Alice in Cardland 64
  JP release: 7th August 1998 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Bottom Up Publisher: Bottom Up Original Name: 64 Trump Collection: Alice no Waku Waku Trump World N64 Magazine Score: 21% The name “Alice in Cardland” is my attempt at a localised name for this game, the more literal translation is “64 Playng Collection: Alice’s Exciting Playing Card World”. The game is listed online as “64 Trump Collection: Alice no Waku Waku Trump World”, however “Trump” is essentially a Japanese slang term for playing card games (presumably based on “trump card”, used in some trick-taking games). Alice in Cardland is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland where Alice has to win a card game to progress. The first one is Old Maid (played with a joker instead of a queen). The problem with card games like this: you are literally drawing random cards from opponents. There’s no skill. You can protect a card three times in a round, but that’s only useful if you’re losing and the CPU can do the same to you. You have to have the highest store in three rounds, so you just have to keep trying until you randomly win. I decided to let Alice spend the rest of her life with the living furniture as you can just play the games separately. The regular card games consist of: Pairs, Old Maid, Sevens, Speed, Cheat/Doubt, Page One (a version of Uno using just playing cards), Daifugō (a Japanese card game where you have to get rid of your cards, a bit like a trick taking game) and Seven Bridge, although there are a few extra games as well. I was intrigued when I saw poker, but it’s just a very basic Video Poker. Blackjack is also played in the same interface – it all seems like it was taken from another game and thrown into this for more content. The same is also true of solitaire (Klondike and Freecell variants), which again seems like they’re from a completely different game. Rounding out all the games are a few “fortune telling” events and another Uno variant with slightly different rules. Alice in Cardland isn’t terribly made, it all works and has a cute style. It’s more the concept of the game that fails. In multiplayer, it’s far less cumbersome to play all these games with a £1 pack of cards. The only advantage is you can play against the computer, but these games are just dull without the conversation and banter – not to mention how you facial expressions and bluffing turn games like Old Maid into an actual game and not just picking random cards. Remake or remaster? A pack of playing cards is the only “remake” needed. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Alice in Cardland

Absolutely. Gaming subscription service numbers are starting to stall and this was a way to inflate those numbers for the shareholders. There is zero reason to require players to use PSN other than collect data and add to their numbers. It's the downside of being to update a game after it's release. It's happened numerous times now where a game has came out, bought by customers and then changed a week later, usually to include some scummy business practice. I think a big part of the problem was throwing this out there after launch. I wouldn't be surprised if going forward with their next games that the PSN account linking will be a day 1 requirement.

I've been away all week and was actually planning to jump in to Helldivers II this weeks thanks to the immense social pressure I've been under. Lots of friends having a good time on PS5 and PC wanting me to join them, so coming back to this news was hilarious.  Had this gone through, I wouldn't have even been able to buy the game.  Extremely arrogant of Sony. It just shows how utterly detached these AAA companies are from the end user and what they actually want from gaming. Sony has demolished any good will this game had earned them, and while there is certainly a much deeper discussion to be had regarding MS, Sony and PC releases, this was an extremely sceptical move, hilariously pushed under the guise of "player safety". In reality, this is just Sony trying to sweep up a few extra PSN users for their earnings calls and balance sheets. The "safety" they speak of is just more control over how people play the game and the discussions they have over voice chat. They also want more data too, which is what having everyone log in to PSN would have given them.  Needless to say, I will not be buying this game. I see people in some regions have been given refunds despite having 100+ hours in the game already. And rightly so, IMO.  This seems to be another example of a continuing trend where a product is sold and then the rules are arbitrarily changed a few weeks or months down the line to the detriment of the buyer. So while I'm very pleased to see Sony walking it back in the face of the outrage, I have no doubt that this is just a minor bump in the road and they will merely implement all of this stuff in a more subtle way over time. 

   

Two more badges obtained and two to go. It's ridiculous have few new Pokemon are kicking around the place. Not that it really matters because my main 3 are steamrolling everything.  I spent some more time in the Underground and I quite like the mining mini game. The Underground is something I never really bothered with in the original game.