Happy New PWB!

Play

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order - Much as I enjoy this it is a little bit difficult so I kept on turning on Crackdown 3 instead. Now that Crackdown is finished though I'm going to get back to Jedi before I forget when to dodge and when to block.

Paper Mario Origami King - I got some way through this a year ago, put it back on the other day to see if it's worth finishing. It's nice enough but fairly forgettable.

2000ad - I bought a ton of 2000ad collections the other day because I had a half price voucher. I'm looking forward to rereading some old favourites and filling in some gaps in my knowledge.

RPGs - Still running my ongoing campaigns, looks like I'll be starting a new regular session with a group mostly made up of other parents. I'm going to use it as an opportunity to run a bunch of short games which I haven't gotten around to yet.

Want

Not much. A fry up maybe?

Bin
2021

DAMMIT BRI.

(moved from my other post)

I used up the last of my eShop credit that work gifted a bunch of us for Christmas, so right now it's basically stuff I grabbed from the Festive/New Year sales. As mentioned, games now get an hour to hook me in before they get dumped, so I expect a lot more stuff to appear in the Bin pile this year…

PLAY
Inmost - Small Metroidvania thing that already has me confused, as it appears to have multiple timelines and hops about a lot. But I like it, so it's sticking around until the end.
Wrestling Empire - Bought cheap on a promise. It's utterly broken and utterly stupid, but is still one of the best wrestling games around right now for that exact reason. I know it's fun, I played it before, so it'll be staying too.
Tails of Iron - Wanted this for a while but haven't started it yet, so the timer is yet to commence.
Loop Hero - Love it, though it's slow going.
Risk of Rain 2 - Loved the original, will see how this goes.
Steamworld Quest: Hand of Gilgamesh - I love the Steamworld games, but was waiting for a price drop before grabbing this one. Usually, I&F can do no wrong in my eyes, but they did The Gunk and that was crap, so let's see.

WANT
Nothing really? - Kind of done with physical possessions, mainly because my flat is too small but also because there's nothing I actually need/want. Definitely need to not buy board games this year, as I already have several incoming with Kickstarters that'll deliver by the summer, and robots will be confined to those I already have on pre-order. No new sets, for sure.
Do more - Can't do another year confined to quarters. Looks like more board game evenings will be on the cards, and I'm going to start venturing out again a bit if only for the fresh air, exercise and sanity.

BIN
Skellboy Refractured - Well written, but the combat is sloppy and physics aren't great, so this one is the first for the 2022 bin.

Play
At the request/demand of my vehicle-obsessed children, I downloaded Forza Horizon 5 on Game Pass. Haven't made it far - just to the point where I can drive around the map freely - but I'm already irritated by the unskippable cutscenes and the "personalities" therein. Driving is fun. Also, it knows my name, and I didn't tell it my name.

Sea of Thieves got its first proper outing in a while last night, and a couple of Emissary voyages got me the final scraps of rep I needed with the Gold Hoarders and Order of Souls to hit Legend, so hooray! Jesus Christ, the gear is expensive, though - 8 million for an ugly figurehead!?

I got enough reward points for the Halo Infinite Battle Pass, so I'm still working my way towards my Reach look. My performance in multiplayer continues to be pretty average, and the challenge system is still frustrating, but the game itself is fun. I still miss Firefight, though.

Want
Still downloading a few things from Game Pass - Jedi Fallen Order, Hades, Psychonauts 2, and The Forgotten City - so that's plenty to keep me going for a while. I'm starting to see the appeal of the thing.

Bin
The Halo Infinite campaign. All the reviews are very positive about it, so maybe I'm just too old and tired, but the whole "hoo-rah, get The Mission done whatever the cost because Duty™" thing had already left a sour taste after the first level. I don't have any urge to go back to it.

The first level isn't Halo Infinite. That starts when you reach the ring surface. If you still hate it then, then fair enough, but I don't think you can judge it after the first couple of linear missions (which are pretty shit).

Happy New Year, everyone.

Play

Assassin's Creed Valhalla - I am so close to the end now but also utterly burned out on this game. I'm on what must surely be the final area, and just kind of pushing forward to the end now. I've actually really enjoyed playing this for the most part but it is just way, way too long and I should have stuck to my original plan of dipping in for an area or two before going back to other stuff for a bit. Playing essentially the last 60 hours of so of the game in one unrelenting go has been too much. I just want to see the credits roll then I can put it to one side for a while before coming back at a later stage for the DLC and all the bits I've missed.

Evil Genius 2 - I like this, it's a firmly mid-tier management game in the same sort of vein as Two Point Hospital but it's absorbing and fun. It never leaves tutorial mode though, I'm essentially just following orders all the way through. I feel more like Evil Minion.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - picked this up in the New Year sale after being on the fence for a while. Initial thoughts are that it's surprisingly ugly (where the 3DS games were absolutely beautiful) and there are way too many characters and dialogue boxes early on where all I want to do is play the game. I'm sure it will settle down. Also, TINY FONTS, gahhhh.

Want

All I want for 2022 is for Boris Johnson to resign in disgrace, and for Prince Andrew to be thrown in jail. That's not too much to ask for, surely?

(Also, Slime Rancher 2, which I believe is on the way this year. But I don't want that as much as the other things).

Bin

I don't tend to make New Year's Resolutions but it's become painfully apparent I need to make a few changes in my life, and this is as good a point to do that as any.

Also, just stuff in general I guess. I've been listening to a podcast called "Breaking Down: Collapse", which outlines in great detail all the various ways in which society is going to crumble within our lifetimes and our children's lifetimes, and it's equal parts compelling and terrifying.

Also, it knows my name, and I didn't tell it my name.

I assume it picks it up from your console settings? It knows my name too, but not my son's (which is a slightly less common name than yours or mine). There are hundreds of nicknames to choose from, though: he likes the game to address him as "Mr. President", which it mostly does, apart from the times I quietly log into his account to change his name to "Potato".

If you've ever played a Forza title it'll carry over your nickname from there.

I wasn't given an option to pick a (nick)name, so I guess it must have pulled it from my Live account; I haven't played a Forza since… Horizon 2(?) on the 360.

Horizon 5 is taking approximately a thousand years to load, the road occasionally vanishes, and I keep getting "streaming issues" messages pop up, so I think it might be pushing the limits of my ageing PC.

The first level isn't Halo Infinite. That starts when you reach the ring surface. If you still hate it then, then fair enough, but I don't think you can judge it after the first couple of linear missions (which are pretty shit).

Maybe I'll take another look. The issue wasn't remotely gameplay-related, though - just the cold, inhuman callousness of the character it was asking me to inhabit.

---

I've done some quick napkin math, and reckon that I can indefinitely pay for Game Pass PC in reward points, pretty much just off the back of playing a single round of Halo a day. #martonomics

Sea of Thieves got its first proper outing in a while last night, and a couple of Emissary voyages got me the final scraps of rep I needed with the Gold Hoarders and Order of Souls to hit Legend, so hooray! Jesus Christ, the gear is expensive, though - 8 million for an ugly figurehead!?

Congrats! You can get Pirate Legend with any three companies, so you could have worked up Reapers, Hunter's Call (just give them all the mermaid gems) or heaven forbid the Sea Dogs. Now you just need to get to 75/75/75…

My partner and I played last night over new year (with champagne, so real drunkenness was always a potential concern), so we could let off fireworks at midnight and generally just enjoy ourselves. We did my Gilded Athena voyage and good lord, a few moments had my heart pounding out of my chest. So tense! Cashing in the three Chests of Legends without anyone catching onto what we were up to was such a relief…

Bin
The Halo Infinite campaign. All the reviews are very positive about it, so maybe I'm just too old and tired, but the whole "hoo-rah, get The Mission done whatever the cost because Duty™" thing had already left a sour taste after the first level. I don't have any urge to go back to it.

Then don't. Life really is far too short, stick with your gut.

The first level isn't Halo Infinite. That starts when you reach the ring surface. If you still hate it then, then fair enough, but I don't think you can judge it after the first couple of linear missions (which are pretty shit).

So you need to play more than an hour then?

In Halo's case, yes. Once you're past the linear levels at the start it gives you the map with icons new Halo thing. It's not radically different, and to be honest, you're essentially traversing a map to get to a little open Halo level in most cases, but the ones I've attempted have all been enjoyable and can be tackled in different ways. Some of the additional powers are quite entertaining, though nothing you haven't seen before in a hundred games, but the general rapid traversal, empowering combat loop and generally interesting environment design does outweigh the generally stupid plot and MC himself being a terrible protagonist by today's standards.

Once you're past the linear levels at the start it gives you the map with icons new Halo thing.

I don't get the suggestion here to push through though. Not only is there an argument for why they put dull, not-fun sections at the start in the first place (note: nothing to do with the fact they're linear), but the point here is that they're not good and it's all enough to make someone give up. Dad of War Reboot had a whole linear section over the first three hours before you got to the lake and it all opened up, but that wasn't boring or unenjoyable at all. Why does an exception have to be made here, when the issues still appear to persist even after everything changes?

It's not radically different, and to be honest, you're essentially traversing a map to get to a little open Halo level in most cases, but the ones I've attempted have all been enjoyable and can be tackled in different ways. Some of the additional powers are quite entertaining, though nothing you haven't seen before in a hundred games, but the general rapid traversal, empowering combat loop and generally interesting environment design does outweigh the generally stupid plot and MC himself being a terrible protagonist by today's standards.

Sounds great. No, really.

I don’t think anyone is pretending Halo’s plot is good. But then who plays Halo, or Doom, or Mario for the plot?

What Infinite does get right is the shooty shooty, which is some of the best I’ve ever played. Peerless sound design, jaw-droppingly good gunplay, and a pretty, open world with just the right amount of explosive barrels to ensure sublime, hilarious chaos at every turn. It’s genuinely one of the best FPS games I’ve ever played, and I was never THAT keen on Halo before this.

Play
Halo Infinite.

Paper Mario N64. This is still a really fun game. I missed it first time around, so I’m coming at it with zero nostalgia, and it’s just great. The writing is much better than other games of that era, too. Visuals aside, this could have come out yesterday.

Fire Emblem 3 Houses. Haven’t started this yet, just bought it on sale.

Pokémon Ruby Switch. I think that’s what it’s called; the new one. It’s fine. Plays like they were designing it with their eyes closed, whilst yawning. Hopefully the new one is more exciting.

The Gunk. This is a lovely game, part Luigi’s Mansion, part Journey to the Savage Planet. There’s something inherently satisfying about cleaning stuff up in games; it’s very therapeutic.

Paper Mario N64

I really wish I could get this without having to up my Nintendo sub level. I don't care about anything else in the N64 back compatibility lineup, but I'd drop a few quid* for Paper Mario. My emulation Pi can't quite handle it properly (and save games are borked on it too, for some reason).

*Probably more than I'd be willing to admit, honestly…

I really wish I could get this without having to up my Nintendo sub level.

I still have a couple of slots free on my sub. Plus Mr Party Hat didn't show up for Christmas dinner despite being one of the family now, so we're thinking of disowning him. Shout if you want in.

We've got a family membership ourselves, or I would take you up on it.

I really wish I could get this without having to up my Nintendo sub level.

I still have a couple of slots free on my sub. Plus Mr Party Hat didn't show up for Christmas dinner despite being one of the family now, so we're thinking of disowning him. Shout if you want in.

I have covid, otherwise I would have been there demanding a leg. (Turkey, not yours.)

That's a good reason. You're excused. Hope you feel better soon!

I have a family plan, but I'm literally the only person on it who cares about anything other than the online component. As such, I can't justify upgrading to get the Expansion Pack content and can't leave because then I'd essentially be paying twice over. I can miss out on a few retro games if I have to.

Once you're past the linear levels at the start it gives you the map with icons new Halo thing.

I don't get the suggestion here to push through though. Not only is there an argument for why they put dull, not-fun sections at the start in the first place (note: nothing to do with the fact they're linear), but the point here is that they're not good and it's all enough to make someone give up. Dad of War Reboot had a whole linear section over the first three hours before you got to the lake and it all opened up, but that wasn't boring or unenjoyable at all. Why does an exception have to be made here, when the issues still appear to persist even after everything changes?

It's not radically different, and to be honest, you're essentially traversing a map to get to a little open Halo level in most cases, but the ones I've attempted have all been enjoyable and can be tackled in different ways. Some of the additional powers are quite entertaining, though nothing you haven't seen before in a hundred games, but the general rapid traversal, empowering combat loop and generally interesting environment design does outweigh the generally stupid plot and MC himself being a terrible protagonist by today's standards.

Sounds great. No, really.

I get that you have decided 1 hour and done is good for you, but it doesn't immediately apply to every single other person here. This is a bit like someone who had had a drinking problem for years going cold turkey and then lecturing people at a Christmas party.

The point is, the first, relatively short linear levels aren't Halo Infinite. Yes, it's shit they're there, yes the plot makes no sense and yes it really should do a better job of introducing the game. However, we're not talking FFXV here. It's not 40 hours until the game opens up, or whatever it is. It's about an hour or so of play and then it gives you the playground. It's worth giving the "open world" bits a go, and then stopping after an hour of that. And yes, it's not radically different to other games, but assuming you've already played/finished best in class shooters then this is another good one. The grapple and swift traversal are great and the kill feedback is top tier. If you want to shoot shit, this is good. If you want to move into multiplayer later, then the SP is also a good grounding. If you want a deep plot and a protagonist who isn't an arsehole, then this isn't the game for you. But as MPH says that was never an issue in Doom 2016, I don't think it's an issue here.

Xmas and NY Plays
We've been playing a fair amount of MP stuff over Xmas with various non-gaming families. Mario Kart 8 remains good, and was a hit. Moving Out and Overcooked worked well for a while until bitter recriminations and shouting started, but Astrobears remains the one true multiplayer game everyone loves. It's on sale. Get Astrobears.

While looking for other coop options I stumbled across Haven. I wasn't entirely convinced but bought it anyway. It's weird. Flower meets anime bullshit but with good voice acting and kissing. Not sure on this one tbh.

But the main grind has been Apex, as myself and my eldest who are OK at the game decided we wanted to get better. My middle child is a beast at the game and has been grinding since Season 1, so we also felt if we wanted to play with him in Trios we needed to up our game. This was a good bonding experience as we just played Duos over and over again, same comp, same drop locations, learning from mistakes, taking fights, being more aggressive, refining strategies. We finally won our first couple of games just as the school holidays were coming to an end after a huge run of second places. And in true story arc fashion in both of the wins stuff we'd learned and applied finally became useful and saved us. Incredibly satisfying and great to see our KD and general win percentage begin to creep up, as well as us becoming generally more toxic and hunting down solos or anyone slightly mispositioned on the map. Parenting at its best.

Some other random stuff - Lego Builder's Journey, the RTX showcase. Looks beautiful, but my god the controls are shit.

Inscryption - Slay the Spire meets distressed pixel art via Gwent. I'm not so sure on this. It is what it is, and it's quite clever, but the art style is eye melting and I'm not overly happy with the core card mechanics (which feel a bit clunky). Sort of a game I'd like to have on a mobile device I think.

Outriders - installed as a "why not" from Gamepass and while it's generally not that exciting (Borderlands meets Gears) I have to say Halo Infinite has a strong contender for best gun feel. Even on a mouse the snap and crack of the killing in this game is exquisite. I've never played a third person cover shooter on MKB with such a good feel to it - viscerally thrilling murder. I might explore this one co-op, as I'd sort of placed it in the Back 4 Blood/Revenant class of AA shooters that were probably shit, but it might be better than that.

For Honor - we started playing a bit of this casually. What a fucking toxic shithole of an online game. It's all greifing, jank, teaming and bullshit, but I have to admit it was quite fun. Especially if it's your team doing all those things. I can't be arsed learning it much more though.

Want
Can't think of much, Dying Light 2 perhaps?

Bin
Metro series - I have tried so many times to like it. But the core gameplay is shit. I tried one last time to get on with Exodus and, nope.

BBC's NYE poet telling us we should all be proud of a footballer giving out school meals to poor schoolchildren before a massive fireworks display. At this point I just accept the gaslighting.

I apologise for opening the Halo Infinite can of worms… What it comes down to, I think, is that I can get everything I want from it - satisfying guns, traversal, et al., from the multiplayer, which I'll definitely be sticking with.

And yes, that NYE poem was awful; cringey, obvious, high-school-quality rhyming. The fireworks weren't even that good, either.

Play

Final Fantasy XI

I beat the Shadow Lord just now! If I'm not mistaken, this is the equivalent of ARR for launch FFXI so technically my first beaten game of 2022 is FFXI. :^)

Shadow Lord was a great premise for a story and one of the back of a really good intro cutscene, but it's pretty basic…and short, but that last part is clearly 2022 FFXI and not how Gar and Cheddar experienced it. I think you were forced to toil and grind in groups to get those levels, and that gear and the threat of the Shadow Lord's revival loomed over them for a month or so, which they stopped with each other and not with AI like me. Unintentionally or not, it was their first attempt at story in an MMO after all, it definitely feels like pre FF7 era storytelling, maybe even Pre FF4 and given this game is representative of the entire series up til then what could be more FF than that tbh.

None of that fucking matters anyway, FFXI seems to be a 'the friends we made along the way' kind of game. Erm…my friends in this were AI, but I had a lot of good moments playing this too, it took me a lot of effort over several days forging my Monk's Artifact Set and doing it all is a highlight of my playtime so far. But you could add getting my mount to that list as well as levelling in dungeons like the Eldieme Necropolis, or Yuan'Fei and finding a Lv99 player there farming a rare enemy had killed the boss for me lol. Imagine doing a XIV dungeon, getting to the end and then seeing another party had killed the boss for you, loved it.

I love FFXI too much to stay away but for better or worse they are releasing the Savage Raids in…

Final Fantasy XIV

…deep down, tearing myself away from Vana'diel to do weekly tomestone grinds kinda sucks, coming home at 8pm-ish after work to do the roulettes basically eats up all my freetime when I'm on shift but I said I was going to try raiding again this expansion so I'm looking forward to that. Next time I'm off work I think I'm going to do a line of coke* and then blast Gunbreaker, the last tank I have to level, to cap in one or two sittings of repeated dungeon crawling so I can finally level the new DPS Reaper, which looks AMAZING.

Sakuna of Rice and Ruin

Not too far in this but it's pretty good so far, I thought it was a Metroidvania, but it's actually level based and I'm all for that for once honestly. You're a very cute and very arrogant and irrespnsible Goddess who is banished to an island for a major fuck up in the opening and the flow of the game is basically exploring it in a set of sidescroling levels and taking any food and materials back to a hub with you to make better gear and more importantly, Rice. The rice growing minigame seems deceptively deep, like you'd think it was just Harvest Moon shit but it's over my head so far but I had fun figuring it out based on one of the NPCs instructions and so far I like the loop of tending to the crops and then going into a sidescrolling level because combat is pretty fun.

Want

After beating Lunar 2 I said I'd give the RP2 a rest for a bit but now I'm like…Golden Sun????

Also holy shit do I want Dragon Quest X localised over here, it'd be the third MMO I'd sub to but I'd do it in a heartbeat if I could play through a solid Dragon Quest story in a Dragon Quest World with my friends as we level and gear up our probably identicle DBZ Toriyama lookalike characters.

You know what? I still wanna' try World of Warcraft one day :/. It's funny that it's my fourth choice, or fifth/sixth if we count DC Universe Online and Elder Scrolls Online, which I won't because I never really played them much.

Bin
My fever is gone, eat fucking SHIT.

*waiting for a footnote about the line of coke

*can of coke?

Play: Final Fantasy XIII, a game I really enjoyed on release but really can't remember much of now, so time for a replay. I know it's been said before but this looks absolutely astonishing on Series X - it's almost impossible to believe it's the original 360 version running underneath it all, I've seen full-price remasters that have achieved less than what the Microsoft backward-compatibility team have done with this. Still early days but I'm loving the music already.

Yeah let's go with that, riding a sugar high though dozens and dozens of dungeons back to back, a line of coke bottles in a row.

I think we’ve just discovered how Alastor completes 75 JRPGs a year.

Play

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One. A couple of hours in and this is exactly as good/janky as I hoped/feared it would be. Frogwares consistently do great detecting in an appalling engine, with scripts that have some great lines and some absolute clunkers, often right next to each other. This is more of the same - if you've played any of the previous games, you'll already know if you'll like it or not. I'm enjoying it, as I have most of their stuff. The cases are good enough to carry it through, and at least the combat is optional (which is a big improvement over The Sinking City, their previous effort, where the mandatory combat basically ruined it). Hard to recommend without sizeable caveats really, but we're having fun with it and I'll no doubt get the next one too…

Play: Final Fantasy XIII, a game I really enjoyed on release but really can't remember much of now, so time for a replay.

I grabbed this on Game Pass, too. Much less hassle than digging out the PS3, though I suspect it probably won't scrub up as well for me as on a Series X…

Still on Halo.

I have grabbed a few things but none of it has arrived, I have also been told that I am allowed to buy an Xbox Series X despite the cost, as long as it's from Amazon due to having vouchers.

oddly it's a reward for myself for having done such a good job-saving money…was convinced it was a trap.

Final Fantasy XI

I beat the Shadow Lord just now! If I'm not mistaken, this is the equivalent of ARR for launch FFXI so technically my first beaten game of 2022 is FFXI. :^)

Congratulations! It's without a doubt the weakest part of FFXI (but still as you say a hell of an achievement back in the day) so onwards and upwards from here I guess.

Chains of Promathia blew everyone's minds when it came out back in 2004, I'll be very interested to see what you make of that and how it holds up.

Well, I've had to unavoidably see a few opening cutscenes already, simply by going to Jeuno then Yin'Fei, so halfway through finding out the origins of the Shadow Lord I saw Bahamut be released then sorta'…disappear. Not ideal but also nothing game ruining, and it was a hype cutscene.

Think I'm doing more Nation missions and Zilart stuff first though.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - picked this up in the New Year sale after being on the fence for a while. Initial thoughts are that it's surprisingly ugly (where the 3DS games were absolutely beautiful) and there are way too many characters and dialogue boxes early on where all I want to do is play the game. I'm sure it will settle down. Also, TINY FONTS, gahhhh.

Although I finished the main game, I bounced off the DLC, and after getting your old 3DS, I played the available Fire Emblem games, and was so looking forward to it.

I’m having the same issue with Bravely Default 2, a great and beautiful series (if one game can be a series) on the 3DS, but the graphics on the Switch are really annoying me - the animation and big headed characters - feel so wrong. As do the U.K. regional accents. I’m hoping to get to the Northern Ireland chapter soon.

I've found Fire Emblem: Three Houses improves a fair bit once you turn off the voice acting, it makes the whole game feel much snappier plus of course you don't have to listen to all the whiny Americans.

The whole pacing of the thing feels completely off, though. The 3DS games were turn-based strategy games with amusing little character vignettes in between the battles. This thing is a full-on visual novel with an occasional strategy minigame. I'm still on the first chapter and I'm already sick of wandering around that fucking monastery looking for side quests.

Steamworld Quest: Hand of Gilgamesh - I love the Steamworld games, but was waiting for a price drop before grabbing this one. Usually, I&F can do no wrong in my eyes, but they did The Gunk and that was crap, so let's see.

Yeah, this is ace. Definite Heist feel, in that it makes card-based battling accessible and appealing to those who might not be keen, just as the previous game did for XCOM-style turn-based stuff.

Play: Retro game set up project. As suspected I'm probably more interested in getting everything running and having the UI look nice than actually playing very much. The tiny RG280V arrived on the 22nd of December and by the 24th it was packed with a nice sample of games. All I've really been doing with it is checking the emulators are set up properly and then pruning the games library because who really needs 6 versions of Harvest Moon? So far I've only really looked at 8 and 16-bit consoles and Gameboy/Colour/Advance with the exception of Symphony of the Night as a PS1 test.

I've played Mario 3 most of all in its various guises and some Advance Wars. My oldest is into Mario quite a bit which is nice and sort of the point of all this. I've been reading a lot of articles titled things like "The 23 most overlooked SNES games" and filling the games list with things that sound interesting. I think there's probably quite a bit more pruning to do from the "100 best" rom sets available and after doing something very wrong with system files and having to format the cards again I ended up not putting any Master System games back on because… most of them are really shit. That's kind of the overall take away, I don't know why I forgot this from the time I set up a Raspberry Pi (first gen, could only run 8/16-bit emulators and even then the SNES was spotty): most of these games are terrible!

There is something in me, the Megatech reader probably, that likes the idea of being able to see what all these games are like. I remember really wanting Kid Chameleon even though all the reviews said it was mediocre and knowing that, for £44.99, it wouldn't be worth it. Whenever I get an emulator going I'll always play a bit of it even though it's absolute garbage!

The unit itself is nice although I do think it's probably too small for me. If I persevere with it and end up actually playing anything through I might think about upgrading the unit and giving the 280V to the kids.

The one thing I've learnt from setting up multiple emulation machines is that you don't have to have everything. I mean, sure, a complete set of MAME ROMs is nice but ultimately, 50+ Mahjong games are never going to get played. If you can't just whittle it down to stuff you might actually play, what are you even doing?

Because of an electrical repair job that had to be done in my flat yesterday, I ended up rewiring my entire TV unit and retiring all the consoles I don't use. Other than the Series X and S, only the GameCube and my SNES Mini survived the cut. The SNES is exactly as mentioned above - rather than having all SNES games on it, it's got the ones I'm most likely to play. Otherwise, it's just wasted space.

What are you paying on your GameCube?

Super Monkey Ball. Have you seen the latest one. They fucked up Monkey Target. It's practically a war crime.

They fucked up Monkey Target

Well that just lost them a sale. How'd they fuck up Monkey Target?!

I think it was the move to Unreal Engine and the subsequent ruining of the physics that everyone was so up in arms over. You know, the thing that made it so good in the first place.

I'll need to check which games are on the shelf compared to still being in boxes downstairs. But off the top of my head, I know I've got Luigi's Mansion, Wind Waker, Mario Sunshine, Monkey Ball, both Donkey Konga games (though the bongos are downstairs), F-Zero GX and Chibi-Robo. Oh, and Skies of Arcadia Legends, which is in the drive currently.

I still have about a dozen GameCube games, but only a Wii to play them on. I played through Luigi's Mansion reasonably recently, and Ikaruga.

They fucked up Monkey Target

Well that just lost them a sale. How'd they fuck up Monkey Target?!

It's impossible to play and the physics are wrong. Probably the worst thing to happen in 2021.

I might need to see about picking up some good JP/US games for cheap. Dunno which ones though.

You could try going back to the original Animal Crossing. We could all do it and take turns mailing our towns to each other so that we can visit.

Update, Golden Sun is just as good as I remember, would say 'best RPG on GBA???' but this is the GBA were talking about, it has FFVI after all. :thinking:

Looks really nice and has a brilliant system in the 'Djinns' these little elemental dudes you equip like Materia but also affect stats, class and different combinations do different things, such as form full on summons.

Let's be honest though I should have just played Mega Man Legends 2 instead

You could try going back to the original Animal Crossing. We could all do it and take turns mailing our towns to each other so that we can visit.

I still have it AND my memory card with two years of play on it. Maybe a visit to Alftown is on the cards.

After twenty years that might be a pretty grim return. The town abandoned but for an angry ape and a depressive elephant who have been surviving on weeds and bell-debt since you left.

I liked the recent Monkey ball and the single-player helpers they put on meant my daughter could play and enjoy it, but my word is Monkey Target bad, like really bad. Even if you watch the videos or high score walkthroughs to figure out how to play it, it's still really unfun and unenjoyable.

Where did you get this handheld btw? Sounds pretty cool, whilst not similar I really wanted the Analouge pocket but the latest batch of orders doesn't ship until 2023! Am hopeful of having maybe bought a half and moved by then so don't want to risk it.