Nope. Just looters. (So far, only up to a Level 8 Character).

Some have heavy thick bio-suits but nothing that could slow a long-gun round. The rounds from an AK in this game (if it were more accurate) would go through a cinder block. Here you need half a clip to kill guys wearing hoodies. They are very bullet-spongey.

I think they did this to combat the fact that if they were to make all the weapons and armor be practical and real-world specific, the main character (that would be you, the player) would be dead 2.5 seconds after staring to walk down the street by a random headshot.

Since dying every 2.5 seconds is not a 'fun' game, the designers tried to balance the dynamic of having a player and enemies that were not susceptible to the same damage one would sustain if it were designed to be real, while keeping it 'fun'. This however goes against the realistic present day setting the game tries so hard to show the player. Firing six 357 magnum rounds into a twenty-something covered in nothing but jeans and a t-shirt only to discover, not only is he not dead, but still coming at you. It takes you out of that thinly veiled 'realistic' gameplay.

In any event, The Division is very flawed, but I am enjoying it because I know deep down it's just a facade to give the player the excuse of running and shooting at New Yorkers after the Big Apple has gone to hell in a handbasket.

The 'Dress-Up-Barbie' options are pretty extensive, and I could get an even more perverse pleasure if I could get my character to wear a 'Boston' T-Shirt; just to piss off the locals even more. The ones I saved would hate me; being rescued by their biggest rival. And the ones I killed would hate me for the same reason. Being killed by one. Ah... what fun.

In any event, it's just a video game. And time will tell if I (or others) feel they got their money's worth of fun out of it.

A boston jacket would be amazing. It would need custom audio for the passers-by to say things like "oh what the F?" or "First the world ends and now sox fans are running around here?" "Go back to beantown!" Stuff like that would be awesome.

From goldenstalion's deviant art.

The most common complaints that I've heard come from the fact that the developers intentionally made the game to run at 30fps, and that it takes five hours to beat.

The complaints about 30 fps were because they chose it as a stylistic choice. Ready at Dawn had said they would have run it at 24fps to mimic the cinematic experience, except that not everyone had 120hz TVs. If the choice were about a tradeoff between graphical / simulation complexity and framerate, you can at least make those arguments. But to say you ran at a lower frame rate because you wanted your game to look cinematic is completely inept and laughable.

And of course a 5 hour game is not in and of itself cause for criticism. Game reviewers are terrible though, and just go down the checklist instead of actually examining length critically.

Added bonus, equip the talent that increases turret duration by 10% for each kill while turret or bomb is deployed.

Damn. If BL2 had that perk, my Commando would never get out of cover.

The Mechromancer's Deathtrap had that perk. It would stack duration on kills, up to 999 enemy stacks; and since it went after enemies (even through walls), you had very little to do, assuming it stayed alive long enough...

Not on the Mechromancer's deathtrap. If you get that ability that allows deathtrap to stay alive for longer, you can actually set him up at the very end of the game and have him farm rak's permanently for experience cause they keep farming and Deathtrap has like a half second kill time on them.

Up until he hits 999 and can no longer stack them, at which point he goes away, but you can summon him again and start the fun once more. Easy way to level up your weak friends (even after they normalized XP gains). The game would get super laggy at that point, though. No idea why his duration stacks had a direct impact on game performance, but once he lost the 999 stacks, the game would run nice and smooth again.

*DING*

Added bonus, equip the talent that increases turret duration by 10% for each kill while turret or bomb is deployed.

Damn. If BL2 had that perk, my Commando would never get out of cover.

The Mechromancer's Deathtrap had that perk. It would stack duration on kills, up to 999 enemy stacks; and since it went after enemies (even through walls), you had very little to do, assuming it stayed alive long enough...

Not on the Mechromancer's deathtrap. If you get that ability that allows deathtrap to stay alive for longer, you can actually set him up at the very end of the game and have him farm rak's permanently for experience cause they keep farming and Deathtrap has like a half second kill time on them.

But your character really doesn't know it's these guys half the time. I mean I'm just walking around and there are two guys standing over a body, and the reticle is red so I gun them down and then walk over and loot stuff.

Or a bunch of guys standing in a circle talking all the sudden BOOM HEADSHOT from me down the street.

It is odd and a bit out of character considering you can come across civilians scuffling over food or pushing each other around but can't actually hurt them.

I mean there is little to visually identify most of the random thugs from innocent people. At least the cleaners and LMB have uniforms so you know they are evil bad guys.

I disagree. Not only does every enemy group have a specific look, but each enemy type within that group has a specific look. Looters are maybe the most generic, since most of their looks are variations on ski mask + red hoodie (melee guys have grey ski masks, pistol guys have black ski masks, for example). It's the same as gang colors. You see a guy dressed that way and you know he's trouble. Also, let's say you don't shoot them and just walk up behind them while they're distracted. Ever listen to their conversation? It's pretty clear that they just killed this guy and they're disappointed he doesn't have much on him.

Also, the Rikers wear black and orange ski masks (a'la Deathstroke), with the shotgunners having reddish full face masks, the grenadiers wearing motorcycle cop gear, and the snipers have capes with hoods.

My point is that every enemy type looks unique and you can tell at a glance, just from the artwork, which faction they are and what their role is.

initially, when you're first getting your bearings, it's understandable that you don't know right away who is who, but as you grow familiar with the enemy factions it becomes pretty obvious.

Added bonus, equip the talent that increases turret duration by 10% for each kill while turret or bomb is deployed.

Damn. If BL2 had that perk, my Commando would never get out of cover.

The Mechromancer's Deathtrap had that perk. It would stack duration on kills, up to 999 enemy stacks; and since it went after enemies (even through walls), you had very little to do, assuming it stayed alive long enough...

Added bonus, equip the talent that increases turret duration by 10% for each kill while turret or bomb is deployed.

Damn. If BL2 had that perk, my Commando would never get out of cover.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Added bonus, equip the talent that increases turret duration by 10% for each kill while turret or bomb is deployed.

Damn. If BL2 had that perk, my Commando would never get out of cover.

Added bonus, equip the talent that increases turret duration by 10% for each kill while turret or bomb is deployed.

Most of my friends say that The Division isn't even a shooter. They say it's an RPG with guns, and the guns aren't really that important. They enjoy it as an RPG for the most part.

What role are they playing?

I think Destiny has a lot to learn from this 10 year old promotional ARG. http://areacodeinc.com/projects/chain-factor-numb3rs-arg/ but that's for another post...

This is an awesome idea for a game, or a Destiny Event. Sparrow racing event(s) was really downright fun, but an event with some meat to it would be great. A 6 week limited event that was interactive like an ARG would be so flipping cool. If our interaction actively changed and shaped the game as we played it?
The downfall is that it probably wouldn't be very replayable or as much fun to replay. So if you missed it or couldn't attend everyday you would really miss out on something great.

On the latest episode of Rebel FM, Arthur Gies said that the story missions in The Division are like raids in Destiny (they're actually fairly close to strikes, but nothing remotely resembling a raid).

I've heard more than a few journalists who have played Destiny, but not a lot, refer to its strikes as "raids." Usually in a generic context to just mean some kind of team PvE thing, one of them even said they were about to go do a "strike raid." I don't think they knew that "raid" meant a specific activity OTHER than the strikes.

Some have heavy thick bio-suits but nothing that could slow a long-gun round. The rounds from an AK in this game (if it were more accurate) would go through a cinder block. Here you need half a clip to kill guys wearing hoodies. They are very bullet-spongey.

I think they did this to combat the fact that if they were to make all the weapons and armor be practical and real-world specific, the main character (that would be you, the player) would be dead 2.5 seconds after staring to walk down the street by a random headshot.

Since dying every 2.5 seconds is not a 'fun' game, the designers tried to balance the dynamic of having a player and enemies that were not susceptible to the same damage one would sustain if it were designed to be real, while keeping it 'fun'. This however goes against the realistic present day setting the game tries so hard to show the player. Firing six 357 magnum rounds into a twenty-something covered in nothing but jeans and a t-shirt only to discover, not only is he not dead, but still coming at you. It takes you out of that thinly veiled 'realistic' gameplay.

In any event, The Division is very flawed, but I am enjoying it because I know deep down it's just a facade to give the player the excuse of running and shooting at New Yorkers after the Big Apple has gone to hell in a handbasket.

The 'Dress-Up-Barbie' options are pretty extensive, and I could get an even more perverse pleasure if I could get my character to wear a 'Boston' T-Shirt; just to piss off the locals even more. The ones I saved would hate me; being rescued by their biggest rival. And the ones I killed would hate me for the same reason. Being killed by one. Ah... what fun.

In any event, it's just a video game. And time will tell if I (or others) feel they got their money's worth of fun out of it.

Or a bunch of guys standing in a circle talking all the sudden BOOM HEADSHOT from me down the street.

It is odd and a bit out of character considering you can come across civilians scuffling over food or pushing each other around but can't actually hurt them.

I mean there is little to visually identify most of the random thugs from innocent people. At least the cleaners and LMB have uniforms so you know they are evil bad guys.