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acetokens · 5 years ago

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The Rise of the Phoenix: My thoughts on MUA3′s 2nd DLC

Last October I wrote a review for MUA3’s first DLC expansion pack, ‘The Curse of the Vampire’. Now, after the release of the game’s second expansion, ‘The Rise of the Phoenix’, I really want to talk about this one as well!

This X-Men themed expansion gives Season Pass owners four new heroes to add to their roster: Iceman, Gambit, Cable and Phoenix, as well as a new mode called ‘Danger Room’, in which players go head-to-head in a series of trials. A new seasonal rewards system called ‘Events’ is tied to this mode, giving bonus prizes to players who win many Danger Room matches. The update also expanded the previously released ‘Gauntlet Mode’ by adding new challenges to tackle, and re-stocked the SHIELD Depot with more costumes to unlock. Finally, just like the last expansion, the level cap was raised (this time from 150 to 200) and new upgrades were added to the Alliance Enhancement Grid so you can make your heroes even stronger than before!

I was worried this expansion would be delayed (a prospect that felt more likely as we approached the end of December with no news). But luckily the VGA 2019 delivered a trailer which settled my fears and ‘The Rise of the Phoenix’ was released on December 23rd just in time to meet the vague ‘late 2019’ deadline we were promised. But was the expansion worth the wait? To answer that, I’m going to look at it one feature at a time, starting with…

The Characters

Although I’m disappointed that X-23 didn’t make the cut, I have to admit all four newcomers are fun to play due to their refreshingly unique abilities.

Phoenix’s defence stats are the worst in the game, but she obliterates bosses and mobs of weaker enemies alike, can revive her teammates with her EX (which also auto-revives Phoenix if she gets KO’d after using it) and can recharge her team’s EP using Cleansing Flames. Any character with a low Energy stat or who relies heavily on their abilities and/or synergies becomes much stronger with Phoenix on their team, so not only is she fun to play, she makes other heroes more fun to play as well! Because of this, I’ve gained a new appreciation for a character I’ve always overlooked before, and The Phoenix has risen to become one of my new favorite heroes to play in MUA3!

Gambit is a deceptively powerful character with some interesting tricks up his sleeve. His Luck of the Draw ability sets down explosive cards which remain dormant for a long time, allowing him to create multiple traps that he can detonate simultaneously with Kinetic Burst for a domino effect of explosions, dealing massive damage! Alternatively, Gambit can cancel into his air attack after setting the cards for a quicker but weaker explosion. Because of his self-synergies and high damage output, it makes Gambit one of the strongest solo-characters in the game in my opinion. Très bien!

Cable has a kit full of support abilities, including a gravity bomb, a reflector shield and an automatic sentry gun called Extreme Arsenal, all of which his teammates can take advantage of for some wicked synergy attacks. Cable can also teleport to escape from danger or use TK Spike to knock enemies back, although holding the attack for too long will lower Cable’s defence for a bit. He’s got more tactical variety than other ranged heroes but his solo damage output is terrible, making Cable reliant on his teammates to do the bulk of the offence.

Iceman can boost his teammates’ defence and give them the ice element (if they’re a weapon user) with Flash Freeze. The ability lasts for a long time, making it extremely useful, but the rest of Iceman’s moveset (especially his midair slide) is very slow, which is why I’d say he’s the least enjoyable to play out of the four newcomers.

The Gauntlets & New Mechanics

I enjoyed Gauntlet Mode in the last expansion, so I’m happy to see it return with 11 new challenges in this one. The new Gauntlets are fundamentally the same as the old ones, but instead of vampiric enemies, they feature two new mechanics: the Phoenix Force and Danger Room hazards! The new Gauntlets also contain higher level challenges (going from Level 20 to Level 180, compared to the original Gauntlet Mode which rises from Level 5 to Level 120), and two new enemy types: Nova Corps and Asgardians. While we’ve seen these characters before as NPCs in story mode, it’s nice to have a little more enemy variety than before.

Defeating an enemy under the influence of the Phoenix Force will cause it to drop a flaming phoenix. Absorbing this will heal some HP, add fire projectiles to your attacks and the fire element to your weapon (if your character has one) at the cost of being inflicted with the burn status effect for the rest of the trial, slowly draining your life. However, Iceman, Ghost Rider and Phoenix are immune to being burned and therefore suffer no drawbacks. The Phoenix Force is a fun risk/reward mechanic and I think the visual effects of it are amazing! However, the frame rate suffers when there are several Phoenix Force enemies onscreen, especially in handheld mode. The lag never reaches ‘unplayable’ levels of bad, but it does make the battles unnecessarily harder.

The new Gauntlets also feature Danger Room hazards. From giant crushers that fall from the sky to little machines that shoot waves of elemental energy, these obstacles are made to distract and frustrate players into making game-changing mistakes. The most annoying hazards have to be the gravity nodes, which magnetically push you away, and the barrier nodes, which protect the boss from all attacks until they are destroyed.

Overall, I’d say these new mechanics are interesting additions to Gauntlet mode, but I prefer fighting the vampiric enemies in the old Gauntlets. The Reborn, Infected and Cursed all required different tactics to defeat them, but I never felt like I had to change my strategy when fighting the Phoenix Force enemies or the Danger Room hazards. The only times I was forced to adapt were when the gravity and barrier nodes spawned, as they have to be destroyed ASAP. But the new Gauntlets are still satisfyingly challenging, and I hope we receive even more in the third expansion!

The Danger Room

I want to start this part of the review with a quote I found on the MUA3 forums:

‘’Danger Room is such a miserable experience. Lag out the ass, framerate drops like crazy, unfair status effects. There is nothing fun about this at all. I’m only playing it for the rewards’’

I think this sums up the Danger Room experience perfectly. It’s a mode where you compete in teams against other players (or against the AI) to be the first to win in three rounds. Mini-objectives will appear at random as you fight, awarding the team who completes them first by granting them buffs or weakening the opposition. It sounds alright, but the mode is riddled with glitches and unfair mechanics that make it the least enjoyable experience I’ve had playing MUA3 ever. To avoid this review becoming a rant, I’ll quickly summarize the flaws of this mode.

1) Only the last round counts. Winning the previous rounds gives your team buffs that lasts until the end of the match, but they make little-to-no difference. This leads to many players going AFK until the third round, which is frustrating.

2) At random, there will be a fourth round where you fight Dark Phoenix. If this happens, the third round becomes irrelevant and whoever defeats Dark Phoenix wins the match. It’s very unfair that you can completely steamroll the other team, only to lose the entire match because of a random-chance battle at the end.

3) Completing mini-objectives can inflict status effects like bind and paralyze. These last for a long time, often leading to your losing the round, all because the other team jumped 20 times before you did.

4) The lag is extremely bad.

5) Gambreaking glitches occur often, such as when an enemy spawns in a place you can’t reach.

6) Some rounds are won by whoever reaches the end of the stage first, so characters who can teleport (like Nightcrawler) have a huge advantage.

7) When fighting the AI, they complete mini-objectives inhumanly fast and are seemingly not affected by the debuffs you throw at them.

Danger Room still has its good points. For one, all characters are automatically set at a specific level depending on which difficulty you choose (Alpha = Level 25, Beta = Level 50, Gamma = Level 100, Delta = Level 200), so players can try out any character they want without having to level grind first. The rewards you obtain from winning Danger Room matches are also great, giving you a ton of credits and SHIELD Tokens, not to mention the rewards you can get through the Events. But based on gameplay alone, the Danger Room is definitely ‘’a miserable experience’’.

Events

In a surprise twist, the expansion added a new seasonal rewards system to MUA3, similar to the battle pass in Fortnite. During the Event, playing Danger Room matches will award you Event Points. Collect 5 Event points and you’ll move up to the next Event Tier and win prizes such as XP Cubes, SHIELD Tokens, items, voice commands and costumes. The amount of Event Points you earn depends on the difficulty, with Alpha only awarding 1 point while Delta awards 5 points. You earn double points when fighting other players rather than the AI, and will even earn some points for losing.

If you have a Nintendo online subscription, you can clear all 30 Tiers of the Event in just 15 Danger Room matches, which makes the pain of playing that mode more bearable, especially since the Event rewards themselves are well-worth the effort. But for players who can only fight offline against the AI, the experience becomes twice as long and hard. Luckily the Event lasts for roughly two months, so there’s lots of time to finish it. But it doesn’t quite make up for the fact that Events are essentially a ‘’free-to-play, pay-to-win’’ experience.

I think Events are a great way to extend the longevity of the game and provide something to do between expansions, so I hope they add more in the future. But I also feel they need to make some big changes to Danger Room and how Event Points are acquired offline to make it more enjoyable.

Other Changes

MUA3 saw another level cap increase this expansion, with heroes now being able to reach Level 200. Initially I wasn’t too thrilled, because the grind from 100 to 150 was tiring enough, but thankfully the XP needed to get from 150 to 200 is much lower. Your stats at Level 200 are roughly 15% higher than your stats at Level 150, and 37.5% higher than your stats at Level 100, so the boost you get from all that grinding is helpful in the new Gauntlets. New upgrades were also added to the Alliance Enhancement Grid to match the level cap increase, including one that decreases the time needed to revive teammates by 50%.

New costumes for Wolverine, Magneto, Storm, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Cyclops, Colossus, Loki, Ghost Rider, Scarlet Witch, Dr.Strange, Punisher, Blade, Moon Knight and Morbius were added, most of which are purchasable from the SHIELD Depot. You’ll need lots of SHIELD Tokens to buy all of them, but luckily the Tokens you get from playing Gauntlet mode were increased in this update! Unfortunately, the Tokens you get from Nightmare mode have been decreased. But since I play Gauntlet lots more than Nightmare, I’m happy with these changes overall. Between this and the SHIELD Tokens you get through the Event, its easy enough to buy all of the new costumes, which is good.

Finishing Thoughts

In conclusion, I’d say the Rise of the Phoenix is a mixed bag. The characters are great, the Gauntlets are enjoyable and the Events have a lot of potential. However, as for whether the expansion was worth the wait…honestly, I’m not sure it was. I did enjoy playing it, but after waiting three months with no news, I expected more than what we got. Nowhere is this more apparent than the Danger Room, which feels like the devs didn’t play-test it before release.

Luckily, they seemed to have learned from their mistakes. Nintendo USA’s Twitter account recently released a teaser image of the third upcoming expansion, ‘Shadow of Doom’, which is already a big step-up from the radio silence we received in the months leading up to the Rise of the Phoenix. Hopefully this means the third expansion will be an improvement on this one. Who knows, we might even get the new story content the community has been asking for since the Curse of the Vampire!

I think I’ll end this review on that optimistic note. Until next time, true believers.

#MUA3 shitposting #I meant to post this a few weeks ago but it took a little longer due to uni coursework

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k2kid · 4 years ago

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With special thanks to Kristen Den Hartog who made me aware of this soldier. She is currently researching this soldier. Please reach out to her if you can assist her.

The impact of physical and psychological injuries to the soldiers that served with the 18th Battalion will never be full understood. These injuries were, however, fully realized by the men and the people they associated with family, friends, co-workers, and the range of people they interacted with throughout their lives. Some of these injuries were persistent and present for the rest of a veterans’ life and some were “resolved” by treatment and healing, though the memory of the action of wounding, injury, or illness would always be present.

One such soldier of the 18th Battalion was Private Hugh Russell, reg. no. 54180. His story illustrates the social and psychological impact of his wound poignantly.

Hugh William Russell was an Irish born British Home Child. Born March 13, 1895 he arrived in Canada at the age of 13 in October 1902. He ended up near Wingham, Ontario, at Turnberry and the records from the Wingham Advance newspaper pre-war indicate that he may have lived with a family that considered his needs to include and education as the paper lists several news articles indicating the scholastic levels he achieved at is school under the guidance of teacher named L.H. Vanstone[i].

On February 4, 1915 at London, Ontario this 19-year old man, standing 5’3” tall enlisted with the 18th Battalion. He indicated his next of kin as James Wray, the farmer to whom he lived and worked with, and his service card from enlistment to April 15, 1915 indicates no demerits or notations relating to abhorrent behaviour. His record was clean.

Arriving with his comrades in England he trains with the Battalion at West Sandling he is docked 2-days pay for being absent without leave (AWL) on May 13 and August 18, 1915. This was quite common as many men of the Battalion had family and friends in the British Isles and these absences may have been to see them.

With the battalion prepared and ready, along with the 2nd Division, to go into active service the Division moves on masse to serve in Belgium in the latter part of September 1915. Russell serves through the initiation period of the Battalion a Ypres and survives unscathed from the disaster that was the action at St. Elois.

On May 18, 1916 he sentenced to 2-days of Field Punishment No. 1 for being absent from a fatigue on the previous day. On May 17, the Battalion sent 400 men to make general repairs and strengthen the front-line from 9 AM to 2 PM that day. Perhaps this was the motivation for being absent. One of the challenges of soldiering during the Great War is that the work never seemed to end. Once they were in reserve, be it Brigade or Corps reserve the army found all sorts of tasks and jobs to keep these men busy and one can imagine the back-breaking and riskiness of working close to and at the front-line.

Casualty list B168 signalled a change in Private Russell’s military service. On September 18, 1916 he was listed with shell shock and was at the 2nd South General Hospital, Bristol, England.

His case notes on that date indicate that he “went sick” on September 14, 1916, with the inability to speak. He could understand when spoke to and they were able to confirm he was not deaf. He was suffering from lassitude as it was noted that he lies half asleep “most of the time.”

The notes indicate that there appeared to be no organic reason for his condition and he was “put under gas,” then “partly hypnotized,’” and finally treated using galvanic electrical treatment with “faint result.”

Later in February 1917 Russell was transferred to the Duchess of Connaught Canadian Red Cross Hospital, Taplow and there the case notes reveal:

“February 4, 1917

Disease: Shell Shock

Complaints ‘Cannot Speak’

‘History (obtained thro’ a friend)

September 15/16 was blown up and recollects nothing further until found himself in hospital [Southende] Bristol Sept. 16/17.

He has not been able to speak since accident. On admission to Bristol was in a highly nervous state and unable to walk. Troubled with insomnia and nightmares and almost constant headaches which tend to persist even at this time. He has always been able to understand what is spoken to him, but cannot reply. His general condition has improved and he entered this hospital Feb. 14/17.

[Condition] no prev. diseases. No venereal disease. Never of a nervous disposition. Does not abuse use of alcohol or tobacco.

[unknown] no hearing.

Exam: Not of a very high type of intelligence. Cannot speak. Understands everything said to him. Can whistle a trifle and can place lips into position to form sounds. Sleeps and eats well.

April 7, 1917

Now employed about the stables (was formerly a jockey). General condition good. His general nervousness and fear of M.O. is disappearing. (He was frightened by former methods to

Has been to several horse races did not speak even under excitement.”

From this report the medical bureaucracy decided that he boarded medically and sent home. It was apparent to them that he was not improving to the point he could be reintegrated to a fighting or support battalion.

It was time to go home for Private Russell.

The medical board met on April 7, 1917 and reported his condition:

“Cause of disability – Aphasia following shell shock

Condition which prevents the soldier form earning a full livelihood – Is rather poorly nourished but seems to have a fair appetite. Think he has improved somewhat of late. Was buried by shell 15-9-16 and following this was unconscious for 3 days. After recovering consciousness he was unable to talk or walk and suffered terrifying dreams. At present he has no trouble in walking but he still sleeps badly and frenquently has bad dreams. Is still “jumpy” in hearing a sudden noise. Suffers from frequent severe headaches over frontal region, but this is function, no organic lesion being present. All reflexes exaggerated, especially the knee jerk. Slight degree of ankylosis being somewhat more marked on the right side than on the left. Tactile sense does not seem impaired Mentally shows some retardation in train of thought. Slight degree of mental apathy is evident.”

The report indicated that he incapacitated by 75% and that the duration of such incapacity would be for 6-months. It further recommended that he be “Sent to Cobourg for special treatment.”

It is interesting to note some items from his file. The cause of his debility appears to have been listed incorrectly as an injury occurring on September 14, 1916, and appears to be corrected to being buried by a shell on the fateful day of the Battalion’s attack at Flers-Courcelette at the Somme on September 15, 1916. Further, when he enlisted, he indicated that his trade or calling was as a farmer, but this document and his letters indicates he was a horse trader. Russell shows his affinity for horses as he has a tattoo of a horse, his observations in his letters, and he worked in the stables at this facility and it was noted he went to the horse races. The notifications on his mental state are indicative of the bias the medical establishment had towards shell shock cases. As there was no organic physical problem the problem had to lie somewhere else. This assessment of “retardation” or not demonstrating a “high type of intelligence” were subjective observations made to place cause with affect. The service records of many soldiers of other ranks other than officers suffering with shell shock mimic Russell’s. Some of the claims made in these medical notes can be so strong that they appear to put into question that soldiers’ moral and mental make up. The issues of battle fatigue, what we now know as PTSD, where not well defined and some doctors’ insensitivity and lack of empathy towards these soldiers are shocking by today’s standards.

If this assessment is contrasted by the letters Russell wrote below, they illustrate an articulate, well educated man. These letters are not typical of the letters written by many of the men. The are long, descriptive, easy to read, and maintain a flow and theme that is pleasing and informative. The show an educated man in contrast to the assessment made by the more highly educated doctors.

#gallery-0-16 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-16 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-16 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-16 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Letter published in the Wingham Advance on March 16, 1916.

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Letter published in the Wingham Advance on August 24, 1916.

Private Russell returns to Canada and attends treatment for aphasia at Cobourg, Ontario as of July 7, 1917 where his records indicate that on December 1, 1917 he had had enough. He requested the be released from the military as he was refusing any further treatment. He passed into his own control. Here, again, the bureaucracy records the following excerpts:

“Cause – Stress of campaign on slightly subnormal mentality.

Mentally:- At present his only trouble is complete loss of voice and he refuses any treatment for this says he was tortured enough in England by treatment. He works at the Vocational Building daily, and is a good worker.”

#gallery-0-18 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-18 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-18 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-18 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Coburg Military Hospital circa 1920.

Coburg Military Hospital circa 2016.

On the last day of 1917, Private Hugh William Russell was able to collect some of his dignity back as he was discharged from the CEF at Kingston, Ontario.

His records show that he was release from service in England on June 29, 1917 and was sent home to Military District No. 1 at London, Ontario. On July 18, 1917 he was able to attend an event at his home, described in detail in the news article below.

A sample of watches from the 1917 edition of the Eatons catalogue.

RETURNED HERO WATCHED[ii] Presented With Beautiful Gold Watch By Old Friends

On Wednesday the 18th of July a very interesting event took place at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jas. A. Wray, 6th con. Of Turnberry, when a large number of neighbours and friends assembled to do honor to Private Hugh Russell. Pte Russell was shell shocked on the 14th of September and was rendered unconscious for several days, and when he finally came to, his speech was gone. He is being taken care of at Cobourg Military Hospital and spent the past week at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wray, with whom he lived before enlisting.

The chair was taken by Mr. W.J. Greer, who in an eloquent address called the gathering to order. A short patriotic program commenced with singing The Maple Leaf Forever.

Solos were rendered in excellent voice by Misses Abraham and Gallaher. The following address was read by Mr. W.E. Mines and Pte. Russell was presented with the watch, chain and locket by Mr. E. Higgins.

Dear Friend;-

We, your neighbours and friends assembled here to show our admiration and esteem for you in a small way for the noble and heroic services which you rendered your King and Country on the battlefields of Europe, bid you a cordial welcome back to the land of your adoption.

We are proud of very loyal son who has risen to defend our great Dominion and to secure liberty and justice for the world at large, but our hearts go out more particularly to you when we have known and respected, and would therefore ask you to accept this watch and chain as a slight token of our esteem for you.

While we are overjoyed to have you with us again, we all sympathize with your in your great affliction, but trust that An-all-wise-Providence will see fit to restore speech to you.

Although for lack of forethought we did not acknowledge your bravery when you enlisted alone and went to London to train yet we followed you with our prayers and best wishes and our fervent prayer now is that you may log be spared to enjoy the comforts of life and when your warfare in this life is over you will have a triumphant entrance into the Heavenly Kingdom.

Signed on behalf of your friends;

Although Pte. Russel was taken by surprise he wrote the following very able and neat reply.

Kind Friends:-

I take great pleasure in thanking you for this address of welcome and presentation. In the trenches we often used to wonder if the people did appreciate our services, but now I know the people of this community do. I may say that I did not really expect this for I only did my duty which is expected of every able bodied man in this Empire. I thank you one and all for this gift and for your kindness and good wishes.

Hugh Russell.

After the presentation the speech of the evening was give my Mr. A.H. Musgrove, M.L.A., in his usual sincere and fluent manner. The pleasant evening was brought to a close by the ladies serving a dainty lunch.

Source: The Wingham Advance. July 26, 1917. Page 1.

This news clipping repudiates the assessment of the doctors in England and Canada.

First, the family that he was resident with before the war takes him in and helps to honour him with an event that is publicly recognized by the local paper. This man is well respected and considered an important member of the community. The residents attending the event even recognize the circumstances of his enlistment with what appears a touch of regret like Russell left without the support or approval of his host family. The sentiment in the speech, “Although for lack of forethought we did not acknowledge your bravery when you enlisted alone and went to London…” belies a collective regret that would have been palpable with such a close knit community.

Second, the speech is eloquent and well written. The effort to present the watch and the speech reflects the esteem the community held for this man. Such a public demonstration was common for returning soldiers, but the strength and personal remarks of this speech emphasize a larger community desire to make it clear to Russell just how they feel.

Last, his reply, written in response to such a speech is succinct, to the point, and more than an adequate response for what would be an emotional reunion with his community. Not the words of a dullard. Private Russell could read and write, and well.

Time would advance and with his refusal for further treatment on December 31, 1917 would mark 472-days of silence.

This silence was to continue until his…

SPEECH RETURNS Hugh Russel Talks After Two Year’s Silence

Hugh Russell an Irish home boy, who has for several years worked with farmers in Turnberry and who has been unable to utter a word for the past two years has regained his speech.

On the 14th of September, 1916, Pte. Russell was shell shocked and for several days lay unconscious, when he finally came to, his speech was gone. He was for a time in English Hospitals but returned to Canada on June 30th, 1917. He spent the winter in Wingham and has for some time been employed with Mr. R.J. Breen[iii], Turnberry.

He was taking his horse to Toronto exhibition, when she scared while in the car and Hugh very excitedly shouted “Whoa” much to his own delight and astonishment. Mr. Edgar Higgins saw him in Toronto and spoke to him when much to his surprise he answered by voice instead of by pencil.

Source: Wingham Advance. September 5, 1918. Page 1.

A further 228-days would transpire before this event. Private Russell, responding to a stimulus while doing a vocation that he had expressed an interest before, even during his treatment in England, responds to a horse that was scared and in an effort to calm and control the animal makes his first utterance since that fateful day in September 1915.

His life may have begun to normalize after the trauma that led to his silence, nightmares, and distress. As he relates to the authorities, he felt very strongly that the medical efforts to “cure” him were tantamount to torture. Given his evident intelligence and the high regard he was held by his friends his life was, perhaps, being directed to one where he would be able to compartmentalize and cope with the mental and physical forces that made him mute. No amount of thanks or displays of appreciation with gifts could compensate this man but one hopes that this recognition for his service helped assuage the demons in his soul.

How and would this man suffer in the future after the horrors of war?

[i] The Wingham Advance. April 4, 1907. Page 5.

[ii] The title of this article is curious.

[iii] Breen’s son was a friend of his.

Mute But Not Retarded: The Case of Private Russell With special thanks to Kristen Den Hartog who made me aware of this soldier. She is currently researching this soldier.

#Cobourg Military Hospital #horses #PTSD #shell shock

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thechasefiles · 6 years ago

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 4/8/2019

Good MORNING #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Monday April 8th 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

QUICK FIX - Government may have jumped the gun by amending the Bail Act, charges a leading criminal defence attorney. Instead, argues Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, it should first deal with the issue of delayed murder trials than simply “lock up people for two years before we do anything with them”. “As we speed towards this thing about keeping people for two years, I want us to set that in the context that we have not done a murder trial, I think, for about nine months,” Pilgrim said, while speaking on Starcom Network’s Brass Tacks Sunday call-in programme. “We have . . . an impediment to doing any murder trials right now. A part of the impediment is passing a bill in the House. So before we address passing that bill in the House that would allow us to do murder trials, we are saying we are going to lock up people for two years . . . before we consider granting them bail,” he said. “Don’t you think that one of those things should happen first before the other?” he asked pointedly. (DN)

MORE FOR GAS, LESS FOR DIESEL – Effective midnight Sunday, April 7, the retail prices of gasoline and kerosene will increase, while the price of diesel will decrease. Meanwhile, those for liquefied petroleum products will remain unchanged. The retail price of gasoline will be adjusted from BDS $3.57 per litre to BDS $3.82 per litre, an increase of 0.25 cents. The price of kerosene will increase by 0.02 cents, moving from $1.40 per litre to $1.42 per litre. There will be a reduction in the price of diesel by 0.01 cent, therefore diesel will now retail at $3.08. Liquefied petroleum gas will continue to retail as adjusted at December 2, 2018. The 100lb cylinder will retail for $163.07; the 25lb cylinder at $45.87; the 22lb cylinder at $40.53; and the 20lb cylinder at $36.84. (BGIS)

TCL WANT HIGHER TARIFF – Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) isn’t planning on waiting for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to determine what’s next in the cement war against Barbados-based Rock Hard Cement after all. The NATION has been reliably informed that the regional cement powerhouse has officially written the country’s final appellate court to have it determine that Rock Hard Cement should pay more than a five per cent tax, which was suggested last month by CARICOM’s Council of Trade and Economic Development (COTED). Two weeks ago, TCL’s public relations manager Michelle Langton said the company would make its next move only after the CCJ had ruled on COTED’s classification between June 11 and 12. That was after COTED had last month classified Rock Hard’s product imported from Portugal as “other hydraulic cement”, which would make it eligible for only a five per cent tariff. TCL had been arguing in a substantive case to the CCJ that the product should attract a 60 per cent tax since it was imported from outside CARICOM and was in fact “building cement grey”. Rock Hard’s managing director Mark Maloney, who two weeks ago indicated he fully expected TCL to raise the stakes, said he was not shocked at this latest development. (DN)

NOT US - A mere coincidence. That was how police public relations officer, Acting Inspector Rodney Inniss, described motorists being reported for making the illegal right turn onto Highway X from The Glebe in St George, following temporary traffic changes last Wednesday. With regards to a video making the rounds on social media of two officers reporting motorists making the now illegal turn, Inniss said he did not know when the changes occurred because he was not informed. “I saw the video and the point should be made that police officers should be allowed to enforce the laws. We also do educational programmes so if people don’t know, we have a way of informing them [about what] they should know. It is not our remit to deal with things like that. We have no control over that; that was strictly MTW [Ministry of Transport, Works and Maintenance],” he stressed. “It would appear as if police were there deliberately for that. That is because of the changes coinciding with the police doing their job, but the police were other places as well. The point is well made, but we will want to reassure the public that we are there to help with MTW to do proper law enforcement and safety on the road. We would not deliberately set out to put people before the court with new measures like that,” he maintained. (DN)

CALL TO STOP AIMLESS BURNING – Barbados is on fire these days, and it’s not from the hot weather.Rather, it’s firebugs, and for the first 94 days (January 1 to April 4) this year, they have been responsible for more than 800 fires. Because of this, officers of The Barbados Fire Service at times battle more than 10 fires daily. “As soon as they get back from one, they have to head out to another, or in some cases, while they are on their way back, they have to make an about turn to attend to another incident or fire. At times it is taxing,” said Andrew Taylor of the Barbados Fire Service’s (BFS) Research and Planning Unit. Taylor told the Nation that officers have so far responded to 1 041 incidents of which 886 were fires, as compared to 622 incidents with 542 fires for the corresponding period in 2018. (DN)

COACH DISMISSES CLAIMS – Head Coach of the Barbados Under-17 football team Renaldo Gilkes has joined technical director Ahmed Mohamed in pouring cold water over comments made by George LasCaris, which indicated that the Barbados Football Association (BFA) threatened players who participate in the annual Barbados Cup tournament. Last week, LasCaris, a former president of the BFA and national player, wrote a letter to the Nation, stating that there will be no Under-19 competition in this year’s Barbados Cup, because players were told they would lose their spot on the national team if they participated. However, Mohamed rejected the charge.“We never said you are not allowed to play in that tournament. No written communication was given, signed by me or by the general secretary forbidding the players. Going forward we need to focus on the national Under-17 team. The players are also now in camp as we are using the school holidays to have a mini camp,” he said at the time. The Barbados Cup was introduced by LasCaris in an effort to expose local players to feature against overseas opponents which would help their development process. (DN)

STEWART BACK WITH A BANG – Shaquille Stewart made a triumphant return to form and to the starting line up as he hit four goals to help Mark’s Auto Spares Porey Spring United to a morale-boosting 6-0 success over relegation candidates Youth Milan on Saturday night at the Wildey Turf. It was a welcome win for Porey Spring who had gone scoreless while conceding 15 goals in their last three Barbados Football Association Premier League assignments, but Milan’s winless woes continued since their last victory on December 9. In the other Premier League contest, Scotty’s Car Rentals St Andrew Lions shared a heated 2-2 draw with Brittons Hill United who were backed by a brace by forward Kishmar Wade. Due to Weymouth Wales’ overseas assignment in Curacao at the Concacaf Caribbean Club Shield, their slot on the card was filled by a Division 1 clash between Christ Church rivals Wotton and Abrahams United Silver Sands which was decided by a late Narell George goal to give Wotton a 3-2 victory. (DN)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 267 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

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ciathyzareposts · 6 years ago

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Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers: Summary and Rating

Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers

United States

Interplay (developer and publisher)

Released in 1992 for DOS, 1993 for FM Towns and PC-98

Date Started: 5 February 2019

Date Ended: 15 March 2019

Total Hours: 18 Difficulty: Easy (2/5) Final Rating: (to come later) Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

Summary:

A shallower, smaller, shorter sequel to a superior predecessor, The Two Towers tells the second of Tolkien’s three books from the perspective of three adventuring parties. While the top-down perspective and interface (recalling Ultima VI but with a bigger window) are both adequate, and the game follows its predecessor in offering a number of non-canonical NPCs and side-quests, it remains under-developed in RPG mechanics like combat, character development, and equipment. The switching between parties, over which the player has no control, is jarring, and by the end it feels like no party ever got any serious screen time.

*****

I’m not sure that it’s possible to make a truly excellent RPG based on an existing plot with existing characters, particularly ones who live as largely in the imagination as the canonical members of the Fellowship of the Ring. This is different, you understand, than setting a new adventure in a familiar universe. If I had made a Lord of the Rings game, I would have told a story of a group of rangers, or Rohirrim, or even a motley group like the Fellowship, engaged in a struggle ancillary to the main plot, perhaps featuring Frodo, Aragorn, et. al. as NPCs. Games based on Dungeons & Dragons‘ Forgotten Realms largely seem to take this approach, although with much less well-known source material.

Offering an option to execute Gollum took some guts.

The problem with using existing plots is that either the player is on a railroad towards a predetermined destination, or he’s jarred by the detours. Perhaps the only way to do it well is to allow such detours (as Interplay did here) and then give it to a player who doesn’t care much about the original (e.g., me). In that sense, the game world worked out very well. Before we get into a litany of complaints, we have to at least admire the flexibility of the plot, plus the game’s ability to introduce side quests that work thematically with the main plot points. It was a strength of Vol. I as well.

The game fails, on the other hand, in just about every possible way as an RPG. There is no experience or leveling. Character development occurs through the occasional increase in attributes and the occasional acquisition of skills as a reward for exploration or quest-solving. None of these improvements mean anything because, first, combat is so easy that your characters don’t need to improve to beat the game, and second, every party starts with all the skills they need spread out among the characters. Inventory upgrades are scarce and essentially unnecessary for the same reasons. Combat couldn’t be more boring, and there’s essentially no magic system: “spells” are keywords that solve puzzles, more like inventory items.

Very late in the game, Aragorn can learn skills he won’t need for the rest of the game.

Even worse is the way that it undercuts nonlinear exploration and optional encounters, essentially its only stretjg. While many of the side-quests and chance encounters are interesting, hardly any of them offer anything material to the characters. In fact, every time you stop to check out an unexplored area or building, you run the risk of some extra combats that leave the party weakened for the required encounters. This is related to the game’s absurd healing system, by which characters are only fully healed at a few plot intervals, with meals and Athelas curing just a few hit points in between.

Now, it turns out that I missed a lot of side quests, mostly towards the end. The open world is nice, but the game only gives you any directions along the main quest path. I never returned to Dunland, and thus missed the side adventures there. Ithilien had at least three side quests that Frodo and his party didn’t do, including a crypt, a Haradrim deserter who will join the party, and recovering the eye of the statue. If I’d gone another way in the Morgul Vale, I would have met Radagast. Aragorn missed the entire “Glittering Caves” sub-area, which culminated in a fight with a dragon and would have given him some powerful gloves. I still don’t know what I did wrong here. I did find the way to the Glittering Caves, but I somehow missed the transition to the multiple levels that the hint guide says exist. I guess I was supposed to return after the Battle of Helm’s Deep, but that would have meant embarking on a lengthy side-quest while on the threshold of victory for the game at large.

I’m not sure how I was supposed to get past this.

It’s also possible that I missed some of these side quests because of another problem: the interface. There are parts that aren’t so bad. The top-down perspective, the commands, and the auto-map all basically work, and I like the way you can make the interface go away and use the full screen for just exploration. What sucks is the approach to triggering encounters. You don’t see an NPC or group of enemies in the corner of your exploration window. No, they just suddenly pop up because you’ve happened to walk on the right set of pixels or brushed up against the right object. There’s very little correspondence between visual cues on screen and the appearance of encounter options. Sometimes, you see chests but walking up to them and bumping into them does nothing. Other times, you’re in a blank room, and you’re told about items and people that aren’t on the screen at all.

Note that there are no orcs anywhere on this screen.

Finally, we have the matter of pacing. It’s like the game itself has no idea what’s going to come next. The battle of Helm’s Deep involves six combats in a row, in two sets of three, with only a little bit of healing offered between the sets. After this epic battle, the party can rest and get fully healed, then (apparently) go off an find some magic gauntlets, when there’s only one more (easy) combat remaining in the game. On Frodo and Sam’s side, late in the game they have to figure out how to cut through Shelob’s web. The option I chose (use the Star Ruby) causes the hobbits to get burned a little bit, which would suck–except that the endgame happens five seconds later. Why bother to attach a penalty to the choice?

And while we’re talking about pacing, it’s important to remember how all the erratic cutting between parties makes it hard to keep track of what any one party is doing. I completely missed an opportunity to recover Anduril because the game lurched to a different party when I was on that quest, and by the time it took me back to Aragorn, it was shouting that Helm’s Deep was nigh.

Making the least-optimal choice hardly matters when the game is over at the next intersection.

Lord of the Rings, Vol. I had a lot of these problems (except the last one), and it ended up with a relatively-high 49 on the GIMLET. Before we rate this one, it’s worth thinking about some of the differences. One is size. Vol. I is quite a bit bigger. Although Vol. II is good in this regard, Vol. I offered more opportunities for side quests, inventory acquisition, character development, healing, and general exploration. Pacing issues were caused as much by the player as by the plot.

Vol. I gave you a lot less direction on what to do next. There was a general sense that you had to keep moving east, but you weren’t constantly getting title cards explicitly explaining the next step of the quest. For that reason, NPCs and the dialogue system took on a much greater importance. Here, although you can feed NPCs a variety of keywords, they mostly just tell you what the game has already told you in long paragraphs. You never really need them for any clues.

NPCs themselves were more memorable. They had personalities, agendas, side quests, and even a couple of betrayals. Vol. II only marginally developed any of that. There was a poor economy in Vol. I, but Vol. II had no place to spend money at all despite showing that the characters had it. Also keenly felt is the loss of nice graphical (or animated, in the remake) cut scenes between major areas.

Both games do reasonably well in the area of encounters. I’ve always liked the way Interplay games (including Wasteland and Dragon Wars) require you to read clues and then figure out the right skills to directly employ. Sometimes, items can substitute for skills. But Vol. I‘s encounters of this nature were less obvious and a little less generous in the variety of things that would work. You couldn’t ignore options to improve skills or acquire quest objects. In Vol. II, you can pretty much just walk from beginning to end, knowing that your starting characters have whatever they need.

The rest might just be a matter of bad memory. Recalling the first game, I feel like the graphics offered a little more detail, that encounters didn’t depend on hitting quite such a small set of pixels, that there was a little more character development, a slightly better inventory system, and so forth.

The game tries to evoke the majesty of Middle Earth without showing much.

Let’s see how they compare:

1. Game world. The Two Towers definitely makes good use of the Middle Earth setting. The backstory and lore section of the manual are thorough and interesting. It wasn’t until I read it that I finally understood some allusions from the films and the previous game, such as what “Numenor” refers to and what Gandalf actually is. While the game doesn’t do a lot to build on this setting, it certainly is in keeping with it. Score: 6.

2. Character creation and development. There’s no creation at all and only the slightest, near-invisible development. You mostly forget that the attributes even exist. Aragorn started with 70 dexterity, 28 strength, 33 endurance 75 luck, and 75 willpower, and he ended with 74, 28, 38, 79, and 77. Clearly, some development occurred, but never was I notified of any of these increases, and I really have no idea what caused them. The skills system would get more points if the game was a bit more balanced in how you acquire and use them. Score: 2.

3. NPC interaction. I always enjoy keyword-based dialogue systems, but here it’s mostly purposeless. When a title card has just told you that “Orcs have ravaged this village and its people are forlorn,” you don’t need six different NPCs saying, “Orcs destroyed us!” and “We have lost hope!” I did like the few NPCs who could join the parties. Without them, the game would have been forced to either avoid combat with the hobbit parties or make the hobbits uncharacteristically effective. Score: 5.

I’m sorry we didn’t see more of Eowen.

4. Encounters and foes. Despite Tolkien featuring a large bestiary, you only really ever fight orcs and men in this game (aside from a few one-off battles). The only points I give her are for the non-combat encounters, which are frequent, require some puzzle-solving skill, and offer some role-playing opportunities. As mentioned, I don’t like the way that they appear, but that’s more of an interface issue. Score: 5.

5. Magic and combat. Combat features no tactics, no magic, no items to use. Just “attack” and select your preferred foe from a menu. The “magic system,” as such, is just the acquisition of some spell keywords that occasionally solve puzzle, but I only had to use one of these words once. (This is in contrast to the first game, where they were constantly required.) Score: 1.

The easy, boring combat system.

6. Equipment. I found a few upgrades throughout the game: leather to chain, chain to magic armor, sword to magic sword, and so forth. It just didn’t feel like any of it did anything. Most of the items that burdened my inventory were quest items, and I found no use for a lot of them. Score: 2.

7. Economy. In contrast to the first game, there is none. The game keeps track of a “silver” statistic for each character for no reason. Score: 0.

8. Quests. Perhaps the strongest point. Each party has a clear set of main quests, an equal number of side quests, and even a few options about how to complete them. I enjoyed the side quests most because with them, I was exploring Middle Earth rather than just hitting a series of determined locations and plot points in a row. Score: 5.

9. Graphics, sound, and interface. The graphics aren’t objectively bad, but I do think they fail to live up to the player’s imagination of storied places like Helm’s Deep and Minas Morgul. The failure to show so many things that the game tells you is also pretty stark. Sounds are mostly beeps and the occasional “oof” in combat.

The staircase to Cirith Ungol hardly seems hidden, tight, steep, or foreboding, especially with the silly “mountains” on either side.

There are aspects of the interface that work well. The size of the game window seems practically luxurious, and you have to wonder if Ultima VII took a lesson from this game or its precursor. The automap works pretty well. There are some nice touches like the star that appears next to the most recently-saved game when you go to load a game. I definitely appreciated the use of keyboard commands for most major actions, in addition to the buttons. Overall, the game would earn a high score in this category except for the encounter-triggering issue, which is both a graphical problem and an interface problem, and comes close to ruining the game on its own. Score: 4.

10. Gameplay. Vol. II is a bit more linear than Vol. I, but not compared to other games. I suspect that Frodo and Sam could have turned around in the last chapter, left the Morgol Vale, and walked all the way back to the Dead Marshes, cleaning up side quests along the way. The nonlinearity coupled with the side quests lend a certain replayability–in fact, I think the game would probably improve on a replay, with a better understanding of the pacing and terrain.

I found it far easier than its predecessor, as exemplified by the battle in which Frodo killed the vampire. I was supposed to solve that with a quest item. The game should have made combats harder and the healing system less erratic. Finally, it’s also a bit too short, particularly with the action split among three parties. I suspect you could win in a speed run of just an hour or so. Maybe I’ll try when I get some more free time. Score: 4.

That gives us a final score of 34, as I suspected quite a bit below Vol. I and even below my “recommended” threshold, though just barely. The engine was a bit better than the game itself, and was used in a superior way in the first title. This one seemed a bit rushed and perfunctory.

I did like some of the “instant deaths.”

Computer Gaming World disagreed with me on the first game by largely hating it: reviewer Charles Ardai obsessed about divergences from the books and didn’t even seem to notice the more revolutionary elements of the interface. He dismissed it as “not special enough to carry the Tolkien name.” But in the October 1992 issue, reviewer Allen Greenberg gave a much more positive review of the sequel. In particular, he addressed the carping of people like Ardai by pointing out that Middle Earth had taken on a certain life of its own, and if we can forgive Tolkien himself for his many appendices and allusions, why complain about a few side-quests and side-characters in a game that’s otherwise relatively faithful to the material?

Greenberg also offers a relatively nuanced discussion of the party-switching system, pointing out (correctly) that the very approach is revolutionary, and while Interplay might have refined the approach (“Interplay may wish to consider allowing the player at least a vote in the decision making process as to whether it is time to switch locations”), the innovative system offered a “depth of narrative which would not otherwise have been possible.” Greenberg’s comments led me to avoid subtracting points for this element despite complaining about it several times.

MobyGames catalog of reviews for the game has them averaging in the high 50s, which is pretty miserable. On the other hand, the lack of any seriously rabid fan base must have softened the blow when Vol. III was never released. A couple of years ago, Jimmy Maher published an excellent entry on what was happening with Interplay during this period. The summary is that the company was struggling as a developer/publisher, with Dragon Wars not having sold well in a crowded RPG market. Founder Brian Fargo managed to secure the rights the trilogy from Tolkien Enterprises, figuring that the Lord of the Rings name would make the games stand out among their competitors.

Interplay was already in the midst of a new RPG called Secrets of the Magi that would feature a free-scrolling interface. Fargo pulled the team off that project and put them to work on Lord of the Rings. By the time the game was released, the company had been badly hurt by the collapse of Mediagenic, publisher of Interplay’s Nintendo titles. Interplay rushed production to make the Christmas 1990 buying season. They ended up releasing the game with a lot of bugs and cut features (including an automap), missed the Christmas season anyway, and got lukewarm reviews.

The company was saved by the unexpected success of a strategy game called Castles. Now understanding that the Tolkien name alone didn’t ensure success in sales, Vol. II was produced with a smaller staff. When it, too, got poor reviews, and when repackaging Vol. I on CD-ROM also failed to generate significant sales, there was no impetus to move on to Vol. III. Some sites claim that before it gave up on III, there had been plays to turn it into more of a strategy game.

“. . . no one.”

Maher memorably concludes:

Unlike Dragon Wars, which despite its initial disappointing commercial performance has gone on to attain a cult-classic status among hardcore CRPG fans, the reputations of the two Interplay Lord of the Rings games have never been rehabilitated. Indeed, to a large extent the games have simply been forgotten, bizarre though that situation reads given their lineage in terms of both license and developer. Being neither truly, comprehensively bad games nor truly good ones, they fall into a middle ground of unmemorable mediocrity. In response to their poor reception by a changing marketplace, Interplay would all but abandon CRPGs for the next several years.

Indeed, the next RPG we’ll see from Interplay isn’t until 1995 (Stonekeep), followed by two in 1997: Fallout and Descent to Undermountain. It’s hard not to see a little of the Lord of the Rings interface in Fallout‘s: axonometric graphics, continuous movement, a large main game window, and commands hosted in a set of unobtrusive icons with keyboard backup. (Vol. II and Fallout even share at least one designer, Scott Bennie.) Fallout shares these characteristics with the Infinity Engine, which was developed by Bioware but with a close relationship with (and financing from) Interplay. I’m probably grasping at straws, but I look forward to exploring the engines’ history more when we get to those games.

The Two Towers was the last attempt to make an official Middle Earth game until after the Peter Jackson film series, which spawned a host of new games that, like the films themselves, are controversial among fans. (We won’t see another one until 2002’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.) The 1990s were the only era in which Tolkien fans were likely to get an RPG that was technologically and graphically advanced enough to be fun, but not yet influenced (“tainted,” as I’m sure some would have it) by the films. While the two Interplay titles have some promise and fun moments, it’s too bad that they were the only attempts.

****

While we’re wrapping things up, I think I might be ready to throw in the towel on The Seventh Link. I hate to do it, particularly when I know the developer is reading, but I can’t seem to force myself to map and explore all the large dungeon levels. I’ll chew on it for another couple days while I get started with Star Control II.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/lord-of-the-rings-vol-ii-the-two-towers-summary-and-rating/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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galucy-blog · 6 years ago

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The Pros

Great price for a GTX 1060 GPU; Strong performance; Relatively long battery life; two-year warranty; Easy to upgrade

The Cons

Display is on the dim side

Verdict

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a great deal for a gaming machine with a GTX 1060 GPU.

Lots of laptop companies claim that their systems are great deals, but Acer is actually putting its money where its mouth is — and with a gaming laptop, no less. The Acer Predator Helios 300 ($1,099.99 to start) offers a powerful, VR-ready Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU for a lower price than competitors and runs circles around the GTX 1050 Ti cards that competing laptops use at that price. It’s upgradable, should you want to spend more to improve it later, but the display is dimmer than I’d like. But if you don’t mind that, you’ll get a powerful gaming notebook for a steal.

Design

The Predator’s aluminum-and-plastic design doesn’t stray far from the look of Acer’s other budget gaming notebooks; its black, metal lid has two red stripes flanking the Predator logo. There’s a small plastic bumper on the top of the lid that feels far cheaper than the aluminum that surrounds it.

When you lift the lid, you’ll find the 15.6-inch, 1080p display, surrounded by a bezel that has the Predator logo on the bottom and the Acer logo on the top-left corner. That second logo is distracting, and I wish Acer had the confidence to let the Predator brand stand on its own, the way Dell does with Alienware and Asus does with its Republic of Gamers line. There’s also a full keyboard with a number pad utilizing red backlighting and red WASD keys, as well as a black, metal deck.

At 5.5 pounds and 15.4 x 10.5 x 1.5 inches, the Predator Helios 300 is a little larger than other mainstream gaming notebooks but also just a tad lighter. The Asus ROG Strix GL553VD (15.1 x 10 x 1.2 inches, 5.6 pounds) and the Lenovo Legion Y520 (15 x 10.4 x 1 inches, 5.6 pounds) are slightly smaller. The 17-inch MSI GP72VR 7RFX Leopard Pro is, unsurprisingly, bigger and heavier (16.5 x 10.6 x 1.5 inches, 6.4 pounds).

As any good gaming notebook should, the Predator has plenty of ports. On the left side are an Ethernet jack, a USB Type-C port, HDMI output, a USB 3.0 port and an SD card slot. A headphone jack and a pair of USB 2.0 ports are located on the right side of the laptop.

Display

The 15.6-inch, 1080p display on the Predator is sharp but otherwise lackluster. When I watched the trailer for Marvel’s Inhumans, Medusa’s red hair didn’t pop against her lavender dress, and bright lights overpowered both Black Bolt and Medusa in a scene together. It wasn’t as bright as I would have liked, but it was perfectly usable.

I had a similar experience in Mass Effect: Andromeda. In dark areas, I wished I could bump up the brightness, but in lighter parts of the game, I could see fine. Some fires during a space battle looked more orange than red, but it otherwise looked accurate.

The Predator’s display covers 81 percent of the sRGB color gamut, surpassing the Legion (68 percent) but falling below the 15-inch laptop average (94 percent), the Strix (122 percent) and the Leopard Pro (165 percent).

MORE: The Best Laptops for Every Need

The colors aren’t the most accurate, either. The Predator’s Delta-E score of 4.7 (0 is ideal) is worse than the average (2.2), as well as the scores for the Strix (1.6), the Leopard Pro (0.3) and the Legion (0.2)

The screen measured 226 nits of average brightness on our light meter, which is dimmer than the average (274 nits), the Strix (269 nits) and the Leopard Pro (245 nits), but brighter than the Legion (220 nits).

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Predator’s keyboard is comfortable, but I wish it felt more responsive. The keys have 1.6 millimeters of vertical travel, so I never felt as if I were bottoming out. But the keys require 79 grams of pressure to actuate, which kept them from feeling light and clicky. It didn’t take long to get used to the extra pressure, though, and I typed at 109 words per minute (within my usual 107-115-wpm range) with my standard 2 percent error rate).

There are a few oddities on the keyboard. The Shift key and the top arrow key are very close together — far closer than any other two keys on the keyboard — and the right arrow key takes up some space in the number pad. Unlike the keyboard on the similarly priced Strix, the Predator’s keyboard is backlit only in red; it doesn’t have full RGB lighting.

The 4.1 x 3-inch touchpad is spacious, accurate and responsive to Windows 10 gestures; I had no problem pinching to zoom or swiping my Windows away. I had to click a bit harder than I usually expect to, though for games, most players use a dedicated gaming mouse anyway.

Audio

Acer’s TrueHarmony speakers are nice and loud, just how I like them. When I listened to Zedd and Alessia Cara’s “Stay,” the computer pumped the song from wall to wall of our midsize meeting room, producing clear vocals, synths and drums. The bass wasn’t as strong as I would have liked, though.

When I played Mass Effect: Andromeda, I could clearly hear the lasers in the middle of a space battle, and chatter with teammates was loud and clear.

Acer’s TrueHarmony speakers are nice and loud, just how I like them.

The preinstalled Dolby Audio app offers a series of profiles, including Music, Movie and Game modes. Movie mode made it slightly louder, and Game mode focused on the drums. I found that the default Music setting was a fine balance.

Gaming, Graphics and VR

The Predator’s Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM is a great value, and it showed its might in our performance testing. When I played Mass Effect: Andromeda on ultra settings at 1080p with FXAA anti-aliasing, the game ran between 70 and 80 frames per second during battle and occasionally dropped down to 64 fps during interactive cutscenes.

On the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark (1080p, very high settings), the Predator ran the game at 67 fps, surpassing the mainstream notebook average (36 fps), the Strix (18 fps, GTX 1050), the Leopard Pro (33 fps, GTX 1060) and the Legion (46 fps, GTX 1050 Ti).

MORE: The Best Gaming Laptops

The Hitman benchmark (1080p, very high settings) rendered at 67 fps on the Helios 300, falling behind the Leopard Pro (78 fps) but ahead of the average (44 fps), the Strix (30 fps) and the Legion (60 fps).

Grand Theft Auto V (1080p, ultra settings) played at 49 fps, which is slightly better than the average (47 fps) and the Leopard Pro (48 fps) and much smoother than the Strix (23 fps). We consider anything over 30 fps to be playable.

The Predator achieved a score of 7.1 on the SteamVR Performance Test, surpassing the average of 5.6 and tying the Leopard Pro.

Performance

The Predator is armed with a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive, which is more than enough for some serious multitasking. I had 30 tabs open in Chrome while I watched a 1080p stream on Twitch, and didn’t see any lag.

On the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, the Predator notched a score of 13,587, overcoming the mainstream average (10,675) and the rest of the pack. The Legion earned a score of 13,037, the Strix reached 12,253 and the Leopard Pro achieved 12,147.

The Predator’s Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM is a great value, and it showed its might in our performance testing.

It took the Predator 27 seconds to copy 4.97GB of mixed media files, resulting in a rate of 188.5 megabytes per second. The average is 207.6 MBps, while the Legion (363.5 MBps) and the Leopard Pro (565.5 MBps) were both quicker. The Strix (94.2 MBps) came in a distant last place.

The Predator took 3 minutes and 22 seconds to pair 20,000 names and addresses in our OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro, handily beating the average of 4:12. The Legion (3:19) was quicker, and the Strix (3:31) and the Leopard Pro (3:24) were a little slower.

Battery Life

This is a gaming laptop that lasted far longer than we expected. It ran for 6 hours and 48 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which browses the web continuously over Wi-Fi. That’s lower than the mainstream average (7:00), but gaming notebooks tend to not even come close to that.

MORE: Laptops with the Longest Battery Life

The Leopard Pro, for instance, endured for only 2:32, while the Legion (3:39) and the Strix (3:41) also died out much sooner than the Predator.

Heat

When it’s not gaming, the Predator stays nice and cool under simple workloads. After we streamed HD video from YouTube for 15 minutes, the bottom of the notebook reached just 88 degrees Fahrenheit; the keyboard between the G and H keys measured 84.5 degrees; and the touchpad was 79.5 degrees. All of these temperatures are below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

But things heat up when you start to play: The bottom climbed to 113.5 degrees, and the keyboard reached 104.5 degrees. However, the touchpad stayed cool, at 83.5 degrees.

Webcam

The 720p webcam on the Predator is nice and sharp, but its colors aren’t accurate. While I could make out individual hairs and see the creases in a colleague’s jacket behind me, my navy-blue shirt appeared black.

Software and Warranty

Acer’s biggest addition to the Predator is its PredatorSense app, which lets you monitor CPU and GPU speeds and fine-tune fan control for optimal performance.

You’ll also find all the bloat usually packed into Windows 10, including Sling, Facebook, Twitter, Candy Crush Soda Saga and Royal Revolt 2.

Acer sells the Predator Helios 300 with a two-year warranty. See how the company did on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands report.

Configurations and Value

The Predator Helios 300 we reviewed was the $1,099.99 base model, which has a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

It’s remarkably easy to upgrade. On the bottom are two doors — each secured by a single screw — to access the memory and the drive bay.

MORE: Best Acer Laptops

If you prefer to buy it with more storage, you can get an identical model that throws in a 1TB HDD alongside a 128GB SSD, for $1,399.99. Models coming later this year will include a metal fan and an overclockable GPU. Acer also sells a series of 17-inch Predator Helios 300 configurations with otherwise identical specs (except a bump up to a 512GB SSD) starting at $1,399.99.

Any laptop with a GTX 1060 GPU at that starting price is a great value. Many laptops in this price range use lesser cards. At $1,249, the Legion has a GTX 1050 Ti, and the Leopard Pro costs at least $200 more with the same GPU.

Bottom Line

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a powerful, VR-ready gaming machine that costs several hundred dollars less than you might expect. Acer cut some corners with the display to get there, but its easy upgradability makes it a laptop you can keep gaming on for the long term. The battery life also impressed us.

If you want a better display and faster storage, the MSI GP72VR 7RFX Leopard Pro is the way to go, but you’ll have to pay at least another $200, and it gets only 2 hours and 32 minutes of battery life. Lots of companies tout laptops that are strong values. Acer’s Predator Helios 300 is the real deal.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

CPU 2.8-Ghz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU Operating System Windows 10 Home RAM 16GB RAM Upgradable to 32GB Hard Drive Size 256GB SSD Hard Drive Speed Hard Drive Type M.2 SATA SSD Secondary Hard Drive Size Secondary Hard Drive Speed Secondary Hard Drive Type Display Size 15.6 Highest Available Resolution 1920 x 1080 Native Resolution 1920×1080 Optical Drive Optical Drive Speed Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 / 6GB Video Memory 6 GB Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wi-Fi Model 2×2 MIMO Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 Mobile Broadband Touchpad Size 4.1 x 3.0 inches Ports (excluding USB) Kensington Lock Ports (excluding USB) USB 2.0 Ports (excluding USB) USB 3.0 Ports (excluding USB) USB 3.1 with Type-C Ports (excluding USB) Ethernet Ports (excluding USB) HDMI Ports (excluding USB) Headphone USB Ports 4 Card Slots SD memory reader Warranty/Support 2-year warranty Size 15.4 x 10.5 x 1.5 inches Weight 5.47 pounds Company Website acer.com

Acer Predator Helios 300 (15-Inch) Review

The Pros Great price for a GTX 1060 GPU; Strong performance; Relatively long battery life; two-year warranty; Easy to upgrade…

Acer Predator Helios 300 (15-Inch) Review The Pros Great price for a GTX 1060 GPU; Strong performance; Relatively long battery life; two-year warranty; Easy to upgrade…

0 notes

koristore-blog · 6 years ago

Text

The Pros

Great price for a GTX 1060 GPU; Strong performance; Relatively long battery life; two-year warranty; Easy to upgrade

The Cons

Display is on the dim side

Verdict

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a great deal for a gaming machine with a GTX 1060 GPU.

Design

Display

MORE: The Best Laptops for Every Need

Keyboard and Touchpad

Audio

When I played Mass Effect: Andromeda, I could clearly hear the lasers in the middle of a space battle, and chatter with teammates was loud and clear.

Acer’s TrueHarmony speakers are nice and loud, just how I like them.

Gaming, Graphics and VR

MORE: The Best Gaming Laptops

The Predator achieved a score of 7.1 on the SteamVR Performance Test, surpassing the average of 5.6 and tying the Leopard Pro.

Performance

The Predator’s Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM is a great value, and it showed its might in our performance testing.

Battery Life

MORE: Laptops with the Longest Battery Life

The Leopard Pro, for instance, endured for only 2:32, while the Legion (3:39) and the Strix (3:41) also died out much sooner than the Predator.

Heat

But things heat up when you start to play: The bottom climbed to 113.5 degrees, and the keyboard reached 104.5 degrees. However, the touchpad stayed cool, at 83.5 degrees.

Webcam

Software and Warranty

Acer’s biggest addition to the Predator is its PredatorSense app, which lets you monitor CPU and GPU speeds and fine-tune fan control for optimal performance.

You’ll also find all the bloat usually packed into Windows 10, including Sling, Facebook, Twitter, Candy Crush Soda Saga and Royal Revolt 2.

Acer sells the Predator Helios 300 with a two-year warranty. See how the company did on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands report.

Configurations and Value

The Predator Helios 300 we reviewed was the $1,099.99 base model, which has a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

It’s remarkably easy to upgrade. On the bottom are two doors — each secured by a single screw — to access the memory and the drive bay.

MORE: Best Acer Laptops

Bottom Line

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Acer Predator Helios 300 (15-Inch) Review The Pros Great price for a GTX 1060 GPU; Strong performance; Relatively long battery life; two-year warranty; Easy to upgrade…

0 notes

beardedwinnerobject-blog · 6 years ago

Text

If I’m under my dad’s car insurance and I get in an accident...?

"If I'm under my dad's car insurance and I get in an accident...?

I'm under my dad's car insurance though I have a car of my own. My insurance company refuses to give me an insurance card under my name, saying (and I'm paraphrasing here) that they only give out insurance under the name they have under the title (I forgot exactly how they worded it). Even though my insurance card is not under my name and it's under my dad's, can I still get in trouble if I'm in an accident?

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare quotes: : http://saleinsurancequotes.xyz/index.html?src=tumblr

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How much is cost of insurance of car driven by Indian driving licence holder in UK?

Car insurance quotes: What is car trim?

I'm trying to get some car insurance quotes in which one of the questions is asking for the trim of the car, with the options E Match or S Help?""

How can I claim Health Insurance from two different providers for the same incident?

Basically if I have two health insurance policies from two different Health Insurance providers, what is the process to claim?""

Should i buy car insurance through a family member ?

My grandpa is a insurance agent and I'm.wondering if i should.purchase car insurance through him

What is the best and most cost efficient way to move?

We are moving from Atlanta, Georgia to Boston, Massachusetts. I was researching possibly renting a moving truck, but I'm having difficulty finding the best option. I was considering U-haul, but from other message boards, I got the impression that as the costs add up with insurance and mileage and whatnot, it appeared to not be the best option out there (or maybe it is in comparison to other companies, I am not sure). Does anyone have any suggestions or past experience with a good moving company? We are looking for the best price option, and possibly a company where we could pick up the truck in Georgia and drop it off somewhere in Mass. **the trip is roughly 950 miles""

Individual: How much more expensive/cheaper is Obamacare compared to other medical insurance plans?

Also does Obamacare give you more or less benefits.

Newborn Covered by Insurance?

My friend's baby was born one month early. She was in the NICU for 5 days due to breathing problems. My friend has health insurance and so does her fiance (seperate policies, different companies). The finance was going to cover the child when she was born. The insurance said she should have been pre-enrolled b/c nicu is not typical newborn charges... and the finances' insurance say they are not responsible until after the 14th (she was born a month earlier than that). jill said my insurance only pays if we are in the hospital the same amount of time.. if she stays longer she is a dependant and wasnt eligable to be added to the fiance's yet.. it makes no sense... and how could she be pre-enrolled.. The finance went in april and tried to add her to his and they said wait til she is born... and she came a month early according to my doc so how could she have added her to mine? The letter she got from the hospital said the baby is covered automatically under the mothers insurance for 30 days after they are born. So; who is responsible for the $26,000 bill for the NICU?""

""How did the United States healthcare system develop? e.g. health insurance, Medicare.?""

Why does the United States have health insurance? It is optional to have health insurance, because it is not required by any law, unlike auto insurance. I would like to know where the system of health insurance got it's roots.""

How much is car insurance for a 16 year old driver?

I am about to turn 16 in August. And I'm wondering if you can tell me a estimated guess on how much car insurance will be. My family is insured with State Farm. If there is another company that may be cheaper please tell me. My family has several cars under Sate Farm if that makes a difference. I will be driving a 2007-8 Ford F-150 Lariat 2 wheel drive. I have all A's and have over 60 community service hours. If any of this makes a difference. How much will I start off spending and how fast does it get lowered and what will it get lowered to about?

How is the mandate to buy car insurance different than the mandate to buy health insurance?

This seems to be a popular talking point among liberals. It saddens me that liberals are so partisan that they are blinded to the obviousness of the differences. So for the record, what are the two differences between the requirement to have car insurance and the requirement to have health insurance? 10 points goes to the most simplistic and straight to the point answer.""

Health Insurance for a 63 year old man.?

My dad just turned 63 and I want to get him some health insurance but what are the options? I know he needs some but he cant afford it and I want to help him out I just know nothing about it.

Can you register for car insurance as an LLC?

I want to register my band as an LLC. We need to put insurance on our tour van but would like to digure out the best way to do this. Should we put our names on it? or register for insurance under an LLC?

Recommendations for scooby car insurance?

Im 19 and am looking to buy a new car. I really want a subaru impreza, not too fussy which! wil have to be second hand, probably around 98-99 year of manufacture but insurance is scary! will prob go under my parents name but was just wondering if anyone knows of a company which insure scoobys relatively cheaply""

If I'm under my dad's car insurance and I get in an accident...?

Im In High School and need cheap car insurance!?

Uhggg my parents are making me pay for my auto insurance! I saved up for my own car and I only have a after school job, where can I get cheap car insurance..... for my age at least?""

International students and health insurances?

hey guys. i'm an international student in US. I want to get a health insurance and i was just wondering if i can get a basic health insurance from anywhere when i'm in F-1 ? if I cannot is there any good and reliable health insurance I can consider ? any suggestions ? thank you.

How much would car insurance cost for a 16 year old driving a new Chevrolet Camaro?

Does planned parent hood accept health insurance?

does Planned parent hood accept health insurance ? if they do does anyone know if they will accept aetna health insurance?

Car accident and insurance claim?

2 persons came to look my car for buying purpose. 1 of them was standing in front of my car and other just opened the door and turned the ignation on. the car was in gear so jumped up and hit the person standing in front of the car. man got stuck between my car and the other parked in front of my car and broke his leg. police and ambulance came. they took our statement and did not say anything to me but had separate discussionn with the othee person for long time. my question will this effect my by any mean legally? my car did not have insurance but no body drove the car either. i mean I am really scared what gonna happen to me I don't know if I shall keep trying selling my car or wait until hear from police. thanks

Insurance question for duis?

Alright, im 22 years old and i have 3 duis in a matter of 2 years. Im getting my liscence back in 5 months after losing it for a year. how much will my insurance be so i can be ready for the cost?""

What kind of insurance would I need to start a home improvement referral service?

What is gap insurance?

My insurance co is paying only part of what I owe of the value of my car is was considered a total loss - after using the gap insurance does it erase the debt that I have with the bank and can I use the same bank to finance a new car?

Motorcycle insruance guess for 17 year old female (Indiana)?

I'm a 17 year old female and I live in Indiana so I would not be riding year round. I have good grades and I will have completed the safety course. I'm looking at probably something older and 400cc. If any other under 18 year old has insurance and knows PERSONALLY how much it would cost please let me know.

Insurance for a ten+ year old car?

I am looking to get a 2000ish LS1 Fbody (camaro or trans am for those who dont know) and I was talking to my dad about the insurance rates. Since I am a male under 25 my rates would go up a lot with a sports car like those. However he told me that since the cars are over ten years old, the insurance company probably wouldn't rate it very high just because of the age of the car, even though its a sports car. Does anyone know if thats the way it works? or is he mistaken? Please answer the question without getting into lecturing about young men having sports cars and how its a bad idea. the question could pertain to any older car, I'm not even sure if thats the car that i want. I'm just doing my research. Thanks!!!""

Homeowner's and Auto Insurance?

We've been with Allstate for home and auto insurance for over 30 years, and they have recently starting screwing with us about renewing out Homeowner's insurance. We're pretty sure they are nitpicking about things because they are not writing new policies for Californians, but are keeping existing customers for now. Anyway, I went to the Auto Club this morning and got quotes from them for Home and Auto Insurance and their prices are much better than Allstate's. What I want to know is anyone's experience with AAA insurance. Are they a good company to insure with, any problems, etc? Thank you for any information you can provide.""

Obama Compares forced health insurance with car insurance? WTF/ No one is forced to buy a car?

Why does obama compare forcing citizens to buy his corrupt insurance for welfare medicine to buying auto insurance? No one has to own auto insurance...IF YOU DON'T OWN A CAR? How did we end up with the stupidest man on the planet as our president when he's just an idiot?who cannot debate the simplest issue--and make wild irrelevant examples. His plan is not like auto insurance--so why can't his fans as dumb as he?

What company in maryland has affordable health isurance?

What happens if you drive in Texas without auto insurance?

How much is a ticket for driving without insurance in washington state?

I pay almost $900 every six months and I'm sick of it. I've never been pulled over and I only commute 6 miles to work and an occasional trip to the grocery store. It sounds like it would be cheaper risking getting pulled over and get a ticket than to pay the insurance. Anybody have an idea how much the ticket would be?

How to get off an auto insurance policy?

about 2 years ago, my mom signed me up in the same insurance as her car...i do not drive her car and never did, however, we still pay 80 bucks extra a month, i want to get off of that insurance but i hear its much trickier than it seems. The car i drive is already insured, but not under my name. Is that legal or not? I live in illinois if that helps. how should i go about removiving my name from this insurance company?""

Insurance company for getting car out of compound?

I have full licence but need to get insurance company to cover to get car out of police compound

Is globe life a reliable insurance company?

for life insurance

Car insurance for a new driver?

I will be driveing soon how much on average is car insurance for a new driver?

Should I call my auto insurance?

This afternoon, I was at a gas station and I backed my 2003 Pontiac mini van into a concrete barrier very hard. The left rear bumper is falling off, the hatch is dented fairly bad in the corner so it is difficult to open (that dent is about 4 inches in diameter but very deep) and the side with an automatic door has two shallow dents about a foot across. One of my taillights chipped on the side but didn't crack or shatter. No broken glass or anything. The plastic bumper is cracked in a few places, and has red paint all over over it from the barrier. the doors still work (excepting that the hatch catches on the taillight area), no electronic or mechanical issues, just body damage. The question is, should I call insurance? I am almost 17 and I've had my license for about 6 months. Roughly how much would the body work cost, since my insurance with AARP is sure to go up dramatically? Or would I want to play it safe and place a claim? My parents know all about it, and it was a total accident (I missed the brake pedal and hit the accelerator). Just looking for the way that will cost me less in the long run. Thank you for your help.""

Can I save money by canceling my insurance and just driving my girlfriends car?

I got a DUI earlier this year, and naturally, my insurance rates went way up. I'm getting ready to move in with my girlfriend, and we are planning on selling one of the cars. If I sell my car, couldn't I just drive her car and not have to pay the high insurance rates? This seems underhanded and like I'm cheating the system. What are the rules and stipulations with this sort of situation.""

Would a 1972 Monte Carlo be expensive to insure?

Someone said it may be expensive to insure this kind of car. Could he be referring to just this one particular car or all muscle cars from the early 70's? keep in mind i am 18 years old if that makes any difference.

Any young UK drivers know any cheap car insurance companies?

Any one know about car insurance for teenage driver in north carolina?

so im going to be driving soon and i will need to get insured. does anyone know how much this will cost if i live in north carolina? by the way, i dont know what car im getting...im looking. ;] so it would be helpful if you could give me a range for different types of cars. oh yeah, and sources would be nice. =] thanks a bunch!""

Motorcycle insurance for a teenager?

I will be 19 in November and I want to get a Ninja 250R. I guess around a 2002, a starter bike. I was wondering (guess) how much it would cost.""

If I'm under my dad's car insurance and I get in an accident...?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-cannot-afford-my-health-insurance-john-gutierrez/"

0 notes

floridageekscene · 7 years ago

Text

Being a geek has its payoffs. For example, I’ve had to become a pretty dedicated person to hang onto my geek cred—scoring 100% completion runs, exploring every installment in my favorite series, and making four-hour roundtrips to Florida’s biggest anime Con, Metrocon, each year.

Since its inception, this Floridian Con giant has certainly spread its wings into other wares—including superheroes and the indie gaming scene. Unlike Megacon, however, which has always been a jack-of-all-trades in geekery, Metrocon’s Dragon Ball-shaped heart is firmly fixed on all things otaku—meaning that you’re never quite out-of-sight of a Karasuno jersey or Tokyo-dwelling ghoul.

This year marked my third time at Metrocon, alongside the event’s 15th anniversary. And despite a few significant bumps along the way, I had a “plus ultra” time.

The Scoop:

What – A for fans, by fans anime convention featuring celebrity guests, exhibitors, and the most unique and exciting convention entertainment in the multiverse!

When:

Thursday, August 3rd (12:00PM – 12:00AM) Friday, August 4th (10:00AM –1:00AM) Saturday, August 5th (10:00AM – 12:00AM) Sunday, August 6th (9:00AM – 6:00PM)

Where – Tampa Convention Center

Who – Steve Blum, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Scott McNeil, Christina Vee, Vic Mignogna, Max Mittleman, Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, Paul St. Peter, Kyle Rowling, NoFlutter, Caleb Hyles, Jonathan Young, Pikabellechu, Oliroux, TeppyBAKA, Mew21, Erin Hurst, TJ Omega, Dei Cosart, Duy Truong, and Papanotzzi

Price – $30-$40 (single-day), $85 (weekend)

Perks – Costume Content, Picture This! Contest, AMV Contest, Anime Idol, Lip Sync Battle, Illustration Content, Metrocade Video Gaming, Tabletop Gaming, Panels and Workshops, 600,000 square feet of convention space

With Metrocon crammed into one of my busiest weeks in August, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make the drive this year and knew I’d only be able to attend on Sunday. But I was absolutely determined to go to the ends of Eos to obtain an autograph from Ray Chase and Robbie Daymond, voices of two of the lead characters in Final Fantasy XV (the number of hours I’ve clocked into that game is almost as uncomfortable as the length of time I waited for its release). Sweetening the deal were appearances by Steve Blum (voice of my favorite, phoneless, vampire-gunner-monster hybrid), Paul St. Peter, and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn.

The ride couldn’t have been smoother (with the total lack of traffic near the heart of Tampa nearly leading me into the uncanny valley). The parking fee: fair and affordable at a mere $10.

I woke up extra early and arrived about an hour before the autograph session with Chase, Daymond, and St. Peter—which, from past Con experience, has always been more than enough time. Unfortunately, the press pass reserved under my name had been given to someone else on accident, meaning I got held up in the ticketing line a bit too long, missing the only scheduled slot to meet with the voices of the FFXV bros. The autograph line had apparently been cut off about an hour early. On a Sunday.

It was disheartening, given all that I’d done to prepare for the moment. I spent my first few hours at Metrocon standing in the next autograph line as early as possible in order to ensure a meeting with Blum and McGlynn. The line cut off after being open a mere 15 minutes, about two hours prior to the scheduled meet-and-greet period. Because I had not been given a “free autograph” card when I checked in, I nearly missed obtaining autographs altogether—if not for a kindly attendee standing in front of me who offered me hers.

That’s not to dismiss Metrocon as a whole. Events this size require almost inhuman amounts of synchronization, and people were likely growing tired and short on supplies by the final day. Special guests had flights to catch, and that unfortunately meant not everyone would be able to meet them within an allotted time. Even so, I’d like to see reconsideration given to the autograph lines, perhaps allowing simple walk-ups like Megacon or spreading the guests’ appearances throughout the day rather than concentrating them into a single timeslot (as was the case on Sunday).

To their credit, the staff were very sympathetic of my plight. I was given a free pass for the day, handed more “free autograph” cards than I could ever use, and graciously allowed the chance to meet Ray Chase before he left. Many of my friends had an unabashedly smashing time at the event this year, so I can only call my experience an outlier. Even so, it was mine.

Rather than be pessimistic about these mishaps, I chose to enjoy the rest of Metrocon’s offerings—and, boy, am I glad I did. Being in line for three hours meant that I missed the Anime Chess Match and most of the panels that evening, but the vendor’s hall—which, might I add, was monstrous this year—completely turned the rocky start upside down.

I can’t remember the last time I purchased so much in so little time at a Con. I could hardly pass an artist or vendor without holding out a fistful of dollars in my best Futurama meme impression.

Many of Metrocon’s merchandise vendors were manned by familiar faces, focusing on clothing, figurines, keychains, and wall scrolls, primarily. The scarcity of imported snacks and savories from Japan seemed a bit out-of-place with Metrocon’s focus, but whatever diversity or unpredictability the merchandise lacked was more than made up for with the total joyride that was Artist’s Alley.

Simply put: there were a lot of prints and other homemade wares that grabbed my interest—and when I say “grabbed,” I mean like a shinigami grabs a stray apple. Fan-made acrylic keychains and standees—novelties I’ve seen little of elsewhere—were such a common sight that they almost seemed collaborated (I snatched a chibi Kotomine Kirei before the day was done). There were hologramic prints that transitioned between archenemy’s faces, pixelized bead statues, and some incredible close-out deals. (Vash the Stampede print by SamDelaTorre for a single double-dollar? You bet your doughnuts!)

My Hero Academia was a “super” common sight, both among the cosplayers that day and the art prints for sale. I purchased one print of All Might in particular (drawn by the gifted MuddyMelly) that I hope to bestow with Christopher Sebat’s signature someday. Overwatch and Final Fantasy XV unsurprisingly held significant representation in-between all the quirky superheroes.

And that’s saying nothing of the live-action medieval duels, the wristband-checking Master Roshi, and the literal hordes of cosplayers—who, despite it being Sunday, came out in such force and with such fantastic style that I couldn’t help but feel pride as an otaku.

My spirits lifted with each new booth I explored and costume I photographed, until, by day’s end, I left with a trunk full of loot and a Sora-like smile plastered to my face—not least of which can be credited to a Gladio cosplayer wielding a sword made of cup noodles. (You, sir, are the hero Eos deserves.)

Metrocon is a for fans, by fans, four-day anime convention featuring celebrity guests, exhibitors, and the most unique and exciting convention entertainment in the multiverse, located annually at the Tampa Convention Center.

Visit the Metrocon Official Website

Follow Metrocon on Facebook

Photography by Amy Covel

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Metrocon 2017 – Sunday Being a geek has its payoffs. For example, I’ve had to become a pretty dedicated person to hang onto my geek cred—scoring 100% completion runs, exploring every installment in my favorite series, and making four-hour roundtrips to Florida’s biggest anime Con, Metrocon, each year.

#anime #Con #Con report #cosplay #Final Fantasy XV #manga #Mary Elizabeth McGlynn #MetroCon #Metrocon 2017 #Otaku #Paul St. Peter #Ray Chase #Robbie Daymond #Steve Blum #Tampa #Tampa Convention Center #Video Games

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seanmeverett · 7 years ago

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Diary of a Madman, Page 54

2M readers, 327K subscribers, you’re one of the chosen.

I. Featured Analyses

Use Fortune 500 Tools to Acquire New Tools [Sean Everett]: learn to use the same tools as the big boys.

To These Women, Remote Work Is The Cure to Corporate Burnout [Tom Kuegler]: digital nomadism is a real trend, you just have to figure out the living situation part.

Vegetable Oils Promote Male Infertility [P. D. Mangan]: how can something so pervasive be so dangerous?

Need Help With Your ICO, Here’s 4 Great Tips [FundYourselfNow]: these tips go deep, including how to secure everything.

A Genius Reveals How To Be Creative [Jimmy Soni]: from Claude Shannon’s 1952 speech.

II. News To Get You Ready for What’s Coming

Instead of only emerging tech, and only once per week, why not expand to all topics so you can read them every day. Penned by yours truly, we cover every aspect of learning from tech to science to life, sports, and health. In this week’s episode:

August 4: ontology, CRISPR, mech battles, VR therapy, honey badgers.

August 3: cue up YouTube for your toddler, then go buy a ‘healthy’ hot dog with some Bitcoin Cash.

August 2: biologic fat burning switch, oil efficiencies, video subs, implantable key cards, Snap selfie drones, fake news made real.

August 1: Zealandia, melatonin, Buffett’s American experiment, Westworld Season 2, Escher’s cube, Y Combinator for office.

July 31: sci-fi writing for corporates job, Beltre’s 3K, money bot, box office business, auto weed, climate heat.

III. Dear Diary: Building Tools & Free Work

Lately it seems everyone wants free work. It’s happening more and more to the agency business, consultants, creative directors, product and sales people. Everybody wants something for nothing.

So I decided to add up how much my brain has cost me over the last 20 years of working professionally:

Formal Education: forget K-12, but instead focus on college and grad school. For learning math, actuarial science, and business, it cost $250,000.

Informal Education: everything learn from daily self-directed study. Just the time alone is at least $250,000.

Self-Funded Startups: the knowledge gained from spending your own money and time building things to learn about them from consumer app, artificial intelligence, enterprise and industrial grade software, international trade, growth hacking, scientific endeveours and the investment into a professional network is worth at a minimum $500,000

Opportunity Cost: giving up nights, weekends, vacations, and then having a nice cushy corporate jobs where you collect a check for checking Facebook and get cheap benefits, free vacation, etc and we’re at another $250,000. Pretty small amount if I asked you how much money it would take for you to give up your personal life for a decade.

Experience: call it another $250K of miscellaneous experience gained as real knowledge between the gaps of all the other stuff. Call it the price of failing.

Interest: how about interest on all of this time and money. Using a small rate like inflation of 3% rather than credit card rates of 20%+ and you’re at $50K per year * 10 years conservatively equals $500,000.

You’re at $2M as the cost of your brain. If you price this out as a monthly mortgage at a standard 3.92% interest rate, your monthly price is $9,500.

A mortgage for your mind will cost you nearly $10,000 per month. In order to meet that monthly payment, you have to make $10K mortgage * 12 months = $120,000. But that’s after tax because the government has to take their cut. Which means you need to make $200,000 per year in salary to cover the cost of your mental mortgage.

But in terms of an hourly rate for an AI expert, it’s going to cost you $250 per hour for a $10K minimum project. That doesn’t even include the expertise needed to build a product around the AI, the business knowledge necessary to market it and the relationships required to make it successful. So if you want all that, it’s going to cost you at least double.

Call it a cheap lawyer with a much bigger benefit. $500 per hour for someone to rent your mind just like they would pay to rent your house. You’ve still got a mortage to cover, after all. Only this one is for your mind.

Consulting is a business model.

Don’t give away your mind, nor your work, for free. Know your worth.

— Sean

Read The Rest

Page 53, 52, 51, 50, 49, 48, 47, 46, 45, 44, 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Humanizing Tech is a premium technological think tank for building humanity’s future. It covers autonomous robotics, self-learning AI, superhuman augmentation, personal hedge funds, editable DNA, SAAS space platforms, personal power stations, and video as an app. It recently joined forces with The Mission. This newsletter is a peek inside the Editor’s mind.

Diary of a Madman, Page 54 was originally published in Humanizing Tech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

from Stories by Sean Everett on Medium http://ift.tt/2vcFkLU

#Stories by Sean Everett on Medium

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first15tv-blog · 8 years ago

Text

I’ve already pumped out my first 15 minutes of this game on live stream!

This game is pure fun. Play with a friend! It makes it far better!

Jump right in, get some gear, survive. That is all. SURVIVE!

See the first 15 minutes of madness here

Polygon.com said: “H1Z1 continues to surprise me. Today, some five months after the initial launch, it feels rejuvenated. Numerous stability improvements have made the experience of finding and joining games much easier than before, and various gameplay tweaks show that the team is moving in the right direction. I’m happy to report that the very best mode in the game, Battle Royale, is now a breeze to enter. Simply click on a button in the server list screen and join the next available server spooling up. The wait time has dropped from in excess of 30 minutes at times, to mere seconds, and entry remains free for the time being. Even without zombies, this mode alone is worth the purchase price of the game. It’s not hard to recommend H1Z1 at this point, so long as you’re comfortable with the occasional server wipe. I still have a lot of questions about how it will work in the shift to free-to-play. But for $20 on Steam, the marked improvements make it a good pay-to-play value right now.”

Reddit.com posts have said that it’s a great game, worth playing, especially fun with friends! Play this game you will not regret it one bit, especially if you are a fan of the genre. I am a player of 350+ hours and can’t stop, hacking is an issue but I have found it is mainly only on high pop servers. It is best played with friends whether you bring them in or find them in the game. Base building is never ending fun along with killing people. A must play game. 9/10.”

About H1Z1

In H1Z1: Just Survive, the H1Z1 zombie virus has crippled civilization. Corrupted by the need to survive, gone are the comforts of society as a new normal permeates the world. You are one of the last remaining humans. Every choice matters, every moment is borrowed time, and every breath could be your last. If you don’t want to join the dead — or the undead — you’ll have to be cutthroat, resourceful, and alert at all times. Scavenge, craft, and build to protect yourself from zombies, roaming beasts, and perhaps the deadliest threat of all – fellow humans. Do you have what it takes to Just Survive?

H1Z1 Media

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Get the game [HERE]

Tech Specs

OS: Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 (64 bit only)

Processor: Intel i3 Dual-Core with Hyper-Threading (required)

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: nVidia GeForce GTX 275 series or higher / AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 series or higher

DirectX: Version 10

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 20 GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card

RECOMMENDED:

OS: Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 (64 bit only)

Processor: Intel i5 Quad Core or higher / AMD Phenom II X6 or higher

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: nVidia GeForce GTX 960 series or higher / AMD Radeon R9 280X series or higher

DirectX: Version 10

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 20 GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX compatible Sound Card

GAME REVIEW - H1Z1 - Survival Madness! @H1Z1KotK @H1Z1game @H1Z1JustSurvive I've already pumped out my first 15 minutes of this game on live stream! This game is pure fun.

#diy #esports #first15 #game #h1z1 #king of the kill #origin pc #peter saddington #radical transparency #review #reviews #video #video games #vlog

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vanbasten99 · 8 years ago

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This is the second part of an extensive breakdown of the troubled Hinrunde of Gladbach and Wolfsburg, you can find the first part here.

5. Regression in Midfield

Ranking Philipp Lahm as the best defender in the league probably undermines the prestigious German magazine Kicker’s reputation as the most accurate judge of Bundesliga performance, so the following may be taken with a grain of salt. Here are the 91 qualified midfielders who played a minimum of half the games – remember the higher the ranking, the worse they played:

So, as discussed previously, Wolfsburg have central midfield issues, partly because Guilavogui and Luiz Gustavo were first injured in the beginning – thus forcing Hecking to reinvent football by playing two players (Yannick Gerhardt #13 and Maxi Arnold #27) in the same exact spot for an entire half of football.

Seriously, look at their heat maps and tell me if this isn’t the bizarro N’Golo Kante 2 for 1 deal? (in case you don’t follow the EPL: Kante is famous for accounting for the work rate and positioning of two players)

Arnold (who was the one who finally attempted to press Marc Bartra as he crossed the halfway line to play in Guerreiro for the opener) was so poor (allowing Aubameyang to waltz in for the second) that Hecking replaced him with Paul Seguin, who of course played in the exact same spot right in Gerhardt’s face and then proceeded to allow Gonzalo Castro a free run down the middle for the third BVB goal.

I won’t even get into their pressing problems in that game, but a tweet will do:

https://twitter.com/BundesPL/status/778313126878076928

Browsing some defensive metrics, it’s quite staggering to see Daniel Caligiuri as the leading tackler for die Wölfe at 2.1 per game, with Gustavo and Guilavogui also at two-ish in 1400 combined minutes. Their CM replacements (Arnold and Seguin) have combined for just 2.3 tackles in 2000 minutes. Guilavogui’s importance really becomes obvious when it comes to interceptions, as the Frenchman has 37 total in 430 minutes (6.2 per game), SIX more than ANY OTHER WOLFSBURG PLAYER!!! (and more than any other Freiburg and Dortmund player, per Dustin Ward again!)

The defensive struggles are thus quite apparent, but it takes both sides of the ball to achieve true midfield futility:

In fairness to Yannick Gerhardt, he has performed better at left wingback and LB (which of course is weird, because it made Ismael use Ricardo Rodriguez, one of the best Bundesliga LBs as a CB or a LCB), but Arnold and Seguin have not gotten above one key pass per 90 minutes in a combined 2000 minutes. (Some guy named Julian Draxler has 2.1 in a “terrible Hinrunde”). They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and since I’ve got several thousands written here, this work of art titled “Wolfsburg (purple) most closely resemble DARMSTADT (orange) in Key Passes” shall do.

Borussia have a different sort of illness, one that is best described as the severe case of Sebastian Rodeitis. Its symptoms include: the total absence of risk-taking, key passes and any sort of forward progression of the ball and it manifests itself in the form of Tobias Strobl, who as we discover thanks to the wonderful work the guys at Football Radars is kind of a like a worse version of Rode! (Yup, I’m just as surprised as you are, and the news have put me in an existential tailspin…).

The 26-year-old was not part of Julian Nagelsmann’s future plans at Hoffenheim (and coincidentally TSG are thriving since Nags excised Strobl from the lineup in favor of the versatility of Sebastian Rudy and the attacking prowess of Nadiem Amiri) and came on a free transfer to Gladbach last summer.

BMG were of course desperate to replace the departed Xhaka\Nordveit duo’s excellent mix of tough-tackling (without the red cards preferably) and deep-lying playmaking. The trouble is that both Strobl and the reacquired Christoph Kramer have utterly failed at this. In fact, from a casual comparison via Squawka we can glean that they are actually playing way more conservatively and below their past levels.

Strobl presumably was supposed to be a safety blanket of sorts, being a tidy passer and solid in possession with just enough defense to fill in whenever Dahoud or Kramer weren’t up to it. Sadly, he has been a traffic cone on defense, as anyone with a modicum of speed is able to make him look like he is 36, not 26. Strobl is often so slow that he isn’t even able to attempt a tackle, which explains why he is tenth on his own team in successful tackles with one per game, and ninth in attempts, succeeding just 56% of the time. Kramer to his credit attempts double the amount of tackles than Strobl (4.5 to 2.3) even if he ranks fourth in the dribbled past metric totals and just 25th in successful tackles with an identical 56% rate. Attached is the rankings via Whoscored, with the last two filtered to include CMs only, while the first includes all players.

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On offense, Kramer famously has attempted one shot all Hinrunde, which, despite him taking 10-20 shots per year, is such an absurd number that it must be at Schubert’s request.

The four key passes all season (compared to 20-25) for Kramer and the three for Strobl (usually between 10-15) together with all the backward passing are quite damning evidence of Schubert’s aversion to progressing the ball forward. You can see what usually happens from the great passing maps of 11tegen11, of which the one against Schalke is the most extreme one, in which Gladbach CB Jannik Vestergaard attempted 92 passes in 45 minutes! Technically 51 of them were forward according to Statszone, but that’s extremely generous and you can see from the map, just how little impact these passes had.

Overall, Gladbach finished with 702 completed passes and 73% possession, but only 123 of those passes came in the attacking third and they actually lost the shots battle 15 to 12, not to mention of course the game as well to Schalke, 4-0.

You can check some of the other ineffective pass maps here:

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6.Failures in attack

Lack of pressing and counterpressing, general passivity in the buildup phase, and slow or non-existent through the middle for Gladbach, and inconsistent CMs for Wolfsburg were some of the issues that we covered so far. One consequence of those problems is leaving their creative attacking players and\or finishers like Julian Draxler, Mario Gomez or Lars Stindl and Raffael on an island. That would lead to a dip in their output presumably, and while that’s true with Gomez (as explained above in PP!) and Draxler – who has failed to score despite putting up a career-best per 90 1.6 shots from inside the penalty area with 1.3 on target! While it would be an overstatement to say that Draxler has been good, he has not been disastrous per the advanced metrics, as he’s at over 3 expected goals, and his shot locations have generally been decent. In fact, what’s happening with the now PSG attacker is quite fascinating: he is getting almost all of his long shots on target and saved, while having a career low number of shots blocked, but most of them seem to come from right around the penalty spot, where he is also missing often! https://public.tableau.com/shared/F6ZS8NM4Q?:display_count=yes

On the other side of the ledger (hey Matt Herrmann!) Gladbach’s duo of Stindl and Raffael (a bit of a Liebling among Bundesliga aficionados) are producing roughly identical raw shot numbers.

Stindl is even converting the same amount at 12.5% as last year and Raffael is down just 1.5% from last year’s 25.5 to 24 this season. There is not much wrong in terms of the expected goals, though Stindl is down about half a goal.

The big drop comes in terms of creating for others, as Stindl’s been struggling at this, with 17 chances provided for others compared to 54 for the 15\16 campaign. Raffael’s total chances created is at a whopping 25 already, partly because he is a freaking wizard, and when you adjust for the fact that he is on pace to play 600 fewer minutes already plus his age, 25 compared to 54 is actually quite good! Stindl’s lack of creativity and some conversion randomness for forwards (Andre Hahn is converting nine percent, quite a long way from the ridiculous 33% of last season, but on the flip side Thorgan Hazard has doubled up his 12% to 26% this year!) could explain some of it, but it’s the other guys who scored so many goals last year for Gladbach that are absent: There were 30 goals scored last season by the Octet of Fabian Johnson, Mo Dahoud, Granit Xhaka, Andreas Christensen, Havard Nordtveit, Ibrahima Traore, Oscar Wendt and Patrick Herrmann, who if we sub in Kramer and Strobl for the two guys now playing in England are at FOUR so far!

When so many players are MIA, it’s usually the coach’s fault, and Schubert has found that out the hard way.

7. Coaching malpractices

In Wolfsburg, Hecking’s failures to get anything out of Max Kruse, the immortal Lord Bendtner, Mario Gomez, André Schürrle and Julian Draxler kind of flew under the radar at the time, but of course it’s immensely funny that Gladbach have now hired him to presumably get more out of that group of eight above. He will of course try to do it via his crosses, which of course worked so tremendously in the absence of Kevin de Bruyne, as the following picture and the above-mentioned key passes into the box image illustrate.

SERIOUSLY, someone talk to Christian Trasch and Daniel Caligiuri!

But hey, at least Gladbach have players who are good at crossing. Traore,Hazard, Raffael and Wendt all seem pretty good at it, ole Lars Stindl not so much.

In case you were wondering about the league leaders, those are Vinny and Pascal Gs, who along with Johannes Geis are among the three players with over 50% accuracy on a minimum of 45 attempts.

It’s probably a bad sign that it took me over 4000 words to say something positive about the Hecking appointment, but that’s where we are. There are also positives about Andre Schubert, but they mostly center around the cliche of the team responding to a caretaker coach’s infusion of youth after quitting on a long-time manager. While I was surprised by the excellent performances of last year’s Foals team, I was flabbergasted by the idea of extending Schubert, especially in light of the articles like Conor Garratt’s at Bayern Central which eviscerated Schubert for his incompetence on September 25th.

Ironically, Gladbach extended the coach’s contract (which was scheduled to run out in June of 2017) just two days later on September 27th. At the time, Gladbach were fourth in the league with ten points from five games. Little did we know, that the Foals would get just six more points from the next eleven games, costing Schubert his job and opening the door for Hecking.

Not a lot of tears were shed, and it was tough to argue with the decision, though injuries for example could’ve been part of the playbook for Schubert apologists.

8. Injuries

This shows the two teams among the more injury-stricken Bundesliga clubs, but when you look at BVB and Eintracht or FC Augsburg on the bottom three, it’s hard to feel bad for VfL and BMG and\or to use injuries as an excuse, though that of course won’t stop people from doing it.

A deeper look at the absences is possible, thanks to Transfermarkt and it reveals Gladbach’s injuries taking place among the attacking players, as Raffael, Ibrahima Traore, Patrick Herrmann and Josip Drmic all missed over six games at least. The Raffael\Traore injuries did play a major part, as Gladbach lost a ton of creativity (most are aware of Raffael’s Key Pass numbers, but the Guinean was contributing a career best 3.4 per 90), dribbling (combining for six per game) with those two in attack. In addition, Traore’s work ethic was an integral part of their five back system, which is supported by the fact that Gladbach won just one game (vs. Mainz) when using a four back system. They were hardly amazing in the 3-4-1-2, earning three wins, one draw and five losses with an 11-16 goal difference, but at least they were able to score nine goals, versus just three in the other formations, which is probably at least due to Traore’s dribbling and key passes into the box.

It’s kind of a cruel joke that last Hinrunde, Gladbach had all kinds of defensive injuries and red card suspensions (Xhaka and Nordveit), forcing the coaches to play 13 different CB combos. For the fall, smaller injuries (three games or fewer) to players like Thorgan Hazard (who started the campaign in scorching form), Fabian Johnson, Andreas Christensen, Tobias Strobl and Christoph Kramer (who will miss a lot of time) didn’t help, but guys like Lars Stindl, Andre Hahn or Jonas Hofmann were healthy, but not useful.

Wolfsburg were without a good defensive CM for a while with Guilavogui and Luiz Gustavo missing a lot of games, and of course Daniel Didavi failed to stay healthy, because he is sadly the Holger Badstuber of attacking mids. They also lost Vieirinha to injury, which is probably a good thing given his performances (cue to Portugal fans who saw him play at the Euros nodding), which have been so awful that he is heading back to Greece. Long injuries to insignificant players like Sebastian Jung and Ismael Azzoui (both at 0 minutes so far) are good for driving up the days missed per day stat, but little else. Last season’s numbers are fairly similar as well.

9. Winter Moves

Gladbach have been quiet, signing an 18-year old Paraguayan and they also did this:

https://twitter.com/Yokhin/status/816701044138921985

Wolfsburg have made some major moves already in the winter break: the sale of Julian Draxler to PSG for 40 million has allowed the Wolves to sign four players – Yunus Malli, Riechedly Bazoer, Victor Osimhen and Paul-Georges Ntep who cost a combined 33 million. Malli is a proven Bundesliga commodity, an excellent dribbler who is capable of creating offense, though he doesn’t shoot enough and is very dependent on set-pieces for his key passes\assists.

https://twitter.com/FussballRadars/status/811972074545631232

Bazoer has been touted as a wonderkid and at 20 has already played 4500 minutes in the Eredivisie, while Ntep has 5500 Ligue 1 minutes and 18 goals at 24. If you’re an optimist, Bazoer has a pretty nice looking radar, but he has also fallen out with Ajax coach Peter Bosz and has barely played this season. Where have we heard that before?

Still, advantage Wolfsburg, though I’ve a sneaky feeling that Draxler’s production (though not his attitude) will be missed at some point.

10. Looking Ahead

Valerien Ismael got his caretaker job finalized until the end of the season, and despite some improved performances in the last couple of match days, it remains to be seen whether he is actually a competent Bundesliga coach. We’ve flogged Dieter Hecking enough, but Ismael’s not been much more creative, as Spielverlagerung’s German tactics expert Tobias Escher pointed out when discussing Wolfsburg’s switch to the 3\5\2 – 5\3\2 hybrid that’s been taking the European leagues by storm. The point is that you know a trend is played out when Wolfsburg are doing it, kinda like when your weatherman starts rapping. The optimistic scenario probably includes the new boys quickly fitting in and VfL hitting the ground running, with a couple of victories against HSV, Augsburg and possibly Cologne. The home game vs. Hoffenheim is sandwiched between two brutal trips to Dortmund and Bayern, and they will still have road games against Leipzig, Schalke, Leverkusen, Eintracht and Hertha, so I’d not expect all that much in the Rückrunde.

Dieter Hecking has enjoyed the winter camp in Marbella, as the coach got to know his team a little better and it looks like the Foals have had a good time. He has experimented with the three in the back formation, using the 3-4-2-1 in both exhibition matches. There are still several long-term injuries that are going to make life difficult for Gladbach, with Herrmann, Traore and Fabian Johnson still out, and now Nico Elvedi joining them with a pelvis injury. Timo Kolodziejczak should bring some experience at CB and is expected to compete with Vestergaard and Elvedi for the two other CB spots next to Andreas Christensen (who might be on his way back to Chelsea). It does not look like BMG managed to make upgrades at the wingback positions, despite Oscar Wendt and Julian Korb being below-average options. Hopefully, Hecking will ditch the Strobl\Kramer pairing in favor of more Mo Dahoud and our suggestion is to pair him with the World Cup winner, who has recovered from his scary-looking injury. Although there have been reports of Jonas Hofmann earning penalties and Josip Drmic scoring goals in these friendlies, Hecking should stick to the Hazard, Raffael, Stindl trio. The schedule is rather favorable out of the gates, with Darmstadt and Freiburg visiting Borussia Park with trips to Leverkusen and Bremen. A two-way Europa League tie with Fiorentina is interrupted by a match against Leipzig, then games vs. Ingolstadt and HSV might be tricky (especially if the early matches don’t go their way), after which Bayern, Hertha, Schalke and Frankfurt follow. The repeating of the 26-point Rückrunde from last season and a win against Darmstadt should easily keep Gladbach safe, though Frankfurt needed just 36 total points to snag the 16th spot last season. With six teams currently on 16 points or fewer, that number of 36 should be enough, though they might need the MD 34 victory over Darmstadt just to be on the safe side.

Gladbach and Wolfsburg fail to adjust and get left behind in the Hinrunde Part 2 This is the second part of an extensive breakdown of the troubled Hinrunde of Gladbach and Wolfsburg, you can find the first part…

#Bundesliga #Gladbach #Hinrunde #Wolfsburg

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