Garacesh

'Nids were my first army. They were fun to play, had some really nice models too. But then they did the big DE re-release and I really liked the models so I started collecting them. Tyranids are actually a lot more versatile than I initially expected. You can swarm/blob your opponent with 'gaunts and 'gants, or you can spend your points on some really beefy units. Trygon Prime was always a hard-hitter, and Raveners were absolutely brutal as (if you didn't bother given them the shooty chestpieces) you could send them barrelling across a 4 foot board and into combat on Turn 1 with a good Charge roll. And there's always the option of "Give it wings!" to speed everything up and/or add kiting potential thanks to Harpies/Shrikes (basically Warriors), Gargoyle's (basically Termagants), Sky Slashers (basically Rippers), a Winged Hive Tyrant (though you're foregoing Hive Guard if you do) and the Shrike.

I want to try an airbrush, but there's a significant initial investment that's stopping me for the moment. At the moment I'm using a mix of Vallejo and Citadel paints, made myself a rudimentary wet palette for thinning and stopping them drying out, and have an assortment of different brush sizes (but tbh I could do with a new fine detail brush as the one I've got is a bit naff) Bases are all just 3 layers of drybrushing, and the crystals are just painted then drybrushed. The models themselves are a pain, though. It's mostly just your standard 2 layers, wash, highlight, but Drukhari models have so many fiddly bits, spikes, nooks and crannies. Should've just gone back to 'nids but I love DE for fluff reasons.

I have a rattlecan of Halfords grey primer which supposedly comes highly rated, but I haven't used it yet as it was raining a lot so I primed the Succubus, Hekatrix, and Venom by hand and I'm painting them up now. Weather's getting better though so I'll likely use the spray on the rest of the Wyches and the Reavers.

Was not a fan of KOTOR, but that was because of the combat mechanics. Pleasantly optimistic for The Outer Worlds, though.

Huh, okay well that was easy. And also weird. Turns out the solution is just to take the apps that aren't compatible out of the blueprint. Despite the fact that Configurator 2 gives you the option to skip the incompatible app, something (?) happens and none of the compatible apps display. Take them out, re-prepare the device, add the blueprint, shows up as expected.

Originally I thought this was going to be an OS incompatibility issue, i.e. the apps were updated and now no longer work with older versions of iOS but I'm not so sure.. So we have some iPads, and this one I'm holding here (and presumably the rest of the set...) won't update beyond iOS 10.3.3 (14G60) Applying apps from Configurator 2 appears to work - it assigns the license, downloads the app, installs the app, and job done. No error message. On the iPad, the apps don't appear. If I go into Configurator 2 and choose Remove > Apps, it lists all the apps that are supposedly on the device. So this is where I'm thinking it's an incompatibility issue, right? Except... If I try to install some newer apps, I get the error Configurator could not install "$App" on "$DeviceName". The device does not support this app. but the rest of them still (supposedly..) install successfully. Am I just screwed, and these devices are reduced to a bunch of touchscreen web-browsers, or am I missing something?

I'd love a re-release/update/remaster/whatever of the Digital Devil Saga games

There's rumours of a switch release, but the site and promotional videos still only show the PlayStation logo. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony were pushing for an exclusive, but Atlus have apparently been receptive to the idea of other consoles recently so I guess we'll have to wait and see. I've played P5 on my friend's PS4 I borrowed, but if there's a Switch release of P5R, I'd buy it.

Lol I can't imagine playing it a 2nd time at the moment, though I guess it wouldn't be as much of a slog depending on if you keep stats, confidant levels, personas etc? I ended up with Knowledge, Kindness and Proficiency at 5, with 4 in Charm and Guts, as well as Confidant 10 with Ann, Ryuji, Futaba, Kawakami, Sojiro, Mishima and Tae (not counting Morgana, Igor, Akechi and Sae as I assume they progress to 10 automatically as part of the story)

I have to keep reminding myself that they're supposed to look good at arms-length+, not at three inches. I think I'm going to have to do that, tidy the highlights up a little bit. Not sure about drybrushing the armour though, given how fiddly the DE models can be. I have a few spare bits I can test on though.

Finished Persona 5. Was a good game, very enjoyable, but at 80 hours I don't think I'll be replaying it in a hurry lol.

Er. So. I done a thing.. RIP my wallet. Looking at the images I'm sort of just going "Well that's wrong.. That's splodgy.. That could be done better.." but considering I haven't painted anything since 2010, I reckon I've done alright

Bit of a bump, sorry! Looking for reviews about the software that comes with different brands. Looking for the ability to do the basic stuff like annotate/highlight etc. The head has just informed me that the way teachers are going to have to teach is changing.. Whatever that means. He wants to get some visualisers in and do some training on them.. Now then, originally when BSF was done every classroom had an AverVision visualiser on the desk but due to regular classroom reasons, I suspect many of them have been damaged, had their PSU's lost, etc. Science bought some IPEVO ones which seem cheap, cheerful and decent enough to do the job, but I notice they don't have a light on them which I can imagine might sometimes be a hindrance. Their software works.. in a fashion. It's a bit sluggish sometimes especially when changing settings, but it does the job. Boss has found and shown me the HUE ones which seem OK, the model he found has no light but one of their other models does, basing off price alone those'll probably be the ones we go for. Anyone have any experience with their HUE Intuition software? Is it any good? Worth the £250 site license? Or are there better alternative software suites?

Sometimes API calls are snooped and custom server software is written, sometimes server software is leaked and reverse-engineered. I don't think the method particularly matters. The point is that multiplayer-only games are still clearly able to be archived because people have been doing it for over a decade now.

Lol k then Tell that to all the World of Warcraft private servers, hm?

The thing is there's no archivability on a streaming service, and that puts a lot of people off. Archival and continued longevity is (supposedly, not that I have any first-hand experience) a huuuge part of the piracy/cracking scene now. Well, that, and 'let's remove Denuvo because it makes games people legitimately purchased run like....' If I want to re-play the solo campaign of Halo 1, I can stick the hypothetical disk into my hypothetical XBox and play it. Or, at the extreme end of the spectrum, I can work with other crackers to find a way to spoof/trick the game into connecting to unofficial dediboxes and play online after the multiplayer has been shut down (there's a fair few games this has happened with.. mostly in the piracy scene tbh but the point is it still exists). I can backup that disk (if I want to ignore format-shifting laws), etcetera. I get that the majority of games are going to this 'live services' model, but sooner or later that bubble is going to burst, and I can see, in years time, if this takes off, and they start removing unsupported games, there's going to be a bit of a to-do about it. Chances of them releasing the games as freeware/shareware once they're unsupported is infinitesimally low when you consider licensing agreements etc.

it is?! This is useful! Probably needs a bit of port forwarding, but overall could be good. Although I have noticed with Steam Link, you have to manually log in to the PC you're streaming from etc. I powered up my PC, fired up the Steam Link, and was met by my usual lockscreen and password prompt. I'd like them to find a way around that if possible. Somehow I'm not enthused at the idea of leaving my PC at home, logged in, unsupervised, when my housemate and I have a game of changing the desktop background to Nicholas Cage if we find the PC unattended...

It is a ridiculous idea! Doesn't mean they're not gonna do it, though..

Also a fair point. I have a 'couch co-op' category in Steam that has games like Gang Beasts, Castle Crashers, BroForce, Death Road to Canada, Overcooked etc in it, but that still requires me to lug my PC downstairs and hook it up to the TV.. Then again that's only because the wifi doesn't reach downstairs so good so the Steam Link is next to useless now.. But that's an issue with the construction of the house and I guess that would plague any kind of game streaming service too. In the old house where the router was next to the TV it was fine.

Yeah, it just looks like Google flavoured Shadow PC. Which doesn't surprise me.. When console manufacturers are still adamant about having their exclusive titles, people are getting a bit cheesed off with arbitrary segregation. Especially concerning multiplayer, when you have games like Fortnite, Sea of Thieves, Rocket League et al all supporting crossplay. Some kind of service amalgamation was always going to crop up. It'll be interesting to see where this leads, but I don't think this will take off amongst the hardware enthusiast crowd, then again I don't think this is aimed at the hardware enthusiast crowd either. I can't imagine that Google aren't looking to poach someone like me who builds their own system, they're looking to poach a share off Microsoft, Sony and maybe Nintendo. Couch gamers who connect a console to their TV and play casually for an hour will be who they're aiming at, especially if they can get games from multiple different platforms. Their biggest selling point will be if they can get some common ground between "Well I bought an XBox One but all my mates have PS4's sadface!" crowd. Latency and Internet speed is also going to be an issue. I read somewhere they're recommending 25MB, which is more than double the average speed in the USofA. Over here where 30MB+ is standard, mostly, it won't be too bad. I'd imagine as long as the datacentres were somewhat local, the UK's biggest issue would be input lag.

Damnit, expired already!

Am I the only one that thinks mashed potato butties don't seem so bad? Breadballs are a'ight, too

We've had AIO's from Stone and they're pretty decent, and their touch and non-touch models are both hard glass. A few hiccoughs here and there, but they're not bad, Had the odd failure as to be expected, and there's an issue where once in a blue moon the networking will stop working on one of them until you disconnected the system battery and give it a few seconds, but I suspect by now they'll have fixed that on newer models. Pretty sure Stone do NBD warranties too. I know they've sent someone with an entire new machine once or twice to swap out (backlight failure etc) I'm not entirely convinced AIO's are the right way to go, though. Warranties tend to go to 5 years at a max, and let's face it, we're operating hardware for way longer than that. Our older machines, if the screen or PSU dies we can just swap out a new one.. AIO's not so much.

I do think we're seeing the start of the 'live services' bubble bursting, though. Too many live services demand not some of our time, but all of our time. Too many live services demand not some of our money, but all of our money. Too many live services have full Triple-A price tags, yet still have extra content locked behind additional transactions and gambling/chance-based content. Too many live services are employing more and more psychological tactics in order to mentally condition players into spending more money and more time. I don't think we'll see the end of them any time soon, but I think as a whole people are getting real sick of it now, and aren't going to be buying in so much going forward.

I know they're the same, that's my point. I didn't bother changing it because everything was already using the googlemail address. Plus it just sounds more professional than gmail. Nothing I can think of explains why Niantic would not use the email address I gave it (well, the email address associated with the Google account on the device) When I sign it it still brings up my full address, but once logged in it gives me my short address and asks me to pick an agent name (and I can't pick the same name, tried it.) No big loss. Would've been nice to see what the game's like but from what I hear it's still pretty dead these days.