And I addressed the expensive part. I'll even argue that every playable character, even silent ones, are their own character. No game, besides Fallout 3, starts from birth and lets you be whomever as you go. But even in Fallout 3 you've still got many things pre-defined, parents, general backstory etc. Same with Skyrim, you're the dragonborn no matter what you do. It's really just a budget thing. To the point of the article though I think it adds to immersion to have a voiced protagonist. But others are of a diametrical opinion.

What then about Cyberpunk? It's not like you can't do customization of background and looks when you voice the protagonist

"Turning a profit early 2024" if they manage that it would be kinda impressive but I wonder if the platform has any chance of longevity after reducing the staff by over 80%? I can't imagine staying there if I was a skilled engineer, it just feels like such a cutthroat way of doing business and what do they stand to gain? When they could go to another, far more stable firm like Facebook, Google or Microsoft. And the longer they stay the more stained their CV is going to be I feel, unless X manages to defy the odds and actually succeed in this reconstruction of sorts.

I agree, Mass Effect / The Witcher is vastly more immersive than silent protagonist alternatives like Fallout 3, Skyrim or The Outer Worlds. That said though, Skyrim and The Outer Worlds could never work with a voice protagonist, Skyrim because the variation is just far to intense to make any logistical sense (as in so many race+gender combos). And The Outer Worlds dialog trees and complexity there would be crazy expensive to voice out fully. Though both are budget bound so with AI assistance it might be possible without super intense spending.

I2P is similar to TOR in that it's an alternative Internet with strong privacy protections, in many ways stronger than TOR, but nothing that still uses TCP over IP can be truly secure.

Very much agree, it's been an insane year for games!

Covid global deaths: 6.5 million (aside from the million+ in the US I doubt Trumps handling caused more than half)

War on Terror: 4.5 million deaths in the wars. 38 million people displaced/refugees.

I stand with the assessment that Bush was far worse for the world.

No no, Dalarna or Värmland has the vibe down much more. And "raggar" culture is full of cousin fucking vibes.

The dangers of being alone. If someone was there when he suffered whatever event happened, be it cardiac arrest or stroke or whatever then they could've called emergency services and he might've survived. Instead he was all alone and when his assistant came back it was too late.

I know far too many stories like this.

It truly is a packed year for great games!

My guess of the nominees:

• Baldurs Gate 3
• Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• Alan Wake 2
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Armored Core 6

The last spot is a toss up between Armored Core and Super Mario Bro's: Wonder but co-op focused family games tend to not be contenders for GOTY and especially not in years with many strong options.

Personally I think BG3 will take it. It has a lot going for it, western, it's got a touch of humor and charm which the times call for, part of a legendary franchise that hasn't seen a new release for a decade+. And on top of that it's a fantastic game that really is the culmination of the journey western RPGs has been undergoing since BG 2 (I say 2 because that game started the companion focus prevalent across the sub-genre and a massive focus of BG3).

Though in my opinion Tears of the Kingdom is the best game of the year. It just plays so amazingly well.

Alan Wake 2 is the game equivalent to Oscars bait so I wouldn't be shocked if it won.

Hogwarts Legacy is great and exactly the type of game GOTY favors, but it was released early in the year and is a bit "done" now. It's also a tad controversial. But it's not undeserving.

FF XVI is not mainstream enough to have the wide appeal GOTY is all about. You could argue BG3 also doesn't have the wide appeal of Hogwarts Legacy or Tears of the Kingdom and I'd agree. But that doesn't change that FF XVI just feels further away from a win than the above games. Another year it very well could've won though.

And the bottom spot, Armored Core 6 is a great game. It doesn't try to be anything else than a game. And in that regard (and that only) it's similar to the new Mario. It doesn't advance the medium it just delivers a great gaming experience. Also a game that could've won in a weaker year in my opinion.

I don't disagree with PCs being on a strong downward trend. But the point of Windows on PCs has always been familiarity such that it's what's prefered and feel easiest for servers. Without their domination of home PC no company would be running Windows Server these days. And the last people to stop using PCs at home are bound to be tech people that have some say in what type of servers to run.

That said Microsoft has been divesting from their reliance on Windows Server so it's not like they'll die from this. But it's going to mean we'll hopefully be rid of Windows Server soon!

Don't spend money moving from 1G to 10G if you're not close to saturating your 1G switch, given you've only got one real server then the limiting factor will be the NIC on the server and I can't imagine an a520 Mobo with anything more than 1G. And buying a PCI NIC for it shouldn't be a priority if it's not strictly needed. You're also going to be limited by your Internet speeds, the HDD speeds and a lot of other factors before you can actually really get good utilization on a 10G Port. I struggle saturating my 2.5G NIC and I run quite a bit of things and have done various benchmark tests and it's not easy saturating even 1G with real world load. Not to mention all the new ethernet cables you'll need since most don't have 10G cables in their setup, but 1G capable cables are fairly standard at least.