Topic: What is your most recent gaming purchase?

[NWR_insanolord]

I just bought a replacement 3DS for myself because my current one's B button isn't responsive. If you push it really hard it works, but I've died enough times in Super Mario Maker from failing to jump when I pressed the button that I couldn't take it anymore. I bought the exact same model I have now, New 3DS XL, even the same color. I got it refurbished from Nintendo's online store, since it's cheaper and a friend of mine has been very happy with systems he purchased from there.

[oohhboy]

Does a keyboard count? I brought one of those nice Apple KB and it is quite good. It is so nice in fact I want type more on it. Typing typing typing.

I also got a PS4 controller and it works great too. I real pro purchase if you own a Mac as it works natively. Almost any good game will work through it with zero fuss through Steam or it's own config. For games that don't work with it directly you just need a key reassignment config app.

Also brought Neon Chrome. Violent Ends Have Violent Delights.

[lolmonade]

I got a little frustrated with Nintendo's ongoing decision to slowly drip NES Classic Editions.  After doing some research, I ran across a project to use a raspberry pi chipset and micro SD card to create a tiny little emulation computer for classic games, backed by a software called retropie.


Got the parts delivered to me last week, spent yesterday evening with the retropie software installation and set up on the raspberry pi.  I consider myself "know enough to be dangerous" territory for software/hardware modifications, but more on the end of fumbling and making mistakes before getting to the final product.


That said, setup and installation wasn't very hard, after correcting a few self-inflicted mistakes that made me start over.  Once you get the retropie software itself up and running on the hardware, transferring of actual roms are really painless if you have a USB stick.  Within a 2 hour window, i've gotten it running and was able to confirm the Sega Genesis roms I loaded on it worked fine.


Didn't notice any lag issues, although some websites have users claiming they had to tweak theirs to fix theirs.  I'll be loading more games on it over the next few days and seeing how they run, as well as getting a better case and some usb controllers in the mail, but overall, neat project which'll act as a nice way to play a lot of classic games since Nintendo wasn't able to stock enough for me to pick up the official article.

[ejamer]

Christmas is the time for board games!  Picked up several games on sale:
* Merchants of Venus 2nd Edition (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/131646),
* Samarkand: Routes to Riches (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/66214),
* Steam Map Expansion #1 (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/93544)
* Wyatt Earp (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/878)


The last one is a gift for my wife, but the others are selfish buys. Looking forward to playing at least a couple of these games over the next couple of weeks.

[Wah]

Like Board Games hah? You should try the JackBox Party Pack! It's a collection of heaps of board/party games on steam, cool thing is only one person needs the game, the rest can use phones,tablets and over computers as  controllers! It's a cool idea.


Also Smart Ass is pretty fun.

[ejamer]

Yes indeed, big fan of board games.

Sadly, I have no decent way to play Steam games.  When I'm ready for a new video gaming "system", it will most likely be something that can play low end games... Humble Bundle has already helped me to build up a significant library of Steam games that I'd like to play eventually, at this point I'm just missing the hardware.


That said, I much prefer playing face-to-face with some friends, food, and drinks in the same room anyway. So physical board games are a pretty sweet deal for me.

[Wah]

It's called skype or discord!

[BranDonk Kong]

PS4 Pro. It's pretty awesome. The Last of Us looks amazing running in native 4K (even if it's 30FPS...using automotion on the TV makes it look like 60FPS) and with HDR.

[oohhboy]

It's not Native 4K. It's upscale.

[ejamer]

It's called skype or discord!

Not the same at all, and especially not on Nintendo consoles (which is what I own).


I don't consider a video chat with my folks over supper to be the same as a shared Christmas dinner. It's a workable compromise in a pinch, but clearly not a preferred situation.
 

[ejamer]

Oh hey!  Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (Wii U) is "out" for anyone who backed early.  Just logged into my account at the WayForward website and found a code waiting to be redeemed.

Despite my reluctance to pay for games that haven't been developed yet, this was one project I really wanted to see fund successfully - and unlike other games that got massively overfunded and had everything unlocked without my support, Shantae isn't a big enough series to get that same treatment so every pledge helped.

My daughter loved the previous games in this series and is excited to hear a new one is coming.  Should be a fun holiday game to burn through. 

[supermario2k]

I found two really old Ms. Pac-Man board games on Amazon. There were three on the site, priced at $29.99 a piece. I bought to and then a day later the price of the third tripled. Good to know I was able to affect the pricing of an amazon collectible item.


Why did I need two? Because I got them for my sisters kids, and I don't trust them to take care of them so I wanted a spare to keep at my house. But if I do that, I might have to get them something else for Christmas.

I should have thought this through.

[azeke]

Used My Nintendo discount on Steamworld Heist and it was also on sale so it was double discount.

Megaman Legacy Collection finally went on sale so i got that.

Around 8 euros for each game.

I booted Megaman and played some Megaman 1 and it's fine, but i wished it had in-game achievements.

Also Winter Steam sale started yesterday i bought The Room 2 (sequel to that cool puzzle game with the box) for 2$:

[BranDonk Kong]

It's not Native 4K. It's upscale.

You are incorrect. The Last of Us runs in 3840*2160, natively. Not upscaled. Check Digital Foundry for PS4 Pro game examples.

[oohhboy]

There is a lot of caveats as the pro is just doesn't have the power.

Reduced Textures
30FPS instead of 60FPS "Locked"
Dynamic resolution
Chequerboard rendering
Normal up scaling aka 1080p
Dropped frames
Zero additional features
Visually simple
Sub variable 60FPS
Poor alpha performance

This is the article you didn't read which is full of those caveats that you likely referencing: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-playstation-4-pro-game-upgrade-guide

3840*2160/60 is 4K and it is something even a Nvidia 1080(They set the bar at "Ultra") can struggle with and that is a $600 card which doesn't include everything else you need for a computer. A $400 box isn't going to do it.

The last of use runs @ 2160p (30fps mode) which is not 4K/60 which is the bar when it comes to gaming, so again, no it isn't 4K. Even you imply it is not 4k.

DF can't seem to make up it's mind whether to use 4K or 2160p for 4K as 2160p implies that the horizontal resolution isn't 4K standard and they call 4k/30 4K which it isn't.

[ejamer]

Christmas gift from my wife:  8Bitdo NES30 Pro controller.  This is pretty cool, and I have a pc-on-a-chip that includes some games that would benefit from a real controller.  (Also opens the door for Mednafen. Not sure if I'll bother trying to get that installed and running... but it's an option.)


Very impressed with the controller. I had read good things from reviews, but this is the first I've seen one firsthand. Feels great, but I haven't had time to actually set it up yet to test.


Hope others enjoyed some Christmas gaming goods too. 

[Stratos]

I got some nice surprises this year. Mario 3D World was the family crowd pleaser, but I also got Hyrule Warriors, NES Remix Collection, and Devils Third on Wii U.


Bought my sister Splatoon, so I spent half of Christmas playing that with her.

[BranDonk Kong]

There is a lot of caveats as the pro is just doesn't have the power.

Reduced Textures
30FPS instead of 60FPS "Locked"
Dynamic resolution
Chequerboard rendering
Normal up scaling aka 1080p
Dropped frames
Zero additional features
Visually simple
Sub variable 60FPS
Poor alpha performance

This is the article you didn't read which is full of those caveats that you likely referencing: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-playstation-4-pro-game-upgrade-guide

3840*2160/60 is 4K and it is something even a Nvidia 1080(They set the bar at "Ultra") can struggle with and that is a $600 card which doesn't include everything else you need for a computer. A $400 box isn't going to do it.

The last of use runs @ 2160p (30fps mode) which is not 4K/60 which is the bar when it comes to gaming, so again, no it isn't 4K. Even you imply it is not 4k.

DF can't seem to make up it's mind whether to use 4K or 2160p for 4K as 2160p implies that the horizontal resolution isn't 4K standard and they call 4k/30 4K which it isn't.

How can you say that the game runs at 4K and that the game does not run at 4K in the same sentence? 3840x2160 is 4K. 30FPS or not, it's still 4K. Period. I have no idea what you're talking about when you say "2160p implies that the horizontal resolution isn't 4K" - 4K (2160p) is 3840x2160 - that is the resolution of every 4K TV, and that is the resolution that The Last of Us runs at, natively. 4K/30 means 3840x2160 @ 30FPS (or at 3200x1800 @ 60FPS, which also looks amazing). No one ever said it would run games at 4K 60FPS (though I'm sure there will be a handful of PSN-type games that do). No one would even expect that from a $400 console - but what you do get is the most powerful home console you can buy right now. It does significantly improve PSVR game performance as well.

[oohhboy]

2160p doesn't tell you the horizontal resolution and they are inconsistent to their use of terminology through out the article.

There is a reason people on PC hate it when a game is locked at 30FPS no matter the resolution, it sucks. On PC 60FPS is the standard. A far as I am concerned 3840*2160/60 is 4K.

[BranDonk Kong]

OK but that's only as far as you're concerned. It's 3840x2160, as I've mentioned, or as you would see if you watched the DF videos you mentioned. This has nothing to do with PC gamers. And are you now going to tell me any game that doesn't run at 60FPS sucks? Ocarina of Time runs at 20 on the N64 (locked). Resident Evil 4 runs at 30 on the GameCube and Wii (locked). GTA5 runs at 30 (locked) on all consoles and looks amazing. PS4 Pro is not a PC. Just admit that 4K is 4K.

[oohhboy]

Nope, running at a low/er FPS was accepted during that time and games were made to accommodate that. Perfect Dark ran at 5FPS with Hi-res mode and I was fine with it back then as that was expected.

The expectations now are different and low frame rates are not accepted. I can't retroactively apply current standards to past games, I can only say that they are products of their time. I use a stricter definition of 4K like how 1080p means 1080*1920/60 even on TV's/monitors unless otherwise stated.

Locked 30FPS on PC sucks as most games not adjusted with this in mind when ported. The controls are sluggish, there is a distinct lack of smoothness to motion, physics don't feel right as that is only being updated as fast as the frame rate.

If you want to abide by a looser definition of 4K, fine. If a game ran at 3840x2160/120 I wouldn't call that 4K, that's 4k/120. 4k/30 is 4k/30.

[BranDonk Kong]

But that is just your imaginary definition. Jesus Christ dude. Look at IGN's list of resolution and frame rate for PS4 and Xbone games, half of them run at 30FPS, are you going to tell me that 1080p 30FPS doesn't mean 1080p now? Blu-ray movies run at 24FPS, as do UHD Blu-ray movies, and everything on Netflix, etc. Are those not 1080p and 4K, respectively? Again, PS4 Pro is not a PC, so don't compare it to one, and don't say that 3840x2160 is not 4K, it is the exact defition of 4K - not a looser definiton. First you said it (TLoU) was upscaled, and you were wrong, so you moved the goalposts - just admit that you're wrong (twice). 1080p does not mean 60FPS "unless otherwise stated" either. You just completely made that up. The 'p' means progressive scan. As in one full frame, not an interlaced image (like 1080i or 480i), it has absolutely nothing to do with frame rate.

[oohhboy]

I compared it to PC because they are both gaming devices. I any case if you just liked to this this would have been over 6(?) posts ago. http://4k.com/resolution/

I was mistaken that 4K had a frame rate minimum in the standard that I mistaken for fields per second of which there is no minimum. A 4K display running at 1 field/frame is still a 4K display however impractical that maybe.

There is an expectation when it comes to the number of minimum frames per second and are different between PC and console.

TL;DR

I had mistaken the expectations and usage to a specification.

I was wrong.

[oohhboy]

An additional note. 2160 shouldn't be used alone as it doesn't state the vertical resolution of which there are several and falls into the whole assumption trap I caught myself in. 4K does have a minimum boundary on resolution however.

There is a hard upper limit for FPS for 4K dictated by the ability to send and receive, processing the information which I believe is 120Hz currently.

1080p does have a frame rate standards, however that only applies to broadcast TV with massive variations. which was another incorrect assumption I applied to 4K.

[BranDonk Kong]

There are no TV stations that broadcast in 1080p. At least not in the US. There is nothing wrong with saying 2160p, that's just like saying you shouldn't say 1080p because it doesn't mention the horizontal pixel count either. But anywho, let's move on with our lives.