Why not make it a full MMO, while you’re at it? Hogwarts Legacy 2 could be the WoW-killer we’ve been waiting 20 years for!

The official FAQ says at least 25k karma (or a mod with at least 500 mod actions). Open registration isn’t supposed to be until the first. If you don’t meet either of those criteria then I guess that’s just a lie.

https://redditforcommunity.com/Directed-Share-Program

Bastion, etc, are from SuperGIANT Games.

I should add that I’m using the GOG version

That might be your problem. For one thing, the tutorial indeed continues after you escape Privateer’s Hold, and among other things, tells you how to fast travel. You are absolutely not intended to walk places on the world map, even though it is technically possible.

https://www.dfworkshop.net/migrating-away-from-gog-cut/

“If you play using the “GOG Cut” release of Daggerfall Unity, please consider this version is now almost two years out of date and comes preloaded with dozens of mods. It’s buggy, slow, and completely changes how the game looks and plays. The Daggerfall Unity development team did not assemble the “GOG Cut” release and in no way recommend it to play Daggerfall Unity.”

For reference, the GOG Cut uses version 0.13.5, and you can see on that page that DFU recently released version 1.0.

Playing unmodded DFU, I do agree with many of your criticisms. The game is very punishing, the full tutorial still doesn’t explain many important game mechanics (like the need to rest regularly, or that you really ought to buy a cart asap), character creation is extremely obtuse, and the amount of freedom at the beginning of the game is a bit overwhelming. Still, I found that after I got to a big city, joined a guild, and started doing quests the game starts coming together. I’m still not sure how much I like it, myself, but there’s clearly a ton of depth here, if you’re willing to take the time to learn the systems.

Did you figure out that you’re intended to rest in dungeons to refill your resource pools? That was something of a revelation for me.

Daggerfall Unity is extremely impressive from what I’ve seen of it so far. I am interested in what he comes up with.

Yes, and the latest version, too. Silly me assuming the version on GoG would be kept up to date…thankfully I didn’t lose too much time.

I’m trying to get into Daggerfall. I probably wouldn’t have got past character creation without a guide, and I died an embarrassing number of times in the intro dungeon, but once I got to town and figured out how to pick up quests things started to come together. We’ll see how far I get.

This sort of nonsense is one of the reasons I mostly don’t buy new games anymore.

Hegemony: Wars of Ancient Greece

I played it years ago when it came out and it’s still really good. It’s an indie grand strategy game with low production values but a game play loop I find very satisfying. The fact that it’s played on a realistic map of ancient Greece adds a lot of flavor and I love how the geography actually has important implications for strategy.

Everyone knows pro wrestling is all staged performances but I’ve never heard that said of boxing. As far as I know those are real.

Find a way to work a small amount of exercise into your daily routine. Walk places instead of driving, do some jumping jacks in the morning or before bed, something simple that you can get yourself to do without much stress or planning. If you do it consistently, even 10-20 minutes of exercise a day can make a big difference in the long run.

We have it the same as you. I never really gave it any thought.

Yup, Spiritfarer is my answer too. I played up through the first person to pass on and then couldn’t keep going.

Sounds kind of like gambling to me. Put a lot of money in and maybe get something cool out of it. Thinking of it that way at least makes some sort of sense.

Every time I read about this game I wonder who the hell is giving them all this money.

Maybe this isn’t the case in your neighborhood but my local grocery stores have racks of gift cards, including for Steam. I know people who have similar concerns as your dad, so they just buy Steam credit for themselves.

You’re thinking of Slay the Spire, I believe. Completely unrelated.

I’ve been following Professor Phillips Obrien for analysis on this subject, and he largely shares your opinion.

He thinks that if the US really wanted Ukraine to win the administration would have been providing much more long-range weapons, and that they still could. Ukraine can still win, but it depends on their allies actually helping them do that.

Depends on how you define “state”. IIRC, Marx drew a distinction between “state” and “government”, where the former is all the coercive institutions (cops, prisons, courts, etc). In this framework, you need a “government” to do the things you refer to, but participation in that government’s activities should be voluntary, without the threat of armed government agents showing up at your door if you don’t comply.