Marks and Spencer no longer sells men's suits? That's absurd. That'd be
like an ASDA no longer selling compact discs, or a Maplin's no longer
selling anything at all.

Play:
--=--

Virtua Fighter 2 (PC) - So the emulated Saturn code from the original 1996
PC release is fine, but it also clearly comes up short. So I went and
installed Yakuza Kiwami 2 *just* so I could have a proper emulation of the
Model 2 code running that I could get to any time I wanted. That's given
me a better appreciation for the other characters that I've neglected over
the years, because I pretty much only ever play as Sarah, Jacky, or
sometimes Akira when I want to feel inadequate. I've found a new
appreciation for Lau's moveset, especially now that a lot of the Chinese
propaganda from the last century has been decoded and demystified. We
understand now that a lot of 'traditional' Chinese things since WWII were
invented out of whole cloth for the purpose of making China seem more
capable and wealthy than it was for most of the 20th century. The crap
they passed off as Chinese medicine comes to mind, which we now understand
was a way of making up for the fact that China didn't have modern
pharmaceuticals until very recently. So now that we know that kung fu is
a more contemporary invention than China was letting on, a lot of Lau's
weirdly anachronistic spins and low attacks make much more sense to me.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PC) - I guess I might as well play this while I'm here.
I'm dragging my feet in the second chapter where Kiryu visits Sotenbori,
just before he has that initial encounter with the young Ryuji Goda. I had
forgotten that Kiwami 2 makes you jump through a few extra hoops to get
the street-level combat allies unlocked, which is a fun way of providing
more entertainment without deviating from the original story. I'm not sure
if I'm going to play through this again for real, given that this is just
an excuse to have the arcades there.

Sonic R (PC) - Hee. This is one of the terrible budget releases that has a
homebrew patch to make it work on Windows 10, and then it only *barely*
works. The only real reason to play this anymore is because of the music,
and these days you can mod those tracks back into the other racing games
of your choice at will.

Crazy Taxi (PC/PC) - Speaking of games that require mods to run. There's
a bug in the Steam release that makes the analog control not work, in that
the dead zone in the center of the stick is spaced wrong. So any slight
movement gives you full lock left or right and no incremental steering in
the middle in any way. A fix was *just* released earlier in August that
actually solves the problem, rather than intercepting the input and
dropping the correct signal into the game only eight out of every ten
polling intervals. I also compared it to the original DVD release from
2003, which has exactly the same problem and no reliable fix.

Want:
--=--

All my Evercade games (Evercade) - They're on the way. Supposedly the
handful I ordered direct from the UK will arrive today/Monday, but I ain't
holding my breath.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing game-related.

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

Balance forward - $3,632

Mega Cat Studios Vol 2 (Evercade) - $20
Codemasters Vol 1 (Evercade) - $20
Sebastian Loeb Rally EVO (Steam) - $5
Sega Dreamcast Collection (Steam) - $5

Total year-to-date - $3,682

-KKC, who doesn't actually know anything about British retail.
--
-- "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

On 30 Aug 2021 at 02:15:45 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
<kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

> Marks and Spencer no longer sells men's suits? That's absurd. That'd be
> like an ASDA no longer selling compact discs, or a Maplin's no longer
> selling anything at all.

My localish ASDA still sells writeable CDs, bemusingly.

> Play:
> --=--

Breath of the Wild (WiiU->CEMU/PC) - Just noodling around this last
week, no story progress but a lot of ground covered including nailing
the most dangerous tower in the game, and the big maze. Though there's a
DLC chest in there I haven't found yet so I need to go back.

Katrielle Layton Goes Places And Eats Things (Switch) - Katrielle ought
to be spherical, but she is a metabolic sport who is stick thin despite
continuous snacking and fine dining. The bad dog puns are getting to me,
they're very low quality.

Beat Sabre (VR PC) - I have been under the weather again and have had no
more personal bests. Siiiigh.

And something new!

Psychonauts 2 (PC/PS4) - got both platforms being a not-kickstarter
backer from way back. This is - pleasingly - *excellent*. The 3d 3rd
person platforming is a little ropy, as it always is, but that's covered
by good checkpointing (although a Prince of Persia style
rescue-by-princess (or perhaps bacon-addicted-psychic-old-man) every
time you fall would have been more fun). The atmosphere is perfect. The
scripting is splendid. I have no negative things to say about this game,
and if you enjoyed the original game at all, you should definitely be in
for this one.
Note that the interstitial short game Rhombus of Ruin is the direct link
between leaving the psychic summer camp of Whispering Rock at the end of
P1 and the in media res start of P2, so definitely play that too. First.

> Want:
> --=--

The Linkle mod for BotW to come out, it's due September. It's a full
character/motion/script-changes mod to use the Linkle character from
Hyrule Warriors in place of Link.

> Bin:
> -==-
>
> Nothing game-related.

Yerp.

> -KKC, who doesn't actually know anything about British retail.

That's okay. We don't either, as long as there's still tea.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"If you can't make fun of it, it's probably not worth taking seriously"
-- http://survivingtheworld.net/Lesson494.html

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

> Play:

Lego Star Wars 2 (PSP) - a bit more of this.

> Want:

Psychonauts 2 apparently. Somewhen. Though it would mean giving
Microsoft money more directly than usual.

> Bin:

Finally trying the unlocking cheat on Outrun 2006 (PSP) to get that
music track bought without needing a PS2 link... then having a
facepalm moment when I remembered I had it unlocked already. The
problem was/is the game blocking me from actually buying it. Bah.

-Rus.