Four me? Yes! ...terday I bought.

I got the N64 pad for Christmas and is the difference between some games being playable and unplayable, but I doubt I would have bought it for myself.

I had a brief play around with a few games the other day and it definitely felt better, even with games that already worked with the pro controller. The N64 was the first console I had that was just mine so I've always had a special relationship with it and playing Mario 64 with that pad again was special.

I’ve typed up my thoughts on Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble in a different thread, but to summarise it’s worth getting yourself if you’ve ever been half-interested in the series. As is typical for SEGA published games, the price already appears to be falling too.
 
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was a day one purchase that I was enjoying, but I’ve taken a break from it. I’m certain I’ll get back round to it in a few weeks though, it’ll not get abandoned.
 
Until I randomly stumbled across it on Amazon when I was trying to buy (of all things) a shoulder bag I didn’t know NeoGeo Pocket Colour Selection Vol. 2 received a physical release, they kept that quiet. I was well chuffed with this for £28. That said, there’s a fair few games included which just aren’t very good, the sorts of games that make me glad that I never tried collecting for the NeoGeo Pocket physically.
 
It had been literal years since I’ve heard or read anyone talking about Brawlout, a Smash Bros. clone that predates Ultimate. It’s pretty unremarkable all told, I think I’m finished with it. £6 is about what it’s worth.
 
Getsufumaden: Dying Moon was an impulse buy on Amazon at the weekend, truthfully only bought because it’s Deluxe Edition was £15 delivered yet trading in for £26 at CEX. I decided to give it a go out of curiosity, and it’s actually pretty good. I’ve got very little experience with roguevania games, this is a nice change of pace.
 
Lastly, Sonic Superstars was to replace my copy that got waterlogged. I’m not sure I’ve told that story. It was during the winter that the condensation on my Velux window started leaking, and the measure I’d taken against that happening started to fail. Sadly for me, I keep my Switch games between bookends on top of a shelf which is right underneath that window, which the water dripped right on top of. A fair few of my games were cosmetically damaged, Sonic Superstars included. Admittedly I traded it and FC 24 into CEX where they didn’t care that the cover art was a bit creased and flimsy, but others (like Super Bomberman R 2, Yooka-Laylee and, guttingly, Advent Calendar) were ruined and had to go straight in the bin. Anyhoo, here’s another non-mouldy Sonic Superstars here.

Cappa, I have to ask the most important question about those new purchases in that photo:
Is that a carpet, an old tarmac road, a granite worktop, or a wooly blanket those games are on?

My money is on carpet.

Is that just the boxes ruined or the actual game cartridges!

It’s a shabby hallway carpet that’s been needing replaced since about 2006 (BC).

~



He’s here and he’s perfect!
 
One of the retro gaming retailers I use suddenly got Snowboard Kids 2 in stock on Friday evening, and for what I feel was a very decent price. I didn’t need to think about, I don’t think I’ve ever rushed to place an order for anything so quickly in my life.
 
I’ve genuinely been wanting this for a quarter of a century. Just like everyone who ever played it, I was a big fan of the original and I was eagerly anticipating and counting down to the launch of Snowboard Kids 2 in 1999. The magazines previewed it and I’m N64 Magazine reviewed it on import, but it simply never arrived in Europe. There’s a PAL version but it was exclusive to Australasia, and it costs several hundred pounds. This North American cartridge was a fraction of that, and I’m really happy to add it to my collection.

Do you have a set-up to play American N64 carts, or is it more of a collection piece while you play the game emulated?

Who do you use to get that Cappa? As I know, you use Genki for Japanese imports, as I'm always on the lookout for retro mostly Cube (which may have seen I saw MP6 CIB but was £125 nope), PS3, PSP, PS2, Wii, 3DS.

Blimey! Actually I think I did play Snowboard Kids 2, but borrowed it off a mate. He must have imported it then - but that seems so unlikely a thing for us to do back then...

How much exactly? I'm not gonna rush and do the same but also I would definitely consider doing exactly that because Snowboard Kids is king.

Astro Bot the big PS5 game of course, and the DualSense which now takes me to 6 DualSense Controllers (10 more DualSense got released in the UK, two more from overseas) and the Portal (Not a DualSense but is also the Sense VR2 & Access controllers).

Space Marine II has just arrived, a few days early, as standard isn't out till Monday.

Then lastly a pretty spenny PSP game, that I ordered from CEX as I traded in a bunch of things which I'd normally put on eBay. I recently sold (they paid right away) a New 3DS Cover Plate (I found three in a charity shop for £4 each) on eBay and about hour after I sent it got an email saying my daughter has a 2DS this is no good to me (why even searching for New 3DS Cover Plates?) and would like to send back, I've not had the cover plates back and my eBay account is currently -£20. I wasn't going to list Dustborn as I finished it on eBay to only put my eBay account in a positive, so traded that in along with the other two cover plates (Got £20) and few other PS4 games I hadn't played such as Armoured Core 6 (Got £16 paid £10 when GAME got rid of used games).

So I thought got a credit note, let's have a look see what CEX have, I did look at the God of War DualSense though may have came unboxed and even looked at a NGPC but the games such as Sonic were £50 that I'd never get any games for it. So why not a PSP game for the collection.

FC 25 and Ufouria 2 will likely be among the last Switch games I buy on their release dates and even then, they’d been bought straight away because I had Game Collection credit to use up. Hell Pie had been sat in my local CEX for months on end, for around £45. When it suddenly dropped to £25 that’s when I decided to pay out, as that seems cheap for a Super Rare Games game.
 
I’ve had that Tomb Raider cart for a while and it’s definitely not the way I’d recommend playing those games in 2024. I don’t recall that I’d pre-ordered the Legacy of Kain and Bitmap Bros. ones, I can only assume it was after many, many beers. I’m half-minded to send them back for a refund anyway. I’m losing interest in the Evercade, nothing about it's future looks exciting right now.
 
The two SNES games were a better deal though. I’d seen behind the retro gaming glass display that my local CEX got a handful of different SNES games in stock, and I noticed at the front that Super Tennis was priced as being unboxed for £3. I queried this and was advised that it was indeed being sold as unboxed for £3 because it was missing the cardboard inlay. The box, instructions and cartridge are all in great condition, so £3 is a nice little deal (albeit on a game that’s maybe the cheapest on the SNES anyway). After paying and on my way out I had a closer look to the back of the display, and I’d clocked the same thing again: ‘Super Mario World, Unboxed, £10’. It’s in shabbier condition than Super Tennis but I wasn’t leaving that behind – if I find a cardboard inlay then it’s suddenly a £50 game. It turns out I’d missed a lot of other SNES games in the days beforehand, they’d all been brought in an elderly lady who found them in her loft and thought they might be worth something, all in this similar ‘unboxed’ condition.
 
I also found a boxed GBA SP in Cash Generator for just £49.99. While the sticker damage on the box there is saddening, the console itself is in better condition that any of the GBA SPs I have already. I was slightly disappointed when the sales assistant pulled the system out of the box to let me see it and quickly said ‘oops, that’s not supposed to be in there’, wheeching a cartridge out. I think it was Finding Nemo though and not Ninja Cop, so I can just about live with that.

I'm interested to hear how you get on with Soul Reaver. It's a game I hear a lot of nostalgia for, but I wonder if it holds up as something to actually sit down and play today?

During the State of Play was announced Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remaster is coming, that's where I might pick it up myself, especially if it gets a physical like Tomb Raider.

Blood Omen also coming to PlayStation via Plus, that just Blood Omen 2 will be missing.

Edit

I forgot about Defiance

The folks at Evercade must have been kicking themselves that they didn’t get the Legacy of Kain Collection out for retail before the Soul Reaver remaster and Blood Omen re-release were announced at the State of Play. That'll have hurt. I can imagine a fair few potential buyers would have cancelled their pre-orders or just lost interest in the Evercade cartridge. Still, they've sold at least one copy (to me) so the profit from that will likely be enough to fund the licensing for another five Commodore 64 Evercade collections.
 
I decided to open the cartridge last night and give Blood Omen a go. It’s quite interesting, and very different from my usual type of game. You’ll know if I stuck with it if I type up a Halloween review for the retro reviews thread.
 
I guess I’ll get round to Soul Reaver at some point, but I’m half-curious to see how the remaster pans out. If it’s a big improvement then maybe I’ll just hold fire for that.

I thought this was a very decent haul from Cash Generator’s wireframe ‘bargain bin’, where the DS games were £1.99 each, the PlayStation games were 99p each, and the Wii and 360 games were 50p each. You’ll see that I managed to do something that I’ve never done before, which is accidently buy the same game twice. It’s pretty much all gone to CEX to be honest, though I overestimated the value of some of those 360 games – I’d have ended up making a 40p loss on L.A. Noire if I’d bothered to trade it in.
 
On a side note and as a tale of the times, there was a couple of £2.99 Switch games in that bargain bin too. That was one of the old FIFAs, and the sadly underappreciated Samba de Amigo: Party Central. I don’t think that’s even a year old either!

Fallout during the show was going for good money, and think some versions of Minecraft Story Mode do if ones with it on the disc.

Likely bought and sold loads since (PS5, COD comes to mind) the last post of my buying of Astro Bot back in September but as Smurf brought it up about didn't see Suicide Squad as game I owned, thought post what got since then.

Hardware:

DualSense's which are the Edge which I got in CEX after I returned Trails in the Sky on PSP as I wasn't happy it didn't come in the big box and got a voucher, and they had a brand-new Edge in the CEX. Starlight Blue DualSense that I got from a local game shop after trading in some Warhammer and couldn't find anything else. 30th Anniversary Edition, the most recent, though I have the Helldivers II one on order and may import the MonHan Wilds one.  

PlayStation 5 Pro and Disc Drive yeah got this a few weeks ago now or like a month after launch due to the disc drive being a pain in the arse to get.  To be honest an odd upgrade as like the best games on it like Rebirth or Stellar Blade I've already played and don't plan to go back to them, then like I played Neva that's umm not really using the Pro and I don't have a 120fps TV (yet) which a bunch of games now have the option. Though I'm mostly going to be playing everything on PS5 for the next what 3+ years, and I see MonHan Wilds from the BETA with the extra grunt running better (still not great) that think more long term when playing Intergalactic or Witcher IV when the Pro will shine.

OMEN Laptop my old one started to sound like a Dreamcast, had a crack in the case and rattled that I needed a new one and used my Xmas money on this laptop typing this on that I got from Currys yesterday. Specs feel good enough for me and going to play Indiana Jones* on it, as this is an Xbox.

*Have also downloaded some other games like Path of the Goddess, Black Mesa, Hollow Body etc.


PS5 Physical:

Beyond Good & Evil: 20th Anniversary Edition ordered this ages ago now from Limited Run but arrived yesterday and already seen people asking like £90+ on eBay for it sealed, I have opened as the disc was loose, and I do plan to play along with maybe even getting the platinum.  

Black Myth: Wukong this was for Xmas as heard positive things about the game, though seems people may have taken that a bit too far. I've done Chapter 1 which was quite long but see game has six of them and like hrs long so that's 3.25hrs per chapter.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition ordered this Boxing Day for £25 and it arrived today, I have played Cyberpunk before at launch on Xbox SX which I found fine but since then we've had how many patches and on 2.2 now along with this coming with Phantom Liberty (£20 on its own) that I haven't played. I feel this be like playing a new game now on the PS5.

Fantasian Neo Dimension it's installed.

Gran Turismo 7 got this mostly to show of the Pro and think I got it for £25 on eBay, do like the café menu thingy and learning about cars like french hot hatches on about number 10 of 30odd of the menus.

Lollipop Chainsaw: RePop BG&E not the only import as I had this arrive months ago but only just saw didn't have it listed on Backloggery/Price Charting that may have never mentioned it here either.  

Metaphor: ReFantazio got this during Black Friday as I do like an Atlus RPG and been in GOTY talk with even CW loving a turned based RPG, plan to start soon maybe even today.

Sonic X Shadow Generations got this at launch, only played some of Shadow levels.



PS5 Digital, bunch like Neva you know I've played and finished that these are ones yet to play

Crow Country think Jas is fan of this one which I got in a sale, and I do like the idea of a PS1 style horror game. Why downloaded Hollow Body, which is like a PS2 style horror game.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered it was £10 upgrade, I've not played Frozen Wilds and is Pro enhanced.

Nobody Wants to Die got in a sale, heard it's a bit of cyberpunk visual novel thing and a bit of hidden gem of 2024 but feel Andy has played it.


Retro:

MonHan Generations on 3DS, F1 2011 on VITA, Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends on VITA, Rune Factory Oceans on PS3 and Family Fortunes on Wii.

mas wrote:

and I don't have a 120fps TV (yet) which a bunch of games now have the option

I know fps chat is boring BUT I feel like this isn't that big of a selling point as Sony think it is, and like Buska not being able to see the difference in 30-60 fps the jump to 120 has been sort of the same for me. I could certainly see the difference when I first launched R6 siege with it's upgrade but now I regularly jump between Helldivers 2 (60fps) and System shock (120) the difference isn't as noticeable.

I guess the benefit is if you're at 120 and it dips by like 30 it isn't as much of an issue than when it happens at 60? Anyhow, when I first upgraded my TV I was excited for all the bells and whistles of 120fps/HDR etc in games but I slowly noticed most just don't have them as options (especially HDR) and the TV overall has been much better for watching Films and the football.

I find I notice 30fps more now then I did especially when playing a game in 60fps then I switch to quality mode to see it in graphical splendor to then go I can't play this, and switch back to 60fps.

Having never played at 120fps (okay I played Hollow Body last night on PC which was like 140fps but seemed no different, is a slow plodding game), 40fps mode, VRR etc. I can't tell you if it's better or not, till I get a new TV. HDR always to be a big change surprised about amount games that don't have it.

Edit

Personally I want what Rebirth is doing on Pro, it takes the 30fps quality mode which I tried but couldn't play and the 60fps performance mode that looks like vaseline is all over it, to make one simple mode that looks like quality at 60fps.

Yet not all games are doing that, the upcoming Dynasty Warriors Origins if you got a 120fps screen has 12 different options to pick from, choice is good but 12 modes really where I just want simple quality at 60fps.

masofdas wrote:

HDR always to be a big change surprised about amount games that don't have it.

Aye, even though I have my tv set up the best for both cases it's still a shame when a game doesn't have HDR. I think part of why some games don't have it at least on ps5 is it can be activated at a system level but I'm told that can make the image look washed out compared to game that is normally supported.

I got a PS5 and a big new TV. Mostly just been playing PS4 and Switch games so far and appreciating seeing them on a better TV.

Nice! Despite me being a bit grumpy above that does sound like my first experience of my ps5 & new tv as well, MH World looked especially good when I booted that up.

Yeah World got a PS4 Pro patch then extra grunt of PS5, you can have the graphics mode running at 60fps. World having the three option's on PS4 Pro, what made me think it would have PS5 Pro support. At the moment unsure on that, but even on base PS5 had two options and the Pro grunt helps it from BETA play.

Yeah a nice TV makes a difference, been saying it for years, as we must spend hours looking at it. My problem is as a got one, spending on a new one for maybe little bit better does seem a little silly, not like PS5 to Pro where I can at least sold the PS5.

Don't try and sneak in buying a PS5 pro like a maniac alongside a sensible post about not getting a new TV . . .