Strider Hiryu

Yes but right now he's being heavily criticized over him pulling us out of a war that a chimp started for oil that no one wanted (we all know who this chimp was, no need for clarification). This won't end Biden but I never thought he'd get a second term, just happy someone had the fucking balls to pull us out of this god damn war we wasted billions of dollars on. Could he have done it better? Yes but shit happens and sadly he's got his hands full rectifying the issues a giant man child introduced to this country as well as the pandemic he allowed to fester. It's no wonder other countries feel sorry for us, we're literally dancing around like idiots making everything political instead of making shit better by working together. Sigh, can we just rewind time back to when all we needed to worry about was whether our President had "sexual relations" with an intern instead of the bullshit we're dealing with now. It's fucking embarrassing to call myself an American these days.

A thousand times yes, I fucking adore this seasons OP (especially with the story related relevance of it). It's also the only opening besides Dynazenon's that I didn't skip once this entire season. I'm really sad this is the end though, we won't get anymore of these wonderfully crafted openings anymore after Mon (I'm really disappointed this was only a 13 episode season but they've done a really good job of wrapping everything up (with a few exceptions) so I can't be too disappointed).

Forum necromancer here to resurrect an old topic again. So I got lucky and was able to play in the Closed Technical Alpha for this this past weekend. Gotta say I originally had no interest in this since I figured it was going to be another one of those Korean games that's all flash and no substance (and quite frankly that's all I really saw from watching streams of it back when it originally launched) kind of how Blade and Soul was (don't get me wrong B&S was good but it didn't have staying power for me). I'm happy to say I've reversed my opinion on it after getting my hands on it. Can't entirely say much since I believe I'm still under NDA (not sure but I'm not taking chances here) but I was extremely impressed by Lost Ark (almost so to say this is what Diablo 3 should of been). Combat is visceral and fun (chaining abilities together is fun as hell, takes a bit of getting used to do to how they're mapped on the keyboard), story is rather interesting (I love how every class has it's own Prologue story and that leads into the over-arching plot of the game, though not all of those are extremely well done or good (standouts for me were the Martial Artist and Warrior, Mage was okay but nowhere near as good as the other two), the game is beyond gorgeous (I don't normally gush about his stuff but god damn is it pretty), I like all the systems they have in place for various things (getting around the world, the rapport system, the little secrets you can find, etc), I love how you don't have to log out to the character selection screen to change characters (you can do it from the in-game menu) and I like the MMO aspect of the game even if it's not an overly important to actually enjoying or doing anything (seeing other players in the world makes it feel more alive while you're playing and it's nice when someone drops in to help kill a powerful monster). About my only gripe is the loading process into the game. From boot-up to character select was anywhere between 5-10 minutes which royally sucks (part of that is due to the anti-cheat that boots up prior to game launch). Now it could be just my computer taking it's sweet ass time but I highly doubt that. In-game load times are amazing, you spend very little time in loading screens and it's refreshing as hell when compared to other games like it. Quite frankly I'm really looking forward to this now after playing it (hell I'm considering purchasing the Platinum Founders pack for all the goodies and guaranteed access to the closed beta) and is probably the only real thing I'm hyped about this year besides Endwalker. I'm worried that this will come out at or around the same time as the D2 remaster and put me in a bind but all things considered I think Lost Ark will win that battle (as much as I love D2 I've never been hyped about an ARPG like this before (well at least not since D3 shattered all my hype with poor design decisions)). If you get a chance to get into the beta when it comes around take it because the game is fun as hell. Now to sit here and not think about my gnawing need to play my Soul Fist (Martial Artist advance class).

While nice it still falls way short of what they should of done to begin with, give us a bigger internal drive. Sadly they could easily make them run on external drives if they just take the internal one and sell them as external add-ons (not like the option is great, they'd probably cost more then they're worth). My major concern here is what USB drives are actually compatible? All it says in their faq is USB 3.0 or higher and not all will be compatible. Are we talking Passports, external HDD's, or USB sticks? We talking certain brands or every brand? Sigh, I own so much external storage and the thought that I'd need to buy a new one just for this depresses me if the current one I'm using on my PS4 won't work. Sigh, Sony really out here this generation just pissing people off (though I don't know how many people are pissed about storage capacity like I am). Man, really starting to think it's not worth buying a PS5 anymore (even if I do want one).

Nothing to say, it's says it all. God I fucking love this show.

Fruits Basket openings have all been winners as have the endings. Whoever has been choosing the songs needs a raise because they're doing a damn good job. Hmmm, it'd be hard to me to even pick between all the good openings over the last couple years (and even from this past winter season, there a few damn good ones) but I'll see your five with five of my own I'm starting out with the best of my five and that goes to Sincerely from Violet Evergarden (you name dropped it so I'm here to drop the opening). From the minute I heard it I fell in love with the song and I can't hear it without tears streaming out of my eyes (yes I'm an emotional wreck when it comes to VE). Next on the list goes to Chaos Drifters from No Guns No Life Season 2, While I love Motor City from Season 1 I'm obsessed with this song and it's actually one of my most played songs on Spotify (god damn banger it is). Third on this list goes to Rise from Shield Hero, fucking banger of an opening (as is Faith, the second opening but I personally prefer Rise). Surprisingly enough this opening is what actually sold me on watching the show since it does a pretty good job of encapsulating what the show is about (and lets face it, Naofumi is probably one of the most relatable protagonists in any isekai show to date). We all knew this was going to happen since I absolutely adore the show and three of its four openings, it's Mayday from Fire Force. As DX can attest this show is freaking awesome and I feel Mayday does the best job of encapsulating that no only in the animation but the song as well. I adore Inferno (opening 1) and Spark-Again (opening 3) but Mayday is just fucking amazing. And last but certainly not least my fifth pick. This song was literally an obsession of mine from the moment I heard it (and we discussed this much earlier in this topic I believe) and that would be Shadowgraph from Boogiepop Phantom. MYTH & ROID have quite a few amazing songs (Jingo Jungle from Saga of Tanya the Evil, Voracity, Hydra and L.L.L. from Overlord) Shadowgraph has resonated with me and completely sucked me in. The ending from Boogiepop Phantom (Whiteout) is also amazing but I'm sticking to openings here. While not part of the top five thing I also wanted to post one of my favorites from the 2021 winter season. While not my absolute favorite (that belongs to The Promised Neverland's S2 opening (even if S2 is a dumpster fire but I won't get into that here)) it's from one of my favorite Japanese Rock bands (in fact this is there first ever anime opening) and I feel they don't get anywhere near the attention they absolutely deserve. Different by Band-Maid, these girls absolutely kill everything they do and this is no exception and I'm so glad they were chosen to do this for Season 3 of Log Horizon.

This has been one of the major reasons why I've been gravitating more and more towards PC gaming and only buying the occasional PS game (either due to exclusivity or I'd rather play in on console). Sony loves to alienate their player base and while I love the Playstation and Sony it's getting to the point where I really do want to see them take a huge L and learn just how to take care of the players that support them. I mean Microsoft learned that the hard way with the One and only really started recovering once the One X came out. They've really set themselves up great with Game Pass (but we'll see how long that lasts, not really sustainable to give out free games (even brand new one) for free for a low monthly fee) and their acquisition of Bethesda gives them a huge library of games, both future and past, to really sell Game Pass and the Series X (though with Bethesda's recent flops I'm not entirely sure it's a good thing).

Anime: Besides also watching Geoff (Mother's Basement) and Tristan/Arkada (Glass Reflection) I also follow AniNews https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCchUOUW-eNmDfDqMS_AiZew (mostly for Overlord and Shield Hero content) CDawgVA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPsZ_0SkFdi551iYTG04R2g (mostly for his stupid antics, he's mostly just a JVlogger now) Gaming News/Videos: JackFrags https://www.youtube.com/user/jackfrags Matimi0 https://www.youtube.com/user/Matimi0 (occasionally, I watch his stream more then his youtube channel) LevelCap https://www.youtube.com/user/LevelCapGaming (don't watch him as much as I used to since he became more news centric) TheRussianBadger https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRussianBadger The Escapist https://www.youtube.com/user/TheEscapistMagazine (mostly for Zero Punctuation) Also follow YongYea as well FFXIV Related: MrHappy1227 https://www.youtube.com/user/Xehanort1227 (mostly for guides and news) Ethys Asher https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs2UQ_EJkAAlzXkcTfDj-2g (FFXIV Lore Daddy, follow for all that juicy FFXIV lore) MTQCapture https://www.youtube.com/user/MTQcapture (guides) Final Fantasy XIV https://www.youtube.com/user/FINALFANTASYXIV News: Internet Today https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyZVCV9xhrCyz4hPehvb4Wg Philip DeFranco https://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil Building Stupid Shit (not sure how to classify these): michaelcthulu https://www.youtube.com/user/michaelcthulhu (builds ridiculously huge weapons, rather entertaining) Hacksmith Industries https://www.youtube.com/user/MstrJames (the makers for that lightsaber vid I posted) Music Oriented: Chillhop Music https://www.youtube.com/user/Chillhopdotcom (I've really gotten into lofi lately) Vincent Moretto https://www.youtube.com/user/HaarasNC (man does some killer metal covers of Ace Combat music as well as others) Frog Leap Studios https://www.youtube.com/user/leolego (does some killer covers) As well as multiple other ones mostly centered around piano covers of anime openings and endings (I'll provide links if anyone is interested). Science/History: Biographics https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClnDI2sdehVm1zm_LmUHsjQ SciShow https://www.youtube.com/user/scishow Forgotten Weapons https://www.youtube.com/user/ForgottenWeapons VLog Oriented: Abroad in Japan https://www.youtube.com/user/cmbroad44 (just because I find Japan interesting and I like Chris's personality) Random Nerd Shit: FilmComicsExplained https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCisWUR5UCMcxz_4zT6mI3kA Certifiably Ingame https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJutYkYphYcGo-xbqyQJeYA (mostly for his Star Trek and Star Wars lore video's) EckhartsLadder https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp6F1mQGuaXiDj5otWBmIjg (mostly for Star Wars content) 40K Theories https://www.youtube.com/user/remleiz (even though I don't play Warhammer I find the lore fascinating) Streamer Related: Streamers Reloaded https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDT1meaKQ_D1HjhTGULNbew (I spend way to much time watching streamers and for some reason streamer drama just amazes me hence why I watch it) I also watch a lot of other youtubers this is just a small snippet of what I watch (plus some of the others I really don't know how to classify into a category as they cover more then just one thing). Not to mention the recent rabbit hole I fell down and wish I never did (I've gotten into vtubers and I don't know whether to be disgusted in myself or just resign myself to this weird fad).

God damnit I'm tearing up just watching the trailer, fucking christ what has this anime done to me (that or I'm just over emotional from starting my 4th rewatch of VE (don't judge me, I need to watch the BD's and make sure they're up to snuff))? Can it be April already?

I hear you there. It's always perplexed me since the Kelvin Timeline was introduced (JJ's Star Trek movies) that tech seems more advanced back in the 23rd century then it does in the 24th. It also perplexes me where they put all those damn phaser banks (the Enterprise-E, a Sovereign class starship and most advanced ship in the Federation as of Nemesis has 12-phaser banks and yet you see ships from newer series set earlier in canon sporting arrays like a laser light show). Sadly though tension and introspection don't get viewers anymore so it's the flashier the better. Good choice in battles as well, two of my favorites as well from the movies.

See as much as I want to watch this I keep hearing shit like this. They have a handful of good episodes and then fuck it up with a series of shit ones where canon is either thrown out the door or re-written. Hell I hear even Picard didn't turn out as great as a lot of people were hoping it would (I hear, overall, that it was good but that it just fell short of being great due to some storytelling choices). Eventually, once Paramount+ has enough shit to seriously consider subscribing, I'll watch Discovery (along with Picard) but I'm not really looking forward to it based on all the reviews I've seen/read. Meh, this is why I don't like when they try to revive old series like this with new shows. While I loved Enterprise and wish it wouldn't of ended it had a lot of these issues as well. Fuck even Voyager fell short in a lot of ways (and I adore Voyager, not as much as I love DS9 but it's up there) and it had the bonus of not having to rely on per-existing continuity with them being thrown into the Delta Quadrant so they could take chances (plus the show is the reason we got the Borg fleshed out like we did). I think they'd of been better off leaving things the way they were or using Star Trek Online for new show ideas (a lot of the story lines in STO are perfect and would make for awesome adaptations for shows (well old storylines, they're now relying on new canon established by Discovery to push the game forward story wise). They're whole Iconian War story would be my number one pick for adaptation with the Romulan story arc being second).

I was going to say maybe it was because you don't have a PS5 linked to your account (why that would matter I don't know but I'm not overly familiar with the Playstation website/store, I mostly buy through my console if I'm going to buy games digitally and have only visited the site a handful of times) but I just logged into my account on my PC (using Firefox none-the-less, works fine for me with everything showing up properly (even shows the remake as free for me)) and it'll allow me to pre-order both versions for the PS5. Starting to think something is up with your account or maybe the site just doesn't like you.

Yes and no. I mean it kinda fucks over Square-Enix since they get no actual money from the free version since Sony is literally comping the cost due to our PS+ memberships and allowing a free upgrade to the PS5 version with no actual sale having taken place would be Sony saying fuck you to it's biggest money making publisher/developer. I mean I'm pretty sure there's going to be a ton of people who download it without knowing this who are going to be up in arms but not much you can do about it unless Square gives the go ahead for it (which is surprising they don't but my eyes are clouded due to my love for the FFXIV dev team and how much they do for their players). The other work around is to buy the physical version of the PS4 copy but that will still require you to have a disc version of the PS5 to even play the upgraded version.

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0082-PPSA01903_00-5827003902180177 Pretty much confirms it's PS5 only but who knows how accurate the PS store actually is but since Intergrade is literally the PS5 version of the game and the DLC is tied to it I wouldn't be surprised.

It's not that shocking honestly, they're trying to get more eyes on the product now that Integrade has been announced and what better way to do it then to offer it for free to everyone even remotely interested in it that couldn't afford to buy it. Plus this starts drumming up hype for the PS5 version. If I didn't have such a dislike for the story and characters of VII I'd download it (also doesn't help that I despise action based combat in RPGs) but as it stands only Remnant is piquing my interest this time around. Quick note: Free version does not allow the upgrade to the PS5 version https://www.vg247.com/2021/02/26/final-fantasy-7-remake-ps4-ps-plus-ps5-upgrade/

Most signs are pointing to it being PS5 only, not entirely sure if it's been 100% clarified but I've seen a lot of people on the old bird app up in arms saying it is.

Welp, I can kiss any free time I might have away once this comes out. Time to resurrect the Lightning Sorc and Bone Nec for some infinite Baal runs. Didn't actually think Blizzard would remaster this but god am I happy they did. Hopefully they pick a good release time for this and not, lets say, fall of this year (which, knowing Blizz, is when they'll release it) otherwise they'll be losing out to Endwalker (sorry, FFXIV will always take priority over any game even games I adore).

As someone who spends a lot of time watching Star Wars Theory (hey just cause I hate what Disney is doing doesn't mean I still don't want to keep up on lore) this is just bull shit. I didn't watch the Quartering video (in fact didn't even know he made on until you posted this, might have to watch it later even if I don't like Jeremy (his opinions are spot on sometimes though, usually with stuff like this)) but I watched SWT's response to Pablo's tweets (well his first one, seems he has another one up now that I didn't get to watching today) and it's just sad. Disney needs to nip this shit in the but and keep crap like this from happening. Fans should be able to react how they want (especially passionate fans like SWT) and not fear being ridiculed by those with creative power and power in franchises like this. Utterly bonkers this shit was allowed to happen (then again I'm sure now that it's blowing up Disney will swoop in and try to save face on this one). This reminds me of that incident with that female Guild Wars 2 dev a few years back. You'd think companies would be setting some pretty firm social media engagements rules after that fiasco.

So after only playing an hour today I decided I'm going to put he game on hold until CDPR gets those patches out they talked about in their statement on twitter the other day (the one in Jan and Feb). I didn't run into anything game breaking but the game really does not feel good at all game play wise and it skipped an entire section of a mission by completely freezing then skipping ahead causing some minor NPC issues (if you watched the gameplay trailer they did last year where they were having that car chase with the van that's what I'm talking about, right after finishing rescuing the lady from the trailer that sequence takes place and my game just completely skipped it and loaded to right before the end of the mission). I didn't want to tempt going any further for fear of it doing something like that again or just completely screwing itself over by freezing completely/corrupting my save/frying my PS4. As for the game play issues I doubt they'll be fixed (it's a fundamental problem with the combat system, gun play is clunky at best and not satisfying at all. Guns are extremely inaccurate (even pistols) and it's extremely obvious CDPR had no experience with shooting mechanics) but with the stuttering problems they're just multiplied exponentially making fights hard to navigate. This is extremely frustrating as I was looking forward to this game so god damn much. What's even more frustrating is that if these upcoming patches don't put the game in a playable state I'm literally out $250 and sitting on a brick until I can get my hands on a PS5 (only redeemable aspect of this is I get an upgrade to the digital PS5 version when it comes out) which won't be financially viable for quite awhile. CPDR really screwed the pooch on this one. I guess no company is free from corporate greed at this point in the gaming industry (I feel extremely bad for the dev team having to put up with all this shit talk about their game because of the actions of upper management, they really don't deserve it. There's a good game in there somewhere it's just buried under a ton of shit).

Granted this is only with an hour of gameplay currently (it took roughly an hour to install and two hours to dl and install the day0/1/and 1.04 patches) but I've only run into 1 graphical bug so far (a car not fully loading in a cutscene). I've also noticed some stuttering here and there in the beginning area (I've only done the prologue, it took roughly 20 minutes to design my character so I got maybe 40 minutes of actual game play in) but I don't know if that's due to first time loading of the area or actual optimization issues. This is with a year one base PS4 so I don't know if my luck has anything to do with the 1.04 patch or not. I will note my poor PS4 does sound like it wants to kill itself while running the game (the fans were going full blast for most of the time I was playing). I'll post more of my initial impressions once I get more game time in tomorrow and actually start doing missions and fighting (all I've done is the combat tutorial so I haven't done any real combat yet), you know actual game play stuff. Hopefully I'll get lucky and not run into all those graphical issues (I'm fully expecting this game to crash multiple times while I'm playing it) because even on the base PS4 this game is beautiful (I will note that I did use some graphical settings someone posted on twitter to help the game run a lot more smoothly so that might also be helping keep the graphical issues at bay).

Mando can be as amazing as it wants to be (it helps when the guy behind it and the animated shows basically trained under and knew where Lucas was going to take the series) but that just won't save what Disney is doing to the franchise as a whole for me. It's hard when your fandom wasn't cemented by movie lore but by extended lore (I fell in love with SW from the books and video games, not the movies (though they did play a big role in what drew me in). As I said in another topic awhile ago my best friend is the one that really drew me into SW due to his immense fandom) and to have everything I loved about Star Wars tossed into the shredder because Disney didn't want to deal with having to place new stories into existing lore just killed it for me. I really tried to accept what Disney was doing but I just can't see past how horribly they handled the sequel trilogy and I just can't forgive the dumping of years of extended lore for this. I do want to watch Mando and eventually I will (only because of the stellar reviews it's getting) but that's it for me. I had no interest in Clone Wars or Rebels (I do know what happens and all the events that take place in said shows) and my only real draw to Mando is my obsession with Mandalorians as a people/culture (Boba Fett has always been my favorite SW character, not entirely sure I like how they're treating him in Mando though (yes, I do know whats going on). I prefer his original backstory and his continuation past the movies).

After what they did to Star Wars with the sequel trilogy I've written the entirety of the series off now and won't be coming back. Disney took something I loved and literally drove it into the ground and there's just no way I can forgive that (or the heinous sequel movies). Plus I just don't see the point in paying for another streaming service just to watch these shows (I already spend $50 or so a month for streaming services, don't need to up that anymore).

I wouldn't doubt it, I'm just mostly peeved that I wouldn't be getting it yesterday/today. I find it funny though that they sent the delay email yesterday morning and pretty much an hour after posting I had an email saying it already shipped (other sad thing is as of 4 pm this afternoon it's sitting at a facility four hours away from me but I'll still have to wait until Monday to get it). I'll give Amazon this though they did refund me the shipping costs due to the delay so that tempered my anger a little bit. I guess it's just sad considering that the USPS, with everything it's faced this year, has had no trouble getting my Violet Evergarden CE boxset sent out on time with no delays yet UPS/Amazon can't get their shit in order (I jest mostly, I deal with UPS on a daily basis at work and I know how hard they're working/being worked currently). Meh, probably for the best as I've heard the PS4/PS4 Pro is having serious issues running the game (sad considering this game was developed for the PS4/XBone) and if the screen shots are anything to go off of the game looks fucking terrible (I mean I wouldn't throw as huge of a fit as most of the people out there are but even I have to agree it does not look as advertised). This also goes for the PS5/Series X as well (apparently the game only runs marginally better on new gen hardware). They just rolled out a patch but it doesn't look like it really addressed the issues most people are having and does nothing to fix the current graphical issues. Kinda sad really, one of the most anticipated games of the year releasing like this on consoles (the PC version is fine apparently with only minor issues).

I could definitely give you my thoughts on it if it wasn't for my copy getting delayed due to Amazon's own fuck ups (god damn it, this is my only day of this week so now I need to wait until next week to even get any game time in (if my copy even arrives next week >.<). In retrospect though this is probably a good thing as it let me get all my raiding done for FFXIV since they decided the week of Cyberpunk's release was a good week to drop a major content patch). It's also the PS4 version. Granted though you'd have to wait quite a while to get my review of it as I will do everything and anything this game has to offer (so over 120 hours worth of content). Quite honestly I could give two fucks less about whether it looks amazing or not on the PS4 since I chose to go that route because I knew my 1070 wouldn't of been able to run it well on my PC. I want this game for the story not the pretty graphics so even if it looks like dog shit I'll be happy with it as long as the story is great (by which I've heard nothing but great things about even with me avoiding gameplay videos, reviews, and what not (I will not have anything about this game spoiled for me until I play it)).