After watching some of this and seeing that Dan has won, I can only say that there is absolutely hope for anyone that plays this game to win.
Game of skill, sure, but it seems the matchmaking works rather well as their opponents often were as blind and unorganised. I find it incredibly odd that Dan has 70 hours played yet can barely aim, miss most loot and is totally oblivious to his surroundings, teamwork, gearing decisions and using the basic functions of the game. Looking at a video or just having any sort of critical thinking in regards to learning the game would sort this out, and to me at least, makes it a lot more fun to play - and watch.
I played this and liked it a lot. I used to play a bunch of Q3 but due to lack of broadband it was mostly on LAN, and the PS2 version in splitscreen with a friend. To me, this feels perfectly Quake-y. My main complaint is the respawn time and the time it takes to find matches, but I hope that improves.
The respawn time has to go though, I hate not being able to respawn instantly. It is a very fast game, they really nailed that, so any sort of stop in your momentum sucks.
For the person asking about gaming related injuries or pain, there is a lot you can do to improve the situation. My issues have always been there but got much worse after benchpressing and getting my wrist in sorta the wrong angle (pressure on the uh wristbone?).
Maybe a doctor will help, but going to an orthopedist years ago after this injury was not helpful for me. They just wanted me to take the appointment so they could explain to me that the pain I felt was without worry, and meaningless, as I didn't feel any while not weight lifting nor gaming. Trying to explain that I was looking for advice to continue doing these two things, was not taken seriously.
First of all, don't touch Diablo 3. If you feel pain, stop immediately. I can't play this on PC (okay on PS4) because it completely wrecks my right hand due to all the clicking. My most serious RSI period in life was when D3 released, and I had to limit my time playing to an hour or two per day at the most. It absolutely caused me damage that took a long while to heal even after I completely stopped playing. So stay away from click intensive games when feeling pain.
I find winter to be much worse then summer, which is common with any joint related stuff. So it can get better. You can also look to change your diet to more anti-inflammatory stuff. Eating much less meat might have helped me, but I am not entirely sure.
What absolutely has helped me and what is my savior is weight training and hand stretches, as well as grip training and decent ergonomics. Buy yourself a grip trainer and start using it. Get your grip strength up and you will have less fatigue in your hands. Make sure you are sitting somewhat correct with - and this is important for couch gaming too! - support for your elbows. Never have then dangling in mid air. You're perhaps comfortable now, but getting nearer to your 30s (I'm 29) you really start to feel shoulder pain.
For stretches, I recommend this video from the excellent Day9:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbf4mBKq-o
These can be done while warming up, or just daily when you feel some tension and maybe pain. It helped me rehabilitate after my injury so I could start lifting weights again, which is the final part of this little essay.
I absolutely recommend you start working out and strengthening your shoulders and arms, and for anyone with lower back pain a strong core will help you immensely (unless you have some condition that makes this dangerous for you). I recommend Stronglifts as it's easy and not so time consuming. If you have never worked out before take it slow and listen to your body. Even once a week - make sure you're doing shoulder presses in that case - helps a ton.
I am by no means in shape, but lifting has 100% removed my pain in my shoulders, lower back and shoulder blades. It has also strenghtened my hands/joins in my arms. If I stop working out for a week or two, it is back again without fail. Besides, it will keep you alive and such, but I am not joking when I say that my main motivation for dragging my ass to the gym is being pain free while gaming.
I still get some pain in my hands when playing for longer times, but stretches help and during the warmer part of the year I have absolutely zero issues as long as I work out.
Very fair review, the game is a technical mess. I highly doubt anyone is without the stuttering in tactical combat or the general hitches, but some people either do not see it or are not bothered unless they are used to smooth 60/120 FPS with proper vsync. That's not even mentioning the weird bugs - I experienced the strange bug Dan describes of simply not being able to move somewhere the UI clearly showed I could. Such things can't happen in this game as it can be the loss of a soldier, which on Ironman sucks.
It's a fantastic game and I enjoy it thouroughly, but it needs a lot of work. I'll still continue to play it for now, as I find it is too good to pass up.
Huge amount of framerate drops and slowdowns. Hopefully this is just due to a slightly worse PC (in combination with quite a bit turned up settings) or an unoptimized, unfinished version.
RIDEBIRD's comments