Pandalulz

It feels like you only get the gold rewards on the campaigns that make you spend money anymore, so no more free points,
and it's annoying that you don't get the points if you have already purchased the game beforehand.

I keep doing the campaigns for collectibles when I already own the games and it doesn't require any actual work, but I don't know why. Nobody else sees them, and I only see them on my tiny phone screen where I can barely make them out. It's a wasted effort there.

That being said, when I do buy games, no reason not to take those points and redeem them for cash.

I ordered one when I pre-ordered my Pro and got it in two days, where it sat on a shelf for a month waiting for something to plug into so I guess I got lucky by thinking ahead in that regard.

One thing I have found interesting where physical retailers are concerned, is that I will walk into a store, see systems sitting on the shelf, but if I try the website, it will say none are available for pickup. It almost makes me think they are delisting things from their website to frustrate scalpers. It also frustrates anybody who wants to check inventory before walking into a store, so I don't know if it's for the better or worse.

I let it rest so it can charge my controller, download updates, and because I still don't really know when it backs up cloud saves (is it as soon as you close the game or at some later point?) I still close out my games and apps first though because letting a game standby seems to guarantee the power will go out overnight.

Looks very nice. I am currently on Reverie and played the Sky trilogy on Steam, so maybe after the Sky SC remaster comes out, I will circle back around to it again. I don't want to get stuck on that cliffhanger a second time.

@NEStalgia long sigh I built my PCs from 1994 to 2015 and that one died right in the middle of COVID, the crypto boom, and supply chain collapse, so I kind of just gave up on it and went all in on my PS4, now PS5. I had stopped having fun with the technical bits a long time ago anyway. Personally, for whatever folks can complain about MS doing to XBox, they've done that so much worse to Windows. I have to use it for work and don't want to touch it at all if I don't have to otherwise. Valve has made great strides with the Proton experiment from what I have messed with in Linux and it does work decently, but I give them a couple more years until whatever couple of guys working on that project get bored and move on to something else and the whole thing collapses, just like happened with the SteamBox before. While there are more developers than ever porting things to PC, it feels like it's a coinflip whether the port is any good and a lot of the time they just run better on worse equipment on console because it's better optimized.
TL;DR, I appreciate the PC ecosystem, but after thirtysomeodd years, I am too jaded to care anymore.

@NEStalgia I am a perfect example of this. I have been what you might call a Playstation fanboi all the way back to the first system, but that's because that's where the nerdy JRPGs lived, and it's where the nerdy JRPGs continue to live. I watch those retrospectives about all of the Sony first party stuff over the years and realize I've played very few of them considering.

@OldGamer999 They'll keep making consoles. It'll be the best place to play Gamepass.

RIP. What a run! I wish I would have learned to appreciate Falcom much sooner. I have spent the last two to three years playing through every Ys remake and new release, and just finished Cold Steel 4 after all of the previous games. Reverie coming up next.

I found it quite telling that there was almost no dialogue in the whole trailer. I can't decide if that means it will be better or if they know it's still terrible and are just hiding it.

Pretty much anything before Symphonia. I somehow completely missed the existence of Tales before then.

That being said, I still haven't played the last three either, so I need to get on that.

@pyrrhic_victory My brain couldn't discern the difference between the "announcements and reveals" answer and the "ads" one honestly. What's the difference?

@UltimateOtaku91 The cynic in me says they can't announce Persona 6 until they've announced Refantazio: the better version and a bunch of spin-off games first.

I don't really watch videos or streams at all, but I probably spend more time casually browsing websites like this one while doing other things than I actually have downtime to spend playing games, so there's that.

I did what I said I was going to do and pre-ordered one and passed the original fat down to my kid to replace her PS4. The only thing I have played on it, because it's what I was already in the middle of playing, is the PS5 version of Trails of Cold Steel IV. I suppose it's because the game has a generally unlocked frame rate, but it does anecdotally and unscientifically seem to run a little better. There were a lot of spots on the fat where the game would stutter during cutscene transitions and lots of models on the screen that SEEM, best I can tell, to have smoothed out. It was certainly perfectly playable before, but hey, improvements are improvements. I will take what I can get.

Hmmm... I guess at some point I will check this out, because I eventually try everything Airship Syndicate puts out, to varying degrees of enjoyment (I just love the way they look). The problem is that I really can't quite get the gameplay loop now that it's offline. I was under the impression it was kind of Monster Hunter-ish maybe in its original incarnation. So is it just a bossrush or are there actual levels, what's happening here?

Edit: So I watched the trailer a couple of more times, and saw the Randomized Dungeon tag, so I guess more third-person Diablo?

I will let you know in two years when the inevitable better version comes out.

I'm not sure what using it consists of really. I picked the single player preset and it shows me my trophy list, controller battery level and storage when my PS5 turns on. I also changed the background to something with a darker theme. It's still better than the pile of streamer garbage it replaced even if I don't really use it.

I mean, tangentially, the site gave a 90 to what will inevitably turn out to be a $70 two year early access game before the final version actually releases (Metaphor) and you have to pay for it again. If there's a company that's trained me to wait at least three years (final version + sale) before buying one of their games, it's definitely Atlus.

I might pick one up and pass my base unit to the kid who is currently using my old PS4. I can afford it. But $700 without the disc drive and base just feels dirty.

I never finished the first one. I got sidetracked. Those jump pack zones were some of the most fun shooter combat I have ever played. I need to go back and finish the first one. I look forward to playing this in the future.

@Iamcardboard I can't speak to the SteamDeck specifically, but all three run fine on Linux Mint through Steam's Proton layer. A quick Reddit search seems to confirm they are fine on SteamDeck as well.

@dardel To be honest, I am of two minds about this. The 3D looks fantastic but the 2D sprites are so iconic for me. I adore them so much. Go ahead and play them.

I need something between the top two options. I don't care about the Power Rangers. I was too old when the show came out. But that sprite animation does look really good.

@Intr1n5ic It even has a Gruncle Stan narrator.

Neat, the first one was a very silly Metroid Prime like. I didn't finish it though because the shooting was kind of terrible on controller. Meant to try it on PC with KB+M but never got around to it. The exploration was top notch though. I am glad the terrifying FMV commercials are back. I feel divided on the switch to third-person. I much prefer it and I think it will make the platforming much less janky, but on the other hand, it doesn't quite fill that Metroid Prime hole in my heart anymore.

My biggest takeaway is "why do they still let Molyneux talk about things everyone knows he'll abandon next week?"

Did a see a Vanquish slide and a Max Payne slow-mo roll in the same video? I am kind of enamored with its "always walking very slowly forward" trailer vibe.

I really enjoyed Trials despite the incredibly simplistic combat. This looks like a nice upgrade to that so I am looking forward to it.

Ender Lillies has been sitting on my wishlist for a long while for a day when I needed a new Metroidvania. So one out of three games is better than most months.

I work AV IT at a university so Summer is our busy time while we get as much maintenance, upgrades, and construction done while the least number of students and faculty are on campus. Once the new semester kicks in, it's busy for about two weeks and then everything for us mostly goes into autopilot until the next break. Right now I am slowly working on the new FFXIV expansion while I am not exhausted, but then it will be backlog time.

It looks interesting, but is interesting enough when I am drowning in other games I want to play is the question?

@doctommaso Agreed. I would rather see what my friend list is up to than what some random streamer uploaded.

@CrispyMango92 It gave me the points from when my PS Plus renewed on the 3rd so hopefully game purchases are being recorded as well.

It did require a force-quit to refresh the app, but it is up in Atlanta now.

@ShogunRok On one hand, excellent, but on the other, darn, now I need to reshuffle my backlog.

@ShogunRok I haven't caught up to the end of the series yet. Just finished Cold Steel 2 so I have a ways to go. But, assuming I do manage to catch up this year, does the game have a satisfying conclusion, or should I assume, like many of the arcs, that I should wait and play it back to back with the next one?

EDIT: I will forever be scarred by the wait from playing Trails in the Sky FC at PSP launch to them finally releasing the localization of SC, for example.

Oh good, Discord update just in time for the FFXIV expansion since I currently voice chat on my phone with my friends who play on PC. Maybe now I can do it more natively.

Heh, this is what we get from the Bungie acquisition I guess. twitches from Destiny 1 lore card memories

I don't hate the idea. It's funny because the majority of games being released are still targeting the PS4 hardware, yet the stuff that targets the PS5 hardware seems to already be hitting a performance wall. If they do actually announce it, and if enough developers state that they will be supporting it with stronger graphics modes, then I will probably buy one eventually.

I can't wait to turn this on, so people can think to themselves, "Why is this guy so bad at this? Sure, he did the thing, but in the most roundabout and clueless way possible."

This honestly has me curious if there will be some kind of curation to pick the best capture to show to other people. Every week or so, a new clip replaces it, until only the most efficient speedrun version is left, like some kind of twisted leaderboard.

I got rid of my PlayStation credit card years ago. It started out as a CapitalOne card and then they sold my business and info to some other company I had never heard of so I just noped back out of it.

I am catching up on a few smaller games while I wait for Rebirth to drop so have been bouncing between Darksiders: Genesis and F.I.S.T. I am enjoying both pretty well.

I stopped the FFVII OG play through from last week. I just wasn't enjoying it. I loved the game 25 years ago or whatever, but now, there are too many old-school design choices that I can't get past.

That being said, I randomly picked up Darksiders 3 and beat it in a day and a half. And now I am working on Darksiders Genesis. The weekend took a turn I did not expect.

Pre-ordered, against my normal judgement, so I am just going to wait until the game launches and play it then.

@Kraven Remake was the final straw where I had to figure out how to repaste the processor on my PS4 Pro. The fan went from jet-engine to space-shuttle and kept popping up a "Your PS4 is overheating and will shut down!" message.

In preparation for the FFVII Rebirth release, I did Remake and Crisis Core, and am now just working through the FFVII OG PS4 glowup. It's funny playing through the Midgar section now, it feels so abridged. But also, it's really convoluted how they dump you into the world, and then next thing, you are piled on with the exposition dump in Kalm, the weird Chocobo catching thing, and then Ft Condor in like the next 30 minutes. The original game really is wild. I haven't replayed it in something like twenty years.

I am at about the 75% mark on digital to physical in games. Mostly if I buy physical, it's about sales, because I am cheap. I Marie Kondoed all of my movies and music into oblivion years ago. Once in a while though, I play a game so good, that I start evangelizing it to my friends. It's a hard sell if they have to buy it, but if I can just hand them the disc, the barrier to entry goes down so much. I miss that when I realize it's a game I bought digitally.

Like last month, three games I don't own, probably wasn't going to play, but might be motivated to try now, so sounds good enough to me.

FFXIV, always FFXIV, but I think I put more time into the Legend of Heroes series than FFXIV, so that's a thing. Finished both the Liberl and Crossbell arcs this year. Plan on starting the Erebonian arc sometime next year after I get caught up on the FFVII remake stuff.

@Shepherd_Tallon I love my Linkbuds Sssss... They do ANC on a budget price, are still small enough to be comfortable, and since they do the dual-pairing thing now, they are super easy to bounce between a couple of devices.

Honestly, I think this is one of the better months for me. They are all games I don't own, wouldn't have bought otherwise, but look interesting enough to mess around.