Keyrock

I mean, we're talking about IGN here. This is the same site that had a panel discussing what is the best Fallout game to date (this was just before Fallout 4 came out) and, I **** you not, about 30 seconds into the video one of the people on the panel (there were 4 people total) says "keep in mind, I never played Fallout 1 & 2" and another says "me neither". Half the people on their panel hadn't played half the games in the (main) series and they were discussing which was the best game in the series. WTF?

--REDACTED-- There you go. I don't see anything. What are you talking about? No Zelda games were ever produced for something called the Phillips CD-i.

I personally have no problem with the Linkle character, other than the name being flat out stupid, though I do feel gender swap characters are lazy in general. Also, this character feels completely unnecessary in Hyrule Warriors since that isn't a game that features a single set protagonist, rather a large set of protagonists, including quite a large number of female characters. Still, it's whatever, I have no issue with the character being included. As for this being an introduction to potentially including Linkle as a playable protagonist in a mainline Zelda game, I don't have a problem with that. Again, I think it's lazy, but whatever. I've been asking for years for a Zelda game where you play as Princess Zelda, I think that would be a much better solution. And if Nintendo is adamant on Link(le) being the only protagonist of mainline Zelda, then a Zelda spinoff where you play as Princess Zelda.

With the game coming out really soon I've been scouring the net. No reviews yet, but I did find this on the codex from Gamescom a couple months ago:

I just fought my first epic monster in Victor Vran, some gargoyle named something or other the Voiceless. Damn, that dude was an ***hole. There's a challenge in that area to beat him within 90 seconds of entering the area with a couple of hexes active (I believe one that makes enemies move and attack faster and another that makes them hit harder and sometimes cripple on hit). So, I tried a bunch of times to do the challenge and it's freakin' nearly impossible. Never mind the hexes, which make matters worse, just killing him in 90 seconds is nearly impossible because he doesn't appear at the beginning of the level, you gotta run a little ways. So, you got 2 choices: 1) Kill the enemies along the way before getting to him, which will waste enough time to make completing the challenge flat out impossible. 2) Run past the enemies and reach him as quickly as possible. The problem with this choice is that the enemies will chase you and now you'll have to fight all of the enemies you ran past, the epic monster, and all the enemies that spawn around him all at the same time. On top of that, the guy is super tough and armored, so it takes forever to hurt him, plus he has a couple of attacks that deal crazy amounts of damage (in the neighborhood of 1/2 - 2/3 your health). The attacks are telegraphed a bit and can be dodged, but good luck with that when there are 40 other dudes all on top of you making it impossible to move. Needless to say, I eventually gave up on the challenge and just took my time systematically wiping out his cronies before taking on him, and even that took me 2 tries.

I'm still having a blast with Victor Vran. I like how you can adjust game difficulty on the fly by activating hexes, which make the game harder but also provide greater rewards. I just went through the cemetery with 4 of 5 hexes active and it got really brutal in some parts.

I don't know who any of these people are, but those "jokes" are a ****ty thing to do, regardless of affiliations, political leanings, whatever.

$29? That better be a hardcover.

Let's go to the circus Spin to win. Wheeee! Everybody dance now

But beans are awesome. They're delicious, they have protein, and they make you fart. That's a win-win-win in my book.

Agreed. I did Highpool on a harder difficulty level (Supreme Jerk) than Ag Canter (Ranger) and Highpool was still easier.

Yeah, the giving back of the award may be a bit overly dramatic. That said, I may be a cis-gendered, transphobic, disgusting pig for saying that Bruce Caitlyn Jenner is getting a whole bunch of undeserved attention based on the fact that praising the sex change and saying how brave he she is is the fashionable thing to do, but I call 'em like I see 'em, political correctness be damned. Basically, a lot of people are tripping all over themselves to give an attention whore attention in exchange for social justice points. I'm not sure what social justice points are redeemable for, though. Is there a raffle?

Maybe its time to bring back your old signature? Believe me, I'm tempted, but I can't bear removing my NO MA'AM banner and having both the He Tried to Kill Me With a Forklift song lyrics and the NO MA'AM banner in the sig would make for a really big sig, which is kind of a **** move in my opinion. Anyway, about 1.8 mil right now, the initial 3 episode goal is nearly reached. Have some Squirm to celebrate.

Yeah, I'm not sure when Oracle will make an appearance in Captain's Mode, but there are some disgusting combos with him.

The Alliance series was... I don't know what's wrong with Alliance, I don't know what's wrong with s4. Getting Huskar'd once is excusable, it can happen to anybody, it's not a hero that gets played a lot and the supports he pairs with well, Dazzle and Winter Wyvern, are both tier 1 heroes in 6.85, they get picked or banned in practically every pro game, often phase 1, so seeing them get picked doesn't immediately tip the opposing drafter off that they may be setting up for a Huskar. Likewise, Huskar's top counter, Ancient Apparition, while not a tier 1 hero, in my opinion, is still a hero that gets picked up or banned on a fairly regular basis, so seeing him get banned out doesn't immediately tip the drafter off that it's a set up for Huskar. So, that happening once is excusable. That happening 2 times in a row is inexplicable. s4 let them have Wyvern, let them have Huskar, then even let them have Dazzle after that. It almost doesn't matter what you drafted for your own team (especially with AA banned out) at that point. Huskar by himself can be a problem but can be dealt with. Huskar + Winter Wyvern is scary because Wyvern can save him and heal him back up with Cold Embrace, but at least he's out of the action during Cold Embrace. Huskar + Dazzle is frightening because Dazzle can not only save Huskar with Shallow Grave, Huskar can keep fighting during the duration of Shallow Grave, so not only did Dazzle keep Huskar from dying, but Huskar is now still attacking the other team and effectively immortal for a few seconds, has insane attack speed and DPS because he's so low health so he's tearing the other team apart, and he's healing back up during the duration of Shallow Grave so that he's not easily bursted down once Shallow Grave wears off. Huskar + Dazzle + Winter Wyvern is an Eldritch Horror, a team's worst nightmare. How are you supposed to kill Huskar when he has not 1 but 2 supports that can save his life? Under no circumstance can you let a team have Huskar and Dazzle and Wyvern, especially not a team with a top level Huskar and top level Dazzle player. That's digging your own grave. s4 is an experienced player and drafter, how did that happen? I don't... I can't... I have no words.

I still don't consider Mineski a top contender to win it all, but teams definitely need to prepare for them like they're preparing for a top level team, because that was an impressive run on Saturday. The series against CDEC was really close and they maybe should have won that, had they not made some mistakes and CDEC not played out of their minds in game 3. The Alliance series, I guess, you could write off as a team getting Huskar'd. I don't know what Alliance was thinking. They got Huskar'd in game 1, okay that can happen to any team, you get caught off guard and you get Huskar'd, what are you gonna do, right? Game 2, though, I will never understand the draft, I don't know if s4 was was drunk or tripping balls or what. So, you just got Huskar'd in game 1, now you let Huskar through again and it gets 4th picked, why didn't you ban Huskar after he just MURDERED you last game? Then, on top of that, you still had a ban and the first pick of the final round and you neither banned Dazzle nor picked it up yourself to keep it away from Mineski. What the ****!? You just got Huskar'd, you let Huskar through again, you had not 1 but 2 opportunities to take Dazzle away and you didn't? You deserve to lose. The EHOME series, though, had no Huskar wackiness or tomfoolery, that was just Mineski straight up outdrafting and outplaying EHOME both games. Just flat out outplaying them, it wasn't even close.

So, oddly enough, I never made chili before and I decided to give it a go today. Overall, the taste is okay, I definitely need to tweak the ratio of some things in the future (need more beans and peppers), but it's decent for a first attempt, except... I sort of way overestimated how much spice to put in and I can only eat about 4 spoonfuls before I have to stop and wait for 5-10 minutes to recover. What possessed me to dump in that much cayenne and Jamaican hot sauce?

Melky, I feel like you're posting all too many pictures of non-Skaven.

The major gaming websites tend to have their front pages plastered with advertising for Call of Duty and Bethesda games. CoD and Bethesda games tend to consistently get very high scores from those same sites and get free passes on technical issues and lack of innovation while other games get criticized for those same things. Not to mention that those games tend to get disgusting amounts of coverage. Point your web browser of choice toward IGN or GameSpot within 2 weeks of CoD or a Bethesda game coming out and at least half of the articles on the front page will be about those games. Some of the articles will be legit insightful and/or informative, but you're also going to encounter a whole bunch of 5 Funny Images We Saw In The Latest Fallout 4 Trailer, How The Latest Fallout 4 Trailer Speaks On Humanity and Why You Should Pay Attention, Bethesda Teases Easter Eggs In Fallout 4, Voice Actor for Fallout 4 Talks About How His Character Is Super Important, Why Fallout 4 Will Be a Milestone for Gaming and You Should Be Excited. These are mostly useless fluff pieces serving no other purpose than to drive the hype train. I'm not saying that they give games that heavily advertise on their websites preferential treatment, but they give games that heavily advertise on their website preferential treatment.

It does seem like almost all the major gaming sites are in some weird way duty bound to give Bethesda a free pass for their technical issues. It happens every time. Every single time. I think Giant Bomb was the only major-ish site that took Bethesda to task for their buggy release.

Victor Vran

Still Victor Vran, that game is so much fun. I'm really happy somebody took the loot em up in a little bit different direction. There are so many Diablo clones out there, and for good reason, it's a great formula, but it's refreshing to play a game in that genre that does thing differently.

Holy **** Mineski! That is all.

Mine doesn't have any pretty lights. It's cool bling, but it would have raised the cost of my keyboard by at least $30 or $40, likely more. Mine has red WASD keys (came with the keyboard as well as regular black WASD keys) which makes those keys plenty visible even in the dark and orange Tux logo OS keys (bought separately) that serve no practical purpose, they're strictly for bling purposes.

Seconded. Older devs think they own everyone. One older dev claimed I would never make it in the game industry because I wasn't good at Call of Duty 2. People are just rude morons. Has nothing to do with gender. She brought that baggage with her. Third. This is modus operandi in higher management, and don't get me started about business management. That constant ****-waving is borderline hilarious. Fourth'd. This is standard procedure in business, upper management ignoring or talking over lower management people, it has nothing to do with gender (I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of sexist pigs in upper management, but men and women in lower management get talked over alike). My favorite thing about the insanity that is business is the ridiculous amounts of meetings, including meetings that accomplish absolutely nothing (which is the majority of meetings). Meetings for the sole sake of meetings. People just getting together for an hour of pure boredom and repeating of business buzzwords that mean nothing, wasting everybody's time for no reason whatsoever.