Recent Posts

91

General Chat / Re: The Major League Baseball Thread: Did SI Swipe The 2025 Sports Almanac?

« Last post by Khushrenada on October 24, 2025, 01:01:38 PM »

Well, the big series has arrived. I'm not sure how much of a battle it will be. Jays are a good team but the Dodgers just seem to be at a higher level of play right now even though they are almost even based on regular season results. Just making the World Series again seems like the big win for the Jays this year but it would be something if they could complete this playoff run with a Championship victory. It's wild that they are facing off against the Dodgers almost two years after their whole effort to get Ohtani to sign with the Jays. Will next year be Jays and Mets after they couldn't get Juan Suto to sign with them either?

Still, it's a shame that it had to come at denying the Mariners their first chance at playing a World Series though I think the Mariners would have beaten down pretty quick by the Dodgers if they had made it. Sort of like when Colorado Rockies got to their first World Series only to be swept by the Red Sox.

Too bad about the Brewers. I was reading that the Dodgers/Brewers series could be seen as a referendum on the growing argument for a salary cap in baseball. If a small market and low payroll team like the Brewers can have success then supposedly it shows that a salary cap isn't that necessary. So, I guess congrats to the Brewers on helping aid the cause for a salary cap in baseball. Despite being the best team of the regular season, they were swept by the biggest payroll team. And, sure, its not like they were blown out. A couple games seemed kind of close but looking back on the series, it almost seemed futile for the Brewers.

I hadn't realized this until seeing it mentioned in a sports article but so far there have been no repeat champions since the 21st century began. Dodgers are looking to become the first time to repeat in 25 years. It's surprising too since there have been a few teams to win multiple championships but they just never did it back-to-back. Going back to the 90s you had the Jays winning twice in a row and Yankees closing out the decade winning three in a row. In baseball, if often seems that when a team is good that it can usually win a few championships close together due to the imbalance in roster payrolls. Phillies were the closest so far but they lost in their second World Series in a row to the Yankees. I always think of that series as the one where I wanted both teams to lose.   San Fran Giants also had a weird streak of winning three times in 5 years but doing it every other year. Does that bode well for the Jays? I suppose we'll find out starting tonight.

92

General Chat / Re: The Major League Baseball Thread: Did SI Swipe The 2025 Sports Almanac?

« Last post by Ian Sane on October 23, 2025, 07:37:55 PM »

Well, my team is in the World Series.  Been a while since that happened.  I don't know how likely they are to beat the Dodgers but let's give it a go.  My brother is so bummed out about the Mariners though.

Two years ago, Vlad Guerrero was caught napping off the base in the playoffs and got thrown out.  At this point the Jays were making their third appearance in the wild card round, where they were swept every single time.  I was fed up.  I figured Vladdy didn't have it and that they should do something drastic to shake up the roster.  I felt the core were good players that didn't take it seriously when it mattered.  I was thinking of when the Jays won the World Series how they had underachieved with a good roster for years and then made a big trade of McGriff/Fernandez for Alomar/Carter, a lateral move on paper but a shake-up to a stale roster that wasn't getting it done.  When they resigned Guerrero to a big contract I thought it was a questionable move.  Giving a playoff underachiever a big contract is a classic mistake.

Uh, I'm an idiot.  Don't let me run your baseball team.

93

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« Last post by broodwars on October 17, 2025, 07:51:25 PM »

Good to know since I did have some interest in this game.  I've never played a Silent Hill game so the lack of connection to the rest of the series wouldn't bother me, but weapon degradation/breaking is one of my biggest gaming turnoffs.

What's weird is that Silent Hill keeps trying to make weapon degradation a "thing", despite players universally hating it, and yet the series keeps doing it. It was a thing in Silent Hill 4; Origins; Book of Memories; and Downpour, and now it's a thing in f as well. We didn't like it then, we still don't like it now, and yet I expect we'll continue to see it in future games...because. 

94

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on October 17, 2025, 07:21:20 PM »

Mina the Hollower releases on actual Halloween so if there are any arbitrary prizes, anyone who beats that game in October should win by default.

Agreed, anyone who beats Mina in Shocktober will lift the curse of NWR!

The Curse lives! Mina delayed to TBA

95

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on October 17, 2025, 07:19:41 PM »

I am playing quite few games right now with all being possibly completed by the end of the month. To avoid waiting until the end to talk about them I will give some first impressions on the game I am least likely to finish this month.

I have played the first hour or so of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on Playstation VR (via PS4). I have only played RE4 and Revelations but enjoyed those. If not for the abundance of great games in other genres I would probably play all the mainline games at least. Of course it was the Virtual Reality option that enticed me to this one. I also have RE8 for PSVR2 but figured I should start with the earlier game.

The technical difficulties I was having with my headset seem ameliorated by playing seated, which is not typical for VR games I play. Also unusual is playing with standard controls i.e., the dualshock 4. It is probably better than motion controls would be in this case. The game just would not work with teleporting so you do move along in the usual way. The sluggish pace is actually helpful for limiting the motion sickness, not so much for escaping from all the baddies chasing me.

The graphics obviously took a hit but that is fine with me as along with playing this with Japanese audio (talk about an anatopism!) I am happy for anything that can make this less scary. It's interesting how you hit a point when fun scary is just disturbing scary. Well I have hit that point. I am not sure about you all but the thing that scares me most is being held prisoner with violent people, well that is the premise here.

I will definitely continue on for now but with an average time of about 9.5 hours I don't see myself beating the curse this year.

96

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on October 17, 2025, 07:08:10 PM »

I'm trying to work through ZombiU and am being reminded why my previous two efforts ended quickly.  The controls are very stiff and the move stuff around with your finger on the gamepad screen is not accurate enough (for me at least).  I don't know if that was intentional to make it more "horror-y" like the tank controls in early RE games or just poor design, but the frequent "cheap" deaths quickly sap my will to play it.  My gaming resolution for 2025 was to finally get some of the over 10-year-old games off my backlog so I'll keep at it.  For reference to anyone who has played it, my first two attempts stopped before getting to the supermarket.  I have gotten farther than that this time at least.

I recall the game having a difficult start. As you stock up on inventory the cheap deaths seemed less frequent. I would say to stick it out if you can as the game is not that long.

97

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« Last post by jarodea on October 17, 2025, 09:42:01 AM »

I'm trying to work through ZombiU and am being reminded why my previous two efforts ended quickly.  The controls are very stiff and the move stuff around with your finger on the gamepad screen is not accurate enough (for me at least).  I don't know if that was intentional to make it more "horror-y" like the tank controls in early RE games or just poor design, but the frequent "cheap" deaths quickly sap my will to play it.  My gaming resolution for 2025 was to finally get some of the over 10-year-old games off my backlog so I'll keep at it.  For reference to anyone who has played it, my first two attempts stopped before getting to the supermarket.  I have gotten farther than that this time at least.

I haven't played any of the games mentioned so far, but it's interesting reading about them.

And all your weapons are breakable, so you're heavily encouraged to not even engage in combat until the game forces you to, as it pretty much does the entire second half of the game. And the game's 2nd half introduces an (I kid you not) honest to god Devil Trigger/Rage of the Gods mechanic that feels REALLY out of place in a horror game like this.

Good to know since I did have some interest in this game.  I've never played a Silent Hill game so the lack of connection to the rest of the series wouldn't bother me, but weapon degradation/breaking is one of my biggest gaming turnoffs.

98

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Will you be willing to buy Virtual Game Cards, or would go all digital instead?

« Last post by jarodea on October 17, 2025, 09:24:54 AM »

Yes.  The main reason I buy physical is so I can sell the games later which key cards still allow me to do.

99

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« Last post by broodwars on October 16, 2025, 10:17:35 PM »

Alright, let's talk about Silent Hill f. I've completed 2 of the game's 5 endings (the 1 ending you have to get on your first playthrough + the UFO ending), and...I find this game incredibly frustrating, and in the end I think it's a game I respect for its boldness more than I actually like. In fact, I kind of hate the game as an overall package.

Let's start with a familiar issue to anyone who played the Silent Hill 2 remake from last year: the combat is incredibly annoying and way too prevalent for how kind of bad it is, especially as the game nears its end. Even on the game's lowest difficulty, enemies hit like a truck and take way too many hits to down considering how fond the late game is of siccing 2-4 of them on you at once. The combat system, like those of the Souls games, is very much designed for one-on-one encounters with an emphasis on watching for enemy tells and countering. Unfortunately, enemies move extremely erratically and each type only has one move you can actually parry (and the parry indicator only appears if you are actively not doing anything), which to me made waiting for the parry an extremely unreliable strategy. Enjoy getting stun-locked and losing half your health when you misjudge an attack. I ended up just sticking to charging up a heavy swing on the axe and bashing enemies from a distance, but even that stopped being effective halfway through. There is a Witch Time-esque "perfect dodge" mechanic, but because enemies move so randomly I usually found myself activating it more by accident than by intention.

And all your weapons are breakable, so you're heavily encouraged to not even engage in combat until the game forces you to, as it pretty much does the entire second half of the game. And the game's 2nd half introduces an (I kid you not) honest to god Devil Trigger/Rage of the Gods mechanic that feels REALLY out of place in a horror game like this.

The game's atmosphere and exploration are truly exceptional (and the puzzles can be downright evil), but hampered by your character having an absolutely pathetically low inventory limit, which you can expand over the course of 2 playthroughs but still feels way too low even at max carrying capacity (especially since Med Kits take up an entire slot and you WANT those). What this leads to are many, MANY runs back to the nearest save shrine to sacrifice what you can spare to free up space and up your Faith currency.

By far the most frustrating thing about the game, though, is its story. Without getting into details, this game was written by an author that loves time loop stories, and accordingly you are only allowed to hear part of the story on a first playthrough. You HAVE to play the game AT LEAST 3 full times before the game will allow you to actually experience the full story with all the context left in. Other games like Nier have done this, but in Nier's case the gameplay didn't require nearly as much sheer commitment as this game, and even Nier only made you replay the 2nd half of the game multiple times (you literally skip the first half on NG+ runs).

To be frank, the way this story is setup and executed made me feel absolutely no emotional connection to the characters, especially with the story events set in this game's take on the traditional Silent Hill "Otherworld". As a first time player, you'll watch your character do some really bizarre, stupid **** in these Otherworld segments in a really cold, detached way. Yes, as someone who's beaten the game and knows what the game is doing, I get the message  they're delivering. I still think those segments are cold and incredibly boring, and I don't give a damn about the player character.

Many people have and will complain about the overall message delivered in the first playthrough as a prohibitive strike against the game. Between the story beats and the monster designs, this may be one of the least subtle games in the series. I personally find the message of the game incredibly offensive, but if I found the story engaging and the characters compelling, I would be willing to meet the game on its own terms. But with the way the game plays keep away with its plot for the sheer purpose of padding out the lifespan of the game via multiple playthroughs, I just can't recommend it. Game developers are asking a lot these days for players to even finish one playthrough of their game. Not just expecting but demanding 3-4 playthroughs of a long game like this is just pure arrogance, especially when the player has exactly zero agency in that first playthrough.

That said, I kind of have to respect the commitment to the bit, and that first ending ends in a really unexpected way.

I'll pick away at the game just so I can see the full story, but I'm finding this game extremely unsatisfying to experience and frustrating to play. I also have severe doubts that this game was originally conceived as a Silent Hill game. The links to past games are tenuous at best.

100

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Shares Short Film - Close to You

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on October 16, 2025, 08:22:44 PM »

I keep thinking it is something new that will explain the close to you tease only to get rick rolled by the same video  . Also, the two theories mentioned before are not mutually exclusive i.e., it would not be surprising to have pikmin in the next Mario movie with Miyamoto-san at the wheel.