Luseth

This game's blowing hot and cold for me, it does not feel very story driven, it feels more like a big open world esque game with lots of little stories, however because of my low level it feels somewhat disjointed because I can't complete a storyline or a faction line all in one go. The gameplay is fine and I am enjoying exploring the worlds etc. I have not even touched the outposts yet. I think because I am after something a bit more story driven my interest is waning a little bit in this at the moment, I jump on for an hour here and there but I am not sinking myself into it like I do with some RPG's.

I was leaning towards the PS4 version as I was expecting another year with you guys on the PS4 version, now you are expecting me to find another £40 or whatever it is! 😄

This isn't going to be modernised, it's being remastered so everythings going to be the same just look a little less pixelated I reckon. I feel like PS1 era games are where some studios are going to come unstuck with all these remasters, the original 3d graphics are very blocky and not particularly pleasant to look at in most instances and this is definately going to be one of those games that really falls down. You can get away with remastering 2d titles and anything from the 360 / PS3 era but I don't see it working with most PS1 titles. I wonder if this is one of those projects that Square started as it seems like their sort of thing to do at the moment and Crystal Dynamics have decided to complete the project, it really does smack of a cash grab though.

I mean they could be taking feedback from said Beta and improving the game?

So I have played a few hours on the Series S now and about 2 on the ROG, first impressions are really good, it does feel quite fallout esque to me just without the VATS, I think I have dived right into sidequests, the main story I had not interest in almost immediately lol but the side content seem's quite good and fun. The fact it's not open does not bother me, it feels a bit Mass effect in that regard but it never bothered me then and won't bother me now. I love the setting, I'm just in the first city you come to at the moment but still see me being there for hours yet as I seem to have about 10-12 side quests already and I'm quite happy pottering about and exploring Atlantis. The xbox is handling it pretty well so far as I can see and the lack of the extra power from the Series X does not bother me. The combat's pretty fluid for a Bethesda game, it's certainly more refined and improved over previous titles. The ROG also handles it pretty well, I had a couple of slowdowns but I think it was updating in the background, on the whole though it handles the game well. I think the only thing I have not liked so far is the film grain, it seems a bit over the top and I have ended up turning it off completely.

I will be playing this some point this evening, I am working atm and actually have a busier day than normal so making the most of it 😄 I am out for a meeting this afternoon but when I get back I will jump on it. I have it installed on what some on here consider sub-standard devices in the Series S and the Asus ROG Ally and can't wait to dive in ^_^

I feel like this site is a genuine testing ground for a future version of chatgpt.

Ah it's doing well to have lasted then 🙂 It's easy for little communites like this for people to drift away so though they won't blow their own trumpets it does take the efforts of individuals to keep somewhere like this going, I'm sure Lee will say it's all down to the community but it never is 😄 In my short spell here I can tell @GazzaGarratt is certainly a driving force of it so fair play to him 🙂 And @Diddums for all the work he must have put in all those years ago ^_^ And ofc you as well @phil bottle 🙂

For me, I had PS Premium, it felt like a nice treat at christmas to keep it going (I was given it when they were merged), I can tell you for certain the heighest tier is absolutely crap and a waste of money. PS Extra I have actually used, there has been enough content to enjoy and I have tried out some new games, that said I also dip into Xgame pass every now and again that offers the same (albeit slightly better) so I will likely carry on dipping in and reduce my PS sub to the minimum. I think the only thing really tying me into these subscriptions these days are the social aspect, it's quite an outlay now and I don't see the benefit in that there is no reason to be paying for online play in my eyes when it is done on the PC for nothing and though the odd PS Plus game turns out to be good they aren't necassarily games I am askin for, I can't see why they couldn't do a basic subscription and do away with the games each month. It's just easy money for Sony / Microsoft and for some reason everyone just accepts it as is. With COD and even Fifa going down the route of crossplay which is where I get my social fixes I am definately getting fonder of my pc gaming again.

I enjoyed it when it first came out, visually it looks great for an MMO and it's a little more accessible to new players I think, I'd be happy to jump back in on it tbf. Saints Row and Generation Zero are both multiplayer as well I believe so would be happy to give both of them a go with people too at some point ^_^

So the PS Plus yearly subscriptions are increasing and there has been some grumbling from the gaming community, I am not entirely sure why they are even a thing to be honest at least for the base tiers. In the current climate and with people looking to cut back on costs have you considered moving from one console to the other due to the sub prices (I think Xbox will now have the cheaper base subscription), has anyone just cancelled their subs and stuck to PC gaming for example? Is anyone here bothered by it all? ^_^ The prices going up are hardly surprising but considering the number of people on PS I am fairly sure that it will look good when they report their profits for the next few years.

So having picked up and really enjoying my Rog Ally it got me thinking about games I have in my steam library, some that are really quite good but may have been overlooked by most and I imagine we all feel that way about some games so let us know what games you loved but on the whole people may have missed. I think the first one that really came to mind for me is Alpha Protocol, if you ever wanted to play a video game that made you feel like James Bond I really feel this was it. It was made by Obsidian and published by Sega, Obsidian in fact have the rights back for this one I believe so they could one day bring it back.

I find MMO games a bit odd for me, like I love the idea of them and have given a few of them a go but I don't know if it's because I don't end up with a group to play with but I tend to drift away from them. It's a shame because on paper it looks very much my sort of thing, that said with WoW I would find it hard to justify the subscription when I can get game pass and similar subscriptions in it's place providing me access to so much more content. The one MMO that did capture me was Wildstar but unfortunately it never really took off and is no longer around sadly.

I think my favourite bosses may be a little different, growing up with a lot of my games I rarely got to final bosses, whether it was a shorter attention span or not being good enough I don't know, however I did get to a few bosses when it came to JRPG's. I think the first one I always think of is a boss that I don't think you ever got to beat from memory - I thought her character was fantastic throughout, I know not a main feature but her loyalty to the crown, her strength, she came to her senses midway through the game, I don't think they realised at the time but if they had fleshed her story out a little more it would have paid off.

Similar to others, I think my political view may differ from yours in the first few sentences Elliot. That said the post / thread does open up some potential for some great discussion, I know personally growing up the biggest issue is nobody teaches you how to look after your money really. I have always been quite frivolous with money, in fact it's only been the past year or so that I have started trying to develop some better habbits, it's difficult to change how you have always been though. In fact this year's holiday was the first time I paid it up front rather than putting it on a credit card or paying it monthly installments beforehand. The other thing is that everyone's circumstances are incredibly different and I think it would be wrong to assume everyone is wasting money, admittedly a lot of people are but then if people suddenly cut back and started being sensible what does that do to our economy ^_^ I think a big thing is at what point in your life you are, it's quite easy to see the average savings someone under 30 has to someone say over 40. Straight away if you are paying a mortgage odds are you are paying less than if you were renting (which is something you are far more likely to do when you are younger). Your salary is likely to be higher if you are getting into the second half of your liife if you like as well. Emergency savings are something we should all strive for but that is not always possible, I mean if you are on a minimum wage job in the current climate, single parent of a couple of children I imagine it's not easy to do if at all possible. As for general money advice to help with budgeting, different accounts are great and transferring money over to another account at the start of each month and getting into that habbit is great. Another thing to note is that there is a sensible way to use credit, being good with your money does not mean never have credit, it's about using it sensibly. Running up debt is not great but say buying an item on interest free credit is not necassarily a bad thing if you are comfortable paying it off, you might want a mortgage one day for example and having no credit history would not help in that regard. Something I now do is budget at the start of each month, I think knowing where your money is going is very important (like Elliot say's above) there is every possibility you might look at where your money is going and say hey I have not used netflix for a few months let's cancel it as an example. I think the one thing I have always been a little adverse too is investing and that's mainly down to lack of knowledge and not really having the time to invest in obtaining that knowledge, I am sure there are a million books out there but life is hectic. That said I have recently set up a stocks & shares ISA and just put £20 a month in, it's not a lot but it's something and the hope is to increase that in the future. I also now have a private pension in addition to my work one, that see's £25 added to it each month as well, these are both for the future so I have no plans to dip into these, when I reach each £100 in the stocks and shares ISA I will put it into some companies, likely to be banks & construction companies (as that's what I work in so I already have some idea of what businesses are doing well and which aren't).

I said this in my post above, I just forgot to post the link! Woops!! 😄

Not entirely sure where you are going with this. It is a commercial decision as to what consoles you develop a game for, they can simply say we won't release the game on xbox then... There is no reason for it to affect development if they do not want it too. We see console exclusive games all of the time. If a game does not run on a console you wouldn't release it on it i.e. it's why you don't get the latest version of Fifa on the Switch (well you get a different version), you don't get COD on the Switch. All those games were released later on after much refinement maybe but I am failing to see why that can't happen with the Xbox? Why does a game have to launch right away on the console (in fact with it having a lesser uptake than the Playstation surely it's going to make financial sense to focus on a PS version of a game anyway). It might be just me but reading your post reads like you have not read mine properly and you have not read the link you provided, just to snippet a line I can pull out straight away counters your comment about Larian being vocal about the power of the Series S. They have been vocal in that yes there has been more work involved but not necassarily that they can not release games on it due to it being underpowered - Again referring back to my previous post, Baldurs Gate has been announced as coming to the xbox, just that the Series S version will not have local co-op. The reason for this is down to the lesser RAM and not necassarily the console being underpowered because of the way they have designed local co-op (to be independant of one another). Final note, it is easy to say ah just pop the extra on finance and get the more powerful console but it is never as simple as that, we have families in the UK struggling to feed themselves, foodbank use at it's highest and with mortgage rates the way they are there are plenty of families (I know a couple) who are currently fearful of losing their homes. Finding a couple of hundred quid to buy a next gen console for their child and bring them some joy is far easier than committing to double that, and taking it out on finance. When you are in a much more privileged position it is far easier to say ah why don't people just stump up the extra £200 for a bigger more powerful console. There may well come a point where Microsoft let the Series S go and it will be replaced with the Series S-2, I mean it's no different to buying a new mobile phone, your older one stops getting the updates etc despite being on the same OS for example. Saying that it affects development is an odd sentence, well of course it would, I don't know about you but if I was to produce a video game, I would have to consider all the machines it was going to be played in. If I was to make a PC game for example, I would look at the range of pc's that currently use Steam and would have to consider if it could cater to them all, if it can't then I make a decision on whether or not I limit the game to reach a bigger audience or I don't and let it achieve the heights it can, that's literally how the industry works. I don't see the same developers sitting their complaining that people choosing to game on pc's from 2010 are affecting development and they need to do away with them. Oh no wait they just ignore them....

I have put down no for now, MW2 is the first COD I have picked up in a while and it's enough for me, I jump on more now for catching up with you guys more than anything. Couple that with being a little skint at the moment having spent more than I should have last month and wanting to get the new Fifa game (EA Sports) it is a bit further down the list. So for now it's a no, maybe when there is a deal on it or maybe christmas time when things are paid off I might contemplate it if there's a bunch playing on there regularly. But for now my COD fix is more than sated by the current game. I also have some great games to play at the moment, Starfields coming out too so I have a lot of gaming hours to put in as it is!

I think you're missing the point with the S though, yes people who bought it may have to upgrade down the road to a Series X, however a large portion of those who have bought the S have double dipped, so are more sony based players that now have an Xbox (some for the first time because it was so affordable). That may entice them to give the whole Xbox ecosystem a go, and in addition to that upgrading your console mid generation is nothing new. The last generation had PS4 Pro's mid way through, Xbox one had it's more powerful brother, the Switch has had a Switch OLED midway through it's life, the PS3 / 360 era had slim versions. Yeah the Series S might not be capable of running Unreal Engine 5, but for £250 right now you can buy a console that is capable of running 2 of the most anticipated titles of the year, Starfield and now it has been announced Baldurs Gate (with the exception of local co-op). Find a PC that can play both of those for £250? Oh wait normally it's just tough sh*t if your pc can not run a game, at least Microsoft have offered an option that is affordable during a cost of living crisis. Heck Sony just announced a portable handheld for only £50 cheaper and it can't run native games and can't even utilise their streaming service. It is only gamers who are shall I say more elitist that have real complaints about the Series S. Unreal 4 games will remain yes but that's not wholly due to Microsoft, there is nothing to stop devs creating games specifically for the PS5 / PC and then relaunching down the road on the Xbox to generate extra funds, heck they do this all the time at the moment with some of the sh*tty remasters they keep releasing. Unreal engine 5 is not the only way to progress and move games forwards, yeah it will help graphically but games are so much more than just visuals. My final note, I will put the link below as well, the Larian Studios CEO has stated in a recent interview it's not the Series S but more the lack of effort from devs. They want things to be quick, easy and so that they can churn stuff out to maximum profit, it's why we have so little ingenuity within modern triple A games. It comes through at indie level because they have to think about how they can make their games stand out, be a little bit different. If you look back at the history of video games, even back to the 16 bit era, development was so much more, coming up with ideas on how to get a game to run on a specific machine, overcoming the problems that machine might have had. It's easy to just blame a console but we have seen in the past how the lack of a consoles power can be overcome if you think outside the box a little - Resi Evil 2 on the N64 Morrowind on the original Xbox And probably my favourite game, the Witcher 3 on the Switch

I think people forget bugs in a game can make for some of the most memorable in games!

I have a fairly busy month of Saturdays tbh, let me check with the missus and let you guys know if I can do any of them.

I set this to pre-install yesterday on my Series S, I am quite excited for this game (Though keeping my optimism in check knowing some of the recent disappointments within the gaming industry). I am unsure about whether I will play it through on there or the ROG yet. Something I did think about, with how ambitious this game is and it still being released on the Series S, I know a lot of other devs are complaining about the lack of power in the S but it seems more to me that they would have to spend time making it work on there as well as the X which would presumably eat into profits? So it's easier to complain at this point?

Ah it affects you prem fans much less but we are feeling a little the same way at Birmingham at the moment, there is certainly a feel good factor around the club at the moment, and the good results to the start of the season show that considering the team is still a long way off a play off contending side. We made bristol look mediocre, we nicked a win against Leeds at the last second and our new wingers are looking very promising. The stadium is looking in good shape, the new owners have spent a sum repainting the stadium, putting up new screens and club crest as well as regenerating the seats etc. The stadium was looking rather dilapidated so it looks great in comparison. There is talk of a few more players yet to come in, we need some more depth so that's promising, we are lacking a potent striker (though that sounds like something most clubs are struggling with at the moment). It has also been nice to see some faces to our new ownership and some interaction from them with the fans, our previous owners were certainly leaving the club to languish.

I am probably much like you, the SD was mostly used round the house and I suspect this will be too, I have a trip to Liverpool in a few weeks where I am contemplating taking it on the train but then my Switch is probably a less expensive gadget to take in case someone decides they want to do something stupid or something ^_^

Yeah a steamdeck 2 or ultra could be a brilliant machine, the Switch with a bit more power, I have also seen a Lenovo handheld thing that has detachable controllers so there is a lot of potential at the moment. I think with the ROG, at least for the time being I am starting to use it more than my PS5 and it serves the purpose I wanted it for brilliantly.