#(no i haven’t done the quests since like level 10. i still need 4 full moon sardines or whatever)

[scionshtola]

looking at the clock every two hours at work now like. i could be ocean fishing

[violetren]

My first theory for volume 9 while the second half of volume 8 is fresh in my mind!

Volume 9 is gonna be the therapy season, but in the most traumatic you'll need different therapy afterwards kind of way. Instead of paying a therapist they're all just be bargaining with the universe like "yo I've had this trauma for a while, and I'm feeling pretty done with it. Here you take it back and uhhh I'll take a new guilt complex. Maybe a fear of falling? IDK, fuck me up bro."

The foreshadow-y Alice in Wonderland-esque fairy tale Oscar told to himself/Oz while in captivity is my guide post here.

Aaaand this is gonna get long so! 10 ideas of shit that's gonna go down next volume beneath the readmore, each one about 1-2 paragraphs each.

In the fairy tale the girl runs away from her problems into a new land, but because she never learned from her problems they just followed after her. Yeah? So first--second? First discounting the volume therapy theme theory.

FIRST BIG THEORY: The girl from the fairy tale was real, and she used the Spear of Creation. And like Weiss and the crew, she was fucking smart about her wording. She offered up materials that'd last even after someone else inevitably used the staff. IDK what materials she woulda used. Maybe there's a story about a missing continent we just haven't heard of yet? Maybe the Brother of Light's pool, since Salem seens to have claimed the Brother of Darkness's one but no sign of BoL's these days. Maybe there is a reason the land beyond Menagerie is so uninhabitable beyond desert + grimm? idk. Point is, it's a thing that happened, and since Ambrosius can't destroy/directly kill she's still in her wonderland. For themes sake I'm gonna call her Alice from here on out.

So Alice made a pocket dimension to flee from her problems from.

SECOND BIG THEORY: Her problems were relic related. She needed to hide em, and hide herself from Salem. Tbh I'm not sure how into this one I am. Maybe she had other shit going and some version of Oz was like "hey you don't want to be here, I have some property that I don't want to be here, lets make this happen!" THE POINT IS, the little pocket realities the relics are in, are aalllllll places in her pocket reality. When the team said "hey Ambrosius just make the middle ground into one of these type places" that's what he did, cause that's how he do. What better way to make sure it works like those places than to be kinda connected to em?

THIRD BIG THEORY: Ambrosius was buds with Alice once upon a time, but knew staying in her pocket world ultimately drove her crazy. He knew his middle ground worked like the pocket dimensions because it touched em or something, so he gave a vague ass warning not to fall, because he knew where they'd fall to.

Back to the fairy tale. It's implied Alice was never able to leave/give up her wonderland because she never learned from her mistakes.

FOURTH BIG THEORY VERSION 1: RWBY + Jaune can't figure their way back to reality until they adress a major personal issue and break out of whatever cycle it's got them in. This one I feel is shaky because they all have such different issues and are in very different places with each of them, trying to do one big arc on em would be too much of a mess. Plus it doesn't account for saving any of the many civilians that may have survived the fall.

FOURTH BIG THEORY VERSION 2: nobody can leave until Alice either leaves, dies, OR is convinced to let them go. As we're following good kind people this means we watch the kids try to give someone else therapy that THEY need. RWBY+J work through their shit through variations & combinations of witnessing mirrors of their struggles in Alice/other wonderland inhabitants, and just having time and space to slow down and breathe whether they want it or not.

FIFTH BIG THEORY: Alice is the "antagonist" of the underworld because she is the obstacle to overcome.

What about Neo you may be asking. Well I want her to let go of the revenge schtick, or at least redirect it back onto Cinder thus calling a truce with Ruby. However it's more than likely she's gonna be on team keep Alice as an obstacle at least as long as it takes to kill Ruby, and so Neo will be the "real" Antagonist™ within wonderland.

SIXTH BIG THEORY: Neo because of her unwavering determination to enact revenge is gonna die this volume. She'll be the comparison against which RWBY+J will be measured. As they grow and get closer to leaving she'll become more wrapped up with whatever strange classic wonderland logic this pocket universe has. Potentially depending on how things go with helping Alice, Neo may just end up trading spots with her, and end up trapped while everyone else goes back. But dead or trapped, I have a sad feeling this could be our last volume with Neo. My only hope of her surviving at this point is that she like Emerald switches sides, and in doing so joins Winter as a Cinder foil. While Neo grows and lets go of revenge and thus survives, Cinder stays dedicated to her own desires for revenge and other self serving instincts ringing her own death toll for either the end of the volume, or maybe somewhere in vol.10.

SEVENTH BIG THEORY: Ruby is gonna be grieving and maybe even getting full on angry about being expected to fix everything just because she's the optimistic one. She shouldn't have to deal with this brand and advanced level of childhood stealing just because she wanted to do what was right and won(lost) a genetic lottery for magic powers type anger. Jaune is going to have SO MUCH GUILT to work through, mostly the survivors kind. The bees will be experiencing couples therapy, they've both been pretty solid about individual growth leading up to this, Underworld will be them learning what it means to them to be partners now that they are so different to who they were. Weiss is different. Weiss is at first gonna feel like she's there just because it was a way to really shove all the other Schnee's into their therapy arcs and gave RBY+J neutral presence to rely on. Weiss is gonna go in the most stable of the bunch. But then, slow boil style, she'll start to realise how fucked up basically her whole life has been, especially upon realising that her "good years" with her new family have been spent getting sucked into being the last line of defense against the apocalypse, but will be too busy helping the others, so at the end of the volume when everyone else is actually doing pretty good and refreshed for the fight against Salem she'll only just be beginning her breakdown.

EIGHTH BIG THEORY: All this therapy shit is gonna be mirrored back on Remnant by the others grieving the percieved loss of the hearts of the team. Both sides of these story are gonna deal with some heavy shit, but the Remnant side is gonna be the depressed side, at least as long as it takes for Oz to tell them maybe the other's aren't dead leading to desperate attempts to get the staff OR the make desperate attempts to get the relics back anyways and inadvertently find out from Ambrosius what is up. But anyways. Winter is gonna be dealing with survivors guilt and the loss of both her little sisters (friends are great but Penny was little sister zoned and it's a hill I am prepared to die on. good sisterly relationships are friendships too). Nora is gonna be doing her self discovery thing. Ren is gonna be building on his end of vol.8 developments. Oscar will continue his grappling with the merge stuff. Qrow and Willow might get forced into AA. Whitely is gonna learn his own definition of being a Schnee instead of what his dad taught him.

NINTH BIG THEORY (OR FOURTH VERSION 3): The other way they get out is QORN obtain and use the staff to bring them home, potentially by trading enemy lives for them.

BONUS CONSPIRACY THEORY: QORN if presented with needing to trade for their loved ones & lost civilians have a lightbulb moment and decide hey why not trap Salem in a pocket universe since that is a thing Ambrosius can make? Like, if this bitch hasn't budged on her not learning to appreaciate life and humanity or whatever (which I'n pretty sure is the other way to break her curse instead of stopping remnant from turning) then she's a prime candidate for shoving into a personal reality that you can only escape if you can face your problems long enough to break the cycle they have you in. It'd be really fucked up but I think it might actually be possible to run the place using her as her own material component. Like kill her over and over and redistribute the energy to make the pocket world, but because god given power + Ambrosius can't actually destroy she just reforms anyways. MIght take a few hundred thousand deaths but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Or use the BoD oasis/grimm pools to make a world that mirrored the one she chose to live in on Remnant really make it hard for her to break that cycle....

Anyways.

TENTH BIG THEORY: Working on the idea that the relics are actually hidden in secret protected pockets of the underworld RWBY+J are gonna have a secondary quest of trying to get the relics from this side, and either finding a new place to hide them ages away from their vault doors. If you wanna make it a FOURTH VERSION 4, they're specifically gonna seek out the sword of destruction (HOLY VORPAL BLADE ALLUSIONS BATMAN) either with the intent of cutting their way out underworld--ahem wonderland--or with the assumption that someone is inevitably gonna have to open the vault door, because that's just how things be these days and they'll be able to cross to Vacuo from there.

[adhdvane]

Talking about GW/U&F Under the Cut because it’s gunna be a long ramble

S here’s my rankings (I want to save these and post them in this entry for myself, I want to better keep track of how much I do so I can keep a log of how much stupid effort I end up putting into this godda.mn event each time to see how my progress goes) Individual:

i’m like both proud and dead (ignore dark team, this was fire favored but final rally zeus is light, so kill him with dark team). i could solo nm 100 just fine, like much better than pervious events, including the last wind gw in June 2020 (which does tell me hey, you’ve improved a lot on your fire team in the past year), it’s just soloing nm 100 took like ~10 minutes and required me paying attention. by day 3 burn out was real (despite there being no 24 hours interlude this year because of server issues delaying prelims, lol let me tell you when i went to check the prelims on my break to find out oops sorry we’re delaying prelims a day bc ppl had issues last night when we started at 3 am your time, rip). nm 95, you see, that i could make a full auto team for and just summon the devil and skill cast a couple of the skills click attack and then full auto, and ignore the game for like 4 to 4:40 minutes. so while i did do some nm 100 runs, i mostly defaulted to nm 95 (on another note i could 1 turn nm 90 with my break/od team bandit tycoon/5* tien/summer bea/5* zeta and so during prelims and round 1 that felt really good). on the one hand it hurts that i ignore my main fire set ups for favor a full auto team (rb/sieg/heles/izmir) but like how else do i survive doing that many godda.mn raids without total burn out (and i mean the only difference is playing relic buster instead of lumberjack so no using my prized ullikummi and swapping tien out for heles bc tien is less full auto friendly bc you don’t want her buff skill activating before her damage. also i mean it was nice to let heles get exp so i got her to lv 100 during the event bc i’d leveled her to 95 prior. she has some good damage nukes, and her additional atk/def down stackable meant coverage when sieg or izmir’s didn’t land properly). besides i still got to use my main fire set up and ullikummi when i did the nm 100 runs (look i love my fire ullikummi + lumberjack i will never shut up about how good it is and how happy i was i went through with it originally for a harp memeing only to discover WOW ITS JUST REALLY GOOD FOR MAINHAND PERIOD EVEN WITHOUT HARP MEMEING GRID). sure running nm 95 was. technically not optimal in terms of time/meat/tokens/honors but it was fckin optimal for my SANITY.

crew (day 4 at top - day 1 at bottom):

first of all slkdfsjk can’t believe i actually stayed above top 30,000. WOW THAT IS DEFINITELY A FIRST. third slkdjgsldf 3 of 4 won, one day i’ll get 4 of 4. tbh surprised i managed to win the last one (THE ONE AT THE TOP) (i was... i was raiding from 3 pm - 4:40 am it was bad... i wanted to hit the 400mil individual mark for the reward bc i was close and like it would suck if i was only a little bit away)... it did feel good to actually win some though, i haven’t had victories in a while because despite the fact every gw i was definitely getting more honors than i had the previous one it was getting harder to solo shit when i’m against crews with multiple ppl participating. (HELL LAST GW, THE WATER BOSSES, WAS THE FIRST TIME I ACTUALLY MANAGED TO GET BACK INTO FCKING MAKING THE SOLO C TIER AFTER SEVERAL GW WHERE IT DIDN’T HAPPEN BECAUSE THERE WAS A BIG LEAP IN HOW MANY HONORS THAT 36,000 CREW HAD AT THE BOTTOM. also like lol at work so i can’t really start doing prelims until i get home bc i decided i wanted sleep in the morning)

other:

:) oh boy a single sunlightstone shard that’s going to sit there forever and never do anything bc how the fck am i ever going to do this 10 times. draw box fcking 50 is what i’m on. it takes 10k to empty. i would need 8k more tokens. i would get 100 tokens per extra zeus run.... im not doing 80 more zeus runs... i’ll .... just have to hit “toke draw 100 times” 21 times to use the rest of the tokens which is annoying. i guess. AND NOW WE COME TO THE REASON WHY I PUT SO MUCH GODDAMN EFFORT INTO THIS GW. gbf is a bastard man that wants me to 5* the rest of the eternals (5 of them) before i can transcend shisu to 140 ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` ) i hate it. so in order to get enough rev weapons to work on my next 5* i needed to 36 box for fif (i have 1 fully uncapped copy of her rev from when i was initially going to have to recruit her normally but then seeds of redemption happened in 2020 and i got her free + 50 five-star fragments, since i already had a fully uncapped copy i thought fine she’ll go next bc less weapons needed and also i have one of every other element 5* so i wanted to do her or song either way. plus maybe if i can 5* her i can actually go do that gilbert quest lol). i WOULD HAVE LOVED TO BOXED NW QUARTZ. I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE BOXED NW QUARTZ AFTER I 36 BOXED HER. BUT I KNEW IF I DID THAT, I WAS PROBABLY GOING TO INEVITABLE HIT BOX 46 BC OF THE RATE I WAS GOING AND IT WOULD FORCE ME BACK TO REV STAFFS AND I’D END UP WITH EXTRA COPIES WHEN I COULD HAVE BEEN STARTING THE NEXT SET I NEED. so instead of boxing the quartz i wanted after i switch to harps and IT sUCK. also depending on if i get the harp draw from the 2000 token i have left... i might continue zeus farm until i get it bc then at least i’ll have an even uncap on my harps (4 fully uncapped, bc i actually had a 1* harp in stash already.... bc those were FROM RANDOM DROPS I’D GOTTEN FROM GW IN THE PAST)

uhg anyways... this was like one of the first times in like a very long time that i didn’t fully burn out by day 3/4. i pushed through to the end like a godda.mn maniac. even in my early days i often just went lol im done on day 4... last gw i thought i was insane bc i got like ~158mil total honors (and EARTH IS LIKE ARGUABLY MY LEAST DEVELOPED). and this time i got over 400mil :) next one is going to be hell because my wind has be improved to 100% double tia crit and i have a my developed full auto team. oh fcking boy. 

[raven-wraith]

A Completely Subjective (Objective) List of Titles to Examine (Purchase), Play Through (Waste Your Life), and Enjoy (Enjoy) During Quarantine (part 2)

We know what’s happening. It’s April 1st, but the joke has been going on for far too long. Trapped in our homes with Covid-19 actively shooting people in the streets outside, we have to find a way to pass the time. As an avid gamer and professional uncooked cookie dough eater, I have compiled a list of games, both multiplayer and singleplayer that anyone and everyone should play for an enthralling experience. These games range from the newest releases to golden classics, so be warned if, I don’t know, Halo Reach appears. By the way, Halo Reach is appearing.

Multiplayer Games: 

I would like to point out that the following games are more directed to be in the vein of multiplayer, however, the single player experience should not be disregarded at all with these titles. I just find that the replayability comes from the multiplayer modes in these titles, but go ahead and check out the single player. After all, these games have strong versions of those modes either way.

A Way Out

Okay so I already lied. A Way Out is exclusively multiplayer. But before we hop into the gameplay itself, I do want to emphasize that only one (that’s right, one) copy of the game must be owned for 2 people to play, even online. A cooperative 2-player interactive drama game, the game paints a story that involves a prison break, found family, betrayal, and interesting and original levels, each with unique controls involved in every set. 

The game plays in split screen, even when playing online, allowing for one player to be in a cutscene talking to a guard while their partner is to be off somewhere else, in full control. A Way Out also has very interesting mechanics, where branching discussions can be given depending on either player’s interests or playstyles.

A Way Out is a once in a lifetime experience and it won’t be the same after replaying it, but the time spent with a partner is special and unique for first time players. I had an amazing time, I’m sure you will as well.

Monster Hunter: World

What is better than hunting parking garage sized Pokemon on crack? Hunting parking garage sized Pokemon on crack with three other friends. Monster Hunter: World threw things like story and development out the window to focus on gameplay, and for that, I appreciate their direction with this game. 

In this game, the idea of the hunt is everything. Figure out your prey, find and craft potions and weapons that are best against it, track that fool, beat that thing’s head in 500 times. Rinse. Repeat. While it sounds simple, MHW’s massive size would prove you wrong. This game is so gigantic, you and your friends have to camp out in the game, you may have to in real life, just so you don’t lose too much sleep.

The game runs closer to an RPG as well, with weapons and armor that can only be wielded by players seeking a specific role for their hunting party. It’s like every good part of hunting things in The Witcher, only you do it with teammates that never brought enough health potions. For people with a lot of time on their hands, this game is a must have.

Did I mention that you kick the shit out of monsters?

Borderlands 2

The most self aware game I’ve played since the Stanley Parable, Borderlands 2 is a phenomenal game that only gets better the more friends you throw in it. A first person shooter built around a campaign of limitless side quests, an expansive class and character system, and of course, guns. Borderlands 2 brings humor to an already mixed genre of looter shooter that there is so much to unpack, I feel it’s unfair to do so here.

Borderlands 2 is the ultimate hunt for treasure and glory. You journey through the planet of Pandora, a mixture of Mad Max and a 2012 mlg compilation video. The game has a strikingly intriguing story with multi-dimensional characters and a fascinating intro to anyone who is opposed to shooters, RPGs, or both. The game offers hundreds of hours of content with the numerous DLC’s, all offering new areas, quests, and characters. The unserious Destiny, COD Diablo, whatever you want to call it, it’s all there in Borderlands 2.

The game, however, goes above and beyond what it already has when you incorporate two or three friends. After picking classes/characters and starting a new journey or just dropping in and out of co-op, the game is always fresh and welcoming with endless things to kill and loot. All in all-

Look. Just play it. Seriously. It's good. It’s like Spider-Man

Halo Reach

Ha, what’d I tell you? Boom, Halo Reach! Let’s get into it.

You don’t even have to play any of the other Halos to even start to understand what is happening. The game has so much to do, not in comparison to world size or gameplay, but in just sheer amount of modes to participate in. There's a campaign (with 4-player support), firefight, forge, custom games, and all the different playlists in multiplayer like infection, SWAT, Invasion, Big Team Battle, and more. 

While I did say that these games were centered on the multiplayer experience, I do have to highlight the campaign of Halo Reach. It is filled with beautifully destroyed battlefields, detailed corridors of enemies, and a cast of dynamic characters, all with impressively delivered voice lines and performances. I can give just the campaign alone a 9/10, honestly.

Back to the real shit, there is an incredible amount of things to unlock in Halo Reach’s armory, a list of cosmetic items that you can slap onto your super soldier to make your flex just that much harder when you kill and t-bag a person online. And also, everything that can be done between the multiplayer and single player ALL accumulate experience to your level, meaning no matter what you play in this monster, you can still access the armory and look fly as hell. Even for those who haven’t even heard of Halo, I guarantee that this entry into the series is the strongest. 

Titanfall 2

It is fucking criminal how underrated this game is. This is the only game, the ONLY game I know where Hollywood level shit happens on my screen every match. Every. Single. Match. Things that aren’t in cutscenes or in the background, we’re talking player to player encounters in the game. This is the only game where you can run along a wall at mach speeds, drop kick a guy, hop onto the back of his thirty foot tall mech suit, throw a grenade into it’s engine, blow it up, double jump onto a different building, hack a robot, kill a guy while invisible, teleport to a different fucking dimension, and board an evacuation ship all at once. 

Titanfall 2 offers a shooter experience that anyone who has ever played online has to hop in and see. While the skill gap is high (like Snoop Dogg high), it is beyond exhilarating in every match. The game allows for customization for your skills, suits, guns, and of course, your big ass Titan.

The game’s online modes feature a pick and choose system in loadouts where players of Call of Duty games will feel at home. However, players of Mirror’s Edge will feel at home with the fast paced mobility of Titanfall, where the player actually shines. The game sports wall running, double jumping, slides, movement assisting skills like grapple hooks, and momentum physics to all feed into an impressive movement experience to an otherwise simple online shooter.

Multiplayer revolves around less diverse playlists than Halo Reach, but between a surprisingly short and sweet campaign and an online experience that I think is unmatched, Titanfall sports such clean animations, well done lighting and curated maps, that I think that it holds an unparalleled online experience (3).

And that’s the list, really. I didn’t include games I thought were 10/10’s, perfect, or otherwise critically acclaimed just because everyone else had played them. I went off to analyze these titles and try to comprise them into just a few short paragraphs using the experience in writing and gaming I knew. Stay safe during quarantine. And please…

Check out Titanfall. Those dudes need more players. Seriously.

(3)  Also, see the campaign. Seriously. It’s a little too good for a shooter.

[dynamite-derek]

My top-10 games of 2018

It’s that time of the year where you are flooded with lists of the best stuff from 2018 and I’m no different. Originally I was going to just make a list of the top 10 games I played in 2018. I even had a giant list I was updating throughout the year. But one day my phone randomly reset and I lost that list. So, business as usual this year. Maybe next year. 

Before I start with the numbered list, I’d like to note a couple of games that won’t be appearing for various reasons.

Games I liked a lot but haven’t played enough of to place on a list like this: Into the Breach, Dead Cells

A critically acclaimed game I haven’t played: God of War

I don’t want remakes on my list, but these games were really good: Shadow of the Colossus, Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Ports aren’t eligible but I like these a lot too: Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Shenmue 1&2, Hyrule Warriors and the PC port of one of the best games ever, Yakuza 0.

Okay, let’s get started.

10-) Red Dead Redemption 2: Actually had to debate between this and Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu for this spot. Ultimately I chose this game because the narrative is spectacular. Well that and the fact that Let’s Go is sort of a remake. This game absolutely nails atmospheric storytelling and creates one of the most interesting protagonists in AAA gaming. This game does a lot of things well, but the actual gameplay portion is...pretty mixed. I didn’t have fun with the open world at all and most missions involved long bouts of horseback riding with dialogue or ambient music. But RDR 2 does everything else so well. It also knows when to go all out. Every major mission in the game is memorable for one reason or another, especially with intelligent usage of music. It’s a game I will never play again, but despite some problems with the gameplay I can safely say that I enjoyed my time with it.

9-) Mario Tennis Aces: This game was a lot of fun. I wrote about it earlier in the year and my opinions on it are still the same.  Even though the gameplay is fairly simplistic, every match against another human felt unique and different. You have to learn the styles of your opposition and adapt. It’s like a fighting game! The online gameplay was also pretty solid. I felt pretty damn good whenever I would win a tournament. Really, Smash Bros. Ultimate would have done well to borrow this mechanic in some way. The only real problem with the game is that there is just a major lack of content. The heavily advertised story mode is barely worth playing and the cups, well, you might as well be playing against an unmanned player 2. I haven’t touched the game in a while, so this might have been fixed via update. As I said a few months ago, this game could have been a masterpiece with a bit of extra fine tuning.

8-) Dragon Ball Fighter Z: This game feels like it was made specifically for me. I have a lot of love for the Marvel vs. Capcom games and even more love for the Dragon Ball franchise. The game is easy to approach for newcomers to this type of game by keeping the inputs simple and having very easy to pull of auto-combos. You won’t do too well online if you stick to the auto combos, but it’s a good way to start and learn how to play. I think a lot of people could start with Fighter Z and transition into more complicated fighting games, which is exactly what you want with a game like this that will attract many people who might not otherwise play a traditional fighter. Oh, and sometimes it looks like you’re playing an episode of the anime which is insane. The story mode is pretty tedious at times, which is a let down, but Fighter Z is an absolute blast to play and is easily the best playing Dragon Ball game yet. Hopefully season 2 of the DLC goes less heavy on all the Gokus. 

7-) Mega Man 11: The blue bomber returns! It’s been a long wait, but after playing through both collections last year and then the X-collection earlier this year, I was ready for Mega Man to get back into the spotlight. It’s a little hard to get into at first because the level design seems pretty tied into the main new mechanic, the gear system. Basically the player can slow things down to a crawl or boost Mega Man’s power. If you just play this game like you would any other Mega Man game, you’re probably going to throw your console out the window during Tiki Man’s stage. Once you figure this out, the system adds a unique flavor to the Mega Man experience and feels like an actual new Mega Man. I love MM9 and 10, but those did not feel like new games. The only thing that I didn’t like about this game was the music. Which, uh, is weird for a Mega Man game. Here’s hoping they get it right in the inevitable Mega Man X9. 

6-) Marvel’s Spider-Man: I don’t particularly like super hero movies and I haven’t enjoyed a Spider-Man game thoroughly since the first PS1 Spider-Man, so you wouldn’t normally think this game would appeal to me. But it absolutely does. The gameplay is outstanding and combines an improved version of the swinging scene in Spider-Man 2 with a combat system that is fairly similar to the Batman Arkham games. I recommend playing the game on hard because, while it’s hard to get used to, it makes every encounter feel unique. You constantly have to adapt to what the enemy is doing. You can’t just mash on the attack button and then press the dodge button when the dodge prompt comes up. 

The story is also interesting throughout. It has my favorite interpretation of Peter Parker I’ve seen in a while and has a pretty enjoyable cast of characters. Really Mary Jane is the only character I didn’t like and even with her, there are moments that hit home - specifically the text exchanges between MJ and Peter. The game is littered with references to past Spidey adventures and just feels like a giant love letter to fans of the hero. Can’t recommend it enough.

5-) Celeste: I didn’t know what to expect with this game. Sometimes I feel very leery of when a bunch of people prop up an indy game too much. Gone Home a couple of years ago told a pretty mediocre story that was held up as some form of high art. Just didn’t get it. So I went into Celeste wanting to not like it and came out fairly surprised. The gameplay feels like a better version of Super Meat Boy and the narrative tells a pretty compelling tale about depression and how to come to terms with yourself. I even don’t mind the pixel art. I am getting sick of indy games going for the retro aesthetic, but when combined with the great soundtrack it’s hard not to love what it’s presenting. 

The game is simple enough to complete on its own. I would argue that anybody could do it as long as they keep at it. But for those platforming veterans, the game also offers a heavy challenge. The B-side and C-side levels will test your skills and remind you of some of the most challenging bits of hard platforming games like Super Meat Boy and I Wanna Be The Guy. Basically, come for the compelling narrative. Stay for the wickedly difficult and addicting gameplay.

4-) Yakuza 6: I believe I enjoyed this game far more than most folks. It told the end of Kazuma Kiryu’s story. It had some problems along the way but my god did I enjoy the ride. The cast of characters surrounding Kiryu in Hiroshima are all great and one of the main characters is Beat Takeshi. It also has a ton of things to do and see. I love the clan wars sidequest featuring New Japan wrestlers, I love the baseball manager quest, I LOVED becoming a regular at a bar and getting to know everyone in it like I was playing some sort of weird Cheers game, I even loved the adult cam chats that came with wacky dialogue. This game is full of charm.

I haven’t mentioned the gameplay yet you might have noticed. That’s because, well, it’s a new direction for the franchise. It focuses on allowing more people to fight Kiryu at once and as a result feels less refined than recent entries Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 5. I am excited to see where they take it in Yakuza 7, but I would be fibbing if I suggested that I felt 6 plays as well as previous entries. Still, the entire Yakuza package is compelling and I never felt like I was scrambling for things to do or see. I don’t 100% games out of obligation. I’m not one of those people that feels the need to 100% every game I play. I 100%ed Yakuza 6 though. And I loved every minute of it, combat and all.

3-) Valkyria Chronicles 4: As none of you might know, I used to review games for a website called 411mania. One of the games I reviewed for them was the original Valkyria Chronicles. Nobody else wanted to do it because it looked like a generic jRPG and I was really the only person on the site who liked jRPGs so the game fell to me. And I absolutely loved it. The story was captivating, the graphics were stylish and and the gameplay felt like a breath of fresh air. It was the combination of a tactical RPG and a (very, very simplified) shooter. To this day it remains one of my favorite games ever. Conversely, Valkyria Chronicles 2 on the PSP is one of my least favorite games ever and 3 never came to the states - though it does have a fan translation. The franchise has felt dead in the west for ages. The musou-like Azure Revolution sure as fuck didn’t get me going.

4 came out this year and it felt like I went back in time. Everything I loved about 1 was back. It’s even expanded upon. The grenadier is a great new troop that feels overpowered at first, but really forces the player to rethink how to approach certain situations. The story isn’t as good as the story in 1, but I found it simple and enjoyable. I genuinely liked the main cast and wanted to see them do well. That’s more than I can say for a lot of games. I know I mentioned earlier in my blurb about Mega Man that what I liked about it was that it actually felt like a new game. The difference here is that I have 10 other Mega Man games that play like Mega Man games. With this franchise, I have 1 (or maybe 2, I hate how maps work on the PSP but I have not played enough of 3 to judge). Sometimes a franchise revival needs to go “like the one you like but more” route. I loved this game and I hope as it gets cheaper more people try it. 

2-) Dragon Quest XI: Hey you might notice this about my gaming preferences, but I really enjoy Japanese RPGs! And this sure as hell was one of those! DQ XI felt like a game from another dimension in a lot of ways. It’s a traditional playing Japanese RPG with a big AAA budget. It looks breathtaking. Big budget JRPGs feel like something out of the PS2 era, which is great because I sure love PS2 era RPGs. It’s lengthy, it has a crazy amount of postgame content and has a lot of side stuff in case you get tired of fighting down the main path. It’s a great throwback. 

This game also has the most balanced party in recent RPG memory. Usually games like these have one or two party members that you just don’t enjoy. For instance, Final Fantasy X is one of my favorite games ever. But I just don’t like Kimahri. I don’t like using him and I don’t think his character is interesting. DQ XI has nobody like that. I found everybody likable. Sylvando and Jade in particular stand out and are among my favorite characters in gaming. Really, I enjoy everything about this game. Even the music! I know a lot of people complain about the simplified score in the western version, but I honestly found it to work out pretty well for the game. Obviously the Japanese version is superior, but I still enjoy it. If you’re a fan of RPGs and you haven’t played DQ XI, you’re missing out.

1-) Super Smash Brothers Ultimate: This was my most anticipated game of 2018 from the moment it was announced and the final product delivered everything that I had hoped it would. You have a large cast of characters, a crazy number of stages and a bunch of single player content to consume in between bouts of online or local multiplayer. The single player is what ranks this game so high for me. The classic mode - think arcade mode in standard fighters - is easily the best it has ever been. Each character has their own route with their own gimmick, which gives the player incentive to play each and every one. With a roster of over 70 fighters, that’s impressive. The adventure mode can start off slow, but once you get into the groove of it I really think it stands out as something special. It’s an expanded version of event battles from past games. You face off against a fighter (or fighters) embodying the personality of a character that isn’t in the game. They range from obscure stuff you haven’t heard of to a fight with Geno’s spirit that has you do battle with the cast of Super Mario RPG (with substitutes for Geno and Mallow). It feels very creative. It can be grindy for some, but I really enjoyed my time with it.

I think the online could be more fleshed out. I don’t experience as many laggy matches as most people, but even still the options online are fairly bare bones. You don’t even have leaderboards. I want to compare how good I am with how good my friends are! I think Nintendo plans to keep this game alive for the duration of the Switch’s lifespan, so I believe there will be plenty of time to get the online situation perfect. That doesn’t really excuse Nintendo from still not getting online even close to right in 2018, but I find Ultimate to be such a complete package that I can look past these shortcomings. Ultimately, it is my favorite entry in one of my favorite franchises. So it’s pretty easily my game of the year.

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows Vol 2 #10-12 Thoughts

Previous thoughts here.

Even though issue #10 is a done-in-one and issues #11-12  two-parter, to all intents and purposes the three issues form a three parter, issue #10 acting as a kind of precursor to the latter issues.

  First things first the elephant in the room to address is Ryan Stegman as the writer and by extension the artists filling in for him.

  Whilst neither Stockman nor Level are the measure of Stegman, they both do respectable jobs, with Level’s art in particular being a better compliment to Stegman’s. This isn’t to say Stockman’s art is ill suited because like in issue #5 his style excels at expressive almost Rugrat looking child characters and issue #10 features one such character as the lead.

  Stegman for his part, whilst he may be working off of ideas leftover from Conway, does a surprisingly good job. There are some problems with issue #11-12 I will talk about later, but issue #10 is great and over all his dialogue, pacing and handling of the characters is solid, shockingly solid for someone who I do not believe has much (if any) writing experience. This applies to his writing contributions to issues #8-9 too.

  His work is not as layered or as nuanced as Conway’s but it’s still good, still cuts to the heart of this series (family) and still delivers on the emotion when needed.*

This arc as a whole provides a decent enough wrap up to the over all subplots across the series and the 12 issues as a whole did a good job in the pacing department.

I despise decompressed storytelling but RYV up to this point has handled it really well. The first 4 issues were the guiltiest in this department but their style of pacing was justified. Beyond that it’s been done-in-one stories or else two parters or in this case a pseudo three parter. This keeps things nice and breezy and makes you feel like things have actually advanced quite a bit since issue #1.

Of the three issues though it must be said issue #10 was the strongest and most interesting.

I said back when I covered issues #8-9 how I appreciated that each story across the series was mixing up which characters get the focus (last arc being Peter and more noticeably MJ) and that continues here. Whilst technically Normie is the lead character of issue #10 it’s Peter and Annie who’re the Parkers getting all the focus here, and it’s adorable.

  This is something we haven’t seen before outside of that back up from issue #1 and it’s nice to call back to that (along with the fact that Peter pumps Annie full of sugar when MJ’s away). The clever part of the story is how the focus upon Peter and Annie is complimented by the Lizard and Billy’s opposition to them. This recalls Mr. And Mrs. Spider-Man #1 from 2009 but also emphasises the key point of this story: Normie’s loneliness.

The whole issue is an exploration of Normie, his attempts to live up to his father and grandfather’s toxic legacy and how that quest and their absence in his life has left him alone and unprepared. He thinks he’s grown up to cope with the challenges facing him but he is still ultimately a sad little boy who misses his family.**

In particular in this issue and the next two Normie’s problems are highlighted when contrasted to Annie. Annie expresses gratitude for having a loving family like Normie lacks, calls out Normie on the depressing state of his young life and behaves (comparatively) more like a real child of around their age.

But it is also Peter’s treatment of him with small sympathy that highlight’s Normie’s childishness and pitiful emotional state. We see his anger is born less from a desire to honour his legacy, or even plain old revenge but more a childish anger about just not having his parents (specifically his Dad around). And Stegman and Stockman just sell it!

You see the shades of Norman and Harry’s vendetta cropping up in him but just from a different angle. This permeates through the arc actually and both directly and more subtly recalls DeMatteis and Buscema’s Harry Osborn arc from the early 1990s.

It’s not just fun or coincidental references either it taps into the idea of how family legacies can be toxic which is contrasted nicely with the family dynamic of the Parkers.

This comparison and contrast between the Osborns and Parkers deepens in issues #11-12.

The most obvious example to bust out is the one already drawn (but done better here imo) from the Venom arc. That of MJ and Liz Allan both being mothers who will go to extremes for the sake of their children, with their confrontation in this arc being pretty juicy.

But we also see it in Peter’s protectiveness over Annie too. In another potentially genius call back to Spec #190 by DeMatteis and Buscema (and possibly RYV vol 1 #2), a rage fuelled Peter beats the crap out of the Rhino due to him threatening his family. This is both a realistic reaction for a parent to have and also very true to Peter’s established character in both RYV and the 616 universe, and something not displayed much in RYV vol 2.

In a way this arc marries (if you pardon the pun) the kind of extremes Peter was shown to have regarding Annie from vol 1 with those MJ had been given in vol 2 as the story shows both becoming aggressive in pursuit of rescuing Annie.

In having Peter hunt down Annie, Annie confront and attempt to redeem Normie and MJ get to the bottom of her Venom situation with Liz, issue #11 does a great job of closing out the over arching story of volume 2 by having the Parkers all equally be the focus. Issue #12 kinda does the same thing by involving the X-Men and similarly the use of a Regent power draining mech helps tie-back into the original RYV.

Issue #12 in regards to balancing out the family has a few more mixed results, but it depends what you want out the conclusion.

The story again provides us with a nice change up in the dynamics as it’s more Annie and Normie’s story than it is Peter and/or MJ’s. So it’s something different, but for a wrap up arc maybe having the Parkers fight all together was more thematically appropriate.

It certainly isn’t poorly done though. Annie comes into her own, Normie is believably redeemed and the story has a great message about how words can sometimes win out over fists.

There is also a great twist (kind of) in having the background character Ms. January wind up as the main villain, allowing for Normie to be redeemed and allowing him to break the Osborn Curse of which the arc is named after. It also ties back into the theme of family as Ms. January’s actions stem from a kind of motherly instinct towards Normie.

The action is pretty decent as are the stakes.

Giant robot = Bad.

Giant robot vs a powerless Spider-Man and Mary Jane = Very bad

Giant robot vs a powerless Spidey and MJ whilst it also has the powers of four of the X-Men = How ARE they gonna get out of this one?

Speaking of the X-Men, the arc handles them in a way I appreciated. Not only does their presence recall RYV #1 but it also ups the stakes whilst not allowing them to take away any of the spotlight from the Parkers.

Specifically Annie who comes into her own as I said and this then leads into a pretty organic transition into the new 8 years later status quo.

So...all great right?

Well...not exactly.

Let’s put aside how the Goblin mech having the X-Men’s powers was somewhat underutilized. Let’s put aside even how as I said it maybe should’ve been better if all three of the Parkers were involved in bringing down the threat.

Let’s instead talk about the three big elephants in the room.

Elephant #1: Venom

When I finished RYV #9 even though MJ was still wearing the symbiote I presumed that she’d beaten it and was going to get rid of it. Seemed like the obvious and natural ending to that arc right?

Right...except that didn’t happen.

I was truly surprised when I saw MJ in the suit during this arc. It got me thinking her absence and trip to the hospital in the prior issue made more sense.

But narratively it served little purpose here. It gave MJ something to do in issue #11 I guess but equally MJ could’ve gone to confront Liz without the symbiote simply to learn why  Liz had done what she did.***

So why did MJ keep the costume? My suspicion it was purely to justify her still wearing it in Venom-Verse and thus milk MJ in the suit more given how the marketing department (or whoever) were the people who pushed that onto the series in the first place.

It wouldn’t be much of a problem if not for the fact that it’s disposed of so cheaply and easily in issue #12 and you have to No. Prize why she couldn’t have gotten rid of the suit earlier.

The Fantastic Four were mentioned in issue #10 and since they were the guys who got Peter and the symbiote separated in the first place you’d think this wouldn’t be a problem. The ONLY explanation I can dream up (and this isn’t present in the story mind you) is that the symbiote was altered somehow by Liz to be resistant to fire and sonics, hence why in issue #9 MJ punches a flamethrower or something with no problem.

Elephant #2: Ms. January.

Conceptually a background character turning out to be a villain in a twist is great. Problem is we never learn why.

At first it seems like Ms. January just cares for Normie that much but not only is this an offhand motivation in the first place but more poignantly Harry (not Normie) is brought up more than once by Ms. January in issues #11-12.

So it has something to do with him but we never learn what exactly.

She just switches on everyone, goes nuts and it’s because of Harry.

????????

I think this is an example of Stegman being an artist more than a writer tripping up, it may well have been Conway’s original plan for Ms. January to be the final boss but he hadn’t fleshed that part out and Stegman just plugged it in.

Elephant #3: This arc takes waaaaaay too much stuff from Spider-Girl.

I love Spider-Girl. She is my second favourite Spider character behind Peter himself. Her series was a triumph and an underrated all time classic.

And one of the key parts of that series was Normie Osborn being a sad lonely young man self-destructively trying to live up to his father and grandfather’s legacy as a Goblin, and avenge what he perceived as his father’s death due to Spider-Man. The subplot wraps up in Spider-Girl #27, my favourite issue of the series, in which Spider-Man’s daughter is captured and at the mercy of Normie, calls him out on his BS, expresses sympathy for him and with kindness talks him into changing his ways, finding redemption and becoming an ally to her.

Sound familiar?

Here is the thing, putting aside how Spider-Girl did it better, there is nothing wrong with repeating the same ideas to an extent.

But it is the fact that they repeat the redemption part and the manner in which it happens that is the problem. No Normie isn’t borderline suicidal in this story but he’s still on a path to destruction and still has Annie at his mercy and she still is the one who redeems him.

It would’ve been a better take had it actually been Peter who talked him down.

The comparisons to Spider-Girl are not helped by many fans feeling RYV and Annie supplanted Mayday in certain respects and more poignantly that from here on in the series would be borrowing waaaaaaay too many elements from Spider-Girl, starting with the epilogue to this issue where Annie becomes a teenager.

So...in a lot of ways this arc had the weakest writing of RYV up to this point, but I think it’s strengths in spite of it’s weaknesses combine to render it stronger than the X-Men arc and thus only the second weakest arc of the series thus far. In particular I have to commend them for making so much of it work as they did in spite of Conway leaving.

I doubt I’d be complaining this much had I read these at the time of their release though simply because back then these would’ve still been infinitely better Spider-Man than Slott’s clownshow.

Were I to give issue #10 it’s own grade it’d be an A-.

But the 3 issues collectively get a B-.

  Good, worth a read but very flawed nevertheless. 

  *Which is very damning when you consider Stegman, an artist, was a better Spider-Man writer in 3-5 issues than Slott was across 10 years.

  **Also the story explains why Normie seems more intelligent than he should be, it’s because of the Goblin formula which helps resolve what otherwise would’ve been something of a contrivence.

  ***Speaking of which how did Liz know Spinneret would’ve taken her bait about the symbiote? Not saying there is NO explanation but we don’t really get one ever.

  P.S. How the Hell can this random orb contain Peter’s powers? His powers stem from being altered on a genetic level!

[atenderlyholystudentus-blog]

211 Tips and Tricks for Last Day on Earth Survival

Last day on Earth has revolutionized the mobile Survival game genre. Even though the devs say that the game is still in beta, there are already dozens of other games copying the Last Day on Earth concept. Today I'm going to show you 211 tips and tricks for playing last day on Earth Survival. When you first start the game, you will be given the option to customize your character and choose a name. You can go back through your inventory at anytime and change what your character looks like, but once you pick a name, you will not be able to change it again for 30 days. When you confirm your character's attributes, you will be spawned next to a truck naked and alone. This is the location where you will be able to build your base. Use this directional pad to move your character over to the truck and then click the interact button. There is currently no way to remove this truck from your home area so you can use it for storage as long as you want. If this is your first time playing, I recommend equipping the knife and the shirt and then beginning to clear the area. As you approach an enemy,  use this button to sneak before the enemy gets within this line on the mini map. By sneaking up behind enemies and using the attack button when you are close to them, you are able to get triple damage with that first hit which in this case instantly kills your enemies. Enemies often have rope and cloth on their dead bodies which will be extremely valuable until you build the workbenches that will allow you to craft those items. Some enemies will be bunched up like this which requires you to fight the ones you can't sneak up on, but you shouldn't have a problem because these enemies are really weak and this knife and shirt are pretty decent gear for your level. Once you clear the five enemies in this area, you need to decide whether or not you want to design your base with trees on your land because once you chop down these trees in your home area, you can never get them back. So my recommendation is to gather three wood and three stone to build a pickaxe and then put your character on auto. When you hit lvl 2, make sure to gather 3 plant fiber to use with the rope you should already have to build a basic backpack which will give you 5 more slots in your inventory. One pickaxe will be exactly enough to gather all of the rocks and iron in your home area and as long as you don’t build an hatchet, you will not harm any of your trees. After you finish gathering all of the resources, go check out the abandoned base. This base is now yours, but you will want to make some modifications. First, I recommend gathering the resources of these broken walls and then building three chests. You do not need to replace these walls yet because no one is going to raid your base, but you can if you want. (put in text: I’ll explain more when we talk about raiding). For right now, put everything you have in those three chests. Your weapons, your armor, the only thing you want to take with you is your backpack. Now one more thing that you need to decide before you leave your base area is whether or not you are completely free to play or if you are wanting to support the devs of last day on Earth. If you are completely free to play, you should check out my video on the three best ways to get free stuff in last day on Earth, but I'm not sure if those methods will be able to get you the $5 you need within the 4 day time limit. They might, but it's going to be close. Regardless, if you were wanting to support the devs at all then the best purchase by far is the military pass. For the one time purchase of $5, you get access to 119 new rewards that would normally cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars if you just bought them from the shop. And it guarantees that you will eventually get everything you need to build a motorcycle which is very difficult to get in this game. So if you were ever going to spend money in this game, buy this pass and then take the task list out of your inbox and see what your tasks are for that day. Completing these tasks will give you points towards unlocking each new level. You can also unlock new levels by paying 25 coins but if you want to do that, I would strongly recommend  saving your coins for the final tasks which it can also be skipped for 25 coins but they require more points to unlock. Once you've memorized your tasks for the day, go ahead and put that note in one of your chests because you don't need to bring it with you to complete the quests. Now if you are not buying the military pass because you are a free to play player, don't worry. I got your back. It may be a lot harder for you, but all of my tutorials are geared towards helping players do things in this game in a way that is free to play. So after you have decided all that and you are completely naked, leave the area. When you enter your world map for the first time, a crashed airplane event will appear. In the rare occasion that it does not appear, do not go back into your base yet or else you will spawn the healer too early. Rather, just sprint to bunker bravo and then enter and exit the area so that it will appear. Plane crashes are incredible events and you will only get to experience this event two times ever so you want to make the most of it. I recommend using 30 energy to get to this event instantly and then as soon as you enter the area, go ahead and try to leave the area. When you do, this pop-up will appear allowing you to make a one-time purchase of a military backpack for $2. This is the second best deal you will get in the game because the only other way to get this nicer backpack is to get to level 64 or spend closer to $10 at the shop, but again, if you are free to play, no worries, When I started playing this game the military backpack didn't even exist yet. As you go through these chests, you want to prioritise weapons, armor and food because those are the hardest items to get at a low level. Be sure to equip items to save room. It is important to know that by equipping food or healing in this slot, it allows you to heal while you are fighting. When you're in your inventory, you will notice a hunger and thirst meter. You will probably start getting hungry and thirsty for the first time during this event. So since you will not be able to bring everything back with you, I recommend eating some of the jerky and water as you loot the area so that you leave with these meters at 100%. You will get attacked by a couple of wolves while you're here, but you shouldn't have any problems taking them out. If you did not get the military backpack, your inventory should look kind of like this when you are done. It might feel like you're leaving a lot of items behind, but all of the items that I did not pick up in this scenario are pretty common items and you won't really need them until you are much higher level. Go ahead and leave the area and return home. You can run if you want to, but you should keep in mind that only 1 energy is restored every 5 minutes. When you arrive, you will find the Healer. In exchange for watching an advertisement, the Healer will give you some kind of buff. The best buffs to get this early in the game are muscle Vines which will restore your energy to 100 and brainweed seeds which doubles the amount of experience you get for 1 hour. After you watch the commercial, grab the knife and shirt that you got in the beginning of the game, put some berries in your quickslot and then leave the area. Armor in this game has exponentially diminishing returns so I recommend only using one piece of armor at a time until you have the ability to make armor for yourself. If you ran home, an airdrop should appear. Your first airdrop of the day always spawns after you leave an area when your energy is below 70. Airdrops are not nearly as amazing as the crashed plane event, but they are still a good event. Try to avoid enemies as you make your way to the middle of the map. You probably get spotted by one of these toxic spitters, but as long as you have your knife and berries equipped, it will not be a problem. When you loot the airdrop, you will get a weapon and 10 refined items. These are really helpful for starting out. You will also want to be on the lookout for any of these rare items that are sometimes found in airdrops (Engine parts, puppy, lens, blueprints, connecting rods, wrenches, Bunker alpha card, Tickets (red/yellow mostly). But go ahead and grab everything because at this point in the game, almost everything will be useful to you. And then leave the area. I started farming the zone here because I thought it might be efficient, but then I realized that  sometimes stronger AI players will spawn at airdrops and AI players are the number one way that new players die in this game. Now usually that's because they haven't figured out the healing quickslot yet, but I don't care. I do not want you guys to die following this tutorial because dying usually means you lose everything on you so just leave the area and go back home. Put your stuff away again and then head to the green pine zone. The first time you enter a green zone, an AI player with half health will attack you. When you kill him, you will find a Chopper wheel. This is a very rare item and you will never find a Chopper wheel in any of the zones ever again so make sure to take this home. After you finish looting his body, a puppy will come up to you. Go over to the puppy and use the interact button to pick him up. This is also a very rare item that only happens the first time you enter a green zone so make sure to bring this item home as well. After grabbing these items, start clearing the Zone the same way that we cleared the home area. This area is a lot bigger and has a few fast biters but it is still pretty easy to clear with the equipment you have. Your knife is only good for 100 hits even at full durability so it will break before you finish clearing the zone. When this happens, use 3 wood to craft a spear. The spear obviously doesn't do as much damage, but if you move between hits, you can limit how many times enemies are able to hit you. Once you clear all the enemies, make sure you have a hatchet and a pickaxe and then put your character on auto. Since this video is just an overview,  I am not going to get into detail of how to get the different resources, but if you need help getting any resource in this game, I have an entire playlist with extensive tutorials on the most efficient way to get each resource that is currently in this game. Using berries is the most efficient way to heal, but they don’t help your hunger and thirst bar very much so you will get hungry and thirsty while farming this zone. You can often find beans and water in these chests, but if for some reason that isn't working, just click the shop button and then go to your inbox. Everyday at midnight Greenwich Mean Time, three canned beans and three Waters will be added here as long as you remember to collect them. These are really useful in a pinch. When your inventory gets full, leave the area. When you travel away from any of these resources zones in the game, they will be completely reset. This allows you to travel to them multiple times and get lots and lots of resources. These zones however either never reset or they reset on a timer. And then events obviously reset each new time they spawn. This  destroyed Convoy event is also an amazing event and I would recommend going to it because it often has a bunker Alpha access card, but if you are a new player, don’t pick up the minigun. If you insist, make sure you have another weapon in your other quick slot, but I would suggest just not picking it up altogether. At this point, you will have earned about 5 new skills. You get skills in pretty much the same way that you get experience, but they are location based and normal experience buffs do NOT increase how much SKILL experience you get. When you click learn, you will randomly get one of 6 skills. Sometimes you are offered the chance to buy an experience book for $2. Experience books will give you exactly half of a skill which might not seem that great, but skills get exponentially harder to get as you get more of them so this is not a bad purchase as long as you do not use the book until you have at least 25 skills in that area. You can keep the books in your inbox for as long as you want. These pine zones offer these 6 skills. The skill in this slot is usually an active skill that you will be able to go into your inventory and set them as a substitute for the auto or sneak buttons and the skill in this slot has historically been extremely rare, but they made a lot of changes in this last update and I got it in this tutorial so it may not be that hard anymore. OR… they do not exist yet. Since this game is in beta, there are a lot of things that do not exist yet. Knowing what does and doesn't exist in this game is obviously important for knowing what to build. So I recommend either watching my other videos to learn this information or visiting our website ldoeoutpost.com. On that website you are able to learn almost everything you want to know about the game including which items do or do not exist. The mountain areas offer these six skills including the skill to access the second pocket which I just got yesterday and it is dope. Fighting at the bunker will give you experience towards these 6 skills. This skill allows you to get your health up 120 which is incredible, but in order to get into bunker alfa, you need to get a bunker alfa access card. The same thing is true for bunker Bravo. You can find these access cards from enemies you kill like I did in this tutorial and from the chests in the zones. This will usually take several trips before you find the right access card. Bunker Alpha is one of the most difficult challenges in the game so once you do get access to the bunker, I recommend checking out my playlist called “everything you need to know about bunker Alpha”. Raiding ai players bases will give you experience towards these six skills but the best way to get experience in this category is by raiding others players bases which will become available to you through your CB radio exactly 120 hours after you build it. And then after you build your motorcycle, you are able to unlock the Watchtower which gives you access to oak and copper zones. Oak zones offer these 6 skills and winter zones offer these including the roll which I believe is the most powerful active skill in the game. These red arrows on the map signify when the zombie horde will arrive at your base. When they arrive, they will destroy your walls. You can upgrade your floors and then walls by clicking on your existing floors and walls while having the resources required to upgrade them. The zombie horde will normally destroy dozens of level 1 walls or a few level two walls, but they can not destroy lvl 3 or 4 walls. So if you do not build any walls, nothing will happen to your base. Which isn't a problem until you want to start raiding other players’ bases because once you accept the Raiders tasks and start raiding others player's bases, you open up the opportunity for your base to be raided. Most of your progression through this game will be determined by how fast you are able to level up and build the workbenches in your crafting menu. The garden bed is going to be your best source of food over the Long Haul, but it doesn't give it to you quickly. The campfire is crucial for making coal which is the most efficient fuel in the game and it can also help stretch how much food you have. (using planks over coals is the most efficient way to make coal). The Woodworking bench and furnace are the two most used workbenches in the game and I recommend building two of each of them and keeping them busy as soon as you can. The CB radio allows you access the dealer who doesn’t really offer that great of deals and then the Raiders which is a much bigger benefit. As you can see from the CB radio in your base, many of these items in your crafting tab require you to assemble them after placing them which usually costs a lot more resources than it does to place them. These three are important but pretty self-explanatory. Obviously, the motorcycle also requires assembly and you should know that it takes even a really active player at least a month to complete it. And could take a lot longer than that. If you want to know everything there is to know about building your motorcycle, you should check out my video on building it. The dog pen also requires assembly, but it is not nearly as hard to complete and when you finish it you will be able to release the puppy you got earlier. These four crafting tables are really important but also self-explanatory. The doormat allows you to pick your spawn point in your base so that you don't always spawn near the truck. And then we get to the sewing machine. In my opinion, the sewing machine is your first step into intermediate play in this game. It allows you turn fiber into cloth and cloth into thick fabric.  these are crucial ingredients for so many important items in the game and I recommend crafting it as soon as you can. One of the most common mistakes new players make is using their resources towards assembling the chopper instead of saving them to craft these important workbenches. The ATV requires further assembly, but doesn't actually exist yet though it seems like it will be coming out very very soon. The gunsmith has recently become a huge part of the game which is why they start you out with one. The blueprints you get throughout the game allow you to assemble weapon modifications here are the gunsmith bench. Once you assemble those modifications, you can add them to any weapon you get of that type. So you don't really need to know that much about weapon modifications until you assemble your gunsmith bench, but once you do, I recommend checking out ldoeoutpost.com where we just updated the database with all of the weapon modifications in the game. The radio tower has just recently been added to the game.  currently you can only get to level one which allows you to have 5 friends in the game, but you can only chat with them right now.  The devs of last day on Earth have expressed that they are hoping to expand this soon so that we can actually play with each other. The recycler is another huge part of the game. There are some very important materials in this game that can only be obtained by recycling things in the recycler. Your chances of getting the most desired items are based on how much durability that item has and they are increased as you level up your recycler which will be very difficult when you're just starting off, but as you get to higher levels, you will have a lot of extra resources  which makes this a lot easier. The main use for the electric generator is to unlock the Watchtower, but it cannot be carried unless you have a motorcycle so make sure to assemble your motorcycle before your generator. The blueprint for the Acid Bath should be somewhere around here,  but it does not show up on here until you  find it on the third floor of Bunker Alpha.  Acid Bath allows you to open infected crates  which is for advanced play. The smelting furnace is also for advanced play and the machete has one of the highest dps ratings out of any of the craftable weapons. The saw blade mace has the highest craftable sneak attack damage and the military backpack is incredibly useful. Once you get this far in the crafting menu, a large percentage of these items don't exist in the game so if you're ever curious about something be sure to look it up at ldoeoutpost.com. If the item does exist, then you can click on this tab right here and it will take you to an article explaining the fastest or best way to get that item. In addition to those 176 tips, I have 35 more tips for you. 1- When you are picking up puppies, look to see if their collar is blue or red so that you know what gender they are before you pick them up and then put your male and female puppies into different chests. That way you can release an equal amount of males and females into your dog pen and avoid wasting a ton of food because of extra dogs. 2- Don't cook steak because jerky is way more efficient  especially now that they start you out with a meat drying rack. 3- If you were playing a lot in the very beginning, you might want to use normal wood as fuel even though it is less efficient because you will need all of your planks for building new workbenches. 4- Drinking 13 bottles of water will make you need to pee. And Beer almost always makes you pee. 5- Peeing and getting hit by toxic spitters will increase your stink level. Once you hit a red stink level,  enemies will see you from farther away and you will not be able to sneak up on them. 6-  if you were looking for one particular item, you can  use the split item feature to fill up all of your excess inventory slots and then put your character on auto. This will make your character only gather the items you have room for. 7- Leaving a bunker floor resets the enemies on the floor allowing you to get one sneak attack on each enemy. 8- You can get the bunker Alpha entry code from your CB radio or this dead guy in the zones. 9- You can also get it from most last day on Earth communities which I would recommend joining one. There are a lot of really good communities around this game. 10-  your hunger and thirst meters lose one point every 8 seconds.  knowing this allows you to calculate how much time you have to finish farming a Zone. 11- if you die at your home area, your body will stay in the same place until you die somewhere else in your home area 12- Farming just the outskirts of zones is a great way to get resources for almost no cost 13-  you can use bunkers or AI bases for temporary storage while you farm a nearby Zone several times before returning home 14- You can kill some enemies in Bunker Alpha without getting hit if you have the right weapon 15- You can shoot through windows so keep that in mind when you're designing your base 16- Surrounding your base with a wall hides what it looks like for other players when they are raiding. 17- Using the honeycomb tactic is stupid because it breaks the game and I have a lot of opinions about it that I'm not going to share, because it is also a really smart tactic that is extremely effective. 18- You can click drive on the motorcycle even if you  plan to walk or run and you still get a use it's extra 4 inventory slots. 19- Even though there is a lower chance of getting items from recycling items with low durability, they still give your recycler the same amount of experience so it is best to recycle all your low durability items to level up your recycler. 20- If you get the witches head as a trophy, you can keep the horde away from your base for several months by burning only one pine log each day. 21- You can loot the truck and motorcycle and other players bases without causing noise 22- In the settings tab, you can change your notification settings 23- While you are here, make sure your game is connected to your google or ios account. 24- There's also a lot of other really cool options in here including the best way to get a hold of customer support. 25-  If you do contact customer support you will need to know you're unique id. You can find that by clicking on your server on the bottom left. And I would suggest going ahead and  screenshotting that number now just in case something bad happens. 26- There's been a lot of lost accounts in this game and I don't want yours to be one of them Well. That's the guys. Hope that helps. As you can imagine, this video took a lot of work so please remember to like and/or comment on this video assuming of course that you liked it. Also, as I mentioned several times in this video, I have tutorial videos on every single subject of this game and I try my hardest to be this informative in each one so if you have any questions about this game, I recommend typing your question on YouTube and adding jcf at the end to make sure your question gets answered.<blockquote class="embedly-card"><h4><a href="https://youtu.be/cb22J-8xnvM">211 Tips and Tricks for Last Day on Earth Survival Update LDOE Tips</a></h4><p>Last Day on Earth Survival is a Free Game, a mobile game and it is a Survival Game. This video has 211 LDOE Tips and Tricks. It does not have Last Day on Earth Hacks or Mods, but it will help beginners and advanced players play the Last Day on Earth.</p></blockquote><script async src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>"

[veetlejuiced]

Fallout 76 Thoughts

I've rented Fallout 76 and played until I hit about level 15. There are some things about it that are kinda cool. It plays in some respects like more of a survival game (not an optional mode) so you have to do things like actually carry food and water around. It also has handfuls of new critters and creature enemies which is something I was hoping to see more of in 4 so I have liked seeing it in 76. It looks nice in the same way that people like playing Skyrim because it feels very "nature walk" simulator (only with more of a dystopian feel depending on what area of the map you are in). Environmentally it does a lot of what other Fallout installments have done well. There's these petrified corpses about and how they're arranged in areas makes one think "what exactly happened here?," the same way skeleton arrangements in past installments have helped add a grim vibe to the setting.

But I have quite a few issues with the game. The lack of human/ghoul NPCs really makes quests feel even more barebones "fetch" in style. Since I've never played a game that has quests without any sort of real NPC interaction, I just...didn't realize how vital that was to quests (which sounds silly but it really kinda smacked me in the face, so to speak). Every quest feels like, go here, kill that, read this, come back, here's some stuff. There's not even an illusion of choices to be made. I really love reading notes and terminals in past Fallout installments, but in such an empty world it makes quests feel like something in the past and that you're never really interacting with the present, if that makes any sense. It's kind of bizarre. Robot NPCs just sort of talk at you, sometimes appearing out of nowhere, and a couple quests have lead me to the dead bodies of NPC's. It makes the world feel empty.

Servers are never that populated. If you're not anywhere near a main quest or an event, odds of seeing another player are low. If you do see someone they usually just run by, looting as they go. Playing with other people makes everything you're doing feel rushed. I felt like I was just in a race with friends to look through every desk and dresser for adhesive scrapping items and telling friends to shush while trying to listen to quest holotapes was not great. lol There are a lot of holotapes and sometimes so many you'll find others in the same location before even finishing what you're listening to. I don't know why if they were willing to pay for so much voice acting they couldn't include a few NPC populated areas (besides maybe not wanting to do a a voiced protagonist, but we could have gone back to 3's style since it's not like they haven't developed text speech options before). Not to mention the way they implemented PVE is really boring. Basically you shoot someone for a very very low amount of damage no matter your weapon or buffs and the player you attacked has to shoot you back to engage. This makes PVP completely avoidable when I think, ideally, it should be unavoidable, but I think maybe they feared letting players just free for all it. I could see why some players would not like that, but I'm just the opposite end of the spectrum in that regard. If you don't have to interact with a hostile player, why would you? It makes other players feel like ghosts and not even the scary kind. There are some event like areas where you can "claim a workbench" and basically invite hostiles, but players can avoid that feature if they choose. Event quests that attract other players can be fun because at least there's other people there, but I found the content to be a little cut and dry. A lot of wave survival which is fun for a while, but not forever, for me anyway.

There are some other odd reworks like the perk system, which I don't dislike to be honest. You put points into your attribute and can place "cards" into them, on some level up's receiving card packs that give you a variety of perk options. I think I like it because Fallout 4 kind of let you become a jack of all trades and that's not really a fun "role" to me. I also like that the survival aspects of 76 make me actually make perk choices having to do with water, food, and even the weight of various options. It can seem more important than perks like "10% more pistol damage" and the like. I can see how this system would be disliked by other players though. Weapons and equipment also have level locks on them which I've heard complaints about, but I like. It gives me something to work towards and not become too overpowered immediately running around in the multiple power armors I've found. Another downside is that I do feel fairly invincible. I died once in 15 hours and have a never-ending surplus of ammo. There's ammunition purchasing machines and workbenches and I really don't know when I'd ever have to use them. Caps only use appear to be for purchasing blueprints and fast traveling (small fees like 11 caps to travel a third length of the map). I would never buy anything else with them besides maaaaybe stimpacks because they can feel a little scarce sometimes, which is something I like. It makes me think twice about entering Super Mutant stronghold areas. I am also kind of salty over some of the lore-breaking. It gives me that "copy and paste" vibe that Fallout 4 gave me. See there's Nuka Colas here, it's a Fallout game! Only now there's Super Mutants before they were made and a satellite branch of the Brotherhood who is only just forming and then subsequently going underground for more than a minute. (Not to mention I heard there's Enclave power armor somewhere which is also...a no-no.)

There's also the C.A.M.P.ing feature which is basically portable settlement building. I didn't really see much of a need to do it since you can always just fast travel back to your first campsite and the only reason to go there is to unload materials into your stash box (larger off-person inventory which probably needs to be expanded at only 400wg). Train stations also have a stash box so I don't really see the point in them, but perhaps they'd have some use at a higher level? I'm not sure. I think I put around 15ish hours or so into the game and I kind of hit a "this is boring" wall. I love to loot. I loot a lot, but it feels like all I'm doing is looting and fighting "scorched" ghouls and Super Mutants who don't have the best A.I. It's literally harder to kill a few bloatflies than half a dozen Scorched. The improved gunplay from 4 is present, but it almost makes it too easy. The rework to V.A.T.S. makes sense but it also kind of blows my mind how in an instant it can go from 96% hit percentage to 0% and I miss. Not to mention it is rather buggy. I'm playing on the PS4 and I've had enemies do that floaty strafing across the ground or see me and instead of approaching, running away. On the PS4 some areas have really atrocious frame rate issues, like I felt dizzy the frame rates were so bad. Also some of that "white flash" sort of issue on various textures and sometimes almost full screen flashes of white. Lit areas at night don't always appear at a distance and suddenly "turn on" as you come up on them. I'm sure these issues will be resolved with patches, but yikes.

Overall, even though there are some things I like, it's gonna be a big no from me and even though I don't like living in the middle of nowhere, still having video rental stores has really given me the privilege of being able to check out games like this for a few dollars before investing 60 bucks to play multiplayer Fallout which I should have been very very excited about. The game just feels too empty and too much like a feature they could have slapped onto 4. I think instead of trying to take the MMO approach they should have just included a co-op mode the same way games like Borderlands or Dying Light implemented. I think there's definitely people who will have fun playing this game with friends. All MMO's allow for players to make their own fun, but that's not really what I'm looking for in a game myself. I want the game to make the fun and Fallout 76 falls flat in doing so.

[dapperkobold]

Clueless Guide: Tychus (HotS)

Play Heroes of the Strom. See Tychus. Tychus is cool. Grab Tychus. Notice that Tychus has more abilities than he did in the campaign mission. What are you supposed to do with those?

Welcome to Clueless Guides: guides I write for people who have no idea what they’re doing. This isn’t a pro strategy guide. This isn’t an expert guide. This is a basic guide to get you rolling and begin to understand the character and its playstyle. My credentials? I’ve hit level 5 with Tychus. I’m not a pro by any means, but by now I have a good idea of how he ticks.

Tychus is a sustained Assassin. That is, he does a lot of damage, mainly over time from his basic attack, as opposed to lump sums from his abilities. Actually, Tychus is notable for having a very high basic attack Damage Per Second (DPS). A lot of what he does is based around his basic attack, in fact.

Tychus totes a minigun around, attacking four times a second. This is pretty good, but has a downside: He can’t attack while moving. Now, most characters can’t attack while moving, but they can fake it using a rechnique called stutter-stepping, which is basically moving in-between basic attacks. Since Tychus attacks four times every second (which is the rate of attack HotS uses for attacks that are basically constant) it’s not possible to move between his attacks. As a result, for players who know how to stutter-step Tychus feels a bit less maneuverable than their used to. Combine that with the fact that he has slightly lower range than normal (4.5, with 5.5 being normal) means that the Minigun does have some quirks to get used to. It’s worth it in my opinion, I did get him to 5.

Tychus’ weaknesses include almost everything to do with survivability. He’s not very mobile, his one mobility option is kind of bad, and he’s going to rely almost entirely on external forms of healing, coupled with poor range sometimes putting him in dangerous situations. He’s got a little better health than most other assassins, but don’t be surprised if you wind up with more scars than usual when you’re playing him.

Powers

Your trait is almost your first power, and you will be using it a lot. Minigun can be activated to apply a special quality to your basic attacks for the next 3 seconds: it deals a percentage of a target hero’s maximum health in damage. It’s not a large percentage (2.5%), but with four attacks per second for 3 seconds that’s 30% of the enemy’s maximum health done in bonus damage.

So, if you have someone with low health like Tracer, it won’t be a big amount. It will be some, but not that much. If you’re going up against a giant beef wall like the Ettin that takes two players to run? Yes, your bonus damage would be 30% of the Ettin’s base health. That is a LOT. In addition, that percent damage ignores the enemy’s armor, so it’s even bad news for the armor-heavy heroes.

The cooldown is sitting at 12 seconds, but it costs no mana so there’s little reason to save it. Basically any time you’re in a fight against Heroes, you choose the biggest one you can get at and activate this. Now, these are basic attacks you’re using, so sometimes (Quite often, in fact) you start on one hero and then shift focus to another, or start on a hero and then wind up using the rest of the time on minions, or activate it and realize that you misjudged the situation and need to flee for your life instead. It’s not too often you’ll get that perfect 30% extra damage, but with a fairly fast cooldown time (which can be made even faster pretty easily) and no Mana cost it’s not too big of a loss.

Your first ability is Overkill, which helps counteract the various Basic Attack problems. You activate it and choose a target, and Tychus starts spewing lead in that general direction. For 4 seconds you have a big cone of death, during which time you can move or cast other abilities and Tychus will stay locked onto your target. You can even re-activate the power inside the time to change targets. This power is really solid, both area damage and in the use of letting you move around while keeping up with damage, but I generally recommend you save it. The cooldown is the highest of Tychus’ basic abilities at 13 seconds, and it’s also the highest Mana cost basic ability he has. For this reason, I typically save it for ‘real’ fights: going up against enemy heroes, tense pushes against enemy forts, taking mercenary camps, and the like. if you really need to take out a wave of minions it would do it, but I’ve never been in a situation where I needed minions dead THAT fast.

It’s kind of notable that since it does let you fire on the move, times when you both want to shoot things and move at the same time will be the big claim for this power. It’s not always the best power for chasing, but for fighting retreats, in-combat mobility, or re-positioning under pressure there’s nothing that’s better.

Frag Grenade will be what you use for wave clearing instead of Overkill. It’s a simple AoE attack that also knocks enemies away from the center of the blast, giving it a variety of uses. Use it for sheer damage, use it to disrupt a setup, put it behind someone to knock then toward you, put it in front of someone to knock them away from you. Just try it out, it’s a very flexible and easy to use power.

Run and Gun is Tychus’s... main mobility power? Except I kind of use Overkill more than this. By raw Run and Gun is a basic short-range dash. Nothing too spectacular, especially given a 10 second cooldown time. Honestly, Run and Gun is kind of a weird ability due to just how reliant it is on Talents to define it. At first level you get a choice of Run and Gun talents, and with that in mind how you use it will really depend on what you want it to do. Personally, I use it mainly either when running away or chasing someone with my basic attack. It’s good for basic attack chasing, because it’s fairly fast and doesn’t stop you from basic attacking like Overkill does, meaning you can keep the bonus damage from Minigun.

Commandeer Odin Is Tychus’s first option for a Heroic. When used he freezes for a bit (in which time he can’t be moved or stopped but can be hurt) and from the sky drops a stolen Dominion Blackhammer.

Yeah, the name is inaccurate in a way that only Starcraft nerds will notice, but the ability itself is pretty good.

it changes Tychus to a long range Aarea of Effect monster, giving him new abilities. A line attack, a circle attack where he fires missiles, and a dash that’s actually literally just Tychus’s normal dash. I guess it’s impressive they have booster rockets big enough to move the Blackhammer at all, but still. It’s notable that you cannot use Minigun for the duration: You’re trading your percent damage for higher base damage and the AoEs. The Blackhammer lasts 23 seconds and gives Tychus 25 armor, but he can still be killed while it is active.

Drakken Laser Drill is Tychus’s other heroic option. It places a laser drill that takes a little bit to set up, but has good range (it can out range buildings if placed right) and very nice constant damage. It can be broken by the enemy, so you generally want to put it out of the way a bit. It adds good damage to a fight, especially against one big enemy (like a boss, fort, or core) and is pretty easy to place. You can direct it if you want, but it will automatically re-target if an enemy dies or moves out of range. It lasts up to 22 seconds and lets you keep your full ability loadout.

Easy Build

This is the part of the guide where I give you some trait builds. This build here that I’m about to show you is NOT made to be great. It’s made to be easy: easy to pick up, easy to use, to help you learn the character. Active Traits and Quest Traits are going to be avoided as they’re kind of complex and can be confusing with a new character. Similarly, traits that make big changes to how an ability works are going to be avoided, since the idea is for you to get used to the core character. As a result, this build is not what you want to use for serious gaming with this character. 

However, by coincidence, it does result in a minigun-eager Tychus.

Level 1: Press the Advantage

The first level really chooses how you want Run and Gun to work. Here I have chosen a Talent that increases your range when the Ability is used, increasing its usefulness when chasing down enemies.

Level 4: Fully Loaded

Fully Loaded is a flat cooldown reduction on Minigun, making it even more forgiving if you use it and then realize that you need to do something else instead. With Fully loaded, there really is no reason to not use Minigun every time you go up against a hero.

(out of date as of 5/9/18: Fully Loaded was removed from the game. Wait, what? Why? Now that level only has two quest traits and The Bigger They Are. And they buffed The Bigger They Are? Why?! Just take Master Assassin for now, I haven’t tested it but it’s the only one that doesn’t make your life harder!)

Level 7: Quarterback

Ha ha, handegg joke. The solid increase to range isn’t all that needed by my personal estimation, but Concussion Grenade’s knockback increase can take a little getting used to if you’re not familiar with the fine details of positioning yet.

Level 10: (Player choice)

If I had to choose a raw easiest Heroic Ability, I’d choose the Odin. Just be away from the fight a little when you first use it and play smart. Still, neither one is all that difficult or reliant on team composition. Try them both and go with what you like.

Level 13: That’s the Stuff!

Lucky level 13! This is Tychus’s only self-healing, and it’s actually pretty good. The main issue is that it only heals you at the end of Minigun’s duration, and if you wind up switching to Overkill one second in to your Minigun duration there won’t be much healing. Consider this ‘bonus’ healing instead of reliable healing: it won’t really reliably save your bacon, but it will increase how long you can go between healing fountain stops.

Level 16: Lead Rain

Or maybe you don’t like slows as much as I do. That’s fine, actually all three talents at this level are pretty easy to pick up and reliable.

Level 20: (Your Heroic Ability’s Talent)

Both the Heroic Ability bonuses at this level are good, and neither one really complicates matters. Take the one that goes with your Heroic Ability of choice and enjoy!

The Kobold’s Wobbly Minigun Build

I can’t think of a theme for the second build today, so here’s just the build that I use for fun:

Level 1: Press the Advantage

Still good.

Level 4: In the Rhythm

While using Minigun, this Talent makes it so that hits on heroes make future Miniguns longer. At first it’s not a big thing, 1/3rd a second here, 1/4th there, but it all adds up and eventually you get a LOT of time on your gun!

Level 7: Concussion Grenade

This makes your grenade a high-end discombobulation device. If you get good with throws, you can not only completely ruin formations, but keep enemies from escaping or push them away when you don’t want to deal with them yet.

Level 10: (Player Choice)

If I know for a fact there’s a big target on the map in addition to the usual buildings (a boss that you need to beat on a regular basis like the golem on the mines map, for example) I generally take the Laser, it’s good for those boss situations and for siegeing. If it’s more likely I’ll get into normal teamfights (maps where you need to control points, for instance) I choose the Odin. That’s just my fast method, though. Do what you want!

Level 13: That’s the Stuff!

I’m, ah, not a very good player and sometimes wind up in bad situations, so the extra health is just very nice. Also means I’m less reliant on the sometimes very spotty support AI when playing AI games.

Update: As a reader pointed out, I should likely be more clear on the full effects of this choice. That’s the Stuff! only heals at the end of Minigun’s duration. In the Rhythm increases Minigun’s duration. As a result, it takes longer for you to get the healing, but you get larger amounts of healing. It’s an odd kind of tradeoff that requires a bit of clever play to make the most of, and it likely isn’t the best idea in particularly tight matches, but I personally enjoy it.

Level 16: Titan Grenade

I’m using it to push around heroes anyway, 5% damage straight up is no joking matter. I may also go for the other two depending on how I’m feeling, really depends on my mood.

Level 20: (Your Heroic Ability’s Talent) 

Yeah, no big surprise. You know, I really WANT to try Bob and Weave, but it just comes too late in the tree and the Heroic Ability talents are both REALLY good.

Really, Tychus’s entire Talent tree is really solid. If you like him, experiment. See what appeals to you!

[gamerszone2019-blog]

10 Things to Do to Prepare for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/10-things-to-do-to-prepare-for-monster-hunter-world-iceborne/

10 Things to Do to Prepare for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Monster Hunter: World alone has hundreds of hours of content (yes, really!) but don’t worry, you don’t have to put that much time into it to be prepared for the massive expansion, Iceborne, even though its Master Rank will be a good difficulty jump from High Rank.Now is a better time than ever to prepare since all of the Event Quests are back, too! This video is a quick look at what you should do, whether you’re new, Hunter Rank 50, or beyond. There’s a lot to cover, so if you need more details about any of it, make sure to check our comprehensive IGN Monster Hunter: World Wiki! Nearly every link in this article is to a guide, so click on anything you want more explanation for. Let’s begin!

1. Beat the Game!

Technically, rolling credits is the only thing you need to do in Monster Hunter: World to be able to access Iceborne’s storyline. If you rush, you can probably get through Monster Hunter: World’s story quests in about 40 hours, give or take. If you need help getting started, check out our Monster Hunter: World Beginner’s Guide!

But, Iceborne’s Master Rank—like previous Monster Hunter’s G-rank—s no joke. You’ll probably want to prepare more not only to shake off the cobwebs, but so the difficulty spike doesn’t feel like a brick wall. Expect the jump into Master Rank to feel similar to how it felt transitioning into High Rank from Low Rank. If you had the best Low Rank armor, you probably felt fine going into High Rank, while you likely had a tougher time if you started High Rank with early-game gear.

Make sure stock up on items so you’re prepared for quests. Here’s a list of recommended items to bring on quests in Monster Hunter: World

2. Master at Least One Weapon

Practice really does make perfect in a game like Monster Hunter: World, where skill is just about as important, if not more, as equipment. Completely master at least one weapon, two if you want to be prepared for anything! I switch based on the challenge at hand. For example, I learned the Bow because Bazelgeuse originally gave me a tough time when using my go-to, the Sword and Shield.

3. Become a True Armorsmith

Not every weapon and every playstyle goes well with just one armor set—and a set of pieces all from the same monster is rarely the best way to go. Choose Armor Skills that complement your playstyle and weapon and upgrade that armor set, and you’ll probably have a much easier time.

Personally, my favorite go-to set for Sword and Shield is built with a mix of defensive and offensive skills, like Health Boost, Evade Window, Weakness Exploit, Crit Boost, and a few more! For a support set, I run Wide-Range. You’ll want to collect Armor Decorations to help round out sets!

Try making a set to counter a specific monster if you’re having a tough time! Or, if you generally feel like you’re not doing enough damage, build for Affinity.

4. Collect Every Palico Gadget

You’ll earn Palico Gadgets by befriending the Grimalkynes in each Locale—or Gajalaka in Elder’s Recess. These are incredibly useful and can be leveled up, so get to finding Grimalkyne doodle’s to collect them all. The Palico Gadget Guide explains how to get them all.

5. Learn How Food Works

Yeah, getting the Chef’s Choice is tempting, but it’s not the best way to go. Collecting Canteen ingredients will open up a plethora of new food skills you can access for the Custom Platter. Find some skills you especially like, and save meal sets based off them. Or, at minimum, eat for the stat you need—like Elemental Resistance against Kirin. Make up for the lack of health with items like Max Potions!

If you’ve done all of your optional and delivery quests, but are still missing ingredients, that means you haven’t collected them all out in the wild. Try going on Investigations with an Upsurge on gathering spots, and gather at spots that sparkle. For example, when there’s an Upsurge: Conch Shells in the Coral Highlands, head through the small cave in the southeastern part of Sector 9 to find a spot to gather Violent Abalone, which will unlock a fish ingredient in the Resilience category. Perfect for getting a large Defense Boost and Felyne Moxie, which prevents fainting one time!

To be honest, I’ve only collected the Canteen ingredients for the skills I use a lot. I am a slacker.

6. Do Your Optional Quests!

Now we’re into the sort of, should do, but don’t really need to do category on the path to Iceborne. Every so often, an NPC will have an exclamation mark above their head, which probably means they have a quest to give out! Make sure to complete these Optional Quests (marked by a speech bubble in the quest list) to gain Canteen ingredients, hunter tools, access to new monsters, and more. And don’t forget to turn in Deliveries at the Resource Center for more important rewards as well – like the Iceproof mantle, which will obviously come in handy for Iceborne!

7. Collect Every Mantle and Booster

Note: This video is missing mantles that released after the game launched! See How to Unlock Every Mantle and Booster in Monster Hunter: World for guides for each.

Speaking of mantles, try to collect all hunter tools available which are useful for myriad reasons. One of the most useful ones—he Rocksteady Mantle—can’t be earned until you reach HR50! But, at the very least, unlock the Temporal Mantle, which grants near invulnerability for 90 seconds and only requires HR16.

First, complete the Special Assignment The Food Chain Dominator—which will unlock the Dragonproof Mantle—and then more on to the line of Special Assignments that begins with The Blazing Sun. This will also unlock the Lunastra, an Elder Dragon whose weapons are the bomb. They have Blast element (hah), skills baked into them, and decoration slots! They’re some of my very favorite weapons.

Our Deputy Reviews Editor, Tom Marks, reached this point at HR38 in 56 hours over the course of two and a half weeks—minus the tools locked behind a higher HR. You can do it too, especially if you have some help!

8. Unlock Augmentation

We’re not sure how exactly this will work in Iceborne, but Augmentation is a huge part of World’s current endgame. It involves reaching HR29 and then earning a rare Warrior’s Streamstone by completing Threat Level 2 Tempered Monster investigations. This will allow you to finally use the more common Streamstones you’ve probably collected along the way, giving you the ability to upgrade your armor’s defense even more. The Warrior’s and Hero’s Streamstones are strictly for adding special skills to your weapons, and are rare and weapon-specific.

9. Challenge Yourself

Are you still with me? Good! There are plenty of other challenges to conquer too, like the Final Fantasy XIV and Witcher 3 collaborations, which both, although greatly challenging, grant amazing rewards. Defeating Final Fantasy XIV’s Behemoth (which is no small feat (see the Behemoth Strategy Guide) will give you access to the amazing Drachen Armor. Want to cheese it? Head into the battle with just one friend and Palico equipped with the Plunderblade. Cut off the tail and break the horns (run Partbreaker), then return from the quest, and repeat.

The Witcher’s Special Assignment is solo-only, and has special side-quests that reward an Attack Jewel and more help from Gajalaka! You can also craft Witcher’s Silver Sword, an amazing SnS. You’ll have to take on the Ancient Leshen to upgrade it, which requires HR50, and is one of the most difficult fights in the game along with Extreme Behemoth. Ancient Leshen materials are also used for Zirael Dual Blades (Ciri’s weapons!).

Once you’re beyond Hunter Rank 50, you’ll then have access to the extremely challenging Event Quest-only Arch Tempered Elder Dragons and the new armor sets that come with them. If you’re going to defeat one of them, though—hunt the massive Kulve Taroth, which only requires HR16. Defeating her rewards incredible new Gold and White Gold weapons.

10. Do Event Quests

Best of all, all of these Arch Tempered Elder Dragons are around as Event Quests in Monster Hunter: World until August 29, 2019—along with most previous Event Quests. Here are the ones we recommend, listed under required Hunter Rank.

HR15 and Below:

Greeting the Gluttons

Vouchers that guarantee food skill activation

Every Hunter’s Dream

Wyvern Ignition Greatsword (it’s really good)

Triple Threat Throwdown

Armor Decorations. Wear Bandit Mantles in a full party for extra cash. Skip this if you can do HR50 quest The Greatest Jagras instead.

Wiggle Me This

The hilarious Wiggler Head

Mosswinin’ and Dinin (8/07 – 8/09 only)

For Golden Eggs, Armor Spheres, Faux Tickets for layered armor sets, and more. Note: Giant Mosswine will one-shot you, but are very weak to status effects, like stun. I had success using the Bow’s Arc Shot.

Rollin’ with the Uragaan

Armor Sphere+ and Advanced Armor Spheres

HR16

The Fury of El Dorado

Accept in the Gathering Hub for Kulve Taroth armor, tons of extra loot to sell for cash, and some of the best weapons in the game. See the Kulve Taroth Siege Guide for tips!

HR30 A Nose for an Eye / Snow and Cherry Blossoms / No Tomorrow for Usurpers

Large boost to Hunter Rank. Mainly just to get to HR50 so you can take advantage of The Greatest Jagras and The Name’s Lavasioth quests,

A Simple Task

Collect Tempered Monster tracks to unlock Tempered investigations

HR50

The Thronetaker and Relish the Moment

Sullied and Shining Streamstones

Tracking the Delivery

Collect Tempered Elder Dragon tracks to unlock Tempered Elder Dragon Investigations

The Greatest Jagras – (7/25 to 8/08) Best to farm BOXES of Armor Decorations – look at this image! This is normal!

The Name’s Lavasioth – ( 8/08 to 8/29) Also to farm boxes of Armor Decorations! Not quite as good as the Greatest Jagras though, so get to it.

Really, that’s it /s! Remember, for complete guides to everything mentioned, click on the links for helpful pages from our Monster Hunter: World: Wiki Guide! For even more game help, here are video playlists of every Monster Hunter: World Game Help stream (aka Monster Hunter Bootcamp) and Monster Hunter: World monster strategy guide videos (aka Monster of the Week) the writer of this article has done.

New Monsters in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

For more on Monster Hunter: World, check out these 9 Quality of Life Improvements in Iceborne, Gameplay and Impressions of Three New Iceborne Subspecies, and 34 New Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Impressions.

Casey DeFreitas is an Editor on the wikis team at IGN who loves monster hunting, slaying, and catching. Catch her on Twitter @ShinyCaseyD.

Source : IGN

[lostsolsdestinyblog]

Ways Bungie can begin to right the ship again.

1. Start not just listening to, but actually engaging in conversations with the average player. We all understand the power and influence that the big names have with their massive followings, but they aren't the entire community and 100% have proven to not share the regular player's thoughts on the direction this game should have headed.

We are 4 days into Season of the Drifter and these forums have been filled with posts giving feedback on why players have been disappointed with it and where the game is right now, and there isn't a single Bungie reply to any of them. I have huge respect for the community team and everything I know they have done for this community and I think they get a ton of grief that isn't deserved, but I also think it's beyond time to retire "we're listening'' and to start talking with the players on the forums and asking follow up questions and engaging throughout threads.

Drive-by community management didn't work in 2014 and it's not working in 2019. When a big name influencer can post complaining about snipers and there's a pinned post asking for sniper feedback the next day and we constantly see big names engaged with when they complain about things, but then 7 months of infusion complaints get ignored outside of one statement 6 1/2 months in, that's not a healthy, functioning feedback loop.

2. Get rid of meaningful infusion. I don't care how many people go into the complaint posts to call others lazy or to say it's not an issue. It is an issue and it's cost you thousands of players for literally no added value in-game. If anyone wants to wear and try whatever drops for them, they can. We don't need how we play constantly dictated and forced.

3. Stop constantly dictating and forcing how we play. I loved D1 and D2 Y1 where I could play what I enjoyed. Sometimes it was strikes, sometimes raids, sometimes crucible, sometimes patrol, sometimes a bit of all of it, but when I really got into an activity, I loved being able to log on and play what I enjoyed at the time. Now we have to play everything to level.

"Oh it's just Bungie getting people to try different things''

I've played the game since launch. I'm not a child and I don't need Bungie to force me to sit at the table and eat my veggies if I don't like my veggies. If we like Crucible or strikes or whatever, we should be able to get lost in those activities for hours, days and weeks if we want and not be punished for it by not being able to keep progressing in leveling.

4. Fix the leveling system. This new model of constantly having to go back and grind the same content over and over for another 50 levels is not good and there's literally no point to a level increase this season. Tier 3 Reckoning? All three tiers could've been tuned to be endgame without raising the power cap.

The initial grind was insane. It took me 2 1/2 months to get to 600 and I played hundreds of hours. I said then that I was okay with it if we didn't have to immediately turn around and do it again, and sure enough, I got 2 weeks at 600 before it went to 650. That's not why I play this game. I'm not here to constantly grind levels. I haven't played my Titan or Warlock since the end of November because it's too much and the game doesn't respect my time.

Now there are the bounties to allow us to level lower characters quickly, but then it's a 24 Infusion core investment just to equip the PL 640 gear once players get there. Hope players had stockpiles when they stopped playing. Oh and then good luck with everything dropping one PL over character level/

The way we level and the power drop system has been broken since Forsaken launched as well. Its great there are powerful bounties everywhere to let players have lots of options to play, but we should also be able to keep progressing by playing what we want. The fact that rank rewards for valor and infamy (that take hours to rank up) drop 20-30 power below or character is a joke and one more thing that doesn't respect our time.

Right now there's backlash over powerful drops and even big names are starting to complain about drops in general. Regular legendaries have been token blues since Forsaken launched. They give us nothing. Why would they drop so low that they can't even raise up gear pieces that won't drop for us elsewhere? It's insanely frustrating to get 7, 8, 9 powerful drops in a row that aren't ups because they're lower than the equipped spot, but still one higher that our character level because a Class item refused to drop and is 10-12 power below our level.

If regular legendaries could drop within 5 of our character level, they could still have meaning and help us progress. Also to the drops one over our character level, that's great for daily bounties, but weeklies should have been at least 3 over since launch. It was ridiculous that the Dreaming City was the only place outside of the raid to get decent level drops for so long and made me hate going there after months grinding it.

5. Give PvE a Valor/Infamy equivalent and again, give substantial rewards for ranking up and not some garbage legendary 30 below our power that we've gotten a hundred times.

6. Fix matchmaking across all of PvP and start building the crucible for everyone and not just the top 10%. 4 1/2 years of listening to the people with the highest kds and the rest of us not getting a say because apparently kds=knowledge has shown pretty definitively that the more influence they have; the more everyone hates the Crucible.

7. Recognize that a hell of a lot of people log on and play this game solo and start factoring that into design decisions. I understand it's a multiplayer game and that's wonderful, but building in better playability, be it solo matchmaking, better/more matchmaking for endgame activities like Nightfalls and raids, or endgame content tuned to be equally challenging run solo or in fireteams as D1 Y1 Nightfalls were as the difficulty scaled to team size, it can be better.

8. Stop defaulting to RNG for everything and respect player’s time more. Whether in titles, gear, weapons, leveling, whatever, RNG has a place and function, but it is not and should not be the end-all-be-all.

9. Update the Planet vendors and bring back the Faction vendors with either new gear or at the very least year one gear updated with year 2 perks and new rolls. I have no issue with the Eververse changes that were made this season, but I do have an issue with EV getting new armor, ships, ghosts, sparrows, shaders and emotes every single season and the actual game Planet vendors haven't gotten a single new gear piece since launch.

This game is starved for loot and there's more new content in the EV store this season than in the actual game itself. That's a really big problem.

10. Let us re-roll our armor. It's insane that it's basically impossible to ever get an exotic armor piece with perks that benefit how we play, but it's not just exotics that need to be able to be rerolled. The current system is one of many that exist to just be ultra-punishing thinking it will make us want to grind forever to get a perfect set. It doesn't.

What's more, rerolling would be an incredible way to have an actual rewarding material sink if done right. Infusion as a mat sink is hot garbage. Rerolling would be an actual reward for effort.

11. I know that players gave feedback in the past that we liked arenas and it's great there have been more, but we don't need a new one every single content release. Again, it's another example of Bungie and extremes. PoE was cool, CoE was awesome. CoO was meh. Archon's Forge was cool. Escalation Protocol was great if we could get more than 3 together in it. Blind Well was fun for a couple months. Haunted Forest was actually one of the best things the game has ever seen and a brilliant rework of the lackluster Infinite Forest. The Forges were okay for a few runs each. Now we have the Reckoning.

I sense a pattern here. Destiny is all in on Arenas, but what do all of them have in common?

They're all activities that took up I'm guessing a ton of development time and resources to ultimately all be left behind shockingly fast. I'm not saying we shouldn't have them or more of them, but I am saying that they should stay relevant a hell of a lot longer and we shouldn't need a new one every single content release, especially when we don't see things like more Dungeons and Whisper type quests that have been genuine highlights across the full community spectrum.

12. K.I.S.S. Destiny is a game and at the end of the day the point is to have fun, to be entertained and to escape to its worlds; not to be bottlenecked, spoon fed, hand held, and made to feel like it's a job or punishment and the minute players start giving feedback that things just aren't fun, take a step back and ask if things are being over-complicated and what it is that makes it FUN (for everyone), and then ask questions and engage with everyone and not just the ones everyone knows.

Thank you.

[nova-wolf-actual]

My Breath of the Wild analysis

I’m a pretty big fan of the Legend of Zelda.  Maybe not the biggest fan.  I couldn’t name 5 of Mikau’s albums or anything, but it’s been one of my favorite franchises for a while.  I remember playing Ocarina of Time for the first time at my grandmother’s. Admittedly, the forest temple was a bit too much for my stupid dumb kid brain, so Saria had to wait just a little while longer for me to find her, and get her sagely blessing.  Before failing miserably at that, I remember the strong sense of mourning and dread when walking out of the Temple of Time into Hyrule Castle Town (and also being horrified by the abominations that are ReDead). This was exacerbated in Hyrule Field, but was coupled with this sense of amazement and wonderment at this devastated world.  Later on, I’d convince procure a strategy guide to help me and my inability to solve simple puzzles, but I won’t forget the impact the game had on me.  

Flash forward several years, and several titles later.  I have thoroughly enjoyed all of it, and I love the lore behind it all.  As well as the je ne sais quoi the franchise carries. The quirk, and the charm.

Just a few weeks ago, Breath of the Wild was released.  I knew it was going to be awesome and a blast to play, but I didn’t expect it to rope me in like it has.  It has all the childhood awe of expanse and scale that I thought Ocarina of Time had, but immensely larger.  I was impressed by Twilight Princess for that, but this is on an incredible level. The fact that after all of these hours I’ve put into the game, and I still have only really breached the surface of everything there is to do and see is astounding to me.  All of the mechanics in the game are so rewarding for spending hours in the game just exploring, too.  I think perhaps the fact that there isn’t much of a conventional leveling system for every great effort that you do (e.g. your stamina doesn’t increase for climbing, you have no strength attribute that grows with every fight won, etc.) is a very wise choice.  In fact, a leveling system wouldn’t fit the narrative at all, despite it fitting the mold otherwise to have that in place.  It’s a bit obvious, so I won’t pretend this is some great revelation.  As the hero (that’s Mr. Hero to the Koroks), you have all the skills you should need to defeat Calamity Ganon, you just need to remember them.  As you learn, you were a great warrior to rise up the ranks; so great in fact you’re awarded the accolade of being Princess Zelda’s personal knight.  You’ve just forgotten all of your own abilities, and all of your memories.  So somehow being able to level up wouldn’t really make sense at all.  The only arguably method of leveling Link is through the completion of shrines, as for every 4 spirit orbs you receive you can add either a heart container, or a quarter of a wheel of stamina.

In an unconventional leveling sense, though, I think the game excels at that.  As you progress to more difficult areas, you find stronger weapons, better ingredients, and more diverse and stronger armor [as well as the ability to strengthen it through the befriending (bribing?) of the bodacious and flirtatious Great Fairies].  I’ve found myself really enjoying that particular system.  Speaking of weapons, they break.  Some weapons last only a few hits, as others will see you through many battles.  Normally I would hate this, as weapon degradation is such a crappy mechanic 9/10 times.  In my opinion, Breath of the Wild is that 1 out of 10 times.  I think that it works because of the ways the game gives you to see through the puzzles and battles in your own way.  It causes you to think (but not always forces you, sometimes pure prowess during fights will allow you to tackle even the toughest of enemies with shoddy weapons) each battle through, to examine your environments and realize different tactics to execute your targets.  It certainly isn’t the only game to offer this, but it does it in a somehow very refreshing way.  It also affords you the opportunity to actually learn the enemies.  I think basically what I’m trying to say is that it gives a tactical and strategic element to the Legend of Zelda that hasn’t really been there before.  Also, in a very weak argument for it, it brings back pleasant memories of Way of the Samurai 2 (short of being able to strengthen your weapons so that they never break) and the weapon system in that game.  In another parallel to that game, the random encounters with assassins is very reminiscent.

I also want to touch on something that really tickles me pink.  The characters are so lovely.  And so many of them are hot [like wtf!?  Link, Zelda, Sidon (wtf?), Urbosa, etc.  This isn’t really worth delving into, but there’s a lot of hotties in this installment of Hyrule].  They have that really bizarre yet endearing oddity and quirkiness that would leave the game remiss were it not there.  Even the random NPCs that don’t particularly matter still seem so full of life.  I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and I think that’s done so well because of the fact that you’re left to your own devices for so long that when you do come across a random encounter, or a small town full of unique characters, it makes you feel drawn to them.  Almost as if you’ve been out in isolation for so long that you’re not quite attuned to the way this new, 100 years in the future from your time, society operates, yet you’re still enamored by them.  To learn who they are.  And it’s handled well.  Some may not have very many interactions at all, and my cycle through the same two things every time you talk to them, but even still it just has so much…  Character. It feels like a living, breathing world.

Another point I want to make: the gameplay is so fun.  I truly feel like I can do anything.  I can go anywhere, I can see what I want to, I can take on (and die to) whatever enemy I feel like, and I am not constrained by normal conventions.  I’ve found myself climbing to incredibly tall peaks just to ravel in the visa, or even just to jump off and see how far I can glide.  I’ll surmount a hill just to turn around and shield-surf down.  It’s been a good long while since I’ve felt the desire to just “play” in a video-game world.  Breath of the Wild allows the perfect place to do just that.  To just enjoy myself doing menial, non-consequential things. It’s okay to be aimless.  To take a breather and just bask in the sun, or splash in puddles.  It offers a perfect escapism that I think couldn’t have come a better time.  It’s almost akin to the type of non-serious “at-my-own-pace” gameplay of Animal Crossing.  It lets you just exist.

I won’t pretend there aren’t some issues with the game (and also Switch as a platform, but that’s a different discussion).  There are some resolutions to side-quests that are pretty lack luster.  They offer no follow up.  It wouldn’t have to be in depth, but would complete the quest in a more satisfying way (I really want to know what became of the creepy guy when we fuck his world up with telling him the girl at the inn wants 100 crickets! There should’ve been some sort of dialogue there).  It would also be nice for some post main-quest recognition (this is a problem I have with a lot of video games.  I’m fucking looking hard at you, Skyrim), though I understand in a free-form open world game this would be very very taxing.  There also isn’t a lot of diversity in the recipes you can learn. I guess this isn’t as big of a problem, as different added ingredients beyond the original recipe just serve to strengthen (or slightly alter) the result.  I just feel like with the myriad of different ingredients, there should be more dishes to be made.  

I really, really love the development of Zelda (this is why the Captured Memories quest is really good to complete!).  She’s way more multi-faceted in this title.  She displays flaws and strengths.  Insecurities while still maintaining poise.  She seems way more 3D of a character than what she’s been given in the past (Though, Zelda playable character when?).  It isn’t the greatest, but it’s the best the franchise has seen.

All-in-all, this title has proven itself to be my favorite in the franchise.  It has its lows as do all games, but its highs are incredible. It has captured me in a way that I haven’t felt in a very long time.  It feels a bit hard to swallow, in a way.  I’ve latched on to Ocarina of Time for so long (maybe for nostalgia?) that it saying another title in the franchise feels alien.  But it’s the future now.  So I’m going to be alien.  I adore Breath of the Wild.  

[annakie]

Thoughts on Andromeda, Part Three

*edit* I’m going to just call all my Andromeda text-and-pic posts from here on out Thoughts on Andromeda and remove that “First few hours” since I want to make this an ongoing thing.

I finished the trial, and by that I mean, I played 10 hours.  I did not get to any “end point”, haha.  I game slow and methodically, talking to everyone, scanning every thing, etc.

Spoiler free: I can’t wait to play more.  I’m so mad I can’t finish up what I was in the middle of.  I can’t believe I have to wait until TUESDAY to continue, and even then I have to go to work all day first.  It’ll be torture.

Also, since apparently the trial I downloaded wasn’t the special edition I’d ordered, I didn’t get the items I was supposed to etc. for the edition I ordered.  I uninstalled the trial version I got and am re-installing the correct version now. I’m not sure if I hope I can pick back up where I was or if I’d be cool with starting over.  I’m sure I can make it back to where I was in more like, 6 hours knowing what I know now about where to go, what’s useful and what’s not, knowing what conversations are going to happen where, how to solve some quests, etc.

Did I have more graphics glitches?  Yep.  Were they anything more than minor distractions?  Nope. Am I enjoying the hell out of myself and this game? Hell yeah.

OK enough with the spoiler-free.  Let’s get into it, with abounding spoilers.  And screenshots!

When I left off, I was wandering around Habitat 7, trying to find all the things.  I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and lost as I stopped playing Thursday night, but I was also super tired so, that played into it.   Picking back up finally this morning, I was ready to go.

I quickly appreciated how, although there were a lot of mountains and pits in the area, there were still a couple of routes to get to / from each objective in the area.  I was slightly annoyed that I was pretty far away from the storyline objective when Cora started calling for help, since I still had a couple of other things to get to.  So I put her on the back burner and tracked to the couple of objectives I still needed to get to.  One of which, I’d already been to.  I would have liked some kind of “Hey you’ve seen what you need to see in this location” marker.

Found Cora, helped out, and started at this point to get combat a little better, especially after my first level up and putting some points into some things.  I’d already explored the area where Dad had made his way to, it was nice to get a bit of dialog from Liam mentioning we’d already been there.

I’m going to spend most of this review posting a screenshot and talking about the person or scene in that shot, rather than just big blocks of text.  Incoming!

It was, honestly, a comfort seeing that N7 armor again, even if “I” wasn’t wearing it.  The mission with Dad was a bit reminiscent of ME3′s opening with Anderson, though it was nice to keep both Cora and Liam with me.  The entire charge was hectic, and fun, and I felt like I barely had time to scan things and maybe missed some loot along the way.  

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I’d bumped my graphics settings up to Ultra for this, just to see how my 4gb GTX 960 would handle it. The rest of my system is starting to get pretty dated, though I still am at or above minimum specs, with the graphics card hitting near rec’d specs.  I dropped from 60fps pretty solid at High settings to 30fps at ultra, but nothing else was too bad.  I later bumped back down to High, and couldn’t tell too much difference.  

I super appreciate the already nice textures.  Nothing looked mushy, like most things do in the first three games.  Except for hair, hopefully nothing NEEDS to be re-textured.

I’d been spoiled about Alec Ryder’s fate thanks to not having my spoiler tags set up yet, or maybe just poking my nose into posts where it shouldn’t have been yet, and it was sad, but also a great scene.

And absolutely visually stunning.  It did a great job of setting up mystery.  So far the opening hours have been setting up question after question, every little bit you learn opens up dozens more questions.  

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I would have liked to have a little bit more emotion out of Ryder when learning her father’s fate.  I had been choosing almost all emotional answers... upper right when available, lower right if only the lower options are available, and tried to RP Ryder as being as close as possible to her father, or at least understanding, so I hoped for maybe a little more shock and sadness about her father’s death but... maybe there’s more to come than I’ve seen of that so far.

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I want to just send some love and applause to Natalie Dormer for her work as Lexit T’Perro.  She’s so good I actually forget I’m talking to Natalie Dormer. I’m SO GLAD she’s gonna be on the ship with us full time!

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My heart melted a little when Liam gave this look.  Liking Liam more and more as I spend time with him.  The “shooting the dead thing too much” scene was a little cringe-y, I admit, but way less than some reviewers have lead me to believe.

Still loving his VA.

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This cutscene was... interesting, I feel like we don’t know ANYTHING about the Kett or their motivations so far, but also, let’s give Bioware some time to set up a story.  The Geth seemed to be set up to be the villains of the series when all we had was Eden Prime.

When I was watching the scene I thought “Someday, I’m going to play through the game a second or tenth time and finally care about this scene and understand its motivations.”  Right now it felt like a generic baddie reveal, there to put forth even more questions.

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That said, I was ready to start getting into the meat and potatoes of the game, and was excited when things started progressing and we got to the Nexus.

My heart skipped a little, seeing it so reminiscent of the Citadel, and this scene clearly was made to echo that first, iconic Citadel approach, but with something very, very wrong. I almost could have done with a little more creepy abandoned Nexus atmospheric exploration, but there will be plenty of time for exploring creepy abandoned places, I’m sure.

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It was a fun introduction to this guy, though.

I wonder how many Shakarians immediately went to google to see if he’s romanceable. :)  I admit, I actually wondered. I like him so far.

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The game did a great job of introducing you to the important characters on the Nexus.  My ONLY quibble is that it did the “Oh here’s 4 people to talk to in ANY ORDER feel free to go in any order but if you talk to a certain one of them first the quest completes!” thing.  I had to reload, but just mashed spacebar over the dialog I had to see again.

Oh that’s a neat feature -- if you hit the spacebar once instead of auto-skipping dialog it brings up a small dialog box saying “Press Space to skip” so you get an extra chance to not accidentally skip dialog if you didn’t want to.  That came in handy once or twice.

So anyway... 

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I love her and want to subscribe to her newsletter.  So glad we get a regular female Krogan around again.  Really interested in finding out more about her.  I am kind of torn on their Genophage semi-cure thing, but I am glad they addressed it.  It’s a believable explanation, at least.  I like to think Mordin had a hand in the genetic improvements.

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Not a fan of her, though we’re clearly not supposed to be.  I’m guessing she’s either going to turn out to be evil or your “person you hate but they save your ass anyway” frienemy at some point.

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Look, I want to not like or trust him, because there’s fairly strong echos of Anoleis here, but he’s voiced by Kumail Nanjiani, who I adore so.... I kind of love him already.  

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I know he was just part of a side quest, one I have already finished, but I hope he hangs around.

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I got a little teary-eyed at this.  Glad to see we’re still going to be collecting ships.

And I mean... I totally did get a little choaked up hearing Liara’s letters and log entries.  It was a really great slice of “home”.  Liara is far from my fave (I like her and all, just... not in my Top 8) but... it was great to hear her voice.

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I really appreciated Mom-Ryder actually looking like my F!Ryder.  And seeing the Citadel again, even just a small room, and people talking about the council and all, another small slice of home, even one that happened before ME1.

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Okay, that’s part 1.  Since we have a long wait til the game unlocks tomorrow, I’ll probably do a Part 2 at some point, because I have so. many. thoughts, and haven’t even finished talking about the Nexus or started on the Tempest or planet scanning or Eos yet.

[fitocracy]

Fitocracy Member Spotlight - VitVit18

Figure skater and 5 year veteran of our site ! I’d say this is long over due !

Username and level

VitVit18, level 41

How did you find the site? How has it changed your workouts?

I first found Fito from my cousin-in-law (@Jon_Zombie) cross posting his workouts on his social media.  Fito has inspired me in so many ways!  When I started on here I had only started regularly hitting the gym 4 months prior, and my fellow Fitocrats provided the support I needed to keep going.

Do you have any long term goals or direction you plan to take your training?

My gym workouts have always been to supplement my true passion - figure skating.  While I'm not a great skater, I love it more than almost anything else in my life.  With skating, I have a few "big" goals: compete at the International Adult Figure Skating Competition in Oberstdorf, Germany (I don't hit the age qualification for a couple of years yet); and to pass my Gold Level patterned ice dance and skating skills tests.  A lot of people don't really realize that figure skating tasks almost all of the main pillars of fitness, so my off-ice is full of lifting, jumping, and balance.

How could I talk about my long-term goals without talking about the CN Tower Stair Climb?  I've been doing it since 2013 and I couldn't imagine kicking off my spring-time without a climb!  It's 1776 steps of pure awesomeness.  My record is 23:23, and I hope to improve on it again this year.

Other than that, in 2017 I am on a quest to try 52 new things.  New exercises, new activities, anything!  I asked for suggestions from the Fito community a little while ago and I got some great responses!  I can't wait to try some new things!

What are things you’ve learned through trial and error? What areas do you hope to learn more about?

For me, the hardest thing that I've had to learn through trial and error is balance.  How to balance a full-time job, coaching (10+ hours a week between 3 different programs), skating, gym workouts, a relatively new found love of lindyhopping and ballroom dance, family, a significant other in another city, and still be sane.  Truth is, my day planner rarely leaves my side!  My workouts and skating are "me" time, and I try to squeeze a little of some of it into everyday whether it's a walk or calf raises while making a coffee.

I'd love to learn more about nutrition and Olympic lifting.  Nutrition is key to everything (and one of my biggest struggles).  Olympic lifting, I love the explosiveness to it and it seems to translate well to stuff not only in figure skating but an many of the ice sports.

Currently, where would you say your weakness lies? Where do you excel?

My biggest weakness is definitely nutrition.  I have a giant sweet tooth and it's my downfall all the time.  I try to mitigate it as best I can, but I struggle a lot.

I don't know if there's one place where I really excel.  I'm sure there is one, but it doesn't come to mind straight away.  In my opinion, there's always more to learn and room to grow.

What motivates you?

Growth.  This whole journey started as a way to get both physically and mentally strong.  I can definitely say that I have seen both over the last 5 years.  Also, clothes that fit 10+ years ago being too big now is a pretty good motivator!

Are you using any supplements or special dietary changes to achieve your goals?

When I started working out, I also started Meatless Mondays.  This has been a great way for me to explore my protein options outside of just meat.  I also do a whey isolate protein shake on days when I do strength workouts, and daily vitamin supplements.  Other than that, I haven't really done any more conscious changes, though I do notice I read the food labels a whole lot more!

If you could give advice to someone starting off, what would you tell them?

Do something you like.  It doesn't matter how well you do it, just go for it!  People will always give you their opinion if you like it or not, so the best thing to do is to listen to what you want to do.

What’s your ‘secret weapon’, the thing that pushes you or you feel gives you an edge?

My dedication and drive.  When my sister (@Allicakes) and I were kids we used to joke that she had the raw talent and I had the dedication.  I'd be the first on the ice and last off everyday and still come last in competition and struggle with my tests.  My sister on the other hand would goof around during her practices and still podium at competition and pass almost every test.  I think that now as an adult, those struggles when I was younger has made me a better and more grateful skater as an adult.

What has the overall impact of Fitocracy been in your life?

Oh Fitocracy, how I love you!  You have pushed me when I felt defeated.  You have been one of my biggest cheering sections over the last 5 years.  You have challenged me to push myself further than I think I ever would have without you!

One thing I want people to take away from my story is…

Be dedicated, be driven, and never give up on your goals and dreams.

[grimandstickmod]

The Master’s Test(Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Quest)

Alright, so a friend of mine here on tumblr is having trouble with The Master’s Test, a difficult quest in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. For those of you struggling with it, hopefully this will help.

PLEASE NOTE: I main the Charge Blade/Charge Axe in MH4U, and this is how I completed this quest. Other weapon users will have different strategies, strengths, weaknesses, and loadouts. If you have trouble with the Charge Blade/Axe, or it’s a weapon you’re unfamiliar with, try a different weapon. Don’t push yourself out of your area of expertise.

That being said, the loadout I used, as well as the items I carried, will be below the cut. Good luck Hunters!

Alright, first things first: The weapon. Chernobog’s Scythe Charge Blade. Fully upgraded, honed for Life. Base damage w/o armor is 828, with 250 Sleep damage, and an Affinity of 45%. One decoration slot available.

Next, the armor. Grand Mizuha set(G Rank Chameleos armor). All five pieces are sitting at level 11, with 143 defense per piece. Helm, chest, and gloves have all available slots filled with Grinder Jewels(providing 8/10 needed for Speed Sharpening, which makes using your whetstones a “one and done” event). Belt slots are loaded with Earplug Jewel 1(3/15 for HG Earplugs, the armor set providing the other 12/15 needed for the skill), and the two slots in the boots are Heat Res Jewel 1(2/10 Heat Resistance) and Grinder Jewel 1(giving you Speed Sharpening mentioned earlier).

The talisman: +10 Psychic, second skill is unimportant. Loaded with three Psychic Jewel 1(Providing the skill Autotracker, which makes it impossible for you to lose a monster and negates the use of paintballs).

Now, on to the items: As always, you should carry ten each of Potions, Mega Potions, and Honey as well as your Powertalon, Powercharm, Armortalon, and Armorcharm. Lifepowder and Dust of Life are welcome, as well as some Max Potions and an Ancient Potion. For this particular fight, these items are a must-have: A full stack of Smoke Bombs, Large Barrel Bombs, Large Barrel Bomb+, one of both trap types, Nulberries, Adamant Pills, Dung Bombs, and Tinged Meat. Portable Steam Bombs and Whetstones are also necessary for this fight.

If you know how to use them against Diablos, bring some Sonic Bombs, too. You shouldn’t really have much space left, but if you can fit some Mega Dash drinks in, I highly recommend it.

Before you go into the fight, try and eat for Pyro AND Foodie. If you can get one but not the other, eat for Pyro(Meat and alcohol). Also, and this is important, grab either a defense or offense Wystone AND the Drive Wystone. You cannot put a monster to sleep when it’s Apex.

Now, for the fight itself. Prepare your aft end, for this WILL be a close call. Once you’ve looted the chest in the base camp, pay attention to the positions of the monsters in the next room. The left door will put you by the Seregios, and the right door by the Diablos. You’ll want to take out the Seregios first, as that razor-sharp pinecone is physically weaker than the Diablos. Wait for both of them to have their backs to you, then quickly go out the left door and use a Smoke Bomb. Get the Seregios’ attention and periodically sheathe your weapon to drop another Smoke Bomb. If you’re quick about it, the Seregios will be ready to carve before you run out of Smoke Bombs. Quickly carve the body and go off to one side of the arena away from the Diablos. While you still have the smoke cover, drop a Tinged meat, then go after the Diablos.

At this point, you’ve probably fought some Diablos before, so you should be roughly familiar with its patterns. That being said, this one will hit like a runaway freight train, especially when it’s Apex. If you can avoid as many hits as possible while getting a few in yourself, you should be able to get the sucker to fall asleep. Stack some bombs on its head(Make sure you save some for Deviljho) and let loose with an Ultra burst(Five phials loaded into the shield, five phials filled. If you’re not sure what an Ultra is, check this video). If you’re familiar with Ultra bombing, then you should be able to gauge the distance between you and the bomb’s blast radius. If you gauge it correctly, you won’t get blasted as well as the monster. Gauge it wrong, you get sent flying. Either way, save a few bombs for the Deviljho and get off as many Ultras as you can onto the sleeping monster’s head.

Some time during your bout with the Diablos, Deviljho MAY appear in the arena. If it happens quickly enough, he may go straight for the meat you planted a little bit ago. Either way, quickly use a Smoke Bomb(if you have any left) and plant a Tinged Meat. Then, lure the Diablos to the side of the arena opposite Deviljho. You’ll be able to use the arena’s divider, but you MUST be quick about it. If you aren’t fast enough, Jho will break free of their paralysis and/or Diablos will run you down. Or, alternatively, you’ll have both monsters on one side and you on the other... or all three of you locked into one half of the arena. Neither of those last two options are pleasant. With good timing on your part, you’ll be able to lock the Diablos in one half of the arena with you. Doing so should give you time to kill and carve it, but only if you act fast. Do it right, and it’ll just be you and Jho.

You’ve fought some Deviljho before, right? Right. Still, it’s a good thing you’ve brought some brown pants. You... did bring brown pants, right? Since the other two monsters are out of commission, it’s just you and Jho. No doubt you’ve already used some of your Mega Potions and will have to quickly craft some more without getting ripped to shreds. Keep your Wystones and dung bombs ready at all times, and don’t worry about sparing the barrel bombs. When Deviljho is snoozing away, stack them on his head and crack that skull with an Ultra or three. Don’t be afraid about getting aggressive, cause you still have to beat the clock as well as the monsters. If you haven’t used them by now, use those two traps on Jho once you’ve knocked the Frenzy out of him. They’ll give you a chance to pile on some damage. If you can, scatter some Tinged meat around the Arena. The small window of time that provides may be enough to tip things in your favor.

[ciathyzareposts]

10 Reasons I’m Still Blogging About CRPGs After 10 Years

In case you’re not already aware, the 10th anniversary of the CRPG Addict is coming up on 15 February 2020. Other than my marriage, which turns 21 this month, I can’t think of anything that I’ve stuck with for 10 years. Since 2010, I’ve moved five times (it will soon be six), switched primary jobs three times, started and abandoned dozens of diet and exercise programs, made and lost several friends, and, if we’re being honest, even tried to quit the blog once. Spoiler: it didn’t work.

In recognition of my 10th anniversary, I’ve decided that for the next four months, I will periodically pen a special entry plumbing this project’s past. I’ve written down several ideas but I would welcome more:

        The 10 best comments ever received

10 times I was very wrong

10 great discoveries

The 10 most frustrating threads

            But I’m starting today–mostly because I haven’t done enough with Fantasyland 2041 to round out a full entry–with my list of 10 reasons I’m still pursuing this hopeless task to play all CRPGs.

10. Commentary on art is important.

In thinking about art, in analyzing it, in discussing it, we make it part of us; we make it live in a way that transcends the creator’s pen or brush. One of the things I was “very wrong” about is when I agreed with Roger Ebert that video games are not art. At first I thought I was wrong because of a failure of definition: “art” is too complex a concept to be subjected to, to be generalized with, an “is.” Now I think I was wrong just because I was wrong. You hardly have to twist the definition of “art” to make it encompass video games; you only have to abandon certain unfortunate prejudices. 

Perhaps the most important proof that video games are art is the level of critique that they provoke. Over the last 10 years, you and I have dissected hundreds of games and discussed how their plots, themes, mechanics, and artwork do and do not work, do and do not satisfy, on every level from aesthetic to socio-political. These are the same discussions that people have about paintings, books, films, and music.

I believe that there is incredible value to this commentary–not because either the art or the commentary is necessary to human existence, but precisely because it isn’t. The measure of a great civilization must surely be how much time it devotes to unnecessary things. Oh, we certainly have some lingering problems, but what more testament do you need to our victories over hunger, disease, and violence than the existence of Keeping up with the Karashians, pet chiropractors, and a blog that spends decades chronicling every video game in a niche genre?

9. It’s a nice contrast with reality.

To protect my anonymity, I don’t discuss my “real” job on my blog. But suffice to say it’s unlike playing computer role-playing games. It does not involve any art or entertainment, or the creation thereof, or the consumption thereof. It is worldly and necessary, about making existence sufferable rather than actually enjoyable  I’m not going to pretend that I play computer role-playing games as an antidote–I was addicted to them long before I had this job–but certainly this blog, in contrasting with the work I do during the rest of the day, fills my life with more variety than I would otherwise enjoy.

8. It makes me a better writer.

Communication skills are important in just about every profession and every walk of society. Because of this blog, I’ve written over 2 million words, the equivalent of about 5 door-stopper novels, in less than a decade. I’ve certainly put in the 10,000 hours that are supposed to make you an expert at something.

7. I learn things.

Once, I scoffed at the idea that RPGs actually taught you anything. But 10 years later, I find myself with a nascent ability to read German, much greater knowledge of the history and culture of Finland, a better understanding of classical mythology, and a large number of new technical skills. A lot of this learning, of course, has less to do with the games than with the discussions that we have on the blog, but this post is about why I’m still blogging, not just playing.

6. Maybe one day I’ll work on an RPG.

The more I think about it, the more I think it would be fun to participate in the development of an actual game. I can’t bring any technical skill to such an endeavor, but at least I can say that I have overall subject matter skill.

5. It’s making me some pocket money.

This obviously isn’t a major consideration because I only started my Patreon account this year. But thanks to my awesome supporters, I’m taking Irene to Chicago in a couple of weeks. This makes her feel a lot better about the time I spent on the blog.

4. It captures what might otherwise be forgotten.

In the last 10 years, we’ve uncovered and exhaustively explored many games that would have been utterly lost otherwise. I’m not the only one doing this, of course–Jimmy Maher and Matt Barton deserve particular accolades. But I like that I play a unique niche in this community by often being the only one to fully play a game from beginning to end.

3. I no longer feel like I’m wasting time playing CRPGs. I used to beat myself up–a lot–for how much time I spent on computer role-playing games. I felt particularly bad about playing them to the exclusion of doing things with Irene. I haven’t felt that way in a long time. The blog “legitimizes” my hobby in a way that I wouldn’t have anticipated–not only because it’s my blog but because it engages me in discussions with other fans of the genre. Prior to 2010, my CRPG addiction was a solitary, lonely, shameful experience. Post-2010, it is a community experience that adds value to a global understanding of this art form. What a change.

2. I really enjoy the discussions.

Early on, I thought that I would probably keep blogging even if I didn’t have any commenters, just because I enjoyed the experience of blogging itself. Now, I’m not so sure. I think my blog would be missing something without all of the great comments that expand, supplement, and sometimes correct my own observations. I find myself looking forward to what certain commenters will have to say about certain aspects of a game, and I eagerly check in with comments a few hours after each posting.

1. I still think I can make it.

I don’t know why I persist in this delusion. I can see for myself how many games lie both behind me and ahead of me on the “master list.” And yet some part of me believes that I’ll reject a lot of them, or that the process will go faster as they get more “playable,” or that I’ll somehow find a lot more time to spend on the project. Either way, my quest to be the One Man who has played all computer RPGs continues with Fantasyland 2041. Very soon.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/10-reasons-im-still-blogging-about-crpgs-after-10-years/