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OmarBradley

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Posts posted by OmarBradley

  1. I'm still unsure if I want to do a new build. My processor is old yet it seems to be doing fine with my 1080. At this point I kind of want to run my system until it decides its done, not me. I'm sort of curious to see how long this will be a viable gaming build at 1440p/maxed settings. So far, it's holding up surprisingly well given my processor is from 2012. As long as I can get 40+ frames on maxed settings, I'm happy. I care more about looks than smoothness. Pretty low maintenance for a PC gamer. :lol:

    I would get the i9 9900k for sure though, one reason as you noted it's not that much more expensive than the i7s. And I believe only i9s have hyptherthreading whereas the i7s don't anymore.

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  2. On 3/23/2019 at 6:29 AM, Oldest Goat said:

    Makes you sick, doesn't it mate? The seething stupidity. It's like watching people petrified and turned into crystalized weakness.

    I hate political correctness so much. The audacity of these irritating, tepid, low IQ husks is baffling. I feel like all the normal sane ones should realise feminism doesn't mean what it used to in the West and distance themselves from it. Proper good/normal feminism, equal rights etc has been achieved in the West, meaning the vast, vast majority agrees with it and thinks that way(myself included). It's already been achieved to the point that it's patronizing and agonizingly boring to be lectured about it. That would be bad enough. But they(the retarded ones) also pile on the bullshit stuff and they do all this because the fight is over(in the West) but they want to be a victim and get attention like the women(who actually were victims and deserved/earned the attention)that they learn about in their women's studies bubbles they exist in.

    When it comes down to it; name one attractive rabid feminist? The crazy ones are always foul beasts no one(except maybe the most very desperate white knighting beta male types) would ever dream of touching(who ironically the foul beasts don't want lol). And deep down they know this and so they're even more angry and outraged (like pathetic Incels). A once noble moral movement for rights has been commandeered, bastardized and zombified into a miserable toxic slog.

    @Len Cnut the rant I'm having is based on my personal experiences with this crazy type, who yes as you rightly point out is definitely the vocal minority.

    P.S. Piers Morgan is a total cunt and doesn't get any brownie points from me for stating the obvious.

    I kind of get the fireman vs. firefighter thing. It's the same as actor vs. actress, waiter vs. waitress, host vs. hostess - there are no reasons for those secondary words to exist other than to at best separate the genders (unnecessarily) and at worst build a gender hierarchy. Even the argument that they derive from Greek/Latin or Middle English or whatever, isn't really good enough. There is some historical reasoning for actor vs. actress, but those reasons are void in 2019 and I see no etymological reason for waitress or hostess.

    I believe film/TV awards should get rid of the gender separation and have two categories for acting, Best Lead and Best Support. Is there a good reason why we should judge the quality of one's acting within the context of their gender? I'm not expert on acting, but I don't see any reason.

    Fair/equal treatment for women is in a much better place now than pretty much any point in history, but saying the work is done is quite premature. I'm glad to see as I read more of the thread you're revising your stance a bit.

    2019 is still reeling from #MeToo and IMO, it's only within the last 10 years or so that people are starting to realize we may not be as progressive as we like to pretend to be with our advanced tech and centuries worth of history. And people are acting on that realization. The world is still an incredibly unfair place to varying degrees for many people depending where/who you are. I'd agree some people go overboard and extreme, but that happens with any social movement. But when white men complain feminism goes too far, I laugh.

    I've brought this up to friends of mine and I've been met with anger and frustration and I expect other males to echo similar sentiments. But that kind of lends itself to my point. If the notion of people campaigning for fairer/equal treatment upsets you, isn't that a bit of a sign something isn't working correctly?

    I have seen comments from posters on this forum that I find to be a bit objectifying and verging on that "locker room talk" line Donald Trump used. If I had to guess, some of the women on this forum are on occasion made uncomfortable by these comments, though I assume they are used to it since the behavior is of course not reserved to an internet forum. Personally, I tend to have a higher than normal standard for what I find to be 'appropriate discussion' in a public or even private venue, so maybe it's just me. And I don't think men are uniquely guilty of this, women can be too. But it's mostly coming from the male side IMO. And I don't think that makes anyone a bad person necessarily, I just think centuries of an unfair social structure have been ingrained in our behaviors.

    Perhaps this is just my personal weirdness and misanthropy, but I feel people in a very general sense aren't understanding that the gender dynamic millennia of history has built maybe isn't the fairest way to do things. And plenty of women buy into that as well, it's sad that some women I've met genuinely believe they're inferior to men and they were all too happy to explain why they believe that.

     

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  3. 4 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

    Snowpiercer (2013)

    Wacky dystoptian sci-fier in the Fifth Element style. Fairly good. Certain elements didn't work but reasonably good. 

    John Hurt, Tilda, Ed Harris. It was a great film. It's been quite a few years since I've watched so I don't recall my grievances with it, but I have overwhelmingly positive memories of the film. I went into it expecting something kind of 'meh' and was pleasantly surprised.

  4. 7 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

    Science has done bugger all of interest since the moon landings really. No Martians. No time travel. No hoverboards. 

     

    7 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

    BOO-RING.

    Where are the martians?

    Give me a martian and I'll become a student of science tomorrow. 

     

    7 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

    It takes some time from a scientific discover happens until it results in innovations that affect our lives directly. That being said, the advances in healthcare due to the human genome project and increased understanding of biological mechanisms behind diseases combined with development of new techniques like PCR, CRIPR, cloning, stem cell therapy and gene therapy, which have all happened in the last 20-30 years, is quite outstanding and has resulted in much better prognoses for a multitude of diseases (including many cancer forms) in addition to eradicating certain diseases.

    In astrophysics, for a layman like me, the most fascinating is the discovery of exoplanets that could host life as we know it. But this is more of inspirational nature than resulting in many practical applications.

    Then I suppose the development of modern phones, screen and computers rely on scientific progress although this is far beyond my field.

    He's doing the 'rhetorical' thing again, it seems. I almost made the mistake of typing up a genuine reply to his "science has done bugger all" post, but then I remembered the last time I genuinely responded to a similar claim. I think this is his form of trolling. :lol:

  5. 6 hours ago, Scream of the Butterfly said:

    Seriously, you need to learn to read more carefully. I never said that MJ not being a total stranger made it okay to sleep in the same bed with children. Nor did I say it was normal for children to co-sleep with their parents through their teens. "stay warm and alive" was in reply to a question by somebody else. It was relevant to the discussion even if it didn't apply to the MJ case.

    My stance on sharing a bed with a child is that there is nothing inherently wrong or abusive about it. Without knowing all the facts, I can't say whether it was right or wrong on this or that specific instance. Even if it was a total stranger, I wouldn't automatically accuse anyone of child abuse just because they slept in the same bed. However, I would be more inclined to hold it against the parents if they just dumbed their children with a stranger without a care in the world.

    You did not say it outright, but you did attempt to normalize the behavior as a defense for Michael Jackson.

    Quote

    In my world, it's perfectly normal that children sleep in the same bed with their parents or any other trusted adult. I've known children who continued co-sleeping all the way to their early teens. As far as I can tell it did no harm.

     

  6. 4 minutes ago, Oldest Goat said:

    For fucks sake. Guess I'm waiting for the Steam version of The Outer Worlds. Oh well, I'll have Halo MCC.

    It looks like the game will also be on the Microsoft Store at release, which seems contradictory to being an Epic 'exclusive,' but that's what I'm reading.

  7. On 2/28/2019 at 2:36 PM, downzy said:

    This is the game I'm probably most looking forward to.  

    One has to wonder if it will be showcased during Microsoft's presentation.  It's expected Microsoft will be announcing or revealing further plans for the next generation of consoles.  With Sony not making an appearance this year, it makes sense that we'll see Microsoft using a game like this to showcase the processing power of its new hardware.  

    I believe CDPR has confirmed Cyberpunk will be a current generation release. There may be an "HD" version for the newer consoles, but at release it will be XBO/PS4.

    ______________________

    Epic has announced The Outer Worlds will be a timed exclusive to their platform when it releases this year. I feel bad for Obsidian, they certainly saw the outcry re: Metro and all of the other shenanigans surrounding Epic, but the publisher has made this decision.

    There are new allegations of data farming against Epic as well, which is troubling given that it's not the first occasion.

  8.  

    18 hours ago, Scream of the Butterfly said:

    For example, under circumstances where it is the only way to stay warm and stay alive.

     

    4 hours ago, Scream of the Butterfly said:

    Your reading comprehension leaves a lot to be desired.

    Elaborate please, how is 'circumstances where it is the only way to stay warm and stay alive' at all relevant to Michael Jackson and the question of children sleeping in his bed? This is not Stalingrad in 1943, this was a celebrity mansion in a secure environment. 

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  9. 53 minutes ago, Scream of the Butterfly said:

    For example, under circumstances where it is the only way to stay warm and stay alive.

    :lol:

    Well, in this case there was a sprawling manor which had heating and air conditioning/climate control, so I think your temperature-related excuse for children sleeping in a bed with strangers is moot here, in addition to it being totally ridiculous in general.

    Michael Jackson: Oh you're cold, child? Come sleep in the bed with me under the covers, instead of the 70 spare guest rooms with beds of their own.

     

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  10. 22 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

    It IS the devil. Sadly I had to download to play unreal 2018 or... 19 and... it development ceased.

    Anyways. I used to only have steam and that was fine, then came GOG galaxy (Diablo 1 is available on it, BTW). Ok by me. Then epic came along and it became crowded, then I needed Bethesda's to download the Quake Champions Beta, thankfully it came to steam, but it seems Rage 2 won't be coming to steam as well and I'm really worried Doom Eternal might follow suit. It is really getting out of hand.

    Yeah I'm going to get Rage 2 and I'll have to do it through Bethesda's Launcher. Doom also being a Beth Soft title, will almost certainly be exclusive to Bethesda's launcher.

    ______

    Regarding Anthem, I'm still playing. I don't really know why. Something about the game keeps dragging me back, despite the lack of content, the incredibly stingy drop rates, and the repetitive nature of the content that is present. I have graduated to playing mostly GM3 and while it is the hardest mode available, with a decent build and a coordinating squad it's really not that difficult. The design of the difficulty is stupid, the only difference from GM1 to GM2 to GM3 is that enemies have more health. I think GM3 has 30x health of GM1 or something like that.

    My big problem is that the loot drop rates for GM3 (even after their server-side hotfix on Friday to improve drop rates) are still pretty poor. I spent more hours playing Anthem GM3 this weekend than I spend playing games during the week, and I got 3 Legendaries. 1 of which I could never claim because I got a Pilot Error (connection drop on server's part, basically) and it disappeared, the other 2 were junk because for some reason, Legendary items can have junk inscriptions. Not sure how much longer the game will keep me going given the hardest difficult just doesn't reward the player for their time.

    AC:OD's newest DLC is out, I guess I'll get around to that.

    Metro: Exodus is still waiting for me, I only put 3-4 hours on it despite really really enjoying it. But I'm really annoyed at a massive plot spoiler I saw on reddit (in the title of a fucking thread) and I think that's been putting me off from playing. 

  11. @Iron MikeyJ I've been thinking more about this discussion and I think we were arguing past each other a bit, which was mostly due to my argument, not yours. I've spent a lot more time in gaming "communities" over the last 6 months than I usually do, and it's caused me to rethink about this debate.

    I still don't think it's as black and white as "publisher = greedy and developers = malicious" in terms of purposefully shipping malfunctioning or incomplete products. But there does seem to be a trend within AAA gaming and certain genres. I think the trend has always existed to a degree, but it's culminating now given the increased complexity of AAA game development and the massively increased size of the market compared to 15-20 years ago.

    Experiencing Anthem has certainly pushed me further in this direction and I've heard pretty much every looter/shooter had a similar launch with bugs, small amounts of content, and stupid design decisions. Multiplayer games also present a slew of issues on their own, regardless of genre, and Anthem and other recent AAA MP releases are suffering from similar ailments. But I still don't think this is malicious or industry-wide. That being said, it is a problem that needs addressing and I was wrong to completely discount it previously in this thread.

  12. 17 minutes ago, DeadSlash said:

    Yeah, I meant Sentinels.  I wonder if I said Lancer because there is something in the game called Lancers, or if I just projected Lancer in as a generic name, because I look at everything's name as generic in Anthem?

     Excellent call on the tech being so out of whack, you basically live in a Colonial village, with Colonial tech + futuristic Iron man suits and radios.  I even found a note that remarked on the children making toys out of like potatoes and bird shit.  It's fucking dark ages, and they literally haven't invented the wheel... 

     

    Hilarious side note: Something that jumped out to me as dumb, but I felt it was too nitpicky to mention? The radio shows.  Not the concept that they only have radio shows for entertainment, but the premise of the radio show.  For those not playing, the radio shows are 2 competing soap operas about Javelin life.  Simple enough, Cop dramas are popular in real life, makes sense... here's the problem... in the radio show, the sound effects are all lazer sounds, but there aren't lazer guns in the fing game, so why are there lazer gun noises??  It would be like if you took law and order, or NYPD and kept evert premise exactly the same, meaning they were a "reality based drama" but just swapped out the police guns for lazers… WTF?

     

    @OmarBradley With the strong holds, it might make a difference that I was playing at tier 2 (Grand Master 2.)  I was lucky enough to be on during the loot bonanza "bug" and got enough good loot that night to be able to hang on tier 2, so the majority of my playing end game is there.  I'm shocked you haven't been dropped at the boss fight, because for me, it happens 2/3 times.  Yesterday, the loot spiked up again, not sure if it was a "bug" or if they adjusted it up, but I switched down to tier 1 and it was a lot more fun to play, much quicker, and still more loot than tier 2 was before the adjustment.  The whole reason I did the super grindy and long GM2 runs was because of the increase in loot.  If it bumps up macros the board, I'll stick to 1.

    Another problem, that isn't Anthems fault, is that people with garbage equipment queue up to essentially be carried.  Sometimes, I'll be dropped into a tier 2 strong hold with 3 people who's suits are in the 400's or low 500's and they drop immediately.  It's a dead run at that point, because I can do Grand Master 2 without dying, and doing some decent damage, but I can't pass it alone.

     

    PS.  My 2 cents on Reddit: The best thing I ever did, was get out of the reddits.  It was the opposite effect I expected, as I am a far superior informed gamer sans reddit.  While following Reddit might offer the luxury of hearing about something a day or 2 before legitimate media picks up on it, so much of what is said on Reddit is completely false, it's worth it to be 2 days late to the party, knowing I have the correct information.

    LOL re: the laser noises. I haven't listened to the radio shows myself. Technically the Spark Beam (I think that's what it's called?) is a lasery thing for Ranger's Assault Launcher, but yeah the guns seem to fire ballistic rounds. One of the E3 demos had an elemental shotgun... which doesn't seem to be in the game.

    One thing regarding the tech I just thought of, Fort Tarsis is supposedly an outskirts/frontier type settlement. So maybe in Antium the daily tech is more reflective of a semi-advanced species? I know travel between settlements/cities is a problem due to the world state, so maybe Tarsis just has the bare essentials because transport is too difficult to get more out there. That's a fair lore point if this is the case, IMO.

    I did play during the Lootapalooza the other day, but I wasn't level 30 yet so all of my drops were Epics and 1 MW. I only hit 30 a few days ago. I'm power level 610 or so and I did try to find a GM2 Legendary Contract today, but I spawned in alone and no one joined. 0% chance I can solo anything at GM2, probably not even GM1.

    And yeah I just edited my post, you must have been typing as I edited it: I tried HoR GM1 twice today, both times put in toward the beginning of the Monitor fight. I have no idea what the loot drop between modes is, some people on reddit have run tests and they basically say GM2 and GM3 are wastes of time at the moment, especially if you're just farming MW. I still have quite a few MWs to go before I set my sights on Legendary only. 

    Fair point re: reddit, the other reasons I visit is there is so much genuinely entertaining and funny content posted too, and some dev teams communicate directly through reddit even more than their official forums (looking at you, Ubisoft). It's funny, I didn't start redditing until last year, I've been a gamer for almost two decades and I can't imagine how I got on without reddit, but I did. So I suppose that means I still can!

    Think I'll give HoR another shot right now. 

    It's odd. The game has so many problems that are head-scratching, frustrating, and seemingly preventable, but my eagerness to load it up hasn't really dissolved compared to when I first loaded it up in February. I really hate Anthem for a lot of reasons, but I keep playing and at the moment, I have no intention of stopping soon. :shrugs:

     

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  13. On 3/6/2019 at 8:31 PM, OmarBradley said:

    But what I didn't not there is: I think Frostbite is the problem. It's an engine designed for Battlefield, not versatile RPG experiences. But EA has enforced an "every dev must use Frostbite" edict.

    Okay, it turns out this is untrue. This is part of why I don't like reddit, lots of people sharing lots of information that is rarely fact checked or 100% accurate. But, it's the nexus of gaming communities and gaming communication, so I have to deal with it. 

    From what I've read from people who have actually worked with the engine, yes it's true that it was built for Battlefield and EA's in-house engine team generally works on Battlefield related upgrades first, but the engine itself is pretty versatile and it's more up to the developer to adapt it to their game, as people have noted many different genres have been successful on Frostbite. The accusation that EA forces Frostbite is also apparently erroneous, EA just prefers developers use Frostbite, but doesn't require it. There are a few articles from years ago where Aaron Flynn (BioWare GM at the time) discusses why BioWare chose to pursue Frostbite. So, can't blame EA for this one, and as it turns out can't really blame the engine either. Seems like all fingers point at BioWare for Anthem (and ME:A) being shoddy experiences that didn't reach the original visions set out for the games.

    There is some confusion on whether Anthem started as a singleplayer ARPG like most BioWare games and then was forced to pursue live service by EA or if Anthem was always live service/MP to begin with. Haven't been able to find definitive answers on that. Regardless, I still think if it were a singleplayer game it would have half the bugs and twice the content. It sucks, but I guess we have to give it X amount of months before Anthem is the game we all expected and hoped for, if it can reach that.

    On 3/13/2019 at 1:55 AM, DeadSlash said:

    Some additional reasons Anthem is shit:

    (Curios if anyone else playing it feels the same)

    1. The lore seems forced.  I'm not sure how to explain it.  There are lots of games, books and movies that make up lots of crazy ass lore, for whatever reason, the made up shit in Anthem, feels exactly like that... made up shit.   It just all sounds so hokey.  I don't recall any other game where I had that feeling.  Something is just off about it.  The closest I even came to this feeling was years ago, was seeing a commercial for "Lemony Snickets" and thinking "That's so fucking stupid, that is some shit that a writer made up when they were like 4 years old, and put it in a script when they grew up."   As on example, there are these unimportant background animals roaming around that are scifi rabbits and their name in the game is "grabbits."  It gives me that same feeling.  Some shit heel writer had an imaginary pet as a kid and called it a "grabbit" and when they grew up, thought it was clever and cute, so now I have to tolerate this fucking shit.

    2.  So little of the game makes any fucking sense.  Basically, at it's core, Anthem is if Oprah was a video game and announced to the audience "Look under you seats, you get an Iron man suit, and YOU get an Iron man suit! WE ALL GET IRON MAN SUITS!!"  Like, that's the game,  everyone gets an iron man suit.  It's not called an Iron Man suit, it's called a "Javelin"  However, they needed something to provide exposition, so there is this whole thing about everyone in an iron man suit need a "cypher."  The cypher is someone with psychic powers who sits in the base and tells you what they are "sensing."  Their purpose for being in the game is clear, they provide waypoints.  Instead of just getting an arrow pointing to the next objective, you get the voice over of a cypher telling some stupid ass shit about sensing "power spikes" or "distress signals."  The thing is, I understand their purpose of being in the game (exposition) but lore wise, it makes no fucking sense.  You are in this super tech flying armor suit, its hard to imagine it would have super weapons, but not shit like a radar and GPS.  I mean, my Ford fusion has collision detection, but this iron man suit needs some bitch in a special chair to "sense a car in my blind spot."  Why?  Why can't my super suit detect a stress call?  Why do I need a "cypher" to sense it?  

    3.  So there are like 3 main types of people<factions, I guess> Freelancers, which is you, flying around to save the day.  Archanists, which are basically science nerds that study old texts, and Lancers.  Lancers are basically the exact same thing as you.  They fly around in Javelin suits, the only difference is that they are organized, and the part of one large organization... Oh, and their on your side.  You're all friends.... so whats the fucking difference?  Why make a distinction?  I mean, it makes sense that you need to help out and save the nerdy science guys, and it would make sense if you needed to bail out the military, if you know, they didn't have the same fucking super suit as you.  So you use your super suit to save scientists in peril, and organized groups of trained soldiers, where they are all wearing the same fucking super suit as you. 

    Also, The mission system is soooooo broken.  As I mention in an earlier post, after you complete the story line, there are 3 "strongholds" They are like "super missions" where it's really like 4 regular mission, but strung together, and loot chests between the different parts.  Basically it's what you grind for better gear<The end game.> In and of itself, the concept is ok, that's not the issue I have with it.  They are actually, literally broken, that's the problem.  The main issue is that they are uneven in loot distribution, as an example, the 3rd Stronghold is a variation of the final missions of the story.  For the first half of the mission, you are fighting groups of enemies, all capable of dropping loot, and getting a chest after each group.  The second half of the mission, you fight 1 single boss character that you have to beat 3 times.  The first 2 times, he flees and you chase him down and the 3rd time, you get a chest.  So the first half of the mission takes like 7-10 minutes and can gets you a shit ton of loot(30 weak enemies = 30 chances at loot when they are killed), the second half takes 10 to 20 min, and gives you one chest with 4 items at the end.     So what happens is everbody quits when the boss fight starts, because it's worthless, and the chests all contain the same quality of loot (You don't get better items for the chest earned after 15 minutes of fighting vs the 3 you get prior, after 5 min of fighting).   The side effect of this is that 50% of the time when you choose that stronghold, you get dropped into the goddam boss fight instead of the beginning, because everyone vacates the fucking game when the boss fight starts!  (PS. when you get dropped there, at the beginning of the boss fight, if you stay, you'll see 10 or 15 people cycly through, because they just quit and relaunch the mission, hoping to get in at the beginning.)

    Anthem is like one of the hottest girls in the world offering you blow you, BUT, you have to have a fork shoved up your ass while she's doing it. 

    I agree the lore isn't up to BioWare's normal standards, it feels shoehorned in and all over the place. I believe this is due in part to what I previously mentioned about storycrafting: good stories generally start with the story, Anthem feels like they said "OK, we want to make an Iron Man simulator and we want it to be live service - now let's fit a story into those constraints." Really feels that way. Yeah I found the name 'grabbit' to be kind of dumb too. Another cardinal rule of storytelling: your inside/nostalgia jokes are not amusing to 99.9% of people consuming your content. 

    Agreed re: the tech. Somehow Bastion has the tech for incredibly advanced personal weaponry and flight via exosuits. Yet the main forms of entertainment are... listening to radio shows and writing letters. Almost everything about Anthem except the suits feels pretty low tech, which makes little sense considering the suits are uber high tech. I don't think the game ever really explains how javelin's were created. Just that Helena Tarsis "built the first javelin." It doesn't say how she found the steel (or titanium, what are these made of?), the armor plating material, or the rocket technology. Maybe a lore reason for no GPS is that the Anthem of Creation/shaper relics screw with radioactivity/signalling? I know there is a lore reason for no satellites/planes: the high turbulence area in the sky, don't remember if the Anthem created that or if it's natural to the planet.

    I think by Lancers you mean the Sentinels, which is the faction name. But I'm also confused about Freelancer vs. Lancer, I finished the main story and I'm still not sure if Lancer is short for Freelancer OR if it refers to anyone in a javelin who's not a Freelancer. I think it's the latter, Freelancers are basically Lancers who don't belong to a faction? (even though you work for Corvus throughout the entire game). Yeah I do see the discrepancy that Sentinels have basically the same capabilities as you, but for some reason they're utterly helpless at everything. I don't think the game went too far into Freelancer or Sentinel training. The game does say Sentinel's exist mainly to protect the royal family and citizens, think they're sort of like a National/Coast Guard. They're equipped to handle border security issues, but not really for power projection.

    I'm at endgame as well. We need more Strongholds, varied mission types, and more loot drops for MW/Leg (bonus if we could also reroll specific inscriptions at a certain cost). The lack of uniquely modeled loot is also very troubling - every MW/Legendary weapon (the two highest tiers) is a reskin of a weapon you've already had. 

    Angry Joe basically said Anthem's main story should have been something like 10-15 unique Strongholds, instead of the fetch quests that were copied/pasted all over the place. He was staggered that BioWare didn't lean into the lore. They literally have the capability to do whatever they want with the world: weird gravity changes, maybe a Stronghold gets partially flooded so a lot of fighting underwater, maybe one Stronghold messes with time and puts you through different time periods/decades, etc.. So much cool stuff could have been done with missions and Strongholds due to the lore, but no. We have the same 3 or so mission structures for every single thing we do in the game.

    Another reddit chart:

    3m8fr97c32m21.png

    I fortunately have yet to experience people leaving in HoR. I just started my GM1 playing two days ago though, so I expect to see this practice soon. I can't really blame the players, why fight a boss that you know has 0 chance of dropping the loot you're looking for? That's BioWare's fault for bad design. 

    I have on a number of occasions been dropped into a story mission 25-50% through it via the regular Mission selector, not Quickplay! Since Quickplay exists (although it's apparently pretty bugged), there is 0 reason why a player should be put into a story mission anywhere except the very beginning. I'd much rather wait in matchmaking for 2 minutes than miss story dialogue or part of a mission (that's missing XP too). Again, bad design on BioWare's part.

    Also want to mention again that the stats system is really flawed. BioWare pursued a simple mechanical and mathematical system (compared to other stat-emphasized games) and combined it with a lazy scaling system. The result: damage numbers, health numbers, anything you see on the UI is most likely a lie or partial truth, in regard to stats. Ex: +250% Weapon Damage only actually adds 3.5% DPS in some cases due to scaling and additive formulas. This system resulted in people finding out things like the literal default starter weapon is the most powerful in the game and if you remove one of your gear pieces (the Support piece) you become more powerful - has something to do with overall player level. And I'm sure there are more I haven't seen yet/haven't been discovered or discussed.

    Another point I don't think we've discussed yet, the enemy types and AI is pretty lacking in the scheme of things. At first, it feels like there is a decent variety of enemy types. But you quickly learn their tactics and how to deal with them and the fights feel less varied as you progress (this is in part due to the awful fetch quests and repetitive mission structures). Honestly, I think this issue wouldn't be so noticeable if the game's other flaws didn't exist, but it's like every flaw in the game reminds you of another flaw, and another, and another, etc. If we had more loot, I could deal with the lack of content. If we had more content, I could deal with the lack of loot, etc.

    More bad points:

    - ridiculous amount of loading screens, between bugs and having to change missions or go into the javelin editor, Anthem at times becomes Loading Screen Simulator 2019. I have a SSD and I'd still say the loading screens are a medium-level annoyance

    - A tiny amount of cosmetic content is in the game, despite the fact that previous dev streams have showed off many armor sets, customization materials, vinyls, etc.. They are clearly drip-feeding it into their MTX store, apparently it's a marketing technique but I can't find anyone who's happy with the arrangement

    - The MTX scheme itself is disgusting, two fully voiced NPCs standing 10 feet from each other that lead to the same store. I 100% ignore them, both have dialogue markers above their heads but fuck that, if you're not moving the narrative along (whether it's main or side) you are wasting my fucking time BioWare. Some NPCs make comments as you pass by them, and those I listen to because they're often funny, but they're not forced and they're generally 5-10 seconds long. A lot of those are lore related too.

    - I am skeptical the roadmap has the content the game needs to survive, seems like a lot of repeated things and faux-content like "more Outlaws spawn for 3 days here, more Dominion spawn for 2 days here" etc. We are getting a new Stronghold either later this month or next month and I think that's the biggest thing coming.

    - there's no way development was smooth or went as planned. Anthem is either a result of bad project management, unrealistic original goals, high level staff member departures (which there were quite a few throughout development), restarting of development to go from SP to MP/live service, or something else (or likely a combination of some of those things). Given all of the cut content we were shown at both E3s and the immense hype propagate by BioWare itself, there's no way the game as released on 2/22/19 is what BioWare set out to make when they started in 2012/2013.

    Okay, the good:

    NPC dialogue is mostly excellent. Anthem's best stories are in the NPCs you talk to at Fort Tarsis. I think Owen, Faye, and Haluk (your main crew) are fairly mediocre characters with not a whole lot interesting about them. Haluk and Owen are particularly archetypal. But Leyton, Maralda, Neeson, and Amal are some of my favorite characters I've seen in an RPG in a while.  Really powerful stories and great writing (the latter two are comic relief, but they're excellent). Mattias is pretty well written too, I think. I only wish they were part of my party and affected the story with me, like a normal BioWare game!

    Flight and combat are where Anthem shines. I know some other games out there do have versatile player transit and some flight systems, but people seem to agree Anthem is in a league of its own in this regard, and I can see why. Despite the legions of fetch/repetitive quests, flying has yet to bore me. Combat is a similar story. Although it can get repetitive as you progress through the game, it's just very entertaining and engaging to be a part of.

    Javelin customization is very good. You can get really creative with color schemes. I do wish you could create custom emblems/vinyls, but not a huge deal that you can't. I have my N7 vinyl and I'm set.

    World design is very nice. A lot of work clearly went into building the world. The verticality and traversal ability is amazing, I would like some new biomes, as then entire map area is basically jungle and green, but it's not a huge complaint.

    Overall, it's a fun game and has enough content to keep you moderately interested for at least 30-40 hours. But a lot of people are hitting progression walls at endgame levels, and for a live service looter/shooter, 30-40 hours of engaging content is not good enough to be competitive with other games in the genre (or so I've heard, I haven't played them). I'll say it again: Anthem would be a much better game as a typical singleplayer BioWare experience. 

    EDIT: Of course, since posting this I've tried to load up HoR GM1 twice, both times was put in during the Monitor fight. At least I get the guaranteed MW. I also got my first Legendary drop, Venom Darts. Not my favorite, but not terrible. Had 5 MW drops today and all were garbage except 1 which is for a Javelin I haven't used yet... FIX THE LOOT BIOWARE

    Also, realizing at this point we probably should have had a dedicated Anthem thread. Doesn't matter much to me as I think we've discussed about all we can with it, until new content arrives at least, but if a mod/admin wants to cut this and a few of the more recent posts out of this thread into a new one, I'd be fine with it. Up to ya'll.

    • Like 1
  14. On 3/7/2019 at 7:10 PM, OmarBradley said:

     

    Yeah Anthem's lack of unique content is really a travesty. I imagine putting 40 hours on the game to complete the main story and side narratives/some challenges, but those 40 hours are spent doing the same 3 mission types in the same environment over and over and over again. I still can't wrap my head around some of the game design choices. Really think proper production on Anthem didn't start until 2015-2016 and then when 2018 rolled around they had to cut content and rebuild the game with a limited pallet. Some NPC storylines seem like they should go further than where they end, only a few I'd say feel like they have completed arcs for those characters. I understand it's a live service and more will be done with those characters, but that does not excuse an incomplete game priced at $60 (or $80 for the version that comes with a few extra things). If the price-tag was $30 or free, pretty much every single grievance I have would be disappear. But charging $60 for this downgraded, limited experience is nuts. Why should we pay $60 on the assumption the game will at some point have enough content to warrant the price/marketing.

    I don't generally watch YT reviewers, but Angry Joe had some good suggestions on what Anthem should have been. The game he described sounded really interesting.

    I don't know, I just don't understand how a studio of 600 people (I'm estimating at least half worked full time on Anthem during production) could put out something so clearly contentless and functionless compared to the other games in the genre. I believe Destiny and Warhammer had rough starts too, but that shouldn't be allowed to be a norm in this genre. 'Live service' is quickly becoming 'incomplete game,' and that's really unacceptable in general, but especially in what's supposed to be an immersive RPG experience.

    New patch with minor QoL/bug fixes dropped today. However, there has been a lot of discussion in the community regarding loot drops. The entire endgame of Anthem is trying to get the best loot for your build, which for most of the game's existence, has had pathetic drop rates for the two highest tiers of gear.

    There was an 11 hour period right after launch where loot dropped in a plentiful manner, but that was apparently a "bug" and BioWare quickly nerfed loot drops. It looks like the same thing happened again. Last night, many people noted the loot drops seemed to have increased, I verified that in my playing as well. The community was overjoyed: finally BioWare listened to us and increased the loot drop rates so they weren't ridiculous.

    Well, checking back into the community now, it was another bug and they have reverted loot drop rates to where they have been for most of the game's life. People are pissed and rightly so. The entire impetus of this genre is loot, and this game has 0 other content to pursue once you've finished the NPC storylines. 

    Look at the front page of reddit, literally only one post (which I've crossed out at the bottom) is not about the loot situation:

    loot.png

    I don't know how BioWare doesn't understand that loot is Anthem. The core gameplay is fun, but if players don't feel like they can improve their builds any further due to insanely low drop rates, the game is not going to thrive.

     

    EDIT: Someone took the time to carefully calculate the incredibly complicated loot/fun ratio in this genre, and they then posted the results in a chart that hopefully is digestible enough for BioWare: :lol:

    79uo78mz25l21.jpg

  15. 13 hours ago, action said:

    One very important element of proof in this case, the best one if you ask me, is the house search that the authorities did in MJ's ranch.

    What better proof could you possibly get?

    criminals, wether they are murderers, thieves or pedo's, make mistakes. they leave traces of their crimes, however small they may be.

    The ouctome of this search, all the items they have found, need to be reviewed in full by anyone who pretends to have an opinion on MJ's case. Yes, watch the docu, but also watch what the authorities have found during their search.

    Bear in mind, all what they had found, has been put forward in court, all of it. And nothing has been legally found to be child porn. No underwear has been found, nothing that can remotely point to child abuse. I find this very strange. Another thing that I "just have to accept", I guess.

    See more in detail about his house search, here:

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/no-child-porn-found-at-neverland-thenor-now-the_us_577fdfbce4b0f06648f4a3f8

     

     

    1 hour ago, Angelica said:

     

    Sure looks like there was indeed child porn. 

  16.  

    13 minutes ago, Jw224 said:

    I think the millions figure came from the letter MJs Estate sent to HBO. Correct me if I'm wrong. 

    Thanks, but I just searched the letter for the terms: money, millions, million, dollars, financial, thousands. Nothing turned up. Admittedly, I didn't read the full ten pages, but Control + F is generally pretty reliable.

  17. 4 hours ago, action said:

    the majority of people will believe the victim, because this is a natural instinct. you're just a bit short of being an asshole if you dare to look at the victim's confessions with a cautious mind.

    that's the way it's always been, and is ever prevalent in our social media culture.

    but the argument that "the victims are so believable, if they are lying they deserve an oscar" is flawed, in that I can say the same about jackson: "if jackson is really guilty, then he deserves an oscar for playing so innocent".

    can't you people see, that either way, one of the parties has put on an oscar worthy act? don't matter who lies: the victims or jackson: at least one of them has put on a brilliant act.

    so the sympathy card is played and the victims are believed.... because why would a victim lie. But MJ claimed to be a victim too, so we can turn circles to the end of days.

    I think you're still not looking at certain things correctly. I get it, you don't want to be told how you should think. But you are still promoting inaccuracies regarding abuse and victimization. Some of which is addressed on the documentary (as posters are saying, I haven't seen it), and some of which is just general knowledge if you've examined the particularities of situations like this.

    I'm seeing multiple posters repeating the 'many kids traveled with him and most say they weren't molested' - this fact does not exonerate him, for reasons already described ad nauseam in this thread.

    No on deserves an Oscar.

    If the accusers are lying, they deserve civil charges for slander/defamation/libel (depending on what medium(s) they've accused with). I think that point hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet, the accusers are risking being found libelous (which generally includes financially punitive actions) if their claims can be proven false. Moreover, if it can be proved they conspired to lie to law enforcement, that may be a criminal offence (emphasis on may be, I'm not expert on federal or CA codes relating to the degree of lying necessary to be criminally liable for misleading law enforcement/the judicial system). So, the victims are likely taking big risks by pursuing this - if they are lying. Of course, they're risking ridicule and public notoriety too, but that was going to happen regardless of the truth.

    3 hours ago, action said:

    Before 1993, before the first allegations, there were many people who appreciated this character of "grown up man with childlike voice who sleeps in an oxygen chamber and has a pet monkey named bubba" or something.

    it's an outrageous character, it speaks to the imagination.

    Not that anyone of his fans would go through real life like MJ, it's nothing about that. What it meant to them, is this persona of someone who was completely shut off from the big cruel world, living in his neverland pretending to be an eternal child...... that really spoke to a lot of people.

    then came the shock and the illusion was shattered, and the madness began.

    I wouldn't want to feed the people, people who are lost in life who are looking for a bit of dreams. some people follow the Queen and wonder at all the richess and the crown.... it's all bells and whistles and it speaks to the imagination. fairytales of kings and queens, peter pan and mickey mouse.... the feeble minded, the lost people (and there are many) eat it all up like hot cakes

    Again, it's already been pretty well-stated in this thread that Jackson was not the 12 year old he often projected. From the little I know about him, it seems he had some business sense and absolutely understood and navigated the adult world (Beatle's rights and drug abuse are two items that come to mind). He just had an additional side to him that most law-abiding adults don't have. 

    1 hour ago, Towelie said:

    A few reasons why I believe Robson and Safechuck are liars:

     

    For five years, these men have been suing Michael Jackson’s estate for hundreds of millions of dollars. This lawsuit has generated thousands of pages of court records: witness statements, motions, depositions and disclosure. These public documents PROVE beyond any reasonable doubt that the men are lying. The whole media knows about these documents, but is refusing to report on their contents. I’ve tried not to fill my Facebook feed with posts about this, but you are all being lied to from every direction. So this is my contribution to the debate on Facebook – a list of just some of the public record information the media is refusing to tell you.

    • Both men strenuously defended Jackson, including under oath, for decades, and only decided they’d been molested years after his death, when they were both in financial trouble and filed a lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars. That lawsuit was thrown out of court – twice – but the men are in the middle of an appeal, giving them a gigantic financial motive to lie.

    • Since filing their lawsuit, both men have repeatedly changed their stories, frequently telling directly contradictory versions of the same supposed events. For example, Wade Robson has told at least four directly contradictory stories about the first time Jackson supposedly abused him.

    • In the lawsuit, Robson was caught lying under oath so brazenly that the judge threw out his entire witness statement and said no rational juror could ever believe his account.

    • Between 2012 and 2014, Robson wrote two drafts of an abuse memoir and tried unsuccessfully to sell them to publishers. Meanwhile, he lied under oath and said he’d never discussed his allegations with anyone except his lawyers. When the Jackson estate discovered he’d actually been shopping books, the court ordered him to produce the drafts as evidence. They revealed the story of his abuse had changed significantly from one draft to the next.

    • Robson was also ordered to release his emails as evidence. He breached the order repeatedly, first by claiming they didn’t exist, then by simply refusing to hand them over. Then he redacted all the emails between himself and his family members and cited ‘attorney-client’ privilege, even though none of his family are attorneys.

    • When he eventually complied with the court order and released the emails, they revealed that at the time he was constructing his lawsuit and abuse memoir, he was researching and emailing himself links to old tabloid newspaper stories about abuse allegations against Michael Jackson.

    • The emails showed Robson found one particular story from the early 1990s which specifically named he and his mother. He emailed it to his mother and asked whether it was true. She replied, ‘Wow, none of that is true’. He then included it in his story anyway.

    • Emails also revealed that throughout 2011/12, Robson was lobbying Jackson’s estate for a job directing and choreographing an official Michael Jackson tribute show in Las Vegas. His campaign to secure this role had included sending emails explaining that his amazing friendship with Jackson meant nobody was better qualified for the role than he was, and he was devoted to doing the best job he possibly could ‘for Michael’. After being told someone else had got the job, he suddenly claimed he’d been abused and filed a creditor’s claim against the estate for millions of dollars.

    • Months later, according to Jimmy Safechuck, he flipped on the TV and saw Wade Robson being interviewed about his lawsuit. In that moment, Safechuck suddenly remembered that he had been abused by Jackson as well, so decided to join the lawsuit. He didn’t mention that this epiphany coincided exactly with his inheritance circling the drain after a relative died and the surviving siblings started suing each other – including him – for control of the family business.

    • Robson was also ordered to produce his diaries as evidence. In them, he’d written about how these allegations might rescue his failing career by making him ‘relatable and relevant’. He also wrote, ‘It’s time for me to get mine.’ When questioned under oath about what he’d meant when he wrote that, he refused to answer.

    • Both men tell stories in the TV show which directly contradict stories told under oath in their lawsuit. In fact, they have continued to change their stories as recently as within the last week.

    • For example, Jimmy Safechuck claims under oath in the lawsuit that he only remembered Jackson had abused him in 2013 when he turned on the TV and saw Robson. Yet in tonight’s TV show and interviews promoting it, he claims he knew he’d been abused in 2005 and thus, when asked to testify for Jackson’s defence ‘towards the end of the trial’, he refused to do so.

    • But that’s a provable lie. Safechuck was never asked to testify for Jackson’s defence. The judge ruled long before the trial began that testimony could only be heard about certain children, and Safechuck was not one of them. All testimony about Safechuck was literally banned from the courtroom. So Jackson’s defence cannot have asked him to testify – and certainly not after the trial was already underway.

    • Robson claimed in a BBC interview last week that Jackson had abused him ‘hundreds of times’. Yet his mother’s sworn testimony is that they went to Neverland roughly 14 times but Jackson was almost never there. She estimates the number of times they visited the ranch and he was actually there was four.

    • Questioned about their financial motive, the men now say they don’t care about money and are only suing to embolden other abuse victims by holding the Jackson estate accountable. This is a provable lie. The lawsuit was originally filed under seal and Robson tried to extract a settlement from the estate with zero publicity. Only when the estate refused to pay a bean did he go public.

    Please point me to the court record that shows a number reflective of "hundreds of millions of dollars."

    The rest of that is pretty damning, but I imagine there are errors and misleading points in the exposition. Long bullet point lists compiled by laymen (especially those who are emotionally invested in the issue and take a side) generally don't hold up when scrupulously examined. It does look like someone put a lot of work into this, but without knowing who that is and how they conducted their argumentation, it's not a be-all-end-all for me. Unfortunately, I don't care to research it myself so I can't systematically examine it.

    • Like 2
  18. 2 minutes ago, Hollywood Gunner said:

    totally agree but the opposite is also true. slash made axl better

    source : chinese democracy vs. appetite and the illusions

     those two were born to be in the same band... its like slashs guitar is an extension of axls voice and vice-versa... they just dont sound the same without one another

    The If The World/Slither mix is one of my favorite non-GNR things to listen to that has GNR members on it.

  19. 17 hours ago, DeadSlash said:

    ^This

    I played Destiny 2 for like maybe 8 hours, and while it's pretty simple at it's core:  Do Mission - Get new item - Level - Repeat  … it at least looked freaking different in different places.  I could tell I was grinding the same "types" of missions, but at least they were different missions.

    Anthem is the exact same shit after the main campaign. I mean, literally the end game is one of 3 "strong holds" to play over and over for all of eternity.  Even the main campaign is pretty much the same shit (there are like 3 main mission types fly here, kill this, collect that) at least it was different voice acting, and different lines.

    Destiny 2 is also WAY less immersion breaking as you don't have to load every GD second.

     

    Destiny 2 is tripe.  Anthem is utter fucking tripe. 

     

    15 hours ago, DeadSlash said:

    Another TOTAL ASS thing that Anthem did is first, come up with a good idea: As a sort of rando mission, you'll get paired up on earlier missions you've completed with lower levels that haven't done it yet.  You get an XP boost for it.

     

    Then they went and just fucked it in the ass by making the cut away scenes unskippable, in the middle of missions, and 2-5 min long....  So you hit "quick play" to jump in to a quick mission and grab some xp and end up playing for 3 min, and watching 7 min of fucking movies.

    That fucking game.

    Yeah Anthem's lack of unique content is really a travesty. I imagine putting 40 hours on the game to complete the main story and side narratives/some challenges, but those 40 hours are spent doing the same 3 mission types in the same environment over and over and over again. I still can't wrap my head around some of the game design choices. Really think proper production on Anthem didn't start until 2015-2016 and then when 2018 rolled around they had to cut content and rebuild the game with a limited pallet. Some NPC storylines seem like they should go further than where they end, only a few I'd say feel like they have completed arcs for those characters. I understand it's a live service and more will be done with those characters, but that does not excuse an incomplete game priced at $60 (or $80 for the version that comes with a few extra things). If the price-tag was $30 or free, pretty much every single grievance I have would be disappear. But charging $60 for this downgraded, limited experience is nuts. Why should we pay $60 on the assumption the game will at some point have enough content to warrant the price/marketing.

    I don't generally watch YT reviewers, but Angry Joe had some good suggestions on what Anthem should have been. The game he described sounded really interesting.

    I don't know, I just don't understand how a studio of 600 people (I'm estimating at least half worked full time on Anthem during production) could put out something so clearly contentless and functionless compared to the other games in the genre. I believe Destiny and Warhammer had rough starts too, but that shouldn't be allowed to be a norm in this genre. 'Live service' is quickly becoming 'incomplete game,' and that's really unacceptable in general, but especially in what's supposed to be an immersive RPG experience.

    • Like 1
  20. Couldn't get Nord to work with iPlayer. This time made it through the "Do you have a licence?" screen, but the video wouldn't play. No matter, I engaged some pirates and acquired the two episodes. Watched the first last night.

    10/10. I am weary to award any item a perfect score, but I'm really struggling to find any fault with the first episode. It started very strong and continued in that manner for the entire episode, not a dull moment IMO. Excited to see the second episode, though tonight is Grand Tour night.

     

  21. 12 hours ago, RageKage said:

    Slash gave another interview to a German newspaper.

    https://www.zeit.de/kultur/musik/2019-03/guns-n-roses-slash-gitarrist-interview/seite-3

     

    The last two questions were:

    Until mid August you're on world tour with SMKC. Do you have plans for the time after that?

    Slash: when I'm back home, I will sit down with the guys in guns n roses and focus on a new record.

    You haven't worked on it yet?

    Slash: No, but I know everyone involved wants to do this record. We're talking about it and Axl already has a ton of material which he produced himself. I think we're in a phenomenal form to get started.

    I honestly thought this was a repost of the German interview because the language is (to me) still very similar.

    "Everyone wants," "we're talking about it," "Axl has material," "phenomenal form to get started." It's maybe less bullshit-speak than the past statements, but in no way does this confirm an album.

  22. 38 minutes ago, downzy said:

    Yeah, in the greater scheme of things it really doesn't matter.   I've got my wife, my kid, my cat, my work, my family and friends.  Whether Jackson abused these boys decades ago really doesn't have an affect on my life.  I stopped listening to Jackson's music years ago (actually most music, as I've grown tired of hearing the same songs over and over again).  I wasn't itching to see it myself but had several hours of image editing that needed to be done and prefer to have something playing on the side of my computer screen while I worked.  So I figured I'd give it a shot since nothing on Netflix seemed of interest at the time.  But I'm glad I did.  It's not limited to the allegations.  There's a lot more to the movie than just what Robson and Safechuck have to say.  It's a very fascinating four hours even outside of the allegations.  But yeah, i get the apprehension.  

    In the morality of the artist thread I typed up a reply to one of action's posts and I went a bit off topic and asserted in Western popular music there are not as many available melodies as one may think. Basically, the possibilities in music are near infinite depending on length of melody and rhythmic decisions, BUT popular Western music tends to utilize the same several hundred combinations because that's what sounds best. Yeah, you could have a melody that's 9 notes long and starts with a whole note that then goes into 4 sixteenth notes and then ends with all quarter notes in 7/4, but it would be a jarring experience to listen to and I don't think any popular artist would pursue something like that. 

    I ended up not posting because it was a bit off topic (which I am now doing to this thread :lol:) and the conversation had moved on, but I will check if the forum editor saved it.

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