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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    I haven't looked into Steam's refund policy, but why would the refund be via PayPal? I've NEVER bought anything on Steam with PayPal. Usually I use a credit card, but in this case I'd loaded up my Steam Wallet during the summer sale and paid for AK with that. I assumed refunds would be in the form you paid, which would mean money back into my Steam Wallet. I like a controller for games that play better with a controller, and I like a mouse and keyboard for games that play better with a mouse and keyboard. Like you said, third-person adventure games, platformers, racing games, stuff like that I usually play with a controller. Shooters, strategy games, most RPGs, and similar stuff gets m+k. About 4 hours in now, and the game's getting pretty good. I still feel like they're leaning a little to heavily on the Batmobile gimmick, but the story is getting pretty interesting. On the downside, though, another glitch has popped up. Twice now, the analog sticks would still be working but the game wouldn't accept any button inputs. The first time it happened, hitting a corresponding control on the keyboard made all the controls start working again. Second time, most of the lights went off on my controller and I had to unplug it and plug it back in. Actually, I really hope that's a glitch, and not the controller. That Sabertooth wasn't cheap.
  2. mikeszekely
    No. What's the point? I think enough people have returned it and left bad reviews that the message was sent. And when the refund is in my Steam Wallet, then what? Buy some other game I don't really want? Leave it languish and spend another $60 on the PS4 version, knowing full well that at some point I'd end up buying the Steam version again anyway? It'd be one thing if I couldn't play it, but I apparently can play it just fine. I just happen to have the crappier version.
  3. mikeszekely
    Well, if it helps, after some hemming and hawing I decided to give the game a go. I mean, if it really ran like garbage I could still get a refund, as long as I kept it under 2 hours. I played for 67 minutes, according to Steam. Some background: I'm running a Core i7-3770K, 16GB of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 970. Windows is running off of an SSD, but Steam and the installed Arkham Knight are running off of a 1TB WD Black mechanical drive that is used entirely for game installs. I'm playing with a wired controller (specifically a Razer Sabertooth), and my display is a 27" Samsung @ 1920x1080, 60hz. I have GeForce Experience installed. I started the game, then shut it down and let GeForce Experience optimize the settings, although I turned off pretty much all the GameWorks options back off upon restarting. I did NOT modify the ini file that locks the game at 30fps. I played enough to beat some guys up, use detective mode, grapple around, drive the Batmobile, and blow up some tanks. And you know what? The game was totally playable. I had some screen tearing (Vsync is off), but no detectible dips in framerate, even in the Batmobile (which is where most people seem to be complaining). Now, I'm not totally bug free. Every time I quit the game I get a Windows pop up that the program didn't close correctly. And the second time I started the game I had sound but the screen was black aside from a spinning cursor. I had to open Task Manager, kill the game, and restart it, and it loaded normally the second time. Also, even though the non-GameWorks options are technically set as high as they go, I think the game looks pretty ugly with lots of muddy textures. I'd have to go back and replay one to see, but my gut reaction is that Origins and City look better. I'm told that the PS4 version supposedly looks better than the PC version, and I can totally believe it. I guess another way of putting it is that, yeah, Arkham Knight is clearly a shoddy port, but it's a playable shoddy port. At least for me.
  4. mikeszekely
    FYI, Combiner Wars Devastator is up for preorder on Amazon. $149.99 and an August 1st release date (which is a Saturday, so the delivery date on my order is August 5th even though I have Prime). Yeah, yeah, the Takara version will be better, but for me at least not an estimated $100 or so more considering that I expect him to be in Devastator mode 99% of the time.
  5. mikeszekely
    This sir, is why I pay you the big bucks. Or would pay you the big bucks. If I paid you. Which I don't. 0 Raiser is done, and the 00 Gundam is mostly done. I just have to do the backpack/GN drives and the copious weapons. 00's been a pretty simple build, compared to a lot of the other RGs, but that's probably how you get a mobile suit with three swords, two beam sabers, a shield that splits into two weapons, and jet as long as the mobile suit is tall that the mobile suit wears like a frikkin' cape without cracking $30. It's not all sunshine and roses, though. I was messing with the cockpit hatch and broke one of the (kind of ridiculous) spike/fin thingies. I just clipped the other side so they're still the same length, though. You can hardly tell. One other side note... when Gundam 00 came out, even though I wasn't thrilled with the story and characters, I really dug Exia's design. On the flip side, I never cared for the 00 Raiser, as it just looked awkwardly top-heavy, especially with the 00 Gundam borrowing from Exia's more feminine form... well, that and the whole plane-cape thing. But with the 00 Gundam on my desk, sans backpack and plane-cape, it actually looks pretty darn good. I think the moral of the story is don't wear a plane like a cape.
  6. mikeszekely
    It'd be funnier if it wasn't my most-anticipated game of the year (at least until Transformers Devastation was announced) and the mess wasn't on my chosen platform. At the very least! IIRC, Ubisoft gave away their first major paid DLC campaign for Unity players who bought the game before a certain date, and Unity was arguably less broken.
  7. mikeszekely
    Well, apparently Arkham Knight is so busted that WB stopped selling it.
  8. mikeszekely
    Sounds like Combiner Wars Devastator is hitting shelves in Australia.
  9. mikeszekely
    To be fair, when you bought a game then you bought the whole game. $60 for a new release today doesn't get you the Season Pass for all the DLC that would have just been part of the game prior to the Xbox 360/PS3.
  10. mikeszekely
    Over $170 before shipping? Pass. The 08th MS team is my least-favorite OYW story. Is it just anime, or are Blu-rays in general kind of absurdly expensive in Japan?
  11. mikeszekely
    I liked the armed armor, too, but I like the rest of the Norn. Anyways, I'm working on the RG 00 Raiser, if you couldn't tell from my 0 Raiser pic. Now, with Exia, it was obvious that it needed to be displayed with the GN Sword. I think Exia used the GN Long & Short blades in maybe one episode. I'm not as sure what weapon to display the 00 Gundam with, though. I'm thinking the GN Sword II are more iconic for it than the GN Sword III, but the 00 on the box is using the III. What do you guys think?
  12. mikeszekely
    I almost never do it. In fact, I usually wait for big sales. There's a ton of great games out there I want to play, but very little I want to play at $60. Arkham Knight was one of them I love the Arkham series, and I was thinking this would be my last major gaming binge sort of game before my in-laws arrive and my daughter is born next month. I really don't play games on consoles anymore, and I own all the other Arkham games for PC. I decided to preorder on Steam for the pre-order bonuses. I guess my mind must have blanked out what a mess Arkham Origins was when it came out on PC. I haven't asked for a refund, at least not yet. Like I said, I have all the other Arkham games on PC, and I really don't play consoles anymore. I haven't tried to play it yet... for all I know, it'll run fine on my GTX 970. But I'm kind of nervous to. I might find something else to do for a few days and see if it gets patched.
  13. mikeszekely
    They're $15.29 at my local Target. If you want to be super technical, ($15.29 x 4) + $24.99 and 6% sales tax in Westmoreland County, PA, is $91.32. EDIT: Heck, you want to go with Hasbro Toy Shop's "official" pricing of $16.99 for a Deluxe? $67.96 for two, + $24.99 for the Voyager torso, $92.95. Toss in the sales tax and you've got $98.53, still under a Benjamin (the shipping is free over $50; if you want to pay more to expedite it that's on you, not the toys). I'm not denying that some stores won't mark them up (*cough Amazon cough TRU cough*), but it's definitely possible to get a CW combiner for under $100, and it's supposed to be. And whether you get one for $85 pre-tax or got ripped off at TRU and paid, I don't know, $120, my point's the same. A CW combiner is one retail Voyager and four retail Deluxes, with all the ups and downs that come with that. They're not Masterpieces, and they're not 3P (where one combiner limb costs around as much as a whole CW combiner). If you'd rather pay more for more quality and stick with the MPs and 3Ps, that's a perfectly reasonable choice as a collector. But ultimately a CW combiner is still four Deluxes and a Voyager, we've (mostly) all had experience with Hasbro's Deluxes and Voyagers, and it should be no surprise what you're getting into. Just because these particular four Deluxes and one Voyager are gimmicked to stick together doesn't mean the resulting gestalt is going to somehow morph into MP quality.
  14. mikeszekely
    Any of you guys ever order from Dork Side Toys? If so, how are they?
  15. mikeszekely
    Did you put your RG stickers on the HG Ver.G30th?
  16. mikeszekely
    Figured I'd give you guys a sneak peak at my next Gunpla project (straight build, don't get too excited)... I gotta say, I haven't even started on the actual mobile suit, and I'm impressed with the value of this kit. Really makes the Skygrasper (aka the only main line RG I don't have) kind of a ripoff. Even with the Sword Strike and Launcher Strike packs, the Skygrasper is smaller than the 0 Raiser, and it's not like the 00 Gundam doesn't come with a crap ton of weapons on it's own, but the RG 00 kit looks like it runs only about $7 more than the Skygrasper.
  17. mikeszekely
    Basically, yeah. One of these days I'm going to get an old broken NES, though, just to gut it and build a dedicated emulation PC out of it.
  18. mikeszekely
    Sweet! I really wish that I still had my original systems, but I can't really justify replacing them.
  19. mikeszekely
    Space gun... er, Bruticus' gun. Darn good question. Buzzsaw. The yellow square is supposed to be a data slug. Anyways... I finally completed the Protectobots, and I picked up Ultra Magnus while doing it. Rook is pretty cool. I mean, his alt mode is kind of meh, but as an original character the designers to liberties to stuck pegs and peg holes everywhere. This gives him a lot of options for how he carries not just his own, but other weapons. The peg holes on the front of his fists are a little odd, as is his claw weapon thingy (someone else suggested that Hot Spot's a firefighter, Blades is search and rescue, First Aid is a medic, Streetwise is a cop, and Rook is on litter clean up), but hey, he can do Hulk hands. That's pretty cool. Hot Spot's kind of a mixed bag. I mean, he's a good looking bot with great articulation that turns into a sort of fire truck thing, if you squint at it right. The problem is his ladder. Not matter what you're doing with him, it's in the way. I think he'll be more fun as Onslaught. Defensor's combined mode is pretty good, if you can keep Hot Spot's legs in place. Dunno if they're all like this, but mine kind of slouches forward. Hot Spot's guns peg together very loosely, though, and I wish like Superion or Ultra Prime's guns it had peg holes to stick more weapons on it. I also think it's weird that Hasbro's "official" combination has Rook as the left arm, and First Aid moving to Groove's spot. I mean, you'd think that Rook would just take over for Groove, and if you really wanted Rook to be an arm move Blades, because Blades/Alpha Bravo are the worst arms in the whole Combiner Wars line. Oh, and Legends Groove sucks as a chest piece as much as he sucks at everything. Here's hoping Hasbro brings over Takara's Deluxe Groove later, even if only as an online dealie. Oddly, I have Menasor in his traditional G1 arrangement, and I have Defensor in his traditional arrangement with Rook in Groove's place, but I insist on using Fireflight and Slingshot as Superion's legs and Air Raid and Skydive as arms. Go figure. Ultra Magnus is pretty sweet, and very faithful to his appearance in More Than Meets the Eye. His transformation makes sense without being overly simple, and he looks great in both modes. I only have a few minor complaints. For one, in alt mode his cab is like half the size of Combiner Wars Prime or Motormaster. Two, he really needs more paint. I mean, I don't mind the white thighs; even though the G1 toy and the MTMTE version have read thighs, white is what I'm used to. But he needs more blue on his crotch and hips, and arguably on his forearms. Three, I wish Minimus Ambus could be pegged onto the car carrier. Those minor gripes aside, he's really one of the best non-Masterpiece Transformers in quite awhile. They are cheap, sure... but no, just cheap all around. A complete combiner is around $85 (4 Deluxes at $15 a pop, one Voyager at $25, assuming no discounts). A little more than an MP Autobot car, a good bit less than MP Prime. That puts three of them at around $255, which means you can complete around six Hasbro combiners for around the cost of one 3rd-party combiner, or two MP Star Sabers. As I've said before, it's fair enough if you find the lower-quality of Combiner Wars specifically or CHUGs in general to be off-putting, especially if you're collecting the MP line. You definitely get what you pay for, and if you shell out for an MP or 3rd-party toy you're definitely going to end up with a toy that's a lot nicer than Hasbro's CHUGs, no doubt. But for $85, you get five reasonably-articulated robots that turn into reasonable vehicles and can combine into bigger reasonably-articulated robots larger than MP Prime or MP Soundwave. That might not be something you're interested, but it's really not that bad, considering.
  20. mikeszekely
    Well, kind of. Honestly, I don't know if Hasbro is making combiners to compliment the Combiner Wars story, or if IDW is shoveling out Combiner Wars because it's what Hasbro wants. If I had to guess, though, I suspect the latter. I've been a big fan of IDW's G1 comics, even through their lows (All Hail Megatron, anyone?), but Combiner Wars was just terrible. To summarize, For what it's worth, as bad as Combiner Wars was, More Than Meets the Eye has been excellent.
  21. mikeszekely
    'Grats!
  22. mikeszekely
    Hasbro's really milking the Combiner Wars molds for all they're worth, eh? I mean, we really didn't need a white repaint of Prime (still as Prime, no less), limbs for the first release would have been enough. And speaking of limbs, that's three releases for the Alpha Bravo mold, three for Breakdown's mold, four for Dead End's mold (not counting Wildrider), and four for Offroad's mold. Yeesh. Well... the Takara improvements to the Constructicons are irksome, but I could have sworn Hasbro said they designed them that way for stability in Devastator mode, so I dunno. I think I'll just buy the Hasbro version, because it'll be the cheapest, and it'll be in Devastator mode 90% of the time anyway. With regards to Bruticus... Yeah, I'm bummed that Blast Off is a Fireflight repaint instead of a new mold, but given how they're milking these molds I'm honestly happy enough that Brawl and Swindle look like new molds (meanwhile, Vortex and Onslaught are logical remolds, so no complaints there). And here's the thing... if I buy the Hasbro one, and eventually Hasbro brings over a better Takara Blast Off and Deluxe-class Groove as online specials like Slingshot and Wildrider, then Rook and Hasbro Blast Off can go with Offroad and Alpha Bravo to be limbs for Optimus. Because, coming to my next point... I'm really not interested in repaints that have little resemblance to their G1 characters that already have better Generations versions, just for the sake of repaints. Mirage, Smokescreen, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, and Wheeljack are definite passes for me. Hound depends on how the Swindle mold looks on him, Prowl and Ironhide are maybes because they're important characters who's previous CHUG molds I don't really care for. As for Sky Lynx, I could give or take him.
  23. mikeszekely
    Chief O'Brien at Work
  24. mikeszekely
    Combiner Wars Bruticus is coming. I mean, between Alpha Bravo being the spitting image of Vortex and Hot Spot having some weird bits that only made sense if they were going to retool him as Onslaught, we knew he was coming. But it's still nice to have some confirmation, since he's my second-favorite combiner after Devastator.
  25. mikeszekely
    To be fair, aside from Legends Groove I haven't seen any at retail. I'll have bought all four Deluxes from Amazon and Hot Spot from Hasbro Toy Shop. I don't know if it's Hasbro, or Walmart, or scalpers, or what. One thing I have noticed, though, is that life brings me around four different Walmarts on a semi-regular basis. One, in North Versailles, stocked Wave 2 of the Deluxes long before any of the others, but hasn't done much in the way of restocking since. Two of the others, Greensburg and Mt. Pleasant, eventually stocked not just Wave 2 of the Deluxes, but even some of the Legends, Wave 1 of the Voyagers, and both versions of Leader Megatron. All three of those Walmarts, weather they have inventory or not, maintain a 3' or 4' section for Transformers. Sadly, the Walmart that's actually closest, North Huntingdon, was either brutally hit by scalpers (which I doubt) or simply never restocked Generations after Wave 1 of Combiner Wars. Instead, they reduced their Transformers section down to seven pegs. Four of them are for RiD toys. The other three say "Generations" and look like they should be for Deluxes. Two of them have been empty for a long time. The remaining one has two or three AoE figures. It's funny, but like yourself I've been mostly into CHUGs. In fact, I really didn't collect toys at all, but the first wave of Classics and nostalgia for the Transformers of my childhood actually started my collecting. Unlike you, my collecting didn't naturally slow; whether it was Hasbro's shoddy distribution or retailers' poor inventory decisions, collecting was simply getting too frustrating. Starting with Reveal the Shield, I think... I found Jazz at a Kohl's, Laser Optimus at a small toy store, and Perceptor at a Ross or a Marshall's; I never saw any of those figures at a Walmart, Target, or Toys R Us. And it got worse from there. I think I was kind of lucky to find Chromia, because to this day I've never seen Windblade, Arcee, Jhiaxus, Brainstorm, Leader Jetfire, or Metroplex. On top of the frustration, quality was going down. Newer figures were either shrinking (scout-sized Deluxe IDW Megatron) or filled with great hollow spaces (FoC Grimlock). Between frustration and reduced quality, I actually decided to quit collecting Transformers. And it's actually the combiners that are getting me back into it. I mean, I like Devastator, Bruticus, and Predaking way more than any of the combiners released, and I think Defensor might be one of my least favorite combiners. But I really dig the new CW figures. I mean, they've got simple transformations but are reasonably articulated. The non-jets look have good alt modes (they just need more paint). And as chunky as the jets are with obvious robot junk hanging underneath, I kind of feel like they're not worse than the original Aerialbots in that respect. And I especially dig how Silverbolt becomes a torso. For all their flaws, they're something a lot of other Transformers haven't been for awhile- fun.
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