Whatcha Been Playing?

[Chopper]

Agree with all of this. Soma is probably comfortably in my top 5 maybe even higher. I’ve only played it once and I’ve got more than a little trepidation about replaying it.

I had the same trepidation before replaying it. It actually holds up brilliantly, you'll be glad to hear!

[KSubzero1000]

I could myself falling back into that game.....

Few things in gaming get me as engrossed as my semi-regular MP trilogy playthrough.

The first one: Stone cold classic, so many great locations / moments / tracks.
The second one: Bit unwelcoming at first, but the last third alone makes it all worth it. Quintessential diamond in the rough.
The third one: "Worst" one due to so many of its systems being nerfed / devalued and the shift in narrative focus. But even the "worst" MP stands head and shoulders above 99% of other games.

I can't wait do dive back in as soon as we get a solid MP4 release window.

PS: Oh, and would you please have a look at this beauty... (Image is too high-res to embed)

[dezm0nd]

God i love Prime. I like Prime 2 and can't really remember 3. ... might have to revisit it!

[Alex79]

I still have the Prime Trilogy for Wii, untouched. One day...

As for Gone Home, my favorite walking sim by a country mile. Rapture is probably my second favourite.

[ThirdDrawing]

Played an hour of Hellblade and really found it fascinating. It seems a bit simple from a gameplay point of view so far but its ideas are good and I'll carry on with it.

I think I'm about 3 hours in, let me know what you think of it!

[duskvstweak]

Got home from travelling from the holidays and first game I started in 2019 is my umpteenth replay of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It's just so easy to get back into and it's one of the few games where I remember most of the secrets/puzzles after all these years.

[Suits]

Few things in gaming get me as engrossed as my semi-regular MP trilogy playthrough.

I'm back in.

I quickly put the GameCube version on and picked up the new GameCube pad I have the answer was simple for me.

Just done chamber of Echos and now got the wave beam.

I can't remember so much of this....

Wicked statue that man, it would be nice to have the space available to consider getting something like that.

Until then, I'm resigned to using my amiibos and changing them about on my desk. Which, coincidentally at the moment are Ridley, a Metroid and Olimar .

[KSubzero1000]

I'm back in.

Ha, I was wondering where you ran off to!

I can't remember so much of this....

And yeah, that's exactly what makes games like these so amazing to replay every few years! Everything feels wonderfully familiar, but you still have to reorient yourself and find the proper path all over again. They just don't make games like that anymore. Enjoy your time with it!

Wicked statue that man, it would be nice to have the space available to consider getting something like that.

Ugh, tell me about it. My place is tiny as it is, and I have no idea where I'm supposed to store it when it arrives. I think I might have to invest in some aggressive shelves. This might very well be the single most irresponsible purchase I've ever made. But I just... Could. Not. Resist. Those shoulder pads...

[Suits]

Also, something cool I remembered as I saw it in the menu screen after having a poke about - is that you can link your GBA and Metroid Fusion data with Prime via a link cable and GBA.

By doing so, (if you've completed Fusion) you can unlock the NES version of Metroid on your GameCube - neat.

Also, again once you finish Prime you unlock the Fusion suit for use on subsequent play throughs in Prime - that will look quite cool.

Thankfully I only just finished Fusion on the GBA a few weeks back, so I dug out one of my link cables and gave it a go.

[DomsBeard]

God i love Prime. I like Prime 2 and can't really remember 3. ... might have to revisit it!

They need to release it on Switch already

[kintaris]

I'm playing back through AC Rogue via its Remastered incarnation. God help me but I can't stop loving this stupid series This once again takes me up to 100% of all major series releases played.

In all seriousness, if AC ever warrants another podcast episode I will be all over it. Odyssey was a beautiful ride.

[Suits]

They need to release it on Switch already

That seems like the obvious thing to do doesn’t it.

[Magical_Isopod]

Agree with all of this. Soma is probably comfortably in my top 5 maybe even higher. I’ve only played it once and I’ve got more than a little trepidation about replaying it.

I had the same trepidation before replaying it. It actually holds up brilliantly, you'll be glad to hear!

Oh no, we're doing topsies? I literally keep a Pastebin page open on my phone browser at all times because of how much time I spent building and maintaining a Top 100 list this summer.

My Top 5, in order, are Silent Hill 2, REmake, SOMA, .hack//GU (specifically, the substantially improved "Last Recode" re-release) and Final Fantasy VII - though Witcher 3 likes to fight for that #5 spot too.

Full list in the URL below. Gotta revise it to add Iconoclasts and Kingdom Hearts DDD HD on there sometime in the near future. AC Odyssey might make it in the Top 75 if it can last 40 hours without falling victim to, well... Being an AC game. (I'm looking at you, AC3 final boss).

https://pastebin.com/SjUWU5DJ

[Magical_Isopod]

For reference, my set-up has the Wii with Monster component cables (the quality of component actually makes a huge difference on PS2 and Wii, I've found) running into an analog component switch, out to a Component-to-HDMI converter (not upscaler), which from there runs into an HDMI switch and through a capture card. Maybe I'll make a post someday about how I used a server case to handle cable management for all this. The WiiU runs HDMI into the same switch.

Metroid Prime running off the GC disc on the Wii looks and sounds correct in comparison to my memory and reference HD stream VODs on Twitch -- though the colour was slightly washed out on my old TV (a crap bargain brand set). I've yet to test on my new TCL 4k HDR display, which I've already found has a lot of great tools for colour temperatures and smoothing. Ultimately, if you want the best Metroid Prime experience possible, I recommend playing around with Dolphin emulation. Some of the HD toolkits for the important GC/Wii/WiiU games... Wowie.

Yes, now you're talking my language.

I'm a sort of display freak also when it comes to this sort of thing.

Get something up about your set up and what you're doing !!

I snapped a couple of quick pictures. I'm kind of a lazy butt right now from holiday shutdown (I work maintenance, so shutdown means I work more, not less ;~;). But basically, I got this big ol' server case from an old employer who were gonna try and sell it on eBay for some reason... I just said, save the freight, lemme write you a $100 cheque. So I got this bangin' $800 server case (of course I check the price ;D) and then paid another $120 for two rolling shelves... I got a UPS backup on everything with a hard drive, and my only cables going out are the capture card USB, power cable, 2x HDMI (one on the HDMI switch, one dedicated for the PS4 due to HDR) and an Ethernet (I have an Ethernet switch in there too - just an old router I had kicking around)... Everything inside is tied down except the consoles themselves, so next time I move, all I gotta pack is the console units themselves - all the wiring, switches, capture cards, power cords, all that shit's pretty much bolted down. I am not exaggerating when I say, this was probably a 20-25 hour wiring job. It was a lot of work, and I have years of experience wiring panels... but that's to do it *right*. I am suuuuuuuuper testy about wiring. Like. I've been known to take apart friends' AV centres and redo it proper because it irks me that much to see poor cable management. When you've run literal kilometres of wire into a servo drive panel, for instance, seeing sloppy wiring triggers the, "Don't you dare ship out something this fucking ugly" part of my brain. XD Anyway, enjoy.

http://oi65.tinypic.com/2ekhyjs.jpg
http://oi68.tinypic.com/33nj97t.jpg
http://oi65.tinypic.com/34obokx.jpg

[KSubzero1000]

They need to release it on Switch already

That seems like the obvious thing to do doesn’t it.

[Suits]

I snapped a couple of quick pictures.

Cool man, so I guess that’s your process for connecting anything analogue to your digital panels then is it ??

What’s your biggest issue with that set up, any compatibility issues or anything ??

Then I suspect you have that going through an Elgato or something similar to record/stream is it ??

My cable management is horrendous.

[Suits]

Sling your hook, you !!

I still think they can do it .

[Chopper]

Oh no, we're doing topsies? I literally keep a Pastebin page open on my phone browser at all times because of how much time I spent building and maintaining a Top 100 list this summer.

There was a recently updated thread on this a while back. I'm happy to see SOMA was indeed in my top 5, though having played the Dark Souls remaster recently that is under threat at 4 :

1. Demon's Souls
2. Mount & Blade (2008)
3. Out of the Park Baseball (annual)
4. Dark Souls
5. SOMA

[Chopper]

Question for those of you who have played The Return of the Obra Dinn - did you have any trouble with navigating the menus, tracking memories etc? I like what I've seen of the game but have been immensely frustrated by the controls/navigation. There doesn't seem to be a consistent back button (whyohwhy do they have a physical door in the memories?), sometimes a 'next' or 'back' button turns up at the bottom of the screen but is not selectable, the tab and esc keys seem to work/not work at times (or at least be context sensitive, where the context is not explained), and the book is massively cumbersome to navigate. Also, the cloud of smoke that guides you to the next corpse - if you don't follow that immediately, can you still find the corpse?

I might have to start again to see if I have missed navigation instructions. I've only solved three deaths so far so no biggie, but I didn't expect the control scheme to reveal my thickness (as opposed to the mystery-solving, which I'm sure will get there in short order).

Ok, I have restarted and the process is a lot clearer now. 9 murders solved now, 15% of the way there. It's a clever and delightful game, which also makes me feel clever, which is good.

[KSubzero1000]

I still think they can do it .

HOW?

"I'm sure someone at Nintendo is smart enough to figure it out."

...