Hero-of-Time

My purchasing on brand new games has fallen off a cliff over the past year or so. I'm mostly happy enough to wait until things go on sale. I've been quite tempted to back to the PS3 as there are a lot of games on there that I never got around to playing. Most are pretty cheap as well. Indeed.

I did read about that but wasn't sure if it was true or not. Crazy if it is.

Considering how things are playing out, I feel Sony will do the same as well. I'm still working through PS4 games and will probably be doing so for quite a well yet.

It's honestly getting to the point where I'm really hating this hobby more and more. Prices of games continue to keep going up and that's without putting things like battles passes, DLC, season pass on top of the main price. Games are launching half baked and not even fully on physical media. Every company seems to be nickel and diming their user base, which is probably because the audience is shrinking and so they are needing to squeeze every penny out of the gamers they already have. Even Nintendo are at it, what with them charging for a tech demo and increasing the price of their games. The industry is just a mess.

That's ridiculous. So it Europe having to subsidise the tariffs for the US or are they going to actually get a price hike as well? I've said it before, people are going to be priced out of this hobby before long. I mean, consoles always got cheaper as the generation went on and this allowed many more people to pick up the console and increase the sales for the company who makes them. It will get to the point where there will be no second wind for a console and the sales will stagnant and fall off a cliff.

I quite like the art style of Marathon but that's about it. It being a game that players will need to pay for, having a battle pass and launching with only a few maps seem to be sticking points for a lot of gamers. I've no interest in buying it but I'm intrigued to see how well it will do.

Last month I played through Deliver Us the Moon and loved it. The second game is due to leave PS+ next week and so I needed to make an effort and crack on with it. Thankfully, the sequel was every bit as good as the original, if not better. It's more of the same but a lot more refined. The comments about it being more action orientated aren't accurate at all. I was expecting the game to have shooter sections or something but all it is are sections where you are using a couple of axes to climb. Pretty much like in the newer Tomb Raider games. I think the puzzles are better this time around as well. They involve using lasers, splitters and power dampeners. It's all about how you position the laser beams and angle them to where they need to go. Some of them are really clever. Once again, the atmosphere in the game is great and the feeling of isolation has been nailed. Playing both of these space games really has me itching to play the Mass Effect series again but unfortunately its too much of a time commitment when I have other stuff I want to get through.

My N64 collection is now all gone. @lostmario took a bunch of them and so I know they will be well taken care of. As for the others, they went to CEX. Another £1400 was made. The guy who runs the store said most of my stuff has been sold already. If they get rare or mint condition items in store they tend to post it on their social media account. He said they had loads of people trying to snap up my stuff. The Resident Evil 4 Gamecube was bought instantly. Again, so much space has been created and the extra money is always handy to have. I've still not decided whether or not to part with my Sega Saturn stuff. I'll think about it a bit longer before committing.

It's how I actually feel these days.

*passes the torch to Julius*

I get a stupid amount of use out of it due to all the premium games I play. My subscription has always been timed to run out when Black Friday sales are on and so I usually get it at a much lower price. Saying that, I wonder if the 5 free days we are getting will mess the timing up for me? Nintendo will no doubt raise the price of their service. It will just be a question of when and not if.

I see PS+ has been getting a price increase in various countries over the past week, with Australia being hit with one last night. I wonder if the UK/Eu will be next on the list...

I'm still chipping away at this in between other games. It's definitely more of a slog that the original game. Even just trying to get through the story is taking a long time to do and levelling up also takes an age. This means you have to do a fair bit of grinding in the wild areas, before heading off to the next main mission. The game has a system where it gives you bonuses depending on the day you play. For example, the two best and most useful ones are on a Monday and Wednesday where more Metal monsters will appear and more gold can be earned. It's baffling that these ones weren't used on a weekend when most people have their free time. I'm usually knackered after work on weekdays and sometimes can't be bothered to play anything, which means I miss out on these bonuses. It's very inconvenient. Despite this, I'm still enjoying the game though.

Earlier in the year, one of my favourite indie titles received a PS5 patch. This meant another trophy list was on the cards and so I decided to playthrough it again. It's crazy to me that it was back in 2020 when I first played through this. Feels like only a couple of years ago instead of the five that it actually is. I don't think my thoughts on the game have changed that much. It's still an absolute piece of work and feels so good to play. The platforming is so tight and responsive, and the boss fights are very clever and memorable. Just like Toem, the game also came with the free DLC and so I played through that again as well. The game is definitely up there with the likes of Hades, A Short Hike, Blaster Master and Bloodstained as a top tier indie games from last generation.

Very happy with ESWAT making an appearance. I love that game.

How many times are they gonna repackage and resell these games? It's crazy.

I take it you are downsizing your collection as well?

Downpayment? I fully bought my current Fiesta for that amount back in 2019. Remember when cars were affordable?

Not a great month for me. Happy with War of the Monsters showing up so soon and will probably play through Lost Records now that the second part is available. The rest I have no interest in, despite the high praise that Blue Prince has been getting (not my type of game).

Well, all my PAL Gamecube stuff has now been sold. Hopefully the games and console will all find good homes. I made just under £2500. Not too shabby. I'm gonna have to resort to eBay for the few NTSC games that I have. @Dcubed would you be interested in Cubivore?

It won a fair few awards at the BATFAs last night.

I loved this game and honestly thought it would remain a Switch exclusive. I could be tempted to double dip if the price is right.

Very happy that this is making its way to the service. As PushSquare said, its a very underrated game.

104% tariffs on China. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cp8vyy35g3mt Let's see if China responds in kind.