Lurker > Bartzyx

I don't understand what that last bullet means. It didn't change anything about my automatic sign-in on my PS3.

I own a townhouse but voted the first option because a townhouse is much more similar to a single family house than it is to a condo

Top 50 metro rankings:

6 . Washington, DC (comparable to Philly)
20. Baltimore (comparable to Denver)
22. Charlotte (comparable to Orlando)
30. Cincinnati (comparable to Las Vegas)
35. Nashville (comparable to Cleveland)
37. Virginia Beach (comparable to San Jose)
41. Raleigh (comparable to Milwaukee)
44. Richmond
45. Louisville (comparable to Salt Lake City)

Lots of big places in green and many of them are younger.

side note: weird that Raleigh and Durham are considered two different metros, or combined they would be around 30.

edit: I left out Charlotte at first! whoops

Don't talk to your boss anymore, go straight to HR if you can.

Days Gone (PS4)

I never thought I would enjoy a biker zombie game, but I guess anything can happen. Yes I know that it's technically not zombies, but they might as well be. I'm not going to go deep into this one, but suffice to say, it was a mostly fun, if repetitive, game. The open world could have benefitted from a greater variety of mission types. Doing bounty hunting and clearing out camps is only so interesting the umpteenth time.

I have mixed feelings about the story. The big plot reveals were no real surprise to me. It seemed pretty obvious from early on that Sarah would not be dead, and that her work was what caused the outbreak. I liked the story overall, even if it does drag out way longer than it should. I thought the game was pretty much over after the Lost Lake act, and then it turned out there was a whole huge third act that was almost entirely disconnected from the rest of the game before it. It seemed weird that after they went through the trouble of establishing all the interesting Lost Lake characters, the story would just ditch them for most of the rest of the game.

One of my other main story complaints is the Sarah and Deacon relationship. It seems completely implausible that they would ever be together, and all the flashbacks to their past just seemed to reinforce my confusion. Genius scientist and criminal biker do not make a logical couple. They just seemed to love each other because the game wanted them to, but then when the new world makes Sarah become more like Deacon, he has a problem with that? And I was thinking that maybe the game was setting things up for them to break up after reuniting. Although that would have been a less "happy" ending to the game, I think it would have been more interesting. They also hinted at some stuff with Rikki that never had a payoff.

Deacon was fine but I thought their attempts to make a deplorable character likable were kind of goofy. I wish they had just let him be a straight up antihero. "Yes he's a member of a skinhead gang but don't worry we will make sure Deacon constantly remarks on how inclusive they are! And don't forget he's an honorable war veteran, too!" Funny stuff.

I liked the tease in the epilogue, but it doesn't matter because I guess a sequel is never going to happen.

the tender crisp bacon cheddar ranch

I think most people here, Sonic fans included, will look back at SA and say it is not a good game. It was a bit of a spectacle in 1999 and that made it pass a lot of scrutiny, but it aged absolutely horribly even a few years later.

Master Reboot (PS3)

I'm not really sure if this is considered a "walking simulator" or not. It's a first-person narrative game with some light platforming and puzzles, and some horror elements. The setting is a virtual world for dead people, a little like that San Junipero episode of Black Mirror. The story is fine, but nothing special. The player character is trying to deal with some problems in the system, and you learn about the history of the people who were involved in creating it.

I did not have a lot of fun playing the game, as most of it is just walking around and clicking on things. The finale involves a lot of first-person platforming, which is rarely handled well in any game. It's no better in this one, and especially when the game adds some time constraints. Altogether it's a mediocre game.

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Except one of the key elements of the plan is to give money to local food producers for their food?? Delete this

What plan? I was just elaborating on your response to this post.

In many ways just giving people the food is worse than nothing

I'm not going to delete my post. Why are you so fucking rude?

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

This is an insane thing to say.

First of all, how does a temporary boon of money for hunger programs take away the need to solve?

Secondly, you think all the vehicles, warehouses, personnel, and programs are just going to disappear when the money does? Thats literally the infrastructure to keep people fed, and makes subsequent work easier.

Also, no one wants to talk about it but solving world hunger would literally require socializarion of food production, at least in part.

The actual reason that only giving food is worse than nothing is that it destroys local food production economies. Countries that are flooded with outside food lose all capacity to produce it on their own because the free food puts all the farmers out of work.

Twitter is just a reflection of humanity so yes, it has people from all across the political spectrum, and yes almost every single one of them is too dumb to exist.

Just counting games that I haven't played in over a month.

Dishonored
Devil May Cry 2
Ducktales Remastered
Darksiders 3
Resogun
Amplitude
Red Dead Redemption
I Am Alive
Batman: Arkham Asylum

There are maybe 10 or so games that I have played before that I intend to go back to, but did not get into them enough to avoid starting over.

sorry man for like 99% of Americans it's "flip off"

you flick off boogers from your fingers or maybe even flick off the light switch

Corrik7 posted...

Is Kyrie gonna get suspended for flicking off the crowd?

is "flicking off" another one of those Pittsburgh/Western PA things? It means something completely different for most people I think

LittleBigPlanet (PS3)

I started this game like ten years ago and then never went back to it. But I have it on disc and I wanted to see what trophies I could easily get out of it. I guess I remembered why I never went back to it.

LittleBigPlanet was Mario Maker before Mario Maker, but not as good. Not nearly as good. Mario games are fun to play. LittleBigPlanet just sucks to play. People can make the most inventive and interesting levels, and those are great, but playing them sucks.

Now take away the inventive and interesting part, and you have LittleBigPlanet in 2022, because the online is gone (RIP my platinum). So now it's just the pack-in levels and you have to play with the awful squishy physics and unresponsive controls. So it's bad. Luckily the game is super easy and not very long.

Mario Maker made this game completely obsolete.

Super Stardust HD (PS3)

I've hardly even played many shoot 'em ups in my life, but I really liked this one. Liked it a lot more than the other Housemarque shoot 'em up I played, Resogun. And I didn't really dislike Resogun, it just failed to grab me. Someday maybe I will go back and finish it.

Super Stardust HD is basically Asteroids with a bit more enemies and stuff in it. I liked Asteroids when I was a kid, but this game is better. You can switch between three main weapons but the fire whip thing is way better than the others in most situations. The game's difficulty is kind of snowball-y. If you don't die, you will get a high multiplier which makes your score go up fast which racks up extra ships. If you die, then you don't lose your multiplier and you will not get any extra ships.

Those balance issues aside, it's great and the music is good and it's pretty and fun.

Rain (PS3)

This a short little Japan Studio 3D puzzle platformer. The gimmick is that your guy is invisible and only can be seen by the rain bouncing off of him. He is in some sort of faux-Paris dream-land with some shadow monsters and trying to wake up. There are a couple interesting puzzles, but nothing outstanding. It's not particularly fun to play. The game is narrated by some text on screen that really kind of sucksit doesn't read well at all. No speech or anything and the music is .

Probably the best thing going for it is that the atmosphere at some parts is pretty good. But that's really it.

echochrome (PS3)

This is one of the older downloadable PS3 games, but the online still works! You can download maps that other people have created, almost 15 years later. I really did not like the game at first, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn't bad. It's a puzzle game that relies on you using the perspective to basically create Escher-like optical illusions to guide your figure through checkpoints. You can break the game by using launchpads and trapdoors to get your figure airborne, and then rotating the camera quickly to land it almost anywhere on the stage. I used that technique to solve most of the later puzzles, although the hardest ones generally prevent you from doing that with cleverly placed platforms.

The pursuit of happy Ness

Nick's life

I go to AZ for worst western state. Crazy politics and unsustainable climate.

I was hoping that he would get another shot in Pittsburgh. He had some maturity issues in Washington but 2 years can go a long way to helping with that.

RIP one of the few NFL QBs I watched play in person.

I tried watching it a couple months ago but could not get past episode 6 or so. I found the main character to be really irritating and unsympathetic, and the premise was a little too cynical for me.

I could see myself trying it again somewhere down the line, but it's not a priority.

not interested in putting my life at risk

BlueCrystalTear posted...

I've noted "Whole Grain Corn" on cereal ingredient lists.

What the hell is whole grain corn?

It's corn with the whole grain. With the shell and everything, like what you would eat on the cob.

6/10

It does what it needs to do.

It appears on PS4 library too. That's how I found it.

First placeand four platinums in one month! Pretty sure that's a record for me.

First of all I'd like to thank my wife for letting me basically ignore her for the last week of the month as I spent my precious few hours of free time each day grinding away at trophies.

Want to also thank Arti, Wigs, and Nick for helping me get the OG Fall Guys platinum, which I never could have gotten on my own. That was good for two plats right there.

And thank you SHINE for playing Kirby and giving me a chance at all. Thanks to all the other Elden Ring and Stranger of Paradise players for getting trophies and making those worth less because that also helped a ton.

I will never come close to having all the trophies that other people have so it was huge for me to at least win a month for once. I think I might take a break or retire from serious trophy hunting... it gets tiring.

stopped after emerald. got bored with it

You're supposed to tip the cleaning staff by leaving money in the room when you leave, but I do not travel often enough to remember to do it.

8/10

It's good but not any better than the other games

I'm glad I can keep the same service. I see no reason at all to pay more for the other tiers.

FireOS is android-based. I haven't tried installing a ton of apps on my Fire, but I haven't yet had any that don't work.

Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic (PS3)

Motion-control garbage.

This game would have been bad with normal controls, but the fact that it relies on motion controls to execute half the attacks really sinks this one to the bottom of the barrel. It's one of the worst games I have ever played. Luckily it has almost no content so "beating" it took about an hour.

Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom (PS3)

What a game this was. You do not expect a first-party Sony title to be shovelware, but boy this one is super low-production garbage. I guess it is a spinoff of an augmented reality PSP game? It was free on PS+ really late in the PS3 lifecycle, like one of the very last games to be featured. The PSP game was some kind of Pokemon wannabe (I think), but this is an action platformer. You control a little boy who can transform into these anthropomorphic creatures called Invizimals. The game does not bother to tell you anything about the world or the plot or anythingyou watch a brief, poorly-acted, live action intro clip, and then the game starts. I suppose it's assumed you played the other game and know the setting and characters.

You start the game being able to use just one Invizimal, and you collect more as the game progresses. Each one has unique traversal skills that you will have to use to advance. All of them are quite clunky, but clunky is really just what this game is. You can only use the skills in predetermined areas that glow and the assistant character that talks in your ear will almost always tell you exactly what you need to do. To be sure, this is a game intended for kids, but it treats the player like a complete idiot. There is absolutely no thought as to what to do: you stand on the highlighted spot and press triangle and it will automatically switch you to the character you need and perform the skill for you. In addition, there are a few things that only the boy can do, such as slowly walking across a narrow beam or ledge, or slowly crawling through holes. Once again, no skill involved, and it does not appear to have anything to do with loading times, either. It seems to just be there so that you can press triangle and have something happen, disregarding whether it adds anything to that game at all. Indeed, much of this game is just there for no discernible reason. But the parts where you have to wait ten seconds to watch the boy shimmy across a ledge or crawl through a hole are a complete detriment to the game.

Collecting the Invizimals might have been fun, except that the one you start with is by far the most useful and powerful. He has the traversal abilities that are used most often (climbing and swinging), and is the most powerful and agile in combat. Except for their unique skills, there is no reason to ever use any of the other Invizimals (aside from personal preference).

Going back to how the skills are clunkythe battles with enemies are also very clunky. Although the game doesn't stop you from using your attacks in the open, when enemies are around, the character moves more slowly and jumps much lower. Not really any reason for it, but I had trouble in platforming sections when an enemy got to close and then suddenly my jump didn't go anywhere. Even when you are trying to fight enemies, it doesn't feel good. It's generally easy, though. There is exactly one dangerous enemy type in the game (powerful ranged attack) and as long as you make sure to focus that one down first, the fights are no challenge. Even your basic attacks stun enemies, so as long as you keep attacking you will rarely take damage.

There are tons of collectibles but none of them do anything. You do not get anything from fighting and defeating enemies, but there are various orbs scattered around and hidden in pots, etc., that you can collect and spend. You use some of them to purchase six attack "upgrades" for your Invizimals, but actually, none of them do anything. I am not sure if they just did not have time to implement it, but it's really odd. Other collectibles are used in a battle arena mode which I tried once but found boring and pointless. And since there is no reward for beating enemies, it's usually best just to walk right past them when possible.

Some other complaints... The camera angle cannot be controlled and occasionally causes problems with platforming and battles, either not being able to gauge distances or not being able to see enemies that are attacking you. There are lots of points where the game stops so that an offscreen character can narrate about something, even if you already heard it before. No accessibility options, lack of subtitles in particular. The HUD is poorly designed and does not convey your cooldowns well at all. Lots of random little glitches, invisible geometry, jumps/attacks that don't register, and so on.

You might ask why I beat this game? Well, despite everything, it was not entirely bad. Very mindless and relaxing for the most part, and it was something to do on my lunch break every day during a stressful time of year that helped me to veg out. I must say also that it satisfied some morbid curiosities. Easy trophies, as well.

votes orange cat

no, only when I lose it.

idk which one is the orange one

I had no idea this was something that anyone in the world cared about

I wore a black t-shirt today

Yeah, my PS4 stopped working for a while and I went into all my old PS+ games on PS3. There are so many little downloadable games that I got for free over the years. Some of them I have no interest in, but I have been giving almost all of them at least a little try.

I will probably get it eventually. In no rush to do it now, though. Still havent gotten around to BL3 which I heard was not great.

Eat Them! (PS3)

It's basically Rampage in three dimensions. So it's not a good game. Rampage was fine for an 80s arcade game but the idea gets boring very quickly. There is not really any challenge at all, just spamming attack buttons to knock down buildings and occasionally stopping to eat and replenish energy. I found the art style of this game to be pretty ugly, as well. Load times were way too long for something so simple.

The Last Guy (PS3)

This is a wonderfully weird, very Japanese game. And the concept felt fresh, too! At least to me it did. You control this guy who marches through a satellite rendering of real world cities to rescue civilians from a zombie apocalypse. As you collect people, they trail behind you and give you a stamina bonus, but also render you more and more vulnerable to attack as the line behind you grows. It's an interesting mix of risk and reward, and incredibly challenging. I beat the game but did not have the patience to complete it to 100 percent.

If it's Capital Bikeshare, you pick/drop the bike off at docking stations. It's $8 for a day pass. If you are staying on/around the national mall, then a bike is hardly necessary though.

I don't think I did but I'll never know

Savage Moon (PS3)

I cannot really make up my mind how I feel about tower defense games. For sure, they can be very satisfying when you set up a perfect defense and watch it go to work. However, these games are limited in what they can present to you and it's hard for designers to get the difficulty right. In my experience, the games in this genre are either too easy, or too unfair. Very rarely do they get it just right.

I feel like Savage Moon is a bit on the unfair side. Success in many of the levels just depends on knowing the enemy patterns in advance. If you do not know what is coming, then it's basically trial and error gameplay, which is not very fun. Nothing like setting up a great defense and then halfway through the level, flying enemies come in with a new path that completely skirts your static defenses and annihilates your base. So now you start the level over again and make sure you place towers in that path to deal with it.

That's not to say I did not have fun with the game. I still enjoy finding out the optimal placing for defenses, upgrading structures, and so on. My patience with the game ran low, but not before I pretty much finished it.

Oh I don't even know. Maybe 7-8 years ago.

Yes Trilobyte. It was fine at first but quickly got repetitive.

A few hours into Rogue Legacy I was super fed up with the opening area's annoying music.

Absolutely

I would want to kill someone if they called me that