Zorua

So I've gone back to Raft and messed around a bit with it. Two things: One, I finally managed to explore the next story island, the one with bears and the recipes for biofuel stuff. First, a bear killed me and I lost like four spears, a bow and all my arrows, two water bottles (deceptively expensive), a metal axe, and some other stuff. That's a good majority of my metal supply gone. Being a bit more cautious, I managed to go back through the island, kill that bear and several others, distract the Mama Bear with story progression items, find all the notes and blueprints, grab a bunch of new materials, and got the code to track down the next story island. My current objective is to restock my supply of planks and metal and improving my raft (especially my storage system) before moving on to the next story island. No, seriously. Planks are the resource you're gonna be using the most. You can't build pretty much anything without it. Rope is also a deceptively high-demand material as well. Metal is another big one and easily the hardest of the three to obtain, as you can only find it around the islands. Underwater. With the shar- Two, I went into a creative-mode world (infinite health resources and the shark ignores you and your raft, but the raft doesn't move and there's no trash or islands) to mess around with raft designs. I built a little area to see what I can do with a bee hive, tried to recreate my current house, messed with water tanks and water pumps, tried to build and subsequently destroyed a giant wedge with a huge sweep of collection nets as a potential raft design, then made a line of engines hooked up to a few biofuel tanks to see if that would work and built a biofuel setup near it. All well and good. Except... Remember when I got killed by the bear? The game autosaved right as I was dying (or maybe dying triggers an autosave), and I didn't like that, so I disabled the autosave. So I'd done a lot of things without saving. Then the game crashed. And I lost all that stuff in that world. Ah well. It's a creative mode world. It's not like I lost any actual progress. So instead I just built a storage room on my recreation of my survival mode raft. I later went to my second creative mode world where the objective is to have the raft supported by as few platforms as possible, with a large platform raised above the small ones. The main point of this world is to see if collection nets count towards the engines' limit. One engine is needed for every 100 foundation pieces, and I didn't know if the nets counted; turns out they don't, so I can have a lot of nets and only really need 13 or 14 foundation pieces and I'll be golden. The original plan was to have basically an inverted pyramid for my raft platform. Then, while I was messing around, I made a very important discovery. Did you know that if you place a foundation and a collection net, place a wall or support beam on the intersection between the two, and break the foundation, the wall or beam will still be there? You can't place the wall or beam on the net by itself, but this setup bypasses that quite nicely. My current plan for this world, and a potential second survival file, is to have it so there's one platform in the center to start, four spokes of 25 collection nets sticking off from that, all in troughs of walls, and then twelve more platforms for the important stuff--eight for the anchor, three for the sole engine, one for the water purifier...and maybe a thirteenth platform for a paint mixer if I can ever be bothered to go that far (spoilers: I can't). Everything else will be raised up on higher platforms in two intersecting valleys or something. It's gonna be an interesting engineering problem.

So a friend of my Mom's found a stray kitten but couldn't take him in because someone in the house is allergic. We offered to foster him until we could find him a home, keeping in mind that I wouldn't mind our home being his home. But when my brother came home and saw the kitten, he basically called dibs. So... Meet Midnight. (also official Zorua fingers reveal) We think he's about a month to five weeks old and possibly self-weaned. We need to get him a bright reflective kitten harness because his fur is basically pitch black and blends in with the darkness. We also probably need to take him to the vet soon-ish. He is currently sprawled out on my lap as I type this. (discarded name suggestions: Chat Noir, Adrien, Bagheera, Ghira, Grue, Brian)

Booted up No Man's Sky. Huge open world with literally quintillions of planets to explore. Resource-gathering and base-building with some story and a massive focus on exploration. The planets it could generate range from desert, snowy, lush and forested, barren, hazardous, and more. It spawned me on a planet with a caustic atmosphere. Fun. Now I had to hide in caves to not die until I could build up enough of a resource stash to make it to the ruins of my ship. My ship, which spawned on top of a plateau, whereas I spawned on the bottom. Spent like fifteen minutes trying to walk around before I realized I need to try and scale a sheer cliff. Anyway, I eventually built up enough resources to fix my ship and leave, then headed to the other planets in the system. Built my first base on a nearby no-hazards grasslands planet. It's a really nice planet with a ring system. Very cool. Main objective is trying to upgrade all my stuff and learn words in the aliens' languages. There's some story paths I'm kinda following but mainly I'm just looking for better gear and expansions to my inventory. I did manage to build a hyperdrive to the next star system, where two of the planets had apparently already been discovered and named by other players, but the third one (an arctic planet) hadn't, so I put my flag down and threw in a rudimentary base because why not. Dibs. I can make and power a portal generator, and I slap one in each base, so I can freely switch between the two systems without needing to waste hyperdrive fuel on the back-and-forth. I also have a second base on my main planet. I found a plateau that was hollow and decided it would be a perfect volcano-base-style base. While flying around looking for distress signals to investigate, I found a crashed ship. That's normal. What isn't normal is that this one apparently crashed in the side of a cliff, and all the junk around it spawned at the same level as the ship...floating way up in the air! (might be an interesting insight into the game's spawning and world generation algorithms). Welp, back to looking for more storage slots.

So I got some games on Steam after Christmas. Octopath Traveler. It's definitely one of my favorite games. Currently I've recruited all eight protagonists and have unlocked all the subjobs, and I'm just trying to figure out what order to do everyone's Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. Also level grinding. Might finish up all the side quests in the Chapter 1 towns first, too. I'm also planning on having like four other save files so I can get some achievements: Reveal every enemy weakness (start with Cyrus as otherwise you miss the weaknesses for your starting character's chapter 1 boss), solo character run (start with Tressa as she's apparently very good for this with her Hired Help ability), steal from everyone (start with Therion as otherwise you miss stealing from your starting character's Chapter 1 boss), and speedrun (Tressa again, soloing optional this time; apparently there's an 8-hour window). Everything else I can get on my main file. Antichamber is one of those games that's fun to mess around with. Like Portal, once you've beaten it, there isn't too much replay value other than just messing around with stuff, so that's gonna be a thing to go back to just casually. Raft is currently taking up all of my attention. Another sandbox base building game, this time floating on a raft in the middle of an ocean full of trash with occasional islands and an ever-present shark that likes to eat your raft itself. I'm doing pretty good, but the main hold up is metal and scrap, which at this point can only be reliably found underwater around the islands. Underwater. With the shark. Keeping the shark at bay is the main reason why I'm not swimming (heh) in metal. I also can't spend time around certain huge islands, as they have either giant boar things that kill me or giant birds that drop rocks on my head to kill me, and I'm not interested in getting caught in a spawn camp loop. Again. No thank you. Still, it's a nice game, and I'm just gonna float around and build up my supply of stuff. ...I'm thinking six or seven shark bait should do it. I'm also sitting on No Man's Sky, Sea of Thieves, and Kerbal Space Program. Those are gonna be things to look forward to.

So I went back to playing Breath of the Wild. I want to start a save on Master Mode, but before I do that, I want to try and finish upgrading all of my armor sets. The problem? They all need Star Fragments, which (barring exactly 8 preset spawns and very rare drops from Lynels) can only be found from shooting stars, which are uncommon enough as is. Which means there are two games I'm playing where I'm at the point of sitting around idling. Maybe I should just go kill a bunch of Lynels. Although, speaking of Cookie Clicker, I've decided to work on building up all the crops in the Garden minigame. Which means I let myself get a bunch of buildings just to build up a huge stockpile of cookies, then sold everything except one farm, dropping my CpS to a trickle, meaning the cost of everything in the garden is basically pennies compared to what I have banked. It's just RNG to get the new seeds to actually spawn, now.

Almost missed the window. Anyway, Minecraft has officially updated to version 1.18. No, I have not yet switched over my main world and begun my storage system; I need to think of a storage system that isn't full of lag anyway. My plan is to have at least one slot for every stack-able item. That's almost 900 items, with more announced for 1.19. I've got some planning to do. And excavating. And I need to make a new iron farm. And a gold farm. And a melon/pumpkin farm. And a new Villager breeder. And... ... Cookie Clicker has reached the point where I need to maximize cookie production while doing absolutely nothing. Not even let it run with an autoclicker. Debating the pros and cons of getting a Switch for Christmas. I want one for the numerous games on it (mainly Smash and Octopath, if I don't get the latter on Steam anyway), but it's a video game console, so I'd need to get something on it for my brother too. I'm thinking I get the Switch, then he shoots me a list of three games he wants for it, and I pick one. Still, if he picks one game he wants and two games he obviously doesn't want so as to make it clear which one he actually wants, he's getting Animal Crossing. On the other hand, we have other, more important things that we need money for, so something expensive might be off the table (and also I want a piano keyboard, which is also pricey).

Mainly posting on this thread just to keep it from going past the necroposting window. So, Cookie Clicker, huh? I've reached the point where I pretty much have to idle in the game to get anywhere. Sure, I could just grab all the cheapest whatever buildings or upgrades happen to be available to me, but then I'd be waiting forever to get that first antimatter condenser. As it is, short-term I think gunning for 5* more portals is a good idea so I can get the Portal Grandma upgrade, but with only 2.2 billion cookies per second and 4 trillion cookies for the next portal, it'll be a while before anything becomes viable. *As I was drafting this, I have cookie clicker in another window, and I decided to just grab two more during a frenzy and a third a bit later, so I'm definitely going for this first and everything else later. Actually, it shouldn't take very long at all, as it turns out. Alchemy labs, portals, and 3 time machines make up the overwhelming majority of my cps. For the record, the first antimatter condenser costs 161.5 trillion cookies, and that's with building cost discounts from the temple minigame thing. On another note, Minecraft version 1.18 has officially entered the pre-release stage. Soon we'll be able to officially upgrade our worlds so bedrock will be shifted down 64 blocks, filling the space in between with deepslate and caves and more ore. It'll be fun. Gives me plenty of space to build an actual storage system, finally.

So, a while back, the Celeste dev team made another game for Celeste's third year anniversary. It's called Celeste Classic 2: Lani's Trek. Much like how the current Celeste is a massive expansion of the original Celeste Classic, I'm expecting Lani's Trek to get an awesome improved version some time down the line. While Celeste and Celeste Classic feature the ability to dash in any direction in mid-air, Lani's Trek instead uses a grappling hook and the ability to jump while grappling, massively changing up the puzzles. Do you pull yourself to a wall or pull an object to you? How close to the spikes do you need to be to jump? Chain mid-air grapples? Plus there's kickin' music; I was literally humming it pretty much all day at work on Friday. I bring this up because I finally beat it. It's very tricky, requiring a lot of mid-air grapples and precise grapple jumps to pull off, but I was able to get to the end with all 16 strawberries for the first time...after 33 minutes and 263 deaths. While we're on the subject, the original full Celeste has this one room that's stumped me. In level 8B (Core B), there's this one room that I just can't get past. It requires dashing through a narrow gap in a wall of spikes, grabbing and jumping to the other side of a falling ice block, dashing through another spike wall, grabbing and jumping again, about four times in a row. I can get to the last block with a dash to spare. I can get to the far right side of the last block. But I can't get to the far right side of the last block with enough time to jump off of it before the block breaks. I'm just dreading the Golden Strawberries. In order to get one, you have to beat all B-sides, collect a Golden Strawberry at the start of a level, and take it to the end of the level without dying (dying while holding a Golden Strawberry sends you back to the very beginning of the level). I can beat 1A and 2A without dying, but everything else I haven't done deathless yet (and dear God I'm dreading 8B deathless). I dusted off Cookie Clicker again too. They added a new minigame, this time for the Bank building type. It's called the Stock Market. And I dove headfirst into the red and haven't gotten close to clearing that up. So that's fun. And...because I'm a nerd, I decided to go back to my Pokemon Phylogenetic Tree / Taxonomic Tree / Cladogram project. I have 680 sorted (or 694, lemme get back to you on that) not counting variants...but I'm also sorting variants) with 221 (or 207) left over (mostly plants, ghosts, and inanimate 'mons, plus a few others). If anyone has any idea what kind of animal Clefairy is, I'd like to know (best I can narrow it down is it's somewhere in the order Carnivora (cats, dogs, and their relatives like bears, badgers, and hyenas) and isn't a pinniped (seals, sea lions, and walruses)). Also, how the heck do I sort extraterrestrial, extradimensional, or artificial lifeforms? No, seriously, where do alien lifeforms fit onto a cladogram? And if you create a new species through genetic engineering, where would that fit on the tree? I'm playing it safe by inventing a new Domain for artificially-created lifeforms (hence the 14 number difference above), but still. (and that doesn't solve the aliens). And because I'm not enough of a nerd, I 1: watched some videos on someone else's fake Pokemon region and decided to sort the Pokemon from that, and 2: took inspiration and decided to make my own fakemon region...and sort those. Brain, what are you doing? *brain shrugs* Oh, you always say that.

Alright, so Minecraft Live just dropped, and we got some news: 1.18: Caves and Cliffs, Part 2 is almost ready, and will drop in a month or two. Sadly, the Sculk Sensor, Warden, and Deep Dark will be put off until later. Seed parity. World seeds will be the same between Java and Bedrock. Smooth terrain blending. Previously, when you upgraded a world, there'd be a big cliff along the chunk borders that looks like the worlds are cut and pasted or stamped out from the existing world. Now, the terrain will blend much more smoothly, with gradual slopes. Speaking of new terrain, since the bottom of the world was lowered by 64 blocks, old worlds would have 64 blocks of empty space. Except now, they've added the new deepslate terrain! The world has been lowered, so they filled in the gaps! The new subterranean terrain is added even to existing chunks, so you don't have to go too far to find this stuff. Minecraft Java and Bedrock have been added to the Xbox Gamepass store. In November. Don't forget the Mob Vote is coming up. Round 1 will be for all three, with the one with the least votes being eliminated. Round 2 will be for the remaining two, and the winner will be added to the game. The Blockbench modding program was given highlights. Mob Vote Round 1! Cast your votes! Minecraft Dungeons will be getting the Seasonal Adventures DLC in December. It'll add a new dungeon, pets, emotes, experience, and loot. Round 1 over! Sadly, the Glare will not be joining us today. Round 2 is a go! Cast your votes! Did you know that Minecraft: Education Edition can be used for far more than just chemistry? It's a good conduit for learning about environmental and social issues. So, what's after 1.18? Well, 1.19, obviously. And 1.19 will be... The Wild Update. Part of the Wild Update is the Sculk Sensor, Warden, and Deep Dark. More things were added than originally planned, such as new structures called Ancient Cities. Which look amazing. And terrifying. Another block is the Sculk Catalyst. When a Mob dies near it, blocks underneath where it died turn into Sculk-type blocks. That'll make for very interesting farms. Sculk Shrieker. When triggered, it makes a horrifying shriek noise that pulses darkness. Very much not a good thing if there's mobs here, especially the Warden. They're tied to the Warden's activation, and they're pretty terrifying. The Warden can also "smell" now, which is even more terrifying. It's not just blindly using sound alone, but it can kinda pathfind towards you now. On a less terrifying note, they're bringing in the beauty of nature aspect of the wilderness by updating other biomes to make them more diverse, such as making Birch Forests taller and with more spread out trees. One biome that will be receiving a big update is the Swamp, which lost a previous biome vote to the Mountains a couple years back. One thing in the Swamp from the previous vote was the Boat with Chest. It's just like a Minecart with Chest, but with a Boat instead. Very useful. This was the main selling point of the Swamp in my opinion. Another thing from the vote was the Mangrove Tree. It is planted in the water, which is a new one. And this is a new wood type, so that can be pretty nice for build pallets. It also has a root block, so that's neat. The Mangrove Swamp is also a new biome filled with the things, where you can even go underneath the trees. It also has Mud as a new soil type, which can be crafted by using a water bottle on dirt. And this also gives renewable Clay Blocks by putting clay on top of dripstone, which kinda "drips" the water out of the mud and turns it into clay. We will also get Mud Bricks as a new building block. I can see the Rays Works dirt farm getting a lot more use, and I totally need to set that up. The last part promised in the vote was the Frog. We're getting our second amphibian after the axolotls. These little frogs will be found around swamps, ribbiting and jumping around. And something new is the Firefly. Very tiny creatures--literally two pixels, one of which blinks on occasion--and always face the camera. It's pretty much a particle effect...that can be eaten by Frogs. Baby Frogs aren't just going to be smaller versions of Frogs like with other mobs, but they'll be actual Tadpoles. They can be picked up in a bucket. There are Frog variants, depending on where the Tadpole is when it grows into a Frog. So by being able to put a Tadpole in a bucket, you can make it grow up in any of the variants. There's a swamp frog, snowy frog, and a tropical frog, and each will be able to do something slightly different, but what that is is still in development. 2022 release. And the results are in! The winning mob is... The Allay! It will be included in the Wild Update. Everything looks pretty cool. I'm looking forward to hollowing out the underground beneath my base. Boats with Chests are an eagerly awaited update. The Allay will be incredibly useful for item sorting. And Blockbench looks incredibly useful.

Quick Minecraft update: At Minecraft Live 2021, there will be another mob vote! Pick which of three new mobs is added to the game. Your choices are (click the links for videos): Glare. This green squarish mossy floaty thing will hover over dark patches, letting you know where to put torches to light things up. Useful if you're playing with the light level in your builds. Allay. These blue floaty Vex-looking things will pick up items similar to an item you give it. Give it a cookie, and it'll pick up cookies. Give it lapis lazuli, it might pick up that and diamonds. Cool. Copper Golem. A craftable mob, it oxidizes over time, turning into a tarnished copper statue. But before it does, it will go around and press Copper Buttons, which will also be added. I can already picture randomizers being made with this guy at the helm. All of these seem like fine editions.

Alright, the final Smash Bros. fighter has been revealed, so let's take a look. First, Mii Fighter costumes: the enemy Octoling and Judd from Splatoon get hats, and Doomguy gets a Mii Gunner outfit! Not much, but still. Alright, time for the fighter. Sora is Finally Here! They actually got Sora from Kingdom Hearts! And they actually show footage from the game featuring a million Disney characters! I get the feeling he's not returning for Smash 6. Sora was actually the winner of the Super Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot from the DLC period of the Wii U / 3DS game. Bayonetta may have been the most realizable character at the time, but I guess non-realizable characters like Sora and Goku still had more votes. (actually I'm not sure if Goku didn't beat Sora). Weird seeing Sora and Mario in the same video game. Sakurai is still in awe. Sora's controls are fairly straightforward compared to other DLC fighters. Good mid-air mobility, but very light weight, so he can recover fairly well but is easy to launch. P1 Alt: Kingdom Hearts; P2: Kingdom Hearts II; P3: Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]; P4: Kingdom Hearts III; P5: Timeless River design (black and white resembling old cartoons, complete with pie eyes); P6: Kingdom Hearts II Valor Form; P7: Kingdom Hearts II Wisdom Form; P8: Kingdom Hearts III Ultimate form Sora also has five spirit designs: Original, KHII, KH3D, KHIII, and Timeless River. All things considered, a lot of outright Disney stuff just plain doesn't appear here, likely because that'd be a copyright nightmare. The only thing I really spotted that's still Disney is the Mickey Mouse keychain on Sora's keyblade. Now for his moves His attacks are a bit slow but have a longer timing window. Repeatedly pressing or holding the attack button, some moves become 3-hit combos. The Neutral A, Side Tilt, Neutral Air, and Forward Air have this property. They're all sword swing combos Neutral A is fast but has low attack power Side Tilt is slower but has higher attack power Neutral air is good for keep away Forward air is good for knocking foes off stage All are good for short hop attacks Keep each hit in each combo in mind, as they all have different knockbacks and launch angles Up Tilt: An upwards sword spin with a somewhat lingering hitbox. Down Tilt: A simple sword swing with end lag, but good at knocking foes straight up Side Smash: A powerful sword swing with long duration Up Smash: An upwards keyblade flash. Leaves you vulnerable but has a wider hitbox than it looks. Also has a sweetspot Down Smash: A short hop and downwards stab. Back Air: A backwards swing Up Air: An upwards swing Down Air: Hurricane Blast, a 360-degree swing. Throws are fairly simple. Down throw has little knockback, side throw can hit other opponents B: Magic. Cycles between Firaga, Thundaga, and Blizzaga There's an indicator over the health icon Each use automatically cycles to the next Firaga: keep pressing B to keep shooting; once you stop, it switches Thundaga drops three lightning bolts. It leaves you vulnerable, but if the first hits, all three should hit; it has shorter range in the air Blizzaga: Close range ice burst that can freeze opponents; fires multiple shots in one burst All can be reflected, absorbed, and Pocketed; Thundaga is reflected up and un-Pocketed down, so keep that spacing in mind You can also just shoot magic at nothing to cycle them quickly Off-topic, but taunts also cycle between magic, showing Stopga, Aeroga, and Curaga, but this is just for show Side B: Sonic Blade. You can dash in three directions; the first dash is always sideways, but the other two can be controlled in direction. You can also lock onto an opponent to home towards them. Each dash is slower and shorter distance, and hitting a shield also slows you down Up B: Aerial Sweep. Similar to Link's Spin Attack, but you rise into the air even when using it on the ground. You can also move slightly left or right You can use Sonic Blade right after using Aerial Sweep. Great for aerial combos Down B: Counterattack Different from other fighters' counters in that it cancels the opponent's attack, causing them to stumble, rather than letting the opponent finish the attack Can also deflect projectiles, but they're deflected behind him Countering a projectile makes it his move As for the Final Smash, it's called: Sealing the Keyhole. It's a cutscene Final Smash. Sora traps foes inside a large door, then seals it shut with the keyblade. When Sora gets the final KO in a Stamina battle, the shot lingers on the killing blow for a bit, just like in the original game. Stage: Hollow Bastion The stage is a simple Final Destination shape with one small platform above the center The stage circles around Hollow Bastion, showcasing the level as it was in the original game If time or stock is low, the stage moves to a location called Dive to the Heart, which shows images of other Kingdom Hearts characters in the background, such as Sora, Riku, Roxas, Xion, Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. Music: Night of Fate Destiny's Force Shrouding Dark Cloud Hand in Hand Blast Away! -Gummi ship II- Hollow Bastion Scherzo Di Notte Fragments of Sorrow Destati As a bonus, if you have save data from Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, you'll also get Dearly Beloved -Swing Version-. None of them are new arrangements, but the victory fanfare is a new arrangement of Hand in Hand. Spirits: Kairi, Ventus, Aqua, Terra, Riku, Xion, Axel, and Roxas The final release date is October 18. As for amiibo, Steve will come out in 2022, and Alex will also get an amiibo. Sephiroth, Pyra, Mythra, and Kazuya will get their amiibo eventually as well. As a fun bonus, the Kingdom Hearts games will be coming to the Switch at a later date Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX contains the first and second games as well as Chain of Memories Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is mostly a remastered KH 3DDream Drop distance Kingdom Hearts III And finally, a summary of the game 89 fighters (counting Pokémon Trainer as 3 and Pyra/Mythra as 2) 116 stages (340, counting Battlefiend and Omega forms) 201 items Over 1,100 songs (including victory fanfares) 1,496 spirits (as of the end of September 2021) Over 450 games featured (including via spirits as of the end of September 2021) Over 2,200 characters featured (including stage guests as of the end of September 2021) 140 Mii Fighter costume sets Total play time so far: over 2.2 billion hours Game launched over 2 billion times Offline battles: over 1.17 billion Online battles: over 7.8 billion Over 90 billion KOs It's been a wild ride, huh? We got 89 fighters from 40 different franchises and music and gameplay elements from so, so many more. All the hype, the combos, the YouTube videos, reactions, discussions, challenge runs... And I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Alright. It's Nintendo Direct time. What do we got? Ooh, Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak DLC comes out in Summer 2022. Big expansion for the game. New story, monsters, and hunting actions. I'm not a Monster Hunter person, but it looks neat. Mario Kart: Superstars details. We get some returning stages: Woody Woods, Yoshi's Tropical Island, and Horror Land. Minigame-only courses in Mt. Minigames. Online play for everything. Looks like fun. October 29. A card-based RPG called Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars. Everything is represented as cards, even the map. An interesting take. October 28. Disco Elysium - The Final Cut. You wake up with no memory but soon learn you're a detective investigating a murder. Very choice-based with your decisions affecting how the story goes. October 12 for download and early 2022 for physical purchase. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Expansion Pass gets another teaser. It looks like Purah and Robbie are joining in as fighters. Chocobo GP. A racing game featuring Final Fantasy characters like Chocobo and Black Mage. One of the karts is skates, so there's that. Item boxes give you elemental energy to use as spells rather than items, and they appear to be color-coded; collect more energy without using it to power up the spell. Local and online multiplayer, customizable vehicles, and a 64-player tournament mode! 2022 release. Now for Smash Bros. news: The final fighter will be revealed on October 5, at 7 am Pacific / 10 am Eastern. This will be the final Smash Bros. Ultimate presentation, so here's hoping we go out with a bang! An empty mall? A city covered in moss? A beach? Kirby? Kirby! New Kirby adventure. Kirby and the Forgotten Land. A 3D free-roaming area full of enemies, collectibles, new and old copy powers. Looks neat. Spring 2022 release. A Nintendo Direct dedicated to Animal Crossing will air in October. We'll get some new free content in November, which we'll go over in the direct. Mario Golf: Super Rush gets a second wave of free content, adding the Koopa Troopa and Ninji as a new character, and two new courses. Um, the entire course is a sand trap. Do we play through or... Disney Magical World 2: Enchanted Edition. Disney characters from all kinds of franchises can interact with your Mii. Includes all the content from the 3DS edition. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic gets a Switch port. Dying Light 2 Stay Human - Cloud Version. Parkour, combat, and zombies. Solo or up to 4-player co-op. Looks neat. February 4, 2022 Dying Light: Platinum Edition also gets a Switch port. October 19. Some more details about Triangle Strategy. Remember, your choices can shape the story. The results from the demo are in, and we have difficulty adjustments, visual improvements, camera control, the ability to review previous dialogue, and improved game flow and loading times. Gotta love player feedback. March 4, 2022. If you like Octopath Traveler, this game might be for you. Metroid Dread, third trailer. Looks like the speed boost and Varia suit are coming back. We're going to the planet ZDR to look for the X-parasites (we knew this) and investigate why the E.M.M.I. robots are malfunctioning. Confirmation that the Chozo had been here, and might have called this place home. What a mystery. October 8. About Nintendo Switch Online. Members will get some new content, which, from the start, includes Nintendo 64 games such as Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Yoshi's Island, Winback: Covert Operations, Dr. Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Sin & Punishment, Mario Kart 64, Mario Tennis, and more. You can play them locally or online. And you also get SEGA GENESIS games, like Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra: Hard corps, Ecco the Dolphin, Golden Axe, Gunstar Heroes, Phantasy Star IV, Streets of Rage, Strider, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and more. More games will be added later, like Majora's Mask, Kirby 64, Banjo-Kazooie (!), F-Zero X, Paper Mario, and more. The new membership plan will be added in late October, but you can still use the existing one and switch to the new one whenever. Members can also purchase wireless versions of the N64 and Genesis controllers, so that's pretty neat. ...okay, that's really neat. Just to recap, we're getting Banjo-Kazooie, a game in a franchise that's currently owned by Microsoft, on a Nintendo console again. It may be a port of a game released when it wasn't owned by them, but still, it's really nice of Microsoft to let this happen. And a series of collections: Shadowrun Trilogy, 2022 release Castlevania Advance Collection, collecting Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, and Castlevania: Dracula X. Also has modern features like rewind, savestates, and button remapping, and all three language modes, plus a new gallery mode. TODAY! Actraiser Rennaisance. Actraiser gets an HD remake. First there's the 2D sidescrolling adventure. Then, there's a civilization-building mode. You can switch from retro to modern music at will. Released today! Deltarune, Chapter 2. It's a Toby Fox presentation, so you know it's gonna be good. I didn't play or even watch a Let's Play of the first chapter, so I don't know if anything important happened in the trailer. Still, it's available TODAY as a FREE update. Get on that. And some rapid-fire stuff again: Hot Wheels Unleashed. Features racing and track-building. So, Trackmania in miniature. September 30 Surviving the Aftermath. Looks like building a post-apocalyptic survival camp. Buildings align to grid, tech tree, etc. Holiday season 2021. Shin Megami Tensei V. Preorders begin today. Wreckfest. Racing with collision and breakable environment. Fall 2021 Arcade Archives PAC-MAN and Arcade Archives XEVIOUS. Play these retro games today. Rune Factory 5. March 22, 2022 A quick announcement from Shigeru Miyamoto. Nintendo has been working with Hollywood to make a Mario movie. It'll come out in theaters in the Holiday 2022 season, with the US release date being December 21, 2022. The English voice actors are: Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. Charles Martinet, Mario's traditional voice in the games, will also show up in some cameo roles. And some minor roles from Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike (wait, as in Foreman Spike? From Wrecking Crew?). Honestly, I'm not too sure about seeing this, mainly because Bowser and the Kongs having actual spoken dialogue isn't exactly something I want to hear (you just hear voice grunts for years, actual voices is kinda odd, ya know? ...and yes, I'm aware of Mario Sunshine and the Donkey Kong cartoon), but maybe it'll be better than I'm thinking it'll be due to Nintendo being heavily involved in the process. Who knows? Will it follow Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog and surprise everyone with quality, or will it go the way of its old predecessor? Splatoon 3 time! A stage surrounded by apartments, the return of Museum d'Alfonsino, a rocket-shooting crab mech as a special, a deflector shield as a special, a grappling hook gun, and... Of course the Octarians are back. Easter island heads, cameos from the Squid Sisters and Agent 3, some kind of mech thing, and... The Return of the Mammalians. Looks like mammals are starting to return in the post-apocalyptic world of colorful paint battles. A few points from the Squid Research Lab: The hub area is called Splatsville, the City of Chaos, surrounded by the Splatlands, and it's somewhat of a melting pot of generations of culture. And as for story mode, what happens when a world devoid of mammals (except for exactly two cats) sees their slow return? Reminder: 2022 release. And finishing things off, we have some military game. Looks like soldiers against a giant organic mech thing I don't know. And the humans are losing. Automatic rifles aren't gonna cut it. So... What just shot it? Why are the bullet holes purple and in a P shape- Wait, lemme guess. Bayonetta? Bayonetta. Bayonetta! The Umbra Witch is back for her third adventure, employing Witch Time, demonic assistance of all kinds, exciting cinematic action, and guns. Lots and lots of guns. Bayonetta 3 will finally come out in 2022, so get hyped for that. And...who's that at the end with the big sword? So. New Kirby, Deltarune Chapter 2, Bayonetta 3, Mario movie voice cast reveal, N64 games including Banjo-Kazooie for Switch Online members, two more upcoming Directs, Splatoon 3 info, a bunch of retro games returning, Chocobo racing game, and some other games that don't look half bad, honestly. I'd say this is a good direct. In other news, Minecraft version 1.18 has officially entered the Snapshot releases. Looking through the notes for the most recent snapshot, the thing I'm most hyped about is a simple bug fix: "MC-44055 - Game fails to switch the audio output from one device to another after the game has started (from title screen)." This bug means that if I boot up the game while my headphones are unplugged (such as, if I'm listening to a video on my phone), plugging in the headphones won't give me any sound. It thinks that I'm using speakers--which I flat-out do not have--and won't switch over. Now, with this bug fixed, that issue goes away. There's also another change where you no longer stop sprinting when you lightly brush against a wall. I'm sure that'll make a lot of people happy. And a handful of other things, but I'm skimming the page right now so I'll get to it later.

Well, I think we're quite a bit past the expiry date. Thread 5, here we go. So, a big recap for a bunch of games: Minecraft is in version 1.17. It adds copper, amethyst, deepslate, moss, snowier snow, axolotls, glow squid, goats, stalactites and stalagmites, raw metals as a step between ores and ingots, the ability to place rails in the water, renewable lava, and a bunch of other stuff. Meanwhile, 1.18 is in some experimental testing right now, working out the new terrain and biome generation. And so far, it does not disappoint. This new update is gonna look amazing. Official snapshots coming soon. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl will be getting a Switch remake: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The overworld goes back to the chibi style from the pre-3D games. Most of the old mechanics are brought back the same, but the underground has some new functions to it that actually incentivizes using it. On the subject of Pokémon, there's a game set in the Sinnoh region in what looks like feudal times back when Sinnoh was called the Hisui region, with a Breath of the Wild-style open-world nature to it. Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Gorgeous graphics, Poke Balls have to be invented properly, wild Pokémon can attack you directly, new forms of Growlithe and Braviary, and new evolutions for Stantler and Basculin, among other changes we don't know yet. Metroid Dread! The long-rumored game marks Samus's return to the sidescrolling Metroid games. It's a sequel to Metroid Fusion, features an invincible robotic enemy called an E.M.M.I., and might feature a living Chozo for the first time in the series. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will get its first wave of DLC. Featuring a new chain whip weapon and Zelda on a motorcycle. Anyone play Advance Wars? Well, it's getting a Switch port. First two games bundled in one. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp. The sequel to Breath of the Wild will feature floating islands and a skydiving mechanic like in Skyward Sword. Combining aspects from the first game in the Zelda timeline with the world from the chronologically last game in the timeline? Sweet! Mario Party Superstars, for when you want to play some of the N64 Mario Party boards and minigames on newer hardware. Splatoon 3 has been announced. Featuring what looks like an Ink Bow (archery fans unite!), Octolings as a default character choice, gender no longer a selectable choice so you can mix and match however you want, a Salmonid companion pet, and what looks like the Eiffel Tower fallen over. Project Triangle Strategy looks like it's gonna fall in the same vein as Octopath Traveler, being 2D 16-bit characters in a 3D environment. The triangle in question appears to be a sort of reputation/karma meter type thing, with the three points being Utility, Morality, and Loyalty, and doing different things can boost or lower those things, ultimately affecting the story. Battles will also have a vertical component to them, making things easier or harder depending on where your and your opponents' units are. Looks interesting. If anyone likes the Touhou Project (a series of Bullet Hell vertical scrolling shoot-em-ups with an East-Asian Mythology theme), the 18th game in the series, Touhou Kouryuudou: Unconnected Marketeers, came out in May. It features a card mechanic in addition to the usual Bullet Hell. It's also the first in the series to debut as a digital release, for reasons that probably don't need to be mentioned *coughcovidcough*. Genshin Impact is an open-world RPG and it looks beautiful. I'll be honest: any 3D open-world game in a medieval fantasy setting reminds me of Breath of the Wild just by being a 3D open-world game in a medieval fantasy setting, which is not a bad thing as I love Breath of the Wild too. It has a lot more characters than Breath of the Wild and a story that's more involved in more places, so give it a looksie. Paper Mario: The Origami King is the 6th or 7th installment of the Paper Mario side series (depending on how you count Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam). The evil King Olly and his Legions of Stationary have taken over the Mushroom Kingdom! Princess Peach has been folded into an origami version of herself and is brainwashed to boot, and Bowser can't help because he's been quite literally folded into uselessness. It's up to you to save the Mushroom Kingdom. You want to fight on a circular arena against a giant stapler? Sure! Embrace the weirdness of the idea and have fun. A lot of people seem to like Cyberpunk 2077. It looks interesting. Looks like this thread closed down just before we could talk about Final Fantasy VII Remake. It's a remake of Final Fantasy VII, bringing the familiar story up to date with new graphics and reminding everyone what the characters' original personalities were. It's definitely a remake. Pay no attention to those Whisper things that weren't there in the original game. Among Us, which was released in 2018, got a surge of popularity once Covid trapped everyone at home and some YouTubers started playing it. Speaking of games by Puffballs United, the Henry Stickmin Collection combines all of the first five Henry Stickmin games into one compilation game and adds in a sixth game to cap off the story. The collection tweaks many of the references to be less copyright-infringing while cleaning up the first five to improve the graphics. As a side note, the airship from the Henry Stickmin games was turned into an Among Us map. It's a pretty big map. Oh snap! It's New Pokémon Snap! The classic rail (photo-)shooter is back! On the subject of Pokémon, we also get Pokémon Unite! The first Pokémon MOBA game! Anyone who likes Subnautica might like its sequel, Subnautica: Below Zero. Now includes ice. And now for a big list of Super Smash Bros. fighters: Min Min Arms Herself! It was known that an ARMS character would join the Smash Bros. roster, but everyone thought it would be Spring Man (despite him being an Assist Trophy). Everyone was surprised to see Min Min instead. She's a fun character. Her stage is Spring Stadium, which, in ARMS, is Spring Man's home stage, funnily enough. Also including 18 tracks from ARMS, which is pretty much the entire ARMS soundtrack already. Only two of those--the main theme and the Ramen Bowl theme (Min Min's home stage in ARMS)--are new remixes. Steve Rocks the Block! Steve from Minecraft! Minecraft in Smash! Also including Alex, a Zombie, and an Enderman as alternate costumes. Yes, you can place blocks on the stage! The stage, Minecraft World, looks like something we can just build (I've certainly taken a crack at it). Includes seven music tracks, six of which are new remixes, from Minecraft Dungeons, Earth, and Console Edition. Sephiroth Descends into Battle! Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII joins the roster! Easily the most powerful character in terms of average raw damage output per move and one of the four most powerful characters in the roster lore-wise (next to Kirby, Palutena, and Bayonetta). He brings the Northern Cave as his stage, and with it, some measure of spoilers for the end of Final Fantasy VII. There's also nine new music tracks from Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, including Sephiroth's iconic theme, One-Winged Angel. Pyra Blazes into Battle! and Mythra Awakens! Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 share the invitation, being able to switch between one another mid-battle, much like Zelda and Sheik in Melee and the Pokémon Trainer in Brawl and Ultimate. Pyra's attacks are stronger but slower, and Mythra's are quicker but weaker. It's all in the balance. Their stage is the Cloud Sea of Alrest, which is basically riding on the back of the character Azurda (also known as Gramps), a Titan (a giant creature) sailing through the, well, cloud sea on the world of Alrest, passing by other, much larger Titans in the background. Includes 16 new music tracks from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Kazuya Gets Ready for the Next Battle! Kazuya Mishima from Tekken joins the Super Smash Bros. cast! After his father Heihachi and son Jin have shown him up several times, Kazuya finally gets to be the focus of the Tekken crossover this time, and arguably in the much more famous and iconic crossover too. Fitting, since Kazuya was the protagonist of the first Tekken and was demoted to antagonist for later games. He's got a whole bunch of moves from his home series, including a famous 10-Hit Combo. Kazuya has far more moves than anyone, so there's a high learning curve for anyone who isn't a Tekken veteran already. His stage is the Mishima Dojo stage from Tekken 7, and it brings thirty-nine tracks from the Tekken series. Also it's kinda neat to think the next Street Fighter x Tekken game is Super Smash Bros. One more to go... We also got a number of new Mii Fighter costumes: Ninjara (ARMS), Heihachi (Tekken), Callie and Marie (Splatoon), Vault Boy (Fallout), Creeper, Pig, and Diamond Armor (Minecraft), Gil (The Tower of Druaga), Bomberman (Bomberman), Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes), Barret, Tifa, and Aerith (Final Fantasy VII), Chocobo hat (Final Fantasy), Geno (Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars), Hunter Equipment, Rathalos Equipment, and Felyne hat (Monster Hunter), Arthur (Ghosts 'n Goblins), Lloyd Irving (Tales of Symphonia), Dragonborn (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim), Dante (Devil May Cry), and Shantae (Shantae). Shantae's costume also unlocks a music track: Burning Town from Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. In other news, I got Celeste, which is pretty fun. I'm stuck on this one room in Core B, though. I've almost made it on a couple of occasions, but the timing is a bit too strict for my level of skill. I need more practice. I also got to play Octopath Traveler for a bit, which is also pretty fun. I beat Ophilia and Cyrus's stories and finished chapter 3 of everyone else's. Love this game. Also Octopath has some of the best music.

When you're pretty sure you accidentally threw away all of your passwords. I sold some old textbooks and assigned reading books to Half Price Books to get a bit of money. They could resell some, and the rest weren't in good enough condition and would be recycled (I kept a couple of those because why not). Got a few bucks out of it. I had forgotten until this morning, two weeks later, after I'd cleared my computer's browser history and signed me out of literally everything, that my little paper fold containing all of my passwords was tucked into one of the recycled books as a hiding spot. Good job, me. It's probably been shredded by now. Fortunately, I remembered almost all of my usernames and had some password recovery options, so I was able to reset almost everything, and from what I can tell, no damage has been done. Some things are beyond recovery (a deviantart "plz" account from back when those were a thing, and there's probably some old job application sites, and I don't know what else but something might be more important than those), but with my email passwords all reset, I think I'll be fine. I'm still hoping I'll find it in a drawer or another book or something, but to be honest, I'm not too hopeful. That book was just a good hiding place.