TwinIon

I've been playing this season, but now that I've guilded Conqueror and got the seal there isn't anything new until the 30th anniversary event.

Looks pretty funny, and wow, what a cast.

My shooter of choice for a while now has been Destiny 2, though I play almost entirely PvE. In Destiny the TTK is short enough that firefights rarely last more than a few seconds, and at my skill level I tend not to win unless I've caught someone completely off guard. So I'm really enjoying the higher TTK in Halo. It means firefights last longer, that I have time to escape bad situations, and overall makes combat feel more strategic. Especially in big team battles where another target is easy to come by. It's far easier for me to put myself among teammates and to be useful, even if I'm not the one with the best aim or reaction time. I'm also enjoying all the objectives. Even if it's just zone control, since, unlike Destiny, capturing the zones actually matters. Having any kind of objective that matters more than killing enemies greatly increases my enjoyment of a game like this. I'm never going to have the best ktd ratio, but I can still contribute by being in the right place at the right time, by collecting power cells, defending a flag, or grabbing the right weapon to take out an enemy vehicle. Of course, the thing that keeps me coming back to Destiny is the PvE aspect. So far it seems like if there's one game that might get me to play some PvP, it might just be Infinite.

Yeah, this whole mess makes more sense knowing that. I feel like there are a couple ways this could end up going. I suppose it's possible that Rockstar could throw some real resources at this and give it the Master Chief Collection treatment, at least on the PC and modern consoles. I doubt they'll put too much work into it, but hopefully they'll at least fix some of the more egregious issues like the rain and some of the performance stuff. How a 20 year old game runs so poorly on modern consoles is insane. Assuming they don't, I think the only hope for these games is the modding community. They've already gotten started, and if some of their previous work can be adapted to the new versions, maybe these new versions can actually become the definitive editions.

Wow, those first reviews really run the gamut.

After 10 hours I'm down to collecting things I've missed before facing the final boss. I truly curse whoever came up with the whole Shinespark mechanic. I've given up on a few collectibles now, and they've all included some insane speed-boost timing. Part of it is that it's just hard, and I can accept that. Part of it is the controls for chaining these actions together are horrible. Somehow I'd feel better if I could just see that my timing was off and I just couldn't make jump or whatever, but most of the time I can't even do the thing I meant to do. At this point I'll happily skip some extra missiles or whatever when I see those stupid speed blocks in some hard to reach place. Also, to hell with those blocks you fall through. I was really hoping with each upgrade that you'd gain the ability to cheese them by freezing them or get some ability to blow them up.

I've been enjoying this quite a bit, even though it tried to kill my PS5. Somehow the game got corrupted, I got a notification to delete the game and then my PS5 shut down and wouldn't turn back on for a day. I was starting to think about the warranty process when it finally booted back up, I was able to delete the game, re-install it, and keep playing. I've still had some odd audio issues here and there, and it would only show one dialog option for a while until I rebooted it again. I don't know how common, but there are definitely bugs in the PS5 version. Most of the time it has been working fine, and it's been a real pleasure to play. As someone that isn't into comic books and pretty much only knows these characters from the movies, it is hard to get over the initial feeling that these are knock-off versions. Especially since their characterizations are all so similar to the films, even though their backstories vary considerably. That said, it's been a ton of fun to hangout with these guardians. The chit-chat is constantly fun and really makes the game far more enjoyable. Little in the game is challenging, and there aren't really puzzles so much as a few building blocks that make sure you can put a square peg in a square hole, but it doesn't matter too much because the banter is to notch. At times there's almost too much talking. I regularly cut off a conversation because I accidentally advanced too far. I wasn't bee-lining it through the levels, generally keeping my eye out for collectibles and checking things out, but even doing that there was hardly a moment the guardians weren't talking. The combat has been engaging enough, though I wouldn't call it a stand-out feature. I the system of keeping the player in control of Quill and sending out commands to teammates works well, and you're gathering new skills quickly enough, but often the skills didn't seem that different or useful. Neither the gameplay nor the format of the game is at all unique or different from what we've seen before. It's a pretty standard, linear action adventure game that's actually pretty old school in more than a few ways. Still, the story is well told, the combat is fun enough, and the characters are largely a joy to hang out with. Very recommended.

MKBHD (a top tech YouTuber) put out a video saying he doesn't like the changes. He argues the ratio is useful in determining the usefulness of a video. He specifically calls out YouTube as a search engine (it's the second biggest, right after Google itself), but as @Keyser_Soze points out, you really only see the ratio after you've landed. If had made like ratios more visible throughout the UI, I'd be much more willing to buy into this argument. Then again, I'm willing to buy into the argument that a lot of people use YouTube differently than I do, and it makes sense to me that creators or others that spend a lot of time on YouTube, are more aware of these metrics and check them out constantly. I'd also be willing to guess that most YouTube views are like mine, basically never checking the ratio at all.

I've seen a lot of creators get upset about this, somehow having the expectation that without a visible dislike count that bad videos will thrive. For those that don't speak Destiny, the quoted tweet is expecting this change to help proliferate fake guide videos and potentially spoiler filled videos that have been data-mined. I feel like creators are probably hyper aware of dislike counts, but as a viewer I ignore them. I never check the dislike ratio before watching a video, but I have no clue if that is typical or not. Partly I don't look at dislike counts because most of the videos I watch are from creators I follow or have watched before, so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. I also don't check the ratio because I don't feel like it's a useful metric. The like/dislike ratio on a Verge video is probably more indicative of if they touch on anything mildly political. If I see a nearly 1:1 ratio on an IGN video, I have zero expectation that the bad ratio relates to the video itself, and probably has to do with some wider backlash to a game or a company or whatever.

I'd be really interested in seeing how this affects brigading. I would imagine that plenty of people that go out of their way to downvote videos or rate a movie they haven't seen on RT or IMDB like seeing that dislike tally climb or the average rating drop. If you're not getting that sense of collective action, it might well disincentivize the downvoters.

After reading their blog post it makes a lot more sense. Weta has built a bunch of high end tools for VFX work, and Unity now owns those tools.

I agree with Schreier. It's just people spouting a buzzword without any real consideration for what the tech can actually enable. The metaverse conversation isn't much better, but at least there is some gesturing towards doing something new. With blockchain it's basically "what if the computer that stores your in game inventory was actually many different computers?"'

Apparently Rodgers just did an interview with Pat McAfee and yikes. Stolen from reddit: So we going with Kaaron or Qaaron? I'd love to see that 500 pages of research released. If he believes in it and he thinks its legit, no reason to hide it, right?

I dislike the controls. I don't know if it's just being an aging gamer or what, but I have no doubt that I'll finish the game before they become comfortable or natural. My biggest problem is with firing missiles. The combination of L to free aim, R to use missiles, Left stick to aim, and X to fire is too much. It's one of the most common actions in the game and it hasn't felt right to me from the start. I think a standard lock on would have been very helpful in alleviating this, but maybe that's just me being a papered modern gamer. Still, there is a larger issue that it presents, which is that you can't move while you're aiming, which seems like a terrible choice for a game that is so often about movement. Speaking of movement, I've got a couple gripes there as well. These are related towards later gameplay, so I guess mild gameplay spoilers. I actually felt like the game moved better early on than it does later when the game design seems to slow you down and your movement options get more complicated. It's most often seen in the EMMI zones. Early in the game, it's mostly about out running your hunters, which I found rather fun. Later the game pushes you to rely on your stealth. So before I was running and jumping and platforming my way through, now I feel like I'm sitting still for twice as long as I'm moving. As for complicated movement, the grapple hook falls into the same problems as the missiles. It's too many buttons, and free aiming it a lot to ask while in motion. I kind of understand it as a gameplay choice not to have lock on for enemies, but the grapple hook really should be easier. It's hardly ever used though, so it's a nitpick, but it still bothered me when it came up. Far more frequent is my issue with the double jump. It's been a while since I played a Metroid game, so this might just be a legacy decision, but only allowing a double jump when you're pushing far enough to one side sucks. I've screwed up so many times because I wasn't going quite far enough to be in a ball jump. I don't understand this decision at all. It's annoying and serves no useful purpose as far as I can tell.

I hate iMessage so much. It's a fine product, but I hate the idea of tying a fundamental communication tool to a specific device vendor. I've switched between iPhones, Androids, and even had a Windows Phone or two for a bit, and no matter what I used, my communications tools came with me. I didn't need an Apple specific Email account or a Google specific SMS client. That's why I'll never turn iMessage back on. Once you turn it on, you're locking yourself to a specific vendor and it's such a freaking pain to get away from, plus, there will always be people that moan about green bubbles. Apple could so easily have become a big part of RCS, or they could even release iMessage on Android, but the lock-in factor in the US is so freaking high they'll actively make their product worse to maintain that. Makes me nostalgic for the days of jabber. An open, IP based protocol for communication. It's such a shame that we gave that up for WhatsApp, iMessage, and Facebook Chat.

This makes sense. One of the failing arguments that Epic tried to make in the Apple trial was that they had ambitions for the Epic store to become more than just a game storefront. By hosting a launcher it's a half step towards being a more all purpose store and they can demonstrate exactly the kind of behavior that they want Apple and Google to do (host other stores on their own). Otherwise, I somehow doubt that there are many folks out there that will suddenly get into League because the launcher is now on the EGS.

Not yet done with it, but I'm definitely more than half way through. I think Dread is a fine Metroid game, but it's such a throwback that it doesn't feel like it advances the series in any meaningful way. I appreciate that I'm not getting lost, but I also rarely feel like the constant upgrades matter all that much beyond being able to open the next door. I'm not really exploring in any real way, and while I appreciate the limited backtracking, I do wish it felt like upgrades enabled more. It's been a long time since I've played a straightforward Metroid style game, and while I'll happily finish Dread, it doesn't make me want to seek out similar titles. It also hasn't yet left me with any anticipation for more of this, especially if it's just going to be a complete throwback. It did get me to pick up my Switch for the first time in a long while, so at least there's that. Unfortunately that just made me remember how much I wish the Switch was more powerful. Dread looks fine in portable mode, but it's unimpressive on a big screen.

I've enjoyed how they've used Hulk in the MCU, but I'm in no way clamoring for a "real Hulk" movie.

For most of that finale, I thought it was the end of the series and I just hadn't seen the news. Very much looking forward to what they do with Season 4.

I also do not like what they've done.

Just spin off her character from No Time To Die.

Facebook is renaming the parent company from Facebook Inc to Meta. You can read Zuck's post about why he's rebranding it here. While this move is slightly similar to Google's creation of Alphabet, it's being done for very different reasons. Google underwent a significant restructuring under Alphabet, and Alphabet itself is not a brand that gets used outside a corporate context. By contrast, Facebook is not restructuring at all, but it does want the new name to be used and recognized. To that end, the Oculus Quest is being renamed to the Meta Quest as the company phases out all Oculus branding. The Verge has lengthy rundown on the Metaverse for everyone unfamiliar with the term.

The way that Nintendo treats their back catalogue, I get the impression they think of it almost like royalties on a hit song: an ongoing revenue source they're due because they made something great a long time ago. I agree that there must be some part of the company culture that prevents them from spending too much effort on their old games, despite how much they make from them. They clearly care about their old games, at least to the extent that they're willing to re-release things with such frequency. I couldn't quickly pull up a list, but for a long time Super Mario Bros had been re-released/ported/etc an average of almost once a year since its release in 1985. That doesn't happen on accident. Still, it's clear that they never seem to put much effort into those releases and it's always seemed odd to me.

Nintendo re-releases their stuff so often it's almost bizarre to me that this isn't a core competency of the company at this point. They should have the best emulators on the planet, with a significant team dedicated to keeping their catalog in the best possible condition on every console they release. It should just be a given that if you are willing to pay for it, that Nintendo will happily provide you with the best possible experience on all their most popular legacy titles. Then have another team who does more significant remasters periodically to modernize select titles for a premium, and they'd make an (even greater) killing from all those nostalgia purchases. Of course, there's nothing pushing them to do any of that. They can put out half-hearted ports year after year, charge far too much for them, and people (including myself on more than one occasion) will continue to pay them.

That trailer is so much better than what they've shown before that my excitement level has shot right back up.