Keyrock

This Gollum looks like a caricature of the movies Gollum.

It was not explained well but rest assured that you can use the Return Pillar as much as you want, it's insanely useful. You don't even need to go into inventory to use it, it's bound to left bumper by default.

At first I didn't use the Return Pillar because I didn't know if it was consumable. Later I figured out that it has unlimited charges and I've been using it constantly since. Between that, leyline crossings, and the ridiculous looking Naruto run, getting around in SMT V is a fairly rapid affair.

The labyrinthine design of the area didn't bother me that much because it's easy enough to teleport back to a Layline Fount on the rooftops. Without the Return Pillar it would have been frustrating for sure. I really like the sound design of Chiyoda where the track playing at ground level is essentially a muted and ambient version of the track that plays on the rooftops and the transition is seamless.

I finally reached the castle at the end of the Chiyoda area. Of course, the castle is guarded:

Coming in 2024, Vin Diesel in A Fistful of Dollars, followed in 2026 by 2 Fistfulls 2 Dollars. *Cut to both Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa spinning in their graves.*

While Keanu was in Poland working with CDPR on the ill-fated Cyberpunk 2077, I guess he learned Aard.

Onward to the inevitable scrap with Surt(r). I'm not bothering to spoiler tag this since the game makes it crystal clear that you would be fighting the norse fire giant in advance. This was one battle where my physical build was a detriment because Surt has counter. I have a variety of dracostrikes which count as elemental attacks in terms of resistances but count as physical attacks otherwise, thus they can trigger counter. When Surt would counter he would hit me for half my health. Luckily, I have a strong healer at my disposal, several actually. Despite my physical build being a detriment, this was a really easy boss fight. Surt has a very one track mind in terms of the types of attacks he uses. I'm sure I'm not spoiling anything by telling you it's fire, fire, and more fire. He does occasionally use physical attacks, and he does hit hard, but 80% of the time he wound up using some manner of fire attack. I happened to have 2 demons with the fire block skill, one in my active party and one on the bench ready to sub in if necessary (it wasn't).

Anyone solely relying on Steam reviews to make purchasing decisions is a foolish consumer IMHO. It's a nice supplement, I like to read a couple positive reviews and a couple negative ones, but I'll also look for "professional" reviews both in written and video form, preferably from trusted sources. It's on a case by case basis how much research I do. If it's something from a series and/or developer I am already familiar with and predisposed to liking, I'm just looking to see that the devs didn't royally **** up a formula I already like. If I'm going into totally uncharted territory then I'll do a lot more research.

The work of visionary film genius Neil Breen is too important, too profound, and too life-altering to pigeonhole into any genre. Neil transcends traditional filmmaking definitions.

The term "arthouse sci-fi" immediately brings this image to my mind:

I'm fine, I don't understand how you interpreted my comment as an attack. Are you OK? I simply proposed 2 alternatives to the current review system and shared my quick thoughts on both of them, since I find people often are quick to criticize systems in place without offering said alternatives. Yes, the system is flawed. What can be done about it?

Then I, as a consumer, should do my due diligence and dig deeper before making a purchase decision. I realize many, if not most, people won't do this and that it's not a perfect system, but what's the alternative? Disabling or forbidding reviews of early access products? That's some authoritarian **** right there. Manually correcting all reviews when issues have been fixed? That sounds like the ideal solution but good luck implementing it.

I haven't done one of these in a long time and I think last time it was in a different thread (this one didn't exist yet) but here's another Half-baked Musing of a Truck Driver: There Is No Such Thing As Random. It is literally impossible for a computer to generate a random number. Every "random" number generted by a so called random number generator is based on a seed determined by something, such as the number of milliseconds (or whatever the smallest unit of time the computer can handle) since powering up. Similarly, humans also cannot generate a number (or name or anything else) truly randomly. We may not know it consciously, but any time we select something "at random" it's always based on something: A memory, the color of the wall in the room you are currently in, a smell in the air, etc. I'll take this to its logical end and say that nothing in the universe is truly random. Even quantum physics with particle/wave duality and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle are not examples of true randomness. The reason these things seem random is because we don't have (nor could we process with our current brain and technological computational power) all the information. If we had ALL the information of every bit of everything in the universe since its beginning (assuming "beginning" is even a concept that can be applied to the universe) and the computational power to process it then we could perfectly give not only the position and velocity of any and all particles, but also perfectly predict its future motions. I guess this makes me a subscriber to a hidden variable theory of quantum mechanics.

These 2 again: You got it, sexy snake lady. I really like the special concersations demons familiar with each other have sometimes:

I'm a big rasslin' fan, people poke fun at that all the time, and rightly so, it's grown men and women with spray tans and very little clothing pretending to fight. I poke fun at fandoms whenever the chance presents itself, whether it's furries, Star Wars fans, or whatever. Ultimately if that's what you get enjoyment out of, that's cool. I will draw a line at thing like lolis, because that's getting dangerously close to child pornography, and snuff films, since actual murder took place.

It's not my jam and I'm going to take the piss out of Twilight when the opportunity presents itself, but there are tons of teenagers that get a lot of enjoyment out of those books and movies and that's great.

I think that's fair, though. If you are charging money for a product then it's fair game for criticism, I don't care if it's early access. That criticism sticking around after the issue is addressed sucks, but that's the price you pay for charging money for an unfinished product.

Dismissing any genre is a pretty terrible elitist attitude and that goes for all manner of media. There are genres I don't gravitate towards but I certainly don't think of them as being beneath me. I can not like a genre yet still see the value in it.

The problem with the Matrix sequels is that at the end of the first movie Neo is essentially a god inside the matrix, so where do you go from there? You can't have any tension with Neo inside the matrix. I don't care how many agent Smiths attack him, or dreadlock ghosts, or kung fu guys with melee weapons, there is never any tension because Neo is all-powerful. The only place where Neo is vulnerable is the real world, but all the interesting stuff takes place inside the matrix, so... The lesson here is: Don't make your protagonist a god at the end of the first movie if you intend on making a franchise.

Then I'm the only person that's right. Gremlins 2 is nearly 2 hours of taking the piss out of Gremlins and it's DELIGHTFUL.

The list of sequels better than the original is very short. I can only think of 4 off the top of my head: T2: Judgement Day The Empire Strikes Back Gremlins 2 Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey As for the Alien vs Aliens debate, Aliens is a very good action movie but Alien is the best slasher I've ever seen; granted, that's not my area of expertise, so take that for what it's worth.

T2 is indeed better than The Terminator, I'd go so far as to say that it may be the best pure action movie ever made. In no way shape or form is Aliens better than Alien, and this is coming from a guy that loves action movies and is usually not into horror (though I love horror comedies).