#and then i really show off my level 90 experience skills by apparently standing directly in an aoe and getting ohko'd by the boss

[warlordfelwinter]

it's always funny to go back to some like heavensward dungeon and realize how much the ensuing expansions have finely honed my expectations and reflexes for mechanics without me even realizing it. like oh. i could do this in my sleep. there's only one or two aoes at a time. everything is telegraphed for so long before it goes off. where's the 18000 aoes all stacked on top of each other leaving one single sliver of safe space in the corner furthest away from me that all go off after half a second while the boss steals my identity and ruins my credit bc i was looking in the wrong direction

[the-wintry-mizzenmast]

My thoughts on Mass Effect: Andromeda

My overall impression is that I enjoyed playing the game because the combat system is really smooth, and easily the best out of the Mass Effect games so far. So, yeah. A+ combat experience, lots of fun, cross-class capability and flexibility. The maps are generally very similar to Dragon Age: Inquisition with the forward stations (camps), obvious quest markers, and ability to set waypoints, only a way more massive scale as like the sprawl of Los Angeles, it is impossible to get around on foot, so you have to use your car, the Nomad. The Nomad is a vast improvement over the previous Mako, both in its capability and it’s near-indestructible handling ability. Apparently they got in some devs from the Need for Speed series to consult, and it shows. In a good way.

Despite all the griping of other reviewers, I do not feel that it’s a waste of time. It was fun, I enjoyed it. I could have enjoyed it a lot more, as there were a LOT of things that bugged me that detracted slightly from the experience. It is not the best Mass Effect game, and it is not the best BioWare game, but also probably not the worst. I don’t regret paying for it, and I think it has a lot of promise that might be fulfilled in either the DLCs or a sequel, though I feel slightly cheated because BioWare said it was supposed to be a standalone game and it’s very clearly not. 

Now more detail into the Andromeda world, spoilers ahoy for ME:A and Dragon Age: Inquisition which I’m comparing it to.

ANNOYING THINGS

I’m going to start off with the things that annoyed me, the things that I felt could be done better. They are mostly narrative related. There are a lot of other pieces out there on the internet on why they failed so hard at animation (this tumblr post is a great place to start), so I won’t get into the details.

There’s nothing new about the Andromeda galaxy. Some of that is fine, because I never really felt that Mass Effect was all that groundbreaking in terms of science fiction world building, but the original trilogy was a really good execution of already existing science fiction tropes, like battling an ancient cosmic evil, biological life vs. artificial intelligence, etc. But it is kind of disappointing when you go to a new galaxy and you still find that the aliens are humanoid bipeds with an emotional range that’s the same as humans. Like, the Angara are supposed to exceptionally emotional…but you hardly ever see anything that is NOT a human-like acceptable emotional expression. Sure, when Jaal is pissed he gets really pissed, but there is never a moment that’s, “Wow, we have different ways of emoting, and what you just did would have been totally inappropriate in our culture” or something like that. Languages are easily decoded, and the Angara even have binary gender that correlate directly with our gender binaries. Worst of all, Jaal is straight, and that blows my mind. Like, he has a preference? Really? Despite humans being literally so alien they’re from another galaxy, Jaal prefers Sara over Scott Ryder? By the time you’re going xeno it’s so far away from what is probably your standard sexuality that I have no idea what rational basis his preference would be based on, but it enrages me that Jaal is apparently straight. I’ll get back to the subject of romances a little later, but… I’ve seen more originality in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and that aired in the late 80’s to mid-90’s. The Kett are essentially biological Borg, and they’re given such a laughable “bad guy” design that I just…*throws up hands* Some of the reasons the Angara are so similar are because you want to emotionally identify with them, and there is some base level of humanness that you need in order to romance Jaal for it not to feel weird. Like, I get that it’s less skeevy-feeling to fuck something that looks like Jaal instead of an octopus or sentient slime. Okeydokes, but I feel like that more could’ve gone into making Andromeda truly creative and they really just didn’t.

Your crewmates are boring. They are just so dull. It’s not that they’re bad people, in fact you get the impression that most of them have their shit together. But they’re all…good people, and that makes them tearfully boring. They have stupid little quirks that it feels like somebody filled out a character generation sheet in a tabletop, but they’re not even as fleshed out as somebody playing a one-shot would make their characters out to be. Everyone is fundamentally a good person, and lacking the darkness or the ongoing tribulations and trials that made your crew in DA:I so interesting. I’ll go through them one by one:

CORA is a snoozefest. I find her insufferable. At first she’s kind of stand-offish because she was supposed to be the Pathfinder, which I would imagine romancing her as BroRyder really weird because of her close relationship with your father. Then she reveals herself to be some sort of Asari-aboo, in the worst sort of weeaboo fashion. She refers to herself as an Asari Commando, and worships one of the Asari Commandos on the Asari Ark, and she just comes off as one of the creepiest weeaboos ever. Couple that with her “I need people to tell me what to do” character arc, and I just…tried to avoid her as much as possible. Do the loyalty missions even do anything? I might just skip hers and see if that kills her in my new playthrough. SO BORING.

VETRA is kind of sweet, and I like her relationship with her sister Sid. She has a rough background that makes her not a Turian citizen, but it’s kind of hard to feel especially bad for her because hey, she’s got her new start in a new galaxy and all that is behind her. Great! …there’s no darkness, no moral greyness about her. Sure, I’m sure she’s involved in all sorts of shady requisitions dealings, but she doesn’t even have the interesting quirks or usefulness that is Josephine in DA:I. I relegate her to the sweet, and I like her, but not romance material.

PEEBEE is annoying as hell. She’s like the manic pixie scientist girl who just won’t shut up, and her absolute commitment phobia is just…BLEGH. She’s like that flaky friend that depends on you for everything, and once you need help she’s all “NEW PHONE WHO DIS.” I feel like she’s supposed to be the fun Asari character who’s the opposite of Liara, and that managed to include her being a million times more insufferable and annoying. She also has that “I’m not like other Asari” that bugs in the same way that people go, “I’m not like other Asians” or “I’m not like other girls” that smacks of internalized misogyny or racism and…yeah. I had a one night stand with her with my first playthrough as an Asian Sara Ryder, and that was enough, thanks. :/

LIAM is a sweet nerd. His loyalty mission was fun. I have no idea why he doesn’t like Vetra. He’s fun to have around, but he mostly seems to have his shit together. He’s a good dude, he’s got my back. …and he does nothing interesting or fun or has anything interesting in his backstory whatsoever. So he’s really into nerd stuff and takes on the duty of first contact and culture sharing with Jaal and the Angara and he fucks that one up a little…okay, anything else? Nope. Snoozefest.

JAAL is supposedly all about emotional stuff, but so often he clearly just suppresses his emotions? He’s got like…a normal sensitive guy range of human emotions and the game is trying to tell me he’s amazingly emotional and I’m all like, “No, that’s just a healthy level of human emotions, yo.” He’s probably your second most interesting romance option, but he’s still in the running for the “pretty bland” title which is not saying much. He’s got a little more to chew through in terms of the Kett/Angara revelation, and the fact that he’s seen war and a lot of death, but yeah. …good friend, great skills as squadmate. Not interesting. Also not sure why straight. SOMEBODY AT BIOWARE JUST MAKE HIM BI ALREADY.

DRACK is the most fun of all your squadmates, because he’s this ancient Krogan but he has so much left to give. He is full of humor and fun and Krogan loyalty, and HELL YES DRACK is great. I wanted more Drack in this game. I am still disappointed that they don’t let you romance Krogan or Salarian. :/ Bummer.

SUVI is also a snoozefest. So she’s a religious lesbian scientist who keeps wanting to eat things in Andromeda. There is literally nothing else about her to write home about.

GIL bothers the hell out of me. He is the only gay male romance option on your ship, and that is not cool. He’s not a squadmate, and frankly, his story arc which is his best friend, Jill, pressuring him to have a baby with her smacks of the heteronormative narrative of homosexuals being problematic because they are stealing away reproductive opportunities. That is so regressive, that it bothers me. I’m not sure if they were trying to go the “gay parenting, yay!” route, but with Sara Ryder, it just smacks of gay conversion therapy because he does end up going to his female best friend to have a baby with her. EW. WHAT THE FUCK. I am told this narrative doesn’t go away if you are romancing him as Scott Ryder, so…DOUBLE EW. WHAT THE FUCK.

Again, these are all fundmentally good people. That means there’s nothing interesting about them as characters in a Mass Effect world. It’s not like in the DA world where you have this great representation of troubled and morally grey characters (e.g. Zevran, Anders, Fenris, Cassandra, Dorian, Iron Bull, Solas), so everybody is just boring. The only exception to this is…

REYES VIDAL and thank fucking god because he single-handedly (single-voicedly, perhaps, as he’s voiced by Nicholas Boulton, who is known to us DA fans as Garrett Hawke) saved the Andromeda experience for me. He is actually interesting because he is this morally grey character trying to make the best out of a shitty starting experience in the Andromeda galaxy, and he is put into situation where he makes hard and oftentimes not squeaky-clean decisions. AND I LOVE HIM. He’s very clearly from Antiva, and the Zevran Arainai school of charm, flirtation, and bisexuality, but DAMN am I not pissed at BioWare that because he’s a supporting character and therefore never joins your crew or becomes your squadmate, your interactions with him boil down to about 20 minutes of some 90-hours of gameplay. And he cuts off your other romance pathways as well (as I discovered the hard way), so I felt kind of ripped off that I am apparently exclusive with some mafia kingpin that I’m in a long-distance relationship with. No sex scene, just a couple of make-outs and a kabe-don.

…WHAT.

If I don’t get more Reyes Vidal in a DLC I’m going to flip a table.

More dangling threads than a Project Runway disaster. There was real potential with a lot of the background plot that was going on, but NOTHING is resolved by the end of the game except for the most urgent “where we gonna live?” plotline.

Things that are dangling and aren’t even sewn up before hitting the runway are: - Ellen Ryder is still in cryo? - Who is the Benefactor and who murdered Jien Garson? What is up with the shady shit behind the Initiative anyway? - Who created the Scouge? - Are the Remnant still around? Why did they just abandon Meridian? - The Kett are still at large in the galaxy… - What caused the course deviations in intergalactic space about 300 years ago? - What’s happened to the other arks?

NOTHING IS RESOLVED. I thought I was getting a standalone game, and it’s actually a bait and switch. There are more questions raised than answered, which bodes well for a sequel, but I’m not sure if I want Bioware Montreal to be the people making this game.

Hardly any of your choices matter. I feel more rail-roaded in this game than I have in a modern BioWare game, DA2 included. At least in DA2, while Hawke had absolutely no agency in the events surrounding them, at least your choices decided who you fought against in the final battle, and there was also the very real and very common possibility of losing one of your friends. If you didn’t play your cards right, Isabela could’ve left, you could’ve given Fenris back to Danarius, you could have killed Anders, your surviving sibling could’ve died in the Deep Roads, you could have killed Merrill, you could’ve lost the allegiance of Aveline…literally the only person who can’t leave you is Varric, so it feels like a real accomplishment when you do go through the game with everyone intact. The same is somewhat true for ME2 as well, as the final mission you can potentially lose squadmates if you don’t assign them the correct tasks and have their loyalty missions. Even in DA:I you can make choices about certain characters in their arcs that change them and their interactions with other characters, as with the Cole human/spirit decision, and the choice of whether or not to work with the Qunari and whether to keep Cullen on the lyrium which both have the potential to come bite you in the ass in the Trespasser DLC. DA:I overall had more meaningful choices that affected your experience, as in the choice of mages vs. Templars, but also the end world state of your game, as in who you picked to be Divine, and the fate of the Inquisition and so on.

You are almost never asked to make a hard choice in Andromeda. There’s no equivalent of whether or not to kill Anders, of picking between Kaidan and Ashley. The closest to the former is whether to pick to side with the krogan or save the krogan over the Salarian Pathfinder, and that doesn’t seem to change the ME:A experience much. You are never asked to pick between a squadmate, and the only meaningful close choice there is the choice between Reyes Vidal and Sloane Kelly (which, let’s be honest, is a real no-brainer because Reyes in the only interesting romancable character in the entire game and Sloane Kelly is a thug through and through. It’s like, pick between this gang leader and this smooth mafia boss; yeah, this is pretty clear). Everything else is…minimal. And that’s really, really sad. I’m expecting, throughout the game, to have to make that hard call between say, whether to leave the Warden or Hawke behind in the Fade (in my first playthrough, it was a real rough one because that was a choice between Warden Alistair [who was coupled with my DA:O warden, Lyna] and Marian Hawke [who was coupled with Anders]), and while that was awful and painful, it was also GREAT. There is no equivalent in Andromeda and that makes me really sad. The stakes are just lower overall, which narratively makes for a way more boring game.

The gay options suck. This is less sucky if you are a lesbian, but if you are a gay bloke, you’re kind of out of luck. As I stated above, Gil undergoes conversion therapy to have a biological child with a woman, and your only other option is the amazing and charming space ZevranReyes Vidal whose single downside is treatment as a SECOND-CLASS ROMANCE. If you want to get the Matchmaker achievement where you romance 3 characters across 3 different playthroughs, it is currently NOT POSSIBLE to do that with male characters without having to do something hetero. That’s so not appropriate.

Aside from awkward facial expressions, the fact that there’s one face for all the Asari, and relatively shallow interactions with other NPCs, those are my major ME:A complaints.

GREAT AND AWESOME THINGS

The Nomad drives so well. I hated the Mako from the first game, and I love, love, love the Nomad now. Driving across Voeld makes me feel like Dominic Toretto in that custom Dodge Charger running from a nuclear submarine in Fast & Furious 8 good.

Reyes Vidal. I don’t need to say more here than Garrett Hawke and Zevran Arainai had a lovechild and his name is Reyes Vidal.

Combat experience is smooth as silk. Which makes the new game + more awesome because diversifying skills and quick profile switching is FUCK AWESOME. It’s kind of a pain to set up, but once you’ve got going, you’re going good.

That trope where everybody you’ve encountered in the game comes and helps you at the end of the game. That brief moment during endgame in front of the vault on Meridian where the krogan you’ve saved and Reyes Vidal and the whole damn cavalry come to assist. YESSSSSSS I love that trope so much and it hit all my happy buttons.

Jump jets. I am never going to be able to go back to a game where I can’t jump.

Movie night was cute. It was adorable.

Low grav asteroid/planet was amazing and fun. I’m really surprised it look this long to execute that. I wish it were bigger? It was smashing fun to drive around on.

Asians in space. I’m finally glad to see some goddamn Asians in space, knowing how many damn Asians exist in this world, I am so glad to finally see myself represented? One of the Asian default Sara Ryders is also super cute and we played as her and it was SO FUCKING NICE TO FINALLY SEE SOME ASIANS IN SPACE THANK YOU.

[vive-despacio-blog]

World Of Warships Bot

Having to spend doubloons can certainly be the primary process to take out improvements or redistribute skill set factors relating to the commander. of Warships’ dating strategy labored surely for many times I devote-ammonition code, but we have seen some hiccups. This tends to show up, particularly if pitting divisions--types of a few--towards each other, a procedure that is apparently based upon the most significant standing ship in the section, This condition, additionally, is improved each time you unlock scored struggles at phase nine. This the exact same slowness also causes flanking extremely efficient at Warships: sneaking all-around a tropical as time goes on up lurking behind a spead motorboat affords the crafty tactician a high-quality 35 a few moments of free In my filter market of see, he Eventhough it pained me, I located using solitary images pretty of unleashing my whole battery while doing so, looking at getting my try great. A dozen 16-inches shells, each individual evaluating three lots, arced Crushing the XP (which isn’t purchasable) you will need to unlock the Halfway might most likely bring in a high-quality cut of in-ammonition code forex, however, not sufficient, so that's way more crushing to complete should you wish to eliminate the need to pay off. Money-earning XP and also in-ammonition code forex may very well be more rapid having a Premium accounts, which can be enjoyed for $90 per year or $11 per 30 days. But subsequent tier, prices raise greatly. Whilst you have fun with playing a specific ship you build-up journey, converting into researching factors for an additional vessel. Equipping a completely new element mandates investigating the enhancement very first (frequently aided by the researching), then helping you to acquisition and support the element with swap credits. Each and every one ship provides its personal good and bad points, and matches special have fun with playing kinds no matter if that be But it'll take the opportunity prior to being able to journey each individual ship, whilst you grind out researching and credits to enhancement. Stormy seas and glacial settings with an ice pack that goes like clouds to include a completely new impediment for online players may very well be delightful. Department combats serve as deatmatches for glory and domination belonging to the seas. Arena of Warships will sail for a time amongst the more favorable find-up-and-have fun with playing ammonition premiums. billed ahead of time, fearlessly encountering the neighboring maelstrom. My subsequent go might well be my go on. You need to continually be skeptical of lethal torpedoes whilst you circle island destinations and glaciers--changing really difficult of the helm for preventing gunfire--and from having beached during this process. Dozens watercraft are to purchase to unlock and enhancement. Destroyers will be the weakest within party, yet the best, earning fantastic skill to demand by and roll-out quite a few torpedoes frightening battleships will be the muscle mass belonging to the fleet, intensively armored and intensively gunned and cruisers take a seat anywhere of the centre, with quality firepower and armour--some (quite a few along the Japanese part) also fitted with torpedo launchers. Practically akin to an authentic-time program ammonition code, you build plane of different different types--from fighters to bombers to torpedo planes--and bring them to aid allies and harm (or ruin!) enemies. . |The private business, the lateral litheness, the infectious confidence… looking at him fillet go on week’s Woodsy Allen collage mandated me instantly to the Leipzig Metropole plus the fantastic summertime time of ’78. |ammonition code supplier Wargaming’s army triumvirate is nearly overall. |In fact-noted for Realm of Tanks and Realm of Warplanes, Wargaming’s third MMO title, Premium Laden World Of Warships, has finally long gone into beta. |These 3 ammonition premiums are awesome within esports world, ditching fantasy and sci-fi kinds for all the reasonable war } }|The ammonition premiums are very surely-appreciated via the Eastern European and Asian visitors. "Likely ‘lone wolf’ quite often method ‘turn ship into swiss cheddar cheese.’” Premium Laden World Of Warships is multi-player-only, very much like others by Wargaming, and features two unique modes-Normal and Control. Likely ‘lone wolf’ quite often method ‘turn ship into swiss I not too long ago could jump volley of shells directly into an additional ship’s significant fields from just about the greatest possible array which brought about a (virtual) a specific-chance concerning the battleship. By offering new experiences for his or her specialized fanbase, Wargaming can both the protect against player burnout, though appealing to rookies. |Wargaming.net’s MMOPG internet business develop is a lot like that old Franklin Peppermint Civil Conflict chess established: find the board together with a handful of items quickly and cheaply but pay off a lot of money during the entire established. These zones are usually furnished with regular and holiday kinds supported on the acceptable weather condition side effects. Companies, battleships, cruisers and destroyers from China, the usa, Germany, Russian federation and Britain are portrayed. Climbing the Ladder using Slaughter The primary regulates are lovely 2 categories of struggles are fought towards. |The plant would just go to 10 levels but, on Standard Two with enough XP, destroyers may very well be investigated and battleships on Standard Two to three. Soon enough, orange stipulating opponent ships seem moving. Ribbons label identifying, setting fires, reaching significant sections and sinking enemies. a great number of strategic ammonition premiums and also in being, the best possible hazard for all the player is goal fixation. Steven Seagal is in Premium Laden World Of Warships [endorsed area]. |Realm of Warships is known as a free-to-have fun with playing 3 dimensional naval move MMO (made by they that released Realm of Tanks) determined by legendary sea struggles belonging to the 20th century. We’ve attempted natural fastenings - velcro, staples, bulldog clips, ant-thinking sutures… - though not one of those are healthy and adaptable sufficient to participate in this week’s chosen topical cream simulator and program snippets. Wargaming developed in enhanced dating which should guarantee clubs tend to be more smooth-coordinated, ramping of the power of challenge and placing included deal with player skill set and cooperating. Undoubtedly, JetCat happen to be taking pleasure in Gaijin’s wonderful Conflict Thunder and eyeing Wargaming.net’s Cyprus-obscuring income heap. Arrive to get the foxholes occupied and AA guns manned and you’ve a scrap to manage. |Fixate on soaring foes and bottom level investment along with your appointment may well be lower small with a affected individual outlying ambusher taking a Stinger or perhaps an RPG-7. “Norway is still invaded.” “Iceland is still intensively swamped and after that grabbed by Soviet causes.” “The Soviet Navy is bringing its Sverdlov heavy cruisers reduce the Denmark Strait” “The Ark Noble provider party and it is Buccaneer minimized-phase come to plane will come to of the centre of Soviet Naval Aviation.” “Multiple tissues of SAC B-52 bombers, backed up with nuclear weapons, are arriving at their “point of no return” zones within Arctic Group.” “RAF bases happen to be strike with nuclear weapons.” persons estimates might well be designed. That’s a shame - 1 / 2 of CMANO’s appeal is its plasticity. for those firefighting critical less frequently.