S.C.G

N-E Café Episode 51 now available! Now up on the main page. - - - - - Great episode there, I enjoyed hearing the enthusiasm for all things snooker related from @Londragon and @Nicktendo revisiting Resident Evil Zero just reminded me how great a game it was for its time, yet how much I prefer being able to save anywhere as opposed to the typewriter system, plus hearing @nekunando shun Super Mario 3D All-Stars by keeping it sealed, choosing to continue with playing Super Mario Galaxy 2, brought a smile to my face; also, I'm seriously considering playing Disaster: Day of Crisis on the Wii now, it sounds great. It's nice to see the continued love for Part-Time UFO as well, I wanted to keep that going for as long as possible, hence this weeks banner. Nice coverage of the Nintendo mini Direct as well, it's very like Nintendo to host the last one of the year, right after you put out the fiftieth episode, but it was still great to hear all of your opinions on the showcase, as it was quite a good one, by Nintendo Direct standards, and it's good to hear Greg getting excited for the No More Heroes games again.

No links, I may have seen it in a video somewhere. I get it though, Microsoft did use backwards compatibility as a selling point, if a lot of stuff isn't working, then that's not good. This is an excellent suggestion, if everyone here who owns an Xbox One Series X/S could try a demo out (if they're not playing anything else) for an Xbox One X game, such as Dragon Quest XI or something similar, then we'd probably have more of a definitve answer, if all Xbox Series consoles crash on demo's, then I think that would point more towards general incompatibility. - - - - - The alternative answer, is that Ike's console might be faulty, though I'd like to think that might not be the case, although thinking back to previous hardware launches, Microsoft doesn't have the best track record for hardware reliability, but this is something which seemed to have improved a bit over the past generation. All of this is just conjecture, I just wanted to offer an outside perspective, in case it's of any use.

I've heard other reports of the console crashing on demo's and certain backwards compatible games. I can't say for definite if it is or isn't a hardware issue being that I don't own one, but it seems to me to be general launch incompatibility causing the crashes. Which is something that could and probably will be patched out, if it was me, I'd be waiting it out to see, but I can understand wanting to return it if it's crashing. I would ask, have you tried it with any Xbox Series X exclusive titles, but... I know there aren't many.

Part-Time UFO N-Europe Review Written by Adam Hirst Live on the main site. @Hero-of-Time Thank You, on behalf of N-Europe, for letting us host your review on the main site. It was a pleasure to read your review and it's fantastic to see you about on the forums again, posting about games and interacting with us all again. You were missed.

@Aneres11 If you're getting your Xbox Series X console tomorrow, then Sea of Thieves is a great game to test out the backwards compatibility with. The load times will be quicker than on the Xbox One X, and at least equal to the PC version. As for what to expect from the game, it is essentially an online only game, yes, better with friends. It's not hard to get into, though it will probably take a couple of sessions. Once you get into the cycle of picking up quests, sailing the seas, fighting off hordes of skeletons and nabbing treasure to cash-in back at the outpost, you'll probably enjoy it. Let us know how you get on with your new console, all going well, if this is one of the first games you intend to play on it, let's see if we can get a session going, one evening.

@Kaepora_Gaebora Another successful voyage last night, even though, there were a few close calls. We did really well, got some good hauls from the vaults, gave as good as we got from the Ghost Ships, and we must have gotten through many barrels of wood and canonballs. Many highlights including being under attack from enemy ships... "I've just fixed all the 'oles in the ship" *Crash* "Apart from that one" *Crash* "And that one" Then, in the middle of a storm, while under attack, you asked me how the hull was looking... "It's alright, just four 'oles and a bit of water, apart from that, it's fine" Taking down that Megalodon was a close one, it got taken out on or in our ship, then it glitched the explosive barrel... that's never happened before. And to round off the night, that friendly bunch of Pirates, let us share in their spoils, and even stayed to lark around for a bit, great times. You never know what's going to happen, when you venture into the Sea of Thieves.

In-game chat is a bit scuppered, just going to re-join, that usually fixes it.

@Kaepora_Gaebora sure, I could join you for another voyage, I'll be there in a few mins.

Congratulations @bob

Thanks for the game @Kaepora_Gaebora that was a great session of saling on the high seas. For a moment there, I thought that we might lose that hoard of treasure that we'd worked so diligently to acquire, but we got it all back to the outpost in the end. That was great, I've never raided a fort before, and I've learned a few new things about the game, plus I shared a bit of knowledge about trading in stuff at the Reaper as well; and I think that's what's so great about this game, once you get into it, you end up just figuring stuff out as you go along. Although the game can have its frustrating moments, it's still a fun Pirate game at its core, and one which I can see myself coming back to.

My Life in Gaming - EverDrives & FXPak Pro A nicely put together video showing the latest advancements in flash drives for consoles, it's also useful if you were considering picking one up, and want to see what the difference is between the old and new versions; I can understand why a lot of gamers would choose to have flash carts for all of their consoles, even though I do like to play original carts on original hardware, where possible I own the EverDrive 64, mainly so that I can check out new versions of games based on old classics, such as Pefect Dark, Goldeneye, Super Mario 64 and Zelda to name but a few, though I was unaware of some of the newest advancements contained in some of the newer SNES and MD flash carts. It makes for interesting viewing, if this is something you might be thinking about getting into.

*joins H-o-T in the PS4 corner* Want to play some Monster Hunter World?

I really wanted to get Panzer Dragoon: Remake on the Switch, of course I went for the Limited Run Games physical release, that was ordered on 27/03/2020, when the game was still Switch exclusive, in that time, the game is now available on the PS4 and being that it's now £13.39 on sale, as opposed to £22.49 on the Switch eShop, it's very tempting to just get it digitally on the PS4. I've waited this long though, I might get it digitally on the PS4 anyway, but the physical Switch version should finally be released in a couple of weeks, though I'm betting that by the time it's really out, it'll probably be a PS Plus game.

Nerrel has a video out, comparing all the games from Super Mario 3D All-Stars on the Switch, with what is technically possible on the PC. It's an interesting video, because while it highlights the collection as being a decent way to play these three 3D Mario games, it also shows several areas where alternative versions, seem to be vastly superior, on a technical level, which makes me wonder, what could have been, with this collection.

I can remember watching Sean Connery in all of the James Bond films he acted in, the Highlander films, Indiana Jones and the Last crusade, and Dragonheart. Each of those films, watchable and enjoyable, mainly because of his presence in them. It has been a while since I watched any of these, now might be a good time to rewatch Highlander and Highlander II: The Quickening. He always came across as being a nice guy, and I think his retirement in 2003* was respectable, he could have acted in so many more films is he had chosen to do so, but he had become disappointed with what a lot of films had become, even then... indeed, he only came out of retirement to voice the videogame version of From Russia with Love in 2005 because that was his favourite of the Bond films, and because his grandchildren loved playing videogames at the time. *technically, his last film is Sir Billi (2012) as he produced voicework for it... Sad news indeed. Rest in Peace, Sean Connery.

Thanks for the games, everyone. I really liked your Bomberman stage @RedShell that's the first time I've seen it, I believe, as I think there was an issue with custom stages a couple of weeks ago (Steve night) and I didn't play last week, but I really liked the detail you'd put into it with the classic Bomberman logo and the waving arms, really cool and it brought back some great memories. It makes me wish that we'd have gotten Bomberman instead though as a playable fighter he could have had a really cool moveset as well.

Boo Amiibo back in stock.

N-E Café Episode 50 now available! Now up on the main page. - - - - - What a truly fantastic fiftieth episode, thanks to @Londragon @Nicktendo and @nekunando for all the work which goes into the podcast in general and for conducting those interviews. I thought that each of the interviews offered something unique, when it comes to Mario memories, and with each title being so different that each of us picked, I think it made for a great look back overall, and it brought a lot to the format. Thank you for interviewing me, and thank you to @Jonnas @WackerJr @Will and @Vileplume2000 for being interviewed, each one was really enjoyable in its own right, I really liked hearing about all of your memories and passion for games from within the Mario series, it brought back some good memories for me as well. All of the sections about Mario through the ages, gave a good insight into the series, while putting questions from the questionnaire at different parts throughout was a great idea, as the general format of the podcast flowed really well, then having the Quiz at the end was a great way to round it off, some really tricky questions in there as well. Great music selection as well, I know wer'e not doing traditional transition tunes this week, but I did recognise a fair few of those tracks. As much as I enjoy the podcast, I am glad to hear that you'll all be taking a break for a couple of weeks, I'm aware that it does take a lot to organise a weekly podcast, what with all the news etc... indeed, the podcast is most of our news now on the N-Europe main site, this is why I mostly just cover the Directs and most of the bigger game announcements when they happen, as there's just too much to keep up with otherwise; I'm grateful that you cover most of the news and I've been ensuring that I get the promotion article for the podcast up in a more timely manner, as of late, in addition to keeping all of those video links updated. Then there's all the editing... it's all really well produced, I can hear that a lot of thought goes into it all, as it shows in the final episode. I think it would be a good thing, to have more interviews as part of the podcast in the future, potentially, maybe not all the time, but it certainly adds something to the format. I'll gladly help and do whatever I can to assist with the show, if required, and in general, I'm pleased to be able to promote it on the main page each week, I know the write-ups do follow a set structure, but I'll change it up when I can, just as I have done with this special episode; the content is excellent though and speaks for itself. Here's to many more episodes.

Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase October 2020 Roundup All up on the main site, N-Europe's Roundup of the mini presentation. Full press release and video presentation embed. A brand new game from HAL? I'll be checking that out for sure.

eBay voucher code... POPUPOCT20 20% off, £15 minimum spend, max £75 discount, ends on Oct 29th, selected sellers only. Can be used on PS5 games, which I noticed when selecting the videogame category, I thought this would be worth posting here, in case anyone is buying games/accesories.

eBay voucher code... POPUPOCT20 20% off, £15 minimum spend, max £75 discount, ends on Oct 29th, selected sellers only. Can be used on Switch games, including pre-orders. I wasn't going to pre-order on the Nintendo Store UK, but around £100 for Cadence of Hyrule, Pikmin 3 Deluxe and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity seemed like a good deal.

Seems like an obvious move, to me, especially as I said as much when the game was announced... At least now, there's a good chance that people will probably play the game, especially if they haven't had to pay much, or anything for it.

Well... I got the hang of Carrom in the end, 2-1 to me. But I crashed out of Billiards in spectacular fashion, 2-0 to @Glen-i Thanks for the games though, they were fun.

@Londragon if you're still after last minute Mario Questionnaire answers... All the best, for the fiftieth episode, I'm looking forward to listening to it.

@Glen-i did you want to play this weeks games tonight at 7pm? If not, let me know when you can play.