Goron_3

GamePass is a really great concept and I think it shows why any talk of their being a console 'war' is just obsolete thinking. For Microsoft to get a guaranteed payment from me of £10.99 a month is actually pretty darn good for them; even in months where I don't play a new game they are going to be making money off of me. I'm not quite sure on how much money they make from it but it certainly seems to be working for both them and developers. I do wish they had Sony's AAA line-up, but they've got enough exclusive software (and decent third party offerings) that it's worth it.

I'm surprised people are shocked by the news because frankly I thought they were all hilariously bad. They almost felt like parodies of pundits tbh and the formula felt pretty dated. I can't remember the last time I listened to either Matt or Charlie and thought 'wow, they really know their stuff'. They had the jobs solely because they were ex-Footballers. That's not to say all ex-footballer are terrible pundits and hosts. Neville and Carragher are absolutely brilliant on Sky, as are Jenas and Richards who regularly do MoTD.

I need to post in here more as I've watched some much recently but haven't put my thoughts down anywhere. Last Friday night we watched The Peanut Butter Falcon and honestly I think it was one of my favourite films of the last few years. I actually haven't seen Shia LaBeouf in anything other than the first Transformers movie so I was pretty intrigued to see if he could actually act. I thought both he and Zack Gottsagan were brilliant, and the script was pretty solid overall. It's one of those films where not much happens but a film like this is all about the bond between the two leads and it certainly excelled in that sense. Oh, and Mick Foley making an appearance? Man, that brought a huge smile to my face. Highly recommended to all.

Bluetooth.

I've just seen the Skyward Sword posts and....eugh. That game summed up everything wrong with Nintendo in that era, and thankfully served as the kick up the backside that led to the much more impressive BoTW. The Matthewmatosis critique of SS sums up many of the games issues but frankly speaking, any combat system where the main controls work less than 100% of the time is unacceptable. Fundemantally, the sword fighting just wasn't fun, and watching an enemy come up to you with a giant horizontal gap in his shield just felt silly after a while. What I always found funny is that after you initially stun an opponent with a motion controlled hit, you were encouraged to waggle the controller as quickly as possible for the follow up hits. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess had better combat imo, but credit to Nintendo for actually trying to implement sword controls. I am feeling a bit bored of my Switch at the moment. My 3 most recent purchases have been Animal Crossing, Xenoblade and Luigi's Mansion but I stopped playing all well before the end. I've said it before but Nintendo really need another AAA single player title alongside Mario and Zelda. Metroid probably could occupy that space but we're still years away (I doubt it will even release on this Switch). On the other hand, it's meant that I've been able to sink my teeth into other current gen games (Resident Evil 2 Remake, Red Dead 2) so it's not all bad

That was five years ago?! Jeez. IIRC, me and @MoogleViper travelled down from Nottingham for that shortly after he moved here for the first time. It was the day Rez drew pictures of dicks (I think?) and handed them to random passers by and when those idiot kids kept losing their frisbee in the same tree. We then played Ninja with them and Sam creeped a girl out.

Barcelona is usually the worst European race but I'm actually super exciting for this weekend's race. The long range forecast suggests air temperature of 32 degrees which is going to have a huge impact on cooling, and no doubt track temperature. The tyres will be a step harder (similar to the British GP) but I'm not sure how beneficial that'll be given the super hot temps and the long radius corners.

Pretty fantastic race tbh. Not a load of overtakes (although Albon's move on Kimi was tasty) but there was plenty of tension to see if Max was going to be able to pull off the win. The tyres will be a step harder in Barcelona but the temperatures are going to be 30 degrees +, so we should be in for a pretty exciting race once again.

Pole: Hamilton 1st: Ham 2nd: Max 3rd: Bottas 4: Ricciardo 5: Hulk FL: Albon

Great to see Xenoblade already having sold more than 50% of XC2 LTD sales (I believe that game is still Monolith's #1 selling title).

Interesting. Presumably there's a latency delay? Might try this when it's out.

It's not just one example though is it? Cerny made it clear during the tech talk that the SSD has been designed create new game design possibilities that go beyond what developers are forced to do. That, combined with what they've said and shown about Spiderman, Horizon and Rachet make it clear that they believe that PS5 games would not be possible on current gen. Regarding Microsoft - they are putting out what is on paper the most powerful console ever made. They've then said that software will be cross generation, which is part of the reason why Infinite looked so disappointing. Since the negative response to last week's showcase they've begun removing references to software being played on current gen consoles (including the One S, the weakest of the lot) but if you've already designed your next gen software to be playable on current gen machines then surely it's a bit too late? It just seems...odd. The perception I'm getting is that Sony developers are the ones trying to design games that could not be possible before, whereas Microsoft want software that's scalable across hardware, with the Series X delivering higher fidelity graphics and frame rate.

I also want to just point out how mixed Microsoft's messaging has been. Sony have made it very clear that they believe in this idea that a new console generation should create experiences that couldn't be possible on older technology, hence why they've invested not just into great CPUs and GPU's but a groundbreaking SSD. The Halo Infinite reveal was just so disappointing to me. I watched a reaction to it from The Cherno (who is a game developer) and whilst it's just one game, it does very much suggest that Microsoft's approach to next gen is better resolution and framerates, not new game design possibilities. The Rachet and Clank trailer meanwhile very deliberately showed how quickly the SSD can load new worlds and how the SSD can change games. Again, it's a small sample size but I think both examples show a lot. If I have realised one thing about next gen though it's that I need a bigger and better TV.

Seeing some rumours of a big PS5 event in the coming weeks. Fingers crossed it's true. I do think Sony are going into next gen with a tonne of momentum compared to Microsoft. They've just announced sales figure for the past quarter and quite frankly they are extraordinary. At the moment, PS4 is tracking above PS2 sales, which says a lot given that home gaming in Japan is non-existent. One thing that I never thought about until just know is that more than ever, gamers don't want to switch ecosystems as they'll lose their digital software. Sony are selling huge amounts of software at the moment and I've got no doubt it will stop people switching over to Xbox Series X. I don't think I've ever been this excited by a next gen console to be honest. With PS4/ XBO, we saw big jumps in GPU power and RAM but fairly modest CPU gains. With PS5, we're seeing a 8x increase in CPU performance, 20x performance in speed (from HDD to SSD) and even then, the GPU's are better in 2020 than the PS4 GPU was in 2013. I've just completed RDR2 on XBX and whilst the game was utterly gorgeous, you could tell it was really pushing the limits of what game design could be like on a current console. I can't wait to see what the future holds

3D? Super Mario 64. It's got an incredible physics engine and it's aged really well. 2D....I'll go for the incredible Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Super Mario World is also brilliant but I've played it too much and there are certain aspects that don't hold up so well imo.

Absolutely gutted to have missed out on this thread. Literally just read through every page and wanted to add my own thoughts each time

I'm delighted about all of those! @Retro_Link probably has bad memories of the Nurburgring from 2005 though Not only are the circuit great but Imola and Mugello don't have much tarmac run off. It's going to be brilliant watching drivers try not to overstep the limits. Additionally, the weather will be far from ideal. Nurburgring in October has an average temperature of just 7 degrees (there was a F1 race there in July 2011 and it was the coldest GP of the last decade!) so hopefully that could create some difficulties. Imola will surely be pretty cold too. On the other hand, Spain gets a race in August is going to be absolute hell.

According to Kotaku, a couple of yesterday's announcements (Avowed and Everwild) have had references to XBO support taken off their respective web pages. It reminds me somewhat of the XBO launch when they suddenly took back a lot of their business decisions due to the negative reception, and I wonder if they've realised that releasing a new console with no exclusive games is just a really bad idea. Compare that to Sony who have made it abundantly clear that they believe in console generations and that PS5 games would not have been possible on a PS4. That said, depending on how far those games are in development it makes me wonder if those games will have already have been hindered by current gen design choices? If your next gen titles can already run on XBO then it seems pointless at this stage to remove compatibility with those titles, especially if Microsoft are just looking at GamePass subscription numbers as their main metric (which I suspect they are).

Microsoft have such a weird approach to next gen. First off, GamePass is so great and offers terrific value. The downside to it on XBO is that Microsoft majorly lack enough first party exclusives, but if they can rectify that issue then I'm sure many gamers will purchase a next gen Xbox, even if it's a Lockhart, just for GamePass. Speaking on Lockhart, I'm a bit gutted they didn't mention it as we know it's in development. I've only got a 1080p TV and so I don't see any reason to buy a series X when I'm not hooked in by the software. Lockhart + GamePass will get me interested. Software wise.....Sigh. I'm so done with how every game trailer now needs to look like a film trailer. I understand the need for CGI trailers but when we're this close to launch I'd just like to see some hands-on footage. On game we did see gameplay for is Halo. I've never been a big Halo fan but I did play Halo 3 online back in the day and thought it was absolutely incredible. Infinite looked...okay. It's clearly a current gen game which is being ported over to next gen and whilst I'm sure the gameplay will be good I wasn't particularly impressed with how the game looked.

- I'm Anil - I'm British Asian! My family are Punjabi (North India) but I was raised in Milton Keynes. - But I was actually born in Birmingham! Hate the place... - I studied Chemistry at the University of Nottingham, where I met my fab fiancee - I work for a large energy company in the Digital Marketing team. I run small projects and support larger ones. - I enjoy travelling. As @Mandalore also said, I love a good city break over a long weekend. We also tend to have one 'beach' holiday a year. Last year it was Sri Lanka, the year before Greece (Corfu). - I love discovering new food and drink. Good food reveals a lot about cultures and history, and it's part of the reason why I love going to Italy (especially Rome). - Formula 1 is my favourite sport. @Will has fine taste! I've got a picture of me and Fernando Alonso somewhere on my phone... - I love discovering new music, and tend to have a pretty wide musical palette. My favourite bands / artists are Metallics, Rage Against The Machine, Kanye West, Nas, Eminem and Bruce Springsteen. I also love discovering music that's in another language - I'm listening to a lot of Cuban music at the moment! - I love Jurgen Klopp. To keep this thread going, I nominate @MoogleViper and @Zell to post

Interesting reviews. It seems like it's a stunning game but ultimately one where the game design is held back by the generation of hardware it's built on. Stealth seems pretty one dimensional. I'll check it out on PS5.

This is such a great idea for a thread. I'll leave a proper reply when I can remember how to share photos

I'm on the fence about this game. It looks like the game disincentives the player from engaging in combat, and that it's better to avoid combat altogether to avoid using up consumables. I don't mind them not returning to the RPG mechanics of the first two titles but it's weird that they are sticking with the thing that fans hate the most.

We're in for a season of absolute domination from Mercedes.

Very excited for today's race! I'm fascinated by what tyres the leaders start on. Do Red Bull repeat last week's trick and go for the mediums? I'm going to go with: 1. Verstappen 2. Bottas 3. Sainz 4. Albon 5. Ocon For no reason whatsoever I think Hamilton will DNF.