Skua

AC Competizione is on UE4’s graphics and in-house physics, so I imagine they’re doing something similar here

He already has been, the amount of money Lockheed Martin has missed out on due to countries turning away from the F-35 is eye-watering

This exchange just popped back into my head for some reason. Your description of the approach to the flower was spot-on! Turns out it just happens to be a similar approach to Siofra. Took me a few attempts, and fire damage is a bit of a miserable situation for my dex build with a bit of int (level 150, scadutree… 9, I think? Maybe 10?), but I got there. I found that the best thing I could do was actually just to absolutely max out my own durability and accept that I was only getting one attack off per opportunity. I was having a really rough time avoiding the thorn eruption attacks, so the crimson seed talisman basically giving me two extra flasks worth of health was great. So long as I used fire damage and hit it in the “face” I didn’t really need to do anything else to get plenty of damage

I have since gone through the specimen storehouse and found my way into Rauh, which I was absolutely delighted by because it looks exactly like Shadow of the Colossus and I’d been itching to get there ever since I found that waygate that gives you a preview of it

Both, based on IFW Kiel’s numbers. Military aid was about even until the end of Biden’s term, Europe generally provided a bit more non-military. The US sent a huge amount right at the end of Biden’s term. Since then, the US has sent basically nothing and Europe has mostly covered the shortfall

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That price includes a whole bunch of stuff besides the actual tank. To quote the Czech Ministry of Defence (machine-translated):

The purchase price of 44 tanks includes self-propelled and anti-mine protection systems, as well as integrated logistics support including spare parts, support management, documentation and training.

So basically it’s 44 tanks plus a massive service and supply contract to keep the tanks running properly

I suppose it makes sense for it to be tough considering that it’s intended as an endgame expansion and it’s also replicating the new character low level experience with the scadu blessing system

I have actually found that the Land of Shadow has heaps of alternate routes to places, they’re just much less obvious than before. The map is so wildly vertical and overlapping that finding a spiritspring or a tunnel or one of those cliffside staircases of protruding gravestones can take you to a whole new area

I have not seen whichever part that is, no. Although it sounds like the same experience as finding Siofra for the first time, which I think was one of my favourite moments in the entire game

Nothing wrong with that! I hit an absolute brick wall with Margit when I first played the base game because I hadn’t played a Souls game in years. I explored around until I found the secret route to Liurnia and did most of that before I even got into Stormveil

There’s one with three phases? That is so absolutely going to catch me out with no flasks left whenever I first get to it, god dammit. I can’t wait

Which one is the third? I’ve done Belurat and Castle Ensis (if it counts?), only just started poking around in Shadow Keep but it looks absolutely wild so far. I also made it to the putrescent knight’s arena but I’ve not tried actually fighting it yet, just jumped in once to see what was going on at the end of a session

The knight was pretty brutal, but fortunately this run has been my “learn to parry” one, so I came basically perfectly equipped to fight any player-model enemy that isn’t using colossal weapons

Oh hey, I grew up playing Gran Turismo as well! I actually dug out the old Playstation 1 when I was seeing family last Christmas and we had a splitscreen session racing each other on the 1997 one. It was a blast

That kind of in-depth career mode is oddly rare in modern sim racers. A lot of them are very online PvP-focussed. And I get that, but still, it’d be nice to have more. Things that come to mind are:

• The original Assetto Corsa is a bit old now and the Content Manager and Custom Shader Patch mods are basically mandatory, BUT it is extremely flexible to mod and you can make it look exactly like a Gran Turismo game if you want. It has a career mode, but it’s only a series of specific racing challenges and there’s no collecting or modifying of cars
• Assetto Corsa Evo is in very early access right now, but it might just be exactly what you’re looking for when it does fully come out. It’s due to have a single player career mode, it looks like it’s going to do some kind of car collection mechanic, and it even has honest-to-god Gran Turismo style licence tests
• Automobilista 2 does not have a career mode (yet? It’s on the main menu but greyed out), but apparently a fan decided they were going to do it themselves. AMS also comes with the advantage of having much better multiplayer than Assetto Corsa if you want to play with friends; AC’s multiplayer is quite limited and does not let you add AI to fill out the grid
• Grid Legends might be worth a look, but I can’t tell you what it’s actually like to play because I haven’t tried it. I have played Dirt Rally 2 by the same devs and it does have a very GT-esque career mode. It describes itself as simcade, though, so it may just be another Forza for you depending on how it drives
• Le Mans Ultimate is a more specialised experience, of course, but it’s due to get a proper in-depth career mode soon

It is a pretty dim time for the single player sim racing experience, but there’s fun to be had!

everything in the modding scene seems to be in order

Just tried this out recently. It’s good fun. I do wish it explained itself a little better at the start - I had no idea that it was essentially a roguelite for about the first hour I played - but it gets that feeling of momentum at the edge of wiping out just right

Putting the blackgaol knight where he is is a frankly hilarious statement of how the DLC is gonna be. I’m good enough at the games to beat everything without cheese or summons (I do think that summoning is fine, I just don’t personally enjoy it unless it’s an NPC I like), but I find that some Elden Ring bosses push the edge of what I have the reaction speed for. Morgott and Maliketh were particularly troublesome for me. I haven’t gotten to anyone in the DLC that has hit that mark of pace yet, but I assume someone will

I’m not super knowledgeable on racing games, but I’m happy to try to help! What have you got available and what do you like?

Mostly Elden Ring and Automobilista 2. I finally got Shadow of the Erdtree but had to take a bit to git gud git less bad again before diving into the Land of Shadow, not helped at all by the fact that the character I wanted to go in with was not at all well-suited to fight Mohg. Still, I’m enjoying it a great deal. The map design is phenomenal, I keep just stopping to look at the landscape for a bit

Automobilista is just the go-to for having a game with some other friends who also like racing sims at the moment. It’s not my favourite in terms of driving physics, but it’s good enough, the car classes being relatively balanced is nice for variety in races, and I’m honestly really enjoying trying out all the South American tracks that I’ve never heard of

Oooh I got started on that recently and then pulled away by other things, but I was enjoying it a great deal. The campaign is bit… ehhh. But that actual gameplay is a blast. I love the sense of scale (as long as you don’t think too hard about the actual numbers it gives you for the weights of things)

Oh wow, I had completely forgotten about all the hydrogen car experiments! There was even an actual functioning hydrogen bus system for a little while in a city not too far from me

Thanks for the link, that was interesting

It’s so bizarre to me that Toyota in particular isn’t a bigger player in the EV market after they were the first to get a mass market hybrid going. They were halfway there before anyone else, why’d they stumble so badly?