So lots of people making a quick stop in France first before heading to
blighty. If only there were a montary, trade, and standards union to which
the UK belonged that could simplify both travel and commerce.

Play:
--=--

Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing (DS) - Face buttons to control the pedals?
I guess it's not really violating the spirit of any sort of simulation
since this isn't realistic car racing. Also, even on the larger 3DS system
there's no analogue input support, not that it makes much of a difference
when your speed options are 'full tilt' or 'slightly less full tilt' for
every racer. It's a really nice port of the more complex console/PC
version, and suggests speed and scale in different ways that are suitable
for the handheld screens. This really deserves a Switch remake. I also
bought the Wii and PS3 versions for no logical reason.

Cotton Reboot (PS4/Switch) - It's very nice, much more danmaku than I
expected. I did not expect there to be a faithful rendering of the old
JPN-region home computer version as well as the remastered/redrawn version
both on the cart there, and that's very good from a preservation
perspective since we only know this game in the west originally from its
somewhat uncommon TurboGrafx version. It's not a surprise that the older
game is somewhat less forgiving and more skill-based than the newer one,
although they're both beautiful to look at.

Dariusburst EX+ Another Chronicle (PS4/Switch) - Another one of those
'this is the last one and we really mean it this time) in the long history
of JPN-region shooters. I missed this one when it got a Vita release, so
I'm very glad to have it in hand now for a modern system even though I
think I've accidentally bought it twice. Strictly Limited is selling an
EU-region one with G-Darius on the same media in a package with a slightly
different title, so it'll be interesting to see how that gets sorted on
the two systems's game selection screens. Anyway, this is impossible to
play on the Switch Lite because it's emulating the full arcade experience
which shows you two 16:9 screens next to each other, so you get thick
black bars above and below that makes everything too freaking tiny. The
music is just as great as I remember though, and as I write this I'm
weighing whether it's worth the $200 and change to get the limited edition
PS4 one with a soundtrack and all sorts of extra crap I don't have room
for.

Spec Ops The Line (PC) - Finally made time for this briefly on Sunday. I
stink at the realistic military shooters because I just don't get enough
feedback about whether I'm doing well or doing poorly, and usually I die
without a full understanding of when I got hit, or how hard. Spec Ops The
Line is no exception, and while I know there's a really nice narrative
waiting for me in here I get the sense that I may just end up playing this
by watching the cutscenes on Youtube.

Phantasy Star Universe Ambition of the ILluminus (PC) - Deep into the
fifth chapter, and I didn't recall that so much of this decade-old game
was so accidentally prescient. Dissident group that's unjustly distrustful
of the government and willing to bowl over normal people to overthrow it?
Mysterious virus that doesn't afflict everyone equally and that isn't
being taken seriously by a jaded and weary public? Centuries of racism
that still impact political relationships even though everybody pretends
things are fine? If you set aside how wooden and strained the writing is,
it's honestly shocking how much this fictional world mirrors our own
looping, repeating history.

Want:
--=--

A Vita lite (Vita) - I have attempted to order one. We shall see if my
attempt bears fruit, as the seller seems to have some confident in being
able to source one from Japan at no great markup.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing game-related.

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

Balance forward - $3,199

Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing (DS) - $10
Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing (Wii) - $12
Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing (PS3) - $18
Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed (3DS) - $10
Cotton Reboot (Switch) - $40
Cotton Reboot (PS4) - $40
Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX+ (PS4) - $40
Dariusburst EX+ Chronicle Another (Switch) - $40
Darius Cozmic Revelation (PS4) - $70

Total year-to-date - $3,479

-KKC, who will be stupidly busy at work this week.
--
-- "People with happy families don't become spies. A bad | kendrick
childhood is the perfect background for covert ops. You | @
don't trust anyone. You're used to getting smacked around, | io-nyc
and you never get homesick." - Michael Westen, /Burn Notice/ | .com

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

> Play:

Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 (PS4) - finished the story. The story
missions weren't very good overall, I mean Lego Marvel 1 did have meh
story missions and Lego Avengers got pretty panned generally but I
feel like most (not all) of the missions in this were actually worse
than both - it was just too reliant on boss battles and not enough of
those were good ones. Still, at least the (more or less) city sandbox
wasn't bad.

> Want:

To play Lego Marvel 2's DLC levels at some point (the DLC bundle being
the version I got on sale), but probably not soon. The story levels
proper seemed pretty DLC-like much of the time, so I hate to think how
the actual DLC levels are.

Funnily enough, having been back to Lego Marvel 2, now I want to get
back to Lego Star Wars 2 again. :-)

> Bin:

Lego Marvel 2's pseudo-Egypt level having indestructable little
spiders everywhere and forcing you to ride what was probably a giant
scarab. Not a big fan of that one.

-Rus.

On 9 Aug 2021 at 00:53:32 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
<kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

> Play:
> --=--

> Spec Ops The Line (PC) - Finally made time for this briefly on Sunday.

IIRC the subversive bit is about 15 hours in, so balance that against
your time.

> it's honestly shocking how much this fictional world mirrors our own
> looping, repeating history.

'History repeats. It has to, no-one listens the first time'

Breath of the Wild (WiiU->CEMU->PC) - Haven't had a lot of gaming energy
this last week, so I've only got to twelve of the thirteen hearts needed
to go for the Master Sword. Haven't done a second Divine Beast yet
either, but hitting a lot of the non-town points of interest with their
specialist shops and the like.

Alto's Odyssey (Apple Arcade, Macs) - they've bugfixed the input issues
on the Mac release, so I've got to the new area. It's pretty. Wheee
sandsurfing.

Neko Atsume or rather Cat Collector (Apple Arcade) - the Neko Atsume I
bought years ago has been retitled and I don't like the new title. Seems
to have some new cats though.

You Must Build A Boat (iThings) - one of my top three match three games.
Turns out that NG+++++++ was a bit too hard for me to progress, so I've
started a new save which is soooo easy! Amazing.

> Want:
> --=--

To get back into refettling my Amigas. I've got a few PCB things to
build (convert the A1000 to bootable kickstart chips, bump the A2000 to
a 2meg Agnus, a pile of PiStorms), a bunch of software to update (the
RGBtoHDMI devices, the working PiStorms are a couple of months behind)
and a bunch of things to configure (once updated, the PiStorms will be
able to supply networking to the Amiga, shared Pi folder with the Amiga,
and the RTG graphics needs updating).

> Bin:
> -==-

Feeling so much like I'm a pile of damp towels.

Cheers - Jaimie

--
If C gives you enough rope to hang yourself, then C++
gives you enough rope to bind and gag your
neighborhood, rig the sails on a small ship, and still
have enough rope to hang yourself from the yardarm.
-- The UNIX-HATERS Handbook