Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

Phew....
I finished the storyline of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One PS3 just now. 😙
It took 19 months to be finished since i bought the game on early January 2020 as i didn't play the game intensively.
All 4 One gameplay was pain, very long, pretty boring, unskipable events, cannot be saved anytime, it made me not excited to finish the game in hurry. 😑
I still have one more Ratchet & Clank PS3 game that i still haven't finished yet, Q Force. It was really hard for Tower Defense style game.

Tonight i saw a "Blue Moon" phenomenon that occured on 22 August 2021.
The moon looked a bit bigger and brighter than usual.
I saw a bright star near of the moon from East side.
Check your place if the Blue Moon is still occured on different places.

@Anti-Matter When you see a star that is that bright, it's likely a planet. You saw Jupiter. The little stars lined up on either side of Jupiter are it's moons. You can start to see the moons with 30-40x magnification, or higher.

At sunrise/sunset, if you see one bright star, and no other stars, that's likely a planet.

@TheJGG Regarding, 24 hours of LeMans: So, is LMPH the "hypercar" class? Is that it? I knew of LMP1 and LMP2, and I knew they were prototype classes, but that's about it.

@WoomyNNYes Yeah, the LMH class stands for Le Mans Hypercar. The LMP1 class has been retired and the Hypercar class replaces it. They're noticeably slower than LMP1 cars though, they were tested to hit a specific benchmark time around the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Toyota still nailed that new set of regs, absolute domination from them. A great race nonetheless.

@WoomyNNYes
I saw Jupiter in the night ??
But it supposed to look smaller due to its distance.
I wonder how did ancient peoples saw Jupiter and Saturn in the night without using telescope ?
Because Rome peoples named the days based on planet names until Saturn.

And for a bright star in the evening and no other stars surronded, i think i have ever saw Venus by my eyes.

Speaking about planets, recently i saw some Sailor Moon episodes from Youtube in original Japanese dubbing with Indonesian subtitle. Well, some nostalgic anime to watch since from 1995. I prefer Sailor Moon S (season 3) as i like some Daimon design with Lady Gaga style (probably Lady Gaga got her outfits idea from Daimon), the Witches 5, Sailor Moon transformation music for season 3, outer planets sailor senshi, etc.

@Anti-Matter no, the planets are named after theirs gods, not the other way around.

They gave names to the ones they could see with their current technology.

They then used those known celestial bodies as inspiration to name the days of the week.

@Eel
I know.
But i still wonder how did ancient Rome peoples see planet Jupiter and Saturn without telescope and we got Thursday (dies Jovis) and Saturday (dies Saturni) name ?
As far i know, ancient peoples only can saw until Saturn before Uranus, Neptune and Pluto discovered with modern telescope.

@Anti-Matter they could see a fair amount of planets on their own. (Though they probably just looked like fancy stars).

Remember that back then the skies were a lot clearer. It was possible to study the movements of many celestial bodies even without modern telescopes.

@Eel
Ah...
I forgot to compare the sky condition in ancient time and modern time.
Well, i rarely see a lot of stars in the night.
Sometimes i saw a fainted glowing stars that looked like Orion Constellation (3 stars in a row looked like a belt) or a single bright star in the evening (Venus).

Venus is also usually visible here.

@Anti-Matter Nobody saw they were planets until telescopes. You need magnification power to see them. Lenses advanced enough to do that were invented around 1600.

Yeah, light pollution is a bummer. When I get a dark sky, I like to try to see if I can spot the Andromeda Galaxy. It looks like a faint fuzzy smudge. It's the oldest light that can be seen with the naked eye - 2.5 million light years away.

@WoomyNNYes
Ah...
So ancient peoples named the celestial bodies they found with mythological names with their current technology.
It was ironic to name a "beautiful planet" with Venus (goddess of beauty and love) as ancient peoples thought it was Earth's twin and in the future peoples found Venus is a hell planet (480 degree Celcius with very massive pressure and Sulphuric acid atmosphere).
Beautiful from outside but hellish from inside.
And that's why it mentioned "I'm your fire, your desire" from Venus by Bananarama. 😆

It looks nice and pretty from here 😅

Yep, looks like there's gonna be a blue moon tonight. It's also my brother's birthday today, so I wished him a happy one.

@Tyranexx I still remember those GameCube demos that you could play in those store kiosks back in the day, those were the ones I remember the most. I got a PS2 demo disc from PlayStation Underground many years ago too, though I'm not sure what happened to it. It had a good amount of playable demos from what I recall, a couple of the games I remember playing on it were Maximo and that one snowboarding game. (I can't remember the name of it, but the level had the player boarding on sand and its logo looked really similar to that of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games. Pretty sure it was made by Activision 02.) There were save data that you could download too, and there were tip videos for various games, like how to get one of the Power Cells from Jak and Daxter.

There's a couple glitches I could do, but most of the time I just play games normally. Some of the glitches I've seen look really hard to pull off too. You won't find me doing that infinite flutter glitch in Super Mario Galaxy 2, that's for sure.

Ah okay, DK64 is on the Wii U Virtual Console in case you wanna play it. Be prepared to fail the minigames/challenges a fair amount of times though...some of them are ruthless. It's quite an ambitious game - I just wish it was a bit better.

Ah jeez, that must have been an un-fun class. Sorry to hear. I did need to take a preparatory physics class before the real deal, which I did surprisingly good in. As I said before, the later physics classes they had me go through was mega tough...so I don't blame those who opted to skip physics at your school. lol

Super Mario Galaxy is one of my favorite Mario games as well, it's actually really hard for me to pick my absolute favorite 3D game since I have a lot of them, lol. SMG1 and 2, 3D World, and Odyssey are all the best 3D Mario games in my eyes, and Super Mario Bros. 3 is my second favorite 2D game after SMW. So you and me both in terms of Mario games. I like Super Mario 64 as well, though some areas (such as the controls) haven't aged the best.

@Sunsy Yeah that was cool you came across that. I think that some of the new levels in that game were brought over to Lost Levels, or maybe it was the other way around. I came across a Sonic spinner during one of my vacations too.

@TheJGG Glad to hear your brain prodding went about...well, as well as it could have lol. Shame it wasn't as easygoing for your dad though. I do hope he's feeling better now. A drive-through test huh? That's how the local health department has done most of their Covid vaccination series in my neck of the woods. Streamlined, segregated to your own car, relatively painless process. For my second dose, the whole process only took about twenty minutes since I was one of the last ones signed up for that time slot.

Love that No Man's Sky track, it was decent throughout, though it really picked up for me at the 3:03 mark. Another game I haven't played and wouldn't mind trying at some point.

I do believe less airports charge for wi-fi these days, though as it's often public I try to be careful. I last flew in late 2019 for a short work conference, and outside of my phone I didn't access public wi-fi much. The only other devices I took along were my work laptop and my DS Lite for entertainment. The scannings are a pain, but they are very necessary. Still, I won't pretend I'm not very uncomfortable and on edge in those areas. My dislike of large groups of people, especially those I'm unfamiliar with, aside, I don't like being poked and prodded by security. I have a huge aversion to strangers touching me unless it's on the hands or where I can see them. Hartsfield-Jackson was tense. I wouldn't want to go through there again unless it was very early in the morning or late at night. Atlanta in general is pretty nuts; I'm VERY glad I never had to drive while I was there. Huge props to those cab and Uber drivers, most of them know what they're doing!

I admit I still haven't given your XC novel another look just yet outside of the prologue when you first started. Twenty pages is a pretty decent accomplishment! Shulk/Melia all the way, though he and Fiora have excellent chemistry too. It'll be interesting to see how you apply the party's characterizations and interactions as you write. I hope to get to it in a few days.

Yep, the racing genre has a bunch of sub-categories and variants in and of itself. I think part of why most of the genre wore out its welcome for me was by playing a couple of sub-par Need For Speed and Asphalt titles. I'm okay with a few minutes of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on occasion, but racing titles typically don't hold my attention long. As far as racing games go, I've heard Project CARS is excellent. I should also try out Rocket League at some point as it's different enough out of the norm to make me mildly curious. Fair points on how racing games aren't often yearly releases, which means they spend more time in the oven and don't feel like roster changes with a slightly different coat of paint. Watching the golf ball's crazy journey would've been great, but I'd also say that quad biking footage is a nice consolation.

Fall and winter make some of the best scenery in games IMO, though even that pales in comparison to experiencing it IRL. I've never been to the Northeastern part of the US, so at some point I'd love to get up around Maine and see the fall colors up there. A lot of the leaves don't turn where I live until mid-October to early November depending on the tree. The tradeoff, as you mentioned, is being at the mercy of the elements. If there were some scientific way for snow to exist outdoors in 70 degrees F/21 degrees C, I'd be a happy camper! I shoveled snow in windy, almost blizzard conditions at one point last winter so that I wouldn't have as much to do the next morning, and it...wasn't fun. I did it for 45 minutes total and made it 2/3 up my driveway, but I had to take a break a little over halfway through when I started losing feeling in my fingers. That RV trip sounds fun, curious about how that goes if that's what your family decides to do!

Nobody was hurt in the aluminum foil incident, though that microwave had a few issues afterward. It has since been replaced. While I highly encourage people not to blow up anything living or of value, especially cafeterias, I'm sure some people would've cheered if it got them out of school for a little while! XD Peanut butter and chocolate are an amazing combo for humans, but I certainly wouldn't feed that to a dog. That would be both pleasure and pain for the poor pooch. I never got into Cyanide and Happiness, though some people I know are fans lol. Funnily enough, I tried a s'mores pudding pie at a potluck earlier. It was different, but good. A bit too sweet though.

I'm a little concerned about the Disney+ situation too. While it's perfectly fine for them to release their films on their platform for rent streaming, as it were, I hope they return to traditional theater showings as well once we (finally) adjust to our new normal and get past this pandemic hump. I do hope they put Luca into cinemas at some point. I prefer a traditional movie house and would rather not sell my soul to another streaming platform right now, even if it is the House of Mouse lol. While I'm very familiar with the James Bond name, I...admittedly haven't seen any of the films or played any of the games. Agreed on the MCU actors, and I knew about Johansson suing Disney. Not sure how I feel about that one TBH. Pretty mixed on it.

I might have another game or two sneak in next month since my b-day falls towards the end of September; I have a pretty good idea something will show up, though what form it'll take, I have no idea! Thanks for the well wishes on Layton, I finally finished Spectre's Call, but might wait a bit before I get to Miracle Mask. I'm still working on Ys VIII and a couple of palette cleansers, and I'd like to watch the Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva movie next. Someone uploaded it to YouTube, and it's supposed to occur between the two aforementioned games. Seems like you have some fun purchases lined up in the near future, I hope you enjoy them as well!

While I don't follow Kojima closely, I am interested in seeing his future work. Might play Death Stranding eventually too.

@MarioLover92 Ah, that's true, store kiosks! There was a N64 demo kiosk I was fond of at the local Walmart back in the day. I'd play Pokemon Stadium on it while my mom was doing her shopping. They had Playstation and Xbox stations too, but those had nothing more than trailers or very short demos of games I wasn't interested in usually. Handheld demo units were more numerous though. Most places don't have demo kiosks anymore, and I don't blame them; some of the signs of abuse I'd notice were quite sad. Unless it was a young kid, it's hard for me to imagine why some people treat objects that way.

I don't usually dabble with glitching these days unless it's an accident. I wasn't able to even finish Darksiders: Warmastered Edition on the Wii U since a glitch kept making War fall through the floor and into infinity during a boss fight. It was both hilarious and frustrating. XD I strictly kept to in-game glitches only and never dealt with hacking devices such as a GameShark or Action Replay.

I've nearly picked up Donkey Kong 64 on the Wii U VC and might dabble into it one day. Or maybe Nintendo will finally bring it to Nintendo Switch Online one of these days when they finally decide SNES games aren't cutting it.

On physics...That pre-physics class was hard enough, so I wasn't gonna suffer through the real deal lol. Though I do wish I'd taken more business-oriented courses when I was in high school, but I was unsure what fields I genuinely wanted to go into until early college. I probably should've taken accounting, but I was afraid I'd obsess over every little math anomaly. I'm decent with money math, but as with normal math I'm not fond of it. Crazy really, being decent at something but not liking it. XD

Seems like we're in agreement on those titles then! My first foray into Super Mario 64 was with the DS...remake? Remaster? Not sure how that one would qualify. I could barely stand it. I wasn't fond of playing as Yoshi, all the control schemes didn't work well for me, and some of the mini-games were repeats from New Super Mario Bros., which I played not long before picking it up. I acknowledge that last assessment isn't really fair since SM64 DS came out first, but the controls killed it for me the most. I later played the original via the Wii U VC and enjoyed my experience. It's an excellent game overall, but I do agree some of it hasn't aged the best. The graphics I can forgive, the camera is annoying but also not too hard to overlook (as it was one of the first games to use a moveable camera), but some of the surfaces in SM64 must be coated in hot butter. WAY more slippy than usual!

Man that leaked Spider-Man trailer

They're really about to do One More Day lol

@TheFrenchiestFry I'm not going to watch it yet as I herd that its probably going to come out on monday, so might as well wait.

@Tyranexx No man sky, man what that game became.