Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Snatcher A ways to go in regards to what exactly?

@ThanosReXXX Till I pop out of this world.

@Snatcher Ah, that. Well, not to freak you out or anything, but as with all things in life, there is no fixed plan so we may never know. Even at the current age difference (I'm a demi-centennial), I might still outlive all of you, depending on how the chips may fall.

One simple example is that over here, we don't have such extreme weather conditions, so dying during an extreme winter period is virtually impossible, whereas 8 feet of snow in large parts of the States just seems to be your average winter wonderland.

And there's no earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis and so forth. All we get over here is wet feet because of the odd overflowing river, every now and then.

@ThanosReXXX Ya LOL.

So uh crash 4 is hard.

Quick question about Megaman Star Force DS.
What are the differences between Leo, Dragon & Pegasus ?
Do they have exclusive contents like Pokemon games ?
I personally choose Pegasus version as i like Blue color of the art cover.

@ThanosReXXX Spencer is kind of like Miyamoto in some ways, isn't he? I never put the similarities between the two together! I like that Phil isn't just another stuffy CEO who's in it for the salary and prestige. He seems like he genuinely enjoys his job and puts his all into it.

I did skim the list you linked, and a few titles did catch my eye. On the whole though, I think of the two high-powered horses last gen, I'd probably grab a PS4 over a XB One. The exclusives are only part of the equation, however; time and budget also certainly factor in. To be honest, I watch almost no TV these days, but the few ads I see that aren't tied to my YouTube history/our Google overlords are either shooter or sports-related. Though I do believe I've seen a Forza commercial. I suppose it's because the former two genres are more "mainstream" and are the kinds of things the more casual audience gravitates to.

I do intend to dive into some portly 3D plumber action before TOO long...hopefully. I've played both Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy in some format, but Sunshine will be a completely new experience. It's another one of those "Dang, I wish I had access to a GameCube back in the day" situations....And no, still no family Wii. Probably not until my sister and her fiancee get hitched later this year at least, as I'm told they play Wii Sports every now and again.

@MarioLover92 Thanks! I'm not sure if I want to play through the three titles on offer in SM3DAS in chronological order or just kick things off with Sunshine, but that isn't a decision that needs made for a little while yet! XD SM64 is the most recent one I've played as I dug into the N64 version on the Wii U VC a few years ago. I enjoyed the experience much, MUCH more than the DS version.

I do recall that there was a test run for Splatoon 2 a few years ago, but I was unfortunately Switchless at the time. I also only just started subscribing to NSO a couple of months ago just for the backups (Still kinda salty about how Nintendo handles backing up saves, but I won't jump into that), so I also would've missed any sort of trials over the past year. Also, ice cream > cake, though both are excellent.

Pokemon Omega Ruby is, in my fully biased opinion, the better version of the two Gen 3 remakes. Groudon and Team Magma's story arc trump Kyogre and Team Aqua in my book. Have fun! I picked that one up as well.

@TheJGG Okami shares other similarities to the Zelda series besides having a companion character, namely with the dungeons and, in a sense, gated areas until you progress with the plot. Issun can admittedly be a bit pervy at times - one reason the game is rated T/PEGI 12 - but I did find him cute, interesting, and mildly annoying at times lol. The art style is gorgeous, and even today I find the brush technique to be a fun and unique mechanic. I do occasionally listen to parts of the soundtrack, too. RIP Clover Studio.

You've contrasted Midna and Fi quite well. The "machine becomes human" approach for the latter is fine, but I really wish she'd been given more character development. As you noted, there were few if any signs that pointed to this transition until that last scene. At that point, it just felt awkward and out of place. At least for me. From thumbing through both Hyrule Historia and Art & Artifacts, Fi definitely went through multiple concepts and iterations. To be frank, I'm not entirely sure they found it. Heck, I'd argue her foil, Ghirahim, has way more character development.

Dang...that opening cinematic for Death Stranding is really well done! There's the occasional hint that it isn't fully real, but they did a heck of a good job with the realism there. To be honest, I haven't gotten around to any realistic games in the last couple of years. My brief time with the streamed version of Control probably comes closest, but I'm not sure if that counts lol. Which reminds me, I really need to pick up Hellblade: Sinua's Sacrifice....

On SM3DAS: Normally, I would've waited at least a few more months to pick up a first-party title as they usually stick around for at least a couple of years unless the audience is quite niche. However, Nintendo setting an end date on its availability definitely lit a fire lol. I was holding out hoping that they'd announce individual eshop releases or something, but I finally bit the bullet. XD

Previously, I "chose" a console due to budget reasons, though that isn't quite as much of a factor anymore; I do stick to a gaming budget, however. Nowadays, it has more to do with time than anything else. I have enough stockpiled games in my Switch and 3/DS libraries to keep me busy for at least a year at my current play rate without picking up anything new, maybe closer to two years. And that's not counting a small handful of Wii U and 3DS digital and VC titles I'd like to pick up before their eshops inevitably shuts down. I really would like a PS5 due to the sheer amount of Sony exclusives available through backwards compatibility, but scarcity aside I really don't believe I have the time to invest in another system right now. Hopefully in the future, though it'll be interesting to see how this gen starts playing out.

@Anti-Matter First of all, I'm glad you're interested in picking up a Mega Man Star Force game! I enjoyed all three games (well, at least one version of each), though I do prefer the Mega Man Battle Network series. Star Force is a continuation of that series 200 years into the future.

If I recall, there aren't really any differences related to the plot besides which of the satellite creatures you fight/can combine with (Leo, Pegasus, Dragon) and a few battle cards exclusive to each version. You're only stuck with the one fusion unless you befriend someone (called a "Brother") with a different version however; then you should be able to use a battle card for that fusion from the friend's game as well.

Also, each of those three creatures has an element:
Leo - Fire
Pegasus - Ice
Dragon - Wood

@ThanosReXXX
pork chops are manly
@TheJGG
see above

@Tyranexx
I personally have interest with Star Force and EXE character design, looks modern than first Megaman.
But gosh... The Star Force games are really expensive on Ebay. 😩

Btw, i have never knew if Megaman EXE have a lot of versions on GBA. (4, 4.5, 5, etc) 😮
Also, are the GBA and NDS version never got rerelease / compilation on newer machines ?

@Tyranexx I played the games in chronological order, just felt right to me and I had prior experience with those games too. Starting out with Sunshine is a good idea IMO, since it'll be your first time playing. And yeah, I prefer the N64 original over the DS remake. I like the extras that they've added, but the controls didn't sit well with me, even on the 3DS (though the circle pad did feel better on the thumb). I was totally unaware of the wrist strap that came with the original DS too, specifically how you use it on the touch screen for full 360-degree movement. If only I realized that as a kid, lol. Would've enjoyed 64 DS more that way.

Yeah, the save data cloud is one big reason why I'm subscribed to NSO. I'm happy it exists at all...at least with most of the games I have for my Switch. Got a lot of mileage from playing with my friends from NL's New Horizons thread too! I run a family membership as well, so everyone in it will be saving some cash. I like both cake and ice cream as well, but like you I think I like the latter just a little more. lol

Thanks! You got ORAS recently? And yeah, I picked Omega Ruby over Alpha Sapphire since 1) red is my favorite color because of you-know-who, and 2) Groudon looks cooler, lol.

@Anti-Matter You're probably already aware of this, but if not: the Battle Network and Star Force games aren't platformers like most of the other Mega Man series. They're interesting RPG/card battler hybrids. They're also two of the most recent Mega Man series, though both the Mega Man Zero and Megaman ZX series were also on the GBA and DS, respectively.

That doesn't surprise me that they're expensive. To my knowledge, none of the Star Force games have been rereleased; I don't think the series was as popular, and its corresponding anime only had two seasons. The entire Battle Network series received digital releases on the Wii U Virtual Console, but that's it. Otherwise, I would have never played the first two games lol.

Starting with Mega Man Battle Network 3, Capcom took the Pokemon approach and released at least two versions of each game. Like Pokemon, there are some item exclusives, exclusive Double Souls/Fusions from 4 onwards, and minor plot changes, but nothing too drastic. Most of the main storylines are the same.

@MarioLover92 Funnily enough I had that wrist strap once, but after the OG 3DS it was pretty much ignored. I think I've mentioned this before, but the controls for Super Mario 64 DS killed the game for md. There were other issues too, but that was the big one. The N64 ROM controlled a lot better on the Wii U even if many of the stages were coated in invisible butter.

To keep this concise: I'm glad Nintendo offers an online save data backup option, and it totally makes sense to pay them for the storage and server upkeep. My problem is it's the only (legal) option. Online backups are all well and good, but I like making local backups as well. This was an option with previous systems even. I (kind of) understand their anti-cheat logic, but the few who would cheat on their saves always find another way lol.

I also picked up NSO for the online play in prep for Monster Hunter Rise. I'm avoiding the retro games for now; while a nice perk, even with the dripfeed of games, that's a retro rabbit hole I don't want sucked into right now. XD

I've had Omega Ruby for some time; I think it's the last Pokemon game I played near its release. XD I'm kind of behind and haven't played the Switch entries yet. Overall I prefer Groudon's design, and Hoenn is so full of water types that battling Team Magma's fire Pokemon is a nice chance of pace. IGN gets ridiculed for the "7.8/10 Too Much Water" review, but to an extent I agree with that assessment....

Oh God here's another one of my text walls. I wanted to get this out six hours ago but I stalled too much. @JaxonH Let me as well offer my thoughts; glad you've managed to get through that difficult phase, and have found a seemingly massively productive calling in videogames and investing. You've made a ton already, so good on you!

@ThanosReXXX I'm inclined to agree that modern Western culture has become much more sensitive, in the wrong kind of ways. The sixties and seventies had such casual and promiscuous culture that in today's society would be unacceptable in any metric. I know you don't like F1 but there was a driver in the seventies, James Hunt, who was a stereotypical playboy. Really laid back attitude, loved hanging around young women, but was fiercely competitive. If he did the things he did, today, he wouldn't have a career.

I’ll point to the Austin Powers films, which highlight very candidly the culture of the sixties compared to the nineties. Austin himself is a gentleman spy, who has a very promiscuous nature as well. He can exercise this in the sixties but when he is cryogenically frozen for thirty years, and awoken in 1997 he not only has to deal with the culture shock of the end of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall falling and otherwise, he also has to work with a new female partner that doesn’t respond to his behaviour as well as his previous one did.

If a male were to compliment a female, the immediate so-called Social Justice Warrior go-to line would be "you're a simp", which is extremely derogatory towards both parties. It implies that a female is only getting complimented because of their looks, and suggests that the average male is nothing more than an animalistic fool. I don't do this, for example. If someone's work is very good I'll tell them so but if it's not I'll give constructive feedback. There are, however, men, or males I've encountered that tend to prefer complimenting women over men, and without a doubt I can say that they were only complimenting the woman because they were female. Despite the seeming hypocrisy behind it, I’m personally not tolerant of this kind of behaviour, because it undermines actual work and focuses on something so unbelievably superficial and highly subjective like looks.

I’ve been preaching that people should get a life as soon as I was old enough to be able to say so. The average human is so oversensitive that any kind of insult, even if it was directed as a joke, would be taken a number of different unintended ways. Nowadays I feel apprehensive about making a joke about someone because if they do take it the wrong way I’m at their mercy. If people don’t buckle up and prepare for the salt, they’ll end up dying of salt overdose.

Comedians have been at the front of this argument; I remember watching an interview with a comedian (unfortunately don’t remember his name) that described how he was invited to do some stand-up comedy in a college in London. He was given an explicit set of rules of what he could or could not say, giving him virtually zero room for jokes that were legitimately funny. Of course at times there’s better ways to laugh than at people’s expense but when Ricky Gervais insulted Martin Scorsese, I laughed very hard, “Martin Scorsese said the Marvel movies are like theme parks, I agree, though I’m not sure what he’s doing hanging around theme parks, he’s not tall enough to go on all the rides,” compared to when Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did the same thing a year prior, and were so afraid of pissing someone off that they just labelled him as “the shortest man with tiny glasses” or something. I watched the Golden Globes a few weeks back and those two were not funny. They felt like puppets, strung along by the marionette masters of Hollywood.

And to wrap up, it took your comment to make me realise why the two series were so different. The Japanese work ethos is far different from that of the Western one, and I’d like to think it shows. I don’t know specifically how it works but if anyone can tell me, like @Heavyarms55 because of your experience in Japan, I’d very appreciate it.

@MarioLover92 In response to @Tyranexx’ comment about playing the Super Mario 3D All-Stars games in chronological order, I did that at first, starting with 64, but as soon as I finished that and began Sunshine I abandoned Sunshine. I’ve likely made about five posts about why I don’t like Sunshine:

Sunshine Mario controls feel... meh. The FLUDD is overused and we lose some moves that would have fit right in, like a long jump, or a dive. The controls feel a bit laggy, either that or I control him too fast, because doing things like triple jumps are really hard because the timing’s out of whack. That and the awful frame rate means your response will be slow compared to what’s on screen.

The whole game is a mess and honestly I have zero clue why I ever feel motivated to try and advance further into it. Anybody have a problem with Ricco Harbour? Because the third Shine Sprite (the one that's caged) is an absolute nightmare that was so ridiculous that it put me off the whole game for two months, and only just finished it. The level design there is so tight, and doesn't suit the Switch controls at all. Furthermore when battling the paint plant creatures (forgot their real name), these small creatures keep popping up and disrupt my progress against it. There's no way to shoot the plant's mouth unless I enter the "shooter" mode which stops me from moving in a 360 degree pattern. I died due to this and here I am…

@Tyranexx Sooner or later I’ll attack Ōkami, though my microSD storage opportunities are limited to just a 128GB card. Shame there haven’t been many high profile games like it that had the same art direction, that translated from box art to game. Breath of the Wild has an almost Cézanne style of art, but reverts to cel-shaded graphics for the game itself.

Of course, I fond Ghirahim to be a more fascinating character. He’s extremely suave with a distinct (never said “good”) sense of fashion, and a clear aesthetic overall. He has a very vibrant, flamboyant personality, and an air about him that makes you feel uneasy very quickly. He appears calm and collected on the surface like a spider approaching his prey but he’s actually one of the more unhinged villains in the Zelda series, next to Zant.

Glad you enjoyed Death Stranding’s opening cinematic, it really sets the tone for the rest of the game. I love the music choice, which is a song from an artist, LOW ROAR (an American guy living in Iceland), whose songs make up half the game’s soundtrack. It’s a strong game artistically speaking, complemented by a superb original score and some impossibly brilliant musical choice. I bought SM3DAS on Day 1, knowing full well that its days on the eShop were limited. As much as I hate the business practices I like the games and had never played them in my life. It was very easy to break that particular rule.

@TheJGG Nice read on the first part. The term SIMP is so overused on anything considered social interaction. I have seen REAL simps and it is nothing like a compliment to someone's look, work or anything. I have been called a simp to just calling 5-6 times a day to my fiancé while at work Fortunately I find it funny

And I also noticed that people have thinned their skin with the integration of all social networks. There are people (mainly minorities) try to dictate what is right and what is wrong to say on the internet. It is very aggravating to see every day people trying to undervalue things just because their moral compass is somehow "superior" to others.

And about that censoring comedians ... this is absolute crap! The same thing happens to authors as well just because some groups find the contents "offensive".

@Zuljaras Thanks for reading my wall of text and getting some good takeaways!

It’s a real shame something as adorable and authentic as calling your fiancée can be regarded as something a simp would do. That’s utterly deplorable and good on you that you don’t take it serious.

It may be obvious to some but the more vocal users of social media are very much the minority here. The ones that complain about Smash DLC fighters and Nintendo Directs are just a small group of people that take sadistic pleasure in ruining other people’s experience.

Political correctness is in itself an absolute joke.

@TheJGG I have been called so many things by people and I don't care. I have no idea why people are offended by just words. If it was call to violence, cancel culture or death threats I get it it should not be done.

But name calling, disagreeing or any form of verbal abuse I can take without having panic attacks or hysterical crying/depression.

Maybe because of my country as most people here like to argue

"Political correctness is in itself an absolute joke." - that has to be made as a sticky note on top of the thread

@Tyranexx Yeah... being a 9 to 5 job owner and then trying to find time to dedicate to gaming. It's a real chore sometimes. Now that I know that you hardly watch any TV, I can understand where you've found the time to race past me and finish the Breath of the Wild...

I simply like too many TV shows, and after work and the subsequent dinner, I'm just too fed up and tired to still be gaming, so I just slump down in my comfy chair, watch my programs, take a shower, go to bed, back to work, come home, rinse and repeat...

Points scored for beating me to asking you about the kidnapped Wii situation, by the way.

@ogo79 So are chop sticks.

@TheJGG Yeah, there is a distinct difference. I used the word clinical for lack of a better word at the time, but it's more like the Japanese seem to make certain things TOO clean or aesthetic, if that makes any kind of sense to you. And that is what makes me personally feel a disconnect with the GT games. With Forza, it's more... I don't know, gritty? Dirty? Pedal to the metal. Western. It just feels more like real life to me, with the Motorsports series.

Maybe I should compare it to another genre: RPG. In Asian RPGs, characters are often flashy, androgynous, sometimes almost godlike and semi-untouchable, and above all often times with a clean and almost royal look to them. I'd dare to wager a bet that no Japanese game developer or fantasy novel writer would have ever been able to come up with an Asian version of a character such as Conan the Barbarian, who's more like a human bulldozer, very rough around the edges, brutish, less than godly (save for being freakishly strong and awesomely good at chopping off limbs) and more of a people's man, if you will.

I have that same feeling with Forza: it feels down to Earth, even though it's still racing around in super cars that I'll never be able to afford, but it does feel like there's more of a "being there" feeling than the pristine, clean disconnect that I both see and feel with the GT games. Almost like they portray these cars like their RPG heroes: untouchable, clean, royal looking and flashy...

As for F1: don't take it too hard. It's not that I hate it or anything, it just can't hold my interest long enough for me to want to follow a race, much less an entire GP season. However: I used to like the cars and the old heroes, when I was young, so I know most of the 70s and 80s heroes. And I did see that movie they made about Hunt vs Lauda, and I really liked it. Hope that brings a bit of a smile to your face again...

Nice elaboration on our PC/insulted culture discussion, and I completely agree. That's all I'll say about it, though because it REALLY ruffles my feathers and it annoys me to a point where I get to a level that I want to smash these people's skulls. And not figuratively speaking...

So, instead of adding another text wall, I'll just stick to what I've now said about completely agreeing, and another nice addition that I'd like to echo, is everything that @Zuljaras has said.

On a side note: I've seen all the Austin Powers movies. I do agree to a point, but obviously, these are comedy and as such more of a satire than a true example of what cannot be said or done anymore. People will always like sex, pee and poo jokes, no matter how old or how politically correct. It's the infantile gene in all of us.

But for serious examples we don't have to look any further than the original secret agent, mr. 007. Nearly all of these movies feature scenes and behaviors that are completely going against everything that the current pantsy Nancy vocal minority cancel culture is against.

Okay, I'll stop here again. Let's talk games, before stuff REALLY goes off the rails...

@TheJGG That's a huge topic to get into but the "short" answer I can give is that people in Japan have more of a collective or membership mentality. Be it work, school, clubs, teams etc. There's much more sense of group than there is in the US. In the US individuals value themselves far more than the group(s) they may be apart of.

Speaking stereotypically, an American is far far more likely to do something personally beneficial at the expense of the wider group than a Japanese person and even be applauded for it because why wouldn't he? So would most people. - is the attitude there.

Conversely, again stereotypically speaking, a Japanese person who does something for personal gain at the expense of the group would be frowned on and disliked for doing so.

The group mentality is totally second nature in Japan and most people I talked to were unaware of it. To them it's just normal everyday behavior. You're on a team, you want the team to do well. You work for a company and you want it to do well. They still value individual achievements of course but more so when doing well is beneficial for the team or club or company... I think you get the point.

The downside is a sort of shunning attitude to people who mess up and a desire to hide mistakes and poor behavior of someone, lest it reflects badly on the whole group.

@TheJGG Haha, no rush on Okami. It really is an excellent game IMO, but I totally understand if you want to tackle others. While I love this gaming hobby, a double-edged sword, at least for me, is the sheer onslaught of decent games releases these days to get to.

Ghirahim's characterization is great! They certainly nailed him. A very unique villain indeed. In a way, he is a lot like Zant with how unhinged he can be even though the two are very different when comparing other traits. The former felt like more of a threat in his third and final fight in my book; it's clear he's just toying with Link in the earlier encounters. Zant...felt like a bit of a joke when you fight him, but the setup and subsequent reveal of his true nature was handled pretty well in my book.

I think I've heard of LOW ROAR, but never really have listened to any of his music. Now I'm curious about digging up Death Stranding's OST when I'm at work tomorrow. Video game music is about half of what I listen to anyway lol.

@ThanosReXXX Oh gosh, YES. Work aside, things are starting to green up around here with all the rain we've been getting. I'm gonna need to do the occasional bit of yard work again before long. I'm not a big fan of it, but it is a nice change of pace and gets me outside more (though I've been trying to do this already) when the weather is nice lol. Bushes to trim and a bit of cleanup to do with all this wind before I start beheading my lawn again....

I'd love to watch a couple shows and dive into some old DVD box sets I have, but I definitely prioritize games and my reading these days. Though it has been harder to even shove in the latter now that I've also added more exercise to my routine. Makes my evenings a bit crowded sometimes. No idea how I'll manage my schedule when it starts filling up again post-pandemic. We're not quite there yet, but the I feel the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight.

I figured, with the GCN mention, that the Wii question would come up again.

@ThanosReXXX
chop sticks are only manly when you stab someone in the face with them that eat pineapple pizza.

@Tyranexx Yeah, I remember that you could move/copy save data on GameCube games across memory cards, plus certain Wii games let you copy their save data to an SD card, though only if they didn't use Nintendo WFC. (Example: you can't copy Mario Kart Wii save data to an SD card.) I think Animal Crossing: New Leaf had such a feature as well. So yeah, local backups would be handy to have on Switch, in addition to the save data cloud.

For NSO, I sometimes play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online, it's definitely a great one to jump back into from time to time. Plus I'm pretty good at it (and the other Mario Kart games as well). I recently played some online matches on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, since Pyra came out as DLC recently. (I was stoked to see her as the next DLC fighter!) Too bad I kept losing matches though, lol. At least the matches didn't become PowerPoint presentations. (I played 1-on-1 fights every time.) I see you've mentioned Monster Hunter - I played a couple MH games but didn't get super into them, at least at first. I came back to MH4U on the 3DS and it seems like I'm getting the hang of the controls and things like that.

Oh okay, so you've got ORAS for a while now. I might get Sword/Shield at some point, but I'm currently in no rush to get it. Kinda waiting for a sale at some point, though I rarely see Pokemon games on sale. I did get Pokemon Sun for like $30 at Target a few years ago, so that was cool.

@MarioLover92 Thankfully when I moved out, I was able to manually copy most of my Wii saves to my Wii U via a SD card; the full system transfer wasn't an option since I wasn't the only one who used the Wii. The only ones that didn't make it over were the Guitar Hero titles I owned due to online functions. Wasn't a big deal tbh. Those were saves I could live without.

On Monster Hunter: Rise will be my first proper series game. I tried the demo for MH3U on 3DS several years ago and hated it lol. That turned me off of the series for awhile, but I became curious again after playing the Monster Hunter Stories spin-off. I tried the first Rise demo and liked it. Plus, according to multiple sources, I'm told the demos are a very poor representation of the series since they throw new players in the deep end right away. I'm willing to give the game a chance at least. XD

Funnily enough, I do have Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but I've never played it online. The CPU trolls me enough as it is. 🤪

Pokemon games rarely go on sale in my experience; the few exceptions are retailers trying to offload some extra stock. I don't believe I've ever seen Nintendo run an actual discount promotion though. I suggest keeping an eye out for deals. I nabbed Let's Go Eevee for $40 awhile back!