Henroid

I'm disappointed TB's line about 'senpai' teaching him to not be a terrible consumer wasn't included above, because it is something that people need to be fucking taught!

So just as a heads up, Total Crybaby lashed out on Twitter today at Leigh Alexander about how she "started this" (referring to the criticism of video game 'culture' and such). He said something about burning bridges but that he has a helicopter so he doesn't care, which lead to what you can expect. Stuff like this:

It seems like one of those things born out of someone's fever-dream. "I'M TELLING YOU THE SQUIDS ARE GOING TO TAKE OVER."

That octopus discussion (things I never thought I'd type on this forum; that) reminded me of a documentary style show I saw a couple of years ago. It was a loosely-scientific "what if" about Earth, when in millions of years the tectonic plate cycle creates a new super-continent. There was a lot of projections about how various species could evolve, but the highlight was the end of the episode in which they were asked what the new dominant species would be. The answer was squids. Because the climate of this hypothetical earth would be more wet and rain-forest covered, it would allow squids to become landbased. Cue the rendered video of squids swinging from trees like monkeys.

Oh man Jake, the mall-pinball episode is the ONLY story I remember from Are You Afraid of the Dark.

So did anyone hear about the Llama chase?

So Lady Gaga is one of the few people who can actually sing, like in the classical sense of the word. In the last couple of weeks she proved herself in two ways. First was when she sang "I Wish" at the Stevie Wonder tribute. And the second was at the Oscars when she sang the Sound of Music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqGGYJxVRFI My favorite part about those is that she doesn't fall into the BS of "making it her own." She sings in the way those songs were meant to be sung, which is what it actually means to pay tribute I think. So good on her. She's always fascinated me because of her technical know-how with music. It's pretty uncommon, maybe even rare. That said, I actually only like a couple of her songs. If she sprang out into other genres though I'd probably spin on a dime and be a big fan.

For all the Metroid Prime talk, I should link this. I've been going through the Awesome Games Done Quick 2014 videos and saw the speed run for Metroid Prime. Aside from being awesome just for being a great speed run, they had a developer on Skype call talking about the game and watching the run, commenting on things. It's pretty great. Edit - One of the highlights is the Power Bomb maze.

The only environment I appreciated from Echoes was the swampy area. Not every room there really captured the feeling of being in a swamp / marsh, but it was enough for me. The military base thing you end up going to in Echoes also didn't sit right with me. The presentation of "this is advanced tech" was too clean. Even in Super Metroid, when you're in the Wrecked Ship or Tourian, you can see that the advanced-tech isn't exactly sleek. It has some cobbled-together feel to it. There's wires hanging around all over the place, etc. Prime did a very good job of capturing that with the Space Pirates' facilities on the planet (and even the space station). It was a touch that the original Star Wars trilogy had. For all the advancement of that setting, the tech was normal; it would get dirty and age in just a couple years, like in real life. The one exception would be Imperial bases or ships - though that was kind of accenting a point thematically. They even went as far as to not sweep the sets when they filmed the movies (or at least the first one). Lucas wanted dirt to be present on the Millennium Falcon. Super Metroid and Prime really capture that same sort of feeling. Prime 2 though goes into that "everything is SO CLEAN" feeling, which would be fine if the series always had that going on. Fusion falls somewhere between the two.

I probably leaned on the "Oscar bait" thing too much. Those words weren't used. It's more of like... the film was made for actors to see, rather than for everyone to see. I mean, as far as making any sort of connection or having something to relate to. That's a better way to frame up the criticism I heard (which I can't link to because it was spoken word; radio). Again, I haven't seen the movie myself. I was just offering up the opinion to see if anyone could see merit in it (which doesn't mean agreeing with the film being bad). And it's cool to make things that cater to specific audiences / demographics, by the way. It just sucks if you're outside the target range.

Echoes is Prime 2, right? I finally got around to playing that this past year, and I was not pleased with it at all. It was pretty badly balanced when it came to fighting bosses, mini-bosses, or even the more durable enemies of the game. Thematically, the Light World / Dark World thing was just... out of the realm of Metroid. I mean, it makes me think back to what people say about Majora's Mask - how it's cool because it has a different vibe / atmosphere. Well, in both instances I don't like it at all.

Starring Eggman.

I've heard some criticism that the movie was specifically made to cater to actors and the academy (Oscars), as a "Isn't our life just like this as actors?!" deal. I haven't seen the film but I'm inclined to trust where I heard this from.

"Hi I'm Tom Nook, I pretty much own every house in this town. Would you like to see your new home?" - yes "Thanks! That's $10,000 down payment, leaving you with just $490,000 left to pay off! Enjoy Animal Crossing!"

I'm not sure if any of Nintendo's games can be monetized without making them into games they are not. The closest they get is A Link Between Worlds, since that had an in-game "spend rupees to get dungeon items sooner!" thing going on. That could easily be a dollar real-world transaction. It makes me think back to when Capcom put Mega Man X on mobiles. Their monetization structure was literally just paying for shit you find in the game regularly, most of it without much effort. The bonus was that it was a TERRIBLE port. Look up the videos sometime. It's astoundingly bad.

Tonight, one of my coworkers came to me about her confusion with transgender folks (there's a lot of them here in this part of the city, I mean, relatively speaking, compared to my last few years in TEXAS). She wasn't sure about how to address them as far as pronouns go. I was really pleased that she was receptive and open-minded about it all, though it may have been less about the social issues and more of a language thing she was asking about (English is her second language but she speaks it fluently, the silly-billy). My faith in people in general got a bump up.

Can it not also be a message to people in Soren's position to not do business with the likes of Wardell?

The collection in MP pretty much consists of going to rooms you previously couldn't, when you gain particular power ups. There's definitely some Artifacts in rooms you pass through normally though, yeah. Basically the hint system is based on room names. I can't think of any that are particularly hard to figure out in that regard. But reading about that tower thing... yeah I suppose it's a little vague about that. I would say that your scanning visor should help point out things in the environment that can be shot at. As for the comparison to Wind Waker, I think it's legit, but Wind Waker's is far more boring (even though it's my favorite LoZ ever).

A coworker made a very delightful and legit burn about my age tonight. I forget how it came up, but she was asking me about one of my exes. We were talking about frequency of communication and my coworker grins, asking, "Did you text a lot? Did you have texting back then?" "... No, no we didn't. Also, screw you." And then laughter ensued.

Don't worry, one of the tricks Spot will eventually learn is "kill!" and then humanity's collective face will be kicked in by small but sturdy-as-hell legs.

Has anyone else gone back and watched The Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back? That movie is 35 years old, but the Battle of Hoth is as fast paced and well shot as any modern day sci-fi film. Maybe even better. JJ Abrams has a pretty high bar to reach in that regard.

You could say they peaked in high school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCPKLcM_O2Q

Oh okay, it actually makes sense now.

I was just now having a look at Twitter, and Brad Wardell supporters actually call it "a harassment campaign" when people name drop Wardell while criticizing him. Keep in mind this doesn't involve using his Twitter handle. Remember how we all had that realization that part of the Goobergate campaign was destroying the English language? "Harassment" is something they seem to be working on too. Criticism isn't the same as getting in someone's face (or email inbox) repeatedly.

I love the accusation of hate, implying it is blind, and then the bro-fisting over "Haha San Francisco m i rite."