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mikeszekely

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Everything posted by mikeszekely

  1. mikeszekely
    Well, we don't know that. The MP cars so far haven't been any of the chibi cars yet. Bee's the first, and for all we know he could turn out super deformed, and an SD Porsche 924 wouldn't be far behind. Practically, though, I don't know what they'll do for Cliffjumper if Bee has a realistic alt mode. A realistic 924 would just be weird.
  2. mikeszekely
    Well, like you said, that price doesn't include an OS, plus it's got half the RAM, half the hard drive, and looks about 30% thicker. That doesn't make it an invalid choice, just pointing out that the MSI isn't a bad price for what it has. Me personally, I went with a thinner lappy because it was a pain lugging my Asus RoG series to China and back. And I haven't gone back to China since I bought. In hindsight, I actually have traveled so infrequently that I should have either spent more on the GPU and less on "thin", or simply not bought it at all since I do 99.99% of my PC gaming on my much more powerful desktop.
  3. mikeszekely
    Nvidia's marketing is a little... off. Right now, their cards are numbered XY0 (or XY5), where X is the GPU generation (currently 7) and Y indicates it's performance level. Typically, on desktops, X80 is their expensive flagship performance model, X60 is their mid-range sweet spot, and X50 is budget gaming performance. (Recently X70 has entered the mix, but I'm not really sure why... you can save $150-$200 without giving up too much power by going with an X60, or you can just spend an extra hundred and go all out on an X80, but I digress). In a fit of marketing or whatever, though, the mobile versions perform more like the next number down on a desktop. So a GTX 760M handles more like a GTX 750 desktop card. And I think it's an important distinction, because a desktop GTX 760M will play most games at 1080p and 60fps, but a 760M probably won't. Reviews I've read where the reviewer is actually using the computer and not simply running benchmarks suggest a 765M will play most games at 1080p on High (but not Ultra) around 40fps. For what it's worth, I have a very similar laptop. Same case, minus the backlit keyboard. It's thinner and lighter than my previous Asus RoG series, but it's kind of average sized compared to most laptops. While David makes a point that you can get more computer for your money, they tend to be the big tank gaming-style ones. Honestly, I don't think that's a bad price for a "thin" gaming laptop. I paid $1200 for mine, and mine has an older i7, no backlit keyboard, no blu-ray, and a GTX 660M.
  4. mikeszekely
    I've had the whole party wiped out exactly twice. Contrast that to the fact that I've killed bosses in the first round at least twice, and almost always within three. And that's Normal. And like I said, there's an even easier mode. So yes, you can make the game hard, but the game doesn't have to be hard. Nonsense stories? I think that JRPGs are full of tropes and cliches like, the the god/spirit powered by sadness/evil, or the evil empire, sure. The original Final Fantasy's time travel was actually pretty clever, and at the time I thought Final Fantasy IV's trip to the moon was actually pretty fresh. But, tropes aside, those games made sense. When I say nonsense stories, I mean crap like Final Fantasy VII where 15+ years later I have to read a wiki to get any basic understanding of what the flip just happened. As for the Shymalan plot twists, I mean real twists, and just as crazy. Spoilers for everyone who's waited for the re-release to finish the game!
  5. mikeszekely
    To be frank, then, you're going to indulge your RPG craving on a much worse game. But to each his own. Again, I'm not sure what to tell you about the demo, because I never played it, but Bravely Default (on Normal) stopped being hard after I got my first four jobs, and the hardest fight was the first real boss fight with the monk and the white wizard. If you were really worried about it, the game does have an Easy difficulty. The main cast have their personality, the art is gorgeous, and the game feels most like the DS Final Fantasy III remake (there's even an item you can buy called "Onion Shirt"). The battle system is traditional enough that anyone who's played a JRPG in the NES/SNES/PSX era will instantly familiar with it, but has enough options to allow for strategy on major battles or, on the other end, super fast auto-battling for grinding grunts. In short, Bravely Default is the best "Final Fantasy" since FFVI. As for FFX... Not sure I'd agree with that. The best I can say is that FFX is the last numbered FF game I found to be passably playable, but in my mind it was never better than mediocre. Yeah, the end has some M. Night Shymalan crap going on, but that didn't make the story any less nonsense. I've heard good things about it, but I think I'll wait for the inevitable "PlayStation the Best" version, if at all. I haven't imported a game since Gundam Assault Survive on the PSP. When I was in college, I'd have seen playing an import as Japanese practice; now I'm just too old/lazy. I didn't even bother with Macross 30 (despite being a huge fan of the Macross something Frontier games). It doesn't help that it's a Vita game, either. I only own three games for my Vita; WipeOut 2048 (my launch game), Persona 4 Golden (the Vita's sole "must buy"), and Dynasty Warriors Next (came back from Beijing in the mood for a Dynasty Warriors game, go figure). I haven't bought or played anything on it in almost two years, and I'd probably have sold it if it weren't for Persona 4.
  6. mikeszekely
    Yeah. But not until 2015. Considering how bad some of those games are, and how mediocre the others are, all I'll say is that I'd prefer a remake of Gundam Battle games. Or a new Gundam Battle game. On seriously any platform.
  7. mikeszekely
    Clonezilla. It's not the prettiest software, but it's free, and pretty simple to use. Download the software, burn it onto a CD, then set your computer to boot from the the CD with both hard drives connected. Then simply direct the software to clone the old drive onto the new one, and it'll do a bit-for-bit copy. Budget? Best performance for what? How light? I mean, gaming performance usually means sacrificing on weight, as many "lightweight" gaming laptops are heavier than some of the generic cheapies. You have a couple of options, although they mostly require the use of temporary use of another computer. OK, the obvious solution would be to use another computer to download the drivers. For all their faults, HP actually makes finding drivers pretty easy from their support site. Once you've got the drivers (or at least the network driver), you can copy it to a USB stick, then load it on the laptop. Similarly, you didn't say how dead the laptop's old hard drive is. Can you still boot with it at all? A lot of the HPs I repaired with faulty hard drives would still boot, but they'd suffer from freezes, crashes, and bluescreens. If you're in that camp, it might be possible to run the old drive just long enough to get the drivers to install on the new drive. Thirdly, you can boot the computer from a Linux CD. This might be an option if you don't have access to another computer, but have internet access through a smartphone or tablet, because some of the bigger Linux distros will mail you a disc. Alternatively, if you've got a Barnes & Noble in your area, you can look in the computer magazine section for a Linux magazine, since a lot of them (at least used to) come with a Linux distro on CD. Many Linux distros can be run directly from the CD, and most have working drivers cooked right in. It'd be enough to get you up and running on the internet so that you could download the missing Windows drivers.
  8. mikeszekely
    I never played the demo.That said, the game is harder in the beginning. Once you get a handle on the brave/default system, get a few jobs, and get a few special attacks, things start to get easier. For me, the hardest battle was vs the white wizard. Meanwhile, figuring that the boss of the water temple would be water related, I loaded my specials with Lightning, power +40%, and anti-aquatic parts. I knew what I needed for each member to charge their special, went in with each character ready to use their special, and wiped out the boss on the first turn. On that note, i think it helps that I tend to play in smaller spurts while leaving my 3DS in sleep mode most of the time I'm not playing. I'm just at chapter 3, but my village is almost 100% rebuilt.
  9. mikeszekely
    If you're not planning on overclocking, the stock Intel coolers are perfectly adequate. After-market may be better, but for stock performance still an unecessary expense. I've never used anything but the stock coolers, and every PC I've built (most of them for gaming) is still around and kicking.
  10. mikeszekely
    Here's the thing, right... your crew will sing shanties while you sail. But what's more, as you visit places like Havana, Kingston, and Nassau, you can find and collect more shanties. Yeah, I have a pretty big back log myself. I have this tendency to see games go on sale for under $5 on Steam and think, "Oh yeah, I might like that." I've got XCOM, Hitman: Absolution, L.A. Noir, Alan Wake, DmC, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and both Witchers, and I haven't touched any of them. I'll say this about Assassin's Creed, though. It handles differently than most other action-y games, and it takes a little getting used to. Once you do, though, combat is pretty easy. So yeah, the game encourages you to plan carefully, get into the right spot, and take a guy out without being spotted, but the punishment for failure is usually just a little less money or a guy runs away and you can try again later. Sometimes, it's not even that bad... you just counter-kill a mob until you can walk away. That's not to say that there aren't some frustrating bits (usually "follow so-and-so without being seen, but close enough that you can hear what they're saying" missions), but on the whole I found it to be much better than Dishonored (which I didn't like).
  11. mikeszekely
    I guess my beef is just that even the best 3D games don't really have the same open feeling that the top-down ones do. Wind Waker does come the closest, though. Out of curiosity, have you played Assassin's Creed 4? I certainly enjoyed the sailing in that...
  12. mikeszekely
    Great start! I'm sure others will have their opinions, but if you're looking for any more must-play 3DS games, I'd highly recommend Shin Megami Tensei IV, Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Pokemon X/Y, Super Mario 3D Land, and Mario & Luigi Dream Team. For starters. I'm kind of the same way. I mean, when I get into a PC or console game, I usually play that more hardcore. Just as an example, I started playing Assassin's Creed 2 on Friday (I'd never played it before because I didn't like the first one, but I bought Black Flag just to have something to play on the PS4, and I loved it so much I went and bought all the old ones, ok?). Between Friday night and now, I've put around 12 hours into it... which is about the same as the amount of time I put into Bravely Default, despite having started it a week earlier. On the other hand, if I'm not into a console/PC game, then I might go awhile without playing games on those platforms. But, I've been playing games in shorter spurts on my 3DS non-stop for almost a year. It had kind of a shaky start, but I bought more games for it than any other console (PC still wins because of Steam sales), and this year will probably be more of the same. Wind Waker is probably my favorite of the 3D Zeldas, sure. But best in the series? I wouldn't even put it in the top 5. I've given up on Final Fantasy. Police cars getting trashed by monsters while a skinny fellow attempts to swing a comically oversized sword... probably with a needlessly complicated battle system and totally incomprehensible plot. I'm just going to stick to Bravely default and pretend that Final Fantasy stopped after IX.
  13. mikeszekely
    i thought it belonged here. That's why I brought it up.Bummer to hear that it's not High Moon, by the way. But it's pretty awesome to hear that the 3DS version will be a strategy RPG.
  14. mikeszekely
    Hey, don't forget toys aren't the only announcement! New video game Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark was announced for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, and 3DS. No idea idea what if any differences besides graphics there will be between platforms, nor do I know who's developing it (fingers crossed for High Moon). What's interesting, though, is that the trailer shows both Age of Extinction and Fall of Cybertron characters, including both Optimus Primes, and ends with the words Two Worlds.
  15. mikeszekely
    I'm down with the new Roadbuster and Sky-bite. Jetfire is a big ol' meh for me, though. The jet mode fixes the obvious arms, but introduces its own problems with the underside fake cockpit, and the bot mode looks like it's going to be wearing a kibble backpack. Al so he can have an F-14 alt mode that is faithful neither to the cartoon or a the VF-1 that was his toy. I think they'd have been a lot better off if they'd just kept the animation aesthetic for both modes.
  16. mikeszekely
    Saw it this afternoon. I don't think it's on the level that the first one is. It's not as subtle. The original is, on the surface, about a guy who becomes a cyborg who struggles to find his humanity, and the social commentary is an undercurrent of satire. The remake's social commentary is much more overt. However, the remake was actually quite good. Although I feel that the original's themes are as true today as they were in the '80s, I feel like they took the opportunity to examine other, new issues that maybe people hadn't thought of in 1987, but are or could be issues in the very near future. By doing so, I think they were able to present a movie that's fresh on its own without being slavish to nor a total departure from the original.
  17. mikeszekely
    No single player campaign. That's everything I need to know about Titanfall right there. Splitscreen with a few buddies actually in my living room is fun, but I abhor online multiplayer. Titanfall has zero interest for me.
  18. mikeszekely
    As a character design... I guess it's not too bad. As a toy... please tell me that's a Legends-class... EDIT: Nope, found out that Hasbro actually thinks that piece of junk is worth $80. I also saw Hasbro's new line of "One Step Changers". Push a button on the vehicle, and bam, robot. As you might imagine, they all look like crap. But the worst thing I saw today was Drift's box art. He's a samurai robot... with a goatee.
  19. mikeszekely
    Netflix is big on having exclusive/original content. They don't see their service as competition for cable or dish, but for premium channels like HBO. At least Netflix doesn't require a cable/dish sub, too, like HBO does.Anyway, Netflix is constantly offering free trials. Sign up after Clone Wars becomes available, watch the 13 episodes (depending on the trial, that's only an episode or two a day), then cancel.
  20. mikeszekely
    Can't really tell from your photo... what's in the collector's edition? I just waltzed into my local Target on release day, saw that they had the regular edition in stock, and bought it. I haven't put a ton of time into it, maybe 7 or 8 hours so far. It's a little bit tough at first, until you get a full party, a few levels, and a couple of jobs. I'm around 17 now, and I get through most non-boss fights with a monk, knight, white mage, and black mage, by using setting it up so that the monk and the knight brave and get four attacks in the first turn, then setting it to auto battle. That's enough to win most of the encounters where I'm at in the first turn, so the game practically plays itself.
  21. mikeszekely
    See, I've played FF1, FF4, FF5, and FF6, and FF7 multiple times through to completion. I've played FF3 to completion once, and have started it several other times but always got sidetracked and never finished those subsequent times. I've played FF8, FF9, and FFX to completion once each, and I've never even tried to replay any of them (although I'd consider replaying FF9). I've played but couldn't get into FF2 and FFX-2, so I never finished. I played and actively disliked FF12 and 13 and quit in disgust on both of those. So, they haven't made a FF that wasn't a remake that I've liked enough to even consider playing multiple times in 12 years, and one I even liked enough to finish in over a decade.
  22. mikeszekely
    I'm pretty sure I have no interest in any new Final Fantasy games that aren't called Bravely Default.
  23. mikeszekely
    I don't know, it looks kind of fake to me. Toon-accurate bot mode that transforms into neither the toon jet nor a VF-1, but an F-14-ish jet painted like the toy? Unless it's fake jet parts on robot mode, the cockpit and nosecone don't match in form or paint. It's also kind of weird that this is supposed to be Leader class in a line that, since 2006, hasn't had a Leader class, or that Hasbro would decide to use Jetfire for the first CHUG Leader instead of more marketable characters like Optimus or Megatron.
  24. mikeszekely
    I like the big Predaking. I managed to snag Generations Armada Starscream and Scoop today. They had the minicon dude, but I have no interest, and Skywarp, who I passed on. Too bad, Hasbro. I passed on Thundercracker, too, all because I NEVER saw FoC Starscream (and Kickback). Speaking of never saw, I'm a little worried because none of my local stores have had Skids, Goldbug (fire), or Waspinator. I can live without Goldbug and Waspinator, but I'll be pretty pissed if I missed my chance at Skids because Hasbro's distribution sucks. Anyway... Scoop is pretty cool. The toy does a good job of capturing the aesthetic of the G1 toy in both modes, but gives way more articulation to the bot mode. Head, shoulders, and hips are all on ball joints, and only his head is really limited. Biceps rotate, waist swivels, and knees bend. He's also not very kibbley, either. His tires are on his shoulders and legs, the cab of his alt mode is on his back, and his shovel actually folds up and over the cab in bot mode. That gives him a backpack, but really I've seen much worse. Really, my complaints about Scoop are pretty minimal. I wish his shovel were yellow like the G1 toy... that doesn't even seem to be a paint issue, because I assume it could have been molded in the same yellow as his other yellow parts. Like oh so many recent figures, he's got some hollow spaces on the backs of his lower legs where they fold over his thighs in alt mode and on the insides of his forearms where his fists fold in. And his Targetmaster guns are just stupid. In robot mode, they can rotate their arms, and that's it. in fact, the handle is fixed between their legs. They become guns by rotating the handles around, flipping the barrels up over their heads, and folding their arms onto their backs. The result looks less like a gun and more like a guy wearing a stupid hat contorting his arms behind him as he squeezes an outboard boat motor between his legs. They're supposed to have a combined mode, which is one gun unfolding his arms and letting the other gun lay on him, face to arse. There bottom gun's arms just hang freely, and they don't peg together well. As for Starscream, I love him. Aside from a waist swivel, he's got all the same joints as Scoop (although instead of ball joints, his shoulders have separate joints for rotating and swiveling in/out). Even his wings are on ball joints. Some changes from the original toy, aside from the size, are that his engine-guns don't flip over, but they do still fire missiles. Also, his wing doesn't detach and then unfold into a sword. Instead, he's got a pair of swords that fold up and neatly clip onto the bottom of his wings. Oh, and he can totally do gerwalk. In fact, the overall look is much more dynamic than the brick that was the original. Again, minor complaints. Like most Hasbro deluxes, he's got the hollow plastic on the arms and the backs of his legs, and like Scoop you could argue that it's to accommodate his transformation. The inside of his thighs also have some hollow spaces, though, and that's just not called for. Also, I feel like Hasbro skimped on the paint. The original toy had more silver around his ankles, gray/silver/white on the backs of the engine-guns, and black around his chest and shoulder intakes. Lastly, like Jetfire or Thunderwing, and Cyclonus, his arms just sort of peg onto his sides in jet mode. Although, I think that's actually an improvement from the way they hung off of the original.
  25. mikeszekely
    I was at Walmart, and I saw that they marked down Ultimate Beast Hunters Optimus Prime to $25. What the heck, I figured. Well... Bot mode doesn't look too bad. He's not really any more detailed that the Voyager one, though, and his legs deem disproportionately large for his torso. Articulation is ok, with lots of ratcheting joints, but again not really an improvement from the Voyager version. He's got a huge backpack that he lacked in the cartoon, and he doesn't have the cartoon/Voyager toy's wings. On the plus side, he's huge, dwarfing MP-10 and RotF Leader Prime. He really falls apart in truck mode, though. From the chest up, he transforms almost identically to the Voyager one. The front end of the truck doesn't fold up into his back, though; it splits and folds into his legs (which might be part of the reason why his legs are so big. It also means that the fenders don't actually touch the cab, and the whole thing is weirdly tall. Another big strike is that, without the folded up wings on the sides, it does an even worse job concealing that the bulk of the truck is robot arms resting on robot legs. All in all... if you like huge Optimus Primes and were planning to keep him in bot mode, $25 isn't expensive. On the other hand, the Voyager version is better in pretty much every way, and I'd have a hard time saying the Ultimate version is worth even $25.
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