Yank Bank Holiday Play Want Bin (PWBE 15 Jan 2024)

[Kendrick Kerwin Chua]

So today Americans celebrate the life, accomplishments and disruptive
moral reasoning of one Martin Luther King Jr., who would be very
disappointed with the state of the world today were he present to
observe how little progress we've made.


Play:
--=--

Yakuza Kiwami (XSX) - It's on Gamepass and I know Kamurocho like the
back of my hand and I still remember where most of the Achievement/
Trophy things happen. So I can get my Microsoft Reward points from just
a few minutes of noodling around in a Yakuza game, which is genuinely
something I do anyway without incentive. The Majima Everywhere mechanic
seems much more forgiving now than when I first saw it, when I expected
the game to just be a point-for-point retread of the PS2 game, and I
appreciate how much more interesting it makes the whole of the story.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (XBX) - It's on the backward compatibility
list, it was super cheap, and it only takes up 2 GB on the hard drive. I
couldn't *not* install it, but I sort of sensed that there wouldn't be
any redeeming qualities to what was essentially a tech demo for local
multiplayer. It's a nice-enough shooter (and it's great that it does
proper flight-control vertical camera and third-person view out of the
box) but it's otherwise unremarkable in every other way. It also does
that annoying thing of telling the in-between bits of a story you're
supposed to come to the table already being aware of, which means that
you're essentially seeing a sequel film that shows all the car rides and
long silences that your characters had to have between all the exciting
action sequences of the first film.

The Plug In All Your 3DS Games game (3DS) - Bit Trip Saga, Etrian
Odyssey V and Fire Emblem Warriors remain unaccounted for. I'm 99
percent certain each of them is in a box somewhere with whatever games I
bought alongside them at the time, so this is just a matter of some
in-house archaeology. Or alternately, just me buying them again because
I'm mad. Haven't decided which way to go yet.

Want:
--=--

Fewer online requirements - My son is now six and his favourite games
all have online requirements, as suits our current era of the medium.
And it's just exhausting how everything has connectivity prerequisites
and identity verification and parental controls and what do you mean the
Playstation Network requires me to submit a fifty cent charge to take
his identity under mine as part of a family setup? Why should that cost
any money at all? More games need to be offline and playable on my
terms, not on someone else's whimsical schedule.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing gaming-related. Well, nothing apart from online play at any
rate.

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

Balance forward - $185

Skyrim Legendary Edition (PS3) - $11
Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor (PS3) - $7
X-COM Enemy Unknown (PS3) - $5
Star Wars Clone Wars Tetris Worlds Combo Pack (XBX) - $2
Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix (XBX) - $2
Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2 (XBX) - $2

Total to date - $214

-KKC, who may just end up staying home today instead of going out.

[Kendrick Kerwin Chua]

-KKC, who apologises if this post shows up three times.

[Kendrick Kerwin Chua]

[Kendrick Kerwin Chua]

In article <qSydnRA7esRYYTn4...@giganews.com>,

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kend...@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:
>
>
>-KKC, who apologises if this post shows up three times.

Well there they all are. Hooray Usenet.

-KKC, who now has a PS4 camera to connect to his PS5 somehow.

[Russell Marks]

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

> Play:

Minecraft (PS4) - mostly this was some more poking around the
now-not-so-hidden depths under my main base. In particular, visiting
that curious glowing-squid-aquarium area had me wondering what I could
do with that, and the obvious if slightly boring answer is to make it
easier to swim around in further without the risk of drowning. Which
realistically means installing another conduit (which lets you see
further and breathe underwater within a limited range), and I already
have the parts for that except, inevitably, the nautilus shells. Bah.

> Want:

Nothing.

> More games need to be offline and playable on my terms

Yeah. But somehow I doubt the games industry would be keen on that.

> Bin:

Nautilus shells in Minecraft. There just isn't a good solid source of
them. You can get them by fishing, but the odds are very low (under 2%
even with a maxed-out fishing rod). You can get them by killing a
Drowned (water zombie) that's carrying one, but the odds of them
carrying one is low (under 10%), and they have a much higher chance of
spawning with a trident which they will happily chuck in your
direction repeatedly doing stupid damage (and if two of those spawn at
once, you have an excellent chance of doing some respawning of your
own). The wandering trader can also offer them, but again the odds of
having them offered seem pretty low, they cost five emeralds each even
then, and you're apparently limited to buying at most five at a time.
(It doesn't help that, from the player's perspective at least, the
listed trades can change at any time - I know previously I've checked
the trader's offerings, gone to get emeralds, and when I came back all
the items had changed.) And because getting the shells is a PITA, it
means you'll rarely have ended up collecting enough when you
eventually want some.

-Rus.