S.C.G

I should be able to play some Monster Hunter on Saturday from 8pm. If everyone else wants to hunt today or earlier tomorrow, then that's fine, if that's the case and you're still playing in the evening on Saturday, then I'll hopefully join you.

N-E Café Episode 39 now available! Now up on the main page. An excellent episode, I especially enjoyed the big topic this week, it's going to be an interesting next few months for videogames. Oh and as for that transition tune?

Thanks for the hunts @Glen-i It was good to get back into hunting some monsters, I think we did pretty well overall, we had a nice selection of quests and we even got two other players to join us... albeit briefly, though that may have been because of quest I picked that they didn't stick around. I didn't think that Zinogre would be that bad but clearly I underestimated the quest tier I was picking from. That final boss type monster was fun to fight, I don't recall fighting it before, or if I did, it can't have been that often, it'd be interesting to see the higher level version of that fight, though maybe later on down the line if its mega attack really is a one-hit K-O deal. Great fun though and I think we did pretty well, I'd be up for playing more Monster Hunter soon if the chance arises.

8:30pm is fine by me. We could open it up to randoms, it'll be interesting to see how much of an active online community this game hopefully still has.

I wouldn't be able to hunt until around after 7:30pm, probably even 8pm but if any of you are still hunting then and could do with an extra hunter, then I'd love to join.

Cheers for the games @LazyBoy Ended up playing this for just over an hour or so in the end, it's a game that I'd play more when N-E one who has it on PS4 is playing it, but it's not something I could see myself putting a lot of time into just playing against randoms players. I can see what it's going for, as a PS Plus game, this will do well but otherwise, I wouldn't have rushed to buy it. It's in the "Time-Wasters" folder, next to Rocket League, so I'll probably play it again at some point. I almost wish that the "platforming" mechanics were a bit better? But I can't help but think, that's the point of it. There's definitely a certain charm to it but at the same time, it's not a hard game to "get" and you will know whether or not it's your kind of game after just playing a few rounds on it. Once it has some more updates and the servers are a bit smoother, it'll probably feel a bit better to play, plus if they are going to be changing the different games each season, that'll keep players coming back for certain, but if the main aim is just to win, so that you can exchange those crowns for different gear... that's not really a huge draw for me; though it would be nice to win overall at least once, maybe that'll bring me back to it. Right, time to blast through Streets of Rage 4 for the first time on PS4, I need to play something which I know I'm going to get some sense of real enjoyment out of playing, not that Fall Guys isn't enjoyable in its own way but I just can't see myself putting loads of time into it, and at least it got me to play something on the PS4 again, lately I haven't felt much of a drive to play anything much at all, so this is a good thing. Anyway, I'll play it again the next time a few people from here want to play it on the PS4.

All was fine (for me) after the restart, I believe.

It is probably to do with our hosting, I think it might even be in order to stop the site and forums going down so frequently. I wasn't aware that there were captcha's coming up though, is this the case for some users? All I've seen is the DDOS cloudflare protection thing, which seems to come up if you either haven't used the site for a certain period of time, or when first loading it up.

You don't have to restart on my account but if there have been technical issues with other players getting kicked, then we could restart, I don't mind either way. I was just noting that I missed the first race, which was completely my own doing.

late joining, missed first race of first GP, oh well.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe is coming to the Switch All up on the main page, better late than never. (a bit like Nintendo with this port) Indeed, a port it may be, but it's a port of a fine game and one which I might put more time into on the Switch. This is great for those who either didn't own a Wii U or missed out on Pikmin entirely. I think everyone who can, should at least try one Pikmin game out as it really is a very unique and charming series.

The main site is back up again. Thanks @Shorty

I've posted this in the staff section, though I've noticed that Shorty hasn't been on the forum for a good week or more, so I've sent him an e-mail. I can't say what's wrong with the site as I haven't a clue, it might be back at some point soon, but at least we still have the forum. Edit - update, Shorty has said he'll take a look at it.

As I understand it, Halo Infinite is getting a physical release, which can be played on either an Xbox One / X / Xbox Series X at various graphical resolutions, depending on your hardware setup and presumably you will be able to play it on Windows 10 PC's. It's certainly good to have a variety of options available when it comes to playing the main campaign. When it comes to the multiplayer, it seems that this is also true and being that it is Free to Play, presumably it will be a separate install, that way anyone can just play the multiplayer if they wish, also if anyone just wanted to play the campaign, they can do that as well and not need the extra install space for the multiplayer, if they have no interest in it. The other side of it, now that we know the multiplayer will be Free to Play, is the nature of how this will be implemented; a battle pass would be good, loot boxes would be not so good. I'm aware that for any of these types of games to survive, they need to have a decent player base, which should be a given as this is Halo but, depending on how F2P is implemented, it could turn a lot of players away, overall this model is still probably the best business move for the developers but if I had the choice, I'd have picked paid over F2P easily. Halo has always been something which you'd just buy Xbox Live Gold for and then be able to play the multiplayer if you had the game, I'm assuming that now that it has gone F2P, you no longer need the gold subscription, so for anyone who only wants to play Halo and doesn't want to subscribe, this is a good thing but as with all things (especially in gaming) it's a trade-off. Having a game like this run at 120fps is a good thing, it's nice that the option is there, of course there will be plenty of people who will use this option, but I think for the majority of users, 60fps will be ample. Does this make it an unlevel playing field however? It's arguable that if you can play the game on an Xbox or a PC, the playing field is already unlevel due to a variety of factors, so it probably won't make that much of a difference; I do think it would be a good thing to have plenty of matchmaking options though. I write all of this from the perspective of someone who just plays the campaign on the Halo games when they come out usually, I might try the multiplayer out and then not play it again for either a long time or ever, so I don't think I have much of a stake in this. Halo Infinite on an Xbox One base console, on a years old 1080p TV? That'll do nicely. Oh and I watched the trailer, it's Halo... it looks as good as it probably ever has and I like that they've added in some new mechanics to aid the gameplay, let's hope it's good.

Thanks for the games everyone, those were some fun matches, I almost forgot how much fun Byleth is to play as. Also, I'm really not that good at playing as Falco, some characters in Smash just don't 'click' with me.

Wishing you all the best @MindFreak, that's a tough set of circumstances, I really hope that yourself, your wife and family will be alright. It can't be easy, but as others have already said, if you need us to talk to, then we're here.

Day 30 - Personal gaming tradition Local multiplayer games Years ago, playing local multiplayer games would be something which would happen frequently, I really value those times near the end of the year where classics such as Goldeneye, Super Smash Bros. or Mario Kart would be played by my brothers and I, sometimes we'd play four player on the N64 if maybe a friend came over, these days though, it's probably only a case of getting to play local multiplayer games maybe a handful of times a year, or even once or twice. If you have the chance to play local multiplayer games on a regular basis with family or friends, I hope it is something which you value, because these times are easily some of my favourite memories and being that I don't get to play local multiplayer games that often, either for logistical reasons or life just being busy, I certainly value these times even more. I will hopefully have the chance to play two-player local co-op on Streets of Rage 4 for the first time this week, it's a game which I already know that I love, I've played through it many times over online, but playing it locally, on the just released physical version for the Switch? I can't wait, and it will likely bring back some great memories of playing the original games locally on the Mega Drive as well.

Day 29 - Nicest graphics/art style Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Just seeing screenshots from thge game again recently, reminded me of how fond I am of the art style and I still think it's the strongest entry in the series. I'm guessing that for reasons, it won't get a HD remaster now either, if Nintendo doesn't want lots of varied characters in the series, then a remaster would probably have to be overhauled, possibly altering or chaning characters entirely, which... wouldn't really work, or they just won't do it, despite the fact that it would probably be more popular now than ever. The latest entry looks amazing as well though, full credit to it, visually it is more detailed than ever, but the second game in the series looks just right to me.

Day 28 - Favourite DLC/Expansion Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Some of the best DLC/Expansion content released for any game in recent times, which offers incredible value for money if you're a regular Smash player.

I'm OK with that.

Day 27 - Best Boss Battle Conker's Bad Fur Day - The Panther King Alien What a great final Boss Battle, just because it gives you the chance to fight an Alien from within a Power-Loader, the mechanics of the boss fight are a bit like Punch-Out, mixed with Super Mario 64 and maybe Blast Corps and just in case you don't get what you have to do in this boss battle, the warning system will tell you if you take long enough, to... "Throw the Alien out, and shut the bloody door!" which isn't featured in the above video, as the boss is beaten quite quickly, but it's just a really great battle, which must have been a lot of fun for the guys at Rare to make at the time.

Day 26 - Favourite NPC Quest Gal from Monster Hunter Generations Just a really great NPC, who has some funny dialogue and is fun to visit when you need a quest.

Day 25 - Best Online Multiplayer Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II It could only ever be this game, I've spent thousands of hours playing it over the years for a reason, it's a fantastic game which is enjoyable in itself even in single player, but the game comes into its own when you play it online, especially when you get a team of four players, each playing as a different class; HUmars dealing damage with bladed weapons, RAcasts taking out enemies from afar with rifles, FOnewearls providing support techs and casting all of the elements plus maybe a RAcaseal for some extra firepower. There really isn't any other game like it, you'd log on to the official Sega servers (when they were still operational) after paying a monthly Hunter's License fee of around £5.99 or so and then you could play all that you wanted, especially if you had broaband and the adapter for the GameCube, rather than 56k which was typically metered internet access. Technicalities aside though, when you get online you would find yourself in the lobby area, which is where you would meet other players, you could sit in a chair and talk using a keyboard if you had one. An official screenshot taken on the GameCube version, saved onto a memory card and uploaded from the console, yes this is the default image size, but it's a cool feature. From there, you could make games or join one which was already open, though you couldn't join if a quest was already in progress. All of the Episode I areas were available; Forest which is your starting area, the Caves which are intermediate, Mines which contain a lot of annoying robotic enemies and then the Ruins which is a case of 'Nope!' if you're just starting out, but it's all beatable in time. Part of the joy just comes from finding your own drops from creatures, building up your armour set with slot items, or just finding a new weapon to use, of which there are many types to try out, depending on which character class you choose, of which there are twelve different types and also twelve different section I'ds depending on what you name your character. Episode II which was the GameCube versions biggest selling point, is a whole new set of areas, this part of the game is set on Gal Da Val island, with three main areas, Mountains, Seaside and Jungle. Upon completing these areas, the Central Control Area opens up, where you get to fight the Gal Gryphon, which is this episode's equivalent of the Dragon, then you get to venture to the Seabed area, which is easily the most visually impressive part of the game, in addition to being quite a challenge for a group of four experienced players, let alone playing it solo, as when you get the the main boss, it will make everything which came before it, seem rather trivial. Playing the game online has always been great fun, it was a sad day when the original servers got shut down, though fortunately there are now private servers which are kept running and so long as you have the original hardware to run the game, you can still play the game online, which is exactly what I've decided to do this year, playing as a FOnewearl character called NiGHTS who was originally just an extra character, as I didn't want to risk my main character, just in case. An off-screen picture taken with a camera of NiGHTS on the new server, I reduced the image size and quality to try and keep it authentic. Its all worked out pretty well so far, I've been playing the game again on a reasonably regular basis, have since gotten NiGHTS to over level ninety, I've met some new players on there and it has been great fun just playing PSO online again, which I didn't think I'd be doing in 2020, but there we are, Phantasy Star Online lives on, some eighteen years after this version of the game originally came out, that's pretty amazing. One thing I wasn't so hyped about though, was typing on my third-party keyboard from back in the day, which is a Datel Powerboard, essentially it's a PS2 style connector keyboard with an adapter that connects it to the controller port on the GameCube, it works for a short period of time usually and then cuts out as the circuitry in the adapter is less then ideal. I'd always thought about getting one of those Official ASCII keyboard controllers but they always seemed out of reach, as they were Japan only, cost a reasonable amount back then, understandably they can cost even more now and I just never got around to it, or talked myself out of it. Until now, that is... The Officially licensed ASCII Nintendo GameCube keyboard controller. A boxed unit came up for sale recently for a reasonable price (just over £100, they can go for £200 or so) and I decided to get it, seeing as I knew that I'd get a decent amount of use out of it. The controller arrived today, that's a picture of it above after I'd cleaned it up, I just edited the background out quickly so that you can see the keyboard controller itself without anything detracting from it. Now, it does look pretty huge but the keys are about half the size of standard keyboard keys, so it's a reasonable size and it's susprisingly comfortable. Anyway, I'd planned to post this significantly earlier but it took a while longer to type all this up and clean the keyboard, but I think it came up quite nicely, all things considered and being that it will be used, it'll probably get dust and debris in it again, so I didn't see any point in buying a really new condition one for over double the price and it is in reasonably good shape, considering how many years ago it came out. Hopefully now it will continue to live on as a functioning Keyboard Controller for many years, I think I'm going to try it out for a bit, it will be nice just to play PSO again online with a reliable keyboard, plus it should be a lot more comfortable to use.

Is this randomly given out or based on how long you've had PS Plus for? It seems odd if it's random, if it was given out to anyone who has either subscribed or have an active PS Plus subscription, that would make more sense. I suppose it's a nice gesture from Sony, but it seems a bit arbitrary, some accounts have it while others don't it seems, it would be interesting to know what the variable is.

Day 24 - Best Final Mission Metroid: Zero Mission If you've played it, then you know the bit and you know the boss and if you haven't... then... I would recommend it. That entire last section, the build up and the boss battle which is harder if you've obtained 100% of items... I won't say it's my favourite boss battle but, it's an interesting concept. Metroid: Zero Mission is definitely a fantastic remake of the original game though.