General Gaming thread

strumjoughlamps

DefaultM said:

What's the name of that handheld thing you can play emulators on please? 
Not the steamdeck, it looked like maybe a cheaper thing.

There's loads mate.. MyooMini, Retroid pocket etc... I have the Powkiddy RGB 10 Max 2, its a pricier one but worth IMO.. you can go the Pi route with RetroFlag GPI

DefaultM

Thanks, I've looked through that site and there's too much choice, so if I get this Powkiddy RGB 10 Max 2 is that the best for around that price? That's probably the most I'd pay.

strumjoughlamps

DefaultM said:

Thanks, I've looked through that site and there's too much choice, so if I get this Powkiddy RGB 10 Max 2 is that the best for around that price? That's probably the most I'd pay.

You probably better looking at the Retroid Pocket 3 or similar now, 10 Max 2 is 18 or so months old now..

strumjoughlamps

What gen are you after playing...?? 

strumjoughlamps

https://retrododo.com/

He's usually a decent resource for reviews.

DefaultM

I just wanted to play Super Mario 2, but then I saw on some of them you can play ps1 and Dreamcast.

DefaultM

I was just imagining having an original gameboy with all the games in it as emulators. I didn't really want a Vita shaped one, but I didn't realise you could play PS1 on them so if thats what I need I'll have to.

Rabs

Has anyone tried the new Metal Gear Solid Master Collection on the Switch.

When I first heard about this I was really excited as I was a HUGE fan of MGS 1 on the PS1 but from the footage I have seen they have done nothing at all to upgrade the graphics which seems really bad on the MGS 1 game.. The footage makes it look absolutely terrible apparently  even the frame rate which is meant to be 30 FPS and it doesnt keep that up. Which is odd as we know the Switch can do better.

Im wondering if the released version is as bad as it looks in the preview videos and kinda hoping that they may update it at some point in the future, but for some reason I think thats all we are gonna get on MGS 1. Maybe they are planning an HD version so they can release it again?

duotone

@DefaultM ;
https://retrododo.com/best-retro-handhelds/

stickyfiddle

I haven't played the reissue but I'm aware MGS1 is a very faithful translation of the original, down to PS1 era graphics presented in glorious 4:3 aspect ratio. It's odd that they didn't include the Twin Snakes version as well as that's honestly miles better. 

But I wonder if they will actually do a full FF7 style remake at some point

CavemanGrogg

TeleMaster said:

I don't hold out much hope. Most of the Prime Originals stuff is medicore. 

Could not agree with you more on this, Prime seems to be the haven of flops, B movies, and direct to video shit that nobody in their right mind would watch.

Rkphilpot said:

You're probably aware of the reviews of Mirage, lots of people saying that it has gone back to basics, which was needed as Valhalla, whilst being awesome, was huge, suffered with option paralysis and wasn't so much of a sneak and assassinate game.

Personally I'm waiting till it becomes available for cheaper next year.
Saying that, I feel like I got Valhalla free with Ubisoft and Xbox live. Not sure if Ubisoft games are still free on game pass though? 

Sporky said:

I enjoyed Valhalla, but it was more of a tank game. Finesse optional. 

I've found all the Assassins Creed games to be like that, you can go through them like a tank, or be all stealthy, I platinumed Valhalla without being spotted once, the very first Assassins Creed game I tanked it through with no thoughts of attempts made to be stealthy and still platinumed in it 1 play through, technically 100G it, I'm pretty sure I played the first one on the ybox 360 .

Penn

Has anyone tried Cities Skylines 2 or is it just me? 

I’ve played it on a laptop with an i9 12900h, an Rtx 3060 and 32gb of ram. It’s unplayable on it. 

marauder

Recommended gpu changed to a 3080, its relased too early and unoptimised.

https://youtu.be/QnMsT2S2vzA?si=9Km8yOrI57w5tto0

FarleyUK

Welcome to the joys of gaming in 2023 - rushed, unoptimised releases.

TheMarlin

Penn said:

Has anyone tried Cities Skylines 2 or is it just me? 

I’ve played it on a laptop with an i9 12900h, an Rtx 3060 and 32gb of ram. It’s unplayable on it. 

Its needs a super powerful gaming pc to play it properly. They will get it working on regular gaming PC’s, still lots of optimisation work to do. 

I think there was pressure to get it out the door.  Paradox have a great history of sorting these problems, and continuing to support games with patches and content drops for as much as a decade. 

So, it will get sorted. 

RaymondLin

Games are bigger and more complicated than ever before with ever more variables in hardware every year that goes by so development times gets longer and longer.  3 years to make a (big, AAA) game is no longer possible IMO, the games that comes out relatively bug free seems to have double or triple that development time.  Tears of the Kingdom uses the same engine and most of the same assets as BOTW and they had 6 years to do that.  If you count the work they had put in for BOTW with it, that game took like 12 years to make.

Baldurs Gate 3 spent 6 years in development and then 3 years of Early Access, basically beta testing, 9 whole years before it had a formal release.  Cyberpunk is only really fixed now 3 years after it came out and that was in development for 9 years already, so the game took 12 years to make!  And one can argue there are still bugs now!

TheMarlin

FarleyUK said:

Welcome to the joys of gaming in 2023 - rushed, unoptimised releases.

Welcome to the world of capitalism. 80% of PC/Console physical game sales are over Xmas and New Year.  

If a game is not on major retailer store shelves by thanksgiving in the U.S, it’s not going to make Xmas sales anywhere. That’s the target the games industry uses. 

That’s why we have a history of shonky winter releases with day one patches. My son is playing Spiderman 2, he’s currently scoring it at 65%, will take a few patches to get it up to speed. 

The situation only got worse due to the pandemic. Games sales rocketed during pandemic, and this attracted record investment.  Unfortunately, these investors don’t understand games development lifecycles, and they want their return.  So increasingly games are being pushed out too early.

The pandemic slowed console production and development times, so major releases were held back until PS5/XBOX X hit critical mass.  Its rumoured Horizon Forbidden West was ready the year before it was released, just held back. 

Prolonged dev times meant no real killer console games were released last Xmas, and sales stagnated.  This has had a dramatic effect on the industry. Much of the huge rounds of redundancy we see in the Industry is due to investors wanting to reduce costs. 

So, I can forgive Publishers for releasing games early with a view to fixing post release. 

Cyberpunk showed that even a disastrous launch can be a success. 

In defence of City Skylines 2. If you can get it working, it’s a lovely game, relaxing and rewarding. 

But it will get even better soon. 

Penn

The bit that gets me is a thought that a fairly decent spec machine. It runs most stuff well enough. 

DefaultM

This is why I'm looking at these retro devices and I got a Switch. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Nintendo ever rush stuff and then make you update it 5 times because they're using the official release as a sort of beta test. Their games just seem to be finished and work.

FarleyUK

For those of you with a Steam Deck - how well does it cope with Switch emulation? I have one, but I'm just wondering if it's worth all the faff.