Ketchup

Yes i was about to say give them a bit of a clean as they tend to get dirty fairly quickly.

Ebay returns gives you free postage FYI. (Well the seller has to pay for it).

The problem with L4D versus is you’d get teams of other players who only ever played it, knew all the glitch spots and knew how to take your team apart the instance you left the safe room. Was no fun at all that way.

As for this, I have no interest in trying it again. How they didn’t just make L4d 2 and then make new levels ive no idea. It just doesn’t feel right. Aiming down sights slows the game down, there’s a huge lack of zombies and most of all there seems to be no game director. Like there’s never a rush to move and if you take your time that’s fine. The fact the level took 2 hours to complete was far too long as well.

I could keep going on, and I shall. The special infected never came with an introduction, they were just there. They blend in with the normal zombies far too much and having a weak point you have to hit isn’t fun, just frustrating. But I guess the biggest disappointment is the level design. In both L4D’s each level had a gimmick the level was themed around and whilst this had the boat sequence it was just dull and poorly explained with little in the way of urgency.

Its a shame as it’s all easy fixes with tweaking but I don’t think this is L4D in all but name and whilst I’ll probably play it on game pass I’d probably much prefer to play L4D again.

I almost hate being a subscriber as I much prefer the non subscriber covers. I understand they’re trying to do the edge/coffee book look but the normal retro gamer covers are so good and are really fun it’s always a little shame for me I don’t get those versions. But beyond that looks like another great issue!

43 minutes ago, strider said:

My list of Saturn games is now up on Games Radar. Fill your boots.

https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/best-saturn-games-all-time/

Great stuff off to read now. I have to ask, do you think Saturn is the easiest console to have a top ten/25 that is unique from other peoples or do you think any console can be like this? I ask because when it normally comes to PlayStation or n64 too tens it’s always the same games that generally get featured.

I'm not sure how i feel about how your console looks. I think in the right setting it'd look really cool, like on the set of the Guardians of the Galaxy or something, so good job. But in a nice living room im not so sure. Time to get a grunged up CRT and some old furniture

As for the topic at hand i really like the Dreamcast artworks people did back and the day and now. Something about that console just suited large bits of colourful artwork.

We had zero post for the past week and a bit, was because the local sorting office was shut due to self isolation. I guess once one infected person is near it can affect basically everyone within the building.

Is it the backlog that bothers you, the space they take up? Just not being into gaming as much right now and having them around?

3 hours ago, Dave White said:

with my work we produce ltd edition prints of the originals and the quality of printing these days is insane.

 

I always see these things and wonder how easy is it to replicate these boxes, invest in a shrink wrapper and a sealing machine and off you go? I mean your not opening it right if youve spent 2 mil on it.

 

Ive seen bootleg Harland Miller prints knocking about and know of people making them.

 

 

 

This is my issue with stuff like this. It's replicable. The Mona Lisa, you're only ever going to have one of that. Any copy of it will always be different, no matter if you got another artist to paint it. It has some value being the only 1 of something. But Mario 64, something that came off a production line and can be remade today to look and feel exactly the same? Same with comics i suppose, is there a need to own something that is 20 years old, despite one printed today looking exactly the same? It's just so odd to me for stuff like this, it was made once, it can be remade again. Now if only i could get the contact details of the guy who bought this, cos i've got some stuff i've made he can have the only one in existance of for a few million.

7 hours ago, SharkyOB said:

 

You talk about difficulty options like the devs just tick a box and they magically appear in the game.  If the devs want to make a game that's designed around a certain level of difficulty (and they can make it work financially), they should be allowed to do that.  There aren't zero arguments for this, not all games are for everyone for a variety of reasons, it's perfectly valid for difficulty to be one of them.

I’ve worked in game dev, I know it’s not as easy as pushing the easy mode button but with planning in advance or even just simple tweaks it can be quick and cheap to do. Let’s take a game like hades which has a god mode that many players even here used so they could continue enjoying a tough game, that’s a simple implementation. How about Celeste which is a brutal game but can be tailored for all skill levels so anyone can enjoy it at a level they find comfortable, it doesn’t take away from it being an awesome and challenging game if that’s what you want it to be. Devs can do what ever they want with their game, doesn’t mean it’s right the right choices. But ok let’s hear your arguments for less player choice and why that’s a good thing to have.

You know Microsoft make a tonne of money, so let’s throw that adaptive controller in the bin because they can make enough money without needing disabled gamers to be able to enjoy their games. Not all games are for everyone after all. Sony also make a lot of money, so let’s throw away options like subtitles for hearing impaired, colour options for colour blindness and why not throw in QTES not requiring precise timing because they also don’t need to cater for gamers who need those to help them enjoy games more. Nintendo make loads of money too so let’s throw away their multiplayer modes where the game plays through the difficult section for you, gives you invincibility or allows you to be in a bubble whilst a second player gets through the challenge because they also don’t need those gamers to enjoy their games. Screw them, if they’re not good enough at games then it’s their own fault right?

Difficulty comes in many forms than just git gud. You don’t even need to make it complex, like hades with it’s god mode or Nintendo with their invincibility feather. It could be as simple as, players health is double, attack damage is halved etc. Adding these options in does nothing to take away your enjoyment of the game and I can’t see any logical argument for not allowing all players to be able to join in the fun. You can still tailor your game to what you want but adding in extra options to help players doesn’t ruin your game (unless perhaps during a competitive multiplayer game where the advantage could mess with that) so who cares. It’s not like if I play hades with god mode on ive ruined the enjoyment of your game. All games can be for everyone, certainly Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft think that with all the stuff they are doing so even non gamers can enjoy their games.

59 minutes ago, donpeartree said:

The things that you're complaining about are what bring most fans to this genre. The fun comes from figuring out the systems and learning how to deal with situations, persevering through all the tough stuff til you realise it's not so tough anymore.  That IS the rogue genre. If you've already fought the Dragun several times, then you've already done most of the hard work - it's just a matter of becoming more familiar with its patterns.

 

I wouldn't say the devs have a "git gud" mentality either.  Most of the balancing they've done since the original release has made the basic run easier to win, while adding more challenge to the optional / endgame content. 

Yeah i totally disagree with all of this. The devs have previously stated they won't put in easier modes (difficulty, more health, etc etc) because they only want good players to finish their games. Whilst you may argue the rogue genre is meant to be tough there is zero argument for not allowing all skills to play. Having difficult levels does not ruin the game for you, it just means i can enjoy it more. What is easy for you, may still be tough to me and difficulty levels mean a game can still be a challenge to you even if you are less skilled. You can still balance for a difficulty but games should be available for all, i certainly love the idea of games like The Last Of Us 2 or Ghosts of Tsushima allowing non gamers to be able to play to just enjoy the story without fear of a brutal difficulty stopping them from enjoying just that part of the game. Don't forget not every player is physically as capable as you or i either and thats another reason to have different skill levels to account for those players too.

I just wish the devs wern't so up themselves with the whole 'Git Gud' thing and allowed for some difficulty adjustments. I can sometimes get to the final boss but then die just before i've managed to kill them. Let alone trying to do a run with a special item to get the proper ending. Just being able to reduce damage slightly or double my hearts, anything would have been enough for me to enjoy the game so much more. Instead they decided they wanted to gate keep the fun of the game to only those that either a) want to pour tens of hours in or b) have the skills needed. Shame.

1 hour ago, Nate Dogg III said:

 

There are literally no benefits to being a paid sub at the moment, it's simply a way to support it if you like it. At this stage it's really just about seeing the extent to which people are prepared to pay for good words on the internet. In the nearish future some things will go behind the paywall, but I'm still feeling my way around that. 

Whilst this does work you’re probably looking at close to 1% of visitors actually doing that. I’d follow the podcast model of the main thing is free but if you sub you get extra things. You never want to lock your main content away but people feel happier subbing if they get something extra, even if they are doing it just to support you, the extra stuff sweetens it. Is there a reason you’ve not got the Patreon route?

4 hours ago, Nate Dogg III said:

Sorry for the bump! I really am! 

 

Now we're a few weeks in I'd like to know how people are getting on with it. Growth has naturally slowed since the first week, but all the graphs are still moving upwards, so I'm happy enough. Since not-E3 I've reduced the frequency to three times a week, which seems to be working nicely given the rather more leisurely pace of news. I'm after any and all feedback at this point, but some things I'm particularly interested in include:

 

-Is the cadence too frequent, not frequent enough, or about right?

-Is it too text-heavy? (A couple of people have suggested I add images, and embed tweets and YT videos etc, which I'm not sure about personally. It's an email)

-what does it do well, and not well enough? Is there anything you'd like to see more/less of?

-If you've not already taken out a subscription, what would it take for you to do so?

 

And, yes, any other thoughts - be that on content, structure, tone, terrible quality of jokes, etc - very much appreciated. Thank you!

I've not subscribed but have you thought about finding other ways to share it out? Even just a teaser here once or twice a year. I know i could go and subscribe right now, its easy right, just enter my email. But that hassle is the barrier for entry, especially for something i've not seen or been interested in. It's the same with my patreon, unless people are already on the patreon platform, getting them to sign up is the biggest barrier to entry and i feel thats what you are facing slightly. So please, share a single email on here as a post, and maybe some other places too and i think this would help. Same for subscribing, whats the benefits? Like im sure you know them inside out and why they are amazing but as someone quickly skim reading them the draw has to be massive. Again, on my patreon i offer exclusive merch, you cannot buy, that people do want. And yet the sign up barrier is so big it puts people off even for something they want.

When GTA 3 was first shown off there was two uninspiring screenshots. It look liked typical 3D game from a 2D franchise and no one really cared. They were terrible screenshots to be honest but i was excited as i loved the first game. Even at launch no one really cared till word of mouth spread. Then the thing that kicked it all off was the shortages of stock. I worked in GAME at the time, i must have started just before or just after it launched. What i really remember is spending most of November - March telling people no we don't have it in stock. Having signs at the door saying its not in stock, or we've had some in and them going out equally as fast. It probably only took a few weeks for word of mouth to spread but certainly before launch and at launch people thought it looked rather poor from the drag screenshots.

Well after reading the last couple of posts just checked argos in the Birmingham area and it’s showing as available in a lot of stores for delivery this weekend or next week. Guess it’s time to upgrade! 

So this reminds me a bit of Future Gamer which I loved. This was pre broadband and basically every week you got a zip file which was basically a website that had news, reviews and other things. So you could spend an hour a week reading a website without the dial up costs.

Without looking at this though an email a day just sounds way too much. I already get about 30 emails or various spam and actual stuff I want a day so this I think would very quickly get lost in all that. Is there a website version too? Doesn’t have to be fancy, could be the email as a web page. Or maybe a weekly larger email?

Also why have you not gone the Patreon route for payments/subs? That seems the route literally most creatives go for and whilst it’s tough itself it’s well known.

Either way I wish you the best with it, I may subscribe as it sounds interesting if a little too much!

The Saturn cart slot is known to be fragile. Generally pulling the pins back out again fixes the problem.

What do people think of the legends mode? Looks super interesting to me but all my PlayStation owning mates sold their consoles for series x and can’t get hold of ps5 at the moment. But I’ve not heard many people talking about it so worth playing?

I enjoyed it for what it was. The James corden stuff was thankfully short and not needed. Although there was clearly tonnes of cut content and I’d have rather had more of that.

The celebs appearing almost seemed pointless. They were in it for seconds at best and often I had no idea who they were as they were in a costume or something.

Remember that show on Dave week comedians would get together and just chat stories? I’d have loved the friends group to just do that and the parts that were like that were great. There’s some sad moments like hearing the girls get together but the guys don’t really chat to each other. Matthew Perry clearly not being totally there and the story of him having dental surgery hat morning makes a lot of sense with his speech and brilliant white teeth.

Im not sure how much I buy the David schwimmer and Jennifer Anniston stuff, just seems a bit too perfect and to play on fans of the show. I really do hope they release a little more content from this and just show us more of them reminiscing.

I’ve finished the main story line which felt equal parts short and oddly paced. I spent ages in the first map and then seemed to zoom through the other 2. I’m now clearing up side missions and things but I can’t help that feel whilst I’m having a lot of fun that less would have been more. Having everything in the first area would have been great as it’s already a huge area filled with detail I know I’ve only seen once or probably missed. I certainly don’t need two other huge areas as pretty and unique as they are.

I really enjoyed the start of the game finding temples and other things but they seem far fewer the deeper you get into the game, the same with the one on one fights which felt like natural boss fights happening every hour before they faded away and barely made an appearance again. Why have we not got passed the need for devs to have IGN to tell us this is a 60 hour game when most players never get even half that far. I’ve played for over 30 hours now and whilst it’s still great fun it’d have been even better being a more condensed package. One island filled to the brim with interesting stuff to do than three islands filled with a fair amount of filler. Might also mean these games can be released a lot quicker too.

Well this is perfect timing as me and a friend are launching our Friends podcast next week. You can subscribe to it here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watching-friends/id1568860982

I think our first episode may be on this actually though, even though we’ve been working on the main show since around Feb.

The Matthew Perry stuff. Go and watch his Graham Norton interview from 2016, he had the same slur then although I don’t really remember it when watching his play in London of the same year. But yeah the editing of the trailers (ever notice how American tv always subtitles or cuts anyone with even a hint of an accent or slightly different to understand?) makes it look worse than I hope it actually is.

The rest of the cast do look old too. I’m guessing partially less makeup compared to their actual filming roles and just many of us having watched a 25 year old show on Netflix yesterday and then seeing this huge time jump.

As for the actual show I don’t expect much from it, the celebs, who cares about Justin beiber, like really what does he have to add? Anything else we probably already know. I’d love to have seen a one off special, either a thanks giving get together or going away on holiday to ‘catch up’ even if I think it’d be difficult to pull off and get right. Of course I’ll still be watching but I’m not sure what HBO or anyone else are really expecting it to be beyond getting viewers in to wonder what it’ll be.

There was another issue where they had another female singer on the cover and an interview with her. Im guessing they were trying to angle the magazine at a more lifestyle type of audience as wasn't this refresh because the magazine was in a bit of a bad spot before? Or maybe it was the refresh after this, either way i too loved this era of the magazine but there was some odd stuff at times.

Having just got 120 stars again on it I 50/50 agree with the camera. Early levels the camera is fine for the most part. But later levels it can get caught out by the level geometry, constantly wanting to swing back to a position it prefers or just being slightly off causing you to not run straight. Having played sunshine though I feel the camera is even worse there as whilst it gives you full control it’s way to taxing to control and again never gives you quite the right perspective. But yes the camera could be better but it’s still up there in my mind as one of the better ones!