Mirado

I just finished this on an i7 and a 980 Ti (driver version 382.53) without any issues. My suggestion to any Nvidia users would be to roll back your drivers and see if that does anything for you; I usually refrain from updating unless a game is totally broken on launch, possible minor FPS bump be damned.

I think I remember Jeff saying every review is looked at by others on staff, in particular to make sure that the score matches the text. Dan's review won't be invalid just because he gives it a high score, or if he values a game's strengths over its weaknesses. It's an opinion.

Now, would I rather have Jeff's or Brad's opinion? It might be nice to have someone other than Dan with the "official" review (seeing as he already did BotW), but I've got no doubt we'll hear plenty from everyone in the run up (and during) the GOTY discussions.

Don't lose your minds over it. GotY is the true battlefield and if Odyssey is overrated, it'll be ripped to shreds.

Hey there, RefugeeGAF. Make yourself at home. I find it interesting that I started posting less on GB and more on NeoGAF recently, but I guess It's back to the old homestead.

PC, yeah. The only mods I have are cosmetic/solider customization related, the rest is just stock. I seemed to have a higher than average incidence rate with the base game, so I'm not sure if it's specific to my setup or installation, but the nature of PC game issues can lead to cases like this where your experience has been fine and mine is rocky.

Hell, I even had the final mission bug out on my first playthrough of the base game. That was extremely frustrating, and put me off of it for a good while (whereas I never felt like the bugs in the first XCOM were that terrible, even including some of the worst ones like where soldiers could get stuck in place forever). I still haven't done an Ironman run because I'm worried I'll get two dozen hours into it and some fucking bullshit will ruin it all.

I finally had a chance to give this a whirl, and here are some of my quick impressions after a good 10-15 hours of gameplay:

1. The early game has a nice spike in difficulty (I'm playing on Commander), and the benefits of having the new unit classes feel appropriately balanced against the new threats. I feel like I'm forced to use almost all of my tools to successfully complete a mission, which is nice.
2. Adding in fatigue to the base game makes you keep a deeper pool of troops, which is nice. Losing someone now has more implications, especially with the bond mechanics.
3. All of the new VO is great, especially the propaganda broadcasts that re-contextualize your actions as acts of terrorism. It helps flesh the world out and makes you feel like you really are a resistance.
4. The game is still buggy as shit. I've had vision indicators not show up, units teleport across the map, random animation pauses and freezes, UI elements stacking or overlaying on each other, the works. It's nice that they added in a bunch of cool new features, but I'd prefer if they made something less broken next time.

Overall I'm having fun, but just like my first time with XCOM2, the bugs really sour the experience and keep a good game from being fantastic.

I'm also 100% on no body = no death. GoT follows this with very few exceptions.

For anyone that didn't enjoy the episode, would this soundtrack choice change your mind?

Two for two on the predictions, even got the wall timing right! Some good full circle arcs: Jamie bailing, Theon brawling, Jon (err, Aegon?) boning, Littlefinger bawling, etc, etc. Glad to see they are keeping the Cersei backstab angle going, although I think it's pretty obviously set up so that Jamie will be the one to put her down, unborn kid and all. I guess the only remaining question is who will come out on top: the dead or the living? It'd be very GRRM to have some sort of mutual destruction, but seeing as this is more or less its own thing now, D&B may opt for a more traditional LOTR style finish.

Good thing we won't have to wait very long to find out, assuming you measure time on a geologic scale.

Also, Grey Worm and Missandei get a minute long sex scene, but the one we've been building up to for a full season is like 15 seconds? Boo!

@theht: Haha, I know, I know, but they do love their season ending cliffhangers and what a better one to end on than that thing breaking apart?

Hey everybody, it's show day, and I'm just posting the same video again because dammit, it makes me happy:

It's the last episode for a year plus, and they've made it a doozy; 79 minutes and 43 seconds of Jon and Dany boning. Maybe other stuff, too. Who knows?

Well, my guess is the wall goes down near the end of this thing, melted through by a zombie dragon, and Littlefinger discovers that his "Fight every battle, every where all the time in your mind" speech was taken literally by Bran, who defeats cunning with time travel vision. It's either that or Sansa takes the North from Jon and puts Arya down in the process.

We'll know in one hour!