#WHY DID IT NUKE THE SATURATION | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

moondonky · 11 months

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Blood

I've been drenched, mauled and scarred, a thousand cuts, ive sweat red, tinted my eyes my hair my skin.. crawled for life, refused to not be left for dead.. banged the fuk up scraped and bruised and mangled and twisted, alot of memories of my blood everywhere.. there's a secret in blood, your not alive, your blood is alive..

Effin millenial why not, words speak louder than war, u can fight Satan with just words, u can cut down demons with just words,, u can save people with just words,, theres alot of shills out there right now, poisien pilling truth, half truths half verses, twisted with bullshit,, they never knew, just a way to monetize like it's sumthing new,, no discernment, they were not around to understand where it stemed from,, just parrots repeating... all of a sudden they will be talking about reptilians or that dinosaurs didn't exist, that nukes don't exist, or that the earth is flat, or that Victorian buildings were all dug up from the past.. talk annunaki and aliens or sum shit,, but first they'll talk about real shit, current shit, and then move to shit they don't even understand where originated from, those are poisen pills created for a reason.. none of that shit benifits you,, but real truth does,, and it can seem like conspiracy, can seem like religion, can seem like spirituality,,, but it's not, truth is a separate thing, it's understanding the world u live in, and how to navigate in it, to avoid certain things u have to know shitty it can be, how shitty people can be,, waking up is a realization of how mentally handicapped everyone is kept,, that most things preventing is in your head... truth will talk about history, and about science and religion and economies, and corruption,, only to understand the present moment, how we got here, what possible futures it could be going, what u can only guess and see what happens... and what could influence it...

It's crazy that what most of these shills say,, can be disproven, but they dont have real arguements do they, ecochambers of nonsense and bots, they are allowed through the algorithms because it benifits those in power,, truth is what's censored and blacklisted and monitored,, uncontrolled intelligence is forbidden..

Truth and those who know truth,, are careful what they say and don't sat much, they wait for the time and place, they watch people get led astray because it's irrelevant... truth already won, it was about people thinking for themselves..

Real truthers do not sell shit,, they are not trying to be rich and famous, they do not sell t shirts, they do not crowdfund, they do not try to get u toblisten to there shitty music, they are not try to get u to be a member on sum website, or content click and watch an ad creators.. every truther I know was just a normal person with normal jobs and normal lives that was smart and on the same trail of information, all met following an invisible pattern that is now cut up erased and saturated , they talked and collaborated and discerned information together, brainstorming for hours, they all had sumthing in common, they all liked solving puzzles and very good with computers.. this was 15 years ago,, the internet is not the same place that it was before,, truth is wild to talk about,, because it has powerful enemies.. as they say truth will set u free,, but u might b killed or driven crazy, ur life might get destroyed, u might be put on lists, u will definitely be persecuted... take it with a grain of salt that's what I did.. cuz it can make u anxious paranoid and depressed, thinking for yourself can be a trip, the world will seem like a matrix filled with npcs n shit, and u will never forget it or stop seeing it.. u will understand ignorance is bliss very quick

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swaps55 · 2 years

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Hi! I’ve been thinking about the Geth and I can’t help but wonder why did they never created a platform that allowed for the use of biotics. I don’t see why this wouldn’t be possible, since everything organic biotics are capable of can also be achieved with machinery, so why not create a Geth that has tech to manipulate dark energy? It would make them even stronger on the battlefield and be useful to make their physical tasks faster and more efficient, yet we never saw a single biotic Geth! Do have any theories as to why?

This is a REALLY excellent question, and I am sorry it has taken me so long to answer it! You are correct – it would be possible. So the question becomes, why don’t they?

Here’s a possibility: they do, only not where we expect to see it.

Keep in mind that biotics can certainly be weaponized, but that doesn’t necessarily make them more effective than more traditional ballistics and weaponry, especially in a universe with mass effect technology. I’ve talked a lot about how the more flashy biotic moves we see in the game lookreally cool, but aren’t necessarily efficient, have very high risk, and potentially low return on investment. I’ve talked in particular about how biotic charge essentially turns a person into a mass accelerated object, which is what your gun does, only the gun does it better with less risk and a heck of a lot less effort. We do it in the game because it’s fucking cool, but from a hard science perspective, there really isn’t a good reason why anyone would fire themselves at an enemy vs. firing their gun (mobility, possibly, but that’s still a very high risk move for likely not high reward).

In the Mass Effect universe, ultimately, the deciding factor in a fight is: Who can get more bullets down the field faster? The way to get past kinetic barriers is to overwhelm and saturate them. The more bullets you hit them with, the better the odds you’ll get some through (hence my pondering about whether or not sniper rifles are actually an effective tool in the Mass Effect universe).

This is a great explanation for why the geth developed and implemented detachable heat sinks for weapons. The real reason, of course, is game mechanics, but there’s a pretty good in-universe reason for this, too, no matter how much I gripe about it. The detachable heat sinks let you spew out more bullets for a longer period, which poses a big advantage in a fire fight.

All of this to say, that while the geth would be capable of weaponizing biotics, they probably don’t see the advantage of doing so vs. simply building a better gun. BUT. They do have other applications where a geth platform capable of manipulating mass would be VERY useful:

Building a Dyson sphere. This is what they were doing when the quarians attacked during the reaper war, and why the quarians are such asshats for essentially nuking a ton of civilians (but that’s a whole other thing).

Being able to manipulate mass would be a huge advantage on a project that size, and I can only imagine what other types of mobile platforms the geth might create for such a project. There’s no reason for them to stick to the ‘organic’ biped look if it doesn’t suit their needs – they’d be free to create whatever tools they needed. Heck, I bet there are some batshit cool geth platforms designed for zero-g construction.

Thank you so much for the question! Again, sorry it took so long to respond.

#biotics #mass effect meta #mass effect musings #lawfulgeek #you ask the COOLEST QUESTIONS #swaps replies

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incarnateirony · 4 years

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If we're looking to puzzles in past seasons, how about Zach's installation of false memories / fake selves in S+D in It's a Terrible Life? How much of it is Zach (or the show) just fucking around for fun? And how can anyone after watching it think Dean is heterosexual, or that the show thinks he is? I'd love to see analysis of all the parallel universes, false futures etc together that looks at what those eps are doing, from What Is and Should Never Be to French Mistake to The Trap

I imagine this is a followup to the time travel ask (x) which I will link here too, because it’s still important, even if this example itself is not time travel. I actually went into the OP and edited in a segment saying honestly, Time Travel takes more Universal Power than Created Spaces, from what I’ve witnessed in Supernatural.

I’m actually going to avoid the “Dean het/bi” argument here for once because, while I do espouse that Dean is now canonically bi via a series of low visibility text, the most textual nail being driven in during Last Call, I generally give that old era I just don’t see the same kind of genuine queer coding. The few episodes they crop up in tend to be Edlund’s and they were an entire universe away from modern Bobo+ episodes in delivery, and I’m just... going to go “nahhh, if you use that as part of what you see by all means, but I’m not about to dive into that with any kind of intent here.”

I did also during my edit point out some stuff in the Trap: That is to say though, that according to this model, there IS still a future out there written somewhere that Dean had to bury Cas in a Malak Box, got overwhelmed by depression, literally gave up, turned into a monster and killed everyone he loved with Sam until he too died. But Not This Sam, Not This Dean.

But to go into the one of false memories and fake selves, we actually go closer to my Thought Boxes experiment. (x)

Unlike The End and Edlund, we lack any kind of creative commentary or even text in the script itself to vaguely IMPLY this was an actual alternate timeline. But all timelines happen within Thought Boxes (see link) that have time installed (as opposed to many heavens being delineated/not having the Swiss Watch installed like Chuck’s worlds, but Chuck isn’t the only one that can perceive of an order.)

This is where things get a little warpy for people: stop thinking of angels as their vessels for a minute. Does Cas properly own his now, is it his own body, yes. But beyond Cas, or even before Cas had his living period(s) (which is actually a great deal of why he’s so thoroughly invested in the human perspective compared to his peers), I need people to realize that “wavelengths of intent” thing is important as fuck.

The faces we see are vessels to interact in a timeline with. They are functionaries, even if some proverbially hit a button like Anael. They are designed to pull out tasks within a universal structure, and also have lesser powers (by scale of their general grade/type) reflective of the divine that created that one. But just like Michael couldn’t actually snap his fingers and nuke them all in Dean’s Thought Box, I gesture at for example Dark Side Of The Moon where while Zachariah mocked them, he actually couldn’t pull out ubermoves on them, and couldn’t find them when they disappeared into Ash’s Thought Box. Because in here, we’re all just mental projections. And in here, we’re all the same. So you can’t. Don’t play God’s game, make him play yours.

We also find out that God had wiped Sam and Dean’s death memories in heaven before, not too unlike Castiel did Lisa and the kid later. Memory manipulation is nothing new.

This seems like a bizarre aside to approach little things like It’s A Terrible Life in, but it’s actually key to nail in. Also, I don’t know how many of you have watched Agents of Shield, but this may help people: When uploaded to the Framework from Aiva’s system rather than an independent one, people completely had their memories messed up. This all actually applies a similar idea. And yet really, think of this as uploading to different worlds. When the Immortal Human Soul, which is timeless, is Uploaded to Earth, they also don’t know anything about their Immortal Past. Now, put a Thought Box inside a Thought Box. Be that Dean thinking he really did own a bar, or Sam thinking he’s a phone center operator, the uploaded individual to the Thought Box does not necessarily retain all they should know, even if things eat at them as right or wrong in the scale of it all until they unlock their true nature.

It’s A Terrible Life is not too different: from MichaelDean’s headbar, from Castiel’s zoned out reality with Lucifer, or whatever else. It is an alternate created space the souls have been packed into, resetting what they know despite what they Know. It too is a venture--if less immediately visibly philosophical--about the (re)discovery of the self.

Now, in It’s A Terrible Life, respectively Zachariah was God (despite actually working on behalf of god Outside of the Terrible Life Thought Box). He designed the entire system and story and rules and regulations for them to play in, a thought box, and one he could directly intervene in, unlike in The End. Power flowed back to Zachariah in this box.

ADLER stands up and presses two fingers to DEAN's forehead. Everything goes from saturated color to dim. DEAN looks around at the office and himself.

DEAN What the hell? Why am I wearing a tie? My God, am I hungry.

And he directly influenced how their bodies reacted, such as the fact that Dean somehow felt fine eating rabbit food rofl.

DEAN Gross. No thank you. So, what? I'm just hallucinating all this? Is that it?

ZACHARIAH Not at all. Real place, real haunting. Just plunked you in the middle without the benefit of your memories.

One might argue this infers that it is a real place *on this earth*, on which neither side actually has receipts as much as “conclusion majority jumps to.” -- In the very least, Zachariah directly impacted the body-cage and its memories and function. But also for Sam and Dean to have been enrolled there, he would have had to do it to an infinite chain of people in their path that wouldn’t notice the new chief of marketing and everybody on the floor knowing Sam and all the weird influences in those people’s lives too. Which again is why I point up to how CENTRAL this Thought Box idea actually is to Supernatural, and how very much Zachariah’s “real place” is just as likely, with all other functions we’ve seen, just like any other Real Place that the characters call Not Real. It isn’t real to Them. Because it’s not their lives and their stories. It doesn’t have their people.

It’s somewhere in an infinite ocean of thought boxes, possibly one created by Zachariah himself since he is literally positioned as a CEO there. Which is... honestly, if you get past the mental hiccup of thinking outside the (thought) box, a far easier resolution to this entire scenario than Zachariah butterfly effecting half the planet just to troll Sam and Dean. And even if he DID do that, there Is the reminder of wavelengths of celestial intent, and how easily Chuck reset the planet’s state of knowing, but Zachariah as a general angel (kerubim by his description of himself) and not God Himself would have limits in that authority, so making a divergent box makes far more sense.

This was when use of Matrix and Baudrillard and whatever else was fairly young in the show, though, so while I can’t swear that was 100% the intent when it was *made* (and again, unlike The End, we have no creative commentary on this that I’ve found), as Dark Side of the Moon came a season later and evoked it, Carver deployed it a few times, and now Dabb Era quite centrally hovers around it, in the very least modern canon and all its evolutions would easily lead to this result.

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psilens · 4 years

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Planetbusters

Planetbusters are one of the staples of sci-fi - after all, what better way to show that the Empire is evil or that the aliens are many times more advanced than us than by having them blow up an enitre planet with a giant death laser or enormous doomsday bomb?

But that’s just the thing - so many writers seem to go straight for the death laser or the doomsday bomb, ignoring all the other, more practical (and dare I even say, more interesting) means of planetary ruin. Let’s take a look at those.

The Scale

First, let’s talk about the scale of devastation we want to inflict. Usually, when you hear the term “planetary destruction”. you imagine an entire planet being blown into space dust, right?

But as cool as that looks, isn’t it unnecessarily wasteful? I mean, it’s not like you’re angry at the planet itself (unless we’re talking about some weird exotic sci-fi shit such as living planets), you’re angry at the people who live there, right? So why not just kill them all and take all their shit, including the planet? If this is a universe where habitable planets are rare (like they seem to be in our universe), then you probably wouldn’t want to waste a perfectly good planet just because you really want its current tenants dead, would you?

But fine, let’s say we’re talking about a universe where habitable planets are a dime a dozen, or maybe you just really don’t care about using this planet and don’t want anybody else to use it either. You’re still gonna need a completely impractical amount of energy to disassemble the whole thing into a cloud of space rocks. And why do that, when all it takes is to destroy the surface? That’s usually where everyone lives, and even if they burrowed underground, they’re still gonna be restricted to the crust because geology, that’s why.

So why not just use a fraction of the energy to glass the surface, killing everyone on the planet and rendering it uninhabitable forever? You still achieve more-or-less the same result - the planet still exists, yeah, but it’s now a scorched lump of dead rock, so who cares? Job’s done, go home, watch galactic TV or whatever.

So yeah, we actually ran into three different levels of planetbusting here:

Planetary Extinction: Kill everyone that lives on the planet. Planet can still be usable afterwards.

Planetary Devastation: Render the planet uninhabitable. Planet is still there, but nobody can live there anymore.

Planetary Annihilation: Obliterate the entire planet - blast it into space dust, vaporize it, drop it into a star, whatever. Whole planet’s gone, you can’t get any more definitive than that.

The Means

So now that we’ve estabilished all this, let’s go back to the actual theme of this little article - how do we achieve something like this. other than the aformentioned death lasers and doomsday bombs? Well, there are several ways.

If you’re just looking to cause a Planetary Extinction scenario, even a simple bioweapon would do. You can engineer it to only target a specific species (useful if you want to keep the biosphere intact), and it spreads itself, so, in theory, you could only have to drop it once into the right area instead of saturation-bombing the entire planet. And once everyone is dead, all their technology and infrastructure is still in place, unless they destroyed it themselves just to spite you I guess. The downside, of course, is that the pesky buggers might find a cure for your bio-engineered superplague, or some individuals might be naturally immune via a fluke of genetics. It’s also not guaranteed that everyone will be infected - a bioweapon generally can’t harm you if you take the proper precautions in time and avoid infection.

For chemical weapons, much of the same applies except they don’t even spread on their own, so that’s not even worth considering for our purposes. What about the third category of currently known and used WMDs, nuclear weapons? That’s a classic - with enough nukes, you could totally destroy all life on a planet, hell, we could probably do it ourselves right now. Some say we almost did, back during the Cold War. With their massive destructive potential and the collateral damage from fallout and nuclear winter, “Nuke them from orbit” is a perfectly viable way to cause either a Planetary Extinction scenario, or perhaps even a Planetary Devastation scenario.

But nukes are kinda expensive, and not to mention, boring, right? Nuclear apocalypse is old news, we read sci-fi to discover something new, right?

Well, have I got the stuff for you. You see, orbital mechanics allows us to turn pretty much anything into a nuke, basically - you just gotta drop it from orbit, let gravity accelerate it, and if it builds up enough kinetic energy and doesn’t burn up in the atmosphere, boom. Kinetic bombardment. Drop some heavy tungsten slugs or even simple asteroids from space, let them fall fast enough, and when they hit the planet, they will create blasts that can easily rival or even exceed that of nuclear bombs, for a miniscule fraction of the cost.

And it gets better - a lot of sci-fi verses have some sort of FTL technology and/or some way to accelerate ships to appreciable fractions of lightspeed, so why not involve them in the equation? If you thought KKV’s (Kinetic Kill Vehicles) were cool, how about RKKV’s (Relativistic Kinetic Kill Vehicles)? And guess what, a sufficiently large and fast RKKV may even be enough to cause a Planetary Annihilation scenario, cracking an entire planet like an egg. The only limit is the author’s imagination.

I do wish more sci-fi works acknowledged the immense destructive potential of orbital kinetic weapons. No need to build ridiculous moon-sized lasers and ludicrously powerful bombs when you already have Sir Isaac Newton on your side, ready to drop some really mean apples on a couple of heads.

#writing #scifi #space

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wahbegan · 5 years

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On the original Gojira

I’m putting this under a read more so that people who don’t care don’t have to have my nerd shit inflicted upon them

People have entirely the wrong impression about Godzilla. Imagine, if you will, a Hollywood movie coming out in 2011 about a giant monster that’s very obviously actually about 9/11. And it’s played completely straight. And the only way to defeat the monster is to do something worse than 9/11.

Doesn’t sound like a fun movie does it?

Japan is a country still, to this day, traumatized by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the oft-forgotten and rarely taught firebombings or “Night Raids” on Tokyo. And why wouldn’t they be? Watch Shin Godzilla, Hideaki Anno’s entry into the franchise, and listen to a few lines.

“The American military is worse than Godzilla.”

“Post-war Japan is a tributary state. Post-war extends forever.”

Several stoic, prim and proper and very Japanese characters are seen breaking down emotionally and crying in anger and frustration when the concept of America nuking Tokyo to kill Godzilla becomes a likely course of action.

Japan has not gotten over what we did to them, and you shouldn’t for one second think that they have. Even besides the bombings, there are the more subtle, political ways in which we made Japan subservient post-war that Shin Godzilla addresses, and some ways it doesn’t.

What comes to mind immediately is the soldiers stationed in Japan that raped thousands of women during “reconstruction”, not even including the brothels set up by the “Recreation and Amusement Association” that was commissioned by the Japanese government in a futile attempt to stop civilian women from being raped. I bring that up because nobody else does.

And I haven’t even touched on the radioactive fallout.

It wasn’t just the bombs, is what I’m saying. It’s easy to say “Oh, we nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this many people died, but we had to bring an end to the war.” The reality is worse. And as surely as people don’t think about it now, the people in command weren’t thinking about it then. To them, it was two bombs, a certain number of civilian casualties, and the gain outweighed the cost.

So the year 1954, when Gojira was created, was not a time of fun monster movies. It was a time of humiliation and trauma.

Gojira is a deeply political and even more deeply depressing movie.

First of all, just from a visual standpoint, I would argue this is where giant monster movies peaked. They didn’t do stop-motion, thank God, because it would take too long, and suitmation was a new technology then.

The thing is...suitmation works better in black-and-white. With subsequent Godzilla movies, with higher quality picture and color, it just served in some ways to highlight how fake everything was. And today, in our world of CGI, not only has CGI not advanced to the point that it looks quite real, but we’re so over-saturated with scenes of cities being destroyed that it means nothing to us. But in this movie, it’s actually fucking scary.

Gojira is lightning in a bottle. I believe it is the one and only film that truly captures the horror, not the spectacle, not the abstract loss of life in figures, but the absolute visceral horror of a city being destroyed.

A mother promises her children they’ll be with their father soon as Godzilla gets closer and everything around them burns

A newscaster whose camera flashes inadvertently attracted Godzilla to their broadcast tower bids his listeners farewell and continues to report on events until the tower is ripped down. You get a PoV shot of falling onto the pavement.

And because it’s all black-and-white and at night and poorly lit, this artistic effect is achieved. It’s almost chiaroscuro. The background is pitch black and Godzilla is a silhouette, lit only by the fires of buildings filled with weeping, screaming people who he’s about to kill. And he does kill people. This Godzilla does not shy away from casualties.

While blockbusters today love to conveniently evacuate everyone, I’d say dozens of people died on-screen in Gojira, and you’re meant to feel it.

The one scene of his rampage through the city is deliberately evokative of the Night Raids on Tokyo. The aftermath looks like it could be a stock photo taken after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And worse, there’s only one way to beat him.

There’s a character, Daisuke Serizawa, who has a cartoonishly terrible life. He was arranged to be married to a girl who okay yeah her father sets it up and i’m not saying she’s at fault, but he clearly loves her, and she’s very clearly with someone else. He’s a WWII vet who lost his eye and, based on his behavior and some of the things he says, I personally believe has PTSD. And he’s a brilliant doctor, whose life’s work has........come to nothing but a horrific weapon of mass destruction.

He shows our protagonist because he loves her as we’ve established, but makes her promise not to tell anyone else. But after seeing what Godzilla did, she’s convinced he’s the only one that can kill It so she tells her boyfriend, and they confront him.

At which point he tells them basically even if I burn my notes, “humans are weak animals” that’s a haunting line makes me wonder what kinda shit he’s seen, basically he knows somebody will find him and force him to make another one. But a conveniently timed news report with a, by the way, fUCKING HAUNTING prayer for peace sung over footage of Tokyo’s devastation convinces him, and he starts burning his notes.

And he goes down with the boyfriend to the watery trench where Godzilla’s sleeping, and he waits until the boyfriend’s out of danger, and then he activates the weapon. And he says “Both of you be happy.” And he kills this walking nuclear holocaust and himself because he knows god damned well as long as he and his knowledge of the Oxygen Destroyer live the cycle’s just going to continue.

And it closes with this dude who’s wanted Godzilla alive to study the whole time basically saying “Well, you know what, as long as we keep nuking shit, another one’s bound to pop up sooner or later.”

It’s fucking DEPRESSING it makes me cry literally every time I watch it sO IF I SEE YOU FUCKING DISMISSING IT AS MONSTER MOVIE DRIVEL I WILL FUCK YOU UP

#Godzilla

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brothermouzongaming · 5 years

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Divisiveness in Rage 2

What little promotional material there was for Rage 2 interested me. The idea of a nitro-fueled FPS surrounding an open world and a heavy power fantasy. I wasn’t expecting an enthralling story with deep and rich characters that would stitch me into the fabric of the world created. I was expecting a rip-roaring hail of bullets in the shape of a gun the likes of which I would ride across the map destroying everything that did so much as exhale in my presence. In short, that is what I got but it’s quite mixed. The “boots on the ground” combat, and I use that term lightly, is smooth as hell and lets you the player take on the various mobs and gangs of the wasteland in the way you want. The vehicular combat is more sparse and anecdotal in the sense that they are typically randomly occurring events as opposed to the convoy routes. The world itself is big but not Horizon Zero Dawn or Assassin’s Creed Odyssey “oh my god how did they even fit all this on one disc” big, it’s more than manageable. The biomes are varied and impressive in detail despite some being more vacant than I’d like. All in all, it’s at the very least better than the bland world of Rage 1, and at best it’s a gorgeous backdrop for the best FPS action since Doom 2016.

Anger Surrounds

There isn’t a lot in the way of introduction and it’s cause the game and it’s creators understand what you’re here for: shooty bang. You literally pick a gender and are handed a gun. After the first big firefight, the world is literally open to you. This exploration is encouraged because you don’t gain abilities or weapons unless you find Arks which are silos scattered around the map. Normally I’d be mad about another icon cluttering the map but it’s at least a way of getting stronger while discovering the hovels and holes your enemies hide in, grabbing some cash and feltrite (upgrade currency) along the way. It’s essentially the best version of the Far Cry towers ever.

The world is very pretty both graphically and from an art direction aspect. Boggy swamps, desert, rocky canyons, and even suburbia is sprinkled into the colorful and sometimes striking scenery of the world around you. Some structures are established like roadblocks, resource stations, or mutant nests, some are just dressing to fill out the world, but the best is the elaborate gang camps that go from close quarters combat to open courtyards that have you working with cover and elevation. Most main and side mission areas appear to be carefully designed to be engaging set pieces that vary from open lots littered with obstacles to break up the battlefield and enhance the functionality of some abilities. If the map itself doesn’t grab you, the way the world is designed to make combat as fun as possible definitely will.

Walker Wasteland Ranger tonight at 9

Rage 1 very much gave you the feeling of having your back against the wall. In Rage 2 if you ever find yourself in that situation you push off that wall and crush whatever is in your way into misy and gristle. You are the baddest thing breathing and everything in this game is about making you feel that. I can’t tell if the progression is deep or cleverly padded and that might be fine by me, I haven’t decided yet. When you first see how many currencies there are in the game it makes anyone that knows what AAA games have been doing lately sweat profusely. Fortunately, Rage 2 gives you plenty of opportunities to load up on the kind of cash you spend in stores, the kind on upgrades, weapon skins and mods, it's all here for you to take when you want it you just have to kill a bunch of baddies to get it. Thankfully there isn’t a single gun that doesn’t feel incredible and unique. From the way the rifle spits a volley or the kick from the shotgun; all of them are a dream and when used in tandem with the abilities it makes for very enticing gameplay. The abilities span all aspects of combat and their refresh time doesn’t allow them to be spammed but lets a player that bounces from skill to skill always have one refresh by the time the effect of the current one wears off. They really found a way for the guns to play into abilities and vice-versa which only makes spicing up combat easier. In Destiny when you throw a grenade, that’s it. Did you use your melee? Oh that’s cool but, that’s also it. In Rage 2 I can mix up abilities to create different means of destruction and death in a much more satisfying way. Even the more nuanced abilities like the Rush and Focus are used to bolster the minimal downtime firefights give you.

From McQueen to Mater

The sixteen vehicles are divisive stars of Rage 2 and it really shows, alongside the facelifted combat, that Id and Avalanche tried to not lose sight of what the original game was focussed around. This rendition’s vehicular combat is much better with weighty pit maneuvers and pretty smart auto tracking from turrets. Alongside this, the vehicles simply must be redone Mad Max vehicles Avalanche never got to use or something cause they just work in a way Bethesda hasn’t been able to claim in a long time. The Phoenix, your signature ride, is the best of both worlds with it being quick and tanky with a litany of additions you can make to it. You’ll see vehicles that have no weapons (why would you even), some speedsters that drop nuke mines behind them, a tank that is slower than frozen shit but also practically indestructible and armed to the teeth. There is fast travel but there is also the Icarus which is a hoverbike and though it can handle like a shopping cart with one wing (more on that later). When it does work its nice to get to where you’re going quicker meanwhile not missing out on any points of interest along the way to where you’re going. Vehicular combat is serviceable and engaging once you get the controls under your fingers.

rAGED

I don’t have too many issues with this game, some are typical nitpicks but others are definitely more egregious. The world though colorful and varied is very “basic open world game” format, I was kind of hoping for some kind of expansion on a version of game we are wildly overly saturated with. The mini games like MobTV and races (which make a comeback from the original) are great but the typical icon littered map is a little draining at times. Which brings me to the endgame because with consideration of just how last gen this game seems to be design wise, I fear they didn’t think about something as “modern” as having an endgame model outside of the season pass and totally unnecessary “live service” content drops. I feel like they missed their own mark and could’ve really populated the world with quite a few more enemies but instead, there are a lot of times where it’s actually quite isolated even in some intriguing areas.

Oh, and every situation that yields dialogue in the open world is wildly repetitive like the writers could not be fucked to give the character anything more than the one decent line you get to hear when approaching a mutant nest, gas station, or bandit hideout or the mobile trader oh my god it’s absolutely torturous especially when you don’t feel like returning to a town and they typically come around fairly consistently.

Back to the Icarus flying bike thing. Mother Fuck that thing can be absolutely unbearable. You see the right trigger merely starts the engines with minor altitude control, the left trigger lowers yourself. The vehicle is supposed to identify altitude and the height of oncoming structures and mountain faces on its own and adjust automatically. But it doesn’t and you’re often sitting there like a fucking idiot ramming into every mountain and building you come across. Why didn’t they map an ascend and descend control to the face buttons? How did no one catch how lopsided that thing controls?

Let’s continue to discuss vehicles, shall we? I talked about the good of the actual combat and the weapons it comes with. What I didn’t talk about was how the controls for said vehicles go from tight and responsive to sludgey and “too fast for the game”. It’s like the vehicle is going too fast for your controller. So many times I’ve gone sailing over the cliffside curve or undercutting and completely killing my momentum. The margin for error is really thin.

The progression system for weapons is...suspect. On the surface, it’s deep, you unlock tiers of upgrades with feltrite and then use upgrade/mod tokens to select the actual mod itself. It seems really unnecessary to have to purchase the ability to spend your tokens to upgrade your weapon. Just typing that made my brain fuzzy, it’s too many steps. At least with the skills each tier in itself comes with a boost to that specific skill but with weapons, you’re literally just adding steps for now real reason. Thankfully there’s no connection to monetization or anything like that. What it does have though is a premium currency for weapon skins which....whoopie...but thankfully that really is the extent of it. Not that it’s okay at all.

Conclusion

People are gonna compare this game to Far Cry New Dawn and I don’t believe many should give too much thought to that comparison. Outside of the bright post-apocalyptic setting (an aesthetic Rage 2 established first for the record), I feel like Rage 2 is more consistent in what it sets out to deliver. Not to mention the combat is just head and shoulders better in Rage 2 and if you go in knowing you won’t leave with a story that changed your life or even really impact you at all but instead expect a white knuckle shooter designed to keep you on your toes and keep the kill count increasing. This game is fun and once this goes on sale there will literally be no excuse.

tl;dr I give Rage 2 an 7 but I can’t stress this enough this is one of the best First Person Shooters I’ve ever played from a mechanics standpoint. The game appears to be this good despite the rest of the game design and execution.

#Rage 2 #bethesda game studios #id software #avalanche studios #video games #gaming

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supernovacity · 5 years

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tumblr always looked bad but man why did they nuke it with saturation today

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twinmoment · 6 years

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Naruto: Kakuzu & Tenzo

Usually Tenzo had no problems with creating shelters. Not when the snow was piling up in drifts around his feet and this sad little hole of a cave was the first practical place to set up in. The location was not an issue, the issue was the deep gash in his side under his ribs that carved around to his kidneys and the former-Akatsuki stitch nin who was glaring at him.

It may just have been exhaustion prodding him or it may have been the sight of Kakuzu who was also swaying on his feet, but the Konoha jounin decided that warmth was worth the risk.

“I’ll build up the walls and a door, if you clean out the floor,” he yelled at the other shinobi, as the wind picked up and the innocent fluffy flakes started to get wetter. Oh yes, sleet and slush. Tonight is going to be wonderful.

For a beat, the man didn’t respond, but then he grunted and walked in. “Fine,” he said in passing before setting to the task.

Taking a bracing breath, Tenzo pressed his lips together and studied the cave opening. It wasn’t all that large, perhaps eight feet at the tallest, but that was a good thing. A few murmured words to go along with a few seals, and thick strong timbers rose up to meet the ceiling just a few inches inside the cliff face. With a minor twist of his fingers, he added in a door with a groove for a handle. Didn’t need anything fancy for the wildlife to appreciate.

I hope there isn’t a bear in there...

A sharp flare of pain reminded him that it didn’t matter if there was a bear, he needed to get inside and tend to his wounds. Fleetingly, he wondered which would be worse, the bear or the ninja. Worse case scenario, I cage the bear or Kakuzu kills me and takes my heart.

Tenzo shook his head as he opened the door and stepped in. He would have killed me already if he wanted to. Wasn’t like the Konoha nin was in any kind of fighting shape. Then again...

The nin who watched him by the meager fireplace didn’t look like he was in any better shape.

Closing the door behind him with a firm tug, Tenzo raised both his hands. “Truce then?” he asked just to be sure. The floor was clean and the door was up, their initial agreement fulfilled. Now, if he had more chakra, he’d put down floorboards as well, but in his current condition, he’d be laid out right next to the first board if he tried.

“Good to know you have some intelligence,” the man responded dismissively. “Truce. For now.”

Tenzo nodded. He couldn’t really push for more. With a sigh, he dropped down to sit on the opposite side of the fire, peeling off his sodden gloves and thumbing open his storage pouch. Thank Kami for storage scrolls.

Kakuzu, meanwhile, had tugged out a small bit of jerky (likely venison) from his hip pouch and started eating it, looking massively unimpressed with the world in general.

Lips twisting in morbid humour, Tenzo swiped a finger over the gash in his side before sweeping the chilled blood out over the seals. When without chakra, blood will suffice. A bedroll, a canteen, and a first aid kit popped out.

Need just a bit more light for this. He dredged up just a little more chakra and added a few branches to the woodpile, tossing one into the fire. Then he began the arduous task of stripping off his top. Good thing my pants are waterproof.

The other man frowned. “Do you have alcohol?”

“Yes,” Tenzo replied, pausing to point at the first aid kit with the kunai he was holding. He was already halfway down his side at the seam of his jacket. Hurt like a bitch, but such was life.

“You’ll need stitching,” the nuke nin continued, eying his injury.

“Again, yes.” He sat, back rigid, as he peeled away the saturated layers of wool and cotton. Taking up a mirror, Tenzo took a look himself. Ugh. Glancing over, he raised a brow. “Are you offering?”

The larger male lifted one shoulder in a careful shrug. “Let me use the alcohol, and I’ll stitch you up,” he responded flatly, eyes narrowed over the cloth on his face.

Tenzo barely kept his mouth from falling open. He hadn’t expected the man to say yes. But... Stitching himself up wasn’t one of his most favourite things to do to himself. Gritting his teeth, he sawed through the rest of his shirts. “Deal,” he gasped out as the cold hit his back and his muscles contracted, pulling at the wound.

“Good. Clean yourself up,” Kakuzu ordered, snatching up the medkit. He fished out the alcohol and set it aside. Then he got out the suture supplies and eyed the other man. “And be quick about it.”

Snarking at the stitch nin would not help, but Tenzo was tempted. “Trust me, I like my blood on the inside.” He reached out gingerly and pulled the medkit back to him, pulling out the disinfectant solution and the gauze. Taking a moment to grab up a glove, he stuck it between his teeth as he swabbed around the gash. After a moment, he found himself blinking as Kakuzu moved forward. “Sorry, you’re going to have to do my back,” Tenzo said spitting out the glove as he slumped onto his side. Oww... “Can’t reach back there.”

Kakuzu huffed but took the solution and moved around him, making quick work of the task (and not really being that gentle about it). “Hand me the wire and needles.”

Wincing, Tenzo carefully reached out, picking up the needle and handing it over, the wire glinting in the firelight and adding white dots to his already spotty vision.

“Now stay still,” was the only warning Tenzo got before the man began carefully and efficiently pulling his skin back together.

Easier said than done, the konoha nin thought, trying to keep his side from tensing up as the wire slithered through. “So, Kakuzu-san.” The line tugged and he fought to keep his breathing even. “What brings you out to these woods?” Conversation with an Akatsuki wasn’t high on his list, but anything to take his attention off the stitching.

“That information will cost you,” was the flat response, as Kakuzu tied off a stitch to begin another.

Tenzo closed his eyes, relishing the brief reprieve. “Ah, right. How much?” Between the blood loss and the bizarre situation, he really didn’t mind bantering.

“Twenty thousand ryo.”

The needle stabbed in the same time as Tenzo yelped, so for arguments sake, his dignity was somewhat preserved. “Ngg... How about a very vague answer?”

Snorting, Kakuzu paused to wipe away the blood, and then continued. “My answer remains the same.”

Blowing out a long careful sigh through his nose, Tenzo closed his eyes. Eh, why not? “If I do pay you,” he began, opening his eyes and peering over his shoulder at his impromptu medic, “is it going to be an interesting answer?”

“Probably not,” the man admitted. “I said not to move.”

“Sorry,” Tenzo said, settling back down. Either the cold or the constant pain was numbing his insides. It wasn’t hurting so much anymore. Most likely it was the anesthetic coating on the wire. “Sure, I’ll pay up.”

“Hmph.” Kakuzu tied off and started a new one. “Providing funds.”

Chuckling was a bad idea, but Tenzo did it anyway. “Of course.” Money first, then story. “Where’s your partner?” If he threw enough ryo at the bastard, would he get enough for a conversation after this?

“Last time I checked,” he said, in a tone that suggested he’d much rather be discussing other things, “Buried.”

Well sure... but it was good to check. Tenzo grunted as the needle went in again. “Right.” Hm, easy answer, thus no charge. “Do you like stitches?” Because Kakuzu was mostly made up of wire and here he was giving Tenzo similar treatment (to a much lesser degree thankfully).

“Do you like constant holes in your flesh?”

“No.” Tenzo frowned. “How does that relate?”

Kakuzu sniffed as he finished up finally. He wiped the blood and got up. “The stitches are always there.”

Tenzo took a breath, and cautiously levered himself up. “Does it hurt?” Because his holes certainly did. Gingerly, he layered the adhesive bandages over the tiny black stitches. “And thank you, by the way.”

Snatching up the alcohol bottle as he sat, the nuke nin shrugged. “It’s just business.”

The permanent stitches he has, or the temporary service I had? Tenzo decided to concentrate more on his own issues, already appreciating the lessened blood flow. Two pain-killer pills from the medkit dulled the edge and he sighed as he picked up the roll of gauze. At least this wasn’t in the middle of his back; binding those wounds was always awkward.

Having nothing else to look at while handling the length of cloth, Tenzo turned his attention to the other man.

Whom was just finishing using the alcohol on an injury in his side. The injury looked.. rather infected.

“What?” Kakuzu growled, finally setting the bottle aside.

Forcing the surprised expression off his face, Tenzo tried for mildly curious instead. “I didn’t think you could get infections.”

“Contrary to popular belief, I’m not a demon,” the stitch-nin responded flatly. “Just unkillable human.”

Uh huh. “Kakuzu-san, let’s just say, I’m surprised any part of your body is susceptible to nature.”

“Many would say the same of you,” the larger male snapped.

#Naruto #Kakuzu #Tenzo #snow #cave #injuries #tw blood #the writings of lost and azhwi #drabble #draft #fanfiction #writing #long post #from the bottle doc

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tiergan-vashir · 7 years

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Art Process

Someone asked me for my process and how I do things. I thought I’d used the latest painting I made as an example, since I was compulsively saving each step of the way and thus have neat snapshots on how things go.

I use Photoshop CC. I used to use Corel Painter, but there are tools in Photoshop that I use all the time for correcting mistakes, which don't exist in Painter (at least the 2012 version.) My brushset can be found here. I spend 90% of my time using the square brush. To have it display properly, you’ll need to grab the little bottom right corner triangle and expand the little brush-window until things look like this:

I typically start off by blocking in big blobby, noodly shapes in greyscale and start sketching/rendering that up with more and more detail. This is all done with the plan that I will add color later via blending modes. By working in greyscale first, I can roughly figure out my values/shading without also having to worry about color at the same time. The old masters used to do something similar with oil painting by creating a grisaille first and adding washes of color later.

Rest of process is under the cut as it is a long post!

To add color my usual choices for blending modes are Multiply layer first right over the greyscale with an Overlay layer on top of that to stop things from getting too dark. I also use Overlay to do a bit of lighting adjustment too if I feel things would look better a bit brighter or darker. I try to also keep warm vs cool colors in mind at this point as well. You’ll notice that Tiergan’s pectorals, face, and the shoulder closest to the light are a bit brighter and warmer - while things get subtly darker and cooler as you get lower down his torso. Things look really funky and weird in this stage, but you just have to trust in the process and know it will gradually get less fugly.

Speaking of blending modes - I love the fuck out of them and I feel like they are an extremely powerful tool in your toolkit. Other blending modes I tend to use sometimes are Saturation (to knock things back if I made the colors too over-saturated using Overlay), Color (for color adjustment like the name suggests), Lighten (to affect only lighter values while leaving darker ones alone), Darken (tweak only darker values while leaving the lighter ones alone, Screen (great for glows), Linear Dodge (extremely situational, but can be neat for rim-lights, magic effects, and LIGHT SABERS if you put the blending mode on your brush).

Once I am satisfied with the color, I flatten everything and resume painting from there in full color, continuing to render and polish everything up, adding in all the details. I tend to do this by making new layers and painting on top instead of directly on my flattened layer. Sometimes I’ll have two or more extra layers set to Normal to paint different things. The reason I do this is so if I don’t like how I’ve rendered things, I can erase parts of it or just nuke it all back to a clean slate - without destroying the base foundation I’ve created. I use a mix of Normal layers and layers with blending modes to render depending on what I need. Sometimes further along in the painting, I’ll realise I want to make things even brighter/darker and push the values more - so I’ll do something like add n Overlay or Multiply layer to do that, then add a Normal layer on top of all of that to keep painting in color. (And then flatten everything again when I start getting antsy about there being too many layers.)

You’ll notice above I realised that I forgot Tiergan’s hair and that he was looking super bald the more I rendered, so I just added it in on its own separate ‘hair’ layer. At the same time, I probably had another layer right beneath it that was just for rendering out all the skin details.

I always try to work as non-destructively as possible. This is also why I have so many versions of the same file and can show you past snapshots of what I was doing - every time I’m about to make a major decision, I save the file as a whole new copy of itself before continuing. Other ways I try to work non-destructively is to use Layer Masks instead of actually erasing things unless I am POSITIVE I want something gone and never want to bring it back.

If my character is on a separate layer from my background (which usually is the case, but not what I did this time around) - I abuse the shit out of Clipping Mask layers to paint only on my character. In fact, I used clipping masks on the ‘Hair’ layer I mentioned earlier to paint only on the hair when I wanted to add lights and shadows to it without risking fucking up the surrounding areas. The shadow cast by the hair onto the skin I did on a different layer just beneath the Hair layer.

Note: If you’re reading this and your first question is “What the heck is a Layer Mask/Clipping mask?” - then HOLY SHIT NUGGETS MY FREN, READ THIS AND FEEL YOUR MIND BEING BLOWN.

When I feel like I'm finished, I more often than not do a final pass of lighting/color adjustments and some finishing touches that would be tougher to do earlier in the process (like scars!) either with blending modes (to push or dial back lights/shadows, adjust colors/saturation) or slap a gradient map on top of everything as an adjustment layer set to low opacity to kinda help harmonize all the colors. It’s a little easier for me to try and bring everything together once all the information is there on the canvas and I just need to tie stuff together.

As for how I blend - almost all my brushes are set to change opacity depending on pen-pressure. Thus when blending values/colors, I just use the eyedropper tool to choose a color/value I want and use light brush-strokes to blend. When I REALLY want something to be soft, I use a big ole fuzzy airbrush-type brush and very, very lightly put down a stroke or two - but I do this very sparingly and try to avoid relying on fuzzy-brushes to blend as it can very quickly lead to your paintings looking like mashed potatoes. Making sure you have a nice mix of hard crisp edges and soft ones will make your work feel nicer.

And that’s it! I hope it was helpful!

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thecoroutfitters · 7 years

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There are almost too many catastrophic possibilities for the end of the world as we know it these days. It’s almost creating an inoculation effect on the public and supporting normalcy bias.

Everything from giant meteors immolating most of the population, to a new and especially violent nation destroying civil war, fomented by billionaire totalitarians manipulating us all against each, other to burn our country down to the ground in anarchy, if they can’t continue their tyrannical agenda.

But most of these are not an imminent threat yet. What I’m talking about is the real time super SHTF world class catastrophes like war, weather, bio-pandemics and terrorism.

Things that are always hanging over us like a hellish cloud that can release its deadly hail storm at any minute.

Here are the ones hitting critical mass. Brace yourselves…

3 Second SEAL Test Will Tell You If You’ll Survive A SHTF Situation

1. Strike on North Korea and the Potential Start of WWIII

In case you haven’t been paying attention, North Korea has been purposefully expanding its effort as an irascible world pestilence since the new Trump Administration arrived.

But history has shown North Korea to always have more ‘bark’ than ‘bite’, and nothing has ever come of it. In fact most people think it’s just their cultural mentality to threaten to nuke the U.S..

It’s the way they do diplomacy. Negotiation shave always failed because right up front the fact is stated that nothing The West wants them to do will be negotiated in talks. So there never will be any talks. This has been going on for decades. So what’s the big deal with all this now?

After all, in a military conflict with the U.S., NK would be like ant’s motor scooter getting run over by a 400 horse power Dodge Ram Charger!

We wouldn’t even need tactical nukes to reduce this insolent rogue country and its Maniac-in-Chief into a bomb crater pockmarked replica of the dark side of the moon? So why not Just continue the status quo and ignore NK altogether?

And maybe release their sanctions on high fructose corn syrup saturated foods, and maybe the tubby Corn flakes bowl haircut tyrant will die of morbid obesity, and be replaced by a less malevolent leadership?

Because this time it’s insanely different. NK has reached a threshold that emboldens him to new heights of deadly hubris. He is building intercontinental nuclear warhead ballistic missiles, and flaunting them in our faces, and then overtly threatening to nuke us with them!

One of Trump’s serious campaign promises was a “vow” to never let North Korea become a military nuclear power able to hit our mainland with nuclear weapons. If that ‘vow’ is not honored, there’s no chance for a second term for Trump and no future for his party.

So when Kim Jong-Un pulled his in-your-American-face missile test stunt last 4th of July, the final tune up of the Pentagon plans to strike North Korea were in play.

Trump doesn’t really have to justify a strike to anybody. You won’t find too many who’ll disagree with the notion that nobody wants to make the mistake made by Germany in the 1930’s by ignoring a similar mad dictator by the name of Hitler, who was basically ignored until it was too late, and he eventually amassed a military powerful enough to cause WWII, which destroyed entire countries!

In the past few weeks, Trump and his advisors carefully orchestrated world opinion to make it appear that we are not aggressors, only peaceful defenders of our land from a severely cracked nut job. Trump’s media courtship of the Chinese to try to persuade North Korea to stop their long range weapons development had everything but the engagement ring on bended knee.

The Chinese, however, threw it back on the U.S. saying that it’s our problem. Beijing confirmed that Kim Jong-Un doesn’t care about threats of military action from the U.S. or any increase in sanctions. He simply will NOT give up his nuclear missile efforts. Period. For Any reason.

Then Trump appealed to other UN world leadership to re-unite against NK for serious pressure and collective sanctions. This kind of obligatory politically correct groveling received no real patronage, and Trump exited the scene of international political ballroom dancing with the ‘anticipated’, but necessary world viewpoint that he did his best to find a peaceful alternative.

But nobody seems to care. So if “it’s only the responsibility of the U.S.”, then the rest of the story will soon become future American Military History.

Any Other Peaceful Options?

Oh, you mean like the North Korean leader suddenly having a “change of heart” and bowing down to the U.S. wearing olive branches on his mandatory state haircut with surrender papers in hand, so he’ll have a new chance to live long enough to grow into middle age while South Korean and Nato inspection teams sweep his country for WMD’s? FAT chance, HaHaHAH!

And How Bad Is That?

According to my mil-intel sources, the only reason this new administration hasn’t initiated a major surgical strike yet to take out his current nuclear arsenal is because of the politically formidable retaliatory response tactics deployed by North Korea in the form of the so-called Pyrrhic Victory principle, making it far too costly in terms of human life to be worth any perceived spoils of victory.

However, as we might painfully see, this might be a moot, and eventually irrelevant factor in the larger analysis for military action justification. With the subjectivity in the decision weighing in the same way it did with the decision to Nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

To prevent even MORE loss of lives and treasure later on in a future conflict with decisive action now. It’s not even a very tough decision for the Trump Administration, considering that WWII precedent and weighing the cost of waiting too long.

It is estimated that there will be over a half million civilian casualties in the first few days of action before it “calms down”. But there will be no escaping the carnage not seen since the Viet Nam conflict, which will be paled by comparison as tens of thousands of heavy artillery and rockets rain down on Seoul. And a massive phalanx of military tanks and choppers on both sides demolish everything in their paths along the DMZ in a firestorm of death.

To preclude the escalation of a larger full scale war between South and North Korea after any initial surgical strike against North Korea’s nuclear missile program, Seoul is now allowing the THAAD anti-missile defense system in South Korea which is the advanced big brother of the Patriot shield system in Israel.

There are also two other relatively secret systems in play and now also being surreptitiously deployed for use to assist THAAD deployment in the taking down any Scud or other medium range heavy payload missiles launched by NK before they reach their targets.

Then What?

“Dogs of War always growl before they attack…but their biting fangs are swift and silent…”

P.J. Klipangle.

Whitehouse Press spokesperson Sarah Huckabee, when asked at a recent press conference about North Korea after an earlier U.S. intercontinental missile test, stated that “no option is off the table but we’re not tipping our hand with details…”

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also said this week that “Conflict is inevitable, unless Pyongyang stops testing weapons”.

North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho just emphasized in an international interview that NK will never quit their nuclear ballistic missile defense program. NEVER!

Kim Jong-Un threatened massive retaliation for the latest sanctions voted on by Congress to cripple at least a third of North Korea’s already brutal economy.

Trump tweeted the other day, that “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met by fire and fury that the world has never seen”.

Up until now, we didn’t care much about his threats. It was estimated that he only had a few nuclear weapons. None capable of threatening the U.S.

That suddenly all changed. The Intelligence community just issued a new devastating alert. It appears that NK had been moving much faster than expected and now has powerful miniaturized nuclear warheads ready to install on their long range intercontinental missiles when perfected in the near future that will be able to reach Chicago.

What they’re not telling you is that one type of nuclear weapon that North Korea had always been interested in developing with the help of Russian and Chinese technology was a high electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) warhead!

Do they also have one of those as well? Vegas won’t give you odds that they don’t.

So here are the details of the military operation they won’t reveal. When our Asian war machine gets revved up and good to go, collateral damage is prepared for and can be controlled and minimized, and South Korea and allies are firmly on board, with a first strike attack, the supercomputer at the Pentagon will give the info and the War Department will analyze the algorithmic percentage of success probabilities and when it gives the “nod”…

Then the U.S. would want to be able to portray an initial attack as just a counter attack which followed a first move by North Korea. So we will wait patiently and likely attack during a future repeat North Korea long range missile test later claiming the missile’s trajectory was analyzed at launch to be a direct preemptive attack on Japan or Guam, or our own mainland.

Or, as just happened these days, we will “set the stage” for this by instigating and goading Kim Dim Wit to take the first punch to get things started. So Trump escalated the testosterone tirades to higher levels by stating that the U.S. war machine will be conducting massive joint allied military staging exercises this month off the coast of Korea, and that the U.S. Armada will then be “locked and loaded”!

And the toady Tyrant Boy responded with a detailed threat to immediately wipe out Guam if that occurred!

“ When the instruments of death are tuned up and the Orchestra of War is ready to play, The ‘Conductor’ will raise his mighty baton, and begin the ‘concert’ of death and destruction…”

P.J. Klipangle.

Will you be “enjoying” the music? I hope you are at least prepping for it?

3 Second SEAL Test Will Tell You If You’ll Survive A SHTF Situation

The more serious problem with this powerful poker hand are the two wild cards that are still waiting to be turned over on the world gaming table.

One, is whether or not the Pentagon will decide to use smaller scale tactical nukes on NK to end the war quickly and save prolonged engagement and allied casualties?

Considering the complications of nuclear weapons deployment, it would set a precedent if a country like Iran or China, or Pakistan decides to take advantage of the military preoccupation of the U.S. and its allies to bust a military move elsewhere for its own hegemonic agenda. Then all hell could break loose and seriously affect our own economy and lifestyle here.

The other wild card is considering the now serious “Russia-gate” problems with his “dark state” enemies homing in forcefully on Trump’s family and associates for serious prosecutions, Trump might just decide to pull the trigger on North Korea ASAP for ANY acceptable excuse? After all, there are no impeachments or potential criminal proceedings allowed against a sitting wartime president.

It all would get put on hold for the duration which would be more than enough time for the Trump administration to fix everything by firing whoever needed firing and put a stop to “Russia-gate” investigations once and for all.

That alone would be worth pulling the trigger. But if it succeeded in quickly taking out the North Korean regime and destroying their nuclear capability for future without creating WWIII in the process for the defense of the American people, that would likely ensure his second term and make the risks even more worth taking.

2. A Mortally Wounded Power Grid

The second imminent nationwide catastrophe will be the power grid, and I’ve already told you about it. Many prepare for a potentially imminent Solar event, HEMP attack, or devastating grid hack by cyber terrorists, the worst case scenario(s) for a major grid collapse are far more mundane, and about to happen any time now. Interestingly, major cyber attack power outages happen to be FEMA’s major priority right now.

Just this week the major vacation area of Cape Hatteras Carolina Islands on the East Coast experienced a total power outage black out when the main power source to the area was severed by a piece of heavy construction equipment. The situation got worse when there is no telling when the power will be restored.

Fresh water is gone and thousands of tourists are being evacuated and a state of emergency has been declared. There are virtually no backup generators on the islands. And they can’t get them there fast enough before the situation goes from bad to worse. The business losses will not be recoverable for years.

There was little significant MSM coverage of a recent event where three major cities in the U.S. had three very curious major, but brief, power outages simultaneously one morning. Then a nuclear power station out West was hit with a cyber attack but managed to resist it with advanced counter-cyber IT.

There are outages across the country almost every week. These are warnings of severe power infrastructure problems currently at dangerous levels that are only deteriorating until a major Domino effect can shut down enough of the country’s power to throw it in mass chaos. Because when that many areas are blacked out, there will NOT be help coming any time soon, if at all.

But we are so dependent upon electricity in our lives that if you are a master off grid bushcraft perish right along with their dying homesteader, you might be one of the fortunate few. Most of the world simply is NOT. And many will flashlight batteries.

Then there’s the other way to cause a major grid collapse: a concentrated well planned commando style attack on certain power stations, to begin the domino effect widespread blackout. It’s unnerving to realize how weak and fragile our grid system really is. And how all three of these “in progress” events could all somehow contribute to nation-wide blackouts.

At a recent privately held world summit in Washington on the impact of a massive cataclysm and its effect on the infrastructure and survivability of societies attended by experts from 200 countries, one of the hosts former Florida Congresswoman Michelle Vasillinda made an alarming statement that “it’s not ‘if’ a Black SKY (massive power infrastructure collapse) event will occur, it’s when!”

SHTF events don’t get much worse than a dead and buried power grid. Where nothing is ON anymore. And life as we need it comes to a grinding, unbearable halt.

3. End of the World Geoengineering

AKA Chemtrails/Haarp weather control. Despite the grave imminence of the aforementioned SHTF scenarios, this one is, by far, the most ominously horrible. Because the catastrophe is being created by OUR own Dark State government, and We, The Sheeple, are virtually oblivious to it and do nothing about it.

And because this apocalypse is NOT imminent. It Is Not Near. It Is Absolutely Happening Right HERE AND RIGHT NOW!

It just may become the worst apocalypse humanity as ever seen even ushering in an actual human species extinction! Just look up in the sky? It’s a bird, No, it’s a plane! But it definitely ain’t Superman. More like the Grim Reaper.

Video first seen on Dane Wigington.

I wrote about celebrities like the late Prince and Merle Haggert who were Chemtrail activists, and I was amazed at how many people still thought chemtrails were a conspiracy theory. That’s got to be one of the World’s Greatest Hoaxes continuously perpetrated on the people.

But unauthorized criminally covered up geoengineering and chem-trails are a proven fact. But the dark state government has cleverly kept us “under heavy cloud cover” in the form of target focused brainwashing. And it has gotten much worse lately.

I won’t elaborate now. Combined with the above doom and gloom it might be too depressing for you all at once. But prepare yourself for a life-changing revelation. You’ll learn why the only real global warming is the one intentionally created by the geoengineering totalitarian monsters!

ENDGAME

The major prep focus for the above events are food and power back up. Each above event in expanded danger could affect these areas tremendously. If you haven’t done so already, you should at least get some of the survival guide books we have here to start planning!

Good Luck, but we all know it ain’t about luck.

This article has been written by Mahatma Muhjesbude for Survivopedia.

Resources:

http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/category/audio-video/video/

from Survivopedia Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

#SHTF #TEOTWAWKI #MARTIALLAW #BUGOUT #PREPPERBAG #USAF #USSOCOM #ARMY #NAVY #SurvivalFirestarter #Sur

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vgwriter · 5 years

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Metro Exodus: A Review

The End of a Trilogy

The Metro series is based off of the books by Dmitry Glukhovsky, with each game set in the world of Metro 2033 (the book) and at times, having Glukhovsky writing them. Metro 2033 came out in 2010 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and was met with critical praise for its setting and horror aspects. Last Light came out in 2013 and built on 2033, adding better graphics and AI. Last Light was one of my favorites on the 7th generation. Exodus came out in February and took the series in drastically different direction. The complex and narrow Metro is traded in for large maps and non-linear missions. The changes are handled well by 4A. This game still brings great tension and story to the FPS genre but unfortunately still has bugs that have persisted through the entire series.

The Good

*SPOILERS*

#1-The Story

4A does something that not a lot of developers do when they make a modern FPS: they focus on the story. Exodus is the third installment of the Metro game continuity but it doesn't really build on the previous two, which were focused on the Dark Ones. Instead, it takes the story in a new direction with exploration outside Moscow and into Russia. The game explores several themes and ideologies with its story including religious extremism, slavery, the inherent violence and love in humanity. The player follows Artyom, his wife Anna, her father Col. Miller, and a half dozen Spartans as they go through nuked out Russia in search of a new home. They pick up a few people as the game goes on as well.

The story starts out with Artyom wanting to explore the outside world in hopes that there are people in it. Everyone says he is crazy but it turns out he is right and they steal a train to go explore Russia. They go to a marsh and pick up a nurse and her kid and one of the soldiers hits on her by making her tell him if her daughter knew her father was dead... it's really a touching scene. They get married later but Anna ruins it by coughing really loudly because she fell down into a toxic bunker two chapters ago (somehow no one saw her sickness coming). Then Artyom and Miller have to go and find her medicine all while Miller and Anna give Artyom back handed compliments or saying this all his fault for getting them kicked out of the Metro. They think they've found a home but turns out it's controlled by Petra Pan and the Lost Boys and Girls. Then they finally get the medicine and the ending depends on how the player played the game. It's not an original story by any stretch and has some dips in execution but coupled with the enviroments, it is a good enough story to warrant another post-apocalyptic setting in a rapidly saturating genre.

Now, there are a few big plot decisions that effect how the story plays out with the morality mechanic in this game. Basically, if the player kills people and does stuff that people normally do in a FPS game, they get the bad ending. If Artyom is just a sneaky little Russian, the crew stays together and they all live happily ever after. Well, kind of, it is a Russian story after all. Pretty simple choices but they do change the tone of the game considerably and for that I will give 4A props on making in game decisions matter.

The dialogue can be a little iffy at times and there are some parts that are roughly translated (Miller uses his Russian name instead of his Anglicized name during one scene) but each character is their own person and brings a great voice to the ensemble. My personal favorites were Anna and Nastya. Over all, the game tells an effective and gripping story of people trying to survive a moralless wasteland and remain the honest people they were before.

#2-Maps and Enviroment

The story is broken up in to 4 large maps with smaller train sections linking the travel to them. It's actually a great move and a refreshing change of pace from all the gigantic map games that have come out recently. The first two maps are just large enough to warrant not having a fast travel system while still making exploration interesting. The other maps in the game are more linear in design with the first and last map being down in the Metro again. This variety in maps keeps the game fresh and makes each area refreshing and interesting instead of an over used chore.

Where this game really shines is the enviroments. Each map feels completely brand new, with very few reused assets like in many other open world games (especially western). Each level seems fully realized and lived in as the player and Artyom pass through areas that feel like someone else's home. The best thing is that each level feels this way. In terms of enviroment, there are no dips in quality in any of the chapters. Each level has this realistic level of destruction and a shared struggle to survive that seeps into every corner of the game. The place where this really lifts this game up is the last level, Dead City. Without the enviroment, the story really wouldn't have landed well with its obvious forshadowing and unoriginal overarching story. The desolation of the city and constant danger everywhere do a great job of putting the player in Artyom's mind with his anxiety and desperation in trying to save Anna. The enviroments throughout the entire game lift up the psychological undercurrents of the characters and really put this game on an artistic level despite its other problems.

#3-Weapons and Customization

The weapons in Metro are the best kind of customizable in that the options the player makes for what weapons and how they customize them actually matter. There are five kinds of weapons: revolver, shotguns, rifles, sniper, and special. The specials are the air rifle and crossbow (there is also a railgun but I never figured out how to equip it). Each have different positives and negatives to them and feel different to play with in game. The customization is also diverse with each gun having different parts that the player can find out in the world. Unlike other games where the player must find several different components or blueprints (looking at you Andromeda and Fallout), 4A just gives the player the customization if they find it. It provides a great utility in the game without focusing on it, which is how customization should be.

The Bad

#1-The Combat

It is clear that 4A's focus on this game was stealth. The character is slow, the aiming for PS4 is absolutely terrible even after trying to tweak it, and the enemies are super shifty. All of this adds up to a bad combat experience. I can't count the number of times I just said "f*** it" after failing to hit the same guy 3 times only to discover that Artyom was caught in a corner of two inch ledges. This games combat is severely unpolished and makes the otherwise great game difficult to play for bad reasons. When compared to other fps's like Far Cry 5, this game feels definitively last generation. It's like the Crash Bandicoot of fps, really precise shooting on imprecise controls (don't @ me cause you know it's true). This really sapped the fun out of the game.

#2-The Clingy Map

I mentioned this in the last paragraph but the enviroment is not fun to move through. Artyom sticks to everything. There were times when playing this that I would try to be sneaking and come across a small step that I had to get over and couldn't. I had to jump and when I did the enemies who I was sneaking from would discover where I was instantly. They also messed up going down stairs, even though I'm pretty sure they discovered that technology in 2004. When Artyom "walks" down the stairs, he keeps his forward momentum and goes in an arch over the stairs he is "walkig" over. The maps do have a great feel about them but they are not fun to walk around and that really hurts this games replayability for me.

#3-Unpolished, Epic Games, and Bad Camp Design

I've heard and seen all sorts of bugs on the PC version but the PS4 has no shortage of bad glitches either. My very first shot, the first time I ever fired a gun in the game, it didn't make a sound. That sadly set the tone for the whole game. Each chapter was more frustrating than fun and that was caused for a number of reasons but all of them could go under the umbrella of unpolished game design. There have been several recorded game breaking glitches or the AI just acting real dumb. Aside from that the game is an exclusive on PC for Epic Games. Normally I don't concern myself with PC master race bullsh*t but Epic Games has some very shady business practices on a platform that has a great storefront in Steam. Sadly, this does effect the overall game for consumers and that is why I mention it in my review.

The last bad thing I'll mention is the camp conversation interface, or lackthereof. The characters just start talking and they never seem to stop. Being raised in a polite household has taught me to never walk away when someone is talking to me and this game made me rethink my entire upbringing. The conversations are okay but they are sooooo slow and there is no way to control them at all. They just talk to you and it is honestly annoying, easy to ignore but still annoying.

The Non-ESRB Rating

This is tough to give but Metro Exodus is a 2/5. While I love this game for everything that it adds, it is just more of a hassle to play than fun. The combat and general unpolishedness of the game are what really sink this game for me. I really hate that it does this too because the story and enviroments are really cool and enrich the story so much. The tension in the game is real and the map design is refreshing with its variety and design depth. This game had so much potential but it just feels wasted on such a buggy and unpolished product.

#metro exodus #review #video games #artyom

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starvelikeastar · 7 years

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Brandy:

She’s a sassy little singer and actress who thinks she can only go by one name. You are not Beyonce or Rihanna or Madonna. Sorry. But I guess if my last name was Norwood, I would drop it also.

Hydration: Six glasses of water, (four with breakfast and two with lunch!) I plan to drink more than that. What is up with the low water consumption?

Breakfast: Egg White Omelet with Tomato, Onion and Spinach

Why, oh why, are people separating the yolk from the white in their eggs? Do you pick the raisins out of a cinnamon raisin bagel? Do you pick the chips out of a chocolate chip cookie? Stop, unless you are baking some recipe that only calls for one or the other, the yolk belongs with the white. It should always travel together, like salt and pepper.

The yolk has all kinds of nutritional value. Honestly, if you are worried about eating too much cholesterol and saturated fat, then you should probably cut out hamburgers and French fries, and leave the poor egg alone.

Again, eat real food. Make the right choices. Eat the whole damn egg.

Egg whites, on their own, do not behave the same way as whole eggs. They need each other, the yolk and the white. This omelet basically wanted to fall apart. There is a reason we use eggs as a binder when making meatloaf and hamburgers. Luckily, this held together just enough to not become scrambled eggs.

Also, this just doesn’t taste the same as using whole eggs. It tastes like it is missing something, (and y’all know it’s not seasoning because I seasoned that bitch correctly). It tasted incomplete. It also did not fill me up like a whole two egg omelet would have. (I used two egg whites for this). Dog was very happy with the addition of two yolks to her breakfast.

Brandy drinks water with blackberries, cucumber and lemon, which was a nice change from PLAIN water, but not nearly as satisfying as COFFEE in the morning.

Lunch: Mahi Mahi and a Small Spinach Salad

Breakfast didn’t cut it, and my stomach was growling by lunch. This is 4 oz. of mahi mahi over a “small” spinach salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and olives. It did not list a dressing, but there was no way I was going to eat this dry. C’mon, really? So I dressed it with lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper.

Dressing does not have to be the devil if you choose the right one! It’s one of the simplest fucking things to throw together at home in less than two minutes. Oil, (olive, avocado, peanut, sesame, etc., your choice), acid, (lemon, grapefruit, any type of vinegar or citrus really, again choose....go a little crazy), mustard, (again, anything you have laying around...whole grain, Dijon, even white trash yellow works), salt and pepper and whisk it all together. Easy-peasy. You don’t even have to whisk it; you can put it all in a jar and just shake vigorously. Add herbs if you want. See....dressing is your friend, my friend. Salad greens should never be found naked on a plate. Ever. This drives me crazy in restaurants. Just like you shouldn’t be found naked on a plate in a restaurant either. Ever.

Anyway, this was good, but did not fill me up. I really could have used a slice of healthy bread or at least a “large” spinach salad. At least she had three components in her salad, which seemed more like a regular salad.

She has Roma tomatoes in her salad, but since I am in the southeast and tomatoes are in season, these tomatoes came straight from my garden, (and the cucumbers from the neighbor).

Afternoon Snack: Kind Bar (Cranberry and Almond + Antioxidants)

Wow! Now I know why these are so popular. This is freaking ooey-gooey deliciousness and “good” for you. Well, at least better then some of the other ones out there. Just as advertised, you can pronounce all of the words in the ingredient list. This was wwwaaayyyy better than the astronaut bar I had the other day.

I was more than ready for a snack and this hit the spot. I just hope it holds me until dinner!

Dinner: Salmon with Steamed Vegetables and Houston’s Kale Salad

This certainly looks appealing and pretty. The salmon was really good, but it is high quality salmon. You really don’t want to fuck up a piece of salmon like this.

This is served with one cup of steamed vegetables. For convenience sake, I bought those frozen “ steam in the bag” vegetables. Don’t. Just don’t. They were extremely bland and tasteless. And Husband has a thing about cooking food in the microwave in plastic containers, so it not only tasted bland, but he was appalled that I even dared to buy a “steam in the bag” thing. Just steam, or nuke, or bake your vegetables.....but add olive oil and salt and pepper. Jeez, it’s fine giving up butter, but don’t give up a little oil and NEVER GIVE UP SEASONING!!! Just because you want to eat healthy, never compromise on flavor!!!

The salad is “her favorite kale salad from Houston’s Restaurant”. The recipe I used can be found here. This recipe calls for both green and red cabbage, but I just used green. I didn't see the use of buying both types if I was only going to use a little of each.

If you are going to make this salad at home, and appreciate flavor and not what middle America would be satisfied with, then cut the oil by about a third, add a few drops of chili oil and some shallots and this salad would be great. It was ok, like this, but not great, and the leap is not far.

My verdict: She had a lot of good components to her day and a good variety of food. Her portions for breakfast and lunch were both small and left me hungry. I loved the Kind bar, but it probably wasn’t the best choice for a snack...it certainly wasn’t the worst either. She could have had a Snicker’s bar. I don’t think Brandy eats enough for her busy lifestyle.

People Magazine Verdict: Brandy’s lunch was a perfect portion, (Um, actually, it wasn't. I was still a little hungry after lunch). At dinner, she could add a little healthy fat like avocado or olive oil, (Agreed, add some olive oil to those veggies, bitch. Go crazy). Brandy is an “excellent” eater, (She is, but she doesn’t eat ENOUGH excellence). She consumes a lot of veggies, lean protein and whole grains. (Did I miss the whole grains somewhere today?).

#brandy #breakfast #omelet #eggwhites #lunch #mahi #mahimahi #salad #spinach salad #spinachsalad #snack #kindbar #salmon #kalesalad #kale salad #dinner #Houston's salad #houston #houstonsalad

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