#but after i fix my pc i will live out my love for mmos once again <3

[liberty-spiked]

i hope i can play maple story on my laptop because holy fuck do i crave mmos.

[rhetoricalrogue]

I have a vague outline for yet another detective.

August “Auggie” Lin

5’10” Actual Ray of Sunshine

Athletic build. Station’s go-to guy to open jars. Tried to start a WPD/WFD rugby team, but conflicting schedules got in the way. Plays a lot of basketball in his off hours with local kids. Takes part in the community’s wellness initiative and leads an adult running group on 5k runs every other Saturday morning.

Likes to take things apart to see how they work. Is semi-successful with putting them back together. Can fix simple appliances, upgrade computer parts, that sort of thing. Has built his own PC at home to create a “sweet gaming rig” and still gets his butt handed to him by groups of 13 year olds playing FPS. Prefers to play open world RPGs to wind down with after work, but will occasionally hop onto an MMO for marathon sessions if he has time or is on vacation.

“I need an adult”/“you are an adult”/“I need an adultier adult”

Gets carded every time he buys beer even though he’s 26

Perpetual baby face, cannot grow facial hair to save his life

Extremely happy go lucky personality plus younger looking exterior = everyone always underestimates how damn smart he is. VERY science-minded and observant. Goal-oriented: once he sets his mind to something, he sticks with it to the end.

Totally did not expect the promotion, but he takes it seriously and tries to do his best.

Loves the IDEA of cooking, has zero talent actually doing so and gets bored trying to learn so basically lives off cereal, toast, pop tarts, and instant noodles.

“These are my Agency co-workers: Agent Actual Mom, Agent 900 Year Old Mom, Agent Fellow History Buff Aunt, Agent AMAZING Girlfriend, and Agent Big Grumpypants Sister.”

Replaced his predecessor’s supply of booze with his own “secret” stash of snacks. Orders online so he has a bunch of different treats from around the world. Favorite types are super sour sweets or savory, crunchy snacks.

Has a solitary pet betta fish in a 10 gallon tank that takes up premium space in his apartment, but Mr. Fish deserves the best.

Wears professional-ish (dark washed jeans with pressed button down shirts and nice boots) street clothes when on the clock, hoodies under leather jackets in his off time.

Taught himself how to knit out of boredom but can’t really be bothered to do longer projects, so he has a huge collection of beanies and scarves. Everyone he knows gets personalized knitwear as Christmas gifts. Actually decided to start a Girlfriend Sweater for Farah, but has kept it a secret so it’s a surprise when it’s done.

SOFT ROMANTIC BOY. Gives amazing hugs. Someone please hold his hand.

[nicklesthename]

Get the game at Amazon.ca for PS4, Xbox One, or PC. These are affiliate links.

Ah, Fallout 76. Modern Fallout’s first foray into the online multiplayer territory and it went over…less than perfectly with its fans. When it was first announced that a new Fallout game was coming, people were pretty excited, except for the looming fear that Bethesda would take the glorious single player, choice valuing, multiple solutions Fallout and bastardize it to match today’s most toxic gaming trends. Would it be a battle royale, like every other game seemed to be? Would it be multiplayer? If it had multiplayer, could you still choose to play it as a single player?

Then when details starting coming out about exactly what Fallout 76 would look like, it seemed like everyone’s worst fear had been realized. People were freaking out, screaming into the aether, burning down villages, the usual internet outrage machine. But among the remains lay a small group of people who were at least willing to give this thing a shot. Some were even excited about it! While I had been expecting a typical Fallout game, I had also always wanted to be able to play alongside my fiancee and other friends in my favourite video game franchise. After tens of hours of playtime, here are my conclusions about Fallout 76.

Major Differences

Firstly, I think it makes sense to run down a list of the way this new entry into the franchise differs from other modern Fallout games. Obviously, there is multiplayer, it’s online, and the quests are more MMO directed than RPG. Another difference is that there are no NPCs in the sense that there are no other normal human beings in the world. There are enemies such as ghouls, Scorched, and other wildlife, but there are no raiders or human settlements. Anytime you see another human in Fallout 76 it means it’s another real player. There are also new things like timed events and PvP zones. Finally, there is no real end game, no ending conditions that could be considered winning or completing the plot.

Story and Environment

Personally, I’m no offended by the idea of there being no NPCs. Sure, in the past, raiders have been a key part of the universe, the omnipresent villain no matter where in the US you’re playing. But I was interested in seeing how they would make up for the lost characters. It was also reassuring to know that other players couldn’t hide in plain sight and attack me when I wasn’t expecting it. My problem with this new world is the reasons for it given in the plot. According to the game, there is a virus running rampant across Appalachia that is turning people (and anyone else for that matter) into the Scorched. The reason why there are no people is that they have all turned into Scorched or been killed by them. The only people living are the ones who have only just left the vault with you.  But really, literally, everyone has been turned into Scorched? There isn’t one tiny faction somewhere that survived? Not even one weird hermit living in the mountains? It’s very hard to believe in a world where people have always managed to avoid other plagues such as FEV, Vault 22 virus, and the like.

Besides that annoyance, I find that the world is still very true to modern Fallout. The stories that can be found at every house and settlement, the giant monstrosities hiding around every corner, and the ever cynical take on large corporations and government programs. As far as the story goes, to make up for the lack of actual humans telling you their account, the terminal entries, voice clips, and notes seem to have at least doubled in size. This doesn’t work super well with a game that is now multiplayer. Many times I’ve told Nick to hang on for one second, I’m still reading that note I found minutes ago. If you can deal with that and suspend your belief to accept that everyone was keeping a diary on exactly what was happening to them at all times, this shouldn’t get in your way of enjoying the game.

Workshop Building

In the interest of full disclosure, I have always been a big fan of the workshops in Fallout 4. It’s the first time in Fallout that you can actually have an effect on the rebuilding the world around you. In previous games, you had to just work with what other people have rebuilt into settlements and that was it. I really loved building new settlements, getting people to work together, and trying to fix up the wastelands.

As for the workshops in Fallout 76, I still like it, despite missing a large part of what made them so satisfying in 4. In 76, you have your C.A.M.P (Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform) which you can use to build a personal settlement for all your crafting, cooking, and resting needs. It is still fun to put together a building and try to get creative with your architecture, but the best part about settlements in Fallout 4 to me what the rebuilding of society. Since there are no NPCs, there are no beginning villages to build up.

So far, all I’ve built is a fairly normal 2 story house with a turret balcony and every crafting table in the game. However, I look forward to crafting better and better settlements as my level grows and my settlement capacity grows too. The only choices made with this system that I flat out disagree with is the Stash (a personalized container that you can use but no one else can access) having a limit to how much you can store in it and the lack of ability to scrap other things that were in your settlement before you placed the C.A.M.P. Both of these things are supposed to be changing in upcoming patches though.

PvP

I absolutely hate PvP. I am a horrifically competitive person and while I’ve learned to not get too heated when I lose to computer people, losing to real people still rustles my jimmies. Especially since people online can be a touch rude when then win and when they lose. Luckily, Fallout has a system in place for people like me! Something called consent based PvP means that until your target fights back, you do little to no damage to them. That means you can’t just sneak up on an unexpecting level 5 player and snipe them into oblivion with your level 92-ness. It’s almost like every fight is a proper duel, with both parties aware and prepared for the fight before it begins properly.

Hanging out with all my friends

Queen of electric chairs

All hail the Mothman.

There are some flaws in this system though. For example, there is nothing stopping people from just following you around, jumping up and down in front of you, and waiting for you to accidentally hit them with a stray bullet. Once you hit them even once by accident, you are now fair game. While this has only happened to me once before, and I managed to avoid the jerk anyways, it kind of undoes the work to reduce griefing. Of course, you can block people, but all that does is mute their microphone to you, remove them from your map, and remove you from their map. They still exist in front of you though, so they can still do that annoying jumpy thing. I think blocking someone should remove them from your game in all ways. You shouldn’t be able to see them in the game or on the map and they shouldn’t be able to see you either.

  There is also the bounty system. This means if you are repeatedly attacking someone who is pointedly not attacking back, you get a bounty on your head. This is to stop people from abusing the fact that even if the other person hasn’t fought back, the minor damage initial shots do can add up to a kill. If you have a bounty on you, you are fair game for PvP as well. However, this system is a little broken too. For example, the jumpy thing I mentioned earlier doesn’t net someone a bounty. It only goes into effect if the person is repeatedly attacking a bystander, not trying to troll that bystander into attacking them. There is also no way to forgive a bounty, so in the off time that Nick has accidentally shot my C.A.M.P or me (before we are in a team together), he just has to wait for someone to come and off him. I can’t just report that I, as the target, forgive him and it was an accident.

Multiplayer

Did I mention the occasional visual glitch?

My experience with having other players in my Fallout has by and large been very pleasant. Except for the single moment I mentioned in the PvP section, I’ve only met lovely people. There were the people who came by our C.A.M.P, waved at us, used our workbenches, and then paid us in steel for our trouble. There was the person who came to collect the bounty on Nick and after killing him, not stealing Nick’s loot and just leaving him some stimpacks for when he came back. We’ve had random people come to give us back up in fights, which is especially helpful when we were probably way too under-levelled for it. At one point I needed to kill a deathclaw, and when I ran up to the quest marked one, someone else was about to kill it. Instead of finishing the job before I could get a hit in, they stopped and waited, letting the deathclaw whale on them for a minute while I got my shot off.

  Basically, Fallout 76 is full of cheerfully emoting, generously sharing folk and a couple of trolls in between. I think this comes from the fact that I don’t know if any hardcore Fallout fans really wanted a multiplayer game, so they are trying to make the best of it by being nice to the other players. It actually warms my heart quite a bit, especially if you’ve ever tried playing some of the other MMO games and heard what people are willing to call your mother if they lose.

Quests, Events, and Dailies

I am actually surprised at myself with how much I enjoy the dailies and events in Fallout 76. As someone who absolutely revelled in the normal Fallout quests with their alternate solutions and moral quandaries, I expected to find the quests in 76 to be weak and empty. Honestly, some of them are. But I have found that it doesn’t mean they aren’t fun too! I think the number one less I’ve learned from Fallout 76 is to stop taking Fallout so seriously. I know it might be hard to believe anyone can take a game about a post-apocalyptic sock-hop world full of zombies and smart-talking robot butlers too seriously, but here we are.

Favourite Things

The photo mode is actually ridiculously fun to mess around with

The Atom shop is full of great additions to the options for clothing, C.A.M.P building, emotes, and more! Plus the fact that you can earn the premium currency for free through achievements is a huge plus

Getting to play my absolute favourite game franchise ever with my fiancee, something I couldn’t do besides sitting next to him and watching him play

Honestly, just the fact that there is more Fallout in this world is great

Mothman. Just…Mothman.

Fighting the boss type creatures, such as Scorchbeasts is a great challenge

Weapon crafting, upgrading, and modifying has been tweaked a bit and I enjoy the mechanic

I appreciate the survival mechanics, especially since they are kind of on easy mode. Playing with those additional metrics is previous games would mean playing it on a higher difficulty than I prefer

The new perk system combines what I liked about previous Fallout levelling while adding some new dimensions, such as combining cards and sharing them with teammates

Changes I Want

Anti-griefing systems to take into account people who are griefing without technically damaging someone else

Larger limits on building size and an infinite limit on stash size

More Mothman

I WANT TO SELL EXCESS AMMO

Any automation in settlements (hire robots to tend to crops?)

A better, more robust blocking system

Higher bounties sooner to increase the incentive to not be a jerk

Ability to romance Mothman

Conclusion

I like this game. I really do. Sure I have some criticisms, but I have some criticism for any of the modern Fallout games. It’s pretty impossible to have a completely perfect video game. I haven’t gotten around to playing it in a couple weeks, but I definitely wouldn’t say that I’m giving up on it in any way. I know they’re still working on it and that my issues with the game will be addressed in one way or another. For now, I’m just trying to not get too caught up in fussing about lore or continuity and enjoy just being a wanderer.

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I tried to condense all my thoughts about Fallout 76 into this one review: enjoy! Get the game at Amazon.ca for PS4, Xbox One, or PC. These are…

[punkwhodrinkstea-blog]

It Is Your...

Uhhhhhhg. I swear I’m one step closer to being a corpse. For those of you who follow gaming at all, you will know that the most anticipated and award winning Destiny 2 was released for PC this past Tuesday. The game was released 2 months ago on console but the first game was never released for PC. Since the game seemed to suit the PC community and mouse and keyboard controls perfectly, there was much added excitement. Once the game launched I put in nearly 24 hours straight and even the next day I put in another 12 hours and then lastly another 6 hours after that. I stopped only a few hours ago and honestly I have a maxed character and 2 other characters who are underway. I have been living in my gaming chair sipping tea and eating apples, muffins and chips (I don’t usually eat chips but I was desperate). I haven’t seen daylight in a few days and that is until last night I got to see my girlfriend. Thank goodness. I’m pretty worn out from Destiny 2 and not only do I need a break from it but I’m feeling super depressed due to not taking care of myself and a lack of sleep, food, water and general hygiene.

Destiny 2 though is a pretty great game. It’s hard to not like it. Heck, it’s hard to not love. The overall graphics are on par with today’s standards but the lighting effects are a bit better which makes it look really good. The gameplay is silky smooth for some reason and plays beautifully. The movement mechanics and flow of each fight has been well designed to keep the player moving instead of spending too much time simply pouring bullets into a single stubborn enemy. The campaign comes with the base game (and will likely be added to upon DLC) is good but simple and most of the characters are good but some aren’t very enjoyable in my opinion. Also the story is very expendable because since the game is an FPS MMO RPG, most players simply don’t care and the Campaign takes less than 10 hours to finish. The Campaign really just acts as an easy warm up for those of us more hardcore players, meanwhile will act as a decent challenge for your casual stay at home dad or lesser experienced players. But just like any MMO RPG, the game doesn’t truly start until you put the ‘final’ boss 6 feet under. The campaign actually seems to hold back the player from gaining “Light” which is the measurement for how powerful your character is. After killing the boss from the Campaign, the grind begins with the player doing side missions. There are two types of side missions, “Adventures” and “Quests”. Adventures are available from the start of the game and run on an endless loop providing a decent mini mission for players of all skill levels and character levels (they’re really easy). The “Quests” on the other hand don’t seem to be endless. They are a chain of mini missions which usually are about the same difficulty as a Campaign mission but not as long and once you complete all of them, you get a nice prize. Lastly there are “Public events” this is fairly unique to Destiny. This is when an objective appears in the open world part of the game and any and all players nearby can simply walk in and fight side by side to complete an objective, which of course requires you to kill lots and lots of bad guys. The game also allows you to buy treasure maps which will tell you where loot chests are which may or may not give you a good reward. There are two other game modes as well, one is “Strikes” and the other is the “Crucible”. Strikes are simply missions that three players can play together and complete and usually offer better loot. The Crucible is Destiny's Player vs Player mode which has been made better since the first Destiny however it’s not on par with games like Halo, Call of Duty and many other PvP shooters but it’s not bad either. Anyway you get the point, the game is amazing…. However….

Destiny 2 is no doubt a great game but frankly… it’s too easy. Back in the 1st Destiny enemies varied more in their threats. For example there is an enemy called a ‘Wizard’ it’s basically an alien monster about 12 feet tall and flies above the battlefield and hurrells lightning or plasma or something at you and it used to deal lot’s of damage. They were scary! And worst of all they would scream extremely loud and fill your ears with this high pitch screech which would terrify you, these things were freak’n terrifying but in Destiny 2 you can kill them with a single clip and they don’t scare the player with high damage attacks or loud screams. I think every bigger enemy in the game has been nerfed. (“nerfed”: Gamer lingo for, made weaker). It simply makes them less scary and makes the game easier. Now enemies can come as “elites” which do deal more damage and have more health making them a bit scarier but still, the last game had that too and the elite versions of enemies were a player’s bane. The kind of thing that would make a player walk into a room and say “OH HELL NOOO!”. Now the advantage the game has to making these enemies weaker is now players kill more enemies and switch from one enemy to another which helps keep the excitement for the modern person who generally has a shorter attention span. I think this hinders the actual game and kinda dumbs it down but… there’s more. The whole game seems to be dumbed down for the casual audience. Not only by making the enemies easier but even the bosses, ya know those really big things which are suppose to be really hard and make your hands sweat or make you have to try again and again to over come… yeah those are also easy. My online friends and I had no struggle against those and were very underwhelmed at how easy it all is.

Now I’ve done some digging around on the internet and found that not many console players have found the game to be much easier but they think it’s different due to bigger enemies being nerfed. Which is true. But it would seem that PC players, like myself are having a cake walk (which I am too). The reasons are fairly obvious. On PC we play at 60fps or higher meanwhile console players are at 30fps which I find makes making precise movements and shots more difficult. Console players are also forced to play the game with a field of view of 55 degrees…. That’s like looking through a tube. Meanwhile on PC the game allows you to play at 105 degrees which is just shy of distorting image like a fish eye. I personally perfer 110 degrees but I’m not too picky. However anything below 90 degrees is simply stupid in my opinion. The primary reason rarely play games on console these days is because of the field of view. I simply can’t go back to looking through a tube. Now if the frame rate and the field of view wasn’t enough to give PC players a huge advantage, we also have mouse and keyboard controls. When using a controller you can only rotate your character so fast and can only be so precise. For example jumping into the air and shooting enemies on console is hard and you will likely one have time to shoot one enemy but on PC I find myself jumping into the air and killing one enemy and then turning 180 degrees to shoot an enemy behind me, this is simply a dream for a console player. Also it is but easier for PC players to hit weak spots on enemies and control weapon recoil. So not only are enemies in Destiny 2 generally weaker than the first game but now PC players can consistently hit the weak spots of enemies. Giving PC players another advantage when it comes to gun play. Anyway these are the reasons that PC players are having such an easy time with this game. But how would Bungie fix this? I mean I don’t mind too much. Having a casual FPS MMO RPG as amazing as Destiny 2 is super nice and I’m not complaining. But if Bungie wanted to make the game harder, how would they? They could crank up the enemy difficulty but then it would be unproportionate from the console version. I have no issue with that but it would be the first time in gaming history that PC gets a gamer but modified to be harder than the console version. Meh I dunno, it doesn’t really matter I guess.

Oh man I just realized how much time I just spent writing about destiny 2… I should do something else today other than think about that game. Also today I’m trying to recover from my lack of sleep, food, water, hygiene, etc. Peace out folks and happy hunting.