LightningBolt

I'll throw another vote towards first-person shooters. For a while there in middle school I was really into them. Call of Duty back in the 2-4 days I was really into it. I'm way more into Japanese games and indie games these days. Really into platformers and JRPG's. I always played platformers and stuff growing up but they're definitely my main interest now.

11 hours ago, OmarBradley said:

Sounds cool. I sort of forgot about Pokemon.

I've played everything through Ruby/Sapphire. Anything after worth playing? I haven't followed it.

I'm personally a big fan of Black/White. They decided to do a completely new generation of Pokemon for that one, so you can only catch the new ones. It's one of the best generations in terms of new ones as a result and just feels pretty unique compared to the others. I think the others are mostly skippable, although the remakes of Ruby/Sapphire (OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire) and Gold/Silver (HeartGold and SoulSilver) are really good as well.

5 hours ago, Oldest Goat said:

That sounds fucking cool. Do you guys think emulation is safe security wise like no viruses or whatever? I'd love to emulate a bunch of SNES and 3DS games in particular.

It's certainly possible to download viruses if you find a bad site or something, but all you really need is to find a good site. Unfortunately the site I used to use stopped hosting ROMs. The emulators themselves are very easy to find, it's mostly just about finding the best one for that system. Usually if I'm looking for a new site for something like this I tend to see if the topic has come up recently on some kind of emulator-focused subreddit or something and see what they have to say there.

I tried out the Valkyria Chronicles 4 demo. It's a lot of fun. It's very similar to the first game in the series, which is a good thing imo after they went off course a bit (especially with Azure Revolution). Full game releases on the 25th and I'm actually looking forward to it now.

Also started playing a Pokemon Crystal romhack called Pokemon Crystal Clear which is pretty awesome. Basically changes Crystal into an open world adventure version of Pokemon. You can start in either Kanto or Johto and do gyms in any order you want (the levels/evolutions of the gym leaders change depending on how many badges you've collected). They added a second harder version of the Elite 4 after you clear it once. There's also a lot of quality of life changes.

These are currently the games I have on my radar til the end of the year:

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 DLC - September 14th, 2018
Spyro Reignited Trilogy - September 21st, 2018
Valkyria Chronicles 4 - September 25th, 2018
Mega Man 11 - October 2nd, 2018
The World Ends With You - October 12th, 2018
Soulcalibur VI - October 19th, 2018
Red Dead Redemption 2 - October 26th, 2018
Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee! - November 16th, 2018
Darksiders III - November 27, 2018
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - December 7th, 2018

I won't get all of them. Xenoblade DLC, Spyro, and Soulcalibur VI are probably the ones I want most right now. Mega Man 11 is probably the least-likely. I can't imagine there's going to be enough content in it to warrant a $40+ price tag.

This guy is a complete piece of garbage.

So one unexpected development I've had with my Switch is that it's become my definitive platform for indie games. Just feels so nice playing those types of games on the handheld Switch console. Stuff like Shovel Knight, Shantae, Sonic Mania (not an indie game but sort of in the same spirit as these other ones) are all great on it and I'm looking forward to getting Hollow Knight, Golf Story, and Stardew Valley on it.

I wonder if Nintendo will have another Nintendo Direct soon. We already know their lineup of games for the Switch through November (Pokken Tournament, Fire Emblem Warriors, Mario Odyssey, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2), but December and beyond is still a complete mystery in terms of release schedule. My guess is that December won't have any new games (it's typical for holiday releases to come out in November as December releases often miss Christmas shoppers), but if they do take December off then I'd have to imagine that January through March will at the very least have new releases on a once a month basis at least and as of now we have no release dates and it's not really that far away. That said, we do know of a lot of 2018 games (Kirby, Yoshi, Pokemon, Metroid, and Fire Emblem are all tentatively 2018 titles), but I'd have to imagine we get a Nintendo Direct with some actual concrete details relatively soon. Yoshi and Kirby both looked pretty far into development, so those will probably be early 2018 titles. I'm still thinking Nintendo pushes out a Smash 4 port for the Switch, probably for early 2018. Outside of that, I still think Animal Crossing should be a priority for Nintendo. It really is one of their best-selling franchises now and I feel like it would fit perfectly on the system.

On 8/25/2017 at 2:33 PM, AxlRoseCDII said:

Right now I'm working on the somewhat obscure JRPG FE# Tokyo Mirage Sessions released last year on Wii U. It's a really awesome game and I haven't sunk my teeth into an RPG in years. The issue is I don't have a lot of time to play it but I'm still able to sink 2-3 hours a week into it. 

I really liked that game a lot. It's a shame it didn't get much press. The reviews were almost universally positive but nobody bought it.

Yeah I saw that Retro wasn't working on MP4 after the fact. The same producer is on it, though.

Nintendo have had a few 3DS reveals during their Treehouse presentation, which is cool and I like that they went this route instead of showing them at the presentation. Metroid: Samus Returns (remake of Metroid 2) and a Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga remake. These games with Ultra Sun/Moon are giving the 3DS a pretty nice send-off.

12 minutes ago, Wagszilla said:

Nintendo showed a lot of games which was impressive and should've happened given the slow trickle of WiiU titles.

Seeing as I was underwhelmed by Sony and especially by Microsoft, I'd say they had the best showing.

But they didn't show Retro's new game so... they're double dead to me.

Retro's probably working on Metroid Prime 4, but yeah nothing was shown from it other than it exists. It's probably decently far into development if the game started back in December 2013 like it supposedly did.

I thought most of the presentations were weak this year. Ubisoft actually had a rather good one. Microsoft did too from all accounts, but I had to work during it and haven't gone back to see it. I thought Sony was a real letdown and I'm never particularly excited for EA's.

Nintendo's conference way surpassed my expectations after the leaks that it would only be 25 minutes long. I don't mind a shorter presentation when it has a blistering pace like this one had. New mainline Kirby, Metroid, and Pokemon titles all announced for Switch. A Yoshi's Woolly World sequel. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was confirmed for 2017 which I wasn't expecting at all. Was definitely expecting that to get pushed back to 2018. 2018 looks really good for Switch already and it's still 6 months away with potentially those 4 titles in addition to a new mainline Fire Emblem title all releasing in 2018.

I'm really curious what Nintendo will show since there really aren't a ton of games coming out for Switch that we know about but there are almost definitely a good number of titles we don't know about yet. Mario Odyssey will probably get the most screentime. It's heavily rumored for a November release date. Splatoon 2 releases in July and will likely be shown a good deal. Fire Emblem Warriors, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and some Mario/Rabbids crossover RPG from Ubisoft are the other titles we know about as of now, which I think are all supposed to release in 2017 (though I fully expect Xenoblade to get pushed back into 2018, but I'd be fine with being wrong on that one).

Some rumored titles from around the time the Switch had its initial reveal trailer back in January that I could still see being revealed here are a Smash Bros 4 Switch version and a Switch version of Pokemon Sun/Moon (was heavily rumored a while back). I reckon either of these could easily fit into 2017 since they'd be ports/remakes of existing games, and either one would be a huge franchise to bring to the Switch early on. If Smash does get a Switch version, that would mean we'd have a Zelda, 3D Mario, Mario Kart, and Smash Bros title for the Switch all in the first 8 months, which would be pretty crazy.

Retro Studios (makers of the new Donkey Kong Country games and the Metroid Prime titles) has also been working on a game since December 2013 and will almost definitely show up at E3 with their new game. Most people are speculating it'll be a new Metroid Prime game.

Personally I think the title that would perhaps be the biggest success on the Switch that hasn't be revealed yet is a new Animal Crossing game. The series is hugely popular both in the west and in Japan and hasn't seen a new full-titled release since New Leaf back in 2013 for 3DS. I think establishing a game like Animal Crossing early in a console's life cycle is important due to the game being something that is meant to be continually gone back to over long periods of time.

Playing an awesome Metroidvania type of game on Steam called Hollow Knight. Would definitely recommend to anyone who has played and liked games like Metroid Fusion or Ori and the Blind Forest. Has great music and awesome art direction. The game manages a great balance of being very chill and atmospheric but also at times horrific and creepy. Just got to an area called the Deepnest which is hell for anyone who doesn't care for spiders.

Splatoon 2 is releasing July 21 and ARMS is releasing June 16, as announced at today's Nintendo Direct. Along with Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, they pretty much round out Nintendo's release window first party titles.

A few smaller titles and ports were also announced, which was pretty much in line with what I was expecting (saving bigger announcements for the upcoming E3). Minecraft is coming on May 11th with a few Nintendo tie-ins. The trailer seemed to show some Nintendo character models and environments. Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition was announced for a 2017 release. Payday 2 was also announced for 2017, which was a port I definitely wasn't expecting. Dragon Quest X's Switch version is coming out in Fall 2017 in Japan, but idk if it'll come here (it's an MMO version of Dragon Quest and isn't really a mainline title, and XI is coming out before too long, anyway). Then there was a game called Namco Museum announced as a Switch exclusive, which was advertised as the "ultimate collection" of Namco arcade games (Pac-Man, Galaga, Splatterhouse, etc). Nothing there I'm super excited for, personally. Might pick up the Rayman Legends release whenever it comes out since I never played it when it originally came out.

Shovel Knight is a lot of fun, but I couldn't get into Plague Knight. Controls were really weird to me.

There's a Nintendo Direct tomorrow focusing on ARMS and Splatoon 2. ARMS looked like a throwaway at first to me but the game actually looks like a lot of fun. Could be a game with a surprising amount of gameplay depth. Splatoon 2 should also be fun. First Splatoon was a lot of fun and one of the few success stories of the Wii U. There's supposed to be some other stuff talked about, but I'm not expecting any major announcements until E3 in 2 months.

I think the Sega Saturn was mine.

It's hard to remember. We've had videogames around the house since I was born and I grew up playing stuff like Sonic, Pac Man, and Flicky on some console. It was either the Genesis or the Saturn. If it was the Genesis then the console released before I was born and it just happened to be around the house as I grew up. We also had the Sega Channel thing so it was whatever supported that.

I've put a ton of time into this since it came out. I've found 80 shrines and beaten 3 of the dungeons. Finally made my way into Hyrule Castle and did some exploring there. It's a very difficult area. It's super cool that you're able to go there basically from the start, but it's difficult enough where it's probably not feasible to just waltz in and beat the game from the start. I got my ass handed to me a few times by a certain enemy in there even with 18 hearts.

Zelda is pretty incredible. Played about 9 hours yesterday after buying it. I thought Nintendo would stumble a bit trying to transition the series into an open world adventure type of game, but it's amazing. Also much more difficult than I ever would have guessed for a modern Nintendo game. Series like Pokemon and Mario & Luigi are basically 30 hour tutorials at this point. This game pushes you in a direction once in a while and you're on your own for the rest.

Headed out to Target this morning to see if I could get a Switch. My store ended up getting a crazy 48 of them in so I got one. Wasn't really expecting to tbh. Really excited to play Zelda.

This list definitely skews towards the hard rock side of things. Some other good ones:

Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and The Basement Tapes (1975)

Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead and American Beauty (1970)

Neil Young's Tonight's the Night and Zuma (1975)

Van Morrison's Moondance and His Band and the Street Choir (1970)

Bruce Springsteen's Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)

David Bowie's Low and "Heroes" (1977)

There are probably a lot of good ones that came after the 70's, but at this point the time between album releases started to increase it seems like and I'm just not as familiar with album release dates off the top of my head after this point. I'd actually be interested in seeing someone list some more recent ones.

Fire Emblem Warriors was dated for Fall 2017 and a new main Fire Emblem game is currently scheduled for 2018, according to a presentation from Nintendo today.

1 hour ago, downzy said:

I think the only weak spot so far is the lack of games available at launch and soon after.  Five games at launch.  Granted, one of them is Zelda, but not a whole lot after that.  

If Nintendo wants this system to succeed, it desperately needs to avoid making the same mistakes it made with the Wii U with respect to keeping keeping quality games in the pipeline.  They can't afford to go four to six months without a decent game, something the Wii U suffered from far too often.  

I also wonder if Mario showing up on the iPhone recently might give people the wrong impression that they'll soon be able to play top-tier Nintendo on their smartphones.  

Again, looks promising, but there's a lot ways this could go wrong.  Interestingly, Nintendo's stock was down 6 percent yesterday following the Switch's full reveal. 

Stock tends to go down immediately after reveals pretty often from what I can tell.

I think the smart thing for Nintendo to do with the Switch is to make it the successor to both the 3DS and the Wii U. I think it would basically guarantee the system a good library of first party games at the very least if it combines a generation of series that are typically on their handheld consoles (Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Mario & Luigi) and a generation of games that are typically on their home consoles (major Zelda, 3D Mario, Smash Bros, Mario Kart titles). If you combine the 3DS and Wii U libraries right now, it'd be a pretty amazing library. I think Nintendo unveiling a 3DS sequel that's solely for handheld gaming would be a huge mistake and I'm really hoping we don't see that in the next few years.

2 hours ago, Dan H. said:

It looks good to me. Hopefully they take the online aspect seriously.

Will Skyrim be available on launch day? I will be buying the system and Breath of the Wild, but I want Skyrim too

Unfortunately, no. I think it's marked for Fall 2017, which is really strange.

Xenoblade 2, Mario Odyssey, and Breath of the Wild (that trailer was incredible) have me incredibly excited. Great price point, too. Xenoblade 2 came out of nowhere and Xenoblade Chronicles was an excellent Wii game. Mario Odyssey had me very worried at first since the realistic people was a huge turnoff (and gave Sonic 06 vibes) but it looked fantastic as the gameplay went on. There's also the Mario Kart 8 upgrade (being called Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) which is perfect for me since I skipped Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon 2 looks like a very cool natural improvement over the original. Fire Emblem Warriors was also a neat surprise, as was the Shin Megami Tensei 25th Anniversary teaser. Very excited for all of this. Even ARMS, while looking campy and goofy, looks fun (though I probably won't get it since fighting games aren't really my thing).

E3's only 5 months away, so this is definitely not all they're working on.

1 hour ago, Dan H. said:

Is it even possible that this device will have a respectable battery life AND a price tag below $450?

My expectations for battery life aren't very high. Everything I've read points to the price tag being pretty low for a new console (in the $249-$299 range). Thankfully I personally plan to use it more as a home console than a portable console, but I don't suspect it's something you could bring out to play for 7+ hours.

Nintendo's big presentation for the Switch is on the 13th, btw. We'll probably find out more about release specifics around then. I'm looking forward to seeing more from its library.

3 hours ago, classicrawker said:

Well stick a fork in the Packers season giving up 21 points in the first quarter to the Titans.....Even if they manage to rebound and come back it does not look like the playoffs are going to happen I would like to see them have a losing season so they get a high enough draft choice to get an impact defensive player in the first round.........With Matthews on the wrong side of 30, and seemingly starting to breakdown a little, we really do not have an impact player on defense other then maybe Daniels and he can't do it alone......

Never thought I would be saying this but maybe it is time to start thinking rebuild I think..........we have a decent OL, but have so many needs on both offense and defense I don't know where to start.........

Packers' front office needs to stop being so stubborn about acquiring players outside of the draft imo. It worked for a while, but I think that's largely because of the greatness of Aaron Rodgers (not to mention one of their key impact defenders a few years ago was Charles Woodson, who wasn't drafted by the team). It's honestly just straight-up weird how they seem to just refuse to use any other avenues for improving their roster. They cut Knile Davis before he even had a chance to possibly show anything (was acquired a day or two before their game and was cut almost immediately afterward), probably because they were terrified of giving up a 7th round pick. It's just bizarre. They signed a way-past-his-prime Julius Peppers a few years ago, but they'd be smart to start using trades and free agency to their advantage more.