Happy holidays y’all. Let’s make 21 >> 20.

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I recently recompleted the N Sane Trilogy. Would y’all be interested in hearing why I hate Stormy Ascent?

I've read the first volume of Rat Queens, though with the disclaimer that it's been a hot minute and I can't remember much. I haven't bought any comics pretty much all year because of how my work habits changed, so I haven't managed to get into or catch up on the series I've had my eyes on. How long is that series even?

I've read a few issues of Rat Queens. I've never played the N Sane trilogy but I've played the 3 original Crash Bandicoot games though.

Stormy Ascent is the bonus level that was removed in the original for being “too hard”. I don’t necessarily agree tgat that is the problem, although I think it is too hard. I believe that more of a problem with it is that it has a completely different game design philosophy than the rest of the game. The closest comparison I could make on the spot would be a mediocre Expert Mario Maker level randomly showing up in the middle of Celeste. It’s completely out of place and didn’t receive any of the polish that the rest of the game got.

I want to take the time to let y’all know that I enjoy reading the threads in this subforum and that I appreciate the content y’all generate. Just bc I don’t talk much doesn’t mean I’m not reading a lot; and I wanna take a moment to post a little thx this holiday season so y’all know and all.

Glad to hear it! If you ever feel like sharing your take on any of our content it will always be welcome, but I know the lurker life so no pressure

I’m significantly more a consumer of content then a creator and I don’t want to give feedback without making it sufficiently constructive. I appreciate the sentiment tho.

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Side note: Rolled a nat 20 on my umpteenth attempt and have obtained a ps5. Edit: said attempts required waking up at 4

Oof, tough rolls.

It has been months now that I'm listening to a stupid amount of Poor Mans Poison. Aside from Feed the Machine, which is purposefully scary relevant for "essential workers" and the like, there are a lot of bangers that wouldn't be out of place in a dusty Jakkard watering hole - Greedy Man could as well be dedicated to Brax, for example. Hell's Coming With Me, I understand, might even be inspired by a classic Western movie.

I'm not familiar with the song, but the quote was used in the movie Tombstone, and although I'm not a huge of Westerns in general, Tombstone is a very good movie in my opinion, and a well-done retelling of the Wyatt Earp story.

I'll keep that in mind!

Links for reference: Hell's Coming With Me, Feed the Machine and Greedy Man (I personally prefer the live version though). You can also find their whole discography on Spotify.

Aw,

I wish I could write and even read more than I do, but I find it difficult to nowadays. I'm slowly beginning to realize that the crushing feeling of responsibility I feel as a M:EMber is all in my head, though, and that what little I do participate right now is enough. I'd love to have enough focus (and free time) to properly catch up to everything that's come out in these years I've been kind of in the background, but I still love being able to talk to everyone here.

Oh, and also, in case I forgot to tell people, I've got the next 10 days off because I took this coming week off so I can watch AGDQ.

But also I offered to look over a new friend's writings and she sent me a boatload so I want to try and look over some of that for her.

I always just watch the “best” runs from gdq on YouTube later. It’s an extraordinary event; but there are just a lot of games on the schedule that I KNOW I’m not interested in watching.


The runs I will definitely watch at some point:
Donkey Kong Country Race
Metroid Zero Mission 9%
Metroid Prime 100%
Spyro 3 Reignited
Crash 1 NST
SMW2: Yoshi’s Island 100%
SM64 16 Star Blindfolded
SM Sunshine
Ocarina of Time

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Some other games would have been on there a few years ago but have been ruined for watching for me bc of certain glitches. A big example is Skyward Sword (all categories) and Majora’s Mask Any%. The former is just boring to me now, and the latter is under a half hour due to an easy wrong warp. I wouldn’t even be watching OoT if it wasn’t All Dungeons with THAT PARTICULAR RUNNER.

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Fun fact: Pure Any% for Ocarina of Time has been split into it’s own category bc the community would have died off otherwise. There is now a category that bans the new exploit so that the old interesting route is the “best” one remaining.

Another Fun Fact: Ocarina of Time is now so broken that they have to have categories separated on whether or not there is a source requirement.

Happy New Year, everyone! To quote from The Who, "I've got a feeling '21 is gonna be a good year, especially if you and me see it in together!"

I wish y'all an interesting and fulfilling New Year

**** that. I need at least a few uneventful months.

I mean, fair and understandable

(I'm just talking bottom line though, that can still comprise a very chill half of the year. Being able to realign oneself and (re)turning able to tackle things with serenity can be plenty fulfilling )

I was convinced to start a Nuzlocke challenge on a Pokémon fan game that I've never played: Pokémon Insurgence. Myself and two friends are playing alongside each other, with plans on stopping after every gym to battle each other. It's been going really poorly for at least two of us (myself included) because Insurgence, it turns out, is actually a fairly difficult Pokémon game.

Meanwhile, I've been going "holy ****" at myself for the last few days as I remember random things and realizing that my feelings on them stem from what is likely a form of OCD known as "moral scrupulosity." The weather has also had me feeling really down lately, but I'm feeling considerably better today for whatever reason.

Ooo, I should have that in the depth of my external HD, but I don't think I ever got through the barebone intro. Isn't one of the Pkmn games that has monsters used to hurt/abuse people? Like, Gengars mindwrecking humans?


That sounds really good progress-wise! Becoming aware of this stuff can be very helpful, especially for people with a strong rational... drive? Like, people with the habit to vivisect positive thoughts (like yours truly) already have the blueprint for the mental tools to divert/weaken the negative ones. And in general, being able to put the finger on the toxic dynamic that used to skulk right outside your awareness can feel liberating in its own right.

It looks like that's half the appeal of the game, yes. It has both a "lighter" and "darker" mode that you can freely switch between in-game, for a more traditional light-hearted Pokémon romp or an edgier, grittier take on the world, so it doesn't strictly have to be, but I imagine that there's more care and thought put into the darker mode. Also full disclaimer I've long wanted a little bit of grim realism in Pokémon games because of all the twisted 'dex entries even from the early games, like Cubone wearing the skull of its dead mother, or Gyarados destroying entire cities.

The game frankly runs terribly, but it has speed settings that somewhat mitigate the feeling of lag, and it's fun playing a Pokémon game again. I've got a few fan games and ROM hacks downloaded that I've been wanting to actually play but never have: Uranium, Moemon, Crystal Clear, and Prism. Frankly I would have preferred one of those because they're based on the older generations instead of gen 6, but my friend who wanted to do it is more into the "more recent" games and so wanted to try Insurgence.