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91

General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on April 14, 2026, 03:31:19 PM »

Over the weekend I played Alien Crush on the TurboGrafx-16 Mini. A well known PC Engine exclusive, the game applies a sci-fi theme to pinball gameplay.  Controls here are quite simple with the d-pad and face buttons used as to control the flippers. The game has two speeds but I found the default fast setting to be manageable. As with real pinball machines, the level is too tall to fit on the screen so only half is shown at a time, but when the ball moves between halves the change in the screen is a little jarring. Otherwise the sound and graphics are a positive. I think I saw all of the bonus rooms and my high score was 4,749,000. Apparently there is an end screen when you hit 999,999,900 points which takes about 20-40 hours. If you have the mini console this is worth playing for a bit.

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General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion: The Leafs Would Like To Borrow Taylor Hall's Horseshoe

« Last post by Khushrenada on April 14, 2026, 01:55:54 AM »

Yep. Surprised they made it also. I thought it might be Columbus that would be the first round opponent for the Pens and was kind of hoping it would be since Pens have a good history of beating them in the playoffs and Blue Jackets don't have a history of taking cheap shots in playoff games. But losing 8 out of their last 10 games took them out of the picture and opened the door for Flyers. Same with Islanders suddenly falling apart near the end. They fired Roy for DeBeor so late in the season but that didn't stop the skid. Wild stuff in the NHL. Still, this is a different Flyers team than some past ones and Rick Tocchet spent some time helping coach in Pittsburgh so maybe it will be more respectful competition.

Meanwhile, the Ducks may have let their opportunity of winning their division slip through their fingers. I'd been joking early at the start of the season that the Ducks will make the playoffs and shock everyone by knocking out the Oilers in the first round but I was thinking the Oilers would be first in the division and the Ducks 4th. It's looking quite likely that the Oilers and Ducks will actually be meeting in the first round after all but I'm not so sure about them knocking out the Oilers. Oilers are looking weaker this year as goaltending continues to be an issue for them and Draisaitl injured. But Ducks are sort of collapsing and to end the season having lost 7 of their last 8 games. Not great momentum to be having going into the playoffs. Guess we'll see how the last two games go but losing to the lowly Vancouver Canucks does not inspire confidence. Honestly would have preferred to see Kings/Ducks and Knights/Oilers in the first round with 2015 No. 2 pick Eichel facing off against the No. 1 pick McDavid while the Kings/Ducks would finally get their second playoff match-up after their first one about 10 years ago. At least Cutter Gauthier is back. Can't mention the Ducks without bringing up that Philly reference.

Still, it has been an odd year in the NHL. Back-to-back champs of the Panthers not making the playoffs. Other recent regulars like the Winnipeg Jets, the Maple Leafs, and Rangers all out. Sabres, Mammoth, Ducks, and even Penguins and Flyers making it this year is a bit of a surprise. If Detroit and Blue Jackets could have found a way in as it seemed like they might for awhile there in the middle of the season then it really could have added to the unexpected shifting of fortunes it seems like the league was having this year. I curious to see how big of a factor experience might be for the playoffs this year. Kind of feels like Colorado, Tampa Bay, Carolina and Edmonton would be the favorites in each of those divisions if you are weighing it that way.

With Corey Perry playing for the Kings, we know who will be the Stanley Cup runner-up so it would seem the winner will be from the East. Will Buffalo shock everyone by winning their first cup and Lindy Ruff finally gets the job done after all these years? Overall, most teams in the league feel incomplete and have question marks about whether they could go all the way and it really feels like it should be the Avalanche winning it. Except Avalanche are in probably the best division right now and the first two round could be tougher than the Conference and Cup final depending on if they play Mammoth or Kings first and who comes out of the East.

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General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion: The Leafs Would Like To Borrow Taylor Hall's Horseshoe

« Last post by NWR_insanolord on April 13, 2026, 09:59:02 PM »

Woo! I don't know how they did it, they looked dead and buried like a month ago, but the Flyers clinched a playoff spot with a game to spare! They've been one of the hottest teams since the Olympic break and now they're up against their old rivals, Khush's Penguins, in the first round!

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by broodwars on April 13, 2026, 09:19:33 PM »

Why do the costumes cost such an absurd amount? NO player will EVER buy them. Why would they when you could buy prayer beads, transcendence beads, or charms to make your camera stronger?

That always drops my rating of a game. In general, I think you should be able to buy everything in the game on a single 100% run.

The deed is done. Fatal Frame 2 Remake 100% completed.

The first and probably last time I will ever do that with a game in this series.

So did you buy all those costumes?

That's a joke, right? 

Like I said, no player will ever do that. Even after fulfilling the Platinum requirements by buying the remaining Prayer Beads I needed, I only had just under 2 million points again. Like hell I was going to grind out another 16 million points just to purchase costumes I'll probably never use while constantly being assaulted by ghosts.

This is what the encounter rate looks like on Nightmare. And, mind you, I have unlimited high power ammo in this clip. I had to do all this crap on my original Nightmare run without that.

https://x.com/i/status/2043483751980601600

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on April 13, 2026, 08:12:34 PM »

Why do the costumes cost such an absurd amount? NO player will EVER buy them. Why would they when you could buy prayer beads, transcendence beads, or charms to make your camera stronger?

That always drops my rating of a game. In general, I think you should be able to buy everything in the game on a single 100% run.

The deed is done. Fatal Frame 2 Remake 100% completed.

The first and probably last time I will ever do that with a game in this series.

So did you buy all those costumes?

96

TalkBack / Re: Mario Galaxy Movie Has Nice Second Weekend, Takes In US$69m

« Last post by Kairon on April 13, 2026, 12:05:52 PM »

Hmmm, it's falling faster week over week than the first movie. But a drop in the 40s isn't too horrible, its just the first movie's hold in the 30s was insane! Not sure if this movie makes a billion worldwide, but it still can if it has some staying power and a good tail. It DOES have more competition from other good movies in the space though, and it just isn't as novel/landmark as the first movie.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 970: Chekhov's Goat

« Last post by Evan_B on April 13, 2026, 09:52:28 AM »

Always a pleasure to hear from the good doctor. Lots of fascinating perspective here, I feel we need a yearly check-in with him to see how his gaming is going. He also very naturally brings up several topics that make my listener mail contributions null and void. I was still happy to hear the conversation!

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by broodwars on April 12, 2026, 08:27:40 PM »

The deed is done. Fatal Frame 2 Remake 100% completed.

The first and probably last time I will ever do that with a game in this series.

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by broodwars on April 11, 2026, 10:10:31 PM »

Finally, I did start up the Shantae GBC game, and I played through to Water Town. So far, I think this game absolutely sucks. Yes, it looks great for a GBC game, but so far this is a more punishing game than I expected. The game has no in-game map, areas are huge, enemy hit detection is somewhat suspect, enemies are pretty numerous, health drops are fairly rare, and items are expensive.

So I don't know where I'm going, the areas between towns never seem to end, and the entire process is going to be a battle of attrition. Great. -_-

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by broodwars on April 11, 2026, 10:06:39 PM »

Between grinding runs of Fatal Frame 2 Remake, I've been dabbling with a few other games:

Graveyard Keeper - I'm labeling this one a PC game, as despite me playing the PS4 version I only know this game exists because my best friend got sucked into it a few years ago. The game's sequel just got announced, so in honor of that the developer made the original free on all platforms for the next few days.

I put a few hours into it and...yeah, I dunno about this one. At first glance, this looks like your standard Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley knockoff. Your character's a graveyard keeper, so you spend your time keeping the graveyard...in theory. You cut down trees, break rocks, grab materials, build infrastructure, etc. for the task of fixing the yard and disposing of bodies.

Here's the problem, though: this genre thrives upon having a gameplay loop, a set of routines you follow every day towards getting various tasks done. Graveyard Keeper has no loop. There are no crops you're tending, and the dead aren't going anywhere. You never need to sleep unless you want to recover stamina. They don't even get delivered every day like you'd expect. And there's so much **** unlocked within menus and menus WITHIN menus that it's very easy to think you made a mistake somewhere and got permanently stuck because you need a resource you have no means of making. In fact, I started the game over after a few hours for exactly that reason, only to find out later that the character progression menu you open has multiple tabs of additional unlocks you can invest into.

See why I'm calling this a PC game? Needless bullshit is exactly what I associate with PC gaming.

Even when you aren't running into problems with the interface, early on there's just nothing to DO. I would spend most of every day running around the environment just looking for SOMETHING I could interact with in order to get the process moving. This isn't like your typical farming sim where you spend those early days clearing your land so you can start planting your crops. You START with a fully-functional graveyard. You just have to FIX the broken graves IN it, which requires crafted materials.

Oh, and each main NPC is only available on certain days of the week in certain locations. It looks like the main goal of the game is to advance their respective quest chains, but to advance them you need...of course...crafted materials you have no idea how to make or what you can use to make them.

Just such a bizarre farming game. It even has farming IN it, but bizarrely it doesn't look like you ever need to water your crops?