u/Key_Watercress8300

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This is a scene that's always confused me. Why does Butcher blow up the c4 after Stillwell is killed? Why does he smile when he does it? Butcher should be aware that Homelander won't be affected by the c4, so is this scene just him attempting suicide after his plan fails? If so then that's out of character for season-1 Butcher. While some suicidality has been present with Butcher for almost the entire show, it was (save for Black Noir's encounter in season 2) always in a kamikaze sense as Butcher is willing to throw his life away if it means killing Homelander. Him trying to commit suicide in a way that won't harm Homelander just doesn't make sense. But I don't get what else he could be trying to do if not suicide.

I've tried to understand this scene ever since I first saw it, but I just don't get it.

Platform(s): I saw my aunt playing the game on one of the computers at the library. It looked rather simple, so I assume it was Flash.

Genre: Platforming I assume

Estimated year of release: I saw my aunt playing this game in at-most 2014, though I cannot be sure of anything else.

Graphics/art style: The game was 2d.

Notable characters: The character you controlled was an anthropomorphic mouse in a suit that looked similar to an Elevator Operator's suit: it was red and looked rather fashionable, though not high-class.

Notable gameplay mechanics: The 2d map had platforms leading upwards. You could not walk left or right (I believe), and the only way to move was to swing a huge heart-shaped thing on a chain; presumably it was a locket. All you did was climb upwards and your character had basically no animations. The locket swung in a fixed circle around you and when it touched a platform you would then start to swing around the locket in a fixed circle.

Other Details: It was not Sexy Hiking, I know that much.

You know the part way to the right of the windows toolbar with the wifi and sound settings? And then the little ^ that you click on and it shows a bunch of apps that are running in the background?

How can I get that stuff to appear on all monitors? It'd be super helpful to be able to access that stuff on my second monitor while my main monitor is full-screened on something.

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This is a bug I experienced a few years back when I played the game on the Ps3, and I've not seen it documented anywhere:

I was doing an NCR run. I realized after a few NCR quests that I didn't have the pimp boy, and I wanted it.

I was experienced with the game and knew that your reputation with the major factions resets once you get the platinum chip. So I went back to a previous save and did the Omerta's questline.

Finish the questline, should get the pimp boy... Nothing. Talking to Mick and he just doesn't give me the pimp boy.

"Well dang, that's some time wasted... I was a higher level prior to reverting my save, so I'll just reload that save from when I was a few missions into the NCR questline."

Reload the save. Go to the Dam to talk to Cassandra Moore... And get the pimp boy from her?

When I talked to her there was no dialogue. The camera zoomed in for a bit, but she didn't talk. Then I got the notification that I got the pimp boy. Checking my pip-boy: yep, that's golden.

Attempting to talk to Moore again results in the camera just zooming in and her not saying anything. After a few seconds I would be released from the camera zooming in on her. After that point I sided with House since... Well I couldn't really do the NCR questline now.

Has anyone else ever encountered this bug? I have no clue how the game managed to get so confused that I got the pimp boy from Cassandra Moore in a save where I hadn't even entered the Gomorrah.

There's that old quote about how 90% of game design is protecting the player from optimizing the fun out of games, and I generally feel like a lot of highly regarded immersive sims fail in that regard. Even in very well respected games in this genre make me feel stupid for trying to do unique and interesting solutions because the most effective option is always so extremely powerful that I feel stupid for doing anything else, even though the most effective option is also the most boring. Let me give some examples:

Dishonored: 90% of the game can be beaten by blinking between light posts and chandeliers. You are also given a rapid-fire, non-lethal sniper crossbow that trivializes most enemies while not impacting your non-lethal ranking. And then you're made omniscient of enemy positions and sightlines with dark vision. I never felt a reason to use the fun abilities because basically at the start of the game you're given the fastest and easiest options to solve almost any problem the game throws at you. Whenever I did try to use the fun abilities it was plagued with the thought of "Why don't I just shoot them?"

Prey: 90% of the game can be beaten with the shotgun and the slow-down-time ability. I was playing on nightmare difficulty and never felt that the game challenged me past ~the first two hours. There was no reason to bother with stealth because enemies are trivialized with the shotgun and slow-down-time ability. I never felt a reason to take the typhon upgrades (which the slow-down-time ability is not, for some reason) because even the strongest enemies in the game are nothing compared to the one-two punch of the shotgun + slow-down-time. Again, the game suffered from the same issue of Dishonored where whenever I tried to think of fun solutions I could only think "Why not just shoot them?"

Deathloop; granted, this game is not that well regarded, but bare with me here: 90% of the game can be beaten with the gun you get at the very start of the game. The gun you get at the start of the game is supposed to be a crappy starter weapon, but it can one-shot any human enemy with a very easily placed headshot (enemies generally stand still and the gun is impressively accurate at range). It suffers the strongest from the "just shoot them" issue I experienced in the first two games.

Not saying that the games are bad, if you like them more power to you, yadda yadda. In short: a problem I've exprienced with a lot of immersive sim games is that you are given a thousand ways to solve any issue, but the most effective option is also the most boring. Could anyone recommend games that do not suffer this issue?