Lurker > Seanchan

Most of the cars in my family are Japanese in origin (Toyota, Honda, Subaru) and I've never heard of an engine failing.

Just glad your shit was still covered!

Year, make, and model?

WhiteLens posted...

Even if you don't want to buy an add-on to your phone, you can pair Xbox and PlayStation controllers to mobile devices and use those.

That's what I've done. You can also buy a cheap little $15 plastic handle/holder that attaches to your controller and holds the phone above/over the controller.

Kenri posted...

The only Supergiant game I haven't played!

It's their worst one! (But it's still fun enough to be worth playing!)

Portal

Ashethan posted...

And Daniel Jones signs $160M contract with the Giants for 4 years. ...yikes.

Jesus fucking Christ is the QB market insane. Not sure what the details are but $40 million/year is a lot.

On the other side, in a few years, maybe that's "reasonable", assuming he continues to play at his 2022 level. It also let the Giants use the franchise tag on Barkley. So they accomplished what the wanted to and now can look to bolster with the draft.

GreenMario posted...

Yes and no. You're right it's not worth buying a ton of games you will never play but you're wrong that everything worth playing will get ported. There's a lot of classics left on old machines.

Always the danger of speaking in absolutes when I know that's not the case!

Yes, there's games that remain locked on old hardware. But I'd venture that the intersection of those games and "actual classic that's still fun to play in 2023" is pretty small. I feel like sometimes the rarity of an unported game makes people think it's better than it truly is.

The reality is, the TC might whittle that list of games down to 50. Now maybe those games average $20 a piece. So you're talking about spending $1000 on those games! On a 3DS in 2023. It'll either take years to play those games or you'll play every one of them for like an hour.

BTW, I'm just being devil's advocate here and offering a different perspective. Don't let me talk you out of doing what you want. I'm sure there's a few games that are truly worth it, in terms of money and your future time. But maybe think about culling that down to a manageable number (a dozen at most).

KCF0107 posted...

I started Lords of Shadow and man looking at the map screen when I was finished, there are an obscene amount of levels based on its various indicators.

It functions fine, but there are some design choices that recall some of the frustrating things about 00s and early 10s gaming. The camera has issues in combat and platforming that combined with the image quality from that time, it can be hard to discern objects, attack patterns, etc...

That swamp level also kind of sucked due to its labyrinthian layout and how much of a slog it was to move through the water.

I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with it, and I probably won't pick it up again until I do Hi-Fi Rush in the main project, but at least I played some of it.

This all tracks with my time with the game in 2012. I have notes that the game does get better around the 10 hour mark...but that's a big ask when you're not enjoying the game. Definitely a "if I have time at the end of the month" type of game.

There's no point buying shit if you're never going to use/play it. Free yourself from that tyranny. It's okay to let things go.

The backlog is essentially infinite and will never go away, so why bother spending loads of money on things you only might maybe get to at some nebulous future date. Anything that's truly worth playing 5-10 years from now will eventually get ported/remastered/remade.

After losing most of the weekend to non-gaming stuff, I'm back on Hi-Fi Rush.

It's been a game where I haven't felt compelled to play it for long stretches, while at the same time being a game that you really need to play for long stretches. It took me a bit of time to literally get back into the rhythm of things after a few days away.

Battles have gotten more complicated with the the grapple, parries, and the sidekick attacks. It honestly feels like a bit much at times, despite the fact that this probably isn't truly any more complicated than other action games. But you throw the rhythm element onto that and suddenly that timing element really messes with your head. I've mostly been getting A ranks from battles, despite taking a lot of hits; I haven't quite gotten the hang of parrying while in the middle of an attack string.

Batman

...I see my post has backfired on me...

I guess Pearl Jam is the last of those grunge bands that we haven't yet covered (Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden), so that should be interesting.

It's not the worst idea, though I could see someone trying to "game" it.

As someone who tries to participate in both Game of the Month topics and the weekly Rank the Tracks, I do find that there's sometimes a lack of discussion about the game/album in question. But I'm also sympathetic to the fact that people are busy and it's tough some times just getting through a piece of media, much less trying to write interesting and thoughtful posts. Plus, you know people always procrastinate and don't finish until the last few days, so there's often times not time to have a good discussion.

HBJDubs posted...

I missed Seanchan's question until now on which albums from the previous noms I would have selected, so I'll answer that here: In Flames - The Jester Race, Symphony X - V: The New Mythology Suite, Dragonforce - Sonic Firestorm

Been a while since I listented to The Jester Race, but I remember it being a little tough to go back to after Whoracle, Colony, Clayman. Though I know it's held in highest regard by older In Flames fans.

I was actually listening to a bit of V this weekend, knowing that Symphony X wasn't going to get picked. I'd say that one and The Divine Wings of Tragedy were in the running for selection.

Sonic Firestorm was the other one I would have considered for Dragonforce. Had to go with the one with the mega hit though!

Portal

Daft Punk - Discovery > Pearl Jam - Ten > Clown Core - Van

I expect this is going to be a runaway vote. Wasn't even sure if Daft Punk was allowed to be nominated since the impetus for this thing was a full Daft Punk ranking. But always happy to relisten to an excellent album.

Happy to see In Flames get selected. Glad it was a close vote. Unlike my last nom round where I was a bit disappointed with the outcome, this was one where any result would have been okay.

Did a first listen to Plastic Beach. I wasn't a big fan of Demon Days (outside of Feel Good Inc., which is a classic), so I went into this with trepidation. It started a bit slow, but then it hit its stride. I can't point to any particular song at the moment but as a whole the album really impressed me. Looking forward to more listens, though I suspect this might be a bit of a tough one to rank.

I have to say, Round 5 of Rank the Tracks is off to a real banger of a start. And looking at the likely next few weeks, that's probably going to continue for a while.

Just to recap the final 8:
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy 2

Portal
Portal 2

Mario Kart DS

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Dark Souls

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Of the 5 series with double entries into the quarters:
Two survived - Mario Galaxy, Portal
One survived - Mario Kart, Batman: Arkham, Souls
None survived - Phoenix Wright

Mario

HBJDubs posted...

Dragonforce > Symphony X > In Flames. Three bands that were in my nomination pipeline down the road (though I would have picked different albums)

Which albums?

1. Welcome to the Black Parade
2. I Don't Love You
3. Dead!
4. Teenagers
5. The End.
6. House of Wolves
7. This is How I Disappear
8. Cancer
9. The Sharpest Lives
10. Disenchanted
11. Mama
12. Famous Last Words
13. Sleep
14. Blood

I really solid album all the way through. As I said alluded to in my earlier post, I think I would have been a big My Chemical Romance fan had they hit big a few years earlier, when I was in high school/college and listening to more music. At any rate, I enjoyed this album and it is one I will certainly come back to in the future (though I will absolutely skip the silly and unnecessary Blood...).

Bump. Less than 2 weeks left!

Portal 2

Or maybe they're just "flooding the zone" so that other awful but less totally ouwardly insane stuff gets overlooked.

Only 6 votes on the noms so far? I thought these albums would be right in Board 8's wheelhouse and would have expected more at this point.

jcgamer107 posted...

Lol it's the In Bruges girl

I think I had just rewatched that movie before I nominated...

Started on Hi-Fi Rush. LOVE the look of the game, just a lot of style. I've done a decent job of staying on rhythm so far, at least thru the first chapter and a half. We'll have to see how that holds up as things get (probably) more complicated.

masterplum posted...

This is really long but worth a watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yjZpBq1XBE

The TL;DR is the old fast pass system was amazing .... for people who knew exactly the best ways of using it which were 95% of the time annual pass holders and absolutely terrible for those that didn't which were usually the once in a lifetime disney vacationers.

Oh shit! Shapeland is actual Animal Kingdom! My god, what a twist!

Should be starting Hi-Fi Rush tonight!

KCF0107 posted...

I hope to get around to Lords of Shadow. It is apparently longer than I would have thought for a Castlevania game, so I am not optimistic that I will end up beating it.

Yeah, it's much longer than you'd expect.

Looking back, I was apparently very negative on this game, likely not helped by the fact that I'm generally a fan of the franchise. Despite looks nice (at the time), it apparently had a bad framerate on 360. I also thought it was more than a bit of a slog early on and quite hard, to the point of dropping the difficulty to easy.

No interest in going back myself, but I look forward to hearing about your experience.

bump

Mario

I might end up playing this, as it was picked for the Game of the Month Replay topic for March. Haven't played Prime since...well, since it came out, so it'll be like playing it for the first time again.

Your vid mentioned quite a few things I hadn't heard about before with the remaster (lack of lighting from charge shots, etc.), so good job!

swordz9 posted...

How about that bill just introduced in Florida that would notify all registered Democrat voters their party has been canceled and theyre now No-Party voters? This country really could only benefit it basically every R politician was sent off planet permanently

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/591585-blaise-ingoglia-bill-would-cancel-democratic-party/

Oy vey...

I played Elden Ring for 170 hours last year and at this point I couldn't tell you a goddamn thing about the story. I remember some names and places but no idea what the overarching narrative was.

I know I've said this before, but the best moment is after finishing the last rep on deadlift day, when I don't have to think about them for another week. Heavy work set this week was 13 reps @ 267.5 (personal rep record for that weight), followed by 5 sets of 10 reps @ 185. Absolutely exhausted.

https://theintercept.com/2023/02/05/ron-desantis-florida-villages-oren-miller/

It's a bit of a long read. Basically amounts to "fuck with the establishment and they'll fuck you three times as hard".

Batman

Oh my god, imagine a Zelda area where you're collecting Triforce pieces from little mini dungeons...and then having a showdown with Ganon...

Yeah, the Nintendo IP library is ripe for theme park-ification.

First listen done.

As you might expect from someone who tends to like pop-punk, I enjoyed that quite a bit. And it's a true first listen. My Chemical Romance didn't make it big until after I stopped listening to a lot of music, so the only thing I really knew from them was I'm Not Okay (which is great, btw). Maybe I've heard Welcome to the Black Parade before too at some point; that one certainly stood out on first listen.

Vote nom is, of course:
In Flames - Colony > Symphony X - Paradise Lost > Dragonforce - Inhuman Rampage

Johnbobb posted...

I don't know if I'd still enjoy In Flames or not but I was a big fan of Come Clarity in high school

Come Clarity is the last In Flames album I listened to before falling off them. I was listening to it a bit today after seeing your post, and yeah, that's still a good one. Even back then, I remember feeling like it was a bit of a return to form after Reroute to Remain and Soundtrack to Your Escape.

Sounds awesome! I'm not much of a theme park person (at least on the thrill rides side) but this is one I'd love to experience.

I'm a tiny bit annoyed they didn't name the California park Super Nintendo Land and the upcoming Florida version Super Nintendo World.

Just to recap the final 16, since I found it interesting:
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy 2

Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart DS

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wrights: AA - Trials and Tribulations

Portal
Portal 2

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City

Demon's Souls
Dark Souls

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

God of War III

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Portal

Orange

Pretty sure it's got motion controls too (ala Prime 3). Assuming I get around to Prime, that's the way I want to play it.

1. Air 'Em Out
2. All Black
3. Wake Up
4. Baby Don't Sleep
5. Story 5
6. A Better Place
7. True Believer
8. The Breach
9. Interlude 01 (Freestyle)
10. Long Way Away
11. Long Way Away (Intro)
12. Break the Glass
13. Interlude 03 (Freestyle)
14. Long Way Away (Instrumental)
15. Interlude 02 (Numbers)

An interesting album, though I don't think I ever enjoyed it more than I did on my first listen. In many ways it's a silly exercise trying to rank the tracks here, like trying to judge a casserole or cake by its components rather than the end result. This was especially apparent to me doing my out preliminary ranking order listen.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

I enjoyed it more than Thor Ragnarok, that's for sure. And I think I'd argue it was better than Wakanda Forever too.

You meant Love and Thunder, not Ragnarok, right?

And this is the guy who has a very high chance of running the country in a few years...

...And if he gets in, it likely means the trifecta of House, Senate, and Presidency...

Fucking hell...

In for Hi-Fi Rush. Probably in for Adios since it's only 1.5 hours long and I've got it in my EGS library. Bloodstained is a good game but not going to play it again.

Batman

Would love to buy this but it's too risky with the possibility of motion sickness. I've used a Quest 2 and everything was fine when I was standing in place with shooting galleries, Beat Saber, and Super Hot. But anything with "motion", either roller coasters or moving with an analog stick, was an immediate wave of nausea.