Sméagol

Wouldn't it be great, if that was actually a "helmet" for Commander Shepard to wear? Looking good man.

I just got home. I have already pre-ordered the game.. Is there any reason to watch the Direct?

This looks pretty cool, though I have never heard of this particular crowdfunding site: https://www.fig.co/campaigns/obelus?media_id=i1051

Do any of you know of any modern series similar to Haibane Renmei by any chance?

.. Now post a pic of you wearing it. In public.

I've always suggested doing this after Mario Kart on Thursday. In fact, it's been a while since we've done some Salmon runs. That could use an update though!

I'm waiting for the next bubble crash before I'm buying any bitcoin. I'm still banging my head against the wall for not going through with mining one full bitcoin years ago, when it was still relatively doable with my computer, relatively meaning "merely" months. Still, 5000 dollars, I think that would have covered the energy bill.

Need 1 or 2 more for team cold.

This is looking pretty awesome. Netflix please.

Liked it in general (though I think I liked season 1 better), but episode 7 was shit and incredibly badly timed. I get that they want some more backstory for Eleven, but what we've seen of her and her rebel group wasn't nearly as interesting as what we've seen of the others (including the other newcomers).

Oh right, that one time I was (for once) about to take 3rd place, then getting blue shelled (???????). I fucking hate this game.

Standard bike? Doesn't that handle much differently? i don't like bikes..

Give me a few minutes.

Objectively I agree with some of the criticism.. But I'm having fun regardless. Except the volleyball minigame, what the fuck @Hero-of-Time? That is crazy. But damn, I absolutely loved that end sequence. That song was awesome.. Especially within that context. it really got me pumped.. And it was a real cool ending to the main story. I will now play that song on every level. I'm using the joy-cons by the way. It took some getting used to, as I've barely used them, and I prefer the pro controller, but I like having access to the motion controls. Most of them are doable with the pro controller, but they don't feel natural. Luckily most of the other controls are pretty basic, so the joy-cons suffice.

Something the stupid dogs from Zelda couldn't do (though they both do what matters more).

Apparently this is coming to Switch. I'm sure this will make some people happy! http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/10/korg_gadget_is_coming_to_the_switch_in_spring_2018 Here's a trailer for the Mac version. Edit: Official site: http://gadget.korg.com/nintendo_switch/

Team cold. Though I'm not eating left over pizza (I also generaly make sure there's no pizza left). I'll probably be playing on Saturday night, maybe Saturday evening. Both afternoons are unlikely. That said, I don't plan a week ahead, so it may all change.

I'd normally be all over this, but I'm busy playing Mario.. I'll watch it next weekend probably.

Yeah I'm having so much fun with the photo editor.. Edit: Something that's better for vertically as it doesn't work with the long jump I believe, but you can follow most jumps with a cappie throw, hold that one, then do the mid-air jump dive into cappie for an extended jump.

I wouldn't mind if you didn't think Mario Odyssey was great, but to show superior taste you need to come with something better than a musou game. I can't remember for certain, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't you.

Always that one person..

It's fitting to end with baby Park.

I more or less finished this last night (yes, in 1 go). I can't recommend it currently unfortunately.. There's a good core game in there, marred by some bad design and some techincal issues. It's also not really long, I've clocked in about 6.5 hours, with a completion rate of 91%. I'd like to elaborate more on some of the games I have which don't have threads here, consider this an amateur review of some sorts, I intend to do more of these. Let's start with the good stuff first. The presentation is top notch. This is of course subjective, but is also something you can judge simply by looking at the trailer above, most likely you already know if you like the presentation. The visuals are gorgeous, and I also love the music. The game borrows heavily from other games obviously, more about that in a second, but visually it's pretty unique, with some setpieces you don't typically find in the games it borrows from, like subway tunnels and a London swept by a sandstorm. And the sprite of Sophia Boutella's character is adorable, and though I haven't seen the film, I think it's actually the only character from the film to appear in the game. The core gameplay is good. The shooting mechanic feels good, and the controls are good too. They feel clumsy sometimes, but this has nothing to do with the controls, but everything with respawing enemies, and the fact that unlike other Metroidvanias, you will never upgrade to be some sort of God who destroys everything in its path. More on that later as well. I would have preferedd a bit more mobility, specifically I would have liked a ledge grab, but that would probably mean some change in level design. The weapons are fun for the most part. It's a unique take on upgrades, as you find new guns, but can only carry two of them, plus your basic gun and one type of grenade. Newer guns are typically more powerful, but also have other characteristics, so there could be a reason to prefer an older weapon. All guns apart from the basic submachine gun you start with require ammo. The game is pretty light on upgrades, most of the stuff you find are ammo upgrades, and the occasional new gun and health upgrade. There are a few more which upgrade your mobility or other aspects, some of them are optional. But like I said, you don't upgrade to be some sort of God, the upgrades are helpful, maybe even necessary, but they don't substantially change how you play the game, you still be running and gunning until the end (as apposed to say, speedboosting and screwattacking through levels). Level design is something that could be improved. I like it for the most part, but there are a few issues. My biggest issue is with enemies in certain areas. Some areas are so hectic with several (quickly) respawing enemies that platforming through them becomes annoying. Borrowed from Castlevania are the notorious medusas, crows in this case, but your nameless protagonist lacks the mobility of Samus or any of the modern Castlevania protagonists. There is even a Clock tower present (though unfortunately the crows are not confined to it), and making it to the top is tough, annoying even. I've fallen down plenty times, that's not counting the times I deliberately dropped down to get some collectible. The game has collectibles scattered about, though I don't think they actually do something. A smaller issue is the lack of "teleports" in certain areas. There's a helicopter in some rooms, which allows you to transport to one of the other helicopter rooms. Unfortunately, there are no helicopter rooms in the undergroud areas. Narratively this makes sense, but it's a bit annoying. I like the helicopter sprite, but they could easily find another excuse to transport you around. It's not an huge issue, backtracking is very minimal in this game. There is plenty of stuff hidden in previous areas, but all of it is optional. And the game isn't that big anyway. One of my big issues with the game is a strange design decision that makes the game more difficult than it needs to be: Health is extremely difficult to regain. Losing health is easy, with all the respawning enemies in certain areas. But you can barely get it back. Farming health is technically possible, but not practical. Defeated enemies leave items drops, but they have the most chance of dropping when you're low on something. Out of ammo? Here's some. Close to dying? Here, have a few points of health. If you're not close to dying (but also not even close to full health), you will barely get any health items, and if you do only small ones. For ammo this works.. Apart from the beginning with the early weapons or during bossfights, you will rarely run out of ammo. Like health you won't get ammo when you have enough, but the ammo you get when you're low is plenty. But you need way more health than you do need ammo. So why rely on health items? Simply because there's only one other method of regaining health. Save stations only save, you don't get full health back. There are no health stations. The only way to regain full health is picking up one of the (limited) health upgrades. All these mechanics combine to result in a situation where I'm walking around with half health for 80 % of the game, and for 19.9 % with even less than that. So when you enter one of later (and tougher) areas, these create the perfect circumstance to die. So here's my other big issue with the game. Let's talk about this game's gimmick: the zombiefying of your character upon its death. I really thought this sounded cool in theory, in practice however.. What happens when you die is this: your former player character will walk around roughly at the place of death, walking around with your upgrades and weapons you had equipped. The maximum seems to be 3, if you happen to die before killing your former colleague. They themselves are not a huge problem. They move slowly, don't shoot often, and are slow to react. Their health is based upon how many health upgrades you had, but it's not the same amount, they're more easily to kill. In theory. What makes them difficult is the circumstances of your death. If you die, it's probably because things are getting difficult. You're trying to shoot crows in all directions, but then get bit by the zombies spawning below you. You die. And you respawn! As a new nameless agent, at your last savepoint , practically vanilla. You have your basic submachine gun, but no other weapons, and no health upgrades. You only retain any of the 4 required upgrades you may have found, that's it. If there's a weapon cache nearby, you can use it to get any other weapons your former player character had not equipped, so that's a plus. But you have 99 health. Of course you want those weapons and upgrades back, and in order to do that, you need to kill your zombie. I died in one the later areas, where you have a shitload of respawning crows, respawning zombies who can 2-hit you (remember, you're walking around with 99 health now) and respawning pharaoh ghost which are difficult to avoid, plus there a zombie walking around now, with your best weapons. Suffice it to say I died a couple more times there. Dying once creates a snowball effect which is hard to recover from. Just to give another example of how ridulous dying gets.. After some technical issues, I made another attempt at the final boss. And died. Which resulted in a zombie spawning in a dedicated room before the boss, so that you don't have to fight them both. That's probably a good thing not only for balance reasons, but also technical ones. Anyway, my zombie was carrying a rocket launcher, and what do you know? They're pretty effective in small rooms. The result was this: So before I can even attempt the boss again, I have to kill 3 zombies with my best weapons now. Technically I can ignore them, but going in with (at most) 99 health and your basic weapon obviously drastically reduces your chances with the final boss. I only got out of there by abusing invincibility frames from a non-lethal hit, then spray and praying. Apart from these design issues, there are some technical issues. You will frequently get low framerates in areas with respawning crows, especially if you try to kill them with the later weapons. In the later areas this gets really bad. Sometimes you can't even see if you're shooting, as your shots disappear. It's especially disappointing as Shantae: half genie hero runs as smooth as butter. I guess the engine can't handle all the stuff going on. It's the worst if you're using the final weapon: the plasma gun, firing at the final boss who's firing 50 fireballs at you. Like I mentioned, I made another attempt at the boss due to technical issues.. Apparently, all the stuff the engine can't handle not only results in a low framerate, it actually froze the boss a few times. The game keeps running, but the boss won't do anything. The final boss is pretty tough, but this is the other extreme. Perhaps the game doesn't want me to use the plasma gun on the boss. Since I've either died, or defeated the boss in this specific state, I can't officially say I've beaten the game, even though I technically have. Anyway, there you have it. It's a relative short game. A good metroidvania in its core, but light on upgrades, and marred by a frustrating artifical difficulty, and technical issues. If the above mentioned mechanics don't sound unfair to you, and / or you like a challenge, then maybe I can (barely) recommend it, after a patch and perhaps with a discount. For others, if you haven't bought it already, I recommend Axiom Verge instead. ♥♥♥♥♥ 3/5