Sledgstone

I would assume if you actually max out your stance trees you'd probably have no to little trouble taking on Mongols in Act III (I'm just assuming, I'm basic bitch on all 4 of the trees). It pretty much seems if you want to be honorable you need to max out both Samurai trees and all 4 Stance trees. Then again it seems pretty set in stone that Jin isn't an honorable Samurai anymore no matter how you play him based on his actions (as I said I know how it ends I just haven't seen it yet). Well that and maxing out your stand off kill streak and making use of the fully upgraded Sakai Clan Armor (5 max kills in stand off with it on when it's fully upgraded).
Meh, I've pretty much resorted to smoke bombing now anytime spear guys are around if I'm out of kunai (my favorite ghost weapons, so cheap and instant stagger) so I can just chain assassinate three people at a time (had to use this very liberally when taking Castle Kaneda). That or I thin out there numbers with my bow but if they're fully armored in Act III I will have to adjust my strategy.
I finally made it into Act II yesterday but did nothing more then the beginning quest. Must say I really am liking the story but I can already tell which choice I'm going to make at the end when it comes to a certain duel (I'm sorry but I really don't like how Jin is being treated just because he's doing what he must just to save his people and his home). I love how I spent and hour yesterday looking for the last 6 points to liberate in the first part only to have them highlight and become available after I beat Act I, pissed me the fuck off knowing I didn't have to go through all that if they were going for a story/reason to go back tie in. Next time I get on I'll probably focus on finishing those before I continue forward (mostly because I know there are a few secrets I missed, I must find all those hot springs and fox dens).

I beat this today. This is hands down the best game Sucker Punch has made, and falls just below God of War and Breath of the Wild on my favorite first party games this gen. I will say it did get incredibly easy at the end once I had all the skills maxed out and the best charms. Rarely did I ever have to fight head on. By the time you get to Act III  spear guys are annoying AF even more so. The only way to hit them is to parry, ghost weapon or do the shoulder ram and kill them. You'll never hit them straight up, and if they hit you it'll take 95% of your HP at the maximum. I'm sure its possible, to fight 100% honorably outside of the few times the game makes you otherwise in main quest lines.. but fuck that. Anyone that's not a masochist will resort to some sort of tactics... especially when the Act III Mongols are all fully armored, including the head. Headshots will the bow require a smaller window and they have to be facing towards you.
Act II was my favorite. It has all the watershed moments and turning points.  The ending was satisfying, even if the final two showdowns were the easiest. In the end I'd say my favorite NPCs were Kenji and Norio. My favorite side quest lines were Ryuzo's, Norio's, and Sensei Ishikawa's.
 

its also relaxing too if you want to take a break from a mission. i just spent an hour or two just swam around enjoying the scenery and dived deep into the ocean trying to locate new creatures. i was hoping to see a whale shark or a humpback whale but sadly no.  that would’ve been a really nice addition to the game bc the ocean takes about 1/6th of the entire map so its huge and has plenty of room for it. its also missing stingrays and dolphins but has a plenty of turtles, seals, and sharks so that makes up for it.

I know my company has made record profits since this has all started. I've been compensated with an extra raise, and multiple $100 gift cards. A lot of the younger generation in my company are crying about how its a gift card for our company and not to use whatever they want. But in reality, it is. I mean you HAVE to buy groceries, even if you eat out 3 times a day... you need TP and detergent. Now that's money you don't have to spend on groceries, and can spend how you want. With how irresponsible this generation is, it's helping them more than they know probably. If they got a cash card they'd spend all the money on dumb shit along with their grocery money and then cry how they're starving and they aren't making a living wage. These people can't see the benefit in long term investment. They see Walmart and Target giving out cash bonuses, while we got an extra raise on top of the 2 we already get per year. I'll take the raise, the bonus is nice but the raise has way more longevity. I rather get paid more for what I do than get a one time pay out. We're already closed on thanksgiving, Christmas, and even Easter. We get free company stock based off how many hours we've worked. You can literally work as a peon if you could afford to for 30 years and become a millionaire if you play your cards right with minimum effort. There are people that never bought extra stock and just accumulated what they earned for free and have $90k dividend checks. So yeah, while giving out gift cards for your own company can be seen as just a big tax write off.. in reality its serving a dual purpose.

Walmart closing on Thanksgiving is hilarious, like it's something special. My former company started doing it last year only because my current company moved into the state and has been doing it for years. At one point my former company was trying to justify opening on Christmas as well. It was volunteer only for double pay. They lost money every year but was waiting for the one year they made a profit so they could say it was mandatory every year. Walmart only did this because of the profits and because everyone else is doing it. There has been a big push over the last few years to pressure companies to close on Thanksgiving. In this industry its nice to have more than 1 guaranteed day off a year.

I remember seeing footage for Maneater at E3's PC Showcase last year.
....
I still want to get it on Steam.

this games really fun.  i found it randomly browsing amazon and ordered it. you start off as a baby shark in a swamp/lake dodging alligator attacks and you gradually become a gigantic monster shark as you evolve and move onto the bigger body of water. its fun to kill humans but doing it too much and youll eventually get hunted down. my first time venturing into open ocean as an adult shark was kinda scary not expecting whats out there and i was immidiately killed off by a killer whale lol. its been ages since i played a game where i had to stop playing bc my hands hurt from hours of nonstop playing and from intense boss fights. 

The story may not be everyone's cup of tea, and I get that, but to say its dull is just crazy. Yes its full of grim sorrow, but the emotion is heavy and real. The voice acting is phenomenal and the music is as beautiful as the visuals. Even the side quests and minor quests have depth for story to the point I forget its not the main story. Some of the missions manage to be action packed while being a cinematic show piece A Message in Fire and Ghost in the Smoke probably my favorite missions so far. Both drastically different from each other.
The combat hasn't gotten stale to me. Once you take the first castle. The enemies are stronger and fight differently. They do have more HP but its quickly negated once you get certain armor and upgrade your katana more. The enemies from the first section of the island stay the same and you'll see them around, they die even faster when you're stronger. They also throw in a new faction of enemies that fight much more skillfully.

But yeah, fuck spear guys. I've unlocked Heavenly Strike and Dance of Wrath. I spam it on those guys now because the newer ones have excellent guard, and stagger ability. To give you an idea how tough they are. Later you get a weapon with a certain ability to make enemies turn on each other temporarily. I've used it on several types but the spear guys are the best choice. I watched as one spear guy took out 2 brutes, a shield guy, and an archer before he was taken down by another spear guy. They are also the only ones I've observed take down bears and not get ragdolled everywhere until they die.

I have to agree with DX, this game is checking all my boxes as well. Combat isn't difficult but can be extremely punishing if you fuck up (thank you spear gang bangs, you fuckers can die in a fire. Most of my deaths I can attribute to getting surrounded by 3-4 spear dudes all attacking as soon as I start laying into one). Luckily once you learn attack patterns and the right timing to parry attacks it's a cake walk. Not entirely to hip on the changing combat stances in combat as it's kind of clunky but I do enjoy how each has advantages over certain enemy types (I really love the attack patterns of basic Wind Stance, that kick at the end is so satisfying to watch connect on a spear enemy). I really enjoy sneaking around and sniping people with my half-bow or fucking with people by killing someone in the open and hiding and systematically knocking people out one by one. When Yong said it does Assassin's Creed better then Assassin's Creed he wasn't kidding (and I haven't even gotten into playing with Ghost Stance yet). Stealth in this game is extremely fun and isn't tedious at all (just wish you could assassinate Mongol leaders instead of critically damaging them, not that they're hard to kill it'd just speed up the liberating process).
I'm honestly not that far into it. I've put maybe 15-18 hours in but most of that has been wandering the visually stunning island doing side shit (like side tales, mythic tales (man were those duels stunning and difficult at the same time (this was before I mastered parrying attacks, got fucked up multiple times in both duels), liberating areas, and hunting down all those Sword Kits/Inari Shrines/Shinto Shrines/etc) and overall just fucking around (I've only done 4-5 actual story quests that's how much I'm just enjoying running around being a sneaky samurai). There's just to much shit to get side tracked on, really fucking with my gamer ADHD (so many shinies >.<).
I can't honestly comment on the story yet since, as I noted, I'm not that far but what little I've seen has been really good. I'm liking the whole dichotomy of watching Jin struggle between being a Samurai and becoming the Ghost, how he's rationalizing it is extremely interesting and I can't wait to see how it all plays out (sadly I already know how the game ends, damn my curiosity, but that's not deterring my enjoyment of the story so far).
Quite honestly this is by far one of the best games I've played in a long time and if it wasn't for Cyberpunk coming out this year would probably be my game of the year even though I've only put 15-18 hours into it. It's been a long time (since Nier actually) that I've really enjoyed playing a game this much (I'm enjoying it so much I'm going through withdrawals when I can't play it). SP really outdid themselves with this game.

Ok. This game checks all my boxes. It's not brutally difficult on the normal setting. It requires some strategy and patience, but overall the combat is simple, satisfying, and just fun. Its about as casual as a Zelda game but with different mechanics that aren't really comparable. I'm fully into the ghost style play now. I just got the longbow with explosive arrows, and a few new armor sets. Smoke Bomb is my favorite quickfire since I have the assassination tree maxed. If I ever screw up in get caught I can just pop smoke and initiate chain assassinations to thin out big groups surrounding me.

The duels are visually stunning. I've done The Heavenly Strike and The Curse of Uchitsune so far and the imagery SP was able to pull off in this game is almost next gen worthy.

Also f*ck all the reviews that bashed the story. I'm loving this story so far. Its def an old school samurai tail with eastern influences when it comes to story telling.

^ they moved out already? damn time flies huh. how old are they now?
i think this might very well be a 2nd wave and death rate is so low bc we all have been exposed to it since last year and perhaps we all have developed some kind of immunity. normally i rarely got sick until late 2016, thats when i noticed something wasnt right. my 12+ years of binge drinking had finally caught up with me. my health was wreck. if i catch a cold, itll last for almost a month and i end up with ear infection and with endless coughs. i had almost every symptom of fatty liver disease except for juandice (i didnt go see a doctor, i just suspected that it was my liver gone bad). i was pissing blood and i ignored it thinking itll pass. what made me stop was i developed food allergy. it started with eggs, and within 2 years, i couldnt eat fruits, spicy food, cheese, even white rice. one day i ate some vitnamese instant noodles and i could see half of my face turned bright red..as if someone pulled out a red lipstick and painted all over my face. i freaked out and i just quit drinking cold turkey. i know that was reckless to do but i consider myself lucky because being sober 6 - 7 months in, my food allergy disappeared. then thats when i got sick with what i think was corona in jan. if i hadnt quit when i did, i would be really screwed by now. this june was one year being sober. im just glad my liver recovered in time for pandemic. i havent got sick since.
generally since we all know now who are most vulnerable to corona, imo states/cities shouldnt just blindly shutdown hoping for the best like what cali is doing. 55+ millions out of work and thats just wrong for what may be just a flu to many. i like this one safety measure of what best buy is doing by designating a certain day of morning to at risk customers only. i think thats better than lining everyone up outside and make them wait for almost an hour to shop, which i think is pointless bc other stores dont even follow that policy and lets everybody in anyway
 

There isn't really anything to see. Its just some NPCs walking around and a claw of jormag looking thing.

I played the opening last night, took a few encampments, and did the first few parts of the main story. The combat is simple and fun. Since I don't have any stances yet, I must dodge and parry before attacking, I may beable to get an opening strike kill on the first guy in a group. After that you'll just get killed recklessly massing heavy and light attack. Shield bearers will strike twice and then you must break their guard with heavy strikes followed by a killing blow with the regular attack. Standard enemies without shields can be instakilled outside of a standoff if you time your held down heavy attack right. Spear carriers cannot be blocked and you must parry their attacks. They go down fast, but they hurt if you get hit. And the brute I encountered is like a spear enemy but he swings his massive weapon 3 times before you can strike him. He doesn't go down quite as easily.

I did my first camp infiltration as a "ghost" and it was pretty fun. You press the touch pad to get enhanced hearing. This will spot every enemy within range through walls. You move much slower in this mode but you can toggle it seamlessly. Since it was the intro to assassinations, I'm sure it was much easier than it will be later down the road. None of the enemies were really crossing paths to where they could see a dead body yet.
I'm not sure the extent to how punishing dying is yet. I died once when I got too confident at the first encampment. I took down several grunts, a brute that kicked my ass because I hadn't grasped his 3 strike attack pattern yet, and then I killed the leader only to get taken out by a grunt that was still around. It made me do the whole encampment again. But I did it with easy the second time since I knew what to look for. I got my first few talent points and I'm going to invest in the blocking tree where I can auto block arrows by holding down the guard button. That seems to be pretty important to my play style. I don't need the dodge roll just yet since the standard parry seems to be very good as is.

Yeah I'm def going full ghost. From someone that slaughters everyone loud and proud in MGS games, this game actually makes assassinations look fun. I have 80 hours of vacation I need to burn and I just haven't been able to without good conscience since the whole madness with COVID. Now that its died down I'm taking the week off for this.

I seriously can't wait until Friday. Hell I'm even considering calling in just so I can get more time with this (upside is I am off all weekend). Well that or just not sleeping at all and playing it until I go into work (this is one of the few times I've pre-ordered a digital copy, it's been sitting on my PS4 pre-installed since last week and taunting me daily).
I had to laugh when Yong said it does Assassin's Creed better than Assassin's Creed Can't wait to see if there's truth in that statement since I'm pretty much going to be going full Ghost mode for this (I love Samurai and everything but you don't shoot off Tenchu vibes like this and not expect me to play it like a Ninja).

If Funimation can dub anime from VA's homes, you'd think ANET could manage this. The last ep had a great story but the emotion of it was def lost in the lack of voice acting. This seems to be an important episode.

I trust this more than I do the reviews which seem to be mostly positive but mixed.
TL;DW
Pros: Fun combat, Beautiful environment, Do anything anywhere (for the most part) and play anyway you want. Enemies don't get more HP as you go deeper into the game to negate your skill and strength increase, but they will kill you faster if you're not careful. Basically typical what SP has done with inFAMOUS in terms of combat. Kill fast, die fast. Don't be reckless.

Cons: No lock on system occasionally causing you to attack the wrong enemy while in a stance that was meant for another, side quest repetition after about 30 hours.

RIP..she was so pretty in mischief and twins. 

I watched this last year before I ever saw an ep of Clone Wars or Rebels. I got to this ep tonight and have a greater appreciation for it. Its def not my favorite animated lightsaber duel ever, but the meaning behind it is super impactful and masterfully done. Maul was a really good character through both series. I actually felt sorry for him when he died. Kenobi had empathy for him in the end. If you didn't catch the nuances of this very short and brief encounter, this video will give you a whole new appreciation for it. 

Oh yeah. I forgot about how BS that final mission was.

This thing is a disaster.

Rebels is a polar opposite of Clone Wars. I care about the characters less and most my excitement comes from seeing established characters like Leia, Yoda, Vader, Lando, and even Hando.
But the writing is waaaay better. The story is less predictable. Its not folly after folly. But the animation quality is shit, Lightsabers are too thin, and its like the series is a video game that loses FPS during intense moments. They should have stuck with the same animation studio. I hope one day we get a legit collab with a top tier anime studio like Madhouse to get a high quality hand drawn Star Wars series. Preferably an Ahsoka series, or even an Old Republic series. 

He legit been lookin 60 since Dune, and now hes like 120.

don't follow him on Twitter then, he's really been showing his age the last few years.

I haven't watched this yet but I've seen what happens mostly at the end. I'll get around to it one day but I will say the special effects look pretty bottom tier from what I've seen. Blue screen bridges and CGI ships will never compare to models and real sets. There comes a time where flashy lights everywhere, is just too much and even in the most distant future its non-functional.
I'll always prefer TOS movie bridges as they looked the most mechanical while being futuristic. They still hold up to this day. TOS series and TNG series sets were products of their time. TOS heavy red theme def clashes with modern times... but so does the Enterprise D's 90's minivan interior beige.

Masks are suppose to prevent people who have COVID-19 from spreading it.
It's probably super rare for someone who is Asymptomatic to cough or sneeze on someone else.
So they're basically pointless as anyone who is sick would have to be quarantined anyway.
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On the bright side I unintentionally scared the guy in Apt 3 when I first wore the Angry Joe Show Army Mask in early June.
And I plan on doing something Plague Doctor related when I buy Fruit Loops in July.
Follow Your Nose!