voxn

"why are castles cool?" at the start of the episode is a good question. I think castles are cool (voxn, age 5), but have no interest in constructing labyrinths and traps. For me they are impressive as the last great structures built of purely human effort, before the advent of diesel engines etc started exponentially magnifying the work of a single person, and modern materials removed a lot of interesting constraints medieval architects labored under. They seem of almost unbelievable proportion in relation to the means they were built with, and that that size served a very specific function (beyond being impressive) gives them a weight I just don't feel with modern superstructures. To have the same draw a modern structure would have to be built on a scale that just doesn't exist; like a space elevator, or some other piece of purely conceptual architecture. edit; as I think about this more I'm convinced it's the strategic value that is majority of the draw. As staggering as something like the burj khalifa is, it's completely frivolous - a show of wealth - a tourist attraction. It completely lacks the gravity a castle must have had, as this unbreakable fortress for which I don't think there is a modern analog.

here's my random thought: I don't think Doublefine makes very good games. Painful to realize, because I adore the DFA videos, and think the people who work there are genuinely great people, who both work hard and have to make a lot of tough decisions. But man. Re-watching some DFA content recently (and catching up on the (unfortunate on all fronts) Spacebase debacle) got me thinking about how much I like that studio, and how utterly uninterested I am in their games, and what a weird dichotomy that is.

a hotfix rolled out! (link) auto rifle and shotgun nerfs, mythoclast nerfs (thank god), scout rifle buffs, and a fix to a cheesy way of beating the first boss of Vault (though it looks like the much-more-obviously-an-exploit way to beat the last boss remains intact for another tuesday reset). in totally unrelated news, I scraped into rank 3 Iron Banner before it ends tomorrow. There are no additional rewards hidden on the vendor, like there were for the Queen event. The wholly unremarkable gloves and MG are the extent of the loot rewards. Bummed that the only drop I got was a Timurs Lash, the handgun, with decidedly mediocre mods. I enjoy pvp for its own sake, but damn did they skimp on the rewards for what was, in the end, a fairly absurd amount of hours playing Iron Banner. The shader is super gaudy solid-gold, at least!

I'd recommend going into the raid blind, if at all possible. The giantbomb crew did! you don't need to bother leveling it up, you get the same number of Ascendant shards reguardless

good combo, the two strongest weapons in pvp :B I run the raid every week. It's fantastic, and not all that difficult to pug, despite Bungie's claims.The real challenge is finding a group with no obnoxious people. you're not wrong about Iron Banner, but if it's anything like the Queens event (and everything is so copy & pasted it probably is) there's a lot more rewards, you just can't see them until you hit rank 3, because reasons. the amount of grinding required to hit rank 3 is so ludicrous it's basically a moot point though.

I feel the same way I've always felt: that the game is shallow and shockingly badly designed. However, jetpacking around shootin' things - the more mechanical aspects - are a lot of fun, so I play an hour or two here and there and enjoy it. I never thought I'd think of a massively expensive new IP from bungie as a flawed gem, but here we are. xurs items are randomized just like drops, so have the minuscule variations in stats. These variations are so meaningless you'd have to be a crazy person to care though, and they are just as likely to be 'better' then a random drop you found.

https://gfycat.com/EnlightenedSameEft

nope, you'll have to play an actual good game, rather then this bad game we can't stop playing condolences

EXOTIC REVIEW I got a Monte Carlo from the nightfall, and it seems weird. An autorifle totally geared towards close-quarters combat, and I just don't see how you could compete with shotguns and fusion. Looks rad though: Thunderlord from an engram a while back. It's awesome. Heavy Machine Gun that shoots faster & more accurately the longer it's fired. Amazing for the last boss of Vault, as you have limited time to do damage and it dumps bullets. Thorn is still fun in pvp, not so much in pve. Hoping the buffs roll out soon! did the bounties for Invective and Pocket Infinity, though neither are leveled yet, so we'll see in a couple weeks when I level the damn things

cool! Super Good Advice seems kind of, uh, poorly thought out? It's an interesting idea, but should really do something more, cause 'take longer to deal damage but its okay you didn't waste any ammo' seems like a backwards perk. Especially when it eats up your one exotic slot! Universal Remote sounds much more interesting (shame you'll have to level it for weeks before you can see how well the aiming works (r.i.p))

when you finish a queen's mission one of the marks in your inventory is consumed in exchange for a legendary helm/chest(and rarely sniper rifle/ship). you are giving them way too much credit. The rumor mill has been going, and it sounds like the campaign got completely gutted less then a year ago. The grimoire was a late band-aid fix, and they ran out of time to implement it in-game.

[citation] The defense upgrades give additional light. Ordinary legendaries provide +27 light when fully upgraded, while Exotics and raid legendaries reach +30 good luck! The final step is pretty hard (and the pvp step if you don't like pvp). Hopefully the buffs hit soon. I was portal running in Vault, and had to switch away from Thorn for the first time. The small magazine and slow reload really cripple it in situations like that, though I've come around on the gun quite a bit since fully upgrading it.

oh, I'm not talking about those. You get a steady stream from doing the fun stuff. I'm talking about this:

the end-endgame is essentially the 2 weeklies and Vault of Glass. I'm still finding it compelling, but it's really only about ~3 hours of content per week. The slightly gross part is that new gear takes stupid amounts of materials to level, which translates into a couple hours of mindless chest farming (note: as much time as you'll spend doing actual fun things) per item. I suppose there's the Queen event too, which is a couple easy legendaries if you're just hitting endgame, but is so poorly designed overall that ignoring it is the sanest option. Hoping Iron Banner has a bit more care put into it.

but seriously folks I want to replace these: default emotes, not the myriad weird ones are mine bad?? I honestly didn't expect overwhelming dismissal

where do you guys go for book recommendations? Any specific critics/critical outlets you always find worthwhile? Just scalp forum threads like this one?

I haven't the faintest idea what this means

TERRIBLE EMOTE STOCKHOLME

'worthless' is a pretty knee-jerky. Too many defenders and the bubbles are redundant, too many sunsingers and no one is generating orbs. A mix of classes is the best composition -- though, yes, you'll ideally have at least one defender and a sunsinger or two for insurance.

yup sunsingers are supremely rad in nightfalls and raids because they can circumvent these mechanics with self-revive