Messages

126

Movies & TV / Re: Doctor Who: Now with 80% skinnier daleks.

« on: November 25, 2020, 02:57:01 AM »

I got into the Big Finish line of Doctor Who audio stories and that's been a real hoot. The writing is generally a lot stronger than it's been on average on the TV show.

Right now there are a bunch of the monthly adventures stories that are on sale for half price. I particularly recommend the story 'Spare Parts', which is one of the multiple origin stories we have for the cybermen and the story "Master" which is an interesting little character study of The Master.

Outside of the monthly adventures line, there are a few other things I recommend.

- The third volume of The Diary of River Song adds a brilliant wrinkle to River's backstory and gives us a fitting end for the villain Madam Kovarian, who was kind of forgotten about in the TV show. The fifth volume has a series of run ins between River and various incarnations of the Master.

- UNIT: Dominion is a really fun romp featuring the 7th Doctor and a mysterious future incarnation of The Doctor who is played by Alex Macqueen. I strongly recommend checking this one out early on. There's a really good plot twist here that can easily be spoiled by listening to the wrong Big Finish story before this one.

- Missy depicts the character Missy on her neverending quest to, in her own words, "Make the world a better place." It's pretty much absolute chaos in audio form and I love it.

I'm just getting started with Big Finish. There is so much good stuff to dive into.

127

Nintendo Switch Online Lounge Service / Lindemann is for the Children.

« on: November 22, 2020, 04:39:34 PM »

Let us spread the joys of tubtime to all the good boys and girls.

128

Nintendo Gaming / Re: And now it is time for a list of the true Nintendo Gaming Heroes.

« on: November 21, 2020, 02:27:09 AM »

Officially, the largest SD card it can support is 32gb but like the 3DS you can go past that if you format the SD card to FAT32. It can take a while to load the SD card channel on Wii Mode with a larger SD card though.

129

Nintendo Gaming / Re: And now it is time for a list of the true Nintendo Gaming Heroes.

« on: November 20, 2020, 12:36:24 AM »

The Wii U definitely can't really take advantage of the speed of an SSD but it is worth noting that SSDs are completely silent and it does also allow you to theoretically have the drive, a LAN adapter, and a gamecube adapter hooked up all at once without taking up an extra outlet which is nice. I personally just use an SD card in the SD card slot for Wii homebrew stuff and make sure to back it up regularly.

130

Nintendo Gaming / Re: And now it is time for a list of the true Nintendo Gaming Heroes.

« on: November 19, 2020, 11:53:24 PM »

I am still playing Wii U regularly but mine is starting to have some serious slow down. I think it's the external hard drive. I am using a powered WD drive that is rather old. Does anyone have a recommendation for an external hard drive that is currently available?

Been using a standard Toshiba Canvio Basic 500GB model for 3+ years. Using a USB Micro -> 2x USB-A Y-cable to keep it powered, since the Wii U supposedly has underpowered USB ports. Works perfectly fine (knocks on wood) but it does take 2 USB ports.
I believe Pokepal talked a lot about an external SSD which works off a single USB port, but don't remember the thread where he did. That sounds even better, maybe it even loads faster? Not sure if the console has enough I/O bandwidth to really take advantage of it.

The SSD i'm using is just a cheapo one I had lying around in an enclosure. With how Small the Wii U's library is I don't see anyone needing more than 256gb unless you are someone like insanolord who buys too many games and buys them digitally. I've heard of people using SD cards with USB adapters or flash drives but it's my understanding that the Wii U is pretty aggressive with how much it writes to it's external storage and the kind of flash memory that SD cards and Flash Drives use is not designed to deal with a device that constantly writes and overwrites data so I can't recommend that, especially with how cheap SSDs are nowadays.

131

General Gaming / Re: PC gaming sure is gaining Steam these days. (The PC gaming thread)

« on: November 14, 2020, 03:58:50 PM »

I have to admit, the GOG galaxy launcher thingy has really won me over. It's UI is leagues above what Steam has to offer and the way it can sync with your libraries on other platforms and bring them all together is a godsend.

132

Nintendo Switch Online Lounge Service / Who needs a next gen console anyways?

« on: November 13, 2020, 02:22:28 AM »

I mean we all know the Xbox One X is already The World's Most Powerful Video Games Console™. What more can you want?

133

TalkBack / Re: Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia (Switch) Review

« on: November 05, 2020, 05:13:43 PM »

Not a surprise! Shantae sucks too. Overrated!

From the makers of Ping Pals, Bakugan!

WayForward are truly a broken clock, only right twice. Aliens: Infestation and Mummy Demastered.

You forgot Contra 4.

134

Nintendo Switch Online Lounge Service / i hereby claim...

« on: November 04, 2020, 06:13:59 PM »

insanolord's favorite soccer jersey, Mop it Up's half eaten cat, Broodwars's PlayStation trophy collection (many of which aren't even platinums, what a casual), and unclebob's post history. In fact,  I also claim Khushrenada's ego if, in fact, I can find a structure large enough to contain it.

135

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Pokémon Sword and Shield: AKA This year's Fallout 76 apparently. /clickbait

« on: November 02, 2020, 01:26:16 PM »

I've been gearing up my old Pokemon Bank Celebi as my new capture slave since Parasect is still locked out of Sword and Shield. It's really fortunate that Sword and Shield makes it easy to max out a pokemon's EVs and IVs because otherwise I probably wouldn't be investing in it.

136

TalkBack / Re: Ranking Igavanias

« on: November 02, 2020, 04:06:11 AM »

Two things.

1. The Dracula X Chronicles is still available on the Vita's PSN Store and can also be purchased on a PS3 and than transferred to a PSP via a usb connection. I believe you can also download it on a PSP via your download history if you purchase it on the PS3 to this day.

2. Symphony of the Night also had a Sega Saturn port and can also be played on the PS2 or digitally on the PS Vita via backward compatibility. The DS and GBA games can also be played on backwards compatible hardware.

137

Nintendo Switch Online Lounge Service / Re: ⚽ Insanolord's current review docket. ⚽

« on: October 26, 2020, 06:27:46 PM »

Look, what if the FIFA Switch team is trapped in a groundhog day style time loop and only by having Insanolord post a review of one of their games on the site will the cycle be broken and they'll be able to make a new game.

138

Nintendo Switch Online Lounge Service / Re: ⚽ Insanolord's current review docket. ⚽

« on: October 24, 2020, 04:16:13 AM »

It was really considerate of EA to make Fifa 2021 on Switch literally just the exact same game with just a roster update (as opposed to just being practically the same game like in previous years) so our good friend Insanolord has a shot at getting a review on the site.

139

Movies & TV / Re: Star Trek

« on: October 24, 2020, 04:10:18 AM »

So where's the best place to start if I am interested in possibly getting into Star Trek?

140

Nintendo Gaming / Hypnospace Archival Project NWR charter.

« on: October 23, 2020, 02:09:47 AM »

So I decided I wanna take a stab at possibly 100%ing Hypnospace Outlaw which is kind of a difficult feat.

But I figure there's gotta be someone else who's in a similar boat or is just looking for an excuse to get back into the game so I figure we can put our heads together and find all the hidden pages in the game.

For example, if you search "Bees" in the search thing you'll find not one, not two, but three hidden pages about bees.

141

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Un-Official Super Mario 64 Retroactive thread waiting room.

« on: October 22, 2020, 08:38:30 PM »

Overall, I wont say one version is clearly superior to the other.  The DS version does have a better camera and makes some nice changes to some of the stages.  But on the other hand, I find the N64 version more fun to pick up and play thanks to the controls which are smoother and faster.  The DS version adds more content but I found a lot of the new stars to not really be all that great.  I liked new stage they added where you rescue Mario but none of the other new ones felt all that compelling.  I wonder if because that's the only new stage that's you're required to play so they put more effort into it then the others.  I didn't really mind the switching between the characters that much since not that many stars require a certain character, and they do give you hats to turn into Mario, Luigi or Wario in the stage itself.

The one where you rescue Mario is definitely the best of the new stages. It has a toxic swamp aesthetic which is a unique setting for Mario 64 and it has a nice layout. the three character rescue stages in general feel like a bit of a middle ground between the Bowser Stages and the more traditional open stages. It's an interesting design choice but a part of me wishes they'd gone more in the latter direction since there really aren't enough linear stages in 64 as is.

I kind of like the one off stages they added even though they are blatantly just the multiplayer battle mode stages with some enemies and silver stars thrown in. They're generally just fun to play around in and it's nice to have some more one off stages.

142

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 48: Super Mario 64

« on: October 22, 2020, 07:35:25 PM »

Honestly, difficulty in general is really kind of inconsistent for this game. A really good example of this is the moving platforms over a bottomless pit in Whomps Fortress. It's absolutely bizarre that for Nintendo's first 3D platformer game which is normally somewhat hesitant to throw any real challenge at you until the last 2 floors of the castle, the first time it throws any kind of moving platforms at you, it's over a bottomless pit with those slidy bits in whomp's fortress. It's not something that any 3D Mario since would dare to do and even the DS version expanded the bottom layer of the stage so that there is now solid ground beneath the moving platforms.

143

Nintendo Gaming / Re: WE DEMAND FOLDERS: The official Nintendo Switch folders hunger strike thread!

« on: October 20, 2020, 05:50:45 AM »

I also have more than 200 games on Switch, and it can be a hassle at times, but I don't think folders would really change that for me. The way I used them on 3DS and Wii U was mostly separating out Virtual Console platforms, which is not an issue on Switch.

I recently redid my 3DS Folders so they're sorted by completion status. That's been much better for me i find.

144

TalkBack / Re: Pokemon Sword And Shield Crown Tundra Preview

« on: October 20, 2020, 03:56:41 AM »

You know, the one silver lining of Dexit was not seeing Landarous on every other team online. I'm happy that's going away now.

145

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 48: Super Mario 64

« on: October 20, 2020, 03:30:31 AM »

Most of the added stars in the DS version can feel kinda bloaty. I'm rather fond of the Switch Stars since it adds a bit of a time trial element with how you have to get to the star before time runs out which is something that the original game lacked but the Silver Star missions are kind of hit and miss. Some of them are kind of interesting but some of them just feel like another set of red coins. There are actually only 8 of them in total. Pyramid Puzzle is a silver Star mission in the DS version because they realized how **** it was on the original game and two of them have little stages devoted to them but even with that in mind the silver stars kind of just lost their charm.

146

Nintendo Switch Online Lounge Service / Re: Safe Words 16 - Next-Gen Edition

« on: October 20, 2020, 02:27:10 AM »

I'm going to go for Assassin's Creed again. Although I really wish they'd bring back the pirate stuff.

147

Nintendo Switch Online Lounge Service / Re: Safe Words 16 - Next-Gen Edition

« on: October 16, 2020, 06:16:56 PM »

Let's go with Assasin's Creed Valhalla.

148

General Chat / Re: Cell phone discussion

« on: October 13, 2020, 04:34:30 PM »

Can someone explain to me why you need a super amoled 8k 158hz screen on a phone? This weird techno supremacy on android flagships is really getting out of hand.

149

Nintendo Switch Online Lounge Service / Re: Behold, my absolutely beastly PC specs #PC4Life!

« on: October 13, 2020, 04:30:03 PM »

It's only about 10 years old. It should be fine.

150

Nintendo Switch Online Lounge Service / Behold, my absolutely beastly PC specs #PC4Life!

« on: October 13, 2020, 02:01:02 AM »

Operating System
   Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
   Intel Core i5 460M @ 2.53GHz   81 °C
   Arrandale 32nm Technology
RAM
   8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 532MHz (7-7-7-19)
Motherboard
   Dell Inc. 00CKNG (U2E1)
Graphics
   Generic PnP Monitor (1366x768@60Hz)
   Intel HD Graphics (Dell)
   1023MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M (Dell)   55 °C
   ForceWare version: 391.35
   SLI Disabled
Storage
   465GB Seagate ST500LT012-1DG142 (SATA )   44 °C
   931GB Samsung SSD 860 QVO 1TB (SATA (SSD))   50 °C
Optical Drives
   No optical disk drives detected
Audio
   High Definition Audio Device

Next Gen, here I come!