Will

Got my order in. Imagine I will actually play it very little, but I think it’s a really nice thing to have and really not too expensive. Will probably end up being a clock on my work desk.

That’s without tax, so adding that on I’d guess you’re looking at £100 once it get’s to the UK. As above, I think it’s going to be more than that in the UK and it seems a bit much to me. It’s really cool and and I’m sure will be a lot of fun, but I really doubt these cars are made with the quality you’d expect from spending that much money. It’s actually expensive enough that I’m rethinking getting them all together.

Really liked most of what I saw. Few things are a bit odd and would have liked more in the 3D collection but it’s a good showing. Really like the look of the Game & Watch, will be putting in an order for that as soon as it’s available.

Really like the look of this. Assuming Mario and Luigi are separate products I hope they’re able to add more over time and you could have a group of people playing together. I’ll definitely buy everything they do for this.

Is it? I thought Nintendo have always been quite keen on bundling old content like this. I think they would have had to be very strong remasters to justify individual packaged released. I’ll definitely buy this, but I’m a bit upset they didn’t include Galaxy 2. It’s the one 3D Mario game I’ve not managed to play through and was hoping this would be my chance.

Looks really cool. I do get that they want this period to be a special Mario celebration but it seems crazy to limit this so much. Hopefully it does well and we see more stuff like this.

These films that come out years after originals that have already completely closed the story are always a little bit interesting in how they handle things. Overall I quite enjoyed it. Definitely up for more films being launched directly on iTunes too.

On the backwards compatibility, I’ve never really cared and don’t see why it causes people such intense pain. I’m buying a new console to play new games. The chart @Sheikah posted pretty comprehensively shows that it’s just not something people really use. It’s maybe a nice thing for the people that buy in the second wave of machines (not early adopters for new tech, have some older games they want to finish and maybe sell the old console to help pay for the new one) but that’s pretty limited. Given how hard Sony are drumming the importance of the generational leap during this transition I’m not at all surprised it’s only PS4 that is supported. The US pre-order thing is of course a marketing move, but it’s not some horrendous act of the devil. They want to make sure the most vocal and taste-setting people get a console, create a bit of a buzz, and do something special for the most supportive of their fans. I’d imagine this will be one of many ways to get hold of the console, but it sure will make it special to those that get the Sony treatment.

F1 2020 Predictions Game Round 7 Results A boring race at Sap?! Oh dear. Maximum points for this race were: Pole - Hamilton (10) Fastest Lap - Ricciardo (10) 1st - Hamilton (25 + 5) 2nd - Bottas (18 + 5) 3rd - Versappen (15 + 5) 4th - Ricciardo (12 + 5) 5th - Ocon (10 + 5) The results for this round: @BowserBasher - 50 @will' - 50 And the overall standings (previous total in brackets): @will' - 346 (296) @Mandalore - 241 (241) @BowserBasher - 220 (170) @bob - 155 (155) @Nicktendo - 126 (126) @Goron_3 - 75 (75) Italian Grand Prix Predictions: Pole - Hamilton FL - Hamilton 1st - Hamilton 2nd - Bottas 3rd - Verstappen 4th - Albon 5th - Sainz

My. God. For multiple reasons I just cannot get my head around that. As a kid I think we absolutely did some pretty horrible things in the direction of disabled people, we didn’t know any better but for sure my parents gave me a massive smack if ever they caught wind of it. I just cannot fathom why a parent would 1. Put their kid through something that was going to scare them. 2. Film it and put it online. And 3. Show them that it’s OK to ridicule people like that. It just blows my mind people are like that in this day and age. I used to follow Lizzie Velasquez (mentioned in the article) on her various social media outlets before I basically stopped using them. Horrible situation she is in but a really inspiring person with such a positive outlook on things - really worth watching some of her stuff if you ever get the chance.

That sounds glorious. I love it when it starts cooling off from summer but still quite light and the horrible stuff hasn’t started. I’m quite jealous.

For me it all comes down to why I’m failing at something. This is key, if it’s my fault because I’m not up to the task then I won’t get frustrated. If it’s a control issue, camera issue, or just weird game design then it will really irk my and I probably won’t be playing for long. Difficulty curve design is really... difficult. There are cheap ways you can do things as talked about by @Glen-i where things just arbitrarily get harder the better you get, or things that genuinely add to the challenge and introduce new elements to a game that can be very enjoyable. With micro-transactions now a huge thing the design of “frustration” has become a key component of games, especially on mobile. We design everything around gameplay loops that maximize frustration at just the right time to push a purchase, and then allow a player some joyous returns to enforce the idea that spending money in the game was a good thing. It is what it is but the design by analytics to maximize the returns of this loop is not really something that benefits gaming as a medium in my opinion.

That’s a great starting point, still running through ideas that are all over the place - will use this to narrow things down. Will definitely do this! I guess a secondary benefit of going the PC route is it will serve me instead of buying a new XBox for the exclusive content not on PS5. Will definitely build it with this in mind. Love PSVR so if I can have something playing the content I really love in VR it will be a winner.

I’d say I have a fairly similar outlook to @Julius though I’m not super into a lot of things to make reviews something I think about too much. Thinking about it there is one area I do look at reviews, which I’ll come on to. Films I don’t read any reviews prior to seeing a movie. If I’m interested in something new I’m going to go (or in current times, download) and see it regardless of what anyone says, and don’t want somebody else’s thoughts clouding my own. If I’m super interested in something (Star Wars for example) I will actively try to avoid everything related to it in the run up to a new film. For things I’m not too interested in I’ll still avoid reviews just in case I see it in the future. Films that really grab me I will look up reviews afterwards and try to get other opinions on to learn more about what happened or that things mean. I don’t tend to follow movies too closely so generally I just go with the flow. Games As with films, I’ll avoid reviews of anything I intend to play. Where I differ a bit is I’ll try to read up on stuff I’m not too interested in as I want to know what’s going on and keep up to date with everything else in the industry. I generally won’t read up on game specific things after playing, except for sometimes doing a bit of trophy hunting with guides. I read a lot about the business side of things and company perspective articles though. Experiences If I’m going on holiday somewhere, or going to a theme park, or some other activity, I will read everything I can about it before I go. Where are the best places? Where should I eat? What order should I do things in? I’ll try and get as much info as I can and put together a planed schedule so I make the most of the things I do. If I go somewhere a second time, I’ll tend to go with the flow and just casually enjoy my time somewhere. Other things I don’t really have enough interest in to bother with reviews.

Corn dogs are a weird one. I always think they look quite tasty and when I eat one I think it’s a good way to ruin a sausage. Not sure if I’ve just been unlucky or have some genuine dislike for them. It does look like a meal I’d enjoy with a few beers.

That box is very cool, almost makes me want to buy a physical version of the game. Definitely like what I’m seeing with this, will pick it up when it launches.

This is the same for me. I wasn’t even really sure about it up until that gameplay demo. Sure some of it looks a bit tech demo-ish but it’s still doing it in a fun way and I really look forward to playing it. I’ll be picking it up as soon as it launches too.

Cobra Kai is now on Netflix. Had wanted to watch it when it was originally released but after a few episodes it was just such a hassle. Been quite enjoying it and think it’s a great followup to the original films. Made it half way through the first season last night, will probably have it finished in a few days.

As we were discussing recently it seems more films are launching online at the same time as the cinema. I just got the new Bill and Ted via iTunes and very excited to watch it later tonight. For $25 that’s a way better deal than going to the cinema - will absolutely do this for anything else going forward. Makes me want to upgrade my setup.

Thoughts are with you @martinist, hope your Dad has a speedy and full recovery.

I tried it many years ago when I first attempted to learn Japanese. My experience was pretty negative, and the study style didn’t gel with me at all. I could barely understand what it wanted me to do, and certainly didn’t learn a thing of the language from it. This was a LONG time ago (I bought it on a disc!), so it may well be different now, but I was not impressed at all.

Very sad. Crazy he was going through all the treatments while working and not making it public. Really far too young.

Ha, I always quite liked it. I think I’ll see if I can do this too - must be 20 years since I last did it.

It reminds me of doing the bleep test at school. I’m going to try this Burpees until death this week and see how I do.

This is exactly why I’ve never been into PC gaming. As soon as I feel like I’m one step in it all seems so confusing. It’s also why I worry about building my own machine, as I really don’t feel confident about buying the right thing. I do really appreciate the advice from everyone, I’m going to put together a shopping list and will post it up here for review by you guys. Thank God I have you all to help!