Dufniall

Thanks for the games! Nice to get some rounds of Smash in, it has been too long.

It's been a while but I'm joining tonight!

Haha thanks for posting that @bob! Are you a Dutchie, or just an apprecionado of quality Dutch music? That guy was at our office's Christmas party a couple of years ago. Can't say I enjoyed it that much but respect for him that he can sell out large venues with this kind of ehrm... stuff.

...and soon is NOW! https://www.n-europe.com/reviews/star-wars-republic-commando

I made it to HR6 yesterday so I'm getting close to that magical HR7! I was still donning a Low Rank (but fully upgraded) Almudron set. The urgent quest Mitsuzune wiped me and a bunch of randoms out pretty fast though, so I grinded a bit to get the High Rank Bishaten set. That went pretty fast as I joined a Bishaten hunt that was over in 5 minutes. After that me and a group of randoms took down the Mitsuzune. So I finally was able to use some decorations as well. Upped my defense and gemmed in Horn Maestro for my Hunting Horn. The set also has Wide Range so it's a pretty decent supportive set in combination with the Hunting Horn.

Ah that's not too far then. But I was just thinking, you should be able to do the gathering hub quests solo offline as well right?

How far can you up your HR by doing the single player challenging quests (forgot what the name is)? The ones you get from the village counter where you have to take on multiple monsters? I haven't done them, but the way it's described it sounds like they can up your hunter rank in single player?

I haven't played more yesterday, so the only save points I found were the autosave shortly after the character creation, and that you can save in your house. I hope there is an autosave or at least frequent saving, as on mobile I'll probably play it in short bursts.

I just started this myself, and about 5 minutes after the character creation it saves for the first time. So you were pretty close! Runs pretty smooth so far and the touch controls are sufficient, so let's see if I can stick with this!

Thanks for the tip! I had some credits in my account from the Rewards surveys, so I picked it up. Never played a "big" (as in, long single player) game on mobile, but I'll see how it works.

Good to see an update inbound! I've finished almost all Village Quests (only have a couple of gathering quests to be done), and just reached High Rank in multiplayer. Loving the game still. But one thing that's bugging me is that multiplayer is one big chaos. With 4 players and 4 partners, it basically is a giant whirlwind around the monster, and it is a lot less intense than going solo. It's also a bit harder to see the monster's signals about the move he is going to pull off, although the "incoming!" shouts give away that a big attack is inbound. Basically online with 4 players is pretty easy since everyone is constantly bashing a monster, stunning it, toppling it. I hope it gets a lit more structured when (if?) the difficulty ramps up. For now I may go solo for some quests, but I think 2 or 3 players without Palicoes/Palamutes would bring a better balance and challenge. Another point of critique? There are just so many options haha. I have no clue if I am maximizing my equipment and weapons, something I never felt in other MH games. But with gems, skills, rampage weapons, switch skills, petalaces, Palamute and Palico skills, there is just so much that I feel like I'm missing half. On the other hand, I'm still breezing fairly easy through quests so no need to deep dive in it yet. Other than that, still enjoying it a lot and it's time Capcom starts churning out that extra content!

Theoretically the same can be said for the Game Boy Color/Game Boy Advance. As it only had the first Shantae on it, so that's the whole series.

Ready Player Two is done. Yes, as said above, it's not a great book. Where I really enjoyed part 1, part 2 had some okay moments but for the rest it's a step back on all levels. Didn't really know what to read next so I just picked something from the shelf and it's John Grisham's A Painted House.

Well I'm an IT specialist but I wouldn't play a game where I would have to advice people about their IT hardware infrastructure so fair enough.

A pretty decent showing but not the greatest. House of the Dead remake was a nice surprise, as I loved HOTD2+3 on Wii. The trailer did look like it didn't have gyro controls though. Oxenfree 2 is a very nice surprise, curious about that one and it makes me want to play through 1 again. More Annapurna is always good news. Road 96 has potential but I wonder if it works in practice. Not that impressed with OlliOlli, I'll rely on Tony Hawk for this year's skateboarding fix. The rest didn't really tickle any fancy for me either. Official confirmation that Turtles is coming to the Switch was the best news though! Looks great, can't wait to play that one.

Curious to hear if you got the cassette players fixed @Goafer! As looking for shows is not really an option now, we decided to make a video so that we have some material available to show possible venues. We covered Think from Aretha Franklin, and I'm really happy with how it sounds and looks! It is quite in line with what we usually play with the band, which is basically covers of popsongs but with downtuned guitars and heavy drums (double bass etc). This is one of the lighter ones, but I think it's a good first choice to throw on YouTube. All recording, mixing and video editing is DIY, so I'm really happy with how it worked out! Major props to the drummer who did the mixing and compiled the video. I recorded the bass guitar at home with my DI, and did some backing vocals in our rehearsal studios (where all of the video content is recorded as well). Curious to hear what you guys think, and please be critical as this was a lot of fun and we want to do another video soon, so any feedback is welcome!

Translated from an interview Nikkei did with Furukawa: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-says-it-will-focus-on-more-original-game-series-in-the-future/ So more original IPs are a focus, new hardware should bring something new to the table and the Switch is still in the middle of its lifecycle (although I'd say a Switch Pro can definitely help to "extend the lifecycle").

*bump* Forgot to mention this earlier but the Octo Expansion is on sale from €19,99 to €13,99 in the eShop. I think it's the first time this DLC is on sale. The sale runs until tomorrow midnight. Won't bump the other thread for it but the Fire Emblem Warriors DLC has the same discount.

My wife and I celebrated our first few wedding anniversaries in Vienna, Toronto, Tokyo, California, Lisbon and our back garden, so I know how you feel. Going by that list your back garden sounds like a place you just have to visit! Can I make a booking for summer '22?

Google photos just reminded me that 3 years ago I was standing here and photographed this very photogenic llama. Truth be told the environment adds a bit to the photo as well. I travelled quite a bit but our trip to Peru still feels like the most special. It was the first time in a truly different culture, and some of the stuff just felt surreal. Like standing on Machu Picchu as above, seeing condors take flight in a canyon or flying over the Nazca lines. At the end of the trip we stopped in Brazil for a weekend as one of my best friends who emigrated to Brazil was getting married, which was actually the reason we picked Peru (we just happened to have a good reason to be on that side of the world). I'm not a person who likes to dwell in the past but a year of working from home and not going anywhere means these kind of flashbacks are making an impression. Last year we visited some beautiful parts in the Netherlands which was very nice and relaxing as a break from working from home, and we've also travelled through Europe a lot and you don't have to go far to see the most amazing things. But there are just some things like above that you just can't find around here.

So, what did we think of this in the end? I enjoyed it in the beginning but haven't played it for the last couple of months. With so many games on the Switch, stuff like this (or Tetris 99) just falls to the back of my playlist. The events in this were also not that interesting, and maybe knowing all progress would go on 31st of March also made me play it not that much. I did start it up yesterday to see what happens. You can start the game, select a game mode (it even still tells you a special event is happening), pick a mode, choose your loadout, start cueing and that's the moment it finally tells you online services have ended. They could have done an update telling you that on the homescreen, prompting an uninstall or something.

I forgot to post this here, so hopefully you already found it on the main site. If not: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury N-Europe Review

I've always been bad at Pac-man, so although I'll give it a try I already know what the outcome is going to be! Well, at least we know what we can expect from the Switch Online Service: very-old-game royale. First Tetris, then Mario, now Pac-Man. My money is on Pong 99 in a year.

Glad to see Nintendo (and some other big ones) making a return to E3. Mainly because this means Nintendo probably will host a Direct and have something to show. The Summer Game Fest also makes a return this year: