Dufniall

I think @Jonnas has struck gold with his guess. I googled the song and I didn't realise it was such a classic, covered so many times! About the podcast, good call to cut it in half because 3 hours would have been too much for one sitting I reckon. When listening myself I notice that after an hour I start to drift and loose concentration while listening, so often I cut my personal listening in 2 and listen about half on one day and the rest on another day. Interesting news about Astral Chain, I wonder what it means besides the fact that it won't show up on any other platform soon. How is it now with Bayonetta, is that in full Nintendo license or still split between Platinum and Nintendo? Anyway, it's an incredible game and I really enjoyed my time with it. To be honest I would be a bit hesitant seeing another developer use this IP but we'll see. I've recently played through DKC again and I share @nekunando's sentiment here that the first one is the best one. However, I have big nostalgia for that one as it's the only one I played on the SNES, the other ones I only played on emulators later on. So I'm going open into DKC2 soon and I wonder if my opinion changes if I turn down my nostalgia glasses! I drifted away a bit during the racing game/PS4 part, because I don't have much interest in either. I don't mind hearing about PS stuff though, despite being an Nintendo-themed podcast it's good to hear what "the competition" is doing. But since I don't have the system or the desire for racers I kind of buzzed out here. But all in all a good episode once again, it always brightens up a boring work day haha. Curious to hear the in-depth Zelda talk! I didn't quite get the end, are you planning to release this next week as 63-b or can we expect two episodes next week?

Some TV adverts have been posted on YouTube: Mom: "Mario and I have some history". Ooookay, TMI mom!

January update! Jurassic World Evolution (PC) At the beginning of this month I finished the main campaign with 5 stars on all islands. I’ve written my impressions before in the 2020 thread and my opinion hasn’t changed since, so I’ll keep it short. Basically, Jurassic World Evolution is a very entertaining, good-looking game that is pretty light on the actual sim part, but does a very fun job in running your own Jurassic Park. I’ll definitely pick up one of the DLC packs in a sale just to have a reason to go back to it. Sonic Generations (PC) This title was sitting in my Steam library ever since I picked it up in a sale. It’s the first time I’m playing a Sonic game on PC, so that’s new! In Sonic Generations, someone is messing around with a time-altering monster. This leaves Sonic’s friends frozen in time, and the blue hedgehog himself crosses paths with his old self, meaning you get to play two different Sonics throughout the game. This also introduces the main gimmick. Old Sonic goes through 2D levels old school style, while new Sonic tackles the 3D version of the same world. It’s a pretty cool concept, and in the end I even liked the 3D levels more, although they sometimes suffer from control issues leading to stupid deaths. You can breeze through the game fairly quickly, although there are plenty of challenges to undertake. Basically, after finishing the 2D and 3D levels of a world, a number of challenges unlock. You then have to tackle a challenge to get the key to the boss. You can choose which challenge and you only need to do 1 per world, but if you want to complete them all you can stretch your playtime. I didn’t bother to go for full completion, but just did a couple of challenges that seemed fun. With all of Sonic’s friends on board, and also 2 versions of Dr. Eggman/Robotnik, there is quite a bit of funny banter and fanservice. All in all I enjoyed my time with it! Horizon Chase Turbo (Switch) Another game that I finished in separate playtimes, sometimes months apart, is Horizon Chase Turbo. It’s a great retro arcade racer, and I love everything: the music, the graphics, the playstyle. It’s just that I can’t play them too long in one go as it gets quite tense in the later missions. Definitely worth picking up though! Donkey Kong Country (Switch SNES app) This was one of my favourite SNES games, and it was a nostalgia trip to go through it again. I enjoyed it a lot, but it does show its age more than my other favourite SNES game Super Mario World. Mostly due to the weird hitboxes and the fact that the graphics are much more impressive on an old CRT screen. Loved seeing the end game credits again, forgot that it was pretty funny. Onwards to DKC2! Also: Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition (Switch) I picked up Bulletstorm in a quite recent sale, mainly because of Londragon’s praise on the N-E Café podcast. It’s a first person shooter, and the Switch version has the added bonus of playing as Duke Nukem. I saw mentions however that it is best to play the normal campaign first because otherwise the story might become a bit incomprehensive. Well, this is a game you don’t play for the story as that’s flat of a pancake. But, you do play this if you want an 8-hour long rollercoaster of a game that rarely slows down, DOOM style. The gunplay however I liked better than that in DOOM, as there is so much crazy stuff you can pull off. Besides your arsenal of weapons, you also have a leash and a substantial kick. This basically means you can drag in enemies/objects and/or kick them around. It leads to some crazy situations, like leashing in an explosive barrel and then kicking it to an enemy. You can also leash enemies into fences, kick them in cactuses and whatnot. There are also a bunch of weapons to collect and use, with a primary fire and a charged fire. You start off pretty standard with a machine gun, a hand gun and a shotgun, but later on you pick up some weird stuff. No lasers though, only ballistic weapons which is pretty cool to see in a shooter set on a distant planet. Also worth mentioning is the skillshot system. Pulling off crazy kills awards skillshots, and gives you points. These you can spend in drop pods where you can buy ammo or upgrade your weapons. Some skillshots are tied to specific weapons, where others are more in general. The negatives? Flat story, repetitive enemies and way too much swearing. The ending wasn’t very satisfying either storywise. But as a crazy blow-off-steam-and-kill-everyone kind of game this was definitely what I needed and I breezed through it. Will probably go through it with Duke soon! Manticore: Galaxy on Fire (Switch) This game has been in my library for so long now, it was time to finish it. Manticore is a space shooter which I think was originally a mobile game. Each level consists of roughly 3 parts, a mission (escort, take out objects, stuff like that), a boss fight (basically a dogfight against a stronger ship) and an exploration phase where you can freely fly around the level to find ship parts and intel. The reason I dragged this out so long is that there are quite some levels, but they are pretty repetitive. So it’s best enjoyed in a couple of missions every time. There is some fiddling around to do with upgrading ships and weapons, but all in all you are constantly playing similar levels while going through a forgettable story. I kept playing it however because it plays well, looks great and I just like space shooters like this. Worth it if you can pick it up in a sale and like the genre. Oh, I also finished What Remains of Edith Finch, so a reminder to myself to share my thoughts for the podcast! And currently I'm playing Xenoblade Definitive Edition, Resident Evil 6 (after enjoying Leon's and Ada's campaign, Chris's campaign is not very good), NiGHTS, Star Wars Pinball, and Steamworld Dig. So I hope I can scratch a bunch of these game off my February list.

I think for photo editing the most wished feature is a proper screen, with a high sRGB and Adobe RGB %. I'm not hardcore into photo editing, but as I understand it the higher the % the closer it is to "the real deal", which is especially handy if you also want to print stuff. That way what you are seeing on the screen is closer to the print-out. For the rest Photoshop is not the heaviest of programs, so a middle-of-the-road processor can get you a long way (Intel i5 or Ryzen 5), with say 8GB or 16GB RAM. If you are going for content creation a proper graphics card is handy as well. Most of the high RGB screen laptops are focused on content creation, and are therefore often bundled with a proper graphics card and higher specs, but this is costly. There is currently a whole market focused on content creation and more and more brands are putting out creation laptops: https://www.msi.com/Content-Creation https://www.asus.com/nl/Laptops/For-Creators/ProArt-StudioBook/ https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/conceptd-home https://www8.hp.com/us/en/workstations/zbook-create.html Basically the whole idea of this is Windows trying to get market share from Apple for this user scenario. You can also invest in a separate monitor that is designed for photo editing, and you can do with a run-of-the-mill laptop if you stick to Photoshop. Or indeed, buy an Apple. They are expensive, but they have good screens, and stuff like Photoshop is well optimized.

That's a very abstract interpretation of What Remains of Edith Finch

I finished Caliban's War, book two of The Expanse series. Book one was good, but after book two the series really clicked. I love how James Corey takes the physics of space travel into account, such as growing up in low gravity, travel under high G, space radiation and communication delay. I can see how this would make a great TV series. The action scenes are pretty well-written and would translate perfect on TV, while the politics of it all adds to the depth of the story. Definitely want to watch the show but books first. Now I'm reading Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion. It's the official bio of this legendary punk band, and I love reading about the history of the alternative music scenes. Not far enough in though to give a verdict if this is one of my favourite bios.

I've started and finished this today. It'll take a bit to come up with a good write-up but for now I can say... wow.

Anker is a good brand for USB hubs, and they have a bunch of top loader ones. Also depends on how many ports you want and if you want only USB-A or also USB-C on it. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=anker+usb+hub&rh=n%3A340831031%2Cp_89%3AAnker&dc&qid=1611221744&rnid=1632651031&ref=sr_nr_p_89_1 Ewent also has some top loader ones. Curious by the way, what do you use for the green ambilight there?

That middle DK at 4:48 looks a lot like the one from King Of Swing. Haven't watched the full video yet so don't know if they mention it, but it wouldn't surprise me if they used this art for KoS.

Thanks! I've send you an invite. That should cover my "make 3 friends" research goals!

Cheers! Send you both a friend request. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was I also like a bunch of the QoL updates, like how it's much easier to bulk transfer and appraise Pokémon.

I've reinstalled Pokémon Go a while ago. Mostly because I needed to transfer some 'mon to Let's Go to complete my Pokédex there. But, I saw plenty of new stuff going on in Go that I decided to keep it on my phone and give it a go again. I missed a couple of generations of new Pokémon, countless events, buddies and Team Rocket. So plenty of catching up to do. It's nice to be able to battle some NPCs in the form of Rocket grunts (and even Jessie and James). It's also pretty handy to be able to hatch eggs when the app is not open but it is still counting my kilometres walked. Anyone here still playing? I need 3 friends to complete a field research, so let me know if you want to become friends, I'll send you gifts.

All Mario games are simulations, so all these Marios are fake. I mean, no human being can be the best in saving princesses, go karts, tennis, golf and so on. It would also explain how he can have so many lives. It's all digital, all virtual. Mario still exists in the real world, living in some New York apartment with his Italian-American brother. After a day of fixing the plumbing in shady buildings all over the city, he straps into his VR seat Ready Player One style to live out his dreams.

Nice clean desk there @Happenstance. Never saw one of these laptop stands before but I like them, very minimal. Seeing as how your speakers are set, do you work like this or do you swivel the monitor to the center when working/playing? Surely this should still be covered under warranty?

Just a reminder that the Mario 35 Splatfest is this weekend!

I already installed What Remains of Edith Finch, so I may as well change my vote from Gone Home to What Remains of Edith Finch.

Axiom Verge is getting a free update, which includes a randomizer: http://www.axiomverge.com/blog/announcing-axiom-verges-first-ever-free-content-update-in-open-beta-now Out now on PC, but the console versions will also get the update once it is done. Was just talking to @Dcubed the other day about randomizers, so funny to see some official ones popping up now!

April 30! Edit: I thought it looked a bit meh, but the trailer on YouTube looks a lot better than the Twitter version:

Oh no, the colours absolutely fit Mario. But that doesn't mean I still find it awful. Maybe if the Joy-Con buttons would be yellow or blue it would be better.

This year the Pokémon brand is celebrating its 25th anniversary. I'm sure there will be plenty of news to share about this to warrant a topic of its own! I hope we will see some new games, but it would be nice to see some love for the older titles outside Red/Blue as well. The official anniversary website can be found here: https://25.pokemon.com/en-gb For now, a new overview video was posted which looks awfully cute: Next to that, Katy Perry is somehow involved:

Six posts in one hour, @Ronnie must be pretty excited for this game.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne and Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna the Golden Country also spring into mind. I can only imagine they do this to give people an incentive to double-dip. Or maybe to give the creative team he chance to do something out-of-the-box for a change.

Love this little tease in his september interview, where Todd has some relics from Indiana Jones on the shelf: