Keyrock

Does that include the mausoleum fight? I'm not sure what battle you're referring to. To the best of my knowledge, I cleared that level out completely.

Embiid cleared concussion protocol. He won't be back for game 2, but there's a good chance he'll be available for game 3.

LOL Cavs. I don't think anything would shock me with this team at this point. I would be surprised, but not shocked if they lost in round 1. I would be surprised, but not shocked if they won the title. They've been so all over the place this entire season, you just never know what Cavs team will show up on any given night: the one that looks like they would beat anyone, or the one that looks like it belongs picking in the lottery.

I finished the first floor in Tower of Time. Most of the battles on hard difficulty weren't especially challenging, so long as I paid attention, but there were a few that required a ton of maneuvering and tactical retreating. In particular, line of sight was (and will likely continue to be) a key factor. The battle arenas usually have objects that break line of sight, plus there are abilities that can do that too, provided you chose those upgrade paths. Breaking line of sight immediately breaks life drain spells, as well as providing safety from ranged attacks. Of course, it works both ways. Edit: Has anyone here tried epic difficulty yet?

It doesn't seem like Shenmue was remastered in any meaningful way, looks like a barebones upscale. That's fine if the price matches, but if SEGA tries to charge the full $60 (or even $50) then they will get a big ol' middle finger from me.

My personal theme song is this: If When I get rich I'm going to hire someone to walk behind me with a boombox playing this on loop. Back on topic:

Day 1 of the playoffs: Klay shot lights out, The Brow was beastly as ****, Ben Simmons continued his RotY ways, and T Dot found a way to win, like they have all season long. Basically, no surprises.

So, Puma and SEGA got together to make Sonic the Hedgehog sneakers. Here's one of the first pictures of them: There are some nice touches, like the gold rings on the laces, but...

Pretty great mashup. For fun, here's my favorite mashup:

The Celtics are arguably the best coached team in the NBA but there is only so much you can do when you are missing both your best and second best player.

The Sixers basically got the best draw imaginable. They should have an easy time with a wily but, quite honestly, outmanned and outgunned Heat squad. Then they play either the Bucks, which, on paper, should be an even easier series than against the Heat, or a DECIMATED Celtics squad. The best part is that there's no way they have to play both the Raptors and the Cavs (the 2 strongest teams in the East), they only have to play one of them (at most). I would say the Cavs are still the favorites in the East, but the cards have been laid out perfectly for an inexplicable Sixersmania run to The Finals. In the West I still think the Dubs are going to the Finals (and repeating). I think they've been sandbagging most of the season and have been saving lineups and schemes for (late in) the playoffs. They have another gear they can go into. That said, if there was ever a team specifically built to beat the Dubs, it's the Rockets. Plus, The Beard has been on some next-level **** this season. Everyone else in the West has no chance. ZERO.

For the record, I chose "Might As Well"

Another EuroTruck Simulator success story. I'm going to play the most advanced and lifelike version of American Truck Simulator ever. Wait till you see the graphical overhaul SCS Software made to the game.

These days they call it "early access" and you get to pay the developers for the privilege of beta testing the game for them.

I gave my notice at my job earlier this week. In just over 2 weeks I start classes to get my CDL Class A. 3 to 4 weeks later, I hit the open road.

Hallelujah!

^ Is the dong-slider still in the character creator? Will it be in the console versions? No dong-slider no sale.

I'm also liking Tower of Time, in the limited time I've had with it so far. The combat feels pretty good. It's RTwSSM (Real Time with Super Slo-Mo) but you can change that to RTwP if you prefer. Even early in the game when you only have 2 characters and limited abilities at your disposal it feels nice and tactical, with positioning playing a big part. I've been playing on normal difficulty, but I think I'm going to restart on hard (you can change in the middle of the campaign too). One thing I'm not thrilled about is the combat taking place in a separate instance than your exploring, much like classic jRPGs. I would have preferred the combat took place on the same map you explore on, it would allow me to try to pull enemies and set up ambushes before the battle had even begun. It's a minor gripe, though.

Sixersmania is taking over the world.

Tower of Time

I FINALLY got the drop I needed in Monster Hunter World to upgrade my Devil's Due hammer to a Devil's Crush hammer, which is currently the highest physical damage hammer in the game, possibly the highest physical damage weapon period, since hammers have the highest physical attack stats, if I'm not mistaken. I mainly needed 2 scalps and 1 gem from Deviljho to upgrade this hammer (there are other components, but they're all fairly common drops). The gem is the rarest of the drops, but I got that and one of the scalps relatively early on; it then took me forever to get that second scalp. I must have killed at least a dozen Deviljhos (scalp is a carve only drop, you can't get it as a reward, so you have to kill the monster, you can't capture it) before I got that second scalp. Anyway, I now have that badass hammer to use. Ultimately, there are hammers in the game that are overall better, namely Xeno Maph'agarna with much lower physical attack power but 2 tier 3 decoration slots, whereas Devil's Crush has no decoration slots, but I'm still just getting tier 1 decorations, so the slots mean little right now. Eventually, though...

Surprised that Obsidian hasn't sent them a C&D. Why, does Obsidian hold a copyright for isometric RTwP RPGs? I'm pretty sure lots of companies have made those. Granted, it does look pretty similar graphically, but that's bound to happen when you go for a realistic art style rather than going stylized. Speaking of stylized isometric RTwP RPGs, Tower of Time comes out of early access on the 12th. I've read some good things about it and I may well scoop it up once fully released (it helps that it's nice and cheap).

I liked it and thought it was much better than Pillars. The combat is just as mediocre as in Pillars, but there is much less of it. There is a lot more choice and consequence and I found the setting and story far more interesting than Pillars' bog standard offering. It's also a much shorter game.