Strider Hiryu

Meh, it's not bad. I mean she does spend quite a bit of time time in the manga and the movie nude so I'm honestly surprised they went with it (would of just been better nude but they would of never got the rating they wanted). Either way I honestly have no hopes for this movie after this trailer. Batou looks retarded (if that even is him, I honestly don't know what characters they're bringing into this movie), I honestly don't think Scarlett is a good fit for the Major (she doesn't have the attitude to be the Major), and this movie looks like a hodge podge of both plots from the original movie and the SAC series (plus there own little original story, Motoko has never really wondered where she came from as she knew (it's different pending on the source material but she knows who she is, she just questions whether or not everything is real and whether or not she has a "Ghost" since she's spent almost her entire life as a cyborg). I swear some of those scenes were pulled directly from the movie and the series (the fight in the water is from the original movie and the geisha dolls is from the first episode of SAC (with its own original twist)).
I'll admit though those effects are amazing and probably the only upside to this movie based on the trailer. I shouldn't be hard on it but like I said I'm a huge GitS fan and I'm expecting a lot from this movie. Sadly it'll probably never deliver what I'm looking for.

Honestly a system similar to the renown system in R6S is actually a very good way to go about doing the battlepack system. However the skins in the renown system for R6S are extremely expensive (9000 renown for basic skins, 15,000 or more for the very sought after skins (if they're purchasable for renown, a lot of the good skins require you to pay real money for Rainbow Credits just to buy)) and I'd hate for that to come over (though something similar would be nice). I'd like to see an implementation of scrap at the end of every battle based exactly on what the R6S system is, You get a certain amount for winning or losing (less for losing), your personal performance (based on your score), and in R6S whether or not you have a booster or Season Pass (which the season pass gives barely any extra, I've seen up to 13 extra renown for being the best in the match). They could go even further with giving extra scrap for getting recognized for feats during battle (most revives, most resupplies, best squad score, etc.). It has it flaws and only those who dedicate more then 3-4 hours a night to the game would benefit from it but it's the best option compared to what we have.
The daily challenges would also be nice. R6S has up to 5 challenges you can do daily/weekly in-game plus up to 4 or 5 (don't remember, been over a month since I last played R6S) extra challenges you can pick up from Ubiclub (what used to be UPlay). Each gives a varying amount of extra renown based on the difficulty to complete (up to 600 renown) and the 5 in-game ones have timers on them so you can't continually do challenges left and right (the first is 24 hours, next is 48, and so on up to 120 hours (5 days)) and you have the option to drop challenges you don't want to do in hopes of getting one thats easier the next day (you don't get a choice on in-game ones, they're randomly selected).
If they didn't want to go exactly that route I'd say give up to 200 scrap (enough to by one normal battlepack) for winning a round and up to 100 scrap for losing (half of a normal battlepack) and then give extra scrap based on performance (not to exceed a total of 350-400 scrap just so you can't continually get the best battlepack after every match). You can change these totals based on what game mode is being played (less for modes like TDM and Domination, more for Conquest and Operations (with Operations giving out the most due to the length of time some matches can last)) and drop those numbers if need be (I'm being somewhat generous here with my scrap totals, I'd be perfectly fine with 100 scrap for winning + whatever I get based on performance and 50 + performance based increase for losing). They can even keep their random battlepack reward system as well and tweak it to give battlepacks to those who actually perform their roles correctly/get recognized on the end of round screen (or scrap it entirely). This way everybody has a chance of at least getting a battlepack every week and a chance at those awesome skins. They could also put in a market place for old battlepack revisions to give people a chance at getting the skin they want from past revisions (or go one step further and sell the skins individually for more scrap so you actually have to earn them). Of course they'd have to tweak the puzzle piece system because this would break whatever system they have in place to award the puzzle pieces from battlepacks (I honestly don't know how they'd fix it).
Honestly a lot of what was said in that video are great ideas the one I presented is going off the R6S model with my own tweaks. Something similar to what I just mentioned would be my ideal system if they don't want to go back to the old battlepack system from BF4 (which they should, it's not like that system broke BF4 in any way as it was the same system just with more items in a battlepack based on type).

Honestly a system similar to the renown system in R6S is actually a very good way to go about doing the battlepack system. However the skins in the renown system for R6S are extremely expensive (9000 renown for basic skins, 15,000 or more for the very sought after skins (if they're purchasable for renown, a lot of the good skins require you to pay real money for Rainbow Credits just to buy)) and I'd hate for that to come over (though something similar would be nice). I'd like to see an implementation of scrap at the end of every battle based exactly on what the R6S system is, You get a certain amount for winning or losing (less for losing), your personal performance (based on your score), and in R6S whether or not you have a booster or Season Pass (which the season pass gives barely any extra, I've seen up to 13 extra renown for being the best in the match). They could go even further with giving extra scrap for getting recognized for feats during battle (most revives, most resupplies, best squad score, etc.). It has it flaws and only those who dedicate more then 3-4 hours a night to the game would benefit from it but it's the best option compared to what we have.
The daily challenges would also be nice. R6S has up to 5 challenges you can do daily/weekly in-game plus up to 4 or 5 (don't remember, been over a month since I last played R6S) extra challenges you can pick up from Ubiclub (what used to be UPlay). Each gives a varying amount of extra renown based on the difficulty to complete (up to 600 renown) and the 5 in-game ones have timers on them so you can't continually do challenges left and right (the first is 24 hours, next is 48, and so on up to 120 hours (5 days)) and you have the option to drop challenges you don't want to do in hopes of getting one thats easier the next day (you don't get a choice on in-game ones, they're randomly selected).
If they didn't want to go exactly that route I'd say give up to 200 scrap (enough to by one normal battlepack) for winning a round and up to 100 scrap for losing (half of a normal battlepack) and then give extra scrap based on performance (not to exceed a total of 350-400 scrap just so you can't continually get the best battlepack after every match). You can change these totals based on what game mode is being played (less for modes like TDM and Domination, more for Conquest and Operations (with Operations giving out the most due to the length of time some matches can last)) and drop those numbers if need be (I'm being somewhat generous here with my scrap totals, I'd be perfectly fine with 100 scrap for winning + whatever I get based on performance and 50 + performance based increase for losing). They can even keep their random battlepack reward system as well and tweak it to give battlepacks to those who actually perform their roles correctly/get recognized on the end of round screen (or scrap it entirely). This way everybody has a chance of at least getting a battlepack every week and a chance at those awesome skins. They could also put in a market place for old battlepack revisions to give people a chance at getting the skin they want from past revisions (or go one step further and sell the skins individually for more scrap so you actually have to earn them). Of course they'd have to tweak the puzzle piece system because this would break whatever system they have in place to award the puzzle pieces from battlepacks (I honestly don't know how they'd fix it).
Honestly a lot of what was said in that video are great ideas the one I presented is going off the R6S model with my own tweaks. Something similar to what I just mentioned would be my ideal system if they don't want to go back to the old battlepack system from BF4 (which they should, it's not like that system broke BF4 in any way as it was the same system just with more items in a battlepack based on type).

Strider would know more about the renown system Rainbow Six Siege, but its a pretty good video. They talk about daily challenges like I have been pulling for to.

They should really make a movie or series. This is their best one yet.

Meh, I can name all the maps now but honestly the only ones I like are Monte Grappa and Argonne (though Ballroom Blitz is fun). My major problem with operations solo is that no one wants to work toward the goal, everyone is trying to do their own thing. At least with friends you know at least they're working toward the same goal as you. It's still enjoyable but if I'm going to play by myself I'm going to go Domination where I can do what I want, how I want, and still contribute to the team as long as I'm assaulting the flags and not feel like a jackass for not doing what the SL says.
I really do with they'd bring back the ribbon system, god the amount of rank ups you can get from just ribbons is nice. Sadly I don't think they'll bring it back just for that reason (200 xp for a ribbon, 5000 for a medal wouldn't really cut it here). Assignments would be nice but I wouldn't want to go through all that work just for a weapon skin (kind of like how I don't give a rats ass if I get a battlepack anymore, it's not worth it if all I'm going to get is a random skin that I probably already have for a gun I'll probably never use). If they brought it back for weapons I'd be all for it (if it's not god awfully powerful weapons like the Deagle), maybe weapons that were historically correct for the time but very rare on the battlefield.

I still can't name the map I'm on unless I pay attention to the name on the loading screen. Me: "oh, its the forest map again, cool."
I really miss the BF4 ribbon / medal system and assignments. I like that weapons can be purchased with warbonds and that they're not locked behind assignments. The players in bf4 were able to get some really OP weapons if they could grind out the assignments. UCAV and Deagle in BF4 were pains in the ass to get and gave a huge advantage. I never did get the Deagle, it was a dumb assignment. Get 5 headshots while standing in water, do 18 jumping jacks while shooting an RPG (lol, i can't remember) and that was just to unlock the gun you needed to do the next assignment to unlock the Deagle. I'd rather see assignments come back to BF1 and have them unlock weapon skins. I like it when a game is well balanced and nobody has huge advantages for completing hard core crap. Like how Destiny will always have raid weapons that give a huge advantage, crap like that needs to go and I'm glad there isn't anything like that in BF1. I remember that Deagle making me basically quit BF4 after getting constantly headshotted from halfway across the map.

It does need to be nerfed, that recharge time is insane for a weapon that powerful against groups of enemies. They just need to wait until I get my two multi-kills for the medal this week (I got the top 5 finish in a domination match tonight where I went complete ham with the Mondragon and my Med Crate, got a battlepack for it as well). After facing off against the Model 10 numerous times tonight and loosing I'm calling for a nerf on it. The gun is way to overpowered for what it is and has such a high killing range it's not even funny (I hate to say that too because shotguns never get any love and when they do shit like this happens, I'm sad that I have to call for a nerf on it). After playing Support last night I fully agree that LMG's need some damn love, they're just to shitty of a gun to play with making support the least picked class of them all (unless you're going mortar crazy). Honestly they need to go back to the LMG model from BF4 and tweak it just enough to make it believable for a gun from this time period (don't make them overly accurate but at least make them able to hit something) and, even though I think the BAR should be placed in Assault or Medic class weapons (technically it's the first Auto Rifle ever created if you think about it based on mag size and accuracy), they need too up the mag size for it. I now the 40 round mag was rare and only an AA variant but I honestly think it needs it since its honestly the only good gun Support has.
I have to say, with the bugs, I love this game. While I'm still not entirely to hip with MP and how they're handling certain things (I'm just to used to and spoiled by BF4) the game is just a blast to play. I do, however, have to say operations are extremely boring without friends. If I'm playing by myself I'm going to be sticking to Domination as it's freaking fun as hell and is more enjoyable when you're by yourself.
On the Supernatural thing, I'm not in any hurry to watch Season 12 honestly. I could of watched Season 11 while it aired but I choose to wait until Netflix gets it so I can just binge watch the hell out of it when they do. Honestly Season 11 has been good so far (I've got roughly 6 episodes left, give or take a few) but I'm getting sick of the biblical shit (the only appealing thing for this season is them going back to the monster of the week vibe for a few episodes which really sold me on the series to begin with). It was ok in season 4 and is just being over played now (there's only so many times I can watch the brothers get bitch slapped by angels and enjoy it, now Crowley bitch slapping them on the other hand is always enjoyable to watch (my favorite character from the series other then Charlie)) and by what I've read they're still continuing on that line in Season 12 (what with you know who coming back into the picture). Ok now that I've sidelined this enough back to you're regularly scheduled BF1 chat.

https://www.masseffect.com/newsletter?utm_campaign=mea_hd_ww_ic_ic_yt_mea-ainewsletter-yt&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&cid=25657&ts=1478020633549
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What they need to do is just go back to the old system for battlepacks and give us one after every rank up or every other rank up because we're honestly not getting anything that changes the game in any way, just skins for our guns (that don't add stats or anything). I'd understand if what we were getting was game changing but honestly it isn't. That or they need to do what Sledge said and give us a proportionate amount of scrap at the end of each week or just a certain amount after every match we play (more for game modes like Operations that can go on for over an hour). DICE really dropped the ball with battlepacks this time and while I understand they want to go down the same road as CS did (Valve rakes in the dough with those cases, it's not even funny. Chaaboy himself blows at least $200 or so a week in cases) but it doesn't work for a game like this where these skins have no monetary value besides what you pay for battlepacks (whenever they finally implement it). I love Monster but due to my High-Blood pressure I can't drink them anymore (or very sparingly) so it sucks they went that route for battlepacks.
Also I think the problem is on your end for our communication issues DX. The minute Sledge dropped from the party it said I couldn't chat with you due to NAT restrictions on your end (whatever that could but I don't know considering we were talking just fine yesterday and on Saturday without Sledge). I'll monkey with my settings tomorrow and see if it might be on my end. By the way I should be on all this week at roughly the same time (depending on when I get off of FFXIV, new patch drops this week and the last part of my Anima weapon questline drops so I might get absorbed in it), I decided that I'd hold off finishing Supernatural season 11 until next week/this weekend (I should hopefully get a 3-day weekend this week, I say hopefully because my boss is good at procrastinating and forcing us to work overtime on Fridays) since BF1 is scratching that FPS itch I didn't know I was having.

I'm assuming they went with a beefier battery then that DX considering they're praising this thing for its portability. I'm going to guess you're looking at the average life of a high-end tablet maybe even laptop level (then again that ain't much, when my battery was new my laptop would get 3 hours unplugged if I wasn't gaming) so probably 3-4 hours of use with light to medium gaming. Maybe more if it has the same feature as my laptop and it downgrades graphics to conserve battery life (my laptop runs two video cards, a discreet card (my AMD Radeon) and the built-in one on the motherboard. It switches to the built in one while my laptop is running on battery to help conserve battery power (though I have it disabled, my on-board card cause major fucking issues when it switches)). Plus considering how much actual gaming you can do on a 3DS with it's 3D graphics (roughly 4-5 hours of continuous play) I'm assuming we might get that level of battery life (I mean this is the company that pioneered handheld consoles so I'm pretty damn sure they know what they're doing here).
We'll know all once specs are released.

I might of mocked it when it was a rumor but I'm honestly impressed with this console (the name on the other hand can go). Seriously, I might pick one up. I like the look of it, I like it's size, and honestly it looks like a damn good machine (and for once it has a backing of major publishers). Will I ever use the portable option? Most likely not, I own a 3DS and I have a phone if I get bored while out and about but the option to take this where I want is nice. While it might be a gimmick I can guarantee the portability option will be the main reason this console sells and depending on price I can see this selling very well (look at the Wii, the whole console was a gimmick yet it sold better then the PS3 and the 360).
I have to say maybe Nintendo is starting to come back around or at least show us they still have some tricks up their sleeves.

I might of mocked it when it was a rumor but I'm honestly impressed with this console (the name on the other hand can go). Seriously, I might pick one up. I like the look of it, I like it's size, and honestly it looks like a damn good machine (and for once it has a backing of major publishers). Will I ever use the portable option? Most likely not, I own a 3DS and I have a phone if I get bored while out and about but the option to take this where I want is nice. While it might be a gimmick I can guarantee the portability option will be the main reason this console sells and depending on price I can see this selling very well (look at the Wii, the whole console was a gimmick yet it sold better then the PS3 and the 360).
I have to say maybe Nintendo is starting to come back around or at least show us they still have some tricks up their sleeves.

http://kotaku.com/heres-your-first-look-at-the-nx-nintendos-upcoming-con-1788004927
 

I've heard of it but never used it. In fact I don't think I know anyone that's ever used it (my group of friends are pretty much the same as me, old school internet pirates sailing on the good ship Torrent (she will never sink as long as we keep her afloat  )).
I'm not surprised by it though. Crunchyroll was the same exact way for anime before they went completely legit (well legit but still shady as hell), I used to use them back then when I couldn't find fansubs for something I wanted to watch (it's how I first got into watching Naruto Shippuden, how I first watched Macross 7, and what introduced me to one of my all time favorites Dirty Pair). They offered a HQ stream if you paid a monthly fee but the LQ stuff was still watchable (sadly I paid for the HQ stream back when they weren't legit but I refuse to pay for it now that its legit, there's something fundamentally wrong with that). I honestly wouldn't know if I'd trust this app though, the amount of shit that could go wrong aren't worth the free aspect to it (then again it'd be no worse then dling a torrent off of a shady torrent site).

People rake it a shit ton of money on Twitch and it's actually how a lot of youtubers make their money now ($5 a sub (well roughly $3 after Twitch's cut) rakes in pretty fast plus donations, you honestly make more money being a full time streamer then you do being a YT personality). I'm subscribed to a few people at the moment and if I actually used Amazon more I might actually look into this (just because I'd like to sub to Maimi0 but can't afford it atm and this would be a good way to do it). Honestly the ads on Twitch aren't all that bad and you can bypass them by using PS4's twitch app (for some reason it never plays ads except when you first log into the stream (even when the streamer puts ads up)) so going ad free isn't exactly worth it (plus the streamers get a cut of that ad money as well so you're screwing them by not watching ads).

Torrenting never died for me, I'll be a pirate to the day I die (Yarr!, had to do it ). Honestly I never understood why torrenting died with the advent of streaming services (I mean seriously it's free and the chance of actually getting caught and persecuted is slim to none as no ISP will take you to court unless forced to by the rights holder). Subscribing to Netflix didn't stop my torrenting at all, hell it didn't even put a dent in it. Then again when I was living in Arizona I didn't have cable TV. My roommate and I decided there was no point in paying for TV when we could just download everything we wanted to watch or catch it on Netflix. Then again that's just us and even though I have cable again I prefer to download my stuff so I can watch it when I want without having to pay extra for a DVR so I can do the same. Meh, I guess I'm still an old school internet pirate that can't give up his past ways (then again I do end up buying 90% of the shit I download so I guess I'm a somewhat reformed pirate).
There really never will be a happy medium here as cable companies will never give up their hold on the TV market and will continue to gouge prices. Eventually streaming services will do the same as, like I said, getting the rights to stream things is getting more and more expensive as the years go by (pretty soon Hulu and Amazon will be in the same place as Netflix is now when everyone and their mother has a streaming service for their own shit).

It's not surprising. With content providers creating their own streaming platforms and with the costs of streaming rights for movies and shows going up it's not surprising Netflix's catalog has shrunk substantially over the last 4 years. I honestly saw this coming back when I first subscribed to Netflix because it was only a matter of time before others took a page from Netflix's book and started doing the same thing. Honestly I don't know why I pay for Netflix anymore. I rarely, if ever, watch anything on it anymore (and when I do it might be once every few months) besides certain shows (like Supernatural, I really wish they'd get season 11 up) and documentaries (I absolutely love Netflix for documentaries).
Honestly the only thing that will keep Netflix going is their original content they've been creating over that last few years (stuff I have yet to watch but I do plan on checking out Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, and House of Cards (which I've heard nothing but great things about) to name few). I tend to download all the movies I want to see if I don't get to see them in the theater and before I buy them (I buy very few movies without watching them and only if I know I'll like them (like The Hobbit Movies and what not)) and I do the same with TV shows since I rarely watch anything on cable anymore (again there are exceptions like Deadliest Catch but that's one day of the week).
I've never used Sling but I haven't heard good things about it from the few people I know who use it. I've been looking into getting Playstation Vue (I've heard nothing but good things about it) but I'd run into the same problem I do with cable/Netflix, I'd rarely watch it so it'd be a waste of money (luckily I don't pay for cable so that's one bill I don't have to pay). Honestly the one thing I do spend a lot of time watching content on is YouTube, thankfully that's free (for now, who knows what may come down the line).

That's my current home screen. Sorry it took so long to post it (and for the double post) but I ended up playing 8 or so hours of FFXIV yesterday to make up for my lack of time on it during the week (and I completely forgot to take and post the screen shot, I lose track of time while I'm playing (still can't believe I was on for that long yesterday)).

My home screen is also a Stormtrooper. I'll post a pic of it later.

Yep, not surprised by yours DX  Cute dogs Sledge.

I just changed mine today as the old one was getting boring and this one just happened to win.

Yep, not surprised by yours DX  Cute dogs Sledge.

I just changed mine today as the old one was getting boring and this one just happened to win.

My puppies are my life.

"I play to win!"

Don't get me wrong they're not overly bad (I mean I bought the first two when they came stateside and plan on buying the last two when I get the money (or if it's on Rightstuf's Black Friday or 12 days of Christmas sale)) they just weren't as good as the original movie or the SAC series's and movie. It was such a huge departure from what made the setting and the character's so enjoyable (I mean the Major just rubs me the wrong way in the OVA, she's just not as awesome as she was in the original movie or the series). It was like they decided to just take the framework of the story/background and the characters basics information from Shirow's original manga and throw everything else out the window (it's not like the movies and the SAC series/movie didn't do the same but they were more in line with what they were in the manga (and believe me the manga is completely different from the original movie, they took a lot of liberties when they adapted it)).
The Arise movie however was amazing and I actually enjoyed it, it really went back to what made GitS what it was (I really need to buy it). The Major actually seemed like the Major and while the other characters still irked me (Ishikawa was probably the only real character I liked in Arise, he didn't really change much) it felt more like GitS than the OVA's did.
(Honestly don't know why I didn't cover this in my earlier post but like I said these 10 hour days are slowly melting my brain)