Nicktendo

An absolute icon. R.I.P

The frame rate in this game is really not too hot. I hope they tweak it before launch or at least add a performance mode. 20-25fps. Noticeably bad 😬

I’ve only played the first. It’s an acquired taste but I had an absolute blast with it. The second is meant to improve on it across the board. Stuck both of these on the wishlist. Will pick them up before III drops.

This looks awesome. Definitely going to pick it up.

Pole: Bottas P1: Bottas P2: Hamilton P3: Verstappen P4: Perez P5: Gasly FL: Hamilton

3 hours and 55 minutes of aural pleasure coming up soon. Please to enjoy. Thanks to everyone who contributed to our anniversary celebration!

I'm free pretty much all week, can do any time.

Wow. This guy hasn't been relevant for over a decade. Why is his opinion still being published by anyone? Michael Pachter is the chocolate fireguard of the business analysis world.

I finished Super Mario Sunshine last night (98 shines) and I feel it is definitely a better game than 64. It's just more fun to play and I really dig the island vacation theme it goes for. I beat 64 with 120 stars and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would (apart from maybe the last 10 stars). The camera absolutely ruins the back end of it to the point where it's almost unplayable. I've had no such issues with Sunshine, and while it is on the easy side, it's just so much fun to run around and control Mario. I probably won't go for 120 shines here (I'll end up on 116 / 117 without the final blue coins), but I will do as much as I can before I start Galaxy. I haven't played Sunshine since 2002, I think. I'm really glad I decided to play through 64 first because I think had I jumped right into Sunshine, I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. With the additional context of 64, and the relative "freedom" it feels like you have in Sunshine with the camera and movement, it's easier to see how much of a step up from 64 it is. I also love FLUDD. Great innovation and makes Sunshine super unique in both the 3D Mario series and platforming genre in general. There are so many cool ideas in this game, and it still looks great almost 20 years later. The biggest shame is that the game was rushed out. It could have been an all-time classic had Nintendo not skimped on development to try and save the GameCube.

Mind if I make it three?

Always forget to do predictions, so I'll do them this week. Pole - HAM 1st - VER 2nd - HAM 3rd - BOT 4th - NOR 5th - PER FL - HAM

I'll take Piranha Plant

Hamilton dominating everything has been boring as hell this season. It's just not interesting anymore. However, the midfield battles have been ten on ten for the entire season. I think this has been one of the best seasons in recent memory if you look at 3rd / 4th down. I really enjoyed seeing the cars banging round the Nurburgring this week, such a great track. 4th in the Driver's Championship is wide open, so that's going to be great to watch in the final few races. 3rd in the WCC is likely to be the same. If I had to put money on it, I'd pump for Danny Ric, but I think Perez, Stroll and Norris are all in with a shout. Whoever gets it, it will be a great achievement. The little stories in the midfield have been mega interesting this year too. Ferrari's woes and Leclerc's total annihilation of Vettel has been something else. The redemption of Gasly, who is fast becoming my favourite driver. The poisoned chalice that is the second seat at Red Bull. Hulkenburg's adventures in the Racing Point. Ocon being nothing more than a passenger to Ricciardo, who I think he may be the best driver in the sport behind Lewis and Max, maybe tied with Leclerc. McLaren coming good and Norris being close to the front. Williams inching their way back closer towards the midfield and Russel continuing to prove his worth. Magnussen running 4th for so long at Hungary was excellent. I'm a huge fan of him and feel he's been dealt a shit hand in his career. He has the raw pace and I like his no-nonsense attitude. Will be sad if he's dropped for '21. Fantastic season for the neutral bar the podium spots, but we've even had a couple of upsets there, so it's not completely doom and gloom at the front.

I did it first time...

I'll be up for joining next Thursday. I'll do the same as Ryan and make my choice later. Still umming and ahhing about whether to get the DLC now or not...

Currently at 42 Shines on Sunshine and having a blast. Some of the Shines are a tad easy, even compared to Mario 64, but the platforming challenges have had me beat for the most part. I managed the Pachinko Shine first time, Sandbird too I even managed to get Yoshi across the boats to the island first time, something that caused me a LOT of trouble on the GC version. I couldn't do the river challenge on the leaf though. I ended up getting game over, so I have all that to do again... The game is such a joy to play and not having analogue triggers doesn't really make much difference. Still getting confused by the non-inverted Y-axis however. But I agree completely, taking it for what it is, Sunshine is a great game.

The third goal after the sending off was abysmal. What the hell was Bailly doing??! Weird day yesterday. I hope this continues all season. I was mega impressed with how Leeds played against City, think we might have got the win had the crowd been there, we dominated large periods of the game and had City on the ropes. Feeling confident we can stay up this season and more performances like that should keep us in the top half.

When I was watching a livestream on Epic launch day, they didn't have this feature. You had to open the playlist menu again and choose. No idea why they thought it was a good idea to remove this, but they did. Seems it's been addressed now.

Yeah, the meltdowns have been hilarious. I think it's a great addition and looks wonderfully unique. As @Glen-i pointed out, they have really gone to town on this character. Joker has never been on a Nintendo system. Snake and Cloud are synonymous with Sony. Bayonetta made her name long before the Wii U game. I don't understand the salt, but still, it's funny. I DON'T LIKE THE THING. While "Steve" might not be an instantly recognisable character or anyone really of note, it's hard to ignore the fact, and it is a fact, that Minecraft is the best selling video game of all time. If anyone doesn't like this addition, I have a secret for you... For anyone who is disappointed and already bought the full DLC... Well, that's on you

Devil’s advocate, but these big publishers going to Microsoft or Sony rather than Amazon, Google or China is better. It’s not ideal, granted, but it could be much, much worse. I expect more acquisitions to come over the next few months. Just the way gaming is heading, unfortunately. In 5-10 years, it’s likely going to be the same as choosing a streaming service is now, which exclusives do you want more? As gaming moves to a service based economy, having powerful, exclusive IP is going to be the biggest factor in making profit. Konami, Sega and maybe even Ubisoft will probably be the next big ones to fall. Indies are gradually going to be scooped up as timed or permanent exclusives. Ideally, companies will play ball and make their games available in more places for greater access, but we’ll have to see how it plays out. I can definitely see each console manufacturer having a “service” with exclusive games - their own GamePass. However, all this probably works in Nintendo’s favour, which I’m not going to complain about Their IP is unmatched, as we’ve seen from the astonishing sales of Switch games that the other two manufacturers can’t even dream of achieving with their respective first party games.

The new update is horrible. The menus are garbage, really capture that F2P look 🤢 and you can’t jump straight into a new game again with a single button press. They’ve screwed the in-game item economy even harder than they already had done when Epic bought them out. I’m done with this game. Screw Psyonix for selling out. The removal of options is awful. Forcing you to sign a new EULA for a product you already own is embarrassing. I’m not giving Epic any of my information to keep playing this game. A real shame, but I’m not going to cave to Epic’s demands to continue playing, even if it was my game of the generation. Seems like a few people on Steam feel the same way, but I doubt it’s enough to make Psyonix notice. Going to keep spending money on and playing games I want to support. I like Steam and I like Nintendo. The more Epic try to hold certain games hostage and try to unfairly power their way into the industry, the more I’m going to actively avoid anything they’re involved in and keep supporting devs and companies who don’t sell out to them even more strongly. There are plenty of games to go around Had a fun 1200 hours with Rocket League. Broke into diamond and was improving very slowly but consistently. Time to move on, forget about this game and focus on something else.

I bought it on Steam on Friday night. Are you sure it’s not on there?

Maybe because they own 40% of Epic Games? I think it would be extremely naive to assume they have “zero say” over what they do. In fact, every move Epic has made since Tencent paid $330 million for that 40% has been at trying to break the dominance of US and Japanese companies in gaming.

Finally, the best DKC game. Guess I will continue my online sub after all... Nintendo always find a way

Look at the first letter in each paragraph