Alexlotl

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has a pseudo-retro arcade game, Tiger Tiger, complete with CRT emulation. It's actually not bad, although a lot of people resent having to play it to upgrade one of your characters.

Nikon VR 18-55mm kit lens should be cheap as chips and will give you an idea of how to use the camera. A month or so before the baby arrives, get a fast cheapish prime - either the 35mm f/1.8 or the 50mm f/1.8. Can’t beat them for baby photos - nice out-of-focus backgrounds and fast enough to take pictures without flash. It’ll pay for itself in photos and WAF. Make sure you get AF-S lenses, which have focus motors built into the lens, as the D3200 has no focus screw (AF-S is better anyway). Oh, and get a Giottos Rocket Blower - you’ll probably get crud on your sensor at some point (I think everyone does with their first DSLR), and that lets you clean lenses and sensors really easily. It’s also just a lovely thing.

You can export screenshots on SD, I think. They might let you do WAV files too, if it was export only.

Huh, I didn’t have a problem there - I’d already been keeping an eye on affinity charts and filling out nodes ASAP. Also, isn’t it Fizz Juice you want? Get it from Twelve Brothersisterpon in Argentum. You can get Juicy Samod from the Rumbletum Canteen, also Argentum. Fairly sure the affinity node will say something like “Use Poppi Alpha’s favourite item from the drinks category” or something, so there is some clue. Sounds like you’re mixing up collectibles and pouch goods, too. You need to buy pouch goods, not collect them. The game does involve micromanagement, but for me it’s the fun, always-something-to-tweak kind, rather than the just-fuck-off-and-let-me-get-on-with-it kind (like inventory management in old RE games). The borderline silly depth of systems is one of the things that makes the game great (also: world building, likeable characters, compelling plot, ace battle system, great environments and best-in-class localisation). It sounds like you’re not enjoying it and you’re pissed off that other people are. Life’s too short - sell it and move on.

If I had bought Flickr, I wouldn’t be telling people nothing would change.

Just beat a unique for Zenobia’s affinity chart who was a total damage sponge, and did the usual become-lethal-at-50%-health thing. But by the time it hit 50% health, I had six orbs on the bugger: Overkill! Zenobia was doing stupid damage at the end. Funny thing is, I’d got seven orbs on it in a previous fight and managed to lose - it survived the chain attack with a sliver of health and smashed me. I did a much better job of managing who smashed which orbs and in what order this time, meaning I got an extra round and ended on Zenobia for the full burst. So, Parasite Aplacus, I have only this to say to you:

Absolutely. I strongly disliked X despite trying very hard. This is much more like the first Xenoblade Chronicles; probably better, if less revolutionary. This game also has complicated concepts, but it drip feeds them and gives you characters and a story you actually care about, rather than XCX’s MMORPG Character Generator models in generic emptyland.

The only fights I found dragged on were against Volffs, as each time you get down to one, they howl and summon two more. Must have had a fight against them in Uraya that lasted 20 minutes, once. Taught me to use Seal Reinforcements, mind, so worthwhile.

Wonder if "switch to a proven emulator" means Sega have given them an internal emulator, or if it means that they're just going to go and nick a well-known open source one? Doing Mega Drive sound is *hard*, I doubt they'll be rolling their own.

Mario + Rabbids sounds like a good match. Cracking train gaming, about the right length.

I haven't been keeping track, should do. I know I broke 1m yesterday when messing about with Ether Cannon Nia, based on 4 orbs, but I didn't manage a Full Burst, which would have boosted it a lot. You can do an FB off four orbs, but only if each orb is destroyed by the opposing element, which seems to double the burst meter gain. As for enemies dying before you get a decent number of orbs, my typical hotly anticipated boss battle goes like this: Build up a decent number of orbs (4+) Boss drops below half HP and gains some mega attack that KOs drivers End up constantly using my party gauge to revive people and never getting up to Chain Attack level Boss dies from natural attrition, without my chain attack ever being launched. It's particularly a problem if you use Zenobia, as she just does ridiculous damage against bosses (as much as 300% if they're higher level than you). Basically every single story boss has been a bit of an anti-climax due to the above happening - my best fights have all been against non-story uniques.

In my experience, if you're controlling them, it's safe to mix it up a bit, as you can be trusted to pick the best class for the job. If the AI's controlling them, then safest to give them 100% that class, particularly for healing. Nothing more annoying than dying because Nia's trying sitting on an attack blade waiting to complete a blade combo. This one's pretty good: https://www.rpgsite.net/feature/6369-xenoblade-chronicles-2-combat-guide-battle-system-and-combat-strategy-tips-for-battles-in-alrest

Yeah, the complexity will increase as you go along. It's one of the most in depth combat systems I can think of, once all the bits are unlocked. Do you even have a blade yet at L5? I can't remember. Main thing that's worth picking up early is cancelling (in the Street Fighter sense) - activating an art at the exact moment an auto-attack ends, like the timed bonus damage in Mario RPG games. This makes a blue ring appear from your character, and increases both the power of the art and how much your blade special charges up. It's pretty badly explained in game. Your auto-attack has three stages (depending on weapon and driver, this doesn't necessarily equate to three hits, can be between 3 and 6 in my experience). If you cancel at the end of stage 1, you get a little boost, at the end of stage 3, you get a big boost. It's a really nice mechanic, as it means there's something to keep you involved rather than just sitting back and waiting. You can also cancel arts into blade specials for a similar power boost. Some weapons are easy to cancel (e.g. lances on Rex), others are impossible (knuckles on anyone) and others are just hard but fun (bitballs!). Later you can cancel one art into another (needs to be unlocked), or cancel a blade switch into an art - it gets quite balletic, and you feel like a badass pulling off a multi-blade chain with blue rings all the way.

Tip for the Poppi quest - there’s a bit where you have to get 100pts worth of energy generating items. Don’t bother salvaging for it, just do the dedicated Merc Mission a few times, the items they give fill up heaps of points.

To be fair, one of my regular joycons occasionally emits a little creak from the analogue stick, now I've racked up a few hundred hours. I wouldn't notice if I wasn't playing things extra quietly after the rest of the family have gone to bed. It's all fully functional. That finish sounds a lot like my yellow one. I guess it's a feature, not a bug, but I don't get on with it. I got it as a total luxury buy to replace my neon red one, as it's not a bold enough colour (more of a weak pink, and I have the proper glorious neon pink joycon for that), but I've ended up not using it and will probably trade it back to CEX along with some other crud for Mario Odyssey. I've actually made peace with the red joycon now - I use a blue/pink pair and a green/red pair, and they look great. Ironically, the little Hori stand which I got as a may-as-well-use-up-the-credit-dregs thing from CEX in the same transaction gets heaps of use and is one of my favourite console accessories of all time.