Topic: PC Gaming

There still seems to be some room left on some shelves, @JaxonH .... Are those likely to fill up, since it all seems to be organised by system?

@BruceCM
Yup. Switch shelf will eventually fill up by end of gen. Same for amiibo shelf which has room for the ones still coming. Same for Fire Emblem shelf which has room for the coming Marth and Ike statues, and the Xenoblade figures have a space next to the DxM collector edition for the coming Melia figure. But the PS/Xbox shelf, Idk what I'm doing with that. I sold off all most my PS4/X1 games and went full digital after buying 2 PS5 games. So that'll likely stay as is, and just use the space for random tat I don't have room for elsewhere.

Yeah, I'm sure you'll get plenty more Switch games, @JaxonH .... It's the others that I did wonder about! Potentially, I suppose, you'd always want to allow for the possibility of something coming to those consoles where you can't resist the Special/ Limited/ Collector's Edition, though
I don't remember seeing that Bayonetta edition on sale over here, BTW but it looks awesome

@BruceCM
Japan import, that came with Bayonetta 1/2 steelbook case and a physical copy of Bayonetta 1. I've got a lot of imports like that (Daemon X Machina CE from Europe, Astral Chain CE from Europe, Xenoblade CE from Australia, over 3 dozen physical Switch releases from Asia, Japan and Europe, etc).

I kinda regret buying that Horizon Forbidden West CE. It's too big. I'm so tired of these AAA games coming with collector editions so large you need a crane and harness to hoist it into your room, and no shelf is big enough for it. I think that'll be the last one I order for a non-Switch system (until the next Monster Hunter releases, then everything I said goes out the window 😀)

Heh, they are cool to look at, @JaxonH .... Did I hear that HFW Collector's Edition didn't actually have the game on a disc? But 2 nice statues, right?

@BruceCM
Wouldn't surprise me. I didn't open it yet since I don't have room for the box and the statue(s). And I already own the game digitally.

But ya, love having a collection. But once it gets to a certain size it's a constant struggle to manage space. I own every amiibo made (barring cards and cereal) and would love to have all of them displayed, but there just isn't room. Had to box up most Animal Crossing and Mario series amiibo, as well as most Splatoon amiibo that weren't the 10 most recent (Squid Boy, Squid Girl, Octoling Boy, Octoling Girl, Squid, Octopus, Callie, Marie and the 2 other news girls, can't remember their names)

Oh, lol, @JaxonH .... Pretty sure it's a digital code for the game, perhaps so that owners of the PS5 without a disc drive can get it as well!
So, you could have saved buying it digitally separately. Perhaps get yourself a bigger place to fill?

@BruceCM
I bought it a few weeks after the game released and already had the game at that point. Think I was planning to sell the code on eBay, but then never opened it.

No bigger room- I hate moving! I've moved enough to last a lifetime. No more. I don't have a single move left in me.

Oh, OK, @JaxonH .... That's the balance, then! I'm sure the statues for HFW look great, though Problem is there's so many collectibles for plenty of games & at least iirc that collector's edition was reasonably priced, not like some I have seen advertised
Where even the pretty hard core fans of whichever series in my forums say they think it's too expensive & so on

@BruceCM
Oh my gosh, there's some outrageously priced CE's. I like the $80-100 ones with a steelbook, art book and smaller box.

I try to only focus on CEs for games I really like (Valkyria Chronicles 4 on Switch, Astral Chain, Daemon X Machina, Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, MH Rise, MH Stories 2, Fire Emblem TH, Metroid Dread, Xenoblade 1 and 2, SMTV, Bayonetta 1/2, Trails of Cold Steel 3/4, Ys VIII/IX, etc) but even then they add up real quick.

And I got sucked into the Atelier CE's- since I own every one on Switch I feel compelled to get the next one, which has a new entry every year. So every year it's a new Atelier CE, cause I can't have all of them except one. That just wouldn't do. No. That wouldn't do at all.

Yeah, that's similar to most in my other forum, @JaxonH .... None of them gets every limited or special edition, etc! I've gone blank on some of the ridiculous CEs I've seen but they were certainly a lot more than £100 or so

I have no intention of playing it (since I'm strictly a console gamer), but I am keen to watch a Lets Play for Dune: Spice Wars. Made by French developer Shiro Games, whose last game I had played was Northgard. I enjoyed that game, so as a Dune fan I have high hopes for this.

https://www.rpgsite.net/news/12624-demon-gaze-extra-launches-...
Demon Gaze Extra coming to Steam on 26th ....

Hey guys, what are the most popular games now? I have some free time and want to play something interesting.

Elden Ring is still going strong? Give us some idea of the sorts of games you like, though, @Tallea.... & I'd have to look up which are particularly popular now

Now that I'm basically done with Kirby (still going to try the "Ultimate Cup Z" from time to time) I've pulled out my laptop and have just started up Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal.

Really only played the tutorial & mission 1 so far so not much to say on it yet, other than the fact that it has a new(?) parry system that I don't think was a part of the older games (I don't remember it in Burst or Estival Versus anyhow).

The last PC game I played was Disco Elysium. I strongly recommend it to you, people.

Just look at it, it's awesome!

Finally bit the bullet on Tales of Arise. The opening is extremely slow and hand holdy and those anime cutscenes are weirdly cheap looking. Thankfully the game itself actually looks really nice, the combat right now is fairly easy to manage and actually quite fun. However, I remember in the demo when you had a full party and it was just a complete mess. I was hoping I could use auto battle as an answer to that, but weirdly you can only set party wide tactics, not give each person an individual role? That seems like such a basic, and glaring, omission? I understand some of the previous titles have more detailed, more CRPG like, tactics and strategy systems, so maybe I will give one of those a go instead.

There is this new 40K Warhammer game that has just come out, it has a proper name but it's so long, it is easy to just call it XCOM 40K. I tried out the opening mission on launch day and was blown away by it, but after getting to sit down and do a proper extended play session this morning, I am less impressed than I was after the first hour.

I have to be honest, I never really liked the objective based missions in XCOM but games like this remind me of why we need them. Doing nothing but 'Push high enough up on the map to lift the fog of war, kill all the enemies and then survive until extracted' for hours on end, gets pretty tiresome. Especially as I feel like you could develop really unique personalities in your squad in XCOM which could make things feel fresh, even when doing the same things.

Here, I feel like everyone plays the same. There are classes, but like other than the one who heals, I couldn't tell you what the different classes do, what their roles are or what makes them unique. Even Gears Tactics had more defined classes. It is a shame, because the enemies seem way more varied and honestly more interesting to play as.

It also has that XCOM difficulty slap that I am sure some people like, but I personally find more exhausting than entertaining. Namely missions where you need to kill like a specific enemy, but they will be right in the corner of the map and the game will keep spawning in armies upon armies of enemies and layering on various modifiers as you fight your way across, putting you through a gruelling war pf attrition, until it just feels like you may as well restart. Especially as, even if you survive, the various injury mechanics are honestly really oppressive and have a chance to completely snowball. Admittedly, your resources don't feel quite as strangled as they did in XCOM, but I am still technically early days yet.

If I'm limited to only four Marines and can never expand that number, I don't get why I am fighting enemies that far outnumber me, but yet can tank as many hits as me and kill me as fast as I can kill them - and they probably have a whole bunch of additional abilities I don't have access to, it just means you're constantly at a disadvantage and rarely get to feel like a badass team of Space Marines.