shinymcshine

I've definitely had a refund for a digital purchase before, can't remember who from though (I think Steam were pretty good and the Android Play Store too (both giving refunds as long as you'd played for <1hr or so) - but not bought anything off there for ages, so I'm thinking it might have been a console game - but can't remember TBH).

FWIW I heard back from Nintendo and they declined my request for a refund.

So when they add the following onto every eShop purchase confirmation email it is somewhat misleading...

"INSTRUCTIONS FOR RIGHT TO CANCEL

You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of the contract."

As much further in the T&Cs it says that digital purchases are not eligible - which isn't particularly helpful - and perhaps they shouldn't just send out a cut & paste set of T&Cs but tailor it for applicability.

GOTY 2023

1. Wartales

2. The Last Case of Benedict Fox

Games Discovered not from 2023

1. Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous

2. Solasta - Crown of the Magister

3. Biomutant

4. Talos Principle

5. Shadowrun Returns

6. Tainted Grail Conquest

7. Arcade Paradise

8. As Dusk Falls

9. Close to the Sun

10. Saints Row (2022)

Most Anticipated 2024

1. Dragons Dogma 2

FWIW there's a bunch of other games that I played that I have omitted (as I don't particularly feel that they were worth adding to any 'best of' list) 

Hope there's a reminder at 2312 hrs....

It's now started occasionally hard crashing too when trying to save/quick save.

I'm far enough I that I want to see it through now - just have to put up with the issues - as I'm enjoying what's there.

Weirdly now, after a reload, the Fast Travel locations now come up on the map....

 I'll just put it down and another interface/conversion quirk - like how Consumable inventory items (alcohol, drugs, cigarettes) don't actually trigger (in terms of being able to use them using R3 L3) unless you equip then, unequip them, and re-equip them....

Today's problem seems to be - that I've now unlocked 3 fast travel locations, that are shown on the map screen - yet I have no idea how to actually use them.

If I go on the map they are highlighted (when I stand adjacent to one of them) but I can't seem to cycle to them on the map - I can only cycle between the outstanding skill check markers.

I've tried all sorts of button combos, nothing seems to work - and an internet search hasn't turned up anything either.

Playing on NS (docked).

The 3 locations are (as below) and there's probably not a huge time saving in fast travel - but it's a bit irritating.

"PoE 2 Deadfire" was great - much more enjoyable than the first game.

I think my degree of expectation for Avowed will be somewhat tempered by the distinct averageness of "The Outer Worlds" which just lacked any real standout features that we'd not already seen in many other games.

Did a whole bunch more investigation of the murder victim and those seemingly involved, and now I've got a new lead too 

Also the water bridge has opened so I have new area to explore and....

What I do wonder is whether the main story alters if you use a different (skills based) approach or if it's just your means of progression that changes ? The former would be great (and a huge incentive to replay) but I would imagine it's more of the latter.

Hard crashes seem to be every 60-90 mins, so I'm now just routinely saving it every 10 min or so, so redo is minimised. Sort of reminds me of my PC gaming days from yesteryear and hitting F5 to quick save.....

Coming to the end of Day 2 and I feel I'm making pretty good progress (including pulling off a surprisingly low success roll when examining the murder victim).

I've mainly stuck with levelling up my Psyche skills, and using the clothing & item bonuses to give assistance with the rest.

It's slow, ponderous, well written, and oddly compelling - but, hey, I'm a Superstar Cop....

I guess the thing was people peaked with games, songpacks & instruments in the 360/PS3 generation - and there was an initial faff around whether instruments were compatible on PS4/XBox One (think they ended up producing some sort of adapters ?) and then licencing meant you couldn't transfer back catalogues etc - so I guess most people just mostly ignored it all.

I raised a repair ticket with Nintendo last year for JoyCon drift issues (Switch was about 3 yrs old) and they repaired them for free.

The hard crashes are a bit irksome - as I then want any checks to have the same result as the first time around (to keep my story continuity - so pass & fails) so end up quick saving and repeating until they do (and the number of times I then fail a 72% or so check is ridiculous).

Today I had it freeze up, but because it was in a line of dialogue where a character told me to wait (as they went to do something) then I didn't actually realise until I was, hang on it's been over 5 minutes now..... and controller isn't responding to anything anymore.

An internet search suggests it's a known issue (and there's a workaround) so it was another reload.

So that's a bit disappointing given how long it's been out for.

A weird sounding tie in between the Van Gogh Museum and Pokémon seems to have been incredibly popular in Amsterdam!

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/jan/16/pokemon-pandemonium-did-the-van-gogh-museum-play-its-cards-right-pikachu

The report on the BBC Website says they're stopping the Game Elite* program too.

Yep, don't imagine that affects anyone here.....

* IIRC you could pay an annual subscription for 10% off things and a bonus on your birthday.

The weird paradox is that nearly all of Game's high street competition fell away (MVC, Woolworths, Virgin/Zavvi, HMV, Blockbuster, independents (inc Game Centre (Scotland)), even supermarkets cut back / stopped selling video games) yet they still couldn't make it work - but maybe that's the thing, perhaps the margins in the sector are so poor, that's why the others failed.

Furthermore, whilst I get the point Andy K is leaning towards, the industry has adopted a model of rolling online digital sales, which no doubt affects the physical market (as Sly says, new game prices usually fall within a few months (well Nintendo first party games aside)).

Wonder too how much the change in online transactions affected them too (back when they use to sell MS Point Cards, PS Credit etc) before direct electronic payment to e-shops became the norm.

I was surprised a few weeks ago in Bristol that the Game shop still has one of those online gaming lounges as it's main focus (can't recall how they are branded) but neither can I recall ever seeing many people using it.

Made it to the end of Day 1 (albeit not sure if time passes based on progress or is a function of actual time you spend exploring).

Anyway I paid off a debt and got a bed for the night - loads of open quests still.

It's been a pretty awful shop ever since the Gamestation takeover - when they lost their high street competition and just hiked up prices.

Flashback to installing Win 95 from 3.5" discs -

"Insert Disc 1 of 15"......

Blimey - I'm surprised they release it on 17 CD 'audio' format and don't just compress it onto a couple of CDs in MP3 format (since most CD players can play MP3 format) - not so much the cost of CDs - but for a big saving on packaging & transport costs.

In terms of multiplatform Gamepass I'd clearly include it being available on Sony & Nintendo consoles (and maybe the latter was at least hinted at with the whole CoD on NS debate) - in particular when you consider other titles being brought to NS as cloud/steamed games - wouldn't take too much to put a Cloud Gamepass on the NS.

I think "third party direction" for MS would be focussed on Gamepass being available multiplatform and them backing out of hardware.

I think we're hitting a point in the not too distant future where the cloud gaming model becomes an achievable norm and interface goes down the route of basic portal / controller (so essentially a viable version of 'Stadia' giving you Gamepass access - but including all new release content (from MS & their subsiduaries) - so maybe an even more premium tier to GP).

Making progress - levelled up a couple of skills - and visited a few areas and progressed beyond their initial layer.

It's like a mash up of Gabriel Knight meets Planescape : Torment - with the point and click style of the first, and multilayered dialogue of the latter.

The only real thing that irks me is there isn't (that I can find) any way of identifying objects before you pick them up (unless they are key items which are signposted in the dialogue) - so it's only after a "Collect All" that the description comes up as the go into your inventory (which is weird for an RPG as sometimes you'd rather not pick certain things up!).

Also had a hard crash, lost about 30 mins, with a NS black screen "This software had unexpectedly closed" message.

Not really a home computer worth reviving IMHO, should have at least gone for the 800 instead.

32 minutes ago, spatular said:

Yeah not even heard of that before.

Came out back end of the 70s - predating the ZX80/81/Spectrum.

Started this on NS - seems fine so far, not much of a tutorial though - but reasonably easy to figure things out, and it's got decent options for text sizes etc, so all seems good on that front at least.