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Finished Donkey Kong Country on the GBA today at work during my lunch. Not 100% but I was never going for that. After finishing Metroid Zero Mission, tried a few games but nothing was clicking for the 30 minutes I had each day to play. This ended up being the perfect pick up and play game I was looking for. Forget how awesome DKC is, the level design and that absolutely incredible soundtrack. Was humming the tunes for the rest of the day. David Wise was on fire here. I absolutely hate swimming levels in games but the god tier soundtrack for those levels made them bearable. Next up. DKC 2: Diddy Kong's Quest. Once I've completed the trilogy, I'm now very tempted to playthrough Returns and Tropical Freeze again. Oh and I finished the main story on God of War Ragnarok on Monday. Just working my way through the post game stuff now. Really enjoyed it and justified me not buying a PS5 just yet as it looks incredible on the PS4 Pro. Santa Monica Studio pushing it to its limits. Don't think I'll be able to get the Platinum. Missed too many collectables that I can't be bothered searching for. Looking forward to playing through the Valhalla DLC once I've done as much as I can.

One game about pirates and one game made by pirates.

That, or there's a new Wrecking Crew game in the works.

"You must capture all of them" plagiarism avoided

Xbox Korea seem to agree with you...

Those emojis don't show up in Tapatalk, so I just see people writing the word 'hug' and 'bowdown' instead. It's weird, but in my head I just imagine them saying them out loud while talking. yay, bouncy, bowdown.

TPC have responded! https://corporate.pokemon.co.jp/media/news/detail/335.html Looks like they're gonna go for it, but it's gonna take some time for them to dig into Palworld's files and make their case.

How many bosses? Around 8 or so?

Universal are actually in the very early stages of having a potential park in Bedford, so I wonder if we could one day have our very own Super Mario World. Universal UK Project

Aonuma and Myamoto were at the park recently:

To Be The Very Best Like No One Ever Was™.

@Dcubed I don't think you'll like one of my later reviews. DOOM 64 NA release: 4th April 1997 JP release: 1st August 1997 PAL release: 2nd December 1997 Developer: Midway Publisher: Midway (US) / Gamebank (JP) GT Interactive (PAL_ N64 Magazine Score: 77% A name like DOOM 64 gives the impression that this is a port of the popular DOOM – especially as the original game did get a lot of ports. However, this is a sequel to the first two DOOM games, featuring completely new models. I played the very faithful remaster from Nightdrive (it doesn’t add any gameplay features, just some optional extra levels), along with a mod that restored a few more minor things from the N64 game. As far as DOOM goes, this is considered to be a great version, with some refined gameplay and graphics. The levels focus more on puzzles and horror, although the “horror” is more just really dark levels (I ended up turning up the brightness to see) and the puzzles are a lot of pressing buttons and trying to figure out what part of the level changed. The soundtrack was also changed to a more ambient sound, so it lacks the rocking soundtrack of the original games. If this was a launch title on the N64, it would have been even more impressive. However, Turok beat this to be the first FPS on the N64 and DOOM 64 feels very flat in comparison. Very low walls blocking the player now seem much more ridiculous and it seems like you’re still playing on a 2D plane, even when some stuff is higher – you can’t look up or down, but bullets will automatically move upwards. For fans of DOOM, this version is definitely worth playing. However, the genre had evolved by the time it was released and this doesn’t do much to update the gameplay of DOOM. Remake or Remaster? The current remaster does a great job of making the game nicer to play without changing so much. Official ways to get the game. The DOOM 64 remaster is available on GOG, Steam, Xbox One/Series, Switch and PS4/5.

Secret tracks and private lobbies have been added to the game!

So the curiosity just got too much for me to handle and I resubscribed to Game Pass to check this out. Well, and Season 11 of Sea of Thieves has just arrived too. Initial impressions were absolutely atrocious, the game wouldn't even start at first! I was stuck in this weird "cannot connect error" loop. After trying several times I just gave up and played Sea of Thieves. After a while I tried again, this time I managed to get to the title screen and into a game, but I was greeted by a pretty badly optimised experience and some graphics settings that didn't function at all (DLSS greyed out ) even so, I was able to tweak other settings to get it running all right on my PC. Heads up for anyone that may be considering the game on PC via Game Pass though, it turns out the Game Pass build is less refined than the Steam version. Anyway, Palworld starts out super slow and boring (like every other one of these survival type games that I've briefly played before ) but once I'd harvested enough materials to build better tools and unlock more facilities it became a bit more streamlined and things got slightly more interesting. There doesn't seem to be all that much restriction regarding how you can build your base either, which is pretty cool but I've not had the chance to fully mess around with that aspect yet. As everyone and their dog is already well aware, this game draws a lot of inspiration takes a lot of content from Pokémon but I actually find myself recognising so many elements from other games as well. Zelda (Breath of the Wild specifically), Fortnite, Animal Crossing, Xenoblade, even Dark Souls... oh- and Goat Simulator, although I don't think they meant to copy that one. It's as if the developers are going for a Guinness World Record on how many plagiarised assets and stolen ideas can be crammed into a single game! It's too soon to properly evaluate, but Palworld appears to be a very unusual experience indeed. What I've seen so far is a glitchy and bizarre mixture of loads of other games (not just Pokémon!) that isn't particularly good, but at the same time there does seem to be something about it, and considering the gameplay mostly involves holding a button down to perform menial tasks and watching timers countdown, it is strangely addictive. I shall continue to investigate... BTW, here's an interesting vid with another angle on the copyright stuff:

This gave me a chuckle:

Man, it's sad seeing Microsoft doing what they set out to do with the Xbox One and got backlash for. They just wrapped it in a different package. You laugh now, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sony followed suit for the PS6. Especially if it ends up paying off for Microsoft.

I wouldn't be shocked if by this time next generation - heck, maybe even from the start of the next generation - if the official Xbox Store is the only official supplier of their consoles. I was watching some DF clips the other day and I do think now that they're really pulling up their sleeves, I agree with John Linneman that the modern Xbox console now needs to essentially follow the Steam Deck: with Xbox consoles already decidedly not being the best way to play Xbox games (and this having been the case ever since their games started releasing on PC), the need for a dedicated console is still there for people who don't want to stream/play on their phone, tablet, etc., and wanted a dedicated device and OS suited for the most accessible way of playing their games and entering the ecosystem. And you know what? Steam, at least in the West as far as I'm aware, are also the only official retailers of the Steam Deck, and while I don't think the aim of the Steam Deck was to expand their consumer base in a meaningful sense, in a very limited way for people who are mainly console-only (such as myself), who don't want to faff around with PC parts and don't care about playing everything at high specs, I think it has; it's by far the easiest and most accessible route into their ecosystem for the layman. I think the comparison is apt and I think that's the way Microsoft finding themselves going. Don't want to build a PC, don't want to play on low-end devices that stream, etc.? Buy this console directly from us. Also imagine it would mean making those margins even more aggressively slim/nonexistent if needed.

Seems like they are done with physical games.

Super effective advertising.

Doom 64 was the victim of some unfortunate launch timing. Coming after Turok and Quake? It comes across as outdated and behind the times, but it actually ends up aging rather more gracefully than most of its polygon peers on the console. The name is also very unfortunate, as it gives off the impression that it's just yet another port of the original game; when it's actually a completely original Doom title, and really should've been called Doom 3. The shift to a more horror-based oppresive atmosphere, over its metal-inspired predecessors, is also something that would later be co-opted by the actual Doom 3 (which ironically is less of a proper Doom game than Doom 64). While it doesn't re-invent the formula to any major extent (the core gameplay is essentially more of the same) the switch to a true 3D polygon engine now allowed the game and level designers to add proper scripting to each stage, with events now able to be triggered that dramatically alter level layouts in a way that couldn't be done with the original raycasted 2D sprite engine. There's also a few new weapons and enemies not seen in any other Doom game, you can now do things like shoot through grates in walls, shoot switches from a distance, and there are also booby traps like spikes and dart blocks (how very Tomb Raider!). It's a look at what a more conservative jump to 3D would've looked like for the FPS genre (and ironically, its style is now back in fashion as the modern "Boomer Shooter"). If there's any real major flaw with the original game? It's that it's just too bloody dark to see properly! This is something thankfully corrected in the modern Nightdive remaster, but if you've ever played this game on original hardware? It's virtually impossible to play on anything but a CRT (or a high quality modern display with the brightness cranked up to max). This video below was captured on real N64 hardware to give you an idea of how difficult the original version would be to look at properly... Doom 64 is a game that went largely unappreciated in its own time, but has since gained a bit of a cult following; and deservedly so. It's a good quality Doom game that does things a bit differently, without straying far from its series roots. A look at the road not travelled within the genre that ends up being rather unique within the N64 library.

There's not even a goal. Just a skill tree to fill out. You just do whatever. That's early access for you.

You're thinking of this

I love our emojis They're expressive, charming, cute, and characteristic. Somehow, we went from having a surprising variety of smileys throughout the internet, to gradually having every single platform share the exact same set of emojis. Except for N-E It's the best corner of the internet

One of my favourite levels in FSA. Having a group of people all wander around the place trying to figure out what needs to be done. And there's always that one person whose like "Nah, I haven't found anything" while they're sneakily pocketing all the Force Gems they just stumbled upon... Screw all those Zelda HD remasters people keep asking for! Gimme an online version of this game! It'd be amazing!

My next Gamecube adventure has been decided. This is another game that I have fond memories of playing in multiplayer with my friends. It's also the console Zelda game I have played the least. I've only ever played it the once and that was nearly 20 years ago. I honestly don't remember a thing about it. It's like playing a completely new Zelda game. I've finished the first world this morning and rescued the first maiden. I love all the callbacks to A Link to the Past. The music, setting, sound effects, all of them are like a love letter to that game. Some of the puzzles early on have been great. There was a room that had a couple of doorways and no way across to the bottom one. You had to shoot an arrow out of the room and off the GBA screen and allow it to go outside and hit the switch. Simple but satisfying. I'm obviously playing it in single player mode and it plays really well. You hit a button to switch your formations, another to seperate them and a GBA screen appears on the TV when you enter a building. It all works great. I thought the Force Gems you collect were just part of the multiplayer mode but completely forgot they are needed to break the barriers at the end of each stage. On the 2nd stage I was short of them and to rewind time to collect more. I thought this meant I had to go through the whole dungeon again but once I had collected 2000 I was instantly teleported back to the exit. Nice. Looking forward to playing some more of this old/new Zelda game.

Does that mean that the western version will be called Super Donkey Kong then?

As predicted, the WWE Network outside the US ends later this year due to the Netflix deal