#i miss the first 3 volumes so bad its unreal

[pinkseas]

[parasocial bestie] i actually watched rwby like 38298483 years ago and stopped midway through v4 WHAT DO YOU MEAN JAUNE IS OLDER LIKE OLDER OLDER

I HOPE UR HAVING A GOOD NIGHT BESTIE <3333 UMMMM well. long story short v9 they're in a very magical fucked up place where time works very differently and so jaune is MUCH older and the others are mostly the same it's like a Whole Thing from what ive gathered but idk if itll still be that way by the end of the volume ? anyone's guess at this point honestly i have NO idea how much time will have passed in the real world or what'll happen when the story they're living is done

[ryuichirou]

“Please, ask me about my favorite manga...”

Okay, then. What’s your favorite manga, Ryu-san? 👀

+Anonymous said:

What’re some of your favourite manga? :)

 ----------------------------------------------

I love you guys… :”3 You always make my dreams come true haha. I hope I’m not forgetting anything, these are the ones that come to mind first:

Shingeki no Kyojin by Isayama Hajime – the most obvious thing in the world lol Of course, it’s a very dear manga to us, but even if we forget all the sentimental value it has, it’s still an amazing manga both story-wise and art-wise. For some reason Isayama is still considered a bad artist, which is a shame, because not only has he gotten much better with time, he also does the thing that I love very much: he draws whatever he wants even if he isn’t sure how to draw it. The very first chapters are so bold in that regard. And the way Isayama draws expressions is amazing: he draws faces that I’ve never seen in any other manga.

Do I even need to talk about story and characters after all the meta posts we’ve written over the past year… And the fact that we haven’t gotten tired of it despite the fact that we’ve reread it 1000 times already is very telling. There’s just so much stuff going on, so many details and elements that you can miss when you read it for the first time… rereadability is one of the greatest things about SnK.

Litchi Hikari Club (and Bokura no Hikari Club) by Furuya Usamaru  – another favourite of ours and an obsession of mine. I have volumes both in English and Russian, some Japanese magazines with chapters/mangaka’s art and artbooks… LHC is such a bleak story. It’s dark and messed-up just for the sake of being dark and messed-up, and I love it: it’s theatrical and morbid. It also manages to still be comedic and entertaining. Plus, the story behind the manga creation fascinates me (it was based on a stage play from an underground theatre ok I won’t go into details now lol), it’s like an entire phenomenon for me haha. I think this manga started my obsession with gakuran uniforms and student caps.

Uzumaki and Tomie by Ito Junji – I genuinely enjoy all of Junji Ito’s work whenever we reread them, but Uzumaki and Tomie are my faves. It’s very fun to watch how Ito-sensei takes one simple concept (spirals in “Uzumaki” and ehhh idk a beautiful but deadly girl in “Tomie”) and takes it further and further with every chapter, making it more and more creepy and grotesque. He’s extremely creative.

Berserk (Golden Age Arc) by Miura Kentarou – not to spit on everything that went before and after the Golden Age, but let’s be real: the Golden Age is special. The art of Berserk is absolutely stunning. It’s one of those mangas that belongs to museums honestly: every page is worth looking at for hours. The level of details and design of characters and the world… unreal.

The relationships between Guts and Griffith are also so beautifully written, we didn’t expect them to be this painful and deep. Talk about misunderstandings and breakups with consequences, geez. Griffith’s story build-up is just... amazing. The whole eclipse thing is wow, and the events that happen before it are as well. It’s like its own story within the whole story.

I also want to mention Maruo Suehiro, because he is another horror/guro author we like a lot, but I can’t pinpoint one manga of his that could count as a favourite just yet…

Hetalia by Himaruya Hidekaz – it’s stupid, it’s funny, it’s educational (in “it makes you interested in history and politics” way, not in the “it tells you what exactly happened” way). It doesn’t take itself seriously, it’s here to have fun and make its character as gay as possible, which I appreciate a lot. I feel like Hetalia influenced the way I draw comic strips and my humor in general. But maybe I’m just imagining it lol, it’s hard to tell at this point.

Gravitation by Murakami Maki – I’m forever obsessed with Gravi. Of course, a portion of it is just out of nostalgia, but we actually read the manga fully a couple of years ago, and god it was much better than we anticipated. It’s extremely stupid and fun (how many BL mangas have tom and jerry style slapstick comedy??), but at the same time sometimes the jokes are surprisingly clever. Nothing is too serious though, every character is a clown to some extent, and this is exactly why all of them are so fun to watch. The relationships are also… surprisingly well-written in my opinion.

It’s an old school BL, but I still think it’s a bit different from other BL mangas from 90s-early 00s… Also the fact that Murakami-sensei draws smutty doujins of her own manga under a different pseudonym is still the most awesome thing I’ve ever heard; I’ll forever respect her for that.

And ofc Yuki Eiri is a bottom for us, like... duh.

Otome no Teikoku by Kishi Torajirou – it just makes me a bit happier when I don’t want to think and just want to look at girls having crushes on each other. I usually hate yuri manga with school setting, but this one slaps me in the face with how good the cast is and how unusual some of the themes in it are for a yuri manga. I feel like the author actually wants his characters to be interesting and not just gushes over how pure and innocent they look when they hold hands, and it makes a huge difference.

[in-a-cave-with]

can you make a list of every mavel comic you've ever read (good and bad) i just finished iron man (1998) and i thoroughly loved it with all its best and weird bits

GOOD™

iron man stuff:

tales of suspense (1963) – a classic. 100/10. would read several times

iron man vol 1 (1968) – i’m on, like, issue 20 out of 300 something but it’s also very very good! the drama..the action……..wig

iron man vol 3 (1998) – obv i know youve read this one anon but for anyone out there starting comics this one’s SUPER good, and also Love Is Stored In The Tonyru

iron man vol 4 (2005) – listen this comic. so great, so iconic. maya hansen! epic fights! director stark! good art except for, like, the 6 issues of execute program but execute program is such a good story arc that you wont even notice! 

iron man noir (2010) – INDIANA JONES AU TONY STARK, LITERALLY THE BEST CONCEPT MARVEL’S COME UP WITH. PEAK COMICS IRONFAM

iron man legacy (2010) – i enjoyed this one a lot! i’m kind of confused as to, like, what’s going on but it’s fun

iron man season one (2013) – ok so this is, like, a modern remake of tony’s origin story and it’s..kind of average imo but thats ok! bc you can just look at the very very pretty pictures

iron man fatal frontier (2013) – tony becomes governor of the moon and fights doom! also he takes down an ai with weaponized fanfiction somewhere in there. read this one with a .cbr reader

invincible iron man vol 2 (2015) – gonna maybe fuck around and rec bendis’ entire iron man run bc . the art is gorgeous and the story isn’t the strongest but tony’s characterization is v good 

international iron man (2016) – ok i dont remember what happens in this one but alex maleev’s art is literally god 

invincible iron man vol 3 (2016) – RIRI WILLIAMS!!!! AND ALSO AI TONY STARK (MY SON MY BOY WHOM I LOVE)!!!!

other stuff:

new avengers vol 1 (2005) – as i have said before. new avengers GOT the sauce. stevetony and caroljess on one team was too powerful so marvel had to break em up with civil war . also stop reading this comic when you get to civil war

civil war: casualties of war (2007) and civil war: the confession (2007) – these are both oneshot comics and also the Only Civil War Content You Need To Subject Yourself To

spider-man noir (2010) – a break from the avengers stuff to tell you that this comic is very brutal and also very good

secret invasion (2010) – ok avengers emh did it better™ but this is still very neat! also it’s pretty trippy so its got that going for it too

siege (2010) – i dont understand what’s going on but the art is very good. also the avengers get to beat up norman osborn’s bitch ass

avengers prime (2011) – apparently this is the “stevetony bible” and …honestly there isn’t anything i can say in objection to that

avengers vol 4 (2010) – this comic is SUPER fun. after the fear itself tie ins the art and story get pretty eugh though so be careful

fear itself (2012) – BEST BEST BEST!!! my favorite crossover event in comics, with cool art and a badass storyline

captain marvel vol 4 (2012) – can we get a yeehaw for CAROL DANVERS . hell yeah. this is her first run with the name captain marvel and it’s Very Good

avengers: the enemy within (2014) – captain marvel vol 4 ends on a cliffhanger and the storyline’s capped off here

avengers vol 5 (2013) – ok so *clown noises* i haven’t exactly finished it but…this is the One Was Life The Other Was Death comic and it’s super good from what ive read so far

hawkeye (2013) – matt fraction’s run! everyone and their dog wants you to read it and you absolutely should if you have not. not too sure abt the volume numbering but heres a link to download in TPBs, it’s volumes 1-4

captain marvel vol 5 (2014) – this is the volume featuring chewie (!!) and carol in outer space with the guardians of the galaxy (!!!). super fun in general, would read again

ms marvel (2014) – again i am VERY confused as to what the official issue/volume numbering is, but here’s a list of TPBs that collect pretty much every kamala khan comic pre 2019 (im gonna rec all of them bc kamala is a treasure)

doctor strange vol 3 (2015) – literally everything i want from a comic tbh, also chris bachalo’s art is amazing

marvel 1872 (2015) – no one actually calls this Stevetony Bible 2 but lbr it’s basically Stevetony Bible 2

all-new all-different avengers (2015) – BEST AVENGERS TEAM EVER. EVER. PLEASE BENDIS WHY DID YOU BREAK THIS TEAM UP IM SAD

the unbelievable gwenpool (2016) – oh god oh fuck it’s miss GWEN POOLE . this comic is super funny and also surprisingly heartfelt, plus the art is . mmm.

champions (2016) – the gen z superhero team, i love all of them so much. i can almost forgive marvel for ending anad avengers

hunt for wolverine: adamantium agenda (2018) – so this is, after 11 goddamn years, closure for the first civil war regarding tony and the new avengers that sided with steve. amazing.

the life of captain marvel (2018) – the carol origin retcon is…eh. but it’s still very good! think of it as carol’s international iron man

avengers: back to basics (2018) – kamala goes back in time and accidentally reveals tony’s secret identity and it’s the funniest fucking thing

captain marvel (2019) – the first issue is everyone bullying tony which sucks but DONT LET THAT GET YOU DOWN bc it’s, like, actually good and also tony appears more in later issues without getting bullied

war of realms (2019) – i guess it’s a marvel rule that all crossover comics having to do with asgard are Top Notch? anyway

loki (2019) – AMAZING loki shenanigans and also the REAL reason you needed to read war of realms tbh

ironheart (2019) – gosh i love riri williams so much she’s so GREAT and you should DEFINITELY READ THIS

QUESTIONABLE™:

invincible iron man vol 1 (2008) – matt fraction’s iron man run…it’s ..ok story wise? however the characterization is a lil off at times and the art is HORRIBLE

iron man vol 5 (2013) – ok so this comic is super weird ? because it’s nice that tony spends time out in space but also it confirms that he’s a furry apparently. pretty much the only truly average iron man comic

avengers vol 8 (2018) – okay so i really like the art and the story’s okay but there’s a bit where tony flirts w carol and it’s the most ooc thing ive ever seen and that’s enough to land it in the questionable category

tony stark: iron man (2018) – i debated over whether to put this here or in the Bad™ category BUT valerio schiti’s art is too beautiful and the rhodeytony content fuels me. also issues 12 and 13 (war of realms) written by gail simone are pretty good. unfortunately dan slott wrote the rest and it AINT IT CHIEF

gwenpool strikes back (2019) – it starts off strong in the first issue but goes downhill from there and tbh it’s not really respectful of the previous gwenpool run

magnificent ms marvel (2019) – ok listen i love kamala a lot but if theres gonna be a romance plot between her and bruno it’s the electric chair

BAD. AVOID AT ALL COSTS™

iron man vol 2 (1996) – just. don’t touch this. it’s a hot mess

civil war (2006) – i hate this. so much. it’s unreal. all you need to know is that steve was real close to killing tony in the end but surrendered when he saw that he no longer had the moral high ground. and also steve got assassinated right before he was going to be put on trial

mighty avengers (2007) – this comic had the potential to be SO good. unfortunately the artists for the actual avengers issues don’t respect women at all

superior iron man (2015) – they made tony evil and i could not be more angry with it. who even fucking wants to read this theres not even any emotional payoff for any of this

civil war ii (2016) – i would hit this stupid comic in the knees if i could. there is not a single c*vil w*r with rights. all you need to know is that carol put tony into a coma and it’s super ooc

iron man 2020 (2020) – listen i know this comic hasn’t come out yet but it has all the ingredients to be EVEN WORSE than superior iron man which is saying a lot.

this took way too much effort

[privateplates4u]

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE: 4th Place – 2017 Motor Trend Best Driver’s Car

We’ve all heard about the bad old days at GM when no car was allowed to challenge the Corvette’s performance supremacy. Those days are long dead. Team Camaro has applied its 1LE handling philosophy to the monstrously powerful ZL1, and the resulting monster is the most track-capable road car GM has ever sold. Up front, the standard Camaro ZL1’s 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 still makes 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque because frankly it didn’t need to make more. Being an enthusiast’s car, a six-speed manual is the only transmission on offer. An electronically controlled differential rounds out the powertrain. Out at the corners, magnetic shocks are replaced with Multimatic spool-valve shocks, and like the rest of the suspension, they’re hard-mounted with metal bushings, not rubber. The ride height, front camber, and rear anti-roll bar are all manually adjustable. A bigger grille improves cooling, and dive planes on the front corners and a massive rear wing provide downforce across the car. Equally massive carbon-ceramic brakes do the stopping. It’s Best Driver’s Car week! Don’t miss the incredible story of how we chose the 2017 Best Driver’s Car right here, and stay tuned for the World’s Greatest Drag Race, coming soon. Put it all together, nail the launch, and you’ll see 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and an 11.7-second quarter mile at 123 mph flat. Going the other way, the 3,837-pound ZL1 1LE will stop from 60 mph in a scant 91 feet. Put it on a skidpad, and it’ll pull 1.11 average g. Fling it at the figure eight, and you’ll get a 23.0-second lap at 0.93 average g. We Say “This car needs five-point harnesses because the dampers are so unforgiving. It’s true this 1LE has incredible grip; however, the compression damping is way too harsh while the rebound damping is just right. I’m not sure where they tuned this, but it clearly did not have a lot of bumps and jumps. The steering is freakishly quick. It took me three corners to calm my hands down, so I didn’t steer into and across the apex. The power seems to be well matched for the chassis, for a change, unlike the Z06. Third gear seemed very tractable and had a wide bandwidth. This feels like what I imagine a ’60s-’70s Trans Am car would be like.” – Chris Walton “I know Jonny loves this car, but I just can’t warm to it. Probably because I’ve lost all my fillings, and my kidneys are bruised. With the exception of the best roads, the ride in this Camaro is punishing. I’ve encountered smoother paint mixers. I had to remind myself that based on the numbers, this car is fantastic. Endless grip, fade-free brakes, abundant horsepower. But the thing is, I didn’t care. The bouncing was so bad that I found myself reacting to that instead of focusing on sheer act of driving. The Camaro might be brilliant on the track, but I wouldn’t want to drive this to get there.” – Derek Powell Read about other 2017 Best Driver’s Car contenders: Ferrari 488 GTB Porsche 911 Turbo S Porsche 718 Cayman S Lexus LC 500 Mercedes-AMG GT R Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport Aston Martin DB11 Nissan GT-R NISMO Mazda MX-5 Miata RF McLaren 570GT “Simply tremendous … tremendous grip, tremendous brakes, and tremendous power. And how about that third pedal? This added that special connection to the vehicle that the Ferrari or 911 Turbo simply can’t match, which is why I ranked it higher than those two fancy (and expensive) machines. With the Camaro, I felt like I—not some fancy software—had a big part in conquering 198.” – Erick Ayapana “That’s a driver’s car! When the aero and the tires shake hands, it’s a moment of revelation. You are suddenly driving a hard-mounted race car. Unreal. So much power, so much control, so much stopping ability. An absolute monster of a machine. This is an uncaged race car. Being able to actually use all 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque is mind-boggling. I’m not sure how this car isn’t a podium finisher.” – Jonny Lieberman “Long name, amazing results! Everywhere a competitor put a wheel in the air, the Camaro stuck like glue. There’s a lot of vertical movement in the cabin, but the car just sticks no matter what. It never jumps sideways a foot when it hits a mid-corner bump, never moves around laterally at all. Even when it feels like you’ve carried too much speed into a corner, it sticks. I can’t count how many times I put the throttle flat on the floor. In a 650-hp car this stiff on this bumpy road, that’s seriously impressive. The eLSD takes a little getting used to. If you start to feed in power mid-corner, the car turns in more as the diff gets to work. Steer with the throttle? Yes, please! “Brakes have huge stopping power and great pedal feel. Squeeze, don’t stomp, and get exactly what you want. “I thought this car would be too stiff for the road, and that’s coming from someone who drove the Z/28 for a year. I was wrong.” – Scott Evans Randy Says “It was not perfectly balanced for me. I’m really trying to smear a little lipstick from the perfection here, but it would go from a little teeny bit of understeer, which was perfect, to a little bit of oversteer, which is almost perfect. But when we put it in the context of what it is, which is a front-engine rear-drive car with 650 horsepower, the traction was incredible. It put down power extremely well, I could drive it with everything turned off, and for me, that’s just so much more satisfying. “The dampers felt great. Basically I never thought about it. Which means nothing came into my awareness as being, oh, this is too stiff. Or that is too soft. I don’t sense roll. So when I just turn for the corner, it just lies over there. That’s not good terminology because I don’t feel it roll. I’m sure it does, but I don’t feel it. Which means it’s got good damping. When I’m down in the corner, in the middle, I still have a steering response, and I can still tighten it up. “It was happy coming out of the corkscrew. That’s always hard in a powerful rear drive car. Put the power down. When you’re in a low gear and it’s a hard right. It wants to power oversteer. But this one was pretty damn good. Especially at that power level. See, we have to keep this in context. “The car generated a tremendous amount of braking force, but for the first time in any high-performance Camaro, it had a long pedal. I was pumping it a little bit, and I remember going up that Corkscrew thinking, ‘Jesus and Heaven above, let these work.’ And boy did they work. It stopped so well. It was very, very pleasing and satisfying how late I could brake in this—what is a relatively heavy car. It’s light for a Camaro, a supercharged Camaro. A bad driver could crash it immediately, but for a reasonable guy who can drive really fast and doesn’t need stability control, this is the ultimate pony car right now.” 2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 (1LE) POWERTRAIN/CHASSIS DRIVETRAIN LAYOUT Front-engine, RWD ENGINE TYPE Supercharged 90-deg V-8, alum block/heads VALVETRAIN OHV, 2 valves/cyl DISPLACEMENT 376.1 cu in/6,162 cc COMPRESSION RATIO 10.0:1 POWER (SAE NET) 650 hp @ 6,400 rpm* TORQUE (SAE NET) 650 lb-ft @ 3,600 rpm* REDLINE 6,500 rpm WEIGHT TO POWER 5.9 lb/hp TRANSMISSION 6-speed manual AXLE/FINAL-DRIVE RATIO 3.73:1/2.00:1 SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR Struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj anti-roll bar STEERING RATIO 11.1:1-15.1:1 TURNS LOCK-TO-LOCK 2.3 BRAKES, F; R 15.4-in vented, 2-pc disc; 14.4-in vented, 2-pc disc, ABS WHEELS 11.0 x 20-in; 12.0 x 20-in, forged aluminum TIRES 305/30R19 98Y; 325/30R19 101Y Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3R (Tread 100) DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE 110.7 in TRACK, F/R 64.1/62.8 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 188.3 x 74.7 x 52.0 in TURNING CIRCLE 38.7 ft CURB WEIGHT 3,837 lb WEIGHT DIST, F/R 55/45% SEATING CAPACITY 4 HEADROOM, F/R 38.5/33.5 in LEGROOM, F/R 43.9/29.9 in SHOULDER ROOM, F/R 55.0/50.4 in CARGO VOLUME 9.1 cu ft TEST DATA ACCELERATION TO MPH 0-30 1.6 sec 0-40 2.2 0-50 2.8 0-60 3.6 0-70 4.4 0-80 5.3 0-90 6.6 0-100 7.9 0-100-0 11.3 PASSING, 45-65 MPH 1.5 QUARTER MILE 11.7 sec @ 123.0 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 91 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 1.11 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 23.0 sec @ 0.93 g (avg) 2.2-MI ROAD COURSE LAP 1:34.30 sec TOP-GEAR REVS @ 60 MPH 1,900 rpm CONSUMER INFO BASE PRICE $71,295 PRICE AS TESTED $73,090 STABILITY/TRACTION CONTROL Yes/Yes AIRBAGS 8: Dual front, front side, f/r curtain, front knee BASIC WARRANTY 3 yrs/36,000 miles POWERTRAIN WARRANTY 5 yrs/60,000 miles ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE 5 yrs/60,000 miles FUEL CAPACITY 19.0 gal EPA CITY/HWY/COMB ECON 14/20/16 mpg ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY 241/169 kW-hrs/100 miles CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 1.20 lb/mile RECOMMENDED FUEL Unleaded premium The post Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE: 4th Place – 2017 Motor Trend Best Driver’s Car appeared first on Motor Trend.

http://www.motortrend.com/news/chevrolet-camaro-zl1-1le-4th-place-2017-best-drivers-car/

[iwritestuffsometimes]

Unaware

She hated flying more than anything else about traveling. She was a homebody to begin with, so having to go across the country to a state she’d never been in was very annoying. But knowing she had to take a plane to get there in time was horrifying.

She didn’t mind being in the air so much. She didn’t mind the fact that if something goes wrong, she has no real chance out of it. She trusted the pilots to know what they were doing. What she really cared about was being crammed in a small space with strangers. She’d flown for work once before and she vowed never to do it again. Until she got the promotion. And she couldn’t say no to these kind of trips.

In an attempt to make the experience as painless as possible, she got there early. She liked to be the first one to board for her section; it gave her her choice of storage spaces. She sighed and tucked her bag in the overhead compartment. Straightening her shirt before she sat down. She shifted around a little to find a comfortable spot, determined to stay in it for the entire 4 hour flight. She pulled out her phone and switched it to airplane mode as she shoved in her ear buds. She tried not to roll her eyes as a pair of legs landed beside her seat.

She didn’t bother to look up, knowing if she did, it could be misconstrued as a gesture of niceness; a signal to hold a conversation. She wanted none of that. She simple folded her legs underneath her for long enough for the pair of legs to shuffle by her into the next seat. She clenched her jaw knowing that the person had taken the seat nearest her instead of the window seat. There was still one more person to have to ignore before she could unfold her legs. She resolved to just wait that way; folded into an origami version of herself until takeoff. She pulled on her eye mask and cranked the music in her headphones.

She only moved the mask again when the plane began to rumble around her. Takeoff. She’d missed the safety demonstration. She should have been more aware of her surroundings until then, but she reasoned that she knew how to buckle her seatbelt and that was all that really mattered. She didn’t care to look beside her to see if the third person in the row had taken their seat or not. She unfurled her legs and breathed deeply as her ears popped. A song came on she didn’t like. She scrolled through her itunes and picked her favorite album. She pressed repeat. 4 hours of Encore would be the best way to survive this flight and the person who had already taken possession of their shared armrest. She decided she wasn’t willing to fight over it and let them keep it. She darkened her screen. The person next to her shifted around enough for her to notice but she ignored it.

3 hours later, her row mate decided to get up. She held in the groan that came with having to curl her legs back out of the way. They came back a short while later and she went back to her original position, she was just pulling her eye mask down again when the person next to her poked her arm. She ignored it. She was poked again. She didn’t bother to push her mask back up, and only paused her music long enough to say, “I’m not a good flyer. I suggest you leave me alone if you don’t want to wear my vomit for the last leg of this trip.”

She was just about to press play again when the person next to her spoke. “I don’t want to bother you, but you’re bothering most of the people in the next 3 rows.” It was a man’s voice. She said nothing so he continued. “Your music is loud. And you’re humming.”

She pulled her mask up, blushing, as she checked the volume on her ipod. She muttered. “Sorry, I didn’t realize-“ She looked up and froze. For the first time, she saw the man sitting next to her.

He blushed slightly as well. “I was gonna say something earlier but I was too amused.”

“You’ve been sitting next to me this whole time?” She whispered.

He chuckled. “I didn’t, like, get on halfway through the flight or something.”

“I have the worst luck in the world.” She shook her head in amazement.

“Ouch.”

“No!” She said quickly. “Not like that! No. I meant, I hate flying as it is and now I’ve not only made a fool out of myself in front of an entire plane full of people, I was humming your songs for 3 hours.”  She covered her face with her hands. “I’m so mortified.”

He laughed again. “For what its worth, even with headphones in, you still managed to keep a respectable tune.” He smirked. “I can’t even manage to do that with in-ears.”

She wanted to laugh but she was too embarrassed. “This is unreal.” She sighed to herself.

He leaned closer to her long enough to pull his phone out of his pocket. “Is now a bad time to say that I recorded part of it?”

“Oh great.” She blushed a deeper shade of red. He pulled up the video and pressed play before she could protest. It wasn’t nearly as bad as she had thought; she wasn’t screaming nor was the music deafening, but it was still embarrassing.

“I was going to post it on instagram, truth be told.” He shrugged. “But seeing as how you’re reacting to it- you don’t find it as funny as I do.”

“Not really, no.” She chewed her lip.

“Sorry.” He smiled graciously. He put his phone in his pocket. “I wont post it then.” He pulled out his computer and began working on something. She sat forward in her chair, too embarrassed to put her ear buds in again. Her leg bounced as she tried to ignore that who was sitting next to her once again. This time around, she failed.

He didn’t turn to face her but leant closer to her. “You can turn your music back on. I’ll let you know if you start singing again.”

“Your music.” She blurted.

He chuckled. “Thanks for that by the way.” She frowned. He looked over at her. “For buying the album. Let alone for listening to it at full blast for 3 hours and not getting sick of it.”

“You’re kidding me.” She giggled. “It’s the best album ever. Of any genre.”

He laughed. “Now you’re just outright lying.”

“No, really.” She twisted in her seat. “I could go song by song – no line by line- of the entire thing and point out why it’s the best.”

“Please don’t.” He cringed.

She blushed again. “Right. That’s weird.”

He smirked. “Totally something I would do though.”

“Doubt it.”

“No really,” He shut his laptop. “If I were in a room with Chris Thile from The Punch Brothers, I don’t think I’d be able to shut up. Have you heard their stuff?”

“Only the couple you’ve suggested on social media.” She said honestly.

He grinned. “What do you think?”

“Not as good as yours.” She shrugged.

He laughed. “You have terrible taste in music.”

a/n theres no real story here but i like the premise anyway. I havent had a chance to proof or even reread so I dont know what entertainment value, if any, this has. but regardless- I liked writing it. I hope you liked reading it. I wont know unless you tell me

[anew-books-blog]

A Matter of Time - Volume 2 ::: by Mary Calmes

My dear Anewers!

I think it is time for the sequel of A Matter of Time Series. Here we go again in a journey with Jory Harcourt and Samuel Thomas Kage. Let’s hope things get better between these two.

Let’s cut to what matters? Synposis and starting info:

“Books Three and Four Vol. 2

Three years ago, Jory Harcourt changed his name and shut the door on a past full of pain, only to emerge stronger on the other side. He has a new career, a great working partner, and a satisfying life—except for the hole in his chest left behind when police Detective Sam Kage walked out with his heart.

Now Sam's back and he knows what he wants... and what he wants is Jory. Jory, who doesn't know if he can survive another break up or losing Sam to his dangerous job, resists returning to the arms of the only man he has ever truly loved. But when a serial killer with a score to settle targets Jory, he will have to decide if love is worth the danger as he tries to solve the case and keep Sam safe.

Title:  A Matter of Time Volume 2 (Books 3 and 4)

Author: Mary Calmes

Year: 2011

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Language: English

Pages: 298

Reading time: 3 days

Format: e-book (Kindle)

Date of Purchase: 28/07/2013 at amazon.com

LINKS: Amazon (US) Dreamspinner Press

Again, this volume has two books in sequence.

I - Cover: (1)

The only thing i will say about the cover is: Who the hell is depicted at the cover? Jory? Nah... Sam? If it is, please don't... Erase this image from my brain please! Sam is like Chris Hemsworth easily for me... So please... Just don't.

II - PoV: (4.5)

BOOK 3: Now she nailed it! The third stallment of A Matter of Time was sublime! Fast paced when needed, slowed down right on time. Not much dwelve on repeat scenes that just happened. PERFECT! Jory’s mind each time more and more twisted and interesting.

BOOK 4: Well... I will not repeat myself. Amazing. (lol), but the narrative sometimes gets a bit fuzzy, confusing.

III - Protagonists: (4.875) - HEAVY SPOILER ALERT!

Jory Harcourt: (Book 3 e 4) He was resilient about being back where all things began. Sam was out of his life completely for 3 whole years or so, and of course, who in the name of God would be, in good shape, after loosing the one person that holds your heart in his hand and then (even well justified) trashed it? Not a soul, i bet. So the reaction that Jory had about being around with Sam again was totally justified, i would personally do things a bit differente, but hey! That's Jory, not Alex.

Sam Kage: (Book 3 e 4) That persistent sonofabitch. He's adorable and perfect about the way he crumbles little-by-little the resistance of Jory. Stubborn, but both are. And his family mauling him and Jory after the definitive reunion... awesome... but let's not talk about them, the focus here is SAM. Hot as ever, still the man of anyone's dreams. I just didn't enjoyed him at all at the last chapter of book 4, if i was Jory, i would've let him alone and went home.

IV - Antagonists: (4.5) 

(Book 3): There's no antagonists at this book, i could place Aaron Sutter like it, but it wouldn't be fair to the man.

(Book 4): Caleb Reid: I can't mention him in his full feature now, because the HUGE SPOILER is coming on twists section... all i can say is this. This character is full of surprises, awesome and awful surprises. It would be interesting to read more about him messing with Jory and Sam’s life in the future.

V - Side Characters: (5)

(Book 3): General speaking... All perfect as always. I am madly inlove with Dylan Greer and her husband. The Kage's are something unreal. I miss a lot of Dane and his wife Aja. Aaron Sutter is something! Like a refined Sam Kage, but way out of Jory's league. Having nothing else to add... PERFECT.

(Book 4): Dane is back, like ACID back... He just mauled Sam's ass to submission for being back at Jory's life again. It was really awesome!

VI - Hot Scenes: (4.75)

(Book 3): There's only two hot scenes about Jory and Sam. And... WOW! The first one, the getting back sex was ASTONISHING-BREATHTAKING-AROUSING-EXCITING-SUBLIME-HOT.AS.HELL-PERFECT! Being mauled against a door, it got me right at the spot!... I can't comment any longer without pausing to take a cold shower...

(Book 4): Not so many scenes like that, and the ones that happened were as great as always, but getting too fast, should be a little bit more detailed.

VII - Story: (4.5)

(Book 3): The story is shortened as the Sam pushing real hard to get Jory's back... Or as his father said: "Hey, dipshit, when do you get your boy back?" Plain and simple, with some sidetracks: the marriage of Dane at the beginning, the pregnancy and birth of the first child of Jory's partner and BFF Dylan, the reencounter of Jory and Aaron, and two or three bad dates of Jory. No crime, no pursuit, no shots fired, or house busted, or kidnapping, torture... so on... just the plans of Sam to get Jory back. Funny and sweet. Unmisseable.

(Book 4): Despite the perfectness of book 3, book 4 starts doing a full back to books 1 and 2... and back and forth memory lane, BUT this time it was right. At least Mary Calmes doesn't lost too many time (or lines) re-explaining things... Thing is, if you never read Books 1, 2 and 3... you will be filled Crash-Course-Style everything in 3 chapters, and i meant it: EVERYTHING.

On this book, we already have the all cops-investigating-thing back again. Turns out that, the Brian Minor's case wasn't the real deal after all... but a serial killer matter, and, as you might think, "Jory is at the center of it" (well, not really), or so they thought. No more spoilers here...

This time Jory left Sam (same situation of Book 2, but in reverse) to investigate himself what's going on. And... well... read and see. It was interesting, and well developed,... BUT there's a huge ass flaw: Why the hell the police or the FBI didn't traced Jory's cellphone position to find where the fuck he was? Only when you take off the battery tracing is impossible. Moving on...

Jory's Batman-Mode is interesting, but... tiresome. Mary Calmes build this up for far too long, that i caught myself skipping some lines and paragraphs, meaning that i had to went back several times to catch up. It transited easily and fastly from interesting to boring.

But in the end, was really good, as a Hitchcock's Psycho gay version.

VIII - Plot Twists: (4) 

(Book 3): No twists in here. The story was way too forthcoming as predicted. And its not bad, actually it is awesome, no room for continuity mistakes.

(Book 4): HUGE SPOILER NEEDED! BE WARNED: The twists here are almost every single one in Jory's mind, and especially at the end when he was doing the Batman-Investigating-thing. Confused twists, first the one to Caleb Reid as the responsible for the murders, after that shifts to his mother Susan with a very poor excuse. Then Jory assumed that Sam thinks about he's being a danger for himself and the society?! Really??? Then Jory, unexplicably, tells he's wrong, Susan Reid is innocent. WHAAAAAT??? How so? The Caleb Reid hid inside the closet, really?! And the police didn't find him there? Really??? Searching 1-0-1: look under beds, furniture, inside armoires, furniture and CLOSETS!!! And Surprise-surprise! Caleb Reid has MPD! Multiple Personality Disorder. REEEEALYYYY!!!!!????? How Psycho is this?! Originality was forgotten or forsaken or forbidden? Hahaha, jokes apart: i loved it! However... the dialog between Jory and Caleb in Susan's shoes was AWESOME! Short and direct. I felt the horror Jory felt. This alone saved the entire sequence of unrealistic, unlikely, illogical, unclear and highly implausible events.

IX - Ending: (4.5)

(Book 3): HAPPY ENDING! I JUST LOVE HAPPY ENDINGS!!! So cute! And it gave you the feeling that there's room for more (a lot more). I love it! Simple as that.

(Book 4): So... Considerations on this ending... Interesting thing is, i would rather read about the full Jory/Sam wedding at Canada, some party after and they coming back to US happily ever after. This would be the crown jewel for me. BUT - in the interest of surprising people - Mary Calmes didn't do it. Disappointing? Definately yes. Bad? No.

Sam's brother, Michael's wedding with a blasting-catholic chick was the touch, but then again, i would rather see Jory this time standing his ground and obliterating that bitch over pulling out Sam and kiss the life outta him, than sucking it up and got all jealous in silence. So not Jory, even in Michael's best interest. I wouldn't toletare such thing, but then again it is me, not Jory. To avoid this i would not be at the reception, i would just be at the wedding, at the most far away bench and accept that everyone or suffer the consequences.

I would not consider this a real perfect happy ending, it was a happy ending, but with a catch. I didn't enjoy it that much. Pity.

X - Pace: (4.5)

(Book 3): Since this book has no twists (not that i can recall) tempo was right. Could be a little bit longer, but i'm not complaining at all. Perfect timing as i said at the beginning of this review.

(Book 4): This book has ups and downs. Some scenes i simply skipped, too long or visiting extensively down memory lane. Even so, not tiresome. The book have a good pace. In comparison with book 3, this one could be shorter, like WAY shorter. Too many unnecessary twists.

XI - Re-reading Factor: (5)

(Books 3 and 4): Well, this was the 8th time that i read the entire series, so... You all know what i mean by that, right?

XII - Recommendation: (5)

(Books 3 and 4): Do i really need to answer to that?

XIII - EXTRA POINTS: (+2.5)

- Bonus points:

   . Gorgeous characters, and absolutely my type;

   . Should have a TV or Silver-screen adaptation;

   . Perfect HOT Scene (wow, just wow... did i mentioned that i want Samuel Thomas Kage in my bed right fucking now?!)

- Penalties:

   . None.

Average: 4.34 of 5 (from I to XII)

Final grade (applying bonus points): 6.84 of 10

Well, a little improvement from the previous volume. Although my review on book 4 was a bit harsh, the story is really interesting, just gets confusing and tiresome at a few points.

Anyway, Mary Calmes still delivers great stories about Jory and Sam. I would mention a few things here about this series, but let’s mention only after the review of the last book, ok?

x-o-x-o

AlexM

NEXT REVIEW: “Pale as a Ghost” by Stephen Osborne.

[robertkstone]

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE: 4th Place – 2017 Motor Trend Best Driver’s Car

We’ve all heard about the bad old days at GM when no car was allowed to challenge the Corvette’s performance supremacy. Those days are long dead. Team Camaro has applied its 1LE handling philosophy to the monstrously powerful ZL1, and the resulting monster is the most track-capable road car GM has ever sold.

Up front, the standard Camaro ZL1’s 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 still makes 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque because frankly it didn’t need to make more. Being an enthusiast’s car, a six-speed manual is the only transmission on offer. An electronically controlled differential rounds out the powertrain. Out at the corners, magnetic shocks are replaced with Multimatic spool-valve shocks, and like the rest of the suspension, they’re hard-mounted with metal bushings, not rubber. The ride height, front camber, and rear anti-roll bar are all manually adjustable. A bigger grille improves cooling, and dive planes on the front corners and a massive rear wing provide downforce across the car. Equally massive carbon-ceramic brakes do the stopping.

It’s Best Driver’s Car week! Don’t miss the incredible story of how we chose the 2017 Best Driver’s Car right here, and stay tuned for the World’s Greatest Drag Race, coming soon.

Put it all together, nail the launch, and you’ll see 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and an 11.7-second quarter mile at 123 mph flat. Going the other way, the 3,837-pound ZL1 1LE will stop from 60 mph in a scant 91 feet. Put it on a skidpad, and it’ll pull 1.11 average g. Fling it at the figure eight, and you’ll get a 23.0-second lap at 0.93 average g.

We Say

“This car needs five-point harnesses because the dampers are so unforgiving. It’s true this 1LE has incredible grip; however, the compression damping is way too harsh while the rebound damping is just right. I’m not sure where they tuned this, but it clearly did not have a lot of bumps and jumps. The steering is freakishly quick. It took me three corners to calm my hands down, so I didn’t steer into and across the apex. The power seems to be well matched for the chassis, for a change, unlike the Z06. Third gear seemed very tractable and had a wide bandwidth. This feels like what I imagine a ’60s-’70s Trans Am car would be like.” – Chris Walton

“I know Jonny loves this car, but I just can’t warm to it. Probably because I’ve lost all my fillings, and my kidneys are bruised. With the exception of the best roads, the ride in this Camaro is punishing. I’ve encountered smoother paint mixers. I had to remind myself that based on the numbers, this car is fantastic. Endless grip, fade-free brakes, abundant horsepower. But the thing is, I didn’t care. The bouncing was so bad that I found myself reacting to that instead of focusing on sheer act of driving. The Camaro might be brilliant on the track, but I wouldn’t want to drive this to get there.” – Derek Powell

Read about other 2017 Best Driver’s Car contenders:

Ferrari 488 GTB

Porsche 911 Turbo S

Porsche 718 Cayman S

Lexus LC 500

Mercedes-AMG GT R

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport

Aston Martin DB11

Nissan GT-R NISMO

Mazda MX-5 Miata RF

McLaren 570GT

“Simply tremendous … tremendous grip, tremendous brakes, and tremendous power. And how about that third pedal? This added that special connection to the vehicle that the Ferrari or 911 Turbo simply can’t match, which is why I ranked it higher than those two fancy (and expensive) machines. With the Camaro, I felt like I—not some fancy software—had a big part in conquering 198.” – Erick Ayapana

“That’s a driver’s car! When the aero and the tires shake hands, it’s a moment of revelation. You are suddenly driving a hard-mounted race car. Unreal. So much power, so much control, so much stopping ability. An absolute monster of a machine. This is an uncaged race car. Being able to actually use all 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque is mind-boggling. I’m not sure how this car isn’t a podium finisher.” – Jonny Lieberman

“Long name, amazing results! Everywhere a competitor put a wheel in the air, the Camaro stuck like glue. There’s a lot of vertical movement in the cabin, but the car just sticks no matter what. It never jumps sideways a foot when it hits a mid-corner bump, never moves around laterally at all. Even when it feels like you’ve carried too much speed into a corner, it sticks. I can’t count how many times I put the throttle flat on the floor. In a 650-hp car this stiff on this bumpy road, that’s seriously impressive. The eLSD takes a little getting used to. If you start to feed in power mid-corner, the car turns in more as the diff gets to work. Steer with the throttle? Yes, please!

“Brakes have huge stopping power and great pedal feel. Squeeze, don’t stomp, and get exactly what you want.

“I thought this car would be too stiff for the road, and that’s coming from someone who drove the Z/28 for a year. I was wrong.” – Scott Evans

Randy Says

“It was not perfectly balanced for me. I’m really trying to smear a little lipstick from the perfection here, but it would go from a little teeny bit of understeer, which was perfect, to a little bit of oversteer, which is almost perfect. But when we put it in the context of what it is, which is a front-engine rear-drive car with 650 horsepower, the traction was incredible. It put down power extremely well, I could drive it with everything turned off, and for me, that’s just so much more satisfying.

“The dampers felt great. Basically I never thought about it. Which means nothing came into my awareness as being, oh, this is too stiff. Or that is too soft. I don’t sense roll. So when I just turn for the corner, it just lies over there. That’s not good terminology because I don’t feel it roll. I’m sure it does, but I don’t feel it. Which means it’s got good damping. When I’m down in the corner, in the middle, I still have a steering response, and I can still tighten it up.

“It was happy coming out of the corkscrew. That’s always hard in a powerful rear drive car. Put the power down. When you’re in a low gear and it’s a hard right. It wants to power oversteer. But this one was pretty damn good. Especially at that power level. See, we have to keep this in context.

“The car generated a tremendous amount of braking force, but for the first time in any high-performance Camaro, it had a long pedal. I was pumping it a little bit, and I remember going up that Corkscrew thinking, ‘Jesus and Heaven above, let these work.’ And boy did they work. It stopped so well. It was very, very pleasing and satisfying how late I could brake in this—what is a relatively heavy car. It’s light for a Camaro, a supercharged Camaro. A bad driver could crash it immediately, but for a reasonable guy who can drive really fast and doesn’t need stability control, this is the ultimate pony car right now.”

2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 (1LE) POWERTRAIN/CHASSIS DRIVETRAIN LAYOUT Front-engine, RWD ENGINE TYPE Supercharged 90-deg V-8, alum block/heads VALVETRAIN OHV, 2 valves/cyl DISPLACEMENT 376.1 cu in/6,162 cc COMPRESSION RATIO 10.0:1 POWER (SAE NET) 650 hp @ 6,400 rpm* TORQUE (SAE NET) 650 lb-ft @ 3,600 rpm* REDLINE 6,500 rpm WEIGHT TO POWER 5.9 lb/hp TRANSMISSION 6-speed manual AXLE/FINAL-DRIVE RATIO 3.73:1/2.00:1 SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR Struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, adj anti-roll bar STEERING RATIO 11.1:1-15.1:1 TURNS LOCK-TO-LOCK 2.3 BRAKES, F; R 15.4-in vented, 2-pc disc; 14.4-in vented, 2-pc disc, ABS WHEELS 11.0 x 20-in; 12.0 x 20-in, forged aluminum TIRES 305/30R19 98Y; 325/30R19 101Y Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3R (Tread 100) DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE 110.7 in TRACK, F/R 64.1/62.8 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 188.3 x 74.7 x 52.0 in TURNING CIRCLE 38.7 ft CURB WEIGHT 3,837 lb WEIGHT DIST, F/R 55/45% SEATING CAPACITY 4 HEADROOM, F/R 38.5/33.5 in LEGROOM, F/R 43.9/29.9 in SHOULDER ROOM, F/R 55.0/50.4 in CARGO VOLUME 9.1 cu ft TEST DATA ACCELERATION TO MPH 0-30 1.6 sec 0-40 2.2 0-50 2.8 0-60 3.6 0-70 4.4 0-80 5.3 0-90 6.6 0-100 7.9 0-100-0 11.3 PASSING, 45-65 MPH 1.5 QUARTER MILE 11.7 sec @ 123.0 mph B from PerformanceJunk WP Feed 3 http://ift.tt/2fiGOzi via IFTTT

[battleborntap]

What year ranks as the best ever for shooters? Many convincingly argue this honor belongs to 2004 – featuring a deep catalog including Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Far Cry, Star Wars Battlefront, Battlefield: Vietnam, Doom 3, UT 2004, Counter-Strike: Source, Painkiller. Others cite 2007 as a major contender thanks to gems like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, BioShock, Team Fortress 2, Halo 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Unreal Tournament III, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Thanks to an amazing lineup of its own, expect 2016 to be in this conversation moving forward as well. 

Shooter fans had something to look forward to in 2016 regardless of their preferred play style. Campaigns experienced a resurgence thanks to games like Titanfall 2, the Doom reboot, and even Battlefield 1. Cooperative players could dive into the juicy campaign of Gears of War 4 or the complex events of Destiny: Rise of Iron, which demanded constant communication to overcome. And multiplayer fans welcomed a new top-tier competitor in Blizzard's Overwatch. 

With no shortage of praise to dispense, our 2016 shooter of the year awards were tougher to come to a consensus on than any previous year. Check out the accolades below:

Best Campaign: Titanfall 2

This proved the toughest category to award an outright winner because we had two games deserving of the award. Doom's throwback campaign is pure, blood-drenched bliss, but ultimately Respawn's return to building campaigns won out thanks to its pitch-perfect pacing, strong mechanics, and continual commitment to introducing new mechanics. The time-bending Effects and Cause mission in particular stands out as one of the best in all of gaming.

Best Setting: Battlefield 1

While nearly every other major shooter franchise ran like lemmings to the space race of sci-fi settings, the clever Swedes at DICE seized a perfect opportunity to differentiate the Battlefield franchise by diving further back into history than it has ever done before. Trading laser guns and space fighters for bolt-action rifles and biplanes proved to be a major boon, as the World War I setting brought gamers to an era ripe for storytelling (and multiplayer battles) they have seldom visited before. 

Best Character: Tracer (Overwatch)

We could have picked just about any Overwatch character for this honor (Hanzo and Bastion being the obvious exceptions), but ultimately decided on the first face that greets you in the game's tutorial. Tracer is a lot more than just the lovable poster girl for Blizzard's critically acclaimed shooter. Her Blink and Recall abilities give her a unique attacking role never seen before in shooters. She may be fragile, but her quick pace and ability to fade in and out of combat in the blink of a second make her a truly formidable foe when in the hands of an expert.

Best Graphics: Battlefield 1

DICE's Frostbite engine is so good that EA decided to make it the de facto choice for the vast majority of its games, including BioWare RPGs and sports games. Battlefield 1 is a great showcase for why that seems like a smart decision. The graphics are jaw-dropping thanks to best-in-class weather effects and a welcome return to more destructible environments. If you want to treat your eyeballs to a spectacle, fire this game up in 4K. Considering Star Wars Battlefront took this award last year, this marks back-to-back wins for DICE. 

Best Audio: Overwatch

Battlefield 1 and Doom could have won accolades for their bombastic sound effects and memorable soundtracks, but we ultimately chose Overwatch because of how seamlessly Blizzard blends audio cues into the action of its fast-paced shooter. Listen closely, and you can tell what is happening based solely on characters’ unique audible tells, from ultimate callouts to Reinhardt's thunderous footsteps. The volume scaling smartly alerts you how close the incoming threat is, letting you either prepare for your pending doom or man up for a defiant defense. 

Best Weaponry: Doom

As far as I am concerned, there is only one shotgun you should carry into battle in a first-person shooter game, and that's the iconic original from Doom. Developer id Software wonderfully recreated this boomstick along with several other memorable Doom weapons (with a few new ones to boot). The rocket launcher, BFG 9000, and chainsaw gun are all showstoppers, and most of the weapons get even better in this reboot thanks to modifications you can find by locating field drones in each level.

Best Gunplay: Doom

Reloads are so 2015. In 2016, id Software flew in the face of modern convention by getting rid of weapon reloads, cover, a sprint button, and making players follow an NPC through a linear level design. By going back to its roots, Doom discovers the joy of the original with fantastic guns, open environments, and lightning-fast movement. When you see a mouth of hell in the middle of a room just waiting to be activated, you know it's time for a metal-driven ballet of death and destruction. And when your guns are low on ammo, it's time to embrace the Itchy and Scratchy-style close-quarters glory kills.

Best Remaster: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered

The remaster of the best shooter from last generation was arguably more desirable than the game it shipped with, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. While those who bothered to check out Infinity Ward's space-faring campaign were ultimately rewarded with an underrated experience, you couldn't fault those who pre-ordered the game from popping this Modern Warfare into their disc drives first. This all-time classic received a welcome makeover including new textures, higher resolution, and high-dynamic range lighting.

Read on to find out which shooter we named the best shooter as service, cooperative game, and competitive game. [PageBreak]

Best Indie: Superhot

Given the high quality of the entrenched competition, we rarely see indie shooters outside of those that try to recapture the style and fast-paced gameplay of the genre godfathers like Doom and Wolfenstein. Superhot chose a different approach inspired by puzzle games to make a must-play shooter unlike anything we've ever experienced. Time moves only when you move, turning each gunfight into a chess match that requires more wit than twitch skills.

Best Comeback: Doom

The last time we played a new Doom game in 2004, YouTube and the iPhone didn't exist yet. Think about that for a second. A Doom 3 follow-up that took many cues from popular modern shooters like Call of Duty was in development for years, but id and Bethesda ultimately felt it was the wrong direction for the franchise, scrapped it, and started over. It proved to be a wise decision, because this campaign skillfully captures the essence of the original FPS that put the genre on the map while at the same time bringing it into the modern era with subtle design touches. 

Best Shooter As Service: Rainbow Six Siege

What a difference a year can make. When I reviewed Rainbow Six Siege last December, I praised the stellar design of its foundational multiplayer mode but decried the poor infrastructure around it. I knew there was a brilliant game in there somewhere, Ubisoft just hadn't quite nailed it. Over the last 12 months, Ubisoft continued to hone the experience, fixing hit detection issues and other technical hiccups while delivering a steady stream of free maps and new operators players can unlock by spending the in-game currency known as Renown. Now the game has a well-earned following and healthy eSports scene, and Ubisoft just teased plans for another year of support.

Best Cooperative Multiplayer: Gears of War 4

This was another tough award to bestow. A vocal minority believed Destiny: Rise of Iron deserved the kudos thanks to its best raid to date that forced players to work together, the sophisticated cooperation necessary to obtain the Outbreak Prime Rifle, and new strike scoring system that rewards teamwork. But at the end of the day, the nod goes to Gears of War 4. New studio The Coalition erased the bad taste Judgment left in our mouths, delivered a strong cooperative campaign, and improved Horde mode with a new class system and the ability to construct new defensive fortifications. 

Best Competitive Multiplayer: Overwatch

Overwatch didn't just carve a nice niche for itself in the months after its debut. This multiplayer-focused shooter from the masters at Blizzard blew the doors wide open on an already packed and ultra-competitive genre. Like Blizzard's forays into the MMO, MOBA, and digital card game spaces, Overwatch is a master class in balance. Each hero brings distinct and useful skills to the battles, well-crafted maps keep the battles frantic, and the friendly post-game recaps and play-of-the-game highlights make for a wonderful way to wrap up a match.

Best Multiplayer Map: Hollywood (Overwatch)

Editors sang the praises of several Overwatch maps (mostly based on how their mains perform in those spaces), but the hybrid attack/payload map Hollywood got the most votes. Like many of its brethren, it has a great mix of interior and exterior cover locations, verticality, flanking routes, and choke points. It earns extra points for the light storytelling touches found throughout the map that give you a small glimpse into the wider Overwatch universe. Battlefield 1 also had a strong showing with standouts like St. Quentin Scar and Monte Grappa. 

Best Innovation: The Dark Zone (The Division)

Bold choices have become a rarity in triple-A games this generation, likely due to the immense cost that goes into making these games. One big miss could mortally wound a publisher. This is why The Division's Dark Zone is so refreshing. Don't get us wrong, it's not for everyone. Many are rubbed the wrong way when another player wipes them out and steals the hard-earned loot they were trying to extract. Developer Massive has also wrestled with finding a balance between having raving packs of PvP groups and a punishment for going rogue so severe that no one wants to even bother. But no other shooter has a space that offers the harrowing experience of sneaking and shooting your way through enemies for high-end gear, then having to announce your presence to the wider community via a flare and hoping you can extract your loot before others come to claim it as their own. 

Biggest Disappointment: Battleborn

Given the pedigree of Gearbox Software (Borderlands, Brothers in Arms) we had high hopes for the studio's new IP, which promised to remix the first-person shooter with MOBAs into a new style of game. We even put Battleborn on our cover. Unfortunately, the project did not come together in a compelling way. 

Shooter of the Year: Overwatch

If you read our Best of 2016 article, you already knew this was coming. No game, shooter or otherwise, captured the attention of Game Informer editors in 2016 like Overwatch. The refined balance, fantastic controls, and compelling cast of characters got us through the door, and Blizzard's steady stream of improvements and holiday themed loot kept us coming back for more. Overwatch is here to stay, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

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