FLips

Fun coincidence actually. I was watching @Big Bully Busick’s Youtube channel and he picks a game up and says “what on earth is that”. 
I knew what it was straight away.

It’s the Japanese copy of Mr Moskeeto! It’s definitely a fetish thing.

My mate just sent me this. AI doing wrestler themes from prompts. The AJ Styles and Hulk Hogan ones have sent me to another dimension. Bad laughing at them.

I thought Braun was great when he was feuding with Roman but just like Ryback before him, once they stopped pushing him and he wasn’t doing squashes and main event brawls he was exposed as pretty useless. You can’t just have a guy his size be a regular roster spot or you go from Kane to Albert really fast.

Orioles and Mariners have been a pleasure to watch this season. Orioles are good fun with a great atmosphere but the Mariners are starting to show a little bit more character than usual. It's been an odd season for us so far though as it feels like every team we've played so far signed one of our players during the off-season.
The game against Atlanta today was ace. Opened with Jarred Kelenic explaining how he's grown as a person since he played for us and did an interview crying his eyes out because he accidentally broke his foot kicking a bin and ended with us walking them off in the bottom of the 9th. You love to see it.

My mate is a big PS2 collector and so over the last few weeks I've been playing some stuff with him. I can't remember if I already mentioned it in here but we finished the PS2 Altered Beast which isn't anywhere near as bad as people say, but I also wouldn't go as far as to say it's good. It's a very solid, right down the middle 5/10. There are some decent boss fights and the as someone who isn't a fan of the genre I don't find the combat any less monotonous than something like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. That being said, the fact you have to watch the human to beast transition every single time is a nightmare because the game encourages a lot of transforming. Like how Metal Gear Solid games are 30% gameplay and 70% cutscenes, this was the same ratio in gameplay to transforming.

We also played Castlevania: Lament of Innocence which is chronologically the first game in the Castlevania story and is about the origins of Dracula and the Vampire Killer Whip. The gameplay is what it is but it's the overall package that worked well here. Really good soundtrack, interesting puzzle elements and hammy voice acting all made it a good laugh to play through and the solid if unspectacular gameplay held our attention long enough. We started Castlevania: Curse of Darkness over the weekend and while Lament had a central hub and areas you could play and go back to in any order, this one is more like Symphony of The Night where it's one big connected world. The music is jammin' but I was underwhelmed with the gameplay so far as there are a lot of areas with nothing in them and it doesn't have the atmosphere to pull it off like Symphony does.

We 100%'d the Pamela Anderson quicktime event shooter/rhythm game VIP which took a couple of hours and we didn't stop laughing through the whole thing. I'm not going to lie to you and say it's a good game in any way but I think he got it for a tenner and if you're looking for a way to pass a couple of hours and piss yourself laughing at how amazingly bad it all is then this is the game for you.

Another game in the lineup is Mr Moskeeto which is absolutely bonkers. The game opens with some pro-mosquito propaganda and then has you play as one terrorising a Japanese family. Each level is a family member in a room and you have to suck a specific amount of blood from them. They follow a routine and you have to pick your spot to zoom in and start sucking. If they see you it starts a david vs goliath fight where you have to fly around them and hit their "relaxation points" to calm them down.
The whole thing is a bit unsettling. The daughter of the family is 17 and there's a level where she's in the bath with the top of her tits above water and straight away my mate went "wonder where the weak spot is in this level" and right enough it has you suck the blood out of a 17 year old Japanese schoolgirls tit.
Other stages have you bite gross areas like between toes or on the lip and it's all just a bit much.

He has the usual lot of WWE games. We tried Smackdown vs Raw vs ECW 2009 and the original Smackdown vs Raw in that order. 2009 has an old school feel still but it's right on the cusp of when they were moving to a more simulated style. Slower pace, analogue stick controls and borderline boring mechanics. We got a bit of fun out of the roster and our Sandman vs Marcus Cor Von match was a laugh but we quickly stuck the original Smackdown vs Raw on and that was way way better.
Nostalgia right off the bat with the 2000s playlist full of enjoyable shite like Breaking Benjamin and Powerman5000, a gyrating Sable and Torrie Wilson on all the menus and a roster that is an absolute blast. The gameplay was fast paced similar to HCTP and other games before it and we had an absolute riot on it. I can't remember how good the ones between this and 09 were but my brain is telling me this was the last proper good one. I don't remember any of them as much as I remember putting this one on and being blasted by EVERYTHINGSFALLINGAPART as soon as it loads. Good times.

Outside of the PS2 I've been playing the original Fallout before and after work which I've always been a big fan of since first playing it back during the 2012 London Olympics (at home as a viewer, not as a participant). It's very much required that you save-scum your way through it as you'll find yourself in deep shit a lot. I love the graphics though, always found this 90s/00s pre-rendered style really nice and I wish we saw more games now that had it.
Got good memories of this one outside of the olympics too as when me and my wife first started dating, the first night she stayed over at mine I made us bacon sarnies and we played this the next morning. When she saw I was playing it again she made us bacon sarnies and sat with me, the wee cutie.

During work I've been playing Fallout New Vegas (the benefits of working from home) and that's been good fun as well. I wasn't surprised to see it show up in @RedRooster's favourite games thread as I've always held the opinion this is the best one. This, what must be my 3rd or 4th playthrough, hasn't changed that opinion either. It's janky in places but the characters and places and joys of exploring the wasteland were never matched. I do want to give Fallout 4 another chance though as I didn't think much after playing it at launch.

And lastly the three of us (me, my mate with the PS2 and my wife) have all been playing Fallout 76 again. It's perfectly fine as an online with your mates game but it leaves a lot to be desired as a Fallout game even with all the updates it's had. The usual issues that bog down MMORPGs are all in this, including old favourites carry weights filled with junk, no way to do main missions as a team so having to do them seperately at the same time, and forgoing exciting unique encounters to instead have repeatable public events. Is what it is, we're having fun but not as much fun as if Fallout 76 was single player we feel.

4 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

@FLips Do you have a blog or vlog or whatever else the kids watch these days instead of licking lead paint and getting kicked in the head like we did as kids when it was better before woke etc?

Its just your standard of Video Game writing shouldn’t be, and I hope it isn’t, only viewed on here as it should have as many eyes on it as possible. 

I don't do anything outside of here. I've said it before but I'm a UKFF exclusive haha. I did do the Twitch thing during lockdown and back in my late teens I used to write for a couple of websites/magazines but like with most things in my life I never pursued it fully. You're not the first person on here to ask me about doing stuff outside of the forum and I'd love to say one day I will but I'm sure I'll always find an excuse!

Yeah CEX fluctuates up and down with retro. Some things they price high but still around Ebay average, but some other things you'll find for beans. You'll find CEX has a better range of rarities than dedicated stores sometimes because a lot of the time the person selling it just wants quick cash and indy shops don't have the money to just chuck around.
My town has 2 CEXs a minute's walk apart and they get decent stuff in. One had an Atari Lynx the other week, the other had an Amiga mini.

When me and the wife were clearing out some of our more decorative items like Amiibos and the Fallout 4 Pip-Boy edition we sold them at CEX because they offer a decent price.

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On a side note I ordered a knockoff repro cart of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse from AliExpress today. It's not something I'm particularly thrilled about but I settled on the fact I'd never own the real thing as the PAL-A version sells for hundreds and thousands. I did have a bid on a region free repro of it on Ebay the other day that ended up going for £78 and then got relisted because the buyer never followed through. I shouldn't have bid on it at all really as I knew AliExpress had something similar for £15 and upon close inspection it's the exact same cart.  Saved myself a lot of money there.
Apparently it works by pressing the reset button to change regions so assuming it works as advertised then it should run 100% like the real thing as it's all on original hardware.

In the mail also is a Nintendo Super Scope and game that I'm excited to play. The game itself doesn't look outstanding but I've only ever known one person own one of these when I was a kid. Weirdly the same house where I first experienced DOOM on PC which his older brother had, and also I was round there once and his older brother called us both in to watch him fight Psycho Mantis on Metal Gear Solid. A lot of good gaming memories round there, but we used to just use the Super Scope as a bazooka when we were playing with toys (that Fisher Price castle with all the knights and catapults and stuff!).

I also (someone please stop me doing this) bought yet another PS1. The model 100X I got as a stand-in a couple of month ago has been more trouble than it was worth. First having to get a dedicated cable to play chipped games in colour, and even with a laser swap it picks and chooses what games it wants to load. I just bit the bullet and bought a 9002 model which aside from a missing gameshark port has all the bells and whistles my beloved 7502 model had. Comes with an official multi-tap too so if I find two more friends I'll be laughing.

19 minutes ago, Big Bully Busick said:

Recently started a YouTube channel which is heavily focused on retro 

 

https://youtube.com/@Wizbitsrandomgaming?si=YgXa0M-KHxdyoDZ7

Just had a quick look (I’m meant to be working) and as someone who also scours CEX and retro stores at any chance it seems right up my alley! Will watch properly later, nice one.

Interesting how so many 10s never made the list at all. Some really big hitters on there.

Excellent job Rooster, and everyone that did a write up. A really enjoyable list that brought back so many memories!

There are some games on there that if we could pick more games definitely would have made my list. Here Comes The Pain and Vice City for sure. If push came to shove those two and Timesplitters would make up some of my favourites on the PS2. I'm sure I learned the Vice City map off by heart!

Champ Man 01/02 as well. I didn't have a PC at that point but I would go round my mate's house and hammer that, Age of Empires 2 and some absolute shovelware game he had called Inca II: Wiracocha. We'd have pizza from Milano's and cans of pop from the corner shop, we'd stick wrestling tapes on and just have a blast on them.

I remember Pro Evo 4 being the year where our group of mates all collectively decided Pro Evo was better than FIFA. The gameplay was just an absolute blast.

I still haven't played Red Dead 2 so that might finally need to happen. Everyone I know who's played it adore it but I'm still mad about the ending to the first one!

My wife is an Orioles fan and I find I enjoy watching them much more than the Mariners. Exciting team, great ballpark and fans, and the home commentary is consistently good.

"We're Pepsi and they're Coke" isn't going to get the headlines or people online talking like the Weinstein line has and that's likely all there is to it. It doesn't change the fact it was unprofessional and embarrassing, and like others have said maybe he should look inwards at his own company.
It's straight out of the Eric Bischoff Monday Night Wars playbook to be fair to him.

2 minutes ago, Gus Mears said:

 Makes me pine for Hall of Fame Connections

Think about what you're saying here.

12 minutes ago, Vegeta said:

I never played the final fantasy games before and seen they have them all on the PlayStation store.

I bought the first one for 10 quid but have yet to play it, my main question is, is the pixilated/remastered version on the ps gonna give a true representation of the games and the series, or is it a case of the newer versions of them distorted it in anyway?

The Final Fantasy games should all really be held on their own merit. Everyone has their own favourites and least favourites for one reason or another, though obviously there's a select few that are deemed classics by nearly everyone.
If by "the first one" you mean Final Fantasy I then you're probably not going to fall in love with the series or get a full representation off the back of it. Like all of them it has it's merits, but it's the first attempt at a game they didn't think would even become a series. It's maybe good for the time but it's never going to live up to the ones that came later down the line.
All the mainline games are individual stories as well, so there's no reason to start from 1 and do them chronologically. If you want a better representation of the series then there is probably no better place to start than Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy X as they're both (in my opinion) two of the most accessible and also two of the better ones in the series. If you want to stick with the pixel graphics then IV or VI are the best ones to go for.

I don’t want to be too harsh on it because at least it’s something different, but I felt absolutely nothing as a fan watching that. It certainly wasn’t ever going to be Austin and Vince but it wasn’t even Dixie and Bubba Ray.

I wouldn’t say it annoys me or that I want to “shithouse it”. Just the concept of it baffles me. Like, what is it for? Is it to impress someone? Is it trying to start a trend?

I don’t know if they’re new neighbours or if they just have a newfound patriotism but those across the way erected a giant flagpole a month or so ago that is getting way out of hand.

It started with the England flag but has since then evolved into two flags at any one time and despite it starting in March they’re all poppy/rememberance day themed. LEST WE FORGET most of them say. They must have a shed full of flags, I’ve seen at least into double digits of unique designs. Two at a time at all times and they change them every single day.

When it’s windy all you can hear is the flapping and metal clanging as it gets battered. 

Who erects flags in their back garden? Are they ok?

Even though they deliberately put “scon or scone” I still read it as “scon or scon”.

It's car boot sale season!

Hope the weather perks up though.

I realised the other day I've never seen the Beverly Hills Cop films so with them all being on Netflix I gave them a whirl.

Beverly Hills Cop

Brilliant, loved it. Good action, really funny and the cast are all spot on. Ronny Cox shows up which is always a bonus, and Eddie Murphy is on top form. Steven Berkoff is a great bad guy and being backed up by Jonathan Banks is a good combo. Love the dynamic of the main cast, everyone stands out.
Obviously the theme song is a banger and they do really well interlacing different versions of it through the film. Enjoyed it so much I've watched it three times in a week while I've been working from home.

Beverly Hills Cop 2

Not as good but still decent. The plot is a bit overcomplicated for it's own good, too many moving parts. The first one worked well because it was clear who the bad guy was from the start and Foley just went after him relentlessly. This one tries twists and turns and loses a lot of the charm and humour along the way.

As Inspector Todd says "Don't think, Axel. It makes my dick itch".

Beverly Hills Cop 3

This one apparently got panned but I'd say it's as good if not slightly better than 2. It's got some of that humour back and the theme park setting makes a nice change.

On the whole I would say they were all good, the first one especially. 2 and 3 don't live up to that quality but they both have a few bits going for them in their own rights. Easy films to just put on and not think too much about.

He was shite from start to finish. Highlight was snake charming Santino's cobra, lowlight was his backne and world title run.

Good riddance.

Mr Five by Five.

24 minutes ago, waters44 said:

I’ve only ever had tiny gardens so never really noticed birds before let alone thought about them for any length.

When Dad died my step Mum told me the thing about robins - “when a robin appears a lost loved one is near”. Every time I see her she tells me about the robin (my Dad) following her around the garden etc. I’ve always thought it was her way of dealing with things and found it quite endearing

I moved house yesterday to a place with a conservatory and big garden. After the removals men left I sat down looking out to the garden. Two minutes later a robin lands on the tree a few metres in front of me, right in my eye line. I’ve honestly never felt so comforted in my life and I could easily cry my eyes out as I type this. I completely understand it now.

So I am now the newest member of the lovely birds club  

I think that may be a common thing as I've also been raised with the belief that Robins are lost loved ones. My Granddad used to love birds (and nature in general) so after he died my Mum's way of greiving was to start feeding the birds in the garden, something she never did while I was growing up. Her garden is awash with some stunning birds including a constant swarm of goldfinches and the occasional woodpecker.

My wife and I moved in to a house a few streets over from where my Nana and Granddad used to live. Same sized and layout house and garden, which now 17 years after they both passed has somewhat filled a hole in my own grief as I always wanted to keep their house after they passed, but at 17 I was too young so sadly we lost it.
During covid when we first started sorting the garden out, a robin would come and sit on the fence next to us and like yourself it was comforting.
Like him and my Mum, I also make sure to keep the bird feeder full so our garden is always full of birds. Nothing too spectacular yet other than a family of crows which are lovely, sparrows and a family of blackbirds that live in our loft. We get some gorgeous doves come and go every year and big fat wood pigeons. We also get Magpies which are stunning birds visually but they're shitheads and our dog hates them (and only them) so any time they land in the garden he's on them like flies on shit.

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

The first 40 minutes is the build to the rest of the movie when everything kicks off so maybe keep going with it. I haven't seen it in years but I remember it being pretty fun.

40 minutes is absolutely too long to build an action film. It’d be like Commando if it was 40 minutes of Arnie eating ice cream and petting deers with his kid. 

Man on Fire

We watched the first two Equalizers on Netflix and thought they were pretty enjoyable so moved on to another Denzel film as Equalizer 3 isn’t on Netflix yet.

I can only speak for the first 40 minutes as we turned it off after absolutely fuck all happened for the full 40. An action/thriller with no action for nearly the first full hour. Yawn.

The editing is headache inducing as well. Constant quick cuts and filters and rubbish camera angles. It’s like watching Raw at it’s worst but with awful early 2000s greeny brown filters over everything. 

Maybe it gets good but I’m not investing that much time into it to find out.