Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Anti-Matter I'm not sure SEGA were trying too hard to be cool, but they did make some strange decisions with the Dreamcast. The timing of the release for one - I think they released in the US around the time the PS2 was announced so everyone basically just decided to wait for that instead.
I also remember reading that EA wanted exclusivity for sports games on DC, but SEGA refused because they'd just acquired 2K so no EA sport games would've hurt them pretty badly too; The likes of FIFA and Madden were pretty much console sellers back then. Add that to lack of DVD player, no dual analogues on the (massive) controllers, and the fact a lot of 3rd party developers ignored it due to being apparently difficult to develop for, it's easy looking back to see why it wasn't successful.

Despite all that The DreamCast had a great library of games (or maybe a library of great games?) - some fantastic SEGA 1st party stuff and Capcom supported it really well too - and was arguably a little ahead of it's time in terms of the online capabilities.

@MarioLover92 It does look good in white, but harder to find a model that's not all yellowed now though - mine is looking pretty rough these days. I've been meaning to Retrobrite it for a while now, just never got around to doing it.

@dmcc0
Wow, so that's why Dreamcast failed.
Well, i'm not a SEGA fan despite i have a few games by SEGA on both Nintendo and PlayStation machines such as Sonic Generations PS3, Sonic Lost World 3DS, Beijing 2008 PS3, London 2012 PS3, Tokyo 2020 PS4, Mario & Sonic Olympic games 2008 Wii, Virtua Tennis 4 PS3. But i hardly to enjoy SEGA games i bought as their games are pretty hard on some levels and the control schemes for older Olympic games was really hard to execute in great timing.
Well, i'm a different kind of gamer so i'm not even a fan of Dreamcast games library as i still like PS2 games library as the Best games library for 2000's era games. DDR and other BEMANI Rhythm games by Konami + K-1 + Bomberman + Monster Farm 4 + Ratchet & Clank + FF X/X-2 + FF XII + some 3rd party 3D platformer games on PS2 are the reasons i like PS2 games library.

I have discovered that some of Skylanders games have Adventures Pack in figurines. They are kind of Expansion Packs in physical, inside the figurines. They are optional things so once i finished the storyline of Skylanders, i can always go back to previous chapters to get through other elemental portal gates that i haven't opened yet by certain Skylanders.
My impression with Skylanders games after finishing Swap Force for the first time, it was a good game but the amount of figurines to unlock certain optional areas was kinda bummer since i have to spend additional money to buy certain figurines to unlock specific gates. I gave it score 7.5 / 10 for Swap Force. Next, i will finish Spyro's Adventure PS3 as i have reached chapter 9.

@Anti-Matter I played Sonic Generations and thought it was alright - better than most of the 3D Sonic games I've played - and I love the first Virtua Tennis on Dreamcast. Haven't really played any of the Sega Olympics games though

You would've probably liked Samba de Amigo on Dreamcast, and Space Channel 5 too, maybe even Jet Set Radio or Chu Chu Rocket. There was a Bomberman game too I think. Some Dreamcast stuff did get ported to other consoles, but not sure on those games mentioned - Samba de Amigo would've been perfect for Wii though. A lot of the SEGA games are based off the arcade originals so they were deliberately difficult to keep you pumping coins into them!

The sheer size of the PS2 library meant it did have a much wider selection of games and the types of games you're interested in tend not to be 'system sellers' and come later in the consoles life. The Dreamcast probably just wasn't around long enough for those games to be made for it.

@dmcc0
One thing that i didn't like to see from Virtua Tennis 4 PS3 was the tennis ball movements as everytime i hit the ball by any buttons (slice / lob / top spin), the ball always bouncing higher and it made the CPU easily to counter my smash. I never saw the ball landed sharply by hard smash from Virtua Tennis 4 as if i compared with other tennis games like Mario Power Tennis Gamecube or Everybody's Tennis PS2 or Tennis game from Bomberman Battles PS2, the movement of tennis ball were different depend how did you hit the ball. I decided to stop playing Virtua Tennis 4 until i got better mood to continue the game.

Oh, Samba de Amigo was actually one of SEGA IP that i have some interest but since i will not buy Dreamcast for only 1 or 2 games, i think i will pick Samba de Amigo Wii version but at the same time i heard also some critiques about the Wiimote using to shake the maracas.

Also, before pandemic i used to be playing SEGA Rhythm game on Arcade called MaiMai. It was like DDR by SEGA but played by touching and rubbing the screen and or outside buttons to beat the game. MaiMai have some great song selections as good as DDR with some of the artist was used to be from Konami such as Jimmy Weckl, Shoichiro Hirata, DJ Simon, etc. Some of MaiMai songs especially Toho songs and Vocaloid songs have ported to DDR A Arcade with way more interesting and challenging stepcharts.
I could play MaiMai songs until Master difficulty at level 12+ with score achievement 80+%. Level 13 and above was really insane.
Well, i'm different kind of gamer.
I was really great in rhythm games and thus i really like PS2 games library for having the Best rhythm games by Konami.

@Anti-Matter I haven't really played too many rhythm games, especially the dancing games - far too energetic for me. I prefer to game slouched in a comfy chair Only ones I really remember playing were Rhythm Paradise on DS, Guitar Hero Series on PS2 and recently played Thumper on Xbox. I guess Guitar Hero & Thumper are not really to your musical taste though.

@dmcc0
Well, yeah.
I'm not a fan of Western rhythm games like Guitar Hero / Rock Band / Just Dance as i don't like almost every song choices from those games added with long version songs they used.
There are some rhythm games for couch potato gamer such as Beatmania IIDX, Pop'n Music, Keyboardmania by Konami on PS2 with their peripherals like Arcade version (Beatmania IIDX controller, Pop'n Music controller, Keyboardmania controller). They are finger based rhythm games and you can play the games by sitting down on the couch while your fingers keep busy tapping the buttons.
If you are good in playing piano you will like to play those games. I have those games on PS2 with their peripherals but i still suck at playing those games as i have no proficience in playing piano. 😩
I can only play those games well if i play Beatmania IIDX with option 5 keys, Pop'n Music with 5 keys, Keyboardmania with 13 keys.

@ogo79 That's what's drawn me to make an account for this place. I like the overall culture and attitude to interaction. Things seem a lot nicer here than many places online that just get more and more acidic.

Wow, this is a really cool looking table.

@ogo79 Coming from someone who use to be part of forums a very long time ago where people got annoyed at me for liking the "wrong" kind of games ("wrong" as in "I don't like this" or "look at the reviews" to prove why I shouldn't like it), I can agree with this. I found it healthier to just enjoy games I like, regardless of the reputation they may have on MetaCritic or YouTube, or something.

Partially why I like the unpopular opinion thread here. I have lots of them just from simply playing games.

Yup, there was a Bomberman game, I had it. Bomberman Online, despite online being a selling point, had offline play too. Funny that the only other Bomberman I played is Super Bomberman R Online, also has online as the main selling point.

I have the Wii version of Samba De Amigo and it's fun. Outside the few Sonic games, I have fond memories of playing games on Dreamcast, both Crazy Taxi games, Daytona USA 2001, Sega Smash Pack (has Sonic 1, but also has an excellent port of Virtua Cop). Also, the VMU is still the best memory card out there.

@Sunsy I regret selling my original Dreamcast when I did - I had a pretty good collection and some games that now go for crazy amounts used so will likely never be able to replace them - stuff like Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but I probably played Virtua Tennis, Soul Calibur and Metropolis Street Racer the most. They weren't too expensive to replace. I'm still slowly trying to rebuild what I can of the collection and maybe pick up the odd thing missed out on as well.
I went back and played Sonic Adventure recently and it hasn't aged well - the controls are horrible. Virtua Tennis still plays great though - perfect arcade-style sports game and still looks pretty good too considering its age.

@Anti-Matter Sega really only tried to be "cool" during the Genesis era. They had this aggressive marketing campaign about how much better and more mature they were than Nintendo, and things like that. They had "Genesis does what Nintendon't" and "blast processing" - the latter of which was when the SNES was like a year or two on the market. It paid off for them too, it was their highest selling console by a long shot, with hit games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, and many others.

The real problem was that Sega made a bunch of bad decisions as a hardware manufacturer. There was the Sega CD and 32X add-ons for the Genesis, both of which being released with little fanfare. The 32X was especially unnecessary - it was being made at Sega of America, while Sega of Japan was making their real next console, the Saturn. People did not care about the 32X one bit, and there were like what, 2 games worth getting for it? That got discontinued after around a year or so. The Saturn's hardware architecture was insanely complex, making game development more difficult - it didn't even have a mainline Sonic game. It was way too expensive, as well. They were trying to make Sonic Xtreme, a would-be 3D Sonic game, but development was really, REALLY hard on them so they had no choice but to cancel it. That's what truly hurt the Saturn in my eyes, lacking an actual next-gen Sonic game. That would be like if Nintendo made their next home console, and they don't a single Mario platformer on it. So yeah, as you can imagine, the Saturn bombed badly - the PlayStation annihilated it.

@dmcc0 Oh right, I remember seeing yellowed SNES consoles as well. I would prefer it to be in tip-top condition for sure.

@Sunsy Agreed on the Mario pinball table. I should mention that my arcade has the PlayChoice-10 cabinet too, that was literally the first time I saw it in person.

@MarioLover92
Ow, so that's why SEGA started to get downhill by their decisions that hurting themself.
Even Compact Disc can be so different by SEGA or Sony decisions.
If i compared the games library of SEGA Saturn, Dreamcast, N64 and PlayStation 1 during 90's era, only games library from PlayStation 1 that i have interest by the most. It has DDR games, FF VIII, FF IX, FF Tactics, Bishi Bashi, Punky Skunk, Pepsiman, Monster Rancher 2, Magical Drop III, The Boxing + The Kickboxing (by agetec), Pocket Fighter, Chocobo Racing, Chocobo Mystery Dungeon 2, Puzzle Bobble 3DX, K-1 2000's games, Magical Tetris feat. Disney, etc as my best games from PlayStation 1. And yeah... my games choices were completely different even for the games during 90's era.
N64 was not my childhood video games during 90's era (I started to play PS1 games with my siblings and my Mom on June 1998) so i didn't play Mario 64, Zelda games and other N64 games that most people played as i have no idea about N64 existence during that era as i still young and only knew about PlayStation 1 games.
Before i played PS1 games, i have ever played some NES and SNES games.

But for my new standard of retro games hunting as i grew up, i only looking the games started from year 2000 and above so any games before year 2000 are not my top priority unless the games are pretty good enough to convince me to buy like DDR PS1 games, FF Tactics, Chocobo Racing, etc. If i called myself, i was more like PlayStation guy rather than Nintendo guy during PS1 and PS2 era before Wii and NDS changed my status back to Nintendo guy. But even from Wii and NDS, i still played more 3rd party games than 1st party games.

@TheJGG Glad that there are no side effects to report. I hope the test went well for you, it's an unpleasant but necessary evil. Even if you're sneezing and feel like your sinuses will never be the same again. Oof. They dropped your test once before? Test contamination is very rare here, but I've heard/read reports of it happening.

Yuck, a sign-in portal. That's to be expected, though they are quite a pain. I've not subjected myself to airport wi-fi since most places charge and usually just dealt with being offline for awhile. Honestly though, if it's not a work trip, I don't mind a slight break from messages. That section of RL can wait a bit while I decompress for awhile lol. I enjoy flying, but I'm not a fan of airport security and human/luggage processing, though it is a necessity. The worst airport I've been through, by my recollection, was Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, GA. It's a huge airport, with five terminals and a tram used to shuttle people between them. Way too many people for my liking, and a confusing mess to get through. It's also the main hub of the Delta airline.

Heh, practice makes perfect! It must be pretty neat to have a show made off a series of books one pours their blood, sweat, and tears into...even if the show producers take liberties from time to time. Haven't dived into your Xenoblade story yet, but I do hope to get around to it soon! Can't wait for the Mechon invasion bit; that was a dramatic way to really push the player forward in the game.

A fair point on the accessibility of some video game sports, though I'd consider your car racing example more in the racing genre. Which I suppose does qualify as a sport depending on the setting and how realistic the presentation is. Seems that we're in agreement when it comes to everyday sports that are easy to find balls and other equipment for. Also agreed that true sports can be a vehicle into (in my biased opinion) better video games. I really wish someone had managed to catch that crazy chain reaction on camera or film! That sounds epic! XD Reality is often stranger than fiction!

I like cool weather, but I'd also be happy if beautiful weather events like snow (As long as it's only a few centimeters/inches) could exist in above-freezing temperatures. At least the benefit to cold is that you can layer up and (eventually) get warm, but you can only peel off so many layers in hot weather. I'm more heat than cold tolerant, but I certainly have limits lol. Honestly, as much as I'd prefer dry heat sometimes, I would eventually miss a nice, calming rain. Not the nasty storms and other events I'm occasionally privy to though. Also, I can definitely confirm: face masks can cause acne.

I've...had the microwaved aluminum foil incident too, though by accident. I was making a baked potato and changed my mind after applying foil on how I wanted to heat it. Turns out...I didn't remove all the foil. Windows were cracked. Sounds like the chocolate chip/peanut butter experiment was a success overall, even if the end result was too sweet for your liking. ...Not gonna lie, if I let myself I'd probably eat through half the jar if it was just peanut butter. Doubly so with the added chocolate. Supposedly, August 10th was National S'mores Day according to a message board at work. Wish I'd realized that the day of.

I sort of wish I'd watched the MCU films as they rolled out in order, but at the time I wasn't too keen on going to the theater too much. The films I have watched did introduce me to a few Marvel characters I was unaware of before, such as Vision and Ant-Man. Agreed, it is fun to watch the characters grow into their roles, though I daresay you're more licensed to make that comment than I am. Iron Man is probably my favorite of the bunch for the reasons you listed, though Black Widow is a close second. She's an all-around bad@$$ who also exhibits some fairly decent character development. I also gotta agree on Thor's humor!

It's been a couple weeks since I picked up a new game, and I'm really trying to hold off on grabbing anything else until next month. In fact, I'm thinking about finally downloading Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy via the 3DS eshop and finally finishing out my Layton collection. Minus Layton vs. Wright, since the file size is huge and physical copies are hard to find for a decent price. Seems as though you're enjoying your MIDI controller, though I'm sure it takes a little getting used to like almost any unfamiliar contraption. I've been pretty tied up with work lately and haven't been doing too much music listening, though I did fit in some XC and XC2 tracks earlier.

Thanks for the heads up on Abandoned. Honestly, with how I know Kojima operates, though I won't pretend I follow every move the guy makes...that whole hypothesis is actually somewhat plausible. It's almost in conspiracy theory territory though, so I'll roll in wearing my tinfoil hat and eating ample amounts of chocolate-covered popcorn. Though if I knew my studio had suddenly been targeted by the internet speculation circles, I'd play along with a bit of trolling too.

I took the week off of exercising, and it's still amazing how busy I can keep myself. Crazy!

Reason 5732 of why I won't touch iOS with a fifty foot pole outside of dev testing.

@Anti-Matter Honestly, there are aspects of all three of those course paths that I would enjoy. Though I probably would have ultimately chosen the Science or Social Studies tracks too. I did well in school, but I really had to work at some classes...especially really higher math. Some of the problem there though was that my high school decided to switch math tracks, so those at the math level I was in after my freshman year/grade 9 ultimately lost out on about 1/3 of our algebra before getting pushed straight into trig/pre-calculus. The teacher tried her best, but she had to cram ten classes into eight periods with little help. I've always been decent at memorization and especially with patterns, though I'm by no means perfect and did have to study in school. I daresay you have me beaten in the art department though!

I liked watching CSI and police/investigation dramas back in the day too, though some of that is played up a little compared to real life in order to make things more exciting for the audience. I really got into CSI: Miami, Cold Case, and especially Criminal Minds at one point. I wrote quite a lot of fanfiction in my teenage years too, mostly related to franchises I was into. Such as Pokemon and Digimon. I wrote a couple of more original stories too, though I didn't finish them. One featured a man who was caught in a just-dead state after the Apocalypse, and he had to find out why he's still stuck with his soul on Earth. The rest of the world was a dead wasteland. I was quite into the supernatural and monster movies at the time and still do have some interest in the latter.

Now I want to try LEGO City: Undercover just to wreck things in glorious, plastic brick fashion! Despite liking LEGOs, I've admittedly never played any of the games.

@ogo79 I've been wondering about a certain Mad Titan as well, though I assume he's busy with RL. I can definitely relate! XD

@TheJGG I stopped following the Nintendo Switch thread some time ago. Namely because it moved so fast a lot of the time that I couldn't keep up.

@MarioLover92 I was actually just under the age requirement when we played that version of GTA, and I haven't tried any of the other games. I had fun wrecking things in the game, but I couldn't really get into it from any other angle. I've heard of the franchises you mention playing on the PS2, though outside of a Tony Hawk game I tried somewhere once (Don't recall which console it was unfortunately), I don't have any experience with those series. I think I'd like Jak & Daxter, same with Crash. I might pick up Crash N'Sane Trilogy on the Switch eventually though.

Honestly, if someone could have worked with me one-on-one with the higher math, I probably would have done better. Not that I earned terrible math grades by any means, but I really had to work for it. As mentioned to Anti above, part of it was due to a math program switch when I was in high school. I absolutely hated physics and never could scrape anything above a decent B in that class. I took most of those classes in high school, though I touched on some of the higher math and biology when I was in college and was toying around with different majors.

On 3DS: I need to replay A Link Between Worlds. I've cleared the normal game but need to go back and try Hero Mode at some point since I'm a LoZ masochist lol. It's been about eight years since I've played Super Mario 3D Land, so that would be worth a visit as well. Still haven't delved into an Animal Crossing game, though I've nearly picked up New Leaf more than once since it's a cheaper series entry point that New Horizons at present. I just can't get myself to make the time investment lol.

@Tyranexx on android the update also deletes your save file. Apparently. 😅

i hope hes alright. i dont have any other ways to contact him.

gotta make ourselves happy by any means.

it takes more energy and work to hate than to love. plus im lazy.

i speak from the heart buddy

why does everything you make turn into gold???

I'm all for lazy love. Nintendo Life is quickly becoming like an online cafe for me

This was my drawing lesson for grade 1 - 3 this afternoon. I drew cute tropical fruits.

@Eel Oof. Guess we can lay the blame more on SE in this case then. A deleted save would make me lose faith and interest in what I'm playing pretty quickly.

@Anti-Matter Did you also bring in edible visual aids? That would certainly help with my drawing...and stomach.

@ogo79 Same on both fronts. I've also considered shipping some trained carrier pigeons over to the other side of the pond to seek him out, but I don't think the containing boex would make it past customs.

@Tyranexx
Oh, i still have another cute fruits, vegetables and ice cream drawings for grade 1. 😁