If you ever needed proof that you can't just buy a championship football
team, point to this past weekend for the evidence.

Play:
--=--

Elden Ring (PS5) - Oh, so I somehow left half of Stormveil castle
undone. There's a whole bit over by the main gate that you can miss if
you sneak in the back, including a thing called a Divine Tower that will
apparently be important for other parts of the game later on. I'm doing
the sneaky archer thing now, which means I find a nice high perch and
pick off all of the enemies I can spy through the spyglass because I
play these games for the scenery and not the combat. That means at level
97 it's taken me about 140 hours to reach the point where I'm
procrastinating about making any further progress. Mostly that's because
the right with Radahn is so cheap and unsatisfying.

Atari 50 (PS5/XSX/Switch) - All this history and legacy and a scenic and
picturesque walk through what is essentially the best part of my
childhood! Why am I only playing Tempest 2000? Because that's really the
only thing that's worth playing now, and I find the Switch Lite control
surface isn't very ergonomic for this type of twitchy shooter thing. The
PS5 version is the best overall in terms of performance, because the
Sexbox version keeps doing weird synch-y and network-y things that I
don't understand. Why do I need a network connection to run an 8-bit
emulator?

Dark Souls Remastered (XSX) - So this runs great, but it still looks
like unshaven arse. I forgot that the strategy for the initial Asylum
Demon thing is to just rotate clockwise around it until it loses track
of you and then you can literally whittle it to death with any old
weapon or spell.

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin (XSX) - Crashtastic. I start the
game after installation and the first thing it does is crash back to the
dashboard. The second thing it does is complain that I didn't quit the
game properly.

Dark Souls 3: The Fire Fades Edition (XSX) - Can you tell I just bought
the trilogy? Unsurprisingly this one runs the best of all these original
games, but after having gotten to the initial boss fight here too I feel
some mild buyer's remorse. I already have all three games on their
original console releases so this constitutes like the fourth or fifth
time I've bought each of these games, and while I'm happy to have them
I'm not sure I'll ever enjoy them properly on this platform.

Want:
--=--

My Analogue Pocket (GB/GBC/GBA/GG/NGPC/TG-16/Lynx) - On the truck to be
delivered to me later Monday afternoon! So excited! I was hoping they'd
get ambitious and try to deliver over the weekend, but they don't do
that anymore for totally relateable reasons.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing game-related.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

Balance forward - $3,914

Yakuza Like a Dragon (XSX) - $15
Dark Souls Trilogy (XSX) - $35
Judgment (XSX) - $20
Senran Kagura 2 (PS4) - $30
Story of Seasons: Friends of Olive Town (NSW) - $30
Rune Factory 5 (NSW) - $30
Granblue Fantasy Versus (PS4) - $40

Total to date - $4,114

-KKC, who hasn't watched any World Cup and just reads angry prose about it.

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

> Play:

Tetris Attack (SNES) - a bit of this again.

> Atari 50 (PS5/XSX/Switch) - All this history and legacy and a scenic and
> picturesque walk through what is essentially the best part of my
> childhood! Why am I only playing Tempest 2000? Because that's really the
> only thing that's worth playing now

That's kind of how this one was sounding to me too, though I do also
have a fondness for the 2600 versions of Asteroids and Missile Command
(which are presumably included).

> Why do I need a network connection to run an 8-bit emulator?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Network_is_the_Computer

But seriously, this seems about as absurd as (old) Doom on the PS4
requiring you to use a *second*, non-PSN login to download a few bonus
WAD files.

> Want:

Like a Dragon: Ishin (PS4) - due to release next year. A bit
surprising that this is finally getting a hit on Sega's release
dartboard, but I'll take it.

> Bin:

Sega releasing a port of a fairly obscure PS3-era spinoff game (IIRC)
at what still feels like full price.

-Rus.

In article <YM2fL.1297488$nwq3.728627@usenetxs.com>,
Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:
>Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:
>
>> Want:
>
>Like a Dragon: Ishin (PS4) - due to release next year. A bit
>surprising that this is finally getting a hit on Sega's release
>dartboard, but I'll take it.
>

Ooh, have you seen the summary and comparison videos? They took out some
of the more obscure side character models and replaced them with newer
ones from Yakuza 6 and Like a Dragon. It's mad and delightful and I'll
buy a copy on every platform. Because I'm mad.

I think the reasoning behind the release of Ishin is pretty simple, in
that Ghost of Tsushima, Nioh and Sekiro all did well in the west in
terms of sales. Sega was always doubtful that there was any American or
European interest in what's essentially a very Japanese-specific fantasy
involving very Japanese historical figures. I guess we showed them.

-KKC, who is charging up the battery in the Analogue Pocket as we speak!

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

> In article <YM2fL.1297488$nwq3.728627@usenetxs.com>,
> Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:
>>Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:
>>
>>> Want:
>>
>>Like a Dragon: Ishin (PS4) - due to release next year. A bit
>>surprising that this is finally getting a hit on Sega's release
>>dartboard, but I'll take it.
>>
>
> Ooh, have you seen the summary and comparison videos? They took out some
> of the more obscure side character models and replaced them with newer
> ones from Yakuza 6 and Like a Dragon.

Well that's odd.

> I think the reasoning behind the release of Ishin is pretty simple, in
> that Ghost of Tsushima, Nioh and Sekiro all did well in the west in
> terms of sales. Sega was always doubtful that there was any American or
> European interest in what's essentially a very Japanese-specific fantasy
> involving very Japanese historical figures. I guess we showed them.

I feel like e.g. Onimusha should have already done that, but maybe
it's more obvious now.

-Rus.