MindFreak

At the time the first game came out, there wasn't that many other games on Switch, it was just coming out. It was a totally new game with Mario in a previously unseen setting that was reviewed really well. The second came didn't have enough marketing up to the release and it was a very busy period with lots of high quality games coming out. I still intend to pick up the game but as I haven't got the time for it just now, I can just as well wait for a nice discount. So yeah, basically totally agree with @Julius.

I believe the new trailer for Antman and the Wasp belongs in this thread? This caught my attention, unlike the previous trailer.

Regarding Pokémon, I think the reason I like the newer games less than the old games is because I feel the developers are not competent enough and ignore what makes a good game nowadays. There is no story, no interesting things to discover, no side-quests, and no interesting NPCs. There is simply no world in the game. In the old games, you could come across a man using a Machoke to help him build a house. The world in Scarlet and Violet is just dead. Newer games need to be able to tell a story in the story - and well, actually have a story that is interesting beyond "I want to be the very best in a world where nobody is any good".This frustrates me as I enjoy the core gameplay loop (or would have enjoyed it more if everything was a bit faster...) But in general, my enjoyment of games has been going down as I get older and have less time for gaming. Games changing their formula and forgetting what made the older games great is perhaps a reason to this as well but that may just be - as @bob said - old man grumpiness starting early.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a discount. You may get lucky but I don't recall Pokémon games getting substantial discounts. I would still advice you against wasting your money but if you collect them then there's that aspect to consider as well. But you can just as well wait to see if you can get it cheaper for some reason as you don't need it and it doesn't go out of print any time soon. So, back to Legends: Arceus, I suppose.

Someone must correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the past and future aspect of it will become clear once you have completed the game - and it's not that significant. The stories are identical and the differences are only cosmetic.

There's a different professor and a city is different as well. Also a different main legendary but all of it amounts to absolutely nothing during gameplay. I've never understood why some people go through both Pokémon games (in general).

Precisely. I like to watch a story from beginning to end in one go, so I waited with 1899 until the other two seasons were (about to) air. But if many people do this, the number of views will be lower making a second season less likely. I don't like how they do this, if they release a show that is obviously not done until two more seasons, they should commit to the plan. But of course, money talks.

1899 has been canceled by Netflix. Does it make sense to watch it then?

Congrats! And same for me. At least we hope that a baby is coming, we have the first scan next week to confirm that there's something living in there. Due in August. Apart from that building a workshop and a (small, about 10 m^2) fitness room in our garage, along with some other projects in our home. We're also planning a vacation to Lego Land (in Denmark) and a party. So basically nothing too exciting planned.

I agree, normally I would expect carpenters and the like to start at 6 am. That would have been inconsiderate. But it must be bad if people tend to vandalism because of some work being done on a house. That's a crazy overreaction.

New year sale has started:

Got some money from my parents in law, and some DIY stuff from my children that they made in their daycare/kindergarten. My son got some Lego sets that I consider partly for me as I have to help him build them (though with the iPad builder app he can largely do it by himself now). The biggest one he got was the 3 in 1 Creator set with a viking ship. That's pretty cool but we haven't started it yet as it's pretty big.

I imagine Tears of the Kingdom will get a Switch 2 enhanced port when that console releases, but I fully expect that a new 3D Mario will launch with Switch 2 when it launches in 2024. Can't see anything else being a system seller.

First real trailer for Oppenheimer - Nolan's next movie: Not that impressed, to be honest. It's an interesting story but it feels a bit pretentious.

A demo has been released on the Japanese eShop and it's been announced that the demo will release globally soon enough. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/12/psa-you-can-download-a-free-sonic-frontiers-demo-from-japans-eshop

Many indie games are easy to complete within 5-8 hours. Some are even only a couple of hours long.

Here are mine: Nothing surprising but I can see that my son has got more playtime and is playing more stuff on my Switch now.

New trailer for Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse (pt. 1 I guess):

I picked this up and played a few levels with a friend. It hasn't really clicked for me and besides being awesome to look at and listen to, I haven't found it much fun to actually play, especially not on my own. Maybe I'm just not that into beat em ups.

You could take 10 or whatever out of those 100 and put aside for the Titanic set. I think that would be better business than paying the very high price for the set on Lego's official store.

Phil Spencer ellaborates on Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/12/06/call-duty-nintendo-microsoft-sony-xbox/

All gyms taken defeated, all Team Star bases dissolved, and all Titans calmed. Just need to defeat Elite 4 and the final-final boss of Team Star to be done with the game. It hasn't been bad but I must say that the gyms were simply too easy without any level scaling. I was far overlevelled when I finally challenged the Alfonada gym. I still haven't settled on the final member of my team: It seems that a lot of the new Pokémon are dark or ghost types so they don't fit into my team as I already have one of each (which is stupid, I know, but I like Ceruledge a lot and Meowscarada is a good grass type on my team).

Surprise!

It has? The one with Mushroom Kingdom, here we come?

When compared directly like that he does seem a bit more flat than the other versions but who knows, maybe that gives a more pleasant viewing over the course or 90 minutes or more.