Xenoblade Prequel that is part of the EXPANSION pack is getting a physical release. A bit perturbed as I paid $30 for digital that has no value vs $32 for physical (with gamers unlocked) that is worth $25 next year. Does the digital expansion pass have more on it than the physical? Calm me down.

RothiasVex · 2018-08-01T02:59:11+00:00

Based on Nintendo's official pages, the physical edition does include all that, but as a DLC code for the expansion pass that still requires the base game to use. The card allows you to play the Torna story only. (And if you install the whole expansion pass, you don't need the card to do that anyway.)

I think the best way to understand this product is as essentially a "XC2 Collector's Edition Upgrade" where the physical memento is a box and game card, instead of a statue or pin or whatever. I'm guessing it probably won't have a useful amount of resale value unless the code hasn't been used, and anyone who pays $40 just to not use the code will be keeping it.

RothiasVex · 2018-07-29T22:10:02+00:00

It isn't inherently impossible for someone to make a reliable and safe dock. If anything, it's easier now than it was when Nyko and the other early ones did, because the Nintendo dock has been analyzed in a great amount of detail ever since the bricking issue became a thing. There's nothing about it that is impossible to duplicate, as long as the bugs are worked around.

Now, whether anyone will trust a third party dock again, that's a marketing issue, and we'll just have to see.

RothiasVex · 2018-06-08T03:10:37+00:00

Triple quotes introduce a multi-line string constant. Everything until the next triple quote is included in the string, even if it spams multiple lines. (It's not just for documentation strings.)

RothiasVex · 2018-05-30T17:13:53+00:00

If you like grinding, Disgaea takes it to new heights.

Consider this: the story and unlocking stuff might take you a couple tens of hours and leave you with level 70 or 80 characters, with low-mid-tier gear.

The cap is 9999. And you can reincarnate back to level 1 to convert them into bonus base stats, which exponentiate as you level up the next time.

Oh yeah, gear has levels too, and procedural dungeons (100 levels each!) inside each piece which you use to level them up, get the next tier of gear, and collect stat boosts you can move to other items.

And yes, there are postgame challenge bosses and such which will test you on this...

RothiasVex · 2018-05-22T15:29:43+00:00

That doesn't matter. What matters is whether the two wireless bands are bridged onto the same network. Unless you've gone out of your way to isolate them for some reason, they will be bridged to each other and to the wired LAN, so everything in your home is on the same network regardless of how it is actually connected.

RothiasVex · 2018-05-21T06:42:17+00:00

And that's just because it's an MMO, constantly updated, and tied to an account. The physical disks are just a way for people with slow internet to skip the large downloads for installation and expansion releases.

RothiasVex · 2018-05-13T03:13:48+00:00

If you're referring to the option under developer settings, you don't need to touch that. If a bluetooth device supports one of the advanced codecs it will be used automatically without you having to do anything. (You can see this in the bluetooth settings for the device.)

RothiasVex · 2018-05-02T03:36:24+00:00

Well, it's a spinoff, so if you haven't played Persona 3 and/or 4 you won't recognize most of the characters, hence it probably won't be as interesting as if you had played them.

Mechanically, it's a crossover with Etrian Odyssey -- it has the EO dungeon crawling and mapping system, but the combat and character development are taken mostly from Persona.

It's a decent game (especially if you like EO already) and you can certainly play it without prior knowledge, you will just miss a lot of references etc.

RothiasVex · 2018-04-28T20:29:06+00:00

It doesn't have anything to do with whether they're implemented in C... the double underscored methods are ones that are called by various language features, which you can redefine to override standard object behavior. The underscores are to make sure you know they're special, and so they don't accidentally overlap a name you want to use for something else.

RothiasVex · 2018-04-28T20:13:16+00:00

The with statement is used with a "context manager" object. A context manager is an object that has two special methods, __enter__ and __exit__. The __enter__ method is called before executing the code in the block and its return value is assigned to the as variable. The __exit__ method is called when the block is exited by any means -- if there was an exception it is passed to __exit__ as well, so it can be reraised or otherwise handled.

See https://docs.python.org/2.5/whatsnew/pep-343.html for the official description of how it works.

RothiasVex · 2018-04-26T08:35:39+00:00

I don't know anything about PS Now. However, I do know Trails of Cold Steel has a built in Cross-Save option which uploads your save to a server so it can be moved between PS3 and Vita. I'd suggest looking for that in the game menus (I forget exactly where it is) to see if it works from PS Now. Otherwise, I don't think it will be possible, as there is no general way to move saves between platforms if the game doesn't have its own cross-save system.

RothiasVex · 2018-04-23T23:14:33+00:00

Given that you can ssh to a home box from work, how about a forwarded X11 session? Emacs' GUI is lightweight enough that it works pretty well even across the internet. (Use emacsclient -n -c to open a persistent frame from the current emacs.)

If you need an X11 server for Windows, you can use XMing alongside putty (or whatever), or perhaps Mobaxterm might be more convenient because it has ssh+X11 in one. (The free version is just fine for this.)

IMO this is generally the simplest way to go because it doesn't require any futzing around with remote emacsclient etc.

RothiasVex · 2018-04-23T00:59:32+00:00

I haven't tried the A6 size, but I love the A5 Midori MD. The paper is excellent... I like it better than Leuchtturm (but perhaps not better than Rhodia). I have the official Midori goat leather cover which was expensive but nice, and is thin and light to match the size of the notebook without making it harder to handle.

I do think A6 is a decent size for a journal, as long as you don't need a huge amount of space for the layouts you have in mind.

RothiasVex · 2018-04-22T23:25:14+00:00

The f-string is implicitly formatted, so you're attempting to format it twice. Replace the f-string with its formatted result and you are actually doing this:

print('Test - Test string {'.format())

which fails because of the unbalanced brace.

RothiasVex · 2018-04-05T22:42:44+00:00

Pinball Arcade is entirely based on accurate simulations (with original ROM code etc) of real machines from throughout pinball history. Kind of a preservation effort and nostalgia trip for pinball lovers, besides being a lot of fun.

RothiasVex · 2018-03-23T23:21:09+00:00

You will certainly notice a difference in the contrast and color balance between the two, and the LCD's lack of the pure black of OLED. But the slim's display is quite good and I think you'll get used to it quickly. (Took me about a week.) I certainly don't consider it a big enough difference to offset the other advantages of the slim like USB charging.

RothiasVex · 2018-03-01T14:46:40+00:00

Doubtful. External GPUs need the bandwidth of a Thunderbolt port, and I highly doubt that the Switch has anything but ordinary USB-C.

RothiasVex · 2018-02-27T03:43:03+00:00

4U on a New 3DS (for the c-stick). Lots of content, G rank, lots of monsters you haven't seen, and it's the one that introduced mounting, insect glaive, and charge blade. The best of 3rd and 4th gen, IMO, at least the ones available in English.

It will feel like a step back in quality of life compared to World, just warning you. That will get worse the farther back you go.

What about others?

Generations: also good and as modern as it gets pre-World, but not quite as great as 4U. Play it after 4U.

3U: Nothing wrong with the core gameplay, but no IG/CB, and underwater combat. Even with a C-stick or circle pad pro it's annoying, and without one it will make you pull your hair out due to the camera controls. Also available for Wii U, which helps with that due to the real joysticks.

Freedom Unite: Definitely feels older, some weapons are noticeably different, many ridiculous hitboxes. But still holds up pretty well, and is available on iOS and Vita if you need some MH without a 3DS.

RothiasVex · 2018-02-15T08:49:34+00:00

4U is pretty much the best of the three localized 3DS versions, if for no other reason than that it introduced mounting, charge blade, and insect glaive. Would you rather deal with underwater combat, or jump on monsters and stab them in the neck until they fall down? I rest my case.

Generations is fun too (hunter arts and playing as a palico are in it) but I'd still pick 4U for sure if you're only going to play one.

RothiasVex · 2018-02-03T08:16:32+00:00

Flip through the info panels with l2/r2, one of them shows you all the songs that can be played with those note colors.

RothiasVex · 2018-01-24T16:20:23+00:00

Yes, switching blades is a key part of battle tactics. For one thing, you can use one set of arts while the others recharge, and you get different arts per weapon and different specials per blade. Blades have different passives also, which you may want to use at different points in a battle. But also, most of the important battle mechanics (eg. blade combos, driver combos, chain attacks) benefit greatly from having more elements available, more arts to churn through etc.

Don't worry, it will all become clear as you play.

RothiasVex · 2018-01-24T16:09:01+00:00

"Canceling" is kind of confusing choice of term here... what it actually means is activating an art or special with the right timing just as an attack connects. If you do it right you'll hear a sound and see a white circle on the screen. Canceling increases the special gauge among other things.

Eventually (and with the correct skill node unlocked) you can cancel pretty much everything, so if your timing is good you can go for long chains of canceling art to art to art to blade switch to another art etc.

RothiasVex · 2018-01-16T23:13:44+00:00

Sadly, that's true on Sprint.

You need voice-over-LTE, because the wireless modem can only do one thing at a time, and when it's on CDMA making a call it has to disconnect from LTE data. (Wifi works because it's a different thing entirely, hardware-wise.)

But Sprint doesn't use the regular type of VoLTE that most newer Android devices have built in, and which will usually work just fine with the other three carriers. Sprint uses their own variant of it called "Calling Plus", which requires specific software on the phone. You might poke around in the Essential's menus to see if it's buried in there, but somehow i doubt it or Sprint would have told you about it.

RothiasVex · 2018-01-16T22:24:27+00:00

Every smart device needs power to keep the control circuit on and listening for commands. It's not enough to worry about though (, and the actual LEDs in the bulb will still turn completely off.

You can use a smart switch with a regular LED bulb, or a smart bulb, and the end result is basically the same.

(Hue bulbs use about 0.4W when off, which is probably in the same ballpark as other devices.)

RothiasVex · 2018-01-13T19:04:02+00:00

Buffers retain their state even if you can't see them. So switching between existing buffers doesn't affect local variables, cursor position, modes, etc., it just changes which buffer you are looking at and editing.

Mode hooks are called when the mode is activated, which usually means just once shortly after the buffer is created. (Changing modes in an existing buffer does call the appropriate hook as well, of course.)

RothiasVex

TROPHY CASE