DeathscytheX

Sony made the first announcement, but MS makes the first reveal. The Next Generation kicks off next holiday season.

Oh man you can have Ichiya in the party?!?!?! I might have to get it now.

Looks neat. Kinda feels like Stranger Things: Ghostbusters Edition.

While I agree the 725 is still OP, the M4 doesn't need a nerf. Meh, its just this games M16/FAMAS/ACR/UMP45 etc. It's a jack of all trades gun, but it doesn't have the TTK of the AK or Oden. Anyone with better aim is going to beat the M4 9/10 times, and those same players aren't dumb enough to challenge long range with these weapons. People have moved away from the camping double claymores. Of course I don't play TDM, but it was prevalent in Domination and Headquarters. Less so now I guess that people unlocked their camo challenges and what not and people have started playing the game.  I still don't love FPS as much as I use to, but I enjoy a few hours here and there. I use to be able to sit in front of the TV for 12 hours straight and never get tired of it.
The Battle Pass system is pretty good as it is now. Apparently in BO4 they started out good and got shitty soon after. We'll see how it goes. There are 100 tiers That will take you 200 hours to complete. I think the first 80 are free? I could be wrong but it goes up to a certain amount and then you have to buy a battle pass upgrade to get the last however many tiers. These last tiers are cosmetic only, and you can choose to buy at any given time instead of the start. That way if you're a dedicated player but you ran short on time one season due to personal life issues, you don't have to spend your COD points to upgrade if you know you wont make it all the way through the tiers. The 2 weapons will take about 20 hours to get someone calculated as they're both sub 30 tier. Basically it takes longer to get to the max soft cap rank 55 than to obtain these weapons so I feel like thats pretty fair. The question is what will they do when the season is over? Will they sell them individually if you missed out on the free period? Basically you don't have to spend a dime and just play an hour a day for 2 months to get the weapons is what it breaks down too. People are still complaining about that, but if you aren't playing MP for at least 20 hours in 2 months why did you even buy this game? If you're an ultra hard core COD fan, you can grind out the whole battle pass and get more COD points than you put into it and buy the next one with your earnings. So in theory if all you do is play COD you won't have to spend any money outside of the  season 1 battle pass premium purchase. All of this sounds too good to be true for Activision  
The store is where they decided to be douchebags. They have cosmetic bundles that are around $15-20 each. They come with an operator skin, weapon charm, some stickers, a blue print (a gun skin), and maybe a calling card or emblem. The price isn't the issue, the issue is you can only see what they show you, and if you want more options you have to buy a bundle for a new one to appear in that spot. Apparently they rotate out every 24 hours, but you could be waiting days or weeks to get the one you want. Impatient people will spend a ton of money just to get the one they want to rotate into the store. I mean more power too them, but it seems like thats a small minority of players. They'd make more money just letting people pick whatever they want overall and the whales are gonna whale regardless. I think XclusivelyAce, without mentioning it directly, noticed that patent matchmaking in affect. COD has Score Based Match Making... basically trying to keep you at a 50% W/L 1.0 KDR. People hate it and IW has refused to acknowledge its there.... honestly git gud though. I've started tearing off some 38-6's 21-4's here and there. Its possible, its just not gonna be every match. Anyways Ace basically stated once he bought a bunch of skin bundles he noticed he started getting lobbies with scrubs that were oblivious to any type of map awareness and he was just stomping people into the ground. Basically he was put into less skilled lobbies so people could see his bling in their kill cams.
The game isn't perfect, but I think is pretty enjoyable. It's better than anything I've played since Black Ops 2, but it doesn't quite beat anything before that.... except MW3... that was utter trash.

I'm really hyped for this. The first one was super enjoyable even though the end was mad cheese. Hopefully they don't do that this time. Gal Gadot is so pretty and kicks ass. They really couldn't have picked a better actor for this role.

After a long time, I finally put the themes back up. There was a black friday sale and I got the themes renewed at 50% off which was a nice bonus. I'll update the background images at some point.

This series never fails to deliver such beautiful music. I'm glad they stuck with S1's opener as rare as that is these days. But this ED is so good.
 

I've been wanting to play the Titanfall 2 campaign.

Well I guess since its the hottest meme on the internet right now the big spoiler is pretty much unavoidable at this point. I'll still not mention it.
Ep 2 wasn't bad, but it was def more of a set up and build ep. Ep 3 was worth that build. BTW its 8 eps not 6, so wait 2 more weeks than originally I said.
The small bit that was awesome though was vibroblades! They made a quick appearance this ep.

I would say this would induce a bigger backlash than Diablo Immortal, but I don't think enough people even care about Half-Life anymore to get mad about it.

Since its only 6 eps it shouldn't be hard to keep the quality up. Honestly it's for the best. With only a series budget rather than a blockbuster film budget they'll be forced to cut corners and be more innovative than just relying on green screens. They'll have to be more traditional in their approach. I can totally look pass some spotty CGI for the really good practicals they had.
Oh the quality of the cartoon is absolute ass. I watched the first ep and even with its original aspect ratio... being stretched on a big smart TV it looks rough. You'd basically need to get an old school 20in CRT TV to see it in its best quality.

Let me preface this by saying that I've never played Dark Souls or that style of game. After talking with some friends who have, let me state that if you don't like Dark Souls or that type of game, this game is probably not for you.
I didn't know what to expect coming into this. The devs said DS was their inspiration and they've seemed to borrow heavily from the mechanics. When you start the game it asks you to pick a difficulty. There is Story, Normal, Hard, and Jedi Master I believe? Each difficulty has a set of meters to show you what you're getting into. Story being the easiest has the parry timing meter maxed out, and the damage taken really low. So even if you don't like DS games but you want to experience the story, they are accommodating to that. Basically the harder the difficulty the more damage you take and hitting the parry moves are unforgiving if you mistime it.
Combat is slow and methodical. You must block, dodge, parry, and choose when you attack. Only the most basic enemies can you slice down without much thought. And there aren't many of those unless they're served as fodder to allow the bigger enemies to try to get a hit in on you while you're distracted. At least at first. As I gain more force abilities I've noticed combat against mobs is getting easier. But to start out you only have an ability to slow a single target. You can block almost everything, but at the cost of a stamina meter. Which I've only ran out of once so far. Each enemy type has an unblockable attack. When this triggers they'll glow red letting you know you must parry. I'd say you can only get 2-3 swings of your saber in at a time before having to evade or parry. The bigger beasts I don't have much problem with, but Storm Troopers with rocket launchers are bullshit. They're always far away on a pearch shooting rockets while you're occupied with smaller enemies. Rockets hurt, and they can't be dodged or deflected. You just have to back roll or run away out of the blast. The only advantage is that they may accidentally shoot their own men and kill them saving you a little bit of time. One other gripe I have is trying to parry on a narrow area. This game doesn't have many if any invisable walls or any kind of mechanic that will assist you from falling off the edge. Sometimes fights take place on narrow structures and when you parry, if you do it just a little wrong you'll fall off the side and die. Also leveling up results in skill points. There are no true levels, but if you get killed by someone/thing in between skill points you lose all that XP. You can go back and hit the enemy that killed you to get all the XP back, but it has a time limit on.
Save locations act as your place to spend skill points and "rest". The HP system relies on healing canisters that as far as I can see only replenish when you choose rest at these areas. It will also refill your HP bar. When you do this it will also respawn every enemy you've killed in the area. You'll have to choose wisely on if full HP is helpful too you. For the most part these points are placed well for the pace of the story, but a few are a bit of an asshole. So far every map has had places I can't get into until I get the right force powers. While fighting mechanics can be stressful, I'd say the game is 70% puzzles and exploring and 30% battle. With that you'll find hidden chests with health cannister expansions and cosmetics. The light saber has 5 different customizable parts, and your outfit, BD1, and your ship can all be skinned by things you find in the chest.
Its an interesting experience by far for me. I never wanted to play a DS style game but here I am, it will probably be the only one.
 

The first ep was really good. The practical effects are on par with the movies and they need to stick with it for the most part. The CGI was good until they had characters ride on CG creatures and it kind fell apart. Clearly the characters were CGed in these shots causing some slightly jarring effects. Even stationary though it looked like prequel level aged effects. However some one of the biggest CGI pieces near the start looked superb, and all the ship and planet stuff looked movie quality. The story set up was really good, the action sequences were awesome, and there was some old style star wars dry humor which I appreciated. I hope they stick with that and not the forced new age irl slang that just clashes with the SW universe.
If you want to wait 6 weeks for the show to be over just to use the free trial and binge it, don't search anything related to the series. The end of the ep was a doozy and the spoiler has exploded with anything related to the show.
On a side note D+ has the 90s X-Men and Spiderman cartoons... all of it.

The first ep was really good. The practical effects are on par with the movies and they need to stick with it for the most part. The CGI was good until they had characters ride on CG creatures and it kind fell apart. Clearly the characters were CGed in these shots causing some slightly jarring effects. Even stationary though it looked like prequel level aged effects. However some one of the biggest CGI pieces near the start looked superb, and all the ship and planet stuff looked movie quality. The story set up was really good, the action sequences were awesome, and there was some old style star wars dry humor which I appreciated. I hope they stick with that and not the forced new age irl slang that just clashes with the SW universe.
If you want to wait 6 weeks for the show to be over just to use the free trial and binge it, don't search anything related to the series. The end of the ep was a doozy and the spoiler has exploded with anything related to the show.
On a side note D+ has the 90s X-Men and Spiderman cartoons... all of it.

You'd be surprised. Hell Shion no Ou is an anime about shogi and its fucking amazing (though it does have other plot elements going on). Aria is a show about cute girls with gondolas and it's amazing. It's funny how the Japanese can take something that seems mediocre and turn in into the best damn thing you've never done.
Might as well leave one myself. Probably my favorite OP out the this season's new offerings (I don't count Fire Force's new one (though it is a banger, still like the first OP better)). Hell for a bonus here's the ED as well (my favorite of this season).
I don't know what it is about this show but I love everything that's going on in it from the story, characters, and the music. I definitely wasn't thinking this show would become a favorite of mine when I heard of it and I'm glad to say it has become my favorite of the season.

Wasn't a particularly memoriable anime, but the opening was really good.
This is probably one of the most under the radar series going right now. I dunno how a show about playing a Koto can be so damn good, but it really is. The character development is what makes this show what it is along with the music. The opening melody is so beautiful too. Season 2's OP is pretty good, but this one is just magical.

TL;DR Its a typical Kojima game, heavy on cutscenes, compelling story, and slow methodical gameplay that will enhance as you gain more tools and abilities.
The game takes Nier Automata's online connectivity to another level, allowing players to share equipment and items. Vehicles, safe houses, post boxes, and generators others construct/abandoned can be used by other players in their instance in certain areas of the world. Lost packages can be found and delivered as well. Post boxes act as communal points where players can leave items no longer needed for other players to use.

So after having done the Nier raid twice now I definitely have to say the FFXIV team and Yoko Taro knocked it our of the fucking park. This is probably my favorite 24-man in the entirety of XIV and favorite story based raid in the entire game. The boss fights are extremely fun and interesting, the enemies are well modeled and varied to say the least (some of which don't appear in Automata (they might as I still haven't beaten it yet but from what I could tell quite a few of them are original to this raid)), and that soundtrack is fucking amazing (the final boss theme is fucking beyond amazing and I so want it now, looks like I'll be buying the next Shadowbringers soundtrack just for it (its a remix of Weight of the World and it's tear inducing)). Not to mention the story for it is damn good and I get the feeling we might be meeting some more familiar faces in the next two raids (I won't ruin it unless you've already seen or been told but I wasn't honestly expecting to see who I saw at the end of the raid even if it was kinda spoiled in the trailer). Now if only I could win the god damn roll on the 2B armor set so I can be happy and have my 2B look (I want those fucking thigh boots god damnit, they'd fit so well with a current glamour set-up that I have).
I look forward to patch 5.3 and 5.5 for the next two sets of this raid because if they're anything like this I'll be more then happy (now to get around to beating Automata, I'm almost done with 9S's route/B ending. Should hopefully have that done this weekend if I don't keep getting distracted by side quests or the XIV raid (I must have my 2B glamour)).
Also I take back what I said about the 5.1 Samurai changes. While I still don't think we're where we should be dps wise I'm feeling like we're in a better place then we were prior to this. Now to try out the new Ninja changes and see if I pick up Ninja as my secondary main.

aesthetics
Skill trees are back and so are Rune Words, but they probably wont be as intricate as D2. Its sill very early and they said its not coming out soon or even blizzard soon so its subject to change, but I saw a skill tree with branches on a stone background. Their goal was to bring back the D2 aesthetics. After the opening ceremony I had to rely on streamer's that bought the eticket and wade through their blabber to hear what the panel was saying. There was a bit more gameplay shown there. But to answer your question, the combat will def be similar to D3.
A few notes from memory
It will be open world with 5 regions, hundreds of legendaries, and 5 classes to start. I can only speculate that Necro is one of the sure fire unannounced classes. Paladin is a classic, but I could see Demon Hunter returning to be the 2nd ranged and the physical ranged at that. I don't think Monk and Witch Doctor will make the cut.
Druid can transform on the fly, chaining mutli form attacks. Barbarian is straightfoward bruit force as always, I didn't get to hear the Sorceress part because it was muted as the streamer wanted to talk. 🙄 EDIT: I'm def going Barb. Watching the gameplay trailer again I notice he can swap between 3 different weapons in combat. The first he shows up he opens with staff, swaps to sword, and then to dual axe, holy shit. Hes got a maul on his back in a lot of clips while he fights with other weapons.
Rune Words are back and they will shift away from heavily focusing on gear sets, and place a lot more emphasis legendary gear. They don't want to pigeon hole people into builds anymore, and want you to be able to create a build you envision. Sets will still be a part of the game, they just won't be better than everything.
PvP will be in the game in public arenas, World events with world bosses will be in public areas as well. They showed 7 people taking on a big monster that is near the end of the gameplay trailer.
Mounts are customizable (probably the monetization of the game as leaked). Right now they're just horses, but you can change out their armor, skin, have trophies like demon heads and what not that hang from the back. Each class will have dismount skills. They showed the Sorceress turning into an ice ball and freezing a trash mob while the barbarian followed up with a dismount ground smash turning them into dust.
Dungeons will be 100% fully randomized and the story will be non linear. You can go at your own pace, explore the world, do repeatable events and jump back in at any time.
Thats all I can remember, but I believe that was most of it. They have another panel tomorrow about the game's systems.
EDIT: here is a pic of the skill tree briefly shown.... although now looking at it its a talent tree, the skills are a different tab.

While I'm excited I'm tempering my expectations until I see way more gameplay. I jumped on the Diablo 3 hype train to early and was extremely disappointed with what we were given at launch (now D3 is in a good place but it took way to long to get there). What would make me happy is if they bring back the skill trees from D2 but I highly doubt it as it looks like the combat is extremely similar to D3 with D2's darker world design.
Interested to see how Lilith coming back will play out considering she is one of the creators of Sanctuary and nowhere near as powerful as her dad or uncles (which Diablo is still out there somewhere, wondering if she's going to try and bring him back or try and steall his powers and become the next prime evil).

I mean they did pick Lucy's most skimpy outfit though. They probably picked turn based because it was the easiest to program. It looks pretty low budget outside of the character models, and I bet each character has all of 3-4 of the same attack animations. Lucy and Erza probably have more for their more fan servicey armors and star dresses. I'm tempted to get it, but I already know the story, and it feels like it would get redundant after a while.