Storypost | 2018.08.30

PUBG parachute drop neural style transfer pixellated
Pepperoni

Dog golden puppy toy

First and foremost: Tori and Jon got a pup.
PUBG

PUBG sidecar screenshot neural style transfer

Lolbaters have gotten a good amount of pubg in.

PUBG Erangel sidecar upside down jump red zone explosion view

We've actively sought out some shenanigans...

PUBG Erangel UAZ driveby bridge

... but of course plenty of it comes naturally. We really aren't very good, but we make not being very good look good.

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thumbnail PUBG Erangel Dacia shooting thumbnail PUBG Miramar mirado drive-by shells ejected thumbnail PUBG Miramar mirado player ejected explosion thumbnail PUBG Miramar motorcycle tandem drinking energy drink thumbnail PUBG Erangel UAZ jeep jump ejection
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thumbnail PUBG Miramar molotov stadium thumbnail PUBG Erangel sidecar pizza gun dp thumbnail PUBG Miramar mirado ejection matrix jump thumbnail PUBG Erangel molotov Stolichnaya vodka close-up thumbnail PUBG Erangel UAZ jeep cliff drive-by
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Chicken dinners


We're still gunning for that full-squad chicken dinner. Previously we'd managed a few with just our resident semi-pro still alive. But in one weekend it all seemed to click and we won on both Erangel and Sanhok with only a single casualty. Erangel (above) wasn't too action-packed, but had some lulz and validated both the obscure Ferry Pier drop and the boat strategy. Really this one was about making the right decisions and having kshot land a few important AK rounds.


The Sanhok win was more fulfilling. It had four gun battles and saw substantive contributions from everyone. Here, too, I think we got our movement right from drop to the final circle.
Fantasy draft


During the Password is Taco draft Glen determined my strategy is akin to the baseball stat WAR (wins above replacement). It adds an unintended pun to d'ogs of war.

Nothing too crazy in Passwrod is Taco. I'm going a bit heavy on Raiders, but expect Jordy/Martin to boom or bust pretty early. Matt Ryan was a late pick and I'm hoping Zuerlein validates the WAR strat.


In Medieval Gridiron I kept Deshaun and went running back-heavy with Fournette and the now-#2 Royce Freeman. I didn't hedge too much and again grabbed Legatron, an early defense, and some players that may benefit from Gruden genius or garbage time.
Alienation fin

J and I finished up Alienation. It was a solid downloadable-type title. The endgame is extreme difficulty and pvp, but we're instead going to have a go at Divinity: Original Sin.

Alienation bridge explosions Alienation firefight truck Alienation field generator
God of War

God of War 2 Kratos wolf shield

Online gaming has definitely cut into my God of War time. I'm occasionally getting sessions in an have seen some pretty cool things like a world serpent and a blue dwarf's shop.

God of War dragon God of War puzzle God of War shopping merchant God of War witch
Heroes of the Aturi Cluster

XWing miniatures Heroes of the Aturi Cluster squadron

The Brogue Squadron - now called Space Force - is quite a few missions deep into the campaign. We've gotten quite a bit better at maneuvering and drawing enemies where we want them. We refined our builds as well:

T-70 X-Wing Tank Support HWK A is for action A-Wing Bomber B-Wing The campaign is no cakewalk. We tried the final mission in the TIE Phantom arc and, well, lost. We also lost our B-Wing pilot so Mark had to start a new character.



Review | 2018.08.04

PUBG PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds Dacia Erangel jump Kenny Powers majestic

Still more heat, still more man cave.

Risk Good Beer Company Orange

Well there was a brief train trip up to Good Beer Co in Santa Ana.
Destiny 2

Destiny 2 screenshot waterfall view

J and I finished up our Destiny 2 run. It was a longer ride than the first installment, but we didn't see a whole lot going on the endgame that would warrant much replay.


We got a little taste of Borderlands-style farming. The Relics of the Golden Age quest simply wasn't going to complete itself through casual play.


We had some fun battles, but the best memories of the game are the environments:


Alienation

Alienation screenshot BlackIceee69

On to Alienation. J read that it was a cross between Borderlands and Helldivers, with maybe more emphasis on the latter.


The combat is very much like Helldivers - dual stick/third person with various weapons and specials. Maybe if we moved directly to this game from Helldivers it would be a little stale, but instead it was nice to have the muscle memory to play reasonably well (once I remapped the buttons).

Alienation screenshot mutants

Upsides:
Alienation screenshot helicopter extract

Downsides:
God of War 2

God of War 2 screenshot bloody fight

I finally cracked one of my bday presents, God of War 2. Naturally, I'm a bit late to the party.


I'm still figuring combat out. There are lots of moves, attacks, and blocks, but it feels like strong smash works best most of the time. I'm hoping a more nuanced approach than button mashing will be the dominant strategy.

God of War 2 view

In some ways it feels like The Last of Us, but with bros. This is somewhat unfair because the gameplay is pretty different and it's not really derivative, if anything the resemblance gives GoW a lot to live up to. The voice acting and storytelling are very good, I was worried that Kratos would be one dimensional and maybe I still am a little.

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Pubg

PUBG car near miss vehicle 187 Sanhok

Weeknight pubg sessions are still going. I finally put together a gameplay summary for the uninitiated:


We've moved on from cold drops and late deaths to hitting the edge of the hot landing areas and getting, uh, mixed results.


E.g. on Sanhok we like the back section of Ha Tinh. Most people drop in the warehouses and if they come over to the Sirichai shop, we're pretty proficient with the zero-skill-required auto shotty.

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Pubg video editing


One fine evening a pubger named Kenny Powers dropped out of the blue and had me interested in the video replay utility.


The game stores replay data as geometry to be recreated in-engine. From what I read online, this means the only way to create video is to use the replay viewer and have your graphics card (Nvidia Shadowplay) record what you're seeing. This isn't the best, for a couple reasons:
So basically this leaves a process of putting together a bunch of clips using Shadowplay for later editing. Of course, the benefit of the save format is that you can move and pan and hop between players using their clunky interface.