Luseth

So I had a few games day after launch and imagine I will enjoy it, I didn't spend a lot of time with the first one but I'm particularly keen on the tank characters. Very much suit my playing style I think. I have just dived in and I felt I needed to spend some time actually learning the game so might try the tutorials when I next get on but for now getting the same error Lee is

I am contemplating that i must say, on the flip side i have quite the backlog and wondering if i should be saving every penny in the current climate ^_^

AR yes I can see that being huge in the future, VR not so much, if it was then considering the number of options out there every household would have one by now (it's been 5 years since the PSVR but there are many many more affordable options out there). I think there will be a market for VR but currently Sony appear to be throwing all their eggs in that basket and that will make them more susceptible to change if VR does not take off quite the way everyone is hoping. What I am trying to direct the conversation towards which is what I think @Greboth has cottoned onto is the content that is being produced. There have been steps forward with hardware, but even with VR, pick out a game that is particularly unique or new, the games are largely recreated versions of games we had with the playstation move or the cameras and such in the past. I will just point to battlefield in how a map can evolve and change, a tank goes through a building and it can wipe it out or leave it a heap of bricks on the floor, why can't that be applied to every game, that house you drive through stay's that way throughout the game (heck maybe you even see it bulldozed away one day and builders there putting up something new). Why can't the additional processing power be used so that if someone dies in a house in GTA where you just accidently shot someone the police come out and "investigate" it. I think more can be done to show how what you can do could affect the game world and such. All we get these day's are can I shoot the enemy as many times as possible and rack up the most kills / goals / points etc. Why is it now some of the biggest games (Elden ring etc) are just can you beat the toughest bosses we create? I mean overwatch 2, as much as we will enjoy it will be almost a replica of the first game with new game modes (modes that are likely taken from other games) and new characters / maps. Sony are guilty at the moment of just creating these triple A games that are essentially long interactive films, they don't bring anything new to the table, they are a tried and tested formula that they have spotted makes them lots of money. Like why can't a city in say mafia or gta improve as the game goes on or why don't we see more seasons or weather utilised in games to actually affect the world (I think they tried this with BF2042 but did not implement it at all well). I think Forspoken might be trying to implement some of this from what I have seen but I won't hold my breath until we see it. Just going back to nintendo, and I don't think it's right to separate them because of their uniqueness in games because that's kind of what I want to see more of. I think of breath of the wild and it was something someone pointed out to me at the time, if I stood on the edge of a bridge as if I was about to jump off there was an npc that would come over and discourage you from doing it. That interaction with the game world you don't really find in anything else. I appreciate there is plenty of innovation in the hardware side of things, but the content itself has somewhat stuttered. I feel this is industry wide as well because even with PC, how far can they really push the games without limiting half of their audience. Not shooting down your comments Lee just trying to encourage discussion and that so feel free to pick apart anything I have said 😄

Agree with almost everything you say but I don't think that will be the case as the brand is so big at the moment, they would get another generation to put things right and may be the kick up the arse they need ^_^

I do think it is partly Sony's fault (& Microsofts), when you look at the Switch and consider the exclusives available there, games have continued to come out during and since the pandemic and it is rare that you can't play a first party title without updates. The Sony exclusives are becoming much of the same and now they are remastering games that are less than 10 years old (I think it's bonkers that people bought the last of us remake for full price if I am being honest). Sony's obviously focusing heavily on their VR now with apparently 2 million headsets going to be ready for launch but that feel's like it alienates me as someone who has not been comfortable using VR at all, couple that with games that are quite samey and there is becoming less reason to hold onto a playstation other than because my friends have one. But those friends could game anywhere and as cross play comes in more and more (it does seem to be getting there) there is less reason to stick with either of the 2 main consoles anymore going forwards I think.

So this will be my last post for a little while as I think now it's time to get to grips with the system and really enjoy it but to provide another update. Last night I had another play, I now have GTA V up and running, so that means Epic games work and though GTA is getting on a bit now it is still a fairly demanding game and the deck runs it fairly flawlessly (I did turn down settings to medium just to max out the performance and it was lovely). In addition to that, I may have mentioned that I like the idea of taking some of my retro games with me. Lugging round a CRT and SNES or Gamecube is obviously not practical so I looked at setting up the emulation side of things. I at first tried to install a couple of emulators separately, the PS2 one ran ok but the dolphin emulator wouldn't detect the steam deck controller and buttons. Looking about online I came across emu deck, turns out it's a script you can download and run and it installs and sets up all of the main emulators for you including dolphin. So gave it a go and it was incredibly simple, got it up and running and just loaded up fire emblem path of radiance (something on my to buy list but depends on how much my work christmas bonus is this year) and it seemed to start up really well and looked fantastic. I will give it a proper go later on today but the deck is really impressing my with it's capability at the moment.

Something I have thought for a while, I appreciate the pandemic came in at the wrong time but there has been so little true next gen content so far. On the PS5 I can name 1 or 2 next gen games I have played, Xbox has had nothing really truly next gen and it's all feeling a little flat. Have we plateaued for the time being as far as gaming content goes? Almost everything that has been released the couple of years could have been done on the previous consoles with the exception of true ray tracing and the rift warping in ratchet and clank. That's not to say there are not good or great games coming out but there has been little to no innovation. Even looking at Forspoken, as glorious as it looks I am struggling to see it as anything more than a half step forwards at the moment (I hope it proves me wrong). So how do you guy's feel about this latest generation, do you feel you are getting your money's worth out of your latest gadgets or are you in the same boat as me?

I used to enjoy the series but after playing Ghost of Tsushima I found it difficult to go back to Valhalla (it was an incredibly different paced game). I don't know where I read it but I think I read somewhere that they plan to return to their roots a little and move away from the rpgness of the modern games (which I thought was a good move personally). So I imagine this AC could be a fair bit different to the last couple of games.

So I do have one small gripe but it could be game related. I wanted to push the deck a bit further yesterday and opted to try GTA V, where this fell down is I did not want to buy it again and I have a free copy on Epic that I got ages back. So looking about online, you can install Epic / GOG games onto the deck using a third party launcher, got that all installed and set up and then set GTA V to download and install. Where it irked me is that it took the whole night to download and install, in fact the install only completed as I left for work this morning so I never even got to try it 😄 Now I am not sure if it's down to the speed of the SD card but it took far too long and I fear for the loading times off it! I have also realised 256gb SD card is nowhere near going to be enough so I am going to look at getting a 1TB card some point the next couple of months when I have some spare cash.

If it doesn't it's not an issue as I can install on the laptop just find it harder to game on there with young uns so I would be on less often ^_^ I will get installed on both anyway 🙂

Woah where was my invite 😛 I love the premise of this but no one I know is really into these games so I would love to jump on with a few of you. Is it cross play i.e. Can I join on my XBOX or do I need to get the laptop out?

I put the £5 deposit down at the end of August thinking I could make my mind up nearer the time, turned out it was much nearer than I thought it would be. Got the notification last week and decided to purchase it (only the basic model) and it turned up on Saturday. Picked myself up a £22 256gb SD card and I'm away pc gaming for under £400. I let my gaming computer go about 6 months ago and I have a laptop that's fairly capable but I find it difficult to game on as my daughter wants to mess. So the steam deck seemed a good shout. My first impressions are really really good, it's incredibly capable, runs well and isn't too difficult to get to grips with in terms of how things function and that. I have played just 1 game so far, GTA IV and that played really well. Simple enough to get installed and up and running and now I spend an hour or so in bed of an evening shooting up Liberty City? I have also put a couple of my PS2 games on there, I have had Shadow hearts ready to play for a long time but finding time to sit down with the CRT at my desk is difficult (again because of the little ones) so thought I would add it to the deck and see how it performs so I will let you know on that front if I get round to it. I have a fairly sizeable steam library backlog to play though and I do genuinely feel like it will get enjoyed now. The screen's decent, the device is fairly snappy and simple and though it's only my first game to play GTA IV help up really well and played incredibly smoothly so I can see this potentially taking pole position when it comes to my gaming time in the not so distant future.

I have downloaded the demo and will give it a go, but I have just bought a steamdeck so the games I was going to buy between now and christmas might have to go on the backburner. This was up there along with Star ocean and Crisis Core ^_^

I am playing this on and off at the moment, I think it's fine as a big sandbox to play about with but this feels more akin to Saints Row 4 rather than the reboot that people were hoping for i.e. Saints Row 2 & 3. I am finding this a lot with big titles at the moment that they head in one direction and get too far down the road before they realise they are getting things incredibly wrong. By then it's difficult for them to find their way back (battlefield & Final Fantasy are 2 other franchises that I am fond of that have done the same thing). I will complete it I am sure but it's not keeping me gripped 100% of my gaming time and that's when I know a game's decent ^_^

So when it comes to gaming news, where do you get it from? Like where do you hear about new games etc. i used to watch digital foundry on youtube for reviews but moved away because i spent more time watching vids than gaming

I have put my name down for one, say's quarter 4 of this year Oct-Dec so hopefully will have one in time for christmas 🙂 I have quite a steam library that I have not really gotten through so between that and my current Switch backlog I could probably get through this cost of living crisis 😄 I may try some emulation with it, just because it would be good to play some of the games I have at home on the go (I.e. I just bought shining force 3 on the saturn which I am excited to try). But yeah, it does mean I have been watching steam and picking up the odd cheap game here and there which is probably not a good idea 😄 Like I never completed GTA IV so bought that for about £4-5 the other day.

@J4MES OX4D what are you gaming on? The screenshots you post look fantastic 🙂

I'm part of a little battlefield group and on the whole they are quite big fans of the series, we continue to play Battlefield V regularly and they continue to hold out that this game might come good. I on the other hand am struggling to see it, yes Dice have turned around battlefield games in the past but for me the way they treated the fans, the way they moved away from what battlefield was good at, how despite the complaints from the loyal fans they turned round and said that the fans were wrong rather than admitting they got it wrong. It's left a real sour taste for me and it's certainly the last time I pre-order a battlefield game sadly.

I mean we could do that or we could just @GazzaGarratt in just every post full stop just so he has a bazillion notifications 😄 I reckon he has been keeping them all at bay up until this week by satisfying their sexual urges (the bots I mean)

It was one of my favourite game series growing up, there isn't much quite like it! I was a big fan of the red alert series (even red alert 3) and did contemplate booting up the remastered set but haven't gotten round to it yet.

It has, in fact I have dying light 2 still to play yet, it has been sat on the shelf for a little while as I am trying to get through some of my backlog (which as you can imagine could take forever!)

Sadly the planet is only heading one way. I tend to shy away from the conversations as they are incredibly depressing. I have taken steps to make my potential future better i.e. we have an AC unit in the house to keep one room cool where we can hide if need's be, I have an allotment for veg (and next year will also be using half our garden), have put in a water butt recently for watering and with the allotment I'm also learning skills where it comes to growing our own food just in case things really go to shit in the coming few years. Food will be much more expensive next year because of the drought, there will be less of it and it won't be all the pristine / uniform veg we see in the shops today. Sony's price rise isn't really shocking when you consider the value of the other currencies against the US dollar, almost everywhere linked to Europe and the UK has seen a fall but I do get people's frustrations with Sony, how come they are increasing prices whilst Nintendo and Microsoft do not feel the need to?

How is the steam deck Phil? I have looked at them but not sure how much use it will get, I already neglect the xbox series S as I have a switch and PS5... As far as retro games go, it is something I have been leaning into more, the games tend to be more varied, with older retro they are also shorter which means I do also get to complete them. The 360 / PS3 era is some of the best as far as games go, the PS4 will feel quite stagnant when we look back at it I think as we haven't seen many jumps forward (the VR being the obvious exception). But as far as game content goes we seem to have plateaued a little bit.

I am a little disappointed but on the plus side I do have quite a few games to play with a few others coming out yet this year so it could well be a blessing in disguise. Agreed on the comms though, I feel often the industry revolves around hype which in turn generates pre-orders.