The Computer/Console Gaming Thread

[SharkyMcShark]

Went into EB's for the first time in a looong time today. Managed to pick up the new Doom for $23 which wasn't too bad (screw Bethesda and their "Australia Tax" US$79.99 on Steam - F- Off!)

I've always seen EB as a more expensive option than Steam, but I was really surprised at some if their prices. Might have to go back to buying my games on physical media.

Bad news is that now I have to find a new graphics card because my current one is under the minimum specs :o

I realised a few years ago that EB is actually cheaper for a lot of PC games that are more than ~6 months old. They tend to get their first price slash a lot quicker than Steam does.

[TAAUBlaster]

I realised a few years ago that EB is actually cheaper for a lot of PC games that are more than ~6 months old. They tend to get their first price slash a lot quicker than Steam does.

I'm definitely going to be keeping a closer eye on EB games from now on. I don't normally need games on release, so I can always wait until a decent price - which the Steam Sales used to have. But their sales are pretty worthless these days. :(

[DELTAprime]

The only problem with buying PC games from a physical retailer is if they don't include a Steam key most people are screwed as DVD and Blu-ray drives are getting very rare.

[kup]

If you wait for Steam sales, prices drop remarkably and well below EB. However I do agree, EB has been more competitive for PC games in recent times, probably because PC gaming is disappearing from retail as it's almost completely moved to online such as Steam.

Also as Deltaprime said, most PCs these days don't even bother with optical drives. You are most likely just buying a CD-key retail with a token disc that partially installs the game and downloads the rest.

[kup]

Curious what ps4 games you would have wanted to play had you got the system Kup?


As mentioned, none are system sellers and the list is very small - I even struggled to think of 3 games:

- Uncharted 4
- Bloodborne
- Last of Us Remastered (It is now very cheap, curiosity will make me buy it although I own the PS3 version).
- Maybe that Arkham game that was too glitchy to play properly on PC.

That's about it.

However yesterday I took a gamble and bought a 'faulty' PS4 for $100 with issues that I believe I can fix. For $100, it would make it worthwhile provided I can fix the issues which so far I am positive of being able to, just need to wait for the seller to ship it. That's how I got my PS3 originally.

I discussed this with other multi-platform gamer friends and the story seems to be consistent - Their PS4 ends up gathering dust or only used rarely due to lack of worthwhile exclusive games. Most 3P multiplatform games play better on PC and the fact that you can use any controller on Steam including PS4 Dualshock 4, gives you a superior gamer experience as '4K, HDR effects, etc' are standards in PC gaming and not premium features.

I'll say this much, despite its financial failure, the Wii U seems to offer more worthwhile games to play than the PS4. I even played it more than the PS3.

So my gaming basically ranks as such:

1 PC
2 Wii U
3 Vintage consoles.
D
I
S
T
A
N
T
4. PS3

PS4 would probably go as '5' on the list after PS3 as I have more games in mind to play just lower priority. If the $100 PS4 I bought turns out ok, then that is barely worth it as I cannot see a lot of use so far and it's already been a few years since release.

[kurdt_the_goat]

Cool I hope the PS4 repair works out for you. With HDR on PC though, isn't it a case of requiring a new monitor as most don't support it yet? And also most games will require patches to support it as well won't they?

I haven't seen HDR in person so I should reserve judgement but I don't think it's a feature i'd care much about anyway (rocking phat PS4 here :P)

Wii U was a decent machine (at least, every 3-6 months while it was getting "consistent" releases lol). It sucks it has to be killed off early really, especially when i think Switch will only offer marginally improved visuals (should wait for Friday before i say that!). Wii U will probably remain the best way to play Mario Maker though, and has a load of games that could be considered best in their franchises. I had a lot of fun with mine overall.

[kup]

HDR is largely software enabled. That's why the original PS4 can support it after a software update and similarly PC graphics cards can too after a driver update. You are right though that HDR will be only visible on newer TVs/Monitors.

However we've had color and lighting effects on PC games for years that are not dissimilar to HDR and that's what I mean by 'HDR type effects'. Also most games even as old as Unreal Tournament can be natively cranked up to 4K resolution if you have a display that supports it. A lot of graphics cards from years ago have been able to do so but as you mentioned, the displays to fully take advantage have only just become available.

For PC gamers, we have been playing at higher resolutions than HD 1080p (1920x1080). About 6 years ago, I bought a monitor that does 2560x1440 for example. Now that 4K has come along, most Graphics cards and games that have existed for a few years now (sometimes more) will allow for ramping up resolution. HDR as mentioned, is a software driven effect so as long as you have the display, chances are your Nvidia or ATI card can already do it after an update.

Thanks about the PS4, I hope so too :) I just received the message that it has been sent so I am waiting with high anticipation/suspense :eek:

[DELTAprime]

HDR is largely software enabled. That's why the original PS4 can support it after a software update and similarly PC graphics cards can too after a driver update. You are right though that HDR will be only visible on newer TVs/Monitors.

However we've had color and lighting effects on PC games for years that are not dissimilar to HDR and that's what I mean by 'HDR type effects'. Also most games even as old as Unreal Tournament can be natively cranked up to 4K resolution if you have a display that supports it. A lot of graphics cards from years ago have been able to do so but as you mentioned, the displays to fully take advantage have only just become available.

For PC gamers, we have been playing at higher resolutions than HD 1080p (1920x1080). About 6 years ago, I bought a monitor that does 2560x1440 for example. Now that 4K has come along, most Graphics cards and games that have existed for a few years now (sometimes more) will allow for ramping up resolution. HDR as mentioned, is a software driven effect so as long as you have the display, chances are your Nvidia or ATI card can already do it after an update.

Thanks about the PS4, I hope so too :) I just received the message that it has been sent so I am waiting with high anticipation/suspense :eek:

If a dev has used more modern techniques a PC game can scale to any resolution provided driver support is there, for example you can play Crysis 3 @ 8K today if you have the hardware. But unfortunately not every dev is that great and some games will have a cap, think the Diablo II Ex Pack only going up to 800x600 as an example, tho there are more modern games with the same issue, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

We saw the first HDR consumer and gaming monitors at CES this year, it's a luxury at this point as there's nothing cheap. Also monitors seem to be far behind TVs as to how much of the Rec 2020 colour space they can reproduce so I wouldn't recommend buying a HDR monitor now especially since Nanosys the company that makes Quantum Dots says at next year's CES displays will be able to reproduce much closer to the full Rec 2020 space because they will have a new product in next year's displays. Also some "HDR" monitors are not even meeting the colour requirements of the 1080p HDTV standard which is over a decade old at this point.

I'm personally going to be holding out till next year before I look at TVs or monitors cause there's no point in paying thousands of dollars on TV or monitor that only can reproduce one or two parts of the three that make up the UHD spec.

[i_amtrunks]

The missus bought us a PS4 in July. I've currently played and finished Ratchet and Clank, Arkham Knight and played a chunk of Dragonball Xenoverse 2. I still have half a dozen games to start including uncharted, tomb raider 2 and shadows of Mordor. Just don't have the time or energy with the young one around.

However I did finally get my wiiu back after lending it to my brother in law and I didn't realise how much I missed the thing. Been back on mariokart and Hyrule warriors, games I can get 15 minutes on fairly quickly without having to wait for the PlayStation network ect to login. The wii u was an under rated machine with plenty of fantastic titles. I need to go and finish dimensions and lego city as well!

[kup]

No need for a HDR monitor when HDR TVs are going down in price. The flexibility of the pc is that you can nearly use any display. People make the assumption that PC game is about a desk with mouse and keyboard. That is an inprecise assumption.

[Gutsman Heavy]

No need for a HDR monitor when HDR TVs are going down in price. The flexibility of the pc is that you can nearly use any display. People make the assumption that PC game is about a desk with mouse and keyboard. That is an inprecise assumption.

They really should focus on killing motion blur, it's insane that my new 4k set has obvious blur but my 1080p monitor doesn't

[kup]

They really should focus on killing motion blur, it's insane that my new 4k set has obvious blur but my 1080p monitor doesn't

Motion Blurr is also passed as a 'feature'. At least PC gaming lets you get rid of it in most FPS games.

[kurdt_the_goat]

No need for a HDR monitor when HDR TVs are going down in price. The flexibility of the pc is that you can nearly use any display. People make the assumption that PC game is about a desk with mouse and keyboard. That is an inprecise assumption.

This is true of course, but i find reality makes this more trouble than it's worth. I have my PC right near a TV and occasionally switch from my monitor to the TV, but it's a pain unplugging and re-plugging (yes, even just a hdmi cable - i'm lazy like that :P)

So you either dedicate the PC to gaming by locating it somewhere you can't really do work, which means you need another PC for work. Or you get a TV and only use it for your PC, putting it on your desk - which is obviously more expensive than a monitor and probably takes up too much desk space.

Personally i get annoyed at having to switch back to mouse and keyboard as needed too, which you can avoid in some cases but invariably have to do it. Maybe wireless gear would be better here but i rock cables cause i'm old school. ie, I don't like batteries dying and the extra weight on the mouse, occasional missed inputs (last time i tried wireless anyway lol, it's probably not like that now!)

[philby]

I'm kinda in the same situation as you Kup, I don't use my ps3 much for games these days and really uncharted 4 is probably the only game i really want to play but can't on pc.


Cool I hope the PS4 repair works out for you. With HDR on PC though, isn't it a case of requiring a new monitor as most don't support it yet? And also most games will require patches to support it as well won't they?

I haven't seen HDR in person so I should reserve judgement but I don't think it's a feature i'd care much about anyway (rocking phat PS4 here :P)



i'm pretty sure there was a free bonus level released for half life 2 in the early 2000's to showcase HDR :D

[kup]

This is true of course, but i find reality makes this more trouble than it's worth. I have my PC right near a TV and occasionally switch from my monitor to the TV, but it's a pain unplugging and re-plugging (yes, even just a hdmi cable - i'm lazy like that :P)

So you either dedicate the PC to gaming by locating it somewhere you can't really do work, which means you need another PC for work. Or you get a TV and only use it for your PC, putting it on your desk - which is obviously more expensive than a monitor and probably takes up too much desk space.

Personally i get annoyed at having to switch back to mouse and keyboard as needed too, which you can avoid in some cases but invariably have to do it. Maybe wireless gear would be better here but i rock cables cause i'm old school. ie, I don't like batteries dying and the extra weight on the mouse, occasional missed inputs (last time i tried wireless anyway lol, it's probably not like that now!)

That is odd. What sort of PC do you have? Most support multiple displays connected at once. Also I use wireless mouse and keyboard and only change battery like once a year. I am typing this from my TV BTW using an all in one Mouse and Keyboard.

Also there is the Steamlink available for like $35 which doesn't need you to have the PC at all near the TV and compatible with any controller from any consoles nearly.

[kup]

I'm kinda in the same situation as you Kup, I don't use my ps3 much for games these days and really uncharted 4 is probably the only game i really want to play but can't on pc.



i'm pretty sure there was a free bonus level released for half life 2 in the early 2000's to showcase HDR :D

Lol That's right! They even re-released the original with HDR features and that was over a decade ago! My god, console gamers are so far behind :p

[kurdt_the_goat]

That is odd. What sort of PC do you have? Most support multiple displays connected at once. Also I use wireless mouse and keyboard and only change battery like once a year. I am typing this from my TV BTW using an all in one Mouse and Keyboard.

Also there is the Steamlink available for like $35 which doesn't need you to have the PC at all near the TV and compatible with any controller from any consoles nearly.

I'm on a Mac, so i'm mostly talking about using it to play Retroarch... as you know Steam is worthless on Apple. I use my Dual Shock 4 which works fine though. Not sure about the multiple displays tbh! It has one HDMI port and one of the proprietary Apple ports... i have some adapter for that but wife uses it to put her ipad on tv. My monitor actually has HDMI out though, so i can mirror the display to the TV, which is good for... not much, unless i wanted to set up a back-to-back style arcade cabinet! One day :D

[kup]

I'm on a Mac, so i'm mostly talking about using it to play Retroarch... as you know Steam is worthless on Apple. I use my Dual Shock 4 which works fine though. Not sure about the multiple displays tbh! It has one HDMI port and one of the proprietary Apple ports... i have some adapter for that but wife uses it to put her ipad on tv. My monitor actually has HDMI out though, so i can mirror the display to the TV, which is good for... not much, unless i wanted to set up a back-to-back style arcade cabinet! One day :D

You are using Apple, that's the problem ;)

Anyhow, got the PS4 today. Since I am at work, I was only able to visually inspect the console and superficially, it doesn't really look too well. Although there is no visible structural damage (nothing broken), the glossy surface is scratched a fair bit with some weird sticky residue on in areas. The scratches however look to be superficial so perhaps some plastic polish will probably do the trick and the residue can be cleaned up. I am still waiting in anticipation to go home and actually turn it on to see what is going on.

In regards to the controller, it looks to be in good condition but looks like its had a lot of use. The underside sticker with the barcode is almost all worn and the thumbsticks although still intact look fairly worn. The good news is that despite the seller saying that the control is unresponsive, it seems to work fine. I plugged it into my laptop through a phone charger cable and windows fully detected it. I tested the buttons and sticks and everything works fine. Bluetooth connectivity also works well as Windows can see it along with the audio port. Appears to hold its charge too so battery also good.

The controller working just fine further leads me to believe that the seller had a rudimentary understanding on technology and didn't care to invest time in checking if the system actually works. Gives me hope for the actual console when I get home. The aesthetic issues would be easy to do, I have restored far worse consoles in the past:

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/1795324_10152425622478735_332656652944024977_o.jpg ?oh=ba7454e095b0232956529e697a9e1953&oe=58DE1BBD

[kurdt_the_goat]

Tetris cart looks like it could do with a little work still :D

[DELTAprime]

Speaking of console repairs, anyone know a place in Queensland (cause I don't want to spend a fortune on shipping) that can fix an original PS3, the one with PS2 back compat?

[kup]

Yesterday I got home and booted up the PS4. The console booted up nicely and the Drive issue was nothing more than a dislodged roller. So at this point I had a fully working PS4 and as mentioned, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the controller.

However the console was extremely filthy so as I have done with my PS3 in the past (and it was also filthy when I first got it) I pulled it apart to the plastic and washed the plastic parts and blew the all the dust bunnies out of the motherboard, fan and Power Supply. I put it all together and the PS4 was now looking a lot nicer...

Unfortunately when it came time to turn it on again - Power supply failure :mad: While blowing the dust out of it something must have happened to it. At first I was worried that it was the APU but all signs point to a bad power supply (console turns on blue, then 1.5 seconds later it turns off and then you can't turn it on again). If it were APU it will do this but you would be able to turn it on repeatedly.

At least Power Supplies are not too expensive. However I am hoping that is it as it is with these things, I can only make an informed guess and not 100% sure.

I will say this though, compared to the PS3, the PS4 has really shoddy build quality. Much of it feels rather cheap or unnecessarily fragile. I can see why they have a high failure rate.

I can only hope for the best now. I have ordered a new PSU but will see if I can get this one to work although I am always weary of pulling apart electrical transformers, etc.

[Trent]

Switch presentation is at 3pm today.

[DELTAprime]

Switch presentation is at 3pm today.

That's 3pm AEDT, about an hour and 40 minutes from now.

Please be good, please be good, please be good.

[DELTAprime]

Well I'm a little disappointed by a couple of things.

1: they still are making stupid gimmick games like 123 Switch and Arms.

2: they didn't mention how much memory is onboard or if it's upgradable. If I can't buy AAA in a downloadable format I won't be happy because I'm over disk/cartridges.

3: No word on Wii U to Switch transfers for Virtual Console, I want to know if it's safe to buy a couple of VC games I want on Wii U and have them move over to the Switch.

4: Mario Oddysee was rumoured to be a launch game, well I guess that was about the only rumour that was proven wrong today.

Remember how I said Skyrim was not Skyrim SE and you all crapped on me for that? Well Todd Howard did not say the words Special Edition, just as I said it's not the SE version it something different.

That said I'm going to head over to EB Games and place a preorder now that we know final SKU's, just don't know if I should buy the black/grey version or the black/red/blue version.

[Gutsman Heavy]

2: they didn't mention how much memory is onboard or if it's upgradable. If I can't buy AAA in a downloadable format I won't be happy because I'm over disk/cartridges.


32gig internal, sd slot for expansion

[i_amtrunks]

32gig internal, sd slot for expansion

That's pitiful and disappointing, if not unexpected. For the $450 it'll end up being it's a joke. I am a fan of Nintendo but this might be the first console I do not buy, I love the concept and idea but the fact that I won't be able to download more than a handful of games at a time or without needing to rely on SD cards is awful.

So far it seems it is an iPad competitor for games than anything else. I think the final nail in the coffin will be the online connectivity and ability to transfer previously bought games on virtual console.

How long until they announce that they will no longer be supporting the 3DS as well to force people to purchase the switch? I hope they don't go down that path but they'll need to prop up the switch somehow.

[DELTAprime]

How long until they announce that they will no longer be supporting the 3DS as well to force people to purchase the switch? I hope they don't go down that path but they'll need to prop up the switch somehow.

Nothing official has been said either way by Nintendo but the fact is you have to look really hard in America to find a 3DS at a retail location. Either Nintendo are about to cancel it completely, or Nintendo America have under ordered production dramatically.

A popular hypothesis for why 3DS stock is drying up is that because the 3DS has been completely cracked and you can now pirate any 3DS software very easily Nintendo have seen the writing on the wall and decided to end production because they now can't make they type of money they need from the software lineup. Piracy was a huge issue for Sega's cash flow with the Dreamcast, so it might be Nintendo's turn to feel that pain.

[DELTAprime]

I just realised the Switch launch might be a little like the N64 launch where we had 3 games at launch because EB Games is only listing Zelda, 1 2 3 Switch and Just Dance as 3rd March. Even the port of Mario Kart 8 is coming later.

Also the price at EB is $470.

[SharkyMcShark]

The Mario video sort of gives the impression that it's meant to have that real life city area as a hub, but you can see it's actually a really small level about a third of the way through the video (as Mario leaps off a tall building and the camera moves so you can see below).

[DELTAprime]

Just watching Giantbomb's Nintendo Switch reactions. They said that Nintendo is going to charging for online on the Switch just like Xbox Live and PSN, great...:(

[DELTAprime]

Zelda is 13.4gb according to an official Nintendo web site in Japan, hmmm... Do you guys think I should buy a 64gb or 128gb MicroSD card for the Switch? Going from their past track record most Wii U games are only a couple of gigabytes at most with SSMB @ 15gb and MK8 @6gb the only two exceptions in my Wii U library.

[Trent]

Well I'm a little disappointed by a couple of things.

1: they still are making stupid gimmick games like 123 Switch and Arms.

I showed my 11 year old niece the trailers for those games today and she thought they looked awesome. She also loves the sport games on her Wii. Those games you don't like can do very well with the kiddies ;)


2: they didn't mention how much memory is onboard or if it's upgradable. If I can't buy AAA in a downloadable format I won't be happy because I'm over disk/cartridges.

Most of the time though it's cheaper to buy a physical copy of the game from BigW/Target/EB then from the console's online store (at least that is almost continually the case with the PlayStation store) and still not everyone in Australia (or the world for that matter) has an internet connection that would lend itself to downloading games. So while the space they take up is annoying, physical copies will still be in demand.


Remember how I said Skyrim was not Skyrim SE and you all crapped on me for that? Well Todd Howard did not say the words Special Edition, just as I said it's not the SE version it something different.

I didn't realise that Kup was "you all". This thread consists of just you and him does it? And all he did was say that it wasn't confirmed.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Zelda is 13.4gb according to an official Nintendo web site in Japan, hmmm... Do you guys think I should buy a 64gb or 128gb MicroSD card for the Switch? Going from their past track record most Wii U games are only a couple of gigabytes at most with SSMB @ 15gb and MK8 @6gb the only two exceptions in my Wii U library.

Just get the physical cart? I'll probably get a 128gb card at some point

[kup]

I am also a little unsure about the switch. It doesn't seem to be a gaming platform to compete with Microsoft or Sony. It may be a good console with great games but it needs to be commercially viable. Unless the general public really adopt it like they did the Wii, I don't see this stacking up any more than the Wii U.

In regards to Skyrim SE, I did say it was unconfirmed and it still is.

[i_amtrunks]

If the swig is anything like the Wiiu, it'll always be cheaper to buy the physical copy of the game. I know if you wait 6 months or a year games get decently cheap on the psn store but nothing but tiny indie titles ever go on anything more than 15% off in theWii U virtual console. The fact that Lego City and other release titles are still $100 says it all.
Disappointing g they don't match the "must have" physical price for popular games like smash Brothers that might entice people to pick up the wiiU if only it were discounted as well, seeing as it is a dead console.

[kup]

If the swig is anything like the Wiiu, it'll always be cheaper to buy the physical copy of the game. I know if you wait 6 months or a year games get decently cheap on the psn store but nothing but tiny indie titles ever go on anything more than 15% off in theWii U virtual console. The fact that Lego City and other release titles are still $100 says it all.
Disappointing g they don't match the "must have" physical price for popular games like smash Brothers that might entice people to pick up the wiiU if only it were discounted as well, seeing as it is a dead console.

I get the feeling that Nintendo is only slightly waking up to the 21st Century. They threw us a bone with the region free games which is great and an awesome move but I bet most games in the Nintendo eShop will still cost an arm and a leg when physical copies have hit the $20 bargain bin. Nintendo is not alone on this as Sony can be just slightly less bad. Not sure about Xbox.

Steam makes a killing because it knows how to price games properly. It's not rocket science and Nintendo should do that, it would sell a lot more games and earn more revenue at $20 games the repeatedly sell than a $60-$100 shelve warmer. However Nintendo is probably still concentrating too much on retail and that market is dominated by Sony and Xbox - Good luck with your 32GB console.

I know that the cartridge sizes could off set the 32GB limitation of system storage but once again, Nintendo is stuck in the 90s as they will not facilitate customers who prefer online purchases. You buy a couple of games and wham! Your internal memory is full. The average user may not know about the SD card and may never bother or know enough to get one of descent size.

Big Marketing aspects of Sony and Microsoft is the storage sizes 'PS4 500GB, 1TB, etc'. Joe Public doesn't know what a Gigabyte or Terabyte really is but they know that more is better as that has been a plot of Sony and Microsoft since the PS3 and 360. When they see the Switch with whooping 32GB of storage, not sure if they would be that impressed.

I have a feeling that Nintendo is ran by to many old men who don't get on with the times. Nintendo US kind of gets it but doesn't seem influential enough to sway Japan to be competitive.

[philby]

Steam/Valve doesn't set prices, the publishers do. They have regional prices also, so we still get situations where we pay a lot more for some games compared to other markets eg call of duty I think was 90 au but 40 us or something.



I get the feeling that Nintendo is only slightly waking up to the 21st Century. They threw us a bone with the region free games which is great and an awesome move but I bet most games in the Nintendo eShop will still cost an arm and a leg when physical copies have hit the $20 bargain bin. Nintendo is not alone on this as Sony can be just slightly less bad. Not sure about Xbox.

Steam makes a killing because it knows how to price games properly. It's not rocket science and Nintendo should do that, it would sell a lot more games and earn more revenue at $20 games the repeatedly sell than a $60-$100 shelve warmer. However Nintendo is probably still concentrating too much on retail and that market is dominated by Sony and Xbox - Good luck with your 32GB console.

I know that the cartridge sizes could off set the 32GB limitation of system storage but once again, Nintendo is stuck in the 90s as they will not facilitate customers who prefer online purchases. You buy a couple of games and wham! Your internal memory is full. The average user may not know about the SD card and may never bother or know enough to get one of descent size.

Big Marketing aspects of Sony and Microsoft is the storage sizes 'PS4 500GB, 1TB, etc'. Joe Public doesn't know what a Gigabyte or Terabyte really is but they know that more is better as that has been a plot of Sony and Microsoft since the PS3 and 360. When they see the Switch with whooping 32GB of storage, not sure if they would be that impressed.

I have a feeling that Nintendo is ran by to many old men who don't get on with the times. Nintendo US kind of gets it but doesn't seem influential enough to sway Japan to be competitive.

[kup]

Steam/Valve doesn't set prices, the publishers do. They have regional prices also, so we still get situations where we pay a lot more for some games compared to other markets eg call of duty I think was 90 au but 40 us or something.

They may not directly set prices but definetely the market place is set to allow prices to be more competitive. I can't say the same for the Nintendo eShop or PSN.

[DELTAprime]

Well this is BS. Switch games are running at less than 1080p. Zelda 900p, Mario 720p, Bomberman 720p, Splatoon 720p. What is this 2005 when the best we had was the 720p Xbox 360?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0lyvgeJJw0&t=0s

#PCMR

[kup]

720p is fine in handheld mode. Too small to notice real difference at higher resolution. It also scales up to 1080p when docked.

My issue here is a focus on gimmicks, not getting on with the times market wise and lack of 3p games which are what wll sell the console in the longer term. All so far sounds too much like Wii U which was unfortunately a market failure.

[DELTAprime]

720p is fine in handheld mode. Too small to notice real difference at higher resolution. It also scales up to 1080p when docked.


Did you not watch the video? Those are the docked resolutions of Zelda, Mario, Splatoon and Bomberman. We are not getting the advertised 1080p, they are just doing the same upscaling trick the 360 did to reach 1080p. The only game mentioned that was genuinely running at 1080p was MK8. Which is good news for me because MK8 is my favourite Mario Kart of all time.

[Gutsman Heavy]

If you think of it as a handheld it's very impressive. Monster Hunter when!?

[kup]

If you think of it as a handheld it's very impressive. Monster Hunter when!?

I think that is probably it's main focus during the design process, as a handheld first.


Did you not watch the video? Those are the docked resolutions of Zelda, Mario, Splatoon and Bomberman. We are not getting the advertised 1080p, they are just doing the same upscaling trick the 360 did to reach 1080p. The only game mentioned that was genuinely running at 1080p was MK8. Which is good news for me because MK8 is my favourite Mario Kart of all time.

I didn't get to watch the video. If that's right then it's weird that Mario Kart can play 1080p but other games can't. Could it be lack of optimisation because it's a new system? Too much varience between games.

[Trent]

If you think of it as a handheld it's very impressive. Monster Hunter when!?


I think that is probably it's main focus during the design process, as a handheld first.

Considering if I get one of these, it'll be lucky to see the dock, the resolution specs don't bother me.




I didn't get to watch the video. If that's right then it's weird that Mario Kart can play 1080p but other games can't. Could it be lack of optimisation because it's a new system? Too much varience between games.

Hopefully I will become more prevalent in later games.

[kup]

I have my concerns about the Switch but I am a Nintendo fanboy nonetheless. I have pre-ordered a grey joycons switch (don't like the early 90s fluros), a charger controller grip and a second dock set for my play room.

I also managed to buy Breath of the Wild Master edition.

We'll see December 3rd but I fear I won't get BOW until some days later since it will be shipped. I hate to say it but all the other launch games seem kind of crap so first day I will probably have the console with no games lol. Mario Kart deluxe should of been launch.

[i_amtrunks]

For $470 plus extra for peripherals and games, there is no way I'll be getting this anytime soon.

Mariokart 8 and all the other ports of wiiu games should've all been day one releases.

[kup]

For $470 plus extra for peripherals and games, there is no way I'll be getting this anytime soon.

Mariokart 8 and all the other ports of wiiu games should've all been day one releases.

I agree, I would have delayed the release until those games become available such as Mario Kart 8 DLX which would have been a huge system seller.

On the other hand, Mario Kart 8 DLX also seems a bit disappointing. Only real difference is the new (old?) Battle mode but no extra GP tracks. So if you already have the Wii U version, it may not be worth it.

[DELTAprime]

I have my concerns about the Switch but I am a Nintendo fanboy nonetheless.

If I didn't have faith that there will be at least 2 or 3 good Nintendo exclusive games a year the Switch would be an easy pass for me ATM. Even tho I've realised since day one it would not be very powerful, every time we get another bit of negative information it still ticks me off because I know Nintendo can do better. Chasing after the audience that bought a Wii, played it for a week and put it in the cupboard isn't going to help them long term.

[DELTAprime]

Anyone else played the Halo Wars 2 Blitz Beta this weekend? It's a really cool RTS game mode, but I don't think I will play it when the full game comes out cause I've kinda played enough.

[Trent]

You know, I've never played a Halo game. And I've never even tried to avoid it, I just never really got into the hype.

Unreal Tournament though... I sunk a few hours into that through LAN parties back in the day.

[DELTAprime]

You know, I've never played a Halo game. And I've never even tried to avoid it, I just never really got into the hype.

Unreal Tournament though... I sunk a few hours into that through LAN parties back in the day.

The Halo games are some of the best FPS series out there for the campaigns (solo/co-op) and story. They have been surpassed long ago for competitive gameplay gameplay. Halo Wars is actually an RTS series not a FPS. I'm looking forward to Halo Wars 2, but if it's like the first Halo Wars it will be best on PC. It took the better part of a decade to get Halo Wars 1 ported to PC and now it's far more easily playable, tho it shows it's age.

[kup]

You know, I've never played a Halo game. And I've never even tried to avoid it, I just never really got into the hype.

Unreal Tournament though... I sunk a few hours into that through LAN parties back in the day.

lol Just on the weekend I was playing the original Unreal Tournament on my 120" Projector screen with Steam Controller. It is still the best competitive FPS out there because it is just about the basics.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

On the good friday sales I managed to nab Just Cause 3 and its DLC missions. I had a lot of fun with JC2 and saw some favourable reviews of 3 that I figured it would be lotsafun. It is. They've added a wingsuit to combo with the parachute and its lots of fun too.

Even more than before.

With that in mind, I started one of the DLC's and it gives you a new wingsuit, which essentially becomes a jetpack. Now I was excited at this first, but now hinking about it, since you can now fly all over the country at will, the excitement that I used get wing-suiting, parachuting and face-planting has dimihed now that the jetpack is available.

So, I have turned it off and continue along with the original suit. Starnge that such a little thing can have such an interesting effect on the game like that

[kurdt_the_goat]

So i had a nice surprise yesterday - something i bought that was due out end of Feb, shipped without my knowledge and arrived already!
It's one of these http://junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php/XRGB-mini_FRAMEMEISTER

I had to sell my CRT in Australia before moving to Japan and since i still don't have my own place and i'm using the inlaws LCD TV, have had to stomach using my old consoles with Composite inputs - which was really putting a downer on my enthusiasm for picking up cheap games on Yahoo Auctions! Apart from the shitty colour reproduction and fuzzy edges, the TV creates shocking interfacing artefacts to the point of sheer distraction.

No more! This device gets around all of that. I've got my Sega Saturn hooked up with RGB now and the results have blown me away! The quality is as if you were running an emulator but with nicer scanlines, and none of the issues of emulation since i'm using the real hardware. I took a few dodgy phone snaps while excitedly trying out a bunch of games!

Dodonpachi
http://i.imgur.com/N4bvJMz.jpg

Soukyugurentai
http://i.imgur.com/5bCTho8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yJ5Oeuh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eBtcbvN.jpg

Puyo Puyo Tsuu
http://i.imgur.com/6owBYZm.jpg

Vampire Hunter
http://i.imgur.com/md8iGjU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UPuZtFM.jpg


The King of Fighters '96
http://i.imgur.com/1WqcxBS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/FKt1nSG.jpg

Sonic Jam
http://i.imgur.com/psYBGY4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xG4KPqt.jpg

Even pixelated Jean Claude looks good!
http://i.imgur.com/zOPz8ow.jpg

Some of these games were honestly hurting my eyes to focus on before and so now i can actually play them in comfort! So i'm really pleased even tho this didn't come cheap :o

[Raider]

No more! This device gets around all of that. I've got my Sega Saturn hooked up with RGB now and the results have blown me away! The quality is as if you were running an emulator but with nicer scanlines, and none of the issues of emulation since i'm using the real hardware. I took a few dodgy phone snaps while excitedly trying out a bunch of games!


Nice. Blast from the past with some of those games. I seem to suffer from the same problem with my N64. I have it hooked up to an LCD TV and the pixels just aren't right. I don't play it that often so never bothered to do anything about it.

On the previous topic, Goldeneye64 is still my favourite FPS of all time, even though it is on a console!

[kup]

I use a cheap chinese upscaler and that work fine for me.

[Gutsman Heavy]

So i had a nice surprise yesterday - something i bought that was due out end of Feb, shipped without my knowledge and arrived already!
It's one of these http://junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php/XRGB-mini_FRAMEMEISTER

I had to sell my CRT in Australia before moving to Japan and since i still don't have my own place and i'm using the inlaws LCD TV, have had to stomach using my old consoles with Composite inputs - which was really putting a downer on my enthusiasm for picking up cheap games on Yahoo Auctions! Apart from the shitty colour reproduction and fuzzy edges, the TV creates shocking interfacing artefacts to the point of sheer distraction.

No more! This device gets around all of that. I've got my Sega Saturn hooked up with RGB now and the results have blown me away! The quality is as if you were running an emulator but with nicer scanlines, and none of the issues of emulation since i'm using the real hardware. I took a few dodgy phone snaps while excitedly trying out a bunch of games!


Some of these games were honestly hurting my eyes to focus on before and so now i can actually play them in comfort! So i'm really pleased even tho this didn't come cheap :o

Good time to get one since they are being discontinued, prices will skyrocket!

[kurdt_the_goat]

Nice. Blast from the past with some of those games. I seem to suffer from the same problem with my N64. I have it hooked up to an LCD TV and the pixels just aren't right. I don't play it that often so never bothered to do anything about it.

Since this thing arrived early i haven't had a chance to get an S-Video cable for my N64, but even through Composite the box does a better job than the TV, since it doesn't convert the 240p signal to 480i. If the TV has shitty handling 480i it introduces horrible artefacts on fast movement. This is a PS2 game and when the screen shakes this is what it looks like:

http://i.imgur.com/JEwCn2Vl.jpg

I'm aware you can do RGB mods and the Ultra HDMI thing for N64s but since there's hardly any 2D games for N64, i'm just gonna settle on S-Video as good enough.



On the previous topic, Goldeneye64 is still my favourite FPS of all time, even though it is on a console!

Goldeneye is certainly my most played FPS ever so probably my favourite too. I haven't played in years but some of those multiplayer maps are burned into my memory!


I use a cheap chinese upscaler and that work fine for me.

I did consider this route but from what i've read they all take 240p and display it as 480i so i'd be solving nothing in my case, cause it was the interlacing artefacts above that bothered me the most!


Good time to get one since they are being discontinued, prices will skyrocket!

Yeah that too. It's selling out quickly over here so I have to imagine they'll release a successor some day. But apparently it's the main chip that's going out of production since the big manufacturers don't care about treatment of content this old any more, so a new version will hinge on whether they can find a replacement for that.

[Raider]

Goldeneye is certainly my most played FPS ever so probably my favourite too. I haven't played in years but some of those multiplayer maps are burned into my memory!




I know right! I hadn't played for almost 20 years and my wife picked up a copy off ebay for $10 for me last Xmas. It was amazing how I managed to remember all the tips and tricks immediately, I even remembered the pattern in the Egyptian Temple to get to the Golden Gun :p

[DELTAprime]

I went into my local Kmart looking to buy an Xbox gift card with some Fly-buys Dollars I had saved up. I noticed something kinda concerning and confusing, they have no physical video games at all.:confused:

[Paulbot]

I went into my local Kmart looking to buy an Xbox gift card with some Fly-buys Dollars I had saved up. I noticed something kinda concerning and confusing, they have no physical video games at all.:confused:

They've been phasing them out for a while at my local stores

[Raider]

They've been phasing them out for a while at my local stores

None at my local either for some time now :(

[prjkt]

I went into my local Kmart looking to buy an Xbox gift card with some Fly-buys Dollars I had saved up. I noticed something kinda concerning and confusing, they have no physical video games at all.:confused:

Kmart's been trying to trying to cut down on the number of SKUs (individual products) for years, and just sell a larger quantity of fewer items, so I'm not surprised this process has finally moved into the entertainment division

[Trent]

Been playing Overwatch on my PS4. Thoroughly enjoyable game. Anyone else here playing?

[DELTAprime]

Been playing Overwatch on my PS4. Thoroughly enjoyable game. Anyone else here playing?

I play it on PC from time to time. Only character I don't suck at is D.va.:rolleyes:

[SharkyMcShark]

Everyone should buy Hitman now that it's had a full release, if they didn't already when it was coming out episodically.

[philby]

ok so a few people are having fun with their N64...I pulled mine out of the garage a little while ago and tried to connect it to our modern tv with no success. I don't know if it is something wrong with the unit, or the cables, or what. I read about gettin it going with the RF and tuning it to something or using the red white and yellow ones. The unit lights up but there is nothing on the screen or any sound. Any tips or where to start?

How is everyone else using their N64 on a modern tv?

[i_amtrunks]

ok so a few people are having fun with their N64...I pulled mine out of the garage a little while ago and tried to connect it to our modern tv with no success. I don't know if it is something wrong with the unit, or the cables, or what. I read about gettin it going with the RF and tuning it to something or using the red white and yellow ones. The unit lights up but there is nothing on the screen or any sound. Any tips or where to start?

How is everyone else using their N64 on a modern tv?

I had to buy third party RCI cable as the internal wiring in my original set had more or less disintegrated.

You can also get RCI to HDMI converters fairly cheap off ebay/jaycar if you don't have the inputs on your tv.

[philby]

ok thanks. is there anyway to trouble shoot what is going on? are the cables and converters cheap?

[i_amtrunks]

ok thanks. is there anyway to trouble shoot what is going on? are the cables and converters cheap?

If you're willing to wait for them to ship from China, yes they are.

I had a mate who ordered two sets of new cables to no success, turned out it was something to do with the pin connectors in the 64 unit itself, so I suppose it is hit and miss as to what goes wrong in the older machines.

[philby]

Alright no worries, I might hold off on ordering cables until I can get it looked at or something. Thanks

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Can LCD Tvs even handle Rf inputs from a console anymore? I think for giggles I tried connecting my Saturn to an LCD TV with RF and got nowehere.

Theoretically they should I guess.... But I dunno.

On with some modern Gaming. Been playing Arkham knight and he DLC that came with some sale from Black firday stuff and whatevers. ALl I can say so far is that I'm glad I didn't really pay for the individual DLC.... So far I've done 2 of the arkham episode stories, Batgirl and Harley Quinn and they are rather underwhelming.
HQ is stupidly short. I did the first fight, then quit to change the costume and looked at the story completion which was up at 20%. SO beating up 6 police equals 1/5th of the game? Whoah...
Batgirl was a bit better, but only just.

Lazy DLC that they shouldn't make you pay for. Seriously, I'd don the HQ story thing in about 30 min. It added nothing significant to the main story and to be honest, I would have preferred they just made HQ playable for the fighting challenges (And therefore totally free)

DLC is a curse is the long story short version.

[i_amtrunks]

Going to play some rise of the tomb raider tonight instead of watching the nrl all star game to try and trick my brain into feeling cooler.

If Sydney isn't hit with the blackouts they've been threatening all day!

[philby]

Can LCD Tvs even handle Rf inputs from a console anymore? I think for giggles I tried connecting my Saturn to an LCD TV with RF and got nowehere.

Theoretically they should I guess.... But I dunno.



i saw a couple of guides that said you can plug it into where your antenna input is on the tv and tune a certain spot but i had no luck.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

i saw a couple of guides that said you can plug it into where your antenna input is on the tv and tune a certain spot but i had no luck.

Yeah, theoreically it should work, but I have read somewhere that is if the image size is low (i.e less that say 240p), then your modern TV can't read the image or something. I'm not sure about N64 resolution, but it could be possible that your TV is just not liking the input signal.

Might be worthwhile jumping on ebay and nabbing some composite cables perhaps.

[kurdt_the_goat]

I don't think RF will work unless the TV has an analog tuner... I'm not sure if recent models do anymore, since there's no reason to have one for 4 years... but i guess if the TV is older you might be able to. Certainly it'd be much easier to just get some cheap composite video cables from Ebay http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XSNES+AV+c able.TRS0&_nkw=SNES+AV+cable&_sacat=0. SNES/N64/Gamecube all use the same type of connector. Quality will be better than RF but not great, though with a PAL N64 it's the best you can do with a stock machine anyway.

[DELTAprime]

I'm getting rather sick of full retail games that have card packs as a mechanic just to get you to spend extra cash. If your game is free to play then fine, a developers got to eat. But if I paid for your game then don't f'ing try and force me to spend extra money on cards that often are one time use.

[Trent]

I play it on PC from time to time. Only character I don't suck at is D.va.:rolleyes:

Im getting better with Hanzo now too. And Sombra is cool for some sneaky, shoot-them-in-the-back kills. And everyone's good with Bastion. I try to avoid being him because it's a bit unfair to the other team. But occasionally I think "screw it" and clock up a stupendous number of kills with him.

And I can definitely notice the difference since they nerfed D.Va. Now you have to be pretty much on top of someone to do any decent damage.

[snaketales]

Anyone here have Dead Space 3 on PS3? I'm up to ch 17 but want to complete all the co-op missions. If so and you want to help send me a PM or better send me a friend request (ID Reefadele).

I'm usually online in the evenings WA time.

I've finished the game on PC at several difficulty levels so I do know what I'm doing in the game (hand-eye co-ordination needs some work on controller though :o).

[DELTAprime]

So we are two weeks from the launch of the Switch and there's still no word at all on Virtual Console and VC purchase transfers from the Wii U. If I have to pay full price for my VC games again I'll be pissed.

[1AZRAEL1]

Woohoo Crash Bandicoot comes end of June

[Trent]

So we are two weeks from the launch of the Switch and there's still no word at all on Virtual Console and VC purchase transfers from the Wii U. If I have to pay full price for my VC games again I'll be pissed.

Or you could just, you know, continue to play them on the Wii U...

[kurdt_the_goat]

So we are two weeks from the launch of the Switch and there's still no word at all on Virtual Console and VC purchase transfers from the Wii U. If I have to pay full price for my VC games again I'll be pissed.


Or you could just, you know, continue to play them on the Wii U...

Most people should have just kept them on Wii, considering the darkened/degraded quality on Wii U! But paying in full? If you already bought and transferred them to Wii U, and then they were released as Wii U VC games, you only had to pay the couple of dollars to upgrade it so you could play on the Gamepad. I didn't mind paying that small fee, although the N64 games i transferred look so shoddy on Wii U it probably wasn't worth it.

I mused a few years ago that I don't think anything will come over, since with the Switch being handheld & console, which VC games (3DS or Wii U) would they let you transfer? One or the other, or none is my guess.

I know there's rumours of Gamecube VC on Switch but tbh i wonder if they'll even bring VC back at all. It's heyday was in the Wii era when they at least managed a large collection and varied systems. All the Sega systems were dropped on Wii U, presumably because it wasn't worth the investment. Considering Wii's enormous install base, and Wii U's paltry one - they'd be talking about a fraction of the income there so completely understandable.

I don't think VC is really exciting to most people anymore since they either have the games they want or aren't interested in older games period. Nintendo does nothing to promote VC outside of their press releases pretty much either, so i'd wager casual buyers barely even know it exists.

They'll probably just do a Super Nintendo Mini etc and sell them that way. Which imo would be a typical boneheaded Nintendo thing to do - they should just release a dedicated VC machine that could live past the normal console lifecycle, so they wouldn't have to keep re-licensing and re-rating (OFLC/ESRB etc) all the games for newer systems, which is the biggest cause for the trickle feed we end up getting, if we're lucky. To really sucker people in and make a shitload off accessories, they should release the original system controllers as well, as that's a huge part of the nostalgia for these things.

[DELTAprime]

Most people should have just kept them on Wii, considering the darkened/degraded quality on Wii U! But paying in full? If you already bought and transferred them to Wii U, and then they were released as Wii U VC games, you only had to pay the couple of dollars to upgrade it so you could play on the Gamepad. I didn't mind paying that small fee, although the N64 games i transferred look so shoddy on Wii U it probably wasn't worth it.

I mused a few years ago that I don't think anything will come over, since with the Switch being handheld & console, which VC games (3DS or Wii U) would they let you transfer? One or the other, or none is my guess.

I know there's rumours of Gamecube VC on Switch but tbh i wonder if they'll even bring VC back at all. It's heyday was in the Wii era when they at least managed a large collection and varied systems. All the Sega systems were dropped on Wii U, presumably because it wasn't worth the investment. Considering Wii's enormous install base, and Wii U's paltry one - they'd be talking about a fraction of the income there so completely understandable.

I don't think VC is really exciting to most people anymore since they either have the games they want or aren't interested in older games period. Nintendo does nothing to promote VC outside of their press releases pretty much either, so i'd wager casual buyers barely even know it exists.

They'll probably just do a Super Nintendo Mini etc and sell them that way. Which imo would be a typical boneheaded Nintendo thing to do - they should just release a dedicated VC machine that could live past the normal console lifecycle, so they wouldn't have to keep re-licensing and re-rating (OFLC/ESRB etc) all the games for newer systems, which is the biggest cause for the trickle feed we end up getting, if we're lucky. To really sucker people in and make a shitload off accessories, they should release the original system controllers as well, as that's a huge part of the nostalgia for these things.

I don't feel like any software emulation, official or unofficial is really good from the 32/64 bit era forward. There always seem to be issues which is why I have the hardware to play every Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo game from that ear forward. The Wii U downgrade for SNES games was a downer, you would think after the really good Wii emulation they would have it down pat for Wii U and N64 emulation was just bad.

Digital Foundry recently looked at the NES Mini's quality of emulation and it actually isn't amazing. I don't have much nostalgia for the NES as I had a Master System before switching to the SNES for the 16 bit gen so I didn't pick up a NES Mini, but if I did pick one up I'd be disappointed at the compromises.

Given that the Switch is officially replacing the Wii U and the 3DS is "going to continue to be supported" (yeah right:rolleyes:) I'd be happy to have my Wii U VC purchases come over for a small fee like the move from Wii to Wii U and at a later date when they give up on the 3DS allow those to come across for a small fee.

The alternative if they don't allow that is downloading ROMz. I'd rather do things the official way, but if push comes to shove I'm willing to say F'U and not rebuy the VC games.

[prjkt]

The alternative if they don't allow that is downloading ROMz. I'd rather do things the official way, but if push comes to shove I'm willing to say F'U and not rebuy the VC games.

well, technically you already own the license to play the game if you got them from VC, which platform shouldn't really matter

[i_amtrunks]

I refuse to rebuy any more games from VC anymore. I hate that games I've downloaded on the wii/wiiu/3ds don't transfer to my new systems or alternate systems I own. Massive rip off and more poor Nintendo planning. Same goes for any more amiibo. I got suckered in good as I was sure they'd do something more with them than we got.

I'm not seeing alot of noise or promotion for the switch in stores which is sad with it being due out in less than a month. I bet there'll be very few switch related products available to buy for the first month or so, that fake rarity Nintendo is so good at creating.

[DELTAprime]

I just confirmed this morning that my EB Games will be doing a midnight launch for the Switch, not surprising since they were one of a handful in Queensland that did a midnight launch for the Wii U. I'm just hoping that it won't be a repeat of the Wii U launch which was, get home at 12:05, hook up the Wii U and wait 8 hours for a day one firmware update to download.

[Trent]

I just confirmed this morning that my EB Games will be doing a midnight launch for the Switch, not surprising since they were one of a handful in Queensland that did a midnight launch for the Wii U. I'm just hoping that it won't be a repeat of the Wii U launch which was, get home at 12:05, hook up the Wii U and wait 8 hours for a day one firmware update to download.

I laughed but man, I would be so p1$$3D.

[kup]

I am also hoping for VC to be properly handled in the transition. It is a given that there will be a VC service in the Switch but will they allow us to have our previously purchased games?

From a technical perspective, why not? They are just ROMs. All they need to do is get the emulator working on the Switch which shouldn't be a big deal and something they would have done anyways. The ROM itself would be the same so no reason to not let us transition our games.

On the other hand, they briefly experimented on DS Virtual console. Since we no longer have the dual screen of the Wii U, I am not sure how that will be handled.

[DELTAprime]

Just listening to the Giant Beastcast. They said there is no VC on the Switch at launch, so the Switch is 100% a Zelda BotW machine at launch from the sounds of it.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Just listening to the Giant Beastcast. They said there is no VC on the Switch at launch, so the Switch is 100% a Zelda BotW machine at launch from the sounds of it.

50% Zelda, 40% Bomberman and 10% Snipperclips machine.

[davieanix]

Anyone have a PS VR?

Trying to figure out if it's worth it, as what should be like a $550 purchase comes closer to $750 when you have to buy extra shit just to use it.

[DELTAprime]

Anyone have a PS VR?

Trying to figure out if it's worth it, as what should be like a $550 purchase comes closer to $750 when you have to buy extra shit just to use it.

VR seems too expensive in general given the cost of entry vs games available. I think it's really cool, but I won't be buying an Oculus or Steam VR headset until the cost of headsets comes down and the number of games that are not glorified demos comes up.

[DELTAprime]

I went to play Halo Wars 2 Blitz Mode, it's already impossible to find a match. I know every dev hopes they will make the next CoD, but really it's probably just a waste of time and money doing anything beyond basic multiplayer.

[kup]

Anyone have a PS VR?

Trying to figure out if it's worth it, as what should be like a $550 purchase comes closer to $750 when you have to buy extra shit just to use it.

Cool but too expensive and has fallen a bit behind the curve.

I am personally for the HTC Vive but that is also too expensive.

In regards to VC, there will be a VC service for sure, I just hope that they are sensible about it and that the delay is due to them working stuff out to be fair to previous game buyers.

[Trent]

Sunk a few hours into Horizon Zero Dawn last night. Really liking it so far.

If I had a 4K TV it would look brilliant! I'd even settle for a 1080p TV :(

[DELTAprime]

Got my Switch. Was 100% set up by 12:25, but that includes me fumbling with my multiple Nintendo account passwords. Downloading Zelda, hope it will be down by the time I'm up in the morning.

Going by the huge number of 100/100's Zelda is getting on Metacritic it's going to be amazing.

[Shirokaze]

Got my Switch too, BigW Zelda bundle for $519. I've plugged it up at work to download the updates so I'll be good to go when I get home.:)

[DELTAprime]

Downloading Zelda, hope it will be down by the time I'm up in the morning.

90% downloaded so far. I wonder if Nintendo's Switch eshop servers are just slow in general or are they getting slammed by everyone trying to download Zelda.

[philby]

currently playing through Shadowrun Returns. Enjoying it so far, in some ways it's a bit basic compared to some of the other RPGs I've been playing but its nice. Just doing the basic campaign at the moment, I think I have the Dragonfall pack but not Hong Kong.

[SMHFConvoy]

Playing LoZ: Breath of the Wild it took me a whole day to find the village I needed to get to, so weird to not have everything spoon fed to me like in a lot of other loz games (looking at you ocarina of time!)

That said all of it contributes to a good gaming experience.

[kup]

90% downloaded so far. I wonder if Nintendo's Switch eshop servers are just slow in general or are they getting slammed by everyone trying to download Zelda.

I think they are getting slammed. Mine literally updated in less than 5 minutes at around 2am after the midnight launch.

[1AZRAEL1]

Is anyone else getting those BS messages from random accounts on their PS4?

[Trent]

Is anyone else getting those BS messages from random accounts on their PS4?

No, but I did have my entire friends list on my PS4 vanished except for my brother :confused:

[1AZRAEL1]

No, but I did have my entire friends list on my PS4 vanished except for my brother :confused:

That's bizarre. Wonder what would cause that. Now I have to check mine

I've been getting messages saying "These PSN codes totally work and they're free blah blah blah" so I reported 2 of them for being spam. Get a message back from Sony saying abuse of the reporting feature can cause my own account to be banned. I mean, wtf? Did they even look at the messages I reported? I gave up after that and just delete them. But they still come through, coz people are thick enough to click on the links

[DELTAprime]

So I've been playing Zelda since it finished downloading not long after my last post, that last 10% of the download went quick so it might just have had to install at that point. Anyway I have a SSB Link Amiibo, the one that is meant to give you Epona when you scan it the first time, but I never got Epona. Has anyone seen anything on the web conclusive about why Epona is not appearing for some users and how to fix it? I really want Epona.:(

EDIT: Just tapped SSB Link for todays free items and I got Epona! YAY!!!:D:D:D

[Gutsman Heavy]

Breath of the Wild is the best game in years, and there have been a lot of great games in the last few years!

[DELTAprime]

Breath of the Wild is the best game in years, and there have been a lot of great games in the last few years!

Look at this. The top 4 reviewed games of all time from Metacritic.


1. 99 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) User: 9.1 Nov 23, 1998
2. 98 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PS) User: 7.5 Sep 20, 2000
3. 98 Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) User: 7.5 Apr 29, 2008
4. 98 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) User: 7.5 Mar 3, 2017

The overwhelming opinion of critics and also most people I've spoken to that have played it is that it's not just one of the best games in recent years but it's one of the best games of all time. It's cool to see OOT is the greatest going by critic reviews.

[prjkt]

I'm going to have to start saving for a Switch + Zelda me thinks

[kup]

So I've been playing Zelda since it finished downloading not long after my last post, that last 10% of the download went quick so it might just have had to install at that point. Anyway I have a SSB Link Amiibo, the one that is meant to give you Epona when you scan it the first time, but I never got Epona. Has anyone seen anything on the web conclusive about why Epona is not appearing for some users and how to fix it? I really want Epona.:(

EDIT: Just tapped SSB Link for todays free items and I got Epona! YAY!!!:D:D:D

It appears that you get somewhat randomised things. Probably to extend the fun factor of the Amiibo otherwise it literally becomes a one trick pony.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

So, I've been chatting with Kurdtthegoat about games and stuff as I usually do and he mentioned something that never pinged with me before.
Lately, I've been crackalacking on open world games. Not so long ago I finally finished Red Dead Redemption. Knocked off Arkham knight( I think this counts to a small extent), Just Cause 2 and am playing thought JC3 and have bought, but not yet played Shadow of Mordor. I'm also looking at nabbing Horizon ZD.

Kurdt brought up the prospect of being burnt out on open world games, as they are a time sink and I thought, that is a possibility. Until RDR, I had never actually finished one, despite playing GTA (VC and SA) a fair bit. However I guess that's a good thing about them. I feel like I can play them without having to finish the story. As long as I feel like I get my money's worth from running around causing my own hi-jinx, then I am fine to sell/trade/shelf it with no regrets.

It also got me thinking, is the sandbox/open world genre the new JRPG fad of times before?

[DELTAprime]

I tend to play open world games till there is nothing left to do unless I bounce off them early on. The only ones in recent years I started, got a long way in and never finished everything on the map are Shadow of Mordor, RotTR and Saints Row 4.

Shadow of Mordor was a matter of something else came along so I've now bought a Steam version and I've restarted it.

RotTR was the same issue and again I rebought it on Steam and I plan to restart it, tho I probably should have bought the Windows 10 version since I started on Xbox One, I assume I could bring my save game over since it'sd Xbox Live enabled on Win 10.

Saints Row 4 just didn't run well on Xbox 360. Since it's easy on console to get around Australian government censorship I rebought it on Xbox One and still are meaning to restart it.

I'm working through BotW, it's a little harder to complete everything since there is no achievements or GTA style stats page to track how you are going. I Googled to find out some basic things like how many shrines (120) and Korok seeds (900) but finding everything will require a guide which still seems like a work in progress for the sites like IGN that still do guides.

Dan Ryckert (Giant Bomb's reviewer for BotW) mentioned that he killed Calamity Ganon for his review and is now looking for shrines, seeds and side quest so maybe I should do the last two dungeons and kill Ganon then work on everything else.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I play open world games, but I don't think they're the gaming godsend some people make them out to be. I do recall a few years ago when the shine came off Call of Duty's linear gameplay and people were clamouring for open world games. If the game didn't have hours of mindless free roaming then it was linear garbage. Personally I really need my (single player) games to have a good narrative and I find open world games to break that narrative with all the side missions and random distractions.

[prjkt]

That's why I get a little burnt out on some games, never ended up finishing a GTA, still have Skyrim and the Fallout 4 DLC to complete, and probably the Witcher 3 also.

Semi-open world games like the Deus Ex and to an extent, the later Thief games, series solve this for me - you get plonked in a location with a few main missions and a bunch of side missions that you can complete as you see fit, but once you're done, there's no back tracking. Helps keep the pace of the game, and my (short) attention span satisfied.

[kup]

Yeah I agree, open world games are a time sink and easy to burn out on them since they can be fairly 'endless'. To fully explore one means dedicating countless hours/days and basically placing other games on backburners or simply missing out altogether.

I am now playing BOTW and it is a huge offender as not all activities can be tracked down. Some don't even figure as quests but rather things you do based on what you find. 'Levelling up' is also a challenge as it is basically doing the shrines to increase your hearts and stamina but to do so you need to trek accross the world which can literally take hours. So you can't fully prepare yourself to finish he main quest unless you have already invested a huge amount of time.

Previous Zelda games aside from the first, were basically linear events with trackable achievements. Games like GTA, Fallout and Elder Scroll games are open world but you can track your progress and literally achieve everything you can achieve. With BOTW it is much harder to follow a linear path.

One thing I give credit to BOTW and the Switch is that one no longer is confined to your home to play it. You can take it on the go so you can add play time while commuting etc which at this point, several other open world games don't offer so you get more chances to explore and finish the game to a satisfactory conclusion.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

In a way, I feel that many open world games kind of take the cheap route and include things just for giggles (not good giggles mind you). Like a game with a stealth section for example. Compare an OW game's stealth section with a game designed around the whole concept of stealth and I think you'll find the stealth game to be a more enjoyable experience (in the stealth aspect).

Like, nowadays, OW games are meant to be the jack of all trades of gaming. Red Dead is a good example here, there was a stealth kill option here (cutting throats with your knife), but aside from the tutorial section, I never-ever used it because it was too tricky to pull off/I couldn't remember how to do it/shooting stuff was just more fun.
But did they feel they had to include a stealth style attack in the game?
Compare that with Arkham series, where the main types of gameplay are the mass group fighting and stealth takedowns only. I'd say that Batman's 2 game mechanics are way more refined than Red Dead's multiple aspects.

Another comparison to make would be to compare OW with a more guided style of gameplay. For this example, I'd like to bring in Uncharted, a game I feel is rather enjoyable, but the player is very controlled by the design of the game. I think Uncharted has a tighter game mechanic because it is solely focused on the pre-determined journey.

Whereas the OW can try and have the same situation, but is unlikely to be able to pull it off because of the inclusion of too many mechanics, meaning more time would need to be spent on refining them, than on the world itself. So developers of OW games spend more time on the OW, would like to include many types of gameplay styles, but don't really refine any of them all that well, leading to a less impressive gaming experience.

If you see where I'm coming from.

Apologies for long post ;)

[prjkt]

Then there're open world style games like the recent Farcry games and Assassin's Creed that are basically the same mini-activities all over again to achieve different weapons/bonuses etc.

At least the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series have a little more variety

[DELTAprime]

Then there're open world style games like the recent Farcry games and Assassin's Creed that are basically the same mini-activities all over again to achieve different weapons/bonuses etc.

Ubisoft has a formula they follow for all their open world games. As someone that has only played the Assassin's Creed series and the first Watch Dogs it's never bothered me, but when I've poked around Far Cry and The Crew it feels like Ubisoft has no original ideas.

They have gone a bit more original with their new snowboarding game which is open world, it's less about climbing towers and more about creating your own fun, which doesn't really too do well. A game should have it's own fun objectives in addition to having your own fun, not be a sandbox where the player is forced to get creative to have fun. Even a game like Minecraft that seems to have no objectives actually does and the player can work towards them.

[Gutsman Heavy]

I hate open world games that are a checklist of collectables/tasks, which is why I'm loving BotW so much, you need to explore to progress. Really feels like an adventure. I play the mini-map and other bits turned off and enjoy getting lost in the world.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Totally agree about Ubisoft's cookie cutter open world formula. Their games are virtually identical with "take base/activate tower/synchronise viewpoint to see side missions and collectibles". I just completed Assassins Creed Unity and that was only because I paid $9 for it. It'll be a long time before I pay full price for a Ubisoft game again.

I really enjoyed the original Crysis open world. Huge game area with a singular objective, which gave you various ways to approach your target.

IMO the best games achieve longevity through replayability, rather than cheap scavenger hunt / side mission mechanics.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

IMO the best games achieve longevity through replayability, rather than cheap scavenger hunt / side mission mechanics.

I think I agree here.

Just cruising through youtube here and found this episode of Jimquisition (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efKxC0RgyV4) quite similar to my thoughts on size vs content.

[DELTAprime]

IMO the best games achieve longevity through replayability, rather than cheap scavenger hunt / side mission mechanics.

I've played GTA V to 100% completion three times because that story is so replayable even if you choose the same heist plans a second time or chase down the same collectables.

Much as I love AC Syndicate and would count it as one of the top 10 games of 2015 I can't see myself playing through it again because it's just the best version of the Ubisoft formula which gets reused multiple times every year.

Also I don't see how this years AC can be anywhere near as good as Syndicate. You have all that cool clockwork "Victorian era technology" that allows for fun fast traversal of the map in Syndicate, not to mention guns and other stuff. This years AC is going back in time to Ancient Egypt, which isn't exactly an era known for grappling hooks, zip lines, guns and tranquilizers.

[snaketales]

Finally did my first solo Gold match on Mass Effect 3 on the PS3. This was after two earlier attempts, where I got up to wave 9 and then wave 10 (out of 11). I've got solo mastery on the PC but I find console much harder.

Meanwhile, my kill/death ratio on Dead Space 2 on the PS3 is edging up to 1 (it's at 0.9). On PC it's 2 point something, but again I'm finding the console harder to use.

[DELTAprime]

Well this has got to be a bit embarrassing for Nvidia. Turns out the Switch is using a standard off the shelf Tegra T210 SOC, not a "custom Tegra" SOC.


Update!

After subsequent processing of the GPU from the Nintendo Switch, we have determined that the processor is the Nvidia Tegra T210. The T210 CPU features 4 Cortex A57 and 4 Cortex A53 processor cores and the GPU is a GM20B Maxell core.

http://techinsights.com/about-techinsights/overview/blog/nintendo-switch-teardown/

Did nobody at Nvidia remember that people tear down CPU's, GPU's, SOC's and other chips to see how they are designed and therefore would realise it's a standard SOC?:rolleyes:

[kup]

Well this has got to be a bit embarrassing for Nvidia. Turns out the Switch is using a standard off the shelf Tegra T210 SOC, not a "custom Tegra" SOC.



http://techinsights.com/about-techinsights/overview/blog/nintendo-switch-teardown/

Did nobody at Nvidia remember that people tear down CPU's, GPU's, SOC's and other chips to see how they are designed and therefore would realise it's a standard SOC?:rolleyes:

Maybe it's got an extra label printed on it and that's what makes it custom ;)

[DELTAprime]

I was rudely awakened by the shelf that holds my Blizzard collector's editions collapsing onto lower shelves during the night. Fortunately the only damage to games was my LOZ Wind Waker/Ocarina of Time case. Anyone have a recommendation from a place other than Ikea (don't have one near me) for shelves that can hold both DVD case sized games and larger heavier stuff like Blizzard collector's editions?

[TAAUBlaster]

I was rudely awakened by the shelf that holds my Blizzard collector's editions collapsing onto lower shelves during the night. Fortunately the only damage to games was my LOZ Wind Waker/Ocarina of Time case. Anyone have a recommendation from a place other than Ikea (don't have one near me) for shelves that can hold both DVD case sized games and larger heavier stuff like Blizzard collector's editions?

Ouch, that sucks :( Glad there wasn't too much damage.

If you can find them, the "Oskar" DVD/CD shelving units are pretty nice. I've got two for my DVD collection. They come as flatpack, but they have adjustable shelves so they should be able to accommodate both normal DVD and CE sized boxes. Only hard part is finding them now. :(

Or something like this might be ok. Not sure how much you want to spend, but has free postage at least.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/528-DVD-1116-CD-Storage-Shelf-Rack-Stand-Cupboard-Book-Tower-Unit-Black-Bluray/172438569211?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%2 6asc%3D20140106155344%26meid%3D981beb6004b94fabb7b c42503ff81a44%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D6%26 mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D222236137216

[SharkyMcShark]

Is anyone else pervertedly into Rocket League?

Every time I walk past my study I feel compelled to have another quick 2v2 comp match.

I've found as I've gotten older and my time is occupied with stuff like work, the exigencies of living out of home and having a partner and the like I've come to have more of an appreciation for games like FIFA, Rocket League, Smash Bros, Counter Strike, Killing Floor and Rainbow Six - anything round based where I can mentally plan ahead the amount of time I'll have to take for something.

[DELTAprime]

Is anyone else pervertedly into Rocket League?

Every time I walk past my study I feel compelled to have another quick 2v2 comp match.

I've found as I've gotten older and my time is occupied with stuff like work, the exigencies of living out of home and having a partner and the like I've come to have more of an appreciation for games like FIFA, Rocket League, Smash Bros, Counter Strike, Killing Floor and Rainbow Six - anything round based where I can mentally plan ahead the amount of time I'll have to take for something.

I still load up Rocket League every so often.

There is a new game called Disc Jam that might be the next Rocket League. It's an online sports game like Rocket League but it's not soccer with cars, it's frisbie with lasers and explosions. Think of Windjammers on the NeoGeo mixed with Rocket League. If it takes off and there is a large player pool I'm going to buy it. The beta was fun, but finding a match was hard.

Also, I really, really wish Nintendo would finally say something about backwards compatibility on the Switch. I have a bunch of VC games on my wish list on Wii U and 3DS and would purchase them now if my purchases would one day transfer to the Switch.

[prjkt]

Anyone looking forward to the upcoming System Shock remake/reboot?

[kup]

Anyone looking forward to the upcoming System Shock remake/reboot?

As long as it doesn't end up unintentionally hilarious like Mass Effect Andromeda.

[CBratron]

Anyone looking forward to the upcoming System Shock remake/reboot?

Keeping an eye on it but I'll put off buying it until I replay SS2 that I still have on CD.

[prjkt]

I loved SS2 back in the day, made me hunt down the original game, so this new one, well, I'm just a tad excited. I did (for the first time actually) contribute to the kickstarter, because I wanted to see the game made that much.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Been loving Horizon zero Dawn, it's very good, but I don't think it's quite the 100% game that it's been receiving on the review front.

Despite being considered an open world game, there are some obvious barriers and restrictions. One I find particularly annoying is the climbing mechanic. She can climb some ledges and yellow marked things, but a rock with something that looks like a ledge or part of a building and looks climbable is not. The stealth thing is also kind of naff, with the magic grass to hide in. I also came across a bit of an immersion breaking " You're about to leave the play area, if you continue, you will be returned to your last save" message when I was near the edge of the map up some mountains and my final whinge is that during some conversations your have dialogue options, but they don't seem to accomplish anything, all being a bit pointless.

Fighting them Dinos is a lot of fun though and the moment when you spot a new one.... Do I go for it, or just stay out of its way for now? I ALWAYS go for it. Usually to my detriment.:D The way you have to keep farming for parts while slightly annoying at the start, makes a lot of sense. I kept on taking on the raptor gguys and horse-bots, but stopped after a whiel, opting for avoiding them, but later on, I discovered I was lacking parts for a weapon I rather liked using. Turns out I did have heaps of what I needed when I was taking down the little guys, but because I left them alone for a while, my supplies had run out. Due to that it menas you might occasionally have to stop and restock on bots you don't see as all that much of a challenge anymore. But I don't think you ever get strong enough to feel safe, even when taking on the starting robots. If there's one, sure you're probably going to be OK, but there is rarely the situation of only one.

Also making them explode is extremely satisfying!:D

Some multiplayer dino hunting action would go down nicely in this game methinks!

[philby]

Anyone looking forward to the upcoming System Shock remake/reboot?

yes and no...
yes because ive never played these games before and sometimes trying to go back to old games with old UI is too much hassle

no because it seems like basically the same old map geometry and level design just with updated visuals and UI tweaks.

there is an actual system shock 3 being worked on i believe.

[prjkt]

I'm looking forward to SS3 as well, especially the news that it takes off right after #2's ending.

I'm hoping the System Shock remake is more along the lines of Tomb Raider Anniversary in that it's not a slavish recreation, but an expansion on the original idea.

[Trent]

Been loving Horizon zero Dawn, it's very good, but I don't think it's quite the 100% game that it's been receiving on the review front.

Despite being considered an open world game, there are some obvious barriers and restrictions. One I find particularly annoying is the climbing mechanic. She can climb some ledges and yellow marked things, but a rock with something that looks like a ledge or part of a building and looks climbable is not. The stealth thing is also kind of naff, with the magic grass to hide in. I also came across a bit of an immersion breaking " You're about to leave the play area, if you continue, you will be returned to your last save" message when I was near the edge of the map up some mountains and my final whinge is that during some conversations your have dialogue options, but they don't seem to accomplish anything, all being a bit pointless.

Fighting them Dinos is a lot of fun though and the moment when you spot a new one.... Do I go for it, or just stay out of its way for now? I ALWAYS go for it. Usually to my detriment.:D The way you have to keep farming for parts while slightly annoying at the start, makes a lot of sense. I kept on taking on the raptor gguys and horse-bots, but stopped after a whiel, opting for avoiding them, but later on, I discovered I was lacking parts for a weapon I rather liked using. Turns out I did have heaps of what I needed when I was taking down the little guys, but because I left them alone for a while, my supplies had run out. Due to that it menas you might occasionally have to stop and restock on bots you don't see as all that much of a challenge anymore. But I don't think you ever get strong enough to feel safe, even when taking on the starting robots. If there's one, sure you're probably going to be OK, but there is rarely the situation of only one.

Also making them explode is extremely satisfying!:D

Some multiplayer dino hunting action would go down nicely in this game methinks!

When you accidentally bump into a pack of those damn corrupted Scrappers it ruins your day :mad:

I second your thoughts. The invisibility grass is a little annoying. Both that you are completely invisible, and it is the ONLY thing you can hide in. Another thing that you didn't mention (you might not be up to it yet) is that when you override a Strider, they become damn near invincible. I watched one take out a Sawtooth and a Scrapper at the same time.

But it is a damn good game. Those big flying Dino-birds are the hardest I've encountered yet.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Just bought a PS4 since my PS3 finally died.

Bought the 3rd Batman game on it - very good thus far :)

My son is still too young to properly use a console but loves to watch me play. I think Batman is a bit violent so are there any games out there that he would love to watch but I won't hate to play?

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Another thing that you didn't mention (you might not be up to it yet) is that when you override a Strider, they become damn near invincible. I watched one take out a Sawtooth and a Scrapper at the same time.

But it is a damn good game. Those big flying Dino-birds are the hardest I've encountered yet.
Oh, the striders are nothing now. I've managed to get the option to override the Thunderjaw and the big eagle thing. Gotta admit, I hate some sitations, like one time I was in the hunting grounds minding my own business (while hunting some big bison things) and out of nowhere 3 glinthawks punce, scare the bison and blow my cover. Now I have 3 bison and 3 glinthawks all gunning for me. and I died.

I've come across that a couple of times, but have found that I'm now quick enough to take out a small flock of glinthawks satisfactorily. Its really interesting to me how it manages to train you to take on more and more dangerous bots. I was cornered by 3 stealth cat things and my previous encounter with just one was a horrible experience, but by using dofferent efefct weapons and the ropecaster to keep the buggers in one place, I managed to take aall three out in quick succession. That was with all three attack me too.

Just bought a PS4 since my PS3 finally died.

Bought the 3rd Batman game on it - very good thus far :)

My son is still too young to properly use a console but loves to watch me play. I think Batman is a bit violent so are there any games out there that he would love to watch but I won't hate to play?
DId you play TF Devasattion on ps3? Uncharted 4 must be good. Most of my games are very batman based or a tad violent ATM

[philby]

I'm hoping the System Shock remake is more along the lines of Tomb Raider Anniversary in that it's not a slavish recreation, but an expansion on the original idea.

you can download a demo on steam.

[prjkt]

I played the alpha demo before contributing to the kickstarter, I have serious doubts it'll be completely representative of the game, they've already moved to a different game engine to start with, but time will tell

[DELTAprime]

Speaking of Kickstarters. Yooka Laylee is coming out in about 12 days so I should get a key soon. Feels like I've been waiting years for it to be finished.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Speaking of Kickstarters. Yooka Laylee is coming out in about 12 days so I should get a key soon. Feels like I've been waiting years for it to be finished.

Cautiously optimistic, I just hope the levels aren't too sparse.

[BigTransformerTrev]

DId you play TF Devasattion on ps3? Uncharted 4 must be good. Most of my games are very batman based or a tad violent ATM

Yeah my son loved watching me play it. However I've lost the disk so hadnt played it in ages. May pick it up for the PS4 if I come across it really cheap.

Everyone recommended the Lego games as we could play them together and you just respawn every time you die. However noone said just how much problem solving there was so essentially its me solving stuff then waiting for my son to let me use his character to do the next bit while he runs around trying to get the hang of using a controller for the first time.

Its been very frustrating. Think I should have just bought him a button masher for his first ever console game.

[1AZRAEL1]

Never really thought about the puzzle solving aspect of the Lego games. Wasn't thinking of them with child's eyes.

As for button mashers, I can't think of any that would be good for kids

[DELTAprime]

May pick it up for the PS4 if I come across it really cheap.

It goes on sale semi regularly for 50% off on the various platforms online stores.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Oh, the striders are nothing now. I've managed to get the option to override the Thunderjaw and the big eagle thing. Gotta admit, I hate some sitations, like one time I was in the hunting grounds minding my own business (while hunting some big bison things) and out of nowhere 3 glinthawks punce, scare the bison and blow my cover. Now I have 3 bison and 3 glinthawks all gunning for me. and I died.

I've come across that a couple of times, but have found that I'm now quick enough to take out a small flock of glinthawks satisfactorily. Its really interesting to me how it manages to train you to take on more and more dangerous bots. I was cornered by 3 stealth cat things and my previous encounter with just one was a horrible experience, but by using dofferent efefct weapons and the ropecaster to keep the buggers in one place, I managed to take aall three out in quick succession. That was with all three attack me too.

DId you play TF Devasattion on ps3? Uncharted 4 must be good. Most of my games are very batman based or a tad violent ATM


It goes on sale semi regularly for 50% off on the various platforms online stores.

We have bugger all internet in the bush, I have to buy physical copies of any games I want.

To be fair, Orion is doing pretty well for a 4 year old playing his very first console game.

[DELTAprime]

We have bugger all internet in the bush, I have to buy physical copies of any games I want.

That's why I would never live in the bush. (that and the fact I like having conveniently located shopping centres.)

Even tho it will be the crappy Liberal version of the NBN I'll be so happy when NBN Co hooks me up to the NBN.

I have the feeling our Liberal party member of Federal Parliament who won via a very slim margin at the election might have pulled some strings to get us moved back up the list of order of deployment. We were meant to have the NBN by end of this year, start of next year. Then we got bumped to late 2019, now we are back to where we started.

I have about 11mbps to 16mbps depending on what state the local phone lines are in and that feels ungodly slow when downloading a game like the 43.76gb install of Mass Effect Andromeda on PC.

[Glitchdan]

Everyone recommended the Lego games as we could play them together and you just respawn every time you die.

Its been very frustrating. Think I should have just bought him a button masher for his first ever console game.

Got my 3yr old son into Lego Star wars force awakens ($20 sale from Target), after some initial difficulties he finally got into it.

It started as me trying to solve stuff for him, then he started to identify the visual cues by himself "BB8 can do this!". At the end of it all, i was just pointing out to him stuff he missed onscreen and he did the rest. He actually finished till the end of the game :)

I think just keep at it and you'll be amazed on what your kid could do..

[DELTAprime]

I'm thinking I should add a Sega console to my retro collection, either Saturn or Dreamcast. I'm not too familiar with the two platforms. What accessories should I get with them as far as memory cards, special controllers, video cables, etc?

[BigTransformerTrev]

Ended up I just went and bought TF Devastation new for the PS4 for him to play - he really digs it! :)

[Soundwarp]

Ended up I just went and bought TF Devastation new for the PS4 for him to play - he really digs it! :)

Heck, I dig it too!!

[kurdt_the_goat]

I'm thinking I should add a Sega console to my retro collection, either Saturn or Dreamcast. I'm not too familiar with the two platforms. What accessories should I get with them as far as memory cards, special controllers, video cables, etc?

They're both good systems with plenty of good games, personally i'd go for Saturn cause i've found the hardware more reliable and the standard controller is better suited for the games. Dreamcast though, well lets just say it's theoretically possible to build a bigger "collection" without paying a whole lot :D and of course the graphics are ~PS2 era quality 3D, whereas Saturn 3D games aren't as pretty these days. 2D stuff on both looks spectacular though.

Saturn is great to collect for if you open up to Japanese imports, as there were a lot of releases that never came over, and games that did tend to be a lot cheaper. A PAL Saturn can play most imports without trouble using an Action Replay 4M Auto Plus (http://www.play-asia.com/action-replay-4m-auto-plus/13/701b2). That will double as a memory card as well. The Saturn has a built in memory of sorts but it relies on a CR2032 battery that has a tendency to die when the Saturn's unplugged for a while, which will lose all your saves. A lot of games on Saturn though were arcade ports, and so save games aren't really that essential. It also doubles as an Extended RAM cart (http://segaretro.org/Extended_RAM_Cartridge), which is needed for some later 2D games mostly. The 4M does have some issues with a few games that require the extra RAM, where you'll see things like glitchy graphics or odd crashes.

Depending on the type of games you like, a couple special controllers might be good. There's the Arcade Racer (http://segaretro.org/Arcade_Racer_Joystick) steering wheel which is great for Daytona, Sega Rally and other racing games. The 3D Control Pad (http://segaretro.org/3D_Control_Pad) is also good for racing games but not supported in some earlier ones. It originally came with Nights but supports a few other games too. The Virtua Stick (http://segaretro.org/Virtua_Stick) if you're into fighters (the Japanese stick with green buttons is much better). And if you like Virtual On, you could track down the Twin Stick (http://segaretro.org/Saturn_Twin-Stick)

For video cables, they came with standard AV cables, but you can get S-Video cables if your TV supports it for a clearer picture. The best picture comes from RGB Scart cables but you basically have to buy a Framemeister to take advantage of that.

[kup]

I'm thinking I should add a Sega console to my retro collection, either Saturn or Dreamcast. I'm not too familiar with the two platforms. What accessories should I get with them as far as memory cards, special controllers, video cables, etc?

Dreamcast as it is basically the predecessor to the Xbox so there is some interesting history with it.

[Soundwarp]

Is it just me or is no one really gaming anymore?
I'm getting into Mass Effect Andromeda ATM....

[Gutsman Heavy]

Is it just me or is no one really gaming anymore?
I'm getting into Mass Effect Andromeda ATM....

Still playing Zelda...

[DELTAprime]

Is it just me or is no one really gaming anymore?
I'm getting into Mass Effect Andromeda ATM....


Still playing Zelda...

I'm on my post Zelda palate cleansers. Played 2015's Need For Speed again, this time on PC. Still playing Forza Horizon 3 and Fallout Shelter. Also bought Super Mario Run now that it's out on Android, but I feel like I'm at the end of my time with it and I will go back to Angry Birds Transformers for my time killer game.

[Trent]

I'm still playing Horizon Zero Dawn. Took on a Rockbreaker the other day and it took me ages (and many deaths) to beat it so tonight when I came up on a corrupted one I just slowly and quietly backed away and took the long way around :o Probably go back and have a crack at it next time :)

Not sure if I love or hate the tear arrows. On one hand they are great for quickly disarming a machine but I'm not sure if they make it too easy. Of course when I took on a pack of Ravagers the other day I was very glad I had them to remove those annoying as hell cannons from their backs but still, especially with a Thunderjaw, they remove a lot of the challenge.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Hooked up the old Nintendo Wii and my wife and son are playing Mario Kart.

They are having a great time! Perfect for a 4 year old newbie gamer. Should have thought of this before I spent over $100 on PS4 games I thought he might like :p

[prjkt]

Is it just me or is no one really gaming anymore?
I'm getting into Mass Effect Andromeda ATM....

My free evenings over he last couple of months have been filled with Rise of the Tomb Raider, Skyrim, Fallout 4 (tempted to go back and play NV too,) Witcher 3, Bioshock & Darksiders remastered versions and picked up Soma cheap of GOG last night, but I'll wait until my ~3day photo archive compression finishes and play it in Windows (it supports OS X, but if it's like Thief, runs far better in Windows on the same hardware)

[Soundwarp]

Lol, you seem to have listed my retirement so far right there!!

[prjkt]

Lol, you seem to have listed my retirement so far right there!!

Hah :p

Also got some old school roms I can play via steam when hooked into the TV, but haven't played those for a while.

Turns out I didn't need to spend the better past of the last three days running that compression program (was trying to compress ~1.14tb worth of photos into just under 1tb so it'd fit on a 1tb drive) - I found several external drives I haven't used for a while, and one of them is a 2tb drive...

Now to wait for the file transfer over USB 2.0 (*shudders*)

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I'm still playing Horizon Zero Dawn. Took on a Rockbreaker the other day and it took me ages (and many deaths) to beat it so tonight when I came up on a corrupted one I just slowly and quietly backed away and took the long way around :o Probably go back and have a crack at it next time :)

Not sure if I love or hate the tear arrows. On one hand they are great for quickly disarming a machine but I'm not sure if they make it too easy. Of course when I took on a pack of Ravagers the other day I was very glad I had them to remove those annoying as hell cannons from their backs but still, especially with a Thunderjaw, they remove a lot of the challenge.

I like the tear arrows, I love the sound they make. As for the challenge, I personally believe that as a pathetic little human in that game, the challenge is using what you have to take down something that will wipe you out quite easily. Those homing laser things on the Thunderjaws are damn annoying.

Those rockbreakers are a pain as well. The way they just disappear into the ground all the time really annoys me. Yay for tear arrows. I found one area with three of those suckers in it. Left it for later. ;)

I've been sinking quite a few hours into Shadow of Mordor lately. Found the nemesis system quite a lot of fun. and the way it makes you feel connected (usually by thirst for revenge, or to shut up) the enemies is pretty cool. IT's not very well balanced though. At the start, I was having heaps of trouble taking out even the basic grunts, but now I'm powered up and not feeling too fussed about the commanders and stuff anymore, even when I'm set upon by more than one at a time.

I wonder if it's because I've gotten used to the game, or because of the powerups? When I finish, I'll have to start a new game and see if I feel the same way.

[DELTAprime]

I spent most of the night playing Yooka Laylee. If you like Banjo Kazooie you will like Yooka Laylee.

[kup]

Is it just me or is no one really gaming anymore?
I'm getting into Mass Effect Andromeda ATM....

Playing Zelda. After that if bargain cheap and I feel like laughing at funny faces and 'Made for TV movie' plots, I'll go and play Andromeda.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Playing Zelda. After that if bargain cheap and I feel like laughing at funny faces and 'Made for TV movie' plots, I'll go and play Andromeda.

Savage, true but savage. They at least made the gun point the right way in that cut-scene now!

[kup]

Savage, true but savage. They at least made the gun point the right way in that cut-scene now!

Yeah, they made some improvements but why weren't there to begin with and regardless of that, the animation still looks mediocre when compared to Mass Effect 2 and arguably 1.

Bioware is now in my 'Don't trust, just wait and see' category.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Bioware is now in my 'Don't trust, just wait and see' category.

For me they've been in the "don't touch, just laugh" category since DA2 & ME3. EA poisoned them.

[kup]

For me they've been in the "don't touch, just laugh" category since DA2 & ME3. EA poisoned them.

It took me a while to reach that conclusion - DA2 was certainly a warning and the ME3 debacle was noteworthy. To be fair, they did make an effort to fix the latter but this latest antic has made it clear that they should not be trusted for me.

[Gutsman Heavy]

To be fair, they did make an effort to fix the latter but this latest antic has made it clear that they should not be trusted for me.

My ME3 issues go far deeper than the ending, hell I never even checked it out. The game lost me way before I finished it.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

EA poisoned them.
EA Poisons everything they touch.

[DELTAprime]

Am I the only person that loves ME3 and their other much hated sci-fi game SWTOR?

But EA really should stop messing with their studios. Bioware was much better back in the day before the Doctors exited. Criteron was gutted and I'm not sure it still exist, they had something like 6 employees last I heard. DICE is very hit and miss these days. The team that makes EA's NBA game is just turning out crap. And the only sports game EA can be bothered to make a PC version of is FIFA. Even if it didn't look any better than the console versions I'd still like to be able to play Madden or UFC on my PC.

[i_amtrunks]

Just started Shadows of Mordor on the PS4, about 5 hours in and I'm enjoying most of t very much. Can't believe that I bought it before I even owned a PS4 and I still waited this long. Lots of fun but so far I'm a little disappointed that there is so little to collect in terms of lore and bits and pieces. Their was more stuff to find in tomb raider!

Only died 3 times so far, all to freaking Caragors yet an orc still gets the power up.... go figure. Enjoying the skirmishes where you get to take out a captain or two at parties or whatever but the respawning of orcs everywhere is already tiresome. If I clear out an area it should remain orc free for at least a. Few minutes. I killed 34 orcs from a stronghold, collected some Mirian and by the time I'd climbed back down the wall there were another 12 orcs who teleported in!

Gave up on my fifth attempt on the "poison grog" mission last night after getting spotted by an orc who magically appeared after not being on my radar or wraith view only moments before and after getting spotted by an archer over 200feet away when normally they can't see you from 10 feet! Very odd structures in the game sometimes.

[prjkt]

Must play through that game again, was pretty fun. At first I thought it was like playing the Batman Arkham series in Middle Earth - same dev/publisher, but it's got a few unique aspects to it that make it its own thing.

[DELTAprime]

If anyone is after Dirt Rally you can get it and Inside on Steam for $12 USD ATM. It's part of this months Humble Monthly Bundle, so remember to cancel your subscription after you get Dirt Rally and Inside if you don't want to be charged next month.

https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Just started Shadows of Mordor on the PS4, about 5 hours in and I'm enjoying most of t very much. Can't believe that I bought it before I even owned a PS4 and I still waited this long. Lots of fun but so far I'm a little disappointed that there is so little to collect in terms of lore and bits and pieces. Their was more stuff to find in tomb raider!

Only died 3 times so far, all to freaking Caragors yet an orc still gets the power up.... go figure. Enjoying the skirmishes where you get to take out a captain or two at parties or whatever but the respawning of orcs everywhere is already tiresome. If I clear out an area it should remain orc free for at least a. Few minutes. I killed 34 orcs from a stronghold, collected some Mirian and by the time I'd climbed back down the wall there were another 12 orcs who teleported in!

Gave up on my fifth attempt on the "poison grog" mission last night after getting spotted by an orc who magically appeared after not being on my radar or wraith view only moments before and after getting spotted by an archer over 200feet away when normally they can't see you from 10 feet! Very odd structures in the game sometimes.
I'm playing through and enjoying it quite a bit now. I too found the posioning the grog mission a bit of a pain, the problem is, as soon as you poison the grog barrels, uruks are immediately attaracted to it. I think they are also more "alert" than normal in the stealth challenges. I had IMMENSE trouble in the final dagger challenge, it was soo frustrating. Even though I think you were supposed to stealth kill everyone by stabbing them, I ended up just resorting to pinging them with the bow from afar.

Currenty I've unlocked all Talion's skills and am having fun branding the chiefs and making them fight each other to level them up. Generally I go after ones that have cool names or look cool. I've cranked about 47 hours so far ha h aha.

Even though they say its bad if you die, it's not really. Sure some chiefs will level up and early out they can be a pain in the bum, but with a little bit of planning it's easy enough to take them out when needed.

The orcs getting powered up when a caragor kills you is probably due to the passing time thing. They fight each other and I've seen one level up due to him killing a couple of caragors by himself.

The various runes are very handy and the ones that scare orcs are good to have. A few head shots and you might get lucky and make a bunch run away. I suggest trying to find the caragor skill missions asap, because until you can tame and counter the caragors, they are probably the most deadly enemy in the game.

I'm really enjoying it, way more than I thought I would and now I'm super pumped for the sequel too!

[DarkHyren]

Blizzard just released the 1.18 patch for StarCraft: Brood War, improving compatibility with modern systems and making both StarCraft and the Brood War expansion completely free, forever, no catch.
Here's where you can download it: https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/20674424

Bonus: When StarCraft: Remastered comes out, players on classic StarCraft will be able to play with Remastered players.

I imagine most people who are interested in RTS games have played this classic some time in the almost 20 years since its release, but just in case here you go

[DELTAprime]

Blizzard just released the 1.18 patch for StarCraft: Brood War, improving compatibility with modern systems and making both StarCraft and the Brood War expansion completely free, forever, no catch.
Here's where you can download it: https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/20674424

Bonus: When StarCraft: Remastered comes out, players on classic StarCraft will be able to play with Remastered players.

I imagine most people who are interested in RTS games have played this classic some time in the almost 20 years since its release, but just in case here you go

God dammit, I payed a whole $20 for my Starcraft Battlechest a decade or two ago. I want my money back Blizzard.:p:p:p:p:p

Anyway joking aside. Looking forward to some newish games for the Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is out next Friday, looks like a perfect upgrade to the game. Also Puyo Puyo Tetris is out next Friday (maybe Thursday, different dates in different places), I love the Japanese version I bought on Xbox One when the game originally came out several years ago. I'll be glad to have an English version. It's only $59 too, always glad when I don't have to pay $99 for a game.

[DELTAprime]

Just bought Transformers Devastation on Steam for $10. I better actually play it this time instead of leaving it sitting around like I did on the Xbox version.

[kurdt_the_goat]

Also Puyo Puyo Tetris is out next Friday (maybe Thursday, different dates in different places), I love the Japanese version I bought on Xbox One when the game originally came out several years ago. I'll be glad to have an English version. It's only $59 too, always glad when I don't have to pay $99 for a game.

I picked this up the other day for 100Y/$1:

http://i.imgur.com/KagJ0xXl.jpg

No online and no Tetris i guess, but i'll take it! :D
Completes my Saturn Puyo Puyo main series collection too!

[kup]

$59 for a Tetris game seems too much.

[DELTAprime]

$59 for a Tetris game seems too much.

It's not just a Tetris game.

Anyway I'll have it on Tuesday when I get paid cause you know, bills come first.:rolleyes:

So what do you guys think of CoD: WWII? Stars Transformers own Josh Duhamel :p. I hope it's good, but I won't preorder.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Wonderboy the Dragon's Trap.
very nice. Exactly what I want from an updated graphical version of Wboy. I really loved the original and still think it's great. Lizardcube's game does a great job of still feeling and handling exactly like the original with new graphics and sound, yet still allowing you to instantly flip between old and new style.

Brilliant!
Pros: The original game with new graphics

Cons: no game enhancements.
(there is a hard mode)
For me, this is fine, but I really like the game and am very curious how someone new (and young) would like the game. Some of the gameplay elements must seem a tad old.

Cons: Price
Bit of a hard one this one, as its been completely programmed from scratch. As far as I'm aware it doesn't use any assets from the original game, so no emulation. It must have been a lot of work, but let's face it, you're paying 30 bucks for an almost 30 year old game. Still the new music is great.

Personally this game is great. I like the original, it feels like the original and plays like the original. Good for me.

Now eagerly awaiting Monsterboy and the Cursed Kingdom. Hope that's just as good.

Seriously going to avoid the updated original Wonderboy. While Dragon's trap and Monsterboy look like good updates, Wonderboy looks like a cheap arse flash game with stuff-all effort applied. I'd rather play the master system version, or emulate the arcade mode than look at the lazy job they are doing.

Also, Shadow of Mordor is great. 52 hours and still having fun!:D

[DELTAprime]

Also, Shadow of Mordor is great. 52 hours and still having fun!:D

I couldn't care less about the story in Shadow of Mordor but the gameplay is absolutely amazing. Did you know it started as a movieverse Batman game but the film people got nervous and so it was changed to LOTR? It's sequel Shadow of War is coming out in August, but I will wait for a sale on it because they are really overreaching with their $160 Gold Edition.:rolleyes:

[DELTAprime]

Well, bills are paid. Time to buy the Switch version of my favourite Mario Kart of all time.

EDIT: Hmmm, I guess on launch day Nintendo's servers must have been getting slammed cause unlike the 16 hour long download of BotW, MK8 is almost finished downloading.:D

[prjkt]

Ok so I've been playing Prey for the last few hours.

Originally pre-ordered it based in the cool E3 trailer, and I enjoyed the original game.

Well, this one has nothing to do whatsoever with the 2007 game, none of the same mechanics, but damn if this isn't a spiritual successor to System Shock II along with a mix of Deus Ex.

Which of course are two of my favourite games of all time.

Neuromods are Prey's equivalent of SS2's Psi and Deus Ex's Augments, with a few twists, each "skill" requires more neuromods than the previous (like SS2's cybermodules) and there's more than a couple of references to those two in game ("Looking Glass" technology and a door passcode being "0451")

Crafting is interesting, and relatively simple. Any object can be dumped into a recycler and turned into a quantity of one of four raw materials, which can then be used in another device to create objects you've found plans for.

I'm not very far into the story yet but gameplay wise it's quite fun. It's got the "horror" theme shock music during fight scenes/surprise enemy appearances, SS2's "instructions from a far" and a hint of Deus Ex's multiple conflicting goals starting to show, so I think I'm really going to enjoy this one.

[DELTAprime]

Ok so I've been playing Prey for the last few hours.

Originally pre-ordered it based in the cool E3 trailer, and I enjoyed the original game.

Well, this one has nothing to do whatsoever with the 2007 game, none of the same mechanics, but damn if this isn't a spiritual successor to System Shock II along with a mix of Deus Ex.

Which of course are two of my favourite games of all time.

Neuromods are Prey's equivalent of SS2's Psi and Deus Ex's Augments, with a few twists, each "skill" requires more neuromods than the previous (like SS2's cybermodules) and there's more than a couple of references to those two in game ("Looking Glass" technology and a door passcode being "0451")

Crafting is interesting, and relatively simple. Any object can be dumped into a recycler and turned into a quantity of one of four raw materials, which can then be used in another device to create objects you've found plans for.

I'm not very far into the story yet but gameplay wise it's quite fun. It's got the "horror" theme shock music during fight scenes/surprise enemy appearances, SS2's "instructions from a far" and a hint of Deus Ex's multiple conflicting goals starting to show, so I think I'm really going to enjoy this one.

Does it feel like it's going to be a short game? Someone beat it the other in a 20 minute speedrun.

https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/8/15583948/prey-speedrun-world-record

[DarkHyren]

Does it feel like it's going to be a short game? Someone beat it the other in a 20 minute speedrun.

https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/8/15583948/prey-speedrun-world-recordDon't know about the length of this game in particular but speedruns generally miss all the story, all the easter eggs, and rely heavily on in game exploits to get those times so I wouldnt worry too much about it being too short.
Personally I dont see the appeal, if it's a game that relies on best times etc sure, but with games where there's a lot to do and explore and story to experience I just dont see the point. As they say, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should, and that's my view on speedruns

[prjkt]

I'm about 15 hours in and there's still a few areas I haven't/can't get to yet, plus so far quests have had me backtracking all over the place - so maybe halfway or so through? (But then in my experience games seem to get more linear towards the end so I might be wrong)

I am doing a lot of exploring though

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Finished the story of Shadow of Mordor and it was ok. But the game was great! Looking at my save file, I cranked 92 hours! 92 Hours of various messing around with the Uruka captains and cray general shenanigans.

Also, managed to bag my first platinum trophy too (and subsequent 100% trophy collection.). Annoyingly, when I look at the trophy section, SOM doesn't come up as 100% because the DLC trophies are included, even though I have not got it. Grrrr

Good game, which is kin of fun, as to how to proceed. Looking for cool Uruks with decent stats to make captains/ warchiefs etc.

I found it really hard at first, and easy at the end, and wondered if my skills had progressed, or it's just hard to get into. I think it's very hard to get into. I started a new game and went along to take a relatively low ranked captain and soon got swamped. The fight carried on for a while and before I knew it, another two captains had come along.

So starting the game, when you have no skills for the old quick take down/combo abilities is when it is really hard. Although I had goten better, as I certainly was able to survive longer than I would have before, it just takes AGES before I get can take out the captain.

[Bartrim]

Went to a friends house today. He had the new Friday The 13th game on PS4. I watched him play for a bit. It's a bit basic in gameplay and graphics for PS4 and at the moment it's only multiplayer with a single player patch coming soon. But it kills it in atmosphere. I watched him play as both a Counselor and Jason. It was thrilling watching him hunt as Jason and I was actually tense watching him hide and try to escape when he was one of the teenagers. Fairly entertaining.

[prjkt]

Been playing Rime the last few evenings, finished it last night.

Gameplay wise it's a nice change of pace to say Prey or Skyrim, which I've been playing lately. Nice cel-shaded style game, reminiscent of Zelda's Wind Waker game, but that's where the comparison ends really. There's no combat whatsoever, and where there are threats, it's quite clear how to avoid/deal with them.

Puzzles are relatively intuitive, if at times a little simple, but not tedious - there's no pointless repetition.

There are four stages/chapters and an epilogue of sorts that are quite clearly delineated in terms of theme, and quite clearly so once you've finished the game and find out the names for the chapters.

As there's no dialogue whatsoever, apart from a little tension in the second chapter, until that final chapter everything's pretty chill and cheerful, it's only the glimpses of the story through murals and hidden "keyholes" throughout the game. The end of the final chapter however, and the epilogue were to me a kick in the guts. It was quite impressive how much the devs could portray without a single word.

On the technical side there's a few complaints, not the best optimised game I've played lately (had to turn down a few settings, whilePrey was a lot smoother on my rig with all settings maxed out, and seemingly more a technically demanding game) but for an indie game I guess that's not unexpected. Only had major slowdowns once partway through the first chapter as a distant building was being rendered and the occasional stutter that I'm used to seeing in most games I play - a 9 year old Mac Pro with a GTX 960 somehow keeps up pretty well at 2560x1080 in my opinion. Performance might be different on consoles.

Recommendations for this game are tough - for the most part it's a pretty enjoyable game, especially as an intro to gaming for a kid, but that ending might be a little much for some. Replay value is limited to finding all the collectables in the game/scoring achievements.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

at the moment it's only multiplayer with a single player patch coming soon.
I don' like this trend. I can see a point where a game is made, doesn't sell many copies and although they may have decided to intially had a story mode, they don't bother due to low sales. For all intents and purposes they are selling an unfinished product aren't they?

Plonking along though Horizon Zero Dawna nd still not quite feeling the love for it. Combat is still good and enjoyable, but still not gelling with the characters. Interesting....

[1AZRAEL1]

I don' like this trend. I can see a point where a game is made, doesn't sell many copies and although they may have decided to intially had a story mode, they don't bother due to low sales. For all intents and purposes they are selling an unfinished product aren't they?

Remember when consoles weren't hooked up to the internet and what you got was a complete game? Now as soon as you put the game disc in it makes you download a xGB file just to be able to play.

And the no single player thing? That's was why I hated Battlefront so much because the single player part was so lacking it bored me.

[prjkt]

Remember when consoles weren't hooked up to the internet and what you got was a complete game? Now as soon as you put the game disc in it makes you download a xGB file just to be able to play.
Same with PC games now, you buy the physical copy only to have a single disc, with the rest downloaded - Doom had something like ~45Gb to download, Prey wasn't much better.

Also hating the enforced release times - game can physically be sold from 9am, yet can't install it until 4am the next morning due to Americans not wanting to feel left out...

And the no single player thing? That's was why I hated Battlefront so much because the single player part was so lacking it bored me.

That and any time I tried to play online there were zero games to join online.

Thankfully Battlefront 2 mk II comes with a SP campaign.

[1AZRAEL1]

Same with PC games now, you buy the physical copy only to have a single disc, with the rest downloaded - Doom had something like ~45Gb to download, Prey wasn't much better.

Also hating the enforced release times - game can physically be sold from 9am, yet can't install it until 4am the next morning due to Americans not wanting to feel left out...

I bought Doom for PC, had to log it with Steam and download that massive file. Computer wasn't good enough to play the game so wasted money on that. So I bought it for PS4 so I can play it. You can imagine my language after I put the disc in to have to download a big file to play on PS4 too..


That and any time I tried to play online there were zero games to join online.

Thankfully Battlefront 2 mk II comes with a SP campaign.

I always had games to join. I had more fun playing games with friends, not complete strangers. I was pretty good playing it online, but I just didn't have fun. If the next one has a single player campaign, I may buy it

[Ralph Wiggum]

Battlefront (2015) had the misfortune of being released at the same time as Fallout 4. I admit neglecting Battlefront in favour of hammering away at FO4, and the PC server numbers were dismal, roughly 1500 players in the entire world. I jumped back into the tail end of Battlefront in the second half of 2016, and was lucky enough to get enough hours to consider I got my money's worth.

Battlefront 2 is showing signs of hope: there will not be any player-fracturing DLC/season pass. Inclusion of a SP campaign. I'm still hoping for a server browser. But lesson learned from the last game and I will not be pre-ordering.

[DELTAprime]

I really should delete Motorsport Manager from my PC. It's the same kinda time sink as Civilization. In this case it's not one more turn, it's one more race.:o

[prjkt]

Tested out Steam's In home streaming feature last night by playing a couple of games on my MacBook Air

Solid 58-60fps in Terraria and 40-55fps in Rime, only maybe 3 slowdowns due to network speeds in the half hour I messed around.

Desktop is wired into the network while the laptop is connected via 802.11N speeds.

Real test will be taking the laptop into another room as it was only about a metre from the router during tests

[Gutsman Heavy]

Bought me one of them PS4s, $265 was too cheap to pass up. Probably should get some games at some point.

[DELTAprime]

Bought Horizon Zero Dawn from work today for $45. Now I just need to make sure I actually play it. I have so many unplayed games.:o

[Ralph Wiggum]

Bought Horizon Zero Dawn from work today for $45. Now I just need to make sure I actually play it. I have so many unplayed games.:o

Just picked that up myself. I heard nothing but good things about the game.

[i_amtrunks]

Bought Horizon Zero Dawn from work today for $45. Now I just need to make sure I actually play it. I have so many unplayed games.:o

I played the first few hours while at a mates place, it is very good and well worth a play. It felt similar to the last few Far Cry installments, but also very different at the same time.

[Trent]

Bought Horizon Zero Dawn from work today for $45. Now I just need to make sure I actually play it. I have so many unplayed games.:o


Just picked that up myself. I heard nothing but good things about the game.


I played the first few hours while at a mates place, it is very good and well worth a play. It felt similar to the last few Far Cry installments, but also very different at the same time.

While I quite enjoyed the story, the ending I thought was a little anti-climatic.

Apparently some DLC was announced at E3?

[Shirokaze]

Nintendo announced a full-blown Pokemon RPG for the Switch this morning. I've been waiting for this for over a decade :p

[DELTAprime]

Apparently some DLC was announced at E3?

Yeah looks interesting but I'd probably be more excited for it if I had finished HZD.

It's interesting that despite Microsoft bungling the price of Xbox One X a lot of people think Microsoft had the better presentation this year of the big two. But Ubi stole the show with their presentation, tho I'm approaching the cool stuff they showed with caution because we all remember how great Watch Dogs and The Division looked at E3 and then at launch they were not as good as everyone was expecting.

[i_amtrunks]

Nintendo announced a full-blown Pokemon RPG for the Switch this morning. I've been waiting for this for over a decade :p

It wouldn't surprise me if it was the threequel to colosseum/xd! :p

Let's hope it isn't a switch version of sun/moon/gen 8 but a proper stand alone Pokémon game, like the GameCube games but more open!

[shockNwave]

I didn't know where else to put this considering that there's no pinball thread.

I recently played the newest Batman pinball machine and it's based on the 60's series. It features a TV display screen instead of the usual pixelated screen and so you get footage from the actual series like all the BIFFs and SPLATs and the sound samples as well. Fitting that this machine came out just before Adam West passed away RIP.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I didn't know where else to put this considering that there's no pinball thread.

I recently played the newest Batman pinball machine and it's based on the 60's series. It features a TV display screen instead of the usual pixelated screen and so you get footage from the actual series like all the BIFFs and SPLATs and the sound samples as well. Fitting that this machine came out just before Adam West passed away RIP.

Dang! I'm not much of a pin ball player (mainly coz I'm kinda crap at it) but I would certainly chuck some coin into that baby! I've alwways loved the clever ways that TV/movies get made into pin ball machines. Very clever!

[DELTAprime]

Just in case you're on Xbox 360 or Xbox One and don't have these games already, the digital versions of all the Transformers games made by Activision since Dark of the Moon are on sale now for up to 75% off.

https://majornelson.com/2017/06/19/this-weeks-deals-with-gold-and-spotlight-sale-85/

The list of games on sale this week in the link above is long but it's in alphabetical order so the links to the Transformers games are in there, 360 games come after Xbox One.

[1AZRAEL1]

A new Wolfenstein game is coming woot woot. New Order was a great game. Gameplay and story was brilliant. Always fascinated by the concepts of what if Germany had won WW2. I should play Old Blood all the way through

[i_amtrunks]

So booted up the PS4 for the first time in a while.... shadows of Mordor updated to version 1.1.... why??????

[Gutsman Heavy]

So booted up the PS4 for the first time in a while.... shadows of Mordor updated to version 1.1.... why??????

AD for the next game. Speculation suggests it's also for save transfers to the next game.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I heard they were going to allow you to transfer some favourite loyal captains across.

Interesting concept, but... I'm not THAT attached to any of my captains anymore.

Ever since Lugnak the Mountain lost that duel.

Why...? he was such a badass. Until one duel wher he was full health, fell over and got killed in one hit:(

I liked Lugnak. Not only beacuse his name sounds like Lugnut, but because he was a shield guy, with friggin tank armour and was massive. Almost indestructable...

Almost.

[DELTAprime]

A new Wolfenstein game is coming woot woot. New Order was a great game. Gameplay and story was brilliant. Always fascinated by the concepts of what if Germany had won WW2. I should play Old Blood all the way through

Yeah I've been meaning to play New Order, I'm also wondering should I bother with New Blood.

[1AZRAEL1]

Yeah I've been meaning to play New Order, I'm also wondering should I bother with New Blood.

Old Blood is the prequel to New Order. New Order I have played through multiple times. The game is brilliant. The nods Wolfenstein 3D are there. I can't praise it enough

[Gutsman Heavy]

Loved New Order. Found Old blood disappointing, felt repetitive and had a horrible last boss. Very much looking forward to New Colossus.

[1AZRAEL1]

I found playing Old Blood didn't grab me in as much as New Order did. Right from the beginning of New Order had me. I'll finish Old Blood anyway

[DELTAprime]

Steam Summer Sale is now on so lots of cheap games until 6th of July. Plus Big W has 10% off Steam $50 and $100 gift cards for the toy sale saving you an extra 10%.

[prjkt]

Steam Summer Sale is now on so lots of cheap games until 6th of July. Plus Big W has 10% off Steam $50 and $100 gift cards for the toy sale saving you an extra 10%.

Ooh tempting

[kup]

Steam Summer Sale is now on so lots of cheap games until 6th of July. Plus Big W has 10% off Steam $50 and $100 gift cards for the toy sale saving you an extra 10%.

Very tempting! Thanks for the heads up.

[DELTAprime]

All right. So far I've bought MK9 and MKX XL since I've been wanting to replay them for a while. When I go into work next week I'll pick up some Steam gift cards and then grab Civ 6 and I'll rebuy MGS5 and New Order (I promise I'll finish them this time).

I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on Nier Automata? I'm thinking about picking it up in the Steam sale, but I'm not sure about it as it's a very Japanese game.

[1AZRAEL1]

PlayStation store has Dungeons & Dragons' Neverwinter MMORPG up for free, and is free to play too

[Gutsman Heavy]

I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on Nier Automata? I'm thinking about picking it up in the Steam sale, but I'm not sure about it as it's a very Japanese game.

yeah it's jap to the core, if you don't want to replay several times to get to the proper end don't bother

[DELTAprime]

yeah it's jap to the core, if you don't want to replay several times to get to the proper end don't bother

So when you say it's "jap to the core" how Japanese is the story and mechanics? I'm ok with something like Metal Gear Solid 5 which is absolutely a Japanese story, but they have Westernised the controls and mechanics considerably.

[Gutsman Heavy]

So when you say it's "jap to the core" how Japanese is the story and mechanics? I'm ok with something like Metal Gear Solid 5 which is absolutely a Japanese story, but they have Westernised the controls and mechanics considerably.

It plays like most platinum's action games (watered down bayonetta/MGS:Revengence/Transformers Devastation combat) and exploration. Story isn't as accessible as MGS, Taro's games are less "western compatible"

check out Ben Moore's review
https://youtu.be/U0VY2b80mpI
he has a tendency to let his fanboy-isms affect the review so take a little bit of salt with this video

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Finished Horizon Zero Dawn last week and while it wasn't bad, it didn't really have me all that enthralled.

I'm not sure, but I think seeing the slew of reviews giving it 10/10 scores perhaps pushed my expectations up too much. I didn't read any reviews, but saw many of the scores and had Kurdt the goat talking it up a bit.

Although I think if I bought it without knowing the reviews, I think I'd still feel the same.

Graphics are amazing, there's no doubt about that, and Dino action was pretty cool too.

Oddly the game had some red flags to me.
I didn't like most of the characters. At the end of the game, the only ones I did like were Sylens and Nil. Even Sylens is on the lower end of being "liked." Aloy was a weird character and things like the conversation arcs seemed pointless. Why give me a compassionate option about the preciousness of life, when later on she's just going to blow off or brag about killing 40 human bandits?

The map looks huge, but is rather small. This struck me early on when I went to avoid a stormbird at the start of the game, I took the lft path, but in game, I could clearly see the tight path, but on the map it looked like a long way.

Stupid NPC fetch quests. Get this, kill this, kill this then get this. They totally padded the game out with somewhat ridiculously. Not only that they always sent you far away for the thing you needed.

Crafting arrows/potions/traps etc was cool. But at the end, I just had too much stuff, but wasn't too sure on what I needed to keep. Fire arrows were my bread and butter, but I fould myself outta bits when I had dumped some stuff that looked like I didn't need it for something else. Too much screen hopping to find out what ingredients I needed for the arrows.

Money was frikking useless. I ended up with the shadow weapons rather soon (to my surprise) there were no better ones, not that weapon types added much attack anyway... I ended up ignoring most shops by the end, only to sell stuff to lighten the load of animal bits I picked up.

As I said before, the graphics were amazing. But then there'd be some bit where it showed that while they had spent all their time on graphics, they'd taken some serious shortcuts.
It started snowing heavily in one area. Cool. I entered a cave or something and the snow and wind was blowing through the cave walls. Same with walking by mountain sides. Rain would come through the side of the mountains...
Storms making it for me to see, but not enemies apparently. I got stuck doing a human boss fight in torrential rain. I couldn't see them, but they sure as hell could see me.

The one thing that bugged me the most. The funky arse head movements as you spoke to people. Oh gawd. Considering how nice most of the character models looked, they just messed it up with bizzare animations. Does everyone on this game have some kind of tic? Mass case of mild turrets syndrome?

Riding mounts. Why when riding some sheep thing with big arse horns does the sheep thing attack by kicking like a horse?

It wasn't a bad game by any means and the Aloy vs Robits combat was ace and well done. The options you had allowed various gameplay styles. Stealth, full on gung ho, traps. Or a combination of all three. Personally I really enjoyed the traps and used them a lot. But the human fights were just a bit tedious in my opion.

Oh and the last story mission, well... It seemed so hyped up and possibly epic, I was really looking forward to it... It was quite anticlimactic.

In the end, I think the game deserves a 7/10. It's not prefect by any means, but its damn good, but a few whacky things just let it down a little bit

[Deonasis]

SNES mini preordered!

[prjkt]

Same here, will sit nicely with my NES mini

[i_amtrunks]

SNES mini preordered!

What was the damage to the wallet? US$90 seems a bit steep once converted into $AU.

[Paulbot]

I think I will (attempt to) get one, it comes with most of my SNES games, but I do wish they'd included Super Mario Bros All Stars and more importantly Donkey Kong Country 2 (I could miss DKC3 but 2 was the top game of that series).

[prjkt]

What was the damage to the wallet? US$90 seems a bit steep once converted into $AU.

$119.95 including two controllers, so same price as the Nes Mini if you bought a second controller

[Gutsman Heavy]

Crazy that Star Fox 2 will be seeing an official release after all this time. Really strong line up, more so than the NES Classic imo.

[kup]

SNES mini preordered!

Awesome!

Wish I could get the Super Famicom version though. The scalpers already started on ebay with $450+ for PAL version preorders.

[Trent]

Jb HIFi have a $1 deposit preorder for the SNES.

God I hope this means the N64 mini is next year!

[Paulbot]

So, you have to buy the power plug for the SNES separately from the unit. It's a USB power thing so other similar plugs would work right? Like an Apple charger? How did that work for the NES?

[kup]

So, you have to buy the power plug for the SNES separately from the unit. It's a USB power thing so other similar plugs would work right? Like an Apple charger? How did that work for the NES?

Most TVs from the last few years have USB ports. You can power it from there and limits the need for power boards.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Oh man I so want this:

http://www.pertharcademachines.com.au/products/mortal-kombat-standup-machine-2019-games/

[Paulbot]

Most TVs from the last few years have USB ports. You can power it from there and limits the need for power boards.

Just into the TV? Oh that's easily sorted then.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Pre-orded a SNES Mini. Sure I have the original console and games packed away, and sure I opt to use cycle accurate emulators with my original controllers for that authentic feel. But a console with that many great games including the unreleased Star Fox 2? Fug it, I'm so in.

If i get buyer remorse I'll just scalp it :D

[DELTAprime]

Finished Horizon Zero Dawn last week and while it wasn't bad, it didn't really have me all that enthralled.

I'm not sure, but I think seeing the slew of reviews giving it 10/10 scores perhaps pushed my expectations up too much. I didn't read any reviews, but saw many of the scores and had Kurdt the goat talking it up a bit.

Although I think if I bought it without knowing the reviews, I think I'd still feel the same.

Graphics are amazing, there's no doubt about that, and Dino action was pretty cool too.

Oddly the game had some red flags to me.
I didn't like most of the characters. At the end of the game, the only ones I did like were Sylens and Nil. Even Sylens is on the lower end of being "liked." Aloy was a weird character and things like the conversation arcs seemed pointless. Why give me a compassionate option about the preciousness of life, when later on she's just going to blow off or brag about killing 40 human bandits?

The map looks huge, but is rather small. This struck me early on when I went to avoid a stormbird at the start of the game, I took the lft path, but in game, I could clearly see the tight path, but on the map it looked like a long way.

Stupid NPC fetch quests. Get this, kill this, kill this then get this. They totally padded the game out with somewhat ridiculously. Not only that they always sent you far away for the thing you needed.

Crafting arrows/potions/traps etc was cool. But at the end, I just had too much stuff, but wasn't too sure on what I needed to keep. Fire arrows were my bread and butter, but I fould myself outta bits when I had dumped some stuff that looked like I didn't need it for something else. Too much screen hopping to find out what ingredients I needed for the arrows.

Money was frikking useless. I ended up with the shadow weapons rather soon (to my surprise) there were no better ones, not that weapon types added much attack anyway... I ended up ignoring most shops by the end, only to sell stuff to lighten the load of animal bits I picked up.

As I said before, the graphics were amazing. But then there'd be some bit where it showed that while they had spent all their time on graphics, they'd taken some serious shortcuts.
It started snowing heavily in one area. Cool. I entered a cave or something and the snow and wind was blowing through the cave walls. Same with walking by mountain sides. Rain would come through the side of the mountains...
Storms making it for me to see, but not enemies apparently. I got stuck doing a human boss fight in torrential rain. I couldn't see them, but they sure as hell could see me.

The one thing that bugged me the most. The funky arse head movements as you spoke to people. Oh gawd. Considering how nice most of the character models looked, they just messed it up with bizzare animations. Does everyone on this game have some kind of tic? Mass case of mild turrets syndrome?

Riding mounts. Why when riding some sheep thing with big arse horns does the sheep thing attack by kicking like a horse?

It wasn't a bad game by any means and the Aloy vs Robits combat was ace and well done. The options you had allowed various gameplay styles. Stealth, full on gung ho, traps. Or a combination of all three. Personally I really enjoyed the traps and used them a lot. But the human fights were just a bit tedious in my opion.

Oh and the last story mission, well... It seemed so hyped up and possibly epic, I was really looking forward to it... It was quite anticlimactic.

In the end, I think the game deserves a 7/10. It's not prefect by any means, but its damn good, but a few whacky things just let it down a little bit

I'm just wondering if combat gets easier as the game goes on? I keep getting owned in combat at level 7, I'm about to leave the valley. I feel like I need to cheeze so many fights in order to proceed. I really, really want to love the game, but the combat is making me want to rage.

Anyway, won't be playing that tonight. The Necromancer mini-expansion came out for Diablo 3. I'm going to powerlevel to 70 and get some practice in with the Necro before next season starts.

[Trent]

I'm just wondering if combat gets easier as the game goes on? I keep getting owned in combat at level 7, I'm about to leave the valley. I feel like I need to cheeze so many fights in order to proceed. I really, really want to love the game, but the combat is making me want to rage.

Anyway, won't be playing that tonight. The Necromancer mini-expansion came out for Diablo 3. I'm going to powerlevel to 70 and get some practice in with the Necro before next season starts.

It gets easier. The comes a time in the game where combat stops being a challenge. The Sharpshot Bow is your friend and Tear arrows make it easy (Find out what machines give you echo shells as that's the primary ingredient in those arrows). Corruption arrows also work well. Also chase down the power cells for the power armour and that's it. You're essentially invincible.

Upgrading your skill tree to be able to fire 3 arrows is the best way to quickly take out enemies.

About halfway through the game I cranked the difficulty as high as it would go and it still wasn't much of a challenge.

[kup]

Only way to get the Metroid: Samus Return Legacy edition is through Europe. I am hoping I am able to buy it from Amazon Spain (only place that seems to list it even if not yet available).

[kurdt_the_goat]

What's the price for that looking like? I didn't want the hassle so just preordered the regular release from Play Asia, and the CD & box separately from Nintendo Store Japan. It blew my mind they were offering just that, but it's handy for me! Add in both the Amiibo and I've got myself a custom Special Edition!

Would you believe Nintendo is also selling a Splatoon 2 Switch bundle Box (which you assemble yourself and doesnt even have the inserts to hold the console) for 540Y!

[i_amtrunks]

Couldn't get to a store in time to get Crash Bandicoot today. My goal is to play at least an hour every night for he next two weeks while I am holiday before the PS4 doesn't get touched again for the next 10 weeks!

[DarkHyren]

Just a reminder for the gamers, the netflix tax scam comes in soon, possibly at midnight tonight or sometime tomorrow, so if you're planning on getting anything from the Steam sale/XBL/PSN etc do so soon or you'll have to pay 10% more, because as far as I'm aware these platforms will be implementing the charges

[i_amtrunks]

Love to know why the games on psn/Xbox were so much higher here than overseas then if they were not paying tax properly before...

[DarkHyren]

Same issue with Steam, if a US customer buys a AAA game it's about US$50 but if an aussie buys the same game it's US$90.
There are many excuses given like "inflation" and "cost of living" but it's an empty excuse that's never held any merit.
Also I should clarify, I havent looked into XBL and PSN so I dont know the specifics, but 90% of digital content suppliers will be charging aussie customers 10% more from now on.
One odd exclusion is iTunes, apparently there's not going to be any price increases for anything on iTunes, I'd like to know what kickbacks they gave the government to get out of it and why they are so special...

Edit: Just got some games from Steam at 6:30am NSW time, no tax yet, perhaps they are waiting till the sale ends?
I know I read on multiple sites that Steam would be charging the netflix tax, so I guess we have to just wait and see when it gets implemented.

[prjkt]

Afaicr, iTunes already charges GST in their prices, as Apple has a big Australian presence already.
Steam game prices are annoying, if it's anything like Adobe's pricing combination of exchange rate shafting us, distributors setting "regional pricing" and Australia's so called "higher cost for warranty/support" - apparently our consumer laws are too expensive for some companies to deal wih

[Ralph Wiggum]

They charge us more because we keep paying for it. Vote with your wallet. Wait for Steam sales, or go to CD key sites. Use discount codes from sites like Green Man Gaming. Look out for release date specials, especially for console games at Target or Big W.


Australia's so called "higher cost for warranty/support" - apparently our consumer laws are too expensive for some companies to deal wih

We do have an advantage in that regard, for example when I was looking at iPhones when overseas, although they were about $50-$100 cheaper, they only came with 1 yr warranty whereas here its 2 years.