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It looks a little different than it did a few years ago? There's been radio silence since Paradox started over with the new devs. This game has had a really troubled production, I think Paradox has been trying to get it off the ground since 2015. Now it's being done by The Chinese Room, most known for Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

Bloodlines is one of my favorite games of all time, so I'm trying to stay optimistic that the devs also hold it in high regard and will try to make a worthwhile sequel. The gameplay from this new trailer looks a little clunky and weird, but maybe that's ok. VTMB never had great combat in the first place. The dialogue, writing, and vibes are where it's at. Looks like there will be gliding around and parkour stuff? Might be cool.

Anyone looking forward to this game? There's even a release window, Fall of 2024, but this game was supposed to originally release in March of 2020, so don't hold your breath.

I kinda regret my username, but I've been here 3 years so it's stuck. Hi everyone. I lurked around on the old subreddit, but never posted anything. I was always too shy since everyone seemed so high energy and more interesting than me. But then I came here and learned y'all are super nice and helpful. Most pleasant internet community I've ever been a part of, including all the way back to the IRC days. About me:

I'm nonbinary and I've been calling myself a communist since the Iraq War. I try to stay well read but I get lazy about it sometimes. I come from a deeply racist, reactionary small town in America and it's liberating to talk about how I escaped all of that. Sometimes I tell y'all stories about my family and how bad they can get, like one cousin is in the Klan, another is an Ayn Rand worshiping small business guy who keeps getting caught doing wage theft.

I'm an amateur musician/producer and tinker with electronics. I play guitar, flute, I fiddle with modular synths, sampling, etc. I read a lot, I really like horror and magical realism. I like Jorge Luis Borges a lot even though he was a bit of a liberal. I play a lot of video games, I have a soft spot for Touhou, Yakuza, Silent Hill, and early 90s point and click games (Sam and Max especially).

I really like movies too, especially really surreal artsy stuff from directors like David Lynch, Jodorosky, Tartovksy, Suzan Pitt.

Thanks everyone for tolerating me when I get mopey or aggressive sometimes. I sometimes feel like I'm annoying here but everyone's super cool. Hope I can spend more time with everyone and continue to learn stuff.

I just got around to checking out Psychonauts 2. The first one was always a favorite of mine, really clever platforming and cute story. The second game starts out with a disclaimer that it does portray real mental illnesses, but it's supposed to be playful and humorous. I thought that was kinda neat.

I'm amazed at how much the sequel feels like the previous game too. It came out 16 years later and it still feels fresh and good. Seamless transition, picks up almost immediately after the previous game. Platforming feels smooth and tight. Gameplay is actually the same, which is good to me.

I went into this game thinking it'd just be some nostalgia pandering repeat of the first game, or some kind of hollow cash grab, but nope. Genuine extension of the first game. Worst you could say about it is that it's too similar to the first one, but...that's what I wanted. Good times. Feels like Double Fine at their best, like a culmination of all the stuff they've done in previous games. Jack Black is even in it.

No spoilers please

I suppose it makes sense. I have no close friends and I completely avoid social situations unless I have to be in them. It would explain why I always feel like the center of (negative) attention in any given room, or why I always feel like I'm annoying people or that I sound smug.

The doctor told me people with AVPD often have trouble understanding who they are as a person, and can't latch onto specific identities, but I haven't thought about that much. The pamphlet and stuff I'm reading online also seems to suggest AVPD has such overlap with social/general anxiety they're almost the same thing.

Anyone else have experience with this?

It's literally like this:

Materialists/Physicalists: "The thoughts in your head come from your conditions and are ultimately the result of your organs and nervous system. Your consciousness is linked to your brain activity and other parts of your body interacting with the physical real world."

Dualists: "Ok but what if there were an imaginary zombie that has the same organs and molecular structure as a living person but somehow isn't alive on some metaphysical level. If this zombie is conceivable, that means it must be metaphysically true somehow."

Materialists: "That's circular and imaginary, isn't it?"

Other dualists: "Ok but what if I were in a swamp and lightning strikes a tree and magically creates a copy of me but it's not actually me because it doesn't have my soul."

Am I reading this stuff wrong or are these actually the best arguments for mind-body dualism

How would y'all put in leftist stuff in your work if it's just instrumental music? The song titles? Samples of Parenti talking? Riffs of the GDR anthem? If you've done stuff like this already I'd like to hear about it.