To be fair, one doesn't have to be an automotive engineer to deduce something is wrong with a new car that struggles to reach 30km/h while most of the others exceed 100km/h with ease.
(This is the first I've heard of anyone blaming teeth, though. That's a bit strange.)
Here are last year's testing results, in a table with filters:
https://www.asyousow.org/environmental-health/toxic-enforcement/toxic-chocolate#chocolate-tables
All client-side anti-cheat systems are invasive, to varying degrees. Some restrict themselves to game files and data, others snoop on external processes and memory, and the worst (and most dangerous) even require administrator/root access or kernel drivers.
Yes, it's terrible.
It's also a divisive subject. Some gamers feel that cheating must be minimised at any cost. Others feel that their privacy and security are more important, and realise that only server-side measures can prevent circumvention anyway.
Unfortunately, there's money being made selling client-side anti-cheat systems to game publishers, and implementing it is cheaper/easier than server-side, so it's likely to continue until enough of us reject it or we make it illegal.
I've been using this feature as an (official) add-on for a few months:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/firefox-translations/
I like it a lot. The fact that it translates entirely on my machine, without revealing to some corporation what I'm translating, is indeed a killer feature.
(Now if only we could link headlines that state the key information instead of baiting people into clicks.)
Deb packages can be built by anyone, including proprietary software makers. Installing .deb files downloaded from random web sites is like running .exe files downloaded from random web sites. Not safe or (as you discovered) ad-free.
If you want to avoid ads and malware, I suggest installing only from a trustworthy distro's software repository, using its built-in package manager.
They don't need to backdoor end-to-end encryption when they can instead snoop at the endpoints (e.g. the apps).
Governments can force service providers to either do that or no longer operate in their jurisdiction.
This won't stop especially knowledgeable people (including criminals) from using encrypted comms, but it will make it much harder to access for everyone else, thereby robbing the general population of an essential safety tool, among other things. It's terrible for democracy and dangerous to vulnerable populations. The article is worth reading.
“At more than one point in the game, there are moments where the game prompts you to make a decision between two or three things, but one or more of those choices result in you going through some dialogue, and then the game just goes ‘No, game over, you’re dead now, you lose.'”
It does? I'm nearly done with Act 2 and haven't encountered that.
Perhaps what I've learned by paying attention to the books, letters, and NPC chatter (which are abundant in this game) has guided me away from those game-over options. They constantly telegraph useful information like history, faction politics, plots, and character motivations. By the time I'm in a dialogue, I usually have some idea of which options are likely to be bad choices, and in exceptional cases, just relying on good old situational awareness has served me well.
Does Rodis do none of that?
“You are blindly making decisions at almost all points.
I'm not, though. A few decisions have been unknowns, of course, but in story-appropriate ways. (Is this character going to attack me if I rescue them?) But for the most part, I've found that the clues I need to make good decisions are out there; I just have to explore and talk to people to find them.
How can Rodis have "a vast, intimate understanding of Dungeons & Dragons" when he seems to be ignoring two of the game's three pillars (exploration, social interaction, and combat)? Maybe he does these things but quickly forgets what he learns, and doesn't take notes?
In short, you are punished for trying to think deeply about the situation or the characters, or the potential impact your choices may have because there is no consistency to them.”
I have been rewarded over and over again for thinking deeply about the situations and characters. Even when I make suboptimal choices (often for role play reasons), they have never felt unfairly punishing.
And that’s not even the full picture of how the game undermines the weight of decision-making and, by extension, the weight of the game’s narrative. As Rodis alluded to above, each and every one of those choices can be reversed by save scumming
Well, yes, that's how game saves work. Abusing them for advantage is a player choice, not a game flaw. For a more immersive story experience, I recommend exercising a bit of self-control instead of habitually reaching for F8.
Take it from Cory Rodis, a professional game developer, designer, and educator with over a decade of experience in the field.
I appreciate that the author admires her mentor, but ten years of experience isn't all that much, and in this case, I think it really shows. His analysis seems very subjective to me, based more on consequences of his personal play style than in the game's fundamentals.
(For the record, I have a multi-page document of complaints about BG3, but I think the complaints here are off the mark.)
App stores and their systems don’t usually have the ability to deploy diffs
Google Play has had this ability for over a decade. They call it smart updates, though the general idea is often called delta updates. Apple has the ability, too, though I don't know when they started.
I get gaming on a budget but this comment really sounds like hate trying to say it doesn’t deserve full price.
Friendly reminder that some people earn full price in less than an hour of work, while others don't earn that much in a week.
Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a wonderful mix of exploration, sea battles, romance, swordplay, trade, and subterfuge.
Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is one that I've only played briefly, but I remember it having a fun style that made me want to try it in depth some time.