Sheikah

Nah, you can pretty much play them in any order you want.

Absolutely loving this game at the moment. Have to say that I'll be very sad if this really is the last Souls-type game as the gameplay in these is like crack. Bloodborne 2 I hope! Slowly piecing together the NPCs and world and admiring the stunning level design.

Definitely agree, and that's kinda what I was getting at. Yeah, it's free. But it's a bit shit.

So very few though. And to be honest, I find the online services for those games quite lacking (to the point that I personally wouldn't be happy to pay for it).

That is, and always has been, PC. There's barely anything to play online regarding Nintendo's games anyway, so to me the fact it is free isn't exactly much of a plus point.

I reckon there is about as much chance of that happening as Reggie lassoing a pig and flying it to the moon. It would be pretty cool if they do a remaster, although unless they're already some way through there's probably not really that much time for them to do it before ME:A's release. The first game though never really grabbed me, and to be honest would feel pretty outdated even if remastered.

I will of course be attending! First week of June I will be away - will update with any other weeks I can't do later (wedding at some point, forget when). For now, can make time most weekends!

Gutted that a Vita release is unlikely.

Sorry to hear that. Out of interest, what was it that made you pick the Oculus over the Vive? Was it lack of space for a decent setup?

It is tomorrow, but at the same time I got Dark Souls III early and am totally absorbed in it. Will try rip myself away from it for a bit for this.

Yep, said it before but BC is a feature that a vocal minority always demand and praise; when it comes down to it, BC has very little sway on the grand scale of things. Most people buy a new games console to play new games. If that console has the new games they want to play, they buy it. And people will readily buy remasters. Agree with everything you said. The controllers issue has become a bit of a joke - what's worse, most of the controllers are pretty garbage. Nintendo need to cut the past loose on this one.

Same, TheGameCollection.

Not even a hint of a clue. Genuinely embarrassed for the li'l fella.

Pipe down man, you mad a crappy comment and used Nintendo as a very poor example. As I said, right now few people will be on board with VR and they have opted for lots of little games to show off different potential uses of VR rather than pump lots of time into one effort. Shigeru Miyamoto confessed to spending months just having Mario run around a room to get the feeling of movement right for Mario 64. Totally different objectives for the 64 and current VR, so not at all surprising to see a difference in game quality. Also have you thought that Nintendo's budget might be a bit less than the competition is because they're usually always behind the curve in terms of specs? Cheaper to make SD or 720p games than then next step up, etc.

All the best software developers out there aren't going to sink their typical budget of millions of pounds into making a game that only a few thousand people are able to buy on launch (early adopters with big pockets). Every software developer worth his salt knows there is currently a 1.5-1.6k GBP outlay for new PC VR customers and as such you're not going to see many big games like that for a while. Mario 64 was made in a much cheaper time and with much cheaper tech. The mainstream could buy into it at the price it was sold at. The best thing they can do right now is showcase the potential, which is what the lots of little games are doing. Showing off new tech in cool ways draws a crowd; in the mean time they can refine their tech, make it cheaper, and those customers and developers will come.

And your point is? Do go on.

I think the NSMB style and themes are done; I had simply lost interest in it by the time NSMBU came around. The levels didn't particularly take me either.

If they did all this but still made it 8 gyms, elite 4, choose your grass/water/fire starter and then have a rival who picks the advantageous one then I can still see the problems. It'd work initially I reckon and would wow people, but it'd still be a lot of the same old.

Nah, I probably can't. Shame though that they keep shovelling out the same shite because it sells. Mind you, I reckon if they did shake it up it would still sell. But I guess the point is - why waste money and time doing that if the same thing still sells?

It could work. But most probably, it would be just as boring as the rest of the games. For me, Pokemon represents Nintendo at its most fervently conservative.

For the love of God, I hope they don't. It's kinda fun watching you squirm over this.

Yeah, Ashley is like the Master Hand and has defeated the rest of us in battle already.

Party formation was not the only problem - I would also be told I could not do a quest until I did another. It was a bit tedious if I'm being honest. Put simply though, selecting missions this way is a poor way to progress this type of game. Assembling parties of specific characters and then selecting a mission at usually the same place is not a fun or involved way of advancing the story. It is basically what you do in an MMORPG. I like a game where you go through a world and the plot unravels naturally - perhaps you visit a new town and find a new party member, and you travel with them; then you end up being forced onto a plane and fly to new place, where you're attacked by the enemy and crash land somewhere new. No, you go back to the same place and select a new mission, which usually involves just going somewhere and killing someone/gathering some thing. After 20-25 hours and exploring a fair chunk of the world I was not left particularly excited. And that cool example I gave you, that happens in RPGs all the time. With a decent main character to boot. Maybe I sound too down on this game, but it followed up an excellent game with a game that is decent but nothing that wowed me.

The main game is the last bit (the boss), and you play as an adult in the real game. They have confirmed that the orb collecting and weather changing etc was just a demo and will not be like the real game.

Well, my two cents to go with those of others... I absolutely adored the original Xenoblade and completed it fully; one of my favourite games of the generation. I have put maybe 20-25 hours into Xenoblade X over Christmas and honestly don't have much inclination to go back. The whole game is so nuanced and just nowhere near as fun to play as the original. It can at times be pretty tiresome even initiating a quest (being told you must assemble a party in a particular way, then finding out you have to do another quest first, etc). The party setup system and quest initiation left me feeling like it was more of an MMORPG in that respect. It is structured in a way that makes it quite boring - you report back to the base for more missions. It's not like in the original where your party continuously explored the world and the story unfolds around you. The battle system and the quirks of it feel much less enjoyable, and even at times tedious. I don't like the extra complexity of gun mode and character progression - I think the relative simplicity of battling in the first game was perfect. There's a lot that could have been explained I think, that would have made certain parts less tedious (not that I like games that hold your hand, but this is too far the other extreme in places). The game can be fun in doses but honestly was a world apart from the original, for me. Also...I cannot overstate how much of a supermassive dick move it was for them to move away from story and a cool main character. It was one of the best things about the original, and story is a very important thing in RPGs. Total fuck up. Sorry. I have heard the game 'opens up' when you aquire a Skell; given that's quite a bit later, I'm somewhat far from getting there (if I get there). I'm a little dubious of this statement but we'll see. Many of my grievances I imagine are there for the long haul.