DoctorEncore

I refuse to believe that this is anything other than a small group of people, probably all well-connected to HA and Wata, buying each other's items and pumping prices. Those numbers are ridiculous.

I'm purposely not reading the contents of this thread to avoid spoilers, but just had to stop in and say that this book is fantastic so far. I'm loving everything about it and highly encourage those who skipped this one to circle back to it.

I took a very long set of flights this weekend and spent a bunch of time reading. I finished the first novel in the Murderbot series called All Systems Red. I really enjoyed it, even if it was a little goofy and over the top at times. It's a quick, light read at only 150 pages so it's worth a shot if the synopsis intrigues you. I actually found myself wishing the book was longer so story and characters had more time to be fleshed out. Still, this is another series I'll definitely be spending some time with and I hope to see the character and world grow. I had been perusing some lists of the all-time greatest science fiction novels (my favorite genre) and kept seeing Hyperion pop up. It sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go and, thus far, I have not been disappointed. I'm about 30% through and I am really invested in this fiction. I love the style of writing and the world-building is done a fantastic, organic way. I had some initial trepidation since the novel uses a character flashback structure to flesh out the story. I find this storytelling device to be very hit or miss, but the individual narratives are so strong and the flow is so smooth, that it does wonders in this book. I've made it through the first two stories and I find myself excited to read more and watch the tales intertwine as the travelers continue their pilgrimage. Of note, about 5 or 6 years ago, I actually read another Dan Simmons book called The Terror. I adored that novel, but didn't read much at the time, so I didn't go looking for other works by the author. If Hyperion continues to be this good, I will definitely be looking through his output in the near future.

It's a required phase of collecting that, in most cases, will continue indefinitely. I feel like no matter how much room or shelving you have, there will always be at least a few bins.

I hope I didn't mention anything too spoilery and I hope you enjoy it! It has a really good score on Good Reads so most people liked it a lot more than I did.

Here's a link to last year's topic if anyone wants to see what games/movies people were checking out in 2021: VGS Halloween 2021. I was slacking a bit this year (and also just had another baby; three children has transformed our house from controlled chaos to absolute madness) and didn't get the topic ready in time for late September As for me, my family already did our yearly viewing of Nightmare Before Christmas which is always fantastic. I doubt the wife and I will have time to sit down for any mature movies with our sleep schedules so messed up right now. Regarding gaming, I don't think I'm going to get into the backlog, but I am going to check out Scorn since it's releasing on Game Pass today. It looks creepy and weird in a lot of cool ways with a lot of H.R. Giger influence.

This is exactly what my collection looked like for many, many years. Bin life!

This. He's not a good human, just a good salesman.

I just want to know who thought Glass Joe had the screen presence to be a leading man. Give me Hippo or give me death!

When I finished my NES set, it went from a priority to a side activity. Now I'm interested in variants and little additions to the set, but my primary goal is to just play and enjoy games in general with a focus on newer stuff. I did start a couple other sets, but not with nearly the same fervor or obsession. Collecting is a weird two-headed beast that is fun, but not fun, if that makes any sense.

I see this as a win-win since I love the game and would gladly own a physical copy, but I don't have the DLC yet. Now I get a physical copy and the DLC for a reasonable price. The rare combined gamer/collector victory.

I never got into Garbage Pail Kids, so the nostalgia isn't there for me. I'll be interested to see if the game is actually any good though.

Even cooler from my standpoint is the fully-localized Battlefields of Napoleon prototype with all the documentation and boards. I'm seriously considering getting in on that auction. https://www.ebay.com/itm/275491251570

Everything's looking great! You could always throw down a sweet rug and add some mood lighting to that corner so it gives you that aesthetic when the rest of the lights are off. Always good to have a nice base to start with since you can customize later.

Finished up a few books since my last update. Ready Player Two was pretty terrible. As others have said, the writing is just so, so bad and the story is painfully generic. The book is also horribly paced, taking long detours into uninteresting territory on a regular basis. It was a real slog. It looks like Cline struck gold with the first novel and used up all his talent to make that one work. I won't be checking out any of his other books. I really enjoyed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. I like that it is so different from Blade Runner. I wish there was a little more depth to the characters and a little more time spent on the central question of what defines humanity, but it moves briskly and let's the reader do the majority of the pondering on that. I also had a love/hate relationship with the dialogue and thought processes which feel very stilted and unnatural. This robotic style definitely plays into the uncertainty that is prominent in the novel, but also makes characters unrelatable. Definitely recommended for sci-fi fans though. I also just finished The Three Body Problem. I was quite excited to get into this series from all the positive press it's received from friends and critics, but I ended up very disappointed. As with many other sci-fi novels, the central characters are really under-developed. Their actions and motivations are so thin as to make them feel like they exist solely to advance the plot (spoiler: that is precisely why they exist). Speaking of the plot, it's also pretty feeble. There are a few interesting ideas regarding first contact, the challenges of extreme distances, religious exremism, and loyalty to family/humanity, but they are explored at only a surface level. In the end, the book devolves into 100 pages of silly B-movie action and nonsensical pseudo-science which had me rolling my eyes and praying for the final page to come soon. I've heard that the second and third book are better, so I'm going to give them a shot, but my expectations have been checked.

Wow, nostalgia is hitting me like a ton of breaks. I definitely had one of these when I was a kid.

I saw 28 Days Later in the theater and it is probably my all-time favorite zombie movie. The "original" ending is super bleak and great, although I don't mind the optimistic theatrical ending. There is also a batshit crazy alternate second half that you can check out in the special features on the DVD/Blu-Ray. I also saw 28 Weeks Later in the theaters and I thought it was quite good, although I couldn't tell you a thing about it. I'll have to give it a rewatch some time and see if I still like it. All I know is that I'd gladly watch a 28 Months Later if they got Boyle and Garland back.

I remember playing the original way back when it was released and thinking the huge cast was a cool concept. I'd be interested to see how well they hold up although we all know I won't actually play them.

Cigarettes are clearly worse. Not sure what spurred you to make this poll, but it's not even close.

Congrats on an amazing accomplishment. Can't argue against that top 3. Gaming perfection right there. So... when's the book coming? And what system is next?

Not in your home! But I get your point.

I don't watch old movies on a VCR just because that's what was available when they were released. Give me HDMI output with pixel perfect accuracy on a big ass OLED TV. Good hardware emulators are close enough in accuracy for even most hardcore gamers. I'm a huge proponent of the excellent (albeit pricey) Analogue FGPA emulators. I've also got a PolyMega on preorder for disc based games and (hopefully) N64.

I was in the grocery store with my 2-year old daughter the other day and she saw this Unicorn Mac and Cheese and was quite insistent I buy it. I guess the love of unicorns transcends borders and ages.

I read an interview with the director of the franchise and he said they will only make new Paper Mario games if they have an interesting or creative idea for a new battle system. This sounds great in theory, but reinventing the wheel is impossibly hard because the wheel is already perfect. The goal is innovation, but instead we get a new painful, gimmicky combat system every game. Sometimes iteration is okay! It's a damn shame too because everything outside of the combat in Origami King is fantastic. Change simply for the sake of change is one of Nintendo's longest running and most detestable policies. I don't know if this was the specific interview I am remembering, but he says essentially the same thing here. He specifically notes that he doesn't want to just give people what they want. Ugh. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/08/paper_mario_producer_says_hes_not_opposed_to_the_fans_opinions

It seems everyone is always heaping praise on this game and I'd like to play it, but it's way down my backlog list at this point. Outside of Super Mario RPG, the only Paper Mario games I've played are Origami King and Sticker Star, both of which were extremely disappointing.