Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@ThanosReXXX Skiing... I've never done it, unfortunately. It looks like something I'd have a lot of fun with though. The snow... the scenery... the mountains!

Has anyone climbed a mountain? Even hiking one counts, because I did that a few years ago. I did Mount Kenya for a high school trip, and came within an hour of reaching the top. I didn't because I'd been struggling with altitude sickness, which at 4000m (13,000 ft) can really hurt you. Strangely the night before we tried to summit I had a great sleep.

Our group woke up at 2:30 and we set off. Quickly we all got tired, especially when we started going up slopes. It was absolute hell and within thirty minutes I began breathing as well as an asthmatic person. After two hours I stopped and turned back. Apart from the guys who did turn back or never set off, I didn't see the rest of the group until they trudged into the low altitude camp at 5:30pm.

Why wasn't I sad that I didn't summit? Because I had already done it two years before that trip.

@Anti-Matter @Tyranexx If any of you have read "The Book of the Year" you'll have seen a story where two cars were stopped in Spain, and when police opened them about two thousand oranges spilled out. A truck was filled with oranges, the entire space. All in all about four tons of oranges were seized by police.

@TheJGG
Oh, gosh... 😲
Btw, i will teach my students how to make red envelopes for Chinese New Year celebration from red buffalo paper on next week. You can see my post above the examples i have made it.

@Tyranexx Don't mean to @ you twice but on your comment about stealth in video games... Hideo Kojima managed to pioneer the stealth action genre. I can say this without having played a single Metal Gear game, because I'm playing Death Stranding at the moment. The main things to avoid are BTs (Beached Things), which are invisible supernatural beings made of anti-matter, pun very very intended. These things leave tar-like handprints on the ground, and the moment a BT consumes a human it creates a huge voidout, a crater of antimatter. I haven't worked out how to sneak up on BTs yet, but you can "kill" them by using a special tool to sever their connection to the living realm, by cutting their "umbilical cord".

The stealth element comes in at the start of the game, when you can't fight the BTs, only survive. Things like holding your breath (hold R1), crouching (O), and scanning for them (press R1) become available. But once you get grenades infused with the protagonist's blood (because the main character can return from the dead his blood is really reactive with BTs), you can fight back.

Other human enemies are MULEs (thieves) which steal your cargo, and Demens (terrorists), which try to kill you. MULEs only try to knock you out, but Demens have live rounds. It's highly discouraged to kill either a MULE or a Demen because their dead body will turn into a BT when timefall happens (it progresses time for objects it touches, after which it becomes normal water). So using non-lethal rubber rounds is more encouraged, and I've incapacitated many MULEs with shock rounds!

Jesus Christ it sounds like I've gone mad. But that's Hideo Kojima with zero restraints.

@Anti-Matter I saw them and they look great! I'm sure you'll teach them very well, you have a ton of passion and drive.

@TheJGG Skiing is most definitely a lot of fun, as is snowboarding. At least, if you don't mind spending the day outdoors in wintery surroundings below zero. Although, sometimes, when you're on top of the mountain, the sun can actually get pretty hot as well, so there's plenty of time to catch some rays as well.

And it also helps if you're a bit of a speed devil. In my humble opinion, there's just nothing like speeding along at speeds between 30 - 50 mph without any mechanical or electric assistance. When I first started skiing, I found it so weird, almost unreal, that as an average Joe, you could reach speeds like that simply by standing on a couple of carbon/aluminum 2 by 4s, sliding on snow, but I simply LOVE it, and it's both exhilarating and liberating at the same time. When the winter sports vacation is over, I'm completely spent, though. Probably also due to the much thinner air up there...

As far as other mountain-related activities go, I have done some hiking and light climbing, but never anything really along the lines of hanging on ropes and using pick axes to climb.

P.S.

Better not mention and/or link Anti in a post about zombies or anything else decidedly adult in nature. You'll be opening a Pandora's box and will end up in a sh** storm of the highest category.

@Anti-Matter I stopped watching CSI some time ago as well. Namely because it fell out of the local TV rotation. These days, I don't really watch TV. It is interesting to learn about some of the lengths people will go to when concealing their illegal activities.

Love the Chinese New Year cards! Year of the Ox huh? I'm a sheep/ram/goat, depending on the interpretation.

@ThanosReXXX Ah, so you don't ski as frequently as I figured. I'm sure it's a fun 10 or so days, but yeah...I can definitely sympathize with the soreness. The body doesn't seem to enjoy changing things up too quickly lol. It sounds like a very good workout!

@PokemonGirl99 Have fun! Platinum is one of my favorite Pokemon games. I love how they redesigned some of Sinnoh to make its climate better fit its real world counterpart (the island of Hokkaido in Japan), enjoy the story changes from Diamond/Pearl, and absolutely love the Distortion World's concept and master.

Also, while I appreciate you asking my advice on the Pokemon games, truth be told it's been several years since I've played many of them; the last one I played was Ultra Sun on 3DS over a year ago. I haven't even played any of the Switch games yet as I only picked one up just over a year ago and am still catching up on games lol. I've looked up much of the information provided to you via the sources I linked earlier in the thread (Serebii.net is a good choice, and Bulbapedia is also an excellent resource).

I don't mind helping out, but the internet has Pokemon resources that go far beyond my own knowledge much of the time.

@MarioLover92 I nearly played DKC 3 via Switch Online, but the door in my brain labeled "collector" wasn't having it and wanted to own the full Rare trilogy on my Wii U lol. I picked up the first DKC ages ago purely for nostalgia reasons. I played DKC 2 this past summer and bought it literally right before it was announced for NSO. XD I'm enjoying the game so far, but I am starting to think some warnings about the slower pacing were correct. I prefer to play as Dixie most of the time.

@Heavyarms55 I do like how they're adding these special tasks to different events. Makes them feel more special, and the rewards are (usually) worth it. I was a bit salty that I wasn't able to finish one of those tasks since there was Rare Candy attached. Oh well. My last research breakthrough was kind enough to give me x3 RC instead of the x20 Pokeballs the last couple of times. XD Due to item space, those more often than not get trashed.

@TheJGG FOUR tons of oranges? Well, at least someone isn't contracting scurvy anytime soon.....

I...admittedly haven't ever played a game directly influenced by Kojima. I know he's quite an industry name, but historically his games were either not on platforms I own or weren't what I was interested in. Probably the closest would be the Boktai games, and those only via references in the excellent Mega Man Battle Network games from 4 onward. I was really interested in P.T. for awhile there and wish Silent Hills had surfaced related to that before the whole Konami fallout.

I don't mind stealth in games if I feel they're suited for it, heck I've played and enjoyed a couple Assassin's Creed entries. I didn't even mind it in BotW much, but the OHKs were what really annoyed me even though I definitely could've cleared a room I was detected in if not for that. I've heard quite a bit about Death Stranding and would like to try the game at some point, but it'll likely be some time before that happens. Your description of BTs is intriguing indeed.

@Tyranexx Oh I didn't even realize that we could get rare candy from that, that would be much nicer!

@Tyranexx Yeah I can't blame you for getting them on Wii U, since you can have them for good. I have the DKC trilogy in cartridge form and on the Wii VC (not Wii U, just never bothered to upgrade most of my VC games). Since I play my Switch way more often these days and I happen to have Switch Online, it's easy access to those and other SNES games, lol. Some months ago I've been playing Super Mario All-Stars via NSO quite a bit for that sweet, sweet nostalgia trip. And I don't have to deal with my saves getting erased. My SNES cart of SMAS sadly had its saving battery drained.

Have you ever played Drill Dozer? It might peak your interest since it's made by Game Freak. I might give that game a shot one day, it's on the Wii U VC.

@MarioLover92
Oh, wait.
SNES games has battery inside cartridge ? 😲
Does it have limitation ?

@Tyranexx There seems to be some criticism that Death Stranding is far too complicated and repetitive, but I never understood where it came from. The story, the world building and the ideas presented, like Timefall, BTs and chiral matter, are really fascinating. I’ve never really encountered a silent gruff protagonist like Sam, but he has a nice development from what I’ve played through so far. The other characters are cool as well, like Fragile, Mama, Deadman, Die-Hardman...

Gameplay is polarising, you’ll find it either hauntingly atmospheric or repetitive. For me every delivery you make no matter how mundane it might seem, helps reconnect everyone. Things like descending down a cliff with a climbing rope and anchor, or erecting a ladder, feel oddly satisfying. Plus, you’re not alone. There’s asynchronous online mechanics, which allow other players’ structures to enter your world.

Combat can be a little wonky but that feels like the point; that you’re used to delivering stuff, not knocking out MULEs by thwacking them over the head with a briefcase. The encounters with BTs are terrifying even if you have enough weapons to get rid of them.

The music is also awesome. It goes less for melody and more ambiance, and it pays off. Kojima also licensed some preexisting songs from artist that I didn’t even know at all. Search up the songs by LOW ROAR, some of them are so good. These songs also have an ambient feel and would be good for concentrating!

It takes time, but it’ll be a really beautiful experience.

@Anti-Matter Yes, that battery is basically used for keeping your save files intact. Many old games (like those for NES, SNES, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, etc.) back in the day had batteries inside to save progress.

In my case for Super Mario All-Stars, me and my other family members have played it so much, that it ended up draining it. That caused the save files for all four games to be deleted. The same thing happened to a friend of mine from high school back in the day. He booted up Pokemon Yellow and it turned out that his save file is gone. Again, it's because the save battery had ran its course.

@ThanosReXXX I love speed, I'd argue more than is safe for ordinary humans! On heat, I'm no stranger to that, during that trip when we were around 11,000ft, I had to take off two layers of clothing during the day, and put it right back on a few hours later. Of course, I knew better than to let my skin get exposed to the sun, it was downright harsh. Sometimes when there would be copious amounts of fog that would engulf the area, it would get really cold, but as soon as it lifted it became much hotter again.

The scenery on the mountain was also unbelievably pretty. On the trail (2500m) leading up to the national park gates, it was abundant with trees, a lot of grass, and it was even a little hot. When we entered the park we noticed that the entire area was covered in tussock grass, almost a puffy kind of bush. It was nice to sit down on, unless it had rained. On my first trip we camped right by a lake, and it was extremely picturesque. When we got above four thousand metres we started seeing these plants, almost looking like cacti, but without spikes. There was a surprising amount of vegetation up there, but of course after we left the highest camp it was just rocks.

I was extremely lucky to do it twice! Really blessed for the opportunity.

End-note, I should have broken both my feet during those trips, because I kept twisting my ankles when I stepped on rocks. How I didn't injure myself I don't know.

@MarioLover92
Wow, i cannot imagine to consider SNES games on this year as i believe most of SNES games has lost its battery's energy due to aging. 😕
How did you solve your Mario All Stars SNES issue ?

@Anti-Matter But you can just change the battery yourself and the cartridge will be holding saves for another 15-20 years. Even more! You don't even need soldering.

You should be afraid of the DS and 3DS games where once the memory is done there is no way to change it and the cartridge will never save again. But that is only a theory as it could last longer than a human lifespan

@Tyranexx

Yeah... seeing as I'm just an average Joe, I lack the funds to go 4 times, like the more fortunate people do...

So, a ram, huh? Guess we'd get along just as well in real life as well, then.

@TheJGG Well, that does sound interesting, but also like something that I would sooner have done when I was a couple of decades younger.

Nowadays, I'll just stick to a casual stroll, or a brisk walk. Or skiing, of course. Let nature and gravity do the work for me, so to speak...

@Zuljaras You shouldn't say things like that when I've just recently bought a couple of new 3DS games. (Well, new: for me, at least)

I made it to the final boss on dead cells and died really got bodied. any way I would like some tips on how to get there on top of beating him, thanks in advance.

@ThanosReXXX The 3DS uses better memory I think. Still there no records of memory stopped working unless it was faulty which will either not work at all or it wont save at all right from the start.

And I don't even know why I am still giving him advices and offer help when he still acts like a little spoiled girl.

@Snatcher Erm... what boss in what game?

@Zuljaras You do know I was just kidding, right?

I'd better not comment on the rest of your reply...

@ThanosReXXX I did not know sorry

What games did you buy for the 3DS?