Going through the map at the end of one of these games is a meditative clean-up thing for me, so that's fun, but I did have to start looking things up when it got frustrating.

So for this one I agree the backtracking is bad, I don't mind backtracking but I do mind working out where to backtrack. It's pretty bad at that I think due to the map system and lack of any real guidance (after the squirrel). I wrote about this last week, some games make it very obvious and easy with fast travel and map icons (Guacamelee was the example I gave - solid bright colours on the map matching a mechanic-locked-gate, and clear fast travel points on a map that you don't have to memorise). Shortcuts seemed a little sparse too, or hard to remember (the fish tubes are so numerous it's really hard to remember which goes where once you move on). And no one tell me it lets me make notes on the map, I almost never want to do that when playing a game.

Apart from that the simplicity appealed to me, it was enjoyable as an after-work game, but not so much a weekend thing.

That's a cultural aversion to air conditioning I think. Never had it so it's not normal to get it, and it costs more due to that. That'll probably have to change. The good news is if the house is properly insulated, it won't have to work as much to cool the space.

Batteries cost a lot installed, see here for some examples and numbers: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/battery-storage/comparison-table/

For most people I think the current calculation is batteries are a net loss over the warranty period but not always, if you're filling from solar then charging an EV overnight etc it can be good. There are some regional rebates too.

I liked it more than you, but can't really disagree. There are just so many of these games, and a lot of us have played all the big hitters. As a solo dev project the personality comes through (aka it's a bit weird in parts) and with the custom engine it's very snappy, so that made it stand out a bit to me.

You talking about Ori made me think of a tangent, how these 2D games are broadly block-based or more fluid. Even Hollow Knight is block based, it just hides it a bit better sometimes. I think I prefer block based, and I don't know if that's from NES in my formative years or it's more fundamental.

Strange Horticulture

Steam told me it was on sale and it was on my wishlist, so I had to ask myself the question - what is a wishlist for if I do not even buy a game at 60% off? Also I was away with a laptop that isn't great for complex games so this was a perfect fit for Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, I like it. Despite the simplicity and lack of voice acting it's actually quite immersive with headphones, the relaxed music, the sound of rain. It's a deduction based game. You start with a few plants and a book and no idea what's what since you just inherited the store. A customer wants a plant, you have to figure out which it is, then label it for next time. It isn't punishing, it will tell you when you get it wrong, but fail a few times and you'll have to solve a puzzle to come back to where you were. Each time you fulfill a request, you earn a new book entry for later (but not a new plant).

I've had a lot of fun so far. Some similarities to the Golden Idol game but more relaxed and so far, much less complex. Apart from the plants there is a bigger background story but I haven't got far, and you get letters and clues and a map - you earn 'will to explore' from quests or just watering your plants (not necessary, just to speed up a retry) and use it to check a map square based on clues. You might find new plants or something else, sometimes there's a blocker like you might find insects and need to work out which plant will keep them away to find the thing, and so on. It's all very simple so far, but enjoyable, and is good at putting that so-satisfying checkmark when you identify a plant or find what a clue was talking about and can shove it into the archive.

I did look up a couple of puzzles - sometimes in games I have the right idea but I'm not totally sure if I'm just executing it wrong, things can be interpreted more than one way. That was the case here but rarely.

I do often create black characters (as a white person). I don't know why.

I have done the same. Maybe it's an unconscious response which stems from a desire for variety, unrelated to identity. Just bored of the same old same old which is the same root cause the other people complain about but experienced differently.

Not sure, do you have the number? 7 out of 3000 dealerships sounds like a lot but I have no idea what the general rate is. And I'd also need to know if they all started in a car, or it's just general shitty Chinese building construction standards.

Either way I agree with your point we should look at what happens here because we can't trust what we see in China. BYD has been around for a year, they have dealerships, I'm not buying a car for at least a few years and we will see what happens.

They have around 20 times as many cars on the road as we do, over 400 million, and assuming anyone who sees a fire posts it on social media, that's going to seem like a lot. It's the general social media amplifying effect that applies to every rare occurrence.

I'd rather hard stats but I agree China isn't going to be helpful there. BYD has sold 20,000 cars in Australia though. At ICE rates you'd expect around 20 car fires. How many have we had?

How extensive is the need to "relate", has anyone looked at this? I have never felt the need. Games are escapism for me, a main character who is not me is usually more appealing as long as the rest of the game backs it up.

I know when Tomb Raider first came out a lot of people didn't want to "be a girl" including some of my immature friend group of high school boys at the time, but this kind of thing never mattered to me. And in general I've realised lately that I view playing more as "piloting/helping" a character than "being" them so it's not even really related to identity. I don't know if I'm in the majority or minority there.

(In case anyone reads this the wrong way, I'm not talking about representation as a whole, just what draws someone to a specific game).

I downloaded the demo and planned to play it when I had time on the weekend a few days later, then the game came out and the demo was deleted from my Steam library. It turned my interest into annoyance. It's not the first game to do that.

I might still buy it on a discount, but that put me right off, for long enough to see the reviews were mixed enough that it was a "wait and see".

What is your source on "fire prone"? According to articles I've seen ICEs have as much as 60-100x the chance to catch fire based on stats from cars on the road (check https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/how-many-electric-cars-have-caught-fire-australia/ for one).

EVs will be newer on average which shifts the stats but surely not that much. EV fires are much worse than they start, but it is still easier to deal with fewer fires. It's a shift in firefighting training plus EV owners should get used to getting their battery checked after minor dings in case there's any damage. Punctured lithium batteries are no good.

Yeah ANCAP is independent and non-regulatory. A rating of 0 being sold means either our laws are lacking or it's a bit of a racket and they value stuff that doesn't matter that much, and I'm not informed enough to know which.

I do wonder how all those 20 year old cars on the road would rate under ANCAP too - I assume the levels change over time as new cars are generally safer these days?

Classic "market for lemons" problem, was mostly written about used cars but applies to everything now. It all looks the same to us, only they know the corners they cut (hiring tradies is similar, are you paying more for the better one or are you the sucker?). So many new products review well, and by the time a few years have passed and problems found, there's a new product line.

Ah yeah I think that also caused mine a bit. It used to be under the tap which had a leaky seal, when the watering timer came on it'd get some free water from the drips so I didn't fix it. But someone moved it just a bit. And I assume the soil dried up and washed away in the rain plus the desperation made it send out roots to find water.

Looks good to me, my wife made and sold cakes from home for years and cutting the corner off a freezer bag was still something she did when the other room with the piping bags was so far (10 metres) away and it wasn't going to a client.

As for me I love the precision of baking in grams and then it comes to decorating and I'm a total mess but I don't care it's for eating :)

If you ever get a bit out of the city Born to Bake (Greek bakery) in Rosebery/Eastlakes is my favourite I've bought.

Every recipe should be entirely in grams, IMO

Uncontroversial for those in the know I reckon. It makes it so much easier. I print out and write grams on any recipe I make that wasn't that way (it's even good for eggs if you are in the habit of resizing).

Wait, where are the nannies? Asking for a friend.

Is that behaviour from them new or worse lately since recent events hit their margins? Or just always been that way. I'd guess being large companies they will try to pay at Net 60 or something in the best case.

I think this one makes sense, even if it sucks. Floods, fires, and we keep hearing stories about cars in the shop for months on end since they can't get the one part and insurance pays for all that. COVID messed with global pipelines. It also made people drive like shit apparently, so I wonder if claim rates went up also.

At this point it's making me wonder if they just lost the source code or something and it'd be way more effort than it's worth. It seems to be an easy win and they even bothered with the far more niche Demon's Souls. Or maybe we just need to wait 1 more year, for that 10 year anniversary edition...

I will add lemon/lime are pretty low maintenance and convenient once established. Like herbs it's something you might want to add some zest to a meal at the last second. Occasionally I need to knock the stink bugs off with a broom but that's fun. Having 50 lemons decide to ripen at once is not as fun but it's good having the juice frozen in cubes year round.

Was it in a pot? Mine was dying and I was confused because it was the toughest thing alive, turns out the pot was 90% root and hardly any dirt so I cut most of it away and replanted and it's getting on with the good life now.

I turn around to take a piss and it's already bolted and gone to seed... tried a few times and just doesn't work in our yard. I hear they have a more perennial variant overseas, not sure about here.

Yeah I paid around $20 for 100 Ritalin which is about a month if you have 3 a day. I also cut my coffee in half since it enhances the jitters and haven't had alcohol for over a month now (I was a rare drinker and avoided it at first in case of side effects but now I actually don't want it) so it probably evens out. Got a feeling those were a bit of self-medication.

I agree with you a bit, when I talked to the guy he said it's all a spectrum and we all have bits and pieces of various things. In the end he said I was on the lower side but it's for multiple things that all interact and make each other worse and treating ADHD is the safest/cheapest/simplest and might help the others. Compare that to anti-depressants or anxiety meds, can take time to ramp up, can have way worse side effects, can be unsafe to stop suddenly if it's going bad. So far it seems he was right.

He also said it's tough to know for sure in adults since we all have decades of experience coping and hiding it. But he saw a lot of common patterns in my story for the type of case I was. Like I said in another post society made more sense and I felt like I fit the structure better the very first day I tried the medication, it would be nice if society changed but I don't think that is happening. And like the other post said, I work in IT, but as a teen I packed shelves for a bit at Woolies and it just let me zone out and really focus for 4 hours and the time flew by (they always gave me too much to do and I got it done, that's the famous deadline energy, but I was totally spent when I got home).