the micro transactions nonsense lol , defeated in a boss battle and the game gives a link to buy an orb from ps store to revive…. 😂

It’s 411 with taxes. Also, ms 1p offerings might be weak compared to Sony/Nintendo, but the gamepass library is pretty solid compared to ps extra. PS extra is useless if you’ve played Sony 1p games already. I got ps extra sometime in Aug, mainly to play some 1p games I missed like GoT, but not many good 3p games get released there. Gamepass has many 3p games released on day one like cities skylines 2, like a dragon, atomic heart etc. pc+ps is the best combo currently, but if you don’t have a pc, and could buy only one of the consoles, Xbox is more vfm simply because of the extensive library available on gamepass.

Yep, many movies have loop holes /plot holes and stuff, animal also happens to have a whole lot of them…. I understand it’s fiction and all that, but it should’ve some semblance of sense right ? I mean we are not in 80s anymore

So it’s dunki and salaar for New Year’s Eve ? I guess I’ll wait and watch both on OTT !

Not to mention how conveniently the movie ignores this incident, like RK’s character announces something inside his factory and it becomes TV worthy news, he literally kills like 200+ people in broad daylight in a posh hotel all everyone is worried is his recovery 😂 logic -> <- Bollywood

More than double dip, I think they want to avoid piracy. As they release one game in 5-10 years time frame, they need it to sell like millions to simply break even !!