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Happy 6th anniversary, Nintendo Switch. Timely that my Amazon.jp order for BotW arrived today, too. Six years to the day of its original release. Metroid Prime Remastered, £29.25 from ShopTo. Breath of the Wild + Expansion Pass (complete edition - all content on the game card including latest patch and the expansion pass, no download required), £61.39 delivered. Not sure I'll ever open it, I just wanted it for the collection.

Looks mint! Having a case that fits it is a great idea too. I don’t know how people use the original joycons, they’re so uncomfortable and shit. I’ve got the Hori split pad and it’s in another league. Makes it so much more useable. Anyway, I just got this.

My wife bought me a Skull & Co. NeoGrip bundle for my birthday. It's really well made and has transformed handheld play for me. It comes with different grips for the back which snap into place and the whole thing is very sturdy. I'm currently running asymmetrical ones and it feels great. My hands are now angled outwards rather than pushed in at the bottom. The case it came with is also top notch.

Only played a few hours on GCN so looking forward to finally giving this a proper go.

Xbox sale. Got this masterpiece for the collection. Looking forward to playing it on something that’s more powerful than a rotten potato skin. I played Binary Domain years ago and didn’t think much to it but it always gets brought up as a hidden gem by people I respect so for a fiver I’ll give it another go at some point.

I have also bought Metroid Prime

Went for the first Season Pass of Theatrhythm. Absolutely adore this game, so more songs is a must for me.

Tidy haul!

Ordered this ages ago on amazon.co.uk when it was briefly priced at £30.68. Arrived today.

Cereza and the Lost Demon comes with a notepad that I will never used and will sit on a shelf before one day moving to live in a box Picross DS isn't especially interesting a pick up, but it was cheap

Blimey, 2 months running, so I'll assume the subscription error that saw me miss 4 editions is now resolved:

Never played the original, but I absolutely loved Final Fantasy Tactics, one of my favourite PS1 games of all time. From looking at reviews, reckon I should enjoy this.

daigasso band brothers p! obvs

Pre-ordered to get access to the early Beta. This is a bit bloody good….

got these over the last few months

Help me Leon!! Also pre-ordered this...

Just some general impressions here of the unit itself really for those interested. For context, I've only ever used one VR headset before and that was original PSVR. Super simple to unbox, very much like the PS5 in the no-frills aspect of it with all the cardboard and a cardboard/paper based cable tie, seeing the unit for the first time, picking it up, picking the Sense controllers up I was surprised how light everything is. You look at the PSVR2 sitting there in its little moulded cardboard box and for some reason think this is gonna be heavy, but it's not, it's surprisingly light, crazy light really for everything that's going on inside it. The Sense controllers are light too but maybe a little too light at times, I would maybe like a little more weight to them, they are very slippery too so the straps are needed to avoid making a hole in my TV lol. In the box is also another mini-box which contains the instructions, some different buds for the included ear buds and in some plastic (!!!) was the stereo ear buds themselves. The very first time I tried the headset it was with my own HyperX headphones I've had for donkeys years now, but it didn't quite feel right on my head, I felt like something was off. So I took it off, clipped in the stereo earbuds (which attach nicely onto the back of the headset so you don't even know they're on, and even have little holders for each of the buds on the sides of the backstrap of the headset itself) and it was so much better. Yes, I generally don't like earbuds and yes they did fall out my ear a few times before I got them fit in my ears properly but once that was done the immersion was much better and more importantly the comfort was much better than using my HyperX over-ear headphones. If you've ever tried a PSVR1 on in GAME, at an event etc. then you'll immediately be familiar with the design of PSVR2, the two are incredibly similar in terms of their overall design, the way the strap does up, the general aesthetic of the whole unit and feel on your head and all the jazz. As mentioned previously though, it is much lighter than PSVR1, you don't feel the weight on your head at all and it has a huge amount of improvements from that headset whilst maintaining the same overall design philosophy. The biggest change is the quality of the screens, it's almost chalk and cheese compared to the OG PSVR, it's just immediately clearer and you don't get that 'screen door' effect on black screens. You also don't get that pixelated image as much, it is still there to a degree which I was surprised about as I assumed the OLED panels would eliminate this, but it is there slightly, just nowhere near as bad. You can also change the lens location in the headset to match up with your eyes and is much easier to find the 'sweet spot' when wearing glasses. It's just much more comfortable overall. The eye tracking is impressive but aside from menus in Horizon that use it, I haven't really properly tried it out in a game in earnest yet but I believe it does help with the tracking in general that the headset does. The other new button on the headset is the 'function' button which allows you to see the outer world whilst in game and enables you to set up your play area before you play so you don't collide into things or damage anything. You can edit this play area with the Sense controllers to make things bigger or larger depending on your needs. Unfortunately, the living room isn't quite big enough for roomscale so I have to go with the 'standing' option after I've set up the play area. The Sense controllers feel intuitive to use and a million times better than the godawful Move controllers you had to content with in PSVR1, every button seems to be placed exactly where it should be and there isn't any awkwardness, the finger tracking works really well, seeing your hand open and close in Horizon is a really cool moment. Games-wise, I've only tried out GT7 and Horizon: CotM so far. I don't like to have too many games on the go at one time so I didn't want to start about 7 different PSVR2 games and then feel like I'm beholden to all of them if that makes sense. More impressions in the dedicated threads but both of these are amazing in VR for different reasons, showpieces for the headset in general. Overall, it's just a much comfier, easier headset to use than PSVR1 ever was. The 'sweet spot' is much easier to achieve and the picture nowhere near as blurry, less affected by fogging lenses or anything like that. I'm still finding my 'VR legs' so to speak, as a few titles on PSVR1 made me feel sick so I wanted to err on the safe side, but with this, aside from a few early moments at high speed with GT7 I haven't had any issues with that whatsoever thankfully. Not sure if anyone else is too interested in VR in general, but if anyone has any questions they want answered I'll do my best. Here's of video of me looking like a tit in my living room for everyone to enjoy lol. https://imgur.com/a/e9d2Wgt

Upgraded to the PS5 versions of Rez and Tetris Effect.

Picked up this charging station and cradle for PSVR2, meant to be better than the official one so thought I’d give it a go

New Dreamcast game As in actually new, meant to be released last October, but a production issue means its released this week. It's called Alice Dreams Tournament and as far as I know it's kind of a Bomberman em up. There's also a mode that uses the VMU to guide you around in a WiiU style mode that might be multi only

Got these over the weekend. Mini impressions Asseto Corsa Competizione, some PC driving sim that I wanted to check out cause it had VR integration. Tho from what I'm seeing the VR integration is very hard to get up and running in a way that makes sense from a controls perspective. There's a thread about this game on another place full of people playing it in VR so I'm going to make a project of figuring that stuff out at some point The other one, Sons of the Forest, sequel to The Forest which was a big early attempt at the open world survival thing when that kicked off. Apparently absolutely massive with the twitch crowd from what I'm seeing. It's very janky and I think I don't recommend it right now. Feels sort of like the team are banking on the previous game's reputation to just sort of rush out a very incomplete product (yeah yeah, early access and all). I'd say wait 6 months on this one and tune out the hype merchants a bit until it catches up, unless you love the original for whatever reason

My HonsVR Prescription VR lenses have arrived from China

Nah, it's just the design of the Steelbook.

Happy Resi 4 Day 🤘

Some cool Game Boy posters up on the MyNintendo store for 600 platinum points plus £1.99 p&p. https://my.nintendo.com/news/59619a080b325f73

This is arguably the showpiece, flagship title for PSVR2 and it hasn't failed to disappoint. Having only played two games on the system so far (this and GT7), with both being incredibly impressive in VR, I have to give this the edge as it fully utilises PSVR2's capabilities to its fullest extent, all the features like the haptics, finger tracking, impulse triggers etc. all come into play to create one super immersive environment to explore, with a Wheel and Pedals I'd imagine GT7 would be equally as impressive but seeing as I've just got the DualSense to use for that, this gets the edge ever so slightly. Coming from PSVR1 where 'standing' games were severely crippled by poor tracking, I watched on in envy as I saw numerous headsets launch with full roomscale tracking like the Vive, Index, Rift Pro etc. and whilst I can't quite achieve that myself as my living room isn't big enough, there's more than enough freedom to move about and the tracking is fantastic with this in comparison. It feels like the realisation of what I wanted PSVR1 to be all those years ago, a fully fleshed out AAA game made from the ground up for VR that fully immerses you in the experience with controls and tech that don't detract from the experience. At its heart, this is a climbing game though. I'd say 70-80% of the time you will be clambering up Mountains, man made structures, along peeks, valley's and everything in-between really. At first the climbing is quite one-note, you just climb with your hands up various surfaces but as the game goes on you unlock pickaxes which make you feel like Lara Croft in the recent Tomb Raider titles and a grappling hook-like device which enables you to swing across chasms. Imagine what the climbing sections of an Uncharted or Tomb Raider would feel like in 1st person and you've got a rough estimation of what this is like really, enemies and combat sections are in the game but they're treated as boss battles at the end of a chapter and are fleeting experiences that whilst incredibly thrilling are gone before you know it really. It's a linear experience without too many branching paths, open areas or anything like that, there are a few times where you can choose to go down the right or left path at particular sections but that's about it really, it's very much a cinematic linear type experience. There's a few collectibles to get along the way in the way of targets you can shoot with your bow that are sometimes placed in sneaky locations, puzzles with stones you can stack upon one another to eventually make a cairn and legendary mountains to climb, the latter of which seems to be mainly tied to the story. There are also lore collectibles you can get and pieces of armour to collect that when you've accumulated 4 or 5 upgrade your armour capabilities, nothing to ground-breaking there but it helps break the game up. There's also a theme park like ride where you travel along in a kayak through the rainforest whilst various monsters either clamber, fight or jump over you, it's definitely a mode you will try once and show to friends and family members to wow them as they come round but that's pretty much all it is. Another inclusion is the challenges you can do, there's an archery challenge where you can attempt to outscore Aloy's 1500 points (which I managed a few nights ago) and an assault course challenge where you have to climb, jump and shimmy your way through a course beating a certain time, I think I need to get further into the game before this fully unlocks for me, but what I have tried is good fun. So yeah, very impressive overall, I'm about 5 hours in and have to wean myself off it every night once my 90 minute session has finished. Had no issues with motion sickness or anything so far either which is great, have been using the 'comfort' setting for now as I don't want to overdo my capabilities too soon. I can see why some may be disappointed there's not more combat in it, at its heart it is a climbing game first and foremost, but for me it's still spectacular. My stream from last night: A few pics:

I’m about seven hours into this and I’ve finished the first act of the game so I thought I’d share some thoughts. Pentiment is a very unique game. It’s not a point and click adventure, it’s a basically a visual novel, or an interactive book. It’s set in the early 1500s and is clearly a labour of love for the team that created the game at Obsidian (I guess they must have several teams now). It was written and directed by Josh Sawyer, who I’m guessing must be a massive history buff, or at least must have done a lot of research for this game. Many reviews made comparisons to The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco which is a good comparison I guess. It’s a very highly quality game. I don’t know if the music is strictly made by instruments of the time period or not, but it sounds like it, and it’s very impressive. The art and presentation are excellent as well. The game is unapologetically slow. It moves at its own methodical pace. It feels very much like the result of one person’s strong vision (although that’s just my assumption). I’m really enjoying it. I think it’s great. The time period setting and whodunnit mystery nature of the game make it somewhat comparable to The Case of the Golden Idol, but that was much more of a game and requires much more effort and thinking on the player’s part. Time will tell which I prefer.

He means the documentary not the game, I think.😂

The Demo is out now, possibly the first of two if past Resident Evil games are anything to go off. Based on the demo it's pretty faithful to how the original starts, playing up to the village fight before it ends. The opening moments are expanded and they've developed the combat a little. you can stealth a little now, the knife is a button press, there's opportunities to shoot then melee in a more deliberate way than it felt in the original. There's dodging and parrying, and when enemies are downed you can finish them off, which you need to do and I've had a couple change on me even this early in the game (this could be a demo thing) There are a few changes, as said there's a expanded start with some more story telling played out, and some subversion of what you expect, which runs throughout the demo My only issues so far, I don't like the aiming. I think by design it's easy to miss, but I'm not really a fan of how easy it is to miss even when you aren't being rushed. I'm also not a huge fan of how it looks. That might be a common thing with the engine, assuming this is the same as the RE2 remake, because I thought that could look a little rough at points. I've played the performance mode, and it has loads of ghosting when you turn the camera, whenever there's movement, and just at certain points on any fine detail, so I'm not sure what reconstruction they're using but it's not working great (playing on PS5). I might have another run on the graphics mode to see, then I might even download the PC version

There's a couple of games gone free on 3ds https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/03/two-3ds-games-have-been-made-free-to-download-on-3ds-eshop-europe

Fired this up today. Made my character and, after the fab opening gambit, I spent a couple of hours making my way around Hogwarts, taking a few quests, chasing butterflies back to the paintings they'd escaped from, joining the dueling club and winning my first battle etc.. This take on Hogwarts is exceptional I must say. It's really well done. Just walking around, looking at paintings and then stumbling into classrooms or common rooms is very satisfying. To be honest I'm a bit old for Potter, but my kids grew up on the stories, which sort of meant I spent a lot of time in that universe myself. As a gamer I'm finding this experience much more gratifying than the movies or books which, as I say, were a tad young for my tastes. An open world RPG full of magic is basically my thing, potterverse or not. And this certainly has the makings of a exceptional and deep RPG. Up to now I love it.

Not long to go now until 3DS and WiiU eShop closes. There are a few deals on 3DS currently: https://ntdeals.net/gb-store/discounts/1?type=games&platforms=3ds The latest back page podcast episode is one of Wii U and 3DS eShop recommendations. It reminded me that the Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice have paid DLC episodes, so I've grabbed those. £3.99 and £5.39 respectively. I also bought Bye-Bye Boxboy! Still a few more bits I want before it closes for good.

Originally a PS3 game with a PS4 version, Ishin has now been remade as a PS4 and PS5 (and Xbox) game, and you do get the sense it's probably the final game we'll get that feels like 'old' Yakuza. It's hard to place what exactly makes it feel like an older take on the game, possibly the movement, it's a bit haphazard, I can't see a lock-on, it's not as refined and flowing as it could be. It's the difference between playing Kiwami 1 and Yakuza 6. It also feels less mental with its missions, but I don't know how many of them are just lifted from the original game. In terms of the story, it's not quite a retelling of the first Yakuza game, but it's pretty close. Not-Kiryu (the cast is made up of renamed characters from past games) comes back to town after time away, ends up having to avenge a paternal figure, after being blamed for a crime he didn't commit. From there it does become its own tale, with enough to it that it doesn't feel like a 2nd-rate spin off Again, I don't know if this was in the original, but it has its own take on 0's switchable different fighting styles. There's the standard Yakuza brawling, plus the swordplay you'd expect playing as a samurai. Less expected is that you are also carrying a gun and can just blast away at people (I suppose this will have followed Dead Souls originally), and a style that combines sword combat with your firearm, which leaves you defensively vulnerable, but it's the most fun to control and the most flowing style (Sword has been my do to). I've been using fewer Heat actions, they seem to have been downplayed this time, and access to them is more part of the skill tree As you use a style you'll level up, unlocking specific and general orbs that unlock the next skill in the various combat styles. There's gear with stat boosts, and some with perks attached. I've got a sword that recovers a very small amount of help every time it causes damage, which is great, but the headband I've got with the most defence points blocks me from earning heat, which means it can go in the bin as far as I'm concerned I'm enjoying it more than I expected, I thought I was a bit Yakuza's out, I never finished Kiwami 2, I never finished Judgement, and haven't touched the games that came after. But this feeling a bit archaic has helped it I think

If you're at this point and don't like JRPGs there's not a lot of point to force yourself. I think SMT and Persona games have more high stakes combat but most of them, like FF or DQ, are more like marathons than sprints. It's a case of if you can survive the dungeon with the resources you have with also the opportunity to tinker a bit to optimise the run, and once you're into the language of JRPGs it's not that difficult. But they're just chill. You hang out with some pretty boys and waifus, maybe a dad and a goofy little guy, and go through this fantastical world that is made by the strongest artists in the industry really flexing their imagination while you go on an adventure to eventually kill god. Sure, you can read a wiki of the the events of the story in no time but that misses the point of the experience. When it all comes together just right they can be some of the most fun you can have with a game, though most aren't but can still be a pretty good time.

Rosie borrowed a PSVR2 to test out over the weekend, so I finally gave this a go after never having loaded it up before. Listen, I never really liked GT in the past. Whether I was playing 2 (complete with the burnt rubber smelling disc), 3: A-Spec, or 4, I just completely bounced off the series. It always felt so stuffy and sterile, and when Forza launched I fully stuck with that series. However, trying this in VR was an incredible experience and might well have sold me on this game overall. Because I was trying PSVR for the first time, I did a few different things, including turning around in my seat while driving. I saw the entire interior. I could even lean over and look directly out of the back window. It's so weird. The immersion is impeccable - checking mirrors as you're driving is so natural and gives that extra burst of realism (and like real life, I often forget to check my left wing mirror enough). Graphics are fantastic, and the racing feels so, so good with the headset on. The only negatives I can really see that pulled me out of the experience: - it forced me to use the DualSense pad to play, rather than the VR grips. - because I couldn't use the grips, every time I looked down at the racing suit my VR avatar was wearing, or any time I itched my nose, it didn't reflect on the character. So it was just a static body who was going through the motions of driving. As for the game itself - I'm a fan. Huge, huge fan. I've wanted a decent racing sim in my life for a while now, and Forza Horizon doesn't scratch that itch. It's going to be my chillout game whenever I can get the PS over Rosie for a little while.

I finally got my Playdate last week and have played it enough to form an opinion on it. Initially I was a little disappointed with it. It was late, I had issues with customer service, my unit is kind of scuffed, enough issues that I wasn't feeling any excitement about playing it As I'm spending more time with it I'm liking it more. It crashes less now, at first it was every time you unlocked the screen, since it crashed so badly that I had to do the setup again its worked flawlessly. The battery is great and it charges really quickly, however its not the most comfortable handheld I've ever used. Certain games require the dpad and the crank to play, it's doable but it's way too small for my hands The games are released 2 a week, I think there's 24 in total. Of the 4 games I have so far from the season pass, one is just a simple music maker, and one I've not really spent time with. Crankin's Time Travel Adventure is fun, it's about winding time to avoid obstacles to your date. And Whitewater Wipeout I'm just not very good at, but it's the surfing game from California Games. There's a bunch of games on itch.io you can download, some for free, some not. Of them Loopsy is a really good puzzle game, One Bit Arena is probably my favourite so far (it's a bit like Smash TV), and Super Corporate Tax Evader made me laugh

It’s here!

Our retail version has this as the alternate cover, so you can just flip it. It's a throwback to the Japanese Gamecube cover btw. (always loved the cardboard boxes they had over there):

People keep mentioning Miquella, I played 60-70 hours of this and have no idea who that is. Piece of shit game.

Bravely Default is probably the closest to old Final Fantasy, although I'm guessing you're in to the original 'new' Final Fantasy like FF 7.

I think that's maybe my problem too... as much as I enjoyed the VII Remake (Re-imagining?) I enjoyed the VIII Remaster more.

The JPN box art for this looks a lot nicer imo.

Ryoma be spitting. As for genuine thoughts on the game. It was an extremely slow start. Even for one of these, I was a little worried. But around chapter 3 it started to pick up and has just been getting better and better since. Up to chapter 6 now and about 17 hours in over a very short time period. The combat took a little getting used to as well, but now I’m really enjoying that too. It gets a lot better if you focus on unlocking some heat attacks (specials). Really got into habit of switching between them depending on the situation now and it’s loads of fun. Using the sword stance in one on one boss style fights feels really cool too. The whole pace changes & it does a really great job of making you feel like you’re in an actual sword fight & makes you feel like a badass while being very challenging at the same time. it’s great at introducing extras as well, just as I felt I’d got the combat nailed down it introduced support character abilities. Just at the perfect time. It does feel a little clunky, nothing is as immediate as you feel it should be and the walking around takes some getting used to as it feels very strange and shows it’s age in this area. But as others say it kind of adds to the charm. And you do get used to it. Im loving the explorable areas. Give me this over a million open worlds. As per other Yakuza games, it’s a relatively small area but you really learn it and there’s stuff to do everywhere with interactable characters and sub stories on every street and corner. It’s so much more interesting than all the identikit, huge open worlds with nothing to do bar collecting plants. My only negative so far is that it’s a lot more serious than mainline Yakuza/LAD games. There’s not as much as a split with silly and funny stuff as normal. It’s still there no doubt, but just not as well divided as it normally is IMO. Im fully invested though & always look forward to the next story beat. Excellent game.

I didn't find this game mechanically interesting enough to be able to cope with the writing. I realise only a few JRPG really excel in that regard but Arise was so far down the drain I had to stop. The skits in particular were insufferable and I used to like these in previous games. "I wanted to ask you, why do you have this big shield?" "I carry a shield to protect my team." "So you're saying you're using that shield to defend your party?" "Exactly, having a shield means I can keep everyone safe." "Interesting, I'm glad we have you on our team. I ask of you to keep me safe as well." "My shield and I will certainly do so." Please just shut up.

Can only really echo @regemond's thoughts overall that PSVR2 with this game is absolute dynamite. It is just an absolutely incredible experience, the amount of immersion and depth that it injects into the game is just absolutely insane, being able to properly judge corners, feel the undulations of a circuit as you go up and down hills and up or down through corners is just mad. I haven't played Leguna Seca yet but the corkscrew there will be absolutely bonkers I'm sure. I'm glad someone else other than me said this was amazing as well as it won't get me in trouble with the hyperbole police lol. I pretty much agree with everything you've said, the DualSense doesn't pull me out of the game but maybe that's just me getting used to it, I much prefer that solution to doing a virtual wii-mote wheel type thing with my hands in the Sense controllers anyway as that would distract me when I'm driving personally. One small caveat to the PSVR2 mode though is that you can't see the MFD. Most of the time this isn't an issue as it's not something you need to have when driving about (I usually have most of the HUD off anyway when I'm playing 'Flat' in cockpit view) but for endurance races that require you to monitor your fuel and set the fuel flow so you don't run out of Petrol half way through a race, it's an issue. I've been stuck on this one race at Daytona in Menu Book 41/42 or something, the first 2 attempts I ran out of fuel and couldn't really understand why I never got any notification about it, once I went back to the race settings screen I realised what the culprit was, apparently it should just be an easy right D-Pad button press to bring up the MFD that allows you to change the fuel mix but I can't get it to appear in VR. I haven't tried going into the settings via the main menus (which can be different from the in-race menu settings) and seeing if I can add it to the PSVR2 view, but it is a bit annoying that I have to do this race 'flat' otherwise I won't know which fuel mix I'm in and when I'll run out of fuel, it could just be a 'me' thing though and I haven't found the solution yet but who knows. I was exactly the same going into this game as well, had played about an hour of 4 and an hour of 5 before bailing on them, loved GT1-3 before that but took a bit of a punt on this as it seemed like a return to form and had softened a bit in the sterility and was rewarded with a truly magnificent game that is only enhanced further with VR, making it a real triumph. I would absolutely love a high-end wheel and chair to go along with this, it would be absolutely incredible, but yeah, money lol. Maybe if I make an OnlyFans? lol.

https://www.eurogamer.net/western-digitals-fastest-ssd-is-at-its-lowest-price-on-amazon Faster than the PS5 SSD, also if you have a PS5 I'm pretty sure you can stick these in there as well. Tho I think you need to get the heatsink model. These have gotten much more reasonably priced recently. edit I think the links on eurogamer are affiliate links btw, if that matters

To me, the tweet reads like they are trying to get it to the same standard on 'both', eg that the feature is working less well on S than on X I can't see another way to interpret it tbh

Yah, MK is Back!!😁

There goes Blakey's tits again.

Hello! I'm Jordan, I work with Mark @ Amazon and he introduced me to MFGamers last week!😄 I'm an avid Call of Duty player (single player, not multiplayer🤢) and that is pretty much all I play. Hopefully looking to broaden my horizons and work my way into different genres. Aside from gaming, I enjoy learning how to code and anything else tech related - currently working my way through C++. Anyway, that's about it, hope to speak to you all soon. Cheers!😅