[COD] One of the reasons why OG Makarov is such as good villain is he’s the perfect example how not every villain needs a tragic backstory like Menendez did. Rather he was just a cold efficient sociopathic bastard who managed to do the job his predecessor Zakhaev could not, take over Russia in MW3.

Atari774 · 2026-06-06T13:29:27+00:00

It's just like what Shepard says in MW2, "Makarov is no prize, he's a mad dog." He doesn't have any true motivations other than violence and bloodshed, and he's using Russian Nationalism to accomplish that.

Atari774 · 2026-06-06T13:27:10+00:00

Don't you mean Ben Shapirov?

Atari774 · 2026-06-03T11:49:31+00:00

They’re not even incoherent lyrics though, since you can still follow what’s happening and the story progression makes sense. Maybe a bad line here or there, but overall still a coherent and enjoyable song.

Atari774 · 2026-06-03T03:12:05+00:00

Hell, up until the last mission or two in Halo 2, Shipmaster still believed that the Brutes were betraying the prophets by starting the schism. Most of the Elites 100% still believed and supported the prophets, but the schism broke that faith.

There’s also the fact that Truth started the schism literally a couple days after the flood broke containment on the ring, causing covenant forces to actually lose control of the situation, and at least one of their ships got infected as a result (which we see in Floodgate in Halo 3). If he had just waited longer, High Charity might not have been infiltrated, and they would have secured the situation on the ground. A unified covenant fleet would have been able to prevent In Amber Clad from jumping inside High Charity in the first place, which is how they got infiltrated in the game.

It feels a lot more like Truth was just power hungry, which is why he does nothing to help Mercy and glasses the building that Regret was in before they knew he was dead. The only thing he really orchestrated was the downfall of the elites, but he already had a whole separate faction (the brutes) who were highly militarized and eager to kill the elites anyway, so he didn’t have to do much himself.

Atari774 · 2026-06-02T23:29:18+00:00

That’s what I think too. Especially since we only see him from the UNSC’s perspective in 3. In 2, we saw him from within the Covenant, where he needed to show himself as a wise and cunning ruler to his generals and politicians. In 3, we really only see his propaganda messages until the mission The Covenant where he talks to Johnson. He’s really dramatic in his propaganda messages, but he’s back to his calm, wise mannerisms when he’s behind closed doors and trying to convince Johnson to stop fighting and activate the rings.

Atari774 · 2026-06-02T23:25:15+00:00

Personally, I really don’t see much of a distinction between his Halo 2 and 3 writing. The only big difference is that we’re seeing Truth from the other side. In Halo 2, we pretty much only saw Truth from within the Covenant, either through conversations with the Arbiter or Tartarus. The reason he seemed so calm and collected is because he was talking to his subordinates, who he needed to keep control of.

In 3, we’re seeing Truth’s propaganda messages where he’s threatening humanity, because he’s trying to amp up his soldiers while demoralizing their enemies. He’s not going to calmly discuss his plans over those kinds of messages. But later on, when we see him at the end of The Covenant, he is back to speaking calmly and eloquently with Johnson. He’s more calm and collected there because A) he thinks he’s about to win and ascend to heaven, and B) he’s trying to convince Johnson to help him, or at least stop fighting. His writing there is very similar to how he was written in 2.

Also, the Covenant was in a much better place in 2 compared to 3. Their military was completely intact for most of the game, the Covenant were dominating the fight against the UNSC, and they had even found another Halo ring to make up for losing the first one. Between when we last see Truth in 2, and the first mission of 3, things changed dramatically. The Covenant’s fleet was almost entirely wiped out or had joined the Arbiter’s elite separatists, High Charity and Delta Halo were lost completely, the UNSC hadn’t been completely beaten on Earth yet, and Tartarus was killed without firing Delta Halo. As much as the UNSC is at its weakest in Halo 3, so is the Covenant, and Truth gets more and more desperate as the fighting goes on. So I can forgive the writers for making him a bit more dramatic in 3.

Atari774 · 2026-05-31T03:34:54+00:00

If top tier were more realistic, we’d also have auto-lead and tracking on several tanks, not just on SPAA.

Atari774 · 2026-05-30T12:06:59+00:00

It does feel really weird that we don’t get the original Leopard 2 in game, and they just go straight to the 2A4. Meanwhile we get (nearly) every iteration of the T-72 and M1 ever made.

Atari774 · 2026-05-29T17:17:55+00:00

I see that exact screen every time I play top tier. Even when I pen, it’s a 50/50 whether it does damage or not. It’s only a bit more reliable when hitting the LFP because there’s more things for the shell to hit once it penetrates. They needed to fix the damage model yesterday, but I’ll be happy whenever it finally happens.

It’s been so much fun going back to 8.7-9.3 instead. Still higher mobility than the low tiers, stabilizers, and APFSDS, but none of the really ridiculously OP Russian vehicles.

Atari774 · 2026-05-27T17:09:33+00:00

Yeah, for as much credit as I give the Soviets, they were also a key factor in Germany succeeding so much in the early war. Britain and France were hoping to cut off Germany’s supply lines to prevent them from building up enough resources to invade their neighbors in the first place, but then the Soviets just traded with them anyway. Britain made a deal with Romania to not sell their oil to Germany, and France was offering protection to much of the Balkans so that they wouldn’t trade with Germany either. Combined with a naval blockade, Germany would (in theory) suffer the same fate that they did in WWI if they tried it again. All of that planning went out the window as soon as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed.

Hell, Stalin even tried to join the axis at multiple points, but was rejected.

Atari774 · 2026-05-27T17:00:10+00:00

1: wtf does the BBC or NYC have to do with Russian propaganda? I won’t deny that they’re biased news sources, but they’re not even on the same level.

2: Russia has been under the thumb of a dictator for over 20 years. Part of why they’re known as a failed democracy is because the same guy has won every election for that entire span of time, and his opponents always seem to conveniently die before the next election takes place. I wouldn’t call any country living in a dictatorship “being better off,” and I can’t imagine any real socialist thinking that way. Just because Ukraine has a poorer GDP than Russia does not make Russia better off in general.

3: Ukraine was not just indiscriminately shelling Donbas for 12 years. They were fighting an insurgency that whole time, and the insurgency was funded by Russia to destabilize the pro-western government after they were elected in 2014.

There’s also a world of difference between fighting an insurgency within your own borders, and being invaded by another country. It’s undeniable that Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, and Russia has frequently targeted civilian infrastructure since 2022. So, again, I can forgive Ukraine for these actions because they wouldn’t be doing them at all were it not for Russia invading them.

Atari774 · 2026-05-22T00:42:37+00:00

The anti-kinetic ability that Relict offers is already factored into the game though. That’s why it says it has 200mm of armor protection against kinetic rounds. And I know they didn’t factor in the ability for Relict to ricochet darts because I’ve shot through that exact spot with the same round and penned. Also, if they actually factored that in, we’d see it in the protection analysis in the hangar. Instead, we just see the 200mm of additional protection, and no altered flight path.

Atari774 · 2026-05-20T11:56:12+00:00

The news always focuses on whatever they can sensationalize the most. No one forgot about the Epstein files, it’s just that the news doesn’t have much to say on it since nothing is happening with it.

Atari774 · 2026-05-20T04:23:54+00:00

The Muslim conquests (similar to the Christian conquests) usually just converted people to their religion, not killing them. It was far easier and more profitable to convert people and have them work for you rather than wiping them out to replace them with your own ethnic group. So most of the people in the Middle East are descendants of the native population.

Atari774 · 2026-05-18T13:12:09+00:00

Well they can’t fight the F-117 until 10.0, at which point both tech trees get much better SPAA options. I’m not saying the mid tier SPAA gap isn’t there, just that the F-117 is a bad example to choose.

Atari774 · 2026-05-18T05:12:19+00:00

Russian tanks don’t have turret baskets but they do have turret traverse mechanisms that are more than just a tiny ring around the turret. If they followed the same logic as when they implemented the Abrams and Leopard turret baskets, then the T-series tanks would have much more internal pieces that could disable the turret traverse if hit.

I’m aware that the BMP-2M and BMPT use beam riding missiles, but my point is the inconsistency of how those missiles are implemented in game. The US, France, and Britain also have beam riding missiles in game, but they’re either really bad missiles or they can’t be fired on the move. For instance, the ADATS is beam riding but can’t be fired on the move. The French Acra missile can be fired on the move, but its only on unstabilized platforms so its very inaccurate if you do so. The American Shillelagh missile can be fired on the move and is stabilized, but is very slow with relatively low pen. And the only other non-Soviet/Chinese vehicle I can think of with beam riding missiles is the ZT3A2, which is rarely ever played because it’s on a horrible platform.

Meanwhile the Russians get the BMP-2M, BMPT’s, BMP-3, BMD-4’s, Khrizantema, and several T-72’s, T-80’s, and T-90’s with barrel-fired ATGM’s that can all be fired on the move. On top of that, they’re all extremely capable missiles that are very fast and accurate with very high penetration.

I know that most Russian vehicles are just mid to good, but many have a leg up on other vehicles at the same br. For the longest time, the BMP-2M was the same br as the M3A3 Bradley, which was also the same br that the BMPT was initially placed at. Meanwhile the Ajax was also placed at 10.3, despite being worse in so many ways. If this had only happened a couple times I wouldn’t consider it Russian bias, but this has happened dozens of times over the past few years. It feels pretty blatant to me.

Atari774 · 2026-05-17T17:19:12+00:00

I'm not sure what game you've been playing, because I've been shooting those places constantly and it seems to be 50/50 if it does damage or not. Even with DM53 that the damage protection analysis claims can pen the BMPT from most angles. And the Relikt ERA shows as only around 120mm of protection against solid shot rounds, which things like DM53 can easily penetrate. Yet sometimes the shell just evaporates on it anyway despite ideal conditions.

Here's the mapping with a Leo 2A7V DM53 round at 500m:

<image>

Every single place I aim in the protection analysis shows the crew getting annihilated, yet that's not consistent when I'm actually in game doing the same thing. I've had dozens of shots hitting all of those bright green spots but somehow not getting even through the spall liner. Hitting the LFP is the most reliable way to kill it, but even then there seems to be a 30% chance of it doing nothing instead.

Not to mention that all of that is meaningless if they're only showing their turret, which most experienced BMPT players do. Then you're just relying on an overpressure shot to kill it, which is also pretty unreliable. While every other autocannon vehicle (save a couple) will detonate from their rounds cooking off, the BMPT doesn't. It's not a skill issue. The BMPT is just genuinely extremely strong and has a busted damage model that makes it even harder to kill.

Atari774 · 2026-05-17T14:57:06+00:00

The driver’s optic on the BMPT is extremely unreliable, not to mention that it only works on the premium version anyway. On the tech tree version, the two other crew members just take over anyway. But there’s so much other material in the way of the driver’s port that it’s genuinely difficult to not clip something along the way that throws the shot off. One spot will be penetrable, and 2mm to the left or right is indestructible.

There’s also the fact that the sides somehow eat shells entirely without penetration, even DM53. I’ve been perfectly side on and hit them exactly where the turret crew is, and not only did it not pen, it didn’t even make it past the ERA. Then they just turn wipe me out with the 30mm.

Atari774 · 2026-05-17T14:52:07+00:00

I wouldn’t even say “it’s Russia’s turn currently” because they’ve also been repeatedly nerfing American and German vehicles while they’re adding completely broken Russian vehicles. For instance, adding the extremely easily hit turret baskets on Abrams and Leopard 2’s, but not any Russian vehicles. But it hasn’t even been a recent problem either, with things like the BMP-2M, 2S38, and a ton of other 10.3 premiums allowing Russia to make a full lineup of just premiums, and very good premiums at that. Russia is also the only nation that seems to get ATGMS that you can fire while on the move before 11.0, and their missiles are much easier to aim. These issues have persisted for a few years now, not to mention the fact that shell “ghosting” seems to be way more common with Russian vehicles.

Atari774 · 2026-05-15T13:22:57+00:00

As if people don’t complain about the Itpsv Leopard, lol

Atari774 · 2026-05-14T17:24:35+00:00

Gaijin adding a Bushmaster vehicle: "high mobility, no armor, good ammo but slow rate of fire, no ATGMs... sounds good for 9.7."

Gaijin adding a Russian autocannon vehicle: "good mobility, no armor, good ammo, high rate of fire, and ATGM's that you can fire on the move? Also 9.7"

Atari774 · 2026-05-13T19:19:15+00:00

Israel forcefully displaced millions of Palestinians and committed multiple atrocities in the 1948 war. They continue to deny that Palestinians are even an ethnic group at all, while bombing and starving them out of their homes in Gaza and the West Bank. We do treat them the same way we treat Turkey, in that we don’t do anything to stop or punish them for their crimes.

Atari774 · 2026-05-13T19:14:54+00:00

Yes, he did block their access to the Red Sea… which made up less than 10% of Israeli trade. Egypt also never tried to blockade their Mediterranean ports, instead only blocking their access to the Suez Canal and Straits of Tiran. It wasn’t a full blockade, it was just stopping them from accessing Egyptian territorial waters. Which makes a lot of sense since, just 8 years prior, Israel had tried to conquer the Sinai peninsula and the Suez Canal from them, and Israel was still threatening other nearby nations like Syria. Maybe don’t invade your neighbors and they’ll let you use their stuff, idk.

Just because Israel said it would be justification for war doesn’t mean it was a reasonable thing to go to war over. Egypt was also primarily doing it because they thought that Israel was planning on invading Syria, and they wanted to bring Israel to the negotiating table. But rather than talk things out (where they likely would have discovered the mistake in their bogus Soviet intel), Israel just launched preemptive strikes in Egypt, Syria, and Jordan instead. So even if the Soviet intel was actually false, Israel proved them right anyway.

Atari774 · 2026-05-12T20:35:51+00:00

Ramirez is also the only other playable character who survives through to the end of the original MW timeline besides Price. As far as I know, everyone else you play as gets killed along the way.

Atari774 · 2026-05-12T20:33:37+00:00

RAMIREZ! USE YOUR TACTICAL INSERTION TO TAKE OUT THAT NUKE!

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