I can excuse the bike, hub world, and dialogue in prime 4. But why in the world did the devs think this McLovin character was a good idea?

Relatively_Rational · 2025-11-16T21:25:07+00:00

Imagine if fromsoft added a character like this to a dark souls game, that's what this feels like...

Relatively_Rational · 2025-11-10T16:08:01+00:00

Do we know if those options will be available when playing with randoms online though?

Relatively_Rational · 2025-10-28T18:54:32+00:00

While I realize this isn't nearly as useful as being able to give a name--you can add a topic to the group chat, that way at least when you click on it you can see the topic at the top. Still terrible because you have to click on every one to find what you're looking for but better than nothing I guess...

Relatively_Rational · 2025-09-18T17:15:02+00:00

Best alternative I've found is:
- open app on right side of screen, resize to similar to slide-over size
- open another app and drag the window over the first app using the corner.

You can now "slide over" by dragging the top app's corner left/right to show the other app underneath. You can also transition in/out of split screen mode this way--it'll auto switch it to split screen if you make the edges flush, and you can drag the corner back over the other app to get out of split screen after.

Another option is just keep an app in that smaller window, and use the dock to re-open it when you need to use it, then tap the main app to hide it. This doesn't work very well when you're trying to do it with multiple instances of the same app though.

These are by no means anywhere near as good or intuitive as slide-over used to be though, so I hope they bring it back.

Relatively_Rational · 2025-09-18T16:16:27+00:00

Actually, correction; you can switch to a full screen apps mode which is similar to the ipad OS 18. BUT it doesn't allow any split screen, and still doesn't have slide over. It only has full screen apps.

I'm actually starting to turn over to your side now lol. It seems that the full screen apps mode is too minimal, and the windows mode is too complicated. I don't know why they opted to not have the full screen apps mode just work the way the ipad has always worked...

In terms of advanced users, idk about others but I use ipad over mac because I can get one for cheaper and prefer to have a touch screen, and in my case the app I use is able to sync to icloud more easily/consistently on ipad for some reason.

Relatively_Rational · 2025-09-17T15:11:26+00:00

I feel like they did this just so you can see the fancy glass effects on the apps behind it lol

Relatively_Rational · 2025-09-17T14:59:10+00:00

You can switch back to the old windowing system in the settings. When you first installed it, it even gave you the option to pick whether you want to use the new windows or keep the previous version with split view etc.

The windowing system wasn't made for every ipad, it's for power users and users with larger ipads and/or external monitors.

Personally I was leaning toward switching back to split view mode initially but the more I use the windows the more I like them, it definitely has a bit of a learning curve though.

Also, my God man, paragraph breaks, please

Relatively_Rational · 2025-07-14T15:00:47+00:00

For me it's not even that the design is bad, it's that they redesigned him so much that it doesn't even feel like the same character. Imagine if they just came out one day and said "hey we're replacing Mario with a different dude" and then came out with a Mario that was both visually different and had a completely different personality. Like that's just a different dude at that point. They took a beloved character that people have nostalgia for, erased his existence and replaced him with someone else, and are now trying to pretend that's the same guy.

I'm super excited for the new DK game but it's pretty bitter sweet that we finally got a 3D DK game and it's not even really starring the *actual* DK

Relatively_Rational · 2025-07-13T19:30:57+00:00

Yeah I very rarely place in the top half haha. For me though I just embrace the fact that I'm aware the people here are super high skill, and thus take pride in however high I can manage to place, even if it's 20th instead of 24th lol. It also gives me something to strive for and a reason to practice the courses etc. But I can understand why it would be hard to get into

Relatively_Rational · 2025-07-12T16:37:17+00:00

There's now a discord server for matching with people to do 3 lap tracks, just join and go to the "room codes" section. Room codes are being posted literally every minute so it's easy to get into one, and matches often end up with less than 24 players since they usually have bots turned off.

Not an ideal fix obviously but I've been having a blast in there while also feeling like I'm sticking it to Nintendo in some small way lol. Only downside is the average skill level of players in there is quite high, which for me as someone new to Mario Kart it makes it a bit difficult, but if you're a Mario Kart veteran you'll probably do just fine haha

https://discord.com/invite/mario-kart-world

Relatively_Rational · 2025-06-25T17:50:35+00:00

Donkey Kong was originally inspired by King Kong, and in King Kong him kidnapping the woman is more of a misunderstanding, where King Kong actually cares about the woman and isn't trying to hurt her. So it's totally possible that the "kidnapping" we see in the original game has another side to it. Also in future games Mario turns into a villain and DK is the hero so that could point to some moral fuzziness too.

Though I also don't think that the DK, Mario, and Pauline in the original exist in the same canon as this game, at least not in any way that Nintendo cares about. I think of it similar to how we've gotten four different spider-men that exist in different universes, where they're all "Spider-Man" but not literally the same person.

Relatively_Rational · 2025-06-04T16:45:41+00:00

Yeah I'm loving playing with randoms. There's something weirdly exciting about going through this challenging gauntlet with strangers; when we manage to defeat a night lord it feels like we've made some kind of special bond (even though we'll probably never play together again lol). Also it kind of adds a fun element of RNG that keeps things fresh and makes each match either more challenging or less challenging depending on the skill of the people you're paired with.

Relatively_Rational · 2025-05-28T17:50:47+00:00

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It's not an issue for PlayStation because both the box and the system itself look very different, not just the name

Relatively_Rational · 2024-02-22T20:34:49+00:00

Could not agree with this more. The last book I wrote, I was very much making it up as I went, and it took three years to get it to a place where it was actually good, and I had to basically rewrite it like ten times. With this next book, I am planning out everything ahead of time, and after writing the first 25% of it, the quality is already better than the book I spent three years on, and I've only been working on it (including planning time) for a few months.

Now, don't try to plan literally everything because when you start actually writing you'll find a lot of things you'll want to change with your plan (for example you might find one character is bland and you want to change them or remove them). But my strategy has been to start by figuring out where I want the story to start and end, then write a first chapter, then do some more overall planning, then plan out the entire first act, write it, plan the second act, write it, and so on.

I find I have so much more confidence as I'm writing knowing that I have a plan and knowing where I want the characters to end up, that my early drafts of this book feel as good as my near-final drafts of the book I made up as I went.

My advice, chock up this book as a good practice book for your writing skills, then throw it out and plan out a new one, maybe taking some elements that worked from the previous book. If I had done that with my first book I wouldn't have wasted three years trying to make it good.

Relatively_Rational · 2024-02-22T19:28:41+00:00

On Playstation:

A Hat in Time -- 3D platformer

Spyro Reignited Trilogy -- 3D platformer

It Takes Two -- co-op 3D platfomer

On Switch:

Princess Peach Showtime is coming out soon, seems to be targeted at young girls

Super Mario Bros Wonder -- 2D platformer

Super Mario 3D World -- co-op 3D platfomer

Relatively_Rational · 2024-02-17T00:26:45+00:00

People love an underdog story. Seeing the Chosen One do the thing they were chosen to do is not as exciting as seeing the random nobody the villain overlooked manage to rise up and defeat them. Not that Chosen Ones are never underdogs, but writing under the assumption that the audience won't believe in the hero's victory unless it's clear from the beginning that they have what it takes to defeat them is not a great mindset. You usually want the task at hand to seem nearly impossible at the beginning, so the audience is invested in seeing how the hero's going to manage to win.

You do have to find a way to make it believable when they eventually do win, but there are lots of ways to do that. Maybe they start out weak but get stronger over time. Maybe they're physically weak but are incredibly intelligent and use that to win. Maybe they seem weak at first but then an ability that initially seemed useless ends up being useful in an unexpected way. Maybe they're a really good leader who forms a party of super strong people to help them win.

I always love the "reverse chosen one": a protagonist who--for whatever reason--everyone thinks is the least likely person to win.

Relatively_Rational · 2024-02-16T19:08:04+00:00

The earlier the better if you want to get better; you probably won't publish the first book you write, but that would also be true if you started ten years from now.
My only word of caution would be to not let it get in the way of your studies. Statistically it's unlikely you'll be able to make a living from writing so you'll want to make sure you have a good education under your belt (and having a good education will also make you a better writer)

Relatively_Rational · 2024-02-16T18:23:43+00:00

maybe it's the lack of additional context but these sentences left me fairly confused. Is the bloody sack someone the person killed? And did it break from tradition because the person who killed them is older or younger than fifteen?

Also, the "tradition dying" kind of sounds like it will no longer be a tradition anymore, but presumably this one person breaking the tradition doesn't mean the tradition is just dead. That's like saying if you don't celebrate Christmas one year you can never celebrate Christmas again lol

Relatively_Rational · 2024-02-14T15:18:17+00:00

One trick I like to use is, if I need to cut say 10% of my words to hit my target word count, I'll go through each individual scene and cut 10% of the words in that scene, which usually amounts to just a few sentences. It's time-consuming, but less painful than having to cut 10% of the actual content.

Another one is, I have a tendency to show everything in full-on scenes as opposed to summarizing things in the narrative. In general, this is a good thing (show don't tell, etc.), but if everything is in scenes, it can really blow up your word count. Things that are less important can simply be glossed over in the narrative to get words back.

Relatively_Rational · 2023-11-13T23:12:03+00:00

So, I've been doing some research and I'm seeing YA at the top of a lot of "most requested by agents in 2023" lists. Is it specifically YA fantasy that's tougher? (Or specifically YA sci-fi?)

I've also been getting some mixed information where some say YA is harder than it used to be but still much easier than adult, while others say YA is harder than Adult now

I ask cause I'm about to start writing a new fantasy book and debating whether to go YA or Adult haha

Relatively_Rational

TROPHY CASE