u/SwimmingDrink

I regret to inform you all that After the Storm...

Is actually a solid EP and has the potential to start Skillet on a return to form!

Let's get into the songs!

Scream: 8/10.

I already have a detailed review of it in my post feed.

Lift Me Up: 7/10.

A bit of a repetitive lyrical theme but I still really liked the riffs and John's vocal performance.

Grave Stomper: 9/10.

I was originally going to give this a 10 but a different song eclipsed it. The riffs are unfortunately drowned out by excessively loud but THUMPING bass, and I didn't care much for that pitch shifter effect this time, but I really liked the drumming, bass and the vocals on this song. I also liked the push-pull of occasionally making the delivery gentler and then going in with the energy with the chorus.

After the Storm (title track): 10/10!

Wow... This song is just incredible. Amazing riffs, drumming, amazing singing, really good lyrics, and a short-but-sweet solo, not to mention the mixing on this song in particular was absolutely on point.

Heaven Help Us: 4/10.

Unfortunately, every Skillet album has a dud. This is the dud. It's not bad and has a slightly more nuanced vibe than that of All That Matters, in addition to slightly better lyrics and FAR better instrumentation, the lyric lines "Hate has kept us hurt and hopeless" and "Tell me why we gotta keep burning down the world we know" comes off as slight political whining, specifically "wahh duh libruls!"

Come and Find Me: 9/10.

Another banger ending song! This one oddly gave me a vibe that reminded me of "The Hunting Party" by Linkin Park with it's chorus. Jen also finally got a vocal part on the song. The riffs are also really good and again, more solid lyrics.

But... I have some other issues.

1. The lack of solos.

The album uses Seth a little more, but the fact that only After the Storm had a short solo and the rest were just breakdowns with at best a lead line over them feels like wasted potential.

2. The lack of Jen.

Jen only has two vocal parts. Lift Me Up and Come and Find Me. This is a pretty noticeable downside for someone like me that loves when she sings.

3. The noticeably "formulaic" feel.

Every song feels like it adheres to a rigid formula. Less than 4:00 (every song is 3:50 max), and lots of catchy hooks to act as a radio earworms. I don't mind it but the fact that every song is rigidly less than 4:00 is a bit of a bummer and makes the formulaic feel a little more noticeable.

This stuff aside, this is a huge improvement over the last three albums, but I have a major concern that it won't last because it feels like Skillet, as they're trend-chasers, are just piggybacking off of bands like Motionless in White and BMTH's resurgence in the metalcore genre, so I get the feeling that this awesomeness will not last and they'll soon go back to their overproduced fluff.

7/10.

I understand that I might be in the minority here, and maybe it's because I see his so called "character self" more than his "actual self", but I'm going off what I've seen. The only time I've ever been happy for him was when he met CR7.

I have three primary reasons I hate the guy.

1. He's an annoying loudmouth who can't pronounce a soccer player's name correctly, says the wrong nations and constantly screams.

Seeing this guy say things like "Switzerland" when it's Morocco is just so infuriating to me. Or when he called Ronald Araujo "Arajano" and Iker Muniain "Manny". That's just one facet he got famous off of because it was so dumb that people clipped it on TikTok only for it to make him more famous because it's "funny". When in reality it's about as funny as a heart attack.

The fact that he also got popular off of screaming his head off at packs also annoys me. I am aware that me being a fan of people like W2S may make me seem like a hypocrite, because he was known for something similar, but the fact that other FIFA YouTubers lost their fame and had to shift to other things like player reviews and tactics, but just because one guy screams at an ear-detonating volume, all of a sudden it's popular again is what makes me so angry. I'm a soccer fan, so watching him mispronounce names and say the wrong nations so blatantly is why I get so angry.

2. He's an incredibly toxic Ronaldo fan, and a plastic fan to whatever club Ronaldo supports.

The way this guy just glazes CR7 repeatedly while bashing Messi and calling him "the worst" is just so pathetic to me. Every time I'm just like "Dude! I respect your GOAT as an absolute legend, but yet you want to bash my GOAT every day just because you're toxic?" Messi may be my GOAT but I respect Ronaldo as an absolute legend of the game. Not to mention, the way that Speed suddenly became a United fan the moment Ronaldo was there and then rescinded it when Ronaldo left (and when results got bad) is just hilarious to me.

I supported Messi at Barcelona and I still stuck with Barcelona when he left because I love the club. I may be a bit of a hypocrite here because I try to watch Inter Miami matches because I want to support my GOAT, but at the same time I never watched PSG matches when he was there because I hate that club and still do. But another issue is that Speed pretended to be a lifetime fan when he wasn't.

3. His behavior during the YouTubers vs Legends Charity Match.

I may be a Barcelona fan, but the fact that this guy got to live out his soccer fantasy because of how obnoxious and loud he is, and he used that to TWO-FOOT TACKLE RICARDO KAKA, WHICH COULD HAVE BROKEN HIS LEG, IN A CHARITY MATCH, is what truly turned my disdain for him into pure hate. It firmly established him in my eyes as an opportunistic brat who has no idea how soccer works and just thinks that being violent is how you play, and the fact that he nearly broke Kaka's leg in a charity match, again, just made me hate him...

I do acknowledge, and I am not going to hide that part of it is jealousy. He's famous at 19 for being loud, annoying and obnoxious, while I'm a truck driver that no one gives a shit about at 22, trying to work my butt off just so I can get a house. He also gets all of the latest tech and has so much YouTuber privilege (getting to enjoy Italy's incredible spaghetti without thinking about a boss while I can't even take a vacation to go home without a boss needing to approve) while again, I have to work tirelessly to make sure I deliver my loads and shit on time.

If anyone can prove to me that Speed is a better man than I perceive him to be, I will gladly change my view.

I was trying to use QuickBMS to extract the face files but the website is down because of monthly bandwidth allowance, so I can't go download any scripts.

I'm on PC, trying to use it with my local Ultimate Team because the custom faces are hideous.

EDIT: I did find some extracts but they're missing quite a few. Gullit, Van Nistelrooy, Van Basten, van der Sar... It's a mess. Anyone here have archives of the others?

Hi guys. I wanted to ask, is it possible to swap an instrument cluster from a 2002 Park Avenue into a 2004 without it being damaging or causing issues?

I've always loved the Park Avenue but all of the ones I've seen are either 2004-5 (when they came out with the revised cluster) are beat up or are risky sight unseen buys from a rather sketchy dealership (Private Collection Chicago) on eBay Motors, which also has no pictures of the frame.

So I figure "no biggie, just buy a 2002 instrument cluster, have the mileage on it tweaked and then be done with it" but that's also risky because according to Google AI, you can't because of connector changes.

Is this true or no?

My biggest issue with the game is its lack of game modes. You can't play tournaments in World Tour mode, only mini-leagues. And the way that the skill moves are done is kinda weird. Because of the fact that you can effectively heel-to-heel with the left stick, any right-stick moves feel so overboard. And you can't change your kits from those ugly eFB United kits. If they could allow you to use a base team like myClub/Dream Team, so I can get the Barcelona kits on my players, it would be great.

But that aside, it is SO MUCH FUN.

It feels like PES 2013; Not too arcadey but not too slow either. Passes are responsive, defending isn't too bad, and the movement is constant. Attackers don't stand around a lot. The midfield actually does stuff.

The progression is cool but a bit weird at the same time. You can get more featured and legendary players added to the Hall of Players by beating the tournaments (WHICH I REALLY LIKE!) but the issue is the fact that the little bingo mini-game feels a bit rigged, because it's impossible to get goalie tokens. I almost always end up with ATK, DEF, or MF tokens.

But, those quirks aside, I like it much more than the regular eFootball. It feels cut-and-dry but not in a boring way. But more in the sense that it focuses on the core gameplay being fun instead of trying to psychologically nudge you to spin the packs.

CORRECTION: I'm sorry; you can change the kits. You just need to beat the team first. Change the emblem and you get that team's kits. I tested it with Osasuna (Pamplona) and Girona, and it worked.

I'm a moderate Democrat, and I have been debating with my father about Mamdani, because he dislikes the rent freeze (due to the fact that the control means that he wouldn't be able to make money if he's a New Yorkian, and because it objectively disincentivizes building new apartments), and he thinks that the city run grocery stores will lead to a slippery slope, with things like government run shipping companies that could put my trucking company (Werner) out of business, and put Mom and Pop stores out of business too.

What are the arguments I can use to debate on this?

And bombed it. The fact that it felt like they rushed it out the door, didn't make enough server farms or have dedicated Stadia consoles in said server farms (like the one at Google HQ) so if you didn't live near California, you were screwed (I was lucky to always have decent experiences with Stadia because I used to live only 45 minutes away from Mountain View, and Stadia shut down only a few months after I moved to Texas) and the fact that they locked your own TV features (4K HDR) behind Stadia Pro....

Like... They had so many legs up. COVID, free online multiplayer (in 2019, which was HUGE.) and two games which were awful at launch but definitive on Stadia (NBA 2K20, Cyberpunk) and somehow, because of Google's own stubbornness with their business model (having to buy games but also pay for Stadia Pro on top just to play them in 4K) in addition to the lack of exclusives... They threw it away.

I genuinely believe that if Stadia Pro was more like "Stadia Instant Stream" where you pay $10 a month to be able to play around 60-75% of the games on the service without buying individually, while still keeping the option to buy the games, AND have 4K HDR streaming be free, it probably could have succeeded. But alas, they didn't make the necessary corrections, so it didn't.

I did personally enjoy it but I felt a lot of frustrations, notably the fact that the service died because Google was stubborn with the business model. They couldn't go half-in, half-out with that whole "Pay for the game, pay for Stadia Pro to stream in full quality, then play" and expect to survive. And they didn't. And that's what's so frustrating. That key blunder made the service DOA.

I listened to the new single "Scream"... I'm a former panhead that lost hope after I felt like Dominion and Revolution were poor, overproduced, whiny albums filled with electronic noise....

And just like O Come, O Come Emmanuel... This song feels like a return to form!

It isn't perfect, mind you, but this song is easily the most passionate, thunderous and energetic Skillet song I've heard past that O Come cover. (Or Rise album wise)

The ferocious drumming from Jen Ledger, and John's vocals not sounding overly pitch corrected are the main positives. Those gave me Collide/Comatose vibes which I really needed after the last two albums were ROUGH.

Lyric wise it's OK. It still does feel a little bit repetitive because it's a classic "rise up" anthem. If Skillet can make this song one of only a few, and maybe have songs told from God's perspective (Whispers style), and some more introspective songs about living for God (Never Surrender, The Last Night style) then it will be fine and prevent the songs from all sounding the same.

The guitars are still too far down in the mix for my liking. It felt like the song was mostly drum and vocals. That aside, it's got a nice, chunky riff that reminds me more of Collide and Comatose even if the mixing is a bit too vocal/drum forward.

Overall, if they can build on this promising start, bring the guitars a little further forward in the mix, and be a little more lyrically inspired (and have some guitar solos!) then it could become Skillet's best modern album. I pray that the singles aren't traps to listen to the upcoming album just for the rest of the tracks to be phoned in (like Dominion and Revolution)

8/10.

I have just lost all hope for this game...

1. Defending.

Defending is still horrific. Win the ball, it bounces back. Repeat x10. It's annoying and makes trying to defend unrewarding. That's assuming you even win the ball. It still feels like an instant foul button.

2. Imbalances

When I played against Squad League AI on INTERMEDIATE... They just kept running through me like I didn't exist, skilling me up like there was no tomorrow, and it always felt like they were 10x faster than my players. Not to mention, it feels like they press like animals but always have full stamina, while my players run like headless chickens and always run out of stamina. And I use Press after Possession Loss to conserve stamina.

I hate having to make these posts repeatedly, which is why I'm rarely using uppercase here. I just feel defeated.

Hello everyone.

I wanted to discuss the few changes that the HTTYD 2 remake should make, as it's already reported to make major changes. Changes that I believe could be enough, as someone who loves the original HTTYD 2, dare I say it, to push the remake over the original.

Critique 1 and Change 1: Give Astrid a larger role.

Astrid feels strangely absent in the original HTTYD 2. Apart from the talk and kiss at the start, the speech she gives to Drago and the "take him down, babe!" scene, she doesn't really get much to do.

Critique 2 and Change 2: Give Drago and his evil Bewilderbeast a better origin story.

Though this may render the "or tear them apart" scene redundant, giving Drago an origin story on why he wants to control all dragons, how he lost his arm to one, and then giving him an origin story to how he found the Bewilderbeast as a baby and used fear to control it (according to Dean DeBlois on the original) could add more depth to him, make it less reliant on off-screen stuff, and make him a little more interesting.

Critique 3 and Change 3: Show Drago dying.

Drago dying is also another thing you only know by checking the wiki and hearing all of this off-screen stuff. If they explicitly show him dying (like the Bewilderbeast drowning him or something like that) then it would bring a better reason for why he isn't seen again.

That's about it. I firmly believe that if they fix the pacing too (the first film's remake had a lot of spots where it dragged, compared to the original's brisk pacing) and they make those 3 big changes while finding a way to not slow the film down, it could end up being better than the original.

What do you guys think?

View Poll

What are some examples of anime you all have seen that are good all around but had horrible pilot episodes?

For me, my answer is quite easy. It's High School DxD.

The rest of the series is great but the first episode is absolutely awful. I pretty much had a mental checklist of negative expectations, which went "Annoying protagonist, annoying, objectifying dialogue and an over-reliance on fanservice to hold attention". And the first episode ticked them all. Especially the "I just wanna find a girl to smash and then ditch!" line from one of Issei's friends (Matsuda or the other guy).

It was a horrible first impression but the turnaround from Episodes 2 and later was immediate and sharp.

How about you guys?

Just as a discussion topic, for you guys, does a drop end when it begins leveling out (which is likely why Tormenta is measured at 285 feet) or when it hits the bottom? (That's how Iron Gwazi got away with its drop being the same as it's height).

For me, when it hits the bottom is when the drop ends. If the drop is considered over just because it starts leveling out, then most drops would be way smaller than they actually are. How about you guys?