RedShell
N-E Staff-
Content count
14,132 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
80
Posts posted by RedShell
-
-
I tell you what though, Game Freak are in such need of a kick up the arse, hopefully all the buzz around Palworld will at least get them to improve the presentation and technical aspects on their next offerings.
Can't see how they'd get away with chucking out another lacklustre Pokémon game after this. Although, having just looked up the sales figures for Scarlet/Violet, they blatantly could.
-
Looks... intriguing.
Anyone playing it?
It released a few days ago (early access) on Steam and Game Pass. Apparently it's doing very well indeed, 4 million copies sold already.
Wonder what Nintendo/Game Freak make of this.
-
Man, that is greedy.
I'm not a fan of this multiple edition malarkey at the best of times, but locking a once standard feature behind the most expensive edition? Not cool at all. 
In this particular case (NG+) it's not something that I'd personally miss, but even so, I'd hate for this type of practice to become the norm.
Not sure if I'm going to get this at launch or wait for a sale.
-
If there's one thing I hate more than the Brinstar Depths stage, it's the Brinstar Depths stage when random select has given me Incineroar.
19 hours ago, BowserBasher said:I see what you did there. Anyway knowing your stages I can't wait to see what crazy gimmick this has.
Nothing too crazy this time, I'm trying to make stages that are a bit more normal in terms of layout. Not sure how long that will last.
-
.png)
3
-
-
I've cooked up a new stage...
-
11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:@RedShell did you ever play Tinykin? Think it was on Game Pass at some point. Cute, chilled out, colourful platformer seems right up your street.
Nope. The last game I played on there where you have little creatures following you around was The Wild at Heart.
Cheers for the recommendation though, will try to check it out at some point.
-
8 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:This is where I'm at now. My subscription ran out at the start of the year and I really want to play Golden Sun but I can't purchase them outright and if I do want to play them again I'm going to have to subscribe for a year. I was also halfway through a playthrough of Jet Force Gemini when my sub ran out. Sucks.
I was just thinking there's no way that you would need a year to play through those games
why not just resubscribe for 1 month? Then I remembered that isn't actually an option for the Expansion Pack. So yeah, that does indeed suck.
Anyway, if you do plan to subscribe again, ShopTo have it at a much better price than the eShop:https://www.shopto.net/en/ndo10009344-nintendo-switch-on-line-expansion-pack-365-p1179195/
-
.png)
1
-
-
GOG taking a dig at Ubisoft:
DRM-free is indeed a big plus for GOG.
Which reminds me about some of the shenanigans that Capcom have been pulling recently on Steam, patching in new and (by the sounds of things) pretty sketchy DRM to their games, even much older titles.-
2
-
.png)
1
-
-
1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:I remember Matt Damon talking about this and how streaming services had changed things for the worse.
https://blog.son-video.com/en/2022/09/matt-damon-is-worried-about-the-end-of-dvd-and-blu-ray/
-
4
-
-
Wasn't aware there was a demo up for this, will check it out later.
-
4 hours ago, Dcubed said:Now, ironically, video games did once have their own equivalent of the box office… the arcades. Games would come to the arcades and make their money there before coming to home consoles (and eventually handhelds too). But by the mid 2000s? The arcades were virtually dead, and DLC/microtransactions began in lieu; especially as arcade developers died out and PC focused western developers really began to dominate the market from the Xbox 360 onwards.
Interesting. I've not thought about it like that before, but makes a lot of sense.
Also, I miss the arcade scene.
-
.png)
1
-
-
Hey N-E, here's to another year of great gaming!
Just realised that I didn't actually finish updating my 2023 gaming diary
oh well, here's my first games of 2024...
Bramble: The Mountain King:
Wow, what a messed up game.
Really cool though, if you can stomach the content. It starts out like a nice fairy tale and then all of a sudden transforms into a absolute nightmare! Awesome way to enhance the horror though. 
It also has that kind of weird/creepy old European film vibe going for it, you know, the kind of stuff that'd be on late night TV back in the 80s. So yeah, the concept is spot-on. Unfortunately aspects of the presentation (and more importantly, the gameplay) are a little bit rough around the edges, it's mostly fine, but there are several moments (mainly insta-death stealth based sections
) where it felt like it could've done with a bit more polish. But I did enjoy the game, it's not that long (only around 5 hours) so the bits I wasn't that keen on didn't detract too much from the overall experience.
Next up, a game that I should've played a long time ago, but inexplicably have waited until now to play. Yep I finally got around to playing...
Stray:
Mind-blowing!
OK, I'm one of those crazy cat people, so obviously I was always going to adore that aspect of the game no matter what, but I wasn't prepared for just how much I would love it. I cannot believe how accurately the developers have managed to portray the movement and more amazingly the behaviours of a cat! That is no mean feat but they've done such an amazing job, it's crazy how good it all is. I was completely enthralled by the main character from the very second it first appeared on screen, all the way through until the credits rolled. 
I've heard comments about how if you were to remove the cat from this game it wouldn't be anything particularly special, and honestly there's some truth to that, but doing so would also require the entire game to be drastically different. I mean, everything has been so meticulously designed around the limitations and advantages of being a cat... the need to often move vertically, or to squeeze through small gaps, even the way the cat jumps. I recall being disappointed when I first discovered that jumping was context sensitive in this game, but it makes perfect sense for animation purposes and also maintaining that illusion of authenticity around the cat's behaviour.
The game is very linear as a result of the level design and constrained jumping mechanics, but the atmosphere and visuals are so stunning that you just get sucked right into the world and it feels like a much bigger adventure than it actually is. I was especially amazed by the quality of the lighting in this game, absolutely phenomenal considering it's not utilising ray tracing.
Soundtrack is awesome as well, fits the setting perfectly, but what I probably loved the most concerning audio in this (apart from being able to make the cat meow at any time, even during cut-scenes ) were the little ditties that play on the radios! If there was anything I found disappointing about Stray, it would be that outside of going through the story there isn't more to do. With such a cool playable cat to control it would've been great if they added some extra modes or something to be able to mess about with after completing the game.
Anyway, glad I eventually played it.And finally, a game that I started playing in 2023, but continue to play every night. In fact I've clocked almost 800 hours now and I'm still nowhere close to completing it! This might just be the most epic and hardcore game I've ever attempted, I am of course referring to the one and only...
SpoilerPokémon Sleep!:
It wasn't a dream, it really does exist!
I'll go into details next time though, because I need to go and
"play" this soon or Snorlax might eat my Pikachu.
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
-
Yes. But also, (increasingly) no.
My opinion on this tends to vary quite a bit to be honest. While I do enjoy owning a collection of games, in reality it's become incredibly rare that I replay them. I'd rather be playing something new, so in that sense, keeping physical copies is pretty much pointless as they're just packed away and taking up space.
I guess the possibility that I might want to revisit some in the future is always there in the back of my mind though and that's why I hold on to them, but it's pretty unlikely, even more so for the really retro stuff where condition of the games themselves or console lifespan becomes an issue over time as well. I think shifting over to mainly PC gaming a few years ago had a big impact on the way I see this too. As far as I can tell, digital is the only option on PC these days, even if you buy a physical copy of a game (the last one for me was Cyberpunk 2077) it's just a download code inside the box. Hell, my current desktop doesn't even have any kind of optical drive.
Another contributing factor is Game Pass, which just like PS+ before it has given me the opportunity to experience many different games, some of which in genres that I would not usually play. It's a fantastic option for expanding your gaming horizons and making new discoveries. I don't stay permanently subscribed to the service, usually just a couple of months a year or whenever a game I particularly like the look of gets added. The fact that I then don't actually own any of those games just isn't a problem in my eyes, I simply enjoy whatever stuff I play through on there and then move on to something else.
I own the memories, man! Anyway, that's my take on it, I can definitely see it from both sides. Hopefully things will remain similar to how they are at the moment, with the option to purchase and own games alongside the option of streaming/renting them. I mean you can still buy physical copies of films or music, despite the existence of Netflix, Spotify, etc. so gaming should theoretically follow the same path, right?
-
2
-
-
2 hours ago, Glen-i said:It's up there. But I don't think anything will ever top the Smash 4 Hocotate Bomb incident.
It's made me hyper aware of that item since.
Thought the clip of this had been lost for a second there
but fortunately I managed to find and preserve it (albeit without sound):
Yep, nothing can top that.
-
1
-
3
-
-
11 hours ago, Dcubed said:Also I did notice the sneaky changes you made to The Fun Box, now with even more fun
Hehehe.
Yeah, that was a stage that I made quite early on (before I'd figured out all the little quirks of stage builder) so I go back to those sometimes in order to optimise them more than anything, but often end up also adding stuff with the additional memory that becomes available.As for the Pilotwings stage, that's the first time I've really made decent use of the path feature. The light plane performs multiple manoeuvres as a result, including a hilarious looking loop-the-loop!
I didn't actually get the chance to test it before last night's games either, so I'm glad it appears to work as intended. 
11 hours ago, Glen-i said:Literal "Why won't you die!?" finish there.
Love me some good ol' evenly matched 1-on-1. Just that moment when there's two people left, and it becomes almost zen like, with expert dodges and trading of blows. Always exciting!
At one point I thought you must've changed the launch rate or something.
But yeah, great stuff.1 hour ago, Glen-i said:Oh man, that is classic!
I think I was expecting a completely different move to the one I got, a consequence of having multiple Mii Fighters all with slightly different movesets. I suppose the smart thing to do would be have them all set-up in exactly the same way, but where's the fun in that?-
2
-
-
-
46 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:Ah yes, the swimming pool seems to have bouncy items now and that new one from last week, what did you do to it? I don’t remember that amount of shaking. It was hilarious and silly.
Oh yeah, I added some dynamic terrain that ended up being a bit too shaky
and also a stupid amount of falling objects that then get randomly chucked all over the stage. It's still a WIP and I wasn't going to choose it yesterday because it can really tank performance, but seeing as it was just us two playing at that point I figured it wouldn't be too bad. -
2
-
-
14 hours ago, BowserBasher said:Another night of fun, laughs and some downright disgusting moments. See you all next time for more of the same.
Those 1v1 matches we had during custom stage Smash were hilarious, especially the one with the baseball on the Mii swimming pool stage!
I actually have no idea how a lot of my custom stage gimmicks effect the majority of items, but it sure is fun finding out over time. This double Home-Run Bat KO by @Dcubed was great:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2025006642?t=0h28m11s
Although I still don't get how my Isabelle suffered a shield break.
-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, Dcubed said:That ice Baby Face stage is amazing @RedShell! Once again, you never fail to disappoint!
Cheers.
Just something I threw together very quickly for tonight's theme. It'll probably be quite different the next time you see it.1 hour ago, BowserBasher said:Does anyone have Baloon Fight selected as the stage, or are we just getting really unlucky with the stage random selection?
Whoops.
Yeah, that may have been me. Sorry about that.BTW, was anyone else hearing the Shantae music on that stage (and the Ice Climber one)? Bit of a weird combination.
Anyway, thanks for the games everyone, see you next year!
-
1
-
1
-
-
Cheers for the games everyone!
I never knew Snake had such difficulty going up ladders.
Yeah, I might to have to modify that stage a bit. -
1
-
1
-
-
Sorting out Christmas stuff has gone a lot smoother than anticipated
so I should be able to join tonight after all! -
1
-
-
21 hours ago, Glen-i said:Well, well. Someone's been busy!
EDIT: OK, the Shantae one is brilliant! Very cool!
Yep, once I get started with stage builder I do find it quite difficult to stop,
be it making new stages or just tweaking old ones.
My Star Fox stage is on its 3rd iteration now, it was a bit too chaotic originally when you could only stand on the arwing(s) so I chucked some more terrain in there which seems to have done the trick. And the way Andross can now eat players/items but not always spit them out again ended up well too.
The Shantae stage came about when I recently purchased the Mii costume/track. I wanted to have falling cannon balls as the stage hazard but making stuff fall into a stage from directly above is so tricky without any off-screen space to play with there, so had to settle with the lava idea instead.
21 hours ago, Dcubed said:Bloody hell @RedShell! Those new stages are incredible!
I have no bloody idea how you pulled off the moving lava with the Shantae stage, but mad props!Cheers.
The lava is just a couple of terrain pieces placed extremely close to the ground, and then both set on a super slow speed path to gradually make the stage get smaller over time.
19 hours ago, BowserBasher said:Yeah, great matches.
That last stock between you and Glen on the Mario Wonder stage was particularly fantastic!
You almost managed a great comeback as Pac-Man. Looked like it should've been a double KO to me, but Wario was too heavy to get properly launched! Speaking of almost managing a great comeback... that game when I was Little Mac.
2 SDs in the first 30 seconds yet somehow I was a whisker away from the win:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2006107384?t=0h3m10s
Anyway, don't think I'll be available for the next couple of Saturdays (if this is still going down) so I'll just say Merry Smashmas
to you lot now, and hopefully catch you all again in the new year for more battles!
-
4
-
-
2 hours ago, Glen-i said:It was probably a good idea for BowserBasher to restart the room, because by default, custom stages are included in the random selection pool. He would need to go into the random stage selection option in the rules setup and turn them off in order to allow people to choose random and never get a custom stage that way.
But normal and custom stages each have their own completely separate random choice setting, so surely a custom stage wouldn't be selected unless someone in the lobby were to specifically choose one or the random custom stage button?
You always have the option to choose either normal random or custom random when both types are enabled.
-
Palworld
in Other Consoles
Posted
Makes no difference. I reckon the majority of people still just see a game that looks like Pokémon but with better graphics and superior performance than anything Game Freak has released. The next Pokémon game to be revealed by Game Freak could easily find itself getting compared to Palworld as a result, which has the potential to put some additional pressure on them to improve how their next game will look and run.