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You ready? You look ready.
Stimulate the economy! Go for it!
I have a couple of other ideas of how to use it but I am starting to hit a wall with my One S. Lots of graphical problems with a few new titles, and I’m going to be buying the new Halo title and would imagine it’ll be the same case.



Welcome to the human race...
Well, I got given a copy for Christmas so I guess I'll find out how bad it goes sooner or later. Still too busy grinding my way through MK11, though.
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I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



The People's Republic of Clogher
Stimulate the economy! Go for it!

Scooby & Shaggy


Bought one last Friday due to an advantageous trip to Twitter when stock appeared in the UK. It's a SERIOUSLY impressive bit of kit.

We're talking Hitman 2 and Forza Horizon 4 (with a ton of graphical improvements) at a solid 60fps impressive here, all in a console that costs less than a budget graphics card. Granted, I've got it hooked up to a 1080p TV but that's what it was designed for. Pair it with Game Pass and it's, frankly, a no brainer.

If you can find one, get it!
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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan



I wrote quite a bit on Bioshock: Infinite over the past couple days. I thought I'd share my review here:

Given the popularity of the original BioShock, this game was highly anticipated in 2013 as its release date grew closer. After it was released, it received a ton of praise, with many people calling it one of the best games of the decade. A lot of praise went specifically to its story, which some consider to be one of the best video game stories ever.

Presentation wise, this game is vastly different from the prior BioShock games. Instead of taking place under the ocean in Rapture, it's set above the clouds in Columbia. Though changing the pre-established setting in a franchise can be a risky move, I think this paid off. While Rapture is a phenomenal area to explore that brims with all kinds of moody incongruity between the futuristic elements of the city and its 1960's vibe, too many exposures to the same setting can lead to diminishing returns (which I felt to a degree with BioShock 2 and its DLC), so I respected the decision to change the setting for this game. Besides, Columbia was a blast to explore, so I'm glad I got to experience it. The second main distinction is that this game is more linear than the prior Bioshock games. While you had access to the entire map in BioShock 1, 2, and Minerva's Den, this one was, for the most part, a straight walk from beginning to end. I don't have an issue with this though, because, since the game is really smart in how it pushes you along, it gives you the sense that you're walking around in a fully formed environment, even though you only get to see a bit of it.

Going into this game, I had some concerns about the gameplay feeling like a retread of that in prior BioShock games. While some features from prior installments are certainly present here, I think it brought its fair share of innovations to the franchise and was able to stand just fine as a sequel. Elizabeth is definitely the most prominent difference between this game and the prior games. While I'm not a fan of escort missions, the handling of that aspect here is pretty incredible. Elizabeth stayed out of my line of fire, I didn't need to worry about keeping her alive, and she even helped me out a number of times by throwing me supplies (health, salts, ammo, money). This felt like a response to the mediocre escort mission near the end of BioShock, which has received a fair share of criticism over the years. Another difference is the shield. This feature allows for you to take damage without it effecting your health. Once the shield is depleted though, any further damage you take will deplete your health bar (if you last a bit of time without taking damage though, your shield will regenerate). I found this to be a well-balanced and compelling feature. Since this game removes the quick saves from prior BioShock games and only has auto saves, giving you a bit of a pillow is a good way to balance that handicap out. This feature also doesn't make the game too easy as getting too confident with the shield and being careless as you play it typically leads to bad results.

Not every gameplay feature works though. For instance, one major difference between this game and the prior installments is that you can only carry two guns at a time. Each of the guns come with their various strengths and weaknesses. The Machine Gun, for instance, is great for fighting enemies from far away since it's harder for them to injure you from long distances, but not so much when fighting them up close since their accuracy will be higher. The Shotgun, on the other hand, is great for fighting enemies up close since it often kills them in one shot, but is less effective when fighting them from far away since your accuracy will be reduced. For one last example, the Crank Gun is incredibly strong, but it runs out of ammo pretty quickly. It's best to save it for fighting Patriots since they carry ammo for that gun. Though limiting the amount of guns you can carry is certainly unique to the franchise, I wasn't a big fan of that feature. Since there was no way to know what kinds of enemies you'd be up against and which weapons they'd use, it often came down to a guessing game in terms of hoping you'd select the right weapon. When I arrived to a firefight with an insufficient weapon, it didn't seem like it was my fault since whether or not I was properly equipped came down to a matter of luck. For this reason, I found the fights with the stronger enemies in the game (the Handymen, Firemen, Crows, Patriots, and the Beasts) to be a mixed bag and I much preferred fighting the stronger enemies in the prior BioShock games. As a whole though, I think the gameplay works really well and, while I wasn't impressed with every innovation brought to the table, it definitely upgraded significantly from what was in the prior BioShock games.

As stated earlier, a great deal of praise this game has received has gone to its story. It begins as a rumination on colonialism and details how, behind the utopian outward appearance of Columbia, a dark underbelly of white nationalism exists all throughout the city, with how black people and other minority races were brought into the city and made the lower class by being exploited with cheap labor and menial jobs. Vignettes of minority races working these jobs can be seen as you play through the game. The way this theme is handled, however, is likely to frustrate some people. Halfway into it, the colonialism themes are dropped in favor of the interdimensional themes and the focus shifts mostly to Elizabeth. Though this is a questionable decision, I didn't have a problem with it for two reasons. Firstly, I think the colonialism themes escalated to a proper climax and resolution before they were dropped, so I think the game picked the right time to shift focus. Secondly, I found the interdimensional themes in the second half more interesting than the bloaty colonialism themes in the first half since many of the colonialism scenes just served to restate the central premise that minorities are treated poorly in the city without expanding upon it.

In regards to the interdimensional themes, I've seen that aspect receive a great deal of praise over the years. Though I saw a walkthrough of this game when it came out, I had mostly forgotten about the ending sequence and I wondered if it would live up to its reputation. I can't say much about the story in the second half without spoiling it, but I love the presentation of it and I think it hits its marks really well. As the second half rolls along and portrays more and more surreal bits, the game edges you slowly and slowly into the abyss. It's easy to be caught off guard by the ending sequence once it starts and, by the time the game ended, I hardly even knew how I got to such a state. Yet, after pondering over the significance of the story, I understood that it was the only true ending the game could've had. I've seen some people bring up some plot holes with the ending, but that's a discussion I'm not interested in. While I'll believe people when they say there are plot holes with the timeline, the game fell into my general realm of believability.

Overall, Bioshock: Infinite proves to be an innovative and compelling addition to the BioShock franchise. I wasn't impressed with every new gameplay feature and story element, and I'm not sure if this is my favorite BioShock game, but, all things considered, I'd say it did its job quite phenomenally. Director Ken Levine was definitely attempting to add something unique to the franchise and, for the most part, he succeeded at that, masterfully so in most cases.
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IMDb
Letterboxd



Finally finished the game and all I'm gonna say is What. A. Ride.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Just came to say that my ps4, which hadn’t been hooked up since 4.4.20, immediately cried for an update...before it was connected to the internet.

A real-life 👻 in tha masheen or an internal update clock?



there's a frog in my snake oil
Just came to say that my ps4, which hadn’t been hooked up since 4.4.20, immediately cried for an update...before it was connected to the internet.

A real-life 👻 in tha masheen or an internal update clock?
When you're out of the room it does this...

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here



there's a frog in my snake oil
I came here to say that Elite tricked me into buying another space ship.

They gave away cosmetics currency over Xmas, just for logging in.

I stayed logged in, and now own a 'Gunship' which uses nothing but pink machine guns :/




has anyone played shadow of tomb raider yet cause its free on ps+. i know i already have it on xbox with my other tomb raider games so i decied to download it on the ps4 same with rise of tomb raider :P its annoying when u cant remember few things on it when u already finnished it on the xbox lol



We've gone on holiday by mistake
Tetris Effect on the Xbox Gamepass (UK anyways). Been wanting to try this for a while. It's quite an experience, especially with headphones on.

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That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
For those of you with a PS5, did Sony fix the video capture issue that was on the PS4 where if you record gameplay, the recording or playback of that recording skips a second or two every 10 to 20 seconds of play? I've lost so many clips where the clip just skips mid conversation, mid-fight, mid-anything. Still exists even now, at the end of its life cycle. I would hope that is not the case with the new gen. Can anyone confirm?
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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear



Took advantage of the Steam winter sale. Bought Death of the Outsider, Rage 2 and Portal. Rage 2 crashes every 5 seconds, so that's out for the foreseeable future. Playing Death of the Outsider now. I'm not sure why I didn't pick it up sooner considering Dishonored is one of my favorite game series, but better late than never. There's just nothing like a great stealth focused game. As for Portal, I played a small portion of it years ago and just couldn't get into it. Thought, what the hell it's relatively cheap so I'll buy it and give it another go. I hear nothing but great things about it, maybe this time I'll get the hype.



For those of you with a PS5, did Sony fix the video capture issue that was on the PS4 where if you record gameplay, the recording or playback of that recording skips a second or two every 10 to 20 seconds of play? I've lost so many clips where the clip just skips mid conversation, mid-fight, mid-anything. Still exists even now, at the end of its life cycle. I would hope that is not the case with the new gen. Can anyone confirm?
i dont have a clue i dont use my ps5 much but i know u can watch the youtube videos to see if people had same problem as u or google and my ps5 is in the box in the shelf. im using my ps4 pro at the moment but today was my 1st time cleaning my ps4 pro and took me 2 hours to clean it D=



there's a frog in my snake oil
EDIT: Whoops wrong thread! But sod it, posted it now

I love that someone made this in 2018. But damn is it niche...



Apparently the hand sculpting isn’t super naturalistic, but hey there’s a story-challenge mode, and you can 3D print your designs



I have been mainly just mainlining the battlefield carnage of War Dust and dodging the P2W of War Thunder through semi-cunning tactics (ahhh, leave aircraft to repair for free, okayyy).

Also tried this though, and it is good semi-sweaty fun. ‘Bullet Dodge’ is actually a very cool VR genre



Having the little human interactions is cool too. Seeing opponents’ ranged responses from tiny child rage quit (gesticulating then tearing off the helmet ), to sedate bows and respect fist bumps across the arena was also kinda fun



Took advantage of the Steam winter sale. Bought Death of the Outsider, Rage 2 and Portal. Rage 2 crashes every 5 seconds, so that's out for the foreseeable future. Playing Death of the Outsider now. I'm not sure why I didn't pick it up sooner considering Dishonored is one of my favorite game series, but better late than never. There's just nothing like a great stealth focused game. As for Portal, I played a small portion of it years ago and just couldn't get into it. Thought, what the hell it's relatively cheap so I'll buy it and give it another go. I hear nothing but great things about it, maybe this time I'll get the hype.
Portal is worth playing through, although short and more bare-bones than the sequel. I think Portal 2 is a masterpiece, with a ton more character and intrigue beyond the puzzles. It was the first sort of on-foot puzzle game that I'd ever played, and made enough of an impression to have me force feed it to my FPS-centric friends at the time. Portal Stories: Mel is good too (harder puzzles, weaker writing from what I remember).