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Brick Fight

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Brick Fight last won the day on July 2 2015

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  1. I really want to stay mad at Gearbox, but then I remember that they've made some of my top games of all time and it's so hard.
  2. Skyrim created a unique, beautiful, interesting world that's fun to get lost in. For what faults they have, Bethesda are at the top of the game when it comes to making game worlds and it's one of the reasons I enjoyed FO3 more than New Vegas.Besides the difficulty complaint I made, I wish Bethesda would hire some decent writers and/or actually put some real effort into voice acting and character interaction. One thing I explicitly remember about Skyrim wash when you wake up during a Thieves' Guild quest and that one Dark Elf woman is talking to you because it's one of the few times I remember someone putting a genuine effort into a voice role in an Elder Scrolls game. I actually don't really like doing quests in those games because the voice acting and cornball writing take me right out of it. I could go on, but Super Bunnyhop addressed a lot of my complaints in this video: Overall, Skyrim is impressive, but when you start noticing faults, you start noticing how close it can be to make itself leaps and bounds better than it is. I still like the game, but I grow less tolerance for stilted dialogue and lame plots as the years go on. But man, you can't say that the game is any more disappointing than Oblivion.
  3. I will actually go on the record that I've never witnessed a notable bug in a Bethesda game, even a harmless funny graphical one. Maybe rarely ever modding the games had something to do with that. Honestly, the one mod that did the most for me in Skyrim was the original Morrowloot. It mostly just kept you from getting world destroyer equipment as a result of just putzing around and the top armor types were only available through crafting. Last I checked, people restored it for new versions but added a bunch of unnecessary crap like any modder does.
  4. My problem with Bethesda games is that they usually start out a good, reasonable pace. Then about five hours in, you hit this power cascade where everything dies in one or two hits and you're just this murder machine and the exploration becomes more about ticking boxes than finding interesting places with useful stuff inside.
  5. So I quit Dark Souls 2 after beating 1. I just greatly disliked the worlds, the enemies, the visuals, and the level design/fights. I watched an LP, read some lore, then moved on to 3. Once I was able to kind of break through that first barrier, it was right back to a great experience. I miss the slower pace of DS1, but the visuals, world, and fights of 3 more than make up for that. I'm especially digging that I do parries more now that the timing actually makes sense.
  6. No sequel to a game I loved has turned me off of it like Dawn of War 3 has. I just get sad whenever I see it.
  7. Most of the Humble Bundles have been shit for a while now, but this most recent one is definitely worth a look/buy: https://www.humblebundle.com/overwhelmingly-positive-bundle. Ten bucks just took a chunk out of my wishlist. If you trust my views on anything: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: Extremely cheesecakey art and characters belie a genuinely fun ZeldaMetroidVania game with some charm. Epic Battle Fantasy: I don't really have much interest in this one, but I'll launch it eventually out of curiosity Pony Island: I already owned this (PM me if you want my code no charge), and can definitely recommend it as a weird mindfuck experience that's stayed with me for the year or so after I've played it. Deadbolt: Wasn't expecting this one to be the standout as much as it was. I gotta say that I hated Hotline Miami 2 and thought it was genuinely bad in almost all respects. Besides my littany of complaints, the worst part of it was that it completely removed any sense of strategy that HLM1 had, instead opting for level design that forced you into a bunker and baiting people around corners. Deadbolt 1 feels the most like HLM 1 than any other game. There's fun, strategic, hyperviolent combat that gives you choices (but not too many choices as to dilute the experience), a story that knows when to not tell you things, and genuinely cool vibes from the atmosphere/visuals/music. Day of the Tentacle Remastered: DotT is one of the handful of Lucasarts adventure games I've never played (I still have LOOM and some of the later Monkey Islands to go), and it's another one of their games that's stood up to its praise. It's got that old Lucasarts problem of the voice acting being competent yet seemingly forced to be drawn out and stilted by the way the actors are forced to work within the confines of the subtitle and animation system. Otherwise, it's another fun, clever, funny LA adventure game that you can play without having to smash a million different emulators and fan patches together to play (also I need dev commentary on more games please). Valhalla: I'm kind of love/hate with visual novels. I like the interactivity and active puzzle solving of games like Phoenix Wright and Dangan Ronpa, but I can't get into ones that make me just sit and read your average terrible VN plot. Valhalla makes sure to keep a mixture of intrigue and interactivity while sort of poking at my nostalgia for my bartending job. I've put the least amount of time into this game out of anything on the list so far. N++: Solid platforming series that should be well-known by now. The level design can tend to over-rely on the floatiness of the controls, but when the good levels happen, the platforming just clicks really well. And those are the titles that are just unlocked right now. Humble Bundle has kind of stumbled (genuinely sorry) lately, but I think they realized their problems with this one. They've mostly just kind of been making lists out of questionable new-release indie games without many established titles to at least try to pull you in. This isn't even to mention just shitty shovelware bundles. But the idea of a bundle of "Overwhelmingly Positive" games is a much better idea than what they've been doing.
  8. So I bought a pack of games from the last Steam sale. Some quick views on the ones I've played: Enter the Gungeon: Rogue-like twin stick-style shooter game. Starts out really frustrating as it pulls a lot of cardinal sins of Roguelikes like not explaining what pick-ups do or how basic controls work, but a few minutes on the wiki and getting further along the levels start to make the game shine. Also have to say this game has hands-down my favorite pixel art ever. Grand Theft Auto 5: Pretty damned good. I was honestly thinking of refunding it during the first few missions because they had the GTA 4 problem of just being a flood of tutorials and taxi missions. Once I got into the meat of the story, the game got much better. I wish there were more of the heist missions because they were damned fun, and it feels like they wasted dev time on listening to Michael and his family yell at each other that could have been focused on some more fun action pieces. I'm curious about the online, but it all just seems like a hassle to me unless you've got a group of dedicated friends. Overall, though, I'd still take any Saint's Row game over this. Gunpoint: I picked this up after my friends begged me to, and I'm glad I did. A really fun take on stealth/puzzle games with a good sense of humor about itself. Red Faction Guerilla: Kind of cheating since I played this on 360 years ago, but I've had the itch to play it again since not a lot of games have done good destruction since it. It's a surprisingly good port. It runs and plays well on PC, and it's still as fun as ever to collapse buildings. Thief (2014): I originally was just going to buy Thief 2 and 3 on the cheap, but I saw videos of this one and got intrigued. I have to say I don't understand why it pissed so many people off. Sure there are weird bugs and the story is really bad, but the game feels about halfway between a classic Thief game and Dishonored, and that's not bad. The stealth works well, I actually like that rooting and picking up stuff has individual animations, and having extra side missions makes the game actually feel like you're a thief for hire as opposed to a dungeon crawler and dinosaur hunter like in some of the older games. The open world is kind of badly laid out in that transition zones are not clearly marked and quest markers don't point them out for you so you have to go around poking and prodding to try to figure out how you're supposed to go from the docks to the market or whatever. I'd say get this on sale and don't worry about the hate. Ultimate General: Civil War: This was the golden boy of all of my purchases. If you're not familiar with the Darth Mod series of mods for Total War games, then be aware that they were known for adding very substantial improvements to the game as well as tweaking AI to be more challenging and thoughtful. It turns out that the guy in charge of those mods has working on the Ultimate General series, and it shows. The previous title, Gettysburg, had scary-smart AI. Unfortunately, a lot of its mechanics were not conveyed well, and the AI could get really cheaty, showing up out of the fog of war with 8,000 soldiers pushing against your weakest flank. While people argued that it was a smart move to do such things, it often took me out of the Civil War setting to have to fight such a zerg rush. It also felt like you weren't rewarded well for pulling off a good flank attack. The sequel takes the best parts of Gettysburg and perfects them into a game that feels really good. I feel like I'm well-rewarded for pulling off a proper maneuver, the AI fights in a smart, yet immersive way, the new campaign system with its between-mission army building feels really good, and historical battles are actually multi-stage and engaging (unlike Total War's). XCOM 2: I really hated Enemy Unknown. Whenever I get into debates, I tend to couch my subjective opinions as being just that and everyone has their personal views, but I was genuinely perplexed as to why people liked a game where you could perfectly arrange all of your soldiers to be in full cover and to flank and miss four 99% shots in a row on a shitty little alien who would then somehow destroy your team on the next turn. It felt like one of those strategy games that hated that someone with a mind could beat it, so it through in gamey bullshit to extend time and please the "stomp on my balls please daddy" people who conflate number of reloaded saves with good difficulty. I still stand by my opinion that it is mediocre at best. I gave XCOM 2 a shot because a friend who put a ton of time into EU then ended up agreeing with me said 2 was a massive improvement. He was right. This game feels better, plays better, and has much less frustrating elements. I like the risk/reward of having a Ranger just be able run up and chop an alien in order to free up a flank or to safely coup de grace an enemy squad. I like the menus and base better. I love how the game doesn't jump up your ass about using explosives this time around. The battles feel like they understand how stupid the random chance thing gets and are scummable or have less projectile-based enemies than EU. This has to be one of the biggest turn-arounds I've ever had on a franchise since I went from Metal Gear Solid 2 to MGS 3. At this point, I feel like it could destroy every other turn-based tactics game out there if they pulled back on the RNG dependency a bit more, but at least in this game they tone down its importance. I also got Scourge of War: Waterloo, but haven't gotten to launch it yet.
  9. Kind of all over. I play lots of co-op with a normal group of folks, but have had trouble sticking down in one competitive game. I'm trying to get back into Siege, but that game is frustrating without a communicating group.
  10. I knew the Dems were making huge mistakes, but I'll come out and say I thought it didn't matter. I honestly couldn't have predicted it. I'll save my own feelings for another time as this whole campaign has driven me nuts and I can't hear another opinion on it including my own. Just this past Sunday, I had to listen to every conspiracy theory you could imagine from people at my church. I have feelings on Trump, but it's who is going to be around him that worries me. Pence sickens me. We could have a cabinet that includes a gallery of weirdos like Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, Sarah Palin, or Ben Carson, many of whom worry me more than Trump.
  11. I honestly think people don't have faith in themselves. You know how if you had doubts about yourself, you would just shit-talk your co-workers, friends, acquaintances, other kids at school, etc.? Well, now we have this media that's accessible to anyone 100% of the day and leads people to believe that they're now part of the system. Now people who barely scraped by with a high school education or even less genuinely believe that they are smarter than any "expert" politician, scientist, military personnel, etc. and can beat their chests about it to other average yokels who then keep up the momentum. There's even a term that describes the trend: The Law of Group Polarization. This is the idea that any people of a like-minded group who spend enough time in the same chamber will eventually escalate their narratives and shut anything else out. It's a part of the human condition, whether the bonds are formed over identity, politics, ideas, or other factors. Hell, we see it with Wehraboos and Commieboos. (I was mostly reminded of it because I finally watched The Mist recently it's a pretty good movie) Americans need to re-learn the concept of "I don't know." Try to ask what someone's opinion is on something that you're positive they have no information on. Regardless of having any correct or even any amount of information on the subject, odds are that they'll take a position that they won't move on depending on how well you argue for them, or how persuasive any information you supplement your argue with is. Depending on how stubborn they are, they will not move from that position and absorb or make up any information that they can because they've formed too much of an identity around that idea that can be proved wrong so easily, and can jump onto the internet to find like-minded people to support them and feed into that cascade. All because they couldn't admit to "I don't know." (full disclosure, I'm still guilty of it and hate when I catch myself doing it)
  12. Then I overshot because I just hear it a lot, so sorry if it came off as combative. I do think we're hitting a bit of a generational gap right now and things in general are just gonna be loud and crowded until the boomers thankfully die off. Until then, it's going to be a miserable 10+ years of their retirement. I've so far been propagated by two different militia guys (once at the museum, once at a gun store) who worked in the "second civil war" line, so I've genuinely heard it. I love living and working in Pennsyltuckey especially when it comes to the scenery, but the social interactions leave a lot to be desired.
  13. I like this guy lately: Low on production values, but he has simplified visuals that help to convey things that are difficult for your average person to imagine in their mind.
  14. It's most likely going to be a nothing burger. Comey pretty much admitted that even he was covering his own ass by rushing out the letter before election day so it would seem like he was witholding information. What on Earth has Dilbertman ever done or said that I should have the confidence in that he's right about this? What should I believe if the guy who wrote Beetle Bailey says the government's gonna gas us in our sleep? Do you honestly see your average jackoff quitting their job, loading up their guns, coordinating the logistics of a large-scale terrorist organization and just attacking military or civilian targets? Or do these things that people like DIlbertman say exist to make us feel like we're part of something bigger? I feel like if the average person would say "If Hillary wins, odds are the Right will buckle down and barricade progress in different areas of the government," and I feel like if I were to even disagree with that, it's reasonable and possible. It just feels more satisfying and makes us feel more important to say "if this candidate wins, we'll all be mass-murdering each other and fighting the government." Rolling Stone did an article on this sort of thing recently where they interviewed neurologists and other scientists who studied physiological and behavioral developments in people who followed the 24-hour news cycle, and results were interesting. People who followed the cycle tended to be more anxious and quick to anger, while areas of the brain that respond to "fear" (more as anxiety) noticeably swelled in response to attempts by internet/cable/radio news to instill fear or (more accurately) anxiety to get people scared and coming back for more. But when they were cut off from this type of media and their echo chambers, their behavior tended to revert. They were less anxious and their neurological make-up responded in kind. Hell, Gingrich confirmed it recently when he got into that ridiculous debate where he basically said "People may be statistically safer, but they don't feel safer." The point he was arguing was dumb, but overall, he was kind of objectively right in that sense. I've been reading Terrorist Next Door by Daniel Levitas off and on since the Bundamentalist thing, and you'd be surprised to hear the kind of thing that would happen back in the day. Post-WW2 in the South, there was a rash of synagogue and black church bombings that went completely ignored. Take into account things like the civil rights movement and pushback, The Red Scare, and other social unrest that sometimes resulted in localized violence, and it feels silly to think that we're going to have some kind of Civil War because Black Lives Matter blocked a road or some Trump supporters slapped some people or a person that people don't like becomes president seems really silly.
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