Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Heavyarms55 Oh, don't get me wrong: I didn't mean to imply that you meant that. I just tagged you in general, because I found your view on the matter interesting.

On a side note: so... Asians are basically the real-life Borg?

Yeah, so, resistance is futile, @ThanosReXXX....

@ThanosReXXX Lol. I'm not super familiar with Star Trek, but what I do know about it I can say that they are probably closer to Borg than most. But still far from it. I can only most speak of my experience with Japan, but it's not as if people don't have their own hopes and dreams and personalities and stuff. It's just a matter of ethos and values. Growing up in America, I always encountered situations where people would think "I'm gonna do what benefits me, regardless of how it might hurt people I don't know or care about, because I assume they'd do the same to me". However for the years I lived in Japan it's more of "If I do this and it screws over those people, it hurts everyone and I don't think that's a good idea, they probably wouldn't do that to me."

Of course I always want to restate that I'm speaking in generalist terms. You'll find people in America who are amazingly selfless and care about everyone with deep empathy. And you'll find people in Japan who wouldn't spit on you if you were dying of thirst. And you'll find everything in between those two polar extremes. Because in the end, that's just how humans are. Culture is just a social construct. We're all the same species.

@BruceCM Et tu, Bruce?

@Heavyarms55 Well said, and I agree. But obviously I would never seriously refer to Asian people as Borg, but it IS just how my mind works: sometimes a single word can trigger some immediate, unfiltered response coming out of me, and that's basically what that was: the first thing that came to mind when you mentioned the hive mind.

@Sunsy Thats great i'm sure your going to have a great time.

@ThanosReXXX Nightmares Ha there my demons now.

Yeah, the Borg are the extreme version, @Heavyarms55.... But like all the aliens in Star Trek, there's some basis in human customs, culture & so on

@ThanosReXXX My boy... I mean EVERYTHING! The Forza UI from what I’ve seen is very minimalist, and only shows lap count, position, speed, revs, and some others, whereas GT has a lot more information (though I don’t need most of it if I’m being perfectly honest) like brake input and brake strength, a MFD that cycles between a minimap, lap times and sector times, brake bias adjustment, traction control adjustment, and engine modes to save fuel. On top of the rev meter, which ranges from blue on the left to purple on the right, there’s a small red dot that indicates how much steering lock you have, for me that helps tell me if I’m using all the grip available. Some of it’s useful info, so on a straight it’s worth adjusting your traction or your fuel. In races I prefer going long, and when I have to pit for fuel I stay stationary for less time. When going against AI I can gain about ten seconds this way.

In Sport mode there’s also an indicator for penalties, so if the guy ahead of you has a penalty you’ll be able to see if he does, and how much. When you cross a point on track designated as a penalty line, the car automatically slows you down for the duration of the penalty, and also ghosts you out. It’s good because you wouldn’t need to take risks if the guy ahead’s gonna slow anyway.

I haven’t tried any races with the GT damage model but it intrigues me to the point I may experiment. I’ll tell you one series that has absolutely awful damage models, the F1 games. The only kind of damage you can get in the games is front wing damage, on the left or right hand side, with three levels of damage, until it gets ripped off. There’s no bodywork damage, suspension damage, floor damage or even proper crashes in general. If cars in the real sport bang wheels very hard, one of the cars’ll probably get flung out to the side because of the contrasting speeds....

And to add to your comment on the GT games having a clinical, mint feeling compared to the Forza games, I agree, I haven’t seen that much grime or blemish on the cars at all. Has the potential to break immersion sometimes, especially if it happens on a dirt rally stage. But I find it strange that the Forza games have this weird camera effect, that makes it zoom in and move about to emphasise speed. From my point of view having seen.. one or two gameplay clips, it doesn’t need to have this. GT doesn’t have this, the camera’s static, with no effects at all. There’s also a lack of rewind, which punishes mistakes massively. I remember I had to stop 40 minutes into a 1 hour endurance race because I smashed into the wall and got stuck.

@Tyranexx Yeah I've never seen Pokemon games on sale on the eShop, just doesn't happen lol. Other Nintendo-published games do, though only in things like summer/E3 sales. It would be awesome to nab the Sword/Shield + expansion bundle on sale - it's pretty enticing but I'm not sure if I want to spend $90 on it. Understandable since the expansion pass costs $30 on its own, but it's a lot of money for sure. I did hear that it got rid of the national dex and a lot of people were upset about it, but personally it's not a huge deal for me.

The one thing that threw me off in MH was the controls. They just felt...heavy, especially when attacking (except with certain weapons like the dual blades). Didn't get into it easily as a result, but I think I'll gradually get used to it as I play more of MH4U. I think I want to stick with the quick weapons for the time being though. lol

Yeah, Mario Kart can get bonkers with how many items are being thrown by everyone. Online play is no different in that regard, since that's how it normally plays, lol. It's generally more enjoyable with others though, be it locally or online. By yourself, it can get a tad frustrating, especially if you're trying to unlock a character or something in Grand Prix mode.

@Snatcher Thanks, I'm really looking forward to playing a new Crash game. The wait for April begins!

@Sunsy Man, I would LOVE to play Crash 4. I have my eyes set on a PS5 as well and I'd like to get it for that. Problem is, the PS5 is still sold out and I'm unsure when it'll be back in stock.

The next four months are gonna be fantastic for me; with Monster Hunter Rise, Life is Strange and Tomb Raider being potential new series I can get into. The former has decent performance and gameplay on Switch, the second is getting a new game and an HD remaster for PS4 (and hopefully Switch), and the latter has the trilogy of modern Tomb Raider games on discount for £17.99.

Skyward Sword HD's also going to be a fun game. but that's a port, and from what I've seen is a port with small improvements like framerate and less cloudiness. We'll see what Nintendo themselves have this year.

@TheJGG
If my plan is running well, next month i can take home Beatmania IIDX 9th style PS2, Pop'n Music 8 PS2 + Pop'n Music controller.
And my next target for May 2021 is getting Keyboardmania PS2 with its keyboard controller.
Looks like i will get very few Switch games during year 2021 as my priority right now is building the old games library quickly with some very rare games.
I have spotted Megaman Battle Network 5 NDS, Sonic Colours Wii, Mario & Sonic 2016 Wii U, FF Tactics A2 NDS, FF Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates NDS, FF Tactics PSP, etc from Tokopedia.

@Anti-Matter Even if I had a PS2 I wouldn't buy games for it continually. The potential of the eighth generation consoles has only just began to be realised with games as visually stunning as Horizon Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and more.

@TheJGG
I don't even like those games at all.
I am different gamer.
Don't like Ultra realistic graphics.
I felt disgust to them.
Moreover i hate every rated 18+ games.
Even my PS3 and PS4 games are filled with casual, very niche and cartoonish games, free from rated 18+ games.

@ThanosReXXX
ha!

@MarioLover92 As of now you need a proper knee jerk reaction time to get a PS5 when it becomes available. But if this represents your foray into other games, it’ll be one of the best things that’ll happen to you gaming wise. It’s a perfect compliment to the Switch and let’s you play some games that just can’t work on a Nintendo console. More realistic experiences if you will.

A reason why it’s not taboo to go and get a PlayStation can be summarised by the release of WRC9, reviewed on NL. Because there’s only digital triggers you have to control the throttle with the right control stick. That kind of problem doesn’t exist on PlayStation, and I’d go and say that the DualSense is the greatest video game controller of all time because of the tactile haptic feedback, the adaptive triggers and the general feel and build quality of the controller.

Games of serious quality I’ll list off the top of my head that you’ll be able to play are; the Kingdom Hearts games, Death Stranding, the three games I mentioned in a post a few hours ago, and Persona 5/Royal and Strikers.

@MarioLover92 Hope you can eventually get one, I've been following the PS5 situation for awhile now. I find it surprising they're still sold out everywhere. In November, I would have thought places will have them stocked by now.

I finally got Persona 5 Strikers today, one month after it was originally released. It doesn't run that well on handheld; the character portraits are really blocky and in fights the framerate does take a bit of a pounding, but when I docked it after thirty minutes it became near flawless. I'm pretty sure that the UI runs at 60fps, because things like the buzzing textboxes that are commonplace in the Persona 5 games, run unusually smoothly.

At the store I had the choice between getting the game on the Switch and the PlayStation but because I played Persona 5 Royal on PS4 already I wanted to compare the games' performance between the two consoles. The loading times were never a consideration when looking at the game, it was never a consideration in video games in general. Plus I feel like the art style of the Persona 5 games would be very much at home on the Switch, because it doesn't really crank performance out of the console. Persona 5 launched on the PS3 initially and didn't look all that different texture-wise when playing Royal on PS4.

Considering how the entire Strikers game was 13GB on Switch I imagine porting P5 will be a challenge but far from impossible.

@TheJGG crazy timing cause I just got persona 5 dancing from my library 😂. It’ll be my first persona game (even though it’s not mainline)