Xbob42

Boutta be a whole lotta Amazon workers going to jail!

This The Prodigy reference was so absurd and hamfisted that it actually made me laugh pretty hard, as I didn't get it until they started "singing" this:

Anyone who thinks a 30 FPS video game legitimately looks more "cinematic" is a dullard. And who the fuck plays games to emulate cinema to begin with? It's just like a weird fucking coping mechanism that some people have started taking seriously. Also 60 FPS games with 30 FPS cutscenes can suck my taint. That shit is jarring and looks terrible. DESTINY.

Stuff like Demon's Souls defaulting to performance mode gives me hope that people will start demanding more games hit that mark. Let this long reign of 30FPS bullshit finally be over! Console games are SO much more playable at 60. I don't feel like I'm missing out on the "real" version of Demon's Souls because it manages to both look nice and run well. Make THAT the standard!

It doesn't matter how you lay it down, it looks like it fell over and needs help getting up.

It's just a gender-neutral version of Latino/Latina, which already seems a little redundant to me since we don't have masculine and feminine distinctions like that in English (usually), and most people saying "Latino" mean "both Latino and Latina," but it's hardly some big controversial thing, or at least it shouldn't be.

For some reason I always figured "dismissed with prejudice" just meant the judge was pissed off or something, decided to actually look it up because as I get older I realized that sounded kind of stupid. Now I know it means dismissed permanently! I should really stop assuming things like that at my age.

I dunno, guys. I'm having trouble rationalizing people not being bothered (or rather not bothered compared to the issues they actually care about, how they perceive themselves, etc) being called "illegals" "wetbacks" "bad hombres" "rapists" etc largely by the right (and sometimes by the President) being suddenly turned away from the left from such a minor term like "latinx," at most I bet the vast majority of people simply haven't even heard the term. I think that's greatly oversimplifying the issue. I think trying to lockdown on terms like that as what "did the dems in" is only missing the point even more.

So does this mark the end of Republicans trying to endlessly deport them? Since they see them as potential GOP voters now?

That's not a parry indicator. Well, not how you think it is. Red indicators mean you can't parry or block. Orange indicators mean, I think, that you can't block but can parry. I say I think since I never block. However, those are just warnings. For the actual parry, block or dodge, you have to watch the actual attack animation. This isn't Batman where the indicator means pushing the button will get you a counter. Any attack with no indicator can also be parried. I've actually found the parry window quite generous. And the combat is definitely faster, things like stun attacks, stomps and more powerful abilities have me ending fights so much faster even on max difficulty and enemies way out of my level range. Sounds like you might be playing a little defensively, don't be afraid to get in there and beat the shit out of enemies. Especially early on, when they have dinky wooden shields you can shatter with a few heavy attacks. You can also hold LB/L1 to use your off hand attack, which is often very powerful and satisfying.

Sweet, can we get GOP conversion therapies then?

I will say that I'm continuing to see reused gags. So we've got the Yakuza in diapers, we've got naked-guy-needs-help-getting-clothes, and now the close-ups-of-chicken-and-main-character-staring-at-each-other. I'm fine with having like a signature sidequest or gag that's in each one of your games, but with comedy you can't just do the same gag over and over and over. A lot of the side stuff still seems original, but they really need to stop using the same jokes over and over. It stops being wacky and starts being sad after a while. Other than these three (so far) reused jokes, still loving the game. The new management system is a lot of fun, and is much better at not completely breaking the in-game economy.

Uhh, Yakuza's combat is neither brutal nor cinematic. It's more like comedy combat. It's silly as hell and kind of cheap looking. The actual cinematics that happen during combat are much higher quality, but they're just that: cinematics.

I just found it all very unsatisfying. Even when I beat the final boss it was more like "Well, that's over." followed by me immediately uninstalling and looking up any other endings/secrets on YouTube. Didn't help that I generally find Japan, especially medieval Japan, to be a fairly boring setting. Compared to the fantastical setting of the Souls games, the wider array of player choice and comparatively enormous variety of ways to engage in combat, including online play, Sekiro felt like a super limited gimmick rather than a brand new IP from the creators of Souls and Bloodborne. The few things I was sure I'd love like the grappling hook/prosthetic were unbelievably limited or underutilized. It really felt like they didn't know what they wanted to do, and were happy to settle for "just parry a lot, mostly" as the core design of an entire game.

Seems like a real galaxy brain move, try and flip multiple states with bullshit lawsuits, and after successfully doing so, you're still fucking losing, and then pray you get a faithless elector. Truly the plays of a winner.

I found Sekiro to actually be pretty easy, since it forces you into a single playstyle. If you're even mildly decent at building on a simple skillset, you can plow through that game very easily provided you're generally good at games. If you're not, though... I imagine it's a fucking terrible experience. That same shoehorning of everyone into the same playstyle is exactly why I disliked the game, though. Each time From makes a game, they get farther and farther from what drew me in to begin with, it feels like. That said, Sekiro still uses the basics from From's lineup. You will still have to fight the same bosses over and over as you learn them, but you'll have a wider array of ways to do so, including overleveling, using overpowered builds, or summoning other players/friends/NPCs to help you deal with battles. Sekiro gave none of these difficulty modifiers and instead forced every single player down the same route with the same build to fight every boss as though all players have an equal level of skill, when in reality many people have dramatically varying levels of skill, time, patience, dedication, etc. to devote to a single game. The Souls games are far more accommodating to those who lack one or more of these traits, and even if you have all of those traits, I still find them far more fun because I think variety is far more exciting in a long RPG than forcing me to play a single way.

That's a weirdly good fit if they go more for the N64-style games where the difficulty changed and/or added to your objectives. Hitman is already kind of that. I haven't given a single shit about a James Bond game (as I don't care about James Bond as a franchise) since the N64 title, which I adored. Can't wait to see if they can pull it off!

I'd rather my kid just skip a year of school rather than sending them out into the cesspits. And kids don't (usually) go to school in the Summer, so clearly people need to have a plan for when their kid isn't gone for most of the day.

The idea that anyone is actually physically sending their kids to school right now is patently absurd to me. We switched over to online only in like March, before the last school year was even over. No one threw a fuss and it's not a big deal. Jesus fucking Christ we have dumb people.

That kind of stuff makes me want to play more than the actual remake does. I'm such a fucking sucker for mysteries!

The workstation before this that launched in May was $199,000, so....

This game is fucking awesome and I've been playing it nonstop. I only kind of liked the previous Yakuza games. They have very simple combat that's not very fun, while the Yakuza melodrama does absolutely nothing for me. Top that off with the humor starting to grate on me after enough sidequests that all start feeling like the same writer handled each and every one of them, and I usually enjoy them a lot at the beginning and my interest quickly fades. This time is different for a few reasons: 1. Ichiban is not a stone-faced hard-ass like Kiryu and Majima. Majima was a little more interesting, but both were kind of meh. They basically just played the straight man for all the comedy bits, and the generic badass for all the melodrama. Ichiban is a lot different, he's a weirdly optimistic and hyperactive lunatic. I think Brad or Ben on Giant Bomb said he had shonen energy, and I guess that's true, but really he's more like if Dan Ryckert somehow wanted to be a Yakuza and was capable of fighting. 2. The party system makes the adventure a lot more fun. You have friends that go along with you on all your wacky hijinks. They're not really included in sidequests, but they don't just abandon you for main story missions or just exploring around town. Having a bond rating/drink links with them makes them seem like valuable additions to the game, like in Persona or other RPGs with similar mechanics. 3. The RPG system, from combat to stats to gear, makes it more exciting to explore and participate in battles. I never really cared too much about finding stuff in previous Yakuza games. You could equip a few things, sure, but the combat was braindead easy and most of your growth came from spending tons of money to get new skills from various methods. Now you get new skills from leveling up, and since encounters in Yakuza already felt like JRPG battles because you'd have to wait for the battle to start rather than just attacking people like in GTA, having an actual RPG system makes that transition less annoying and more enjoyable. I want to find and upgrade the best gear that I can, and my weapons won't just break on the rare occasion I decide to use them, they're proper gear now. 4. Expanding on the combat, while it's pretty easy for the most part (really wish there was a hard mode out the gate) it's still fun. You might think being a turn-based RPG would slow the game down, but I've found many battles are over much faster than I could end them in old Yakuza titles because I can use abilities that completely annihilate my enemies if I use them right. And when they take longer, it's fun to try to use the positioning and whatnot to maximize the amount of people I'm hitting and to try and get crap inbetween me and the enemy so that I can kick it into their faces or pick it up and deal bonus damage. Having it be this weird hybrid where everyone is always moving (you do not control movement, just actions) adds a rather interesting layer of light randomness to it that never really feels unfair, although the camera can sometimes lag behind the action and prevent you from getting perfect guards. 5. The writing seems more varied for the side quests this time around. There's a lot of wacky ones, and a lot of not-so-wacky ones. But even when you've got two wacky ones, they usually feel different enough that it doesn't feel like someone's just dipping into the anime comedy cliche bucket and pulling out something random. A little disappointing to see the reuse of the same exact joke that wasn't even funny the first time (like the Yakuza dudes in diapers being babied) that seems to be rather rare, as that's the only one in particular I can think of. Ben of Giant Bomb claimed he didn't like the whiplash of going from a sympathetic and nuanced discussion about some folks in a homeless camp and why they can't just "get out there and work again" followed immediately by you getting into a fight with enemies named "Battle Bum" and "Hungry Hungry Homeless," but I personally found that to make it even more hilarious. I think the entire point of that is that making silly jokes doesn't mean you're a heartless asshole who doesn't understand the plight of the people you're poking at. The writers obviously care a great deal about the downtrodden in Japan and really don't seem to be trying to be cruel, so I think that's just Ben being a little too sensitive, in my opinion at least. 6. The variety and interactivity of mini-games seems much better this time around. The slot car racing one in Yakuza 0 I remember as being especially disappointing. Just basically watching a video and hitting the boost at a certain point. Yawn. Dragon Kart is actual full control kart racing with power-ups! I could go on, but all this typing about it makes me want to get right back into playing it. A few minor complaints before I do that, though: 1. Camera issue described above. 2. All dialogue auto-advances for some reason. There is no way to disable this as far as I know, though you can pause at any time. This one is especially weird. 3. I had to lower the game to 1440p to get it running at 120 FPS. The game looks pretty alright, but hardly incredibly. However, setting it to 4k would drop it to the mid-60s, which seems like a wildly disproportionate hit to performance for the game looking slightly sharper. 4. I'd like to disable the start-up intros, but haven't looked it up yet. I continue to roll my eyes at the "REAL YAKUZA USE A GAMEPAD" splash screen that's Sega's way of saying "no, we didn't put any effort into keyboard and mouse controls, yet again" and spinning it in such a silly manner. I wouldn't use KBM on a third-person action game to begin with... but this one's a turn-based RPG, so you could've done better than whatever the fuck this is: Which I only know about since hitting the screenshot button brings up the KBM controls. Why not just make it a menu you can select with a mouse or by using WASD to navigate up and down at that point? So low effort.

I don't understand.

Same issue on PC. I looked on Reddit and it seems to be a problem for just about everyone, regardless of platform. Though I haven't heard much from the Playstation camp.

I could put my PS4 back into rest mode easier before, since I could do it even if I was on a different video input. Even if you pay attention to where the power options are on the PS5, it doesn't work because it saves your cursor's last position, meaning you can't reliably put it into rest mode/power it off with just the controller anymore. I find that way more annoying than I should. I find it doubly annoying since the Samsung Note I got has a somewhat similar issue, where before you'd just hold down the power button for several seconds to bring up the ability to restart/shutdown, and now you have to hold power+volume down for some dumb reason. Copying Apple or something, I assume?