S.C.G

Right, still working in this now but you should see it go up on the front page within the next couple of hours with any luck if all goes well.

Uh-oh... Epic has been spending its money again.

in

I am happy to take full responsibility for the fact that you're playing one of the greatest RPG's ever made again. Can I please use that image in the article? Also if you have any other suggestions for GC images or media that should be used in the article then let me know. I think I've got enough stories and experiences to make up the text portion of the article and I'll see if I can take any pictures of my GameCube collection, or some of it. I'll put it all into an article later tonight with any luck and do some work on it tommorow night so that it's ready to post on the Friday May 3rd before I go to work.

Yes, it's another video not just about Anthem but also the "Liiiiive Serrrvice" genre in general... ...but it is mostly about Anthem.

Fridays and Saturdays are generally out for me because I get back so late from work on both days. But I'm sure we'll get in some more hunts at some point.

Annnd back to Sega again... They really don't make games like The Revenge of Shinobi any more, Sega Lord X does a fantastic job of detailing why it's such a great Sega MegaDrive game.

Octogeddon is coming to the Switch on May 16th for around £11.99 It's one of those games where it's easier to just click the image, read the PR briefly and enjoy the trailer.

Hopefully this won't have an impact on the Sega Ages line but we'll have to see... That's from an article over at gamesindustry.biz that I found via another site while looking for other Nintendo related news to potentially post. Anyway, I suppose only time will tell but I reckon we're more likely to see more from Sonic and less obscure stuff from Sega going forward.

I've never played Overcooked! But I hear that it's good, the trouble is that it's on the wrong console for co-op for me. I'd be more inclined to buy the Switch version as that's easier to move to the other room for multiplayer. I know that @Ashley reviewed the sequel Overcooked 2 and its Surf N Turf dlc not so long ago, so that's what I'd likely buy for the multiplayer. I'm assuming that you can at least play the original in single player? I know it wouldn't be the same but at least I could try it out if this is a Plus game this month.

You're most welcome thank you for the games. Also thanks to @Gadwin as we got to play a few games afterwards, was just like old times on PSO. Sorry about that, it was rather impromptu and I was right at that moment thinking that I wanted to play something, then @Kaepora_Gaebora posted in the thread and we were off. I'd be happy to hunt tonight if you like though? Or if anyone else wants to join as well, if not then there's always tomorrow after Mario Kart depending on if Smash is on or not.

Coming back online now.

Cheers for the hunts @Kaepora_Gaebora @RedShell and @Hero-of-Time That was fun blasting through all those hunts with you all. If anyone wants to hunt some more in a bit, just give me a shout as I'll likely be hunting with @Gadwin for a bit anyway.

Cool, joining in a sec. Also, I just messaged Gadwin on Steam, he'll be able to hunt in a bit.

Sure, I'll help out a fellow hunter in NEed! If either @Glen-i or @RedShell are about, chances are they might be up for some hunts as well. What time shall we hunt?

This is almost eerie in its timing... Happy Console Gamer goes through his Top 10 SNES Games.

Time for a bit of Nintendo in here, just to balance things out... SNESdrunk who regularly reviews SNES games and other titles, asking if they are worth playing today... has just brought out a video on Zelda II: The Adventure of Link It definitely gives a deeper understanding of the game without going too in-depth and there were a couple of points in there I was unaware of.

Sadly I haven't been back to Sekiro in over a month despite enjoying the game, I will go back though especially since its been updated. In the meantime though... It was inevitable I suppose.

Once again, some excellent nominations. Nothing feels like it's missing from the nominations, at least not given the cuts we'll have to make when it comes to the final choices. I thought about this one for a while, if I could have nominated more than I would have but there can be only five selections so without further ado... Here are my picks... Banjo-Kazooie Conker's Bad Fur Day Perfect Dark Super Mario 64 The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Look out for the N-E Top Ten SNES Games coming soon to the main site.

Oh yeah, I'm definitely aware that crunch happens everywhere, I don't endorse it as part of any industry and I'm aware that it's a byproduct of decisions made higher up the chain. It's just that, this is the first time it has really been properly highlighted within the larger games industry it feels like, so I reckon it's worth highlighting. Not to detract from it happening elsewhere in other industries of course, I don't think anyone should be forced to work overtime, especially if it's unpaid. On the subject of it being more acceptable in Japan due to their culture, I can understand that on some level, especially if they really enjoy working on games. Just so long as it is the case that they are getting paid and aren't expected to disrupt their work-life balance too much, those excerpts from those Nintendo interviews seem fair. I mean, if I was working a dream job where I was helping to make a high-profile Nintendo game a reality for instance, I would be inclined to work extra where I could, safely and fairly. Again, I suppose it comes back to ideals and whatnot, this is definitely an interesting conversation that the industry is now having though and I think it's worth talking about.

Yet more Sega retro goodness in these two videos... My Life In Gaming has covered the original Phantasy Star series, at first I thought it was just the different versions of the original game including the Switch release on the Sega Ages label, but then I looked at the length of the video as I was watching it last night and soon realised that they were in fact covering all four original titles and the best ways to play them. Well worth watching for anyone with an interest in such a great and underrated series. And what better way to follow up that video then with one from Sega Lord X which covers all of the Sega Ages titles released on the Switch so far plus the other planned releases. Of course, there are some suggestions of which classic Sega games could be ported across as well, because of course there are! If Sega aren't going to port across some of their more obscure or demanding Arcade, Saturn and Dreamcast games now with this latest venture by M2 then I don't know why not. I have a feeling that we'll see some really solid Sega titles getting re-released on the Switch by the time this Sega Ages line is complete... if it ever is. It's going to take time of course but I think it will be well worth the wait and in the meantime, I can't wait to play Virtua Racing.

The Geek Critique has just published the Sonic Advance 2 review on YouTube, I decided to wait the week in the end, though now I'm tempted to pay $1 to see Sonic Advance 3 early. Anyway, I'll likely wait again but it is cool to see these games being covered, really looking forward to seeing SA3, Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure being covered.

Now, it has made me wonder about the general state of the industry but I can't believe that every studio subjects its workers to working an unhealthy amount of hours. If there are any studios which have maintained good working standards either over many years or even if they've only formed recently, then it would be good for them to speak out. When it comes to Nintendo, I'd be less inclined to believe that they would be part of this, especially as a few years ago, lots of their upper management took substantial pay-cuts. That was the late, great Satoru Iwata (R.I.P) who lead the way with taking less pay, in addition to Miyamoto and many others too, they did this for the good of their fellow employees. And of course, yes... they could afford to do so but the fact that they even did it speaks volumes, especially when you hear about corrupt CEO's in other companies doing the opposite. I mean, we still can't rule it out I suppose even then and I agree that even working conditions at Nintendo have sounded... less than ideal at times. I'm mostly referring to Sakurai hooking himself up to an IV Drip so that he could carry on working on Super Smash Bros. but that seemed to be his own decision. Still though, one thing is for certain, the games industry seems to be a wild and crazy place to work in this day and age... in both good and bad ways. I just hope that one day things will hopefully even out and companies can get back to making games which are more honestly priced, structured, fun to play and don't involve crunch. Perhaps that's too much of an idealistic view though... I really don't know. But what I do know at the moment is that I'm seriously considering which games I purchase on day one or at all in the future based on many factors including working conditions.

So... I'm still playing this, despite the number of glitches which were present since day one, but thankfully a lot of these issues have been addressed recently... The game is a lot of fun, even though it's still partially broken, the developer is acting on player feedback given in a timely manner, so it's nice to know that it's getting better soon. I'm the type of player who likes to go for the gold medals where possible, so I've been doing that a lot, until I get stuck on one and then just settle for silver for now. Because of the way it's all structured, you can unlock other variations of each class of car so that you can come back with a more specialised vehicle. I'll be looking forward to the 6 player online race coming in a future update, in time the game might be comparable to playing Burnout Revenge online from back in the day. For now I'm happy to keep grinding through the single player content to the soundtrack of the old Burnout games.

Well, it looks like we can add NetherRealm Studios to the list of game developers who implement abusive standards of work for their employees. Of course, this is only coming out after the game has launched and going by their Twitter page it doesn't seem to be affecting them negatively... yet. Give it time though, I reckon the tide will be turning soon enough on these kind of practices which should never have become accepted in the first place.