Yes, exactly. The fans have spoken and we want the real Vaporeon!

:-O

A fellow Xbox gamepass User IT seems.

Nope, I’m just someone who waits for sales and has a bit of an indie streak.

This was after my First playthrough. Now, with George putting out his video, im back in. My god, its marvellous.

I see we follow similar creators! I only just picked Pentiment up last week – Jacob Geller’s recent 2023 video is what originally put Pentiment on my radar and then George’s video gave me that final push into playing it for myself. I’m extremely glad for having done so because Pentiment has quickly become quite special to me. I already look forward to making subsequent playthroughs despite still working on the first.

Hifi Rush was great, but felt too formulaic for me, so i abandoned it after the first or second Boss. Too much running arpund, No real banger music between Bosses.

I can see where you’re coming from. From a macro perspective, the game’s essentially just a series of battle arenas stitched together by corridors and platforming challenges… nothing incredible there. What makes Hi-Fi Rush special for me is the novel fusion of rythm mechanics and spectacle fighter mechanics – they complement each other extremely well. (Forgive me for explaining at you like this. I just can’t help myself when it comes to talking about this game)

Normally, I can’t stand DMC-likes because of the requisite rote memorization. HFR flips this dynamic on its head by making the memorization incidental – it happens naturally as you practice playing the combo on-rythm. Perhaps even more importantly; just as mastery of a combo string comes within reach, the underlying musical qualities all suddenly spring into focus and turn the sequence into a musical phrase. It clicks together in a very intrinsically satisfying way IMO. Naturally, this all compounds in on itself and gets double-fun once you start improvising your own “melodies” during real combat. You like Jazz? Because it’s like Jazz if Jazz killed people.

Now, obviously this isn’t going to hit the same way for everyone (nor should it!)… but if you’ve not yet buckled down in training mode and truly mastered a string or two for yourself, then I would very emphatically encourage you to give the game a second try. I actually had to do the exact same thing myself before I really “got” the game and my mindset shifted. Hi-Fi Rush truly is the Dark Souls of 3rd-Person Action videogames

When it comes to Deep Rock/co-op I think my issues are more associated with the underlying gameloop design. I find it hard to perform well when the “tension” ramps up and these games are kind of tailor-made to create high-tension situations. When a round ends I’m left feeling tired/deflated rather than joyful. I had the same issue with Left 4 Dead, but oddly not so for Payday 2.

In any case, I’m right there with you when it comes to TF2 community servers. I sorely wish that more games emphasized these sorts of digital “3rd places”. I have TF2 servers where I can go anytime and just… belong for as long as I please. Games should have more permanent places like that, where play and community come before any imposed win/lose dichotomy. People would be happier.

Yup, that about sums it up: fun, but shallow. Nevertheless I think it’s worthy of a recommendation because it has a great honeymoon period before falling off.

I had a really solid year, all things considered:

• ⭐ Hi-Fi Rush – Love it, hands down. This game’s like if Jet Set Radio, Scott Pilgrim, and DMC got into a fist fight and then that fist fight had a baby with Jack Black
• ⭐ Pentiment – I’m still playing through this one but I can already tell it’s a new favorite. Major Return of the Obra Dinn vibes
• ⭕ Against the Storm – This game innovates on the citybuilder genre so hard and I can’t get enough of it. If you love a challenge and hate the late-game, this is THE ONE
• ⭕ Psychonauts 2 – Fun and bursting with creativity… but I had to set it down after a certain point because I stopped enjoying the gameplay loop. Can’t put my finger on why…
• ⭕ Peglin – Yes, Peglin. The Peggle Roguelite. I like it and you would too if you gave it a chance. It’s not a forever roguelite, but I guarantee you’ll have a blast with it for 5-10 hours
• ❌ Deep Rock Galactic – I bounced off of this one. The game has so much charm… but I just couldn’t click with it. I think co-op games just may not be for me

Honorable Mention: TF2 – Definitely not a “new” game to me, I own TF2, I bought it with money! Even so… this year marked my return after a looong hiatus. Coming back was a total revelation – I thought I’d grown to hate FPS games – as it turns out, what I’d actually grown to hate was the modern antisocial MMR grindset. Game developers: I beseech thee… abandon matchmaking and return to 2007. Return the slab or suffer my curse

Um excuse me time actually already ended in 1991

ARE YOU SURE?

• No
• Continue

You’re like Buddha if Buddha was dead on the inside

CALORIE

They’re frequently comorbid. Generally ADD develops first during childhood and later on during young adulthood anxiety/depression starts to set in. If that sounds like you, bring it up during your next psych check-in – ADD evaluation is generally quick and accurate, so there’s not much to lose.

Keeps people from noticing that he’s staring at their necks

My favorite part is when I check the list and then decide that I don’t like lists after all

Except you can define a value with undefined and accessing that value will have different behavior than attempting to access an undefined value.

Not usually, just very rarely. […] 401(k)s have fewer choices and come with fees. Pretty much all IRA accounts will allow you to choose any investment and have no fees.

FWIW, I do bring this up in my main post – it’s just that I’m drawing on my own personal experiences and… in my experience I’ve always been able to get the options I want without extra fees. In retrospect, that’s probably just because of two things:

1. I’m not a particularly choosy investor so the relative lack of salience gives me a blindspot when considering the investor experience.
2. I no longer qualify for deductible IRA contributions so I naturally think about them less than I probably should when giving advice to other people.

In any case, I accept your argument and apologize for the oversight.

Roth IRAs have a soft cap at $129K/$204K with the hard cap at $144K/$214K. This is also your MAGI, not your salary. Only Traditional has that lower limit. You can also use the non-deductible Traditional IRA for a backdoor Roth if you’re over the limit.

Err… you can’t deduct contributions to Roth IRAs, period. Moreover, I specifically say beforehand that I’m not talking about Roth accounts in the main bullet points: “This comparison applies to “traditional”, non-ROTH accounts”. Forgive me for saying so, but I also felt no need at the time to explain MAGI for the purposes of this comparison – that’s probably on me as a careless layman, so thanks for putting that out there.

EDIT: Credit where it’s due, I did mess up talking about the Roth IRA limit in a different part of the thread (here). The error is now corrected and the person responsible has been sacked.

Actually, there’s a carveout for first-time homebuyers that applies to Roth IRA distributions, assuming the account is more than 5 years old. Their example actually holds true even if the applicability of the strategy is a lot more narrow than the commentor first expressed.

One of the (exceedingly few!) nice things about personal finance is that the less money you have, the less complicated the advice gets. If all you’ve got is enough to get by, all you really need to know is this:

• Keep the checking account in the black
• Whenever possible, completely pay down credit cards
• Satisfy minimum payment requirements on other loans
• Bills

With a little luck, you can actually manage a surprising range of financial gymnastics using nothing more than credit cards. Credit cards enable you to avoid payday loans, enable you to weather short-term hardships, (potentially) help you access more affordable home/auto loans, and even (potentially) pay you in the form of cashback rewards/promos in exchange for nothing more than occasionally putting up a non-revolving balance. Don’t get me wrong – credit cards are dangerous… but so is fire. Don’t play with fire, but don’t fear it either. Knowledge is power here.

Beyond that… good luck and godspeed on your life financial journey. If you ever need further guidance, I advise exploring this Bogleheads article. Of course, you can also feel free to PM me anytime if you have questions… though, full disclosure: I’m just a confident nerd on the internet with literally no credentials whatsoever – let alone finance credentials!

That’s a very good point! Compared to using an investment account, using a Roth IRA to save for a down payment can potentially save you 15ish% in capital gains taxes. Much like the 401k vs. IRA distinction, however, there are tradeoffs:

• Roth IRAs and traditional IRAs both share from the same $6,500 annual contribution limit “pool”. This effectively means that you’re sacrificing the opportunity to use a traditional IRA for retirement savings whilst using a Roth IRA to save for a down-payment. If you’re already saving under a 401k plan, this is basically a non-issue… but it’s actually a complete showstopper if an IRA is your only available retirement savings option. This bullet is not actually true, as pointed out elsewhere by @droans@lemmy.world. For clarity: contributions to a Roth IRA do not affect the limits associated with traditional IRAs and vice versa. You can contribute to a traditional IRA and that won’t limit your ability to use this strategy.
• The main upside of using a Roth IRA to save for a down-payment is that you get to avoid paying capital gains taxes on profits generated by the IRA. This is because, unlike investment accounts, any gains produced from Roth retirement accounts are tax-exempt. It’s effectively a ~15% discount on your payment!^[1]
• The catch is that Roth IRAs are retirement accounts. You’re not normally allowed to take the gains out early like this. The only reason the strategy works at all is because there’s a special exception for this. In order to qualify, you must be a first-time home buyer and you must have had the Roth IRA account open for at minimum 5 years. You only get one chance to do this and you need to start laying the groundwork at least 5 years in advance!
• Another catch is that – if you get cold feet about buying a home – you basically lock yourself out of using that Roth growth money until you retire (unless you pay a hefty fee).^[2]

tl;dr: If you’re a first-time home buyer and you have spare IRA headroom that you weren’t otherwise planning on using and you have a healthy enough emergency fund that you can handle the risk(?) of accidentally saving more than intended for retirement, then there’s a Roth IRA out there waiting with your name on it.

I’ve never had someone “Haha” in response to a tax code explainer before… but I’ll take it

As a more general PSA: Even without matching, 401ks are still usually (but not always) superior to IRAs. The pros/cons work out differently by individual, so I’ll summarize the major differences (This comparison applies to “traditional”, non-ROTH accounts^[1]):

• 401ks obviously require a job that offers them. Sometimes, IRAs are better by virtue of being the only option!
• Only 401k savings are protected from creditors (i.e.: bankruptcy) under the ERISA act. That’s a big deal when making long-term financial plans!
• IRAs have a substantially lower maximum annual limit for deductible contributions (For young unmarried individuals in 2023: $6,500 vs. $22,500). If you want to contribute more than $6,500 every year, you’re going to need a 401k.
• The IRA deductible contribution limit is even lower if you’re earning >$73,000 in annual income. In fact, those earning >$83,000, can’t deduct any IRA contributions at all^[2].
• Only 401ks are paid before federal tax withholding. In other words; with an IRA, you’re paying the cost of letting the government borrow more of your income between annual tax returns relative to a 401k.
• Under a 401k, your employer chooses the institution. This lack of choice generally translates into a worse investor experience (e.g.: higher fees, fewer options, worse support). IRAs are obviously superior in this regard!^[3]
• You can combine a 401k and an IRA to bypass (Roth) contribution limits via the so-called “Mega-Backdoor Roth” (… you can’t make this shit up). This is great if you have so much income that you’ve already maxed out your main 401k’s contributions and still want to make even more (Roth-only) retirement contributions. If you’re already this rich, you should probably be learning about this from your accountant and not the internet…

tl;dr: If you make more than $70,000ish or just want to save really aggressively, 401ks are usually superior. IRAs are mostly useful if you don’t have the option of a 401k or prefer an IRA’s flexibility over a 401k’s higher contribution limit.