Old-Red

@Ventilator I've been buying a lot of LRG releases since the first switch release. I have always received my orders eventually.

I don't know where this scam image or being exposed comes from, but it seems a bit misjudged. It think the honest truth is they got too big for the small team to handle, so cracks started to show as they became overstretched.

My main issue is the quality of games dropped significantly as they tried to release way too many every month. If they kept it to two games a month and allowed you to combine a few months of orders together, I probably would have gone for a complete collection, but they got too greedy unfortunately and spoilt it.

This raises so many questions about the future of limited run. Will Embracer release second runs? Will they open a European decision? LRG were in a slow decline already when it comes to the quantity over quality they have released this past year.

Feels a bit like the party is over from my perspective. What made their releases appealing is all but lost now.

@Silly_G nice

Started playing this yesterday, it's excellent.

Japanese voice over is the only way I can play the XC games. The repetitive phrases in English drive me up the wall. I don't know how people put up with it for an hour let alone hundreds.

I wish there was an option to turn off field and battle dialogue, but keep the story dialogue too. It's all or nothing unfortunately.

It's actually surprising how much it annoys me. It must tap into something for me personally that doesn't seem to be an issue for others.

I suppose the mint CIB copy of Crono Trigger on SNES is the single most valuable item in my collection. The tatty copy of Secret of Mana on SNES is probably my most treasured though. It was always a special game for me, the only one I kept from childhood and the reason I started collecting SNES games in 2008ish after finding it in the loft during a clear out. I was lucky to start collecting when the prices were more reasonable and you could still find games in charity or second hand shops.

Nice article this, I made a comment recently on here about how interesting a curated collection can be.

I agree with others here in the comments. I find a more curated collection that says something about the collector's tastes and history in gaming far more interesting that a simple hoard of everything under the sun for the sake of it.

This is good news. The battle dialogue in English drives me mad in Xenoblade games to the point of making them unplayable.

It's a good thing that more people are finding out how wonderful this game is. Lucas Pope is probably the most exciting game designer/director out there at the moment. A few more games on the same level as Papers Please and Obra Dinn and he could end up joining the all time greats list.

This looks like an automated function to me. Still, it's an improvement.

A masterpiece. I'm so glad I managed to get a physical copy of this game, before it becomes unaffordable.

Seems to me that the only people interested in going over to the metaverse are the ones I'm more than happy to see the back of. Hopefully it'll leave more time and space in the real world.

I called this yesterday on the article about BOTW2. Elden Ring has changed the game now. I wouldn't be surprised if studios want to put a bit of distance between their games and From Software's latest release. It also gives them a little time to reflect on it. It'll be God of War next, as the last one borrowed heavily from Bloodborne.

I also wonder if the new Zelda has some similar ideas or design choices as Elden Ring, which have been spoilt as they've been pipped to the post. It's the sort of thing I could imagine Nintendo editing or taking out as a matter of pride.

Whatever it's called I image they have some last minute changes to make after the bar being raised so much by Elden Ring. I don't think anyone expected BOTW to be surpassed before the sequel came out, but here we are with a game that focused on solving and improving on all the issues BOTW had.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they delay it another year to take on what they've learnt from From Software, as BOTW already had some influence from the other Soulsborne games.

I would personally welcome a delay too. Elden Ring will last a long time and I imagine Nintendo might want to put a bit of distance between the two games... or they'll just smash it again and blow everyone's minds.

It feels like this one beloved studio is doing everything in its power too put the small but loyal fan base it has off their games.

If Bayonetta 3 is even slightly disappointing, I'm not sure they'll recover. Not for me, anyway. They should have just focused on making great action games, like they used to, instead of chasing live service dollars and making troll April Fool joke announcements.

@datamonkey on second look, I agree. There's something not right here. They don't have the right seals (although it does seem some SNES games were sealed like this) and if this was legit there's no way someone would sell all this in one go without even checking the value. The camera work and focus is off the scale awful, the dates don't match up and they never open any of the unsealed copies either.

It's also possible they have just bought a huge hoard of sealed repro boxes.

Edit: After checking, SNES games were sealed like this from what I can tell. Unless all the WATA graded copies on Google images are fake too.

They should absolutely not be allowed to completely cut off updates and patches for games. There should at least be a way to download patches on a usb and copy them onto your system.

As for downloading digital games that were paid for, we always knew they were essentially a rental, but man, it's pretty rotten. I think they need to be careful here. If they show their hand and intent to cut off access to peoples games, there's a serious risk of damaging trust to the point where people will buy fewer games digitally. Unless they go all in with a Netflix style sub model after the switch.

This is pretty great to be honest. Hopefully there will be a lot more finds like this, it could bring prices down a bit. It also hits the whole Heritage Auction/Wata scam right in the goolies.

I've pretty much given up on retro collecting because everyone and their grandma thinks their old games are worth a fortune. I'm actually happy with my collection and you'd think I'd want retro games to keep going up in value, but in truth, it's the actual act of going to secondhand shops and finding interesting old games for a reasonable price that I really miss. Ebay has slowly ruined the pastime since the early 00s.

If this really is the way the industry is going, games should be dropping in price, not rising. I think there should be some kind of regulation that makes sure you are always able to access your purchases.

All this has done, is make me glad I didn't buy into the digital option as heavily as others have. I suppose a subscription future potentially negates this issue, but they will still have the option to give and take away access to games as they see fit. Meh!

I don't think it's the accents that are the issue for me, more the quality of scripts and voice acting, which is usually annoying in either US or UK accents.

Xenoblade is particularly annoying cause they repeat the same phrases over and over again while you fight. This is why the option to have a Japanese voice cast option is important in these games. It's not quite as annoying if I can't understand what they say during the battles. I guess the Japanese team don't realise this because they don't understand what they are saying in the translation. Xenoblade X on WiiU was even worse with super annoying music you couldn't turn down without muting the TV. This genuinely bordered on spoiling the game for me.

The whole 'Teamsters' thing alone seems like the base of an abusive relationship. It's so patronising and degrading.

As gamers, I don't know why we aren't pushing for digital copies if games to be sold as NFTs instead of useless JPEGs. For instance, Nintendo could sell NFTs of Super Mario Bros. that allow you to play it on a dedicated site for as long as you own that NFT. These NFTs could then be sold on too.

This would require some effort though, which I suppose is too much to ask for.

I wonder if this update will be on the physical version. I hope so, been looking forward to this for ages.

Until I'm given absolute assurance that my digital purchases are permanently attached to my profile and carry over to all future Nintendo platforms, I will never buy Nintendo stuff digitally. Even then they'll have a hard time convincing me to pay full price.

Maybe this is how Nintendo could enter the NFT space. Games instead of jpegs. That's actually a form of NFTs I wouldn't be totally against.

@Tasuki I'm mostly a Nintendo/Sony gamer and I think all the recent buy outs are awful for gamers in general. Buying a smaller studio and supporting them until they become successful is one thing, but these multi-billion dollar acquisitions of established studios that were already successful and releasing games on multiple platforms benefits no-one but a few suits in a boardroom and some shareholders.

Seeing people jump for joy that they get to play games from these newly acquired studios that they would have got to play either way is baffling to me. Really, what they are celebrating is that a bunch of other people won't get to play those games now.

I'm mainly worried about an industry without Nintendo propping up the creative end. The fact that Tencent has a sizable chunk of Nintendo stock is worrying. I know they made a move to avoid a hostile takeover recently, but if Tencent manage to completely buy out Nintendo, that would be a tragedy for everyone involved in the industry.

I don't know why they didn't call it Norzelia after the region the game is based in. Or even Norzelia Tactics if they wanted to include a clue to the genre in the title so badly.

I'm guessing that there's some market research that suggests if they use a bad name liked this more sites and influencers talk about the game and sells more units.

As much as I was looking forward to this after enjoying the first two so much, I'm worried this game is going to be a bit duff or possibly even just average, which is worse in a way.

It has taken so long and I have lost so much of the hype I had, I'm not going to pick this up on release and wait for the reviews and general discourse, which was unthinkable to me when the game was first announced. There's just too much smoke coming from this fire now. Platinum Games have started acting strange too. It's a shame as they were one of my favourite developers.

Had to get it at that price. Dunno what's going on with Curry's, I got Metroid Dread for £25 on pre-order last year due to some kind of mix up. £60 for these two games day 1 is a pretty good haul all in all.

If all games were £30-35 I'd buy far more on release. This £70 nonsense Sony are pushing seems even more obscene when you think about it, especially when their games drop in price so quickly. It's a crazy amount to expect people to pay for one game on a regular basis.

...

This sounds like a set up for clicks to me. No way can $3.5m exchange hands without some kind of assurances and quality control. I do not believe for one second that the people who he bought this from cannot be contacted and confronted.

It's huge in Japan and I enjoyed the first two, but I feel like the whole aesthetic had become a bit boring and ironically dull. Strangely, not something I've ever felt for another Nintendo game series.

Maybe it has come around too soon. I'd much rather get a new 2D/3D Mario game.

Been waiting for this, awesome. I hope the version on the cart is patched and runs well.

If they put all the games on one cart and patched, I'll consider it. Why not just wait until the games are fully complete and working as intended, there's no rush.

Best Audio going to Resi VIllage instead of Returnal shows this whole thing up as nonsense and voted on by people who don't their arses from their elbows.

Also, how can Resi Village be overall best game of the year and not the best Xbox game with Psychonaughts 2 winning there? Pointless.

@BloodNinja I think gamers and the devs can go a couple of days without their precious Activison games. Let's face it, that's all it would take if Activison's route through the big 3 to sales was taken away to rectify this situation.

However, I do understand your point about definitive proof, but I think Kotick has to go either way personally, I mean, c'mon, you've got over a thousand employees signing a petition and staging walkouts to get rid of him, that's not just hearsay. It will take the influence of other powerful people and companies to make that happen.

The real question would be how do Activison sack Kotick and take away his share and control of the company without paying through the nose? Bobby is clearly done and holding out for his $225M payout for being removed.

I think Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo need to stop selling Activision games on their platforms until Kotick leaves and the whole company is restructured.

I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't taken some kind of action already to be honest, considering the image they try to uphold. It would only take one of the big three to take action and the rest would surely follow suit. I suppose nothing has been definitively proven yet, but still, it's not a good look to be in partnership with such a nefarious company.

@Arawn93 all their games would have released on pc anyway, so again, nothing has changed or been added to the industry in that regard. All MS has done is pay a huge sum to take productions that were already being made away from other platforms.

You use Bayonetta as an example. The sequels would have never happened if Nintendo hadn't stepped in. Insomniac, Sony bankrolled IPs from scratch that were never going to appear anywhere else.

You do make a valid point about Sony and some of their underhand tactics, but then we're talking about two wrongs. Sony are definitely to blame for trying it on with timed exclusively, which in turn forced MS to flex their wallet.

I find it strange when Xbox fans are so happy about the exclusively, when in reality, nothing has changed for them, they were going to receive all these games regardless. It's only the other two platforms that will miss out.

OK, there's the argument that MS might provide them with more funds to make better games, but that is something we will have to wait and see. But as I mentioned before, I don't see Bethesda ever needing any extra funds to do anything different.

You only need to look at Scalebound to see how MS reacts to funding risky new IP when things don't go exactly to their liking.

To be honest, I think all this discourse is a bit pointless, as I could see both Sony and MS trading their exclusive content eventually. Nintendo, not so much.

@Arawn93 I disagree with every point you've made. I think it's best to leave it at that.

@Arawn93 The reason he has to keep confirming it is because they have simply taken away from the industry and added nothing. At least Nintendo and Sony took smaller studios that were already mainly first party and helped them develop by funding their projects.

It's not as if Bethesda needed funds to carry on making games, the whole deal was simply to corner a huge chunk of the market and force their vision of where they want the industry to go whether gamers like it or not.

It's really sad to see what has happened to LRG. What started as a nice way to access physical versions of games that would otherwise remain digital only, has now become an oversaturated mess of releases that often get a general release a few months later anyway.

I wish they'd step back a bit and focus on a few quality releases a month that we cannot find elsewhere instead of a constant stream of, what is now, far too many releases to keep up with.

The original founders would have never allow the games to release in this state. R* are on a worrying downturn imo.

@Tasuki yes, the switch is not region locked, so you can use any different countries format on any switch. The only issues are buying or downloading paid dlc for a different region. I think you have to create an account in that country if you want to access any paid dlc. Patches and free dlc are fine though.

@Tasuki you should still be able to order through Amazon. I can order games from Japan or the US like the Ace Attorney or Okami. Maybe Amazon US doesn't allow something similar. Worth having a look though.

@Tasuki Samurai Shodown was on general release in Europe, so you should be able to find a copy on it on Amazon or something.

Sad times

These will blatantly come to ps+ eventuality. If it was all on the cart I would have gone for Switch, but I can wait to play them for free.

I don't know much about Mitchell, but I do know that he does something very strange with his lips and tongue when he speaks.

Super Metroid has just revoked your birthday party invitation.

Plug it into my veins!

Can't wait for this, I haven't played these games for over a decade and I can't wait to get into them again. The first game is essentially one of the few perfect video games in my opinion. Advance Wars is actually a great podcast game too, something I appreciate these days.