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

@Rudy_Manchego I've been generally a bit suspicious about it given it's Apple and considering some of the more gushing press coverage really does look entirely 'sponsored' with sentiments to the tune of 'mobile gaming didn't exist before'.

It is a good idea in a market where mtx models are king; It feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy to some extent. Because people en-masse didn't want to pay for decent game experience, mtx mechanics took hold, then mtx became almost the go-to business model and the quality of promoted games took a steady nosedive until now - where a subscription service swoops in to look like the best option.

@KALofKRYPTON My favoured model would be free but with ads with the option to pay to go ad free if I like the game.

@Thrillho Cheers, I'll give those a look in.

@KALofKRYPTON I can completely see where you are coming from with regards to now having to pay subscription to get a decent game. It is a little like the whole first party thing - Apple are now flinging money at good devs to get good fully fledged titles on Apple Arcade which can result in good games but then you have to tie yourself into an ecosystem to experience them.

The other thing is that I am not sure if the splurge of great titles are all launch purchases to build hype up. I mean, Mutazione was a game I wanted to play and is like £13 on PS Store and I bought Sayonara Wild Hearts for £10 on Switch eshop and both are available on Apple arcade. If this quality keeps up then it might make sense. Being able to connect a DS4 is also pretty appealing to.

@Rudy_Manchego I'm awaiting the backlash when it turns out that dev's being paid for 'time played' was a bad idea/doesn't work/gets exploited

It's interesting though. There have been some pretty incredible mobile games and experiences over the years - I do think the scope of mobile gaming has dwindled a little in the face of mtx mechanics and Android being almost universally laggy with bt controllers (and my personal distaste for touch screen gaming) - it will be interesting to see what hardware comes of it.

I loved (LOVED!) my Xperia Play and would totally buy another one put together with a bit more thought (it was pretty under-powered when it came out).
There's a Vita-style Chinese phone out there (I forget what it's called) that looks like it performs really well that is very tempting!

@KALofKRYPTON Yeah good point on the payment. I HOPE that I am supporting good devs by using the service but you never know.. look at Spotify.

Just bought Ys Origin on Steam for $5. Not sure when I'll get to it, but I couldn't really resist at that price.

@KratosMD I liked Ys VIII a lot, so I've been wanting to try out one of the more isometric, old-fashioned ones. It'd have to be pretty bad to not be worth the price.

By the way YS Origin is cross-buy on the Vita-PS4. I play YS VIII now and Origin is the only one officially released that I have not played yet.

I ordered one of the few fighting games I haven't gotten into: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Ordered it last week and it came in yesterday. It was specifically a limited edition that also has a soundtrack and an extra blu-ray disc. It was $12, so I figured I'd go for it, hey?

For $12 on Humble Bundle, you can snag PC copies of the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot remastered trilogies. So I did just that.

There's also a recent-ish CoD game that I got along with them, so I figure I can try out the single-player campaign in that. I haven't touched a CoD game since Modern Warfare first released.

@Ralizah Just a heads up... I am assuming you get Steam codes that you can gift?

@belmont Well, you can either gift or redeem the code you get for each game.

@Ralizah Thanks!

I finally succumbed and got myself a Switch Lite.

Immediate thought, I like the click Joy-Con buttons but ZR and ZL feel like some of the best triggers I've ever pressed. My Lord.

I'll give detailed thoughts once I've messed around with it.

I also got my sister PLG Pikachu, and Mario Kart 8, and Sonic Mania for her soon to be yellow Switch Lite, and got Mario Kart DS, Dragonball FighterZ for myself.

And then the weird obsession with retro games continues, I got a Mega Drive Mini. The buttons are...let's say loud, and it's weird playing something like Wily Wars with no slowdown, but this is a quality product. My fear of ATGames jank is gone.

@KratosMD Cosmic Star Heroine is... OK. Not great. It didn't feel very fully fleshed-out to me. But I do love the Sega Saturn-esque aesthetic.

@KratosMD I love Cosmic Star Heroine played it on the Vita did everything, got the platinum etc. A good Saturn-Phantasy Star-Cyberpunk hybrid that works.

Just pre-ordered the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 from Best Buy. Supposedly it comes with all the normal physical extras (CD, compendium, stickers, etc.) in addition a steelbook. I own pretty much nothing physically on PC, but I'll gladly put a handsome Cyberpunk steelbook on my shelf.

@Ralizah Think I've got the same for PS4 from Amazon, think it's the only place you can get the steelbook from here in the UK.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I pretty much never order from BB, but the steelbook seems to be exclusive to them in the U.S., from what I can tell.

It won't be useful for the PC version (comes with a code instead of a disc), but, if I ever get the eventual PS5 version, I'll use that steelbox as my case.

@Ralizah I was thinking that it's rare to get discs with PC releases these days!