popcorn_skollie

pmd

Sjoe! Congrats my bru. Also what do you want for the red stem?

Highlight reel from my favourite streamer. https://youtu.be/8fE89fBuhuE Apex Legends has managed to beat Fortnite’s record for single day Twitch viewing. On the 12th of February, the tracker found that there were about 8.4 million hours of matches being watched. This is versus Fortnite in which Season 5’s launch managed to clock 7.2 million hours. For some context I included the clip above. There are many pro game streamers. Some more popular than others. They broadcast their games live via twitch or youtube and thousands of people tune in just to watch. One of the major effects of live streaming is something called 'stream snipers' Where viewers are able to pinpoint streamers playing. Which servers they are on with insight into where they are on the map and what they see since they're being watched live. As a result these guys know exactly where to find pros streaming and streamers end up being rushed by players trying to kill them. Who are probably watching them live on a seperate screen. So they know exactly where they are and what they doing. It makes for great action though because streamers have to defend themselves against waves of other players. The skill that some of these streamers have however is just inhuman. And more often than not just end up killing everyone that come at them. On this fateful night we ended up having a streamer as our third teammate. Our friends were already squaded up and we were the only two left looking for a random third. And man did we get a good one. The game was intense as people knew where we were and just kept coming at us. He carried us like you wouldn't believe. This guys skill was off the charts. I mean. 14 kills! jeez...We ended up winning what was probably the most exciting round I had so far.

I've always been on the slow side of rebound. Just a few clicks from slowest. I always felt like your rebound should be as fast as you are comfortable with. Right now I feel better with a slightly faster rebound on the rear than I have on the fork. Only because I need to manage a greater degree of control on the front of my bike while riding. Especially on jumps where the launch has a bit of a kick. I also generally prefer the slower rebound on the fork over rough stuff. I'm not a fan of a high stack cockpit either. Generally prefer bars as flat as I can get them. Especially with a longer fork. It just feels like I have more control. More receptive to what the dirt is doing under me. I guess its more a case of how comfortable I feel with the way my bike handles as apposed to how well it performs. Trance with Mattoc pro 2 and an evol kashima.

It does suit the pace of the game quite nicely. You're also able to climb a vertical surface by holding the jump button. There is also zip lining and no fall damage at all. But there are things I feel the game should implement which should feel right at home in the way characters move. Quake or Unreal style agility like rocket jumping, platform boosting and wall running. Double tapping the movement keys for quick dodging would also be nice.

I don't think it will dethrone Fortnite. Not anytime soon anyways. I've seen some pretty crazy gameplay in Fortnite especially the way players build on the fly during combat. But I feel like the game has already plateaued in terms of what remains to be seen in terms of player creativity. Apex has a different angle though. It's kinda like Overwatch or Destiny mashed up with PUBG or Fortnite. Once you learn the characters and each of their abilities it gets pretty interesting. These character abilities allow for a much larger scale of randomness, unpredictability and player creativity. So suddenly your impulses during battle have way more options to consider. Throw in team work chemistry and it gets really hard to assume what happens next.

So who's tried Apex Legends? If you haven't you really should. Its free to play on pc, xbox and ps. https://youtu.be/UMJb_mkqynU

Always liked young Ozzy's voice over Plant. That unmistakable tone in his range was made for vinyl. https://youtu.be/0qanF-91aJo

Much of mehness if you ask me. Its nice. But then again so are many others. Besides GG. Its been a while since I've seen something really interesting. I'd personally like to see some 29er super enduros. Not too many of those around.

The head tube must be one of my favorite design elements about this bike. I don't think so. We're talking about actual wheel travel here. A mere 45mm to be exact. Which really isn't that much clearance in the grand scheme of things. Easily achieved with the right wheel path. The only thing I'm kinda curious about is how much of a difference full compression will have to the bb drop in different settings. In an industry where so many manufacturers try an sell you so many different bikes with small differences between them. (Not that small differences don't translate into a completely different bike but still) The differences to achieve something completely different is often just a few mm here and a degree or 2 there. Its refreshing to see such versatility being maximized upon with clever design implementation. Its always been possible. GG is just showing us how they went about achieving that versatility.

Kyk hulle

Arrived at our base of operations. Our company currently has 150 members (including 20 South Africans). We are also allied with other companies on the same and surrounding islands but not everyone in our vicinity has agreed to play nice. But that's what makes the game fun anyways. Considering our company size (company is Atlas's name for your tribe, clan, family, guild or whatever) We're pretty well organised with different roles to play. Our Port. Some of our tames. Elephants are very usefull. They carry tons of weight and you can ride them to farm or move heavy parts for building boats and structures. At this point I had learned a few things as I progressed with the help of company players. I levelled up enough to craft some good armour and weapons Not sure what lions are good for besides riding hunting for meat etc. Aboard our first Brigantine (A ship second in size only to the Galleon) This boat sunk in combat out at sea with evemies. We were outnumberd and reinforcements were too far away. Those Russians took everything. Our second Brig. We called her The X Wife. She's been good to us so far. We had an extensive battle at sea with one of the top ten globally ranked companies. We survived the fight and when they retreated we too fell back. Deciding that repairing the ship was more important. It was too risky to chase them. I jumped when I spotted a treasure map in the water. Here I am swimming back to it.

Now when I refer to scale I don't just mean the geographical size of the map itself itself. The game developers covered just about every aspect of every object contained within the game. And when you consider all these things you realise the enormity of it all. The amount of work that was put in from a developer standpoint and just how hard it is to find a balance with so many game elements in a single title. Enemy boat spotted. Well anyone that is not highlighted in green (my company) or blue (allies) would be red. So these players saw me at sea and decided I wasn't worth the trouble. They didn't help me either though. Exploring the wildlands looking for resources and food. Fell off the raft to be greeted by two sharks I didnt have the resources nor learned the skill to tame a wild horse at this point but I sure could use him. Everything in this game is ranked according to levels. Each player levels up as they progress through the game. Gaining experience by farming and mining various resources and raw materials. Discovering new lands. Slaying other players or destroying their structures or ships etc. Farmed resources are used to craft tools, weapons, clothing, armour and more. Tools are used to build structures ports and vessels. All which come in various materials. Whether you're a low level solo player with a thatch hut stranded on a small island. Or wheather you're part of a company of 150 other players who build a massive fortified base of operations out of steel, stone and wood. Every structure, tool, weapon, and random items come with its own criteria. Its durability, how well it stands up to damage from either enemy attacks or simply extensive use, how much it weighs (which is another topic altogether because you have to manage your own weight, the weight of your ship etc and every item in the game has a different amount of weight. Then there are the animals in game. Both wild and tamed (more on that later) They too vary in levels. There are to my knowledge 150 wild animals in Atlas. Most of which can be tamed for various uses like farming, riding, or combat. Of course it wouldn't be a pirate game if you couldn't tame a wild parrot and have it on your shoulder. But you could also opt for a vulture or monkey like I did. Having a pet monkey gives you a health regen buff as a perk. Other than that cows give you milk, you can ride horses, bears, tigers, lions and even ancient and mythical creatures which can fly like dinosaurs, dragons and the infamous Hydra. Here I am with my pet monkey. Who was eaten by a shark last night. RIP King Julian.

Welcome to Atlas. After 40 hours of endless frustration regarding connection issues, game crashes, bugs and broken mechanics. I keep returning to this game and so do thousands of other players. It suffered from one of the worst launches in gaming history with most user reviews being overwhelmingly negative. Yet, thousands upon thousands of people continue to play it more and more. Ironically, considering the games reviews. Having people continuously playing it is testament to just how enormous its potential is. It comes with the promise of a superb and unique to each player adventure. And if you want an authentic pirate pvp experience it doesn't get any better than this. In what must be the most ambitious venture from a gaming developer to date. Atlas is a massive open world pirate themed survival mmo game. For some perspective if you've played Ark. Which in its own right is huge. The Atlas map as it stands now is 1,200 times the size of Ark's island. If you had the fastest ship, assuming that you could sail in a straight line and the winds were in your favour. It would take 30 hours in real time, to sail from one side of the map to the other. The map is so huge that it is split up into a grid of a hundred odd squares, where each square on the grid has its own server filled a few hundred players. A few screenshots of my first venture out. I'll follow the next couple posts with more about my experience in this game.

I debated this tech with friends since playstation now. Which incorporates something very similar. And the more I think about it. The more it makes sense. And I believe that its developing tech like this that will bring hi end gaming to the masses. The value prospect of going this route is a no brainer. At today's exchange rate we talking about R320 per month to have access to a rig that will crap on the system requirements of any AAA title. Not to mention that it inculdes hardware upgrades to stay with the times. On top of that it also includes blistering fast internet. Assuming we ever have the type of infrastructure locally to support this working seamlessly. I don't think I'll every buy another gaming rig again.

A must watch https://youtu.be/0BQ4bXNdEQI

Early access goes live on steam in 3 days at a rumoured $30. Its probably the most ambitious multiplayer game ever. I'm definitely in for this one... https://youtu.be/7ObI3AWabGM ABOUT THIS GAME From the creators of ARK: Survival Evolved comes ATLAS - a massively multiplayer first-and-third-person fantasy pirate adventure. ATLAS will host up to 40,000 players exploring the same Globe simultaneously, with an unprecedented scale of cooperation and conflict! Stake your claim in this endless open world as you conquer territory, construct ships, search for buried treasure, assemble forts, plunder settlements and hire crew to join your powerful growing armada. Start small then expand your spheres of influence from a small island, up to an unstoppable pirate empire that spans across the oceans. Wage battle against enemy fleets as you singlehandedly command large ships of war using the captaining system (or divide up to the responsibilities among your trusted lieutenants), or take control of any weapon directly with your own character. Dive deep into the briny water to explore permanent sunken wrecks and recover salvage, unearth the loot from procedurally-generated Treasure Maps and challenge zones, or complete challenging main questlines. Team up with other aspiring adventurers and sail into the vast ocean to discover new lands rich with region-specific elements, tame exotic natural and mythical creatures, raid forgotten tombs, confront powerful ancient gods and even build and administer your own colonies, cities, and civilizations to dominate the ATLAS in this ultimate quest for fortune and glory! MMO On the Grandest Scale Physically sail in real-time across the vast oceans with the proprietary server network technology. Explorers will voyage to over 700 unique landmasses across 45,000 square kilometers, with thousands of Discovery Zones, and ten distinct world regions each having their own unique resources, creatures, secrets, and environment hazards! There is a separately PVE ATLAS for players who don't wish to play any PVP. Construct the Ship of Your Dreams, Plank by Plank! Build drydocks and start with a dinghy rowboat, basic raft, tiny sloop or nimble schooner, moving on up to your own versatile brigantine or titanic galleon capable of transporting hundreds of crew and extensive cargo. Name your ship in big bold letters, paint and copy your own pirate flag and custom-place all the pieces of your ship -- which sails and where, planks and gunports, every single structure piece has a physical Weight and Material -- to function exactly how you want. Captain your Crew! Recruit real players and AI crew from freeports or rescue seasoned crew from destroyed “Army of the Damned” shipwrecks to man distinct stations on your boat! Set sail and explore the ATLAS with them to gain experience and level up their stats or gear, as well as levelling your Ship. Your crew are versatile! Whether on land, or ship, or even riding behind your animal companions on emplacements, they can man weapons of all kinds-- cannons, swivel guns, siege engines, turrets, and even gigantic mortars, many with dynamically swappable ammo types including grapeshot, chainshot, spikeshot, liquid fire, and more! Instruct them to board enemy ships and help you conquer the seas! Keep their stomachs full and their pockets full of gold lest you want a mutiny in your hands! Take on the Captain’s Wheel or divide up the command responsibilities via Lieutenant Podiums to direct the Ship’s assignable weapon systems, sails, and stations, including standing-orders or manual grouped fire. Or, walk up to any station and take control of it yourself! Pirate PVP to the Limit Everything is up for grabs including player’s ships, their crew, their pets, their forts, their land, and their booty. If you can get your hands on it, you can take it. A ship’s permanent logbook tells the tale of their legendary travel, exploits and ownership. Be the Hero or Villain you were meant to be MMO-scale character progression systems include, at launch, over 15 Disciplines with over 300 Skills, in a vast unlockable tree. New "Feat" system allows for active and passive bindable character abilities, while new stat-buff system allows innumerable abstract statistics to be modified by Skills, Items, and Armor. And now, everything has scalable stats, including structures, and can be progressively Upgraded! This is Who You Are Extensive character visual customization enables an endless range of realistic (and not-so-realistic) characters, with a vast array of sliders, morphs, muscle tones, and tweakable values. You can even per-pixel design your own permanent tattoos (and then draw warpaint on top of that too!). If someone exists in the real world, they should be creatable in ATLAS! Best-in-class dynamic hair growth and real-time aging systems allow you to get old and... pass on your legacy? (Or find a fountain of youth!). Endless Adventure Full Quest and Waypoint systems, with sub-quests and rewards, for major goals -- while procedural treasure maps and challenge zones also ensure there's always something new to find out over the horizon.

Yoh...

If you haven't noticed by now I'm a big fan of online pvp games. If I can't shoot another person, bomb something they spent weeks building or chop their head off with an axe I'm generally not interested. As soon as I hear that a game is strictly co-op or pve. I'm like... meh. With the exception of some great single player games when I dont feel like talking to anyone else. Online, player vs player type games is where its at for me. After Conan and Ark I was hooked on survival pvp games. So I hopped on to one of the popular ones I haven't tried yet. This is Rust. It remains one of the most populated games on Steam. Its up there with Pubg, CSGO, Dota etc. That's how many people play it. It doesn't take itself too seriously. And it's pretty simple. Well at least compared to other survival games. It also focusses less on farming or grinding and more on exploring, scavenging and looting to gain resources and learning how to craft things. Which means more time for fun stuff like killing other people and blowing their stuff up, and less time smashing rocks and trees for resources. This is a stream from a few days ago. We are pretty new to the game but my friends have been putting more hours in. So we were a bit more established by the time I got there. The first 7 minutes are just a bit of a tour of the base and inventory and then we go exploring to loot items. At about 07:55 we run into some folk and things get more exciting. Turn up the volume at 08:55. You can here this guy beg for his life after I knock him out. I killed him anyways. Which was pretty hilarious. It carries on from there with more fighting and looting and we end up getting killed. Excuse the bad language (I have a potty mouth when I play games) and so do my friends. Oh and the crude digital nudity and senseless violence. Mature audiences only. NSFW https://youtu.be/CKtolwBS-2U

Nonsense. Its nothing more than progression. You can still pick up signed drivers for cards that are over a decade old from AMD's site. We're talking about support that dates back to before AMD bought ATI. Newer games are often developed in conjunction with gpu devs and game engines are designed around existing architecture. Its like saying I wont buy an ipod because it doesn't support my extensive cd library. If a new game doesn't support older cards. Driver updates on older cards will come to an end when the actual physical architecture of the card itself has become redundant. This doesn't mean that forced unsigned drivers from third parties haven't resulted in a degree of success. But I could put a donkey on rollerskates, slap a rocket to its saddle and it would probably beat any supercar in a drag race. That doesn't mean its a good idea. AMD has always positioned themselves in the market as a brand focussed on offering better value. Despite this they're not always the best value for money. But they often are. If you're in the market for a lower to mid tier card. Chances are you're going to get higher clocks, more cores, more ram, etc for less cash. Unfortunately team red simply doesn't offer GPU's that can compete with Nvidia's top tier cards. So if you're swimming in cash. And want the best damn card money can buy. Then Nvidia is your answer. Driver issues have plagued both sides extensively for years. Both sides are also equally guilty of boasting new architecture which are maybe utilized by a handful of titles only to fizzle out at a later stage. AMD's mantle showed so much promise. As did Nvidia's physx and now they're just buzzwords no-one cares about anymore. We have yet to see if Nvidia's ray tracing will actually take off in games. But even if it does. A decade from now newer titles will still be designed around what the available architecture will be at the time instead of what works for us today.

**** me that's nice

I like the rrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr.... Its works like an audio speedometer of sorts if that makes sense

He's an informant for the feds now. Don't trust him

Was actually thinking which contemporary artists have that old flavour in their voice and not too many come to mine. Adele maybe? Hannah Reid?