Will

Had this removed yesterday and it was no where near as bad as I’d feared - recovering nicely today and it only cost me $1k so that’s definitely good. I feel the birthday pain. Mine is in a few weeks and I just found out my favourite restaurant here is closing down just a few days later. Guess I’ll get one final meal there and then it’s all over. One of the few authentic Japanese places in the country so going to suck not having it around anymore.

That is excellent. Maybe Nintendo should offer their services to help the government out? Integrate StreetPass with the Switch and give them out to everybody in the country for free on the condition you take it with you everywhere. Seems like a win-win situation to me.

I’m still not sure if my machine will be day one or not, I really hope it will be though. My general plan is to pick up the following on or around launch: PS5 Extra controller Spider-Man: Miles Morales Assassin's Creed Valhalla Demon’s Souls Watch Dogs Legion Dirt 5 Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Ghosts of Tsushima All of the games I buy will be digital, going for the disc version of the console ‘just in case’ and because the games I get through work are disc versions. No particular plans for launch day, whenever I get it I’ll save it for the next weekend and then have a long playing session. Also looking forward to continuing my F1 playing on the machine and hoping they do some upgrades for us.

I’m feeling the same with my Series X. Still really love the hardware I just have no idea what I’d do with the thing.

I’m really looking forward to moving on to Sunshine. I never thought I’d say it but I am really not enjoying Mario 64 all that much. So many camera issues, the controls don’t feel as tight as I want them to and the way I hold the Switch seems to have me flipping between Mario and Lakitu camera all the time. I’m about 50 stars in and I think I’m going to do the minimum to complete it then move on to Sunshine. I haven’t played it since I originally did on the GameCube and I absolutely loved it at the time. Hoping it still holds up now.

Getting ready for Christmas already, picked up the following: Baby hand Christmas tree decorations, one for each close family member. Smart tree lights, which I am immensely looking forward to.

What the hell? I guess you have to give credit for the initiative of doing some work but question the idiocy with which it was done. On the positive side I imagine you’d have a pretty good case for the council to pay for your garden to be completely re-done.

As I saw it activities are chunks of a game, so could be “Level 1”, “Get the Sword”, “Multiplayer Race” and will be pre-set areas to jump straight into. Some of those could be associated with trophies (as in completing them gets you one) but not all of them. They’re a way of jumping to specific parts of a game without going through in-game menus. They should be part of every PS5 game, Sony have been pushing this in the past as an integrated part of the entire eco-system.

It’s really interesting that this has popped up, haven’t thought about it in years. I was working on the publishing side of things when this came through and part of the team that reviewed it at SEGA. We were really quite excited by it and it was a real disappointment when it didn’t go any further than this prototype. I remember the first time we saw it and all being really impressed considering the amount of time there had been to work on it and the general quality level they got to so quickly. It was unfortunate that it came at just the wrong moment in SEGA’s multiple restructures that the team who had the power to do something with it were moved on to new projects and it just kind of faded away, most sadly with the same fate for the Australian studio. Looking forward to having another go on it.

Definitely a fan, seems to have everything you’d want in a logic layout and the new features seem cool. Can definitely see myself chatting with a friend while we both play our own games while watching them in the PIP mode. The activities look really cool too, if those are linked in with achievements (which it seemed like they are) I can see it being a great addition to the system. Glad the store is integrated into the UI too, always found it a pain having to load it up on it’s own, seems much easier like this. A very minor thing but one I definitely appreciate.

Looks really cool, definitely going to pick up this and the other games they’re doing over the next few days.

I reckon the only thing that will stop Lewis at this point is COVID-19. I doubt anyone will be near Mercedes next year, and I doubt Bottas will suddenly up his game. Would say it's a pretty safe bet Lewis will get his 8th title next year. Red Bull won't do anything until they can put someone decent in the second seat. I totally hated Schumacher for many years, as a kid Damon Hill was my hero and I just could not let '94 go. Have to respect what he achieved, and I really thought those records would stand for a long time. I'm definitely not a fan of Lewis but his talent is unquestionable and the team is just something else. I'm glad he's the one taking the records as a lot of what he stands for in general is a very good thing to have associated with so much success. I honestly can't think of a better one, maybe 2012 (I think?) where you had all those different winners in the opening half of the season? If they could just reign in that Mercedes a little bit F1 would be in a fantastic position right now. Hope they bring back Nurbergring on a more regular basis, definitely one of my favourite tracks.

F1 2020 Predictions Game Round 11 Results Tracking updated, ready to update this super fast for the rest of the season! Maximum points for this race were: Pole - Bottas (10) Fastest Lap - Verstappen (10) 1st - Hamilton (25 + 5) 2nd - Verstappen (18 + 5) 3rd - Ricciardo (15 + 5) 4th - Perez (12 + 5) 5th - Sainz (10 + 5) The results for this round: @Will - 67 @BowserBasher - 57 @Goron_3 - 23 And the overall standings (previous total in brackets): @Will - 548 (481) @BowserBasher - 410 (353) @Mandalore - 241 (241) @bob - 155 (155) @Nicktendo - 126 (126) @Goron_3 - 113 (90) Portuguese Grand Prix Predictions: Pole - Bottas FL - Bottas 1st - Hamilton 2nd - Bottas 3rd - Ricciardo 4th - Norris 5th - Stroll

Looks pretty awesome and seems to work as well as you’d hope it would. Hope that it does well and they keep adding characters and maybe some other additional stuff you can place around to interact with.

Spent a bit of time over the weekend trying to get Outrun 2 running on my MacBook. I couldn’t perfect the settings for the controls but it ran pretty much flawlessly. I hadn’t realized how easy it is to run a lot of the PC based arcade boards, even on my Mac with integrated graphics it seems to have no problem. It’s pushing me even more into wanting to build a PC so that I can enjoy more of these arcade games I haven’t been able to play in years.

Wear it over the top! Loads of people to that here, proper mask covered by something designer.

Can’t wait to go, hopefully will be able to get there soon after it opens, but I’m not holding my breath on that.

I’m about 30 stars in to Mario 64 and I swear the camera was never this bad. I guess after so many years of improvements you get used to something a lot better, but I’m still surprised by it. The two stars in the volcano took me ages to finish as I just could not get a decent angle to see where I was trying to jump. I never had a problem with it before, but wow, it sucks!

Not surprised they’ve mentioned it - that’s a very noticable difference. Always hard to see it yourself as you don’t get the big jumps, just very gradual transition. So serious! You certainly deserve at least a small smile on the progress you’ve made.

NO! You’re doing it wrong. Pick one console and absolutely hate everything about the other one.

Gonna have to agree with him on this one! But of course, different people like different things and it’s great for those who do like it. I think maybe I’ll feel different once I can get some less in your face... fins(?) for it. I guess I hadn’t paid enough attention to the reports on it, but yeah, taking a quick look it’s definitely concerning on how hot it seems to get. I guess at this point they may not be running with optimized software and so it will be better once we get the retail versions of the machine. I did read one article that said - “The console is emitting heat like crazy. It’s almost like a fireplace shaft. You can heat up your flat with it” - maybe that’s a feature for some parts of the world?

I agree with you, @Sheikah, it is a more impressive piece of tech (imo) than the Series X. I’m set on a PS5 and a PC for exactly the reasons you outline - I can build something myself that will be far more powerful than the Series X, in the same form factor, and that combo will give me access to everything. But I also agree with you, @Ronnie, the PS5 is super ugly and I really don’t want to have to look at it in my living room. Unfortunately I’m going to have to because it’s so insanely large I can’t put it in my cabinet. I’d have liked a better compromise between the two. From what I’ve heard the Series X is fine on the cooling so I don’t know that Sony had to take things as far as they have. It shouldn’t come down to a choice between a terrible looking console that runs cool and a good looking console that burns the house down - I think Microsoft got it right on this one.

It’s an impressive piece of tech but I still find it to be the ugliest console yet. I’m definitely glad they’ve addressed some of the issues of the PS4 but I wish they’d have done it in a different way. Personally I’d much rather have the Series X if it was all based on looks.

Really happy to see this. If new ones aren’t available at launch I’m tempted to buy some paint alongside my console and change these myself (I won’t of course as it’s way too much effort). New changes look great, looking forward to seeing what my new level is! This is still the thing I most wish Nintendo would catchup on. After being unsure about my order last week I’ve decided I’m definitely going to keep it. Everything I’m seeing looks great and new consoles is something I don’t want to miss.

Had my probation review today and passed with flying colours. My boss wants me to think of areas I’d like to expand my role into and take on a few additional departments which aligned with my feedback that I could take on more responsibility. After a very up and down year it’s nice to officially have a stable job again.