Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Eel
Is that corn bread by looking at the color ?

@Eel I hope your going to eat that.

@Eel
next time bring tamales

Oh no, the Mad Titan has returned, and naturally it means I'll have to write thirteen paragraphs to respond to three people. I wanted to respond to this three hours ago but I've been neglecting Attack on Titan lately. I started a few weeks ago and saw about five episodes this morning, so I've watched all the way up to S01E16. It's quite the emotional rollercoaster and I'm well aware that I'm in for a right treat. The English dub is very good so seeing it in my native language wasn't all that hard in the end. When I do see an anime with a poor English dub I'll just do what I did for Princess Mononoke; subs.

I also began Life is Strange yesterday, on without a doubt the worst possible platform to play the game; a 2017-era MacBook Air, with a 1.7GHz Dual Core i5, 8GB of RAM, 1536MB of graphics... it's not good. My computer at one point got so hot that it exceeded my own body temperature; it was hot to the touch. I played it on a window setting with the lowest possible resolution (768p) and graphics settings, so no anti-aliasing, low texture resolution, and all that fancy stuff. But I don't need any of that stuff, I love the PS5-era graphics and all, but it's not something I'm gonna complain over; except of course if the graphics are terrible.

Having said that the game is very good so far. Max's abilities are not exactly unknown to the realm of fiction but it's a video game, not a one-way narrative. Therefore implementing it in-game makes for a smooth and forgiving experience overall. Of course I imagine that the PS4/5 edition included in the Life is Strange HD Remaster Collection will be a vast improvement over what comes across as a very good game already; with improved facial capture, textures, animation, lighting, and previously unreleased content.

@MarioLover92 The last DLC Smash fighter getting released will represent the end of an era for Nintendo, where they'll finally have to stop relying on Smash for hype. Of course there'll be a select group of fans who only tune into Directs for Smash information, and when that's inevitably taken away they'll have less energy.

Of course Min Min getting added meant that all the intricate scaffolding that was fan theories as to who or what could get into Smash, was destroyed. She was an Assist Trophy yet she became a fighter as well. And if another Assist Trophy character becomes a fighter there'll have to be a toggle option. But it's a minor gripe, it's been a titanic effort from Sora Ltd. already, so I'm glad to see all the series that were picked get representation. I had no idea what Fatal Fury was, and I didn't truly understand the popularity of Banjo-Kazooie (I still don't but it's become a bit clearer).

This book is in limbo. I haven't worked on it in three months, but the first fifteen chapters, covering the very start all the way until 1991-92, have been heavily revised and I'd consider are well edited enough for me to self-publish if I really wanted to. I'm confident that my writing's fairly informative, I've read a good dozen books on the topic, read hundreds of Internet articles and reviews, and listened to audiobooks. If I don't make progress too fast I might consider splitting it up into volumes, and the first fifteen chapters'll be expanded and turned into a standard novel. That would total about two hundred pages so it's fairly doable. I can just call it "GENESISN'T: Before the Storm" or something.

But the whole thing so far totals about five hundred pages so it'll be a stretch if I can finish it.

@ThanosReXXX In video games in general I've seen a progressive decrease in the amount of information that's present on the standard HUD at any given time. I like it because in adventure games with large emphasis on scenery the HUD would just get in the way. Ghost of Tsushima, Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn are examples. They all have options to adjust the HUD between normal and pro versions but I'd always use the pro ones once I've learnt the mechanics and the controls to heart. Tsushima has the most minimalist one, the text is very small and things like guidance are only displayed on screen when you swipe on the Touch Pad. Things like health, Resolve, and enemy health are also tiny.

For racing games all I'd want is my input for brakes, throttle, steering lock, and revs. Speed in kph (mph users can go to hell ), fuel and tyre grip levels, things like brake bias adjustment (I never adjust my brake bias but I'd appreciate if the option was there) and traction control. And finally just the positional stuff like position, gap to car behind and ahead, and gap to leader. That's all I'd need. If I could get rid of half the clutter on the GT Sport UI it'd be a very streamlined experience.

I personally change my view depending on the type of racing game. If it's an arcade rally game like DiRT 5, I'd use the third-person chase camera. If it's a simulation rally game I'll use the dash-cam style view from the front of the windscreen. Sometimes for extra immersion I use the first-person cockpit view, but it's rare I do it. For the F1 games I'd use the camera similar to the onboard footage from the real sport; I can see more and the halo can't block my view.

The HDMI switches on HDMI switches is a good idea, though space'll become the next concern. We shall have to see about that.

@Tyranexx I whacked my foot against the door less than two seconds after laughing at your comment. If that isn't instant karma I have no idea what is. I've done crazy stuff too but your luck is quite awful all things considered.

Agreed, videogame soundtracks appeal to me a lot because most of the music doesn't contain lyrics. I don't like lyrics in music much but when I do, they're very good. A lot of tracks from Persona have lyrics, and the proportion of lyric-songs has increased in video games in general. One of the first instances I've heard of rap in videogame music, is Xenoblade Chronicles X, which was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who did Attack on Titan, and Kill la Kill. In the former which I'm watching, his musical style is very distinct; a lot of techno-noise effects, electric guitars, the same drum kit, and occasionally some kickass orchestra.

Black Tar, the battle theme had some good connections to the story with the lyrics, and they were rapped pretty well. Another battle theme with rap that I like is Mass Destruction from Persona 3. It's meme material and the lyrics are so good. Shame Nintendo somewhat neutered it by getting rid of Lotus Juice' 2 instances of "damn right" but ah well.

Glad you liked Give Up, it's one of my favourite songs in the game. It has such a feeling of desolation but in a good way. Delivering a live human across an orange wasteland to this was so appropriate. I'm writing a lengthier post about the game so I'll post that here when I finish it. The audio design is very, very good as I've stressed in the past.

As far as the Toy Story and Monsters Inc franchises go, neither needed an expansion but were ultimately better off with them. I liked the angle Monsters University went with, because I haven't been to college yet it gives off a really home-y vibe that I very much look forward too. It explored Mike and Sully's relationship in a good way, and they're becoming partners felt like a great payoff. Toy Story 4 had a very mixed ending for me. For years all the toys stressed that staying together and being there for their child owner, was the priority. Of course opinions change with age but it wasn't maximised as much as it could have been. And I'll learn more about Winnie the Pooh as I play through.

I'm interested in Metal Gear, the writing's very interesting and Kojima's tendancy to predict the future could be used. He predicted the rise of fake news in Sons of Liberty and kinda predicted the coronavirus pandemic with Death Stranding. The quotes are very iconic too, I'm tempted to use "kept you waiting, huh?" in daily life, as much as "age hasn't slowed you down one bit," or otherwise.

I feel like the rating system from the point of view of female modesty has been fairly lenient. There were a number of risqué designs in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that made me surprised at times that the game was rated T for Teen only. Furthermore having looked up the ESRB ratings for all the games in the series I'm even more surprised that the original Xenoblade was flagged for partial nudity, and that Xenoblade 2 was only marked for suggestive themes.

Considering some of the designs present in Xenoblade 1 versus Xenoblade 2 it makes me wonder if the ESRB has gradually become more lenient over how much violence, sexual content and swearing is allowed in a specific age category. In 2012 a few uses of the word ‘damn’ earned that game a T rating, and even though there were absolutely zero sexual jokes in game, it got marked for innuendo and partial nudity. Flash forward to 2017 and Malos is swearing like a T rated sailor, half the female characters have basketball-sized chests for no reason and Nia straight up calls Zeke something straight out of an adult comic, and still a T.

And then Persona 5, also rated T, but rated 16 in Europe, has two uses of the F word, and a lot of innuendo in the first arc of the story.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a whole new debacle because of broken promises, lies, and rushing. The stuff they promised ranged from truly customised backstories with sliders and interactivity, to being able to open every single door in the city. The amount of times they promised something was so great that it stopped feeling like an accident almost immediately after launch.

CD Projekt Red got everything they deserved with the launch. They put out a game that was at least six months behind, sure, but the problems run so much deeper than just the bugs and crashes.

@Anti-Matter nah it's just butter bread, it looks yellow because the recipe calls for saffron (though I used turmeric instead since that's what I had)

UUUUUUUUUUGH I just wrote a huge series of predictions for the upcoming Formula One season. It took half an hour but getting my thoughts down felt good. On the other hand I wrote a massive post here, one for Death Stranding and now this... I need some sleep.

Come April 1st I'll have been on the keto diet for five years. A decision I feel saved my life. I used to consume far too much refined sugars. Soda, cookies, potato chips, fancy coffees, fast food, etc. To say I ate poorly would be an understatement.

Went on the diet and proceeded to lose 75lbs in five months. Reduced my occurrences with gout, reduced the wear and tear on my knees, began feeling less lethargic, and my sleeping pattern has never been deeper.

I'd probably be diabetic right now if I hadn't made the commitment.

It's surprising, trying to walk through a grocery store reading ingredient labels, attempting to find something that doesn't include sugar. That cereal isle is murderer's row, lol. I do miss oatmeal and oreo cookies a bit though. But nope, my life now focuses on consuming plants and furry creatures.

Sweet, delicious furry creatures.

I sure do hope you remove the fur first

@Magician
1 April 2021 will be my 3rd Anniversary of PS4 Slim purchase day.
PS4 Slim was the only PlayStation machine i bought with the box while my other PlayStation machines i purchased (PS2 Slim Japan, PS2 Fat USA, PS3 Slim) didn't have the box. My PSP 3000 was a Rare Ocean Blue color came with Vibrant Blue box.

@Eel Holy cow, that looks delicious! Buns...loaves...muffins...If it's bread and doesn't have pumpkin or bananas involved, I'll eat it!

I'm pretty accident-prone, yep. I blame dumb luck and genetics as, for better and for worse, I'm built a lot like my dad. My coordination has improved a little since thanks to some of the exercising I've been doing. Some of it also has to do with my walk; my ankles naturally turn a little inward when I move to take a step before (usually) righting themselves when my feet hit the ground. I've tried correcting this, but it only works when I'm conscious of it. I've had my fair share of rolled ankles and sprains. I've surprisingly never broken any bones, but I can't say the same about cartilage.

The glass bowl damaged the nail bed of my right toenail. The nail itself didn't fully break or shatter at least. It took the better part of 9 months for it to completely rid itself of the damaged nail portion. THAT was weird. I was afraid I'd lose it.

@TheJGG Sweet, sweet karma. J/K, hope you didn't injure yourself. As mentioned above, I've surprisingly never broken any bones. But I have broken cartilage in my right knee thanks to a hyper-extension I sustained the summer after I graduated high school (I was 18). Freak accident when walking the dog; wasn't anything she did. It was very hot and I figured she'd like a drink and a brief soak if she wanted, so I went to a nearby field on our property that had a small pond. On the way back, I slid on the short gravel slope/drive that went back to the main road. Most of my body went one way, my right leg went way out in the other direction. THAT was painful. I was only 1/4 a mile (~403 meters) from home at that point, so I somehow managed to hobble back home with a dog in tow. I managed by bending my leg a certain way so as to put less pressure on my knee.

I like lyrics in some forms of music, but it really depends on what genre the track is and how annoying the singer(s) is/are lol. Funny you mention Xenoblade Chronicles X; I'm fond of its soundtrack as well! Been a bit since I've revisited its OST. Black Tar is definitely a good one; I was also taken aback by that one as I haven't heard much rap in video game music either; I'm not the biggest rap fan, but when it's blended with other elements and musical styles, I range from tolerating it to absolutely loving the piece it's part of. Other XCX tracks I like are Wir Fliegen/Overdrive, the theme for Oblivia, both the day and night themes for Noctilum, and Uncontrollable. Seems as though I need to look up more of Hiroyuki Sawano's compositions. I've heard of Kill la Kill and have seen a few clips/scenes of Attack On Titan and know a little about its characters; I fully intend to at least watch the latter at some point as its concept has captivated me.

I'd like to get around to (I realize I've been typing or saying this phrase a lot to people lately lol) watching Monsters University soon. I really enjoyed the first movie and now feel the need to rewatch it. You've hit the nail on the head with Toy Story 4 and why some of it just didn't sit well with me. Though it's by no means a bad movie. There are much, MUCH worse Disney continuances out there. Never watch Mulan 2. Trust me.

On ratings: In some cases, at least concerning swearing and nudity, I think the ESRB has become slightly more lenient. In others, as with some types of violence, I think it has become more strict. For example, the original ratings of Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and The Wind Waker were all E, I believe. But with their 3D and HD rereleases, respectively, they've all earned E10+ ratings. The first two due to checks site animated blood, fantasy violence, and "suggestive themes". TWW HD has the first two, but nothing suggestive apparently.

On Cyberpunk 2077: From what I've read, aside from the obvious bugs, there was a lot of (as yoyu've mentioned) rushing and broken promises involved with the game. It wasn't a game I particularly followed until, ironically, it launched in its original messy state. Before that, I knew it was highly anticipated, but I knew I was unlikely to play it anytime soon as I didn't (and still don't) have a reliable means to play the game. I feel like the game's failures can be attributed to multiple levels, from lower management on up.

That's what you get when you rush out a pile of pyrite and try to pass it off as actual gold to a legion of wise prospectors.

@Tyranexx Ouch on all of them. I've bumped my elbow into a door frame by accident before...that hurt quite a bit. I've had a few instances of that kind of thing happening - I still hate it, lol. But that was nothing compared to, say, me unexpectedly getting stung by a wasp as a kid. Now that was painful.

Oh that reminds me, I used to have a lot of those plug-and-play consoles back when I was like 11 or 12. Most of the ones I owned had either Atari 2600 or Namco arcade games built in, and the controllers they had were pretty good. I had a couple plug-and-plays that had Sega Genesis games too - believe it or not, that's how I got exposed to a lot of the other Genesis games besides Sonic. I did have something similar to what you had, but it didn't have any licensed IPs or anything, just generic games. It was a light green controller and it had both circle and triangle shaped buttons - it wasn't that great, lol. That was sold at CVS.

Yeah, I don't like daylight savings time either. It seems like it's only there to be an inconvenience! Now I gotta change the time on my watch...come on, man. lol

@TheJGG No it was Spring Man who made it as an assist trophy. When it was announced that an ARMS character would make it to SSBU, I kind of wanted Ninjara to make it in (only because ninjas are cool, lol), but I was totally cool with Min Min making the final cut. I was stoked to see Banjo and Kazooie making it to the game, to be perfectly honest! Banjo-Kazooie was one of my childhood favorites. I used to rent it a lot on the N64, but didn't fully own it until much later.

Ah okay, so it's not quite done yet, I see. I have some video game history books as well, like the one from Steven Kent and a couple books on the history of Nintendo. There's a complete works book on the Genesis/Mega Drive as well, which I imported from the UK.

@MarioLover92 Oh boy, wasp stings. Stings are something I've seldom had to deal with, but I've definitely had a few! The worst was when I got stung twice on my right hand a few years ago; I was stung on the back towards my rightmost knuckle. My pinky and part of my ring finger both swelled up quite a bit. I still lived with my parents at the time, and some paper wasps had built a small nest near where I parked my car in our garage. They were disturbed by the door when I opened it. The door didn't touch their nest, but it came close enough that they definitely weren't pleased.

I think my siblings bought one plug and play console, the other was a gift. They enjoyed the games, but I wasn't really into them; I was older and recognized the quality, or lack thereof, by then lol. I don't remember much about them except one or two games were based on Shrek, and another dealt with Over The Hedge. Not that the games were completely bad and unplayable, but I much preferred the handheld consoles I had at the time. Still do, honestly. XD

I get why the original concept of DST was conceived, but I think the cons outweigh the pros at this point. I don't feel there's much benefit to switching one way or the other. Heck, some countries that used to do it no longer bother. A couple US states are the same way.

@Magician That’s excellent, really good you’re making a positive change in your life!

Yesterday marked one year since I created an account here, another positive change.

Y'know, if F Zero and Pikmin had more specific and loud fan communities, I wonder if they would like hate each other?

F Zero: Has vanished, with the only reason ever given is Miyamoto saying they couldn't figure out ways to innovate it.

Pikmin: Blatantly has only stayed alive all these years because of Miyamoto's support

Drastically different opinions of the man based on these two things.

Star Fox community would be incredibly divided on Miyamoto. The Tetsuya Nomura of Star Fox.

Guess who just received their performance review and is getting a 3% bump in salary?

<- This guy.

@Magician Nice! I got mine too today. A whole 10% Instantly ordered Monster Hunter Rise and Little Nightmares Complete Edition (Switch)

I tried to practice "pretend playing" Keyboardmania PS2 with upright piano as the fake controller and my handphone as the auto play video before i pick Keyboardmania bundle from Tokopedia next month.

@Tyranexx No, it was relatively deserved! It wasn't too painful so the punishment very much fitted the crime. I haven't broken any bones, save of course the swimming pool incident I mentioned a few weeks ago. A pretty superhuman effort though, to limp back that far with a dead leg. I'm far too careful for my own good, so I'm fairly confident I won't get into too much trouble...

I enjoy Sawano's musical style, at times it borderlines noise, and audio design genius. A bit like the Tenet soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson, which has very intricate sound design also, like playing forward and backward pieces together, and sampling everyday sounds. One of the songs uses a sampled and compressed fire truck siren as a bass track, and it's a beautiful thing to hear. “[I envisioned] a really heavy fire engine rumble as a bass track, and then something on top of that, that would symbolize fire alarms, using manipulation like side-chaining,” he said for Deadline.

Lemme know when you find the sampled alarm;

Rap in video games is a side effect of more lyrics in video games. Sawano's style has a lot of otherworldly elements mixed with such grounded, intrinsically human elements. When listening to Xenoblade X and Attack on Titan songs, both of which have frickin' German lyrics for crying out loud, it becomes very distinct. I also really like Black Tar, because it's a perfect fusion of synth, rock, and rap. Uncontrollable's very catchy, and the two leads have a lovely duel at the second chorus.

Noctilum starts with a funky guitar and builds fantastically, both day and night. Oblivia's awesome, but doesn't have anything intrinsically special, except for the synthesiser notes playing in the background between the string parts, that also show up in MONO X, the title theme. Wir Fliegen is probably my favourite song in the game, it has such a dreamy feeling. A friend described it as giving the impression you're on drugs, and considering the nature of Overdrive, they weren't too off the mark. The chorus (sang of course in German) is straight-up fantastic too.

For those reasons I recommend Attack on Titan. Seems that we both have similar thought processes when it comes to what media and video games we consider... but nonetheless the concept is really cool. The stakes are so unbelievably high every single episode, and some of the plot twists are very captivating. The lore is also very interesting. The animation quality for the anime is top-notch, and has a really clean, but gritty feel to it. This is only the second anime I've watched, first being Persona 4: The Animation, so I'm very new to the structure and pacing. Do let me know how you find it, however.

I have absolutely no idea where the suggestive themes marker can be applied in either Ocarina of Time, or Majora's Mask. If you're really trying to stretch the people playing may have been put on high alert when Cremia hugged Link after his escort mission, but that was completely misunderstood by many people. There isn't any innuendo at all in any Zelda games otherwise, apart from Breath of the Wild when the NPC Rola makes comments about Link. That's also stretching it so it's very dubious.

My view on Cyberpunk is limited because though I have the platforms to play the game on, I have no interest in playing it. The hype never really reached me in that respect. We'll just have to see how CDPR responds, because all they've done as of now is patch, stuff that should have been done three to six months ago. Good analogy, it's quite astute. Never underestimate the average gamer, they're very astute.

@MarioLover92 Ah, I see. I also hoped for Ninjara, I really like his colour scheme and overall design, so he could have been the second choice had Min Min... died or something. But she's excellent to represent the ARMS series, so I'm content with that. It must have been very nostalgic to see Banjo & Kazooie make it, so I'm glad you have that fighter at least to remind you of what I've gathered was a memorable and joyous gaming childhood!

Kinda why I rely on remakes and remasters, to bring games I can't play, to the consoles I do have. Final Fantasy VII, X, XII, all could have been lost to me if Square didn't remake and/or remaster them from the PS1/2 to the PS4 and Switch. Same with Super Mario 3D All-Stars, it brought three games I never owned, right back to me. In that I'm very excited to see what Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne feels like with an HD coat of paint. It looks quite cool, and the art style's very nice so it's a matter of time until I get into that.

The Ultimate History of Video Games is my favourite book of them all. I listened to the audiobook, read by Dan Woren (a dulcet tone with tons of experience), when I travelled to Spain about five years ago. It was a massively insightful book with so much useful data. The writing was clean, precise, and was organised perfectly.

Another book I can recommend is Phoenix IV: The History of the Videogame Industry, by Leonard Herman. It's very comprehensive, though Herman's writing is a bit sluggish. It clocks in at about 400,000 words, so about 1800 pages of pure videogame material. It has loads of pictures to supplement the writing, and is organised by year, so it's very easy to find something specific. There's also a free bonus chapter covering 2016 available on the Rolenta Press website, so here it is if you want to check that out. It's 24 pages, which speaks for the detail of the book.

http://www.rolentapress.com/Products/Phoenix/Phoenix%202016.pdf

I mentioned Console Wars as a weak material for my book, but conversely a book that was superbly insightful for my own personal reading, is Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier. It has so much story, and the interview depths are absolutely unreal. The development cycles of indie games like Stardew Valley and Shovel Knight, and AAA games like Diablo 3, The Witcher 3, and Uncharted 4 are all covered. The insight is invaluable and is worth reading at all costs.

And as for books I conversely imported from the US, I bought the Super Mario Bros Encyclopedia, The Art of Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia, The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Creating a Champion. I spent over two hundred dollars but it was worth it, the print quality is superb and the artwork itself is more than worthy of the weighted paper.

@Tyranexx There was a wasp nest next to your garage door? That must have been scary. Yeah, even though I have a crippling fear for bees, wasps, hornets - pretty much anything that attacks with venom - I didn't get stung that much either. Only twice throughout my life, actually - both by wasps. Seemingly out of nowhere, I got stung on the top of my foot once...and it wasn't pleasant. Seriously, what did I do to make that guy mad???

Ah all right, so quite a lot different from the plug-and-plays that I had. I know of those things as well, my younger brother had this SpongeBob plug-and-play back then. Scott The Woz made a really good YouTube video on plug-and-play consoles - it totally took me back to like 2004 or so, at least in the first half of the video, lol.

Finally made more progress on my Mario drawing! It's looking pretty decent. I was thinking of having pics of my progress work for my Twitter page and on the NL boards.

@TheJGG Yeah totally, the moment I saw that jiggy bounce along the floor, I knew I was in for a treat! Definitely understand where you're coming from in terms of remakes/remasters. Not everyone has their old consoles hooked up, and there are people who just didn't grow up with those games and would like to try them out. (Example: I didn't play the Genesis until around 2001. We had the SNES, then the N64 in the 90s.)

I have the Super Mario Odyssey art book and the Super Mario Bros. encyclopedia as well! I have the Hyrule Historia book too. I used to have this book called Supercade a long, long time ago. Used to love going through it and looking at all those cool pictures it had (such as old consoles like the Sega SG-1000 II and the Nintendo Famicom). I don't have it anymore, sadly.

Here's my weekly random animation