Poll of the Day > Sports Discussion Topic #156: Tring Spraining

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Twins inch by the Cardinals 8-0.

Damn, wish I got to see that one

Dunkin Donuts Park

So I'm still enjoying BotW, but I think it's kind of gotten to the point where the difficulty has really shifted to being a lot easier, and that's tempered my excitement a little bit. This first started being a problem for me a few days ago when I completed a dungeon. I did the Zora one, after which you get an ability that automatically resurrects you if you lose hearts, plus gives you a bonus of extra hearts, and you can reuse it with a 20 minute cooldown between uses. I don't like this because I'd like to do more dungeons to have a change of pace from random exploring, but the exploring I'm continuing to do now has already gotten a little boring with this ability, and I imagine doing more dungeons will just give even more overpowered abilities.

It does seem like there is some subtle difficulty scaling, as I've noticed that monster camps will now have more Moblins and Lizalfos instead of Bokoblins. But the problem is that my weapons I have are all so good now. The low-tier enemies get gradually replaced with mid-tier enemies, but the mid-tier enemies become the new low-tier enemies with your increased abilities, and there hasn't really been a new mid-tier to take their place. Combine that with having little incentive anymore to take enemies' weapons or loot their chests, and it's made fighting monsters just feel like a chore.

I dunno, does that make any sense, or is this another one of my "weird gaming takes"?

You can disable that ability you know. That's pretty much all I can provide in response.

Also that the game is uniquely structured but that it borrows a lot from Western RPG's and those games ate always balanced so that you can skip side quests and still beat the boss. Then you quest a lot and by the time you fight the final boss he's a joke. That seems to be the case here as well hut with shrines making you OP

I didn't know you could disable that, so that changes things a little bit. Anyways, I played some more today and maybe I was a little unfair before, because I enjoyed it. I think going to the key areas is fine, which is what I was doing, but exploring the more "optional" areas of the map seems less exciting for me lately. It starts to get a little formulaic. For example, there have been a lot of instances recently where I can look at part of the map and correctly guess that there's going to be a Korok seed there, but at least they're somewhat useful.

What you said about WRPG's makes sense to me. I think the other element to it is the map size; sometimes a game can be too big for its own good. When I first heard people start talking/speculating about the map size and drawing these huge comparisons to other games my reaction was basically that it sounded cool but at the same time I didn't know if it was a good thing. It's hard to make the map open so that you can go anywhere at any time, but also have enough of a difficulty curve - inevitably you get too skilled and strong before you can conceivably visit the whole map.

I don't know if it's for those reasons but I think I basically agree. For me it's more like even the most amazing gameplay loop can't stay fresh forever. I was just checking out the snowy area today and while it was fun it didn't feel as awe inspiring as the previous new areas did so I'll probably be focusing a bit more on the critical path stuff going forward. It's definitely an all-timer for me but I would be force feeding myself if I made a point to explore every inch still at this point.

That being said I did find something new that made me laugh and shocked me. In Hateno village you can buy a damn house.

And don't get me wrong, I think BotW is amazing and it was definitely a necessary step for the series to take, but the reason I bring up the map size is because there is always this push in gaming for games to be bigger and longer. It's understandable and has mostly worked out so far, but I think there's gotta be a point where inevitably that yields diminishing returns. My big question would be where the series goes from here. Is the next game going to have to be even larger for people to get excited about it? Instead of six years, is it gonna be eight years before they finish it?


The question of where the series might head is interesting to me because I feel like recent games have possibly already pointed us to that. My bold prediction is that we could see basically a modernized setting. The technology in Zelda games has steadily evolved in release chronology. I remember in Majora's Mask, seeing an electric-looking lamp in the Zora hall and thinking it felt so wrong. Then fast forward and you had full-blown robots in Skyward Sword, and the tech gets even crazier in BotW yet seems perfectly normal.

I don't think the map has to be bigger in the next game but it probably should be another open world sandbox experience. And the more futuristic style makes sense as an evolution because if you stay in this type of Hyrule in an open world you run the risk of repeating yourself with the same environments and everything.

BotW's map is a success because it feels alive even with that massive scope in a way few games ever do. You can interact with the environment in so many ways and there's so much wildlife to see (and photographing them is fun too) and natural occurrences to look at and places to explore. The wind blows and shakes the trees, lightning strikes and knocks trees down, etc. Countless small touches that basically only Nintendo would bother with. It's a fantastic game. That said I'm also about done with it, having done three dungeons now and like 60 shrines I think. But it's going to have lasted me like two weeks having played it practically every day in that time.

Lets go Flames!
Go for 11!
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King Felix is starting against the US in ten minutes

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/842199344833040385

fuck yeah
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It was only against the Avs tho

lol tring spraining

nice
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Sad news: Slurpee is about to get his first game right

I made a work bracket and so far that one is much better... I think

you actually think about your picks when you pay to participate

also this:
http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2017/3/16/14953878/anthony-duclair-proposal-coyotes-fan-adorable
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I didn't know Chris Paul had been back for almost a month. I thought he was gonna be out a lot longer. Doesn't matter, the Nuggets are wrecking the Clippers anyway

I didn't know Chris Paul was ever out

Oh man... These brackets are going bust!!!

STLCards1991 posted...

Oh man... These brackets are going bust!!!

lol
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I know it's LITERALLY insane but please try to control yourself!

I finished up Breath of the Wild tonight. It was so damn good. Now whom amongst us will join me in playing Mass Effect Andromeda in a few short days? Oh yeah and I have a basketball game on in the background.

Are you done done with it? I've been thinking about making a harder finishing push, but every time I do a lot of main quest progress I just end up going back to doing other stuff for a while. I tell myself I could just beat it and then slowly play it here and there to finish up some sidequests, but I don't know if I actually would. Going back to the same save after I've beaten a game isn't really something I do anymore, but this is a much longer game so I probably should.

It sucks there are all these ABC games with teams just resting their stars, but I never get to see the Nuggets on TV

Once I finish the main quest in a game I know I'm very unlikely to go back. In terms of pure completion stats I'm not even close to done done, but I went ahead and fought Ganon because I knew I had gotten what I wanted out of the game. It felt like time to finish the thing. And it'll probably be a while before I go back for a second run.

Three brackets...all three had Villanova in my Final four (with one having Nova win the whole thing...)
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By "done done" I meant are you choosing to not play anymore (not completed statistically), but it looks you answered that anyway.

I don't think I've ever tried 100%ing a Zelda game past Ocarina of Time because even those have too much to do that's not worth it. Obviously I won't 100% BotW either, but there are some things in it I just feel compelled to do, because it relies on optional content as a much larger percentage of the total experience compared to past Zelda games. And I am generally more compact with subsequent playthroughs of a game, so I know that if I don't do those things on this file, I never will.

I picked Villanova for our sports topic bracket, which is the only one I filled out. I just looked at the standings which are actually kind of funny because somehow the two people who picked Villanova happen to be currently in the lead

I got all the towers and all the memories. That was about all that mattered to me completion-wise. I think there are like 900 korok seeds by the way.

I saw something about 900 Korok seeds before but I didn't look into it further, it seemed like it had to be a typo. Seriously, 900? I don't even have 100 and I feel like I've collected them across a decent spread of the overworld. Plus, with what you use them for, I don't understand how there could possibly be a need for that many, unless they start getting used for something else, or the upgrades start getting really expensive really fast.


I'm still looking for one memory because I don't remember where Pikango was when he told me about it, and I didn't make a good note on my map. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find it. I think I have a rough idea of where it is - without giving the exact location away, could you tell me Is there one you have to actually enter the grounds of Hyrule Castle to obtain?

Yes there is.

Stanton murdered a baseball.

My bracket is screwed.

ttyl

The new console Sonic looks like trash. I'm less disappointed than I was with Sonic Lost World, but it still sucks. Sonic Team made two genuinely good games with Generations and Colors, but then they decided to stop refining the gameplay and made something way worse.

Sonic Mania still looks amazing, though. Sonic Team isn't even involved with that game. I'm okay with getting one great Sonic game in 2017. That's really all I can hope for at this point.
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Choco's bracket is in the 99.6th percentile right now which is impressive, but he picked Villanova to win it all.

I just finished Iron Fist. I think it was the worst of Netflix's Marvel shows so far.

The reviews are so bad that I'm scared to try it

Ultima_Dragoon posted...

Choco's bracket is in the 99.6th percentile right now which is impressive, but he picked Villanova to win it all.

Yup, this is typical. I wreck shit during the first weekend, but some shit pick on my end means my bracket tanks in the end.
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Now that Villanova is out, the championship is wide open for the Florida Gators to take!

/blindhomer
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This is Butler's year

SpeeDLeemon posted...

This is Butler's year

they gonna score more than 50 points in the final this time?
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The Wild usually have their season fall apart in December before they rebound. Their bullshit falling apart garbage just wound up happening 3 months later than usual. We're going to lose in the playoffs in the first round at the rate we're going.

What a damn joke of a team.
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go Arkansas

Go cocks

Duke is going to lose and my bracket will be dead. That's fine though. I had a wonderful time playing

If UCLA doesn't beat Cincy, my bracket is dunn.

Well, I beat Ganon and did all the memories in BotW today.

In that order, because apparently I'm dumb. I kind of thought as I was playing that maybe I should go back to Impa first, but that's so flow-breaking when you're already in the castle, so I just finished Ganon. Good thing there's YouTube though; when I felt like the ending was a little lacking I just looked it up and sure enough there is a "true" ending.

I've got all the memories and divine beasts done + either 88 or 89 shrines completed. I'll check your spoiler tags when pig boy is dead in about 14 hours.

You guys watching Iron Fist? It's not horrible, but it's pretty stale. I didn't love Luke Cage, but it had great music and some good acting. There isn't one thing I can say is great, or even good, in Iron Fist. I'm not finished with it yet, but this better be the last season before the Defenders start meeting up.
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I haven't been able to make myself watch Iron Fist yet because of the terrible reviews.