partious

10 hours ago, schmojo said:

 

Obviously you could get BoxVR on Steam and play it wirelessly. There's also the new PowerBeatsVR for Quest which isn't subscription, and Thrill of the Fight is always great exercise.

Have you tried Creed and if so, how does Thrill of The Fight compare in terms of exercise? I have Creed for psvr but recently got a quest and was thinking of buying Creed again due to the lack of wires/massively better tracking etc. I've noticed that Thrill of The Fight is quite a bit cheaper. 

Does Thrill Of The Fight have training activities like Creed does, or is it just fights?

People generally don't expect that because someone likes watching certain movies that they're the audience for every movie that comes out. Same with music, books and basically every form of entertainment that isn't gaming. People like specific genres/artists and there's no expectation that they like all the other things beyond those personal preferences. 

"Gamer" is still treated like this homogenous thing, whereby if you liked Ridge Racer, then surely you'll love Dark Souls and if you liked Wii Sports well then you must be pretty excited about Halo Infinite.

I think it can be hard for people to fully realize that that just don't enjoy certain popular/hyped games and genres, and it results in people buying hyped games that their gaming history would suggest they're highly unlikely to get on with and then complaining about them.

A lot of gaming is built on hype and the next big thing is always on the horizon. Often the idea of that next big hyped game is more exciting that the reality of actually sitting down and playing it for 50 hours. 

Also, I find the idea of dismissing any preference for genres that have declined in popularity (arcade racers vs more simulation heavy racers as a common example) or any criticism of aspects of modern games/design trends as "nostalgia" a particularly shallow conclusion. Is it only games where everything newer is progress and intrinsically superior to what came before, or does this logic apply to everything else too?

I`m buried under so much backlog (even just the stuff I actually want to play) that it's hard to get too excited about any upcoming games. The lists of upcoming AAA titles don't excite me at all, I really feel like I`m almost totally done with that stuff these days.

 Hardware wise,I`m quite excited by the idea of using a steam deck to play my aforementioned PC backlog on a handheld.

 Also PSVR2.. PSVR (and any non-Facebook owned VR gaming) is probably the most genuinely exciting part of gaming for me these days. That said, I haven't even managed to get a PS5 yet, so even if PSVR2 comes out next year, I very much doubt I'll get anywhere near one for a long time (have to get in line after all the scalpers). I wouldn't even be too confident about getting a PS5 in 2022, and at some stage enough time will have passed since release that I`m not going to be willing to pay full rrp for a release day model console and will just wait for a discount/hardware refresh.

So no, not excited.

41 minutes ago, mushashi said:

The good thing about them starting to give away games that don't require me to Google WTF they are is that they are redeemed elsewhere and you can still keep them if you stop paying the Jeff Bezos tax.

Pretty sure you could always keep the games you got from twitch prime and the ones that download with the twitch client don't even have DRM. 

3 hours ago, El Spatula said:

Oh tweeness as well. Can't stand it. Even you Mario. Take your woohoo and shove it where the sun don't shine.

 

I'd never call Mario twee and I strongly prefer colorful/fun games to moody/violent ones but I find the smug/forced twee tone of every media molecule game borderline unbearable right from the opening narration (not saying it gets any better after the intros,it doesn't).

So yeah, media molecule games. Sometimes I like the idea behind the game or the look of it but as soon as the smug narrator or narrators start talking down to the player, it's a struggle to keep playing. 

Games that forget to even attempt to be fun in their moment to moment gameplay.

Open world racing games. Usually I just won`t play them in the first place if I read the words "open world". When I do give them a shot I usually last until the first or second time it asks me to drive 15 km of boring nothingness just to get to a race. Also, when I inevitably take a wrong turn on some city street halfway through a race and realise I`m no longer in first place, but am in fact going the opposite direction from the other cars because I didn`t pay enough attention to the minimap in the corner of the screen.

Currently reading The Talisman. I've read a third of the book and even for a King novel it feels like he really could have done with an editor to cut down on the repetition/bloat.

Hopefully something slightly interesting will start happening at some point. 

Also, I don't know how two authors co-write a novel, but what I've read so far seems like fairly standard King to me. 

In my experience, whether or not mister can fully replace original hardware/games depends on how far down the rabbit hole you are.

The actual gameplay feels the same on the mister as it does on my megacd, amiga etc, but the overall experience feels different, less satisfying. 

I speak only for myself here, but part of the fun of playing retro games has always been the sort of time machine effect that you get when you set up the original hardware, play some games on an amiga/snes/ps1 connected to crt, maybe flick through the manual/admire the boxart, the same way you did when the machine was new.  It's hard to explain/discuss this side of retro gaming, as it isn't something that can be measured as easily as frames of lag, and it also very much doesn't fit in with the general tone of a lot of this forum's opinion on original hardware/games. I suppose one could either claim it's about the full/real experience of a console/moment in gaming history, or else just dismiss it as nostalgic nonsense.

That said, for me there's more of a difference in how I feel about the fullness of the experience/level of enjoyment I get from playing between original hardware and a mister than there is between a mister and a pi 3 running 8/16 bit games on a crt (despite the amazingly huge differences in lag etc that supposedly exist but are in reality barely/not perceptible). 

Is this PS5 games price increase a UK/Europe only thing? 

Returnal is 7000 yen on amazon.co.jp, which converts to 46GBP and I'm pretty sure is roughly what most new PS4 games cost too. 

I paid 7300yen for Cyberpunk on release day (and didn't regret it).

15 hours ago, Scribblor said:

I loved - LOVED -  the pulp horror of the story. And the world. And the characters. And the episodic structure. And the music.

 

But I hated -  HATED - the sluggish, unresponsive controls which were like trying to steer a drunkard through knee high treacle.

 

Hopefully AW2 is happening, but they've learned from Control's controls.

Have to agree with this. The setting and basic plot seemed right up my alley but the game has some of the most repetitive and boring gameplay out there combined with a distinct lack of enemy variety. Also, it's been a while but the ending wasn't at all satisfying (maybe they can fix that in a sequel).

On 23/03/2021 at 06:46, Klatrymadon said:

I can't confidently say these wouldn't be suitable for your needs, since I've never had one, but I used to get unlucky and receive blag GBA carts in the mid-2000s and found that their batteries rarely lasted five minutes. I'd start a game and the file would be gone the next time I played. Maybe the battery tech in cheapo DS carts is better, but I wouldn't bet on it! Not sure if it's worth a quarter of the price of the real thing just to find out...

Pretty sure DS carts don't use batteries. 

1 hour ago, Majora said:

 

We've had this discussion a million times. GamePass users still buy games they're really interested in (which tends to be most third party AAA releases they're interested in as they don't usually come to GamePass). So I personally still buy, I would guess, about 10 retail games a year? A mixture of Nintendo games/Sony exclusives and third party games. Everything else in between those games I play on Gamepass. 

 

It seems to me that people for whom GamePass doesn't work/appeal (which is perfectly fine) often try to force their way of thinking onto others. You're doing it in your post right now. I don't just marvel at the list of games, I am constantly playing Gamepass games in between the retail games I'm interested in. I don't care if I don't play a Gamepass game for a month because I'm playing retail games in much the same way I'm not going to cancel Netflix if I don't watch anything on there for a month because I'm watching stuff on other streaming services.

Not trying to force my opinion on others, just stating it in a thread about streaming services. Has been mentioned in other threads before, sure, but we've also had plenty of "gamepass is such amazing unbelieveable value, lets all talk about how great this currently heavily discounted subscription service is" type discussions too. 

Anyway, I don't come close to getting through 10 retail games in a year, never mind being able to get value out of a subscription service on top of that, so I guess we're coming at this from different perspectives. 

I just think those of us who don't get through huge numbers of games need to look past the hype and the idea of "500 games for a tenner a month" and think about how many of those we'll actually get through each month and that all those tenners a month add up to hundreds over a few years.

To actually give my opinion on the question in the OP, I'd say it's a combination of a number of things. 

Gamepass IS clearly better than PSNOW as will be obvious to anyone who compares the game lists. 

PSNOW has a lot of negative baggage from when it was just a half baked streaming service/excuse for the ps4 to have no PS3 BC and sony probably should have renamed/relaunched it.  Xbox series x/s currently have no exclusives so Microsoft and those who enjoy engaging in console related discussion can spend more time promoting/hyping gamepass. 

Gamepass is currently being offered at an extremely steep discount and the vast majority of people here haven't paid the "real" price for the service yet, so of course people are going to be happy with the value for money.   

I think the difference between game subscriptions and netflix etc is that games (other than Nintendo ones) tank in price after a few months and can be picked up for a pittance in the many many sales that happen regularly throughout the year. Also, with all the talk of overwhelming backlogs among gamers, it surprises me that people are so impressed by having access to a bunch of oldish 3rd party games (the exclusives will be a bigger deal when they eventually arrive). I fear the rise in popularity of subscriptions will reduce the number of firesales or the level of discount and if you want to play some game that's a year or more old you'll need to get that company's subscription service instead of buying it for tuppence in a sale. 

But to be honest, reading over this post, I do actually think I'm inadvertantly derailing the discussion if I continue in this thread, which wasn't my intention, so I'll bow out.

If/when microsoft actually start releasing quality first party games in significant enough quantities perhaps I'll change my mind, but for now I don't quite get the appeal of either unless you are incredibly time rich and happy to play whatever's there, as opposed to some specific games you actually want to play, or are just lucky enough to have constant overlap of the two. 

Posting lists of non-new release 3rd party and indie games makes little sense to me. Things you can pick up for peanuts in the 50 sales per year and actually own.

Like I said, there are definitely people for whom gamepass is great value, but I think it's far from a majority of adult gamers. If you have mountains of free time and sit around ploughing through single player games (but only the ones on the subscription service, if you spend 100 hours on Cyberpunk/Breath of the Wild 2, you're still paying the subscription for a month or two of an unused service) then it probably makes a lot of financial sense. 

The people I know with gamepass seem more inclined to marvel at how many games there are on the service and how great value it is, but not actually play enough of them to make it actual significant value for money for them as a subscription service. This is assuming the actual price of gamepass, not the temporary heavy discount. 

There's a psychological aspect to these subscription services too. They play on the idea of how much you could potentially play/watch/listen to, as opposed to reality of how you'll fit that into your life. 

 I had psplus for nearly 6 years despite not being an online gamer at all. I used to marvel at the "free" monthly games and it was only after I eventually cancelled the subscription that I realised I'd paid hundreds of pounds, completed about 5 old games from it that I could have bought in sales for a few quid each and owned nothing once I stopped paying the subscription. 

Don't know where in Northern Ireland had one, but there used to be one in Dr Quirkey's on O' Connell St in Dublin.

I've never seen it either. I've just never felt like going out of my way to watch it and it's never been placed in front of me. It starts to feel like maybe subconscious avoidance at some stage though when you haven't seen some mega blockbuster and years have passed since it came out. 

On 17/01/2021 at 04:18, Camel said:

I've got an SFC pad that requires a massive amount of pressure on the rubbery start button. I think they maybe deteriorate over time.

It's generally just a bit of dirt/grease built up under the button on the metal connector that the rubber touches when you push it. Can usually be solved in a couple of minutes by opening the pad and cleaning the metal under the buttons using a cotton bud and isopropyl. I bought 4 "broken" sfc pads last week, 2 of which had unresponsive start buttons and a quick clean of the metal under the buttons (I can't think of the correct term) had them all good as new (in terms of responsiveness). 

13 minutes ago, Stanley said:

Because they’re both shit.

Still not seeing how that precludes them from being punk, or why you chose to namedrop SAW and not any other musician/producer, but fair enough..

1 hour ago, Stanley said:

Well the SAW comparison was me saying they are not punk, in any way, so you may have misread that. 

Why do you think that early 2000s amateur newgrounds(and other sites) browser games aren't punk at all and are instead like "SAW" ? 

10 minutes ago, Stanley said:

 no, no the producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman. 

Oh, right

Never heard of them. Just looked it up on wikipedia and now I have even less idea what the similarity to edgy newgrounds garbage made by untrained amateurs is than when I thought you meant the low budget edgy horror movie.

4 minutes ago, Stanley said:

They’re about as punk as SAW.

The movie? Not sure I get the comparison but I haven't watched it.

All those utterly shit edgelord browser games on sites like newgrounds in the early 2000s. 

Nex Machina is one of the most perfectly crafted gameplay experiences ever and my game of the generation.

As much as I like them (the following will sound quite negative but actually I'm a fan of Japanese shmups...), I'd take Nex Machina over the entire (often interchangeable if you aren't a hardcore fan of scoring systems) post 1993ish Japanese shmup library, particularly the Cave stuff which may as well be reskins of DoDonPachi with increasingly iffy artstyles as far as the non-hardcore are concerned, because the gameplay is just more exciting and it's easier for a "normal" player to enjoy progression through increasingly skilled control of the character caused by experience/familiarity and feels more improvisational, without the need for rote memorisation of stages and bullet patterns.

Nex Machina is all about learning the controls and figuring out an approach that works for you, as opposed to needing to memorise everything beyond an easy opening first stage in order to make any progress (as in most modern Japanese shmups), and for me that's a much more enjoyable/satisfying experience. 

Recently I was trying to think of games from the gen that I'll still be playing in 10 years and it was the one that immediately came to mind.

Paid full price for it on PS4 and Steam and I'd happily pay full price again on Switch(not happening I know).

I also really liked Resogun and Matterfall, but the latter doesn't seem too popular. Was more my cup of arcadey tea than Alienation, which I found a bit slow.

I recommend Rise: Race the Future on Steam and Switch and I know there's at least one other person on the forum who's played and enjoyed it!!!

1 hour ago, SeanR said:

I keep thinking: if i start with something simple, like the Atari 2600, and spend a bit of time breaking shit down like I used to do with pascal

 

start with a concept 

 

break down the concept into chunks (game logic, game field, sprites, sound, controls,  sundries)

 

break the chunks down and rewrite as code:

 

draw the [game field]

monitor [input]

draw the [sprites] and move as necessary, depending on the input from [controls]

use the [game logic] to update the [game field] and [sprites], maybe play [sound], update [sundries]

etc etc

 

I can see it in my head, but I don't fancy it

 

and I don't fancy machine code, even if it is just 4K...

You might enjoy something like Pico8.