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helpsitespeed · 2 years

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Fight night champion dr pepper codes

Please note that within Bare Knuckles mode not all boxers have agreed to have their virtual selves duke it out sans gloves. There will also be additional content that we know you'll all love so stay tuned for that! From a Featherweight Manny Pacquiao to a Middleweight Bernard Hopkins, for 80 MS Points or $1, you can download all 8 boxers listed below. Weve also created some licensed boxers in alternate weight classes as many in our community have requested. 320 MS Pts/$4.00 for Bare Knuckles Boxing Pack.City Sims 3 Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed Fight Night Champion Dead Space 2. Bare Knuckles OWC mode allows players to climb through the ranks to become the Champ. Pepper codes for EA Games Sims 3, Need for Speed FREE. Complete with separate leaderboards, belts and awards.Ranked games are tracked against separate Bare Knuckles leaderboards. Old School Rules is only available for Offline games. Also, there is no judging and the winner is determined by the last man standing. The fight is not divided into timed rounds, instead, the boxers only return to their corners for a break when one boxer is knocked down. Old School Rules mimics the way people used to box before the establishment of the Marquess of Queensbury Rules.Play against opponent with traditional rules or choose the new Old School Rules.If you choose to go without the boxers and only want the Bare Knuckles Boxing Pack, you can download it for only 320 MS Points or $4. Alongside the boxers in this DLC Pack we will also include the Bare Knuckle Boxing Pack at no charge. The Heavyweight Legends Pack for 800 MS Points or $10 will include 5 of the all-time greatest boxers ever to step into the ring. The DLC will be released on March 29th worldwide on XBOX 360, and for PS3 users the DLC will be available on March 29th in North America/Japan and on March 30th in Europe. I now just keep backing out until I can find someone around the same rank as my boxer but it takes a long time to find a fair match. Not sure what to do now - I like the game and have had some very close fights but the boosting has killed most of the online fighting with your boxer.

How can you play against that!! It took me two more fights and 2nd round knock outs before I found someone that matched my boxers level.

The fight lasted 36 seconds and 10 of them was the count. The first fight they just kept Right hooking all the time he hit me once and I was knocked out. I had a online ranked match to try it out first - it was a very good even fight that I ended up winning, I nearly went down twice in the fight once in the 3rd and 4th but come back to win with two knock downs in the 6th.īecause I enjoyed the fight I then set up a gym and tried the OWC - I know it's been said before but WHY do people need cheat online with the Microsoft boost. If you don't think any of the above situations apply, you can use this feedback form to request a review of this block.It's my first boxing game for a while and I was really enjoying it until I went online!! Contact your IT department and let them know that they've gotten banned, and to have them let us know when they've addressed the issue.Īre you browsing GameFAQs from an area that filters all traffic through a single proxy server (like Singapore or Malaysia), or are you on a mobile connection that seems to be randomly blocked every few pages? Then we'll definitely want to look into it - please let us know about it here. You'll need to disable that add-on in order to use GameFAQs.Īre you browsing GameFAQs from work, school, a library, or another shared IP? Unfortunately, if this school or place of business doesn't stop people from abusing our resources, we don't have any other way to put an end to it. When we get more abuse from a single IP address than we do legitimate traffic, we really have no choice but to block it. If you don't think you did anything wrong and don't understand why your IP was banned.Īre you using a proxy server or running a browser add-on for "privacy", "being anonymous", or "changing your region" or to view country-specific content, such as Tor or Zenmate? Unfortunately, so do spammers and hackers. IP bans will be reconsidered on a case-by-case basis if you were running a bot and did not understand the consequences, but typically not for spamming, hacking, or other abuse. If you are responsible for one of the above issues.

Having an excessive number of banned accounts in a very short timeframe.

Running a web bot/spider that downloaded a very large number of pages - more than could possibly justified as "personal use".

Automated spam (advertising) or intrustion attempts (hacking).

Your current IP address has been blocked due to bad behavior, which generally means one of the following:

#Fight night champion dr pepper codes

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mainsflying · 2 years

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Google zombie quest h1z1

Since you have a watch and that one will work, just that one hour ingame are 5 minutes in real time. The only similarity to Dying Light are the zombies.īut Dead Rising is a game where the player will be rushed. I definitely can recommend it, but as I said. I played the hell out of it and even created a 100% save on the Steam guides for the first one. Was the first game, which used a technology to render dozens of zombies at once.ĭying Light however, does that pretty well either.Īfter all, Dead Rising is a bit old already, still the graphics aren't that bad. In the second one there are some hidden objects, where you once need to jump from a chandelier to another, to finally get to the place of the hidden object.ĭead Rising is best known for its hordes of zombies. Still there isn't much of parkour in Dead Rising. Similar as in Dying Light, you start as low level char and have hard times.īut you can restart with your current expierence and skills to make things easier. If you like timed games then I would recommend Dead Rising.Īt least the first and second one were very funny for me. H1z1 Map is an example.I don't think there is any other zombie game with parkour. The hnahf nah play game hoping the game will resonate loud as the previous action games. That’s all what people see to enjoy.Īlong awaited official release date to see his big technological village will have surprises for us. And at the end of the gameplay, a mysterious creature appears and prepare “best defense” protagonist. Screen play with a stable frame rate of 60 FPS, and the visual effects are extremely voyeuristic. Microsoft’s E3 event began with co-op gameplay of Halo 4 5: Guardian. Of course, the most attractive titles enabled by Microsoft, Halo 5: Guardian already won their opening position is extremely majestic, instead of the version of Call of Duty every year, or Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, games were Xbox One shine and help get little “imposing” at E3 2014 last year. Most recently, in Microsoft’s E3 event began with screen co-op play extremely voyeuristic 4 people in the game Halo 5: Guardian. Just a few minutes ago, Microsoft’s press conference at E3 2015 event officially began. With many armed and new skills, Halo 5 will change the way people play attacking enemies, as well as marking the largest developers of Halo line ever. The company did not share much that only emphasizes this game will certainly be very special. So far, no one is sure if Locke’s friend or foe Chieft Master, as well as the purpose of this arduous quest. For its part, Microsoft only revealed that Halo 5: Guardians will be a leap of game action. It will be revealed when you participate in this game. The relationship between these two characters has not clear, but it will be one of the best attractions of the game. Locke and Master Chief are all playable characters in single-player game of Halo 5. Locke being tasked to hunt Master Chief after information from superiors said Master Chief who deserted. In terms of technology, Master Chief is just a Spartan warrior II, ie “backward” than two Spartan life than Locke. The Spartan soldiers are created with body capacity, gene technology and psychologically superior than ordinary soldiers. In the world of Halo storyline, characters Jameson Locke is a super Spartan IV, a project to train elite soldiers for special operations forces of the UNSC (United Nations Space Command). In particular, HUNTER armor can be used in multiplayer on the day of the release of Halo 5. If gamers around the world are familiar with the game Master Chief – Spartan warriors helped defeat mankind’s conquest, the Spartan Covenant species Locke was a rather strange character for you. Locke Spartan armor will include two equipment: Armor Helmets HUNTER and HUNTER. However, it is for the players bid Halo 5: Guardians at the GameStop store system. Among them, the most striking images Locke Spartan armor Armor Set. Two technology giants Microsoft and GameStop has released the trailer for Halo 5: Guardians.

#Google zombie quest h1z1

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animefreak1145 · 3 years

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The Brilliance of Break On Through

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Mission Break on Through—An Analysis

I have replayed the campaign of COD:BOCW numerous times—too many times truly. Did a whole playthrough where it was Hardened and soon I’m sure I shall do Veteran(something I have never done for any COD game. Not even Hardened.).

All missions have their own unique qualities—parts where the player gets a little rush of adrenaline depending on the kind of mission and how they choose to play it (Nowhere Left to Run just a plain shooting match while Brick in the Wall you can choose to remain stealthy like the good spy you are or go crazy like an eager homicidal maniac).

Even within the safehouse, there are plenty of little details to discover if you take the time to look around and observe everyone. Or, everything. (The radio if turned to a Russian station/correspondence, Adler changes it back immediately before Da Nang mission. Watching Park’s body language, as you talk to Adler and she periodically looks over to you two. Adler suspicious when you go to the Red Room or the locked room with the arcade. The T.V. being turned on in the Red Room)

But the amount of details, details, in the mission Break on Through is outstanding. I have played this mission more than any other due to me wishing to look at all the details. There’s so many, I think I may miss some. And I can’t show them off all to you cause I suck at creating gifs and don’t know how to transfer that from Xbox to my phone.

To lighten it up a bit, I won’t focus on the four different scenarios you go through—at least not each one. That would take too long and I do not have gifs/pics to show it off since Tumblr limits it to ten anyways.

I will, however, try to guide to what parts of the game you all can explore if you choose to do so. As well just how detailed they did this mission.

I am going to start with the different statements Adler says to you throughout all the Scenarios(17, 6, 11, 1). We only go through four in the actual game—but the fact it goes up to 17 or possibly more shows just how far they went in and messed with Bell’s mind.

Now, Adler seems to be a bit bipolar on how he talks to you whether or not you listen to him and all his directions. Either totally blasé and cold to giving you and pumping you up with more MK or meds, or actually a tad concerned and patient as he guides you through.

If You/Bell Stands Still/Does Nothing:

Example 1

“So you did nothing? What were you, in shock?”

He throws the words callously, mocking. As if Bell isn’t confused and lost at what is going on. He even sounds irritated that you might actually be in shock due to these memories that are just fake—not even real. Not like what he has.

Example 2

“What’s wrong with Bell?” -Adler

“I’m not sure. . .” -Park

“I guess we’ll just wait on you to proceed, Bell.”

The contrast is dizzying. He sounds concerned when he asks Park on what could be wrong with you. If he pushed you too far and now you’re just frozen. And, instead of rushing you due to how the fate of half of Europe is at stake, he decides to give you space. Just wait for you and you’ll come out of it soon enough.

He does these sort of reactions numerous times. Jumping from intimidating to the Adler we knew as the player, as Bell—kind and always in your corner that believes in you. He switches tactics based on what he believes will work really—or he just felt really on edge at times and threw the farce that you two were friends out the window.

Other examples include:

Scenario 11–Napalm Strike-in the lab in the room where you were brainwashed

“Christ, what’s happening with them?”-Adler

“A mild seizure. Sims, past me a benzodiazepine.” -Park

Again, concerned. Worried. Almost…at unease?

In the lab—tripped up on drugs. If you run through the tight shrinking hallway back and forth like so(I suck at making gifs, I’m sorry):

“Why is Bell repeating themselves?”

“Bell, stop speaking in circles.”

Now, as others may have suspected, Bell is talking to everyone as they’re stuck in this horrible loop of mental torture. Most likely muttering, hands clenching and arms pulling against the straps of the gurney, moving their head back and forth depending on what they’re seeing. I always saw Bell as muttering quickly in Russian as they go through all of this—their mother tongue where it may comfort them as they’re panicking and speaking to Adler.

It’s just a nice detail showcasing how exactly Adler knows that Bell is on script—Bell saying what they’re seeing and doing and what’s going on. It shows also just how hard they put Bell through the ringer(badum tss. I’ll leave now).

All the details too when the game shows how the drugs they put in Bell affects you. Like so. The hallways appearing long. The lights looking yellow. You feel so fast—look how quick you can run. Run towards the Red Door that Adler so desperately wants and maybe this can stop. Ah, why is it running away from you? What’s going on?

I don’t know about you, but I was so lost and confused at what was going on my first playthrough. For the majority of this mission, the possibility of me being brainwashed didn’t reach the BACK of my mind till probably I actually saw the flashes of scenes about Vietnam and calling Bell a subject. So like right here.

I personally thought that I had a repressed memory or something due to me going through the Vietnam War. That whatever I saw with Perseus, I—or rather Bell—repressed it from our mind due to how violent or horrible what we saw or experienced was. And that Adler suspected and just really wanted to know about it.

I didn’t expect for the man to actually brainwash my character—us—Bell! The game made Adler your mentor, who always defended you from Hudson and believed in your skills very highly. How he and Bell were basically perfect partners when the two of you were together.

It’s amazing—cause I think that’s what the developers were going for. The absolute trust. The loyalty. The denial that ‘maybe Adler is being a little harsh but hey, this is to help Perseus so it’s okay?’ It’s perfect. Because I’m sure that is what Bell actually felt in real time.

Yet, if you go through the total rebellious choice of not listening to Adler, some thing’s make sense. The Rebellious Side shows you way more than if you just listen to Adler like a Dutiful Soldier.

You go through this room if you choose the rebellious route, the T.V.’s automatically turning on the closer you get. Of Vietnam. And now, all those T.V.‘s that turned on by themselves(the Red Room, Lubyanka, Cuba) make sense. You were actually being brainwashed. Poor Bell probably can’t ever have a turned off/broken T.V. again. The trauma.

Said trauma being shown multiple times too. Not just the T.V.‘s. But the absolute terror that Bell felt, before they became Bell, with Adler.

Like do you see this? This terrified me when I saw it at the end of the hallway. I just saw a red shadow in the distance and I legit thought I was about to be chased. Call of Duty became a horror game(I also went through the door to the ground too my first playthrough, so before this I went through zombies and I think my heart was going to jump out my chest) I thought. I didn’t want to get closer. I had to, with each step I see that it’s not a shadow but a body. And than I see the familiar jacket, the sound of whirring in my ears and see it’s Adler’s head being twisted back and forth, side to side, up and down, in a speed that in inhumanely possible.

Makes one wonder if Bell themselves sees Adler as inhumane. Not human. Adler seeming to just be a god in their head. All the Adler shaped rocks/boulders you go through and see. Even one point the V.C. becoming Adler and you killing him over and over and dead bodies of Adler being everywhere.

The man has entered Bell’s head and won’t leave. Just like Adler won’t leave Bell alone.

Heck, there’s one point in my playthroughs of this mission I was by the bridge yet there were parts of the lab by it. I jumped towards it, noticing down below there were different floors of the lab that eventually reach the ground. I jumped to reach the next floor and missed and I died.

And Adler mocked Bell committing suicide.

That was the kicker really that Adler truly is indifferent towards Bell. Like complete disregard. I know it’s fake. We know it’s fake. Adler knows it’s fake—but to Bell, it felt real. That’s the crazy part. All of this—this whole sequence feels real to Bell so each time they die they actually feel it. It’s insane. It’s cruel.

But we all know that Adler isn’t known for his kindness. Still like his character though, he’s layered.

I don’t have the exact quote he said, didn’t wrote it down like the others. I was shook he said it at all.

Moving on to the final details I’m going to talk about.

When you go through the room, I believe this comes out for both rebellious and dutiful, really depends. You see it filled with post it notes, articles, plans, and newspapers. And you see once more just how Bell has been scarred.

I don’t know Russian or German, but I imagine the notes are similar to what the English one’s say. If I’m wrong, please point it out.

There’s also post it notes which I believe is in code as well due to all the numbers—I’m not sure what those could mean since I am no decoding expert.

Poor poor Bell. And with all these pictures and plans—of Adler included—it begs the question that Bell may have been warned about the famous America’s Monster beforehand. Had to have—since Adler is basically Perseus’s adversary due to how stubborn the American man could be. It just adds more to the story, despite Cold War having quite a short campaign, they made it up somewhat with all these details everywhere.

When you finally and actually reach the room.

As you grow closer to the table, to your chair in the conference room while everyone else seems to have their own spots, there’s something I noticed.

There’s glasses. As well as a hat. And it’s Bell’s. Or at least, it used to be. Why else is it on their side of the table? By their chair? I believe it might be reading glasses due to all the decryptions Bell does, whether on paper or through a computer, it’s hard on the eyes. (I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed this. For look at @second-vtoroy ‘s Bell)

I believe through the brainwashing, Bell might not need glasses anymore. After all, apparently they were a smoker like Adler before too but they took that out of you. What else they changed of Bell? It makes one wonder how far they truly went into molding a person.

Which just adds onto how mind boggling this mission is—this game is. This is my favorite COD game, despite how short it is. The details and choices and interactions with everyone and able to create your own character(albeit it’s very standard and not specific but it’s good enough for me) is AMAZING. I’ve always been a sucker for RPG’s and able to get that even a little in a COD game? Truly wonderful.

I couldn’t touch on everything because it would’ve gotten long, but the fun of the Break on Through mission never gets old. It’s genius multiple ways you can do it. All the details. The feelings you feel as a player as you go through it.

They truly did a unique job with this and I hope they continue with this type of game storytelling. Hopefully longer as well.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this rant basically!

Gifs made by me and used the video down below to help.

https://youtu.be/t6QkmkGGHSQ

youtube

#russell adler #call of duty #cod #black ops cold war #call of duty cold war #cod cold war #cod bell #cod analysis #cod:bocw #call of duty analysis #bell call of duty #Adler and Bell #Cold War

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maskydoolovesmasseffect · 4 years

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Mass Effect Tag

Wellio, I’ve been tagged by @berryshiara. Passing this on to @grummel83

Gunna answer my questions now. Y’all feel free to tell me what you think of these answers.

I’m a fan since: 2008. I was just out of high school and still not over KoTOR. I was fresh in the army and got to talking to some other dude fresh to the army about video games. He asked me if I played Mass Effect. I said no. By the next day I just about totally forgot about him, then he suddenly appeared out of nowhere sat in front of me in the chow hall and pulled a copy of ME1 for Xbox 360 out his pocket like he was a magician doing a magic trick (ACU pockets are huge.)

Anyway turns out that guy was a romance option and I must have picked the right dialogue options. I’m still with him, too.

Favorite game of the series:

Mass Effect 2. It seemed like that’s the one where choices mattered most and you really got to know your squaddies. Also MAJOR gameplay improvements over the first game. And that game gave me the most freedom to do basically whatever I wanted and wasnt afraid to give me consequences for it.

MShep or FShep:

FShep. Nothing against MShep, but for me the real Shep is FShep. Can’t beat Jennifer Hale’s voice.

Earthborn, Colonist, or Spacer:

Colonist. I like having the background of knowing just how dangerous the galaxy can be and how the Alliance can’t be everywhere at once so sometimes you need to manage your best on your own.

Biotics or Tech:

Both.

Paragon or Renegade:

Paragon, mostly. I tried being renegade but some of the actions are just so pointlessly dickish, or even outright unhinged in a way that would make it impossible to believe the Alliance would ever promote Shepard as an officer or even keep her in the Alliance at all, especially in the first game.

That said, there are times where a renegade action is more expedient and practical than a paragon one, like in 2 when you stab a dude in the back to prevent him from repairing an enemy gunship, so even with a paragon playthrough, my Shepard will have no issues taking that opportunity. She’s already seconds away from betraying all those guys anyway.

Paragon in treatment of others, renegade in combat pragmatism.

Favorite Class:

I play as infiltrator and vanguard.

Infiltrator is great for using a sniping and opening loot, and then for going invisible, and if I remember right AI hacking too. That’s cool and I wish there were more genuine opportunities for stealth.

Nowadays I play as Vanguard in my playthroughs mainly just so my Shepard can be canonically biotic for story reasons. From 2 on when looting no longer needs a special skill and I get to charge around the map. I don’t really care much about using biotics (that’s what the squadies are for) but the movement is super useful (when Shepard actually does the thing instead of just standing out in the open soaking up bullets until the ability decides to actually work.)

Favorite Companion:

Garrus. I like to set him up in sniper positions. When he actually STAYS where I put him instead of running straight up to enemies to try to snipe them at point blank, he’s great.

Also his quips in 2 on are pretty entertaining.

Least Favorite Companion:

Garrus, Oh my god. Go back to the sniper position where I put you. Leave tanking to krogan; you do not have the HP for this.

Also Kaidan in ME1. He can not shoot to save his life - literally.

My Squad Selection:

For all ME1 playthroughs after my first one, Ashley and Kaidan, just of their comments and because... well... I only have so much time with them.

Apart from that I mainly just pick my team based on who’s likely to have the most interesting commentary on whatever the mission happens to be, squad balance be damned.

Favorite In-Game Romance:

Garrus X Shepard is my favorite love story. They are just so adorable together and always supportive even when they disagree.

But my cannon romance is Kaidan X Shepard for the drama and angst.

Favorite NPC:

In ME1 there’s this random Turian on Noveria who randomly has like a New York accent and I absolutely adore him. He plays basically no part in the story other than some minor information but he’s just so pleasant to speak to.

“If you need anything, I’ll be here.”

Favorite Antagonist:

Morinth, the Ardat-Yakshi daughter of Samara. Yes, she’s a murderous vampire who will absolutely kill you given the chance... but like, it’s a medical condition. And I really can’t help but feel for ardat-yakshi in general when their only options are to spend their whole lives on the run from justicars out to execute them, or waste their entire 1000 year lifespan imprisoned in a monetary unable to experience the world at all. Yeah, Morinth is evil, but Ardat-Yakshi don’t exactly have a good deal.

Favorite Loyalty Mission:

Grunt’s loyalty mission is the best. I get to help my baby boy, reunite with Wrex, enjoy krogan society being fleshed out, have a kickass battle against a thresher maw, and get a breeding request. It’s nice to have a quest that isn’t about family drama and genuinely gets a happy end.

Favorite Mission:

Despite Citadel DLC requiring everyone to have a deathgrip on an idiot ball, and also basically gloss over some really dark stuff, the whole clone storyline with the whole crew is an absolute ride all the way though, with lots of interesting and unique scenarios, a ton of replay-value, and funny party banter that feels like it came straight out of a Marvel movie.

Favorite DLC:

Again, Citadel DLC. Not only did it come with the story above, it also had all those interactions with past and present crewmates, including a memorial for Thane (finally!), a cool apartment to hang out in, a party, an arcade, and an awesome battle arena. It really added a TON. Also, it’s nice to see Bioware figure out that DLC needs characters - I’m remembering back in the DLC to ME 1 the party never had a single thing to say, no matter what was going on. The fun and wacky Citadel DLC is a far cry from the serious and somewhat dark space opera Mass Effect started as, but as the final DLC capping off the end of the series, it gets to do a silly victory lap (and get the taste of the ending out of our mouths.)

Control, Synthesis, Or Destroy:

No.

Favorite Weapon:

Sniper rifles, whatever I have that’s fast and has high damage output. Also that one pistol that shoots tiny energy grenades. Pew pew.

Yeah I wasn’t really big into the weapons so much. I’m here to get my story on.

Favorite Place:

The presidium on the Citadel. It bothered me a lot when I couldn’t explore it in the second game. I know it would have been terribly impractical, but as the presidium is just a huge ring, it would have been cool to be able to explore the whole thing, going past all the little park areas, shops, monuments and so on until you loop aaaaall the way back around to where you started. Like, how cool would it be if the ring had a running track? Maybe C-sec academy trainees would be spotted jogging together along it in formation. And can you imagine grabbing a coffee (I was going to make up a space-related name for Starbucks but it’s already STARbucks...) and taking a nice stroll along the water before finding a nice bench to alien-watch from? Other locations in the game are like great places to explore and do gameplay stuff, but the presidium seems like a nice place to just be.

Favorite Quote:

"Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters. The silence is your answer." - Javik.

This is such a fucking raw damn line. It makes me think a lot about Cerberus. When ME3 wasn’t out yet, I thought maybe the plan was Shepard would at some point choose a side, Alliance for paragons and Cerberus for renegades. It would have been so cool to have morality not merely be good vs evil, but idealism vs that ruthless calculus Garrus mentioned. How fucking raw would it be if Cerberus wasn’t just generically evil for no reason and suddenly indoctrinated but really were embodying that ruthless calculus, determined to defeat the reapers at any and all cost. Maybe Cerberus actions’ were more likely to do terrible things for the sake of ultimate victory, doing whatever it took, whereas the Alliance would be less willing to make the terrible choices and ultimately be less likely to succeed.

Now obviously, that’s not what happened, as it would have required Bioware to basically make two entirely separate games. But that line from Javik makes me think of that concept, and a universe where like Dragon Age party members can approve or disapprove of actions not merely as good or evil but along the lines of their personal values. I think Javik would sit at victory at all cost.

Also that one mission in 2 where some random NPC catches Shepard sneaking around and is all like ‘what are you doing here?’ and Shepard is like ‘What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Get out here before it blows!’ and the guy’s freaking out like WTF and she says ‘RUN!’ then laughs to herself as he flees from an imaginary bomb. Shep you troll.

The thing I like the least about the entire franchise:

The misogyny and objectification that crept its way in, epically from the second game on. Really didn’t like those ass-shot camera angles, or female characters being slut-shamed in-universe for the clothes the designers made them wear. Yikes.

But the biggest yikes for me in that regard is actually the reveal in 3 that the prothians guided asari development. That was fine and all, but the part that bothered me was the characters commenting “ooooh, so that’s why asari are so advanced,” as it was ever any kind of mystery before that exact moment. For one thing, asari aren’t really shown as being more advanced than anyone else, apart from having discovered the citadel first, and for second, why wouldn’t asari be advanced? All the way from ME1 it’s established that 1: Asari live for a really long time, and 2: can instant transmit information directly from brain to brain. That means they have long lifetime in which to accumulate knowledge and experience, and also can easily spread and preserve that knowledge without even the need for books. That ALONE should put them ahead. And even with all that, they only barely beat the salarians to discovering the Citadel first. But no one asks for an explanation for why salarians, who live only a few decades and can’t do mental data-transfer, are so advanced. No, only the success of the all-women race needs explaining. It was just one moment but it still bugs me.

Also the general loss of realism after the second game. First game everyone gets armor, including full-face helmets automatically on in environments that need it. After that, people can apparently just wander the battlefield half-naked and even somehow survive in a total vacuum if they just put a plastic cup (that isn’t even connected to anything) over their mouth and nose. In the first game they at least made up some reasonable-sounding science fiction explanation for things, but after that it’s like F-it everything is just space magic now.

Oh, and those repetitive unlocking stuff minigames. I use a mod to just skip those.

#mass effect #tag

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wilwheaton · 5 years

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The Purge.

Earlier this year, I made some significant and substantial changes to my life, continuing the process of growth and reflection that I started when I quit drinking almost four years ago. (Sidebar: it's remarkable how much clarity I got, and shocking how much pain I was self medicating for so much of my life. I'm so grateful for the love and support of my friends, my wife, and my kids, who supported me when it was clear that I needed to get alcohol out of my life. Be honest with yourself: if you're self medicating emotional pain and/or childhood trauma like I was, give some serious consideration to working on the root issues you're using booze to avoid. I'm so much happier and healthier since I quit, and that's almost entirely because I was able to confront, head on, why I was so sad and hurting so much of the time. I'm not the boss of you, but if you need a gentle nudge to ask for help, here it is: nudge.)

Anyway.

As I was cleaning up my emotional baggage, working on strategies to protect myself from my abusers, and practicing mindfulness daily, I realized that I had a ton of STUFF just sitting around my house, cluttering up my physical living space the way my emotional trauma and pain was cluttering up my emotional space. So I made a call, and hired a professional organizer to come to my house, go through all my bullshit with me, and help me get rid of all the things I didn't need any more.

This process was, in many ways, a metaphor.

We spent several days going through my closets, my game room, my storage spaces in my attic and shed, and eventually ended up with FIVE TRUCKLOADS of stuff I didn't need. Most of it was clothes and books and things that we donated to shelters, which was really easy to unload. I acquire T-shirts so much, I regularly go through my wardrobe and unload half of what I have, so it's easy to get rid of stuff without any emotional attachments.

But there were some things that were more difficult to get rid of, things that represented opportunities I once had but didn't pursue, things that represented ideas that I was really into for a minute, but didn't see through to completion, things that seemed like a good idea at the time but didn't really fit into my life, etc.

I clearly recall giving away a TON of electronic project kits to my friend's son, because he's 11, he loves building things, and he'll actually USE the stuff I bought to amuse myself while I tried to make a meaningful connection to my own 11 year-old self, who loved those things back then too. When I looked at all of these things, I had to accept and admit that 47 year-old me isn't going to make that connection through building a small robot, or writing a little bit of code to make a camera take pictures. I can still connect to that version of myself, but I do it now through therapy, through my own writing, my own meditation. For the longest time, I didn't want to let these things go, because I felt like I was giving up on finding that connection I was seeking, but what I didn't realize (and didn't know until I made the decision to let it go) was that I didn't need STUFF to recover something I'd lost and wanted to revisit.

I think that, by holding on to these kits and similar things, I was trying to give myself the opportunity to explore science and engineering and robotics in a way that young me was never given. Just about everything I wanted to do, that I was interested in when I was 11, was pushed aside, minimized, and sort of taken away from me by my parents. My dad made fun of everything I liked, and my mom made me feel like the only thing I should care about was the pursuit of fame and celebrity. Without parental support and encouragement, I never got the chance to find out if any of these other things would be interesting enough to me to think about pursuing them in higher education. Yes, for some reason, even when I was a really small kid, I was already thinking about where and when I would go to college. I never took even a single class, because I was so afraid of so many things when I was college age, but that's its own story, for another time.

As we went through just piles and piles of bullshit, it got easier and easier to just mark stuff for donation. That drone I used to fly for fun, that I kinda sorta told myself would eventually be used to film something I wrote? Get rid of it, that's never gonna happen. The guitar I kinda played a little bit when I was a teenager, but never really learned how to play properly? Give it to someone who is going to love it and play it so much, it lets them express their creativity in ways I was never able to. All those books I bought to make me a better poker player? Gone. All the books I bought to learn how to program in Python, Perl, Java, and even that old, used, BASIC book I picked up because I thought it would be fun to finally write that game I always dreamed about when I was ten? Give them all to someone who is actually going to *do* that, instead of just think about it.

It was, at first, really hard to get rid of this stuff, because I felt like I was admitting to myself that, even though I *could* paint all these minis (like I did when I was a teenager), even though I *could* study all of these books on Python and Arduino hacking, and probably make something kind of cool with that knowledge, I was never going to. I came to realize that having these things was more about holding on to the *possibility* that they represented. It was more about maintaining a connection to some things that once made me really happy. When I was a kid, I LOVED copying Atari BASIC programs out of a magazine and playing the games that resulted, because it was an escape from my father's bullying and my mother's neediness. When I was a teenager, I LOVED the time I spent (badly) painting Space Marines and Chaos Marines, because it gave me an escape from everything that was so hard about being me when I was 14. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I spent hundreds of hours trying to learn the same five songs on the guitar, never mastering a single one of them. My time would have been much more wisely invested in learning the scales and chords that I declared were more boring than picking my way through the tablature for Goodbye Blue Sky.

And that all brings me to the thing that was simultaneously the hardest and most obvious thing to donate: all my Rock Band gear.

Did you know that the first Rock Band, which I and my kids and my friends played for literally a thousand hours, came out twelve years ago? Beatles Rock Band is a decade old this year. Rock Band 3 is ten years old, too.

I hadn't played Rock Band in almost five years when my friend asked me what I wanted to do with all these plastic guitars, both sets of pretend drums, and all the accessories that were stacked up neatly in the corner of my gameroom.

But a decade ago, Anne and I would send the kids off to their biodad's house, or to their friends' for a sleepover, have some beers, and play the FUCK out of Rock Band, almost every Saturday night. My god, it was so much fun for us to pretend that we were rocking all over the world, me on the drums, Anne on the vocals. Frequently, we'd get the whole family together to play, and we'd spend an entire evening pretending to be on tour together, blasting and rocking our way through the Who, Boston, Green Day, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Dead Kennedys, and others. It brought us all closer together, and was incredibly valuable for our bonding, at a time when we really needed that.

And I was holding onto all these things, these fake plastic guitars and who even knows how many gigs of DLC, because I didn't want to lose my connection to those days. Part of me hoped that we'd all get together and play again, like we did when my kids were in their teens, like I would when I hosted epic Rock Band parties at Phoenix Comicon, or PAX, back before the world was on fire.

But when I looked at those things, neatly stacked up and untouched except by dust for years, I knew that we weren't going to play again, and that I didn't need these things in my house to validate the memories.

Back in those days, when Ryan and I would spend an entire Saturday afternoon and evening trying to complete the Endless Setlist on Expert (we never did, but we got to Green Grass and High Tides more than once), real musicians would smugly tell us that we were having fun the wrong way, that we should be learning REAL instruments instead of pretending to have already mastered them. I would always argue that the whole POINT of Rock Band was the fantasy. Can you imagine telling a 100 pound kid that he should be playing real football instead of Madden? Of course not, and yet.

But it kinda turns out that some of those smug musicians were right. As I packed up those plastic fake guitars and drum kits, put them into the truck with my real guitar, I had a small twinge of regret, that I had been focused on the fantasy, instead of developing a skill that I could still use today (the last time I attempted Rock Band, maybe four years ago, I couldn't get through a single song on Hard, much less Expert. My skills had faded, and it wasn't worth the effort to restore them). And then I stopped myself, because that's EXACTLY the kind of thinking that stopped me from following my dreams when I was a kid. What was important to me ten years ago, what's still important to me today, was the time I spent with my wife, with my kids, with our family, with my friends, pretending that we were something we weren't. We were doing something together, and that is what matters. Today, I can't recall anything specific about all the nights Anne and I played, though I know we worked our way through hundreds of songs together. But I can clearly recall how much fun it was.

Ryan and I still talk about the time I accidentally turned the Xbox off, when I meant to just power down my toy guitar, after we'd been trying to play the Endless Setlist on Expert for five hours.

Over the years, I had accumulated all this stuff that I was unwilling to let go of, because I felt like that would also mean letting go of the memories that were associated with those things. I felt like getting rid of things without following through on their intended use was admitting defeat, or being a quitter.

But after a year or so of daily, intense, therapy and reflection, after ending contact with toxic and abusive people who were exerting tremendous control over me, these things stopped being the keys to unopened doors, and they just became THINGS that I had to constantly move around to get them out of my way. Because I didn't need them anymore. I didn't need to pain minis like I did when I was 15, because I'm not 15. I'm not living with an abuser and his enabler. I'm not working for a producer who makes it clear to me at every opportunity that he owns me and has complete control over whether or not I'll have a film career.

I didn't need ANY of these things, and once I realized that, unloading them and getting them to people who DO need them felt as freeing and empowering as writing a goodbye letter.

I kept a few things that were still useful, or brought me joy. Books, mostly, and of course all my dice and games. It felt GOOD to admit that I'm never going to learn guitar, or build an Arduino-controlled anything. It felt GOOD and empowering to know that I'm a writer. I get my joy and explore my possibilities through storytelling and character development. THAT is what I love, and by getting rid of all this old stuff (and its emotional baggage) I created space in my life to be the person I am now, a person I love, in a life that is amazing.

I still have some emotional clutter, which is to be expected and isn't a big deal. The really cool thing is that I have physical and emotional space, now, to deal with it.

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thelightofthingshopedfor · 4 years

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I spent all fucking weekend working on the final really-better-get-there-by-Christmas Etsy commission and I still stayed up past midnight last night and shelled out $30 for FedEx to get it there on time, which I don’t plan to ask the buyer to pay because, I mean, they should’ve originally contacted me more than a month before Christmas but I was the idiot who agreed to do it and then could’ve gotten started at least a few days sooner, probably

so the other fun thing about that is, after the cost of parts and shipping, I’m going to end up with maybe $10 for my literal hours of work and multiple days of sleep deprivation from staying up late with Etsy stuff, and for various reasons I can probably chalk this up to the ADHD tax but it still sucks considering it’s Christmas and there are so many other things I’d rather be doing than killing my neck and back hunching over a bunch of paint and a Funko figure, especially when I was doing it practically for free

and also I’m like...dizzy-tired, and doubly annoyed that I didn’t really get to do anything for my birthday because I was too busy with Etsy stuff

BUT this also means I’m finally done with the really urgent Etsy orders, which means I actually can get to bed at a decent time tonight and also do anything else, which is great because, again, I still have a million other things I either need or want to do

HOWEVER, THE SEQUEL TO BUT, I am apparently only capable of feeling urgency--or, at any rate, the type of urgency that gets me to do things instead of just going “nah, I have more time, I can do it later”--when I’m so hard up against a deadline that I know for a fact I can’t do anything else, which conveniently is also the only time I’m able to tell quickly and easily which thing I should be prioritizing! otherwise it’s DECISION PARALYSIS TIME AGAIN BAYBEE! so now I’m finally done with the screamingly urgent tasks, and I would like to do nothing or maybe actually use some of my current Xbox Game Pass time, but there are still loads of things I need to do, like:

wrap gifts, especially anything for my sister and her family because she’ll be in town tomorrow so we kind of have to give them then (this also potentially involves making a few more things tonight, hahaha fml)

wrap and mail gifts for out-of-town people, although at this point anything I send is for sure going to be late

arrange the last couple gifts on my list that don’t involve ordering things

clean up the general mess of craft stuff that wasn’t great already but is now very bad

finish the rest of my 25 postcards to Georgia voters, which were supposed to be sent by Dec. 15 WHOOPS SORRY

actually put my ornaments on the tree, it’s up (and pre-lit, thankfully) but it’s pretty sparse

contact the local mutual aid network because they’re probably still looking for toys and I haven’t heard anything back since replying to something on Facebook

start working on the other two Etsy orders due soon (in a perfect world these would’ve been done for Christmas too, but I told the buyers upfront that it was highly unlikely)

install my new hard drive!!! so I can actually install games and do shit with my computer again!!! because somehow my SSD is down to like 16 GB of free space!! and also I need to do this to figure out whether I can get anything off my dead drive

reapply thermal paste so I can maybe stop cringing so hard whenever my fans get loud

play a few remaining Flash games (or request them on Flashpoint) before they disappear

finish my Yuletide fic--I defaulted a couple days before the deadline because I realized I absolutely did not have time for everything I was trying to do and defaulting would be better for everyone, so at this point I would really like to get something up by the fic-reveal deadline but it’s not actually necessary

work on other fic, for that matter, because it’s been fucking months and that sucks

buuuut aside from wrapping gifts (which is frustrating in its own right because a couple things aren’t here yet) and doing those postcards, most of this stuff is not screamingly urgent enough to feel self-evidently urgent, which means it’s all just part of my constant self-replenishing to-do list, which means I think about the things I need to do and I get overwhelmed again!!

#bad adult #adhd #I guess

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gaminginferno · 4 years

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Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood. A cacophony of mediocrity

Mild spoilers abound, HEAVY spoilers at the end. enter at your own risk

Most people who know me as a gamer know that Borderlands is one of my favorite game series of all time. I have very fond memories of playing Borderlands 2 time and time again with siblings on Xbox 360, on PS Vita and again when the handsome collection released on the PS4. Despite beating the game dozens of times, I always find myself coming back to find another legendary or just spend time killing random mobs. When Borderlands 3 came out, I was obviously excited and while I do have some issues, more on that at another time, I was ultimately pleased with the game and even more so with the DLC, until now. The Bounty of Blood DLC is a western-style adventure featuring a fresh cast of characters and tons of gunslinging and hijinks so what went wrong?

1. It has a weird aesthetic?

Let’s get the biggest elephant in the room out first: Why the hell is there a Japanese aesthetic in the Western DLC??? It serves no purpose in the story, is never mentioned, or even hinted at. It just feels like an addition that somebody thought was fun and never had any thought outside “Hey this would be cool”. The only mention is that the people call you “tomodachi” instead of “amigo” as you would expect from a western. It makes even less sense when you consider that “The Company” as they call it (a weapon manufacturing corporation with a strong western feel, I wonder what it could be?) would never make the decision to abandon their own aesthetic for the sake of Japanese without there being a serious reason. And it severely hinders the game especially because…

2. It doesn’t feel like a western

This is by far the most disappointing point to me because the Borderlands 2 Lynchwood section was a wonderful western section, but it didn’t really have much to do with the rest of the story so I was really excited to see what they would do and it really fell flat. It felt more like a recycled borderlands story than anything I would expect from a western movie. Even the Lynchwood stories had the train robberies and bank heists that you would think of for a traditional western, but this DLC doesn’t have shootouts at high noon, standoffs, duels, or anything close to westerns in the missions and, coupled with the Japanese aesthetic, it makes it easy to forget that there is a western theme in the first place.

3. The new battle mechanics are useless

So, this new DLC brings a whopping three new mechanics that can be used in gameplay, both in gunfights and in platforming and puzzles. The biggest one, and the one that is used the most, is the green core crystal. These are used to break various items and hurt enemies with corrosive power and honestly are a fun and interesting addition to the combat. The problem is it isn’t the only ones they chose to implement. A charming plant that makes enemies fight for you and teleportation are also brought in in this DLC and it makes the whole thing seem conflated. The charming seem useless since most enemies are dead long before the plant can slowly make its way to the enemy to charm it. The teleporting comes so late into the game that it doesn’t get used often and moving from one space to another in an instant seems so foreign and is usually ignored completely during normal playing because moving around that much isn’t really how Borderlands is played. It makes sense in Doom because you’re constantly running, but for this game it’s more strafing and shooting. Putting all of these together just makes battlefields confusing and it seems much easier to just shoot stuff like usual.

4. I’ve already forgotten the characters

I’m not going to say much about this to avoid spoilers, but the only person who seems to have any sort of personality is the main antagonist. Everyone else seems like generic background character, like you would see giving out random sidequests. Even the character models of the other characters seem uninspired and bland. For them to mention having a new cast of characters, it feels really rushed and none of the characters seem like they would make any impact outside of the DLC.

Last Pre-Spoiler thoughts

The DLC as a whole seems really forgettable, like it’s a filler until they can put out the Krieg-centered DLC later on this year. They put a lot of decent concepts into it, but none of them connected with any of the others and so the whole process seems disjunct and pointless. I would have much rather they fully went towards the Japanese aesthetic and made a samurai story as opposed to half do a western without much western in it.

Story Spoilers underneath, you’ve been warned!

5. Story thoughts

One of the main reasons that the story falls flat is that it feels like a recycled borderlands story as opposed to anything western related. It’s the same old story of the big bad person has some magical artifact that we are looking to get back, only to find out the main bad guy wants to unleash a powerful creature to destroy everything, then you chase after them, fighting through their minions and lieutenants only to reach them just as they unleash the monster and you kill them, and then the monster in question. It’s basically the same beats as Borderlands 2, except without any of the character building or plot timing of a full game. It completely forgets the whole western aspect, (much like the base game forgets about the livestreamer aspect, again, more on that later) and goes back to their normal routine, further cementing to me that this DLC was more of an afterthought or a filler than a DLC that has much thought towards it.

#borderlands #gearbox #gaming

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jadenjace · 4 years

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𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡𝘩𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 .

[ tyler blackburn, male, he/him ] — if you’re strolling derry today, you might see [ jaden lapointe ] along the way! the [ twenty eight ] year old can usually be found at [ the red apple convenience store ], when they aren’t busy with [ basketball or video games ]. i hear they seem to be [ selfless and adventurous ], but they are also rumored to be [ impulsive and intense ]. i’m sure they’d never admit it, but they’re terrified of [ open water ] — [ ooc: emily, 21, gmt, she/her ]

1991 brought the birth of the greatest lapointe child , at least according to jaden himself. he was always a little rocket running excitedly from place to place , high-energy , much to the despair of his parents who were left with the task of keeping up . their lifestyle in the early years suited the little powerhouse – his mother and father loved the travelling life and before he was even old enough to speak they’d state-hopped and explored every hidden nook and crevice that the world had to offer . being that young he didn’t realise that it was due to his father’s native american roots – alabama wasn’t known for their open minds , especially twenty odd years ago , and the idea of his mother marrying a man anything other than white seemed unheard of . things calmed down with the realisation that hilary was pregnant again and they settled in derry now things had calmed , the small closed off town that didn’t seem to have enough space for a boy desperate to see it all . thankfully , unlike his rather conservative and old-fashioned grandmother she heard so much about , hilary let jaden do pretty much whatever he wanted ( within reason , of course ) . it started off with semi-permanent hair chalks , washable markers on pale skin , an ear piercing when he was old enough to sign the forms , then another , an impulsive nature taking root and leaving him with some questionable scars and stick ‘n’ poked imagery .

during high school he never fit in , but unlike some of the ‘ loser ‘ kids he didn’t fit the mould for the simple reason that he didn’t fucking want to . he didn’t care if teachers told him to dye his hair a normal color , to take those ‘ foul pieces of metal ‘ out of his face , he was there to have fun and maybe learn along the way .. even if not much of it got through . one passion though was science class . it was the only textbook that wasn’t filled with doodles of galaxies and moons , of little aliens and crazy spaceships , simply because outer space didn’t seem so far away when he was learning the facts . if he had been more dedicated maybe he would’ve become an astrologer , an astronaut maybe ; the dream is still there somewhere at the back of that spacey mind of his , and one day he hopes she might actually touch the stars instead of just gaze up at them .

that’s where his fear comes in . jaden always had his face in the clouds , a total space-cadet , but that meant anything below sea level was a terror for him . it wasn’t born out of a particularly traumatic event , but watching the jaws movies when he was way too long probably didn’t help manifest a phobia that would haunt him for years . swimming pools were fine , but it was the sea and the open , questionable water that made the boy tremble and quiver as his mind wandered to the worst . what could be down there -- bodies , sharks , monsters of the deep ?? maybe he’d come across titanic’s dead , a capsized ship with the ghostly spirit of a long-sunken captain . it was the darkness that spooked him , the complete and utter unknown in the watery depths that could so easily claim his everything and rip the world away .

now that he’s an adult , at least in body , he struggles to hold down a job for more than six months purely out of boredom . there always seems something better to do , but his current way to pay the bills is watching sad derry locals visiting the convenience store in their pyjamas and slippers to grab an extra carton of milk or sugar for their coffee . this was never his plans , and there’s no way that jaden will stare there forever in a dead-end job that offered no career prospects , but as a way to make ends meet he’d stick around . on his down days you can find him spinning a basketball on the end of his finger or shooting hoops out at the park , or on bleaker days he’ll be curled up in his bedroom playing xbox or playstation ( for he has both , obviously ) . the male is a hard one to tie down , but it seems that derry’s clutches have him bunkered for now at least .

#derrybio #derryintro

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migstheruler · 4 years

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Next Gen Consoles.

What is Mutual assured destruction and why is it relevant today? According to Wikipedia, Mutual assured destruction is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. Why is it relevant, you may ask yourself? An analysis of mutually assured destruction is relevant when we look at the upcoming next-gen gaming landscape. Microsoft and Sony; both stand diametrically opposed as foes, ready to destroy their hardware against each other in for dominion of the gaming space.

In the console market, three players reign supreme, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. Currently, two of the three titans in the gaming industry are gearing up to release their newest consoles, Microsoft’s Xbox series X/S and Sony’s PlayStation 5 during the 2020 holiday season. The hype around these game consoles is insurmountable given the last set of consoles released back in November 2013.

Now the question at hand, why is mutually assured destruction relevant in this current instance? We are currently in September and have yet to receive a release date or price for each companies next-gen gaming consoles. If you’re curious why this hasn’t happened yet, all you need to do is take a trip down memory lane regarding E3 summer 2013. It was a hot boy summer day in June, during Microsoft’s E3 presentation, they released the price point of the Xbox One, coming in at USD 500, with restrictive always online and used game policies (interestingly enough, some of the biggest games of this generation are online-only, so in this instance, it seems Microsoft was ahead of their time). A few hours later, Sony launched a full-frontal assault upon Microsoft with the $400 PS4 price point in addition to stark difference to Microsoft regarding their DRM practices, online connection requirements, and used games. If the crowd’s fervor was representative of the coming generation, Microsoft’s Xbox One console was dead on arrival. If you need any additional information regarding this statement, look at the reported PS4 sales compared to Xbox one sales. Sadly, Microsoft does not release these figures publicly any more but a little research shows us that the PS$ has sold 106.99 million units whereas the Xbox One has sold 46.36. This generation is starkly different compared to the generation previous where Xbox dominated the gaming landscape despite being surpassed by PlayStation in total overall sales.

So why the delay in releasing the prices of the next-gen consoles? If you believe reports, one would think it’s because either company wants to undersell the other; although I do not know if this is possible if Microsoft’s rumored Xbox Series S is real. Sony is releasing two consoles this fall, a digital PS5 and a PS5 with an optical drive for physical disc-based media. Currently, Microsoft has revealed the Series X (and it did so back in December 2019) and has a rumored lower-powered next-gen console called the series S (that it questionably hasn’t announced yet) if you believe all of the leaks. Ultimately, it's more likely than not this is console is true given the leaks and the potentially high price of “the world’s most powerful console” Series X. If Microsoft comes out with a $599 Series X console whereas Sony releases a $499 or $399 console, it will just be another repeat of 2013 and Microsoft is well aware of this fact. However, if Microsoft releases the Series S at a price point less than either of Sony’s consoles that manages to keep the specs relatively similar to the X (which I don’t know how they would do this…), then it’s probable the console exists.

But what if Microsoft’s endgame is not to compete with Sony? What if Microsoft wishes to destroy the next-gen console market altogether and continue waiting to release the price before Sony makes the first move? Could we be potentially looking at another Pepsi Crystal and Coca Cola Tab? Surely the lack of releasing a price point at this point from either company is indicative of their reluctance to “pull the trigger” first and open themselves to being undercut by their prominent competitor. Microsoft is currently killing the game with its game pass service, soon to launch on phones all but making console obsolete for the sake of traditional console gaming as we know it. Microsoft’s game pass allows folks to play Xbox games on their PC and consoles.

What do we know so far and when will we know the prices of the consoles? With both companies releasing minimal information about their upcoming consoles only time will tell whether this strategy will play out in the end. We know the appearance of both consoles, which games are rumored to launch at release or not (I'm looking at you Halo Infinite). In recent console generations, gamers knew the price of the consoles at least 5-months before the consoles releasing. The gaming market seems to be a sensitive market in which a $600 console will not produce expected sales, all we have to do is look at the launch of the PS3 to determine this; PS3 launched at $599 and $499. The theory of Mutual Assured Destruction gained its prevalence during the Cold war between the US and the USSR. And thought this lens we characteristics of both countries in either company. Never engaging in outright war with one another but instead through proxy wars. In our gaming console war, both Microsoft never outright critique each other but instead wage “proxy wars” through the lens of backward compatibility, shared online play, and now price and launch date. Like the members of each country, we as gamers bare the brunt of the war between the two companies, eagerly awaiting any tidbit of information each company releases or doesn’t release. If there is anything to say about this upcoming generation is that waiting until September to announce a release date and price point is a bold move and only time will tell whether the strategy works out.

#ps5 #ps5 release #ps5 rumours #microsoft xbox #sony #series x #series s #next gen #gaming #console wars

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thesevenseraphs · 5 years

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Bungie Weekly Update - 9/5/19

This week at Bungie, Mars is on the mind.

A few weeks ago, we forecast our first Community Challenge. Our destination of choice: Mars. With a unique emblem and additional Menagerie loot to earn, we knew you’d take this on… but we didn’t think you’d prosecute the Hive this quickly. To say we’re impressed with your progress is an understatement. Here’s a quick snapshot of how far you’ve come in so little time:

Remember, to qualify for the exclusive Community Event emblem, you'll need to complete one Nightfall before next Tuesday at 10:00 AM Pacific. Luckily, it looks like there's some work to be done in the Nightfall department. Don't forget, we have the Find Fireteam feature on Bungie.net and the Destiny Companion App if you're in need of some team mates. We'll be sending out emblems to qualifying players next week, so be sure to stay tuned for updates.

We’ve got some exciting news on the docket this week. A Bungie Bounty, upcoming Crucible changes, Sandbox ability tuning, and a fashion show of upcoming armor. Let’s get to it.

JOIN THE STRIKE TEAM

Next week, we’re assembling a special strike team for another Bungie Bounty—and, like we always do, we’re leaving a seat open. In keeping with our streaming tradition, this is your chance to find us in the wilds of matchmaking and engage in live combat with the hopes of winning an emblem as your reward. On this occasion, we’re putting a price on the heads of whichever strike bosses the fates choose.

Bungie Bounty—Strike Team Edition

Destiny 2 on Xbox Live

Heroic Strike Playlist

Tuesday, September 103–5 PM PDT

www.mixer.com/Bungie

If matchmaking chooses you to play on this fireteam, your fellow Guardians will be two titans of industry (even though one of them plays as a Hunter). These are two old friends who have recently been reunited by Cross Save. They’ll be live at Bungie to stream their session.

If you get matched up with these Guardians, and they decide that you held up your end of the fight, they’ll award you an emblem you can use to prove it—so be sure to back them up on the path to victory. Look alive and play your best game. This will be your first chance to win the Destiny 2 Year 3 Bungie Bounty emblem. Check it out!

They’ll launch as many strikes as time permits, with a different Guardian from the community as the third player. If you’re watching and participating in chat, there will also be some prizes for you to win as a spectator. We’ll have seven Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Collector’s Editions to award—and those are otherwise sold out.

Our friends at Xbox also have some special prizes up their sleeves, so tune in to watch or queue up to fight alongside two of the biggest Destiny fans we know.

========

SHAKE SHAXX

Many of you have been asking how the Crucible experience will change on October 1. While we outlined some changes in the Director’s Cut: Part III article, we wanted to put the magnifying glass on a few more upcoming changes.

Director Update

When Shadowkeep launches, your Crucible Director will look a bit different. Here’s a quick rundown from the Director’s Cut:

We’ve removed the Quickplay and Competitive nodes from the Director.

If you’re looking for an experience like Quickplay, we’ve added Classic Mix (a connection-based playlist [like Quickplay today]). Classic Mix includes Control, Clash, and Supremacy.

Competitive is replaced by 3v3 Survival (which now awards Glory).

We’ve also added a Survival Solo Queue playlist that also awards Glory.

We’ve added 6v6 Control as its own playlist.

With the potential influx of new players this fall, we want to have a playlist that signals to new players where to start.

We feel like 6v6 Control is the right starting place when introducing new friends to Destiny.

We’ve added a weekly 6v6 rotator and a weekly 4v4 rotator.

These rotator playlists are where modes like Clash, Supremacy, Mayhem, Lockdown, and Countdown will appear.

We want to create some variety in the PvP experience from Season to Season, and one way we’re doing that is to bench some maps for the Season. While they’re out of rotation, if time allows we also hope to improve how they play by tweaking spawn areas, ammo spawns, and overall structure so they return better than before. The first four to be removed from all playlists are:

Dead Cliffs

Legion’s Gulch

Retribution

Solitude

We also made a pass on all playlists, removing some maps from playlists where they don’t shine. Equinox is now only in Scorched, Mayhem, and Breakthrough, and Firebase Echo is only in Supremacy, Mayhem, and Breakthrough. While we are removing a few maps, we are also introducing Widow’s Court, Twilight Gap, and the new map, Fragment. Think Dreaming City meets Infinite Forest.

Elimination is also making its return to Destiny 2 via Crucible Labs. We’ll be testing out multiple variants of Elimination rulesets and settings to see how the mode plays with the new weapons and abilities of Destiny 2.

Heavy Ammo Sharing

Heavy ammo is shared only in all 6v6 modes, and those crates have a sparkling effect to denote this. Once a player picks up Heavy ammo, their teammates have a limited amount of time (currently 7 seconds—this is something we can tweak between Seasons based on community feedback) to interact with the same ammo crate to get Heavy ammo. If the other team picked up the crate, it will turn red to indicate you cannot pick it up during this period. When the time window expires, the crate despawns. Each player gets less Heavy ammo from shared crates than they do from unshared crates in 4v4 and 3v3 modes. The amount of ammo you receive from a crate is static and does not change based on how many teammates share the crate.

Rank Systems Update: Streaks and Floors

Glory, Valor, and Infamy streaks have been made more resilient. Instead of resetting your streak, losses will now reduce your Valor and Infamy streaks by 1, and your Glory streak by 2. You can still lose Glory, but if your rank is at or below Fabled, you can’t lose Glory if doing so would drop you below that rank (each rank through Fabled acts as a floor for Glory).

Competitive Matchmaking Updates: Skill and Glory

Destiny has always tracked player skill behind the scenes, taking into account things like kills, damage dealt, and so forth. These factors all contribute to a player’s skill rating. In Season 8, we’ve mapped skill ratings to Glory ranks, with the lowest end of the scale mapping to Guardian I, and the high end mapping to Legend. Most players are somewhere between these extremes.

As you play in the Survival playlist, the Glory system will accelerate you to the rank that corresponds to your skill rating. If your current rank is below where your skill rating says you should be, you’ll earn extra Glory based on the criteria above so you can get to your expected rank faster and lose less Glory so you don’t fall farther away. Once you reach your “expected” rank, Glory gains and losses will normalize.

Meanwhile, your skill rating is continually adjusting based on your performance, shifting the system’s understanding of your “expected” rank, and causing the Glory system to respond by pulling you toward that rank. The result should be that over time, your Glory rank will become an accurate reflection of your skill. It also means that teammates of different skill will experience different Glory adjustments from the same Survival match.

When it comes to Crucible, matchmaking and hopper nodes are only half of the puzzle. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be detailing Sandbox changes, which directly impact the meta that you’d find in our PvP environment.

SHADOWKEEP SANDBOX UPDATE: ABILITIES

As Destiny 2 continues to evolve with the upcoming release of Shadowkeep, many of the tools in your space magic toolbox are receiving a tuning pass. This week, we’ll be focusing on subclass changes, as the list is fairly hefty. Below, we’ve paired developer commentary with upcoming patch notes to paint a picture of how your abilities are being updated—and, more importantly, why.

Buffs

Nightstalker Way of the Pathfinder (Bottom)

Goal: We want to lean into the fantasy of a speedy disruptor. Pathfinders need more tools to scout the battlefield and a skill based way to engage with that gameplay more often. We should reward this scouting and battlefield control gameplay, executed well, with more opportunities to do the same. At the same time shadow shot needed some quality of life improvements for long standing frustrations.

Vanish: Smoke bomb grants invisibility to allies

Gives 1 stack of Heart of the Pack (newly revamped) to all allies hit

Grants +34 to armor, recovery, and agility

Gives weapon reload speed and handling

Max 3 stacks

Increased invisibility duration from 7 > 8 seconds.

Provision: Killing tethered enemies creates super orbs and increases agility, armor, and recovery for allies

New Perk (old perk benefits moved to be part of Mobius Quiver)

Damaging enemies with your grenades reduces the cooldown of your smoke bomb (6% per damage tick)

Making allies invis gives you grenade energy (17.5% per ally)

Moebius Quiver: Fire super multiple times and deals massive damage to tethered targets

Added the old Provision perk to naturally be part of Mobius Quiver

Killing tethered enemies creates super orbs and grants stacks of Heart of the Pack for allies

Expanded the range of Heart of the Pack from 20 > 30 meters.

Shadowshot Super (Top and Bottom path)

Damage increased from 150 > 250

One shot kill in PvP

Improved tether accuracy near obstacles

Suppress on hit is more consistent

Sentinel Code of the Protector (Top)

Goal: This path is the main support role for Titans and focuses heavily on melee kills while staying near allies. We want to focus more heavily on buffing allies so that players care about the timing of their buff usage. With a loop which allows players to get their melee energy back more quickly this will be a more engaging path to play. Additionally, Ward of Dawn is currently not up to snuff, and needs a buff that ties in to the fantasy of buffing allies.

Defensive Strike: Melee ability that creates an overshield for nearby allies

All kills while the overshield is active grant melee energy for the player with the shield (works for all allies you grant a shield to)

This is based upon enemy threat level from 5% (minors) to 25% (players and bosses)

Rallying Force: Melee kills heal nearby allies

Heal buffed from 10 health and 10 shields to 10 health and 20 shields (50% increase)

Ward of Dawn: Alternate super that creates a shield bubble

Increase ward health versus supers

Most supers will require the whole thing to be dumped on the ward to destroy it but will (usually) not kill the players inside.

Ward grants weapons of light buff when passing through it (35% weapon damage for 15 seconds)

Grants an additional super orb (3)

Auto-generated orbs now grant the same amount of super energy as regular super orbs (previously the orbs gave less super energy on par with masterwork orbs)

Sentinel Code of the Aggressor (Bottom)

Shield Bash: Shoulder charge that disorients nearby enemies

Now suppresses the target hit and any enemy within 2 meters (have to be basically right next to them)

Voidwalker Attunement of Hunger (Bottom)

Vortex: Nova Bomb leaves behind a damaging AoE pool

Initial explosion damage increased 15%

Lingering damage increased 15%

Dawnblade Attunement of Grace

Well of Radiance: Alternate super that creates a healing/buffing field for allies

Grants an additional super orb (3)

Auto-generated orbs now grant the same amount of super energy as regular super orbs (previously the orbs gave less super energy on par with masterwork orbs)

Nerfs

Nightstalker Way of the Trapper (Top)

Shadowshot: Fires an arrow that damages enemies and debuffs enemies nearby

Damage sharing for the Nightstalker player specifically reduced from 100% to 50%

Now all allied players have 50% damage sharing on tether

Nightstalker Way of the Wraith (Middle)

Flawless Execution: Headshot kills while crouched grant invisibility and truesight

Truesight now lasts 3 seconds (down from 9)

Shattering Strike:

After performing a Flawless Execution, your melee attacks have a longer lunge range and weaken enemies

Advanced warning: When we made the change to Flawless Execution this also unintentionally nerfed this ability to only last 3 seconds (it was directly tied to the truesight). We have prepared a fix for the 4.6.1 patch to restore the weaken and lunge range increase to last the entire 9 seconds regardless of truesight and invisibility status.

Instant Reloading

Goal: In the beginning, Lunafactions and Rally Barricade did exist, but they were clunky to use. They still had dramatic impact on gameplay even in that state, but eventually we decided to make their effects easier to handle. The problems they introduced always existed in the game, but over time these have become magnified due to new abilities, perks, and weapons introduced into the Destiny 2 sandbox. The impact of something that takes all reloading out of the equation means that other perks or effects like the Hunter’s Marksman Dodge or the Sealed Ahamkara’s Grasps can simply fall to the wayside – Even swords take a hit in comparison, being one of the few weapons that naturally never needs to reload.

Reloading is one of those mechanics that are simple, but have wide ranging consequences. Because the effect on gameplay of removing reloading is inversely proportional to the size of your weapon’s magazine and how slow your general reload animations are, weapons like Rocket Launchers and Shotguns can benefit greatly compared to other weapons. This, alongside the increase in general access to damage bonus effects like Well of Radiance left us with the decision to remove this effect from these two sources, as they were causing things to quickly snowball out of control.

Titan Rally Barricade

This ability now provides a large increase to reload speed for the duration of the effect

This ability no longer automatically reloads your weapons from reserves

Warlock Rift/Well of Radiance

Lunafaction Boots now provides a large increase to reload speed for the duration of Well of Radiance

This exotic no longer automatically reloads your weapons from reserves

Super Energy Regeneration

Goal:

These changes will reduce the speed with which players are able to earn their super which supports difficulty and reduces the current ability to trivialize certain content through excessively chaining supers. Systemically, we want to reduce base sources of supers on a large macro scale without diminishing the feeling that your actions are gaining you a worthwhile energy boost. By reducing the speed at which you gain super we can make mods and perks feel more worthwhile. We still want it to feel like you can make meaningful progress not only through normal play but by augmenting super energy through teamwork, class choices, gear, and skillful play.

New Energy Granted by Super Orbs:

Super Orb: 7.143% (50% reduction)

Masterwork Orb: 2.5% (50% reduction)

Kills: (25% reduction)

Minor: 0.6%

Elite: 0.96%

Mini-boss: 1.8%

Boss: 3%

Player: 3%

Assists: (25% reduction)

Minor: 0.3%

Elite: 0.48%

Mini-boss: 0.9%

Boss: 1.5%

Player: 1.5%

Damage Multipliers

Goal: At Destiny 2 launch, damage buffs were fairly sparse – There was Empowering Rift for a small increase, and you could combine it with a weakening effect such as Hammer Strike, but very little else. As time has gone on, we introduced Well of Radiance, Weapons of Light, Guiding Flame, Frontal Assault, etc, and combining these effects has resulted in player damage output far beyond what was previously available. Even with just a small amount of them, a player can go from 1x damage to 3x and beyond, causing there to be an extremely large gap between standard player output and theoretical output. By preventing the larger effects from stacking, we are able to keep each of them around without having to do something in response like raise boss health to compensate for these tactics, as well as create more of them. As an example, Lumina would not have been created in world where the damage bonus effect of Noble Rounds stacked with other damage effects, and these changes are simply an extension along those same lines.

While the weakening effects never stacked, we also took a look at them and adjusted their values as many of our more powerful units would simply evaporate when touched by one of them, but we compensated for that in other ways, such as either extending the duration of the effect or in the case of Shadowshot, making it affect power weapons.

Player Damage Buffs

Player Bonuses

Bonus damage effects that apply to all of a player's weapons simultaneously no longer stack multiplicatively. The highest applicable bonus will be used instead.

This does not affect single weapon buffs such as Rampage, Kill Clip, or exotic weapons that increase their own damage. These will still stack multiplicatively.

Buffs that provide bonus damage will still exist simultaneously on the player, so in the event that the one with the highest multiplier wears off the next highest will be used instead.

This change affects the following weapons/abilities (Empowering Rift, Frontal Assault, Guiding Flame, Sun Warrior, Inertia Override, Well of Radiance, Lumina/Noble Rounds, Weapons of Light)

Notable exceptions: Vengeance (One Eyed Mask)

Frontal Assault

Bonus damage is now +20% (Previously +25%)

Sun Warrior

Bonus damage is now +20% (Previously +25%)

Well of Radiance

Bonus damage is now +25% (Previously +35%)

Weapons of Light

Bonus damage is now +35% (Previously +25%)

Enemy Debuffs (Weakened)

Shadowshot

Incoming PvE damage is now +30% (Previously +35%)

Incoming PvP damage is now +50% (Previously +55%)

This effect no longer excludes power weapons

Tractor Cannon (Repulsor Force)

Incoming PvE damage is now +30% for all elements (Previously +33%/50% for Non-Void/Void damage respectively)

Incoming PvP damage is now +50% for all elements (Previously +33%/50% for Non-Void/Void damage respectively)

Hammer Strike

Incoming PvE damage is now +30% (Previously +50%)

Duration increased from 6 to 10 seconds in PvE

Shattering Strike

Incoming PvE damage is now +30% (Previously +50%)

Duration increased from 6 to 10 seconds in PvE

Reduced Super Damage Resistance

Goal: Since the launch of Destiny 2 we have slowly introduced buffs to supers, especially roaming supers. While we believe supers should be powerful they should not be mindless. We want supers to be more risky in both PvE and PvP. We want players to think about positioning and timing more. Not so long ago we experimented with Spectral Blades by lowering the damage resistance substantially. These changes were generally well received and improved the experience of the super for both the person running it and the person who was running from it. In PvE players shouldn’t feel like their super makes them invulnerable and casting one should call for situational strategic thinking. In PvP players need to feel like they can challenge a super and that with skillful play there’s a chance they can beat it.

Super Damage Resistance removed from masterwork armor

Inherent Super Damage Resistance lowered by category (see below)

Low- 54% → 49%

Nova Fission

Thunder Crash

Blade Barrage

Nova Bomb

Well of Radiance

Medium - 56% → 51%

Hammer of Sol

Daybreak

High - 60% → 53%

Fist of Havok

Burning Maul

Sentinel Shield

Arc Staff

Arc Lightning

Shadowshot

Other (unchanged)

Spectral Blades - 52% / 54.4%

Golden Gun - 0%

Chaos Reach - 40%

Next week, we’ll be taking a look at how your arsenal of weaponry will be changing.

=======

ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION

Over the weekend, we were boots on the ground at PAX West. A few attendees helped themselves to a preview of some upcoming armor coming in Shadowkeep. This week, we’d like to showcase more upcoming sets, giving you a fashion show of sorts. Here are the fall collections, arranged by their sources.

Dreambane Armor Set Acquired from activities on the Moon.

Garden of Salvation Raid Armor Set Acquired from the Garden of Salvation raid.

Substitutional Armor Set Acquired from Seasonal activities, free Season Rank rewards, and premium Season Rank rewards.

Phenotype Plasticity Universal Ornament Set Acquired from premium Season Rank rewards.

Iron Will Armor Set Acquired from participating in Iron Banner.

Empyrean Cartographer Universal Ornament Set Acquired from the Eververse store.

In addition to all this, the currently available armor sets will drop as Armor 2.0 versions when Shadowkeep launches.

Armor 2.0: Reprisals

Crucible: Year 1

Includes Year 1 ornaments

Vanguard: Year 1

Includes Year 1 ornaments

Black Armory

Forge

Gambit

Gambit: Forsaken

Gambit Prime: Season of the Drifter

Menagerie

All Menagerie armor

Raids

Leviathan

Eater of Worlds

Spire of Stars

Last Wish

Scourge of the Past

Crown of Sorrow

Destinations

European Dead Zone

Titan

Nessus

Mercury

Mars (Vendor and Escalation Protocol)

Tangled Shore

Dreaming City

There will also be additional world drops that can be found in Legendary engrams which have been updated to Armor 2.0.

DEPLOYMENT COMPLETE

Destiny 2 Update 2.5.2.2 is live, and players have flooded Reckoning for increased chances on their desired weaponry.

Destiny Player Support has kept a finger on the pulse of this update, looking for any missing pieces that may have fallen off the ship during its journey.

This is their report.

Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.5.2.2

This week, we deployed Hotfix 2.5.2.2 to Destiny 2. This hotfix made several targeted quality-of-life improvements to the Destiny 2 experience, including changes to the quests for the Wendigo GL3 and The Mountaintop pinnacle Grenade Launchers.

For the full list of changes made in 2.5.2.2, please see our Destiny 2 Update 2.5.2.2 page. Players who have observed issues after the deployment of this hotfix should report them to the #Help forum.

REMINDER: Moments of Triumph End Date is September 17

With Shadowkeep fast approaching, we’d like to take this opportunity to remind players that Moments of Triumph ends at the weekly reset on Tuesday, September 17.

At that time, the 2019 Moments of Triumph and the MMXIX Seal will no longer be available to players who have not completed them.

PC Silver Purchases—Log In to Claim by October 1

In preparation for the upcoming Destiny 2 PC migration to Steam, this week all Destiny 2 game and Silver product listings were disabled for purchase on Battle.net.

Players should be aware, however, that all in order for recent Silver purchases to successfully transfer to Steam, players MUST log in to Destiny 2 on Battle.net before October 1 to claim their purchased Silver.

The option to purchase Silver will be re-enabled on Steam on October 1 when Shadowkeep launches. For more information on the move to Steam, please visit our PC Move page.

Cross Save Issues

We are aware that some players have entered an undesirable Cross Save state due to Silver purchases on their account prior to the launch of Cross Save. To help mitigate these and other player issues, we have created a Cross Save Contact Form. All tickets regarding Cross Save issues will be addressed at the discretion of Destiny Player Support during regular business hours.

#Destiny #Destiny 2 #Destiny 2: Forsaken #Bungie Weekly Update #long post #Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

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anniebattiebats · 5 years

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hi im annie and today i’ll be gushing over the greatest game ever made

sonic adventure 2

THE CHARACTERS! OH MY GOD THE CHARACTERS!

everyone was so in-character in this game! Sonic was himself, and was perfectly cocky in this game. In later games, he says the most unnecessary shit nsjsnjdn but this Sonic feels genuinely witty and cocky.

Tails is bettering himself to become stronger and braver than before, which is BETTER THAN WHAT THE MAIN GAMES DO (COUGHCOUGHSONICFORCES) even Sonic Adventure did a better job at this!

Knuckles is all about the Master Emerald - THANK GOD - which is what I prefer instead of him leaving his island to do God knows what. And he sounds more level-headed and calm here, which I prefer too.

Rouge is amazing and I love how smooth she is and Shadow is so relatable when it comes to forgiving others. Not only that, he was brooding, but not too much. He was melodramatic and energetic, which is something I love about him. He just felt more lively than what we have now.

And Eggman. Omfg Eggman. I love Eggman in this game SO! MUCH! He has the perfect menacing voice and he has his mind of offing Sonic and the world. He held Amy at gun point TWICE! And, for once, he didn’t bring out some otherworldly entity on purpose this time. The Biolizard was an accident.

wait, Amy? She was just there, I’m not gonna lie. But she did help Shadow accept how good humans can be.

THE STORY

It’s straight ass :> but I love it so much. It’s so wild and energetic. It’s meme worthy. It really grabbed my attention as goofy and broken as it was. Eggman blew up a fucking MOON! And there was so much at stake besides that! The ARK was gonna crash into the Earth! A FUCKING ISLAND BLEW UP! it’s like michael bay directed it but it’s actually entertaining. to me at least.

i feel like the whole story focuses on forgiveness and learning from your mistakes, since shadow is the central character of this game. he grows from being a vengeful, hellbent hedgehog to an understanding, noble one, risking his life to protect humans, the one species he hated.

at the same time the way they tell this story is like sonic pointing a gun at you and going “live and learn, bitch” because shadow (supposedly) DIES after he stopped the ARK from crashing. it’s basically saying “learn from your mistakes or die”

or if I have to use it, die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain

it was worth it.

THE GAMEPLAY

it’s annoying as fuck BUT once you get used to it, things are alright... i guess. the game’s hard imo. i was STRUGGLING with the last story of this game. i keep getting an E on Final Rush! Crazy Gadget called me a slur!! MAD SPACE MADE ME DEAD INSIDE! Aside from that, I enjoy the way the characters work. You take your time as Tails, you quickly find emerald pieces by maneuvering around the map as Knuckles, and you have a high speed track to go through as Sonic. I enjoy all gameplay styles, I’m just not used to the difficulty curve the game puts you through. But, I did find the game surprisingly easier to play than something like Sonic Heroes. The characters are super slippery in that game.

There’s also this thing where each stage has it’s own gimmick. Metal Harbor’s gimmick for difficulty and challenge was beating the clock to get to the tip of the rocket. I pulled it off plenty of times and I was relaxed enough to do it, and it makes me wonder why someone would have a hard time with it. I GET WHY BECAUSE I DID TOO, but I practiced enough to understand how to maneuver Sonic around to get to the rocket. I know, I’m amazing uvu (Final Rush can kiss my ass though). The gimmicks kept me on my toes and I honestly appreciate that. it made each stage feel different, which is a really good thing!

OH YEAH, you can PLAY as Eggman this time. LEGENDARY! AND his stages are more relaxing to go through than Tails’... which makes no sense. Imo the hero story should be the easy mode while dark is the hard mode, but Eggman’s stages say otherwise. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ At least they’re fun. And the music is GREAT in his stages. I love Lost Colony’s music so much!

OH EYAH ABOUT THAT

THE MUSIC

I FUCKING LOVE ROCK! Besides some rap, I enjoy rock a LOT! While there may be TOO much rock in this game compared to Adventure where you had all kinds of genres fitting each setting, I enjoy every piece of music here. I sing to City Escape when I play it because it’s that much of a rush and it’s so catchy! And it matches the stage so well!

Knuckles’ SA2 version of his song is amazing because it sounds like hip hop, and the lyrics dive deeper into his character. I wish the other themes did this but sadly, they didn’t.

Is this the way? The path I chose? Then why am I living with my heart so cold?

Hunnid P just. Gets it.

At least Eggman’s theme is a MANIACAL BANGER!

VOICE ACTING

While some characters sound like they’re reading off a damn script (looking at you Tails and Amy) I prefer these voices over the other ones in later games. Mainly because, the way I see it, since the Sonic characters never age, their voices don’t need to change.

Ryan Drummond makes Sonic sound so young, free, and energetic! I like that about Sonic! And while he’s also the type to relax, his speed along with his wit just matches with his energetic side so well.

Jennifer’s voice (if I ignore that she sounds like she’s reading from a script) is actually pretty nice.

And I ADMIRE Scott Dreier’s work for Knuckles in this game SO MUCH! He still sounds like a teen yet he sounds mature and level-headed, it’s amazing!

Eggman’s voice by Deem Bristow is AMAZING. Every line oozes with creepy and unsettling! He’s EVIL, he’s SET ON RULING THE WORLD. Why shouldn’t he have this voice?

David Humphrey’s work for Shadow is too good for my ears and fits him so well. He was the perfect choice to capture Shadow’s melodramatic nature.

Rouge’s voice is surprisingly sweet to listen to. It makes her older voice in later games sound... exaggerated? Like they exaggerate how SMOOTH she is. Idk. This voice has a perfect balance of smooth and immature, and trust me, Rouge really is immature.

THE CHAO GARDEN

Y’all know this was coming. The chao garden instantly makes the game better. It just does. It’s a nice relaxing mode people can go to since the rest of the game is so CRAZY. Ever since I played SA2, I appreciate the chao so much and I think about them often. It cheers me up ;v; and it’s rewarding to be cuddled by the chao after you take care of them so much.

I will never get the “Hiiii” out of my head, not even if I died.

IN CONCLUSION

SEGA is ass for not making an Adventure 3 where these guys are playable again, but at least we have Adventure 2 to fall back on. The game really is dated, but I have so much fun with it, genuinely! It solidified my reason on why I’m a Sonic fan. SA2 keeps that Sonic charm that other games lack. It’s cool! It’s edgy! It’s energetic and wild! That’s how Sonic games should be imo, even if a game has multiple plot holes.

I used to talk shit about this game. And this was around the time I never even played it, and just watched some youtuber rant about it. Now? I can enjoy it despite someone who can’t. I KNOW I can get to the tip of the rocket in Metal Harbor! I KNOW I can hit King Boom Boo twice! I KNOW I can get through Eternal Engine without dying (but I haven’t... DON”T JUDGE ME) the game makes me wanna do better (kind of, one time I tried to get an A rank ona a stage and died then gave up, I had enough. I’m tired. I’M TIRED-) to get A ranks across the board. Since Knuckles’ gameplay is my favorite, getting A’s in his stages is super easy.

I can’t gush about this game enough. I love everything about it, even if some parts frustrate me to no end. I’m really happy I have a game to fall back on and appreciate whenever I play it. It’ll always mean a lot to me.

That being said, the game’s $9.99 on PC, Xbox One, and PS3 so feel free to try it out if you can! If you can’t enjoy it, I can’t blame you. There are many more sonic games to fall back on for you :>

if you read all of this... thank you??? omfg im surprised someone cared enough to finish this. why??? why did you finish this??? DO BETTER! jk, thank you ; v;

#annie the annoying #long post #tagging long post for mobile users #im ESTATIC #IM IN LOVE #IM SA2'S BITCH #one time it punched me in the face. *music stops* it was awesome

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pixelpoppers · 6 years

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Early Thoughts on Google Stadia

Google has announced that they are creating a streaming games platform called Stadia. The idea is you won't need a console or even necessarily a controller if you already have a compatible one (and most modern console controllers appear to be compatible). You'll be able to play games right in a browser on your TV/phone/tablet/PC via streaming. No extra download/installation required. Basically, it's Netflix, except instead of streaming movies or TV, you're streaming a video game and streaming back your controller inputs.

It's worth noting that very little consumer-useful information is available yet. Nothing about how pricing will work (all-you-can-eat subscription like Netflix? rent games like the original PlayStation Now model? ad-based like YouTube? some combo?) or how expensive it'll be. They're also advertising it as capable of doing 4k video at 60fps - which would require an amount of bandwidth that's implausibly high for most people's internet connections.

But they have some big names on board - Doom Eternal and Assassin's Creed Odyssey are confirmed for the service, and they've got Jade Raymond (creator of Assassin's Creed) heading their in-house development studio where they will be developing first-party (probably exclusive?) titles.

This is far from the first attempt to create and popularize a game streaming service. Most of them have failed, and the common cause is that we just aren't there yet from a tech and infrastructure standpoint. I mentioned how most people's internet connections aren't good enough to stream 4k video at 60fps, but even if you reduce those numbers it's kind of crazy. Something like YouTube or Netflix has the benefit of being able to buffer video and thus ride out blips in the traffic - a game that needs to constantly react to your inputs doesn't have that luxury. While Google is one of the best-positioned companies to overcome these kinds of barriers, there's only so much they can do. I find it unlikely that even Stadia will be a consistently good playing experience for most people any time soon. (But as we'll get to soon, that might not matter.)

It's my opinion that the reason so many companies have tried to make game streaming work despite the challenges is because it could be a really lucrative approach if it pays off. I touched on this in my most recent article but the more the publisher controls the game experience, the more money they can milk from it. I didn't mention there that it also increases the analytics they can pull from it - think of something like the YouTube recommendation algorithm being applied to game design, fueled by every single input the player makes over the course of entire games.

As also discussed in my article, I generally think the relocation of control from player to publisher is a bad thing. It worsens the game experience, it reduces ownership, and it makes preservation more difficult. Games preservation is already a very difficult proposition; streamed games become basically impossible to preserve. I've been dreading the day that streaming is viable enough to take over the AAA space.

This is going way out there into wild speculation, but the name Stadia implies a focus on spectating, such as for esports or livestreamers. Twitch/YouTube/Amazon/etc. are already competing in this space. Any game played via Stadia will probably be best (and maybe only) spectatable via Stadia. It's pretty easy on Google's end to just also send the video/audio to other clients - and not have to wait on inputs sent back. Which means for spectators it's basically YouTube, and we're back to being able to buffer around connection dips if we have a few-seconds delay, which is already normal for streaming. Thus it's plausible that the near-term business model is for high-profile streamers or tournament organizers to have good setups for playing via Stadia, and everyone else just needs normal-ish connections to be able to spectate. In which case it doesn't matter if most people's internet isn't good enough to get the most use out of Stadia yet. Presumably in this case there would be built-in ways to subscribe/support individual streamers or pay to watch tournaments, and surely Google would take a cut. No esports-friendly games like that have yet been announced for Stadia, but this is very early days. They may not want to tip their hand just yet.

On the other hand, if there are exclusives on Stadia that I care about, I appreciate that I'll be able to try them without buying a console. There are a couple Xbox One-only games I want to play, but not enough to justify buying one, so I'm unlikely to ever play them.

#gaming #video games #google stadia #streaming

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