Scratch

Well I've just completed the forest temple and at this point I've enjoyed every minute so far. I don't get why this game is so divisive? It's a Zelda game that plays like a Zelda game and it's great fun! xD

Ah okey dokey, thanks!

Hey all, does anyone know what it means when that smurf woman says "You are XX% prepared for this area?". Is it telling me that there are more pieces of heart, weapons, bottles etc I can still find at this point before proceeding? Or is it just telling me how full my inventory or health is or something?

I think it looks cool, is a good combination of price/specs, and I really like how they're sort of bringing a "console experience" to a ton of Steam games. Plus it lets you install your own OS, so there's a lot of opportunity for gaming, but not JUST gaming, it's powerful enough that you could probably install Windows (or a Linux distro), attach a mouse/keyboard/monitor and use it as your main PC. I'd probably dual boot myself, use Steam OS for the most part and have a Windows on there for anything that wasn't compatible. I think it's gonna sell well. If I had money coming out of my ears, I would buy one, and probably also see a doctor. But, in the end it's not for me because it doesn't really give me anything new. I already have a PC decent enough to play the games I want, and I don't really bother with handheld gaming. Even during the GB/GBA days, I'd rather use my Super Gameboy or GameBoy Player, so yeah. I also think the button placement looks really uncomfortable, and the console is quite large, even quite a bit larger than the Switch. So that's a bit off-putting. Maybe in the real world it's not so bad. In conclusion, Steam Deck looks really good and I like it, I think it's gonna do well, but in the end it's not for me. Also it can't hurt for this to be on the market, might keep Nintendo on their toes a bit. xD

Played it for a few hours already lol. Never played before, seems great so far, no complaints! I also laughed when...

Was never really into Nickelodeon. There was always something better on Cartoon Network. Although I won't be buying it, this game is definitely great for fans of those shows though!

I wonder what's going to happen to the normal Switch in terms of selling/making them? If you're buying your first Switch now, and you want to play on your TV it kinda seems daft when you're already spending £280 to not just pay the extra £30 and get the nicer/newer model. So I'm thinking there might be a price drop on the normal Switch, or maybe they'll stop making them and sell the ones that are left?

This sums up exactly what I was going to say, except I rambled on for ages. So I'll just quote this instead. xD

Breath of the Wild 2 looks excellent and glad it's out in 2022. Metroid Dread looks pretty good, good chance I'll buy that at some point. Advance Wars... I usually enjoy it for a few days and get stuck/bored lol so I might skip that one. Nothing else really caught my attention. Sad that no Switch Pro, no Mario Kart 8 DLC or 9, no classic Pokemon on Switch, no BDSP, no Arceus, no GB/GBA/N64 for Switch Online, no Prime trio and no Prime 4. Sooooo my takeaway from Nintendo E3 is: I'm glad BOTW2 hasn't been delayed. xD

I must admit, and this is someone who loves their Switch and uses it a lot, the lack of achievements is annoying. What's even worse is that developers don't seem to bother implementing them AT ALL even though they have on other platforms. They could put a menu in the game that shows what achievements you've got, even if they're not part of the Switch eco-system. With regards to the Switch Pro, I think £400 is kinda reasonable if it's reasonably more powerful than the current Switch. I'm thinking roughly half way between the current Switch and the PS5/Xbox Series. This would open the doors more more third party games on the system *cough* FF7 Remake *cough*. Sure, there'd be compromises, but the PS5 and Xbox Series are currently so much more powerful that many devs are just not going to make their games for the Switch. If the Switch Pro can bridge that gap a bit, well by golly that'd be pretty darn swell.

They could do a one-word version of the Switch U: The Switcheroo.

I'll be buying this AND Sonic Origins (for Switch). Never played this, but I like the 3D Sanics so unless there's something dramatically wrong with it I'm sure I'll enjoy this one. And I've played the Mega Drive Sanics and CD over 9000 times but it has been a little while and buying them for Switch gives me another excuse to play them again. I'm actually more looking forward to Origins than Colours. I hope they are all modern versions with more options similar to the mobile versions. Although in the reveal trailer S3&K wasn't widescreen so 3&K is probably emulated.

Is it me or is the official Pokemon social media posting a lot of X/Y/Kalos related stuff lately? Incoming Switch port?

Pleeeeeeeeeease don't bring HMs back! 😱😱😱

Nice song! And I guess if the audience in the video hadn't liked it, she could just have her Pikachu use Thunderbolt on the lot of them! 😈

Aye I already caught it sadly. I probably should have phrased it better in my post. What I meant was that I was wondering if another one would spawn. I just thought it looked cool in the ocean and regret catching it. xD Anyways thanks for the info! I think you're right in that it's most likely similar to a Legendary in that only one exists per game and once it's gone it's gone.

Has anyone captured the giant Wailord at Workout Sea, saved the game, and then it respawn later on, on the same save? Some say it never respawns, some say it has a small chance of respawning once a month/day/week. Also, if it HAS respawned for you, did you ever alter the Switch's system time, since I'd imagine that might interfere with whether it was *supposed* to respawn or not. Just wondering if anyone can confirm it respawning?

I bought an actual book. O_O Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. I been playing a bit of chess against computer players on Chess Ultra and chess.com lately and apparently this is a good first chess book, for people at my level to get a bit better. Chess is just a passtime/hobby for me, I just see it as another "video game" I play and I won't be entering any tournaments. xD But still, I would like to get a bit better and be able to beat the computer at a higher level so hopefully this book will help. This is my first "book" in a long time, it's made up of like "web pages" except they don't need an internet connection to work and there's no banner ads. I'd say books could become quite popular in the future. Anywho, the actual book seems good so far. It gives you an introduction to chess, then terminology on different checks and checkmates, and then finally increasingly different "check mate the opponent" puzzles. At first I was like "hey wait a minute, shouldn't this be teaching me things other than checkmate?". Then I realised that essentially EVERY capture in chess is similar to a checkmate in how you approach it, so it IS teaching me the overall game. So yeah good stuff. xD

I enjoyed the game a lot, so I wrote a more in depth Astral Chain review. (This post and link is admin approved, many thanks for that!)

I know this is unlikely, but it would be interesting if the story developed that they actually needed Sephiroth, and maybe even Jenova's help to defeat an even greater threat by the end of FF7R...

That's amazing! Next time I feel like playing the Mega Drive Sanics I'll definitely give this a go.

Been playing Astral Chain. Almost finished the story but the spike in difficulty between the entire game and the last boss is pretty high lol. But I've found it to be a pretty darn excellent game, one of my favourites in some time. The graphics and art style are amazing and really show what the Switch can do. It's also managed to do this with VERY little FPS drop. I love the variation in gameplay, you have the hub world, the investigation and/or stealth, and finally the combat. The combat is original and great fun. It took me a while to get used to the number of button combinations to remember, plus controlling a second character in real time, but I'm pretty much used to it now and I think I'll actually miss having the Legion during combat in similar games in the future. xD Also on the gameplay, there's a lot there. There's parts of the game that remind me of Zelda, Pokemon, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, general platforming, and more. I've really enjoyed the story. It gets complaints for being too simple and predictable or something, but tbh does every RPG story have to be a massive mysterious complicated thing where everyone's a clone of a shadow of a smurf ghost's dream and you have no idea what the heck's going on? I really enjoyed it for just being a good story and likable buncha characters. Although, saying that I don't fully understand what Jena's actual goal was or why she was so destructive, but whatever. xD The music is also really darn good, and I've been listening to some of the tunes on YT outside of the game. Another plus point. The game has a cat sidequest! 😺 As with all games, even my favourites, I have a few criticisms: - The Jena Anderson thing I already mentioned. Also, why does she look like a zombie? - Sometimes the maps seem to have pointless barriers or one-way systems that force you the long way around for no reason - The platforming, specifically chain jumping is a bit off. If Zelda did this, the symbol that indicates where you land would be 100% reliable. You either see the symbol because the game has determined you can land there, or you don't see the symbol - The game should make it very clear when you're about to trigger a "move on" section, and tell you if there's stuff left to do, including hidden side quests. It could tell you there is a hidden sidequest left without showing you where it is - Astral Chain 2 hasn't been announced yet nor has there been any news at all indicating it's ever going to happen But, overall excellent game and highly recommend!

I was thinking it might be nice if YouTube embeds had a maximum width or height. They take up like 80% of the height of the screen on desktop atm and in a thread with a lot of them it's a bit "clunky". Not a big deal or anything, might even be something that only bothers me, and it only bothers me slightly. But I thought I'd mention it. xD

FF7R's timed exclusivity ends tomorrow! That doesn't necessarily mean tomorrow we'll be instantly able to play it on every other platform. But the announcement of other platforms might not be so far away now.

I wonder if the Switch Pro will be powerful enough for FF7R? The timed PS exclusivity ends in 16 days... My guess is that even the Switch Pro won't be able to handle Intergrade, but maybe normal FF7R? I was slightly considering buying a PS5 soonish. But now the Switch Pro rumours are getting "stronger" I might actually wait a fair bit longer and see what happens with the Switch Pro. Can't miss out on the latest Pokemon/Mario/Zelda/Metroid/Smash. xD