Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@Jimmer-jammer I'm good thanks. Glad to hear your SH2 Remake playthrough is going swimmingly. Sounds like it'll be a real treat by the time I dig into it. Elden Ring is a lot of fun, I'm still primarily farming at this stage, but I did make an earlier, very under-levelled, attempt at Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel, the enemies there were manageable with Vigor in the low teens and Str at 55 ,but the boss absolutely whooped me in a few seconds. Planning to go back there with Vigor at 60, it's at 23 now, and whoop the boss in return.

@Jimmer-jammer No, I haven't actually made it through Stormveil yet, still farming in the early-game, but I wanted to get an item from the Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel boss that would help me upgrade the Greatsword I got from Caelid earlier - the enemies in Caelid are no joke earlier, but I still managed to snag the Greatsword from there when I was even more underlevelled before hightailing it out of there!

Did you play Alan Wake 2? That recently got a new DLC that might be a nice compliment to your SH2 playthrough if you haven't played it yet. Both are on my to-play list.

Edit: My apologies, I just remembered that you did play Alan Wake 2 and weren't entirely satisfied with it, so maybe the DLC wouldn't be such a good idea! But there is some 'Cronos'-type game currently in development by Bloober, so maybe that would be more your cup of tea when it comes out. 😃

@Jimmer-jammer Hi man, duly noted with regard to Alan Wake II, I plan to get the Deluxe Edition which includes the Expansion Pass, so maybe I will get a chance to play the DLCs sonner rather than later. Hope you enjoy The Lake House DLC.

I am looking forward to Stormveil now that you have 'bigged it up' for me .Also do you think you will plat SH2 Remake? Apparently it's fairly easy to do, following the correct steps for various endings etc. And getting that all-important timer-based trophy.

I plan to get plats for both ER and SH2R.🤞

@Jimmer-jammer I will indeed let you know . So what was your role in the movie you shot? acting? directing? production? Do you think you and your crew will take it to Cannes or anything like that? Hope it all works out for you!

@Jimmer-jammer 🤞 Hope it works out for ya, bud.

@Th3solution As someone who juggles more than one game at one time, I am coming to you for a bit of advice as to what sort of game to play alongside Elden Ring as I want to vary my gaming somewhat, do you think SH2 Remake would be a good fit? i.e different enough as a Survival Horror rather than ER's RPG territory to make each game seem fresh when I alternated, I was also thinking about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but that probably shares too much RPG DNA with ER.

How do you normally mix and match games to keep things interesting? How many is too many to play simultaneously?

I recently completed another ep, this is my fourth so far. And now, I think the next one will be more light-hearted and whimsical, with some sort of Elden Ring-related theme, as the previous four were quite dark and I want to depart from that sort of theme now.

Definitely see Art Ensemble of Chicago as a possible influence.

And I want to feature acoustic in addition to electric guitar on the record.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Oh yeah, buddy, I definitely try to adhere to your line of logic. I try to keep it to a maximum of 3 games simultaneously; Usually having just 2 games works better. I have done 4 or 5 but it almost always trims down naturally to the 2-3 games that are holding my interest the most.

But yes, I think anything that plays very differently and is in a different genre is going to work fine, but trying to play two fantasy action RPGs side-by-side would prove difficult and might run the risk of descending into tedium. So I think SH2 is probably a reasonable concurrent game for ER. I was actually seriously considering starting RE4 Remake this week to run alongside my final stretch of Dark Souls 2, so it would be a similar situation. But I already have Balatro running as my second game to play when I want a small break from DS or don’t have adequate time to commit to a session (I try to have my Souls sessions be at least an hour and give me plenty of time to make it to the next bonfire). Balatro works great because it’s very different and it can be easily played in small bursts, even for just 15 minutes (but I’ve also had 3 hour sessions with it too because it’s strangely addictive to me). I also have played other short, chill games alongside DS like narrative heavy games that have much lighter gameplay. So to me it needs to be different thematically and in gameplay, and also preferably a shorter story runtime. I want the second (or potentially third) game to be a fun change of pace in some way, and not have inputs that I could confuse with my main game. I don’t want something to distract or pull me away from the other game, necessarily. So I agree Veilguard would be best to postpone until you’re done with ER. But that’s my personal opinion, having not actually played either one. And some people can keep the different control schemes, storylines, and systems separate and organized in their head, but for me it works better if completely different.

Good evening.
Today is Halloween day. 🎃
I made a sequence of photoshoot about Halloween in ACNH.

Enter The Graveyard
One day on Halloween night, Raymond and Marshall were about to enter the graveyard forest.
They heard a rumour about the ghost appearance after 12 am.
Marshall was not happy with Raymond's idea to enter the graveyard forest.
But Raymond keep insist him to get into the forest.
What fate beholds them?

After they get inside the graveyard forest, they saw an intriguing looking tombstone.

Marshall was really scared to explore the graveyard forest. He called Raymond to get out of the place ASAP.

Suddenly...

The ghost appeared in front of them.
BOOO...!!!
They were shocked and scared to death.

Then they run away from graveyard forest and never return again.

THE END

Read this story while listening to this song.

@Th3solution Yeah I think that's some good advice, Sol. I actually think for me, though, having the control schemes set to more similar settings would result in less chance of me pressing the wrong button in either game, i.e having the attack buttons in both games set to R1/R2, and I think that would result in less confusion overall, as well as setting the heal button in SH2 to the same as ER, then you are used to using the same buttons for each game, but, because you're obviously not stupid, you still know you are playing a different game, ofc.

Edit: I probably will leave Veilguard alone until I'm done with ER. Thanks!

Ugh. America.

So much to digest here, but I’ll keep it on a lighter gaming note— Maybe I should go ahead and buy a PS5 Pro now. Depending how fast it happens, import taxes on it (and everything else made overseas) are likely to skyrocket.

Welp

The fascies now have the Supreme Court, the Senate, the Oval Office, and possibly even the House (still up in the air).

Complete domination by a party that runs almost nothing but criminals, sex pests, and racists. That has openly adopted white supremacist rhetoric. That embraces criminality. That curries favor with dictators. That seeks to dismantle the EPA and the Department of Education. That has called for mass deportations that'll tear families apart and tank the economy. That openly flirts with the idea of a national abortion ban. That explicitly rejects the separation of church and state and seeks to institute fundamentalist Christianity as the law of the land.

We Gilead now bois <333

@PorkChopExpress I can afford it in the sense that I won’t go hungry if I buy one, but it was lower on the budgetary priority right now since my PS5 is perfectly capable. I’d planned a wait and see approach since there didn’t appear to be any proposed shortages. “Why buy now when I could buy in 3-6 months if the real world experience with the console is positive?” were my thoughts. But now, if the proposed 60% tax on some imports is levied… gosh, I wonder how that could affect the price. I’m no economist, but surely some of that will be passed on to the consumer. I reckon we still have a number of months before anything will be passed (which realistically, I wouldn’t be surprised if the magnitude of tariffs he proposed on the campaign trail never see the light of day) so I still have time. But it’s food for thought for me.

But you’re right in the sense that for the first time (as far as I can recall), console prices haven’t dropped over the course of the generation. So people waiting for a price drop were going to be disappointed regardless of any increase in taxes that are coming.

@Th3solution Hey man, how are you? Hope your DS2 playthrough is coming along well and nearing the final quarter. On an unrelated note, as I know you are someone who has dabbled in many genres of game, have you ever played the Call of Duty games and more specifically the "zombie" modes, if so are there any you can speak highly of, or if not, would you be interested in playing them at some point, or perhaps, you're just not an FPS kinda guy?

@Ralizah thank you for your contribution to Trump’s victory. It is a good day today.

I feel relieved today.

I'm still reeling from the election results, and worrying for my fellow LGBTQIA2S+ friends.

I'm only asexual but I did identify as gay and bisexual in the past, so I can relate.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN DS2 is still going okay, except for running into a major obstacle by the name of Fume Knight. 😅

Indeed, I do try to play all different genres of games. But I’ve not played many COD titles. In fact, I played a little of World at War and Black Ops… 3, I think. None of them had a zombies mode. I just have never really enjoyed military FPS. The FPS games I’ve liked have been more fantasy based, like Borderlands, Star Wars Battlefront, BioShock, Doom, Immortals of Aveum, etc. But a zombie mode could be fun.

@PorkChopExpress Absolutely agree on the scaremongering and sensationalism. It’s getting ridiculous. The political ads were actually humorous enough in how they tried to make people scared or mad, from both parties really (although one side was clearly attempting to instill fear into the populace more than the other, imo). The two party system creates an arms race of sorts, whereby each side has to respond to the ridiculous claims of the other side with an even larger, more sensational assertion. If they don’t do it, they run the risk of becoming drown out by opposing viewpoint who is ranting unopposed.

I think I heard someone said that human psychology is characterized by the “illusory truth effect” where if we hear a lie enough times it eventually is accepted as truth. “A thousand lies becomes the truth”, or something like that. Politicians nowadays bank on this and so we therefore get inundated with sensational claims which sound completely laughable and hysterical at first but somehow eventually is accepted as reality. I’ve seen it unfold like that over and over these past few election cycles.

Anyway, so I’m not scaremongering or anything, just going based on the plan outlined about tariffs and how that will turn out in my estimation. It wasn’t the opposite political side claiming a 60% tariff on goods from certain parts of the world, it was an oft repeated part of the Trump plan. Probably one of his 2 or 3 main talking points. I think he said he would plan to levy 20% on most imports, but 60% from China. Although, I was pleased to see that Sony actually gets the chips from Taiwan mostly, I think, so it might be a non-issue for the gaming sector. But as you say, these plans from the campaign trail are often overblown hot air from both sides. They’ll say whatever will get people to cast their vote.

As for the Pro, I’ll consider it. If it had a disc drive then it would be an easier choice for me, even if the price was $800. As it stands, buying two things feels like a harder pill to swallow than one thing. 😄. And I don’t know how I feel about having to assemble my console like it’s a Lego set. 😂

@Th3solution Haha, good luck with him, from what I've read in the corresponding thread, I get the impression that he can, indeed, be quite the toughie!.

With regard to what you said about Black Ops 3, might I draw your attention to this, on the ps store? 😉

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/200763

Might be worth watching a YouTube vid, from what I've seen there's all kinds of supernatural/fantasy elements to the Zombies versions of these games, although, as you say, I think only specifically titles have that mode as an available option, such as legendary and non-legendary swords and 'The Darkness' -style supernatural tentacle appendages for your character.

Plus, I believe some come w/ their own zombie-specific storylines!