Luseth

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.

or barren wastelands @phil bottle 😀

I sign up to Readly every now and again which I believe Martin has just discovered, on there is Retro gamer which I find quite a good magazine talking about older games, thought I might post in here every now and again about what they are talking about each month. So this month is about Ridge Racer, sadly the series isn't really around today but I do have fond memories of playing Ridge Racer Type 4 way back. I am not so into racing games now other than playing with friends. So they also explore how the series came about which began with Mazda (their tech demos over in Japan) and this developed into the video games, they were somewhat ahead of their time when they first launched in terms of graphics and such.

So, I dipped into this at launch and then moved away from it while some of the bugs were fixed. I can happily say that I am playing through this now on my laptop and really quite enjoying it. I feel that maybe the issue with this game is not so much the fact you can't enjoy it with other players (I mean if you want that sort of thing there are a lot of more suitable games), the issue to me is there is too much. I think devs need to stop trying to make the 'biggest' game and start thinking about how to better craft their worlds, how to better populate them and make them feel alive. The reason the Elder Scrolls and The witcher games did so well is because the worlds feel alive, there is a lot going on and almost everywhere you go you come across a new story or tale that is just begging to be explored. Starfield has it's main storylines and it has a few minor ones but the minor ones very much feel isolated and short quests rather than something that may affect the world. I think of the witcher in the swamp when you can choose to sacrifice or save the kids from the old hags. On saving them you had new interactions with the kids afterwards for example.

With how many of us have been enjoying D&D once a month, who here has Baldurs Gate 3? And would you be interested in me setting up an event say once every 2 weeks and we play an evening on Baldurs Gate 3? Could be good fun if we could get a full squad on regularly I think?

Haha sorry @GazzaGarratt I think the whatsapp groups have killed the site off 😄

Sounds about right, the reality is they will get away with this, people will buy it and they will make some of their losses back on Concord. When in reality people should be saying hang on, why am I paying this much for a game I played only a few years ago. My opinion of Sony is plummeting at the moment, if it wern't for people on here I think I would be solely on my laptop/Xbox and Switch these days...

You may be shouting in the wind, there's only about 4 of us that come on here these day's isn't there? 😛