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Oh man, I'm waaaaaaaayy behind. Sorry @Grindspine . I hope you had an awesome birthday!.

I really liked episode 7. Thought it was one of the best ones so far. I'm still digging the show. Still wondering who the lab people at the end of episode 6 are.

I know many of you have probably experienced joy-con thumbstick drift. It's pretty notorious on the Switch. My wife's thumbsticks started drifting a while back and eventually they just went haywire. Causing double input as well as just drifting.

I successfully transplanted some new thumbsticks and the joy-cons are like new again! It's actually not too difficult. It definitely beats paying $70-$80 for another pair. I highly recommend this. 


Here are the guides I followed on their site plus a link to the thumbstick replacements.

Nintendo Switch Joy-Con/Switch Lite Joystick - You can either get the full kit that comes with all of the tools you need or just the thumbsticks. I already had the tools so I just got the parts.

Left Joy-Con Joystick Replacement Guide

Right Joy-Con Joystick Replacement Guide - Since the Right Joy-Con contains an antenna plus some other parts, the procedure is actually a little different.

@BLUEVOODU  - I present to you ProtonDB! This game is rated as Platinum so should run nicely on the deck (with the exception of some cutscenes.) You might have to edit some things as well to get it to run at first.

Starship Troopers: Terran Command ProtonDB Rating

As for controls, you'll definitely be using the trackpads and triggers for mouse inputs but since it's Steam, you can always alter it to your preference.

In regards to the cutscenes, looks like if you install Proton-GE then you should have everything working. I've never installed it myself but a lot of people have. It sucks that Valve can't ship their SteamOS with proprietary codecs for a lot of these videos but I get it. They're abiding by the GNU licenses.

Never heard of this game before. I'm not really an RTS type of player but this looks intriguing. I have placed it on my wishlist and when it goes down in price I might pick it up. Starship Troopers is one of my favorite movies.

Last week I updated my gaming PC and daily driver PC with NVME SSDs and the speed increase from standard SSDs was so good! I was not expecting much of a difference to be honest but a ton of programs now open up almost instantly and installations happen so quickly that I sometimes miss when they complete if I turn around to grab a drink of water or something quick like that.

Loading times on games also improve. I haven't done any official speed tests since I forgot to get times before the upgrade but it's enough to be noticed. Not sure if I can ever go back to 2.5" drives except for maybe cold storage. I still have spinning hard drives for storage for their large capacities.

My gaming PC uses PCIE 4.0 and my daily driver PC uses 3.0. Even the 3.0 SSDs feel much snappier than traditional 2.5" SSDs. I highly recommend them if you have a motherboard that supports this tech.

These are the drives I got in case anyone was interested:

• WD Black SN850 w/o Heatsink 1 TB PCIE 4.0
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB PCIE 3.0

Finally saw this movie and thought it was actually pretty great. I think overall the themes make sense. The movie made it pretty clear that he's still lost and isn't fully happy with himself. Defeating Thanos is not just some miracle event that fulfills you. Thor is definitely in the "what now?" stage of his life.

I loved the how they nailed the Love and Thunder theme as well. And Christian Bale was a great villain. I think he helped the movie along and his acting was top notch. He was hamming it up and it looked like he was having fun with it.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Oh and Natalie Portman as Thor was awesome. I thought she made a great Thor and was hoping it would continue. It probably will as the 1st end credit scene leaves it kind of open.

The only thing I thought was too much was...

Spoiler: ShowHide

The screaming goats. They had some great moments like when they landed on the shadow realm planet. I think if they had not had them screaming every time it would've hit harder. It still made me laugh 90% of the time though.

As someone who lost family members to aggressive cancer during the pandemic, I think this movie hit a little close, and under the cheesy and campy dialogue there was a good message about life in general. Overall, it was a solid movie that I wished I saw in the theaters. I'm definitely picking this up on blu-ray and adding it to the collection.

Call me crazy, but I don't see Goldeneye aging well.

It's a novelty at this point. Which is why I think it's a good thing they're not selling it individually.

I think they missed an opportunity not making the Xbox version online. Unless there is going to be some sort of update later. Really it would be ideal for an online game in this present gaming generation. Why go to the trouble of such an update and not include the multiplayer online?

There's a lot of speculation as to why. One of the more plausible reasons is that Nintendo's version gets online play automatically through their Online system. It's not actually programmed in the game. It's somewhat of a hack that Nintendo does for their other retro multiplayer games and this just came along for the ride.

Is there anything stopping Rare/Microsoft from programming in online? I don't think so. But it's also possible since it's a Nintendo 64 title, MS and Nintendo worked out some deal where both versions are different from each other. The Switch version is just an emulated version whereas the Xbox is actually remastered.

That's right! Goldeneye is finally being re-released. 2 versions will be available. The Xbox version is a remastered version with updated controls, improved graphics and frame rate. The Nintendo Switch version will be the original N64 version but with online multiplayer added.

The Xbox version does not have online multiplayer for some reason. 

Nintendo 64's GoldenEye 007 Confirmed for Switch Online and Xbox Game Pass

Nintendo 64's GoldenEye 007 Confirmed for Switch Online and Xbox Game Pass
Coming soon.
Ryan Dinsdale
By Ryan Dinsdale
Updated: Sep 13, 2022 9:09 am
Posted: Sep 13, 2022 7:29 am

Update - 09/13/2022, 9am: The Xbox remaster of GoldenEye 007 will not include online multiplayer, which will instead be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version of the game.

As revealed by 007.com, the two versions of GoldenEye, despite being announced at the same time, will not include the same features. The Nintendo version appears to be staying relatively similar to the original, but with the addition of online multiplayer, and will be added as a standard N64 game to the Switch Online library.

The Xbox version, on the other hand, will be a remastered version of the 1997 original with updated controls (meaning modern, dual analogue stick support) and improved graphics and frame rate.

Update - 09/13/2022, 8am: Rare has confirmed that GoldenEye 007 is also coming to Xbox alongside Nintendo Switch following months of rumours.

Confirmed in a tweet (below), the Xbox game isn't confirmed to be the same version as that on Nintendo Switch but will feature achievements, 4K resolution, and a smoother framerate.

GoldenEye 007 has been all but confirmed on Xbox for a long time as fan website True Achievements and even Xbox's own website listed the game's achievements.

Original Story: Nintendo has announced that its beloved GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64 is coming to Nintendo Switch Online "soon" with official online functionality for the first time ever.

Announced during September's Nintendo Direct, Nintendo revealed a ton of new titles coming to its online subscription package including Pokémon Stadium and Mario Party, before confirming that GoldenEye would also be arriving.

It's unclear exactly when GoldenEye will be released, however, as the handful of new Nintendo 64 games confirmed for the platform are arriving as late as 2023.

Nintendo has been slowly but surely adding titles to its Nintendo Switch Online service for the last few months, releasing various N64 games roughly once a month or so. Its remaining games confirmed for 2022 during the Direct are Pilotwings 64, Mario Party, and Mario Party 2.

As for 2023, Mario Party 3, Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Stadium 2, 1080° Snowboarding, and Excitebike 64 were all announced.

See our full list of Nintendo Direct announcements for more news about upcoming Switch games.

4 Episodes in and I can definitively say it's another strong MCU showing. I'll be honest, I do find it a tad bland at times but not to the point where it keeps me from enjoying it. The CGI can be a little inconsistent as well. I certainly hope they can keep the quality up to the end.

The line-up has been released!

@BLUEVOODU I did not make it. Too many things going on right now. Will probably just wait for D+ now. Which sucks because I really wanted to watch it in the theater but I think it's too late now.

I apparently own Fight N Rage on Steam.  Must've been through some humble bundle and didn't realize what I got.

It's definitely not the one in this thread with the SoR2 levels. However, a lot of the reviews are saying it's better than Streets of Rage 4, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I might have to try this out.

It sounds cool, but I do not know if I could rationalize spending money on another revamp of the console.

This is probably why they're not making as many this time. The people who truly want this will have already pre-ordered. I do remember seeing quite a few of the first run at Target and Best Buy. While the NES and SNES were hardly ever on shelves.

[Sega Genesis Mini 2]

Sega announced a second Sega Genesis/Megadrive Mini. 50 more games including Sega CD titles and looks like a 6-button controller.

Releasing 10/27/2022 only on Amazon. However, Sega also announced that these will be much more limited than the first one. My guess is they didn't fly off the shelves so they are playing it safe by not making so many. I got my pre-order in.

Sega Genesis Mini 2

[August 30th, 2022]

Release date has been announced.

August 30th, 2022

I binged the first 3 seasons of The Expanse. I had no idea about this show and I was surprised that a show of this quality was originally on Sci-Fi. I'm also not a huge space science fiction fan nor do I binge shows but this one caught me.

Wife started watching with me so we now watch it over dinner. 

I donno if it needs its own thread, but the Netflix Resident Evil series is great so far. I binged seven episodes last night!

I don't see why it can't have it's own thread.

Was going to watch it a couple of weekends ago but there were street closures near the theater due to some festival, so wife and I decided against it.

Maybe not this weekend but the next. Should be less people there as well since it's been out for a while.

Last episode aired yesterday. Before I get into what I think about the show overall, I can't not mention what happened in that last episode. There's been a lot of articles and whatnot so hopefully you all manage to avoid it (unless you don't care.)

Spoiler: ShowHide

The first official MCU mutant has been revealed! The fact that they made Kamala the first one on screen is pretty cool in my opinion. With Comic-Con next week, MCU is about to get more interesting. Also would not be surprised if this is the beginning of the Sentinel program.

Then there's the post-credits scene. Seems the Bangles are a lot more than they made them out to be in the show. Might be the introduction of Secret Wars.

The show did not end up being as consistently good as I was hoping but I still enjoyed it. Episodes 3-5 felt very rushed compared to the first 2. I really wish seasons lasted longer. Episode 6 was better but not by much. It gets saved by the spoiler above. Iman Vellani is a great Ms. Marvel though and should easily compliment the other stars in the franchise.

The one thing about episodes 3-5 I thought was interesting was the history of the Indian Partition. It's Disney, so it's not the most complex and accurate representation of it but I never really knew much about it and it got me interested in learning more.

Comic-Con next weekend is going to be very exciting in my opinion. Phase 4 has been a slow burn due to covid but it's finally picking up the pace.

Finally watched the last episode today. Was not in a rush to watch it I guess.

The final episode was good but I think one of the problems I have with prequel stuff is that when you already know the fates of characters (in this case, almost all of them) you automatically lose tension in certain scenes. The story just wasn't that great to compensate for that.

I give this series a 6/10.

I do understand the Hallmark feeling for sure. It's basically a formula for low budget rom-coms. However, I'm still not sure what a Disney movie feels like. I grew up with the Disney renaissance of the '90's with Aladdin, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, etc and then with Pixar. I also watched a lot of Disney channel with my niece and nephew when I babysat them in the '00's. The last decade I haven't seen much of.

I don't get any of that "Disney" feeling when I watch any MCU product though, which is why I'm genuinely curious what it all means.

@CreepinDeth what I am implying is that Disney has taken the comic book characters and basically Disneytized them and made them their own.

I understand being a purist. If that's what's keeping you from enjoying the shows and movies, then so be it. That's your choice. I don't understand this sentence though. Every comic book movie since the first Superman with Christopher Reeves has taken many liberties with the characters and altered them to fit the directors and/or studio's vision.

Disneytized is still not a clear term. Are they too children focused? Or is that just a way to say that they're not 1:1 comic counterparts? Because it's Feige that's running this. No one else at Disney is putting their flavor on the MCU like it has in the Star Wars franchise (although it seems maybe Jon Favreau and Taika Waititi might be changing that soon with their success.)

There are a ton of comic readers who love the MCU variants. If anything, they're the reason it's successful. They helped the MCU by giving the original Iron Man legitimacy by being outspoken about how great a movie it was. Jon Favreau respected the the lore and I feel that's what's being done to this day (with the exception of a few moves here and there that I've mentioned in the Eternals thread.) As someone who has worked in the video game industry, I have met many, and become friends with, hardcore comic nerds. I do mean hardcore. They may not praise everything as perfect but they thoroughly enjoy the MCU. But both of our experiences are anecdotal, so it would be cool to see a survey on this. I'm genuinely curious.

Just my .02 cents, but Infinity War and End Game were absolutely great at the movie theater and I don't think I will experience something like that again now with Streaming being a huge factor. It was one of those rare, special events that don't happen often. I feel like the original Star Wars theatrical release was probably the closest. I'm so glad I got to experience them personally since I wasn't around for SW.

I'm honestly not sure what you're trying to say here as this picture can mean different things. Especially when Pixar movies are great stories that appeal to all ages. Do you want the shows to be more PG rated like the movies? Are the characters too cartoony?

[screen]

Quick review time!!

I've had my Steam Deck for about a month but have not had much time to play with it due to moving to a new place which took up nearly all of my free time. But I think I can talk about it now with more hands on.

First, I personally love this device. It's what I've been hoping someone would create once I got my hands on a Switch. Having my entire 1200+ PC game library available to play* is just downright amazing. With that said there is a major caveat (hence, the asterisk) with this. Not all games are playable on this. Which is a bummer but it's usually an older game that requires certain emulation software to run (eg. DosBOX) but most newer games do not have this problem. Over time, the amount of games playable will keep going up. Valve is constantly working on fixing the compatibility for all games. Every week there are new games that have been verified by Valve to work with the Deck.

However, (lol) some of the newer games are already too heavy for this machine to run at a locked 60FPS. This is where the magic of SteamOS comes in. There's already a frame limiter that allows you to set a lower FPS so that you have a smooth experience, but Valve recently made this feature even better that I feel is a total game changer. SteamOS now allows you to actually lower the screen refresh rate between 40FPS-60FPS. Which means that you don't have to lock a game to 30FPS like most would do on a typical desktop. If you have a game that doesn't stay at 60FPS but regularly stays above 40FPS, then you can lock both the game and the screen to that framerate. If you want to lock it to 46FPS for some reason, you can. Want 51FPS? That's possible too.

40FPS may not be 60FPS, but it's so much smoother than 30, especially when the screen is also set to refresh at that framerate. I wish this could be done on a desktop but I could see this being difficult for Valve to implement considering there are a gajillion monitors out there to try to work with.

A lot of people have complained about the screen and the inaccurate colors. If you've never cared or asked whether a monitor you have is accurate, then this probably won't bother you either. It will look washed out because you're probably used to looking at your smart phone (which tend to be oversaturated sometimes depending on the make and model) but it shouldn't affect your fun. The black levels are what I wish were better.

The other complaint people have is the fan. It has been confirmed that Valve is shipping two different fans between units. One of the fans apparently has a high-pitched whine when going full tilt. I'm fortunate to not have this fan. Valve has been kind of enough to allow customers to RMA for this reason. I'll post a video of tests done by Gamers Nexus so you can hear the difference. Valve has recently updated the fan curve on the Deck in order to make the fan not go full tilt at lower temperatures. When it is at 100% it is audible.

With all that said, you can change the fan out yourself if you feel like it. Valve has teamed up with iFixit to supply replacement parts for your Deck. This is awesome and I wish more companies did this. I don't have to wait for an RMA if a part goes bad. The joysticks are completely replaceable if you experience any issues with them.

This device is definitely for someone who doesn't mind tinkering. Although you can install games from other store fronts, it's going to take some massaging to get them running. I'm personally just sticking to my Steam library. I don't plan on installing from those other store fronts. I'm also not sure if I'm going to run emulators on this yet. Just keeping the experience 100% stock right now and running games at 30FPS to maximize battery life. I prefer to have more battery versus more frames, but it's completely up to you to tailor the experience for yourself.

I also don't plan on installing Windows. I have a gaming PC already with Win11, so seems unnecessary for me.


Feel free to ask any questions. I'll try to answer them as best as I can.

I've been grabbing some of the games since February. Sometimes they have something great but most of the time they're decent to Okay games. Most need the Amazon launcher, which is super annoying. The rest depend on who the publisher is. EA games will be Origin, CD Projekt games will GOG, etc. I don't think any of them have been redeemable on Steam since I've started redeeming.

@BLUEVOODU oh wow. There's still one more week left. Unless they bumped you to Q3?

I am thinking that you will either like it, or not like, this series.

I mean, you can say that about every single show. In regards to the other things you posted, that stuff doesn't bother me. I've seen Disney shows and they are way more cringey and on the nose with their writing than these D+ shows. Those are mostly targeted to pre-teens. This show is for Teenagers and above. It's a high school character, there's no way it wasn't going to be about her life. Honestly, I find the Sam Raimi Spider-man high school scenes way more cringey than this.

However, I have to agree with @retro junkie too on his spoiler comment.  I was scratching my head after seeing that particular piece play out.

I've stopped caring at this point. More context in my spoiler.

Spoiler: ShowHide

There are only a handful of MCU characters that are true to their comic counterparts. Most are modified to fit this new, grounded universe so it doesn't bother me anymore. Kevin Feige has earned my trust to make cool, comic book movies/shows. Rumor has it that the reason they changed it up was to not conflict with Reed Richard's power set.

Two episodes in and I'm personally enjoying this show. I think it has a lot of heart and extremely creative art direction. The actress is a perfect cast in my opinion.

I'm hoping that the show remains consistent like Moon Knight.

In fact, I had a hard time with Age of Ultron for the longest time. I just started liking that movie a lot more since I noticed a few pieces and how they tied it together with other movies in the future.

My prediction is that the movie will be similar to this. Probably not at the level of AoU overall but the fact that there is a giant stone celestial coming out of the ocean and the two post-credit scenes that are going to have a huge part in other movies. Those things simply can't be ignored. And of course, once the main villain of the MCU gets revealed, the Eternals themselves will have a part to play.

Unless you've been living under a rock these past few weeks, crypto has been crashing pretty hard. Apparently prices for GPUs are falling close to, or even below, MSRP. I haven't really done a check to see how the prices are but if you're interested, now might be a good time to buy if you don't care about the upcoming release of new GPUs.

I don't see crypto dying anytime soon but at least we should be getting some reprieve in prices.