AK Bell

40 minutes ago, Qazimod said:

GPD Win 4 leak game is underway. Some renders are out that make it look like an expensive PSP, and claims about it being faster than Steam Deck are circulating.

 

It's all a bit meaningless at the moment - faked images of new consoles are nothing new and anyone can make claims about specifications - but maybe an official announcement will be on the way.

I'd be shocked if anything more top end 

coming out will be slower than a steam deck. They will however cost shitloads more. 

I was mostly 360, but at the end of the generation I got a PS3 to get through all the exclusives and stream videos from my PC. PS+ really kicked off then and it became my primary console as by that point even the 3rd party multi-platform stuff was running pretty well on that crazy setup. 

But even then, none of the exclusives really stood out for me except for Ni No Kuni, but that's on loads of other platforms now so I wouldn't go back for it. I played some Uncharted and some Ratchet and Clank, but I couldn't tell you which ones. I tried the Souls games but I don't like it. Motorstorm was fine. Okami HD was exclusive for a fair while and looked stunning, but I already had that on PS2. 

As I say, despite early issues the multi-platform stuff worked pretty well on it in the end. PS3 is going to be remembered fondly on emulation running them even better (and on a 360 pad). Transformers: War for Cybertron was a highlight. I got GTAV for it when it was first released, but stupidly got the digital version that had popups because it didn't stream from the disc. I've been itching to play Prince of Persia: cel-shaded handheld, having to make do with streaming on PC. 

I worked on a fair few games on that generation too and looking forward to being able to play them without having to get a console out the attic. Unless it needs Move. Or Kinect. Which I don't have anyway. *sigh* 

7 minutes ago, revlob said:

I keep starting to watch the trilogy (and Scorpion King) as I have them on 4k, and I end up just keep watching the first film. Or occasionally watch the second one and spend the whole time thinking I should have just watched The Mummy. 

This film is all kind of average but my kid wants to watch it all the time and I don't hate it like some of his other favourites. So it can't be all bad.

The cat rules. 

I've just seen Tom Cruise's The Mummy drop on Netflix.  So... is it proper, proper crap? Or watchable "for free" if there is nothing on telly?

I think PS3 is going to be looked at through rose tinted glasses soon, because the emulators are really coming along and will end up playing that generation better than 360 emulators and way better than the machine could. 

Gah, I just bought that Opus game after seeing a video of someone saying it was amazing. You're welcome, everyone. 

1 hour ago, Ry said:

Thanks.

 

I thought all the games that are on EA Play on Xbox and PS would be available. 

 

I really fancied playing the older F1 games, Titanfall 2 and Dead Space series on the deck. 

 

Edit : Reading a few posts on Reddit all the games are available, intact far more than on consoles

 

 

 

 

Sorry, I might be wrong then. It seemed less than last time I looked on a console, but that was yonks ago

1 hour ago, Ry said:

How does EA Play work on steam deck?

 

Can I just pay the sub and then download the included games from the steam store? 

 

Also, I have game pass ultimate which includes EA Play, if I put in my ea username will I get it for free?

 

 

You have to get the steam subscription for it on Steam.

Once you get it, on the store page you can make it available in your library. Then you can download it.

I’m currently using it as it was 80p for a month and I wanted to test a bunch of games on my geriatric PC. I’ve been a bit disappointed with the line up. Seems pretty limited compared to EA Play elsewhere and nothing you couldn’t just pick up in a sale. Not worth a fiver. 

19 minutes ago, bradigor said:

 

If you have a PC, then use that to do conversions first. 

 

You want something like CHDMAN for converting...

 

So you'll get this for multi-disk games,

 

Then you'll want to create an m3u file.

 

Then you'll link to ther .chd files inside of that (open in notepad, notepadd++, etc

 

 

Make sure they are placed in the right roms folder together (eg: psx for Playstation, etc)

 

If you use Emulation Station, you can tell it to then ONLY look for m3u files to keep things clean. I made m3u fioles for ALL my Playstation games for example. 
 

Here is a link for CHDMAN (my own Mega folders) https://mega.nz/file/czokCDRa#GHqg-eX88oUDCiAcwJMR2LbwyhNCyB_OhMpgU5zkWLU 

A guide on how to use: https://wiki.recalbox.com/en/tutorials/utilities/rom-conversion/chdman

If the app you're using looks a bit messy with all the chds and m3us for the same game, an extra tip for multi-disk is to put the chds into a sub directory, and have the m3u in the main directory point to that. So I dump all mine into "multi" and make the emulator not look in subdirectories. 

I think mega drive had a 256 mode

I'm surprised that people like it considering it'll look like a 360 gopro getting action. It's not exactly sexy POV when you imagine someone wearing a hat/helmet/strap (dunno) with a camera sticking out of it their head while the other is making love to the camera. It would give me the vertigo I get from being just a few steps up a ladder. 

1 hour ago, ScouserInExile said:

I had a couple of big issues with it:

1) from the start, I pretty much had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I've read a good few things saying that the joy of it is the exploration, but I just found wandering around aimlessly really frustrating. I resorted to using a guide and there were a couple of points where I found myself thinking "how the fuck was I supposed to know that?". Even googling around, I couldn't work out how I was supposed to have come to a particular solution. It's like you're just supposed to know these things.

2) And this leads on from the above. I reached a boss where I had no idea how to beat them and then, even with a guide, couldn't beat them. I couldn't even work out if I was doing them any damage or how much damage I needed to do to get past them. I think this was exacerbated by their damage resetting whenever one of their attacks knocked me down a level. And this wasn't helped by:

3) the combat elements are awful. I wouldn't mind if it was a once in a blue moon thing, but it's near constant. There's enemies everywhere on the map, no just in the dungeon segments, and your shitty little sword swing makes it really hard to hit them without getting hit. And health seemed hard to come by.

 

I thought the graphics, sound and overall atmosphere of the game was amazing and I really, really wanted to like it. I just found the actual game bit of it to be (and I'll be polite here) really frustrating. I feel I gave it a fair shake of the stick as well - I probably put about 20 hours into it in a couple of big sessions and gave it my undivided attention in those sessions, no podcasts on in the background or the like. But I just didn't enjoy it. And it's put me off playing any of the others.

I keep bouncing off it for similar reasons. It does feel like it's a game built for kids who have the time to keep hitting brick walls. Which is a shame because top-down Zelda is the best Zelda and it's a joy to play, but it's why I prefer Link Between Worlds as it's the same world but you know what you're doing. 

It's only now I can play some games of an era because there are walkthroughs that can guide you through because the designers didn't give any proper signposting. But yeah, even then LTTP is still a struggle. 

There are plenty of franchises I've dropped after one game, despite liking the game. Halo, Gears of War, God of War, Uncharted 3, AssCreed 2: The one everyone played, Splinter Cell: Somewhere in the middle, Metal Gear Solid 2, probably some others. It's a rare event that it doesn't just feel more of the same.

I think the problem is that often it's not just more of the same, but it's packaged as "even more stuff here than in the last one", so I feel like I've done it. 

I'm probably being unfair on a couple of them. MGS is usually different, but ...meh. 

Pokemon is one I've kept trying to like, after enjoying a bit of the first one, but I just can't get into it. 

Final Fantasy has clicked with me at last. I've kept trying to enjoy that one too, it clicked with 13 weirdly, and now I'm playing 6 and 9 on the side despite not digging them first time around. FF7 still doesn't click which is a shame. 

Not got into the new Tomb Raiders. I don't think the PS1-eras worked (bad controls but played them anyway), but had a blast with the bang-average PS2 era ones. But can't bring myself to play these new "good" ones. 

I've been slipping a lot more and not really caring. I've run out of things to buy with the points and I've already put aside some money in December to get gold on cdkeys.

Nothing is really driving me to grind out that extra fiver on an upcoming release, and I've been disappointed with everything I've gotten full price even though it was heavily discounted by it. I still feel like a pre-order/day-one mug even though it's fake money as it could have been spent wiser. 

I'm going to take it easy, check on it in a few months to a year and see if I can buy hardware for the sake of it.

Depends if you can put up with it. I just started messing about with it on Odin and it looks squished up on there, but if I faff about with the v90 I still think I prefer it sharp and too narrow. Ideally, I'd have been happier in ignorance.

4 minutes ago, Paulando said:

Should SNES games be played 1:1 pixel ratio, or stretched to 4:3? They have a pretty odd resolution, but would that have been stretched to fit a CRT TV back in the day?

I prefer to play 1:1 if there are no clever screen filters. While you get borders, it looks nice and sharp on a little screen.  (disclaimer: on a teeny tiny v90 screen) 

17 minutes ago, deKay said:

On the sofa though. Not at a desk in a different room. If I wanted that I could have bought a PC and saved £200.

I'm not really being serious... but I was hinting at that, yes 🙂

1 minute ago, deKay said:

Good Lord why would I do that 

You're already plugged in and not moving. 

18 hours ago, deKay said:

I’m using a Switch charger because it’s longer but that’s not really the point.

hook it up to a monitor, mouse and keyboard while you're at it.

. damn it.

5 hours ago, ScouserInExile said:

This is something I feel like I missed. We had a C16 then a C64 but, beyond "10 PRINT"I AM ACE!"; 20 GOTO 10" I never did any coding on them. I see loads of videos and listen to podcasts where people talk about the micros they had and they all go "... and obviously I almost immediately played around with programming on it ...".  It just wasn't something that crossed my mind to do and I kinda wish it had. Not that I'd have done anything with it, I don't think, I just wish I'd given it a go.

I don't think I'd have bothered either, but luckily on Amiga you kept getting full application packages on the front of a magazine so you'd be able to try your hand at everything. It all kind of clicked with AMOS. 

If I hadn't picked Amiga over SNES, I'd be a starving artist now rather than barely getting by games programmer. 

The big one is a SNES. If I visited a friends house, the either had a Mega Drive or a variety of older kit. But I don't think I've actually fondled a real one. 

I nearly got one. It was down to that or an Amiga. So I do have a massive affinity for SNES as a could have been and I had loads of magazines hyping it up.

Then I was Amiga or PC until I got a GameCube at Uni, so missed the generation in between, but caught up on them all buying up second hand gear and been fairly up to date since. 

Of the consoles no one had, I'm not fussed about PC Engine or Jaguar, but I do remember really wanting a 3DO and I still fancy a go on one. 

1 hour ago, Paulando said:

Gah, it just looks so perfect. Where did you get the September delivery estimate from? I was under the impression it would be much longer than that.

It's not guaranteed but what people on Discord are saying, based on people getting the Base/Pro and not having the extra pain Lite has been having.

Now they got the bits coming in they should be able to knock them out. There is a thought that since the screen is the last bit to go in, they may have put most of them almost together, but I doubt they were that clever. 

That said though, also hearing some people waiting longer because they picked an certain storage size and colour. 

Yeah, depends on how much you're willing to spend despite the wait. Half as much as a similar wait for a steam deck?

10 minutes ago, glb said:

Whoop, BIOS installed and bypassed the 'checking memory card' freeze.

 

Still no joy on Amiga but not going to lose sleep on that one. 

Amiga might be a pain in the bum. I didn't have much luck getting it to work on my v90, other than some basic A500 with no memory expansion stuff, and it looked broke when it did work. Is it through UAE4ALL ?  ... hard to find any info, and what I didn't find didn't look hopeful. 

Need to see if I can get it working through retroarch on the Odin at some point. But the games don't feel right without some massive cheap joystick anyway.