Sheikah

It's weird though because if you read on, he actually justifies achievements when it's pointed out that they're in a Nintendo title: "Not, maybe, in the overall sense that you're talking about," replies Miyamoto. "It just fit Wii Sports Resort. The stamps within Wii Sports Resort are more of an impetus to play in different ways and to try and do different things." That last part is true of any game, good achievements can encourage you to play in different ways.

A perfect example of trophies down well are those in Outer Wilds. Many interesting trophies, with one even being awarded for landing your spaceship on an extremely fast moving object, which is quite challenging.

They're not the same though. Virtually every game gives you some kind of reward for doing stuff in game, whether it's an item or a trophy. The reason achievements/trophies work is because they exist outside of the game and people like to collect them. It is quite nice to be able to see at a glance which games people are into, so it works on that level too. There's basically no reason for Nintendo not to have them there - people who don't want to bother with them can ignore them, after all. When game devs actually put thought into trophies they can work really well; encouraging you to do enjoyable challenges in games that you otherwise might not have even thought to do.

The PS Plus 12-month sub is discounted on the PSN digital store now, for those interested. ShopTo are also selling 12-month sub codes for even cheaper at £32.85 (link).

Please understand.

That's kind of crazy. How are they going to turn an MMORPG into a single player game?

Nail on the head there, and also the crown for soundtrack goes to P4 for me. Which is why overall I prefer P4. I am also probably biased in that P4 was the first proper Persona game I played (well, I played P3 portable, but that's not quite on the same scale). There's definitely a bit of wonder the first time you play one of these games that you don't get second time round.

I think there's a good chance, yeah. It seems there's a bit of an internal push at the moment to get PS4 exclusives a 60 FPS update. Clever way to drum up interest in the series and sequel, that's for sure. Didn't they already delay it once? That, and it being a PS4/PS5 cross platform game make me think it's likely it'll make this year too. You'd think they'd rather release it before Christmas too in terms of sales potential.

Ugh, bloody Star Wars. I'm being bitter, Plus has been pretty decent recently.

It feels as though you're suggesting that zero points from Ireland means the bias is removed. But actually, if there was political bias to begin with, it takes political bias to remove it. Put it another way, let's just imagine some crazy, alternate universe scenario where Greece sank some Cypriot boats and the two countries find themselves on the verge of going to war. Next Eurovision they go from giving 12 points each to no points each. Now in this scenario you would say bias has been removed from their voting? Or would you say they are now negatively biased? Back to the real world - the "cultural similarities" and shared music tastes probably mean that if they voted more honestly, Greece and Cyprus would give a few votes to each other each year if they both did mediocre performances; not 12 and not 0. So there is room to "take away" points, if you will. Not sure how you came away with that impression. I clearly said there was no conspiracy and people came to their own conclusions independently. I never stated it was intentional, because bias can (and often is) subliminal. Negative feelings towards something can shape people's behaviour towards and perception of said thing. Let's put this another way - there was no way Israel was winning this year, no matter the song. Now many of the countries near the bottom of the scoreboard have no political explanation for their score (and likely reflect bad songs), but you've gone and used those as examples to discard the whole idea, which doesn't really work. Because both can coexist - countries placing badly just because, and countries placing badly (or much worse than expected) because of political reasons. I am again going to say that there's obviously no proof that UK scored no points due to anything political, and it was by no means a stellar song, but I am saying we can't argue its score is definitively removed from politics, either. I don't think you can be so sure in your conclusion that it's a bias-free result, is all. [emoji4]

Let me disclaimer this by saying that I'm not really 'into' Eurovision and actually find the no points situation a little funny, even desirable. Just in case it was coming across that I was somehow looking for excuses for UK's failure, because nothing could be further from the truth. To respond to this point though, for sure politics can take points, just as they give. I'm surprised that you came to that conclusion. 'Taking' in this situation would be where people are influenced by factors not relating to the song which might discourage them from voting for that country. The same way some people are clearly voting for countries they otherwise probably wouldn't have, if going only by the song. Also when certain countries politically give 12 points to each other just about every time, they're not awarding those 12 points to a country they otherwise would have (and so on, down the list of points they give). Ergo, taking away points from one other country they otherwise would have awarded points to, and awarding fewer points to everyone else. So this example alone shows how positive bias can take away points from others. I'm sorry but I find that very hard to believe. Every time bar one since 1998, Greece and Cyprus have awarded each other the full 12 points. You are telling me that every single time bar one, most people in each of those countries genuinely found no other song better than their neighbour's? That seems so incredibly unlikely. It's not like Greece are always doing songs that are Greek folk music, is it? So can we claim it's 100% a cultural thing? It's not a lack of politics though. If you don't like the UK (or Israel) at the moment for whatever political reason then it makes sense that you're probably not going to vote for them, unless their song is really good. I'm definitely not saying that's the reason UK got no points, but it's a possibility that's hard to ignore. It also seems odd to claim that politics can only have a favourable outcome and that politics in no way can have a negative impact on voting. I mean, it feels to me that you've established that politics plays a part in voting but think this can only work one way...just because? Actually, it doesn't at all; because people are well within their right to vote for whoever they want, for whatever reason. There's also no conspiring - people are forming their opinions independently of one another about who to vote for, or who not to vote for. The only thing you need to believe to entertain the possibility I'm presenting is that Eurovision voting is perhaps not solely a critical reflection of the music. It's a radical thought I know, but I'm going to put it out there. And I'm not arguing that getting no points is purely down to politics (because let's face it, the UK's song isn't that great), but at the same time I don't think we can discount the very real situation that the UK's popularity is roughly tracking below dogshit right now. Or, you know. It could definitely be just that people really didn't like the song. We will obviously never know one way or the other, but it's fun to think about.

Christ is that how much it is? Think I got it years back when it was 99p. I thought you had it already as VIP used to appear next to your name in Tapatalk (which was same for me).

I don't avidly follow Eurovision but to say "it's not about politics" to end up with no points is not really true. Or to put it another way, there are countries that simply will never end up with no points because of political bias. Nicked from Wikipedia: The last time Cyprus gave Greece fewer than 12 points was in 2015 (8 points). Since the advent of televoting in 1998, the two countries have consistently given each other the maximum 12 points until the 2015 Contest, where neither country gave their 12 to the other, but curiously both gave them to Italy. This year the UK got nothing from Ireland which is quite unusual indeed, and while there's no guarantee that it's down to recent political events, I think there's a very good possibility.

That would be really quite cool. Although somehow I doubt S-E could pull it off in the same way From Software do. Final Fantasy is their golden goose and their games often feel set up to sell DLC these days.

I downloaded Tapatalk Pro which doesn't seem to have the ads. I bought it years back, and it seems to have suddenly come back into existence. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quoord.tapatalkHD

I have it on good authority that this is how Breath of the Wild was created.

Better idea: don't buy the game, don't support Nintendo for doing this. It's not even that great a game, either. They want full price for it too!

It's really anti-consumer. We've seen Nintendo lock important stuff before behind amiibo, like content in Splatoon when I recall there was a lack of content around launch. Honestly, Nintendo are right up there with some of the worst practices these days - top of the list being making the Mario 3D collection a limited-time release, even on the digital store.

Exactly what I was waiting for! Have had the game in its wrapper for a few months now, suspected this was coming.

I can't see it being that. I reckon it'll be £55 or thereabouts.

It's actually a shame it's sold so well in some respects...they seem to be sticking with GTA V for a good while longer rather than developing the next one, and no doubt they're heavily focused on the microtransaction front as that's where the money is. Sadly it's their golden goose.

In the case of the PS5 games they can call it "the price is should have been" sale. Glad to see PS Plus will be discounted, will be interesting to see how cheap you can get it for when factoring in discounted PSN cards.

I dunno, but this is probably the best game to play if you haven't already started a R&C game, especially with the 60 FPS update if you're lucky enough to have a PS5. I read that it's a bit of a technical marvel, and was made to sort of tie in with the movie they did too.

No I'm pretty sure it's a remake of the first one.

ShopTo also made a complete cock up of their initial preorders, not revealing up front that you weren't guaranteed to get a console so people could have got their preorder in with ShopTo only to realise it meant nothing. With Amazon UK, everyone who ordered the console got it...sure it sold out in something like 25 minutes, but those who pre-ordered it got it (well, thefts aside).