Inzoreno

On 8/8/2021 at 5:39 PM, Cannon said:

Yeah, I've noticed that, every title I seem to be interested in is like $20-$100, I'm not even looking for rare titles really. Like how is Wario World for the Gamecube $100!? My strategy is reselling random audio equipment and electronics I find at thrift shops for cheap and using the profits for my gaming budget.

Gamecube went completely insane during the pandemic. I don't know how you feel about the console personally, but I would look at the Wii library. A lot of great stuff that is still affordable. 

Oh boy, I hate to say it, but you kinda of came back at the wrong time. Covid-19 sent prices on a lot of things through the roof and are only slowly starting to reset a bit. I wish you the best of luck in the hunt. 

I don't live too far away, but my damn car had to get some pricey work done on it this weekend, so I couldn't attend. Were Josh or Doug there at all? 

SNES has Chrono Trigger, GBA does not. That's enough to put SNES over GBA for me. 

7 hours ago, avatar! said:

I really enjoyed Sundered, even though it has some weaknesses. Loved the music. If you're going for the "pure" or "good" ending, it's a pain! especially the final boss...

My main problem was the lack of either save points or teleportation. The game can be a bit of a slog when you have to run through the same areas over and over again after a death, especially if you die to a boss. 

I finished up an evil playthrough of Sundered on the PS4. I didn't really like that game too well, so don't know if I will try a to get the good ending later. Moving on to Return of the Obra Dinn. 

Excuse me, but it's "Where did you learn to fly?". 

In at least North America, I think Atari would be the one to rise to the top, assuming no one else decides to join the fray. They had the name recognition that neither NEC or 3DO had, even if it was a name from almost two decades before. But I think it's easier to believe a parent would pick one of those up for their child just off the name alone. Especially if Atari positioned itself as the cheaper alternative to the expensive 3DO and whatever else was out at the time. Without Sega, Sony or Nintendo, they probably could get a much more impressive library of games than they ended up with. 

The late-2000s reboot of Alone in the Dark, I just loved how your inventory was literally just in your coat, so you just have to look down rather than go into a separate menu to access your stock. Rest of the game was a mess, but I always loved that mechanic. 

For all of you who keep regular tabs on the value of the game sin your collection, I am curious as to which item has had the biggest increase of value from the price you paid to what it is worth now? Out of my own collection, it's probably would be Dark Souls Trilogy for the PS4. Most of the valuable games I own I ended up buying after their value had already ticked up, such as PS4 The Messenger, the first two Shantae games, or YS VIII. But I was able to purchase Dark Souls Trilogy back when it was still new at GameStop for I think the $59.99 or so it went for at the time. It looks like now that game has easily double in price since then.  

I use to be really into Collector's Editions and had a bunch of them. But I eventually came to realize that A. I didn't have space for all the statues anymore and B. They stopped including my favorite thing: behind-the-scenes documentaries. I find game development so fascinating, but very few CEs include any of that anymore. I still remember watching the Halo 2 documentary that came with the special edition so many times back in the day. Now the only CEs I own are because I could buy them at the same price or cheaper than the standalone game. There is one excpetion, Ori and the Will of the Whisps. I bought that because I loved the first Ori and had a rare opportunity to purchase one at GameStop out of nowhere. 

I did, and this is someone who already bought it on PS4 and got all of the trophies for it. I absolutely love Castlevania and not only did I want the compilation in my collection, I wanted to show Konami that there still is a demand for the series. I will be doing the same thing when Castlevania Requiem goes up for preorder. 

4 hours ago, phart010 said:

I’m not taking either side here as it’s not my subject of expertise. But I do find it interesting that some system hardware can play games designed for other systems while still retaining their own system identity. For example, PS3 could play PS2 and PS1 discs. But they were three distinct systems. Also, DS can play GBA but the game libraries are distinct.

Then there are systems that have compatibility with others with hardware modifications. But at what point do you draw the line? Sega Genesis can play CD games by adding Sega CD hardware. But then it can also play CD games through the cart slot if you have a Mega SD.

SNES can play gameboy if you have a Super Gameboy adapter. You might argue Gameboy is obviously a different system because your playing it off of the Gameboy processor built into the Super Gameboy. Ok Master System can be played on Genesis using the Power Base converter and it plays 100% in the processor built in the Genesis. But they’re different systems 

Some argue Famicom and NES are the same hardware. But they have different pinouts and require an adapter to achieve compatibility. Same goes for Saturn, you need to use a Pseudo Saturn Kai adaptor to get the library to work.
 

Dreamcast can play some PS1 games with a Bleemcast disc. XBox plays DVD movies if you add a hardware adapter (actually the software to play DVDs is already encoded in the firmware, the adaptor just toggles it on). Are DVD movies part of the XBox library?

Then there’s the argument of essentially the same exact games being developed but ported simultaneously to XBox One, PS4 and PC. Same game, different hardware.

I don’t actually know where I sit on this, just wanted to ask some questions to get people thinking? Where do you draw the line?

Just to give my two-cents, I generally believe that a console's library consists of all games designed specifically to run on that system without the need of any additional peripherals. So, the SNES library doesn't include Game Boy games as they weren't specifically developed for the SNES and only work with the use of an adapter. In fact, I even consider PSVR games a separate library because you cannot play the PSVR-only games without the VR headset. Or Sega CD and 32X games aren't part of the Genesis set as they require additional peripherals. It's not a perfect system, of course, since it would technically disqualify Majora's Mask and Donkey Kong 64 from the N64 library due to the requirement of the Expansion Pak. But there's not enough of those exceptions to make make rethink my categorization yet. 

I've started my summer of indies marathon by playing Unravel on PS4. This is such a charming little game and I think it is impossible not to get attached to little Yarny. 

Finally killing a boss in any Dark Souls. I can't help but a yell a 'fuck you' when they finally go down. 

It's probably my favorite genre, maybe second only to FPS. I've loved them ever since I first played Casltevania: Dawn of Sorrow on yhe Nintendo DS back in college. If a game mentions it's a Metroidvania, I am immediately on board. I just love having a huge map to explore filled with beautiful pixel or hand-drawn art. Of course, Castlevania is second to none, but my other favorites are Bloodstained (obviously), Ori, Dead Cells, Shadow Complex, and Yoku's Island Express. Strangely enough, I've never liked Metroid. I have tried the original and Super Metroid a few times over the years, but something about it just doesn't grab me. Maybe I'm more partial to fantasy settings, as I didn't really care for Axiom Verge either.  

The Nintendo Switch is a huge turnaround from the Wii U, it's a fantastic little system that took the idea of off-screen play that the Wii U first introduced and made it the defining feature of the console. Nintendo completely erased the line between the handheld and the console. They have put out a steady stream of fantastic new games, Wii U immigrants and has done a great job courting third parties again so that you can have things like Doom and The Witcher 3 on a Nintendo console and has been an absolute juggernaut in the indie scene. 

But, having said that, I can only give the console an 8 because there are some issues I do have with the console. For one thing, it's hard to argue that the console does struggle in raw power. Many third party games have to be downgraded to work on the console, which means that unless the Switch is the only console you own, there isn't much of a reason to play a lot of the third party games on it. Second, the console sadly is a bit too basic. It lacks many of the great features from the Wii U and the 3DS, such as themes, folders, internet browser, and the Virtual Console. The free NES and SNES games you get for the online subscription doesn't cut it for me. Finally, and this is a very personal gripe, but the Switch has seen a terrible trend of companies being extra lazy and not including full games on cartridges. I don't know who is exactly at fault, be it Nintendo for not allowing larger cartridge sizes, or the publishers for not wanting to pay, but as a collector I hate seeing things like the Mega Man Legacy Collections being split between physical and digital downloads. 

Ultimately, I am going to give the Switch an 8/10. It's a great console, but has one too few issues that keeps me from putting it higher.  

I have the same opinion as I did on the Series X, it is way to early to put any kind of rank on the console. We haven't even made it a year, it is impossible to objectively score a console this early in. PS5 has a slight edge in my mind due to having some actual exclusives with Ratchet, Returnal and Demons' Souls, but it is still just too early to tell. 

On 6/7/2021 at 8:21 AM, scaryice said:

Updated through May. There were some conflicting release dates for Mortal Shell & Destruction All Stars - may have to clear that up later. Looks like Terminator Resistance was the first limited release game?

Interesting question, how to you mark the release date on limited print games? While they have a specific date when they go up for preorder, often it's not clear exactly when the earliest point a game is shipped out. 

I don't think it can be rated fairly at this point, it's been out less than a year, it's still a pain in the ass to get a hold of one, and we do have much of an idea of what's coming beyond a handful of games. It could end up having some great games, or it could be another XBOX One where you can count the worthwile exclusive titles on two hands. 

It's certainly an interesting strategy, but as mentioned previously, I cannot imagine these are going to be gang-buster games. I cannot imagine any developer wanting to limit the game in such a way unless they knew that otherwise it would be overlooked in the eShop. I don't collect the Switch, so I have no skin in the game, but it will certainly be interesting to watch as an outsider. 

The last few of my serious wants for my PS4 collection fall into that category: Salt and Sanctuary, Shadow Warrior 2, Firewatch. Salt and Sanctuary is the most doable of those three, but it is still hard to justify spending the money on it. The other two I can't imagine I ever will own physically unless the bottom just fall out of PS4 stuff for some reason. 

One of the two consoles I would rate as a 10, with the other being the SNES. This is an absolute boss of a console, one of the longest-lasting and a library filled with quality. No matter what kind of games you want to play, the PS2 had something to offer. I think it really helped to popularize backwards-compatibility as a built in feature, since up until that point most consoles required the purchase of some kind of accessory to accomplish it. (Atari 7800 being the main exception I can think of). Of course, it was also a DVD player by default, which certainly helped it appeal to the masses and probably did help people get on board with the new medium. Probably the only think I can knock it for is that I still don't really care for the PlayStation controller design, but we wouldn't get what I consider the closest to the 'perfect' controller until the XBOX. 

Too many to list, but probably the most notable games to me: Okami, Guitar Hero, God of War, Devil May Cry, Bully, Shadow of the Colossus, Kingdom Hearts, Katamari Damacy.

I'm like the reverse of everyone here, I've seen Bojack but never much of either Beavis and Butthead or South Park. Beavis was before my time and at this point, there's just nothing about it that makes me want to ever watch it. I have no interest in South Park because it is just too vulgar for my tastes.

Bojack I absolutely adore, one of the best shows I have ever watched. It hits some serious and thought-provoking topics that I really haven't seen done in a tv show before. It does start off on the rough side, but really hits its stride once you reach the second half of the first season. From there it takes a compelling look at the uglier side of the human condition that I found to be quite thought-provoking. 

Playing through the DLC of Horizon: Zero Dawn before finishing the game and getting the Platinum. I plan to spend the summer playing through my collection of indie games to hopefully cut down on my backlog a bit before October horror game marathon.