Just collecting in a bunch of Switch games I already beat on my commutes and at work. NSMBU, DKC Tropical Freeze, Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild. Nothing I'm majorly dedicating to until RE3.

Some region B imports. I love Masters of Cinema packaging. They use original poster art for most of their releases. The one on the left I got two months ago.

They also come with nice little booklets featuring production photos.

Listening to Diana Ross' best of album "Diamond Diana" yesterday has lead me to The Supremes, whom I should have started listening to years ago! I'm listening to their albums in chronological order. I've heard their music so much in film and such, but for some reason never sought them out.

I wonder if this pandemic (the lack of retail purchases, joblessness and stalled shipments) will accelerate the death of physical media, namely films. I rarely stream and would hate to be solely at the mercy of those services and my internet. I stick with physical media (and disc rentals) mainly because of how much better the quality is and being able to watch almost anything I want. There is no way I would be watching seven to nine movies a week if I limited myself to any one service or even three. My enthusiasm would sizzle out so fast. I would spend half the time just trying to find stuff to watch on Netflix and Disney Plus and such. This lockdown is gonna be so bad for smaller labels.

The directional audio is so fucked in this game. Why is the dialogue coming from the surrounds? I played all other RE games in stereo, so I didn't know Capcom was this incompetent with sound. Just because the camera pans right up to Jill doesn't mean her voice should come from the surrounds. Only when she is out of the frame should that happen. Actually, not even then, because she's your avatar.

All I paid attention to from the bullet points is backwards compatibility, because why should I care about the controller that will be the same as every generation past (only minor differences, nothing to address the main issues) or the crazy specs that only mean more obscene budgets, meaning even more by the numbers committee games (developers terrified to go against the norm and implementing ideas because everyone else does, not because it would make their games more fun)? There was more creativity and uniqueness when the hardware was shit.

Anyway, as I said, I only paid attention to backwards compatibility, and... 100 PS4 titles at launch is so disappointing, much less than I expected for backwards compatibility. Could even mean you have to buy them again. Seems only the PC is safe to preserve video games on.

I'm surprised how little I care.

Actually, I'm not. Such a nothing event. Rather just wait for the game than watch long trailers and demos, which I always now skim through anyway. Got better stuff to do.

@dmcmaster said in Half-Life: Alyx:

@ezekiel
Maybe there's a reason for it?

Illusion of progress? Making the player waste time in menus (a lot) so they feel the game is somehow more deep? Making the enemies more spongy? Fitting in with the rest of the crowd? Because it's expected now in everything?

Really wish action games stopped pretending to be RPGs. At least RE3 is coming out next month. No upgrade crap in that game. Just gun attachments as rewards for exploration.

I was gonna borrow my brother's VR, but my interest dropped substantially when I learned you upgrade your weapons. Can't believe even Valve games aren't safe from this modern crap. I'm sure Left 4 Dead 3 will be an unbalanced crapfest.

Over the weekend, I watched Prince: Sign o' The Times twice.

This movie is awesome. I quite liked Purple Rain, but it didn't funk and rock or have as much soul (I mean the genre) in its sound as this, as it was a story with musical numbers and not an eighty minute concert film. This has so much energy and the theatrics and seedy scenery set the tone so well.

I dug the way his performers acted out the music being played. Separately recorded clips interspersed between the songs and wardrobe changes kept the pace smooth.

I loved when Prince traded places with Sheila E., went up to do the drums while she got down on the stage and rapped in "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," because I forgot Prince drummed or don't remember if I've ever even seen him drum. It was only briefly, though, because he's no serious drummer. "Not bad," Prince comments earlier, as she's rocking up there. "For a girl." I laughed out loud when Prince, out of nowhere, slid under this dancer with his guitar and ripped off her skirt.

The film was originally presented in six-track Dolby Stereo, but I think I honestly prefer the PCM stereo track with headphones over the DTS 5.1 track with speakers/sub. It had better clarity. Average video bitrate is 30 mbps, and it's a pretty good scan. There's one song in the middle with separately recorded footage that looks VHS quality, but I'm pretty happy with it overall, considering how poorly most older concert films have been treated.

Sign o' the Times is my favorite Prince album and of all the concert films I've seen Prince is also my favorite musician. This movie still exceeded my expectations.