ShreddieMercury

Having enjoyed the Last of Us games, I watched this and enjoyed it as well, but I'm confused by the effusive praise it's gotten so far. It definitely looks and feels like a TV show, which is fine, but game is so painfully cinematic that I kept thinking the equivalent scenes early on in the game were much more effective than the TV counterparts. The blocking is so tight and you can really feel the budget in scenes like The first episode was more well executed than other game story adaptions I've seen, but not by a whole lot.

Got everything set up, what a fantastic console! Slowly discovering the library and it's packed with so many pure, brilliant video games, it's hard to fathom. Playing NiGHTS with the 3D controller and I'm understanding why this is still the preferred way to experience this game. It feels much smoother than the 360 port from what I could tell. And the 3D controller! I don't know why isn't considered an all-time excellent pad. It's so comfortable and fun to use. Question for anyone that has one. I noticed that the analog stick has a bit of play when you twist it. It's tight when actually pressing a direction and the deadzone is fine, but the stick itself will twist a bit from the top. Is this normal? So far it hasn't affected anything I tried with it, and I noticed that the Dreamcast sticks do the same thing so I assume that it's tied to the "hall effect" design of both, but I also wasn't sure if it was a problem or something wrong with the pad itself.

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that this approach just felt more novel to me in Until Dawn, and I appreciated the setting more. The pacing is way, way worse in The Quarry in my opinion. The story's twists and turns worked much better for me in Until Dawn, and major events happened much earlier in the game than they do in The Quarry.

I'm with you on this, and I really loved Until Dawn. I made it past where you are I think (Chapter 7?), and it really doesn't get any better at all. It's crazy how completely inert and dull this game is.

The white Saturn I was looking at was sold unfortunately, but I found a grey one in amazing condition that came with two controllers, Sega Rally, VF2, and Fighters Megamix. That should arrive next week or the week after. I then also bought a Japanese copy of Burning Rangers, as well as NiGHTS + Christmas NiGHTS and the 3D analog controller. Those will take longer to ship Finally I ordered a Satiator! That should do it for now. Very excited to explore this console and library. Dreamcast is my favorite console, and I tend to think that videogames peaked with Sega’s 90’s output. But Saturn is a huge blind spot for me. Last question, is the extra ram card necessary? I read that the AR carts actually wear out the pins in the slot because they don’t fit perfectly. I looked at a list of compatible games for the extra ram and nothing really jumped out at me. It seemed pretty minimal overall, but am I missing something huge if I just have the Satiator?

What do you guys like more, the grey or white Japanese Saturn? Some solid listings for these consoles with games on Ebay. Will likely also get a satiator.

Awesome this is great to know. Do you have any recommendations on systems? Does the satiator get rid of the region lock? It seems Japanese systems are cheaper but won’t play US games so that might not be the way to go.

Recently played Nights into Dreams for the first time and was blown away. I know it’s not the best time because retro stuff is crazy expensive, and I’ve heard Saturn in particular gets up there. Still, I’m thinking about trying to get a console and a couple of games and have an authentic experience. Does anybody here have Saturn stuff or collect for this console? If so, any tips or things to be aware of? If I can get a console in good shape somehow, I’ll likely put an ODE in at some point, but I’d like to find a few of the less expensive games and try it out first.

Thanks! Yeah I’ll have to just see if I can find an old CRT at some point. For now I got out an old HD TV that has multiple inputs so I can least hook up more than just the DC, even if it doesn’t look great for these old consoles. Definitely better than the 4K display I have.

I currently have an old CRT computer monitor with VGA that I've been using for my Dreamcast, and it looks amazing. But I also have a couple of other consoles that I'd like to hook up to have a little retro space in my office, and it makes more sense to only have one screen that I can switch the hookups on. I don't necessarily need the best possible output, I just want something that I can hookup my OG Xbox and DC maybe Wii to that will look better than the 4K TV I have in my living area. Are there any solid, affordable options for a monitor or TV that I could get a good picture on? What do you all use for retro games?

I'm just hoping Hyper Demon is on sale.

The Eurogamer review is the video game review of the year as far as I'm concerned. It is incredible.

Zelda and RE4 is it for me. Unless there is some Nintendo stuff I don't know about.

Perfect, I was just thinking about how I've been wanting to play all of the same games over and over in perpetuity and pay for the privilege each time.

Definitely not dumb, I'm the same way! I'm the same way with skill trees. If it's simple I'm okay, but once it branches out or has too many options, I just shut down.

Hitman is absolutely phenomenal, but each level is so dense and so layered that it's almost too much. And the challenges and different approaches you can take mean that you can spend tens of hours on each level alone, and I don't have that kind of time to dedicate to one game anymore. Thanks for the tips on the guns, will do!

Bought Sniper Elite 4 on sale after seeing @Bloodporne mention that it was great. I played a bit of the first level last night and it was really fun. I really like how relatively simple it is in comparison to MGS or Hitman, which tend to be overwhelming for me. There are some cool systems and it looks great and runs really well.

Saw a great review of this game on Eurogamer and thought I'd bump this thread: Save 10% on Swordship on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM Swordship is a futuristic lightning-fast dodge’em up which flips the script on the traditional arcade shooter. Turn both the tide of battle and enemies on themselves by dodging, weaving and diving your way through an onslaught of enemies hell-bent on tearing your Swordship apart. Swordship review - this game is a marvel WWW.EUROGAMER.NET Our review of the phenomenal arcade game Swordship.

I have a sense that this will be disappointing in comparison to something like RE2make. The stuff about the Ishimura being "open" screams of empty marketing because gamers hate the phrase "linear". My guess is that it's only "open" in the sense that you maybe can take the tram back to previous levels where the "intensity director" can procedurally spawn enemies again or something. I highly doubt it's going to be something like the RE Police Station where you are continually looping around on yourself and optimizing your routes based on your inventory. I hope I'm wrong, but I would bet that this is really close to the original outside of a few specific scenes.

Well said. I'm excited about this because I think Dead Space is pretty good remake material. But this looks identical, moment-to-moment, to the original. I would love for developers to have more of a creative license to do whatever they want with the property rather than just keeping the original intact. This doesn't really look like anything but a new coat of paint. But, there were some supposedly interesting changes made structurally from what I can tell, so I'll reserve judgement until it's out.

This is the most interesting and varied list I've seen so far, I think it's my favorite. And the author going hard at how bad games are now gave me life.

Performance aside, I think that current games criticism landscape is pretty abysmal. The vast majority of outlets are not able to offer any sort of cogent or thoughtful analysis, because games are too multi-dimensional to be scored in the way that they currently are. Polygon seems to prioritize the story and themes of a game, even when these elements are trivial to the experience. Digital Foundry, while they don't explicitly review games, analyzes specific technical minutiae while also offering an opinion of the game's overall quality. And large legacy sites like IGN or Gamespot lean more heavily into the AAA space and tend to score between 7-10, seemingly blinded by a game's production value alone. And even in cases where people are very thoughtful and nuanced in their analysis, gamers typically can't be bothered to read or watch or engage with something that doesn't offer a shorthand "score". The aggregation of all criticism into one number really does a disservice to entertainment from my perspective, and it's especially pronounced with video games. I'm bummed about how this game turned out, but at the same time, with each new release I find myself more and more weary of trusting Open Critic or Metacritic to reflect a game's overall quality. I do really enjoy reading posts about games here, because people get pretty in depth and offer solid breakdowns of what they like or didn't like. And I tend to think Eurogamer/DF are pretty even and eloquent. Other than that though, woof.

But then John says, "it's an exceptionally memorable experience and one of my favorite games of 2022". Hmm.

Yikes, this is such a bummer. With the pedigree of the developers I did not expect something this broken and stale. I played the opening last night and it was impressively cinematic, but almost immediately you can see the seams, because the priority is clearly on the look of the game rather than any sort of interesting game design. It plays well, but the "one long corridor" thing is the most damning aspect to me so far.

Not sure why you are turning the difficulty down. Each death in video games teaches you, not only about the game, but about yourself. And once you've ascended the mountain of progress, you will look back at who you were, and revel in who you've become. Dark Souls.