#This game does a good job of displaying power differences in a challenging but accessible way

[shannonsketches]

Kaijíta

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

Final Fantasy XV Review

Year: 2016

Original Platform: PlayStation 4

Also available on: PC (Steam), XBox One

Version I Played: PlayStation 4

Here we go. The final Final Fantasy review of the main single-player games. I just want to say, first off, we’ve been waiting for this game since 2006. It took them ten damn years to finally release this game. I clearly remember the teaser trailer they released when it was called Final Fantasy XIII Versus, and my next-door neighbor and I were so hyped for this game when we were freaking teenagers. After years of delays, Square Enix revamped it into Final Fantasy XV.

Did it live up to the wait? Well, read and find out.

Synopsis:

Noctis Lucis Caelum is the heir to the throne of the kingdom of Lucis. On his birthday, he sets off with his three best friends and bodyguards (Ignis, Prompto, Gladio) to marry his betrothed, Lunafreya. The marriage is supposed to be a political one, though Noct and Lunafreya had grown up together and become fond of each other. But peace turns to war as the empire of Niflheim betrays Insomnia and invades. Noct, now on the run, has to reclaim his right to the throne by collecting the necessary family heirlooms which will banish the darkness.  

Gameplay:

Open-world Final Fantasy.

That is the big selling point for this game. 

A MASSIVE step up from Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay, Final Fantasy XV has you roaming around and attacking enemies on the field in real time. The battle system returns to something slightly more conventional by having you cast spells and use items. It seems like this is what Square really intended to do after Final Fantasy XII. Looking back, Final Fantasy XIII feels like some prototype before Final Fantasy XII, so it really becomes apparent that Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay comes off as a huge mistake.

This game’s major’s strength comes from the player engaging with a massive world. You camp. You take on hunts. You take on a bajillion sidequests. You run across the world. You drive across the world. You can ride a chocobo across the world.

However, the dip in the gameplay comes from how easily accessible these sidequests are. The map tells you exactly where you go 24/7. I started to have an existential crisis around my 50th sidequest in a row. Why am I doing this? What’s the point? I go here to kill a thing, or go there to help someone by giving a potion or taking a picture. You start to realize that a good bulk of sidequests are either hunting daemons or fetching an item. You start to deconstruct the meaning of playing a video game as you think to yourself, “Why do I play video games?” while also thinking “But wait, one more and then I swear I’m done.”.

I get it, not everyone has the time nowadays to figure out a huge game like this. I get it, video games are now marketed to everyone for ease. At the same time, I personally love a good challenge. I mean, I’m the guy who has Dark Souls as one of his favorite video games of all time, so my opinion on the matter might definitely be skewered compared to most. I generally want to feel like I actually figured something out by myself rather than following a tracker on the screen and walking from task to task and then saying, “Okay done. Next.”.

Too much of that and playing a video game starts to feel like a 9 to 5 job to me. This game is great to play during quarantine, but at one point I saw playing this game as feeling like an actual job. Wake up, eat breakfast, time to hunt some daemons.

This is the growing conflict some people have with story-driven games versus open-world games. I see the argument focused too much on words like “linear”, but in reality we should be talking about “automation”. If a video game is too automated, then did you really play a video game? Or did you watch a movie that allows you to control the camera angle? At first, the idea of driving around an open-world Final Fantasy game sounds amazing. Isn’t that what fans always dreamed of? In reality, you don’t really drive around at your leisure. Even when you have the car set to “manual”, you can’t speed up, drive off-road, or pull off a sick drift like in The Fast and the Furious. Your car still automatically stays on the road wherever you’re going. It’s not so much “manual” as it is “I can control where and when to stop and which road to take”. Riding chocobos at your leisure is much more fun, but becomes increasingly impractical as you can just fast-travel to necessary locations in your car.

The sights and sounds of the fictional world of Eos are enough to gloss over these shortcomings though. It IS still fun to roam around and fight monsters and save the day. My bottom line is, “You don’t think about just how mindless the tasks are unless you keep playing for many days straight.”. And I poured hours into this game day after day because of the 2020 pandemic quarantine.

Graphics:

Obviously the best thus far. However, in-game facial expressions on the NPCs are still quite stilted and awkward. This game made me realize that we’ve yet to jump a hurdle when it comes to in-game graphics. The game is so polished but there are still limitations when it comes to giving the characters natural movements, both in body and lips. So an NPC could be shouting “WOW THAT’S AMAZING!” but have a straight face jumping up and down, despite the fact that the character model is the most realistic we’ve created so far in a video game. I was looking back at in-game cutscenes of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and found it ironic that they can portray body movements so much better, but that’s the trade-off. Less graphics power to portray realistic bodies, but the graphics power can then be allocated to focus on natural movements. Nowadays, all the graphics power is focused on making things look good, but that hardly leaves room for making things move naturally.

Story:

After the overly-complicated plotline of Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV feels like a breath of fresh air. On the surface, it’s a straightforward tale of a boy seeking to become a king after his father is brutally murdered by enemy forces. The bromance between the young king and his bodyguards is endearing. Each character feels distinct and genuinely makes you laugh. The setup sounds like prime real estate for an emotionally charged storyline.

Unfortunately, it falls apart somewhere around the last quarter. What should have been a strong and straightforward story turned into a rushed, hasty mess by the final act.

The story started SO strong, they practically had it in the bag, but then it became apparent that many important elements were glossed over - especially when it came to the main villain. I realized that some things required me to read between the lines, or even were only explained in character dossiers in the archive section of the menu. Supposedly, the movie Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV explains more, but do you really expect me to have to watch a separate movie to understand the actual game? The final quarter of the story feels like someone was trying to finish NaNoWriMo, realized they were running out of time, and quickly jumped from scene to scene to reach that 50k word goal. The ten-year time-skip is a joke. The final chapter is sorely disappointing.

The ending was appropriate though, and even beautiful. However, the overall story didn’t have the necessary emotional weight to really make me feel anything. I thought to myself, “I feel like I should be tearing up but instead I feel nothing.”. Even Final Fantasy XII, which lacked a romance, had me swelling up at the end. Final Fantasy XV didn’t make me swell up until literally the last few seconds of the post-credits scene.

People complained about the advertising (Coleman, Cup Noodles) but that didn’t bother me.

What does bother me is the lack of variety in the main cast, and in numerous ways. There were so many interesting side characters that didn’t receive much screen time, or use at all in the story. The strong focus on only the four male leads made it a sausagefest. I was craving more out of Aranea Highwind and Iris Amicitia. They are important but don’t get any screen time at all in the final chapter, nor do we ever hear from them ever again after the time-skip. Aranea Highwind was such a cool character, but once again ends up being wasted potential.

The main cast lacked distinctive styles. When I first saw the main cast, I had a hard time telling them apart. They looked like a k-pop band. Compare the main cast of Final Fantasy XV to literally any other Final Fantasy main cast and you can immediately spot the difference.

The four main leads do have distinct personalities, and I quite loved hearing their comments and banter. It felt realistic, but at times it became ridiculous. I rolled my eyes when Prompto would say things like, “Hashtag sorry not sorry.” That was a bit too on the nose, and came off as Square trying to pander to the current generation.

But what really rubbed me the wrong way is the incredible lack of non-white characters in the entire game. Lestallum feels so wrong to me as a Hispanic. Lestallum is supposed to be modeled after Havana, Cuba.

Its music, its buildings, its activities. It has a tropical climate, and yet every single denizen is pale white. Every. Single. One. I am not exaggerating. It feels so absolutely wrong walking around that city and not seeing anyone with the slightest shade of brown. This isn’t some uncalled-for SJW rant, it’s a simple fact. Tropical climates breed tanner skins. My brain naturally did a double-take when seeing the all-white population, saying, “Hmmm, something’s wrong here.”. For God’s sake, Final Fantasy XII, made over a decade earlier, did a better job at displaying the various nuances in skin tones, and that was on the PlayStation 2! Final Fantasy X, even older, seemed to properly portray tropical beach populations, inspired by the Philippines, with the character Wakka.

I noticed that they really took the time to incorporate elements from virtually every single Final Fantasy game. Aside from the crystals, the modern settings, and other obvious elements, four male leads are reminiscent of Final Fantasy III, the sinister chancellor hearkens back to Kefka from Final Fantasy VI, the enemy Yojimbo resembles Final Fantasy X’s version of Yojimbo, a certain boss battle reminded me of Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII.

Also, there’s Dino. Quite possibly the most annoying Final Fantasy NPC ever.

The overly obnoxious Italian stereotype made me want to punch his face, and also took me out of the experience of the fictional world. Every time you spoke with him he's all like "HEY HOW YOU DOIN WELCOME TO OLIVE GARDEN YOU TALKIN TO ME BADA BING BADA BOOM SPICY PIECE OF MEATBALL CAPISCE? AMIRITE??"

Square seemed to treat this game as a milestone in the series, alluding to everything the series ever did. It’s a shame that the story itself wasn’t quite up to snuff to be held in such regard.

Music:           

The game’s major lyrical song is copyrighted, which is a first for a Final Fantasy game. It makes sense why they chose the song “Stand by Me”, both in literal and figurative terms of the story.             

The score to this game is quite fantastic. The series has its first female composer, Yoko Shimomura. I have absolutely no complaints about the music. Nobuo Uematsu didn’t even pop into my head during the entire game. It’s the first time since Uematsu’s departure that I felt immersed in the score. The motifs are distinct and strong. The battle music is vibrant and an orchestral orgasm to listen to.    

Notable Theme:            

“Somnus”  

The main theme of the game. It plays right away in the main menu. I love how it is incorporated into the rest of the score, and my brain kept wanting to hear it to its completion.   

Direct Sequel?           

Nope. However, there is downloadable content that fills in the gap of events within the game. Supposedly, Final Fantasy XV is loosely connected to Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Type-O, all sharing common themes and possibly set in the same universe. You can also watch the prequel movie, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.

Did it Live up to the Hype?           

Eh.           

Yes, and no.            

It was cool to play around, but the rest is a flaccid attempt at being a notable entry in the series “for fans and first-timers”, as the words proudly display every time you load the game. It’s not the worst in the series, but certainly not the best. It’s somewhere in the mid-to-low tier.

[smilingperformer]

Pokémon Sword & Shield - Personal experiences, Part 1

About a week ago, I declared that I wanted to write down a critical post looking at my experiences with Sword & Shield, noting what I liked and what not. Considering the fact that I still haven’t completed the game (at around 37.5h mark and done with 6 out of 8 gyms), I’m gonna divide this post into two, where this first part focuses on gameplay, music and graphics, while the latter part, which I plan on writing next weekend, will focus on the story and character portrayal, including the trainer customisation, League Cards and Pokémon designs of this generation. Do note, these posts will contain spoilers for new, unrevealed Pokémon, so if you want to discover them yourself, I suggest you read this post at a later date! If not, then let’s get started! With a Charizard Pose!

As a disclaimer, the version I’ve been playing is Pokémon Sword, and as said above, the amount of time spent currently is around 37.5h.

Gameplay

Let’s start with the aspect that’s most important to the games, alright? So, how’s the gameplay in Sword & Shield? The battling system remains the same as previous games, meaning it’s turn-based, commanding attacks to your Pokémon. There’s not much to say to this aspect of the game, but I do love the improvements to the UI during the battling. Now that the series is back to one screen again (which happened first with Let’s Go), all the needed info has to be displayed in the same screen. If you ask me, it’s displayed nicely, and the UI style is very slick. The button mappings have changed for quick-selecting pokeballs and checking move-related info, so if you’re used to doing the R1 + a combo on checking move info, you’ll accidentally do the move instead. Happened to me a ton of times. But, since we have to consider that 3DS had less buttons for usage, new button mappings are fine.

The effects of Pokémon loving you during battle is still there, as in if you’ve been playing with your Pokémon a ton, battled with them and spent tons of time, they’ll start dodging attacks to your shout, curing poisonings and paralyses on their own without healing items, and get more experience. It does make the game easier, but I have found myself still struggling against some of the stronger type of Pokémon, even when my Pokémon has more levels. But that may be because I’ve tried switching out team every now and then to avoid being overly overleveled. And it’s been for the best!

Encountering wild Pokémon

First introduced in Let’s Go, Sword & Shield now lets you actually see the Pokémon catchable in the wild, making the world feel so much more alive. The grass encounters are still there, but instead of triggering random at your place, they’ll trigger nearby to you, and you can choose to either ignore or run into it. And from what I can tell, some Pokémon are only catchable in the grass patches. But I could be terribly wrong! The ways Pokémon react to you are different to the type of Pokémon you encounter, some examples being kind cheers from smaller Pokémon, some running into you at slower speed, some chasing after you and being faster than you, and some plain up teleporting away or running away from you as fast as possible. It’s such an awesome feat to see, and I have to note how much I love that Diglett and Dugtrio can actually be seen moving under the ground in fast speed, then coming up in another spot. It feels like such a huge improvement from how they moved in Let’s Go. Same with Rhyhorn, I love how they decide to charge at you, with no way to turn mid-ram! Meaning if you dodge, they miss. It’s such a nice way to show the wild Pokémon’s personality. This is why I ended up catching a certain Pikachu and making it my main Pikapal, despite wanting to get certain type. Because it kept coming at me, stopping to say “Pika~“, turning away in sadness, then turning back at me as I would approach it. It was so cute to see.

There are also fishing spots where you can encounter water type Pokémon, and they seem to appear in similar fashion as in Gen 7 games, but with less-obvious-looking spots. If you run into the spots, they’ll disappear, just like before. So go at them at walking speed! Speaking of which!

Controlling the character

Never have I enjoyed controlling my character’s movements in a Pokémon game before, as I have in Sword & Shield. Not only does the spinning have an awesome finishing pose involved now, you can also control the speed your character is moving at by the amount of tilt you do with your left stick. If you tilt it a tiny bit, you’ll be moving at a slow pace, and when doing this in a grass patch, you’ll be entering a sneaking mode, where your character will try to not make any sounds at any close-by Pokémon. It’s a feature that was last seen in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, and boy am I glad to see that feature return!

Now, if you tilt the controller more bit by bit, you’ll notice how the speed of your character increases gradually, and the animations transition smoothly when doing so. I don’t have a gif to show of you of this, but if you entered this post before playing the game, make sure to try it out! It may be minor, but to me it’s such an awesome feat, as I can now walk or run at any pace I want, and gives me more control on the character!

At some point during the story, you’ll gain access to a bike powered by your Rotom Phone, and it helps you move at a faster rate in the game, if that’s what you want to do. I myself opted to mostly walking, mainly using the bike in the Wild Area. Controlling the bike feels good, turns feeling natural and the bike never feels like it’s going out of control. The speed boost by pressing B makes you go extra fast, and you’ll be able to upgrade it up to tier 3 in the Wild Area. I haven’t found the upgrade yet for being able to go over the water, so I’m gonna assume that’s mostly post-game. Or I’ve just missed it somehow, and I have no idea how!

Side note: Shiny hunting

Now, from what I’ve read, despite Let’s Go letting you see the Shiny versions in the wild, Sword & Shield does not let you see them. You instead have to encounter the Pokémon and hope that it is indeed a shiny. I myself believe this was done by design choice, as to make the Shiny hunting still feel rewarding, instead of making you just stand on one spot after getting max chaining, hoping for one to appear. Like it was in Let’s Go. Thou, in Sword & Shield, it’s a whole new method. You only have to focus on encounting that one specific Pokémon for countless times, and at certain points of counters, the chances of encountering a shiny increases. This is all official info from The Pokémon website! And I believe the article also states that, the glowing Pokémon, which have chances of having better stats, egg moves and other cool stuff, also have higher chance of being a shiny.

You can also apparently do Chain fishing for increased shiny chances on the fishing spots, which is quite cool! The breeding method is still the same as far as I can tell, but there’s now also a chance for a different type of Shiny sparkle animation. If you get a square type sparkle, then congratulations, your Shiny is extra rare!

Berry farming

I find the berry farming in this game to be my absolute favourite form, as I myself didn’t find any appeal on farming the berries itself, often neglecting that aspect in previous games, and this doesn’t feel even close to the tedious pick-up animation chain Gen 7 games had whenever you were picking up the berries from the ground. But, knowing how my sister has been liking the discoveries of mutated berry farming, that seems to be gone, and I do find that kind of discovery not being there kinda sad. Maybe there’s something to this later in the game, I don’t know.

Gym Battles

The gym matches provide some extra challenge in throwing at us Dynamaxed and Gigantamaxed Pokémon, which I myself haven’t been able to one-shot. While being overleveled does make it easy to steamroll the first few Pokémon on Gym Leader’s team, the final Pokémon always Dynamaxes or Gigantamaxes, and it does make you wonder whether your Pokémon’s gonna survive the hit or not. I always look forward to seeing what kind of Pokémon is gonna get Gigantamaxed next, as after the first two gyms, the Gyms always have a Gigantamaxing Pokémon on their team. At least, from what I can tell.

Speaking of Gyms, the Gym Missions have so far been a ton of fun. While one of the wants you to herd a bunch of Wooloo to knock-down barriers, other one has you avoiding traps, being auditioned or spinning around like crazy. So far none of the Gym Missions have been the same, and it’s very refreshing! One of them was very easy to cheat on thou, provided you had the right type of Pokeballs with you, which does make me wish Game Freak had implemented some type of restriction on what type of Pokeball you can use during the mission. But, I guess they didn’t want to force you to use certain type. Since you could actually keep any Pokémon you catch during this Gym Mission.

PokeJobs

The new feature that pretty much replaces the PokePelago from Gen 7 games. And it’s very simple: the new Rotom-powered PC Box has the option to check out jobs for your Pokémon to do, and they usually have a description that states in a fancy manner of what type of Pokémon you send out for that specific job. The amount appears to vary from 3 to 10 at a time, and you can send them out for from couple hours to a whole day. Once your Pokémon return, they’ll gain tons of experience based on how long they were at the job, and how well it was done. Sometimes, one of the sent Pokémon will come back with items! It’s a nice way to get your boxed Pokémon up to proper levels, thou sending them out on these jobs also makes them unavailable to use during that time. Logical, but I myself sometimes accidentally sent out a Pokémon on a job for a whole day, then realising I needed them for the future battles. I can only blame myself for that. I do find it a teeny bit annoying how the Pokémon disappear from the Pokebox, meaning if you’re very precise about organizing it, it’ll become a mess. Unless one found a good way to make it less messy. I myself haven’t!

Camping with your Pokémon

Throughout the game, you’ll be able to camp out with the current Pokémon on your team, and play with them using different kinds of toys on your toybox. From what I can tell, playing with them can give them experience at the end of the session, so it’s a nice reward for spending time with them and making friends along the way. Petting is not longer possible thou, which makes the Amié and Refresh lover in me cry in sadness. But alas, if we consider the fact that this game is meant to be enjoyed both docked and handheld, the petting mechanic would be extra akward to do with a stick instead of touching the screen. So, I can understand why it had to go away. This game isn’t motion-based after all, like Let’s Go was. Seeing the Pokémon play with each other and become friends with each other is such a wonderful feat to see, so I feel like Refresh was replaced with a good counterpart. I’m happy with my current experiences with the camping, and look to see if there’s more to it.

Or whether another Pokémon will come to my screen the moment I camp out and just stare at me for few seconds. Gosh you’re too cute Wanpachi!

The Curry making

During the camping, you’ll also have the option to make curry, to which up to 4 players can join up together to make a delish dish to eat. The partner eating the dishes with you is the one who’s first positioned in your party, so make sure you switch it out from time to time to see how different Pokémon eat their dishes! Smaller ones have smaller, cute dishes, while fully evolved tend to eat a huge amount! Above screencap being my Inteleon’s dish.

How you cook is based on what incredients you’ll be using. First you’ll choose the base of the curry, which can vary from bread to noodles to leeks that may or may not be liked by SirFetch’d. Then, you’ll add berries. I’ve been trying out different kinds of combos, but so far I haven’t failed a single dish. But I’ve also yet to get a perfect dish done. I’m guessing the way you perform with the mini-game of spamming button A, totating the right stick at right pace and timing your final button A also contributes to this. So I need to practice some more! I’ve been doing it a ton, and find it awesome time-spender. It also has benefits on making the Pokémon in your party more friendly to you, gain experience, and, based on how well the curry was made, restore health and pp, also reviving fainted Pokémon. It’s a great, cheap way to get your Pokémon back up to speed. Unless you’re in the middle of a Gym Mission, then you’re not allowed to do that. Which is a good way to restrict your healing options and make them more challenging!

Wild Area

Now this is what I was most hyped about in this game. The Wild Area. After couple hours of playing the game, you’ll reach this huge, unlocked and fully explorable area, where you can encounter all kinds of Pokémon, varying from levels 10 to whopping 60s at least! It’s entirely possible that you can encounter higher level Pokémon as well, but I myself haven’t seen higher than 60 yet.

Exploring this area is quite a pleasure, as in addition to previously mentioned controls on your character, you can now also move your camera with the right stick. Which is a first in a main-line Pokémon game. I have also discovered, thanks to a NPC I’ve encountered, that you can zoom in and out with a click of stick button. This will help you see either closer or wider, depending on how you like it. I myself like switching between the modes depending on the situation!

There are tons of areas to explore in the Wild Area, and tons of stuff to collect as well. Each day, each sparkling collectable respawns, meaning this place is the perfect way to farm yourself cash. Also berries, there’s tons of berry trees in the Wild Area, which can also be found on traditional Pokémon-styled routes.

Wild Area is also where, if you connect to the internet with Nintendo Online membership and through the Y-comm, which is pretty much upgraded PSS system from Gen 6 games, you’ll be able to see other players around the world right beside you. It’s such an awesome feeling, and makes the Wild Area feel even more alive. However, this does jag up the performance a bit, and you may see your frames drop down for a bit before coming back up. It’s a shame, but as an MMO player who’s had to deal with worse, it’s.... manageble. Not ideal, but not the worst. The way the trainers just pop out with no cool entering animation feels akward thou, haha.

There’s also Rotom Rallies to do, trainer battles to find, treasure digging through two NPCs and findable trainers who trade up items for amounts of Watts, the Wild Area currency you’ll obtain from glowing Pokémon and red glowing nodes.

Max Raid Battles

As previously mentioned, in the Wild Area, you’ll be seeing red-glowing nodes around, sometimes sending out a long beam to the sky. This indicates that you can enter a Max Raid Battle, in which you can join with up to 3 other players to take down a stronger, bigger wild Pokémon. This is also the only way to encounter Gigantamaxing Pokémon, thou I cannot say for sure if it’s the only way to get yourself a Pokémon that can Gigantamax. I’m not that far in the game yet. But so far, these raids have been fun, although I’ve only ever managed to join up with one other player, with rest of the spots being filled with NPCs. Which sometimes have really weird choices of Pokémon partners (looking at you, trainer with Magikarp against Pumpkaboo!) Depending on the amount of stars, the Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed Pokémon may sometimes put up a barrier to slow down the process of taking it down. While the non-dynamaxed Pokémon on your team can then only take down the small, red-colored bars from the health bar, the Dynamaxed Pokémon can destroy the whole bar and do damage at the same time. I am not sure if it depends on type matchups or just works that way regardless of the move. But it does make the Dynamaxing feel worth the trouble!

The Gigantamaxed Pokémon seem to have way lower catch rate thou, and it really bums me to see the Pokémon run away after one catch try! God damn Gigantamaxed Sandaconda and Butterfree!

The Y-Comm

I don’t have screencaps to provide for this at this moment, but I’ve been using it quite a bit by now. As said before, it is basically a return to the style of PSS used during Generation 6, and you’ll be able to do Pokémon trades, league card trades and check out raid battles, while also request single, double and multi battles. One aspect from previous games is gone thou, and that’s the GTS feature. Yup. You can no longer put up a Pokémon to be traded for certain, specific Pokémon. Which is a huge bummer, considering how even I used this feature to help with completing the Pokedex in Ultra Moon. I don’t know what the reasoning could be for this, but I guess all I can do is speculate that Switch is not capable of this kind fo feature? I’m not able to say, I ain’t familiar with Switch backend capabilities. And I don’t remember if Let’s Go had GTS or not, but I’m guessing it didn’t. Otherwise, the Wonder Trade has been replaced with Surprise trades, which is basically the same, but this time happens in the background, without halting your progress with the game. Which is an awesome improvement to previous titles.

Quality of Life improvements

There has been a ton of QoL improvements done to this game, most notable ones being able to access the PC box at any time, which certain areas restricting the usages, like Gym Missions. You’re now also able to rename your Pokémon at any PokeCenter nearby you, also being able to make your Pokémon forget or remember a move at same place from the same guy. With no heart scale costs! No longer do you have to wait for almost-post-game to get your Steenee the move it should have learned already but somehow didn’t to be able to evolve to Tsareena, or run back at certain town to rename your Pokémon you either forgot to name or messed up naming. It all makes the game feel less inconvinient and more controllable.

TRs are also back from pre-gen 6 era (or is it pre-Gen 5?), which break after one usage. You can mostly obtain these during Max Raid Battles, so it gives you a great reason to keep doing those battles if you want more of certain type of TRs! Some are obtained while you do the story and explore the routes, so make sure to do that as well! There’s also now two different Pokémon Nurseries to put you Pokémon at, one being at Route 5, while other is located in the Wild Area. So, if you want, you can farm eggs at both of the locations.

You’re now also able to adjust audio settings for music, sound effects and what-not, thou it’s oddly behind finding a key item during the first big city, Motostoke. It’s possibly as a way to introduce this new feature, but it does feel a bit odd to make it an key item instead of making it a setting right away.

Music

Now that we’re done with the gameplay section, how’s the music? In short, it’s darn amazing! Each music so far has been a joy to listen, some of my personal favourites being Gym Leader Track (which changes dynamically based on whether your Pokémon fainted, beat the opponent or whether it’s the final round of the battle, it’s so cool!), Stow-on-side’s theme and the upper Wild Area’s tracks. Sonia’s theme is also such a pleasure to listen to, every time she appears in the story I just find myself not touching anything os I can listen to her track. I’ve yet to found a track that I’d find annoying, and so far this game’s OST has a high chance at being my favourite. Thou, Alola’s OST is still my top favourite, mainly because of Malie City, Ultra Necrozma and Gladion’s themes. Thou Marnie’s and Bede’s themes are awesome as heck as well! Especially the battles ones, thou the ones during their cutscenes are great as well! Lots of love can be heard from this soundtrack, and I can’t wait to hear more!

Graphics

To be able to talk about the Graphics, I’ve been playing the game on both docked and handheld modes. From what I can tell, this game looks absolutely stunning in the handheld mode, while during the docked mode, some of the shadows may look a tad bit jaggy and can flicker a bit while moving. It appears to happen in certain arears during the daytime, so it’s not that bad, but it’s still noticable. But aside from the shadows, the game looks amazing to play on a 23 inch TV, and also on 39 inch TV. The colors are such an eyecandy to watch, and I hardly find myself looking at something and being like “man, this looks so bad“. The trees in the Wild Area? Sure, the texture on most of those trees look akward, but I honestly don’t pay any attention to them? Because I’m mostly looking at the grass movements around walking Pokémon, how Pokémon feel like the belong to the same space, and how it just feels so nice. Say what you may about the graphics, this is the best looking Pokémon game up to date. Even if it’s not as gorgeus as Zelda franchise’s Breath of the Wild. It still looks good and appealing for my eyes as a Front-End Developer with graphics design studies behind as well. Could it use an improvement? Absolutely. Does it need it desperately? In my honest opinion, no. But I do hope the next game in line will look evenly or hopefully even better than this gorgeus game!

I will say thou, the drawing distance with trainers and Pokémon in this game is quite akward. It would appear to be around same distance as in most MMO lowest drawing distance setting, but it’s still noticable. I do understand this helps the game keep up better performance and not drop frames constantly (which has only happened to me in the Wild Area while connected to the internet), but maybe there’s something that could be done to improve the drawing distance in the future, to make the world feel way better? Only time will tell I guess.

Animations

The new animations added to the game look amazing, and your trainer character no longer looks like an emotionless, empty-staring character during cutscenes, but actually has a fitting face for the situation. At least, from what I can tell. The movements overall are smooth, and I haven’t seen too many jaggy model turning without any other movement on the legs or so. Maybe a bit with Pokémon, but not much with trainers. There are couple, but not overwhelmingly lot.

What is an awesome addition to the game thou, is the fact that there’s now visible lip syncing with character models, even with your trainer character, and the speed of the lip syncing is based on the text speed setting. I tried the fastest setting, and it made some of the cutscenes look SUPER akward, as the camera would do the movement as it is programmed, but the text was already done and the character at the cutscene is just turning around or being zoomed in and not moving their lips at all! It’s a bit akward, and hilarious! But this only happens in the fastest setting, as it works well with normal and slowest setting! So, make sure to not put on the fastest setting?

First impressions on story

You’ve reached the end of part one of my experiences with the game! To give of final thoughts, I’d like to say what my first impressions are on the story, now that I’m over the half-way point, at least from what I can tell. It’s been an interesting one so far, with the Gym Challenge feeling like where’s playing an actual Pokémon Anime season instead of just running from gym to gym. Each  gym leader has character, current favourite being Opal from Ballonlea Stadium. And it’s totally not because of how obsessed she is with the color Pink, and how she just scouted out Bede out of nowhere. In addition to Gym Challenge, there’s also a mystery with the Dynamax being built on, and discovering the legend of the Darkest Day with Sonia, and the lore behind the heroes that saved Galar during the Darket Day long, long ago. There’s also the build-up with Bede collecting Wishing Stars for Chairman Rose, Hop having amazing character development arc with having an Ego that gets crushed during one point of the story.

While I’ve been so much distracted by the Wild Area and not having completed the story yet, it feels interesting and I always look forward to seeing what we’ll uncover of the legend next, and whether Chairman Rose is doing something shady in the background or not. At least his backstory has me worried. The start of the game’s story was such an awesome way to get the story going, and I look forward to seeing how we’ll be possibly(?) restoring Zacian to its game cover glory. As it did look kinda beat with all the scratches and ear being cut.

Thank you for reading this post guys! It took hours to write, and creating a new private twitter account to get these screenshots transfered. But I hope this was an enjoyable post to read! I’ll be writing my second post after I’ve finished the story and played the post-game for a bit, which could be next weekend, or could not be. Depends on how much further I’ll get during the next week, haha! Anywho. Until next time!

[ciathyzareposts]

Camelot: What Makes Us Unique

This particular Camelot character has probably never existed before or since.

             Back in 2004, I was meeting a friend at a bar in Boston. I opened the door to look in for him, saw that he wasn’t there, and backed out, elbowing in the stomach the man behind me. I turned around and saw that it was the governor of Massachusetts. Since then, I’ve liked to think that I’m the only person to have ever elbowed Mitt Romney in the stomach while he was walking into a bar. I’m sure plenty of people have elbowed him in the stomach on other occasions.

This is the kind of story I like, because it’s an assemblage of circumstances that has probably never occurred to anyone else. I look for those in life. I may not be the world record holder in any sport or hobby, but there’s a decent chance that by the end of my life, I will have published more blog articles on CRPGs than anyone else alive. If that turns out not to be true, I’ll only need one other modest qualifier (“than any other Mainer”) to make it true. I guarantee that I’m the only person in the world to have my particular combination of jobs (if you include CRPG blogging as one of them). I don’t hold the record for the number of airline miles flown between 2010 and 2018, but I’ve got to be within the top 10%, and when you’re in the top 10%, you only need one or two additional circumstances to make yourself unique. It’s possible that I’m the record-holder out of Bangor, Maine, for instance.

My enthusiasm for unique experiences filters into CRPGs and probably explains why I like open-world sandbox games so much. I don’t like the idea that I’ve reached the end of a game in the exact same position and circumstances as everyone else who has ever played the game. When you can’t even name your character, this is particularly infuriating. Look at my recent review of Deadly Towers, for instance. How do you really know it was me playing that game? I could have taken those screen shots from anyone. At least Dragon Warrior displayed the first four letters of “Chester.”

These issues got me thinking about the peculiar trade-off that exists between player and character. Think of a game like Pac-Man. When a champion like Billy Mitchell achieves a perfect score, we don’t say, “Wow, you created a great character there. You put a lot into him.” The very statement is absurd; every player’s Pac-Man is the same as everyone else’s. Instead, all praise goes to the hands and eyes of the player himself. In contrast, when we watch the ways that various players have won the Mulmaster Beholder Corps battle in Curse of the Azure Bonds, we look for clues in the characters–their levels, their spells, their weapons, their movements. We’re aware that there’s a player behind it all, of course–perhaps a very intelligent and strategic one. But his success is slightly diffused by the imposition of the characters. We are aware that his strategy only “works” because of the allowances of the game. Perhaps most important, we are aware that we could have done the same thing, whereas no studying of his technique is likely to make most of us like Billy Mitchell.

It is for these reasons that I don’t think it’s really possible to be “good at” a game like Skyrim. Experienced, sure. Patient, definitely. But “good”–what does that even mean? Early in its existence, some players proudly posted images on Reddit of their characters clad in leather armor and wielding pick-axes (possibly the worst weapon in the game) killing dragons. I thought it was silly. Either the game has enough flexibility to allow you to do such a thing or it doesn’t. It says nothing about your skill as a player that you were able to do it except that you were willing to use the game’s resources to grind, or enchant that pick-axe, or improve that armor, or carry and drink a hundred potions, or whatever you did to make it possible.

I just bought Irene the Myst 25th anniversary collection for Christmas. That is a “good at” game. A player that possesses the strength of puzzle-solving to blaze his way to the end without any spoilers is an impressive player. But his end-game screenshot is the same as everyone else and the “character” of the game is essentially invisible, a no-one, a ghost.               

In many modern games, “uniqueness” extends quite literally to the character’s appearance.

            In case it’s not clear, I’m not particularly interested in being “good at” CRPGs. I don’t play them for competitive reasons. I play them to enjoy the strategy, tactics, world-building, plots, and sense of character development. I like a challenge, but only a modest one–a temporary bump in a game that, because of its very nature (particularly because of reloading), you’re almost certain to eventually overcome.

Many people prize the opposite. I suppose even I do, in different circumstances. The value of most competitive games is that everyone’s playing the same game under the same circumstances, with no real imposition of “character” between the player and the performance. A king in chess isn’t a “character”; he’s just a piece. You don’t give him a name, and he doesn’t acquire new abilities as he defeats pawns and levels up. When he moves to take a rook, there are no probabilities associated with the encounter. When he wins, all glory goes to the player who moves him.

When my king reaches the end of a game, on the other hand, I want him to be my king–a unique character that no other player has won with. I want my endgame screenshots to look different from everyone else’s. And in those screenshots you should be able to tell something about how I played the game. Was I careful or daring? Did I rely on brains or brawn? Did I favor equipment or skills? What role-playing choices did I make along the way?

To me, some of the worst RPGs are closer to chess. Your “character” is just a gambit that you’ve moving across the screen, offering you no sense of connection or identity. These are essentially arcade games with a few nods to RPG mechanics. We’ve seen a million of them: Caverns of Freitag, Gateway to Apshai, Sword of Kadash, Sword of Fargoal. Even worse is when the game offers RPG-style inventory and leveling, but at fixed intervals along a linear plot, so that “character development” is just an illusion and everyone does reach the end the same as everyone else.

The best RPGs, however, offer plenty of opportunities to make your character your own:            

Name

Selection of race, sex, alignment, and class

Attributes

Skills and talents

Inventories, especially those with multiple slots

NPC interaction, dialogue, and role-playing choices

Choice of what order in which to do quests and side-quests

Ability to grind, or not (only meaningful without artificially low level caps)

Customization of character appearance

Statistics, achievements, and trophies

                The multiplication of these various factors means that many modern RPGs feature characters as unique as the humans who create them, finally achieving some of the sense of ownership and identification that tabletop RPGs allowed from the outset.           

Every player may have had to do exactly what I did to win Ultima IV, but at least my name and the number of turns are unique.

          Camelot is an early game, and thus not as advanced in the originality of its characters. But of the single-player PLATO games, it comes the furthest. When I play it, I do not feel as if I am feeding so many characters into a meat grinder, as I did with The Dungeon, The Game of Dungeons, and Orthanc. Its allowances for stealth, magic, and multiple fighting styles, paired with the strategic nature by which you must explore dungeon exploration, create as close to a unique experience as anything we’re going to get for many years. If nothing else, the combination of items in the 13 inventory slots likely creates characters for each player that no one else has ever played.

I’ve put about 12 hours into the game since the last Camelot entry and I’ve gotten a lot more powerful–enough to take on dungeon Level 5 with relative ease–but it’s still slightly frustrating how long its’ taking to finish the game, much more so because I keep dying and resetting my score back to -99,999. But I recognize that it was designed for different players in different circumstances.

There was an interesting moment the other night where creator Josh Tabin happened to be logged into the system at a moment that I got stuck. I had teleported into a section of Level 4 that offered only one exit: a downward chute. Unfortunately, I had taken a Potion of Levitation upon beginning the expedition (you always want to use Scrolls of Protection, Potions of Cepacol, and Potions of Levitation at the outset of each expedition if you have them). It turns out that Levitation stops you from using chutes, even deliberately. The condition doesn’t wear off until you return to town. There were no other exits from the area, and I was out of Scrolls of Recall. The only solution I could come up with is to wait until the turn of every hour, when the dungeon levels respawn, and kill everything in the half-dozen rooms I had access to, hoping to get a Scroll of Recall at some point. But since Josh was there, I informed him of my trouble and he opened a secret door for me, then spent some time patching the game so that even if you’re under the effect of levitation, you can manually choose to take a chute.

Other things about the game since I last wrote:            

As I previously mentioned, the game occasionally gives you a specific monster to kill before it will let you level up. It’s very erratic. I had a period from roughly Level 10 to 20 where I got a quest every level. Then I didn’t get any at all between Levels 20 and 29.

A “Palantir” tells you at what level you can find the object of your quest. If you’re already on that level, it tells you the specific coordinates. Of course, if the hour turns while you’re still seeking the quest creature, everything resets. 

As you move downward, enemies get harder but rewards get better. Some of the magic item rewards are awesome. I’ve had a couple of Wands of Fire that completely clear out rooms in one turn. The problem is how frequently they require recharging and the expense thereof. The game’s economy is still excellent. I make a lot of tough choices between leveling up, recharging, and purchasing new items.

It turns out that items don’t have a fixed number of charges but rather a small probability of running out within any given use. High intelligence seems to lower this chance.

Some of the best items that you can find increase your attributes. Manuals and tomes increase them permanently by one point while various potions increase them temporarily for several points. I have maxed out my strength, intelligence, and constitution with these items, and I must be close on the other two.

         A Manual of Bodily Health raises my constitution.

         Scrolls of Taming, Orbs of Entrapment, and Wands of Charming all work on different creatures. I’ve learned that when I lose a companion (or one leaves), I want to head down to the lowest dungeon level on which I can survive to start hunting for another. About six hours into this session, I was able to charm a succubus, and it’s remained with me ever since–an extremely powerful ally.

I probably mentioned this earlier, but there are special rooms on each level that the creator calls “stud rooms.” They feature enemies 2-3 levels harder than the normal ones on the same level, but with rewards 2-3 times greater. Any new expedition needs to begin with clearly the stud rooms that you know you can clear.  

          In one of the “stud rooms.” Seven green dragons are a little much for me. The Scroll of Identification gives grim odds.

         There’s a magic item called a “Tardis” that resets the dungeon in between the normal hourly resets. It allows you to quickly hit the stud rooms multiple times in a row until it runs out of magic. It’s incredibly useful but back in the day when there were multiple players hitting the dungeon at the same time, it must have been very annoying for some of them.

              The two players on the leaderboard who have won the game both have Level 60 characters, so I assume that’s the game’s level cap. Thus, I’m halfway there. I probably won’t have much more to say about Camelot until I win, so hopefully I can get it done this week while I also wrap up Challenge of the Five Realms. I’ll say this for Camelot: it’s the first PLATO game that I’ve enjoyed lingering with, rather than blasting through it just to document its historical value.

Time so far: 40 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/camelot-what-makes-us-unique/

[x5red]

Supergirl: Where to start reading her older comic series?

With the Melissa Beniost’s Supergirl show about to relaunch for its fourth season, it seems an apt time to revisit the oft asked question: Which of the old Supergirl comicbook series is the best starting point if you’re a fan of the show..?

It’s an interesting question. Many tv fans have some familiarity with Kara’s most recent comicbook adventures -- Sterling Gates, etc. -- but they harbour a desire to explore beyond the most immediate decade, into the murky misty depths of the classic Kara Zor-El and Matrix eras. But where to begin..?

Detailed below, for your rumination and delectation, are the four classic titular Supergirl series -- Supergirl Volumes 1 to 4 -- ranked by merit from best to worst, with particular regard to accessibility by the modern tv/comic audience.

So, without further ado, let’s begin...

1st - Supergirl Vol. 2, aka The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl: (Nov 1982 -- Sep 1984, 23 issues)

The bright micro-chip fuelled optimism of the early 1980s was the backdrop for Supergirl’s second eponymous title. Linda Danvers makes a new home as a mature student studying Psychology in Chicago, where she hopes she can find a balance between her superhero duties and her personal life. She immerses herself into student life, immediately acquiring a collection of enthusiastic friends and a hectic social calendar. It isn’t long, however, before criminal elements in the city require the attention of her alter ego, Supergirl.

Writer Paul Kupperberg gives us a Supergirl for the 1980s, clearly aimed at the more mature audience that was starting to dominate comicbook sales thanks to the direct market of specialist stores. Kupperberg’s Linda Danvers is sassy, intelligent, confident, and witty, while her costumed alter ego is strong but compassionate. For the first time Kara Zor-El is allowed to have a proper boyfriend, and (shock!) actually go to bed with him. The story lines devote equal time to Kara’s heroic and everyday identities, surrounding her with a diverse cast of supporting characters.

The book’s adventures largely constrain themselves to Chicago, with a parade of monsters and supervillians showing up each issue to challenge the Girl of Steel, but there’s still plenty of variation between stories, and some particularly bold ideas towards the latter part of the series’ run.

Pros: Equal prominence is given to Linda Danvers and Supergirl, and the series is all the better for it. Giving Kara a life outside of her Supergirl antics rounds her character, a device used 30 years later by the tv show. Paul Kupperberg’s scripts are intelligent, imaginative, and not afraid to sometimes tackle tough subjects. Industry legend, Carmine Infantino, pencils almost every issue, and captures the 80s fashions well.

Cons: The comic’s witty and headstrong Linda Danvers is a radical departure from Benoist’s often goofy and adorkable portrayal, which may be off-putting to some tv fans.

Conclusion: This is a nice set of uncomplicated stories with a basic structure that has many parallels to the tv show (sans DEO.) Highly recommended.

2nd - Supergirl Vol. 4: (Sep 1996 -- May 2003, 81 issues + 2 annuals)

Peter (Allen) David, usually known in fan circles as PAD, took control of Supergirl after her misguided Matrix run, and immediately morphed the character into something more interesting. In an act of supreme selflessness, the Matrix Supergirl merges with satanic cult member, Linda Danvers, saving Linda’s life by becoming a hybrid made up of Linda’s memories and feelings coupled with Matrix’s protomatter shape-shifting superpowers. Such is the starting point for Supergirl’s fourth volume of adventures.

Early stories deal with Linda haphazard attempts to cope with her new status as superhero, but pretty quickly it becomes apparent that her transformation is part of a bigger tale involving battling satanic and angelic forces. The series mixes superhero action with occult and religious symbolism, playfully referencing Old Testament lore and even writing God in as a supporting character. PAD’s storytelling doesn’t shy away from examining matters of belief head on, with subplots examining how faith can be lost and restored, but also misguided and abused. Other themes include the ethics of free speech, and the power of unintended consequences.

After fifty issues the series was soft-rebooted, with Matrix being un-merged from Linda Danvers and captured by dark satanic forces, and 'God’ teaming Linda up with a reforming demon to help find and rescue her. A second reboot (#75, Dec 2002) saw a youthful Pre-Crisis Supergirl take an unplanned detour into the Post-Crisis universe during her trip from Argo City to Earth.

Overall the series holds to classic old-fashioned good-versus-evil storytelling, told with humour and quirkiness.

Pros: The series has a good balance of humour, drama, and superheroics. The main characters are well defined, often quirky, and immediately likeable, with a healthy mix of darkness and light in the main cast, which leads to some engaging interactions. The spiritual elements are mostly well handled, and never pander or proselytise.

Cons: The heavy use of lore and mythology, plus occasional course-altering soft reboots, make the main plot arcs more than a little convoluted. There’s not much variety in the types of story told: it’s angels versus demons pretty much every issue. The series was initially conceived in a world before 9/11, before The God Delusion, before Catholic priest scandals, before the overt linking of evangelical Christianity with neo-conservatism -- as such its benign treatment of organised religion may seem a little naive and dated to some.

Conclusion: Enthusiastically told and funny, although occasionally a bit of a slog, PAD’s fusing of superheroes and the celestial provides for novel storytelling.

3rd - Supergirl Vol. 1: (Nov 1972 -- Sep 1974, 10 issues)

The early 1970s were an era of student politics and campus sit-ins, so it’s no surprise that Supergirl’s first self-titled series is set in the heart of academia. Linda Danvers heads off to San Francisco to study Drama at Vandyne University, and gets involved in all manner of adventures typically involving college life and romance. Stories vary in style from issue to issue, sometimes spooky supernatural, sometimes B-movie sci-fi, sometimes inner city gang violence -- but there’s invariably a square-jawed hunk involved for Kara to swoon over and rescue.

The initial issue was edited by Dorothy Woolfolk, but issue two saw Robert Kanigher take up editing duties. In the 1950s Kanigher had transformed William Marston’s feminist Wonder Woman into a lovelorn heroine who spent much of her time fretting over Steve Trevor. But thankfully by the early 70s Supergirl’s inevitable romantic adventures are complimented by her exasperation at the male chauvinism all around her. Although affairs of the heart are prominent, the Maid of Might is always shown as being as tough as any male superhero -- this is girl power... just a version of girl power that happens to include lipstick and hot pants.

Pros: The stories are certainly fun, even if they lack depth or complexity. The artwork has a certain quaint charm, and the groovy mod fashions of the time add to the curiosity value.

Cons: There’s a lot of repetition: almost every issue has Linda Danvers falling for a different campus heartthrob, who ultimately requires the help of her super powered alter ego.

Conclusion: Very much of-its-time, innocent and fun, but the heady 1970s mix of pulp romance and cartoon feminism may be way too dated for some modern readers.

4th - Supergirl Vol. 3: (Feb 1994 -- May 1994, 4 issues)

When Supergirl was re-introduced after Crisis on Infinite Earths, she took the form of a shape-shifting protomatter blob named Matrix, originally from a pocket universe. The Lex Luthor of her home universe had been a hero, so when the innocent Matrix encounters the regular Lex Luthor (nemesis of Superman), her confused and child-like mind instinctively trusts him, and she becomes his female companion. Lex, of course, is only interested in learning the secret of his girlfriend’s protomatter powers.

This four part series finally, slowly, sees Matrix wake up to the fact that Lex Luthor has been using her. It’s a slow build towards the final chapter, that meanders through a lot of self-denial before it gets to its inevitable finale. The ending is clearly signposted from the start, but the plot does a decent job of stretching out the journey across four episodes.

Pros: The idea of the hero playing the role of so-called useful idiot is a novelty, as least within the annals of American comicbooks.

Cons: This is a lacklustre story which brings to an end one of the more regrettable periods in Supergirl’s history -- despite often displaying immense courage, the Matrix Supergirl became nothing more than a plaything for Lex Luthor, and a pawn in his game against Superman.

Conclusion: There’s apparently a giant pit out in a desert somewhere filled with unsold Atari E.T. game cartridges -- if we can find it, maybe we can add every issue of the Matrix Supergirl run(?) Avoid!!

[simmyseo]

Google Map Citations

A quote from Google Map Citations is simply just a description of your company name on another website (and optionally an address and telephone number). For example, a company directory such as Yelp, Foursquare, or Yahoo Local may be an example of a quotation where the company name gets indicated. You don't need a link to your website for Local Citations.

Data Accuracy

In all directories and quotes (i.e., names, addresses, and telephone numbers), it is incredibly necessary to retain the same phone number, address, and business name continuously, which makes your map listing rank higher in your local map searches.

Ranking Factors

Quotations are used to classify your local map with the Google Map Citations by providing Google with reputable business data sources so Google can verify the existence of your business, are legitimate, and your business statements are correct by checking the business information of multi-source companies.

How Google Maps Citation Works?

Google will allow it to be more confident about the information that you have provided about your business if you find information regarding your company on other web sites and directories, and this will ensure that you are more likely to display your business listing if a person searches for the types of products or services that you supply under Google My Business.

It is essential to establish, retrieve, and improve a Google My Business Citations page by adding your business name and data to directories and other websites to take advantage of local deals.

Quotations help to rank your Google Business Citations (formerly Google+ Local map) by providing credible information sources on Google's business. Quotations say to Google that your business exists, is legitimate and is correct, since it can be confirmed from several sources. It is, therefore, essential to provide Google Local Citations with a consistent name, address, and telephone on different sites.

When deciding whether to display your business listing to someone who has searched for the products or services you provide, Google considers several elements alongside citation directories. The proximity of your company to the search location is one of the factors they consider.

To use local quotes, you have already set up, claimed, and optimized a Google My Business list.

Links from a trusted website are one of the main factors Google uses in traditional Organic Google Map SEO. In terms of local search results, Text hyperlinks help rank the listings of Google Local Pack.

Getting quotes from a website with high domain authority and high traffic can help to improve local search rankings. The trick here is to connect quality to quantity.

Different Types Of Local Citations Services

• General directories of businesses • Trip Advisor, industry, niche or sectoral directories • Media and state newspapers • Local blogs – Left Lion is perfect for bars, pubs, clubs, and restaurants, etc. For example, local nightlife. • Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, and YouTube Web sites for social media.

How To Find Local Citation Builder Opportunities?

I 'd start by listing the important general ones that I think about when you talk about the local business directories to find Local Citation Building quotations.

Find your competitors out where they are listed. If all this seems too time-consuming, then resources are available, both paid and free, which can help you find new quotations.

The instruments that we recommend and use include:

• BrightLocal, which takes several minutes to set up a paid quote and will then give you directory requests. • SEMrush that performs the backlink analysis of the competitor. • Moz offers some insights from the study of competitors.

Beat Your Competitors With Citations

You need much higher quality quotes for Citation Building Websites than your competitor to beat competitors in citations. It is also essential to bear in mind that total numbers are small, but that the quality of this directory is high, as is the accuracy of the details you enter. The more general and specialized quotes get completed, the higher the importance they build for Google+ 's Local listing and exposure and presence within the items of the Google Maps in their overall ranking.

Although quotes are relatively easy to obtain for companies, it is more challenging to get quotations from local, niche, or journal websites. Obviously, for them, you have to think about something worthy of news, and you must first get their attention.

How To Make A Great Local Citation Sites List?

Both people and Google must regard a big local quote as accurate and trustworthy. There are great places to start existing brands, such as Yellow Pages (Yell) or Thompson Local, and their main aim is to offer a list of local businesses to other people.

It is essential that you also provide three pieces of valuable information when creating or claiming a quotation in a business directory style.

• The name of your company (this should be your trading name ideally) • A local phone with a local area code • Your company's physical address

These three pieces of information should be consistent as HTML and not as a graphic on your website to Build Citations. If a local journal informs your business, it is unlikely that your company's address or telephone number will ever show, it is sufficient simply to have an identified company to give your list the value.

Potential Issues

It can take time to generate Local Citation Services, and you preferably need to have a general marketing plan to get press reporters and newspapers' attention. If you are a small company that can profit immensely from a Google 7 list, though, it's something that you want to do. You can even outsource the job if you have the money. You can also Buy Citations SEO.

Considerations

Remember, Local Google Maps SEO helps only improve the location of your listing in the Google Maps Pack. If your business is in particularly narrow or dark areas where a category is not accurate, then investing in a local selection field for your Google Maps bundle may not be worthwhile. The maps show the seven packages since typically Google displays the number of results, but other variations are shown.

How Does Citation Building Works For Sites?

Many corporations are not involved in local searches and, therefore, local quotations. Their services are intended mainly for online clients who live in different countries, in different cities. They create a web-based marketing strategy.

But you would prefer seeking a paying client from your city if you were a small local service provider. You can easily improve your customer base with links of specific local resources, the content of your tourist guide, and positive text reviews on Yelp.

• Before starting the citation building process, you should enter your listing on Google Maps. Google map is always a good starting point • NAP Consistency – the name, address and phone number used for Google Maps must be the same • It is best to connect your website (or Google+ local website) to your Google+ business page — it's not a required step. It's a great way to be consistent with customers to optimize your quotes. It not only helps maintain your existing customers but also regularly gets new customers.

GeoRanker Citation Source Finder tool can be handy to find quotations for a wide range of keywords and locations. You need to register with GeoRanker for this free account.

After accessing the app, you can track up to five cities. It also allows you to switch between local and global searches quickly. When you log in, the tool offers a full, exact report after you set up parameters. The log can track any changes wonderfully.

How Can One Win The Game Of Citation?

Although you have a significant amount of links, the consistency of the links and the accuracy of the information that you provide is more significant. All the places to which you have been referred will give precise details about your company, such as name, address, and phone number.

Full quotations are valuable for the locale rankings of Google Pack and your overall web visibility. All this helps expand your market awareness, find potential new customers, and make access to your website more accessible.

The more complicated the quotes are to be accessed in company lists come from specialized or niche blogs or local newspapers. You have to think about something essential for them, and you must first of all be mindful of it.

What’s the Catch?

It is time-consuming and tedious to create local citations, and ideally, to get journalists' attention, it is necessary to have an overall marketing strategy.

However, it would be worth spending time on if you are a small business that would immensely benefit from a local listing on the Google Local Pack. If you have the budget, you can either automate the work using the resources previously mentioned or outsource it entirely.

Link Building With Citations

When you include the URL of your website as part of your quotation, cite link building. When you create a quote for your company that contains a website URL, you build a quotation link.

Some argue that building a citation link is not a genuinely linked construction strategy.

However, I would like to add that not only is the development of a quotation link legal, but it could also be a powerful way to create considerable credibility on your website.

For instance, claim you are local attorney SEO and add your law firm to the directory of FindLaw.

Your citation on FindLaw would, of course, include the website URL of your law firm.

On the last time I checked, Findlaw.com carries DA91 (domains 91).

This means that you have just linked to your website from a DA 91 level site, including your website URL as part of your FindLaw quotation.

This is a super healthy and contextually relevant link to point you back to your website, whether or not you consider it.

[novelsandwine]

Does Technology Benefit Young Children's Education?

As parents, all of us have fought the battle with our children since they're absorbed into a video game or movie within an iPad, smartphone or tablet. We have had a better prospect of getting the interest of Tom Cruise walking the red carpet than our children. 

Today, it's typical for two-year-old to be using i Pads, elementary schooners hooked up to video games, and most of us suffer (or live with) the challenge of prying your middle-schooner away from the computer long enough to eat a nice meal... Technology is everywhere and its draw kids is obvious, but is technology helping our children learn? 

Technology is becoming more social, adaptive, and customized, and because of this, it can be an excellent teaching tool. Having said that, as parents, we will need to establish boundaries. Today, software is linking children to online learning communities, monitoring kids' progress through lessons and games, and assessing each pupils' experience.

From the time your child is in elementary school, they will probably well-versed in technology. Learning with Technology in School Faculties are investing more and more in technology. Whether your child's course uses an interactive Smart board, laptops, or a different device, here are 3 ways to be certain technology is used efficiently. 

Young kids love playing with technology, from i Pads to digital cameras. What do early childhood professionals - and parents, too - want to consider before handing kids these gadgets? Let's begin at the beginning: what's technology in early childhood? Technology can be as straightforward as a camera, audio recorder, music player, TV, DVD player, or even newer technology such as adjustable, and smartphones used in child care facilities, classrooms, or even at home.

More than once, I've had teachers tell me,"I do not do technology" I ask them if they have ever taken a digital photo of the pupils, played a record, tape, or DVD, or give children headphones to listen to a narrative. Teachers have always used technology. The difference is that now teachers are using very powerful tools such as i Pads and iPhone in their personal and professional lives. 

Technology is simply a tool. It should not be used in classrooms or child care centers as it is trendy, but since teachers can perform activities that encourage the healthy development of children. Teachers are using digital cameras a less flashy technology than i Pads - in very creative ways to engage children in learning. That could be all they want. 

At exactly the exact same time, teachers will need to have the ability to incorporate technology into the classroom or child care center as a social justice issue. We can not assume that all kids have technology at home. A lack of exposure could expand the digital divide - that is, the difference between people with and without access to digital technology - and - restrict a few children's school readiness and early success. 

Just as all children will need to learn how to deal with a book in early literacy, they will need to be taught how to use technology, such as how to start it, how it functions, and how to look after it. Experts worry that technology is bad for kids. There are serious issues about children spending too much time in front of displays, especially given the numerous displays in children's lives. 

Today, very young kids are sitting in front of TVs, playing i Pads and iPhone, and watching their parents take photos on a digital camera, which has its own display. There was just the TV screen. That was the display we worried about and researched for 30 years. We as a field know a good deal about the effect of TV on children's behavior and learning, but we know very little about all of the newest digital devices. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages screen time for children under two years old, but the MYCENAE/Fred Rogers position announcement takes a slightly different position. It states that technology and media needs to be restricted, but what matters most is how it's used. What's the content? Is it being used in an intentional way? Is it developmentally appropriate? As parents, we will need to know about the drawbacks of technology and its effects on vision, language and physical development. 

We also need to be mindful of our children overall development, My advice to parents and teachers is to trust your instincts. You know your child and if you believe they've been seeing the screen too long, turn it off. It is up to us, as parents, to observe your child's computer time is diminishing or limiting connections and playtime with other children and nudge them in new directions. 

To encourage them to be physically active, to get outside and play. Additionally, it is up to the adult to comprehend the child's personality and disposition and to find out whether a technology is just one of the ways the child chooses to interact with the world. At exactly the exact same time, cut yourself some slack.

 All of us know that there are better things to do with children's time than to plop them in front of a TV, but we also know that child care providers need to create lunch, and parents want time to take a shower. In situations such as this, it's the adult's job to create the technology time more precious and interactive by asking questions and connecting a kid's virtual encounter on the screen with real life adventures in her world. 

Learning with Technology in Home Whether you are giving your child your smart screen phone to amuse them, or it is your toddlers' favorite playtime is on an iPad or tablet computer, here are eight ways to ensure that your child's experiences with technology are educational and enjoyable.

[magzoso-tech]

Realme 6 Pro vs Redmi Note 9 Pro: Which Phone Offers the Best Value?

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Realme 6 Pro vs Redmi Note 9 Pro: Which Phone Offers the Best Value?

In our recent comparison of the Redmi Note 9 Pro (Review) and the Realme 6 (Review), we found that the latter offered better value and performance in most areas, compared to Xiaomi’s offering, which made it the best smartphone to buy at Rs. 12,999. However, we’ve been getting a lot of questions of late about which would be the better pick — the Realme 6 Pro (Review) or the Redmi Note 9 Pro?

Technically, it’s the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max which would directly compete with the Realme 6 Pro, going purely by product positioning. However considering that the Realme 6 Pro price in India starts at just Rs. 1,000 more than the top-end variant of the Redmi Note 9 Pro, we can see why most people are wondering whether it makes sense to put in a bit more money for a possibly better product.

Both these phones have the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC, and with the Realme 6 Pro, you get additional features which are missing from the Realme 6, such as a glass back panel, a secondary selfie camera, and a rear telephoto camera. All these features put it in a comfortable position to one-up the Redmi Note 9 Pro, but does it manage to? It’s time to examine both smartphones and find out.

Realme 6 Pro vs Redmi Note 9 Pro prices and variants

As a value proposition, it’s hard to beat the Redmi Note 9 Pro, as it starts at just Rs. 12,999, for the version with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The second variant gets you 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for Rs. 15,999.

The Realme 6 Pro starts at Rs. 16,999 for 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which is not bad, but for Rs. 17,999, you can get double the storage, with the same amount of RAM. If you really want to splurge, then Realme offers a third variant for Rs. 18,999, which gets you 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

Realme 6 Pro vs Redmi Note 9 Pro design

There’s something very likeable about the Redmi Note 9 Pro’s design. Perhaps it’s the fact that it doesn’t look like anything else on the market, which gives it a unique advantage. However, there’s no getting around the fact that it’s big and can be cumbersome to use with one hand. We love the new colours too, especially the blue. The buttons are a little tricky to reach, which can be a big ergonomic issue. The Gorilla Glass back picks up smudges easily but it is resistant to scratches.

Realme has upped its game with the 6 Pro, as compared to the Realme 6. This model gets a Gorilla Glass 5 back panel, which puts it on par with the Redmi Note 9 Pro in terms of durability. It’s a big phone too, nearly the size of the Note 9 Pro, but a bit lighter, weighing around 195g. We found the button placement to be a lot more ergonomic, compared to the Redmi Note 9 Pro, but perhaps the most attractive thing about the 6 Pro’s design is the new lightning-inspired pattern on the back, which is one of our favourite Realme designs so far. It can look flashy or subtle when the light hits it at different angles, with a heavy vignetting effect around the edges of the back.

The camera module doesn’t have the most original design though. Both phones also claim to have some basic level of water resistance, even though neither has an official IP rating.

It’s hard to pick a winner for this round, so we’ll just call it a tie.

Realme 6 Pro vs Redmi Note 9 Pro performance and gaming

The Realme 6 Pro and the Redmi Note 9 Pro use the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC, which is a brand new chip from Qualcomm, focused on gaming but also on power efficiency. It also happens to support the new NavIC satellite system from India, for navigation. Both phones also use LPDDR4X RAM and the flash format of choice is UFS 2.1.

Unsurprisingly, benchmark numbers were very similar. In AnTuTu, the Redmi Note 9 Pro scored 279,978 points, while the Realme 6 Pro scored 282,716 points. We had a similar experience with actual usage too. Both MIUI and Realme UI work smoothly, and multitasking was easy. Scrolling and swiping through menus feels faster on the Realme 6 Pro though, thanks to the 90Hz screen refresh rate, versus 60Hz on the Redmi Note 9 Pro.

In gaming, both smartphones once again offer similar performance. They can handle heavy games such as PUBG Mobile with relative ease, and the best part is that neither of them get excessively hot even after gaming for long stretches.

We found the fingerprint sensors on both phones to be pretty quick at authentication and neither of them ever really missed a read. Face recognition is equally quick, and works quite well in low light on both devices.

In terms of manageability, we found the Realme 6 Pro to be a little easier to live with due to its lower weight. One-handed use is still challenging on both phones, due to their large displays.

Realme 6 Pro vs Redmi Note 9 Pro display and speakers

Speaking of displays, the Realme 6 Pro continues to use an IPS LCD panel, just like the Realme 6, however, we get Gorilla Glass 5 instead of 3 here, which should make it more resilient to scratches. Both the Realme 6 Pro and Note 9 Pro have the exact same full-HD+ resolution of 2400×1080 and are similarly sized too, measuring 6.6 inches and 6.67 inches respectively. Colour reproduction and brightness are very good and both and we didn’t really have any issues in this regard with either phone.

There are camera cutouts in both displays, but the Realme 6 has a more elongated, pill-shaped one for its dual front cameras. In apps that mask the area it’s not a problem, but they can be a little distracting when watching full-screen videos. Realme has also added a neat little animation around the hole every time you wake the screen or switch to the selfie camera within the camera app.

Both phones have single bottom-firing speakers, but the one on the Realme 6 Pro sounds louder and richer, partially thanks to Dolby Atmos. There’s no surround effect of course, but this always-on audio boost makes the sound richer and clearer. The Redmi Note 9 Pro doesn’t have any such enhancement for its speaker and ends up sounding a little tinny, with a lower maximum volume level too.

Realme 6 Pro vs Redmi Note 9 Pro battery life

Despite having a larger 5,020mAh battery and the same processor, the Redmi Note 9 Pro lasted for just 16 hours in our HD video battery loop test. The Realme 6 Pro on the other hand, with its 4,300mAh battery, lasted for an amazing 21 hours and 42 minutes in the same test. Both phones easily offer a day and half worth of actual runtime.

Charging the battery of the Realme 6 Pro is a lot quicker thanks to its support for 30W fast charging. The Redmi Note 9 Pro on the other hand only supports up to 18W fast charging, and given the larger capacity, charging it fully takes longer. Both phones ship with chargers that supply these Wattages.

Realme 6 Pro vs Redmi Note 9 Pro cameras

Starting with the Realme 6 Pro, we have the same 64-megapixel Samsung GW1 sensor as the one on the Realme 6 for the primary camera. Then, there’s an 8-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera; a 12-megapixel 2x optical telephoto camera, and finally a 2-megapixel macro camera. The Redmi Note 9 Pro has a 48-megapixel primary sensor; an 8-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera; a 5-megapixel macro camera; and a 2-megapixel depth sensor.

The camera apps of both phones are similarly designed but they differ a bit in features. For instance, the camera app in the Realme 6 Pro has a 5x zoom toggle button; Night mode can be used with the wide-angle and selfie cameras; and you can enable an ‘Ultra Steady’ stabilisation mode while shooting video. The Note 9 Pro has a few unique tricks too such as a ‘Short video’ recording mode; a shortcut to access Google Lens; and easy-to-access shortcuts for changing the video resolution or switching to macro mode.

During the day, both phones captured good detail and HDR was handled well. The Redmi Note 9 Pro adds a warmer tone to images compared to the 6 Pro’s more neutral tone. Wide-angle shots are handled decently too, but the quality and details take a bit of a hit on both, when compared to their main sensors.

Tap to see full-sized image

Tap to see full-sized image

Both shoot detailed macros too, but in this test we found that the Realme 6 Pro boosted reds a little too much. When it comes to extreme close-ups, the Redmi Note 9 Pro captured better details than the Realme 6 Pro thanks to the higher-resolution macro camera.

Using the 2x optical zoom camera on the Realme 6 Pro, we got some sharp details and good colours. The Redmi Note 9 Pro did a decent job with its 2x digital zoom, but upon closer inspection, the 6 Pro produced slightly better sharpness and details.

Tap to see full-sized image

With selfies, the Realme 6 Pro captured much better details on our subject’s face, with good skin tones. HDR isn’t the most effective here but that’s okay considering that selfies themselves were exposed well. The Redmi Note 9 Pro does a better job of exposing backgrounds but our subject’s face was a lot darker, with less detail. The Realme 6 Pro’s wide-angle front camera is useful as it lets you get a lot more people into a frame.

Tap to see full-sized image

Tap to see full-sized image

In low light landscapes, the Realme 6 Pro clearly has much better exposure, compared to the Redmi Note 9 Pro. As a result, we can see more detail on objects in the dark. Switching to Night Mode, things only get better for the Realme 6 Pro, but strangely, it doesn’t make much of a difference to photos on the Note 9 Pro. Shooting with the wide-angle cameras of both phones at night yields poor results, but the 6 Pro can use Night Mode for this camera too, which improves things a bit.

Shooting close-ups in low light, the Redmi Note 9 Pro really struggled to focus on small objects such as flowers, whereas the Realme 6 Pro didn’t have any trouble. After many tries, the Note 9 Pro finally managed to focus but images were not as bright or detailed as the ones taken with the Realme 6 Pro.

With a slightly larger subject and better light, the Note 9 Pro appeared to capture the better photo at first glance, since it’s brighter. While details were good, it’s the Realme 6 Pro that did a more accurate job with white balance and even exposure. If you take a closer look at the tiles on the floor in our sample shots, the picture taken with the Realme 6 Pro shows more detail.

Trying to use the Realme 6 Pro’s optical zoom camera in low light, we got some pretty decent results. The Redmi Note 9 Pro also produces a usable picture with its 2x digital zoom capability, but sharpens things a bit too much.

Both smartphones are capable of 4K video recording but neither stabilises video at this resolution. Under good light, footage captured with both phones is fairly detailed, but the Note 9 Pro boosts colours, particularly blues, a bit too much. At 1080p, stabilisation kicks in to make the footage smoother on both phones, and here, we found the Redmi Note 9 Pro to do a slightly better job.

In low light, we found the Realme 6 Pro’s video quality slightly better, as it was brighter overall. At 1080p, both phones do a decent job with stabilisation but they also introduce slight distortion in the footage. Wide-angle videos look blurry and washed out, since the sensor isn’t as good as the main one on either phone.

Realme 6 Pro vs Redmi Note 9 Pro software and usage experience

The Realme 6 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro run on their manufacturers’ respective custom skins, both based on Android 10. Realme recently pushed out an update for the 6 Pro, which updated the Android security patch to March, along with bug fixes and performance improvements. This also brings the Soloop video creation app which was promised at launch. It lets you automatically create mini movie clips from photos and videos you select. You can use one of the ‘Smart Templates’ or fine tune the result by selecting your own music, adding text, applying filters, etc.

Realme UI is lean and feels quite a bit like stock Android in some ways. The preinstalled apps thankfully don’t spam your notification shade all that much, which is something we can’t say about MIUI.

Xiaomi’s popular skin on Android might be loved by many, but it can be frustrating since the stock apps tend to clutter your notification shade with unwanted alerts. Other than this, the interface is fairly feature-rich, with lots of options to customise the way you interact with your phone.

Verdict

If you’ve gone through this entire comparison and haven’t simply jumped to the verdict, then it’s pretty clear by now that the Realme 6 Pro (Review) has a lot more to offer, if you can spend a bit more money on it. It’s on par with the Redmi Note 9 Pro (Review) in terms of most features, but is lighter and more ergonomic to use. It also has a better speaker, much quicker charging, and better cameras — all of which make it the better buy.

Now in all fairness, Xiaomi does have a higher-end model called the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, which starts at Rs. 14,999 and features a 64-megapixel primary camera, a 32-megapixel selfie camera, and 33W fast charging. We haven’t reviewed this model yet, but since the rest of the specifications are more or less identical to those of the Redmi Note 9 Pro, we can say that it should put up a tougher fight and also doesn’t cost much more.

Do also keep in mind that both models from Xiaomi are only available through flash sales, while Realme’s offerings are ready to buy whenever you want them. It will be interesting to see how the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max and Realme 6 Pro stack up, but that’s a comparison for another time.

Is Redmi Note 9 Pro the new best phone under Rs. 15,000? We discussed how you can pick the best one, on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

[blessuswithblogs]

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood: A launch analysis

(note that there are some spoilers for patches 2.0-4.0 here if you haven’t played but want to)

Stormblood's first major content patch, 4.1, has been going strong for about a month now and most people have seen the majority of the initial cycle's content, so I feel confident in writing about something that's been on my mind for a while. Namely, taking an in-depth look at how Stormblood launched in mid-June and how it compares to its direct predecessor, Heavensward. I didn't want to commit myself to anything before enough time had passed to really get a feel for how things developed, but I think enough time has passed at this point to make a fair and honest evaluation.

Overall, I think that Stormblood had a much stronger launch period than Heavensward did, no doubt thanks in large part to harsh lessons learned back in 2015. I'll start with the bad part so I can get them out of the way: the first few weeks of Stormblood were a god damn mess in terms of server stability and functionality. Raubahn Extreme and the Unending Coil of Pipin will probably stick in the memories of lots of players who really just wanted to get to Kugane please please let me in to the instance please god. The main story quest instances were all of high quality and memorable, experimenting with implementing various group mechanics like stacking, spreading, and tethers in a single-player battle both to make playing through the story more interesting mechanically and to acclimate newer players to common to mechanics in level cap content. Regrettably, none of that actually matters if you can't get in to the damn thing in the first place. Server congestion was so monumental that, ironically, having to create an instance for each individual player instead of being able to consolidate them into groups of 4 or 8, made it nigh impossible to get into the main story quest battles at all for a majority of people. When faced with this obstacle, many players decided to simply progress by grinding out FATEs in the Fringes and the Peaks, and in some cases, managed to exploit their way past certain terrain features nominally impassible without flight or story progression to reach areas with higher level events and enemies. In a bizarre but touching display of cooperation, players with 2-person capable mounts who were experienced in exploiting the level geometry would ferry other less adept players across the thresholds so they could actually get to new places. For those fortunate enough to get into an instance and successfully complete it before the servers caught up with themselves and spat them back out again, sailing was mostly smooth from then on due to the natural if unintended throttling effect severely limiting the amount of players actually competing to get into subsequent instances. Not too much later, a potentially game-destroying bug involving Susano, the first Primal battle in 4.0, and entering his instances while sitting down would cause considerable consternation among the unlucky few who discovered it and paranoia in those who had heard of the bug but hadn't yet discovered the cause. This issue, at least, Square was able to identify and fix fairly quickly. Errant coding is a much less daunting challenge than several more million people playing your game than you really accounted for.

In time, these problems resolved, and it bears mentioning that the height of these issues were present only during the game's early-access period for pre-orders. I remember mentioning to someone that in the end, as annoying as they were, the congestion issues would create some lasting memories of the launch period. While small consolation, I feel that in that respect, I was right. Heavensward had its share of congestion problems, but they were largely mitigated by creating separate instances for each major expansion zone. Stormblood did the same thing, but the battle instance servers simply weren't prepared for the volume of traffic they received. Fortunately for us all, once these issues resolved, Stormblood proved to be a delightful experience in almost all respects.

The main story of Stormblood chronicles the liberation of Ala Mhigo and Doma from the Garlean Empire. The revolutions of these countries have been alluded to, mentioned, and hinted at since the early days of 2.0 (and in Ala Mhigo's case, 1.0). When Heavensward was announced and the late 2.0 story switched gears to heavily involve Ishgard and the Dragonsong War, a lot of people were sort of perplexed at this seeming nonsequitur. While Heavensward's story proved to be one of its stronger aspects, the fact remained that we were leaving the imperials up to their own devices indefinitely to go galavant with catholic elves and dragons for 5 patches. Stormblood returned us to the more down-to-earth realm of imperial occupation that underscored most of 2.0's main story. I don't necessarily want to spoil the entire story arc of Stormblood, so I will be vague when possible. In some ways, the narrative of Stormblood feels a bit unfocused, as the warrior of light gets punted around to opposite ends of the world to agitate rebellion in two different nations entirely. It does make a certain degree of sense, given that historically, huge expansive colonial empires were weakest when dealing with multiple fires at disparate locations, so the divide and (re)conquer strategy survives scrutiny, especially when one considers that the warrior of light has the semi-canonical ability to just teleport instantly over vast distances with aetherytes for a modest fee. The fact remains that one does get a feeling that in a perfect world, the writers would have liked a unique expansion for each nation's struggle. This was exacerbated pre-launch by a number of player's vaguely racist negative reaction to Hingashi and Doma as "stupid weeb shit". Given that Final Fantasy XIV is a primarily Japanese developed game, of course, the idea of anything in it being "weeb" is preposterously self-centered by western audiences. I understand the desire to focus on Ala Mhigo before Doma, but overall I think that the writers did a good job of combining the two rebellions into one more or less concurrent narrative. I mentioned earlier that many of the single player instances in the main story and job quests were very good and memorable, experimenting with a lot of different things to keep the experience fresh and engaging. The Dark Knight job questline in particular stands out and honestly I want to write a piece on that alone. I probably will. The leveling dungeons are also all of very high quality, ranging from the very memorable Sirensong Sea's introduction aboard the privateer vessel crashing into a haunted ship's graveyard straight out of Final Fantasy 5 to the heroic final assault on the Ala Mhigan capital alongside all of your Grand Company and Resistance Allies. The post 70 dungeons, though somewhat limited in number compared to 3.1, made the wise decision to include the 70 story dungeon in the Expert Roulette table to avoid the Heavensward problem of only ever doing Fractal Continuum or Neverreap. Jesus Christ, Neverreap.

The climax of Stormblood's story, I think, is one of the major ways it outshines Heavensward. Stormblood ends with a titanic confrontation with Zenos yae Galvus, the inexplicably powerful imperial viceroy that has been kicking dirt in your face the entire time. Zenos is an interesting existence within the FFXIV universe, because historically, the Warrior of Light Does Not Lose, while Zenos managed to defeat them twice - once without seemingly expending much effort. It was a necessary story beat, I think, because the player needs to be reminded that they aren't invincible, and having a legitimately dangerous Imperial foe to contend with is healthy for the story. It's easy to forget the scope and power of Garlemald on a personal level because the Warrior of Light has left a veritable mountain of crumpled centurions, prelates, magitek weaponry, and even legatuses (legatii?) in their wake. Giving the imperial war machine's vast power and influence a face in Zenos puts some stakes back in the story that have been missing since the third time you personally trashed Regula van Hydrus on Azys Lla. Initially, I was pretty offput by losing to Zenos, both because I felt like if I had the time, I could have beaten him in a battle of attrition and because I felt like the Viceroy had not earned the right to be as strong as me. The mythology of the warrior of light is justified by how difficult and effortful some of the endgame battles are to beat. When you earn the Final Witness title or clear Sephirot extreme or earn an Alexandrian chestpiece, when you defeat these enormous godlike beings made of pure magical energy and hatred for all human life and you especially, you feel that all the effusive praise you get from NPCs in the world isn't just the game trying to make you feel special. It's an honest respect for your legendary prowess and heroism. There's a moment in late Heavensward, when Alisae Levilleur returns to the story after being mostly absent since the final destruction of Bahamut, where she begs you to go to the Ixali homeland and prevent another summoning of Garuda. If you went through the whole Binding Coil of Bahamut beforehand, once she learns that you have departed to deal with matters there, she immediately relaxes and considers the matter cosed. She knows just how capable you are. She was there in the bowels of the earth with you as you cut your way through ancient machines, dragons, and bioweapons. It was a powerful moment of a character showing you genuine and heartfelt respect in a genre where, despite your status as Biggest Heroine Ever, you are still tasked by NPCs to pick up poop.

So, when Zenos brought me to my knees not once but twice, I was mad. By design, I'm sure. How was he so strong? How could he even hang with me, someone who makes a living killing gods and vengeful elder dragons? Your final confrontation with him at the end of the level 70 dungeon is satisfying because your soundly beat his face in and make him retreat, but not entirely. There's still more to go. Here we get into blatant spoiler territory, so if you want to experience this for yourself and haven't yet, you might want to clock out right about now. At the pinnacle of the royal palace, in a field of flowers, you confront Zenos for a final time, only to find him standing in front of Shinryu, wrapped up into a nice little package by the erstwhile Omega Weapon. After a conversation about the nature of the Echo and its relationship to Primal beings, he frees Shinryu from its prison, and in a single shot, Zenos's overwhelming power up until now is explained clearly and succinctly as his eyes glow with the telltale pattern of a Resonant. What felt inexplicable up until that moment was suddenly perfectly clear: the Viceroy has, in broad strokes, the same power that you do, augmented with imperial technology, the best training available in the modern world, and a lifetime of military experience. And now he's riding around inside another vengeful dragon god. The final battle with Shinryu is an incredible and much anticipated spectacle. The battle between it and Omega was the capstone of 3.5 and the major catalyst for Stormblood even happening, and now the game makes good on what it promised. It's also pretty hard? Like beating it with a bunch of randos in 290 artifact gear is not trivial. When you triumph, Zenos falls to the earth in a spectacular green comet, and now finally satisfied in meeting his match, the one person who understands him, he takes his own life. It's a somber moment, because as pumped as you might be to finally be done with this asshole, it also reminds you that behind this unfeeling monster of a person was a deep, abiding loneliness born of a life of experimental augmentation and violence. You don't feel bad about killing him, but as Lyse opines afterwards, you are reminded that none of us start out evil, and it is a difficult task indeed to escape the bonds of our forebears. With the Viceroy's death, Ala Mhigo and Doma are both free. Imperial forces are in disarray, scrambling to retreat back to the mainland of Ilsabard, with the Emperor feeling the sting of decades of wasted time and money more keenly than the death of his son. When confronted by the always enigmatic Elidibus about his grief, Varis surprises even the immortal, inhuman ascian with his response: he snorts dismissively and simply states that the throne is no place for a monster. It's a chilling exchange that sheds some light about how Zenos came to be what he was - the implication here is that Varis was going to have his own son surreptitiously disposed of at some point to ensure that he never ascended to the position of Emperor. Reasonable given what we know about the son's character, but callous and calculating enough to give even a Paragon pause. The conclusions to the 4.0 story is a strong conclusion. It doesn't neatly wrap up everything in a bow. There are still many stories to be told about reconstruction, repatriation, the establishment of new goverments, how old friends fit into a new world. Also there's Omega chilling out in a hole somewhere. Despite all that, it is a strong, decisive ending to the main story arc of Stormblood, closing with a touching rendition of the Ala Mhigan national anthem as Arenvald raises the nation's flag to recreate the beautiful Amano logo.

Contrast to Heavensward, which ends the 3.0 story arc in an extremely "Tune in next time!!!!" series of events that honestly just sort of leave you feeling bemused. You fight your way through Azys Lla to get to the rogue Archbishop, who becomes the godly reincarnation of Ishgard's first King Thordan and his knights twelve to destroy Lahabrea, your longtime immortal masked nemesis, in an extremely anti-climactic and valor thiefy way. You end up fighting him because A. a realm-wide theocracy dictated by the decree of an egomaniacal elf-pope with a hateboner for dragons sounds fucking shitty and B. he became a Primal, and you are contractually obligated to kill those before they suck the world dry of Aether to sustain their untenable physical forms. There's a good moment after you win where a dying Thordan beholds you with raw terror and demands to know exactly what you are, that you could withstand the power of a thousand years of fervent prayer, the eye of a great wyrm, and the dormant power of the warring triad sleeping beneath Azys Lla. It looked a little silly because my Warrior of Light is a cute and well mannered midlander girl about as intimidating as a puppy in her Sharlayan Philosopher's Hogwarts factulty coat and witch hat but I imagine if you were like, playing as a roegadyn or a highlander wearing something slightly more threatening it could have been a stark shot portraying you in a much different light than what you're used to. Anyway, Thordan dies, Estinien runs in a full five minutes too late, realizes that the second eye of Nidhogg was in the Vault's basement all along, and resolves to put them both out of reach of man and dragon forever. Unfortunately, putting both of the eyes together makes Nidhogg's spirit rematerialize and posess Estinien's body, and he flies off to go take a nap back at the Aery before he resumes with the total destruction of the Holy See. And. That's kind of how it ends. Like there's a nice scene afterwards where Ser Aymeric signs some documents to officially become a part of the Eorzean Alliance and switch to a parliamentary system of government as Merlwyb almost shoots somebody by accident again. And then Elidibus goes to the moon and recruits the Warrior of Darkness to come down and fuck shit up and also Alexander activates in the hinterlands due to goblin hijinx. It ends on like 3 different cliffhangers which don't really feel earned and you get the feeling they didn't really know how to wrap this up until 3.3, which, admittedly, had a fantastic overall conclusion to the Dragonsong War arc and 3.4 finally did literally anything with the Warriors of Darkness in a pretty spectacular way.

Having a strong conclusion is not the only way that Stormblood compares favorably to its predecessor. Of much more concern to most of the playerbase and not my literary-analysis-obsessed-ass is the endgame raiding scene. Which is, also of my concern because I'm a literary-analysis-obsessed-ass who also raids. The initial Alexander raids in the Gordias sector are infamous among the community for basically killing the robust raiding scene that had evolved from the excellent Binding Coil of Bahamut. The idea behind them was sound, and was repeated and refined in Stormblood: they first released the normal difficulty raids that most players could do without exerting too much effort to get weekly drops for better gear and experience the story behind Alexander and the Illuminati, and then followed up with the Savage difficulty. Savage was more in line with the previous Coil raids, offering much harder, more complex encounters with greater rewards like the highest item level gear available and upgrade tokens for gear bought with tomestones. Sadly, the Gordias raids were bad. Well, maybe bad is a strong word, but they were not nearly up to the caliber of quality set by the Binding Coil. The normal versions of the raids were serviceable, but not very memorable, and the musical score was, uh, shall we say, divisive. The Savage tier raids were punishingly difficult exercises in frustration as players scrambled to relearn how to play jobs that had changed on fundamental levels and understand poorly defined and programmed mechanics like digititis and the gobwalker. On release, Savage Living Liquid was mathematically impossible to defeat before enrage witout very specific compositions optimized for damage above all else and the best possible available gear - these compositions weren't actually discovered until the delayed Chinese release, which had the benefit of hindsight and a more solid understanding of how jobs functioned in the post 2.0 world. Living Liquid was where raid groups went to die. When people finally got to Savage Manipulator, they quickly learned that the optimal way to get through it was to intentionally fail certain mechanics and die, then utilize the Free Company buff Back on your Feet to quickly revive that player and minimize time spent in the Weakness state. It was a trip, and people were not happy. During the anniversary stream, statistics about the number of players who had entered and cleared Savage instances came out. For ALexander 1 and 2, the numbers were fairly reasonable, but fell to triple digits for 3 and literally zero for 4. Post Heavensward launch was one of the roughest periods for the game, both because of the raid situation and because a lot of company money was tied up in delivering the giant bloated baby of Final Fantasy XV and the XIV team were working with a skeleton crew for a lot of the duration. Subsequent raid tiers in 3.2 and 3.4 gradually fixed a lot of the problems present in the Gordias sector, but the damage had been done.

Stormblood, however, has had no such issues. The Bend of Time: Omega Weapon raids have been very well received both mechanically and aesthetically. It seems that the developers erred on the side of caution this time around. Instead of introducing a bunch of largely random and samey Goblin robots to fight, Yoshida and the team went back to a bottomless well that has served them with distinction over the course of the game's lifespan: references to older Final Fantasy games that people loved. The first tier of Omega consists entirely of fights against demons of the dimensional rift from Final Fantasy 5, digitally reconstructed by the godlike Omega Weapon in a special dimensional space to participate in a grand experiment to see who The Strongest Fucker is. The Warrior of Light and the Garlond Ironworks find themselves caught up in this scheme during their investigations into the weapon's whereabouts after its battle with Shinryu. Midgardsormr, King of Kings, father of the first brood, and judgmental grandparent to the Warrior of Light also makes an appearance, seemingly with a deep connection to the mysterious Allagan supermachine. The raid tier culminates in a fight against the fan favorite villain Exdeath in one of the best fights in the game so far. With the possible exception of Alte Roite, who is kind of just there, all of the fights in this tier have unique, memorable mechanics to deal with, some of which are quite hysterical, like using an anti-gravity device provided by Nero to float above ground attacks, realize with alarm that you can't get back down, and then realize the boss will just do it for you, or strategically turning into a frog to get bonus limit break. The savage fights are obviously a step up in difficulty, but the developers decided to tone it down from Gordian levels and make the fights more accessible and clearable by more people. Which is not to say that they are easy fights - savage Halicarnassus and Exdeath require strong coordination and adaptation to survive. In order to entice more experienced players to take on these marginally-less-absurd challenges, the team has included mechanics and in the case of Exdeath an entirely new fight in the Savage instances that are quite fun and not present at all in the normal versions. This trend was actually started by Brute Justice in the Midan sector, who had a final hyper mode phase in savage that was absent in normal, though it was infamous for its incredible difficulty, even by Alexander Savage's standards. So, like with other aspects, they took this element of what came before and refined it and toned it down so now you can fight Neo Exdeath in glorious 3D.

The Omega raids are not flawless, by any means. While the Final Fantasy geek inside of me is vibrating constantly at the thought of more throwback fights later on, the more objective game critic side does genuinely prefer original content like what was found in Alexander, at least, in theory. Hardcore raiders are also quick to point out that they were kind of easy, but I'm not sure that their judgment of these matters is actually sound because only a small part of the population can sit down for 8 hours a day and ram their heads against the challenge and pave the way for the rest of us. Fortunately, the team expected this and has recently released The Unending Coil of Bahamut. The Unending Coil is a reimagining of the fights against Twintania, Nael Deus Darnus, and Bahamut himself condensed into one and made excruciatingly, preposterously difficult. This gave the hardcore groups a meaty bone to chew upon, and a clear didn't come nearly as fast as it did for Omega savage. There are tangible rewards for clearing it, as well - you get shiny dreadwyrm weapons which may have better stat allocations than their genji counterparts and the aptly named title "The Legend." They also released the Royal City of Rabanastre 24-person raid not long before at the launch of 4.1 for more casual players to enjoy and gear up with. Rabanastre has seriously ludicrous lore implications and tons of fanservice for the Ivalice Alliance appreciators in the audience, and in general is just much more fun and interesting than the Void Ark (though sadly lacking in Voluptuous Void Booty department). With the introduction of a radically new PvP mode in Birds of Prey where you get to ride around in giant robots, and rumors of the Forbidden Land Eureka making an appearance soon, the  Stormblood launch is enjoying much more support and longevity than Heavensward did.

Of course, the possibility remains that later patches in this cycle are going to be total trash heaps, but I think that it's fair to assume that they will not be those. The FFXIV is one of the best around at learning from mistakes and iterating upon good ideas until they are also good in execution. It's a game that has genuinely gotten better each time it has been updated, with some notable exceptions that were usually fixed pretty quickly anyway. At this point, I feel confident in saying that Stormblood is a superlative expansion with 4 more content patches to go promising a lot of really really cool shit. I'm super pleased, and it's probably my game of the year. It's extremely gratifying to watch the team grow and learn over time and create some really excellent experiences in every arena: social, mechanical, narrative and graphical. A haven for the bold is a great place to be right now.

[thehallofgame]

Review: Dragon Age Origins

Sorry for the delay! For some reason I found this one challenging to write and it took a few extra days to get out. Sorry about that.

Dragon Age Origins

Release: 2009

My Rating: 8.5/10

              I’ve taken to saying that if you get four dragon age fans together none will agree on which of the three Dragon Age games is the best. Where Bioware’s Mass Effect series nailed its tone and gameplay the first time out and continued to refine it over the next couple of games (Andromeda excluded) the studio’s Dragon Age series reinvented itself with each core entry to considerable uproar every time. Yet, somehow, the series retained a core fanbase and a through line based more on their engrossing world than any continuous story.

              The original version of this game launched in 2009 on PC and was later ported to consoles following the game’s success. Unfortunately, the game’s mechanics just weren’t built with controllers in mind and though playable when ported, were awfully clunky. Thus the PC version remains the ideal way to play this game. This is especially true now that the Ultimate Edition, which comes with all of the DLC alongside the base game, can be regularly purchased for under ten dollars on sale.

              Bioware’s roots as a Dungeons and Dragons RPG maker are on proud display in Dragon Age Origins, which feels and plays a lot like a tabletop RPG campaign. The player takes the role of the Grey Warden, a protagonist whose gender, face, race (as in human, dwarf or elf) and starting class (warrior, rogue or mage) they can mix and match to their hearts content. These choices will land the character in one of six backstories that are all gristly, tragic and end with them fleeing for their lives. They are then rescued by Duncan, a knight of the Grey Warden Order, who shelters them on the condition they join the order and travel with him to fight the ‘Blight’ brewing in the distant south of the land. The Warden agrees and off they go, collecting party members along the way.

              Unfortunately, disaster strikes and what was to be a glorious victory against the Blight, an army of totally-not-orcs called Darkspawn and the undead dragon leading them, instead turns into a massacre. The newly recruited Warden and a few allies are all that survive of the order. With the blight still threatening to burn and pillage through the defenseless kingdom of Ferelden the Warden decides to raise their own army to counter the threat and do their duty. Meanwhile, the order has been framed for the murder of the king, loss of the army and the political strife tearing the country apart.

              With that, the player is sent off on their journey with a checklist of potential supporters to visit and request aid of. This amounts to four initial core quests to complete as well as a bevy of side-quests to be discovered via becoming close to party members, speaking to NPC’s and several organizations the Warden can choose to help. While most of the side quests amount to fetch or hunting quests they’re all dressed up nicely with supporting story, unique and challenging enemies (including all the hardest encounters of the game) as well as ample reward that makes them feel like a natural part of the game rather than padding. Meanwhile, the story quests have entire regions with multiple levels tied to them and their quest chains. Each story feels unique, engaging and encapsulated. Choice is a major aspect of any Bioware game and Dragon Age does an excellent job of making those choices feel like they matter and impact the end of the game (even if the ending is mostly decided in the final hours). However, the choices the Warden makes in the story quest will effect who comes into power during the civil war, which people will or won’t join the Warden’s party and what kind of hero the Warden is perceived as.

              Unlike in Mass Effect Dragon age doesn’t have a black and white morality system, but rather reflects moral and political allegiances that other characters will react to. While it’s possible to recruit every single character no matter what choices the player makes they may not like the Warden’s choices, which makes befriending them harder. Likewise the player’s choices will inevitably cause them to gain one advantage at the cost of another, especially during the pivotal moments of the game. Unfortunately most of the choices do have an answer that’s more objectively ‘right’ than another, though most could be interpreted with equal weight in the culture of the game world. For example, the player isn’t going to have a cultural stigma against elves, magic or anything else that doesn’t exist in our world but conflicts will be presented on the assumption the character that they’re playing does. Incidentally, the Warden’s race and class also make a massive difference in how they’re treated, and the options for responses they have in certain situations. This makes roleplaying a character very immersive and engrossing, but can be a bit of a let down for those who don’t get as deeply invested in their characters and the world of the game.

              The Warden will come across and have the option to recruit up to eight party members in the base game (the Stone Prisoner DLC adds a ninth). Some join the party of their own volition, but others have short quests or pivotal decisions that influence their willingness to come along. These followers each fall into the three base classes of mage, warrior or rogue but have their own unique specializations and abilities that give them each a unique combat style that can be tweaked to the player’s liking. Of these characters three will be willing to develop a romantic relationship with the Warden, though the options of who will vary with which gender of Warden is being played. Luckily, there are two bisexual characters so if the player wishes to pursue a same-sex relationship they can.

              Each companion has an approval rating that represents how friendly they feel toward the Warden. Higher ratings will impart increasing stat bonuses to the companion in combat. This rating goes up and down in response to the Warden’s actions, conversations had with the Warden in the party’s camp and via gifts that are found in the world and matched to the correct recipient. If the player reaches about 50% approval, or fulfills certain conditions, the party member will approach the Warden with a special quest. Completing that quest will impart a massive approval bonus and cement that character’s loyalty. On the flipside low approval could result in party members choosing to abandon the party or even turn on the Warden at pivotal moments.

              The gameplay is built around the hub of the party camp, which can be accessed from the world map. Here the warden can talk to the companions, use runes they find to enchant their weaponry and visit the merchant that follows the party around (which they’ll need to do often as the small inventory is prone to filling up). Upon leaving the player will head a party of themself and three additional party members. They will then select a destination on the world map and travel there. Almost always this is associated with a random encounter or a cutscene detailing events going on elsewhere in the world. If it wasn’t so consistent this feature would be annoying. However, as it can be anticipated, and there is a good mix of combat and story-encounters the random encounters aren’t particularly awful… though some are cripplingly hard. Some quest threads can’t even be encountered without traveling with specific party members, which again sounds worse than it is, because gameplay encourages swapping party around, the player will be returning to the world map and traveling on it often and because the story encounters almost always appear once the correct conditions for them have been met.

              Combat, however, can be a bit of a grind in and of itself. Each character can be equipped with four pieces of armor, four accessories and two sets of weapons. Matching pieces of armor confers a stat bonus, accessories can provide noticeable resistances to certain kinds of damage or confer stat bonuses and there’s an abundance of ranged and melee weapons to choose from. Add to that a system of specialization and ability chains that add a plethora of options, increase party members skill with certain weapons and the fact that the mage’s talents are designed to be stacked and used in clever ways to exploit bonuses as well as keep the party… and thing get very micromanagement heavy very fast.

              Dragon Age includes a system by which the player can go in and customize multiple sets of preferred behaviors for each character so that they don’t have to pause and switch characters as much on the fly. However, these behaviors basically amount to tiered if-then instructions that don’t always have the desired finesse, often activate in undesirable ways and without careful management might end up making things worse. Additionally, while the player can tailor different sets of behaviors for long battles, bosses or swarms of enemies they still have to go into a sub menu to switch these out, which defeats the purpose somewhat. For most players what ends up happening is that they find out who they can tailor to be self-sufficient, and whose abilities they need to micromanage (usually the party’s mages). Using a special ability depletes stamina and also has a short cooldown time. While stamina and health regenerate over time, it isn’t fast enough to keep up with the pace of comba so extended battles easily turn into white-knuckled slug fests. The player can craft or purchase health potions and potions to restore magical stamina, but rogues and warriors who run out of stamina are simply out. Meanwhile, if an ally runs out of HP and is KO’d they are out for the duration of the battle (with the exception of a high level healing spell with a very long cooldown). They’ll wake after the battle with an ‘injury’ that will impart a stat penalty until the player uses an injury kit to cure it or returns to the party camp. These injuries will stack, which can make party members all but useless in a long dungeon crawl without significant backtracking or resource management.

              The game encourages using a range of close and ranged combat, however, bows can’t be enchanted and often miss without the character being specialized in them specifically, so that quickly falls by the way-side. Likewise, for melee warriors weapons exist on a scale of sharp and accurate swords down to unwieldy hammers that are ideal for smashing armored enemies. This is good in theory but in practice is impractical. Switching like this necessities micromanagement again, and giving over precious inventory space to additional weapons when it’s already being choked with crafting items and good equipment the characters aren’t strong enough to equip yet. And all this is with the ability to map character abilities to keyboard buttons and use the mouse to accurately zoom out and survey the battlefield from certain angles (oh, and also hold down the tab key to identify hard to see items like loot or readable books). Doing this on a console is even more eye-twitch inducing.

              That all said, there’s something about Dragon Age’s combat that’s endearing. There’s something so satisfying about finally leveling up enough to equip the Legendary Sword of Legend or trying some hair-brained combination of obscure abilities and have them produce dramatic results. In the end, the system wears the minutia focused style of old Dungeons and Dragons like a badge of honor and did its best to recreate that in a game. This comes with a steep learning curve, but it eventually levels off and the player falls into a rhythm that will carry them through all but the hardest encounters.

              There’s so much more to be said about this game. It packs so much content into a game that’s ultimately not technically that long that it’s a little mind boggling. What Dragon Age lacks in gameplay and interesting visual design it makes up with in world building, compelling stories, interesting and beloved characters and climatic scenes with emotional payoffs that feel powerful and meaningful. Ultimately, Dragon Age is a great game that is only just beginning to really show the wear of its age. It also set an incredibly solid and tantalizing foundation for the future of its world and thus the Dragon Age franchise.

[gpssumo048-blog]

What's GPS and How GPS Works

Your journeys can be turned by A global positioning system for your motorcycle into adventures. You can find places that are incredible to explore by planning your trips and downloading your routes to your GPS unit. New landscapes, destinations, along with road trips wait; with all the security and confidence of not getting lost again.

A GPS system for your motorcycle can also help make your journeys more comfortable, as well as as feasible. You're running out of gasoline, or Should you fancy a rest, your GPS will provide help. More to the point, you can be guided by your GPS unit back to safety when you get lost, or accidentally get the wrong turning. With voice guided directions, and applications brimming with sights (POI), such as gas stations, restaurants, and service stations, and hotels; your own GPS can guarantee you a travel of uninterrupted enjoyment.

Sound like an ideal toy? Well, using GPS systems becoming mainstream, and new characteristics and models endlessly hitting on the shelves, it is sometimes a challenging task dividing which GPS device best suits your requirements.

It's well worth considering these things before you go ahead and purchase your GPS for your motorcycle, That will give you a hand.

What Kind of GPS Can You Need For Your Motorcycle?

Are Its Reception Capabilities Suitable To Your Needs?

Does the Battery Life Of Your GPS Meet Your Needs?

Is Your GPS To Vibration & Hard Ware?

Do You Want 2-Way-Communication?

How Easy Is the GPS To Update?

How Simple Can the GPS To Update?

What Price Is Suitable?

Which Form of GPS Can You Desire For Your Own Motorcycle?

There are 3 different types of GPS components for motorbikes; portable exterior components, GPS units designed specifically for the motorcycle/ scooter, and GPS/PDA hybrids.

In the event that you enjoy outdoor pursuits like mountain biking, rambling, and sometimes even camping; a portable GPS which can be used anywhere with you would certainly be ideal. In addition to browsing your pursuits, versatile Sat Nav's operate in virtually any car. You're able to take it into your car, in your vessel, and even onto a plane with you, as well as motorcycling.

GPS devices made specifically for motorcycles can provide you with some features. Especially designed with you, the motorcyclist, at heart, units such as the TomTom RIDER have touch-screen possibilities for gloves demanding, weather-proof casing, and anti-glare screens. One of the most recent features introduced by tom tom for communicating that is effective, is something that transmits your spoken instructions using a integral Bluetooth system.

Is the PDA/GPS hybridvehicle. Most have the additional bonus of owning a screen, Even though the unit have been built with portability in mind. So, just like the hand held GPS units that are outdoor, such a GPS could be ideal for those of you who like a range of outdoor pursuits. With an integrated PDA in addition to the, GPS/ PDA devices, like the Mio A201 for instance, might be convenient for play and work . Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, you will have the ability to catch up on job anytime, anyplace. In case you prefer to listen to audio on the move, play games, or store digital photographs, a GPS device like this one is the ideal choice

Can the Reception Capabilities of Your Motorcycle GPS Be Practical?

In differentiating your circumstance when choosing a GPS for your motorcycle, it might be well worth considering just how accurate you want your satellite signs to be.

A good deal of GPS units accessible now have a precision of approximately 68 meters. But several of the newer GPS models are built using a WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) capability, leading to accuracies of 34 meters 95% of the time. The Garmin Quest 2 for example, includes a reverse up antenna armed with a 12-channel WAAS GPS receiver.

If you like riding in compact woodlands and urban places, it is well worth noting that GPS devices incorporating the new SiRF Star III Chip Set, are units to watch out for. This high end, low power consumption chip set has sensitivity in foliage environments. It is also worth noting that GPS units with external antennas are great in maintaining a signal in deep woodlands.

Can the Battery Life of Your Motorcycle GPS Suit Your Requirements?

Having the freedom to ride just about anywhere with a GPS; battery lifetime is a significant component to consider. GPS units utilize 4, 2, or 6'AA' batteries, that can last upto 6 hours. GPS units using rechargeable batteries are the ideal choice in case you occasionally shed track of time. You may charge your battery while planning the route, or always keep by charging your GPS from the cycles battery booted using power.

How Resistant Can Be the www.navegadorgps.pro Motorcycle GPS Into Vibration & Hard-ware?

With the freedom to ride just about anywhere and not get lost, it's ensured your GPS can get yourself a great deal of use (also reverberation). Thus, it is very important to think about your GPS is, in withstanding conditions.

GPS devices designed exclusively for Motorcycles, just like the TomTom RIDER are navegadorgps designed with this in your mind. Its outer instance, Perhaps not only weather proof and shockproof that is rugged mount has been built to absorb any friction.

Although most GPS devices include a bracket, it's an absolute necessity that you simply use a vibration isolated mount if your GPS will be utilized regularly in your own motorcycle. The RAM mount by NPI, that is fast becoming the market standard, fabricate anti-vibration ball and socket mounting systems letting you mount practically anything, anywhere with vibration protection and durability. This will be an perfect addition to the Garmin Quest 2 GPS when you were purchasing this portable GPS to get a great deal of use on your motorcycle.

Would You Want Your Motorcycle GPS To Get 2way Communication?

One of the latest GPS systems to be launched for bicycles have obtained 2 Way communication to a completely new point.

If you own a GPRS blue tooth enabled cellular telephone, it's worth understanding that many Sat Nav's, like the TomTom RIDER, have incorporated a Bluetooth receiver, among all of their many features. With the capacity to attach your mobile using Bluetooth, and receive incoming calls by your GPS and Bluetooth headset, then you need not need to take your helmet and gloves away to answer your phone back again.

You might even use your Bluetooth enabled phones' wireless Internet, also using certain models of GPS, receive real time information on traffic conditions.

Enjoy riding in classes? It's worth knowing you will find some recent portable units that can offer integrated radios which will not just enable one to communicate with different members of your collection, but also will also display everybody's location on your screen.

How Easy Can Be the Motorcycle GPS To Update?

With Roads constantly changing, the ability to upgrade your device easily, and in a fair cost, are very important components to take into consideration when selecting your own GPS.

It is crucial to understand that every type of GPS is going to be upgraded in another way, so you want to pick which process is better for you.

Those that are attached to a PDA, just such as the Mio A 201 for instance, are usually updated with a PC, where as dedicated in-vehicle units are inclined to get updated via a CD. These need to be purchased from the road map data supplier.

A few particular software vendors have solutions for preparing. Notably, tom tom operate the TomTom PLUS service.

The Option: Budget Considerations

Essentially, your choice can be rather simple: Purchase the most expensive GPS you can afford, that fits your requirements.

It's important, using my pointers previously, to choose which features are most important to you. If you'd like an up-to-the-minute GPS for the motorcycle; with features like real-time, on demand traffic information, hands free calling, turn by turn voice directions via bluetooth headsets, alerts for speed camera locations, plus a large number of useful points of interest, GPS sytems just such as the TomTom RIDER start from approximately 550 inc.. VAT.

If, nevertheless, you're on the lookout for more of a toy to play , and a GPS that'll simply get you from A to B, then a portable device may be a greater choice. With a range of features, like simple voice guidancemode , mp3player, and essentially portability, GPS devices just like the Garmin Quest two and the Mio 268 are best for a variety of pursuits, and motorcycles. The Mio 268, and hands held GPS units with similar functions, begin from approximately #250 inc.. VAT.

To browse an Assortment of reduction GPS Sytems For Your Own Motorcycle, or Accessories & Pc Software For Your Motorcycle GPS Systems, see http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk.

[androidskit-blog]

Sony Xperia 1 with camera review

Sony Xperia 1 with camera review, People buy flagship phones as much for the cameras as for any other feature. Nearly every premium device from the likes of Huawei, LG, and Samsung has stepped up the game to include not one or two, but three cameras. The standard configuration for a modern flagship is now a high-quality primary lens, an optical telephoto lens, and a wide-angle lens. This applies to the Sony Xperia 1, which the electronics company is just now getting to market.  If you’re interested in learning everything there is to know about the Sony Xperia 1, check out our full review here. The purpose of this article is to dive deep into the camera situation and assess whether or not Sony can keep up. 

Camera app

Sony’s camera app is powerful but perplexing. It contains the vast majority of advanced features flagship phone buyers expect, yet there are some glaring omissions.  Let’s start with the dedicated camera button. Yes, the Xperia 1 has a physical shutter key, located where you expect to find it on the top right corner (when holding the phone sideways.) The button is a subtle two-stage key. Press it very lightly and the camera will focus on the subject. Press it all the way to fire off a shot. The difference between pressing the button gently and all the way is minimal. You can easily just smash the key down all the way when you intend to focus first.  Alternately, you can do what we’re all using to do at this point: touch the screen where you want the camera to focus and then tap the software shutter button.  Sony’s AI Cam is enabled by default. You can only ditch it by shifting to manual mode. What I find most frustrating is the lack of control over HDR. HDR functions automatically in AI Cam mode, which is to say you never know whether it is being used or not. The only way to take direct control over HDR is in manual mode. From my perspective, HDR should always be an easy-to-find feature.  A basic on-screen toggle lets you switch between photo and video modes, while a series of controls line the opposite edge for functions such as aspect ratio, bokeh, flash, timer, and settings. Some of these could be easier to grasp. The bokeh tool, for example, is represented by one circle placed behind another. What the what? How does that equate “bokeh”? 

On the whole, the camera app could be simplified quite a lot.  

Jumping from one lens to another should be easier. The camera always launches with the standard/primary camera lens active. A small circle with a “1x” appears on the far right side. Tap it once to switch to the telephoto lens. The small circle then displays a “2x” inside. Tap once more to get to the wide-angle “w” lens. If you press the “1x” for a second, a slider bar appears for zooming between 1x and 2x, and on through to 10x (digitally). No matter what,  you have to press the “w” to get to the wide-angle camera, and it pauses for a second before switching. It’s a confusing and inconsistent system. LG’s camera app is much simpler to decipher in this respect.  A small button under the shutter button lets you access the advanced modes. These include portrait selfie, Google Lens, slow motion, AR effect, manual, creative effect, and panorama. Pick one, and then a little symbol pops up in the corner to tell you which you’re using. There’s no time-lapse mode, nor is there a dedicated portrait mode or even a night mode, which is both frustrating and puzzling.  On the whole, the camera could be simplified and improved quite a lot. 

Daylight

Any and every camera should excel at daylight shooting when the most light is available. It’s therefore amazing how poorly some perform.  The Xperia 1 is all over the place in daylight situations. All four of these samples have bright and dark regions that aren’t particularly well balanced. What we notice most is the loss of detail in the darker spots, such as the trees in the first image, the sides of the buildings in the second and third images, and the pillars in the fourth. I’m glad the sky isn’t blown out in any of the images.  These are passable shots, but not fantastic ones.  Focus is mostly sharp, and colors are mostly accurate if a bit muted. For example, the yellow and red shades in the second image were brighter in real life.  There isn’t too much noise, nor are compression artifacts obviously visible. These are passable shots, but not fantastic ones. 

Color

Obtaining good color relies on a mix of things, including proper exposure and white balance. If one or the other is off, colors suffer. Some phone makers, such as Samsung, make up for this by boosting colors in the end results. Sony does not.   Here we see the Xperia 1 at its best. The top two images turned out spectacularly well with rich, bright, accurate colors. There is no banding, and the transitions between shades are smooth. These images look exactly like what I remember seeing on the streets of New York City. Color me impressed (pun intended).  You can see all the color, it’s just not as impressive as the real thing.  The bottom two images are the Sony Xperia 1 camera at its most average. Both appear muted in terms of color tones and exposure. The fourth image is particularly frustrating because the tile mural was well lit and I was standing only a few feet away. You can see all the color, it’s just not as impressive as the real thing.  It’s the inconsistency here that I don’t care for. 

Detail

Preserving details relies on focus, resolution, and maintaining control over compression and noise.  Once again we’re faced with inconsistency from the Sony Xperia 1 camera. In the top two images, the detail is clear enough that you can read the text in the images, there’s no doubt of that. Too bad neither is properly exposed.  The images with the brushes in the foreground is terrible. Much of the detail in the leaves is lost on close inspection, with the green foliage blending together. It was much easier to tell the individual plants apart in person. The third image also has lots of noise in the sky.  In the last picture, all the parts of the electric meters stand out and you can even tell where the gauges are pointed on the closer units. Here everything comes together, the exposure is on point, and there’s no noise at all. 

Landscape

When shooting land- or cityscapes, focus and balance are generally what you seek. Three of these images provide those, one does not.  What I like about image 1 is that the green looks rich, the sky is still blue, you can read the text on the sign, and even the darker areas have some detail. Image 2 shows sharp lines, accurate colors, and relatively good detail. Both these images are a bit on the noisy side, with compression artifacts here and there.  Image 3 is a disaster. The phone’s HDR tool completely failed here. The sky is overblown and yet nearly all the detail on the statue is lost because it is underexposed. At least the foliage is green.  The last image turned out fairly well. Despite the strong shadow, there’s lots of texture visible on the right wall compared to the fully sunlit left wall. You can see all the bricks and the sky is blue. There is still far too much noise.

Portrait

Fancy, effects-laden portrait shooting is all the rage these days. Many of today’s flagships include modes specifically for taking artful shots of our friends and family.   In order to take portrait images such as these, you need to use the Xperia 1’s bokeh shooting tool. It’s not called “Portrait Mode” and there aren’t advanced tools such as studio lighting — another shortcoming of the camera app when compared to Samsung, Huawei, and others.  The phone did do a decent job of outlining my profile cleanly and blurring out the background. I like that you can select the amount of background blur. In images 1 and 3, however, I look like I was artificially added to the pictures via PhotoShop. The second and fourth images look more natural. Exposure in all these shots is good, and I don’t see too much noise.  I’m flummoxed that there’s no actual portrait mode, which might make capturing these a touch easier. 

 HDR

HDR shots generally blend several exposures to create a balanced whole, with detail visible in both bright and dark regions. The Xperia 1 struggles with HDR across the board.  Images 1 and 4 are total failures of HDR. In the first, all the detail in the trees behind the fountain is lost due to underexposure. In the fourth, the top half of the image should have been bright with daylight and is instead dark and dreary. What is going on here, Sony? 

It's evident that Sony's HDR algorithms need more tuning. 

The second and third images are more balanced. They are each noisy, but at least the light and dark regions are better preserved. The second shot is particularly challenging because it has natural and artificial light mixed in a dark indoor environment. Some detail is lost on the second level, but this exposure is still fairly accurate. In the third pic, I appreciate that the blue sky is visible in the windows at all and that there’s some shading to the wooden roof far above the staircase.  In all, however, it’s evident that Sony’s HDR algorithms need more tuning. 

Low light

One of the biggest omissions of the Sony Xperia 1 camera is any sort of night mode. Sure, the AI Cam senses low light situations and takes steps to mitigate the exposure, but there isn’t a dedicated mode for shooting in the near dark. That’s a serious boo-boo considering phones such as the Huawei P30 Pro can practically see in pitch black night.  All four of these images were taken post-sunset. The first, just after sunset, has a reasonable amount of detail in the trees, but the sky is overblown. The colors are about right. The second image actually turned out pretty well, and was true to the scene. Shame about the noise. The third image may be accurate, but is soft.  The last image is clearly a stinker. For this, the camera took several seconds to capture the shot and we can still barely see what’s going on. The subject stands out, but the darker portions of the background are completely gone.  Without an explicit low-light or night mode, the Xperia 1 trails the competition. The Google Pixel 3a XL, which costs half as much, delivers far superior results. 

Selfie

All the Xperia 1’s portrait powers are found under the purview of the selfie camera. You can add effects, dial-in skin correction, make your eyes larger or your face thinner, and adjust the lighting. I captured these samples under a variety of conditions, including bright sunlight, indoors, and at nighttime. The results speak for themselves.  The first two images, which were aided by sunlight, turned out well. The focus is good, colors are accurate, and things look pretty much as they did when the photos were taken.  Things are a bit different in the third and fourth images. You can see that my face is a bit softer in the third image and the brick wall behind me looks a bit washed out. The last picture is a mess. Though it wasn’t that dark out, the Xperia 1 used the screen flash to light me up. While my face is properly exposed, the background is almost lost completely. Moreover, my face looks incredibly soft.  On a whole, I’d call these average selfie shots at best. 

Video

Flagship phones need to be able to capture 4K video, full stop. While we’d prefer to see 60fps, we can deal with 30fps which is where the Xperia 1 camera tops out.   I captured a variety of video with the Xperia 1 in 4K and Full HD (the latter in 60fps). It may be hard for your eyes to really see the difference between the two, but the 4K footage from Sony impressed. I was pleased with the way the phone captured motion smoothly, despite the fact that I was moving around. Moreover, the phone’s sensors are better able to adapt to changes in lighting when recording video.   Here, the Xperia 1 matches the competition. 

Conclusion

As I said in my full Sony Xperia 1 review, I’m stunned at how poorly the Xperia 1’s camera performs. Not only is it not up to snuff when compared to other flagships, such as the Samsung Galaxy S10, Huawei P30 Pro, and Google Pixel 3 XL, it doesn’t even compare to the budget Google Pixel 3a XL. It’s hard to recommend a $949 phone when a $479 phone beats the snot out of it in the core category of photography.   The bottom line, if you thought Sony’s adoption of the triple-camera setup would lead to a dramatic improvement in imaging quality, I’m here to tell you that’s not the case.    Read the full article

[matthewzfgf8669-blog]

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[entergamingxp]

Iceborne (PC) — Glorious PC Master Rank Hunts

January 7, 2020 11:00 AM EST

Just one more hunt, and then I’ll write the Iceborne article… Okay, just one more hunt…

As a game series, Monster Hunter is about as straightforward a concept as you can get. Everything you need to know is right there in the title. What do you do in Monster Hunter? You hunt monsters. Makes sense. What about any extraneous stuff? Nope, everything in it is killing monsters, or else giving you the means and resources to hunt monsters more efficiently. There’s something really pure about it. Monster Hunter World brought the predominantly handheld series to consoles and PC in a big way, shaving off some of the rough edges to make things a little more approachable. In return, the game exploded in popularity and success, selling more copies than any other Capcom title by a sizeable margin.

That sort of success was basically guaranteed to see the game produce DLC, if not a sequel. And so that brings us to the release of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. But is it a DLC or sequel? Well, this expansion pack is practically hefty enough to be both!

While console players have had their hands on this for a few months — you can read our review for the PS4 release here — PC players are now finally able to catch up once more. So let’s don the winter armor and unpack what’s here.

“If you’re wary of the price tag, I assure you that there’s more than enough here to justify it.”

Iceborne is an expansion pack in the 90s PC game sense of the word. There’s enough video game here to justify its own disc, and the new content approaches the level of what was included in the base game. If you’re wary of the price tag, I assure you that there’s more than enough here to justify it.

There’s a new tundra region to explore and hunt in. We’ve got new moves and adjustments to the weapons. There’s the addition of the Clutch Claw to your moveset, which lets you grapple to monsters and soften up their body parts or force them to go careening into walls. The slinger is now usable with your weapons unsheathed, combining nicely with the Claw to give you more options and flexibility in combat.

Most importantly, there’s the addition of Master Rank hunts, building on from the High Rank of the base game. Every monster already in World (barring a couple of exceptions like Xeno’jiiva) has a Master Rank fight, and all the new inclusions are Master Rank exclusives. These higher rank monsters drop different materials needed for the upgraded weapons and armour sets, and the base stats on all these newer models instantly obsolete the older ones. If you’ve not kept up with the base game so far or are just jumping on now, you won’t be held back in terms of power for long. If you have kept up with the Monster Hunter World meta, that will only make the adjustment phase a little smoother.

Ultimately though, this is all window dressing to Iceborne’s main selling point. You’re here for the new monsters. So what do we get? Well, you’re looking at about two dozen new encounters — almost as many as the base game. Half of these are unique to either the series or World, and the other half are variants or subspecies of existing monsters.

It might sound like a cop-out to lump these different varieties as new monsters if you read it like that. The vast majority of these subspecies have substantial alterations, moves, and gimmicks from their original versions though. I was genuinely taken aback by how different some of them were, and I was caught off guard by this on at least one occasion. Coral Pukei-Pukei, Fulgur Anjanath, and Seething Bazelgeuse, in particular, varied from their initial encounters in surprising ways, enough to keep them feeling fresh.

That said, the real stars are the creatures wholly new to World. There’s a good selection of iconic designs from older games that series veterans should be pleased (or are dreading) to see again. Monsters like Nargacuga and Tigrex make their triumphant return in high fidelity, and they easily stand out as some of the better fights available. Newcomers like Namielle and Velkhana can stand alongside these fan favorites proudly, featuring great designs and fun encounters. There’s a good mix of creatures on offer.

The pacing between new and variant monsters is reasonably balanced in the story, rarely dwelling on familiar faces for too long before thrusting you into a fight with something original to test your mettle. Some of the usual monsters are still going to be effortless punching bags in Master Rank — a Great Jagras is still a Great Jagras — but the newer fights don’t pull their punches. It might not reach the sometimes esoteric levels of earlier Monster Hunter games with what preparation is required, but you certainly will be punished if you come in expecting a steamroll.

What would a new set of monsters be without new sets of weapons and armor crafted in their likeness, though?  It’s present, naturally, and Capcom has done a really great job in making the gear look fantastic. There are practically no sets that I found completely unappealing, and there was always something creative or outright badass about what I was forging. The drive to assemble a great set was definitely stoked both by their skills and looks, so Fashion Hunter World players can rejoice. The gameplay loop of “hunt monsters to get parts to hunt monsters better” remains as compelling as ever.

All of this is without going into the inclusions of more layered armor, house customization, and the Guiding Lands endgame area. Even after playing through the main story and dabbling in the side content, I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. That’s not even mentioning playing with weapon types I’ve not become thoroughly acquainted with yet.

Being an expansion pack, most of the Iceborne changes are available only after you’ve beaten the base story of Monster Hunter World. Upon doing so, there’s a new set of story missions on offer that will take you through Iceborne’s plot, gradually unfurling the new fights and features. The story is still paper-thin and mostly just padding, but it is charming nonetheless and knows not to take itself too seriously.

Capcom has taken steps to make it easier to clear the base game content in the meantime. Defender armor and weapons have been added to the game already, and they’re strong enough to get you through the bulk of challenges leading to the new content. That said, you won’t be accessing many of the features until you’ve finished the World storyline, so do keep that in mind before you commit to the purchase!

“The gameplay loop of ‘hunt monsters to get parts to hunt monsters better’ remains as compelling as ever.”

Regardless of how far along you are, all Iceborne players will gain access to the new movesets and Clutch Claw right off the bat. Having now played with the Claw, it’s hard to imagine going back to the game without it. As such, it’s not for absolutely nothing if you end up buying ahead of time–just be mindful. Despite that warning, there’s a large amount of content for those who have exhausted Monster Hunter World’s offerings and just want more. Iceborne absolutely delivers that in spades.

For those who’ve patiently waited for the update to come on PC, how does the port hold up? Reasonably strong, really. I experienced almost no issues in my full playthrough on a review copy, with only the occasional brief pause that I attribute more to my own PC struggling to keep up. Despite the high demands and imperfect optimization, Capcom has made improvements on Iceborne compared to World’s original PC release. What remaining issues I experienced are very minor and should be fixed up by release, if not soon after.

The Steam release rolls out with all the bells and whistles for PC players to tinker with. Higher resolutions and 4K support, ultra-wide support, DirectX 12, uncapped frame rates… it’s all here to tinker with to get your hunts looking utterly stunning. If you don’t have an elder dragon of a rig needed to run everything cranked to the max, have no fear. Even on lower settings and lesser hardware, the game’s performance remains relatively stable.

“If you don’t have an elder dragon of a rig needed to run everything cranked to the max, have no fear. Even on lower settings and lesser hardware, the game’s performance remains relatively stable.”

If you’re not sure that you can handle the full graphical displays on offer, your gameplay shouldn’t be affected too much at all. Load times are still incredibly streamlined compared to console releases. Mouse and keyboard controls were already strong in the base release. Still, there have been numerous tweaks and improvements to better suit the Claw’s inclusion, with plenty of control customizations available to adjust as needed.

Unfortunately for PC players, this release still won’t quite put us at parity with the console release. Some of the balance adjustments and bug fixes have already been incorporated, such as tweaks to the Guiding Lands endgame, but event rollouts and free content updates are still to come. We should be seeing the addition of the imposing Rajang in early February. Keep an eye on the official Iceborne website for their roadmap. Hopefully, we’ll achieve parity with the console releases before long and can tackle each new hunt without having to wait enviously.

All things considered, Iceborne is an excellent expansion to the already great Monster Hunter World. It’s been an impatient wait for those of us playing on PC, but having played on both versions, this is a solid port that will see me sticking to this over consoles. At long last, we can get back into the hunt. There’s not likely to be anything in Iceborne that will change your mind if you didn’t care for World, but I know that there’s plenty — myself included — who are happy with the formula and will gladly leap at the chance for more. And that’s what Iceborne is: a quality expansion containing more of everything present in the awesome base game.

If you’ve been looking to get into Monster Hunter for a while, Monster Hunter World is still the most approachable game in the series by far. If you’ve been holding off on World up to this point, it’s a fantastic game that is worth playing. And if you’re already a fan of World, Iceborne is new content with that same great taste. See you in the New World.

January 7, 2020 11:00 AM EST

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[simmyseo]

Google Map Citations

A quote from Google Map Citations is simply just a description of your company name on another website (and optionally an address and telephone number). For example, a company directory such as Yelp, Foursquare, or Yahoo Local may be an example of a quotation where the company name gets indicated. You don't need a link to your website for Local Citations.

Data Accuracy

In all directories and quotes (i.e., names, addresses, and telephone numbers), it is incredibly necessary to retain the same phone number, address, and business name continuously, which makes your map listing rank higher in your local map searches.

Ranking Factors

Quotations are used to classify your local map with the Google Map Citations by providing Google with reputable business data sources so Google can verify the existence of your business, are legitimate, and your business statements are correct by checking the business information of multi-source companies.

How Google Maps Citation Works?

Google will allow it to be more confident about the information that you have provided about your business if you find information regarding your company on other web sites and directories, and this will ensure that you are more likely to display your business listing if a person searches for the types of products or services that you supply under Google My Business.

It is essential to establish, retrieve, and improve a Google My Business Citations page by adding your business name and data to directories and other websites to take advantage of local deals.

Quotations help to rank your Google Business Citations (formerly Google+ Local map) by providing credible information sources on Google's business. Quotations say to Google that your business exists, is legitimate and is correct, since it can be confirmed from several sources. It is, therefore, essential to provide Google Local Citations with a consistent name, address, and telephone on different sites.

When deciding whether to display your business listing to someone who has searched for the products or services you provide, Google considers several elements alongside citation directories. The proximity of your company to the search location is one of the factors they consider.

To use local quotes, you have already set up, claimed, and optimized a Google My Business list.

Links from a trusted website are one of the main factors Google uses in traditional Organic Google Map SEO. In terms of local search results, Text hyperlinks help rank the listings of Google Local Pack.

Getting quotes from a website with high domain authority and high traffic can help to improve local search rankings. The trick here is to connect quality to quantity.

Different Types Of Local Citations Services

• General directories of businesses • Trip Advisor, industry, niche or sectoral directories • Media and state newspapers • Local blogs – Left Lion is perfect for bars, pubs, clubs, and restaurants, etc. For example, local nightlife. • Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, and YouTube Web sites for social media.

How To Find Local Citation Builder Opportunities?

I 'd start by listing the important general ones that I think about when you talk about the local business directories to find Local Citation Building quotations.

Find your competitors out where they are listed. If all this seems too time-consuming, then resources are available, both paid and free, which can help you find new quotations.

The instruments that we recommend and use include:

• BrightLocal, which takes several minutes to set up a paid quote and will then give you directory requests. • SEMrush that performs the backlink analysis of the competitor. • Moz offers some insights from the study of competitors.

Beat Your Competitors With Citations

You need much higher quality quotes for Citation Building Websites than your competitor to beat competitors in citations. It is also essential to bear in mind that total numbers are small, but that the quality of this directory is high, as is the accuracy of the details you enter. The more general and specialized quotes get completed, the higher the importance they build for Google+ 's Local listing and exposure and presence within the items of the Google Maps in their overall ranking.

Although quotes are relatively easy to obtain for companies, it is more challenging to get quotations from local, niche, or journal websites. Obviously, for them, you have to think about something worthy of news, and you must first get their attention.

How To Make A Great Local Citation Sites List?

Both people and Google must regard a big local quote as accurate and trustworthy. There are great places to start existing brands, such as Yellow Pages (Yell) or Thompson Local, and their main aim is to offer a list of local businesses to other people.

It is essential that you also provide three pieces of valuable information when creating or claiming a quotation in a business directory style.

• The name of your company (this should be your trading name ideally) • A local phone with a local area code • Your company's physical address

These three pieces of information should be consistent as HTML and not as a graphic on your website to Build Citations. If a local journal informs your business, it is unlikely that your company's address or telephone number will ever show, it is sufficient simply to have an identified company to give your list the value.

Potential Issues

It can take time to generate Local Citation Services, and you preferably need to have a general marketing plan to get press reporters and newspapers' attention. If you are a small company that can profit immensely from a Google 7 list, though, it's something that you want to do. You can even outsource the job if you have the money. You can also Buy Citations SEO.

Considerations

Remember, Local Google Maps SEO helps only improve the location of your listing in the Google Maps Pack. If your business is in particularly narrow or dark areas where a category is not accurate, then investing in a local selection field for your Google Maps bundle may not be worthwhile. The maps show the seven packages since typically Google displays the number of results, but other variations are shown.

How Does Citation Building Works For Sites?

Many corporations are not involved in local searches and, therefore, local quotations. Their services are intended mainly for online clients who live in different countries, in different cities. They create a web-based marketing strategy.

But you would prefer seeking a paying client from your city if you were a small local service provider. You can easily improve your customer base with links of specific local resources, the content of your tourist guide, and positive text reviews on Yelp.

• Before starting the citation building process, you should enter your listing on Google Maps. Google map is always a good starting point • NAP Consistency – the name, address and phone number used for Google Maps must be the same • It is best to connect your website (or Google+ local website) to your Google+ business page — it's not a required step. It's a great way to be consistent with customers to optimize your quotes. It not only helps maintain your existing customers but also regularly gets new customers.

GeoRanker Citation Source Finder tool can be handy to find quotations for a wide range of keywords and locations. You need to register with GeoRanker for this free account.

After accessing the app, you can track up to five cities. It also allows you to switch between local and global searches quickly. When you log in, the tool offers a full, exact report after you set up parameters. The log can track any changes wonderfully.

How Can One Win The Game Of Citation?

Although you have a significant amount of links, the consistency of the links and the accuracy of the information that you provide is more significant. All the places to which you have been referred will give precise details about your company, such as name, address, and phone number.

Full quotations are valuable for the locale rankings of Google Pack and your overall web visibility. All this helps expand your market awareness, find potential new customers, and make access to your website more accessible.

The more complicated the quotes are to be accessed in company lists come from specialized or niche blogs or local newspapers. You have to think about something essential for them, and you must first of all be mindful of it.

What’s the Catch?

It is time-consuming and tedious to create local citations, and ideally, to get journalists' attention, it is necessary to have an overall marketing strategy.

However, it would be worth spending time on if you are a small business that would immensely benefit from a local listing on the Google Local Pack. If you have the budget, you can either automate the work using the resources previously mentioned or outsource it entirely.

Link Building With Citations

When you include the URL of your website as part of your quotation, cite link building. When you create a quote for your company that contains a website URL, you build a quotation link.

Some argue that building a citation link is not a genuinely linked construction strategy.

However, I would like to add that not only is the development of a quotation link legal, but it could also be a powerful way to create considerable credibility on your website.

For instance, claim you are local attorney SEO and add your law firm to the directory of FindLaw.

Your citation on FindLaw would, of course, include the website URL of your law firm.

On the last time I checked, Findlaw.com carries DA91 (domains 91).

This means that you have just linked to your website from a DA 91 level site, including your website URL as part of your FindLaw quotation.

This is a super healthy and contextually relevant link to point you back to your website, whether or not you consider it.

[bettydgunter90]

How Land-Specialized Real Estate Agents Can Change the Game for Land Investors

Today I’m going to share with you a powerful discovery that has propelled my land investing business forward by leaps and bounds.

Are you ready for it? Keep reading.

It’s no secret that real estate agents are oftentimes perceived negatively in the world of land investors, but today I believe this is going to change, and let me explain why.

Over the last few months I have sold over 10 vacant land properties exclusively through real estate agents and after seeing these results, I have been building my entire company around strategic relationships with them.

Not only have I sold properties without having to service any buyer leads, or fuss with any online listings, or answer that time-worn question, “Is this still available?” on Facebook Marketplace, but I have also had agents save me from getting stuck with SEVERAL troublesome properties that I would have otherwise been stuck with.

…and the best part about all of this is – I only have to pay the land agents if/when the agent actually sells the property!

The 3 Major Benefits of Using Land-Specialized Agents

Typically, real estate agents are experts at helping people buy and sell their primary residence (and maybe even an investment property if they’re really good).

They are NOT necessarily the experts at buying and selling vacant land properties, which inevitably causes most land investors to write off real estate agents as a whole.

However, there ARE agents out there who specialize in other, less-conventional areas in real estate – they are just far more rare and harder to find.

The key to working with an agent as a land investor, or for that matter, any kind of investor, is to find one that specializes in your niche of real estate. This may seem easier said than done, but if you can find an agent who is experienced in your niche (and they are really good at what they do), it can be a massive leverage point.

From an 80/20 standpoint, I am convinced that working with agents is one of the most powerful things you can do for your land investing business, and there are at least three solid reasons why.

1. They Act As Your “Boots On The Ground”

As is the case with most land investors, I buy and sell land outside of the state where I live. One of the major challenges that come with living out-of-state is that often buyers want to meet in person, and since that is almost impossible on a regular basis, I have missed out on many deals.

However, now that I’m working with real estate agents who specialize in land, this is no longer an issue, because if anyone wants to meet in person, I can send my agent to meet with them. It’s really that simple!

Another incredible benefit is of using agents is that they will walk the properties and analyze them before you buy.

This is where agents have added the most value to my business. There have been several properties that passed all of my due diligence, but once my agent walked the property, I still found multiple reasons to NOT move forward with the purchase.

For example, an online aerial map might show a dirt road that seems safe for travel, but in actuality, it is nearly impossible to drive.

Another example might be if a property isn’t listed as ‘wetlands or in a flood zone but once you walk the property, there are signs to the contrary.

These are the things you might miss by not seeing a property in person, and that is precisely why I use land agents. I can get up-close-and-personal details about every property that I’m considering purchasing… without actually being there.

Another benefit of working with land agents is that they can give me a solid list price for each property I’m considering, which I can then use to reverse engineer my initial offer amount.

There have been a couple of times where my offers were accepted, but upon further correspondence with my agent, I realized that my offer was too high and I was able to back out of the deal and renegotiate the price.

With as much money as I’ve made selling properties through agents, I can only imagine how much I’ve saved, walking away from bad deals based on their guidance.

2. They Are Your “Outsourced” Sales Manager

The biggest bottleneck in the land flipping business is getting properties sold.

You obviously have more control over your own purchasing power than you do over someone else’s, so the majority of your time and energy will be spent advertising and selling your properties.

When working with land agents, all the work involved in selling is outsourced to someone who can focus all their time and energy on this single task.

I no longer have to gather pictures, write ad copy or post listings online. The agents handle all of that and more. I don’t even need to build a buyers list because the agents have their own!

Now, when the buyer leads contact me, I don’t even need to speak to them personally anymore. I simply send the contact details to my agent who takes care of the rest.

And remember – it does not cost me a dime until the property sells.

I have met land investors who budget $300 per property for professional photos and a drone video.

I, on the other hand, don’t need to spend the extra money on those things at all, because my agents provide me with professional photos at no cost to me. They put signs on every single property I own,  they list my properties on all of the major real estate websites like Zillow, and they even help me gain extra exposure on the local MLS.

Once the property sells, I pay them a 6-10% commission, but again, that’s only when the property sells. With all the work these agents do for me (this includes the deals that I end up backing out of) I find this commission to be VERY fair.

3. They’re Your Trusted Advisor (And Source For Comps)

One of the most challenging aspects of being a land investor is finding solid comps, and land agents are a fantastic solution to this problem!

If I am searching online for information on particular zip code and there isn’t much data available, all I have to do is call an experienced land agent in the area and have them look into it for me.

Real estate is a very localized industry and working with an experienced agent who lives in the area in which they buy/sell is incredibly helpful. They know what properties have sold and for what price.

They can provide you with localized information you otherwise would not have access to without visiting the area yourself.

For example, in certain counties, I will no longer buy properties that are under one acre. Why? Because my land agents have informed me when there is a special tax required for developing smaller properties.

I would have NEVER known something like that without my agent made me aware of it.

Insider knowledge like that is pure gold!

Our Process for Finding a Good Land Agent

As I mentioned previously, the key to propelling your land investing business forward is finding a real estate agent who specializes in land investing.

Below is a method that my business partner and wife, Assiya, has developed to help you find great land agents. Check out my interview with her below:

Here’s a quick summary of the process…

What to Look For In a Good Agent:

Responsiveness 

A good land agent will be very engaged and responsive from day one.

Experienced

They should have several land-specific deals under their belt before you start working with them. It’s not your job to teach them the ins and outs of the land business, they should already know what they’re doing.

Knowledgeable

They should be able to tell you specifics about the area in which they work (i.e. county-level due diligence issues, details about the different parts of town, and what properties are currently being developed).

Warning Signs of a Bad Agent:

All Talk, No Results 

Some agents will try to impress you with a lot of talk but they don’t actually have the results or experience to back up their claims. Make sure to get proof and be suspicious of anyone who pushes back when you ask for it.

Lack of Follow Through 

If they don’t follow through with their promises or commitments in a timely manner (especially if it’s something as simple as sending you a listing contract), they probably won’t be reliable for other aspects of your working agreement.  First impressions are an important indicator of how the rest of the process will play out, so pay close attention to those initial encounters and their work ethic.

Listen To Your Intuition 

Trust your gut – if you don’t get a good feeling from the way the agent conducts themselves, don’t work with them.

Recap

So let’s hit it all again. How can you get started finding a land specialized real estate agent?

Find a land deal worth pursuing.

Search on Zillow.com for similar property listings to the property you’re going after.

When you find listings that stand out due to their high-quality pictures and well-written description, contact the agent who has it listed.

If the agent seems promising, Google their name and brokerage and look for details about their experience.

If the agent has the proper experience and still seems like a good fit, vet them over the phone.

The Land Agent Questionnaire

To help you vet potential agents, we’ve put together a questionnaire as a base for your conversation. You can download this questionnaire here:

But for those who’d prefer just seeing it listed here, the questions are below:

Are you a full-time agent?

How long have you been in the business?

How frequently do you do land-related deals compared to other types of real estate?

Have you worked with land investors of our kind before? 

How many closings do you average per month?

Do you feel confident that you’re able to sell our properties within three months or less on average? (We’re okay listing it priced to sell fast).

Are you willing to visit the property and meet with potential buyers, take pictures and put up signs as needed?

If we list with you, does our property get displayed on the Land.com network, as well as Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, etc?

What other websites will it get posted on?

Are you comfortable having us do a listing agreement for a 3-month time frame instead of the typical 6-month?

What does your commission rate look like?

Download the Questionnaire!

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Where to Find Land Specialized Agents

In addition to finding land-specialized agents on websites like Zillow and LandWatch, you might check out the following as well:

Mossy Oak Properties

Realtor Land Institute

I have had positive experiences working with agents from Mossy Oak Properties, but of course, you will still want to vet each agent individually to make sure they are a good fit for you and your specific situation.

The Realtor Land Institute is an organization that specializes in education and helping land realtors gain exposure. I do not have personal experience with them, but from what I’ve seen, it looks like a good potential source to consider.

I hope you found this information helpful and that you put it to good use. Working with land-specialized agents has radically changed my business and it can change yours too. The hardest part of my business is now taken care of by other professionals.

A breakthrough like this doesn’t happen every day, so I hope you get as much out of it as I did.

Final Thoughts

Even though a good land agent can handle the bulk of the busywork once you put them in charge of a property, you – as the investor – still need to manage your agents.

It’s good practice to check in with your agents regularly. This is how you will know if they are doing their job appropriately.

Also, make sure you discuss property prices in your initial conversation.

Typically, selling a property for $1,500 isn’t going to be worth an agent’s time because the commission is too low and not worth their effort. We have found that our properties in Florida need to have a list price of at least $5,000 or more to make it worth our agent’s time.

We have had agents who still want to work with us on smaller properties due to our positive relationship with them, but this is an exception, not the rule.

Keep in mind that the price threshold will be market-specific, so make sure to ask your agent about that directly.

The post How Land-Specialized Real Estate Agents Can Change the Game for Land Investors appeared first on REtipster.

from Real Estate Tips https://retipster.com/landagents/