Lynx7725

Saint's Row 3 coming out soon. Anyone?

PS---interesting/relevant fact: Shadow Broker Liara is bustier than ME1 Liara. By quite a bit. (I'm talking about the actual in-game polygonal model)

Ah... mid-series upgrades? I mean, Shepard does get bigger guns too...

Just noticed she popped up on HLJ for pre-orders, with some pics.

http://www.hlj.com/product/kbysv-59

Went a bit too far in Forza 4 last night. Maxed out Volkswagon Affinity discount, then got into a Mazda 2 and maxed out Mazda Affinity discount too. Amazingly simple using F-class cars.

So went tinkering on the Mazda RX-8. It maxes out at R3 (from C!), but very tricky at R3.. Tested it out on the Speedway, it couldn't hold the curved track very consistently. Kept wobbling over the track, can't hold a line -- needs tuning but I don't know how to go about it. Dropped down to S class and it responds much better. The new Top Gear track set is nice as it has a few varieties of drag racing strips, which allow me to get to know tuning better. Now trying to get the gearing "fan" correct -- inconsistent results. I think I'm not getting enough traction on the takeoff, just too much power in those wheels, and not enough grip.

MY EYES! THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING!!! Also, why is it that on the stampede the only piece of green plastic that isn't clear is the one part where being see-through would serve a practical purpose?

Two I'd say. I prefer to have a see-through mag too. And the shield, if see-through, would become quite popular...

Come to think of it, I hate the idea of having a piece of useless plastic hanging around. think I'll go think of a use for my Stampede shield...

I think you get something like 1000 credits for each driver level you have, and I was at 48, so 48,000 credits just for having a Forza 3 save. I was a bit disappointed that I only got a few cars from my F3 garage; I had a ton. I mean, I had the Achievement for owning one car by every manufacturer, for crying out loud. As for beating the pants off supercars, my Evo handles pretty good. It might not stick to the road like a Koenigsegg or a Ferrari Enzo, but that WRC champion engineering is good for something.

I wasn't very high level so didn't get much.. truth be told, I'm more interested in tinkering with street cars than the super cars. At least there's hope I can actually do something like that IRL. (Yeah right...)

Yeah, the non-import of cars from F3 is a disappointment. Especially if you had gone to the effort to tune some of the cars -- you have to start again. The Evo X, I was working on it in F3, but the first thing that car taught me was the difference in handling between a RWD and a 4WD. Same reason I bought a Murchilego in F3: 4WD meant power I can deal with and use.

As for MW.. well, I'll believe it when it gets shrink-wrapped. Sorry man, that title had been in vaporware lock for so long...

Me. What with the rewards for playing Forza 3, I built up cash quickly enough to buy a couple of Mitsubishis. Since upgrades are basically free when your affinity with a manufacturer hits 4 or 5, I have Evos that are at the highest levels for B, A, and S. Which is kind of hilarious, beating the doors off Ferraris and Lamborghinis in an Evo VIII.

I didn't get that much of a bonus as I didn't play Forza 3 Career that much. Plenty running up and down the Kaido and Nurburgring, just not in the Career.

Yeah, I remember in Forza 3 I managed to work a Mazda RX-8 into the top end of S-class. Could have gone into low R1 IIRC, but decided to play at the top of S instead. It was hilarious to go past supercars in that, but it handles like a pig -- straight lines are good, anything else is optional. I need to work on that...

Just wondering -- anyone playing Forza 4? Just got the game. TBH, I'm really just fooling with C and B class street cars, and not interested at the high end supercars (yet). Working on a RX-8 to go up the Kaido at the moment, but will be working on Nurburgring too.

Oh btw, I think I forgot to link this:

Summary: Multiplayer. Co-Opt. Race and Class choice (Asari Biotic Adept anyone? Oh my, Krogan Vanguard Berzerker...)

Shrug. Looks the same face. Only consolation there I guess is that the Phalanx made it into ME3...

I wrote this for my FB, but may as well post here too.

I never met the man. Only seen what turns out to be his last live presentation via webcast. He came across as a salesman, though a sincere one.

What I remember most about him is this image, taken after that presentation. He is only human, just like the rest of us.

I think he never forgot that, and his fight with cancer always reminded him of his human mortality. I think he never forgot, despite the business empire he runs, despite the cold technologies that he plays with, that at the end of the day there is a human using what he came up with. And that this human, is the most important thing of all.

Steve Jobs. Only Human. Perhaps the best epitaph that can be given to anyone.

Ok, so I was whanging against the Mac Lion today. Got a USB modem sorted out, so was going to use it to give connectivity, but...

USB modem requires Java JRE to install, which in turn requires internet connectivity, which in turn was what the USB modem is for, which in turn...

Yeah. That.

Not the end. So I "borrowed" a hotspot, and got the download to come down (65+ mb for JDK 1.6... over a wonky 3G network). So now the USB modem works, generally ok, but the firmware was for OS X 10.6. Lion's 10.7, and my local ISP has a firmware upgrade. So I happily went over (after installing Flash player!) and downloaded it...

... Only to find that in order to update your USB modem with the firmware, you need to use a PC with Windows, download drivers from the ISP site, install the USB modem on a Windows platform, flash the USB modem, and then reconnect the USB modem on the Mac.

... W.T.F?

It's a grindy start. But we're getting somewhere.

Well, just a quick update. I got my Mac Mini Server. It's... strange. Odd. Not quite what I expect.

Still getting it to be operational. I wasn't quite as well prepared as I hoped for it. :/

Actually, I didn't notice the grip at all. the Praxis was comfortable to hold around. I did have problems with the older Recon line, sometimes the grip just got in the way.

And yeah, given the target market? The grip was probably made for 7 year olds.

Ok, one more interesting points:

Praxis have a mag-well safety that prevents cocking, and a chamber safety that probably prevents trigger pull on an empty chamber. The mag well safety can be disabled simply by using a rod, so it's a no-brainer mod. I'm not so sure about the chamber safety, might not want to mess with that, but tweaking it might give us the slamfire capability.

EDIT: That mag well safety might also explain why the stupid mag falls out so easily. The safety has a spring under the pressure plate, which pushes down on the magazine. Improper seating means the mag is under stress to unseat, and every time you cock the weapon you are potentially forcing the mag out. So always tap in the mag firmly -- the way it's rigged, looks to be a standard feature on all Vortex guns.

Picked up a Vortex Praxis. Some impressions:

No longer a plunger gun. It's now feels to be a spring gun.

Also, Praxis is NOT slamfire. Single shot, cock and shoot.

Ammo is 2-part, small (just slightly more than 1.5" in diameter), and rather impressive in range... but not in accuracy. Very susceptible to wind, even indoor -- a trial shot at around 20+ ft had a 1' drop in height (respectable) and a 1' lateral drift. Good range, lousy precision. No slamfire means not much suppressive use.

Gun itself is choked full of safety features. Hard to AD one. But also means behaviour is very restrictive. Speculation: might not be too hard to mod to slamfire capabilities.

Mag design is mixed. Size is acceptable, 10 round mag is longer than 6-rd clip but still handy. 20 round mag may be a bit of a handful. Given the size, >20 rd clip may be possible, even (slight) banana clip.

But flip side -- mag well is not reliable. Mag feeds ok but mag well has a tendency to release mag for slight twitch of the mag release (or even just general use). Key problem is that you need to seat the mag very firmly, and it's deceptive -- there's a slight catch at first, but you have to firmly address the mag and push in deeper. Failure to address means dropped mag eventually, and given that the lever mag release is near the trigger, it's easy to hit it and drop the mag.

Mag itself have a spring assist to pop it out, so gravity pull can drag the mag clear. The well is also cluttered with structurals, so sometimes loading the mag will result in not going fully in. It's a bit frustrating overall.

Interesting note: You have to insert mag with loaded round -- must be loaded with at least one round -- before you can cycle the action. But you can cock back the action, dump the mag out, and then feed one round into the chamber manually. Which means you can have 10+1 in the pipe, easier to do than with the older clip system.

One interesting aspect is that I'm not sure how to ease spring on an empty chamber. You cannot pull the trigger on an empty chamber, even if you somehow cocked the weapon without a round. Now that I think about it, maybe the trick is to use the round extractor system, but that might not be correct either.

FWIW, HLJ has Lightning up for pre-orders. She does look good.

Actually the stuff needed for FPV RC aircraft has been around for a couple of years. It's still not that affordable because it's a niche area within a niche area, and that safety really, really prompts you to tandam fly -- it's easy to become disoriented while viewing the image and trying to fly, there's a disconnect. I've personally tied a wireless security cam to a small non-RC wheeled chassis and it's honestly a bit weird.

The technical constraints also come into play; there are technical regulations on the power of transceivers that can be used within the RC vehicle. For me, I'm not interested in RC flying, so I was able to take advantage of cheap, off-the-shelf sec cams and DVRs. Now, to find a cheap pair of video googles...

EDIT: Finished watching the video. Yeoch. That's an expensive setup. Cool, but expensive. You do see some of the technical contraints, as there are periods where the video feed cuts out. That happens quite often actually, especially if you are in a built-up area, or RC'ing something that can get out of effective wireless range quickly... like a jet fighter.

Kotobukiya is apparently working on some ME products

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150278161656645.331731.85811091644

Hope the link works.

As a bushoujo imaging, it works. But doesn't quite come across as Liara.. the commentary is quite interesting in the number of people screaming for less boobage.

Yeah, the EMSIA Zaku II is a very nice kit. I have three, and got the Zeon weapons that was a separate product. So my Zaku II leader is armed with a pair of shotguns...

Finished recruiting Jack on the Insanity Run. It was easier than Grunt, but still took 2 hours. The hard part was the middle when the YMIR showed up. Took a number of tries before I figured out running away was the right way.

You get channeled into a trench, YMIR can approach it without taking fire; once it's in the trench with you it's just too late to kill it. So, the correct approach is the run back down the trench to open the engagement range, and pick the YMIR apart -- at least for an Infiltrator. The blasted Vanguard is probably happy that the YMIR is close at hand for destruction!

Mission is also easier because you don't have to kill everything at the Boss Fight to win, like in Grunt. Just kill the shield, assassinate the Boss, and that's it.

I'm finding that at Insanity, it's better to focus on high end builds that stress survivability rather than damage. This is totally different from lower difficulty, where you can afford to build glass cannons. Grunt has double my HP, and his durability shows. Still kicks the bucket regularly, but much less so than the other "sleepers".

If Jedore dies, the krogans don't come out of the tubes, right? I remember I had miranda shock her and I charged her and unloaded some shot gun shots into her, backed off, unloaded my rifle into her till the charge was ready and hit her again. She went down pretty quick so we only had the mech and the 1 korgan left but man... one luck shot from the mech and it was all over.

Yes, killing Jedore fast will limit the Krogan releases; that's usually the approach I went with in lower difficulties when the Widow could one-shot her (even in the early, no upgrades state). In Insanity though, that just knock her down to armour (IIRC), so that's just not viable.

Thankfully (and probably by design), she doesn't just release all the Krogan at one go. That'd be bad.

As for the Mech, I actually unloaded some 10 rockets at it from behind cover. You believe that only took the shields down to half? Sheesh.

On an unrelated note, this mission is where I found out that Zaeed apparently could use his Concussive Shot... through a solid wall. M'eh?

I HATED the end to the recruit grunt mission when I did my insanity run with a vanguard. I finally settled on bum rushing at the beginning of the battle, taking out the boss and then turning on the mech next while garrus and miranda got worked over by the krogans. Pretty damn brutal.

It was kind of ugly, yes. I ended up in cover next to the door, and because the way the game paths the Krogan, they'll always take the ramp there. That allowed me room to snipe, cover from Jedore's rockets, and a nice place for my team (Jacob and Zaeed) to polish off the leftover Krogans who made it up the ramp.

Thankfully, the YMIR glitch meant it never got into the fight, which meant we could take all the Krogans (4 or 5?) out that way. Jedore did manage to eventually plant a rocket that killed both Jacob and Zaeed at the same time, but by then she's out of Krogans and I was able to pistol/ Incinerate her to death from across the room.

Insanity level is just nuts.

Went recruiting Grunt. Spend 3 hours on that mission. Urgh. The front wasn't too bad, Widow sniping made it trival. The middle part -- I must have done some twelve or thirteen or more tries.

Problem was that the checkpoint was off, so when you died you went back quite a bit. And that was the long exposed bridge section with endless Krogan spawning until you got past. And even then, you still have the two initial Krogans to kill. So I died -- a LOT.

Then you start on the long climb up, which is mostly Blue Suns. Not difficult, just consumes the ammo quickly. Ammo drop is a bit random so I ended up going into the Boss fight wtih 3 rounds for the Widow...

Died 4 or 5 times before I figured out how to run that fight, and even then I still had a bit of random luck when the YMIR got hung up on terrain.

Even as painful as this is, I think it's still worth it. I've gotten up to 3/5 Sniper damage from this, and because of that, both AP and Headshot damage mods are now available. And I got Grunt, with his boomstick and massive health. Should make things a bit easier in later missions.

Always be something to hate.

Doing my Insanity run with my Paragon Sniper... 3rd run with her, she should pick up a vet medal for that. Much much harder -- Krogan are actually quite fearsome now. Armour, regeneration.. if you don't hit them right with the correct combo, they are going to make a mess. Need to get my own Krogan quickly.

Without/ minimal upgrades, the Widow isn't even enough to take down a Blue Suns mook. Sheesh. Can't even use the lighter rifles now, not enough take down power.