The Off Topic Lounge: Summer of Nothing Edition

I'm wrapping up my Internship sometime next month. I can't believe it's already been six months, it went by incredibly fast. I have five vacation days that I'm entitled too, I never took any so I took today off. I'm still going downtown though, spending the day with the girlfriend and then at night going to a friend's surprise birthday party.

I'm just glad that yesterday and today in particular are warm. Back to cold weather tomorrow, Spring is trolling.

at least i got a chance to go walking on my lunch break yesterday. bleh, i hate working evening shift...

@Pierst179: in Brazil, are Brazil nuts just nuts? #americankindsofquestions

ahahahahahha.... I had no idea they were called "Brazil Nuts" out there until I did a Google search. =P

But no, they are not called "nuts". We call them "castanha-do-pará" (it roughly translates to "nut-of-pará"), Pará being the Northern state on which they are abundant.

I am not a big fan of them, though. When people travel up there they usually bring back bags loaded with those things.

@_hazbro_: grats on getting your internship wrapped up!! Are you hoping to stay at that company or branch off?

@Pierst179: no kidding? That's really cool. Learning! It's funny how things are perceived depending on where you're at.

@ttualumni13: Definitely want to stay -- it's been great here, I really like it. Here's hoping.

O.O

I just burned through CoD Ghosts campaign in a single 7 hour sitting.

It is my favorite CoD campaign yet of the 5 I've played (with WaW, MW1, MW3 and BO2).

Plan to start BO1 today, though I'll try not to go more than hour and a half today

@wiifan001: I felt similarly, it was definitely the strongest start to finish campaign of CODs I've played. Good variety too. Disappointed by the multiplayer but extinction made up the difference.

So a friend of mine made a really good offer on my boxed wii u and I'm really torn on the decision. He wants it for his kids and is paying extra for the mods I have on it, and seeing as there isn't a single game I want now until 2015 at the earliest, I may just take him up on it. I pretty much want to get out of console gaming for the gen. The Wii was pretty much the only reason I gamed last gen, and with the increased quality of handheld titles and indie games available, combined with me gamin less, console gaming feels wasteful to me when games are getting more expensive for largely less content and prettier textures. Decisions decisions..

@ttualumni13: Supposedly X is still a 2014 release... I'll believe it when I see it but that's what Nintendo is saying...

@roboccs: eh, it MAAAAY come out in japan end of this year but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. I don't see it coming over til mid to late 2015, with localization and all.

Hey Rob you said your brother had a PSP right? Any games you'd recommend for it? I just saw that I can get psp games on the ps store and figured if catch stuf I missed.

@ttualumni13: No, I know very little of the PSP lineup. My brother only got one so he could mod it. The only PSP games he bought were Madden a few times and MLB: The Show, which were actually pretty good, but at this point would be very out of date.

Sorry I'm not able to help. I borrowed it to play the PSOne classics from my PS3 on it a few times when I had to travel. But then it started asking for updates to allow me to transfer games back and forth so that went out the window due the modding.

@roboccs: no worries, I'll check some stuff out and see. Some of the final fantasy collections and titles look fantasti

@ttualumni13: What did you decide to do with your WiiU?

Bravely Default outpacing Fire Emblem: Awakening and outselling Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is pretty good.

I've still barely played it, but hearing things about the midway point of that game scares me.

I wouldn't let that discourage you too much. Everything before that is worth it imo.

If you're really that worried, at least get to that point and just do the "fake" ending.

@roboccs: haven't decided yet, his kids don't get back til Sunday so I figured is sit on it a while haha. If I sell it I'm gonna use the money to get us a beach condo for a couple of days this summer back home B-)

If you thought $65-70CDN for new games was sad, PS4 price is going up in Canada. [Source]

I've been on the fence about getting a new graphics card. This might just push me over the edge. :P

I was surprised it sold pretty well.

hey

lol, no isoior.idiot.

@moltenix: Yeah I think I'll still end up pushing through it despite what I've heard. Also, that alone will ensure I won't bother with another platform for some time now.

@Enforcedspot: Same, I wasn't expecting it to move units.

Who needs a silly new console anyway!

My backlog is pretty much cleared after finishing DK and i've had a chance to go back and play some older games the past week. Honestly, there's a crazy amount of replayability in my existing collection. I've gotten so used to accumulating new stuff and rushing through it all, I think i've been spoiled! This game drought / price hike might not be such a bad thing.

And this. *throws an Xbone at moltenix*

@moltenix: I've kind of been turned off of games lately. This entire generation for me has put me off. I like my 3DS but console wise I'm kind of blah. I need to get back to Bravely Default though, I've been pretty lazy with it.

Also for $449 I'd rather buy myself a laptop, a new phone, a tablet... etc. Also, for $449 I'd rather spend an extra $500-$700 and get a gaming PC which I can upgrade whenever I want and pay way less for games.

I feel like sharing my activity log. :P

I just finished the first part of the Bioshock Infinite DLC. I had forgotten how fun and satisfying the combat in that game could be.

And it got me excited for whatever smaller project Ken Levine will direct next. Bioshock is one of the few game series that feels closely directed; you can feel the director's hand everywhere because there are so many unique details. That should be even more pronounced on a smaller scale.

Playstation now sounds promising. Playing a bunch of PS3 games on my vita is going to be great! Hopefully sony doesnt butcher the pricing, if they play it right it could be an awesome service.

@ttualumni13: Yeah, I'm intrigued by it too. If I ever get a PS4 though, I wish there was a way to eventually play all the disc based games I own. It would be a shame for them to just be rendered useless.

Blah. This Monday is very blah.

How was everyone's weekend?

Mine was good!

I went hiking on Saturday and on Sunday I just stayed home and did nothing all day long.

It would have been better if I had already put my hands on a new copy of Azran Legacy, though. I need to buy that game.

@Pierst179: How's hiking? I've always wanted to do it, but I'm usually trapped inside the city.

I really want Azran Legacy, but I'm still saving up for a Wii U and I keep spending most of my money on food. x____x

Good. I spent most of the time studying for the finals.

@Enforcedspot: Good luck on finals! I just finished with my midterms. I hope I did great. :D

Here in Rio hiking is wonderful!

There are plenty of mountains covered with an urban forest and loaded with different trails leading to great views of the city. Some are pretty easy (like the one I took on the weekend, which goes up the lowest mountain of the Sugar Loaf), others are harder (such as the one that goes all the way up to the Christ statue, which is about 700 meters high).

So there are options for everybody.

Whelp... I finally did what I thought I would never do... I started playing Pokemon... Got Pokemon X in that free deal... Never saw the appeal really, but I must say, it seems interesting in the early going.

I'm actually really impressed with the graphics. I like the cell shaded style and it really works on the 3DS.

@Pierst179: Oooh. That sounds lovely! :O

I should definitely travel to Rio in the future.

Don't have too much expectations on the story! :P That's where Pokemon games usually fall short on.

Actually, a huge chunk of X & Y's appeal is in its online multiplayer and competitive battles. If you're curious, I recommend researching what EV training is.

@roboccs: Nice, I haven't enjoyed a Pokemon game since Blue, but im sure they have made some big leaps since then. I tried not to get too wrapped up in the whole "catch em all" thing, made it more enjoyable for me, since it's always there to go back to if you like it enough to be a completionist.

So I came home early from work because I've been fighting off a cold, and I didn't have much work to do (if any) so I took the afternoon to relax and medicate. Started gearing my Xenoblade party to take another shot at Avalanche Abassy (Superboss Dragon), its the LAST form of content in Xenoblade that I need to get true 100%, and I swear I will get it.

Also saw that the PSP GTA games are almost 75% off on PSN this week, so jumped on Vice City Stories, its the main game I wanted from the PSP, and at 5.99 thats hard to beat!

@ANIMEguy10034: I have zero story expectations. Everything is totally foreign to me though so just learning the ins and outs should be fun.

I'm pretty busy the next few days so I don't even know when I'm going to be able to play Mario Kart.

This and this are in my bookmarks bar. I kind of hate that part about Pokemon. It's way too complicated for its own good and makes me not want to play it. It would be far more enjoyable if it were humanly possible to keep all of the types straight. Why couldn't they just follow the Tetris Rule of Seven?

@roboccs: You can also use this. It's probably the most basic type chart I ever seen.

I've been playing Tales of Symphonia pretty heavily the past few days. Good ol' nostalgia. Trying to knock out a few PS3 games before I move on to some Wii/WiiU games.

@yokofox33: Did you get ToS Chronicles or are you playing the GC version? I've been toying with getting Chronicles even though I still own the original.

One of my favorite games EVER

I started replaying Shadow of the Colossus and I completely forgot how fantastic it was. Holy crap. I just finished the 6th colossus. I love the flying ones!

@roboccs: Chronicles. I have the original as well, but I wanted to support the HD remake. I mean it seems Namco is pretty focused on getting Tales games over here now, but you never know for the future. I think the remake is well worth it even if you have the original. Obviously looks and plays a bit better.

@ANIMEguy10034 said:

@roboccs: You can also use this. It's probably the most basic type chart I ever seen.

Dang, that looks surprisingly complicated now that I look at it. I've been playing Pokemon long enough that i've pretty much memorized the whole thing but I can see how people find it confusing. :P

Some dual types still throw me off occasionally. That and the oddball Pokemon that look like they should be a certain type but aren't.

If there was some kind of logic to it, it wouldn't be so bad. But about 90% of it is completely unintuitive. You literally need to memorize everything because there's no way to figure it out with your brain. Same goes for the individual Pokemon types. It'd be great if you could just easily see the type in a battle. GameFreak could learn a thing or two from Fire Emblem Awakening.

How's the first day of spring for everyone?

It started snowing here this morning (still is). Temp is supposed to drop, visibility is awful and wind gusts are strong. Afternoon rush hour is gonna be a disaster at this rate.

I wish winter would just go away; it's been surprisingly bad this year.

@moltenix: March Madness has begun so the first day of spring is fantastic.

I'm not a die hard basketball fan but I love the NCAA tournament for some reason.

Thanks! I just finished my hands on final few days ago. I almost didn't make it and I was pretty nervous after I found out I was making a mistake but I fixed it and passed it. I have the written finals next week. So, I'm sure I'll do good.

I hope you did great on your midterms.

You mean the first day of fall for those of us below the equator? ;)

Here it is still hellish. It is 10 pm right now and the temperature is 32 C (or 90 F, whatever you prefer).