Video Games

Certainly made a difference from my usual random teammates of an Italian guy having an argument with his girlfriend & the other one that has their game sound coming out of their TV so their mic is picking it up & retransmitting to the rest of us, both of whom then quit as soon as they inevitably lose their gulag so I have to finish the game 1v3, though at least in peace.

I've only ever seen that hardcore mode once - it was fun though very difficult! Would be good to see them do a private lobbies tournament of that!

Iirc they hated it because their play style was completely incompatible.
Yeah that random setup sounds abysmal, we actually have a regular mate of a mate who plays the sound thru his tv, he can’t hear loot boxes or footsteps, can’t aim either but his stats pull us down on SBMM so he does have some utility.
I had a go at season 4 and found the bike overwhelming, I’d love to get back into the game but the time requirements and late nights are too much for me now. The world war warzone that’s upcoming in winter might be irresistible mind you.

Gaming the matchmaking - I like it!

I have played with people like that though - so obvious when they can't hear things, makes you realise how much of the game experience is sound.

Will be interesting where Warzone goes in the coming years, mixing it up so some games are current period, some are WW2 would be interesting (obv they'd have to keep the load-outs separate). Would be nice to have a change of scenery and guns but then also be able to use the modern ones sometimes too!

Going to play the Lawn Mower Simulator demo later, excited to see what's on offer

Picked up Watchdogs Legion as a freebie with a disk purchase.

It's amusing to taz it around London.

Then to shoot everyone in the face.

5/10 needs more bikes.

Anybody tried the older games on Game Pass? I tried Crysis and starting it from the app just produces a black screen and a crash to desktop. I can start it by digging around in the install directory and run a different .exe but then it just crashes later after the intro.
Sim City 4 kind of runs but then crashed later mid game. Cant't believe anybody runs the beta EA
Desktop on Windows 7 to make older games work.

@aggi and anyone else using one - how do you feel about the nvidia shield after a while using it? My partner and I still plug laptops in to telly to watch Netflix etc and I'd like a way to play games in the living room so it seems like it could be a good shout maybe

It's flawless for streaming locally and from the Internet for me.

My next gfx card for my PC will be nvidia so I can more easily play my PC games on the TV if required.

Switch: racing / driving game / sim that is easy to grasp and has pretty immediate gratification but no traumatising characters / bombs / explosions etc (issa you, mario).

Kiddo is obsessed with cars. We tried some limited supervised parking simulator thing but those are hard af. I've currently set it up in TV mode (for the first time which is fun btw). But looking for something easier to get into.

Mario kart?

Seriously though. I know you mention it above but surely it’s the most kid friendly, actually not terrible driving game on the switch.

You can also just create a custom race with no items or specific items removed.

Pretty sure there’s a spongebob one too but it’ll be shit.

but no traumatising characters / bombs / explosions etc (issa you, mario).

You can also just create a custom race with no items or specific items
removed.

That's interesting and I didn't know. Cheers. Will look into it.

Burnout Paradise?
Yes, you have parts that require you to smash other cars, or crash into as many buses as possible, but you can just drive around and do what you like.
The racing is pretty much optional.

it's also super smooth on switch and heaps of fun

You can also just create a custom race with no items or specific items removed.

This is a great call, you really owe it to your lil' fella! #MK84evz

Absolute Drift is great fun, bit different, but so rewarding when you get the hang of it.

Hotshot Racing is a great 90's style arcade racer with a nice pseudo cel-shaded art style.

There's a new Hot Wheels racing game due to land at the end of summer also.

It's good, and better than any of the others I've used (firestick, Chromecast, Roku, now TV and a variety of HTPCs).

Everything is very smooth, the interface is snappy and the remote is good. There are some annoying gaps, there's no browser and if you sideload one the interface isn't great.

It's my main device for gaming. Use it for Xbox cloud, streaming from PC and Nvidia cloud with an Xbox controller.

One annoying thing is that they have just started putting adverts on there so the top of the screen when you turn on has a load of massive adverts for random streaming shit. Definitely makes it feel less premium.

Whether it's worth the premium over a firestick is a difficult one. They're good devices and considerably cheaper (although may require more effort to get them working how you want).

@Velocio is also a shield user

My 8 year old and I have played Burnout Paradise on and off for the past 18 months or so. He really loves it. Today he did his first 8 levels of Portal.

They're really good, particularly when compared to your standard fare of Fire TV, Roku, or Pi running Kodi / Librelec etc...

Whether it's worth the premium over a firestick is a difficult one.

100% worth it.

Fire is so locked down and mucked about with that they have a relatively short lifecycle before apps just stop working because of compatibility problems.

Well that's what I mean about taking more effort. You can get most stuff working on a firestick but it can be a hassle.

You can get 5 or 6 firesticks for the price of a shield, and the lifecycle isn't that short, but I'd agree they're not as good.

You can also just create a custom race with no items or specific items removed.

After a few years of drilling 200cc, hard cpu and frantic items in the lab, races with no items at all are the most intense thing ever. One slip up and it's race over but you hang on in case first place also has that one slip up.

Thanks for shield feedback also, I think I quite fancy one now. Shame about the ads but I've been thinking about getting a pihole up and running for a while anyway

Has anyone been playing Chivalry 2? I haven’t been this into a multiplayer game in so so long. Its a bit like battlefield in the sense that I don’t mind dying all the time because everything looks so crazy!

I hadn't heard of pihole before you mentioned and well it got me into a bit of a hole researching pi's and how this works.
Absolutely hate ads so will have to take action with one of these.