Random Gaming Talk Thread

[demi]

No WD is unique to its own game(s), I don't think anyone wants to use these translations lol

[Himu]

Dirty cacs.

[Svejk]

Wow.... I don't recall the Lunar games stooping like that. Yikes.
Iirc, it just had more innuendos and such.

Funny, I'm just now remembering the instruction manual for Lunar (Sega CD version.. can't remember if 1 or 2) where the buff/effect list had Stone, and stated something along the lines of, "unable to move until cured (and may have the munchies afterwards)" 

Edit: Found it. Lol



Also found a pdf of Lunar 1 manual.  PG 24-25 are an interesting read. I miss game manuals.
 https://segaretro.org/images/c/c5/Lunarss_mcd_us_manual.pdf

[demi]

From Dragon Force manual

https://ibb.co/fXyGvXv

[Svejk]

https://www.gunghoonline.com/article/527/journey-back-to-the-stars-lunar-remastered-collection-breathes-new-life-into-timeless-jrpgs-arriving-spring-2025

"Immerse yourself in battles with fully-voiced attacks and incantations in either Japanese or an all-new English voiceover by playable characters and enemies."

[Himu]

I always loved Lunar’s sprite work

It looks like a missing  SNES Final Fantasy game

[Svejk]

Did psp remake use WD translation?

Not that I recall. I think Xseed did their own thing. They slightly changed the story pacing too, but was still great.

[Svejk]

Yeah... Still feel the same... The Sega CD intro is still better, IMO.

PS1 remake intro...



Sega CD intro... It just slaps and gets you ready without the softy, now typical, anime fluffing...

[Svejk]

Gotdam this looks beautiful!  I want Phantasy Star Quadrilogy and Xenogears remade like this!

[Himu]

Gotdam this looks beautiful!  I want Phantasy Star Quadrilogy and Xenogears remade like this!

I’m not crying you’re crying

[Coax]

Nice looking PC-98 esque title I stumbled across recently.



Then saw this pop-up on itch.



Hell yea

[bork]

Did psp remake use WD translation?

Not that I recall. I think Xseed did their own thing. They slightly changed the story pacing too, but was still great.

With Working Designs, I'd put it as "translation" with a heavy emphasis on the quotes.  Localization is one thing, but they just went off the rails with it.  Looking back, all I see from them are questionable/shitty localization jobs with them also often fucking with game difficulty or options to make things worse.   And let's not forget about their huge release delays. 

I'll give them props for releasing games that no one else would back in the day and their packaging/disc/manual quality was excellent, but they are not a company who I miss. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Never mind the dumb shit I got from Victor Ireland on Usenet when I trashed Silpheed The Lost Planet, which I imported so it had zero to do with WD anyway.

[close]

[Svejk]

Did psp remake use WD translation?

Not that I recall. I think Xseed did their own thing. They slightly changed the story pacing too, but was still great.

With Working Designs, I'd put it as "translation" with a heavy emphasis on the quotes.  Localization is one thing, but they just went off the rails with it.  Looking back, all I see from them are questionable/shitty localization jobs with them also often fucking with game difficulty or options to make things worse.   And let's not forget about their huge release delays. 

I'll give them props for releasing games that no one else would back in the day and their packaging/disc/manual quality was excellent, but they are not a company who I miss. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Never mind the dumb shit I got from Victor Ireland on Usenet when I trashed Silpheed The Lost Planet, which I imported so it had zero to do with WD anyway.

[close]

I mean, they had a Ghaleon punching puppet with the Lunar SSS Complete package.  Total, why tho.  I may still have that somewhere. lol

[MMaRsu]

I thought Mega64 were supposed be funny?

[Polident Hive]

This looks pretty good.

[Himu]

This looks pretty good.

Looks great. Thanks for posting. Minimalist game design hell yeah. Fuck that yap yap shit.

[Svejk]

Ah shit.  Silent Hill 2 Remake is actually getting pretty good reviews.
Glad to hear Bloober actually did something worthwhile (although I did rather enjoyed Observer a good bit).

Man, now I'm a bit torn on what to play this month.  Besides Lords of the Fallen, I also got Calisto Protocol, Dead Space Remake, and now tempted to get SH2.  For the record, I never played the originals of either SH2 or Dead Space.

[Polident Hive]

Sure!

[Himu]

Sure!

Hell yeah

[Svejk]

Sure!

They have allot of balls to re-release Angel of Darkness again... Not sure how much they can make it not suck.  Definitely worth it for 4 and 5 though.

[Polident Hive]

Yup.  As always, with Retroid I would not buy either of these at launch and would highly recommend waiting to see what happens.  They have an unfortunate track record of launching faulty hardware that they either fix in later batches (Retroid Pocket 4 launching with trigger issues) or not at all (Retroid Flip, which they discontinued after tons of units' hinges broke).  They generally will fix these issues but no telling on the turnaround time.

Been reading reviews and impressions are this is absolutely the case lol

When it’s all cleaned up, the foundation seems great. Worst case is dropping PS2 games to native resolution. But a small, relatively cheap handheld that can do everything up to that generation fits what I wanted.

[Svejk]

My son called it. I should have listened to him...

Dino Crisis, like RE:DC, is locked behind the PS+ Premium sub. 
Wtf, CAP?! Now they're gonna be all like, "See? Not many people played it, so the Reboot/Remake is no longer on the table.  But please look forward to a Regina skin in the up coming Monster Hunter Wilds!"

[Svejk]

Just got a notification that my PS+ sub is going to expire next month... Already forgot they they jack the prices all to shit. ($60->$80) First time I'm actually considering dropping it. Rat bastards.

[Bebpo]

Just got a notification that my PS+ sub is going to expire next month... Already forgot they they jack the prices all to shit. ($60->$80) First time I'm actually considering dropping it. Rat bastards.

I dropped mine for the first time when renewal came up in August for me. I have such a huge backlog and don't play games as much anymore so all those free PS+ games just never got touched and I never use online so it's a waste of money.

Maybe re-sub if I pick up MH Wilds, but may just get that on PC where online is free. Or may skip it entirely. After World and Rise which I really enjoyed both, I'm kind of burnt out and over MH I think.

Otherwise I only really play single player games anymore, so no need for PS+

[Svejk]

Just got a notification that my PS+ sub is going to expire next month... Already forgot they they jack the prices all to shit. ($60->$80) First time I'm actually considering dropping it. Rat bastards.

I dropped mine for the first time when renewal came up in August for me. I have such a huge backlog and don't play games as much anymore so all those free PS+ games just never got touched and I never use online so it's a waste of money.

Maybe re-sub if I pick up MH Wilds, but may just get that on PC where online is free. Or may skip it entirely. After World and Rise which I really enjoyed both, I'm kind of burnt out and over MH I think.

Otherwise I only really play single player games anymore, so no need for PS+

Yeah, I'm basically in the same boat.  Their freebies have somewhat sucked, and the good games they offer, I either have already or just gets tossed in my monster backlog.  My one caveat is cloud saves, because I'm lazy and don't feel like manually backing them up routinely.  I guess I have a month to decide, but it's definitely not feeling worth it to me atm.

[Bebpo]

Oh yeah, forgot Sony and Nintendo both lock cloud saves behind a paywall. I guess I could sub for a month or two once in a while (can you even sub PS+ monthly?) and back up the last year of saves. But eh, do I really need old saves for games I’ve cleared? Probably not tbh. I never replay old stuff and can just start from scratch.

[Svejk]

Oh yeah, forgot Sony and Nintendo both lock cloud saves behind a paywall. I guess I could sub for a month or two once in a while (can you even sub PS+ monthly?) and back up the last year of saves. But eh, do I really need old saves for games I’ve cleared? Probably not tbh. I never replay old stuff and can just start from scratch.

That's a good point; just do a random month sub to back them up.  I don't know, could be a blessing losing everything and starting fresh. Lol

[demi]

Your saves get wiped if you dont sub for so long afaik

I just sub to gamepass, you are burning money subbing to multiple services

[Svejk]

Your saves get wiped if you dont sub for so long afaik

I just sub to gamepass, you are burning money subbing to multiple services

Yeah, it seems after 6 months, if not renewed, it'll get wiped.

When it comes to overall subs, all I have is Amazon Prime and PSN.  Nothing else.

[bork]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Retroid-issues-official-statement-and-resolution-for-Pocket-Mini-colour-controversy.903806.0.html

I swear they fuck something up with every launch.

[D3RANG3D]

[Svejk]

Awwww shit!

[Svejk]

Made a character and Palico in the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta.  Character creator is better than Dragon's Dogma 2.  Not only does it have a "Graceful" walk animation, it literally dabbles some of the Dragon's Dogma 1 theme as the music too.  Capcom really knows how to stick it in and break it off.   

It's fun from what little I played so far, but literally runs on PS5 exactly as MH Worlds ran on PS4.  At least they have a Performace mode... But this is an older Beta build so I'm sure there'll be improvements later on.  The 30fps doesn't bother me one bit.  Still on the fence whether this'll be a day oner or not. 

[D3RANG3D]

[Svejk]

https://retrohangover.captivate.fm/episode/interview-with-victor-ireland-ft-coury-of-mlig-joe-of-game-sack

Victor Ireland interview.  Only 30 minutes in, but it has been super interesting so far.  It makes sense of the weirdness and head scratchers of the late 90's.  Sega of America was the worst.  And what he says about Phantasy Star IV and it's release... Just wow.  People love to hate on him, but he makes extremely interesting and valid points.

Edit: For the record, the infamous Arc the Lad "ebonics" line (top of this page) was the guy he worked with, not him.  He had to tone that writer down ALLOT from what was originally written supposedly.

I thought it was a good interview.  I get where he was coming from, whether he loves to get high on his own farts (like Kojima, but nobody gives him shit about it), he did what others didn't do back then;  Brought US audiences quality JRPG's we only dreamed of getting back then.  They are some of the most memorable experiences from my teen gaming days.  There are so many other shill, egotistic old dev/publishers out there that are much more butthurt than people claim he comes off as. 

It almost makes me miss physical games and the treasures they felt as...  Almost...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

  but NO.

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

I'm not gonna hate on Vic because I believe WD was a net positive for getting JRPGs and other niche Japanese titles released in the US. But those localizations, man. 

I'm glad we've moved past that era.

[bork]

I'm not gonna hate on Vic because I believe WD was a net positive for getting JRPGs and other niche Japanese titles released in the US. But those localizations, man. 

I'm glad we've moved past that era.

No, fuck him

[bork]

Rod

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[D3RANG3D]

https://x.com/edypagaza1/status/1851506922278564255

[Polident Hive]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Retroid-issues-official-statement-and-resolution-for-Pocket-Mini-colour-controversy.903806.0.html

I swear they fuck something up with every launch.

Seeing impressions of the Retroid 5 the point of the Mini, outside of Mini part of being slightly smaller, seems like an afterthought.

Naturally there can and will be issues with the Retroid 5's initial batch. But it's basically 98% of the way there to the ideal of these emulation handhelds. For me, anyway.

[bork]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Retroid-issues-official-statement-and-resolution-for-Pocket-Mini-colour-controversy.903806.0.html

I swear they fuck something up with every launch.

Seeing impressions of the Retroid 5 the point of the Mini, outside of Mini part of being slightly smaller, seems like an afterthought.

Naturally there can and will be issues with the Retroid 5's initial batch. But it's basically 98% of the way there to the ideal of these emulation handhelds. For me, anyway.

It feels like the Mini might as well not even exist- everything is about the 5 now.

[Svejk]

Well, there he is..

https://x.com/__lightspeed___/status/1856139856365175041

Great news! We are very pleased to welcome Hideaki Itsuno as the head of LightSpeed Japan Studio. With over 30 years of experience,
@tomqe will lead the development of AAA action games with our global team. Please join us in recruiting global talent!

Lightspeed is apparently owned by Tencent. 

[Polident Hive]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Retroid-issues-official-statement-and-resolution-for-Pocket-Mini-colour-controversy.903806.0.html

I swear they fuck something up with every launch.

Seeing impressions of the Retroid 5 the point of the Mini, outside of Mini part of being slightly smaller, seems like an afterthought.

Naturally there can and will be issues with the Retroid 5's initial batch. But it's basically 98% of the way there to the ideal of these emulation handhelds. For me, anyway.

It feels like the Mini might as well not even exist- everything is about the 5 now.

With the huge bezels, Mini has a 3.7” screen. Only a little larger of a device, the 5 displaying 4:3 is effectively 4.5”. That whole appeal is lost.

One thing I’ll say is while the Vita style is nice, there was something appealing about the toyish designs of older models. But the black model and OLED screen does a decent job at hiding pillar boxing.

[bork]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Retroid-issues-official-statement-and-resolution-for-Pocket-Mini-colour-controversy.903806.0.html

I swear they fuck something up with every launch.

Seeing impressions of the Retroid 5 the point of the Mini, outside of Mini part of being slightly smaller, seems like an afterthought.

Naturally there can and will be issues with the Retroid 5's initial batch. But it's basically 98% of the way there to the ideal of these emulation handhelds. For me, anyway.

It feels like the Mini might as well not even exist- everything is about the 5 now.

With the huge bezels, Mini has a 3.7” screen. Only a little larger of a device, the 5 displaying 4:3 is effectively 4.5”. That whole appeal is lost.

One thing I’ll say is while the Vita style is nice, there was something appealing about the toyish designs of older models. But the black model and OLED screen does a decent job at hiding pillar boxing.

Won't be surprised if a Mini Plus or Pro model comes out with a 16:9 screen in six months.

[D3RANG3D]

https://www.gog.com/en/gog-preservation-program

[Polident Hive]

Anybody have experience with recent VR headsets?

Been looking at some of the games and I’m starting to think there’s enough for the lower price of entry. My understanding is the Quest 3 at $500 is all you need. And there’s a newer lite model at $300 that mostly gets the job done and includes the Batman Arkham game. Both can be used on PC to play HL Alyx, I think.

[Svejk]

Anybody have experience with recent VR headsets?

Been looking at some of the games and I’m starting to think there’s enough for the lower price of entry. My understanding is the Quest 3 at $500 is all you need. And there’s a newer lite model at $300 that mostly gets the job done and includes the Batman Arkham game. Both can be used on PC to play HL Alyx, I think.

Not yet, but the PSVR2 should be getting up to 43% off come this friday for BF.  That, with the PC adapter, may be the best bang for the buck. 

[Polident Hive]

Anybody have experience with recent VR headsets?

Been looking at some of the games and I’m starting to think there’s enough for the lower price of entry. My understanding is the Quest 3 at $500 is all you need. And there’s a newer lite model at $300 that mostly gets the job done and includes the Batman Arkham game. Both can be used on PC to play HL Alyx, I think.

Not yet, but the PSVR2 should be getting up to 43% off come this friday for BF.  That, with the PC adapter, may be the best bang for the buck.

It’s a consideration. PC aside, there’s more that interests me on the Quest side. Batman, RE4…actually it might just be those two. But I don’t think I’ll be taking my PS5 overseas so I’m limited there.

Ok I tried the two Quest models in a store. Quest 3 was significantly better but on paper specs aren’t that different.

[Svejk]

Out of fucking nowhere!!

https://x.com/gematsu/status/1860901624018813185

https://www.gematsu.com/2024/11/earnest-evans-collection-announced-for-ps5-ps4-and-switch

2024 just keeps on giving.   

[Svejk]

Dino Crisis and Resident Evil: DC FINALLY get unlocked from PS+ for purchase.     Wish it had trophy support, but still...  Capcom finally wised up on it. 

[Polident Hive]

Ended up ordering the Quest 3S because it’s cheap and I don’t think I’ll ever go full in on VR.

What’s annoying is, well, maybe it’s what they’re cheap. Many accessories you expect will be included aren’t. Like rechargeable batteries for the controller are separate. Headbands that aren’t basic straps. Etc. If I end up really liking it, maybe I invest in it or a PSVR2 where all that is included. The current deal on Amazon is $350 with the horizon game. +$50 for the PC adapter.

If anybody has a referral code, I’ll use it. I see people spamming it because it gives store credit to both parties. I’d rather help somebody out here if I can.

[Polident Hive]

https://twitter.com/tgm_series/status/1863824456705245491

[Svejk]

Ended up ordering the Quest 3S because it’s cheap and I don’t think I’ll ever go full in on VR.

What’s annoying is, well, maybe it’s what they’re cheap. Many accessories you expect will be included aren’t. Like rechargeable batteries for the controller are separate. Headbands that aren’t basic straps. Etc. If I end up really liking it, maybe I invest in it or a PSVR2 where all that is included. The current deal on Amazon is $350 with the horizon game. +$50 for the PC adapter.

If anybody has a referral code, I’ll use it. I see people spamming it because it gives store credit to both parties. I’d rather help somebody out here if I can.

Just fyi, apparently Sony Has Developed Controller-Free Hand Tracking For The PS VR2, which they're demo-ing at certain current events.

he booth describes the feature as "available with the latest SDK of PlayStation 5", suggesting that developers can already start integrating it in games.

The booth description at SIGGRAPH Asia.
It also lists the tracking rate at 60 FPS, and claims the system "displays the hands smoothly" with "low latency".

https://www.uploadvr.com/playstation-vr2-controller-free-hand-tracking-siggraph-asia/

Guess the big question is, will Sony actually implement it with a dev kit.... But glad they still haven't pulled the plug on the PSVR 2 yet, as many predict they will.  (I don't, personally)

[Polident Hive]

Stupidly, I did additional research after ordering the headset and the tl;dr of it is buying the Quest 3S is a mistake and while the PSVR2 would've been better, I don't think it would've been as suitable as the Quest 3 and headsets with pancake lenses. That was basically what was so stark about trying the Quest 3 and 3S back to back, for me. PSVR2 uses fresnel lenses like older headsets and the Quest 3S, as good as all the other specs are on paper.

[Svejk]

  Can 2024 get any better?

[Svejk]

 

[MMaRsu]

I really don't understand what's the hate against that character. Are people really that fucking distinguished mentally-challenged?

They'll hate anything that's not a Stellar Blade esque THOT?

We gotta get these goons out of gaming bruh

[Svejk]

I really don't understand what's the hate against that character. Are people really that fucking distinguished mentally-challenged?

They'll hate anything that's not a Stellar Blade esque THOT?

We gotta get these goons out of gaming bruh

The character seems fine..  It's a big whatever sandwich, but the memes are funny as hell.

But it is a Neil Druckman game, so I'm not giving them any money for it.

[MMaRsu]

https://x.com/Rovertronic/status/1869080121811902874

[Polident Hive]

Assorted musing about VR as I wrap up this experiment. Which comes at this realization my last experiment with VR was five years ago, almost to the date, with Astro Bot VR. Might as well check back in another five.

Again, it’s surprisingly almost there? It works and there isn’t much setup. The Quest 4 with OLEDs might be it. Most issues are me and my setup. Motion sickness, not using a powerful PC to drive it, and limited play space. I’d estimate it’s a 6’x6’ area? Seemed enough to me, but the second I’m off center and extend my arm, it’s throwing up the digital walls as a warning.

The chip powering it is in a $300 device, with high resolution and high refresh rate screens. There’s only so much you can do. Batman Arkham Shadow is Xbox 360 or even PS2 looking at times, with limited scale. I’ve read about games released across Quest, PC, and PS5 with dramatic differences.

Anyway, Batman is cool. Gonna go finish it and that’s about it for now.