Board 8 > transience's video game topic 56: lift your skinny fists like ports to the sky.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Austin is streaming it right now
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the thumbs crew's actual regular podcast now, important if true, isn't about video games at all. it's just chris, jake, and nick losing their minds over everything and it can be the funniest thing. despite not having anything to do with games, it definitely reminds me of how over the top they would get in the early years of the idle thumbs podcast.

it's dumb and i love it
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who's excited for the division 2
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so myself and some other board 8ers have been working on destination android, a website i started last year.

our first hands-on/preview type thing where a developer actually trusted us with an early build code is live, and it's on the next game from the 10000000 and You Must Build a Boat developer

i haven't shared our stuff a lot here, but i know a lot of people in this topic were into those games

http://www.destinationandroid.com/2018/03/08/preview-hands-on/photographs-10000000-you-must-build-a-boat-eightyeight-games/
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https://twitter.com/googlemaps/status/971792669998571521?s=20

Google is counting down with the rest of us.

The Mana Sword posted...

who's excited for the division 2

i went from super interested in the division to forgetting to download it during multiple free weekends. so. probably not me?
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the 3ds lives
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I was genuinely surprised how many of those 3DS games I want to play. Luigis Mansion remake spoke to me in an intimate way. WarioWare Gold, too.

All around, I loved what they showed in that Direct. Smash is obviously the bit showstopper, but Mario Tennis looked real good. Thats my big game from there. Also, Toad.

mario tennis who cares

give me that splatoon 2 expansion
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What! Tennis looked so fun! They have all the baes covered this time!

The Splatoon 2 expansion looks great, though. The single player in Splatoon was a treat.

heroicmario posted...

They have all the baes covered this time!

keep your waifu talk outta here

Mario Tennis is my least favourite Mario sports game, so that just washed right over me.
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Oh my, maybe the worst iPhone typo yet. It cannot be taken back either, youve gone and quoted it.

Honestly, single-player in Splatoon sucks, but I'd pay to play as an Octoling.
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Grand Kirby posted...

Honestly, single-player in Splatoon sucks, but I'd pay to play as an Octoling.

wow

anyway, just pre-ordered the DLC and got my new clothes.
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This was my surprise of the Direct, in that I had no expectations before, but currently have it one of my most anticipated games this year. It just looks fun and cool. Travis Touchdown, man, I never even played the Wii games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUSayp6dDwI" data-time="

my kids fell for the Smash reveal pretty hard. They thought Nintendo was revealing Squids could sprint.
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I was just thinking yesterday about how without a rerelease on a system with a gyroscopic sensor, WarioWare Twisted would eventually become lost to time

We've still gotta find a way to rescue the Boktai series from hardware obsolescence though
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iiicon posted...

my kids fell for the Smash reveal pretty hard. They thought Nintendo was revealing Squids could sprint.

This is certainly a better take than my first impression: Why are we porting Splatoon 1 to the Switch?

I knew what it was as soon as it was something Splatoon-related right after they said they were done talking about Splatoon
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the other two things that kinda surprised me about the kids' reaction was that my nephew instantly recognized Undertale (how?) and he was super into the idea of Chomp Chomp in Mario Tennis. It comes out pretty close to his birthday so I might just get it for him.
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What's surprising about your nephew recognizing Undertale? It's pretty popular among the younger crowd.
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because he's only seen it in a GDQ. maybe it's come up with his friends at school. it's not something I would expect him to instantly recognize.
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So is this like the "now playing" topic? If so that is RAD. I got a switch recently, so I've been playing that a lot lately.

Switch
Axiom Verge
-I just got this. I know it's been out for a while, but the Switch seemed like the perfect place to try it. Seems like a solid metroidvania game so far. Not far enough to over any super deep thoughts, but it plays well, and I definitely see how it is highly rated.

Bayonetta 2
-Just finished Bayonetta 1 (see below). I think it's cool so far, but I mostly play it in short bursts. Same solid action as the first game, but it seems like they've thrown in more varied action sequences right off the bat, which I like.

Dragon Quest Builders
-I'm still in Chapter 1, and admittedly losing steam. I never liked Minecraft, just not my style, but I enjoyed the demo for this. As I acquire more and more crap, I think it is just starting to feel like a little too much. The actual fighting is pretty bad so far too, and I'm not a huge fan of the concept. I usually really like light city building elements in JRPGs (like what Ni No Kuni 2 is going to do), but I just don't think it is enough to sustain me. I think the concept is cool, and the crafting and all that seems pretty well designed, but this is definitely my own fault for letting myself think I would like it. Going to try and keep going, but I kinda see myself putting it down for good soon.

Xbox

Kingdom Come Deliverance
-I'm not totally addicted to this game like I normally would be when a skyrim or a fallout come out. I think the main reason is that it is such a pain in the ass to save, I don't like to play unless I know I have a solid hour or two to go at it uninterrupted. But honestly, even though I never feel this strong desire to go play it, everytime I do, I get pretty into it. The story and world are fantastic. Exploring is fun, and all the main and side quests are well designed. Combat is really unique in that it is kind of rare to fight people, and there is certainly a lot more intensity and thought needed while in a fight.

There are things that annoy me, like how long sleeping and "fast traveling" can take. Lockpicking and pickpocketing are so tough and risky, that I've mostly kept to a straight and narrow path, which means I can't afford much. There are tons of pieces of equipment, and you need a good maintenance stat to be able to repair everything, so it seems like I'm almost always wearing at least a few items that have no durability left. And obviously, there are lots of glitches. The game isn't always beautiful on the Xbox One S either... but I just like it. The things they set out to do well, they do actually do very well. And I honestly didn't expect such good voice acting, characters, and story. Solid quest variety too. If you like these kind of games, I think it is definitely worth it. I imagine waiting for summer when there are some good deals and more patches would be ideal though if you weren't eager enough for it to buy it already.

Recently Completed

Owlboy
-Man, what a lovely game. Just well done in every aspect, and the owl mechanics make it unlike anything else I've played. Definitely one of the best things I've played on the switch so far.

Bayonetta 1
-Never played it before this. Enjoyed it in spurts. Great action, fun characters, but I did eventually start to skip cutscenes, which I don't think I've ever done with a game before. Way too many, too long, and I just did not care about the story at all. But yeah, definitely a solid series.
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whoa
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woah
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icon > arti
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Giving Bloodborne another shot with it being on PS+ this month. Up to Gascoigne now, which is where I bailed out initially. Things have definitely felt a bit easier than last time, I've only died like twice so far, and both were my fault for being sloppy. Haven't actually tried Gascoigne yet, though, so we'll see how that goes when I feel like giving it a try.
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I dusted off my "Japanese PS2."


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No Deborah though, so why bother?
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iiicon posted...

I dusted off my "Japanese PS2."

You cant fool me. I smell the PC voodoo a mile away.

foiled by my pc's ability to run a ps2 game at 4x native resolution
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Is PS2 emulation as easy these days as the SNES used to be? Or does it still require some trickery?

Grand Kirby posted...

No Deborah though, so why bother?

A truly questionable decision, to be sure.

heroicmario posted...

Is PS2 emulation as easy these days as the SNES used to be? Or does it still require some trickery?

It's definitely not as slick as SNES is - depending on the game you'll probably need to tweak a few settings to get an ideal experience, whereas SNES emulators largely just work.

I'd say it's worth the effort though, since you can pump up the resolution and effectively make an HD version of any game you want.
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it's a bit more tricky just due to the more complicated nature of PS2. some games are perfect and will run on a toaster, like DQ5. there are other games that require very specific configurations to run well. there are still others, though the number is getting smaller every year, that just refuse to work. still, while it's not plug and play like any 2D system, or as smooth as GCN/Wii emulation, it works more often than not.
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GCN/Wii has really become the gold standard for emulation - Dolphin performs so fantastically it's unreal. The happy accident of the Smash Wii U controller adapter giving us a super easy way to use GC controllers on PC made it all the better!
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If you want to see something really cool about Dolphin, check out this configuration someone made for Metroid Prime Trilogy and the Steam Controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INAIsXPPcy8" data-time="
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The Mana Sword posted...

Giving Bloodborne another shot with it being on PS+ this month. Up to Gascoigne now, which is where I bailed out initially. Things have definitely felt a bit easier than last time, I've only died like twice so far, and both were my fault for being sloppy. Haven't actually tried Gascoigne yet, though, so we'll see how that goes when I feel like giving it a try.

have you fought the cleric beast yet? i know that's the first boss most people fight, but there's a chance you might have missed it! have you leveled up or upgraded your weapon at all?
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Yeah, I beat the Cleric Beast, currently level 19, Hunter Axe+2.

I never made it that far in BB, but this isnt my first (failed) Souls rodeo.
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I've completed Bloodborne 4 times and I still forget how to get to Cleric Beast.
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huh. guess you're always rolling through the barrels and caskets next to the door with the laughing women? cause if you just follow the path the game leads you toward, you'll always end up at the great bridge facing those two werewolves! then it's just a matter of sprinting past them and brick man & cro. to fight cleric beast.

up to cainhurst now in my slow and steady playthrough of helping and invading in every area. starting to think i need to bump this game up to my personal top 10 of all time!
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okay since HM finished his list, I thought I'd post mine in here. I posted this a few days ago but some people in here don't follow me on Twitter. there, I used 20 games because Twitter only allows 4 photos per post and I liked the symmetry, but I had whittled the list down to 25. think of this as the director's cut of lists.

25. HITMAN
24. Super Metroid
23. The Longest Journey
22. The Witcher 3
21. Kentucky Route Zero
20. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
19. Metroid Prime 2
18. Spelunky
17. Planescape Torment
16. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
15. Demon's Souls
14. Dark Souls 2
13. Dark Souls
12. Dragon Quest V
11. Super Mario Galaxy 2
10. Gone Home
9. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC
8. Animal Crossing: A New Leaf
7. Fallout: New Vegas
6. Super Mario Maker
5. Nier
4. Mother 3
3. Shadow of the Colossus
2. Nier: Automata
1. ICO
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No Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3? Also props for having Prime 2 as the best
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i don't like dark souls 3 very much.
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Hmm

I'm almost done with my first playthrough of it. I think I'd rank the series Bloodborne>=Dark Souls>Demon Souls>DS2/3. I really like each game but 2 and 3 don't measure up in certain places. Demon Souls is probably outdated by now as well, but I have such strong/good memories of that game. The first Souls game is generally the most special one.
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I should try to play Planescape Torment sometime
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I find Dark Souls 2 is the most satisfying game to play due to its malleability. It's a rare trait in FromSoft games. You can scale the difficulty to your liking with ease. It's also just such a cool world, like a collection of short stories showing you how parts of a kingdom react to tragedy.

oh and I love Bloodborne. I just find that the first Souls games represent the best of the series to me
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Icon, whats your twitter handle?

Weirdly, I haven't played that many of the games in your top 25! Didn't really enjoy the Nier or the Dark Souls games. Nier Automata gets off to such a hot start, and then I slowly lost more and more interest as I went. I generally really like Dark Souls games until I start fighting bosses, then bleh, don't really have the patience.

Agreed that Fallout New Vegas is the best of all the modern open world RPGs, great story, great choices, super fun world. Spelunky is probably the most fun roguelike I've ever played, just ahead of Rogue Legacy and Binding of Isaac.

Gone Home had me totally hooked start to finish, but it's just not the kind of game I'd generally put on a top game list. I'd agree it's probably the best pure narrative game out there, though To the Moon is up there too.
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@ thejdonnelly
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also, while I found Dark Souls 3 lacking, that moment is just so fucking cool. You are lost in an impossible space when you turn a corner and it hits you.
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My desire to replay Mother 3 grows every time I see it on a list.