ChrisBardon

So I actually finished a couple of these...sort of. Chain of memories just got to be complete bullshit from a mechanical perspective. I actually liked the idea of making it a deckbuilder, but the way the difficulty spiked was kind of ridiculous. Basic enemies were trivial, but the bosses were probably 5x harder, which meant that the basic encounters didn't prepare you very well for them. Yes, this is probably every JRPG ever, but I don't have the patience for banging my head against it these days. There also doesn't appear to be a lot of room for grinding, since enemies are finite, so after getting about half way through the game, I just checked out the rest on youtube. Story wise this one is pretty high on the bullshit scale, but it does set up what the hell is going on in KH2 at least a little bit. It doesn't explain the trenchcoat zipper crew very well, other than there being a mysterious organization with dramatic reveals that actually don't mean anything because you have no idea who these people are supposed to be. It's also a grind because the actual levels are basically re-treading the first game, just with card battles. Then I started back into KH2, and finished it off last night. This one is actually a decent action RPG. Compared to the original, the combat is a whole lot smoother, with a bunch more options than you had before. You have more customization with the abilities, the reaction abilities give you more agency, and it seemed like there was an actual skill element to most encounters. By contrast, the first game is "shield with aero, mash attack, and try not to die". There is some mechanical stuff that doesn't get explained very well, like having to level drive abilities by doing something random, like counting the number of hits, or the number of gauges that expire, which is a little like FF2 (the NES game), where you leveled by choosing menu items. The problem is, you need to upgrade those drive forms to get some of the traversal abilities in the game, which isn't immediately obvious, so reading up on how those work is reasonably important (at least at the end of the game). I actually made it through probably the first 90% of the game without much of a problem. It seemed like the difficulty was evened out to where bosses weren't an extreme deviation from the regular encounters for the most part, and there's a mechanic where some story encounters will save you from death by having Mickey Mouse come in and do his Attack of the Clones Yoda thing to help finish the encounter off. It was only at the end (in emo-cyberpunk world) when I hit a boss fight that was absolutely ridiculous. Went back and ground 25 more levels in a couple hours and leveled the drive forms and made it through fine after that (level 68 instead of 43). Then there's the story... I actually kind of appreciated the bits in the various worlds, because it wasn't necessarily trying to slavishly retell whatever movie narrative you were in all the time. The variety is always fun, and some of the new worlds were genuinely unexpected. I hadn't seen a list beforehand (or if I had it was years ago), so I went in reasonably cold. The main issue with the different worlds is that you end up having to revisit each a second time to do a different task, and some of these started to drag a little. I get that it was a way to pad out the game without creating more assets, so I don't really begrudge it, but not all of the second passes were great. Then you have the meta-story, which is absolute nonsense. It's actually kind of funny to watch just to see the stuff that they make guys like Bill Farmer, Wayne Allwyne, and Christopher Lee try to work with. The nearest I can tell, there's a mysterious group of anime people in strange coats who just want to exist, but Mickey Mouse and co are trying to stop them? Then you have Malificent coming back, and working with Pete for some reason, but then she barely figures into the story? And then everyone has a splintered personality and meets their nobody, so Sora is really Tyler Durden? I suppose it's only slightly more ridiculous than a flying whale-ship that goes to the moon... I actually described this series to my wife as "what if Grant Morrison, Jonathan Hickman, and Chris Claremont got together to collaboratively write a Final Fantasy/Disney fanfic"... Anyway, I might actually go through and check out some of the other stuff on the collection. It's insane, but in a train wreck kind of way, and having played 2 now, I want to see how 3 actually turned out.

I don't think Sony could afford a controlling stake in Epic, could they? Does a 1.5% stake even register? It's probably a sound investment on Sony's part-after seeing what they did on the Mandalorian, and what UE5 is able to do in that demo, there's a very good chance that valuation could go way up.

This. The regular version was good, but the VR version was on a whole other level. I think I sold a few people on a quest by letting them try Superhot and Beat Saber. I think I bought this on Xbox? I'll have to go back and check on the console, but still awesome that it's free for owners.

I was actually wondering if being on D+ would affect the live show at all. I might have gone to see it in Toronto when it was here, but at $200/ticket, that's an expensive proposition. I'm fine having seen the stream. I'm sure it would still do fine on stage-concert recordings don't affect live music, and people still went and saw stage productions of things that had movie adaptations, but this might take some of the heat off Hamilton-mania. So is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child next? That was due to go onstage here in the fall (now pushed to at least 2021), and the prospect of going to that was topping $1000 for both parts.

See, I figured that would be the heist game. In one of them, would they introduce a female Knack named Sharona?

No, but they're definitely going after a demographic. You could argue that it's what the fans are submitting though? I don't really care about the Home Alone or Seinfeld sets, but I'll probably get the typewriter, just because it's clever.

So I checked this out, and the 1x1 round plates are 0.08 each from lego online. That means $80/1000, so the 3000 of them in one of those sets would be $240. Not sure whether you could do better at the in-store wall, but I'll bet the colour selection isn't there.

Went back and re-read the details, and they're 48x48 studs, which is coincidentally the same size as a big ass grey baseplate. Makes it much easier to size something up for comparison, and they're slightly larger than I thought they were at first glance. They're also listed on the store at $150 CAD each, which means that for all the ones I'd want to display, that's $1350 before tax... Might have to spread them out (or at least see what the GWP/VIP situation is later this year). They're also listed as September right now. It's also kind of interesting that the Marvel/Star Wars ones are 1x1 studs, while the Beatles and Warhol ones are flat tiles. They also went with round tiles instead of square in both cases, presumably to create a "pointillism" style, as well as make assembly slightly easier, since aligning a bunch of square tiles can be a little fiddly. Multiple copies of the same set will also make it much easier to work on with multiple people as well. Could turn into a family project

When I saw the title I thought that meant Amazon bought Bethesda, and were publishing a new game. This makes much more sense.

I wonder how many extra bits you'd end up with in any of these once you're done? Could also be a neat basis for some custom mosiacs-I know there are a bunch of people who specialize in this kind of lego work, and this could expose a whole lot more people to it. I'm probably in for at least one to check it out, and maybe up to 9. I like that 3 up Iron Man design, and all of the Star Wars ones. Crucially, I also have a space where I think they'd fit

New "Lego Art" line of updated mosaics: https://brickset.com/article/52230 What's really interesting is that each of the kits has multiple instruction sets for different images, including ones that will span multiple copies of the same set, so any of these: Or this: Could be an interesting way to get a whole bunch of little plates? I kind of like the Star Wars one too: \ Although at $120 each (so $360 for the 3x versions) that's getting expensive. It's also a slightly different medium though, and these could make for really cool display pieces.

Is it exactly the same over there? Wasn't Japan the one territory where you could still get Song of the South on laserdisc? I think I remember people talking about importing that back in the HTF days...

Well, I'll find out later this year. Ordered one for Sept delivery. Could have just gotten a standalone printer, but getting the laser etch and CNC router heads makes it basically 3 tools, right? If nothing else, it's covered by the money I've saved not commuting these past few months...which is a little depressing in and of itself, but hey, new toy on the way!

I actually started KH2 first, but then got to a point where I was wondering if chain of memories made things clearer, so I went back. I got through a few days of wandering around as some kid who seemed to wear weird two tone pants and fought some bondage gimp looking enemies, and had some interactions with a girl in a white dress who may or may not exist, but who looked familiar from the intro to the card game. If nothing else, at least the mechanics in KH2 were smoother, giving you the option for a reversal prompt, and auto-restocking items? See how soon it gets to a "fuck it" point.

Anyone have any experience with the Snapmaker 2.0? I'd never heard of them, but it came up in conversation today, and it sounds like a great idea! Getting the printer, laser cutter, and CNC router in a single apparatus seems like a really good deal, and even if it's just OK at all three, it's a good way to get experience with each tool.