It's almost as if the developers intentionally said "fuck you" to the customer with this game.
Visually, it's stunning. But that is really about it on the positive side I can say about this.
The voice actors are atrocious, looking at you BEAN. The dialogue across the board is just awful. I have no recollection of any NPC saying anything significant or worthwhile.
The idiot kid laughing hysterically while chucking a rock three meters in front of him in "Prosperity" makes me cringe. Why add that to the game?
The sound guy for this game REALLY put forth the effort with whatever is going on with the dog barking, vehicle engine sounds, and the same exact semi-automatic pistol sound "effects" from FC5.
I won't even waste our time on the two "villains" in this game.
The whole Joseph Seed arc had so much potential....
Absolutely no one is pulling security on the south, east, and western walls of "Prosperity". Why is the idiot playing the guitar not watching the eastern wall? Why is everything about Prosperity such a clusterfuck? If everyone knows the "highwaymen" are in the area, then why isn't anyone actually taking it seriously?
Randomly spawned NPCs just aimlessly walking around the worldspace.
NPCs reverting to crisis mode when you drive by them.
Zero connectivity between PC and NPC out in sector. NPCs are just there to distract the PC. Speaking of which....
For some reason, a bunch of folks sat around a conference table at Ubisoft and all agreed that it was a good idea to just bombard the player with squirrel moments. Fuck whatever objective or goal a player has, lets throw a metric shit ton of "encounters" at the player over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over with the goal of "resource collection".
Did I mention anything about the dialogue in game? Can I step back and include Far Cry 5 in this? Literally every single time I enter a vehicle with Grace and she says "I hope you drive better than you shoot" for the 28908093892032983 time?
I just don't understand what motivates the decision makers at Ubisoft for making such utterly terrible decisions for a product they put out for us to buy.
Yeah I'm playing FC New Dawn right now because its filling time until the new Horizon DLC comes out next month. Am I bitching? Absolutely. Does Ubisoft make utter trash and get paid for it? Absolutely.
There are so many benchmark examples out there on how to properly entertain an audience (Last of Us on HBO is a prime example). When I hear Bean talk, I cringe. Who at Ubisoft wrote Bean? Who approved his dialogue? Who approved that voice actor?
I cannot take FC New Dawn seriously as a game because the developers did not take it seriously as a game. Just stand in Prosperity for 10 seconds and you'll know exactly what I mean.
Its 20 years after a nuclear apocalypse....zero thought went into the game setting by Ubisoft. There are no GPS transmitters anymore because the grid is dead!
The game seems to tailor to people who react only, who collect achievements, and who have zero control over their gaming experience and instead just follow whatever the game puts out there. Zero depth, zero inclusion of what a 20 year, post-apocalyptic Montana would actually be like. Just minimal effort from Ubisoft and instead "GO COLLECT ETHANOL SO YOU CAN UNLOCK THINGS!!!!" and "GO TO THIS SPOT SO YOU CAN COLLECT THINGS" and "GO TO THIS SPOT SO YOU CAN COLLECT THINGS".
Far Cry New Dawn is such an absolute shit show that I am only playing it for the simple sake of shooting highwaymen in the face. The rest of the game is trash...but hey thanks for the gorgeous flowers all over the place. The voice actors are shit and should never work in the business again.....BEAN.
Fuck.

Hello VR party people,
so…I played a bit of PSVR2 recently. It looks like interest in game reviews and recommendations is quite high at the moment, so hopefully this is a good time to share mine. Viewer discretion advised, my takes are highly subjective and might cause outbursts of anger and rage, fear, sadness, giggling and/or sexiness.
I did something similar for PSVR1 in the past:
here (~100 games)
and
here (~70 games)
I’m rating games out of 5 stars and as a trophy hunter also rate the trophy list out of 5 stars. I’m also including my approximate completion time, as it showed either in the neat PS5 overview (which is sadly not always accurate) or in the game’s stats or on my psnprofiles.com.
On the VR trophies leaderboard I’m currently rank 1 in Europe and rank 4 in the world.
Have fun!
​
After the Fall
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱ 24
Coop zombie shooter similar to Left4Dead, port from the PSVR1. Has many weapons, parts, mods and skins to grind for, so the replayability is solid. With crossplay there is always a healthy amount of people to play with. Especially in a group it’s great fun and the PS5 version profits from the better controllers and higher resolution. Unfortunately, it’s still riddled with unacceptable technical issues. Lots of bluescreens on higher difficulty, disconnecting from lobbies, glitched runs. On nightmare difficulty many people can’t play even a few rounds in a row without anyone in the group disconnecting or crashing. It’s way better on lower difficulties, but eventually you obviously don’t want to play those anymore.
The trophy list would be pretty decent, if not for one insane and entirely over tuned 20+ hour grind.
Altair Breaker
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★★☆☆ ⏱ 8
Japanese sword action fighting game, mech-themed. The gameplay loop is running solo or coop through a number of arena-style levels until a final boss, then upgrading in a central hub area to get ready for the next run. The enemies get stronger over time, scaling to the lowest player level in the party. Gameplay and graphics are smooth and the first hour is very fun. Especially getting the hang of gliding around the various large arenas and then dropping onto enemies is very satisfying. At some (early) point you’ll probably realize that you have seen everything there is to do in the game though. Each run contains the exact same arenas, just in a different order. Enemies are all the same few models. Upgrading becomes expensive and therefore a bit grindy and doesn’t do much visually. Your swords and clubs and whatnot just get a bigger damage number or crit a bit more often. Without trophies, I don’t feel there would be much incentive to play this game for long, as there doesn’t seem to be much of a carrot to chase.
The trophies are easy, most get awarded for very simple things within the first few runs. Reaching level 20 and beating the bosses final form takes a bit longer, but the most grindy challenge is a whopping 1.000 enemy kills. That one makes this trophy list ultimately overstay its welcome by a few hours.
Overall a solid game to have some easy fun, especially with a group, but nothing to keep you engaged for long hours.
Awesome Asteroids
🎮 ★★☆☆☆ 🏆★★★★★ ⏱ 1
In this game you cruise around in a space fighter and protect your objective by shooting at waves of asteroids or the odd enemy ship here and there. It reminded me very much of the PSVR1 launch title “Eve: Gunjack”, that had you operate a gun turret in a similar setting. Shovelware without any glaring issues, but not a lot of gameplay either. You have freedom of movement in space though, which as far as I know no other game on PSVR2 offers currently.
It’s a great game for the quick trophy hunter in particular, as the full list, including a platinum and seven gold trophies, is up for grabs in under an hour. And if you absolutely need to scratch that space itch, this is a temporary fix until we get a worthy PSVR2s equivalent to Star Wars Squadrons.
Before Your Eyes
🎮 ★★★★★ 🏆☆☆☆☆☆ ⏱ “3“
Story game with cartoon graphics that makes use of the eye detection of the PSVR2. You change scenes by blinking or looking at certain things, absolutely no controller input needed. This is kind of an odd one out of my list because I don’t have the platinum at the point of writing this. Even after the latest patch, the trophy list is broken for all but a small percentage of players, so 1 or 2 trophies can’t be obtained. I completed the game multiple times though and definitely wanted it on here, because it’s an absolute stunning experience. I have never been so emotionally hit by a VR game and recommend it to everyone. I don’t want to spoil anything, just have tissues and someone to hug nearby. This is a masterpiece of alternative storytelling.
Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★★☆☆ ⏱ 7
Port from a PSVR1 game. You’re a miner equipped with several upgradable tools (pickaxe, pistol etc.), set out to get rich by riding down elevator shafts, mining different gems or collecting artefacts while shooting at enemies. Every shaft has three progressively more rewarding floors (randomly generated) with a safe full of valuables at the bottom. This basic loop (which takes anywhere between 2-15 minutes, depending on your approach) is spiced up by a quest system, tasking you with stuff like killing enemies, destroying bottles, or scanning spots in the overworld.
I enjoyed this game quite a bit more on the PS5, as it ran a bit smoother, looked noticeably better and had less crashes than the PS4 version. The movement with the Sense controllers is also far, far superior to the old Moves. Still, the game gets a bit clunky at times and is prone to stuttering and infrequently crashing the farther into the endgame you get.
The trophy list is pretty easy to complete, but the “endings” are very obscure to trigger without a guide and there is one collectible trophy that is a bit of a grind. Not a mind-blowing game, but fun enough and a good playground for trophy hunting.
Cosmonious High
🎮 ★★★★☆ 🏆★★★☆☆ ⏱ 8
A colourful puzzle game with lots of imaginative tasks in an alien high school. You are the new kid at the school and have to earn credits by attending classes and cleaning up various messes in the hallways. You unlock multiple superpowers progressing the story, including the mastery of elements, reading minds or manipulating the size of objects. While definitely aimed at younger audiences, I found the game to be cute, clever and endearing. The possibilities of goofing around with objects seem endless. The mechanics are very similar to Vacation Simulator, but Cosmonious High is the bigger playground.
Unfortunately, it started to mess up towards the end with some crashes, stuttering and bugs. The trophy list with a platinum and 7 golds can be completed in one weekend, if you try to be fast and use a guide for the collectibles.
Garden of the Sea
🎮 ★★★★☆ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱ 5
Absolute gem of a game. While the trailer makes it look like a farming sim, it’s actually more of an exploration puzzler. On a colourful island world, you expand a homebase by exploring your surroundings and discovering formulas for various items and buildings. Ingredients can be fed into a machine that crafts the desired product. A stable for the cute animal wandering the island, for example, might require fence parts, stones and certain plants, with the fence parts having their own formula to produce them. A central mechanic is also collecting a multitude of different plant seeds from all around the game world and growing them in your personal garden to have the adult plants readily available for completing new tasks. In the beginning you mostly encounter basic tasks and simple receipts, but after a while you unlock more islands, more complicated formulas and more animal friends! This game has lots of elements you might recognize from the PSVR1 title “Winds and Leaves”, which was an amazing game in its own way, just with a slightly different style.
The game isn’t very long and is sadly lacking a platinum trophy. Some of the formulas required for progress are also a bit tricky to figure out and might have you travel to a bunch of wrong places before you find out where to get what. If you are open to playing calm, colourful and relaxing VR games, this is a must have title.
Gran Turismo 7
🎮 ★★★★★ 🏆★☆☆☆☆ ⏱ 71
One of the three AAA titles in the launch line-up. The game needs little introduction and if you are even mildly interested in the racing genre, this is a no-brainer purchase. More interesting is the question about possible peripherals, which can quickly rival the cost of the console itself. If you have the disposable income for wheel, pedals & co, it’s a stunningly immersive experience and the definitively best way to play. If you don’t want to drop that kind of money for a complete racing setup, the game handles and feels great with the Dual Sense controller, too. Considering almost all PSVR2 games require the Sense controllers, having a VR game to play while they charge is a great bonus perk. While outside the car windows not quite as sharp as the trailers would have you believe, the clarity and detail of the interiors of the cars is amazing.
The game is otherwise what you would expect from a high-quality racing sim, so people who come from Mario Kart will likely have to endure quite a learning curve, depending on what they want to achieve in the game.
The trophy list was an absolute pain to complete, offering all facets of suffering known to trophy hunters. Grinding, RNG / time-gating and insanely difficult license tests made this the hardest trophy list I have completed in years. I would still only recommend not to get this title if you really don’t like the racing genre or get very frustrated by a game ruffling your feathers here and there.
Horizon Call of the Mountain
🎮 ★★★★★ 🏆★★★☆☆ ⏱ 10
The second of the AAA launch titles. Set as a side story in the timeline between Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, this game is a mix of tech demo for PSVR2 and fan service for Horizon enjoyers. And when I say “tech demo”, I don’t mean it derogatory, because wow does this demo the shit out of the tech. This was the first game I tested the new headset on and it spoiled me for all the other games that came after. People call this game a climbing simulator and I get it. Some are disappointed with the lack of open world or free movement in combat and I get it too. Yet, this is by far the best-looking game of the entire library (this and RE8) and my hot take is that this is the only native PSVR2 game we currently have that makes any effort at being a true “generational leap” over PSVR1. It’s not perfect, but HCotM made it painfully obvious to me that games currently have to compromise way too much, being held back by the demand of other, less powerful systems. But the potential is there and I can’t wait for new PS exclusive IPs to blow all the years-old steam/oculus/PS4 titles out of the water.
The trophy list was a bit challenging, as pretty much no one had completed the game yet and made guides (back in the days of February 2023, the older ones of you might remember). The options for backtracking are limited and you have to repeat missions fully when trying to clean-up all the collectibles. Meanwhile, you’ll get the same prompts and unskippable cutscenes over and over, which becomes quite irritating. Luckily you guys won’t have that problem, nowadays there are plenty of 100% walkthroughs available.
I massively enjoyed my time with the game, neck and back pain notwithstanding. There is no excuse not to have this game in your library.
Job Simulator
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★★★★ ⏱ 2
In a museum for robotic visitors of the future you decide between one of four cartridges/displays, in which you interactively learn about traditional human jobs (mechanic, clerk, cook and accountant). You get accompanied by an AI buddy who guides you through the respective job and offers insightful titbits about the life and habits of the silly and inefficient humans. As an all-time classic and probably the most showcased VR game for friends and family around the globe, this was found in the monthly top ten list of PSVR1 downloads since the beginning of time. It’s still one of the more accessible titles for newcomers and a great choice for first ventures into the rabbit hole of trophy hunting.
Personally, I don’t think it aged amazingly well though. While the PS5 version seems to have a few more funny and up-to-date Jobs added to the cartridges, the scope of the game is still very small compared to the newer goofy sandboxes (like Cosmonious High or Vacation Simulator even) and people with a couple of VR hours under their belt will likely feel a bit bored or annoyed by limitations like not being able to turn via stick. Ironically, this pretty small game demands a rather large, obstacle-free space to play. If you do have the space and like to show off VR to first-timers, this is still a very nice game to have in your library.
Jurassic World Aftermath Collection
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱ 9
Alien isolation type stealth puzzler. In a story setting very typical of the Jurassic Park franchise, you are crashing on Islar Nublar and subsequently try to fix various catastrophic failures within the facilities systems, while sneaking and crawling from room to room or hiding in air vents and lockers to avoid detection from murderous dinos. The art style of this game is pretty unique, looks very much like last years PSVR1 title “Fractured” (or a toned-down Borderlands). Voiceover and story are nothing groundbreaking, but perfectly fine for a game like this. There isn’t much competition in this genre and there is a compelling thrill in the first few hours. After a while though, the graphical variety leaves a bit to be desired, mechanics become repetitive and the core premise of the game starts to feel not threatening, but forced and mildly annoying. Too much of the gameplay becomes waiting in a locker until the raptor is done sniffing around and leaves the room again. This becomes a particularly irritating waste of time when you get stuck, as it’s not always immediately obvious what or where the next objective is.
Checking a guide prior to running through the game avoids a huge headache in regards to the trophies. All but two are unmissable and story related, but if you fail to pick up any of six dino plushies and cross the point of no return, you will have to play two thirds of the entire game again.
Overall, the game is alright, but playing it more than once, just for one missed plushie, wasn’t fun. There is also the occasional bluescreen, and I heard the PS4 version in particular has technical issues.
Kayak VR: Mirage
🎮 ★★☆☆☆ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱ 10
This game does what its name says, it’s a kayaking simulator. Four different maps with some weather and daytime effects + some options for races and unlockable cosmetics. My take will make some people a bit angry, but here we go: This game was an overhyped disappointment for me. I can see why people new to VR enjoy the water effects and the details of very close objects. Those two aspects are undeniably nice, and the pool you start in when loading up the game looks cool and polished too, but ultimately those things aren’t doing a good job of hiding the mediocrity behind them. Anything two kayak lengths away simply doesn’t look convincing, especially in daylight setting. Night time and shadows work better, but this game is graphically still a joke if you stop and look even a tiny bit closer. There are fish that look like cardboard, the scenery looks washed out, the sky is mostly static, large parts of the maps are lifeless in an uncanny way, you quickly find the immersion breaking map boundaries (especially looking under water), the controls are prone to messing up and at the end of the day, the game is very shallow. There has also been a severe technical issue for multiple people, resulting in permanent loss of progress. I had start from km 0 again, after having my previous save with 80km on the clock corrupted for good.
If you have a very casual approach to VR, show it around a lot and do short sessions on average, this game is likely a fine and feel-good purchase. Otherwise, be aware that the hype might sell you this game as something it is not.
Moss / Moss: Book II
🎮 ★★★★★ 🏆★★★★☆ ⏱ 4 / 5
I played these two games back-to-back on PS5 and think they are very similar in all aspects, so I rate them together here, too. You as the “reader” are a meta-being outside the story, frequently breaking the fourth wall and helping the little mouse protagonist Quill to save her world from impending doom. You do that by moving her through highly detailed and lovely crafted puzzle rooms, that have you fight enemies, parkour Quill around on platforms, reach switches or interact with objects. The one most fitting word to describe both titles is simply “Masterpieces”.
Although both games are long released on PS4, I still found them to be shining examples of VR game design on PS5. The detailed world building, the storytelling, the gameplay, the polish, everything about these two games is stunningly awesome. On top of that, both have tons of trophies, most of which are fun and easy. The only minor obstacle on the way to the platinums will likely be the two types of collectibles, glass fragments and relic dust. There are guides for both, but finding all relic dust is still tricky, as it requires breaking most objects on every screen. Finding the one or two missing vases or barrels after completing the game could be quite a challenge.
As the question comes up quite a bit on this sub: The two books are almost seamlessly intertwined and it only makes sense to get both, or start with book I and go from there.
Pavlov
🎮 ★★★★★ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱ 13
The PSVR2 fps game. Ported from the highly successful steam version, this game offers amazing Counter-Strike styled gameplay in various modes (TTT, S&D, DM, TDM, Zombies and more). Getting started in this game tends to be brutal, due to the complex gun handling. After a few hours, everything starts to become second nature though and the game opens up to a deep, varied and immensely fun experience. The playerbase is solid, with many modes getting hosted at all hours and most interactions in lobbies are friendly and often hilarious. The gameplay is smooth, the graphics crisp. A very minor issue for some could be that crossplay currently isn’t working, although I doubt people would really prefer to get matched with 1k hour PC veterans in their lobbies just yet.
My only gripe with this awesome game has been the lackluster trophy list. The trophies are tacked on to the game like an afterthought, there is no platinum and while not requiring much effort, it often seemed like they didn’t work as anticipated. I’ll take this list over an unobtainable or heavily bugged one every day, but would’ve liked to have more reason to stay with the game a bit longer.
In regards to expected upcoming fps titles, this game sits comfortably in the large gap between the hyper-fast and rather simple Alvo and the very tactical and slow-paced Firewall. The typical fps connoisseur won’t have any reason not to extensively play all three, or at least both Pavlov and Firewall.
Pistol Whip
🎮 ★★★★★ 🏆★★★★☆ ⏱ 4
On-rails, rhythm-based shooter with tons of tracks, modifiers and highscores to chase. Alongside bass intense music you shoot bad guys in polygon styled levels and reload on beat for points, while avoiding off beat actions and getting shot. This game has a great flow to it and is rightfully cherished as one of the top PSVR1 titles. The port to PSVR2 doesn’t innovate much, but doesn’t have to, either. The unique concept still works, the game is captivating and more of a workout than most people will expect.
As soon as you get the general idea about how to move efficiently to avoid enemy gunfire (see Christian Bale in “Equilibrium”, but more squatting), playing the game quickly becomes addictive and the trophy list turns out to be a satisfying and rewarding endeavour. If you ever skipped leg day you might have trouble moving much at all the next day though.
Resident Evil Village
🎮 ★★★★★ 🏆★★★☆☆ / 🏆☆☆☆☆☆ ⏱ 34
And here is the third AAA game we’ve got so far. Building on the story of RE7, this game continues to follow Ethan Winters along his gruesome journey of trying to save his family. The game has amazing graphics and atmosphere plus lots of replay value with a juicy list of unlockables (e. g. weapons, infinite ammo, a lightsaber !!1!), a DLC with a short but great sequel story and a wave mode, called Mercenaries. Unfortunately, on PS5 the VR mode is much less integrated than it had been done for RE7 on PS4 back in the day. Flat mode progress can’t be carried over to VR and you can’t earn any trophies. The DLC and Mercenaries modes are also not available in VR. For those reasons, I begrudgingly 100%ed the game shortly before the PSVR2 launch. Of course, I tested it for about an hour in VR, to see what all the fuzz is about.
Holy fuck. Holy FUCK.
Once you experienced this in VR you simply can’t see the launch library in the same light as before. This game shows you what the true power of PSVR2 could be about, and all the other games we currently have are just fun gimmicks (with the only exception of HCotM).
If you play the game flat and are eligible for trophies, the massive list tasks you with a wide variety of challenges, including a sub three-hour speedrun, a melee-only run, reading all files (a type of collectible), upgrading all weapons, and much more. Initially daunting, most of the list is actually neither too hard, nor too time consuming. The keen trophy hunter just needs some preparation and endurance, especially while trying for S ratings on all maps in the Mercenaries mode. The disappointing separation of VR and flat mode notwithstanding, this game is a truly great experience and if you could buy only one single game for your PSVR2, for now it should be this one.
Runner
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★★☆☆ ⏱ 8
In a setting reminiscent of old school anime, you ride a futuristic bike through six distinctive, cyberpunk-esque levels, while collecting power-ups and taking out enemies with your impressive arsenal, including laser pistols, grenades, missiles, and a lightsabre mode for reflecting bullets. Every level takes about ten minutes and ends in an intense boss mech encounter.
Figuring out the general mechanics of the game, the weak points of enemies and the strategies to defeat each boss is a tough and often hectic challenge that feels impossible at first. If you stick with it and bite through, you’ll get rewarded with a visually pleasing game that runs buttery smooth and quickly turns “This is unfair, I keep dying!” into “This is unfair, they keep dying so fast”. There are a few different bikes to unlock, all of which handle in unique ways and mix up the gameplay a bit. Ultimately, the scope of the game is quite limited of course, so once you “git gud”, all challenges are conquered with relative ease and there is little incentive to come back. For fans of older arcade games, retro side-scrollers and the like, this game is very enticing. For all others, it’s an ok but not mandatory addition to the VR collection.
Startenders
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★★☆☆ ⏱ 5
Just a moment ago chilling in your office, you are suddenly beamed lightyears away to the Startenders Academy as an unvoluntary new employee, having to learn the ropes of intergalactic bartending. The only way to get back, of course, is not to stir any trouble, do the job as expected and secretly build a teleporter in the back of the barship. The gameplay is basically a slightly deeper and more polished take on Job/Vacation Simulators food serving sections. During a shift, multiple alien customers will approach you and place orders from a fanciful palett of drinks, which require a progressively more complex sequence of steps to mix correctly. Cutting, squeezing, heating, freezing and shaking will get more stressful in later shifts of the “campaign”. Your bar has multiple devices that you can upgrade with earnings and a 3D printer. You’ll also spend money to diversify the bars stock of ingredients, as well as buying blueprints for the secret teleporter.
The game is humorous and colourful, runs well and has good graphics. The way content gets added in the early shifts keeps players engaged for quite a while. The trophy list is straightforward, although ending in a bit of a grindy clean-up.
Fun game for newcomers, kids and as a group showcase. Veterans won’t be engaged for long though, due to the lack of endgame.
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge
🎮 ★★★★☆ 🏆★★★★☆ ⏱ 9
This game has a bit of everything “Star Wars”: Space ships, gunfights, funny looking aliens, lightsabers, droids, stormtroopers, rebels, guest appearances of Master Yoda and Darth Vader and much more. The “Tales” part of the title can be taken literally, as the generic main story is flanked by a variety of unique side missions, presented as stories told by an NPC in the main hub area.
Despite being an older Quest port, the PSVR2 version of this game has a lot of polish, with top-notch voice acting, solid world building and high-end graphics. You easily feel immersed in an authentic Star Wars universe. It can’t quite outscale Horizons quality and has some glitches here and there, but is less linear and offers more fun distractions of fooling around with the environment. Nothing in the trophy list is particularly demanding if you do your research. The long list of collectibles suggests a bigger hassle than it turns out to be. As one of the big story titles in the launch window, you can’t go wrong with this game at all.
Swordsman
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★★★★ ⏱ 2
Port of a PSVR1 title. Arena styled sword fighting against several different historical people, like Vikings or Samurai. There is a skill point system as well as a bunch of weaponry and armor to unlock. There are also countless modifiers to switch up the gameplay, one of which being the armor physics. With those on, the game can be tough and will require good precision to hit uncovered areas on the enemy’s bodies. With physics off, every part of the enemy is fair game and the stabby stabby will have you sweat buckets. This game is loved by its devs, who update and expand it constantly. The current result on PS5 is a fun ragdoll sandbox that looks and runs great.
If you max your efficiency with the help of smart modifier settings, you can get the platinum in about two hours. For people who played this on PS4: This game massively profits from the new controllers. The stick movement makes for a much better experience than the clunky old Move controllers.
Synth Riders
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★☆☆☆☆ ⏱ 2
Currently the systems only basic rhythm game (Pistol Whip is a fighting rhythm game and Thumper is a bug on crack) and a port from the highly regarded PSVR1 version. Cruising along a musical track, you use your hands to hit individual notes or slide a rail, which quickly becomes a meditative experience, putting you in a cozy zone. The general feeling of the game is “Tron”, synthetic, retro. There is an extensive library of musical albums to choose from (many as paid add-ons though), including my personal favourite, Electro Swing. The game is often compared to Beat Saber, and while I enjoy Synth Riders, I’m not perfectly happy with the wrist-breaking way tracks work on higher difficulty and prefer the flow of Beat Saber when it gets hectic. Having the game constantly rub all the additional content packs in your face is something I find irritating, too. I also had worse tracking on PS5 than on PS4, often with the abrupt switching between VR and 2D. The tracking issues in combination with an absolutely underwhelming trophy list (no platinum, only 2 golds) sadly caused an overall mediocre experience for me, but I would still recommend this game to anybody who likes active, accessible and party-proof VR titles.
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR
🎮 ★★☆☆☆ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱ 12
Horror rollercoaster with lots of jump scares, sequel to the acclaimed PSVR1 launch title “Rush of Blood”. On a joyride through ten levels you defend yourself from corpses, ghosts, bats etc. by shooting everything that moves. This simple and accessible formula brought a stupid fun and cherished experience to PSVR1. Understandably, gamers were super hyped for the successor. Anybody with eyes and access to reddit probably noticed that what we got…underdelivered. If you never played Rush of Blood and try this game without any kind of expectation, you can have some fun with it. But for anybody else, this game is a huge let down. Carl Sagan said “There are more stars in our universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth” and unfortunately there are still less stars than there is pop-in in this game. On top of that, cheap graphical assets are copy pasted all over the levels, yet long sections remain empty, messing up the pacing, everything presented in laughingly bad resolution. In its current, unacceptable state, this game couldn’t compete with an average PSVR1 game, especially not with its predecessor.
Slogging through this mess for at least three times to clear up the trophy list is brutal. Personally, I think there is too much wrong with this game to ever have it morph into something great, even if Supermassive started to release weekly patches.
The Last Clockwinder
🎮 ★★★★☆ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱ 6
During a flying visit of a gigantic, partly mechanical tree you recall memories of spending time there as the apprentice to a “clockwinder”, the operator of the driving mechanism of the tree. You unlock rooms within the tree, activating its engines and recollecting your memories via messages on tape recorders. This is a beautiful little puzzle game with a great all-around package. Music, voice acting, story and graphics are very well done and endearing. The puzzle mechanics are pretty unique, people might remember the PSVR1 title “Transpose” doing something similar: You record yourself doing certain actions, then have a robot repeat those actions in an endless loop. The more complex the puzzle, the more iterations of you have to work together to automate the mechanisms. These puzzles are not trivial and going for all trophies requires maxing the clone set-ups efficiency.
This title should not be ignored by any fan of VR puzzlers, trophy hunters are a little less inclined though. The list lacks a platinum, only has one gold and has you work for it.
The Light Brigade
🎮 ★★★★☆ 🏆★☆☆☆☆ ⏱ 12
I preface this by voicing my deep-rooted annoyance with the unity engine. Many VR games are developed in unity and suck in unity. Controls are often clunky, you can’t grab and release stuff as expected, assets have unpredictable interactions or graphical borders, physics stem from a parallel universe where everything is a mix of jelly and rubber and anything requiring precision turns into a big fumble-fiesta. The Light Brigade is one of the few titles, in my experience, that manages to almost negate all those issues with a very high level of polish. The game is a rogue-lite with elements of both magic and military shooter. There are a lot of different classes to unlock and upgrade, which ensures tons of replayability. During each run, a system of temporary skill cards offers strategic choices and makes each attempt at completing a run a slightly different experience.
There were still times I couldn’t help but wish I would play on a different engine. Weapons don’t handle as snappy as in other fps; enemy hitboxes, especially the head, appear a tiny bit unreliable at times; tracking sometimes gets wonky. You are supposed to aim like you would in real life, but the PSVR2 doesn’t appreciate having your hands in that particular position. One issue is also with mandatory teleporting, as you often have to cross gaps and aim for designated spots, which in unity-known fashion often behave unresponsive. All of these points would only be minor gripes in most games. The huge “but” in this case is the very high difficulty of The Light Brigade. Character level, skills and a maxed-out health pool don’t matter. If you peek at the wrong time or get caught out of position, you get shred to pieces. Having that happen because your vision turned 2D at the wrong time or you fumbled with the messy teleporting spot, is tilting. Simply put, the game demands a level of precision that neither the engine nor the PSVR2 are designed for. (People might remember this feeling from PSVR1s “Sniper Elite”)
It also has to be stated that this game has two of the dumbest and most outrageous trophies in the launch line up. You are supposed to play an entire run with every single one of your shots being a headshot. This is simply not feasible and I have no idea how anybody involved in this games design would unironically bring such an idea forward in the first place. The first boss in the game even has a mechanic that requires shooting at other things than his head to end an invulnerable phase. No one can achieve these trophies without using an obvious soft exploit (still madness), or a not quite as obvious hard exploit.
All in all, this title is an amazing rogue-lite, that is a bit overtuned if played as intended.
Thumper
🎮 ★★☆☆☆ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱-
Port from the PSVR1. Rhythm game for fans of arcade games and tough challenges. In a minimalistic setting you race a bug at high speeds along a rail and have to turn and jump to avoid obstacles and intermittently kill bosses. The intense music correlates to the obstacles. With PSVR2s clean graphics, the presentation of this game puts you in zen-mode quickly. Each level you get introduced to more mechanics and more complex sequences. The levels are segmented and the individual parts can be repeated and perfected, to hunt the elusive S ranks.
Many people celebrate this gameplay, but it’s not totally my cup of tea. I hoped for autopopping of the trophies, as promised by the devs. It turned out that importing a PS4 save file only autopops half of the list, luckily the hard one for S ranks on all levels.
If you dig this kind of gameplay and like a challenge, I can see this game being a great experience.
Townsmen VR
🎮 ★★★★★ 🏆★★★★☆ ⏱ 20
Settlers, but in VR! If I had to select only one winner of a “Hidden Gem Award” of the launch line up, it would without question go to Townsmen. The PSVR1 ventured into this genre quite a bit, with titles like Dino Frontier, Oh My Genesis!, No Heroes Allowed or Tethered, but on PSVR2 we currently only got this game (I believe Cities VR is more of a management sim, like the Tycoon games), and no one seems to talk about it! If you don’t know what Settlers is, I’m referring to an older, but widely acclaimed rts city-building series on PC, that had you coordinate a growing population of settlers to farm resources, build various facilities, establish supply-chains and ultimately outpower and dispel enemy forces. You do the same in Townsmen, all with a top-notch, medieval presentation, cute and crisp graphics and a smart way of introducing more and more layers of complexity each level. The genre fits VR to perfection, with the options to seamlessly zoom in and out, inspect every nook and cranny of the map or instantly jump into whatever scene requires attention at the moment. Taking in every minute detail of the lovely designed islands or zooming out and simply enjoying the “Where’s Waldo?”-ness of the scenery never gets dull.
On top of that, the massive trophy list offers a range of very fun challenges, most of which are self-explanatory, but sometimes require a bit of imagination or trial and error. The game isn’t perfect though. In later levels or in a longer session of sandbox mode, when more individual entities have to be accounted for, the gameplay starts to stutter. Replayability is also limited once you beat the campaign. You can load up the maps in sandbox mode and set difficulties for wildlife and enemy pirates, but this is only a poor imitation of what full-fledged rts games on PC usually offer. Regardless, I was so delighted by this game that I’m comfortable with a five-star rating. Fingers crossed for more of these kinds of games in the near future.
Vacation Simulator
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★★★☆ ⏱ 6
Port from the PSVR1 version. Fleshed out successor to Job Simulator, with more activities and mechanics. Instead of jobs, you recreate favourite human pastimes across the typical vacation spots of beach, mountain and forest. Here, you don’t simply execute one task after another in a single predefined spot, but interact with different NPC robots in the area and work on collecting “memories”.
The game aged alright and is still fun and engaging, in between all the fresher PSVR2 titles it’s not an absolute must-have though. It has a lot to offer for trophy hunters, with its list being easy and fun, but demanding more effort than Job Simulator.
What the Bat?
🎮 ★★☆☆☆ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱ 2
Goofy puzzle game directed at younger audiences. You have bats for hands and with that handicap navigate various challenges of life, like brushing your teeth, playing fetch with a dog, parking cars, making breakfast or doing chores on a farm. The game places you in thematically grouped levels, each one having you come up with solutions to whatever sticky situation you find yourself in. The game is creative and funny in a silly way, but is overall pretty limited. It’s good, one-dimensional entertainment for an afternoon, after that though you quickly find yourself wishing for actual PSVR2 graphics and other interactions than slashing at things. I’m also not overly ecstatic about a kids game teaching that fun things happen when hitting chicken, sheep and dogs with baseball bats.
The trophy list can be done in two hours, but isn’t very rewarding. No platinum and only one gold.
Zenith: The Last City
🎮 ★★★☆☆ 🏆★★☆☆☆ ⏱ 28
The systems only MMO with all of the genres stereotypical mechanics, like class variety, weapon and gear farming, skills, level progression, open world activities, dungeons and quests, all in the jolly colourful unity engine. The game has a huge world and a long main story. With proximity chat and crossplay it’s pretty easy to connect with people to play with in one of the central areas of the game world. The playerbase is healthy and friendly.
So much for the good. I gave the game four stars on PS4, despite many issues I found with it. Now, on PS5, the game sadly didn’t live up to my expectations at all. It got more content, but the problems linger. It feels really cheap and clunky. Spells work with gestures, many of which are constantly triggered on accident. Pop-ins are everywhere, important graphical assets and allies load in at irritatingly short distances, enemies move erratic and are prone to disappearing or teleporting. For some people the game keeps crashing almost on an hourly basis. Overall, this feels like a very rough beta build and not a seasoned, multi-platform release.
The underwhelming trophy list offers no highlights either. You’d expect a game of this scope to come with a list of 30-50 trophies, incentivising you to explore and wander off the beaten path. Instead, this list is a flat “Do the main story while reaching max level”. I can only recommend this game for MMO fans who play with friends, as the group experience is much better than the solo ordeal.

Some days ago I watched both Jordan Peterson's interview with Stephen J Shaw and the first part of the Birth Gap documentary that is freely available on YouTube. For those who haven't watched either, the TLDR is simple: we are entering an era of ultra-low fertility rates across the world and, according to Shaw, there is no evidence in History of any civilisation coming out of this downward spiral that leads to civilisation collapse. Simply put, we are having too few children, and as the older generations retire out of the workforce, there are not enough people to sustain the model. This problem is not new, but I believe the honest exploration of the reasons that might be driving this change is refreshing, contrasting to some analyses that try to pin it all down to simply the economics of urbanisation, i.e., that it's just more expensive to have children in an urban setting than it is on a farm. Of course this is true, but it's by no means the full story.
Throughout the documentary, many hypotheses and factors contributing to the decline in birth rates are explored, however understandably there is not one that captures the full picture. The contraceptive pill is an important factor, but in Japan, for example, the start of the decline precedes the legalisation of the pill. As I was going through the conversation, I started concocting another hypothesis, on the cultural side of things: What if feminism, particularly the second/third waves, had anything to do with it? Now, before you jump on my throat, two things: (i) this is just a working hypothesis that I'm putting out to gauge its merits, and (ii) no, I know this is not the only contributing factor, so please don't derail the conversation towards other factors -- please stay on topic.
Now, when I think of feminism's role on the matter, two things jump to my mind right away, which form the core of the hypothesis:
1. Feminism has played a central role in shifting the focus of what's in a woman's best interest during his most fertile period (18-35) from family-making to career-making. What so many women and their partners are figuring out just now is that there is hardly any time left after you've made career to find a partner and have kids before the fertility window starts closing in on women, and the protracted nature of tertiary education does not help at all, either. Many women think, wrongly, that they'll quickly find a partner after they put their minds to it, generally around thirty when the desire to have children kicks in. But the reality of the dating market and getting pregnant make it impossible for such tasks to be completed in around five years. If women want to take their time to gauge their partners and future fathers siring their children -- as they should and most do -- this means that before meeting the right person, walking down the aisle, and starting to think about having children they are staring at a time frame of at least two-three years, provided they find the right partner on their first tries, and most can take a couple of years just to find the right person in the first place. Throw on top of that the dire rates of miscarriage and other complications and you can see the picture starting to take shape.
Many women think, wrongly again, that IVF and freezing eggs will save the day, but it is only when you look at the costs and terrible success rates that you can see the dire picture of waiting too long have children for what it actually is: not desirable at all.
2. Feminism has played a central role in pushing for closing the success/earning gaps between men and women, and in doing so it is also closing the necessary gaps for female attraction to occur. Hypergamy -- that is, that women marry up and display high levels of selectivity in choice of partner -- is hardly a mystery to most people. This is by design and there is hardly anything that can be done about it. Yet, a downside of the unholy marriage between closing these gender gaps and female hypergamy is that as the gaps shrink, so does the pool of suitable male partners. If an earning/success/wealth/social status gap is required for women to be attracted by men, then it follows that as the gap disappears so does this unconscious attraction.
"I want to have children but I can't find a partner" is a common story you can hear from older (30-40) single women, and as the time goes these women go on to become childless if they take too long to find a partner, if they ever do. "Involuntary childlessness" is the term used in the documentary to describe these people, and it comprises about 80% of childless women, according to a Ted Talk that is shown towards the end of part 1 of the doco. Yet, men have not disappeared -- at least not in the way we might think: It's not that they haven't been born at appropriate rates, it's simply that they are now more invisible to the female mating mind. They're simply not desirable anymore. And this trend doesn't seem to be slowing down at all.
What can be done? That's another topic in itself. For now, I wanted to pick some brains regarding this hypothesis. Over to you guys.

Please use this thread to ask any questions you have about the game. Please search though the comments section as your question may have been answered already or through the search bar.

General Resources

• General Database
• Gameplay Overview
• Min-Turn Stage Guide YouTube
• PvP Guide
• Raid Guide
• Raid Character Guide
• Unique Equipment Guide
• Upcoming Banners
• Upcoming Banners V2

REMINDER: Bind your account!

Please remember to bind your accounts and take note of your UID, member code, server location, and any information related to your account (e.g. amount spent, student roster, etc). If anything happens to your account (e.g. losing access, unauthorized access), you will need to provide as much info as you can to Nexon's customer support email. Guest accounts that are unbound will be extremely difficult to recover, perhaps impossible.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

[01] When does the server reset?
For global, dailies reset at 19:00 UTC and weeklies reset on Sunday.
[02] Should I re-roll this account?
This will depend on your priorities with PvE, PvP, or both, but you can generally see the “ideal” units as Iori, Hibiki, and Tsubaki for most content, while Shun and Haruna are great for PvP.
[03] Who should I spend my elephs on? Who should I mystic unlock?
At the start, prioritize spending your blank elephs on getting Serina to 2-star for the increased healing stat, Tsubaki to 3-star for the extra tankiness when she is reloading. It is generally advised not to spend your elephs on increasing characters to 4-star and 5-star ratings, since there is only a stat increase and the amount of elephs needed is quite high.
[04] What do my support students’ stats do?
Aside from increasing the stats of their own skills, support students will provide additional stat boosts to your striker team. The specific increase(s) can be viewed by clicking on “Support” on the right side of the team formation screen.
[05] What should I buy in the shop?

• Credit Shop - Buy out the bottom row of materials, then the first two tiers of enhancement stones as needed. Feel free to buy the higher tiers of enhancement stones if you feel that you have an excess of credits, which is very common.
• Eligma - This will depend on you, can reference question [03].
• Total Assault (raid) - Prioritize Maki’s elephs (until you unlock her) and save the rest of your currency for future updates that will add more low-rarity students to the shop, meaning you can unlock mystic for them without spending your eligma. You can also purchase the skill discs/blu-rays depending on your needs.
• Tactical Challenge (PvP) - Buy out the energy drinks as needed (warning: they are instantly consumed, they won’t be moved to your inventory). Many suggest to save these for events in order to buy drinks, refresh the shop, and repeat.

[06] What does the “leader” position do?
This is purely cosmetic, as it changes which student’s chibi shows up on the map.
[07] What benefits are there to joining a club?

• 10 AP are given daily and deposited automatically on teacher's mailbox, upon checking in.
• A maximum of two assistant can be set for Total Assault and Joint Firing Drill respectively.

1. Students assigned to assist with TA cannot also be selected to assist with JFD.
2. 20 credits are rewarded every minute by setting assistants.
3. The specific unit that is borrowed can be only used once a day.
4. There's a fee of 40,000 credits, when borrowing a assistant student.
5. The donor receives 50,000 credits instead; even though the fee is 40,000 credits.
6. The fee can only be received 20 times a day.

• It can be unlocked after clearing Mission 3 Act 4

[08] How does the pity system work?
You need to pull, at a minimum, 200 times in order to get 200 recruitment points that are redeemed for the character you want. The recruitment point system does not carry over from banner to banner, it is only shared between banners that are concurrently running.
[09] Why can’t I find my friend’s club?
While the servers’ updates are separated from JP and global, the global servers are separated further into smaller divisions. You need to be on the same server as your friend, which you can check from the home screen: top-right menu button > account > version info. The server must be the same.
[10] When is X banner coming? Should I save for X student?
We never know for sure, due to the fact that global servers are on an accelerated schedule compared to JP. Please refer to this guide for some more info.
[11] Should I use Pyroxenes to refill my AP?
If you want to prioritize progression, the first three daily refills are decently valuable, this is because the Pyroxene cost of refilling will increase for every three refills. If you are focused on character collection or future banners, you should be saving your Pyroxenes.
[12] Why can’t I buy X student’s eleph in the shop?
You can only buy elephs of students you own.
[13] What should I craft?
At the start, prioritize crafting cafe furniture until your comfort is maxed out, then students’ gifts, then whichever upgrade materials you need. The crafting system is the only way to get furniture and gifts at the moment.
[14] What is the “Anniversary” in account settings?
This is your birthday, used for characters to wish you happy birthday.
[15] When will the beginner guide missions for Nonomi end?
This is a permanent addition, so feel free to take your time with the tasks.
[16] What is the best place to farm EXP?
You can run any map to farm EXP, as the EXP gain is equal to the amount of AP spent (i.e. 10 AP spent = 10 EXP gained). You should be looking at the stages that drop the equipment upgrade materials that you need.
[17] What is the “Secret Tech Sheet” in the Total Assault shop?
This is used to upgrade a student’s (non-EX) skill to level 10.
[18] Is it worth doing a raid if I can’t pass X difficulty level?
It is always more efficient to clear the highest difficulty you can finish instead of failing/forfeiting a higher difficulty.
[19] Can I claim the Limited Students through exchanging Expert Permits? How often does the Expert Permit shop resets?
You cannot get the limited students via this method. You will still need to pull for them. There's no specific mentioned but it's expected to be monthly.

OthePast Megathreads

• Daily Questions
• Weekly Club Recruitment
• Weekly Kivotos Lounge
• Weekly Storytelling Plaza
• Technical Issues

Please have patience with other members of the community and be as polite as possible. Everyone has to start somewhere!

I recently reinstalled the sims 4 and the Anadius DLC unlocker, but when I went to start installing the DLC's I noticed that most of them are xbin files and not zip? I'm familiar with how to extract and add the zip files into my game, but I can't seem to figure out what to do with the xbin files. I can't extract them and simply placing them into my DLC folder does nothing. It doesn't seem like anyone else has had this problem, so I'm probably just missing something. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

So I spent the better part of 2 days trying to find any issue with KSP2 docking. I put this thing to the test. I tested with RCS, without RCS, using the target retrograde, without using the target retrograde, at KSO (whatever that is now), and 75km.
- No issues with fuel loss. - No docking Kraken (as in pre 0.1 KSP) - Just no serious issues at all.
The most serious problem I had, after 6 hours of play, the game locked up and I had to do a full reboot of the game. There is some sort of corruption of the game and so saving games every now and then , quiting and restarting KSP2 is wise isnt wise. I didn't care because I was building and launching craft and docking them.
The difficulty issue, I was in the middle of a docking procedure and had to engage in a text conversation with a colleague, this while in the midst of docking and I still docked, without any RCS and without using the target retrograde. This was KSO so maybe its not THAT hard.
So the first minor issue popped up, when I undocked the basic docking ship from the station. The basic ship had a "delusional" Navball. So basically I clicked on the docking port, set control, then clicked on the command module and set control. In fact every time two ships dock is seems both ships need to have control reestabilished. This resulted in some loss of fuel from counter effective burns but I still, using Kerbin ATM, managed to transfer to LKO.
The second minor issue. After undocking a second time with a new basic docking ship, I was unable to retarget the Station. Neither in the Mapview or directly. In fact I have not been able to visually target a station yet (only docking ports). I then tried, on a close pass target the docking port, over several passes I tried to target the same port I had been using, but without success. I got within about 5 meters of the port and finally I got a target. This was in LKO so just getting close enough to target is a problem.
There is a third issue that has plagued all versions of KSP, the RCS thrusters appear to thrust when no thrust is called for. I set my single vector RCS on the VAB defined NSEW axes and the Up and down likewiase, when I fire forward, I get the same two side thusters firing. When I fire forward two other thrusters fire. Single vector thrusters have no off-axes force, and even if they did, that force would only be 0.01% that along the axis. So I am wondering why KSP2 does this. Its also goes along with the fact that rocket engines gimble with engines shut down, and aerocontrol surfaces also actuate when in space and not flying.
Given the state of the game I don't know what problem people are having other than fuel mysteriously disappears. Basic docking is not appreciably harder than KSP. Sure there's no MechJeb, its challenging to dock to a fixed direction station in LKO, ask the Soviets, they did for space missions unable to dock in space.
Im really trying to figure out whether I live in an alternative universe or got a magical video card or something. I played yesterday for from noon til 4;30 AM and did not have a single serious issue. Making ships, docking ships, undocking ships, redockings ships . . . . . . .it was all good.
Save often, reboot when you can, maybe watch those part counts in the builds. Build better??? What else could it be?

ETA: Solution found, it was messed up because I hadn’t set up Loghain’s fate yet.
was trying to put my choices from DA:O and DA2 into a world state in the keep today and it basically is telling me that two of my choices are mutually exclusive when they shouldn't be.
My Origins Warden romanced Morrigan, did the dark ritual and lived, had Alistair exiled as a drunk, and recruited Loghain to the Wardens. I got the epilogue that showed that Morrigan was in fact pregnant at the end of DA:O, and when I played through DA2 I got the cutscene of Alistair drunk in The Hanged Man, so there wasn't any issue in either of those games.
However, when I'm in the Keep and I try to select that Alistair became a drunk, it tells me that it needs to change the option "Morrigan had an old god baby with the Warden" to "Morrigan did not have a baby" for the world state to be valid. I tried picking "Alistair was executed" instead because I figured that wouldn't be all that different in terms of Inquisition gameplay, but it wouldn't let me pick that either without changing to "Morrigan did not have a baby".
Does anyone know why this happens / if there is a solution or a way to report it as a bug?

I have been struggling with a variety of symptoms for some time now, and I finally decided to make an appointment. I had asked here a few weeks ago what I should request be checked for, with an appointment scheduled with my doctor of choice in June. Through the magic of the waitlist, my appointment was moved up the March 22nd.
This doctor has been very helpful in the past when I have struggled with seemingly mystery medical conditions. She asks as many questions as possible and is very thorough. She does not push for prescription medications, as many doctors do, but will provide multiple non-prescription options which is important to me.
There were many suggestions made about what would be causing my symptoms. From deficiencies to stomach ulcers. It could also be multiple things causing individual symptoms, and we will likely need to work through them one at a time.
A bunch of bloodwork was ran, and (to my surprise) nothing was critically low or critically high. For the most part, everything tested for was within a normal range. She noted my ferritin and B12 as being "on the low end". She recommended a B12-Complex Supplement and an Iron Supplement taken with Vit C, but also something like GasX taken with meals to possibly help with the stomachaches/pain and bloating. I picked everything up from target same day.
I follow up with her on the 4th of April, and I plan on doing some sort of tracking to see if there are any improvements.
I will be tracking what I am eating and when, when I am taking GasX, when I have pain or bloating, when I have headaches, and what my fatigue is like throughout the day. I have started taking the supplements with my first meal of the day.
I don't know what to expect, but I am hoping for some sort of positive progress. I am really tired of feeling like garbage, sleeping 10 hours a day, not being able to go a day without pain, bloating, and headaches.

There's not many of us, but we exist. People who play Mercs.
I like the game mode. It's genuinely fun and challenging. Of course the bot problem, and the infinite grind, and the pay-to-not-spend-hours-and-hours-everyday-to-make-real-progress, is a pain in the ass, but the gameplay and concept and even aesthetic is engaging and beautiful.
My tiny brain cannot think of a way to improve the game mode beyond addressing the negatives I mentioned above, but as a whole, we have some great ideas. Does anyone have any unique takes, ideas, concepts, etc, that Blizzard could implement to make Mercenaries playable?
Personally, key mercs for powerful teams (Malfurion for example) take so long to grind the coins to craft, that it's actually more economical to spend money on packs than it is to spend time on grinding, when the point of the game is to grind (to some degree)... it's contradictory. Perhaps the drop rate, drop quantity, or required amounts should be adjusted in favour of the player to make it feel like the grind actually worthwhile.
I use Malfurion as an example because the nature strat is very powerful, and the best protector is Malfurion. You need 500 Malfurion coins to craft him (when most only require between 100 and 300). The only way to get Malfurion coins is to grind level 30 bounties, or to open them in packs (until you own him, then you have the tasks to help...a little...). And the drop rate for a completed bounty without lucking into the bonus loot mystery is 10-20 coins every other successful run. And when you do get the bonus loot mystery, you might get another 10-20, which has a 1 in 2 to 1 in 4 chance of appearing on your run. So you get an average of 10 Malfurion coins for every successful level 30 bounty in just 2 bounties. So an estimated 50 successful runs is needed to unlock him. That's just 1 merc for 1 team before you start levelling him and unlocking equipment. That's so ridiculously drawn out and tedious that it makes the game feel stagnant and repetitive and not worth playing. Progress is so slow.
Yes, the replay value of the game is the ability to unlock many different mercs, and boost their abilities etc etc... so the grind is a built in part of the 'appeal'. But there needs to be a balance between instant gratification and 'I'll have to quit my job to have the time to make any significant progress'.
I know Blizzard have all but given up on Mercenaries, which sucks, it could have been great, but maybe if there's any devs that stumble across this and there's a big enough engagement with this post...maybe they might adjust their philosophy and initiate a Mercenaries revival.

In this opportunity I ask for help from the community to gain access to my phone. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+. A brief history to get into context.
Last year an event occurred which I captured on camera. The police officers in charge asked for my phone to extract said video. The point is that they ended up keeping my phone for 8 months and with the excuse that "you had to empty the phone to get the video", something completely unnecessary because just making a manual copy was enough.
Anyway, the point is that here the police are thieves and they tend to delay the processes so that one of them loses the case to keep things. Taking this into account, an officer arbitrarily changed the password of my phone (since my phone is unlocked with a fingerprint and password, I gave him access to the password so that he could extract the video without thinking that they would take it from me for 8 months) and said police officer changed it. to a password of 4 characters, one of which is a letter and the rest numbers.
The problem is that the police put my phone in airplane mode, preventing it from connecting to the Internet or using my phone line. This is important as I tried to unlock my phone with Samsung account and Google account and it was impossible because of the airplane mode, which is impossible to disable unless you enter the password.
When I went to the police to see if they could solve my problem, the person in charge of the expertise said that "I did not do any emptying, just do the documentation, never change the password"
Another problem is that after so much time passed, the policeman who used my phone was not able to remember what password he entered. After a possible 30 tries he gave up.
It should be noted that the true value that I have on my phone are the photos, videos and drawings that I have made in the last 6 years, which I have passed from phone to phone as I have been updating. I don't want to factory reset it. I never backed up any of it (it's more than 200 GB of content)
I decided to reset it to the factory when I saw that I had no other option, however when I try it does not send me to the screen to do a hard reset. It just goes back to the home screen and throws a reset error.
I already tried with some programs that can get rid of the password (unlockGo, PassFab) but it only works with old phones, whether from note 8 or older Android systems (I think I remember mine is Android 9.0 and they took it away in July of 2022)
I ask that someone please guide me to unlock it.

https://pftherapy.com/brainspotting-1

Brainspotting

The revolutionary new therapy for rapid and effective change

Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and healing core sources of emotional body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. It provides a path for deep healing with the brain and body.
BSP points within the line of vision that correspond with where negative experiences and blocks are held deeply in the brain and nervous system. By locating and focusing attention on these “brainspots,” clients access their own innate healing abilities to eliminate the blocks quickly and gently. BSP can also be used to find and strengthen our natural resources and resilience.
​

Could it help me?

Brainspotting is a useful technique for you if you have things you can't shift, feel stuck or if you have experienced a traumatic event. The client and trained therapist work together to find those events, unlock them, giving freedom to release them, and find healing within.
Brainspotting is effective for a wide variety of emotional and somatic conditions. Brainspotting is particularly effective with trauma-based situations, helping to identify and heal underlying trauma that contributes to anxiety, depression and other conditions. It can also be used with performance and creativity enhancement. Brainspotting gives the therapist access to both brain and body processes. Its goal is to bypass the conscious, neocortical thinking to access the deeper, subcortical emotional and body-based parts of the brain.

How does brainspotting work

It is often said that "our eyes are the entry to our soul." Brainspotting uses eye position to gain access between emotions and physical symptoms. It is said within Brainspotting "where your look affects how you feel." As you brainspot with me, we'll work together to resolve your issues or physical emotions and help you connect to your body's innate wisdom to heal itself.

Applications for brainspotting

Are you wondering if brainspotting will work with your unique challenges? Please call me to discuss your unique situation. Below is a list of symptoms Brainspotting has been successful in treating:

• Physical and emotional trauma
• Anxiety
• Depression
• PTSD
• Recovery from injurty and accident trauma
• Trauma resulting from medical interventions and treatment
• Stress and trauma-related medical illness
• Performance and creativity enhancement
• Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions
• Addictions (especially cravings)
• Perceptual problems
• Stuttering
• Phobias
• Preparation and recovery from surgery
• Trauma resulting from war and natural disasters

Brainspotting results

Clients report they are able to address the core of their symptoms and/or issues and change the way they feel about them.

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Here at Purpose-Filled Therapy, I am passionate about creating a safe environment for understanding and healing, helping you achieve freedom from overwhelming issues faced when moving through life's transitions. Specifically, I help adolescents and adults address issues such as anxiety, depression, relational issues, sexual issues, grief and loss, trauma, and parenting support or education.
helping individuals with:
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Anxiety
Depression
Relational issues
Sexual issues
Grief and loss
Trauma
Parenting support and education
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meet Sue Riekels, LPCC
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Sue is committed to helping clients make positive changes while navigating their unique life transitions. Trained at Bethel University and Adler Graduate School, she is prepared to address issues that keep you from healing and experiencing lasting change.
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She believes every person is on their own personal journey and will work to tailor a therapy plan specific to your challenges, goals, and needs.
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When not meeting with clients at the office, you can find Sue enjoying time with her family.
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4900 Hwy 169, Suite 210 New Hope, MN 55428
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https://pftherapy.com/brainspotting-1

Through old sketches and new sketches, Rattus Rattus hosts a chronological look at some of the more strange, sad, and outright Horrible aspects of the entire history of England.

1. Savage Stone Age

• HHTV News: Bob Hale's Stone Age Report (S1E5)
• Song: “The Ages Of Stone” (S3E11)
• Trepanadol, the surefire headache cure.(S2E6)
• Shouty Man: New! Multi-Purpose String.(S3E6)
• A man tries to convince his skeptical hunter friend that settling down on a farm is the wave of the future.(S3E6)
• Cliff Whiteley discusses the many theories about Stonehenge with one of its builders. (S3E12)

1. Broken Bronze Age

• HHTV Early News: Eager customers queue up for the opening of the Bronze Age (S4E1)
• New Sketch: Advertisement: Bronze Age Funeral Homes (Funeral Ad parody)
• New Sketch: Historical Chopped - A bronze age chef prepares traditional dishes like roasted venison and nettle soup.
• New Sketch: Bronze Age warriors on a quest to find the mythical island of Avalon. (mockumentary parody)
• New Sketch: Historical Shopping Channel - The Bell Beaker Hour
• New Song: “Bling Bling Bronze” (Rap parody)

1. Cut Throat Celts

• New Sketch: Bronze Age people decide to take the Celts culture and use it themselves.
• Home decorating with severed heads.(S1E10)
• New Sketch: Strangest Celtic Beliefs (Animated)
• "Horrible Points of View": Taking questions and comments--also severed heads--from the era's viewer mailbag. (S3E6)
• "Historical Wife Swap": An upscale Roman couple moves into newly conquered Britain and swaps with a traditional Celtic family. (S2E7)
• Song: “Boudicca” (S2E10)

1. Smashing Saxons

• HHTV News: Bob Hale Saxon Report (S3E10)
• The host of "Invasion, Invasion, Invasion" inadvertently helps Hengist and Horsa steal Kent from Vortigern. (S3E3)
• King Aethelred is suspicious of witchcraft on first meeting Brother Augustine (S5E5)
• New Sketch: King Oswiu of Northumbria holds a debate over whether England should be influenced by Roman Christianity or Celtic one.
• Suggestions for coping with famine (S2E6).
• HH Movie Pitch: Alfred the Great tries to avoid being typecast as "Cake Guy" (S4E12)
• Historical Desktops: Ethelred the Unready suffers cyberbullying at the hands of Viking raiders.(S3E8)
• HHTV News: Mike Peabody live from the Battle of Maldon (S3E2)
• Stupid Death: Harold Godwinson’s Brothers (S4E4)

1. Measly Middle Ages

• The News at 1066 provides updates from the Norman Conquest via Bayeux Tapestry (S2E10)
• The tumultuous love story of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders is retold in "Mud and Matilda" (S3E10)
• HHTV News: taking a census for the Domesday Book. (S1E5)
• William the Conqueror's increasingly unusual funeral (S1E5)
• William II meets his death in a mysterious hunting accident (S3E8)
• New Sketch: Henry I can’t help it with his lamprey obsession.
• Song: "Matilda(s) and Stephen ... and Henry"(S5E10)
• Historical Desktops: King John's concern for his social media status leads him to accidentally sign the Magna Carta. (S4E11)
• New Sketch: Henry III & his estranged relationship with Simon De Montfort explained through a graphic novel.
• The plague forecast (S2E11)
• A peasant tries to leverage his rare and desirable plague-free status into a pay rise. (S3E12)
• The Peasants Revolt is led by the confusingly named Wat Tyler. (S1E8)
• New Sketch: A mishap occurs from Wat Tyler during the court of Richard II
• New Sketch: “The War Of The Roses” (Game Of Thrones Parody)
• Song: "The Truth About Richard III" (S3E6)
• Lord Stanley literally waits until the last minute to decide whom to fight for at the Battle of Bosworth Field. (S5E9)

1. Terrible Tudors

• "Who on Earth Are You?":Lambert Simnel (S5E7)
• Song: "Henry VII: The Original Tu-Tu-Tudor" (S5E9)
• "This Is Your Reign": King Henry VIII reunites with his dead friends, advisors and wives (S1E2)
• New Sketch: Imagine Spot: Henry VIII leaves a negative review to Six
• Song: “Divorce, Beheaded, Died” Song (S1E2)
• King Henry VIII plays tennis while his Queen Anne Boleyn is executed. (S2E11)
• "Horrible Histories World Wrestling": Francis I of France defeats Henry VIII (S2E12)
• Time to get ready for the Religious Switchover (S5E2)
• Edward VI's whipping boy, Barnaby Fitzpatrick, faces the wrath of the royal tutors. (S4E10)
• New Song: “Edward VI: Growing Up” (Parody of "When I Grow Up" from Matilda The Musical)
• The story of Lady Jane Grey, queen for nine days. (S3E3)
• Song: “Mary the First” (S4E10)
• Elizabeth I takes her search for the perfect consort online. (S4E3)
• Oh Yea! Magazine: Elizabeth I's formidable temper (S4E5)
• Trailer: Spanish Armada I & II(S4E1)

1. Slimy Stuarts

• New Song: “James: King Of Scotland & Ireland”
• New Sketch: George Villiers comes up with new schemes to win wars in Europe and all fail.
• Bonfire safety tips with Guy Fawkes. (S1E11)
• The story of the Gunpowder Plot as action movie "Fawkes' 13" (movie trailer) (S2E1)
• New Sketch: Charles I goes online to scam people with “ship money”
• Two men with their ears chopped off try to talk to each other (S2E1)
• The introduction of a novel new drink called 'tea'.(S2E9)
• HHTV News: Civil War. Bob Hale gives the Civil War Report(S2E7), The English Civil War breaks out (S1E11), while Mike Peabody reports live from the Battle of Marston Moor.(S2E7)
• Song: “The English Civil War Song” (S3E10)
• HHTV News: Charles I's execution.(S1E4)
• Oliver Cromwell bans Christmas celebrations--among many other things. (S2E2)
• New Sketch: What you can and can’t do under Puritan England
• Song: "Charles II: King of Bling"(S2E2)
• Thomas Blood is brought to the court of Charles II (S3E12)
• Charles II literally dines in public.(S4E2)
• New Sketch: How to burn down London
• New Sketch: Gross Designs - Christopher Wren has some grand plans to rebuild London
• "My Stuart Family" tries to keep up with the neighbors with the help of some exotic new foods. (S1E2)
• "Historical Wife Swap": The Miserables & The Merrys (S1E3)
• HHTV News: Mike Peabody reports on efforts to cope with the Great Plague of London. (S1E9)
• Ye Sun newspaper: Plague Special.(Parody of The Sun newspaper.)(S1E9)
• Plague victim finder recruitment comes with some built-in occupational hazards. (S5E9)
• New Sketch: Charles II & Catherine Brackanza go to couples’s therapy
• New Song: “James II: Protestants Watching Me” (Parody of “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell)
• New Sketch: The host of "Invasion, Invasion, Invasion" meets William and Mary who are storming to take over the Crown
• New Song: "William & Mary" (Parody Of "I Got You Babe" by Sonny & Cher)
• William returns to England from Amsterdam to see how effective his wife is at running the country.
• New Sketch: Shouty Man: New! Bank Of England!
• New Sketch: "Historical Countryfile": Our host explores some of the bizarre and exotic plants grown in Mary II's garden. (Parody of Countryfile)
• New Sketch: William III acts more clueless about running England after Mary's death
• New Sketch: Historical Desktop - Queen Anne & Sophia Of Hanover both wait for each other to die.
• New Song: “The Acts Of Union” (Parody of “Heart Of Glass” by Blondie)

1. Gorgeous Georgians

• Song: “Four Georges” (S1E1)
• Robert Walpole take advantage of George I’s inability to speak English (S3E7)
• New Sketch: George II asks Tomochichi about the ladies in his court.
• Song: “Dick Turpin” (S3E1)
• How to Vote In Georgian Elections (S1E1)
• "Historical Wife Swap": Lord and Lady Posh from the Manor swap with the Peasant family of Poorville. (S1E6)
• "Georgian Come Dine With Me" (S5E6)
• King George III's royal physicians torture him in the name of treatment.(S2E6)
• Song: “George IV: Couldn’t Stand My Wife” (S2E5)
• "George IV: Who on Earth Are You?" (S3E4)
• New Sketch: People at a pub argue over whether the Georgian Era is over or not after George IV’s death.
• New Sketch: Britain abolishes slavery and gives reparation… to the owners

1. Vile Victorians

• Queen Victoria's solemn coronation hits some less-than-dignified snags.(S5E6)
• Queen Victoria pitches her workout regime. (S1E12)
• The Shouty Man presents Victorian Child Chimney Cleaner and Victorian Maid (S1E9 and S2E10)
• Parliamentarians try to find a solution to--or at least, a way to ignore--the Great Stink of 1858. (S1E7)
• An inspector gets a rundown from strict teachers on school punishments. (S1E9)
• New: HHTV News: Bob Hales Reports The Crimean War
• Florence Nightingale arrives at a Crimean hospital clearly in need of her help. (S1E13)
• Song: “Mary Seacole” (S4E5)
• Victoria and Albert's love story (S4E2)
• Song: "Work, Terrible Work!"(S3E4)

1. Evil Edwardians

• New Sketch: Edward VII aspires to reign as long as his mother
• New Song: “Edward VII’s Party Song” (Parody of “Party Rock” by LMFAO)
• Suffragettes try to smuggle themselves in a bag (S5E10)
• Song: "The Suffragettes' Song" (S3E8)
• HHTV News: Live from a schoolboy strike in Llanelli. (S5E10)
• Song: “Edwardian Not Victorian”(music hall pastiche)
• New Sketch: Historical Desktops: David Lloyd George posts his budget plan and uses this as an opportunity to decrease power from the House Of Lords.
• The officers of the RMS Titanic run through a highly dubious safety measures check. (S5E2)
• New Sketch: Imagine Spot - “Beatrix Potter’s Funhouse” (Preschool Show Parody)

1. Frightful First World War

• Song: “Cousins” (From the Frightful First World War Special)
• Outlining the causes of the war as simply as possible - that is, not very (S1E8).
• A naive young recruit to the trenches tries to learn the ropes (S3E3).
• The dos and don'ts of keeping the war effort going strong at home, including a ban on feeding ducks (From the Frightful First World War Special)
• Shouty Man: New! WWI Wee-Wee, the multi-purpose liquid revolution (S3E3)
• Summing up the less-than-encouraging results of the Somme campaign (S3E1)
• Scenes from the poignantly pointless chaos in the trenches, in the few minutes between learning of the 11 November truce and its actual implementation. (From the Frightful First World War special)

1. Awful Interwar Period

• New Sketch: HHTV News: The General Strike of 1926 where the protesters play football with the officers.
• New Sketch: A father tries to controls his son’s radio time
• New Sketch: “Historical Fashion Fix”: Changing an Edwardian woman into a Flapper
• New Sketch: The Suffragettes find new things to protest about after women got the right to vote.
• New Sketch: A group of wealthy, hedonistic socialites discuss their extravagant lifestyles and controversial scandals while sipping on cocktails and dancing to jazz music.
• New Sketch: The introduction of “fish and chips”
• New Sketch: The opening of Penguins Publishing
• HHTV Sport: Profiling Lily Parr (S5E8)
• New Song: “Flappers” (Parody of “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper)
• New Sketch: The launching of an obscure network you’ve never heard - The BBC
• New Sketch: HHTV News: Bob Hale Reports On The Great Depression, Mad Molly reports on the actual finance of the economy during the Depression (parody of a financial market channel), and Mike Peabody reports live on the streets of Northern England.
• New Sketch:King Edward VII & Wallis Simpson told through a graphic novel.
• New Sketch: George VI goes to speech therapy
• Historical Desktops: Neville Chamberlain gauges the reaction to his new European peace settlement. (S5E11)

1. Woeful Second World War

• HHTV News: Bob Hale's World War II Report. (S5E7)
• The commandant of a German POW camp tries to keep a determined British officer from escaping. (S1E2)
• A prim couple must choose from a difficult set of inner-city evacuee children. (S5E12)
• PM Winston Churchill discusses arming the British Home Guard. Video game: Operation Defend Britain. The Durham Home Guard branch does more damage to themselves than to the enemy.(S2E1)
• Winston Churchill plans D-Day late into the night, much to the dismay of his secretary and a general. (S2E4)
• Wrapping children in brown paper for warmth leads to a postal mix-up. (S2E2)
• An evacuee child from the city thinks he's landed in a den of monsters in "The Farm" (S2E9)
• Song: "The Few (RAF Pilots)" (S4E1)
• Wartime mechanic and future monarch Elizabeth II also stars in a sprightly "Queen-Fit-Fitters" jingle (S5E5)
• An attempt to foil German railway spies creates unexpected problems for the British passengers. (S4E2)
• New Sketch: Winston Churchill is elected out of office after the war’s over.

1. Freaky Fifties

• New Sketch: The war’s over – but many of the aspects of it haven’t
• New Sketch: George Orwell complains to Cliff Whitley about how people misinterpret his novels
• New Song: “Windrush Migrations” (Parody of “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys)
• New Sketch: Imagine Spot: A literal Iron Curtain falls between Europe
• New Sketch: Deadly Toys Store
• New Sketch: A family watches Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, which is the only thing they can watch.

1. Swinging Sixties

• New Sketch: Groovy Man Magazine: Christine Keeler
• New Sketch: "Historical Hospital" - A hippie provides “alternative medicine” to a patient
• New Sketch: The Commonwealth - It’s not an empire but it's close enough (advertisement parody)
• HHTV News: Bob Hales Reports The 1960s
• New Song: “England’s Changed”
• New Sketch: Mods vs Rockers
• New Sketch: The Beatles members argue about who is more popular and talented than the other.
• New Sketch: “Historical Fashion Fix” - Mary Quant joins our host to give a person a hippie design.
• New Sketch: An old man from the Edwardian Era tries to fit in with the hippies and fails

1. Sadistic Seventies

• New Sketch: "Glam Rock Beauty Pageant" - A spoof beauty pageant featuring some of the most outrageous glam rock stars of the era, complete with over-the-top costumes and antics.
• New Sketch: A woman notices her friend still dresses like its the 1950s
• New Sketch: Because of the Energy Crisis, government employees are trying to cram all of their work into three days, causing chaos in the workplace.
• New Sketch: HHTV News: Mike Peabody reports the winter of 1978-79, where a series of strikes by public sector workers caused widespread disruption across the country, including rubbish piling up in the streets and uncollected bodies at the morgue.
• New Sketch: The 1973 wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips, featuring ridiculous hats, awkward dancing, and the Queen trying to keep her corgis under control.
• New Sketch: People at a disco party start to spontaneously combust due to the extremely flammable disco clothing and decorations of the time.

1. Ugly Eighties

• New Song: “Margaret Thatcher” (Parody of “I'm in Love With Margaret Thatcher” by Not Sensibilities)
• New Sketch: Historical Desktop: Margaret Thatcher prevents Argentina from claiming the Falklands.
• New Sketch: "Thatcher's Britain": A clueless host takes a tour of 1980s England under the rule of Margaret Thatcher, seeing protests everywhere. (travel show parody)
• New Sketch: "Rubik's Cube Mania": Contestants compete to solve the Rubik's Cube puzzle
• New Sketch: Customers get frustrated in a video rental store, where VHS tapes were rented out for a few days at a time.
• New Sketch: Heck Yeah Magazine: Punk Rock musicians
• New Sketch: Historical Fashion Fix: Our host gives a man the 1980s fashion, featuring over-the-top outfits with bright colors, big hair, and lots of accessories.

1. Nasty Nineties

• New Sketch: A group of 90s teens try to come up with the coolest thing to happen in England, only to be constantly upstaged by real-life events like the Spice Girls and Tony Blair's election.
• New Sketch: The rivalry between Oasis and Blur
• New Sketch: An ““anonymous”” whistleblower reveals details about the Royal Family, and it's definitely not Princess Diana
• New Sketch: A frustrated former teacher named Terry Deary hates how history is told in school and decides to write some books to make it interesting.
• New Sketch: People are scared of the spread of “mad cow disease”
• New Sketch: HHTV News: Mike Peabody reporting live of the Y2K scare.
• New Sketch: Song: “Horrible England” (Parody of “Rule Britannia” ft. some aspecting of “We’re History”)

Hi all, I am a veteran Mazda owner (6 & CX-9) and in late January I bought a 2023 Mazda 3 Preferred pkg hatchback. I absolutely love the car and it's a joy to drive. I seem to be having a battery issue, though. At about 1000 miles, I parked the car in my driveway and went inside for the night (10-12 hrs?) When I came out the battery was dead. I didn't leave interior lights on, didn't leave it unlocked, etc. So jump started it and went on my way, although I felt pretty uneasy about a brand new car doing this.
So a month later (last week) I parked my car in my work warehouse for 2 days while we did an out of town event.(1500 miles) I came back and guess what, the battery was dead. I have a portable jump starter but still this is really really concerning to me especially after reading on this forum and others that this seems to be an issue in some cars. I park at the airport a lot and I don't want to come home and have a dead battery. This should not be happening in a brand new car. Does anyone have any advice or experience with a fix? I will take it to the dealer if needed but I'm reading the battery should be dead and to have it towed there which is gonna be a total pain. Anyway please be gentle, I'm a single mom with limited knowledge of modern cars and limited time off to mess around being without a car. Thanks for any help.

(That title makes it seem like I had a tank battalion over the next ridge helping me out by offering fire support. What an image.)
I've beaten white and even silver lynels in single combat before, but so far I have only been able to do so with training wheels: level 4 amber earrings, champion's tunic, and soldier's greaves (a whopping 88 armor), which allows me to shrug off pretty much any melee weapon they hit me with for just a quarter heart of health (except the crushers, those take four hearts). The near-invulnerability provides a great base upon which to practice combat with these creatures in a safe(er) environment.
Also, if you kick a white lynel in the face, you get a really nice bow. I eventually got to the point where I'd use savage lynel bows to farm royal weapons from hinoxes, then go use the royal gear to farm lynels for savage bows. When you throw the Master Sword (here twice-upgraded to 50 damage) into the mix, you violate the laws of thermodynamics; you get more goodies out of the process than you need to sustain it.
But I wanted to complete the Trial of the Sword. To unlock the full potential of the Master Sword. I admit, I'm not doing it because it's right or because it's what heroes do. I'm doing it because I wanted a (sorta) free top-tier weapon that (sorta) never breaks.
Also the sword glows.
So I take the Trials. One might ask if it's worth the stress and strain at this point in the game; all of the shrines have been completed, all the inventory expansions have been acquired, all the memories re-lived. There's precious little remaining on which to use an awakened Master Sword. But questions of worth fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. Ain't nobody got time for dat, I wanna hit things with a shiny stick!
I tried the trials during my first play through the game, four years ago. I didn't do well; I couldn't even complete the first set—heck, I couldn't even get half-way through the first set. This second time through I do better. It still takes a couple tries, but the first trials go down.
I put it down to playing the game on a larger screen; 32 inches, not the Switch's 6.2. It makes a huge difference; I can actually see enough detail to let me parry and dodge. With my current play through clocking in at 110 hours, 105 of those on a large screen, it astonishes me that I completed my first 70-hour playthrough entirely on the Switch's tiny screen.
I've never seen the second set of trials before this playthrough, but they're actually easier than the first, there being no water-only levels. Bomb-arrow armed bokoblins on the third floor catch me off guard the first time, but I complete the middle trials on my second attempt.
The final trials scare me. I have read the ancient texts. I know what awaits me in the deep. I know what the monks awoke in the darkness of the magic boxes. Manes... and flame... Without gads of armor to cover my ass I fear I will simply be smashed flat by these beasts. But I dive in anyway—the trials won't complete themselves. The shiny stick won't be given to me. I need to earn it.
When I get to the first rest stop, I find something that makes my heart stop. Three ancient arrows? The ancient texts made no mention of these! The only equipment notices I had were for the flamebreaker boots; a not-so-subtle 'you will spend the next five floors on fire' advertisement. I know what these arrows can do to the mere meatbags who oppose me! Five minutes ago I wasn't even worried about guardians, because lynels. But these... these. For the first time ever, I feel a little thrill of hope. If I have these, even without armor, I can beat lynels. My own little cheat code. All I have to do is tough out the guardians.
My first pass through the final trials doesn't go well. I'm nervous, twitchy. I take too many hits. I inadvertently shove my one and only hearty radish into my greedy mouth instead of the cooking pot, wasting a whole full recovery opportunity. By the time I arrive at the second rest stop, there aren't enough food items on the floor to get me back up to full health. And after that comes snow levels; I can't cook everything on this floor to bring my health up as much as possible because I need them to provide me with cold resistance for the next few floors. I get through a couple levels before I tunnel vision on the wrong target; a blizzrobe freezes me and a silver bokoblin turns me inside out.
The second attempt I make sure to take a little bit slower. I plan my attacks, I withdraw if I'm in a position I don't like, I make very careful use of the few elemental weapons I have to one-hit kill and stunlock tougher enemies. When I get back to floor 14, I don't take my chances. I oneshot the blizzrobe with a fire arrow then pull out the first of my three ancient toys and stick it right up the silver bokoblin's backside, banishing his ass to the shadow realm. I will not have another run ruined by those two.
Things proceed more or less smoothly from there. I get to floor 17 and face my first lynel, a blue. It manages to glare at me for all of 2.6 seconds before the second of my ancient arrows wipes its stupid face (and the rest of it) from existence.
The guardians on the following floors give me pause, but the lone ones are easy to abuse and the three on floor 22 don't cover each other if you approach from the right angle. They are all slowly dismantled, one by one.
And then, finally, I arrive on the final floor, 23. Here there are eight little basic red bokoblins on horseback, a guardian turret, and my sum of all fears, Mr. White. Tall, proud, buff, and ugly as all get out, it spots me immediately, screams in barely-contained ketamine-fueled rage that someone as pink as me would deign to cross its field of view, and hauls its massive bow off its back. Before it fires is all the time I have.
It's all the time I need.
I draw the royal bow. I draw the last ancient arrow. I nock this final bolt, the swansong of power on the operatic ballad of shiny sticks. I raise the bow, pointing the arrow at a space a couple feet above the lynel's face; it's a long way, after all. I draw the string.
As afraid as I am, I'm also giddy. I'm there. This will be easy. I just need to let this thing fly and the hard work will all be over. The only thing remaining will be some little pissbabies on horses and a machine that is too stupid to avoid getting stunlocked by repeatedly having arrows shoved in its eye.
I loose my ultimate weapon.
The arrow travels gallantly through the air, its tip sparking into incandescent magnificence as it crosses the open space, dripping sparkles as it flies, little harbingers of its mission of doom. The giddiness reaches a fever pitch. I'm trembling with excitement.
The arrow buries itself...
...in the dirt six inches from the Mr. White's feet.
I've fluffed it. I had one shot, literally, to get this done, and I failed.
I want to cry. These trials have been hard on me. I've had to take extended breaks in the middle of them several times already to untense myself. The prospect of doing it all over again on account of one whinnet-ridden lynel quiet frankly gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies, you know what I mean? Ten year old me would have chucked the controller and screamed in guttural German. Thankfully those days are behind me; I simply pause and walk away for a while. Did I go have a little weep? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe screw yourself.
I like to imagine the lynel and his hangers-on spend several seconds staring at the ruined arrow on the floor in front of them, then looking back up at me with contemptuous amusement as I literally try to swallow my fear, panic, and horror all at once. Of course, the game doesn't render emotions like that, but it's a funny image.
I have an argument with myself here. I don't want to try this full-frontal combat without my training wheels armor—I'm a coward. But even more so than that, I really don't want to run through the last 22 floors of the final trials again—I'm lazy. I even consider quitting the trials and giving up on the fully-awaked Master Sword. I consider using exploits to skip the final set of trials; it's not like I haven't already made it through all these floors, right? I'd just be... you know... skipping one single floor. Sorta. That's not too unfair, right?
When I come back I heave a large 'woe-is-me' sigh and unpause.
I can't face this creature and its groupies all at once on an open field.
I run for all my sorry little Hylian twink ass is worth.
Unfortunately, that's where the story stops being so dramatic. I climb the tower in the corner after I've broken the lynel's line of sight, severely abuse the guardian turret, and hunker down on my new perch. I know I can't bow the lynel to death; I don't have enough arrows and it'll call orbital strikes down on my head. I can't engage it in direct melee combat; I have only four weapons remaining and they'll break on its face before its face does.
But I realize I can abuse the bokoblins as well. They're really no more capable than the guardian turrets are. They won't attack me en mass. I pull them over where the lynel can't see them, one at a time, and pick them off their horses and steal their weapons. After a few minutes there's nobody left in the room except myself and Mr. White. Now I have a dozen weapons; sure they aren't all great, but they're fresh.
I now have no choice other than give up here, at the last step, or just dive in and see where it goes. It's not really a choice.
What I can say is that, thankfully, the training wheels experience gave me the actual skills necessary to get the job done. Mr. White and I engage in combat I manage to take him down with a dozen broken weapons, one broken shield, and all of my hearts.
That rush when the lynel finally collapses was incredible. It was like someone had jabbed an entire thing of adrenaline directly into my heart. I mean it was probably a week's worth of dopamine in my brain, dumped all at once, but still. At this point I want to cry, again, though this time not in pain or frustration but rather pure elation such as I haven't felt in a while. I did it. I completed the Trial of the Sword. And the final trials only took me two attempts.
I'm much better at this game now than I was four years ago.
I promptly take my glowing stick and use it to club Thunderblight Ganon to death.

TL;DR - Summary

All of the reasons that people are saying that the lost to Shanks is taking Kid out of the race are the same losses that Luffy has taken over the course of the series. The loss of their ship and the crew being eradicated only made the Straw Hats stronger, and I think the wording being the exact same from the Narrator should not be ignored or taken as a sign that Kid is out of the race. It's simply far too on the nose to be used as a throwaway line of Kid's defeat. I believe the Underworld works out of Elbaf, and this sets Kid up through his Underworld connections to build a new ship of Adam wood just like the Straw Hats. Shanks leaving Elbaf also clears a path for Kid to still be the main villain of Elbaf. The Kid Pirates will come back stronger.

Comparisons to Luffy's losses

Kid just got one shotted in a fashion I have rarely seen in any series. If Kid is your favorite character, I honestly feel bad. I wouldn't describe myself as a Kid fan, but this is still a character that I believe serves a larger purpose in the story than getting turned into scrap metal by Shanks. I just don't think Oda would have this character moved along throughout the story for 15 years just to make Shanks look good. Shanks doesn't need that to look good, they literally made a whole movie for this dude lol.
I think what we're seeing for Kid is a series of defeats very similar to Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates that will make him actually strong enough to be a rival to Luffy. Obviously he's going to lose in the end, Luffy is going to be Pirate King. But I just couldn't disagree more with the people saying Oda is just cutting the fat to get to the finish line as fast as possible. I have more faith in his ability as an author than that, and I don't think disliking a character means that their narrative purpose has been served whenever they're done helping Luffy look good.
Like I referred to in the title, I think Luffy and Kid's greatest defeats are mirroring each other until they eventually square off.

Loss of their beloved ship

I see a bunch of people saying Kid has to be out of the race for the One Piece, just look at their ship. How can they possibly get to the finish line first? Well, let's ask Luffy the same thing. Did Luffy's journey end when the Going Merry passed away? Nope. They rebuilt and kept going, with the Merry carrying them as long as she could.
​
Losing a ship does not mean the end of the journey.
Kid's ship, the Victoria Punk, is named after his old friend and childhood crush who died when he was young. People think that because this is something Oda elaborated on in the SBS it's proof that he doesn't care about the character and is just trying to get it out of the way and move on. I disagree. I think he's building up the emotional connection that almost surely exists in them naming the ship after her. And while it's surely a tough loss, Luffy's crew is proof that you can absolutely rebuild. Loss of a ship is not the end of the journey.
I'll even take it a step further; I wouldn't be surprised if the Klaubterman for the Victoria Punk in some way has Victoria's spirit.
People say Kid has to be doomed because he sunk in the water with no ship or back up around to help them. But is this not exactly what happened to the Straw Hats at Enies Lobby? How were the Straw Hats supposed to escape from Enies Lobby? Well... by the end, they weren't. They were doomed, but Merry used the last bit of her spirit to save them with a little help from Iceburg. I don't think it would be a huge leap for the Victoria Punk to save the Kid Pirates and get them to safety.
We've seen ships do crazier things.

Death of a childhood friend

Victoria Shiruton Doruyanaika was Kid and Killer's childhood friend who was killed by a rival gang in their home country. As stated by Oda in the SBS:

Q: Is there a reason why Kid and Killer became pirates? And what’s the story behind Heat and Wire joining them?
Oda: Of course there’s a story. These four were born on a certain island in South Blue, Kid and Killer knew each other since they were kids. The country they live in is not allied with the WG, and a gang ruled the country as if they’re royalties. There’re 4 districts on the island, each of them have their own outlaw group, and the 4 leaders are Kid, Killer, Heat and Wire. There were conflicts every single day.
One day, Kid’s close friend was killed by the gang, her name was “Victoria S Doruyanaika”(Kid and Killer’s crush revealed in previous sbs). Kid, in his rage, united the four group and took down the mightiest force in the country, the gang.
“I don’t want to stay in a closed world like this!” And like that he took his friends and form a pirate crew with them, naming their ship “Victoria Punk”.

I don't have to tell you about Luffy's childhood friends dying. Frankly, take your pick. Either Sabo being "killed" when he set sail from Foosha Village or Ace dying in Luffy's arms.
​
What I found pretty interesting though is that the mindset of why Kid decided to set sail is very similar to Sabo, just living the opposite life.
I'm sure there are stories like this across a bunch of pirates in the story, I just think there's a pretty clear parallel in why Luffy and Kid both set sail. And it was largely inspired by the death of a childhood friend.

Getting absolutely dunked on by a Yonkou

Kid got absolutely destroyed by Shanks. But I don't see how it's any different than Luffy getting one shotted by Kaido. If anybody is in line for Haki blooming, it's Kid with the amount of shit he gets himself in.
It's a tough blow, but it can just as easily be a learning experience like Luffy's first loss (and second... and third... and fourth...) was to Kaido.

Eradicated

Some people are saying that this has to take Kid out of the race because the Narrator came through and said that the crew was eradicated. There are even people using that as an argument to say he's dead (seriously what series are you guys reading who believe this). If the narrator coming in and saying that a crew is eradicated is proof that they are dead or out of the running for One Piece, somebody should really tell Luffy and the crew that they've been dead for the last two years.
​
The Straw Hats were eradicated on Sabaody Archipelago, and it wasn't until the following chapters when we learned what that meant. They took the ultimate loss.
There is no chance that a call back this direct is not on purpose. I'll use this to link back to a previous post I made pointing out the many parallels of Egghead Island to Sabaody Archipelago and Post Enies Lobby. Add yet another connection and proof of the validity of that analysis.

Kid is down, but he's not out

Kid is in about as bad a spot as we've seen a character, but I don't see how this eliminates him in the story. All of the reasons that people are saying this eliminates Kid from being a factor in the story are things that we've seen happen to the Straw Hats. Like people who are saying that he's out because he no longer has a ship, if that was the case Luffy's journey would have ended ages ago. I would argue that the Adam Tree is from Elbaf to begin with, being near Elbaf would put him right in position to get a ship upgrade. I think we have pretty solid information suggesting that the Underworld operation going on throughout the One Piece world traces to Elbaf (for example, Mother Carmel's operation).

The Underworld headquarters is ran out of Elbaf

Like I pointed out, I think we can tie a large portion of the Underworld market in One Piece to Elbaf and I think that will be the main portion of conflict in that arc when we finally get there. Where else would be better to run a secretive operation outside of the eyes of the Marines than a secluded society filled with monsters that nobody wants to mess with? Just look at what Cipher Pol said to Mother Carmel after Big Mom killed Jorul
​
They never thought she would leave Elbaf.
Why would they think that this character who has been working for the Underworld for decades wouldn't leave Elbaf... unless Elbaf is the home of the Underworld? It puts the market for her activities right next to her. Not to mention Franky engaging in Underworld activities before he became a Straw Hat. This was how he was able to buy Adam wood with the money he stole from the Straw Hats before becoming their friend.
To this day we still have so much mystery surrounding the Underworld operations that Doflamingo was so tied up in.
And while Kid isn't a Broker, we did learn in Punk Hazard that he was connected with the Underworld and aware of the going ons. I wouldn't be surprised if this is how he knows who the man with the burn scar is to begin with.
​
Kid has some knowledge of the Underworld that we still need to learn as an audience and as the Straw Hat crew.

Why did Oda make Kid a Conqueror?

This is a question that I've asked in pretty much every discussion of Kid since it was revealed that Kid and Shanks were on Elbaf together. One Piece is a story written by an author, and that author makes decisions for what will close out certain narratives. That's how storytelling works. So the question I ask people who think that Kid will serve no more importance; Why did Oda make Kid a Conqueror?
​
The group of known Conquerors in One Piece is incredibly short.
People have suggested that Kid has Conqueror's Haki because it would boost his resume and make Shanks look good. And I truly do not understand this argument at all. If that was truly Kid's role in the story, he doesn't need Conqueror's Haki in order to serve that purpose. If Law went to Elbaf instead of Kid and got one shotted by Shanks, I doubt anybody would be sitting here saying "yeah that's cool, but Law isn't a Conqueror so it's not that impressive." Because that would be silly. Oda could have made Kid as good with his Devil Fruit as Law is and it still would have shown just how strong Shanks is whether he was a Conqueror or not.
Kid did not even use Conqueror's in the fight with Big Mom. Excluding the anime, all we have is Kaido telling us that Kid is a Conqueror and nothing else. So again, why did Oda add this at all? This isn't like Armament Haki where everybody and their mother has it at this point, this is a very exclusive group of characters. And being Conquerors serves a very in your face narrative purpose for almost all of these characters, with the rest still having future roles to play in the story.

• Shanks - Doesn't need to be explained
• Luffy - Really doesn't need to be explained
• Rayleigh - Right hand of the Pirate King, the Dark King himself, and Luffy's mentor on his path to being the Pirate King
• Hancock - Oda could have easily had Hancock be captured and turned into a slave again, but that hasn't happened as far as the story stands now. I don't know what her role will be now that she's left Amazon Lily looking for Luffy, but her strong will power was shown when she faced Blackbeard with no fear
• Doflamingo - A man who desires to tear down the entire Holy Land with knowledge of the National Treasure and controlled the entire Underworld of the One Piece world
• Don Chinjao - A gatekeeper of the old age of One Piece as a combatant of Garp, and Luffy's baptism into combat on the highest level in the New World
• Big Mom - a Yonkou, self explanatory
• Katakuri - The gatekeeper between Luffy and breaking the billion berry benchmark, and the person who gave Luffy the respect of eventually being able to beat a Yonkou (will you come back and defeat Big Mom)
• Sengoku - Fleet Admiral and an Admiral during the days of Roger and Whitebeard
• Kaido - a Yonkou, self explanatory
• Zoro - desires to be the greatest swordsman
• Yamato - future role still pretty up in the air post Wano, but is the child of one of the greatest Conquerors and desires to be Oden. Also the guardian of Wano next to Momonosuke (who will probably also have Conquerors by the end of the story, but that's speculation)
• Whitebeard - 2nd to the throne
• Ace - Ace died before ever truly reaching his potential, but his lived with the desires to make Whitebeard the King of the Pirates and is the son of the Pirate King
• Oden - Shogun of Wano and the central point of the entire saga of arcs that put us in Wano to begin with
• Gol D. Roger - King of the Pirates

Conquerors are all important characters. This is not a power that Oda just hands out. Until we can answer the question of why Kid is a Conqueror, his narrative is not complete. Don't take my word for it; take Kid's (and Oda's).
​
If I die now, what was the point of my whole pirating career?

Conclusion

I think we're seeing the path clear for Kid to be the antagonist of Elbaf, even with as shaky as it looks for now. We can pretty confidently say Shanks is not going to be on Elbaf, that possibility was erased last chapter. Blackbeard probably has to get ready for war with Garp. Big Mom is definitely still a possibility, but she has much bigger issues to actually gather her crew first and get to Elbaf (including rescuing Pudding). I think Kid will come back having gone through the same growth that Luffy went through in the Udon mines and by the time Luffy gets to Elbaf, Kid will actually be strong enough to be his rival.
Kid has not served his entire narrative purpose. And because of that, I'm keeping my Kid stocks. I would advise you all to not sell just yet.
Buy the dip!

When I unlock my iPhone it has a space screen and these little dots move into place each time it unlocks. Are they planets or stars and does anybody know which ones?

It's a mockery of what some claims amount to, which is fair enough, but I feel like they probably are connected though.
But I'm not referring to the "observer" collapse issue, which I'm told is now better understood as just interaction.
And I'm not referring to theories of quantum activity in microtubules or whatever in the brain. I'm told that functional operations of the brain are basically too 'wet' and decohered.
I maybe am referring to the now established (Nobel prize) fact that at the quantum level there isn't both realism and locality. Somehow that does sound like how consciousness both seems to only occur inside our skulls when our brains are functioning coherently, but is also an experience of what's outside it. Which it can't know to experience it as that, without presupposing the experience of it. Whatever evolved functions are attributed to it.
Also time and memory, both mysteries in quantum and consciousness?
Obviously I don't much understand the quantum stuff but they say anyone who thinks they do, doesn't.

I've noticed that GPT-3 often "cheats" when you give it a riddle, by making unreasonable assumptions that allows it to draw a conclusion. Even if you try to help it by correcting the false assumptions, it often just makes up something else instead.
Example #1
Prompt:

A man is trapped in a room. The room has only two possible exits: two doors. Through the first door there is a room constructed from magnifying glass. The blazing hot sun instantly fries anything or anyone that enters. Through the second door there is a fire-breathing dragon. How does the man escape?

GPT-3:

The man can escape through the second door with the fire-breathing dragon. He simply waits for the dragon to breathe fire, and then he runs through the door while it is closed. Since the dragon has just breathed fire, it will need time to recover before it can breathe fire again, giving the man enough time to escape.
It is important to note that this solution assumes that the doors are not locked and that the man has the ability to open and close them as needed. If the doors are locked, the man would need to find another way to escape.

I point out that:

The dragon doesn't need time to recover, it can breathe as much fire as it wants.

GPT-3:

If the dragon can breathe fire as much as it wants and the magnifying glass room is not an option for escape, then the man's best chance of survival is to try to negotiate with the dragon. He could try to find out what the dragon wants and see if he can offer something in exchange for his freedom.
If negotiation is not possible, the man could try to use some kind of tool or weapon to defend himself against the dragon's fire breath. For example, he could try to fashion a shield or find some kind of fire-resistant material to protect himself. He could also try to find a way to distract or confuse the dragon, allowing him to escape while it is momentarily disoriented.
Alternatively, if there are any objects in the room that could be used to start a fire, the man could try to light a fire and use the smoke to signal for help. This could be especially effective if the room is in a building or structure where someone outside might see the smoke and come to investigate.
Overall, the man's chances of survival are not very high in this scenario, but he should try to stay calm and think creatively in order to maximize his chances of escaping or getting help.

GPT-4 on the other hand:

The man should wait until nightfall when the sun is no longer shining. Once it's dark, he can safely pass through the first door with the room constructed from magnifying glass, as there will be no sunlight to create the intense heat that would otherwise fry him.

​
The skeptic in me knows that it's trained on a lot of information from the internet, possibly including known riddles like this. So just to make sure it's as good as it seems, I made a feeble attempt to write my own riddle, that can't be found anywhere on the internet.
Example #2
Prompt:

Walter walks from the living room in his house toward the bedroom. He takes a key from his pocket and uses it to unlock the bedroom door, he pulls the door open, walks in, and closes the door. While in the bedroom, the power suddenly goes out, and it gets pitch dark. Startled by the sudden darkness, Walter accidentally drops the key into a vat of acid, and it dissolves. (On a side note, Walter's wife warned him this might happen, and told him not to keep the vat of acid on the floor, but he just wouldn't listen). Walter walks toward the window, and tries to open it, but the electric lock on the window has malfunctioned due to the power failure, and he can't open it. Walter then walks back to the door, but no matter how much he pulls, the door just won't budge. Why can't Walter open the door?

GPT-3:

Walter can't open the door because he locked it from the inside before the power went out, and without the key, he can't unlock it.

I clarified:

He didn't lock it from the inside

GPT-3:

In that case, the reason Walter can't open the door is that the door opens inward, and he closed the door behind him when he entered the bedroom. Without the key, he can't turn the doorknob to release the latch, since the door is designed to keep intruders out by preventing them from turning the doorknob from the outside.

Meanwhile, GPT-4 got straight to the point:

Walter can't open the door because he is pulling it when he should be pushing it. When Walter first entered the bedroom, he pulled the door open towards him. Since the door swings only one way, he should push the door to exit the room. The sudden darkness and unexpected events might have caused confusion, leading him to pull the door instead of pushing it.

For this round of niche romance reviews, I was looking for books where a hero is either described as short or his height is mentioned explicitly as being 5’7” or less. This was actually extremely difficult—I ended up reading quite a few books on this quest, but several of the recommended ones had heroes who were average height, which is only short in romancelandia. I’m not sure I got it quite right here, but I included what seemed to fit.
His Secret Illuminations and His Sacred Incantations by Scarlett Gale: 5/5 stars. m/f, fantasy. This is my gold standard for gender role reversal stories. I raved about it here: https://www.reddit.com/RomanceBooks/comments/va2x3his_secret_illuminations_by_scarlett_gale_is_so/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3. The hero is short/small and the heroine is a tall, buff, warrior woman. One of my absolute faves.
Steam: ⅗, maybe ⅘ in the second book though
Small Packages by Drea Braddock: 4.5/5 stars. M/F contemporary novella. This was a delightful surprise. The hero of this book is a slight 5’7” engineering scientist who happens to have a very small penis (this isn’t a spoiler, you find out pretty early). He was diagnosed with a micropenis as a child but doesn’t technically qualify for that definition any more because he had hormone therapy when he was growing up (in case you are wondering, they are able to have piv sex). The heroine is a naval intelligence officer with autism. So, hear me out. I know that lots of romance readers like the fantasy of large penises, but if you give this once a chance I think it’s worth it. And some of us, myself included, are tired of forearm sized dicks in romance. The hero here has a lot of insecurities about it, especially since most girls don’t stick around when they find out. He’s gotten really good at oral sex for that reason. So with the heroine, he experiences his first blow job, first PIV, his first love. And the MCs are just so sweet together. The autism rep for the heroine is great. The writing and dialogue aren’t perfect, but this was so unexpectedly delightful that I rated it highly anyway. The author’s dedication is great: “for everyone who has ever been made to feel that a Happily Ever After isn’t in the cards for them because of how they were made.”
Steam: ⅘ ish
Well Met by Jen Deluca: ⅘ stars. M/F contemporary. I read this one a while ago, so I don’t have it fresh in my mind enough to give a ton of commentary, but I really enjoyed this. He is described as being notably on the shorter side, but no specific height is given.
Steam: ⅗ from what I remember
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: ⅘ stars. M/F YA. So, I was surprised by how much I loved this. I said in my other recent reviews that I’ve started picking up YA again—I had a period of quite a few years where I wouldn’t read it. Now that I’m nearing 40, I find myself enjoying the nostalgia of it. I’m never going to be 17 again, thank God, but it can be fun to reminisce. The heroine, Anna, is at an American boarding school in Paris, which is about as far from my adolescence as you can get, but I could still empathize with her. This book really captures that powerful, excruciating feeling of falling in love for the first time. Now, there are some things about this book that some people will hate. The characters do some believably immature and stupid teenagery things, and their actions can be frustrating. Some of the reviews were pretty caustic about the heroine, but I found her to be written like a typical 17 year old, which I actually appreciated. Also, the hero, Etienne, has a girlfriend for much of the book, and there’s lots of emotional cheating on his part. This is the third book I’ve read recently that has infidelity, and while it’s never my favorite, I didn’t mind it as much here because the characters are so young and confused and hormonal. That will be different for some readers. Anyway, the hero here is indeed short, so it fits on this list. Some of you will really enjoy this, but like I said, it’s definitely not for everyone. I wouldn’t mind reading a more grown up or even college version of this, but as it was, I found it to be very sweet even if it wasn’t perfect.
Steam: ⅕ (kisses only)
Strings by Marie Lipscomb: 4/5 stars. M/F contemporary. So, this is the second book on this list with a hero named Etienne, which is wild because I’d never read a character with that name and then all the sudden I read two books in a row with it. I really loved this too. The hero is 5’5”, thick, and a skilled vocalist who ends up singing with the heroine’s band. The heroine describes him as “a short king with big dick energy” and also delivers this amazing bit of description: if a gorilla and a peacock somehow mated and raised their unholy offspring on a diet of pure Kobe beef and condor eggs, it’d be half as solid as him and have only a fraction of the swagger. He’s super into the heroine from pretty early on. If that’s not enough, he’s also into gentle femdom and likes being tied up. If any of that sounds appealing, you will love this book. There were, however, a couple things that didn’t quite work for me. This is really instalovey, which I do like often enough, but it took some of the tension out of this story for me. That will work better for you if you are more into instalove. Also, the main conflict made me frustrated. I would still wholeheartedly recommend this book, though.
Steam: ⅘, maybe, with some kink included. Oh, and some sex toy play!
The Stand-Up Groomsman by Jackie Lau: 3.5/5 stars. M/F contemporary. As a general rule, I love Jackie Lau (The Professor Next Door is a stand out for me), and I really liked this one but it wasn’t my fave from her. It does have some great things going for it, including a 5’6”, chubby hero, two bisexual MCs (I’ve honestly only read maybe 3 or 4 other m/f romances with a bisexual hero), and a particularly great and realistic sex scene—the heroine tells him she can only orgasm with oral sex or a vibrator, even though she does like penetration, and he doesn’t push the issue. He just goes down on her again after PIV. The heroine is really prickly and uptight (with good reason), and I do love a prickly heroine. She’s kind of a loner, which is in sharp contrast to the hero. The hero is a stand up comedian and a huge goofball, and though he would probably start to annoy me irl, I enjoyed his quirks on the page. He also uses humor to cover up some deep insecurities and trauma. As for the stuff I didn’t love as much: there are swaths of this devoted to his stand up routine, and it’s a testament to the author’s skill that it almost worked for me. I’ve seen tons of stand up and I could kind of picture how he might deliver his lines, and how I might laugh at them. But stand up written out just isn’t the same (the book is actually self aware about this). Also, the beginning of this dragged quite a bit for me. It got better as it went on. Still, this was a pleasant read with lots of great rep.
Steam: 3/5
The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan: 3/5 stars. M/f contemporary. The hero here is described as short, and maybe shorter than the heroine if I remember correctly. It’s also been a while since I read this one. I liked this, but not as much as The Roommate by the same author, which I loved. It features a former porn star and a rabbi, which is certainly a unique combo, but I was underwhelmed by their chemistry.
Steam: ⅗
Someone to Love by Mary Balogh: 3/5 stars, m/f historical. I wasn’t sure if I should include this. When the heroine meets the hero, a Duke, she describes him as no taller than average, but everything else in the book points to the hero being small. He was bullied as a child for being very small, and he meets several men in the book who tower over him and are described as being “twice his size,” since he is a slight man. Anyway, I loved the premise of this book—the heroine is an earl’s legitimate daughter but she has never known that, as she has grown up in an orphanage. There’s a lot of great initial drama with her half siblings and newly discovered family. For all that potential, though, the book is more sedate than I thought it would be, and I was underwhelmed by the romance as well as the sex scenes. Also, this book is guilty of a really cringe-inducing portrayal of a Chinese man. You can read more about it in this review: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/someone-love-mary-balogh/ . If you read the comments, Courtney Milan has some great commentary, and Mary Balogh actually responds. I do think she was taking it seriously. If you don’t want to read all that, basically the hero in this book, after being bullied as a child, meets an unnamed Chinese man who teaches him an unnamed martial art along with other “wisdom” and it’s got real Magical Asian vibes. The Duke is then imbued with near supernatural ability to appear intimidating or bring a much larger man down easily. This is actually a very small part of the book, and it didn’t absolutely ruin it for me, but it was conspicuous and cringy. Only you could know whether or not this will bother you a lot, but it’s worth knowing about beforehand.
Steam: ⅖ (romance up says ⅗, but I thought it was more mild than that)
The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic: 2.5/5 stars. M/M contemporary sports romance, au. This book is kind of a mess. It’s so surreal (and often confusing) that it’s a little like reading a fever dream. It’s an alternate universe story about a made up sport called Exy, which is described as an evolved sort of lacrosse on a soccer-sized court with the violence of ice hockey. The sport is co-ed, which I did like. Don’t ask me any more about it because I honestly couldn’t explain it. I’m pretty sure the characters are in college but that takes too long to be clear. The MC’s father is a murderous crime lord and there are plot lines involving Japanese gangs, though the details on that are a little hazy as well. The MC, Neil, is on a team of misfits, the foxes, who seem to do whatever they want. Neil is indeed short and his apparent love interest is even shorter. I say “apparent” because there isn’t much in the way of romance here, but the main pairing is (I think) between Neil (the POV character) and Andrew. Andrew, the love interest, is a 5 foot tall feral, terrifying psycho. This book needs lots of CWs, including forced drugging, homophobic and ableist slurs, murder, drug overdose, violence. I did care about Neil, which made this somewhat more compelling. There are some of you who will love this (that’s not an insult, I promise), and I can see why it’s a cult classic—it’s unique, and completely bananas. So was this good or well written? Not particularly. Am I going to read the next book to see what happens? Yes, definitely.
Steam: 0/5
Chasin' Eight by Lorelei James: 2/5 stars, m/f contemporary. This one featured a 5’7” hero and a 5’10” heroine, which made me excited to read it. However, this didn’t quite work for me. I will admit that I’m a bit allergic to cowboy/rodeo/redneck/country boy romances. Having grown up in a rural town full of good ol’ boy types, I can tell you it’s not always sexy (despite also knowing some truly lovely people who came from my hometown). The hero’s persistent use of the word “nekkid” made my eye twitch. Rodeo culture feels especially icky to me—I’m not super educated on it, however, so maybe I have the wrong impression. Also, I was super put off by the opening scene in this book. The hero is having a threesome—which would be fine—but the girls involved didn’t seem like real people. The hero seems to value fighting, fucking, and bull riding, which definitely made me roll my eyes—other than being short, he reads like a parody of masculinity. I’ve recently read a few heroines who find “real men” after dating “sensitive types,” and I don’t like the implication that there’s something unattractive about men who are willing to discuss feelings or aren’t uber masculine. The heroine is a B level actress who is escaping to Wyoming for romance reasons, and she and the hero end up in the same place. There are lots of side characters I didn’t know or care about, though I suppose that’s the problem when you don’t start with the first in a series. The sex was fine, but the hero was pretty dommy and I’m just tired of that (listen, I know I’m virtually alone here). One thing I liked was that the heroine has had a boob job, which is weirdly refreshing because those are usually disparaged in romance. Again, there are lots of people on this sub who will love this—if you read the sample and it seems up your alley, you will like the rest of the book, too. It just wasn’t my cuppa. I mean, I hated Cash Wall and people absolutely love him, so I’m sure it’s just me who’s the weirdo.
Steam: 4/5 ish

I finally took the first chunk out of this massive series. Everything is currently shiny and new!
OVA 1: Take Down! The Pirate Ganzak!: The first thing to watch, being the OVA before the series even started! This roughly half hour OVA by production I.G. was a fun fan story into the One Piece World. The artstyle is somewhat inaccurate (looks closer to the Romance Dawn one shots) and Nami's characterization was a bit off due to there not being a lot of manga out yet (Namely Arlong Park), but the animation is *buttery* smooth, and the pacing was fantastic. Ganzack himself was pretty fun seemingly bein an amalgamation of various East Blue Villans. The VAs are definitely stange but they do a good job for what its worth. Best of all you can catch it right on YT!!! (I'll let ya find that for yourself)
Ep 1: "I'm Luffy! The Man Who's Gonna Be King of the Pirates!": The very first episode of One Piece!! And man does it start out great with that Iconic OP: WE ARE!! ( I wish we could have that OP the whole time), the rest of the episode is very weird however. Apparently creating a new scenario of a pirate attack but slotting in the canon material regarding Alvida and Koby. Nami is also there too because.....I don't know!? really wished they just stuck to the source material here, and also wish the didn't skip the first chapter since Romance Dawn is mabye the greatest first chapter in manga. (Luckily we get it later), the ED theme is nice, always liked that one. Also of note is of course the excellent VAs, especially with Luffy, and the great soundtrack.
Ep 2 "Enter the Great Swordsman! Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro!" : Covering the first half of the events in Shells Town, this one stick a lot closer to its source material and is a better episode for it. Zoro's VA is fantastic and love his and Luffy's early interactions. Did notice the violence is toned down a little for the manga (But mabye that's a good thing since we probably don't wanna see Zoro going around killing dogs). Also Nami is in this episode.....just gonna ignore that.
Ep 3"Morgan versus Luffy! Who's the Mysterious Pretty Girl?" : The Shells Town Events conclude and it's honesty a pretty solid episode as well. Love the battle with Capt. Morgan and Luffy and Zoro's immediate trust for one another, and I love how Koby and Luffy "Farewell Fight" which honestly hits harder in the anime and is probably my favorite scene so far. Still noticing some omissions of the harder violence in the manga which is no big deal. Also Nami steals a map already stolen by Buggy the Clown....again, I just want to pretend I didn't see that.
Ep 4 "Luffy's Past! Enter Red-Haired Shanks!" Finally getting the Romance Dawn arc as a flashback during Luffy and Zoro's time sailing to Orange Town. The chapter was overall adapted pretty well and I love the VA performances on Kid Luffy and Shanks. Violence was toned again, but this time unfortunately it was to the mild detriment of the show as some moments had to be cut out entirely (I wonder how many anime-onlys don't know how Luffy got his Iconic Face Scar) and Luffy doesn't punch The Lord of the Coast but overall it's a good ep. There's also some early Orange Town material in this ep near the end, and Nami is officially introduced and less frustrating as a result of that. Her VA is pretty great too.
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And that's it, next time we meet a future Emperor of the Sea. This is simultaneously a joke, and very much not one.