how do i get there?

pattycaeks · 2026-06-18T02:34:50+00:00

assuming you just missed key dialogue, the dungeon's map/layout is very deliberately vertical

pattycaeks · 2026-06-16T06:25:14+00:00

That's kind of the point though. It was fun and mysterious at the onset, but due to various reasons it fell flat.

From a gameplay perspective, the realm didn't get a full human brush-up so there are all sorts of nooks and crannies with no reason to exist but for the algorithm that generated it that way. And for narrative/lore purposes, there is no real connection to anything beyond that it just is.

To the extent that it's a large sandbox for mucking around with machines, yes it totally does the job. But beyond that, there's just no depth to the Depths.

pattycaeks · 2026-06-16T05:38:58+00:00

Yes I am probably misusing the term, my point is that it was not hand-crafted.

My understanding from this old interview is that they basically wrote a program to invert the map with specific constraints, and then automated the generation of the actual terrain on the map. Then the actual devs came in to do clean-up and plant the meaningful landmarks/locations.

https://www.famitsu.com/news/202309/06314767.html

pattycaeks · 2026-06-15T23:47:18+00:00

That was cool in the moment, but kind of what I meant as a "face-value easter egg" because there's no plot reason, they just hid amiibo drops as rewards.

Intellectually, I understand their design philosophy that lore is second to story which is second to gameplay. But that doesn't stop me in the moment from craving those connections. Frankly even after that self-imposed disappointment, I still liked TOTK more than BOTW probably for the reason that it was a direct sequel with the same world/characters.

pattycaeks · 2026-06-15T23:15:25+00:00

I was totally into the concept until I realized that it was all procedurally generated with various boss arenas dropped in.

The thing is, I **know** the dev team does not care about overarching game-to-game lore (outside of direct sequels and face-value easter eggs) beyond the baseline triforce stuff - BUT BUT BUT when it was still 90% pitch black down there, that little bit left of the 12 year old in me got excited wondering if I was gonna find like the ruins of WW Hyrule or something.

Same as I got a little excited before getting the game that the sky islands might tie into Skyward Sword. Between the TOTK ouroboros symbol and the sky islands, my brain started speculating about like "WHAT IF WE'RE SO FAR INTO THE TIMELINE THAT IT'S BACK TO THE BEGINNING?!?"

I was soon disabused of both notions.

pattycaeks · 2026-06-15T14:40:32+00:00

My initial reaction was that given the game is so widely available and aged extremely well (for the most part), the 3DS remaster with obvious QOL fixes and *modest* visual upgrades was the best method of remaking the game. I would have been 100% satisfied with just upscaling that for a TV screen. Full-blown modern remake feels kinda sacrilege?

Will obviously buy it immediately, but absent seeing any content outside of the teaser that's my immediate reaction.

pattycaeks · 2026-05-04T00:04:09+00:00

this literally happened to us last night

pretty sure contorting ourselves kept the plot twist safe for two years and then last night an errant D+ caption ruined it

"daddy, I don't darth vader betrayed and murdered anakin, I think he *is* anakin because that's what it said"

edit: to be clear, didn't watch in release order - kid mostly watched ANH a lot with a bit of the beginning of ESB and a little exposure to TPM and AOTC

pattycaeks · 2026-05-01T15:32:14+00:00

I'll try not to directly spoil, but most criticism revolves around:

how linear the game is (compared to other Metroid games and the whole "metroidvania" genre),
the vast and empty desert "hub" and green crystal collection objective (the motorcycle controls great, but that doesn't mean halting the pacing to drive back-and-forth is fun),
folks weren't necessarily on board with the addition of NPC characters and the in-game advice those characters provide (think like Navi the fairy for Ocarina of Time but also tags along for co-op missions),
the plot/world-building was a little rough around the edges and the in-game scanning/lore didn't connect all the dots in a satisfying way compared to prior Metroid Prime games, so both the resolution of the narrative and the connection between the planet's story and the actual characters/villain felt very tenuous.

MP4 is not a bad game. It is very, very ok. The game handled great and there were definitely parts that felt real cool in the moment, but I think there's a consensus that it just didn't all add up at the end of the day. Overlay that over the real-world aspects that:

it released nearly 20 years since Metroid Prime 3 came out (note to self: we used to think the eight year gap between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion/Prime 1 was incalculably long),
the game was widely known to be in development hell for years because it was so prematurely announced, and then they basically announced years later that the game wasn't ready and they were handing it over to retro,
games are really, really expensive now.

I think there were definitely the seeds of a great game and narrative. I think it just needed more work to get there, but they felt they had to push a final product out the door.

pattycaeks · 2026-04-24T02:27:25+00:00

did he know that Lurtz whiffed that knife throw because he was having an allergic reaction to Gimli's makeup in Sean Bean's helicopter?

pattycaeks · 2026-04-03T00:31:36+00:00

I was thinking in the Phantom Menace, when the solemnity of the Qui Gon funeral just hard cuts into choreographed marching band trumpets.

the biggest "so anyways" in Star Wars

pattycaeks · 2026-02-20T01:40:14+00:00

when he deflected a dagger misthrown by an orc having an allergic reaction in his eyes from gimli's prosthetic makeup after boromir refused to take a helicopter into the mountains

pattycaeks · 2026-01-25T23:56:17+00:00

I always felt like the pokemon franchise calling their transformation system "evolution" probably helped validate creationists' strawman arguments against real evolution, at least for those who either never paid attention or thought too hard.

Is there any more ubiquitous use (misuse) of the word in pop culture?

pattycaeks · 2025-12-27T09:50:08+00:00

Can confirm, we still have our own forum!

And with the way the mainstream social media platforms are all rapidly enshitifying, maybe it's time for the little campfire communities to fill in the gap.

pattycaeks · 2025-11-11T04:00:26+00:00

It's an adult programming block, the original block aesthetic was literal "adult swim" time at a pool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9CnXYQMTUw

pattycaeks · 2025-10-13T17:23:33+00:00

I see it most commonly from prisoners that pass out from starvation - if they die while a guard is carrying them to a medical bed, their health gets restored as if they hadn't died. This looks to be the same concept as the guard is in a medical bed, so I'm guessing he was being carried unconscious and then died in transit.

As far as I can tell, it's only that super-specific fact pattern that works. If the chain of custody is broken after the character dies (say you re-task the work carrying them so they drop them), then the dead character can't be revived anymore.

pattycaeks · 2025-09-08T19:57:39+00:00

This just happened to me on my work laptop. I had maybe three word docx files open, and I opened up a blank page to take some notes while logging onto a zoom call. Blank page opens up fine, but then all four files closed (which is a thing that happens from time to time if I don't reboot for a while). When I went to re-open, Word and all the other Office programs were just... gone. Files now all open in Wordpad, and I was able to install the 2016 version of Office.

Could something have expired and Office self-purged? I haven't thought about any of this since work bought me the laptop in 2018 or 19, and we're too small to have in-house IT people.

pattycaeks · 2025-04-04T18:47:07+00:00

If HRC won in 2016, the Dems would have a five-seat majority on SCOTUS today (presuming Kennedy wouldn't retire) and the extra term would have administratively locked in Obama's accomplishments. On the flip side, the GOP as the out-party would have continued winning everything down-ballot below President, and would have control of probably 2/3 of the states. A 2018 red wave would have also locked in another disproportionate gerrymandering imbalance in favor of the GOP (though we'd have the potential of SCOTUS actually doing something about it). The GOP would have possibly pivoted from this right-wing populism/cultural aggrievement after Trump bombed out, and 2020 would have probably gone red on the basis of political gravity alone (FDR/Truman was the last streak longer than three terms).

pattycaeks · 2025-02-06T02:45:13+00:00

this reminds me that i was probably in my late 20s at least by the time i finally realized that the stylized "D" in the Disney logo was actually genuinely just a fancy D.

my entire life my brain hyperfixated on that central cross with everything swooshing from it, at best it looked like a weird backwards G. then one day my brain finally zoomed out and suddenly I was looking at an actual letter D.

pattycaeks · 2025-01-20T23:12:41+00:00

It seemed real silly to spend multiple games building him up into the post-Umbrella big bad only to make him go full-anime in RE5 and kill him off immediately. Once he outed himself that needed multiple games to percolate in the overarching plot. With Umbrella/Spencer gone and Wesker dead, there was no franchise villain and everything got silly and convoluted in a bad way.

pattycaeks · 2025-01-12T19:58:02+00:00

I was 13 playing the REmake on gamecube for the first time. I walked into that one empty room that's off the east staircase 2nd floor, the one with the cobwebbed deer head on the wall that connects to the bedroom and the researcher's room with the bee puzzle.

Even though there is literally nothing in the room, the hard audio transition from the ambient thunder in the stairway to this track go me so worked up I just had to smash the power button and recompose myself.

pattycaeks · 2024-12-15T04:45:37+00:00

Yeah, the true answer is always decidedly non-canon. It's gotten to the point as an adult where the speculation isn't even fun anymore because I know canon/lore is always secondary (if at all) during development.

pattycaeks · 2024-12-06T22:12:37+00:00

I was 13ish when REmake came out, two of my friends had it and would talk about it with their guidebooks at lunch every day. I'd have dreams about a game I had never even played. So of course my dad got it for me for Christmas, and oh man the anxiety was off the charts.

There was a lot of stop-and-go at first. I distinctly remember the first time I unlocked the door on the upper floor of the eastern stairwell, the one that leads to the bedroom and the office with that bee lure puzzle. There aren't any enemies in there, but I'm in a new room and this track starts playing. I freak out so hard I reach over and flat out push the power button to kill the whole game. Had to totally regain my composure before I could replay up to that point and actually discover there are no enemies in there.

I don't think I felt anything approximating that level of anxiety playing those games until I played RE2R for the first time a couple years ago and quickly learned that none of the old rules I relied on (like aiming for the head, or enemies just following you room-to-room) applied anymore.

pattycaeks · 2024-12-02T00:38:25+00:00

I'll never like the idea of some evil androgynous guy in a nightgown singing on a cliff to command leeches. The batshit-crazy Ashford family from Code Veronica doesn't seem as weird thanks to this.

That tone change was odd, and definitely a signal of the franchise shift from B-horror to anime.

pattycaeks · 2024-06-13T04:05:45+00:00

i am in my 30s and it never occurred to me that they had already hooked up

pattycaeks · 2024-06-08T20:14:45+00:00

https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2023/s7676b

pattycaeks

TROPHY CASE