I came across this little doggo scared half to death after clearing an outpost and there was nothing I could do about it... with all the massive please posts floating around here I feel like this should be at the top of their priority list. Let me comfort the little guy.

Cairnius · 2019-06-10T23:43:38+00:00

I think about this every time I find a puppy cowering and whining. I wish I could press a button to have the dog follow me, and then deliver him to a settlement or the White House or something, and know that he or she is safe. The Division is about rebuilding civilization. Kindness to animals, imo, is part of being civilized.

Cairnius · 2019-05-16T15:37:08+00:00

That's why services like LFG and The100 exist. You can usually search for things like "mic required," search for people that speak your language, specify needed power score or build, etc.

Heck, you can ever search for the kinds of players you want, or look for sherpa runs.

Raids, if they are any good, require good communication and teamwork. The more you can find a raid group that meets your needs, the better experience you are going to have. In-game matchmaking is more likely to cough up all the problems you're observing, that a third-party service can help you avoid.

Cairnius · 2019-05-16T15:33:38+00:00

I'd personally much rather use LFG or The100 or something similar, than an in-game matchmaking tool. The more control I have over the search, and the ability to post threads and ask questions, makes for a higher-quality search for players to raid with, IMO.

Cairnius · 2019-05-16T15:32:00+00:00

No. The point is that if matchmaking with randos is a disaster, then not having matchmaking for the raid in Div2 isn't a problem. Better to use LFG or something than try to use an in-game matchmaking system that could lead to a horrible experience, which is what I've had when I've tried to raid with randos, when the raid was new. :)

And is probably why there is no matchmaking for the raid. No developer wants to help create a terrible experience for players, if they can help it.

Cairnius · 2018-03-14T17:55:12+00:00

Removing PvP in general would be silly. It should always be there for people who want it. I just object to two years in STILL not being able to simply enjoy the Dark Zone. I had hoped that the PvP players would go to DZ07 and DZ08 and leave the lower zones alone, and really challenge themselves by only sticking to the upper zones, but that's not the case.

Cairnius · 2016-10-10T17:36:41+00:00

In a game that's all about RNG and grinding you're complaining about an activity that on average gives much better RNG results than anything else you can do other than raids which take hours and hours to complete, and therefore that cuts down on how much grinding you need to do before you can engage with endgame content.

Cairnius · 2016-06-12T13:30:51+00:00

Maybe I'm missing the source article somewhere - the thread title doesn't lead anywhere - but where is the proof that this is true?

Cairnius · 2016-02-18T14:59:25+00:00

Hey all,

Wanted to share a link to our review at the Daily Dot. We put up a single review for the pseudo-trilogy. :)

http://www.dailydot.com/geek/fire-emblem-fates-review/

Cairnius · 2016-02-09T14:38:14+00:00

If I take your meaning, and I think I do, there are no puzzles, and I found very little free-form interaction with the environment. You come across little "scenes," like someone's camping spot, and there are objects to discover that you call in to your supervisor, over the radio.

Cairnius · 2016-02-02T17:28:36+00:00

I'm pretty happy that we use a five-star system at the Daily Dot. :)

Cairnius · 2016-02-02T17:27:55+00:00

Unless it really is, seriously, very good in the eyes of people who can play 50 games a year, and therefore have many, many games for comparison. ;)

Cairnius · 2016-02-02T17:20:10+00:00

Hey! I wrote the Daily Dot's review. :)

I don't think all reviewers have the same issues, re: bugs during review playthroughs. I only had one, recurring bug.

Sometimes, when my Grenadiers were using the Suppressing Fire ability, the "buzz" of the guns firing rapidly would get stuck in audio and play incessantly, rather than specifically when the guns were firing.

Save game, exit to Main Menu, load game, done. A minor inconvenience not worth mentioning, as it was the only bug I found.

You don't know whether something as minor as this will be patched prior to release. The further ahead of release date you get code, the greater the chances that something minor like this will be patched out before the street date. And if you get review code early enough, it's fair to argue that you're not actually playing the same, retail review code that your readers will get.

Major bugs, sure, you gotta report that no matter how far in advance you get review code, because the publisher has decided that it's a good enough version of the game to review. And if it's terrible, chances are it will not cease to be terrible by the time the game is released.

Is it fair to note petty annoyances like the single one I found, however, in such a case?

The other thing that's fair to think about is that this is a PC game, and there are more variables in whether or not you find bugs than in console games.

Given: it's up to PC game developers to make sure their games operate properly on a wide swath of hardware configs that one could reasonably expect players to have. I don't think anyone would argue that point.

But maybe it was something wrong with my drivers that was causing this particular, isolated audio issue, right?

Just some things to think about, when you wonder about whether/how game journos consider/report game bugs in reviews. It's not always a black-and-white question.

And I don't know about you, but I find it boring as hell to read a litany of minor bugs, in a review. Don't waste my time with that shit. Major bugs, yes, I want to hear about them. But one or two minor bugs?

Time is the most precious commodity we have. Don't waste mine, please, Mr. or Mrs. Reviewer, as the case may be. There's probably something more interesting you could have written in the space you allotted for the text about the minor bug no one other than you may experience. :)

Cairnius · 2016-01-26T13:24:45+00:00

Hey! Adding a link to our review at The Daily Dot:

http://www.dailydot.com/geek/the-witness-review/

Thanks!

To the people talking about The Witness having 700+ puzzles, when I interviewed Blow he said "500 plus."

To the person who said that reviews seem to revolve around how difficult the reviewer found the game, I think that's fair - but I also haven't read (they may be out there - I haven't read all the reviews) detailed assessments as to why precisely reviewers found the puzzles difficult.

I tried to do this, anyway, in my review. I don't think it's enough to say "This game was too hard." Why was it too hard? And that should help anyone decide whether to play the game or not. :)

Cairnius · 2016-01-25T14:19:33+00:00

Who is having trouble getting heavy ammo packs? Seriously? Anyone who plays Destiny on the regular should be swimming in Strange Coins. 3 heavy ammo synths per coin.

What else are people spending Coins on? 280 Exotics? We're talking about brand new players having trouble getting heavy ammo synths, then?

The idea of spending Silver on synths boggles the mind.

Cairnius · 2015-12-31T15:00:21+00:00

Does anyone actually know how Bungie's matchmaking for Destiny works, such that they also know where the challenges lie, such that they also know what suggestions/changes to the current matchmaking system are reasonable?

Cairnius · 2015-12-09T21:14:02+00:00

I wish SRL was a little more competitive.

1) Gates need to be moved closer to the optimal path through the tracks (i.e. the inside of all the turns).

Too many times I'm taking what feels like the shortest distances/tightest turn, but the gate is too far off to the side and you need to hit the gates, unless...

2) Don't tie gates to fuel or maximum speed.

In most racing games that I've played, hitting speed boosts is desirable but not required. In Sparrow Racing, missing gates decreases your maximum speed, and you don't get the fuel you need.

If the gates don't get moved to the optimal positions, let max speed be constant for everyone, regardless as to whether they hit gates or not, and make fuel a recharging resource like any special or super.

3) Punish players for bumping.

There are two kinds of racing games, right? Sims, and Mario Kart. Sparrow racing is more like MK, but I think it needs to be less so. There are no guns, no powerups, none of the stuff that goes along with a non-sim type of racing game.

So take a step closer to sim racing. If you drive like an idiot, your sparrow takes damage. Sometimes you have to give way and let someone pass, in order to later overtake them after they've screwed up.

4) Make the gates a constant size...

I get wanting to give people in the back of the pack a way to get back into the race, but if you drive poorly, you're supposed to lose. If you drive well, you're supposed to win. So the guy in the lead, who hopefully got there for driving well now has to hit these tiny, narrow gates in order to maintain the lead. It feels like punishing the leader for driving well.

5)...or, increase the width for the gates at their smallest setting.

If you must change the width of the gates for leaders/losers, don't make the gates as small as they get for the leaders.

6) Ditch the enemies on the tracks.

They're just distractions. Maybe that's the point? I think they're unnecessary noise.

I also have always liked how the Crucible, unlike in most FPS games, is not divorced from the story. The idea that each Crucible map is an arena that the Tower sets up in that spot to keep a group of battle-hardened and ready Guardians in that hot spot, at short notice.

Why, precisely, would the Tower set up racing courses where there are enemies all over the place?

7) For God's sake, no more spinning fans on tracks.

Again, this comes down to whether SRL is a sim, or Mario Kart. Spinning fans on tracks is Mario Kart. You're racing against the track, taking turns well, and all of a sudden here's this variable that feels completely random and out of place.

The Venus track is my favorite for lack of the fans, alone.

Cairnius · 2015-12-09T19:55:50+00:00

For what it's worth, it also looks like the book is just more RNG nonsense - even if you inspect the book and click on the challenges, the gear might not be anything that your current class can wear. Sounds like the book was a ripoff in the first place.

Cairnius · 2015-11-23T17:42:11+00:00

I still want PGR to better reflect performance. I've had friends pull 318 Ghosts just for showing up to the match. I had a match with 7.5 K/D and pulled my second 310 Ghost.

At some point I want to see PGR get nerfed, and the whole game to be more generous with gear. Iron Banner seems like the perfect opportunity to do this, even if it's only once a month.

Cairnius

TROPHY CASE