whatchu playing now

#1 - change game time to 12 minutes per quarter, you want that time to boost your stats

#2 - go to coach settings and allow on-court play-calling/play-action, I turn it on for everyone so you can see where ppl are actually supposed to go. after that things were WAY easier

#3 - Def spend some time to find a build you like when you create the character, because you can't really change your path without starting over. Thankfully, the game does let you test out the build before you confirm. You may want to look up best player builds online before you commit

You can eventually make most builds work - the one I went with is far from optimal - but in any case your dude will suuuuuuuuck for some time before you get into the rating in the 80s (unless your kids already unlocked Rebirth which lets you start new builds at 90). Don't feel bad about quitting out of games/plays early on to get a better result in college/G-League. Or even start over entirely if you haven't drafted yet!

That said it seems like the most effective builds in this year are "Paint Beast" style (Center/PF/big def/rebounds/dunks) and crazy handler/3-point snipers ala Steph Curry/Kyrie

All the shop items - clothes, vehicles, etc feel insanely expensive at the beginning before you get a salary - and some of it still is - but don't sweat it, just work on your guy. You'll eventually get more money through endorsements and quests and crap

i read a tip that was said to turn Coach auto-calling plays on but i haven't tried it yet, i should. but it seems like that already happens if you idle with the ball for too long

tetris 99 is very fun/addictive

splatoon 2
I’m good at it but still can’t make X rank

i started LoU2 again and it's just too bleak rn. can't do it.

that's when i realised i never played uncharted 4. one way or the other naughty dog's gonna get me

here we go

Sunless Skies. Again. Rescued corrupted save files. It’s a perfect game for a melancholy sort of mood. Also, it’s beautiful.

i keep looking at that one, and Sunless Seas or whatever it's called. is there a lot of gameplay or is it mostly visual novel reading?

It’s a mix. Sunless Skies is the better game ito things you can do, in both you can engage in fights in the sea/sky, but it’s heavily text based and best avoided if you don’t like that kind of thing. However, if you like story-based games, then it’s great. So much depth.

i played a bit of Fallen London at the time and i liked it but i've gotta be in the right mood i think. do love a good VN tho

echoes of the eye expansion pack for outer wilds is fantastic.
divinity 2: original sin, haven’t got deep into it yet and maybe it’s only really worth it if you’re doing multiplayer
and no doubt me and my brother will be playing some rocket league when he comes round this evening.

xp definitely a mood based game, have been playing FL/EB on and off for nearly a decade or so, real feast or famine stuff

i beat kyrandia 3 yesterday and was rewarded with the geekiest end credits ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vLiR18dyQ

starts at 5:18

multiplayer/co-op heavily, heavily recommended for DIV2.

those credits are nice

Anyone else playing Wildermyth? It's the first game in which I've actually tried the multiplayer.

yes, i'm playing! i'm not too far, maybe 2-3 hours in. I don't have a good feel for the scope of the game yet - is it the kind where you play through it multiple times, getting a different story each time? if so, how long is each one of those runs? and I didn't even know there was multiplayers

i have to say, i am not a fan of the art style of the narrative parts

https://i.imgur.com/LJZdv2D.jpg

i understand why - probably a small team, low-budget, they want to be able to have lots of generated, randomized characters so they need a simplistic style where they can crank those out. but this style, in particular, really reminds me of a lot of horrible animated youtube explainer videos where some guy (always a guy) teaches you all about fiat currency in 10 minutes or less with stick figures

lol I like those videos so it doesn't bother me in Wildermyth. (FWIW I do know of and like one such YT channel that features a female host in addition to a male host.)

I'm not too far into the single player campaign myself (I had to start over because I sort of let things get bad enough that there was no salvaging things), but I think yeah, you do get different kinds of stories with different playthroughs. But if the MP game is any indication, we've played 6-7 hours and finished I think 4 chapters.

The MP is basically your TT RPG experience.

in multiplayer, do you play as a single character, I guess, with the rest of the party filled out by other people playing? seems like it would be too long to work with the same crew of online randos?

or is multiplayer PvP?

i guess i could load up the game and check myself! haha, sorry Leee. 420 over here tbh

np! It's PvE coop, and you can control more than one character (one of our party wasn't feeling well so I was driving two) -- though I think that you can only have 5 playable characters in fights (so there's a hard mechanical limit there). I'm playing a private game, so I haven't had to worry about randos, but our two game sessions have been scheduled for 3 hours each so far.

Game sounds like it's not bad, though not my kind of thing
I will say that the general baseline level of art quality in indie games is frankly SO high now that it's hard not to judge Wildermyth. Though maybe they're deliberately trying to evoke middle school coming-of-age graphic novels, I dunno

idk i like when games feel like they're actually indie like one or two people made them and didn't necessarily have dedicated artists who know how to draw polished character art. but that game doesn't look like that overall

i don't know about methodology, etc, except that 50,000 people voted

https://kotaku.com/poll-here-are-japans-top-100-video-games-of-all-time-1848275437

100. Persona 3
99. Pokémon Platinum
98. Persona 4
97. Super Mario World
96. Romance of the Three Kingdoms
95. Mother
94. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
93. Persona 5 Royal
92. Monster Hunter 4G
91. Street Fighter II
90. Final Fantasy VIII
89. Super Mario Galaxy 2
88. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
87. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
86. Monster Hunter
85. Dragon Quest VI
84. Final Fantasy XI
83. Dragon Quest VII
82. The Legend of Mana
81. Dragon Quest Builders 2
80. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
79. Metal Gear Solid
78. Nobunaga’s Ambition
77. Mario Kart Wii
76. Kirby Air Ride
75. Animal Crossing: Wild World
74. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
73. Gran Turismo 4
72. Kirby Super Star
71. Dr. Mario
70. Monster Hunter World
69. Super Mario RPG
68. Pokémon X/Y
67. Bloodborne
66. Ghost of Tsushima
65. Suikoden
64. Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver
63. Final Fantasy III
62. Xevious
61. Super Smash Bros.
60. Pokémon Black 2 and White 2
59. Dead by Daylight
58. Animal Crossing
57. Super Donkey Kong
56. Super Mario Galaxy
55. Yokai Watch 2
54. Dragon Quest VIII
53. Tales of the Abyss
52. The Legend of Zelda
51. Final Fantasy IV
50. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
49. Kingdom Hearts
48. Nier: Automata
47. Final Fantasy XIV
46. Dragon Quest II
45. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land
44. Dragon Quest X
43. Xenoblade
42. Persona 5
41. Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban!
40. Xenogears
39. Dark Souls III
38. Puyo Puyo
37. Final Fantasy IX
36. Pokémon Gold and Silver
35. Xenoblade 2
34. Final Fantasy V
33. Final Fantasy VI
32. Resident Evil
31. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
30. Apex Legends
29. Okami
28. Mother 2
27. Dragon Quest XI
26. Pokémon Black and White
25. Tetris
24. Pokémon Red and Green
23. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
22. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
21. Splatoon
20. Minecraft
19. Suikoden II
18. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
17. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
16. Kingdom Hearts II
15. Dragon Quest IV
14. Pokémon Sword and Shield
13. Undertale
12. Super Mario Kart
11. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
10. Super Mario Bros. 3
9. Final Fantasy X
8. Chrono Trigger
7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
6. Dragon Quest III
5. Splatoon 2
4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
3. Final Fantasy VII
2. Dragon Quest V
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild

more than a bit of recency bias there

the non-japanese games: Undertale, Minecraft, Tetris, Apex Legends, Dead by Daylight, Ghost of Tsushima

more than a bit of recency bias there

more than a bit of recency bias there

i just think its interesting to see what they are given theres so few

also really underscores how big a flop N64 and gamecube both were, they're almost absent from this despite most of the list being nintendo stuff.

no mario 64!

I just looked it up (having never owned a gc or 64, we were a ps household), and the n64 sold 5.5 million units in JP compared to 20m in the US and 6.75 in Europe/Aus. Ps1 sold 20 million in Japan alone. Whole different level domestically, plus a lot of those games probably not in arcades?

Am also interested looking at the bestselling list of ps1 games and seeing what didn’t make the list

yeah n64 was carried by the US which liked the rareware games a lot more, goldeneye especially

was a difficult console to develop longer games like JRPGs for since you had like 32mb cartridges instead of 700mb CDs
gamecube fixed this but couldn't cut into ps2's huge momentum especially since ps2 was also a DVD player at a time when those weren't trivially cheap

Undertale is interesting because I wonder how all the dialogue translated? I guess well?

probably? it's pretty rooted in the style of a bunch of japanese games in the first place (dq, pokemon, earthbound, moon, etc)

Yes but localizing a game jammed wall to wall with witty dialogue that depends on timing and slang is no small task. I've got a whole book about it going the opposite direction for Earthbound. So kind of curious how much of it potentially got rewritten vs. stuff that translated seamlessly, especially since it appears to be pretty darn popular over there. Might be interesting to compare.

Mario has always been more popular in North America than in Japan. I believe New Super Mario Bros. on the DS was the first one to sell well in Japan since the original.

I'm currently playing Mario Odyssey on my new Switch and it is wonderful. Kind of like SM64 but with 10x as much stuff.

that's just not true, mario is a big deal in japan, it was the consoles that flopped

zelda has a far bigger NA>Japan differential in interest (or did before botw) and metroid even bigger still

part of it is probably that they didn't make any new 2D marios for like 15 years until wii/ds

They didn't like 64/Sunshine in Japan?

they did fine proportional to the amount of N64s/gamecubes in japan (very few)

Mass Effect remake is up on gamepass so thought I'd finally give it a go
can't get over how zoomed in everything is, can barely see anything ahead and my character takes up so much of the screen. so used to 3rd person games that let you change the field of view or zoom back a bit, maybe the PC version allows this?
the writing and voice acting is pretty bad so far, i guess they kept all the original stuff from (looks it up) oh wow 15 years ago, that makes more sense i guess
can you tell I'm not having much fun haha

ass effect

Having a lot of fun with the painting game Chicory at the moment. Don't know if it will have much to offer once the novelty wears off but for now I'm into it.

Death's Door is a lot of fun so far (though I'm only about 2.5 levels into it), and appeals to me more than other Souls-likes because:

1. dying is a lot more forgiving (you don't lose your currency), and
2. the art style is cute and colorful (the grim dinginess of most From games feel unremittingly oppressive to me).

ya need a group, but this would be a fun ILX game.

City Guesser! you can set how difficult you want it to be, you have ten or more players, you see 100 seconds of footage/sound of a location, and you guess where it is. closer you are, more points.

10 rounds. seriously fun!

https://virtualvacation.us/guess

Just beat Demon's Souls and figured fuck it, let's go back to the first Dark Souls... it's wayyyyyyy easier than i remember.

I got Cyberpunk, and for as much shit as this game got last year, I’m rather enjoying it.

It's probably been patched a lot since release