Gaming

[maxjam]

NBA2k21 is free on Epic Store this week for those that like that kinda thing.

More importantly they are having a sale atm in which they give you a £10 voucher to spend against anything over £15 - and if you use that voucher, you get another one, then another and another.  You get the point ? 

Just snagged Days Gone for £30, Assassins Creed Valhalla for £27 and Death Stranding for £12!  And the sale is on for another 4 weeks...

[Stive Pesley]

I have zero interest in gaming, but my youngest has just asked for an Oculus Quest 2 for his birthday - anyone tried one? Any good?

[maxjam]

33 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

I have zero interest in gaming, but my youngest has just asked for an Oculus Quest 2 for his birthday - anyone tried one? Any good?

Not got one personally but we had a Playstation VR for a while and whilst they are pretty good gaming wise for me and my kids at least the novelty wore off pretty quick tbh.

The problem I have with any VR set is that you're sealed off from your surroundings (people in the same room, dogs, furniture, etc) and they take up a lot of space.  As you wear them for a bit you naturally shuffle around the room - then there is the problem of your flailing arms... 

If you've got plenty of room to play (alone) and you don't mind the tedious setting up/putting away all the time they can be good fun.  If your console/computer is in the lounge that other people use or you share the headset with others it can get fairly annoying however. 

Dunno about the OQ2 but the PSVR had good resale value so there was always that ? 

[Van der MoodHoover]

On 05/05/2021 at 19:06, JoetheRam said:

Anyone actually been able to buy a PS5?

 

I've been able to enter a lucky draw at currys pc World for the chance to win a code to take to the nearest store that has stock to buy one. 

As long as you are able to act within 72 hours - but at least the lucky draw was free to enter. 

[Kinder]

On 05/05/2021 at 19:06, JoetheRam said:

Anyone actually been able to buy a PS5?

 

I managed to get one for my son last month. I got the Hot Stock app and paid for the premium subscription. It tells you when new stock is coming out and I got one from Game.

We’d been trying since they first came out with no luck. Hot Stock kept notifying me but they were sold out by the time I got on. I managed to get one within a few weeks of subscribing so it was around a fiver for a month’s subscription. I think you’re only notified a few minutes before everyone else, but it made a difference!

My lad was so pleased, he’d done loads of jobs to save up for it and was gutted he couldn’t get one. The little poo hasn’t lifted a finger since then though!

[ariotofmyown]

On 05/05/2021 at 12:20, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

Hi all

Have bought my 10 year old an Xbox one for his 10th birthday. His first games console and mine since the Spectrum 48k ( which I still have in the loft!)

Anyway, any recommendations on easy to play games suitable for a beginner? Looking for something we can play together offline, get used to the controls etc. We like Star Wars, he loves Lego, I am really tight and both of us now hate football. Any suggestions for games based on these parameters? Maybe good two player games or something?

I considered Battlefront, which I pretty muck know nothing about, but was worried it would be too complicated for a beginner and possibly age inappropriate. Squadrons seems a little tricky as well although, again, this is only based on what I have read.

Any advice welcome. 

 

Lots of good advice already on Lego games. They are all great, but I think I prefer the early ones like Indiana Jones, Batman and Star Wars. But all of them are brilliant really. Battlefront online is hard for beginners, but lots of easier modes you can play. Remember when I first saw my nephew shooting at that droid probe thing on Hoth and it looked like he was playing the film.

I'm more excited about your transition from 48k to Xbox one. I had 48k, then Amiga. I didn't then play games for a while until getting a PS1 around 99. I couldn't believe how incredible the games had become.  My 10 year wait is nothing vs your 35ish years hiatus!

I reckon you should give these a go first:

Grand Theft Auto V: it's like living in LA, but where you can steal any car, get any weapon, commit any crime, all without much comeback.

Mass Effect 1-3: if you like more of a story element and less action, these games are like a fully immersive sci-tv series.

Assasin's Creed Sydnicate: set in Victorian London, with actual buildings in their real settings. That you can climb up, fight on and jump off.

I think the first 2 are included in Game Pass and the other you can pick up cheaply 2nd hand.

I often buy 2nd hand games from CEX shops or Amazon.

Hope you have a great time.

 

[Ramslad1992]

On 05/05/2021 at 00:00, maxjam said:

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/03/17/play-at-home-2021-update-10-free-games-to-download-this-spring/

Subnautica is the pick of the bunch imo, well worth a play.

Dunno if Horizon Zero Dawn is still free, but thats a stunning game if you've not played it yet.

Horizon zero dawn was a great shout mate ? played 15 hours in the last month (thats a lot for me) what a fantastic game. Even better that it was free! 

[r4derby]

5 minutes ago, Ramslad1992 said:

Horizon zero dawn was a great shout mate ? played 15 hours in the last month (thats a lot for me) what a fantastic game. Even better that it was free! 

Give it time too. It gets even better as you move across the map and start upgrading things. Between the 20-50th hours I had some of the best time on a game in ages!

[Ramslad1992]

2 minutes ago, r4derby said:

Give it time too. It gets even better as you move across the map and start upgrading things. Between the 20-50th hours I had some of the best time on a game in ages!

Just got to meridian. It’s one of the best games I’ve played. It has a touch of skyrim about it which I think is fantastic. 

[DarkFruitsRam7]

On 27/05/2021 at 00:16, ariotofmyown said:

Lots of good advice already on Lego games. They are all great, but I think I prefer the early ones like Indiana Jones, Batman and Star Wars. But all of them are brilliant really. Battlefront online is hard for beginners, but lots of easier modes you can play. Remember when I first saw my nephew shooting at that droid probe thing on Hoth and it looked like he was playing the film.

I'm more excited about your transition from 48k to Xbox one. I had 48k, then Amiga. I didn't then play games for a while until getting a PS1 around 99. I couldn't believe how incredible the games had become.  My 10 year wait is nothing vs your 35ish years hiatus!

I reckon you should give these a go first:

Grand Theft Auto V: it's like living in LA, but where you can steal any car, get any weapon, commit any crime, all without much comeback.

Mass Effect 1-3: if you like more of a story element and less action, these games are like a fully immersive sci-tv series.

Assasin's Creed Sydnicate: set in Victorian London, with actual buildings in their real settings. That you can climb up, fight on and jump off.

I think the first 2 are included in Game Pass and the other you can pick up cheaply 2nd hand.

I often buy 2nd hand games from CEX shops or Amazon.

Hope you have a great time.

 

You can’t recommend GTA to a 10 year old?

[maxjam]

Don't forget the Epic Store sale is still on - just a couple of days left.

I'm having a lot of fun with Knockout City; https://www.ign.com/articles/knockout-city-review  that has only just been released - just £7.99 in the sale ?

[Ramslad1992]

16 hours ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

You can’t recommend GTA to a 10 year old?

I played it at that age and didn’t do me any harm ?‍♂️

[TimRam]

Bit different to all the new stuff! During lockdown last year, I had a loft clearout and found my compaq presario desktop pc from 2005. Still works fine after a clean and even runs win 10 32 bit (slow in parts and just 480p youtube). With a 1gb gpu, ssd and max ram (4gb) plays a lot of older games. Factory reset to win xp (drivers for the gpu still available) it performs much better in games such as Crysis, Bioshock, Serious Sam, Doom 3, Quake 4, older Fifa, F.E.A.R., older Need for Speed, Elder Scrolls 4, Fallout 3, S.t.a.l.k.e.r.,  etc. I was suprised how much these older graphic engines/gameplay stand up even today.

[Leeds Ram]

I just go on football manager these days as a way to pass the time when I can't be bothered picking up a book. I was thinking of Europa Universalis IV but not sure if that is similar to Kings Crusader 2 (that I tried but didn't have the requisite spare time to really get into). 

[Anon]

15 hours ago, Leeds Ram said:

I just go on football manager these days as a way to pass the time when I can't be bothered picking up a book. I was thinking of Europa Universalis IV but not sure if that is similar to Kings Crusader 2 (that I tried but didn't have the requisite spare time to really get into). 

It's very similar. You can port your save file from Crusader Kings into EUIV. I enjoy CK2, but I know what you mean about the entry barrier. I had to spend hours reading the forums to understand how to play.

[Rev]

My lads given up on his PS5, and gone back to his 4.

Keeps getting kicked off the internet, with the error message saying the router is blocking access, even though he's using a wired connection and every other device works fine.

Even the PS5 diagnostic shows he's getting 72meg download speed and 15 upload, we've tried all the things it suggests on the web to rectify, yet it still is unusable.

[JG400]

On 21/05/2021 at 10:35, Stive Pesley said:

I have zero interest in gaming, but my youngest has just asked for an Oculus Quest 2 for his birthday - anyone tried one? Any good?

You have to have a Facebook account  (the quest is cheap for a reason they want to farm all your personal information / VR activity  and you have to agree to it on sign up) and if for any reason the account is blocked , VR headset stops working , in terms of VR experience it is very much a marmite product  , the most popular games seem to be rail shooters and party games , there are some gems out there (RPG's and quality First Person Shooters) but not many (its  still a new medium) , the problem is the  human facter i.e. the IPD (inter Polar Distance)   if your pupils don't match the perceived human norm i.e. 64mm apart  visually things go down hill very quickly (to be fair 62 mm - 68 mm will do) images become blurry and text is unreadable , the Oculus Quest 2 has 3 settings and if you eyes don't match one of those 3 you are going to be frustrated , I have quite a wide IPD and my only solution would be to get the Steam VR headset (Valve) which has a broader range but is super expensive 

[TimRam]

The first Quake game was released 25 years ago today. Raised the bar for computer gaming (again) thanks to John Carmack and the id team.

[Day]

PES is dead, they’ve renamed it efootball and making it free to play, which means only one thing, get ready to pay for loot boxes with kits, players, teams in.

Wouldn’t be surprised to see FIFA follow suit.

 

[Srg]

7 hours ago, David said:

PES is dead, they’ve renamed it efootball and making it free to play, which means only one thing, get ready to pay for loot boxes with kits, players, teams in.

Wouldn’t be surprised to see FIFA follow suit.

 

Fifa won't follow suit because they already rake in billions in microtransactions, whilst still mugging you for a full price game.

On the face of it, I was quite interested in this going f2p but then I realised they've basically taken a 2 year break to upscale a mobile engine so cross play can go from PS5 all the way through to Apple App Store versions of the game... that sounds awful.