General gaming discussion

[Gray Fox]

I doubt very much it costs Sony as an example, the extra on top to host these servers. That said, even with a physical copy now, having somewhere to sell it that isn't facebook is becoming more and more difficult.

Shinners is right above though. Xbox users especially must be so used to that mindset of waiting for a game to hit gamepass, rather than getting it even when on sale, that it must be quite damaging to the devs. Now I know there will be some fee exchanged to get it onto gamepass unless it's first party, but surely they're losing out where they wouldn't have in say 2010.

I see also that Sony is mooching around the idea of copying supermarket brands. Charging you more for something doesnt go down well, but if you keep the price the same and make the thing smaller = more profit.
They're looking at the idea of splitting games down into parts and selling each for full price.

[Lofty]

I am fairly certain I spunked all £50 of my birthday money on Sonic 3 at John Menzies back in the day and it was wank.

[Ian]

Sonic 3 wasn't wank, you heathen.

[Shindig]

It's no Sonic 2.

[Ian]

Of course, but then most video games ever made are wank by that measure.

[Gray Fox]

Sonic 2 is on my Mount Rushmore of games.

[wullie]

EA WRC was just over £20 in the PS sale so I've gone for it and I'm not overly impressed, it's like they've packed loads in but not really finished it. I don't get hung up on graphics but a lot of the stages look last-gen and the worst part is that sometimes you get some really bad screen tearing that you can't ignore. Apparently they've patched that out but in the meantime it's back in the queue and I've got back into WRC Generations which just has a better feel to it. I did give up on Dirt Rally similarly so maybe it's Codemasters.

[Shindig]

Yeah, I really like the ones Kylotons did. I was kind of disappointed they lost the license.

[Mike]

Found out about afterplay.io over the weekemd. It seems very cool, I got a backbone control thing for my phone last Christmas that has mainly gone unused, but it might get some play time with this.

[Mike]

Sat playing Pokemon Emerald on my phone doing my daughter’s bedtime.

[Gray Fox]

You'll be shiny hunting and nuzlocking in no time.

[Dark Soldier]

Had a look at trade in prices for my PS5 on CEX as thinking of sellling it. £90 cash ahahaha fuck off. May as well keep the fucking thing.

[Shindig]

That's a disgrace. They'll give you £80 (in store credit) for a PS4. :D I went into CeX today and picked up a copy of Returnal for £20. I finally have a second physical PS5 game.

[phonics]

https://i.imgur.com/1UPDumo.png

:drool:
Pepe pm me your Steam if you get it

[Pepe]

I got it. Playing tonight. Don't remember my Steam Id. What's yours?

[Shindig]

In a shock twist, I also have Tekken 8.

[phonics]

I've put a few games in and Alisa is even better than she was in 7 :drool:

[Mike]

Had a look at trade in prices for my PS5 on CEX as thinking of sellling it. £90 cash ahahaha fuck off. May as well keep the fucking thing.

What firmware is it on? 3.00-4.51 has been jailbroken.

[Dark Soldier]

What firmware is it on? 3.00-4.51 has been jailbroken.

The latest as its permanently online.

[Gray Fox]

It seems Sony have handed Kojima a blank cheque and got him to work on a new action espionage game.

[Shindig]

Sony's had their latest State of Play thing. After Death Stranding 2, Kojima's getting back into TACTICAL ESPIONAGE ACTION. Wouldn't surprise me if Konami just farm Metal Gear out to him like they've farmed out Silent Hill.

Speaking of which, Silent Hill: The Short Message is apparently a free thing out today/tomorrow/now. Dragon's Dogma 2 is out in March, as is Rise of the Ronin which is Team Ninja's next thing. And Stellar Blade looks alright, if a little less Bayonetta than it first showed.

[Raoul Duke]

I've randomly got into DayZ (it's on GamePass) so I though I'd try it out.

It is absolutely brutal so far, and I've no idea what I'm doing. Had my best spawn just now but got murdered by some scumbags. My previous attempts saw me:

- Starve to death
- Get mauled by zombies
- Punch a chicken to death
- Get my shit kicked in by someone who stole my shoes within about 30 seconds of spawning in

Good times

[Adramelch]

I've been replaying Dragon's Dogma as it's been a hot minute since I last played it and I have to say I'm enjoying it much more this time around. The setting is rather unique as far as medieval fantasy goes (albeit with not the most exciting story) and the combat is top notch (you could see how it served as inspiration for the later Monster Hunter games and for good reason).

The one thing that left a sour taste on my mouth the first time around is still there of course, and that's to do with the limited fast travelling. I respect the concept of "if the game is interesting, you don't need fast travel", but you can't be putting quests that follow the exact same route, which covers half the map, 3-4 times and expect me to be amazed by the random encounters and the setting. It ends up feeling a bit Starfield-y at times in that respect. And as far as I know they'll be following the same formula for the second one (essentially you get a limited amount of fast-travelling crystals that you have to place around the map), so hopefully they've refined it a bit more. In a weird way the much bigger map will probably help in that respect as you'll still have to do the same amount of travelling, if not more, but it won't be the same locations over and over.

All that said, the game still holds up just fine, even 12 years after its release.

PS: A bit baffling that Forbidden West comes out on PC one day before Dragon's Dogma 2. If I recall correctly Zero Dawn launched on PC the same day/week as Elden Ring, so the people making those decisions over at Sony have some explaining to do.

[Shindig]

I need to play through Dragon's Dogma. Bought it ages ago and have yet to touch it. I can't use time as an excuse when I'm closing in on a 4th playthrough of Lies of P. :moop:

[Adramelch]

I'm thinking of going for Nier Replicant next (never played it), but I just know it will make me want to play Nier Automata for the umpteenth time so I'm not sure.

[Dark Soldier]

Zero Dawn launched on console same week as Breath of the Wild, too. They make mad decisions.

[Adramelch]

I need to play through Dragon's Dogma. Bought it ages ago and have yet to touch it. I can't use time as an excuse when I'm closing in on a 4th playthrough of Lies of P. :moop:

You could probably just go through the main story and not miss much since it takes you across the map. Side-quests are not bad as a whole, but it's not something you haven't seen before.

[Gray Fox]

I've randomly got into DayZ (it's on GamePass) so I though I'd try it out.

It is absolutely brutal so far, and I've no idea what I'm doing. Had my best spawn just now but got murdered by some scumbags. My previous attempts saw me:

- Starve to death
- Get mauled by zombies
- Punch a chicken to death
- Get my shit kicked in by someone who stole my shoes within about 30 seconds of spawning in

Good times

Hows it hold up?

I let the zombie survival and battle royale type games pass me by as they seem a bit worse without having a crew to fuck shit up with. I imagine you're going to run into mostly players with years worth of experience.

[Raoul Duke]

Hows it hold up?

I let the zombie survival and battle royale type games pass me by as they seem a bit worse without having a crew to fuck shit up with. I imagine you're going to run into mostly players with years worth of experience.

Yeah I'll get absolutely wrecked if I run into anyone vaguely competent at the moment. Still fumbling around with the menus.

The concept overall will these types of games is great though, so I'll stick with it a bit. Have been watching a load of these videos (https://www.youtube.com/@SourSweet/videos) recently which got me interested.

I've joined a PVE server to start with to get to grips with things. Once I'm up to speed then I'll dabble with a bit of human-on-human action...

[Mike]

Me and Baz loved PUBG when it first game out, it was so much fun especially when everyone was rubbish.

[Shindig]

Finally popped on to online in Tekken. An optimistic 2 wins followed by 4 straight losses. Narrow losses though so I can feel pretty good about my mashy lack of combos.

[Baz]

Me and Baz loved PUBG when it first game out, it was so much fun especially when everyone was rubbish.Indeed. We even made videos (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCLOM2yFG6dkIh5Ln1-2daFwX7kF2tkVq&si=sHRTCXotRfO_zV9i)!

[Shindig]

Silent Hill: The Short Message is a little rough. It's about a young woman trapped in an abandoned villa. Young as in "I'm worried about high school bullying!" even though they're 18 and just about finished school. Also, it's a German town but the actors are all Asian. It's heavily dubbed.

You are chased by a post-it monster covered in nasty criticisms like "Weirdo" and "Creep". Given that there's content warnings all over the shop (complete with suicide hotline), they could've dropped in the odd cunt or told the protagonist to jump off a building or something.

People seem hung up on the protagonist. The story is she got jealous of another friend and started rumours that led to her being bullied and killing herself. So there's your guilt. She's got trauma as well because he mother locked her in a cupboard once. I guess some alcoholism is also implied. So there's the trauma. Anyway, she gets redeemed by finding out, "Oh, I really was noticed and loved. Anyway, I've got to have a conversation with my one other friend about how I killed her best mate."

Which err... is a thing. Lots of potential themes they just kind of touch on like cyberbullying. The Asian girl in a German town seems more a product of where it was made and doesn't impact the story in any way. Also, it's a 90 minute game cut into 30 minute acts. The main protagonist won't shut up verbalising everything so the game has zero tension. I feel like the people into it are just seeing it as a GAY GIRL STORY, YAY rather than seeing how the messaging of, "Hey, talk to people if you're feeling down" is kinda fumbled. The writing is such I'm not entirely sure the gay aspect is intentional.

[Gray Fox]

Phil Spencer has been on Twitter saying Xbox have a company update next week.

The main talk is that this will include one or both of the following:

Xbox will from now on, no longer support physical games. All consoles moving forwards will be digital only.
Gamepass will now be available on other platforms, such as PlayStation.

If it is the latter of those, we're looking at the beginning of the end of them making consoles I think.

[Raoul Duke]

I don't see how you get to them not making consoles from that - there's still a lot of value in them making them. The digital only thing was always going to happen.

GamePass is interesting. Guess the revenue is more valuable than the exclusivity.

[Shindig]

If they've been doing business like Epic, I'm not sure the revenue is that much. Subsidies to developers would eat through it. Offering it to Playstation is inevitable. Sony's userbase is three times the size and, something that surprises me is how many pay for PS+. 47 million compared to the 33m Gamepass/Live Gold subs. And Sony didn't have to give any of those away at $1 a month.

[Mike]

I imagine if it came to other platforms, it would be the cloud version of GamePass (which is pretty great on my iPhone)

[phonics]

I am 3 wins and 2 losses in Tekken.

Both losses were rematching the opponent I scraped a win against and them 3-0'ing me with a couple of Perfect Rounds thrown in.

[Pepe]

Do you just play against the CPU or what? I probably have about 100 ranked games already and I am complete shit.

[Shindig]

I've had maybe 9 matches but I've had other reviews to get on with. Plus I've been playing the character stories because Tekken endings are on another level. 3 wins.

[Ian]

Decided I'd seen enough of AssCreed Valhalla. Not having a bad time or bored as such but I know I'd just be seeing it out because I can sort of mindlessly have a good time in it though. At least I got to see the glamourous sites of Norfolk and Kent though. And I do genuinely like its London a lot.

Moving on to have a go at Lamplighters League. UI / controls aren't as streamlined as they could be so far and I know it didn't review brilliantly but that sort of turn based tactics thing is very much m'jam so we'll see how it goes.

[phonics]

The Tekken 8 single player is incredible fun. When it did the moment that went old school I couldn’t believe it.

[Shindig]

Well, I'm in a rut with the online anyway. I can't buy a win and now the matches are noticeably laggy. The Tekken prowess or whatever is just a useless number to gauge someone's ability.

[wullie]

I was obsessed with Tekken 2 and 3 but the last one I played properly was Tag. Very tempted to get back into it with the new one, hopefully the drunken fighting style guy is still in the series.

[Shindig]

Well, there's been an apparent DLC leak so let me just see if he's in there ....


As for the leaked characters, the first is Lidia, a character who made her debut in Tekken 7 as a DLC character. Within the game's universe, she is a karateka and the Prime Minister of Poland.

Go on ...


The second character mentioned is Fahkumram, another Tekken 7 DLC character. A Muay Thai fighter fighting under the Thai military, he fights for he and his family's freedom.

That sounds boring. Can we not have a man made of wood or a boxing kangaroo?


The third character mentioned is Marduk, a character that was introduced with Tekken 4. A former undefeated Vale Tudo champion who was disgraced due to a scandal. This, and other events, including serving prison time for his involvement in the death of Armor King, has left him motivated by rage and not much else.

You've lost your way, lads.

[Pepe]

Those three sound good to me.

[phonics]

I liked Lidia and Fack-your-mam

Marducks a bit of a bore though.

[phonics]

Baldurs Gate 3 finished. The best game ever made. The final sections an absolutely buggy mess but it doesn't matter.

[Adramelch]

I don't know if I'd say the best game ever (mostly because it's hard for me to choose one), but it's definitely up there. The even crazier thing is there's a real possibility of a definitive edition and based on their track record with DOS/DOS2 it will make it even better (mostly cleaning up Act 3 I'd imagine).

On a different note, I got my hands on Vampire Survivors and it's ridiculous how good that game is despite the very simple premise. There's been so many incredible indie games the last few years.

[Pepe]

I am back to 100% of my gaming time being absorbed by iRacing.

[Baz]

Sick of watching my daughter play stupid race games on Roblox so introduced her to Fall Guys and it seems a hit. Very entertaining.

[Shindig]

So I finished Tomb Raider 1 Remastered at the weekend. It'd wild to think that Super Mario 64 are months apart. I kinda enjoyed it. When you're left in a room figuring out how to traverse, there's a really strong atmosphere and the platforming has some real stakes to it. Uncharted's completely ironed the risk out over the years so it's nice to have to really think about movement.

I also think it might be the only 'good' classic Tomb Raider going. 2's relying too much on combat and 3's got some levels that feel far too big for their own good.

[Adramelch]

This is launching today:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddvY964TCoQ

Having played it quite a bit in Early Access, I highly recommend it if you're into the Diablos and PoEs of this world. Only 30 pounds as well. The story is a bit meh (as is the norm in the genre really), but the gameplay itself is very good.

[Gray Fox]

The newest hotness seems to be a game called Helldivers 2. Having not heard of it previously(or the first one) I looked at some gameplay of it and it looks like it'll be good fun. Only problem is it's devs were clearly not prepared for it to explode in popularity as you struggle to get into a server to actually play it.

[Adramelch]

Talking about hype, I also got my hands on Deep Rock Galactic survivor and it's really good fun. Obviously inspired by Vampire Survivors but brings a lot of new things to the table (and advances the genre quite a bit in my opinion).

[Gray Fox]

This is launching today:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddvY964TCoQ

Having played it quite a bit in Early Access, I highly recommend it if you're into the Diablos and PoEs of this world. Only 30 pounds as well. The story is a bit meh (as is the norm in the genre really), but the gameplay itself is very good.

Might have to show this one to the Mrs as she's a lot more into those types.


The newest hotness seems to be a game called Helldivers 2. Having not heard of it previously(or the first one) I looked at some gameplay of it and it looks like it'll be good fun. Only problem is it's devs were clearly not prepared for it to explode in popularity as you struggle to get into a server to actually play it.

So after looking at it a bit more I decided fuck it, time to grab a copy on PS5. I know a couple of people who have it.

Good luck getting one. Amazon reckons they can't ship it for at least a month. Game has zero in my area and it's also a struggle to get any online at all.

Seems to have hit that sweet spot of being a decent game, while also being £30. It is on the PlayStation store for 34.99, but I much prefer owning physical copies.

[Shindig]

Digital Eclipse's next collection has a release date. Lamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is out 13th March. I hope the KLF get a mention in the interviews.

[Gray Fox]

Found a copy of HellDivers 2 in town and so I've booted it up to have a look about and get used to the UI.

I see why it's popular for £30. Simple enough premise, you're essentially a member of DOOP from Futurama, complete with Zap Brannigan sounding commander. You've two enemies closing in either side of SUPER Earth. One side is all bugs, the other is all killer robots. You must liberate the planets being attacked.

Planets each have their own quirks. For example one planet is really hot and as such your stamina drains a lot faster and guns overheat. You have to go down to these planets, complete your tasks and get to an extraction point. You call a ship down to pick you up and depending on what the planet is/difficulty you choose(there are 9 difficulties) depends on how long rescue takes to turn up. You get attacked while you wait and you gain more xp the more of your party extract.

To make it interesting, friendly fire is always on(can't be turned off) and you are limited in the ammo/weapons you carry. To gain more you have to call in support from your ship above. They can send down just pure ammo, or they can drop a big bomb on an area you request and many things in-between. These all have cooldowns though, so if all 4 of your party call in your big bomb at once and it say has a 2 min cooldown, you're out of luck if you get in a pinch.

Seems to be quite a lot of stuff to unlock and you have various currencies to do it with. Seems like a fair amount of grinding involved.

[Dark Soldier]

Balatro is fucking amazing.

[Dan]

Balatro is fucking amazing.

Yeah, I really need to get on that & Luck Be A Landlord.

[Dark Soldier]

Yeah, I really need to get on that & Luck Be A Landlord.

I'm at 51 hours for Luck Be a Landlord :D

[Ian]

Found a copy of HellDivers 2 in town and so I've booted it up to have a look about and get used to the UI.

I see why it's popular for £30. Simple enough premise, you're essentially a member of DOOP from Futurama, complete with Zap Brannigan sounding commander. You've two enemies closing in either side of SUPER Earth. One side is all bugs, the other is all killer robots. You must liberate the planets being attacked.

Planets each have their own quirks. For example one planet is really hot and as such your stamina drains a lot faster and guns overheat. You have to go down to these planets, complete your tasks and get to an extraction point. You call a ship down to pick you up and depending on what the planet is/difficulty you choose(there are 9 difficulties) depends on how long rescue takes to turn up. You get attacked while you wait and you gain more xp the more of your party extract.

To make it interesting, friendly fire is always on(can't be turned off) and you are limited in the ammo/weapons you carry. To gain more you have to call in support from your ship above. They can send down just pure ammo, or they can drop a big bomb on an area you request and many things in-between. These all have cooldowns though, so if all 4 of your party call in your big bomb at once and it say has a 2 min cooldown, you're out of luck if you get in a pinch.

Seems to be quite a lot of stuff to unlock and you have various currencies to do it with. Seems like a fair amount of grinding involved.

Helldivers 2 would have been prime TTHard fodder once upon a time. Fuck playing on a friendly-fire-always-on game with Pleb though.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Or with Cord.

You say the wrong thing to him and he'll stick a knife in your back.

Oh and Sama who loved lobbing Molotov's in random rooms at your feet.

[Gray Fox]

To add to the difficulty I had this evening found out(the hard way) that allies can call down an auto turret. It locks on to your enemy and fires. If you happen to wander into the path of the bullets you better believe you're dying.

I maintain this game is outstanding for £30.

[Ian]

Or with Cord.

You say the wrong thing to him and he'll stick a knife in your back.

Oh and Sama who loved lobbing Molotov's in random rooms at your feet.

That was actually Benny/ Mr Chorizo with molotovs to be fair, and the one in question in L4D2 was at his own feet. "Oh no what have I done!"

You're safe with Cord unless you cross him, Pleb would just be shooting you because he didn't know the difference between his own team mates and a giant gribbly insect. Bless 'im.

"Woss 'appening?"

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That was actually Benny/ Mr Chorizo with molotovs to be fair, and the one in question in L4D2 was at his own feet. "Oh no what have I done!"

You're safe with Cord unless you cross him, Pleb would just be shooting you because he didn't know the difference between his own team mates and a giant gribbly insect. Bless 'im.

"Woss 'appening?"

Sama did Molotov's too in L4D2. I had the good fortune of being in a room with him a couple of times when he did it.

[Ian]

:D

I mean I don't remember that but it's 100% believable.

[Shindig]

Well, the idea of me playing 1400 CPC games has died on its arse. I just don't care enough and the "Press play on tape" era requires a lot of fiddle to emulate (well, more than I can be arsed with) to flip tapes over and dick about with keyboard bindings.

[Mike]

I'm at 51 hours for Luck Be a Landlord :D


What are you playing on, I see it’s on iPhone for a few quid, think it’ll be ok or better on the pc?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I have bought Helldivers 2...

[Dark Soldier]

What are you playing on, I see it’s on iPhone for a few quid, think it’ll be ok or better on the pc?

I'm on PC, should be grand on IOS mate. It would run on a fucking Amstrad tbf.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I have named my ship in Helldivers. Please welcome Ombudsman of Democracy to the fleet.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCEEwx4jZwc

[phonics]

https://i.imgur.com/LaW0Tkn.png

Yay. Feel like I'm starting to hit my level if I don't actually start learning now.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Trying to play Helldivers 2 today and 3 consecutive missions I've been DC'd.

The first was right near the end too.

[Lofty]

Entire Command & Conquer collection live on steam for under a tenner.

[Gray Fox]

https://i.gyazo.com/6551ccb2d9e90a1a9ff3defdc424a3f6.png

[Baz]

God I bloody loved Generals. Absolutely rinsed it online when me and The Reid didn’t have jobs.

[Raoul Duke]

Kirov reporting

[Shindig]

Hearing that 1 minute into a network game always terrified me.

[wullie]

Along with C&C I saw that there's a load of other EA games added including The Saboteur, my all-time favourite rubbish game. I haven't got anything that'll even play it but at £4 I'll stick that in the library for a rainy day.

[Clunge]

Tiberian Sun and RA2 was my absolute peak gaming era. Sank an eternity into those two.

[Shindig]

SIFU is one of the PS+ freebies this month. An all-time banger.

[Gray Fox]

I've had an old man moment this evening. I noticed the kids could get Minecraft on their Xbox via Gamepass. I figured if that was so, then it must also be available on PC Gamepass. As I use CD Keys to get the ultimate edition every time, I have it and so I had a look.

It's there, but there are 4 seemingly different versions and I have no idea how they differ. There is Minecraft:Java edition, Minecraft for Windows, Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends.

Which one of these is just the base game? I'm looking to get my and 2/3 of my kids up on their PC gaming usage and it seems like a great place to start. One of them is already better than me on a keyboard so he's nae bother.

[Baz]

Dungeons and Legends are different games entirely. I presume you want for Windows.

Roblox is better.

[Shindig]

Java & Bedrock is the one that gets modded like crazy, I'm told. Maybe leave that until the kids want to see serious shit. Minecraft for Windows is probably the vanilla experience.

I dunno, I've never played it. I've merely observed the nephew play it loads on his Switch.

[Shindig]

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is a really solid collection of that mad bastard's work. Solid but post-Jaguar it just halts. I don't get a sense I've got a full story when their 21st century output is absent. Sure, I can and will buy that stuff but I want Minter and Zorzin to talk about it. I want conversations about how he had to clear the KLF sample for Space Giraffe, talked with Trent Reznor so they could use Polybius for one of their videos, etc. Tell us about your favourite curry, Jeff. Give us the skinny on Atari's cease and desist over TxK. What was the Nuon like to work with?

Still, for £25 you get a load of 80's home computing efforts, a couple of light synthesizers and a game for an unreleased console. And a new version of Gridrunner which is ... fine.

[Adramelch]

I am torn between Horizon Forbidden West (comes out on PC in an hour or so) and Dragon's Dogma 2 (in 9-10 hours). I was leaning towards the latter, but with reported performance issues and my pc being below the recommended requirements (though it should still be good enough to play it at a reasonable level) I'm not quite so sure yet.

[Dark Soldier]

I just yarred the former and will yarr the latter.

[Dark Soldier]

Fucking hell Horizon is a ridiculously good looking game. 180-240fps maxed out 1440p no DLSS, frame gen on. Optimised beautifully.

[Dark Soldier]

So Capcom added microtransactions for fast travel and character customisation on DD2 launch, but hid it from reviewers. Ahahahaha.

[Yevrah]

Microtransactions for fast travel? Jesus.

[Adramelch]

What's even sadder is that they would have probably gotten away with it (people still out there using the "then don't buy it" argument), had the game not had such performance issues, but people are annoyed with the latter and the microtransactions just add to their frustration.

[Dark Soldier]

Microtransactions for fast travel? Jesus.


You can get it in game but its relatively rare. Apparently you can buy a one use jail key to get out of jail if you end up there for a quid fifty too!

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Bargain!

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJPfFz7aYAAV1H1?format=png

:lol:

[Dark Soldier]

It's now coming out that reviewers were made aware of the micro transactions - but not a single one mentioned it. It was sent in review documents. Not dodgy at all.

[Shindig]

Hmmmm .... very sus. Can I use one of pawns as a form of transport?

[Dark Soldier]

Oh btw once you create a character you cannot delete it. Ever. Even if you manually delete your save. There's a fucking stupid PC workaround, but that's it. You need to rejig your character on game. Apparently you cannot have more than one character. You can pay for the rejig crystals though!

[Shindig]

Guess I'll wait for Dragons Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Game of the Year Edition, then.

That new Alone in the Dark is okay. I've heard people complain about the puzzles but the ANSWERS ARE IN FRONT OF YOU. I had the hint system turned on but figured everything out via the notes and journals you pick up. Watched a fella just now massively overthink a lock combination and then moan how cryptic is was. Just fucking read. As such, it felt like a breezy campaign at 11 hours. Combat is pretty useless, even if you do have some options for distraction and stealth. Everything dies with bullets apart from the one thing that obviously doesn't. It's a shame the two campaigns are, "Now I'm doing the thing you just did." I did Jodie Comer's campaign and David Harbours is just that except he wears a hat and sounds slightly less distressed. The only reason to do the other campaign is for trophies and collectibles.

So yeah, it looks fine and the story is some daft Lovecraftian standard which has a couple of decent tricks. Not bad, not great. It hasn't settled into a Resi Remake mould and hasn't gone Silent Hill so much with the psychological horror. It feels more like its own thing.

[Adramelch]

Just saw Nier Automata is 60% off on Steam (16 euros whatever that translated to in pounds). Definitely recommend it, one of the best games I've played and I'm not even into that anime-ish type of game usually. Replicant is also 60% off but I haven't played that yet so couldn't say.

[phonics]

Alot of this Microtransactions furore seems to be 'Oh I never played the first one' things. All of the things they're charging for like fast travel, getting out of jail, changing your character etc. were in the first game.

[phonics]

Just saw Nier Automata is 60% off on Steam (16 euros whatever that translated to in pounds). Definitely recommend it, one of the best games I've played and I'm not even into that anime-ish type of game usually. Replicant is also 60% off but I haven't played that yet so couldn't say.

"We've got Nier Automata at home"

https://i.imgur.com/YujncVQ.png

[Adramelch]

Alot of this Microtransactions furore seems to be 'Oh I never played the first one' things. All of the things they're charging for like fast travel, getting out of jail, changing your character etc. were in the first game.

Predatory game design 12 years ago is not a justification for predatory game design now though, even more so when they have been coming out with quotes like "we won't travelling to feel dangerous" to justify the relative lack of fast travel (which I have no issue with personally), only to then undermind their whole mentality through microtransactions.

In fairness, I do think it has been overblown, but that's also because the game launched with bad performance and the whole "can't start a new game" debacle on PC, which just compounds the frustration.

[phonics]

But it wasn't predatory then, its just 'youre not supposed to be able to fast travel everywhere, it's hard to break out of jail, youre supposed to be comitted to your character despite how hideously awful he is' etc

[Adramelch]

Single player games offering solutions to problems they create on purposes via microtransactions are by default predatory game design in my opinion. It would be something else if they were offering cosmetics or some such (which I still find somewhat absurd for something that is not a live service game), but that's not the case.

To be clear, It doesn't affect me in the slightest, I can get behind the design philosophies of "the world is dangerous/you are stuck with your choices" and I will be enjoying the game (technical issues permitting), just as I did the first one, but I do understand people's frustration.

[phonics]

You get them all for free by playing the game!

[Adramelch]

So I finished the game, true ending included. Obviously there's a lot more to discover (didn't get to the sphinx for example), but I'll leave it for a subsequent playthrough (or a ng+). The game is a lot of fun, but I have to say, it almost feels like a detailed remake of the original. Mostly similar story, enemies, systems and mechanics. Now not every game has to be innovative, and with how fun the original was, it still makes for a great game, but it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.

[Lofty]

Balatro is addictive.

[Dark Soldier]

Balatro is addictive.

aye its alreet

https://i.gyazo.com/5223ad3a5e64cd70918231452298f724.png

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/news/49954/try-out-cyberpunk-2077-for-free

Free trial of Cyberpunk on PS5 and Xbox X/S this weekend.

[Baz]

I’ve started playing GTA V from the beginning, having given up on the 360 when I simply couldn’t fly planes.

Firstly, figuring out how to play the “enhanced” Series X version and not the Xbox One version was mind numbingly difficult (Load GTA Online and switch to Story Mode, don’t just load GTA V) so I had to do the first few missions twice. Worth it for loading times and better sound though, I’d say.

Driving with anyone except Franklin with his special ability is so frustrating and will likely be the reason I don’t finish it before the new ones out.

[Shindig]

I dunno, you've probably got 2 years to finish it.

[Adramelch]

I started Forbidden West on Ultra Hard taking a cue from my Zero Dawn playthrough. I don't have that permashield armor thingy this time around so I expected it to be harder, but boy am I in for a challenge. The good side of things is that it transforms the big bosses into some souls-like fights where you have to time your dodge or you just get oneshot. The downside is that big baddies come with several smal machines with them quite often and you just get swarmed, so run and gun is often my go to.

[Shindig]

South Park Snow Day is absolute shit.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I feared it would be. Doesn't surprise me though as the show has been utter wank for years now.

Such a shame as their previous two games were cracking.

[Shindig]

Aye, the whole 'kids at play' motif has a lot of legs but this feels like a rejected episode stretched out to four hours. The combat is all it has and even that is horrific. I can't even be arsed to finish it. If you're going to give people AI companions during this 4-player horde mode, at least make them good.

[Gray Fox]

Played a bit of "eFootball 2024" before. First time I've touched what is/was PES since Roy Makaay used to bang them in for me back in the day.

Actually plays a fair bit better than I thought it would. I have zero idea how their version of ultimate team works so I just did offline friendlies. It could well scratch that football itch as there's a lot of bullshit that comes with FIFA/FC these days that I'm not massively fond of. And it's free, so if it doesn't, who cares?

[Shindig]

Aye, I just stuck with matches against the AI. It's alright for that, even if you do feel like you're Harlem Globetrotting against the same opponents. I assume they still give you players for the full calendar year, too. Makes it very easy not to spend money on any of it.

[Gray Fox]

Yeah I've no idea what's what with it, but might dig into it a bit deeper. I never put money into Ultimate Team so it might be the game for me.

For now though, the fight for Managed Democracy has me fully invested.

[Dark Soldier]

Been playing Dragons Dogma 2. There's a 3.6 DLSS and framegen mod out for PC and I'm now getting anywhere from 90 to 220fps dependent. Glorious.

The game is fucking great. Campy, janky awesome fun.

[Dark Soldier]

Bastard cuntfuck of a thing. Ante 12's boss is madness.

https://i.gyazo.com/9641926e1802f5ea256eb820d5bb4b6e.png

[Lofty]

Well that's pissed on my trying to get past ante 8 at 300,000 chips.

[Baz]

I’ve installed Dungeon Siege.

[Disco]

Recruit all the donkeys.

[Baz]

Recruit all the donkeys.

:D

I'll be glad of a mule when I can get one. I've decided to play the Nature Magic role and presumably (been a while) end up as the healer. Just recruited my first person, a bad bitch called Ulora who's got an axe and a leather cap, so she's my first melee warrior, I guess. I don't think I'll bother with an archer, so a Combat Magic person next, ideally.

[Disco]

Zed :cool:

Although I think he might be Nature too.

[Baz]

That’s the thing though, you can make them whatever you want really.

[Disco]

Yes that early it won't matter, recommend an archer at some point so you can use all the fun goblin guns.

[Adramelch]

It's crazy to think that Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind all released within 2.5 months.

[Baz]

Can’t afford Zed. Will stick to the free mates cos only having two spell slots means I cba transmuting all unwanted items to gold.

Three of us now. Had our first DEFEAT and lost a fair bit of progress but it was good learning. Now I just spam heals during any big fights.

[Baz]

The official [232 page] dungeon siege strategy guide turned up this morning. £8 well spent. :cool2:

[Baz]

Even putting nostalgia aside, Dungeon Siege is great fun.

I've now got my healer (Baz), the smash-shit-up woman in Ulorya, some useless combat magic man called Gyorn and we've just recruited another melee chap, this one a little dwarf called Gloern. The latter twos names do my head in, but they look different enough (ones got a dwarf face lol) that Gloern can stick around even after we've just saved his brother from the mines.

I've just arrived at a snowy little town called Glacern, where I've two quests to hand in. Who knows where we'll go next?

Ulorya's got a badass green spiky sword that glows. :cool: In fact, she all glows cos she's wearing a +armor hat. Definitely the main character, while my sappy little priest just mashes right-click to keep her alive like a right simp.

Oh and we got our first mule, Mabel!

[Disco]

Just the thought of that beautiful grid based inventory is making me want to re-install.

[Foe]

Advance wars is fantastic.

Advance wars 2 is a load of shit. They totally ruined it with all the missile bollocks.

[hfswjyr]

Being able to play all the characters in 2 is great.

[Baz]

Even putting nostalgia aside, Dungeon Siege is great fun.

I've now got my healer (Baz), the smash-shit-up woman in Ulorya, some useless combat magic man called Gyorn and we've just recruited another melee chap, this one a little dwarf called Gloern. The latter twos names do my head in, but they look different enough (ones got a dwarf face lol) that Gloern can stick around even after we've just saved his brother from the mines.

I've just arrived at a snowy little town called Glacern, where I've two quests to hand in. Who knows where we'll go next?

Ulorya's got a badass green spiky sword that glows. :cool: In fact, she all glows cos she's wearing a +armor hat. Definitely the main character, while my sappy little priest just mashes right-click to keep her alive like a right simp.

Oh and we got our first mule, Mabel!

I’ve rescued Merik so he’s been assigned as the healbot and former farm boy Baz can crack on doing some damage with Iceshard, pinched straight out of Merik’s spell book. :drool:

At least Merik looks the part in his wizard robe. Everyone else is dressed like Kat Slater for some reason. Just hit 19 strength on my bashers Ulora and Gloern so their weapons have had a big upgrade. Should slice through mobs with ease now.

Gyorn is as useless as ever. Really should have left him in Glacern and paid for a man called Lorun to join us but never mind, on we go.

[Gray Fox]

For anyone looking for a starter handheld emulation machine, the Miyoo Mini+ which is the starter device, has been on sale on AliExpress stores. (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006286018674.html?aff_fcid=56364756dc9542f79df 56a32d16e5e88-1713785810338-02830-_DF00GWd&tt=CPS_NORMAL&aff_fsk=_DF00GWd&aff_platform=shareComponent-detail&sk=_DF00GWd&aff_trace_key=56364756dc9542f79df56a32d16e5e88-1713785810338-02830-_DF00GWd&terminal_id=953f6931e31640389d3caedc5cd6f8f7&afSmartRedirect=y&gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt)

You'll have to add VAT on but it still can be delivered to you for less than £45 and can be bought with Paypal/Klarna if needs be.

[wullie]

I fancy one of these since someone I know got something similar absolutely loaded with games even though I'd barely scratch the surface. This one comes recommended?

[Gray Fox]

So when lockdown happened they released the original Miyoo Mini. It was overwhelmingly popular to the point where it was always sold out and new batches would sell out again in minutes. Problem was they couldn't keep up with the demand on the custom screen they were using.

They decided to rectify this and make the +, which is bigger(obviously). They're usually £60-70 direct, or if you want to pay more for less hassle it's £89.99 on Amazon via an upseller. Benefit to the latter is they tend to come set up and with an SD card loaded with thousands of games. You also will be covered more if you're buying on Prime for obvious reasons.

It depends mainly on what kind of games you want to play. You'll notice by price point what they're usually capable of. This one would do PS1 and before. The Mini+ also has a great community lead software upgrade you can do called Onion OS.

Most of the listings on the link I shared seem to be out of stock if you are dead set on one colour, but they also show as coming with a pre-loaded SD card. For £45 on that I think it's worth you taking a look. Maybe watch some YouTube videos of it if you're unsure?

If you find yourself using it a lot and want more, there's some great devices at a higher price point too.

[wullie]

A lot of the other ones I've looked at are too expensive for something I may not get on with but £40ish is tempting me I have to say. Ah fuck it why not.

[Mike]

I’ve been eying up the anbernic ones for a while, but they’re priced a little higher, the Miyoo Mini+ just as good?

[Gray Fox]

Depends what model you were looking at. If it's the RG35XX (https://www.amazon.co.uk/RG35XX-Handheld-Console-GarlicOS-Support/dp/B0CKMDG2GP/ref=sr_1_5?crid=38YASXGNROPXS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bvbzg2-mxenjL0A2iHy5l0CUdr04biYgyQJZPD-O89PkbG2SNjhu_yGJAeLvph_xiQC5Af9Brl3GUnCyO1e645oHX 215-6zehEn1ctusv6bhYKSTjmVwYcVjC_CO0T6l1hIn2HPnbplsoyQ 4UYCSfbVIuzeMVCn5PKVS8vTkfpaUDDg7l4qEnBpiLDC54nXHy tlZqEf4vsu_s47C-XF8d0-LmZwgWaFXaO7xMbGSIT_0NfmZ09Ex2lBHM_OtZJnimdpFBSda8 gEevtZ4BKzGNEzRAMNNL5sx8Upv1o22vkI.Xbg27VWBcQNMPVD oxuBG6vskw6UeDpjunFlJjNpYcyw&dib_tag=se&keywords=anbernic%2Brg35xx&qid=1713800975&sprefix=anbernmic%2Caps%2C82&sr=8-5&th=1) then it's essentially their take on the same kind of device.

Still looking at PS1 and before.

[Mike]

Ah cool. That's good to know as it's cheaper.

[wullie]

Ordered! I'm so easily led.

[Gray Fox]

I showed the Miyoo Mini+ link to a mate of mine who took the plunge too and his came today. 4 days it took from order to in his hand. He's been bashing through Tekken 2 and then worked his way through Streets of Rage 1 and 2 this evening.

I want to get one ordered myself but my card is about to expire and the new one on it's way to me in the post. It should have been here by now. Can't get it ordered in the meantime.

I would like to say one of these would be a perfect gift for a late primary/early secondary school kid in the family. However I reckon they'd look at most of the games and want to know why it isn't Fortnite.

[wullie]

Mine says it comes with 15000 games but no idea what they are, if Tekken 2 is there though what a start. I'm seeing a lot of people saying to install Onion OS first thing so I'll give that a pop first and then away we go.

My daughter likes the old platform games like Aladdin and Tiny Toons that I've put on the SNES mini while being useless at them so she might like this as well by the sounds of it.

[Ian]

Jedi Survivor has been added to Game Pass for anybody interested in such things.

[Raoul Duke]

Excellent game that, lot of fun

[Gray Fox]

Mine says it comes with 15000 games but no idea what they are, if Tekken 2 is there though what a start. I'm seeing a lot of people saying to install Onion OS first thing so I'll give that a pop first and then away we go.

My daughter likes the old platform games like Aladdin and Tiny Toons that I've put on the SNES mini while being useless at them so she might like this as well by the sounds of it.

They usually just chuck a random collection of games they've got on. It'll likely come with most of your bigger name games from back in the day along with a lot of duplicate or modded ROMs you'll never touch to pump those numbers up.

Definitely have a play with the stock OS before tinkering in case you like it.

[Gray Fox]

I don't know if anyone missed them last time, but AliExpress has another sale on for a fair few of these emulator machines and they're a little lower than they were before.

[wullie]

Got mine now, I've ditched the 64Gb card that came with it and the outrageous repetition of nonsense Japanese games as apparently they're prone to go corrupt. I've got a sweet 128Gb Sandisk one that I've got Onion on and I'm going to get the big 90Gb games selection someone's compiled and then weed out the shit and fill it with every C64 game ever made, ha'way the lads

[Mike]

Link me up to the games.

[wullie]

One's called Tiny Best Set and another is Done Set but I'm not sure what's on each, I might just pick and choose individually thinking about it. So far I've tried PES2 was a test, as soon as I kicked off the Euro vs World all star game I was back in the golden age

[Mike]

Cheers, just found the first one and came to ask if it was that.

[Gray Fox]

Happy gaming lads.

These things are amazing for if you've got 20-30 mins to kill. Especially with how portable they are too.

[Mike]

Cheers. I haven’t got one yet, decided as it’s my birthday soon, to have an answer to when my wife asks what I want for my birthday and get one then.

[Gray Fox]

One has popped up on Temu for £30 that doesn't seem to have any kind of tax with it, though I've never ordered off it before so I'm wary to do so when the AliExpress way is a little more expensive, but comes with many reviews and is the official store of Miyoo/Anbernic too.

[wullie]

I've put all the tiny best set on now minus a load of PS1 games I'll never play that would have slowed the data transfer massively, still got about half the SD card space to fill so I'm going on a rom hunt for C64 and Amiga next.

One thing that's been emphasised when playing F1 97 is that while I originally played it with a Dpad I can't go back to one for racing games so I'm going to clear a load of those out.

[Shindig]

I don't feel the old analogue sticks are up to snuff for that either.

[Gray Fox]

You can get versions of essentially the same device with analogue sticks attached as such:

https://i.gyazo.com/22bc7ea0034d8aca1a9b3defedf5019a.png

However on the lower down models, other than for maybe your racing games, I don't see them getting that much use.

If you decide you want to expand up to start getting the top end of this kind of device you're looking at this:

https://i.gyazo.com/b02e55780ac9565ad3cd95005326c742.png

You're about £150 or so for one of those right now. If you go still want more above that, you're looking at wanting basically a Steam Deck, or someone elses take on one.

[Disco]

Decided to try and get an Oblivion mod setup working because it's been years since I've played anything Elder Scrolls outside of Morrowind. 207 active mods and, amazingly, it actually boots and runs. Stability is yet to be confirmed but it could never do that anyway.

[Clunge]

I had one of those very Anbernics above (405m I think) and the build quality, or more specifically the assembly, was shocking. They had massive issues with the screen housing falling out and other issues. Shame as the actual materials felt great, really solid. I think in about 2-3 years time, these devices are going to be in an incredible sweetspot where everything up PS2 era and a touch beyond is just going to be flawless. Right now, it's pretty good, but still a bit hit and miss.

[Gray Fox]

You bought it around when it released, no? Unfortunately there isn't going to be the same quality control you get at a big brand with these. In this case it might be worth the extra money on a UK upseller so you have a quick returns process.

Given they've been working from cast offs and old parts for most of the these I think they've done amazingly well. We also need to make the translucent plastics on a lot of these popular again.

[wullie]

I went with transparent purple, classic GBA style.

[Baz]

My game boy colour was also that. :cool: With a Squirtle sticker on the battery compartment.

[Gray Fox]

I had the purple translucent N64 and kept it growing up. When I moved down here it was pretty sudden and I ended up leaving it at home until I could get it one day. My mum then gave it away to someone a few months later and I'm still not over it.

They just don't make them like they used to.

[Gray Fox]

Looking at putting my order in today for the handheld. I've discovered Anbernic who make the RG35XX I've mentioned before, also offer an RG35XX Plus. (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006566989649.html?pdp_npi=4%40dis%21GBP%21%EF% BF%A1136.97%21%EF%BF%A128.78%21%21%211199.39%21252 .04%21%40211b61a117148186037245631d9793%2112000037 708068499%21sh%21UK%214872714116%21&spm=a2g0o.store_pc_aeChoiceSimplified.allitems_cho ice_2004641054488.1005006566989649) It's been added to the sale this week and seems to be the same price as the Miyoo Mini+. It has more power and RAM than the previous RG35XX and so can get into Dreamcast and N64 games a lot better, however it obviously has no joysticks, so I'm wondering if that almost makes it pointless?

For a fiver or so more there is the RG35XX H. (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006567254326.html?pdp_npi=4%40dis%21GBP%21%EF% BF%A1149.03%21%EF%BF%A137.39%21%21%211304.99%21327 .39%21%40211b61a117148186037245631d9793%2112000037 707703930%21sh%21UK%214872714116%21&spm=a2g0o.store_pc_aeChoiceSimplified.allitems_cho ice_2004641054488.1005006567254326) From what I can tell, it is the exact same chipset and RAM as the Plus, but in the different form factor. This time adding in the sticks. Seems to be the one to go for.

I already own this Retroid Pocket 2S (https://www.goretroid.com/en-gb/collections/retro-game-system/products/retroid-pocket-2s-handheld-retro-gaming-system?variant=44096445710560), which is incredible. Would it be daft to buy the H variant while I have that one already?

[Mike]

Yeah I’m between the RG35XX Plus and H for their graphics chip. I like the form factor of the plus but like that the H has analog sticks

[wullie]

I got some N64 games going on the SNES mini and I definitely wouldn't bother even trying without sticks. I didn't realise that DS games would work on the MM+ which is a nice bonus, even incorporates the second screen which is great for games that don't use quick touchscreen features.

[Mike]

I went with transparent purple, classic GBA style.

When playing DS games, can you switch which screen is shown? For Pokemon for example, in a battle the moves are on the bottom, can you flick over to it somehow?

[Gray Fox]

When playing DS games, can you switch which screen is shown? For Pokemon for example, in a battle the moves are on the bottom, can you flick over to it somehow?

Most of them have you use the shoulder buttons to flip between them. One click to go between each screen.

[Mike]

Boss! Thanks

[wullie]

I've only played New Mario on DS so far but one button switches screens and another toggles a cursor that acts in place of touchscreen. For games that rely on quick access to both it's not suitable but anything more leisurely it's promising, I'm going to load up on Prof Layton and Phoenix Wright games now

[Ian]

Didn't realise a Steamworld Heist 2 had been confirmed. :drool:

[Gray Fox]

Interesting situation has been unfolding over the Helldivers 2 game, specifically on Steam.

Sony have this week announced that it will be mandated that all players on Steam will need to link their accounts to a PSN account. If you don't have one you need to create one and link it. If you don't link it can't play. This has obviously annoyed the Steam community, not only for the inconvenience, but they're also being told they have to give their data essentially to a company with a notorious record of losing it.

The worst problem of this though is that PSN isn't actually available to all that many countries outside of your USA and mainland Europe. Simple solution you'd think would be to VPN it, but Sony are banning those they catch doing that. They even don't let you quick create an account in some countries it states it supports. A few have complained that they've been told they cannot create an account online and must purchase a console and do it through there.

This according to the devs CEO, was the plan all along, but they didn't enforce it originally as the launch was a bit rocky. Sony have now insisted on it. You have the problem then of people who bought it and have been playing happily, now being essentially unable to play again. The game has been taken off sale to the unavailable countries now, but the damage has been done.

The playerbase seems to have majorly kicked off in a united front about this and the game is being review bombed. You also have many refund claims going in.

[Disco]

Hopefully they never sell another copy of this or anything else but as we've seen countless times the gaming community is nothing if not completely spineless when it comes to boycotting shitty companies.

[Baz]

Shame cos it looks like a good game.

[Gray Fox]

It's an extremely good game. Dev team seem like good people too.

[Shindig]

Aye, according to them this was the plan all along but there's clearly been an oversight with PSN's actual coverage.

[Disco]

They seem to have caved (or Sony Japan have told them to) and walked back the decision which is good, now if only people would remember and not buy their games at release next time.

[Shindig]

You don't usually expect something like this post-release, to be fair.

[John Arne]

Anyone else playing Manor Lords? It's a great little game. Posted in the city building thread but no replies :(

[Disco]

I've been looking for something like a city builder or similar and I was considering it along with Workers & Resources and Millenia.

[Giggles]

I looked into Cities Skylines 1 as my laptop can just about handle it according to the numbers, but jaysus the price of it if you actually want everything.

[Baz]

Pirate it?

[Giggles]

Wouldn't even know how these days. I don't like the idea of it anyway.

[Dark Soldier]

Wouldn't even know how these days. I don't like the idea of it anyway.

I can sort it for ya mate, its only 6gig. All DLC up to 11 months ago. Up to you. Just need to be able to use winrar/7zip and click an exe innit.

[Lofty]

Hades 2, lets go.

[Lofty]

Enjoying Hades 2 so far, though I haven't really got to grips with the magic system yet.

[Dark Soldier]

I grabbed that yesterday. will give it a blast tonight.

[Ian]

One of the very few games I've considered getting into in EA, but I'll wait until it's done.

[Gray Fox]

I really should make a thread for the retro stuff but here we are.

Anbernic have announced they're making an emulator device but this one is basically if the GBA SP was made in 2024:

https://i.gyazo.com/20b8c3931ae81d54f73fd01d30d70692.jpg

I'm a sucker for that blue one on the left. It's labelled as in the RG35XX range which means it almost certainly have the same power and performance of the RG35XX Plus/H models that I linked to on sale the other day.

My Miyoo Mini+ hasn't arrived yet and I've already got an eye on one of those. A bit of a shame it has no joysticks on it, but I guess it's tough to do that and close the screen down if you want to keep it as basically a SP clone.

Does give me hope we could see them going down their full route of old handhelds and 2024'ing them.

[Baz]

Meanwhile, on Dungeon Siege, I’ve recruited an archer. Paid for her too, the little hussy.

Honestly inventory management is 90% of this game, sharing relevant loot between party members and then getting the horse to sell everything that’s unwanted takes about 40 minutes when you get to each trader.

[Lofty]

One of the very few games I've considered getting into in EA, but I'll wait until it's done.

Honestly not seen anything to suggest it is in EA yet, in terms of gaming experience.

[Dark Soldier]

Honestly not seen anything to suggest it is in EA yet, in terms of gaming experience.

I've heard its mainly a few stock assets in places and story isnt 100% complete, otherwise basically done.

[Ian]

Having done the main story of Forbidden West (got weary toward the end, will go back for the DLC later) and then attempting to do the inspired-by-the-TV-show thing and play a bit of Fallout and bouncing the fuck off Fallout 4 because it's just too intensely Bethesda for me I played Jusant and just finished it there.

It's a very pleasant 5 hours or so and other than occasionally being a bit sticky the climbing in it is fairly straightforward but pretty satisfying once you get into the rhythm of it.

I'm going to do a bit of WarTales next and see how that is but I think my next big thing will be replaying Prey. I've been debating it on and off for a while but Microsoft (cunts) binning off Arkane Austin and seeing some more retros on the game has really made me want to get back into it.


Honestly not seen anything to suggest it is in EA yet, in terms of gaming experience.

Yeah, I think I'd still rather just wait until it's done and it's all there. I've got plenty of other things to get on with in the meantime.

[Mike]

I really should make a thread for the retro stuff but here we are.

Anbernic have announced they're making an emulator device but this one is basically if the GBA SP was made in 2024:

https://i.gyazo.com/20b8c3931ae81d54f73fd01d30d70692.jpg

I'm a sucker for that blue one on the left. It's labelled as in the RG35XX range which means it almost certainly have the same power and performance of the RG35XX Plus/H models that I linked to on sale the other day.

My Miyoo Mini+ hasn't arrived yet and I've already got an eye on one of those. A bit of a shame it has no joysticks on it, but I guess it's tough to do that and close the screen down if you want to keep it as basically a SP clone.

Does give me hope we could see them going down their full route of old handhelds and 2024'ing them.

It’s hard to keep up with what’s what, how does the RG353M compare to the RX35XX H

[Gray Fox]

It is quite tough to keep up with these. The two you've mentioned are actually similar in performance. The RG353m was the more powerful chip of the two but it is older and less efficient so it balances out a bit. The key difference in those two is one is made of metal and the other plastic. So you'll notice a big jump in the build quality.

Personally I prefer the cheaper plastic look as it feels more retro to me. I'd still recommend jumping in when these things are reasonably cheap at the shallow end. The RG35XX H was a proper steal for near £40. You don't want to pay £100+ for a device hoping it will play you GameCube games on the go but then realise you're only getting the performance of something half of the price.

There is however this handy dandy Google Doc (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1irg60f9qsZOkhp0cwOU7Cy4rJQeyusEUzTNQzhoTYTU/edit#gid=0) for anyone who wants a decent overview of each device.
For the most popular ones you can even find a spreadsheet breakdown of how certain specific games perform from people who have the device themselves, including the settings they used in some cases.

[Dark Soldier]

Love how you went from 'thinking about a handheld' about 6 months ago to being proper deep into it. Top lad.

[wullie]

I can see myself falling down the same rabbit hole. Looking on that doc the Next 2 not only plays everything but on the official site the blurb claims "It accommodates all kinds of whimsy", now there's a claim

[Gray Fox]

These things scratch the right itch with me. I did briefly look at what they were during lockdown. Originally someone showed me a modded Game Boy Colour which took my interest, but back then the devices were harder to come by and not nearly as nifty as they are now.

[Shindig]

I can't. Mainly because I use a handheld maybe one week a year. I'm more likely to turn the thin client I work on into a retro machine.

[Baz]

I’ve downloaded Little Kitty Big City on Switch and Xbox (Gamepass) for my daughter, but it looks lots of fun.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xad_rZHrWWA

[Lofty]

I've heard its mainly a few stock assets in places and story isnt 100% complete, otherwise basically done.

Yes I have since noticed there is just placeholder art for all the keepsakes.

[Mike]

It is quite tough to keep up with these. The two you've mentioned are actually similar in performance. The RG353m was the more powerful chip of the two but it is older and less efficient so it balances out a bit. The key difference in those two is one is made of metal and the other plastic. So you'll notice a big jump in the build quality.

Personally I prefer the cheaper plastic look as it feels more retro to me. I'd still recommend jumping in when these things are reasonably cheap at the shallow end. The RG35XX H was a proper steal for near £40. You don't want to pay £100+ for a device hoping it will play you GameCube games on the go but then realise you're only getting the performance of something half of the price.

There is however this handy dandy Google Doc (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1irg60f9qsZOkhp0cwOU7Cy4rJQeyusEUzTNQzhoTYTU/edit#gid=0) for anyone who wants a decent overview of each device.
For the most popular ones you can even find a spreadsheet breakdown of how certain specific games perform from people who have the device themselves, including the settings they used in some cases.

Thanks.
I’ll stick with the 35XX H unless something else comes out. Only getting it in July

[wullie]

In my trip down memory lane so far I'm mostly reminded about how in the 80s and 90s a licence would just be chucked on top of an awful game and put on sale in a very that'll do sense. On SNES I've played terrible floaty platform games for Beavis & Butthead, Asterix, Tintin and Wayne's World so far and on C64 for some reason both Viz and Neighbours take the form of racing games, having watched the latter I can't remember seeing that many kangaroos running about in Ramsay St but maybe I wasn't paying attention.

Brian Lara Cricket on PS1 remains absolutely glorious, but I was disappointed to download three editions of International Cricket Captain and find that none involve actually playing cricket.

[Baz]

I was disappointed to download three editions of International Cricket Captain and find that none involve actually playing cricket.Eh?

[wullie]

Management sim - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cricket_Captain

I tried EA Cricket as well which does let you play but it's shite.

[Baz]

That reminds me, I need to load up Delta on my phone with the N64 version of whichever ISS was the RPG where you went to the cinema with girls instead of training.

[Ian]

Management sim - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cricket_Captain

I tried EA Cricket as well which does let you play but it's shite.

I never found a cricket game where I could really get my head around the controls.

Though my stick cricket team where everybody was named for TTHers made for popular posts briefly about a thousand years ago.

[phonics]

Finally caved and got Balatro knowing it would ruin me. Got to round 7 of 8 on my second try :moop:

[Gray Fox]

Miyoo has arrived and boy is it smaller than I thought. Makes me wonder how small the original mini is.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Everyone always lies about inches.

[wullie]

The size is my only grumble with it, playing anything that uses the shoulder/back buttons can get uncomfortable before too long. If there's a good sized landscape model with a decent OS that can play PS2 I reckon that's my next port of call

[Mike]

Gamma, a PS1 emulator, is out on iPhone
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gamma-game-emulator/id6499106870

[Shindig]

Marathon (the thing Bungie did before Halo) is now on steam for free. It already was abandonware but whatever.

[Mike]

RetroArch is now out for iOS

[Gray Fox]

That Anbernic SP rip off is going to be just under £60 so it's going to sell like hot cakes. Good luck getting one for a month or two.


RetroArch is now out for iOS

Now if this stays on the app store, this is very interesting.

[Dark Soldier]

Balatro (aka GOTY) mobile anyone? Works perfect, you just need the PC version.

https://github.com/blake502/balatro-mobile-maker

[Mike]

Have you done it? I'm having trouble getting altstore to install it. Could you send your ipa file (or have a go at making it) :D

[phonics]

https://i.imgur.com/tXUPvu6.png

Absolute joke run.

2 * Mult jokers alongside 2 +10 mult foils and a joker that said that all red + black cards are the same. I could have high carded my way to a win.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1790457056425832885

Stunning.

[Dark Soldier]

Hellblade 2 looks fucking stupid graphically. Absolute madness.

[Baz]

My daughters started faking illness every morning to try and stay home to play Little Kitty Big City. Also made the mistake of letting her read the achievements so now she’s on a mission to platinum it. It does look fun though.

[Magic]

Hellblade 2 looks fucking stupid graphically. Absolute madness.

But not that great a game apparently?

[Dark Soldier]

But not that great a game apparently?

Its just a five hour walking sim experience with a bit of gameplay. Edith Finch, Rapture, Firewatch etc. I love that kinda thing now and again.

[Shindig]

And it'll probably kill off the studio.

[Magic]

Anybody played Baldur's Gate 3? I bought it for £40 from Egypt but it's a bit daunting for me as I've never played or understood DnD.

[Magic]

Its just a five hour walking sim experience with a bit of gameplay. Edith Finch, Rapture, Firewatch etc. I love that kinda thing now and again.

Um holy fucking shit it's incredible? Not so much the game but visually I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It actually does make it much better.

[Dark Soldier]

Yeah its absolutely ridiculous innit. Proper proper next gen stuff.

[phonics]

Anybody played Baldur's Gate 3? I bought it for £40 from Egypt but it's a bit daunting for me as I've never played or understood DnD.
Completed it twice, it's fantastic. I play DnD every week though so it's a bit easier for me to wrap my head around. I played multiplayer so didn't have to deal with learning spell slots and all that.

[Adramelch]

It will have a steep learning curve if you're not familiar with the concept but I've seen many people in your "predicament" that really enjoy it so it's definitely worth giving it a go.

[Magic]

I'm doing Diablo now without really reading any guides and having a blast. Sure I'm not as 'good' as you're probably supposed to be and I'm guessing how things work but fuck it.

[Lofty]

Diablo is much more of a 'twat things and loot' dungeon crawler where as Baldur's Gate 3 is more of a fantasy XCOM thinkung game.

[Dark Soldier]

Playing the GOAT. 8x res, improved textures, 144fps native PC port.

https://i.ibb.co/p2ggDBv/Untitled.png

[Mike]

I saw that they had found a way to make of native ports from roms. Very cool!

[Mike]

Anyone used CreamAPI with steam?

[Dark Soldier]

Built my Switch emu collection last couple days. All DLCs, updates, mods (60-240fps, 4k textures, graphic improvements etc). Am I missing any games ya like or think should be there?

https://i.ibb.co/HDvx5m3/1.png

[Gray Fox]

I'm guessing you don't like Animal Crossing or Pokemon? Also heard good things about Sea of Stars.

[Dark Soldier]

I'm guessing you don't like Animal Crossing or Pokemon? Also heard good things about Sea of Stars.

Yeah they aren't my bag, same as the copious amounts of JRPGs. I'll grab Sea of Stars however as it looks fantastically retro.

[Mike]

Have you got ryusak working still? I got 1.6.3, which someone made after it stopped getting updated, but it's stopped working. Gets stuck on Loading Data

[Dark Soldier]

Nah, used gamebanana and gbatemp for mods and hosting/real debrid for premium links to required roms etc.

[Mike]

Ah cool.
Mines full of games I've got for the switch.

I've spent the evening setting up retroarch, to add the roms I downloaded for the handheld I've ask for for my birthday. There are bloody loads!

[Dark Soldier]

I can confirm Tears of the Kingdom 4k, 60fps, graphical improvements added looks fucking silly good.

[phonics]

I'm currently 300 hours into Tekken 8 and I can safely say it has the worst online/matchmaking system of all time. The Ranked is fine but if you actually want to 1v1 a specific person it's the most batshit process ever.

[Lofty]

Is switch emulation that easy on those devices? I managed TOTK and Mario Kart on my steam deck but it was a bit of a faff.

[Dark Soldier]

Is switch emulation that easy on those devices? I managed TOTK and Mario Kart on my steam deck but it was a bit of a faff.

Download Ryujinx, download keys. Download nsp or xci of game, boot game. Done.

[Mike]

Yeah, my laptop runs it beautifully. Better than my actual switch.

[Mike]

Download Ryujinx, download keys. Download nsp or xci of game, boot game. Done.

Have you given any of the new versions of Yuzu ago? I've got a few installed, but tend to just stick with Ryujinx.

[Dark Soldier]

Have you given any of the new versions of Yuzu ago? I've got a few installed, but tend to just stick with Ryujinx.

Last iteration of Yuzu runs Tears of the Kingdom way way way better than Ryujinx. Like 60fps, 4k, full of enhancement mods. For near everything else Ryujinx trumps it.