Nicktendo

I remember paying 70 bones for an imported AUS version from GameStation back in the day. Did the game even officially release in Yurop?

I think the PGR games are wishful thinking seeing as they're not even on Xbox BC. As much as I'd like to see them too, it seems like they've given up with that now and what's currently available is all we're potentially going to get. Fable and Grabbed by the Ghoulies seem much more reasonable, especially the latter.

Nice breakdown of the potential performance of Switch 2 based on the short MK9 trailer

I feel like 900p would be a decent compromise, but 1080p really is insanity. The fact the OLED can go 9 hours on a single charge, depending on the game of course, is a huge thing that attracts more handheld pay. I'm sure the tech wizards will have it all figured out and the battery life will still be solid, but I do think going that high is a bit needless, especially with the LCD screen as you mentioned. It's all a delicate balance of tech, performance, & price, and I have no doubt they will get that mix as right as possible that will make their own in-house games really shine.

I honestly don't think that will happen for free. I think most "upgrades" will be paid, but hopefully well-priced. Rumour mill is pointing towards BOTW and Odyssey "remasters" which will run in 1440p at 60fps. Both games were 900p on the OG Switch, and BOTW was 30fps, of course. I would be ok with stuff like this if it was a £5-10 upgrade, but I can also see them fully remastering some games to take proper advantage of the new hardware and charging full-whack for them. How heavy the lean into that will be interesting. Hopefully not too much. I think the most we can expect for "free" is simply for all games which use dynamic resolution scaling to always run at their max resolution, so BOTW would be 900p without frame dips. Stuff like Doom Eternal and The Witcher 3 would be interesting from that POV, I suppose. We may also see some games treat Switch 2's handheld mode as the old docked mode, so if the rumours are to be believed, they will run at a higher res than 720p, given the talk that that new screen is supposedly 1080p, which is absolutely crazy IMO because it's a needless drain on battery for minimal visual gain at a size that small, but that's another discussion.

Yeah it was obvious from the reveal that this would be a quick and cheap port, so no surprise the final version isn't up to snuff. I don't really see the point of this approach tbh. There's no way I'd pay 60 hard-earned bones for this.

I feel like a prize clown for picking 12 games now. I obviously didn't do enough reading or pay close enough attention to the pictures because I somehow just assumed it would be like one game a month or something. Oh well. Uphill battles are made to be overcome.

Thought I would join in the fun this year. 2024 was a pretty decent year, I managed to beat 25 games last year according to my stats, but many of them were smaller games or classic games on NSO. This year, I'm aiming a bit higher. Cyberpunk 2077: I picked up the DLC on sale a month or so ago and have just discovered the wonderful world of modding. I have 3 different save files already ranging from 5-25 hours deep, but I'm thinking of starting again from scratch with a new character as a big update has changed a lot of the systems in the game. Managed to get the game running nicely on my PC after tweaking some settings, so I plan to go through the main game and DLC in one go. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection vol.1: Picked this up just before I went away for a couple of weeks over the holidays. I'm about 4 hours into the first game and absolutely loving it. Beat it on both PS1 and GameCube and have very fond memories of it, but have never played 2 or 3, so once I'm done with the first, I'll be quickly moving on to them. Fallout 4: Big update last year from MS again perked my interest in this game, and ala Cyberpunk, there are a ton of good mods for this game which can streamline / improve the experience. Been sitting in my Steam account for years, but I never really gave it a fair shake. So this year I will. Okami HD: Hype for the sequel. Played a bit on Wii (around 20 hours) and started on Switch again just after the VGAs. Final Fantasy X: Always wanted to play this after dipping into 7, 8, and 9 over the years. Started a couple of months ago and got 10 hours deep. The plan is to actually finish it by the end of the year. Atomic Heart: Was always intrigued by the setting of this, so picked it up in a sale. First gameplay impressions were not great tbh, but I will soldier on regardless as the story is decent so far. Persona 4 Golden: Never played a Persona game. Dipped into a bit of SMT and reviewed Tokyo Mirage Sessions for the site waaay back in the Wii U days. I bought this on a whim when it was very cheap and I'm loving it. 15 hours in and 2 dungeons down. Loving the setting, the characters, and the story so far. This will almost certainly be one of the 12 I definitely finish. Will probably move on to 5 Royal afterwards, keen to see more from this series. Selaco: Got a few friends on Discord championing this game and I decided to jump in too. Absolutely fantastic so far. Technically, the game is still in early access and only 1 of the 3 planned levels are available right now, but it's amazing what these guys have done on the Doom engine and they are WIZARDS with sprite work. Resident Evil Village: I went on a huge Resident Evil binge last year, starting with 4 HD on the Switch. Finished that in February, then went through 2 and 3 Remakes a couple of times each before beating 4 remake in early December. Had a blast, and RE quickly became one of my favourite franchises. So I'm going to go through VIII to continue that trend. Sea of Stars: Huge fan of The Messenger, so naturally I should give Sabotage's second release a go. Unicorn Overlord: Played the demo for a good amount of time and it really sold me on the game. Love the art style and the setting of this one. Yooka-Laylee: I beat the 2D game on Xbox a couple of years ago, and played it again over Xmas on the Switch. To be honest, I'll probably wait until Yooka-Replaylee drops, but I really want to go through the 3D game after having a lot of fun with the sequel. I have the Switch version, but it runs a bit shoddily, so we'll see what happens with Switch 2 or the remaster being released if I have a better option later in the year.

Heard it's Robobot. Residentevil4merchant.jpg

This is something I really hope happens one day, but I'm growing more sceptical as more time passes. I was LTTP on THPS1&2 remake because it took them three years to finally put it on Steam. Was worth the wait though, it's such a good remake. As for the original, going to my buddy's house at lunch time to play it on PS1 at launch is one of my favourite memories from the school days. These games completely shaped our world at that time and we all got heavily into skating and started listening to the music from the OSTs.

It does seem wild that they would do this if they're banking on one final Xmas push. Before the end of the financial year is March 31 2025, after all. I'm cool with it personally, plenty of stuff still to get through and buy from the Autumn/Winter line-up.

Get hype! Put around 50 hours into this on the Wii U but got interrupted by the Switch launch. Keen to give it a second go because I loved a lot of the systems in that game more than the mainline series.

True, I'm much more eager to play both of those than I am BFD, but I'm pleased the Nintendo Switch Online: Nintendo 64 - Mature™ app makes it appearing a real possibility. DRK still holds up well, I haven't played DK64 since release. Rented it, never owned it, and really didn't like it to be honest, but I'm keen to give it another shot. Tooie has been fun over the past few days, never played that one back in the day.

It's a shame both of these games have already had great remasters from Nightdive, but good to see them reaching a wider audience. Conker's Bad Fur Day when?

JBL got a lot of hate, but I adored his character. It was a nice throwback to the absurd gimmicks of the 90s and he played the role superbly. He was top drawer stuff on the mic. I know he was pretty bad in the ring, but his feud with Eddie in 2004 was fantastic, he really helped elevate Eddie to stardom. Evolution was a great stable too, pushed Orton and Batista into the big time. The turn on Orton and then Batista doing it back to HHH and Flair are still some of the best moments of the mid-2000s. Went to see a live event in Manchester when they were at their peak and Flair was great. Amazing that he was still able to entertain to such a high level at that age.

My favourite PPV of all time. The hardcore match between Raven, Big Show and Kane is also great. The promo video for the world title match between The Rock and Stone Cold still sends chills down my spine. Top Stuff. TLC II, Angle vs. Benoit, HHH vs. Taker and the main even are all 5* matches. This was peak WWE for me. While I enjoyed the Invasion angle a lot, and a lot of the stuff in the mid 2000s with Benoit, Guerrero, Evolution and JBL, it started going downhill significantly after that, especially with the roster split. 1997-2001 was when they were on a complete roll. Maybe it was just the fact I was a teenager during that time, but it was very special.

It really depends on the tech inside it. I expect £400 will be the ceiling for a Nintendo machine, and cannot really see them going over that. Having said that, if it is packing a lot of punch and is a competent rival (or better) than Steam Deck, I don't see how £500 could potentially be out of the question. I don't see Nintendo going down that road though. The family-friendly, buy-each-one-of-the-kids-their-own-device helped shift a lot of OG Switch & Lite units and I expect they will take the same approach here. OG model will likely be £350-400, a non-dockable "Lite" version will launch 12-18 months later at £300, and then depending on how balls-to-the-wall they go with the base model, we may see a premium edition 2-3 years down the line with the same tech, but improved storage, screen & battery life. Essentially, I'm expecting them to use the same playbook as the original Switch. Edit: I'm with Glen-i. Anything over £400 is likely where I'll question getting one day 1. Unless the launch line-up is astoundingly tantalising.

You could probably build a PC of a similar power level for around £1200-1500 (especially if you go with a 6800XT. Nvidia cards would put you in the higher bracket) if you choose your parts carefully. While that is considerably more than a PS5 pro, the value you can get out of such a product is considerably more when factoring in productivity / entertainment applications. Yes, you might need to buy a monitor, but consoles don't come with a TV and there's nothing stopping you connecting a new PC to a TV as a pure gaming device. Xbox Series controllers are not that expensive if you shop around. If a game is struggling to perform on a PS5 or PS5 Pro, you're basically out of luck waiting for a patch, if one comes at all. At least on PC you have options to downgrade the graphics or pull back on the resolution if 60fps is what you're after. Far more flexibility to tune your experience to your own tastes. Then you have to factor in PS Plus. That's going to set you back X amount a year for the 4-5 years of the console's life, so you can stick that onto the overall price of buying in to the Sony ecosystem. Online is completely free on PC. Finally, you're going to be paying more for games on a console. While discounts can definitely be had on PSN and other manufacturers' stores, they're almost never as deep as on Steam or Epic. That's without factoring in key resellers, where brand new games can often be had for ~£40 on launch, not the £60-70 you'll be paying on PlayStation. Really, over the lifespan of a console, a PC is a more front-loaded investment, but I would argue it works out cheaper in the long run up against a PS5 Pro. Also, when a console is done, you have to pay full price to go to the next step and your old box can be sold off at a low price, or sit around gathering dust. A PC can be incrementally updated as it starts to struggle with the newest releases, and there are no worries about back compat. While a new GPU can be pricey, you will never be laying out anywhere near your original investment to see significant gains from newer parts. A PC will always struggle to compete against a smartly-designed, solid, and well-priced console. There is a lot to be said about a manufacturer having a unified vision when it comes to parts / performance. But I think this is only true when they're working at the lower end of the price spectrum. It makes sense to be involved in an ecosystem which has a relatively low barrier to entry in terms of price. £300, £400, maybe £500 - it is undeniably good value in the long run if you're going to get software that makes the most of the machine. Nintendo have done a great job with Switch in understanding this philosophy. They make software for the hardware they have. The problem with both MS and Sony is that they (to some extent) but especially 3rd party devs are increasingly becoming restricted by their own hardware, and wanting to do more than they can work with, which is why the PS5 Pro has been greenlit a £700. It just doesn't make sense logically or financially stacked up against a PC. Astro Bot has clearly proved that the PS5 is an incredibly capable machine. It looks amazing, it runs at a buttery smooth 60fps, it is throwing physicals calculations around like Einstein on steroids. Hardware is only as good as the people working on it, and unfortunately, a lot of developers in 2024 are not doing that. A hugely powerful and expensive PC is a way of brute forcing a developer's vision into reality, and the PS5 Pro seems like it is trying to emulate that approach, but I predict that it will be categorically unsuccessful at doing that at £700.

Remember that the UK / EU price also includes ~20% VAT, and the US price is without it. The disparity is still quite large, but it's mostly down to this. Absolutely hilarious that they are asking this much, and as has already been pointed out, you may as well go PC at that point. And as has also already been pointed out, developers aren't even using the power they have available properly this gen. Giving them more is not the answer. You could argue that this is a "niche" product for the ultra-hardcore, but I don't even think that audience is a big enough market to really make this a viable product. I guess we will see. The differences highlighted in the trailer were negligible at best, especially when many games already don't run at a consistent 60 with ultra stable resolutions in performance mode on both the PS5 and XSX without some form of compromise (ugly upscaling or dynamic resolution). I think the story will be the same on Pro, especially when it comes to 3rd party devs. I see far more negatives with this machine than positives (particularly the lack of a disk drive), but then I'm not a Sony gamer.

I think @Dcubed is bang on the money with his take. Xbox and PlayStation have really floundered since the release of their new consoles. I hope this game gets a PC release because it does look wonderful. Miyamoto lawsuit when?

I saw a video about this phenomenon on the Youtubes.

@Julius email Ubisoft quickly. There are... *checks notes* An in-game Trailblazer trinket and *gasp* 100 Ubisoft Connect Units to pick up for free for this surely very minor inconvenience. Thank you for being a Ubisoft customer. Source: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/open-world/early-star-wars-outlaws-ps5-players-paid-dollar110-only-to-have-ubisoft-issue-a-new-patch-and-tell-them-to-start-a-new-save-file-or-face-game-breaking-bugs/

Same, I almost always use cash unless it's a big purchase.