zeppelin03

I was the right age for pokemon. Watched a ton of the cartoon, bought loads of pokemon cards, played red and yellow over and over.  It was one of my favorite games.  I didn't continue with gold. When the mood struck I just emulated yellow. I have played Heart Gold in the last few years and it was amazing.  It seems safe to assume the series peaked on the DS.

I enjoyed Sword & Shield but didn't go into it with high expectations after giving up on Sun/Moon. I didn't think Sword was bad just uninspired.  Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had large maps with big creatures and great detail for switch.  How they could only make one zone walled in is beyond me.  I would rather they had just skipped the wilds and done a normal Pokemon game.  The story felt rushed for the last third or so as well.  

It seems like game freak is struggling with what to do now that their games are on a console and not just hand held.  I hope they turn it around in a few years.  Arceus seems interesting while ugly.  If not pass that over to Monolift and give someone else the 2D RPGs to work on.  Snap gave me hope they can still make a good game.

I have to agree with @Tanookiand @Shmup. These will likely be my last consoles excluding Nintendo.  Xbox has autoHDR which is now coming to windows 11.  PlayStation seems to be designing their games with PC in mind so the ports have improved very quickly.  I just need studios like Atlus and Vanillaware to do consistent PC ports. 

My 9900k/2080ti system is as good if not better than the next gen offerings.  Once the steam big picture update comes it's going to look like a console too. I get free or cheap games, wait a bit for enhanced ports, and play Breath of the Wild at 4k on Cemu.  What's not to like?

Edit: Nevermind. My wife said she likes consoles more.  

14 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Seriously - no loading screens! I've been a pc gamer for a long time and have always seen the huge difference a good pc makes over consoles with loading speeds. Dark Souls was INSANE when it released, hiding loading behind elevator rides and ladders very cleverly; not the first to do so, but the one to do it best first, it was seamless. 

We take stuff like that for granted today, but go play PS1/PS2, even simple games, it's day and night. Some games on early disc systems are nigh on unplayable compared to their alternatives, like Chrono Trigger. Ever played that on PS1? It's a nightmare! 

When I got an SSD 10 years ago it changed gaming for me.  I barely had time to spin the mace on the Skyrim loading screen.  

8 minutes ago, Gloves said:

That's the biggest point though tbh, it's not going to ever be about direct graphics upgrades again, it'll be about more at once, and more quickly, at higher resolutions, with less FPS drop. 

I'm happy this is the shift we are seeing. 4k is plenty for a while. Let's get more detail in that time, maybe more npcs in a city, more enemies on screen at once, rays traced.  60 fps as standard would be great.  There are much better uses of the power than trying to get to 8k or even native 4k for every title.

15 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

I feel like the games have just been so underwhelming thus far. Even Ratchet, which is touted as a true next gen experience, has been shown to be totally doable on older consoles.

That being said, the SSD makes an unbelievable difference in getting to your games quicker. That combined with Quick Resume makes the Series X feel much, much zippier. It's to the point where I am pacing the room waiting for my old Xbox One X to boot up whenever I have to use it.

I must have missed that R&C could have ran on a PS4. The only thing I've seen was a Digital Foundry interview with the devs where they explain why a PS5 made the game possible.  

Adding loading screens for the transitions in that game really would have broken the experience in my opinion. 

I really like the new consoles.  They address frustrations I had with the last gen.  Mainly storage speeds.  I was immediately impressed by ray tracing playing Call of Duty and Cyberpunk 2077 on PC. Now that consoles have it the technology can expand.  

Unfortunately the games aren't there yet. With how many millions it costs to develop I get why everything is cross gen.  So far Ratchet & Clank is the only game that just wouldn't work on last gen.  It's a fantastic and beautiful game by the way.

8 hours ago, Estil said:

What limitations exactly?  Like, what can a PS4 do that a PS3 cannot?  And what can a PS5 do that a PS4 cannot?  And what the heck is this OLED thing and why would it be a "needing to invest"?

I hope this isn't making me sound stupid or out of touch...

Battlefield 4 ran at 60fps on PS4 instead of 30fps on PS3.  That was a big difference immediately. Games ran smoother on the new console.  PS4 had HDR.  Horizon Zero Dawn looked great with it enable. 

PS5 has ray tracing.  PS4 cannot do that. Ratchet & Clank looks awesome with it enabled. The reflections on surfaces really stand out in levels with lots of metal and glass. Plus they stream in assets so fast on SSD you can do instant transitions between zones.  Ratchet should have been the big launch game to show next gen.

There is the resolution bump, texture detail, etc that goes up too.

OLED is a tv panel technology.  The LG TVs have variable refresh rate, 4k 120hz support, and other nice gaming features.  120hz let's you play the fidelity mode of Ratchet at 40fps instead of 30.  That is far smoother than 10 fps would suggest while getting the improved detail.  My wife just played Ori and the Will of the Wisps at 4k 120fps on Series X. It looked incredible and played really smoothly. 

3 hours ago, Estil said:

From PS3 onwards though, there doesn't seem to be hardly any more real "limitations" to speak of.  Hence why there didn't seem to be hardly a dime's worth of difference between PS3/PS4 versions when the PS4 first game out...while in previous console gens the difference was like night and day.  Compare for example, the GC's launch game Luigi's Mansion with the very best looking N64 games.  Or Super Mario World with the very best looking NES games.

I get that the jump from an 8 to 16 bit game or N64 to GC might be big, but I haven't felt like those jumps have stopped.  I remember being impressed by what my PS4 was doing at launch and again with the PS5 and Series X.  I was frustrated with limitations of the last gen for years so its been nice to use these new consoles.  The only frustrating part is needing to invest in a OLED or similar panel to get the most of all those features. 

4 hours ago, noiseredux said:

I always really appreciated the backwards compatability on Xbox One. It's funny, I sold my Xbox One a couple years ago when the game room was taken over by the baby. But, lately I've been thinking I sort of miss it and maybe I should see if I can find one to replace the broken BR player in the living room. Which would be an excuse to have another Xbox One.

At the moment, I don't see a reason to spring for the new Series X. But I will say that even with the lack of exclusives that PS has, Xbox is really the only non-Nintendo consoles that appeal to me now. Wonder how cheap I can find an Xbox One for now that X/S is out?

A number of Xbox One games were patched to run better on Series X.  Forza Horizon 4 got a nice bump and runs even better.  That has been a nice way to tide me over while waiting for some next gen games.  It has been worth it for the SSD alone.  I got sick of hard drives early last gen and ran external SSDs.  Its really nice having games load in half the time or less.

I've been tempted to pay the $20 to unlock developer mode.  Then you can run a bunch of emulators too.  I just was a video on Playstation running smoothly at 4k on them with Duckstation.

5 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

has anyone said xbox sucks yet?

But I like my Xbox Series X..

It is great for backwards compatibility.  I am playing many 360 enhanced at 4k with AutoHDR.  Looks amazing. 

Sure it doesn't have all the exclusives Playstation has but I think most of those are overrated.

1 hour ago, Estil said:

Actually I do find it fascinating how creative game creators get around console limitations.  It even goes as far back as how a chess game on the Atari 2600 was made possible even though only six sprites can be on the same line and of course you need eight sprites/pieces on the same line for chess. How they was able to pull it off is pretty fascinating:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Chess

I do agree it is interesting how they made it work on older consoles.  Fog, convenient cliffs and walls, etc.

Current AAA tends to do well but when it breaks down you really notice.  I'm still amazed by what Nintendo did with BOTW in the opening scenes.  I think they pulled something special off with limited hardware. 

8 hours ago, Estil said:

I take it you mean this as an example right?  You know I was only 15 years old and just graduated middle school in 1995...to think this was mind blowing cutting edge stuff in those days! 

It's a shame Sega killed off the 32X so quickly (as I honestly think it had some interesting potential) and rushed releasing the Saturn into the US.  As for how they put together the US launch of the Saturn:

 

I'm fine with the fog look of that after playing plenty of N64.  I'm thinking of more current games where you have grass and trees out a hundred feet then it's barren.  That line just moves as you do so you see objects and detail move in continually.  Fallout 4 was good for it.

21 hours ago, CMR said:

In 3D games pop up isn't that big of a deal.  Most of the time I barely notice it, but for some reason other people, especially game journos, act like the whole game is ruined from the least little bit.

I am not a fan of short draw distances in games.  Watching grass magically appear in front of me or vehicles pop in breaks the experience.  

I got GTA III not long after it came out.  I would have been 12 I think.  Before that was GoldenEye and Perfect Dark when they both came out.  

I have a new video to watch while cooking today.  Something about grading and the price creep felt strange early on.  It never made sense to me.  Now I can see what's going on.

I don't understand why anyone would buy repros.  You don't have money for the real thing but want it to look like it.  It isn't somehow legal because someone else downloaded the rom for you.  Just get an everdrive and play it all. 

I stopped collecting a few years ago and sold most of my stuff that isn't childhood stuff or current gen.  Having to validate that something wasn't fake was a big part of what burnt me out.  Now I have a MiSTer, everdrives, some retro stuff, and a mix of physical/digital for switch, PS4/5, and PC.  Judging by the culture around collecting on places like reddit I will not be returning to it.

Sakura Wars.

Every other game I considered listing is also on PC, Xbox, etc.  

4 minutes ago, croagunk said:

Hmm… it won’t display the game at all. Perhaps the TV itself is broken. Thanks for your help!

Does the console just use two rca cables into the back as well?  If so try swapping them.  I've had times where I accidently ran the video cord into the audio input on the TV.  Worth a try before tossing the tv.

On 8/12/2021 at 8:20 PM, Gloves said:

Are you able to ship to Canada?

I did a quick estimate to Canada and it's a bit more but not crazy.  If the difference were covered compared to US shipping I would be willing to ship it up there. 

You would be fine with just yellow and white.  It sounds like the TV doesn't have stereo speakers and you only need one of the plugs for audio. My only remaining CRT is like this and works fine.

9 hours ago, Gloves said:

Are you able to ship to Canada?

If you pm an address I'll do a comparison to us shipping.  

Feel free to make an offer.  Would like to find a new home for this before trading it into a local shop.  

PM sent

10 hours ago, Californication said:

They haven't changed the reporting law. All income unless explicity excluded is supposed to be reported to the irs. If you were reporting the income to the irs you would have been keeping records. The reason there is am issue is because a 1099 is more likely to raise a red flag if you don't report it and can trigger an audit. Also, proving a tax position is almost always on the tax payer.

Yep. It was income for all of us before. A lot of us just skipped self reporting. This is like when stores online started charging sales tax. We should have been reporting those purchases and paying tax but weren't. 

I get it's frustrating but it's just holding those sites accountable to report.  When I sent out 1099s for a few years it was anyone we sent a payment to for $600 or more.  Seems consistent with the IRS requirement that already existed.

I've used my club owner powers to override the lock and vote for The Colour of Magic to ensure a win.  I guess it wasn't needed after all.