I was super into arcade coin-op games back in 2005. I had a converted "Centipede" cabinet that I painted black. I replaced the monitor with a wells gardner and the joysticks with new Happs ones. The JAMMA board in the cabinet when i got it was Street Fighter II. I was new to this and had the cabinet with just SF2 for about 2 years or so. Then I found out that you could swap out the JAMMA board and it was ON! I bought so many JAMMA boards off of eBay along with the marquees - it became a passion. I had an acrylic template that I would use to size up the marquee for my cabinet and take it to a specialty company here in town that would cut the marquee down to size. Fun times! Sold the arcade machine and my Black Knight 2000 pinball machine to a fellow in Oklahoma who was converting his garage to an arcade room.

That's some quality cheap entertainment right there...

https://i.redd.it/h1kv7v4klk881.jpg

So Playstation direct is offering Nioh Collection for the PS5 for $39.99. I have the PS4 version of Nioh that I got on Playstation Plus for free and I have Nioh 2 which upgraded to the PS5 version. I know the PS5 Nioh Collection comes with all the DLC. Has anyone who has played them provide whether it's worth getting or should I just stick with what I got?

Monster Rancher 1 and 2 released on steam last week. I'm addicted all over again. I wasn't super pumped about the $30 price tag but my OG copy wasn't going to last much longer anyway.

wife picked up Just Cause 4 for me as a stocking stuffer; she bought it on a whim as it was on sale for like $9 and figured I could use a new (new to me) game to occupy me in the doldrums of winter.

never heard of it or played it; haven't played it yet. anyone have thoughts on it?

That's like 600 hours of gameplay there. LOL

Launch Trailer for Deep Rock on PS is pretty ****ing hype.

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I finished halo and outriders. Good games now playing division 2. I also play heat project cars and rfacor and asseto corsa

Its totally worth ****ing around with, and even modding if you are on PC. Lots of shenanigans to be had and just a good time for a while messing about and not even doing the story.

Today's the day PS peeps. Don't forget to grab Deep Rock Galactic for free.

I have been on an Outer Wilds bender since Christmas. Wow, what a great game!

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If you haven't played it, correct that ;)
Do NOT Google anything... don't ruin it. This is a masterwork in exploration and discovery.

Metroid Dread is a great game and a cool throwback to old school side scrollers. No easy mode so it felt like an accomplishment to finally get the last boss down. Took me a few hours and a few choice words but I finally got his ass.

I would have been all over it for $40 or less. I can't justify dropping $60 for a sub 10 hour game, when we live in the age of Hollow Knight (this game is a god damn masterpiece) for $15 and 25 hours of gameplay.

Yeah, Dread looks cool. But I'll definitely wait until it's on sale. Really hard to justify that for $60.

I’m usually with you but Metroid brings back so much nostalgia for me that I paid full price. I’ll get more than my money’s worth though because I’ll play through it at least a few more times.

Hell yeah, sorry I don't want to shit on your good time, and definitely want to play it.

I need to check that game out. I got it free one month, but haven't played it yet. It is sitting in my library waiting for me to eventually play.

If you are a fan of metroidvanias (Metroids and Castlevanias of the world), I honestly think it's the greatest of all time. It certainly isn't an easy game, and you'll have to get used to the lack of hand holding especially early on. Stick past the first hour or two and you'll be immensely rewarded.

:eek:
Play it! Play it NOW!! Goddamn masterpiece is putting it mildly. It is the best side-scroller ever, and up there in competition for best video game ever. The hype is real. Not hyperbole :)

Agreed. One of the best games ever and it really felt like an accomplishment when I beat it. Everything about it is truly great.

Did you finish Path of Pain as well? I am convinced it is impossible using a controller. I'm going to try it with mouse & keyboard. I was able to defeat Grimm, Mighty Zote, and The Colosseum, as well as the game itself with a controller, but never could get through Path of Pain. JFC, it is nightmare difficulty platforming that makes Dark Souls look like a Candy Crush. :banghead:

No, I'm not good enough for that.

I did not, but I'll give it a go when I play this game again on my incoming Steam Deck.

Nice; please post your thoughts on the Steam Deck.

I use an Xbox One controller & Steam Link for games that are best suited for controllers rather than M&K. i.e. not a good choice for FPS, but for 2d/third-person/scrollers it is perfect. That way I can take advantage of the big-screen 4k tv & surround sound stereo system. Path of Pain is impossible with the controller...just not precise enough. All the YT vids I've watched w/ people speed running or knocking out PoP w/ additional challenges (like a swarm of Primal Aspids...wtf?!?! why?!?!?!!!!?!), they are using m&k.

Questions. How difficult is this to do? Do you have to have a lot of knowledge/skill or can anyone do it? How much is the cost doing it this way? Is it a lot less or just a little less?

it's not too difficult. you can build easy or complex. My first one I built, I built joysticks and buttons/trackball into a $60 Ikea coffee table.

My most recent one was a bit more complex (a pedestal that you stand at). I'm not very good at woodworking, so I had sheets of plywood cut for me, etc.

From a technical perspective, you can use a $90 rasberry Pi or a computer. The joysticks, etc. - you can go cheap on amazon (40-80 bucks), or you can get upgraded stuff that might run you 200 or so.

There are encoders that you get (some come with the joystick bundles on amazon), but basically, those encoders are taking joystick movements and interpreting them as a keyboard letter or number (joystick left = 'A').

You program all those movements to keyboard letters of numbers (even 'start' or 'coin'), and that's kind of it (outside of collecting the emulators and roms....)

Let me know if you have other questions.

Here's a pic of my pedestal (still tweaking a bit)

That is pretty cool. So let's say I wanted to build a stand up cabinet with.....I dunno.....about 50 games like Tron, Asteroids, Double Dragon, etc. Not including the cabinet materials (I think I could do this part as I'm an adequate carpenter - not great, but adequate), how much do you suppose the total cost would be for the roms and all the rest? Is there a board you can buy that has a lot of those?

Emulators and roms are free (on the internet)......the legality of it is questionable I guess....but they are out there everywhere.

With just controllers, etc....you could probably build one for 200-400 bucks.....if you have an old computer lying around, you can use that for the system/emulators, etc. Rasperry Pi works as well. there are raspberry Pi images floating on the internet that you basically download and put it on an SD card.

amazon sells this that makes it much easier:

https://www.amazon.com/Pandora-Conso...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Be careful where you download roms from, FYI. As someone who's gotten letters from Nintendo regarding downloaded roms, trust me they do watch torrents for those, and will pursue it.

I don't think you need to build anything. I bought my brother one of those 1-up arcade games a couple years ago. he hooked up raspberry pi to that.

yours would be even better because you have 6 button layouts already.

Don't be downloading any of that shit without a VPN, if you're gonna go with emulators, Roms, any thing that is piracy get a VPN or you can get into a world of shit.

if i understand it correctly, it is legal if you own a copy of the game, but yes, very valid advice.

If you're planning on going really deep into the "endgame" of Nioh 2, you have to have the DLC. If you just want to beat the main story and call it a day, you don't need it. It's a pretty good game. I got pretty burnt out on it after the 1st DLC.

Thanks for this. Brings back many memories and I will be buying this tonight.

I appreciate that. Not sure if it was worth it. I might hold off until later and see if I want to go that deep into the story beyond the main storyline.

Steam is having another sale event now until the 3rd of Feb in case anyone is wanting to get some games

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Not really a huge zombie fan but Dying Light is a different animal...2 is out now.

I'm finally getting around to playing AC Odyssey.

The announcement of Sniper Elite 5 being released this year makes me horny.

Yes I've played a little bit of it. So far so good. It'll keep me occupied until Elden Ring.

I wish I could get excited about ER but my history with Souls games is frustrating. I'm just not "gud" enough to do it.

The only one I played was the one in Egypt. Was that Origins? I got a little ways into it but haven't picked it up in a while. My buddy tells me all the time the one I really need to play is Black Flag.

Having a ****ing blast with this Skyrim SE Fellowship of the Ring mod.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspec...ab=description

https://i.imgur.com/G4UsoTf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/oLeZNqi.png

Next, Hobbit and what looks to be a post-LOTR Shire questline.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mod...ab=images&BH=0

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspec...ion/mods/18903

Black Flag was my first foray into the AC series. It was so awesome that I immediately went and played every other title available. Now I'm a rabid AC fan.

It's THAT good.

Yeah I'll pick it up eventually for sure. I used to be a big fan of the Prince of Persia games which is sort of the spiritual predecessor to the AC series.

Odyssey is still my favorite by far. I have heard that some of the AC purists don't like it because it deviates from the original ones in regards to playstyle, but I have played that game for over 100 hours and still love it.

Yeah there are purists with anything like this. Metallica's black album sucked, right?

Media evolves, whether it's music, movies, video games, or anything else. Some people just don't like change.

Is anyone trying out Lost Ark? Feels like Path of Exile but better graphics and PvP availability. I guess it is free to play tomorrow but you could have spent some money to get access already.

It's funny, but I thought the black album was really good. I think a lot of the die hards issues with that album was how mainstream that album was. For a ton of fans that was their first taste of Metallica and for a lot of the old fans they hated those neuveu fans and by proxy the black album because of them.

Got Ghost of Tshumia for Christmas and finally got around to starting it. ****ing amazing.

I'm ready for Horizon Zero Dawn Forbidden West to come out. First game was amazing.

GTA 6 confirmed, with speculation about a 2024 release.

I'm only excited if we can still murder prostitutes.

I've got it pre-ordered. I think I'll need to schedule some PTO.

I also have Gran Turismo 7 on order.

Saw a Chrono Cross remaster announced today as well.

Won't lie, I loved Chrono Cross. If a remake comes to the PS4/PS5 I would definitely jump on it.

Obviously a few years late to the party, but I just wrapped up the first one yesterday.

I really enjoyed it initially, but after a while it just got tedious. Got really sick of all the climbing and getting dogpiled by a dozen lethal monsters at once. And that dogshit melee weapon..... **** that was infuriating. I think I was almost at level 40 before I was able to finally mod the goddamn thing. And how in the hell were there no guns anywhere? That made zero sense.

Still, it was really cool and I enjoyed the story. It was very reminiscent of Elex.

The story was what really drew me into that game - of course the hot and heavy stuff at the end (the older stuff, not the tribal stuff). I thought that stuff was incredible and legit made my jaw drop a few times.

lost ark has been really fun so far. i hit 43 lastnight before i passed out. Ill probably pull an all nighter and hit 50 tonight as i wont be able to play until late evening. I picked the female gunslinger. Fun class, but its not going to be for everyone, she's a fast twitch playing character. YOu get in, deal massive damage and get out asap. lol

I spent about 8 hours exploring the starting island in AC Odyssey - completed all the locations and quests and everything and explored a bit on foot - only to be greeted by the opening credits afterwards. This game is huge. ROFL

I'm full on addicted. It's amazing how an idea can be so simple while being so fun. The replay value is huge due to specific breeds being released only after so many years or so many achievements.

What's also fun is the tourney scene. There are a number of Youtube channels that run viewer/sub tourneys you can enter your monster into. So you can raise a monster in the 1p mode and enjoy just playing the game for a month and then before it retires you can freeze it and upload it to steam for use in tournaments.

Mr.Moosebones runs tourneys and does the play by play like he's Romo or something. He's got an amazing dry humor and a genuinely nice guy.

It's also a game you can enjoy with your kids or grandkids.

Dying light 2 is amazing but buggy, over 500 hours of story and side missions fully voiced....good stuff.

Love the fact it has a lot more human factions and less zombies as I'm kinda zombied out and the parkour is amazing..has my palms sweaty at times. :)

Lost Ark starts out good then the fetch quests get kinda boring, it IS a Korean MMO after all. It's done pretty well but makes my fingers hurt after a bit, I'll play it from time to time but really waiting for Last Epoch to get coop then i'm going to jump into that. I always thought POE was ugly and I don't pvp.

Odyssey was easily my favorite one. I put a lot of time into that one. The sailing part of the game is a blast.

I wasn’t joking when I said that I played over 100 hours on it. Game is huge. Wait till you start slaughtering forts, fighting conquest battles (and to a point naval battles) because you can, and hunting down mercenaries higher on the food chain from you, again because you can. Or fighting 3-4 mercenaries at the same time because you have maxed out your bounty. When you get to it, a great time is killing soldiers in Athens and watching your bounty skyrocket. You will fight civilians, soldiers, and mercenaries all at the same time. It’s a grand massacre at your hands. Great times.

LOL, yeah by the end of my last AC:Odyssey playthrough I was a walking god. I don't remember how many hours it took but it was bonkers. I had a bunch of fire based gear, and I could just mow through crowds. Regenerating health, and burning more bitches than the Catholic church.

Oh yeah, you get the whole Agamemnon set along with the Hades Bow you became a walking agent of death on the battlefield. I also added fire damage to the Atlantean dagger or a Dagger of Kronus with fire damage on it and I was destroying mercenaries much, much higher level than I. Just hit them a couple of times, watch them light on fire and dodge their attacks while they burn. Wash, rinse, repeat. I would also speed the process up some by using a maxed out Hero Strike.

LMAO LMAO

finished Diablo 2 resurrected last night.

Really enjoyed it. I had played Diablo 3, but never the original Diablo 2......and found it quite a fun ride.

D3 doesn't hold a candle to D2 but i'm over it. Played it for 10 years so i'm fairly bored with it now.

I'm quite sure I'll put more than 100 hours into it. I very rarely use fast travel in open world games, for one. Plus I'm a meticulous completionist.

I spent almost 1000 hours on Dragon Age Inquisition, for example.

That was one of my favorites in the series as far as gameplay is concerned. Did you choose Alexios or Kassandra?

I'm not a completionist whatsoever and I still probbaly put 100 hours into that one. It's huge. And someone mentioned the ships/sailing, I agree that it was awesome in Odyssey, even though I pretty much always hate ship missions in AC.

Aw, man, Origins might be my favorite of the series. The setting is awesome and Bayek quickly became my favorite assassin, the voice actor was ****ing incredible.

Purists don't like the new AC games: Origins, Odyssey or Valhalla. They claim it's too RPG-y and they seem to hate the fact that Desmond's modern day storyline has concluded.

It took me probably 10-20 hours for the game to truly grip me, but once it did, I loved the game. Ted Faro was a real ****ing asshole.

Speaking of, I may have mentioned it here already, but a couple months back I completed AC: Valhalla. That one was easily the worst game in the series, IMO. I was extremely disappointed.

PS Store had AC: Unity on sale for $8 right around the time I finished Valhalla. I'd never played Unity because it was reportedly a glitchy mess, but they say it's actually much better now that it's patched. I wanted to get that shitty taste of Valhalla out of my mouth so hopefully Unity helps.

Alexios.

The purists have pretty much hated everything after the completion of AC2 storyline as you said. Black Flag doesn't have enough modern day. Unity was bug-riddled at launch, etc.

I personally have loved them all, in different ways. I recently played AC3 remastered and it is a great game. I love Unity because I waited a few months for them to sort out the bugs. I'm actually thankful that they have minimized the modern day stuff - there's nothing more jarring than being yanked out of the immersion of the historical sim so that you can wander around and read books.

Now that I think about it, I'm all ****ed up. The order I've played these games:

AC 2
AC: Brotherhood
AC
AC: Origins
AC: Odyssey
AC: Valhalla

I'm about to play Unity next. I've only randomly played AC 3 (at a friend's house), Revelations (borrowed from a fiend but never finished) and Freedom Cry (it's downloaded via PS Plus but I let my subscription lapse).

I haven't played Rogue or Syndicate at all.

Depending on my experience with Unity, I might end up burning through the rest of the series to catch up on what I missed.

Bro, **** the modern day storylines! It was semi interesting with Desmond but anytime Layla pulls me out I get so annoyed.

Rogue is a great game. It's essentially the same formula as BF but with the additional intrigue of being on the "other side". I loved it.

Syndicate is a great game in it's own right.

I'm sure they're both good games.

After having played Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, though all great in their own right, I am a bit eager to get back to the more dense cities with rooftop parkour.

If that's the case, you'll love Unity. Paris is a brilliant setting.

Not sure what was up with Valhalla, but I never even finished that one. Something was missing with it.

Thank you! Idk what it was either but I didn't like the way it felt/looked literally from the very beginning. Now that I've finished the main storyline, I realize there were deeper issues than just the look and feel as well.. but, yeah. I got like halfway through and just stopped playing for a while. I forced myself to pick it back up and just grind to the finish line. It was far from enjoyable.