What are you playing? (games)

[juansolo]

Yeah PS2 and original Xbox are particularly cheap, it's not rare for me to get 10 games for less than a tenner. 360 and PS3 are only slightly more expensive with the games usually rolling in at a few pounds each. Wii ain't bad, it's a little more for some of the more rare items. Wii U is already starting to climb in price though. It seems everyone's already pegged that as the next 'collectors' platform. Thankfully there's only two games left I want on that.

In the disc based software, there's some big money items in the Saturn and Neo Geo CD camp, which is annoying as a few of them I want at coming in at £100-150 and I'm just not willing to pay that (highest I'll go for a single game disc based game is £50). For that I fall back on piracy, because quite frankly I'm not lining the pockets of the price gougers. Where possibly I do buy the games on Virtual Console and what have you so at least the publisher/developer actually gets a slice. But I have no qualms in pirating stuff they'll never see a penny from that people are running up the price of.

Cartridge stuff is just stupid and the reason that all my cart based consoles run flash cards. I got most of the things I wanted on cart on the SNES, but it was grabbing those last few like Chrono Trigger and the like. Bare carts going for £100... So I originally bought them on the Virtual Console for the Wii. But it's not the same so I got the flash card instead so I could play it on original hardware (and play fan translations and MSU-1 stuff). As soon as I got it I sold up all my carts. I only something like 4 left out of a draw full now.

Space and convenience also plays a large part in this to be fair, and the kit itself already takes up a huge amount of it.

[chromesphere]

Wii U is already starting to climb in price though. It seems everyone's already pegged that as the next 'collectors' platform. Thankfully there's only two games left I want on that.

Funny you say that John. I'm not heavily into the retro game scene but when I very rarely read peoples comments online about the wii u I only seem to see negativity and an accompanying full list of reasons why its so bad...but when I play mine with my son we have a riot and to be brutally honest with you, I see very little difference between it and James' Switch (apart from improved portability and a few minor things of course).  I've been saying to my wife, despite what I hear people say I have no doubt it will be collectible.  It went totally unnoticed and once some time passes and people look past the social noise and appreciate the system for what it is, the demand will climb.  I'm glad I have 90% of the games for that system also, while they are available!

[juansolo]

The Wii U was easily my favourite platform of it's time. So many really, really good exclusive games, Wii backwards compatibility (I never had one), means I've got tonnes I run in it. It reminds me of the Dreamcast in that there wasn't a lot out for it, but what was out was really good. Quality over quantity.

But people didn't buy it because it didn't have the 3rd party support, which I didn't really understand. Who buys a Nintendo to play COD?!

[Govmnt_Lacky]

The Wii U was easily my favourite platform of it's time. So many really, really good exclusive games, Wii backwards compatibility (I never had one), means I've got tonnes I run in it. It reminds me of the Dreamcast in that there wasn't a lot out for it, but what was out was really good. Quality over quantity.

But people didn't buy it because it didn't have the 3rd party support, which I didn't really understand. Who buys a Nintendo to play COD?!

I agree about the Wii U. My son and I played Disney Infinity almost daily for quite a while. That was such a great game and idea. No idea why they decided to stop designing for it. We still play very often.

[juansolo]

The Wii U was easily my favourite platform of it's time. So many really, really good exclusive games, Wii backwards compatibility (I never had one), means I've got tonnes I run in it. It reminds me of the Dreamcast in that there wasn't a lot out for it, but what was out was really good. Quality over quantity.

But people didn't buy it because it didn't have the 3rd party support, which I didn't really understand. Who buys a Nintendo to play COD?!

I agree about the Wii U. My son and I played Disney Infinity almost daily for quite a while. That was such a great game and idea. No idea why they decided to stop designing for it. We still play very often.

It just wasn't selling. I honestly put that down to the controller just bumping up the price of the thing massively. It's a brilliant thing when it's utilised right, don't get me wrong. But part of me thinks that if it'd just had the standard pro controller (which I stand by to be the best controller ever designed) and was £100 cheaper, they'd have sold tonnes more.

The irony of course is that because the Switch is selling so well, they're just porting all the top Wii U games to it anyhow. 90% of the catalogue appears to be them, and people are raving about them. So it's not like the games were bad! Shame that I have no interest in a portable and re-buying games I already own at full price or I'd get one.

Nintendo are a weird company sometimes. I like that they always try to innovate, but sometimes I just want a games console to play games on...

[alanp]

I saw an interesting video by Jim Sterling, who reckoned that the Wii U never sold hugely due to confusion on the part of consumers over what it was supposed to be.

Was it a handheld, a lounge game machine, the new Wii, or what?

[chromesphere]

Id go one step further on that Alan and say wat is a wii u? First time id seen one in action and worked out wat the hell it was, was only at the start of this year! Really poor marketing. They shouldnt have called it wii u as well. I no they were trying to cash in on the wiis success but i think it only added to the confusion

[selfdestroyer]

WHats sad is I am a console collector and Nintendo's marketing was so bad I even thought the Wii U was just a tablet upgrade for the Wii.. It was out maybe a year before I realized it was a separate console. It was one of the worse marketing launches I lived through. All it would have taken is a new name and it would have sold much better IMHO. I softmodded mine and tossed a external HDD on it and loaded just the Nintendo published exclusives. Works great for when the nephews come over.

Cody

[somnif]

WHats sad is I am a console collector and Nintendo's marketing was so bad I even thought the Wii U was just a tablet upgrade for the Wii.. It was out maybe a year before I realized it was a separate console. It was one of the worse marketing launches I lived through. All it would have taken is a new name and it would have sold much better IMHO. I softmodded mine and tossed a external HDD on it and loaded just the Nintendo published exclusives. Works great for when the nephews come over.

Cody

And, to make matters even better, just like EVERY recent Nintendo launch, they had extreme "shortages" upon release, and for months afterwards. Seriously, they've used that excuse so often that its starting to sound like they're crying wolf every time I hear it.

[alanp]

One explanation I've heard is that Nintendo are approaching it from a toymaker's perspective, not a gaming company's perspective.

If you're selling toys, you deliberately understock and overcharge. It makes it sought after -- every generation has had THAT toy... you wanted to be the first kid in your social circle to have objet X, and lord it over everyone else... "Okay, you can play with it for a moment... IF..."

If you're selling computer games, saturate the market. It's as much a social as an antisocial experience, these days. People talk about how far they've got through the campaign, or bullshit about how they got twenty headshots in a row last night, etc... the only people who get rich from deliberately understocking computer games are the scalpers.

[flanagan0718]

I bought this game a while ago for xbox and missed it when my system shit the bed. It was on sale on the PSN over the weekend for $4.50 so i had to get it again. It uses the D-pad and 2 buttons (run and jump), that's it. Hours or fun (hatred and frustration)!!!

[juansolo]

New gaming related build: Neo Geo arcade stick.

[selfdestroyer]

Love the color scheme and the ground bus!

[stringsthings]

Having a good time playing Xcom 2 with the "War of the Chosen" expansion/mod.
It's really quite a different experience than the vanilla version ( which I did enjoy ).
It's more like Xcom 2.5.   Wasn't cheap ($39), but I'm getting my money's worth.
Xcom 2 is about the only game I've paid full price for ( on release date ).

Any other Xcommer's out there?

[chromesphere]

New gaming related build: Neo Geo arcade stick.

Cool John, never would have thought of using a hammond enclosure, whats the size?  Is that a Seimitsu joystick?

Im building this for James at the moment, lord knows he deserves it after the sh!t he's been through last few months.  (He's doing well, life has returned to normal, he's walking and nearly able to run).  I will post some more photos when its finished, still have to install the plexiglass, paint it and controller board.