Ground Zeroes

Never has a videogame made me so disappointed or infuriated.

Most of my criticism is only relevant to those who've played earlier games in the series.

• This is mostly to do with Kiefer Sutherland taking over the role of Snake.
• There's a video of Kojima telling this shitty story about how some douche in Hollywood is like, hey I know Kiefer so Kojima was like, yeah lets use him instead.  Cut to Sutherland saying, 'I've never played any of the games & don't know shit about them but I'll do my best hahaha'.
• Hearing his voice come out of Snake's mouth is literally infuriating.  I COULDNT keep playing passed the first stage clear.  And even that I rushed through.
• He just reprises his role of Jack Bauer ~ including, apparently, influencing the character for the worst.
• He 'rescues' a hostage by strangling him & telling him telling him to 'accept it'. Bauer pulls that shit all the time.  Like what school of Black Ops teach that if you are strangling someone, that telling them to 'accept it' is going to make it easier? Compare this to the rescue of the same character in Peace Walker - where he is like, 'hey thanks for getting me out of here' now it seems like Sutherland was like, 'hey wouldn't it be neat if instead he is freaking the fuck out and I have to strangle him to show that Snake is calm and collected.  Big Boss is supposed to inspire loyalty.  Who the fuck would follow Sutherlands Big Boss into battle?  I wouldn't follow him into a Kroger.
• He hasn't taken any cues from the original material.
• He has no personality.
• Kojima's disloyalty to David Hayter is disappointing.

• No tutorials.  Last thing I want to do in the middle of a firefight is load some goddamn website (in lieu of a real pamphlet they want you use the browser...)
• CQC hasn't been improved, it might actually be a little worse.  Snake throws people down when you want to grab them, etc.  If there was a tutorial I could practice w/o it reflecting negatively on my mission score.
• No peaking!?  Under doors or around objects.
• Can't
• Pick up two primaries?
• Search bodies?
• Close doors behind me?
• Ease doors open?
• Change firing modes?

If you haven't played any previous titles...

• This (and other MGS titles) are probably the best stealth games ever.  Play this.  Play MGSV.

iBooks

Deletes my books all the time (w/o any changes to settings) that weren't iBooks 

Can't be rated (some of their apps used to be rated very poorly so I can only assume it's because they don't want people to know everyone hates it)

New look is shitty.  Still has artifice of old layout but without wood grain.

*this NitCrit might be a little outdated.

Delta

• Long lines, lacking overhead space, and frequent pleas for free back checks.  WTF did they think would happen w/ bag check fees?  Of course everyone is trying to bring as much with them in their carry ons, so no everyone is miserable.
• Stupid adverts on screen talk about the perks (like no bag check fees) of membership as if I don't remember when they were just standard.
• Longer flights no longer give you a meal.  Unless you wanna pay for a shitty sandwich.
• Paid/Free movies obnoxiously mixed together.
• Funny safety video.

Droppics

I already have an app for Mac called PheonixSlides which can randomly show me images from folders & subfolders, which is perfect for drawing practice.  Was looking to do the same thing with Droppics on mobile, but it can't handle subfolders -_-.

Planetside 2

NitCrit

• On PS4, my left thumb tip grazes the trackpad, which thinks I'm trying to swipe left/right.  Sometimes, even worse, it opens up the typing menu.  Have crashed ESF some 6 times because of frozen controls.  Hitting the 'back' button is oft unresponsive.  So I can see myself flying towards a mountain but have no control.  Furiously hitting the back button.  Then another dialogue box opens up instead.  Esplode.

Wishlist

• New Equipment
• Scout Binoculars for the Infiltrator.
• Auto-spot w/in a given area (e.g. circle at center of vision).
• Pre-locking targets for guided/lock weapons.
• New Vehicles
• A fighter-bomber, that drops powerful unguided munitions (napalm, clusterbombs, AV, etc.).  Uses a belly cam w/ reticule showing where ordinance will land.  Power of explosives offset by the fact that Bomber would be slightly slower than an ESF, but not more heavily armored.  Also, would require frequent resupply.
• Artillery - A long range artillery unit which must emplace to begin firing.  
• Player would manually target using a minimap ~ relying on spotting by friendlies.
• Would take into consideration travel time.
• Artillery would be only slightly better armored then a Lightening.
• Again, different types of munitions (see above).

Legacy of the Void

• Archon mode is just a more limited v. of Melee from BW.  Really the best case would be a custom mode that allows for players to be placed on teams (including combined forces) any way they please.
• Assuming that limiting parameters is part of pandering to official ranked competitive play.

Rainbow Six Siege Beta

• Can’t put suppressor on / take it off during the mission anymore.
• No map.
• Specialists are limiting; would rather just fully customize.
• Only one of them knows how to use a sledge hammer lol.
• Having multiple insertions is good (bringing back a good old feature).
• Spawning is stupid, like WTF are the police doing not cordoning off the area?  Baddies obviously spawning from previously cleared areas during the defusing process.  Early titles did it better ~ finite number of targets.
• Tagging is shitty.  It points at their feet and doesn’t turn off soon enough after you see them in a new position.
• Can’t tag them yourself?  You need a bot?  No fiber optic cable, so once your bot is gone you’re not very SWATy.  Like why the fuck have a breaching charge when you can’t figure out what’s behind the door anyway?
• Progression system already looks obnoxiously slow to encourage in-game purchase.
• No Campaign (co-op campaign was half the fun of Vegas & Vegas 2).
• No split screen (so R91 won’t buy it because V35 can’t play w/ him if he did).

Coworker was annoyed that she didn't know where she was in the queue.

...so I made her this helpful picture.

b32_10 Fathers of the Grooms

http://ift.tt/1MO8l3g

b32_09 Portrait for AP

http://ift.tt/1MO8l35

Excel

• Yay!  I can finally open two different windows at the same time.  (Made it much easier to fill in my timesheet w/ hours excel file open simultaneously.)
• The way updated cells (e.g. from a forumula) occur is nifty.

El Capitan

• They just now realized how useful it is to organize windows side by side on a page.
• They have not yet realized that I want a keyboard shortcut & not this dragging & holding shit.
• Also, since it's part of the universally obnoxious 'hide the bar that I use all the time' function I can't resize the windows after putting them on opposite sides.
• This is basically the most obvious arena in which using a PC is beating Mac (I use both.  One for work & one for home.)
• Couldn't tell if Photos is still fucked up.
• When iPhoto changed to Photos it lost the ability to edit events after the fact.  So then it was like, 'those pictures your mom sent you of a tree, and that party you were at, happened at the same time, so they are the same event'.
• There was a thing at the end of the starting tutorial saying, 'any questions?  type at the top of this window!' I did.  It took to me to a google search.  WTF if I wanted a google search I'll go there myself.
• Can't randomly view photos, sync them in any intelligent way to mobile (just their limited collections options).  Since all the photos are stuck in the database, I can't use third party apps like Pheonix Slids to view images randomly.  So I took all my photos out of Photos & just use Adobe Bridge for now...
• The new spinning beach ball makes me feel physically ill to look at.
• New Notes is underwhelming
• Can't even make subcategories in a checklist.
• Added mediocre functionality that has been present in other note apps for some 5 years now.
• Software/Driver Problems - edit* seem to be working now 11/9/15 (crossing my fingers)
• Scrivener can't open for shit anymore.
• Computer can't detect printer anymore (it's a printer/scanner combo ~ it still recognizes the scanner.
• Cintique no longer working.

Old man on the beach

b32_08 IMG_6258

It's getting to be that time of year where every other morning the view from my window is this pretty.

http://haywardmills.deviantart.com/art/b32-08-IMG-6258-565394075

R91 Comparisons

R91 PP Digital Matte Test

P80 Digital Camo 1

Valkyrie study

Practicing with marker drawing ~ also drawing vehicles.  Sketch warped & color not bringing out form well.

Since all my thoughts are with Planetside 2 I drew a Valkyrie.

Inclined

The Gregg vocabulary I was working on around this time was genuinely a coincidence.

Microfunding for Videogame Development

Instead of Microtransactions, I’d like to see a major game developer try Microfunding.

The mechanics would essentially be the same as in-game micro transactions except that instead of paying to unlock an item, you would pay to fund it for everyone.

I.e. a menu would display thumbnails of features devs would like to implement.  Clicking on a thumbnail would reveal more details, such as a description of the feature, the estimated cost of implementing it, and the progress toward funding it.  The player could then contribute financially, and if/when the feature is funded devs get to work on it.

A list of contributors game tags would be associated with the funded feature.

This could also be used for development of new feature concepts, balancing, operating servers etc.  Perhaps a game development company could use a similar feature to fund new games.

The Shade

http://haywardmills.deviantart.com/art/b31-64-Dubhlainn-531867534

IFTTT still going strong, driving me nuts.

Mark Hamill is Awesome

Saw him a couple days ago on The Flash.  'Tough crowd collar pull' brought me way back to Batman the Animated Series.

Very much looking forward to his performance in The Force Awakens.

I want samurai in FFXIV

Sketching from FFXIV screenshots for practice

Meowmeow