Recent Posts

21

Movies & TV / Re: All Things Netflix! Coming Soon: The Netflix Experience, Live and In Person!??

« Last post by broodwars on September 21, 2025, 10:50:55 PM »

Well, I recently revived one topic that had been left dead for much of a year, so how about another?

Taking a bit of a break from gaming after some more stressful sessions of late, so finally got around to watching Stranger Things: Season 1. Heard a lot about this show over the years, but just never felt like getting into it. That said, I had picked up the Seasons 1 & 2 Target BluRays when they were on sale years ago (for, like, $15 each IIRC), so now seemed as good a time as any.

Overall, it's a good show so far. I'd heard a lot about "key jangling" and " 'member-berries" when hearing criticism of it, but I didn't really see that with this first season. Aside from a really out of place vintage coke ad, I didn't think the nostalgia-baiting was particularly egregious.

I'm somewhat amused at how much this show rips off of Twin Peaks and Silent Hill, between the "tragedy in a small town gradually rips a town apart" angle and the "dark parallel universe full of monsters that can invade the real world".

That said, I didn't like Eleven as a character. For one thing, her character is a Sci-Fi cliche, being the "psychic child raised by the government on the run and fleeing recapture". For another, she's just too damn powerful way too quickly. She's basically an instant-win button in every scene she appears in, and it just annihilates any stakes. She goes from basic telekinesis to popping a dozen soldier heads in the span of a handful of episodes. It's just too much, and I'd have appreciated at least in this first season a bigger focus on the core boys. Maybe she could have been introduced later, but right from the start it's just too much.

I could have also done without the love triangle, but I've seen far worse from Netflix in recent years (oh hi Locke & Key). I thought Winona Ryder was excellent in her role, and the Jack Nicholson impersonator playing the Sheriff did well also.

On a side note, as I mentioned I'm watching these 1st few seasons from my BluRays. Yes. I have Netflix, but I bought these once upon a time so I might as well watch them. Well, some genius decided that before you are allowed to watch a single episode of the first disc of the 1st season BluRay, you need to sit through 5 minutes of unskippable Netflix trailers...including a very spoiler-iffic trailer for Season 2 of Stranger Things.

What the actual ****, Netflix? 

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

« Last post by Stratos on September 21, 2025, 02:59:58 AM »

I can't imagine it'd go over well, but imagine an accessory that lets you connect your Switch 1 to your Switch 2 and use it as a DS. 🤣

Funny how that is a built in launch feature for the S2 now. When they bring 3/DS games to the service you know an option will be to pair with another S2 or a S1 for the second part of the screen in your hand.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Music

« Last post by toripic4 on September 19, 2025, 04:25:30 PM »

Still no music from the Xenoblade series right? 

yes

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Music

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on September 18, 2025, 04:53:32 PM »

Still no music from the Xenoblade series right? 

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TalkBack / Re: Switch Online Expansion Pack Breaks Glass, Unleashes Virtual Boy

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on September 18, 2025, 04:51:56 PM »

As a fan of anything with stereoscopic 3D, I am super excited that this is coming out. This will be what finally gets me to sign up for the expansion pass online.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« Last post by Stratos on September 17, 2025, 01:15:32 AM »

KPop Demon Hunters. OMG I was floored by this film. I heard it was really good so planned to watch it eventually, but my daughter's friends are all into it and she's asking about it so I decided to vet the movie before showing her (she's 4 and can be sensitive to more intense things in shows). I was taken like I have not been by an animated film in a long time. The music is catchy, the characters interesting, and the animation is phenomenal. Its by the Spiderverse studio so very much in that vein. I also love how it unabashedly embraced Korean culture and mythology. While checking out the credits I was impressed by how many Korean folks worked on the movie. And it didn't feel forced like some modern "diverse Disney" takes. This is how you push diversity and inclusion in films. I am excited to see where the studio goes with new projects and where they take a potential sequel because I can see a lot of room for something more to come of it.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 943: I'm Seeing Double Here, Four Virtual Boys!

« Last post by Lemonade on September 15, 2025, 09:23:45 AM »

This kind of episode is always great. Not just regurgitated news like some other podcasts, but some very entertaining and interesting discussion along the way.

Gui mentioned me in this episode with a quote about Dinkum having snow, but I think it was actually Rabicle who said that on the discord

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TalkBack / Re: Next Nintendo Direct To Air September 12

« Last post by Khushrenada on September 14, 2025, 04:49:37 AM »

That was one of the most content packed directs filled with one of the largest variety of Nintendo published games.  The fact that many people are acting like nothing was shown, has just once again shown how badly the internet has rotted the minds of many gamers. 

Over 10 years ago we would have been lucky to even see half the number of games in a single direct, and most Switch era Directs didn't have this many games.  Yeah at this point I need to stop even lurking message boards because there's nothing worth reading.  It's nice to see a few reasonable people try to talk sense, but they sadly get drowned out by the never ending wave of cynical assholes who'll never be satisfied, or just blatant trolls that have nothing better to do with their lives.

I'm not sure I'd attribute it to just internet brain rot. I think it's more likely a symptom of like tribalism and/or entitlement. And what I mean by tribalism is sort of like sports. You could ask a person if they are a sports fan and they may say yes but that doesn't mean they like all sports. They may like baseball and hockey but hate basketball and be disinterested in tennis or golf, for example. Likewise, people watching the Direct may say they are a gamer or even a Nintendo fan but that doesn't mean they then like every game that's made or care about every Nintendo game that the company develops. Even the sports fan who likes baseball and hockey may then only really care about a handful of teams which they root for or consider themselves a fan of. If a game is played with other teams they don't care about then they very well may not bother to watch that game because they just don't feel much interest in the outcome. Even though there could be 10 to 12 baseball games being played during the day they may likely only be interested in watching or seeing the outcome of 1 or 2 of those games and sort of write off the rest of those offerings.

Most gamers commenting probably have a couple genres or series they gravitate towards more and are bigger fans of than other genres and series out there. Thus, for them, when they are watching a Direct, they are looking for those specific games that line up with their specific taste. Let's take the scenario of a gamer that's heavily into something like Call of Duty, Destiny 2 and Overwatch. They've spent hours and hours on those games. Watching this Direct and seeing a trailer for Tamodachi Life is probably not something they are going to care about or an announcement that lines up with their gaming interest. It's going to be a tough sell to try and open up their mind into giving that game a chance or make it seem worth their time. That's where the entitlement part comes into. What was shown that interests me specifically.

And I'm guilty of that mindset too. There were times when a game or news item was being shown in the Direct that I was immediately writing off because I just did not have interest in it for whatever reason. So, then you just feel a sense of waiting for the announcement to be done with so that it moves onto the next thing in the hopes that will give the dopamine hit you are looking for. After a few times of having that waiting feeling, it begins to seem like there is more of stuff you don't care about than stuff you do and then you get comments of people saying there nothing shown. (But seriously, if you want to see a Direct with hardly anything shown, revisit the 2020 Directs. Bakugan, anyone?)

And to me, it feels like two things can be true. When watching the Direct, I acknowledged what Luigi Dude is saying here regarding the amount of games in the Direct and even the amount of third party content being shown. With this Direct and the one in April revealing the Switch 2, it's kind of wild to see this much software being announced and brought to a Nintendo console. Back when the Switch was first launching, some people were throwing out predictions it could be Nintendo's last console because how were they ever going to win third parties back to their hardware after so many had seemed to abandon their hardware. There was some merit to that question. To go from that point to where we are now with the Switch and with what things are like for Switch 2 is quite incredible.

Watching this Direct combined with the April one, I had this impression of just seeing Nintendo being to really dominate the videogame landscape or at least the non-PC side of it. The Resident Evil news at the end brought back GameCube era comparisons when Nintendo got the same type of third party releases as Sony and Microsoft. We've hashed out before how in the past 30 years, the GameCube has been looked back on a bit more fondly because of the some of the third party support it got compared to the other Nintendo home consoles during this time. Now, at this present moment in time, I feel that third party support on GameCube has been blown away with how much third party offerings have appeared on Switch and Switch 2 is already looking like it could surpass what Switch 1 was able to accomplish with what it has been able to show already.

With that said, here comes the but. But..... for myself, Resident Evil games have never interested me. Much like how I am disinterested and probably prejudiced against the vast majority of horror films made and released, that series and type of game has mostly no appeal to me. I've never even tried Resident Evil 4 after all these years despite it often being considered the best GameCube game by some critics and fans. So, on the one hand, the announcement kind of felt like the end of this long-time sort of separation by third parties of skipping Nintendo consoles with their current and new offerings to the benefit of Sony and Microsoft and yet, on the other hand, it also didn't mean much to me and sort of felt like nothing. I did think how there were a couple people I know who play RE may be anticipating the game but then it was kind of forgotten until talking about it now and seeing this post.

Overall, there weren't many game announcements that highly excited me. I'll make another post in regards to my personal highlights. In comparing the two Directs of April and September, Donkey Kong Bonanza and Mario Kart World remain at the top of my Switch 2 wishlist for when I get that console. The question of whether to get Prime 4 now for Switch or save it for Switch 2 also looms. Meanwhile, Sakurai has gotten me more hyped up for a Kirby Air Riders game than I expected to be. I'm looking forward to spending another fireside chat Direct to hear him expound on the game. Been really thinking of taking my GC copy of Kirby Air Ride and giving it another go to really dig into what it contains after last trying to do so at least some 15 years ago. With Silksong now out also, that was another hyped game that was kept from this second Direct. Based on those first reveals compared to the first reveals we got in this Direct, I can see why this Direct may have a more mixed reaction although I also don't mind feeling like it may be easier to keep waiting a bit longer before plunking down some money and jumping into the Switch 2 ecosystem so I'm not going to complain about it that much either.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« Last post by broodwars on September 13, 2025, 12:41:35 AM »

Eh...what the hell...

Haven't been to a movie in years, but my local theater was showing a 1 night only run of the Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle movie, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Anime movies never come to theaters this close to me. It's usually Disney and Universal picking those up.

This movie is the direct continuation of the 4th season of the show, and is the first of 3 movies concluding the series. It's also 2.5 hours long, with an extra half hour tacked on for the usual set of trailers. I was absolutely exhausted by the time I got out of the theater. While we didn't have a packed house, we didn't have an extremely receptive audience who were absolutely captivated.

In general, this was an excellent popcorn action movie, though unfortunately it carries both the strengths and the low...low weaknesses of the series. The animation is absolutely amazing...mostly, per Ufotable standards, with extremely fast and detailed fight choreography just jam-packed with elemental effects and constantly moving backgrounds. This is a gorgeous movie to watch, and I look forward to seeing the completed version on home video considering you can see the exact moment when the money ran out and the still frames came in.

Sony made a big deal about stunt casting Channing Tatum as a somewhat major flashback character, and I found him just passable in that role. Sony could have saved a lot of money and gotten the same or better performance out of one of Bang Zoom's other legendary performers.

The big issue with the film, as is usual for Demon Slayer, is with the writing. It's a Shounen series, so you have the usual array of ass-pulls when fights are getting too one-sided, but an issue that's always bugged me with Demon Slayer (and Bleach too, for that matter) is the formula:

*character fights villain*
*villain gets upper hand*
*villain monologues about how powerful they are*
*character has a flashback that inspires them to suddenly develop a new power*
*character kills villain*
*villain gets lengthy backstory as they die*

Not counting multiple times this happens in a single fight (I swear, Tanjiro's fight has at least 3 runs of this cycle*, I counted at least 3 times throughout the film that this happens, and it gets increasingly grating as the fights drag on. It all culminates in a demon backstory that I swear to god had to be at least a half hour long, if not an hour long. All this, right in the middle of a fight, and the demon wasn't even dead afterwards.

And when the final fight is over, the movie just...stops. It has to. There are 2 more of these things, and they all take place in this castle.

It's just an exhausting movie to watch, though the audience did a lot to make it a fun watch, particularly with Zenitsu's gratifyingly short fight.

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TalkBack / Re: Switch Online Expansion Pack Breaks Glass, Unleashes Virtual Boy

« Last post by Adrock on September 12, 2025, 02:16:09 PM »

The frustrating thing is that they had a system on the market for years that had glasses free 3D and they didn't re-release these games then.

The Red Viper emulator for modded 3DS’sesses is really good: makes use of the 3D slider, can be played 2D, has save states, and offers color palettes. It’s holding me over until I can fully mod my Virtual Boy.

But the approach they're going with is laughably greedy for a product that's notorious for being a huge bomb.  Will they even sell a thousand of these things?

Brother, have you met Nintendo fans? 😂