Messages

951

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Discussion Thread (Year 2: Joy-Con Boogaloo)

« on: March 08, 2018, 09:45:36 PM »

I think that for me at least, today's Direct definitely shifted the needle from "interested in a Switch" to "inevitable purchase" haha. As someone who plays a lot of Wii U, thus far I've mostly been able to ignore Switch as only Mario Odyssey, ARMS and maybe Bomberman R seemed like must-play titles for me. (Sine More EX, Steamworld Dig 2 and Fé all interest me but aren't system sellers imo.)

Really liking what I've seen of Mario Tennis Aces in the Direct though, motion controls are fun, and you can also ignore them if desired. Lots of options, it looks pretty fast, the chain chomp biting down on a racket is hilarious... Sold!

Undertale and Okami HD are also huge announcements for me, even though they're ports. Plus could see myself wanting to try a modern FPS like Wolfenstein 2 or Doom, as well as popular titles like Dark Souls Remastered... That's beginning to look an awful lot like Critical Mass to me...

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Super Smash Bros. Switch

« on: March 08, 2018, 07:17:01 PM »

Did absolutely not expect this to be announced through a Direct!
Splatoon footage caught me off guard too!
Hecka cool reveal!
Hype train officially leaving the station!
CHOO CHOO

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TalkBack / Re: Okami HD Announced for Nintendo Switch

« on: March 08, 2018, 07:12:06 PM »

That's really cool, I want this.

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General Gaming / Re: Minimizing the Gaming Physical Footprint of Your Home and Life

« on: March 01, 2018, 11:20:07 AM »

Great thread right here!

With gaming being such a time-demanding hobby it's pretty nonsensical to maintain a large collection; even if you get to everything within your lifetime there's still a lot of discs sitting idle for years taking up space. So yeah, if you don't get great satisfaction out of displaying them nicely, organising and cataloguing a personal collection or even saving them for some sort of historical preservation goals... I'd say trimming the fat down to just stuff you like and will return to or actively want to play is probably a good move.

Will you regret it? Possibly. I still kick myself every now and then for ditching my pile of gaming magazines. But I think if you really fall into the trap of seeing the backlog as a mountain that must be scaled, it's probably worth it for the peace of mind alone.

The calculations we make in our head ("one hour of gaming a day will make it possible to clear the backlog in 2 years time!") will utterly fall short in reality. It's a hobby, so will you really want to game daily? What if something more pressing comes up, or you're in the mood for something passive, or going outside? It also completely fails in factoring in new purchases, since if you think of games as a daily obligation, buying a new one will not just be exciting but also guilt-tripping yourself ("that's another month of daily grinding").

Financially, even if you end wanting to rebuy a few you sold off, it's pretty likely that this will only be a fraction of the ones you end up selling right? So it wouldn't be too great of a loss I don't think. Rarity could be a factor with older stuff perhaps, so maybe hold on to those for a while longer and beat them first if you want to. Idk how often you return to beaten games, I rarely do, but personal tastes apply here.

Some people try to avoid the clutter issue entirely by transitioning to a digital collection only, but for me that doesn't work. I still wanna beat every game I buy and digital has been my downfall in some ways; by effectively letting a store with frequent sales move into my room I wind up making more impulse purchases that still feel like "I need to finish these to reclaim the already lost value."
Textbook sunk cost fallacy of course, but yeah. Just saying your mileage may vary I guess if it's just about getting rid of clutter. Digital clutter can still feel suffocating in the same way, at least for me it does.

For cables and controllers and the like... You mentioned Marie Kondo, so you're likely already aware that it's pretty dumb to first invest in a bunch of storage solutions first (tupperware's sole purpose in life is to sit unused half the time somewhere). That said, maybe just dedicated one box or drawer to it and see if it's possible to make some compartments in it maybe? I'm thinking of 3 shoeboxes in a drawer and dividing them up per console perhaps.

Last thing I wanna mention about the KonMari method thing... It's perhaps a bit unfeasible financially. If part of your reasoning to hold on to games has been "some of these will net a decent price if I can find the right buyer", I think it's worthwhile to pursue that sale.
Selling everything off in bulk is more expedient when it comes to reducing clutter, but you're bound to lose a lot of potential dollars there. Depending on your personal finances, maybe consider a slower, more methodical way of clearing them out? Of course this presumes you don't need to imminently get rid of them. It'd be ideal I think if you could just have a bunch of listings online and wait for people to buy them, maybe trade everything that hasn't moved in at a store every 6 or 12 months?

I'd be curious to hear how you end up going about it regardless though, if you're willing to share here every now and then.

955

Movies & TV / Re: (Poll Added!!) New Movies/TV Shows we should keep an eye out for!

« on: February 24, 2018, 10:04:31 AM »

So reviews for Annihilation are out and they're skewing rather positive. Has anyone seen this yet? I hadn't heard anything about it and I kinda worry it's been sent out to die against Black Panther at the box office.

Annihilation is directed by Alex Garland, who's previously done Ex Machina which was a super tense thriller. He also wrote the screenplays for Sunshine, Dredd, Never Let Me Go, 28 Days Later. As far as I'm concerned, Garland is basically batting 1,000 here. So I'm gonna see it on that basis, but no screens near me are showing it so far. >:C

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Movies & TV / Re: (Poll Added!!) New Movies/TV Shows we should keep an eye out for!

« on: February 22, 2018, 02:56:51 PM »

I hope it does well because I loved the book as a kid, and it is a trilogy, and it sucks when the first in a series pans enough they don't continue it.

Except with Last Airbender.

Or The Golden Compass/His Dark Materials.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

« on: February 22, 2018, 10:14:41 AM »

Maybe Doom guy will be in Smash Bros.

Honestly that'd be sick! I also hope we'll see Bomberman make an appearance, maybe we can convince Konami it'd mean a sales spike for Super Bomberman R? Also we need Rabbid Luigi from Ubisoft and maybe Shovel Knight? Would also be cool to see one of the SteamWorld characters show up, I bet Image & Form would be game. Last unexpected third party announcement: Chase McCain from Lego City Undercover.

I'd hope/expect to see some representation of Splatoon, ARMS, and maybe Rex from Xenoblade 2 as well.

Of course none of these would mean anything so long as Ice Climbers don't return!!!

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Movies & TV / Re: (Poll Added!!) New Movies/TV Shows we should keep an eye out for!

« on: February 22, 2018, 10:07:10 AM »

Hopefully A Wrinkle In Time from Disney will do well (enough) too, soon. It's not an all-black cast by any stretch of the imagination, but does star a couple of prominent people of colour in seemingly big roles. Directed by Ava Duvernay too, who did the excellent Selma and I think Marvel wanted her for Black Panther at some point?

To be honest A Wrinkle In Time doesn't really appeal to me personally, but I hope it does well with young audiences. It'd be a shame if it bombed and Hollywood executives could have an excuse to go "well, see, Black Panther was a fluke after all! No need to hire people of colour to direct movies anymore!"
I feel like a one-two punch of (financially) successful Disney tentpoles directed by people of colour could really convince a lot of studio execs to further embrace more diverse hiring practices. But maybe that's overly optimistic.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 41 [B]: Bonsai Barber

« on: February 21, 2018, 02:26:33 PM »

Just listened to the podcast and this title sounds pretty fun and interesting. Not quite interesting enough for me to actually go to the Wii shop for and add points and everything, but I'm glad someone's dream of making a vegetable barbershop came true.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 559: Summer of Love

« on: February 21, 2018, 02:24:34 PM »

Digging the new tunes in this episode

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Movies & TV / Re: IT'S MAHVEL BAYBEE!! [OT] for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Movies & TV)

« on: February 18, 2018, 02:38:05 PM »

But I think my favorite part of this movie was when in the middle of a scene, my daughter stands up, calls me out "Dada!!" I look her way and she says "That was Stan Lee!!!" LMAO

Hahaha that's amazing!!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!

« on: February 18, 2018, 02:16:06 PM »

All right gang I've stumbled upon a (presumably minor) snafu, and would like a bit of guidance!

I think the time has come to advance the main plot a bit further, so I wanna head towards Goron City/Death Mountain. Just scaled the Eldin Tower which is just on the cusp of where the volcanic heat becomes to much for Link to bear. I bought 3 elixirs, and just ran into a dude who wants me to collect salamanders to trade for fire-proof clothes.

That's neat and all, but I kinda wanna play this game without capturing animals if at all possible. Sooooo. What do? Is there fire-resistant armour somewhere for sale? Can I like, craft it, somehow? Or does this basically doom me to a life of fire elixirs from now on? Cause I'm a little short on cash after buying a completely empty house haha.

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General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: February 11, 2018, 03:01:34 PM »

I was worried that the game would incomprehensible to someone who has never played and knows nothing about any Persona game, but I'm doing perfectly fine for the first few hours of the game.

I remember having the same concerns before trying out Tokyo Mirage Sessions (which is a sort of Persona spin-off), but yeah it turned out the entry barrier was pretty low after all! With the exception of Xenoblade and possibly Monster Hunter I feel like many JRPGs lately have started to make real strides when it comes to accessiblity for newcomers.

So.

Darksiders.

Looking forward to reading more extensive impressions. I got Darksiders Warmastered in a recent sale as well. Haven't booted it up yet, but it looked both intensely dumb (hate the overdesigned characters) as well as kinda fun (again in a stupid way). Have heard the Zelda comparison before though so I won't start it for a while still, since I'm about a quarter way into Breath of the Wild and will probably want a break after that.

964

TalkBack / Re: Sky Force Reloaded (Switch) Review

« on: February 10, 2018, 11:46:18 AM »

The previous version of this on Wii U last year was one of my favourite games of that year, highly recommended. Can't say for sure but it sounds like 13 levels means this has more stages? With added features like changing the load-out of your ship, having different ships, etc. this sounds like a fine upgrade.

965

NWR Mafia Games / Re: Mafia #77: The War of the NWR Site Directors Sign Up thread.

« on: February 10, 2018, 11:27:11 AM »

Lol talk about inside baseball, sure I'll play again!

966

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch port begging thread

« on: February 10, 2018, 11:12:42 AM »

New Super Mario Bros. Collection as in every NSMB title including Super Luigi U and Super Mario Run (still auto-run, but you can play it with a controller or touchscreen). That’s like $10 per game. This is pretty much the only way I’d double dip on any of those games.

That's not a bad idea honestly! Call it New Super Mario All Stars or something. But wouldn't they just make a new one instead? Even NSMBU still managed to shift 5.75 million units, and most of the other ones were successful too... Then again Mario Kart 8 passed the 8 million mark and they successfully repackaged that too.

To be honest I kinda wonder how you'd handle a brand like NSMB in a post-Mario Maker world. They really need to step up their level design in my opinion if they're making a new one. Probably ditch the artstyle too. So yeah maybe a collection could be in the cards as an easier option.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Sales Thread

« on: February 09, 2018, 01:48:39 AM »

The XC1 didn't cross the million mark worldwide? I remember that game getting a lot of attention in the PAL and AUS areas before it finally did make it to the West where it basically sold out everyone and was hard to find. I would have thought that game passed the million mark easily with all the Wiis out there and acclaim that it got.

I mean, it may have at this point thanks to virtual console... But I doubt it. According to wikipedia, XC1 launched in Japan at 80k sales, and came close to 200k by the end of 2013. Sales estimates for the west appear to put it (slightly?) higher than Japan, but that could still refer to anywhere from half a million upwards.
Add at least another 150k from the n3DS version (but also added cost of having Monster Games port it, add 3D, etc.)... Yeah it would've had to sell pretty well still on Wii U virtual console to pass the 1 million mark.

I think in North America, particularly the United States, it being an understocked Gamestop exclusive probably gave the impression of it selling really well. But maybe it really just was a lower print run. Haven't checked to see how it's faring nowadays in the 2nd hand market, but for a couple of years it would regularly pass hands at well above the MSRP.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

« on: February 08, 2018, 10:14:01 AM »

Bandai Namco DID give use Lost Reavers!

Which was a first-time effort of many new promising developers...
... Prime 4 is being developed by a talented new team...

Case closed, Lost Reavers team is making Metroid Prime 4!

969

Nintendo Gaming / Switch port begging thread

« on: February 08, 2018, 09:00:18 AM »

In the first year or so of the Switch's lifetime we've seen the console receive a lot of (announced, future) ports. Both from Nintendo releasing (enhanced) versions of Wii U games like Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze & publishing versions of Skyrim, Bayonetta 1 & 2, Pokkén Tournament... As well as third parties aiming to release things like Wolfenstein The New Colossus, Dark Souls Remastered, updated versions of the World Ends With You, etc.

My question to you guys & gals is: which games (if any) would you like to see ported to Switch? Do you want basically the entire Wii U library to get a second chance on Switch? Are there ports that would sell you on a Switch if you haven't made the jump yet? Do you dislike ports for some reason?

I'll start by throwing out NieR: Automata which I don't think is entirely out of the realm of speculation? Nintendo has a good-to-decent working relationship with PlatinumGames, and Square Enix is releasing other ports to Switch already (The World Ends With You, I Am Setsuna).
Seen a lot of hype for this online, it ranked highly with 2017 GOTYs; and although I don't really know much about it, if it came to Switch I would definitely play this.

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TalkBack / Re: Fe Video Preview

« on: February 08, 2018, 08:42:49 AM »

This game looks really cool, visually at the very least. I hope the sense of tranquility it appears to capture is preserved throughout the entirety of the game.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

« on: February 07, 2018, 03:13:52 PM »

Still holding out for that R Racing: Evolution sequel though, the real Ridge Racer spin-off we all want and deserve!

972

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!

« on: February 04, 2018, 01:22:02 PM »

Just got back into this as well, I had stopped about 30 hours in, right before the first "dungeon".
In my case, that was Divine Beast Ruta Vah, the elephant in the Zora lake. Mannnnn what a rush! Just the approach already got my heart racing, with riding waterfalls up, shooting lightning arrows I'd gotten after an intense fight with my first Lynel.
At first I didn't realise you could use cryosis to unfreeze the blocks it shot at me, so I tried poking them out of the air with a lance.
Loved the dungeon by the way, it was shorter than usual Zelda dungeons which have never been my favourite aspect of the series. Some puzzles truly made me feel clever; adjusting the trunk to put out the fire and stuff.

BlackNMild -- I also just got to that maze you and your daughter did! I outran the first guardian though, he gave me too much trouble. Had almost the exact same frantic Mission Impossible style escape after nabbing the diamond thing in the chest, with like 3 lasers pointed right at me lol. This game is such a rush.

For those who might remember, I'm still playing this game as Park Ranger Link, hellbent on preserving the natural environment whilst ridding it of those intent on polluting it with malice. I've accidentally killed a wolf however; I was hoping to scare the pack away with a bomb, but one got caught up in the blast.

I'm also restricting myself a bit more by no longer cutting trees; lightning storms seem to happen frequently enough that I'll be able to gather wood from fallen trees. Additionally, I'm trying not to leave natural habitats entirely desolate. So if there's a bunch of acorns and a squirrel is nearby, I must leave at least one or two for the squirrel to fall back on. Similarly with roots/mushrooms/truffles and warthogs; they gotta have some left to eat, so I don't allow myself to take everything in a single environment - it's more engaging and fun for me this way, to imagine Link as shepherd of lil' ecosystems.

When I do find things like roasted bass left by enemies or from the Hinox near the Zora domain, I sell those to food establishments, where there's the biggest chance someone will come to buy those. That way the animals death wasn't utterly in vain, but Park Ranger Link also doesn't have to violate his oath of vegetarianism haha. Breath of the Wild is so cool you guys.

973

General Gaming / Re: What is your most recent gaming purchase?

« on: February 04, 2018, 01:04:41 PM »

The Rockstar Humble Bundle. If you have a decent PC (like it would be gaming quality 10 years ago), then this is a no-brainer. $15 gets you GTA 3, GTA 4, GTA San Andreas, GTA Vice City Stories, GTA Episodes from Liberty City, Bully, Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Max Payne 3, Manhunt, and LA Noire.

Dang sounds like good value, although nowadays I'm kind of over that open world crime genre I think.

Back when it released though I remember getting GTA 3 for the PC after having seen it many times at my friends' places who had PS2s. Was pretty excited for it... And it never loaded past the opening cutscene lol. Asked a bunch of tech savvy friends but nobody could get it to run on our machine back then, so I returned it and got The Sims 1 for PC instead.
A year later I got True Crime Streets of LA for GameCube in a... partially successful effort to finally play GTA 3.

974

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Third Quarter Financial Results: Switch Officially Outships Wii U

« on: January 31, 2018, 11:10:57 AM »

Wii U 2020!

975

Reader Reviews / Re: LEGO City Undercover (Switch)

« on: January 30, 2018, 06:28:33 PM »

Finally got this a while back for super cheap on Wii U since I remembered how you and some other people were quite enthusiastic about it. Largely agree with your review really, but overall I'm a bit more lukewarm on the game. Frank Honey just kinda annoyed me, and I don't think the writing is as clever as you did. Might be down to mindset; I went into Lego City thinking they'd finally went and created their completely own little universe. In practise however, Lego City is still steeped in pop culture references - to the point where I'm worried they just might not be great at non-parody jokes. Just make Lego: Matrix guys, if that's what you want.

That said, I agree with you that the environments are nicely varied - enjoyed the mine level for example. Loading times weren't that big of a deal to me either, they're not great but also don't happen too frequently. I felt the story was a bit padded and after finishing it (really fun ending sequence!!!) I felt rather done with the game so I haven't followed your advice to really explore the city with all the disguises unlocked. But it's crazy that after doing the storyline you've only completed maybe 20% of the game. There's a lot of replay value there for those who want it! I imagine the whole thing would've been more fun in co-op, so it's cool that Switch allows that too.