Operation Jagged Dance
This is a critical moment for XCOM, for the resistance, for Earth. The aliens have been working on their AVATAR project for months, and save for a sabotage operation by Iolo, Jazz, and the Templars, have done so unhindered. Now, we have days before it is too far along to even be delayed. However, this is not taking us by surprise. We've had the locations of a handful of AVATAR project facilities for some time now, and have been waiting to assault them until we could field a strike team where every piece of equipment was upgraded from conventional armor an weaponry. And not a moment too soon, we have that capability.
A squad of Zen, @Iolo, 21stCentury, Nova_C, @cooljammer00, and ThatHatBoy was deployed to the ADVENT blacksite in east Africa. The squad crept in from the wilds and up to the roof of the facility's control, where they took up firing positions against an archon and purifier patrolling the landing pads. 21st sniped the purifier to open, and Nova_C, cooljammer, and Iolo handled the archon. From there, the squad held their firing positions while ThatHatBoy scouted out the landing pads and loading yard, finding a pod of a MEC, stunlancer, and captain patrolling under a pair of heavy auto-turrets. I moved Iolo up that they might be better able to get into melee with this pod once contact was made, but this was an error, as the pod patrolled into Iolo, and did not enter the rest of the squad's overwatch while they scrambled to cover. Making matters worse, the Chosen Hunter teleported into the AO on the opposite side of the main building, and began lining up a shot on 21stCentury.
Iolo inverted with the captain, bringing it into face-stabbing range of Nova_C. Nova_C was equipped with a skulljack, and successfully used it to infiltrate the ADVENT psionic network through the active connection in the captain's implants and gain unrestricted access to AVATAR project files. However, the ADVENT network delivered these files in the form of a golden hologram(?) we've designated a codex, wielding psionic power and a plasma rifle. We tried to take it out immediately with a combo of a claymore from ThatHatBoy and a saturation fire from Zen. But while Zen detonated the claymore, she missed the codex, leaving it only heavily wounded. In response to this damage, the codex split in two, proportionally reducing the integrity of its projection but not its firepower. The copy popped in over on our right flank, and 21st, needing to move out of the Hunter's sight anyway, was sent to deal with the codexes. Some quickdraw fire from their sidearm nailed both codexes. While this killed the copy, the original was only grazed, barely remaining operational, and teleported onto our right flank to flank 21st. Short on options left this turn, we focused on taking out what we could. cooljammer00 launched a plasma onto the lancer and Iolo finished it. Zen granted Nova_C another action via combat presence so they could combat protocol the mec, but it turns out this wasn't the guaranteed kill I thought it was, but a coin flip, and the mec survived with one hp.
Things could've gone bad here, but while the codex did try to attack 21st from their flank, instead of simply firing its plasma rifle it created a "psionic bomb" on their position. The bomb disabled 21st's sniper rifle and would collapse momentarily, but it would not collapse immediately. The mec, for its part, launched grenades onto Iolo and cooljammer, only lightly wounding them. 21st moved out of the bomb to flank the codex, because while their sniper was disabled their sidearm was not, and used it to finally finish off the codex. Unlike the rest of its projected form, the codex's cybernetic brain, the data cache containing the files Nova_C has accessed, was a physical component and remained after the rest of its form expired. As for the mec, it was finished by ThatHatBoy.
While the Hunter was still trying to line up shots on us, the scanning he uses for long range shots gives ample warning with which its target can use to simply break line of sight, so the courtyard was basically secure. Nova_C patched up Iolo and cooljammer00, everyone reload their weapons, and we spent a few turns having ThatHatBoy get line of sight on the stationary turrets so 21st could snipe them from outside the turrets' range.
Once that was done, ThatHatBoy led the squad across the courtyard and onto the roof of the main building. Our intent was to bypass the guards inside the building and strike at the hunter, and we very nearly did that. The squad crossed the entire roof and set up to engage the Hunter when a mec from inside the building leapt up two stories through a skylight and into most of our overwatches. Hits from cooljammer and Nova_C took it out. The Hunter used the opportunity to move in and hit Zen with a stun grenade. Nova_C got them right back on their feet though, and after an opening grenade from cooljammer Zen was able to let loose a volley of fire that killed the hunter. ThatHatBoy moved over to a window to get eyes on the mec's pod, a pair of troopers. ThatHatBoy had one in flank, and took it out themself, while Iolo dropped down to rend the other.
The inside of the facility was filled with rack after rack of human bodies in tanks, in various stages of breakdown. Not decomposition, but disassembly, or perhaps refinement. There was also a single vial of an unknown substance, presumed to be the final product of this facility. Before we could examine things further, a trio of mutons rushed around the side of the facility and took up positions against the squad. One of them rushed past Iolo to get into the facility, allowing Iolo to hit them with a free rend thanks to bladestorm. As Iolo had caught the muton moving, it didn't get to counter this attack. As intimidating as a trio of mutons can be, the squad dealt with them handily. cooljammer used a plasma grenade to injure one and take out the cover to the other. 21st lightning hands'd the wounded one. Iolo used volt to wound the two remaining. 21st finished the exposed one, and Zen flanked and finished the third.
With the blacksite clear for the moment, Iolo retrieved the vial while the squad readied a path to extraction. As soon as Iolo was moving, reinforcements started dropping. These last reinforcements were only a final desperate scramble to stop the squad, and from a pair of dropships the squad easily cut down a priest, two shieldbearers, a mec, a trooper, and a captain before extracting.
Iolo has been promoted to major, and 21stCentury, Nova_C, and ThatHatBoy have been promoted to captain.
Together, the theft of this vial, the destruction of the facility, and the theft of the data contained in the codex have only dealt a moderate blow to the AVATAR project. However, that is enough that it is no longer imminent, and we have several operations coming up that should hinder it even further. From this point forward we'll be striking against the AVATAR project much more actively, and I do not intend to see it near completion ever again.
Okay, granted it was an Xbox 360 game played on my Xbox One, but still. I figured I'd take advantage of my extended, and finally over, convalescence to play something that I can only play when littler ears aren't in the family room where the consoles all live. Some time ago I'd picked up a used copy of Saints Row, and this was the perfect chance to see how the adventure began. Especially since I came in at the beautiful insanity of Saints Row: The Third. Look, it was that or Lollipop Chainsaw, but with SR2, Gat out of Hell, and SR4's DLC all still sitting in my backlog, and the new SR game looking okay-ish, I think I made the right choice.
I do wish that SR would have gotten a Steam port at some point. Granted it's largely a paint by numbers GTA clone, and the character creator is particularly sad compared to later games, but there's definitely glimmers of the franchise's future ascent into bug-nuts craziness. I particularly loved the talk radio station, which never got done again.
Ah, well, on to Saints Row 2. Consider it getting a jump on the upcoming backlog battle, since I doubt I'll make enough progress to disqualify this playthrough before that starts. Nice to be playing a better looking Boss who has more lines in the opening rescue mission that he had in the entirety of the previous game.
Side note, SR2 kept crashing on me until I disabled Steam Input for my Xbox Controller.
I believe the comprehensive Gentlemen of the Row mod is still upcoming. (possibly concurrent with the new game?)
Okay, granted it was an Xbox 360 game played on my Xbox One, but still. I figured I'd take advantage of my extended, and finally over, convalescence to play something that I can only play when littler ears aren't in the family room where the consoles all live. Some time ago I'd picked up a used copy of Saints Row, and this was the perfect chance to see how the adventure began. Especially since I came in at the beautiful insanity of Saints Row: The Third. Look, it was that or Lollipop Chainsaw, but with SR2, Gat out of Hell, and SR4's DLC all still sitting in my backlog, and the new SR game looking okay-ish, I think I made the right choice.
I do wish that SR would have gotten a Steam port at some point. Granted it's largely a paint by numbers GTA clone, and the character creator is particularly sad compared to later games, but there's definitely glimmers of the franchise's future ascent into bug-nuts craziness. I particularly loved the talk radio station, which never got done again.
Ah, well, on to Saints Row 2. Consider it getting a jump on the upcoming backlog battle, since I doubt I'll make enough progress to disqualify this playthrough before that starts. Nice to be playing a better looking Boss who has more lines in the opening rescue mission that he had in the entirety of the previous game.
Side note, SR2 kept crashing on me until I disabled Steam Input for my Xbox Controller.
I believe the comprehensive Gentlemen of the Row mod is still upcoming. (possibly concurrent with the new game?)
I had forgotten that was a thing. Looks like the 1.9.2 update from 2013 is the latest version. Hard to imagine anyone stepping into IdolNinja’s shoes to finish out a definitive version, but it’d sure be neat as one last tribute to him.
Okay, granted it was an Xbox 360 game played on my Xbox One, but still. I figured I'd take advantage of my extended, and finally over, convalescence to play something that I can only play when littler ears aren't in the family room where the consoles all live. Some time ago I'd picked up a used copy of Saints Row, and this was the perfect chance to see how the adventure began. Especially since I came in at the beautiful insanity of Saints Row: The Third. Look, it was that or Lollipop Chainsaw, but with SR2, Gat out of Hell, and SR4's DLC all still sitting in my backlog, and the new SR game looking okay-ish, I think I made the right choice.
I do wish that SR would have gotten a Steam port at some point. Granted it's largely a paint by numbers GTA clone, and the character creator is particularly sad compared to later games, but there's definitely glimmers of the franchise's future ascent into bug-nuts craziness. I particularly loved the talk radio station, which never got done again.
Ah, well, on to Saints Row 2. Consider it getting a jump on the upcoming backlog battle, since I doubt I'll make enough progress to disqualify this playthrough before that starts. Nice to be playing a better looking Boss who has more lines in the opening rescue mission that he had in the entirety of the previous game.
Side note, SR2 kept crashing on me until I disabled Steam Input for my Xbox Controller.
I believe the comprehensive Gentlemen of the Row mod is still upcoming. (possibly concurrent with the new game?)
I had forgotten that was a thing. Looks like the 1.9.2 update from 2013 is the latest version. Hard to imagine anyone stepping into IdolNinja’s shoes to finish out a definitive version, but it’d sure be neat as one last tribute to him.
Idol said that work was still being done, but I have no idea.
Haven't been on the PC much due to Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker, So apologies for the lateness, but I owe a huge thank you to @Antoshka for Marvel's Avengers, @Aumni for Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection Seekers Edition, and @Isorn for Final Fantasy XII (Which he claims is because he can't let Orivon send me them all) You are all the best and classiest! Thank you all so much
Okay, granted it was an Xbox 360 game played on my Xbox One, but still. I figured I'd take advantage of my extended, and finally over, convalescence to play something that I can only play when littler ears aren't in the family room where the consoles all live. Some time ago I'd picked up a used copy of Saints Row, and this was the perfect chance to see how the adventure began. Especially since I came in at the beautiful insanity of Saints Row: The Third. Look, it was that or Lollipop Chainsaw, but with SR2, Gat out of Hell, and SR4's DLC all still sitting in my backlog, and the new SR game looking okay-ish, I think I made the right choice.
I do wish that SR would have gotten a Steam port at some point. Granted it's largely a paint by numbers GTA clone, and the character creator is particularly sad compared to later games, but there's definitely glimmers of the franchise's future ascent into bug-nuts craziness. I particularly loved the talk radio station, which never got done again.
Ah, well, on to Saints Row 2. Consider it getting a jump on the upcoming backlog battle, since I doubt I'll make enough progress to disqualify this playthrough before that starts. Nice to be playing a better looking Boss who has more lines in the opening rescue mission that he had in the entirety of the previous game.
Side note, SR2 kept crashing on me until I disabled Steam Input for my Xbox Controller.
IanatorGaze upon my works, ye mightyand facepalm.Registered Userregular
Guess who just spent two hours building outfits in Phantasy Star Online 2? This guy. Why? Because someone shared some macros that make it really easy to swap outfits and classes (like, FFXIV easy).
Really wish I could play it more with you fine folks, but the game's in a really weird state right now where there's a whole ten-year-old game (legacy PSO2) that's basically in maintenance mode, and a <1-year-old game (New Genesis) that you can accidentally burn through in a week if you're not careful.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg) Backlog Challenge List
Chipmunks are like nature's nipple clamps, I guess?
+13
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
I'm on the fence about whether or not I should do this as a separate thread, since I notice some LPs happen here, so, at least to start with, we can get feedback from the professionals:
Should the manager be a man or a woman, and what should the name of their group be?
+8
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KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO, Microsoft Gaming.
No more Bobby Kotick. Phil Spencer trying to gather all the FPS franchises like fucking infinity stones. Seriously big industry news, and even more competition for Steam's store with Xbox Game Pass.
Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO, Microsoft Gaming.
No more Bobby Kotick. Phil Spencer trying to gather all the FPS franchises like fucking infinity stones. Seriously big industry news, and even more competition for Steam's store with Xbox Game Pass.
I'm on the fence about whether or not I should do this as a separate thread, since I notice some LPs happen here, so, at least to start with, we can get feedback from the professionals:
Should the manager be a man or a woman, and what should the name of their group be?
Manager should be a woman, name of the group should be Jalapeno Pop.
Hitman has mirrors I think (they might have been patched in with Hitman 2? Working mirrors that NPCs can spot you in or sth?), they do some trickery to reduce load.
Another reason why Deus Ex is GOTY forever. Best mirrors, full reflections
Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO, Microsoft Gaming.
No more Bobby Kotick. Phil Spencer trying to gather all the FPS franchises like fucking infinity stones. Seriously big industry news, and even more competition for Steam's store with Xbox Game Pass.
If they get rid of Kotick and clean house in that cesspit, great. That can only be good. But as far as games go? Big ol' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ from me. I'm trying to think what was the last game I bought with even one of those words on it, let alone both... can't think of one since Guitar Hero 2.
Kotick stands to make $21M in severance from the deal, Microsoft gobbles up more of the gaming industry, and the new unionization efforts probably (hopefully not, but...) get gut-punched in the process.
Not seeing the upside. I suppose, maybe, possibly, there'd be some severance of ties with Tencent but I dunno. Not holding my breath.
OK, everyone needs to check out Vampire Survivors. It's a rogue-lite game that sort of mashes up Loop Hero and Robotron. You move around killing enemies with your auto-attacks and picking up treasures/xp to get stronger over time. Enemies scale as well, so you need to keep up your item upgrades to clear out the endless waves of enemies.
There are extra characters to play as and you can spend coins earned in your prior runs to upgrade future runs (extra move speed, stronger base damage, etc).
But the best part is the game is only $3! That means this is the perfect title to mass gift to everyone here.
That looks pretty cool. SO MANY NUMBERS. I feel like that would be very satisfying just watching those numbers pop up.
Vampire Survivors is a pretty fun 8-10h of mostly mindless grind.
Honestly 21M to get rid of Kotick I would take in a microsecond, the man is already worth 600M, he'd hate the loss in status more than he can use the money. Though most of the board would need to be sweeped.
Weird case where you actually hope the 'we'll keep the company running as is' PR bullshit that is always trotted out is absent...
WoW would need to be completely redesigned for controllers to be usable, I'm imagining my HUD and navigating that with a controller and yuck.
WoW had an addon since Legion that makes the game nearly 100% playable with controller. It redoes all menus, has a great keybinding system, and even a healer mode to scroll around a raidframe grid for targets. Its only got two limitations mainly because of the game itself. No interact button (looting corpses is a pain) and targetting (no way in mouselook mode to use mouseover targetting to get around this, otherwise a reticle type system COULD work).
But for like, general play it is 100%, people have done medium level dungeon and raid content successfully with it. It is absolutely comfortable to navigate menus and has easily 30 skills mappable to control (think more with some additional options). All it would need a small development push and it could be a complete package.
2022 Microsoft buys BlizzardActivision
2023 Nintendo launches the Super Switch
2024 Capcom and Namco merge into Namcom
2025 Microsoft buys Level-5, Kadokawa Shoten, and Dimps and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2026 Sony buys Square Enix
2027 Tecmo Koei merges with Namcom to form Tecnamcom
2028 Ubisoft buys Platinum games
2029 Microsoft buys Epic Games and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2030 Nintendo launches Switch Go and Switch Home
2031 Sony sells Square Enix to Microsoft after record losses developing FF16
2032 Arc Systems merges with Technamcom to form Technarcamcom Systems
2033 EA buys Ubisoft
2034 Microsoft buys Take Two and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2035 Nintendo launches the Nintendo Stargazer home console
2036 Microsoft buys Sony games and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2037 Konami merges with Technarcamcom Systems to form The FIve Pillars of Heaven
2038 Microsoft buys EA and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2039 Microsoft buys The Five Pillars of Heaven and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2040 Nintendo launches the Exist home console
2045 Microsoft buys Steam and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2050 Microsoft buys up all existing 3rd party companies and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2055 Indie companies merge to form the Indieverse
2060 Microsoft buys Indieverse and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2065 Nintendo launches the Exist Pro
2070 Disney buys Microsoft
2075 Nintendo launches the Gawillow home console
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO, Microsoft Gaming.
No more Bobby Kotick. Phil Spencer trying to gather all the FPS franchises like fucking infinity stones. Seriously big industry news, and even more competition for Steam's store with Xbox Game Pass.
The circle is now complete.
/Vader
Still not paying for gamepass or anything to play Blizzard games. I wonder if they'll get rid of the Blizzard launcher though.
OK, everyone needs to check out Vampire Survivors. It's a rogue-lite game that sort of mashes up Loop Hero and Robotron. You move around killing enemies with your auto-attacks and picking up treasures/xp to get stronger over time. Enemies scale as well, so you need to keep up your item upgrades to clear out the endless waves of enemies.
There are extra characters to play as and you can spend coins earned in your prior runs to upgrade future runs (extra move speed, stronger base damage, etc).
But the best part is the game is only $3! That means this is the perfect title to mass gift to everyone here.
So uh, I bought this last night. I wasn't really expecting much but I figured you can't go too wrong for $3. I started playing and a few hours later oh hey, it's 7am. Been a long time since I did that. Definitely room for improvement with new skills, abilities, upgrades, more maps, maybe more characters, but the base game mechanics are solid. It's a lot of fun.
So a new game called NOBODY SAVES THE WORLD came out, and thirty minutes in, I know I'll be playing this until Dying Light 2 (with some Extraction thrown in a few minutes a day). I liked the look of the game from the trailers, but reading reviews let me know this is from the GUACAMELLE team (one of my favorite games on the VITA; never beat it, might have to get it on STEAM) and it has just as wild an art style as GM does, with the same excellent gameplay.
In this one you're a Nobody, who quickly gets the ability to change their form. You unlock more forms by completing quests on previous forms (you always can see what the next form is and the requirements of such) and increasing your rank (F to A I'm guessing) with each form providing a unique way to play the game: the first form you get changes gameplay out of combat so this is clearly not just "damage type" switches. Speaking of, enemies are weak to a specific damage type, so you'll be forced to level up different forms (that have different damage types) in order to progress efficiently.
. . .as for the narrative itself. It is wacky and doesn't even come close to taking itself seriously. You're basically tasked with finding a Powerful Wizard. That's really all you need before being tossed into a tutorial dungeon and then tackling the games mini-procedurally-generated dungeons. So far everything is working very well, and this doesn't account for the other gameplay mechanics I believe are in the game (mixing powers of forms) that haven't shown up yet.
Definitely something to check out if you're into progression type games with (good) grinding.
Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO, Microsoft Gaming.
No more Bobby Kotick. Phil Spencer trying to gather all the FPS franchises like fucking infinity stones. Seriously big industry news, and even more competition for Steam's store with Xbox Game Pass.
The circle is now complete.
/Vader
Still not paying for gamepass or anything to play Blizzard games. I wonder if they'll get rid of the Blizzard launcher though.
Posts
This is a critical moment for XCOM, for the resistance, for Earth. The aliens have been working on their AVATAR project for months, and save for a sabotage operation by Iolo, Jazz, and the Templars, have done so unhindered. Now, we have days before it is too far along to even be delayed. However, this is not taking us by surprise. We've had the locations of a handful of AVATAR project facilities for some time now, and have been waiting to assault them until we could field a strike team where every piece of equipment was upgraded from conventional armor an weaponry. And not a moment too soon, we have that capability.
A squad of Zen, @Iolo, 21stCentury, Nova_C, @cooljammer00, and ThatHatBoy was deployed to the ADVENT blacksite in east Africa. The squad crept in from the wilds and up to the roof of the facility's control, where they took up firing positions against an archon and purifier patrolling the landing pads. 21st sniped the purifier to open, and Nova_C, cooljammer, and Iolo handled the archon. From there, the squad held their firing positions while ThatHatBoy scouted out the landing pads and loading yard, finding a pod of a MEC, stunlancer, and captain patrolling under a pair of heavy auto-turrets. I moved Iolo up that they might be better able to get into melee with this pod once contact was made, but this was an error, as the pod patrolled into Iolo, and did not enter the rest of the squad's overwatch while they scrambled to cover. Making matters worse, the Chosen Hunter teleported into the AO on the opposite side of the main building, and began lining up a shot on 21stCentury.
Iolo inverted with the captain, bringing it into face-stabbing range of Nova_C. Nova_C was equipped with a skulljack, and successfully used it to infiltrate the ADVENT psionic network through the active connection in the captain's implants and gain unrestricted access to AVATAR project files. However, the ADVENT network delivered these files in the form of a golden hologram(?) we've designated a codex, wielding psionic power and a plasma rifle. We tried to take it out immediately with a combo of a claymore from ThatHatBoy and a saturation fire from Zen. But while Zen detonated the claymore, she missed the codex, leaving it only heavily wounded. In response to this damage, the codex split in two, proportionally reducing the integrity of its projection but not its firepower. The copy popped in over on our right flank, and 21st, needing to move out of the Hunter's sight anyway, was sent to deal with the codexes. Some quickdraw fire from their sidearm nailed both codexes. While this killed the copy, the original was only grazed, barely remaining operational, and teleported onto our right flank to flank 21st. Short on options left this turn, we focused on taking out what we could. cooljammer00 launched a plasma onto the lancer and Iolo finished it. Zen granted Nova_C another action via combat presence so they could combat protocol the mec, but it turns out this wasn't the guaranteed kill I thought it was, but a coin flip, and the mec survived with one hp.
Things could've gone bad here, but while the codex did try to attack 21st from their flank, instead of simply firing its plasma rifle it created a "psionic bomb" on their position. The bomb disabled 21st's sniper rifle and would collapse momentarily, but it would not collapse immediately. The mec, for its part, launched grenades onto Iolo and cooljammer, only lightly wounding them. 21st moved out of the bomb to flank the codex, because while their sniper was disabled their sidearm was not, and used it to finally finish off the codex. Unlike the rest of its projected form, the codex's cybernetic brain, the data cache containing the files Nova_C has accessed, was a physical component and remained after the rest of its form expired. As for the mec, it was finished by ThatHatBoy.
While the Hunter was still trying to line up shots on us, the scanning he uses for long range shots gives ample warning with which its target can use to simply break line of sight, so the courtyard was basically secure. Nova_C patched up Iolo and cooljammer00, everyone reload their weapons, and we spent a few turns having ThatHatBoy get line of sight on the stationary turrets so 21st could snipe them from outside the turrets' range.
Once that was done, ThatHatBoy led the squad across the courtyard and onto the roof of the main building. Our intent was to bypass the guards inside the building and strike at the hunter, and we very nearly did that. The squad crossed the entire roof and set up to engage the Hunter when a mec from inside the building leapt up two stories through a skylight and into most of our overwatches. Hits from cooljammer and Nova_C took it out. The Hunter used the opportunity to move in and hit Zen with a stun grenade. Nova_C got them right back on their feet though, and after an opening grenade from cooljammer Zen was able to let loose a volley of fire that killed the hunter. ThatHatBoy moved over to a window to get eyes on the mec's pod, a pair of troopers. ThatHatBoy had one in flank, and took it out themself, while Iolo dropped down to rend the other.
The inside of the facility was filled with rack after rack of human bodies in tanks, in various stages of breakdown. Not decomposition, but disassembly, or perhaps refinement. There was also a single vial of an unknown substance, presumed to be the final product of this facility. Before we could examine things further, a trio of mutons rushed around the side of the facility and took up positions against the squad. One of them rushed past Iolo to get into the facility, allowing Iolo to hit them with a free rend thanks to bladestorm. As Iolo had caught the muton moving, it didn't get to counter this attack. As intimidating as a trio of mutons can be, the squad dealt with them handily. cooljammer used a plasma grenade to injure one and take out the cover to the other. 21st lightning hands'd the wounded one. Iolo used volt to wound the two remaining. 21st finished the exposed one, and Zen flanked and finished the third.
With the blacksite clear for the moment, Iolo retrieved the vial while the squad readied a path to extraction. As soon as Iolo was moving, reinforcements started dropping. These last reinforcements were only a final desperate scramble to stop the squad, and from a pair of dropships the squad easily cut down a priest, two shieldbearers, a mec, a trooper, and a captain before extracting.
Iolo has been promoted to major, and 21stCentury, Nova_C, and ThatHatBoy have been promoted to captain.
Together, the theft of this vial, the destruction of the facility, and the theft of the data contained in the codex have only dealt a moderate blow to the AVATAR project. However, that is enough that it is no longer imminent, and we have several operations coming up that should hinder it even further. From this point forward we'll be striking against the AVATAR project much more actively, and I do not intend to see it near completion ever again.
I told you.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I believe the comprehensive Gentlemen of the Row mod is still upcoming. (possibly concurrent with the new game?)
I had forgotten that was a thing. Looks like the 1.9.2 update from 2013 is the latest version. Hard to imagine anyone stepping into IdolNinja’s shoes to finish out a definitive version, but it’d sure be neat as one last tribute to him.
Contributing writer at Marooner's Rock
Twitch broadcasting! Currently playing through Wing Commander: Privateer
Pinny Lanyard
Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
Idol said that work was still being done, but I have no idea.
No, no, no. This acronym is for a D&D campaign, not a Senran Kagura campaign.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
RIP Idolninja
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Really wish I could play it more with you fine folks, but the game's in a really weird state right now where there's a whole ten-year-old game (legacy PSO2) that's basically in maintenance mode, and a <1-year-old game (New Genesis) that you can accidentally burn through in a week if you're not careful.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
Okay, I guess we'll go with this. Solasta Team PINK is ready to go. Probably tonight.
@MNC Dover
Should the manager be a man or a woman, and what should the name of their group be?
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/01/18/welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft-gaming/
No more Bobby Kotick. Phil Spencer trying to gather all the FPS franchises like fucking infinity stones. Seriously big industry news, and even more competition for Steam's store with Xbox Game Pass.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Cool
Manager should be a woman, name of the group should be Jalapeno Pop.
Hell yeah it did
*shudder*
If they get rid of Kotick and clean house in that cesspit, great. That can only be good. But as far as games go? Big ol' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ from me. I'm trying to think what was the last game I bought with even one of those words on it, let alone both... can't think of one since Guitar Hero 2.
Steam | XBL
Not seeing the upside. I suppose, maybe, possibly, there'd be some severance of ties with Tencent but I dunno. Not holding my breath.
That looks pretty cool. SO MANY NUMBERS. I feel like that would be very satisfying just watching those numbers pop up.
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
Honestly 21M to get rid of Kotick I would take in a microsecond, the man is already worth 600M, he'd hate the loss in status more than he can use the money. Though most of the board would need to be sweeped.
Weird case where you actually hope the 'we'll keep the company running as is' PR bullshit that is always trotted out is absent...
Thank you very much, to the every classy @Pixelated Pixie
Steam ID: Good Life
Jesus
e: I wonder what that means for Blizzard IPs
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
Good luck finding your WoW installs so you can copy your addon folders.
(This was unexpected and I like it but it's still consolidation which is generally bad)
Also apparently MS stopped making Xbox X/S recently so I'm curious what comes next for a console and games.
MAYBE this is what WoW needs to implement controller/console support (?)
They are still making Xbox Series S/X.
Steam ID: Good Life
Steam ID: Good Life
Final fantasy 14 can be played with a controller. And it is fairly elegant the way it does it.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
Steam | XBL
WoW had an addon since Legion that makes the game nearly 100% playable with controller. It redoes all menus, has a great keybinding system, and even a healer mode to scroll around a raidframe grid for targets. Its only got two limitations mainly because of the game itself. No interact button (looting corpses is a pain) and targetting (no way in mouselook mode to use mouseover targetting to get around this, otherwise a reticle type system COULD work).
But for like, general play it is 100%, people have done medium level dungeon and raid content successfully with it. It is absolutely comfortable to navigate menus and has easily 30 skills mappable to control (think more with some additional options). All it would need a small development push and it could be a complete package.
2023 Nintendo launches the Super Switch
2024 Capcom and Namco merge into Namcom
2025 Microsoft buys Level-5, Kadokawa Shoten, and Dimps and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2026 Sony buys Square Enix
2027 Tecmo Koei merges with Namcom to form Tecnamcom
2028 Ubisoft buys Platinum games
2029 Microsoft buys Epic Games and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2030 Nintendo launches Switch Go and Switch Home
2031 Sony sells Square Enix to Microsoft after record losses developing FF16
2032 Arc Systems merges with Technamcom to form Technarcamcom Systems
2033 EA buys Ubisoft
2034 Microsoft buys Take Two and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2035 Nintendo launches the Nintendo Stargazer home console
2036 Microsoft buys Sony games and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2037 Konami merges with Technarcamcom Systems to form The FIve Pillars of Heaven
2038 Microsoft buys EA and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2039 Microsoft buys The Five Pillars of Heaven and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2040 Nintendo launches the Exist home console
2045 Microsoft buys Steam and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2050 Microsoft buys up all existing 3rd party companies and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2055 Indie companies merge to form the Indieverse
2060 Microsoft buys Indieverse and increases the monthly cost of gamepass by $10
2065 Nintendo launches the Exist Pro
2070 Disney buys Microsoft
2075 Nintendo launches the Gawillow home console
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
The circle is now complete.
/Vader
Still not paying for gamepass or anything to play Blizzard games. I wonder if they'll get rid of the Blizzard launcher though.
So uh, I bought this last night. I wasn't really expecting much but I figured you can't go too wrong for $3. I started playing and a few hours later oh hey, it's 7am. Been a long time since I did that. Definitely room for improvement with new skills, abilities, upgrades, more maps, maybe more characters, but the base game mechanics are solid. It's a lot of fun.
It was that or Capco....which now that I say it out loud sounds better. Oh well, too late to change it now!
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
In this one you're a Nobody, who quickly gets the ability to change their form. You unlock more forms by completing quests on previous forms (you always can see what the next form is and the requirements of such) and increasing your rank (F to A I'm guessing) with each form providing a unique way to play the game: the first form you get changes gameplay out of combat so this is clearly not just "damage type" switches. Speaking of, enemies are weak to a specific damage type, so you'll be forced to level up different forms (that have different damage types) in order to progress efficiently.
. . .as for the narrative itself. It is wacky and doesn't even come close to taking itself seriously. You're basically tasked with finding a Powerful Wizard. That's really all you need before being tossed into a tutorial dungeon and then tackling the games mini-procedurally-generated dungeons. So far everything is working very well, and this doesn't account for the other gameplay mechanics I believe are in the game (mixing powers of forms) that haven't shown up yet.
Definitely something to check out if you're into progression type games with (good) grinding.
Introducing the Microsoft.net Launcher