From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc


I saw an interesting data point, where a Kickstarter project promised a
Switch and an Xbox port of a game, but no Playstation version. Probably
not related to the fact that Sony won't make discs anymore, but it's
wild that it's almost always been Microsoft that was traditionally left
out rather than Sony.

Play:
--=--

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (PS4) - On the last chapter now. I
spent a lot of time in chapters 6 and 8 grinding the side quests and
doing the driving minigame to collect crafting loot. I don't completely
buy the reveal of the actual villain of the piece (up until this point)
but it's authentically like a Yakuza game in that they spend a lot of
time making sure you're familiar with all these characters. Enough to
like them all so that the one who betrays our heroes ends up being a
shock if not also a real disappointment. I'm good enough at the combat
now that I can fully appreciate how it's different to normal Yakuza
games, right up until one of the "Death Cry" profanity dialogue bubbles
drops from midair onto the desert floor and I have to pick it up and
swing it around like a bludgeoning weapon.

I didn't realise until this past weekend that the theme song to this
game is a thrash metal remix of the very original PS2 Yakuza game, with
all the same lyrics and everything. Late in the game you get the
opportunity to pick up a cassette of that older track to play in the
vehicle whilst out driving, and it wasn't until I could compare the two
side by side that I made the connection at all.

Barbie Game Girl (GB) - A pity purchase at a toy convention where my kid scored some unusual Pokemon cards and a storied squishy dumpling toy
which has apparently been either recalled or banned in my country. Game
Girl is actually a crap platformer, as almost all games of this era
were, and not a more interesting subversion of the medium as I thought
it might have been. Well, it's another real Game Boy cartridge I can add
to my pile of terrible material possessions.

Want:
--=--

Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter (PS5) - I have a reprint of the first
chapter sitting high on the backlog of games to play. Given everything
that's been going on I might wait until there's a sale on before I pick
up this very recent release. Or I might just play the PSP game that I
bought and never started.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing game-related.

-KKC, attempting to get new technical certifications. For reasons.
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From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

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

Play:

Grow Up (PC) - a bit more of this. Not much collecting left to do, so
I suppose it'll be more challengey by default if I keep at it. Which
seems like it'd be silly for a replay, but having come this far I
wouldn't be surprised if I just keep going TBH.

Magical Drop Plus 1 (PS1) - as bundled with PAL Magical Drop 3.
Admittedly, this was maybe mostly played in the sense of playing the
Magical Drop rap I mentioned - or at least, that's how I think of it.
As a bonus track of sorts (along with a few others) it's not something
I remember cropping up in the game ordinarily, so to hear the thing
meant picking Extras, Studio, Solo Play, a character, then pressing R2
until "BGM 15", and finally pressing L1. UI perfection this is not.

Magical Drop 3 (PS1) - because obviously. Just a run through on
Normal, which is mostly too easy after having played the Neo Geo one
more in recent years. A narrative which is somewhat busted by the way
I still managed to need a continue against Hanged Man. Also I feel
like, given that context, it would have made more sense to be required
to enter letters before failing rather than after. :-)

Barbie Game Girl (GB) - A pity purchase at a toy convention where my kid scored some unusual Pokemon cards and a storied squishy dumpling toy
which has apparently been either recalled or banned in my country. Game
Girl is actually a crap platformer, as almost all games of this era
were, and not a more interesting subversion of the medium as I thought
it might have been. Well, it's another real Game Boy cartridge I can add
to my pile of terrible material possessions.

Presumably not all Barbie games can be expected to prominently feature
her indulgence in strenuous horse-related activities, as we came to
see on later systems aimed more at the adult market.

Want:

Barbie Source Adventures, where Hacker Barbie sets an LLM the task of decompiling her old games and porting them to modern systems.
(Inevitably, hilarity ensues when she asks it to make sure that the
new releases "go viral".)

Bin:

PS1 MD3 bizarrely adding some weird extra mechanics to the final boss
fight, something I don't think I was ever really keen on.

Never quite remembering if PS1 MD is Plus 1 or +1 - doubleplus ungood.

-Rus.
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From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

In article <_KisS.372663$G71.199924@usenetxs.com>,
Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

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

Want:

Barbie Source Adventures, where Hacker Barbie sets an LLM the task of >decompiling her old games and porting them to modern systems.
(Inevitably, hilarity ensues when she asks it to make sure that the
new releases "go viral".)

Unrelatedly reviews of the Barbie Rewind collection (from the talented
hands at Digital Eclipse) are trickling out now. Kotaku's piece on it is pretty informative:

https://kotaku.com/barbie-rewind-threatens-to-bring-out-my-inner-horse-girl-2000736520

For $30 I may overcome my self-inflicted austerity and buy a copy, if
only so that they follow this retro collection up with all of the PS2
and PS3 games in one convenient place.

-KKC, reluctantly pursuing updated technical certifications.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

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

Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

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

Want:

Barbie Source Adventures, where Hacker Barbie sets an LLM the task of >>decompiling her old games and porting them to modern systems.
(Inevitably, hilarity ensues when she asks it to make sure that the
new releases "go viral".)

Unrelatedly reviews of the Barbie Rewind collection (from the talented
hands at Digital Eclipse) are trickling out now.

As nice as that might be, personally I'm still holding out for the
42nd remake of the low-poly chiptune Lego FPS version with a text
adventure minigame that parodies the making of a mock-satirical
critique of a Barbie movie reviewer. On ice. :-)

-Rus.
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