toxicitizen

Upgrading to a 14th gen CPU given the issues they have and a 4090 with the 50 series right around the corner was certainly a choice lol. Hopefully that's the last of your issues with the build...

I guess I forgot to post it at the time but I pre-ordered this a few months ago Atlus went from not releasing on PC at all to actually having a PC Collector's Edition pretty quickly. You love to see it. Especially considering most publishers don't bother having a physical CE for their Steam releases. This release is kind of annoying, though. It seems the CE is exclusive to VideoGamesPlus in Canada but they're not carrying the PC version of the CE, for some reason. Might be because the SKU came later and wasn't included in their deal with Atlus or something. So I had to order this from Amazon US. Which means I'll have to pay an import fee on top of receiving the game late. At least it'll give me an extra few days to finish the Silent Hill 2 remake, I guess...

Only two weeks until Marvel's back!

It's not technically an achievement in the "achievement unlocked" sense but holy fuck, this has to be the hardest thing I've ever accomplished in any game ever. I've been getting pretty close with different characters for months and it's easy to assume it's just a matter of time but I was honestly starting to doubt I could do it...

Wait, as in Jack Joyce the actual character from Quantum Break? Or Tim Breaker, the Sheriff from Alan Wake 2 that's basically a replacement for him? (lmao Tim Breaker... how did I just get that?) Because I was under the impression that Quantum Break isn't part of Remedy's shared universe because the rights are still with Microsoft. For example, Mr. Door is likely also meant to be a stand-in for Martin Hatch from Quantum Break, who they couldn't use. I know the first time I saw him, I did a double take wondering if it was Lance Reddick.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Finished it about a week ago. Overall, I don't have a ton to say about it. It's more Elden Ring. I think the smaller size worked in its favor. The main game had to re-use so much content to fill up the map that the whole open-world thing really only works on your very first playthrough. On subsequent playthrough, there's little point in exploring all that much since you know the content isn't as interesting as the main dungeons and the rewards are rarely worth it. That being said, Shadow of the Erdtree is only "small" when compared to the main game. It's an absolutely insane value for a lower-priced expansion. If the base game didn't exist, From could've released this as a full price game and I don't think anybody would've complained. I was planning on starting a brand new playthrough for the expansion, but because I impulsively bought it earlier than planned, I just loaded up my original character and picked up where I had left off. So I used this as an excuse to clear all the optional content and bosses I had missed or just not gotten to in my initial playthrough. So now I'm only missing the 2 achievements for the other endings. I'm not done 100%ing the game yet but it feels good to have finally made this much progress because this was the first Souls game in a while that I hadn't 100%d at launch. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers I beat this like 2 months ago but I had been holding off on posting about it since I was planning on playing it and Endwalker back to back but that didn't happen. Still slowly working my way through Endwalker but it's not my main focus anymore. People often say that each FFXIV expansion is basically like its own full-blown Final Fantasy game and Shadowbringers is the best one yet. The quests leading up to the expansion had me on the edge of my seat and when the expansion proper got started, it really didn't waste any time getting things going again. It was so good, I got through the entire expansion in a little over a week, which is the fastest I've ever gotten through one of these. The only reason I slowed down a bit is because this game is so full of stuff to do that I ended up spreading myself too thin wanting to do everything at once and feeling a bit overwhelmed. And when I finally decided to just focus on the main story again, Kingdom hearts came out and distracted me from the game entirely... So, catching up in time for Dawntrail didn't happen but I'm closer than ever now. And I don't plan on stopping entirely like last time, so at the very least I'll slowly be progressing until the story picks up again and the game sucks me back in.

Hey forum's finally back! I'm sure you've all been eagerly waiting to find out what I grabbed during the Steam sale. My big purchases were: I also grabbed a bunch of smaller cheap games that aren't really worth posting individually. And at one point I was pruning my wishlist to remove all the "if I haven't bought it by now, I never will" games, and that actually led to me grabbing some more dirt cheap games... Anyway, most of it should be here (just ignore Trails, can't be bothered to edit it out even though I already posted it):

I made a first batch of purchases, mostly dirt cheap stuff that's not really worth posting. I have other games I'm planning to get later on but for now this is my one big purchase : I still need to catch up before I can play it but I'll always be there day 1 for Trails. Or technically day -6, I guess, since they handled this one differently. I guess NISA got sick of having their lunch stolen by the Clouded Leopard chinese releases because they actually started selling the PC version over a year ago. The english localization won't be added until July 5th but since the game is already being sold they didn't even need to setup pre-orders, just a special bundle for the launch bonuses/discounts. edit: Completely forgot to post it but I also bought this like a week ago : I wasn't going to play it anytime soon because I wanted to start a brand new run but seeing everyone and their grandma playing it made me want to fire up the game and next thing I knew I was doing all the optional content I still hadn't done and watching lore videos on youtube and accessing the DLC area. I was supposed to be playing the new FFXIV expansion this month. Oops...

I knew my patience would be rewarded one day. And that launch discount is actually pretty decent.

Season 2, let's fucking go!

That would be the Collector Box. It includes only the physical stuff without the game or any of the digital rewards I'm getting with the Digital Collector's Edition. It basically exists for Steam players that can't buy the regular physical Collector's Edition. I tried getting one for Endwalker but that one sold out insanely fast. I'm really surprised this one is still available only 2 months from launch. I guess there might be less hype for this expansion than there was for Endwalker, since that was the big climax of an almost decade long story arc. Either that or there's more stock available this time. Anyway, yeah, I've been continuing the main story where I had left off two years ago and I very quickly remembered that this game is really fucking good. I don't know if I'll be able to catch up in time for Dawntrail but I'm almost at the start of Shadowbringers, so it's definitely doable as long as I don't get burned out and stop. That would probably require playing almost nothing else for the next two months, though. And in that two months there's Ghost of Tsushima, Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance and Akuma coming out... Shadow of the Erdtree as well but I've already given up on playing that at launch. Ideally, I'd like to at least catch up in time to play SMTV before Dawntrail. So many games, so little time.

Got the Digital Collector's Edition. I'm still like two full expansions behind in the main story but there isn't much else to spend my money on right now, so why the hell not. I'm gonna want those CE bonuses at some point, anyway, so might as well get that pre-order bonus while I'm at it. There's probably no hope of me catching up in time for the early access period but I might use this as an excuse to jump back in and finally make some progress in the MSQ. Thank fuck they implemented a system to clear dungeons with NPCs, though. It's been so long that I have no idea how to play anymore. And I kinda want to switch my job to Dark Knight for Shadowbringers, which means learning how to tank properly. Definitely don't wanna jump in with randoms before I know what I'm doing lol.

Persona 5 Strikers I actually finished it over a week ago but I decided to go for 100% achievements, so I spent some time grinding to be ready to take on the post-game optional bosses and then grinding for the last few achievements. Also, two of the unmissable story achievements didn't unlock for some reason, so I had to speedrun new game plus to get those as well. They were achievements for the penultimate dungeon, too, so I basically had to replay the entire game. So that was fun. At least it contributed to the overall grind... I think I just happened to reach the triggers for those achievements during Steam's Tuesday night maintenance. So I was likely offline at the time and something didn't work when the API call was made, I guess. Anyway, overall I really enjoyed the game. I haven't played a lot of Omega Force games but this is by far the one that felt the least like an Omega Force game. It's basically P5-2 but with real-time combat. Although it falls in this awkward position of being a sequel to the original P5 and not Royal. I didn't miss Kasumi, though. Kasumi sucks. Don't @ me. It's also a pretty garbage port. I mean, it ran mostly okay... after I figured out that I needed to go into my PC's BIOS to turn off all the E-Cores on my CPU. It was basically unplayable before that. Like, the worst stuttering I've ever experienced. I don't understand how this happens. It's like the second game ever that I have to do this for. And the first one was close to the CPU's launch, so it was a it more understandable. I don't remember what game it was, though... I guess in this case it's just that they had probably already stopped supporting the game by then. Anyway, glad to finally be done with it! It was fun but I the endgame grind ended up being a bit longer than I would've liked. I'm tempted to do P5 Tactica next or even the HD Remaster of SMTIII but I'm worried about getting burned out on Atlus games in general at this point. I mean, I just played P3 Reload and this back to back. Then SMTV Vengeance comes out in about two months, and there's The Answer and Metaphor in the fall. It's a good year to be an Atlus fan, don't get me wrong, but I don't wanna overdo it.

the what now

It felt like a tech demo for a game that didn't exist yet?! Kidding aside, I really enjoyed FFVII Remake but I did find it funny that it was praised to the high heavens because it reminded me of FFXIII a lot and that game was fucking reviled. I guess people are more willing to run along linear corridors when heavy doses of nostalgia are involved.

I could probably get a bit more mileage out of them tbh, so that's good to know. But I've been wanting wireless ones for too long not to use this as an excuse to upgrade. Ended up ordering some PIxel Buds Pro. Did some reading and it sounds like they're pretty good if a tad overpriced. They were on sale so I went for it. Even ordered directly from the Google store because Amazon didn't have the ones that match the color of my phone and I'm the kind of idiot that cares about these things. Can't be listening to music on Fog-colored ear buds with a Bay-colored phone.

First impression is very good, yeah. Really happy with the purchase. Especially the bigger screen. I always hated browsing the web on my phone because of how claustrophobic it feels. But on this one, not only is there more room, the text is also smaller. It almost feels like when I got my first 1080p monitor lol. On the other hand, yesterday I realized it doesn't have an audio jack. I mean, more like i remembered. I knew that phones don't really have them anymore and I'd been wanting to get some wireless buds for a while now. I just didn't really think about it when I ordered the phone. So my Shure earbuds are kinda useless now. It's not that big of a deal since the wire's been kinda finicky for a while (main reason I'd been wanting to upgrade to wireless ones) but yeah, another thing to buy... Any of you guys try the Pixel Buds Pro? I'm tempted by them since they'll probably work best with the phone in general but wondering if I should just go for more of an audiophile model like I'd usually do.

Pixel 8 Pro, yeah.

I've been considering upgrading for months now but today I realized I couldn't put it off any longer. My phone's been acting kinda weird lately. It would randomly decide to repush all my email notifications of the past week all at once. Sometimes I get them super late (got all my ubereats order updates hours after I'd already gotten my food tonight) and yesterday it completely died on me for the first time in a while. And today I'm realizing it can't hold a charge for shit anymore. So yeah, I'm getting the sense that it's starting to die very suddenly so I better get a new one while I'm still able to transfer my stuff. Also got a clear case cause I'm not gonna buy a blue phone and then cover it up in black plastic. Oh and true story: I was wondering why I couldn't find this thread even going back four or five pages. Then I realized that you need to tick the boxes for which subforums you want to show up in fluid mode.... Turns out I only had General Gaming Chat selected all these years. Maybe the forum will feel a little more active now...

I mostly played the Genesis versions as well but I do remember struggling with the magic carpet level in the SNES version. My memories of Lion King aren't as clear, though, but I'm sure it'll come back to me once I play it. I just remembered there's also a Jurassic Park Collection that came out. I wonder if it includes that one Genesis game where you played as a raptor in some levels. I remember enjoying that one.

Don't know if I'll get into them immediately at launch (FW comes out in 4 days and I just got started on Persona 5 Strikers) but I've been anticipating them too much not to just get them immediately. Also grabbed some retro/nostalgic games while they're on sale : Really curious to see if these will be as good as I remember them being.

Persona 3 Reload This was pretty much exactly what I wanted for Persona 3, especially now that we're getting The Answer as DLC. It's Persona 3 with all the content from FES but without the compromises of Portable. One of the things that bugged me about Portable was the lack of animated cutscenes but Reload actually has less of those than FES. A lot of what were originally animated scenes have been replaced by in-engine cutscenes like in Persona 5, and tbh I think that those just work way better. Keep the anime scenes for special moments that can't easily be done in-engine. So yeah, beyond just being the definitive release of P3 content-wise, I also actually found it to be an improvement overall in terms of presentation. It sucks for those that wanted FeMC but I can't say I personally give a shit about that. And at least P3P is now available on modern platforms if I ever feel like giving that a shot. Back when the port seemed like it was all we were gonna get, I was disappointed that we got P3P over FES. But now that P3R is a thing, porting P3P was the right call. But yeah, this is definitely still Persona 3. For better and for worse. While they've added a few things to make it more interesting, Tartarus is still Tartarus. And some of the social links felt kinda weird because the best answers (as in actually trying to help these people) weren't always the ones that gave the most points. It kinda makes the MC seem like an asshole yes man that just tells people what they want to hear, even if it's terrible advice. The game's flaws stand out way more after having recently replayed P4G and finally played P5R. I'll give it this, though. It doesn't overstay its welcome. This has to be the fastest I've gone through a mainline Persona game. I actually made it to the end of the calendar like two weeks ago and only had a few days to get through before going to fight the final boss. I spent some time finishing quests and fusing better personas, but once I realized that the Reaper is way harder in this than he was in Persona 5 I couldn't decide if I wanted to grind or just save him for NG+. And then SF6 decided this was a perfect time to finally release a new character that I thought looked cool, so I went an entire week without touching P3. Anyway, I'm gonna have to do another run regardless because I couldn't max out all the social links in my playthrough. I came super close and only had one missing (Aigis) but I ended up being a few days short. Back in the day, I remember thinking the story in Persona 3 was better than the one in Persona 4 and I'm not sure i feel that way anymore. Replaying P3 after all these years was kinda weird. I still really dig the gloomy end of the world vibes it has going but the plot itself isn't particularly well paced or told. I think I still like some elements of Persona 3 more but the overall storytelling is unarguably improved in P4 and P5. And speaking of P4, I imagine a remake of that is a sure thing now that P3R is Atlus' fastest-selling game ever. Which is good because it would be awkward to have P4 being the only one still stuck with blocky PS2 graphics. So yeah, this was a fun one to revisit and I'm really happy to finally have a definitive version of the game.

Oh, that's where that came from? I've seen it referred to by that name but I had no idea wtf it meant lol.

I knew it would come to PC eventually. Even if it wasn't for all the subsequent leaks, the initial nvidia leak from like 2 years ago that was supposed to be some made up list an intern came up with has proven to be incredibly accurate so far lol. But goddamn it feels like I've been waiting for it for a long time. It's gonna be tough choosing between this and Shadow of the Erdtree on June 21st, though. And at this point I'm honestly kinda dreading S-E shadowdropping FFVII: Rebirth on Steam the very same day because that's the level of stupidity I've come to expect from them.

I see I'm not the only one who felt the urge to buy more Persona from playing P3R.