Unprofessional Fridays: 01/06/2017

<3

NieR looks dope.

I come home from Rogue One with tacos and UPF is there... and people are talking about Nier... hell yeah! Thanks GB!

Dan was the perfect replacement for Vinny as they both offer a similar silly vibe. Now they're both at GBE, that side will be crazy, but GBW has no one to push them to do stupid shit... everyone at west is just so subdued.

Damn really made me want to play Diablo 3 again since lately I've been wanting to get into Path of Exile but when I'm already hitting for 10 billion dmg on my chars its hard to quit playing Diablo 3. I don't like the graphical changes (it is way too dark for me, and yes I played the original Diablo) but it just makes me want to play something like this since I've been burning out on running mythic keystone dungeons every day in WoW.

How hard is it to start from nothing for Path of Exile? That skill tree looks like a fuckin disaster but I have 700 paragon points in Diablo 3 so I really shouldn't talk about grinding.

So I guess Diablo 3 with all my maxed out chars with no chance of anything new happening until the Necro class (which I will probably get since I have every char at 70 already) or play Path of Exile which I haven't tried in like 3 years but I remember it being REALLY terrible... I got like level 15 or something and was bored to tears with it. Has that changed or is Path still a bad version of Diablo 3?

I've seen small but strong hype for Nier Automata. That demo looked great. I hope I motivate myself enough to play it because it looks like I would love it.

Shantae quick look on Monday? Niiiice. I hope they like it as I thought it was a fun little game.

I will never get sick of watching GB play Hitman. Game of the year indeed.

Neir looks PREEEETTTYYY good. I'm gonna check out that demo.

What game is in the background on a TV?

Brad with an early highlight for the Best of Hitman 2017. At least he's learned how to use proximity mines properly. Now to just to master the Marrakesh map better.

Someone tell Brad that the white dots on your minimap are suspicious of you. As opposed to grey dots who won't notice you.

My main complaint with Nier Automata is that there's no reason why you shouldn't be holding down the machine gun button. It seems as though you can do your melee attacks as normal while you're shooting, so you might as well be holding the R2 button the entire time, which is kind of boring IMO.

Also the machine gun is just super powerful vs. normal enemies when combined with the lock on. A lot of enemies die before you even get into melee range.

I dunno what it is about Torchlight 2.

I was playing a ton of Torchlight 1 and loving it, but I stopped because I wanted to move on to 2, and totally just dropped off after the first act of it. It's super weird, and I've tried multiple times over the years, but something about it just can't hook me. Just never quite obvious what it was that was lacking, or about it that deterred me.

It has Vegeta fighting what looks like a Yokai Watch character so i'm gonna guess it's MUGEN.

I like the idea of the tv in the background showing random video game stuff but it's a little too distracting.

@crazybagman: he knows; it's just an easy thing to ignore/forget when you're in the heat of the moment and streaming your gameplay for a couple thousand sometimes quite nitpicky people ; )

haha, this is probably the first time i've heard this complaint! i was always of the mind that Diablo 3 looked quite suitably dark and gothy enough. what kind of cartoons were the naysayers watching? 1977's Wizards?

And that if there isn't a dot at all, that NPC won't make you compromised or anything if you do some shit in front of them. They don't seem to like Marrakesh because of all the NPCs, but 90% of them don't really matter, it's just crowds for atmosphere. They'll run if they see you shoot someone or if there's an explosion, but they won't compromise your disguise.

I'll be the one to tell Brad to stop playing Hitman on the site. Especially on UPF. Mix it up, man!

Your a bunch of wild and crazy guys!!!!!

@puppymehard: I actually really liked that.

With control mode C (melee, dodge and shooting all on the L and R buttons&triggers) I was constantly aiming&shooting at enemies in the distance while at the same time melee-ing dudes next to me. I thought that felt really neat.

That said I've barely used the lock on as I've mostly played the demo on hard which turns off the lock on and turns the enemies into proper threats. Normal really felt way too easy overall.

When I have a check to deposit, I type the account and amount into a browser or app and have the money instantly.

ohhhhhhhhhhh rorie you're a great guy but you talk way way way too much!!!!!!

Signatures on a check are digitally checked against the bank's database. I once had a check bounce because I was sloppy. The scanned copy along with explanation was sent back via mail. Another time, the clerk at the bank asked me to resign my check because it was inconsistent with the database. Eh... technology...

@rudyarr: @miser: It is indeed saltybet

Saltybet.

Diablo 3 is a great game but I personally feel like they missed the mark on what made the game great. Almost everything in bind on pickup and nothing can be traded (unless that person was in the game when the item was found) and I understand they took away the real money AH but taking away the in-game money one was a step to far and once again made gold all but worthless.

Having every single item in the game being bind on pickup is really annoying and makes the game feel very small and honestly makes it feel like a single player game even if you are playing with others. Have a friend that you play with all the time? Find an item that they would love to use...ah to bad they were not in the game with you and you are just going to trash it.

Path of Exile is a fun game with some some very cool spells. I played it when it first came out and it was fun but a bit rough and I went back to it a week or two ago and the progression seems a lot smoother than it used to be and I found myself just tearing through the game. It's fun and you can actually see more content. Diablo 3 has the polish and graphics you expect from a Blizzard game but I find I can only play it for a while until I question why I'm actually playing it and I can't get over the no items can be traded so it feels like a small single player game even if you are playing with friends. I don't have the legendary dropping every 5 minutes to be fun because half of them are bad and when I did try taking the game "seriously" I found I couldn't progress past Torment X (don't remember what one) and when I looked at the leaderboards to get an idea of what the higher tier players were using item and skill wise I found every single one of them for all classes were using the same exact build and those builds were the ones I found to not be fun. Want to do anything but WW Barb? To bad. Want to do turret DH build? Nope, it won't cut it.

Also I'm really disappointed in what the Diablo 1 in Diablo 3 looks to be. A filter with the same stages that you have been playing on. I thought you were going to actually go through the first games layout and enemies. Not something that looked fun enough to install and go back to.

What was the Soderbergh movie they were referring to?

@subwayd: Out of Sight

@steveurkel: Path of Exile out-Diabloed Diablo from the start in my opinion. More build variation, more (end game) content and a better atmosphere. It's also free.

Diablo 3 is fine these days, but lacks variaton (only a very few legendary dependent builds) and I still think the end game is lackluster.

Most demos usually deter me from a game, but Nier's has made me an instant fan. Completed it three times already.

The audio on these videos sound like they have a bit too much base. Either that or my hearing is screwed up.

BRAD - NEVER STOP PLAYING HITMAN <3

#teambrad

Diablo 2 with median XL is really good maybe they can show it on a UPF someday

Never stop the Hitman, season 2 cant come fast enough.

Also on a side note, this UPF was very relaxing to watch.

saltybet in the background +1

Listening to the guys kinda dump on the original Nier (which they hadn't played) then turn around and praise the demo for the new one for doing cool things that are straight out of the original game is making me scowl at my monitor.

More people should play the original game, it is a good game dammit. It has a really bizarrely cool story with themes games just do not go after, its soundtrack is amazing, and the combat is ok, not bad just fine, and is helped out by how often it switches things up with shmup mechanics and the like.

Also the Drakengard games are the most batshit things that have ever existed, there are no video games that even come close to how weird they are.

*raises hand* Add one to the "tired of Hitman" pile.

(I just spent the past 10 minutes looking for a clip from MASH where Hawkeye starts a chant of "we want something else!", but apparently the IP goons have already nuked that shit from orbit. So you get the idea)

They need their mainstream minds blown by Path of Exile.

I'm with ya, but even as a card carrying member of the "Nier cult following cabal" I wouldn't be able to honestly say it's a "good" game. Nier has a ton of issues and requires dedication in some instances to power through some rather laborious and tedious sections in order to get to the good stuff. The good stuff being the boss fights, which are outstanding and do the whole perspective switching thing, and the story which can only be really appreciated on a second playthrough when the *spoiler* thing happens and really changes your perception on the whole dang thing.

All that said I can't really blame most people for not getting that far in the game. The beginning is kinda rough and the action itself is nothing to write home about. If you weren't drawn in by the world and how crazy a lot of that stuff is then the gameplay is certainly not going to keep you going (for the most part anyway).

Lastly - in the original Nier you could ride wild hogs and power slide - yes, literally drift while riding on the back of a hog - and this feature returns in Automata as well.

Let's clear something up: The fishing in Nier is dead easy. Jim Stewart or whatever his name is was a fucking idiot in that instance. Also, if you haven't heard positive things about the first game, you weren't listening. The gameplay is bad, but the story and music are fantastic. And the shmup components were in that one as well.

@brad Just in case nobody has let you know. You probably did have that final headshot lined up.

At first glance that pistol is quite overpowered, but it does have downsides that balance its concealability.

Namely, its limited ammo (5 shots, can never get more because it's custom ammo) and its small caliber and low effective range. My guess is that he was just past the range where even a headshot won't be a one shot kill. Or the spread was just enough to clip his shoulder.

But the main thing is that when you relise its downsides, you really need't worry about taking an overpowered weapon. (Except the phone, which is shamelessly overpowered and a must-have on every elusive target for me as a last-ditch if I can't find a more fun way)

I disliked basically everything about the original Nier except for the voice acting of the magic book and the really bizarre background for the game (being a spin-off of the hidden 5th ending of Drakengard, an ending that makes no sense in the context of that game; not that anything really made sense in that game).

Nothing else appealed to me; especially not the gameplay. But I also thought the story was hot nonsense, and not the fun kind.

@tomac: Thanks, it totally was.

@wastrel: Thanks, I was having far too much trouble recognizing that.

Man, I think I'm starting to get a little full of Hitman content. I would really like to see the site diversify the video content, even on UPF. I don't want to see weekly+ Hitman on the site then by the time we get to season 2 there will be even more Hitman content. However, unlike Destiny, DOTA2, and Starcraft 2 there are people other than Brad talking/doing content about the videos now so it just feels like overload.