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DoctorEncore

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Everything posted by DoctorEncore

  1. I can't comment on the actual content of the film, but they absolutely manipulated their messaging to appeal to MAGA folks and conspiracy theorists. Take that how you want, but it's a big turnoff for me. I'm not interested in padding the pockets of the production company or QAnon Caviezel. My wife and I have been watching The Afterparty on Apple TV+. It's a pretty slick murder mystery that puts a nice spin on the multiple viewpoints trope. Every episode is presented in a different style that reflects the storyteller's personality and some of them are great. Yasper's (Ben Schwartz) episode is particularly fun with some great song and dance numbers. We've got a few more episodes left to go, so I'm still waiting for the big reveal, but I'm betting that Xavier accidentally killed himself and there is no killer.
  2. One of my favorite games of the last ten years. An absolute masterclass in game design. So much hidden depth and absolutely genius puzzles.
  3. This is such a great game. I had this as a kid and played it a ton, even though I was terrible at it.
  4. I love my collection, but every time I have to move or organize my stuff, I seriously consider selling it. Maintaining a collection is a lot of work and it is actually reasonable and healthy to consider downsizing or getting out if it's not bringing you joy. In the end, it's just a pile of stuff that you can't take with you. So do what feels right. Depending on what systems make up the majority of your collection, we may have already hit peak prices. I feel like NES/SNES/Genesis are about as high as they may ever get. PS1/Saturn/N64 probably still have a bit more room to grow (outside of those crazy suspicious Wata/HA pandemic sales) and everything after that has plenty of potential value. The difference with newer stuff is that people realized in the disc era that videogames were not going away and it would make sense to start collecting them. Now we've got multiple users just on this site chasing full sets for current systems, so I feel like values are already high and won't have as much room to rise. over the next 10-20 years.
  5. I don't read this type of book, but I agree with the author that it is folly to continuously delay in hopes of finding a better time to do something. While there are true limitations to what one can accomplish immediately (money, disability, housing, etc), it is a mistake to think your attitude and situation will suddenly change with the next life event or accomplishment. As humans, we have a propensity to stay safe and move the goalposts when we realize there is yet another event or hurdle on the horizon. That is why one of the most effective pieces of advice for anyone with a goal is to literally start working towards it today, even if its the tiniest of steps. Anyways, thanks for sharing and I'm glad you gained some good insight from the book.
  6. You'd be surprised at how many people shoot themselves/get shot in the head, face, and neck and walk away just fine. This is not even close to the most ridiculous part of the movie. Source: Me, a general/trauma surgeon who was also in the Army. 7/10 for me. It's a good movie, but loses most of what makes it unique on repeat viewings. The unreliable narrator trope is among my least favorite storytelling techniques. Even when executed well, such as in this movie or Memento, it cheapens what we see on the screen and page. It too easily lets the director/writer off the hook for everything they've told us. It puts all the responsibility on the audience, which may lead to introspection and interesting conversations, but completely removes all gravity from the events that may or may not have taken place. Anyways, that's a debate for another time. I like the movie, just not at the level that the internet says I should.
  7. Following is pretty good for a low-budget, first film, but not something I'd go back to watch again. You'll definitely see his signature style all over it. I'm looking forward to seeing Oppenheimer soon.
  8. There was a period where he was easily my favorite active director, but I haven't enjoyed his recent output as much as his early stuff. I haven't seen Dark Knight Rises, Dunkirk, or Oppenheimer yet. Interstellar was one of my most anticipated movies of all-time and it fell completely flat for me due to the terrible dialogue and silly, melodramatic story. Tenet somehow managed to be even worse and I'm still flabbergasted it got greenlit. I still plan to see Oppenheimer in IMAX, so I'm hoping that will be a comeback story for him. Top 3: Inception Dark Knight Memento Bottom 3: Tenet Interstellar Following
  9. Oh, absolutely not. The Snake weapon sucked hahaha. I just loved that stage and could beat Snake Man pretty handily with the buster so I replayed it a thousand times.
  10. 7/10. Loved this movie as a kid who couldn't handle horror. It had just the right mix of comedy and thrills to keep me watching. How does it hold up?
  11. Honestly, I couldn't tell you much about any of the NES Mega Man games except that 3 has Snake Man. I just know I had it as a kid so the nostalgia factor is real.
  12. Welcome to the Old People with Kids Who Love Retro Games Club! Any specific favorite games or consoles?
  13. Took a short detour and played through the Link's Awakening remake on Switch. Pros: Classic Zelda-style gameplay Great music Lots of secrets and hidden items Quality of life improvements including more warp points (and probably others but I never played the original version) Final boss requires use of a wide variety of weapons and strategies Cons: Old-school game design (backtracking, fetch quests, occasional confusing puzzles, simple story) Small overworld and short dungeons 2D sections are not fun or interesting and should've been cut Very unstable framerate, particularly in the overworld Minigames are not fun Exceedingly easy, particularly the bosses. I did not die the entire game. Undecided: I can't decide if I love or hate the graphics. Sometimes they look good and other times they look terrible. Overall: 7/10. Definitely a step up from the the original LoZ on NES, but way behind the ALttP. I doubt I'll ever play it again, but I enjoyed my time with it. Just for fun, here are my LoZ rankings for the games I've played. Breath of the Wild (Switch) Link to the Past (SNES) Link Between Worlds (3DS) Ocarina of Time (N64) Wind Waker (GC) Phantom Hourglass (DS) Link's Awakening (Switch) LoZ (NES) Spirit Tracks (DS)
  14. Taking the kids to see Elemental later this week. We thought the trailer looked great, so I was taken aback by all the negative comments on release. It received a respectable Cinemascore and has had fantastic legs, so I suspect it's actually pretty solid. Watched the Adam Driver dinosaur movie, 65, yesterday. I wouldn't say it's horrible, but it just kind of exists. Some things happen, some dinosaurs show up, and then it ends. Stakes are super low and there's essentially no dialogue or story. I will say that the CG and special effects were surprisingly good considering the presumably low budget.
  15. Agreed. Play the way you like and don't worry about whether you're playing the "right" way. Just have fun. On my first playthrough, I rarely know about any glitches or cheats since I play games without reading reviews and I never use guides. That being said, if I do know about them, I avoid glitches such as item duplication or continuity breaks. I don't really want to break the in-game economy or progression system. I want to experience the game as it was intended since a ton of time goes into balancing these things to make the game feel good. That being said, I think all games should just include an option for invincibility, infinite money, infinite magic, maxed out stats, stage select, etc. If it's locked behind the first completion, that's fine, but I don't even think that's necessary. Just let people play the way they want to play within the limits of the game engine. It's absolutely crazy to me that there is not a free play/free build mode in Tears of the Kingdom. Knowing Nintendo, it will be included as part of some paid DLC.
  16. Don't leave us hanging! What did you think? I've always wanted to get into this series.
  17. I did it! I finally did it! After almost a year of innumerable starts and stops, I finally finished Final Fantasy X. To provide some context, the original FF on NES was the first RPG I ever played. I'm not sure I ever made it past Garland, but I knew it was something special. I was a massive Final Fantasy and Square fan in the SNES and PS1 days, putting hundreds of hours into FF7, FF8, Xenogears, Brave Fencer Musashi, and many more. However, I didn't get a PS2 until late in the lifecycle of that console and I fell off the FF wagon hard. As I grew busier with each passing year, I pretty much abandoned JRPGs in favor of shorter games. Still, I often think about those Square glory days and, all these years later, Final Fantasy still holds a special place in my heart. Call it a midlife crisis or a simple longing for the past, but last year I decided I was going to make a concerted effort to get back into JRPGs in hopes of rekindling that long lost spark. I decided my first goal would be to play through the mainline FF games that I missed, so I started FFX. First impressions were not good and I struggled to stick with it; the game was just so different from its predecessors. I missed the open world, I missed the more standard leveling, and I really didn't like the characters or story. This led to a fit of starts and stops, forcing me to relearn the game every time I played. This didn't help my enjoyment. Finally, I decided to recommit over the past couple weeks and now I've done it. I'm finally crossing one of my White Whales off the list. Pros: The active battle system is fun. Changing characters and weapons on the fly provides a nice taste of action while keeping the traditional turn-based format. It also allows you to use all the characters and level everyone without grinding extra battles. Overdrive modes and abilities are mostly fun and varied. I did find Lulu's right stick rotation mini-game to be unreliable and I would've liked a bit more guidance on Rikku's mixing (at least in-game tracking of recipes). Bosses require lots of strategy and some of them are really fun. Graphics are very impressive for an early PS2 game. The HD remaster even has a 16:9 aspect ratio and a couple quality of life changes for refilling health without navigating into the menu. Weapons, armor, and Aeon customization is a cool idea, although in practice it has severe limits. This is definitely the most difficult Final Fantasy game I've ever played. I have to give credit to the developers for adding some serious challenge to a popular, mainstream series, even if it's not always implemented in a way that feels fair or fun. Cons: Story and characters are simple and boring. They all just kind of exist with only surface level interactions and motivations. This goes for both the protagonists and antagonists. There is no satisfying conclusion. Tidus's relationship with his father is particularly under-developed and even kind of silly. I hate the sphere grid. It's not interesting and you have so little flexibility until the very end of the game that a standard leveling approach would have been better. Going into the menu every few battles to upgrade felt like a huge waste of time. Upgrades and customization of equipment and Aeons require insane grinding for rare items and is never well-explained. The game's length feels padded by unnecessary hurdles despite being incredibly linear. I assume this is due to a tight development schedule and new hardware. Enemies have way too much health and encounter rate is way too high. End game content requires insane backtracking and there's no way to really figure it out on your own. There is a bit too much trial and error. Many of the big bosses require very specific strategies and if you don't know them going in, you're almost guaranteed to die. Scan is not helpful in most cases which is quite frustrating. Unskippable cutscenes! Having to sit through several minutes of nonsensical dialogue to fight again is infuriating. Boss fights often come down to a nearly endless cycle of buff, debuff, dispel, repeat until their health is slowly whittled away. This would be fine if there was some variety in the fights or perhaps fewer bosses, but it starts to feel almost comical by the end. It's pretty much impossible to access the best items and equipment without using a guide. This stuff is so unintuitive, the game feels like it was meant to be played with a guide rather than be experienced or discovered through exploration. Overall: 6/10 This is easily my least favorite modern FF game. In fact, the only games I like less than this are FF2 and FF3 which always felt like lifeless slogs to me. Perhaps someday when I retire and have near infinite free time I'll go back through this with a guide, but until then, I have zero interest in suffering through again. That being said, I do plan to play FFX-2 at some point in the future. That just leaves Deathloop on my actively playing list. My next backlog game will probably be Link's Awakening remake and maybe something on PS4/PS5. Other than that, I've got a lot of new stuff lined up (Hi-Fi Rush, Atomic Heart, Starfield).
  18. I think I probably logged the most hours in middle school. That's when I got really into RPGs and wore out my PS1. I actually spent quite a lot of time gaming during medical school and residency as well because it's hard to find time for outside activities when you're that busy. But overall, I think ages 10-15 were my golden age. No car, no internet, no dvd player, just me and my SNES and PS1.
  19. I've got a synthesizer with three working keys and a 24 pack of Mountain Dew. Let's write this shit.
  20. I would just treat them like any other games. Look at all the BINs on eBay and see where items of similar condition fall. Then pull up recent eBay sales to see how recent auctions have played out to gauge interest. The cellophane can add a premium if it has protected the box, but it can also be faked.
  21. I feel like the Dracula soundtrack at least had some effort put into it, even if it was misguided. If you start listening around 1:45, there is a semblance of melody. If you removed the awful rhythm, some might even call this portion of the song good. 1942 sounds like it was literally made to torture someone.
  22. I hope this entire Twitter saga has finally convinced people that Musk isn't a particularly smart human and he certainly isn't a uniquely talented business man. He's just another example of a right-place, right-time rich person who got extraordinarily lucky. You can't be a billionaire and a good person; it is impossible to make that much money without exploiting everyone and everything around you. Watching him blow a $44 billion investment has been extremely satisfying.
  23. There are some real stinkers in this thread, but this one takes the cake. My poor ears.
  24. 8/10 for me. I grew up with a copy of MM3 so that one will always hold first place in my heart. 2 is still great though.
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