MillionX

heh, I was part of probably the last event like that.... when the Switch was released, the local Gamestop close to me did the midnight (but really 11pm) release event for it and oh yes...I was there in a line with some fellow Switch early-adopters, ready to get that shit asap....it was a really cute redhead girl working there too; nice bonus there....but yeah I got it + Breath of the Wild like probably everyone else at the time. Fortunately for me, this store was very close to my apartment at the time...practically down the street....so in minutes I was back at the apartment setting up to play that now legendary system for the first time... yep I was at work the next morning with Switch to play on breaks and lunch...and I had very little sleep. Legion of Judgement - that's an instant must-have for me. The 2d action platformer/roguelike has become one of my top favorite genres in the past couple of years. Dead Cells---it's paused/sleep mode at the moment but this run I'm on right now has been amazing... it's 4C difficulty, and I've made it to the High Peak Castle....but I have no healing potion left. A few biomes ago, I reset my passives to get "alienation" since my health was also low...it was looking bleak, but the alienation passive saved me; it's that one that increases the # of enemies you need to kill to get rid of a curse (so it goes from 10 to 15), for the bonus of healing 5% health with each kill.... I love this passive because I usually go for curses anyway, especially on a Tactics build.... and 5% healing is niiiiice. I went from close to death to full health in no time thanks to that passive and just 1 or 2 curses. (it's better than depending on the random luck of finding food items, as by default in this game...food is a rarity, so you can't depend on that) This was, as usual a good call...because I saw only one food item appear and it was the small one that only heals ya for 15%. At this point I got 31 points on Tactics....with "magic missiles" and "pyrotechnics" (2 of my favorites) as my weapon abilities...along with Heavy Turret and Crossbow-matic turret...high level amulet and some effects that spread oil to enemies which synergizes with the pyrotechnics, so the damage output here is ridiculous. At this point I'm easily killing all normal enemies in 1 hit, maybe 2 at most....none of them have a chance. It's still not a guaranteed win though because the boss in High Peak Castle is still a potential problem, even with all this damage I have going on....since I have no way of healing up at this point. He probably kills me in 1 or 2 hits, so this fight will have to be done flawlessly for me to get by and finish the run here.

Well, I had to search for a while... and finally I found someone who got the console version of Wolcen and made a video/review commentary of it (haha NO one else?! Seriously? I only see this one dude's video! ..a channel with currently 26 subscribers. Seems like everyone else is avoiding it)...and sadly, suspicions were right that this is a bit of a mess:

Yeah---I think the best way to fix things when making a Matrix sequel at this point would have been the anthology series route.... same world and concept but telling the story of a new group of characters. This movie also reminded me that it's a great tragedy that there hasn't been that many Matrix videogames ever produced.... I only remember of an MMO that I think got canceled, and a GC/PS2/Xbox era game called "Enter the Matrix", which only looked "ok" at best. The concept seems like it would be perfect material to base a game series on. I'm not always a fan of the mmo genre (I usually hate it, actually) but it seems like a good fit might be something like DC Universe Online... big open world of "The Matrix" itself with some "real world/Zion/Io" areas here and there....and your customized original character would meet and interact with established names like Morpheus, Trinity, the Merovingian, the Oracle (she would be perfect to give the player quests, find out info about the world, reset skills/abilities etc), etc. man, I love that world so much... I remember having a dream about being in The Matrix one time... I met up with Morpheus and Trinity, and we were on the run from the 2 rogue programs that were actually.... actress Michael Michelle and that comedian Margaret Cho! ha, that shit was out of left field as I don't care 1 way or another about Margaret Cho, but for some reason, she was there in my Matrix dream as a dangerous "program".

I checked out some reviews on it as well... this guy sums it all up perfectly with how Resurrections turned out and how it relates to the other films, imo....major spoilers for everything here, of course:

Ok so since it happens to be part of my 4k Matrix collection... I reluctantly watched Resurrections. Yeah... I'd say it indeed earned the criticisms. There were a few things that visually looked cool but overall it just seemed like a mess of a film to me....and of course, just disappointing in comparison to the older movies. The odd thing is that some effects looked cool...but some other things came off looking cheap, like almost "average tv show budget"-level quality. There's one really odd scene in an abandoned factory looking area that just had me wondering---why would they do this scene? It's like that 1 Wachowski (*I'm curious why the other sibling was apparently not involved on this one) and the team just went with whatever was the first idea that came to mind....with no alternate, backup ideas in play like "eh, not so sure about how this plays.....let's try this other idea we storyboarded...". The fighting and action scenes also don't really compare to the previous movies. There's one cool (and overpowered as hell) thing a character called "The Analyst" does but that's about it. That was the best new character, imo... a shame he had to be in this movie though. Ultimately, this is another one of those cases where it's probably for the best that the world goes on in agreement that there's only 2 or 3 Matrix films. This did not happen.

I've been watching the Matrix movies again now that I got that 4k collection... I still think "Reloaded" wasn't that bad; enjoyed it. I suspect that most people's expectations were just extreme because the first one was just that damn good...it would be tough for any follow-up to match that level of greatness. sheeitttt... Smith still is one of the greatest movie villains of all time. I'd set him right into that elite top tier with folks like Vader and Palpatine. It seems like a great setup for an anthology type of series, imo... we saw a bit of that with "Animatrix" that had stories of different characters and situations within that world. *Ok I'll say the hot take... seeing this again for the first time since it was a new movie... I think part 3 got a bit too much flack as well. The whole scene where Zion got invaded by the machines was goddamn incredible...the building tension as things go from bad to worse while the ship is also trying to make it back, the spectacle of it all....the music... and Captain Mifune went out in such an epic way; I love everything about this scene. I got Revolutions on right now----Monica Bellucci in the tight red outfit in glorious 4k, folks....lawd have mercy

^fortunately I never saw or *noticed* gang activity at the arcades I went to back then... which is a bit surprising considering I grew up in that ragged shit-pile known as Memphis, TN. I haven't seen this happen before--- Wolcen still shows the release date to be 3/14/23, but so far... it's still not even showing a price on PSN....perhaps it's just set to be available later tonight, I guess. I was thinking that surely they'd at least be showing the price and a specific release time by now. Well, I keep seeing people talk about technical problems though... yeah this console version will be one to wait for a review then. so there's a LOT of new outfits in Dead Cells via the Castlevania dlc.... I just got Hector, Maria Renard and Simon outfits https://screenrant.com/how-to-unlock-every-outfit-dead-cells-castlevania/ The current run is going alright; I just beat Death and got the Scythe...currently 14 points on Brutality.

Looking it up again I see there's a better-looking 2019 version now... "Haloid" was the best fan-made thing I've ever seen (yep I realize Monty O. went on to become something of a big name later and created the RWBY series, I think) Incredible....and set to "Burly Brawl", which is one of my favorite action-scene movie tracks of all time. (if I made a top 50 or top 20, that track and "Chateau" are at least inside the top 5 GOAT status action themes.)

Strange... today is the day for Wolcen to hit consoles, but when checking a little while ago it was still just showing up as "just announced" instead of showing a price. I suspect it was indeed a rush since Diablo 4 is about to hit with their open beta. Well, this grants a little more time when my current addictions to Dead Cells and Diablo 3....oh and I recently noticed I have about the same total time on both; 515 hours....heh, so over 1000 hours of good times just from those 2 games (and with D3 it's really that 515 + the 102 or so on PS5 and the 850-ish on XB...and I also play Dead Cells on XB and Steam Deck now so it's easily over 2000 hours if we include the other platforms). Other forms of entertainment really cannot compare to gaming, imo.

I haven't watched the Flash tv show in years; I checked some youtube vids recently after noticing a trailer on facebook... oof, what a fall from grace that one was. In the beginning, Flash was the best superhero show on tv, imo... I don't think anything else was even that close. That first season was incredible... season 2 wasn't quite as hot but it was still good... then season 3 was alright, but it fell right off a cliff in quality after that. The last time I cared about anything going on with the show was when the "Thinker" was the main villain. This season, they've been dealing with the Red Death....which is a real shame, since of course they don't have a proper Bruce Wayne/Batman in the CW version of the DC multiverse....well, I vaguely remember they did have 1 alternate universe one played by the great Kevin Conroy(!!) but of course Batwoman ended up killing him. (**btw; congrats, Batwoman---you're so cool for killing a very old and crippled Batman. Big-time "black girl magic" there, right?) ...but yeah, what I've seen of the current mess going on with Flash is a real shame. I actually have the first season dvd; I liked it that much that I had to own a copy...I've seen some "Season 1 & 2" sets occasionally in stores; I may still buy that, but the rest of the series is quite a sad step down from what it once was. *movie-version Ezra-Flash is still the inferior version to me though... that running style in particular; I'm curious who's dumb idea that was (probably the writers and storyboard artists, I'm guessing), because the shit looks silly in the worst possible way. The tv show (and various animated shows) already perfected the visual style of how it should look....then in the movies we got this goof looking like a a half-way competent speed-skater or something. The normal/natural running style that is simply sped-up with lightning and blur effects in the tv series and certain animations is far superior to that nonsense.

Some sales at the moment on eshop... Megaman 11 = 9.99 Dragon's Dogma 9.99 Bioshock = 9.99 Borderlands Collection 9.99 Valfaris/Slain combo! = 3.99 (hell of a deal for both games, imo) Capcom Fighting Collection = 19.99 Fury Unleashed = 4.99 whoahh I'm just now seeing this one for the first time... the Switch version is coming soon: ah, 20 bucks; releases on 03/16 for Switch... it's 12 gigs; yeah I must have it.

Oh yeah, I got the Dead Cells Castlevania content earlier today so I'm just getting started there....played around in some new areas and got Alucard's Shield and the bat swarm thing item/ability already and I'm loving it this whole dlc idea; it's perfect for this game....I'm really looking forward to the new character outfits. I was on a Tactics build for the run earlier today, and ran into "Death" itself for the first time, unfamiliar with all his attack patterns and of course that was the end point of my run.

ha, crazy--- I went to sleep some hours ago while one of my regular podcasts (Flashcast) was on, woke up just now and yep... these people are STILL live on the same episode right now...so the episode is at about 7 hours, 10 minutes and going ...insane🤣 Yep the host is drunk at this point. The Shit Update - I dropped quite the impressive pile in the bowl late last night; it was coiled up like a snake, reminding me of that enemy "Coily" from Q*bert, back in the ancient arcade times.

Oh yeah in gaming the updates are often for the better. Launch-era Diablo 3 was definitely pretty awful in comparison to the present-day version. ...ha, brings back memories.... killing some monsters and only getting about 3 to 5 gold dropping....everyone being poor in terms of the gold....legendary items actually being super rare.... "set items", paragon levels, Adventure Mode, Crusader and Necromancer, etc. did not exist in the game yet. Funny how things turned around--- a friend I played this with at the time was way more into it than I was back then (the guy was watching character build videos constantly back then)....soon that reversed and my characters were like Goku status compared to the gimped weaklings he was putting together. (*like he never actually retained the info he was looking up with the character build guides) oh and that reminds me----Dragonball Super Super Hero was actually a bit disappointing... overall, I enjoyed the DB Super Broly movie more.

I still like going and browsing places like Best Buy... at least one of them here still has a good tv/movie section....but this is precisely why I'm buying as many physical media releases as I can while it's still possible....because I'm sure there's not much time left before that becomes impossible. The closer Best Buy already eliminated their tv/movie section completely....so I don't bother going there anymore. Another close Target shrank their tv/movie section down to 1 piece of an aisle, so basically....they have nothing but 'new release' stuff. It's a real shame what's happening regarding all that.....because most people don't see the value in it anymore, which is goddamn foolish....and to be frank it's irritating in how fucking goddamn dunce-cap stupid the shit is, imo....that so many people are just fine with never owning a copy of something they supposedly love..... an all-streaming future where these companies can take your favorite movie, show, or game away from you at any time for any reason.....OR make changes "in light of modern sensibilities" in a few years (aka the world has become too pussy for this scene that was perfectly fine 10 years ago), and it's all basically a rental....the shit disgusts me.

eh, a bit frustrating when I find a great/fun thread that I'm just too late for, over there on reddit... I noticed an "unpopular opinions" thread about World of Darkness on the White Wolf RPG forum. My hot takes may have been a bit too strange or possibly "triggering" for certain fans though, probably. ...like for one that's admittedly from a bias... I just don't like how OP the wolves apparently are compared to vamps. I'm so used to what we've seen in various other shows, movies and games where they tend to be somewhat even or where the vamps have an advantage in terms of powers. Also it still seems odd to me that someone who would need "trigger warnings" would even bother to play a WoD game in the first place, considering what the overall horror/monsters atmosphere and theme of this IP is.... like if the desire is for something that's more "rated PG13", maybe D&D or another presumably "lighter" fantasy ttrpg might be the person's cup of tea? I like the idea that ttrpgs can possibly go in some wild directions that you would never see in a mainstream videogame. I prefer it when any piece of entertainment doesn't appear to have restraints on what might happen....at least for me, that is far more thrilling and interesting, and potentially hilarious. ALERT--- I forgot to mention this yesterday---it's finally out; I saw the Dragonball Super: Super Hero movie on blu-ray at Walmart yesterday so I snatched that up immediately.

So....today was a "very special episode" of Friday Night Tights.... Gavin McInness' crazy ass was the guest. This was gold for so many probably unintended reasons. His time on the show just ended a little while ago when he stood up and took his dick out and started pissing, saying something like "ahh I waited too long!" then walked off. This was after he ripped a loud fart right on the mic, of course. Live-chat was pretty much split with a lot of people hating the dude from the start and some loving what a hilarious train-wreck this whole episode was turning out to be. Of course I'm in the that camp that's just laughing hysterically at the chaos unfolding live on stream. They're still live right now (surprisingly) but he's not there anymore, obviously. *I just rolled the stream back to check the fart again and that was a pretty impressive blast. ...and that just reminded me of when Howard Stern had that "Wheel of Gas" segment; it was one of the greatest things he ever did in the pre-satellite radio days at least; I still have the audio recorded....a girl was on the show to get farted on for 17 straight minutes for a prize. I just pulled up the audio; I still have it on my phone now as an mp3----it was Sarah; KC and Artie and the rest of the crew laughing in the background was gold. 🤣

https://nypost.com/2023/03/09/teacher-of-the-year-jacqueline-ma-arrested-for-alleged-sexual-abuse-of-former-student/ Another one.... the usual suspect for this crime, of course. Many years ago, "catholic priest" was always the first "likely suspect" when I heard of any story on the news about child molestation... but now I always just think "a female teacher, right? Let's see how she looks...". They've become the mascot of that particular crime.

Funny thing is that I still, in hundreds of hours total playtime... never made it to the top difficulty in Dead Cells, which is "5-cells" (so yeah; I've never fought the "true" final boss, actually). I played for a bit just the other day, though my addiction to Diablo at the moment keeps getting in the way of other games. I'm usually going with either a Tactics or a Brutality build/focus.... I get the most success and fun with those. I'll most likely get that Castlevania content this weekend and dig into that. ha, my earlier rambling reminded me again of how much I despised Fable 2's co-op mode... it has yet to be dethroned as the worst co-op experience I've ever seen in gaming. Code Vein came close though....but goddamn that was awful. It still makes me laugh that when Peter Molyneux mentioned "you'll be like a henchman.." when describing it... he was being literal in the description there. You actually ARE a "henchman" (of horribly generic character design) in your friend's game, instead of your own hero character. 🤣

Code Vein was a heartbreaker for me... at best it's just "alright". The difficulty is off-putting, as if the design concept there was to make sure and crush any kind of fun the player could be having in any situation. The best thing about it was the customization; the art style is very anime and kinda reminded me of how "Bleach" looks, so I loved that... ...but the controls/gameplay felt kinda clunky and awkward, imo. Backstabs also seemed inconsistent, like the game itself rolls the dice or just "decides" (cheats) whether or not your backstab was successful. The revenant/vampire power fantasy just isn't there for me as well; partially due to the difficulty but mostly due to the lack of interesting powers/abilities. These characters you play just don't seem to be all that, imo....and they move too slow, like they have only "normal human" levels of speed/agility. (*at the very least I imagine vamps/revenants to have superhuman agility and speed. That should be some basic shit that even a newly-turned "fledgling" starts with.) There's DLC but from what I heard and read about it didn't seem like anything that was worth my money or time. The worst though---the co-op mode is one of the worst garbage I've seen since Fable 2. It was so awful I only played it with a friend on one day and never again. (*your healing/resources are cut in half because again--> "No fun allowed.", and anytime player 1 or 2 dies then the whole thing is ruined and you have to start that area over....also you can only play certain areas; I forgot the details of the restriction but if 1 person didn't make it to an area yet, you couldn't play it in co-op. Also, we had to make a password-created "room" and then 1 would have to run a search for said password to join....can't just click a "join game" or "invite player" option or whatever like y'know...damn near every other co-op game in the past 20-ish or so years. One player dies? Ok now you have to create the password room and have your friend run a search for it again to start the whole area over from the beginning....oh and the silly shit is that I vaguely remember there was a simple "invite" or something button but it was greyed out for some dumbass reason...so that's why we had to make a password room and then 1 of us would search for it and enter the password to join. There's other lame shit I probably forgot now. It's a miserable shitty experience, probably designed by a little shit of a person who I bet was trolling at the time.)

Oh yeah, I'm all over that Ravenswatch game asap... that looks like another one that was specifically made to cater to my taste....the great thing is that it's on everything, so my only dilemma is whether to get it on Switch or Steam Deck of Xbox/PS5... more than likely it will be Switch or Steam Deck for portable good times and PS5. There's more playable characters to be released later as well? It has that cool art style that was in Curse of the Dead Gods... oh yeah... SOLD already on this one, easy....day 1.

woooooo I just found an outstanding new one: 13k subs right now; I'm sure she will be at 6 figures soon, most likely.

https://youtu.be/t2CpKjbET2M VaneYOGA is still out there doing her thing^

Whoah I didn't know they were adding characters to that Mario Kart game... my hope would be for Magikoopa, who has always been one of my favorite enemy characters in the Mario universe. Mouser would be a cool one too, though I wouldn't be surprised if few people are fans of him or the other characters from the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2. So, another surprising one that got around the automatic censor on Switch... I made a Mii character named "Ratbastard", it allowed that name...I assumed I would have to get creative with the spelling of "bastard" but nope, it allowed the correct spelling of that as part of the name. I also tried "Muthafukka" but as I figured it said I couldn't use that one.

I'm not sure what happened to that "ask a feminist" subreddit; I like going there sometimes just to have a good laugh at a few things. Reddit is an absolute goldmine of material, tbh... I enjoy the bizarre stories and of course the usual controversial topics of interest to me, like men vs. women, certain race/stereotype-related topics, religion... basically a lot of the juicy shit that most people tend to be uncomfortable with for 1 reason or another. *That vid about the teens that ransacked the restaurant--- I figure that like a lot of "thuggish kids" scenarios, they engage in that behavior because they actually know there's little to no real consequences even if they were to get caught, because of how generally pathetic and weak the American justice system is... especially when the perpetrators in question are minors.... at worst they'd probably have to go to some juvenile detention facility for a while. This just reminded me of those 2 hoodrat pieces of shit that stole a car in Washington D.C., which resulted in a man's death... I'll bet nothing really happened to them; they had the bonus of being minors at the time and being female so nah... no worries for them, I guess....it's all fine and dandy and they can do whatever they want in life. That's one of the things that genuinely disgusts me about this world---when there's certain categories of people that can get away with whatever they want, no matter how awful it is... it's almost always fine----but if you as someone who is not part of that "special group" gets caught doing the same shit... they'll go out of their way to make an example out of ya.