dunc2j

Was it not clarified that he was referring to the 4 key writing staff, himself included?

I know myself and others that have worked ridiculous long days / weeks at jobs due to being passionate about it, none of it was forced. If he is talking about 4 key (and likely very well paid) members of staff that seems similar to a band talking about spending "Entire Days" in the studio to record their new album. A passion for the craft.

We know there are issues at Rockstar and other companies in the gaming industry with regards to working conditions / hours and it for sure needs to be addressed. But to base a discussion on this out of context quote seems.....odd.

As many have stated building your workout into your weekly routine is a great way of staying motivated. Once its normality , you wont even think twice about going.

Dont worry about other people. Everyone starts somewhere, the "Adonis" people you refer to were not always like that and they most likely are way too involved in their workout to actually acknowledge anybody else, and if they do its very unlikely to be in a negative way. They very likely will remember where they started and possibly admire you for the hard work you are putting in.

If you are completely new to this I would suggest even just one session with a Personal Trainer at the gym. See if your local gym offer taster sessions or something of the like, this will help get you comfortable with the equipment. If you find it useful sign up with them for a month or two if its financially an option until you get completely comfortable in what you need to do to achieve your own goals. As someone who as always tried to keep in good shape I'm still considering some more PT sessions just to change things up and make sure i'm set for what I want to achieve, PT's know what they are talking about.

When you get a general level of fitness even look into other things outside the gym itself. Things like BJJ or any kind of combat sport are absolutely fantastic for all round fitness and you will be learning a new thing at the same time!.

Good luck with everything dude!

Watched it for the second time last night.

Enjoyed it the first time, loved it even more second time round. Also every person ive watched it with enjoyed it. (I wont go into it too much, people like movie bob in the video posted earlier have nailed how I feel about the movie already) but here goes

I do feel that the plot has its stupid moments and there is some bad scenes and poor dialogue. But the rest of the film makes up for that in my opinion. There is some fantastic moments.

I got the nostalgia fest with Force Awakens and Rogue one, and I would have been perfectly fine for more of that. But i really wanted them to go to some different places, especially with Luke. And they did that. And it worked for me.

If people dont like it that's fine, but some of the complaints.......people seem to be forgetting this is an adventure movie for all ages. For example I hated casino section of the film first time round but on second viewing something just clicked for me.

As an adult, and a star wars fan since being a kid it was cool to see a part of the star wars universe that had not been explored before. Who benefits from the empire? Yup the super rich who are into making and selling death machines. It was pretty simple and on the nose social commentary but it worked for me. Guess who probably gave no shits about all of that? Kids. But I bet they loved the kinda silly escape scene on the human face horse things. Also Rose's line before freeing the animal "Now its worth it" or something to that effect. To me as an adult, pretty cringe, but you have to put something obvious for kids in there so that they understand its OK that our heroes just tore through an entire building of seemingly innocent people.

IEveryone of all ages was excited and entertained leaving the theatre. That cant be a bad thing right?

@ezekiel: True I read a few! some pretty interesting. Like what you put down as well. I just was totally happy with a full on Star Wars nostalgia fest. Ill need to say where the next 2 go, the pieces are at least set for something interesting.

Ahhhhh it totally confuses me when you post the same threads / comments here as you do on the Escapist. I have no idea where I am.

On topic though.

Pretty much exactly what episode 7 was. Yup, I'm that guy. I absolutely was happy with the nostalgia trip. Seeing the same people, hearing the same sounds and music, Seeing a lightsaber again. And ultimately although a bit of a rehash of Ep4 the story worked fine for me.

I just didn't need any more than what it was. I do however expect now that they have firmly planted the Star Wars is good again seed that Ep 8 and 9 do a lot more with the universe and characters. The nostalgia trip only banked one film for me.

Hmm if you look at the timelines between the two games and also when "proper" dev time started on ME:A (what was it, they figured the game was cobbled together within 18 months?) I don't think its fair to say thy should have just used the solutions to the engine problems found within Inquisition.

The majority of the initial design of Andromeda seems to have been focusing on something far larger scale than Inquisition. The solutions that Inquisition team had may not have looked applicable at the time or until too late when they actually started to develop the game that it eventually became. Saying "just make Mass Effect: Inquisition" doesn't seem fair either, they dreamt maybe a little too big but at least they were striving for something new. Not moving from the same basic concepts is something Bioware had been criticised for at the time so they were being ambitious and rightfully so. Shame it didn't work out.

Been playing for 15 years....however had to give it up for a year due to a serious health issue which left me unable to even play at home let alone get on stage :(. However I'm getting back to it now and taking the chance to go back through basic stuff and tidy up my playing, this is also a bit of a necessity to get back to the level I was at. Truth be told I'm taking the chance to maybe brush up on some different styles, take a different route of learning and just re energise my love for the instalment in some new ways.

Im actually using a site called JamPlay at the moment. Some of the early stuff is not really of any use to me but it would be fantastic for a new player. The lessons are broken down into phases and are in the form of videos with tabs to accompany etc.

Phase 1- Beginner - Whole bunch of tutors that have there own style and approach to teaching you the basics. Vital stuff for a new player. Pick a tutor you like and stick with them.

Phase 2 - Genre lessons - They have something like 75 tutors. You can brush up on the skills needed to perform anything from metal to jazz, blues to funk. Also a whole lot of stuff on technique is found here. Its really really really good stuff.

Phase 3 - Learn songs - You will likely be doing this anyway but its a good source of video lessons on tracks you might like and want to learn. Will definitely help with your technique as you will apply what you learn to other songs.

Phase 4 - Songwriting / Theory - Probably the most valuable section next to the beginners guides. You will want to write music, I can guarantee you that. And this is a great place to get the basics and some of the more advanced stuff down.

There's some other great tools on the site such as games for beginners to learn the notes on the fretboard and some ear training exercises. Everything is laid out in phases giving you some structure to your learning, which is important in the early days when you will be wondering what's important to learn next.

It does carry a subscription of around £16 a month. But honestly for the amount of content here its worth it. I plan to use it for just a couple months to get myself back up to speed. You really should try it for a month and see how you get on, I would honestly recommend it indefinitely over something like Rocksmith which is fun and will encourage you to play every now and then but its a real easy way to pick up some nasty habits that will anchor your playing later on. Even the way in which the "notes" are displayed in a guitar hero fashion is a bit of a risky dependency to develop. Keep using it, keep it for fun but as mentioned above get some lessons. Now £16 might seem like a lot but keep in mind most tutors will cost waaay more than that just for individual lessons.

Ultimately don't make it a chore! I made that mistake later into my years of playing. Have fun!. Yes be as dedicated as you feel you need to and putting in the hard and long practice sessions will pay off but if you develop a love for the instrument then practice will become natural to you.

Good luck!

@fredchuckdave: How can you discredit team fortress 2 as an 'Overwatch clone'. That's a pretty crazy statement, you can't say a game is not good because a similar game came out 10 years later surely?

What a year for games though. I'd probably say the following.

Halo 3

MAss Effect

HL2 Ep2

Portal

Bioshock

That's 4 games I was incredibly excited for that year and for me 4 games that delivered. I'd hey they all still hold up significantly as well.

So your looking for metal with 'cleaner' vocals maybe ? Keep in mind not all metal is screaming. In fact despite listening to countless metal bands very few if any that I do have screaming vocals.

You could try with some of the obvious choices. I'd say these bands maintain the sense of energy your looking for but without the screaming.

Early Metallica (most people will reccomend Master Of Puppets)

Megadeth (Rust In Peace is a very instrument focused album. As is much of their first 5 albums really)

Rammstein (German vocals but

instrumentaly it's pretty similar to the Doom soundtrack)

Judas Priest (Painkiller album definitely)

Countless bands man. I very much steer away from screaming vocals yet metal is the most predominant kind of music I listen to and play on guitar. You should be able to find something to your liking, it's a very wide genre.

Gotta be honest.....I NEVER take milk with my cereal. Regardless of the kind of cereal that shits getting eaten dry.

Can't stand soggy cereal! Milk is fine on its own though.