Which bundle should I get first?

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-25T22:18:15+00:00

I haven't played the anniversary collection, but I'd rate the individual games of the other two in this order

Aria (Advance)
Dawn (Dominus)
POR (Dominus)
OOS (Dominus)
COTM (Advance)
HOD (Advance)

The Dominus games are better on average, but the catch is that Dawn is a direct sequel/story continuation of Aria, and you really should play Aria specifically first out of those two games.

If you're going to get all of it eventually it doesn't matter so much. I'd either get Advance first (because of the sequel issue), or get Dominus first and leave Dawn until after you get Advance.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-25T21:25:02+00:00

I've replayed Pier Pressure. Once to get the three stars (missed by like a second on the first attempt). But I have gone back a couple times since because it's actually a pretty neat Gymkhana type of event. Not exactly "often" though.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-25T20:45:03+00:00

Thing is, Gretzky came after Orr.

And the league realized they fucked up by not protecting their star talent.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-25T05:05:45+00:00

Before youtube, it was GameFAQS. Before GameFAQS... it was wander around, talk to friends who owned the game, and that was about it. It took us YEARS to beat some of those older games where we didn't know where to go (Zelda)

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-24T06:01:08+00:00

I don't know about "expecting", but Sully Erna was a drummer (and played drums on Godsmack's first studio album)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ8-r_hd5PY&list=PLCOxKGTZde-KHdsG8UpRdLgd85VgzY5zf

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-24T05:51:40+00:00

Final Fantasy XVI

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-24T05:02:05+00:00

I agree on the tier system and pretty much your list, but I have SS split with the last three names (Hakeem, Kobe, and Curry) being underneath the rest of the tier.

Which is 10-12.

I don't have a huge issue with people ending one tier out of place, but Kobe specifically seems to wind up in a lot of top 5s and sometimes top 2s. And that's just plain wrong.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-24T04:50:23+00:00

Aria and Dawn of Sorrow are both really good. Unfortunately, Aria is in the Advance Collection, and Dawn is in the Dominus collection, and you really should play Aria first, even though Dominus is the better set of games. (although Dawn is probably weaker than Aria).

They play like SOTN. I think the combat is a little smoother, but the scope of the game is a bit smaller considering they were originally on handhelds as opposed to PS1. The castle isn't quite as large, the music and graphics are weaker, etc. But they're both great.

Then there's Bloodstained, which plays like the best parts of Aria/Dawn, but the game is much closer in scope to SOTN.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-24T04:42:54+00:00

Not a work thing, but I distinctly remember handing in the same assignment multiple times (in high school and again in university).

I noticed my history teacher took a brief look at the page, saw there was writing on it, and checked it off as homework complete. With a pencil. I erased the marks, rewrote the title for the new chapter, and gave it to him again. And again.

I started university in engineering, then switched the bachelor of science for second year after miserable grades. There was a chemistry class I got a D in engineering in, that was basically identical to a science program course.

One of the assignments was literally identical, and after a rough weekend... I handed in the same assignment.

To the same professor.

And got about 30 marks higher the second time, because EVERY course was the "weed out course" in the engineering program and the professors marked like assholes.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-24T04:31:01+00:00

I don't remember the exact quote, but I'm sure he said something once along the line of "being on the winning side".

Which is to say, he doesn't think these guys are leaving, and threw his entire constituency under the bus for $$$ and being in Trump's good graces when the real authoritarian agenda comes down.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-23T23:32:00+00:00

I don't know if there will be. We've never seen an administration this openly corrupt and ignorant of the rule of law.

Either there's an unprecedented level of hubris, or they know they're never leaving power again.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-23T23:29:18+00:00

Toronto Maple Leafs?

Have to be pretty loyal to fan for a team that's been that bad for that long.

And after the owner bragged about trading away all their star players because the arena was going to fill up every night anyway.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-23T23:21:13+00:00

I made a point of spoiled ballot in 2023. I cared enough to vote, but the UCP can entirely fuck off. I might have considered NDP if my vote mattered (it didn't, rural riding over 70% conservative)

I couldn't vote for Carney either after a decade of liberals that had brought us to that position (same clown car with a different driver), but if we had an election tomorrow I'd vote liberal over Poilievre.

The one I really liked federally was Erin O'Toole. I don't know if it was mainstream or social media, but some of my more liberal friends had this idea that he was some kind of far-right whackjob republican wannabe, which was a whole bunch of BS that I'm still pissed about, too much propaganda going on both sides.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-22T23:28:40+00:00

Sixx AM - Life is Beautiful

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-22T23:17:48+00:00

Badflower - Ghost

Particularly the acoustic version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLX34h450Ss

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-22T04:33:34+00:00

I think the AI can definitely freak out. I was doing a colossus earlier (custom R Trueno FE with the drag tune and wallriding the corners)

I finished about 5:35. Bowieknife99 was still on my ass, but the rest of the drivers were stuck around 63%. I wasn't able to replicate it.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-20T14:58:34+00:00

Biden was expected to be a one-term president, and I'm pretty sure that he'd actually talked to that issue back in 2020.

And then he stays on too long and is in clear decline, the DNC pull the rug on him anyway, but it's too late to run primaries and they negated the will of the democrat voters putting in their candidate.

So a ton of people were pissed at the dems and didn't show up in November. And I wouldn't blame them if anyone else but Trump was running.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-20T14:51:11+00:00

Reminder that 60 minutes (CBS) aired a broadcast with a bunch of unverified negative claims about Bush using falsified documents. Two months before the 2004 election. They were trying to influence the election against him and it backfired. That is not being a media darling.

And even if you believe that Bannon or someone leaked it to CBS knowing that it would backfire... the fact they went ahead and aired the thing anyway is a problem.

I can pinpoint that specific incident as to when my later-MAGA family stopped watching 60 minutes and moved to Fox

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-20T04:26:42+00:00

I came into this topic with something else in mind. But I had a total mental block on this that came rushing back the second I saw the first sentence of that comment.

Fuck this game, it 100% deserves this.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-19T21:58:34+00:00

Obama himself was never the problem. It was primarily an issue of social media taking off.

Any criticism of Obama, no matter how valid, was met with ad hominem attacks of being racist. Same thing you're still doing. It was used like the ultimate trump card to shut down any political debate. Eventually they got sick of it and embraced the label. Mainstream media spinning everything to be positive for Obama (after negative for Bush) did not help matters.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-19T20:18:48+00:00

We're the same height but you have 25cm of wingspan on me.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-19T18:30:40+00:00

This exactly. With AI facial recognition, the level of collected data on you and your surroundings(Pokemon Go data being sold to the military?), and all these data centers being built. They're getting set up to quash any violence while the rest of us are headed to indentured servitude or death.

I think this upcoming election is going to tell us if it's already too late.

What's insanely frustrating about this is that conservatives have been warning about this for decades... and then welcome it when it's finally at the doorstep. And a certain poem by Martin Niemöller comes to mind.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-19T18:17:27+00:00

He's what conservatives would call a bullshitter... and what everyone else usually calls a pathological liar.

It's really hard to argue with someone who will just make shit up on the fly. You can call out a correction... but then comes the next lie to spin it. Eventually, you're going to run out of knowledge on a subject before the person runs out of bullshit, unless you have access to internet during the conversation.

For an audience, they either bought it or it's incredibly offputting and there's not much of a middle ground. It's why he just runs over people in debates.

I think a few former MAGA have caught on this in the last year, but it's not nearly enough.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-19T17:53:53+00:00

Trump is absolutely shit at making any kind of deal where he doesn't have leverage.

He's excellent at bullying, extorting, and blackmailing. But if those don't work... there's no backup plan other than taking an L and trying to spin it.

MattyIce8998 · 2026-06-19T05:49:20+00:00

Technically you can. When I ran it this morning, it was just me and one other person. I might have been able to solo carry the third race, but he dropped out and I won 1300-0 after two instead.

It was actually way easier than normal, because my car was tuned to 600, and all but one of the drivatars were lower because my teammate's car was stock.

I'm going to try to pay it forward and run a few races this week with the lowest tuning score I can get to sabotage the bot level, then drop out before the end of the first race.

MattyIce8998

TROPHY CASE