Dio

I actually like the look of the Advance better than the YF. If anyone lucky enough to score a preorder wants to sell off their older model afterward for a not-ridiculous price, please PM me.

I've been keeping busy with Horizon Zero Dawn's DLC expansion, "The Frozen Wilds."

It doesn't seem to add much so far to the (epic) main story, but the new machines are humbling to say the least. Even with my end-of-main-campaign loadout, the new fights force me to carefully consider strategy and equipment choices, which is more of what makes this game so much fun. It's very easy to lose yourself in the thrill of some hunts, combined with the exploration and real-world inspired scenery - one area I explored while my wife looked it up on online maps, and was able to ID a dam in the region with a present-day photo.

The absolutely stunning scenery is further enhanced by some of the best snow effects I've ever seen in a game - after one particularly tough battle on a snowy ridge I downed a Scorcher with a heavy strike that sent it rolling down the hill, and I could follow the trail in the snow all the way down to it.

Character animations supposedly got some tweaks, but there's still a touch of uncanny valley going on with the glazed-over eyes. The new characters also show a little more spunk/snark than the originals, with some good humorous moments thrown in (Aloy facepalm is priceless).

With all the talk of P2W multiplayer drama lately, this game is a rare jewel with a solid single-player experience and DLC that adds some meat to it, and is also going for good prices lately.

Indivisible coming to Switch as well, color me interested. It looks like a mashup of Valkyrie Profile and Guardian Heroes.

 

Horizon Zero Dawn is getting some DLC goodness. Excellent, since the game left me wanting more even after finishing 100%/platinum trophy.

 

I'm kind of scattered on this movie. On the one hand, I'm hopeful that the younger cast is going to lead to a more kid-friendly film overall, and signals an end to the juvenile Bay humor that plagued the previous ones.

The Maker reminds me of Rita from the new MMPR movie, at least superficially, but they'll probably not ham the character up like that and keep her kind of nebulous.

I don't see much transforming though, and that kind of worries me. This may turn out to be another Cybertronian Giants vs Earth kind of deal, like AoE was. Then again, the odd-numbered films tend to be the better ones, which bodes well for this one (not so much for solo Bumblebee prequel!).

I finally hooked mine up last weekend, but am not going to play Zelda until I finish Horizon Zero Dawn, so at this point the entire gaming history on my Switch is my 2.5-year old enjoying Just Dance 2017.

With the wait though, I'm seriously considering getting a 2nd Joy-con and painting the cases gold so I can Zelda properly.  There are some awesome custom paint jobs out there, and thankfully some how-to guides to go with them.

On 3/10/2017 at 5:44 PM, Primus1X said:

So they are region A then?

I have watched the blu-rays on my US PS3 and PS4 with no issues. I'm just waiting on disc 9 and I'll be able to finish the series, since I decided not to watch it online (personal choice, not judging) and wanted the box set presence on my shelf.

I'm maybe 30-40% into Horizon Zero Dawn, and it is incredible. I think it might be like a more realistic/grown-up Zelda BotW, though I can't confirm until I finish it and start on Zelda. There's a lot of cool discovery elements to the story, and both the robot and scenery models are so gorgeous I have actually spent time just looking around to take it all in.

There is a lot to accomplish, like a Fallout or other open world game, and it's easy to go off on side quests and forget the main story, but it's never tedious or feels repetitive. I actually rack up so many crafting materials, I have to dump/sell to make inventory space, but have not had any issues crafting/trading for upgrades I want. The discovery of where you actually are geographically (I actually figured it out because I used to live there and recognized a couple landmarks!) and how the world became a tribal, post-apocalyptic machine empire (still figuring it out), along with Aloy's mysterious origins (also still figuring out) are definitely holding my interest.

I like the 8" die-cast version, I'll have to keep an eye out for them.

Is there going to be any non-Netflix way to watch this show in the future, like a DVD release or anything? I don't have a subscription and can't see myself getting it over just one show.

They forgot the apostrophe on Morphin'. You know, as in "morphing," as in "metamorphosis." Might as well put a # on it while they're at it. And get off my lawn. 

I'm skeptical about the live-action version being able to capture the magic of the original. The characters were so exaggerated that cartoon proportions were necessary to really sell them, whereas human actors filling the same roles with the same (or very similar) dialogue will seem hammy and over-acted. I don't doubt Disney can pull it off, but I would find it a daunting task to try and reproduce the same film rather than making a new adaptation - especially with the strong nostalgia this particular movie carries.

It comes out around my wife's birthday though, so I don't have much of a choice about seeing it in the theater. I will give it a fair shot though - the original was a big hit and the studio has to know they need to do it justice.

On 1/11/2017 at 11:45 PM, Phobos said:

Definite pass. I always found the beastiality aspect of this story more than a little disturbing.

To be fair, in the original Disney animated film she saw the Prince's painting and recognized him by his eyes, so she might have put together that he was a human cursed in some way.  The live action trailers have shown a similar painting, though there is a greater age difference.

I'm not surprised by some of the reviews on the Last Guardian. The game is gorgeous but suffers from dodgy mechanics and AI issues. Figured a game with this many development problems would have these. So mechanically, you have to look at as if it were released back in 2009/2010. Still fully intend to pick it up as I loved SoTC and Ico but I'm debating on waiting till it goes down alittle in price and picking up FFXV for the holiday season instead.

The camera is a little awkward to control from time to time, but I would say the controls feel like they were ripped right from SotC. It's especially noticeable when climbing on Trico. The puzzles are creative without being repetitive or overly difficult, and the action controls are pretty minimal with a nice touch of not letting you run right off cliffs.

Graphically the game is so gorgeous I have found myself just watching some still moments when Trico goes off to do something animalistic like roll around in a puddle or sniff around at things. After one particularly suspenseful puzzle he looked back and sat down, and I was happy to follow suit for a moment. I almost forgave him for (slight spoiler)

earlier.

I'm just getting bits of the overall story from the environment right now, but these games have always tied it all up near the end. I won't fault anyone for waiting on a price drop, but it's definitely worth playing at some point.

I've long neglected FFIV and I've only just recently started playing it for the first time (the original SNES version).

That's the best one!

I highly recommend VI, I consider it the best and still play through it from time to time.

I'm also skeptical about XV, the later FF games (post-VII) took on what I feel is an unhealthy focus on distracting semi-optional side quests and raid missions that detract from having a solid core story. World about to end? Spend a week hunting rare critters for loot so you can farm chocobos in a theme park to get an upgraded doodad to use against the end boss because the equipment you run across in shops/dungeons isn't good enough. I might get it down the line if it gets reviewed favorably by players though.

Right now I have my gaming planned out as:

Last Guardian (starting TOMORROW!)

Horizon Zero Dawn (Feb)

Zelda BotW (June)

Misc short or handheld games in between - that Blaster Master remake looks neat, and I know my old high school buddy is going to be online with MvC Infinite waiting to challenge me.

Mass Effect Andromeda looks pretty good too, I may have to pick it up later.

I like how they solved the issue of the shield unfolding, that little bit of spread at the base to rotate the halves out will help keep the emblem intact when they come back together.

Having just finished construction on the 1/72 model, I'm optimistic the slightly more durable DX will be easier to handle.

New Zelda promo...delayed until June though.

https://youtu.be/vDFZIUdo764

Good, that gives me some time to play through Horizon Zero Dawn first... which seems like an incredibly similar game, when you boil it down to the main elements. That new BotW trailer doesn't make the wait any easier, however.

His spaceship mode is reminiscent of an aircraft carrier; I'm not sure if that's what the designers were going for, but that's what it looks like to me, at least the forward fuselage.

Alpha Trion is getting remolded into Broadside, that's where the carrier bits come into play. AT and Broadside are probably the least-guessable shared mold in the entire Titans Return line, while the others have been blatantly obvious.

I'm waiting on Gnaw before I ship my Hot Rod, those are two figures I've eagerly anticipated since I saw them.

I'll echo the sentiment on Seraphicus Prominon being a bit of a disappointment. I got mine at release, and had to get repairs/fixes on both the core figure (mis-installed pin in the hand that broke out the back of it) and the trailer (missing the armored-mode helmet). Couple that with MMC's rock-hard plastic and a transformation that has to overcome some nasty tight tolerances, and it's just not a fun figure to play with. It also should have had 2 pistols, the one just doesn't look right and there are actually two mounting holes for them in the trailer - similar to Mike's sentiment, I think two revolvers with the core figure would have been way cooler than the hexatron lightsabers.

All that said, it is a very attractive display piece, and I certainly don't mind a little Gundam aesthetic in my 3P TF's. MMC's customer service was also top notch when I submitted my complaints... no questions asked, though it was a little head-scratcher to get a company response signed "sent from my iPhone." It weirded me out the same way when my roofing contractor earlier this year communicated with me solely by text messages, so maybe I just need to either get with the times or go out on my front porch and start yelling at kids to get off my lawn.

Anyhoo, I digress. Nice figure, but right now for me MMC is a pretty distant second to Maketoys when it comes to my enjoyment of their products. While MMC's service is excellent, and their figures are quite satisfactory, I'm just not getting the "top tier" vibe from them that so many other fans are expressing. Maybe when Kultur comes out it will wow me a little more.

In other 3P TF news... I am SO buying Iron Factory's next few figures.

He still has it in his hand in the 3rd and 4th photos, not sure what it is but looks too unwieldy to be a weapon.

Yeah, just the way he's holding it in the 2nd one looks phaser-ish. Looking a little closer, is it maybe a toy robot? That would certainly fit the theme.

It is great to see this film making progress, I loved the first one.

That 2nd photo looks like he's holding a Star Trek phaser. Beautiful irony there, if it turns out to be something like that.

Link for the sleepily http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gcode=FIGURE-021748

Closed again.

I cannot believe I just got one at Amiami and it's 9:41 PM Central time. First ever order at Amiami, first successful pre-order of a Valkyrie EVER... I don't know if it will be a bust in the end, but I am cautiously optimistic.

I will purchase one on launch day, no doubt. The portability is exactly what I need these days, and I would also expect better 3rd party support since the system isn't as focused around a gimmicky interface (e.g. dual screens or motion controllers).

I'm really getting a sense of suspense out of the second trailer, like these characters are going to be the ones in the trenches versus the iconic heroes we saw in the main films. My initial concerns about the movie seem to have been alleviated, and I actually think this one might end up ranking near ESB in terms of how it is received by fans. The Death Star, Vader and the Imperial forces in general are looking much more menacing than ever before, something sorely lacking in the main films.

Probably old-ish news at this point, but Star Wars Explained has a pretty good analysis of the trailer. Spoiler'd for those who are trying to remain agnostic until they see it.

The subs are really good, though I think some adaptations have been made. For example, "Heinz-sama" got subbed as "your Highness" every time they said it.

Episode 7's subs were hilarious with cat puns everywhere, were those jokes in the original Japanese dialog or were they additions?