TheMightyEthan

After finishing Paper Mario last night I jumped into Super Mario 3D All-Stars, specifically Mario 64. It pains me to say it, but that game is really starting to show its age, more than just graphically. Mario's controls have always been a little clunky, he often wants to turn in a circle when you intend to make him pivot in place, that kind of thing, but for some reason now I'm feeling less forgiving of it (I'm assuming because I've played more newer platformers that don't have the problems). It's still fun, but it doesn't feel like the masterpiece I remember it being. I don't mean that to say it's not an amazing accomplishment for the time though. They created a fully 3D platformer, and got it almost perfect on the first try. That's fucking impressive, and the fact that 24 years later I'm saying it doesn't live up to modern platformers does not diminish that accomplishment at all. Regarding the "remaster", I wish they'd gone a little farther. Despite my complaints about the controls above, I wouldn't have wanted them to change them because then it just wouldn't have been the same game. I do wish though that they'd gone through the game's assets and replaced them with higher quality models and textures, and expanded the aspect ratio to full 16:9.

Paper Mario: The Origami King I quite liked it a lot. I know many people found it disappointing, but I've never played a Paper Mario game before so I really didn't have anything to compare it to. It was charming, funny, and I enjoyed the puzzle battle system (especially the bosses). It was quite light-hearted (at least in tone, there are a few dark elements of the plot), and that was really nice in this stressful time. I find recently I've been having a hard time playing more action-y games because anything that gets my heartrate up or makes me feel tense right now my brain is primed to interpret as stress/nervousness rather than fun/excitement, so this was a nice, calm, pleasant alternative. My only real complaint is a few of the puzzles were pretty obtuse (to the point where even after I looked up the answer I was like "how was I ever supposed to figure that out?") and the hints tended to be too vague to be helpful when you needed them. Still, it was way better than Tearaway, @The Cowboy JRPGing Poet ? I'm not sure how to rate it. My gut says a 4/5 is too low, but 5/5 seems too high since there's not really anything screaming "masterpiece" about it. And if I go 4.5/5 that defeats the purpose of a 5 point system. Ultimately I think it's a good game that happened to be perfect for where I was emotionally at the time that I played it, which I guess in Darkadia terms that makes it 4/5 with a . 4/5

Apparently he's only supposed to be 23. I thought he was supposed to be in his late 20's.

They completely changed Peter Parker's face in Spider-Man Remastered for some bizarre reason.

Agreed, and term limits would address the same concern, because if they can only be on the job for X number of years they still don't have to worry about their decisions affecting their position.

The reason is so that they don't have to worry about whether they will lose their jobs due to their decisions.

That is why I quickly decided not to platinum that game. Godspeed.

Yeah, I love the idea of the Dems packing the court* if the Republicans actually push through this nominee, but you know they won't have the balls to actually do it. That said, I don't think the court is so corrupted yet that they would just rule in Trump's favor no matter what, they would have to have some kind of reasonably-defensible legal position. *For those who don't know much about how the Supreme Court is set up, the justices get lifetime appointments, and there are 9 of them, so a president only gets to appoint justices if one dies or retires. However, the size of the court isn't actually set out in the constitution, it's set out in statute, so if the Democrats win congress and the presidency there's nothing stopping them from passing a law increasing the size of the court to 13, or 15, or any other number they want, and letting Biden appoint all the justices to fill all those seats. If they did that, of course, there'd be nothing stopping the Republicans from increasing it again if they took power, and then the Dems do it again, etc etc. It would basically destroy the integrity of the court, even more so than the Republicans have already done.

I actually feel like a landslide would make people more suspicious, because they'll go "there's no way he actually won by that much, it must be fake!" Like those dictatorships where the dictator always wins 95% of the vote. He did apparently say he would accept the results if the Supreme Court rules Biden the winner, so that's something I guess. Although it's really sad that things have gotten so bad that I'm taking solace in that.

Yeah, I measure everything in terms of covid now. So I'll think about something and go "that's only 6 months away, that's not so bad" and then I'm like "wait, 6 months ago is when I went into lockdown, which was like 97 years ago..." It's nuts now to think that I've been back out of lockdown longer than I was in it though. I was in for 2.5 months and have been out now for 3.5.

Sony confirms the upgrade situation with Spider-Man and Miles Morales to Kotaku. Short clear version: If you buy the PS4 version of Miles Morales, you can upgrade to PS5 version for free (we pretty much already knew this). You cannot upgrade to the PS5 remastered version of the original Spider-Man game from the PS4 version. The Ultimate Edition, which includes both MM and SM remastered, is only available on PS5. If you buy the PS4 version of MM and upgrade to PS5, you will have the option to get SM remastered as an add-on for $20 (which is the same as the cost difference between MM standalone and ultimate on PS5). You can play the PS4 version of SM on PS5 through backwards compatibility, but it won't have any of the PS5 remastered version's enhancements. Still unclear if you buy the PS5 version of MM standalone if you can then get the SM remastered add-on for $20 also, but I would bet that you can. Apparently I can't read, because it clearly says if you buy the PS5 version of MM you are also eligible to get the $20 SM remastered upgrade.

The Dishonored series and Prey (2017) are God-tier. Everything else ranges from "I like it fine" to "meh, who cares" for me. So basically Arkane is what I care about.

Bioware is the studio, they're still published by EA. Supposedly MS is going to keep letting Bethesda act as a separate publisher.

I've seen talk that Bethesda is going to keep publishing games under that name, they're not going to start publishing them as Microsoft, so who knows.

I don't think Stadia has really proved it can't work yet, I think it just proves that to make it work somebody has to go all in. It's going to be a money-loser for a while until it establishes itself, and I don't think Google has the dedication to the concept to throw the kind of resources at it that it would require to get the games and stuff. Microsoft might. My only real problem with them becoming a third-party publisher is then Sony wouldn't really have any console competition, which I think would be bad for players.

Hmm, that looks pretty cool.

I actually think the money is a big reason why they might treat it like Minecraft and keep it on other platforms. If they make all Bethesda's games Xbox & PC exclusive, and it's on Gamepass, that's going to really eat into their potential sales. If they also have it on Playstation though, that's a whole other stream of revenue that can help offset the cost of the purchase. And it still allows them to go "sure, if you want to pay $70 that's fine, you can have it on Playstation, but if you come over here to Xbox it's all on Gamepass..." so they still benefit that way from a marketing standpoint.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales I ordered the PS4 version just on the slight chance something goes wrong with my PS5 preorder I'll still be able to play it, and Sony's made clear that with their launch games you can just pop the PS4 version disc into the PS5 and play the full PS5 version.

I kind of agree and kind of don't. I mean, if we're talking about brand-new IP that is created after the purchase then sure, that's first party. But when you're talking about long-running, established multiplatform franchises then it still seems like buying exclusivity, even if the way you did it was by buying the developer. Like Fallout, Doom, TES, Dishonored, those are all franchises that have historically been multiplatform, so it feels like you're taking something away. Now, maybe they'll do like the did with Minecraft and keep putting stuff out on other platforms, and the only real difference will be that on Xbox you get it as part of Gamepass. If that's the way they go then great, more power to them, I have no issue with them giving a benefit to their own customers. It's just when it feels like they're taking something away from others that I get annoyed.

I just came in here to post that. This pretty much sucks. I don't mind exclusives, but I hate paid-for exclusives on things that would normally have been multiplatform. MS has said that current games will still release as planned (basically meaning Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo will still be timed PS5 exclusives, which is actually pretty hilarious), but that future games will come to PC, Xbox, and other platforms "on a case by case basis". I really hope that means at least the established franchises like TES, Fallout, Dishonored, Prey, etc don't become console exclusive, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Eurogamer just put up a Games of the Generation article, which is a good read. Not quite the same thing as Game of the Decade, but close (I know my answer would be the same, and for the same reasons). I'm not going to spoil the list, but I will say I was surprised by all but maybe 3 or 4 of the entries.

Back to the fugliness: it actually doesn't look as bad to me as when they were first announced. I'm actually to the point where I think they look pretty good when they're just floating in a void like in marketing shots, but I still think it's going to look ridiculous under my TV.

I think they're both pretty fugly, but I can't give up my ability to sell games after I'm done with them. It enables me to buy so many more games than I otherwise would. And even on sale, the digital versions rarely get as cheap as used physical copies, or even new physical copy sales, not even taking into account the ability to sell them back later.

HELL YES! Walmart got them back in stock and somehow I snagged one.