The Hot Topic Returns

[mfnick]

I never had a original Playstation. I had a Saturn and much later at the end of the Saturn’s life, a N64. 
However my best friend at the time lived a few doors down and he had a chipped one (as did everyone at school) so access to loads of games too. I went round to his most days and we played a absolute shit load of the Smackdown games, CTR, Gran Turismo, Dino Crisis, Tekken 3 and Resident Evil 2 to remember a few. I remember those times very fondly, it was great. 
 

Speaking of chipping too, I remember the reason the original Playstation did so well at least with the school lot was because you could easily chip it then buy games for £5 each. That was the reason everyone had one, not just because of the graphical superiority. If it wasn’t for that I honestly don’t think it would have sold as well as it did. 

[OCH]

I can honestly say I only ever knew one person (a cousin) that had a Saturn, when I was a kid. Loads of people had Mega Drives, but for whatever reason Saturn went amiss.

[mfnick]

I was the only person I ever knew with one too. But I loved it. Honestly my favourite ever console. Not the best, but favourite. It holds the best memories for me, mostly due to the time lining up perfect with when I fully got into gaming I think. 
 

Anyway, Playstation... Anyone else always have to have it upside down to work too? Just about everyone I knew had to. 

[Nag]

9 hours ago, mfnick said:

Anyway, Playstation... Anyone else always have to have it upside down to work too? Just about everyone I knew had to. 

 

Eventually, for certain games, I had to have mine vertical...

 

A mate of mine was the first person I knew to get hold of the original PlayStation, I remember him taking it round another mates when their parents were away. I honestly can't remember now which games were involved at the time but it was Resident Evil, Tekken and Wipeout that bring back the most memories of a time before I owned one.

 

At the time I'd spent about a year dole dossing and decided I should really get a job, so while waiting for my first pay packet I was daydreaming about how the fuck I was gonna get my hands on one of these things. Eventually got one (along with Resident Evil 2) with one of those pay monthly deals at Currys... good times.

[Jimboxy]

I've told this story before, so I'll keep it brief. I'd been saving up for about a year to buy a build your own custom RC car when I saw a piece on the PlayStation on Live & Kicking. They demo'd Wipeout, Destruction Derby and a few others and I knew that I was going to spend my money on it. It was released close to my birthday, so I ended up getting one pretty much as they released, I seemed to be the first person in school to get one and for about a week was more popular than I'd ever been. I got Destruction Derby as my first game, with DOOM and Tekken coming for Christmas a few weeks later. After that it was a pretty steady stream of great games, I liked all the Namco games (RRR, Tekken 1,2 & 3, Time Crisis), the Final Fantasy games, Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, GTA, Wipeout 2097, Theme Park Gran Turismo 1 & 2, plus loads of others. By the time the PS2 had come out, I had gone a bit like warm on gaming but still got one with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and ended up liking that console a lot as well. 

[DANGERMAN]

13 hours ago, mfnick said:

I was the only person I ever knew with one too. But I loved it. Honestly my favourite ever console. Not the best, but favourite. It holds the best memories for me, mostly due to the time lining up perfect with when I fully got into gaming I think. 

 

I feel that way about the Saturn too. In some ways it's aged way better than other consoles of that era 

[spatular]

i had a ps1 pretty late on in it's life, i remember it being pretty cheap anyway, got it mainly to play gran turismo 2, can't remember if i got it when that game came out or a bit later, anyway GT2 was ace so it was well worth it (got a ps2 mainly to play GT4 too). wip3out was brilliant too. remember taking it to uni and playing lots of iss which was good fun although i lost nearly every game and a bit of tekken which someone else had. never had that many games for it, didn't really play RPG's, and some good stuff that i think came out on it i played on pc like TOCA and CMR. never had to turn it upside down, maybe it was a later model, or maybe if i went back to it now i'd find it did need inverting, who knows.

[radiofloyd]

Yeah I have the fondest memories of the PS1, I got mine in Christmas 1999 with Fifa 2000, Anna Kournikova’s Smash Court Tennis, Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer and...Lego Rock Raiders.  Lego Rock Raiders was pants but the rest were great. I still have all of those games. During the year I borrowed Final Fantasy VIII from a friend and fell in love with that, and I bought my own copy the following Christmas, along with Spyro 3, Medal of Honour Underground and a few others. Not long after that Final Fantasy IX came out and I bought that on launch day. In particular, Spyro 2 and 3 and FFVIII and IX I played multiple times.

 

I remember borrowing loads of games from my friends too, in particular FFVII (which I never gave back and still have) and the Smackdown games. I have a lot of fond memories of playing multiplayer games with my sisters and that was a time when I was reading a lot of gaming magazines and playing demos too.

[Nag]

 

Quote

GameCentral readers reveal how much stock they put into video game reviews and whose opinion they trust the most.

 

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Grackle, who asked whether you wait for reviews to come out before buying or pre-ordering game, and if you trust particular sources or put more faith in aggregators such as Metacritic. L

 

Although many claimed they largely ignore reviews if they’re for a game they’re really looking forward to, most admitted they still enjoy reading reviews regardless. In fact, some even described it as one of the key pleasures of being a gamer. Our thanks to everyone who mentioned us as a trusted review source.

 

There wasn't a question this week so I've pulled a random one from years back.

[one-armed dwarf]

 I do wait, I was thinking of buying Jedi Order based on what I expected it to be, but the stuff I heard about technical lack-of-polish jank put me off

 

Of course there are games also I would buy even if they got a zero

[DANGERMAN]

I'll definitely still buy some stuff regardless, it's the same reason people are still rushing to see Star Wars, you just have to know yourself sometimes, and most of us have such specialist tastes that there's no one reviewer you're going to agree with 

 

 

I think the way we're consume media has changed so much too. Its very very rare I read or watch a review, I'm usually just hearing opinion or watching footage, if it looks or sounds interesting, if it's cheap enough to take a chance on, if it looks fun, then that sways me more nowadays 

[OCH]

I tend not to look at reviews at all anymore. I'll look at a trailer and if it ticks a box or two for me, I'll give it a shot, be it game, film, TV etc I might retroactively look at reviews, but I wouldn't use the value judgement of someone else as a touchstone to alter my own gut reaction.

[Nag]

I don't generally take much notice of reviews, I know my own mind well enough by now... that's not to say i don't take any notice of actual scores, I'll still get a bit peeved if something seems to be getting marked down for stuff other games get away with.

 

I find reviews that focus on performance more interesting now truth be told, like @one-armed dwarf I was thinking about Fallen Order but then the reviews started laying in to the Xbox version so I binned it off.

[OCH]

I have played some awful games over the years that I actually enjoyed, regardless of the score EG Jersey Devil and Beast Wars on PSOne. Then again, taking a punt on some with no prior frame of reference, I have found some real gems EG Mystical Ninja 64, Puzzle Quest, Valkyria Chronicles and Guardian's Crusade (PSOne)

[mfnick]

Same as others I don’t read too much into review scores. If it’s a game I’m really interested in I’ll get it regardless unless it’s a 1-3/10. Even then I’ll probably give it a chance when it hits a low enough price if a few people on forums or podcasts say it’s not as bad as the review scores suggest. 

 

If it’s a game that I’m interested in which gets 9-10/10 most places there’s just a higher chance I’ll stump up the high release price instead of waiting for it to drop. There’s more chance of me giving a game a go I wasn’t previously interested in if it gets high scores across the board.

 

Saying all this though I take far more out of forum posts/recommendations and podcasts than anything else. & to some extent GB quick looks too. I buy far more games from these discussions and videos than review scores. And user review scores are almost pointless due to the abuse of those systems. Including yours truly, if the average score of a game is lower than I like I’ll give it a far higher score than it may deserve just to try and bump average up. Same if there’s a game I hate which has a high user review average score. 
 

 

[Nag]

Again, no official question this week... we all know this one is going to come up in the next week or so so I'll do it now instead.

 

 

Quote

Nag asks... the decade is drawing to a close so it's time to pick your favourite three (as in 3, as in not a list of more than 3!) games of the past decade.

 

While we're at it you can also give a shout out to your favourite gaming machine of the last decade be that handheld, console or PC.

 

[OCH]

Ohhhh that's a good one!

 

As far as gaming machine of the past decade... Switch, I guess? It is the only one I've got and a quick google search highlighted how all the gaming machines I played the most were from the decade prior. I think my picks below spotlight the gap in my gaming knowledge of the Biggest offerings on PS4/Xbox/PC, during this period. 

 

1) Binding of Isaac (2011)

2) Hollow Knight (2017)

3) Limbo (2010)

 

Honourable mention: Super Mario Odyssey. Though not as good as Super Mario Galaxy 2, it is still a fantastic game.

 

[mfnick]

1. Super Meat Boy 

2. Last of Us 

3. Forza Motorsport 4

 

Console would be 360. Introduced so many things which are standard on consoles now - proper dashboard, integrated online stuff, achievements, Live Arcade/indie stuff on consoles in general etc. It changed everything. Arguably for the worse at times but for the most part I think the good outweighs the bad that’s come from all this. 

[Nag]

1. The Witcher 3 - stupidly ambitious in every way, CD Project Red showed every other rpg developer how it's done with this game.

 

2. Grand Theft Auto V - another wildly ambitious game, how they got this running on 360 and PS3 is amazing... probably the most I've laughed playing a multiplayer game too.

 

3. The Last of Us - had to wait for the remaster to play this, it was worth the wait... one of the best, well written stories I've had the pleasure of playing through in gaming.

 

As for console, as much as it may surprise people that I'm not going for a Microsoft machine even i can't deny Sony have slayed it this gen... their first party output has been knocked out of the park, this decade belongs to the PS4.

[one-armed dwarf]

1. Final Fantasy XIV. Made me a fan of Final Fantasy again, even if we fell out quite quickly over FFXV being sort of rubbish. But then Shadowbringers was good again to make up for it and show that the magic had not been lost

 

Also it has the best version of diamond dust

 

 

2. Breath of the Wild. Just stunning, innovative open world design where exploring itself is the point of it all. Not getting loot like so many MMO-lite open world titles.

 

3. BloodBorne. The best FROM ever managed with these games with a really good integration of environmental storytelling/lore with its boss battles. Ludwig is still a goat of the generation for great boss design. The weapons are so diverse and leaning into each one's gimmick/'trick' makes exploring multiple builds so much more interesting here than Dark Souls.