@Hinph

When stocking up on supplies last week, I feel like the smartest thing I did was buy 6 DiGiorno's while everyone else was hoarding toilet paper and Clorox wipes!

@TheBigG753

I'm still very confused by the TP thing. I guess if people expect this to go full apocalypse it would be nice, but in that scenario dirty butts are just going to be a new reality of life on Earth. Until then, I'm just glad I've got a bidet. My friend who always made fun of me for using one isn't making fun of me now!

That was smart on the pizzers. I might still be able to sneak an Amazon PrimeNow order if for either a frozen pizza or ingredients to make one! I have everything I need to make pizza dough, so the quest for sauce and cheese begins. There seems to be an opening to place orders every so often, so I'll try. The beer isn't happening though. Sadly, alcohol delivery is illegal in my state. I might risk a trip out soon to buy like ten bottles of wine or something, because sober unemployment is pretty mind numbing.

Just got an email from Amazon that my copy of Doom might be late, but that's fine.

@Hinph

It's the idea of like, "Well, if I'm stuck at my place for a while, I don't want to run out of toilet paper!" like before a bad snow storm or something. But people are taking it to the extent of like, they're going to be in a bomb shelter for the next year. And naturally other people are morons and see this and think a clean ass will somehow protect them against the coronavirus. Oy!

The crafting mechanics already make this the best Animal Crossing. You get wood out of trees and weeds you pick can be used to make stuff or sold for profit. There's a point in doing stuff other than just being OCD, though that was always reason enough.

Oh man can't wait to get my copy later today. I guess I could have grabbed it from GameStop yesterday but I didn't realize that was an option. Plus I was pretty busy anyway.

But today is the day!

Well, I gotta say, my early impressions are very positive. They added this whole crafting element where everything (even weeds!) has a purpose now. As well as a stamp system that lets you pay off your debt by basically doing like... ANYTHING... and it tracks it all. So you can still basically do whatever you feel like, but if, like me, you like a little more structure in your games, it's there now. Instead of thinking "I need to pay off my debt I guess I have to go fish / collect fruit AGAIN" now it's like... I just do whatever I want whenever I want, and my debt keeps getting paid off!

They also made it easier to connect with people online. I mean, it still has some Nintendo-ish flaws involved, but you can at least get a "best friends" list going and then message each other without being in each other's towns, which will make it easier to set up visits (though why you can't just do this with like... all of your Switch friends who are playing... is beyond me?!) And there is a chat log! (Was there a chat log before? I feel like there wasn't?) Still some issues though. Why do I have to run all the way to the airport to open or close my gates? (Maybe I'm missing something?) Why does it stop everything and take SO LONG when people come into or leave a town?

BTW the "best friends" thing seems to only let you add someone as a "best friend" if one of you has visited the other, so I'm probably just going to leave my town open whenever I can today / the near future so you can all come visit and we can become "best friends"?!

So yeah a few minor gripes related to online but overall I gotta say, it feels like a fairly big step forward for a franchise that hasn't really made many big steps forward. Mind you I haven't played it a ton yet but I'm liking what I have played.

Happy Friday!


Very enjoyable so far (just paid off my initial debt) and extremely coooooooozzzzzy. Will echo @Hinph and @Zero in that everything seemingly having a purpose is effectively a gift that keeps on giving. Feels like there's already so much to do and it's only day 1, and there's a tangible benefit for engaging with all of it. Just beware when shaking those trees!

It didn't take long before I was asking myself "Why haven't I given this series a shot earlier?" but w/e, better late than never.

TheBigG753 said:

better late than never.

Indeed. And I think this latest entry is a great point to start from. New Leaf also did a great job introducing new players to the franchise, but this looks like it is cranking everything to 11. Gonna be digging in pretty soon myself...!

I downloaded this game last night. It is the perfect game during these times I agree. Need a little escapism.
This is one of the few mainstream titles I would download as I’m mostly a physical copy kind of guy.

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. School is closed for two weeks up here but I’m thinking we will find out soon that the rest of the year is shot. My twins are still daycare age this year but gratefully my wife is an EA so she is off as well. I’m still working but the work has slowed. It’s like a ghost town with stores deprived of a lot of food - and of course Toilet paper. I heard that one woman wanted to return $700 worth of toilet paper but the store refused - good on them. - let her give some away and learn a lesson. Crazy.

@Hinph

That sucks about the job - what did you do? Were you told you could come back once this craziness lifts ? Can you do employment insurance ?
500 000 Canadians just filed this week. 27000 filed last year during the same time. It’s so weird...

@Smerd

I was a waiter at the Venetian. Sitting pretty right now, thankfully. They are giving me enough in unemployment to pay the bills for the next 6 months (though I'll have to be frugal with food and drink) and the company did say they intend to hire us all back when things normalize, making sure our email addresses and phone numbers were up to date, so that's comforting. I sure hope that happens, but I think everybody is just playing it day by day at this point. I don't think anybody actually expects 30 days to be enough.

The service industry here is obviously massive, so I'm sitting in good company with an insane amount of other people in the same boat, so the governor ordered the unemployment office to waive the holding period on the unemployment and to not enforce the mandate that we look for new jobs for the time being (Stay at Home for Nevada!). I have full government permission to just sit on my butt playing Animal Crossing and Doom. That's my civic duty.

My mom is not handling it so well, pretty frightened, but she loves Animal Crossing. I bought her a Switch Lite and copy that will hopefully be delivered tomorrow. This game is such a wonderful escape from all the worry. Hope you are all enjoying it as much.

@Hinph

I salute you. That’s an awesome civic duty.

My parents are snowbirds - the ones That go south for months at a time. They are heading home now - ahead of schedule because of all this. They will have to quarantine themselves for two weeks so we just did some grocery shopping for them.
Yeah - I don’t think things will be back to normal for quite some time.

This game is amazing. I just had to smile - sitting in my directors chair in front of my bonfire. I picked an island thinking I could set up my tent where I wanted but I couldn’t cross the rivers yet so I had to settle elsewhere. My “house” will be ready tomorrow and Blathers should be moving soon.

Best that they came home. I hope they are safe! My mom is the reason I am following the governor's orders and trying my very best to avoid infection. She's in the scary age bracket and is unfortunately a smoker.

Yeah, I have poured way too many hours into AC. I'm already on my first house upgrade. Yikes. Finally just getting around to Doom now. Maybe I should have played AC before bed instead of the fast action demon shooting game? Ah well.

Edit: Wow, really not sure what to make of Doom Eternal so far. I guess I was expecting Doom 2016 on steroids, but this really is a brand new beast, and my skills from 2016 do not apply. I admire them for that but at the same time I'm not sure I wanted them to reinvent the wheel. It's pretty damn complicated. Hope it grows on me.

@HinphYeah Doom Eternal is weird as shit, it's way arcade-y and colorful. I just revisited Doom 2016 and it's a masterpiece, I love how it feels so grounded and yet so over the top at the same time. Small details like how you find weapons in the environment and pick them up off a dead soldier, but in Doom Eternal the gun is like a giant floating purple powerup more like in Unreal Tournament or something. It's very bizarre!

For Animal Crossing my girlfriend and I really want to play together but I'm so confused about the multiplayer. I have 2 Switches (one is a Lite), but I don't think we'll be able to use them both. Even if we get two copies of the game if her town was on the Lite she'd never be able to use the TV... Hmm...

@deathly_hallows

Yeah, can't say I'm really feeling the first two levels, but I am hoping it starts to click more as I get used to the combat. Doom 2016 is my favorite FPS since... Half-life 2, perhaps? I'll come back to it after some much needed sleepies and I really hope I enjoy it more.

It's kind of funny. I was more excited for Eternal, fully expecting it to be my GOTY. I bought Animal Crossing because it's Animal Crossing, and buying Animal Crossing games is just what I do. But AC is the one I'm enjoying more.

@deathly_hallows
Buy it digitally. Then she'll still never get to play on the tv, but you can use the same copy on both systems , if you set the Lite as your home system. But then the main Switch needs an internet connection to play.

Haha, I just typed that out, and even I can't understand it...

BTW, I think Animal Crossing has set a new record for simultaneous friends playing. We should do up some 8-player! However that works!

(I've already strip-mined my island today, though.)

@Anand I was thinking about an 8 player meet-up. I accidentally ended up in one with people I barely know, it was wild!

...but, does this game have the mini-games and stuff? Didn't the older games have little multiplayer competitions you could do and such?

I shudder at the nightmare of having to go through seven people landing in a town with that slow, ridiculous process and hoping that just one of them doesn't crash the entire game for everybody. Close your dialogue window and stop fishing, everybody!

I'm really disappointed in how lousy the online experience is, especially now that we're paying for it. Blizzard had this shit figured out in the year 2000. Can Nintendo really not hire some professionals with their billions of dollars?

Don't get me star
ted on the typing si
tuation. What in th
e actual hell is this
stupid shit about?
!

But I'm really enjoying everything else! Haha. Just frustrated that they can't put more effort into a game that sells millions and millions of copies.

I visited Zero's island yesterday for a little bit. Fun times! It's kind of hilarious how when a new player joins, it pauses EVERYONE for like two minutes while they fly in. If you have a big enough friends list (which I think we all do), I don't see how you could ever keep your gate open without getting constantly interrupted!

I do have a couple IRL friends that I might play more often with, which is why I rejected your guys' Best Friend requests. Sorry! Weird that you can't invite specific people to your town.

But I'm enjoying the game. The menu design is phenomenal, it's like Burrito Galaxy levels of bubbly. And this game actually came out! I dunno how long I'll stick with it, but it is giving me those classic Animal Crossing vibes and reminding me of why I played the past games. It's a little clickery and a little fetch questy, but it's high-quality enough to be more like meditative resource management, so I think it's pretty harmless. Planning out your island actually is pretty creatively rewarding, and I think the community aspect is cool too. Even if you don't visit anyone else's island, just seeing what other people do is neat. The whole game is just a really nice way of having a shared context with a bunch of other people.

Does anyone know how to have multiple residents live together on the same island?