Messages

1

General / Re: What video game has the smartest playerbase? Requiring most intelligence to play

« on: March 17, 2023, 10:59:26 am »

Minecraft Redstone and Command Block Engineers.

Not within the question, as the Minecraft playerbase is certainly not the answer. What one person can do is not a playerbase. If anything Minecraft were to be used as an example, it would be GregTech Nominfactory modpack. Some mods can really break your brain, especially the ones based on real world chemistry or physics such as Anti-Matter Chemistry or NuclearCraft.

Yeah.  You'd have to pick a more niche game than Minecraft if you want to talk about the whole playerbase.  I was thinking something like Kerbal Space Program.

2

General / Re: Which game or console (if any) made you fall in love with gaming again?

« on: March 13, 2023, 08:24:19 am »

Bloodborne.  A good Souls-like manages to recreate the feeling of exploration and the unknown that existed back in the late 80s / early 90s.  Big maps, secrets, difficulty.

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Off Topic / Re: The new DCEU plans.

« on: March 08, 2023, 11:16:33 am »

I kept meaning to reply to this and kept forgetting about it.

I think it is great that they've got someone with a vision that seems more in line with the comics in charge - that said, while I did really like The Suicide Squad, I wasn't really blown away by it (same with GotG Vol.2).

As long as they focus on making good individual movies I'll be happy.  That's what the MCU did at first, and what they aren't really doing any more.  Also a big fan of them using the Elseworlds moniker to keep the good things they've got going (namely The Batman).

All in all, I'd say I'm cautiously optimistic, and I'll have more to say once we see some footage, etc.

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Video Game Deals, Sales and Promotions / Re: Free Steam/GOG/Humble Bundle Game listings (limited timing)

« on: March 08, 2023, 10:38:34 am »

Figment is free on GOG and Steam for the next 25 hours or so.

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General / Re: March 2023 - Recently Added to Collection/Recently Purchased New

« on: March 07, 2023, 02:59:30 pm »

My half-price Series S arrived yesterday.  Think I'll set aside some time this weekend to start setting it up as a emulation console.

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General / Re: The gamer you were when you joined VGcollect vs. the gamer you are now in 2023

« on: March 07, 2023, 07:17:39 am »

As a gamer, I don't know if that much has really changed in the decade I've been here.  Maybe the fact that I got super into Souls-likes in around 2016?  Heck, I've probably even regressed a bit with the fact that I've got a WoW sub again, even though my goals today are drastically different than they were back then.

As a collector I've become far more casual, because as most of you have said, it's gotten cost prohibitive, and in general just harder to find good deals any more.

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General / Re: Which games would you be willing to pay $100 to own?

« on: March 07, 2023, 07:12:45 am »

I'd probably have to adjust my spending habits in general, but yeah, I think I could see myself paying $100 for some of the more unique and content heavy games that are available  - GTA, the new Zeldas, Elden Ring, etc.  But I'd also probably not buy as many cheaper games.

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Video Game Deals, Sales and Promotions / Re: Brand new Xbox Series S available for $150 through Verizon

« on: March 02, 2023, 09:04:28 am »

Deal is still live, even though it shouldn't be.  It says ended Mar. 1 if you get the code, but it still works.  They also ran out if codes yesterday when I was trying to redeem, but it worked today.  Good looking out!

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

« on: February 28, 2023, 10:13:32 am »

Gremlins 2: The New Batch - There are no less than four gags in this movie I'd put on the shortlist for best of all time.

Wayne's World - Easily the best script of an SNL movie.

New Jack City - You know what movie this one owes a lot to? Dick Tracy. A big overblown crime thriller with cartoon energy and larger than life, almost fantastical, over-the-top characters.

3 Ninjas - Insufferable. Barely even a movie.

Live and Let Die - Can't tell if this was racist of just blaxploitation.

Desperate Measures - An interesting enough premise with a total wackadoo performance from Keaton. Bad dialogue, poor pacing, and some pretty pedestrian direction make it a bit of a snooze, though.

Scream VI - Easily the biggest, most ambitious, most brutal and genuinely frightening entry in the franchise while effectively building off the themes and ideas of the previous film. The best at being an actual sequel in the series, and maybe the second best film overall, despite it being afraid of the exact things it claims requel sequels aren't afraid of.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? - Weakest Linklater I've seen.

The Witches of Eastwick - This is one wildly horny movie.

Streets of Fire - When this movie is on, it is on, surpassing even Waler Hill's other idiosyncratic and dystopian opus, The Warriors.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - Not as bad as the review aggregates make it out to be, still deep in the bottom half of the MCU.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery - This has aged pretty well.  Not as well as Wayne's World, but not bad.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril - More a series of vignettes than a movie, but pretty good vignettes.

Hanna - Fun action romp.  Love Saoirse in pretty much anything.

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General / Re: February 2023 - Recently Added to Collection/Recently Purchased New

« on: February 27, 2023, 02:22:30 pm »

My physical Metroid Prime Remastered arrived about a week earlier than scheduled.

11

General / Re: Buying games for a system you don't own

« on: February 25, 2023, 04:15:04 pm »

I have a few PSP games. I’m not even sure what a PSP looks like.

It's just a Vita with some meat on its bones.

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Modern Video Games / Re: State of Play | February 23, 2023 thoughts?

« on: February 24, 2023, 01:35:43 pm »

A release date for BG3 is big news for me, but not with regard to the PS5.  RE4R is about the only PlayStation info that interested me.

13

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

« on: February 23, 2023, 10:23:45 am »

Hard Rain - Perfectly paced, deep cast, fun as hell practical effects. Needed another pass at the dialogue, and I know they were all in 40 feet of water or whatever but a couple more takes from some of the actors might've helped.

Fantastic Fungi - What started as an interesting nature documentary about fungus became a pitch for taking magic mushrooms.  Not at all what is on the box.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - No film coming out of the Shrek-o-Verse deserves to be this good, and yet, here we are.  Stunning animation, fun cast, terrific story.

Freaky - Fun as hell, but the pacing is a bit off. Landon can make these genre mash-up slashers for years and I'll be happy.

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General / Re: Rarest Items in Game Collection?

« on: February 21, 2023, 02:45:14 pm »

A Virtual Boy with manuals and every US released game except for Jack Bros.

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

« on: February 20, 2023, 07:42:27 pm »

Velma - It's not nearly as awful as all the review aggregates would have you believe.  I laughed out loud at least once per episode, but it's incredibly scattershot and often too mean-spirited.   Also, there was no reason for it to be Scooby-Doo characters.

Murder, She Wrote - So I made it to the second intended ending of the show at Season 7, and through the last of the bookend episodes (which were way better this season).  Only 5 more seasons to go!

Poker Face had a very solid first season.  Sometimes not quite as clever as it tried to be, but solid direction across the board and killer (puns!) guest stars every week.

The Last of Us is far and away the best live action video game adaptation, but aside from one or two episodes it is missing the emotional core of the game.  It is a faithful adaptation of nearly all of the cutscenes but without the gameplay sections the pacing feels very choppy and Joel and Ellie's relationship isn't as developed.

M.O.D.O.K. - This was fine.  The doofy supervillain stuff is generally solid, but the family drama didn't work all that well.