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      Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing
    Posted by: A Black Falcon - 28th February 2017, 2:24 PM - Forum: Tendo City - Replies (15)

    It's the high-quality, Rare-N64-style 3d platformer with better graphics we've always wanted, but haven't seen in over a decade now... and I can't wait for the final game. It looks really great. This newly revealed snow level looks really nice...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBeUkeWYUS8

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      Nintendo Switch Press Reactions
    Posted by: A Black Falcon - 23rd February 2017, 1:33 PM - Forum: Tendo City - Replies (5)

    So, many gaming media outlets have Switch units now, and the first NDA ended today, so they can talk about the hardware itself. No games yet, Zelda info will have to wait until tomorrow, but this is a start, and it's great to finally see more of this system that Nintendo has been very quiet about many of the details of.

    First some bad news, Virtual Console will not be available at launch: http://nintendoeverything.com/nindies-sh...t-release/ It will be coming, but not at launch. Ah well. The eShop will be up though.

    Second, some outlets are having issues with the right Joycon when using it more than 6-7 feet from the Switch unit, that is in the Grip or such; it keeps disconnecting, apparently. Hopefully this is just a software issue and not hardware... Info: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1346789

    Otherwise things sound good, though. Lots of reports and videos now are showing the OS, Mii creation, account settings, and such. It looks like a fairly plain and generic-looking OS and menu system, with lots of boxes, rectangular icons, and such, in the style of the (bad) modern trend towards "flat" interface design. It still has some of that Wii-ish Nintendo look to it thoguh, with the fonts and such. There's no music in the interface or menus though, unlike the Wii and such... huh. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70rMXj4wGPI The OS looks functional and easy enough to use though, which is the post important part. Of course a console's menu interface not the focus, the actual games are, but you need to be able to get to them quickly. I hope there are good organization options for the games and such you have installed, with folder support too; Nintendo usually has them so I expect it, but I'm not sure if I've seen that yet.

    Oh, as for the hardware itself, I see it's getting lots of praise, and I guess it looks fine, but.. again, the Switch tablet unit itself has a fairly generic modern look to it, I think -- it looks like a tablet, it's matte instead of glossy, etc. I kind of like that Wii-like gloss... I guess it is true that glossy doesn't hold up as well and shows fingerprints very easily, but still, based on videos I think the Switch looks fine, but not anything amazing. (My favorite console hardware design is still the N64... and for operating system interface styling, probably Vista.) The Joycons are another issue; they're very small, but look nice and like Nintendo designs, apart from the left one not having a d-pad on it. The Pro Controller fixes that, for 2d platformers, fighting games, and such, but it's an additional $70. With the Wii I've gotten away with never buying a Pro Controller, but with the Switch it'd probably be needed...

    So yeah, from what I've seen design-wise, for both the system and interface, the Switch looks fine. I'm not hugely impressed or disappointed.

    List of some of the previews and such: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1346776

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      Another Metroid II Remake
    Posted by: Dark Jaguar - 19th February 2017, 8:30 PM - Forum: Tendo City - Replies (5)

    By now, I'm sure you've heard of it. A group of fans worked together to remake Metroid II in the style of later 2D games, specifically Zero Mission. Nintendo forced a take down, but it can be obtained.

    Nintendo's takedown request is rather interesting, if only because they didn't bother with the takedown until the product actually came out. Of note is that many many other people had started similar attempts to remake Metroid 2 (hence the "Another" in the title) but this is the only one that actually saw a release. Nintendo likely noticed all the other projects and didn't really care until one of them actually saw completion. Also, they might still have ignored it except news of it's release spread like wild fire across all the various gaming news outlets. It's not often a fan project gets that sort of attention. I think those factors were the main thing. Still though, I think it was bad form for Nintendo to do that. Firstly, there's all the countless other fan projects using Nintendo IP that Nintendo has ignored (things like Zelda Badlands or, well, Thoughtful Mario World). The only reason this one got targeted was the massive attention it got at large I think. Heck, this one uses LESS Nintendo IP on the simple grounds that it's a fan-built game engine rather than depending on an existing game ROM (though apparently it does rip a few sprites from some of the recent games). I'm not going to get into whether this sort of thing is covered by fair use, because that's been a sticking point in a lot of projects. Rather I'll simply say this isn't a good way to treat their fans. When all we're getting is a decent but decidedly "not Metroid" game like Federation Force, it's no wonder fans will want to tackle something like this.

    Here's the thing, Nintendo had other options that would have shown an active defense of their IP while still cultivating good relations with their fans. The example I've referenced over and over again online is Activision and it's handling of Sierra based fan projects. Activision is no stranger to bad conduct, but they really did Sierra fans right. Firstly, they were happy enough to look the other way when AGD remade 4 different Sierra games.
    http://agdinteractive.com/games/games.html
    Check out that link. They've done KQ 1-3 and Quest for Glory 2. The goal was much like AM2R. They wanted to update the older titles in those series to match the gameplay and graphics of the newer games. They also went the "intentionally retro" low resolution style. In the case of Quest for Glory 2, Quest for Glory 1 had already had a stellar remake, so they updated the second one because it was the odd one out. Infamous Adventures also remade two Sierra games, King's Quest 3 (again) and Space Quest 2.
    http://www.infamous-adventures.com/home/
    Similar deal, they are still there and Activision seems content to let them be. Some other groups have attempted to start up KQ4 remakes now and then, but they all seem to have fizzled out. Now, if Nintendo just let them be, I think it would be fine. They could go even better though.

    http://www.postudios.com/company/games/thesilverlining/

    Up there is The Silver Lining. This is a very interesting project. When it was made, there were no signs Activision would be making a new King's Quest game any time soon. These fans took it upon themselves to make their own unofficial sequel and dub it King's Quest 9: The Silver Lining. (I'd have done the standard KQ thing and made a joke out of that subtitle like... Every Silver Lining Has A Cloud.) At first, Activision was a bit harsher on this one than the remakes and gave the ol' cease and desist. The fan complaints reached them though, and they ultimately came up with a clever strategy. They would publicly "approve" this fan sequel so long as no money was made off of it (which was already the case) and the title was changed so that the public would not confuse it for an official sequel. So, they changed it to simply "The Silver Lining". They made the first 4 chapters but then moved on to other projects. I had feared it dead, but checking the site now it looks like they've officially confirmed that they WILL be finishing this fan project this year. This project stands out for having Activision's blessing rather than their ambivalence. Capcom too took a fan project (Megaman X Street Fighter) and gave it their blessing. Capcom even went and put it on their web site, which means they've basically published it for the fans that made it in the same way a game company might publish some fan art.

    If Nintendo doesn't want to hire this team outright, they should use this "conditional blessing" route. That should show an active engagement in defending their IP (because they make it clear this is conditional and at their discretion) while delighting the fans with tacit approval of such projects. The discussion online is white hot, but no one seems to remember any of these outlier cases they can refer to. This tactic would also be great for that Pokemon fan project and the upcoming "Mother 4" fan project (in those two cases, they really would have to request renames to prevent confusion with official releases).

    But, back to the game itself. I just got done playing it. I went in on "Hard Mode" right from the start, so bear that in mind. This game allows a host of control customization. I went for a mapping similar to Super Metroid (individual buttons for diagonal up and diagonal down, and general button placement) with a few nice perks from the GBA games (hold a button to shoot missiles for quick use). I love it. I would love it if they combined the GBA and SNES missile select modes into one, with "toggle" missile mode but a separate press to cycle through types of missiles (and the toggle when in morph ball would be exclusively for power bombs). I would also have allowed the option to assign running to a button for more direct control of when I actually want to use the speed booster. These are tiny nitpicks though, as overall the controls work fine and the options are good. This game adds a few more nice options too, like being able to "climb morph" into head-level tunnels by tapping jump while pushing against it, or roll directly into a ball while moving into foot-level tunnels by just pressing diagonal down-forward when approaching them. Those two little options really make traversing morph ball tunnels feel very snappy. It'll be hard to adjust to their absence in the official games. They also let you assign both the morph ball and spider ball to distinct buttons rather than having to press down to activate them. Samus controls very much like she did in Zero Mission and Fusion. Her jumps are very quick and snappy, less floaty like Super Metroid. Some prefer the Super Metroid floaty jumps, but I'm okay with the GBA jumps. Also, much like the GBA games, wall jumping and space jumping have very forgiving timing. Bomb jumping is also very forgiving, and "shine sparking" gives you a pretty good size window to activate the dash. This game is all about making the controls as silky smooth as possible. I think there's a bit too much of a "dead zone" when shooting. The hit box doesn't start until the end of Samus' gun, which means anything directly in your face may not get hit, such as some doors or blocks you'll find yourself stepping back from. The firing rate for shots is pretty high too, until you get the plasma beam, which reduces it rather noticeably but not enough to really hurt your play by that point in the game. All in all, the engine isn't janky or anything like that and performs beautifully. This game controls just as good as the GBA games, if not better. It certainly controls better than the original version of Metroid 1 and 2.

    The game's presentation is very nice. They went for a graphical style similar to Zero Mission, but running at the resolution of Super Metroid (which makes sense, since the SNES output at a higher resolution than the GBA, in both dimensions). They kept the old-school blocky sprite style, likely to make it "fit in" with Zero Mission and Super Metroid, which this is supposed to take place in between. They've given the environments a massive facelift. While many locations looked very similar in Metroid II, in this remake they did a lot to make areas very distinct from each other. Even the Chozo temple areas all got very particular styles fitting with the "roles" of those temples that have been added to the lore. A number of enemy sprites do rotational trickery similar to the GBA games, with some "massive enemy made of many rotating sprites" stuff similar to the GBA Castlevania games. Those in particular can appear kinda rough at times though, sometimes betraying a few issues with the sprites. For the most part, the game meshes together very well, but there are a few areas where you can really tell the various art designers weren't in the same room when making them. (It's a staple of fan projects to have little clashes like that though, and I kinda dig that "rough around the edges" feel these projects can have.) Overall though, those clashes are few and far between, and the game tiling usually works very well. In addition to this, there are a number of graphical after-effects like the lighting on Samus' suit or the shadows in dark areas. These work to give the game a distinct look from the official Metroid games and generally look pretty good. The lighting on Samus' suit is clearly inspired by the Prime series, for example, with the Tron style glow on the various lines in her suit design. The sound design in particular stands out. The lead on this project really knew what he was doing. The sounds (when they aren't ripped straight out of other Metroid titles) really fit the series well. The music is also amazing. Both music and ambient sound are based on the original version, but it's been taken up several notches. The main theme is reused through the game, but remixed in every new location into something that sounds distinct. The "Metroid encounter" theme also gets heavily remixed into one of the best boss themes I've heard in the series. Even the "ambient tracks" from the Gameboy original, which were grating to a lot of people, are redone in a way that actually makes those areas as moody as I imagine the sound designers on the original version intended. If there's one thing I might fault with the soundtrack it's that standard fan remix trope of "technoing", but adding a techno back-beat is used very sparingly and still sounds Metroidy when done, so it's forgiven.

    The powerups in this game have been expanded to what one expects to see from Super Metroid on. There's now the Gravity Suit, Super Missiles, Power Bombs, Speed Booster, a number of different beams (which can now be combined) and all of these can be turned on and off just like Super Metroid. You have the Zero Mission "Power Grip" from the start, which is just a storyline excuse for being able to grab ledges, but it's welcome. These are in addition to the powerups from the original, namely Power Bombs, Morph Ball, Space Jump, High Jump, Jump Ball, and Screw Attack. Notably, they didn't add any brand new unique powerups to this game. Instead, they're relying on this game's own unique powerup, the Spider Ball, and they use it well. As I mentioned earlier, they made the spider ball a lot easier to activate (so you can more easily just jump onto the ceiling and trigger it midair before hitting it). They also cut down the length of wall climbing sections and made it a little less dangerous so you don't get bored with the slow crawl or frustrated with that ONE enemy that just keeps knocking you down when you're defenseless. All in all, while there's nothing really "new" new here, the items they added are the series staples and drastically add to the experience.

    The biggest and yet most restrained change is the level layout. Metroid II is often derided as having a "boring" map that's just a linear circle down and back around to start. It's a fair criticism, and you'd think that the map would be an entirely new invention as a result. However, it's actually still based on that original layout. However, it's been expanded and tweaked and reworked throughout in order to fix that biggest issue while still being true to the original design as best it can. It really goes to show how much respect the team lead showed the original game, warts and all. In various areas, they've kept little visual "hallmarks" of the same region in the original map, enough to make those who played the original say "oh, hey I know this place", even when that place has otherwise been completely reworked. For example, when you find the Varia suit, it has been hidden in almost the same pile of breakable rocks, but the way into that room is more well thought out. Each of the Metroid "nests" has also been reworked, so that while there are only 4 types of Metroid evolutions, the room makes each encounter unique. They use elements like darkness, obstacles, and in one case just one massive onslaught of alphas. They also reworked the 4 forms to make them more distinct. The alphas work most like the original AI, while the Zeta and Omega metroids have been reworked into entirely new sorts of encounters (for example, they can't fly, which makes sense if you've played Fusion). As I mentioned above, they've gone through to make every region of the map distinct. As is a staple, they make you go through a small underwater section before getting the Gravity Suit. Notably though, they save the ice beam for last, and as a result there's no "freezing enemies to make platorm" puzzles to be found. In fact, when you freeze an enemy in this game, they fall to the ground and shatter. That's okay though, because this game doesn't have to reuse every trope from the other games. I just wish Metroids didn't fall down because sometimes they fall in hard to reach locations so I have to wait for them to thaw before I can hit them with a missile. Anyway, a large number of side areas have been added to allow for exploration and item finding. They also added in a number of little shortcuts and alternate routes for sequence breaking, time trial runs, and easier backtracking. In one of the brand-new areas (an underwater facility), they even added in a room full of fast travel tunnels connecting several zones to each other, though you get to this room pretty late in the game. All in all, while it still does resemble one big circle, they've broken it up in such a way this time that it gives way to exploration much more now. In that vein, they've added a secondary "objective", finding the research team and the rescue team that got here before you. (Spoiler alert, you don't find them in any respectable condition.) Locating those two teams constitute 3 other smaller new areas, one inside a ship containing a unique "Genesis" monster. There's even a cute reference to the opening cinematic of Fusion with a small cave containing one familiar looking frog. No X parasites though. I mean, this is before their discovery or their predator's extinction, so it wouldn't make sense for them to show up at this point in time. The original game only had like one non-Metroid boss. That boss makes a return, but they've also added a number of others, ranging from Chozo creations to natural fauna. They really put a lot of work into those boss encounters, with interesting mechanics and means of defeating them. All in all, the changes to the map are welcome and really breathe new life into the game, making it a joy to explore.

    I'll add a small note about how this game handles story. For the most part, it shows rather than tells, just like Super Metroid and Zero Mission, and not like Fusion. Where a game like Fusion breaks into your game to have long dialog about this that and the other, Super Metroid trusts you to just see what's going on in an area and deduce for yourself what's going on. Outside of some quick notes in the manual, you're on your own as far as narrative goes. The manual may make it clear that Phantoon is some sort of extra dimensional ghost-like creature, but everything about that ship and what seems to have happened there since it crashed is something you figure out just exploring the ship. AM2R goes this route, with one very notable exception. Remember scanning in Metroid Prime? This game borrows from that franchise. However, unlike Prime where you would have to intentionally switch over and scan things yourself, in this game the "scanning" is automatic. A small message appears whenever a lore dump is about to occur and you can either press Start to check it out right away or just ignore it and get back to it later (or not at all). This means it isn't a distraction from the game. It doesn't occur too often, namely only happening when you discover a brand new area or a new boss (for the Metroid forms, only the first time you encounter each one). Since information on the bosses and areas is something you'd see in the manual for a game like this anyway, this isn't even all that different, except it's in-game now. It also takes the time to let you see an area before dumping the lore on you, so often you'll get the general idea of that area before the lore spells it out for you in greater detail. Even then, that initial bit is usually all you'll get, so any other discoveries are left up to you. The boss stuff is a bit different. It'll give you some hints on how to fight the boss but it won't spell it all out for you. You can also, as I said, just ignore it. Speaking of ignoring things, the game doesn't bother playing the long jingle every time you pick up a new health tank or missile tank. It does it the first time you find that kind of upgrade, and every other time you just get a quick note so you can get moving faster. All in all, they did a very nice job handling it. Along those lines, if you're expecting to find map stations, they're nowhere to be found in this game. I didn't even really notice their absence until about 3/4s of the way through the game myself. That's probably because the original game didn't have a mapping system at all, so having anything at all was enough of an upgrade for me. It's generally very good at making the secrets easy enough to find and so long as you pay attention to the parts of the map you have uncovered, it'll usually be pretty clear what areas you've missed. It does the Fusion/Zero thing of letting you know right away if there's a hidden item in any particular square too. All in all, they've done a great job handling lore and secrets in a way that doesn't spoil everything or drag everything down.

    Now I've gotta tackle the difficulty curve. I can't speak for "Normal", but I jumped in on "Hard", and I can say the curve is just a bit off in that mode. Overall, it gives a good challenge that USUALLY curves up gently enough. I died a few times, as expected on a "hard" mode, but it really only got thrown off when I fought my first "Zeta" metroid. That's a massive curve ball that will tear you apart. Eventually, I got used to the pattern I need to defeat them, but it really was frustrating as there's VERY little room for error fighting them. I walked away with most of my health gone after each Zeta, and I wasn't having a good time there. The boss of that area was also a massive jump up, but I came back to that boss after going ahead a bit and coming back with a big stash of power bombs. After THAT, the difficulty curve went down a bit, so I'd say that area needs some balance adjustment. From experience I can say the later Omegas aren't nearly as big a jump and they're probably easier than Zetas. Bosses after that weapon tester boss were also notably easier. Anyway, once you get the screw attack, fighting enemies is basically on auto pilot until you encounter the next metroids. There's a few new enemies introduced, if you noticed what you just buzz sawed through. In that way the screw attack is a bit overpowered, so that section of the game comes across as a bit too easy. The omegas as the next challenge, followed by the classic larval Metroids further on. It was good to find something resembling a challenge before fighting the Metroid Queen. Good news, she's tough as befits an end boss. It took me several tries to really get a grip on her patterns. They added enough to her phases to make more of a fight of her, while working in the secret "blow her up from the inside" trick, though you only get a chance to pull that off late into the fight so don't kill yourself trying to get in her belly right from the start. All in all, the difficulty is mostly okay, but that area near "The Tower" can really use some adjustment, as well as making the new enemies introduced in the final section of the game a bit more of a challenge to a screw attackin' maniac like myself.

    All in all, I'm very impressed with this fan remake and highly recommend it. With a few tweaks here and there, it'd be perfect. As it stands, I'm already going to say this is a full-on replacement for the original Gameboy game. It's just such a massive improvement over the original design that it supplants it. I would only recommend buying the Gameboy game to support Nintendo, and then you don't download the game and just start playing AM2R instead. In that way, it again emulated Zero Mission, which itself functions as an outright replacement for the original Metroid 1. If you can find it, try it out.

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      THE MIND UNLEASHED
    Posted by: Sacred Jellybean - 19th February 2017, 8:31 AM - Forum: Ramble City - Replies (3)

    THIS NEW SITE INFORMATION REPOSITORY OF ENLIGHTMENT OF NEW AGE HUMAN POTENTIAL WAVE OF ENERGY CRYSTAL WOO HAS MADE ME UNCOVER MY TRUE POTENTIAL

    [Image: Qkj6I30.png]

    What news sites do you immediately file under "crackpot" when you come across them? Alternet, Natural News, Infowars, Breitbart all come to mind.

    [Image: dddt7Avl.jpg]
    me irl b4 being unleashed, now im WOKE AF

    SPEAKING of InfoWars, I'm still disgusted at them for going to the news conference after the Boston marathon bombing, and flat-out, unironically asking the governor if this was a false flag attack in an effort to reduce our civil liberties. The governor had to literally take that question seriously and answer it. Granted, he swatted it down with a simple "No" and moved on, but it's the principle.

    The internet has brought all the crazies together in a support group for crazies, and now literally every disaster is treated as a government conspiracy to reduce our civil liberties. A father of one of the victims of the Sandyhook shooting was harassed by someone who continually told him that he was just an actor, and he didn't really have a son that died. Can you imagine how awful? Maybe it's time we pulled the plug on this whole internet thing. Sorry TC, you'll have to be sacrificed. :(

    In closing, Fuck Alex Jones. Here's a video compilation of him crying.



    And a couple of gifs if you're too lazy to click.

    [Image: 3lEYQBF.gif]

    [Image: hWDcrYQ.gif]

    [Image: MRQdDX3.gif]

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      I found ABF's favorite movie poster
    Posted by: Dark Jaguar - 14th February 2017, 7:14 AM - Forum: Ramble City - Replies (7)

    [Image: 598712_v2.jpg]

    Obviously.

    Never change, Hammer Studios.

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      STOP with the videos in news articles!
    Posted by: Sacred Jellybean - 12th February 2017, 11:32 AM - Forum: Ramble City - Replies (4)

    News articles online are getting more crowded than ever. You've got ads running down both side margins ("THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK SHOWS IF YOU HAVE TOENAIL FUNGUS" is a weirdly common one), ads between paragraph of content, then usually some kind of banner that grays out the whole page and tries to get you to sign up for some mailing list. Does that actually work? Has anyone in the history of internet browsing EVER actually put their e-mail address in one of those goddamn things?

    Anyway, the trend continued to get annoying when videos were inserted into the page, usually at the top of the article. That's well and good, I won't begrudge a person if they'd rather watch the story instead of read it. But then, the bastards started auto-playing. Cut that out! I'm impatient, and reading is much quicker than watching, not to mention that it's easier to skip over the fluff.

    But now... NOW... as soon as you scroll past the video, it shrinks and drops down to the side of the page. "Hang on a second there, Beanjo!" it says. "You must not have seen, there's a VIDEO up in this mother fucker. Here, I'll just leave it right here for you so you can correct this glaring oversight." Then it autoplays a car commercial. Stop it!

    [Image: lcddh98.gif]

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      Paging Erich Toven
    Posted by: Sacred Jellybean - 11th February 2017, 8:18 PM - Forum: Ramble City - No Replies

    It's with a CH, right? I think it is.

    Can we get embedded tweets up in here? I tried to add the BB Custom Code for it, but I don't have admin privileges. :(

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      On: Punching Nazis
    Posted by: Dark Jaguar - 11th February 2017, 10:56 AM - Forum: Ramble City - Replies (10)

    I've seen this making the rounds, and the discussion tends to boil down to a statement that if someone says something deplorable enough, or is in enough of a position of power, it's okay to physically assault them. Alternatively, I have no right to condemn such an action because I'm not in the maligned group.

    I get the sentiment, I really do. Part of me even agrees with it. However, another part of me doesn't think this is a good standard. Where's the cutoff point? How deplorable does a view have to be? How much confidence do you need to have that the person actually said something deplorable and isn't just a social idiot? How do you know you aren't going to kill the person by mistake? Would THAT be acceptable? Would shooting that guy be acceptable? Would kidnapping him and torturing him be acceptable? (A recent news story suggests at least a few people though it would be okay to kidnap and torture a Trump supporter.) Lastly, is that really the world we even want to live in? Yes, his views are unacceptable, but what if someone's unacceptable view is actually correct, but most people don't know it yet?

    When these people start rounding up minorities, then "by any means necessary" can be on the table for consideration. For now, well, I don't want my face at risk because I said something some redneck thought was deplorable, so I can't condone it here. I'm frankly surprised just how quickly casual violence became acceptable to progressives.



    Remember when our side would NEVER do anything like that, and such a violent response was just a sign of how backwards and violent Trump supporters were?

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      Here's what Konami's latest destruction of a franchise looks like
    Posted by: Dark Jaguar - 10th February 2017, 1:54 PM - Forum: Tendo City - Replies (7)

    So Konami is finally using their Bomberman franchise...

    http://www.polygon.com/2017/2/10/1457182...rman-anime

    [Image: bombergirl.0.jpg]

    On the one hand, it's a nearly all-female cast.

    On the other hand...



    This isn't what we meant.

    First of all, look at cartoony Bomberman male among a bunch of more realistically proportioned females. This is a trope I see a bit too often. Here's a female bomberman done right.

    http://bomberman.wikia.com/wiki/Pretty_Bomber

    [Image: latest?cb=20090416213931]

    Now, is that super progressive? Well, it certainly is playing up to "girly" stereotypes, what with the skirt and the hearts and the pink and all, but compared to what Konami is doing, it's downright progressive because she's otherwise treated just like the rest of the cast, drawn in the same style and everything. Besides, having a "girly girly" type character isn't bad so long as it's not what they do every single time (spoiler: in Japan, it is). There's room for the message that "girly" doesn't mean "worse than manly".

    Just to really drive the point home, these character all get their clothing blown off of them as the battle goes on. Yay for violently forced exposure!

    Go to hell Konami! Maybe that one where you get frozen in ice. This is exactly why I'm sick of the anime and gaming industries in Japan right now. This stuff right here!

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      So I have a (mostly) new computer!
    Posted by: A Black Falcon - 3rd February 2017, 12:59 AM - Forum: Tendo City - Replies (20)

    So yeah, I've been away from here for a bit, and it's mostly because at long last I decided to get a new computer. The rate of how often you need a new machine has declined precipitously versus the '90s, as the fact that I had my last machine (the Vista computer) for a full decade (with some upgrades, but the same CPU and motherboard) and it's still pretty decent for a lot of things, but you eventually do need to upgrade still, and I've finally started on that process. After thinking about it, for the first time I chose to build it myself, instead of buying a prebuilt one. Everything I got worked fine once I got it set up -- I'm on it now, finally -- I had some issues making choices, as usual, so I didn't actually have a fully functioning main computer again until yesterday (it now is). Sure, I've got a tablet, and did use my old WinME machine some for the internet, but that machine's ... a bit dated... so it's not the kind of thing you want to be on for long...

    But anyway, what did I get? Well, I chose to get a mostly new machine, but re-used my old video card, hard drives, and power supply; I will get a new video card and large storage hard drive eventually, and probably also a power supply, but I'll put that off some, this was expensive enough for now at the moment. So, I got a case (Thermaltake Core V51 Riing Edition -- it's green and black), motherboard (Asus Prime Z270-A), CPU (the new Intel 7700K), CPU cooler (a Noctua), SSD drive (M.2 style, since the motherboard supports it), and a BD/DVD/CD drive, but I'm using that new high-end CPU with my old GeForce 560 card for now. Heh. On the subject of that case, it was a bit pricey since they're getting hard to find since Thermaltake seems to have discontinued this green version of the case in favor of just a black-and-grey one, but of all the green and black cases I was looking at online, this looked like the best one on both features and looks, so I got it. It's a pretty big case, a good bit larger than my old computer cases despite still claiming to be a "mid-tower", but it's good. I particularly like how quiet it is; not only is it dramatically quieter than my very loud previous machine, I think it's even quieter than my WinME machine, which is impressive considering it has lots more fans in it! Bigger fans really are quieter, that's for sure. That's pretty nice; it's almost quiet enough to forget it's on, which again, is a huge huge change from the Vista computer's case. Good stuff.

    The case is mostly good, but even so it is disappointing that no modern cases are all-green, like my dated and somewhat flawed, but awesome-looking, old case is! This case is nice, but what I really want is an all-green case, not this one that's as much or more black than it is green. Why is black back in as a computer case color, didn't we just get over that? I think of black computer cases as being the style of the '00s, but I guess it's back... and it could be worse, black cases are better looking than the old beige ones, but still. Colors are nice, and not only for people who want tiny little cases but also for those of us who want full-sized ones. Oh well.

    Anyway, for an OS, I got Windows 10 (and installed the 64-bit version of course). From what little I've seen of it so far I'm not exactly a fan, but as a gamer what other choice do you have? It's not like many games support Linux, even now, and buying an old version of Windows is going to lead to compatibility problems for sure. On that note I did try installing Vista on this machine from my old copy that came with my last computer, to see what would happen, but unfortunately the motherboard doesn't have Vista drivers, so there's no ethernet and VERY flaky USB support, among other issues. Too bad, a Vista machine this powerful would me amusing. I'll need some way of running software that doesn't support a 64-bit OS, which I'm sure I have a lot of -- 16-bit Win3.1 games, all those '90s and early '00s games with their 16-bit installers, etc. Would something like VMWare work? I've never had a computer that supported it before. This is an issue I will need to figure out a solution to.

    Otherwise, Windows 10 seems functional and fast, though I don't like this "flat" trend in OS graphical design. You know, everything is lines and boxes and boring fonts, with no detail. I've seen it before, since my tablet runs Windows 8, and it's the same here but on a regular computer... and yes, it's still pretty ugly, like always. I'm sure I'd be more used to this if I'd gone along with the changes in Windows over the years, but going from ten years on Vista to this, it's a huge change and I don't like it. The more curved design of Vista, the transparencies, and such, I like that look and always have. I will admit that it has some style, but in my opinion this whole "flat" aesthetic is a real downgrade from what we had before. I know that I'm not exactly one to change things I'm used to, but still... ... well, at least Seamonkey's "Modern" theme, with its style straight out of early '00s Netscape, still works, so that's good! :)

    Besides that, in terms of how it works, well, I haven't used it much, but even just in Windows, the significant speed improvement is noticeable. I don't know if it's that websites or applications get more demanding over time or what, but web browsers, Flash, etc. all worked pretty badly on that machine, and I had to use Flash videos everywhere because HTML5 video was even worse, single-digit-framerate stuff most of the time. Another really annoying problem that I did not used to have on the Vista machine was that at some point in the least few years, when a Flash video/window was made fullscreen and then I click on the other monitor (since I have two, remember), to do something else on another web browser window while watching it... the browser would lock up, requiring me to open the task manager, close Flash, and reload the webpage. Then finally the video would allow me to click on the other window during the video. Weird bug, yes, and I don't know why it started but it was annoying... but with HTML5's awful framerates it was not an alternative. Needless to say, on this new computer I have none of those issues. That's awesome. And even with the same video card, since I was definitely quite CPU-limited in games before, I'm sure I'll notice huge improvements.

    On that note, one other question I've been wondering about is, is the onboard Intel graphics chip in the 7700K better, or is my 5+-year-old GeForce 560? I've assumed that the 560 is the better choice, so it's in this computer now, but I don't know for sure.

    Finally though... I'd not only been using my last computer for ten years, I've never re-installed the OS or anything. Maybe that was causing some of my problems such as the Flash issues I describe above, but I didn't want to have to start over with installing games, applications, etc, and the computer never messed up badly enough to need a re-install, so I never did it. Going from that sometimes annoying but familiar OS to a new one that has some similarities but a lot of differences, and with nothing installed beyond the basics, is not great... I don't like the idea of having to re-install everything just to get the OS to see that it exists, particularly when a lot of those games aren't going to be able to install anyway I'm sure (16-bit installers!). Steam, impressively, once installed seems to be able to just import over the folders with no re-installs needed, and that's great but for everything else, for both games and apps, this will take a while.

    ... And on that note, can anything be done to make this new Start menu not totally awful? It looks like the new Win10 Start menu and taskbar have very limited customization as well, unlike before -- I don't see a way to add a second row to the taskbar for a row of quick-launch icons like I had on Vista (useful thing!), the Sidebar is gone (having stuff like a clock and system monitor visible there was kind of nice, instead of only on the taskbar), and in the Start Menu... wow, this is bad. I mean, the Win8 Start screen, with its row of boxes for Windows Store apps and then atrocious unsortable list of applications, was a disaster, but I was hoping that 10 actually made things better since it supposedly brought back the Start Menu. Well... nope. That's not good. I want a real start menu with folders, not this atrocious abomination! I sort things by CATEGORY, not alphabetical order. The idea of having all of your things in one terrible alphabetically-sorted list is pretty much unusably bad. You can make folders, but what's all this stuff doing on that list by default that I don't see in the Start Menu folders? That's annoying, unless there's a third Start Menu folder somewhere in addition to the two that return from before... And for a desktop, the upper right two thirds of the Start menu's kind of useless, since that's mostly for Windows Store apps and not regular Windows programs, and most things you use are not going to be Store apps, unless you're playing some of those games MS is only selling there in order to force people to use their stupid store of course. You can pin some things to the bottom right part of the Start menu, which is something, but why are the icons along the left edge apparently reserved only for Windows folders and their stupid recommended folder setup (your personal Video, Music, etc. folders) that I have never used and don't think I'll start using now? That's pretty obnoxious.

    Seriously,Vista had a near-perfect Start menu. They should NOT have messed with a great thing, not for a desktop OS. I know 8 did it first, but it's not fixed and is still awful! Have the fullscreen Win8 thing available for tablets, sure, but for a desktop this is still pretty bad.

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