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1176

Movies & TV / Re: Hey! DC's got stuff too... (Official Thread for the DCU of Movies and TV)

« on: October 30, 2018, 10:49:14 PM »

Hey, I know it's popular to hate on DC, but WB just put out their Batman: The Animated Series BluRay set today. I haven't had a chance to do more than spot check some sections, but from what I've seen the picture quality is phenomenal. This was a legit HD restoration, and it's very clear that some serious money went into this. The sound's great, too, but I don't really have the setup to test that.

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General Chat / Re: The NBA Thread: Congrats to the Warriors on winning the 2018-19 NBA Finals

« on: October 30, 2018, 03:12:38 PM »

It was a joke though there’s a grain of truth to every joke. For an NBA thread, it’s largely about one team. I’ve joined in many Warriors discussions here and rooted for them each of the last four years. I even watched and commented on the video you shared of Curry going off a few days ago so your dig about being salty is more than a little dismissive. You’re better than that, man.

I’ll watch highlights of Klay Thompson breaking the three-point record, but the vast majority of the time, I have no interest in watching one team dismantle another. The Warriors were up by like 40 points. Blowouts are hella boring to me.

Yeah, same here. I've made no secret that I only really follow one team, and it doesn't help that for the last decade it's felt like all the talent in the league was consolidating into the same 3-4 teams, and those 3-4 teams win most of their games in blowouts. I just don't find that interesting.  So yes, seeing a team that was already stupidly overpowered get even more so during the off season doesn't make them any more interesting to watch from a non-Warriors fan standpoint.

The league would be better and healthier if teams like the current Warriors were not allowed to exist and the talent pool was more evenly spread throughout the league, at least when it comes to free agency. Why even bother having a season & playoffs if the winners have pretty much already been predetermined, barring injury?

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General Chat / Re: The NBA Thread: Congrats to the Warriors on winning the 2018-19 NBA Finals

« on: October 29, 2018, 09:48:29 PM »

Rename this “The Warriors Thread.”

Why not? Clearly, they already bought another championship.

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General Chat / Re: The NBA Thread: Congrats to the Warriors on winning the 2018-19 NBA Finals

« on: October 29, 2018, 09:31:46 PM »

It's been ruled that the Warriors must pay off the $40 million debt owed to the Oracle Arena before they move to San Francisco.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/10/29/aribrator-golden-state-warriors-must-pay-off-oracle-arena-debt/

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General Gaming / Re: PlayStation Classic launching in December 2018 for $100

« on: October 29, 2018, 03:14:23 PM »

One potential issue with hacking this thing is that PlayStation games are way bigger than SNES games.  Nintendo pretty much made the storage on their Classics as small as typical 2018 tech gets and it can still hold every game released on the platform.  That won't be the case here.

In fact I've heard conspiracy theories that storage space was a major consideration into the choice of games in the first place.  There are lots of first entries in series and a lot of games from earlier in the Playstation's life so they might be prioritizing smaller games so they can use smaller built-in storage and save a few bucks.  That also might explain the lack of RPGs which were usually multi-disc affairs.

By the way, Rainbow Six's average score on GameRankings is 48.07%  That is some outright PS1 shovelware and oddly enough that would have required some negotiating for the Tom Clancy IP.  Where the hell did that game come from?  They probably had rights issues for Tony Hawk, Wipeout's soundtrack, Gran Turismo's cars but they managed to pull strings for Tom Clancy for a crappy PS1 port of a PC game?  Did Ubisoft insist on this in exchange for Rayman (which is an okay selection but nothing anyone would have missed if it wasn't there)?

Are there rights issues for PaRappa the Rapper?  That seems like a popular first party title that oddly isn't included.

Why did Capcom go with a Street Fighter puzzle game rather than an actual fighting game?  They had no problem releasing good stuff on the NES/SNES Classics so where does the decision come to go with Puzzle Fighter (which is actually awesome by the way) but not the vastly more popular Street Fighter Alpha 3?  On the SNES Classic Capcom didn't **** around.  They didn't bother with obscure stuff like Magic Sword.  They had Street Fighter II Turbo, Mega Man X and Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts - some of their BIG games!

Don't forget Resident Evils 2 & 3 and Dino Crisis 1 & 2 that Capcom also could have included. Hell, RE 2 is probably the 2nd most loved game in the franchise behind 4, and instead they put in the terrible 1st game.

Square Enix also could have added Valkyrie Profile, Final Fantasy Tactics, or Parasite Eve (hell, they DID in Japan).

I get why Symphony isn't here, bit Konami could have easily added Silent Hill.

This list is pathetic.

Games like Klanoa or Toomba also could have been added.

1181

General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: October 29, 2018, 01:37:24 AM »

Finished my replay of Resident Evil 4 on PS4. Man...that game does not hold up as well as I had hoped.  I had forgotten that everything about The Island (outside the Regenerators) is just "the worst", and it alone must push the game's run time at least 3-4 hours. It's bad enough that the game tosses in armored soldiers, which have always been the worst part of modern Resident Evil games, but it's also where the game decides to just throw in every leftover idea in an already schizophrenic game.

"Hey, we have this idea for a boss fight against a giant monster in a giant cage, but we just can't figure out how to set it up and make it interesting!"

"**** it! Put it in right at the end!"

"Hey, we have this concept for a character that's an old friend of Leon's. He's a military dude with a blade arm!"

"I like it! We can put him right after the giant monster fight!"

"But won't that be exhausting to the player?"

"Didn't you hear me earlier? **** IT!"

"But don't we need to set this guy up at all in the story? And what's this about him having explosive drones & a machine gun?"

"****! IT!"

The entire game feels like that at times. Mikami couldn't focus on any one idea after the 3-4 different prototypes RE4 had (including 1 that became Devil May Cry), so he just decided to throw in whatever came to mind. Sometimes that led to really cool sequences, and sometimes that led to ducking in and out of cover while dudes with chain guns, dynamite, & rocket launchers rain down death from above. The game's especially fond of just flooding the area with enemies from either behind you or from above, and eventually it stops being interesting or surprising & just becomes exhausting.

And seriously, Capcom, your refusal to just remake Separate Ways is just getting embarrassing now, with all the cinematics (including ones just lifted from RE4 GCN) rendered at resolution so poor that watching them on my 1080p TV now looks like 90s-era Quicktime files.

Yes, RE4 is still a great game in its own right, but between the awful last 1/3; the lack of some gameplay perks from later games (like being able to shoot a gun & throw a grenade without diving back into menus); and the sheer length of the game, it's definitely dropped some rungs on my Top RE Games list.

1182

General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: October 28, 2018, 12:53:29 AM »

Unfortunately, I decided to pick up Revelations 1 PS4 after that, and god...every time I come back to this game, I think "this time, I'm actually going to see what people like about it", and every time that never happens.  I just despise every aspect about how this game is designed, from the bullet sponge, wobbling enemies gimped for the terrible 3DS controls...to the game's love of countdown timers & just dumping you into rooms with dozens of ambushing enemies...to some of the worst, most annoying characters to ever feature in a non-FPS Resident Evil game.

Coming to this game after Revelations 2 was especially irritating, as I'd gotten so used to running in Rev 2 and there's none of that in Rev 1. Because the 3DS didn't have a 2nd stick, Jill controls pretty much like RE4 (i.e. stiff as a board with tank controls) with only slightly more mobility afforded by the right stick.  The big draw of this game was supposedly Raid mode, but Raid mode was so much more entertaining in Rev 2 with a variety of enemies & scenarios. Rev 1's Raid mode is just the main campaign but with enemies that have visible  health bars.  I didn't enjoy fighting the spaz-tastic Ooze monsters in the main game, so why would I want to dump another dozen hours into fighting them over and over again?

Also, "Terragrigia" is still the stupidest name I've ever seen in the history of fiction.

Went on to Resident Evil 4 PS4 from there, and if there was one positive from playing Rev 1, it's that it got me used to RE 4's still controls again.  Nearing the end of the game, and while I'm enjoying it...it's hard not to see how padded this game is and reliant on gimmicks. I'm nearing the point where the game gives up even trying to pretend it's still a horror game of sorts, at least until the Regenerators show up.  Forgot how annoying the shooting galleries are without pointer controls & a reticule.

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General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: October 28, 2018, 12:42:24 AM »

Been on a bit of a Resident Evil kick lately with REmake 2 on the horizon & the season and all.

Thoroughly replayed Resident Evil Revelations 2, one of the games in the series I find most overlooked & underappreciated, especially in comparison to the spectacularly mediocre Revelations 1.  Ended up getting all the medals, the Bad Ending I never got before, and even beat the game in Countdown & Invisible mode to get the Platinum.

Countdown mode was...interesting. I despise speed-running in games. I prefer to take my time & explore, but Countdown mode forces you to learn how to make snap judgments and find the most efficient path through a level before that timer hits zero.  It's not something I'd ever want to do again, but as a one-off experiment it was entertaining enough, I guess.

Invisible mode was a beast of another matter, though. It's the hardest mode in the game: all enemies are set to their highest difficulty mode, and you can't see them unless Moira shines her light at them for a few seconds & Natalia does the same with her pointing.  Like Countdown, it forces you to find the most efficient path and pick & choose which enemies you're going to engage with. In some ways, it reminds me of my Hard Core run in Dead Space 2, where I had to get creative at the start of the game finding ways to exploit the system & take down enemies without using my scarce ammo supply.  Another mode I'd never want to do again, but it was certainly a unique experience.

1184

General Chat / Re: The NBA Thread: Congrats to the Warriors on winning the 2018-19 NBA Finals

« on: October 26, 2018, 06:36:36 PM »

Honestly, I don't know or care enough about the current make-up of more than 2-3 teams in the league to make an educated guess, especially when it comes to the Leastern Conference, where none of the teams are going to win the championship anyway.

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General Chat / Re: The NBA Thread: Congrats to the Warriors on winning the 2018-19 NBA Finals

« on: October 26, 2018, 08:24:07 AM »

Well, at the end of all that, the Rockets got to feel what it was like being on the Jazz last year, since the Jazz roasted the Rockets a few days later with Paul out & 2 others on injury.

Not how you would want to get a win, but the Jazz didn't get the best start this year so I'll take a win where I can get it.

1186

Movies & TV / Re: Hey! DC's got stuff too... (Official Thread for the DCU of Movies and TV)

« on: October 23, 2018, 11:15:57 AM »

The first pic is of BANE, you guys guessed that right.
But, what DC TV Show/Movie is it from?

As for Elseworlds.... I don't know what that is, looks like a reality swap situation?
they should have had them beard swap too though. It can't take Ollie more than week to grow that back.

p.s. the new Flash costume looks pretty bad....
https://i.redd.it/6r4ktv3kktt11.jpg

and an Elseworlds spoiler as well, because why not. I wasn't gonna watch anyway.
https://i.redd.it/69acmh8o4tt11.jpg

actual spoiler
https://i.redd.it/ymny7d0x2vt11.jpg

Wait...is that the Flash costume from the 90s series, the one that Barry's father; Mark Hammil; etc. were originally in?

1187

TalkBack / Re: Starlink: Battle For Atlas (Switch) Review

« on: October 16, 2018, 07:01:18 PM »

Opened my copy when I got home from work, and I was taken aback by how absolutely huge & kind of heavy the Arwing is sitting on top of Ubisoft's joy-con grip. I don't know if I really want to play a 20-30 hour game with that thing sitting there (assuming it has to stay there). The Ubisoft grip is also kind of thin & crap compared to even the grip that came with the Switch.

Might start a game tonight since PSN is down.

Edit: Yeah, the game seems neat enough, though the selection of weapons available in the Starter Kit is very deliberately dull. I'm still not sure how you can equip the Scatter gun that came with the game. It's in my inventory. The game knows I have it, but it won't let me swap out either of my Arwing's weapons.

1188

Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: October 09, 2018, 11:53:14 PM »

Checked out 2 DC animated "movies" tonight...and man, what a difference between. I say "movies" because they're actually both web-based 5 minute shorts compiled together into 70 - 90 minute films:

Vixen - I'm not a huge fan of this character, but the BluRay was $10 & this series is actually in continuity with the Arrowverse, so I thought I'd check it out. Eh...it feels like 2 separate animated "seasons" squashed together, and so doesn't really work as a "movie" since the story noticeably climaxes twice: once when Mari comes to terms with her destiny & power and takes on the identity of Vixen, and then again following Mari's battle with the bearer of the Fire Totem (which also plays directly into the events of Legends of Tomorrow Season 3). The story itself just basically explains how Oliver knew Vixen so he could call her in during Season 4 of Arrow.

The animation is passable at best, about on par with a typical episode of JLU. It sounds like the actors for Barry, Oliver, Felicity, Ray Palmer, Cisco, and Vixen reprise their roles from the various Arrowverse shows...for better or worse. Barry & Oliver come off the worst, as Grant Gustin sounds very awkward and Stephen Armell is missing his trademark gruffness. Like the movie overall, though, it's...fine. It's easy to see, though, why this attempted pilot for a Vixen Arrowverse show didn't get picked up for a real series. It's just...fine.

Constantine: City of Demons - Now THIS?! This is more like it. This series only got one season, so taking those micro-episodes & adding another 20 minutes of story just fleshed out what was already there and created a more coherent story. This movie is dark, violent, and gory. It earns its hard R rating without having to work for it like a lot of DC movies do. It also seems to be much better animated than Vixen was, despite probably having a very similar budget.

As for the story, it's typical Constantine: a girl's soul gets stolen by a demon, and Constantine has to find a way to save her while fending off other demons, large & small. The film does a nice job of showing that he's obviously very skilled at what he does, but he's nonetheless always in over his head and barely scraping by. It wraps up in a satisfying and bittersweet way, typical of a Constantine story.

Kind of my only gripe with this film is that I've been wanting a continuation of the Matt Ryan Constantine TV series, and despite him reprising the role here this is definitely NOT in continuity with that show. It's nice to see the mystical side of the DC universe for a change.  If you liked that TV series, check it out. Just be warned: it's not for the squeamish.

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Movies & TV / Re: Hey! DC's got stuff too... (Official Thread for the DCU of Movies and TV)

« on: October 05, 2018, 12:52:11 AM »

Guess Who!!!?



Hint: The Main Man is coming to Krypton

Oh. I saw that photo earlier today & legitimately thought it was a Battlefield Earth Turl costume. -_-

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: September 30, 2018, 09:50:17 PM »

Hmmm. What do you need for the platinum then? I have 100% the game through only things I haven't done are those landmarks and gotten all the ultimate Taskmaster challenges (to finish all the gadget upgrades).

Have your purchased all the other suits besides the hidden one? Without seeing your trophy list, I don't know what you're missing.

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: September 30, 2018, 03:27:27 PM »

There's a hidden 28th suit that you have to unlock by taking a picture of all of the secret landmarks. It's a disappointing suit...but I kinda want that platinum trophy.

You don't need the T-shirt suit for the Platinum. I don't have it, and I do have the Platinum.

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: September 29, 2018, 11:31:34 PM »

Spider-Man - PS4
Excellent game. Is it like Arkham? Sure. But Arkham is like Spider-Man 2, without the web swinging. The story is done very well, graphics are amazing, and gameplay is slick. Boss battles are all pretty awesome too. I'm at 99%, I think I just have to level up the rest of my gadgets, which means getting Ultimate on a couple more Taskmaster challenges, and this will be my first platinum trophy game. Post-credits scenes set up the sequels nicely. Hopefully that unlocks the 28th suit too (maybe that requires getting the rest of the hidden landmarks photographed though). I somehow haven't have that one spoiled yet.

The final suit unlocks when you 100% the game, which only requires that you complete all the side content. You don't have to Gold the Taskmaster challenges.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last TV show you've seen

« on: September 25, 2018, 09:57:23 PM »

Finished Season 3 of Legends of Tomorrow. Meh, sadly. This was a really inconsistent season, ending in a finale that was REALLY boring outside of THAT moment. It was also incredibly lame to see this season-long plotline basically end with the Legends summoning Captain Planet (go on, tell me that's not what the summoning sequence looked like).

There were some fantastic comedic moments throughout the season (I LOVE how they paid off that LOTR gag in "Guest Starring John Noble") & I loved getting Damian Darhk back. The show just doesn't seem to know how to stick the landing, and there are multiple characters on the show they just have no idea what to do with. It'll be nice to see the cast get a shake-up this coming season with the full addition of Constantine.

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TalkBack / Re: Meltan Unveiled, First Generation VIII Pokemon?

« on: September 25, 2018, 09:52:01 PM »

That's flat-out a Banjo-Kazooie Honeycomb with an eye. Apparently, that's all the creativity it takes to create a Pokemon nowadays. That and a set of keys, apparently.

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Movies & TV / Re: Hey! DC's got stuff too... (Official Thread for the DCU of Movies and TV)

« on: September 25, 2018, 07:48:55 PM »

...one of the many reasons.

Although it did begin to be slightly enjoyable towards the end.

But, yeah, they were all "We're not going to just tell Batman vs. Joker stories.  We're going to dig deep into Batman's history and use characters that have never seen animation before!", then, they dig up Anarchy - an interesting idea and (and not to get political) a character who could really have had some interesting stories lines.

Then, they made him into Joker Lite.

OK, is it Anarchy or Anarky? When I googled him this morning, the latter spelling came up, presumably because it could be trademarked.

1196

Movies & TV / Re: Hey! DC's got stuff too... (Official Thread for the DCU of Movies and TV)

« on: September 25, 2018, 07:39:14 AM »

That Joker look doesn't look much different from Ledger's take.

I am quite sick of Batman and Joker. Pick something else you hacks. You have a massive collections of villains and heroes, do something mildly creative. Pick Space Cabbie or Booster Gold can't hurt given the track record. Picking Space Cabbie can give you a bunch of wild shenanigans as one hero or another takes a ride.

Justice League Action playing Batman as a joke is good. Then there is the Joker episode where he is doing standup for Mongul with really, really bad jokes. Firestrom is unbelievably irritating with his incessant catch phrase(Don't drink game) but Booster Gold episodes are good. If you want your DC hit just watch any of the animated stuff.

Yeah...umm...I actually really don't like Ledger's Joker on a fundamental level. Nothing against his performance, just that his character is a rejected 24 villain, not the Joker. Hell, he's closer to a Live Action Anarky, who amusingly Beware the Batman ALSO tried to use as a stand-in for The Joker.

While I'm pissing everyone off anyway, THE HEAT IS ON!

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Movies & TV / Re: Hey! DC's got stuff too... (Official Thread for the DCU of Movies and TV)

« on: September 24, 2018, 10:00:58 PM »

Meh. Personally, I don't think the Joker look works in Live Action. The usually have to grotesque it up, which just looks bad compared to the comic or animated designs IMO.

Jack Nicholson pulled it off, though.

1198

General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: September 23, 2018, 03:32:12 PM »

I was wary about starting a game in this with Valkyria Chronicles 4 on the way, but I threw in Shadow of the Tomb Raider for a nice 5-6 hour stretch, and maybe it's just really low expectations after I was profoundly disappointed with Rise of the Tomb Raider...but I actually quite like this one so far.

I think what immensely helps is that there seems to be WAY less combat this time against armored goons with assault rifles. By about 1/4 of the way in, Rise pretty much became a glorified cover shooter. One of the things I REALLY liked in Tomb Raider 2013 was the scarce combat, and it was also combat that stressed movement & adaptability. In Rise, you pretty much planted behind cover, triggered the bow triple headshot, wash, rinse, repeat with wave after wave of goons. So far in Shadow, I've done VERY little combat against human characters, and what combat I've done has had a distinctly Predator-esque vibe: attacking from the shadows and vanishing back into the treeline.

Shadow has a LOT of downtime & exploration, and I love that. I wish it had the unrelenting momentum that Tomb Raider 2013 had, but this is pretty OK. What's really strange, though is that this kind of feels more like a sequel to the 2013 game than Rise did.

1199

General Gaming / Re: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-2018

« on: September 21, 2018, 09:11:54 PM »

There's a rumor going around now online that Telltale will not be finishing Walking Dead Season 4, but instead the Minecraft Story Mode deal they already had with Netflix

If that's actually true, then they need to offer refunds for Walking Dead S4 Season Pass owners, somehow. I wonder if someone besides THQ Nordic will buy them out before the end.

1200

General Chat / Re: No Freetime Radio E3 2018 Special

« on: September 21, 2018, 08:38:12 PM »

Thought it was about time that I got to updating you all on what's going on, assuming anyone reads these posts.

We've actually recorded 2 episodes since August. Problem is, it seems the show is somewhat cursed. My original edit of the 1st episode corrupted. Lost all my progress. Now, my laptop screen's broken. Thanks to a generous donation, I'll have a replacement soon, and thankfully the actual podcast files can just be recovered off my old hard drive. It does, however, mean that the editing backlog's going to stay that way for a while. Sorry about that, bit hopefully we'll be able to get caught up again soon. Until then, happy gaming!