RedShell

Yuck! Those Turtle designs are atrocious. Should’ve gone with the 80s version.

We have a new contender for best HD Rumble now, it is of course LABO!: Some fantastic examples in the discover section, and you get to mess with the variations yourself in the Toy-Con RC Car control panel.

Hey, guess what? Yep. They only went and added Nintendo items to their loot boxes er- I mean, fortune cookies. The bastards. I had over 1000 leaf tickets yesterday (none of which I'd purchased, I'm not that mental ) but now I have around 300. However, my campsite has these... Love those AC versions of Switch games on the monitor. There are ones of Arms and Splatoon 2 as well.

People always mention the dust thing (and I’m not saying it doesn’t contribute to the loud fan noise) but I’m pretty sure a lot of the cases of “jet engine” PS4 systems is more likely down to Sony just skimping on the thermal paste. I’m pretty sure my PS4 was loud from day 1, right out of the box, no dust at all. Oh well, can’t play the game that made it loudest anymore (The Tomorrow Children ) and probably won’t be getting God of War, so I’m not too fussed now. Hopefully they pay a bit more attention to this issue on the PS5.

Yeah, I know. Be a shame to miss out on stuff as a result of that though. Just try to imagine you’re playing it on a Nintendo platform* and there were no trophies. *Damn... I would kill for a Switch version of any Yakuza game.

Same. But actually because I’d completely forgotten Kimishima was temporary! Oh well, here’s hoping the new guy is good. And I look forward to the new memes.

I’ve been thinking about this some more and now I really want it to happen. Imagine if it was done like in the Souls games, so one player invades your game (say, as Amon) and then you (as Kiryu) bump into them somewhere in Kamarucho and an epic 1v1 fight commences! Man, that would be so awesome. Anyway, @S.C.G It’s great that you’re still planning to get into the series, but I really wouldn’t recommend waiting for potential PS4 versions of 3, 4 and 5. Especially if that means you plan to play the games back to back. You see while the story and characters change in each title, the main location and general flow of the game remains pretty much constant throughout. As much as I love the series, I couldn’t imagine trying to play them in succession like that, the burn-out would be insane. So yeah, if you plan to take breaks in between each game you might as well get cracking with Zero now, as you’ve already got Kiwami (and Kiwami 2 in August) available, and by the time you got through those, chances are we’ll know more about future PS3 remakes, and if not, at least you will have already enjoyed (hopefully) the first game/s.

If you enjoy the main story and its gameplay I’d say that’s the best thing to do, yeah. Knowing how into trophies you are though I imagine it could end up being a bit annoying if you ended up just missing the ones tied to substories, but if you don’t enjoy those then surely it’s best to just ignore that aspect and at least enjoy the rest of the game?

Ooh! Variety Kit surprise GET! Wow, the LABO cardboard is insanely thin. Anyway, I made the Toy-Con RC Car and took it for a spin. Man, the noise of the HD Rumble motors freaking out is horrific. BBBBrrrrEErrrErRrRrrrrrrrkrkrkrkkrrrrr.... Really fun driving it around though, and using those little reflective targets so it can drive itself. The IR camera/night vision thing is super cool. The game itself has great presentation, really quite slick. I'm loving the WarioWare D.I.Y.-esque explanations for the workings of the toy-con too, and the music. What to make next though? I really want to do the piano, but that is no doubt the most complex and time consuming build, so will probably save it for the weekend. The order in the game suggests the fishing rod, so guess I'll give that a go. *EDIT* About halfway through the fishing rod build, damn... this is way more complex than I anticipated. And the game has already mocked me by saying I took longer than expected to build the first part! Some of the smaller bits are super fiddly. But it’s so satisfying when 2 sections attach perfectly with a nice “click” sound. You’ve gotta admire the way this stuff has been designed, it’s incredibly clever! Gonna have nightmares about making the piano now though... *EDIT 2* Fishing rod complete! Phew! That was hard work. Thought I’d cocked it up a few times when some of the smaller tabs got stuck in the wrong position, but managed to fix them. Just tested it out with the fishing game, and it seems to work perfectly! It’s actually mad how well the movements you make with the rod translate to the game part on the Switch, feels almost magical. Bravo, Nintendo... Bravo.

To be honest I wasn't massively into it initially, but it has grown on me. I like how it includes characters from previous Yakuza games and it's pretty entertaining putting together a team of your faves. But the online/competitive aspect of it is somewhat messed up due to those codes that you can use to obtain rare and therefore super powerful characters. It kind of ruins any sort of natural progression, as the majority of players seem to be using the best characters/combinations right from the start, meaning you basically have to as well. It probably would've been better if the powerful cards could only be unlocked from actually playing the game. So yeah, it's nothing out of this world, but a decent little extra mode all the same. I would've preferred an online mode that allowed you to fight other players in real-time via the standard Yakuza gameplay but the clan thing is better than nowt. Doesn't require PS+ to play either, which is obviously a plus for me, now that my subscription has expired.

Those Game & Watch recreations are great. It seems you can only generate basic white shapes onscreen when using the toy-con garage, but obviously when combined with overlays like that one there are some pretty cool and creative possibilities. LABO looks to be a perfect example of limitation enhancing creativity. I’m really looking forward to experimenting with it, after building the standard stuff of course.

Completed the game. BIG Spoilers below!: Will probably go for the Platinum trophy on this version of Yakuza too, as I’m currently only 2 away from it. One of which is just a matter of time (100 wins on the Clan Mode) the other being to beat the game on legendary difficulty (and that’s apparently more straightforward than ever, as you can now just reload a save from before the final battle and change the difficulty there). You can’t go wrong with either, but if you’re planning on getting into the story and potentially experiencing the entire series then obviously go for Zero, as it’s the perfect starting point in that regard. Either way, welcome to the party! I hope you enjoy it.

I was on the verge of tears last night during one of the cutscenes, powerful stuff. A few moments later... one of the best action sequences I think I've ever experienced! And just after that... immense laughter as I finally managed to complete the cat cafe sub-story. Yep, Yakuza is still the pinnacle of gameplay/emotional diversity. The action has always been incredible in these games, but they've somehow raised the bar yet again. I seriously could not close my mouth during this section I played through yesterday, it was quite literally jaw-dropping! The on-screen awesomeness combined with this music... man, I was absolutely buzzing! And it still isn't over, will be heading to the final battle later on. Was going to last night, but got sidetracked when the Amon fight became available (couldn't resist it ) as I wanted to wrap up the substories too. Managed to take him down on the second attempt. Anyway, can't wait to finally see what will happen with the main story!

https://twitter.com/matin_zekt_dqx/status/987533864141664257 Toy-Con garage is going to be so much fun. The fact it combines aspects from 2 of my favourite creative Nintendo games (Wii Music and WarioWare D.I.Y.) is the icing on the cardboard cake! Cannot wait to get my hands on LABO!

Yeah, that was something that really stood out to me even from the initial trailer, at times I reckon he actually looks younger in this game than in previous titles! Hehehe! So true. Speaking of the cats, I’m going absolutely nuts trying to find the last one I need. I know exactly where it’s supposed to show up (having encountered it once before, and checked online too) but it just ain’t appearing now. Hope it ain’t a glitch. Anyway, I am at the point of no return but trying to finish off as much of the sidestories and other stuff (like finding that cat! ) before going to the finale.

Got a feeling all 6 of those Red Shells were mine. I definitely got 2 sets of triple reds in a row on one of the races, and I (uncharacteristically ) fired them all forwards.

Pretty sure he’d prefer to reduce the fan noise, not amplify it.

Is your PS4 usually quiet? Mine has always been on loud side, so I hate to think what it’d be like with this game! Not that I’ll be getting it anytime soon/ever.

A lot of Dreamcast talk in here recently I see. Nice that SEGA haven't completely forgotten it either: I've been tempted to dig mine up for a bit of Space Channel 5, but that also means setting up the old CRT and I really can't be arsed with that! Probably should at some point though, see if this stuff is even still working. After my Wii went tits up, I'm now wondering about the rest of my retro consoles.

Hope so, and their dispatch speed too. Still my go-to site for physical game purchases. They definitely ain't the cheapest, but they do seem to be the fastest option out there theses days. Got Yakuza 6 to me on Saturday. And I've even had a game arrive almost a week early from them before!

Should be IN! for tonight. Highlights from last time will be somewhat delayed though I'm afraid. You can blame this guy:

I was lucky with my delivery and ended up getting the game last Saturday, have been glued to it ever since. Amazing game. Not sure if it'll end up being the best entry in the Yakuza series, but it's certainly in contention, and seems to be a great send off for Kiryu & Co. regardless. It does quite a lot of stuff differently to previous titles though and is missing some of the usual mini-games and features which is slightly disappointing. Probably not quite as much comedy either (although I'm yet to do many subquests, which is traditionally the main source of laughs in these games) having said that, I did do one the other day which had me in hysterics. There have been some really funny scenes involving baby Haruto as well, who is seriously cute. Oh, and the cat cafe stuff of course, very much my cup of tea. Anyway, I'm just super glad that Yakuza 6, and indeed all of the mainline entries finally made it to the West, to experience this truly amazing series. Here's hoping Fist of the North Star will do the same.

Get them to sign up here, we need could do with new members, especially ones that play Mario Kart.

Hahaha! Absolutely hilarious! For many different reasons. I’mstilllaughingaboutit.gif The highlights should be glorious.