Skye

Saw an episode of Psychopass. Not going to do a full recap because I didn't take notes, but in a nutshell, I think it's what I expected Death Note to be, with better execution (less miserable greyscale and voice actors murmuring all the time, and more virtual reality crime solving and cool robots and people acting like... actual people.) Purely subjective, of course - I'm not the least bit experienced with thrillers or crime shows or what not, so I can't say if that part is good - but I was engaged with what was going on, so it had the "hook" working. Bit too grim for my tastes to watch regularly, but you know. I realize that my thoughts in this thread are like a man with no tongue trying to review food - I lack the palette. But I hope the sentiment is there. In my more familiar territory, I saw the most recent Pikachu special, literally translated as "Pikachu, What Kind of Keys are These?" Yes, really. In which Pikachu and his friends fuck around in dreams / alternate worlds / hallucinations / whatever for about fifteen minutes. Pretty much nothing happens, but it's Pokemon being cute for fifteen minutes, so I've already rewatched it. Twice. God damn, that little yellow rat is so fucking adorable, I hate loving it. EDIT: Also now interested in anime with cute robots. Throw suggestions. Current cuteness threshold is Q-T from Space Dandy.

I really like how that's after the battle of the ancients. That's what Rylai needs to end her day with - a high note. Adorable. Also, yeah, arcana confirmed. There goes another £20 from my wallet. Oh, and New Bloom shirts. That pixel Techies one is my fave.

I love how she's totally adorable and yet also doesn't fuck around. Great interpretation. I really do wish Valve would just create a comic-making subsidary and pump these out more often. I'd gladly pay for them (as I did with the anthology they did in the past.) My favorite panel is the list - sums up CM in a single piece of paper, hilariously. And, well, I got debunked, that looks like the setup for giving CM an Arcana. It is rare for me to be fooled and defeated in the realm of cosmetic items, where I have built my throne of legendary mounts and inscribed gems. Interested to see what it does - can't think of how you visually mix up "ice".

Pokemon Fire Red has now become their longest playthrough, with 109 episodes (exceeding Sonic 06 as the previous record holder with, as you may have guessed, 108.) For context, their Pokemon Fire Red playthrough is currently at Victory Road with the Elite Four and the Champion left to beat - and possibly Mewtwo, if they decide to do so - while Sonic 06 ended at the finale to Silver's campaign, and had the infamous Final Story to that game left unplayed (where the notorious "Elise kisses Sonic" scene comes from.) Kind of cool trivia. Wonder if they'll ever break the record again?

Looks like just Yulsaria's Glacier with SFM effects. I don't think that's an Arcana - I don't really see the reason why she would get one, when Winter Wyvern will be the big release. Then again, they could tie it in with the whole winter theme for this... spring event. Valve is kind of odd.

Haven't slept, time for a Best of 5 Chinese DOTA. this was a wise decision Also there was a surprise before the game. Spoiler Spring Winter is coming.

One of the Frontier Brains from the Gen 4 Battle Frontier. Argenta, apparently. She's not one of the Emerald ones though, so I barely remember her myself.

Cloud 9 could use a few of these. :y

BG vs EG talk. Spoiler Shame about that. It felt like Burning was on point while the rest of BG was kind of... really... not. That and Necro was a perfect choice against them. He's scary good now, that green bastard.

They did And I'm fine with the whole crowdfunding gimmick, especially following Crimefest - if anything, it attests that as vocal as they can be, the Payday playerbase are pretty damn productive when they need to be. Some rewards do justifiably need cash to be created, such as a new heist or character (don't forget that maps need art, modelling and playtesting at the very least, while a character needs art, modelling, and voice acting.) Others, like making multi day heists into single day versions, honestly should be free. That's minimal work, and not much incentive to contribute. It's a pick and choose affair. I figure this will be about the same as Crimefest, albeit maybe funded faster due to having a larger playerbase since then (or maybe slower, since it requires funditure this time...)

Yeah, they might as well just call this the Overkill Pack!

http://www.overkillsoftware.com/thehypetrain/

Your Twitch chat imitations aside, kids, that Big God vs. C9 game 1 was fantastic. I'd say the real star was LanM on that Lion - most of his Impales were on the mark, and watching him flee from fights so efficiently with just a Force Staff and Blink Dagger was amazing (particularly the flee around the 56 minute mark.)

Went to see Big Hero 6. Fuck me, that was amazing.

Game of Thrones Episode 2 is out. No plot stuff, just thoughts below. Spoiler It's probably my least favorite Telltale game thus far. It decides to tell about five stories with four boring characters - Rodrik being the only one who likes to break an octave or express actual emotion in his dialogue - as opposed to, you know, a good story with one or two lead characters. Transitioning between the different plots makes me feel like I should be taking notes, sketching out a timeline to keep track of "who the fuck" and "where the fuck". It's also so transparent in its workings, feeling particularly linear and predetermined - even by the parallel structure that most Telltale games use, it seems like none of your choices actually have any merit or consequence. The fact that it shares the cynical "anyone can die" atmosphere of the source material is faithful, but it also means I could not give two fucks about any of the characters. Why should I? Everyone in Westboros is an arsehole, and while in the show, it's mostly because of grudges or ulterior motives or genuine reasons such as those, the game just seems to portray everyone that isn't you or a family member as a complete bellend. When Johnny McThief is getting beaten to death, human decency tells me to stop it, but I'm not nearly as invested as I should be. Episode 2 in particular seems to have barely any decent scenes or stand-out choices, and I can bet most of the ones I made either didn't matter or made things worse. At best, it's a retread of The Walking Dead with quantity over quality for its characters - every time Mira is on screen, the game becomes a bore as she is forced to make stupid decisions because of Idiot Friend or her crippling phobia of not telling the guards anything - and far too much futility and "A leads to being punched, B leads to being punched and someone being mad at you". tl;dr: Get Tales from the Borderlands instead. More engaging characters, funnier and wittier, twists and grim moments are actually surprising and impactful in that as opposed to being constant and tiring, and has superior gameplay in almost every way.

Oooooooh myyyyyyy goooooooooooood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA3rUSofMEI This is comedy gold. I am going to dissect this thing like a frog in science class and try to understand how you can engineer such awkward terribleness. This is fascinatingly awful to me. I apologize on behalf of my entire country for this. I'm going to go destroy a can of spotted dick to compensate.

I've been having losing streaks quite often ever since I got to Very High in normal matchmaking. I imagine Ranked would create a more fair environment, but the modes are less fun and everyone will yell at me for going Techies. Not a nice scenario.

Fair points. The color was washed because I have to rely on natural lighting - normal lights make everything really yellow - but I can play with the camera's contrast (as I acknowledged in the credits, it does it on auto and makes it good but not as good as it could be.) As for the volume control, I'm going to work on that. I've never done sound balancing before, and my voice lines were quiet, so I had to either tone down the game or tone up the lines (which caused crackling, as adding decibels to things tends to do.) Thanks for the feedback!

I can only wish that I achieve such a high level of Englishness as Sir Bravery. Except not really because he sounds like he's from the South, which is inferior to the North in every way. Anyway, cheers. Feared it would be too obscure (like the Top Gear clip.) Yeah, I've always liked the use of comments and last-minute jokes in credits. It's a nice way of acknowledging stuff that you only realize after recording, such as how I was told about the 20th anniversary kickstarter only a few hours until I finished the episode.

Aye, I suppose the blur is enough of a giveaway, but I have a really hard time distinguishing it (even at high resolution and high graphics.) Is it just me? My perception has never been the best. Still though, cheers.

I'm just sticking with Raynor for now, so I can see how a character works from 1 to 10 (although I also happen to really like Raynor's simple but effective design.) I've played Nova once and enjoyed how she worked as well, but indeed, one of the most frustrating things for me is being taken out so easily by enemy Novas because they're automatically invisible and if there is a way to detect invisible units, the game isn't telling me - no items means no sentry wards or dust or the old tricks I know, and the enemies are usually smart enough not to stand next to my towers (if they even do reveal them - I honestly don't know.) I know there's a slight flicker or shimmer or whatever when they're cloaked, but even when I know they're there, I have enough trouble perceiving it - let alone when I don't expect it. I haven't played Nova or the game in general long enough to spout balance, but the game could really do with a recap on death feature (saying what exactly just knocked your arse back to the fountain) and some clarification on how invisible units work. Still, beta.

I got into Heroes of the Storm. It's a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The talent system, the different maps, and the progression system are all things that sound awful on paper but work in practice (for me, at least.)

Additional post; Jon and Arin shown to be "coo' wid each udder" at Magfest 2015. I'm sure we can all get on our high horses and call foul on how either or both of them aren't good or funny or what have you I'm looking at you two, Moby and Gigolo, now hurry the fuck up and kiss each other already but I'm glad that the two apparently have no ill will against each other, given all the crazy rumors. They're two human beings, and we human beings should be about friendship and jolly co-operation (because eventually the mole people are going to rise and overthrow our society, and we need to be ready for them.) Also no, I have no idea what that costume is. Rarity? Maybe? I dunno.

Is there anything to Techies other than hoping that the other team has no map awareness/gem/wards Well, they're fun, regardless of whether you win or lose, which is one of my biggest factors in favorite heroes (see 'How I Learnt to Stop Supporting and Love the Axe.') But for further discussion, there's a number of things: A gem is your Achilles' heel, but requires a 900 gold investment, and it is rarely the carry or a high-earning player who buys it, but usually a support. Gems remove your ability to place mines in plain sight, which is a shame, but there are several spots where an enemy cannot have vision without more assistance. This includes most uphill areas, the Roshan pit, and several spots in the jungles (such as the thin 'tree tunnel' in the Radiant camp near the middle tower.) However, gems are not bad, and if anything, there are two major advantages to an enemy team who buys one. Firstly, your mere presence has forced the enemy team to shell out 900 gold, which is one of Techies' strengths - his ability to starve an enemy of their economy. Secondly, if they do buy a gem, in my experience, 75% of the time, it will go on a support, and supports are usually quite squishy. Get a friend, suicide on top of them, and would you look at that? There's a free gem right here! Some would prefer it to stay in the fountain, but it's honestly more useful for your team to carry one as opposed to leaving it be (unless you have invisible-dependent teammates.) Basically the gem does counter Techies quite well, but there are usually ways around it, and the gem itself forces the enemy to make an investment and paint a big "Eat Me" sign on a support of theirs. Wards are a shorter-term solution to your mining antics, usually seen in the early game. Easy way to get around them? Play support. Think of the usual ward spots - rune spots, mid lane river bank, enemy jungle, uphill areas, etc. Don't put mines there - it's not a problem, there's a lot of space in the map to work with. Alternatively, if you feel you can't work around it (such as a rune spot overlooking Roshan and your buddy Ursa wants to go Aegis hunting soon) just deward them. Okay, Techies has enough trouble with gold in the early game to begin with, but one of two things will occur - they will ignore it, and you can mine to your heart's content - or they will deward and ward again, which requires another 350 gold from their pockets. Once again, just going out and doing things makes their wallets lighter, and is the key factor in how Techies can snowball. Map awareness is a general skill that most players will have. You can't really have tips or tricks to get around, other than not being seen. The only relevant advice I can think of is if your team isn't investing in smokes, you can buy one every now and then to get into enemy lines. I found this particularly effective in a game with an enemy jungling early on. Smoke up, run past the wards unseen, plant mines on those camps, head back out. Again, you have a win/win scenario - if they saw you, they'll usually panic and invest more gold into dewarding your mines or have to painfully remove them by hand (which takes them time and health) or they didn't and Chen is in for a nasty shock when all of his camps are empty and his Centaurs just exploded. Honestly, map awareness and detection is not the biggest problem as Techies, but it's time. In most of my games, the enemy team has been intelligent enough to just start pushing as early as possible. The sooner they start pushing, the weaker your mines are (lacking levels in remote mines or an Aghs in particular, but not having stasis traps is also a big problem) and the less effective you can be. Modus operandi is to be so elusive, so distracting, and so fucking frustrating, so that they focus on you and forget about the rest of the game. tl;dr: Enemies buying gems and wards and being clever hurts you, but their investment and focus on you is also a boon (and hurts their wallets.) Use tricks to get around it, or use it to your advantage (taking that gem off their hands, or just being fucking irritating and keeping their attention on you and not your teammates.) Teams pushing quickly and removing your map control is a bigger problem. Haven't proof read this, sorry for typos.