Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

This is my gaming haul from this week

I got Pokemon Alpha Sapphire as my old copy refuse to play. The famous cartridge problem from the article here on NL!

Also this reminds me that I made a promise about Resident Evil 5 and 6.
@Losermagnet I think you were the first interested in the games right? You like Resident Evil? Also you are sure you want to play them right? Just so you know only RE6 is available now

Everyone in this thread, do not let him get away with this! We must petition Zuljaras to make a new plasticine stop motion!

I'd be well up for a @zuljiras plasticine stop motion film, too, @TheJGG .......

We all need that goodness in our lives. True beauty has never been so objective.

@TheJGG It has been more than 10 years. I need to find a Stop Motion software for windows 10 (the one I used I think it is no longer supported ... hmmm ... need to check that ) and one of those "arm" things for my phone so the quality is not sh** like in that old YT video

I’m truly humbled by your observation, and you’re absolutely right! The first one was indicative of pure racing, as is this one to a certain extent. But taking Alex from LiS3 was because the series looks awesome and I’d love to get into it. But I like her character design, personality and power.

Most times I also think of colour when changing my profile.

@TheJGG SEE, I love Profile pics.

@ThanosReXXX Ah, good catch. The use of the word "identity" was intentional.

Superman and the Mole Men is a very old film - 1951 to be exact. I haven't seen it, though with the information I've learned I'd certainly give it a watch! It's the first full-length feature film based on a DC character. I'd say they're something completely different, though I will admit that I'm not familiar with the Marvel side of the Mole Men concept.

As for those later Superman films, they're now getting added to the ever-growing "Films I Need To Watch" list. As long as they aren't as cheesy as Westerns, I won't have any problem. The vast majority of those, in terms of plot and special effects, have NOT aged well. I shouldn't be laughing at gun fights lol. At least we owe the advent of the Wilhelm Scream to them....

@Snatcher Yeah you come across mischievous. Of course it’s the Internet, but still. Didn’t know it was from A Hat in Time though, never imagined there’d be such a... creative art direction.

@Tyranexx... psst! Psst! Nintendodirectohmygosh....it’sactuallyhappeningpinchmenow....AaaaaaaaHHH!!

@TheJGG I think I have become my avatar LOL, I can't look at this guy without thinking of me, with the three years have been here I have only changed this bad boy once, and it was to this guy.

@Snatcher To be fair I’m a bit of a racer too. I watch half a dozen racing series, I race competitively online, and I’m not useless in a kart. I’d also argue that Alex represents my preference towards female avatars in video games despite being male...

Plus.. purple... man that colour’s damn good.

@TheJGG Yoo purple is my favorite color! LOL.

Which 'later Superman films', @Tyranexx....? The Chris Reeve ones? I saw those when I was young, so I'm not sure how cheesy they are, really but I remember them being good

@Eel Latin American dubs of the Nanny? Complete and utter blasphemy, I say.

All kidding aside, though. I really don't like dubs. And in the Nanny, a large part of the premise is indeed centered around her nasal voice, so the Latin American version not having that is a weird omission, and apparently alluding to something that isn't there anymore makes it sound all the more weird.

Another important staple is the English butler and of course mr. Sheffield himself. Posh English people do not translate well into any other language other than their own. But then again: all of that is just my personal opinion and you get used to what you grow up with. There's plenty of other countries where it's "dubs only" for American and/or British shows, so I guess you only ever notice it if you don't have dubs yourself. Over here, it's all VERY source-focused, or rather: USA-focused, so they'll only ever show original material with their original sound and audio tracks.

@Tyranexx Westerns cheesy? REALLY? Surely not the classics, i.e all the Ennio Moricone-infused movies, any and all movies with Clint Eastwood or any of the other great stars of the time. Those are still like the Holy Grail of Westerns to me. When I'm thinking cheesy in combination with Westerns, then more often than not, the comedy versions of them come to mind. The only thing I find ever so mildly disturbing from those older movies is the horribly bad movie blood. It's basically just red paint...

I've added that Superman film to the "to watch" list, but I've honestly got no idea when I'll get around to it. I am now wondering if Marvel bought the copy right for the Mole Men, though. Probably depends on it being written with capitals or not...

In case you're curious:

• https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Mole_Man
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Man

@ThanosReXXX for English people, they mostly just make them sound posh and proper.

Anyhow, it's mostly just a case of "comfort", it's the voices I grew up listening to, so I'm quite fond of them. Though yes I have also seen the show in English, and several jokes work much better like that.

@Eel Yeah, I can imagine. That's also why I added that bit about people being used to what they grow up with. Me, I couldn't stand anything other than the original. (also because some of these dubs are SO weird and completely different in tone and feel to the original, that it almost comes across as more of a parody or even downright insulting to the original actor or material)

About a decade or two ago, I worked and lived in Germany for a while and while I did like the people (their bad reputation is most definitely not deserved and largely stems from WW2) and their food and beers, I most definitely did NOT like all the German dubbing. To this day, I still have nightmares about a German-dubbed version of the sitcom Alf...

@BruceCM Yep, the Chris Reeve films. Didn't have easy access to superhero-themed stuff as a kid until I started getting into some of the animated shows. I haven't seen a lot of the live-action movies that came out until the 2000s. Heck, Batman AND Tim Burton fan I am, I haven't seen any of his films regarding the Caped Crusader. (Need to fix that)

@ThanosReXXX Westerns, at least the ones back in the day, have never really been my cup of tea...though it could be I just haven't seen many that really caught my eye. The only older film I even remotely like is Disney's The Apple Dumpling Gang, and that has more to do with the comedy of Don Knotts and Tim Conway. The main thing for me is the effects really haven't aged well. You mentioned the blood, plus there are the clearly fake punches, "gunshots", etc. In terms of more modern films that at least touch the genre, I do really enjoy Dances with Wolves.

On Marvel's Mole Man: Actually, now that I think about it a little more, that guy does ring a bell. Though going by what I've found online, the supervillain and the antagonists in that 1951 Superman film are different in many ways. It does make me wonder if Marvel bought the rights, or if copyright was as strict back in the day....I doubt people and businesses were quite as sue-happy, at any rate!

I'm now curious about German-dubbed Alf.

@TheJGG No rush on the posts, especially since there will likely be gaps of at least several days before I get back to you. Still researching and trying to put a list of contacts together to start conducting estimates for my windows. DQ XII's title is enough for now, at least in my book. They revealed just enough to let everyone know it's certainly a thing and give us plenty of ideas, but we'll have to resign ourselves to what little we have for now. With E3 coming up, I think I'll live.

Truth be told, I never buy a piece of hardware right when it launches; I like to wait for some patches and maybe a light revision in order to better ensure some issues are ironed out before I dive into an ecosystem. Plus, in terms of games, it gives me time to tidy up my current backlog a little before dealing with the influx of new games. It's not like I stockpiled a few Switch games via sales and gifts before getting one or anything lol.

In terms of quantity and, to an extent, my tastes, your wish sounds a lot like mine! Out of those, I can recommend Monster Hunter: Rise. Just be aware that it may take a little while for things to click. It's a big learning curve, but I've enjoyed it!

Very wise. This increasingly feels like many areas of the internet in general. I did see the news about the time for Nintendo's E3 Direct. While I'm very happy it's confirmed, I'm not nearly as pleased about the time; it's in the middle of my work day (11 AM). I'm still trying to figure out how I'll work the Direct in. I could take a very early lunch, but I'm not fond of watching something like that on my phone. Previously I could get away with watching Directs on my work PC if I was on lunch, but my team also used to be stuck in our own suite (We joked we were second class; we didn't have as many amenities as the main building lol). Now that we're back in the main building, there's a risk of passersby who aren't familiar with my habits seeing what I'm up to and getting the wrong idea. Alternatively I could go on media blackout until I could safely watch, but I'd probably explode before quitting time. We'll see what I come up with.

On my brother & needles: I don't think it's a full-on phobia, but it isn't far from it. He doesn't have anything to do with needles unless his health is in dire straits. With the US, vaccine regulations are at the federal level, but states can also enforce their own sets of rules to an extent. For example, that's why pandemic reactions here have been varied; different responses at the state, regional, and local levels to the situation. With Bahrain's lockdown response, that is freakishly efficient, and I agree, almost frightening.

You went karting? I've been on go karts at tourist areas, though it's been many years. No professional tracks though. I wasn't really racing anyone per se, just having fun. Once was on my senior trip; I took a couple of the turns a little...cough fast. We didn't crash or hit anything, but we definitely flew around them! I think I freaked out the girl who rode with me a time or two. Thankfully my actual driving is much better than go karts or, heaven forbid, video game racing. A recurring thought I'd sometimes have when I was a kid was that if real driving was like it was in racing games, I was in huge trouble. XD Sounds like you had a fun time! It's nice to get out and do something different from the norm. Long distance driving can be exhausting enough, more tight, intense driving like that even more so!

I'll take Zelda over Mario any day, though ironically I've been into Mario by varying degrees ever since I knew what a video game was. I still enjoy platformers that feature the portly plumber, but Zelda games feel more varied, have an epic feel, and helped really show me how "big" a video game world could be. And this was before Breath of the Wild! I'm sure I've mentioned it, but my first Zelda title was Twilight Princess. I fell in love and have played every main series game since, barring Four Swords Adventures for the GameCube. Pokemon was my main jam for many years though, and it's still one of my favorite series. Though I do agree that TPC might be rushing the main series games out a little too fast these days. I can't speak for Sword/Shield yet however.

Voice acting typically doesn't bother me. There is some cringe VA work, but it seems few and far between in the games I've played. Or maybe I'm just more tolerant. From the voice bits I've heard from the Trials of Mana remake however, I do agree with many that Charlotte's English VA is very grating. At least with Fire Emblem Echoes, the vast majority of the voices and conversations fit the characters IMO. I was excited when Disco Elysium was announced for the Switch; it's a really good game from what I've read, and the premise is intriguing. Funnily enough, the first time I heard of it was some wins it earned from an awards panel, though I don't recall which one. In my defense, I don't think it was technically out yet at the time lol.

Totally needed that Nintendo Direct announcement, lol. Looking forward to it, but I'll be sure to come in with an open mind. As much as I would love to see a new Donkey Kong 3D platformer, I ain't expecting it since it's nothing more than a rumor.

@TheJGG I've also driven a real go-kart before, that was at my area's speedway. It was fun. That was years ago, I think I was like what, 12 at the time? Out of curiosity I looked up if it's still open, but it looks like it went out of business.

@Tyranexx I didn't play too much of the Mega Man Legends series, but I did get MML1 and 2 from the PSN store recently. I'll be sure to dive deeper into the games at some point. It's admittedly been a long time since I played MMX8, but I do remember liking it quite a bit! But yeah, X7 is awful. I mean, you can't even play as X throughout the first chunk of the game. There's also clunky controls (especially compared to the past games), levels/bosses that take an eternity to beat, trashy voice acting...need I go on?

@MarioLover92 It was one of the best experiences of the year so far, though it's a very easy bar to clear.

It's one heck of a ride. It's easily my favourite circuit I've been to, and I've done four or five tracks. It has a combination of low, medium and high speed corners and nailing all of them is super important to getting a good time. As I said I went with my father and a friend of his and I managed to eclipse both of them. Dad's a force behind the wheel so it was nice to give him the one-over. Three tenths was the gap!

The track's upside down, but here's a description; the first corner's completely flat but you need to stick to the outside and drift to the inside for a really fast right left chicane, also flat. Brutal if you get it wrong, because the kerbs are placed so that if you go even a little bit wide, you'll get a right rattle. Then, uphill braking into a relatively tight hairpin corner that opens on exit, and flat all down to a tight-ish corner that you can gain time on if you do well. There's this... strip of marble I think (?!) that makes you lose all of your traction if you run over it. Flat all the way to this sweeping right hander, (bottom left of the image) lift off and juuuuust tap the brakes, drive through the curve and brake hard for the tight left-hander. Another place to make up quality time. You can take the next two right hand corners flat if you turn the kart aggressive enough... that's it.

Of course the slower corners were the ones that you can lose the most time in. If I put on brakes too early I'd go into a corner too slow, but if it's too late I have the risk of spinning.

I'm sorry your local place isn't available, if you have the time and funds it's absolutely worth finding one to zip around!