Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@ThanosReXXX Well from my point of view I see nothing good. How is UK different from the US in those terms? My US purchases like Limited Run Games do not go through the customs. My Play-Asia games do NOT go through the customs. Now for every purchase above 30 Pounds I have to pay 20% more.

Perhaps there is a bigger picture here that I am not seeing. But for now I see only negatives.

@1UP_MARIO Haha, nice. Now all you'll need is your mom stumbling into the room with drinks and a bowl of crisps, tripping over these wires, and (obviously) cluelessly blocking your view of the screen at a crucial moment in the game...

@Zuljaras I know, and I can understand, to some extent. But let's just say "different regions, different rules". Not to be that guy, but the whole "yeah but the US doesn't do/have it either" doesn't apply anymore, if it ever even did, because the UK is a separate entity now, and taxes between them and the rest of the world have largely never been favorable for mainland Europe.

I remember back in the day of the early internet, when I was a member of a service called Special Reserve, which was for consoles and home computers of the time, and for me that was the Commodore Amiga, for which I ordered a ton of games and peripherals. Compared to my local currency, it was also already more expensive back then, especially seeing as the course of the British pound compared to Dutch currency went all over the place (and usually not in my favor) but as mentioned in my previous comment, it was a case of these items not being available anywhere else, well at least: not near me, so I had to make the choice of paying more for it than I usually would, or to simply choose to not buy these games and peripherals.

Obviously, as you might have guessed, I chose to pay. Of course, that example isn't entirely similar, but I do hope you get the point. I know it isn't even remotely positive right now, but ultimately, you either choose to still buy the stuff, or you try and find it elsewhere, in another European country or web shop.

Compared to back then, you'll at least have the advantage of things being far more widely and easily available. I still had a physical catalog for which I had to fill out an order form. Just imagine that for a moment...

@ThanosReXXX lol so true

@ThanosReXXX Yep I will try and find physical games somewhere else but in the end if all else fails I will buy from the UK

To be honest if other European versions of games were not so bad in terms of censoring I would love to buy them. But there are stupid German releases that are released with only German language (a 360 game that I have suffers from this and you can't change the language!) or they are censored like my German Half-Life 2 where the blood is black! Or the Wolfenstein games ( yes Germany is very sensitive about Nazis ).

In the end I will pay more but still I will be grumpy about it!

A guy holding a PS5 box walked in front of our car as we were heading out of the mall's parking lot. We stared and my brother pointed at him, then he saw us, and held the box high, hugging it (even lifted a knee to support it), and made the happiest face I've ever seen a random guy make at complete strangers.

Hope the guy enjoys his game console honestly. I hope I'll be able to find one when I finish saving up, since I want to play FFXVI.

I found this heartwarming! That feeling when you get a new console is an awesome one!

I seem quite overdue on replies. On with the show!

@MarioLover92 The Double Cherry makes the Fire Flower power-up insanely chaotic! I loved going nuts on enemies like a pyromaniac. XD The 3DS certainly had a slow start; part of me wishes I'd grabbed one before the price drop so that I'd gotten in on the Ambassador program, but that just wasn't happening at the time lol. Not a big deal; most of the GBA games I wanted to play (or replay, in a couple cases) were added to the Wii U VC later.

I only have two 3DS systems: I still have my OG red unit, and I also picked up a SNES N3DS XL two years ago. The red's still going strong last I checked, but it did need a battery swap about three years ago. Even with the 3D off, it was dying while playing Bravely Default after about 25 minutes at one point. After a full charge even! It's now my spare unit. the SNES XL is now my main unit. I quite like the design, but I'm not a big fan of how bulky the XL units are. I would've preferred a normal N3DS, but as NoA dropped the ball there.... [This is the point where someone heads me off before I go into "We've heard that before" rant territory lol]

On the Pro controller: Thanks! The price is partially why I've held off on getting one as it comes out of my gaming budget; there have been games I wanted more. Plus, I don't have the dreaded joy-con drift...yet. So there wasn't a huge need, but I suspect I'll be sitting through some long Monster Hunter Rise sessions before too long. I also play docked most of the time, so it makes perfect sense to grab one.

@TheJGG Thanks! I've held the controller already and didn't think it would feel much different than the joy-cons in the grip, but I was thankfully wrong. Very wrong. XD As mentioned above, there wasn't a huge need until now for one. I do play docked roughly 95% of the time, plus it'll be nice to not have to jump up and charge my joy-cons if the battery is about to die. Now THEY'RE the spares!

I am glad to read that you were satisfied with that mountain climb! I think the most important thing is that you put in the best effort you could, then wisely stopped the ascent by listening to your body and not pushing it over the edge. Not sure I could scale a mountain without reaching a higher fitness level and some training. I also have an admiration for mountaineering; I think it takes a lot of talent, practice, dedication, and a certain amount of luck. I believe I've heard of Into Thin Air, but haven't read it. I normally prefer reading fiction, but I'm fine with the occasional bout of non-fiction. Particularly if there's adventure involved!

Funnily enough, I intended to watch the Everest movie in theaters, but never was able to. Yet another one for the movie list, it seems...It keeps growing, this is getting worrisome. XD

Mo-cap is now the standard? I knew it was used somewhat, but I genuinely thought quite a bit of it was still up to talented animators. Though it does make sense to use a human subject for games with realistic art styles as that would definitely help with movement fluidity and save time/some processing.

Attack On Titan is now officially on the anime list. I honestly haven't watched much anime or read much manga (mostly that geared towards children - you know most of the ones I'd probably mention I'm sure) since high school and have recently been trying to ease myself back into it. I've started with manga and have read through the first ten volumes of My Hero Academia. No intention of stopping that yet! I also picked up the first three volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist, though I haven't read that yet. I opted for paper reading first since I spend quite enough time on screens and love the feel of a book in my hands. A lot of people are surprised I don't own a Kindle or have hardly any digital books.

@bimmy-lee I also hope you and all those who inhabit Castle Bim are well! Overall I'm doing pretty well, accidental self-injuries (mild, nothing to worry about) aside. Keeping busy with work mostly, and my house/yard now that spring has officially sprung in my neck of the woods.

I did finish BotW! After about 130 hours. All 120 Shrines, ~360 Korok seeds, all Divine Beasts conquered, all memories retrieved. Calamity Ganon was definitely a difficult fight! Definitely one of the harder final Zelda bosses. I actually didn't have too many problems until his second phase. Took me a bit to work through that. The third phase...I derped on some of that by forgetting to switch to a certain weapon. XD I do intend to go back and work through the DLC once I pick that up, but for now I'm trying to get a couple of shorter games out of the way. I also intend to pick up and play Monster Hunter Rise in a couple weeks. I haven't been on the Switch as much since I finished BotW; a lot of my focus has been on Final Fantasy VI on my SNES Classic. I have occasionally been playing Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee some evenings.

@ThanosReXXX I'm REALLY not a selfie person (It's hard for me to smile naturally if I feel like I'm posing), but even I would've taken a shot with that thing! And a couple of shots of the shield itself for good measure. Seems weird that the display time was so short; like you, I'd have thought the shield would have stuck around for a day or two at least.

Haha yeah it was like, super random, but also very wholesome. The kind of moment you wish you had recorded on video.

Here's some pics I took today. That mall is right next to a marina, so we used the parking lot to keep the car safe while we took a short tour on boat.

@Eel The photography is very good, keep it up!

@TheJGG thanks! The one with the fish one is a new addition to my “would use as wallpaper” collection.

@ThanosReXXX When I read this particular point an hour ago I had absolutely no idea what you meant, but having thought it over I imagine it resembles an innuendo. I know you know what I actually meant but to restructure that; "a dedicated post, because how how many topics have been covered," In that I'm glad I picked that up if a bit slowly, and I'll make sure to be clear in the future. In my defence @Tyranexx either read it as I intended it, or took offence and is plotting my assassination . And two, you're the guy with a quote likening console wars to boobs in your forum tag, so it seems we both have explaining to do Kidding.

I'm a native English speaker so there really is little excuse. Nobody else picked it up so.... mission accomplished? And speaking of innuendo, the Dead or Alive games... have next to no appeal for me. I don't like fighting games and as a number of posts from yours truly have demonstrated I don't like oversexualisation in video games. Smash Ultimate is the only fighting game I have ever owned in my entire life, and if I'm being honest I bought the game more for the music and the amount of content rather than the fighting. Having a game with over thirty hours of music is insane, and some of the remixes made for Smash are fabulous.

Having said that Smash has very little innuendo and skin exposure; it has to keep an E10 rating in the United States, after all. It means characters like Pyra and Mythra, who were designed for a Teen game, had minor redesigns to cover their skin in areas such as their legs and chest. Actually, when Mythra was revealed as a Spirit back in 2018 MonolithSoft updated the game and introduced a Massive Melee Mythra Aux Core, that changed Mythra's design to match her Smash Spirit sprite, which had her wearing black tights. If the designers just went with that from the start it would have been a much quieter reaction from SJWs.

I heard in the Netherlands that to get a Dutch passport you have to watch a video on beach nudity. I guess the lesson is self control and modesty, otherwise one would wonder why the heck that's a thing. I'll say; invite friends over, and make them watch you play Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I don't have a point to make about the game that this idea'll reinforce but... do it!

@Zuljaras My grandad voted for Brexit and I'm ashamed of it to this day. The trade deal clusterf*ck that's ensued over the last five years is the single biggest non-coronavirus idiocy the UK's been responsible for to date. I can't sympathise with my grammar vanishing but I have zero interest in politics mainly because of all the garbage that's happened in the US and the UK. It's kinda pathetic.

Here I was thinking they told everyone about the Holocaust at school. Sheesh, all these countries trying to rewrite history. How sad.

@Eel I have a few images from the Bahrain Grand Prix. They're compressed due to WhatsApp unfortunately...

But I've used some of my images as backgrounds before and it's a truly rewarding sight.

On that note Apple... as sucky as their batteries and long-term use is, their cameras are industry leaders.

@Eel Love the photos you took! I gave it a like and followed you on Twitter. I still have yet to get a PS5, but I'm planning to get one next holiday season.

@Tyranexx I was one of those guys who got it before the price drop, so I was able to get the 20 free games. I originally had the aqua blue 3DS, which looks quite nice in person. Kinda wish I waited a bit to get the red 3DS when that came out, but it is what it is. I gave my aqua blue 3DS to my brother since I got the red 3DS XL for my birthday 7 years ago.

Sadly, my 3DS XL's circle pad started to screw up later down the road. I tried fixing it by recalibrating it, but it only did so much. Last time I checked though, I recall it being okay. It's been a long time though, since I now have the New 3DS XL. Fortunately, my current system is still in working order, and its circle pad never failed me! I thought about getting the SNES edition, but in the end I just stuck with my red system. Plus I think they should've had Super Mario World preinstalled instead of Super Mario Kart, but I digress.

My gray joy-cons did start to screw up as well, but only while they were not attached to the console, and while using both together. I never had joy-con drift while playing in handheld mode, or while playing Super Mario Party (where you use a single joy-con on its side). For my red joy-cons, I always keep them attached to the console, and I have the joy-con straps placed so that the metal part is not facing upward. Those seem to be doing the trick for me, though I should try to remember to update my joy-cons next time I play my Switch.

And yeah, I play docked most of the time too, especially these days. I haven't been playing in handheld mode too much. So yeah, the pro controller is perfect for TV play!

Thanks! I don’t do a lot on Twitter, but thanks for the follow. Good luck with your PS5 plans!

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@TheJGG Ah those are really nice! That’s a really interesting building. Like a futuristic circus. Yeah it’s too bad most sites/messaging apps will lower the quality. I try to keep the originals around though somethings they sink with the ship, so to speak.

That tower's a strange sight. The cars going by is a truly beautiful sight. I've only been to... three Grands Prix, one of those when I was six (and so doesn't truly count), so drinking in the sound's a reward in itself. People I've spoke to say it keeps them up here but they're so quiet compared to, say, 2016. It was deafening then.

@Eel Yeah, I haven't posted too much on Twitter either. Thank you - I'll need it!

Okay, who have ever watched this ?

I don't really delve too much into Russian youtube

@Tyranexx That's excellent to hear! It's perfect for marathon gaming sessions so I love the ergonomic grip. I too play a lot on docked, so it's nice to sit away from the television when I'm playing. I sit around two and a half metres (eight feet) from my television when gaming, so it doesn't damage my eyes.

Having said that (damage) my phone's suffering from a significant internal problem. I found out a few weeks ago there's a significant motherboard problem with my phone, and as recently as two days ago the screen's starting to bulge, meaning the battery's expanding. The battery itself lasts less than two hours despite replacing it twice. I've already ordered a replacement, an iPhone X. So I'll be able to sample newer machinery. I'm a very tech-savvy person but I don't care too much about phones and laptops. As long as it works for me I couldn't care less about model and such. But Apple cameras are really... really good.

Sometimes I may come across lazy but at times it's not laziness, but an honest assessment. This was one such honest assessment, where I told myself I couldn't go any further. I had already made a large moral step in waking up to try to get to the top, so my determination was very key. By the time I stopped I was struggling to breathe, so I'm very confident I made the right choice. We were going up a steep incline at the time so if I blacked out I likely would have gotten a concussion. I did it the first time when I was thirteen, so fitness wise it's extremely demanding. I trained a lot for it and it paid off at least once.

This is one non-fiction book I can't allow you to miss, within my powers of course! As mentioned the level of detail from this firsthand account is amazing. It takes you from your chair and puts you on the mountain. Krakauer's writing's that good; he was going to Everest as a journalist anyhow. And another movie on your list? Don't we all have that problem...

I actually haven't read much manga, or watched much anime. In fact just three months ago we probably had the same amount of experience in that sector (given that you haven't read much in ten years or so it fades out...). I was just encouraged and it worked for the better. I like Attack on Titan's dark tone, it strikes me as such a non-Japanese story despite being conceived by a Japanese artist and published initially in Japanese. It seems to lean more on German than anything. The protagonist has a really cool name; Eren Jäger. When translated from German to English Jäger translates as "hunter". I love it.

@Zuljaras If for whatever reason you aren't able to get certain games, or if the prices are too high for you to seriously consider them, then perhaps I might be persuaded to offer something along the lines of me getting the games for you over here, and then sending them your way, if of course we can find a good way of transferring the funds and so on, so it'll have to be something like PayPal, preferably.

@Tyranexx Indeed. And you would then have missed out as well. What with the distances over there it would probably even be infinitely less worthwhile to track down the shield's next stop, but even over here, it would take me at least an hour if not more (the central station in the picture is already further away) to get to it's next location, and just for one or two pictures of something so disposable, that just isn't worth it to me, so I've just crossed it off the list forever.

As for smiling "naturally", I have honestly NEVER seen any of these selfie idiots do a natural smile. Usually just dumb-@ss grins, especially with things like these, promotional items and such, so you really wouldn't have to worry too much about standing out awkwardly...

@Eel I'm gonna second the "nice picture" comment, because it's well deserved. It's also the kinds of pictures that I would make and like to make, so you got my vote as well.

P.S.

The video that Anti posted actually isn't Russian but Japanese. He just grabbed it from a Russian channel, apparently. And it's old as hell. I remember it from WAY back, when YouTube was still a decidedly modest and friendly, non-pushy service...

@TheJGG Well, I'm American, remember? So being a native English speaker is no excuse. In fact: it actually makes it all the worse if people like us screw our texts or grammar up...

But of course, context was key here. If you had only made the points comment WITHOUT previously mentioning ms. Croft's weirdly proportioned chest in the older Tomb Raider games, then it wouldn't have referred to anything other than the points that @Tyranexx made in her comment, but now, my weirdly working brain and lightning fast working comedic area located deep within that grey matter, automatically connected those two separate things and made them into one item to reply to...

As for there being any potential repercussions: seeing as she hasn't burned you (or me) down yet with any kind of stern/corrective comment, I figure that it's safe to assume that @Tyranexx is okay with the joke and hasn't taken any serious offense.

As for Dead or Alive: it definitely isn't over-sexualized, it just has this weird, over-exaggerated movement in female chest areas, which has become a thing of discussion, or rather: kind of a meme labeled the "jiggle factor", hence me mentioning it. And believe you me, seconds into anyone playing the game, they'll forget all about it. Only the people watching other people play will notice. The games are REALLY good, and offer a solid beat em up with great fighting mechanics and tons of replay value, due to all the possible combos and ways to play.

By the way: the jiggle factor is turned off by default. You have to set your age in the options/settings menu to actually activate it, so the standard way to play is with normal body parts and gravity...

And an actual gameplay mechanic that made the series unique/stand out, is the multi-tiered play areas, nowadays there's often three layers, so you'll start in some arena, then players can throw/kick/punch each other off of the current platform, and then you fall down, continue fighting and then there's often another surprise which can either be another fall to an even lower platform, or something moving horizontally. It's actually quite entertaining. But of course, if beat em ups aren't your thing, then I can imagine it not really offering any incentive to try it out.

I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to show people when playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but I do happen to own that game, so anything's possible there. Although I do have to add that the chances of anyone actually "seeing" me play anything are slim to none, seeing as I live alone, and most of my gaming with friends is done online, and most of them do not play on the Switch, let alone play jRPGs.

On a side note: saw you mentioning Attack on Titan. Great anime series. As for the whole anime and German names thing: that has always been a thing. Ever since the 70's, German names or titles have been used for people, vehicles, episode or movie titles and so on. It's probably because of the history of the Empire with the Axis of Evil. Either way, nothing new under the (rising) sun.