Akun

My PC, specifically the cabinet containing all the important hard drive and stuff. You can take away my home, you can take away my Nintendo Switch, you can even take away my PS5... but I'm just so used to my PC as part of my lifestyle. I'm not exaggerating when I say I do everything on my PC.

Seen any good horror movies lately? Any favorites?

That's a difficult question to answer to be honest because 1) I don't get along with most people well enough to either receive advice from them or remember their advice in the first place, and 2) I'm very obstinate and stubborn, preferring to do things my way rather than following other people's advices. It's not the best way to live your life, I know... but it is what it is, my flawed personality. But I have taken inspirational life lessons from others... unfortunately, those "others" are all fictional. It's not something I like to admit, because it's so embarrassing, but most of what I've learned about life came from movies, not my parents. My parents fed and clothed me, but they weren't the ideal parental figures, and their "problematic" ways of physical and verbal abuse led me to become an anxious kid with tons of self-esteem issues. Everything I know about love, friendship, loyalty, equality, the English language, and all the fine principles of being a person with integrity, I picked them up by myself through American movies I grew up with as a kid... and also Spider-Man cartoons/movies/comics. 😆 So if I have taken any piece of advice, it's from movies. My memory is horrible, so I can't name you any specific examples. But I have a feeling that my current way of lifestyle was inspired by someone else, maybe not even a fictional character. I remember a few figures in the past who had a very carefree lifestyle, just taking things one step at a time and enjoying the present rather than trouble themselves with an ambitious future. I remember a quote somewhere that said that happiness is a state of mind, and how happiness is being content with whom you are and content with your life, rather than what you wish your life to be. That's how I've lived my life now and it feels like my life has improved a lot since when I've stopped chasing fruitless dreams of being a filmmaker in Singapore, just enjoying the scenery of my life while treating my anxiety disorder with therapy. So I'm thankful for that, whomever inspired my life to be this way. I do feel that this is a good way to handle my anxiety problems and my anger issues; maybe not the best way, but it works.

The Mass Effect trilogy, specifically Mass Effect 2. I love games where the players' choices have very clear impacts on the plot (instead of the cheap "we mention your choices but it's irrelevant to the plot"). Mass Effect 2 had quite a few important choices that get carried over to the third game, specifically your decision on the genophage cure and killing or rewriting the heretic Geths. Your squad mates who didn't survive the suicide mission also don't appear in the third game, but I feel like that's kinda a superficial consequence because squadmates appearing won't affect the plot as significantly as the above two options I mentioned, and your sacrifice of those squad mates for whatever reasons wouldn't get questioned. But such a game mechanic is also why I love Detroit: Become Human, because it has dozens of unique and distinct endings very different from one another depending on your choices. I feel like a lot of studios that want to do games where "choices matter" could learn a lot from Quantic Dream's design for DBH.

People who brag about pwning somebody. It just feels petty and mean. I have my own anger episodes, sure, and I'll admit I have a bad temper. But I think I've reached a point in my life where I don't have the kind of energy or motivation these people put into their YouTube videos bragging about how they've made someone else look bad, or just putting anyone down at all, regardless of their beliefs.

Alright, I'll bite since everyone's got a thread. Shoot and I'll answer. 😄

Bragging about never crying. You can't win with people sometimes. People criticize toxic masculinity, but when you start to express that you cry while enjoying the more trivial things like video games and thus being in touch with your emotions, people sometimes call out on that even in 2022. It's like, which is it? Should I be in touch with my emotions or not? It's why I just can't deal with people anymore because they have this twisted narrative that I'm just not sure how to go along with without stepping on someone's toes. I'd rather just shut up about it most of the time.

Ironically, I only played ROM-hacks to decrease the difficulty of a certain franchise: Pokémon. All Pokémon readily available on a single version without trading, easy IV/Egg Move-breeding and EV-edit. I've also played Pokémon: Ash Gray that was a really cool hack that faithfully adapted the entire plot of the Indigo Stadium saga from the first season of the anime. It's far faithful than Pokémon Yellow, right down to reenacting entire scenes from the anime. Such a great tribute for fans who grew up with the anime. Unfortunately, it never got finished past the Orange Islands, but thankfully, it was completed till the point where you revitalize Charizard the way Ash did to win his trust. There were also a few other Pokémon hacks I played for the interesting story, such as the Pokémon Adventures hacks that finally brought the far superior story of the manga to the games. I don't think those were completed either, which is a shame, because I could see them as successful JRPGs of their own with the unique and emotional storylines.

Fatigued sounds about right for me as well. I'm ready to move on from Two Point Campus. Already getting bored of the routine gameplay design after a week of playing it. That's a $50 game I'll probably never play for a long time. Wah wah.

Which was your favorite Diablo game? And how many hours did you play?

I remember the old Prima Games walkthroughs. Those were so great. They felt like tour guides for a new foreign country you're unfamiliar with. Same with RPGs and open world games IMO. Some folks are more adventurous and want to explore the worlds on their own, but others prefer a guide to show all the highlights and collectibles and hidden gems you might have missed (gems you missed and thus wasting your money because you never got the full value of what you paid for from the game).

HAH! I WISH. Singapore is known for being inferior when it comes to film education because we just don't have a viable film industry here unlike in America, Europe, even Malaysia or Vietnam. We did have a video effects class in college that taught us Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro (god that was boring). We also have your typical Audio & Video classes, but that's the closest you can get to holding a camera. I had to sign up for private film schools and even that didn't get me anywhere close to the film industry. For shame. I've tried my hands on making my own films for years using a handheld cam I bought, but I've pretty much given up by now.

What's your favorite British show?

Millionaire. Not a HP fan. And even if I am, see NightmareFarm's post about Dementors. Also, earwax and vomit flavored candies? No thanks.

Things definitely became a lot more political beginning from the late 2010s. I still remember enjoying a movie without getting into some political debate about race or gender. Good times. I also remember not loving a film enough to have it end up on my favorites list after 2015. There just weren't a lot of films memorable enough for me that they stood out. A few films slipped through the cracks like Hereditary, sure, but even then, when I look at my top 50 favorite movie list, only one of them was released post-2015: Zootopia (and Ex-Machina if you want to count that, released on 2015). The Internet also changed a lot beginning from 2016, but more specifically YouTube. YouTube has been around for quite a while, and it's no longer the fresh platform where individuals could have the freedom to express themselves like it's the American Dream all over again. Nope, instead you get toxic YouTube drama with people like Keemstar and Logan Paul making headlines as "celebrities" even though I could barely give a crap about them. 2001 though pretty much changed not just America, but the entire world, because it's the day when the most powerful nation in the world was reminded of how powerless it is with the terrorist attack. All movies were impacted in how we address terrorism and villainous figures, all the ways we react towards foreigners in society, all the security in airports and even the mentioning of the word "bomb," all the ways the news outlets like CNN and Fox News were altered with yellow fear-mongering journalism. It literally scarred the nations forever. Without 9/11, people like Trump wouldn't have been elected. It's a f-ing butterfly effect that sent one of the biggest hurricanes in history hurling towards us, and we're still paying for it. I don't even live in America, and I still feel like I could say I'm part of the 9/11 generation feeling the effects of the fear and the cynicism. We've become more jaded as a people, and that's not the best way for a teenager like me to grow up in the 2000s.

I'm already gaining 10 pounds every few months from my unhealthy diet, so I'll take those 10 pounds easily. I'm still not that fat though, surprisingly... just a little beer tummy here. All my fat has gone down my tummy and thighs, never my spindly arms.

I was too young to remember the decade before the Internet boom, meaning I was born 1990. By the time I got old enough to think for myself, my parents have already bought me my first computer with Internet access around 2000. Before then though, my only source of entertainment was my television, so it was a pretty good time back then too, maybe even better considering the amount of people I've argued with online ever since I got that computer... I've certainly went out to play with the neighborhood kids a lot less frequently now that I have an entire entertainment machine at my disposal. I would remember inviting my friends over to play with my PC though. Good times...

Sony being greedy again. What's new? lol And people wonder why they're being sued. It's these kinds of disgusting practices, that's why. That's how you get lawsuits looking into your ethics.

But you have to step outside and walk. lol I don't even exercise or jog. And sometimes, I just feel like playing a game immediately in the middle of the night... when the store's not opened. That's how I ended up buying Two Point Campus on Steam at around 12 midnight (not sure if there's a physical version anyway). I still stand by initial support of physical media though, especially since I've earned a nice $400 from selling my 3DS games. This is the biggest reason why I wouldn't support digital media - no monetary returns. Unless my games could be accessed by anyone on my Switch/PS4 regardless of your account, those consoles won't have bigger monetary values no matter how many digital games I've bought on them. But if I say, "I'm selling my PS4 and I'll throw in a physical copy of Spider-Man as a bonus," that's how my Playstation 4 would get sold much easier.

I don't have a lot of favorites, especially since I don't play a lot of mainstream games, but Two Point Campus is turning out to be quite appealing for me so far. I wouldn't say it's even remotely one of my favorite games of all time, but it's at least the one that I had the most fun with in the 2020s. But I think it's still behind Digimon Survive. Even though I have my problems with the game (particularly the length of it for a visual novel and its awkward replay structure), I think that game stood out for me the most this decade as a Digimon fan who grew up with the first season of the anime. It was truly a love letter to us and a tribute to that particular season. I don't think there's any other game that represented my childhood more than this so far, and I'm grateful for it. Behind Digimon Survive is the second strongest contender, Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition. I love this game, so so much. It broke my heart, made me feel depressed, but I wouldn't trade anything in the world for my experience with this game. It touches my emotions in all the right ways while addressing the heavy subject of death and dealing with it in the most tasteful and heartfelt way. It's just an amazing masterpiece IMO for an indie game. The third favorite would've been The House In Fata Morgana: Dreams Of The Revenants Edition, but even though it was released on Switch in 2021, the Revenants Edition was released on the PS4 in 2019, so it wouldn't have counted. It's still a damn good visual novel though with lots of depth in its exploration of different tragic stories resulted from the characters' own faults and fallibility. So my ranking for most favorite would be: 1. Digimon Survive 2. Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition 3. Two Point Campus Least favorite would be Cyberpunk: 2077, but it's only in this list because it's one of the few games I've played in the 2020s, and the one that I liked the least among those few entries. I only ended up playing it under two hours before refunding it on Steam. I probably would've gave it a chance and played it longer if Steam's refund policy wasn't so strict, but I didn't want to risk wasting money on something I didn't potentially enjoy, which I didn't. The combat was tedious and difficult, and the story didn't go anywhere interesting (I didn't get to the Keanu Reeves part, so that might be the problem). Kinda glad I refunded it, now that I've heard of all the complaints about the game.

I have a few. SPOILERS for all videos. And that's how Madoka Magica became forever sealed as my favorite anime of all time. lol Because the shocking twists didn't stop there. And sure, there have been dark magical girl anime before, but I feel like Madoka Magica really changed how magical girls were portrayed ever since, the same way The Dark Knight influenced superhero films. Gone were the days where magical girls were symbols of hope and love. Gintama had tons of epic moments, but most of the memorable ones for me were its comedic WTF moments: I still remember the days when I could ask, "How the f*** did they get away with that?!" Before Madoka Magica came into my life, I think the first time I got "WTF'd" by an anime was Gurren Lagann. It had tons of epic moments, especially when the Giga Drill Breaker appeared for the first time and broke the Internet, but this one stood out for me because it was the first time I saw an anime or even a TV show having the balls to pull something like this several episodes down the series (7 episodes if I recall): And then of course, I'd be remiss not to have mention Nichijou, the greatest of slapstick slice of life: Just watch the series. Thank me later. 😛

I haven't really played enough games that I could think of decent rivalries I was a fan of, but I do enjoy these: 1. Scorpion and Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat). I grew up on the '90s Mortal Kombat film and didn't really get to experience the MK games, but if I'm forced to choose a rivalry I remotely like, this is the closest one I could think of that stands out. I've seen Mortal Kombat: Legacy, and I really enjoyed the backstory behind these two's rivalry, how the tragic misunderstanding led to this eternal blood feud. 2. Master Chief and The Arbiter (Halo). Grew up on the Halo trilogy on the XBox. It was a pretty entertaining rivalry where two individuals from two species trying to kill each other became a buddy-cop kind of duo. The backstory behind the Arbiter and how that led him to team up with the MC just goes to show how rich the Halo universe can be. I kinda hope he would show up again in the later games, not that I would know since I haven't played them. 3. Kasumi and Ayane (Dead or Alive 3). DoA3 was one of my first games when I bought the XBox, specifically because I got to play it all day (while playing hooky) when it's on display at a major bookstore in Singapore. This was the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat of my generation, so I got to know the characters' backstories pretty well, and Kasumi and Ayane's blood feud just felt so interesting, how Ayane for bound by code to kill Kasumi because the latter's a runaway shinobi. It was the first time I got to know about ninjas and their code, so it was a fascinating experience for me. 4. Red and Blue (Pokémon Red and Blue). This one isn't really appealing for me because of the rivalry and more so because of the ability to show how much Blue sucks when he loses against you at the end and got called a terrible trainer by Professor Oak. Smell ya later indeed, Blue-sor. lol The rivalry portrayed in Pokémon: Origins though doesn't appeal to me as much because I found Red to be insufferable and hypocritical. I just never really liked Red over Ash because at least Ash loved his Pokémon; Red came off like a typical Pokémon gamer who treats his Pokémon like tools (which gamers are justified in doing so, but it's hypocritical for Red to call out Blue on this when he's no better). That's all I've got. lol

I hope your choices have more impact. I feel like the original game didn't really address my choices as significantly as something like Obsidian's other games including Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol. Obsidian consistently did great work though, so it's not a big dealbreaker for me even if the choices aren't varied (just that I might only play it once and forget about it, like I did with the first Outer Worlds). I was surprised to learn that they did South Park: The Stick of Truth, which I found to be FAR more fun than South Park: The Fractured But Whole in terms of gameplay and writing. They also did Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, which I heard was more popular than the first KotOR among some circles. So yeah, I'm semi-looking forward to Outer Worlds 2, see what else they could bring to the RPG landscape that hasn't been done to death already. Hope Obsidian knocks it out of the park once again.

I love using walkthroughs because I'm lazy when it comes to replaying the game to figure out the challenging mechanic of the gameplay. Most times, when I avoid using a walkthrough is only when the gameplay isn't challenging, and the story is a bigger focus of the game. But for RPGs especially, I always use a walkthrough because I lack the patience to figure out "the perfect build." Just tell me how to win and let me enjoy the game, thank you.

I'd like to think that I'm pretty reasonable when it comes to varied endings on an RPG. I didn't complain when Fallout: New Vegas dealt with this problem by making its multiple endings a series of slideshow. I didn't complain with SMT games either because they usually focus on three endings, and these three endings are varied enough that they feel unique and worth the replayability (minus SMT V where the difference only lies in the last hour of the game), at least in comparison to Mass Effect 3. Even the Extended Cut of it looks cheap compared to what SMT games do with their endings. But again, as I've noted in another thread, this seems to be a western RPG problem and less so for JRPGs. I think it helps that they have visual novels as an influence, and VNs would often contain multiple endings, and it helps that they aren't just dating sims anymore and can contain a wide variety of stories (even gameplay on some titles), so JRPGs might have taken some influence from that. See Digimon Survive.