One Summer week down, 12 more to go.
This week we reviewed Elite: Dangerous on PS4, Valkyria Revolution, and Zelda’s first expansion ever, The Master Trials. Note that James is currently working on a review for Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy—our review copy came in late.
Among our features for the week was a look at Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood’s beautiful graphics, analysis of progression in current game design, a comprehensive eSports calendar for July, and a write-up about the new Necromancer class in Diablo 3.
Next week we’ll have a review for Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy—our review copy came in late—, coverage of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, and some monthly features, including our Buy, Die, Try release calendar.
Below you will find 10 of the most popular comments made by users in our comments section and forum during the past seven days.
1. bigtruckseriesreview
Article: Elite: Dangerous (PS4) Review – A Fully Simulated Milky Way Arrives on PlayStation
Comment: The first Desktop PC I ever bought, I bought to play the Babylon 5 space Combat Simulator which was VAPORWARE due to Sierra screwing the entire thing up.
I wanted to be able to fly Starfuries and fight other Alien races.
COLONY WARS on Playstation with the Playstation Dual Analog flight stick is probably the best space combat game I’ve ever played or ever will play because:
#1 There’s no good, coherent control scheme across the board for Elite Dangerous players. This type of space combat game NEEDS a dual analog flight stick with HOTAS controls. (Would have been perfect for Starfuries).
Playing with a “jet fighter” HOTAS usually falls into just a few categories: designed for the A10, the F16 or the F15. None of them offer the 6-degrees of freedom that the original Dual Analog Flight Stick offered.
#2 All gamers won’t get the same experience – and this game edges towards a good reason to buy PS4 VR which means those who have the money will get way more out of it than those without.
This kind of game demands a 4K TV if you lack the VR equipment since it’s eye candy/ tech demonstration.
#3 These games are more open-world, which leads to the boredom you talked about. In the good old days you had very specific mission objectives, branching storyline-mission structure based on performance and unlockables based on best performances.
But that was long before multiplayer on the internet for home-consoles.
This game’s multiplayer would be incredible with a Dual Analog Flight stick and VR.
2. The_bad_who
Thread: Vote For Your Most Anticipated Game During Q3/Q4 2017
Post: Shadow of War for sure! What I saw at E3 makes me want to get it as soon as it comes out. I thought the first one was okay, but was just on the verge of being really awesome. This one looks like it crossed that line and more.
My “real” pick is Uncharted The Lost Legacy though. I’m an true Uncharted junkie and even a shorter game gets me hyped though the roof!
3. Starling
Article: 15 Beautiful FFXIV: Stormblood Screenshots Taken with Improved Group Pose Camera
Comment: Rhalgr’s Reach at Night, a place so calm and yet so busy with some of the nicest of musics playing. Can’t resist sitting down at one of the campfires while hoping to catch some of that stew that’s cooking.
4. Chunibrow
Article: 10 Games You Should Buy Before This Year’s Steam Summer Sale Ends
Comment: Hmmm civ iv is sooooo tempting. Also for anyone who wants to spend less money and hasn’t played civ v for the love of God buy that.
5. bretimus
Thread: What Are You Playing? – The Official Thread
Post: Both great games, but Firewatch really wrapped me up. I couldn’t stop playing it.
Been playing a lot of Injustice 2 when I get free time.
6. Master_Craig
Thread: Do You Even Lift?
Post: That’s still a really awesome effort, Urban. Great job, man. 🙂
Really sorry, a disclaimer: I’m really into this kinda stuff so uh, my next post is certainly going to be “TL;DR”.
Unfortunately, when it comes to losing body fat (not necessarily “weight” but you know), nutrition is the key. I don’t know where people get these numbers from, but it’s often claimed that successful weight (body fat) loss is apparently “80% diet, 20% exercise”. I believe this to be true. Ever since I got my nutrition sorted, or at the very least started eating better, I’ve had much better results in terms of fat loss and strength gain.
With diet, you do not have to behave 100%. I’ve been told to follow an 80/20 rule, so 80% good healthy food, and a maximum of 20% unhealthy food. Obviously, the less unhealthy foods we eat, the better, but at the end of the day we all have a life and we have our own indulgences. I’ve been told that if you’re gonna scrap anything unhealthy – alcohol should be the first to go.
I don’t want to disagree with you Urban but to be honest, you do not have to do cardiovascular exercise to lose body fat. You can lose body fat by weight training alone, but the weight training must be smart (e.g. three to four days a week of heavy, compound lifting e.g. squat, bench press, dead lift etc. basically lifts that utilize multiple muscles at once) and of course, nutrition is the absolute key. In saying that, yes, cardiovascular exercise can help people lose body fat, absolutely, no denying that.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe cardio is still an important aspect of physical exercise, due to the physical conditioning it can provide us, e.g. increasing our overall cardiovascular fitness, oxygen intake etc. but I’m just pointing out that in regards to fat loss, it’s not actually necessary.
Regarding weight training, I’m being coached to train to failure. So every single exercise I do, regardless of its weight, I just need to attempt as many reps as safely possible. For example, here’s yesterday with squats, my first exercise:
Set 1: 122.5 kg (270 Ibs) to fail = 8 reps (no belt), rest 3 – 5 minutes after, could have probably got more reps if I wore my belt
Set 2: 130 kg (286 Ibs) to fail = 7 reps (belt), rest 3 – 5 minutes after
Set 3: 140 kg (308 Ibs) to fail = 4 reps (belt)
In my opinion (based off my own experiences and guided training), lifting weights should probably be done anywhere three to five times a week and should be done in a matter where it’s always going up. So every week, you’re going to be lifting heavier weight, which will result in fewer reps. I’d suggest to train in cycles as well, whether it’s four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks or even ten (personally I do four). I’ll show you what I mean below, using my dead lift as an example:
Month 1 (May):
Previous 1 rep max dead lift: 170 kg (374 Ibs)
Week 1: 132.5 kg (292 Ibs) 8 – 12 reps
Week 2: 142.5 kg (314 Ibs) 5 – 8 reps
Week 3: 152.5 kg (336 Ibs) 3 – 5 reps
Week 4: 162.5 kg (358 Ibs) 1 – 3 reps
Week 4 End: 190 kg (418 Ibs) kg new 1 rep max
Month 2 (June):
Previous 1 rep max dead lift: 190 kg (418 Ibs)
Week 1: 152.5 kg (336 Ibs) 8 – 12 reps
Week 2: 162.5 kg (358 Ibs) 5 – 8 reps
Week 3: 170 kg (374 Ibs) 3 – 5 reps
Week 4: 182.5 kg (402 Ibs) 1 – 3 reps
Week 4 End: 200 kg (440 Ibs) 1 rep max
So as you can see, in Week 1 of May, the dead lift is quite light, with many reps. As we go further into the month, the weight increases, the reps decrease. Once the first month is over and we move into the first week of the second month (technically week 5) we drop back down to a lighter weight with many reps, but the starting weight is greater than the first month’s starting weight. So when you think about it, it’s like a stair case, with the aim of always trying to go further up.
Anyway. Hooray for exercise. Having a healthy balance of weight lifting and cardio is a good idea. I’d probably suggest more weights, less cardio, e.g. three to four days of weight lifting, two to three days of high intensity cardio, with at least one rest day so you can chill out and relax. Aside from nutrition, other factors that can contribute to weight loss/gain is how much sleep you get per night as well as how much water you drink per day.
Regarding food, I’ll post some quick and healthy recipes a little later. Maybe in the Cooking For n00bs thread?
Madster, if you’re interested, since you’re in ‘Straya, I can point you to the services I use to do my weight/diet program.
7. Commiebot
Article: Friday the 13th Glitch Videos Won’t Be Taken Down by Devs
Comment: I am loving everything that I hear from these guys, and it honestly brightens my outlook on gaming’s future. These guys were making a Friday the 13th homage and made a good proof of concept that they were granted the rights to the license. They release without a litany of delays, and the only major launch issue was that simply too many people wanted to play for their servers to handle. They’re releasing new content, they’re fixing bugs, and they’re listening to their user base. As we should all hope for. Heavens above, do not let EA get any ideas about getting their hooks in them.
8. sean
Article: By and Large, Competitive Multiplayer Games Just Haven’t Figured Out Progression
Comment: The progression is absorbed by micro transactions. Why? The Damn kids that play the games I like or idiots that pay 60 bucks for a game, then on the first day pay 60 bucks for all the “perks” as opposed to actually playing the game. The former has virtually unlimited access to money, as they have no bills to pay.
So game companies have no reason to reward me because I’m not payng more than 60 bucks for a game. The above 2? The game company can siphon hundreds of dollars out of each of them. Economics of the young idiot and the old idiot with more money than sense.
9. mcaballero
Article: Valkyria Revolution Review – Pseudo Revolutionary
Comment: Exactly what I was expecting after seeing the trailers for this game. Such a shame, the original Valkyria Chronicles is one of the best games in the last console-generation, and I keep waiting for a proper sequel…
10. sliverstorm
Article: Tell GR: Are You Interested in the SNES Classic Edition?
Comment: It’s a godly list of games. DKC 2+3, Megaman X 2+3, Chrono Trigger, and UMK3 would have basically had them boxing up a large portion of my childhood.
That said, I have all that covered already, so much like NES classic, I don’t see the need beyond getting to feel the original controller in a convenient form factor.
