shinymcshine

Would that be 'ow much!!!!!

MK8, Splatoon, BotW - you could have played them all on the WiiU......

FWIW I've read a couple of reviews which have started out saying the reviewer had no idea or interest in poker, but then went on to really enjoy Balatro. https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/feb/27/balatro-mashup-solitaire-poker-has-taken-over-my-life-roguelike https://metro.co.uk/2024/03/04/balatro-review-joker-time-20391058/?ico=metro-posts_gaming_whats-trending-now

That's positive - guess you'll then just have to wait for DPD to dropkick it back to you .....

Completed the July boss (at the hotel) - which was (in its second phase) the trickiest one so far, but I got through it first time.

Keep chugging on with this - I like the story threads, and picking up the new personas (and fusing different ones). So I think I maxed out the friendship with the guy who fancied the teacher (got my Magician card to Lv 9) and I fused a few new things too - Matador, Pale Rider and some huge looking hydra thing (can't recall it's name). Been doing all.of Elizabeth's requests too (the only ones I have outstanding are the enduring ones (fuse xyz persona, kill xyz enemies, open xyz treasures) and we've hung out on a couple of days too. I'm 7 days from the July full moon, have rescued a few missing people from the tower, and just made a friendship with a monk in the nightclub.......

I tend to run through it in a single night too (until reaching the barrier), but do occasionally use the teleporters to drop back down & save (in case things go awry) - but it does mean that I use consumable items to regain HP & SP occasionally. I'll then go back & revisit the top 10 or so floors a few times in the monthly cycle too.

Yep, like the on floor where Fuuka says "There's a lot of strong enemies here, you can use my skill to evade them" - and I'm like, nope, bring on the strong enemies, they are what make the game interesting!

Argh !!!!! I don't want new Social Links to open up at the Dorm so I can now spend social time with the team - I want new floors in the tower to open up more quickly (currently restricted to floor sixtysomething by a barrier after defeating the Fleetfooted Cavalry 'boss', it's now sometime in the middle of June). Question - what's the point of the 'scouting ahead' option - where you can split off a party member? I don't think that the maps are (so far) big enough for this to be an advantage, whilst I guess there's a risk they could run into a shadow (and have to fight solo) - so I've not bothered doing it - but am I missing something?

I guess you could equip an accessory that reduces chance of charm (which you might use on a 2nd run)?

Question please - re. social links When I get the notification that someone wants to hang out, but then when I select them it says something like 'hanging out with them won't improve your relationship' - does this have any negative consequences ? So if I just ignore that person for a while and go with different people / activities that improve other social links / skills will my relationship with them eventually decrease or does it just stay static ?

The Jury : Murder Trial (Ch4) Watched 2 from the 4 episodes so far, and it's oddly compelling - albeit not quite in a way I expected. They are presenting a real case (names changed) in the same manner as it originally was, to 2 independent juries - who are unaware of each others presence - to see if, when presented with the same evidence, they come to the same conclusion - and therefore whether the current system is really fit for purpose. The question they are being asked to determine is whether the accused is guilty of murder or manslaughter - where the mitigation would be "loss of control" i.e. factors caused the person to snap/act out of character due to extenuating circumstances. However the crux of the programme isn't really about evidence based decision making, but how the each member of the jury brings their own personal bias into their judgement (from their own life experiences) - so when they go into debate (in the jury room) it almost descends into the usual reality TV tears, tantrums and arguements - there's no Henry Fonda in sight here ! Maybe it's done for dramatic TV effect, but certain jury members have experiences that parallel elements of the case in question (anger issues, domestic abuse, family separations etc) so they quite vocal to share their opinions - irrespective of evidence presented in the case. Where it lacks balance perhaps (and I haven't been on a jury to know) is that they don't seem to have been given a clear pre-briefing or enduring legal guidance of what they should be examining, or anyone bringing them back to discuss facts rather than opinions (maybe they aren't, or it's just on the cuttings room floor). An aside however is: if it's proved murder (calculated, conscious, premeditated etc) then they'll be banged up for 'life', but if manslaughter (loss of control) then it might be as little as 2 yrs. Which is sort of weird from a society perspective - that we constraint people who are determined to be in control of their actions, but release much earlier those who might snap at any time (loss of control) and kill someone - which is sort of unnerving when you consider it......

Yep, it wasn't suppose to sound snarky, more a reflection on the lack of clear corporate direction that seems to have affected the industry over recent years.

When you see London Studio's own list of achievements, it makes you wonder what they've actually been doing for the last few years.....!?!? https://playstationlondonstudio.com/games/

Another full moon has passed (June) and another member joined the squad.

Ted - TV Series I've now watched 6 from 8* and I actually quite enjoy it - it rolls the characters back to the 90s so Ted is occasionally going to High School with John, and they've got an older college age niece living in the household too - which adds a good dynamic. So it's quite formulaic in terms of storylines, but the coarse humour is still there, and it's a good extension from the films, rather than feeling like a lame unnecessary spin-off. So it's pretty bang average overall I'd guess, with a good few laughs per show, and worth a passing watch (if you liked the films). The Halloween episode was especially great though. UPDATED - Now seen the last couple of episodes - and it's pretty damn good overall !! *There's 7 episodes (in the US) but the first (longer one) was split into 2 for UK showing.

I got a letter (email) about the GBA published in this month's Retrogamer ! Still amazes me that they released the GBA without a backlight.

"Slay the Spire" suggests otherwise !

I've admit I'm struggling a bit with the pacing of this now ~20 hrs in. The exploration of the tower is great, but seems like the cycle will be every full moon (4 weeks) you get an unlock and a decent event battle, and in between it's just kicking your heels a bit, doing the social stuff and revisiting tower levels - and that sort of sucks a bit, as it's all a little slow. I'll be sticking with it a while more though !

Hit Floor 42 and saw the 'Game Over' screen for the first time !

It all got a bit slow around Golden Week, doing social activities and not too much action, then...... boom, the monorail ! That was fun !

8.5 hrs, and still at the end of April, and the tower is blocked off around Lv 22 - I assumed this is some time/event driven unlock rather than something I'm missing ? Still enjoying things, been back to previous floors unlocking chests, picking up new equipment, fusing personas etc. Joined a couple of schools clubs too, and done a bit of karaoke and work in the coffee shop.

First time playing a Persona game - and it's clearly a bit weird, but after pushing through a couple of hours of talky intros etc I now feel like I'm getting somewhere - even thought it's still 21 April, but I'm 'freely' exploring the tower for the first real time (which feels a bit like Azure Dreams). Not too sure quite how far I'm supposed to be going, just triggered the teleport on Lv 17, with a pending 'boss' fight - but don't seem to be having too many issues so far. No real idea on fusing Personas together, and whether I've done the right thing - but I combined Angel & Silky to make a Forneus. I guess it's not knowing what's a good / bad thing to do, and whether early (ill informed) choices will kick you in the ass later on, but without dipping straight into a guide, then who knows....!?!? Hopefully it'll be forgiving of a trial & error approach. Likewise I've no idea how far I'm suppose to keep going up the tower currently, and if it's just a case of continuing until prompted to stop, or when I hit a difficulty barrier, or if I can bail out whenever. I'm around 4.5 hrs so far, and there's still pop-up tutorials ever so often, so I don't know if the training wheels are ready to come off quite yet ?

"Giants: Citizen Kabuto" - is almost an anagram of Citizen Kane (with a letter missing, and a few extras....)

I'll predominantly play on 'Normal' but will occasionally switch down to "Easy" especially towards the end of a game, where there's nothing new to see except an increasing quantity of repetitive enemies. I liked the variation of difficulty settings in "The Last Case of Benedict Fox" where you could separately adjust the combat & puzzle difficulty (so towards the end I dropped down the former, and left the latter - but can understand why some might enjoy doing the opposite). TBH most of the time it's getting that balance right between enjoyment & challenge.