WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[BomberPat]

40 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

What is that exactly? I’ve seen screen grabs of the hexagonal grid and read a few reviews but I’m still no clearer on what you actually do!

you get a stack of randomised tiles, where each edge could be grass, trees, houses, crops, water, or railroad. You try and match up the sides to grow sections, and occasionally get challenged to make a connected section of increasingly higher numbers, and get rewarded with higher points and more tiles when you manage it. It's really simple, but absolutely addictive, and it's really satisfying when you manage to put together a really visually pleasing stream or a massive forest.

[Jazzy G]

Damn Microsoft and steam having sales when I get paid. I've ended up with the original Euro Truck Simulator and Assetto Corsa on Steam, and am now desperately hoping my Switch Mario Kart wheel and pedals are compatible with them. I've also picked up Bus Simulator 21 on XBox, but haven't had a proper play of that yet. 

I'm waiting to see whether City Bus Management is due to get a discount at some point. That one uses real world map data, so I can recreate my local bus routes. I wonder whether it'd let me start with the 192 and slowly extend it down the A6 beyond the original end of the Transpeak in Nottingham until I reach London. 

[The King Of Swing]

I'm actually near the end of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. 

Decided to take a break.

Considering getting started on a new game of Final Fantasy X-2. Feel like playing something silly and more old school. 

[Onyx2]

On 6/15/2026 at 2:08 PM, Onyx2 said:

You've sold me on the Portal - just ordered one.

I've had my Portal 24 hours.

The build quality, screen and overall feel is excellent. But I'm not having a great time streaming locally. My PS5 is on Ethernet, very high speed internet, but the device loves to drop out all the time, or tell me the connection isn't stable. I suspect there's some troubleshooting to do, but I'm surprised how weak it is in my generally-quite-good-internet house.

I only paid £100 for it used (no noticeable use on it at all).

I only have the basic PS Plus, no library streaming, but I might try it soon.

[RedTwoster]

9 minutes ago, Onyx2 said:

The build quality, screen and overall feel is excellent. But I'm not having a great time streaming locally. My PS5 is on Ethernet, very high speed internet, but the device loves to drop out all the time, or tell me the connection isn't stable. I suspect there's some troubleshooting to do, but I'm surprised how weak it is in my generally-quite-good-internet house.

I found streaming from the PS5 weak at first, but I bought a new router and put the PS5 on wired internet and that worked pretty well. The issue when streaming from the PS5 typically isn’t caused by internet speeds - it’s a router thing.

Having said that, I actually sold my original PS Portal when that’s all you could do. I bought it again for the cloud streaming and I’ve not switched the PS5 on at all since doing that.

Cloud streaming has been a game changer for me - there’s a slight lag with streaming from the PS5. Barely noticeable, but it’s there. That doesn’t exist with cloud streaming. It’s faster, smoother and has been issue free for me bar a graphic change I had to make with Tekken (weirdly, I had to choose a higher graphic setting rather than the default and that solved the issue I was having)

The strength of the device for me is in the cloud streaming - not the PS5 streaming which I found a bit clunky even though it worked well enough for me. 

[Onyx2]

7 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I found streaming from the PS5 weak at first, but I bought a new router and put the PS5 on wired internet and that worked pretty well. The issue when streaming from the PS5 typically isn’t caused by internet speeds - it’s a router thing.

 

Thanks for the advice, I have a very good 7 month old router as I WFH permanently and we just use a lot of internet generally. But like I said I bet there's some troubleshooting to do.

[RedTwoster]

15 minutes ago, Onyx2 said:

Thanks for the advice, I have a very good 7 month old router as I WFH permanently and we just use a lot of internet generally. But like I said I bet there's some troubleshooting to do.

I bought a gaming router at CEX (this one) combined with a wired connection for the PS5 did the trick for me.

I’ve not tried streaming from the console at a since rebuying the Portal though, I’ve only cloud streamed - it means my gaming purchases have all been digital since then, but there have been quite a few good sales meaning my wallet hasn’t suffered much. The PS Plus library is also excellent, and I’ve tried a few games I’d not have gone anywhere near thanks to that. 

If it’s at all helpful, I’ll try console streaming again later and see how it fares for me, and if there’s anything you want to check as far as settings go etc, I’m happy to share that, just drop me a DM. 

EDIT: huh, the font went weird when I added the CEX link. Oh well.

Edited June 25 by RedTwoster

[RedTwoster]

@Onyx2 - tried console streaming Crimson Desert, I didn’t have any issues although it was still a notch below cloud streaming, noticeably worse although not to the point I couldn’t have played it in that way if I really wanted to.

[Jazzy G]

Grabbed eFootball Kick Off (no relation) on my Switch. It plays a decent game of football, but it is a bit light on modes. There's a quick match option, a world tour which is ostensibly a variation on Master League, and an unlicensed World Cup but you can alter the lineup and insert a nation of your own choosing, or even just randomly generate the whole lineup if you want to.

World Tour mode is fun enough. You get your squad with the Master League boys (Castolo, Minanda, Ximenes, etc) and pick a region to play on and one of six difficulties, then you play five clubs from that region. When you beat a team you get to sign their best player, or the best player that meets your needs to stick in your own squad, and get to use their kit instead of the generic yellow and blue one you get from the start of you so choose. You also get to pick some in game currency at random afterwards as well, and use them to go to the player shop to pick up some legendary players and modern day stars. There are 4 currencies, but they're literally just goalie coins, defender coins, midfielder coins and forward coins. There is replay value in wanting to try and unlock all the clubs to presumably then be able to play as them all in the quick match mode. 

If you've played a PES or efootball then it'll be like old hat to you. It'd be nice if they'd had a proper Master League. It's £16, but there are no microtransqctions, which I hear are rife in the versions on other consoles. Presumably they've done this because Nintendo are dicks about wanting a chunky cut from their microtransactions. 

There's online ranked etc as well that I've not had a proper look at, but if you've got 10 minutes or so free and fancy a quick kick about it's not the worst choice. 

[Onyx2]

Platinumed Prince of Persia The Lost Crown this weekend. What a tidy little Metroidvania. Fun combat, good map, just enough powers to tease you to the next bit. Plus some horrendous parkour masochism if you're that way inclined, but plot-dependant bits have an accessibility toggle if you can't face it. 

[Lorne Malvo]

On 6/27/2026 at 7:57 PM, Jazzy G said:

World Tour mode is fun enough. You get your squad with the Master League boys (Castolo, Minanda, Ximenes, etc) and pick a region to play on and one of six difficulties, then you play five clubs from that region. When you beat a team you get to sign their best player, or the best player that meets your needs to stick in your own squad, and get to use their kit instead of the generic yellow and blue one you get from the start of you so choose. You also get to pick some in game currency at random afterwards as well, and use them to go to the player shop to pick up some legendary players and modern day stars. There are 4 currencies, but they're literally just goalie coins, defender coins, midfielder coins and forward coins. There is replay value in wanting to try and unlock all the clubs to presumably then be able to play as them all in the quick match mode. 

I'm glad you're enjoying it, but reading this reminds me why I hate modern gaming so much. I just want no-frills Master League, none of this 'different types of currency to buy different players' convoluted bullshit. 

[Jazzy G]

1 hour ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I'm glad you're enjoying it, but reading this reminds me why I hate modern gaming so much. I just want no-frills Master League, none of this 'different types of currency to buy different players' convoluted bullshit. 

Yeah. Everything else is fine. If you only play the world cup or jump into a quick match or online it wouldn't even affect you. 

[The King Of Swing]

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (PlayStation) 

Man I always forget just how weird this game is and just how dumb the characters can be. 

Leaving your post during a critical mission just to apologise to someone, is peak stupidity. 

No wonder Quistis got the boot as an instructor. 

[RedTwoster]

21 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (PlayStation) 

Man I always forget just how weird this game is and just how dumb the characters can be. 

Leaving your post during a critical mission just to apologise to someone, is peak stupidity. 

No wonder Quistis got the boot as an instructor. 

I don’t want to post spoilers just in case, but the twist part way through the game is one of the implausible things the series has ever done. It totally ruined the game for me, alongside the spread of the random rule across the World in Triple Triad.

[BomberPat]

The twist is absolutely insane, and only becomes more stupid the more you think about it. There's also a subplot about a power struggle at Balamb Garden, only they don't introduce one of the characters involved until it's happening, you're just suddenly thrown into "oh and there's this other guy here". I've never known a game feel so strongly like they were just making the story up as they went along.