Leaderboard

I'm trying not to go too hard too quick on the retro section so a new thread a week or something 😄 So this week I'm going with, what is your favourite retro console? The console you have fond memories of and why? So there are 2 for me for different reasons - The main one is the mega drive, the first console my parents got for me and one that I used to even play with my dad despite him not being into video games (we used to play a lot of fifa 96). I don't currently have one (I have some little boxed thing my mom got me a couple of years back that let's me play the games but it's a bit crap!) The second is the PS1, I played this a lot as my escape from school (I was bullied a bit back then) and the Final Fantasy franchise became a huge escape for me (sadly the series won't be returning to what made it so great I don't think!). I actually have 2 PS1's now though they don't come out often with one being in a rather tatty looking box that I picked up from a car boot years back, though if either of them work these day's is anyone's guess! Typically the PS2 get's used as it can play both.

N64 I'd say because it had some games that were really ahead of their time back then - Mario 64 for one back in 96 which was a huge leap and then there was GoldenEye, Ocarina of Time and Perfect Dark. Games weren't cheap though at mostly £50-65 but you really got your money's worth out of each one. Biggest disappointment was the lack of a decent realistic racing game especially with the PS1 having Gran Turismo plus that console had an extensive library and cheaper games. I probably got about 75 on there in total and a massive variety of titles. I still think the PS1 offered much more but the 64 just had that additional top tier quality on some (not all) games.

So after getting the PS Plus extra I am finally playing this, and so far I love it!! The graphics are beautiful, I can see why it's a ps5 exclusive as it would do the game a disservice if they had made it for the ps4 too. Although I've only played for an hour so far the gameplay is great and so easy to pick up, and makes great use of the adaptive triggers on the controller. So far I've managed to avoid dying, although I'm sure its coming, and am so glad that they have added in a "suspend cycle" option so that you can technically save the game at a point, although it does make you quit the game when you do this so its more of an option for when you have to quickly leave the game rather than an actual manual save option. The story is grabbing me too and I can't wait to carry on playing and see where it goes 😁

My favourite would have to be my ps1, it was my first console and what started my love of gaming. I remember spending hours playing Abes Exodus, which must have been a big game at the time as it took 2 discs lol, and playing the first fifa games and the original Grand Theft Auto with the over the top view of the city. I had so many games and would get the PS magazines too just for the demo discs 😂

I would totally agree with yours. Although I had an original Nintendo before the mega drive I played the mega drive for a lot longer and really enjoyed those cartridges and with more friends. The PlayStation 1 tho wins for me with the sheer amount of time spent and quality games. At the time the graphics were unreal and the selection of games available.

Seem's there are a few of us with a fondness for the megadrive in here so thought I would get some chat going (I'm hopefully going to pick one up later, I think the retro chats with you guy's has given me a kick up the arse to finally replace my broken one 😄 ) I'm sat watching some gameplay of Mickey Mouse's castle of illusion, this was the only game I owned in another language (Japanese for some reason) so for the most part I didn't have an idea what was going on but it was a platformer so easy enough to play ^_^ On the video I'm watching currently it looks like it holds up fairly well as far as visuals and the such goes. So any other fond megadrive memories?

My favourite console was probably the 3DO. I never actually owned one, but my mates did, and I spent a LOOONG time playing need for speed on it. Good times.

World of Illusion > Castle of Illusion. The story that could be played co-op was literally one of my all time top games of the Mega Drive. How they made Mickey and Donald work together in certain parts was really ahead of the times. Each level is incredibly made too. Never gets old completing this game. Premier Manager (the original one) was super. I used to play as Cambridge United iirc. So hard to get up the leagues, especially with such pants budgets! The other one that got me into racing games early doors was Virtua Racing. The cartridge is unusually large compared to the others due to 'brand new 3d graphic models' it brought from the arcade machines to home consoles. Grabbed this from Wiki: "Due to the complexity of the Model 1 board, a home console version seemed unlikely, until 1994 when a cartridge design incorporating the Sega Virtua Processor (SVP) on an extra chip was created to enable a version on the Genesis/Mega Drive. This chip was extremely expensive to manufacture, leading Sega to price the Genesis version of Virtua Racing unusually high: US$100 in the United States[13] and £70 in the United Kingdom."

My top 5 thinking quickly about it: Mega Drive SNES Xbox Gamecube PS1 Mega Drive was my first console, and my love for Sega over Nintendo will forever stand (FU Mario!). The games on that were incredible, however what probably helped was I could still try out the SNES when I was 10 upwards because @Findmartin had the SNES so we'd alternate games. Funny thing is SNES seemed to have better co-op games to play together until the PS1. The only real huge shift in games for me came with the original Xbox. Xbox Live changed my life and games overnight and if it wasn't for how i grew up with the Mega Drive, I think my Xbox would win hands down. Its probably why I got big into online gaming and multiplayer games way more in general. @J4MES OX4D I missed the N64, probably because my lack of love for Nintendo. Although, when I was old enough I got a GameCube and it honestly was incredible how unique their games were. I imagine N64 was the same, especially with the likes of Goldeneye? Racing wise, Gran Turismo was just the best although I played TOCA 1 and 2 alongside V-Rally 1, 2 and 3 way more because of the Championship co-op ability they had.

Yea, the suspend option was a nice QOL addition. When the game first launched, not having that option was one of the big negatives for it. I agree 100% with the gameplay. Damn near flawless but I’d expect nothing less from housemarque. Just wait until you get to the second boss. The fun really starts after that. 😁

Recently watch a british movie on Prime called Hippopotomus. It's about a girl that gets kidnapped and her kidnapper is trying to get her to fall in love with her. Over time she starts to remember things, has she been here before? Over the course of the film we learn more about the relationship between the girl and her captor, and it ends with the audience having to decide who they think the kidnapper is after seeing all the evidence throughout the film. It started off a bit slow but got more interesting as the film progressed and I was trying to figure out what was happening, and the big revelation in 2nd half of the film and the ending both made it a really worth while watch.

I'm currently loving synthwave music. Check out The midnight, LeBrock and any other synthwave artist. Love driving the MR2 with the roof down to this, feels like I'm in Outrun 😄

My PS2 is currently booting from memory card to a network and reading games from my pc. It's a pretty awesome setup, although Lee will hate it.

Desert Strike and Jungle Strike NBA Jam Aladdin Ghouls n ghosts Interesting factoid about megadrive games by EA (with the yellow tab). EA originally reverse engineered the genesis because SEGA wanted much stricter controls on who they would allow to make games. Seeing they had a work around made SEGA buckle and grant them permission.

They only need to create the world and make it easy for people to create missions. Downloadable missions, custom games etc etc. If they only make a new map its not going to be as exciting, it needs to feel next gen, and that means another dimension to the game.

I am not sure if ds is considered retro yet but its a bit of a rarer buy and then a new n64 game were my purchases today. i also got a mega drive so will get it checked out later on this evening

Happy birthday Mike!! @Commander_Undies Hope you have a great day pal 😎❤️👍

I think temper expectations to expect something that looks like GTA 5.5 when we receive GTA6. I can't see how it could feel a brand new GTA game, unless it has a completely brand new map - if it was me, i'd suggest to put multiple maps in GTA6. Maybe also rebrand GTA6 to essentially THE GTA World. That way it opens the door easier for regular updates and people will forget they'll be flogging the new GTA for 20 years on whatever consoles are to come. Tbh, I just want a better GTA party system. With GTA on this FG Friday, i'm sure we all want to play GTA rather than what we usually play is GTA Loading.

Really looking forward to seeing it and your views on how different it feels playing the same games we've been playing on our PC together. Also, can you give us an update on how the Mic/Voice feels on it too. Not sure if you've had to purchase a different headset to work with it or not!

This has been on my list since it was announced. Comes out April 30th.

I definitely need to try these games. When i first got my ps4 I got Bloodborne with it but only lasted 15 minutes before having to eject the disc and put it back in its case for good lol. I've got more patience with games now so feel that it would be a perfect time to try Elden Ring or Bloodborne again. Really good write up about the games too @Venom , it's cool to read about your progress through them 😊

Yeah, that actually should be fine because I'm sure PS2 is a component connection (red, yellow, white plugins). The PS1 is RF / Aerial, but even that works fine if your TV has it, which it should being that age. Its only the much older consoles that struggle on the RF connection. I've realised not only did i buy the upscaler to HDMI, but I bought new wires that were component ones rather than be the one RF Aerial signal for my Megadrive and SNES. This SNES one costs £5.99 and works actually for the Gamecube too. Assecure replacement composite AV TV cable lead for Super Nintendo,Gamecube,64 (Super Famicom, Snes, GC, NGC, N64) : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK Assecure replacement composite AV TV cable lead for Super Nintendo,Gamecube,64 (Super Famicom, Snes, GC, NGC, N64) : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo This Megadrive one costs £6.99 CHILDMORY 1.8m 6ft Audio Video AV Wire Cable 9Pin to RCA Connection Cord for Genesis 2 3 Console : Amazon.co.uk: PC & Video Games WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK CHILDMORY 1.8m 6ft Audio Video AV Wire Cable 9Pin to RCA Connection Cord for Genesis 2 3 Console : Amazon.co.uk: PC & Video Games So, really you can power your old consoles for next to nothing with an upscaler and a few newer wires.

Very somber and depressing, saw it years ago. Scenes with cannibals are horrific, but great acting by him and good film overall but not one you’d watch often

I watched "The Road" with Viggo Mortensen. Very disturbing movie, because it's one of the realistic "end-of-the-world" scenario.

I just completed this quiz. My Score 0/100 My Time 3 seconds  

I just completed this quiz. My Score 50/100 My Time 174 seconds  

I just completed this quiz. My Score 25/100 My Time 118 seconds  

I just completed this quiz. My Score 41/100 My Time 119 seconds  

I just completed this quiz. My Score 25/100 My Time 185 seconds  

@GazzaGarratt the TV I have isn't new as in the last few years, so might even do the job? https://www.manualslib.com/manual/261597/Samsung-Le32c650.html?page=7#manual I can't even remember what connection works best for PS2. Which consoles would actually work on this TV? One of them devices would still be handy for use of playing on monitor. Purchased Oct 2010, so had it almost 12 years!

even though i haven't finished the game yet i have to agree that the levels etc pre lordvessel are great, after it they become much more linear and there isn't that much fear of going the wrong way or getting lost and ending up in the catacombs early for example

To be honest, the mod community have made GTA V into a masterpiece. All rockstar need to do is create a basic game and leave it to the community.

Finally the dlc. The levels in the dlc are okay. The abyss looks cool and the enemy’s are decent. But compared to the base game the levels in the dlc are a bit better than some of the late game stuff but much worse than the early-mid game stuff. Where the dlc shines is with the bosses. The dlc bosses are much closer to the style of bosses I have come to know from the other games. Where different moves require different responses and you can improve by properly learning the bosses. For the most part the dlc bosses are harder than anything base game. Except whilst the hard base game bosses are hard for bad reasons the dlc bosses are hard for good reasons. The sanctuary guardian is a cool introduction to this and is pretty unique as a boss. Artorias is just a relay good well made duel. Learning you can interrupt his buff had a nice risk reward balance to it. The process to actually fight kalameet is very cool and he is the coolest dragon fight I’ve played. Manus is in my option by far the hardest boss in the dlc. He has a lot of health, he does a lot of damage, he is very aggressive and lots of his moves have very different responses. He is the closest of the dlc bosses to being unfair but once you learn the tells you can be pretty safe. His most unfair attack being his ramapage (grab style) attack. This isn’t to bad as you can easily dodge most of the damage and either way it does deal to much and gives you room to heal after.

Next up is the levels. Holy shit this was a step up in difficulty compared to Er and Bb. These levels where so much harder especially early game. This is complemented with some of the best level and world design in any game I have played. Both visually and mechanically the levels and world in this game is great. (At least for the good parts). Undead berg/Parish has an insane amount of interconnectivity. There are always new shortcuts to open up. Early on a lot of the difficulty comes from having tough enemy’s in tiny spaces. This was boring as a concept for difficulty but a lot of these encounters are optional challenges so it’s not to bad. When descending through the depth or into blightown the game is terrifying in a way that is captured In Er or Bb. It feels like a maze full of creatures that can easily end your run. Any progress on findings a bonfire or shortcut or just the boss comes along with a huge amount of relief. Sens fortress is an amazing level with all the traps and routes to do. The combination of the view of Anor londo is also realy cool. From this point the gameplay of the areas start to deteriorate. The visuals and variety remain amazing throughout the game but the looping back nature of the levels stops. With the exception of new londo which may be one of my favourite areas.

Just finished an all boss run of Dark Souls remastered on PlayStation. This is my 3rd fromsoft game after er and bb. Overall it has been a fun game and I am looking forward to playing the next one in line ds2. First of all the bosses. Compared to the later the games the bosses in the base game are very simple gameplay wise. Most of them can be done quite easily without ever having to learn specific attackers and dodges/punishes. Despite this they where still a lot of fun because the fights are a lot more varied in the theme and design than later games. Almost all the boss look really cool and have an interesting gimmick. My favourite of the bosses is the 4 kings. It is one of the coolest boss arenas I have ever played and the gameplay is relatively interesting. It can be difficult if you don’t play aggressively. Quelag was another one I liked as the design was cool and it was a boss you had to learn some moves for. The hardest bosses in the game are Gargoyles which is a difficult early game dps check. The main problem with this boss is it’s a poorly balanced duo fight. The intended method seems to be to melt the first gargoyle. If this isn’t achieved then this is way to big a difficulty spike for the game. The attacks constantly overlap and you have the same zoning issues with the fire breath as you do in er and the poison breath. Next up is Nito, he is hard because you can get wrecked by his skeletons and the boss run is really long and really hard to do without a lot of damage. Overall a great boss and probably my second favourite out of the lords. Fittingly Gwyn is also a very hard fight. Mainly because there is no good time to heal and he does a ton of damage. This fight is more interesting than a lot as learning his attacks is beneficial in knowing when to heal. Whilst punishing him is still very doable just on sight. The hardest base game boss is by far Ornstein and Smough. This is a duo fight done horribly. I have seen a lot of complaints about the duo fights in later games that people where saying where terrible in comparison to this one. This fight is one of the worst examples of a multiple bosses fight I have played so far. There are 2 main ways you can play this fight. If you are playing passively that resorts to running around the arena keeping both bosses in front of you. You wait until Ornstein lunges or dashes far enough for you to get a hit in. Then you hope smough isn’t charging and you repeat. This is extremely boring to play. You can often wait minutes in-between openings. Further more Ornstein dash is extremely glitchy and can get stuck on stuff for random amounts of time. This can be close to unavoidable due to its glitches. Smough can also make openings impossible by spamming his charge attack that is extremely tight to dodge if not impossible in some circumstances. The other method of play is aggressively. This is much less boring but it is incredibly unbalanced. You can never see what attacks Ornstein is doing through smough so you have to guess what he is doing. Not only that but your punish windows are still governed by rng and you can still be waiting large periods of time inbetween punish windows just now it’s increadibly intense. The only fun method I found of playing phase 1 of this fight was by attacking both enemy’s And playing aggressively. Playing like this is much harder than either other method but you don’t have to rely on rng to get punish windows. You can almost constantly be attacking. This makes the fight much harder and more enjoyable. Unfortunately when you kill 1 the other regains all there health so this is pointless to do. The final thing on the bosses in this game is that they are very rng based. Almost all the bosses can be trivialised with good rng on there moves. For gargoyles if the first doesn't start flying when the second arrives it’s extremely easy. If he does fly the fight is very hard. If OandS spam jumó attacks or separate they are easy. If they spam charge attacks they are impossible. If quelagg combos lava breath into aoes it is much harder. If she sticks to melee she is trivial. Lots of online discussion about this game seems to not realise this. To the point I think people don’t realise they didn’t just click with a bosses moves and that’s why they went from sucking to a completion. They just got bad rng then good rng. Rng determines the difficulty of almost all ds1 boss fights by a order of magnitude. This was a bit of rant on the bosses but mechanically they aren’t offensive and they are very cool visually and conceptually.

So it seems I was in the first few batches, the second in fact, and I completed the order yesterday evening. This time next week I should be the proud owner of as Steam Deck. My list of games I want to play on it keeps expanding: Disco Elysium Katana Zero Dishonored 2 Hotline Miami 1 & 2 Prey Rimworld Divinity 2 Pillars of Eternity Resident Evil 2 Legend Bowl The Outer Worlds

A little bit of Sniping on MW3 Village, using the Barrett. 50 Cal. Disclaimer I hate the heartbeat sensor, but sometimes used it to trigger people. 😂 Tasty 3 piece game winning kill with the Thermal MSR Sniper quickscoping. 😎

The gameplay is spot on. Housemarque has a very good track record of this. It really shows off the dual sense controller too. It boils down to if this style of game is up your alley.

I re-installed it last night. I know they added the save feature within a run, which is a great addition and one of the more frustrating parts of this game at release. Expecting it all to come together in one run is quite the time sink.

I think this would be an interesting one to run some co-op on. I wonder if they'll do the typical artificial difficulty thing and just add more enemies.

The latest update Ascension is now live for this. It's added a co-op feature and a challenge tower to the experience. Should be cool for anyone still playing this game and looking to rock it with some friends.

Early impressions... housemarque has done it again. This game is really friggin good. Controls are crisp and fluid. Visuals and audio are top notch. Gameplay is tight. If you’re a fan of rouge lites such as hades then you’ll dig this one. You will die a lot. My only gripe and it’s really not a game breaker in any way, is there can be a LOT going on at any given time. Due to the third person perspective, you tend to get ambushed and surrounded quickly. Most of housemarques games have had an arcadey bullethell kind of vibe and it seems they tried to add a bit of that to this. It doesn’t really blend well but like I said, minor gripe. This is truly a next gen experience. The dual sense integration is really nice to. And example is you feel the rain drops hitting your suit through the controller. 🤘🏻