Sane

Ok, thanks for the guidance everyone! I'll dive back in tonight.

8 hours ago, Moz said:

 

Theres no need to start from scratch, everything except the clues on your computer completely reset every time you die. Think of it like an experiment, you know what happens when you go through the portal now. But maybe you’re not stuck there once you figure a few things out. (Or maybe you are, I’m not sure which bit you’re talking about). 

Ah ok. I guess I just ended up somewhere I shouldn't go yet. Can you give me a hint as to what the first thing to do is when you launch? It said I had to go somewhere but I couldn't find it on the map.

1 hour ago, Vorgot said:

So what's the verdict from those who have played a fair amount of this? Reviews I have seen says the dungeons are very same and dull. Still got SMT V and Tokyo Mirage Sessions to play but that's a decent price at the moment for the deluxe edition

It's good but a bit bare bones and I lost my enthusiasm to keep playing after a while. I'd recommend buying this physical if you can so you can sell it on in case you have a similar experience. Also SMTV and Tokyo Mirage are both much better.

I find this quite difficult to get into. I played until the first launch, I flew around space for a while, landed on a planet, scanned some ruins, continued flying in space, went into some kind of portal and got stuck there. 

I think the problem was that I couldn't find the place it said I had to go. Maybe I should start from scratch... 

Well that's valentine's day's activities sorted 

On 12/12/2022 at 17:12, Timmo said:

Do we know why this is free to previous owners? Is it purely down to the Cyberpunk clusterfuck? I feel like most companies would release this as a remaster. I can’t imagine they’re gonna make that much from new purchases. 

CDPR actually do this a lot with their games, all the Witcher games have gotten similar upgrades for free. 

2 hours ago, ZOK said:

Hmm, I’m not sure what you mean by similarly themed. Like modern, social media, nature of digital life / identity type stuff? Or high physics? I would say any relatively contemporary best of year anthology will have a lot of that in it. I’ve been exclusively listening to Neil Clarke’s Best Science Fiction of the Year collections and they are very good, but you’ll find a lot of stuff in those that don’t fit the categorisation as well, because there are many stories.

I think the physics part of it is what appeals to me, the concepts he comes up with and the way he spins the stories out and blows up the scale. That said I wouldn't call myself a hard sci-fi buff. Anyway thanks for recommending those anthologies, that's actually much better than searching for something similar to what I already know! 

On 04/12/2022 at 13:10, ZOK said:

 

This is alright - it's very slight for the money but certainly worth a read. It has the excellent story Lena in it which is nice, but you can read that online if you want. Not an essential collection by any means though.

Agreed. It's only £2.61 though, so well worth that I'd say. I'm hoping he'll release a proper new novel soon, his books really scratch a particular itch that you can't really get in many other places. Speaking of that, do you have any recommendations for similarly themed books?

Mine's running out in January, fingers crossed! 

18 minutes ago, DC said:

Is that the final season of Walking Dead? AT LAST.

That would be a good comparison if it's a game that's all about the story. But when I play stuff like Dying Light 2 I really can't find the patience to listen to the characters explain in detail what happened with X and why I need to go to Y now, I just want to parkour dropkick zombies. 

Eastward is different, it IS about the story and it tells in a way that holds my attention. 

There is a lot of talking, but it's really well done. And I'm someone who skips all dialogue in most games. 

Also I haven't noticed any lag.

Edit: you said baggy. It definitely takes it's time, I can't really tell yet if it'll stay like that or if it will pay off. 

38 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

I'm interested to try Eastward as well. I've been thinking about getting it on the Switch for a while now. Good stuff!

I've bought it on switch 2 weeks ago. I've played a few hours and like it a lot! The story and atmosphere in particular are great. Gameplay wise it's fairly basic so far but I'm hoping it will become more interesting. 

40 minutes ago, SteveH said:

@Sane Yep, I have both pairs (Xbox and PS5) I love them that much. So comfortable to wear for hours as you say. 

I actually don't mind the touch controls, but on the Xbox at least, it is easy to bring up the menu and go down to sound settings, as that volume slider is controlling the headphones directly and not any kind of Xbox output. 

 It's a shame that only the PS version allows connection with the console and Bluetooth simultaneously. And the Xbox ones eats through the battery compared to the PS ones despite identical batteries. Xbox lasts me around 10 hours-ish, but the PS are getting on close for double that. Whatever protocol MS use, it needs much more power.  

Interesting to hear about the battery life. It's good enough for me not to worry about it usually, I just charge it once a week or so.

The bluetooth/xbox simultaneous thing is another downside indeed. not sure why they couldn't manage it. I don't really have a use for it but for a headset like this it should really be included.

I'd say it really depends on how much you value sound quality and looks. From what I heard the official Xbox headset is very good and if you're mainly going to use it for gaming I reckon it will be a great choice.

6 hours ago, Strafe said:

I’d be tempted for those B&O ones if they had one model that worked on both systems.

Yeah they really should've gone that way. If you have both consoles that would be really annoying. 

28 minutes ago, SteveH said:

It's a shame the U.K store doesn't have the same sale as Canada as those Portals were on sale at a ridiculously low $199 cad.

That's a great deal. I paid 350 euro for mine. But I did feel it was worth it because I literally use them all day. At work for teams meetings and music listening and at home for gaming and watching TV.  Before I had 2 different headsets to be able to do all that (Going on Teams with my Arctis 9x didn't feel very nice ) .

6 hours ago, dataDave said:

  

 

^ I bet they're the absolute dog's bollocks.

In terms of sound quality I think they are hard to beat. Before I used wired Beoplay H6's with an LG V50 phone for music listening. And while it doesn't equal that it comes surprisingly close. I wouldn't have thought that was possible on a wireless signal. The Portals support Aptx adaptive Bluetooth, which means it chooses a codec based on what you are doing: higher bitrate for media, low latency for gaming. Unfortunately I have no devices that have aptx adaptive (apple, Samsung and Google phones don't support it sadly), but my Pixel 7 does support aptx HD, and the Portals also support that. It's a big step up from normal aptx and I think the headphones are tuned to sound nice with a digital signal, so the end result sounds surprisingly natural without that compressed feeling you often get when using Bluetooth. 

What's also great about them is they are extremely comfortable and light. It sounds like a cliché but I can wear them for hours on end and sometimes I really forget they are there. 

The only thing I don't like about them are the touch controls though, they're just rubbish. Buttons would be much better. 

Edit: one other thing that could be better is the volume of your own voice. It's too low even on the maximum setting. Which feels a little weird, like talking while holding your hands on your ears (not quite as bad as that but to give an idea). You do get used to it, but my jabra evolve2 65's do this much better so I still kinda prefer to use them for long days of meetings. It's a shame because they should be able to fix this easily but feedback about it hasn't had any results so far. 

1 hour ago, dataDave said:

My advice is to buy headphones that don't have the term "gaming" anywhere near the title or marketing.

The downside of this is that you will be stuck using Bluetooth, which is less than ideal. In fact I think it's not even possible on Xbox (not sure about Ps5) to use Bluetooth headsets. Headsets that are made for use with Xbox use the 2.4ghz signal that the controllers use as well, which is much less laggy than Bluetooth. 

That said, if you dislike gaming esthetics and greatly value sound quality, I can recommend the Beoplay Portal. Made by B&O so very expensive but they are proper 'normal' headphones that look great, sound amazing AND are made to be used with Xbox (there's versions for Ps5 too). 

Went to buy Circe, found out I already have it AND Song of Achilles . I will move them to the top of my reading list! 

I really wish DMC5 let you choose which character to play as because I really dislike playing as V. 

Hats off to CD Project Red .  They support and improve their games far beyond what's the norm and what you'd expect in other cases. 

6 hours ago, Gavin said:

 

The process is explained here in clear steps... https://www.thegamer.com/game-share-xbox-one-series-s-x-consoles/#:~:text=How To Set Up Game Share On An,Select 'add new' to add the other account.

 

👍

 

It's not bragged about on official Microsoft sites or help pages because, God forbid, they might miss out on a few more quid 🙄

Thanks!

On 21/11/2022 at 13:49, Sane said:

Boring accounts question:

 

I have a series x, my nephews bought a series s. I have gamepass on my account. Can I set up my account on their Xbox, set it as the home console and install games on it so that they can play them on their own accounts? 

Sorry to bump my own question but I'd love to confirm this is possible, otherwise I'll have to buy some xbox live gold cards for them. 

Boring accounts question:

I have a series x, my nephews bought a series s. I have gamepass on my account. Can I set up my account on their Xbox, set it as the home console and install games on it so that they can play them on their own accounts? 

Really? I have to admit I didn't spend much time with it, just thought it looked very ropey. I'll give it a try. At least it doesn't have all the Ubisoft bullshit to Wade through. 

I bought this because it was 22 euro for the ultimate edition and my nephews keep playing that terrible descenders game on gamepass so I figured this would probably be better. 

And it is. The actual biking is pretty cool. And it looks pretty. But man does it check all the cliché Ubisoft boxes. Forcing me to login to an account I don't want. Unskippable cutscenes. Cringe voice over (he literally said "holy shiz wizzle"). Getting lots of exp and new gear for finishing last. It even wanted me to install a separate app on my Xbox so I can receive 'benefits'. 

Anyway, I turned off the voices, music and hud and now it's bearable. There's a decent arcade game in here somewhere. 

Edit: can someone tell me why all my controls are reversed when walking around the hub area? 

Monument Valley 1 & 2 - Beautiful puzzle games. Probably my favourite mobile games.

Aka to Blue - If you like Cave style bullet hell games. The touch screen controls actually make it more fun.

There are lots of classic Squeenix games like Dragon Quest (4,5,6 and 8 are highlights), FF's etc. But they are quite expensive. Suits mobile very well because of the menu based gameplay.