AK Bell

On 29/12/2022 at 22:48, Thor said:

I believe I have found, after well over a decade of sampling all kinds whiskies, my absolute favourite:

 

 

I've been having this whisky every Christmas for the past three years, and there is nothing like it. From the peatiest Laphroaig to the sweetest Aberlour, and all the whiskies in between like Dalmore, Macallen, Highland Park, Glenmorangie, and Lagavulin ... the Auchentoshan Three Wood is absolutely unique. Nothing tastes like it. It is so different from other whiskies, and I fucking adore it. 

Damn, I shouldn't have started looking at this thread.

I feel like I should stick the bottle in a shameful paper bag with the rate I've been going through this Auchentoshan. 

12 minutes ago, womble9 said:

Treasure is up today .

 

There's also a new (to the UK, think it might have been available in other regions for a while) "Read to earn" section on the Bing App (IOS and Android) for 30 points but it's not working as yet. Hopefully it will be later on / tomorrow.

 

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I've had that for a few months now in the UK. Might have been an A/B thing

While people are complaining about the lack of 4k 60fps, it's worth noting what it's also doing on a Switch.

It has a ridiculously solid physics system with all these bits and bobs interacting with each other without going nuts and AI that seems to be able to adapt to it. All in a massive open world that you can see everything far into the distance despite the fact you're well above the ground, and have the option to go well below it. They've somehow crafted all that mess into a game rather than a sandbox without dragging you away from the craziness. All on hardware I've had for several years requiring me not to take out more money from the kid's college fund. I've not seen anything on the new systems do that with all their shiny, pin-prick details. 

#lazydevs 

Steam have a sports sale on.  My highlight was the Actua games having 50% off. I just bought the bundle. 

It's more for historical reasons than them standing the test of time. But I spent so long playing these games I hope I find some fun in them again. The golf game must still be pretty solid. 

I don't think it will be hailed a masterpiece, but I do think that when the new Mass Effect comes out it will be looked on unfavourably compared to ME Andromeda. For all it's faults, it was a great, open game, full of things to do and excellent combat compared to the original trilogy. I fear they'll backtrack on a lot of that thinking people didn't like it when really the problem was that they released a broken piece of trash that had to be fixed years later with patched and better hardware. 

2 minutes ago, Darren said:

If you're wandering around Hyrule but haven't yet got the paraglider then I think I'm right in saying that your map only has one yellow quest marker on it. And if you then keep running into situations you don't feel equipped for then it would seem that the game is giving you a gentle hint that maybe you ought to go and do that quest next. It's not bad design, it's subtle signposting in a completely open world, which makes it pretty amazing design in my book.

It's not even bloody subtle. 

Just now, Melon_Bread said:

Yes, it was also said of BotW, they know how to use emptiness, it make the areas crammed with stuff to do even more impressive when you have this downtime, the atmosphere of this game is just amazing, it's a world you want to be in.

The "empty" distance to get to whatever wonder is around the next corner is what makes it addictive.

I end up wanting to get there so I can stop playing and future me can jump straight into the action.

Then something happens on route.

And then I get there and do the interesting thing.

And then I feel bad for future me so I go to the next thing ...but I will really stop playing this time honest. 

12 hours ago, Festoon said:

 

Excuse my ignorance, but why not?

He's not in the band. He just plays with them sometimes. 

16 minutes ago, Ste Pickford said:

Sadly I'm not very good at drawing Zelda.

 

An irony that you're also a professional expert in drawing the way more difficult Terrahawks Zelda. 

Just draw the same but with loads of Vaseline on the lens and airbrushing. 

Me: I'm not sure I'm enjoying this as much as the first one.

Also me: oh shit, I should have went to bed ages ago.

Reality is walking home in the rain from the job centre while getting a phone call from the doctors. 

Why the fuck do I want that visual quality in a video game? 

They need to bring back the sub scores for Grafix, Funability, Longevity and Sounds. 

22 minutes ago, Fry Crayola said:

Why are you using the Bing app on Android?

 

Ignore what the text says. Searches don't need to be on the app to count. I have no app. I get my points.

It did used to require it. It's only been recently I've noticed it's been quite happily accepting my desktop browser searches too. 

9 - 05/05 - Opus : Echo of Starsong - Xbox Series X (Game Pass)

Another one for the Game Pass chevos. Not something I'd normally go for but I was told this wasn't really a visual novel and had a fair bit of RPG in it. That was ...inaccurate. It certainly quacks like a visual novel. A lot of walking about sideways keeping an eye out for things to interact with. There are puzzles but they amount to little more to going here and there while people chat in the background.

What I liked about it was traveling about space. It was a bit like a board game where you had limited fuel, ammo and exploration kits and had to decide if it was worth going on a diversion or not. On each trip you could end up in one or two events that would be resolved by a dice throw vs stats. I'd have quite of happily pottered about in that for the whole game. It's a shame it wasn't used more as what is there is quite shallow, directing you on what ends up being a clear path and there not being any way to fail. 

I might sound like I'm grumbling, I was promised more rpg less novel, but if you go into it as a visual novel then expect an extremely good one. I had a wonderful time in this world and I'm going to check out the other games they've made. 
 

I have been more than happy mopping up last gen, or even 360, games in 4k 60fps with stupendous loading times that can revitalise some awkward games by making things like fast travel actually fast. I already had a bunch of games I'd not been playing because the Xbox One ended up sucking so much. 

I'm not too bothered about the exclusives on xbox. I did lean towards it because of Forza Horizon but I've kind of dropped off playing them as they've got too big and bloated. Halo and Gears don't really interest me these days. I tend to get a Playstation towards the end of it's life when I can just bulk buy all the exclusives on the cheap and rattle through them. 

It's just been the nicest, most convenient thing to play on. I can switch from the big telly to streaming no bother (using XBX Play now), can have a few games on the go with Quick Resume, find something random on Game Pass, and buy games for free with MS Reward points. I also feel the games I'm buying now I'll have more chance of still working on a future console, while Nintendo and Sony keeps closing down old stores. 

What I am missing is all the JRPGs that are made for all the other platforms. They're nearly always PS5, PS4, Switch and Steam. Come on, if you can port it to PC you can port it to Xbox. 

My honest answer would be football games too but I don't think we're meant to pick them. But I grew up playing Sensi, failed my A Levels due to Champ Man, played PES all the time with uni house mates, and then spent years playing PES against 6 star all out defence cheating bastard AI because it's the only game I can listen to a podcast to. 

Now PES is dead, I've knocked football on the head so I can actual finish some "proper" games. I guess the best value recently was Final Fantasy XIII as it was a fiver in the sale, I spent MS Reward Points on it, and finished it lately after 60+ hours. I'm on similar hours now with Tales of Arise too but that was £30 of fake money.

I spent twice as long on Dragon Quest XI but I spent real money on that. But it is notable as it absorbed nearly all my free time I had during the start of lockdown. 

6 hours ago, Jamie John said:

 

Could this not be mitigated somewhat with modern technology, uber fast loading times, and all the rest of it? If Ubisoft could manage it 20 years ago with Prince of Persia, I'd have thought a rewind of up to about 30 seconds would be feasible in modern games.

 

Not that I'm a developer, of course.

That was a core game mechanic with a limited time with a fairly limited scope that had resources allocated to it. You could also point to Blinx or Braid or Forza Horizon with similar abilities.

Now try to apply that to something massive, AAA and full of random stuff going off all over the place and you'll have issues.

It's one thing to be able to make that jump you just missed, but another to fix that shit decision you made ages ago..

The problem with rewind is a technical one. The way emulators do it is basically like Quick Resume every frame. It's a shitload of save states.

Rewinding in-game is sketchy too. The simulation is made to run forwards. Think of football replays where when it reminds, the crowd and flags they're waving stay still and only move again when going forwards.

The alternative goes back to saving absolutely everything. And I've worked on a replay system and know it's too big to record just the visuals, never mind the rest of it.

I don't think we need it to that extreme. As long as a game let's you save lots and often, and most do these days, then it shouldn't be an issue. 

Fast forward however... there is no reason that shouldn't exist in every game. Let me get on with getting to the action asap without having to skip the whole thing and miss it. Or have to mash A because I read fast.

As I said on the Disney+ thread ... I enjoyed this. It's not as shit as everyone made out.

Except the first episode. Terrible. 

The rest of it really grows on you.

6 hours ago, Benny said:

Yeah baby, this runs like aaaaaaaaass.

 

40 FPS at 1440p? No sweat, let's turn it down to 1080p.

 

Still 40 fps. Okay let's turn on the dreaded FSR.

 

Still 40fps.

 

Bonkers.

Its CPU bound. It looks like the graphics card isnt even getting pushed as hard as it could be because its stuck waiting. So easing up on it will do nowt. 

30 minutes ago, JoeK said:

As long as you find all the memories it’s all good. 

You can watch that on YouTube.

It doesn't save it anyway. No one will know...

It's a good trailer that nearly sold me.

But it's three and a half hours long. I feel they've learned nothing from Bumblebee. And just reading that makes me need to take a piss. 

1 minute ago, JPickford said:

Preordered.

You need to wait to see if there are any added tat editions to get .

It's got quick release to Game Pass written all over it. I can wait and not fund them properly. 

12 hours ago, Twinbee said:

Boring preorder question:

 

When ordering from Shopto, is it worth paying extra for the tracked Royal Mail option, or just the regular free method?

I hope not as I went with them. Shopto traditionally have a good rep for getting games to you on time or even early, so I expect the regular one to be okay. 

But it's been ages since I've used them.