Messages

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Gaming / Re: wut specturr'z playing

« on: January 22, 2020, 08:54:32 AM »

Renamed this thread because I'm great at sticking with specific games and goals. \o/

So I'm starting to slowly get back into Monster Hunter World. I have a couple of people to consistently play with, so that should make it a bit easier to get back into it.

Additionally, I just started playing through the current Path of Exile league (with SSF—solo self-found—enabled, per my usual playstyle). I ended up changing things up a bit and rolling a marauder (most of my other toons are ranged), fittingly named ANGERYLAD.

I can't say that the metamorph league is really doing much for me, at least not where I'm at right now (just starting Act 3). The overall gist of it is that you collect parts from creatures in the world and combine them into a sort of amalgamation. The metamorph creature acquires different traits from the parts that you give it, and the higher quality the parts are (that is, the rarity of the creatures that they come from) the more damage the metamorph does and the better the rewards are.

The rewards haven't been terrible, but I was kind of hoping that the parts would last a bit longer, making farming high quality parts across multiple zones more viable. However, it seems like the parts are only viable within a single area and must be used before you change zones, so if you aren't lucky enough to get parts from rare spawns you're going to be stuck with common-quality parts. Things might improve later, so I'm reserving my final judgment for now.

I've managed to keep a decent balance between offensive and defensive power at this point, so hopefully I can keep that up. I have a nasty habit of making glass cannon melee characters in ARPGs, and that usually ends in tears (unless the game is piss easy like Diablo III).

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Gaming / Re: The Backlog, 2020 edition

« on: January 22, 2020, 07:09:21 AM »

2. Nier Automata

Heard nothing but good things, two friends called it their goty of said year, I really like bayonetta and it's from the same people with similar looking combat, really wanted to play the game...

Didn't like it at all, couldn't make it to 6 hours played without throwing in the towel. Besides the interesting story/characters, I think the game is outright bad, and I can't understand how it's so critically praised.

Curious, as I actually enjoyed N:A's gameplay. The combat certainly wasn't as intricate as Bayonetta but it felt solid enough.

What issues did you have with it?

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Gaming / Re: o2jam is back.

« on: January 06, 2020, 06:59:29 AM »

I think GSync/FreeSync are handled differently. I dunno, I'm just using a 60hz 4K TV.

Respect does support a 144hz lock, so while you can't get the full 165hz you can get pretty damn close. From what one of my friends told me it looks incredible at 144hz. I doubt it'll affect the music videos, but I imagine the note scrolling would look a lot smoother.

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Gaming / Re: o2jam is back.

« on: January 05, 2020, 12:49:13 PM »

I snagged the unlock DLC because I saved $10 on the base game during the winter sale. Plus, I've already unlocked the songs so many bloody times already (twice in DJMP1, twice in DJMP2, and twice on the PS4 version of Respect) so I wasn't going to do it again.

Edit: Oh yeah, one more thing. If you haven't already, turn VSync off and use one of the locked framerate options. VSync has a tendency to introduce input lag, and it's reaaaaally noticeable with DJMR for obvious reasons.

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Gaming / Re: o2jam is back.

« on: January 05, 2020, 03:12:25 AM »

Hope you like it!

I racked up 7 hours in about a week, and the only reason that number is so low is because of me getting addicted to Grim Dawn again as well as my tendency to destroy my wrists by chain playing hard charts until I'm a quivering ball of pain.

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Gaming / Re: o2jam is back.

« on: January 05, 2020, 12:17:25 AM »

I've been playing Respect: https://store.steampowered.com/app/960170/DJMAX_RESPECT_V/

It has all of the songs from Portable 1 and 2 (along with HD remastered videos) and a ton of originals.

As far as Trilogy is concerned, I don't remember where I got my totally legit copy of it (or even where it is, for that matter, heh). I'll see if I can find it.

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Gaming / Re: DJMax Respect [PS4/PC]

« on: January 04, 2020, 11:36:49 AM »

Ah, gotcha. That makes far more sense.

I do appreciate that they tried to do things differently at times, I just wish they would have done it in a better way. Like, Brain Storm in DJMAX is insanely hard to score well on, but that's just because the song is weird as hell.

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Gaming / Re: o2jam is back.

« on: January 04, 2020, 09:00:28 AM »

I'd never let the server I have touch the Internet. Wayyyy too much risk there. We're talking software that hasn't been updated in well over a decade that probably wasn't written with security in mind.

As far as the other server, we'll see. I've mostly been murdering my fingers with DJMAX lately.

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Gaming / Re: o2jam is back.

« on: January 03, 2020, 04:05:49 PM »

I mean, sure, at least until the 14th rolls around.

But even in its prime I wouldn't feel safe hosting services on it. Windows Server has a much smaller attack vector out of the box, and it's tuned for service responsiveness rather than desktop responsiveness.

Seeing stuff like that makes me a tiny bit concerned about the security of the service.

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Gaming / Re: o2jam is back.

« on: January 03, 2020, 07:58:09 AM »

They're hosting their server on a system running…Windows 7? Uhhh…

Might have to download this later to see how they're distributing the client. I occasionally fire up a private server to play at home (it's the server software that I cracked yeaaaaars ago for Milk-Chan to get rid of the advert spam) and the client version that I'm using required me to use a DirectDraw wrapper in order to run acceptably. Kinda curious what sort of measures they took to get it running on modern versions of Windows.

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Gaming / Re: DJMax Respect [PS4/PC]

« on: January 02, 2020, 08:36:29 AM »

Where can a man get a quality pad these days?

DJMAX is a keyboard/joypad game. No need to buy a controller for it as long as you have a DualShock-style controller or a decent keyboard (I use a Logitech G910).

How was DJMax compared to O2jam?  I really only played O2jam back in the day and DJMax kinda looked like a clone of the game afiak.

Also while I enjoyed it O2jam never filled in for stepmania/IIDX for me.

DJMAX is so good that I regret going with O2Jam instead. In terms of both the soundtrack and quality of the charts it's a worthy rival to IIDX. From a difficulty perspective it isn't anywhere close to top-tier IIDX (I believe I can beat all of the 4B/5B/6B charts, but I haven't really touched 8B much so there's still a ton of progression remaining), but I find it more than hard enough to be interesting.

O2jam was honestly a janky game engine. The timing was all sorts of silly, and the charts often ignored playability and threw stupid patterns at you.

O2Jam's timing windows changed depending on the speed mod. No, I'm not joking. :|

And yeah, the charting was generally pretty fucking atrocious and the difficulty ratings were all over the show. Not to mention the sheer number of songs that are poorly keysounded (notes that didn't make any sound, keysounds that were just chopped up clips of the song itself and double up, etc). Even the mastering process was inconsistent, with some songs clipping like crazy.

To be fair there were some fantastic songs/charts, but it always felt like O2 emphasized quantity over quality while DJMAX aimed more toward being Korean IIDX in terms of variety and polish.

From what I know djmax has a way better engine. Plus its not just 7k. That said, i played the very original djmax for a few days or something then quit, so i cant really say too much.

I remember playing the original DJMAX Online when it was in beta, but I wasn't able to get too many rounds in before the beta ended. I don't really remember how good the engine was in that, honestly.

The Portable series had a fantastic engine, and Trilogy runs great on everything from XP to 10. As previously mentioned, RESPECT V even supports 144hz displays, which is something I'd really like to try out one of these days.

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Gaming / Re: DJMax Respect [PS4/PC]

« on: December 30, 2019, 08:00:20 AM »

Oh hey, so this is out on Steam now as DJMAX RESPECT V.

I basically played it daily this past weekend until my hands started to hurt (i.e. going a little overboard on the 14s and 15s). Here's a few quick comments:

It definitely runs on the DJMAX Respect engine. A lot of screens and such were carried straight over from the PS4 version. Lag compensation was removed, so if you play on a TV and run your audio through said TV (like I do) you'll have to plug in an external DAC or plug your speakers into your soundcard. I use a USB DAC with headphones and it feels fine. Additionally, make sure that VSync is off. The input lag that it introduces is awful. The PC version also supports 144hz monitors natively, and from what I've been told it looks exquisite.

It's US$50. For some reason people are really whining about this despite the sheer number of songs, unique/remastered BGAs, and difficulty coverage in it. What's really hilarious is that some people who are complaining about this are comparing it to Rock Band, a game that, uh…also cost $60 and didn't include nearly as much. Hm.

It's in Early Access through Q1 2020. The game is playable, and all of the on-disc tracks from the PS4 version are available to play (in addition to a few new additions) with the DLC coming at a later date. Mission mode isn't in the current build, nor is online play, but freestyle and AIR mode are both in the game. Freestyle is the same as it ever was, while AIR mode is what I like to call "shuffle with chat."

AIR mode is…weird. I don't get the chat aspect at all, as it's not like you're watching anyone play, or vice versa, it's just a randomized playlist at a specified difficulty range with a ton of Hangul flying all over the place, with "ez" spam after every chart. Thankfully, you can turn the chat display off to remove that distraction. I kind of like the randomized aspect since it does get me to play songs that I wouldn't normally think to play, but it's largely a means to an end—just a way to play through and unlock charts.

I'm not sure what modes they're going to be adding aside from mission mode and online play. Hopefully they bring back the classic arcade mode experience, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Apparently they are going to be adding a 10-key mode at some point, which honestly kind of scares me a bit.

As you can probably guess by the mere mention of 10-key, you're going to need a good keyboard or a controller (same button layout as the PS4, with rebinding support) to have a decent time. I'm using a Logitech G910 and it feels fantastic. The game feels great to play, and I've even managed to do something I'd only dreamed of doing—max comboing For The Ikarus 6B MX. Goddamn, I love that song.

The DRM that they're using (Xingcode 3) is kind of questionable from what I've read. That's kind of been true for all of the previous DJMAX titles, really. I mean, Trilogy shipped with a bloody dongle, and some of the Portable series wouldn't even let you transfer saves between PSPs, and apparently even the AC releases had crazier protection than most other arcade games. Personally, from what I've read, Xingcode doesn't seem much more egregious than Denuvo or SecuROM (read into that how you will), but your feelings may vary. I primarily use Windows as a gaming OS so I'm not too concerned about it.

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Random Chat / Re: New car!

« on: December 19, 2019, 03:25:27 PM »

Sounds about right, honestly. I've dealt with used car dealers and they're a bit, uh...hit or miss. I remember one of them showing me a used manual transmission Saturn SW2. The shifter was so sloppy that I could barely get it into gear when it was parked, yet despite that he was still trying to pressure me into paying $3000 for the car (bear in mind that the car was a 1994, and I was looking at it in 2012).

I think it depends on the dealership, really. The Honda Store (the place that I leased my 2019) gave me a fair trade on my 2012, and they previous gave my dad an incredibly trade on his old Chevy Aveo (protip: don't buy an Aveo or a Sonic. Ever). Meanwhile, my experience with buying my old 1998 Saturn SW2 at the nearby Donnell Ford was a bit rockier. The SW2 was, and still is, a fantastic vehicle, but you can tell they didn't give two shits about it.

As far as the actual process of leasing the new one, it was a very smooth process thanks to everyone coming together to make the sale, but it sure takes some time due to all of the procedures and such, not to mention them giving your car a once-over, taking care of any little scratches that might have occurred in the lot, etc. With the Saturn a lot of those steps were cut back, so it pretty much just involved me giving it an aggressive test drive, bringing it back, cutting a check, and adding it to my insurance.

At least I'll be more prepared next time (like, I'll bring my 3DS or something) and probably won't be as much of a big ball of nervous, excitable energy.

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Random Chat / Re: New car!

« on: December 18, 2019, 12:47:28 AM »

Thanks!

It was really surreal. Like, the entire time I just couldn't stop thinking, "holy shit, this is actually happening."

It also helped that I ended up getting a good salesman. Not only was he able to give me an accurate and detailed rundown of the new car's features during the test drive, but he also knew enough about my old Civic so that he could guide me through everything that changed.

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Gaming / Re: 2019 games back-log

« on: December 18, 2019, 12:36:38 AM »

Have you played the Crystal Clear ROM hack? It's a really nifty gen 2 hack that turns the game into somewhat of an open-world. You can go anywhere, whenever, challenge gyms in any order, get HMs early, catch all 251 pokémon, and rechallenge gym leaders (among other things). I highly recommend it!