Aperson

Just finished Season 2 of His Dark Materials. After seeing the ending of that episode, I don't know how they CAN'T continue from this. Everything is set up to follow the events of the third book. I think this image sums everything up...

So, this has been a bit on my mind recently. For many years I have harbored this idea that online multiplayer is nowhere near as good as local multiplayer simply due to how I have found myself enjoying times when I've played against friends in the past and how, when playing online, there isn't really that same sort of drive anymore. But for years I still wondered exactly why I thought that... now with the past decade having come to pass and myself having dedicated a lot of time recently to online games like Magic the Gathering Arena and Pokemon Trading Card Game Online I think I understand exactly why that is. The short answer, I believe casual gaming is incompatible with an online environment. Basically if you're playing online, regardless of whether you want to or not you're playing competitive. Playing competitive means that if you are playing online you HAVE to know what that game's metagame is. Depending on the game there's very little room for experimentation, for trying something different. People don't play Online Multiplayer for the taking part, they play it to win. Yes, at heart we all play to win in many ways but online you have to be prepared to deal with the cheapest, most degenerate tactics in whatever that multiplayer game is. One of my earliest examples of this was playing Metroid Prime Hunters online. I would often play the game online as it was a major part of the game. I didn't get much done online in terms of actually winning games, but quite honestly I never really had much of a chance. Playing the game online means entering the competitive side of the game and frankly Hunters is terrible in terms of competitive as Sylux and Trace are so much better than every other character. That is under normal gameplay conditions but the meta for that basically became, play as Trace, Hack the game, stand INSIDE a wall where you can't be hit and snipe everyone. That's not fun... except for the person playing Trace and doing it that is! Things continued in many ways. Smash Bros is one of my all time favourite multiplayer games and was the go to many times in a group of friends in multiplayer, we loved playing it together. Online? Barely touched it. I know Smash isn't exactly a great experience online but even so, playing with friends is usually an established level of competition that you are used to, so I don't venture online as much as I'm convinced that it just wouldn't be as fun even though they have tried in the past to have a dedicated online mode for competitive gamers. Thing is, with Smash I feel that the loss of human interaction is a big minus as far as the online is concerned. I am not ever so great at Smash Bros so I feel playing that game online a lot would not be a very fulfilling experience as I'm very unlikely to win any games, my playstyle would likely see me lose a lot as I don't do some of the things that I should be doing in fighting games as I just end up goofing off. The same can be said for other fighting games in some ways. I liked playing Pokken but barely did much online as even outside of the ranked mode I was getting absolutely creamed. I was mainly playing as Chandelure who I felt was a ridiculously powerful character but that didn't really show online. Because I had no plan to deal with opposing cheap, degenerate strategies things just fell away rather quickly, I think I faced a lot of Gengar online and struggled to deal with it. Though in hindsight it looks like Gengar is one of Chandy's weaker matchups. Similarly I tried playing a few teams online in FIFA 18 Switch seasons but didn't fare too well, however I did notice a common occurance, everyone was playing as PSG and basically just passing the ball to Cavani and spamming the same long range shot over and over again and every time it was successful in going in. So in this instance I am basically punished for going online without knowing what the meta was for Seasons. This brings to present day. I have found something of a happy medium with online TCGs, mainly with Magic Arena and Pokemon TCGO. But now this goes into the live service problem in many ways. Both these games are rather generous in their opening matchmaking and allow you to play against other people with beginning level cards. However, after the leashes get taken off, my natural instinct for both is to experiment. Create some cool fun decks... the problem with that is that as a free to play player these decks can take a long time to create and end up being the objectives of my play time on the game. When your collection is limited it can be very good to create a consistent decklist but then you also have cards in your collections on both games that are just way too good not to play so I found myself putting those one ofs in to help me with a view to finishing the rest of the deck later. But here's the problem, since these games are being played online, you run into a metadeck in pretty much every game you play, with a few exceptions. Even then you'll just seen some people playing the same cheapest degenerate deck they can find within their card budget. For example on Pokemon Trading Card Game Online everyone who isn't playing a Meta deck tends to end up playing this Charizard deck, probably because it's Charizard. Admitteldy I think Pokemon's Standard format right now is a rather miserable experience because there are so many decks right now designed around stopping the opponent from being able to play or just overpowering the opponent on Turn 2 or 3, this all ties back into the meta in many ways as one of the strongest decks came about because of a ridiculously overpowered card that everyone does not enjoy facing as it basically allows you to take extra prize cards for every knockout and making it extremely easy for them to win, especially when it exists in the same format as a card that basically allows said player to choose who they knockout. It would be fine if there was a ranked mode so that players who play that deck could stay in there while a regular play queue would allow all kinds of wacky deck ideas to be played. However, experience with Magic the Gathering Arena tells me that even if there was a ranked queue people will still play competitive decks in the regular play queue. This all ties back into what I think is the modern popularity of competitive gaming. It feels like these days, in part because of Twitch, everyone wants to be a pro. With the pros so prominent on Twitch and Youtube it's easy to watch these players play the game and to watch competitive tournaments on whatever your favourite game might be. This ends up reflecting in the game's online itself, everyone just jumps on the latest trend that (insert pro here) has decided to show off recently because everyone wants to be like said pro. I also hear that MOBA games like League of Legends can be a miserable experience if you aren't playing meta because everyone else you are working with will expect you to conform to said meta. In that game's case it seems like there's so little room for deviation that it is even publicly acknowledged by Riot that this is how to play the game. The popularity of online games is also seemingly at an all time high, every big game you hear about that gets big these days is an online multiplayer game. Heck, the fact that the most popular game among kids is Fortnite gives a clear indication to the aspirations of gaming these days. A lot of people playing the game aren't just going to be playing it for fun with their mates, they want to be the next Ninja! So yeah, maybe this is just the ramblings of an ageing man who has nostalgia for the times spent playing multiplayer with friends as a teenager and is struggling to accept that kids these days won't have the same experience, perhaps I'm just deluded and should just "get gud" at these games but I thought I'd open it to a topic of discussion, is online multiplayer fun for any of you guys? Does it depend on the game? In which cases do you find local multiplayer better. Or are you someone who only enjoys games when you win? Thought this could be an interesting discussion. Tl:dr - I have mixed expreience with online multiplayer, I think it's too competitive, I think local is better, do you agree or disagree.

So I finished Spider Man: Miles Morales (PS4) recently. A fun sequel though it was rather short in the end. Felt the final boss was kind of there as something that would make sense as the final boss rather than who the real villain was. The guy ends up just being a plot device for the final fight and the final boss is somewhat misunderstood. I mean, I kind of get what they were going for. You're effectively a neutral party in what is this all out gang war. But at the same time I felt that one side had one more reason to be stopped than the other... don't want to say too much because spoilers. Today I went back to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)... yeah, you all know why! On that note...

I suppose it depends on whether Red Bull keep Alex Albon for next season or whether they pursue a deal to sign Sergio Perez and give him the second seat. Also, people are really mad on Twitter about Nikita Mazepin. #WeSayNoToMazepin is trending right now. The guy seems like a walking accident, he might end up costing Haas more money than he gives them.

RIP F1 games. F1 2017 was the last one I bought and although I hear they've got better since it looks like F1 2020 was the last non-EA F1 game and that's sad. And yes, I know EA have done F1 games before... though I feel like F1 games before F1 06 were sub average.

Second season is SO good. I think some of the gripes with the first season in how they hid some of the more gory aspects of the first book have been somewhat rectified and I think the fact that there's less of a strain on the budget for daemons due to the fact that a significant portion of it takes place in daemonless worlds. Admittedly I thought nothing really too much happened in the last episode but it's setting up what should be a great season finale. PLEASE let there be a season 3, even if Amber Spyglass is one of the deepest books ever written.. and said spyglass doesn't even feature so much in the book that over the years I'd forgotten what it did, whereas I remember what the Subtle Knife did all these years later before the show even came back. That thing is one of the coolest fictional weapons imo. Also when I remember that HBO are owned by Warner Bros. it makes sense that...

All we need now is Eggman and all of Big Bad Bosses can be playable in Smash

Andromeda at number 8? Bold... bold.

Honestly the only Nintendo announcement I would expect is the new Smash character. Would be shocked if there was anything else.

Made a significant amount of progress on Spider Man: Miles Morales (PS4). Got some Twitter posts to share too

So pleased for Sergio Perez. Gotten so many podiums but never managed to get a race win. Now he finally has a win to his name. How does this guy not have a seat for next season?

Been getting the same sort of vibes from the TV show that's been adapting the books recently (and doing a far better job than the film ever did may I add). What you see in book 1 is just somehow the smallest scope of everything, as the series goes on you get a lot more characters introduced and the complexity ramps up. Basically:

I think at this point and for this generation I'd reached the point where I'd only buy newer games if they were really good. That said, there were still plenty of new games from this generation that I ended up buying. In terms of this Gen I acquired: Luigi's Mansion 2 Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Pokemon Y The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds Shovel Knight Super Smash Bros. for 3DS Mario Kart 8 Super Mario 3D World Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Splatoon Super Mario Maker Freedom Planet Xenoblade Chronicles X Pokken Tournament (and DX) Undertale Metroid Prime: Federation Force Pokemon Moon The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Fast RMX Splatoon 2 Sonic Mania F1 2017 Metroid: Samus Returns Super Mario Odyssey Rocket League Xenoblade Chronicles 2 A Hat in Time Marvel's Spider-Man Soulcalibur VI Spyro: Reignited Trilogy Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Collection Kingdom Hearts 3 Nier: Automata Hollow Knight Super Mario Maker 2 Pokemon Shield Final Fantasy VII Remake Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected Spider-Man Miles Morales (in here on a technicality that it was released on PS4 despite being a PS5 launch title) Of all the games that are "new" this generation I'd actually say Nier Automata was the best one. I probably am a sucker for this type of storyline regarldess but this game was so good and unlike Xenoblade 2 I enjoyed this one from start to finish. Super Mario Odyssey was the other big game I really enjoyed overall and Final Fantasy VII Remake was another strong candidate, perhaps falling a bit short due to it's very KH like final chapter. That being said, it's still the best game I've played this year though I don't know what my opinions on Miles Morales are yet.

Continuing to play Spider Man: Miles Morales (PS4). Just got up to the part where you have to save the bridge. Actually, I just finished that segment. Also I dabbled in some third party client that allows you to play Yu-Gi-Oh online since Konami doesn't have a similar official client as of yet that is constantly updated, here's a video on it.

Finally got some new games to play. I have just gotten Spider-Man Miles Morales (the PS4 version). Played the opening segment and a bit after that, the last thing I did was the train puzzle. So far definitely feeling similar to the original though I'm not sure about the soundtrack so far and liked the theme that plays when swinging in the first game a bit better than the first one but I guess they wanted this to be feeling a bit different from the previous game with a different Spider-Man. Also the early cutscenes have made the villain totally obvious >.> I find it interesting that the new mechanic in the game is called Venom. In a Spider-Man game... wonder if he's going to show up?...

Lol

Oh man, Episode 4 of His Dark Materials was SO good. Even Phillip Pullman took to Twitter to praise the people adapting it on how they were doing!

Thank goodness Grosjean was alright! Although it seems like his aggressive defence against Kyvat was what caused the shunt. Still, serious questions over Kyvat seeing as he wasn't just involved in that fiery incident... he also tipped Lance Stroll upside down! That's two reckless incidents in one race, normally Stroll getting flipped upside down would be considered something a race would be known for but on this occasion seeing a car burst into fire is something you don't really see much anymore. Wonder how much the desert atmosphere played a part in that? Or just the Haas car design. Either way, a testament to modern F1 safety that Grosjean was able to survive a fiery crash like that. People critisied the Halo but I think it saved him on this occasion.

Ever so slightly playing more Pokmeon Trading Card Game Online recently than Magic Arena. Got quite invested in the economy over the weekend. On that note, I made a video of me actually playing with newer Pokemon cards on said online game, was released a couple of days ago! Playing my real life deck in this video. Spoiler... it doesn't go very well!

To be fair, Nintendo games rarely if ever actually get price cuts, Nintendo games end up holding their value for the most part the same as a new game... for better or for worse!

So yesterday I finally got around to completing Mario Galaxy 2. Grandmaster Galaxy was an absolute pain to get through on the Perfect Run, in spite of having seen this level done multiple times on Youtube. I grinded to 99 lives twice and still lost lives well more than idea. The main sections of particular difficulty were the flip panel sections with the shcokwaves and the end section with all the Hammer Bros. I found for most of the level if you get a rhythm goingyou can consistently pass many sections but that Hammer Bros section isn't like that an does seem to require a bit more dexterity and looking at where they're throwing the hammers. At any rate, I'm probably going to move on to Super Mario 3D World and try and complete that next. At least after 10 years of starting the game I finally got round to getting 100% on it. So only 3D World and Odyssey on the list of Mario games I've yet to 100%.

In other news, been playing the usual side games as well as going back to Super Mario Galaxy 2. Man, I forgot how hard Melty Monster Galaxy is and these Green Stars are especially tricky. The third one is proving to be problematic... While playing Magic Arena I decided to take it to the next level and started recording my experiences, the result is this video, the first in a multi card game experience of a Youtube series where I play kitchen table level decks online. If you think that sounds like it would be a disaster... you'd be right. But you may also be surprised...

I think some of the levels gained were from using candies so not entirely through battling. However it was also my intent to used the candies to help evolve Pokemon for my Pokedex and also help get my competitive team to Level 100 so that they can undergo Hyper Training. Guess I'll have to boot up Pokemon GO as well, though not sure if I'll be able to transfer when I don't have Premium Account on Home.