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1831
The Flood / Re: I got banned from 4chan, can we make sep7 active again?
« on: January 27, 2019, 01:01:35 AM »
hey guys should I ddos class now or wait to see if he's dumb enough to not change his ip address in the next week
ddos me that's fine.There's nothing I've said on the internet that I'm too ashamed of people seeing IRL
That's not what ddos means
It's when you reveal all the internet posts you've made to your RL people right?
that's doxing

actually, that would be reverse doxing i guess

pretty sure there's no actual term for what you just described, but doxing is when your "RL" information gets posted on the internet by a third party if you were trying to keep it private

1832
Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch Online thread
« on: January 26, 2019, 04:55:43 PM »
just wrote about 30,000 characters worth of reviews for the NES games that were put out for December, and then for absolutely no reason at all, i wound up losing ALL of them after an accident, so what i'm going to do is post these (extremely rough) drafts of them because that's all i have and i'm just super frustrated and wanna be done with these

not that anyone CARES but if you happen to read these and think "wow these are extremely poorly written and difficult to follow" well yeah it's because they're raw and unedited and unproofread so yeah sorry about that

in summary: all of these games are pretty good by NES standards. play them.




Originally released in 1994, Wario's Woods is probably not the kind of game you'd expect it to be based on the title. If you're at all like my childhood self, you're probably imagining some kind of cool platformer like Wario Land 3, but if that's case, prepare to be disappointed. It's actually a tile-matching puzzle game where you play as Toad (you know, everyone's favorite Mario character), and Wario himself spends the vast majority of the game completely offscreen. Yeah. How fucking lame is that? If they had called it "Toad's Tree Tumble" or some shit, I would've known not to bother, but they knew that putting a cool character like Wario in the title would make the game seem all the more enticing. And it was, so I bought into it. It was probably the first time I had ever been disappointed with a Mario game—and yes, just in case this all sounds a little familiar, they pulled the exact same shit with Yoshi four years earlier.

My perception of Wario's Woods has always been negatively biased because of my childhood disappointment, but having it available on the NSO NES service has inspired me to give it another look from an adult's perspective.

I've concluded that it's an okay game. It may not have the catchy, memorable music of Dr. Mario or the sheer addictive simplicity of Tetris, but it's a passable effort nonetheless. As mentioned before, you play as Toad inside of a large tree hollow—which is to say, unlike a traditional tile-matcher, you do NOT have direct control over where each tile gets placed. Instead, bombs are dropped haphazardly by a fairy above, and Toad has to run around at the base of the tree, catching the bombs as they come, so he can place or stack them wherever they need to go. Unlike in Mighty Bomb Jack, the bombs actually have a function. The tree hollow is infested with these cutesy little monsters of different colors; they're completely harmless to you, and can even be picked up and stacked in the same way that the bombs can. The object of the game is to clear out the hollow of these monsters using the bombs.

Matching any three tiles of the same color together (in any direction) will cause them to disappear, and "tile" encompasses both monsters and bombs. So, if there's one red monster, you need two red bombs. Two red monsters, one red bomb. Typical tile-matching mechanics apply here—chain reactions are a thing, and of course, you get a few neat bonuses for matching more than just three tiles at once—but the primary difference, and what makes the game especially unique, is having to scamper around as Toad as he physically carries each of the tiles over to where they need to be.

Pressing "A" will have Toad grab the tile (or the entire stack of tiles) directly in front of him, or have him set it back down. Pressing "B" allows him to grab just a single tile, in case he doesn't need the whole thing. Pressing down will make the fairies start dropping bombs faster.

Toad's maneuvers in this game are surprisingly extensive and satisfying to operate. He can't jump, but he can run up walls, so if he finds himself in a position where he's between a wall and a big stack of monsters/bombs, just hold right or left as you would normally, and he'll be able to run all the way up to the top (unless he's already carrying shit). When climbing up a stack of tiles, the "B" button becomes very useful for selecting individual pieces that you need, since Toad will carry it back down with him. If he gets buried by tiles, he can force himself to the top as well (which is weird, but whatever). Finally, Toad can kick tiles so that they slide over and fall, in case you need them to, which has its occasional utility.

As the game takes place, a portrait of Birdo can be seen, but if the player takes too long to finish a level, this portrait will get replaced with Wario. When Wario shows up, he'll start bashing his shoulder against the portrait, causing a large block to come sliding down the tree hollow, which threatens to box the player in. If this happens, the game is over. Additionally, an annoying-ass bird will appear to spawn more monsters for you to get rid of, just to undo all your hard work. Having to clear each level before this shit starts happening adds a nice layer of tension to the experience.

Later levels will introduce monsters that are trickier to get rid of, such as monsters that have to be bombed twice before disappearing, monsters that change color, and monsters that only disappear when bombed diagonally. There's a billion trillion levels—I've only made it as far as level 40, and apparently I'm not even halfway there. Thankfully, this is one of those rare NES puzzle games that records your progress (there's even a basic name entry screen, which is kinda nifty, if completely unnecessary), so there's no fear of ever losing your progress (though, of course, having access to suspend points makes all of that redundant anyway).

There's also a "Game B" where, every ten levels, the player gets to engage in a weird boss fight. A boss character will appear inside the hollow, you have to match tiles against it repeatedly to drain its life. It's kinda weird, clunky, and awkwardly paced. I'm not sure if I'm that into it, to be honest, but it's certainly creative. Naturally, there's also a 2-player vs. mode which is good solid fun for five minutes if you're able to find someone willing to play this shit with you.

This game is also notable for being able to win you at least two points in a Nintendo-themed trivia game: not only was it the last officially-licensed NES game to be released in North America, it's also the first and only NES game to have ever received an ESRB rating ("K-A," back when that was still a thing).

In general, it's not one of my all-time favorites, but it's quite decent. It has the polish that you'd expect from a game released so late into the console's lifespan, but the gameplay isn't horribly exciting and it does get quite old after a few minutes. I would only continue playing it on the basis that the game does have a story with an ending, and I'm trying to beat every game on the service at least once. Beyond that, though, I wouldn't recommend spending too much time with this one unless you're a fanatic for old puzzle games.

Overall rating:
3/5




Originally released in 1989, Adventures of Lolo was once the flagship franchise of HAL Laboratory—at least, until Kirby came onto the scene in the early '90s. In fact, dedicated Kirby fans will no doubt recognize Lolo, because he (along with his female counterpart, Lala) tends to show up as a boss in several Kirby games (albeit renamed as Lololo and Lalala, for whatever reason).

Yet another member of the puzzle genre (but thank god, it's not another tile-matcher), the game is actually a rebranding of an older series of MSX computer games also featuring Lolo called Eggerland, released throughout the mid-'80s and spanning four installments. Adventures of Lolo compiles all (or most) of the puzzles from these games, and doesn't actually contain any new or original levels of its own; therefore, the game can be thought of as an Eggerland "best of" collection.

This one's gonna be rather difficult for me to describe, as Lolo is easily one of the more unique puzzle games I've ever played. It's similar to Solomon's Key in the sense that the levels do not "scroll." Each and every level (or room) only takes up a single screen's worth of space, which means you get to see the entirety of each stage (and everything that's happening in it) at all times, all at once, and from a bird's eye perspective. That probably seems like an awfully mundane detail, but bear with me. I think it's an important thing to note, given how the game is played.

In each room, your goal is to unlock the door to the next until you reach the top of the castle, where the damsel Lala is being held captive by the Great Devil. There are ten floors, and each floor has about five rooms. You'll know you're about to make it to the next floor if the current room you're in doesn't have any doors; so, naturally, a staircase going up to the next floor will appear in these rooms instead.

Every room has a chest containing a jewel that grants access to the next room when collected, but the chests will only open once you've collected all the room's "Heart Framers" (as the manual calls them), which are just squares with hearts on them, and basically serve as the game's primary collectible—only, you must collect all of them to proceed. As you could imagine, every room is guarded with enemies, but Lolo doesn't really have any means of defending himself. So, the game is all about figuring out how to safely collect each Heart Framer when the enemies are strategically placed to make this task as much of a science project as possible.

Unfortunately, this is one of those games that basically requires you to read the manual going into it, because if you jump in without knowing how the enemies work, you're practically guaranteed to have a bad time. For me, this is the game's biggest flaw. Once you do learn the basic rules, though, the game actually becomes quite fun and addictive, where each solved level feels like a genuine accomplishment. Yet even after reading the manual, there are still certain minor quirks about the game that seem fair enough from a gameplay standpoint, but are not always immediately intuitive and can take some trial-and-error just to learn. I'll try to go into some of these later.

The enemies themselves are very interesting in terms of their behavior. There's Rocky, a cute little grey square-shaped golem monster thing that walks in a set pattern and will quickly rush up to Lolo if he happens to cross its line of sight. It can't actually hurt Lolo; instead, it will just try to push him against the nearest wall in order to box him in. He's too heavy for you to push back, so if you're not careful, and it manages to shove you into a corner, you're gonna be stuck there.

In the event that Lolo does get permanently stuck, either because of a Rocky or because you fucked up a puzzle beyond repair, the developers were kind enough to implement a catch-all solution for these snafus: A fucking suicide button. By pressing "select," you can sacrifice one of Lolo's lives so you can start the puzzle over again. He literally just dies, right then and there, at the push of a button. And you'll be pressing this button very often, too. I don't know, maybe I'm alone on this, but I just find that incredibly amusing. Fucking up a puzzle is one thing, but there's something very cruel and sadistic about obliging the player himself to personally commit to the demise of his own player avatar.

Other enemies, like Medusa, are completely stationary, but fire these full-range projectiles in all four directions (think of a rook in chess) that will instantly take Lolo's life if he dares to step anywhere in its sights without sufficient cover (normally a boulder, block, or another enemy). Don Medusa, a scarier variety, does the same shit, except it slides back and forth rather than being stationary, increasing its range further.

Some enemies will only awaken and become dangerous once all the Heart Framers in the room are collected, like Skulls and Gols. Otherwise, they're harmless and stationary. One enemy, Snakey, doesn't do anything at all. It's just... there.

My favorite enemy is the Leeper. It runs about all over the place, gravitating towards the player, but similar to Rocky, it cannot kill you directly. Instead, if it makes contact with you, it'll fall asleep on the spot and never wake up. It can't be moved, so it does have the potential of trapping you, making it a real nuisance. But with a bit of cleverness, you may be able to lure him into sleeping in a spot that actually gives you an advantage.

As Lolo, your powers are quite limited. Movement is gridlocked in four directions (including half-steps), and you have no special attacks or maneuvers to defend yourself with beyond your own wits. As such, enemies in general must be strategically avoided altogether. A select number of rooms will give Lolo single-use power-ups for collecting a certain number of Framers, such as bridges for crossing rivers or hammers for smashing boulders. Most rooms have green blocks called Emerald Framers (which I'm just going to call "blocks") which can be pushed around as a means of trapping enemies, or giving Lolo some cover. Some levels have special Heart Framers that give Lolo the ability to fire a couple of Magic Shots, which can turn enemies into eggs that can be pushed around just like the blocks, but will hatch after a set period of time. Eggs can even be ridden on if you push them into a ravine, at least until they sink.

Your Magic Shots are limited, of course, and shouldn't be used frivolously. They shouldn't even be thought of as an offensive technique at all, really; just another piece of the puzzle. There are no roundabout solutions. Every room seems to have only ONE very specific and watertight solution, and fucking up the smallest thing often means having to press the suicide button. That might sound irritating to play, but the game is actually built rather intelligently around this.

You see, even though the game does utilize lives, they don't really matter that much, because you have infinite continues. Losing a life just means getting to redo the puzzle. "Game over" just puts you back at the title screen, where you can select "continue" and be right where you left off anyway. If you have to stop playing, every room in the game has a simple 4-digit password associated with it, so there's no chance of you ever losing your progress (and yes, suspend points render this totally redundant, but still). They gave you a suicide button because they knew you were gonna fuck up a lot; it's okay. There's no pressure.

The way the game is built heavily encourages you to take your time planning out what you're gonna do for each room, and this ties back to the observation I made earlier about each room only taking up a single screen's worth of space. Not only that, but at the start of each room, all the moving enemies will be completely frozen, allowing you to slowly and carefully take in and parse all the information on-screen at once and plan out exactly what you're gonna do. doing this will become necessary for 75-80% of the game's puzzles. It's a very slow and meticulous process, but you'll find that bumrushing through the room like a dumbass will do nothing but frustrate you. You have to take your time; unlike Solomon's Key, the game doesn't have a timer, so you can literally examine each room for as long as you want.

It's this style of gameplay that I look for when it comes to puzzle games. It's incredibly satisfying to go into each room with a plan, only to have it all fall into place as a reward for my patience and observation. There are still a few minor hiccups here and there, though, and it has to do with some of the game's internal logic and its more obscure rules. Some of the manual's enemy descriptions, for example, are pretty piss-poor and don't accurately describe how the enemy behaves at all. It's never explained that it's possible for Lolo to stand over a chest, which becomes an important tidbit of knowledge for at least one room, and it's also never said that enemies can be used to block projectiles in the same way that boulders can. Among other things.

The manual does an okay job of explaining the bare basics, but as for the finer details (which become increasingly important in the game's later floors), it's left up to the player to figure out for themselves. Which isn't necessarily bad—in fact, that's normally good—but it's not always intuitive, and that's the issue. Players want to learn shit on their own, but the only way they're gonna do that (generally) is if the game's rules are logical and make sense intuitively, and this is just one of those games were not everything makes perfect sense. You just kinda have to roll with it at times.

That being said, I think this might just be my favorite puzzle game on the service right now. It could easily be better than Dr. Mario, but I'm gonna rank it one step below for now in case I don't change my mind later. The music is pretty good (but not AS good), and visually, it's rather nice as well. I like the cute and cuddly aesthetic that HAL is known for. I'm iffy on the story being a stupid damsel in distress plot, but I'm also inclined to not take that aspect too seriously.

In terms of overall quality of gameplay, I'd say it's about on-par with Solomon's Key, but in terms of ranking, I think I probably have to give the edge to Lolo on the sole basis that it allows you the luxury of infinite continues and has a nifty password system. On the off-chance that someone is opposed to using suspend points, knowing that Lolo has an in-built failsafe for players who are interested in actually progressing through the game is worth acknowledging.

This game is a test of patience in the best way possible, but if that doesn't sound particularly fun to you, I'd stay away.

Overall rating:
4/5




Originally released in 1988, Ninja Gaiden was probably Tecmo's most treasured property of the NES era, before it was picked up and reimagined by Team Ninja in 2004. The NES game was released very shortly after the arcade version of the same name, but whereas that version was a Double Dragon-style beat-'em-up, the better-known NES version is a high-octane action platformer that focuses less on mindless combat and more on speed, momentum, and finesse. It's easily my favorite title of the December batch.

The player takes control of Ryu Hayabusa, a young Japanese ninja who travels to America to avenge his fallen father, whose life was lost during a duel with an unknown shinobi shown in the opening cutscene. It's a well-known fact by now, but Ninja Gaiden was one of the earliest games to extensively feature cinematic cutscenes to engage the player in its narrative, with a directorial style and aesthetic that, according to James Rolfe, combines aspects of anime and film noir, which I think is an apt description.


This scene in particular is synonymous with the word "iconic."

Another well-known fact about this game has to do with its unforgiving difficulty, but we'll get into that later.

I know a lot of people seem to have issues with how the game feels to play, but to me, it feels orgasmic and extremely similar to Castlevania in several different ways. It's easy to sum it up as a more fast-paced version of that title, where rather than being rewarded for playing extremely cautious all the time, you're encouraged to focus more on fast and aggressive (yet smooth, attentive) play. You still can't be sloppy if you want to win, but infinite continues means the game never really ends, so even if you're constantly getting fucked up, as long as you keep working on your mistakes, you'll eventually see yourself slowly improve over time. You might even enter this zen flow-state where you're flying through entire levels without taking a single hit—and that's REALLY fucking fun.

Ryu's Dragon Sword has a deceptively long reach, and unlike Simon Belmont's whip, it comes out near-instantly, so it's extremely satisfying to cut fuckers down with it. It does stop him in his tracks when he swings it for a brief moment, but when used in conjunction with his jump, it's possible to get attacks out on the first frame. Sometimes, though, it's not quite enough, which is why the game provides you with secondary weapons like shuriken and fire spells that you can find by breaking objects in the background (again, just like in Castlevania). Ammunition is limited, of course, and most enemies have a tendency to respawn if you try to sit there and camp, so the weapons must be used very wisely. Mastery of the secondary weapons will become essential if you want the levels to become a breeze.

The game is quite short at six areas, with anywhere from two to four levels per area, so with patience, it's possible to beat it entirely in less than an hour—but only if you're really good at the game, and you're probably not.

With respect to the game's difficulty, I actually don't think it's that bad. The first five areas are very doable, and while they do get exponentially harder, the fact that you get infinite continues means you're never in a position where you can't get better at the game. A lot of people aren't into the trial-and-error of it, and that's understandable, but I think whenever the game's enemy placement seems like unfair bullshit, the solution always ends up being fairly obvious, and it's almost always on the player for not being able to pick up on it.

For example, there are several moments in the game where you're having to cross a gap between two platforms by making a leap of faith. However, doing so blindly will often result in a bat or some other flying enemy popping up out of nowhere and knocking you back into the pit, killing you instantly. The first time it happens, sure, it's annoying, but literally all you have to do to adapt to this is just wait at the edge of the platform for the bat to come, and as soon as it appears, THEN make the jump, and you'll be able to make it. This also teaches the player to cross gaps carefully and to pause for a brief moment before just rushing into things like an idiot.

That said, there are some legitimate grievances to have with the game. As cool as the graphics are, and as fun as wall-jumping is, it can be a little bit janky at times. The level of detail in the graphics can actually make it kinda difficult to tell what you're able cling onto in the first place, and this can result in some deeply frustrating scenarios where you're sticking to walls without even wanting to do so. This has never been a game-breaking issue to me, but I can definitely see why it could be seen as cumbersome. It's also kinda awkward how the ladders in this game still use wall-jump mechanics, so when you make it to the top of a ladder, you have to jump OFF of it rather than climb up to the top. But that's a nitpick.

There are also some issues with the game's collision detection and overall polish. I mentioned how Ryu's sword has deceptively long reach, which is true, but only horizontally. The vertical hitbox of the weapon, especially when using his aerial slash, does have this annoying tendency to completely whiff grounded opponents when it counts, usually as a result of imperfect timing. This issue doesn't rear its ugly head all too often, but it sure sucks when it does.

My biggest personal issue with the game is how boss fights are handled. None of the bosses are particularly difficult in and of themselves; their difficulty arises from the extremely questionable design choice of having you go back to the beginning of the entire area just for losing against them. To understand the implications of this, let me try to illustrate in detail exactly what happens when you die in this game. If you're on stage 6-3, and you die in a particular section of that level, you'll start again at the beginning of that very section. Not 2-1, or the beginning of 2-3, but the specific section of 2-3 that you made it up to. However, if you get a game over, you then start at the beginning of 2-3. That's your punishment for losing all your lives.

If you die against the boss, however, you don't start again from 6-4. You start from 6-1. That is some cockamamy horseshit right there. Not only is it simply obnoxious to have to start back from that point in the game, it also makes every subsequent attempt at the boss a clean slate, because whatever you may have learned or picked up on during the fight (which probably lasted around ten seconds anyway) will either be forgotten or not enough to have a substantial chance against him. In other words, there's no way to practice. And since there are no passwords or anything like that, back in the '80s, that means you have to be prepared to beat this game all in one go from 1-1.

Lucky the game is so fun and engaging anyway, otherwise that mechanic would be nearly unforgivable. And, again, it's hard to bitch about a game that gives you infinite continues, even if it is heavily flawed. The game's excellent soundtrack has a way of pumping you up with enough adrenaline and willpower to get better at the game, just as it should, and the cutscenes also provide a great incentive to keep trucking along against all odds, even if the story is very cheesy and predictable (in a way that I find charming). If this game's bigger issues were ironed out, this would be an easy 5/5 for me.

Overall rating:
4/5



1833
Gaming / Re: Resident Evil 2 remake
« on: January 26, 2019, 02:29:53 PM »
i've yet to play any REs, since i dislike horror games, but i've recently decided i'm gonna try to man up and try a few horror games over the summer, RE included, since i'm tired of feeling like i'm missing out

1834
The Flood / Re: you guys arent even fun
« on: January 25, 2019, 11:28:27 PM »
The whole fucking point is not to have an identity.
which has always been a mind-numbingly stupid concept

but if it's such a big deal, then why don't they just take away the option to give yourself a name

every single board should be like the ones that put a code on your post that's tied to your IP

1835
Gaming / Re: Tfw you buy the Metroid Prime Trilogy
« on: January 25, 2019, 04:12:26 PM »
Well if Nintendo themselves were unhappy with the game I'm pretty sure they had good reasons to restart development.
for sure, this is obviously a good thing in the long run

still a rough thing to have happen though

1837
Gaming / Re: Tfw you buy the Metroid Prime Trilogy
« on: January 25, 2019, 11:27:50 AM »
YouTube

fucking hell

1838
The Flood / Re: you guys arent even fun
« on: January 25, 2019, 08:41:18 AM »
Oh Jesus Christ they’re teaching Class about AGP too.
it's actually a pretty cool forum

I didn't know you could register usernames
just know it's extremely frowned upon to do so, because the whole point is to be anonymous

biggest shithole on the internet

1839
Gaming / Re: Quake 2 Mod - RTX ON
« on: January 23, 2019, 04:06:48 PM »
fair enough

1840
Gaming / Re: Quake 2 Mod - RTX ON
« on: January 23, 2019, 03:56:30 PM »
looks like fucking shit

1841
The Flood / Re: Addicted to my phone
« on: January 22, 2019, 06:31:06 PM »
in what ways is it negatively affecting your life

1842
The Flood / Re: Sportsball Thread
« on: January 21, 2019, 05:48:40 PM »
i'm so upset that this person i don't know failed to accomplish this thing that doesn't matter

1843
Gaming / Re: Zelda Breath of the Wild
« on: January 20, 2019, 07:52:00 PM »
The degradation just doesn't make much sense and simply isn't very fun. You say there's a high emphasis placed on resource management but also that there's such an abundance of weapons that you'll never run out, which kind of defeats the entire point of having to manage your weapons. All you can really do is save your best kit for the strongest enemies when they could've done so much better. It's not as if the degradation forces you to be clever or inventive either since the combat mechanics are relatively shallow (not bad at all, just not very deep) and you don't get a drastic gameplay difference depending on the weapon you're holding. There's just so many ways they could've done it better, imo. Add some RPG elements to using weapons so that you "level up" with a certain type when you use them to become more proficient at them. This would incentivize fighting enemies and using different combat styles. Instead of just saving your weapons with higher damage per hit for stronger enemies, make the effects of weapons more pronounced and have you change them around mid-fight or something. The current degradation just feels pointless and like a chore while nothing of value is added. Lots of missed opportunities.
I wouldn't say it defeats the point, because while everything I said is true, if you happen to be in a situation where all your good weapons are broken, it can still be a pain in the ass (in the fun and engaging way) to recover from that.

I don't really see a big difference between a weapon level-up system and simply finding stronger weapons as you progress throughout the game (and I won't break the illusion of what the game considers "progression" for you just yet). The former method is decidedly un-Zelda-like, and while it's not a bad suggestion, I don't know if it's a necessary change or something that would even change the gameplay all that much.

Instead of getting stronger weapons by finding them, you're getting stronger weapons by using them. Effectively, they're the same thing, but you're saying that the latter would incentivize you to fight enemies more than the former. I'm not sure I understand why. I suppose it's merely a matter of preference.

I also believe the three basic weapon types have enough differences between them to warrant having preferences (spears have range, claymores knock down and have a powerful spin attack, boomerangs are sick, elemental rods are sick, bombs have potential clever uses in combat, arrows open up a whole WORLD in terms of combat, etc), and some of them indeed have special advantages against certain enemy types, so not having X-weapon when it would be nice to have one forces you to come up with an alternative solution, or, if you only have one in poor condition, encourages you to make those last strikes count.

You also have limited space in your inventory, so if you wanna have any utility non-combat weapons (like torches, axes for woodcutting, sledgehammers for mining and crate smashing, etc), you'll have to make some room for these, too. Not to mention, certain weapons have elemental properties that provide extra warmth for cold regions or vice versa. Once you progress more, weapons will also start having stat bonuses, as well (strength boosts, increased durability, shooting two arrows for the cost of one, and more) to make finding them perhaps a bit more exciting for you.

The only thing I sort of agree with is that the combat can seem a bit "shallow" (I'd call it simple), but Zelda has never really been about deep combat systems anyway. As much I'd love to play a Zelda game with a Souls-like combat system, I also respect that Nintendo would rather keep things safe and accessible.
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Menu management really isn't that good. Being unable to drop things directly is a pain (yeah you can throw them but it's not as fast for multiples). You don't have an option to automatically swap weapons when one breaks. Having to hold everything before cooking is a mess, especially at lower levels when you want to make one or two item dishes. Sideways scrolling instead of a wheel as a quick menu is a poor choice... I mean, it's not horrible. But there's definitely lots of room for improvement.
Direct dropping would've been nice, I suppose, but I don't recall it ever being an issue for me.

Everything else you mentioned, I consider to be good. The sideways wheel is sick and intuitive. I like having to carry food while cooking. When a weapon breaks, I enjoy having to manually choose what I'm equipping next. I even wish they took it a step further, and made it so that the gameplay doesn't freeze as you're switching weapons (and, say, make it so you cannot equip weapons while pausing) to heighten the tension further.

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Not wanting to engage in fights is pretty problematic for a game like this. I'm only a few hours in and already decided to avoid several fights. Unless I just sit back and use my abilities to take them out, all I'll be doing is breaking my weapons and potentially take damage I have to heal away for what? A few goblin horns to add to my collection of dozens and a wooden club or two, with maybe something slightly above average from a chest. Just doesn't seem worth it more often than not. Something like an exp or proficiency mechanic would be a much better incentive.
Is it problematic though? If I'm at a point where the enemies are no longer providing me with useful spoils, and fighting them is a waste of time and resources, I typically take that as a sign to make some actual progression. It's not problematic for you in Pokémon to progress beyond Viridian Forest when your party is too strong for all the Caterpie, right? I know it's two different games, but I think the principle still applies.
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And yeah, the exploration is fun but the world sometimes seems strangely empty. I know I'm not too far along yet but veering off the path hasn't been all that interesting. Other than some shinres I have yet to find any side quests, good loot, additions to the story and stuff like that. Just not terribly impressed so far but maybe it'll get better.
I'll allow the game to speak for itself on this one.
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It just feels like abilities aren't very integrated into normal play or combat. You either use them to solve puzzles exclusively, to open a fight with a bomb or to just take them out with abilities by smacking them with heavy stuff. There's unfortunately not much else. Stasis arrows or projectiles in midair. Magnetise a weapon out of an enemy's hands. Hookshot someone and pull them into you for a combo or pull yourself towards a platform to get away from danger. Fuck it, statis yourself while running in place to build up Sonic style momentum and speed ahead or up, or slow down your bow so that you can fire off a bunch of arrows which float in the air until they all release together. Throw a weapon into an enemy's face, stasis it as he falls back, run up to him, snatch it again from the air and combo into another hit. You can even make it so that you need to get a combo of successful and undamaged hits going before you can this kind of stuff so that it's not too OP. There's so much more they could've done to further integrate abilities into combat / normal gameplay.
None of these are bad ideas. A lot of them wouldn't work for a variety of reasons (using Magnesis to disarm monsters seems OP), but I do agree that more could have been done on this front. Still happy with what we got, though, and I wouldn't underestimate the creative things people have been able to do with what we've been given. Speedrunners in particular found out you could launch yourself great distances by latching onto a Stasis'd tree trunk after chopping it down with an axe and whacking it a bunch of times in the desired direction (as of a couple weeks ago, it's possible to beat the game in less than 30 minute by doing this).
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Don't get me wrong, I'm liking the game. This is just the stuff I wish was better. The game looks beautiful, plays pretty well (although 30fps is such a disgrace for the title), is filled with lots of content in a nice open and fully accessible world, has great physics, solid combat and so on. But damn, it just feels like it could have been so much more.
I'm glad you're having a good time overall. I have sexual relations with the game on a nightly basis, so I'm romantically obligated to come to its defense.

1844
The Flood / Re: So where did everyone go
« on: January 20, 2019, 02:25:14 PM »

1845
The Flood / Re: So where did everyone go
« on: January 20, 2019, 02:18:33 PM »
i am still right here

1846
The Flood / Re: 1995 albums
« on: January 20, 2019, 02:10:18 PM »


The Pastels - Mobile Safari
Indie pop
3rd album

Independent Scottish band makes some music that I believe qualifies as jangle pop, or at least indie rock with jangle pop trappings, but it never left a huge impression on me either way. It's decent lax wallpaper music, I suppose, since it does create a nice vibe in the vein of something like shoegaze, without actually being shoegaze, if that makes sense.

6/10





Slowdive - Pygmalion
Dream pop
3rd album

Speaking of shoegaze, Slowdive is a pretty great band if you're into that genre, and are worth (pun warning) DIVING into if you've never DIVED into that style of music before. This album in particular is a slight departure from that style, however, and seems to be on some Kid A shit. And this album predates that one by five years.

This album is perfect for this time of year, too—if you ever needed some icy, chilled out music to go with waking up to twenty inches of snow from last night's blizzard, or you just wanna listen to the aural equivalent of taking a cold shower, then definitely give this one a spin. It's probably my main "pick" from this batch.

7/10





Simple Minds - Good News from the Next World
Pop rock
10th album

The only reason you probably know this band at all is because they did that one song from The Breakfast Club.

YouTube

Which is a good-ass song, but don't let it distract you from their other material, some of which is pretty solid as well. The albums Life in a Day, Real to Real Cacophony, New Gold Dream, and the second half of the double-LP Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call. So, just Sister Feelings Call. The first half is only all right.

Those would be my primary recommendations if you're into some good 'ol '80s-style energetic rock music with somewhat inventive riffs and a lot of charmingly dated rock tropes as well. But as for anything they made in the '90s, including Good News, I have some bad news: I find these albums quite boring and unadventurous. Not without merit or without a catchy tune here and a solid track there, but for the most part, I feel the same way about this album as I described earlier with The Pastels. It fades into the background and asks little of your attention as a listener to enjoy it. Plus, it's their tenth album. I like to think that bands tend to only have so much juice, and they were clearly out of it by the time this record was released.

Nonetheless, they went on to make ten more albums anyway. Christ. Sadly, being prolific doesn't always translate to being prolifically great.

6/10





Shania Twain - The Woman in Me
Country
Sophomore album

Country music is weird to critique, because it's one of the few genres that I'm inherently biased against. Since I don't enjoy the genre on its face, I can scarcely relate to what a country fan would consider "good" or "bad" country, so I find it difficult to know what to criticize while being 100% fair.

That said, I went into this Shania Twain trying to figure out what makes country music appealing—and I think I figured it out, somewhat. A lot of times, you're gonna have to put up with the instrumentation and the vocals. Those two things are part and parcel for the genre and can't really change all that much if you wanna maintain the country sound, so if you absolutely cannot get over the guitar tones or the baritone Southern twangy vocals, you'll probably never find a country artist you can get behind.

That aside, a big part of whether you'll enjoy a country artist is if, after listening to them, you feel like you "know" them in a way. If you dislike country, chances are you probably still like Johnny Cash. Why? It's not just because he's the GOAT; it's because you saw Walk the Line, or you had a grandfather who listened to him all the time, and you couldn't help but subconsciously memorize all the lyrics to Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, Jackson, A Boy Named Sue, or maybe even (if your grandpa was cool) 25 Minutes to Go and Hurt. His musical talent was commensurate with his amazing storytelling, and his songs all felt so real and intimate, even if the story being sung really was just a story and not an actual reflection of his real life (at least, not literally). Even if he wasn't singing a true story, you can tell that the story means a lot to him on a deeper emotional level. It also kinda helps that Cash's music infused country with rockabilly and a lot of other more digestible genres.

That in a nutshell is what I'm looking for when I listen to new country artists. Is it 100% fair to compare every country artist I try out to Johnny Cash? Fuck no, but I reckon it's better than an outright dismissal.

Anyway, Shania Twain's second album here is apparently considered one of the best ever, and admittedly, it did not bore me as much as the Wade Hayes or the Neal McCoy from January '95, but it's kind of difficult to say why. Does her music sound like it comes from the heart? Yeah, I suppose, perhaps more so than Hayes and McCoy. Does her music infuse other styles? Yeah, there's a little bit of rock and pop in there with the way she plays and sings. It's definitely not pure country. Do I feel like she sang nothing but "the truth" on this album? I guess. She seems like a nice enough lady, but maybe that's because she's Canadian. Did she help me accept, come to terms with, or cope with the way things are? Not really, and I never quite got the sense that she was trying to do that anyway. Which is... good, I think.

I don't know, man, I feel like I'm still trying to figure it out. All I can say with certainty is that I liked it more than the two other country albums I gave scores to in this thread, so I'm comfortable giving it a positive score. I feel like the more music I listen to in this genre, the easier it will become for me to articulate my thoughts. As of right now, I'm still working on it.

6/10





Stratovarius - Fourth Dimension
Power metal
4th album

And now for some Finnish power metal. I quite enjoyed this record. It's quite fun, but in order to fully appreciate it (along with any other power metal record, for that matter), you'll have to embrace copious amounts of cheese. Thankfully, it's not too hard to handle on this album, but there are several tracks on here that do sound very DragonForce-y, so take that as you will. Best not taken too seriously, and bear in mind that DragonForce wasn't around when this album came out, so in all likelihood, they were inspired by Stratovarius and not the other way around.

I love the chorus on this track in particular:

YouTube

7/10



Next up:

Lita Ford
The The
Slash's Snakepit
Belly
Nevermore

Noooooooot really excited about any of these, so hopefully I'll be surprised.

1847
Gaming / Re: Zelda Breath of the Wild
« on: January 19, 2019, 05:08:05 PM »
- weapon degradation is a horrible mechanic.
In general, yes, but BotW is one game where I'm actually perfectly okay with it. The abundance of weapons and high emphasis placed on resource management does a great job of teaching the player not to become too attached to his weapons anyway. They're just tools. Grab them when you see them, don't be afraid to use them, but save your best ones for when it really counts. The fact that the game practically hands you two or three weapons for every one that you break (if you understand how to play) makes the speed at which weapons break a total non-issue for me.

The only thing I would add, maybe, is a cookable potion that has the effect of repairing your shit. Having absolutely no option but to let your weapons eventually break is not how I would've designed it, for sure, but it's still not a huge deal if you ask me.

Dark Souls handles weapon degradation FAR worse, in my opinion, because of its utter lack of presence in the game beyond being an arbitrary tax on your souls every once in awhile, to where it may as well not even be a mechanic at all. Majora's Mask also played with it once, and it was handled pretty stupidly there, too. Yet BotW somehow found a way for me to appreciate it.
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- menu management and swapping stuff is awful (which doesn't help since you've got all the cooking and whatnot to do)
It's literally fine. Perfect, I might even say. I wouldn't change anything about it. Maybe you'll get used to it later, but I found it extremely fast, intuitive, and very natural.
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- fighting monsters already feels like a chore 3 hours in because they'll just respawn, you won't get anything good from them anyways, and you'll just break your weapons doing so
The push-pull mental debate between attacking an enemy encampment headlong or preserving your weapon's durability is one of the more thrilling aspects of the game, imo, especially knowing you don't even have to fight them directly. You can use a variety of techniques to pick off the enemies as stealthily and as efficiently possible, which I find incredibly fun.

Choosing not to invade a camp at all is, of course, a valid choice as well, especially if you don't think it'll be worth the spoils.

The only problem is that the chests can't be opened unless you've taken out all the enemies, which, in my opinion, if you manage to make it over to the chest without alerting a single monster, you should be rewarded for that.
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- stamina runs out way too quickly (I imagine this well get better later on but it's still a pain)
It does get better, but it's also not really a problem anyway if you're using it efficiently (ie. sprinting in short bursts rather than letting it drain, not climbing things that are obviously too high for you, and cooking stamina-boosting elixirs). Plenty of options are given before you can sprint as long as you need.
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- exploration so far doesn't feel like it's been terribly rewarding
I don't disagree, but at the same time, BotW is a game about atmosphere and appreciating the journey. I find the game's exploration rewarding in and of itself (mainly because of how beautiful everything is). Finding things is just a bonus.
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- abilities have felt underwhelming outside of the dedicated shrines
I can kinda understand feeling this way, but at the same time, I don't really know what you want. They do the job, I don't really need anything too fancy personally. A hookshot or a wind baton (to control rain) would've been nice, I suppose.

Where are you, critical path-wise?

1848
The Flood / Re: youtube has a PiP function
« on: January 19, 2019, 01:31:50 PM »
That's cool but not as useful for me with my dual monitors.  :)
i'd imagine that would make it all the more useful

1849
The Flood / youtube has a PiP function
« on: January 19, 2019, 12:46:06 PM »
double right click a video and there should be a "Picture in Picture" option

from there you can just drag it around and resize it on any other tab at will

1850
The Flood / Re: What do we think of Gillettes new ad
« on: January 18, 2019, 11:01:30 AM »
i have never once been compelled to purchase a product after seeing an ad for it

except for movie trailers perhaps, especially back in the day, but generally speaking, if i'm going out to see a movie, it's a movie i would've gone out to see anyway regardless of how much advertising it got, unless it came out of nowhere

1851
The Flood / Re: John Wick 3: Parabellum trailer
« on: January 17, 2019, 02:47:36 PM »
I hope they change up the formula. If it’s just the same “John wick kills everyone and is unstoppable”, I don’t know how excited I am.
is that premise not the whole point

1852
The Flood / Re: Spiderman Far From Home Trailer
« on: January 15, 2019, 05:46:49 PM »
come on Jake, youre better than shooting green beams out of your hands
this is a step up for such a weak actor
Take it back.

1853
The Flood / Re: What do we think of Gillettes new ad
« on: January 15, 2019, 04:59:59 PM »
Good

1854
The Flood / Re: Looking for some music.
« on: January 13, 2019, 10:55:34 PM »
YouTube

YouTube

YouTube

you will enjoy probably none of this

1855
The Flood / Re: Gravity Falls book
« on: January 13, 2019, 01:15:04 PM »
cannot stand anything calarts

1856
Gaming / Re: P5R (Persona 5)
« on: January 11, 2019, 07:23:51 PM »
I finally made an anti-Death Persona... on accident. The game doesn't even tell you that she absorbs Death-type skills.

Oh well, I guess, at least I have one now. Finally out of that horrible toilet dungeon, too. Hopefully she resists Death for the rest of the series, too, so I know exactly what to fuse for from now on.
Literally every single you've said about this game / series sounds so unappealing.
it really isn't great, i barely even scratched the surface tbh

i've been told that everything changes after persona 2, though, so i'm gonna tough it out

if i didn't think the game had anything going for it, i'd have dropped it a long time ago

1857
Gaming / Re: P5R (Persona 5)
« on: January 11, 2019, 03:50:43 PM »
I finally made an anti-Death Persona... on accident. The game doesn't even tell you that she absorbs Death-type skills.

Oh well, I guess, at least I have one now. Finally out of that horrible toilet dungeon, too. Hopefully she resists Death for the rest of the series, too, so I know exactly what to fuse for from now on.

1858
The Flood / Re: The N Word is making a comeback
« on: January 10, 2019, 03:01:29 PM »
Why are you all you stupid cunts in this thread afraid to say the word nigger? I'm not afraid.
Hahahaha Nigga How The Fuck We All Afraid Of Saying Nigger, Hahahaha Nigga Just Stop Posting On This Backwater Forum Like Nigga Close Your Eyes Hahahaha
did you know that limmy streams on twitch

YouTube

apparently he has been for a while so you probably did, but i just now learned

1859
The Flood / Re: Wide Neck
« on: January 10, 2019, 01:02:10 PM »
More or less, been thinking I haven't posted on BUNGiE.net in over a year after they executed order 66 on non Destiny players, then I remembered sep7agonis probably the next best thing.

How's challengerX been? lol
Who are you?
I'm a young man from Marcy projects who really made the thing called—that thing that they say, "the American Dream"—come true. Because I'm not supposed to be here speaking to you. You know. There's a lot of people that come from where I come, and there's a lot of skilled people who come from where I come, who are not here right now.

1860
Gaming / Re: Current Backlog? (2019 Edition)
« on: January 10, 2019, 12:51:59 PM »
Mine is pretty monstrous to the point where prattling off a complete list would be less productive than just getting a few of them done, so I'll just mention a few things that I've been meaning to finish lately.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (leading up to Persona 5, main thing on the plate)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (World of Light, which I don't enjoy at all, so that's gonna be a while)
Fallout 1 & 2

And I wanna beat every NES game put out for the NSO service, as well:

River City Ransom
Solomon's Key (with or without suspend points)
Pro Wrestling (beat Great Puma)
Tecmo Bowl (beat every team with the Raiders)
Ice Hockey (win a game)
Ghosts'n Goblins (with or without suspend points)
TwinBee
Mighty Bomb Jack
Ice Climber (all mountains, probably never gonna happen)
Soccer (win a game)
Ninja Gaiden
Adventures of Lolo

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