Messages

1

Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: May 25, 2024, 12:21:02 am »

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - On rewatch after a couple years away, it seems like my tastes have shifted slightly over the past few years.  I was pretty sure I had Empire above A New Hope on fave's, but they are kinda neck and neck now.  A New Hope is just a nice beginning to end story, they could've just ended the series there and it would've been fine, the story was overall unfinished, but it was just this one story of this world and it worked fine. 

Empire hinges a lot more on the 1st act of the movie with Hoth than I thought, I love that entire sequence, and while Dagobah is good character stuff, the Bespin stuff is kind of a weak point for me, and it very much feels like a middle film.  It's an enjoyable watch and I do enjoy Vader and Luke's fight, it doesn't have the dazzle of later era fights, but it works a lot more than how Vader/Kenobi fight was as there's a lot of passion to it.

Always interesting to see something in a slightly different light than how it was before.  I don't think much will have changed with Jedi, but we'll see.

2

General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: May 24, 2024, 02:36:02 pm »

I was wanting to get this because of the Godzilla DLC as well, but I wanted to wait for a deeper discount.  Well, apparently the Godzilla content is going to be time gated and not available after a period of time, so I'm probably going to get it this week.

The time period is all the way till November, so you could give it a wait, but a 25% deal for 15 bucks is more than worth it for this.  I've already put in 8 hours and I'm only at Chapter 3 out of I think 5 chapters (Actually it's 7, I thought the Godzilla stuff was gonna be like post-game, but it shows up in Chapter 5) and then with the Dredge and Godzilla DLC, that's a decent amount of content.

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: May 23, 2024, 09:51:39 pm »

Saw that the Godzilla DLC was out for Dave the Diver and since I've been meaning to check it out, and I'm dying for any sort of Godzilla gaming thing at this point, and it was on sale, I figured it was a good time to jump into it.  Been kinda struggling to get myself involved in a game the past few weeks, I still really need to get back to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but nothing was hitting me. 

This game is great though.  Normally I'm not big on timers in games, I like to do what I want at my own pace, but this game being so casual about it makes it feel fine to deal with.  I wasn't even super interested in the other part of the game which is a sushi restaurant minigame experience, but that's enjoyable to.  It's involved enough to not feel boring, but not too complicated to put me off setting up menu's, hiring people, and the other smaller elements.  All of the characters are pretty fun too.  Also randomly, it makes me want to play Ecco the Dolphin.  I haven't played that since the 90's lol

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: May 23, 2024, 12:52:58 am »

Star Wars: A New Hope - With all the anniversary talk lately for some of the movies, felt like doing a watch of all the movies as it's been awhile since I did that...I don't think I did everything before Rise of Skywalker, so maybe before Last Jedi? Either way, it's been awhile since I've watched the series and felt like it could be a good time to revisit everything, so all three trilogies along with Rogue One and Solo if I don't get distracted like I usually do with my marathons lol

The longer time has gone on, the more I wish we had the original trilogy in it's original theatrical release.  No special edition additions, just a clean, original, release.  I hate that nearly 30 years later, we still don't have that.  The CG additions always stood out like a sore thumb and they continue to age worse every year. At least in this one, it's not the worst, it's mostly shenanigans in Mos Eisley and then some ship stuff later on, but it will absolutely get worse the further I go lol

The movie itself is of course still a classic, even with the Special Edition parts tacked on, but can't really say anything new on it, both this and Empire are top favorites of the entire series.  It's just a great scifi adventure.

5

General / Re: IGN just acquired a ton of their competitors

« on: May 21, 2024, 07:02:34 pm »

While I don't read much of any of these, consolidating so many websites like this under one banner can never be a good thing.  I do need to find another gaming site with editorials to read, Destructoid has fallen off real hard lately for me, and otherwise I just check out Gematsu for pure game news.  Sucks to see stuff like this happen, because there's just not many smaller sites anymore, they tend to get bought up and it's questionable how long they'll last, much like game studios who get bought up, just to get shutdown, even if they do things right, or in some cases, relegated into the AAA franchise mines where creativity goes to die.

6

Hardware and Tech / Re: New PC Talk...

« on: May 16, 2024, 03:12:04 pm »

Am I getting that much of an upgrade with just some new parts? I tried to sorta browse what I think an upgraded build for me could be on Youtube and it didn't seem like I would be getting a huge leap on more graphic heavy games that are out now. An improvement for sure, better than what I got now, but I'm trying to do a big leap in quality while also setting myself up for the next couple years

There isn't a way to know without being able to try both. The price on your picker deal is pretty good considering what is included.

Personally I notice when playing games that max settings usually isn't worthwhile. First because there are many games where I can't tell the difference between Med/High/Ultra. Second is that unless the game is a walking simulator or some other type thing where you get to look around at the environment alot, the extra things that appear may not be noticable if you are focusing on the action. Since you're talking about Helldivers 2 the MP game, it is similar to me when I was playing BO4, where I didn't need or want the graphics to be on max because competition (and hence, speed/performance) takes priority over how the game looks. Even BITD the best Q3 player I personally knew ran the game on low settings to get the highest framerate. I know multiplayer games are more in the general public so you may not be a competitive player that cares about that, idk.

Yeah I'm not someone who is a "competitive" player in the multiplayer games I play, I almost never play anything ranked lol  I just want it to look real good while also having real good performance.  I know I watch EvilToaster for Apex and he's got his system so completely fine tuned to levels that are unbelievable to get the best looking visuals while also getting like maxed 200+fps action lol

I do play a lot of multiplayer games, but I would say what I tend to play most on my PC are larger open world experiences, survival games, things where I want great visuals and great performance.  Cyberpunk 2077 was one that still doesn't run well for me, that game I understand is taxing no matter the system, but still...I play DayZ every so often, I just got done playing Grounded again which runs well but even on lower settings has some performance issues, I'm interested in open world games like Star Wars: Outlaws coming up and STALKER 2 is gonna be super environment heavy and I want that to run it really well.  Also if the next Battlefield game coming out next year isn't a dumpster fire like Battlefield 2042, getting a game like that running great is something I want to push for, as Battlefield V was actually a push for me to get a new system back in 2018...which wasn't a great game, but it did look nice at least lol

If the system I'm grabbing looks good, then I'm definitely gonna pick it up soon, but I do appreciate trying to help me save me money with wanting to discuss just some upgrades, I'm sure other people can use that information to try and get some light upgrades just by double checking to see what their current setup can handle with some new hardware added.

7

Hardware and Tech / Re: New PC Talk...

« on: May 16, 2024, 01:24:43 am »

My current system is a...

ASUS ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming LGA 1151
Intel Core i5 8th Gen - Core i5-8600K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.6 GHz
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3000
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING
EVGA 600 BR 100-BR-0600-K1 600 W
And then have a 1tb SSD I've been using, but no specs on that because I bought it after my initial PC build.

I'm sure there's some room for improvement, but a graphics card wouldn't be all I'd need right?

Some things I can mention.
1. i5 CPUs are fine but for modern gaming it seems i7 is the minimum. There is obviously some crossover between ages, such as perhaps a newer i5 is better than an old i7 but as I've mentioned earlier, we are at CPU plateau so a 10 year old i7 (or equivalent) is going to be the same for gaming as a modern one. So an i7 or a quad core with Hyperthreading and at least 2.8 GHz is the minimum.

2. RAM is cheap, so if you board can support more you should get more. However, you are likely not going to actually need more than 16 GB. The only situation I've run into where you'd want more than 16 GB is running modded Minecraft. On my system I would allocated 12 GB to Java. But in general, PC games aren't going to be using enough, but as stated the prices may be low enough that it doesn't matter.

3. As far as I'm aware, there are no video cards with over 8 GB VRAM that run on BIOS. Many/most 8 GB cards are either BIOS (very few), UEFI, auto-detect (not reliable) or switchable (very few). And worse is that those types of capabilities are not often advertised with any degree of certainty. Second thing to be aware of and this is important is that you need to know how your OS is installed if you want to do an upgrade. If you are currently running on BIOS or CSM enabled, and your disk is MBR, if you were to buy a video card with more than 8 GB VRAM, the card is UEFI and you may not get any video at POST or boot. If your system is on UEFI and using GPT disk, then you are safe to get one of these modern cards.

I want to mention that the video card I am using, the Sapphire Radeon RX 580 is 8 GB and is one of the few cards that has a physical switch. I am running on BIOS on a board 2 generations older than yours. So this card is the best card I can ever use in this configuration. That being said, I haven't run into any games that do not work on this card. The most demanding game I have run on it was COD Warzone. Now if I run into a situation where I need to get a card with more VRAM, I'm going to have to do some work to get compliant with that. There is a way to do it without reinstalling the OS, but I'd rather not do it.

Am I getting that much of an upgrade with just some new parts? I tried to sorta browse what I think an upgraded build for me could be on Youtube and it didn't seem like I would be getting a huge leap on more graphic heavy games that are out now.  An improvement for sure, better than what I got now, but I'm trying to do a big leap in quality while also setting myself up for the next couple years along with likely getting a 1440p monitor.  I'm cool with the price of the upgrade, I have the money for it, though I am waiting till Memorial Day to see if I can take advantage of some sales.

I just want to make sure the build I have is going to get me what I want and that I have all the main parts I need and there was nothing weird to the choices.  From what I looked up, while it doesn't seem like New Egg specifically goes out of its way to check for compatibility with its pc builder, it tries to make sure the only parts that can be chosen should work with the parts picked, the only possible things that may not count being like GPU's and how they fit into a case.

8

Hardware and Tech / Re: New PC Talk...

« on: May 13, 2024, 03:53:57 pm »

Sorry, meant to post sooner, but I changed the case to something else as I liked better that had a nice interior and it comes with fans, so that whole point I brought up with the fans doesn't matter now lol Forgot it would auto change the link I posted here.  Also removed Windows 11 ahead of time as it just saves money and if it came down to it, I can buy it at any time if necessary, but I figured it wasn't going to be a huge deal to get.

My current system is a...

ASUS ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming LGA 1151
Intel Core i5 8th Gen - Core i5-8600K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.6 GHz
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3000
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING
EVGA 600 BR 100-BR-0600-K1 600 W
And then have a 1tb SSD I've been using, but no specs on that because I bought it after my initial PC build.

I'm sure there's some room for improvement, but a graphics card wouldn't be all I'd need right? I know most games lean on the graphics card, but some can be CPU intensive too, and I'm trying to get my system to hit high/ultra settings on most of the games out now, particularly stuff like Helldivers 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and to be ready to run something like STALKER 2 coming up real well, while also doing like 120+ frames fairly consistently at 1080p.

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Hardware and Tech / New PC Talk...

« on: May 11, 2024, 06:32:01 pm »

I never went through my previous upgrade I thought about a couple years back and with most of my PC being 6 years old, it's time for a fully new system.  Performance on games is functional, but getting a little rougher, honestly surprised I've done as well as I have on some games with a GTX 1060 still, like Helldivers 2 can play pretty decently.  New Egg has a nice handy PC builder setup now, and so just wanting some opinions on this build.

https://newegg.io/994a71f

I think the only thing I'm missing is that the initial build guide didn't give me any extra fans for the case that I can see, the cooler comes with a big one for up top, and then I'd just need like 4 more for the side and back.  Is Windows 11 a must yet for new systems or can I do just fine with Windows 10 for now? Cutting that out would save me 140 bucks and I can just grab that whenever if I need to upgrade.

I'm still probably fine with my 144hz 1080p monitor I bought a couple years ago, though I'll maybe see about a 1440p or perhaps 4k one here eventually and just make this one my secondary.  This is my general budget, like 1600 to 1800.  I was gonna try and be ready for Memorial Day to see about getting on some sales, but might not make it till next month, but figured I'd get some opinions on the build for now.

*EDIT* Ack, just realized I put this in Off Topic and not Hardware, if a mod could move it for me, that would be helpful.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: May 11, 2024, 03:16:41 am »

Hellboy (2019) - Finally decided to just watch this, I kinda only ever did want to see it because I like David Harbour, knowing that the movie wasn't great and yeah...It's not great.  I don't think it's completely terrible, David Harbour did well enough for what was here, the movie just unfortunately feels like the "Straight to DVD Sequel" to the previous ones, even if it is a reboot.  It's not all bad, I think there are decent moments and scenes throughout, the Baba Yaga scene in particular probably the most standout of the whole movie because of how genuinely creepy and unsettling it was.

I think it comes down to the movie just doesn't have the right execution as the first Hellboy movie did, feeling like the lesser movie because of it.  Not that I wanted specifically a copy of Del Toro's film, but I don't think it did enough to stand out other than being far more excessively violent.  It's very much an R rated movie.

It did get me in the mood to watch the first Hellboy movie again, as it's been years.

11

Off Topic / Re: What TV/Netflix show are you currently watching? (Megathread)

« on: May 10, 2024, 03:10:13 am »

Caught up to Invincible with the rest of Season 2, and it's such a solid show.  I loved how they re-did the convention scene to work with animation compared to the comic scene I saw, it's a quality gag.  While it still has all the edgy violence going on, just as much as before, I'm glad the show continues to have good story with its characters, the few different plot lines happening all being very interesting so it never feels like you are waiting for them to move on past a storyline to get back to what Mark is doing.  Speaking of, Steven Yuen does such an amazing job towards the end of the season, when it all comes loose for Mark.  Can't wait for next season and thankfully it won't take as long for Season 3.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: May 08, 2024, 03:06:43 am »

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Yeah I think this is still gonna be my favorite of the modern Godzilla movies.  It's what I wanted out of the 2014 movie, which is more giant kaiju action and it still keeps the scale and impact of the monsters without getting too out there with it that I think the following two movies with Kong have.  I know the human stuff gets some flack in this one, but I think it's okay enough.  It does what it needs to.  I just love the set pieces with this, the fights, the final battle, it's a better overall package for me than 2014.  The only thing I felt was a little questionable was the sudden inclusion of the Oxygen Destroyer, it felt abit out of nowhere to include here, but it doesn't bother me at all.  I also love the sountrack for this one, Bear McCreary is so good and I love how the classic themes are used, especially for Godzilla and Mothra.

Also looking back on this movie, I like how they discuss Godzilla's ability to evolve, because I know some people didn't like his evolution in Godzilla x Kong, but Godzilla was showing his evolution capabilities back in this one.  I prefer chunkier Godzilla, but sleek pink Godzilla is still dope.

I really hope the next Monsterverse movie has a stronger Godzilla focus and that they decide that since we had 2 movies on the Hollow Earth, that we can see them explore the other thing that is only teased in this movie...Alien Kaiju.  I want original space alien kaiju, a Monsterverse Gigan, and the movie is about the titans of Earth fighting with Godzilla to stop an invasion force threatening to destroy everything.  Would be so sick.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: May 06, 2024, 10:21:39 pm »

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters - I wasn't planning to rewatch this trilogy, was gonna focus on the live action, but since I'm not gonna do another modern era rewatch any time soon, I thought I'd confront these films again.  This trilogy of movies was previously my most hated Godzilla media as there was nothing else that frustrated me more within the entire history of Godzilla.

On rewatch, I'm actually more positive on the first movie.  This was originally the only one I was fine with it too, I thought it was a very reasonable start.  I still think this is one of the coolest settings ever for Godzilla, a humanity 20 years away from the fight against Godzilla, returning to an Earth that has evolved for 20,000 years, it's so rich with potential.  I like the eventual battle with Godzilla and how it ends, it's pretty intense and overall a very decent time.

It also looks better than I remember which surprised me, like it's not amazing, but at the time Japanese CG anime was a very mixed bag of quality, not everything could be like Land of the Lustrous, and more often than not, you'd get something like Berserk 2016, or there was an awful Fist of the North Star series I remember dropping after the first episode.  Lots of issues with low framerate movement and such.

But, after this, it's all downhill.  I'm curious on my view of the second movie if it's changed, as I hated the third movie with a passion.  I know I'm not gonna love the second movie a ton because of what they do with Mechagodzilla, but it's possible I'm going to have mellowed abit on it.  The third movie? Oh I know I'm gonna hate it still, but I'm interested to see if it pisses me off as much as it did before lol

Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle - And yup, this is where it begins to fall apart.  We get talk of Mechagodzilla, but what we get is a nanometal city that just turns into a big trap for Godzilla and that's basically the movie.  It's boring for much of it, the city idea is kinda okay, but it just ends up being kind of a repeat of the previous movies final fight, just with more tech involved.  I'm pretty good with the first movie, but this one is just underwhelming.  I don't hate this one, I kinda just find it lacking.

Godzilla: The Planet Eater - Garbage is not a word I use lightly for things, and really, it should probably be left to really terrible, poorly made, projects far worse than this movie, but I hate this movie lol

I'm sure someone with a better understanding of philosophical topics could get more out of this movie, but I think this is just a terrible film.  The entire movie is mostly just discussions...long, boring, tedious, discussions.  Godzilla is asleep for the first half, and then in the second half, Godzilla is in a three pronged nerve pinch by Ghidorah and that is it.  The battle is entirely mental and it sucks.  We also get undercut expectations again with Mothra only appearing as a brief shadow in a dream state. 

The single positive I have for this movie is that the idea of Ghidorah being this terrifying death god, a being from another dimension, it's a cool take, but that's all, because otherwise Ghidorah does nothing of note other than squeeze Godzilla.  It's just nihilistic nonsense that rings completely hollow because the talk of humans and their hate and such comes from the aliens leading the death cult, who say they guided humanity forward, and another character even says that the appearance of monsters may not have just been because of humans destructive nature...so the movie ending with the idea that the cycle of hate can only be stopped by the demise of humans sucks.

I hate this, it's still my most hated piece of Godzilla media.  The first movie is decent, but then it just falls apart.  It's entirely wasted potential.  I thought I might've softened on this movie after all this time, but nope, not even a little lol

14

Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: May 06, 2024, 02:06:24 am »

Godzilla 2014 - With having watched Minus One and Godzilla x Kong recently, I wanted to revisit the modern Godzilla releases and see how I feel on them.  I don't think my personal listing of the movies will have changed a ton, but we'll see. 

This movie has always been a mixture of like and love.  I think it still has some wildly good moments, like insanely memorable, iconic, stuff, multiple scenes that give me goosebumps where they cut out the audio and just let the build play, it's absolutely some of the most striking stuff in the Monsterverse still.  I still think the movies biggest fault is that it teases the monster action for 90% of the movie.  I understand it, I see where it leads, it can have good impact, but this being like my 4th or 5th watch of the movie, I still want to see that Hawaii fight, I want to see more of the MUTO rampaging around, I want to see more of the San Francisco fight in the day, and even a lot of the end fight, they keep cutting to the human stuff.  I see where it makes sense writing and pacing wise, but I'm sorry, Aaron Taylor Johnsons character keeps on being flat to me, he's just generic soldier guy.  Bryan Cranston gives such a strong performance and I don't think Johnson can match that same pitch no matter how many near death scenarios he's in.  It's not bad, Godzilla has had so much weak human stories, before this and after this, and I don't hate it, but I don't love it, especially when we are cutting away from fights I want to see.

What I do love about this movie coming back to it after the Godzilla/Kong movies is how well it handles size and weight, to me, we are losing that more in the newer films.  The comparison is best made with Pacific Rim and it's sequel, where Pacific Rim has lots of low shots, the speed of everything is slow and heavy feeling, the camera and action is just handled in a way to make these things seem massive and powerful.  Uprising changed that, it's faster, the camera just flies around this CG space, the action starts to feel more like Transformers than Pacific Rim.  I think the recent movies are better than that, but Godzilla x Kong had a lot of that feel and while I'm cool with Godzilla being like this mobile beast and such, I can't say I don't miss how this movie and the following King of the Monsters felt.

I feel like I go back and forth with this movie every watch, the 4k update for the movie did a lot to improve it, and while I still wish we got more fights, there's a solid movie here that just makes me happy as hell we got to kick off this whole new era of Godzilla films.

Shin Godzilla - This one kinda continues to be on the weaker end of the modern movies for me.  I still like the movie, it's the most unique and horrific Godzilla has ever been.  I can't say I particularly love Shin in regards to being so immobile, this kinda became an odd thing with Japanese Godzilla films at the time, where they pushed Godzilla so massive in this movie and the anime movies with Godzilla Earth, Godzilla almost seems like less of a monster and more of a barely moving statue.  Shin does at least have its monstrous tail, it adds a good bit of motion that Godzilla needs.  So while I don't love Shin, it's a really unique and standout design.

The movie though, because it is so focused on bureaucratic grid lock, it's not the most exciting Godzilla film.  I'm not putting it down for that, the movie is an analog for the 2011 earthquake that happened, but it is mostly just a movie that is functionally people sitting in offices for like 80% of the film.  I does still have a pretty visually striking moment when Shin blasts the city, there will never not be wild and I do like first attack on Shin and the ending is solid.  I feel like the only big visual point that doesn't work is when Shin evolves from its 2nd to 3rd form, it's kinda this weird quick jump with an odd visual texture, but it's kinda the only part that I don't like about it.  A good watch, but I think it's still on the lower end of the films by the time I get through them all.

1. Godzilla 2014
2. Shin Godzilla

15

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!

« on: May 04, 2024, 03:49:25 pm »

Game 8 - 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) - 17 Hours

I found this game to be a very charming experience. It's a simple classic take on a Zelda-style adventure game but with some modern ideas under the hood. The most striking is the 3D pixel look which is very unique visually, even though it felt more like a gimmick to me. I think where this game really stands out is your 3D sword that you can suspend in midair and increase it's length and width to cover more of the screen. It's honestly really interesting to use and separates the gameplay from Zelda just a touch.

Other than that, it's essentially the same. You do have an expansive world to explore with plenty of secrets and side quests to indulge in. There's also a huge collection of minigames to try out and they're actually pretty fun! I think the dungeons were kind of tedious and a little boring though. The game doesn't really throw much at you that's super interesting. There's also very little puzzle solving - everything is either communicated directly to you by your fairy friend or you have a magic spell that will straight up tell you the solution.

Lastly, this game had a lot of charm to it that I really appreciated. As a total throwback to classic games, the game sports a very "retro" style to it with a lot of hidden secrets and 4th wall-breaking dialogue. This also comes through in the music which is very retro, but is a little inconsistent - some of it is great, but a few songs are really bad - the fire temple in particular was awful.

Other than that I had a good time playing - on to the next stop on the console tour, the PS1 with another Zelda-style game - Alundra!

I really wanted to love that game, it's so cool, but the hardcore depth of field visuals killed it for me, it's like the extreme version of what was done with the Link's Awakening remake, another one I didn't like.