So...for over 2 weeks I wasn't able to get logged into this account after the whole mass password reset debacle. FA's password recovery/reset tool refused to work for me like many others. I kept processing requests almost daily, but the email with the verification code I needed would never come in for whatever reason.

I eventually got tired of waiting, since there were a lot of people (including artists) I had no other method of contacting without access to my account, so I made a new one. As I said in my journal there, part of me was glad this happened because I'd been procrastinating making a new account for years, since this one's name is tied to a character I don't really use or identify with anymore. I won't be reposting art in my new gallery that doesn't have anything to do with my characters Tenkai or Jun, and no, I'm not going to mass delete artwork here. So don't worry if you have stuff faved in SamoyedSin's gallery; it'll still be there.

I don't expect to carry over all the followers I got on this account over the years. This place has never been about popularity for me. I've met some pretty cool people (and some pretty insufferable ones too -_-) in my time on FA, so I'm mostly just posting this journal to let my friends and acquaintances know what happened and why there's not much activity on this account anymore.

I'm going to leave SamoyedSin up as a backup account, but for those who're interested in keeping tabs on me, my new account is:  datpandakai

I found it kind of funny that I FINALLY got an email from the admins to tell me my password had been reset manually literally the SAME DAY I took the plunge and made the new account. The timing was curious, to say the least. XD

Oh well, I'm just glad to be back. For those of you who aren't planning on following me with my move, I appreciate what interest you took in my page here while it lasted, be it for the art I commissioned or my rants and observations in my fuck-ton of journals posted over the years. See you all on the flip side~

Blind run, yadda yadda yadda~

https://www.twitch.tv/theycallmeval

Alright, getting close to the end (I think? XD). If I finish in time I'll be streaming the DLC Left Behind too.

https://www.twitch.tv/theycallmeval

...That I get utterly sick and tired of seeing certain characters EVERYWHERE on here (and other furry art sites)? I'm not going to name-drop here or anything -- my friends probably know exactly which individuals I'm talking about -- but it gets kind of laughable when I can't seem to go one day without seeing certain characters/people showing up in pics in my in-box, multiple times even.

It'd be one thing if these people in question were actually mixing it up and consistently getting their characters drawn in different situations, but really ... how many times do they think we need or want to see their character(s) in the SAME pose, in the SAME outfit (assuming they ever even WEAR clothes), doing the SAME thing +100 times? Yeah, we get it; your character is an uber-promiscuous dynamo who has 3 bukkake sessions before breakfast time, or they gladly slut it up with anything wielding an epic horse dong. Good on you. However, after I've seen it for the fifth, sixth, or twentieth time, it just starts to look like a pathetic attention grab.

"Hurrrrr, look how connected I am, and how much of my disposable income I'll burn on an obscenely overpriced YCH pic by <insert overrated pop-u-artist who gets by on name recognition here>. Do you love me now? Give me all the watches and faves plzkthnx. My fragile ego needs it."

Anyway, I'm sure most people will just dismiss it as petty jealousy/envy/whatever, but honestly it's something more than that. If I wanted to, I could go down that same route and be a sycophantic fanboy who tosses money at every big-named artist in the community for status, but quite frankly, I'd rather have people approach me and want to get to know me because they think I'm an interesting person, not just because I have X number of pics of my characters getting spit-roasted by every other pop-u-fur on the site. But...whatevs. If those folks want to treat their adult lives like they're reliving the popularity contest of high school all over again, more power to them, I guess. Just don't mind me over here most likely rolling my eyes and smiling.

PS: Sorry if any of this came off as holier than thou or just downright bitchy, but it's been a long week for me, so I allowed myself to get triggered by something I probably wouldn't, normally. -3-

I don't often get emotional when a celebrity of any kind passes, but the loss of David Bowie really hits me in the feels box. This man's music, movie appearances, and overall presence has been an integral part of my life since my youth. I know his music isn't for everyone, and he's had his ups and downs like any other musician, but not many people can argue that his works have stood the test of time and has opened a lot of doors for other artists back when the music industry was pretty anal about song subject matter.

Bowie's passing really still hasn't sunken in for me. The man just had his 69th birthday a few days ago and even recently put out another album that got rave reviews overall. I didn't even have any idea he'd been battling cancer until I heard the news of his death. Man, I can still remember going to watch Labyrinth in the theaters as a kid. That was what originally introduced me to him and got me interested in his music, and I'd been a fan ever since.

He's barely been gone a day and I already miss him. I know it's an overused cliché, but they truly broke the mold when they made David Bowie, and I'm grateful I got to experience him in my lifetime. Rest in peace, Mr. Bowie, and may you live out your moon age day dreams forever, wherever you are now.

...Because I'm a one-man wrecking crew, bitches. >=E

https://youtu.be/Yn3046j8BXg

Apparently it was a mistake for me to buy the PS4 version of Battlefront, since A) I have almost no friends on PS4, since I've been on Xbox Live for the past 9 years and only recently got a PSN account, and B) all the people who told me they'd get Battlefront or would play it with me either flaked out and aren't getting it now or just aren't playing it...at all.

If I can't get a legit team of people who want to play together soon on PS4 I might just cave and buy the game again on Xbone, since at least I know a buttload of people on there who'll play it.

I can handle myself on my own just fine. I'm already level 40, playing pretty much with nobody but myself, but I just can't stomach playing with entire teams of randoms anymore. It's bad enough there's no public team chat, so you don't get to communicate at ALL, but every other random I play with obviously has no concept of how to play the game. You either get stuck with the morons who'll grab TIE Fighters or X-Wings when the relay station you're trying to defend/overrun is INDOORS, or you'll get the selfish wonders who'll just run around hording all the power ups. I've literally seen people grab a power up, then totally waste it so they could pick up the AT-ST (and die in it within 15 seconds). Thanks so much for wasting that Probe Droid just so you could get your 20 uncontested kills in the AT-AT...prick. =P

So, yeah, if you're reading this and you have a team or are looking to start one, hit me up. I don't care if you're "MLG pro elite LOL 360 no scope" caliber or not. ANYTHING is better than randoms who don't talk at this point. -_-

If interested, hit me up with a friend request. GT is: StaticXFactor

Okay, first let me make it perfectly clear I'm nowhere near and IT guy. I'm not even terribly tech savvy to be honest. So forgive me in advance if any of the following I say sounds just plain ignorant. I'm kind of desperate at this point because I really have no idea what I've done to mess things up with my internet/connection.

Now, let me lay down what happened to start this off. I recently got a PS4, and the first week or so things were working fine. I have an Xbone and a PS4 on the same network now. Originally the Xbone was hard-wired, but when I got my PS4 I switched it to the Ethernet cable and have my Xbone wirelessly connected now.

Well, the other night when I ran the connection test on PS4 I saw a message I'd never seen before saying something like "your router might not support IP fragmentation, so certain features of the PS4 may be restricted, blah blah blah." So, after unplugging and power cycling my modem a couple times and having no change, I decides to do something REALLY dumb. I hit the tiny reset button on the bottom of my router, which totally reset everything to factory defaults.

Well, here in lies the big issue: The PC desktop the router and modem were originally installed on is DEAD. It's a brick. So when the router reset, it even reset the name of the network and everything else. So when I first connected back to the default network name it made with my laptop, it brought up the router setup page where it was asking me to install the CD for the security programs and such. Well, I no longer can find said CD, and I couldn't get connected to the internet to DOWNLOAD those files despite the link it gave me there. So I was left with no choice but select the "continue with an unsecured network" option just to get online again.

So for like a day I was back online but with an unsecured network. A couple friends told me how to adjust the settings for the router by finding my IP address and entering it into the browser, which let me tinker with some things (including security settings). So I eventually switched it the highest possible security setting (WPA2 I think it was), and at first everything seemed fine.

However, since later last night, my download and upload speeds on any device that uses the internet has been utterly abysmal at best. To put things into perspective, my average connection speed for my Xbone on a nightly basis was 50-60 MPS download and 7-8 MPS upload. Now, granted, the PS4 has ALWAYS been running slower than that despite being hard-wired, but it's repeatedly shown itself as a couple megabytes per second download (sometimes even LESS THAN 1 MB -_-), and no more than a couple MPS upload. It's even affecting my laptop now. Until a few nights ago I could watch people stream on Twitch while running Skype and gaming all at once. Now I can't even seem to run Twitch on low without videos stuttering or konking out.

So all that said, can ANYONE give me some advice as to what would be causing this sudden utterly crappy internet speed? My router is a Linksys/Cisco model E1200, and before I did the whole reset thing I never really had any problems with it. I didn't do the original setup for it so I'm really not sure how the settings originally were. I can go back to the router setup page and even tell anyone willing to help what I have things set up as if you have advice on any settings that would fix this.

Other than that, any ideas what's going on? Does this mean the router is crapping out already? It's barely a year old, and as I said, haven't really had any issues with it until shortly after I got my PS4 connected. I tried turning off the security for the network again to see if the high security setting was just eating up bandwidth or something, and at first it seemed like my speeds were back up, but within an hour I was looking at 3-4 MPS download speeds again.

So...yeah, really frustrated here, since I hate when I can't even identify what a problem is. Any and all help is appreciated, and I will owe anyone big time who genuinely helps me fix this problem. I imagine best case scenario is I just need to tweak some settings on the router, and worse case scenario I need to buy a new router entirely. -3-

So I haven't touched a Sony system since the PS2, and man have things changed. XD

So far I'm really digging the menu layout and such better than even the recently revamped Xbone system. I got the special Vader edition PS4 that comes with Battlefront and a voucher for 4 old school Star Wars games (Super Star Wars, Bounty Hunter, Jedi Starfighter, and Racer Revenge). So those are the only games I have at the moment. Planning on picking up Bloodborne and a bunch of the PS4 exclusive digital games I've been wanting ASAP though. -3-

Anyhow, had to make a new account since I was never online when I had the PS2.

Gamertag is: StaticXFactor

Feel free to add me, anyone. =3

Come watch me wrassle all da faces and heels. 8D

http://www.twitch.tv/theycallmeval

I love it when it rains on my birthday...all day. -3-

Also, I'm old now. Someone want to buy a coffin for me? ;_;

...Playing a game on a hard (or the hardest) setting for your first/blind run through a game probably isn't the best idea, especially if you're not particularly good at the game or genre of game you're playing.

I know some streamers love to look like ultra try-hards for their audience by doing that, but it cracks me up when the streamer starts to get salty at everyone in the chat because they get bored of watching said streamer attempt to get past the same checkpoint for 40 minutes straight.

It kind of makes me grateful that the hardest difficulty in a lot of games isn't unlocked until you've played through the entire game at least once now. =V

The real kick in the jewels though is often times when people try to give the streamer who's struggling genuinely helpful ADVICE, the streamer or his mods will chime in "ZOMG NO BACKSEAT GAMING! LET HIM/HER FIGURE IT OUT!" ...Ok? We've been letting him "figure it out" for 72 minutes now, and 47 deaths later, still no progress. The viewers get bored. The streamer gets frustrated. The mods get anal and it defeats the whole purpose of streaming: everybody trying to have fun.

I realize some of us are watching certain people stream for their personality more than their gaming skills, but if you're going to take on a challenge you're not confident you're going to be able to overcome, just keep in mind that taking your game-induced rage out on your viewers isn't helping anyone. =P

Enjoy the best thing to ever happen in any Call of Duty game. 8D

https://account.xbox.com/en-US/gameclip/afebd806-b997-4b06-918d-c80f7c7d2243?gamertag=Valorik&scid=03a80100-9ff3-46ea-be76-e00e7fe465df

You know, I'm not even sure why I still get surprised or offended when something like this is brought to my attention. I guess I just still have too much faith in humanity for my own good. Check out the latest lazy wonder who picked through my gallery and made their own half-assed version of Tenkai:

Edit: So apparently the genius who stole my art and character likeness, after sending me a couple laughable notes on F-List, deleted their character (yeah, that doesn't make you look even MORE guilty or anything). And to top it off, he's resorted to shout-bombing me and threatening me in notes on FA. Nice to know he's not only a thief, but a sociopath to boot.

Hey, I realize we don't all have the money or means to get art commissioned of our characters. Believe me, I know. For the longest time, I was in the boat too back when I first joined FA years and years ago. I think it's the fact this guy clearly read my character's bio on F-List and did his own half-assed twist on it that annoyed me. If you steal my pics, fine, whatever. It's the internet. It's going to happen. But don't make some Bizarro Universe carbon copy of my character to boot. Just changing my character's surname isn't making your character legit.

I guess what amazes me is how the people who pull this crap seem to think "LOL oh well there's no way the original owner of all this content could possibly discover little ole me if I stay low key on this furry fuck RP site."

Edit edit:
So the thief in question has since been suspended on here under two accounts, and so far I haven't found him recreating my character on F-List again, but seeing as he strikes me as nothing short of a vindictive social infant I'm sure he'll learn nothing from this incident and continue to act a such. If he continues to harass me on here, I imagine it'll be more severe than a suspension next time, so hopefully he'll at least develop a modicum of self-control if nothing else.

...You have at least one pic from several major artists depicting your character taking as many dicks as the artist can possibly fit on the screen, and/or you have other pop-u-furs who don't know you at all or have never spoken a word to you before coming out of the blue to offer to be in pics with you because a friend of a friend has suddenly deemed you "popular" enough.

Oh, and that's essentially quoting what I heard someone on a RP muck say, though I put it a bit more eloquently than he did. X3

At first I got a chuckle out of it, but the more I thought about it, the more I could see that being at least somewhat accurate in many cases. I've had the displeasure of speaking at length with a couple of individuals in the fandom (and on FA) who fit the prerequisite definition of "popular" to a T (at least in their own minds), and after some of the conversations I've endured from them, I seriously felt like I needed a shower afterwards to wash all the disgust out of me.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not insinuating that EVERYONE who is or considers themselves "popular" on sites like these is a total scumbag, but I have noticed a standard pattern that a lot of the more shallow or insufferable ones seem to follow.

Basically, their tried and true method of gaining said popularity consists of little more than throwing money (sometimes money that isn't even THEIRS) at every big-named artist in the fandom until they achieve at least some degree of name recognition (for no other reason than "LOL hay I've been drawn lots and lots"), and from there it's just a matter of them coasting on the tidal wave of cling-ons they attain (see: sycophants) from all those pictures. Then presto! Suddenly this person is somehow magically transformed into somebody EVERYONE is supposed to envy or want to know/befriend, despite the fact they often have all the personality of a soggy toast, or all the redeeming social qualities of a scorching case of herpes.

Really it all just boils down to things here being just like high school all over again. Popularity is often earned over the most trite or insignificant "achievements" and personal traits. Congratulations to "Chad" on being able to consistently throw a piece of leather in a perfect spiral; your athleticism totally justifies acting like a douche nozzle to any guy who doesn't have a matching "V" on their school jacket like you. Oh and kudos to "Brittney" for being born with nigh flawless genetics and beauty. We'll totally overlook how she can't finish one sentence without saying "like" at least 3 times, and the fact she probably can't even find Hawaii on a map...because she's hot.

The difference between that high school jock and the pop-u-furs in question is barely discernable, too. Instead of incessantly reminding everyone about all those sports trophies they earned 15 years ago while they're now the oldest delivery person at Pizza Hut, the pop-u-fur is like "Remember back when I got that Slyus pic of my fursona getting DPed by those two other guys I don't remember the names of now? Yeah, good times. Good times." =V

Anyhow, I guess my point to this whole tangent is that folks should stop worrying so much about where they stand on the tier list in some petty social circle that's honestly about as social as a rabid honey badger. Popularity truly is overrated, and it often comes at a cost that someone with a sound head on their shoulders wouldn't even consider paying. So stop investing so much stock into it.

So, in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, we find out that Big Boss/Naked Snake refers to his group as the "Diamond Dogs" at a certain point of the game. After listening to this song by David Bowie (by the same name), it's hard to deny it gave Hideo Kojima some pretty strong inspiration. I wouldn't even be surprised if this song makes an appearance in the game.

Even the beginning lyrics sound like they served as the setting for the beginning of The Phantom Pain.

"As they pulled you out of the oxygen tent, you asked for the latest party..." (Big Boss awakens from a coma, inquiring what's going on.)

"With your silicone hump and your ten inch stump..." (Big Boss lost one arm to injury and gets it replaced by a prosthetic mechanical limb.)

Et cetera, et cetera.

https://youtu.be/gOYiEWgUDVA

So, one of the biggest problems clients at vet clinics seem to have is medicating their household cat when they have oral meds of any kind. Fear not! Just follow this method to the T and you should never have problems again. =D

1) Pick up cat and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of the cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As the cat opens its mouth, pop the pill in, then allow the cat to close its mouth and swallow.

2) Retrieve pill from the floor and cat from behind the sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat the process.

3) Retrieve cat from the bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.

4) Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle the cat in arm, holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push the pill into the back of its mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of 10.

5) Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from the garden.

6) Kneel on the floor with cat wedged firmly between your knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growl emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into the cat's mouth. Drop pill down the ruler and rub throat vigorously.

7) Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from the foil wrap. Make a note to buy a new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shatter Doulton figurines from the hearth and set to one side for gluing later.

8) Wrap cat in large towel and get the spouse to lie on the cat with just its head visible beneath the armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with a pencil, then blow down the drinking straw.

9) Check label to make sure pill isn't harmful to humans, drink glass of water to take the taste away. Apply a Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove bloodstains from carpet with cold water and soap.

10) Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed. Get another pill. Place cat in cupboard and close the door on its neck to leave the head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick the pill down its throat with an elastic band.

11) Fetch screwdriver from the garage and put door back on its hinges. Apply cold compress to neck and check records for the date of your last tetanus shot. Throw your now shredded T-shirt away and fetch a new one from the bedroom.

12) Call fire department to retrieve cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into the fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.

13) Tie cat's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to dining room table. Find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Force cat's mouth open with a small wrench. Push pill into mouth along with a small piece of filet mignon. Hold head vertically and pour 1/2 pint of water down cat's throat to wash pill down.

14) Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room. Sit quietly while doctor stitches your fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture store on the way home to order a new table.

15) Take your cat to your local veterinarian to make pilling your cat THEIR problem. No fee is too much.

See, now was that so bad? =V

...Actual ART and not just EVERY artist on the site posting notices that they're streaming?

Like, seriously, almost every day I'll see 4-6 posts in a row that are just artists saying "LOL hey I'm streaming nao come watch me draw free stuff for pop-u-furs and maybe work on commissions on the side." =V

I've only watched a handful of artist streams over the years, and sure, when said artist actually attempts to be friendly (to everyone) and entertaining for their viewers it can be a blast. However, it's far too easy for them to become just another instance of attention-whores attempting to monopolize artists' time, using their oh-so-valuable "hay guiz I've been drawn X number of times by every artist in the fandom and left vapid compliments on every pic ever posted here, so me me me!" status to elbow their way past newcomers or folks who haven't ever gotten the chance to get a pic from an artist they adore. It's sickening, and yes, I've seen that happen in more streams than not.

Furthermore, there's only SO MANY streams you can watch at once, and I've noticed a lot of these artists stream at the EXACT SAME TIME. So, they get pissy/crestfallen/etc when a small number of people show up for the stream since <insert popular artist here> got all the traffic. Think, McFly. Think. =1

The whole Patreon thing is getting almost as bad too. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for supporting artists (starving or otherwise), but there's only so many of them I can keep throwing money at constantly to "maybe possibly but probably not" get a pic out of these "raffles" some of them throw.

The truly frustrating thing about Patreon is there are some artists who're getting so invested in it that they practically never open themselves up for "normal" commissions anymore once some of them see the tidal wave of money rolling in from people on there. Some of them, it was hard enough to catch open to begin with, but now you're left to throw yourself at the mercy of the die roll, where you might have donated $50-$100 (or more) to their Patreon and you end up getting beat out by someone who's donated a dollar. It's a potentially nice business model for the artists, but not so much for the supporters.

Anyhow, whatevs. I doubt this trend is going to die down any time soon since streaming and public funding sites like Twitch, Kickstarter, and Patreon are getting popular as ever. I'm just ranting...because some days it gets irksome sifting through a page of streaming or "I gotz Patreon!" posts to actually find a pic to enjoy. xP

So, every year Game Informer magazine has a "sacred cow" section where they basically roast some of the most beloved or acclaimed games in the industry. They had some really good ones this year (Kingdom Hearts, Minecraft, Mass Effect 2, just to name a few), but the real gem this year, IMO, was their take on Dark Souls. And before any white knights rush to the rescue of the Dark Souls series, keep in mind I'm quoting what the magazine said, and while I did manage to garner some enjoyment from both games, I couldn't help but nod and even laugh out loud as I read this article.

Here it goes...

Dark Souls

Gamers have gleefully been declaring the Japanese game industry dead for years due to the inability of eastern developers to create new and innovative experiences (i.e. make first-person shooters like everyone else). However, From Software has managed to revolutionize gaming with its Dark Souls series -- not by introducing new gameplay (it's the same slow, stat-trading combat the developer has been shoveling for years), or a thought-provoking story (this is From Software we're talking about), but by tapping into the self-hatred that introverted gamers have for themselves in a way no game has done before.

Dark Souls is the ultimate pissing contest, only in this case, the objective is to see how long you're willing to let the game shower you in its archaically punishing gameplay. Players undergo a symbolic form of castration by repeatedly dying and losing all of their experience until Stockholm syndrome sets in and provides a smug sense of elitism that can sometimes be mistaken for "having fun." This grueling "difficulty" also masks the fact that From Software can't balance a game or even explain how its draconian mechanics work -- because fumbling around in menus and not understanding basic gameplay systems is part of the experience! Somehow the developer has actually duped players into expecting and paying for a miserable experience, which From Software is uniquely qualified to deliver.

Playing and pretending to enjoy Dark Souls is the gaming equivalent of a middle-aged dad driving an exotic sports car -- it's so clear that you're trying to compensate for your own inadequacies that we can only pity you.

Man, it still hasn't really set in for me that Wayne's dead now. I've been listening to Static-X since back when MTV still actually showed, you know, music videos. Own every album they've ever made, and ever since I heard the news Wayne passed I've been listening to them all again while driving.

Anyway, here's some of my favorite songs from Static-X, spanning most of their albums. To anyone reading this who's never even heard of this band or hasn't given them a fair shot, at least check out their Wisconsin Death Trip album; that's by far one of their best.

Cannibal
https://youtu.be/4dkvMbvbvLI


Tera-fied
https://youtu.be/yNBB1NGlkjU


Bled for Days
https://youtu.be/NWTFPryJD3E


Lunatic
https://youtu.be/udjkhmfF1dU


Wisconsin Death Trip
https://youtu.be/fBSnjtkSXBs


I'm With Stupid
https://youtu.be/nqiVvOXotyw


Chroma-matic
https://youtu.be/QcYf-5BfUXk

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/st.....ic-dead-at-48/

Man, I was just listening to Wisconsin Death Trip like...a couple days ago on the way to work too. -3-

Today: I get older. =(

Tomorrow: ALL THE CANDY AND DIABETES I want. 8D

It's great being born so close to Halloween. -3-

So, I'm sure most of you will agree that Alien(s) is one of those franchise that's rarely seen justice done to it properly in the realm of video games. Aside from maybe the Alien vs Predator side-scrolling beat-em-up from the 90s, and the original Alien vs Predator game (which frankly hasn't aged well), making a quality game with this franchise has been elusive for most developers. Sort of like how Batman had terrible games for so many years before Rocksteady came along with the Arkham series to turn it to gold.

Well, rest assured, The Creative Assembly and Sega have come along to finally give us a reason to fear the xenomorphs again, and not because they're starring in a horrendous game like Colonial Marines was.

For those of you not familiar with the premise for Isolation, you play the role of Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley's daughter. Obviously, the events in this game take place after the original Alien film, and before Aliens. Long story short, Amanda Ripley gets recruited to retrieve the black box/flight recorder of the Nostromo, Ellen Ripley's ship, which was "mysteriously" self-detonated at the conclusion of the first film. Said black box has been recovered by a ship and dropped off on a deep space station, the Sevastapol. Ripley is part of a three man team who take part of what's supposed to be a simple fetch-and-return mission, but as we all know, missions never seem to go the way they're meant in the Alien universe.

When you arrive at the station, the shit hits the fan quickly, your team gets split up, and you soon learn that something terribly, terribly wrong has taken place on the station. Survivors are killing each other out of panic caused by a "strange creature" that's somehow taken residence on the Sevastapol.

Before I continue, I'll clarify that I'm only a fraction of the way through the game at this point, but I feel I've played enough of Isolation to put in my two cents on it. First off, I have to say, The Creative Assembly are obviously big fans of the film. They've really captured the retro 70s scifi vibe Alien had. The setting is gorgeous in its decadence, and even in sections where your safety is supposed to be put first, you never really feel safe.

That said, one of the strongest aspects to Isolation is its atmosphere. It's almost suffocating at times with the combination of dark settings, ambient sounds, and the constant threat of the xenomorph and surviving looters appearing at any time.

The next thing TCA did a good job is driving home the fact that Amanda Ripley is NOT some rough and tough "space marine" or a stone cold killer like engineer Isaac Clark was in the recent Dead Space series. When she sees death or violence on the station, she responds to it like you would expect someone "green" to such things should. And in instances where she has to use weapons, her attacks are unrefined and clunky. When she holds a gun, it feels out of place in her hands. They even set it so that her targeting reticle starts out big and takes several seconds to "narrow down" to a more accurate shot.

However, if you're expecting a bunch of running and gunning and over-the-top combat, you're playing the wrong game, my friends. In fact, the best path to survival in most instances in Isolation is to AVOID conflict at all costs. Supplies and ammo are scarce enough that every time you take shots at someone (or something) or use one of the many devices Amanda can craft from things she salvages (med kits, noisemakers, flashbangs, emp mines, etc) it feels like a major decision that you hope you won't regret later.

You'll find there's very few allies on the Sevastapol. The majority of humans remaining on the station have taken the "survival of the fittest" looter mindset, and those many of them will at least warn you and give you the chance to back away once spotted, you're better off avoiding contact with most humans, or more deviously, using them as bait for the xenomorph that's stalking everyone on the ship. You'll also encounter androids on the station known as "Working Joes." Unlike the realistic androids the Weyland-Yutani corporation produced in the movies, these guys embrace their fakeness, right down to their rubbery skin and glowing eyes. And for some reason, the central AI controlling them is making them hostile to the human survivors too. So they present a difficult obstacle.

The star of the game is, of course, the alien itself, and TCA has not failed to impress me with their embodiment of Giger's famous man-killer. Early on, you don't encounter it much, but once things get rolling, you really never known when or where the creature will surface. The complex behavioral AI they've given the beast in Isolation makes it almost as fun to study as it is frightening to avoid. This is complimented by some of the most fluent and believable animations I've seen the xenomorph portrayed with.

I'd almost say that sometimes it's worth getting caught by the creature on purpose just to witness the various death/execution animations he'll perform on poor Amanda when he corners her, but frankly, the game is challenging enough that most deaths by its hands (or tail, or teeth) won't need to be on purpose.

Fairly early on you get access to a motion tracker device, similar to the motion tracker made famous in the movie Aliens. At first I thought being able to see enemy/creature movement with this thing would make the game too easy and numb the fear factor, but in fact it made Isolation that move more tense and frightening. The xenomorph's blip is unpredictable and crazy fast. So even when it looks like he's lost interest and has taken off, you'll discover he can turn back around in a heartbeat, so you never really feel secure once you know the alien is stalking the halls.

Rest assured, though he's an efficient killing machine, if you play smart, you can not only avoid the acid-blooded nightmare, but use him to take out obstacles for you. Got a group of looters blocking your path? Toss a noisemaker their way, and maybe you'll get lucky and the alien will come out of the vents to clear a bloody path for you. For some odd reason, he seems to mostly ignore the androids on the ship though, which can be frustrating if you find yourself having to avoid the alien AND the Working Joes at the same time.

Now, while I'm enjoying this game immensely, I will be quite honest in saying Isolation isn't going to be for the faint of heart. TCA purposefully left out any sort of autosave function, and you can only manually save at the stations scarcely scattered about the Sevastapol. Worse yet, sometimes these stations are off the beaten path. And considering how ridiculously easy it can be to die, sometimes it feels like those stations are way too far off.

In one particular instance, I lost a good 30 minutes of progress because I foolishly assumed the game at least autosaved when you go to a new area (loading screen). I spent about 25 minutes methodically creeping through an area guarded by Working Joes, and after the loading screen for the next area (and presumably the next mission), the xenomorph popped out, I made a mistake, and it had me for lunch. My heart sunk when I saw where the game restarted me. =P

I'm going to emphasize here, this is a difficult game. Even on the default setting, humans are sure shots and lethal. Working Joes are tough to take down by conventional means, and pretty much any up close and personal encounter with the xenomorph = instant death. If you don't have patience and aren't a fan of thinking outside of the box to set up traps or cause distractions, you'll probably find Isolation too slow-paced and tedious for your liking. Me? This is right up my alley, punishing save feature aside.

Oh, and a DLC bonus that comes packed in as a free code with physical copies of the game, you can actually play a mission as Ellen Ripley and crew on the Nostromo, basically recreating their attempt to survive the xenomorph from the original movie. They even got the entire cast from the film together for the first time since the movie was made to reprise their roles in the VA department, including Sigourney Weaver. Other than that, there's also a "challenge mode" which I haven't tried out yet, but I'll assume it involves you getting through certain segments of the station while the alien stalks you, or something similar.

All that said, it's good to finally have an Alien game that helps soften the sting that Colonial Marines left with gamers who were hoping for something awesome. Even if you're not a fan of the series, but you like the survivor horror genre, or just games with intense atmosphere, you really should give Isolation a chance. <3

...At the aftermath of a Clash match in the Crucible, I went 21-5, and got absolutely nothing. One of my dipshit random teammates, who singlehandedly lost the match for us by going 3-17...gets an exotic (see: highest caliber weapon) rocket launcher, Gjallarhorn.

Bungie, why are you rewarding people for being terrible at the game? >_>

This isn't an isolated incident either. Numerous times I've seen the worst players (or nearly the worst) get rare/exotic/cool item rewards post-match, while the people who carry teams or otherwise perform flawlessly get fucked with a rusty cheesegrater without lube when it comes to "rewards."

Oh well, guess if I want any exotic weapons I'm just going to have to be one of those jerks who sits motionless for an entire match and gets killed +15 times. =P

So, first, the backdrop:

A client brought in a pitbull (American Staffordshire Terrier; I actually despise the term "pitbull") that had been shot by a police officer ... 3 times.

Said client didn't even have enough money on them to pay for a quick wound cleanup or pain medication, and even though we started helping the dog before even a cent was paid (which is typically against clinic policy), she had the gall to act testy with /us/ because we weren't willing or able to fix everything "out of the kindness of our hearts."

I realize we don't all have +$2000 to spend on a medical bill for our pets, hell, it's all some of us can do to keep them vaccinated and relatively healthy yearly, but I'm getting really sick of clients who act like WE are the "bad guys" because we actually expect payment for our services. I don't work at a shelter. If we helped every animal that came in the door in which the owners couldn't afford treatment, we'd probably be out of business within months.

Anyhow, moving on, the story from the client goes that the police officer wasn't even at the right address, and as he was approaching the front door to her house, her dog who was shot ran towards the approaching officer, not growling or otherwise acting aggressive, and said officer proceeded to shoot her dog 3 times out of "fear for his life." One of the shots completely shattered her jaw bone into a hundred fragments, and the other two went through her shoulders and sternum.

The dog was never in "critical" condition, but it's obvious she needed some serious reconstructive surgery to her jaw if she was ever going to eat or drink again. Speaking as a tech who worked with the dog while we were cleaning wounds and such, even though she was clearly in pain, she never acted aggressive even once towards any of us. So I find it pretty dubious that the police officer who was so trigger happy was ever in any real danger from her.

One of the local news stations showed up and interviewed the pet owner to get her story, and the police department neglected to comment on the affair at that time. Fortunately, she gave us praise for the care we were giving her pet, despite her initial anger at us for not being a charity clinic.

The good news is, however, since her story got out, a number of people called in with concern and donated enough money to get the dog treated, and she's currently in the middle of the taxing process of getting her jaw "rebuilt" by surgeons.

I highly doubt the officer responsible will be charged or even reprimanded in any way, though. Unfortunately, all a police officer basically has to do is claim "I felt threatened" and that totally justifies them using potentially deadly force on an animal who could have been simply coming over to greet an INTRUDER in their yard. It's kind of pathetic that a cop would rather reach for their gun instead of at least trying pepper spray or the like to deter an "aggressive" animal. The pitbull in question wasn't even particularly large or menacing (she was only 2 years old and no more than 45 pounds). So in the least, I hope the cop responsible at least FEELS like a bit of a douche in this situation.