LadyCrimson

Diablo 3/PS4. At least in single-player, the game catering drops to your class (mostly gear with DEX drops with Monk, mostly gear with STR for Crusader) is sorta annoying/dull. I get it, ppl don't want to find useless stuff for the chr. they're playing on, but they could have made class-catering drops a little less extreme. The loot drop lvls scaling (in all Acts) with clvl is also a bit annoying at times, but again, I get why I suppose. Everything is catered to the Paragon levels now, and since you can switch the basic difficulties without having to even finish Normal first, lvl 1-70 is just training wheels I guess. The balance for 1-70 feels totally out of whack. Normal/Hard and even early Hell is comically easy as a result, since there are now seemingly ten other difficulties to consider. I found it amusing I could technically level up to 70 never leaving Act1. I lvl'd up 1 chr. to 42 - didn't take too long really - before being bored of that experiment and finally killing the Butcher. And of course the Seasons (ladders). Sorta MMO styled never-ending post-game to retain high level players, where a long-term audience no longer cares if it's too easy getting there. The best thing about the game (outside of item hording addiction which is just an arpg fixture) is the pets. It is so freaking cute the way they dash to pick up gold for you (their only purpose besides looks) that I'll often stand still waiting for them to do it even if I could reach the gold first. That all said, oddly, the way D3 is now, I'd rate it a little higher than first-PC-release version. It's at least more casual "fun" overall than originally, with all that post-game/Paragon/Seaonal to suck up 1000's of hours if you're of a mind (I'm not of that mind). It still doesn't feel like "Diablo" to me, tho. Not at all. Edit: and the best thing about console version is you can play offline

RD1 was one of the few that I was interested in once, but not enough to buy a console at the time. Now that I have a PS4/pro, I'm somewhat interested in RD2 but ... not enough to pay $70 for it ($80 not on sale - the one with extra storymode content, the one with extra online stuff is even more, base is $60). RD1, far as I can tell, is still available on PS4 but only as part of the PSNow thing - eg, it's not the "full game" install category, so I think streaming with the extra monthly/annual fee. A lot of the PS2/PS3 games are that way. Edit: Also, I'm still alternating between console-Diablo3 and PC Grim Dawn. After getting used to the horrible wheel GUI (I still hate it tho) the rest of D3 on console has been ... interesting. It feels very casual and Normal has become SUPER DUPER easy, to the point of comical. Legendaries dropping left and right, clvl-20ish items having +100 and more to stats on them, beating Act bosses in literally 15 seconds. But I need to try harder difficulties before I judge that. I recall PC-D3 ticking me off with difficulty spikes in a bad way, and I'm curious how much they tone it down. 2nd Edit: Also, I still don't like the overall design of D3 past Act2. It feels/felt boring. 3rd Edit: I haven't played D3 since maybe 6 months after original release. Even the PC has changed drastically I hear - I think console and PC are largely the same now, except for controller differences.

^ I'm the same way actually, it's just that in Grim Dawn after the first 25-30 clvl's imo the green+ items are the only things worth looking at. Even with that it's so much I spend 30-60 minutes after every session cleaning up a lot of "maybes" out of the shared stash and have multiple mule-only chrs. Tried Diablo3 on the PS4. Wow that radial menu system for looking at inventory and what your character is wearing - it blows. I mean maybe it's efficient in a way but I dislike it intensely. When I use the stick to try to navigate it always overshoots....the UI text is also a bit too small for sitting farther away even on the 43" TV. Borderlands series was fine re: their more simple UI even with all their billion guns and accessories and skiltlrees, D3 is a mess. Combat's fine I suppose once you get used to using console buttons/triggers vs. KB/mouse.

Still Grim Dawn, still loving playing a Necro/Arcanist, into Elite difficulty now. She uses this "laser ray" spell so I have something to do besides stand around staring at the summons fight. I'm so glad you can control what loot rarity is visible. I have it set to only show green and above so I don't have to stare at the 100000000 yellow items which don't even sell for much and get in my way visually. I have a Necro/Shaman going as well, she can add another pet (who can buff your other pets) on top so that's probably the best summoning combo, imo. Plus my pure Arcanist who is a total fast cast spell spamming fool. Good times.

I'm just very loyal.

Did you buy that Dr. Wu DLC? Some comments said it had features that "should have been in the game originally" so it improves it a bit, but that it was priced too high.

Graphics is the main reason for JWE for sure, imo. Realized PS4 was having a sale too. I still have trouble finding anything for PS4, because most aren't my "thing" or are PC-available, or they're only a PSN version and I don't want to stream play video games. PS4 Diablo3 everything-bundle was $20 vs. $60. Not my favorite arpg at all, but never bought any expansions on PC (no plans to either). When I don't want to sit in a deskchair for Grim Dawn I'll try console D3 a bit instead. For 20 bucks I won't mind even if l become annoyed and (figuratively) toss it out the window once more. Haha.

The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix. I was totally going to skip this holiday kid-family-looking film but then .... I saw Kurt Russell's name. I instantly just knew he was going to be Santa. I had to see that. After the predictable beginning setup, in came Kurt and I spent the rest of the movie grinning every time he was on-screen (which was a fair amount). Everything else was typical/forgettable for such a movie - plus the CGI elves that show up late-game looked like a fuzzy Gremlin and a lawn dwarf had babies (eg, they're weird to creepy looking), but ... Kurt "I don't HoHoHo" MFing Russell. Best. Santa. Ever. Worth it just to see him, far as I'm concerned.

Steam sale got me this time. --Psycho-Pass Mandatory Happiness - been waiting for this VN to go on sale. $15 is a lot better than $30 so ok. --Jurassic World Evolution "Deluxe" (get 5 extra dinos, cheaper than buying separately). $22 was acceptable, considering I mostly want it for Ansel goofing and don't expect to seriously play it all that long. The Dr Wu DLC wasn't on sale so I skipped it.

Harriet Oleson....one of my fave early "chrs. you love to hate."

I probably would have liked Avatar in the theater a bit more if I hadn't elected to see it in the 3D version. I chose 3D because I was curious about how far advanced theater 3D might've become. I wasn't very impressed. Film itself felt so by the numbers. I did find that evil Marine guy hilarious tho. And yeah, on home video, even with a somewhat large screen (50"), it looks flat and too obviously CGI and 3d cinema designed which is distracting - it's a film that's definitely better seen in a theater.

The best thing about instant ramen (Nongshin's Shin Ramyun is the best) is still the fact you can add all kinds of things to it and make it your own (and don't forget, you don't have to use all of that flavor packet, which is too much salt anyway). Vegies, meats, whatever. I often put so many things into mine it makes for a giant bowl. On a rainy morning, it's also great as an easy warming comfort food I can slurp while staring out the window.

I understand this sentiment quite well. Not about this forum in particular at the moment but the 'net/open forum concept in general. So often it just reads like people shouting at each other repetitively and needlessly and I grow weary of reading nothing but anger and scoffing and leave. I spend less and less time on forums in general. Maybe I'm just old in the head tho. :D I hope you don't leave permanently tho. I always like your posts about your vacations/travels and the like, even if I don't say anything. You can just do what I do - mostly lurk, occasionally post an opinion but don't seriously interact much. A bit off-topic, but I continue to dislike that Like button and never liked that it was implemented here. I've hit it maybe 3-4 times for a few specific sentimental threads but generally purposely ignore it. I still feel such only serves to halt most casual conversation because people hit the Like button instead of replying. Thus there's a lot less of the casual back and forth, meaning on average users never really get to know each other from different angles, even over time. The reason I still come back here now and then, even with long breaks, is the memories of getting to know some of what are called long-timers, all those years ago, is very strong. All the WoT shenanigans. The photo threads, the pet threads, on a personal level making that Kotor gallery that others could use. The laughs. Helping others. (edit - maybe that last half sounded too "elitist" or something? That's not how I meant it at least ... just a long winded way of saying a place has become habitual even if it isn't the same as before, for me) Now it often feels so serious, even in WoT. I know people change and time marches on and all of that, and I've probably become more low-key and literal-minded myself - not to mention too lazy to start up photo threads, haha - but still ... super serious is just not my style.

Not that I have anything invested in this film, but that does look better than the trailer. A tad more naturalistic perhaps. For some reason tho - and this is me being terribly and unfairly nitpicky - the cleft chin doesn't work for me in this case. Worked for Supes/Kent. Just not here. Can't say why. heh. There was a decent YT opinion vid re: the no beard and how it's based not on Witcher 3 but earlier games where he had no beard (the vid had game footage from those earlier chr. versions), which seems a reasonable explanation/nothing to be fussed over. If it succeeds enough for sequels, he can have the beard later.

Netflix - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Western anthology film by Cohen brothers. 6 segments varying from 10-20 minutes long or so. The first two shorter segments were hilarious, but I have a fairly twisted sense of humor. 3rd was dark/morbid. 4th was more "normal" styled but still great. 5th was a little on the oddball side where I felt like the two relatively talky leads were speaking with a Shakespearen beat delivery but in modern English. Last one was all dialogue and I thought it the weakest one but YMMV. It did have Brendon Gleeson singing a song of sorts, so that was a bonus. At any rate, worth watching the first 4 segments, at least, imo.

On another useless topic of my day, it's almost 3pm, where is my Amazon Fresh order? I'm hungry! I want my salads and munchies! Also, I'm still in brain-knots over how much I should give for the tip section when I order from them. It's not it's like full dining service but hey the driver uses their own car and saves me physical labor. 5%? 10%? I waffle.

Talking Kitty is still funny (and the new kitten is adorable!) ... although the pet human could use to talk a little bit less.

Does that mean it actually contains a few historically true facts? lol ... yes. Moreso than Braveheart certainly, which is basically "epic" rousing fantasty-fiction like I said. Including the kilt style, apparently.

Yeah, the smoke from the Paradise fire up North was bad all week (especially first couple days) even all the way down here in the Bay. Visibly brown smoky/hazy all around even at eye/street-level, smell included. My allergies have not been good. I initially checked to make sure it wasn't a closer/smaller local fire. I know someone in Sacramento, he shut himself up in the house with air purifiers going and didn't do his sport activities either. Satellite images of the smoke the first day were quite something, looking like heavy storm clouds. (from the 9th)

Outlaw King on Netflix - I liked the fantasy-as-historical entertainment Braveheart and I liked director David MacKenzie's Hell or High Water. So I gave this one a shot. I hear 20 minutes of the more "political" bits were excised from the film before airing on Netflix, which is probably a good thing, but the intro is still rather snooze inducing and TV-movie feeling. And there was something off about much of the acting that occasionally felt a bit cringy. Or maybe it's something else about the production that just made it feel that way, I'm not sure. Chris Pine is in super dour mode. Once the battle/war starts it's more watchable, if lots of mud and violence are your thing. Becomes less TV-movie feeling later too. I'd say it's watchable and sometimes entertaining/interesting if this type of film generally appeals. But it's no Braveheart. Or Hell or High Water.

When I hear big corp. folk talk about how they're going to change, all I tend to hear is "no new taxes." They're like politicians to me, speaking in ideology to get votes but said ideology rarely gets any long-term or lasting results, for many reasons. That isn't to say it's "lies" or that the good intentions aren't actually there or that nothing ever changes. I just like to wait to see results over propaganda. Too many assumptions in any direction before having more data than mere lip service isn't my style. One can only hope for the best (whatever "best" means to each of us) - and expressing/discussing initial reservations doesn't always mean a complete lack of hope. Nothing wrong with having reservations. In terms of platform concerns - I bought a PS4 then Pro for FFXV and to this day the PS4 is still mostly a paperweight - even moreso after the PC version came out (which if I'd realized would happen in only a year or so I might've waited...). I don't think I'm going to repeat the process with Xbox. So if future Obs games were ever Xbox only, I just won't be playing them until/when they're released on other more open platforms. MIcrosoft Store - haven't used it yet (don't have win10 yet) and likely won't but I won't say "never ever". I haven't used Ubisoft or any other thingie besides Steam, either. I just try to overall avoid any 100+ services train as much as possible because what I already have is too much for my waning faculties (and get off my lawn crankiness) to want to deal with. Maybe I'm only delaying the inevitable. So I have no idea what I'll do if Obs has a great looking game but it's only on Windows Store/Xbox. I'll figure it out when/if it happens. Maybe I can just enjoy it vicariously through YouTube. Pffft. Hm. I guess I'm just rambling now. *exit stage left*

The problem with CGI and "cute animal like things" is all of them look largely the same after a while, if they're based on the same real-life creature. They all have hamster, cat, dog, fox like features with the exact same facial tics/animations. Since it's not an actual real creature tho, I don't tend to get uncanny valley - it's just a generic sense of sameness even if it's cute. Just like a cgi trex or a cgi troll opening its giant mouth to roar is always the same. Edit: although yeah, I do agree the other cgi creatures have that shiny plastic hyper-gloss to them or something.

The past month or so I've had weird issues with my PC, where any KB (sometimes mouse) input would randomly do random things like open clicked browser links in new tabs when I didn't ask it to, open the Run prompt or Explorer or other windows thingies, make game menu inputs wonky. It would go away on reboot but start up again at some point sooner or later.Thought it was Steam/game related. Thought it was Firefox related. etc. Couldn't figure it out. Hubby finally suggested "hit all the keys randomly." Didn't work either. But I thought ok, I'll super-clean my KB then, it's been years and years. Popped all the keys off, lots of dustbunnies and grime on the sides of keys. Cleaned. No symptoms since. Lesson1: clean your KB more often than once every 5-6 years. Lesson2: you always "break" at least a couple of keys each time you pop them all off (which is why I don't clean them often). Time for a new KB I suppose.

First reaction: Ken Watanabe! Second reaction: Pikachu VA is familiar ... oh, him. I like Reynolds, but doesn't quite work for me here. Third reaction: But cgi Pikachu sure is cute in a cat crossed with a rat/squirrel kind of way. Final Verdict: I'll wait for the YT video that compiles all the cute scenes together in a 5 minute clip.

Worthy of 85million views and imo actually deserves a lot more than that. ...which led me to wondering what the most viewed videos were on YouTube. With over 5.5 billion views, apparently this was #1 (a bit ago and maybe still) and the article that made the list said it was a huge 2017 hit all over the world. No surprise, I'd never heard it myself. ... I suppose it's dance-catchy. Not really my style tho. But I do like the reminder that language is no barrier for music. I definitely have lots of tunes I like where I can't understand a word.