Dufniall

When reading the comments on various websites the general consensus is "I'll wait for a sale". So I think Ubi shot itself in the foot here, by indeed releasing it in an already crammed launch window and by having the reputation of quickly discounting anyway. Definitely want to play this as I think it looks charming and I like the mythology setting. But... I'll wait for a sale

You guys never played Labyrinth as a kid? In Dutch it was called De Betoverde Doolhof (the enchanted maze) and it was pretty awesome.

Finished a couple of books since my last post! First one I completed was The Golden Compass/Northern Lights. I think I saw the film many years ago but nothing stuck, as I concluded when reading the book. It was... okay I guess. Recently I saw a part of a Stephen King documentary and it got me in the mood to read some more of his work. I've read a couple of books from him (Dark Tower part 1, Misery, Lisey's Story, some short novels) and saw plenty of the movie adaptations. But I never read the "classics" such as It, The Shining, Pet Cemetery and Carrie. Started with that last one, and it was enjoyable but definitely not the best I've read. I can see though how this can make a pretty good movie. Next up is Caliban's War (part 2 of the Expanse series by James Corey). It's been a while since I read part 1 though so I'll first look up a small summary haha.

For those interested: If you register on the SEGA 60th Anniversary website (https://www.sega60th.com/) you will get a free copy of NiGHTS on Steam.

Calling @RedShell, Doom Eternal coming to PC Game Pass tomorrow: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/12/01/doom-eternal-master-level-and-xbox-game-pass/

Nice, I recently finished the W101 Remastered and was already thinking to do a second play-through. Might as well use Wonder-Bayonetta! I'll write up my full thoughts soon, but what a game this is!

Yeah it feels wrong to talk about this stuff knowing how the information came about. Still, I had more fun with Revelations 1+2 than with Resident Evil 5+6, so I'm actually looking forward to it!

I know there is a Steam Link app on the Android store (for streaming your PC to an Android phone or tablet). But I'm not sure if you can then further cast that to a Chromecast. I still have my Steam Link here (and the Steam controller) but haven't even set it up after moving houses. I should go out and get me a couple of black ethernet cables (for aesthetics) so I can hook it up to the livingroom TV.

Damn, the one game I was hoping for isn't on sale (NieR:Automata). May pick up a couple of things but really I shouldn't, my PC backlog is immense already!

Cyber Deals sale is starting tomorrow, with discounts up to 84% (despite the press release saying up to 75%...). Nintendo's own games get a 33% max. The highlights list is up on the main site, but I expect the full list to be much longer.

It's a very interesting topic indeed. To first start with the day one (or more realistically, day xx) patches. On the one hand I can understand that patches are necessary. Especially large 3D games are complicated, so I can imagine that there are issues popping up that may have slipped through QA testing. Or in the less pretty case, are known but are skipped due to time constraints and are planned to patch out later. The other scenario is games adding post-launch content. I started playing Wargroove again yesterday and that is a game that received quite some additional content for free, expanding the base game. But the base game was there already, and the extra content was bonus. It had a couple of updates concerning balancing/difficulty, but it shows they listen to the feedback. You can ask the question if the balancing shouldn't have been right in the first place but QA testing can only be done by a certain amount of people so small balancing I can understand. Another game that had difficulty issues was Enter The Gungeon. When it launched it was way too difficult according to the feedback it got, so in the end they patched the game to add a bunch of QoL/balancing to make the game easier. This is a more difficult case to judge, was it a misjudgment to launch the game as it was, or did they do a good job in fixing it to meet user standards? If I got this game day 1, did I play the "right" version of the game or was I better of waiting? The example of Mario 3D All Stars is yet another case. Basically they are adding functionality to the game that could easily have been in in the first place. So either this was planned all along but was left out due to time constraints, or the backlash was big enough to make them consider afterwards. Like HoT says, if you played the game at launch and were bummed out by the lack of Gamecube controller support, getting it now after dishing out 50 pounds and playing the game can feel like a kick in the teeth. I know these issues are quite frequent, from relatively small fixes to complete overhauls (like No Man's Sky, who somehow managed to turn around all the criticism to being praised). But also a game like The Witcher III apparently ran like shit in the beginning. Or the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, I wouldn't be surprised if it, despite all the postponing, will still be bug-filled. It baffles me that so many people are desperate to play it day one, pay 70 euros months in advance without even a good glimpse of how the game will play. Good marketing I guess. So yeah, these cases do feel like expensive beta-testing. Speaking of, Steam even does it in a pretty obvious way where you can purchase games in alpha or beta stage, literally making you a paying tester. Anyway, it's why nowadays I find it hard to dish out 60 euros for a game, and I never pre-order anything unless it's something that is limited (like 3D All Stars). For the rest I don't think I ever pre-ordered anything. I always have to laugh a bit when people say "I forgot I bought this game but now a pre-order came through". Sometimes it is nice to play a game day one and be part of the wave talking about it, experiencing it all at the same time. But the high price of new games (especially when you know they'll drop within the year), the potential post-launch fixing and me not having the need to talk about games as much as to have to play it day one makes me happy to wait. And I can also post a long thing about the pressure on game creators who are forced to rush out games, about how games are structured as a service or how indies nowadays handle stuff better than big developers but I'll save that for a later day.

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is currently discounted on Steam, so I finally picked it up. Played one Red Alert skirmish and it's fun as always! Loved the old-school intro video of "installing" the game, and the graphical upgrade as well as the QoL upgrades are more than welcome if you see the old style! Will be a lot of fun replaying the campaigns.

Transfers from Pokémon Go to Pokémon Home are live. Upon your first transfer you get a Melmetal capable of Gigantamaxing for Sword/Shield.

Looking good. Can't wait to awkwardly start sniffing my villagers and visitors.

Dutchies ( @markderoos!) can do it via the GameMania website. Just got my code in the mail.

I think I've played a big part of this game, but stopped because I started on too high a difficulty and couldn't get any further. You can't change difficulty on the fly and I wasn't in the mood to start over and do it all again up to the point where I stalled.

I booted up my Wii last week for the first time in a while. Had a pretty frustrating couple of days at work and by the end I was fed up so much I needed to let off some steam, so I booted up Wii Sports and played a couple of boxing matches. Worked pretty well actually.

Weighing in here as a Dutchie. Mongol (or in Dutch, mongool) is a very common used curse word for when someone does something stupid or reckless. Think of it as the Dutch equivalent of moron or asshole. Not saying that it's a good thing to say about someone, but I just wanted to clarify the word as it was quite funny reading a thorough analysis of a very typical Dutch curse word, and obviously Max's temper unleashed his inner Dutchie there for a bit.

It's free on the Epic Game Store this week (along with Blair Witch) for those with a PC and not a burning hatred for Epic. Still a very good deal on Switch as well! Yoku's Island Express is also the cheapest it's ever been at EUR4,99/GBP3,99. A steal for that price and a perfect feel-good summer game for the winter days. Reviewed it back in the day and gave it a 9.

I was wondering if the games got any polish and apparently they have. Plus it's the uncensored version that was previously America only if I'm correct.

I'm at the exact same point as @Jonnas now, and it's quite a ride! Love the work you put into it and the time you took to involve us, the listeners. A lot there to agree and to disagree with, but great to hear all the reminiscing about Mario's rich history. And great to see a lot of love for the Superstar Saga, they are indeed a great spin-off series as I'll explain later in the podcast.

Quite some surprises there. Immortals Fenyx Rising still looks pretty cool. At least it looks like they used the Switch version for the presentation going by the graphics, so that at least gives a realistic picture of how the game is going to look. Never got around to playing NMH 1 and 2, so happy that they are coming before 3 comes out. Something for the wishlist. Age of Calamity is looking better and better as well. And I'm really interested in seeing how cloud gaming pans out. I'm not going to buy a game that is completely in the cloud, but it does offer perspectives for a streaming service further down the line.

Controllable Divine Beasts, hot damn!

So sexy zombie nurse it is! I'll try to join, but it's Saturday night and usually it's our movie night here so I'm not going to confirm 100%.