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TalkBack / Re: Kingdom Come: Deliverance Switch Port Tech Review

« on: Yesterday at 07:04:25 PM »

Why? Just because the Simple Machines copyright ended 14 years ago according to the bottom page of our forums? Are you telling me that it doesn't mean Simple Machines shut down in 2010 because they realized what they'd made was perfect and they couldn't improve on perfection?

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TalkBack / Re: Kingdom Come: Deliverance Switch Port Tech Review

« on: Yesterday at 06:44:42 PM »

WHAT?!? Twist ending! Wowzers. Didn't notice I had pressed that while banning a bunch of spambots on my phone. I didn't think about checking the log.   

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: Yesterday at 12:21:58 PM »

LOL! This thread...

As a passionate fan of Nintendo, I wish they'd announce and release some really cool sequels for series I love like Mario, Metroid and Fire Emblem ... which I'll then be justified to pirate because they are a greedy **** company that doesn't deserve my respect!



What a ride it's been!

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TalkBack / Re: Kingdom Come: Deliverance Switch Port Tech Review

« on: Yesterday at 10:54:29 AM »

Why is this stickied?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 10, 2024, 07:00:13 PM »

(And, for the record, I always though mini-discs were cool. It seemed like another leap to the future. They could create a store these huge games on these small discs. Wii with DVDs seemed like a step back.)

Opting for a miniDVD based format was such an unnecessary unforced error especially in hindsight given Wii used full-sized 12 cm discs. Nintendo forced publishers to make compromises Sony and Microsoft weren’t and during a time it really couldn’t afford to be doing that stuff coming off of Nintendo 64. Some of them chose to squeeze data into one disc. I’m still salty that Skies of Arcadia Legends has worse sound fidelity than the original on Dreamcast.

On a more positive note, the disc eject button GameCube and the smooth edge of Wii U discs were both 🤌.

Perhaps normal DVD's would have made some difference instead of mini-disc. It's hard to say. (But would we have still gotten that great cube shape?) Xbox used DVDs but its not like they did phenomenally better in hardware sales or had way better third party support. Maybe Nintendo does do N64 levels of hardware with using DVDs and does get a bit more cross platform support because of it. Yet, is that really considered much more of a success compared to where PS2 would likely still have ended up?

A huge thing that helped favor the PS2 was its ability to also play movie DVDs and act as a sort of home theatre that can play games and movies as a sort of all-in-one device. That made it appealing to a lot of consumers as DVDs were coming out and replacing VHS and showing how high quality the video could look on discs compared to cassette. Why buy a DVD player and a game console for two separate costs when you could buy them together for a lower cost? Nintendo was always going to just focus on it being a gaming machine and not start trying to fight Sony in home electronics.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 10, 2024, 05:31:57 PM »

Yes, deservedly punished. Nintendo's entire reason for using mini discs for the gamecube was to stop piracy. This made development unnecessarily harder for third parties which punished nintendo by not porting their games to the console. I may love the gamecube but that was an objectively terrible decision on nintendo's part. If they'd of just used dvds like the competition I guarantee you the gamecube would've had far better third party support.

I'm a third party. I've got a game I want to release on a console and I've got two choice. On one console, it would be a little simpler to format my game to work on it. On the second console, it would take a little extra effort. However, if I release it on the first console, it will be very easy for some people to pirate the game. On the second console, it will be harder for people to pirate the software. Which should I choose? I'll go with the second. Anti-piracy measure will help to ensure people actually buy the product we put the time and money into making instead of someone uploading it for free and hurting our sales.

But wait! The first console has five times the userbase size as the second console. 50 million potential customers compared to 10 million customers of the second. Since the first is a bit easier to develop for, I guess we'll prioritize that even though there may be some loss due to piracy. Whew. That was close. Can you believe we almost chose the second console for a moment? They were actually trying to help protect our sales; Can you imagine that?! What a bunch of losers! Screw them and their console! I hope it goes out of business. In fact, let's tell our friends at other third parties to also not release stuff on that second console to teach them a lesson about how we are cool if our stuff gets pirated.

Your logic is flawed, Dinar87. Mini-discs were not the deciding factor for third parties when it came to releasing stuff on GameCube. If PS2 had mini-discs to also combat piracy, third parties when it have been cool with it. They wouldn't have all flocked to Xbox because it was the only one to use DVDs in this hypothetical. It was about the userbase and potential customers. (It was also about Sony and MS throwing money at third parties to help get some exclusive games and spur development. A problem with the industry that has continued for years but that's a whole other thing.) Quit creating a false narrative or buying into one that third parties wanted to "punish" Nintendo because of anti-piracy measures.

(And, for the record, I always though mini-discs were cool. It seemed like another leap to the future. They could create a store these huge games on these small discs. Wii with DVDs seemed like a step back.)

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Downloads - April 11, 2024

« on: April 09, 2024, 05:21:00 PM »

Ah, yes. I was thinking Monster Heel might be in reference to a videogame company. Like one that might release a lot of AAA Alarm Clocks.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 09, 2024, 06:29:56 AM »

I never ended up buying a Switch because I was waiting for whatever upgrade was going to come out. It would have been the OLED Switch, but that came out so late I thought  "what was the point?" So, I never bought that either. I pretty much skipped this generation. I got gifted a ps4 in 2017 and just bought up some of the main games there.

At the same time. I have a Wii U. So, it isn't like I missed out on 1/4 of the games that came out for Switch.

It was a weird generation because I turned my room into a Mario room with blue turquoise sky walls and all and played ps4 the whole time. My office room I turned into horror themed.

Honestly, with what the videogame market is like these days, part of me has started to wonder if the smart thing to do is skip a console generation. Just buy into every other generation. Because by doing that, videogame makers will be porting over all their stuff from the previous generation anyways but either upgraded for the new console or in a complete form with all the previously released DLC or something. Or with backwards compatibility you might be able to pick up games at a lower price point from that previous gen and save money that way. The trade off is that you might miss out on some multiplayer games. For instance, skipping Wii U means you'd have missed out on Splatoon 1 but you'd have had Splatoon 2 to play on Switch. Or missing out on Call of Duty multiplayer for the previous generation but having new CoD games to play on the new system you get into.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 09, 2024, 06:21:10 AM »

Nintendo definitely got deservedly punished with the mini discs and cartridges, fucking over developers in an evil attempt to stop piracy (which is morally correct). But the games themselves were amazing.

Aaaaaaannnnddd, you lost me with that take.



Deservedly punished? Piracy is morally correct? Now I feel bad for agreeing with you about being bored with Nintendo's release schedule of late. 

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 09, 2024, 06:14:43 AM »

I think that extra power for the GameCube might be another reason why it gets more fondly remembered for that era. 

It's the entire reason.  Most people get hung up on the fact that the Gamecube was comparable to the competitors while Nintendo has been a generation behind since. 

Maybe for some but I'm as a GameCube fan it took me a long time to even think of that point and only after doing some reflecting on that generation and being reminded of the performance difference in Resident Evil 4 for GameCube vs PS2.

The Switch on the other hand despite being a generation behind, was designed to handle the various game engines that most developers were using, so they could scale their games to run on the Switch much easier.  So even before the Switch gained the massive sales it did, many third parties where able to have games ready for the system even if they didn't have much faith in it because it was easier to port games for it then they could back in the Gamecube era.  And then when the Switch gained the massive sales it did, we started seeing ports of some of the more popular titles from the PS4 era because the hardware once again allowed for such a thing.

This is why when I've seen comments from some Gamecube fans saying the Gamecube was the last Nintendo system to have good third party support I have to roll my eyes so hard they literally fall out of my head.  The Gamecube was still Nintendo designing hardware for their own developers without a thought to third parties.  The Switch on the other hand was the first Nintendo system actually designed with third party support in mind and as a result, has by far the best third party support in Nintendo history.

I would have to disagree with you a little bit on this. I think you are misremembering the Switch's first year. Switch had a small launch line-up. Third party retail titles when it launched were Just Dance 2017, Skylanders: Imagination and Super Bomberman R. Third party retail titles from launch (Mar. 3) to end of June were The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+, Has Been Heroes, Fast RMX, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Rime, Disgaea 5 Complete, Redout, and Dragon Quest Heroes 1 & 2. That doesn't seem like a lot of third parties having their games ready for the console. It wasn't until the end of 2017 that you saw bigger name third party titles like DOOM, Skyrim, WWE 2K18, L.A. Noire and even Sonic Forces. I commented on it in the past but Bethesda actually releasing games on a Nintendo system really helped change the third party narrative with Nintendo systems. I do agree that Nintendo did seem to rethink their hardware design by making a system that would be much easier for third parties to port their games to but I also think that third parties still waited awhile to see how the Switch launch turned out before deciding if they would actually bother with the system or not. Nintendo really carried the Switch in that first year and the effort was noticed. I made a thread at the time that 2017 might be Nintendo's best year ever for quality software released. Nintendo carried that momentum of Breath of the Wild and kept the Switch selling so that there was no collapse of system sales after the launch window like the Wii U and 3DS experienced.

Even during the 2017 summer with Switch selling hot, third parties were reluctant about bringing software over. Famously, Cliff Bleszinski said he didn't think he could port the game Lawbreakers to the Switch because "I think the hardest part with the Switch is the controls. Look at the game that we have right now, and we just literally by the skin of our teeth put the entire game and the control pad that the PlayStation has. That means that we could probably make it work for the Xbox One in someway, right? But if you’re looking at the Switch the base controller that’s on the unit, it doesn’t have as many buttons." You'd see comments still of developers unsure about the Switch's ability to run their games that they were putting on PS4 and XBox One or saying that maybe if enough people ask them to on Twitter or something to show there is demand then maybe they'll think about porting something.

Again, Bethesda ended a lot of those excuses but I do wonder if they would have decided against releasing stuff if Switch had slowed down in sales. But by basically showing that it was duplicating Wii level sales, that seemed to get third parties to start taking the system more seriously and you began to see a result of that in 2018. That's when third parties started showing up which is good as Nintendo had to start looking at ports and other ways to fill in their software lineup as their development teams started anew after all their 2017 stuff. They had Smash Bros. which they used to keep up the hype and excitement. Yet it may have ended up being a bit beneficial as it did allow third party software to get more of a spotlight and perhaps get better sales than it might have had it released during the system's early launch. Even though they were old, previous Final Fantasy games getting ported to a Nintendo system in 2019 was another big signal that third parties might now be viewing the Switch different from past consoles. Yet, why couldn't Square have had ports of Final Fantasy VII or FFX ready for launch? Did it really need to take them two years to figure out how to port those games? Porting games may have been easier but it took awhile for third parties to actually take the Switch seriously and do it. Nintendo was further aided in the slow growth and momentum of the PS5 and XBox series X. With third parties releasing games that also had PS4 and XBox One versions to try because of the smaller userbases and expense of development for titles on those system in their first few years, it's kept the Switch as a key piece of the market for a longer time with its large userbase and hardware that they should know pretty well by now.

(And I didn't even get into the whole waste of time that is stuff like cloud versions of games like Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. Square still pulling crap when it comes to bringing their games to the Switch. Or ports with issues so that they still run better on consoles three generations ago like the Metal Gear Solid collection. It's crap like that which can make third party support seem better on a console like GameCube because while it was a smaller quantity at least the quality was usually pretty good. Or at least, that's how it gets remembered now thanks to forgetting the bad and remembering the good that comes with nostalgia.)

Oh and Gamecube fans are complete fucking hypocrite when you praise games like Luigi's Mansion 1, Wind Waker, Paper Mario TTYD, but then turn your nose at the recently released Princess Peach Showtime.  Quite a few of these highly praised Gamecube titles were incredible easy game, and yet the same people we now praise these games, say they have no interest in the recent Princess Peach Showtime because it looks too easy.  Give me a fucking break.

Seriously, this is why I have no respect for opinions like this.  This are the very definition of peak nostalgia blinding people.  Seriously, if Princess Peach Showtime was released on the Gamecube 20 years ago, the same people who refuse to play it now because it's an easy looking game, would be praising it as a masterpiece like they do to many of these extremely easy Gamecube era games.

I don't know who these GameCube fans are that you keep encountering with those crap opinions. I will say that since Super Mario Wonder, Princess Peach: Showtime is the only Nintendo game that has been released or announced that I actually want to play and is the type of software that I wish they were releasing more of. I absolutely agree that it reminds me a bit of the GameCube era of trying to do something new with their IP in a sort of spinoff way like Luigi's Mansion or Wario World or Battalion Wars. It's rather annoying to me to see you speak of GameCube as having written off something like Princess Peach when I've never done that and makes it seem like you don't know what you are talking about or are just making things up when you label all such fans as one. Perhaps not your intention but it creates a disconnect for me when reading your posts with the phrasing that way.

It's Princess Peach that actually is why I agreed about having the same feeling of boredom that Dinar87 was expressing. Let's go with August 2023 as a starting point. When I think of the period from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2024 and Nintendo developed software for the Switch that instantly appealed to me or stood out, I can only think of two titles which are Wonder and Showtime. That's a whole year in which Nintendo released just two games I'm excited to play for Switch. I had to look up to check what I might be forgetting as everything just seemed to be ports or remasters like Super Mario RPG. There was Detective Pikachu Returns and WarioWare: Move it!. Both are games I'll likely pick up when the price is right for me but they aren't big motivators to make me excited about the current state of Nintendo releases. I also wish I could just buy the Wii Another Code game that didn't get released in NA rather than both games but that's still a game that was made for Wii and not Switch. Now, if you want to say I'm being selective and if I moved back my timeline to include July 2023 which had Pikmin 4 then go ahead and shift the date so that there are now three top Switch games instead of two but I don't think it's great that a company like Nintendo can only put out about three fresh games in a year. Moreover, we still don't know how Nintendo is planning on padding out the rest of this year. If the rumours are true that the Switch 2 will be 2025 then Nintendo's could be very boring for over a year and a half. Save us, Professor Layton! I really need you now to give the Switch some life. It's not quite a Nintendo franchise but it feels like it sometimes.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Downloads - April 11, 2024

« on: April 09, 2024, 04:42:53 AM »

When you have the opportunity to end a monster heel's title run at 666 days, you effing DO it.

I do not understand that reference.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: March 30, 2024, 03:02:34 AM »

And another thing. This is sort of hearsay as I've done no real research on it but I had read a comment from an old poster that used to frequent this site (Professional666 or NinGurl69 *huggles* if you prefer) that "the gap between ps4/nsw is smaller than ps2/gcn." That surprised me as we often think of PS2/GC being comparable around that time as it was afterwards when PS3 and XBox 360 went HD while Wii stayed SD that people associate a big difference in power between the competition and Nintendo. I think that extra power for the GameCube might be another reason why it gets more fondly remembered for that era. 

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Movies & TV / Re: Khushrenada's Annual Oscar Thread. 2024 Edition.

« on: March 30, 2024, 02:23:07 AM »

Lily Gladstone was great, but she didn't say much in the movie, and her lines weren't very memorable. I have not seen Poor things. Gladstone's character was integral to the plot, but she was more of a supporting role than a lead. Even if she had been shifted to supporting actress instead she still would have been beaten by Da'Vine Joy Randolph from Holdovers because she was great. I was thinking Paul Giamatti and her were gonna bang in the movie. But it wasn't that type of movie.

Lily was (or seemed to be) neck and neck with Emma Stone for Best Actress. Putting her in Supporting would have meant she'd have been neck and neck with Da'Vine Joy instead but it does create a scenario in which Da'Vine may have faced more competition for the Supporting Actress Oscar as basically she won it at every awards ceremony leading up to the Oscars and it was a walk/sweep for her. If Lily is there, it might have been that it seemed like an easy slam dunk for Emma Stone to get that second win during the lead up to the Oscars. Not sure if she could have won in either category at this point but if I was voting I'd have put her ahead of Da'Vine Joy for Supporting.

Killers of the Flower Moon was an odd movie experience where partway through or closer to the end, I thought to myself I'd like to read the book this is based on because I didn't like the way the movie was handling the story and details. There were jumps in time that would leave one confused in how much time was actually passing between scenes and characters and motives that were hardly explained and left me confused about while so much time was spent on other stuff like the whole diabetes suffering. In a way, I almost saw the movie twice. I first started watching it through Apple near the end of January streaming it off Apple TV. I was bugged because as it streamed it would sometimes freeze/clip or the picture would render kind of fuzzy or less detailed at times. Then I thought I'd try downloading the movie but even the downloaded version I was watching still seemed to suffer in showing detail at times and made me wonder if it was just recorded while the person was streaming it on their end. I happened to check what was playing at the movie theatres for the first week of February because they were doing a promotion that tickets were $5.00 every Tuesday for any movie that month. I saw there was a theatre that was going to play Killers on that first Tuesday so I decided to watch the movie that way. At this point, I'd already seen the first two hours but went and saw it on the big screen. Watching those first two hours again, it just reinforced my impression that something just wasn't translating well from book to screen. Like perhaps it all made sense and seemed great because Scorcese and the writer(s?) had read the book and recognized all the details these scenes had or knew the background for or the time they were convey but couldn't see the difference for someone without that extra knowledge and how it was not always that clear.

I'll also mention that, unlike what seems to be a majority of movie critics, I feel Scorcese is overpraised and most of his works overrated. He's made some absolute classics. I'm not denying that. But on the whole, I just haven't cared for most of his stuff. I've seen 15 of the 26 films he has directed. Four of them I'd absolutely recommend to check out. Three more I'd say are pretty good / have their moments and the rest I'd all say to skip. When it comes to his 21st century work, the only one I'd absolutely recommend is The Wolf of Wall Street. The Aviator is one of the three I consider as being pretty good but part of me wonders if I should rewatch it again after almost 20 years and see if I still feel that way but there's a lot from that movie I still remember and sticks in my head. Now, I've still yet to see Shutter Island or Silence but when looking at the past 23/24 years, he's only made one really great film to me. Yet, all of his films have been highly rated and praised by critics through this current century and I just don't get it. He just seems like more of an average director to me so maybe there is a bit of bias as I might come in with more of a "hold my breath" attitude when watching something of his now but I feel my opinion is justified based on what I've seen.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: March 30, 2024, 01:44:09 AM »

Then of course you can always come to the darkside and start playing Sony software. Some of my favorite games from last gen were never released on Nintendo consoles.

Banned! Banned! Banned! Banned! Banned! Banned!!!! 

There's a lot of GC software that hasn't quite been surpassed or is iconic.

Quality over quantity for the gamecube IMO. Pokemon Colosseum and XD gale of darkness are the best pokemon games and put the likes of scarlet and violet to shame. Paper Mario TTYD is the best one in that series too. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 both on the gamecube were amazing. Metroid Prime 1 and 2. Pikmin 1 and 2. Luigi's mansion 1 was actually creepy unlike the sequels.

And there it is. The same point I was making in my earlier post. 20 years on and a lot of fans now see the GameCube had a lot of significant entries and high points for quite a few of Nintendo's franchises. It's like a film franchise. For instance, James Bond. There are certain movies that are considered the best, the worst and others that are good and ok yet even some of those entries can be a person's favorite for whatever reason. When looking at series like Metroid or Paper Mario or Smash Bros (or, heck, Sonic too, as mentioned by me and Dinar87), software released on the GameCube for various Nintendo franchises often ranks on the high side or top of the Best Games list for those franchises.

And to add a little bit more context to something and my perspective:

Especially in recent years where there's suddenly been all this Gamecube nostalgia and Nintendo fans declaring the Gamecube the greatest system ever made and how the Gamecube era was the best time, when it's like, are you fucking kidding me.

Recent years? The GameCube nostalgia was already happening after a couple of the Wii years. I know. I've been here and I've been part of it! 

I've mentioned it before but I'll bring it up again. During the N64 years, I was falling out of gaming love. First, it took a long time before I even got an N64. It was basically around the time DK64 came out. There was some stuff that I liked to play or enjoy but I was finding myself interested in other things. My brother played a lot more N64 than me. He'd rent games and I wouldn't even bother to play them once unlike all the years with our Super Nintendo. I can think of quite a few games in which I'd check in on him and watch him play a little bit of something and then go off and pursue other hobbies. Years later, I found myself wanting to track down and try some of that software that I missed out. When the GameCube was released, we ended up getting it early compared to the N64. Feburary 2002. The GameCube really reignited my love of gaming. I loved the controller way more than the N64 one and the level of graphics and what game design had learned from going into 3D just seemed so much more refined at that time. It took awhile to acquire software for it but I would replay a lot of the games I had for it over and over because I just enjoyed them. You can say that it might also be that I had more free time to play games on the GameCube as it was during that time I would graduate high school and begin working but I'm not sure how true that it is. I had a lot of time also while growing up to play SNES and N64 but GameCube software just spoke to me more.

It was that passion for GameCube stuff that led me to PlanetGameCube and posting on these forums. I remember back then how the community was despairing at Nintendo's shrinking market share. How Sony had the lion's share of 3rd party support and XBox was making waves with Halo and online multiplayer while Nintendo was choosing to sit out online for the Cube. How every decision Nintendo made was being scrutinized and if they could ever reclaim the market. I do think a big part of that is because of the passion a lot of us GameCube users felt from feeling that the actual product, the software and the hardware, were really great. It was the idea that if people would get past the "kiddy" label or the "purple lunchbox" dismissal then they would find that there was terrific software on it that was top class compared to what the other companies had. I mean, take away Halo and what other software are people reminiscing about for the original XBox? Most of it is practically forgotten while much more GameCube software, both third party and Nintendo, have withstood the time.

I'll also say that the GameCube is the system in which I've easily played the most multiplayer gaming on. Perhaps that's a factor in my continued love for it. There's definitely some added appeal when you can play software in-person with friends but that was also what Nintendo was focused more on. In-person multiplayer over online multiplayer and a lot of titles were and still are great for that.

Even with the Nintendo criticism on these forums, there was still a lot of excitement over what the next games in a series could be like for a Nintendo franchise and also a lot praise for software that was being released for the Cube. People were often quite happy with what they were playing and talking about it here. Despite the negativity people might feel about Nintendo's future, I was very happy with pretty much everything I was playing for the system at the time even janky stuff like Sonic Adventure 2 or Sonic Heroes. Maybe I was less cynical or less experienced with gaming so it made a difference with things still seeming new and fresh. I'm not sure. Yet, it feels like a lost time in game development when Sony and MS went HD and suddenly everything had to be a huge software seller to afford the development of a title and the market changed in how it made and released games.

When the Wii came out, I found myself disappointed somewhat with Nintendo's software for it and despite Nintendo's goal of trying to win back lapsed gamers, it actually made me a lapsed gamer as I just wasn't liking the system as I did the GameCube and my gaming time went very low and almost non-existent for a few years. At least for console gaming. DS was still keeping me a bit more active. The next time I felt like I had during the Cube year was actually with the 3DS and its early years. It got me reignited again and I really enjoyed a lot of the early software on it. The design of games and their length somewhat reminded me of games developed during the time of the Cube and PS2. Now, I find it comes in waves. If I play something really great like BotW or Hollow Knight then that can get me excited about gaming again and I'll start playing a bunch of other software. Yet, since a lot of other software can be middling then that enthusiasm can wane.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, I've found that Nintendo Directs can sometimes act as a way of reigniting that enthusiasm. Just from watching a trailer of a game that might be a favorite entry of mine or looks like a sure winner, that can get me going to get back at playing games as I wait for that title to release. When that isn't there, which has been the case for over half a year then I feel the boredom that Dinar87 mentions. My gaming time has been very low these past six months. There was a bit of time in mid-February when I wanted to get back to gaming and finish up some titles I'd been working on and start up some new stuff and was playing my Switch a bit more regularly but that enthusiasm soon faded away. It's this vibe that there is nothing pressing to play right now. I'm not missing out on anything. There's nothing announced that's coming out soon where I feel I should catch up on a past title. With all the retro games I seem to be playing on Switch like N64 games or ports like Final Fantasy or Ori and the Blind Forest, it just seems like I can get to those whenever. I've waited this long to play them, they can wait some more before I get to them. Meanwhile, there can be new movies or TV Shows or books that I want to see now and don't want to be spoiled on or don't want to fall behind on. So, these things end up winning my time because the current offerings, particularly from Nintendo, don't seem as fresh or exciting.

There was a great quote from Miyamoto about how games have become these consumables that folks just try once and then discarded but like a great book or movie, they can sometime not be fully enjoyed until they are experienced repeatedly.

TLDR: replay an older game you enjoyed or try out a multiplayer game.

On the subject of time, there are a lot of games I'd like to replay and I have been returning to things slowly like stuff on the Switch apps or in my personal gaming collection. The problem is that I often feel guilty about doing so because there's so many games I've acquired that I've yet to play so why am I now returning and spending more time on something I've already played and finished. Usually, though, replaying a game doesn't take as long as the first time as you know more what to do and how to play it but it also makes me more aware of past games that do things which can waste a player's time which is why I love the save state or rewind feature with the Switch app titles to help speed a replay along. Sometimes I wonder why I'm buying new stuff if I just want to replay the games I already have. Gamers - We're Never Satisfied!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: March 28, 2024, 06:44:27 AM »

Still, a lot of Indie stuff can be rather short and fleeting and third party stuff can lack that Nintendo polish and magic that keeps you wanting more. Nothing hits quite like the hype for a new entry in a Nintendo series you love that looks like it could be blast to play.

Only that's not true, there's a lot of indie and third party stuff on Switch that's just as good as the types of games Nintendo releases.  This is N64 Yamauchi era propaganda that too many still have in their heads.

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/nintendo-switch/all/all-time/metascore/?releaseYearMin=2017&releaseYearMax=2024&platform=nintendo-switch&page=1

Just go down the list.  Yes, Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey and Tear of the Kingdom are at the very top but after them you have lots of third party titles right around what Nintendo's releasing.  Yes every gen the very top Nintendo games like Ocarina of Time, Metroid Prime, Mario Galaxy, Breath of the Wild get the best reviews, but those titles are very rare even by Nintendo standards.  Outside of the very top 1-3 Nintendo games each gen, the best third party games are easily competing with everything else.

Only it can be true. I mean, first that's just, like, my opinion, man. And second, it depends on what you play. I agree there are a lot of great indie and third party titles. That's why I mentioned:

For me, Nintendo's only had a small number of original games for Switch that were really great. Most others have been sort of average. Surprisingly, it has been the third party stuff that's been more unique to me. Having stuck in the Nintendo ecosphere for decades, having ports of all sorts of things like Katamari Damacy, Lumines, Grim Fandango, and Batman: Arkham Asylum that I've always wanted to try out has been great. It's those games that have been getting me to keep playing my Switch more these days. Indie stuff like Hollow Knight, Untitled Goose Game and even Suika Game have provided me with new engaging experiences to keep me invested in my Switch.

There's a lot more stuff that could be mentioned as worth seeking out. However, when I said "Still, a lot of Indie stuff can be rather short and fleeting and third party stuff can lack that Nintendo polish and magic that keeps you wanting more. Nothing hits quite like the hype for a new entry in a Nintendo series you love that looks like it could be blast to play.", I'm thinking of titles in my head like Cruis'n Blast, A Case of Distrust, Murder by Numbers, Figment, Yono and the Celestial Elephants, or Yooka-Laylee. Heck, I'll throw Gris and Untitled Goose Game in that pile. I really liked Goose Game but wished it had been longer and it could be a bit rough in getting things to work as you wanted.

Linking the top rated games on Metacritic is just cherry picking the best and ignoring all the other third party and indie games below that aren't as well rated. Hence my comment that a lot (not ALL) indie and third party games can seem short or unpolished. I'm not just playing the cherry picked best stuff only. I'd also add that many of the games at the top of the Metacritic list are from games ported from early systems and not Switch console or current Switch-era titles. Like if Ocarina of Time 3DS were to get a $15 port on Switch (and OoT wasn't available on the N64 app) then it would probably get 9/10s just on the basis of it being OoT and having slightly better graphics than the N64 while reasonably priced. UnderTale, Portal, Persona 5, Ori and the Blind Forest, Bastion, and Nier: Automata. These are all games that have had a large reputation as top games in the industry or significant in someway but a lot of them have been available for years and on plenty of other consoles before Switch.

It's like pointing to Mass Effect 3 with the Wii U launch and saying the Wii U has good third party games for its launch because Mass Effect 3 is well reviewed on MetaCritic while ignoring that it had been out for some time on XBOX 360 and PS3. (And further ignoring that those systems were getting the Mass Effect Trilogy of all three games being released for them around that time while Nintendo was only getting the third game yet had never had the first two ever released on their consoles before.) Sure, it's great to have the option if you've never played these games before or like the portability aspect but as someone already complaining about Nintendo's habit of porting I'm gonna stick with my conviction and also complain about old third party ports having to carry the Switch too.

For me, stuff like Celeste, Hades, Sea of Stars, Dragon Quest XI, or Unicorn Overlord are bigger contributors to making the Switch library more unique or helping mold the system's identity. Even with the games going to the other consoles, they've usually sold better on Switch or were released first and then later ported to the others after sometime making them more associated with Switch in gamer's minds. These are games that aren't just going by reputation but broke through while being new and against more competition. It could also be argued that it proves the point that Nintendo's output has seemed more average this gen and all this Wii U porting has made them seem less creative when compared to what some of these top third party games are delivering.

I will also provide the caveat that having third party games put out software that is as good, better or worth playing over a lot of Nintendo's software isn't a bad thing. I'm certainly not hurting when it comes to finding a game to play on Switch. Such strong third party support is absolutely a good thing for seeing a console succeed and, as a Nintendo fan, it's great to see how high a Nintendo system can climb with such support. It means Nintendo will still be around for sometime doing consoles their way. It's fantastic to see support that isn't low-effort copycat attempts like the Wii years. Yet, if the Switch had been like that with third parties or like the Wii U support level then I do question just how much any of us would have liked this system based on Nintendo's output. You might be feeling the same way Dinar87 feels.

It will probably always be hard to hit that balance but I feel the DS came close to that ideal of having both great Nintendo software and strong and unique third party titles. Switch has been unusual with the third party side seemingly a bigger draw yet Nintendo's posting all kinds of huge software profits despite this. Oddly, the system I have most fondness for besides the GameCube at this point is the 3DS and it is the rare system in which I have more Nintendo developed titles than third party. Even with GameCube, I have a bit more third party titles than Nintendo in my collection. That's why Nintendo's output is a big deal to me and why Switch has felt lackluster at times. Their software is what has kept me playing games for three decades now. It's why I still get hyped for a Nintendo Direct. I'm hoping to be wowed and excited by them all over again. They can keep kindling my gaming enthusiasm and keep me involved with this entertainment. They've been consistent and able to survive this long. I've been burned by third parties running franchises into the ground (Guitar Hero) or not releasing their sequels on Nintendo systems or getting shutdown. So, yeah, I'm always going to be more interested in Nintendo's output on their systems over third parties and perhaps judge their systems based on their software despite there being strong titles from third parties worth playing. Right or wrong, fair or not, Nintendo is my main focus in this industry and my judgement on whether it was a good year or not for a console is largely based on what they released for it because it's likely a large chunk of what I'll actually be buying and playing (at some point).

16

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: March 28, 2024, 05:06:50 AM »

Especially in recent years where there's suddenly been all this Gamecube nostalgia and Nintendo fans declaring the Gamecube the greatest system ever made and how the Gamecube era was the best time, when it's like, are you fucking kidding me.

Recent years? The GameCube nostalgia was already happening after a couple of the Wii years. I know. I've been here and I've been part of it!  GameCube love has been happening through the Wii U and now. The demand for a GC VC has perhaps been a part of it but I'd say there's also another reason. There's a lot of GC software that hasn't quite been surpassed or is iconic. Like I mentioned about the Mario Party series. The Mario Party games that followed have been kind of off and never quite hit the mark like those games during its prime. F-Zero GX is the best game in that franchise and the last 3D F-Zero game. There's been nothing to surpass it since. Paper Mario:TTYD has been a rallying cry for some that want the series to go back to its RPG roots and keeps getting named as the best game in the series by a bunch of Paper Mario fans.

I believe Smash Bros. Ultimate should be the definitive game for tourneys and stuff going forward but Melee has hung on so long in that tourney sphere and people still can't quite quit it. Melee kept the GameCube controllers going through to today and probably played a factor in the system's legacy getting acclaimed while others soured on Wiimotes and the Wii U Gamepad. Around 2011 or 2012, this site did a tournament to declare the Best Nintendo Game of the past 12 years and Metroid Prime was the winner. Even now, Metroid Prime is often named favorite or best Metroid game by a lot of people when ranking the series or at least the best of the 3D Metroids which isn't a big list. Zelda is a mixed bag. BotW is my rank for number 1 but I still go to Wind Waker for Number 2. Twilight Princess also has its fans. That's why people keep hoping for those games to get ported to Switch. They made an impact with fans of the series and for those that miss the traditional Zelda style that BotW/Totk has deviated from those games are getting more nostalgia love.

There's a lot of sleeper software on the system that has its champions. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance was considered the top Fire Emblem game until Awakening came and gave the series greater popularity. Again, Ike in Smash Bros may have further helped keep that title in the minds of Nintendo fans. Chibi-Robo's GC has been that series best outing. The third game might possibly be better but Reggie committed the unforgiveable crime of not porting the game out of Japan after the second game was weirdly released in NA. Nintendo hasn't returned to Wave Race or 1080 snowboarding since the GC. Some still hope for Nintendo to follow up Eternal Darkness or to try porting that game. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat with bongos is still one of the oddest and so-insane-it's-genius games Nintendo's ever released. Another hidden gem is Battalion Wars. There was a sequel with Wii but it wasn't as highly regarded as the first and seemed to bomb sales-wise ending the potential series which is too bad since I like Battalion Wars over Advance Wars. (And here's something weird. I wanted to see how NWR ranked the two but there is no NWR review for BW2 despite the fact that Pale posted in a thread that Karl and him had both received review copies of the game. Way to let everyone down, guys! No wonder staff hardly get review copies now!  )

Even with some third party stuff, other companies seemed to have defining entries. Has Resident Evil ever surpassed the heights it seemed to hit with RE4? I don't follow the series well enough to know. Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2 seems to be stuck on the Cube with it never being ported or released anywhere else since. There's also RS3 but it wasn't as good as 2. Factor 5 would later go defunct thanks to betting on PS3 so they never surpassed 2. And Sega! The Super Monkey Ball series has somehow continued on all these years despite none of the newer entries surpassing the start of the series at this time with 1 & 2. Even Sonic seems to have had his last few good years at this time. For all their flaws, the two Sonic Adventure games (particularly 2) stay fixed in gamer's minds as some of the highlights of the series particularly in 3D. There's been some other well regarded games like Sonic Colors and Sonic Mania but the brand was much stronger at this time. (It would also crumble at this time with Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog ) Tales of Symphonia often seems to be named as the height of that series with maybe Phantasia or Vesperia as other candidates. That's why people were so upset with how botched the recent Namco port of it was which means the GC version is still the definitive way to play it. In fact, that's happened with a few GC ports in which the best way version is still the GC copy.

However, I didn't really want to get into third party software so much as my focus is more on Nintendo's output which is, what I believe, the original intent of this thread. When Dinar87 talks dry years, he's only talking about what Nintendo's released and not what third parties also released. Likewise, Nintendo's output was also the focus in my earlier post. It's why I've been in the Nintendo ecosystem for more than 30 years  ( that long already!) and have stuck with their systems whether it be a Wii U or Switch. It's their franchises and games that I love and I buy pretty much most of the software they put out unless I'm really sure it's not for me like Labo. I'm willing to give it all a fair shake like Wii Fit or Crosswords 3DS. That doesn't mean that everything is an instant winner or a favorite. That's why you see the discussions and arguments about what entries or games people think were well done and which ones weren't and why they think something why some games were more successful than others.

When it comes to the Switch, there will no doubt be titles people will want to see made still available in the future or that Nintendo might release for nostalgia / pleasing the fans like we've seen with the recent Super Mario RPG remake and coming TTYD port. Stuff like BotW, Odyssey, FE:Three Houses, Metroid Prime and even Luigi's Mansion 3 or possibly Smash Ultimate seem like instant candidates. But after that, I'm not so sure. Will there be people wanting Origami King or Yoshi's Crafted World or Kirby Star Allies and other such Nintendo Switch titles at that time?

17

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: March 26, 2024, 02:40:05 PM »

My wall of text aside, one thing I'd like to know from Dinar87 is what are the games/series from Nintendo that you are a fan of and that you want to see new entries for to get hyped? Are there some series you've never played or tried? Are there some you've tried but just don't care for?

18

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: March 26, 2024, 02:38:03 PM »

Meant to reply to this a couple days ago earlier but now is as good a time as any.

I agree somewhat with Dinar87 in that Switch has been an odd system for me and my feelings about Nintendo's efforts on it. It was late 2018 when I finally got the system. For me, I played Breath of the Wild on Wii U and so I have a bit of disconnect when thinking of it and Switch. Frankly, it was clearly supposed to be a Wii U game with Gamepad functionality and I wish it could have been released that way but that ship sailed long ago. I did quite enjoy Mario Odyssey and felt it the strongest Mario title since Super Mario Galaxy 2.

I was less enthused with seeing ports of NSMBU and Super Mario 3D World. 3D World is a bit more galling because they added Bowser's Fury which I'd really love to play but have never felt like paying for another copy of 3D World. Playing 3D World through with 4 person co-op did interest me as possibly making the purchase more worth it and different from my Wii U time with it but I'm not sure how easy it would be to wrangle up three other players from the community to set aside time to do that. We can't even get a co-op playthrough of Kirby and the Amazing Mirror happening.   It took near the end to finally get a new Mario platformer in Super Mario Wonder. I felt Super Mario Party was the best Mario Party game since probably Mario Party 8. Mario Party: Superstars wasn't the slam-dunk I thought it would be. It just sort of emphasized why my friends and I have often stuck with the GC games. All the orbs and capsules and variety of maps and strong minigames make them the strongest era of Mario Party games still. The Switch games have been unable to surpass them. Mario Kart 8 was pretty close to the same game that was available on the Wii U so it was kind of disappointing in that regard. It obviously greatly expanded on that version by adding all those extra courses over the last  year. Having not played Mario Kart Tour, it meant there were more fresh courses for me than perhaps others yet I'll admit to not really touching that content much as I had recently finishing playing through it and getting 3 Stars for all the Cups a couple months before the content was announced and had my fill of Mario Kart for awhile. Mario's also brought the sports over with Tennis, Golf, and Soccer. Nothing about those titles seemed to be considered a Must-Play or best of the series from what I have seen in fan reaction but they were solid enough entries once all the extra content was eventually added to them.

The one Mario I was quite excited for yet still have yet to touch was Paper Mario: The Origami King. I still get pumped for the Paper Mario series, however, I've also treated as something special in that I'm trying to space out and savor the series and not burn out on it. It's sort of like me and Professor Layton. I'd let a good three years go between each entry or so. I need to finally get around to Azran Legacy. I finished Miracle Mask back around 2020, maybe 2019. I'm ready for more Layton again. Likewise, I finally played through Paper Mario: Color Splash last year so Origami King is all that's left but still feels kind of soon for a new Paper Mario.

I believe that sums up the state of Mario on Switch releases. As for Zelda, there was another release of Hyrule Warriors which had already seen releases on Wii U and 3DS. There was a sequel to it with Age of Calamity, a game I'll forget exists until I think of the first Hyrule Warriors. Again, from comments I've seen about it, it just seemed like more Hyrule Warriors so if you liked the first then you should like the sequel but it didn't do anything knew to distinguish itself aside from the story setting and bringing in BotW characters to use. Skyward Sword was ported over but I finally played my Wii copy of that either before or around the time of the Switch port. Link's Awakening got the remake treatment. I have meant to play it a few times but keep dragging my feet since I've played the game so it's not exactly a new experience there either. In the end, Tears of the Kingdom will be the first fresh Zelda experience of the Switch for me yet I've held off from playing it since it came out. Partly, I've wanted to get other gaming things done before playing it before I commit to the weeks and months I'd expect to play it and also because seeing a lot of the same world being used has made feel it will be a bit of a let-down to the original BotW in which everything to see was brand new. I know there's been changes to the places seen in BotW and I wonder if it might give the feeling of visiting a town you spent years in and moved away and then came back to visit after sometime. You take in what's new and what's changed. There's still discovery but its not the same type of discovery as a new world. It's one of the things I've always like about Civilization games. Going out and exploring the new world that has been generated for a game. With Age of Calamity and Tears of the Kingdom, it also feels like it has taken over the Zelda brand and Nintendo is milking that for all the can but its also making Zelda feel a bit stale now. Its BotW themed or ports of older games. That just sort of adds to the boredom feeling you are likely talking about.

I'm glad that Metroid Dread got a release. The promise of Metroid Prime 4 made me more motivated to buy a Switch when Nintendo first released the system as it had been so long since MP3. It's been disappointing that after 7 years, there's been absolutely nothing has shown for it yet. Dread helped filled that Metroid craving and I think it's probably the best Metroid game since MP3 but I want to get back to some 3D Metroid again.

I agree that all the Wii U porting of Nintendo games has been disappointing but having 3DS and Wii ports now happening has just further seemed like Nintendo slowing down on new sequels. Even when they've done new sequels, the response has been that the Wii U stuff was better. Yoshi got Yoshi's Crafted World on Switch while Woolly World stayed on Wii U and 3DS but people have ranked the latter game as better than the former. Super Mario Maker 2 did not seem to have as much enthusiasm or love compared to the original on Wii U and 3DS. (At least, not the way this community talks about it on Discord.) Animal Crossing: New Horizon was a phenomenon yet I saw so much outcry from fans about it not being as full of content as New Leaf because Nintendo slowly added events / festivities to it over the course of a year. Now all that has probably been alleviated and it seems to allow for the most customization of things yet. But no one seems to care about it as much as New Leaf. It feels similar to Super Mario Maker 2 at this point. XC2 was not as loved as XCX or the original but XC3 seems to have been the better sequel but it took a long time for that better sequel to show up. Sort of like how Pikmin 3 got an early port to Switch and it was just last year that the sequel of Pikmin 4 was released. Practically 10 years after Pikmin 3 first came out. I haven't really gotten into the Splatoon scene but there, too, it just seems like no one feels 2 or 3 have done anything substantially better than the first game. It's just that Nintendo dropping events for a previous title has caused people to move on to the next. It's really living up to the reputation of possibly being Nintendo's answer to Call of Duty and getting the committed fanbase to move on and buy each new sequel without having to do much to expand the game. Just support the new title with events and let the old one wither away.

Smash Ultimate is an odd beast. Clearly, it lived up to its name of ultimate by having every fighter from all past games on the roster and has the most stages of any game. Yet, that also meant it didn't have a lot of new fighters added at first. Likewise, by bringing back mostly previous stages, it also felt a bit more derivative compared to past entries. It's like the next Mario Kart game having 95% tracks from previous games and 5% new. More new characters and stages did come to help create more uniqueness from past entries and freshen up the experience more but it also came at the cost of having to further pay more for that newness. I did pop in Ultimate one night as I flirted with the idea of playing through it for awhile and collecting spirits. I find that mode ok and perhaps it will win me over more when I get back to the game but gol-darn it! I miss trophies!! I understand Sakurai's reasoning on why it added more work and they saw it as unnecessary but to me the collecting of trophies is a core part of the Smash experience and why I play those games. I hardly do it for the multiplayer. Getting the trophies in Melee and seeing these various characters, items, and places and reading the blurbs about them helped get me curious about other Nintendo properties and seeking out past games and current games for these characters. I enjoyed seeing what new trophies would make it into the next game and the reminders of stuff I'd played in between Smash entries or had missed out on still. It's why I didn't care as much about collecting the stickers in Brawl. It's was just promotional art assets being used with no notes compared to the trophies. That's all the Spirits are for me in Ultimate. Just overused promotional artwork I've seen many times before. And that's my Smash rant for today. Thank you all for ignoring it again.

I did not get involved with Labo. The 1-2 Switch games have not been well received. NintendoLand was better for mini-game fun. WarioWare has two entries but WarioWare Gold or earlier entries like Twisted seem to still outshine those new entries on Switch. ARMS has been forgotten. Fire Emblem got two Fire Emblem Warriors games and those seem to have been forgotten as well. Engage was not as well received as Three Houses which you've brought up. Kirby Star Allies was a disappointment for many after Robobot. Kirby's Dream Buffet is nothing special either. Some people seemed to like Kirby Super Clash but I bounced off that game pretty fast. Forgotten World was pretty good but it straddled a line where sometimes I was asking myself "Do I actually like this game?". Pokemon got another remake of Red/Blue with Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee along with a remake/remaster port of Pearl/Diamond and Sword/Shield did not seem to get well received by the fans. But there seems to have been a rebound there with Legends: Arceus and Scarlet/Violet despite technical issues with the latter. Which seems to be part of a trend on Switch where a series might get two entries with one entry being good and the other lackluster.

In that regard, I'm with you Dinar87. Nintendo's output on Switch has been a very mixed bag for me based on my Nintendo gaming history. I also recognize that my situation is different for a lot of other Switch users. Many users could very well be in their teens and twenties and thus not have the back catalogue of games I do or will have played a bunch of these ports on a previous system already. Heck, the Wii U sales numbers indicate that the vast majority of Switch owners likely never played those ported Wii U games before. So, for them, the Switch experience will be totally different. For me, Nintendo's only had a small number of original games for Switch that were really great. Most others have been sort of average. Surprisingly, it has been the third party stuff that's been more unique to me. Having stuck in the Nintendo ecosphere for decades, having ports of all sorts of things like Katamari Damacy, Lumines, Grim Fandango, and Batman: Arkham Asylum that I've always wanted to try out has been great. It's those games that have been getting me to keep playing my Switch more these days. Indie stuff like Hollow Knight, Untitled Goose Game and even Suika Game have provided me with new engaging experiences to keep me invested in my Switch. And there's still so much more in those scenes I'd like to get to such as the recent Tomb Raider Trilogy (never played any of those games) or Cocoon.

Still, a lot of Indie stuff can be rather short and fleeting and third party stuff can lack that Nintendo polish and magic that keeps you wanting more. Nothing hits quite like the hype for a new entry in a Nintendo series you love that looks like it could be blast to play. A sequel to Endless Ocean is surprising but it doesn't hit the same for me compared to seeing a surprise announcement of a brand new 3D F-Zero with 8 Cups and 55 racers. I'm glad that the success of Switch has caused Nintendo to do some obscure porting like Famicom Detective Club and the Another Code games but that stuff is like the dinner rolls and gravy. Where's the sizzling T-Bone steak and twice-baked potato? Stuck in the oven waiting for Switch 2 to finish and so we have to stick it out with some appetizers and try to get hyped on that for now.

I'm definitely curious what Nintendo's software output will be for Switch 2. There's not a lot of Wii U Porting left. Will we see more GC, Wii and 3DS porting to make up for that or will Nintendo slow down on the porting? If they slow down on porting, does that mean original software for the system or just less output by them?

19

TalkBack / Re: Aspyr Media Accused Of Using Uncredited Mods In Star Wars Battlefront Collection

« on: March 22, 2024, 04:49:22 PM »

That is pretty dumb alright. I'd like to know what they think is offensive about NeoThunder.

20

TalkBack / Re: Aspyr Media Accused Of Using Uncredited Mods In Star Wars Battlefront Collection

« on: March 18, 2024, 05:23:09 PM »

What name? NeoThunder or something else?

21

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2024?

« on: March 13, 2024, 06:08:22 PM »

2024 feeling dry asf already. If we don't get a general nintendo direct in april like the rumors said then that's going be sooo bad.

I agree. With Paper Mario in May and Luigi's Mansion 2 in July, Nintendo is spacing out their releases more to every other month. Up to this point, their output has usually been releasing a game a month aside from the 2020 Covid year. Are they just going to try and port / remaster a couple more games to ride out the year (or whenever the Switch 2 releases) or leave it to third parties to fill in the year for software? Will they actually release a couple new games like Peach Showtime or hold that stuff back now for Switch 2? It's probably the right call to hold things back and make sure the Switch 2 is constantly getting new games added to its library to keep up launch momentum. I think Nintendo learned the value of that with Wii U and 3DS to an extent.

Personally, I've got so much in the backlog that I don't mind a slower year. I can pretend I'm catching up in that case but, at the same time, I do agree there's a weird paradox of not being excited to play games when it feels like there is nothing to get hyped about on the horizon. I don't know what it is about gaming specifically since I don't have that problem with other hobbies or media. It must be some kind of inadvertent behavior I trained into myself from all these years of playing games while always wanting to know the latest on what's next.

22

Movies & TV / Re: Khushrenada's Annual Oscar Thread. 2024 Edition.

« on: March 10, 2024, 11:23:09 PM »

And here's the list in a condensed format with none of my reasonings.

Best Picture - Oppenheimer
Best Director - Christopher Nolan
Best Actor in a Leading Role - Cillian Murphy
Best Actress in a Leading Role - Lily Gladstone Emma Stone
Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Robert Downey Jr
Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Da'Vine Joy Randolph
Best Original Screenplay - Anatomy of a Fall
Best Adapted Screenplay - American Fiction
Best International Feature - The Zone of Interest
Best Animated Feature - Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse The Boy and The Heron
Best Documentary Feature: 20 Days in Mariupol
Best Original Score: Oppenheimer
Best Original Song: What Was I Made For? (Barbie)
Best Cinematography: Oppenheimer
Best Costume Design: Barbie Poor Things
Best Editing: Oppenheimer
Best Make-up and Hairstyling: Poor Things
Best Production Design: Poor Things
Best Sound: The Zone of Interest
Best Visual Effects: Godzilla Minus One
Best Animated Short: War is Over!
Best Live Action Short: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Best Documentary Short: The Last Repair Shop


In the words of Wario, " Good luck.... to me! Wah hah hah haaa!"

Quick people! How did I do? The answer 20/23. A very acceptable score. I wish now I had gone with the Emma Stone choice in Best Actress. I was talking myself into it so much when doing my write up but chickened out because of some of the other risks I was taking. Still, I wasn't going to get 100% this year because I just didn't see The Boy and The Heron winning in Best Animated Feature. I knew Poor Things and Barbie were a 50/50 thing in Costume but just chose wrong there.

But never fear. With my score, I still beat the experts out there. Deadline was closest with 19/23. Indiewire had 18/23. Vulture, RogerEbert.com and GoldDerby had 17/23, AwardsWatch had 16/23 and Variety had 15/23. But, of course, the best victory was smoking my brother this year who had just 16/23. Now I too am Death, Destroyer of Oscar Pools.

23

Movies & TV / Re: Khushrenada's Annual Oscar Thread. 2024 Edition.

« on: March 10, 2024, 06:49:28 PM »

And here's the list in a condensed format with none of my reasonings.

Best Picture - Oppenheimer
Best Director - Christopher Nolan
Best Actor in a Leading Role - Cillian Murphy
Best Actress in a Leading Role - Lily Gladstone
Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Robert Downey Jr
Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Da'Vine Joy Randolph
Best Original Screenplay - Anatomy of a Fall
Best Adapted Screenplay - American Fiction
Best International Feature - The Zone of Interest
Best Animated Feature - Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse
Best Documentary Feature: 20 Days in Mariupol
Best Original Score: Oppenheimer
Best Original Song: What Was I Made For? (Barbie)
Best Cinematography: Oppenheimer
Best Costume Design: Barbie
Best Editing: Oppenheimer
Best Make-up and Hairstyling: Poor Things
Best Production Design: Poor Things
Best Sound: The Zone of Interest
Best Visual Effects: Godzilla Minus One
Best Animated Short: War is Over!
Best Live Action Short: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Best Documentary Short: The Last Repair Shop


In the words of Wario, " Good luck.... to me! Wah hah hah haaa!"

24

Movies & TV / Re: Khushrenada's Annual Oscar Thread. 2024 Edition.

« on: March 10, 2024, 06:38:40 PM »

And now, for those last three killers of many an Oscar Prediction pool: The Short Films.

Best Animated Short - War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko

My most cursed category. Year after year, I think this is the category I do the worst at and have a very low correct percentage on. I've seen none of the films nominated here. I have no idea what they're like. Just have to go on hearsay. Oddly, there seems to be an actual consensus when it comes to the Animated Shorts this year. Practically everyone is selecting this entry as the likely winner. The feeling being that having Yoko Ono and Lennon referenced in the title may cause more voters to select it. Cynical name dropping for the win. The only other choice I've seen floated is Letter to a Pig and it scares me because it touches on the holocaust and is about an animal. Two things I've said often seem to be catnip to the Academy voters in the Shorts category. Betting against a holocaust movie always seems like a sure way to lose a prediction point but I'm hoping the majority rule is correct here. Perhaps if I saw more of a split between the two I'd change my mind it's late in the day and I can't keep debating this stuff within me.

Best Documentary Short Film - The Last Repair Shop

From what I see, people are divided between this film and The ABCs of Book Banning. I could see Academy voters going with ABCs because of it being a hot topic but I'm trying something new in this category which is looking up reviews that I can find on them and more people seemed to emotionally enjoy The Last Repair Shop. It's a topic on music which does well in Oscar documentary subjects and has to do with the city of Los Angeles so it may appeal somewhat to the home crowd voting as well.

Best Live Action Short Film - The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

I've seen almost every nominee here get chosen by someone. No one knows what's happening here. In a rare case, I've actually seen one of these shorts and it is the one I'm selecting to win. I think the fact that Netflix was behind it, it has big names attached to it and Wes Anderson's style works well with Roald Dahl's story (see Fantastic Mr. Fox) will give it an edge in voting. That said, Red, White and Blue has gained also been a popular pick with some pundits due to it dealing on the theme of abortion which may sway voters more as the Academy will sometimes use the Short films to select stuff with a current political message.

And that's my picks!

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Movies & TV / Re: Khushrenada's Annual Oscar Thread. 2024 Edition.

« on: March 10, 2024, 05:44:20 PM »

And now for the really tough stuff. Usually I say there are a dreaded 6 categories. This year, it seems there are a dreaded 9 categories. All the people saying this year's Oscars are going to be boring with Oppenheimer dominating are forgetting these categories.

Best Visual Effects - Godzilla Minus One

Admittedly, I'm partial in choosing this one. Godzilla did get some recognition by the Oscars although it was just for this category. Yet, it may very well win this category and get at least one Oscar. It's biggest competition is The Creator. In a funny twist of fate, Gareth Edwards is the director of The Creator and he's the director of the 2014 Godzilla movie which launched the current USA Monsterverse. But now Godzilla may be coming from Japan to ruin The Creator's chances of winning. Unlike Godzilla, The Creator has a second nomination which is the Sound category. Clearly, there was some technical love for The Creator. I know when I saw the trailer for The Creator, I was impressed with how it looked and it seemed like it could be really neat sci-fi story. The effects seemed pretty impressive. When it released, though, it just seemed to garner a shrug from critics and audiences so I put off seeing. It is on my list of movies to see from 2023 still. On the other hand, Godzilla Minus One got a very positive reaction from critics and audiences and became the highest grossing Japanese film in the USA so people did see it. It also has a bit of narrative with it in that high profile Academy members like Spielberg and Guillermo Del Toro have talked up in the press how impressed they were with the movie and effects and how Toho Studios accomplished that on a small budget of 10 - 15 million. A lot of Academy members listen to their recommendations. Guillermo won Best Animated Feature last year for his Pinocchio movie. I'm hoping Godzilla Minus One can pull off the win here.

Best Sound - The Zone of Interest

Ugh. This will probably be a mistake I'll regret after. After I watched The Zone of Interest, I pretty much thought to myself that this movie should win for Best Sound because the sound effects play such a heavy part in the movie's atmosphere, mood and putting you in that same... zone as the characters on screen. It reminds me how I instantly felt Little Women should win Best Costume after I saw it which isn't something I'm normally considering in a movie but I was absolutely right on that one. The big issue is that most people seem to think that Oppenheimer will also claim this award as it sweeps along. Oppenheimer made a billion dollars. A lot of people saw it. Maybe a tenth of those people will have seen The Zone of Interest so I don't know how much voters will actually be aware of what a factor the sound is for that movie. There's also a weird stat that film editing and sound usually get rewarded for the same film. Until 2020, there were two Sound categories so sometimes a film that won Best Editing would win one or both of those sound categories. Going back to 2007, (17 years), there are 4 times that the winner for Best Editing didn't also collect an award for Sound. Three of those occasions happened from 2010-2012. The 4th was just last year. Everything Everywhere All At Once won Editing but Top Gun: Maverick won Best Sound. That makes sense as all the wooshing of jet planes stood out more in that movie. Also, it made a billion dollars so more voters were likely aware of its sound making it easy to award it separately. The rule is to usually go with what you think will win not what you think SHOULD win but, in this case, I just feel too strongly that Zone is the clear choice and I'm going with it.

Best Make-Up and Hairstyling - Poor Things

This category can be very easy or very tough. It's easy when a performer has been transformed to look like a real person and will likely win an acting award for their portrayal. Gary Oldman winning for Darkest Hour as Churchill also garnered a win in Best Make-up for Darkest Hour. The Eyes of Tammy Fay won for Jessica Chastain in Best Actress and in Best Make-up for helping her portrayal to look like her. Looking at the acting awards, Oppenheimer would seem like a good pick with two actors likely to win and for portraying real life people. But most people don't really know what those scientists looked like so the transformations may not seem that impressive. (Although I thought Einstein's look was on point!) Then there's Maestro which had a lot of discussion about Bradley Cooper's Make-up / Prosthetic use to look like Leonard Bernstein. The make-up had to help him depict different ages of his life. Yet, he seems unlikely to win in Best Actor plus there was some controversy about the nose being offensive to Jews. And there's Poor Things. Willem Dafoe's mad scientist look is flashy and stands out but is the rest of the cast that impressive? Although, there's a chance that Emma Stone wins Best Actress so perhaps Make-up ties into that possibility. And that's why this category sucks this year. I'm going with Poor Things on the basis that it getting more acclaim during Awards season while Maestro just kind of faded away. If Oppenheimer were to win here then it might be a big, big night for that movie.

Best Actress - Lily Gladstone

This is another one I've been ping-ponging back and forth on my opinion. It reminds me a bit of last year's Best Actress race. A possible historical first winner for the Academy in a highly praised role versus a previous winner putting in what's considered career best work. One difference, though, is that Cate Blanchett actually encouraged voters to vote for Michelle Yeoh and gave a less concerned attitude about winning a second Best Actress Award. I've seen nothing from Emma Stone along those lines so I think she's in it and hoping to win. Poor Things struck a note with the Academy to be the second most nominated film although Killers of the Flower Moon is right behind with one less nomination. Personally, I don't get the high praise for Gladstone. I didn't think there was anything that special or memorable about the role. On the other hand, Emma Stone's character is hard to forget. Likewise, Emma Stone was also highly praised for her work on a recent show called The Curse. It's not quite a one-two punch like Matthew McConaughey when he had Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective happening at the same time which created a lot of buzz on his acting ability. There's been a viewpoint that Gladstone is belongs more in the Supporting Actress category while Emma is clearly full main character in her film. Gladstone is a first time nominee. Sometimes the Academy is ok with that and sometimes they don't want to award someone on a first nominee. They may if the person has had a good body of work or well regarded resume but, looking at Gladstone's past work, I'm not sure that argument would work here. Gladstone did win the SAG award which indicates there could be a lot of support in the Academy for her to win but its no guarentee. Glenn Close won SAG and lost to Olivia Coleman who starred in The Favorite, Yorgos Lanthimos last film before Poor Things. Might he have directed another Best Actress win? Yet, the Academy may want to make history by giving Gladstone the win and sort of putting to bed it's 50 year old embarrassment with Sacheen Littlefeather although even that is debated on how much of a controversary it was not to mention it's fifty years old and many Academy members have probably forgotten it, know about it or care that much about it now.

By all accounts, it sounds like I should be picking Emma Stone based on the reasoning so far but I can't think of a time the Academy awarded someone an acting award for a role as sexual as Stone's. I've certainly seen a lot of comments from people thinking it was too much or made them uncomfortable. There's still a lot of older and traditional members in the Academy. Look at Green Book winning a bunch of Awards just six years ago. Gladstone's role is a bit safer in that regard. It's the possible divisive reception to Stone's role that I think may give Gladstone the edge which is why I'm choosing her to win. Obviously, I expect someone with the word stone in their to win tonight although that doesn't even touch on Sandra Huller who starred in two of the movies nominated for Best Picture this year and is a nominee in this category. Eye-yi-yi!

Costume Design - Barbie

The next two categories are considered coin flips between Barbie and Poor Things. No one seems confident in their choice for this category. I'm going along with the Critics Choice Award for Costume Design. In the past 15 years they've begun awarding this category, they've only missed twice with the Academy. It's a pretty good record and the designer of Barbie has won a couple times already so she may have some connections in the industry to drum up votes. The main argument seems to be whether the Academy will award the recreations of a lot of iconic outfits from Barbie's past or the uniqueness and originality of Poor Things costumes. Personally, I feel the outfits in Barbie registered with movie goers more with a lot of people wanting to recreate some of the looks in real life. To me, that strong reaction may also have occurred in the Academy so that might give Barbie the edge in voting.

Production Design - Poor Things

I've read some people say that this is the most wide open category where anyone could win but I still think it will come down between Barbie and Poor Things but maybe Oppenheimer plays spoiler. In a way, I'm hedging my bets by splitting Costume and Production between Barbie and Poor Things. Perhaps one will win both or perhaps I picked the wrong split. Barbie Land was a memorable world and set. A point in Barbie's favor is that it caused an international paint shortage for the color pink because so much was used on the set. That anecdote could seal the deal here. My problem is that Barbie Land was more an enlargement of various Barbie toys so it lacks a bit in originality although recreations can win in this category. The other negative is that aside from Barbie Land, the rest of film and it feels like half of it is spent away from Barbie Land in the real world where nothing seems that impressive about the set design. Poor Things on the other hand has a unique look and twisted fantasy setting that is prevalent throughout the whole movie. I think creating a complete fantasy like world from beginning to end might help Poor Things push it over the edge in voting for a win here.

I read someone arguing a stat that the winning film of Best Production usually gets a nom for Sound. I checked to see if that was true. Going back the past 14 years, there are three times in which a Best Production winner didn't have a sound nomination and a couple in which they only had one sound nomination between the two categories when there were two sound categories just narrowly keeping that stat a bit more relevant. It's definitely a stronger stat for the past 10 years. If it were to stay true now then Oppenheimer is the only Production nominee that also has a Sound nominee. Again, that could be a sign Oppenheimer will have an even bigger night than people are currently predicting but I'm going assume it doesn't quite put a complete chokehold on the proceedings. In one last tidbit, the Art Director's Guild does three Production Design awards so it makes it hard to assess who the Guild may favor. Yet for the category of Production Design for a Fantasy Film, it actually had Barbie face off against Poor Things in that same category and Poor Things came out on top as the winner. BAFTA also give it Best Production and though there record is spotty between their winners and Oscar winners, it could be a sign that international members of the Academy will favor Poor Things over Barbie in voting.