TheFlyingGerbil

It's fine to bring up old threads here and if you're going to necro a thread it makes sense to do it to talk about zombies! Personally I don't play anything that exciting. My favourite at the moment is Nemo Picross. It's a pretty addictive puzzle game.

While there's plenty of games I've put down and not got back to there are only a few I'm officially done with. The desire to finish Uncharted on Crushing (being the only thing standing between me and a platinum trophy) waned in comparison to the frustration I felt trying to complete it. The only problem here is it completely killed any desire to play the other two games, which pretty much everyone says are actually better.

The companion thread for Games You Beat. If you're done with a game before the credits roll post here. To get us started you can post games from the past you gave up on and why. Let the catharsis/shaming begin.

Amazon Local is giving away a free £2 voucher for the Amazon app store. Plenty of games you could get for £2, though you can spend it on any app. Not sure if any of you from outside the UK will be taken to an equivalent deal in your local currency, but it's worth a try.

I think I overstated it with the word "tied". It's more just what they're hooking it to, to make the update sound more enticing/like an event, I think Nintendo still feels the need to "sell" an update to their customers. I got the quote from the Nintendo UK website, which makes it sound like the update introduces the ability to download DLC and the first bit of DLC will be the Mercedes cars.

The Mercedes DLC is tied to an update that provides the following improvements:- Drivers will now have the option to display the course map on the TV screen during races Users will be able to check out statistics such as their total number of coins accumulated, win-loss record from online play, and their most frequently selected character overall Users will be able to change options of others’ Mario Kart TV downloaded highlight reels, such as changing the focus to a new character or event The order of the menu after each race will be changed to “Next Race”, followed by “Watch Highlight Reel” The game will remember the most recent customised kart settings that were selected, even if the Wii U system is powered down Improvements to stability of connection in online play to enhance the user experience Glad they're changing the order of "next race" and "show highlight" as I did click on the wrong one a few times and having the map on the race screen will be great. There's also a Mercedes Cup tournament between 27th August and 23rd September that you can only enter with one of the new cars. Anyone still playing this, will this get you to pick it back up (and enter the tournament)?

I'm playing Ni No Kuni at the moment. I've just left Castaway Cove which I believe is about a quarter of the way through. Really enjoying it so far. It's gorgeous to look at and the story and characters are all likeable so far. It;s ace to have a Welsh character too. Just hope the difficulty doesn't ramp up too dramatically. Not entirely sure I've figured the whole familiar thing out. i've been reading guides so i think i'vw got most of the best ones that are available for my charscters so far but not sure why you can keep 400 of them, what the heck are you meant to do with them all?

Seems like American English has changed a lot less than British English though. Nearly every time I check on differences AmE has kept the original meaning/pronunciation from when they left Britain and it's us that's evolved the meaning. Having said that I agree language does and should evolve. Doesn't mean every instance is agreeable.

it was definitely designed with the bigger battery in mind. there are two separate indents that the different batteries fit in perfectly. It's got the same back panel on and is completely flush with the new battery in. kind of annoying that they didn't just put it in in the first place. I wonder how much the bigger battery would have added to the cost for Nintendo? I'm guessing it wouldn't be the £25 it cost me.

I'm watching the first season now, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Surprised it's still going to a third series. Must be a lot of naughty people in his Dad's book.

Bought the extended battery for my game pad. Hopefully the improvements as dramatic as advertised as it's bloomin' expensive for an accessory. nearly as dear as a controller, in fact.

My PS3 doesn't charge the controller when it's off. In fact I hate charging the PS3 controller, it doesn't want to charge on any of my USB chargers, only on my PS3, and only when on. Which is rubbish because the cable is about a metre long so you can't play it when it's plugged in. I'll try leaving it in overnight and see if it charges when the PS3 updates as Strangelove suggests. Not happy that I have to leave all that junk on display, but it beats having to buy a solution. As for the Vita, I charge that over AC. I read that it charged via USB and was pretty happy about it. so when I bought it and found out it was a proprietary port on the actual vita and only USB on the other end I was pretty hacked off. That's another cable I need laying about and I really wish they'd made it more obvious which was the right way up. Not sure what it is with Sony and charging stuff but I really hope it's less of a mess on the PS4.

any one have any hints for making foo yung? While I was looking for recipes it seems USA has it with a gravy while the uk doesn't. Seems like everyone was calling the sauce an abomination but I can't say I'm bothered about authenticity I just want it to be tasty. is it a worthy addition? also, my favourite meat in it is Chinese roast pork (char siu) but I can't get that around here is there anything that's similar but easier to find or simple thing to do to pork that is an approximation that doesn't need a dozen ingredients i'll only use once? I want to start making some of the dishes i enjoy from the take away but i've only ever made fried rice and need to broaden my horizons.

she's not from a zelda game - she's created especially for this that's why you wont recognise her. The plot iS bsed around her and her sister.

She doesn't look very Zelda-y to me. I love that she's happily facing down a load of monsters but Cuccos strike genuine fear. That makes me a bit less excited. I just had a look and there is a plot at least to tie things together. I can't decide if I'm excited or not.

I've never played a Dynasty Warriors game. They seem to get very mixed reviews/have inconsistent quality. Hopefully with Nintendo involved they will make sure the rough edges are polished off. How similar is this to the standard games? I only ever seem to see people killing hordes of enemies in an arena. How does the game progress? Are they levels you're plonked, kill everyone and you're taken back to the menu screen or do you explore a large overworld (with other things to do) and happen upon these areas. I have to admit I like the low skill combat of things like zelda and assassin's creed, so the idea of cutting a swathe through ranks of minions appeals to me.

Bonus elephant for you, Dean:

You live life on the edge ordering from an unknown seller! How does $30 compare to the used price in a game retailer? Is the saving wroth the risk or was it just convenience of buying on line. It reminds me of how on eBay when a seller says "this item is for sale elsewhere and may be withdrawn at any time". If my bid is final why the heck are they allowed to pull out? Makes you wonder if they will just because the price isn't what they're hoping. I'm surprised eBay allows it to be honest. Anyway, the reason I actually came here: Nintendo finally put Earthbound on sale (40% off) I knew if I waited long enough it would happen eventually.

If half chips, half rice a thing in America (or the rest of the UK come to think of it)?

minis march again is supposed to be good if you like puzzle games. I keep meaning to buy it. I'm getting pretty bored of the selection in the EU stars catalogue. It needs an major injection of new stuff. Accessories for the DS, Wii/DS points cards - can you even use those anymore? . I really hope none of my points are coming up to their expiry dates as I would definitely be wasting them just to use them up at the moment.

I think I liked Heroes longer than most people managed to - up until the carnival and that man you just mentioned (just saw he's an American, didn't he put on an awful British accent?). Can't remember how it all ended though. I thought they'd all died to save the world but that can't be right if they're making more of them.

I'm not too bothered about missing collectibles so long as they don't impact the gameplay too significantly, so clothes, weapons when a comparable (maybe less powerful) one can be obtained more readily. Do not want to miss something like a different class of weapon or an item that grants significant new abilities (like Zora's flippers in LttP) so I think you should be guided toward that sort of stuff and it shouldn't be missable. The thing that annoys me most though is branching storylines and multiple endings as it forces you to miss great swathes of storyline and gameplay. Obviously there's different levels of this and I think Heavy Rain handled it well as I think the progression of the story was logical based on your choices, the story and game still felt complete, and I don't feel like there was a "right ending" just the one you ended up with. Some games seem to make it obvious though that you made that inconsequential choice 5 minutes in to the game so now this village has been burnt to the ground forty hours later so there are non of it's side quests open to you. Or the story writers had a clear idea of what the story should be so if you ended up with a different ending you really made the wrong choices somewhere along the way. To me this is the worst sort of missable content because even if you have a walkthrough open the whole time you play you still have to miss out on stuff.

I was conscious I'd been rambling so I guess I over simplified my summary. I meant the following points: Yes Nintendo is selling less consoles so I know it's doing worse what I meant was it's too soon in to this generation for any console to be declared dead or a success. This is entirely anecdotal but I don't feel people are rushing in to this generation with the same fervour they were last time as I don't think the upgrade seems as significant. So yes Nintendo have sold less but I think if all companies underperformed Nintendo would be last to abandon hardware. I think I've said it before but and I'm not saying it's going to happen, that it should nor that they're at a place where it's a good idea but I think MS would be the first manufacturer to jump ship if things were not going to plan. It seems much more like a department of a large company that is kept at arms length ready to be sold off at a moments notice. I think you can see this attitude in their game software side too. Sony gives the impression that PlayStation is much more integrated into their business and I can more easily imagine if they stopped making hardware for whatever reason they would keep any profitable aspect of games development and publishing on other's hardware while there's no way ms would. What I hope Nintendo does in the future is keep it's hardware away from cutting edge and not add gimmicks (as defined in the long bit of my last post,sorry!) that drive the cost up. That way it can be an easy sell to families and easier to persuade people who buy ms and Sony consoles/pc for the big games to have it as a second gaming platform for the unique experience Nintendo provides.

you can't leave one unfinished! You should finish spirit tracks before you replay another one. If you're near the end you won't have to put up with much more of the trains. The warping on the tracks was my least favourite method of getting around the over world of any Zelda game. I never ended up where I wanted to be

I've just written a rambly post that has been open for a few hours, so there are several new posts, but damned if I'm not going to post it now. As a concession I've condensed it down to one paragraph: I don;t think Nintendo is doomed (I agree with the last post about all consoles currently struggling to adapt to the new landscape and Nintendo isn't doing any worse than the others). But what does everything I have just written have in common. "This is the console with motion controls!", "This is the console with 3D!", "Look it's got a tablet that isnt a tablet!". These are attention grabbing differentiators from the competition - practically the dictionary definition of a gimmick. Motion control worked for advertisers but not for gamers, 3DS sold inspite, not because of 3D, and the gamepad is good, but the it doesn't add anything unique enough to justify the extra cost. You can read the rest if you want to: You will not find a bigger Nintendo fan on these boards than me and I personally love all the Nintendo innovations, and I hope they keep on with them - as some of them stick and are industry changers. We all know the aspects that were popularised if not invented by Nintendo and Nintendo are the biggest reason controllers are the way they are now. BUT, not all their ideas stick and whether or not they are good, they do not catch the imagination of the developers or the public for whatever reason and they are considered as gimmicks. The most often cited would be 3D, gamepad (also second screen on 3DS) and motion controls. Motion control can be put to good use, and definitely adds to some gaming experiences. The thing I liked best was the pointer for ersatz mouse funtionality. However, for the handful of games it improved (or made possible such as Wii Sports) it more often than not it was poorly implemented, inaccurate, distracted from gameplay or simply ignored completely. The simple fact here is they dropped it as the main control method for the Wii U so Nintendo themselves tacitly admit this was not a success. I love 3D and have it on on the 3DS whenever I can. But I cannot hand on heart say it improves or changes gameplay. In fact, I think we can all agree 3D has pretty much died the death. While you couldn't move for 3D TVs a couple of years ago, now it is often being left out in favour of smart functionality in the mid range. I'm looking at new TVs at the moment and it's really narrowing my choices, and I don't even know why I'm limiting myself because what would I put on it? Both the the PS3 and 360 were capable of 3D the games supporting it were few and far between, and no one exactly trumpeted it from the roof tops. I don't even know if PS4 and XOne support it, and even if they do, do the games? I can't imagine they do when they are already mired in resolution-gate, 3D would almost certainly be dropped to make room for more pixels on screen. Again, Nintendo quietly admitting defeat here - While it started as the main selling feature of the 3DS console, it is no longer advertised as a feature and indeed the 2DS removes it completely and to this end, many games adverts actually say you can play it without the 3D on, so it is not the feature that you can turn it off! And let's not forget the ungodly price the the 3DS started out at because of the cost of the 3D screen. It didn't start selling until they slashed the price (making it the first console they sold at a loss for a short while) Now to the more controversial second screens. Most people like the funtionality they add - it's nice to have the menus and maps moved off the main screen and touching menus is a lot easier than scrolling them. We all love off-screen play and I frequently hear people here mention their use of it. But even if the people who have the gamepad enjoy its features, it is not causing the public at large to rush out and buy the Wii U. In fact, it may well have had the reverse effect. The gamepad confused people who thought it was a Wii accessory they didn't need and those who knew it was a new console baulked at the price because it meant the console itself was current gen powered but next gen priced. This was directly caused by the addition of the gamepad. Without it, Nintendo could have released the Wii U console alone, at a similar launch price to the Wii U (and profitably) with the simple message "play the nintendo games you love in HD" We can never know, but this seems like an easy sell. Instead they had a confused public wondering why they should spend nearly double the price (even though it cost Nintendo a loss on the hardware).