Mass Effect: Andromeda

That's a stock photo btw, they just shooped it a little. :/
I guess you can technically say it's still her.

edit: In case anyone is curious about NG+... The gear cap ends at level 80, however enemies continue scaling beyond 80. Apparently once you get to levels 100+ the difficulty becomes a nightmare. Kind of a bummer for anyone who hoped to max out your character, which takes level 130 or so.

I guess you can lower the difficulty to compensate? Not sure.
 
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TaintedSquirrel said:
That's a stock photo btw, they just shooped it a little. :/
I guess you can technically say it's still her.

edit: In case anyone is curious about NG+... The gear cap ends at level 80, however enemies continue scaling beyond 80. Apparently once you get to levels 100+ the difficulty becomes a nightmare. Kind of a bummer for anyone who hoped to max out your character, which takes level 130 or so.

I guess you can lower the difficulty to compensate? Not sure.
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Yes, you can lower the difficulty to compensate.
 
Sound has been pretty good in the game, but I'd get distortion/clipping/whatever when traveling between solar systems, during the "bassy" parts (just at that one part of the game). My dpc latency measures very good normally, but apparently I was having some issues during that one portion of the game. The sound issue happened every time (minor, but slightly annoying). Today I installed the new Windows 10 update, and enabled "game mode" for ME:A...guess what...the minor sound issue is completely gone.
 
bmg said:
Today I installed the new Windows 10 update, and enabled "game mode" for ME:A...guess what...the minor sound issue is completely gone.
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I'll have to check this out- I get popping/cracking even in the menus and have been trying to hunt the issue down, wondering if it was unique to my setup.
 
Played on the new patch last night till 1AM, Creator Update ran over night and now am getting the dreaded "Black Screen" problem. Did all the troubleshooting - no dice.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
I'll have to check this out- I get popping/cracking even in the menus and have been trying to hunt the issue down, wondering if it was unique to my setup.
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I haven't had any sound issues with the game like that. I have experienced what seems like positional audio through my stereo setup which makes it nearly impossible to hear NPC's and squad mates if they aren't facing Ryder. I'm now using 7.1 surround headphones to play the game which is a little bit better. During the cut scenes I still have to move Ryder as much as it lets me to angle the audio so that I can hear it. I can now hear everything, but its a pain in the ass and less than ideal.
 
MotionBlur said:
Played on the new patch last night till 1AM, Creator Update ran over night and now am getting the dreaded "Black Screen" problem. Did all the troubleshooting - no dice.
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Bummer. The Creator Update installed and is running perfectly for me.
 
Sorry for being dumb: What's this Creator Update you all are referring to?
 
Q-BZ said:
Sorry for being dumb: What's this Creator Update you all are referring to?
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The next big Windows 10 update that's arriving in a couple of days. You can manually click on Settings/Update&Security/CheckForUpdates to get the option to install early. Google for Windows 10 game mode or game bar. I had to alt-Tab out of full-screen mode for Win-G to get me the game bar...pick settings as desired, then back to full screen (think you have to restart the game to get game mode to apply). I don't think you can get the game bar to pop up unless you have a game open.
 
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Dan_D said:
I haven't had any sound issues with the game like that.
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I've spent a little more time on it, and realized that I was hearing it outside of games- just not in other games. But definitely a bit streaming Pandora, for example. Andromeda's smooth sounds made problems easier to hear over my typical music, and it was happening a lot more in that game than pretty much anywhere else.

Main thing I killed was Razer's Surround stuff, which I wasn't using, but I made sure to excise it from the system. Getting significantly less of it now, so maybe that did it. And while I did install the Creator's Update, I'm not particularly sure how Game Mode is supposed to work; you're supposed to hit Win+G for a menu, but I don't get a menu- the screen just flashes (or rather, gets slightly brighter, then returns to normal brightness).
 
MotionBlur said:
Played on the new patch last night till 1AM, Creator Update ran over night and now am getting the dreaded "Black Screen" problem. Did all the troubleshooting - no dice.
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For me the game just pops in after waiting about 30 seconds looking at the black screen. First I was impatient and kept alt-tabbing out of it and shutting it down.

I encountered a very strange bug in the game. I was supposed to take out some big dog warlord but when I went to his base his men instead of attacking me they attacked him. Guess someone made them the wrong faction.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
I've spent a little more time on it, and realized that I was hearing it outside of games- just not in other games. But definitely a bit streaming Pandora, for example. Andromeda's smooth sounds made problems easier to hear over my typical music, and it was happening a lot more in that game than pretty much anywhere else.

Main thing I killed was Razer's Surround stuff, which I wasn't using, but I made sure to excise it from the system. Getting significantly less of it now, so maybe that did it. And while I did install the Creator's Update, I'm not particularly sure how Game Mode is supposed to work; you're supposed to hit Win+G for a menu, but I don't get a menu- the screen just flashes (or rather, gets slightly brighter, then returns to normal brightness).
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Alt-Tab to get out of full screen mode and hit Win-G. Any luck?
 
Dan_D said:
Elledan is the last planet like Eos and Voeld and Kadara. The asteroid world is smaller and there are many other smaller locations that you get to explore. Some of them are pretty spectacular. Trust me though, you guys are only about half way done. Your just through the bulk of the game's grindfest.
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I'm still not buying the halfway done thing. But it's probably all for the better. I'll go crazy if I have to activate another vault or solve one more glyph sudoku.

BTW one of the biggest problems of the game is pacing. Like all the loyalty missions getting dumped on you at the same time. And artificial inhibitors to progress. Like you collected enough shards i mean memory triggers but no you still don't get to progress in this assignment until we say so.
 
I'm bummed it took so long to get the loyalty missions. Their rank 6 abilities aren't very useful if you don't get them until the very end of the game...

I think it's best to zerg through the main campaign at the start. Get your two squadmate's loyalty done, then go back and do all the side content. Side mission and loyalty missions are tied to planetary unlock (main quest). You can unlock EVERYTHING by just solely doing main missions until you unlock Eladaan. At that point all side content is available.

This also prevents you from revisiting old planets multiple times, and gives you the most possible time with maxed squadmates.

On an unrelated note, I've spent way too much time at the vendors.

7JXAY5r.png
 
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M76 said:
I'm still not buying the halfway done thing. But it's probably all for the better. I'll go crazy if I have to activate another vault or solve one more glyph sudoku.

BTW one of the biggest problems of the game is pacing. Like all the loyalty missions getting dumped on you at the same time. And artificial inhibitors to progress. Like you collected enough shards i mean memory triggers but no you still don't get to progress in this assignment until we say so.
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Your right about the pacing. For people that hit a planet and work through it until done, Eos and Voeld especially have a horrible pace. They have way too much going on and it adds a huge lull in the game. Where your at it really starts to pick up. You do more running around and less shit in anyone place. It's a nice change of pace from where you've been. You might actually be 60% the way through the game. Elledan isn't the last Remnant puzzle by the way. Decryption keys are now only 480 credits so you can go that route. There is also a specific trigger to the last memory. I rather enjoyed the memory sequence. It answers a lot of questions although it leaves things open for the future.

TaintedSquirrel said:
I'm bummed it took so long to get the loyalty missions. Their rank 6 abilities aren't very useful if you don't get them until the very end of the game...

I think it's best to zerg through the main campaign at the start. Get your two squadmate's loyalty done, then go back and do all the side content. Side mission and loyalty missions are tied to planetary unlock (main quest). You can unlock EVERYTHING by just solely doing main missions until you unlock Eladaan. At that point all side content is available.

This also prevents you from revisiting old planets multiple times, and gives you the most possible time with maxed squadmates.

On an unrelated note, I've spent way too much time at the vendors.

7JXAY5r.png
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The loyalty missions can be reached pretty early on depending on the order you do things in.
 
Like I said content is gated behind planet unlocks. The sooner you unlock the last planet (Elaaden) the sooner you have more pacing options. The only way to do that is to exclusively do the main campaign missions until you reach Elaaden. I think this can be done in like 10-15 hours, which leaves the other 90% of the game's content at your full disposal.

It would make more sense if the unlocks were based on your level or something. Content gates are especially annoying when the game ENCOURAGES you to do side content, ie: 100% Viability. I remember having similar problems in AC games, like Black Flag for example, where there's so many side activities but completing the main campaign ASAP gives you access to all the gear unlocks.

Just to be safe it might be best to play all the way until "The point of no return", and then STOP and go back to do side quests. Although you'd be putting off the final mission of the game until 100 hours later...

Also on another note I think research points are severely imbalanced especially when you look at the gear in each tree. Heleus Research is, objectively, the rarest. For a galaxy filled with Kett and Angarans, there's surprisingly little of it. The Heleus tree also has the best TECH ARMOR, the best COMBAT ARMOR, the BEST WEAPONS (Isharay, Dahn, Ushior), and the HELEUS DEFENDER set. In short, everyone is going to need Heleus data in large amounts unless you play a pure biotic build.

Unless you place all of your Heleus data perfectly, you'll run out. And if you want to try more than 1 exact build, you can't. There's not enough data. Also, the Research Points Cryo perk only rewards Milky Way data... Perfect. :/

Right now I have 3k Milky, 6k Remnant, and 100 Heleus data. lol
I log into the MEA App every day to send my Strike Teams on Research Data missions just to get scraps.

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They get bent out of shape about a lot of shit. I wouldn't put too much stock in it. The game has its faults but it's pretty good overall. It does suffer from some pacing issues but that aside, it's a solid game outside of the quality issues.
 
You mean they raise valid criticisms that any other AAA game would be pilloried for with equal vigor, but Mass Effect has an especially rabid fan base that lack the insight to confront the obvious cognitive dissonance that this game presents.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
On an unrelated note, I've spent way too much time at the vendors.

7JXAY5r.png
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Or way to little from my perspective. I don't bother with consumables. It's too obscure doesn't feel natural using them. I liked the power/attachment type ammo mods in previous games, but not this. So I always sell all consumables, I just couldn't care less about them. Frankly I don't even know how to use them. How do you equip consumables and how do you activate them? I have no idea. And if I can't find out on my own meaning I have to look it up somewhere, that means it's way too complicated.

I also hate the favourites system, where you can only use 3 powers at the same time ever. The more powers you have the better should be but not here. After you max out three powers and all passive abilities you're basically done with levelling in the game. And you can do that by about Level 30. The rest of the skill points I just wasted on some powers I wanted to try, but I keep going back to my original three, because they're still the most effective combo. And it's pointless to switch favourites during battle since that resets cooldown on all your powers making you unable to use any for a while. With the fast pacing of combat in the game, that's not acceptable to me.

And another problem I find in the game is in crafting. Early on in the game when I crafted level 2-3 weapons I could add a lot of cool modifiers to them. But since I used up those back then I wasn't able to procure the same items ever. So now I only have a bunch of useless ones that I don't even want to use for crafting. If I knew this I'd have saved the good ones for later. How do you even find these crafting mods? Is it just pure bad luck? Same goes for weapon mods. The lower level weapon mods seemed much more useful, with almost no ill effects, while the higher level ones all seem to give a little, and take away a little at the same time, making them absolutely redundant.
 
Blade-Runner said:
You mean they raise valid criticisms that any other AAA game would be pilloried for with equal vigor, but Mass Effect has an especially rabid fan base that lack the insight to confront the obvious cognitive dissonance that this game presents.
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I'm playing the game and I'm loving it. I don't need Angry Joe or you telling me that I should be ashamed for enjoying it.

Yes the game has numerous flaws. But despite that it's more enjoyable than a ton of games, that had no obvious flaws, but just aren't so exciting, or interesting, or large scale. If you want to call that being a rabid fan go ahead.

I'm criticising the game for it's flaws, just look at my posts in this thread, or my reaction to the uglyness of the characters in the front page news section. If what you're looking for is blind blanket hatred. You're not gonna get it from me.

I'm guessing you didn't even play the game, and the negative reviews are a good form of self-justification for not buying it.
 
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M76 said:
I'm playing the game and I'm loving it. I don't need Angry Joe or you telling me that I should be ashamed for enjoying it.

Yes the game has numerous flaws. But despite that it's more enjoyable than a ton of games, that had no obvious flaws, but just aren't so exciting, or interesting, or large scale. If you want to call that being a rabid fan go ahead.

I'm criticising the game for it's flaws, just look at my posts in this thread, or my reaction to the uglyness of the characters in the front page news section. If what you're looking for is blind blanket hatred. You're not gonna get it from me.

I'm guessing you didn't even play the game, and the negative reviews are a good form of self-justification for not buying it.
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Someone just got triggered. The fact that you self identified as someone who feels the need to rationalise and justify your position says it all really. Whether or not you personally enjoyed this game and not others doesn't prove anything aside from my point, i.e. a willingness to overlook massive quality issues because of your subjective biases.

I couldn't care less about your personal input in this thread, so whether you spew blind hatred or self righteous indignation is of little interest to me.

And you are exactly right I haven't played the game because why would any sensible person with an ounce of logical reasoning reward a publisher for brazenly and knowingly pumping out such half baked trash. Similarly, having regard to negative reviews in every other reality of personal consumption would normally be considered prudent, except in the mind of a fanboy who struggles with the cognitive dissonance. Like I have already alluded to, I will eventually buy and play it..... but only at a price point I consider reflective of the underlying quality and workmanship.
 
Blade-Runner said:
Someone just got triggered. The fact that you self identified as someone who feels the need to rationalise and justify your position says it all really. Whether or not you personally enjoyed this game and not others doesn't prove anything aside from my point, i.e. a willingness to overlook massive quality issues because of your subjective biases.

I couldn't care less about your personal input in this thread, so whether you spew blind hatred or self righteous indignation is of little interest to me.

And you are exactly right I haven't played the game because why would any sensible person with an ounce of logical reasoning reward a publisher for brazenly and knowingly pumping out such half baked trash. Similarly, having regard to negative reviews in every other reality of personal consumption would normally be considered prudent, except in the mind of a fanboy who struggles with the cognitive dissonance. Like I have already alluded to, I will eventually buy and play it..... but only at a price point I consider reflective of the underlying quality and workmanship.
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I thought I was perfectly clear that I don't need to rationalize anything to you. It is exactly you who wants to self justify by categorizing everyone enjoying the game as stupid.

Or did you actually think that I made up the fact that I'm loving the game just to try to rationalize my position to you? That's cute.

If you don't care about my personal input, then how dare you accuse me of overlooking the issues, how do you know I'm overlooking anything.

I said I don't need you telling me that I'm stupid for enjoying the game, and you do exactly that. Are you really that blinded by rage? You seem to hate the entire world now, but especially those who dare enjoy the game. I can do nothing but pity you. Triggered? You wish.

But I'm starting to figure you out. You'd rather push a sports car down a cliff than enjoy it because the clutch is too heavy in it.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Then you have no idea whether the reviews are representative of the experience, and yet you still criticize.
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That's what reviews are for, the most asinine logic you can use to defend any game is that one has to play it firsthand to know its trash. Well no you don't, you can rely upon reviews and youtube lets play videos to work that out without having to waste money.

M76 said:
I thought I was perfectly clear that I don't need to rationalize anything to you.
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And yet here you are directly responding to my original post which was not aimed at anyone in particular except for Dan.

M76 said:
It is exactly you who wants to self justify by categorizing everyone enjoying the game as stupid.
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I don't need to self justify not wanting to reward a publisher in respect of a game for which there is mountainous overwhelming evidence proving that it is half baked. As for categorizing everyone enjoying the game as stupid, I would hazard a guess that a good proportion of them are blinded by fanboyism, much like the rabid fanboys who consistently defend CoD or BF regardless of how haplessly broken or insipid each release is.

M76 said:
Or did you actually think that I made up the fact that I'm loving the game just to try to rationalize my position to you? That's cute.
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Again, I couldn't care less about your personal enjoyment, but you wouldn't be the first person to lack the insight to appreciate how subconscious biases warp perceptions.

M76 said:
If you don't care about my personal input, then how dare you accuse me of overlooking the issues, how do you know I'm overlooking anything.
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Calm down snowflake before you completely melt away. And yes, I still don't care about your input because my original post wasn't directed at you. The fact that you are getting so demonstrably worked up about it is very telling though.

M76 said:
I said I don't need you telling me that I'm stupid for enjoying the game, and you do exactly that. Are you really that blinded by rage? You seem to hate the entire world now, but especially those who dare enjoy the game. I can do nothing but pity you. Triggered? You wish.
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LoL, I don't think I have ever triggered anyone so hard on this forum before. Rage? No rage, its a video game dude...the only person raging around here is you at the moment. Quite obviously your hyperbolic thought processes equate valid criticisms with hating the entire world, have you also left dead animals on the doorsteps of the multitudes of reviewers who excoriated this game for its pedestrian plot, terrible dialogue, unforgivable bugginess, tedious and pointless side quests, etc? Because you strike me as that sort of person given how vigorously you apparently need to defend the game.

M76 said:
But I'm starting to figure you out. You'd rather push a sports car down a cliff than enjoy it because the clutch is too heavy in it.
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I wouldn't have bought the crap quality car in the first place....will happily point out the silliness of those who did though.
 
On a side note. Who is doing their yoga? What is your favorite pose? This is a completionist question.
 
Blade-Runner said:
That's what reviews are for, the most asinine logic you can use to defend any game is that one has to play it firsthand to know its trash. Well no you don't, you can rely upon reviews and youtube lets play videos to work that out without having to waste money.
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And if your opinion- again without having touched the game- is that it is trash, why the fuck are you here?
 
IdiotInCharge said:
And if your opinion- again without having touched the game- is that it is trash, why the fuck are you here?
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He's here to validate his decision to himself of not buying the game. He came here hoping that everyone will be disappointed and moping about how bad the game is proving he made the right decision.
But instead he found people enjoying the game, and that makes him absolutely livid. And instead of admitting the game might not be that bad as the reviews made it out to be, he's now angry at us for not meeting his expectations.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
And if your opinion- again without having touched the game- is that it is trash, why the fuck are you here?
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Opinion based upon verifiable facts and comparable metrics and echoed across many other social platforms, again I don't have to touch the game to see all its faults, all I have to do is visit youtube. As for why I am here, last time I checked this is a discussion forum where people are free to post competing ideas and arguments. The real question is, why does that bother you so much?

M76 said:
He's here to validate his decision to himself of not buying the game. He came here hoping that everyone will be disappointed and moping about how bad the game is proving he made the right decision.
But instead he found people enjoying the game, and that makes him absolutely livid. And instead of admitting the game might not be that bad as the reviews made it out to be, he's now angry at us for not meeting his expectations.
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With how hard you are triggering right now I am surprised you mustered the strength to lift yourself from your fetal position under your desk to type this asinine drivel. Must be really tough for you to endure real life if you flail this hard during a nerd argument on the internet. Perhaps you can ask the mods to create a subforum safe space for you where disagreements aren't allowed and you can sing Kumbayah and circle jerk about how great this game is with like minded users.
 
Blade-Runner said:
Opinion based upon verifiable facts...
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Facts, you say? You might look to the definition of that word.

Further, you've gone so far to trumpet everything bad that those whose opinions you pine to value have presented, you haven't bothered to recognize what might be good. Just the bad.

So aside from this being an open forum, I ask again, why the fuck are you here?
 
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Blade-Runner said:
Opinion based upon verifiable facts and comparable metrics and echoed across many other social platforms, again I don't have to touch the game to see all its faults, all I have to do is visit youtube. As for why I am here, last time I checked this is a discussion forum where people are free to post competing ideas and arguments.
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So basically you're admitting that you're just echoing others. Most of whom are already just echoing others with no experience with the actual game.
Sure you can make the decision of not being interested in the game. But then how and why do you want to discuss it with second hand knowledge of it only?
The real question is, why does that bother you so much?
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I don't know, maybe the fact has something to do with it that you came in firing on both barrels declaring that everyone liking the game is stupid ?
With how hard you are triggering right now I am surprised you mustered the strength to lift yourself from your fetal position under your desk to type this asinine drivel. Must be really tough for you to endure real life if you flail this hard during a nerd argument on the internet. Perhaps you can ask the mods to create a subforum safe space for you where disagreements aren't allowed and you can sing Kumbayah and circle jerk about how great this game is with like minded users.
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Last I checked you're the one resorting to name calling and slurs. Do a reality check before you start projecting your own insecurities to others. And for goodness sake calm down before you give yourself a stroke. Or keep on pretending if you wish. I'm going back to play the game. Adios.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Facts, you say? You might look to the definition of that word.
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Yeah facts...like the game suffers from an incredible amount of bugs and lack of quality assurance. Fact.

IdiotInCharge said:
Further, you've gone so far to trumpet everything that those whose opinions you pine to value, you haven't bothered to recognize what might be good. Just the bad.
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I see how you like to discount anything that runs counter to your view as only an opinion. Nothing can be judged because its always an opinion even if based upon objective metrics and parameters, its a very disingenuous and self serving argument. And I don't need to write a dissertation on how much bad vs how much good there is, every critical or tepid review posted has done just that....weighing the good and the bad. By your logic it doesn't matter if the overwhelming majority, say 99.99% of respondents, consider a piece of work to be utter garbage for it to be an ultimate truth as long as there is one lonely sole who find some redeeming quality in it.

IdiotInCharge said:
So aside from this being an open forum, I ask again, why the fuck are you here?
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You answered your own question.
 
Blade-Runner said:
With how hard you are triggering right now I am surprised you mustered the strength to lift yourself from your fetal position under your desk to type this asinine drivel. Must be really tough for you to endure real life if you flail this hard during a nerd argument on the internet. Perhaps you can ask the mods to create a subforum safe space for you where disagreements aren't allowed and you can sing Kumbayah and circle jerk about how great this game is with like minded users.
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You would never, ever speak to M76 in this manner if he was standing right in front of you.
 
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