Digital distribution of games means that no game should be preordered. Ever.

Back in the day, a preorder was done to get the physical media (cartridge, disk, CD) in your hands on release day. The premium was either paying for early shipment, or ensuring a copy was reserved so that you could pick it up on release day.

Then digital distribution meant that you could buy a game and be playing it in minutes. When there is no physical media, there is no need to reserve anything.

The industry responded by turning preorders into bonuses. But almost universally, these bonuses are not worth the premium. They tend to be a single mission, or some custom skins, or other items that were relatively cheap to produce and that serve only to justify charging more for a "preorder" on a product which is distributed digitally.

So:

Is Ace Combat 8 (Deluxe) worth pre-ordering for ¥11,990?

Negative. And neither is any modern game. If you want to play a game, wait until it releases and buy it.

Let the concept of preordering die.

Agreed, and good point.

I'd also say support projects in Early Access that you want to succeed, with the same conditions.

The caption on the original says:

11/21/1949-New York, NY: The remains of what once was a succulent pre-Thanksgiving turkey rests against the well-stuffed frame of Charlie Black of New York, who had himself a feast on an airliner.

This PDF of a New York death index from the same year lists two entries for Charles Black, one of whom was 44 and died on 19 December 1949 -- roughly a month after this photo was taken.

Coincidence? Probably. Charles Black doesn't seem like a unique name.

Orrrrrr... this man died a month later, presumably from complications related to eating a whole fucking turkey on a commercial flight.

Of course the percentage of people who have ever used a chatbot is going to go up over time.

Yes, and crucially, it never goes down.

It's like asking: "do you use a motor vehicle?" And then counting everyone who has ever been in a car, a truck, a bus, or potentially even a train as a yes. It plainly conflates active users with exploratory or incidental users.

The only reason to do such things is to inflate numbers because being honest about them makes it look bad.

For real though. The number of dumbass comments I see on social media of from regular people supporting billionaires because they "made it", or "we should all strive to be so successful" is laughable. The entire class should not exist in a society functioning for more than the super rich.

Also, find me a billionaire that isn't a nepo-baby of other rich people.

Montana Banana is good, but it would be better if he was based in Alabama.

Musk just got some fresh dough, probably want to check with him. I'm sure DOGE has you covered!

Yes, I watch Groundhog Day on February 2.

And then again every night until the next February 2.

The heated confrontation in the European parliament came on Wednesday after lawmakers voted 418 to 218 to approve controversial measures aimed at increasing deportations of undocumented people.

418 to 218 is not a close vote by any stretch of the imagination.

People may disagree with the chants and/or the policy here, but in any event, it does appear that the writing is on the wall. It isn't just the US which is increasingly anti-immigrant, and these sentiments do seem to be spreading across the world.

The tail continues to wag the dog. It's worked so far. Why stop now?

Unsurprising. Newsom is an opportunistic piece of shit and California will not miss him when he terms out.

Mostly the first one (different war), but the lines are not always clear.

Many people cite the 1939 invasion of Poland as an event which kicked off WWII. But far fewer consider the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria to be a WWII event. This is usually labeled as an event of the first Sino-Japanese war.

The confusing part is that the Japanese were basically in a war of some kind from at least 1931 until 1945. The European and American powers were basically uninvolved in any of it, until the attack on Pearl Harbor brought them in.

But the question really is: did Pearl Harbor bring the American and European powers into Japan's existing war, or did Japan join the war started by the invasion of Poland?

As other commenters have said, largely because of Eurocentrism the earlier wars are just ignored for labelling purposes, and Japan is considered to have joined WWII when they attacked Pearl Harbor.

And, in terms of interactions between Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, they were mostly superficial. If you've thought it never made sense how two countries operating largely on racism could get together and form the "Axis Powers", you're right: that was just another label to unite the Allies against what they saw to be common enemies.

Tldr: Japan was ultimately in their own war which continued into the WWII dates; European/American bias suggests they joined WWII when attacking Pearl Harbor.

Trump versus Trump is always such a flip flop. Some of us are old enough to remember when flip-flopping was bad politics.

I mean, it still is. It's just that there's a cult in power.

Or even:

Th↹

(Assuming you have a file/folder called "This" and no others starting with "Th")

It's also annoying linguistically, since Þ usually represents a voiceless interdental fricative, which never occurs as the th in the. English does have the voiceless one (cf. thin), just never in the.

It would be better to use the voiced version, which is a ð. But yes, neither will do anything to thwart AI training.

You're about to have a rough few months, methinks.

It's partly because there realistically is no substantial left-wing voice remaining in the US. The right and corporations do their best to label centrist positions as far left positions, and the Overton Window continually shifts to the right as a result.

It's also really, really popular to hate on California at the moment. The facts never matter.

Definitely sad that it's NPR in this case, though.

“All I can say is we have tried every approach to get the memory and also storage at a lower cost,” we were told. “Like, deepen the relationship between us and also those suppliers, like to have some deals… and I think we have done everything we can do to make out system as affordable as possible. But unfortunately, I think the situation, the result is what you see right here. So, I would say, yes, it will be a tough year for us and for the gamers.”

Ah, but see, it's less tough if gamers simply don't buy this product. Did the shareholders consider that?

Also, don't put AI in the name of your product if you want it to sell to gamers. Take a look at consumer sentiment and know your market.

He has said the Qatari plane will eventually be donated to his future presidential library as an exhibit.

So, kinda.

The US government has also contracted planemaker Boeing to deliver two new 747-8 aircraft to serve as the presidential jet but the program has suffered delays and cost overruns.

It's not mentioned in this article, but Trump ultimately changed directions on the actual program, which is now using 2 ex-Russian 747s which had been abandoned, as opposed to 2 new aircraft from Boeing (the original plan). Worth noting that there is technically little difference, except that the aircraft are being stripped down and rebuilt as opposed to purpose-built from the start.

Would it be a money grab? Probably.

Were the other movies good? Not really.

Do I actively love them? Yes.

Would I watch this? 100%.

I miss this kind of movie with really stupid humor that knows it's really stupid. They don't seem to make many of them anymore... probably because they think they won't sell.