Goafer

So, update on the end boss. The first bit isn't a bug, just piss poor design. It was indeed the meteors that killed us instantly. I destroyed a few and stood out of the blast zone of the others and I survived, whereas everyone else died. The meteors seemed to do very little damage during the fight, but when the boss runs to the second area, they're instant kills. They also look like they'll only effect the ground, but one guy who was stood up on some scenery also died, so no luck there. Bullshit design. The glitch I had earlier with being transported back to the first area also makes a bit more sense now. The third stage of the boss takes place back in the first area. What must have happened was the game thought we had defeated the second stage and warped us to the next/first area. The attacks I thought were glitching through the scenery were actually the 3rd stage electric attacks, but the boss was nowhere to be found, leaving us in a soft lock. Still, a very disappointing experience, especially after enjoying the game up to this point, despite its many (fairly minor) flaws.

So I've basically finished the main story as far as I can tell. I'll cover why I say "basically finished it" later. It certainly is an interesting game, as it's so close to being great, it's just let down by a few things (and one major one for me). The Good The gameplay is great. I've only played the Colossus, but the feeling of weight is brilliant. The way it slams down from the air, the clunking as it runs, the way it slams into enemies when doing a shield charge is all pretty much perfect. The graphics are some of the best I've seen. The hub world still looks like a cutscene to me. The cutscenes all look amazing too, with the added bonus of actually seeing your character/javelin in them. I don't know if the cutscenes use the in-game models, or a special high quality version of them, but everything looks great. The fire effect especially looks good. The customisation is good. There's not a great deal of options in terms of parts (only 2 sets for the Colossus so far), but the paint options are great. Plus there's no cost for changing colours, so you can change things up whenever you want. Matchmaking is good so far. I've only had one or two missions where I had to solo it. There's a good variety in the special weapons and the Colossus' Ultimate Weapon is one hell of a show. You basically fire 3 nukes, which look amazing and the whole area goes dark. The microtransactions may as well not exist. It's never advertised them to me, nor have I ever felt the need to buy anything with real money. To be honest, I'm not actually sure what can be bought with real money, that's how little the game mentions them. All meaningful upgrades/weapons can only be found or crafted (they can't even be bought with in-game currency), so I think it's just the cosmetic parts, which I've had no problem getting with in-game money. I've bought every part for my Javelin and never felt like I had to grind to do it. The Mildly Annoying - The things that are a bit sloppy, but don't really take away from the fun) The load times. Good lord they're long. It wouldn't be so bad if it was one long load at the beginning, but it's every time you go between the city and the main gameplay area. Load times between the main area and dungeons aren't too bad though. The main weapons are a bit dull, but serviceable. Other than the stat boosts, there really isn't much variety within each type. They all look pretty much the same and each type handles exactly the same. Not a huge deal, as the third person perspective means you don't really get a good look at them anyway. A lot of textures can take a while to load in. The place I notice it most are the doors in the city as you go right up to them to open them. Characters in the main city occasionally jump all over the place. I've walked down the main street a few times, only to see a character walk insanely fast into position. I've also seen character icons on the map jump all over the place. When I go straight to the forge after a mission, then back to the city, the icon for my Javelin's level/rarity doesn't disappear, meaning it appears under the city HUD elements and during cutscenes. My entire hud has sometimes vanished, requiring me to open the launch expedition menu and come back. Had a bug where I tried to change the colour of one of my Javelins, only for it to turn entirely blue and not save any changes. Don't know if that was the games way of telling me I couldn't paint that part that colour, but if that was the case, it wasn't obvious. The Downright Broken Now for the reason I say I've basically finished the main story. The end boss. For me, it's completely broken. Attempt 1: Me and some other guys beat his first stage, only to be instantly killed. No warning or gradual damage, just instant death with no clear cause. We retried a few times, each with the same result. There's a mechanic where you clear meteor things during the fight, but they were never enough to instantly kill us. From what I've read online, a lot of people experience this. Eventually gave up and went back to the city. Attempt 2: After reading online, someone said they got past the first stage by triggering their ultimate weapon (which makes you invincible for it's duration) to avoid the instant death. I didn't want to gamble on my last attempt being a one-off, so I did this and it worked a treat. Annoying to waste my ultimate attack on merely surviving a bug, but at least it worked. I think the bug would have happened, as one player died at this point and the other person who survived also seemed to have triggered his ultimate. So the door opens and we fly to the second area to take on his second stage. All is going well for a few minutes, when I get a warning saying I've gone to far from the gameplay area and will be warped back. I assumed that maybe I had to be closer to the boss, but when I was warped, me and the others were back in the first stage area, whilst the boss was still going apeshit in the second. The door to the second area is now closed, so we're trapped in the wrong area and can't continue the mission. We tried forcing a respawn by going back to the entrance, but that just warped us back to the first area. We couldn't die, as although some of the bosses attacks spilled over to the first area (glitching through the floor no less), they weren't enough to kill us, as our health regenerated faster than the damage. So attempt 2 was over. So not wanting to have to sit through 2 long load times and then do the lead up to the boss every time I quit and retried, I gave up. I may give it another try later, but it's proper soured the experience. I will now have to save an ultimate just to get past a fairly consistent bug (I've heard others get lucky, but I've yet to experience it working properly), only to be constantly wary of the second stage. What lies beyond the second stage? God knows. I think what makes all the issues so annoying is that there's a great game there somewhere. The core gameplay is brilliant, but it just feels a bit unfinished/rushed.

My initial thoughts after a day with the game: Overall pretty good. Load times aren't great. I don't know if they're long compared to other games or if they're just boring load screens, but it seems to take forever. I've found myself reaching for my phone a few times whilst waiting. The main hub town seems a bit empty/pointless. It's an awkward balance between single player and multiplayer. There are no other players in the hub, which makes the whole game feel a bit lonely at times. You finish a mission, then back to you the empty town. One great thing about Destiny was the shared hub world. There's the hangar thing, but it seems like an afterthought. There's a cutscene whilst matchmaking that just seems to cut out when a match is found. It's the one where you get a nice shot of your suit. It cutting out suddenly makes it seem like a bug. I'm not far in, but I can see the missions getting repetitive. So far it's only been kill stuff and fetch the orb things. Maybe it'll get better. General gameplay is fun enough. I've gone with the heavy suit, as I normally pick faster characters and fancied a change. There's a nice weight to the movement and the transition between ground and flight is great. Overall, fun with a few issues that could do with addressing. I definitely see potential in it though. My only issue with GaaS is that there's no guarantee that the additional content/changes will happen. I don't pay £50 for a basic game and the "promise" they'll do more later. If I pay that, I want £50 worth of content, or at least a 100% guarantee the rest is ready to go and will be released on a set schedule.

My standard procedure: Wait 6 months to a year before going because I hate having it cut. Panic in the waiting area, wondering if I counted correctly when I walked in. "What can I do for you today?" *Another panic because I have no idea* "Erm, shorter?" *Hair cut* "How does that look?" "Great, thanks!" Utterly regardless of how it actually looks. Walk out relieved that I won't have to do that again for at least 6 months.

That's what I like about the place I go to. It's owned by 2 brothers and they're both great. They're chatty, but it never feels awkward, as they'll happily cut in silence if conversation dries up. The only downside is they have 4 seats, so will sometimes take on an apprentice/additional worker or two. They tend to train an apprentice, who becomes a full time barber eventually. They've had good people before and do a good job with the training, but the last guy wasn't great and made it a bit awkward to go there.

I've been wanting to buy this since it came out, but couldn't find it for a decent price. Found a cheap copy today, so I'll finally get to see what all the fuss (good and bad) is about.

One of the barbers at the place I normally go to has been fired for failing to show up and selling/smuggling weed (not in the barbers itself). Not good news itself, as he was a nice guy, but he once gave me an awful haircut, so I no longer have to worry about doing the whole awkward "I'll wait for the other barber" thing. I've always found barbers to be awkward. There's no order to the queue, you have to just remember who came in before/after you, which only gets more confusing if people wait for certain barbers and then you either have to hope you get one of the good ones or awkwardly say you'll wait for the other guy, when what you actually mean is "You're shit, I'll wait for a good barber". You know that's what you mean, he knows what you mean and the whole waiting room knows what you mean. Fortunately it's now got better in my barbers, as the only people left are the 2 owners (who are great) and their new apprentice, who's too new/not confident enough to do long hair yet.

From what I remember of the DLC, it's just some challenge missions, which unlock some costumes. I don't think it has any bearing on the story at all.

If only they'd pretended to announce some sort of gaming hardware. That would have been thigh-slappingly hilarious.

I already posted this in the gaming April Fools thread, but I spent too long on it not to post it everywhere. From my Sweaty Thumbsticks Instagram:

From my Sweaty Thumbsticks Instagram: Spent far longer than I should have modernising the Dreamcast logo. The old one was too outdated and it needed smoothing.

They don't just call me Screwdriver Stevens because of that time at the bowling alley.

Getting Supreme Kai vibes from the white haired bad guy/girl/person.

I've no idea what a squat rack is, but I have a similar thing with a punch bag. I haven't asked my girlfriend yet, but I have found myself thinking "I reckon I could fit one in the kitchen if she doesn't want one in the living room"

Not story spoilers, but mild game mechanic spoilers:

I don't think it takes too long to get the first ending. 6-10 hours maybe? Nier: Automata is one of those games where a second playthrough is essential. I don't tend to replay games, especially so soon after finishing them, but Nier: Automata is different.

Fingers crossed it's some sort of stadalone thing. Although it's one of my favourite games of all time, I really can't be arsed to play through the whole game again for a few extra sections. Although from the title, it's obviously a battle royale game. Probably with procedural generation, crafting and roguelike elements.

What happened in your ending? Depending on what ending you got, I would strongly recommend playing through it again. I won't spoil why, but you'll understand pretty soon into the second playthrough.

Bru is looking fabulous today:

There's a Saturn thread?!

Depends very much on the game. Multiplayer games will always be patched to adapt to exploits and add updates etc. These games are always destined to disappear as they rely on multiplayer servers and are much more throwaway. Single player only games, especially Japanese games don't get patched as much, if at all, and are much more complete to begin with*. I don't think I downloaded a single patch for Persona 5 or Nier Automata. I don't recall one for Witcher 3 either, but I'm sure it's fine unpatched either way. *We'll pretend Bethesda doesn't exist.

So it seems that the Phantasy Star Universe Clementine servers are running and open to everyone now. For anyone wanting to give it a try, there's a good guide here: http://psu-clementine.net/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2044 Video guide here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPHItQPY-Y0 Despite the guides saying that you don't need to manually patch the game, mine wouldn't work unless I manually patched it, so here's a video guide for that too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWcFEHzgqdQ I played it for about an hour and it's running really well. The only issues I've found are some vendor greetings are still in Japanese and the game crashes when I try to go into my room. Neither of them prevent normal gameplay, so I'd say it was a winner.

This is what bothers me most. The PlayStation classic made me realise that a lot of games can't be re-released due to licensing issues and I assume it'll be the same in the future. I still remember Outrun 2006 being taken off online stores because of the Ferrari licence expiring. Get used to that with any game with a licenced soundtrack or licensed cars. *Thinks of a world where Sega Rally was digital only and is no longer available*