lightsout

​Sweet. I'm going to be on after the gym and dinner. I'll add you, just hit me up if you want to run PoE or even just a strike playlist or crucible.

​ I traded a couple games in and picked Destiny back up. Just picked up my level 24 warlock from September, and I had already purchased the season pass back then as well, so I had two expansions to play with. Still wrapping up Crota (working on that damn urn) and I've already beat HoW. Love some of the weapons I got in such a short time. Took me a month to get decent gear back in the beginning. Took me a week to work up from level 24 to 29. I'm about 500 vanguard rep from level 2, which means my blue armor is about to get swapped for legendaries, which makes me happy. Got Obsidian Mind off of Xur this past weekend, so that is nice. Loving everything about the game again. Maybe I just bailed too soon on the game at the end of last year. I'm PS4 too, so most of you I can't even play with. :/

​ No no, Cam bought a stolen laptop. Possession of stolen property =/= larceny. Rape and shoplifting on Winston's part is worse I'd say. Withstanding those two things, he's not a Panther, so screw him. Hope he chokes on crab legs next time he's on a "date".

Benjifun

Just saw it. Loved it. Great action, good pacing, great humor, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. The Infinity Wars and Civil War are the big Marvel arcs. This movie just pushes it more towards that and sets the stage a bit. It's a great movie, IMO. Sure, "character development" can be griped about, but I'm not sure how much. The main Avengers group has been established. All other characters are secondary and just not that important to get origin stories. They're there to add more good guys and up the scale of the action, as well as contributing a bit to the dynamic of the whole group in dialogue and whatnot. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were developed enough. You got the abbreviated origin story and you saw their motives pretty clearly. You're not as attached to them as the others, sure, but with this being a "group" movie, the attachment to "The Avengers" is what is important, not the individual characters necessarily. I've heard people gripe about The Vision, but I really don't see why outside of them not understanding the point of his character even existing. His purpose to this movie directly is to add another level for Infinity Wars and to provide the "glue" that kept the group together as it started splitting at the seams, as well as providing another hero. Interesting dynamic once he introduced himself to the team. The Avengers sort of took the place of the people of Earth, and the Vision became the Avengers. Cap asking "are you with us?" made that point clear. Solid movie all around. Winter Soldier set a high bar, and to me, it wasn't as good a movie, but it was equally enjoyable.

But we could always trade a player, 5th, and 7th to somebody in the late third who doesn't see anybody they like. Again, long shot, and I don't necessarily believe it's something we'll do, but it's just a possibility. Even if we don't, we've had two solid picks. I'm not mad at all.

Devin Funchess is faster than his 40 time indicates. His game speed is impressive for his size, really. Guy runs good routes, from all I've seen. Adjusts to the ball well. Catches the ball well in traffic. Is somewhat elusive, for his size. And then there is the fact of his size. Another 6'5" option for Cam. Philly and Ginn can take the top off the defense. Kelvin and Funchess can still get open deep with good route running and play design and offensive alignment. How can anybody be mad about the pick? Gettleman made an aggressive move trading our third pick, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us trade back up into the third. Maybe late third, but it's still possible. Relax, people.

@ JAC - W vs HOU - W vs NO - W @ TB - W BYE @ SEA - L vs PHI - W vs IND - W vs GB - W @ TEN - W vs WAS - W @ DAL - L @ NO - W vs ATL - W @ NYG - L @ ATL - W vs TB - W 13-3. I think there are some toss ups. Namely, Seattle, Green Bay, and Dallas. Those could go either way in my mind. The rest should be wins. I think we are tired against NY and they beat us handily though. Gives us the chip on our shoulder to demolish Atlanta in their dome again and embarrass TB, as usual.

To anybody saying "Shula can't be too bad, we had two 1,000 yard receivers". One is one of the best receiving TEs in the league. And, the only constant target Cam has had every seasons since he was drafted. He's expected to get damn near 1,000 every year. And we utilize the TE a lot, by design. The other is a good rookie. OK, I should just be happy, I know, but a LOT of rookies come on strong their first year, put up numbers...and now teams know what to expect. KB could have had closer to 1300 yards and a few more TDs had he not dropped so many, but my point still stands. He has a year of game film going against him now. Teams will start adjusting coverage more, even more than they did already. If he's as great as we all hope he is, he'll at least be as productive next season. However, a lesser receiver doesn't get the stats he got last season in this system. Just doesn't happen. KB MADE a lot of plays possible just by being freakishly large and having the ability to make those big time catches. Not every receiver has that. Yes, Cam DOES spread the ball around a lot. He doesn't just lock in on one or two guys and feed them the ball all game. But we still shouldn't have 2/3 of our receiving numbers coming from 2 guys alone. We need one, maybe two other guys who can take the load off of them, while not stealing their numbers completely. Our offensive system does NOT get guys open. Every QB misses open receivers from time to time. You can't always say "Cam isn't finding the open guy". Most people here (I think) understand that fact and know that when Cam holds the ball forever, more times than not, it's because nobody is open and he's just waiting for somebody to get open. Or waiting on those constant deep ass routes to develop enough to risk the throw if he has to. Look at Seattle. Look at Denver. Look at NE. Look at NO. All of these systems are DESIGNED to get guys open. Specifically one. And that design expands to include 2nd and 3rd options, depending on the coverage, that WILL be open or open enough to try a throw and see what happens if they try to take away the primary receiver. We have some plays like that...but they're not the norm. Shula has terrible play design, terrible vision, terrible situational awareness, and terrible foresight in his play-calling. This has been demonstrated countless times. Sure, he has a good series or two in some games....but that doesn't make up for the, on average, 6 or so terrible drives he calls in those same games. And a lot of times, even the bad drives can be salvaged with just a LITTLE awareness of situation. 3rd and 2? fug it, everybody go vertical. If this happened rarely, I wouldn't be too mad. This happens AT LEAST once every. Single. Game. Shula is our hindrance. No great FA offensive player is going to want to come here to be placed in a system where they're not going to have plays designed to get them open. Or placed in a system where they're going to do the exact opposite of what successful offenses do. We'll be mediocre-to-good next season, largely in part to the defense and Cam being incredible (and hopefully a stout running game), and Shula will have his job saved, again, until somebody in the organization wakes up and realizes how truly deadly we could be with a competent OC.

I think Cook is going to be looking to get a big number, but if push comes to shove, I don't see Cam being the type to let his agent screw him or the team over here. Cam will take a lower number if he has to for the sake of the team. Just a gut feeling.

Nobody can say you skipped leg day by the end of this.

For those needing a good split for the week, I've found something that finally works well for me. I lifted most in high school, due to football. For 4 years, the program never really changed. We'd add a thing here or there, but the format was the same. Compound lifts on MWF, and Tuesday and Thursday were more isolation exercises. Very seldom used machines, so mostly free weights. Going to a gym where people are doing different things on different days, with limited equipment and only having a couple of times a day that you can possibly make it to the gym to begin with makes it hard to keep up with that same regiment that I did back then. Plus, it was more about muscle mass and power, less about function and looking good (which is my goal now). I tried doing the 4 day split of chest/tri day, back/bi day, leg day, shoulder/ab day. I just never felt like I was doing enough volume. Very seldom got sore no matter how hard I went in the gym. So, I decided to go to a more intense 3 day split. I order it based on movements. Basically, push day, pull day, and leg/core day (since most leg lifts use your core as the main stabilizer). Right now, I generally do it like this: Monday: Chest/shoulder/tri Tuesday: Back/bi Wednesday: active rest (usually run and some light ab work) Thursday: Leg/abs Friday: active rest Saturday: Chest/shoulder/tri Sunday: off (because it's the one day my gym is actually closed, even to members, and I use it as my one true rest day) Monday: Back/bi Tuesday: Active rest Wednesday: Leg/abs Thursday: active rest Friday: chest/shoulder/tri Saturday: back/bi Sunday: off So as you see, the days you work certain things changes week to week, but it allows a little flexibility. I can miss a day and just swap an active rest day for it and be fine, and it is giving me a ton to do and work while I'm there, which I like. As high intensity as I am, I still get through my chest/shoulder/tri day in about an hour and 15 minutes, and that's including my warm-up period. Before I went to this split, I was getting through a workout in 30-45 minutes and feeling like "poo...that's it? I'm already done?"

So, I'm starting to worry about longevity. This game is fun, but it's noticeably worse (for me) if I don't have a friend on to play with. Playing this game in the quiet is not as fun (since when you get thrown into match making with strangers on strikes, they never have their mic, which makes communication and strategy impossible). I'd rather play madden if I'm playing alone. Or beating Last of Us again. Hopefully the story DLC they release will be good. I'm still enjoying the grinding and some of the strikes. Some are getting a little repetitive, just because the strike playlists seem to run in the same order over and over again. The daily and weekly heroic stuff offers something a bit more, so that's good. I like the limited events, like the queen's wrath and now the iron banner. I just don't want to be sitting in January/February wondering when something more is going to be coming our way with this game. My thoughts were this game was going to fill ALL my gaming time, and I find myself playing madden more and more lately.

I'm still not vanguard level 1 yet. And it took days of getting blue engrams before one turned into a legendary piece. I only did one queen's wrath and got another legendary helmet (kinda pissed me off, since i already had one and was hoping for a legendary gauntlets or something, but oh well). Still, your luck has been better than mine. I'll have to do more queen's wrath.

You must have gotten insanely lucky with drops then, or you have a LOT more free time to play than I did, because I'm still level 24 and can't get better light armor to save my life.

Grinding and bounty hunting finally paid off. Got two legendary pieces of armor (one for another class, but I was going to make a hunter eventually anyway). Getting those from the cryptarch was the single most rewarding aspect of this game for me so far. And now that I have them, I have a better understanding of why you have to go collect the materials on each planet that are scattered everywhere: to upgrade the legendary gear. I was getting worried about the longevity of this game for me personally, and in a single hour I got those pieces of armor, a sweet new shader, and unlocked another weekly strike (unlocked at level 24, but you can't play it until you've upgraded your armor past where mine is, which is all rares and one legendary that comes out at just under 1000 defense and 24). So, I am pretty stoked. It was a pretty awesome little high I got on once I got that legendary piece. Now I feel good about trying the Queen's Wrath stuff and even better than I already did about Crucible (I've been doing decent as it is, but stronger armor = less dying, hopefully. Finally break 2.0 k/d). Anybody else hitting any milestones/find anything out about the game?

Which isn't bad if you're playing with friends. The grinding just wears on you when you're playing alone. I get a couple hours and have to pop in Madden. When I'm with friends, I've played 6 hours straight, just doing the Strike Playlist.

Agreed. I've been saving engrams just for the update when it hits. Getting real tired of getting blue drops that turn into green items. In positive news, after a couple of days of failing to find a better light armor helmet, I finally got one. Yay for being level 22 finally. Here's mine. http://www.bungie.net/en/Legend/2/4611686018429072979/2305843009217885533#gear

They're slowly getting better (for me anyway). I still have occasions where I can't get anything started because I'm being booted, but they're rare. Now I get booted once or twice, then it runs fine. First, check your NAT type. You want Type 1 or Type 2 (most are by default, so this should be good). Then, you have to adjust your firewall. This is actually pretty quick and easy to do. The link below provides the links I used to figure it out. Once you adjust the ports, you should immediately see a difference in load speeds and a drop in frequency of being booted (bet money you're getting one random code, followed by the "centipede" error. That's the common one right now). It all boils down to them not having their servers prepared in time for everything and electing to put out content before ironing out the server issue. Like I said, they have fixed it a good deal. It's MUCH better now than it was just a week ago. http://www.bungie.net/en/Help/Article/11931

Eh, all classes have pretty comparable weapons. The real difference is in the grenades and their effects when coupled with certain aspects of your progression tree (which is different for each class). I think each class has a weapon type they're more predisposed to getting in drops, though. Not entirely sure. The big difference is just in how you want to play and what Supercharge ability tickles your fancy most. I like having a huge AoE attack that I can launch in loops ever few minutes that guarantees a massive hit if I am smart with my timing. Hunters have their three-shot Golden Gun, which is good for PvP, but not as effective (IMO) for PvE. And Titan, as I said, is just badass to look at and deals a good bit of damage (also great for taking care of the trash that comes with boss fights). Right now, my Warlock is level 18. I have pretty much kept with an auto-rifle as my primary the entire game (mine right now does something like 180 damage). That's pretty much what you get from all classes, though. My buddy is a Titan, and I swear he has been rolling nothing but fusion rifles and pulse rifles as his primary the entire game. Also, weapon use is different depending on what you're doing. In PvP (unless I'm just doing it wrong), you need to have a good auto-rifle to compete. The charge time for fusion rifles just never works out in my favor, and pulse rifles don't do enough quick damage with the pacing that the Crucible forces you into. I think Warlocks DEFINITELY have the best grenades, though. You can literally block off an entire doorway or side of a room if you're smart with them (and in later missions, they're great for throwing into the ridiculous swarms of trash you get thrown at you).

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. Just know that until around level 13 or so, once you get some of the buffs, Warlocks are pretty squishy. Have to learn how to be shifty and patient. Whereas in Titan, you can just roll into a crowd and go crazy. I'm a Warlock and love it. My next character is probably gonna be a Titan, though. Just to give me the best of both worlds (plus, the Supercharge ability for Titan is awesome)

The subclasses for each class offer a different approach (generally, the default being the offensively based subclass, while the one attained after level 15 is more defensive/buff specific. Which grenades you use, how you use them, how you let your attributes stack to loop your abilities, reviving each other when downed, etc. can change the entire course of a strike or raid. Try jumping into a strike with no friends and let matchmaking set you up. You'll fail at least once, if not more, because you don't know what to expect from each other nor are you set up to take into account what they do well/don't do well (unless you are massively over-leveled and don't use the difficulty modifier).

This is an MMO, in all reality. It has it's FPS aspects thrown in, but they don't overpower the game. After having a few Strike missions with 2 of my buddies, I'm starting to see what this game truly is (at level 17). It's all about how you build your character and how you work with your fireteam. The story is just a backdrop to the fun of the game. Casual gamers will most likely not like this game. If you're the type to invest a few hours, at least, at a time to a game in one sitting, then you may well enjoy it. A lot of the pissy reviews are coming from people who want instant satisfaction when MMOs are not built that way. I hated DC Universe Online until I hit the cap and realized that the story is just to get you to the truly fun part of the game. Right now, the game is actually pretty empty. Or maybe they just dedicate your field of play to the mission you're in (I haven't done any patrols yet). I imagine that once everybody has had a chance to play through the story missions, you'll see people all over the game's universe doing all manner of things. THAT'S the cool part about it. The optional events that launch randomly in each planet are pretty cool too. The game is engaging if you are into this type of game. If you want a snappy FPS, this is not the game for you. If you want something to sink your teeth into, this is the game for you. It's really that simple. I won't be buying any FPS for a good long while (traded in BF4 towards my Destiny pre-order) simply because this game satisfies my FPS thirst and gives me SO much more than any FPS game can. Hell, this may well be the only game I play for months. I seriously enjoy it that much.

Not sure if it's different from PS4, but I would say avoid trying to pre-level. At best, get on the level difficulty of the mission. I've found that I get better/more frequent drops (two rare items in the last hour) if I just play the mission, level be damned. Sure, you're gonna have a tougher time, but the rewards are greater (and it's a lot more fun to actually struggle in this game). For the most part, you should level up along with the missions. I don't expect you'd hit a spot where you are more than two levels behind the mission at any point as long as you are doing them in level order and fighting every enemy you see (and taking the optional events as they come up). I just beat a Mars mission as a level 14, and I inadvertently ran into like, 5 level 17's. Was a doozy, but I got through it (found out after I FINALLY took them down that I didn't even NEED to go to that part of the map, as all I had to do was have an interaction about 200 meters before then and the mission was over).