Goafer

Whilst I can hear a difference in that video, I recently completed the GC version and I never even noticed the sound quality. It has been ages since I played the DC version though.

Fucking what? SoA is a gosh darn elite tier game. Perverts, all of you.

Outrun 2/2006/Coast to Coast are all only slightly behind Sega Rally as my favourite racing game of all time. It's a shame they'll never be re-released or get sequels. I'm fairly sure I have copies on Xbox and PSP though, so I should be good. It's a shame Sega did a lot of their best work on other people's consoles. Dreamcast had most of their best games, but GameCube and Xbox had a few superior ports/better versions (PSO, SoA and JSRF) or sequels (Outrun).

Oh there were definitely some great games on there. I just think the sort of games it had relied heavily on being cutting edge games. Now that they've been surpassed, they don't have much else to keep them good by today's standards. The other consoles had a more timeless quality to them IMO. That said, JSRF is incredible, although that was only really a enhanced Dreamcast game.

I find the Dreamcast, GameCube and PS2 have aged a bit better than the Xbox. I always look back at the Xbox and find most of the games a bit grimy and bland. Dreamcast and GameCube had such vibrant games filled with style and the PS2 had some proper blockbusters.

I was broke before I went to the gaming market. Birthday money and overdrafts are marvelous things.

A birthday thread for me? You shouldn't have! Spent the day with Happenstance at Birmingham Gaming Market, which was ace. As we had planned it a few months in advance, I asked anyone buying me a present for money instead, as I could spend it there. Had a meal at a local pub with Maddie's family today, which was nice. I had never been there before, so it was nice to find a new decent local pub.

Went to the Birmingham Gaming Market and bought this with my birthday money (no thread, no big deal guys...) Guardian Heroes: Japanese version of Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG/Panzer Dragoon Saga to match my PAL version. Thankfully the Japanese version is much cheaper than the PAL:

Nope. That was my plan, but I couldn't find a single copy.

I ended up buying Guardian Heros as I'd heard it was good. Haven't played it yet, but will do soon. I also got a Japanese copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga/Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG to match my PAL version: Was also very tempted to start expanding my Phantasy Star collection to include the Japanese exclusive games, but the Game Gear game I found was £80 and I'd already spent over £100 by that point.

Oh go on then, since you all asked to see it. My Phantasy Star collection (I meant to post this yesterday, but Instagram was down and that's where I host all my photos): Phantasy Star 4 even has the (possibly original) sales receipt in it: Shout out to Simon the Ass Manager!

I thinkonk my Alexa is broken...

That's what I was thinking. I only tested it a couple of times and didn't really give it much of a chance, so maybe it does work. I have a proper copy anyway (and the superior Ver.2) so I never really needed to play this version.

This reminds me of the PSO review copy/white label I got from eBay for 99p a while back. Boots up fine, but crashes after the character creation. Possibly due to the server no longer existing?

On it. Also, they own a unique copy of a notoriously rare/expensive game and they've not found a way/bothered to test it before selling for £750? No thanks.

Finally had another go at setting up the Squier. Back when I was still learning, I tinkered with the action and truss rod. Fortunately I didn't fuck anything up permanently, but I did set the action way too high and also gave it a decent bit of up bow. All is fixed and it plays nicer now, but it's still nowhere near as good as the Ibanez in terms of playability and sound.

I think 4:3 is how most cameras take photos, so I guess that is the standard. I personally go for 16:9 so that it fits phone screens and looks a bit more cinematic. I also sometimes go for 1:1 as it can look pretty good and some of my stuff ends up on my Instagram. It also depends if you plan to print them. Standard print sizes are (in inches): 7x5, 6x4, 10x8 and 16x12 so if I were printing, I'd pick a ratio to suit.

There will always be something new to learn with image editing. If I were to offer advice to a complete newcomer, I'd say master the 3 key points first: cropping, levels and colour balance. I normally edit in that order too, but will sometimes go back a stage if they need redoing after a colour balance. Cropping is cutting the image down to emphasise the subject or remove any unwanted stuff from the edges of the photo. All you have to do is learn what makes a good crop. If you've framed the photo well to begin with, you won't have to crop at all. Levels is a fancy version of brightness and contrast. As a general rule. Try not to have much clipping in the photo. Clipping is where certain areas are so bright or so dark that there is no longer any image there, it's either pure white or pure black. As with all things, this generally seen as bad in general photography, but can be used to artistic effect. Colour balancing is exactly that: balancing the colours so they look the way you want. It's also probably the hardest part. In order to get accurate colours, look at whites, greys and blacks and see if they look neutral and don't have a tint to them. I personally like to get the image accurate first, then add a slight tint and boost or reduce the saturation/vibrance to suit the photo. I'd say colour balancing is by far the hardest one, as it can entirely depend on the individual and what they want to achieve with the photo. There are also almost infinite ways to do it. As a general rule though, I'd say keep it subtle. Get it accurate first using the standard colour balance tool, then add subtle changes.

White balance is basically the colour tint of the whole image. It's normally used to ensure colour accuracy, which is normally most noticeable in the white (or grey) areas of the image. For example, this is an image with different white balances (in particular colour temperature): As with all things in photography, there is a technically "correct" setting for each photo (in this case 100% accurate to the real life scenery), but it's ultimately down to you to decide how you want the image to look. I personally always warm up my outdoor photos so they look nice and sunny, unless I want a more moody shot, in which case I'll cool them down.

Having been to a few theme parks over the past few months, I fancied making my own and this was pretty cheap. I'll probably just piss about on the sandbox mode for a bit.

Super cool guy? But my birthday isn't until next week! Happy birthday @S.C.G!

It's like someone made a live action Persona 4: Dancing All Night and I can'tnt stop watching it.

Similar thing at my work. I was sat in a meeting room with my boss and the talent acquisition officer having a bit of a gossip. The TAO complained that she was promised an annual pay review but hasn't had one in years. I mentioned I had never had one and the TAO pointed to my boss and said it was her responsibility. Neither me nor my boss knew about it, as we always assumed it was the senior manager that handled that sort of thing. So I may actually get a pay review now. Not a definite rise, but it's on my bosses mind at least

I'm getting Derezzed by Daft Punk.

Although I pretty much lost interest once I found out it was installments, I doubt the other ones will take as long. The assets and mechanics are mostly made now, so there will be far less to make for future installments. I really don't get why it's in installments though. FF7 was a big game, sure, but it was still only a 1997 PS1 game. There's been much bigger games since then that haven't needed multiple installments.