gamerguideclub

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WWE 2K22 & Destiny 2 - Witch Queen DLC

Hey gang, 

Been a minute (or a couple of years if you’re really keeping count) since I’ve remembered to update the blog, but we’re still going strong on Twitch.tv/GamerGuideDotNet and lately -- have been rocking the new Destiny 2 expansion -- The Witch Queen.

I’ve been main-ing my Warlock and also running my Titan also so I don’t get too far ahead of things with just one character. This time out, Bungie is firing at full capacity with the addition of the new Glaive weapon, which is upgradable on a newly returned Mars locale. I’m selfishly hoping Mars makes a full return in the coming months, because the firefights there were always incredible, especially in regard to all of the Warmind lore that came from that location. I’m thinking with the uptick in information about the next big DLC in their storylines that with the heavy focus on Warmind/Rasputin that we’ll see the full red planet return either this year or early next year. 

Gameplay-wise, the new addition of the Glaive, a long staff weapon with firing and shield capabilities -- the re-imagining of Void powers as Void 2.0, giving you incredible detail in how your Void powers work for you with fragments and aspects (a familiar power detail to Stasis users from the previous Beyond Light D2 update) and the lush and eerily beautiful landscapes and level design on Savathun’s Throne World -- are all incredible. 

Now, some of the new elements, namely forging new weapons in the new addition on Mars are very grind-heavy. You’re going to have to put a lot of work in, and not necessarily on *fun* things, either -- to get the elements you need to upgrade your new customizable weapons to their full potential. 

One of my favorite new ideations in D2 is “Deep Sight” which allows your Guardian to see things that aren’t visible to the naked eye. This include statues pointing you in directions you need to go, footsteps and claw marks that indicate where to climb or descend and in some cases, huge sigils and platforms to mark importance or to get you to places you couldn’t normally. It’s a fun power, and the only setback is some of the visualizations are hard to make out with the vaseline lens effect they evoke during some instances of using Deep Sight. 

I look forward to seeing where D2 goes next, and think the great majority of new items in the game are well worth the price of admission. 

One thing, however, and I know this will be controversial -- I don’t like the changes to Gambit. Where before you could really focus on taking out the Primevil and their brood in one locale, they’re now spread ALL over the map -- making unified teamwork nearly impossible when the great majority of players aren’t playing with their mics on. You have to have a dedicated (or good) fireteam to really knock things out. The Bungie 30th Anniversary pack, which came out in late 2021, brought Xur and Starhorse’s new farcical game show Dares of Eternity to the game -- and while it’s a grind, it also gives you a ton of baddies to unload into making bounties a breeze. The squeezing of all those enemies in one spot is ideal for huge take downs and is what I loved so much about Gambit’s Primevil fights in the past. 

I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but right now -- not my favorite! 

I love the direction Destiny 2 is going and can only hope it gets bigger, better, and maybe one day -- I’ll actually be good at it. 

I play Destiny 2 on PC and if you were want to team up and take out some bad guys -- come find me on there at matt.barnette#7979 on Destiny 2 Crossplay!

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WWE 2K22:

I received a copy of WWE 2K22 from 2K in the form of the nWo Special Collector’s Edition. This version gives you nWo versions of Hollywood Hogan, Syxx, Kevin Nash, a playable Eric Bischoff, and the late great Scott Hall. It also rewards you with the nWo Wolfpac World Heavyweight Championship and the nWo Souled Out and WCW Bash at the Beach PPV arenas. 

That being said -- I’m glad I got a code for it, because I don’t think that the edition of those characters, especially when -- Hulk Hogan, Diesel, Razor Ramon and X-Pac are already in the game -- with the edition of a few arenas that other people could probably make in the Created Content modes are worth the extra money. The base game is 59.99 - The Deluxe edition is 79.99 and the nWo edition is 119 bucks! You also get the season pass for DLC (an additional 28 wrestlers, apparently) and you get multiple versions of newly minted WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker.)

There’s also some stuff for the card-based WWE MyFaction game mode, but from what I’ve played of it thus far -- I do *not* enjoy it.  Being nickled and dimed and having more wrestlers behind a paywall, or only available in one mode is terrible and sets a precedent where no one but the most dedicated, and those blessed with disposable income -- will be able to fully play with everyone in everything on the game, and that’s just a sad look at the state of affairs for gaming in general. 

Having said that, WWE 2K22 is NOT on the level yet of killing you with micro-transactions in the vein of NBA 2K’s series -- which are nearly unplayable to me anymore. But if they keep scaling up what they’re doing now -- man, I don’t know how many people will stick around, especially with AEW*’s game on the horizon in the next year or two. 

So far, main game-wise -- the graphics are incredible and the gameplay is different, but still very good. And after releasing over 80 “Superstars” from their rosters -- the game still has a sizeable and impressive roster of folks who are both still employed by WWE and those that got cut and are either tearing up the indies, or have moved onto Tony Khan’s powerhouse wrestling alternative AEW. (*In the interest of fairness and honesty -- I have been paid by AEW in the past to do Motion Graphics and Design on a couple video pieces -- but that doesn’t tarnish my feelings about this WWE game in anyway. But I wanted to put that out there in case anyone wants to point at anything negative I say as being biased.)

That being said, MyFaction suuuuuuuuuuuucks. It’s the nickle and dime microtransaction nightmare we always thought any game under 2K could be and now it’s hit the game that had fortunately, to this point, had avoided such money-grubbing minutiae.

Big picture -- I think WWE 2K22 is definitely GETTING THERE...and with the addition of the much-hoped for GM Mode, the Rey Mysterio Showcase (which is short, but fun -- ironically), the fantastic MyRise (Story mode) and a lot of the new additions to the game -- including the Thunderdome (can’t we get beyond thunderdome?!) -- WWE’s 2K games have set a new platform on which to build a bigger, better game every year for the foreseeable future and I, for one, hope that the atrocity that was WWE2K20 will be a long forgotten bad memory in the near future. 

WWE 2K22 is out now on Playstation (4&5), XBOX (1, Series X & Series S) and PC. 

[gamerguideclub]

Guitar Guide! Phred Instrument’s Founder Freddy Rose Interview!

Tell the readers who you are and how you got into the guitar business.

I’m Freddy Rose and I got into the guitar business in 2010. Before getting into the guitar business, I had co-founded a business named PCAudioLabs, and we built high-performance Windows based computers for musicians to record and produce music. This business brought me around many performing musicians and creative and talented individuals working in all parts of the music industry. As a guitar player, I was simply looking around for an affordable hollow body electric guitar with a 25.5” scale length, however, most of the hollow body guitars had a 24¾” scale or 25” scale. I did some searching around and discovered a few boutique luthiers whowere making hollow body electric guitars, and then happened to be introduced to someone who managed a guitar factory overseas who was also interested in building this style of guitar. The idea to start another business was really just an idea that slowly grew into something that also became like a business.

What was your musical background?  

I took piano lessons every week when I was 5 years old. I was learning classical pieces of music, mainly Mozart and Beethoven. I never learned how to read and play music at the same time, but I could read music at a basic level and mostly played by ear. When I was 11 years old, I stopped taking lessons because my piano teacher retired and stopped teaching, and so I sort of retired from the piano at the same time. It wasn’t until I was about 17 years old that I wanted to play electric guitar with the goal of learning how to play like Jimi Hendrix. I took lessons for a couple years from an incredible guitar player, instructor, and Berkelee graduate, John Mizenko, and learned to play Little Wing and Hey Joe.

At the end of high school, I started listening to the Grateful Dead more regularly and got into Jerry Garcia’s guitar playing. I saw my first JGB show the summer after graduating high school, and after that I was fortunate to see some Dead shows. I played in a rock band for about 5 years and we performed at coffee, houses, house parties, and various clubs along the Sunset strip, in Santa Monica and in the San Fernando Valley. In college, I minored in music technology and majored in psychology. One of my favorite classes was the psychology of sound and music perception taught by Diana Deutsch, a prominent researcher on the psychology of music.

What made the proclivity towards jam band tributes your thing with your business?

It just developed along with the music that I listen to.

Who do you like better?  The Dead or Phish?

When I think about the answer to this question, I imagine a scenario where both bands are playing on the same day at the same time. I would have the biggest dilemma of having to make a choice of which one to go see. At home and in the car, I have a Pandora station that plays both bands and other similar styles of music. I have many live soundboard recordings of both bands that I listen to as well. I can’t really say which I like better. I like them both.

Where do you see Phred Instruments in the next five years? Are you going to keep coming up with new designs or just try and evolve the current models into more and more refined pieces?  

There will hopefully, and probably, be a little bit of both. Also, there is another goal that within the next 5 years we can reach a point where we have more guitars in stock that are ready to ship within 1-2 weeks. Perhaps there will be more made in the USA models if the logistics for that work their way into the 5-year plan.

With the addition of a CNC machine into your wheelhouse, is there any chance you'd go the EGC (Kevin Burkett's Electrical Guitar Company) route and perhaps do a aluminum neck tribute to Jerry's Travis Bean guitar at some point?

The CNC will mostly be utilized for making the small parts, such as brass pickup mounting plates. There are no plans to make aluminum neck guitars.

What do you think the coolest/most interesting thing is that Phred brings to the guitar world that makes them worth someone taking a look at?

Our Ernesto VH3 model is perhaps our most interesting design. It’s a hollow body guitar, but it doesn’t necessarily have a traditional hollow body tone. When people play the Ernesto VH3, they comment on how bright it sounds, which is traditionally not a description of a hollow body electric guitar. The Ernesto VH3 also features an on board effects loop (OBEL), similar to what Jerry Garcia had in his guitars, allowing the full signal from the pickups to go to the effects and back into the guitar for post-effect volume adjustment. When guitar players try this out for the first time, they comment on how their effects sound more alive and active. These features aren’t necessarily unique, but we’re perhaps the first to implement them into a guitar with a price tag that’s under $1,000.

Where does Phred go next?

We’re working on a couple of things that will be released later in the year that aren’t actually guitars. One of them is a stopbar tailpiece design that can be a drop-in replacement for a standard stopbar tailpiece. The other is a junction box made specifically for our OBEL equipped guitars. In addition to that, we’ve got a couple of new guitar models also in the works that will become available sometime in 2017.

I wanna thank Freddy again for hooking us up with this interview AND the guitar that is so awesome that there’s been a few times I open the door to the guitar room and just sorta look longingly at it.  *sigh* For info on Freddy’s designs go to Phred Instruments DOT COM!

[gamerguideclub]

Photos from ze best of Gamer Guide

We’re getting the Patreon set up so that Gamer Guide can be revived into its former glory so I’m postin’ some pics of the good ol days here so we can put them in the post!  What’s your favorite gamer guide moment?

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The Division and Hitman

I’ve had a few people ask when my reviews of Hitman and The Division are coming out and I’m holding back on reviewing them until all of the Hitman DLC is out and until the first DLC pack for The Division is out.  With games like The Division, you can’t really get a full sense of them until some time has passed and they’ve worked out bugs and let it sort of evolve into what it’s gonna really *be*

Short answer, though, I really loved The Division and really like where Hitman is going. I will have videos with much further, deeper examinations of their pros and cons once the above milestones happen.

[gamerguideclub]

It’s the Loot Crate “Quest” Unboxing from April 2016!  I got this late so I labeled it May by mistake, but whatever! I’ll just call the next one the second May unboxing and all will be right with the world. Or I can leave it like it is and the complete lack of people who are watching this will never notice because it’s like it never existed!  let me know what you think of this month’s Loot Crate!

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Uncharteeeeeeed 4! 

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This episode has it all!  The March 2016 Loot Crate (the theme is VS.!) and it also has a crazy special fx scene from Batman vs. Superman where we find the superhero who will always win is the one who disregards what company he works for and attacks with weapons they’re not supposed to have. Oh, Deadpool. Come see the cool stuff and I’ll do my best to answer....WHAT’S IN THE BOXXXXXX??????

[gamerguideclub]

Lootcrate’s LVL UP+ premium apparel is pretty cool!  See what’s in this month’s “VS” box!

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NERD BLOCK has many variations but this is the original recipe “classic” box. Check out the cool stuff that lives inside this four sided husk of nerdery!

[gamerguideclub]

The XGIMI Aurora Z4 is a bargain and a half. Coming from China, this diminutive dynamo can blow up your gaming or tv watching up twenty five feet wide!  That’s gigantic!  We’ll post some actual game play of The Divison and WWE 2k16 in the next few days. Needless to say, it transforms games into a much bigger feeling thing. It’s very cool.

Check out their Indiegogo and get on board with this while you can still get one really cheap! Time is running out!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/z4-aurora-the-entertainment-center-of-the-future--3#/

[gamerguideclub]

The Division comes out tomorrow!

Tomorrow, March 8th, the long-awaited release of Ubisoft's post-viral outbreak shooter The Division finally happens.

 Are you a part of the solution, or part of the problem?  This has a lot of the same earmarks that Destiny was supposed to have on launch, but it actually has them at launch.  The multiplayer is solid, and your friends and cohorts you have yet to meet can pop in and out of your game with the quickness.

The shooting is nimble and responsive and as you upgrade your guns, gear and status, you become a walking death sentence to those trying to lead NYC into a fear based looter's paradise.

Chad and I are going to be on Twitch sometime Monday or Tuesday and will be playing this, possibly with some friends who bring the thunder when it's shoot-em-up time.

Also, if you can grab a copy of the companion book, and you care about the backstory of the games you play, this one is REALLY well put together.

The Division, you won't be disappointed. Pick it up tomorrow at your local game store. If you ever want to play with us, Chad and I both have it Playstation 4.

[gamerguideclub]

It's the first Gamer Guide of 2016! Never mind the fact that it's February. I was hibernating. Anyway, this week we dive into Lego Dimensions - the new toys to life product from Lego. Now in the past I have gone on record adoring the Lego franchises -- but my opinion may be different this time. Then again, it might not. 50/50 shot here, folks. I do love Doctor Who thought, soooooo you'll just have to watch the review to see if all the stars align.

Also, I've included some terrible acting, bad effects and and an all new Gamer Guide set! So much value for your nothing!

Click subscribe today and I'll add more later. Probably.

WHERE'D YA GET THAT?: TARDIS provided by Joel at The Arkansas Innovation Hub! They do amazing things and then counter those things by doing stuff like letting me use their TARDIS. Check em out! http://www.arhub.org

Doctor Who's Sonic Screwdriver - this is actually a fully functioning heavy and metal sonic screwdriver that serves as a TV remote! It's incredible! It's made by The Wand Company out of England. They make amazing stuff. Head on over to http://www.thewandcompany.com for more details!

Original air-date: February 9, 2016

[gamerguideclub]

Halo and Call of Duty are two of the biggest shooters in the videogame business so I thought it only fair that I play them both at the same time, giving none of the proper amount of time to either. One is incredibly fun and one is super confusing.  They might be the same game!  Also, I regret this review because I lacked the time to properly make fun of Jeff Goldblum for being a magician in the DLC for Black Ops 3.  REGARDLESS, Halo Guy brings the funk on this quick and tasty serving of Gamer Guide with Matt Barnette.

WHERE'D YA GET THAT: Halo flak jacket from Musterbrand! They have lots of rad stuff and it's all game related. Go check them out at us.musterbrand.com!

Orignal air-date: December 8, 2015

[gamerguideclub]

Who doesn't love Star Wars?! 

Well, me, mostly, but I'm sure there are other people out there too who have never even seen Star Wars, like Abraham Lincoln and every King of England. Regardless! I get into the hype after I play Battlefront which is a super fun, great looking dive into what it's really like out there in the bantha...stuff.

WHERE'D YOU GET THAT: Kylo Ren costume from Rubie's Costumes, Lightsaber and Mask from The Disney Store. Toys from Thinkway Toys.

Thanks to our buddies from the 501 for dressin' up like Storm Troopers

Original air-date: November 24, 2015

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Gamer Guide typically doesn't fall for video game hype but we were on board the second we heard "PIP BOY EDITION" and Fallout 4 sure did deliver!  Sure, the Pip Boy was sort of cheapy plastic and our OnePlus One phone didn't fit into it, but it sure is a thing that is cool!  Anyway, the review of the actual game is why you're here and Matt has a LOT OF THOUGHTS about it. Survive the radiation and dive right in!

WHERE'D YOU GET THAT: Bake and Destroy Ramones Parody t-shirt at http://www.bakeanddestroy.net

Original air-date: November 10, 2015

[gamerguideclub]

If you think I'm looking good here, you're right! I've lost 30 pounds. Don't worry, I'll gain it back. But that's in the future. Today is all about history, as we take it back to industrial revolution era England and follow two siblings as they attempt to take over London from that dadgum Templars.  Syndicate is far better than last year's Unity, which is true of just about any game that isn't Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5. More details in the video!  Also, Until Dawn -- some are concerned it's just a Quick Time Event (QTE) extravaganza...and it IS -- but it's also the best horror movie you've been an active part in all year. We finish this out with a quick look at a criminally underrated zombie slasher called Dying Light. All that and more in today's episode of Gamer Guide!

WHERE'D YOU GET THAT: Hunger Hero t-shirt from the Arkansas Rice Depot at Ricedepot.org - Give today and help hungry school kids.

Original air-date: October 27, 2015

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Gamer Guide is mad this week. You'll see why in the video. One of these games is a cynical look at money and violence masqueraded as a "sport" and filled with sponsors, terrible physics and is a waste of money, plastic and the other game is Blood Bowl 2.

See Matt get visibly agitated, more than usual! --right here on Gamer Guide!

Original air-date: October 13, 2015