eRonin

You would have hated knowing that before the most recent update, if you wanted to download an update for your game, you had to navigate to the eshop and search for it and download it manually. Now at least you get a prompt to update your game straight from the home menu when you try to access a game that needs updating. Yes, the 3DS is still stuck in the mid 2000's. Hopefully with their next console, they will finally have a real account system that ties your game purchases like basically any other company.

If I recall, the eshop was only added to version 2 or 3 of the Home Menu. So the first thing you want to do is to update your system. Make sure your internet connection is stable, plug in your 3DS charger and update your system through the settings menu. It'll update from I assume version 1 to whatever the current version is (9.5 or something), so it'll be a while. Then you should set up a Nintendo Network ID and from there you should be good to download whatever you want from the eshop.

I like the way Nintendo does achievements on Miiverse: you just post something, maybe a screenshot, then you just tag it with "Achievement" (or it might have been "accomplishment", I don't remember exactly). You decide what your achievements are. If you thought getting a good score or a fast time on a game was cool, or if you found a neat hidden section of a game that was hard to reach, just post it, tag it, wait for people to Yeah! it and comment.

Thanks for the responses guys! The TV is about 26", I believe. Off-TV play is definitely an option in the meantime, but I was hoping to be able to play games like Mario Kart 8, Nintendoland and Smash Bros with friends, and I don't think that'd work out too well. But for games like Windwaker HD and Mario 3D World, I think the gamepad will do quite nicely for me.

Yeah I think I will drop difficulty to easy, since I am just interested in the story and want to get through the combat as quickly as possible. I'm actually not sure what the area I am in is called, but I'll make a note to get out of the Hinterlands. The last thing I did was clear out some roadside bandits and find a refugee camp with a chantry, so still very early in the game.

Some AAA games (e.g. Soul Calibur V (google it, I'm not going to post them here because NSFW)) used ads like this too. I'd say the SCV ones are way more egregious.

Congratulations Tegan! I admire your mental fortitude haha. Now unleash the beeeeeeeeeees

I'm about 4 hours into Dragon Age Origins and it really feels like a chore for me to keep going. I'm really not a fan of the combat system and the game seems to keep throwing really difficult encounters my way where my 3 party members have to fight 5+ enemies at once and I really have no idea how I could do this without spamming potions non-stop. Someone convince me to stick with the game, otherwise I might have to just call it quits. For the record I really loved the Mass Effect trilogy.

Hey there people with a Wii U. I recently moved into a uni apartment that only has a CRT TV. While this is great for me since I play a lot of Smash Bros Melee, I was wondering if I should bother trying to hook up a Wii U to it (via AV cables)? I was planning to buy a Wii U this year but if I have to spend money on a new TV as well, it'll probably have to wait a little longer. So does anybody have experience playing Wii U games on a CRT TV? Is the image quality acceptable at all, or am I just going to get a blurry mess where I won't be able to read any text? Thanks!

Speaking of cheating in professional eSports, I was surprised there was no mention of what is probably the biggest case to date: the 2010 Brood War match fixing scandal. Several high profile players (including Savior, considered by many to be the greatest Zerg player of the mid-2000s) were guilty of throwing matches to fix bets. It caused a drastic reduction in popularity of Brood War as a professional eSport (and StarCraft in general in Korea), and the Korean eSports governing body, KeSPA, punished those involved severely for it, including life-time bans, prison sentences, and fines. Fortunately around this time, StarCraft II was released, which deflected attention from the controversy as new leagues were propped up by other organisations. Brood War continued to be played professionally on a large scale for a couple of years until eventually the top Brood War players switched over to playing StarCraft II full-time. Had SCII not been released that year, I think the impact would have been much larger.

I can confirm however, that MH4 runs MUCH smoother on the New 3DS (I live in Australia and my friend already has one). We played the demo together and it was clear that his new 3DS has better load times and frame-rate than my 3DS XL.

Hey so while everybody is being angry about NoA's decisions regarding the New 3DS XL, I have more fuel to add to the fire. The new 3DS does NOT have improved framerate with 3D on during battles. Checked it on my friend's new 3DS just now. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

Man I already have Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid Prime Trilogy but at that price it's tempting to just buy it again. Everyone with a Wii U who have not played either of those games need to do themselves a favour and pick them up.

Sorry the dude didn't have a copy of Pokemon. I'll try to put my cartridge in there and see next time!

I'm in Australia so I've seen the new 3DS 3D screen. It's really good guys. Really really good. Definitely worth keeping the 3D on all the time now.

I just finished Tomb Raider (2013) with an 85% completion rate yesterday. Decided chasing down the challenges wasn't worth it so 85% will have to do. Overall an enjoyable game, but I did have a few gripes, namely the overabundance of quick-time events and sheer number of bad guys to kill. There was absolutely no option for a stealthy playthrough, which is strange because games like Crysis had more leeway in that regard. What little stealth there is in the game is simply to allow you bonus exp for when you get the stealth kill (either way, you gotta kill the dude, there's no avoiding that). I'm not a fan of shooting galleries, especially the kind that locks you into an arena where the only way to progress is to murder everyone in sight. Regardless, lining up headshots in the game did feel rewarding. My favourite part of the game was definitely the puzzles, whether they were in the optional tombs or otherwise. Next game I'm moving on to is Dragon Age: Origins, so I don't think I'll be posting here with an update on completion any time soon.

Darth Vader says "No, I am your father", because it is a direct reply to Luke's line; "He told me enough. He told me YOU killed him!" Also Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the best of all time ever forever. Also Empire Strikes Back is also the best of all time ever forever in its own way.

Oh I wasn't really looking for anything, just wanted to share it. But if you'd rather breed shinies, that's cool too. That's a pretty Florges!

Hey Tegan, I caught a shiny Gulpin a while ago in Pokemon Y. You seem to appreciate shinies more than I do. Wanna trade for it?

The thing about Project M is that it is really quite easy to get it running on an NTSC Wii, but for PAL users in the UK, it requires a whole lot more work (I think it involves permanently modifying the Wii hardware, but I could be wrong). Hence why there is an "underground" scene in PAL regions for Project M.

Just gonna piggyback on this post to say the Destiny Knot allows parents to pass down 5 IVs (chosen out of the 12 that the parents have together) to the offspring instead of the usual 3, while Everstone held by the female parent will ensure it will pass on its nature to the offspring. The ability of the offspring has an 80% chance to be the same as the female parent's.

Gosh, I've done that twice since I was just riding on whatever movie the group decides on. The first time, we went with Alien vs Predator 2, which is a disaster trainwreck, and the second time, we ended up watching Happy Feet, which I had already seen. So no thank you, I only go out to the movies if I know what I'm watching now.

Pokemon seems to be in this weird situation where it's obviously crazy popular yet there are a lot of people who are not fans of it who feel like they should know a thing or two about it, and need talk about it (and get stuff wrong/inaccurate since they kinda have an outsider's perspective on it). And then there's also the whole metagame thing that only a small subset of the player-base even comprehends. So it's a game with lots of layers!

I'm so out of the loop when it comes to mainstream games that I thought this was a really good year. Hearthstone, Smash Bros and Mario Kart are so good and I never really cared about the kind of stuff that shows up on PS4/Xbox One so this year was no worse in that regard for me than other years. Honestly there are so many bugs and glitches and DLC stuff with those games that I've just decided (not really decided, can't think of the word) to play those games a year or more down the line once most of the bugs have been ironed out and I can see which DLC I want and stuff (also it's way cheaper anyway sooo). So I hear everyone saying 2014 is a kinda meh year for games and I'm like huh whaaat and remember that I'm living under a rock with my 3DS and my laptop playing games from 2 years ago. Edit: also I realise there's no way I could have finished listening to the podcast before I posted this but yes I am still currently listening to it partway.

Damn that sounds rough. I've only been added after a match twice and both times my opponent just wanted to commend me on my interesting and unique deck. I suppose you can't get new cards just by playing with friends but I have a lot more fun playing with friends than anything else (I still play ranked and arena often though). Also, I too quit playing Alice: Madness Returns halfway. The platforming wasn't nearly as tight as a game like that should be and the combat was also rather lacklustre. It had interesting settings and I loved the atmosphere though. The story didn't quite grip me either. Usually I am forgiving of a game with bad mechanics if at least the story is interesting.