Random Gaming Thoughts

Why is it nobody makes a good D-Pad anymore? Am I forever beholden to my wonderful Saturn D-pad and left to think "this was the peak of the D-Pad, wasn't it?"
 
www.eastvalleytribune.com

Mesa woman closing popular game store

It’s “game over” for a popular Gilbert video game store whose Mesa owner is retiring after 25 years of serving East Valley’s gaming community.
www.eastvalleytribune.com www.eastvalleytribune.com

RIP GameZone 1996-2001

This was the store that got me into import gaming when it first opened. It was thanks to GameZone that my eyes were opened to how great the Saturn truly is, and it was also my gateway to the Dreamcast when it debuted in Japan. It is where my parents got a Japanese Dreamcast for my brothers and I back in May 1999. It was ultimately where I got the Japanese copies of Shenmue 1 and 2 first came out. If it wasn't for this store, I wouldn't be the gamer that I would be today.
 
Is now the best time to be a gamer?

Thanks to Kickstarter, franchises like Shenmue have made a comeback. Games can load in seconds and are presented in stunning graphics. You can play your old favourites in crisp HD through various remasters, remakes and ports. You can even choose between physical/digital media, mainstream/indie, and modern/retro focused (Polymega) systems. We also have Limited Run Games for those who prefer collecting physical media. This amount of luxury and choice is something I’d have loved to have seen as a kid, and now its the norm.

Sure it's not perfect (microtransactions), but I don't think we've had things any better.
 
Finally played through Burning Rangers! The ball is in your court now, @Truck_1_0_1_ . 😏

Truly sick game btw, the end gets pretty dang crazy. I missed a ton of civilians and got shit scores, so there's some really good replay incentives here. Also, I have to say, I always thought the visuals were a bit of a mess in the past... but when my eyes finally adjusted to the general wobbliness and lower framerate this playthrough, I have to say it's actually a pretty striking game. The lighting and some miscellaneous effects always seemed really impressive, but for some reason the entire visual package really came together as a whole for me this time. Those colors and designs among other things are just too damn good. Such a shame we never got a follow up on Dreamcast or something.
 
Revan said:
Is now the best time to be a gamer?

Thanks to Kickstarter, franchises like Shenmue have made a comeback. Games can load in seconds and are presented in stunning graphics. You can play your old favourites in crisp HD through various remasters, remakes and ports. You can even choose between physical/digital media, mainstream/indie, and modern/retro focused (Polymega) systems. We also have Limited Run Games for those who prefer collecting physical media. This amount of luxury and choice is something I’d have loved to have seen as a kid, and now its the norm.

Sure it's not perfect (microtransactions), but I don't think we've had things any better.
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Agreed, I was thinking the same thing recently. I don't think modern gaming is perfect but the elite games still really stand out. It just seems like there's so much choice out there nowadays, and to paraphrase a bit of what you're saying into my own words, I think we have a bunch of different "tiers" to choose from, if that makes sense.
  • AAA Games that can elevate gameplay and overall presentation, whether that's single player or online multiplayer.
  • "AA" Games that are smaller games from traditionally "AAA" studios that still have some pretty good production values, usually digital releases that are $40 or so.
  • Indie Games that fall into a few different tiers of their own:
    • Experimental games​
    • "Throwback/Retro" inspired games​
    • Smaller games with high production values​
  • Retro Games, whether that's:
    • Original Hardware, played on a CRT or using some sort of scaler to play on flat screens. You could also store games on a flashcart or ODE, which have really come along the past 5 years.​
    • FPGA/Emulation standalone systems​
    • PC emulators​
  • Mobile Gaming - not my thing personally, but it seems substantial enough to mention.
  • I feel I'm probably missing something, but I think the point is made, haha.
There should be stuff out there for everyone, unless someone is against buying digital games I suppose.
 
Tomato Convenience Store said:
Agreed, I was thinking the same thing recently. I don't think modern gaming is perfect but the elite games still really stand out. It just seems like there's so much choice out there nowadays, and to paraphrase a bit of what you're saying into my own words, I think we have a bunch of different "tiers" to choose from, if that makes sense.
  • AAA Games that can elevate gameplay and overall presentation, whether that's single player or online multiplayer.
  • "AA" Games that are smaller games from traditionally "AAA" studios that still have some pretty good production values, usually digital releases that are $40 or so.
  • Indie Games that fall into a few different tiers of their own:
    • Experimental games​
    • "Throwback/Retro" inspired games​
    • Smaller games with high production values​
  • Retro Games, whether that's:
    • Original Hardware, played on a CRT or using some sort of scaler to play on flat screens. You could also store games on a flashcart or ODE, which have really come along the past 5 years.​
    • FPGA/Emulation standalone systems​
    • PC emulators​
  • Mobile Gaming - not my thing personally, but it seems substantial enough to mention.
  • I feel I'm probably missing something, but I think the point is made, haha.
There should be stuff out there for everyone, unless someone is against buying digital games I suppose.
Click to expand...
Yeah, agree with this breakdown 100%. The amount of choice on offer is almost overwhelming. Games are now even beginning to experiment with increased accessibility options which is really impressive.
 
I was just about to start Life Is Strange 2 on my PS5 but I have ran into a problem!
LIFEPS5PROBLEM.JPG
They released a Demo prior to the game called The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, which I gather ties into the main game. The problem is this demo is not accessible on PS5 - Not even with the Physical Edition of LiS2! An even BIGGER problem is that after playing thsi demo save data from it affects content in the main game LiS2! So this is not something I can simply watch on Youtube my experience of Life Is Strange 2 is now compromised.

The reason i put off playing the damn game for so long is because how they F***ed up the physical release in the first place - The last Episode of the game being a download code and not on the disc... But now having waiting to get it at a budget price I have now missed out on the experience due to the compatibility issues of the demo.

I know many may find this petty but I want to experience the game as intended and If I'm missing part of the experience I want it to be resolved. I had a similar issue when Mass Effect 2 was release on PS3. The first game was an Xbox exclusive and to make up for this you had to go through a lousy comic inspired rendition t omake the important decisions of the 1st game. This did not make a fair compromise for missing out on the 1st game, so I waited years until the ME Trilogy was release on PS3.

Pretty livid about the whole ordeal to be honest, if this is the nonsense we get for having games episodic then I'd be quite happy if they abbolished the whole structure - At least the next LiS game is all going to be released on disc at launch.
 
Dietsoap said:
Finally played through Burning Rangers! The ball is in your court now, @Truck_1_0_1_ . 😏

Truly sick game btw, the end gets pretty dang crazy. I missed a ton of civilians and got shit scores, so there's some really good replay incentives here. Also, I have to say, I always thought the visuals were a bit of a mess in the past... but when my eyes finally adjusted to the general wobbliness and lower framerate this playthrough, I have to say it's actually a pretty striking game. The lighting and some miscellaneous effects always seemed really impressive, but for some reason the entire visual package really came together as a whole for me this time. Those colors and designs among other things are just too damn good. Such a shame we never got a follow up on Dreamcast or something.
Click to expand...
*gulp* alright, I guess I'll fire up the Saturn after I'm done with Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 ;)
 
Cross Over characters could be fun if the lore permits it.Putting VF fighter characters into other games is a bit strange. The fighting System of the VF Games is still quite unique and it is different from other fighting games with a more unrealistic flair. Putting the VF chara into these unrealistic settings might be difficult and might not do the source material justice.

but on the other hand VF is quit unknown these days among the younger people giving the series more exposure while putting them into other games might not be as bad after all...
 
Correct; PS3 and PSP in June, I believe (may be wrong on that) and VYTA in August (definitely not wrong on that! lol)
 
Yikes, gotta finally download Syberia 1/2, Shinobi, Vagrant Story, RE DCut, MGS/MGSVR/MGSHD then backup everything.

Even though probably not near as much a noticeable improvement as PS4, but I'm also gonna do a 2.5inch SATA SSD in my PS3.
 
ugh I don’t have time to set up my PS3 to check I have everything I could want. Definitely don’t have space for everything unfortunately.

Thank god I had an SD card for my Wii back before the Wii shop closed. Got every VC and Wiiware game I ever bought on there.
 
Vivi-gamer said:
I heard that the Playstation 3, PSP & PS Vita store is set to close this summer, so I made a video showing a few neat tricks to back-up your PS3 experience:
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so when the ps3 store goes down, we won't be able to re-download our purchased games?

the only 2 games i bought on psn which i care about are Re2 (ps1) and Re3 (ps1), which are not on my console at the moment.

also what happens with game updates? will they still exist? i only ask because i still use my ps3 quite a bit and occasionally buy games.
 
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red said:
so when the ps3 store goes down, we won't be able to re-download our purchased games?

the only 2 games i bought on psn which i care about are Re2 (ps1) and Re3 (ps1), which are not on my console at the moment.

also what happens with game updates? will they still exist? i only ask because i still use my ps3 quite a bit and occasionally buy games.
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That's what I am still unsure of, I know that when I went onto the PS Store I cannot buy anything - Which is the case for all of Europe apparently. As for Updates, it is hard to say if they will be available, which is why now is a good time to take out your PS3 can go through the Updates for all your games or main ones at the very least.

If the installs are TOO Big, you can get just the updates downloaded, this way you'll have the Updates ready and then you canproceed to the install when you want to play an individual game - rather than filling up your HDD with Every install. I have a 500gb PS3 Slim and made a back-up with all my games updates applied - So if my PS3 does tank at least I have the back up t oapply to another console.
 
Vivi-gamer said:
That's what I am still unsure of, I know that when I went onto the PS Store I cannot buy anything - Which is the case for all of Europe apparently. As for Updates, it is hard to say if they will be available, which is why now is a good time to take out your PS3 can go through the Updates for all your games or main ones at the very least.

If the installs are TOO Big, you can get just the updates downloaded, this way you'll have the Updates ready and then you canproceed to the install when you want to play an individual game - rather than filling up your HDD with Every install. I have a 500gb PS3 Slim and made a back-up with all my games updates applied - So if my PS3 does tank at least I have the back up t oapply to another console.
Click to expand...
if ps3 games stop getting updates/patches, a lot of games are going to be broken and unplayable. :(

when the nintendo wii store closed down, did the game updates/patches stop?
 
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