Zell

I'm in the market for a new TV, primarily to pair with the PS5 I have pre-ordered but also to upgrade my home cinema experience in general. I've had the same Panasonic plasma for the past 8 years now and I love it to bits, but it's 'only' 1080p and 42" and would love that 4K HDR experience, as well as a bigger screen size. It's a real shame they don't do plasmas anymore since the picture quality is fantastic and way better than LED/LCD. OLED feels like the next best thing although it makes me sad how expensive they are compared to what I paid for my plasma. The TVs I'm eying up are the LG OLEDs, specifically the CX. It's an expensive purchase but with HDMI 2.1 it should hopefully be a good investment. I've been trying to keep track of the prices with the hopes that I'll get a good deal around Black Friday.

Get Outer Wilds, can't recommend it enough. Return of the Obra Dinn is also very good. May just pick up Celeste at that price.

Definitely up for this again at some point, but I'm quite busy with work this week so hard to commit. Will keep an eye on the thread though.

The UI is a what I expected really, just an unexciting evolution of the PS4's. I am a fan of the new party features, it feels like a party is closer to what you get with say a Discord server. I like how you can name the party and share stuff quite easily with the rest of the group. Screen sharing is neat, I can see myself using it for multiplayer games (e.g. when joining a party and a game is in progress). I've tried the integrated streaming stuff on PS4 a few times and it was functional but a bit slow and clunky, enough to put me off using it frequently. This seems way more streamlined. I save a lot of videos, so if they're now 4K I'm going to be filling up that SSD pretty damn quick.

This game is excellent, I am marvelling at some of the creativity on display here. I actually went into this thinking it was a walking simulator but I'm pleasantly surprised by what it turned out to be. Leaving the story to one side for a second, the physics engine for the space travel and dynamic gravity are brilliant, it feels challenging without being unfair. The designs for each planet are inspired. I've still got a way to go but this game continues to surprise me.

Sorry being held up with work stuff, will be 20 minutes or so!

I should be able to make it. Played it a bit last night with a random lobby, I'm far too slow when it comes to using the built-in text chat using my phone. Voice chat should work much better though.

Would be up for playing Among Us. I haven't played it yet but seen some videos and looks pretty fun.

Head of marketing basically coming out with standard marketing bollocks then. I think people read far too much into these statements. Anyway I've pre-ordered since the price is nice.

They want you to buy Game Pass. Series S and Series X are just vehicles for you to access it. Series S is targeted at people who don't have 4K TVs, have lower budgets for gaming, or generally speaking are casual gamers who aren't after the cutting edge. The idea is you will be getting the same experience as Series X just at lower resolutions. Whether that will be the reality remains to be seen, and it will be interesting to see what happens in 3-4 years time when games really start to make the most out of the PS5 and Series X.

Sign me up then, for old time's sake. 19 Wins Zell 18 Wins mr-paul Look at all those wins I managed to burgle back in the day!

I built my first gaming PC about 2 years ago. Was a bit anxious at first, but putting it together was fun and rewarding in the end, just like adult lego. When I went about selecting my parts, I essentially looked at what end result I wanted. I basically aimed at getting 1080p at high framerates and high performance settings, and then selected the parts I needed from there. The box came to about £800 and the monitor £200 so fit nicely into my budget. @will' is that budget just for the PC or is it also for the monitors, peripherals or even the desk and chair? You could probably get a top of the line PC for way less than that, so wouldn't worry too much about that. If you're aiming for 4K with high settings, then you'll also need to look at monitors: how many, how big, and refresh rates. That could well eat into the budget if you don't already have these. When it comes the the case, I have a cheap mid-sized standard case with no bells and whistles. Looks very bland and unstylish but that suits me. I think I initially wanted a smaller design but I find the standard case size to be absolutely fine, I guess it depends if you're going to be moving it around often (e.g. putting it in the living room to play on the big TV). Just beware that if you go with smaller cases, you need to also have a motherboard that fits the case.

I enjoyed these from back in the day. Would like to participate but worried about time commitments really. Put me down as a maybe?

It's really the Jeff Stelling show, he carries it hard and has done for years. Part of the appeal of Soccer Saturday is the banter between the Jeff and the panel, even if it is a bit old man lad's banter, it just makes it way more fun to watch than Final Score. So whoever the replacements are, I hope they still retain the same atmosphere and rapport. To be honest I won't miss them, none of them were good pundits or even had good chat anyway (looking at you Charlie Nicholas). Merson should consider himself lucky, I guess he's considered funny like Kammy. Difference is though Kammy reporting from the games and not in the studio (and Kammy is great, he really brings the hype). The level of punditry in football has always been woeful considering how big and rich the sport is. Even the commentary is generally very poor, and with empty stadiums it has really highlighted for me how poor some of it is. I watched the lower league play-offs earlier this summer and it was unbearable at times how much they were getting wrong and how often they had to resort to tired cliches. The level of analysis Sky do for their Cricket coverage is outstanding, it's a shame the same can't be said about their football coverage. It all just seems to be focused on getting famous ex-players on, no matter what their competence is (and if they played for Man United or Liverpool, even better).

Regarding Skyward Sword: that game's problems run deeper than just the motion controls. So even if they fixed them / allowed the option to play it conventionally, I don't think I'd be champing at the bit to replay it. Now if they were to re-release Four Swords Adventures on Switch with online multiplayer you would have my attention.

Nintendo really should be trying to do something this Christmas to try to steal some of the thunder away from PS5 and XSX. If they have no games, then a new Switch model or a discounted Switch bundle. The message would be simple: instead of £500+ on a new console, get a Switch and a game for half as much. They do tend to deliver in peaks and troughs. I love my Switch but since COVID I've had little reason to play it.

One final point, this is the kind of thing I'd want to see from Nintendo if they ever make a "battle royale" style game (for lack of a better expression. If Nintendo took Nintendo Land, Wario Ware or Mario Party and made it 60 player then I have no doubt it would make serious bank.

This game is just simple, enjoyable fun. Great concept to essentially create Takeshi's Castle as a battle royale. Best aspect of the game is how instantly accessible it is, similar to Rocket League. Think my only gripes with it so far are: servers have been up and down (had friends over on Friday night and couldn't show them the game) and some lobbies are smaller than they should be so you occasionally get games where only a small percentage of people are eliminated the music in the menus is a bit obnoxious some of the games are a bit rubbish (e.g. jumping through the hoops) Let's hope they keep improving it and adding more games to keep it fresh. I'm having fun now but I do wonder how much longevity it will have. I got it for free from PS Plus, but would say £16 is a fair price. Probably wouldn't recommend it if you intend to only play it by yourself, it's much more enjoyable when playing as a party.

Yeah I agree that there's more incentives to continue with the same brand to have that seamless transition. As previously said, if the consoles are essentially very similar then it makes complete sense to stick rather than switch. Microsoft need to give a reason for people to switch from PS4 to Xbox Series X, to counter the above arguments. What would that take? If it turned out that Series X was say £200 cheaper? They produced some killer app akin to the original Halo? One can dream. Maybe heavily invest in Game Pass and start giving them away. One thing I mentioned was playing with friends who all own the same console, hopefully crossplay will become standard very soon so this shit won't matter.

I agree that Mircosoft have all the work to do to get gamers to switch to Xbox from Playstation, whereas Sony simply have to not fuck up PS3-style in order to get their user base to migrate to PS5. If in regular consumer eyes the PS5 and Xbox Series X are essentially the same box in terms of graphics, price point, functionality and 3rd party games, then people will generally just stick to the same brand (same console as their friends, likely already have a subscription, ease of moving across digital games etc). At the moment I don't see Microsoft doing enough to win people over (and at the same time, Sony are making all the right noises). The digital software library point is probably overblown though, since you don't lose access to your digital games by switching console brands unless you actually sell your old console. Over the course of the last few generations, I've gone from Gamecube to Xbox 360 to PS4 as my primary console. On my Xbox 360 I had accumulated a modest collection of digital games and while Xbox One would have been great for the backwards compatibility and my digital content, ultimately the PS4 was the no-brainer choice for me this gen. So my digital library is spread, but I also have digital games spread across my Wii, Wii U, 3DS, Switch, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Vita, Steam, Epic Games and god knows what else.

I think the reality with Halo Infinite is, as we all realise, is that it is an Xbox One game first, a PC game second, and an Xbox Series X third. It also has to be capable of running on all iterations of Xbox One. I'm not a developer and have no clue how it all works really, so I'm guessing it's easier to have a single 'base' version that can then be enhanced based on the technology it's running on, like a PC game. Maybe if they wanted to make the graphics more next gen they would essentially have to create a remastered build of the game. Perhaps that's in the pipeline for a few years down the line, at which point they 'discontinue' the Xbox One version. Who knows, just speculating really. I generally think it's a good thing for a big developer to go for 120 Hz right at the start of the console generation as it will surely influence other developers to make use of it too. There will be people (like me) who are in the market for TVs which are PS5/Series X (that is to say, tick off all the relevant boxes: 4K, HDR, 120 Hz, low input lag etc) and would like the capabilities to be utilised sooner if possible (although we probably won't see the console's full potential for another few years).

A lot of people game at their desk using a monitor, and most gaming monitors can do 120 Hz, so it will be welcome for them. Think we'll also start seeing more TVs with 120 Hz because of HDMI 2.1. Halo Infinite does look like an Xbox One game running on more powerful hardware, so if they can get a performance boost then that's great. People get banging on about the graphics in that 8 minute demo, I guess I was more interested in the gameplay side with the grapple and "open world" layout. Would you prefer lower fidelity graphics that performs better and runs at higher frame rates or high fidelity graphics with lower frame rates and loading times? Perhaps for a fast paced FPS, a higher frame rate is preferred (would you want to play say Overwatch or Apex Legends at 30 fps if it looked nicer). I've recently finished God of War. The game looked absolutely stunning, but it did become apparent how much of that game's level were designed around the long loading times, all those slow climbing sections, the horrendously slow travel room etc. Granted that I think the new consoles will fix some of these load time issues by using SSDs. But my worry with a new generation of hardware is that developers go balls to the wall with pretty high fidelity 4K graphics that run sluggishly at 30 fps with frequent frame drops, rather than target smooth performance at 60 at the cost of some of the fancier graphical effects. It will be interesting to see their business model for the free to play multiplayer, I'm guessing a battle pass will be involved. No loot boxes please.

I have a soft spot for the original Spyro trilogy on PS1, with 2 being the best of the bunch. Not played the remastered trilogy but would recommend it for anyone wanting a relaxed, exploration-based 3D platformer.

Might sound obvious, but are you running in proper running shoes or bog-standard trainers? Years ago when I started running properly, my knees would start hurting once I started reaching and going past the hour mark. Worse still it would carry over to my next run even if it was just a 5k. Got to the stage where I would stop because my knees were hurting rather than gassing. Went to a shop where they had a treadmill with a camera to record your running style and gait. Turns out I was taking long strides and not landing perfectly on my heels so the impact on my knees was quite high. Bought some cushioned running shoes and after taking it a bit easy and running on turf rather than roads, the pain went away.

For art style, Cuphead impressed me greatly with its 30s era hand drawn animation. Really gave the game a lot of personality and appeal beyond its core gameplay premise.