Daily Challenge - 2024-05-29
Score: 153 / 300
🟩🟧🟥 ⬛ = 40 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
🟥🟧🟧 🟧 = 37 | Wasteland 3
🟩🟦🟧 🟩 = 76 | R | Cadence of Hyrule

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Can the date of a game update be changed? I'm talking about the date that appears when you sort your games by "Date Updated"

I haven't been active on the site for the last couple years and so have over 2 years' worth of games to add. If there is a way, I would rather add the real date I last played each game, rather than every game of the last few years have today as the last update date.

Thanks!

Apologies if that has already been addressed in the past but it would really be great if it were possible to have seperate completion dates for Main Story and for 100% Complete. Right now all my dates are for when I beat the game but most of the time I will only 100% it several days or weeks later (if not even longer)

Originally Posted by: QueenVakarian

I personally don't think it makes sense to add Emulation to Storefront. You don't buy games from Emulators (or afaik you don't).

Also, how would it record that kind of entry if the native platform is listed as well as Emulated? Would it disregard the platform and still stat it for Emulated?

We're just workshopping the idea.

I agree it's not really a storefront but I like the thought of forcing the user to mention the native platform and allowing them to still mark as emulated.

It would handle the title the same as it does now for stats.

Originally Posted by: One Winged Froy

I'd argue emulated essentially is a storefront, though.
It's how you "purchased", or in this case didn't, the game.

I think this is an interesting point.

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Random Thoughts
A checkbox for emulated has been mentioned but I don't want the submission page to get any busier.

There is the option of making an additional platform dropdown appear when emulated is being selected but again, could be cumbersome.

Everything marked Emulated currently would automatically have Emulated as the storefront. You wouldn't be forced to update any previous playthroughs but if you edited one, it would ask for the native platform.

We're just workshopping the idea.

I agree it's not really a storefront but I like the thought of forcing the user to mention the native platform and allowing them to still mark as emulated.

This was posted a few days ago so I don't know if a consensus was already come to, but I very much like this idea.
When looking at time averages for a game I have not played yet (or even a game I have played for that matter), emulated doesn't really give enough information about what platform the times were for. And anyway for all intents and purposes it is the same game as the original platform.

I've been watching two classic animes that I've been meaning to watch for a while (both of which I had never seen and both of which are very good)

-Samurai Champloo (2004)
-Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)

Books:

-"The Pottermore Presents Short Stories" by J.K. Rowling (2016)
-"Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood” by William Goldman (1983)
-Trying to read for work/research reasons “The Ipcriss File” by Len Deighton (1962) - I liked the movie but I’m finding the book very hard to get into...

Audiobooks:

-Finished “From Russia with Love” by Ian Fleming (1957)
-Started “Dr No” by Ian Fleming (1958)

Mangas:

-"One Piece" by Eiichiro Oda (1997-Present)
-"City Hunter" by Tsukasa Hojo (1985-1991)
-"Tough" by Tetsuya Saruwatari (2003-2012)
-"Yu-Gi-Oh!" by Kazuki Takahashi (1996-2004)

So I watched Lost In London last night -

It's a really interesting film because it was shot live and in one take - while being live-streamed to movie theatres around London. The movie itself is pretty funny and a bit heart-warming in the end, but if you're into films that are made a little differently - this is one to check out =)

pretty funny and a bit heart-warming in the end, but

Why "but" ? haha - Aren't funny and heart-warming good things for a movie?

I definately need to check it out, I had actually completely forgotten about this film, you reminded me. I remember wanting to see it when it came out, but never got round to it. Will add it the my list.

Movies watched for February:

-11/02 - Swimming Pool (2003)
-> Actually watched this by mistake. Wanted to see the film that inspired: A Bigger Splash (2015) which is actually a different film with the same name that was released in 1969. Will watch that one soon. But this one actually had an effect that films don’t usually have on me. I usually dislike endings very often but I actually fount most of this film quite mediocre until the last 30 seconds or so, which I really liked.

-13/02 -  Submarine (2010)
-> A funny, quirky voice-over and dialogue made the 2/3 of this film great. The last act however, I wasn’t fond of.

-17/02 -  John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
-> Classic non-stop action (to an almost humorous point) but it did feel somewhat slower than the 2 first movies. Perhaps Keanu is getting older and they needed to slow down the scenes, I’m not sure but still enjoyable. The end of the film leaves you in almost exactly the same spot as the end of the last one which kinda gets you the feeling that this film was absolutely pointless, but the nature of the genre makes it not as bad.

-20/02 - The Mule (2018)
-> The very beginning I found terrible. Expository dialogue and clunky acting, but after about 15min in it got a lot better and I enjoyed it.

-21/02 - The Blob (1958)
-> Classic 50s horror film. I don’t enjoy mornder horror film as much anymore, just find them way too scary but I love an oldie.

-22/02 - 1917 (2019)
-> Incredibly breathtaking cinematography, I’ll just say that maybe too much so that I did catch myself thinking too much about what the camera was doing and not enough about the actual story. But overall I still enjoyed the story and the movie.

-24/02 - The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
-> Classic Judd Apatow comedy.

-28/02 - Serpico (1973)
-> Young Pacino is something else, fantastic performence. Disturbing and frutrating knowing it's a true story, but makes it so much more poignant.

Ugh, post-credits scenes are bad enough in a movie, but in a TV serial? That's, like, bad in a technical level IMO. And this one has the longest credits of any TV series I've seen. I'm pretty sure Judas and the Black Messiah had a shorter credits sequence than this series' episodes.

As for Jimmy, sadly I haven't seen Ant-Man nor will I, because every time I look at the trailers he's riding giant bugs, and I can't do bugs. Sad, because without the bugs I'd actually really like to see the movies. And I hope we see Vision again. They obviously wanted to leave it open for him to return in the future, and he's one of my favorite characters; Wanda grew on me in the series after being shafted in the movies, but I always loved Paul Bettany's Vision.

Like I say, I will probably slot in FaWS in my Friday evenings, before inevitably watching the slow-moving trainwreck that is Walker. I have not seen the Loki trailer, but I will for sure watch the series on release. I have mixed feelings about Loki - I think he works better or worse depending on who is playing off of. A Loki series needs, in my opinion, a good foil to his lesser nature. Someone to stop him from going into angsty emo villain mode - that was fun for a hot minute in 2012, but I don't want it as a whole series.

I didn't realize they were doing a Secret Invasion film/series, but I guess the last few works did hint at that. Could be interesting, though TBH I've never been real interested in the "space lore" of Marvel. I liked Captain Marvel, Guardians and Agents of Shield, but that was more in spite of not caring about the aliens. Which is funny, because I normally love sci-fi. I guess it's just too pulpy for my taste. I'm actually more impressed with the magic side of the MCU than I thought I'd be, so I'm looking forward to Doctor Strange and - tangentally to that - Thor. I'd especially love Thor if it brought back Darcy <3

As for Ralph...I see what you mean. But I honestly didn't expect them to do much more than that, unless they do it in the Doctor Strange movie. It would have been much, much cooler if they did do what we were all hoping for, but again, I didn't expect them to go through with it, especially once it was revealed Agatha was responsible. The juvenile joke, though...that I could have done without. It just makes it feel like they had no better ideas and resorted to crass humor >_>

Wait have you not seen the 2 postcredit scenes at the end of the last episode? Definitely go watch them! haha - They give a little something about what comes next for Monica and Wanda -

I get what you mean, I really don’t do well with insects either but both Ant-Man films made me laugh a lot. I think it’s mainly due to Paul Rudd, I like him a lot

Agreed for Wanda, didn’t really have any interest in her character with the movies, but this has made me very interested to see what comes next for her. I do hope “White” Vision gets reunited with Wanda, hopefully in Dr Stange - seemed quite weird that after regaining his memories, he didn’t stick around - But I guess they needed the touching moment with “Memory” Vision without the other one being in the picture.

Yes I agree, I feel a more easy going Loki which we started seeing in Thor Ragnarok, without the emo stuff works a lot better. However as the show is actually supposedly about (based on teh trailer), an alternate timeline "2012 Avengers movie" Loki, he might be back to the “I'm unloved, I want to take over the world” thing - But judging on the tone of the trailer, they are keeping a more humorous version. I do hope so anyway.

Secret Invasion is supposedly a 6 episode show but there are at least 7 shows coming before that haha so not for right away - should be releasing late 2022/early 2023. I also prefer the more earth-based marvel stuff but I feel like after the last few movies, they can’t just go back. They’ve opened the lid on all the space lore.

Well we'll see in the next projects, maybe he will have more significant role than what we saw. (Hopefully) -

Yes, I watched it over dinner tonight. It was quite good, though I only cried at the goodbye scene. I did laugh a bit when Wanda whipped out a can of butt kicking. Over all, I did like it. I wish the finale had more Darcy, because Darcy is bae, but I understand why it focused more on Wanda and her circle. Even Jimmy and Monica didn't get much screentime. I was mixed on Monica. I found her "woe is me, my mom is dead" act cliche, and after everything she went through, the ending with her felt...anti-climactic. I didn't mind the lack of screentime for Jimmy or Darcy so much because they didn't feel as integral to the plot as Monica was. Though I did appreciate her scene where Ralph Bohner is revealed at least, even if I didn't remember her being kidnapped in the first place.

From my understanding, Monica will be featured in Captain Marvel 2, so I hope to see some of what she experienced in this series expanded upon. I think that her character has potential, even if I did find some elements cliche. And, let's be honest, it's more than I don't like certain cliches than that it was cliche at all, so I don't fault the writers too much on that part.

Overall, it was a good series, and it got better with every episode. I thought the first 2 were kind of meh, but by 4, I was hooked. I'm not real interested in Falcoln & Winter Soldier, though in fairness I wasn't in WandaVision either. So I'll give it a shot. What I'm really interested in is What If...? I don't remember what else is slated.

Agreed for Darcy, would have liked a bit more of her (as I love her as well) but I laughed so much at her entrance.

For Monica I get the feeling we will see a lot more of her in other projects, maybe in Secret Invasion and like you said in Captain Marvel 2, which is probably why they didn’t wanna go too deep with her. Just give us a little something until they focus on her story.
I think we’ll probably see them all again soon (probably next: Wanda in Dr. Strange 2, Darcy in Thor 4, Monica in Captain Marvel 2 and Jimmy in Ant-Man 3; which are all releasing (pandemic providing) in 2022. Although it would be very nice to get another Monica-Darcy-Kimmy team-up, it might not happen.

I was personally quite disappointed that Ralph Bohner turned out to just be a random dude. Was hoping there was a connection to the X-men. I mean looks like they just brought Evan Peters into the MCU for a wink and a D*** joke. But anyway I guess we don’t know exactly who he is yet. (and I believe Monica gets kidnapped in the post-credit scene of one of the previous episodes, maybe 7?

To be honest I wasn’t at al interested in Falcon and Winter Soldier but i don’t know WandaVision has just got me enjoying a weekly 30-45min Marvel time. What If...? looks really interesting.
There’s also the Loki series that should be released between FaWS and What if.
Have you seen the trailer for it? I’m actually not a fan of the Loki character, but the trailer has got me very excited, I think that’s probably the show I’m most anticipating out of all of them.

Finished WandaVision. Anyone watched the finale?
Highly, highly recommend this show if you are even remotely interested in the MCU movies, or of course in Marvel in general. Overall great technical creativity and top notch writing. The performances are strong and the emotional payoffs feel earned.
—> Wow. Just a couple months ago when this show started I was “amused” by the first 2 episodes. I likes them but that’s it. I didn’t expect too much from this show, just a little fun, goofy and creative marvel side story. I was wrong. I feel every episode has been building little by little to ultimately get to this. Watching this episode was such an emotional roller coaster. I almost started crying about four times. The farewell to “Memory” Vision and the boys... This was just great entertainment. Marvel Studios just know what they’re doing. Lots of questions and this has got me so much more excited for Dr. Strange 2 and what will come next for all the characters on the show.

But also excited that we only have to wait a couple weeks before our next marvel studios fix with episode 1 of Falcon and Winter Soldier. Its gonna be a year full of marvel and I’m here for it.

Watched the Golden Globes.
Guess they did the best they could under the circumstances. Love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting though. Those two just make me laugh by doing anything.

Just out of curiosity, as this is such a short game (2h average for main story), is it worth adding a second game for this month? Maybe the one with the most votes after Journey (which I beleive in this case is Subnautica)

Just an idea, don't know if anyone would be up for that or if that's just something you guys don't do.

I'll also mention as a few others my willingness to pay for a "Premium" feature to be able to support the site without seeing ads

Alien: Blackout?

Alien: Blackout

You got it!

Wrong again, very close but the first guess was closer ;)

I beat Ghost of Tsushima. (47 hours)
Wow... What an amazing game. Within a couple hours of starting it, I was already conidering putting it in my favourites games ever. I've rarely been so astonished by a game's visual beauty that I needed to stop the action to just look at the colours of the scenery. In my opinion, a masterpiece.

On a slightly less important note, am I the only one who was dissapointed that nothing happened between Jin and Yuna?

Alien: Isolation?

Wrong but very close

As they've announced a Tv show and I haven't played either of the games yet, I will nominate The Last of Us

[S]ome games have the most content in their highest difficulty setting.

I mean, that's not terribly common, though. The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Gunstar Super Heroes and Cuphead, and even then I think Cuphead just removes content on easy rather than adds content on normal and up.

But I guess this is what my question should have been: for the sake of argument, if you were to consider the hardest difficulty to be part of the requirements (for instance some of you said that you do consider it, if it is a trophy/achievement) then in that case: Would you consider having done the collectibles and the hardest difficulty in separate playthroughs enough to 100% the game or do you think both should be done in the same playthrough to 100% it?

Separate playthoughs, absolutely. I'll give you an example: when I played Kingdom Hearts Final Mix HD, I did what could feasibly be described as, well, everything, but I played on the standard difficulty setting. However, I only got 76% of the Trophies. One of the Trophies is "Defeat the [final boss] . . . within 15 hours." If you're going to go for that Trophy, which I would argue is necessary for 100% completion, there's no way you could do everything else in the game during that same run. No way you're finding all 101 puppies, defeating all the secret bosses, hell, not even sealing all the Keyholes. And there's little possibility you could go for it concurrently with the "Clear [the game] on Proud [difficulty]" Trophy. So if there's something that can only be done on a replay, that doesn't mean you have to do everything you did the first time during said replay; just keep track of how long you played the game in total, and when you're satisfied you've done everything for a 100% completion submission, submit that cumulative time.

Hmm that's a good point, I hadn't thought of games with time constraints like that. I have to think about a little more but I think I'm leaning towards seperate playthroughs.

Oh I see, well the code was used so I guess someone else grabbed it haha no worries, but thanks anyway that was generous of you

Rollercoaster Tycoon: Deluxe for Steam
E6H8N-CRW96-BMEI4

- Matt

Can that code only be used by one person? Would love to get it but don’t wanna take it away from someone else-

-Do you have to always nominate a game to participate or can you simply vote on what others have nominated?

If you don't want to nominate and just vote then you can go ahead

-Are there specific dates for each month: When nominations start/end - when voting starts/ends?

Anything is open. Nominations normally come in about a week before the end of the month. Voting starts about 3 days before end of the month and ends on the first of the next month

If you don't want to nominate and just vote then you can go ahead

Anything is open. Nominations normally come in about a week before the end of the month. Voting starts about 3 days before end of the month and ends on the first of the next month

All right, thanks for the info!

@tiamat911 - @ThomasE - @mockturtle
Great, thanks for the info! This seems like a cool monthly group - I thought there might be some sort of entry rite of passage haha

Just two questions:
-Do you have to always nominate a game to participate or can you simply vote on what others have nominated?
-Are there specific dates for each month: When nominations start/end - when voting starts/ends?