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Remember when we did podcasts? I wish I had saved them somewhere.

I'm down with meetups for posting.

A digital copy should cost less than a physical copy since they don't have to factor the same manufacturing cost into it. If a digital copy isn't cheaper or doesn't offer anything that you can't get with a physical copy, the physical copy is worth more in the sense that you have a tangible product (that you can sell later if necessary). At least that's how I look at it.

Pokemon Go and Pokemon TCG Pocket. I like the collecting aspect of PTCGP but the battling is fun, too.

I'm playing pretty regular since Pokemon Go has stops and gyms at Walmarts now. I'm able to spin the stops and take on raids pretty easily. I'm kind of annoyed that Mewtwo hasn't been in raids for a long time now since it's  the only Pokemon I need to finish the Kanto Pokedex. I don't know enough people that live near me who play that I might be able to trade with. I hope with the new ownership (Scopely) they may finally do remote trading.

I have a OnePlus Nord N200 5G. It's very good. Long battery life, and plays the few games that I play well. The only notable downside is that it doesn't natively support QR codes, but there's work arounds for that.

I'm waiting for Pokemon gen 10, mostly. I haven't really seen anything else that interests me.

I watched it recently, and while I enjoyed it, I was also glad I had watched it streaming. I think I would have been disappointed if I'd paid to see it at the movies. It wasn't quite near the same level as movies I did enjoy in the theaters (Thunderbolts, The Marvels for example).

At my store we're cutting down our DVD section a lot when we remodel in 2026. Right now we have 88 feet of DVDs and I know at least 44 of that is getting taken out. Possibly more. And I think the Xbox section will take another hit. But the PlayStation and Nintendo sections are going strong, so I'm not worried about them.

I've been working on Lightning Returns. I never finished it when it came out because I didn't want to not have any more Lightning games to play    I'm on the last leg of it now, finally (about to fight the final boss). And then I'll do New Game+ to keep it going longer. I may try to complete all the achievements, but I'm not sure yet.

Since I got divorced in 2020 I've had to budget money more carefully so even at the older prices I was really only buying maybe one or two games a year. I don't really see that changing. I also won't have a new console so I generally will have to wait for PC releases anyway, and by the time they come out on PC they're usually a little cheaper.

Thanks! I treated myself to watching Thunderbolts in the theaters on my birthday. And then Taco Bell. It was a good birthday.

From what I saw on launch, the Switch 2 shouldn't actually be that bad to get (at least until around Christmas when everything will be hard to get). We had 26 systems for launch at my store; 19 Mario Kart bundles and 7 of the regular. The bundle was more popular and sold out within three hours. The regular one took five hours. But that's at least 2 1/2 more hours than I expected (I thought we would sell our inventory the first 30 minutes).

I was tempted to get one but decided I'll wait until either there's a fun special edition or until Pokemon generation 10 comes out. I don't expect that until late 2026 though. By then more games will be out as well so it's a win win IMO.

I did end up going to see it. I really enjoyed it. It had the right amount of action, humor, and character driven moments.

I'll eventually get a Switch 2. Nintendo still has a few franchises that you just can't get anywhere else. But I can't fit it in the budget currently. I have enough games from current consoles that I haven't finished to keep me going for a few years at least. 

The most recent binge was Frieren: Beyond Journey's End on Netflix. It's soooo good. I ended up buying the physical version so I can still watch it when I eventually cancel Netflix.

I might go see it tomorrow. I'm not current on the MCU so hopefully it stands its own.

I unfortunately had to sell most of my retro games when I was going through a financial hardship, so the only older Pokemon games I still have are Black and Black 2, and the digital version of Pokemon Sun on my 3DS. Luckily I had already put most of my older gen Pokemon into Black 2 and was able to transfer my Pokemon into Pokemon Home so I have a mostly full living Dex (missing a few mythicals like Zarude and Hoopa because I wasn't playing when they were distributed).

Personally it's hard for me to go back for older Pokemon games just because of the HM system. Needing a Pokemon for Cut, Flash, Rock Smash, Surf, Waterfall, Fly, etc limits what kind of team you can build, or makes you have to switch Pokemon out constantly which can be inconvenient if you're not near a Pokecenter to access the PC.

In gen 7 you had ride Pokemon which did all of the HMs for you, and the newer games have a similar set up. The Switch games also allow you to access your box from anywhere which is a huge QoL improvement.

Despite its terrible performance, I found Pokemon Scarlet/Violet to be probably my favorite Pokemon game ever. The characters were great, the story was good, the music was amazing, the new Pokemon are awesome, and the DLC only added to it and made it even more fun. They made hunting shinies more fun, and it's so much easier to hatch eggs and EV train than previous games.

The only real critique I have is that the gym leaders should have scaled with the level of the player; and obviously the performance issues are not great (although honestly the people who complained about having problems the most were mostly the same people who manipulated save data for egg hatching).

I also played Pokemon Sword, but I found that one incredibly boring in the base game. It was saved a lot by good DLC.

Then there was Pokemon Legends Arceus, which I also absolutely loved. The catch mechanic is so much fun.

I still kind of want to play Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu but haven't had a chance to get it yet.

And finally I also have Pokemon Shining Pearl. I never played Platinum and it has been so long since I played the original D/P that playing Shining Pearl was like playing a new game, so I didn't have any issues with it.

Walmart hasn't stopped yet. Those articles were a weird misrepresented response to Walmart pulling (only) Starfield and that was more to do with Starfield being a Game Pass title than anything as far as I know.

They did cut down the amount of games we carry for each platform, with Xbox taking the biggest hit (from 90 down to 49), but there's nothing in our current floor plans to suggest we're getting rid of any of them altogether.

Personally for myself I like physical copies, although like Grindspine said, trading out the cartridges on the Switch is a little on the inconvenient side.

I really enjoyed the Marvels but the singing planet part was a bit cringe even for me. I also don't think it's as rewatchable as Captain Marvel was, even though I do enjoy the cast of the Marvels a lot.

The last few shows I binged were Medium, FBI, and NCIS: Hawaii.

Medium was great! FBI is still ongoing so I'm waiting weekly for new episodes on that now.

NCIS: Hawaii unfortunately got cancelled but it seems like at least some of the characters may get folded into other ongoing NCIS shows so I'm still watching those.

I started playing again a couple years back and got more into it. There's also more Pokestops close to my house now (about four in my apartment complex and a few more along with two gyms about a 10 minute walk away).

Although admittedly right now I've stopped playing again for a bit because now I have most of the regular Pokemon and the spawn pools aren't great right now. I do community days when it's a Pokemon I have an interest in (Bagon Day) but only play long enough to grab a shiny for ones I don't (Bounsweet).

The area I live in is still rural enough that gyms are really spread out and it's almost impossible to coordinate major raids without using Discord so I mostly remote raid using another app (it's legal don't worry) and I stopped bothering with Shadow Raids after how hard it was to do the Mewtwo shadow raids.

Anyway I have a lot of thoughts about Pokemon Go but I'll stop there and maybe see if anyone else has anything to add as well. 

Thank you! I swear I'm still alive I just have not been gaming as hard as I used to. 

There are too many people in the US that think it's a hoax or that being asked to wear a mask is a violation of freedom. At my store, we require all customers to wear masks, but many just take them off once they get inside. 

I hope they'll go with what people are asking for and make his sister Shuri into the new Black Panther.

The Shadowbringers expansion for FFXIV has an amazing soundtrack. I'd link the title soundtrack but most of the youtube videos are heavy spoilers if you ever planned on playing it.

PS5 first but I'm sure I'll get both eventually.

I picked up the definitive Tales of Vesperia on Steam since it was on sale for $20.

I finished Grey's Anatomy, and then the spinoff Private Practice. Both were pretty good.

I am working now on Arrow. I've watched Supergirl and the Flash so it's kind of neat seeing where all the Arrowverse stuff started.

I wasn't a huge fan of the last Paper Mario (I think it released on the 3DS). But if it's like Super Paper Mario from the Wii, I'll love it.