I have no idea how accurate this info on FindLaw.com is, but according to it, you don’t need a lawyer in small claims court (in the US). And according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_claims_court there are many other countries with similar small claim courts: “Australia, Brazil, Canada, England and Wales, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Greece, New Zealand, Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Nigeria and the United States”. I know the list of countries is not even close to covering a large amount of Steam users, but I suspect that us Europeans are covered in other ways, so there’s that.

The Wikipedia page also mentions the lawyer thing, by the way:

A usual guiding principle in these courts is that individuals ought to be able to conduct their own cases and represent themselves without a lawyer. Rules are relaxed but still apply to some degree. In some jurisdictions, corporations must still be represented by a lawyer in small-claims court.

And I don’t think you need to sue Valve in the US. I think they’re required to have legal representation in the countries in which they operate, which should enable you to sue them “locally” in many cases. Again, not an expert, so I’m making quite a few assumptions here.

Yeah, you’re right. Sorry. I’ve edited my comment to reflect that. I didn’t read OP’s image but rather the news post by Valve on Steam, but missed the part that said: “the updated SSA now provides that any disputes are to go forward in court instead of arbitration”.

it’s certainly not GOOD for Steam users to not be able to complain without lawyering up.

But doesn’t the change open up for litigation in small claims court? (Again, I’m in no way knowledgeable in US law, so I’m just asking.)

If, for example, I want to return a game in accordance with the rules and they won’t let me, I’m not gonna lawyer up and sue them from the other side of the Atlantic.

While supposedly being a lot cheaper than litigation, arbitration isn’t free either. Besides, arbitration makes it near-impossible to appeal a decision, and the outcome won’t set binding legal precedent. Furthermore, arbitration often comes with a class action waiver. Valve also removed that from the SSA.

I’m far from an expert in law, especially US law, but as I understand it, arbitration is still available (if both parties agree, I assume), it’s just not a requirement anymore [edit: nevermind, I didn’t understand it]. I’m sure they’re making this move because it somehow benefits them, but it still seems to me that consumers are getting more options [edit: they’re not] which is usually a good thing.

I can dig both, but I much prefer precision platformers.

Cloud Saves may be difficult to deal with, depending on what games you play.

Elysium is definitely the slowest, but time saved carries over, so if you’re fast on Tartarus, you’ll have more time in Asphodel, which is relatively short in terms of number of rooms, and subsequently more time in Elysium.

And as someone else mentioned, it saves time to be aggressive too, so never be idle and try to anticipate where enemies spawn. Enemies without shield (or when the shield is gone) can be stun-locked, so just hammer away at them.

Maybe I’m forgetting how much time and practice I’ve put into going faster, but if I can do it — everyone can, that’s for certain.

Drawing inspiration from speedrun builds is great, so maybe check some of those (linked earlier) out. There are builds for different play styles, so I’m sure you’ll find something that works for you. :)

I’m not too good at high-heat runs, but I usually enable Tight Deadline level 1 and 2 first, and Extreme Measures 1 and 2, which is already 6 heat without much of a difference in difficulty. Extreme Measures 3 is a bit wild, IMO, but I guess it’s just a matter of practice, and then that’s 9 heat. Middle Management isn’t too bad either, and that’s 2 extra heat.

Other than that, I usually go for Malphon (fists/gloves) with Aspect of Demeter and a build with Ares’ Doom effects on attack and cast, Athene’s dash and special, which usually gives me access to their duo boon: Merciful End which triggers the doom effects when I dash into an opponent of use my special. It’s insanely powerful.

The Hades community on speedrun.com has some good guides and forum posts on builds — and videos of speedruns obviously, there’s a lot to pick up from them as well: https://www.speedrun.com/hades

The first game is a masterpiece. I had so much fun discovering all the nooks and crannies of the story. And then doing speed- and challenge-runs afterwards. There’s content and gameplay for years of playing.

Plus it’s singlehandedly responsible for my kids getting deep into Greek mythology.

That’s great. Don’t get why they’re not announcing it, but whatever, I’m glad it’s gone.

I pretty much stopped reading at:

Genre terms exist to prime expectations for players.

What a ridiculously self-centered claim. Genre terms (and other categorizations) exist because language users use them to make things easier to communicate about. I can only imagine the author of the article going: “Well, actually a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable” when talking to a chef about gazpacho, or “a penguin is not technically a bird because it doesn’t fly” when someone says that a penguin is their favorite bird.

MFer needs to learn about cognitive categorization, prototype theory, etc. It doesn’t need to be 100% the same within a category — then the category is too specific and is absolutely useless — it just needs to be similar enough that most people (that aren’t necessarily experts in the subject) understand what you’re getting at.