Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@Jimmer-jammer Haha sorry man, if it seems like I'm throwing too much music your way. Hope all is well and there's no rush to listen to the stuff. Looking forward to hearing more about your adventures with Lies of P.

Oh Happy new year. I guess we will see and interact with each other this year as well.

So for the new year, I decided that I'm going to put in more effort to clear out my backlog. I started by making a list of all my backlog games, both physical and digital, on Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation. By doing this, I can keep better track of what games I have left and more easily remind myself what I can play. Not to mention that I can check off games that I've finished and count how many I've completed throughout the year. That way I get a stronger sense of progression.

I finished counting all my backlog games (which took several hours) and the total amount is 717 games. I kinda regret doing this now that I know the actual amount lol. Well, better get to clearing them out!

@Kidfried Ouch, I assume things haven't managed to sort themselves out in any way at all?

Looking like it might be a phone call to Sony coming up for you?

@Kidfried 😱 Oh no! That’s an awful start for 2024!

Hopefully it’s just a weird glitch and the PS5 comes back around. But if it’s truly bricked, that’s a total bummer.

Makes me nervous to play Horizon Forbidden West. It’s still in my backlog. For an older first party game that’s really crazy if it bricked your console!

@Kidfried Good to hear it’s back among the living. I’ve had electronics do that kind of thing before and resurrect from the dead after a day or two. My PS4 is currently hanging by a thread and may or may not connect to the DualShock 4, depending on the day. Some days it works just fine, and some days it freezes and won’t connect or respond and I have to do a manual shutdown.

It’s probably something you’re done already or thought of, but I’d recommend doing a cache clear and database rebuild. Especially if you’ve not done one in a while. That often fixes little performance issues (although a full bricking of the console is more severe than a little performance issue). If you’ve never done one on your PS5 there’s a lot of articles and videos if you search it online. It’s easy and takes a few minutes. Now that it’s back working might be good to do it before it becomes unresponsive again.

@Kidfried Fingers crossed for you. My original PS5 did the same but made a brief comeback for a day or two before leaving this mortal coil for good.

Hopefully you have better luck than me!

@RogerRoger One of the best features of last-gen/current-gen in my opinion is rest mode. But the more you use it, the worse it gets.

With PS4/PS5, the game will eventually crash the more you use rest mode.

With Xbox One/Series X and Quick Resume, some games will stop unlocking achievements and sometimes crash the more you use the feature.

With the Switch, it's pretty much flawless but that's due to its handheld nature.

I absolutely love this feature but I wish it would work better over time.

@LtSarge yeah , rest mode and recording game clips/screenshots is one of the best thing that ever happened to gaming, they’re both so useful . i miss these so much playing on my ps3

@Kidfried Nuts. Welp, that has me properly worried (and sorry for you as well).
How far along are you in the game, if you don’t mind my asking?

@nomither6 That's honestly one of the reasons why I have a hard time going back to PS3 and 360. It just takes such a long time to get back into a game, especially on the 360 as it takes forever to sign in to Xbox Live. I've contemplated numerous times to buy the same game on PS4 just so I can utilise rest mode lol. We've definitely been spoiled by the newer consoles.

@Kidfried Ah man, that sucks. I don’t suppose it’s still under warranty? When I had to send mine off I was pleasantly surprised at how quick the turnaround was (less than 2 weeks I think). Probably worth contacting Sony either way if it’s done it twice.

@Kidfried Around February/March last year I had this issue. Most games would work fine, but Elden Ring kept bricking the PS5. I'd go back to Tchia for a while and everything would run smoothly, but then as soon as I went back to Elden Ring - boom. Bricked PS5 again after about 45 minutes of playing.

The problem, it turned out, was that my cat had been walking behind my console and enjoyed rubbing himself against it. I only found this out after I took the covers off, unscrewed the fan and cleaned it all out. I pulled out a load of cat fur, and it was pretty dusty too. This is coming from someone who looks after his games consoles (never had an issue in three decades of gaming). The PS5 is designed to let more air out, but it also lets a lot of other crap in. Since then, I've had to repeat the process once, around October last year.

This video gives a quick overview of the process but there are more in depth ones knocking about. A lot of them bang on about using a vacuum spray but I just got stuck in there with kitchen roll and the hoover nozzle.

I hope this helps

@Kidfried Fingers crossed. Mine was bricking completely, and wouldn't come back to life until I unplugged it from the wall and gave it a minute. Let us know how you get on

@Kidfried Glad to hear that’s (hopefully) all that was wrong with your console. I probably need to open mine up for a clean again soon rather than leaving it for four years like with my PS4..

And on your point of HFW, one of the (many) things that has impressed me in BG3 is that most of the side quests are tied to the story so never feel like filler. I can only think of one that has been “go here, get this thing, and bring it back” and even then that has some grey morality to it too.

PC-only I presume. (This particular mod, looks amazing though.)

@Jimmer-jammer Have you seen the post above that I made yesterday? If you have an appropriate gaming PC that meets the specs, it might be right up your street!

@Th3solution How are you? What are you playing right now? Been a while since we last spoke. I am still grinding in DeS as my op build wasn't op enough for Allant. Think I may have already told you, but yeah, I have levelled Vit up to 67 aiming for 99 ,found a sweet farming spot, then aiming to raise End to 40 from 25 and Str 66 from 34, so yeah, not an incredible amount of leveling up to go and the farming spot I am currently using allows me to get about 50,000 souls in like 20 minutes.

I was thinking of playing through DkS 1 again for a third time later in the year, but the thought of going through the arduous trials of Sen's Fortress, Anor Londo & Crystal Cave (invisible walkways area) again fills me with dread. I had great fun with my GiantDad (Mask of the Father, Giant's Armor, gauntlets & leggings, Chaos Zweihander) build though, and fancy another playthrough with the same build. Thoughts?

@TheBrandedSwordsman Doing well, my friend. I have been playing FF16 and also, surprisingly enough, Power Wash Simulator. 😅 I gave PWS a try on a whim, and it’s a decent distraction from the usual gaming fare, but definitely not for everyone. It’s a ‘turn off your brain and chill’ type of game, like doing a coloring book or a jigsaw puzzle or something.

I’m going to start A Plague Tale: Requiem this weekend, time permitting. The Game Club thread is playing that this month so I’m going to join in. I like being able to talk about what I’m playing with others who have played it or are playing it, so that’s the plan.

Sounds like you’ll be ready to finally take down Allant soon. As for DkS1, it’s an awesome game. Would you consider doing a different build, like maybe a dex build or a pyro build?

I have never done a dex build in any of the souls games yet and so I think I might go that route the next time I play one. Have you played DkS2? I forget.

This one is fantastic (minor spoilers);