WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[BigJag]

2 hours ago, Accident Prone said:

I thought it was clogged (it was) and that opening the fucker up and cleaning it out would solve the issue (it didn't). Apparently the next step is to strip the console down even further and replace the thermal paste, but with a 2-month old taking up my time these days that's a no-go. I've just accepted the console's grim fate as some fancy collectible sitting next to my TV now.

Damn. Two consoles in a row have had this issue. How do Sony get away with it? A similar solution was suggested for the PS3. Not sure if anyone managed it successfully. 

[BomberPat]

1 hour ago, jazzygeofferz said:

It'd be nice if there were more members of the general public turning up rather than people involved in the games industry and content creation, but that might not make for as interesting TV, especially when Ketchup & Mustard each won a round in convincing fashion and then only actually fought it out for one round. Having said that it wouldnt have been as much of a showcase for MK11 if it was two fifteen year old awkwardly trying to spam Scorpion's spear and uppercut from full screen. I also imagine it could have been difficult to have stayed spoiler free if people had already been sticking pictures of their golden joysticks on social media before the show had been announced. 

If the level of "celebrity" remains at the level of whoever the DJ in the Splatoon 2 challenge was, we basically are getting members of the public, tbf.

I thought the show did a really good job of feeling like a continuation of the original without feeling completely redundant for it; it mostly avoided the cringeworthy pitfalls of doing video games on TV, and I think using "professional" speed-runners, experts, YouTubers and so on is probably the right move for a gaming show in this day and age - anyone watching a gaming show could just be watching these people play games on YouTube or Twitch anyway, so a way to incorporate that while still feeling distinct from it was the only way forward. I don't think you could get away with just getting twelve year olds in to awkwardly play through a game they'd never touched before the day of the show any more. The Mortal Kombat challenge was definitely made far better by having two excellent players on it, who also knew enough to make it fun to watch.

Sir Trevor was brilliant, particularly any of the times someone was thrown into The Abyss. 

[Merzbow]

1 hour ago, scratchdj said:

Gamesmaster was superb, a real showcase of how to bring something precious back and make it relevent whilst keeping the very feel of the original fully intact - I loved it.

I've never heard of the new presenter before, but just the fact he was dry and Scottish did wonders to keep the spirit of Dominik Diamond alive. That's not giving him the credit that he desrves, though, as he was actually very good and is a great fit. I agree with the above, the third prsenter added nothing at all.

I'll be watching all of these, and whilst I reckon it's a big ask to get the yoof to tune in, there's more than enough there to entertain them I reckon, should they give it a go.

More please!

 

He's best known for presenting a show on BBC Scotland and being quite poetic at times, easily the best post-2000 video games show but never seemed to get any traction out of the country up north.

 

[SpiritOfTheForest]

As strange a criticism it may sound, I think Kingdoms of Amalur might be the first game I've played that's TOO big. It's free on PS Plus this month and I had always fancied it so I'm giving it a go. I really like the old-school RPG aesthetics and, of course, it deserves some leeway with its mechanics given that it's a decade old game but it's so vast that it ends up being overwhelming. There's such bombardment of quests and things to do that it's hard to know what I should be going and where I should be in terms of levelling up and what quests I should be doing. I am enjoying it but everytime I load it up it almost feels more daunting than it does exciting. 

[69MeDon]

One thing about Halo Infinite: once you're in point blank range against someone, it becomes a button mashing exercise to try and melee them to death. I don't think my Xbox controller sticks are going to last long.

[Merzbow]

Sounds just like Halo tbh, is the shotgun any good this time?

I had a small play of Tunguska: The Visitation just now, it's like an even jankier version of the Stalker games but top down but I think I might get quite in to it. I fished a poo out of an outside toilet 10/10.

[waters44]

I promise I won’t spam the board with Dad posts but….he’s got a lot on his plate at the mo so I’ve not got a full review of FS22 yet

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by waters44

[Keith Houchen]

4 minutes ago, waters44 said:

 

I promise I won’t spam the board with Dad posts

 

Any posts that contain your dad and fs22 cannot by their very definition be described as spam. 

[Arch Stanton]

1 minute ago, Keith Houchen said:

Any posts that contain your dad and fs22 cannot by their very definition be described as spam. 

I'd even take a dedicated thread for it. 

[Jazzy G]

4 hours ago, SpiritOfTheForest said:

As strange a criticism it may sound, I think Kingdoms of Amalur might be the first game I've played that's TOO big. It's free on PS Plus this month and I had always fancied it so I'm giving it a go. I really like the old-school RPG aesthetics and, of course, it deserves some leeway with its mechanics given that it's a decade old game but it's so vast that it ends up being overwhelming. There's such bombardment of quests and things to do that it's hard to know what I should be going and where I should be in terms of levelling up and what quests I should be doing. I am enjoying it but everytime I load it up it almost feels more daunting than it does exciting. 

This is how I feel with a lot of these western action RPGs. I constantly think I'm going to be alright playing a Fallout or Elder Scrolls and end up with a million side quests to do and no idea which one to start with. I did manage to drag myself through Outer Worlds and a fair number of the sidequests, but it felt like it was designed to be a little more linear. I keep meaning to pick up the DLC and have a crack at that as well. Fable 2 was the same: handed out some side missions to do while you're working through that part of the story, then once they're done it's back to the main reason for playing.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Managed to score a PS5, just hoping the order doesn't end up cancelled or something. Then I can underuse it like every other bit of tech I own.

[69MeDon]

18 hours ago, Merzbow said:

Sounds just like Halo tbh, is the shotgun any good this time?

I've never really played Halo as I was a Playstation guy until the 360. But the shotgun seems decent to me. It's generally a 2 shot kill at the right range.

[DavidB6937]

Guardians of the Galaxy is down to £27.99 already for anyone that fancies it. Good discount for something that came out last month.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/search-keywords/xx_xx_xx_xx_xx/marvel's+guardians+of+the+galaxy/xx-criteria.html?awc=1599_1637837765_3e9ab46a1583e7807176fb8a4b0577ea&srcid=369&xtor=AL-1&cmpid=aff~HotUKDeals~Discount Code~47868~Pepper+Deals+Ltd

Probably price matched somewhere else if out of stock.

[Ironic Indie Lad]

On 11/20/2021 at 10:15 AM, Dai said:

I can only assume Guardians of the Galaxy is getting such good reviews because of the very low expectations going in after the Avengers game? Its a slightly better than average game, and nowehere close to as good as Spiderman and the Batman games. The lack of opportunity to switch between all of the main characters seems like a massive blunder. As with Spiderman, the fighting gets repetitive, so if you had the ability to fight the goons as Drax, for example, it would have kept things fresher through the game. This might be the glitchiest game Ive ever played too, which in 2021 is surely not acceptable. Im playing it on the Xbox One, so I assume there isn't much attention being put into this version of the game, which results in really poor graphics at some points, the dialogue stopping midway through a conversation, characters merging into each other, lots of lag, and an insanely long loading time to reload a checkpoint after you die. I guess this is just the way it is now for all big games on the Xbox One. All of the upgrades you can do are all fairly underwhelming too, and not as good as the ones in the Spiderman game.

I've been playing this on PS5 after it got a pretty enthusiastic response.  I have found it to be very glitchy as well. There has been several times where I finish a fight and for whatever reason it doesn't trigger that I have cleared the area. It leaves me trapped in that part of the map with all the characters just repeating battle dialogue even though absolutely nothing is happening. I've also had quite a few occasions where I've just been trapped in the scenery or fallen through the sky into infinity and had to restart.

Even when it does run well, I don't think its a very good game. There are very long sections where you are just walking slowly listening to dialogue and occasionally pressing square to contribute something to the conversation. The combat is ok but you're pretty much just waiting on various meters to fill up to do special moves, command the rest of the team etc. It's like a much less good version of the FFVII remake combat in some ways.

I cant really understand why it was warmly received. I can only assume people love these characters so really, really wanted to like this game.

[Merzbow]

I'm selfishly pissed off that it's so well received, the better the Marvel shite does the less I expect they'll be put on to making a new Deus Ex, a series that was left without an ending to Adam Jensen's story.