Here in the American South, the fact that today ONLY feels like mid 90s (Fahrenheit) is strangely a blessing. I’m no stranger to heat, but this heatwave has been something else. No break either - no rain, no partially cooler day. Just bake.
Centralized AC/Heating though, means my game room/office is a perfect 67 degrees. So I get to watch the world fry through a closed window, and try not to think about what this means for the environment as a whole.
It wouldn’t surprise me though - there used to be 6 Game stores and 3 GameStations (were bought by Game years ago) a decade ago in my city (plus we had some Electronics Boutiques back in the day, and we’ve still got 3 CeXs).
There were 0 GameStations but still about 3 or 4 Game stores about 4 years ago - since then, every single one has closed and there’s just a tiny concession in two of the Sports Direct stores and an Arena store where they gouge parents for parties (in a weird area of the city centre too).
They have a few consoles, probably around 30 games across all the platforms in the concessions and a ton of junk like Funko Pops and other tat - and there’s no dedicated Game staff, you just pick up what you want and take it to the Sports Direct counter (who then have to go into the warehouse as it’s all just display boxes).
If any of the games are on sale rather than full RRP, the staff don’t seem to bother updating the prices so you’d never know, and they seem to only occasionally refresh it so often the latest games aren’t actually in the display.
Other than picking up online orders if you can’t wait for delivery (and to be honest, console pre-orders are about the only thing Game was still decent for as they had an OK queueing system) there’s little to no point in them anymore - they might as well stop stocking physical as I’m not sure they’ve sold one from the concession closest to me in months now 
If the Arena was closer and had a community rather than constantly trying to get birthday parties etc. in I might give that a try at least, but I live near the biggest shopping area and we’ve just got the one concession which is weird as there used to be 2 GAME stores just in the one mall!
Starfield is far and away my game of the generation. 
https://x.com/bgegame/status/1805269728262230467?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
This year will implode if a trailer shows up.
So there’s something about BGE2 in the remaster? Yeah, I’ll Youtube that.
There’s a new mission that will link up to the sequel.
Just installed Hall Effect sticks in my SteamDeck OLED, took less than 10 minutes and feel great 
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Does anyone have experience of upgrading their Xbox controllers with Hall Effect sticks? From what I can see online they all require an element of soldering which is not my favourite thing 
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We always have the central heat or AC on too in Minnesota. But about that rain… it seems to all have come here, lots of flooding, pretty much rained all summer
I made this fun Sonic Ai today. Even baby Sonic knows Xbox is a perfect fit so he raps the unofficial Xbox song 
Sound On.
Do it.
https://x.com/tomwarren/status/1805551167507718513?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
Well give you ABK with no drawbacks. But this one…this one scares me.
I doubt they’ll be found guilty and there are remedies they can also drag this for a long ass time. This teams bundling accusation seems like it’s been over 2 years since they’ve been making the accusation.
Ok, now this is interesting!
Jump instead.
Like Mario.
Also the fact is any fines and actions will be heavily outweighed by the huge gains they’ve made during the pandemic.
By bundling it with Office and getting all the corporates to use it (particularly after Zoom and some others had security scares), it’s pretty much the de-facto standard for almost every major corporation I’ve had meetings with - some smaller suppliers might use Zoom but it’s rare.
Unbundling it might cost them a few Teams installs for home users, but by now there’s little chance of corporations abandoning them - and that’s where all the money is as nearly all the ones I know of pay for the enterprise version so it’s got a lot of features they want…
Its already unbundled. Its been unbundled since October 2023.
From the AP Story: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams with office software, European Union says | AP News
Microsoft made some changes last year in an effort to head off an penalty, including offering the software packages without Teams for European customers. But the commission said Tuesday the changes are not enough to address its concerns and that it needs to do more to “restore competition.”
“Having unbundled Teams and taken initial interoperability steps, we appreciate the additional clarity provided today and will work to find solutions to address the Commission‘s remaining concerns.” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a prepared statement.
As for this entire thing, in my opinion, the regulators are off their rocker. Office Communication is a natural extension of Office work. Carving out communications as a separate market than office productivity tools is wrong.
If it’s already unbundled what the hell are they complaining about
