Ori's great, but if it was ever "best", it didn't hold the crown long. Hollow Knight is the consensus "best" of Metroidvania from recent years (and mine, FWIW).

As for Dread vs. Ori, I'm torn. Ori wins easily in the looks department, obviously. Dread has better gameplay, easily. Ori scratches the exploration itch better; Dread was kind of a letdown in that regard. Dread has better bosses. They're both so silky smooth.

Gameplay is still what matter most, though...I think I'd give it to Dread, by split decision.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure Microsoft doesn't own Ori. They just published the games on their platform.

Diet soft drinks taste "very similar" to regular ones, too, also by design. But calling them awful is possibly even more common than Coke fans hating Pepsi, and vice-versa. It's as normal as can be.

And you dodged my question. You don't think a certain coffee, tea, beer, wine, etc is good, but also think some other brand is awful? If you like coffee, then you like every brand of coffee? Give me a break.

@Litchie: I don't know why you would take issue with this. They taste different. They're specifically made to taste different, and they do. One I don't like, the other I do, simple as that. I have no brand preference; like I said, I don't usually drink either one. And yes, I can actually tell. We had a whole silly cola taste test thing way back in high school science. I had a 100% success in telling apart not just Coke and Pepsi, but several different colas.

I don't see what the issue is. People like or dislike different pizzas, spaghetti sauces, coffees & teas, wines & beers, all kinds of things that are made of almost exactly the same ingredients. Why should a sugary drink be any different, and why should it confuse you? I suppose you don't have a preference for any brand of any of these things?

Or, let me guess: you do, but in your case, it's different.

I was taught as a kid that elbows on the table was bad manners. As an adult, I find that rule silly and impractical.

If I'm having a meal with a boss or some other formal thing, I make sure not to do so unless others do first (which they usually do, I find). But otherwise, I'm very happy to let this dumb rule die, as it should.

Single digit percentages in Congress, yes...in the few weeks after Jan. 6th. I would say it's in the decimal places below single digits, now, of notable Republicans who are willing to publicly say Trump didn't win or that there's no fraud.

Truth has not mattered much to the GOP for a long time, but now they're absolutely beholden to a lie that's so wrong, it's failed in court 60+ times, been proven wrong by multiple recounts and audits across several states, and of course, doesn't much matter since the election was certified by every single state and voting district in the country. And the Electoral College. And Congress, despite being attacked that day.

For years, decades even, I couldn't choose just one. Now, I have no problem. My favorite game of all time is Breath of the Wild.

I buy physical whenever it's an option, including stuff like Limited Run Games. It's not just the physical game that I like - in fact, it can be a bit annoying to swap out carts and discs - it's the functional ownership that goes along with it. No matter what the stupid EULA says, I do, in fact and in practice, own my physical games.

Digital games, unless they're DRM-free, inherently restrict my ownership rights. I'm not willing to effectively give up my rights for convenience, if I have a choice.

The series started off crazy strong. Lara was almost immediately a huge icon. I remember how she was in (non-game) commercials, on the cover of many (non-game) magazines, and of course went on to have movies as well.

But though the games were standouts on the PS1, that didn't hold as the series progressed. Franchises live or die on the strength of their games' reception, not the marketability of their characters.

I loved the reboot. And based on its reception and sales, so did many others. But now the series seems to have stalled again. Hopefully there's more positive stuff in its future.

Every generation advance is significant. And two things are true, pretty much every time:

1. It's the biggest jump ever, in terms of raw computing horsepower.

2. It's the smallest jump ever, in terms of percentage of change in computing horsepower.

In other words, the power difference between a PS4 and PS5 is 20x larger than the difference between a PS1 and PS2. However, the PS2 was 10x more powerful than the PS1, whereas the PS5 is 3x more powerful than the PS4. These are all made up numbers, by the way, just as examples. And even if they were real, it'd be an oversimplification; there's a lot more to consider than just raw compute cycles.

It's simply the nature of computing advancement. We'll never see a jump as huge as PS1 to PS2 again. The PS1 could never hope to run a recognizable version of, say, Metal Gear Solid 2. But a PS4 can, and does, run very similar versions of a lot of PS5 games. And yet, the PS5 could run MGS2 as an afterthought, many times over, while running a PS4 game.

Either way, though, it's still a "significant" jump. How significant is a matter of perspective.

There's no viable, practical way to split up the United States. The "red" and "blue" states we constantly refer to don't actually exist. As one pundit put it:

There are more Republicans in California than in Texas, more Democrats in Texas than in New York, more Republicans in New York than in Ohio, and on down the line.

The point being, unlike during the Civil War, there is no physical separation of the two sides to match the ideological separation.

Whatever the future holds, it's not likely to include any (successful) secessions.