Keyrock

Here's a youtube clip of the Richard Sharman interview: Best. Interview. Ever. Edit: I take that back. The Bart Scott "Can't wait" interview is still the best postgame interview ever.

After completing some number of quests, they kicked me some free points to spend in the item shop, so I got myself this pimpin' outfit. It comes with a nice fedora too, but I prefer not wearing a hat. The outfit goes well with the pistols. The pickaxe... not so much.

That was a horrific call. Ironically it wound up benefiting the Niners. Doesn't change how bad a call it was, though. I'm still cracking up about Richard Sherman's pro-wrestling style promo he cut after the game. The guy is definitely an a-hole, but he's also really good.

He sure does. Stay classy, Richard. That was pretty hilarious. What an awesome and exciting game and what a crazy way for it to end.

I thought TERA had that covered?

On the positive side of TSW, the investigation type missions are great, the ones where they don't put a marker on your map but simply give you clues or riddles and you have to figure them out on your own. More of that, please.

TSW most definitely does suffer from a case of Kill X Monsters Syndrome, as most MMOs do, and I fully agree that it would have been a lot better as a single player and/or co-op RPG. The game has good enough voice acting and writing to pull off being a single player game, the MMO aspect of it seems to be holding it back rather than enhancing it in any way. I haven't engaged in any PvP, but with mechanics this bad, I can't imagine it being in the least bit enjoyable, especially since I'm not a fan of PvP even in games with decent mechanics. I've gotten to the point where I'm used to the atrocious controls enough that they don't (severely) hinder me, and seem to have settled on a weapon combo of sledgehammer and pistols (start battles with pistols then when enemies close in smash em up). I'm contemplating switching my ranged weapon to something else, though. Do assault rifles or some of the magics have longer range than pistols (the range of the pistols is pretty pathetic)?

Yes. Yes I do. I mean I'm starting to get used to the control scheme, but I can't wrap my head around what the thinking behind it was. It's the retarded kid trying to pound a square peg through a round hole of control schemes.

I'm wondering who at Funcom thought it would be a good idea to let someone with severe brain damage design the game control mechanisms, because that's literally the only possible scenario I can come up with as to how they came up with the control scheme for The Secret World. It's a testament to how good the setting and writing is that I'm still enjoying myself.

Good gravy, I didn't realize KD's metrics were THAT good right now. His PER (Player Efficiency Rating), which is the closest thing we have to a single all-encompassing stat, is 30.1. 30.1! For reference, anything north of 20 is really good, north of 24 is great, once you start dipping into 27 and upwards territory, that's extraordinary. 30.1 is ludicrous. I don't think it's sustainable, because KD is going silly right now, but to even go above the 30 mark for a single game is ridiculous. I can think of exactly 2 active players capable of that.

I named her "Squirrley" The mechanics are atrocious, even by MMO standards, but I'm definitely enjoying the game so far.

That was part of it. You could do entire races without ever attacking any of the other riders, if you chose to, but there was definitely a certain satisfaction in whipping a dude with a chain or kicking him into the path of an oncoming car. For me, though, the best part of Road Rash was that it was the first racing game I can remember that truly captured the feeling of speed. There were games before that you were supposedly moving at 200 mph, but it didn't really feel like you were moving at 200 mph. In Road Rash it really felt like you were going st00pid fast. Traffic would come up on you so ridiculously quickly that there was no time to react. The feeling of going over a hill crest at over 200 mph and squeezing past a car and the curb on the shoulder (what we referred to as a "sneak-a-bye") with the car coming up on you so quickly it just basically blinked on the screen for a split second was what I really loved about the game.

It's a difficult to gauge what the Thunder would be like were it KD rather than Russ that was out because KD has been healthy his whole career. We have virtually zero games we can point to and say "That's what the Thunder look like without KD" because they're never without KD. You're preaching to the choir about LeBron deserving to be the MVP again. If I had a vote I'd vote for LeBron without giving it a second thought, despite the fact that KD is my favorite player and the reason I follow the Thunder. Some of the voters have these weird rationalizations about voting or not voting for certain people, not wanting someone to get 3 MVPs in a row because only Bill Russell, Wilt, and Larry Legend got 3 in a row and they want to keep it that way, or some bogus crap like that. It's not just in basketball either. Look at the bull**** of some idiots not voting for Greg Maddux for the Hall of Fame just so he wouldn't get voted in unanimously. It's unfortunate that people with obvious agendas and strong biases get to vote on these types of honors, but it is what it is.

I'd say he's the front runner right now. KD's numbers are ridiculous 30.6 PPG 7.9 RPG 5.0 APG, plus there's going to be the reluctance of the voters to give LeBron a 3rd straight. If KD can help OKC weather the storm while Russ is hurt and still finish with one of the top 2 or 3 seeds, and he's still putting up obscene numbers like this at the end of the season, it will be hard to not give it to him, despite the fact that we all know LeBron is still the best player in the league. Long way to go, though.

Actually, Dragon are the goody two shoes. Templars are right gits. As I said. I'm on "Grim" But if you are on a different server I might say hello Kinda weird for the group that's all about chaos to be goody two shoes, but you've played the game a lot longer than I have, so you certainly know better. If we're members of different factions does that mean we have to try to kill each other or can we cooperate? I'm going to make an Illuminati character. I've played too many mostly kind-hearted characters lately, time to play a selfish prick interested only in their own power and control and if some people get hurt in the process, oh well, it's a harsh world.

Is that a mostly naked undead Slash?

Yeah, almost 60% 3pt% is fantastic, 55% FT% is pretty sad.

The Thunder #NoRuss beat The Warriors #FullSquad in a shootout in OKC. That Kevin Durant guy, he might be pretty good: 54 points 19 for 28 shooting 4 rebounds 6 assists 2 steals and a block for good measure. Curry also lit it up with 37 points and 11 assists 3 boards and 3 steals, but it just wasn't enough. Not much you can do if KD is going to drop 54 on 68% shooting.

Scooped up The Secret World. From everything I've read and heard about the game, the mechanics suck donkey balls, but the writing is great and the setting is interesting. The tiny bit I played so far seems to confirm this. It's definitely completely different than any MMO I've played before, which is a very good thing. I can live with ****ty gameplay if the world is interesting and the writing is good. Plus this is all conspiracy theory secret society stuff and that is definitely my jam. You present me with some New World Order secret society stuff and I instantly get all "feed me more, inject it right into my veins". Add to that Cthulhu Mythos goodness and I'm pretty much full on nerdgasm. Now I gotta choose, Illuminati, Templars, or Dragon. Templars are out, too goody two shoes, so that leaves the "we pull the strings, we don't care at what expense" of Illuminati or the "chaos is the only truth" of Dragon. Decisions decisions.

Ugh, Dragon's Lair, my level of hatred for that "game" is of epic proportions. My buddy had a 3DO years ago and we rented this "game". We played it for hours barely getting past the first few freakin' screens. Playing the same freakin' QTE sequences again and again and again and... Ugh. Of course, it didn't help that we were stoned and drunk as ****, but good lord it was so frustrating. We grew such an intense hatred for Dragon's Lair that the mere mention of the name would nearly bring about violence. Sad that a lot of "gameplay" is moving back in this direction. The flip side was when he bought Road Rash for the 3DO. So awesome. So incredibly awesome. I have such fond memories of yellow stripin' it in between traffic at 200+ mph. Using The Force to dodge cars because you came up on them so quickly that there was no physical way to use reflexes and hand to eye coordination.

Did you name it Lamarr?

You forgot mashbuttonrepeatedly Those are the worst. That's what made me stop playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow for the time being because I got a blister on my thumb (needed to give it time to heal). I'm baffled as to how causing me to get blisters is supposed to enhance my gaming experience. QTEs can be used well in games. The Last Remnant is probably the best example of QTEs used well in a game that I can think of. I also don't mind in the least bit if they're used for completely optional mini-games. It's just that QTEs being used in a manner that enhances a game, or at least doesn't detract from it, is very much the exception rather than the rule.

For like 8 or 9 minutes. Scored 6 points I think.

If you have Osmos then play that for a bit. It's one of the most chill games I've ever played.

That decision took us in Seattle a little by surprise as well. I'd always thought that teams were required to provide a portion of the tickets for fans of the other team. But the previous week the tickets for the Saints sold out in virtually no time flat, so maybe this was a response. Anyway, win or lose it should be fun... and we'll always have Harbaugh's theatrics to liven things up. It should be a great hard-nosed battle. I'm setting the over/under on the amount of times "chippy" is used by the broadcast crew during the game at 12 1/2. We got ****y Pete on one side (I love me some ****y Pete) and the always animated Jimbo on the other side. If nothing else it promises to be entertaining. I just hope it's not a blowout. Also, this is an excuse for me to post one of my favorite gifs, The ****y Pete Strut: Edit: Gosh darn expletive filter censoring out c o c k y