Bjomesphat

Sekiro is the hardest, but I wouldn't really consider it a Souls game. Souls adjacent, I guess.

Out of the traditional Souls games though, maybe DS2? But I think it's difficult for the wrong reasons like bad encounter design and overall not tightly tuned gameplay. DS1 I can do in my sleep. Bloodborne just really fits with my play style, so I actually find that to be pretty moderate overall. I haven't played DS3 since it released, but that might be the hardest in terms of fair difficulty.

Well at least this isn't another best of list that ignores the entire world except for the US.

People love Zodiac. I really just don't get the high praise. Like it's fine, and even very good, but not even close to an all-timer for me.

Same with Get Out. Premise is great. The social commentary was great. But it just kind of fell flat for me. Especially the third act. And this is a problem in all of Jordan Peele's movies: he sets up an interesting premise with strange inexplicable phenomena, and then tries to reveal all of the answers in unnecessary detail with an absurd and convoluted explanation.

Anyway, it's not a bad list. I think some of the placements are weird, but overall pretty good. I'd probably include Whiplash, Requiem for a Dream, maybe Hero or Crouching Tiger, probably Old Country, some PTA representation, Squid and the Whale (or other Baumbach), something from Wes Anderson. Black Panther and Bridesmaids can definitely go. Same with Social Network.

I like the Wes Anderson style, but it is basically self parody at this point. But it's not like anyone else is doing this, so I'm ok with it.

I know on first glance it looks like DLC to BotW, but I'm sure there's far more to this than what they're showing. Nearly every Zelda feels like it's own thing, even ones that are direct sequels or even use the same assets.

With that said, I really don't want to explore the same basic Hyrule again even if things are slightly changed. Fusing and building look cool though. Crafting generally isn't my favorite thing in a game, but this implementation has me interested. Crossing my fingers for traditional dungeons and more music.

9 minutes ago, Jwheel86 said:

You may all continue to use disabled memes. I pardon thee. 

 

That said I think it is important to ask does this author speak for the group? Few years ago a group tried to push non disabled people to say "differently abled" or "extra abled", and the disabled community was furious that this group was trying to speak for all of us and pushing something we did not want. 

Yeah I find this happens a lot. Usually with white progressive allies. I could be wrong, but isn't Latinx not favored by Hispanics and largely pushed by white people?

10 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

 

Right, and that's where it becomes fucking stupid. If it's not okay to make fun of X it shouldn't be okay to make fun of Y for the same reasons because they're not a minority. And no, I'm not saying "I want to make fun of everyone!", I'm saying it shouldn't be okay for anyone if it's "racist".

Sure in an ideal world that would be great. But there's a reason why someone calling you a cracker will likely just bounce off of you versus someone using the n-word against a black person. There's no meaningful history of oppression against white Americans with effects still felt today.

2 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I thought Americans generally felt Hispanic people were non-white and were part of a marginalized group? 

Latin America, sure. I would say people from Spain are white Europeans though.

8 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

So here’s my questions. Was it being used to be racist and demeaning? Is the reason it is not acceptable because in the past this depiction was always used to be racist? Once something has been used to demean or be racist is it always so forever regardless of usage? 
 

if I saw a fight or the beginnings of one, say two big companies decided for whatever reason they were going to get into a Twitter pissing match with each other, and the very thought of it was so exciting to me and that gif was the first thing in my mind for exactly how I was feeling in that moment; does that make me racist that I didn’t think of some giddy white guy image first? 

No I don't think the use had any racist intentions. And honestly, I wouldn't call somebody out for using it or anything, but I do think it perpetuates certain harmful stereotypes when it's just used for laughs by white people.

39 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

I honestly don't care about the color of someone's skin in a meaningless meme. If that meme is mocking that persons skin color/race/whatever, then that's not cool, of course. If that memes make someone feel offended, that's also not cool, of course. I'd argue those things are obvious and don't need an article to explain them. However, is someone getting offended by the "ain't nobody got time for that" lady? Is kekw upsetting people from Spain? Is there a group of inbreds getting upset whenever "catch me outside, how 'bout that" is posted? To me, it's just people doing funny shit that has nothing to do with race. I swear, articles like this is why pricks like DeSantis get votes.

I wouldn't consider people from Spain and white inbreds to be marginalized groups though. Just like you can do a stereotypical italian accent talking about pasta, and mamma mia, that no one will bat an eye at because that type of language hasn't been used to oppress and marginalize people.

Just don't use gifs that are stereotyping a marginalized group, whether intentionally or not.

I think this is a good example of a gif that was everywhere on gaming forums years back.

And should definitely not be used anymore, even though I've seen it pretty recently which is how I was reminded of it.

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

The next to easiest beacuse the harder difficulty levels are more frustrating than challenging.

Good to know. I like hard games, but I'll always play on the the difficulty that is balanced the best.

Nice. I picked it up.

Not sure when I'll play it, but any recommended difficulty setting to start with?

16 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

You mean FLAC / MP3 files you rip / import?

Yeah.

Though really I only use iTunes to keep my music library organized. I should probably just find something else at this point.

30 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Not everyone cares about graphics, but a lot of people do.  The sales successes of mid-cycle refreshes of last gen, and the pandemic-era computer GPU prices proved that.

I mean it more in that the PS5 is going to sell great as-is for years and I think most people will be satisfied with its output. It just seems silly to invest in a new SKU and new hardware when you could focus on making your existing SKUs more profitable.

8 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I think mid gen refreshes are less about keeping hardware from lagging and maximizing profits. Before all this refresh stuff you’d have Sony and Xbox just reducing price on consoles. Now they can still reduce price, but for a little more than the current hardware still costs to manufacture per unit hey can keep charging $500+. 
 

Even after the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X came out all console games were still made targeting the older hardware. So it didn’t remove any burdens from software developers. 

Yeah I agree, but times have changed. We're on year 6 of the Switch and have yet to see a price drop. And that hardware was dated 6 years ago! I don't think demand for the PS5 is going to go away anytime soon. To me it makes more sense to come out with a slim model as the mid-gen refresh and use mostly the same components.

I dunno, I think people are seeing these movies because of the nostalgia and the familiarity with the original. I don't think they're going to be timeless like the animated versions. I also think with D+ now, these are going to start bombing in the theaters, or at least not hitting the numbers they're expecting.

With iTunes getting retired, can the Apple Music app manage an offline library?

The problem with the PS4 is that it was outdated on release. A mid-gen refresh was essential, and they still managed to drag out that gen with aging hardware. Sure the PS5 can't compete with higher end PCs, but that's always going to be the case with consoles. The PS5 has decent internals for a modern console, and devs still haven't really taken advantage of what it has to offer.

It would be silly to come out with Pro versions when the base versions have just now started to become widely available. People don't care about graphics and performance that much anymore. Nintendo's whole business depends on that and they're still crushing it 6 years later.

Yeah don't care. I wish they would go even further. I just want my pictures to look like how they do in my mind's eye.

Basically this

For those that still rip music or download it in one way or another, running a Plex server is an easy way to basically make your own streaming platform. On the apps, you can either stream your music or download it for offline play if you always want it accessible on your phone or tablet. So much easier than plugging your phone in and transferring files. If you have Plex Pass, their Plexamp app is a really slick dedicated music player with all the bells and whistle.

Yeah it’s awful. 
 

As someone that’s been collecting vinyl for the past 15 years or so, the price increases have been ridiculous. Even used vinyl is out of control. There was a time when Record Store Day you could just stroll in whenever and get some good stuff, now lines are around the block the night before. And the music I listen to has always been on vinyl, so it’s not like the bigger exposure has increased the content for me.

Anyway, 90% of my music listening is MP3. I mostly like vinyl for the physical qualities and when I want to sit down and really absorb an album.

If you can, don't download the latest patch. It breaks RT and makes certain areas so blown out you're like on the surface of the sun. It did seem to improve performance a bit though, so if you don't use RT you're good.

Yeah didn't care about any of those, or most of Star Wars now tbh. But I do know I 100% do not want a Taika Waititi Star Wars film. Especially not one he stars in.

His shtick is getting old now. We don't need more cringe ironic humor in Star Wars.

They really dropped the ball by not calling it Cities Skylines 2000.

30 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I don't think its optional. The boss you speak of after this guy is a main story boss. The first one I think.

She's a lot of people's first real boss, because the game pushes you toward Hirata Estate early when you probably shouldn't go there. Or at least you should kind of go back and forth between that and the main path.

But it actually is completely optional. However, you really need every prayer bead and boss memory, especially for the early game, so it needs to be done at some point.

30 minutes ago, Slug said:

 

I remember playing until I like, got transported to this village area where everything was on fire.  I don't remember the details but I seem to remember it being like a flashback or something?  In any case at the end, at the back of this on fire village there was a big dude in a watery area.  I could never get past him.  I don't know if this was an area I was supposed to be in or if I"d gone off sequence or what, but I never got through that bit.

I can't remember if that area is completely optional or not, but I do know you can go there early and it's significantly harder if you do. It's best to continue on the main path and come back to that when you're ready. Or at the very least, beat the big dude, because there's a boss after him that will 100% make you quit the game if you don't have the patience. Best to do her later too.

26 minutes ago, Slug said:

 

I feel this.  I've beaten multiple layers of NG+ for every other FROM game and do challenge runs for some of them.  I've yet to beat Sekiro even once.  Not even close.  Parrying/timing is not my style and I don't have a great reaction time generally.  I'm going to give it another shot at some point, but I'm content to know that I just may never see most of that game.

If you can beat the first significant story boss (don't want to spoil anything, but basically the end of the first 1/3 of the game) you'll be able to beat the rest of the game. Don't get me wrong, the game gets harder, but that's the only barrier in the game that will prevent you from completing it. Basically, that fight forces you to learn the game's mechanics, and once you do, the game becomes manageable even in its difficulty. That's kind of where it really clicked for me, and had a blast for the rest of the game.