Topic: Recent Retro/Misc Gaming Purchases? (Not PS4/PS5)

This week I purchased Mana Khemia, Tales of Hearts: R, Sword Art Online: Lost Song, Fate-Extra, and The Legend of Heroes: Trails in The Sky FC.

I downloaded Ys: Memories of Celceta for my PSTV! (^_^)/

I purchased Fairy Fencer F and Mimana Iyar Chronicle (PSP) for my PS3 and PSTV respectively.

After playing Gears of War 4 (I'm only a single-player gamer) the past few days, I already bought Gears of War Ultimate Edition to start after I finish 4. I've never played the series, and while 4 starts a new chapter in the series, I'm curious about the first 3 now! It's been a lot of fun, and the story has been fun to go through. I"m looking forward to going through the first 3 in the near future. I wish 2 and 3 had remasters out as well, but I'll make due with backwards compatibility!

After running through the demo last night, I popped onto Amazon & ordered Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS). Tearing through the level in that mech was soooo satisfying.

Managed to get a pre-order in for the Super NES Classic.

@Gamer83 Congrats. I am starting to save up now cause I have a feeling if I want one I am going to have to go through a scalper.

Managed to get my pre-order in for the Xbox One X - Project Scorpio Edition...

I got my order in for the One X too

@crippyd Cool!!! I would be very surprised if you didn't...

They went 'fast....'

@BAMozzy Thanks man My pal is very disappointed, I told him about my order and he tried to get one from the same place as I got mine for £360 with an online discount code and he missed out and he can't get one for love nor money. The only place that still have stock as of about 3pm was Argos and they want the money upfront!

@crippyd I pre-ordered immediately they went live on Amazon. This was before Game, Shop-to or any of the other major retailers had gone live. I am a member of an online AV Forum which has an XBX thread and within minutes of me posting about getting my Pre-order in, I started to see others struggling to get one from Amazon. Soon after that though, a lot of others went live so I noticed that people were pre-ordering from them and 'periodically', Amazon would be able to offer the Scorpio for pre-order. Maybe because they were allocated more or maybe because people cancelled and went elsewhere for 1 reason or another.

A few have said their local 'Game' retailers had sold out of their allocation. Stores seem to be getting 10-15 in but by the time the shop opens and the staff have 'theirs' booked, they are left with 5-8 to actually sell to the public and most of those went within an hour of opening.

Looking on MS's own store page (Sold out there too BTW), the only places listed to still have stock is Argos. On Ebay, they are trying to sell some at £1k+. I do expect the 'standard' (not Project Scorpio editions) to go on sale (if they haven't already) and the only thing fundamentally different will be the inclusion of the Stand. Obviously there are cosmetic differences - no 'Project Scorpio' wording and the lack of that 'gradient pattern' on the top but the only real difference is the inclusion of the stand for Project Scorpio editions and lack of it for the 'standard' edition.

I really didn't expect it to be that popular but it seems that people are looking forward to it. Did you see the Rise of the Tomb Raider enhancements video? AC: Origins has listed some of their enhancements too. The fact that RotTR should run at a native 4k with 4k textures etc bodes well. Even their High Visual (the one with better shadows etc) runs at 4k (albeit CB) too and, in testing, the 60fps option runs 'locked' at 60fps - although the 'hands on' by DF was a 'beta' and didn't include the 'village' hub which they always use for stress testing. By comparison, the Pro runs the 4k mode in CB with upscaled HD textures etc. The High visual mode is '1080p' (not CB 4k as on the 'X') and the 60fps mode runs between 40 and 60fps. Also the 'X' version is confirmed to use HDR - something that all current HDR capable consoles (the XB1s, PS4 and PS4 Pro) don't offer.... YET! I knew it would be a significant difference - Titanfall 2 for example, 1440p on Pro with obvious HD textures, has been able to run at 6K in certain points on the 'X' - it uses ALL the GPU - 100% all the time and when it goes above 4k, which it does, its 'super sampled' to fit on a 4k TV - that's crazy!!

I am not 'dissing' the Pro here at all - I have one myself and RotTR looked 'stunning' on my Pro. Anyone who is not expecting a 'significantly' more powerful console to have the 'best' visuals etc, then where have you been the last 4yrs when Sony has had the 'more' powerful hardware and delivering the 'best' visuals. Having both a Pro and (soon) the 'X' - as well as a 'decent UHD Premium' 4k HDR TV, I can see directly how each performs. I have a number of games on both - inc Witcher 3, RotTR and may pick up TF2 and Doom on Xbox too - so I should be able to see how each compares. Its got to be better than watching a compressed youtube video - especially on some devices...

Anyway, I am excited - like I was last year with the imminent arrival of the PS4 Pro...

@BAMozzy Yeah, I watched the comparison video at work earlier but it was on a old monitor but even on that the differences were quite easy to see. I think in the not too distant future I'll have to upgrade my 4K TV as I didn't give the purchase my usual due diligence and I didn't get the best one I could have.

@crippyd What 4k TV did you get? I had a 4k TV in 2014 but had to replace that in 2016 to get HDR and full bandwidth HDMI's with HDCP 2.2 support and HDR (of course). I still have a 1080p TV in the bedroom but will replace that with my 'current' 4k HDR TV as soon as I can - very tempted by the LG B7 OLED (best 2017 gaming TV) but with HDMI 2.1 on the horizon and the XBX capable of using Game VRR and (hopefully) Atmos via 'eARC' (it only has one HDMI out so I assume it can be upgraded to HDMI 2.1 to offer the 4k/60 HDR, Atmos and Game VRR all through 1 HDMI cable - the extra bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 should make that a possibility.

As such, I am hanging fire with any possible upgrade to my TV. I want a HDMI 2.1, 4k HDR (HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG - DV would be a nice bonus but not essential) with eARC (on at least 1 port), HFR and Game VRR (across all ports - as I assume PS5 will also add AMD's Freesync too). Maybe the 2018 TV's will have this to really take advantage of everything the Xbox 'X' (and no doubt PS5) can offer. I am also hanging fire on upgrading my Audio system until I know which Receivers will support eARC and offer Atmos. It would be a 'bonus' if they also offer HDMI2.1 pass through too but the way I prefer to set-up, the eARC is most important...

It's a KD-55X8509C SONY and I'm sure I picked a bit of a bum set. I've had a couple of issues which software updates have resolved but the insight into dark scenes is quite lacking. It is an early 2015 model which I've had for about 2 years.

@crippyd I am familiar with it and its not a 'bad' TV but it released before HDR and Sony haven't exactly gone out of their way to make their TV's competitive. Only their 'top' models can deliver the minimum standards of HDR and even 2yrs on, they are still not overly 'competitive' with game modes and HDR performance compared to Samsung, LG and Panasonic.

I was in a similar position last year - with SkyQ, PS4 Pro and XB1s all offering 4k with 2 of those offering HDR. As a result, I ended up having to replace my 2yr old 4k TV with a new 4k UHD Premium TV. My 2014 4k TV was very limited - only HDMI2.0 (not a or b) and only 1 port accepting HDCP2 so it wouldn't of worked with all 3 devices - not without constantly switching HDMI's. Also only a SDR TV too...

Trouble is, 4k HDR TV's are not cheap and with UHD Premium TV's still not capable of delivering close to the 'top' mastering standards, there is scope for improvements in all areas - brighter, wider colours, higher bit depth too - and of course HDMI 2.1 feature set too. Until we get 12bit, 100% REC2020, 4000 (or even 10000) nit peak brightness without sucking up electricity at 'commercial' rates and requiring a water cooler too stop them overheating at that level, we could see year on year improvements - but that's no different from a lot of electronic products.

@BAMozzy I will be replacing my TV in the not too distant future as I am thinking of getting a 60 or 65" set but those models are in the £2500 - £3000 range and currently that is a bit on the expensive side. I like the look of the set you've been extolling the virtues of and I think I should be able to pick one of those up at a decent price or I might just have to put some cash to one side and go big.

@Tasuki
Thanks. And you may not have to save up too much if you have a Toys R Us near you. They're not doing in-store pre-orders but the company did announce it will have SNES Classics at its stores on launch, which I believe is a Friday.

Age of Empires 2.

Havent played this for yonks.

@crippyd The ones I would recommend from 2017 are likely to be a 'bit' more than £2.5-3k for a 65" model - although if you shop around, the prices are 'dropping' slowly - the LG B7 (HDTV's best 'gaming' TV of 2017 - as well as being one of the best all round TV's too) can be found for £3k at 65" the 55" can be found for around £2k.

Unfortunately, OLED prices are 'high' and LCD's are 'great' but not perfect. In 2016, Samsung's KS Series (which can still be found at 65"+) was extremely popular, mostly because they were the cheapest UHD Premium TV's with the best Input Lag too. For the money, they couldn't be beaten and the 'OLEDs' had a 'few' issues too. However, in 2017, Samsung changed the names to QLEDs and whacked the price up to 'compete' with OLEDs BUT the PQ of LCD's are not at the same level. As great as they can be, If you are spending £2.5-3k on a 55" TV, you want the 'best' that that money can buy. Last year, even though the KS series was 'expensive', a 55" TV could be £1400 to £1800 (depending on model) but that was £1k+ less than the cheapest OLED and like I said, last years OLEDs were not 'perfect' so it wasn't worth spending the extra £1k+ to get a TV that was 'strong' in some categories but beaten by a much cheaper TV in a lot of others.

The trouble is, like the Pro and 'X', trying to sell 4k HDR (proper UHD Premium certified HDR) to people with SDR TV's isn't easy. Those with SDR TVs/monitors/phones etc cannot exactly see the benefits that HDR brings - similar to trying to sell a 4k HDR console to 1080p SDR TV owners. Then of course is the price and the unscrupulous Sales men as well as TV manufacturers who continue to make SDR TV's with HDR capable HDMI ports and sell that as a 'HDR' TV for less than £1k. Those that buy, get home and see a 4k SDR image with a bit more brightness, which obviously looks better than their 1080p SDR TV and think that it is 'better' but can't see what the fuss is all about. In some content, HDR is too dark and lacking any 'punch' - because its darkened all the main content just to fit a few specular highlights in - highlights that should be between 200 and 1000nits are now compressed between 100 and 200nits. Incidentally an SDR image, if calibrated should be between 100-200nits depending on ambient conditions. When faces (for example) are at 80-90nits in SDR but compressed to 40nits to fit the highlights in, then the overall look is much too dark. Eurogamer has tested some of these TV's for their best 4k HDR gaming TV's and said most, if not all, budget HDR TV's are not suited to HDR gaming and its better to turn HDR off.

Its getting way off topic now. I just hope this information is useful - not just for you but anyone else that reads it...