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Got a few levels of Mario yesterday before my son nabbed the cartridge, and cleared off to his grannies with it.

I don't think that's so much a superhero thing as people are getting burned out on the 'franchisation' of every single bit of IP out there, and I don't think video games will turn the tide on that even if there will probably be a surge of success with it for a bit. The problem with the movie industry right now was actually articulated pretty well ages ago in an interview with Anthony Mackie, the current Captain America, who lamented that these franchises are creating stars out of their characters but not the actors playing them. The problem being that movie stars are what draw people towards stories that they otherwise would not consider, and if the pattern of how these stories are shown on screen starts to bore audiences then you're left with a vacuum if there's nothing or nobody to draw people back in. Even RDJ, the biggest 'star' in these films, I feel his career has been a bit spotty outside of the MCU stuff. His turn as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer last year is maybe the first signal of breaking through and past the Tony Stark stuff but that feels more of an achievement of the makeup department for that character than anything else. Maybe Zendaya is the biggest star to come out of these movies but I think that has more to do with HBO's Euphoria and its impact with younger audiences. You read about the Dune 2 premiere and there's people showing up to see her, the film coming second in priority. But imo anyway, that's what happens when an industry is near engulfed by this stuff and it becomes the only show in town for lots of local theatres, you end up with an audience being fed a mono-diet, having their tastes managed by these massive conglomerates and if they get bored of that diet and the non-marvel audience are at home watching streaming, it's not very surprising that you get all these flops. That's why Oppy and Barbie were such a big deal, tho Barbie I think upended expectations by not being just a cynical adaptation of IP (but even so it springboarded a universe of exactly that)

95 hours later, that’s the Platinum done. Managed the dungeon boss I was struggling with, and blazed through the DLC dungeon thanks to being high levelled and fully kitted out. What an absolutely phenomenal game. My life is currently pretty shit. This put a much needed, massive smile on my face.

I'm sort of surprised there's not been more people biting for this. It's been nothing short of excellent all the times I've played outside of that first day. It can get a bit difficult though. I am hoping some of the later weapon unlocks make some of the bigger paints in the arse a bit easier to deal with, especially when you can have 4 or 5 of them running around and being menaces to the overall spread of managed democracy.

So I saw this on rllmukforum and other places, and thought it'd be cool to see what you all come up with. Go to this website and search for your games and choose the art, then download and share. Here's mine. 25 games that have stuck with me, had an impact, and mean the most.

I'm sorry but there's only 1 right answer in this whole thread @spatular a man of culture and exquisite taste you all should study the fine arts as this gentlemen clearly has

I'd offer to come over and do it for you, but I think you'll a little far from me.

It’s one of those things that I was never 100% happy with, but I worked on it for about a week and tried to be as honest as possible. Trying to find the right mixture of games I love and games that are great, and spent ages fiddling with the order EDITED: Thanks for moving my post, mods!

I had to look up what those were. That's the other problem I think. Those movies Nag mentions could be cool but they're on streaming platforms like amazon prime, where they can get buried underneath the rest of the 'content library'. That's why I hate when people kinda shrug at this stuff and say streaming is the new arthouse, or the new place to see b-films or genre films or whatever. It may be true, but it's very hard to break through and make an impression there cause there's so much stuff and streaming tends to optimise towards certain palettes which will promote certain stuff in favor of others. I feel like if netflix shared the viewership of some of the films on there it wouldn't look so great. On the other hand, maybe they're so big that they're subsidising films that would struggle otherwise? Hard to say Like you look at the deals Martin Scorsese makes with Netflix and Apple, to me it feels a bit of a Faustian bargain. He can do what he wants and make super long films about whatever he wants and catch an audience on those platforms cause he's Marty, but it may not necessarily be the best outlet for film-makers without his cachet. They haven't got a chance to develop one yet. I think it can only get worse when all these mergers happen as the streaming bubble pops, and Netflix eats everything up. Cinema is in a rough spot. It's like an ever diminishing number of corpos are becoming gatekeepers and it fucking sucks

Jolt is what I was thinking of when I mentioned more recent ones. I was up for liking it but it was missing a certain something. I never really put Lucy in that genre but I don't have a good argument for why it shouldn't be there. I just see it as an odd movie I kind of love. I'm just reminded of Madem Webb coming soon and it seems to be getting panned but in another timeline it could also have been one of these kinds of movies and been much better for it.

I can’t deny, I was very dubious when the original LAD game decided to change from its typical combat style, to a turn based RPG. It had me thinking it would either be a huge mistake, or a new take on the franchise. Though I did initially enjoy LAD, I did end up quitting my PS4 playthrough about halfway through. I didn’t like doing that, as I love the franchise. But the constant difficulty spikes became too much for me. After I finished The Man Who Erased His Name, I decided to restart LAD on PS5, and use a guide to get through it. It was still bloody difficult, the boss fights towards the end were a massive chore, often taking at least 30 minutes. It also sucked that the only real way to make significant amounts of money, and therefore afford the obscenely priced weapons/armour, was to play through the business management side mission. But I absolutely bloody hated doing that. It’s a confusing, tedious chore, and I was definitely being penalised financially for not taking part in it. The need for grinding has thankfully decreased, but it’s not gone completely. At certain points later in the game, a warning will pop up saying “There’s some tough fights coming up, I should probably save”. Some even come up with a separate warning saying “Recommended Level/Star Level of Equipment. Chapter 12 was the first time where my party were slightly below the Recommended level, but I thought I’d get away with it. Sadly, I was very wrong. I ended up playing through all 30 levels of one of the optional dungeons. By the time I’d done that, I was more than strong enough to beat it on my second attempt. I do sincerely hope they stop making it so that if your main character dies, that’s an instant game over. It’s just really bloody annoying. Ichiban does eventually learn an ability that brings him back immediately after death. Unfortunately, Kiryu never does, so that makes playing as him quite challenging. Thankfully, money is a lot easier to come by this time around. Towards the end of the game, I had a small fortune that i didn’t have anything to spend it on. I quite enjoyed playing through Dodoko Island, it was quite addictive. And it’s definitely worth finishing the story there, as that unlocks a skill for Ichiban that does huge amounts of damage, to all enemies in a room. Was a literal game changer for me So yeah, basically, I loved this game,

I've been thinking a lot about this kind of thing lately since Mackie put that take out there and I think he is right, and it's unfortunate. These kinds of genre movies were very actor lead. Like people would turn up for a Stallone or Shwarznegger movie no matter what the film actually was. It meant you could carry original stories off the back of them and not rely so much on known IP. It's why something like True Lies could be really successful. Even the comic book movies didn't have that as their main appeal. Men in Black was a Smith/Jones movie, I'd even say Blade was a Snipes movie. The fact they were based on comic books was just a little factoid known by weirdos. I do think the shift to think IP first has had a negative effect on movies. Actually, there's something else as well. I saw a tweet pointing out where all the 90s/00s hot, badass bitch movies are. Like Underworld, Aeon Flux, Ultraviolet. The Resident Evil movies are a successful version of this but I think comic book movies pretty much killed them due to Catwoman and it coming out around the Nolan Batman trilogy and drawing it into that world when it was never really a comic book movie, it was an actor lead, hot badass bitch movie. And they were never critical darlings, they were just a fun thing to rent on a weekend. Its the sort of thing that should do great on streaming but I dunno, some have been made but they still don't quite hit. Maybe because so much production talent is in the MCU/DCEU but I'm speculating. I just think it has shrunk genre movies and made them less interesting. I'm at the point I want to shove anyone into a locker who says 'faithful adaptation'.

It was enjoyable reading your posts enthusing over this game. I never tackled the first one because I'm not sure about turn based stuff and grinding for hours to beat a stubborn boss. But I might try this second one based on your experience.

Somehow I feel as if there's pre-MCU and post-MCU as well. I can't imagine Hugh Jackman being the name he is now without X-Men and Tobey Maguire would always only have been an oddball indie actor without Spider-Man. And I think the reason RDJ sticks out a bit among the MCU cast is because the first Iron Man was still a bit of a rough first try at setting things up. He wasn't a household name before that, I think it's even widely reported that a lot of people involved in that project had doubts about casting him because of his troubled past. So it was actually Iron Man that made him a star, not the other way around. But at some point this whole thing shifted and I find it difficult to put my finger on why. Maybe it's because all those actors were so tightly contractually bound to the whole Marvel thing that there was barely any opportunity to go out and do other stuff in-between. Or maybe it's because there wasn't much place for other stuff anyway because for a while the whole MCU really dominated the entire industry, not only in box office numbers but also consumer perception. You are an absolute minority if you don't pick your movies by actors though, maf. I think theme/setting, director and actors are kind of equally split as the main draws people look for when seeing a movie. I think it's a good way of simultaneously getting what you're used to and broadening your horizon, which sounds contradictory but is actually true. I would never have watched La-La Land if Emma Stone wasn't in it but it's now one of my all-time favourite movies.

Even as a huge fan of Spider-Man there is just too much Spider-Man stuff right now. Between movies, animated movies, games, Sony's spin-off movies that don't even have Spider-Man in, to now I just saw Nick Cage is in talks to do a Spider-Man Noir TV show and there's going to be a Silk movie/TV show as well. I loved Spider-Verse 1, I haven't even watched Spider-Verse 2 yet. It took me 3 months to get around to the last game. If you're exhausting me then This is the clearest sign to me that the comic book movie/TV shows are dying. Not only the constant flops and sequels to billion dollar movies being box office bombs, but now it's like companies are attacking Spider-Man like a crocodile death roll. Just grabbing on to it and tearing it apart for any kind of meat because it's the only thing left (Outside of Batman) that has a strong chance of working. And I dunno if you all saw the RT score for Madame Web but jeez Speaking of billion dollar movies. This is DC, but whatever it's all comics. I saw that the head of Warner Bros values DC alongside Harry Potter and Lord of the RIngs as a billion dollar franchise. https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/DC-Extended-Universe#tab=summary I'm sorry. But exactly where is the idea DC is a billion dollar franchise coming from? lol. I think it's based on Marvel. Release Date Title Production Budget Opening Weekend Domestic Box Office Worldwide Box Office Dec 22, 2023 Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom $205,000,000 $27,686,211 $122,735,802 $430,058,748 Aug 18, 2023 Blue Beetle $120,000,000 $25,030,225 $72,541,501 $128,777,017 Jun 16, 2023 The Flash $200,000,000 $55,043,679 $108,167,507 $266,550,332 Mar 17, 2023 Shazam! Fury of the Gods $125,000,000 $30,111,158 $57,721,819 $132,276,175 Oct 21, 2022 Black Adam $200,000,000 $67,004,323 $168,283,344 $390,455,088 Aug 5, 2021 The Suicide Squad $185,000,000 $26,205,415 $55,817,425 $167,097,737 Dec 25, 2020 Wonder Woman 1984 $200,000,000 $16,701,957 $46,801,036 $166,360,232 Feb 7, 2020 Birds of Prey (And the Fant… $82,000,000 $33,010,017 $84,158,461 $201,005,552 Apr 5, 2019 Shazam! $85,000,000 $53,505,326 $140,371,656 $363,563,907 Dec 21, 2018 Aquaman $160,000,000 $67,873,522 $335,061,807 $1,134,097,163 Nov 17, 2017 Justice League $300,000,000 $93,842,239 $229,024,295 $655,945,209 Jun 2, 2017 Wonder Woman $150,000,000 $103,251,471 $412,563,408 $817,691,766 Aug 5, 2016 Suicide Squad $175,000,000 $133,682,248 $325,100,054 $745,744,980 Mar 25, 2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of … $263,000,000 $166,007,347 $330,360,194 $872,395,091 Jun 14, 2013 Man of Steel $225,000,000 $116,619,362 $291,045,518 $667,999,518 Only Aquaman 1 made over a billion. And that's the same year Infinity War came out so my belief is it was riding that wave (Pun fully intended). The sequel made roughly 60% yes They keep going on about the new DC 10 year cinematic universe by James Gunn. I'm excited for Superman Legacy and Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow. But they're 10 years too late if they think they can replicate Marvel and make this a billion dollar thing in anyway It's still not quite done yet, but my belief is that comic book based things are on the way out and next up is video games. Which I think will be better. I love comics - but it's a genre that is particularly distinct and limited. People always complained about the MCU movies are all the same. I have a lot to say about that and don't agree, but they're superhero stories. I feel like they stretched it as far as they can go Where as video games, yeah it's a lot of shooting, but there's a much wider pool of franchises and ideas to pull from overall

I must admit, for all the praise Mario RPG has got over the years, I’ve struggled to committing much time to the remake. I’ve not abandoned it yet, but I’ve gone back to Yoshi’s Crafted World.

I bought some 3DS games I was missing from my collection

Mario vs Donkey Kong from The Game Collection, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses from CeX with credit. I own it digitally from launch, but wanted physical to complete my Fire Emblem Switch collection. It was £40.

Might help me with my Tekken 8 gameplay. 😄

Only a year after Japan? Falcom got boost power. From the little feedback I gathered this seems to be a return to form, so I'll definitely check this out. Probably on Switch, the demo ran surprisingly well.

I finished it but yeah. It’s fine, the bit with the Wario-like character was quite entertaining, but I strongly agree and get sacking it off Really think you either need to have nostalgia or be a kid to actually enjoy this It’s not a diss because I play lots of kids games, but this one feels squarely for kids and kids only. It‘s hard to get any kind of entertainment value out of it when you’re X old or played X amount of JRPG’s Mario Superstar Saga is on the Switch Online thing for £3.50 for a month. And it’s worlds better than this.

Only scratched the surface here. Need more tiles. Lots more.

These things are always changeable based on mood, recalling games I'd forgotten about etc. but this is a fairly representative selection.

When it comes to doing stuff like this I struggle because I have Ocarina of Time in mine and in some lists I maybe wouldn't even put it in my top 100 but I also have to be honest and admit it did hit me like a truck and was one of those games that made me think that games are really cool.