S.C.G

So, I might as well just keep grinding in the first "Open" area without doing any quests until December 22nd then? I hadn't planned it this way, I did want to play more of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 by this point, I've just been busy organising my games. At this rate though, it'll be my joint-Christmas game along with Super Mario Odyssey. Not that grinding is a bad thing in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 mind, I'll keep going until Nia is "knackered!"

Yes! Let it cooooook! Also, by the time it comes out, I might even have time to play it now... maybe.

I don't know about offers but if you see a 200GB card for £50 then that is definitely a good deal. I've got a 200GB card for the Switch and due to careful management of games such as going for mostly physical titles where possible - which I believe you're going for as well - I'm making it last as long as I possibly can, while I don't want to get into deleting games on my Switch I just tend to make sure that there are only games I really want to see on there, so I'm trying to go for zero shovelware... which is easier on the Switch seeing as it seems to be curated very well bar a few titles and I hope it stays that way. I'm still rocking 1TB on my PS4 but I only download the Plus titles when I want to play them, I may well start deleting games on that platform at least being that it's simple to do and reverse if needed thanks to the library feature. As for Xbox One... I've got 2TB or 3TB overall storage, it's all good... for now, until there are more backwards compatible Xbox titles. Hopefully with careful management, I won't be buying any more game consoles now for a few years until the next essential upgrade comes along which I reckon will be from Nintendo but I'm sure we'll be OK until at least 2020 I hope. (It's crazy to type that, I remember games in the 80's / 90's setting games in the years 2020 + and thinking woah, that's so far in the fuuuuture, man!)

OK, let's give this a go... Street Fighter II - The original game, has eight playable characters and four CPU controlled characters, not the fastest running version but it's solid. Street Fighter II Turbo - Faster speed than the original, new special moves for almost all of the characters apart from Guile and the four Grand Masters. Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - Four new playable characters, enhanced visual and audio elements in addition to roster balancing. Street Fighter III - The original game, has eleven playable characters, the gameplay introduces abilities from both the Alpha series and Darkstalkers, you can also parry. Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact - Two brand new characters (Hugo and Urien) Yun and Yang from the first game also became separate characters, Akuma returns, new specials, roster expanded to fourteen characters. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Chun-Li returns, plus four new characters (Makoto, Remy, Q, and Twelve) giving you twenty characters, new stages, endings and voice actors for certain characters and general balancing. Obviously this is quite a simplified list of changes so it won't go into the smaller changes but these are the basic documented differences between the major versions of SF2 and SF3.

I'm mostly going for physical but I would still advise getting a 200GB Micro SD Card as they are a reasonable price and you get a decent amount of storage for it too. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/262-2894649-8575609?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=SanDisk+Ultra+Micro+SD+200GB+SDXC+UHS-I+Memory+Card+up+to+90+MB%2Fs They've gone up a bit, I got mine when they were cheaper and more readily available but it's still worth it.

Just imagine... in a Nintendo Direct if it got announced and had Link again as a guest character, perhaps Breath of the Wild version of Link this time. And then someone from Nintendo says... "Remember this?" *trailer rolls of Soul Calibur II for GameCube* Boom! Virtual Console launches with GameCube games with Soul Calibur II leading the line-up.

Nah, it's cool... I understood you completely. You need to have the right controller with the best D-Pad or an arcade stick for Street Fighter, so for yourself this is probably PS4 or PC as I'm guessing that's what your arcade stick works with? For me, I'm lucky enough to own one of those Hori GameCube controllers with the larger D-Pad and SNES-style layout plus I picked up a second Hori Arcade Stick for Switch in a sale so I'm set. I likely won't play it in handheld mode unless we get a Joy-con with a proper D-Pad so it'll mostly be played on the big screen here as well. I'm excited to play through a load of these Street Fighter titles, it's been a while since we last had a port of the first game on Wii Virtual Console.

I'll be getting this but just the Switch version. Gotta have a Hori D-pad or my arcade stick(s). This is a fantastic collection which deserves a place on any gamers shelf regardless of format. I'm guessing that I won't be playing my prized Street Fighter games that I have on the Dreamcast and Saturn very much anymore though... ...at least there's the dozen other Capcom fighters which will keep me going back to those formats at least. It's a fantastic time to be a gamer right now, Capcom are knocking it out of the park once again, redeeming themselves somewhat across the formats.

I obviously still can't get over the fact that it's coming out so soon! In related news, during my clearout of games, I finally found my long lost copy of the original Monster Hunter on PS2... I think I'll give it a play sometime soon.

While I'm not too bothered about upgrading to any newer systems which would require an entire TV upgrade to get the most out of, it's good that there are noticable improvements available for setups which allow it; personally I thought the game looked very nice indeed at even 1080p as it's such a leap forward for the series. As for the gameplay, well I was pleasantly surprised to find that it plays just like Monster Hunter but even better than ever thanks to the numerous improvements which have been needed for some time, most notably the more open area feel which creates features massive, cohesive maps which feel even bigger due to not being held back on a technical level as with previous games which required the areas to be on seperate screens... it's something fans of the series have just had to deal with until now, even though I will probably miss diving between screens when at low health and there's a fireball coming directly at you which you would have been able to dodge by changing areas, also allowing you to heal before rushing back in. Being able to get back to base camp easily is nice, I suppose that's just like having a Farcaster always at your disposal though I'm not sure if it works when you're in battle? I didn't use it myself but I do know that it's there. I've completed all three quests solo anyway... I think that's all you can really do for the extra items which carry over into the main game? Obviously I could go off and look for the Rathalos which I might well do as I saw a video where a team of hunters went after it, killed the Rathalos with minutes to spare and then went after the main monster, finishing it off just in time as well; it all looked suitably epic just as is the tradition now with these kinds of hunts when you have a team who know what they're doing. Role on JANUARY 26th as I'm sure that I'll be playing a lot of Monster Hunter World when it releases.

Translation... "Hey Guys, fucking guy got arrested in my pub and the guys made them close so I decided to go to the other pub and I got there I couldn't feel my fingers were... *gives up* I'm so drunk, woooooooo! Fuck you guys!!!!!111111" Or something to that effect, It's got to be close though, right @martinist?

Just got home, hopefully I'll be around just after 10PM.

The simple answer is: You don't. I mean, if you are selling the Wii U then as far as I know you can system transfer to another Wii U and then sell it but I'm guessing you're selling it and then not rebuying it again? It really is simpler to keep the console, someone else will be able to explain it better than I can but it's pretty convoluted from what I understand so unless you're prepared to lose your downloaded games I just wouldn't sell it unless you're sure that you won't want to play them again. I'm pretty sure the games are tied to your account in some way, unless you delete just the account, the games are on there and then whoever makes a new account on there can just claim your old games or something, if that's what you meant? I'm not sure if that's possible and my head hurts just thinking about the whole process. The sooner Nintendo announces its long term plans for digital content for the Switch - which has to happen at some point - the better.

I'm downloading the Beta now, it'll be done before I leave for work so I should be able to play this evening by around 9:30PM maybe 10PM assuming people are still playing by then. I'll likely just be able to play in the evenings as I'll be busy sorting stuff out most of Sunday I reckon but I can probably play at around the same time on Sunday as well. Probably on Monday night as well, seeing as that'll be my last chance for some monster hunting action.

I didn't say that I wasn't going to play it, it's just the realisation that it's launching now and well... I've got work most of today and tomorrow, though I could possibly get on for a few hours on Saturday night. Then on Sunday I'll likely be busy but, I could get on for a few hunts at some point. Is this Beta timed in any way or is it available until the game comes out?

This is good news and all but... if Japan is getting Bayonetta 1 on a game card as well and the rest of the world isn't then, that really isn't right. Make the dual game cards exclusive to the limited edition by all means but don't just not give the rest of us an option. I don't mean to sound nitpicky, it's fantastic that the games are being re-released for the Switch but, it'd just be nice is all. Otherwise, assuming there is English language in the JP version with its exclusive game card for Bayonetta 1 then it might be the first Switch game I import... ...and then get a Pal case for the Switch shelf.

Yep, DC's all round it seems like. Here we go again!

Just over five hours in now and I finally reached the first "Open Plains" moment where you can see the world sprawled out before you... ...then I ran into a high level enemy and died pretty quickly. I'm officially playing a Xenoblade game now!

I'm sorry to hear about your losses @Jon & @Nolan Also I'm sorry to hear about your place of work not being more understanding @Animal as it must be a tough time. In fact, I wish nothing but the best for the entire N-Europe community going forward, as I think we're all due a bit of happiness.

Well, I've finally put in just over three hours into the game and I've just got past the introductory part of the game... ...what an intro it was! No spoilers obviously for anyone who is yet to play it but I kind of went into this game expecting a slight refinement of the earlier Xenoblade games, taking the best bits while probably compromising heavily in other areas; so far it has been nothing but pleasantly surprising. I see what @Hero-of-Time means now about the cutscenes being rather epic but in all the right ways. Oh and I had my first "I'm knackered!" moment out of Nia which certainly got a chuckle out of me. Now I'm off to explore the world of Alrest for a bit before resting up for the night.

Have you been collecting all of the red rings? If you collect the five red rings then go back to the map, you'll see the numbered rings icon, collect all the numbered rings then go back to the map and you should see another icon appear which is the timed silver rings challenge; in summary you'll only encounter these if you have been replaying stages in addition to collecting all of the red rings. Mania is still better by far, I had a lot more fun with Mania but I would call the enjoyment found here as, flawed fun with Forces... it's still good but a different type of good where the game doesn't have to be god-tier to be fun but I think it's more of a case that Sonic Forces is a partially refined 3D/2.5D formula. Don't play the Shadow DLC until you've finished the main game, I would say... I mean I'm not going to stop you but it does reveal certain things you might not want to know until you've seen the credits roll on the main adventure.

Thank you, I only just read this but yes, I do indeed read every post in this thread - whenever I'm still awake at that time - and I will generally react to the majority of posts where possible. I was considering joining in at one point as I'd just started playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 but I only started drinking at around 1am so I didn't get anywhere near drunk enough sadly. Though I did manage more than a couple of hours of gameplay time after a long shift at work which is pretty good for me but I only had the one drink of vodka in the end as I was pretty engrossed in the opening section of the game... and then before I knew it, the time was 3am so. We'll see though, it is December afterall so I may end up buying a decent bottle of Rum pretty soon, so I may post in here yet, when you least expect it. In the meantime I'll be sure to keep checking in on this glorious thread though.

Ah, fair point. My opinion on it would be that although the number part isn't memorable I suppose at least there are multiple ways for people to add you, if you are already friends on another Nintendo platform, so I like that aspect but I agree that it would be so much simpler to just have the user name to deal with. But so far I haven't had any issues with using it even though it could be better, it's nice to see that it has improved a bit on the Switch. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Anyway, in another attempt to move the conversation on, I'd just like to say that the first... almost year that the Switch has had so far has been simply phenomenal, to the point that me even mentioning it at this point just seems like reiterating a point which has been stated a lot recently around the internet and indeed in the world in general thanks to Nintendo actually properly advertising this time. (and the console itself being well worth picking up) Just the other night I saw an advert for Arms... and I thought to myself "why are you advertising Arms when there are so many other titles out there now?" then I thought again, because I'm pretty sure I remember seeing an advert for at least every major first-party Nintendo game but soon after the console launched, Arms perhaps seemed forgotten about even though it was advertised, so now with all the extra content and events which seem to be happening, I can understand why they would want to boost the visibility of the game. Let's hope for equally strong Christmas sales but I get the feeling, that really won't be a problem at all.