Luseth

And people will continue to pay for it... Therein lies the problem. Yes scummy companies but for some reason the fan base will pay instead of choosing to boycott etc. I can see this going down as one of the worst COD's ever, the only aspect I am really interested in atm is Zombies as it would be good to get on that with an old group of mates I used to game with.

Of course, feel free! Yup, it's an age and responsibilities thing. Games of this size were great for us in our late teens and early 20's where you could go to college / uni or your part time job while living with your parents then come home and game to your hearts content. Then you get your own home which might need work or chores doing, then if you have kids you have their needs to meet and all of a sudden these tasks are eating into your own time. This means that generally you want more efficient and tighter experiences where you can enjoy the storytelling, the world and gameplay and then move onto the next thing rather than it feeling like another chore in your daily grind. I don't think some developers yet appreciate this, the average age of someone who plays video games today is something like 35... Which means many of us are in the same boat and it does not feel like Triple A titles really cater for that and is probably why some of the indie games we see today with shorter experiences are doing so well 🙂

I did play it @WelchyTV but honestly I did end up drifting away with other games being released but that's not a great sign as it did not keep me engaged quite enough. It looks visually great and I quite liked the protagonist as well as the little critter and what you could do with him such as distracting cameras or guards. I think one thing this game suffers with which is an issue of modern day games is the size. There is a lot of filler and really it's not needed, I got distracted doing all that but then that's why I fell away from the game. I was enjoying it and I love the Star Wars universe, I thought some of the worlds were well done though one thing that gripes me with space games and Starfield is the same, why does a planet have to have a theme i.e. why does it have to be a woodland planet or a desert planet. Why can't there be a blend of all like planet Earth. The stealth was probably my biggest gripe, sometimes I just wanted to go in all guns blazing and the game wouldn't allow me to which seemed utterly bizarre, like you would begin stealth and maybe get found but then it would fail you and you would have to do it again. Even if in the films often a stealth moment would become some hero dazzling display, last gasp gun fights as they escape. The best thing about the game though are some of the towns / cities, they really felt alive with loads of things going on and they really were brilliant!

D&D Story so far Session 1 - So the story began with Arn the bear berserker, Dravaram the Dragonborn warlock & Brock the Cleric coming together in a local inn. There they ate and drank before retiring to their rooms with little incident other than a local man giving the barmaid some hassle. Before all too long a commotion wakes them up, at first no one chooses to do anything but as it grew louder Brock decides to venture down to the main room of the inn to find out what the commotion is. There he finds the man from earlier (known as Sven) hassling the barmaid again with 2 of his cronies. At this Brock can’t stand idly by and intervenes only to end up in a tavern brawl, only this brawl was short lived and ended up with 3 dead men with Dravaram and Arn coming to join the fight as it reached it’s midpoint. On saving the barmaid Brock finds the young girl in a state of awe and for some reason wanting him to make an advance on her but he chose against it. The local innkeep deals with the mess and alerts the local guard. Upon hearing this the next day the local guard approaches the small group at breakfast and fires a few questions at them before requesting they go and deal with a local cultist group nearby. The three went to the local store, bought some flammable items and then went off to find the cultists. It was dark by this point and all 3 were initially hesitant before Brock for some bizarre reason decided to just waltz into camp. He was quickly shepherded by guards to their leader. It turns out the cultists worship some snake like god and snakes and as it looked like Brock was going to meet his fate he used some thurmaturgy spell to make his eyes snake like and he shouted at the leader. This led to a challenge, a fight to the death between the 2. Expecting this to bloody battle Brock went on the offensive with an inflict wounds spell, this went surprisingly well and he killed the cultist leader in 1 hit. At this stage he was then being worshipped by the cult and again he found himself with some attractive ladies that he could have his way with, again he turned it down to the dungeon master’s dismay. Session 2 – This began where we left off previous, Brock in a tent with 2 attractive ladies and Arn & Dravaram deciding what to do beyond the treeline, not really know what had occurred in side. Arn in his concern charged into the camp and caused chaos closely followed by Dravaram who set half the camp on fire. Then it turned into a bloody battle with Brock choosing to side with the 2 he had met at the inn rather than his new found cult. During the battle a bollock naked dragon born berserker called Breadbin joined the fray not really knowing how he had gotten there and what was going on he was hesitant at first before siding with our little group. The trip back to town found all 4 being rewarded. Session 3 – This found our group coming across Barm and Lavender, the latter quickly became Arn’s love of his life and he attempted to woo her with flowers and such. The pair hired our little group to join them on a quest to find some dragon treasure, with Arn’s infatuation the 3 agreed and began to prepare for the journey ahead. On returning to Lavender with the flowers he had found, Lavender in her training turned and chopped the heads off the flowers to Arn’s despair. While this was all going on it was assumed Breadbin had slept in that day and just not bothered to emerge from his room. Session 4 - The next day the journey began, Arn took the lead straight out of the gate and unfortunately made a fool out of himself as he tripped down some large potholes and found Barm’s cart roll over him. Another moment for Arn to look foolish in front of Lavender. The rest of the day seemed rather quiet until Brock then took the group on a long detour and they found a cave to go and rest in. The hired group went to search the cave with Arn charging in without fear only to fall into a rather large hole, a trap. Set by our very own Calamere the 2nd, he seemed intent on setting fire to this huge bear that had just found it’s way into his little camp only to hold back as Brock and Dravaram entered the cave. A little conversation and in the end Barm decided to hire Calamere as an additional mercenary to this group to go and find the treasure. All the while Arn had been left in the cave and Lavender’s frustrations continued to grow with him. Night passed with conversations occurring, the dragonborns deciding to stick together, Brock trying to give Arn some advice about not running head first into tasks or caves etc and Calamere for some reason being trusted to hold the 3rd watch on his own. The 3rd watch however led to a group of unsavoury types attacking the camp. It took Calamere some time but he did eventually decide to call out to the group to help him rather than take them on, on his own. This group was swiftly dispatched and the rest of the night allowed for some proper rest. Session 6 – This led the group towards the swamp where the dragon’s treasure was meant to be. It wasn’t long before an arrow struck Brock, fired from a ranger hidden in the tree’s (sorry Matt I can’t recall his name). The ranger had been tracking some unsavoury types, the very one’s the group had killed the night before. Again Barm hired this extra help after some short conversation around the dead people he had been hunting. With the group larger now they trekked on, for some confidence was high at having a larger group to deal with what was to come but for others questions started to amount around Barm and Lavender. What were they really after? It wasn’t long before they reached the cave and were soon to find out. The cave was defended by some small dragon guard creature. A battle occurred with Lavender getting knocked out of play, the guard however did not provide too much of a threat with a 5 v 1 fight being too much for it. On exploring the cave some of the questions from the newer members began to bubble to the surface. Questions around Barm and what he was really after and why. On reaching the large cavern at the end the remains of the dragon was found, a wealth of treasure and his scaled body largely in tact. Barm cast his ritual to take the heart from the body while the group looked at the treasure and before too long became interested in what Barm was doing. Barm finally got the dragon heart but at this point cast a spell to freeze our group, he had always intended to take the heart but the group still had no idea what for. At this he told them they could still take what they wanted and motioned for Lavender to leave with him. This is where it took a turn, as she went to leave she took a dagger, retrieved from Calamere earlier that day and plunged it into the frozen Arn, deep into his heart. The look of glee on her face suggested she really enjoyed it, it was personal. Arn being frozen could not scream out and could not fight back. Then Barm and Lavender were gone. This is where we begin our next session….

Will agree, I think Southgate did well even if some fans won't admit it. I do feel that this could be a bit like Moyes at Man U in that whoever was picked to follow Southgate, if they don't win a tournament immediately then they won't last in the job (rightly or wrongly). To me I would be happy if he continues on what Southgate has achieved so a semi final or final first would be fine with me 🙂 But yeah would be nice to see us win something in the next 5-10 years considering the base we now have to work from.

So now I have spent some time with this over the weekend I have some thoughts, mostly good 🙂 As far as an MMO goes it seem's fairly simple and streamlined which is great especially as I am playing it on a console however it does have the options as far as the number of dungeons and raids etc to make it a little more challenging. The game looks great though it does have the typical issue with loads of things jamming up the screen when you take on more quests, I have now worked out how to unpin them so I can make it look visually better. Combat is quite quick and feel's a little more involved due to the more action based combat, the little video snippet below gives you an idea of the pace. There is all the usual resource gathering and creating stuff, you select a class at the start of the game but your class is dictated by your weapon choice. So I selected a class at the start and that provided me a sword and shield so I can play a sort of tanking class however with a press of the button you can quickly switch to your second weapon whcih I have set up as the life staff (healer). You can also respec quite easily if you wanted to try something completely different. There are 3 factions to join and then companies which are essentially guilds, the factions form the end game PVP stuff in that you war over different areas, forts etc. I have not gotten too involved in that yet but there seemed a lot going on in the faction chat yesterday. As far as an MMO goes, it seem's a little simpler than WOW which is not necassarily a bad thing, it is easier to get into and enjoy straight away and it does have potential for staying power. I think as with every MMO though it does depend on how many people stick with it, currently the EU server that I am in is pretty busy and yesterday I did have to join a queue to get into the server (albeit, it was only a few minutes). So yeah, I am enjoying it and will definately get to and enjoy some of the end game stuff, could be good fun if we could get some of FG on it but I appreciate MMO's aren't usually the sort of game this place plays. That aside it's an MMO but much more action oriented so I think a few of you here could get some enjoyment out of this. I have put a few photos below, these vary from cutscenes, to arty images (these typically come up when to in game screenshots (you will see those as you will spot the UI).

So I had not picked this up as intended originally and have now finally bought it with it coming out on consoles. It isn't cheap mind but I have a bit of a void at the moment in that a lot of games aren't quite capturing my attention and I am waiting for a couple to be released. So picking this up and so far it's every part the MMO however it's quite pretty, the story seem's decent so far and I am quite enjoying it, you can see where it take's it's inspiration from mind. As I put a few more hours in I will provide a more detailed write up but just thought I would open up the conversation and see if anyone else has played this at all?

I love the Analogue products, they fill a bit of a niche but seem to be really good quality products. I have had my eye on the Analogue Pocket for a while, I suspect it will be next year when I have some disposable income. That said I wouldn't probably buy this as I don't have a big N64 collection, I have a great looking console though which looks great on the shelf. I do appreciate the modern consoles being released as it gives us a way to continue to play the original cartridges and such, modern TV's have somewhat prevented it in recent years.

Ooooo my sort of post James 😄 My suggestions and I am making these based on the sorts of games I have seen you talk about on here - - Max Payne (Fairly sure this is on steam) - Deus Ex - The longest Journey (Think Broken Sword esque) - This is because it is one of my favourite ever games and I think everyone should play it - Dragon Age Origins - Medal of honour Allied assault (On GOG store)

Thanks guys, I will set a deadline (31st October) otherwise these things can run on and be forgotten about 🙂 @GazzaGarratt I am expecting some from you! Some of the games I would have chosen are above so to give some more options for a final vote - - Final Fantasy IX - Minecraft - Baldurs Gate 3 - World of Warcraft - Mass Effect 2 I steered away from a lot of retro titles, I think as Bones suggested they need to be easily accessible today, with Final Fantasy having been re-released on ever console known to man and Mass effect having it's remaster not all that long ago means you don't need to boot up an older console to play them.

So, just wondering if there would be any interest in seeing if we can come up collectively with an FG top 10 must play games list? Currently thinking the format along the lines of everyone puts a list down of say 5 games each, we then all have to put them into priority and then each position get's a set number of points i.e. if I put the Witcher 3 top, then Fifa (heaven forbid) second then Witcher 3 would say get 10 points and then Fifa 9 and so on and so on. Would that interest people or am I shouting into the wind? 😄 I would then look at doing a short write up for each game in the top 10 so if anyone has comments to say about any of their nominations, memories and such put them in the post and I could look to use them in the write ups.

So the past few day's I have realised I have for the better part of the past year missed out a lot on the games that I typically have enjoyed the most in the past and really what got me into gaming and that's my JRPG's. Generally the gaming market feel's stale at the moment and when it comes to triple A titles very few of them excite me. However I spent some time yesterday looking at the sorts of games I historically have enjoyed, more akin to Final Fantasys and I have realised there has been and is continuing to be a bit of a boom with regards to the quantity and quality of what is being produced and this has completely passed me by. So typically I don't pre-order many games but I wanted things booked in for the rest of the year so to speak and have pre-ordered 3 games, the first being Dragon Age where I have loved each game but the other 2 (ordered for the Switch) are JRPG's, games that don't typically use the same extreme sized budgets that we see with Western Triple A titles and upon looking at them there are probably another 2 or 3 I could have ordered (though money does not allow currently) as well as a promising looking year next year. So all of a sudden things are looking less stagnant for me and I am also now aware of a whole bunch of games that passed me by. However it also got me thinking that if your a big fan of our Western style of games then the landscape is looking a little bleak and barren for a while it seem's, so just getting your thoughts? Are you expecting to be playing COD for the next year? Are you anticipating you will still mostly be playing games from yesteryear all next year?

Not surprising, most of them have been on the service for a while now and generally older triple A titles are always on borrowed time when they join.

Unsure if anyone is really interested in things like this but the past few years a couple of local retro stores set up their own little gaming fair. This year they have had to change venue due to the interest from sellers and the number of people attending and it seems to be growing which is great! It is on again in a few weeks over in Bilston and I plan to go. There are some quite big gaming fairs for retro collectors across the country and they seem to be great for finding some more obscure or collectible titles. Just wondering if anyone on here has ever been to one and if so what gems you have found?

Maybe so but every relationship takes effort on both sides 👍 Don't get me wrong Lee, I really think FG could be great but at the end of it all, it is a community but for a community to thrive people need to take part and there aren't many that do anymore. Those that did so as I first joined only did so because you were dragging them kicking and screaming and that's unfair on you as well 😄 If people want FG to be here tomorrow so to speak they need to take part more and for me it's just getting frustrating. I have made some good friends here and hopefully will be friends for a good while yet but as with everything, things are made better when all are contributing 🙂

Yeah, Think I got a bit fed up with putting up FG Friday's and no one responding to them 😄

People will say it's a woke thing, having a female lead I am sure. But it doesn't bother me and I imagine could create an interesting dynamic with the storyline and there did used to be female samurai, I think they were called Onna-musha or something like that.

I have to say that for me I feel similar @JM. Rush was ok to begin with however most games seem a bit too easy, if you come up against a squad then it's decent and can be quite a battle but if you come up against 4 randoms put together the result almost always goes the same way. Clubs has been crap to be honest so far, it doesn't seem to flow very well and to be honest I think we also cause a lot of our own problems in that we all try to do to much and I think this fifa very much wants you to pass it around and play Pep ball moreso than any other version. I will stick with clubs only because it's a numbers thing again, we don't have a game where so many of us get together at once and once we lose that it's probably gone for good, couple that with the way this site is and I don't really feel like FG has much at the moment sadly (oh excluding our D&D nights!)

I would probably enjoy replaying this game but I have it on PS3, maybe replay it if I can pick it up for a tenner maybe.

My god, playing this at @GazzaGarratt house the other day was shite 😄 But shite in a funny way! We had a bit of a laugh with it. I had not played any of my retro stuff for a while and this has reinvigorated me a little. I really enjoyed just how simple it was, there wern't a lot of mechanics in it if you compare to modern day EA FC and you could literally just jump into playing a tournament within moments which was great.

So I have decided to play this again the past week or so. It's great being able to load up a console and game without waiting for updates and such. The game itself is great, a JRPG with a lord of the rings skin and though it looks dated today I am still having a lot of fun and taking down a troll for the first time is quite enjoyable. It's funny watching the little film cutscenes as well as visually they look crap through this. Makes me think about putting them on the PS5 at some point (I have them on blu ray) and just re-enjoying the films. It has me questioning whether or not to get a proper upscaler, I have looked at some reviews and I think it would be worth it but for the price I would be looking at I question build quality. The other thing I am quite enjoying about it is that when I play on a modern console and I see friends in a group together playing something I feel somewhat obligated to join them sometimes even if all I really want to do is enjoy a video game on my own. Playing the PS2, it's not an issue as it is offline and I just enjoy my game without distraction.