Architecture

Good to hear. I'm really glad I'm running parallel drives (A small 128GB SSD C drive, a 500GB SSD G Drive and a 1TB HDD X Drive for mass storage).

Yeah, walking around when the alien is 15 feet from you seems insanely stupid. This game seems to push for a realism a lot of gamers say they crave and then realize they don't want when they get it. Guess what, buddy--life is unfair and unpredictable and doesn't ascribe to a set of clearly-defined rules.

While I'm at a point where I can handle large swaths of Uruk at a time, I don't feel overpowered in the slightest. I might have laid waste to most of the captains in the game, but there are still moments where I'm just overwhelmed by the sheer number of orcs on screen to the point where I can even vault them and run away. My current nemesis seems to only suffer a vulnerability to fire, and I've yet to get him anywhere near an open flame. I've always been down on fantasy and never really fell for Tolkein's works, but this game is making me want to pick up the books and attempt them again. This is easily the most fun I've had with a big-budget game in ages, and I'm glad that something can still come along and take me by surprise in the AAA scene.

I'd like to thank y'all for the responses, it's been nice to have some encouragement in this situation. I got my roomie to come out to a party last night, and he had a good time. I think a big part of his problem is his lack of any sort of social structure. On the drive home, I tepidly dove into a conversation and expressed my concern for him and since he was in a jovial mood, I got a better response than I have previously. He finally verbally recognized his problem with me, which seems like a huge step, and also admitted that he'd like to drink less. I don't expect this to be the turning point in what is most assuredly a never-ending battle, but I'll take a small victory where I can. He also mentioned that he's been cutting back his drinking on his days off, so while I'd still deem it pretty excessive, that's a step in the right direction. I think I'm just gonna continually chip away at his antisocial behavior (his anxiety problems, unfortunately, contribute to this in a big way) and force him out of the house. If he can start to break the feedback loop of depression and self-medication, I think he'll start to rely on alcohol less and less until it's just a supplement to his life instead of a big crutch. Anyway.

Firewatch with me.

More bike fun.

Windows 7, Jr.

Did anyone post the Jacobin article by Peter Frase yet? It's essentially the #lamergate equivalent of:

Sorry to hear this, I just threw you an invite on Steam this evening in the hopes that I could avenge your death(s).

Have not noticed any trigger rumble. I would recommend rubbing your finger along the trigger housing as well; the casting marks on mine were especially sharp so I took some 0000 steel wool to them. Really love the feel of the redesigned sticks and buttons, and the d-pad is far better this time around. The triggers were initially uncomfortable because of their roundness, and I've found myself having to consciously adjust my grip on them during extended play sessions. I'd say the benefits far outweigh the negatives, though.

Ryan McCaffrey at IGN echoed that sentiment. Arthur Gies is responsible for the Polygon review, however, and I don't trust much of anything that man has to say. In fact, listening to Rebel FM is mostly an exercise in masochism because I want to grab him by the scruff of his collar and shake some damn sense into him.

I avenged one of your deaths, SecretAsianMan! A red blip showed up on my map and informed me that you'd been murdered by some Uruk. Well, I just wasn't going to let that shit stand, so I hunted down the captain and put my dagger through his jugular.

I'm a huge proponent of both FEAR and Condemned: Criminal Origins. In fact, Condemned was the first time I recall seeing depth of field applied to actual gameplay and being totally blown away at the time (It must've been early 2006?).

I would say pushing past 1080p is a big part of it. We're talking about a difference of nearly 97 million pixels every second.

I'm comparing Ubisoft's PC optimization to WB's in this instance.

I wouldn't recommend playing through Origins if you're not craving more Batman. They repurpose the level geometry of Arkham City and the story itself is not as compelling as the previous two games. The art design is rooted a little more in realism, but that's not enough to recommend the game to someone who's lukewarm on the prospect of more freeflow combat. You're better off just waiting for Arkham Knight at this point, honestly.

I disagree on both counts, honestly. There are certainly some textures which are muddier than others, but the overall visiual fidelity is quite impressive, especially the tesselation and lighting. The animation is also just jaw-dropping, such as orcs tripping and falling as they run away from you in fear, or the way their faces emote horror as you interrogate them. And as Gwardinen said, this game performs much better than Ubisoft's recent output.

He definitely suffers from clinical depression and anxiety, and as I said, takes medication for those disorders. We met via a different message board--he was on his way to Austin from Delaware on a very crazy road trip, and when he ended up here, a few of us met up with him to hang out for the evening. It became pretty clear that he was homeless at this point and quite suicidal as he'd been meting out his medication along the trip. I only recently found out that he didn't even alert his parents when he moved, and instead waited until they were on vacation and quietly drove off. I'd say we're fairly close, as far as roommates go. He pays rent on time, is great about utilities, and even though we've had some common space cleaning issues, he's made attempts to address all that stuff. I routinely invite him out to social gatherings, which he almost unanimously turns down. When he's not working, he just sits in his room and drinks. Every once in a while I can coax him out for dinner or to a movie, but that's a pretty rare occurrence. Any time I've approached his addiction, I've done so from a very reserved place. I try to make it clear to him that I'm bringing it up out of concern for his well being and that I'm open to helping him in whatever way I can. But I do also understand and appreciate that change will not happen until he's ready to face the music. I suppose I could threaten him with eviction if he didn't at least take steps to address it, as his room looks like a goddamn disaster and I'm the owner by proxy (it's a condo which my parents purchased and we pay their mortgage), but that is a nuclear option. I just am equally frustrated and saddened by it, and really want him to get better.

I'm gonna have to disagree with this.

Dallas is Kroger country.

The system is also simplified at the beginning of the game. Story progress actually increases the complexity of the background systems, and the game even surfaces this to the player. I usually min-max open world games like this by taking care of a substantial amount of side quests before proceeding onto the main storyline. And in the case of Mordor, I'm having so much fun with the basic gameplay loop that I have only completed two or three main quests in the six-plus hours I've sunk into the game thus far. After one story mission involving a rather rodent-like Uruk, a few additional layers of the nemesis system came into focus. I can't even fathom how crazy it gets once the whole branding/submission stuff comes into play. This is on track to be my favorite game of the year so far. It looks fantastic, plays well, has unique systems, pretty great writing overall and some top-level voice acting and music. In fact, it's so overwhelmingly enjoyable that it more than compensates for that fact that I'm not much of a high fantasy guy in the first place.

Quoting for anyone who would like to pick up the game on the PC for less than $40. The code will also work for ALIEN: Isolation. If I hear that's good as well, I might be pre-ordering it before the week is through.

#notallninjas #linkueigate

Pumpkin flavors are rampant through Thanksgiving stateside.