![]() Flexible work hours, whether it’s hybrid work or adjusting your in-office hours.A new location in the office is helpful, but noise-canceling headphones or white noise can work in a pinch. ![]()
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![]() ![]() So once again, I find myself asking: At what point does a game become retro? Downgrade the visuals and you might mistake it for a long-lost 2007 shooter. It all feels like a bit of a throwback for those who grew up with a PS3 instead of an NES. It was a thrilling sequence that reminded me of Call of Duty’s best missions. Then I was swapping between both perspectives, with the first character running down the building to escape and the sniper shooting off incoming enemies. I sniped my own captor and shot the cuffs off my character. Suddenly, I switched over to a sniper on top of a building across from him. At the end of Chapter 1 in Operation Catalyst, my character was captured and tied to a chair. CrossfireX even has players swapping between characters in sequences. Like that game, there’s a series of seemingly interconnected storylines happening between the two campaigns. “Modern Warfare” is a fitting term, because the snippets I played remind me of shooters like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Operation Catalyst is more standard 2000s military game fare, with a soldier shooting his way through dilapidated buildings, while Spectre leans more into modern warfare, complete with pesky drones to shoot down. ![]() There’s a vague global conflict, a squad of indistinguishable tough guys, and some stilted voice-over that provides exposition and internal monologue in equal measure. The campaign feels pulled out of the mid-2000s, before games like The Last of Us set the template for modern game storytelling. That’s where the word “retro” really began to worm its way into my head. In my demo, I was able to play Chapter 1 of Operation Catalyst and up to Chapter 3 of Operation Spectre. ![]() The story is split up into two separate campaigns, both of which were developed by Control studio Remedy Entertainment. I’ve done this thousands of times at this point, but I still get satisfaction from popping headshots, just like I’ll always have fun playing a new 2D Mario game (though one is a little more violent, admittedly). As I wiped out waves of vague bad guys by shooting explosive barrels, I thought about how timeless the experience felt. Other than that little trick, gunplay feels classical. Instead, I could always shoot first and ask questions later. I never felt like I had to duck behind cover to wait out gunfire. Despite slowing time, it actually keeps the game’s pace up. When pressing the right bumper, time slows down, allowing players to take out waves of enemies with ease. The main thing that sets it apart from other shooters is its concentration system. Players shoot guns, toss grenades, and sneak up on enemies to get a quick melee knife kill. CrossfireX is a fairly traditional first-person shooter. ![]() ![]() ![]() If you maintain consistent, species-appropriate care, you will minimize the chance of your snake becoming sick.Ĭommon captive snake diseases include mouth or scale rot, cancer and prolapse. Many of the health issues below are related to poor husbandry. Careful observation of their behavior, fecal habits and body condition is the best way to catch a problem early. Snakes are capable of hiding sickness until it is severe. With correct husbandry and a good environment these snakes can live for over 30 years in captivity. However, be careful feeding chicks to Pastel Ball Pythons as they are known to be picky eaters and may reject rats in favor of low-calcium chicks. The occasional chick can be offered in captivity for enrichment. This will stimulate their natural constricting behaviors. To provide mental enrichment try to wiggle the feeding tongs after your snake strikes. Ideally you should feed frozen-thawed prey to avoid injury. Juvenile Mostly rats with the occasional mouse every 7 days. General feeding guidelines are: Age Diet Hatchling One fuzzy mice or rat pup every five days. Some Pastel Ball Pythons may favor mice over rats so you should offer both during their juvenile phase to avoid picky eaters. It is possible they can eat larger prey but you should not put too much strain on their body. In captivity their prey should be as wide as the thickest part of their body. They are a constrictor species so kill their prey by coiling round it. Females stay closer to the ground and eat rodents 60% of the time.Males tend to climb more and eat birds 70% of the time.During the night they leave their burrows in search of birds and rodents. Pastel Ball Pythons are carnivorous snakes. The Pastel snake has the same care requirements as any other Ball Python. Pastel Ball Python Care Sheet Orange Dream Pastel Ball Python Hatchlings are born 10 to 17 inches long regardless of their sex. Males tend to have longer tails than females but both sexes have stout bodies with short stubby tails. Females’ growth rates are much faster than males so they reach their adult size within four years. Females are larger in size and normally range from three to five feet. Males tend to reach two to three feet in length. Most babies are born with extremely light faded heads that darken with age.Īside from their coloration they are identical to normal ball pythons. Some even have pale green eyes and a white lip! They have more blushing and fading towards their white bellies and also have vibrant orange-yellow blotches instead of brown. Pastel Ball Pythons have an identical pattern to the normal species but a much more noticeable color contrast. ![]() The appeal of the Pastel python is their vibrancy. Some also have some spinal spots, but their pattern is concentrated along the sides. Normal ball pythons have rich dark brown blotches over a black base color. This is due to their codominant genetic trait interaction. When added to a breeding pair Pastels are known to increase the vibrancy of the offspring’s patterns. They are a basic morph used in a variety of selective breeding programs. Pastel ball python morphs are bred from codominant wild genes. In captivity they are docile and can live for well over 25 years. Their basic habits make them capable of seamlessly adapting to captivity. At night they emerge to actively hunt for rodents or birds. They are a nocturnal snake and so will spend most of their days hiding in found burrows or stump holes underground. This region of Africa is covered with grasslands, wooded forests and savannas. Pastel Ball Pythons are medium sized snakes that are native to western Africa. Thousands are exported from Africa yearly and despite this the wild populations are holding strong. Since the early 1980s Ball Pythons have been exported to the United States as pets. However this is very rare so they are more expensive than the $50 price tag of common Pastel Ball Pythons. They are more brightly colored than normal ball pythons and are easily identified by their pale green eyes. This morph has codominant genes that produce a vibrantly colored snake. Pastel Ball Pythons are genetic variants (i.e. ![]() |