shinymcshine

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.

Saltburn

It was okay, didn't particularly have any gripping or clever unforseen twists which I was hoping for, decent performances from the cast, but all a bit too average & forgettable really.

Anyone tried to get a refund for an eShop download ? It says you've got 14 days, and to email them saying you want to cancel, but just wondered if it does actually occur - do they refund and block the access to the download?

I'd just bought Wingspan (£7.99) in the sale - as I love the boardgame, but I hate the interface on the NS version - so thought I'd give the refund route a try - not that fussed about the £7.99, but more if/how their process of refund works.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Never seen this American modern 'classic' before, and it was actually pretty good - most of the general themes are still relevant and the soundtrack rocks.

Also curious is how many young actors got their break through this movie (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cares, Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, Forest Whittaker, plus others in minor roles).

Well worth a watch.

Only thing that still puzzles me - and it's not specific to this movie - is quite how obsessed the US still is in making TV Shows and Movies about High School (and College) - there's just so many - whereas UK there's a relatively small handful - weird that the US seems to put so much emphasis on those school/college years (and how often they are portrayed as the best years of their lives....)

Aside from the ridiculously tough chase (above - which took me a further 15 mins) the rest wrapped up reasonably straightforward.

Enjoyed it, in that Amnesia / SOMA sort of way.

Around 6.5 hrs.

Oh FFS - Ch 8 has a chase sequence, that probably lasts no more than 10 seconds, but seems like you have to do it pixel perfect, 100% error free, in order to complete it - must have tried 30 times already......

Big (17Gb) patch dropped today for the Xbox.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2024/01/baldurs-gate-3-gets-first-xbox-update-of-2024-here-are-the-patch-notes

A couple more chase sequences today - they are a bit irksome, since taking the correct pathway is trial and error, and any mistakes mean death, but they are thankfully short enough not to be too frustrating....

New to Gamepass, went in to this one blind, only to find it was one of those walking simulators - albeit as things progress there's a threat / death element, and some puzzling - so thankfully it's a bit more like Amnesia than being wholly sedate.

Also it looks and feels gorgeous, with a full on art deco (Bioshockesque) theming and interesting story centred around scientists and Nikola Tesla.

Only real downside is the absence of any clearly defined save system, so aside from completing an area I've no idea how /:when it saves, so I've ended up doing 5-10 mins of repetition at times upon restarting.

So far, so good (3.5 hrs played).

I really liked the aesthetic for Blood & Wine - the area they created had its own technicolour feel, but I though the story was a bit underwhelming (but then TBH nearly everything in W3 felt poor compared to the Bloody Baron quest).

Or maybe it was:

Another one, if I'm remembering it correctly, was the Export Key Code for Rock Band, so you could import & play all your songs packs across the different versions of the Rock Band games (although there were some limitations due to licences & age restrictions).

Fair enough.

I that case it's probably one of the Fallout 3/4 DLCs that I enjoyed the most, as they added a decent amount of new areas & content - most notably; Point Lookout & Broken Steel; or Far Harbour & Nuka World.

Shivering Isles for ES: Oblivion was great too (as a concept) but ran terribly on the 360.

The recent Mario Kart (NS) Course Expansion has been pretty good - albeit I still wish they'd put in the option to play on 4 random tracks in local multiplayer (rather than having to play a set 4 in a cup).

Favourite DLC would have to be:

Bitterblack Island (Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen) - albeit not really sure if it counts as DLC or a pseudo DD remaster with added content?

Traitors - I've no inclination to watch a bunch of strangers playing Mafia/Werewolf - a social deduction card game that's been around for well over 30 years.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game)

Now if they did "Celebrities Play Cards Against Humanity" then that might be a laugh for half a dozen shows.

So I think this feels like closure: