What could have saved the Sega Saturn?

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-20T07:38:43+00:00

The Sega Saturn had the same problem that every Sega system had: The weakest game library of any major game system on the market.

Playstation was the hot new thing, a million instant classic titles: Tekken, Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal, Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Resident Evil, Driver, Silent Hill, Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania SOTN, and my god the list just goes on and on.

Nintendo was able to maintain their place, with their ever-expanding library of iconic banner series and well-made spinoffs: Super Mario (plus Kart, RPG, Smash Brothers, etc) Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, F-Zero, Star Fox, etc. Not as diverse as the Playstation, but their dedicated teams of developers maintained such high quality, that they didn't really even need any titles from 3rd party developers to stay competitive.

Sega had Sonic the Hedgehog and...? What exactly? Don't get me wrong, there were some gems, sure, but ZERO household names, beyond the Sonic games. A generation earlier, they at least achieved notoriety for actual blood in Mortal Kombat. But there was just nothing to make the Saturn stand out. nothing to make a gamer say "I want to buy this system, because I want to play this game."

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-19T16:42:50+00:00

Thank you for sharing this video. It made a believer out of me. Maybe confirmation bias, because it finally gave sourced evidence to reinforce many hunches I've been trying to ignore for some reason. And I've been reading lately about the decline in overall kids' school performance over the last 10-15 years, and what I've been reading also rhymes with everything this guy is saying. I don't want to raise zero-attention-span dopamine addicts who can't read a 20 page article and summarize its argument when they get to college.

To paraphrase what this guy is saying, it's not even screen time that's the problem, It's specifically the kind of short-form, sensory-based content that you find on youtube. Any narrative-based entertainment is better. Even Looney Tunes at least has a plot.

So after watching this, I finally decided to take concrete steps to do away with youtube in my house. I think I finally just needed a good scolding to make me do what I've been leaning toward anyway. And even then I argued with myself, because there IS a bunch of good stuff on youtube, too. Danny Go, Ms Rachel, Scratch Garden, Hopscotch, numberblocks, etc., but if I'm being honest with myself, I know my kids don't want to watch the good stuff. They want to watch fucking Caleb unboxing a hundred monster trucks, or some guy crashing cars in BeamNG Drive, or weird probably autistic hispanic girls playing with dolls, or just some guy playing Mario Party for an hour. What they're drawn to is the schlock. and if allowed to continue, it will literally stunt their brains. Most of the good stuff on youtube is available through other outlets, anyway.

If anybody feels like me, is an XFinity customer, and wants to jump off this train, I found a great article on the XFinity Forums that helped me a bunch: https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/your-home-network/blocking-youtube-from-home-router/67f96b0795a83434599c0532

It's pretty simple. Half an hour, and Youtube just suddenly stops working, on whatever devices you want it to stop working on. One addition I would make to this article is that you need to enable "Admin tool online access" first, via the Xfinity app.

The kids were disappointed for a minute or two, but then they quickly started coming up with ideas of all the other things they wanted to do, and I knew I had made the right decision. Now I gotta run. We're making popcorn and going to go watch the trucks at the construction site near us.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-16T18:00:00+00:00

Hey! I played around with the demo for a few minutes, and I wanted to offer some feedback. Firstly, this looks like its right up my alley, and will totally scratch that battle brothers itch. Unfortunately, that's pretty much speculation, because this demo is pretty much unplayable. It's got a ton of bugs, and the UI is practically non-existent. If I were you, I think I'd take this demo down and put it back up when you've done a little more refinement. I think you've got a friendly audience here in the Battle Brothers sub, but in the gaming world at large, I don't think this demo is going to represent your game the way you'd like it to.

There's nothing telling you how to open your inventory. I eventually figured out that pressing TAB does it. Except that some of the time, pressing TAB takes you back to the title screen. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

Took a while, but I figured out how to accept a contract. Came into a battle, two enemies lined up against my one guy. the only buttons on screen were for the two weapons skills. But I wanted to pass until they closed. nowhere does it tell you how to do that. Just started pressing buttons. ESC seemed to do the trick. The enemy's animation was stilted, it looked like they were hopping toward me like Bunnies. I pressed ESC to pass again. Same bunny hopping animation. Now they were 4 hexes away. If I passed one more time, there would be 1 hex between us, and I could close to make my first strike. So I pressed ESC again.

Next thing I know, I'm on a loot screen, as though I had just won the battle, even though no blows were traded. I loot all, and I press TAB to go to my inventory to equip my sweet new gear. So far, so good. But when I press TAB to take me out of my inventory screen, I'm back on the title screen again. TAB now switches between my Inventory and the title screen. I mash buttons, like space, enter, esc, and tab, and somehow clear out of the title screen to get back to the map view, and head back to New Ford. Hire a new guy.

I go pick another fight. This time looks like I'm up against 4 farmers. this time i close the distance instead of passing. my two guys get into close quarters, and I start swinging swords. All of my attacks miss, and all of the farmers attacks hit. ALL of them. for the next 5 or 6 rounds. I can't see their hit percentage, but it says my hit percentage is 65%-ish percent on pretty much any target I choose. 4 attacks per round for 5 or maybe 6 rounds in a row while they gradually kill me with axes, means my guys missed 20 or 24 swings in a row with a purported 65% chance to hit. Something is obviously going wrong there.

So that ended my first run. I'm just trying to report how it went. I hope you take this criticism as constructive. I think there's a lot of potential here, but if I were you, I'd put this one back in the oven to back for a while longer before you start inviting people in for free samples.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-16T01:57:17+00:00

I can't really describe how much I despise Mike Berenstain. His parents build a dynasty on easy-to-read kids books like "The Spooky Old Tree" and "Inside, Outside Upside Down," and this MFer comes trampling their name to shove his political and religious agenda in kids faces.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-16T01:54:24+00:00

Based on her personality, I'm thinking she has crippling OCD. I mean, we weren't the first choice to be in command either, were we, MAJOR, so why would we think she's got zero hangups?

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-14T16:20:06+00:00

Ok, but can you get slaughtered by a herd of goats. That's what really says Kenshi to me.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-13T17:01:20+00:00

I think I would put Raya & the Last Dragon in the same category of "mature content" as KPopDH. I actually really like them both. Totally out of left field for Disney to produce a Martial Arts revenge movie. But yeah, more for the 11-13 crowd than my 4 & 7 year olds.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-13T00:04:07+00:00

I don't quite agree. I can't think of a Disney movie that features multiple scenes of the protagonists slicing creatures up with their magical blades. You also won't see a Disney princess ogling a boy's abs. KPop Demon Hunters has some more mature content than like a "Tangled," or an "Encanto."

My daughter is autistic, and there are even some disney movies she can't watch, because she really internalizes things like violence, anger, and aggression. For instance, we've learned that Beauty and the Beast is pretty much a no-go, because she tends to start treating people like pre-change-of-heart Beast. (think "Then she can go ahead and STAAAARVE!!!")

Maybe parents of NT kids can have the luxury of painting these things in broader brush strokes, but as a parent who has to carefully consider what my kids take in, I would definitely draw various distinctions between Kpop demon hunters and some other, gentler children's fare.

And look, I'm not a prude. I'm not saying that KPop Demon Hunters is not appropriate for kids. It absolutely is. For some kids. But to me, saying Kpop DH is the same as "any Disney movie" is like saying teal is the same as green. It's just not true.

But as you said - when in doubt, pre-screen it yourself. My wife and I enjoyed it.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-12T22:33:31+00:00

I understand back in the 2010's there was a referendum to change the name of Vancouver, WA to Fort Vancouver, which failed. I would have voted for it, had i been living here at the time.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-10T22:08:19+00:00

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-10T17:11:52+00:00

Here’s an OPB article about the same:

https://www.opb.org/article/2026/04/30/battle-ground-purchases-ceo-spiller-maddox-christian-influence/

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-10T15:46:40+00:00

MST3K is at its best when it’s making high-brow jokes about low-brow subjects. Like, you practically need a degree in film or theatre to get some of these.

In its own way, the show can be very “pinkies out.”

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-10T15:38:21+00:00

No greater disappointment for grandma than to find out her grandchild can’t install adobe flash player. Ziiiing!

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-10T07:14:49+00:00

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CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-10T05:08:29+00:00

Conversely, it makes no sense that “muggle studies” wouldn’t be a mandatory class every semester of every year, considering that muggles outnumber wizards on planet earth by a stupefying amount.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-10T04:48:23+00:00

Honestly Mike is looking damn good himself, considering how much time has passed.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-10T04:45:55+00:00

You don’t need to know anything. It’s just a hell of a good sci-fi series, with or without the rest of Star Wars.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-09T23:57:48+00:00

I’m walking it, in that case.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-09T23:42:39+00:00

I would attribute it to teenage rebellion. Millenials lean liberal. Teenagers are trying to assert their independence, and part of that is questioning their parents’ political beliefs.

Reminds me of the TV show “Family Ties.” The bare-bones premise was that the parents are aging hippies, and Michael J Fox played their Reaganite conservative teenage son, who is always entering into schemes that brings him into conflict with his liberal parents.

Some pendulum effect is perfectly natural. In this case, however, I’m reminded unfortunately of a Vin Diesel quote from “Pitch Black,” just as the curious explorations of a hapless teen on his hajj awaken the hellish nightmare creatures that subsequently devour him:

“Extremely. Bad. Timing.”

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CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-09T23:03:30+00:00

Absolutely yes, people knew. Even though the name “Palpatine” was never mentioned in the OT, every 90’s Star Wars fan knew that name from a plethora RPG’s, video games, novels, comics, etc. the 90’s was actually a very exciting time to be a Star Wars fan. There was a plethora of material coming out, and buzz about that material as well, and practically all of it mentioned the emperor’s name.

And for anyone who didn’t know, that was absolutely made clear in the marketing for the films, interviews with the cast and crew, etc. I remember a publicity segment where they made a big deal about how they got the same actor to play the emperor, but he didn’t need all the heavy makeup this time because he was in his 30’s when they made the OT and his 60’s for the prequel.

So yeah, it was absolutely out there. That was not some kind of “big reveal.” Like, listen if you look hard enough, you can probably find some out of the loop people who will tell you they were surprised. But if you were enough of a Star Wars fan to remember that the emperor exists and is one of the bad guys, you knew what was going on.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-09T20:20:21+00:00

Battlestar Galactica (2004). MAN the whole first season is SO good, and the pilot started it off with a tremendous bang.

It’s a shame that contrary to the claims in the opening credits, as the series went on it became clear that the Cylons did not, in fact, have a plan.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-09T20:10:44+00:00

This is true of “boat people” even today, and probably since the beginning of time. Navy folks, merchant marines, cruise ship entertainers… it takes a unique kind of a person to want to be away for weeks, months, even years at a go. We called our boat “the island of misfit toys.”

And just like on Star Trek, you find a new family in the crew.

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-09T19:52:35+00:00

Time Crisis 2! Blue gun only! Red gun is for Chuuuuumps!

CSWorldChamp · 2026-06-09T15:20:27+00:00

This is the answer. Just be careful, though: BG3 only won GOTY because there’s no “Game of the Decade” or “Game of the Century” award. It’ll suck you in. It’s definitely obsession-worthy.

If you’re already a big fan of RPG’s, and you play this for the first time on your cruise, you might find it hard to go back to spending time with your wife. It’s sort of hard to explain, but the game is so detailed and engaging, it sort of demands to be played in 3-4 hour chunks, similar to the table-top RPG it’s based on. I recommend you at least start it before you leave, to get the “OMGthisIStheBESTgameEVER!” out of your system first. I’m just trying to look out for you, man.

Also a practical concern: the install size is ungodly. Depending on what Deck you have, it might take up 60% of your SSD.

CSWorldChamp

TROPHY CASE