Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

Roughly six days left to submit to the screenshot contest.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Hey man! Yeah, sorry, had a crazy set of days off there with Christmas parties and fundraisers and galas…definitely feeling the Christmas spirit, anyway. Also trying to wrap some creative projects up before the holidays kick into full gear. Awesome that you found a burst of creative energy! I’ll have to check out the fruits of your labours when I can. That’s a pretty accurate description of me over the next couple of weeks! 😂

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks man, I would appreciate your thoughts on the tracks once you have listened to them. Hopefully you will like what you hear.

Edit: And I'd love to know your favourite track, see if any of them tops 'Fastlane' for you ,or if you have an honorable runner-up/mention.

@Jimmer-jammer @colonelkilgore @Th3solution Alright bros. Hope you had Good Christmas Days. Have anything particularly nice to eat or drink? I had a version of Death by Chocolate to drink and Jerk Chicken from a London restaurant, rice and peas, coleslaw and everything. Unusual I know but yeah, it tasted great. Hope you got good Christmas presents as well, and I trust you bestowed the appropriate gifts on your friends and loved ones. I posted a 'Dark Souls Christmas' thing above somewhere that you may have seen. Santa cosplay, lol.

I plan on tackling False King Allant later today as I am a bit wary of his soul level drain attack and want to get that boss fight out of the way asap, in order to make the rest of the game a breeze. Planning to upgrade the Dragon Bone Smasher to plus two and use Curse Weapon, Adjudicator's Shield and Regenerator's Ring with it. Shouldn't be too hard though, it's just that attack I'm wary of. I am aware he has a diminished moveset compared to the first boss of Dks III, which I beat, so shouldn't be tricky anyway. Just that one attack to watch out for that could spoil an otherwise perfect playthrough.

Had much time to play over the holidays? Got many games stored up for the New Year? With Rise of the Ronin and Black Myth coming out in 2024 it should be an action-packed year.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Christmas was nice, although in many ways I’m glad it’s over. I like having the time off and eating good food and seeing lights and trees and all, but it’s hectic too.

My favorite thing for Christmas food-wise has been the chocolates. I’ve been indulging in lots of treats like chocolate covered marshmallow puffs, toffee, and chocolate covered fruit. I’ve probably had more sweets for X-mas than I did for Halloween. 😅

I’m excited for 2024, for sure. In the gaming sphere it is looking to be a solid year. I thought 2023 was a stellar year, but 2024 might be just as good. I assume Rise of the Ronin will be good based on the studio track record and Sony publishing support, but we know very little about it. Black Myth also looks great, but I’ll await reviews. And truth be told, if 2024 doesn’t end up having any great games I’m still stacked with backlog to keep me busy for years.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Hey! Yeah, it’s been a great Christmas; good food, good people, good times. Put my phone on a shelf and basically didn’t touch it. It’s been wonderful. Even got out sledding despite the overall lack of snow thus far this year. Got some solid gaming time in as well, both with the kids and personally.

Hit the point of no return in Alan Wake II. I’ve had a fairly uneven time with it but I can say that it’s certainly an experience I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. I’ve put off Lies of P for far too long so I’ll be firing that up next. I’m looking forward to it!

Glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the holidays! Good luck with Allant. Hopefully he doesn’t suck any of your hard earned levels away. What a game 😂

So last night, I decided to go on a nostalgia trip and booted up my older systems. I booted up my 360, PS3, Wii U, Vita and 3DS. It's crazy to call them old systems now. I've barely used any of them for months or even years now. I've been primarily playing on PS5, Series X and Switch these days. The reason why I still keep them around is because there are still games on those systems that aren't available on the current ones. For example, I noticed that I have Tokyo Jungle in my PS3 backlog. Heard so many good things about that game back in the day but I still haven't played it. Will need to give it a go soon. I also noticed the first Dead Rising games in my 360 backlog. Granted, these games have been re-released on current systems but I figured I might as well play them on 360 and save myself some money. I can't believe I haven't played that series yet, I really need to do it ASAP.

I'm on two weeks break now from work and at first I was planning on playing through Final Fantasy VII Remake during the break. But then I realised, I should take this time to go through my older backlog games since I'm never in the mood to do so during work days. I'm glad that I realised this because it's been a blast revisiting older systems and playing through older games.

Wii u isn’t old or retro but the wii is 😏

also , i’m doing the same with my ps3; 7th generation is the goat , best generation !

@Jimmer-jammer I thought I'd move our conversation over here as it's beginning to become more chit-chat-y Lol. Well I hope Lies of P is enjoyable for you and you have a good new year, psychological reset and all! .Have you had a chance to listen to whatever it was that I recommended last (I forget, lol) As well as my own EP, of course. Love to know your thoughts.

Have you heard of Mary Halvorson? She's primarily a jazz guitarist but her work is incredibly varied. She did an album with Trevor Dunn from Faith No More, which is jazz based but brings in some metal influences as well.

Here's the link:

And the link to my own EP again ,to save you from endless scrolling!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3CFRPQgm9Alc1upEpWjbcz?si=f...

@nomither6 I tend to agree with you. I find the 7th generation to be the last "creative" generation before development costs started to drastically increase and we started to get fewer games with less experimentation. It's absolutely crazy to think trilogies were a common thing back then while nowadays we're lucky if we can even get one entry during a generation. Not to mention the amount of series that were still active back then.

@LtSarge yup that’s why i think it’s the best , and you know what else is absolutely crazy ? those great games back then only took a few gigs (if even 10gigs) vs the 100 gigs of mediocre and/or underwhelming games now . even remasters take up more gigs when someone could just play the same game through backwards compatibility on their series X with 60fps and less gigs. also , way less bugs back then.

another thing i want to add is that 7th gen struck that sweet spot of great single player and multiplayer games & there was something for everyone & also couch co-op was still a thing. it was a time when games had both single player content and multiplayer all on one disc (remember when full games were released on discs with no online requirements?) .

if i had to summarize seventh gen i’d say its a blend of the originality and creativity of 6th gen with some sacrifice for evolving online gaming. long live 7th gen 😁

edit - also , PS online was FREE & the games you got through ps plus and xbox live gold WERE YOURS TO KEEP even when your subscriptions expired

@TheBrandedSwordsman I believe it was Mingus and no, no and no 😬 I’ll try and get to them this week. Thanks for the link!

Played Lies of P for about an hour. Don’t think I’ll get to play too much over the next few days but it seems pretty good so far.

@nomither6 Yeah, I recently installed Black Ops 2 on my Series X and it's "only" 15 GB, which is crazy since CoD games are usually over 100 GB these days. But even 15 GB was a lot back then considering most games were around 8 GB or so. I think GTA IV was 8 GB if I remember correctly.

I agree about games with both great single player and multiplayer components. Not to mention that was the time when online was new, so it was expected that every game should have an online multiplayer component, even indie games. I have such fond memories of playing both AAA games but also Xbox Live Arcade titles like Gatling Gears and Renegade Ops online.

Speaking of those games, remember twin-stick shooters? I feel like you barely see those nowadays. Super Stardust was a popular one on PlayStation. They were so simple yet so much fun to play.

And speaking of simplicity, remember when games used to be simpler? No complicated mechanics or RPG elements, just simple gameplay. You go from point A to B and shoot or fight stuff. I feel like every time I play a new game, I'm taking a university course. There's just so much to learn in order to play a game properly these days. I mean, just take God of War for example. Playing through God of War 3 was just pure button-mashing fun. Playing through Ragnarok however was like studying for an exam.

All of this talk about older games makes me want to play more of them now. I think I'll start up either Max Payne 2, Mafia 2, Sly Cooper 3, Dead Rising 1 or Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1. Or maybe all of them!

@LtSarge loved xbox live arcade! such great indies and retros , castle crashes was hot back then & monday night combat is a forgotten banger ! doritos crash course , plants vs zombies , super meat boy , avatar warfare , oh man Xbox used to be so good , so many fun experiences . i remember reading a comment on youtube about that era and someone said the “xbox360 wasn’t a generation , it was an experience” & that’s so true .

as for twin stick shooters , there is one i can remember on ps4 called “yet another zombie defense HD” . i had fun with it, though personally im not big on those types of games unfortunately.

and i wholeheartedly agree about simpler games , & i miss them a lot . i’m playing older games right now , currently playing ultimate alliance 1 (& damn do i wish it had trophies! 😖) and i love the straight-forwardness of it all, unlike avengers and forced online BS . I think you should play all your old games when you have the time , if anything it’ll refresh your memory and look at games today under a different light.

i always said i was content with seventh gen , just give me the resolution and frame rate improvements of this gen like the series X & i couldn’t care less about anything else . graphics just arent a big deal anymore & i never thought id say that, but they just seem like a resource and storage hog now & they still don’t blow me away like the jump from ps2/xbox to ps360 did

mortal kombat 11 being a rare exception though

Happy New Year all! Excited for another sh*t year living on a dying planet!

@nessisonett That's what I love most about you, Ness - the perpetual sunny optimism. Happy New Year.

@nessisonett Same to you friend, all the best 👍

@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!