From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc


Oh good, a drawn-out Doctor Who special to coincide with the gift-giving
time of the year. Finally feels like the world is getting back to
normal. See also standard levels of strife in the middle east and some
actual competitive juice in UK government opposition too.

Play:
--=--

New external PS5 hard drive (PS5) - Oh hey, I'm being clever and loading
up the game images first by inserting the discs into the PS4, because
Sony says you can just connect your external PS4 disc straight to your
PS5 and it'll all just work. Oh no, I don't realise that the PS4
download treats the PS5 like it's a PS4 Pro with its slightly higher
texture resolution. So now after disconnecting the drive from the PS4
and connecting it to the PS5, the PS5 immediately complains that all the
local file sets are incomplete and that I need to insert 151 individual
PS4 discs to make the games go properly. Well done me. I estimate it
took me 21 hours total over the long Yank Bank holiday weekend to
transfer all the data.

Dungeon of the Endless (PS4) - Oh hey, this works on PS5 now! Either
there was some hilarity with the compatibility that they worked out in a subsequent update or I just had the data loaded wrong on the old hard
drive. And I still can't figure out how to play. Asynchronous issuing of commands to characters on-screen that may not make the decision that I
meant for them to make just isn't in my mental wheelhouse. I suspect
that playing this on PC might be more instructive, but I also have a
real fear that my addled mind is too fixed and inelastic to really get
what this game is about.

Arcade (ARC) - Or what passes for an arcade these days, at any rate. My
kid had an outing with friends, and they rode the Cruisin' Blast and
related motorcycle racing games, and they did the virtual pirate fishing
and shot zombies in the licensed Walking Dead game. And it all seems so clinical and distant and not at all like the arcade experience I had
thirty years ago and I can't explain to you why. The star attraction was
the Space Invaders two-player artillery thing, which is not Space
Invaders in any way that I recognise outside of the enemy designs.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters (PC) - Hee. I stumbled across this looking
for Sega sale stuff in the Steam sale, and this came up because it's
published by Atlus. On the surface it's a barely competent 3D action
platformer shooter thing, but the premise is pure gold. The whole thing
is designed like a bad American 1960s science fiction film, and all the
while you're playing the "director" of the piece is providing the DVD commentary and snarking on the cheap effects and the quality of the
acting. It's a great premise that probably deserved a better-executed
game, but the play is just solid enough to support the joke.

Want:
--=--

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS4/PS5) - This did
not arrive on Saturday as I expected. I suppose I shouldn't complain
about an overworked and underpaid parcel distribution system that can't
handle the load of all the waste and YOLO spending that Americans are
likely to do this year. I'm expecting the parcel on Monday, which will
also include...

Etrian Odyssey 1-3 Remastered (NSW) - On a freaking cart, because that's
how software should be freaking well distributed. I might buy a
convenience copy on Steam for fun later at a deep discount, but as long
as I draw breath the 'real' version of the game is one that I can carry around.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing gaming-related.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

Balance forward - $5,832

Adventure Academia (PS4) - $15
Adventure Academia (NSW) - $15
Super Bullet Break (PS4) - $10
Super Bullet Break (NSW) - $15
Alice Gear AEGIS CS (PS4) - $15
Alice Gear AEGIS CS (NSW) - $15
Gal Guardians Demon Purge (NSW) - $15
Gal Guardians Demon Purge Collector's Edition (PS5) - $35
Metal Max Xeno Reborn (NSW) - $15
Labyrinth of Zangetsu (PS4) - $15
Labyrinth of Zangetsu (NSW) - $15
Zengeon (NSW) - $10
Valthirian Arc Hero School Story 2 (PS5) - $15
Valthirian Arc Hero School Story 2 (NSW) - $15
Tandem A Tale of Shadows (PS4) - $20
Tandem A Tale of Shadows (NSW) - $10
Crossroad Crisis (PSX) - $10
Blodia/Timeball (TG-16) - $10
Power Eleven (TG-16) - $8
Basketbrawl (Lynx) - $20
Capcom Classics Collection (XBX) - $15
NBA Jam (XBX) - $18
Sonic Mega Collection Plus (XBX) - $12
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (PS5) - $40
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (NSW) - $40
Cotton Fantasy (NSW) - $20
Sky Odyssey (PS2) - $6
Super Bust-a-Move 2 (PS2) - $9
Bust-a-Move Bash (Wii) - $3
Super Bust-a-Move (PS2) - $7
Bust-a-Move 99 (PSX) - $12
Bust-a-Move DS (DS) - $4
Bust-a-Move 2 (PSX) - $12
Dropship Ultimate Peace Force (PS2) - $6
Random Steam stuff I can't be arsed to list (PC) - $35-ish.

Total to date - $6,369
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

On 27 Nov 2023 at 00:45:15 GMT, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
<kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

Oh good, a drawn-out Doctor Who special to coincide with the gift-giving
time of the year. Finally feels like the world is getting back to
normal. See also standard levels of strife in the middle east and some
actual competitive juice in UK government opposition too.

I still have the 25 year anniversary book from the "well we're probably cancelled" hiatus.

Play:
--=--
Arcade (ARC) - Or what passes for an arcade these days, at any rate.

Ah! I was going to do a "no games" post but actually I did go to the
Leeds Arcade Club. The middle floor has all the good games - the 70s-80s
cabs as well as a little nook with a dozen 90s gun games. Played a
bunch. I tend towards games that have control sets you can't do easily
at home, with a scattering of normal stick+button stuff:
Star Wars, the vector sit-in one
Tron
Missile Command
R-Type II (still rubbish at it, didn't make it to the end of level 2)
Robotron 2084 (high scored, which was 1% of the all time high score
leader)
Tempest, on a rather poorly tube that was missing most of the blue and alignment was 2mm off but entirely playable - highscored here too
Rampage three up, which is very quick and easy compared to one or two
player
Gauntlet and II
TMNT three up
Ridge Racer
Sega Rally 2 and 3
Sinistar
Strider
Bubble Bobble
Rainbow Islands
Battlezone
Berzerk
Burger Time

Plus some gun games
Dark Escape 4D, an enclosed 2player sit-down cab with two-handed gatling
gun type guns with heart rate monitors in, bench and gun vibration, air
blasts on jump scares. All good fun.
House of the Dead 3 - only got to level 4 on this before the heavy gun
with "shake to reload" mechanic wore a 5mm hole in my index finger. The
gun was smooth, it was a friction thing from the angle I needed to shake
it due to the also heavy cable.
Silent Scope 2 - not really a gun game of course but I'd not completed
this one so.

And a spot of DDR (I don't have the moves at the moment), the big Taiko
Drums, and Maimai - that Ouendan-type one that looks like a high-end
washing machine, which I didn't play long enough to get the hang of
really. Next time.

Want:
--=--

Nothing really. All my intents are to play games I already own.

Bin:
-==-

Demo'd Mario Wonder, didn't get into it. It was fine, but no more fine
than the NSMB games which I also don't get into.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

-u17 for the ticket in to Leeds Arcade Club.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening.
- Alexander Woollcott --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

Play:

Saints Row (PS4) - finished the story missions. I think the game was
decent and competent (it sounds like this was less true before some
patching), if admittedly fairly predictable for the most part.

Want:

The Talos Principle 2 - eventually, maybe, though I don't think I have
anything that would run it currently (bizarre as that is to say of a
puzzle game). And to be fair, as good as the original was, the puzzles
and even the story got to be kind of hard work at times. So for me it
was a good game in that curious way where you (almost) never want to
see the thing again when you finish it, which... perhaps isn't the
best thing to get a sequel to, come to think of it.

Bin:

Some crapitude in Saints Row:

- A point in the story where (rot13) gur boyvtngbel cevingr zvyvgnel
pbagenpgbe pynvzf n yrtny-fznyy-cevag gnxrbire bs gur Fnvagf. Ohg
jul jbhyq na betnavfrq pevzr bcrengvba pner nobhg yrtnyvgl? Fher,
gurl unir na "rzcver" ng guvf cbvag, ohg vg'f zbfgyl whfg sebagf sbe
vyyrtny fghss. Rira gur cynlre punenpgre unq n yvar cbvagvat bhg ubj
fghcvq guvf jubyr abgvba jnf.

- The slightly awkward mashing together of SR2 and SR3 feel, combined
with a sort of zany cartoonish light-heartedness, far more so than
previous SR games. At times it seemed like the general intent had
been "Saints Row by Dreamworks", facial expressions and all. I mean,
admittedly it remained enjoyable like that, but it's such a strange
place to have ended up.

- Having to look for most fast-travel points yourself, rather than
having them indicated on the map. (The map-indicator unlocks were a
bit annoying in general TBH.)

Bust-a-Move 2 (PSX) - $12

I'm impressed that this is still possible to get as an actual disc for
a sane price.

-Rus.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

In article <Xs89N.1071388$iuU8.352929@usenetxs.com>,
Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

Bust-a-Move 2 (PSX) - $12

I'm impressed that this is still possible to get as an actual disc for
a sane price.

Quite a few of the Bust-a-Move games are insanely priced now. By way of example, each of the Saturn games goes for $80 or more from the same
shop. You can go a little cheaper if you import the original Puzzle
Bobble releases, but those are getting more and more scarce. I can't
remember why I was inspired to pick them all up, apart from that I
noticed that the core Bubble Bobble games have all disappeared now and
can't be had for reasonable prices either.

-KKC, who finally has LAD Gaiden in his hands.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2