If they mean, "it will be bloodless if people just let us make America a Christo-fascist white ethnostate", then I pray the Left doesn't "allow it to be".
WRT R*, I have seen hacks referred to as mods in some korean MMO communities, because client mods are lumped together with hacks in their ToS under "game modifications". No clue if that's what happened with R*'s stuff, but wouldn't be surprised.
It's funny, because I saw Omega being used on 7chan way back before it emerged into use among the rest of the alt-white manosphere guys (probably around 2012), and they (or at least, some of them) were aware of Omegaverse, and used it derogatorily as a sarcastic term for "betas" who thought they were "alphas". I would not be at all surprised if the overlap with 4chan is how it bled into wider use, and lost the sarcastic meaning.
I think that as long as there is a Lease Option written into the contract that legally forces the owner to sell (or if it's a lease-purchase), and as long as there is some guarantee on the down payment amount if the seller breaks the contract, I'm mostly fine with Rent-to-Own. But R2O contracts are something you probably want a lawyer to double-check, because there are ways you can get screwed as the buyer (like if you lose your job prior to sale, and it's a Lease Purchase, they might charge you a LOT of money to break the contract).
Come on over to Beehaw, where we don't have downvotes, then!
It forces people to actually take time and effort to disagree with you, rather than just hitting one button, and somewhat unsurprisingly, that deters a lot of "drive-by" negativity.
I really like it's progression of resource tiers, and it's exploration mechanic that lets you delve into ruins to find artifacts that give you bonuses to town morale.
It also has a nice pseudo-complex farming system, where you can manage the soil composition to favor different crops (or just choose to plant the crops that that area's default soil lends itself to).
It also has randomized maps, which I like to reload until I find one with an interesting layout.
There is combat, but you can granularly control it, or disable it altogether (there are raiders, and wildlife like bears and wolves).
It feels very laid back, which is my jam.
This is a move in the dead wrong direction.
We don't need more 350 square-foot landlord-owned prefab boxes, we need affordable homes.
The shift to a renter-only market (except of course for the wealthy) just locks people further into poverty and paycheck to paycheck subsistence, because there's no accrual of home equity, there's no generational wealth transfer of that equity, there's no point at which you stop paying rent, and can easily survive on a fixed income...
There are more vacant homes than unhoused people. We're not lacking in homes, we're lacking in the political will to solve the real housing crisis, which is overpriced homes.
I bounced off of it, and went back to Farthest Frontier.
I was not a huge fan of the way the villagers are accrued and assigned; it felt like they were trying to emulate Banished, but didn't execute well on it.
I did love the way you draw housing plots, and the ability to add extensions onto houses that have different bonuses (e.g. a chicken coop that gives eggs).
I think if the city-builder+RTS hybrid aspect is very appealing to you, it's one of the few out there. If you want a more traditional city builder, check out Farthest Frontier.
Hey, even if it's a stalemate right now, the DSA legislators not losing seats this round proves that their districts back their (very outspoken) stances on Gaza. I wish we had more DSA state legislators here in CA, but alas...
it's like Duper's Delight, but for assholes "Alphas"
Those aren't emotions, those are urges. /s
So on their scale do the Omega males also become pregnant if banged by an Alpha?
Or do these people not even realize where their 'scale' actually came from?
It even gets more rich and fizzy towards the end of the year!
I'm sorry, are you suggesting that allowing wealth inequality is the best course of action, simply because it's more harmonious than combating it?
I'm fine with her choosing whatever she wants to do (or not do), because she's already been given an incredibly difficult time just being a House Rep. But if she ran for President, I'd campaign for her non-stop from announcement to election day.
This defeatist, placatory attitude will ensure that we never make any progress.
No one has ever been VP for FOUR TERMS, but that's the hypothetical bar you set for her, because you assume that's what it would take? Leaving aside that it's an impossible ask anyways, being VP for 4 terms isn't going to satisfy the "old fat white guys" anyways.
Are misogynists gonna demand more of her? Yeah, of course. But don't go setting the bar higher on their behalf, before they even say anything!
Uh, as someone who does malware analysis, sandbox detection is not easy, and is certainly not something that a non-malware-developer/analyst knows how to do. This isn't 2005 where sandboxes are listing their names in the registry/ system config files.
As a huge Sanders fan, he's too old as well now. AOC for sure, but sadly in this shithole country that's a pipe dream.
we have determined that the string itself is not a machinegun, whether or not there are loops tied on the ends. However, when the string is added to a semiautomatic firearm as you proposed in order to increase the cycling rate of that rifle, the result is a firearm that fires automatically and consequently would be classified as a machinegun.
So no, gun owners with shoes are not felons, unless they combine those 2 things to make a machinegun. Obviously.
This article was updated on June 28 at 3:46 p.m. In a major ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday cut back sharply on the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they administer and ruled that courts should rely on their own interpretion of ambiguous laws. The decision will likely have far-
This sucks. This is leaning further into the Major Questions Doctrine that SCOTUS has been pushing, where agencies and their actually knowledgeable, employed scientists and technical experts, have no real control over regulatory policies, and instead are beholden to Congress and judges to decide e.g. how many ppm of a chemical is safe for people to drink.
Hi everyone, here's the final post of my Space Game recommendations:
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Top-5 Small and/or Indie Space Games
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Honorable Mentions
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Space-adjacent Games, Small
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Hopefuls (games in development now, that I hope will grow into their own in the future.
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Disappointments (ones that imo didn't turn out good in the end)
Small and Indie games make up the bulk of any genre, but for Space Games this is particularly pronounced in my opinion, due to a long period of industry trends/bandwagons which publishers jumped on which tended to exclude space-themed games from wider production, thus leaving a lot more space for Indies to fill. One of those trends was the "PC gaming is dead" console push of the 2000-2010s, and the other the concomitant dearth of RTS and other Strategy games, which previously represented a sizable chunk of Space Games.
Because of this larger pool of small games, I'm also including a "Hopefuls" and "Disappointments" section here, with more games to be aware of and check out.
Without further ado:
Top-5 Small and/or Indie Space Games
5. Duskers
Right off the line with an unusual and interesting one, Duskers is a top-down, realtime investigation roguelike, where you are a human ship captain, using remote-controlled drones to explore derelict ships, in order both to gather resources, and to figure out what happened to all the other humans. It's claustrophobic, it's alien, it's conveys loneliness very well, but also heart-pounding action when you need to... run from things. If you want a smaller-scale story, and more laid-back, Duskers is a gem.
4. Endless Sky [Steam link]
Endless Sky is a FREE and Open Source game, created entirely by community contributors! It is a top-down fleet-command game, in which you can trade, transport, fight, negotiate, and more, across a decently-sized galaxy. It has a lot of neat hidden content, alien factions, and cool ships to find. It also supports mods. Since it was made by a bunch of FOSS Linux nerds, you can install it on just about anything (phones included).
3. Avorion
It's procedural (galaxies, ships, modules, etc)! It's co-op! It's got lots of mods, lots and LOTS of star systems, and lots of bespoke content as well. It has a really cool mix of RTS and third-person ship combat, where you can swap into a top-down view to issue orders to your fleet, and then pop back out into just your ship's 3p view. You can build space stations, or take over systems, or just run missions if you want. For me it really feels like what I want Eve Online or Astrox Imperium to be.
2. FTL: Faster Than Light
Another Kickstarter success story, FTL is a top-down ship crew-simulation game, where you control crew members as well as the ship, through a procedural series of sectors in order to reach and then defeat a giant enemy boss ship, all while being pursued by their fleet. You can recruit different species who have different abilities, fly different ships, change out weapons, or drones, or defensive robots to attack borders, or equip stealth cloaking devices, and on and on. It is NOT infinite, and an infinite mode that was promised at one point never materialized, but mods have attempted to rectify this grave injustice.
1. Starsector
Starsector is truly a special game. It is a top-down fleet command game, in a universe full of aliens, warring factions, mysterious artifacts, unexplained mysteries, pirates, bounties, rogue AI fleets, and a now-defunct mass effect relay portal ring network. It is still in development, and has an active and extensive community of modders. I truly can't rave about this game enough, if you are a fan of open-world space sandbox games. Take a look at the game's media page to see screenshots of what the games looks like, as well as the kinds of stuff you can do- or check out the trailer.
And don't worry, if you're like me, and you suck at the Ur-Quan Masters-style ship combat... you can have the game handle it for you (while you watch and intervene as you like).
Honorable Mentions
Starbound
This game would have been in the top-5 for me if I was only considering the game itself, but there is controversy about its development: in short, the developer signed on around 12 fans/ community members (including minors), who volunteered to produce art assets unpaid. Supposedly, none of those made it into the final game, but the project lead (who is also the head of Chucklefish games) is also- according to many previous employees- a massive asshole, manipulator, and creep.
I personally reject the premise of Death of the Author (either good or bad), and doubly-so when that person stands to benefit from sales; my view is to support good people, and not support bad people. If you agree, or where that line lies for you, and whether you're interested in looking at this game, is up to you.
That said, Starbound is an amazing game. It was created to be Terraria In Space (said asshole also worked on Terraria), and it succeeds at that in spades. It can be played alone or in co-op, is massively moddable, and is all-around an astounding game. There are tons of different types of planets, all proc-gen, and populated with various factions, cities, storylines, and missions.
The Frackin' Universe mod is considered a must-have expansion by many in the community, for the sheer amount of content it adds (many mod authors in the community pooled their work together).
Astrox Imperium
Eve Online, but singleplayer. Really. It's Eve.
This is the 2019 sequel to the 2015 Astrox: Hostile Space Excavation, which was more focused and small-scale. Astrox Imperium massively expands on the original, to create a game where you can mine, manufacture, research, train, fight, trade, build (stations, ships), etc. Its biggest limitation (to me) is its restrictiveness around fleets, but it's still in development, and the devs have said they're working on that. If you just want to mine in peace, give this a go.
Dyson Sphere Program
Factorio, but you go to a bunch of planets, and use the resources to build Dyson Spheres, and fight enemies.
Reassembly
A faster-paced twin-stick shooter and fleet command game, with a big emphasis on using the parts you loot from enemies to build up your own ships.
Nebulous: Fleet Command
A tactical fleet command sim. This 'game' is all about tactics. Controlling range. Controlling information. Controlling visibility. EWAR and positioning are major factors in this game. If you want to play a game that feels like what combat in The Expanse would be like, it's this. It's very cinematic, watching a PDS try to screen incoming missiles, or railgun rounds punch through ships. Hardcore, but satisfying.
Battlevoid: Harbinger
> Battlevoid: Harbinger is a hard sci-fi space exploration game blending roguelike, turn-based, star map strategy, and real-time space battles. You are a young commander venturing out into enemy territories, to unknown galaxies, never knowing what you will face as you jump out from hyperspace.
Space-adjacent Games, Small:
- Startopia (this is a must-have classic, if you enjoy management games)
- Rimworld
- Kenshi don't @ me
- Factorio
- Planet Explorers now Free, but was originally paid, and was Kickstarted. This is a real love-it-or-hate-it gem. I love it. Also, Pathea Games is the studio that made My Time At Portia and My Time at Sandrock.
- Heat Signature
- Shadowgrounds
- STASIS Point-and-click HORROR that is ACTUALLY scary
- Starship Titanic by Douglas Adams- oh yeah, did you know he made a video game?
Hopefuls:
- The Last Starship
- Stardeus
- Starmancer
- Ostranauts
- Star Valor
- Star Traders: Frontiers
- Space Reign
- Celestial Command
- Space Haven
Disappointments:
Note: The disappointments are only here because I saw something promising in them, so just because I didn't like them in the end doesn't mean you won't. Not every space game is for me!
- Star Command: Galaxies
- Void Destroyer
- Starship EVO
- Star Ruler
- Spacebourne
- Rodina
- Shortest Trip to Earth
- Kinetic Void
- Fractured Space
- Dust Fleet
- Approaching Infinity
- Halcyon 6
Hi everyone, here's my list of Medium-sized, "Rise of the RTS" list:
- Top-5 Space Games
- Honorable Mentions
- Space-adjacent Games
I've added the last category because there are a lot of games that are in space-centric settings, but which do not directly deal with outer space itself (i.e. games on alien planets, in which the 'alien' part is very important, but you never really deal with space itself as part of the game). I won't give detailed descriptions, but I will put links to them all.
Top-5 Medium-Sized Space Games
5. Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion (SoaSE 2 is coming soon!)
A space RTS, where you command fleets of ships against rival... \ahem\ Empires. If you like RTSes, but in a shorter, simpler, faster format, Sins is a great series to consider, especially since the sub-genre of Space RTSes has been pretty dead for a long while in mainstream, AAA games. Rebellion was a standalone 'expansion' to SoaSE, which from what I gather most people just now recommend to get in lieu of getting the original + expansions.
I would probably swap this out with Imperium Galactica 2 (see below), but I think it's age may make it too inaccessible for many players.
4. Space Engineers
On the dead-opposite end from an RTS, comes a first-person, multiplayer game about being the people who actually build all those ships you're commanding in other games. Space Engineers is really unique in that you are basically playing Minecraft, but building spaceships. You can start on a planet, find a frozen lake, start mining and refining nearby iron, nickel, etc, and before (too) long launch your first horribly ugly spaceship, maybe even into space!
There are tons and tons of mods, including mods that add NPC factions and new weapon and block types, and lots of very engineering-focused content to let you do complex pseudo-automations. If you're like me, you'll always play on the sandbox solar system start, manage to get off the Earthlike planet, make a base on one of the asteroids nearby, and promptly die to NPC pirates. But it's fun!
3. Homeworld (1999)
The One and Only Homeworld, one of the most famous space games of all time. This was the pinnacle of mission-based RTS in 1999, and still holds up well today (at least in the space genre). Amazingly, a year later we also got Ground Control and Earth 2150, so truly the turn of the millennium was a special time for RTSes.
This is a game that really showed a love of the beauty and awe of space. Though it couldn't always convey it perfectly, it always tried. This is not a base-builder RTS (a la StarCraft, C&C, etc), which can turn a lot of people off, but if you really just love bite-sized, tactical, crunchy combat, with the added verticality of 3D space, Homeworld set the gold standard for years.
2. Kerbal Space Program
So much ink has been spilled about KSP, it's hard to know what to write that isn't common knowledge, but in case you've never heard of it or looked into it, Kerbal Space Program is a physics-based rocket-building and space exploration game, where you operate a space organization analogous to NASA, on the planet Kerbin. It has a plethora of systems to engage with, like conducting research and performing experiments under specific conditions to unlock new tech, doing contract missions for money, trying for difficult achievements, or even just trying to actually reach the distant and unusual planets and moons. You can literally play it for years and never successfully land a ship on many of the planets or moons, much less get home afterwards. It also has a sandbox mode if you're not interested in the money and tech management, and just want to build and test rockets.
It has mods out the wazoo, including many which help the less mathematically-inclined of us, such as MechJeb (basically a highly-configurable auto-pilot system). It won't save you from yourself, but it will often save you from the vagaries of the physics engine.
All fear the Kraken!
1. Distant Worlds: Universe
You may commence the head-scratching or the mouth-foaming!
Distant Worlds: Universe is a sandbox RTS / 4X game where you simply usher a space-faring civilization through whatever comes.
Where it stands apart, and what makes it completely different and unique from basically any other game I can think of, is that you can granularly elect for any parts of your empire's control to be automated.
You can literally have the game play itself, if you so desire.
Or you can just control the fleets. Or just the research. Or maybe you only choose the government policies, roleplaying congress, with no actual control over how those policies play out. Or maybe you just play it like a normal 4X RTS, but getting rid of the micromanagement of planets. Or maybe you have the AI ask you permission for certain choices, and treat it as basically a smart advisor.
It's a really special and unique game, and it also has so many mods and so much content that you can change it up, or do total conversions. Wanna just turn it into Star Wars, or Stargate, or Babylon5, or Warhammer 40k, or Eve Offline, or Battlestar Galactica, or Macross, or (obviously) Star Trek? You can!
Honorable Mentions
Galactic Civilizations 2,3,4
A long-running series from Stardock, a classic name in TBS (turn-based strategy) games. I personally love 2 and 3, but I have heard very positive things about 4 as well. It is more... cartoonish? and lighthearted than many other 4X games, but that doesn't mean they're less difficult; it's very tactical, and has a good blend of straight empire-control-jockeying and random events to spice things up. In many ways I'd call it a predecessor to Stellaris.
Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain
The oldest game that will appear on any of these lists, Pax Imperia is an RTS from 1997, that still holds up strong today. You can create a custom species to play as, or choose from some presets. You can customize ships extensively, and there is a massive research tree. The combat is engaging and tactical, and it really feels like FLEETS fighting, not just little individual ships all skirmishing in the same place. Plus, it has one of the COOLEST opening cinematics for a video game. THIS THING SLAPS.
Descent: Freespace
The classic Descent series from Volition (RIP) moved out of asteroids, and into space wars! This is a mission-based space combat game, in which you played as humans fighting against a new and deadly alien species invading both you and the other hostile alien species humans were already at war with (the Vasudans). It really does a great job of making you feel... helpless in space. You're not really some badass, you're a single pilot in a great big war, and you're struggling to hold on and pull through alive.
Also, has a really great cinematic intro.
Imperium Galactica 2: Alliances
This is probably the game I actually come back to the most on this list of Medium-sized games. It is a really great RTS / 4X, with 3 main factions with campaigns, and a bunch of minor factions you can play in skirmish scenarios with.
It's got everything:
- Ship customization
- Planet-side city planning (and invasions! You actually get to land tanks on enemy planets and assault their structures, and they your's).
- Spying, and counter-intelligence, and framing other empires, and stealing tech, and assassinating leaders, and hiring different species of aliens as spies to be more effective for certain missions, or against their own factions, or even forcing spies you capture to be double-agents! Holy hell!
- An alien race that (contrary to the literal name of the game) cannot conduct diplomacy at all, and just wants to murder everyone, and has superweapons!
Obligatory cool-but-short intro movie. "DIE! DIE! AHAHAHAHA!"
Take On Mars
As the final Honorable Mention, we have a complete swerve from the rest of the list. Take On Mars is a Mars exploration sim from Bohemia Interactive. Literally playing as essentially NASA, you build rovers, land them, and carry out science missions. Like, "land here, drive the rover to this rock formation, take sample, launch sample-return vehicle/ transmit spectrometer data", etc. I think it also has missions where you build a base for people, but I never bother with those. It's a true sim, so it's slow, and methodical, and you can drive a rover for 30 minutes only to get frustrated and drive too fast and hit a rock and fuck up your rover's wheels and have to start all over... though you get to keep your job, unlike IRL.
If you enjoy relaxing simulation games, this one is really nice.
Space-Adjacent Mentions, Medium-Sized:
- Dead Space (1 and 2)
- Spore
- Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries
- Red Faction: Guerrilla (avoid the "Re-Marstered" edition, from what I've heard)
- The Ascent (this game is so fucking cool!)
- Planetbase
- Surviving Mars
Hey everyone, I'm a big player of Space Games of all forms, and this mini-genre (or 'theme', if you prefer) really has a TON of range and depth, and is a very fertile ground for indie and unique projects. I was recently playing a game called Avorion, after owning it for years without ever really engaging with it, and I've gotten hooked, and sunken 100+ hours into it in a couple weeks. That made me think about the variety of really cool games in this space, and about people who might not know some of these, or might be interested in a space-game junkie's thoughts on them (I am TooManySpaceGames on Steam, feel free to friend me). Note that I am not going to include games that you can no longer legally acquire, or which cannot run on modern hardware or OSes (sorry, Freelancer).
Without further ado, here are my Top-5 "AAA" Space Games:
5. No Man's Sky
A well-known comeback story in gaming, No Man's Sky debuted at E3 2014, and then released in 2018 with MUCH less in features than both the E3 trailer, and than what developers had directly promised in interviews. Hello Games (the creators) have since then spent the subsequent 6 years releasing very large updates- all free- that have taken the game beyond parity with the original promises.
It is a third-person RPG, that also features ship combat (though imo this is its weakest area), interacting with alien races (with a great language-learning system), ship/weapon/outfit customization, base-building, running NPC colonies, missions, etc. There's a LOT to do. If you enjoy large open worlds and exploration, it offers that in spades. It can be played solo or online, and there are live-service-esque features like timed events that give unique ships, outfits, modules, etc, all free.
NMS deserves special mention to the insane numbers that it can earnestly claim, with a total system count of 2.2 TRILLION possible solar systems, 18 quintillion possible planets and moons total. I say "possible" because everything is procedurally-generated, so they are only tracking essentially metadata about systems that have been visited, and most systems will never even be visited. It is still wild to think about.
4. Stellaris
An(other) RTS-4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) game from Paradox, Stellaris offers TONS of customization options (including mods), but at the cost of, well, high cost for the many DLCs. It is infinitely replayable, and very customizable in how you want the universe to be set up. It's tough to find AAA RTS-4X games in the space game realm, and other contenders like Endless Space 1/2 just don't have the breadth that Stellaris does.
Stellaris has a high focus on randomized events, narrative events, and overarching story lines. As an example, you may get a notification that an asteroid was spotted heading towards a planet, but when you send a fleet of ships to destroy it, discover that the asteroid is actually a monument built by an ancient race. You would then need to decide what to do with it, with various potential outcomes (e.g. destroy it, put it into orbit as a tourist destination, move it so it passes by the planet and goes on its way, etc).
Or you may find a giant derelict ringworld, or dyson sphere, or or deep-space scanning antenna, and be able to rebuild them and use them as a colony. Or you may invent a cool new warp drive, only to find that activating it alerts some inter-dimensional being to your presence, who then invades. Lots of cool narrative beyond the usual 4X "fight other groups for territory", though that is the meat of the game.
3. Eve Online
A game that you either love or hate, Eve is (in)famous for its player-centric and adversarial nature. It receives a lot of very unjust (imo) criticisms for being unplayable as a solo player or small group (patently false; I've run small group Corps, and have been playing it solo for the past 4-5ish years). It is really a sandbox, where you can attempt to do anything you want, with relatively few restrictions. It also has a truly player-driven economy, where the ships you fly, the guns and modules you equip, and the ammunition you shoot, were all built by players, from materials they mined from asteroids (and moons and planets) or farmed from NPCs.
I ran several corporations in "wormhole space"/ "j-space", which is basically an entire set of hundreds of star systems (in addition to the several thousand systems of "k-space", or "empire space" that the universe map covers) that are only accessible through ephemeral wormholes, and which have unique and cool properties. I later joined a medium-sized "Nullsec" alliance, and was part of a major series of wars between large alliances, mostly working as a Fleet Commander (FC) for stealth-bomber "blops" (black-ops) drops. After that I shifted over to solo-building capital ships to sell to large Nullsec corporations. Even after playing since 2011, I haven't touched all the various systems in Eve.
2. X4: Foundations
I only really got into the X series with X4, though I had owned X3 for many years, and failed several times to get hooked by it. To put it simply, the X series are first-person 4X games, where economic simulation is a really key focus. You can mine, build components, build ships, build stations, fight stuff, sell the stuff you build to NPCs, watch the NPCs fight stuff using the stuff you sold to them, etc. You can influence the actually-simulated outcomes of wars between NPC factions through economics, which is really cool. For instance, in one game I wanted one faction (Split) to take over a bunch of another faction's (Teladi) space, so I bought lots of shipbuilding materials FROM the Teladi at high cost to myself, and sold them to the Split to use or used them myself, which very quickly resulted in the Teladi being unable to replenish their fleets, and the Split taking over several Teladi systems.
There are no limits on what you can own (fleets, stations, etc) so you can absolutely build up a massive faction and eventually take over the entire universe.
1. Mass Effect Series
Rather than call out one specific game, I think Mass Effect merits mention as a unified body (including Andromeda). Mass Effect is a third-person RPG space opera, following a mostly linear storyline (unlike my usual propensity towards large sandboxes). It includes 3 'mainline' games, and one spin-off (Andromeda, that focuses more on open-world exploration than 1-3). It is a truly phenomenal series, though it struggles to hold up gameplay-wise the further we get from its release. Its writing manages to be both very human and very epic, with a cast of close-knit and memorable characters, while also managing to feel like you are having a wide-ranging impact on the world. It never feels like you're "along for the ride" in these events, which is a pitfall that many RPGs fall into (\cough\ Bethesda games post-Morrowind \cough\).
If you are a fan of BG3, or DA:I (and somehow haven't played ME), this is right up your alley.
If playing it is too daunting, especially given its age, there are videos on YouTube that condense the story and events down into a mini-movie (though this obviously loses the personal choice aspect).
Honorable Mentions: Starfield, Star Citizen, and by popular demand, Elite: Dangerous
I hesitated to include these, as there is a lot of very negative reaction out there towards the first 2, and I have personal bad blood with E:D, but I feel that not to include them would be remiss towards any serious discussion of AAA space games, and everyone was (rightfully) pointing out the omission of E:D.
Starfield is of course Bethesda's reskin of their Creation Engine games... IN SPACE! Highly-anticipated, it received both very fair and very unfair criticism upon its release. Now that the Creation Kit (modding tools) are in players' hands, it has me very optimistic that it will turn into the kind of wide-AND-deep RPG we all wanted.
If you have not played a Bethesda game before... do not start here.
Start with Morrowind.
Or (for everyone who rolled their eyes reading that), start with Fallout 4. Both are much better introductions to Bethesda games. And no, New Vegas is not a Bethesda game, and the fact that Obsidian was able to eat their lunch with their own engine should not dissuade you from appreciating their actual games on their own merits (and demerits). So also play New Vegas, but don't do that in lieu of playing actual Bethesda games.
Star Citizen is a MMO space sim from Chris Roberts, the creator of Freelancer and the Wing Commander series, famous in part for Mark Hamill's starring role back in the heyday of FMV games. Star Citizen is the multiplayer MMO world counterpart to Squadron42, a singleplayer space action game that they are also currently developing (which stars a LOT of big-name actors), but which is not yet open for players to test.
Star Citizen is a sandbox, that shares much in game design structure with especially Eve Online, though that is a highly-sensitive and argued subject in the SC community. It is incredibly impressive, with about the best graphics you'll see in a video game, and in its incredible technical capabilities (like actually traversing a solar system from planet surface, to space, to planet seamlessly, sans loading screens. It it still very much in-development, and there is a lot of criticism over its funding model (they are not publisher-backed, but instead crowdfunded, first on Kickstarter, and now via ship sales). They host free-fly events regularly, so you can always try it for free, and the entry-level game packs (it's not subscription-based) give you the game + 1 ship start at ~$45.
It's worth mentioning because it is the closest thing to a true space sim out there. You really do just get dropped on a planet with whatever starting ship you have, a little money, and are turned loose to do what you want. I have had an ongoing debate with my wife about whether sandbox sims are the true final goal of all games (my opinion), and SC is a really incredible achievement even in its in-development state, as a sandbox sim.
Elite: Dangerous is a sandbox Spaceflight Sim from Frontier Games and founder David Braben, who famously made the original Elite games (which are generally considered to be largely responsible for Space Sim games as a genre), played in an online or offline world. It is incredibly expansive, only second to No Man's Sky in number of solar systems to explore, and at least somewhat based on actual scientific survey data about many of the systems, which is pretty cool. The original Elite (1984) was a space trading game, and Elite: Dangerous is still at its core about this.
It has very snappy, sometimes very unforgiving combat, and has expanded since launch to include things like planetary landings, FPS combat, and a bunch of other content, though it is all a separate purchase from the base game, under the title "Horizons". I cannot personally comment on Horizons content, as I only played the original game.
If you really like very realistic solar systems, and a much more 'laid back' experience of just Zen-jumping your way across the galaxy, E:D is a great option.
Anyways... let me know what you think!
What other AAA space games do you love? What do you think of those on this list?
I'll be making parts 2 and 3 going over Medium and Small games soon, so if you enjoyed this, stay tuned!
> On a given day, the five story building (including basement and roof top rooms) houses a variety of projects and dozens of people pass through its open doors.“We have a café, we have a community kitchen where we prepare the free meals. We have a community bike shop in the basement and we have space for events, shows…theater,” explained Nat, a longtime organizer and collective member of Enclave. “We try to make the space available for the community to use as they please.”
> But Enclave isn’t just a resource center for migrants and others in need—it is also a space for creativity, experimentation, and exchange of radical political ideas. It hosts drag shows, reading groups, lectures, film screenings, and workshops on topics outside the political mainstream. At such events, those who come to the space primarily for resources often stay to engage with those who come for the politics or to enjoy the safe space.
> “The people that come to the shows and that organize events are, I would say, mostly punks and feminists and people from the LGBT community that have found also a safe space here where they know that here they will be respected no matter what,” said Nat.
I've had the opportunity to work with several community-owned-and-run spaces in the Bay Area, and they are wonderful microcosms of our communities, as well as being communities unto themselves. If you have not had the chance to interact with one of theses, I highly recommend you to look them up in your local areas; they can always use more members, no matter your role.
It's easy as members of a relatively small group (e.g. AnSocs) to feel and become isolated, and working with or even just inhabiting spaces like this help others, and ourselves!
> Fifty-eight percent of GOP voters said in the new survey convicted felons should be allowed to become president if they are elected. YouGov noted that just 17 percent of Republicans held that opinion in April.
> In February, 34 percent of GOP voters said criminality was among their least desired traits. Now, 19 percent say the same.
Incredible.
Jurors on Tuesday got their first look at the document at the center of Hunter Biden's federal gun trial.
If you want to see weaponization of the courts against a political opponent, THIS is the case to look at.
The ATF Form 4473 is the Firearm Transaction Record and has a list of checkbox questions which, in a normal country, would not be questions at all, but a bullet point list of disqualifying criteria, such as (shortening for clarity):
- Are you buying the gun for someone else?
- Are you a citizen or legal alien?
- Are you a convicted felon?
Rather than simply saying,
- You cannot purchase the gun for someone else.
- You must be a citizen or legal alien.
- You cannot be a convicted felon.
This is done in order to create a criminal charge of Making a False Claim if one of these is not fulfilled. Note that for many of these, you will in fact fail the background check (FBI NICS system) and be unable to even purchase the gun, such as if you are not a US Citizen or Green Card holder, but you could still have just become a criminal based on your 4473 answers.
Most of the questions are very 'reasonable' in their objective, but then you reach question 21f:
> f. Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?
At first glance this is pretty straightforward: possession of an illegal drug is a crime, so of course you can't buy a gun if you admit you're committing a crime!
But note, it also calls out addiction. Being addicted to something is not illegal, and is not even the same as being intoxicated, but is grounds for rejection under this. Moreover, that addiction can be to legal controlled substances as well, and still run afoul of this question.
And who decides if you are addicted to something? That's not spelled out here, and can be determined by a doctor either before or after arrest for this.
This is extremely unusual for courts to retroactively pursue, especially years later. That Hunter Biden is being pursued on this is 1000% only happening because of Republican pressure, in order to smear Biden so they can try to equate his family to Trump's, in their corruption.
Then again, many laws (especially around drugs and guns) were put in place to target minorities and Leftists non-Conservatives so this is really just the law being used how it was intended.
Haley writing ‘finish them’ on an Israeli bomb is everything horrific about the US elite’s morally empty foreign policy
> ...on Tuesday, the former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was all over social media for a picture taken of her during a visit to Israel. In the picture, Haley – the one Republican who had been frequently lauded for her smarts on foreign policy – is seen squatting down in front of a row of Israeli artillery shells, likely provided by the United States, with pen in hand. “Finish them,” she wrote on one of the shells.
> The evidence indicates that Nikki Haley can write, but one must wonder if she can read.
Amazing jabs by the author aside, the cruelty and the callousness and the bigotry displayed by those deadset on supporting Israel is both astonishing and horrifying.
> What makes this genocidal unity of Democrat and Republican all the more horrific and rage-inducing is that, despite the war-mongering messages emanating from America’s politicians and media pundits, all the polls repeatedly show that the American people want a ceasefire in Gaza, not a genocide. One of the latest surveys, a Data for Progress poll published in early May, found that seven out of 10 likely voters “support the US calling for a permanent ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza”. This position was endorsed by majorities of Democrats (83%), independents (65%) and Republicans (56%).
> The [Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention] concluded their position this way: “Humanity has a choice: Either we decide that our children can all be killed whenever a superior force alleges that ‘terrorists’ are among us, or we decide that under no circumstances will we allow these superior forces to lay waste to our world any longer. We each must choose and act accordingly. The watershed moment is now.”
> The Lemkin Institute exhibits the kind of moral clarity that we must demand from our leaders. If we don’t, the Nikki Haleys of this world will be signing more than bombs. By endorsing the genocide that the people don’t support, these politicians are also signing the death certificate of our own democracy.
In Atlanta, the George Floyd demonstrators are being prosecuted as gang members. The activists of today could be next.
> In Atlanta, the George Floyd demonstrators are being prosecuted as gang members. The activists of today could be next.
A great writeup on Atlanta's Cop City protests, and the political establishment's wider response to protests in a post-BLM world (hint: it's not to listen to protestors' concerns).
Donald Trump tells the world he intends to be an authoritarian. So why won’t journalists repeat it?
> Just like Hitler before him, Trump is benefiting from the fact that journalism is an incremental, daily business. Every day, reporters have to find something new to write or broadcast. Trump keeps saying dangerous and crazy things, but that’s not new. He’s said it all before. His impeachments and the January 6 insurrection happened years ago. True, he has been indicted four times and now faces up to four criminal trials, but that’s already been reported. What’s new today?
> For political reporters covering the campaign, that means usually treating Trump’s authoritarian promises as “B-matter.” That’s an old newspaper phrase that refers to the background information that reporters gather about a story’s subject. B-matter is usually exiled to the bottom of an article — if not cut entirely to save space or time.
> But the horrifying truth is that when Trump’s dictatorial ambitions are left on the cutting room floor as B-matter, America is in trouble.
A segment on The Hill that cites The Intercept and Democracy Now, and calls out the media downplaying credible accusations of IDF mistreatment of prisoners, including prior to Oct 7? Did I wake up in upside-down world today?
A new network blending far-right extremism with MMA training is growing rapidly across North America and Europe.
> With a network of decentralised cells in most states in the United States and European Union member countries, the Active Clubs movement has blended far-right extremism with mixed martial arts (MMA). By presenting a more palatable image to the public and combining its extremist ideology with exercise, fitness and MMA training, Active Clubs have widened their appeal to reach a much broader audience than traditional white supremacist groups whose members are often derided for being “keyboard warriors”.
> By promoting healthy pastimes like weightlifting, kickboxing, and even hiking, the group centres itself around positive, shared activities. Active Clubs enthusiastically encourage their members to live healthier lifestyles, by avoiding tobacco and drug use, training daily, and even going for hikes. For many new members, Active Clubs initially serve as a vehicle for self-improvement where they can train and exercise amongst like-minded individuals.
> Alongside this personal growth, the group gradually introduces its members to the movement’s ideology as their involvement deepens.
> Active Clubs also maintain close affiliations with more traditional white nationalist and accelerationist groups like Patriot Front that have used violence in the past. In Canada, Active Clubs members are known to have simultaneously been members of designated terrorist groups, including the Atomwaffen Division.
> As the US hurtles towards turbulent elections later this year, there is a significant risk that Active Clubs could serve as a combat-ready militia or “brownshirts” organisation prepared to intimidate voters at polling stations, debates, and peaceful demonstrations. With individual Active Clubs branches spanning most US states, the network has a broad geographic footprint that could lead to voter intimidation and election disruptions across the country.
Wikipedia: Active Club Network
GPAHE: Neo-Nazi Active Clubs Spreading Globally, Allying with Similar Extremists, and Taking to the Streets
A top U.N. official says hard-hit northern Gaza is now in “full-blown famine” after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory.
> Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine.
> “It’s horror,” McCain told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview to air Sunday. “There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south.”
> The panel that serves as the internationally recognized monitor for food crises said in March that northern Gaza was on the brink of famine and likely to experience it in May. Since March, northern Gaza had not received anything like the aid needed to stave off famine, a U.S. Agency for International Development humanitarian official for Gaza told The Associated Press
Like countless other hostilities, the stealthy Israeli missile and drone strike on Iran doesn’t risk war. It is war.
> But this, in fact, is what actual war looks like these days: Sometimes it’s a volley of 300 missiles and drones, and sometimes it is lean, targeted, and carried out covertly. Gone are the days of vast conquering armies and conventional military confrontations between two parties. So long as experts, the government, and the media worry only about a kind of war that is obsolete, it cannot see the war right in front of our faces.
Great article on the evolving face of warfare and how, as long-range and unmanned systems replace on-the-ground and manned conflict, people are assuaged into treating missiles and bombs being lobbed between countries as something "other" than war.
The Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham on his investigations of the I.D.F.’s use of A.I.-backed targeting systems and the dire cost to Palestinian civilians.
An excellent interview from the journalist whose investigative reporting exposed the extensive use of machine learning systems by Israel to target Hamas members while at home with their families.
> Democrats are meddling in Ohio’s Senate GOP primary at the 11th hour to boost Bernie Moreno, the candidate former President Donald Trump endorsed to face vulnerable Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
> Duty and Country PAC, a group affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, is spending over $2.5 million to air with a TV ad that heavily touts Moreno’s support from Trump and calls him “too conservative for Ohio.” It will begin airing on Thursday and is set to run through Tuesday’s primary.
> The group is funded by Senate Majority PAC, the top Democratic outside group focused on Senate races. The apparent goal of the ad is to boost Moreno with GOP voters, and their interference in the race is a sign that they believe he would be the weakest candidate in the general election.
> In a statement, Moreno campaign spokesperson Reagan McCarthy invoked Democrats’ general feeling in 2016 that Trump would be the easiest candidate for Hillary Clinton to beat. “The same thing is going to happen to Sherrod Brown this year,” McCarthy said.
This is such a playing-with-fire tactic...
If y'all wonder why we're constantly seeing races between the DNC candidates and extremist Trumpers, know that it's at least in part because the DNC is boosting them. "Don't vote for white supremacists" works better as a talking point if you make sure your opponents are white supremacists, but badly if your gambit doesn't pay off.
And guess what... they got what they wanted.
> Trump’s endorsee, auto-dealer magnate Bernie Moreno, beat State Senator (and Cleveland Guardians co-owner) Matt Dolan and Secretary of State Frank LaRose decisively on March 19. With over 96 percent percent of the expected vote in, Moreno is winning just over half the total votes and leading by Dolan by 18 percent. It’s a broad-based victory, since Moreno is ahead in all of Ohio’s 88 counties.
Of course Ohio has 88 counties...
"Now it's on you, Ohio Democrat voters, to vote super hard to make sure a white supremacist isn't elected in the General!" - Sincerely, the SuperPAC that helped put a white supremacist in the General
Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by Israeli forces and has suffered long cutoffs of food supply deliveries.
> Israel largely shut off entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies after launching its assault on Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel — allowing only a trickle of aid trucks through two crossings in the south.
> After months of warnings over the risk of famine in Gaza under Israel’s bombardment, offensives and siege, children are starting to die.
The ultimate, intended outcome of Israel's humanitarian blockade of Gaza is beginning.
Jon Stewart mocked both President Biden and former President Trump during his return to “The Daily Show,” saying both 2024 candidates are “stretching the limits of being able to h…
Ohio voters have approved a constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. The outcome of Tuesday’s intense, off-year election was the latest blow for abortion opponents.
Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment on Tuesday that ensures access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care, the latest victory for abortion rights supporters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Ohio became the seventh state where voters decided to protect abortion access after the landmark ruling and was the only state to consider a statewide abortion rights question this year.
“The future is bright, and tonight we can celebrate this win for bodily autonomy and reproductive rights,” Lauren Blauvelt, co-chair of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, which led support for the amendment, told a jubilant crowd of supporters.
The outcome of the intense, off-year election could be a bellwether for 2024, when Democrats hope the issue will energize their voters and help President Joe Biden keep the White House. Voters in Arizona, Missouri and elsewhere are expected to vote on similar protections next year.
Heather Williams, interim president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to state legislatures, said the vote in favor of abortion rights was a “huge victory.”
“Ohio’s resounding support for this constitutional amendment reaffirms Democratic priorities and sends a strong message to the state GOP that reproductive rights are non-negotiable,” she said in a statement.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris issued statements celebrating the amendment’s win, emphasizing that attempts to ban or severely restrict abortion represent a minority view across the country. Harris hinted at how the issue would likely be central to Democrats’ campaigning next year for Congress and the presidency, saying “extremists are pushing for a national abortion ban that would criminalize reproductive health care in every single state in our nation.”
Ohio’s constitutional amendment, on the ballot as Issue 1, included some of the most protective language for abortion access of any statewide ballot initiative since the Supreme Court’s ruling. Opponents had argued that the amendment would threaten parental rights, allow unrestricted gender surgeries for minors and revive “partial birth” abortions, which are federally banned.