Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

I made a recipe for cheesecake-stuffed chocolate chip cookies my mom found online, mostly because she seemed really into it and she's never into cooking, and at first it didn't impress me; the cookies came out looking almost exactly the same as they looked going in (very pale), and the cheese filling mostly just made them look like they were still raw and tasted mostly of powdered sugar. I even air fried a few of them to give them some color.

However, now that they've been out for about 12 hours, the taste and texture has improved greatly. The filling now actually feels and tastes like cheesecake, and it's very good.

So if any of you ever tries this unspecified recipe, trust the process and let them sit a long time before eating them.

That certainly sounds fancy, @Eel .... I've seen people doing various sorts of cookies, though & they do usually say to let them sit for awhile before eating them! Just pop some in the post to us

@BruceCM here ya go take one:

@Tyranexx Yeah, no problem, always happy to extend support to those who need it. I know the feeling, and it’s happened a few times in my experience but not to the point I’d deem it any kind of problem. Sometimes it’s stress-driven but otherwise it’s ironically oversleeping that means I end up waking up about an hour earlier than I would usually want. As for the upcoming essay, thank you. I’m still in the research phase, and frankly it’s extremely hard to invest time in it outside of the mandated research periods, but I’m getting there. That’s only one of the essays I’ve been involved with lately, I’ve had a lot of handwritten ones I’ve had to submit lately as well.

You put it decently; speculation is the most egregious part of a game’s development, seeing people overanalyse specific details, like… for instance… a broken Master Sword, or a slightly off-colour arm. Seeing ten minute videos on about three seconds of new BotW 2 video is borderline ridiculous. You say that cinematic only trailers are the enemy, but honestly it’s not like trailers with more gameplay are angel spawn either. Cyberpunk 2077 took the supposedly correct approach and still messed up, because of how many bugs there were in various gameplay segments, and differences in lighting, etc.

There was a Square Enix “interview” video with Darin De Paul where he introduces himself and then switches into character mid-sentence. The way his voice has this small rumble, even on tinny computer speakers, always sends a chill down my spine. He’s absolutely adoring it!

Funny, I’m listening to an Octopath song as I’m writing this part. But Octopath is a decent game though and through, with some small things that may deter less hardcore gamers. I’d guess that the people who can beat this game without complaining about the grinding probably live off of FromSoft games. As for the characters, I think their quality was pretty inconsistent overall. Some characters had a lot of depth in terms of how much they could have been given, and others fell a little short. I love Olberic but his character arc is a little flat. Alfyn’s on the other hand I adore, because it’s so natural, and very emotional. Primrose’s was the most original of them all, I’d say. Therion’s was alright, but was felt a bit typical as well. Ophilia similarly, felt a bit weak. Tressa’s was also predictable for her character. The character I connect to the most is Cyrus, and I like his arc for that reason, so… pretty biased. His writing and acting in particular are… darn good.

@Eel... those are SOME cookies. If only I could... reach through... and grab one!

Looking good, @Zuljaras .... Just got to put it all together now

@Eel What's in the middle of those chocolate chip cookies?

@WoomyNNYes basically, cream cheese frosting. But thick, like cheesecake.

@Eel I'd never seen a stuffed chocolate chip cookie before. Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Like ricotta/mascarpone mixed with powdered sugar? Either way they look delicious and unhealthy with is awesome!

@Zuljaras yeah like that. I'm not sure what type of cheese "cream cheese" is in specific though. They kinda just sell it like that.

This is the recipe in case anyone is interested! (the page is super long but right before the comment section is a handy printable version without the fluff) It was pretty easy to make, I was worried they would melt or something.

These miniatures are looking great btw. Positively mini.

Could've said this earlier, but I'm happy to see the news about those "Saturn Tribute" games coming out. The game that caught my eye was Galactic Attack, I remember watching my uncle play it on his Sega Saturn long ago. I've also played it before and it's a really good shmup - I'll be sure to get that on my Switch asap!

@Tyranexx Ah yeah I did hear that they made them as close to the DS originals as possible. Link's Awakening on the Switch got a similar treatment, down to the world/dungeon layouts and even the 8-way movement (which is...kind of odd to me). I have quite a lot of player's guides myself, as well as many Nintendo Power issues, with my first one being from 2002. When I was younger I'd browse through those guides to see how all the levels are laid out and stuff. I was quite the observant one back then, lol. I stopped getting player's guides quite a long time ago though, but I have been getting art books for some of my favorite games.

@Sunsy That's cool, I don't think I had a PC that was strictly DOS. Our Windows 95 PC from back in the day did have MS-DOS as a built-in program, which I tried out of curiosity when I was a lot younger...but I could not figure it out whatsoever, lol. I was already used to having GUIs from day one, and I'm still not exactly up to snuff with command lines. Which is ok. I like GUIs more anyway!

Yes you're correct about the past music, they weren't made for redbook audio, I think they were handled by the Sega CD's sound hardware itself. PCM audio, I think? Yeah I remember they used Toot Toot Sonic Warrior for Green Hills Zone, I didn't realize until much later. Pretty cool they did that. I also really like the Japanese ending theme for Sonic CD, Cosmic Eternity. It's got some encouraging lyrics, too!

Yeah you're welcome. Yeah, I'm generally happy with just getting any gifts that involves my favorite things. Especially Mario and his pals!

@Eel Those cookies look really good. You're making me want some, lol!

@Tyranexx It's alright, all I remember from Math Blaster was the trash shoot 'em up. Cool, I don't think I ever played the Time one, just the World and USA one. IIRC, the versions I played had a video phone where you get messages from either a robot, or a police officer named "Wanda," which for some reason I remember her name, lol.

You're welcome, I remember buying SimCity 2000 during a summer sale there. I was really surprised to find it too. Roller Coaster Tycoon, another one I played back then. My brother had the game, I have it now because of GOG. I also like the Theme games even though I was late to them, and I also play Two Point Hospital and Cities Skylines on PC. Always enjoyed these kind of games.

@Eel Those cookies look so good!

@Zuljaras Forget the NES Mini, it's the NES Nano! Looks good, but one must know, what are the games?

@MarioLover92 Same here, when my family got a PC after the Mac, it was using Windows 98. Most of the DOS games I experience used an emulator called DOSBox, which plays DOS games on modern PCs. Cool part is, DOSBox is included with modern re-releases on GOG and Steam. So I experienced them that way. Many publishers adopted DOSBox for official re-releases of classic games.

I wouldn't know how the past songs worked as I had the old Windows 95 version, and all the audio were CD tracks on that version. In fact, if you put the PC CD into a CD Player and play track 2 on (track 1 being data), you could listen to the soundtrack. It is cool they did that. I forgot all about the Japanese version's ending song. Sonic Boom always came to mind for the ending. Tidal Tempest's song from the Japanese version feels more fitting as it gives me that "trapped in water" feel, for lack of a better phrase, so it stands out.

Me too, I usually don't ask for much outside a game and something character related.

@Eel Dang those look nice! Not everyday you see a cookie with filling.

Thanks everyone!

I absolutely recommend giving the recipe a try, it was very easy.

@Sunsy I took the main colors from Castlevania (green + blue), Faxanadu (yellow + gray in the middle) and Castlevania 2 (blue + white and little black in the middle)

It seems stupid but it was important for me somehow

And Mikey little gaming diorama is done! I hope you guys like him

@Zuljaras The amount of little details on this thing is incredible! Keep up the great work man!

@Fizza Thank you

I like the coke as well, @Zuljaras .... What are you planning for the other turtles?

@BruceCM Donny on a skateboard