Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 are great. Then the franchise was purchased by 343 and everything since has been a soulless COD clone with a Halo skin… and a random RTS.

If you happen to have easy access to the ROM, how’s “Star Wars: Racer Revenge” run?

It’s the less popular but more fleshed out spiritual successor to the N64 pod racing game - the PS2’s take nailed the physics - the two engines and racer pod are (or at least feel like) three separate entities, and playing in first person view with the engines controlled separately by the left and right joysticks feels fucking magical.

Tried to run it on PCSX2 years ago, but it was one of the few games that meshed so poorly with the emulator that it wasn’t playable. I’m guessing the emulator has seen some improvements since then - could definitely use a nice shot of nostalgia.

Zotero

If you’re in any flavor of academics from middle school to doctorate program or otherwise writing papers that require strict citation formatting, drop what you’re doing and click that link.

Or probably YouTube it or something first so you can see why it’s so much better than your standard internet citation generators.

Don’t forget to share the intel with your classmates!

Edit - honorable mention to Desmos for 99% of your calculator needs… with the unfortunate exception of exams, cuz phone.

Image search pulls up Masters of Albion

Higher res shot:

I think that’s maybe a bit harsh compared to a lot of the games mentioned here.

For sure - by “looking at it through the lens of relativity” I guess I failed to specify what I was holding it relative to - where my brain’s at W1 as a starting point, and the quality of W2 and W3… Relative to other trilogies that actually did well, Witcher’s starting point is hot trash. Like, a game that bad doesn’t generally go on to have good sequels, but the degree of improvement in both W2 and W3 is fucking astounding.

Looking through the lens of relativity, I’d have to say Witcher I. The fact that the fucking masterpiece that is Witcher III and not-amazing-but-definitely-worth-a-playthrough that is Witcher II both stemmed from the comically bad dumpster fire that was #1 is nothing short of a miracle.

The franchise *should* have died at #1, but I’m sure glad it didn’t.

Iirc (edit - apparently incorrect) Halo was the first to use left joystick as forward/backward and left/right strafe; and right joystick as look up/down and pivot left/right.

I even recall articles counting it as a point against the game due to its ‘awkward controls’ …but apparently after a tiny learning curve, the entire community/industry got on board.

Naw, if his aim was any indication, he was still a bit sleepy.

Really is a shame he skipped his morning coffee that day - if he was just a tad more woke he could have saved us all a lot of trouble.

Here’s hoping the next guy gets plenty of rest first.

HP printers.

Really HP anything on principle, but their printers take the cake for anti-user bullshit.

No more religious things. Books, buildings, posters, gatherings, merchandise, websites, teachings…

You can talk to your imaginary friend in private, but no more spreading that shit to youth or folks in a vulnerable state of mind.

One generation and that garbage is either done and gone forever; or I just triggered judgement day and learn the hard way that I fucked up and the religious crowd gets their coveted ascension. Win win.

Blind Guardian is pretty hit-and-miss: their shit lands somewhere on a spectrum of metal to renaissance-faire lol. Sacred Worlds is another one of my favorites.

All of Metallica’s S&M album is solid fucking gold, but the best (imo) song from it almost never gets the spotlight, so it’s tragically easy to miss: No Leaf Clover

Avenged Sevenfold isn’t symphonic metal, but they’ve got two songs that at least dip their toes in that water: The Stage, and Little Piece of Heaven.

Epica

If you know Epica you’re probably already familiar with Nightwish, but in case your not… well, Nightwish. Most of their music is more similar to Omega than the one I’m about to link, but this specific song is just so fucking weird, I love it: Scaretale. Definitely check out their other songs too!

Essence of Datum / Naxayras

You’d probably like Pelican - kind of ambient rock. Or Russian Circles, which is similar but more mellow.

Mohamed Shawky

Not familiar, and the only Mohamed Shawky’s I’m seeing on YouTube are a physicist and an athlete. Judging entirely by the name, I’m guessing it’s got some Arabic vibes, and the best I’ve got there is the first one I linked, Wheel of Time, mostly because of the intro… Antti Martikainen has some Arabic sounding songs - that dude’s music is ALL over the place… I recall one being a kind of Arabic metal that I could have SWORN was called “Ancient Worlds” but searching that isn’t coming up with anything. He does have Arabic hybrid sci-fi music lol. Skim that dude’s channel, and brace for a musical roller coaster.

Rivers of Nihil

Hmm, maybe try Lorna Shore, especially Pain Remains. Lorna Shore is WAY too throaty-howler-monkey-shit for me personally, but fortunately they’ve got instrumental versions too.

Nice mix of metal and violin.

Juuuuust in case you’re not already familiar with symphonic metal… It’s pretty fuckin great.

Can of Monster (zero sugar / 10 calories / 140mg caffeine) is my breakfast most days. My blood pressure runs pretty high, but I also have insomnia (started waaay before I discovered energy drinks), work full time, am going to school part time, and have chronic pain in multiple locations, so… Monster or not, it’s gonna be fucking high. Probably less high without the Monster, I’m under no illusion that it’s good for me, but the moral of the story is your physiology is dependent on a TON of variables; whether or not your lifestyle adds up to ‘healthy’ is a tally on how you manage all of them.

Also some variables are unknown - I could have shitty blood vessels and not know it until I randomly rupture my aortic artery, or have a weak heart or something, and with things like that, energy drinks can absolutely be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Seems anything that tastes or feels good comes with some risk.

Do pay attention to your total caffeine intake though… a can of monster, followed by some coffee, followed by some pre-workout, followed by some tea, and you’re looking at like a full gram of caffeine in a single day. THAT can kill you.

Halo 1, 2, and 3 all looked fine. Halo 4 and up all look like shit, cuz 343 made them shit.

Edit - coulda sworn it works, so I tested it… Then I realized I’m a dumbass, and this thread is about Boost…

Goya

That entire game is fucking nuts. Pretty sure all of the dev crew was riding an LSD high through the entirety of its creation.

Video game music, especially for the less popular ones like Jetforce Gemini or weird shit like Okage.

Eh! This thread just reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to buy, but only ever think about buying when I’m at work or something and not able to get online to make the purchase:

https://www.redcross.org/store/cpr-keychain-with-face-shield-and-gloves/ARC-CPR-03.html?cgid=cpr-masks-and-face-shields

Key-chain pouch with a CPR face barrier that has a one-way valve.

I’ve never had to give CPR outside of a hospital environment, but there it’s much more controlled w/ supplies readily available like a resuscitation bag that you just slap onto the patient’s face and squeeze to give breaths. I know how to do the field version without any supplies, but when you give breaths in that scenario, YOU are the resuscitation bag, and it’d be nice to be prepared to give rescue breaths without needing to worry about shit like picking up herpes off some dying stranger’s face.

Also CPR is NOT hard to do or learn, so if I’ve piqued your interest and you’re not already familiar with it, plug your city in here (https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class) and set it to CPR and see what’s in your area. Price varies a lot, but expect $30-$100 (WHY ISN’T THIS FREE/SUBSIDIZED?!). Learn some shit, get that cert, save a life. Make sure the class you sign up for good for first-timers and not a refresher course; and I STRONGLY recommend doing in person vs online so you can practice on a dummy with an instructor present to let you know if you’re fucking something up.

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Came in to say this lol. Previous poster is right on my intent and correction, but god damn am I tired of this Nazi shit.