James

I hope y'all had a great Christmas and New Year!

I'm no authority on this, but the ability to introspect is a big part of self-improvement. Don't be too hard on yourself about this. It's been a very long time. I mean, I was most active on OB nearly twenty years ago. So much has happened since then, so much has changed in my life and in the world. And, frankly, the last few years have felt like they were filled with a lot of trauma for various reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people forgot a lot of the things that happened while they were active on OB. For me... my memory is generally pretty vague until/unless I am reminded of something. Just browsing through the boards reminds me of a lot of big and little things I'd largely forgotten. I haven't been on AIM in so long! I have no idea if the app even exists now, heh. I'm sure if I think about it I probably have a lot of regrets. When it comes to OB, I'm sure I was probably too strict at times, and maybe my behaviour impacted some people more negatively than I realised at the time. It's hard to say, that's just my assumption. Having said that, I prefer to deliberately think about the good times; the past is the past, and I can't change it now. It's easy to ruminate about the negatives, or to wish I'd done some things differently. But doing that now won't help me or anyone else, you know? For me, OB was a big part of my life, and the community here was very important to me. Like others, I'd say that OB helped me get through some very difficult times, especially when I first moved out of home. Even though most people have moved on now, I still cherish those years a lot and I have many good memories from that time. It's been a long time, so maybe my memory is fuzzy...but I always liked you, and thought you added value to discussions here. To be fair, the way we perceive ourselves is often not the same as the way others perceive us. ?

How gorgeous! Good to know that they are doing well.

So, no word on what happened to Rick Hunter? ?

This is my overarching thought too. When I first came out of the cinema, I really wasn't sure how to feel. Did I like it or not? I'm a huge Matrix fan (having argued passionately in favour of the sequels on these very forums for years, heh) but I was genuinely confused about Resurrections initially. But over time - after watching some commentary on it, and re-watching - I've come to appreciate it. It occurs to me that The Matrix trilogy is a very neat triptych; trying to extend the story was always going to be a daunting task. I think Lana Wachowski took the right approach by applying a meta lens on the whole thing. At the same time, she actually provided a very plausible chronological sequel (the front half of the film is wonderfully cynical, while the back half is lovingly earnest and digs into what happened after the events of Revolutions). I suppose that my biggest criticism of the film is that its special effects aren't nearly as mind-bending as the original trilogy. Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful shots but I feel that the special effects here aren't as ambitious. That said, I like the transition to natural lighting, and I think you can see that Lana Wachowski leveraged a lot of her learnings from post-Matrix films (the cinematography feels less "tightly controlled" here, and more natural - aligned with the lighting, I guess). I can't say really what score I'd give this, because it almost defies numerical scoring for me. In some respects, I think Lana pulled off the impossible with this film. She actually made a sequel that simultaneously extended the plot of the trilogy while also itself being a super unique and conceptually ambitious movie (in a similar way to the original film). I think I have to accept the reality that no movie is going to completely replicate the impact of the original trilogy for me, which is okay.

Yeah, so much work went into those RPGs. I have really fond memories of them. I'm wondering if anyone has heard from Kevin/Rick Hunter? What's he doing these days? He had a YouTube channel for a little while but it's gone now...

I personally haven't noticed anything missing, but certainly, the HTML-heavy RPGs we used to do are borked. But at least the content is still there! It's fun to go back sometimes and re-read that old stuff. I'm still just blown away that the PMs survived! I feel like I could write a book about my PM discussions, haha.

That's cool. I'm playing Alyx super slowly so that it doesn't end too soon, heh. Like you I'm also playing through the earlier games as well. Are you playing Half-Life: Source or Black Mesa? I highly recommend the latter. Although it's created by a fan community, I'd say it's really the definitive version of the original game. And Half-Life 2 is simply incredible. It remains an amazing game even now in 2021. Out of curiosity, where are you up to in HL: Alyx?

Me too. Last night I went into my private messages on here and realised they'd all been retained! My god, it was a cornucopia of wonders from (almost) the last 20 years. At one stage, Kevin from AE invited me to participate in a podcast debate about AE/OB...haha. So bizarre to read that (and my response) from the time.

Has anyone played Half-Life: Alyx? I can't believe OB has been around for so long that we actually saw the arrival of Half-Life 3 (well, kinda). Playing through Half-Life: Alyx has prompted me to (yet again, for the millionth time) play through Half-Life 2. It's incredible to me just how well that game has held up. It still looks and sounds amazing, and the gameplay is as sharp as ever. It's really stunning - definitely one of my favourites. Also, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is pretty good. It's definitely bringing back memories. The series really holds up well.

"OB will exist until the end of the world." Well.

Oh yes I saw this on Discord. Congratulations!! Such gorgeous photos. ?

Hm, not a bad idea. But I don't think I could do justice to it. ?

Right now I'm playing: Persona 4 Golden I had bought a Vita a while ago and kinda just left it collecting dust. I didn't get Persona games...I kept dying in Persona 4 Golden, heh. But then I played Persona 5 and I began to understand how you're supposed to play these games...so I've now gone back to Persona 4G and I'm loving it. I just picked up Freedom Wars as well, which I'm keen to try out. Ghost of Tsushima What can I say about this? It's getting rave reviews. It's really good. I'm slowing down on it a bit more now though...it's a very large game, and starts to feel a bit repetitive. But it's still lovely. I'm chipping away at it here and there. Catherine Full Body Never played the original version of this, so I was keen to try it out on PS4. I'm enjoying it so far for the most part. Pillars of Eternity This is my first real go at a CRPG (even though I'm playing on console). I've never been able to get into CRPGs really - never had the patience. But I'm giving this a serious shot, and I'm generally enjoying it. It's really fantastically written. I've mostly got the hang of how combat works, but there are some things that confuse me and aren't explained well in-game, so no doubt I'll be hunting for some tips on YouTube. ?

Nice one! Looks like you got the chance to do quite a lot. I agree with you 100% about the food. My goodness. There's SO much great food everywhere you go! The best food I had was probably at a little Japanese curry place at Nara Station. It was really small and didn't look special from the outside, but when I went inside, there were a lot of awards hanging on the walls. The curry was so incredible - best I've ever had in my life. I still get cravings for it, haha. Fortunately there's a lot of great Japanese food in Australia, as Japanese restaurants (often run by Japanese folks) are very common. But still, there's nothing quite like eating Japanese food in Japan. Mind you, the moment you stray from Japanese food over there it starts to get a bit iffy. Their western food is often a bit patchy, and I was surprised that their Chinese food is often not great (at least in my experience). Ironically, we also went to an Indian restaurant in Ginza (one of the very few I saw) and it was also one of the best Indian restaurants I've ever been to. I love Indian food... so that was a nice surprise. You did quite a few things I didn't. For example, I didn't get the chance to go to the Fushimi Inari shrine...despite that being so famous! But I did go to Nijo Castle and Honmaru Palace as well as a few other historical places, all of which were stunning. In terms of our journey, it kinda went like this: Arrived in Tokyo and stayed one night in Shibuya. Next morning (super early... ugh) took the Nozomi Shinkanzen to Hiroshima. Spent a good few days in Hiroshima and did NYE there (which was amazing). Took Nozomi from Hiroshima to Kyoto. Spent a few days in Kyoto and while we were there, we also visited Nara and Osaka (we only did one night in Osaka, I wish we'd done more). Went from Kyoto to Tokyo on Shinkanzen. Stayed in Ginza for about a week and explored around Tokyo from there. We did a ton of stuff around Tokyo. The biggest highlight for me was the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Words can't describe that place. Honestly, it brought me to tears at one point. It was beyond gorgeous. Really lovely to hear about your trip - I am going to see if I can share some pictures here. I've gotta get 'em off my phone! ?