Goafer

Well, I got a pay rise back in April and I was supposed to get another in December. Didn't get the December one yet, but when I do (and I shall raise holy hell if I don't, as someone else got it, who does the same job as me), it'll be backdated to December, so all is good there. This year's resolution: get a new job. Had an interview recently, which I though I failed at as I heard nothing for about a month or two, but I got an email a few days ago saying that they'd postponed hiring until the new year, so could do well. I figure if I was off the cards, they wouldn't have contacted me, as it was so long that I already assumed I failed.

I potentially have too through a friend.

2 new mini series: Playing Octodad co-op with ReZ was pretty fucking testing to say the least. I may have got a bit frustrated, especially in the later episodes (episode 2 is up tomorrow and features the start of the "frustrations", more to come after).

The more I think about it, the more I think that this game is a bit of a mess.

Much like Nintendo themselves. Amirite?

Jesus Christ, the game goes to shit at chapter 13.

I probably bought another one when I started collecting consoles. I honestly can't remember if the one I have is my original one or one bought later. I know I definitely have one though as I saw it in the drawer when I was taking the photo of all my Nintendo handhelds (it's in the Nintendo Collectibles thread guys!).

I have the Master System converter for mine. Never tested it though. Probably should. Still have the TV adapter too, although it's useless now.

Depends on region. The NES absolutely bombed over here IIRC. I think the Mega Drive was also more successful over here/the US than the SNES, but could be wrong. Also, I think the SNES was more powerful than the Mega Drive.

I was thinking, since people have been hankering for a northern meet, should we have a meet at Arcade Club some time in the new year once Christmas is out of the way? There's plenty of hotels nearby, so could always do AC then pub/hotel bants?

Beautiful. Just beautiful. And you're the one that turned this discussion sour when you compared my opinion to the Nazis and waded in with your completely over the top post (ALL CAPS, hyperbole etc). Any fool can see it reads as an attack, rather than expressing opinions like a mature adult. For what it's worth, I have formed my own opinion. Just because it's apparently the majority, doesn't automatically make it wrong. See my £70 games analogy earlier. If something is overpriced compared to the competition, people are going to complain. End of. Don't like it? Tough. Welcome to a consumer driven society. Fuck me, it's the first time since Apple that I've seen people regarded as heroes for overcharging.

Pretty fucking rich coming from someone who's opening gambit into the discussion was hyperbole and Nazi references (and ALL CAPS, because why not). Here, have some of your toys back whilst the rest of us discuss things like adults.

As sad as it is, freemium is the expectation now. That is the market. Its like if Nintendo's own Switch games were £70. Sure, they're probably more polished that anyone elses, but the expectation for console games is £40-£50. Pokemon Go capitalised well on the mobile market. Release a freemium game to gather interest, using it as an advert for their mainline game, which became their best selling one to date (iirc). With the Switch coming up, Mario Run could have done the same.

How do you know these are the same people and not the ones who just download free games and never spend anything?

Welcome to the world of mobile games. Like it or not, that's the market. There's thousands of free games in there, with plenty being as good as Mario Run. Cant really fault people for not wanting to pay for a game when they're used to getting games that are just as fun for free. I personally wouldn't pay for a mobile game either. Touch screen controls are almost always garbage, they're designed to be played in short bursts so no depth/story and they never feel like a full game.

Work sent me on a first aid course, so I'm now a qualified first aider. Not all heroes wear capes... ...or trousers.

RetroPie is awesome. I got mine setup and got a ROM pack of every Mega Drive and SNES game, so I'm pretty much set for 16 bit goodness. May get a few GBA games on there too. Fancy some Megaman Battle Network.

He edits our videos (ReZ does the filmed ones, as he's the only one with an easy to use video camera and the selfish bastard takes the footage home with him). His appearance and mannerisms are well documented in the Renegade video from 3:30 onwards.

It'll feel so good when you've finished. It'll be shit for a while, but you'll get to a point where everything just comes together. For us, it was when the carpets went in and the rooms looked finished. I still occasionally get that feeling of "Holy shit, this is mine. I did this." when I'm sat alone in the living room.

We're trialing a new type of video: Sweaty Thumbsticks: Show and Tell. We take it in turns to choose a gaming/movie/pop culture etc item that we own and talk about it for a bit. Episode 1 features Panzer Dragoon Saga, a Sega Saturn game that currently goes on eBay for £200-£300. 2 things lead us to this idea. I collect retro/interesting gaming stuff, so wanted to try and feature that somehow. Secondly, we have had a few people mentioning that facecam would be a good idea. Unfortunately, that would increase editing time as the facecam would have to be synced with the rest of the footage and Graham really can't be arsed. We also think it would look a bit wank unless we could get a separate camera for each of our faces. So as a compromise, we're trying to record more videos that feature our faces. If the channel gets enough followers to justify investing more time into it, we may give facecam a go.

The combat in Witcher is fine. I don't remember it being anything special, nor terrible. Standard action RPG affair. It's she story, consequences of your actions and setting that raises it above everything else. Yes SoA is Skies of Arcadia. A Godly game. The gameplay is a bit dated now, but does have a few nice touches (tactical ship battles, for example). The story and setting is still great though. Well worth a play if you can find a copy for a decent price.

I liked the new MGS, as the gameplay was good enough to carry it. I did miss the style/level of storytelling from MGS4, but the gameplay made up for it. I'm not sure I can say the same for FF15. The gameplay is fun, but I can see it getting repetitive. Probably my favourite game of all time. The setting, the story, the way it takes you around the open world gradually and never feeling like something is artificially walled off, it's all perfect. Random battles can be a bit of a chore, but as mentioned before, they have their perks.

I've just got through my first blockade and am now free of the desert. Does the story pick up a bit after this? Whilst I love the game, I haven't seen any great setpeices or interesting story elements that I used to love in the earlier FF games. I think it's a problem with modern RPGs in general. I was playing through Skies of Arcadia recently and I think the reason I still love it today is that when technology was limited and things like invisible barriers were acceptable, games could do more with their settings. An perfect example is the fight on top of the train in SoA (and possibly FF7 IIRC). I just can't imagine something like that working with a modern, action RPG. The limitations of static characters/menu based combat actually works better in those situations IMO. I do love FF15, but it doesn't have the same impact as the previous ones IMO. It's a great game, it just doesn't feel like a Final Fantasy yet. I'm still not far in, so hopefully it'll get better.

Fairly certain it's your old one. Could be wrong though.