Wow. Attacking Xbox Live and PSN have no real effect on the money these companies make--I'll use my PS Wallet to buy stuff in a few days, when these cybertards get bored or get caught.
So, why attack the networks and ruin xmas gaming fun for so many of the very same people who would normally cheer (silently or otherwise) the hacker community? Why alienate your fan base?
I just picked up this game over the weekend on a Black Friday sale at the PS Store. It's been out for a little while now, but I initially avoided it due to the third person camera-style (which I tend to dislike). Anyone playing?
Technical note/TTP: I eventually set the screen grain down to 0. It defaults at 100, which I think is weird. At 0 the blacks are very black and graphics actually look worthy of being corralled in the Next Gen category. On Full Default grain, there's a lot of white shading in the blacks, distant objects are blurred and sometimes completely obscured.
Has anyone tried this demo/marketing/advert mini-game?
I found it has some very nice, genuine scares, but the insane, repetitive looping (while a nice metaphor) eventually (one full hour later) became grating and...yes, boring.
Apparently, there are clues throughout your walk down the two halls, but they don't seem logical and they're definitely not intuitive.
If Silent Hills follows this model, I don't see myself playing--I don't have the patience and certainly not the time.
Anyone else? Anyone actually finish the demo?
Spoiler:
Apparently, the demo can't be completed without a set of headphones and mic plugged in (the headphones trigger script in the game; the mic uses your breathing, which is expected to increase at certain intense moments, to trigger script, as well--I don't have these for my PS4 and I'm not going to buy a set just to see the end of the demo.
I just finished Outlast on PS4: in a word, spectacular!
This is the first horror game I've ever played where I have actually been scared. Very immersive, very effective, and it doesn't even have very good graphics.
An interesting aspect of the game is your complete inability to fight back--all you can do is sneak, run, and hide. At first this can be frustrating, especially when you have so many opportunities to appropriate any number and types of weapons, from your own fists and dropped knives, to clubs and even dropped firearms; hell, even power tools. Eventually, though (and once you understand this--I did not and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to fight before I cheated, looked online, and discovered you simply can't), the inability to forcefully defend yourself becomes the greatest challenge of the game.
Anyone else playing? I just started the DLC. Quick question (and I've looked online and no one else seems to be having this problem):
Spoiler:
DLC cannibal cook section; he tosses me in the crematory and says, "Stay in there and cook!"
I head to the back of the oven and begin striking the wall; the bricks begin to give way. At the fifth strike, I am suddenly unable to hit the wall. I can still move around, but striking the wall is no longer an option. I’ve tried all three controller layouts, but I experience the same issue every time.
I’ve looked online and no one else seems to be having any trouble. I’ve watched several walkthroughs of this section of the game, and everyone else tumbles through the broken wall after five strikes.
So, it seems The Stand has a director, Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars), and it's gone from three movies to three hours and the promise of an all-star A-list cast. Then again...Spielberg has been making The Talisman for 12 years now, so who knows what will actually happen in the next couple years.
At any rate, I usually re-read the novel every three years or so (it's one of my absolute all-time favorites), but I only recently re-watched the 1994 miniseries. It's probably been 15 or more years since I last watched it, and I was surprised, after viewing it on Netflix this weekend, how many scenes I was absolutely sure were in the movie that weren't--so much so that I spent no small amount of time looking around on the web to be sure I wasn't watching some truncated and poorly-edited version.
Something else I noticed was that the movie was actually quite a lot of fun, and very accessible--if you've read the novel. If you haven't, then despite its six-hour length, it feels like hours of scenes are simply missing: watching the movie with my brother-in-law this weekend, who's never read the novel and hadn't before seen the film, found him constantly peppering me with questions about why this was happening, and when that had happened, and what caused this character to do that and that character to do this...it was difficult, in a word.
So, I wonder how such a long and complex cross-country novel, with so many characters and subplots, could possibly be digested, effectively, into a single theatrical release.
I sincerely lament for the 'good old days' of just five years ago when the most lively, energetic, and often no-holds-barred non-gaming-related discussions were held right here at Paizo.
The OTD section of the Boards was the go-to place for philosophical, well-thought and well-written, intellectually- and socially-engaged, well, off-topic discussions--things that didn't necessarily define the gamer stereotype, things about which--and not surprising to actual gamers--we were intensely passionate!
These days, before any fur flies or digital faces are smacked, the Heavy Hand of Thread-Lock descends because the thread might become 'hostile'!?
Are we really such intellectual cowards that the engines of discourse perforce must drive debate that is only flawlessly, precisely, undoubtedly inoffensive to anyone in any way?
Can you guys just throw this in with my next Pathfinder package? I didn't see the option to do so at checkout. I'm not after a shipping discount, just trying to consolidate packages.
Yes, yes it's true: you can be such an under achiever your entire youth that actually getting into a real university was impossible, yet still be in the less than 0.0000000001% of all humanity who make it through the NASA astronaut program!
If you could only watch one TV show per year, what would it be?
You can only select shows currently in production (at the time of your posting; and I emphasize not to yell, but because someone is bound to name Buffy, or Farscape, or Firefly, or any number of very awesome but canceled shows), which includes cable programs that run counter to standard US network seasons.
The Eclipse might just be the best ghost story I've ever seen. A haunting, heart-breaking, but ultimately very beautiful film. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.
Probably the best film I've seen this year. Best in the original German; don't worry about missing something because you were busy reading subtitles--you will watch this movie again.
I went to see this with the kids today and was surprised to find us just three of about a dozen attendees.
It's a silly film, not to be taken too seriously, and it potentially plays up some poor stereotypes of Native Americans, but we found it generally unoffensive and really quite funny. My kids were laughing out loud throughout the movie, and there were plenty of in-jokes that seemed specially written for adults my age and with my interests. George Takei as the time travel egg-ship STEVE was super ("Oh, my..."), and Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson played off one another perfectly.
I didn't look up any reviews until I got home, and I guess this movie has all but tanked; everybody (pretty much) hates it.
Anyone here seen it? Am I too easily amused? Is this actually an awful movie?
Based on a 'true story'. There's a great mythology here; the movie is extremely well-crafted. Great ending, which most of these types of tales suffer severe difficulty achieving. A sequel's in the works, which I assume is another Warren story.
I felt like, through the whole movie, I was in one of those ridiculous graduate courses in English-Lit. In those days, I routinely made the same kind of absolutely incredible (by which I mean not credible) contentions.
Seriously, you could give almost any movie the same treatment.
I'm a sucker for these cryptid shows, even the bad ones. This one, three episodes in, seems pretty good. It's entertaining for 45 minutes if nothing else.
I haven't seen anything yet suggesting the whole show is staged, but if it's not, this is the best semi-pro team out there: I think they've found more 'evidence' in three episodes (especially tracks and noises) than all the other similar series combined.
First shalt thou disallow any and all future petitions by he who is known locally on the interwebz as 'yellowdingo', then shalt thou count to one, no more, no less.
One shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be one, and this is the number less itself of petitions that he who is known locally on the interwebz as 'yellowdingo' may be allowed to submit.
Two shalt thou not count.
Neither count zero, excepting that thou then proceed to one.
I luckily preordered my PS4 before Amazon ran out. After watching this walkthrough, I'm a quick decision from buying a PS3 tomorrow just to play this game.
A bit of googling and I was surprised to find little on the subject.
Anyone ever experience (especially regularly) a raw, tearful, emotional response to learning something new and particularly awesome?
I'm interested in the neurological reasons for this. Mathematical or scientific epiphanies can often bring me to tearful excited laughter (and I mean actual happy tears). I don't mean to say that this happens when I devise or derive something new myself, only that it happens when I gain an understanding of a thing that had particularly eluded me.
Buy your set today, because it'll cost a small fortune a year from now.
This thread is devoted to collecting and discussing apparently offensive items.
Is the complaint about the Lego set legit, or hypersensitive political correctness at its best?
I'm a Western rational secularist, so I don't see it at all. Personally, I think it's more a matter of hypersensitive activists insecure in their own standing, likely looking, deliberately, for offense in and from everything around them.
I propose a Bill that makes it illegal to fail a student for arguing that the Refrigerator Fairy turns that light on and off.
As long as students are still required to answer correctly on tests, I really don't care what they privately believe. And if a student wants to submit a paper or research project that argues H. sapiens and T. rex cohabited, then awesome--as long as they follow the scientific method (...whereby they will prove themselves wrong).
I can argue all day that 2+2=5 for extremely large values of 2, but I still better answer '2' on the test.
I'm a bit over an hour into this game; just started exploring NYC, and found new meaning to the term 'concrete jungle'.
Gameplay is more streamlined and controls are more responsive vice Crysis 2. The story is developing nicely, and Psycho is a fun NPC who doesn't get in the way (or really help in fights at all), or hog the best weapon for 99.5% of the game.
The graphics are phenomenal--honestly the best graphics I've ever seen in a video game.
V/H/S is a found-footage style film. Personally, I'm a big fan of these, but I understand how many might be put off by yet another one. The cool thing about this movie is that it's a series of stories in the vein of Tales from the Dark Side. I went into this one having no idea what it was about, just that it was a horror film, and found myself very pleasantly surprised by just how good it is.
Overall, surprisingly well made for a low-budget flick, and the acting--with the exception of one tale, which suffers from dialogue issues, and another one, which seems to suffers from a huge dose of reductio ad absurdum that's eventually resolved, both of which are nonetheless saved by the coolness of the ideas (you'll know it when you see it)-- actually comes off as realistic and genuine.
At any rate, if you hate found-footage films, you'll probably hate this one too. If you like them, or are still neutral, give it a shot.
Saw this tonight--was worried it would be torture porn (which I detest)--it is not. Actually a great movie. A stellar Pyrrhic ending; very highly recommended.
Female Half-Elf Magus (Black Powder Magus)
CG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Low-Light Vision.; Perception +3
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 19 touch 14, flat-footed 15 (+4 Dex, +5 armor) +
Armor +1 Mithral Shirt +6 Max dex 0ACP
hp 47 (6d8 + 6CON +6FCB ) Current
Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +6 (+8 Enchantment/+8 vs Fear when holding a gun)
Defensive Abilities
Immune to sleep
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Initiative +4
Arcane Pool: 9/9
RangedKedavera: +1 Arcane Revolving Pistol +9 1d8+1 x4 Misfire 1-2 20ft (vs touch AC in 1st range increment)
Ranged +1 Arcane Revolving Pistol (Enhanced: up to +11 damage enhancement varies)
Ranged Spell (varies)
Melee Club (nightstick) +4 1d6 bludgeoning
Melee Handaxe +4 1d6 Slashing x3 Ignore hardness <20
Melee Dagger
Special Attacks
Spell combat:
Magus Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6; concentration +)
. . At will— Read Magic
Magus Spells Prepared (CL 6 ; concentration +10)
. . 2nd (2+1/day)— Ablative Barrier, Cauterizing Weapon, Force Anchor
. . 1st (3+1/day)— Color Spray, Shocking Grasp, Shield, Clarion Call
. . 0 (at will)—(4) Prestidigitation, Disrupt Undead, Dancing Lights, Mage hand
Magus Spells Known
. . 2nd (6)— Acid Arrow, Cauterizing Weapon, Force Anchor, Mirror Image, Ablative Barrier, Alter Self
. . 1st (11)— Chill touch, Color Spray, Corrosive Touch, Shield, Shocking Grasp, Magic missile, Clarion Call, Vanish, Burning hands, True Strike, Weapon Wand
. . 0 (all)—Acid splash, Arcane Mark, Dancing lights, Daze, Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead, Flare, Ghost sound, Light, Mage Hand, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Read Magic, Spark
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 19 , Con 12, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 13
Base Atk +4; CMB +4 ; CMD14
Feats Extra Arcane pool (5th level class bonus), Skill focus (Craft: Alchemy) (racial bonus), Gunsmithing (1st level class bonus) Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Quickdraw
Traits Armed Grit
You make an impression during a standoff.
Benefit(s): As long as you have a firearm drawn, you gain a +2 trait bonus on saving throws against fear and the DCs of Intimidate checks to demoralize you increase by 2.
Alchemical Adept
You are skilled in creating alchemical items.
Benefits: You gain a +2 trait bonus on all Craft (alchemy) checks made to craft alchemical items. Furthermore, when you fail a Craft (alchemy) check by 5 or more but don’t roll a natural 1, you don’t ruin any raw materials or have to pay that cost again.
Background Skills Knowledge History +8, Linguistics +8, Handle Animal +2, Sleight of Hand +6
Racial Modifiers
• Ability Score Modifiers: Half-elf characters gain a +2 bonus to one ability score of their choice at creation to represent their varied nature.
• Type: Half-elves are humanoid creatures with both the human and the elf subtypes.
• Size: Half-elves are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Base Speed: Half-elves have a base speed of 30 feet.
• Languages: Half-elves begin play speaking Common and Elven. Half-elves with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
• Elven Immunities: Half-elves are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects.
• Adaptability: Half-elves receive Skill Focus as a bonus feat at 1st level.
• Keen Senses: Half-elves receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.
• Low-Light Vision: Half-elves can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
OTHER RACIAL TRAITS
• Elf Blood: Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race.
• Arcane Training: Half-elves occasionally seek tutoring to help them master the magic in their blood. Half-elves with this racial trait have only one favored class (MAGUS), and it must be an arcane spellcasting class. They can use spell trigger and spell completion items for their favored class as if one level higher (or as a 1st-level character if they have no levels in that class). This racial trait replaces the multitalented racial trait.
Languages Common, Elven, Draconic, Dwarven, Sylvan, Halfling, Celestial, Orc
Gear/ Possessions:
Magus’ kit : This includes a backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a flint and steel, ink, an inkpen, an iron pot, a mess kit, rope, soap, a spell component pouch, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin, 50 ft rope, Spellbook, extra waterskin
Gunsmith’s Kit
Grooming Kit
This pouch of toiletries includes a comb, scissors, a nail file, a sponge, a hairbrush, a miniature mirror, soap, a chewing stick, and tooth powder.
Outfit, Explorer’s, Grappling hook,
Ammunition: 50 Metal cartridges (normal bullets)
2 Adamantine bullets
6 Silver Bullets
3 Flare cartridges
4 vials Oil of Silence (silence firearm for 1 hr)
Magical Gear
BeltBelt of Dexterity +2
Body Chest Endless Bandolier
Eyes Feet: Hands: Gloves of Reconnaissance (see through 5ft of material 1 min/day)
Head: Headband Neck: Ring 1 Ring 2 Shoulders: Cloak of Resistance +2
Wrists:
Slotless
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Skills
A black powder magus gains Knowledge (engineering) as a class skill, but does not gain Swim as a class skill.
This ability modifies the magus’ class skills
Weapon Proficiency
Black powder magi are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, one-handed firearms, and light armor. This modifies the standard magus weapon proficiencies.
Spells
A magus casts arcane spells drawn from the magus spell list. A magus must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time.
To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the magus must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a magus’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the magus’s Intelligence modifier.
A magus can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Magus. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score.
A magus may know any number of spells. He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying his spellbook. While studying, the magus decides which spells to prepare.
Cantrips: A magus can prepare a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Magus under “Spells per Day.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again.
Spellbooks: A magus must study his spellbook each day to prepare his spells. He cannot prepare any spell not recorded in his spellbook except for read magic, which all magi can prepare from memory. A magus begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level magus spells plus three 1st-level magus spells of his choice. The magus also selects a number of additional 1st-level magus spells equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to his spellbook. At each new magus level, he gains two new magus spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new magus level) for his spellbook. At any time, a magus can also add spells found in other spellbooks to his own.
A magus can learn spells from a wizard’s spellbook, just as a wizard can from a magus’s spellbook. The spells learned must be on the magus spell list, as normal. An alchemist can learn formulae from a magus’s spellbook, if the spells are also on the alchemist spell list. A magus cannot learn spells from an alchemist.
Diminished Spellcasting
A black powder magus has one fewer spell slot of each level than a regular magus. If this reduces his number of spell slots of a particular level to zero, he can cast spells of that level only if his Intelligence allows bonus spells of that level.
This ability alters the magus’s spellcasting.
Arcane Gun (Ex)
At 1st level, a black powder magus gains a unique, magically bonded pistol as per the wizard’s arcane bonded object. Unlike a standard bonded item, the arcane pistol can’t be used to cast a spell once per day. Wielding or holding her arcane pistol does not prevent the black powder magus from providing somatic components for her spells.
Initially, this arcane pistol is a battered weapon, albeit inscribed with arcane runes, that only she knows how to use properly. All other creatures treat her weapon as having the broken condition. Should it already have the broken condition, the weapon will not fire for anyone other than the black powder magus.
Additionally, the black powder magus gains Gunsmithing as a bonus feat.
Arcane Pool /Arcane Grit (Su)
At 1st level, the magus gains a reservoir of mystical arcane energy that he can draw upon to fuel his powers and enhance his weapon. This arcane pool has a number of points equal to 1/2 his magus level (minimum 1) + his Intelligence modifier. The pool refreshes once per day when the magus prepares his spells.
At 1st level, a magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a swift action to grant any weapon he is holding a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute. For every four levels beyond 1st, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +5 at 17th level. These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon enhancement to a maximum of +5. Multiple uses of this ability do not stack with themselves.
A black powder magus is a rare breed, carving a path through history with a mystical blend of arcane knowledge and reckless daring. These rare individuals possess a unique talent for pulling off exceptional deeds of both a mystical and dynamic nature by drawing upon a pool of arcane grit. In game terms, arcane grit acts as both grit and the magus’ arcane pool, for the purpose of interacting with magus arcana, weapon enhancement, and selecting gunslinger deeds. This ability automatically fulfills the prerequisite for any ability requiring an arcane pool or the grit class feature.
At 5th level, these bonuses can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: dancing, flaming, flaming burst, frost, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, speed, or vorpal.
A black powder magus’ choices of weapon special abilities to apply with arcane grit at 5th level include distance, nimble shot, and seeking but not dancing, keen, or vorpal.
This ability modifies the magus’s arcane pool.
Ranged Spell Combat (Ex)
Instead of a light or one-handed melee weapon, a black powder magus must use a firearm for spell combat. She doesn’t need a free hand for ranged spell combat. The black powder magus cannot accept an attack penalty to gain a bonus on concentration checks to cast a spell defensively.
This ability modifies spell combat.
Spellshot (Su)
At 2nd level, whenever a black powder magus casts a spell that calls for a touch attack, she can channel the spell through her arcane gun into a bullet as part of a ranged attack. Instead of the free touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, the black powder magus can make one free ranged attack with her bonded weapon (at her highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. The touch spell is delivered by the bullet upon a successful hit, dealing normal firearm damage as well as the effect of the spell. A missed shot results in the loss of the spell or specific ranged touch attack if more than one attack is allowed.
If the touch spell can normally affect multiple targets, only the target struck by the black powder magus’ spellshot is affected. This attack uses the pistol’s critical range and multiplier (20/ x4), but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier.
This ability alters spellstrike.
Magus Arcana
As he gains levels, a magus learns arcane secrets tailored to his specific way of blending martial puissance and magical skill. Starting at 3rd level, a magus gains one magus arcana. He gains an additional magus arcana for every three levels of magus attained after 3rd level. Unless specifically noted in a magus arcana’s description, a magus cannot select a particular magus arcana more than once. Magus arcana that affect spells can only be used to modify spells from the magus spell list unless otherwise noted.
• A complete list of magus arcana can be found here: Magus Arcana
Arcane Deed (Su)
At 3rd level the black powder magus gains the following sure shot deed. This deed works and interacts with grit the same way as gunslinger deeds, but is only available to the black powder magus. If the black powder magus also has levels in gunslinger, she can spend grit points from that class on sure shot.
Sure shot (Su) +2
A black powder magus can spend an arcane grit point to gain a glimpse into the future, momentarily gaining insight into her target’s movements. When this deed is enabled, she gains a +1 insight bonus per every three caster levels, to her next ranged attack roll.
This ability alters the magus arcana class feature and replaces the magus arcana gained at 3rd level. Every three levels, the black powder magus may select either a magus arcana or a gunslinger deed in its place.
Slinger’s Abundance (Ex)
At 4th level, the black powder magus gains the Extra Arcane Pool feat as a bonus feat.
This ability replaces spell recall.
Bonus Feats
At 5th level, and every six levels thereafter, a magus gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement. These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as combat, item creation, or metamagic feats. He must meet the prerequisites for these feats as normal.
---------------------------------------
Layla
--------------------------------------
Tall and lithe, with attractive features, blending both human and elven traits, Layla cuts quite a dramatic profile when she wants to. Her green eyes and flaming red hair are hard to miss, even under the tricorne hat she usually wears when in the field.
-------------------------------------
Personality
-------------------------------------
.
--------------------------------------
Background
-------------------------------------
The daughter of a human Alkenstar Gunslinger and and an Elven wizardess, Layla grew up around her father's odd love of alchemy and unconventional weaponry, but also her mother's emphasis on magic, leading to a very unusual, and quite interesting upbringing.
As she grew older, between her mother's position as a full Eagle Knight, and her father's role as a 'consultant' on unconventional weaponry, her own studies in magic led her primarily into arcane combat magic, which she blended into her in depth study of the way of the gun, leading to a truly unique style of magical offense.
With her skills (and pedigree), she found herself taking on specific missions, and beginning to make a name for herself, culminating in her most recent assignment, by request to Andoran's newly formed anti-terrorism unit.
