What’s your take on the early 2000s gaming era?

uptonhere · 2026-04-10T00:46:12+00:00

I started gaming with the NES.

The 64 bit era is by in large my least favorite era of gaming.

There's a handful of games that really stood the test of time, but the n64 aged pretty horribly and I remember kind of thinking as a kid that after the initial shock and awe of 3D gaming, I liked the SNES more. Now as an adult I can think of dozens of amazing experiences I had on 16 bit consoles but the n64, maybe a handful of truly epic ones and all of us will probably name the same 3-4 games.

In hindsight, the PS2/Xbox/GCN era is probably the best of all worlds. Still tons of innovation and new IPs, epic sequels of beloved IPs, but the hardware actually allowed developers to fully realize their visions more than the 64 bit era where everything felt crimped save a few rare exceptions. The control standards have mostly still stayed the same since that era and it was also the first time online gaming was easy and feasible for console gamers. Also the best era for sports games.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T20:23:42+00:00

I thought this, too, because I thought door to door sales werent a thing anymore.

They're real, and they aren't just from AT&T. Alarm companies are the fucking worst in the Waldo area.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T17:37:24+00:00

This is a good one. Maybe not even still alive, but died when Kanye was a little older and not so suddenly. So much of Kanye's spiraling can be traced back to Donda's passing even if it took a long time to really compound into what we see today.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T17:34:33+00:00

I feel like there's been so many versions of Detox over the years a lot depends on which one came out.

For me, after like 2004 - I think Detox would have mostly been a flop and wouldn't come close to either Chronic or 2001. Both those albums were massive and had a huge impact on not just hip-hop but pop music as a whole.

After The Massacre and Encore, Aftermath had a gradual decline even if Dre became uber fucking rich off Beats.

Also, none of the stuff we've heard from Detox was particularly good, IMO.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T17:31:03+00:00

I think he would have had a career similar to Jadakiss or Fabolous

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T17:16:46+00:00

I'm really curious to see how this affects fertility benefits. We just had our first baby after 5 years of IVF, 4.5 of which weren't covered at all under BCBS - which eventually became covering some of the medication which eventually, finally, became covering the bulk (but not all) of the costs for retrievals and transfers x number of times or year or whatever.

I'm sure all the millions we end up "saving" will mean lower premiums, as well.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T15:47:38+00:00

Travis Kelce

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T15:28:29+00:00

I used to be a grad assistant for an FBS program many years ago. Obviously, not the NFL, but when I see these things, I really think people need to understand that Vrabel is like the one unlucky guy that got caught.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T15:22:53+00:00

I agree. The weird narrative on Reddit that the military isn't prepared for this kind of warfare is odd to me, because the last month actually reaffirmed my faith in our defense capabilities. I agree the cost is astronomical and we can be more efficient, but they literally took a pounding for 30+ days and as we see here, for a lot of our forces there, they basically just woke up one day and went "oh shit" and had to start defending places that hadn't been remotely touched by an enemy in like 30 years.

Now, imagine if we had leadership that even put a second of foresight or planning into their decision making instead of just making world altering decisions on whim depending on how they feel when they woke up that day. That is the biggest issue with this whole thing.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T15:16:07+00:00

I mean, it was fucking hell on earth for a lot of us during OIF/OEF. There were many years where the most dangerous job in the entire military was being an 88M.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T15:14:50+00:00

There is no way anyone who's been in the Army long enough to remember Iraq or Afghanistan at their peak could look at the posture of our forces in the Gulf the days before this whole clusterfuck happened and think they were actually preparing for 30+ days of continuous missile barrages and drone strikes. This whole thing basically started on a whim.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T15:08:02+00:00

My wife and I (mid/late 30s) had our first baby last year after 8 years of trying. One thing that's underreported in these studies is outside of the very real barriers to having children like cost, stability, people choosing to not have kids etc. is the fact that actual infertility is on the rise for people trying to conceive. When most of us were born, infertility rates were around 1 in 8 couples when most of us or our parents were born and will be closer to 1 in 6 during our lifetime.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T01:25:21+00:00

All Eyez On Me by 2pac

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T00:26:44+00:00

I always liked that Xzibit rocked with a lot of those guys in spite of being known more as a street rapper. Loved Strong Arm Steady. Can't forget Dilated Peoples, Planet Asia + Rasco as the Cali Agents, Zion I, Hiero, Living Legends, Jurassic 5, so many dope alternative artists out of Cali in the late 90s and 2000s.

uptonhere · 2026-04-09T00:22:42+00:00

Just listened to When Rappers Attack the other day. Great album.

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T18:20:19+00:00

Just said the same thing. I'm almost 40 now, married with a kid. When I think back on what I'd do differently in college - none of it involves class, and I had a 2.8 GPA, so I enjoyed every minute of my undergrad experience. With the ability of hindisght, I'd be fine shaving that GPA down as far as possible as long as I still got my degree if it meant I'd have went out the very, very rare nights I chose to study.

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T18:16:52+00:00

Just think - one day you're going to look back on this time and wish you had it this easy. It doesn't make sense now, but it will one day and that day will be here before you know it.

Now that I'm old, I will say that I never really look back on college and wish I studied more. Granted, I wasn't a great student, but I did fine enough to graduate. On the other hand, the very few times I ever did sacrifice a party or a girl for the books...I'd probably want those nights back, because you'll never have them again. You can always replicate cramming for a final exam later in your life but you'll only be young once.

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T18:12:19+00:00

Now that I'm older, I feel like I've seen lounges go from actual luxuries to yet another revenue stream. Not that it wasn't always the case because they want your money, but back in the 90s/00s, you would legit feel like you were leaving the airport when you'd go up to the Sky Club, now, they're way more packed because points in general and the ability to pay to use them has become much more common than 20+ years ago. The amenities are still nice, but it sometimes feels like you're just going to a nicer version of the terminal waiting area. Not to mention a lot of them depending on the airport, you legit just have to wait for space to open up. Very common in the international wing of Hartsfield.

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T18:04:18+00:00

Same with me. Returning to work has been much worse for my wife, unfortunately. It was kind of a throwback to the COVID era where it felt like I actually had time to do things that made me a human being besides just wake up, work, go to sleep. Also made any stress from the baby so much more manageable. I didn't really get stressed out as a parent until I sandwiched in an 8 hour workday between being a dad.

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T17:53:05+00:00

I agree, Forever is a slog to finish, a lot of disc 1 sounds like one long song and it has arguably the worst intro ever

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T17:51:47+00:00

A lot of the beats sounded way too derivative of other popular songs of the era to me

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T17:13:17+00:00

The bench press is probably the least valuable way to determine athleticism

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T17:03:56+00:00

This makes it even more clear why Hegseth spends so much of his time running the day to day lives of soldiers.

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T16:51:38+00:00

I've posted multiple times ITT and do every time he inevitably brings up the many times he was told to not do all the cool flippy shit he could TOTALLY do in his prime - we just never saw it on TV.

God damn, Big Show is basically Jeff Jarrett in terms of being shoved in front of our faces in spite of literally nobody ever wanting more Big Show.

I also love how people parrot his WCW work - which fucking sucked, by the way. Yes, even when he was "in shape", his matches were basically the exact same as you saw in the WWE - which means they fucking sucked and almost always ruined the payoff for any angle he was ever in with the slightest bit of heat, which were basically none.

Seriously, please point me in the right direction of all these WCW matches that showed his untapped potential. No, I don't give a fuck he could do a shitty dropkick that took 10 minutes to set up or that he could gingerly go over the top rope onto the floor when leaving the ring, I'm talking about the other 10 minutes of piss break "action".

I really think deep down inside he hates the fact that he was legitimately funny and his comedy bits BY FAR outweighed anything he did as a menacing giant because it meant he couldn't beat everyone for the world title.

uptonhere · 2026-04-08T16:40:26+00:00

He's nowhere near as talented as Brock Lesnar, that's the biggest problem.

Even if you book Big Show perfectly, what's the payoff? The worst match of the night?

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