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You knew who your targets were in ACII. They were the Templars that conspired to kill Ezio's family. I'd say that's a lot more personal than Altair's targets. Brotherhood's targets were the Templars that threatened the Assassin Order. More business than anything. Fair point on Revelations, though.

Would have liked to have seen either a Wii U or PC version of Rogue, but hey, I can go for twice the Assassin's Creed this year. I'm slightly surprised that they're not two sides of the same story, but hey, it's still interesting to play a Templar for once.

Sometimes I question whether or not I'm overthinking this stupid show. Other times I remember that we went from Kazuto not sure if he wants to decide to help the police to him about to be plugged in with no briefing on what he's supposed to be doing in GGO. That's really something that should have been explained before he goes in.

It really makes episode 2 quite jarring. While it's still my favorite episode of the ENTIRE SHOW, it really didn't DO anything. Instead of using all of that time for an extended action sequence, we could have spent some of it exploring Kazuto's motivation and decision to assist the police. It's easy to theorize that he's still using the Kirito character to attract Death Gun, but that's all we can do until episode 4 rolls around.

That said, this is very much nitpicking and the way they did it is only minorly odd and only sticks out because of wasting episode 2 on an extended action sequence. At least it was a really good extended action sequence.

Which is a related, but altogether different issue.

Again, the creators don't deserve to be paid for their work because someone will do it for free illegally? Crunchyroll is a DISTRIBUTOR. Their job is to DISTRIBUTE. DISTRIBUTION costs money and studios would rather have someone to do it for them. They're not "making a profit off of someone else's work," they're doing their job.

Ah, yes, the old "but I have to STREAM Crunchyroll" argument. Sorry if I have no sympathy when you would rather pirate something because you're too lazy to stream it. Again, why don't the creators deserve to be PAID for their work? I hate to break it to you, but Crunchyroll streams ARE official releases and when they're streamed, be it by Crunchyroll, FUNimation, Viz or someone else, it HAS come to the west.

I fail to see how this is a problem. Care to actually explain how Crunchyroll is somehow exploiting the studios?

I am at a loss on how to best respond to something this unbelievably stupid. This is a brilliant example of false equivalency.

Sure... except that I've already addressed this point. This is a major issue. It makes no sense whatsoever to region lock online content.

So how does this excuse just taking what you feel like and refusing to give anything in return? Crunchyroll is still giving more money to the studios than funsubbers are. You're assuming that they're exploiting the studios when you haven't even explained HOW they're exploiting the studios. Region locking is on the studios. Paywalls are on the studios. The negatives of using Crunchyroll are on the studios.

Who do you think is getting a cut of the money when you buy the DVDs? A distributor's job is to put the content out there. They buy the licenses so they have the right to MAKE MONEY by selling a studio's content. That's what a distributor does. Again, Crunchyroll is a distributor. Their job is to distribute content. And based on the fact that they're making money, they're able to increase the amount of content they can distribute.

Getting upset that Crunchyroll doesn't talk about the terms of their contracts and tell everyone how much money each license costs them is like getting upset that FUNimation doesn't tell everyone how much royalty money studios make through DVD sales.

What do you gain by refusing to use legal streaming options?

Fansubs of licensed and legally, readily available free content isn't much better.

The problem with the US-first method is that Space Dandy is actually the first time that method has been largely successful and it leaves other regions SOL. Not to mention the low number of anime airing on TV. Not to mention that the only time this happens is when Toonami foots part of the publishing bill. That's what happened with IGPX and that's what happened with Space Dandy.

A better option that all of the major streaming options have condoned to the point where even Toei has posted Sailor Moon Crystal with English subtitles to Nico Nico Douga is simulcast. This is also something that fansubbers can't compete with. If it's aired at the same time world-wide, then EVERYONE gets to watch it before it can be posted to Pirate Bay and you don't have the issue of region locking. You still have to sit through ads, but they have to make their money somehow.

So, Nintendo, where's the GBA and SNES games on the 3DS eShop?

It really sucks to see the guys behind Timesplitters go out with such a whimper. Hopefully we'll see a spiritual successor to Free Radical some day.

Most of the time, at least in western regions, we'll see complete series nowadays for $40-$80. Yes, there are still issues with pricing as we do still see 4 episode releases for $40 or more, but DVD prices have dropped since the early 2000s when 4 episodes for $40 was standard practice.

And no **** the Japanese release doesn't have English subtitles. They're not for the western market!

Also, those prices are the reason why we get the occasional dub-only release because it's sometimes cheaper to import western releases than buy Japanese releases. As I said, instead of punishing legal customers to get people to not do something they don't want, they need to offer better value. That's basic business.

Did you seriously just say "Nipponese" without a hint of irony?

Also, while updated content is great, actual bonus features (IE, behind the scenes, writer/director/cast interviews and so on and so forth) are rare.

Imagine that, a business is out to make a profit!

Last I checked, Crunchyroll doesn't show where their profit goes. They don't have to show that to anyone but their shareholders (they have none as they're not publicly traded). We don't know how much of that money goes to the studios for distribution rights. Regardless, while I don't know the numbers and I'd love to be able to access that information, it's still more than the amount of money that goes to the studios from fansubbers, which is, always has been and always will be zero.

Got a citation for that? If not, I have to assume you're just feeding me the same bullshit fansubbers feed the pirates.

The studios do have other options, actually. They could sign with FUNimation or Viz, who use Hulu to stream, they could sign with another distributor or they could just leave it unlicensed. It's absurd to claim that they have no other option besides Crunchyroll.

Also, "low-cost, low-benefit solution?" Yeah, imagine that, you put no cost into something and you get what you pay for!

So, the writers, animators, directors, translators, subtitle writers and anyone else involved in the creation of the work don't deserve to get paid for their work because some fans will give it away for free? Regardless of how easy it is to translate something (and it's not as easy as fan translators would have you think. Have you seen how most of them write?), fansubs give absolutely NOTHING back to the creators. And that's the problem. Like I said, I'd like to see a citation on the claim that Crunchyroll is screwing over the studios and even if there is truth to that claim, they're still contributing more to the studios than fansubbers ever have or ever will.

Not to mention that Crunchyroll is, in fact, free. You don't need a premium membership to access almost every single one of their titles and the ones that you do need premium membership to view, if I remember correctly, is more due to the terms of their license than anything. Just because you have to wait a week and sit through ads doesn't mean it isn't free. Hell, pirate streaming sites make you sit through just as many ads and they don't guarantee that the quality will be any good.

Why hello claim that manga is more expensive than it really is. The reality is that manga is meant to compete in the same circles as comics and, when priced along side western titles, manga actually easily comes out on top in terms of value. A trade paperback of, say Green Lantern will generally be priced between $15 and $25, depending on how many issues it collects. A volume of manga will generally go for about $10-$15, depending on publisher. While the manga publishers are generally going to use inferior paper and it will be printed in black and white, you still get far more content out of a single volume of manga than you do out of a single trade paperback of a western title.

Trying to compare manga prices to anime prices is like apples and oranges. While there is a strong relationship between the two mediums, they target two different audiences. Anime targets TV viewers, while manga targets comic readers.

Not to mention that pretty much all of my above statements still hold true when it comes to manga piracy.

The problem is that the vast majority of those free sites do nothing for the industry. For every Crunchyroll, there's twenty Justdubs. Furthermore, while the growth of Crunchyroll and Hulu based streams have helped slow down piracy considerably, when piracy was left unchecked, it didn't automatically translate to free publicity.

To some extent, the free publicity argument is true. There are multiple cases where piracy has shown western distributors that there is an audience for something they wouldn't have otherwise even considered bringing over. However, because of how rampant piracy is with the anime fandom, the vast majority of people are just going to download or use an illegal streaming site, even when there is a legal alternative, even when that alternative is just as free.

I find the kind of mental gymnastics unabashed pirates use to justify themselves fascinating. First it was "DVDs are too expensive." Sure, except prices have (mostly) gone down and legal streaming has taken over. Then it was "I have to pay several subscription fees if I want everything." Sure, except that there are only two major services, Crunchyroll and Hulu, the vast majority of content is free with ads. Usually nowadays I hear "but I have to wait a week on Crunchyroll" or "Japanese fans get to watch it for free." For waiting, people are impatient as hell and refuse to accept that a week delay really isn't a big deal. For Japanese fans getting to watch for free, apparently they don't realize that ads exist in Japan, too. Hell, I've seen a fansubber admit to stealing scripts from Crunchyroll because he claimed that he could do everything else better.

However, publishers, distributors and the Japanese government can't seem to get their heads out of their asses in regards to how to actually deal with pirates. First step is to stop trying to count the people who are going to pirate regardless of what you do as lost sales/views. They could offer free downloads of lossless 1080p, ad-free, dual-audio episodes with subs in any style you want (because for some reason, some pirates INSIST that the subs should be a random color and that there should be obnoxious karaoke subs in the openers and closers on everything), translated in any way you want (I'll save the difference between translation styles for later) and they'll still find an excuse to download unauthorized fansubs.

Second is that they need to start treating the pirate sites as competition. I know, I know, free is pretty hard to beat, but then you realize that the defining difference between Crunchyroll and your average pirate site is that Crunchyroll is restricted by the terms of their licenses. Free streaming is something more distributors and publishers need to get on board with. Why? Because, again, you can't beat free.

Third, stop punishing legal customers. Occasionally, we'll see a DVD release that, for some bizarre reason, has no Japanese audio. The reason for this is unsurprisingly extremely stupid: They don't want Japanese fans to import the western DVDs because the Japanese DVDs are far more expensive. This issue isn't as prevalent as it used to be and I don't remember the last time I heard a case like this, but this is an example of legal customers being punished to prevent people from doing something the publishers don't want them to do.

Fourth, related the last point, they need to greatly increase the value of being a legal customer. While not as bad as it used to be, anime is still expensive to buy on DVD. We've finally stopped seeing 3 or 4 episode discs being released at $40 on a regular basis, but it still happens from time to time. DVD extras are an incentive and even full series box sets are often devoid of any extras outside of the Japanese audio track, which should be an expected feature, not an extra. Some people don't care about DVD extras, but that's just an example. DVDs/Blu-ray releases should find ways to give incentive to buying those instead of going straight for the Pirate Bay.

Fifth, they need to find a way to increase the visibility of their legal options. I've run into several fans in real life who weren't even aware of the existence of Crunchyroll. While I can't say that they started using it after I made them aware of it (again, some people will never use a legal option, regardless of what it is), it's safe to say that Crunchyroll, while popular and growing, isn't big enough to stop piracy at large. For most shows, it's a shot in the dark if there is a legal streaming option or not. On a few occasions, I've downloaded something I thought was unlicensed, only to find that it's on Hulu for free. Nowadays, I generally have a policy of checking the legal options I know and have access to before going to Pirate Bay, but I have more patience than a lot of fans, especially the aforementioned guaranteed pirates who are, but shouldn't be counted as lost sales.

Sixth, if they want us to pay for something, give us the option. It baffles me whenever I see region locked content. This goes back to licensing restrictions. It makes no sense whatsoever to block something in one region, only to allow it in another. There are quite a number of shows on Crunchyroll that are region blocked outside of the United States. Considering that the cost of opening access to other regions should be nothing or next to nothing, this makes no sense. What do publisher and distributors gain by not allowing audiences outside of certain regions? As far as I can tell, nothing. If it's an advertising issue, then they shouldn't be punishing the customers for not living in regions that they already had advertisers in. Instead, they need to do more to give more value to the customers instead of saying "you can't play with my toys because those kids that you have no control over said so."

Related, publishers getting upset because people in a region their content isn't available in are pirating have no one but themselves to blame. I can't give my money for your product if you refuse to sell me your product in the first place.

Seventh, stop trying to treat torrenting as if it only exists for piracy and stop trying treat "pirates" who still support legal options as criminals. I don't think I need to explain this one.

For some reason, media publishers are resistant to change. Newspapers are dying a slow death, but they can't figure out what to do about it, game publishers are trying to lock legal customers out of their games in a futile attempt to drive a few extra sales that weren't going to be sales in the first place and anime publishers try to use a legal hammer to smash torrent sites and pirate sites to try to drive a few extra sales that many potential customers can't afford in the first place.

EDIT: Also, I'm reminded of when OneManga called it quits and switched gears to being a community site. They lost most of their users. Now there are three sites that use the name and the original, as far as I can tell, is just their forum and the other two are pirate sites that stole the name (illegal, I might add as the name is copyrighted, but then, they are pirate sites) because the original was once THE scanlation site.

I... have no words.

Before I begin, I have seen episode 4 because Hulu has the show for free without lagging a week. Annoying since they use four times as many ads and I prefer Crunchyroll, but hey, at least I don't have to wait a week.

There are reasons to have Kazuto transfer his character. It is established that Zaskar is based in the United States, so I'd say it's reasonable that they declined to assist in the investigation, otherwise, they could have created a character for Kazuto that was, skills and stats-wise, identical to his ALO character. As for a lack of international authorities getting involved, it's reasonable that Interpol could feel that there isn't enough evidence of Death Gun being real to warrant an investigation.

However, episode 4 establishes that he IS trying to make a name for himself to try to attract Death Gun, so that's probably the reason he transferred his character. So I'm going to count that question as answered.

Of course, this still leaves the question of why he has to quit one game to play another.

As for episode 4, I actually rather enjoyed it. On a technical level, I think it might be the best episode yet. On a personal level, I do prefer episode 2 because, for one, the action was good and, for two, it was the first time IN THE ENTIRE SHOW that we actually saw character development. As for notes, I only have five things to say:

1: I didn't mention it in the last episode as it was a footnote, but why in the holy hell does Kazuto think Death Gun is just a rumor? Like I said, it is reasonable for Interpol to not believe it, but the Tokyo police have an open investigation involving him and Kazuto was, AGAIN, at the center of two similar incidents. There is no reason he should think Death Gun is a rumor.

2: What's with the other player demanding Kirito sell his character's body to him? I understand the appeal of having a more aesthetically pleasing character, but this scene was just weird.

3: Why does Sinon make a note of how rare female players are? It is established that SAO allowed players to use avatars of the opposite sex. Is this something not allowed in GGO? I doubt it as the player wanting to buy Kirito's character initially thought the character was female, so it stands to reason that playing as the opposite sex is possible. Her assumption that Kirito was a girl is a bit silly.

And please don't mention that the books say that Sinon wanted to play as a large male character as that is not touched upon in the show and, as I said, an adaptation should never rely on the source material to be understood.

4: Why wasn't Kirito able to customize his own character? If GGO is supposed to use the player's actual appearance, why doesn't he look like his real-life appearance?

5: As I usually skip the opener due to hating Japanese pop music, I didn't think about it before, but seeing the lightsaber fighting in the opener makes me want a Star Wars anime.

It makes sense that his items don't transfer between games, especially seeing as he's switching from a fantasy game with swords and magic to a sci-fi game with guns and lighsabers. However, my criticism isn't about that. Why is not able to have the same active character on both games? Why does he have to quit ALO to go play GGO?

Also, another thing, he's quite well known for his role in the SAO incident, so why does he use the same character in GGO? At the very least, you'd think he'd be given a character by the police, who, again, are paying him to investigate, so he doesn't have to worry about being recognized. If being recognized is the point, then it isn't explained anywhere.

So... episode 3. Well. I've certainly seen worse flashback scenes? At least this wasn't boring, but ****ing hilarious is probably not what they were going for.

However, in all fairness, it's a fantastic back story. While I don't get why Shino is able to play GGO when even seeing pictures of guns makes her freak out, the idea that she accidentally killed someone at such a young age makes her far more fascinating than Kirito ever was (and don't get me started on why Kirito's supposed flaws are complete bullshit) and gives her real flaws and room for real character growth.

However, that flashback was awful. It is one of the few things I can legitimately call so bad it's good. From the start, it's silly. We have the cliche of "something tragic happens to family in routine day," but that's just the start. The moment the robber walks into the bank, the ham is already there. He's shambling like a zombie with a crazed look on his face, DROOLING with the camera FOCUSING on the drool dripping on the floor.

Then he shambles up and shoves Shino's mother out of the way, points the gun at the teller and demands the money. From here until Shino gets the gun from him, it's a pretty tense scene, but the goofiness of what surrounds it kills all of the tension.

After Shino shoots him is when it switches from goofy to HILARIOUS. I actually had to stop the video and take the time to laugh because of how ridiculous it was. ****ing Yakety Sax would have been a more fitting soundtrack to use than the sappy music, which added to the comedy in its own way.

You can argue realism all you want when it comes to the robber needing to be shot multiple times to die, but in a dramatic moment like this, LESS IS MORE. The robber's expressions were ridiculous and hilarious, especially the bug eyed look after Shino shoots him the third time.

Apparently, Kawahara has no idea how to be subtle. As I said, in this situation, less is more. I can't take what is otherwise a great backstory seriously because of how completely ridiculous the scene is. Any tension that should have been there (IE, a lot) is gone from the start because of how goofy everything is played out as.

Beyond that, we're still getting references to stats, which I'm pretty much about to resign myself to the fact that we're never going to get any sort of explanation on how those work. As I said earlier in the thread, this is something that should have been explained from the start and since every game featured in the show is based on SAO, the stats should work similarly across the board.

And then we have a character (whose name escapes me at the moment) lamenting that his Agility based character can't compete. This has several major problems. Obviously, we have the fact that stats are never explained, so we don't know what an Agility based character even IS. Beyond that, we have no explanation or demonstration of WHY Agility based characters are at a disadvantage. What makes other kinds of characters better? Because they can use heavier weapons? As we already have it established that heavier weapons give a movement penalty (and they flatout say that miniguns are useless in one on one fights), wouldn't that imply that Agility based characters have far better movement?

Then we have the problem with the fact that characters can be imported from other games. This implies that if you import an Agility based character from another game, you're stuck with it. With this and the implications that GGO has bad weapon balance, it raises a serious question of HOW THE HELL DID ZASKAR GET ANYONE TO PLAY THEIR GAME?!?!

To explain the implications of poor balance, we've seen two weapons referred to as "cheat weapons," Behemoth's minigun (never mind the colossal weakness the show have given in the same damn scene) and Sinon's Hecate II. If these weapons are so overpowered, then it stands to reason that there are other, equally broken weapons, which throws any semblance of a balanced game into question, at least in terms of competitive balance and, as established, GGO is an extremely competitive game.

Think of it like the competitive difference between Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. While both games are perfectly OK and balanced for casual players, the competitive scene greatly prefers Melee because they see it as a far more balanced and competitive game. I can believe that GGO would be popular among a more casual audience, I can't buy that it would become an e-sport or practically an e-sport if the competitive balance is so bad that certain character builds are useless and that certain weapons break the game.

Also, what the hell is B.o.B.? I know it stands for Bullet of Bullets because that's been explained to me elsewhere, however, someone watching without doing any outside research is going to hear characters mention the B.o.B. and have no idea what it is because THEY NEVER EVEN SAY WHAT IT STANDS FOR.

We also see Kazuto getting ready to enter GGO to assist the police investigation of Death Gun. We're told that he gets paid for this service. Let's review the problems with this: 1, why are the police using Kazuto? It would take five seconds to mention "yeah, you were the hero of the last two VRMMO incidents, so we're going to hire you." 2, why is Kazuto's contact a friend? This is a serious conflict of interest as it risks information that Kazuto doesn't need getting leaked or information that he does need, but isn't pleasant from getting to him. 3, a new issue, it is implied that this isn't the first time they've had Kazuto help with an investigation. As he was a victim of the SAO incident and voluntarily got involved in the ALO incident, this suggests that there are other incidents between the ALO incident and the GGO incident. What other incidents has Kazuto assisted with? 4, Kazuto is a minor. What does his aunt, you know, his LEGAL GUARDIAN, have to say about him helping with police investigations that are potentially lethal?

We get mention of "connection fees." What are these fees? Are they service fees for the AmuSphere? For the Internet connection? For the game? If its for the game (as I suspect), what is the subscription model? Is it monthly? Time based? Free with premium service? It is suggested that players can play the game to pay for the service, as real-life EVE Online players do, but how feasible this is is unknown due to the lack of explanation of the subscription model.

Related to the earlier mention of imported characters, why can't Kazuto maintain his ALO account if he's importing his character into GGO? If the police are paying him, it's obviously not an issue of subscription fees. Also, I vaguely remember mentions of Kirito being Agility based, but I'm possibly remembering wrong. If anyone has some clarification on that, that would be great.

----
List of things Reki Kawahara needs to learn about before he writes anything else:
Character development
The Bechdel Test
Subtlety

I can't believe I didn't think to put it this way. Not only is them talking like the attack is some sort of military operation awkward, the attack is routine for them. They know what they're doing and while I would assume that they're going to review their plan of action, the way they do it is awkward and forced.

What did it add to the plot? All it did was introduce Sinon, then spend almost the entire episode in an extended action scene. Filler or not, it is still a good episode and it's nice to actually SEE some character development for once. I can already tell that you could cut the episode with no loss in the story, but it at least plays a role, unlike the first season's filler.

Filler is not a term for when the source material needs time to make more content, it's a term for content that is just there to fill time and could be cut from the work with nothing major lost because it's purpose was to kill time before anything else. It has become synonymous with those cases because that is the most prevalent reason anime filler exists.

Episode 2, despite what you claim, doesn't show us Sinon's past or build her personality in any way. It's purpose, outside of filling time, is to show that she is damn good at the game. This is still character development, but it can still be skipped with no issue.

Unless you think I'm also referring to the third episode, which I'm not. I have no seen that episode as I'm lagging a week because I don't pay for Crunchyroll and I don't pirate anime if I can help it.

It is arguable whether episode 2 is filler or not. I think it is. It can be cut out of the show and the story is still completely intact, but it is an example of good filler because it shows us who Sinon is.

No they wouldn't.There's a difference between communication and, as I said, treating it like a serious military operation. I've played plenty of MMOs. I've done raids in World of Warcraft with serious players and I have never heard anyone talk like that. The tone is always going to be at least somewhat casual because it's a game. Like I said, in real gaming competitions, even professional players, who are playing for a living, don't act like that.

Never explained in the context of the episode. Also doesn't answer my questions. Why are slug throwers considered better than energy weapons?

Also doesn't answer my questions. What do the stats do? What does focusing on one stat over another do? And yes, this is something that should be shown, not told.

Well, she did use an SMG, which is why I never made any comment about her using a sniper rifle in any situation that it wouldn't be appropriate. The reason I mention the encumbrance thing is the part where she dodges the bullet while carrying the rifle that's ALMOST AS BIG AS SHE IS.

Stats can explain some things, but, again, how the stats work is never explained or demonstrated.

Ah, good to hear that I'll be getting an answer to that.

Also, Kirito is the only one who uses the lightsabers? Not liking the sound of that as it could further show him to be the May Sue he was in the last two arcs, but, if written well enough, I can believe it as similar things happen with real life competitive games. Also, don't answer this one, but I hope to see either he doesn't have time to become a prolific player or, if he does, people start copycatting because that's what happens in real competitive gaming. People will scoff at a game mechanic that looks unbalanced, but then try copying someone who figured out how to use that mechanic successfully.

Well, it answered one, but here's the thing, the show should be able to explain things without needing someone else to explain. I understand some things are explained more in-depth in the novels, but if the novels have to be read for these things to make sense, then the anime has failed as an adaptation. As with any adaptation of any work, the anime should be able to stand on its own as its own work. Reading the novels can add to it and make things make more sense, but they should never be relied on to understand the adaptation, which is why having these questions and leaving things unexplained is a problem.

In regards to the stats issue, this is something that should have been explained all the way back during the Aincrad arc. It is established that ALO is based on SAO and that The Seed is also based on SAO, so it is to be expected that stats in GGO (or any game based on The Seed for that matter) work similarly, if not almost identically (emphasis on the "almost" as SAO and ALO didn't have guns). I shouldn't be having to ask how stats work now, 26 episodes in.

So I've seen the second episode now and it's filler! But it was actually pretty good filler! It's not a perfect episode. I've got a list of questions that, while not as bad as the list I had for the first episode, still need to be addressed.

However, this episode is filler. There is no story development until literally the last 10 seconds (and, hey, the harem is back. Of course we couldn't give them an appearance without them lamenting that they lost. Someone needs to alert the author to the existence of the Bechdel test because I don't think there is a single conversation between any two women in the show that doesn't involve Kirito), but that's OK. Not only was it an enjoyable episode, but it did serve the purpose of actually SHOWING us that Sinon is awesome. If you recall, I railed on the first season for having issues with actually showing character development. I can honestly say that season 2 is already better about character development than season 1. No, I'm not kidding. Season 1 was that bad.

However, I still have to address a few things:

Why does Sinon need to put on a headset to communicate with her squadron? Is it a game mechanic? Or did the writers forget that this is supposed to be a video game, which is something that kept coming back to me as I wrote my notes (yes, I'm taking notes as I watch the episodes. I'm too much of a critic to not take this seriously).

Why does Sinon and her squadron act like this is a serious military operation? No one talks like that when playing a video game. Even professional players taking the fight dead seriously aren't going to talk like that. However, mohawk guy did act like I would expect someone playing a game to act like immediately afterward, so points there.

Related, why is is noteworthy to see Behemoth smile while fighting? This is a video game. You know, something people play for FUN.

Also related, why does Cowboy Hat freak out about dying when it's been established that death isn't a big deal and, with this supposedly being a highly competitive game, is just par for course. Sure you don't want to die, especially against a group of lower skilled players that they were expecting to easily wipe, but he acts like death is a much bigger deal than it is.

So, how the hell does Gun Gale work in the first place? We've seen realistic guns that shoot physical ammunition, but now we've seen energy weapons and we'll soon be seeing lightsabers (why does a game that is ostensibly about gunplay include lightsabers? If it were a combat knife as a backup weapon, sure, but a sword length lightsaber?). We see in this episode that characters have energy shields and that it is demonstrated that bullets outright ignore them. Do all characters get energy shields or is it a piece of special equipment? Either way, as we can assume all of the hardcore players have them even if they are exceedingly rare items, doesn't that render physical weapons completely broken?

We see that energy weapons fire shots that are slow enough to be dodged and have to get past the energy shields before they can hurt another player. This suggests that physical weapons are objectively better. Are there any upsides to using energy weapons? Are there any downsides to using physical weapons? Are physical weapons particularly rare?

How does this game's stat system work? Or any game based on The Seed for that matter? We heard a character talk about Agility based characters in the last episode and now we have Sinon mentioning a movement penalty for wielding a heavy weapon (which makes sense), but what does that actually mean? And wouldn't it be logical that a sniper rifle would carry a similar penalty, possibly rendering Sinon dodging like she did impossible?

Game of the Year/Complete/Ultimate/Whatever-the-****-the-publisher-wants-to-call-it editions exist purely to make some extra money from people that didn't buy the game the first time around. Usually, however, they're a better value than the original edition because you get a crap load of content for far less than buying the same content piecemeal. It's the best way to get stuff like Borderlands, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls and so on and so forth, but do you know what those three franchises have that the vast majority of games don't have? GOOD DLC.

Hell, I'm adverse to using the term DLC to describe those expansions, because they have far more in common with expansion packs than they do with what is typically associated with DLC. They're generally worth grabbing if you enjoyed the main game and, while they are usually far smaller than the main game, they are usually fully featured campaigns with new stories, characters, items, etc. However, these kinds of expansions are far less common than I'd like. For every Assault on Dragon Keep, we get two Tyranny of King Washingtons. Most DLC just isn't worth buying.

It's not to punish early adopters. Hell, I usually don't care if I get a GOTY edition over the regular edition because it's rare for me to care enough to get DLC in the first place. If it's there, cool, I might mess around with it if it's worth my time, but I'm not going to hold out for a GOTY edition.

Hell, looking at my shelf, I've got three, maybe four GOTY editions, Borderlands (bought it a second time because it was cheaper than downloading the expansions), Oblivion (way late to the party having bought my 360 in 2008) and Arkham Asylum (again, late to the party). The only time I went out of my way to get a GOTY edition was Borderlands and that's purely because it was literally cheaper to buy a second time than to buy the expansions as DLC.

My point is, the vast majority of the time, it's not even worth getting the GOTY editions unless you didn't buy the original edition or you can find it cheap enough that it saves you money.

Meh, another CGI trailer. It's hard to get hyped for a lot of games when all they show are CGI trailers that show zero indication of what the game actually is.

...

Would have rather heard about Tekken X Street Fighter, but I think that ship has sailed long ago.

I haven't seen the second episode and I'm already on board with that plan.