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Xander77 posted:We haven't quite gotten to the point at which we hear his full name, but yeah: Aww, I wanted to bring that up.
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Oct 11, 2016 23:29
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resurgam40 posted:Russia has a really rich cultural landscape to draw from I was going to bring something up when Xander mentioned Pushkin a few updates ago and completely forgot: I'm totally guilty of eschewing 'The Classics' and more serious stuff in favour of fantasy. Not that there's anything wrong with genre fiction per se; we can't be reading super serious stuff 24/7 but I've been trying to alternate between fiction and more historical stuff/classics, but I made the mistake of trying to force myself to read some 'local' stuff first and realised how much I loving hate Tales From Colonialist Latin America (Marquez, Allende, Vargas Llosa) so the lovely genre fiction ended up winning most of the time  Russian literature is on my "to read" list, but most of what usually comes up when discussing it seems so... bleak (I may be completely mistaken about this so feel free to shout at me) I have Lolita lined up for my next foray but If you or Xander want to recommend some stuff I'd be more than glad to take a look.
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Oct 13, 2016 14:55
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Gogol and Chekhov wrote some very sharp comical / satiric short stories, if bleak turns you off. Daniil Kharms had a very... specific... style you may or may not enjoy.
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Oct 13, 2016 15:29
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I would recommend Bulgakov. I tried to get into Dostoevsky, but found him way to moralizing and plodding. Bulgakov's writing (or maybe he had a better translator, I dunno) was real snappy, funny and good with The Master and Margarita.
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Oct 13, 2016 19:38
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Xander77 posted:Gogol and Chekhov wrote some very sharp comical / satiric short stories, if bleak turns you off. Checkov's "The Cherry Orchard" is, without a doubt, my favourite play. Granted, I haven't exactly seen a whole lot, but still...
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Oct 13, 2016 20:07
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 Update time!  Where we lose a friend, but pick up a scent. Journal entries for this update:  A short one this time, but still quite talky. Thank you for all the book recommendations, I'll see about giving them a try!
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Oct 14, 2016 18:26
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That's neat, I played through this game a couple of times, but I never realized until now that Artyom's mother died to a swarm of mutant rats. Another thing, those guys are wearing the same kind of uniform Anna was wearing at the beginning of the game.
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Oct 14, 2016 18:59
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bman in 2288 posted:That's neat, I played through this game a couple of times, but I never realized until now that Artyom's mother died to a swarm of mutant rats. Another thing, those guys are wearing the same kind of uniform Anna was wearing at the beginning of the game. Artyom's entire station was wiped out by the rats (not really a spoiler, it's like page 3 of the first book): Metro 2033 Novel posted:He didn’t remember his father at all. His mother had been with him until he was five years old. They lived at Timiryazevskaya. Things had been good, and life had gone smoothly and peacefully, until Timiryazevskaya fell victim to a rat infestation. You don't gently caress with the rats in the Metro.
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Oct 14, 2016 19:47
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Never read the books.
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Oct 14, 2016 20:02
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Those were actually some reasonable questions for the Red Line soldiers to ask. The dialogue in these games is honestly pretty good, feels pretty realistic, for the most part.
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Oct 14, 2016 20:47
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Anyone else find it amusing that the nominal leader of the Communists is rocking a Hitler-stache?
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Oct 14, 2016 22:03
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Apep727 posted:Anyone else find it amusing that the nominal leader of the Communists is rocking a Hitler-stache? Yeah, it's like irony died over there.
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Oct 14, 2016 22:56
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Irony burned alongside Moscow.
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Oct 14, 2016 23:09
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Well, drat... now two of the Metro's other great powers know about D6 and how to get there; yeesh truth drugs are scary... but had an interesting effect. By the way, Steam has a deal going where you can get both Metro games for under 10 bucks, if anyone still wants to try out the games themselves.
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Oct 14, 2016 23:26
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resurgam40 posted:By the way, Steam has a deal going where you can get both Metro games for under 10 bucks, if anyone still wants to try out the games themselves.
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Oct 15, 2016 08:39
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Apep727 posted:Anyone else find it amusing that the nominal leader of the Communists is rocking a Hitler-stache? He's even wearing little Himmler glasses! It's great.
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Oct 15, 2016 10:26
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What's with Korbut's right eye?
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Oct 15, 2016 13:20
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Samovar posted:What's with Korbut's right eye? It's a blind eye, but it looks a bit weird in-game. This is Korbut's artwork from Last Light Redux's trading card:  He has a scar leading up to the blind eye; it probably got mutant clawed at some point: 
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Oct 15, 2016 16:52
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Aye, but why's it red? Shouldn't it be cloudy? Admittedly, I am no ophthalmologist.
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Oct 15, 2016 19:51
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Pretty sure it's just a glass/whatever prosthetic that's colored RED because of course it is. May or may not have a hammer and sickle etching.
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Oct 15, 2016 20:15
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Samovar posted:Aye, but why's it red? Shouldn't it be cloudy? Admittedly, I am no ophthalmologist. Maybe it's the result of a very unfortunate snooker accident? 
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Oct 15, 2016 22:28
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Samovar posted:Aye, but why's it red? Shouldn't it be cloudy? Admittedly, I am no ophthalmologist. 'Cause he's a real fuckin' good Communist, that's why! 
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Oct 16, 2016 00:38
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I bit the bullet and reinstalled LL Redux so I thought I'd show ya some differences between Redux and Classic, Ranger and Normal, if Edmond Dantes is ok with that. Or is it Sputnik posted:In the Redux versions, you can choose to play either in "Survival" or "Spartan" mode, which kind of corresponds to the 2033 and LL experience, respectively.  See? No reticle! This isn't actually a big deal as there are several good options for sights.  The first really noteable difference in Ranger Mode is that you're only allowed to carry two weapons instead of three.  This is the RPK-74, one of the DLC guns for Metro LL, baseline in Redux. DLC guns in Metro LL Classic would be marked as such with an arrow in the HUD pointing down. It's a Kalash with a longer barrel, 1.5 times the magazine size but a slightly slower rate of fire. It's better than the Kalash for long range, but modding options are limited to sights only - no silencers or extended barrels  . The bipod under the barrel does not extend. Here's the AKS-74U, another DLC gun, and it's the opposite of the RPK. Shorter barrel than the standard Kalash and a higher rate of fire, so it's great for close combat. Worse for long range firing. You can mod sights and silencers on the AKSU.  The last DLC weapon is the Abzats Heavy Automatic Shotgun  Nuff said.
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Oct 16, 2016 13:53
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I remember bringing the Abzats with me, in the last game, through the library. I remember being thankful that I didn't really use my shotgun shells that often before that level. I remember being thankful that the last game didn't have an arbitrary max ammo capacity.
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Oct 16, 2016 17:22
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Librarians were actually very easy to kill in the original (on harder difficulties at least). One thing the Redux version does right is pretty much force you to stare them down or flee - you certainly don't have the ammo to kill them all.
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Oct 16, 2016 17:32
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Xander77 posted:Librarians were actually very easy to kill in the original (on harder difficulties at least). One thing the Redux version does right is pretty much force you to stare them down or flee - you certainly don't have the ammo to kill them all. I played on normal, and there were quite a number of Librarians that I really should have been able to sneak past, that the game wouldn't allow me to. Not to mention, I always screwed up running away from the ones I was supposed to, so out comes the auto-shotgun to prevent me from dying horribly and repeatedly.
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Oct 16, 2016 18:34
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I tried murdering one for the achievement during my 2033 Redux run, and it was a murder-suicide: I emptied all my clips into the bastard and only managed to kill him with a grenade... which killed me as well. At least I got the achievement. Or is it Sputnik posted:I bit the bullet and reinstalled LL Redux so I thought I'd show ya some differences between Redux and Classic, Ranger and Normal, if Edmond Dantes is ok with that. Here's a graphics comparison between base LL and Redux in case someone was wondering. It's not as much of a day/night difference as between 2033 and redux, most of the improvements are on topside areas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQgHdZuvkZY I may do 2033 Redux at some point so I'll be saving the differences between 2033 and 2033 Redux for that thread since it's the game that benefited the most from the new engine. Or is it Sputnik posted:In 2033 enemies were much more observant and reacted more and faster to sound and sights. In LL you can practically stand next to people as long as you're not directly illuminated. Even when you are standing in the light, you get a small audio cue that you should get out of there. You will notice this in the videos. I'm playing on Spartan, Ranger Normal.
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Oct 16, 2016 20:42
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Edmond Dantes posted:I tried murdering one for the achievement during my 2033 Redux run, and it was a murder-suicide: I emptied all my clips into the bastard and only managed to kill him with a grenade... which killed me as well. I just used the Helsing on them and they just crumbled like paper after half a dozen shots to the face. (Original version, so I don't know if they buffed them in Redux) Don't remember which difficulty I was playing but I never really understood how to escape from those guys without getting attacked so I just killed all of them. 
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Oct 16, 2016 23:11
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A difference between Ranger and Normal "Pavel" level is regarding your starting weapons.  In Ranger Mode you can retrieve them. Those are my extended barrel Shambler and silenced Kalash up there on the wall  Remember what the prompt looked like when Edmond Dantes helped Pavel pull the big iron pole out of the ground? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFIqq8XO-ds&t=414s This is the prompt you get on Ranger Normal.  Aside from the "E" prompt, the only other prompts you'll get are the "open door"/"inspect body"/"pick up key" full hand.  Not the loot arrow, not the "switch gasmask" prompt, not the "switch weapon" prompt, so it's harder to say what mods a weapon has without picking it up first. On Ranger Hardcore there are no prompts whatsoever.
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Oct 16, 2016 23:39
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Update time!  Where we learn about the Dark Railtracer. Journal entries for this update:       There's a (susprisingly accurate) map of this area in various places:  You can even see the little nook that soldier goes for a smoke in the barracks.
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Oct 17, 2016 18:28
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Have you tried jumping up the stairs from the guys trying to defuse the canister at the start of the level?
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Oct 17, 2016 18:52
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Xander77 posted:Have you tried jumping up the stairs from the guys trying to defuse the canister at the start of the level? I did, actually! Spotted that on my first run through the level, took a running start, jumped, failed horribly and lost half my health. Tried again, same result. I went back just now and still missed the jump, turns out you have to shimmy the broken ledge on the right:    
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Oct 17, 2016 19:10
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Redux puts a fairly nice gun on the table upstairs.
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Oct 17, 2016 19:28
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I don't think the bridge slaughter is necessarily due to Artoyem.
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Oct 17, 2016 21:39
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Well, it's kinda how you play it; it's entirely possible to sneak by that entire encounter without killing anyone. It's also possible to kill every motherfucker with a gun, though that's a bit harder; there are cheevos for both, as I recall. There's also an opportunity to save some communists from the Nazis as well, so it sounds like the makers here just hedged their bets and said that Artyom just killed all the Nazis. Good old Nazis, what would video games be without them?
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Oct 17, 2016 22:16
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Samovar posted:I don't think the bridge slaughter is necessarily due to Artoyem. At the very least they hint heavily at it, with the second soldier saying how he could see one person doing it if he was sneaking and referencing Artyom being smuggled into the Red Line in an undercarriage. It can be a bit jarring since it's referencing something that may not have happened during your 2033 run (I sneaked my way through that level, for example); but I can see the writers deciding that since the Ranger ending for 2033 was canon, Artyom basically went on a murder spree after loving up stealth and missed every single karma point in the game. resurgam40 posted:Well, it's kinda how you play it; it's entirely possible to sneak by that entire encounter without killing anyone. It's also possible to kill every motherfucker with a gun, though that's a bit harder; there are cheevos for both, as I recall. Nazis in the game are cartoonishly evil, and the Reds are kind of dicks as well if you don't count Pavel. Korbut is clearly Evil with capital E and Moskvin is all "hell yeah let me in on that sweet torture action" as soon as he shows up, not to mention the Hitler 'stache and the Himmler glasses. As you say, Nazis are the go-to villain when you need someone evil because you don't need to give them a reason for it. They're Nazis, they're Evil. Period. It's effective, I guess, but kinda lazy. I can chalk it up to not wanting to be the writer that goes "hey, maybe the Nazis are people and not evil incarnate" and immediately gets called an apologist rather than laziness in this case though, since the writing it's pretty solid for the most part and has more than a couple of genuinely great moments.
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Oct 18, 2016 04:53
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Were the Nazis this much of a presence in the book? It's been a while since I've read it.
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Oct 18, 2016 06:13
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They were one of the many life-threatening encounters Artyom had to be rescued from. By Trotsky-ist Reds, no less.
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Oct 18, 2016 07:17
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That dichotomy is one of the things I enjoy about this series. I'm the novel, Artyom is a pansy who runs away from everything. But in the video game, he's a badass stealth protagonist.
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Oct 18, 2016 07:23
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If you knock out the guy answering the "second post" call, the caller will call an alarm. Differences in Ranger Mode, not related to this episode: the inventory HUD. Have a look at episode 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffYz10Fyoag&t=246s Here's what it looks like on Ranger Normal.  The Inventory HUD slows down time and locks the controls - you can't e.g. strafe and switch secondaries at the same time, but at the same time enemies don't keep barreling towards you. Apart from the obvious abscence of ammunition storage and weapons, the biggest difference is that on Ranger difficulties time doesn't slow down when you open the inventory. As mentioned previously, the entire inventory is invisible on ranger hardcore. You can still bring it up and switch secondaries by listening to their sound cues, but it can get a bit hectic when you're in battle, trying to select an invisible grenade and stop dead in your tracks because the inventory HUD locks your controls. I mentioned it during the "Echoes" level: Redux has locked safes you need to hunt down keys for. Safes contain a selection of pickups - medkits, ammo, filters but almost always some MGR. The first safe is in the level "Separation" Separation   This key is on the table in the room with Reich soldiers talking about a woman with a tail. The safe is in the room directly above. Facility   The key is in the room left of the lever that raised the gate in the room with the sewer. The safe is in a room on the catwalk to the right. Torchlight   The key is close to the start of the level where a lurker is eating a dead body. The safe is in the dead end where you lift a grate. Echoes   The key is in a bookcase in the ranger safehouse where you begin the level. The key is in a secret room behind the stairs, behind the ice cream cart. Bolshoi   The key is hanging on the wall before you enter Teatr station. The safe is backstage in the dressing room. Revolution   The first safe in Revolution is in the room above the ledge Edmond Dantes shimmied, except it's now locked! The key is downstairs by the red answering the intercom.   The second key for Revolution is close by the red doing chin-ups in the barracks. The safe is in the same room as the reds talking about the bridge and the Dark Railtracer.   The last key for the level is in the room where two soldiers are performing maintenance, in the small room directly to the left when you enter. The safe is on the shelves in the warehouse room.
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Oct 20, 2016 21:10
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