Strider Hiryu

So more info, Jack was at the reveal (along with LevelCap (he'll probably have a video tomorrow about it)). Sound freaking awesome.

So I need a new change of pants after watching that. So freaking happy DICE went with WWI, this will be a nice change from modern warfare titles..

I say raid dynamic because it's the closest to what the game plays like (at least on escort mode, capture is a whole different story). Honestly only the attacking team (for escort) needs a tank by what I've seen. Defensive teams are okay as long as they have a healer (I just got off of another hour of playing and god my ass handed to me over and over again by 5 dps/1 healer (or I guess more like 4 dps/1 support/1 healer) defensive teams when I was on attack) or some sort of character that can heal (I've seen 2 Soldier 76's keep an entire defensive team up, that's how good his heal is). Sadly though it totally means nothing if you have no teamwork which is why I'm frustrated with this game as most people would rather run off and do their own thing (my last match tonight was a different story, I played Reinhardt and people actually stuck to me and I had a dedicated healer. We still lost before we could start escorting the car but we came extremely close to starting the escort due to my teams ability to stick to the massive guy carrying a massive hammer and the angel chick keeping him alive). Getting kills is not how you win matches, playing the objective is (fuck as Reinhardt I don't go for kills unless it's against another Reinhardt or their is no chance of me dieing since I know I need to keep my team safe). As DX pointed out though it's extremely fun and satisfying when you do get that team that works together though, nothing more satisfying then taking a capture point and winning by a small percentage because you're team wiped the floor by working together. I hope, for all of you who bought it, that these jackasses won't be playing past the beta otherwise they're going to ruin this game. Sadly this is only a problem the community can fix so like I said I hope these bastards get weeded out when they realize this isn't a COD based game.
The whole unemployment thing wouldn't be so bad if there were jobs in this damn town (and for not having a job since the end of March, it's funny how fast money goes when you're unemployed for over a month). First place I applied to interviewed me but decided I wasn't exactly  right for the job and this is the only place out of the other 3 jobs I applied to that showed interest, the only hang up is this problem that popped up (which may take up to two weeks to get rectified). Let me tell you, I was bitching at my old  job that I needed a vacation and now I don't think I'll be taking any time off for a year if this problem gets fixed. There's only so much you can do to keep yourself occupied before you get extremely bored (hence why I'm playing through DA: Inquisition to get it done, might as well capitalize on my newfound free time. Maybe if I beat it quickly enough I can start up MGSV).

I'm a little worried since this team is only know for FPS games. Makes me think this will end up becoming another Battlefront style game down the line (which, after DICE's fuck ups, is something no SW fan wants unless it's done right). However, this could be our hopes of getting the scrapped SW 1313 game or at least a game of a similar premise (a man can hope, 1313 was looking to be the best SW game to come out in years had it actually gotten off the ground (I was extremely hyped for it)).

Meh, I now know why I'm not liking this game. It focuses to much on the raid dynamic of an MMO it's frustrating. Don't get me wrong I love that there is now a shooter out there that focuses on making you work as a team (lets face it, as much as Battlefield pushes the squad thing very few people work as a team) but it's purpose is defeated when everyone and their mom wants to play Genji, Tracer, Widowmaker, Roadhog, Hanzo, or any other damage character in the game. I won one match out of 9 this morning due to idiotic people not wanting to man up and heal or tank. I tried Reinhardt today and he is quite the beast but I learned quickly that without a dedicated healer you're fucked (thank you jackasses that decided we needed two Widowmaker's, a Tracer, a Reaper, and a McCree on our team). I also tried Torbjorn out and I have to admit that guy is a freaking beast if you play him right (I got play of the match when my turret went ham and killed 5 people when I hit my Ult).
I hit my stride with Mercy today and figured out exactly how to play her effectively (netting my first Epic) after someone else decided to play Rein after I picked him. While I agree she needs some sort of shield or armor buff to keep her alive as long as you stick behind the group and team with one person you'll survive (I followed a Pharah on that match I got an epic on and we went complete ham. Switching between heal and damage buff really went a long way for us). My whole major gripe of the day is I didn't get a chance to try any other characters besides the two I mentioned above. I get really frustrated when I get regulated to playing Mercy (as much as I love her) or the tank due to people not wanting to work as a team.
I would try Zenyatta but I feel he's not for me. I can't even juggle dps with heals on Mercy so I honestly don't think I could handle healing, damaging, and debuffing as Zenyatta (though I might try him out later this weekend, I got my ass handed to me by him today so I know he's a powerful character in the right hands).
As fun as I find this game it's bringing out my COD rage from my MW2 days due to lack of teamwork. I prefer Battleborn over this and I will be buying it as soon as I get a job and the money to do so. I'll continue playing the beta until it's over but honestly this game isn't for me. Battleborn has more to offer me then Overwatch does and I get the same gameplay either way (though Overwatch does do a better job with the multiplayer aspect, then again the whole concept was designed and balanced around it) plus I get a single player aspect and 26 completely disturbed and hilarious characters.

Meh, I honestly don't know what to think of this. I just got done with a few matches (where I was regulated to the healing role since apparently no one wanted to do it tonight). While the gameplay is fun something just isn't clicking for me (like I said I honestly don't know what to think about it). I'll be on it quite a bit this weekend when I'm not drowning in DA: Inquisition so I'll post a more comprehensive post detailing my full thoughts on this game (if you guys want to play let me know, due to not currently having a job I have a lot of free time on my hands as I'm currently waiting to hear back from my potential employer (something is delaying my start date so yeah)).
However, since I had the displeasure of being forced to play a healer, I fell in love with Mercy. I learned quite quickly that she or any other healer in the game are pretty much the driving force behind winning matches (a fact I learned in my last match in which we didn't have a healer, we barely won but I feel we could of wiped the floor with the other team had I or someone else been a healer). A tank is worthless without a healer and, as DX said, you get credit for kills if you're healing your team. I feel I did an excellent job keeping my team alive when I wasn't the number 1 target for the other team (almost got two Epics for my healing).
I also love Genji. He's a little off putting due to his weapon of choice (shurikens) but after you get the hang of how they shoot and work he's a great damage role to play. Plus his ultimate is killer if you get in a group of distracted enemies (I took three enemies out the first time I used it). My only gripe is, being a ninja and all, he should have a sprint or a built in increase to his run speed. He's too slow at getting to the objective and can't run away for shit when you need too. Given more time with him I could probably overlook this but I only got a match and a half with him since I manned up and played a healer my first three matches.

Yea bringing back an old topic, don't hate me. Just got finished watching this (again I will not state how) and I'm in love with this movie, by far the best Comic Book Movie ever (and that's saying a lot as I liked Iron Man (the first one) and loved the Nolan Batman Trilogy). Great action, awesome humor, and I have to say they couldn't of picked anyone better to play Deadpool. I can't wait for the sequel/next movie now.

New trailer that doesn't really show much of anything new. Still looks good tho.

I'll admit I do agree with him on some of the points in that article because if you're good enough to program for games or make art for games then you are definitely good enough to strike out on your own and make yourself a success. I know quite a few people who have the programming and artistic chops to start up their own company and make their own games (or even get into more promising careers). Sadly this does not excuse the fact that the industry overworks it's talent, sometimes to the point where people up and leave the industry for good (I've read and seen this happen more often then not, the industry has lost a lot of it's great talent because of the work conditions). This is also the problem with making most of your workforce salary. You can force your workers to work unpaid overtime because their contracts only specify pay for 40 hours a week (a problem I see happening with my father at his job, as a salaried member of management he only gets paid for 40 hours a week but he puts in more than 50 hours most weeks). Programmers, Designers, Producers, and pretty much every job with the exception of Concept artists (unless you work for the company) and most artists in general are salary (almost all art jobs, with the exception of the modelers, are contract based so they're only on the project for 6 months at best to get art done and are left to find another contract. The exception, as I stated, is if you actually work for the developer).
Sadly, if they went to school for this job, the were warned or should of been warned. The teachers I had in college (industry professionals that left to teach) warned us early on that the job was not all people make it out to be. They pretty much said that you have to love making video games to get through all the crap you have to go through. Hell they told us about crunch time, how 80-90 hour work weeks were the norm when you're in the final stretch. Honestly that's part of the reason I haven't pursued a career in the industry. I love video games and I love the creation process but I don't want to get a job making them if it means I lose my love for the very thing I'm making.

It does damage to everything that it's front of her when it goes off. I did notice it's a little buggy in MP but I never played her in story so I'm not sure if it's a story bug or if something just wasn't working right for you. I've generally had not trouble with it (hell 90% of my player kills with her are from her ultimate).
The helix upgrades are a great system and I actually like that it's permanent once you choose it (for the round), it actually makes you think before you randomly choose something. Yea it sucks if the choice works against you but I like it. For MP it's key to make the proper choices so you contribute to the group as a whole (and for someone like Orendi there really is no wrong choice as she's full on DPS, I usually went the glass cannon route with all helix upgrades being spent on dmg increases, faster recast times, and life steal (plus I had 3 epic quality equipment pieces that increased my damage, health and shield regen (plus health received from healing abilities) and increased attack speed)). For the story aspect of the game being able to retrain you talents would be nice but considering how this game is entirely balanced with MP in mind (yea I know story can be soloed but it's obvious that it's balanced for MP play) which is why they I think they made choices permanent.
The story is kind of generic but that's most likely due to the cast of characters. With that many characters to choose from it'd be a nightmare and extremely pricey to record lines for different character reactions. Kind of a ball drop but I was more interested in the MP feature of this game because, while I love it, Siege gets extremely boring when you play by yourself and get in shitty teams (and I'm not the best Siege player in the world) so I need a new MP game to play (and I'm bored of play BF4 and The Division just isn't as fun as I was hoping it'd be, its a great game but in only shines when playing with others and now that I'm endgame I lost pretty much all interest I had in it). Plus the random comments that come out of characters mouths when you're in MP is hilarious (Orendi is by far the best, she's a bloodthirsty little maniac and I love every bit of it). Also the lore section of every character is meant to give you the characters insights into whats going on (the ones I've unlocked for Orendi are hilarious). I also never ran into the time being a problem aspect that you had. I played the story missions with others so we pretty much decimated the missions well before time ran out.
Honestly this probably isn't the best game out there for this type of play style but for me it works. Overwatch looks great but I've been burned by Blizzard to much over the last 10 years that as much as I want to play this game I feel it'll be a disappointment for me (I'll reserve full judgement for the open beta). I like slower TTK games if they're done right and Battleborn was done right (like Siege). It's not to fast but it's not too slow (depending on what character you play you can kill other characters extremely fast (Orendi absolutely slaughters and can one shot people, Marquis is probably the best dps character in the game with his cane sniper rifle (I've seen players absolutely slaughter the entire enemy team with him), Thorn is a beast if you take the right Helix upgrades and understand what role she plays in the game (I like her but I will admit she has a steep learning curve), and I can't say much about the others as I really didn't get to try them)). It has a story based aspect to it which has me sold because I don't like buying games for multiplayer alone as I feel I'm not getting my money's worth (which is why I quit buying COD besides it completely sucking now, the story/sp always sucks) which is one reason why I'm skeptical about Overwatch. I also like that you can't have more then one of the same hero on the same side, it actually adds balance to the game. Sure it sucks when you can't play you're favorite hero or the hero you are absolutely great at playing but it forces you to try other characters. If it wasn't for that I would never have tried Orendi, Galilea (tank), or Reyna (support). I absolutely suck at playing a tank in MOBA's but I did extremely well playing as Galilea the other day (mostly because she's more of a dps tank then an actual tank). I also suck at support classes but the best match I had throughout the entire beta was when I played as Reyna. I was made to go outside my comfort zone and found that it's actually fun to play as a different role and made me get good with other characters so I don't rage quit like my old days of DotA (I always rage quit when I couldn't be the Drow Ranger, mostly because most people wouldn't let me play as her do to my reputation of steamrolling entire teams when I played as her). Like I said not for everyone but I enjoy Battleborn, sadly I won't be able to buy it for awhile.

Its really a catch 22. You can say its not a real job, but neither is sports or acting. Look how much those industry workers make. Gaming is the largest media entertainment industry currently.... but a lot of it survives on taking losses and making up the profits elsewhere. Improving the working conditions and pay would definitely increase the price we pay at the counter.
I don't really buy the "start your own company if you're so good" argument. Maybe 20 years ago this would have been valid. Indy games are a dime a dozen, but very few ever get any hype. Activision and EA own everything, and they will buy you if see any success... (how can you really turn down millions of dollars, and publishing you don't have to deal with or manage expenses for?) then you're back at square one with deadlines, budgets, and the working conditions you made your own company to get away from. Hell, look what happened to Bungie.  Just because you make good games, doesn't mean you'll make it in a time where media sites and bought and paid for cranking out 9/10 scores for COD. You're alternative is underselling your game on Steam while others pirate the shit out of it. Kojima is another example... hes such a legend, he didn't need to adhere to timelines. He was that damn good, and Konami kicked him to the curb.
Its a rough industry for sure. Even if you can get through all that BS, you have a extremely negative and self entitled fanbase whom are all armchair devs that think they know how to make your game better than you did. They swarm reddit with constant crying and threats never to buy another one of your products if you don't patch your game to benefit their play style over other players... to which even big developers cave to.  Gone are the days of getting better at a game, just get enough people to cry OP on something that can easily be countered by changing up your play style and BOOM, nerf incoming.

I'll admit I do agree with him on some of the points in that article because if you're good enough to program for games or make art for games then you are definitely good enough to strike out on your own and make yourself a success. I know quite a few people who have the programming and artistic chops to start up their own company and make their own games (or even get into more promising careers). Sadly this does not excuse the fact that the industry overworks it's talent, sometimes to the point where people up and leave the industry for good (I've read and seen this happen more often then not, the industry has lost a lot of it's great talent because of the work conditions). This is also the problem with making most of your workforce salary. You can force your workers to work unpaid overtime because their contracts only specify pay for 40 hours a week (a problem I see happening with my father at his job, as a salaried member of management he only gets paid for 40 hours a week but he puts in more than 50 hours most weeks). Programmers, Designers, Producers, and pretty much every job with the exception of Concept artists (unless you work for the company) and most artists in general are salary (almost all art jobs, with the exception of the modelers, are contract based so they're only on the project for 6 months at best to get art done and are left to find another contract. The exception, as I stated, is if you actually work for the developer).
Sadly, if they went to school for this job, the were warned or should of been warned. The teachers I had in college (industry professionals that left to teach) warned us early on that the job was not all people make it out to be. They pretty much said that you have to love making video games to get through all the crap you have to go through. Hell they told us about crunch time, how 80-90 hour work weeks were the norm when you're in the final stretch. Honestly that's part of the reason I haven't pursued a career in the industry. I love video games and I love the creation process but I don't want to get a job making them if it means I lose my love for the very thing I'm making.

I tried the Incursion on hard today, and it was insanely difficult... we didn't beat it, much less get past the 5th wave. My gear score was well above the recommended but the purples felt like challenge mode yellows. Sadly, what everyone feared has happened, the majority of the difficulty is due to endlessly spammed instakill nades. And the radius on them are so big that 2 dodges are barely enough to get out of them if you're in the wrong place. I wish they would have came up with a better mechanic. For a cover based shooter, they've done everything to circumvent the cover system. I'd prefer super hard hitting enemies rather than nade spam. It diminishes the smart cover ability that no one ever uses, along with riot shield, mobile cover, and just about everything except sticky bomb, support station, and first aid. Its a shame because all the other stuff seems cool like the new drone enemies... but nope, spam the dodge button and hope for the best.

Another issue that's really pissed off players is how fast they nerfed challenge mode. Apparently when the patch went live, the CM boss dropped 4 HE items. This was nerfed pretty fast as an "unintended" bug. The main source of anger comes from the fact that the patch deleted some people's characters on Xbone, and there is a glitch tied to the One is None perk where basically your gun jams and you cant reload it..... yet getting too much loot was immediately nerfed with no foreseeable fix on real issues. The crafting nerf makes it even worse since CM is time consuming and the HE drops are shit gear score teir, it was basically mat fodder... which was fine, but now you're better off doing hard mode and getting HE drops just as well. CM only advantage is pCreds. But with the buff to DZ06 you can gain them faster killing named bosses and getting good tier HE drops.
Well the patch is not all bad. The Special Vendor now has all the old DZ blueprints and they no longer require D-Tech to make. I bought the MP5 and rolled it 10 times until I got a good one... but now all my damn mats are gone and its hell to get them back up. He also sells the new gear set blue prints which I picked up the mask for. (went with Strikers Gear). I could have picked up the knee pads too but I wanted that MP5 so bad I couldn't wait. After buying the new gun parts blue prints and a chest piece I blew all 700+ pCreds I had. It's nice that they are making the gear set's so readily available. I could get a few more blue prints when I finally hit DZ rank 50, or I can get lucky on CM or Incursions.
The Daily/Weekly system is nice. But they do mix in DZ so if you want to get all your dailies and the weekly, but you don't like the DZ, then your SOL. I actually ran into the new DZ supply drop today, it fell right on us and we engaged the enemies... then a few clowns came up and tried to take us out going rogue. We took the crate and wiped them which was pretty funny, but the crate was garbage loot. Its not something I'll be actively looking to participate in. I'd rather just kill my 50 cleaners for the weekly and get out. I did pick up a nice HE SOCOM M1A... so the guaranteed HE drops are paying off for DZ play for sure... but that's basically the problem solo players have. They're pushing the DZ for the best chance at loot.

That'll depend on the demand for another FFVII game. Crisis Core did well on the PSP but I think that mostly has to do with the fact that you got to play as Zach and learn more about the inner workings of the Soldier program (plus learning more about Seph before he went nuts was probably another selling point). DoC was complete shit by what I've heard. I never played it but most people I talked to say it was a complete waste of time and money. Advent Children was an interesting venture for SE, something they never did and it worked very well for them. Even I liked the movie even if I didn't like the source material. Fans are fickle and FF7 fans are the most fickle ones I know of. If they do this right, make minor changes to the story, keep the combat system engaging and easy to understand (since they're scrapping the original), and keep the characters as they were they'll probably have all the demand in the world for another group of sequels. While that's good for some that will mean less, more meaningful titles for other fans. As much as I know it'll never happen I want an old school FF to be made. I really am not a fan of these real-time battle systems and linear ass maps. I want an old school JRPG with an open world to explore and an engaging original story (which I don't have time to play but I'd like to see it come back), not another game sequel that uses an already established story to bring in more money (FFX-2 wasn't that great of a game and FFXIII-2 and 3 were complete garbage from what I've seen and heard).

The more I play this the more I want it. I started playing as Orendi (the little multi-armed caster) tonight and she's a hoot. She's bat shit crazy (and I mean bat shit crazy, some of the things she says are down right nuts (and completely hilarious)), her ultimate can damn near one shot most heroes if it hits just right (hell I got a double kill with it the first time I used her), and all of her abilities complement her play style so well (she's pretty much a glass cannon on crack as she moves extremely fast and has little to no health (though she does have shields, the one thing Thorn does not have)).
I forgot to mention I tried out Montana in one of the story missions. While he's probably not going to be my first choice of character to use (even if he is extremely funny) he's just to slow and cumbersome for my tastes. Plus he does little to no damage (even though that minigun puts out a lot of rounds before it overheats) but then again he is a tank. With the right player he can be devastating but for me I just end up getting surrounded and slaughtered when I play him.
I think the Beta is going that long because PS4 users got it first while everyone else gets it on the 13th. Good for us, bad for everyone else.

There is a campaign and you can play the first two missions in the beta. I personally haven't done the two story missions yet (probably tomorrow) but it's multiplayer based (like Titanfall) or you could go private and do it yourself but I think they're really pushing the whole mp thing so it's probably balanced around a party of 5 (and by what I could tell it is a horde mode based thing but like I said I won't really know more until I give it a try). I think they're going to push the PVP aspect more because it's a hero arena but at least they included a campaign to give you the basic premise of the story and whats going on, which I believe will be absent from Overwatch (and is absent from every other MOBA out there, they have backstories and what have you but they don't have a campaign to help explain it and you're hero's role in that story).
This trailer actually give you a better look at the background story and actually introduces the whole cast of characters unlike that other character video. I'm honestly considering getting it but only if I'm not satisfied with the gameplay Overwatch has to offer. Its been along time since I've been into a MOBA type game like this and this reminds me a lot of the original DotA with a first person twist (and the ability to build, upgrade, and maintain turrets and AI mobs (DotA never had this nor do any other MOBA's that I know of)).
 

Don't know if any of you have been following this game or are interested in it but I tried the open beta out for it today. I'm actually impressed with this game based on what little time I actually spent playing it (it might help that the team I played on completely smashed the other team). It's fun, the characters are hilarious (they say random shit during matches when they meet certain characters and what not), it's quite easy to understand, and honestly I love the art style (which is weird because I normally don't like this type of art). This, I think, will be Overwatch's major competitor for players until Lawbreakers hits the scene but I'm going to reserve my final judgement until I play the Overwatch Open Beta to see which one is better in my opinion. I'd suggest, if you have the time, to dl and try out the beta. It runs until Tuesday if I'm not mistaken. Thorn, the only character I played, is awesome btw. She wrecks face once you get here up to level 7 and above.
Trailers:
 

I'm officially hyped about this movie. Jaw dropped when I saw the trailer two days ago. Can't wait to see what this movie actually entails and what it will mean for more Star Wars movies in the future.

Interesting change, it's definitely going to take some time to get used to this new look (though I do like how sleek it makes the forums look).
Boo for the no friends, it took me a long time to get 6 friends here and now they're gone ;_; (j/k)

Damn this looks great!

Honestly I don't know. Considering Thrawn was the only Chiss that served in the Empire (well Palpatine's Empire, there were plenty that served the Sith Empire during TOR's time) and considering he was the only Chiss we'd ever met prior to The Old Republic being released I'm pretty sure his species and Thrawn himself were thrown out with the rest of the EL (also, Thrawn was never mentioned in the movies so as far as Disney would be concerned he doesn't exist in the new canon. He was only in the books and games (serving under him in Tie Fighter was awesome)). It'd be completely awesome if Thrawn just randomly shows up in the next movie, bitch slaps Snoke, takes control over the First Order and then completely wipes the floor with the Resistance (yea, I'm an Imperial groupie). Yea it won't happen but a man can dream can't he?
 
I've never really read the books so I only know his personality and characteristics from Wookiepedia and what my friend told me about him. I know his men followed him unconditionally due to the respect they had for him, he was a true Imperial and would do anything to bring it back to prominence and his men understood this. Plus he always rewarded those who tried, as you said, to follow there orders to the best of there ability. He never outright killed anyone for disobeying or failing him like Vader did (which is why Vader had complete control, as awesome as Vader was he wasn't exactly the more inspiring man in the galaxy). My thing is that considering how the EL was thrown out the door the Empire at the time of it's defeat was extremely xenophobic which is why you never saw any alien officers or stormtroopers (Thrawn was the one exception). By the time of his rise to power what was left of the Empire was more accepting and allowing aliens to freely join which is why I think he became the figurehead they all were drawn too (plus the whole being awesome thing helped a lot). Hell the 501st legion, a legion made up of entirely clone troopers that had served with Vader during the Clone Wars and after, started letting in aliens and rank and file humans into it's ranks around this time but that's neither here nor there. At the time of Palpatine's and Vader's deaths no one would of followed him except those under his direct command which is why he'd of had to of been more ruthless then he actually was to take control of the Empire.
 

I thought Affleck did great. Its a much darker Batman. Since he is older, the years have taken their toll mentally and emotionally. His sense of justice has been warped. Like I said, hardcore Batman fans may have a hard time coping with it, leading them to trash his performance. Its a very bitter Bruce Wayne. He kills it when he puts on the suit and fights. The brawl between him and Supes is spectacular because of Affleck's emotional build up to it. They also pulled it off so well to make it believable as to how Bats can go toe to toe with the man of steel. I think he pulled off what Bale tried to do.
Wonder Woman was f'n amazing. It didn't steal the show. It couldn't, she had an embarrassingly small amount of screen time. But It will definitely get you hyped for the stand alone movie. I had huge doubts about Gadot that were mostly appearance. She looked way too skinny in pics when she first was announced. She looked fantastic on screen.

Those are all great points and I agree with all of them. We were given so little info and so many open plot lines that I just hope these things actually get answered. The starkiller base really seems implausible for all the reasons you said. It would have made alot more sense if the first order had made the sun crusher from one of the novels. A single 1 person ship instead of a giant planet, dark energy nonsense, etc.. a single ship and they could have gotten the same amount of destruction done.
 

Problem is that thinking also makes you miss out on some stuff with anime based on manga. While most anime filler or original episodes aren't that great you still miss out on stuff some of which might improve the original story (it's rare, I know but that type of thinking also makes you miss things) but that's neither here nor there I just wanted to point that out.
 
Now for spoilers again.