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I don't know if it matters, or if anyone cares, but starting this Friday (10-8-21) I will be gone for several days. We're flying out to Indiana to buy my dream car, and then driving back. We'll be stopping at hotels on the way, So we may not be back until Monday (10-11-21). Hopefully we'll be back sooner, But there's always the chance that we won't be back before the work week starts. We're not going to push ourselves, because I'm not taking the chance of hurting my car. If I get drowsy, we're stopping. And with this car, no one drives it but me. It's my baby, and I'm taking care of it as if it were a human child. I don't know if I've posted a pic of it yet, but either way here she is. 1987 Chevy Camaro Iroc-Z T-top

I am running a video ad on VGR Forum for the next 2-3 days. I know it's a bit annoying but it helps pay the bill and it is at least video gaming related. Thanks for understanding and thanks for helping make VGR the best gaming community on the net! 🙂

Here is an essay on the concept of “ludonarrative dissonance” in games that I found very interesting: http://www.fredericseraphine.com/index.php/2016/09/02/ludonarrative-dissonance-is-storytelling-about-reaching-harmony/ I guess this really bothers a lot of people. Ironically, I feel most of the games that have really impacted me have deliberately featured this dissonance and made it part of the experience, rather than trying to avoid it. In some ways though, I don’t even get why this bothers people. A gap between what I am trying/want to do and what I can/must do IRL pretty much is the essence of my normal human experience. Life, at its core, features this “dissonance.” When it features in games, to me it actually makes them more lifelike.

This is exactly why, despite what the so called "PC Master Race" will say, we need consoles. Consoles effectively "tie down" game development so it doesn't run too far forward out of control. Without them, dev's would push games too far and too fast towards running on top-end hardware that a lot of people can't afford. Thus the install base is lowered. Combine that lower install base with the fact these games would cost even more to make, games would have to be even more expensive to buy and/or filled with more monetisation bullshit than they already are. This would push even more people out of gaming, lowering the install base even more creating even more expense for all parties, thus lowering the install base again. Basically, it would be a massive negative feedback loop that would cause the ecosystem of the gaming world to pretty much collapse. Look at Cyberpunk 2077. That game was developed to get the best out of PC's then they made console ports, and we remember how well that worked. That's why developers usually design their multiplatform games primarily as console games the further develop a PC version. Like it or not, that's the way it needs to be done.

This is what always happens in PC gaming when next generation consoles come out. This is why I always say to anyone considering building a PC around that kind of time that's it's better to wait until a year or two AFTER next gen comes out to build a PC. That's not however, taking into consideration that high demand, low supply and the subsequent scalping has still kinda fucked the market a bit. So it might be better to wait even longer now.

@killamch89 and I have known each other for ages now. General PSA for all interested: Stacey Powers is a five-dimensional pandrogynous blob, but prefers "she" and "human female" for convenience.

I don't think you could taste it through the screen.

OK, we've purchased some ingredients and starting with most important things in the books. The being, of course, the alcohol! So I'm getting ready for some Stimpacks, Skooma and Radaway. We're Also making Nuka Cola Quantum.

They need to represent me more in games: a macho macho man. I eat spinach and get cannon arms, but little chicken legs.

A great example to answer your question is the newer AC games. The armor is realistic in its setting, but also available is fantasy type armor to break away from the reality whenever you want. I love that they have beautiful gear options to suit your mood. I mean, you can be some god-like entity, or a tricked-out warrior, or humble civilian garb. As far as character designs, I prefer diversity. It would be ridiculous to customize every character, but at least customize the protagonist would be the best option to suit your needs. Side characters just need diversity. I mean, what is the big deal? Is it a sin? Does every being have to look alike? Hell no is what I say.

After a week of inability to speak, and isolation, I'm back. I honestly wasn't sure if I would ever return to any of the forums I post on. But I'm back here at least. And truth be told, I actually missed this place. There are things that I still need to deal with in this whole situation, but I'm making some minimal progress. I've made plans to fly out to Indiana next month to hopefully bring home an Iroc. So here's hoping everything goes well on that end. I'll have my niece or maybe one of her friends model with it for some pics if I bring it home. I'm too fat and ugly to model, unless I move to a world full of orcs and goblins. TL/DR: I'm back, but still mourning. Besides you guys need a psycho bitch here to keep you all in line.

Hey everyone! First of all, I just wanted to give a huge thank-you to all of our members for your continued trust and confidence in VGR. Each of you brings unique perspective and compelling conversation to our forum, making VGR the welcoming and engaging community it is. I have a special request for you. I’d like to ask that you please consider disabling your ad blocker. Doing so helps us to continue to pay our bills for hosting and for our writers at our homepage located here. The extra dollars also go to further supporting Bid for Rewards, our free giveaways to our members, which is coming back soon. The quality of your experience on VGR forum is very important to me, which is why we only have 2 non-intrusive banner ads and 1 video ad. The video ad is capped to 5 times per 24-hour period, and is temporary. I value your feedback, so I welcome any thoughts you have regarding our ads. Disabling your ad blocker will help us continue to provide you with the giveaways, news posts and guides, and other great features and content you love at VGR. Thank you again for all of your participation and support. I really appreciate it!

Personally, I would give anything to lay my hands on Playstation 5 right now. Even if it means working for free for Sony for 2 months after they gift me the console.

Dragon Age: Origins has a handy feature where you can check a log of recent dialogue. It’s helpful in case you missed something someone said, and/or need to review what they said to make sense of it. Video game exposition can often be rather rushed, so I think this is an awesome feature. I wish it was in every game.

Very good analogy - you really have to savor the experience.

If I'm being very honest, I really hate ads most of the time because it tend to interrupt what I'm doing but I'm going to have an exception for VGR because the owner poured out his heart with asking us nicely. Mine is off as we speak.

Like you said, it's not an affiliate link, so no worries. I'm sadly not shocked to see these issues with the game, just EA being EA. The only thing in FIFA that's certain to work out of the box in are the in-app purchases. Still, it's cool to see the community coming together to help each other like PST.org have.

I wish the best for VGR forum, but having such a large user base might be good for ad revenue and clockthrough rate, but definitely isn't conducive to a healthy community. It is impossible to have a conversation when a topic gets a 100 new posts every minute.

I'm sorry, but I cannot regard in-app purchases of any kind being in a game in "beta" as acceptable. The whole point of a beta test is exactly that, a test, to make sure the base mechanics work and find bugs an faults. In app purchases, DLC and deluxe editions have no place in that scenario whatsoever. Keeping the game in "beta" for four years is an excuse to ride on to deny and delay promised features and content to string people along. It's a brilliant idea in terms of business. Only suffer the expenditure to develop half a game the milk the community for years rather than the COD or Battlefield mentality of developing a full game to only take in the money over a year or two at most. It's much easier for to convince a player base to be tolerant and patient for a game that's in a test phase and still in development. I would be no different, but that tolerance evaporates from me the very second that game offers any kind of DLC. A game is supposed be finished before such things are even contemplated, and if the dev's claim a game is in "beta", by thier own admission, the game is not finished. Cash shops, DLC, microtransactions, special editions, there is no excuse to have any of these things in a game that isn't finished, so there's no excuse to have them in a beta. Simple as that. What I describe as the false beta is something that isn't talked about nearly often enough in the gaming, but it is quite possibly the worst practice a game company can indulge in. It's manipulative, greedy and downright lazy. PUBG was a good example. Even when the game launched ON DISK for consoles they were still claiming it to test as an excuse for the outdated graphics and lack of full game features. The crown jewel of false tests has to be the aforementioned Star Citizen though. A "game" that's been in alpha, not even beta, for nearly a decade but still managed to take it over $300 million and counting from it's fans with pay-to-win DLC packs, some as expensive as a brand new 5-Series BMW. Escape from Tarkov may not be as extreme, but the similarities are undeniable. A "beta" that lasts as long four months would be suspect, never mind four years. I hate to bring it to you, but that game is never coming out as a complete game. If I were you, I'd jump ship before it sinks. But at the very least, please do not spend one penny more on it.

Game data and save data are separate on PS4 so I would assume they are on PS5 as well. You should also be able to back up your saves on to external storage like a thumb drive or onto the cloud if you have PS+.

So glad to see that everyone here is having a good experience with Epal.gg. I hope it provides all of you with many hours of non-toxic, enjoyable online fun.

Stagnant implies there's no movement and is becoming foul as a result, so really the simple answer would be that it's not doing anything. This has been the case with World of Warcraft of late, where people can go nearly a year without new major content but are expected to pay £9.99 per month, which can no longer be justified as server maintenance when the game's netcode is off (which can't be blamed given how much the game has to process; WoW 2 looks better each day for that reason.) WoW's an astonishing case study for MMO stagnation. My observations are as follows: Faction Borefare: World of Warcraft is about the Horde. Something within the Horde happens, the Alliance assist, and ultimately the Horde decides to deal with it in house. The Alliance politics are as follows: Genn Greymane gets mad at Sylvanas. Tyrande is either mad or calm depending on if Sylvanas or the Fel are about. Anduin must choose between being a Paladin or a Warrior, and ends up becoming a Paladin. It's been like that since at least Christie Golden's novel The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, which I enjoyed very much, but I feel so sorry for Alliance players who have to suffer that. The Horde has the same story every expansion (see above) but at least each of the faction leaders have their role to play, besides the leader of the Huojin Pandaren. One, two, lootin' my shoes. World of Warcraft is about raiding. Every activity, no matter how minor, has the sole purpose of getting you into raids. The exceptions being things like pet battles or the Darkmoon Faire, which have universal acclaim despite the former being branded as a Pokémon ripoff (which it is, but at least it rips off something good.) Even PvP at several points has been a recommended means of gearing up for raids, or being part of the Mists of Pandaria legendary cloak. Every profession has a purpose in raiding, but is rarely used outside of that activity besides to level said profession up to be raid-ready. Major content that's added is a raid, maybe a dungeon (solely to be done in Mythic difficulty of course) and that's it. Why PvPers stay is beyond me; I only play for casual Alterac Valley skirmishes. The Game Begins at Endgame. World of Warcraft is about getting to the highest level. Nothing prior to it matters. Even its players agree that your experiences before then are worthless as they herald "the game begins at endgame." The problem with this is it doesn't, and shouldn't, because the endgame changes every 2-4 years, and since the Cataclysm expansion there's been a decrease in what you get in your endgame, and your monthly subscription fee. Ask any player when was the last time they did a raid in a previous expansion that wasn't for transmogrification item purposes, and chances are it'll have been during that previous expansion. The moment new content comes out, both the players and designers agree it is pointless. The devs shoehorn in catch-up mechanics, and the content locusts gobble them up and complain further. Those're just a few observations. I'd write more but it's way past my bed time and I need to go for a walk tomorrow morning to let out some of this venom.

As long as it's for the bills, I have nothing to complain! My ad blocker was always disabled for the forum!

I went from Sega to PlayStation, to Xbox, and back to PlayStation. I loved the Xbox 360, but the early iterations of the console were nightmarishly unreliable. I must have got struck with RROD on no less than x4 occasions, as well as a faulty DVD drive. Then when my slim console got banned from Xbox LIVE for taking advantage of a marketplace region 'exploit' for a handful of free games, I decided that I'd had enough and decided to move back across to the PlayStation. I haven't looked back since.

Welcome Bob the builder!

Very glad to have you, @Boblee. Welcome to the VGR forum.

Trying to avoid spoilers so haven't read this thread in detail but I've seen the first three episodes and I'm loving it. Very bleak and sad but incredibly engrossing and well-written. Really awesome show!

I just realized I completely forgot to finish my profile. Another thing to do when I get home, but should be fun to put together.

Plus, how many forum administrators would even discuss it with their members? @DC is the best 🙂

Well damn...I finished watching it and I'm somewhat disappointed. The first few episodes were AMAZING. But the twist at the end was underwhelming and many things were predictable. The entire concept of the show was fantastic and unique to me, so I guess that's why I expected something bigger at the end.

Here's the topic thread:

Yes, I find myself doing that at times. That's actually what starts straining my eyes because I'm looking around too much too fast. And it makes gaming have a distancing effect instead of immersion. Sometimes I know I have to move on and it's easy to fall into the fast play. Sometimes I even think about getting somewhere before the sun sets or before the sun comes back up. I have to stop myself and look at my surroundings. Many times the in game music motivates me to slow down and soak things in. But when the music cuts out, and I start fighting, looting, riding, etc. I've got to remember to enjoy myself before I give myself a headache.

I think it's overburdening fetch quests. When a game thinks it's reasonable to ask the player to collect 20 Boar Skins and chop down 50 trees to make a quiver and a few arrows that's just taking the piss. Also Metal Gear Solid 2's entire plot.

Alone. No question whatsoever. I've worked in groups before, and it's not worth it.

I get the propose of the idea, but I don't think it work because we actually already have a system the covers that purpose already. That being the public message system on member's profiles; And, for one reason or another, people barely seem to use it. So, I don't see many people using a chatbot either.

Good to see you finally got it and take your time. Me and @Crazycrab will just sing the campfire song...

I present you with the Balamb Hotel.

Making an exclusivity deal with the epic store sacrificing reach for short term monetary gain, meaning they don't care how many people actually play their game as long as they get paid Sacrificing artistic vision for a lucrative deal Remedy entertainment selling Alan Wake and significantly scaling back the scope and technology behind the game to make it an XBOX360 exclusive Belittling, or insulting the fans or the gaming community at large for example Adrian Chimleraz, Cliff Blezinsky, and various others. Using games as a political platform, by promoting political groups or ideologies through the game with no context, for example NFS Payback advertising politics in its in game news feed. Distancing themselves from their previous works, suggesting that they were somehow inappropriate or toxic, which implies that the people liking those games are also toxic.

OK, I've decided t try out This model from EasySMX. I've also purchased Tales of Arise for PC. Perhaps I'll give a kind of "dual review".

That's not what tracking is for. The purpose is to gather data about your spending habits, what apps you use and even personal information like your name and email to then sell that data to somebody else. That somebody could (and would) send you spam, scam you or otherwise manipulate you into buying something. For example, let's say Google picks up on the fact you've spent some time browsing for a laptop online. They would then sell your personal information to a company selling laptops so they can hard sell you on laptops.

Agreed - they create an experience that most of us can relate to in some aspect or they take inspiration from real-life circumstances and re-write it to fit into their story.

To be completely transparent, for the longest time I thought it was cruel because of how many horses would drown in every match.

With the George A. Romero example, I think (I say 'think' because I'm sure Night of the Living Dead had messages about racism and othering) it began with Dawn of the Dead which was quite clever in its use of zombies as a representation of 'mindless consumerism.' Land of the Dead was when things got a whole lot less subtle, a criticism of plutocracy and distribution of wealth and so forth. Diary of the Dead wasn't even a criticism or comment, more an observation of "social media exists." I recall Red Letter Media (RLM) did a joke about Romero writing up the next film before he passed away, going "Twitter, err, can you 'tweet' a zombie?" I agree it would be unfortunate for people to not get the satire, but then if they're offended (especially if they haven't played the game), they're the exact kind of people the game is taking the piss out of. One thing I can say about Grand Theft Auto it's that nobody looks good, and very rarely does anyone come out of it smelling of roses. It's only until the story's over that their lives can begin to resemble normalcy in a world that's just as kooky as it was before.

I don't want that. I want the game companies who do this sort of thing buggerd rough and dry, but that's me.

Woah, that's a very political accusation there. So do you really think that there is a conspiracy to turn women into Islam skin phobes fully covered head to toe? And covering them up is discrimination and uncovering them isn't? Why is desexualizing a character a political decision, and sexualizing the character isn’t? In RE3 remake and MK11 I don’t see any clear political motivation in those quotes for their decisions; they simply exercised their creative freedom. In the case of MK11 though, I think that is a good example of what you have been saying, but I think you put too much emphasis on woke as their motive and making it seem all political. Why is having a change of heart on what sexy is, or strong is, or what real is for women, a political wokeness? Part of creativity is trying to get some kind of message across; and that could be an emphasis on character w/o sexual distraction which could cheapen the dramatic approach of a story. Imagine Ellie in a thong the whole time in TLOU 2. It would take away from the believability of everything. And what if a game started off with sexiness which at the time helped sell; then as the game progressed years later, the developers decided to get more serious about the story and characters and dressed them up more 'believable?' Is that woke or political? That creative freedom gets caught in the crossfire of activism and opposition. But that was their own decision to want something different in MK11. They actually became hypocritical doing it. This is very shallow on their part and is also what I coin the term ‘out of touch syndrome.’ And this syndrome is what I think you get angry about, which is not always political or woke, but they try to make a change for something they believe to be a better style and hurt themselves in the process, offend fans, offend culturally sensitive groups, just downright offend the whole spectrum.

He doesn't have to appraise the credibility of his sources and prove they aren't a madman's ramblings, remember who were talking about here;

The reason why you should post links to your sources is because we need to see them for ourselves. When we can do that we can see the whole thing in context and come to our own conclusion about how credible it is. In this case it might only part of what they said, or it might be hear say. I'm not saying it's any of those but it you posted a link to the entire interview then I'd KNOW it wasn't. Look at my earlier post, I included links to articles, videos and images to support my points. So when I said that Hideo Kojima made a statement in response to the pushback that they got with Quiet's character design you don't need to take my word for it. I actually give the link to an article containing his statements. When I state what their "reasoning" as to why Quiet's outfit was the way it is I didn't just quote or paraphrase. I actually show you the moment in game when Ocelot explains it. You see what I mean?

I generally don't mind either way long as the character designs fit in with the overall asthetic and tone of the game. In something like a fantasy RPG I don't mind seeing idolised character designs in unrealistic scanty armours or whatever but I would take issue with it in something like Chivalry which is supposed to be more realistic. There is a specific franchise I'm going to call out. Before I do I just want to state for the record that I am a huge fan of this franchise and have boundless respect for it's creator (the publisher can go to hell though). I think the worst offender when it comes shamelessly objectified characters in a setting where it's unnecessary or even immersion breaking is the Metal Gear Solid franchise. As sure as the sun rises in the east your guaranteed there's going to be at least one needlessly sexulised vixen in a Metal Gear Solid. Sniper Wolf, Naomi, Eva, The Haven Troopers, The Beauty and the Beast Unit, the "Konami Eyes" model who's poster is planted all over the place in MGS2 and even the men aren't immune with characters like Vamp. In the majority of these I can look past it enough to still enjoy it. There is one however that took the absolute piss, so much that's I'm quite surprised nobody has mentioned her in these other treads, and that is Quiet from MGS V: Do I really need to say anything? This was done for cosplay and merchandising. It's such a plain example of senseless and shameless objectification. Of course there are some that claim otherwise. Kojima himself insisted that there was an explanation for it, but every explanation/justification that's been given holds water about as well as the holy tights she's wearing. I probably should call spoiler here but honestly the actual explanation as to why this sniper foregoes any sort of camouflage or protection in favour of two pieces of string is so ridiculous that it doesn't matter. If you don't already know get ready to laugh your ass off! To summarize, her lungs were burned in an earlier scene so her body mutated. She now breaths through her skin so wearing anything beyond a micro-bikini would cause her to suffocate and die... WHERE DO WE EVEN BEGIN ON THIS MOUNTAIN OF NOT MAKING SENSE! First of all the problem could easily be solved by wearing any breathable fabric like cotton. In fact she could wear just about anything that's not a full leather or latex gimp suit and she'd be fine. Secondly normal people can breathe normally through our nostrils, which a surface area of maybe a couple of square millimetres yet she needs 99% of her skin exposed to air to intake the same amount of oxygen?.... Bullshit! Thirdly and definitely the most ridiculous aspect to this, just take a look at some of the unlockable outfits: Uses skin to breathe yet can walk around with her skin covered in tactical gear, covered in blood or even covered in PAINT! Did Kojima never see Goldfinger, that would kill a normal person let alone somone uses their skin to breathe! Sorry to rant there but this one really grates me, both for the shameless design of the character and even more so the ludicrous excuse. The reason why it does is because I actually like Quiet. She's fascinating not mention very useful in game. She was easily the buddy I would use the most often, her covering me from a distance while I solo infiltrated suited my play style perfectly. It takes a long time unlock the tactical outfit (below), which I think look WAY more badass. However, not only does it not garner any advantages, it's costs you resources for her to deploy with it equipped. So the game actually punishes you for not being a perv!

Not on purpose... But sometimes the shit on TV is boring or I'm tired.

Okay, okay, please @Heatman and @Justin11. I appreciate the compliments, I really do, but can you please climb out of my ass now? It's starting to hurt.