Akun

Played some Last Stop on my PS5 for the past few days. Already had buyer's remorse a few hours in though. Initially wishlisted it because it was marketed as a game with multiple endings, but the more I played it, the more its limited dialogue choices feel like Life is Strange than say, Detroit: Become Human or even Mass Effect. It feels more akin to Telltale Games' The Walking Dead to be honest, giving you meaningless dialogue choices that add flavor to the story. God, I hate poorly-made multi-choice games like these, especially when it has the same problems these games usually have: having the dialogue options resulting in completely different dialogue than you expected. What's the point of giving me the option to converse if you're just going to screw me over anyway? Thankfully, I didn't technically buy this shitty game. It came along as part of PS Plus Extra (upgraded it from the normal subscription), so the remorse isn't as bad. Another game I got from the PS Plus monthly catalogue is Biomutant. That game got old fast. Maybe I'm getting too old for these games that require good reflexes, because I kept having a hard time dodging. Plus, the whole gameplay of going from room to room and kill enemies is so repetitive and dull.

I've been playing a lot of Marvel Snap recently. It's a great free-to-play game that doesn't really incentivize the use of real-world money to boost your rankings thanks to its limited rewards in its microtransactions. You can buy in-game credits to boost your "Collection Level" (which allows you to collect more credits and new cards). However, doing so might inadvertently put you on the path of higher-level players who have better cards than you, so it's not really something wise to do. Thanks to that, plus the consistent weekly mission rewards I can get at a steady pace, I haven't spent hundreds of dollars on this particular f2p game. However, I have wasted countless hours trying to boost my "Player Rank", which is calculated by 10 "cubes" per rank. You can earn up to 8 cubes per match depending on whether both players agree to bet their cubes for the game (it's refer to as "Snapping" in the game). If only one player snaps, you'd either only win or lose 4 cubes, not the total 8. If you retreat the instant the player snaps, you'd only lose 1 cube. Now, this does sound a little like poker, doesn't it? Except that it uses the virtual currency of "cubes" instead of real money. However, there is something else at stake on the table, which is your time. Because of how the cube system works, weak-willed individuals like myself might be tempted to win back the cubes they lost in countless hours of gaming... which is what I've been doing for the past week, despite my best attempts at refrain. I ended up thinking at one point, "What the heck am I doing with my life?" as I kept circling around the same player rank because I ended up losing many of my cubes that I won. It's not a perfect gameplay design, despite the developers' best attempts at making this game as enjoyable without paying real money as possible. So yeah, I have an obvious problem. I think I'm just going to uninstall the game now from my PC and play it on mobile instead (it's available on both platforms). If it's on my mobile, I just feel like I'd be less inclined to touch the game as often since I don't like holding it around for countless hours (as opposed to my more convenient PC). Be aware of this game's problem if you're a gaming addict like me.

I recently come to realize that it depends. Marvel Snap is on both PC and mobile, so I played the PC version first, being more accustomed to the former platform and all. However, the PC version has certain issues. For one thing, the recent in-game event, "Hero", doesn't work on the PC version. You're required to go to the "news" section of the game and join the event there, but on the PC version, the news section merely contains the game's social links (TikTok, Instagram, etc.), whereas on the mobile version, the event works fine. Furthermore - and this is a more important point to me personally, which I'll elaborate later on another thread - I find myself more addicted to the game when playing on PC because it's a platform I frequently use, thus more comfortable with using it. With my mobile, I'm not as comfortable picking up this rather hefty object that is my smartphone all the time, so I wouldn't be influenced to keep playing every hour (it's also partly due to my dislike of mobile games that subconsciously makes me disassociate my mobile with gaming). However, there's a problem with this. Someone created a useful tracker app to track your activities in the game (your win/loss ratio, new cards you've added to the collection, etc.). Unfortunately, it only works on the PC version. There's no mobile version of this app AFAIK. This means I'm forced to play it on PC if I want to use the tracker. Now, as I'll explain soon elsewhere, this game hasn't done favors for my anxiety or video game addiction, so between fighting the addiction or being able to use some tracker, it's pretty clear which platform I should prioritize. So really, it depends. Both platform might have issues that the other platform might compensate for if the game is designed to be on both the PC and mobile.

Heard about what's going on with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (with the players complaining about massive bug issues and rumors of Nintendo refunding... HAH! In your dreams maybe), and honestly, I'm glad I chose to abandon Pokémon after Arceus because I haven't even got the time or motivation to finish Arceus past its first hour or even touched Shining Diamond and Brilliant Pearl yet. I also have three mostly untouched PS5 games: Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Terminator: Resistance (only played a few minutes to test them out), all of which I doubt I'd have the time to play any time soon. They'll be eating dust for the next couple of months, maybe the whole year. It just seems like video games and me have lost connection with each other, and there just isn't that spark anymore to get me to grab a controller and just sit down and play. I should really just stop wasting my money on these games if I'm not gonna play. I get sucked in by either the hype or the popularity of these titles and felt obligated to buy them, because that's just what I do, being careless with my money.

True, but even with movies and TV shows, I'm biased against medieval settings. It's why I prefer Star Wars over Lord of the Rings, and why I haven't bothered with Game of Thrones.

I've returned to my original interest: TV shows and movies. I neglected them for months before coming to VGR, so I'm glad to return to my first love once again.

Yeah, maybe. Doesn't help that I'm incredibly picky. Also, it feels like I've outgrown video games tbh. I played Halo: CE (MCC) the other day, and I only played two levels before turning it off. And I only played it just to get the level complete achievements.

Well, not always. For Age of Empires, I wouldn't play it because I don't like RTS games since they require good strategy (I did enjoy Age of Mythology though because I love mythologies). As for Assassin's Creed, I played the first game and got bored quickly by how repetitive it felt. The only assassin games I liked were Hitman games. lol

I think that particular zealotry in defending certain fansub groups (in spite of those groups having inaccurate translations) comes down to the kind of fanaticism that defines fandom in general, not just anime fans. DC vs. Marvel, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, Mets vs. Yankees, and of course, Trump vs. Obama. People love to be part of a community defending something, so when someone points out something wrong about the thing they're passionate about, even if it's just a translation group that provided them mistranslated anime, they will be outraged. It's called a circle jerk, and it's especially prevalent in Reddit. Go to the MCU's subreddit and point out any flaw at all about any of their Marvel show and you'll be bombarded with downvotes and criticisms (of your "misinformed" opinions). I was there when the fansub group, "gg" was praised like the second coming of Christ (they've put out good stuff, but most of the time, they're trolls when translating shows they don't like). Even HorribleSubs was praised in spite of their well-deserved name just because of how fast they translated (no matter how inaccurate). So I had a pretty good idea just how fanatical these elitist fans could get back then in terms of defending not just fansub groups, but subtitled anime in general (over dubbed anime). To be fair, I do also prefer to watch my anime subbed even now because of, again, purist reasons, how I want to hear what the original voice acting was like and the kind of acting direction they went with. I like that kind of authentic experience. But my point is that while I do agree with them on some level the appeal of subbed anime... it's not fair to assume every dub is horrible trash, especially in 2022 when English dubbed anime has improved A LOT. A lot of these fanatics are blatant elitists who are defending (from an extremist position) a name that has nothing to do with their personal lives, much like Marvel and Star Wars fans. Regarding the anime merch... I understand how such perceptions are formed because of such scantily clad goods. In fact, I'd even go on to say that most of the popular mainstream shows (mostly shounen shows like Dragonball, One Piece and Fairy Tail) have included fanservice as part of the show even today. I was turned off so much by Fairy Tail because of said fanservice, the way they treated Lucy's sexuality like a cheap punchline, that I dropped it completely. I think it might have something to do with their fanbase, because I heard that they put in such fanservice for profit reasons or something, to ensure their merch sells, maybe. Something interesting, however, is that while American shows like Xena: Warrior Princess (which had a bunch of scantily armored scenes) have largely strayed from fanservice by the 2010s because Americans became more progressive, Japan hasn't really changed much the last time I've seen an anime series. I think fanservice is probably part and parcel of anime even today, but I may be wrong. That being said, while I agree such a thing might give people the wrong idea... I still don't agree that it's a fair assessment to judge all anime by it, especially with my own experience of mature and psychological anime that contained zero fanservice whatsoever. I think that if people bothered to do their research, if people bothered to actually look up good shows written by respected writers and even respected anime studios, their perception might improve. And the thing is, I'm not just applying such an open-mindedness to anime only, but also animation in general. I grew up in the Pixar era, so I had a very solid foundation of animation being more than just silly cartoons. Films like Toy Story, Up, Ratatouille, and even Finding Nemo convinced me that animation was a fluid medium that could allow stories for all ages, even stories only adults could understand. It's not really the same thing, and anime has a harder uphill battle to fight before its name could be redeemed, but I'm sure there were at least a number of people back then who believed animation was for children only, or that superhero films were silly cape flicks even. Their perception was unchallenged until someone came along and showed them what one could do with the medium. And so, it's like, just go watch Ghost in the Shell or Akira and tell me anime's just for the perverts only. Or better yet, the wholesome Hayao Miyazaki films. People simply just need to do their research and not let their perceptions blind them to the truth. I think in terms of recommending anime to someone, I guess I didn't have that problem as often (though it still happened, rarely) with people getting the wrong idea because the shows I recommended were usually the aforementioned mature content that lacked fanservice or scantily clad women, shows like Technolyze or Aoi Bungaku Series, the very psychologically-driven kind of shows where your summary of the show or the Googled images shouldn't really contain any suggestive content. I think that it is possible to change people's perception of anime given the right content. Just don't search for lewd shows - which, I emphasize, is entirely possible with anime - and stay to the more mature or wholesome content even like Miyazaki films. I doubt there's Miyazaki merch around with scantily clothed figurines, probably because most of Miyazaki's characters are children.

That's a fair opinion. I had my own experience of being exposed to toxic communities before that influenced my beliefs of certain fandoms... or even political groups. I don't know what was it exactly that gave me a more positive experience towards anime, but perhaps it's because I've argued with so many people online - both anime and non-anime fans - that I've pretty much realized there's toxicity everywhere on the Internet, myself included. The anonymity of Internet just has a certain influence on certain people like myself, bringing out the worst in us. I wouldn't really say more than half the things I say offline. I guess it might've been that kind of exposure that led me to direct my cynicism not towards anime itself, or any show in particular, but people in general, becoming somewhat of a misanthrope for a period of time even. It helps that I have a great respect for the craft of storytelling and have seen the immense potential anime possesses in telling a wide range of stories across multiple genres, so that led me to value anime as a medium for imparting such interesting themes and ideas. Also, in terms of making eye candies of anime characters, I'm not surprised to be honest. In spite of its range of targeted demographics, anime is still a form of animation, and that attracts young audiences who treat it like any American cartoon. You've got kids and teenagers getting all horny about cartoon characters (again, just look at rule 34 to see how horny people can get about fictional characters, even American cartoons). I'd say that I've came across my share of fans being passionate about wanting to fuck certain live action characters too. I guess I could see why anime would certainly attract the more perverse crowd to the conversation, given that there's an entire genre of anime specifically targeting these people... but again, I think it's like you said, it's not really the case anymore now that legal streaming has become more popular, and we start to get more "normal" audiences. As for fansubs... I gotta say, I can't really begrudge those people too much. Many of those people from those fansub groups that I've met actually did know Japanese, which is how I came to rely on them for accurate translations. I'm a purist that way. English isn't even my native mother tongue anyway (it's Chinese), so it's not like I'm betraying my own people or something if I find the English dub annoying. Also, fansubs were literally the only way you'd get to watch many of the popular anime series like Death Note and FMA: Brotherhood back then, even when "official streaming" was starting to come around because of region restrictions. I doubt many people knew how to VPN back then either in the 2000s. Those were different times, but I doubt anime would become as popular as it did without fansubs.

7/10. It's good, even with my disinterest in the wild west. One of the best gym battle themes in the Pokémon franchise IMO. Listen till the bridge at the 4:12 mark of the video for the full awesomeness.

lol That's because it's not an action game; it's a tragedy visual novel. ^ 7/10. It's a nice series of beats, especially the 2nd song, but I don't like Dragonball. The Connor theme from Detroit: Become Human. This always gets me going and heart pumping.

I wouldn't trade my Internet for watching tumbleweeds. Part of that is because I was raised that way, spoiled by the modern age. If I had grew up in the Wild West, I wouldn't miss any of this, of course. Plus, I'm pretty sure Singapore was still under British colonial rule in the 1880s. No thanks.

Mass Effect 2 comes to mind. Imagine, if you will: It's been more than two years after the first game. Mass Effect 2 was released. You're excited. You finally get to become Commander Shepard again and reunite with the Normandy crew once more. You might've ignored all the trailers to avoid spoilers. You start the game. It's 10 minutes in. Commander Shepard is dead. I think it's even better than the Fallout: New Vegas opening because here, you actually get to play out the opening to your death. "Wait, what did I do wrong? Did I reach a bad ending?" I haven't really forgotten much of that first time I played ME2. I played the first ME around 2009, maybe, so it wasn't as long for me, the period between ME1 and ME2, but I still had the "waitwut" experience. I also feel like Detroit: Become Human did a great job with starting the game putting you as Connor. That electrifying and heart-pumping Connor theme just softly playing in the background, muffled. Connor doing his cool coin trick. Who is this guy, and why is he so badass? Because that's how he can come off as in the first level alone (depending on your decisions), resolving a hostage situation with ease and walking away like a master detective.

Well, as with all things, there's truth to both sides of the argument. For me, I like it if the game I played on a PS4 gets remastered on the PS5 with better graphics that looks sharper on my 4K TV. I wouldn't mind selling my PS4 games just for that reason alone because I enjoy good graphics on my games, contrary to many gamers I've seen. Aside from graphics update, there might also be other improvements like bug fixes or better UI. Of course, this isn't a hard and fast rule for me because... look what happened to Spider-Man PS5, replacing John Bubniak with Ben Jordan. I don't want another actor. It feels strange because the point of replaying the same game would be to have that familiar experience again for nostalgia's sake. What kind of nostalgia would I have with a different actor? Plus, Ben's expressions are kinda more boring than John's emotive animation. And then you have Nintendo... Good luck playing your 3DS games on the Switch. But even counting its handheld consoles, I'd much rather play a DS game over a Gameboy game because, again, betters graphics, even if not by much. Really helps that Gamefreak remakes their older Pokémon games, giving me more reasons to sell my older games... except maybe the notorious Diamond/Pearl remake. I don't particularly like the chibi graphic change of that one, but that's just me.