SleepingSilence

What shows/movies are you watching?

I feel like I've been seeing this headline a lot more recently. It also apparently canned an 'Alien Vs Predator anime series" that was basically finished. (Along with every other show under the sun apparently. Looking at lists of its 2021/2022 cancelled shows.)

So its not surprising that Netflix is losing millions of subscriptions. While HBOMax is in a class action lawsuit over potentially faking their subscription numbers. And Amazon is now deleting already paid for content from consumers' libraries because of licensing snafus'.

But streaming was supposed to be the be-all/end-all solution to media consumption...

Though, I do use Spotify. (And Hulu for the day my bundle with them actually worked as advertised.) The times it doesn't have music that I look up. (Especially if it's an album with one or two randomly unplayable songs in them.) I can't help but doubt my choices to purchase less physical media over the years.

Because when the power went out (again) from storms. This neighborhood and those around them are incredibly unlucky it seems... Most of my games (PC & Switch & PS4) are digital and couldn't be played.

Point is, I need to buy more physical media. And sailing the high seas is perfectly justifiable.

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Really, I haven't had the time to watch anything. But I do have several things that I plan to watch later this weekend.

the alphabet game. lol

Juniper

Toontown | The Guild's #1 Stop for Cartoon Discussion

Smiling Friends is an absolute banger, need I say more?

@Dark Cloud

That Brazil special felt pretty pointless though. (Regardless of how intentional it is.)

Still looking forward to Season Two though.

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The Jujutsu Kaisen prequel movie was pretty decent. Basically felt like a longer episode of the show.

And despite my ambivalent feelings toward Edgerunners, it was clearly a success. (In garnering interest back into a product with bad PR.) So, maybe now that this is the third time something like this has been positively received on Netflix, they'll make these instead of those shitty live action anime movies. >.>

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

HAAK is another metroidvania that I unfortunately had to stop playing. Because it pulled a game-breaking glitch on me six hours into my playthrough, where I no longer received any currency and couldn't progress in any meaningful way.

So aside from the Ori-like (trial and error) chase sequences that I hated. Its a shame that I'm unable to continue for now.

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TemTem has managed to piss me off, and continues to be an absolute borefest. Making my attempt to rant about what it fails at, too cluttered and long to be readable. So fuck it. I’m doing it by bullet points instead...

Graphics

• The human faces are fucking ugly.
• The frame rate is stuttery and inferior to the PC version.
• The environments are plain-looking, samey and confusing to navigate

Characters

• No character has said anything funny or interesting throughout.
• Most NPCS are assholes. (And not even the fun snarky kind.)
• The dialogue is bad. Yet you’re forced to talk with every trainer, before and after fighting them. (None of which give you anything of substance for your wasted curiosity.)

Exploration

• The rewards for exploring are minimal to none. (Especially lacking in the cities.)
• Every starting quest is either “give me your Temtem”, or is hard locked until you go through multiple cities.
• Like the worst of pokemon. You will step on a battle with every other step. Or one step away from every exit.

Combat and Battles

• Every single trainer has the same monsters from one to five a piece. (Usually four of them.) All water, wind and able to poison yours for several turns. So I've fought what feels like a hundred of the same fucking NPC already.
• With the "stamina bar" preventing your Temtem from attacking more than two or three times each fight, without needing to wait for it to recharge. (Meaning you’re wasting more time switching between characters, or losing health every fight.)
• Plus an added penalty for level differences. Making the EXP grind even more monotonous and slow. Despite being obviously required to progress.

TemTem/Variety

• You get about a dozen choices to start with. (One of three starters, and a generic lot to catch.) Most having the same three types, and almost none of them evolve for some reason?
• Wild pokemon don’t even have different movesets, or base traits as far as I’ve seen.
• Plus, there is no fucking way to farm money in this game. Except for way later on, (apparently) where you can release the ones you’ve caught for pittances.

Fuck this game.

• Everything costs an arm and a leg, and you don't get shit for money.
• So you (like I) will probably run out of it, the second you enter the absolute shitshow that is the first "gym". A maze of offscreen teleporters that force you to go through the whole thing, before you can even leave. (And it autosaves everything, so my unpredictable mistake cost me severely.)
• So with all that, several crashes, and music that is beyond uninteresting to listen to. This game (and the snowball’s chance in hell that I’ll ever finish playing it.) is not looking promising…

Nexomon Extinction is basically better in every way.

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Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

The TemTem character creator is pretty lame. (Just saying. Haven't even gotten my starter yet. Trying to play the campaign with a friend.)

Headlander is probably a 6 out of 10. (+.5 if I add 'I liked it' bias to it.) Decent quirky Metroidvania. Combat and puzzles are easy to deal with. The map is good enough, and its pretty easy to level up. The story, sidequests and many of its upgrades are pointless. And the final level feels thrown together (with a random ass Simon Says minigame in it), and the final (2nd) boss was defeated by me smacking it across the head and then promptly going to a corner of a room where the boss couldn't hit me with any of his attacks. Rinse and repeat. Oops.

But if I were to recommend a Metroidvania for 20 bucks. I'd say Islets has been quite a charming and breezy experience thus far. With enough challenge (in its platforming sections and bosses specifically) that it doesn't suffer from being too easy. (Like Headlander, or Haiku The Robot.) The map, easter eggs, character interactions, rewards, upgrades, monster variety, it has everything and its doing them pretty well too. If anything, its grab bag style of game design, feels a bit unfocused. With the character feeling a bit floaty (and twice as fast as most action platformer MC's.)

However, its probably a good game, when your biggest/most common criticism is the NPC's dialogue is often amusing. But they feel like NPCS. Some repeating one line, usually boss lore, long after it mattered. Other recurring characters will speak about events in the wrong order. (Because you happened to show up too early/late.) For example, the rival makes a witty pun about how he somehow managed to connect two of the islands (the gimmick of the map) in his sleep. But by that time, I already connected three of them. So the interaction feels unnatural.

But unless it falls off hard in its second half. I'd say its well worth it. If you've finished Hollow Knight. (Or want an easier/adjustable difficulty version of it.)

Edit/Update: Islets was honestly a lot of fun for the ten hours I spent with it. Though after becoming more than a bit overpowered, (which almost seems intentional the way you're forced to fight multiple previous bosses, just to completely kick their ass.) The final boss and the charm in its characters pulled through. And it even managed to feel rewarding to 100% the game and find all its secrets. Strong 8 to 9 out of ten. Liked it all the way through. Small bugs and gripes aren't even worth mentioning.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

Damn there's like 30 games on there tho. And even just counting exclusives there's a fair number.

Also this idea of having to 'justify' a purchase with some arbitrary number of games is wild. If someone wants to play Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart then congrats, the purchase is justified!

@Fabricant451

...Buyers Remorse Detected...

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For his first day, he downloaded Destiny 2 and he watched Ghost Stories on it.

Yes, I'd agree. If there was a game on the PS5 that he really wanted to play. He should buy that, and then the console it comes on. You buy consoles to play games. Not the other way around...

But I'm just teasing. The user interface is where the PS5 truly shines. And hey, I got a free year subscription of PSN Plus (that I'll rarely use) because it wasn't redeemable on the PS5.

So woot. Another mediocre Need For Speed game is all mine!

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If your friend pays for a PSN subscription they can get access to games on the Catalogue for no money.

@Dark Cloud

He got the console bundled with Horizon's sequel. Not that he was particularly interested/almost gave the code to me.

And I did help him put the random assortment of titles that he got with a PS5 plus sub into his library. (Since he was having trouble figuring out the UI.)

Though, I'm also not a fan of how they've turned the PS Plus subscription into a tier-based subscription. Just to make everything more complicated and expensive.

It's genuinely turned me off getting the console myself. (Along with everything else Sony's been doing.) And I'll likely make purchasing a better PC, my preferred choice in gaming.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

@Dark Cloud I did. So I hope its at least mildly entertaining.

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My friend finally managed to find and purchase a PS5 (the last one in stock) today. Now all he has to do is justify the amount spent on a console with no games on it...

Toontown | The Guild's #1 Stop for Cartoon Discussion

Didn't really like a lot of Primal's 2nd Season. (And its conclusion is a "You don't have to watch this anymore" kind of end.)

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Because of internet clips (of later seasons) and a friend claiming he was enjoying episodes of it. I tried watching 'The Amazing World of Gumball'.

It's okay. I can't exactly say its gut-busting hilarity. (Or very interesting.)

Maybe I'll look up "best episodes" and save myself the filler. (If I decide to watch more, anyway.)

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

Death's Door crashed on me in the middle of its unskippable end credits and made me fight the final, final, but not final boss twice. (Or more.) It's fun, I guess. But I cannot be bothered to do the end game content.

On that note, several games I got for a buck review.

A Robot Named Fight: Eeeeeh. It's Permadeath Procedural Generation Metroid Deadcells. I didn't hate it. But it's a bit dull, and not engaging enough to keep unlocking things little bits at a time. So I'd rather play something else.

Wuppo: I was surprised how charming this was to start with. Basically a point and click adventure (in gameplay) with a decent variety of boss fights. However, it lost me in its city level. In that its sprawling and not very clear where I'm meant to go. Or what I'm suppose to be doing. And it expects me to grind for quite a bit of money. But what made me stop, was its real time waiting for things to pass. In many more places than you'd imagine. In some bizarre attempt at realism in this world of sentient hat-wearing balls. (So it's REALLY damn slow.) And it seemed to be broken on top of it. So when it expected me to do a bunch of busywork and odd jobs to progress, I decided to stop.

Headlander: This has been a very interesting experience. (Flawed as it might be.) Its probably my favorite of the three. Except the terrible boss fight.

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I don't really want to buy TemTem. (With its mobile game currency/battle pass shit.) But my friend really wants me to. So I might get strong-armed into playing that.

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