Arroz con Panther

Just now, OneBadCat said:

Can you win by FG in OT?

Each team gets a possession. If it’s still tied, then next score wins. 

5 hours ago, d-dave said:

Remember when Indy ran into the sword guy in Temple of Doom?  How he solved it with his revolver?  when Rand ran into Turoth, instead of the sword masters' duel from the books, there he just ended them all.

Why do you think that they are writing Rand out of being the dragon?   I don't see that, what am I missing?  I can understand not having them fight in the sky because the Ishamael from the books is quite different from the show.  I have no idea what they are doing with the rest of the Foresaken.

I guess I'm so excited because it's telling a great story in a way that works (for me) in an episodic format.  I'm just digging it.

Gotcha on the Indiana Jones reference now! It just seems like Rand hasn't really done anything "dragon-like" yet. It's been Egwene or some other character coming to his rescue. I guess I was just disappointed that all Rand did was walk up and stab him. Don't get me wrong, I'm digging it as well. I'm not the type of person who thinks an adaptation has to be 1 to 1. It's probably why I also enjoyed Rings of Power.

@d-daveFinished episode 8 today. What's the Indiana Jones moment? Honestly, it wasn't the best finale. They're really writing Rand out of being the Dragon, in my opinion. Still entertaining, but I needed a bit more from the finale. Like, I really wanted Rand and Ishamael to duel in the sky....

I don't think the defense playing a bit better is our concern.

Also, the actress who plays Lanfear has done an amazing job.

I'm on the last episode of season 2 right now. Season 2 is soooo much better. I stopped reading about midway through book 6. May pick it up again some day, but I don't read that much and I've heard it becomes a slog. I really don't have any qualms with the show because I like the world and magic. Adaptations don't have to be 100% accurate IMO.

On 8/27/2023 at 10:53 AM, d-dave said:

I haven't played turned based since Baldur's Gate 2 some 15 years ago.  Not a huge fan myself either.  What I have figured out is that I have a LOT of strategic flexibility.  So it's different.  Not as fast paced, but very rewarding.  Using the environment, combo effects (grease + fire), and sometimes a simple shove are super effective.

So what is the selling point here?  The story and characters!  There's a LOT of questing going on, and the dialogue is just great!  You have a lot of options to complete different objectives and each one has it's own story outcome.  You've probably heard BG3 is the bear-sex simulator, but that's just ONE character!  You can have sex with a vampire, a hot bad girl with a past, a wizard with a bomb in his chest, a demon, a demon hunting warlock who can get really horny, there's a love interest for every kink!

There are so many cool story beats.  You mean some real bastards, so real gems, and a lot in between.  Want to murder everyone?  Go for it?  Want to play without killing?  Go for it!  Want to min-max the heck out of your abilities and skills?  Go for it?  Want to play only using auto saves?  You are quite brave!

I love the game.  I am a 30+ year D&D player, but I'm much more into my action and FPS games!  I played he old school Eye of the Beholder games along with a fair number if the isometric party games (Icewind Dale, Planescape, BG and BG2, etc) in my youth.  So I'm coming back after a long break.

So what am I really personally enjoying?  I love the exploration and the stories.  I am becoming a big fan of art and world design so I am having fun digging into every corner to see what the artists have added.  I love seeing the new characters and finding those emotional story beats for the main questline and my buddies.  Oh and the Paladin's smiting attacks are MONEY! 

You had me at bear sex.

Thanks for the write up, man. I bought it. I'm definitely enjoying the story more than the combat; I'm not very good at positioning and strategy yet. Trying to be, but man those dice rolls aren't working in my favor. It's pretty complex and I have no D&D background. The game definitely makes it easier for you and I'll get the hang of it eventually. It's all trial and error right now. The exploration is fun for sure. Wish the inventory management was a bit easier, but again, I'll get the hang of it. It will hold my interest until Starfield comes out.

I'm getting the itch to play this, but I've never played D&D and I'm not a huge fan of turn-based combat. Convince me!

18 hours ago, lightsout said:

I can do it. Wouldn't make many changes but could possibly do some stuff

I made you an admin. Iceage, right?

P.S. If someone wants mod duties on the discord server and wants to tweak with things on the server, that's cool. I'm not as savvy as I thought I would be with discord, but I haven't put much time into it either.

On 8/1/2023 at 6:21 PM, lightsout said:

Already is one. @Arroz con Panther @Dex and a handful of others. Even though neither of these assholes ever play video games with me anymore

I went and had a kid so my time is very limited right now. I'm usually on for an hour or two most nights around 9:30/10. Mainly playing cod and diablo because their quick and easy.

Booted it up last night for a few minutes. Super smooth launch honestly, which is refreshing. I'm on PC. Game looks great. Looking forward to putting some time into it this weekend.

If this is his first game, he won't care about them being nosebleeds, especially if he's young. I understand wanting to get him good seats though! We have seats in row 17 of the upper deck and I don't have a problem with them. If you're on a sideline, you'd be fine up to half way up in the 500 section, in my opinion.

1 hour ago, kass said:

Did any of them fail because of their height?

I'm not saying you're wrong, but Baker did have a ton of tipped balls early last year.

Absolutely - we’re going to be bad either way, might as well make it just a tad more exciting. What we have on the field right now (offensively) is hot garbage. 

I wear Croc sneakers on game day. These particular ones...they're comfy just like the rest of 'em and everyone is always surprised when I tell them they're Crocs.

Any Spiritbox fans here?

Here's the first song that I ever heard from them a few years ago.

I've always enjoyed her live, one-takes, too.

PC has to sit under my desk in this config.

I built a new PC back in November and put an album together to show my family how it's done. It's here if you're interested. https://photos.app.goo.gl/tBTtHULwoxiuqbtW7

Specs - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/tZKqH2

2 hours ago, Shocker said:

So for those folks that have completed the game what would you rate it?  Just wondering 

It's top 5 for me, possibly even top 3 but I don't want to put too much thought into what games would round out that list for me.

I'll say this, it's the only game in a really, really long time that I haven't taken a break on about 3/4th of the way through and then gone back and finished around a month later. I'm talking about longer games, mind you (single player games under 20 hours don't affect me in that way.) Witcher 3...I took a break. RDR2...I took a break. Never finished HZD even though I got pretty far and I know it's a good game. Elden Ring kept me hooked for the full 95 hours that I played it over the course of a month and I immediately wanted to start over when I finished.

3 hours ago, CanadianCat said:

Thats great. Its fun to find a game that is built well and enjoyable. So many games now come out half finished (I was a sucker that prebought Battlefield 2044 and Cyberpunk before that). Its a pleasure when you can just sit down and play an game and it works 'out of the box'

Agreed. I was also one of the guys who preordered both of those games...

Just finished last night! What a fantastic game. I don’t know where it ranks all time for me but it’s the first in many years that I’ve loved this much and it’s definitely high up on my list. For reference, I’d gone in beating DS1, playing bloodborne and sekiro but never finishing them. I got pretty far in sekiro but I played that immediately after beating DS1 and I needed a break and simply never picked it back up. I think I’ll give bloodborne another try now (it was my first Fromsoft game and I didn’t understand how the games worked at the time.)

I kept track of my time and deaths during boss fights throughout my Elden Rings run. It took me 95 hours to beat and I was level 152 when I faced the last boss. All in all, I spent 1369 minutes (22.8 hours) and died 600 times on boss fights lol.

I’m not going to do a second play through just yet but I would like to eventually. Again, had a blast playing it!

On 2/9/2022 at 11:09 PM, 4Corners said:

Didn’t something similar happen to Billy Mays 

No, heart disease. It was speculated that it was a head injury at first, but the autopsy report went with hypertensive heart disease.

@d-dave First off, you read fast as hell. Secondly, I don't think you'll have problems getting through the series, but there is a serious lull between books 6 and 10, apparently. Everyone who has read the series says so. I'll be interested to see if you make it. Apparently, the last three books (which are written by Sanderson after Jordan's death) are worth it though. 

Me personally, I've tried to read the series twice and I gave up during the middle of book 6 twice! I'm a pretty slow reader in that I don't dedicate much time. I really want to give it another shot, but it's a commitment for me and I'm afraid I'll just give up again.

20 hours ago, PanthersATL said:

Eventually you'll find you have $5,000 in savings. Then hopefully $10,000. Then it'll keep rolling, building that safety cushion.

 

Then, take whatever you wouldn't need to survive for 6 months and invest. While I do have a "play money" investment account that I manage, I also use Fidelity's GO Robo Advisor to manage an account.

I have a 401K through them, two Roth IRAs (one for my wife, one for me), a joint investment account, and my fun account. All but my fun account are ran by their Robo advisor. Under $10k in an account is free, $10-50k is $3/month, and anything over $50k is 0.35%/year. You'll get more return having most of your money in an investment account over what a savings account can offer.

I have it pre-ordered, but can't play it until the 19th. I've heard it's a mess right now, but that doesn't surprise me and won't stop me from playing.