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Necro

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Blog Entries posted by Necro

  1. Necro

    A PSA: Christmas Suicides

    By Necro,

    So around this time of year I hear a lot of scrooges trying to dampen the holiday mood by saying something along the lines of "You know, people commit suicide more often around Christmas. It's a shame how people get so stressed out over gifts that they end their lives."
     
    Well, no more! Because that is 100% false!
     
    I'm bringing this up right now because I've heard this four or five times in the last three days, and it annoys me incredibly. I don't even celebrate Christmas and I love the holiday season because of how cheery people get, and how they seem to be more generous, so people trying to dampen things by spreading misinformation about people dying gets under my skin. So please, next time someone tries to rain on the parade with that line, present the facts.
     
    A bit of a heavy topic for BZP, but I think that saying "Hey, people aren't killing themselves in droves, things aren't as bad as you might think they are!" is an acceptable reason to delve into a heavy topic.
  3. Necro

    Hey look what I found

    By Necro,

    So I went to do some Hanukkah shopping, and while browsing the toy section, I ran across this guy. He was the only Bionice I could find out, so I tracked down a sales guy and asked if he could tell me if there were others out. As some might recall, I was originally really down on the new sets, so I was hoping there would be some on-display somewhere. That, and Tahu was my first Bionicle, I wanted him more than Lewa. Apparently these aren't supposed to come out until January, and someone put it out by mistake. The sales guy, being awesome, let me keep it rather than taking it into the back, so I decided to buy myself a gift, too.
     
    How do you submit reviews again?
  4. Necro

    They did The Thing

    By Necro,

    So, the Korra ending. That was...a thing.
     
    Still not sure how I feel about it. I think I liked it, but right now the whole thing's still just washing over me. I'll get back to you in a day or two.
  9. Necro

    Unpopular opinion time

    By Necro,

    Having now actually looked at the reborted Bioniceties, I'll be perfectly honest: I am really disappointed.
     
    The masks look less like magical artifacts and more like a cross between an industrial welder's mask and a goalie's facemask, the armor looks less like Lego and more like Megablocks, the hand pieces look even more ridiculous than they did a few years ago(Want some cool Bionicle hands? Look no further than Axonn's giant four-fingered maulers. Otherwise these did just fine without looking like painted Hulk Hands), and as far as I can tell there's no actual internal intricacy or interesting design, it's 90% molded plastic pieces made specifically for that set which simplify the design, and a bunch of ball joints for what basically amounts to a build-it-yourself action figure rather than a building set or something interesting. The only thing I'm really that pleased about is making Pohatu brown instead of making him grey or black or whatever they had started making the Po-sets.
     
    I'm not trying to rain on the parade, but for me personally, this is a letdown. I was expecting a return to old form, and it looks like it's just dressing the new standard up in nostalgic clothes. Hoping someone that actually saw them can correct me(Some rear pics would be great since that might give more insight to how they're constructed).
  11. Necro
    Grammar. Seriously? That's the new topic?
     
    Look, I am a grammar snob. I look a word up to make sure I have its spelling right even if I can spell it phonetically close enough to get the meaning across, because I value proper spelling. I go back and edit posts if I forgot an apostrophe or a comma or something. I had perfect 100's in every single english course I took from 7th grade onward, including college. The lowest I've had a paper graded was 93%. I was cheering in my head for every single line of "Word Crimes". I am far more dedicated to this stuff than someone not majoring in english should be. I don't correct other people, and I don't look down on people for grammatical errors, but i do get very annoyed when people write like this without any capitalization and dont use apostrophes and all that and it just reads like an incoherent rambling run on sentence and i have less respect for people that use literal for emphasis or say other stupid things of similar fashion. I have my position in this debate, I am firm in it, and you will never catch me writing like that, even on twitter; I'd rather break it into multiple tweets than post something saying "had 2 rn 2 get fud" to fit it into one tweet. I am as firm about this as it can get for myself.
     
    But here's the kicker:
     

     
    This is not some great crusade or some vital topic. It's grammar. On an internet forum. Centered around a children's toy. It is not worth long diatribes that even an english professor would consider obsessively defending proper writing. For that matter, why are people defending "improper", for lack of a better term, writing, like they've been dealt a personal insult? Is it really so hard to just go "This person thinks X about Z. I think Y about Z. Ultimately, Z is a pretty insignificant thing." and just ignore it instead of turning around and defending your use of "your" instead of "you're"?
     
    If people have an opinion on the subject that you disagree with, why do you care so much? Nobody's going to report you for saying 10,000 spoons is ironic, and they're certainly not going to report you for using an oxford comma. Are you all really wound so tight that this sets you off? Maybe I'm missing some context that happened in one of the forums or something similar, but it just reeks of a community where everyone is at each other's throats if people are so ready to get mad about something this insignificant.
     
    Chill the heck out. This is not something worth fussing so much over.
     
    All that said though, i dO MakE An ExCEptiON WiTh PeopLE ThAT tYPe lIKe tHiS. That sort of typing genuinely gives me a very unpleasant headache, and as such I disregard anything you have to say if you type like that, because if you're addressing me specifically yet are typing in a fashion that causes me physical pain - and one that has to be done intentionally - then I really don't think I should concern myself with what you have to say.
  12. Necro

    Oh hey look a Destiny review

    By Necro,

    So I've been kinda inactive the past few weeks, and to be perfectly honest a big part of that is that I really struggle to think of many compelling, enjoyable parts of BZP's community anymore, and plenty of things that rub me very much the wrong way, so I might just end up becoming less active in-general on here. But I digress, because I've seen a lot of people posting here about that new video game with Tyrion in it, and I was already planning to post my thoughts on another website's blog, so I figured why not here as well? So, without further ado, my thoughts on Destiny:
     
     
     
     

    GRAPHICS



    So, the first thing that most people notice are the visuals. How sexy is the game?


     
    It's worth noting that A. I really don't play any of the high-demand "stress test" type games, so I probably don't have the best feel for the capabilities of modern graphics(Personally I don't think the whole graphical arms race is worth much anyway, but that's another post for another day), and B. I'm playing on a PS3, so what I think about it visually is probably not applicable to the Xbone and PS4.
     



     
    With that said, Destiny looks good. It's certainly not photorealistic, and it's not the pinnacle of modern game visuals. The one real complaint I have with the visuals is the use of glares, lens flares, and other similar effects. It's not to JJ Abrams levels, but it can be excessive at times just how shiny things are. It's especially distracting if the arm armor you're wearing or the gun you're holding is white or or something else that reflects a lot of light. A patch to remove, or at least significantly decrease, what reflects off your gun and arms/hands would be very nice.
     

     
    Again, it's certainly not the pinnacle of gorgeous graphics, but Destiny still looks very good. Which is important, because it's a game that relies on atmosphere heavily. More on that later.
     

    GAMEPLAY



    Okay, now we know that this game looks sexy(Or, as the case might be, ugly). So now that we know how it looks, what are we doing?


     
    This is really where Destiny shines. Bungie's pedigree is obvious with their work on the first few Halo games, and the action is just as fun and entertaining as you'd expect of them in a first person shooter. Unlike some console FPS games where the aiming is clunky and certain guns just don't work, everything about Destiny's shooter mechanics feels polished. The aim assist is enough to really help without throwing you off once you get used to it, and every single gun, from the shotguns to the hand cannons to the assault rifles and everything in between, feels natural and, with the right playstyle, effective, both with and without using sights(With the obvious exception of sniper rifles since they're designed around scoping in). There are certain imbalances, which Bungie has already addressed and started patching, but by and large, they all feel very pleasant to use, and I'm sure I'm far from alone in being torn between different weapons. The classes also feel very well-balanced; at no point does it feel like a skilled Warlock can't kill a skilled Hunter or a skilled Titan kill a skilled Warlock. The armor follows suit, with the passive benefits of certain armor items contending against the higher armor ratings of others.
     
    The enemies are also better than a lot of FPS games. Sadly that's not saying much, but unless you're well overleveled, you're going to generally find that just running in headfirst is a good way to get killed, and that's a nice change of pace from the number of modern shooter games where you can just charge in with a BFG and mow down enemies who have the aim of stormtroopers and guns weaker than slingshots like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando. How it's still a step down from Republic Commando's AI almost ten years after its release, I don't know, but it's no different than any other modern FPS in that regard.
     
    The quests are simple, but entertaining enough that they're fun, mainly because they almost all involve shooting things, which again, Destiny has down better than almost any other FPS I've played recently. They're also helped by daily challenge events, where out of the blue a much harder quest will fall from the sky, almost always literally.
     

     
    Good as the gunfights are, what really makes Destiny more than another speesh mereene FPS is the interaction element with other players. Though it can be played solo, it's at its best when you're fighting other Guardians in the Crucible, or going on strike missions with a fireteam of friends, or running around the overworld looking for loot chests with random folks. The online aspect was heavily touted, and while it could be better - which I expect it will be soon since there's every indication Bungie and Activision want Destiny to last a long time - it certainly makes the game feel that much more expansive, and I imagine it'll get even better as Bungie adds content and learns what its community likes doing. I imagine it feels much bigger and much more alive on the Xbone and PS4's larger networks than it does on my PS3 universe, too.
     
    The vehicles aren't as good as the shooting, sadly. The speeder bikes are fun enough, but nothing spectacular. The Interceptors are just clunky, and annoying to drive. Hopefully they add more variety to the vehicles too, because there's a ton of potential in there that's just sitting untapped. Speaking of untapped possibilities with vehicles, you know what'd be a cool addition? Speeder bike races. Add more stats than speed and durability to them, let players customize and race them against each other. I don't think I'm the only one who'd love something like that.
     
    There's also exploring the environments, which I'll get to in story actually. Overall though, the gameplay is a blast, and the gunfights, more than the quests, the story, the graphics, anything else, really shine. Which is good, because we're about to get into the story.
     

    STORY



    So, we've talked about the looks and the gameplay. For those that play for the plot, how is it?


     
    The plot in Destiny is...disappointing, to put it mildly. It could certainly be worse; there's actually an effort to make something interesting, and there are some nuggets of an interesting story here and there. Too much of it is cluttered though with unexplained information, and a lack of much coherent plot beyond "The Traveler is dying, these guys are killing it, go kill them to save it." "Oh wait it turns out these more evil things are trying to kill the Traveler. Forget about the other guys and worry about these guys now." "Wait no these are the real bad guys. Now you're on target." "Congrats you killed the real bad guys. Those other guys are somehow not important anymore." Nothing is really ever explained, the connections are loose at best. You're just tossed headfirst into the pool that is Destiny's universe, and you're expected to figure out how it works and everything that's there for you without any help.
     




    Credit to Penny Arcade for the joke I completely and utterly stole. The ironic thing is that it's just as confounding, but for the exact opposite reason.


     
    I was honestly very disappointed by this by the time I finished the story mode. Mass Effect is incredibly plot-heavy, and it's one of my favorite franchises. The Walking Dead is nothing but story in what's a glorified Choose Your Own Adventure story, and it's probably one of my top five. I consider myself a man that likes a good plot, and the lack of one with Destiny on first glance is disappointing. The more I play though, the more optimistic I get; as expounded on in-detail here, Destiny actually does do a lot of world-building, just not in the ways we're used to.
     
    It builds its universe through the burned out academy on Venus, the decrepit moon colony overrun by Wizards that came from the moon. The big, open environments you can explore, from the post-apocalyptic Russian wasteland to the Cabal's militaristic bunkers on mars, are where you get the sense of Destiny's universe. The environment is what tells you what you're in for, not the language of the characters. The atmosphere comes from the light and shadows, the actual setting you're in, not from exposition and storytelling.
     
    And the more I think about it, the more okay I am with that. Destiny is meant to be the first of a decade of titles published by Bungie, and I imagine it's far from the last entry into this IP. Something makes me think that Bungie intentionally left the backstory of Destiny's universe very loosely defined so it can be defined in future games. A game that details the collapse, a game that details the war that the Exo originated from, a game that goes into the Queen of the Reef's rise to prominence, and a lot of them I imagine are going to be additional content added onto Destiny itself. This is meant to be the groundwork, not the definitive statement; if they had defined everything in this initial burst, then they would've already set the limits of how far they can go.
     
    All that said, this doesn't change how lax Destiny's story is. As great as the atmosphere is, and as much hope as I have for the future of the franchise, the initial venture still has a very anemic plot. I don't think it's as bad as a lot of people act like it is, but it's not good.
     

    SOUNDTRACK



    Music is a very underrated part of any game. How is it?


     
    Let's put it this way to keep it nice and short: I'm looking forward to the soundtrack being released because I want to own a copy. It's great, and funnily enough the entire reason I got interested. When I heard Paul McCartney was getting involved, I wanted to see what the hubbub was about. The music is great, and another thing that really contributes to the atmosphere of the game.
     

    FINAL VERDICT



    Since you're still here, you clearly care what I think. For some reason. Anyway, what do I think? Do I like it? Do I think it's worth the time?


     
    I like Destiny. A lot. I wouldn't call it perfect, but it's a blast to play. The story isn't anywhere near as good as I hoped, and as such I wouldn't call it a perfect, game-of-the-year type(It's a definite candidate, but also definitely not winning), but very definitely worth the price of admission, and considering the vision that Bungie and Activision seem to have for it, I can't see it going anywhere but up, and more likely than not it'll be worth jumping onto the train early instead of trying to catch up.
     
    As always though, these are just my personal opinions. What you think is your call!
  14. Necro

    School's almost back

    By Necro,

    And considering I am spending some of my free time writing a Dragonball-inspired story about Kanye West battling his way across a weastward travel to save the universe from his evil twin by reaching the temple of swagger, its return is probably a very good thing.
  15. Necro

    SPACE

    By Necro,

    When my brother plays Kerbal Space Program, he uses the knowledge he has gained from studying aerospace engineering and actually working for NASA to meticulously create properly-functioning, realistic spacecraft that apply real-world concepts of interplanetary flight.
     
    I just toss a dude onto a bunch of fuel tanks, stick the biggest engine I have on the bottom, and hope it doesn't explode.
     
    I made my first orbital satellite before he did.
     
    Score one for doing science the Soviet way! Also Kerbal Space Program is an awesome game that you should totally get because it's awesome. Just be ready to learn about rocket staging, and god help you if you don't. Also, a bit about propulsion and the point of diminishing returns in spacecraft design.
  17. Necro
    Gotta be honest, I'm probably just going to be in it for the new sets and pieces.
     
    I really hope they go back to the old Mata-style days where you had actual unique characteristics to each figure and gear mechanisms and springs and all that cool stuff, instead of just being glorified action figures with different masks and color schemes.
  18. Necro
    My laptop is fixed, and all is right in the world. Gigantic thank-you to those who bought music to help cover the cost of the repair, including one particularly generous individual - it covered it and then some! I hate asking for things like that, so I try not to do it often, and I can't say how much I appreciate people helping out when I needed it.
     
    With that out of the way though, back to our regularly scheduled content!
  20. Necro

    33 and counting

    By Necro,

    *WARNING: The following entry contains a fat man with enough hair to make a grizzly bear blush shirtless. While neither obscene nor considered indecent, if you find such sights unpleasant, you have been warned.*
     
    So as some of you guys know, way back in 2011, I had jaw surgery. I had a very serious underbite, to the point that, on top of slurring my speech, it caused breathing problems, eating problems, and if left unrepaired, would grind my teeth down prematurely and give me chronic migraines, so both of my jaws were broken and repositioned. I spent time with my jaw wired, and about three months relearning how to eat and how to talk, still on doctor’s orders not to do any exercising of any sort to keep the stitches from popping out.
     
    I don’t have the talent to be a professional athlete, but I love competing, so I’d always be playing sports and pickup games in high school. I wasn’t a pinnacle of health, but I was still in good shape, around 210 lbs., and faster than you’d expect a man of my height and weight to be.
     
    Unfortunately, that time without exercise sapped me of almost all my energy and muscle. As soon as I got the okay from the doctor to exercise again, instead of easing back and rebuilding myself, I decided to rocket right into a pickup softball game with my buddies later that day, and was dumb enough to take my usual position back in centerfield instead of asking for something like first base or pitcher where I wouldn’t be running around much. Long story short, I spent a significant amount of time lying on my back after the game, completely exhausted. I also had a sore right leg, which I figured was just being out-of-shape.
     
    That right leg soreness lingered whenever I’d exercise, so I just figured I’d need to exercise is a bit more strenuously to get it back into shape. This was a very bad decision, to put it lightly. The pain got worse, more frequent, and spread over more of my leg, and once the school year ended, I made an appointment with a doctor, and a few X-rays later, I learned that the pain wasn’t because I was out-of-shape, it was because I had a stress fracture in my tibia that probably first started as fairly minor injury from that softball game. Because of my treatment of it though, by the time I got the diagnosis, the doctor said that it was bad enough that it was a miracle I hadn’t had a more serious fracture as a result of it yet.
     
    So, cue two months stuck in a walking boot. This also meant that I missed out on the intramural flag football because it’s hard to play football in a walking boot, which really hurt since I had been putting together a team with my friends.
     
    How does any of this relate to my weight loss? Well, part of relearning to eat after my jaw surgery was eating only soft foods for a long time, which destroyed all of my good eating habits. Then between the surgery and the boot, every single one of my good exercise habits disappeared too. As a result, I was eating worse, eating more, and doing nothing to work it off. I went from a fit 210 to an unhealthy 248.
     
    Once I got out of the boot, I was determined to do two things: Take it slow this time so I’d never have to wear it again - something that seems to be going well so far, if the intramural softball championship is any indicator - and get down to a healthy weight. I was determined I wouldn’t let myself get over 250 lbs.
     

     
    The first photos I took one year ago today, the first day I decided to start losing weight. I haven’t done anything drastic, I’ve mainly just cut down my proportions(Especially on lunch, which is less a meal and more to tide me over until dinner now), turned regular unhealthy meals into occasional treats, cut out a ton of snacking, and eliminated any drinks other than water and protein shakes. Not even gatorade or milk, just clean, healthy water(Which I’d consume copiously; I’m one of those weirdos that drinks before every bite of food, and I go through more in a day than most people probably do in a month. I bought one of those 24-packs of 16 oz. waterbottles once, and I got through all of it in a week just drinking normally).
     
    Exercise hasn’t been anything strenuous, 30 minutes on an exercise bike when time permits, the tension exercises the doctor gave me to build up my leg, and at least 60 sit-ups and push-ups a week, split up into ten rep intervals spread across the week so I don’t strain anything.
     
    As of this morning, I’m down to 215 lbs. I feel happier, healthier, lighter, faster, and my mind even seems clearer and more efficient too. My goal is to get down to 200 lbs., then start building myself back up(As slim as my belly’s gotten, my chest is still boobs instead of pecs, and my arms are still chicken wings). I’m proud of 33 lbs. in a year though, especially considering that I feel stronger, meaning I’ve added muscle, so I’ve probably burned a lot more fat than 33 lbs.
     
    So why am I sharing this? Mainly because there’s not a lot of stuff like this. There’s a lot of weight-loss encouragement, but almost all of it is either from subscription-based diet, some radical change in lifestyle, or some miracle drug weight loss supplement. There’s nothing that tells people “You can get healthy without buying our meal plan or our vitamins and hiring our personal trainer!”. All of it is commercialized to try and make money off of people that need genuine help and encouragement, not placebo effect vitamins and a former NFL player that doesn’t know fitness beyond what his coaches told him yelling at them.
     
    I’m not going to lie, it’s not easy, and it’s not quick. You have to work at it, you have to want to do it, and you have to be patient. I didn’t see any real changes until a few months ago when I looked at those old photos from last year. It’s a gradual thing. But it’s not as hard as you think it is, and it’s not as slow as you think it is.
     
    I had every excuse in the book not to lose weight. I had injuries that kept me form exercising, I had a busy schedule that kept me from exercising, I had a sedentary workload that kept me in a chair, I had a college dining hall with really unhealthy food options, I have an underactive thyroid, which not only makes it difficult to lose weight and easy to gain it but also makes it had to develop muscle and makes you fatigue easily, I have a ton of stress in my life(Stress is proven to negatively impact weight loss), I have insomnia(Sleep deprivation also negatively impacts weight loss), I’m a large man from a family of large people, if you can think of an excuse for why someone can’t lose weight, I have it. And I still lost a decent amount of weight in one year.
     
     
    If you’re happy with your body, if you’re happy with your weight, then that’s great. Ultimately, that’s the most important thing. Being comfortable with your body and your health is more important than anything else with it. But I wasn’t happy with my body or with my health. I got discouraged a lot, because everyone else I knew was either fat and happy being such, or naturally thin and healthy. But I kept working, and I got results, and I want to show those results for other people who, like me, felt alone and discouraged because everyone else they knew was happy with their body, and everyone else they knew was either further along than them, or happy being overweight, which there’s nothing wrong with, but when you see people you like enjoying something that you’re trying to cut out, it’s hard to resist joining in.
  21. Necro
    So my laptop's keyboard stopped working last night. Got someone to look at it, and will cost about $250 to fix. MUCH better than I thought it'd be - I figured at least $500 - but that doesn't negate the simple fact that I don't have much of any money. Most of what I had from previous summer jobs and music sales I spent on college textbooks. With my internship I don't have the time to get a summer job, and I was so busy last semester that I couldn't work during the school year. Long story short, repairing my computer pretty much wipes out all but $12 of my money, which includes canceling a lot of plans and recouping a lot of money I had planned to use. I'm also completely dead in the wateer if it ends up A. being more serious or B. having water damage(Never spilled anything on it, but I'm nervous about it), because then the cost jumps to $1,200, at which point it just makes more sense to replace it outright.
     
    Anyway, enough beating around the bush, I hate doing this, but I don't have time to get a job to pay for it right now, and not only do I not want to be completely broke, but I also want to be able to actually have a computer if it ends up worse than they think. If any of you would be willing to buy some of my music and help me out with this, I'd be hugely appreciative. It doesn't have to be anything huge, every dollar helps. Anyone that's willing to pitch in, I'm in a big debt to
  23. Necro

    Gun

    By Necro,

    I really feel like it becomes transparent that Sega came up with the acronym first and the meaning later when you realize it stands for Guardian Units of Nation. Then again, the original was probably something more real-sounding in Japanese.
  25. Necro
    It boggles my mind sometimes how people will completely cut someone out of their life just because of a disagreement. The minute they don't 100% agree and get along with someone, it's like they never knew them.
     
    If a friend or acquaintance disagrees with you, that doesn't mean you should cut off all contact with them, or treat them any different than before. Disagreements are perfectly natural and reasonable, and if anything, it's a good sign indicative that you're both able to think for yourselves, reach your own conclusions, and feel there is enough mutual respect in the relationship that this disagreement won't destroy it. If they're reasonable, level-headed, and not intrusive over the disagreement, then there is no need whatsoever to end the relationship. I disagree with most of my best friends on a lot of things ranging from small topics like which Mass Effect crewmember to save, to big topics like politics and economics. I still love them though, because we're all intelligent, reasonable people that don't let disagreements ruin a good friendship.
     
    Even if it's something that's truly black-and-white and clear-cut about what is and isn't right, excommunicating someone that is otherwise a reasonable, rational person that you otherwise get along with and have common interests with because of one issue is unhealthy. Doing so because of trivial issues like not liking video game storyline X or thinking actor Y deserved the Oscar more than Leonardio DiCaprio actor Z is even unhealthier.
     
    If you burn every bridge that has a single rotten plank, very soon you'll find yourself on an island by yourself.
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