Strider Hiryu

Really I'm more underwhelmed by certain aspects of the game, mostly the gun play (it feels really slow and clunky with and emphasis on certain weapons. Don't get me wrong Destiny 2 has a lot of issues but the one thing I thought Bungie did right was the gun play (though their constant need for balance fucks that up more often then not)). Don't get me wrong I had fun when we tried to do the Stronghold and I certainly did enjoy certain aspects of what we were given I just feel the game still needs a lot of work. I get this is a 6 week old build but if that's the state the game was in 6-7 weeks ago I don't really have high hopes for the final build (yes lots of work can be done in that amount of time but still). Plus it's obvious EA/Bioware really needs to beef up their server structure because the amount of issues it had was not good. Honestly I don't feel I'd get my $60 worth if I bought it in it's current state. I'll wait for reviews and opinions from those I trust before I make the decision to buy it or not but with me dropping $200+ on Shadowbringers on Wed (when pre-order goes live, I must have the Collector's Edition (yea I'm obsessed with CE's)) I need to pick and choose what I spend my money wisely this year game wise (kinda the reason why I'm also not purchasing The Division 2 (well that and the fact that I have no faith in it being better than The Division)). And again I'm just having issues getting excited to play games on my PS4 (fuck I've barely played my Switch and I adore SSBU, I just haven't had the time).

I will beat Nier before October because I'd be doing myself a disservice of not doing so. I love the story so far, the combat has really grown on me (though I do find myself having some issues here and their), and I love the amount of exploring and random shit I can do. As I said time constraints and being lazy has pushed it to the side (and I was doing so good to, I was trying to get in 1-3 hours on Sundays but then I started getting sidetracked by shit on Netflix and Youtube) and FFXIV hasn't helped any with that as well (which is odd since I'm in the middle of major patch content without much to do, I find myself doing minor shit that's not important to what I'm currently trying to do).

The gunplay is underwhelming. It took me a while to realize why I was having such ammo trouble until I realized the game is more about L1 and R1 spam while using the guns to fill the gap. Which already presents a problem since the max damage comes from primers and igniters. Yet they've bothered to put in some skills that aren't either. People are already expressing concern over build limitations and stale metas. We'll see how it plays out.

The Division 2 mechanically will most likely be the same. I'm fine with that. The TTK is better, and the engine has been upgraded to handle aspects of the game better like the armor revamp that will do away with those one shot shotgun rushers that plagued the first game for the sake of "difficulty". But you're right, it will most likely follow a similar formula in a new setting. It works for me. I dunno what it is about it, but the game has always had a gritty old school charm to it. With all the expansions being free for year one, I just have to dive in.

Speaking of SSBU, I reallllly want 2B with A2 as her echo fighter. I'm kinda jealous Soul Caliber got her.

My only worry is the story. I get it not everyone played The Division for the story but I actually enjoyed it and they never continued the main story from vanilla The Division which always rubbed me the wrong way (yea I know there's audio files and what not down in the Underground that kinda give you some semblance of where Keener went but the 3 dlc's never continued that story). I was kinda hoping they'd continue that story with the 2nd game (back before we knew we were getting one) and it looks like it won't due to the setting and what little we can glean from the trailers. I actually really liked the gameplay for the original, it's probably one of the better looter shooters our there even if the drop RNG sucked balls originally (I really like what they did with the game by adding it loot caches for leveling up and adding that new pier area, it really added more to do). My only real problem is the fact that while you can, technically, play the game solo it's obvious the game is structured to be played with friends and The Division 2 even more so (while that's not difficult for most people to accomplish it's hard for me when I have no other friends buying it besides you, all my other friends hated the original and have no interest in this one) and that really sucked the fun out of it for me which is why I quit playing The Division. I honestly hope its a good game but I won't be buying it unless it gets stellar reviews (much like my thoughts on Anthem).

Heh, 2B would break SSBU like she did Soul Caliber so maybe it's a good thing she's not in it (though I would not be against it and it's not like there aren't plenty of other characters that break the game).

It wasn't always great, but when it was, it was amazing. If something is CG'ish I can bear with it sometimes... what I hate is the hybrid animation/CG. Its very off putting. I've seen a few mecha series where only the mechas were CG and everything else was animated. It just doesn't fit.

Yea, for some reason it just never seems to work out in mech anime (which seems to use it more than any other genre now-a-days). The mechs either look extremely fake or complete crap (which sucks because a lot of mechs look great in CG). Sadly there has been such a huge push toward hybrid CG/Traditional animation lately that it's been ruining most of the new shows coming out now (hell this has been the first year where I'm not actively watching anything currently airing in Japan since I was first introduced to fansubs (2004, so the first time in 13 years) because almost all the shows are either crappy rehashes of the same plots or hybrid shows with shitty CG).

This is one reason I'm happy companies like Right Stuf (through their Nozomi Entertainment branch) and Discotek have been acquiring the rights to and releasing old school anime over here. So many good shows get overlooked by the bigger companies like Funi that it's sad (mostly due to dated animation and fear of not having a market over here (something Right Stuf has proven to be wrong in the last few years with releases like Dirty Pair and finally bringing all of Gundam over in it's entirety)). Now if only we could get a company to bring over the whole Macross catalog, I'd be one happy anime fan if that happened (ADV and Manga Ent. started to but never got past the original Macross, Macross Plus, and Macross II (which has absolutely nothing to do with the main Macross story). Getting a stateside release of Macross 7 would be amazing).

Just finished Tekkaman Blade, gotta say this ranks up there as one of my all time favorites now. While quite a few portions of the show could of been cut (a lot of filler in this show that could of been recapped in like 4 episodes and they could of ditched the 2 recap eps) the last few episodes were epic. Definitely glad I bought this two years ago on a whim (I've seen Tekkaman Blade II (which, while entertaining, ruins so much of what the first series did and accomplished it's sad) which piqued my interest in seeing the original) when it was on sale at RightStuf. I definitely recommend seeing it if you get a chance to.

congrats man. for me though it kinda sucks i still havent found anything suitable to play on ps5 yet, so im stuck with playing pc games for now

Thanks.

Good god I didn't think it was a massive as it is. Freaking thing is taller than my PC's case. My poor Switch looks so tiny next to it.

I don't have that problem. Got so many PS4 games on the backlog that my PS5 will get plenty of use (until Endwalker comes out, then it'll just be a media machine for awhile). Sadly though there a very few PS5 games I'm currently interested in and since this blew my spending budget for the year I won't even be able to buy the PS5 games I even want.

My brother recently bought a m.2 ssd with a heatsink for his PS5. Set him back $200 with tax just to upgrade the PS5 with an extra 1 TB of space. I heard the PS4 games run great off an external hard drive tho.

Noice.

It'll have LED lights, whether I use them or not will be another thing (I'm not into the lighted case thing, my Alienware lights up but it's just a gimmick). The monitor I chose is an older ASUS model, https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236174&cm_re=VS247H-P-_-24-236-174-_-Product

It's gotten pretty favorable reviews and I went pretty cheap (it was on sale through CyberPower) since the tower ended up being a little more expensive then I wanted it to be (not much more but god damn SSD's are still expensive as hell). I plan on going with a two monitor set-up when I get a bigger desk (current desk is only big enough for the tower and monitor sadly) so I'll be shelling out quite a bit more money when I get my second one (this one will end up being the secondary monitor and making the new one my primary monitor).

Sadly I have to call them on Monday because it seems there was a problem processing the order (not sure what but I'm gathering its a verification for fraud prevention). Hopefully it won't delay it by too much, I need this thing before the 20th of June for Stormblood (yea, my life is pretty much run by work and FFXIV).

Its good that it's VESA mountable since you're planning on a 2 monitor setup (vesa mounting capability does make them more expensive from what I've seen). I have 2 monitors right now, one for gaming and the other for work and neither can mount so I'm literally shuffling one monitor in front of the other depending on what I'm doing. Its a bit annoying but I'm used to it. Both monitors can sit side by side too if I wanted since my desk is big enough for it. For your main monitor I recommend getting an IPS one. Huge difference for gaming IMO. I won't go back to a regular monitor again now that I've gotten used to gaming on one. SSDs should definitely be cheaper by now. I'd love to upgrade my main pc with one but I'm a bit tight on funds now.

If you have any questions on using geforce experience software let me know. I've gotten the hang of it over the last year with taking videos and enhanced screenshots with it. With your new setup you can easily take video of all your games and upload them to youtube like I've been doing with Guild Wars 2:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Sledgstone/videos

I setup my geforce software to be just like my PS4, I hit alt-f10 and it'll save the last 15 minutes of any game I'm playing. And windows live movie maker software works just like ps4's Sharefactory.

I'm a back sleeper. I use to be a side sleeper, but my shoulders aren't in the best condition anymore from slinging heavy objects, downstacking stock. I find that my arms will go to sleep and I'll wake up with them completely numb sometimes, and the arm that's not being slept upon just can't find a comfortable resting position. I'll sleep on my back, or in a slightly tilted side position where I'm not resting on one shoulder. My pillows are pretty old and I should invest in new ones. I sleep with two, and they are pretty flattened out... which is probably why I can't side sleep anymore. 

I was using an extra firm pillow until a few nights ago. I swapped over to a soft with another soft pillow at a slight angle behind it for a little support and my neck has been feeling a bit better over the last couple days. The nerve issues in my arms have screwed me for years so I always sleep with a thin long sleeve shirt on with arm braces to keep my arms from curling and or going numb while I sleep. These ones specifically:

https://www.amazon.com/ALEX-Toys-Elbow-Universal-Immobilizer/dp/B004QJK8US/ref=pd_bxgy_121_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=KV976FVE9XD80TX2G89K

They work good and after months my arms stopped going numb in the middle of the night. Its a bit awkward to sleep with my arms at a 30 degree angle or so all night but its worth it not to wake up with arm pain. x_x

I do like sleeping with a pillow in between my knees too. It seems to help keep my posture good while I side sleep and it adds a bit more comfort.

Heh, I sleep with a pillow between my legs/knees as well. It's really good for managing back pain if you suffer from it as it keeps your spine straighter (and it's actually a lot more comfortable too, my knees used to hurt in the morning when I didn't use one. Now they don't). Sadly my back has been killing me over the last few days since I can't sleep like I normally do (this inclined sleeping fucking sucks. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll be able so sleep normally again (pain is mostly gone so lying on my left side shouldn't be a problem, right side will still be an issue for awhile)).

I just read an article about unemployment. Apparently with the stimulus package you can get an extra $600 a week on top of whatever you'd get from unemployment for 4 months.

https://www.businessinsider.com/stimulus-package-unemployment-benefits-increase-2020-3

That seems like alot of money. I'm guessing its so people can get the COBRA insurance and be able to afford health insurance. I'm guessing alot of people wont do that and will bank the money instead. Get that unemployment ASAP @Strider Hiryu there might be weekly cut off dates for when you can apply. I hope you get the max benefit you can.

Yeah thats fucking shit. I was a bit worried for you when you said No more "planned" layoffs. I've been there, and I hate that fucking word. Cobra is so expensive. I remember getting the package when my store was shut down, and I was like "I guess I'll just risk it" I couldn't blame anyone for banking that money. That's groceries and gas, and whatever you can put to the side.

Retail sucks, but I'm glad I work it in right now. Hopefully you can catch on, I know around this region of the country not only are the retailers hiring like crazy but so are the distributors. Maybe Coca-Cola or a beer distributor is worth looking into? I know Coke is starting people at $18 an hour with no experience here, which is extremely high for this city.

@SledgstoneYea I'm currently looking into the unemployment but since my state is so god damn slow they haven't put into place the COVID measures yet. I'll be filing a claim next week as I'm still technically getting paid for next week but I'll try my luck and hope the COVID measures are in place (and there are weekly cut off dates, I have until 11:59 pm Saturday of the week I'm trying to get benefits for). Fuck we're one of the 10 or so states that hasn't even implemented shelter at home policies (because our Governor is a fucking idiot) so I'm honestly not that surprised. COBRA is something I'll only if necessary, I have some job leads but I have until the end of the month until I have to worry about that (plus I won't get the COBRA packet till then anyways).

@DeathscytheXYea you said it. I saw the writing on the wall yesterday pretty early based on how people were acting and my Production Lead (the guy under my supervisor) said he thought they were doing layoffs again so I had somewhat of a heads up (even if I did think I was safe). Fucking Supervisor vanished like a fart in the wind about an hour before the layoffs happened so I'm pretty fucking sure he's the reason why I was chosen (he's new and I don't think he honestly liked me all that much, damn my issues with authority (j/k but I'm still pretty sure he didn't like me)). I find it funny though, they fucked my department over massively as I'm the only one who was trained to do my job so I wish them luck in getting shit done the right way (plus they let go of another person in my department that I know of so that leaves them down to two people right now). Really hope it bites them in the fucking ass (yea, I'm a vengeful guy).

Luckily I have some job leads already and put in one application today to Menards (the Midwest's wests version of Lowes/Home Depot even though we also have them. My mother works there and she's going to try and see if she can get me hired). With my 11 years of retail experience I'm pretty sure I can get in as long as they're still hiring (as far as I know they are). I might see if I can't get into a local internet provider as a field tech as I have some training in that field as well (plus one is hiring, I just need to get a hold of the company).

Sadly none of the distributors in my area are hiring (was one of the first things I checked yesterday). I'll chat with one of my distributor friends and see if his company is hiring (they're pretty much a distributor of multiple things (beer, soda, etc)) and also see if he can put in a good word for me (I've known him for years so I'm sure he will). Honestly most of the jobs in my area are linked to the oil field so with them down it's hard as fuck to find anything but scraps for work (and I mean scraps, $12 an hour or less depending on what it is. I can't afford to live on that wage).

If worse comes to worse I'll just do construction until something else comes up. One of the local construction companies is hiring general laborers right now and I don't mind that kind of work (I just need to be trained).

@slippersThanks, taking it one day at a time.

Overall though I'm not that worried right now. I have plenty of money saved up and while losing my health and dental insurance at the end of the month is going to suck I'll get by. I can always defer my student loan payments and save quite a bit of money for a few months (not ideal as I've done it before but you gotta do what you gotta do). It's times like these that I'm glad I'm extremely cheap and frugal with my money (I never eat out (rarely order pizza), I buy maybe 2-3 games a year (though this will mean I probably won't be getting Ghost of Tsushima right when it comes out and I might have to cancel my Cyberpunk pre-order if this unemployment carries on too long), and I've cut way back on the amount of anime I buy now (only doing one order a year)).

In the end was one of my favorite songs. So many anime amvs were made based on it. RIP.

Never was a fan, but I remember how big they were when i was in high school. Still sad to hear.

Sounds great! Good luck with those 10 hour days. I've had 2 jobs where I've done four 10 hour days in a row. Its great at first but after 6 months that schedule started wrecking me with eye strain.

While I'm not overly excited by 10 hour days the three days off makes up for it plus I've done it more than a few times (I've done back to back 13 hour days before, those are a lot rougher the 10 hour days back to back).

Damn. Screw 13 hour days. x_x

I'm pretty much Pigpen from Peanuts when I get off work. I literally look like all I did all day was roll in dirt, oil, and whatever else I come across (not to mention sweaty as all hell, my job is pretty messy). That won't stop me from going shopping after work (which I fully intend to do tomorrow once I get off), the people of Walmart can suffer for all I care (they made me suffer for for 4 years while I worked there now it's there turn).

Oh I'll make time for Overwatch, no need to worry there (just need to buy it first). I'll just cut out Twitch/Youtube watching that night (I'm sure I can miss watching Matt's stream for one night) and it's pretty much a guarantee I'll be playing it every weekend once I'm done with FFXIV business. I can't promise no 6 hour play sessions like our TF2 adventure, I'll pass out before we finish

Being that dirty is nothing compared to some of the farmers I've seen shop at my local grocery store when they get off work. I've seen them come in with cow manure crusted up to their knees. If they bend over to pick something up it'll break the crust and all the fresh stink fills the entire store.

Oh god I hated when farmers came in like that when I still worked at Walmart. Thankfully I grew up around farms/ranches so I'm somewhat immune to the smell (still doesn't help when you smell it for the first time in years, damn near knocks ya out).

I just looked at a couple quick pics of it since I haven't heard about this series before. Good looking mechs, not everyone is a kid.. I'll try this series.

Sounds intriguing.

Extremely interesting and has by far one of the most interesting Zakus and by far one of the coolest Gundam designs to  come from the OYW.

They definitely could have done a lot better with it. You pretty much covered it all. Its entertaining all the way through if you just take it for what it is. I always wonder what popular classics wouldn't have reached their cult status if critics and content creators had as much influence today as back then when they were non existent. Not saying that Asuka would be considered a masterpiece if it was from that time or anything.

Now Alf died.

Jesus Christ, 2016 is being a real fucking bitch.

I ended up starting out with Archer, purely for thigh highs . Nah, in reality I always play tank classes so I decided to go with something different. But I've barely put in any combat, mostly just running errands right now. I will say this game is fucking beautiful. I do like how the movement controls are like GW2. Sweet Christmas its rare to find an MMO that doesn't rely on an action camera or the mouse cursor to turn your character/camera rather than A/S/Q/E. I think Blade and Soul would induce my vertigo because I'd fidget the mouse while in combat making the camera sway back and forth. 

Archer is pretty fun to play, especially once it becomes Bard (it's a blast at 80 from what I hear which is great because Bard is my 4th favorite job to play after Samurai, Ninja, and Scholar (still need to level it to 80 though)). Lucky for you the trial goes until level 35 so you can unlock Bard and try it out (as well as any other class and job that's not locked behind an expansion (Dark, Astro, and Machinist are locked behind Heavensward. Samurai and Red Mage behing Stormblood. Dancer and Gunbreaker behind Shadowbringers)). I'll warn you though the ARR content is a rough grind through (it's fun in the early game but gets tedious as fuck once you clear the main story of ARR) and causes a lot of potential new players to quit due to the sheer content to go through.

Not going to lie with the tank changes they are so much more fun to play then they ever have been. Sadly you're stuck to Glad/Paladin and Mara/Warrior but both have their fun aspects if you want to try out a tank (I prefer Paladin since I like to solo old content but Warrior is a freaking beast in the right hands).

Hmm, must be your router settings then. I dl'd all of Shadowbringers in 20 minutes on a 6-12 mb dl (after I had to fuck with my setting because it kept killing itself, didn't stay constant). Then again you were downloading the entirety of ARR which is pretty fucking huge (Shadowbringers was only 7.5 gigs or so).

I honestly think you'll enjoy it once you start getting further along. Dungeons are a blast to play through and the story is pretty fucking good in ARR (not Shadowbringers good sadly but still good. Sadly a lot of the quests are rather repetitive but what quests aren't in an MMO). Plus the community is awesome and most people are always willing to help you out if you need it (don't know what server you're on but for the most part every server is full of helpful and friendly people).

I do like that there is kill credit for enemies someone else engages. Not quite like GW2 where you get full XP, but better than every other MMO outside of these two. Repetitive quests for me only get bad when you're fighting with someone else to kill things to complete it. I also have to get use to how armor works. I totally screwed by picking a hooded chest peice not knowing you can't wear head gear when its equipped. I regret it mostly because it looks like trash and I only picked it for its higher stats. But meh, It'll be replaced soon enough.

I dunno if it was my router settings. GW2 updates download at 10mbps. Anything outside of a launcher downloads at 60-100mph. Launchers have always downloaded way slower than my internet speed. I just figured it was launchers.

I don't remember E being terribly hard but then again by the time I did it, I was probably on my 6th play through (or 2nd depending on how you look at it) and a really high level. My build focused around no staggering and HP regen off damage. I pretty much was unkillable after I came up with my chip sets. I think I got rid of most of the UI except the HP bar in favor of bigger chips for combat. It was pretty much god mode after awhile as the game stops scaling after very few cycles and everything fold over like paper, even bosses. I was level 80 I believe last I played, I was tempted to get to 99 to fight the secret boss, but after 60 hours, I couldn't find time to invest in it anymore. (I probably had a good 15+ play throughs with zero skips via chapter select)

I fully agree about A2. I really wish the 3rd play through was more dedicated to her. Instead we got a play through an a half of 9S. The game would have been even better if you could character swap at any time during 2B/9S's story, and only made you play 9S when necessary on play through 2. Every facet of the story was amazing, Hell even some of the side missions were extremely intriguing, especially the ones you just stumble upon by chance. But 9S's playstyle was just so dull. The hacking thing was cool until it got repetitive outside the larger maze story driven ones. They should have given 2B an extra ability like A2's overdrive mode (can't remember what it was called atm), and let 9S have weapon swap while hacking just may provide a debuff on larger enemies rather than just blowing them up and making him extremely OP.

I know it will never happen, but damn I'd love a prequel that focused on A2 and the Commander. The world is so interesting, I'd love to dive into it again. I loved the game so much I got every weapon upgraded to max and each pod which was a fucking repetitive grind from hell. The music was definitely everything, They completely made the tower sequence, and the cult factory sequence which was probably my favorite moment of the whole game. My blood was pumping hard through my first play through of that as 2B. (become as gods, become as gods!).

The E ending requires you to literally fight the credits in an Asteriods on crack scenario using the cursor thing from hacking, it was pretty fucking brutal (and of course they play the YoRHa version of Weight of the World so I was trying not to ugly cry). Only reason I beat it is because you have the option of having backup help you in the form of other people's save data spawning in as more cursors to act as a shield (which gets lost if they're destroyed, sorry to all of you who sacrificed your save data for me. I really appreciate it and you are definitely the MVPs of the game. Sadly I didn't offer up my save data as I'm going to slowly work on getting all the trophies now (which will require me to get to level 99 and get all weapons fully upgraded, damn you boss who I shall not name)). Boy do they ever leave it open for a sequel though (unless he's going to use the XIV collab as a pseudo-sequel).

My build focused mostly on health regen in and out of combat with minor boosts in melee strength and evade range increase. I spent more time pulling guerilla style attacks and focusing on counter moves and pod usage (as much as they're worthless you can't write off that damage they can put out). It's not overly the best strategy to play with but it worked for me and I only really ran into problems when fighting those EMP machines and the long ass snake like ones. Everything else was a cake walk. I ended at level 61 (I literally level after the last boss before you choose who to back).

You mean Berserk mode? While I liked it (and I still need to get the trophy for it) boy was it a double edged sword with my build. The few times I used it would of ended in death had it not been for the auto-use items chip. 9S could of really used a secondary weapon but I found using Combat Bracers with him to be the best strategy and they're practically long-range weapons and deal a hell of a lot of damage.

You never know, Taro might adapt the stage play into a game (I mean we already know what happens but it'd still be a fun jaunt). All depends on what Platinum and SE have him working on these days outside of the FFXIV collab. I highly doubt he's finished telling the story he set up all the way back in the first Drakengard game.