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Anthony Mackie did a great job reprising the role and adding the mantle of Capt. America to his Falcon role. Harrison Ford did not impress in this role. The writing was okay for a Marvel movie, but didn't leave me wowed.

It was good, better than the most recent Capt. America movie. The actors all carried the roles pretty well.

Nintendo has dropped a launch trailer for the Switch 2!


Linus Tech Tips has a pretty good breakdown of confirmed information and some speculation on additional details for the new console release.

I'm still playing my PS2 and my PS3 (upgraded with an SSD for more speed off non-blu-ray applications).

Screw PS5 prices. They are still not really that affordable. Since my Samsung smart TV streams, there is no need for a console to stream.

Besides, I could spend all of that money on new guitars!

Ah, I didn't know that Sackboy had struck out to spinoffs of the Little Big Planet franchise!

I think that we all miss forum communities at times. I spend quite a bit of time on sevenstring.org mostly because guitar is my other main hobby.

It is good to hear that you are attending to your health as you reach that age milestone! I think that Bluevoodu and I are both hitting more health problems at our ages too!

Happy belated birthday, Retro!!

Do people have a reason to visit a brick & mortar BestBuy anymore?

I visited last holiday season since I used a store pickup option for an ASUS gaming monitor that I purchased online. That is the only time I have visited and had a transaction at BestBuy in years.

We've gotta play more Portal so you can get that reference!

I agree with a lot of those points. Xbox has pretty much been absorbed by PC. The only appeal for Xbox seems to be for those who don't have or cannot afford a gaming PC. There is just so much shared space between the Series X and a decent gaming PC.

Sony has had a mainstay of home theater systems for a long time. That affords one benefit to someone wanting to add a media player and/or gaming console. That idea may be dying with so many TVs having smart streaming features. I noticed my recently purchased Samsung TV has some gaming available on it as well. I have not delved too deeply into it since we are mostly using it for streaming.

There are some things now where I prefer digital. The Switch, if you use it as a console instead of a handheld, is pretty much a pain to swap games. I am determined to buy digital only for that now. Looking back, I wish that I had purchased more digital games for the 3DS while they were available.

I do prefer DVDs for media consumption. I remember going through a good handful of old DVDs after moving to Indy and not having internet in a new apartment for a couple of months.

I am in-between with music CDs. I have made back-up mp3s of my CDs for decades now, which was great since I could have my mp3s on my PC while my CDs were in my car. My newer Jeep has no CD player though, which sucks. The mp3 player in that thing has been beyond unreliable and is a pain to navigate.

Each medium has its perks, but it is weird going into a store and finding no DVDs anymore, yet finding vinyl albums.

Christmas goodies! It is hard to beat Castlevania and Final Fantasy!

I upgraded my computer monitor, but even though a PS5 or Xbox Series X seems like I can swing the cost, I just don't see any appeal in either console.

What happened to first-party and console exclusive games? Why buy a console when I can get the same game on PC?

Probably a cranky old neighbor complained to the HOA... 

Backity back back

One... two... Threee? 

Mega Tim! One year wiser!

I just finished season 2. I think that this season was an improvement over the first season. The cinematography and worldbuilding is very well done. The actors are becoming more comfortable in their roles too.

Any John Wick fans?  Apparently a spin-off film is in production with Ana de Armas playing The Ballerina."

The trailer looks pretty good, if not violent in just the right way.

Get a micro SD card and hold way more games!

Yay! 

The cameos in the movie were all very very well played.

Ryan Renolds has nailed the persona of Deadpool and is clearly comfortable playing the role. Hugh Jackman did a wonderful job as Wolverine as well.

Looks like Steam has the Castlevania Collection (Castlevania I, II, III, Super IV, Bloodlines and GameBoy Castlevania Adventure), Advance Collection (Circle of Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow), and now this Dominus collection.

Steam is pretty much just missing the Nocturne Collection from PS4 (Symphony + Rondo of Blood) and the PS2 3D Castlevanias (Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness).

How did I miss that Nintendo is FINALLY moving these DS games to a full console version?

I have all three on DS/DS lite/3DS already, but have really found handheld gaming is less of my thing and have always wanted to play these on an actual console setup. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin has been one of my favorites for a while. It looks like it'll be available on Switch and Steam for PC users.

https://www.gematsu.com/2024/08/castlevania-dominus-collection-announced-for-ps5-xbox-series-switch-and-pc-now-available

I thought this was going to be a K-mart special!

It is too bad that virtual console support for Wii / Wii U / 3DS was abandoned by N. I would have liked to have eventually downloaded more games to my 3DS.

And a belated thank-you to you all!

This video is worth a watch. It is a good commentary on the state of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 nowadays...

Annddd... as a related follow up, what happened with the modern Halo games?

MasterMario, SpartanEvolved, and I discussed it on Thursday. MM suggested that we'd need to set aside a full session since the game is time-consuming.

If you keep playing and exploring, you find the dead ends and impasses. Drawing a simple map can help early in the game. The map added in Super Metroid or Metroid: Zero Mission did make things easier. There is a reason that the entire genre of Metroidvanias is based on Super Metroid.

Also, since Metroid takes place on planet Zebes (same as Super Metroid) there are some passages that get familiar between the two games.

Nah, the wave beam is pretty important, but Super Metroid really fixed those issues.

I remember back in 1989, getting Metroid and trying to draw my own maps of Brinstar. It is epic how the game basically tells you to find and defeat the "mechanical life brain" and gives you no other instruction. Anyone who played Mario intrinsically starts going to the right, only to hit a dead end and have to go left to get the maru mari (round ball).

That game came from an era of Nintendo-hard arcade-style games when starting over is easier than dying and continuing. By the time GameBoy Advance had the NES Classics series, I picked up Metroid and would play from start to finish in one life, about one hour per session. The game was never easy, but definitely gets more manageable with practice and patience.

Also, you don't need every energy tank or every missile to beat the game. The wave beam, though helpful, and ice beam, though nearly necessary in the final areas, are not actually needed as a condition to beat the mother brain either.

Learning the bomb jump trick and getting the Varia suit early is a major boon to Samus before getting to Norfair as well.

If you haven't played Metroid: Zero Mission, the early 2000s remake of Metroid, it is worth checking out for the extra abilities and extra chapter!