The sequels also got way too bloated imo. If I wanted to collect 50 feathers or whatever I'll go play a Ubisoft game.

I can't really say exactly what made the 2013 reboot special but it felt unique. Its sequels feel like any other open world game these days.

Not owned personally but my mom's '99 Fiat Punto I used to drive in high school was awful. 60 drunk donkeys under the hood, 0-60 of eventually, brakes that yanked it to the right if you were too aggressive on them and a battery that went flat in a few days if you didn't drive the car. It also had the tendency to just keep revving up when in neutral until you either put it in gear and engage the clutch or shut off the engine.

Anyway, I still have fond memories of that car. Going down mountain roads was fun because it was very slow, but super light, so you could just keep the throttle pinned for the most part and the rotted out muffler made it sound like a racecar lmao.

I have two from when I was a kid. Once I was waiting at a traffic light with my mom. The light turns green and I jump out onto a street without looking. Not even half a second later a car whizzes by just centimeters in front of me. It went by so fast I have no doubt it would have killed me had it hit. That was probably 20 years ago and I still always look both ways even when the light is green.

Another one was at the beach. I couldn't swim (still can't) so I was walking parallel to the shore in water up to my shoulders. At one point there was a drainage pipe or something and the current from it seems to have eroded the bottom, so as I'm walking the ground suddenly goes out from under me and I feel like I'm getting pulled deeper in the sea. Luckily my mom was nearby and pulled me out pretty quickly. I don't like going deeper than waist height into the sea since then.

I also had a more recent scary moment, which wasn't really near death, but could have easily been very bad if there was an oncoming car. Get good tyres and don't fuck around in the rain, kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXTThHtUqLk

I haven't tried vinegar, but I added a squirt of lemon juice last time. It worked to prevent crystallization, but the caramels tasted kinda tart so I think I'll abstain from using acids in the future. First time I hear about starches being used for that, but I might give it a try.

Interesting, never heard of starches being used for that. All I found online suggested invert sugar like corn syrup or some type of acid, for example lemon juice. And yes, I'm going for a soft, chewy texture.

So, I'll just go through my Steam favourites and list the ones that fit the bill.

I recently played I Am Your Beast and absolutely loved it. Not really a story focused game, but it's it has some of it, the voice actors are better than you would expect and the gameplay is top notch.

Pretty much all Call of Juarez games (well, maybe not The Cartel), but start with Gunslinger. The others are old and clunky, but Gunslinger still holds up and is one of my favourite arcady shooters.

Mirror's Edge is a classic, if you haven't played it, you definitely should. You can skip the sequel, Catalyst. That one added open world and was mediocre at best anyway.

Speaking of classics, Dishonored is probably one of the best stealth games out there, in my opinion at least. I would consider the first one fairly linear, altho the game does expect you to explore the individual levels quite a bit.

Mafia 2 (I honestly recommend you play the classic edition, you get it when you buy the definitive. It just runs better and isn't as buggy. The remaster barely improves anything anyway) and the remake of Mafia 1. Yes, they are open world, but only by technicality. The story is very linear and you barely need to interact with said open world. The games never expect you to explore or collect stuff and there's fuckall to do on the map besides drive around anyway.

If you like Ace combat, Project Wingman would be right up your alley. I'm not sure if I would call it simple per se, but it's linear, level based and great.

Tactical Breach Wizards is another recent favourite of mine. It's slightly x-com-y altho more of a puzzle than a strategy game with some pretty decent humour.

Gunpoint is another indie puzzle game with great humour. It's by the same guy as Tactical Breach Wizards.

Since you said you like Uncharted, I imagine you might enjoy the older Tomb Raider games, before the 2013 reboot when they went open world. Legend is my favourite of them altho I know it's a bit clunky by modern standards.

Last but not least, SUPERHOT. You probably know it, but in case you don't, play it. It's short, it's simple and it's great.

It annoys me that whatever the big yellow circle is isn't centered in the image.

Some people believe the earth is flat, I don't think whether the definition is scientific or not matters much lmao

I'd argue the Franchise died with ::: spoiler spoiler Desmond ::: in AC3, but it seems like I was the only person interested in the overarching story. After that only Unity felt like a good assassin game (performance issues aside), but for some baffling reason Ubisoft didn't reuse any of the good bits in the subsequent games. I haven't managed to get through any of the RPG era games, I just find their gameplay so mind numbingly boring.

Are you dual wielding mice, my man? Why do you need two? I know it doesn't matter for your question, but I'm genuinely curious what the use case is.

People keep saying this as if it makes it better somehow. I'm not concerned about nature, man, I'm worried about my own ass and any family I might have in the future. Nature will recover, that's a given, but I really don't look forward to fighting in the climate war of 2050.

Yes, that is absolutely insane, I agree, and I am not trying to justify his actions. I just wanted to point out that it's not like some kids walked up to the door and got shot they were in fact trespassing, so the headline is a bit misleading.

I am not justifying the guy's actions in any way, but the article says the teens hopped the fence and walked around the property looking for the homeowner. I can certainly understand why the woman would feel threatened. It's not an excuse for anybody to just start shooting, but this feels like an extremely dumb decision on the boys' part.

Another day older and deeper in debt

Probably Call of Juarez: The Cartel. I wanted to play the entire franchise back to back, but it wasn't being sold on Steam, so I had to hunt down a copy on some key reseller. Boy, do I see why it's not on sale anymore. runs like absolute shit, incredibly buggy, cheesy as hell and with some pretty questionable game design choices. Still, it was somewhat entertaining in a "so bad it's good" sense, and it ties into the previous games in a fairly interesting way, so I don't regret playing it. It was certainly an experience, but it's a very bad game by pretty much all metrics.

That plus being an ass in general I'd say. I'm 25, haven't ever gotten laid and struggle with loneliness all the time, but still don't think all women are sluts and are obligated to fuck me.

The map looks and feels amazing, one of my favourite worlds in a game, and the main story missions are really, really good

BUT

To unlock said story missions you have to do multiple hours of open world tasks, most of which consist of going to an area and mindlessly killing everybody. If you enjoy grinding, you will probably like it, I have a friend who does, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it because I found unlocking the story missions mind-numbing.

I guess they were driving Safely, but not carefully

"watch the ficus" - telling somebody to be more careful after they do something clumsy like tripping or nearly dropping something. I used it in front of some friends once and got confused looks. Apparently grandma used to have a potted ficus tree and used to tell me to watch it when I was playing close to it, so it stuck as a saying in the family.

Hmm, I do have tap to wake and that is giving me an idea. You can pull down the status bar while the phone is locked and in the bottom right corner there's a power button. So theoretically my leg can double tap the screen, pull down the status bar, tap the power button and confirm. Feels like a bit of a stretch but who knows. I've never had it randomly turn off while I was using it or while sitting on my desk after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯