Old-Red

Didn't the main guy behind Journey actually leave the company? The fact that I can't just pay an upfront fee to unlock everything means I'll probably never play this as I find the free to pay model nefarious in nature.

It's the main reason why I would never introduce my partner to this as well. I've had to help her stop spending hundreds on nasty free to pay games on her phone. The reason they want non gamers to play this game is because they spend the most and this guy knows it. I dunno, maybe I'm completely wrong and all he wants to do is bring people together and make everyone happy, but something doesn't feel right about this to me.

Say for instance, is there an option to turn off all suggestions of paying for stuff? Can you switch off the store or make it so prices aren't visible? If that's the case then I might reconsider.

@noobish_hat yeah, it's gotten out of hand. As someone who likes to open their games and actually play them, the whole limited run thing has created an horrid ecosystem of speculators who keep everything they buy sealed. I'm glad Limited Run Games do exist but I kind of wish all the games came unsealed to negated this ridiculous situation.

@tonyp1987 that would be great. Imagine having just paid £300 for a copy on eBay to see an official physical release.

I'm glad this happened as I missed the original limited run and the prices were around £100. I've had it pre-ordered for a few months on Amazon now, maybe this is fresh news in the US.

The game will be great, but the original graphics look so much better 😕

The real problem is the first two games were pretty much perfect at doing what they set out to do. All they really needed to do was release them with an improved online implementation.

I decided to have a no limited edition policy when the Switch was released after some horrid experiences during the WiiU era. I'm a much happier gamer this gen with a nice clean collection to boot. When I see the Metroid 5 LE priced at £80 and the game only for £43 that only reinforces the choice as a good one. A nearly 50% mark up for an art book and some post cards is silly.

Most important thing for Advance Wars online matches is to have an asynchronous option for matches. Give players a week to take their turn or something along those lines, maybe a day for matchmaking with non friend players. They have required both players to be online for the whole match and it had to be played on one go in the past games. I never finished a match online because of this. It's such a simple oversight and I don't understand how it was overlooked.

I think Nintendo aren't happy with the game for some reason. Maybe it's too violent and they're in some kind of weird standoff. They would have shown something by now if they were confident what they have resembles what they will release. I think it's time to come out and say something about the game good or bad. If it's having issues then be honest, if not then explain why is taking so long. Something... anything.

I'm definitely not pre-ordering it that's for sure. I'll wait for some trusted reviews on this one. I hate to say it, but I wonder if the game is a bit of a dud and they can't say anything bad that will affect sales and Nintendo don't want to release cause of its quality. Either way my expectations have been severely tempered, which means if it does come and is great that'll be a nice surprise.

Fantastic news!

I must be the only one who buys some of these limited releases and opens them. I wonder if open copies will become more valuable in the end as there will be fewer copies in that state that can actually be played 🤔

Glad I ordered a physical copy of this. The eBay prices are going into silly territory fast since the high scores and interest.

If they do this they have a responsibly to send out review copies early.

Ermm, where did Playdate say they got their stock again?

@PBandSmelly sure, cause praying on children and people with addiction problems and scamming them out of billions of dollars are the actions of a saint.

The psychological damage EA is doing to thousands of kids will only become apparent in the coming decades. Trust me, having worked in casinos, I've seen what this kind of thing does to people's brains and it ain't good.

@Entrr_username what do you mean? The leaks from last year have given her undeniable proof that they stole her work and used it without her permission. Why wouldn't she want to get paid for it?

She's totally in the right. It annoys me that such a big company would just blatantly use someone else's work without even considering that they deserve payment for it. As much as I like Capcom they did a bad here and deserve to be punished for it.

I don't think even Nintendo know. I hope they call it the Switch? so everyone has to say it like they're asking a question and it causes complete chaos in pretty much every article about it.

I wish they'd slow down a bit. 2 releases a month would be much more preferable, but yeah money I guess.

This is getting out of hand. Why are people buying this? Even as a pretty hardcore collector of all things Nintendo I can see this is a step too far and the point where I bow out. Got to stop encouraging this king of thing.

Returnal has been the best game for a generation for me, pretty much beating anything in the last generation within the first six months of the new one.

I can't pick a true top 5 in reality because the list would change depending on certain criteria. For instance, my 5 favourite games would be different from what I think are the 5 best games ever made. Then if I was stuck on a desert island with only 5 games that would also be a different selection.

My top 5 for the sake of taking part at the moment would be:

1: Demon's Souls
2: Dark Souls
3: Super Metroid
4: Secret of Mana
5: Return... No wait, Super Mario Bros. 3

... Oh, Bloodborne, no Breath of the Wild, or Link to the Past? Mario World?

Dammit, Top 5 is impossible haha. Top 10 might be a more reasonable ask.

Tempting as a collector's item, but the lack of an actual game cartridge essentially makes this an expensive plastic toy with a cheap camera. I think this is truly a thing for the kids to enjoy and there's nothing wrong with that.

I'm not sure it can ever happen with Nintendo, unless they have no choice financially. They are a company that doesn't think about making all the money as quickly as possible, they clearly think more about how they can make their own money in their own way first and foremost. By putting their exclusive games on a pc platform it changes the control they have of their own content considerably, especially as console generations come and go. I can't see it ever happening while they sit in any kind of relative strong position.

I think it's best for everyone in the industry that Nintendo stays Nintendo for as long as possible. Without them doing what they do, there would be a worrying lack of innovation.

It's really sad that a company like Activision can't see Call of Duty's success and think that it can help to pay for other less lucrative yet more interesting projects instead of thinking everything needs to make all the money or it's pointless so let's force everyone into helping Call of Duty make even more money.

I really do feel that IPs like COD and FIFA really need to be taken out of the industry and placed to one side as their own thing on TV streaming services or something. All they seem to do is have a negative impact on the creative side of gaming.

The act of collecting has always been a hobby for me. I like to take a long walk once a week to local shops and rifle through stuff in search of a random item or curiosity I've never seen before. I think it's important for people to have some kind of passion that gets you out and builds towards something, especially with the current state on the world.

It's definitely changing and I'll be sad when physical is completely fazed out, but at least the switch will keep me busy for a good few years and I hope Nintendo will stick with a physical option for at least one more generation.

I'm in a strange place with collecting where I completed my retro collection about 5 years ago. Now I'm buying new games for switch as a pre-emptive approach to not needing to find games in the wild for extortionate prices in ten years or so.

I don't envy people trying to collect for something like the NES or SNES these days. Dodging repros online would give me such a headache and bricks and mortar stores charge crazy prices.

One of my favourite periods collecting was for Wii and GameCube 2014-2016, I was picking up so many games for 50p-£5. I don't think I'll ever get a patch like that again now everyone is wise to games and their potential value.

Bloomberg are starting to become a bit like that snivelling little wart that hangs around all the parties listening to everyone, making stuff up to seem more interesting than they are and starting sh@t between people.

I don't know why other media outlets hold them in such high regard. Jason Schreier has such an inflated opinion of himself and his writing too. He loves the sound of his fingers tapping away on a keyboard, that's for sure.

@K1LLEGAL these are exactly the type of games I like to collect physically on switch. Perfect for portable, lowish print run and old enough to have everything patched and on the cart. A collector's dream.

I ordered 3 and 4 after reading how good the series is and I didn't want to miss out on physical copies. I will definitely wait for the first two to get a switch release before starting the series though.

FOMO has too be the most pointless acronym, I don't think I've ever seen/heard it written/said without being followed by 'fear of missing out'.

Seriously, if an acronym still needs to be explained more than two years after being in circulation it's time to dtfsn!

@Trajan Yeah, I don't know why but there's something nice and intimate about playing Monster Hunter on a handheld. As much as I like World, I will always prefer to play the series on a small screen curled up on the sofa, or in bed.

I'm really enjoying the game too. I actually quite like that it's a little easier and more laid back. It's a nice compliment to World and Iceborne. The online matching is by far the biggest improvement though. Being able to pick your next hunt and then just jump into someone's game so easily is the way it should always have been like.

Maybe as a communal experience, but as an actual multiplayer game its deeply flawed.

I might pick up another set of these, they're excellent.

Glad I waited for the physical, it was inevitable really. Looking forward to this!

Huh, yeah, isn't this usually the sort of thing where a company gives these cosmetics away as part of a celebration instead of fleecing the player base. Talk about having your cake, smearing it over the unborn children of your enemies and eating it and them.

I think Nintendo aren't happy with the direction Bayonetta 3 had taken personally. It could be too risky, violent or sexualised and they're trying to decide if they want to release it is not.

The fact that Astral Chain was started and released since Bayo 3 was announced shows that it should not have taken this long to finish. Something is up and I wonder if Nintendo have decided they don't want to release it and hope that people will forget about it eventually.

Welcome to the family.

RIP Codemasters, pick your plot.

@MS7000 I got one back in November, mainly for Demon's Souls and cause I'm stuck at home so much. It's been ace, but very expensive. Luckily, I have a crazy amount of cheap PS4 games to go through while I wait for the new games to come down in price a bit. The cost of gaming is definitely getting a bit out of hand.

It's nice to see some people were happy with it. I think I might not be their main demographic anymore. Maybe I just need a generation with Sony and the PS5 before they move forward enough for me to be interested again. It feels like Nintendo have been cycling the same content for nearly 5 years now, with a few notable exceptions.

With so many ports filling in the gaps all I can think is what have Nintendo been doing since 2017? Honestly, I wonder if they have a number of games ready to go, but the success this generation has given them no reason to release any top tier stuff for a while.

I'm gonna have to sit Nintendo out for a while until they're under enough pressure to have to try again it seems. At least I've got a PS5 with the PS4 catalogue to play through, but man, I miss an innovative Nintendo.

Just spent an hour with the demo, it's great! The voice acting is a bit naff, but you can mute them and just play it like a classic trpg. Finally something new to be excited for on the switch.

This was the only genuinely exciting new announcement. What is going on with Nintendo?

Of all the games, why Splatoon 3? Surely would be better to save this for the next console. What is it going to offer that couldn't have be put into an update or expansion? Money I suppose. I'm genuinely worried about Nintendo's lack of creativity.

Seriously, what has happened to Bayonetta 3!? It's getting bizarre now. It surely can't take this long to make an action game like that. Where are the Nintendo first party games? They've been releasing port after port after port, I don't understand what they've been doing since the first year of the switch release games.

I just hope we get some new stuff announced for this year to be excited about. Enough with the smash stuff already, the game is good and all that, but we don't need to waste time on it in a direct anymore. Anyone who's interested will find out and buy the extra stuff either way. I just want some new games from Nintendo now, it's been such a barren year or so.

I still haven't played this yet. Secret of Mana is one of my all time favourite games due to playing it on the SNES when I was little. Now being a huge soulsborne fan I see many influences from SOM in Hidetaka Miyazaki's games, in particular with the multiplayer and weapon choice aspects.

If Square Enix were to make a new Mana game I would love to see them take back some influence from Dark Souls in particular. Maybe not in the look, but in the game design at least.

I finished my retro collection about 8 years ago. I was lucky to be able to get most of the SNES games I wanted CIB for £20-30 each and the GameCube games were dirt cheap back then too. Now I just collect for the last gen consoles that are out of fashion and doing the car boot circuit. It's a good place to be as a collector, not only is it getting ridiculously expensive it's also a dying hobby that's being spoilt by eBay, secondhand shops and digital distribution.

I miss the days when I could find copies of games like The Thousand Year Door for £3.99 in the local Oxfam or a box of NES carts for a tenner at a car boot sale. I am glad the switch has been such a success though and there is a fairly solid physical library as it'll give me a reason to collect for at least another decade.

Super Mario World is my favourite, but I think 3 is the best if that makes any sense. It's the pure simplicity of 3 and pitch perfect level design that stands out for me.

I'm guessing whatever direction they've taken Bayonetta 3 is not pleasing Nintendo or the game isn't running very well on the switch. This is bad news though, and to be honest I gave up on the game about a year ago. It's simply been too long and I feel like I'll be disappointed no matter how it turns out now.

A stitch in time and all that. This could get out of hand now, they really should have addressed it as soon as the issue was raised. The person responsible for giving these sticks the OK must be in hot water at Nintendo at the moment. Decades of a reputation for being the most reliable gaming company in terms of hardware, destroyed in the space of a few years. I will definitely wait on their next product to make sure it doesn't have similar issues or cheap components, that's for sure. It a genuine shame.

I wish they'd just release some joy cons with the pro-controller sticks. They might stick out a bit, but using them would be much better.