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Majora’s Mask Man did I ever love the first part of this game. All the effusive praise I could muster for this concept, the cool creepy vibe of a world living the same three days over and over before ending completely... Then the game kept going. And going. And repeating. I can’t even imagine playing this on the N64 without the QoL changes in the 3DS version and not going insane. And it’s not to say Majora’s Mask is a bad game - I can see a certain type of player loving this. For me, however, it was an absolute nightmare. Start a long quest chain, days in the making, screw it up, have to repeat. Miss a jump, time runs out, have to repeat. It’s maddening and the design was great at the start when it was super tight but I just could not stand it as I went on. That looming time limit is part of the game but it just prevents you from actually enjoying the damn thing. And yes you keep your good gear at the end of it, but it also constantly undoes your work - hey you saved the swamp and cleaned up the poison, now beat the boss again on another run if you need to do any more shit in there. I do think the de-emphasis on the dungeons is not terrible - you get some fun mini-dungeons and lots of other side quests. And the world and characters become familiar with repetition. AND the side stuff gives meaningful rewards because the lack of dungeons means they’re hurling heart pieces at you left, right, and center. The dungeon rewards are all arrow types, which really takes the fun out of opening the big chest to see what’s inside once you realize what’s going on. The masks are fun but most are very one note. The game hardly gives you enough direction, which is a product of the time, but it’s annoying. I just... it’s not for me. Best dungeon is probably the Zora based one, which is intricate but mercifully colour-coded. None of the enemies are particularly annoying this time around, so the annoying enemy award can go to the rigid scheduling of events . It’s tough to rank - yeah it is better than the 8-bit Zeldas but I’d play Adventures of Link again before this one any day of the frigging week. Current Ranking: 1) Link to the Past 2) Ocarina of Time 3) Link’s Awakening 4) Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link 5) Majora’s Mask 6) The Legend of Zelda Next up, the dual package of Oracle of Ages/Seasons, which I will probably rank in a lump rather than split, unless I (unlikely) have woefully differing opinions on them. Then it’s on to the game that got 3D Zelda right and may still be my favorite in the series - Wind Waker.

Man, you guys are NOT kidding about The Expanse. It's incredible! I'd say you have to give it 4 episodes, and if you're not hooked, it's just not for you. (But you will be hooked) I'm 2 episodes in to season 2. Love the characters, love the sci-fi, the space battle, the political intrigue, the "cop show" aspect. Thanks to all who recommended it. Glad I listened. Carlos.

Got to 3-7 tonight. Might see if I can push to finish the core game by Sunday night as I believe there are 4 worlds (?) to play, then unlockable bonuses. The general difficulty level of the game is just right for my tastes. It’s challenging, but the style of turn based gameplay is actually rather relaxing. Boss fights are getting tougher. The World 3 mid level boss took several attempts as you’re swarmed by so many regular enemies that it’s all too easy to find yourself bombarded. I had to keep my team far enough apart to flank the boss, but close enough to use Rabbid Peach’s team health boost. Bwahhhh!

I've had this sitting in my Amazon Prime Video list to watch forever. Sounds like it's time to give it a shot.

Yes please. Good to see doggo is useful in a fight, too.

John Wick Chapter 3

I hadn't posted in this thread much over time, I think mainly because there's a lot of runners in here. I gave running a shot a few years ago, one of the first things I did was couch to 5k to get ready for a local event. It's fine, but it's just not my choice of exercise at all. I've always been drawn to weight lifting in some way, not only for the actual process of lifting, progression, etc, but also just looking better and the aesthetic you can get by putting some muscle on. Celebrities getting in shape for roles for movies inspire me. I remember examples like when Ryan Reynolds got in shape for Blade and wondering "how I could do that"? I've fucked around with all of this for a while, but in the last couple of years I've been satisfied with my progress and hit some goals for myself. I think the biggest difference is I hired a trainer I'd followed online for a long time, and just having someone looking over my shoulder helped my confidence that I was "doing it right" where I wasn't second guessing everything. I also think I have much better idea of what I can handle calorically and basically figuring out food. Here are some progress pictures. The first is a graph of my most recent cut I mentioned in the quote above. The second is a before picture from several years ago right before I got into lifting. I'd lifted sporadically in the past, but been away from it enough there's nothing to show for it in that pic. Third is where I was on my own in 2016. All of the after pics are around Thanksgiving last year. https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-5JzwpN/ Maybe we can get some more weight lifters up in here. I'm on a caloric surplus right now so I've lost some of that leanness, but the goal is to put more muscle on. I will probably do a caloric deficit again mid March. Right now I am enjoying the extra food. Cereal seems to be my go to add-on.🥣

UK/Euro steelbook for Pet Semetary is nice. Safe to assume US will get this too as the discs here show US rating logos: 25th of March release in the UK: https://www.zoom.co.uk/product/pet_sematary_30th_anniversary_limited_edition_4k_steelbook_4k_ultra_hd_blu_ray_uhd I know Paramount get a double cash in with this one (both anniversary of the original and riding off the back of the forthcoming remake), but honestly if we get this, THIS, and go the whole year without the classic and TNG era cast Star Trek films to cash in on the Motion Picture's 40th Anniversary then it would be extraordinarily baffling.

Same. I have about 40 physical NES carts. Most with instructions (in varying quality) but I never kept the boxes. More than half of the 35 N64 titles I own are boxed. I smartened up by then thankfully.

I have some really fond memories of this game as it was one of the first I had for my NES. Really distinct and vivid memories like this one very specific night I went to bed reading the instruction manual and admiring the artwork. I remember my cousin staying over the weekend I was suddenly breezing through the 8th dungeon when it was too hard before. I remember this is one game my mom actually would play, which was weird as she rarely played anything. She loved the rupee game of chance in that one cave 😆. And like you said Jeff, without Nintendo Power, there's no way I'd have made it though the Lost Woods or found the entrance to the 9th dungeon, among other things. Edit: And that very copy of the game and instruction manual sit on my shelf close to me