MY BRAIN HAD A THINK ABOUT A GAM3

Balladeer wrote:

Ooft, that feels like a very harsh judgement of retro gaming!  As long as it makes your brain happy there should be room for it, but I can completely understand where that (IMO unhelpful) feeling comes from.  What's it up against, what are your other major hobbies?

Retro gaming definitely makes my brain happy and I get some joy out of playing things from my collection and from occasionally adding new things to it. I think my low opinion of it comes from the fact that it’s not an especially cultured or rewarding hobby, and also because it’s not really something that I have any true sense of community with. Unlike with my other hobbies (whisky, beer and football mainly) I don’t have anyone to share it with in real life.

That's interesting - I feel all the best and closest friends I've ever made in my life have been fellow Nintendo enthusiasts.

That community makes a lot of sense. In and of itself I'd struggle to see following sports (football for you Cappa, cricket for me, anything else for anyone else) as less 'worthy' than playing games, because at least you're taking part in the playing - but that fades into insignificance compared to having a community of people, ideally ones you see in real life as opposed to/as well as online, you can talk about sports/gaming with. Like Buska, I'm lucky to have found many fellow gamers to talk to, which is a privilege. (Fewer Nintendo heads though.)

I used to have that privilege, I grew up with loads of game-playing mates. I’ve got endless happy memories of times like being introduced to the NES and SNES by the twins who lived round the corner, swapping Mega Drive games with folk on my street, having multiplayer sessions on all the N64 classics with the guys I went to Boys Brigade with, convincing my teenage pals to get GameCubes so we could visit each other’s Animal Crossing towns and of course the many, many empties where the Wii was a focal point of that evenings, nights and morning’s entertainment. It was when the Wii craze started dying down that I felt all of this starting to coast away from me though, sort of leaving me behind with my copies of Boom Blox and SEGA Superstars Tennis when nobody else stayed interested.

Apart from the odd times when old school pals and I would have FIFA tournaments and maybe have a few matches on the latest 2K sports game at their place, in the last fifteen years my gaming community has pretty much exclusively been here. Posting on here, having the occasional online game with youse when there’s new Mario Kart 8 DLC and a rare Glesgames event is about as much as I share my interest in gaming with anyone nowadays.

I think it’s really just the local multiplayer gaming that I miss. I went to a couple of gaming meet-ups in an arcade bar with a work colleague during the months before the first COVID lockdowns and they were decent fun – I played through Golden Axe II with some Italian guy while I had about five pints, won a board of Super Mario Party and introduced a bunch of people to Mashed on the original Xbox. It was something I started looking forward to at a weekend each month, but they stopped for a couple of years and I’ve since moved back to a part of the country where there’s nowt like that.

I also don't really have any pals who are particularly into gaming, and those that do play video games don't tend to play many of the games that I do - so I'm also limited to reading and chatting about games here. And I'm not even here that much!

I do miss local multiplayer too. A few years ago a pal organised a tournament with a bunch of other pals which was really fun (and I won a 3D-printed trophy!) but sessions like that are few and far between.

Meanwhile I collect gaming communities like Mas collects collectors' editions. So far I belong to two fora (including here) and two Discords dedicated to gaming, as well as another Discord with a heavy gaming slant; and most of my close friends are into games to some degree. I'm aware of the massive advantage I have being in (or now near) London regarding the latter point. It's easier to find fellow nerds there than in some places in Britain, I'd imagine.

Wild that we live in a lifetime where there’s one console that hosts all three entries into these legendary gaming trilogies:



What a console. Viva la Nintendo.

According to the director, he considered Skyward Sword > Breath of the Wild > Tears of the Kingdom to be his trilogy. Your point still stands.

Right... right... this has bothered me for 30 years now: are the guys on the Rival Turf box supposed to be kids? It's like they got Bing Image Creator to make box art for the game.

Cool kids of the 80s I assume, who therefore look nothing like actual children.

With my laptop in for repairs and GNamer not working best on mobile, I'm limited in the amount I can post.  That said, here's a brief round-up of Balla material, in here rather than Chat Thread after I realised they were all gaming-related.

- Every waking moment not spent playing TotK is spent wondering if I prefer TotK to BotW, and whether either is still my GoaT.  Fortunately most waking moments outside work are spent playing TotK.  Boo to work, it doesn't have enough Zonai rockets.
- I did buy Casette Beasts though.  Got to get that 10% launch discount!
- I enjoyed the promo episode of Hyrule Field Report that found itself in the LLP feed!  I do just like listening to people talking about TotK, it's fun.  That said, I can't find the podcast on Pocket Casts so I may not get around to the rest.
- On LLP itself, it's nice to hear Buska and Andy speaking properly for once.  If I send in an e-mail to HFR I want Jas to read it in my voice.
- Every single thing I posted in the June releases thread is wrong and bad because I missed out basically all the games. Good job all the rest of my posts are solid gold, then.
- My attempt to understand Mas' takes on BotW got stranded on point 1 and never recovered.  The only correct thing for me for do is to return the favour.
- I now have a list of my top 100 games. Do I love lists too much?  I might do, you know.

But you love lists why a 10 points of what's wrong with BotW and TotK.

Balladeer wrote:

- Every waking moment not spent playing TotK is spent wondering if I prefer TotK to BotW, and whether either is still my GoaT.  Fortunately most waking moments outside work are spent playing TotK.  Boo to work, it doesn't have enough Zonai rockets.

I have too much else going on (and I got sick for a bit.) I've played 30 hours of a videogame in two weeks but . . . it doesn't feel like enough!

Quote :

I enjoyed the promo episode of Hyrule Field Report that found itself in the LLP feed!  I do just like listening to people talking about TotK, it's fun.  That said, I can't find the podcast on Pocket Casts so I may not get around to the rest.

Hmm, annoying. This is the link my hosting app tells me is the Pocket Casts page: https://pca.st/itunes/1687039323 but I get a 404 on my web browser. Transistor tells me its connected, so I'd like to fix that . . .
This is the RSS feed you should be able to input directly on any podcats app worth a damn: https://feeds.transistor.fm/hyrule-field-report

Quote :

- On LLP itself, it's nice to hear Buska and Andy speaking properly for once.  If I send in an e-mail to HFR I want Jas to read it in my voice.

I enjoyed relistening to those, glad they amused you too.

I'm getting a 404 too, bah. Hope it's fixed soon, and if not I'll see if I can wrangle with the RSS feed.

30 hours is no way near enough, get twice that amount again down yourself pronto.

Balladeer wrote:

I'm getting a 404 too, bah. Hope it's fixed soon, and if not I'll see if I can wrangle with the RSS feed.  

I wouldn't hold your breath - I wouldn't even know where to start fixing that.
Also, Transistor is having a couple of issues right now - the ability to autotweet has been Musked.

Quote :

30 hours is no way near enough, get twice that amount again down yourself pronto.

Man, I wanna

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

masofdas wrote:

Things he bought.

I’m curious to see what’s on your wanted list. You’ve bought arguably the best arcade racer of all time there, everybody who’s played it quite rightly calls it one of their favourite games. The new collection is a brilliant way to play Klonoa as well.

Not sure where else to put this, but I was looking through Top 100's of Cappa, gJones and now Balla a few things also come to mind from them even from my own list of Top 100 that I came up with a want list which I bought Outrun 2 the next day on OG and that Klonoa collection.

I already have some lists, like all the European retail VITA games and I could do the same for the GameCube for instance, but I don't really want all 422 games and the nine FIFAs, that I come up with a want list of 70 things.

I'm not going to go through all 70 and some are repeats such as Klonoa which I have it listed for PS2 and Wii down, so here are some highlights:

• Outrun Coast 2 Coast, it is on OG Xbox but tad expensive meaning I'm mostly looking at the PSP version
  
• Chrono Trigger, this will be the DS version unless Square port the game or do something. It is pretty mad, I've never played it
  
• Okami, this is from my own list as I don't own it and both PS2&Wii aren't super expensive still be neat to own on PS3 or Switch
  
• Fata Morgana, from Balla Top 100 and one digital more likely however does have a physical on VITA and Switch
  
• Mario & Luigi, I've never played one of these and unfortunately are a tad spenny now though think the GBA one coming to NSO and must be good if two are on Balla list
  
• Final Fantasy, all the Wii/DS/3DS games as none super expensive
  
• Cube games such as NBA Street 2, Baldur's Gate, Simpsons Hit & Run along with big hitters like Kirby Air Ride and imports like Donkey Konga 3
  
• DS stuff like I recently got Last Window due to you guys and now may pick up things such as Ōkamiden, Another Code, Ghost Trick (more likely the remaster)
  
• Wii Muramasa: the Demon Blade is one I've not played and I don't own The Last Story and imports like Captain Rainbow
  
• God of War thanks to gJones this one as I know I own a bunch but which ones I do or don't as can't remember that I added to the list
  

If you want a look at the whole list, then it's here and more I can think of like all the Silent Hill games for PS2, OG, PSP, Wii, PS3

Jings, my ‘wants’ list is only ever a few games long. I'm more guided by what's cheap and what's on the shop shelf.

I’m only going off of this month’s Retro Gamer cover article, but supposedly the PS2 version of OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast is “admirably close” to the Xbox version. I know that the PSP one runs at 30fps, and while it’s very impressive on the hardware it nonetheless diminishes the impressiveness of OutRun 2006 itself; it’s just such a slick and masterful game when it’s at full speed.

Yeah doubtful I'm finding Kirby Air Ride just in the local indie store but list very useful for DS, Wii which two systems which my knowledge is slim.

Thoroughly respectable wants list there. Obviously you want to be careful when taking recommendations from me given our different tastes in games - for example, I can see you binning off a Mario & Luigi game quickly. You should love Fata Morgana though, if you can get through the first chapter.

After downloading a couple of key last-gen titles (Assassin's Creed Origins, Batman: Arkham Knight) I've concluded that I'm no longer interested in these open-world, marquee titles. I would have lapped them up during my teens, but after playing the first hour of both, I immediately deleted them as I found them both very hollow experiences. Origins in particular, had weak combat and climbing felt like it was playing itself. I understand both games reviewed well, but I think I'm just no longer interested in this type of game. I bounced off of Gears of War 5 recently as well, and couldn't understand why I no longer wanted to return to it. It's not fatigue, or that I've fallen out of love with gaming, but I find myself wanting to play short "gamey" games, that don't get boring. I'm currently playing Forza Horizon 4 and it is great for a quick 30 minutes here and there. But I bought a Series X to return to the likes of Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space, but have instead dipped into indie titles on Game Pass. My addiction to Vampire Survivors is probably the best example of this.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this, because I still love games, but have lost all desire for AAA titles. I'd rather stick Crazy Taxi on for the umpteenth time... am I officially old?

I wouldn't say I'm bored of AAA but I'm not that bothered about open-world games etc. Why FFXVI being pretty linear was fine with me, and things like Pikmin 4 is what I'm excited for.

It's the long-winded openings that put me off a lot of the time, we don't need all these long cutscenes and tutorial missions for every little aspect of the game and I would say even things like Final Fantasy XVI are guilty of this despite being linear. That's why indies are so appealing these days, they just cut the crap and get straight to the gameplay or important story beats.

Definitely. I'm currently enjoying Arcade Paradise as it has a great gameplay loop and throws you straight in. The tutorial aspect is probably the main reason I bounce off of games now - I found this with Hi-Fi Rush too. There's probably a fun game there, but I gave up after the first hour just hammered me with tutorials. Put some faith in the player. Maybe they just replaced physical manuals by making that the first hour of games now?

Feels that way, surely its more cost effective to include a manual though, even if its a digital manual with a few static screens, I'd rather that than just hammer a button.

I miss paper manuals especially for Pokémon. The first couple of generations came with a "trainer's guide" that was a great accompaniment to the game.