Topic: The Thread of Totally Awesome Video Game Screenshots [Slow Connections Beware]

@FullbringIchigo True, even have has his own sound byte from the episode included!

@KALofKRYPTON Is it bad of me that my immediate thought was "Oooh, Hirogen!" before finally realising the intention behind your posting of that particular screencap?

@RogerRoger Not at all. That first Hydrogen episode was great.

Real shame they got nerfed so quickly.

@KALofKRYPTON Each to their own. I really liked the evolution of the Hirogen over the course of their episodes; one of the main reasons I hate Klingons so much is that every time they appear, they're so inflexible and intransigent in their boring "grr, warrior" nonsense (with the sole exception of B'Elanna, who spent the entire time telling everybody how much she hated Klingon tradition, which is why I love her).

With the Hirogen, we got to see the impact Voyager's presence in their space had on them, and how single-mindedness can erode and harm a culture at the expense of those willing to try and evolve. It's what should have happened to the Klingons around the mid-point of TNG, or at least somewhere in DS9, but Ronald D. Moore was so obsessed with their warror-esque rituals that he just continued to churn out repetitive episodes to make their myths, rituals and history needlessly confusing and incredibly dull to watch. Not only that, but between "The Killing Game" and "Flesh and Blood" there was a valuable lesson to be had about why the Prime Directive forbids the sharing of technology, both for the Hirogen and for Janeway.

But hey, Voyager doesn't do consequences or character development, apparently.

So apparently I'm quite defensive today. My apologies for the tone of the above; I cannot stress enough how none of it should be taken personally.

@RogerRoger at least Moore didn't turn them into a bunch of savage cannibals

@RogerRoger Ha. No bother.

I was quite excited by the Hirogen initially. I understand how they had to adjust the visual representation from them being like, 8' tall - and the on ship technology all looked completely unusable. The depiction of their culture was paper thin and nonsensical, but they were at least a genuine threat for brief time. But the fast march to 'not particularly threatening' was a shame.

I wholeheartedly disagree with your take on the Klingons. From mid TNG and for the breadth of DS9, they had an incredible investment in culture building. They really became an almost believable society beyong the usual nonsense of mostly identically unified races or at most, races/planets with an arbitrary binary conflict occurring.

For me Voyager takes flak for lack of character building because of the main characters. Outside of Seven, B'Elanna, The Doctor and maybe Tom Paris at a push - no one moves, there's very little actual progression for any of them. That is of course partly down to format, but I'll never not think that dropping the on board Maquis conflict so readily hobbled what could have been as deep character building as DS9.

It was one of the Hirogen episodes where they get letters from home for the first time I think. We get mention of the Maquis being wiped out and a single mention of the Dominion. Only Chakotay and Torres talk about it, then never mentioned again.

@FullbringIchigo Yes... could've been much worse!

@KALofKRYPTON After this post, and given what happened in the Nintendo Switch thread yesterday, I'm gonna go and make a proper Star Trek topic for the three of us (and anybody else who wants to join in). There's so much forthcoming Star Trek stuff, I think it makes sense, and it'll mean we're free to nerd out without derailing anything else.

But I just very, very much want to answer something you said, specifically about the Maquis. You're right, in "Hunters" (the fifteenth episode of Season Four) the crew finally receive letters from home and Chakotay is told about the Maquis being wiped out in Deep Space Nine. He tells B'Elanna and there's a decent-yet-brief scene about the news. Since it's something that happened in a different television show (contrary to popular belief, not everybody watched every Star Trek show in sequence at the time, and I know plenty of folk who watched a couple episodes of DS9 and then said "not for me" and moved on to Voyager) it's given enough context because it was a necessary update in-universe, but not necessary to what Voyager was doing at the time. The five-episode Hirogen arc was just getting underway and they didn't wanna distract from it.

You're wrong to say that it was never mentioned again, however, because the third episode of Season Five (pretty much the first chance to build it in) is called "Extreme Risk" and is a direct sequel to "Hunters" in that it's all about B'Elanna dealing with her feelings regarding the Maquis. She admits that she felt nothing when she heard the news, and deliberately starts putting herself in dangerous situations to make sure she can still feel anything. She's become so comfortable after integrating with the Starfleet crew and she's furious at herself for doing so. It's a brilliant commentary on survivor's guilt, played perfectly by Roxann Dawson, and is the ideal way of dealing with the in-universe character consequences of hearing shocking news, but then burying the ramifications for half a year. It's one of my all-time favourite episodes, for very personal reasons alongside general "fan of good television" ones (and it's also the episode in which they build the Delta Flyer, so bonus points for that).

Voyager gets a lot of flack for never dealing with things ever again, but it actually does (just like Janeway giving the Hirogen holodeck technology in Season Four's "The Killing Game" comes back to bite everybody in the butt in Season Seven's "Flesh and Blood"). Just because it doesn't do it right away as part of a nine-episode arc doesn't make the eventual payoff any less valid.

Anyway, here are some leftover screencaps from the other day to keep this topic on-topic, and I'll go make that other thread so we can carry on nerding out without getting this place locked.

Got some more screen shots to share

Trunks has been messing with Time again Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2

Ryu and Dante get ready for battle Marvel vs Capcom Infinite

Dante gets the win

and of course FINAL FANTASY this time FFXII

Balthier calls

Ashe commands her power

@FullbringIchigo @KALofKRYPTON Thanks to your tips a while back, I managed to take a few screencaps on my PS Vita this morning (wanted to go back and get a specific trophy on MGS2 for tranquilising 100 enemies... turns out I'd tranquilised 99, first soldier I put to sleep, trophy pinged, so I then just stuck in some random cartridges to make the most of having the console charged). The Content Manager Assistant for PC is still available and the USB transfer was quick and painless. Cheers, guys!

They don't look half as good when they're not displayed on the Vita's OLED screen, but they're decent enough to grab key moments. I can't see myself going back and taking too many others, especially in Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which comes out looking pretty awful away from the Vita, yet was absolutely stunning to behold whilst playing.

I'll post them separately so as not to overload your email notifications.

So here's what I got up to, starting with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty...

...and a rainy day in New York.

Snake propped up the bar for a while...

...and regretted it later!

Took part in a couple races on Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed...

...and did alright, despite it not being the greatest port.

The aforementioned Uncharted: Golden Abyss, with Nate in mid-climb...

...but it was worth getting to the top for the view!

Nate also showed up in a couple rounds of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale...

...as did fellow Naughty Dogs, Jak & Daxter.

Raiden discovered a talent for golf he never knew he had...

...and was cheered on by a not-sure-if-cute-or-creepy miniature Sully!

Phew! Quite the morning!

@RogerRoger for a portable game Golden Abyss is damn impressive and with just a little work could easily be put on the PS4

it should have been part of the collection

@RogerRoger Glorious! One of the all time great consoles!

I really love Sonic Transformed on Vita. It was my main method of playing it - got pretty far in but didn't ace it by any means. All hail the greatest guest character od all time - AGES!!

@FullbringIchigo Yeah, the ones I've posted don't actually look too bad, but it's still lightyears better on the Vita's screen and in motion. I'd love to see it on PS4 someday, not least because I think some of the gameplay and level design is equal to Drake's Fortune, which I adore.

@KALofKRYPTON I'd recently been reconstructing a save file on Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on my PS3 and so I guess playing the Vita port was always gonna be a little jarring; it's still awesome that it runs as well as it does, with no content cut and even the Metal Sonic & Outrun Bay DLC present and correct, but there were a few moments where I noticed the performance dip (and I'm usually quite relaxed about performance issues).

AGES is awesome, though! Boat Mode is the best!

@RogerRoger I do love S&ASRT - it's best sort of fan-service. As is AGES. I'm still have eye trouble, so been wallowing a bit - but I might just break the Vita out tonight as I should be able to keep up with the screen.

Kenshiro isn't having any bull from anyone Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise DEMO

and now just for @RogerRoger FINAL FANTASY XV

Ignis Dabbing is SO 2016

Letting his hair down

@FullbringIchigo I totally forgot about TFOTNS demo yesterday!! How is it?

@KALofKRYPTON it's good, the controls are decent, it looks and sounds great, both the English and Japanese and it's just about right with it's difficulty, not to hard but not to easy either

@FullbringIchigo Cool. It's the sort of thing I should be able to play without any issues. May give it a go later then.

@FullbringIchigo Great Ignis shots! I'm going to replay XV early next year now I have the Royal Edition. I was going to just do the DLC but really want to experience it all the way through with all the improvements they've made. I'll be sure to take some good screenshots too as I barely did originally.

@mookysam i did that and it's well worth a another playthrough with all the new stuff they added