Wulff

Finished Psycho-Pass 2 just now. Considering how much enjoyment I got out of the original Psycho-Pass, it pains me to say that PP2 is a poor sequel. Not in the sense that it paled in comparison to the original, but still managed to at least carry on the torch, but more in the sense that it was really just poor. 
The original Psycho-Pass was an entertaining and thrilling anime series centered around a futuristic, dystopian society in the year 2113, ruled by the utilitarian "Sibyl System" which values the collective happiness of society over the individual and enforces some rather harsh parameters in order to maintain public mental health. PP2 is the same, except all the good characters from the original season are sidelined to the extreme and speak maybe a collective 100 lines of dialogue throughout the anime. Instead new characters are pushed to the front of the show and unfortunately they're all exceptionally low quality.
The only real returning character with any sort of respectable screentime is the protagonist of the original PP, Akane Tsunemori. A resolute Inspector of the Public Bureau of Safety (Which is essentially the FBI of this future society). Once again she picks up the mantle of the protagonist and thankfully she actually manages to be quite an interesting character throughout PP2, because she has actually grown and changed from her original self in the first PP. More confident, more stalwart and less afraid of taking action, Akane is easily one of my favourite anime protagonists. Unfortunately, while she has changed from PP > PP2, within the duration of the sequel, her character does not grow at all. She remains static, which considering the events that take place in PP2, is quite impressive if not downright unbelieveable.
New characters to the series include Sakuya Tougane, an Enforcer within the Public Bureau of Safety who is a lot more than what meets the eye and Mika Shimotsuki, a rookie Inspector who essentially fills the same role as Akane did in the original PP series. Tougane was initially my favourite new character and as the series progressed, he honestly became my overall favourite. Unfortunately, in the second half of the anime, the writers completely dropped the ball and Tougane's character completely shattered to a point where I was genuinely dumbfounded at their lack of creativity. That's not unique to Tougane however, as the series in general just took a dip in the second half and is the main reason why I consider PP2 a "poor sequel". As for Shimotsuki, it's clear that the writers intended for her to be some sort of poster-child for the Sibyl System. A citizen who is willing to completely leave her fate in the hands of the system, because she has never known anything else her entire life and change scares her. I can see where they wanted to go with her character, but unfortunately she just ended up being really damn annoying... All the time... In every single episode. There is nothing likeable about Mika Shimotsuki and she never seems to apply any sort of logic or reasoning to anything that she does and sometimes you have to wonder if she's just plain stupid. Because of this, any development that she gets is pretty much overshadowed by the viewer's burning desire to slap her across the face.
Also new to the series is the main antagonist, Kirito Kamui. I can't talk much about him without spoiling central points to the anime, but I will say that he is essentially just a watered-down replica of the villain from the first series. The original villain in Psycho-Pass was charismatic and interesting, whereas Kirito Kamui is just kind of the same character except with a lot less charisma and a lot less impact value, because all the shit that he does is shit we saw the original villain of PP do. He's boring and he possesses so many different skills that it becomes hard to understand just what exactly his character is supposed to be.
And in the end, that is what PP2 boils down to. A less smart, less interesting and less original COPY of the original. The plot is in its essence centered around the same thing and the various issues which the Public Bureau of Safety face are in their essences, the same issues they faced in the original PP. Because of that, PP2 kinda stops being interesting around episode 7, when you come to the realization: "Oh, I've seen this before". Not to mention that the directing is constructed a lot worse in PP2, to the point where one scene (Which is supposed to be emotional and shocking) ends up being laughable, simply because it is over-dramatized to the extreme.
Worse characters, worse plot, worse resolution. In all aspects Psycho-Pass 2 fails. Had the original season been of this low quality, I would never have recommended it to anyone. As it stands, if you're interested in Psycho-Pass, watch the first season and enjoy yourself, because it is genuinely good. Watch PP2 only if you want to bear witness to a trainwreck.

A little over a week ago, a bunch of us here got together and watched the long-awaited "Kimi no Na Wa" or "Your Name" by director Makoto Shinkai, who is known for having directed films such as "5 Centimeters Per Second" and "The Garden of Words" among others. Watching this film had been a long time coming after its absolutely glowing reception both in the west and in the east, rivaling the Ghibli classic "Spirited Away" in terms of income globally and having shot to the top of practically every single anime database out there in terms of popularity and average rating.
 
In preparation for watching Kimi no Na Wa, the aforementioned bunch had gotten together in the months prior to watch Makoto Shinkai's older work. We watched "Voices of a Distant Star" along with some of his newer and more critically acclaimed work, namely "The Place Promised in our Early Days" and "5 Centimeters Per Second".
 
I must admit that I had my concerns about this film initially. It's rare that an animated piece from Japan gets this much attention on a global scale and the general online opinion seemed to be that Kimi no Na Wa was undisputedly one of the best animated films to come out in decades. That sets the bar pretty high and I'd be lying if I told you that my expectations of the medium aren't a bit different from your average anime fan. As such I was worried that the movie would not live up to the hype and that I'd be disappointed by the end of it.
 
Makoto Shinkai is notorious in the animation community for putting an insane amount of work into his films. While his official title might be "director" the truth is that he actually does pretty much everything. His earlier works were created almost entirely by him and his wife, including everything from storyboard and animation to sound design and voice acting. As he grew in fame as a director he has since gotten people working under him, but he still very much has a hand in the entirety of the creative process. With that in mind, it's quite simple to discern a Makoto Shinkai movie from other contemporaries because Shinkai has a very unique way of presenting his films. There is always a focus on the backdrop to the point where you could pause and screenshot almost any moment from a Shinkai film and it would make a great desktop background.
 
Example from Kimi no Na Wa
Example from 5 Centimeters Per Second
Example from The Place Promised in our Early Days
 
Kimi no Na Wa is insanely beautiful. A still image cannot do this movie justice at all. The backgrounds are so detailed that one can only assume the animators worked for days on every single frame. The characters move with fluidity rarely seen in anime and the use of CG animation is very cleverly hidden away to the point where you'd really have to look for it in order to spot it. I don't think it would be an understatement to say that Kimi no Na Wa is the most well-animated movie I've ever seen.

If you're not familiar with Kimi no Na Wa I will briefly summarize the plot for you. A high school city boy and a high school country girl from two entirely different places in Japan begin mysteriously swapping bodies for no discernable reason. Every time they go to bed, they swap bodies.
 
That's it. That's the simple plot of Kimi no Na Wa. Of course the situation develops as the movie goes along, but I won't talk about that in detail because it's major spoilers. The bodyswapping aspect leads to some absolutely hilarious but also adorable moments for both the characters. The girl gets called out for speaking like a girl when she is in the boy's body (Certain Japanese words and phrases are considered masculine/feminine, women use "Watashi" while men use "Boku" or "Ore" fx.) and the boy has no idea how to do his hair properly while stuck in the girl's body. Overall, it's pretty damn hard not to be endeared by the characters in Kimi no Na Wa. They have just enough genuine human elements in their portrayal that you can't help but get attached. This goes for the side characters as well (BASED TESSIE).
 
Earlier in this post I talked about how certain things repeat in Makoto Shinkai's work and Kimi no Na Wa is no different in this regard. One of the biggest overarching themes that exist in all of Shinkai's work is a sort of melancholy, longing or sadness. Every single one of his movies is sad in one way or another. Be it sadness over the loss of a friend, a lover or melancholy feelings of times past. Kimi no Na Wa has this aspect as well and there is a certain point where the movie twists into this theme. I won't speak of it in any more detail, just be aware that it does also happen in this movie, just like all the rest of Shinkai's films. Personally I was very invested in this part of the movie, it didn't feel stupid or contrived to me instead I was just feeling genuine concern for the characters involved and by the movies' end I shed a tear. You'll have to watch the movie to find out whether that tear was one of happiness or sadness.
 
In summary I can tell you that my concern about Kimi no Na Wa being overhyped was totally unfounded. The movie really is just that good. It hits all the right beats in terms of pacing, plot progression and characters on top of having an absolutely fucking stellar presentation that is practically unprecedented. Kimi no Na Wa is a film that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and is something I wouldn't be ashamed to show my parents, who know nothing about anime whatsoever. It's just all-round a great film that I really recommend that you watch.

A little over a week ago, a bunch of us here got together and watched the long-awaited "Kimi no Na Wa" or "Your Name" by director Makoto Shinkai, who is known for having directed films such as "5 Centimeters Per Second" and "The Garden of Words" among others. Watching this film had been a long time coming after its absolutely glowing reception both in the west and in the east, rivaling the Ghibli classic "Spirited Away" in terms of income globally and having shot to the top of practically every single anime database out there in terms of popularity and average rating.
 
In preparation for watching Kimi no Na Wa, the aforementioned bunch had gotten together in the months prior to watch Makoto Shinkai's older work. We watched "Voices of a Distant Star" along with some of his newer and more critically acclaimed work, namely "The Place Promised in our Early Days" and "5 Centimeters Per Second".
 
I must admit that I had my concerns about this film initially. It's rare that an animated piece from Japan gets this much attention on a global scale and the general online opinion seemed to be that Kimi no Na Wa was undisputedly one of the best animated films to come out in decades. That sets the bar pretty high and I'd be lying if I told you that my expectations of the medium aren't a bit different from your average anime fan. As such I was worried that the movie would not live up to the hype and that I'd be disappointed by the end of it.
 
Makoto Shinkai is notorious in the animation community for putting an insane amount of work into his films. While his official title might be "director" the truth is that he actually does pretty much everything. His earlier works were created almost entirely by him and his wife, including everything from storyboard and animation to sound design and voice acting. As he grew in fame as a director he has since gotten people working under him, but he still very much has a hand in the entirety of the creative process. With that in mind, it's quite simple to discern a Makoto Shinkai movie from other contemporaries because Shinkai has a very unique way of presenting his films. There is always a focus on the backdrop to the point where you could pause and screenshot almost any moment from a Shinkai film and it would make a great desktop background.
 
Example from Kimi no Na Wa
Example from 5 Centimeters Per Second
Example from The Place Promised in our Early Days
 
Kimi no Na Wa is insanely beautiful. A still image cannot do this movie justice at all. The backgrounds are so detailed that one can only assume the animators worked for days on every single frame. The characters move with fluidity rarely seen in anime and the use of CG animation is very cleverly hidden away to the point where you'd really have to look for it in order to spot it. I don't think it would be an understatement to say that Kimi no Na Wa is the most well-animated movie I've ever seen.

If you're not familiar with Kimi no Na Wa I will briefly summarize the plot for you. A high school city boy and a high school country girl from two entirely different places in Japan begin mysteriously swapping bodies for no discernable reason. Every time they go to bed, they swap bodies.
 
That's it. That's the simple plot of Kimi no Na Wa. Of course the situation develops as the movie goes along, but I won't talk about that in detail because it's major spoilers. The bodyswapping aspect leads to some absolutely hilarious but also adorable moments for both the characters. The girl gets called out for speaking like a girl when she is in the boy's body (Certain Japanese words and phrases are considered masculine/feminine, women use "Watashi" while men use "Boku" or "Ore" fx.) and the boy has no idea how to do his hair properly while stuck in the girl's body. Overall, it's pretty damn hard not to be endeared by the characters in Kimi no Na Wa. They have just enough genuine human elements in their portrayal that you can't help but get attached. This goes for the side characters as well (BASED TESSIE).
 
Earlier in this post I talked about how certain things repeat in Makoto Shinkai's work and Kimi no Na Wa is no different in this regard. One of the biggest overarching themes that exist in all of Shinkai's work is a sort of melancholy, longing or sadness. Every single one of his movies is sad in one way or another. Be it sadness over the loss of a friend, a lover or melancholy feelings of times past. Kimi no Na Wa has this aspect as well and there is a certain point where the movie twists into this theme. I won't speak of it in any more detail, just be aware that it does also happen in this movie, just like all the rest of Shinkai's films. Personally I was very invested in this part of the movie, it didn't feel stupid or contrived to me instead I was just feeling genuine concern for the characters involved and by the movies' end I shed a tear. You'll have to watch the movie to find out whether that tear was one of happiness or sadness.
 
In summary I can tell you that my concern about Kimi no Na Wa being overhyped was totally unfounded. The movie really is just that good. It hits all the right beats in terms of pacing, plot progression and characters on top of having an absolutely fucking stellar presentation that is practically unprecedented. Kimi no Na Wa is a film that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and is something I wouldn't be ashamed to show my parents, who know nothing about anime whatsoever. It's just all-round a great film that I really recommend that you watch.

good movie
good new living space
 

Today I downloaded and participated in the Star Wars Battlefront II Open Beta and after about three hours of playing the game, I can say with certainty that I will not be giving EA and Dice any money for this particular release. Ignoring all the other feedback I could have given in regards to this game, there is really only one thing that I feel is worth talking about as it unfortunately overshadows everything good they've done with the new Battlefront II.
 
The "Star Card" system.
 
In Battlefront 2 you have access to four different classes when playing the multiplayer. Assault, Heavy, Specialist and Officer. Each of these classes are different in terms of how they appear, the weapons they use and their class abilities. The Assault for example has the ability to throw a thermal grenade, to change his blaster rifle into a shotgun configuration and to shoot a marker that reveals enemies in a small area. The Officer class on the other hand has access to a stun grenade, an activatable aura that gives nearby allies damage reduction and decreases the time it takes for them to start healing after receiving damage and a deployable sentry turret.
 
Sounds fine, right?
 
What isn't fine is how the Star Card system interacts with these classes. Star Wars Battlefront II has gone the way of Overwatch and lets you earn loot crates in-game by playing and leveling up your classes. The game also lets you straight up buy them with real money from an in-game store. These loot crates contain fun little things like victory poses for your characters, weapon unlocks that you'd otherwise have to wait for a certain level to unlock (not necessarily upgrades mind you) and other little things. They also contain Star Cards. Now comes the part where I try to explain the Star Cards to the best of my ability in a way that will make you see just how disgusting they are in their implementation. 
 
Each class in the game can ultimately equip a total of four Star Cards. You start out with one Star Card slot in the beginning and unlock more as you put time into the class. These Star Cards are essentially passive buffs for your class. The Assault class for example, can equip a Star Card called "Assault Training" that allows to regain health every time they land the killing blow on an enemy. The Officer class for example can equip a Star Card called "Battle Command: Fortitude" that causes their aura of damage reduction to affect a larger area. The Heavy class has the ability to spin up their gun, increasing its rate of fire greatly at the cost of reduced movement speed. They can also get a Star Card that reduces the spin-up time for that ability. Not only that, but each Star Card also comes in four different rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare and Epic. The effect of the card is depending on the rarity of it. Take the Assault Training card for example. A Common Assault Training Card would give you 15 Health Restored on Kill while an Epic Assault Training Card would make that 30 Health Restored on Kill. Battle Command: Fortitude is another good example. A Common version of that card would make your aura extend to 10 meters from your character where an Epic version would extend 16 meters from your character. 
 
Ultimately what it boils down to is that EA and Dice have managed to turn Battlefront II into a P2W gacha where a player who is unwilling to dump money into the game, a player who is unlucky with his loot boxes or just a brand new player will be at major disadvantage compared to a player with a full deck of Star Cards. I personally find it disgusting and wholly unacceptable that there is any sort of P2W aspect in a $60 game and will not be supporting this release. I've seen some people on the internet argue that the Star Card system is OK because there will be no paid DLC for Battlefront II and to those people I say they're missing the point.

Today I downloaded and participated in the Star Wars Battlefront II Open Beta and after about three hours of playing the game, I can say with certainty that I will not be giving EA and Dice any money for this particular release. Ignoring all the other feedback I could have given in regards to this game, there is really only one thing that I feel is worth talking about as it unfortunately overshadows everything good they've done with the new Battlefront II.
 
The "Star Card" system.
 
In Battlefront 2 you have access to four different classes when playing the multiplayer. Assault, Heavy, Specialist and Officer. Each of these classes are different in terms of how they appear, the weapons they use and their class abilities. The Assault for example has the ability to throw a thermal grenade, to change his blaster rifle into a shotgun configuration and to shoot a marker that reveals enemies in a small area. The Officer class on the other hand has access to a stun grenade, an activatable aura that gives nearby allies damage reduction and decreases the time it takes for them to start healing after receiving damage and a deployable sentry turret.
 
Sounds fine, right?
 
What isn't fine is how the Star Card system interacts with these classes. Star Wars Battlefront II has gone the way of Overwatch and lets you earn loot crates in-game by playing and leveling up your classes. The game also lets you straight up buy them with real money from an in-game store. These loot crates contain fun little things like victory poses for your characters, weapon unlocks that you'd otherwise have to wait for a certain level to unlock (not necessarily upgrades mind you) and other little things. They also contain Star Cards. Now comes the part where I try to explain the Star Cards to the best of my ability in a way that will make you see just how disgusting they are in their implementation. 
 
Each class in the game can ultimately equip a total of four Star Cards. You start out with one Star Card slot in the beginning and unlock more as you put time into the class. These Star Cards are essentially passive buffs for your class. The Assault class for example, can equip a Star Card called "Assault Training" that allows to regain health every time they land the killing blow on an enemy. The Officer class for example can equip a Star Card called "Battle Command: Fortitude" that causes their aura of damage reduction to affect a larger area. The Heavy class has the ability to spin up their gun, increasing its rate of fire greatly at the cost of reduced movement speed. They can also get a Star Card that reduces the spin-up time for that ability. Not only that, but each Star Card also comes in four different rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare and Epic. The effect of the card is depending on the rarity of it. Take the Assault Training card for example. A Common Assault Training Card would give you 15 Health Restored on Kill while an Epic Assault Training Card would make that 30 Health Restored on Kill. Battle Command: Fortitude is another good example. A Common version of that card would make your aura extend to 10 meters from your character where an Epic version would extend 16 meters from your character. 
 
Ultimately what it boils down to is that EA and Dice have managed to turn Battlefront II into a P2W gacha where a player who is unwilling to dump money into the game, a player who is unlucky with his loot boxes or just a brand new player will be at major disadvantage compared to a player with a full deck of Star Cards. I personally find it disgusting and wholly unacceptable that there is any sort of P2W aspect in a $60 game and will not be supporting this release. I've seen some people on the internet argue that the Star Card system is OK because there will be no paid DLC for Battlefront II and to those people I say they're missing the point.

Been playing Fallout 4 (Not giving my money to Beth edition) and gotta say, its really a "good game, terrible Fallout".
 
The entire RPG element got thrown out of the window. Your character already has a written past, personality and voice. Makes it hard to get invested on it or feel like you are playing with YOUR character.
 
The lack of skills and skill checks annoy me. It was a pillar of the franchise for almost 2 decades, now your character cant be a nerd that bypasses quests or helps people because he had a high Medicine skill, he is just a grunt that shoots people and loots stuff.
 
Which makes me say, this was the first game which I downloaded mods pretty much after starting, because of how ASS the dialogue system is.
Instead of the menu with several choices you had in every other game, its now the Mass Effect like menu with only 4 choices: Question, Yes/Positive, Maybe/Sarcasm, No/Negative.
And the worst of all, the option doesnt tells you what your character is going to say. A couple of times I choose an option only for the dumbass to yell something different.
 
Really limited weapon choices. I get that crafting is the big thing, but wow, Fallout New Vegas had 20 different pistols (both bullet and energy, excluding unique counterparts), while 4 has 15 (both kinds, also excluding counterparts), with 6 of these being both in the 'pistol' and 'rifle' category, depending on the parts you put.
 
And talking about crafting, I hate the crafting in this game. It forces you to hoard EVERY junk you find around, because everything has crafting components.
 
Still a great shooter though. If I didnt had played any other Fallout, I would have liked it more.

I've been pretty enamored by Titanfall 2 over the past month and it's easily the game that's taken up the most of my free time throughout September. As such, I suppose it can't come as much of a surprise that my most recent dream that I can remember was TF2 related.
 
In my dream me and Silent (who doesn't even own or play Titanfall, fuck knows why he's there) were members of an elite mercenary team known as "The Fast Guys" and we were sent on a mission by the team leader to kill a renowned titan pilot named "Lastimosa" (Who is a character from the single-player campaign of TF2). So we travel to the planet this Lastimosa is supposedly on and a whole bunch of fighting ensues, but we pretty much take out all opposition with ease. Finally we find Pilot Lastimosa and have a long 2v1 duel with him. After a hard fight we blow up him and his titan and Silent turns to me in his titan and goes "Looks like Lastimosa just had his Lastimoment"

Then I woke up.

I've been pretty enamored by Titanfall 2 over the past month and it's easily the game that's taken up the most of my free time throughout September. As such, I suppose it can't come as much of a surprise that my most recent dream that I can remember was TF2 related.
 
In my dream me and Silent (who doesn't even own or play Titanfall, fuck knows why he's there) were members of an elite mercenary team known as "The Fast Guys" and we were sent on a mission by the team leader to kill a renowned titan pilot named "Lastimosa" (Who is a character from the single-player campaign of TF2). So we travel to the planet this Lastimosa is supposedly on and a whole bunch of fighting ensues, but we pretty much take out all opposition with ease. Finally we find Pilot Lastimosa and have a long 2v1 duel with him. After a hard fight we blow up him and his titan and Silent turns to me in his titan and goes "Looks like Lastimosa just had his Lastimoment"

Then I woke up.

I've been pretty enamored by Titanfall 2 over the past month and it's easily the game that's taken up the most of my free time throughout September. As such, I suppose it can't come as much of a surprise that my most recent dream that I can remember was TF2 related.
 
In my dream me and Silent (who doesn't even own or play Titanfall, fuck knows why he's there) were members of an elite mercenary team known as "The Fast Guys" and we were sent on a mission by the team leader to kill a renowned titan pilot named "Lastimosa" (Who is a character from the single-player campaign of TF2). So we travel to the planet this Lastimosa is supposedly on and a whole bunch of fighting ensues, but we pretty much take out all opposition with ease. Finally we find Pilot Lastimosa and have a long 2v1 duel with him. After a hard fight we blow up him and his titan and Silent turns to me in his titan and goes "Looks like Lastimosa just had his Lastimoment"

Then I woke up.

It's been over a year since we voted to have a Pyro update (before there would be a Heavy update).
 
Since that point we haven't had a real Halloween update (just a reactivation of previous updates with some new community items).  The Christmas update was more of the same, but since Christmas updates have primarily been about cosmetics in the past I guess that's not as big of letdown.  This was also the first year without a major summer update.
 
Theoretically the reason for all of these missed updates is that they are working really hard on the Pyro update, and maybe the later Heavy update.
 
I mean, why would they make us vote on which update would come first if they didn't plan on doing any updates at all?  Surely Valve wouldn't commit themselves to a project and then just drop it entirely when they got bored/distracted/found it harder than expected!
 
So sarcasm aside, I'm not sure if people are really expecting an update at this point, since we're all aware of how much Valve has let us down.  But Valve certainly promised an update (in fact, they promised two updates).

The PUBG situation right now is very interesting to me and even though I don't actively play or follow the game, I have been following the most recent debacle with Epic Games and Fortnite. PUBG has been pretty solidly in the spotlight for the past half a year roughly and it has even grown to become the most popular game on Steam, beating out giants such as Dota and CSGO. That's a very good thing for the game. Unfortunately it's also been in the spotlight with some more mixed and even negative press over the months, most notably the whole situation with PlayerUnknown making a fool of himself in a public chatroom, the stream-sniping ban controversy, the implementation of loot crates with paid keys during early access development and now finally with the POTENTIAL lawsuit against Epic Games. There's a lot to discuss regarding these things if you choose to care about it and I wouldn't blame you if would rather just shrug and go about your day. As for my self I am a relentless and thirsty drama-whore, so I'll dig into it in hopes of finding the juicy bits. 
 
So far my conclusion has been that PUBG is probably a fairly solid game and easily the best of the several different battle royale games we've seen since the inception of the original mod in Arma 2. I would probably enjoy playing PUBG with friends quite honestly. Unfortunately I have also concluded that PlayerUnknown is an arrogant prick who has no reservations about shitting on his fanbase and who is willing to go back on his word for the sake of a quick cashgrab (Loot crates in early access after an explicit promise that they wouldn't make it into the game until it had been fully released). Furthermore we're now at a tipping point where PlayerUnknown and his team are considering legal action over a fucking videogame "genre" that they have questionable legal rights to anyway.
 
People are seriously talking about whether making a genre of videogames intellectual property is OK or not. Absolutely fucking ridiculous if you ask me.

Your description of the Witcher is kinda how I feel about Morrowind. Yeah, yeah, cool place, cool story, tons of amazing ideas, but the combat is horrible and everything is annoyingly tedious.

I enjoyed the first WItcher, but it's the only one I've played s far. Got a little ways into 2 but there's something about it that keeps making me drop it.
 
Also I don't know what you mean, the graphics and visuals in the original Witcher were great.
 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/6xqtgz/an_insightful_thread_where_game_developers/dmhz7fa/?st=j74vov4h&sh=94577080
 
 
There was some Twitter discussion about hidden game mechanics and someone compiled them all into a reddit thread. Some of these are really cool

A month ago I posted in this thread complaining about the tedium of leveling in FFXIV and now I'm back to say that this game has absolutely consumed every moment of spare time I've had in the past ~5 weeks. I am positively addicted and I'm still not max level on any job yet and it doesn't even bother me anymore. When I originally started playing I was planning on rushing to endgame so I could get to play current content with my friends, but as it would turn out, the game is extremely good for playing with friends at all levels. It doesn't matter if you're level 34 and your friends are all level 70, there is still stuff you can do together.
 
The best way I can describe FFXIV is that, for me, it feels like the early years of World of Warcraft (Vanilla/TBC) only with many modern quality of life features as well. My rush to hit max level quickly came to a halt when I realized that rather than push through the main story quest and power-leveling, I was having more fun going off and exploring the world, poking my nose into dungeons that I didn't technically need to do in order to progress and finding random quests in the far corners of the world with really cool rewards such as pets, emotes and cosmetics. That isn't to say that the main story of the game is bad. While it starts off as generic adventuring, by the time I hit Heavensward content (50+) I was (and still am) pretty emotionally invested in the characters presented in the story and what happened to them.
 
Finally there is the music of FFXIV. When I was younger I don't think I truly appreciated how much a good soundtrack can improve the experience of... Well pretty much anything, but in retrospect, one of the things I'm the most nostalgic about in life is the music from all my favourite games. Luckily FFXIV totally delivers on the soundtrack department, it is fucking stellar and most of it has already found its way into my music library as permanent additions.
 
While there might have been some growing pains in the first week of me playing FFXIV, it has proven to be absolutely worth the initial hours of frustration and confusion. I'm sure any denizen of the internet who regularly browses any sort of video game discussion board will have seen the melancholic posts of former MMORPG fanatics, solemnly lamenting the fact that they can't seem to recapture the magic of when they first started playing their favourite MMORPG. Well I've managed it. I don't think I've been this invested in a video game since I first booted up World of Warcraft in 2006. I want to do it all.

A month ago I posted in this thread complaining about the tedium of leveling in FFXIV and now I'm back to say that this game has absolutely consumed every moment of spare time I've had in the past ~5 weeks. I am positively addicted and I'm still not max level on any job yet and it doesn't even bother me anymore. When I originally started playing I was planning on rushing to endgame so I could get to play current content with my friends, but as it would turn out, the game is extremely good for playing with friends at all levels. It doesn't matter if you're level 34 and your friends are all level 70, there is still stuff you can do together.
 
The best way I can describe FFXIV is that, for me, it feels like the early years of World of Warcraft (Vanilla/TBC) only with many modern quality of life features as well. My rush to hit max level quickly came to a halt when I realized that rather than push through the main story quest and power-leveling, I was having more fun going off and exploring the world, poking my nose into dungeons that I didn't technically need to do in order to progress and finding random quests in the far corners of the world with really cool rewards such as pets, emotes and cosmetics. That isn't to say that the main story of the game is bad. While it starts off as generic adventuring, by the time I hit Heavensward content (50+) I was (and still am) pretty emotionally invested in the characters presented in the story and what happened to them.
 
Finally there is the music of FFXIV. When I was younger I don't think I truly appreciated how much a good soundtrack can improve the experience of... Well pretty much anything, but in retrospect, one of the things I'm the most nostalgic about in life is the music from all my favourite games. Luckily FFXIV totally delivers on the soundtrack department, it is fucking stellar and most of it has already found its way into my music library as permanent additions.
 
While there might have been some growing pains in the first week of me playing FFXIV, it has proven to be absolutely worth the initial hours of frustration and confusion. I'm sure any denizen of the internet who regularly browses any sort of video game discussion board will have seen the melancholic posts of former MMORPG fanatics, solemnly lamenting the fact that they can't seem to recapture the magic of when they first started playing their favourite MMORPG. Well I've managed it. I don't think I've been this invested in a video game since I first booted up World of Warcraft in 2006. I want to do it all.

A month ago I posted in this thread complaining about the tedium of leveling in FFXIV and now I'm back to say that this game has absolutely consumed every moment of spare time I've had in the past ~5 weeks. I am positively addicted and I'm still not max level on any job yet and it doesn't even bother me anymore. When I originally started playing I was planning on rushing to endgame so I could get to play current content with my friends, but as it would turn out, the game is extremely good for playing with friends at all levels. It doesn't matter if you're level 34 and your friends are all level 70, there is still stuff you can do together.
 
The best way I can describe FFXIV is that, for me, it feels like the early years of World of Warcraft (Vanilla/TBC) only with many modern quality of life features as well. My rush to hit max level quickly came to a halt when I realized that rather than push through the main story quest and power-leveling, I was having more fun going off and exploring the world, poking my nose into dungeons that I didn't technically need to do in order to progress and finding random quests in the far corners of the world with really cool rewards such as pets, emotes and cosmetics. That isn't to say that the main story of the game is bad. While it starts off as generic adventuring, by the time I hit Heavensward content (50+) I was (and still am) pretty emotionally invested in the characters presented in the story and what happened to them.
 
Finally there is the music of FFXIV. When I was younger I don't think I truly appreciated how much a good soundtrack can improve the experience of... Well pretty much anything, but in retrospect, one of the things I'm the most nostalgic about in life is the music from all my favourite games. Luckily FFXIV totally delivers on the soundtrack department, it is fucking stellar and most of it has already found its way into my music library as permanent additions.
 
While there might have been some growing pains in the first week of me playing FFXIV, it has proven to be absolutely worth the initial hours of frustration and confusion. I'm sure any denizen of the internet who regularly browses any sort of video game discussion board will have seen the melancholic posts of former MMORPG fanatics, solemnly lamenting the fact that they can't seem to recapture the magic of when they first started playing their favourite MMORPG. Well I've managed it. I don't think I've been this invested in a video game since I first booted up World of Warcraft in 2006. I want to do it all.

We're all painfully aware.

We're all painfully aware.

I too can shitpost
 

Spectre you're either on Activision's payroll or you've actually suffered through the heap of garbage that was Destiny 1 for so long that it's managed to rewire the 'pain' and 'pleasure' centers in your brain to make that fucking Skinners box bearable.
 
 

Heh, the devs of We Happy Few ran out of money so they sold themselves to Gearbox.
 
The game now costs $60 (from $30, due "price parity between PC and consoles"), has a $20 season pass with E-X-C-L-U-S-I-V-E weapon (they have no idea on what the DLCs will be about) and a $120 collector's edition that doesnt includes the game.
 
I suspect the game will be full of memes and die in about a week now that Gearbox is involved.

Last night I dreamt that I was at home relaxing. I had just gotten out of the shower and was walking around butt-naked, when I noticed this man in a red coat on the lawn. I opened a window and called out to him, I told him that he was on private property and that he had best leave now. Immediately he pulled out a device from under his coat that looked like a gun and pointed it straight fucking at me. I quickly ducked away from the window and moved into another room while this weird of feeling of dread filled my stomach, I can't really explain it, but if you've ever been in a situation where you think there is a genuine chance you might die, you'll know what I mean. So I sit tight for a few moments before I peek out of the window and I see the guy still outside with his rifle-looking item and he's walking around scanning the exterior of my house. I decide that enough is enough and scramble into my bedroom to grab my phone.
 
I dial 112 (Which is my country's equivalent of 911) but I get an automated message saying that the emergency service phone number has recently been changed to 115 and the line I am currently on is now for postal service complaints. So I dial 115 instead and I get an automated message stating that a strange red-coated man has been reported in my neighborhood and if I am calling about that, there is nothing to worry about unless you've made contact with the man. The message then prompted me to "Press One" if I had made contact with the red-coated man. So I press one and I get put on hold to very stereotypical and cheesy waiting music.
 
At this point I decide to take my fucking chances and I grab a blanket and run out of the house as fast as I can, still butt-naked, only covering myself with said blanket. I don't see the red-coated guy anywhere and I am ducking and weaving in random directions through various different gardens and brushes. I finally get to the outskirt of the city when my call to the police department goes through. I get on the line with this police officer who is talking to me in a very soft and sing-songy voice as if I was a toddler. He asks me if I am having trouble with the red-coated man and I scream at him that yes I fucking am. At that moment I spot the red-coated man out of the corner of my eye. He is marching straight towards me, raised rifle and all. As he closes the distance, I drop my phone and just charge at him. He doesn't fire at me or anything, he just walks intently towards me with a stern look on his face as I rush towards him.
 
Once I get right on top of him, I slap the rifle out of his hands and he just bursts into flames. Not like exploded into gibs or anything, but he just fucking caught fire. As he burned he smiled at me and gave me a nod of approval and then I woke up.

I've been forcing myself to play Final Fantasy XIV recently, because a fair few of the people I hang around online are playing it and I want to get in on that. Unfortunately they're all max level and unfortunately the leveling process of this game is the worst I've ever experienced in any MMO and I've played quite a few. I very much belong to the more casual side of the MMO audience, in the sense that I got my first taste of the genre with World of Warcraft and never got to experience the much more unforgiving games of the past. Since World of Warcraft, I have tangled with a multitude of different MMO's for various periods of time. Aion, Warhammer Online, Guild Wars 1 & 2, RIFT, The Old Republic, Tera and Wildstar. Out of all of those, I've never been as frustrated leveling my character as I have been in FFXIV.
 
It seems that in a bid to force variety upon the player, the developers of FFXIV decided to just not put enough quests into the game to actually reach max level. On top of that, the "Main Scenario Quest", which is a long-running quest that moves the story of the game and your character along, is level-gated, meaning that you could be going through it and then suddenly hit a brick wall because you're not a high enough level to accept the next part of the MSQ. So what are the alternatives? A pitiful amount of sidequests that past level 35 won't even be enough experience to push you through the MSQ. A world-quest type system called "Fates" which spawn on the map for a set period of time that unfortunately suffer from being very inefficient to do, because half of them are painfully slow to complete without other players actively helping you out. Dungeons, which will give you a very nice bonus experience ONCE per 24-hours and otherwise are alright for experience gain, but are very boring to spam continuously. Finally you have a unique leveling system called "Palace of the Dead", which is extremely powerful for experience gain theoretically, but unfortunately you have to clear it in 10-floor increments at a time and if your party wipes at any point, all progress is lost and 0 experience is gained.
 
On paper, I realize that it might not sound so bad, but once you hit level 45+ it starts to become truly fucking tedious and my enjoyment of the game has been very rapidly declining, to the point where I am technically only a few steps away from being able to move into the next part of the game, but I am demotivated to log on to my character, because I know that the only way forward is by subjecting myself to extreme boredom.