Vasari

Just so everybody knows, there's an exploit people use where they look at the roster while matchmaking on ToO to check what level their enemies are and what gear they have, and if they don't look like easy targets they switch character to leave matchmaking without getting a loss on their scorecard. This is an exploit, and not only will you be banned from Crucible matchmaking for it, but you'll be restricted from using any Trials of Osiris gear. The Bungie forums are *hilarious*.

I'm on board the New Vegas train as well. Dead Money never gets enough recognition for how brilliant it was.

I'm getting back into this game after a long absence. Last thing I did was kill the Blood-starved Beast in Old Yarnham, and then I got picked up by a sack dude. I finally found a lantern in that prison place, so where should I be heading now? I can't remember at all if I'd found another path to take.

Giorgio Vasari is usually considered the first art historian. He was a weird eccentric who wrote a serious of biographies on artists that were half factual and incredibly detailed, and half made-up gossipy stories and exaggerations. Also it's easy to pronounce and people on the internet can't turn it into a dick joke, so it's pretty safe.

I've heard the argument that Young Ahamkara's Spine is good in ToO. Putting down a long-lasting tripmine can completely block a passage or stop a player being revived. Unless of course the other team knows how to destroy tripmines, which it seems alot of people don't.

Belligerence Intelligence Grandiosity Wisdom Agility Representation Strength BIGWARS It can't have been that uncommon to play playground games based on video games, right? I definitely did it all the time with my friends when I was younger. When I was 6 I accidentally uppercutted my friend in the jaw while trying to show him the one move I knew how to do in Mortal Kombat and everyone hated me for the rest of the day. I can't remember any other specific instances, except when I was about 8 and we played Abe's Odyssey. That was more of an improvisational roleplay where some people were mudokon slaves and the others were slig guards, and the mudokons were trying to find ways to break free or take out guards. Sometimes someone would be a Glukkon boss and the sligs would follow him around. I've never thought of this as weird until I've had to put it into words.

People are going insane over this on Reddit, but it looks completely false. For one thing the only "confirmed" parts of the rumour are things like "It's set in Boston" that we knew years ago, and "It'll be announced at E3" which isn't exactly a difficult thing to guess. Only allowing the player to be a male character is one of the parts people are latching onto because of the voiced part of the trailer, but I'd be very surprised if Bethesda actually went down that route. The bit that really looks unbelievable is the idea that the game can be played in first person or in an isometric view - That would mean that: A) All the environment assets would need to be made to cut away to let you view them from above and the world would need to be designed so that you never see the seams from either angle. The combat mechanics and controls would need to change entirely between view modes. Considering the combat in Bethesda's Fallout games is real time I guess that means it'd be a twin stick shooter? It's honestly easier than it seems to make a rumour like this appear true. All you need to do is fill it with mundane, believable lies, and things we already know or are obvious. Then you can drop in a couple of huge reveals and they'll seem believable by virtue of the other stuff. Just don't point any of this out on reddit, though. They're in a frenzy right now over Fallout.

Danielle is talking about Life is Strange! I am a confirmed fanboy of Hella Teen Adventures, I'm really glad someone is talking about this game now because it's the best.

I had an absolute blast on the Nightfall this week. Solar/Arc burn and Small Arms made this run hilarious if you're lucky enough to have an elemental primary. My auto rifle bullets were doing 700 damage each.

According to one of the IGN previews, the full customisation is still there. You can even change a soldier's nationality and swap individual armour pieces. Changing nationality is especially nice for putting your friends in, since now I don't have to keep recruiting soldiers until I end up with enough Scottish women.

This is exactly how I felt. It didn't show anything that we don't already know about Fallout in general, and there wasn't actually any exposition on what this game specifically is about. Personally I've never felt that the dog is a defining element of Fallout, and having this whole pre-war prologue stuff feels about as necessary as explaining Batman's origin story again. This is all old ground.

Destiny: The Taken King Sponsored by Red Bull! http://imgur.com/a/N9at4

One of the Queen's Wrath bounties this week actually sends you to a new mission. It's a short one that starts you in the Phogoth room in the Hellmouth, but it's cool to see them do new stuff like this.

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/

I've heard rumblings that Bungie/Activision will be talking about the big expansion that's coming later this year for Destiny. If it's supposed to be out around September/October then this would be a good time to announce it.

According to the devs on twitter, there are no plans for a console version right now. Personally I think that's fair considering their goals: Firaxis has always supported modders, and there was a decent mod community around XCOM. Plus when it came to releasing the expansion, it was too complex to integrate as DLC so they had to release another disc, which was a difficult pitch for a game that reportedly didn't do so well on console. Firaxis just seem to be more comfortable with the PC ecosystem, so I don't blame them to sticking to what they know. I played XCOM on PC though, so maybe I'm biased. I'm sure it sucks to be a fan of XCOM who won't have a chance to play the sequel. Anyway, I am fucking STOKED about another XCOM. I loved the original and I thought the Firaxis version was absolutely incredible. It seems like they've really taken the lessons of the first to heart (They've mentioned procedurally generated levels and being able to carry wounded squadmates back to the Skyranger). What I really like about this is that they're actually paying tribute to the concept for X-Com: Genesis, which was planned to be the next major sequel to X-Com before Hasbro shut down their games division. This interview has a good explanation of what that would be.

I read that earlier and it gave me so sense of what Rock Band 4 is actually like. I still know nothing about that game, and it's a shame because it doesn't seem particularly hard to explain what RB4 is, even if you're not interested. And if you're not interested in RB4 to the point that you can't even bring yourself to play it at a preview event, there's really nothing stopping you from saying "I'm not interested in this game at all and I can't write about it, please give me something else to cover." All I really learned is that Colin Campbell is probably a really boring person and I don't want to learn anything else about him. There are definitely ways to write about games you aren't all that interested in while still being really entertaining and informative. Although it helps if you actually play the game.

That was good fun last night, even if I did screw up being swordbearer a few times. It's alot harder than it looks!

Fuck What happened?

See these Meninists? Get them all tae fuck.

So this happened today:

I did the 32 earlier this week. The fourth round is a real bastard; arc burn means that the major wizards and knights can basically instakill you, and disarming mines means you can't just hide from them for the whole round.

The new hire was announced today at the end of the Beastcast. It's Austin Walker! https://twitter.com/austin_walker/status/604278507632386048