Strider Hiryu

Sadly I highly doubt they'll release it separately as it seems this is only a way to get IW to sell. We'll just have to look back on our COD4 days with a distant fondness. Watching that gameplay makes me miss my Ghost class layout. Oh how I loved running around the map with a silenced P90 and stomping snipers and campers. Don't know if I'm fond of the point increase on kills but it's a minor dislike. Everything else look amazing.

Meh, I'm far from impressed by this partnership. I like Funi well enough (more so than I ever used too considering they're one of the few companies still around licensing anime (Geneon/Pioneer and ADV were my go to before both companies went under on this aspect)) but I've never really liked Crunchyroll (they're subs are shit compared to better done and localized fansubs). If this means Crunchyroll gets access to Funi's translators it's a step in the right direction but I highly doubt it (who knows it might but Crunchyroll has always been rather shady (even before they went the legit route, back when I used to support them)). Plus it's another subscription service that I honestly can't afford to pay for (plus the Funi catalog, like I mentioned previously, isn't as robust for me. I own everything that interests me and Crunchyroll doesn't pick up the shows that really interest me (and honestly I watch pretty much everything through fansubs and buy what I want when it comes over here (and considering my declining taste for anime over the last few years it's be a waste of money to pay for a service I'll barely use))).

You'd also have to hit 25 before you could access Comp anyways Sledge so unless you planned on playing it constantly over the next 3 days you probably wouldn't even get in. Meh, I'd play but I won't have time this weekend (too much other shit going on plus I wasn't planning on having to work today which took up half of my day).

Meh, I've been playing STO for years (about 3 I believe) and I don't think they translated it over well to the PS4. Controls are wonky as hell on the controller and I see it becoming a huge problem once you get into the bigger ships where you have more than 3 officer stations per ship (my current ship (on my Fleet Admiral (lvl 60) has 5 BO stations, I can't imagine how fucked up that's going to be for controllers (Commander ranked BO's get 4 abilities, Lt. Commander's get 3, Lt. gets 2, and Ensign 1. Good luck trying to map all that shit)). Not to mention all the abilities you get as a Captain, the abilities some ships come with, and any Rep abilities you have. I really wonder how they mapped that for controllers. Combat is it's own nightmare as well. I'm not a fan of auto lock-on and the fact you can't break it (don't really know, didn't really try in the short time I played) makes fights a lot more difficult (not the early ones but I can name a boat load coming up that will be a bitch to take on). This goes for ground and space combat. There's also a few things I don't like about space combat like shield balancing and power level adjustments. I can balance each shield separately on PC (doesn't seem to be an option on console that I noticed) and I can fine tune my power levels better instead of just choosing a preset (even though I do use the shield preset exclusively). I can't say much about travel, it sucks in the early game but once you hit Vice Admiral you get access to Quantum Slipstream that makes travel a lot more bearable (pretty much warp 30 for 30 seconds). Depending on your level you should have access to Transwarp I believe at 10 (if not it's 20), it allows you to warp to a specific place instantly but it's limited on where you can go (pretty much you're factions Home Planet, DS9, Fleet Spaceport as well as fleet Dyson Sphere, Fleet Research Base, and Fleet Dilithium Mine, the Solanae Dyson Sphere, the Delta Quadrant, and a few other locales. Sadly it's also on a 5 minute cooldown (could be 10 or 15 minutes, not sure as it's been awhile since I've actually played my Fleet Admiral). I'm really pissed they won't let me link my Arc account to the PS4 version but I'm guessing the PS4/XBone versions of the game don't connect to the PC servers (which sucks, I don't want to spend the time leveling another captain to 60 (I've done it almost 4 times and it gets boring (not to mention I'm not spending real cash on another version of the game, I have over $500 invested in the PC version (buying ships, unlocks, etc.) and won't spend more)). Yea they pretty much sucker you if you want to play specific races in the game (and if you want to be a Reformed Borg you need to purchase of Lifetime Subscription or subscribe for over 1000 days I believe). I've only unlocked the Joined Trill and Reformed Borg species (I have a lifetime subscription so I get 500 Zen every month, not hard to save up for shit). Honestly it's a good attempt much like their Neverwinter port but both this game and Neverwinter are so much better on PC. Sadly I did not get your references for the characters you made.

I was actually trying to do that when I was playing with you and your brother but tank cannons are sadly not powerful enough to take it down (I placed about 14 shots into it and it didn't budge so I gave up).

It seriously looks like they took the slim and spliced it onto a normal PS4 , that's just sad. Sigh, $400 for a new PS4 when I've only owned my current one for 2. Yea I'll pass. 4K gaming doesn't interest me in the least (graphics are the last thing I consider when buying a game) and I'm not going to spend $1500+ on a decent 4K TV just so I can play them. Even if there are minor benefits on normal HDTV's I just don't see the point.

Seriously, I manually save in EVERY RPG I play (you should see my ME3 save list for my Infiltrator, it's like 65 different saves (my DA: Inquistion one is just as bad, I believe I'm at 40 different saves for it)) because you can't trust games to not bug out anymore. I've lost progress to many times because I wouldn't save ofter so now I do it at every major choice given in a game. Game looks pretty but honestly I want more substance then a "here's a tech demo for you to see how pretty our game is in 4K" type videos. Give me info on story, companions, weapons, etc. Seriously BioWare the game has been in development long enough for you to start giving us these tidbits.

I already unlocked it (actually shortly before I started playing with Sledge and his brother yesterday). It's a nice gun, recoil is going to take some time to get used to (that scope goes all over the damn place when you fire but it's damn nice for taking out pesky snipers that are in range). I still want to get my hands on the Mondragon Marksmen variant, I hear that gun is a freaking beast but sadly it doesn't have a modern mag (both Matimi0 and Level really seemed to like it during the Alpha). Sadly I need to be medic level 3 before I can unlock it (which I may or may not hit, since today is day 4 for me I'll get on for a bit just to guarantee I get the dog tags. Probably won't play much more after today (started getting back into TOR again so that's really eating up my free time when I'm not playing FFXIV) especially since I go back to work after tomorrow and I'd like to take some time tomorrow to get caught up on anime and a few other things). The end date for the beta is the 8th according to what I've read on the forums so you still have time to get to 15 and get some vehicle action in Sledge.

Tank bros all the way! After playing with DX today I feel I have a new appreciation for the game. I still feel this game isn't what everyone says it is but playing with others makes this so much more fun. After playing Assault I'm not overly impressed with it but it's fun and I wish I had the rocket gun unlocked, would make taking tanks out a lot easier (though I did take out a heavy tank with dynamite). Also tried out support and I'm not entirely sure I like it. The MG's are just to inaccurate and when you finally get into that nice accuracy the damn things overheat to damn fast. Honestly I don't like this aspect of the MG's and find it to be a really hard sell for me. The Flanker layout for the light tank is an infantry's worth nightmare, that damn MG it has just tears through them like paper. That's what I was running when both DX and I were dominating with tanks. I ran protection when I was near him so he could destroy everything else. It's also relatively good at shredding tanks at close range (it's weaker overall then a normal tank cannon but due to it's fast reload and 15 shots you put out a lot of damage though you'll never win a tank on tank battle if they're running normal cannons). I really wish I would of recorded this (maybe it did, I'll have to look tomorrow) but I shot a bomber and a fighter out of the air tonight with one of the landships cannons, was freaking amazing. Went 16 and 0 that round by just staying in the landship with a damn good driver and was up at the top of the score board due to flag caps. That's one thing I was never able to do on BF4 with a tank so it feels great to do it with an old school tank. Also really loving the Medic class, I unlocked the rifle grenade option tonight. Don't use it, it sucks and the grenades barely go anywhere unless you arc the fuckers big time (and even then it's not that far). Trying to push medic into level 2 so I can get the next semi-auto rifle since it comes with a marksman scope (really hoping it makes life easier, I love the artillery version of the first semi-auto but I really want to get my hands on one with a marksman scope). I felt like that more then once tonight, god damn snipers and environment clipping is driving me nuts.

Meh, I don't know it it was because I was tired last night or what but I really didn't have any fun playing the beta at all. Conquest is really no fun with the new changes and I'm sick and fucking tired of dying to snipers every 20 seconds (seriously people get a life). Plus this map is just to fucking big for conquest (something I thought I would never say). If you don't have a vehicle you're asking for a long ass sprint to get toward any action and you're probably going to die by sniper fire 5 or 6 times before you even get close. Rush on the other hand is a blast. Before I got off last night I joined a Rush match and went on a freaking tear with the Heavy Tank (no I didn't spawn it in, someone else did and then just left it sitting in the middle of the map). I believe I went on a 20 kill streak before someone finally destroyed the tank (all because I couldn't figure out how to auto-repair, I kept hitting the damn button it said to but it wouldn't do anything (and I wasn't taking any fire and was in a very safe location every time)). I would park myself right next to an mcom and defend my fellow soldiers while they armed it (did this for 4 of the 5 sets of mcoms). The spread shot is amazing at knocking infantry out and is pretty much a one hit kill from short to medium range (and the heavy tank gets 8 shots, that's way more overpowered then the light tank). I also got lucky and had 4 other gunners on board to protect my flanks. While playing I did try out the scout and honestly either I suck major balls at playing as one (and I'll admit I do, can't hit shit) or everyone else playing this are gods because I couldn't hit shit and I would die pretty much instantly when spawning in by another sniper (seriously get lives people). I do love the medic class though, their semi-auto's are a blast to use and hit like trucks if you land your shots. Was also able to get a few revives off (surprisingly). I'll have to try Support and Assault next time I play but right now I love me my medic. Also tried out flying and I feel with a little more time I could master it. Not really hard to fly them but with being so used to Ace Combat controls I can't get my fingers to adjust to BF1 control scheme. Honestly I'm slightly underwhelmed by this game and don't really see what everyone is raving about. I'll attribute this to my being tired last night and honestly not really into it (I was pissed because of the maintenance, didn't get to get caught up on my youtube video's last night (I prefer watching them on my TV, bigger screen)). I'll hold my final judgement till after I get more play time in this weekend but as of right now I'm just not feeling this game (I think I'm too spoiled by modern shooters like BF4, all the guns being pretty inaccurate is throwing me off).

Dear god, why couldn't we have gotten our hands on Legion (I'm sorry, Mech sized mini-gun trumps all) and where the hell was Ronin (my god I want that Titan, plays exactly into my style of gameplay). Northstar looks fun but I've never really been a fan of missiles in mech based games (I consider them to be noob weapons because they're so easy to use. Before we jump all on me I understand that Legion's mini-gun could be considered a noob friendly weapon as well). Gotta admit that the other 4 Titans would definitely be worth giving the game another shot but the multiplayer, while fun, is sorely lacking based on what we got to experience in the Alpha. I'd really like to see a more polished beta come out before the game launches but I get the feeling we won't get one unless they push the game back (which saddens me, I really want to get my hands on Ronin and Legion).

The day they said we could choose our platform I set it (again the day of and I still get fucked). Fucking EA/DICE, this shit always happens. That's why I hate these stupid "Join this for early access to beta" and then they fuck over quite a few people by not giving them access (it's The Division beta shit all over again (different publishers but still, I have no luck when it comes to this shit)). As I said no big loss, I won't be able to play it until Friday and that's only if I don't have to work (won't know more till probably Thursday. Plus the grind in FFXIV is real and I'm so close to getting my Anima weapon I can taste it so that kind of takes priority (yea, I'm addicted to it)). I'll be on and off it all weekend (and since I don't work Monday that means at least a 3-day weekend) but I'm going to take it easy, I don't want to get burned out on the beta.

Apparently I'm not lucky enough to get a code even though I signed up for Insider the day it was announced. Sigh, not like I have the time to play it but it'd still be nice to know I could and get it loaded for tomorrow (though I still probably won't play until Friday at the earliest). Have fun for me guys.

Meh, to me the fact that it plays like COD is a fact I like (meaning the lack of teamwork, I'm sorry I just don't see where actually working as a team could help this game be better. It draws to many parallels with COD and that game is the anti-thesis to teamwork. Its sad but it's all Respawn knows, they don't know how to make a game that doesn't emulate COD). I absolutely hate COD now but knowing that there's a game that's similar and, imo, a lot more fun to play is a good thing. However, as I mentioned before, I hate the fact that Titans can spawn in so easily. To me they feel like you should earn them, not just be given them for doing little actions or on a timer. I don't know but to me the Titan is far from special and if this is what the spawn system was like in TF1 I'm glad I didn't get the chance to play it, it's just another super weapon that happens to be somewhat godly if you can keep it alive long enough to do something with it. Yea, I'm jaded because when I play a game with mechs in it it should either be designed around the mech as the primary weapon (ala Armored Core) or should be something you earn through actions on the battlefield (like a kill streak (and yes I hate kill streaks but for this it could actually work)). As it stands now Titans are guaranteed power weapons given to anyone who just happens to sneeze in the general direction of an enemy. Honestly I stand by my original thoughts of TF1, its COD with mechs and it will never be anything more than that (and no that's not a good thing). Use you're grappling hook Sledge, it's the easiest way to board a Titan and steal the battery. It's extremely hard to board a Titan otherwise in this game (believe me I've tried, you have a very slim chance of boarding one without the grappling hook). As long as the pilot doesn't see you grapple it you're guaranteed to get on. Yea it pretty much cements the need to run solely with the grappling hook which is all I run with. Sadly they made the grappling hook to good and there's no reason not to run with it (yea the Pulse Dagger is amazing but as long as one teammate has it you don't need to use it). Outside of any new game modes they might add I'm pretty sure we have experienced the entirety of MP that TF2 has to offer which is why I only played it on Friday. I have to agree with Matt on the fact this game should of been released earlier in the year (either before Overwatch or shortly after, lets face it Overwatch wouldn't of pulled gamers from TF2 as they're two completely different games) because BF1 is going to kill whatever chances this game has of succeeding (and sadly COD will take whatever gamers don't go to BF1 (as unbelievable as it may sound Infinite Warfare has way more pre-orders then BF1 (yea MW might have something to do with that but still))). TF2 is going to crash hard and its sad, this game has a lot of promise and it's easy to see this game could be on the same level as BF1 if it wasn't given a chance to shine on its own and not in the shadow of a much better designed game. After this tech test I probably won't pick this up. Between picking up Overwatch soon and with BF1 coming out in a little under two months I won't have time for another shooter (especially with my work schedule).

Honestly I think they increased the amount your Titan meter fills a little to much. I was on for a few matches today after I woke up from a nap (got off earlier then expected) and I got 4 Titanfalls in one match, 3 in the next, and 3 in the last. Don't get me wrong I love being in a Titan (and I've pretty much mastered Ion, time to try out Scorch again) but it's a little absurd to get 4 back to back Titans in a short amount of time (especially when matches are 10 minutes and I literally mean back to back as once one Titan was destroyed I'd jump on an enemy Titan and steal their battery and repeat till I got my next one, maybe a span of 30 seconds between Titans) for doing nothing more then capping points, stealing batteries, and dropping grenades/destroying Titans. Then again I'm sure everyone else loves it but it just doesn't sit right with me. I kinda wish they'd go back to the original system now. New changes for the tech test seem to be an increase in what rank/level we can hit (don't know how high but I'm hoping high enough to unlock the other SMG) and one new map (it's another open type map with a couple of buildings in the middle for a lot of wall running and CQB combat) besides the changes they said they were making (I believe they removed Boomtown from the rotation for the new map as it didn't pop up while I was playing, I could be wrong though).

The only difference between PSN and GS's versions of the Early Adopters pack is the theme and that's it, everything else is the same (as it is with every digital pre-order, they usually always come with a theme when you pre-order this way (look at Destiny, HoW came with a premium theme if you pre-ordered it as does RoI). Lately GS hasn't been offering anything special with they're pre-orders like they used to). I really should pre-order BF1 soon, I really want that 3 day early access since it falls directly on my birthday that way.

http://www.vg247.com/2016/08/24/battlefield-1-premium-pass-includes-four-expansions-new-armies/ As predicted there will be a premium pass. I'm not surprised or disappointed since this is EA we're talking about. The only real surprise is that with almost every other FPS switching to the Free DLC/Map Pack formula that they're actually sticking to this. Though I doubt it'll hurt player numbers it's just a surprising move on their part.

Should prove interesting, I just hope I have the time to play. I've been neglecting my normal farming on FFXIV due to work and will have to make it up this weekend (which will probably eat up all my time).

Heh, I've been using the Rainbow 6 Siege Dynamic theme ever since I bought a few months back. Meh, I figured it was only a matter of time before they hiked the price up (much like how Microsoft did it back in the 360 days). My sub isn't up until March so I really don't care if I have to pay $60 or not for it so I won't be buying those discounted cards (mine's set up for auto-renew so I don't have to worry about it). I'd also like the ability to change my name for $10 (though I probably never would, I never changed my XBox Live account's name (mostly because the one I want is too long) since I made it all those years ago).

Which is honestly the biggest surprise, I'd of never thought EA would green light a WWI game (hell I didn't have to high of hopes for getting a WWII game). EA might be one of the worst publishers ever but it seems they've really started to take a turn for the better with this decision (though the jury is still out of the whole Titanfall release date debacle). Konami has been making a lot of bad decisions over the last few years (the biggest one is letting Kojima walk) so honestly this whole change in the way they view Metal Gear doesn't surprise me one bit but that guy telling everyone to keep an open mind is an arrogant twat. Does he not know how to, if I may take the words of Elliot and Ricky from ETC, shut the fuck up? Him saying that is going to set the fans alight and the frenzy will begin. On the other note I'd definitely play a Twisted Metal Gear or Gears of Metal Gear game, I think they'd be fun and interesting concepts (though I'd only play the Twisted Metal one if we got to pilot the actual Metal Gears). An RTS Metal Gear wouldn't be that fun imo, there's too much talking and the plot is so convoluted it wouldn't make any damn sense.

Hmm that very well could be considering most Titans I stole batteries from dropped fast afterwards (I actually like this aspect, only because if it wasn't there I feel the Titans would be too overpowered with the way anti-titan weaponry is atm. If they fix the underpowered AT weaponry then I'd be okay with them taking this aspect out). The electric smoke cloud is on the Titans you just need to hit left d-pad and it activates (though it's one use only and it's not overly powerful). I've learned if you hold L2 while firing Ion's weapon it goes into a spread shot of sorts and it's actually very effective at neutralizing infantry (I found it out today when I played a few matches) as it doesn't allow them much room to dodge if they're in a building/corridor (the weapon is still pretty shit at taking out infantry otherwise). They applied a server update earlier today that allows for faster Titan spawning and by god you can notice. My first match the enemy team had 3 Titans in the span of 2-3 minutes (then again they were spawn camping my team, something that seriously needs to be fixed in Amped Hardpoint). In my second match I had my Titan in about 2 minutes from the start of the match and had it up until right before we won. They said they made some other hot fixes but what they are I don't know as they weren't listed (at least the hot fixed the Titan things). I honestly have no real idea whats being bitched about besides the things you mentioned here and when we played last night but Matt posted his opinions today. I do agree with some of the points he made (from a newbie's perspective) but I still think the TTK is in a good place and don't understand what all the bitching is about. Maybe I should head over to reddit and read whats being bitched about and their reasons because I honestly don't understand the hate and outside of the points I already posted above I think the game is extremely well polished for a pre-alpha (I've played worse alphas then this).

As someone who never got a chance to play the first Titanfall this pre-alpha has been somewhat of an eye opener, mostly because I'm spoiled by BF4's TTK (it's a lot slower) and just the whole BF mentality. It took me 4-5 matches to start getting hang of the game (I'm totally out of practice with COD like games, I'm not used to the run and gun mentality anymore) and an additional 4-5 matches to get my twitch reflexes back (which are still not up to my COD4 days). I only played Amped Hardpoint, even before DX joined me so most of my impressions will be based on that mode (Pilot vs. Pilot doesn't interest me (I'm so used to objective based gameplay now I don't think it ever will again) and the Bounty Hunt mode just seems cheesy and slightly retarded with it's whole banking money mechanic). Much like DX my first couple of matches I never got a Titan and barely even see any pop which I'm quite sure is attributed to the lack of AI in game now (a few of my friends played the original and based on what they said and DX's comments it seems AI really helped pad the spawn timer on the Titan). To me the Titans seem overly weak but then again I have nothing to base my thoughts on since I didn't play the original, it seems way to easy to kill a Titan or at least it seemed that way when I was in one (my god my Titan dropped extremely fast) or fighting one (I have mastered the grappling hook and I'm pretty sure if there was a belt buckle for it I'd have one for riding Titans, I so love stealing their batteries). The only real way to speed up getting a Titan, besides getting kills, is capturing a point and sitting on it. Everytime you get a point you get 5% on your Titan meter and you get points rather quickly so it doesn't take long to get your Titan (I think kills give roughly 3-4% but I can't be sure, wasn't really paying attention since the game moves so quickly). As DX said Scorch is kind of a joke. Between it and Ion you're better off going with Ion as it's easier to use and has some damn good weapons and an awesome core ability (that laser is devastating). I really do hope they put Ronin in next weekends test. I can't honestly compare abilities and weapons either but if this pre-alpha keeps the gun mechanics the same the R-201 Assault Rifle is going to be everyone's go to weapon (the CAR is a good weapons as well but I found myself sticking with the R-201). It's got the best range, great handling, and does a pretty good amount of damage to enemies. Like DX I have to agree that the Anti-Titan weaponry seems really weak for what it's supposed to do, taking very little to no health off of enemy Titans (the charge beam is about the only thing that does reasonable damage). As for pilot abilities I'm in love with the grappling hook. I find myself always going back to it because I feel so naked without it. It just makes getting around the map so much easier though it is a little wonky. I tried Holo-pilot and wasn't a really big fan, Stim is nice but I need more time with it, I have yet to get a chance to use cloak, and the Pulse Blade is really nice but I have a hard time giving up my grappling hook for it. Grenades are fun but it seems the two most used grenades are going to be the Electric Smoke Grenade and the Gravity Star, they're by far the best ones in the game (Frag is a little wonky and the EMP or whatever it's called is really situational). As for the wall running mechanic it's going to take me some time to get used to it as it seems to annoy me more then anything (though I am getting really good at using it to get around the map). The party system is atrocious. It's really annoying that you drop out of your party at the end of every match and had I not made that network DX and I would of spent most of our night inviting each other through the normal system. I really hope they fix it for next weekend because it's retarded to have to keep dropping out after every match to reform your party. If you get on tomorrow Sledge and I'm on (or if I'm not let me know) I'll get you into the AC network (I have it closed right now since I want to keep it between us, don't really want random people joining it) so it'll make it easier for us to play together if we're all on together. Honestly though the game is fun and for a pre-alpha this is extremely polished. If they can work out the party issues and some of the imbalances on the maps I think this game will do extremely well. I honestly don't know why people are bitching about the TTK, I think it's in a good place for a game like this (no matter how you look at it this is a major contender for COD's audience and it shows) and I honestly don't like fast TTK games anymore. Sadly the game is going to suffer coming out so close to Battlefield 1 and it's going to hurt Respawn quite a bit. This is actually because they don't want PC players getting a hold of the single player campaign because for some reason they can't split the MP from the SP for this alpha (I don't know, I heard Matt say this last night during his stream as the reason he was given when he asked them). It's still not good that this is a pre-alpha test but by the sounds of it the SP campaign is done and ready to go so maybe they're just trying to get all the bugs worked out before they finalize the MP (they said during the little intro into MP that this is a stress test as well as a pre-alpha so it seems they're testing their server capabilities as well).