S.C.G

Cool, glad that you got your Mega SG in the end. MIne arrived too but not time to play until later as I'm back to work today. I shall take pictures of the outer box, console etc though, so look out for those later on maybe. I din't know that the firmware had to be updated for the pack-in game to work... guess I'll be doing that later then, time to unbox! p.s - I hope you have fun playing Mega Drive games!

Trying to get stuff done before package arrives, I keep looking out the window every five minutes just in case.

This video just popped up in my YouTube feed, it's on Castle of Illusion mainly but features some of the other Disney games on the Mega Drive. If it hasn't been posted before, I figured at least @Happenstance and @Hero-of-Time might enjoy watching it. It certainly brought back some memories for me and it'll certainly be nice to play some of these classics once again.

Well, I'd say that I'm half-prepared for my Mega SG to arrive tomorrow, in the end I've just opted for clearing my desk, taking out my Super NT for now and just using the leads from it. When I get more properly set up, I will of course connect the unit to my original Sega Mega CD II and I'll take a picture of my Sega Shelf when it's photo-worthy. For now, I just want to be able to play Sega Mega Drive games on it, with some of my original controllers, just playing the odd game inbetween everything else. One thing is for sure though, when I get my room sorted and get rid of a load of stuff, I'll hopefully be playing a lot more Sega games in 2019. It's time to truly appreciate what games I have, while I can and there's surely no better time than the present.

I wonder what our chances are for a physical Crypt of the Necrodancer + Cadence of Hyrule combo release on one cart? I'm kind of thinking of holding out for that if so.

I found watching the above video helpful - still currently watching - obviously spoilers if you haven't played any of Sekiro but if you're playing and you're stuck then it's worth a watch. Just before the one hour mark, I found out how to beat the first mini-boss I'm stuck at, so will give that a go later. I'm curious to see if it goes up to the second point I got stuck at after skipping the first mini-boss... I reckon later on tonight, I'll go on the attack at those points I got stuck at with a fresh perspective and some newfound determination... ... or just give up again and grind some more. Edit - Just finished watching that entire video... well that's going to change how I go about the game completely. Will give it another go later hopefully.

I ended up grinding to get almost all the skills, still couldn't beat the mini-boss, so just skipped past, got to a tougher mini-boss, still not the main boss and then called it a night. I'll get there, it'll just take time.

Oh my... sealed games is one thing, but sealed consoles? Can you imagine? I do have a lot of sealed games though, I must change that. I've unsealed Sekiro today, the day I got it though, so I'm making progress.

I'm just going to leave it as it is and see when it turns up. I could do with the extra day or two to prepare anyway.

So, you can change the delivery date so that it arrives earlier? I read it as, they would deliver it by Monday but it could just arrive earlier. I wonder if they'd just deliver it tomorrow?

I must have accidentally resurrected... pressed the wrong button without realising. There are consequences, got to make things right now, to do that I have to get to the end of the stage I'm grinding on. But to do that, I have to defeat the mini-boss, a load of enemies and then the main boss. That has proven tricky, so I'm grinding again until I've got all the skills I need. Then I can make things right, the damn autosave is as much a curse as it is a blessing.

I'm sorry for your loss @drahkon That can't have been easy as it is, funerals can be pretty tough. At least you went, I'd say that there's no shame in not going to the wake, they make me feel uncomfortable as well. So long as your Godmother understands and surely she does, then that's all that matters isn't it? As you said, you're still going to spend some time with her soon, I think that can often be a better way of remembering the good times. Had you not seen many of the people who were going to the wake recently? I mean I can understand that they probably just wanted to see more of you if they hadn't seen you in a while but ultimately, you've got to do what feels right to you... and it sounds to me like you did just that. TL;DR - I don't think you should feel guilty at all, I guess it's not an easy time for everyone who knew your Godfather but at least you were there.

I would have looked at the reviews but I've been too busy grinding in the game. Taken a break to eat, also turned off the PS4 to let it cool for a bit, will be starting it up again soon though. Might as well check the reviews quickly I suppose... 89 on Metaciritc with just 15 scored reviews, not bad. Feels like a solid 9 to me, but that may change as I play more. Speaking of which... *switches on PS4*

*looks left* *looks right* I'm still grinding for exp... (wondering when the game will get patched to stop me from doing so) *stealthily vanishes from thread* ... Just kidding, still here... *stealth kill* more exp...

And I just died for the first time... the penalty is harsh but fair, serves me right for getting a little too confident. I chose not to resurrect, there are consequences either way but I won't say what those are. Anyway, I'm not discouraged, in fact I'm even more determined now that I know what happens either way.

I'm still on the first proper mission, I've found that due to the way the game works, you can grind in certain areas if you're careful. I haven't really died yet, I can see that if you did then you'd lose a bit of progress maybe but, it's worth the risk. Definitely getting better at the game now and I'm earning some sort of exp but I don't know what it will be used for yet. Will carry on grinding until I get bored most likely... that hasn't happened yet though.

Awesome! Mega SG high five!

Yep, I went with the black Mega SG but with the white buttons, keeping it as close to the UK MegaDrive 1 as possible.

The other thing is, if you have everything digitally, tied to your account and then one day they just decide to deactivate or delete anything then that doesn't really leave you with anything, if you have the discs, you can at least still play the games.

Well, I think it has finally happened, I've found a From Software title which I really like. On the first proper mission, the exploration element, strategic positioning and combat options really start to open up. I've just been deftly moving through the environment, stealth-killing, parrying, dodging, blocking and getting satisfaction from succeeding. Everything feels balanced, there is a certain amount of skill to it but not to an unreasonable level, this is just the start though mind. We shall see if my optimism continues but this is as good a start to my playthrough than I ever could have hoped for.

Oh shi... I just checked my e-mail and got my shipping confirmation, for real this time! Scheduled to arrive on Monday. Check your e-mail. yours will surely have shipped as well I hope.

+4 I'd buy it for the convenience and for the local co-op.

Well, I've played the opening section now, which was... impressive. What to say, without giving anything away? The combat is instinctive, a little bit of learning about parrying, guard-breaking etc but it doesn't seem too steep a learning curve. Controls are responsive, movement is fluid, jumping and hanging from ledges is done well, so no accidental button presses. It's mechanically interesting, you have a few items you can use in your inventory but you're mostly just relying on your skills. No point really saying much else, as I don't want to spoil anything story related, so I'll just say that I'm enjoying it. And that's high praise from me, seeing as I haven't yet finished a From Software title.

Great another Nintendo Direct to cover... wait wha... Playstation Direct? Oh OK, carry on then.

Same here, I was just meaning that say you have a really old PS1 disc in not so good condition, you probably wouldn't put that in a PS5. Say you had a really good condition collectable PS1 game in excellent condition, if the drive scratches old discs, you probably wouldn't put that in a PS5. So long as the new hardware won't damage the old games and plays them from original discs then I'm all for it. I'm probably overthinking it though, we'll see what happens but yes, purely disc based backwards compatibility would be amazing... ...if it's done right. Otherwise, I'll stick with original hardware but it is important to preserve these games in any way that we can.