Video Games are awesome

A general discussion forum, plus hauls and silly games.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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Ursus mellifera wrote: Thu Oct 27, 2022 6:13 am Man, I LOVED Turtles in Time back in the day.
Turtles in Time was actually the first game I played when I got the Cowabunga collection. I didn't have that much experience with it as a kid. My friend had a SNES, but despite our love for the NES games, that wasn't one that they got. As I recall, I only played it at a local birthday party place. And I rented the Genesis version, Hyperstone Heist a few times.
Dominic wrote: Thu Oct 27, 2022 7:36 am "Mom tossed our Nintendo" is the 80s/90s update of "mom tossed by comic books and baseball cards". Damn, just damn.
She also tried to toss the Genesis when we got a N64. Luckily, I caught it before it was gone, and I still have it to this day. Although now that remakes, virtual console releases and compilations are a thing, I think I could probably let it go now...
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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Pokemon Violet

I held off on getting this game until Christmas. The reviews upon the games release were not very favorable. I'd hoped there would be a patch by now to improve the games performance, but unfortunately, this hasn't happened.

This is the first fully open world Pokemon game. Sort of. The game is still separated into various Areas somewhat like Legends Arceus, but in this game the areas are interconnected so you don't have to return to a central hub when you want to move to another area. I've only just gotten to the point where the game stops holding your hand, so I think I can pretty much roam as I please, save for Area Zero. Unlike previous Pokemon games, you're presented with three story elements. You can do the usual Gym challenge, go Titan hunting, or take down 'Team Star'.

Unfortunately, the game has a lot of issues. Janky frame rates, clipping, models not loading, dropped frames, bad texturing, pop-in, glitches... I've even seen some people reporting the game crashing. I'm shocked that this is the 3rd Pokemon title Gamefreak has developed for the Switch and this is how it looks and runs. Granted, SW/SH and Legends Arceus had a lot of the same problems, but they performed better than this game does. For one of the top franchises in the world, how is it the mainline games are not delivering the level of quality that they should? If Gamefreak is struggling this much to deliver a good quality game within the deadlines, they really need to make some changes, and/or Nintendo should help them out. I had more hope for this game now that Gamefreak had some more experience developing for the Switch, but this is easily the worst Pokemon game they've created in terms of quality.

Edit: Bit into the game now... So yeah, once the game stops holding your hand you're pretty much free to go anywhere you want, as long as you can get there. With each Titan hunt objective, your Koraidon/Miraidon gets upgrades to their mobility, such as higher jumping or swimming that allows you to access places you couldn't before. Basically the HM or Ride Pokemon from previous games. Unfortunately, the Gyms are not structured very well. The Gyms are not level scaled, so if you accidently skip one and go back to it, you'll be over leveled, or, you might be getting into a challenge you're not ready for. There is a definitive order the game wants you to do all the Gyms in, but it doesn't really give any clear indication of what that order is if you choose to follow it. You also have to complete all three story elements, and it's clear the game wants you to complete all of them concurrently, in order to unlock the final area/story.

Also find it interesting how they've downplayed completing the Pokedex in this game, considering they have stopped having all the Pokemon in the games starting with Sw/Sh. It's still something the game suggests for you to do, but it isn't a driving motivation this game's Professor wants the player to do for them like all the previous games. In fact, they seem to have downplayed the Professor's role as well, with their role mostly given to other characters in this game.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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Metroid Prime Remastered

The original Gamecube version was the first Metroid game I'd ever played. So I was pretty excited when they announced this version. It's been a long time since I played the original, and the graphics are showing their age. This version is beautiful. They did a great job updating it for the Switch. I apparently still have muscle memory for the Gamecube control scheme so the new control scheme takes a little getting used to. It has some different control settings, which I haven't played around with, so I'm not sure if there is another scheme that is a little easier to get used to or not.
Spoiler
I was a little disappointed by how they made Samus look when she takes the helmet off at the end of the game. I looked up some screen shots comparing to the original version, and I actually prefer the model in the original version.
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Re: Video Games are awesome

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The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

The highly anticipated and long awaited sequel to Breath of the Wild is finally here! I've played for maybe 5 hours thus far and basically just got out of the tutorial area.
Spoiler
While exploring caverns under Hyrule castle, Zelda and Link discover several murals depicting the origins of Hyrule, and what Zelda refers to as the The Imprisoning War. I'm not sure if this is meant to be the events from Skyward Sword or something else entirely. This story introduces a new species, the Zonai, who were thought to be gods by the ancient Hylians, and were responsible for founding Hyrule and the royal family. In the next chamber, the pair discovers a mummy, sealed by a dismembered arm that falls away as soon as they enter. Link and the Master Sword are both badly damaged. The mummy begins to raise the castle causing a rift to open up that Zelda falls into. Link attempts to save her, but she vanishes, and the severed arm saves Link. Link awakens elsewhere, finding his arm has been replaced with the severed arm. A Zonai named Rauru, or rather his ghost, explains he had to replace Link's arm with his own and took him to a sky island to recover.

Similarly to BotW, this is area is essentially a tutorial area where Link gets various abilities, and the game teaches the player how to use them. At the end of it, Zelda contacts Link telling him to find her, and Link returns to Hyrule below. The new abilities are interesting. Ultra Hand allows you to move certain objects and glue them together. Fuse allows you to fuse certain objects to your weapon or shield to enhance them to some degree. Ascend allows you to jump up through solid objects above you. And Recall reverses time for certain objects to a limited effect.
So far, I'm very much enjoying it. It's got a lot of similarities to BotW, but is also doing its own thing. Looking forward to seeing where this game goes.

Edit more story spoilers:
Spoiler
I've gotten the Dragons Tears memories.... Turns out, Zelda was transported to the past thanks to a Secret Stone, which amplifies a person's natural ability (each of the Sage's have one). Zelda has both light and time, but her stone amplified her time ability. She finds herself at the time leading up to the Imprisoning War and quickly becomes friends with King Rauru and his wife, Sonia. Zelda begins trying to find a way back to her time but Ganondorf eventually arrives, pledging his allegiance to the Rauru. Despite Zelda's misgivings, Raru accepts, assuring her he only does it to keep an eye on him. Ganondorf predictably betrays them, kills Queen Sonia, and takes her Secret Stone, transforming into the Demon King. Zelda warns Raru that in her time, she already knows they weren't able to defeat Ganondorf. Rauru isn't so sure, pointing out Zelda's presence in their time has altered events.

Nevertheless, the fight against Ganondorf still plays out the same. Rauru ends up sacrificing himself to seal away Ganondorf until he eventual breaks free at the start of the game. Zelda ends up with the broken Master Sword thanks to some more time travel, and realizes she'd be able to restore it, and still needs a way back to her own time. Thanks to some research from Rauru's sister, Zelda swallows her Secret Stone, which turns her into an immortal dragon, but looses her sense of self in the process. This allows Link to get the Master Sword back, as it has been recovering thanks to Zelda's light, stuck in her hair on her forehead for thousands of years.

Still not sure how this works with Skyward Sword's origins of Hyrule... I kinda get the impression we're supposed to think of the previous games as stories that have fallen into more myth and legend rather than accurate depictions of those events.
I've only done two of the temples thus far. I'm a little disappointed with them... Most of the challenge is simply climbing the sky islands to reach the actual temple. Once at the temple itself, there's 5 locks or whatever you have to reach, and then fight the boss. Granted, you still have to solve puzzles for each lock or whatever, but, it just doesn't make it feel like there is much to these temples. The Divine Beasts in BotW had the same criticism, but it didn't bother me in that game because they were essentially mech vehicles. I was expecting Temples in this game to be bigger.
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