RMWeb Gamer's Lounge.

[Classsix T]

11 hours ago, 30801 said:

An XBox from Lidl for £129 plus a game pass subscription would seem to have Stadia beaten.

 

https://www.console-deals.com/blog/lidl-xbox-one-s-129-black-friday-2019-12834/

Microsoft's Xcloud streaming service is still in beta testing apparently, but already has 50 games on it, which is more than double that available on Stadia currently.

 

C6T. 

[beast66606]

16 hours ago, Classsix T said:

Erm, Dave, your quote specifically mentions GameCube. Like, wha? 

 

Apart from the fact literally every film/game tie-in is guaranteed to be awful, Charlie's Angels was a pants movie to start with so any game based upon it isn't likely to have been swimming in awards. 

 

Still, charity got half a quid and Dominic will have learned a lesson. Win win. Bearing in mind most copies probably ended up in landfill, it could have collectable rarity!

 

C6T. 

 

A wiki search for Charlie's Angels linked me to this page of awful games, Aliens: Colonial Marines - check, original release of No Man's Sky - oh yes. 

How many have you suffered?

 

The context (of the article) was the PS2 version, I think the game has serious issues on several platforms - basically it sticks in demo mode.

[big jim]

17 hours ago, Classsix T said:

Charlie's Angels was a pants movie to start with.......

 

yep, namely remembered for these particular pants 

 

[Classsix T]

As well as picking up Jedi Fallen Order last night, I downloaded TSW 2020. I did have WSR, Cl.52 and Cl.33 in the cart but those three combined are a chunk of money I'd frankly rather spend should the Tees Valley and associated traction or even the Whistler & Gronk freight bolt-ons become available at reduced prices. (Besides which there are still some PS3 titles I'm still interested in.) 

 

Should terrestrial TV offer absolute garbage this Chrimbo (and given their attempts for the last few years that's extremely likely) I should have the gaming "cupboard" fully stocked for the duration. Sweet. 

 

C6T. 

[Classsix T]

(expecting the "thread views" figures to go through the roof now that unaware browsers of RMweb will click on the Lounge and be greeted by Cameron Diaz in her knickers, thanx Jim!) 

[big jim]

i was going to put the animated GIF version in but i got mesmorised by it for 30 mins

[Classsix T]

16 minutes ago, big jim said:

i was going to put the animated GIF version in but i got mesmorised by it for 30 mins

If the image is embedded into your post, I might well be quoting you at the top of every new page...

 

C6T. 

[Classsix T]

4 hours ago, big jim said:

 

yep, namely remembered for these particular pants 

 

 

[Classsix T]

Dammit! 

 

C6T. 

[Reorte]

Just seen the picture, it didn't appear when I was reading from work. That's probably just as well.

 

[big jim]

TSW tees valley route is £17.49 in Microsoft store today, bought through top cash back site took another 1.15 off it, be rude not to really, currently downloading with some sort of update

 

Dom got COD WW2 from cash converters earlier for £5 which is a pretty good price, that’s just installed too So will have a look tomorrow 

[Steadfast]

Been playing the Tees Valley route since I downloaded it Thursday in the sale. Pretty good for 17 quid I reckon, sounds (horns aside) for the 08 and 37 are pretty decent. Not driven the 101 yet.

I've got the new Star Wars game, Spintires MudRunner and Wreckfest all on the Christmas list. Have to wait a month and see what prevails!

In the time I've owned it, in the previous generation I had been through 2 or 3 360s, so I thought the trusty Xbone had died last night, power up and plain black screen. Then I thought try the laptop in the same HDMI cable. Low and behold, black screen. Telly off at the wall, turn back on and picture on HDMI1 and the Xbox lives to fight another day. Looks like it had got confused when I exited iPlayer after it wouldn't load properly due to our fantastic WiFi (thanks Virgin).

Our WiFi is super flaky thanks to the quality hub that Virgin media supply. No other fibre options where we live sadly. Lucky I don't want a Stadia to stream a small selection of games! To be honest, I'm not even that keen on downloading whole games (DLC is ok!) as I like to trade in when I'm bored of it, so not sure how I'd feel streaming a catalogue of games that maybe only a small percentage are of interest.

Anyway, I've digressed. After chatting to someone at work, I've ordered a power line internet kit. If you've never heard of it, you run a network cable from the router to one of the boxes. This box plugs in the mains. You put another box in a socket near your device, and run another network cable to it. It uses the ring main to transmit your internet connection, similar theory to how TDM worked with carriage lighting circuits. Hopefully this will see the end to repeated buffering on catch-up TV and random devices remaining connected to WiFi but dropping their internet connection. 

50 meg fibre is plenty fast enough for us, when the route gives us internet...

 

Jo

[Classsix T]

Phew, eh Jo?! 

I really fancied Mudrunner at release but I think it came out at the same time as RDR2 so I ended up postponing. Let us know how you get on Chief.

 

C6T. 

[Kelly]

5 hours ago, Steadfast said:

Been playing the Tees Valley route since I downloaded it Thursday in the sale. Pretty good for 17 quid I reckon, sounds (horns aside) for the 08 and 37 are pretty decent. Not driven the 101 yet.

I've got the new Star Wars game, Spintires MudRunner and Wreckfest all on the Christmas list. Have to wait a month and see what prevails!

In the time I've owned it, in the previous generation I had been through 2 or 3 360s, so I thought the trusty Xbone had died last night, power up and plain black screen. Then I thought try the laptop in the same HDMI cable. Low and behold, black screen. Telly off at the wall, turn back on and picture on HDMI1 and the Xbox lives to fight another day. Looks like it had got confused when I exited iPlayer after it wouldn't load properly due to our fantastic WiFi (thanks Virgin).

Our WiFi is super flaky thanks to the quality hub that Virgin media supply. No other fibre options where we live sadly. Lucky I don't want a Stadia to stream a small selection of games! To be honest, I'm not even that keen on downloading whole games (DLC is ok!) as I like to trade in when I'm bored of it, so not sure how I'd feel streaming a catalogue of games that maybe only a small percentage are of interest.

Anyway, I've digressed. After chatting to someone at work, I've ordered a power line internet kit. If you've never heard of it, you run a network cable from the router to one of the boxes. This box plugs in the mains. You put another box in a socket near your device, and run another network cable to it. It uses the ring main to transmit your internet connection, similar theory to how TDM worked with carriage lighting circuits. Hopefully this will see the end to repeated buffering on catch-up TV and random devices remaining connected to WiFi but dropping their internet connection. 

50 meg fibre is plenty fast enough for us, when the route gives us internet...

 

Jo

Strange, I must have gotten lucky with my X360s and Xones, had none fail on me (other than one arriving DOA second hand), only reason I had more than one X360 was I upgraded to newer versions later on (as far as I know the last one I got still works fine, but just haven't powered it on for a while).

 

Avoiding WiFi in general for video and gaming is preferrable I find. I'm not sure you'd have had a good experience with Stadia even if it worked as claimed, as from my own past experience of VMs fiber network, they've tended to have more latency than BTs fiber offerings, but that might have changed. Of course that assumes you got a code to activate the Stadia in the first place and have a Pixel phone for the activation app!

 

Power over mains seems to work fine ime in most cases, unless the wiring is rather old. You might find you have to reboot the devices every so often however, but that is a minor niggle.

[Classsix T]

Black Friday combined with a payday was always going to be a risky proposition...

 

...so that's Shadow of the Tomb Raider and The Outer Worlds added to the pile. Oh lordy!

 

C6T. 

[MJI]

I ran a network cable to my PS4 from the hub.

 

Used to be another hub under TV but that fried so only PS4 now on network

[big jim]

Spoke to the guys from dovetail today at warley about a few issues I’ve had with TSW on the Xbox and PS4, also mentioned what we were discussing the other day about using different traction on different routes and he said it’s something in development however there are a few Technical issues such as if you try to put an air brake class 31 on the transpennine route it has a wobbler as the 31 is air braked and the stock is vaccum but once they iron out the coding (or whatever they call it) it should be possible to chop and change (within reason) 

 

he did say there would be a New U.K. release and further base program update in the next few weeks/months 

[MJI]

I saw someone playing a Train Simulator at Warley on a PS4.

 

They were doing all the cab stuff

[Classsix T]

This weekend I are been mostly playing Jedi Fallen Order. Ooh it's good friends, doubly so if you're a Star Wars fan.

 

Coming at it with a degree of neutrality, if you've ever enjoyed an Uncharted title or further back Prince of Persia: Sands of Time you'll be familiar with what's on offer here, combat platforming done good. It also reminds me a little of Ratchet and Clank!

 

But it's the connections with George Lucas' galactic opera that brings the most joy, set between Episode III and Rogue One, nods to both movies are present. I shall never tire of deflecting blaster bolts back at Stormtroopers and simply drawing the lightsabre alone will still put a childish grin on my face.

 

Motion capture and voice acting are very good the latter especially well written for the baddies with some humorous lines for those realising their imminent doom.

 

Combat can be challenging but I'd deliberately set the difficulty to Jedi Master (third hardest of four) for that reason. But the mark of a good game is where the player's frustration is with them self not the game. JFO demands playing smart and standing toe to toe mashing the attack button isn't going to cut it. 

I'm currently stuck in a loop of needing to dispatch two Flametroopers, a security droid, two Scout troopers, four Stormtroopers and an AT-ST! At no point have I blamed the game for my inability to complete this, instead coming to the realisation that each particular foe needs a specific attack pattern.

 

Thus far, "Excellent"! C6T. 

[Classsix T]

The other worthy event (to me) at the weekend was that GTSport will be adding Leguna Seca to the circuit roster in the near future. Small potatoes if motor racing ain't yer thing but it should be popular with PlayStation petrol heads. If nothing else it proves Polyphony are all-in on this title and committed to rewarding players with gratis added content. Naturally it keeps the subs to PSN coming in if you want to online race these additional cars and tracks but it's not compulsory, as far as I can tell, just to update the installed software files.

That said, much like Jo's experience with Forza, offline racing in GTSport doesn't make a lot of sense to me anymore. There's no single player "career mode" or owt and the in game AI is iffy at best. 

 

Jim's post on the attendance at Warley of Dovetail reminds me that wiki states them as Developer and Publisher, which can't be common. Fair play to them and I wish them well. I might even pay full rrp for summat by them one day! 

C6T.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Classsix T

[Reorte]

Still slogging through Red Dead Redemption 2, and yes, it's become a slog. Not because of the pacing or controls or animations or anything like that (things people seem to complain about it, but which in general I like, well, other than some of the keymappings but I can change those, and some "hold button down" options where a press would do - might be able to change that too), but because I've reached the point where it's turning ever more depressing, and I've seen enough spoilers (not having actually expected to play the game I'd read plot summaries anyway) to know that's just going to get worse. And because of the length and pacing and the fact I don't like rushing through games anyway that looks like it's going to be rather more unpleasant than fun.

 

A degree of all of that is all well and good, makes it all the more rewarding when you get through it, as long as it doesn't go too far, which I guess may turn out to be the point of the epilogue (still some way to go to get to that), but it's overdone here IMO.

[Steadfast]

On 23/11/2019 at 06:06, Classsix T said:

Phew, eh Jo?! 

I really fancied Mudrunner at release but I think it came out at the same time as RDR2 so I ended up postponing. Let us know how you get on Chief.

 

C6T. 

Yeah that was a bit of a multi topic post wasn't it. I blame night shift syndrome 

On 23/11/2019 at 07:01, Kelly said:

Strange, I must have gotten lucky with my X360s and Xones, had none fail on me (other than one arriving DOA second hand), only reason I had more than one X360 was I upgraded to newer versions later on (as far as I know the last one I got still works fine, but just haven't powered it on for a while).

Me and my friends all suffered the red ring of death several times. Still, at least you could just pop the HDD off the side and put it in your new console! So far the power line internet seems fantastic, it's only been a couple of days but across all the catch-up services I've used so far there's been no mid show buffering, no random disconnect and reconnects while mid show. I'm quietly optimistic. I don't tend to play online much so ping, latency etc aren't my number one concern at the moment, but steady downloads and streaming on the services that don't have an app on the TV are why I want to add the Xbox. Extra RJ45s in the post from eBay as we speak.

29 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Still slogging through Red Dead Redemption 2, and yes, it's become a slog. [Snipped]

but because I've reached the point where it's turning ever more depressing, and I've seen enough spoilers (not having actually expected to play the game I'd read plot summaries anyway) to know that's just going to get worse. 

RDR 2 is by far and away the saddest game I have ever played. As you play through there are twists and turns, some expected, some not and everyone I know who's played it has kept the tissues close at points, but it is also one of the funniest and best written games I've ever played. 

Some of it is more subtle than the blatant innuendo and social Mickey taking of GTA games, but I spent the duration of the game laughing aloud. It took me months to complete the story too, kept getting distracted with open world stuff whilst riding to the next mission. Hunting, robbing, crafting and just plain old fashioned exploring on horse back with the trusty Glue Stick II.

Enjoy the journey

 

Jo

[Reorte]

7 minutes ago, Steadfast said:

RDR 2 is by far and away the saddest game I have ever played. As you play through there are twists and turns, some expected, some not and everyone I know who's played it has kept the tissues close at points, but it is also one of the funniest and best written games I've ever played. 

Some of it is more subtle than the blatant innuendo and social Mickey taking of GTA games, but I spent the duration of the game laughing aloud. It took me months to complete the story too, kept getting distracted with open world stuff whilst riding to the next mission. Hunting, robbing, crafting and just plain old fashioned exploring on horse back with the trusty Glue Stick II.

Enjoy the journey

 

I was enjoying it until Chapter 4. Maybe part of the problem is that I haven't liked most of the story missions from the start - can't get much fun out of robbing people anyway, just not in my nature. But now there's a sense of doom and gloom hanging over everything and the more lightweight bits feel out of place and the enthusiasm for exploring and sightseeing has dried up.

[Steadfast]

Yep I get where you're coming from!

I think for me because I played it such a slow pace, the negativity was mellowed by being spread out more

 

Jo

[Classsix T]

I have to concur with Jo that as long as you don't concentrate on the main missions so much there's a lot to enjoy in RDR2. I liked to take time out doing some fishing and photography for instance. Spent hours playing poker too. (Fossil hunting! Just remembered, Haha!) 

 

Admittedly to actually get to 'do' some activities you'll necessarily have to advance the game through missions, which I've found irksome in all of the GTA and both RDR titles incidentally.

I don't think I ever did rob another train or stagecoach after the story required it. Most if not all of the folks I killed were bad people anyway and I always tried to catch the bounties alive.

 

Also, don't forget the 'Redemption' part of the name. Arthur is essentially a good man, it's often his circumstances that force his hand. Excellent writing make this apparent throughout but especially near the end.

 

Whilst it's tempting to point out that the game never was going to be a barrel of laughs, you are if you don't mind me saying a melancholy sort of chap Reorte and I'd respectfully recommend reminding yourself occasionally that you are interacting with a work of fiction. Jo's right that all the best art will illicit an emotional response from us, but I often feel a bit "daft" after having got something in my eye, if you know what I mean...I'll praise an artist's skill to garner an emotion from me and curse my "weakness" for letting them equally and at the same time! 

It also means I rarely enjoy anything of the Horror genre, because unless exceptionally well done, I often think it's a bit silly. 

 

I'd stick with it if I were you, but pace yourself? 

 

C6T. 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Classsix T