Matt (zeldatra)

Matt

007 First Light is committed to presenting itself like a playable version of an Eon Bond movie, sometimes to its detriment; a very early mission is essentially a playable training montage, and while I see what they’re going for, the fact that it’s 100% playable and not a cutscene results in the feeling that you’re not watching a montage, you’re actually just being teleported around a map at random while the game is rapid-firing objectives at you. The game is fun and I appreciate how cinematic it is but man they commit way too hard in some places.

Matt

Sugawara of course being a part of the yakuza cinema homage since he’s most famous for starring in yakuza films.

Matt

At the end of the day the whole franchise is an homage to yakuza cinema, and this game in particular seems to be a celebration of music, with how many musicians have had their likenesses dropped in. Snoop, Tori Kelly, Ado... Add into that the transpacific themes and IMO I don’t think using Tupac is THAT weird.

Matt

Tupac in Stranger Than Heaven is turning out to be Yakuza fans’ blue-armed Sonic moment.

Matt

some guy in Arkansas is praying east every day ‘cos that’s where the President is

Matt

this reminds me of the time I encountered DiddyEpstein67 in Arc Raiders

Matt

that Arthur meme—“You really think someone would do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies?”—has a glaring, how-did-nobody-notice-this animation error when the camera cuts wide; Buster goes from sitting at his computer to sitting next to his suddenly very long desk with his computer nowhere near him. It has bugged me every single time I’ve seen it for years.

Matt

yeah well you might have a celebrity or football player in your town but do you have the former lieutenant governor of Virginia who shot his wife and then himself???? I didn’t think so

Matt

being a Hispanic guy in the south is kinda like being a German guy in the 50s cause I gotta clarify that I didn’t condone what the other ones did a couple of years ago

Matt

The Simpsons editing Maya (Moe’s onetime girlfriend/eventual fiancée with dwarfism) out of the streaming cuts of episodes because they don’t want viewers to think he’s dating a child feels… a tad offensive.

Matt

Hearing more and more countries(‘s opposition parties) are clamoring for a JD Vance visit

Matt

Well I thought the Super Mario Galaxy movie was fun but alas, it will now forever be remembered as the movie I saw right before I got pulled over for the first time

Matt

I may have voiced this sentiment before but I WISH more movies were as weird as Overlord is. Genuinely, I super vibed with how that movie had no idea what it wanted to be.

Matt

also i finally beat Yakuza Kiwami 3. That ending is, uh........

Matt

Living in Virginia is:

-blue state cost of living (bad)
-red state taxes (good)
-red state infrastructure (bad)
-blue state weed laws (good)
-red state neighbors (bad)

Matt

RIP Gang of Dragon

Matt

The one thing I can truly give this game praise for is the retro titles. The lineup is insanely goated, and Yutaka Ito is probably solely responsible; he seems to have a very genuine interest in making sure as many classic SEGA titles are as accessible as possible. He developed the Master System, Game Gear, and SEGA NAOMI emulators this game uses for its arcade and retro offerings, and I could genuinely spend hours just playing these.

Matt

Yakuza Kiwami 3 is the first Yakuza game I’ve played since getting into the series that I didn’t beat in the first week. Not all of that is the game’s fault, after all it’s hard to be enthused about completing a game where I already know the ending and all of the major story beats. Still, there’s something… missing, I think. Maybe it’s that this game feels more like a Gaiden than an actual mainline entry. Maybe it’s the horribly paced opening. Maybe after playing like fifteen of these in just three years I’m totally burnt out. But this is the first one that I just don’t feel compelled to play. I’ll pick it up every few days, play for a couple of hours, have my fun, then put it back down.

Matt

Mine Gaiden beat, or the main story anyway. Still have some Substories & the coliseum mode to do.

Matt

that was a name RDN, not a swear, thank you

Matt

Yakuza: Like A Dragon Kiwami 3 Gaiden: Dark Ties Starring YoPotato Knishesaka Mine, Member of the Nishikiyama Family, a Tojo Clan Direct Subsidiary is fun but boy is the hyper armor on these enemies ridiculous. It’s like RGG realized how short the story is and decided to give every enemy two health bars and the most insane amounts of armor to compensate, which Mine can’t effectively deal with because unlike Kiryu he has no charge attacks with which to break guards. Still, I have about five hours in it and haven’t yet touched the rogue like mode so I’m enjoying myself despite one of the two side stories being a reskinned Akame Network.

Matt

Also the game has a playable SlashOut arcade cabinet that is shockingly addicting. Mine has been spending more time playing retro games than doing yakuza stuff.

Matt

I'm playing Kiwami 3 in English since I already experienced this story in Japanese. This becomes hilarious exactly ten minutes in if you choose to watch the recaps of Yakuza and Yakuza 2, because those games didn't get dubs and for some reason RGG chose not to dub the flashbacks even though, at least in Yakuza 1's case, everybody featured has an english VA from 0 or Infinite Wealth, so English Kiryu is narrating over Japanese Kiryu's dialogue, for some reason

Matt

>do pilot in Adobe Animate
>build assets for Adobe Animate to be reused potentially for years
>Adobe discontinues Adobe Animate, a program that me and every animator I know has been working in since 2010
that is very cool Adobe, thank you

Matt

We’re supposed to get like three feet of snow this weekend and now that I live in a place where that might actually prevent me from being able to get to work I’m getting kind of giddy about it. Feels like being in school all over again.