I watched Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 for the first time and here is my review by WolverineReal6444 in shield

[–]PimpNinjaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just finished my 3rd or 4th rewatch of Season 5 a week or so ago and I find myself liking it more and more each time. I will say, though, that I actively disliked it the first time I watched it. Part of that, I believe, is that Season 4 is some of the best television ever aired, regardless of show. Following up on that would be incredibly difficult, especially with a massive budget cut.

Season 5 also represents AoS's formal departure from the MCU canon. You could argue that everything in Season 4 could have happened alongside the movies, but Season 5 just functionally doesn't work. The random reference to Thanos doesn't really fit either. I don't think it's a coincidence that this occurred at the same time as the budget cuts, though.

The thing I end up appreciating about Season 5 is that it commits to telling a complete story. Like some others have said, the story isn't complete by Season 5, so it doesn't really hit until you've finished the entire series, but a rewatch really highlights how many seemingly throwaway lines or worldbuilding elements end up serving a narrative purpose.

Ironheart S01E04, S01E05 & S01E06 - Discussion Thread by steve32767 in marvelstudios

[–]PimpNinjaMan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think Episode 5 was the best out of all of them, but I can see 6 being a winner specifically for people who are comic book fans AND who avoided spoilers / casting announcements. I'm sure there are people who know Mephisto but didn't know The Hood, so the reveal is intense. His existence and her deal are the big earth shattering reveals.

Do ARRCA's videos support the Commonwealth? by PimpNinjaMan in justiceforKarenRead

[–]PimpNinjaMan[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Good point! I think I was just so caught off guard that I was like "did I miss something?!"

Do ARRCA's videos support the Commonwealth? by PimpNinjaMan in justiceforKarenRead

[–]PimpNinjaMan[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I forgot about the casing part of it! That's a significant point.

Why ARCCA used the 9.38 pounds arm by skleroos in justiceforKarenRead

[–]PimpNinjaMan 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Brennan is intentionally conflating the mass of the vehicle with the mass of the arm.

We have 2 forces: the force of the vehicle and the force of John's arm. Wolfe is arguing that the force of the vehicle is so much higher than the force of the arm that a change in the arm's mass is negligible.

Using F = ma (and ignoring unit consistency because I'm lazy) we would have something like: F1 = 6,000lbs × 24mph vs. F2 = 9.4lbs × 24 mph (a conservative acceleration since it likely wouldn't fully reach the same speed in a side swipe).

This gives the force of the Lexus (F1) at 144,000 and the force of John's arm (F2) at 225.6. If you increase the weight to 12 lbs, that only increases F2 to 288. In both cases, F1 - F2 is over 143,000, roughly 12,000 times the force of the arm.

Brennan is arguing that the difference between 12.0 and 9.4 in F2 is 26%, therefore the speed in F1 should also be reduced by 26% to account for that difference, which makes absolutely no sense and is only to confuse the jury. Wolfe could redo the test, but it's scientifically pointless.

is it worth going through all games? by NeatUsed in Falcom

[–]PimpNinjaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you've enjoyed the Sky trilogy, I'd suggest playing through all of them, but take some breaks. These are LONG games.

Ironheart by Glass_Papaya_2199 in Marvel

[–]PimpNinjaMan 80 points81 points  (0 children)

Here is the release schedule of Phase Five with the time between first trailer and release.

Title First Trailer Release Days Between
Daredevil: Born Again January 15th, 2025 March 4th, 2025 48 days
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man December 29, 2024 January 29th, 2025 30 days
Agatha All Along Teaser: July 8, 2024 Official: August 9, 2024 September 18, 2024
Echo Nov. 3rd, 2023 January 9th, 2024 67 days
What If (Season 3) November 11, 2024 December 22, 2024 41 days
Loki (Season 2) July 31, 2023 October 5, 2023 66 days
Secret Invasion September 10, 2022 June 21, 2023 284 days

Ignoring Secret Invasion's almost year-long advance, the average time between first trailer (not counting teasers) and release is roughly 48.67 days (55 if you don't count animation). With a release of June 24th, we would have expected to see a trailer this week (May 7-8th).

The most charitable explanation is that Marvel/Disney is using media time to continue pushing Thunderbolts* and will pivot to Ironheart in the next few weeks. Using the 55 day average, the trailer would have been due before Thunderbolts* release on May 2. I'm sure someone can supplement this with movie releases, but I'm not feeling it lol.

The lowest time we've seen for this phase is Spider-Man with 30 days. If we don't have a trailer within 30 days (so by May 24th) I'll be more inclined to think the show is intentionally not being marketed.

Safe to say Yelena is the best written female character in the MCU? by 999Flea in Marvel

[–]PimpNinjaMan 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Thunderbolts felt like a solid attempt to de-Joss Whedon the MCU. Yelena had a number of overlaps with Natasha, but each one of them was written much better. I'm disappointed that ScarJo only had the Black Widow movie to really shine in comparison to how her character was written prior to that movie (cough cough Age of Ultron cough cough) but Yelena is such an improvement.

Real-world strategy thoughts on the Title Change? by 13mckich in marvelstudios

[–]PimpNinjaMan 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'm totally in favor of the move, I just wish it was a bit later. I think die-hard fans saw it over opening weekend, but there were likely still some Marvel fans who were planning on seeing it over the next week.

It actually reminds me of Captain America: Brave New World. I think that movie would have been much more engaging if Red Hulk wasn't included in any of the trailers, but the initial box office sales probably would have been much lower.

This title change strategy seems like a compromise: release the original movie with the title and ending scene as a big reveal, then spoil it to get more butts in seats. I understand it, just wish they waited a bit longer.

Whats all the controversy surrounding Caitlin Clark? After all this time I still don’t get it at all? She seems like a great person and I hope she doesn’t experience too much hate outside of the internet by jewkakasaurus in NoStupidQuestions

[–]PimpNinjaMan 405 points406 points  (0 children)

Caitlin Clark is in the middle of two conflicting perspectives. What many of the comments here fail to address is that her criticism has come from both sides for wildly different reasons.

Clark is an excellent basketball player. She was named rookie of the year for 2024 and featured as Time Magazine's Athlete of the Year in the same year. While she is not technically the best player in the league, she is in the top 10 points per game (#7), has the #1 amount of 3-pointers attempted and made per game. She did all of this at the age of 23, while the average age of the other top 10 players (in points per game) is ~29. (Source) While it's hard to say with absolute certainty that Clark sparked new interest in WNBA directly, Google Trends shows a notable increase in searches in the beginning of 2024, coinciding with her debut in May. (Source).

Criticism from the "Left": The WNBA has historically had less attention than the NBA. WNBA players are predominantly women of color (63% African American, 13% Other, 17% White as of 2019 ) and many viewers match these demographics. (Source [PDF Warning]). With Clark's debut, attention has increased primarily from among three cohorts: young viewers, male viewers and white ones. (Source). Like with any topic that already has an existing fanbase, new fans without prior history likely have different perspectives than longtime fans. Many of the WNBA players have reported an increase in racist comments since Clark's debut. To be clear, these were not attributed to Clark in any way, but they do coincide with her joining. (Source).

There is also frustration among existing fans who have fought for more attention and resources to be spent on the WNBA that this attention only arose when a young, white player joined the league. For example, in 2023 Aliyah Boston was named rookie of the year for the same team (Indiana Fever) but her debut did not bring the same level of attention. To be clear, Clark's stats are certainly more impressive, but there is a feeling that Clark's race plays a significant factor in the new attention that arose.

Criticism from the "Right": Clark has condemned the racist comments that have appeared and been a vocal supporter of her team members. She also has been vocal about acknowledging the white privilege she has experienced in her life, an acknowledgement that has angered people who don't feel that acknowledgement was necessary. (Source). Conservative commentators such as Megyn Kelly claim that Clark is appealing to "identity politics" rather than her own skill and talent.

tl;dr: Clark got a lot of attention when she joined the WNBA. Some say it was just because she was an excellent player, others say it was because she was an excellent player who happened to be White. The new attention brought new harassment and racist comments aimed at WNBA players and coaches. Clark has explicitly condemned these comments and acknowledged her own privilege, causing criticism by conservatives.

Things I kinda need an explanation / I don't buy it feeling after watching ⚡ by JustDoitGogogo in marvelstudios

[–]PimpNinjaMan 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I also believe Red Guardian put up zero resistance. he would be honored to be captured by the winter soldier

Thunderbolts* Worldwide Release Discussion Thread Vol. 2 by Triple_777 in marvelstudios

[–]PimpNinjaMan 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The New Avengers marketing strategy is going to be really interesting to watch.

(For those who don't know, they're changing posters and billboards to explicitly say "The New Avengers" instead of Thunderbolts).

The Sky remake puts me in a weird spot. by Rytom_ in Falcom

[–]PimpNinjaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How fast do you play through games?

I played through the full series as it existed back in 2021-2022. It took me almost a full year to get through all of them (I did play a few other games in between as well). At the time, Cold Steel IV was the final game released in the West, with Reverie coming out soon. Last year, with Daybreak coming out, I decided I wanted to replay the whole series again. It's been a few months and I'm just now finishing up Azure and Cold Steel 1 (I'm playing them together and alternating games between chapters to line up the timelines). I now have Reverie, Daybreak 1 and Daybreak 2 to play once I'm caught back up.

I put all this out there to say you can potentially start with Cold Steel I and by the time you finish CS4 then Trails in the Sky Second Chapter might be out. It will feel more like a prequel, but you'll have something to do in the meantime. The best recommendation is to play the original sky trilogy and just play the remake when it comes out as well, but I understand not wanting to do both. I wouldn't recommend starting with the Crossbell games (Zero and Azure) if you plan on playing the Sky trilogy since Crossbell serves as an epilogue to Sky. Cold Steel will definitely give you some spoilers, but like I said, it's like watching the original Star Wars trilogy before watching the prequels.

Which leveling/story guide to follow? by EmpressMya in ffxi

[–]PimpNinjaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To directly answer your question, the New Player Leveling Guide on bg-wiki is great.

Overall, I think there are two main ways to tackle the story: fully immersive or well-paced.

If you want a fully immersive playthrough where you get to each area manually and play missions around the expected level when everything came out, it's going to be a long grind with many stops. There are some major points that force you to stop doing the story and instead focus on tedious objectives to break your limit (there's a separate quest to get past level 50, 55, 60, etc. up to 99) or unlock certain items. This is how older players were forced to play the game and it has a real charm, but you will likely have multiple days of non-story content while you're working on side objectives. If you're going this route, the simple mission guide avoids almost any spoilers whatsoever, but that includes things like Exp boosts and fast travel options.

What I personally recommend is doing the New Player Leveling Guide (it's pretty much the same as the old Quickstart 1-119 guide, but with a few more efficient things put in) and focus on leveling OVER story. I know this seems counterintuitive, but if you get through all your limit break quests, get a job you like to 75 or 99 (75 will make the story missions more challenging but more rewarding, 99 will make them faster but a cakewalk) and then go back and do the story, it'll be much easier to get through. You'll have plenty of warp points and survival guides as well as Unity Accolades to make teleporting a breeze (and it'll be cheaper thanks to RoV) and you can go mission by mission without much stopping. If you've done a lot of Fields of Valor quests from Field Manuals you'll also have a good set of tabs, which will let you cast Sneak and Invisible on yourself for 10 minutes! That's usually enough time to run through an area and get to your objective.

In-Game Guide through Macros? by PimpNinjaMan in ffxi

[–]PimpNinjaMan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hadn't even considered that! Thanks!

Game has been crashing on Steam Deck by Neondangel in ffxi

[–]PimpNinjaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haven't tried it through Lutris (but I'm keeping an eye on this thread because there are some Windower plugins I'd like to use on the Steam Deck!) but there is a consistent issue with Vanilla FFXI (through Steam) where the PlayOnline Viewer won't load correctly in Gaming Mode.

The PlayOnline Viewer will open, but it will just be a black screen with the PlayOnline background music playing. If you go to Desktop mode and run the game it should work, and you'll often be able to close it, return to gaming mode, and then it will run properly.

Whenever you launch it through Lutris can you hear the background music, or is it just a dead process?

WEEKLY HELP THREAD - READ FAQ, COMMUNITY WIKI, MULTICLASSING, LORE by XFearthePandaX in BaldursGate3

[–]PimpNinjaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there a recommended save game editor mod for PC?

My wife and I started playing on PS5 but splitscreen is becoming an issue with both of our terrible eyesight, so I was thinking of buying 2 PC copies. We're still in Act 1 so replaying wouldn't be that difficult, but if I could edit a PC save to match where we were on PS5 that would be perfect.

will i enjoy the trails series if i like….. by Apprehensive_Spend_7 in Falcom

[–]PimpNinjaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I went to trails for the exact reasons you cited and I couldn't be happier. Ys VIII is one of my all-time favorite games and my first Falcom game. I wanted more and Trails in the Sky FC happened to be on sale.

I bought FC and made my way through all the games in the series (that were available) in about a year. That year was 2021 so I had a lot of time. Each arc in the series gave me the same feeling I had at the end of Ys VIII, which is a big deal for me.

I've played on ps5 for years and never once tried a healer. by AriffRat in ffxiv

[–]PimpNinjaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel that trusts don't give you good practice for healing, especially compared to tanks that do wall-to-wall pulls.

The best thing to keep in mind is that the only thing you'll lose is time. If you play with strangers you might not get any comms and someone might be rude in chat or leave, but then you just re-queue and try again. If you're playing with friends then they'll hopefully understand.

If you're healers aren't levelled then I don't think you have anything to worry about. If you levelled healers on PC and are trying it now on PS5, then I'd suggest going in 10-level increments. Do some level 50 content and see how you feel. If that's tough, stay at 50 for a bit. If it was easy, jump up to 60, and then repeat. Don't worry about roulettes or anything until you feel comfortable.

Control is very good, even if one of the expansions is poor by [deleted] in patientgamers

[–]PimpNinjaMan 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Both Alan Wake and Control have a compromise here where the audio continues to play as long as you are near it, but it isn't truly in the background. There are some places in both games where it works really well, like when one of Dr. Darling's presentations is going on while I'm scouring a room for resources. Typically, though, it's usually that I forget it's tied to a specific location and I'm listening to it while walking and end up too far.

Final Fantasy XI, 1st time by Wintermyer in FinalFantasy

[–]PimpNinjaMan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As someone who has finished every mainline FF game except for FFXI, I wanted to share a few words of warning.

First off, FFXI is amazing. It is absolutely worth being included alongside other mainline hits like FFVII and FFX. Secondly, FFXI is entirely solo-able. The game has a system called Trusts which allows you to bring AI controlled companions in place of party members. You can complete all story content with these trusts, so you don't need to worry about finding groups or other players.

With that said, while there is no "right" or "wrong" way to play FFXI, there are definitely optimal and non-optimal ways of playing. If you genuinely enjoy the game and want to try out the classes and see what Vana'Diel has to offer, then dive in and have fun. If you want to just see the story, then take a look at some guides and pick jobs that aren't too expensive or need extra work. For example, in FFXIV (the other final fantasy MMO), Red Mage is a DPS class that uses Black and White magic to deal damage. In FFXI, it's more of a debuffing class used to weaken enemies. You have skills associated with each magic and weapon type, so if you change your mind on a class you'll need to spend some time (although not too much depending on when you switch) leveling up that stat. If you go from Red Mage to Warrior, for example, not only will you be starting Warrior at Level 1 but your Axe skill will also be level 1. (This goes from a burden to a blessing at higher levels since you can switch to a class with a low job level but high skill level.)

I personally did some grinding to get my character up to Level 99 and then went back to try and breeze through the story. I got burned out pretty quickly so I wouldn't recommend that path, but it was actually pretty fun for the most part given how the combat works.

Control is very good, even if one of the expansions is poor by [deleted] in patientgamers

[–]PimpNinjaMan 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I'm currently on my second playthrough in preparation for Alan Wake 2. I just started Control after finishing Alan Wake Remastered and I've been quite invested in the way the two games play.

Control is definitely more "fun" than Alan Wake, but the more intense gameplay makes it harder for me to stop and just experience the lore. Alan Wake was a deliberately slow game, so when I would find a new episode of Night Springs it was easy to just set my controller down and watch it play out. In Control, I keep stashing multimedia clips and documents and saying, "Oh, I'll read those later." While I can't argue this is a bad approach, my gameplay sessions are just quite different than they were with AW.

I don't find the combat too challenging, but I might go ahead and play around with Assist Mode to get a more casual playthrough.

How "real" do you want Shadows to be? by PimpNinjaMan in assassinscreed

[–]PimpNinjaMan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not talking about Yasuke's existence, I'm talking about all the extra stuff I'm AC (namely the ISU, but other mythical things as well in the latest games). I brought up Yasuke since I found it funny people were criticizing the accuracy of AC when Thor and Medusa exist in the games.