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Messages - Adrock

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1
Nintendo Gaming / Re: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*
« on: February 18, 2024, 01:39:13 AM »
The internet went into meltdown because Switch 2 got "delayed" to 2025. Can it really be a delay when Switch 2 wasn't even officially announced? I'm being pedantic.

I'm not even disappointed. I only opened Tears of the Kingdom to claim the My Nintendo Gold Points, and I haven't bought Super Mario Bros. Wonder or Super Mario RPG. My backlog is LOL even without those games. I'm old; it'll be 2025 before I know it.

2
Movies & TV / Re: SPOILER ALERT: MCU Thread (Quantum-Ant-Man-ia)
« on: February 18, 2024, 01:33:46 AM »
Secret Invasion

The less said about this trash, the better. Fridging Maria Hill was straight poo poo. Marvel should have known better. They spent so much time introducing 37 characters to give Nick Fury a backstory while Maria Hill was like RIGHT THERE. Fury didn't need a Skrull love interest. It wasn't even handled well, and Varra didn't even show up in The Marvels. What was the point of that? Marvel had a father/daughter, mentor/protégé relationship there on a platter with Hill in the MCU for 11 years. Explore that. There were any number of ways to give texture to Fury's character.

And if Marvel was really intent on killing off a character that has been in the MCU since 2012, let her go out in a blaze of glory. Hill could have died saving Fury (though I still would have preferred she not). Then, while Fury was grappling with that loss, we could have had a cool Coulson cameo.

Then, Marvel just kills off Talos for reasons.

THEN, Fury isn't even part of the climactic fight scene. Rhodey has been a Skrull since Civil War and it didn't matter.

I didn't mind G'iah, but there needed to be more episodes to build these relationships. That's the point of having a show yet Marvel simply hasn't taken advantage of it.

Secret Invasion felt intentionally and actively hostile to viewers. **** this show. Make it non-canon so we can have Maria Hill and Talos back.

The Marvels

It was okay. Iman Vellani's back must be sore from carrying that entire movie.

Monica's conflict with Carol felt unearned and contrived. Like dude, you blipped out of existence for five years, and the only reason you're back is because Carol took a Power Stone Falcon Punch to the grill. Show some respect. The universe is bigger than you.

My biggest criticism is that Captain Marvel really needed a solo sequel before a team up. Also, this is the second movie where Marvel handicapped her so she wouldn't immediately obliterate the villain.

Speaking of, Dar-Benn was simply not an effective villain (and weirdly, reminded me of Rita Repulsa at times). If Marvel really wanted to make Dar-Benn work, the entire flashback of Carol fucking up Hala should have been expanded as the climax of a direct Captain Marvel sequel (with The Marvels being the third movie). As is, Dar-benn jobbed to Carol in a like 15 second flashback yet we're supposed to think she stands a chance against an Infinity Stone powered super-being because she has that Quantum Band. And Dar-Benn only had one. She also got thrown around a lot. Ehh...

The quantum entanglement that caused The Marvels to switch places seemed poorly explained. They can still use some of their powers at the same time without switching.

Echo

It was... fine. My main criticism was it too short and the ending felt rushed. Needed a ton more character work. Maya was an antagonist for most of Hawkeye, and this show didn't do enough to humanize her.

Kingpin was coolio though.

3
Deadpool & Wolverine looks great.

X-Men '97 looks great.

No word on Dr Doom casting?
No, but apparently, Javier Bardem is Marvel's first choice for Galactus. I saw this pop up recently, but every article I've googled dates back to late last year. It seems like it may be the same rumor that had Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards and Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm.

Anyway, I like Pascal as an actor but think he's too old especially opposite Kirby (13 year age difference). I was hoping Pascal would play Dr. Doom since he was so effective as the Mandalorian and having a helmet on 99% of the time. At this point, it's hard for me to disagree with Marvel's casting.

4
Nintendo Gaming / Re: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*
« on: February 13, 2024, 11:40:30 PM »
This says that Switch 2 will have physical and digital backwards compatibility
and that Devs can "enhance" Switch 1 games on the Switch 2
https://universonintendo.com/rumor-proximo-hardware-da-nintendo-tera-retrocompatibilidade-fisica-e-digital-com-jogos-do-switch/

I'm assuming that will be higher frame rates, cleaner textures, higher rez output?
Probably some DLSS/AI upscaling wizardry.

5
Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2024?
« on: February 13, 2024, 11:38:38 PM »
  • More Amiibo (I'm thinking Princess Peach Showtime! and Tears of the Kingdom).
  • At least one of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD; released separately.
  • Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.
  • Microsoft will release at least one more Rare game on Switch.
  • Switch 2 will be announced first half of 2024 and released in second half of 2024. The exact halfway point of the year is July 2. It's a Leap Year; let's just use July 2 anyway.
  • Native party chat on Switch 2; heavily locked behind parental controls by default (can be turned off).
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with DLSS/AI enhanced visuals on Switch 2; free update as long as you own the game digitally/physically.
  • 3D Mario launching with Switch 2; more like Bowser's Fury than Odyssey.
  • Need something outlandish: Metroid Prime 4.
  • Need something outlandish part 2: Game Gear and Master System on Nintendo Switch Online.

This was actually really difficult because this is a prediction thread for Nintendo releases, and most of what I could think of were things that I expect in a Switch 2 sizzle reel that will release in 2025 and beyond or third party releases.

I may update this depending on what Order.RSS says, if anything. Or disappear for months on end, idk.

7
TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Announces Development Of Live-Action Zelda Movie
« on: November 07, 2023, 08:19:01 PM »
A cel-animation or CGI Zelda movie was the easiest layup in the world so of course, Nintendo zags with live action.

I’ll keep an open mind given there’s very little to go on. We know some of the people involved which fine. I still don’t have enough information to have an opinion on this.

I’ll definitely watch it on streaming. Not an indictment either way. I don’t go to theaters anymore especially since the one within walking distance closed during the pandemic.

8
General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 4: The Final Chapter
« on: October 18, 2023, 12:10:33 PM »
To be honest, I kind of don't like Resident Evil 2 remake so far. Every zombie is a bullet sponge. They often take three or four headshots to go down. And sometimes they still get up. What the fu...

9
Batman Beyond

Looking it up, about half of the show aired in the 21st Century. Around 7 or 8 years ago, I watched through the whole series because I had missed a lot of the third season episodes back when it was first airing and had recently gone through the whole Batman: TAS episodes. This still feels like an underrated series when people think of the DC Animated series as talk usually is about the Batman, Superman or Justice League series. Personally, I still quite enjoy the unrealistic future setting that was created for it and the premise and situation the characters find themselves in. Yet, it also feels like they only scratched the surface here and there was a lot more drama and conflict that could have been found from it beyond how it often felt of just setting up new villain origin stories and foiling their plots when they returned.
As much as I enjoyed Batman Beyond, I docked points for this list exercise due to its real/true ending being on a completely different show. And while Amanda Waller rewriting Warren McGinnis' reproductive DNA with nanobots to match Bruce Wayne's is some of the silliest nonsense I've seen, the Justice League Unlimited episode "Epilogue" still has one of my favorite scenes in any DC movie/show.

In less than two minutes, Batman talking to Ace illustrates a true understanding of the Batman character, certainly better than any other non-comic Batman media. Of course Batman wouldn't murder a child. He simply sits with Ace in her last moments while she faces her own mortality. Batman's empathy is especially missing from all live-action versions of Batman. Instead, we keep seeing Batman recklessly damage property and probably kill people, often unintentionally but weirdly sometimes very intentionally. And yet, sometimes, no amount of kicking, punching, and exploding things will solve a problem. I appreciated Bruce Timm's restraint with the DCAU, slowing a story down and focusing on why a character would behave in a certain way.

10
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Long story short: fanboys and haters completely killed my will of keeping going with animation and gaming, and in order to preserve what I already love I'm quitting everything.
My dude, you’re gonna have a bad time if you let other people’s words dictate/affect how you enjoy things.

Does it really matter what “fanboys and haters” think? Can you tune them out, or at least not go looking for their opinions?

11
I'm 100% absolutely forgetting something
Yep. The IT Crowd.

I'll just keep editing this when I remember other shows.

12
Go ahead and include it. As the Hollywood Reporter said, they considered shows that crossed over that starting point. They just went with the episodes that fell past that starting date. That's why The Soprano's made the list since its last 5 seasons were all in the 21st Century and those seasons were still enough for them to put it 2nd. If you feel the Futurama episodes that aired in the 21st Century are worth rating highly then put it on your list. Make it a Top 20 or 30 if you want.
LOL. Clearly, I didn't read the article. 🤷‍♀️ I'm too lazy to make a top 20 or 30.

I included additional personal conditions to corral the list as there were plenty of options:

1. The show must have premiered in the 21st century.
2. The show must have a finale.
3. I had to watch all of it.

I might have made an exception for Futurama had it not been recently brought back since only 17 episodes aired in the 20th century and most of its best episodes are in the 21st century. Slot it in #2 without the conditions above.

The more I dwell on it, the more confident I am about The Good Place at #1. It's a nearly perfect show that stumbles a little right before the end then completely sticks the landing when it matters.

Normally, I don't participate in list threads, but this is giving me a ton of shows to add to the list and gentle reminders for some I already had on there.

13
It feels weird to leave Futurama off this list since it spent less than a year in the 20th century. It's also still going because Disney or whomever won't let it go.

I'm struggling with how to rank my favorite shows because I haven't finished some shows while others haven't ended their run yet. They could be awesome to start and terrible by the end. And there are whole seasons of some shows that are all-timers like Season 2 of Dexter. Overall, that's probably enough to knock them off a top 10 list.

Here's what I have so far (may adjust later):

10. Justice League Unlimited
9. 30 Rock
8. Daredevil
7. Lost
6. Breaking Bad
5. Schitt's Creek
4. Avatar: The Last Airbender
3. Better Call Saul
2. Wonderfalls
1. The Good Place

I'm 100% absolutely forgetting something though I feel pretty good about my top 7. Either Season 5 or 6 of 30 Rock was... not good. Still, collectively, its hit rate is just a little better than Community's as it ran longer and had a better ending (not counting the upcoming Community movie).

It should be noted that I didn't watch a lot of TV between 2004 and 2010, and only circled back to a few shows of that period if they popped up on Netflix. I think Oblivion shamed me into watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Any show that's still on the air was not considered as its placement may change depending on how the rest of its run shakes out such as Andor, Rick and Morty, and Loki. Archer too though I haven't seen anything past Season 5. It's ending this year after its 13th season so I have a lot to catch up to.

Honorable mentions (mostly because they were awesome for a time then fizzled out): Game of Thrones, Arrested Development, and Castlevania.

14
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)
« on: October 04, 2023, 02:15:59 PM »
What does failure look like for a successor to one of the highest selling consoles of all time?
“BY GAWD, THAT’S WII U’s MUSIC!”

Then again, there’s also DS to 3DS. It’s wild that Nintendo had successors of two of its most successful platforms perform in vastly different ways within the same time frame.

Nintendo’s success rate with successor platforms is pretty strong so while it’s completely understandable too be skeptical, I’m not. A Switch successor is like the easiest layup in the world. Not impossible to screw up, but like Nintendo would have to go so far out of its way to do so.

15
General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 4: The Final Chapter
« on: October 01, 2023, 03:40:20 PM »
I’ll use this Shocktober to hopefully take some games off my backlog.

I’m starting with Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes (PS4).

A friend and I were in the middle of running through Resident Evil 6 (PS4) online, but I don’t know, man. That game is so mediocre. I don’t remember if it gets better as you unlock more skills. We got through Leon’s campaign, and it was a slog. In any case, since I’m not renewing PlayStation Plus, it’d be nice to cross it off the list.

Also in the middle of my second playthrough of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, this time on PS4.

If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll officially cross off at least one of the Bayonetta games. I’m playing on easy this time because I keep stopping because I get stuck. I suck at these games, but I enjoy the world enough to keep coming back. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever unlock Jeanne who I always liked more than Bayonetta.

EDIT: Adding Metroid Dread to this list. Current plan is RE2, Dread, then RE3. We’ll see what happens after. Three games to start is a reasonable goal, I think.

16
TalkBack / Re: Hideki Kamiya Departing Platinum Games, Next Thing Unknown
« on: September 25, 2023, 11:32:52 AM »
Been reading speculation that PlatinumGames’ LOL attempt at self-publishing and turn toward GaaS as possible reasons for Kamiya’s departure. He apparently pushed for both though these were always precarious moves. It hadn’t shown an ability to consistently create best-sellers. Can’t pay the bills with positive review scores.

I wish Kamiya luck on his own though he’s best when someone else keeps his worse impulses in check. That isn’t an indictment of Kamiya‘s talent. Most people have trouble with the killing-your-darlings aspect of creative works.

As for PlatinumGames, if it stays independent, it’s probably looking at some lean years of support and licensed work. And after that, there aren’t tons of options beyond being a Bayonetta factory.

17
Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen
« on: September 22, 2023, 07:22:05 PM »
The Flash

Nice write up, nickmitch. “Hats on hats” is like the most apt way to describe this movie. And “then get stuck with an even more insufferable version of his character” is almost verbatim when I described this movie to a friend.

Nightmare fuel uncanny valley CGI especially the babies and Superman. I don’t even get the latter. Did they not have any reference materials of Henry Cavill? He even filmed a cameo that was cut. It’s as if the artist who was assigned Superman just rendered Cavill from memory.

Supergirl was kind of bland. And if they planned on bringing her back, way to let her job to Zod repeatedly. I get that it isn’t her movie. Just made her look weak especially since she had help and Superman didn’t in Man of Steel.

Getting tired of multiverse stories.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

It’s fine. I recently rewatched all of them and only Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is actively bad. I’d be here all day if I compiled a list of gripes about that movie. Even Temple of Doom is pretty good; it’s just really mean-spirited.

Anyway, Dial of Destiny is too long. Maybe I’m just old, but I often have trouble watching movies longer than two hours in one sitting. I found myself constantly saying, “That could have been cut.” For example, most of the opening scene. Sure, CGI Young Harrison Ford was coolio and all, but that entire set piece felt like an eternity.

I’m too lazy to write a whole big thing. Some quick thoughts:

1. Indiana Jones wanting to remain in the past would have hit harder had the movie spent more than 12 seconds on his son’s death and how it destroyed his marriage.

2. Didn’t need to bring back Sallah.

3. The movie never addressed how Jones was wanted for murder then just isn’t when he returns to America.

4. People were dunking on Phoebe Waller-Bridge. She was fine, not amazing or anything.

5. I liked the ending, but it would have been better had this movie released in the 2000s and Indiana Jones 4 release in the 1990s.

18
eh.  If Microsoft runs the studios into the ground, the talent will leave.

It's not like Activision is using 99% of their IPs anyway.
I’m not as confident as you are. Activision Blizzard King has been a dumpster fire for a good long while now especially in the last two years yet people still work there. The last non-acquisition related story I read about the company was this one which is like the most “ABK gonna ABK” thing that could ABK.

Still, am I the only one who thinks it’s hilarious that Microsoft saw what was happening at ABK and was still like “Yep, let’s make this my problem now” primarily for Call of Duty. I can’t look away; it’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I kind of feel bad for the talent, but y’all should have jumped ship ages ago. They remind me of the band playing in Titanic while it’s full-on mayhem in the background.


19
Hopefully news like this will finally make people stop sucking Phil Spencer's dick and realize he's no different then the rest Microsoft management.
It won't. The people wearing kneepads for Spencer are already in Microsoft's PC/Xbox ecosystem. They would only stand to benefit from Microsoft acquiring Nintendo.

Collectively, I'm just over it. The regulators in charge of preventing companies like Microsoft from acquiring their competition and becoming even larger are simply going to approve the acquisitions anyway.

Often feels like it's on Nintendo to protect itself because regulators seem content to do jack and **** about it. If there ever came a point that Nintendo wasn’t Nintendo anymore, I have a sick backlog so when it comes to new games, I’ll straight up:


20
According to Google, Nintendo only owns 10% of its own stock.
Were you using this site?

If so, 10.35% still makes Nintendo itself its largest shareholder:



Not a stock broker/investment expert or privy to the board of directors, but my (very rudimentary) understanding of public trading is there are voting stocks and common stocks (AKA non-voting stocks). I imagine (but am too lazy to verify that) Nintendo has the most voting stocks of any singular entity.

Regardless, I’m not even remotely invested (heh) in that. Microsoft has been coming for Nintendo for over 20 years. If it was so easy to get controlling interest of Nintendo, Microsoft or another company probably would have done so by now. You’d have to convince the largest holders of voting stock to sell those shares. It’d have to be such an egregious overpay like Elon Musk with Twitter to go anywhere. And even then, there are methods to prevent a hostile takeover though Spencer did mention in the email he was against hostile action, opting instead to play the long game (at least for now). However, the likeliest scenario is Nintendo would just buy up the voting stock itself than let Microsoft have it, right? I feel like Nintendo did just that the last time this happened.

I also recall reading about governmental resistance against foreign ownership of (I think) culturally relevant Japanese companies of which Nintendo would absolutely apply. I’d have to do some sleuthing, but like… will I?

I still don’t believe the revelation that Microsoft is still lusting for Nintendo to be the big story in the leak. Like name a video game company that wouldn’t want to acquire Nintendo. Microsoft’s hardware release schedule is just available to everyone now. I’m imagining Nintendo prepping Switch 2 and a new 3D Mario looking at Phil Spencer’s email like, “Imma end this man’s whole career.”

21
The thing that makes this email bad us Microsoft's history - especially Nokia - combined with them having an "inside man" gobbling up Nintendo stock on the sly.
Not defending the practice in any way, but isn’t this a thing that regularly happens?

Ultimately, no one gets controlling interest of a company like Nintendo without Nintendo knowing. I thought it holds controlling interest in itself. Can someone else verify?

22
Has anyone seen this?

Yeah, I’ve been following it mostly on another Nintendo message board.

This email, while embarrassing, isn’t even the worst part of the leak. Multiple unannounced games including a new Doom installment, plans for an updated Xbox Series X/S controller with accelerometers, plans for multiple new Xbox Series models including a digital only Series X, and tentative plans to launch a Series X/S successor in 2028 etc. are all worse. That has like fiscal year implications among other things. And imagine Nintendo and Sony now having this much lead up time to plan around your future releases. YIKES!

As for the email itself, I mean, it isn’t a stretch that Nintendo, with its wealth of popular IPs like the most recognizable character in the world, is considered the ultimate acquisition in the gaming industry. Every company with interest in video games that also has the capital/stocks/assets to even make a run at Nintendo if it was ever for sale (e.g. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google) would love to acquire it. Unfortunately for every one of them, Nintendo is currently the most successful it’s ever been and recently expanded to movies and theme parks. A private email brazenly admitting all this getting leaked isn’t that bad, right? Bad optics but people will forget about it in time aside from occasional mentions on video game message boards.

And I doubt this changes anything at Nintendo. The company knows how valuable it is. Another company looking to merge/acquire is like Tuesday at Nintendo. This already happened at least once. Microsoft pitched an acquisition in like the early 2000s and got laughed out of the room. A hostile takeover isn’t feasible either as majority Nintendo stock is safely held by the company and trusted partners. I imagine Nintendo has been happy to reap the benefits of Microsoft’s goodwill over the past several years without really giving up that much in return. Maybe that changes now? 🤷‍♀️ However, no one at Nintendo will lose sleep if, for example, Microsoft decides to be petty and not license Banjo-Kazooie in the next Super Smash Bros. If anything, Microsoft stands to lose more by not publishing games like Ori and the Blind Forest on the eShop.

23
Really looking forward to this. I just bought Trace Memory last year, didn't mod my Wii/Wii U to play the second so it's nice to get Another Code R: A Journey into Lost Memories as well.

The cover art is gorgeous. It's brand new art from Taisuke Kanasaki, the director and character designer of the original.




But... Hotel Dusk and Last Window... now *those* are two games that deserve a wider audience. And I think Last Window is kinda pricey to get now.
I've been trying to snag Last Window: The Secret of Cape West for a couple years now, and you're absolutely right. The lowest I've seen it was for $74, and I don't believe it included shipping. I couldn't justify it. If Nintendo is remaking Cing games, I hope these are next.

24
TalkBack / Re: F-ZERO Returns Today as the Next 99-player Title
« on: September 14, 2023, 02:25:58 PM »
Not even an F-Zero fan, but this looks really fun. The draw for me here isn't F-Zero. Rather, the chaos of playing with so many people. I love the 99-series.

There's a hotly rumored remaster of F-Zero GX. I was more surprised it wasn't announced alongside F-Zero 99. Maybe it's a Switch 2 game.


25
NWR Forums Discord / Re: Random LOL of the day thread
« on: June 30, 2023, 06:11:08 PM »
Have y'all seen Groundhog Day for a Black Man?

Apparently, "Two Distant Strangers" on Netflix completely ripped off the above short and won a Oscar for it. Boo/hiss

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