At 2/9/13 09:19 AM, Yoshiii343 wrote: Coolio. I don't know why but lately I'm into J-RPGs than anything else...speaking of which I'm looking to get some "Tales of..." games. Any specific titles I should be looking at?

I've only played one Tales game and that was Tales of Eternia on the PSP (also on PSX if I remember correctly) but I thought it was great so I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot.

As for other JRPGs, if you're interested in tactics I'd advise looking at the Front Mission 3 and the Disgaea series of games.

At 2/9/13 09:19 AM, Yoshiii343 wrote: Coolio. I don't know why but lately I'm into J-RPGs than anything else...speaking of which I'm looking to get some "Tales of..." games. Any specific titles I should be looking at?

Well, I'm playing Tales of Vesperia right now on Xbox 360 and it's great. If the PS2 Tales games were available in your region then I say they'd definitely be worth checking out. Unfortunately, I don't think the UK got any of the PS2 games games. We got Tales of Symphonia on the GameCube.

Strangely enough, I don't know much good mainstream games for the PS2.

There are loads:

Bully, Devil May Cry 1-3, Final Fantasy X & XII, God of War series, Grand Theft Auto series, Hitman series, Max Payne series, Metal Gear Solid series, Red Faction, Scarface, Silpheed, The Getaway, The Godfather, The Warriors and Timesplitters series to name a few.

At 2/9/13 06:34 AM, Dean wrote: Deus Ex

Don't be silly dean, it's hard enough for new players to get into Deus Ex on the PC, never mind the version that looks and plays like total rubbish. You can play the PS2 version with a keyboard and mouse, but it's still very dodgy.

Bully, Devil May Cry 1-3, Final Fantasy X & XII, God of War series, Grand Theft Auto series, Hitman series, Max Payne series, Metal Gear Solid series, Red Faction, Scarface, Silpheed, The Getaway, The Godfather, The Warriors and Timesplitters series to name a few.

To add to this list:
Maximo, Resident Evil 4, Ratchet & Clank, Tomb Raider Legend, Prince of Persia Sands of Time, Alien Hominid, Cold Fear, Zone of the Enders, Drakengard, Gun Grave, Haunting Ground, Katamari Damacy, Killer 7, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Silent Hill 2, Viewtiful Joe, Tekken, Psychonauts.

At 2/9/13 12:44 PM, Jackho wrote:

At 2/9/13 06:34 AM, Dean wrote: Deus Ex

Don't be silly dean, it's hard enough for new players to get into Deus Ex on the PC, never mind the version that looks and plays like total rubbish. You can play the PS2 version with a keyboard and mouse, but it's still very dodgy.

Perfectly playable with a controller. This was one of my favourite PS2 games when I was younger. The PC version is obviously better but I definitely wouldn't say it's bad enough to not want to play.

At 2/9/13 12:59 PM, Dean wrote: Perfectly playable with a controller. This was one of my favourite PS2 games when I was younger. The PC version is obviously better but I definitely wouldn't say it's bad enough to not want to play.

Not the controller that's the problem, it's the game itself. Have you tried to play it lately?

Just beat The Story of Thor. Fantastic game but it does get quite a bit more challenging towards the end. Still, the final boss battle wasn't that hard or I just got lucky. This is definitely my favourite Mega Drive game so far!

At 2/9/13 01:53 PM, Jackho wrote: Not the controller that's the problem, it's the game itself. Have you tried to play it lately?

The only gameplay differences I can think of are the simplified interface, key codes and passwords not being manually entered and the maps are split into smaller areas divided by loading screens. I think the maps might actually be a little different too. The PS2 version actually has better cut scenes and in-game graphics than the PC version (without mods).

The only reason that I can see people overlooking Deus Ex on PS2 is because they pay too much attention to PC elitists.

At 2/9/13 06:44 PM, Dean wrote: The only reason that I can see people overlooking Deus Ex on PS2 is because they pay too much attention to PC elitists.

You know that whole "every time you mention it, someone re-installs it" thing? Yeah, that cuts out the part where you install 20 different mods to make it bearable. Vanilla Deus Ex has aged horribly, someone who plays the PS2 version at this point will almost certainly be turned off.

PS2 version also has bad aiming and a lower framerate. Just saying.

At 2/7/13 01:48 PM, Dean wrote: Out of curiosity, what are the games you're still needing?

Off the top of my head, Contra: Shattered Soldier, Obscure, Fahrenheit, Pyschonauts, Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance, Ape Escape 2, God Hand, Spyro: Enter The Dragonfly and Crash Bandicoot: Wrath Of Cortex (the last two are purely for nostalgic purposes).

Hell, I think I have the last two on that list of yours. Whether they're still playable or not is another question entirely (I was a little more reckless when I was five years old). I think I may have Dark Alliance also.

I thought those games would be pretty common, to be honest.

If you're looking for good, obscure games for the PS2, this list is a good place to start.

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sony/ps2/the-best-undiscovere d-playstation-2-ps2-games

Typical. I tell myself that I'm going to hold off on buying more games for a while and what do I do? I start looking on eBay and find a ton of games that I've been wanting for a while, so now my watch list is pretty massive and I've already won 4 games. Thankfully they are all games that I've been wanting for a while and I did get them all at a decent price. I just can't wait for them to arrive; some more than others. Also hoping that I can win a few of the games on my watch list that are ending today.

I wont reveal what any of them are just yet because in an attempt to get people posting more images of their gaming related stuff, I'll post an image once a few of them arrive.

At 2/9/13 09:55 PM, Trapex wrote: I thought those games would be pretty common, to be honest.

I think Contra: Shattered Soldier will be hard to find a PAL copy of. I can't seem to find many copies on Amazon or eBay although Amazon seems to have cheaper prices for the few copies that are there.

At 2/10/13 05:14 AM, DannyIsOnFire wrote: If you're looking for good, obscure games for the PS2, this list is a good place to start.

Typical that most of the games I liked the look of didn't get a PAL release. Still, that's a pretty good list of PS2 games.

So I did my voluntary work at a local indie game shop. Was meant to be looking out for comments/messages to the shop's Facebook page but I ended up tidying the whole place by sorting out their stock for all the games and for each platform they had available. Didn't get much chance to pop in conversations about any games to customers and only spoke to the store owner for most of the day but she's a nice person so I enjoyed working with her today. I look forward to helping out again in two weeks time (it's a two weeks basis to allow more people to volunteer for the shop).

Things got a little out of hand for me tonight. My eBay habit strikes again. I was originally trying to get my hands on a SNES with 15 games but instead I stumbled upon copies of Tales of Symphonia and Skies of Acradia: Legends on GameCube that had just been listed. They were buy it now and each was about £10 less than the typical auction ending price so I snatched those up right away. Unfortunately for me, they are fairly expensive RPGs compared to the games I usually buy. Still, they've been at the top of my wish list ever since a got the GameCube so it's nice to finally have them, assuming they arrive.

I also managed to get a Gameboy player for my GameCube which is cool because now I can play my old Gameboy games on the TV screen which will make the far more appealing.

That SNES and 15 games I mentioned earlier just sold for £113. If those copies of Skies of Arcadia and Tales of Symphonia didn't appear at take my money, I'd have won that SNES. Ah well, I'll get a SNES one day!

Also, the postman is going to hate me. He has like 8 parcels to bring me now.

At 2/11/13 01:08 PM, Bahamut wrote: So I did my voluntary work at a local indie game shop.

That sounds pretty cool actually. Do they stock any retro stuff, more specifically 16-bit era stuff? Working in a game shop would be pretty interesting I reckon. It'd be the sort of place where you could try and convince customers to by things that you actually give a shit about.

At 2/11/13 03:41 PM, Dean wrote:

At 2/11/13 01:08 PM, Bahamut wrote: So I did my voluntary work at a local indie game shop.

That sounds pretty cool actually. Do they stock any retro stuff, more specifically 16-bit era stuff? Working in a game shop would be pretty interesting I reckon. It'd be the sort of place where you could try and convince customers to by things that you actually give a shit about.

Yeah, they range from NES to seventh generation. The shop's lacking Wii U and 3DS games right now but they'll definitely get some in the near future. They also have a few non-video games to sell such as DVD/blu-rays (to be expected), comics and some trading cards. The shop does a lot considering its limited space.

At 2/11/13 03:44 PM, Bahamut wrote: Yeah, they range from NES to seventh generation.

I wish I had a shop like that near me. I imagine their prices will be a little above that of eBays but still, would be nice to look around and see what I can find. If there was a store around here that sold Mega Drive games I'd never be out of it in the hope they got something cool in stock.

At 2/11/13 04:21 PM, Dean wrote:

At 2/11/13 03:44 PM, Bahamut wrote: Yeah, they range from NES to seventh generation.

I wish I had a shop like that near me. I imagine their prices will be a little above that of eBays but still, would be nice to look around and see what I can find. If there was a store around here that sold Mega Drive games I'd never be out of it in the hope they got something cool in stock.

There was a time in Liverpool when they didn't even have an indie game shop. There was one last decade but it shut down in 2008. They had some imported games but the shop owners weren't the most pleasant. For the new one, I believe things originally started in a flea market and then business boomed. The shop's been doing very well over the last two years and having a store owner with a pleasant attitude to customers helps that a lot. As for their prices, it can vary. Pokemon XD seems to go for 35+ on eBay but they only sold it for 25. They do have MGS: Twin Snakes there for 40 and that sounds about right when comparing with eBay prices. I'm tempted to buy that game...

At 2/12/13 08:26 AM, Bahamut wrote: There was a time in Liverpool when they didn't even have an indie game shop.

My town doesn't even have a dedicated video game store after GAME started to go down the shitter. My local GameStation branch was one of the ones that got shut down so the only place to get games now is Tesco and Asda, which wasn't so bad because Asda had a good selection of pre-owned stuff too but I went in there a few days ago and they've got almost nothing left. My guess is that they're stopping selling pre-owned games. Or they've just not been getting many sold to them.

They do have MGS: Twin Snakes there for 40 and that sounds about right when comparing with eBay prices. I'm tempted to buy that game...

If only I knew you were looking for a copy of that last night. The guy I bought Tales of Symphonia and Skies of Arcadia from was also selling a copy of Twin Snakes (along with more games) at a lower than average selling price. He wanted £20 for Twin Snakes. I almost bought it before I realise I'd already spent £70 on two of his games. Checked it again this morning and yup, someone snatched it up.

He had a good strategy for getting money quick though. Stick your games on eBay as buy it now for a little less than auctions usually end at. Most of his games were bought in less than 24 hours.

The Gameboy player arrived this morning and this has to be one of the coolest console accessories ever. It adds about an inch in height to the GameCube and looks a little out of place due to the colour difference, but this thing can play Gameboy, Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance games. In honesty, I'd probably never have played many of my Gameboy games again because it meant having to play them on a tiny little screen, but not any more. Playing them on the TV is much better and the graphics scale up well too. Plus, the sound is actually better since it's being played through the TV. Maybe worth pointing out that this isn't an emulator either, this thing basically has GBA hardware built into it.

Well chuffed with this. Just a shame my Pokemon Silver game save battery has run out because I'd love to play through it again. I should get around to replacing the battery some time.

At 2/13/13 06:40 AM, Dean wrote: The Gameboy player arrived this morning and this has to be one of the coolest console accessories ever. It adds about an inch in height to the GameCube and looks a little out of place due to the colour difference, but this thing can play Gameboy, Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance games. In honesty, I'd probably never have played many of my Gameboy games again because it meant having to play them on a tiny little screen, but not any more. Playing them on the TV is much better and the graphics scale up well too. Plus, the sound is actually better since it's being played through the TV. Maybe worth pointing out that this isn't an emulator either, this thing basically has GBA hardware built into it.

I have one of those things as well, but I never made much use of it actually. I don't know why, but I just always preferred playing the games on their handheld.

It's a good buy if you don't own a GBA or Gameboy colour though.

Well chuffed with this. Just a shame my Pokemon Silver game save battery has run out because I'd love to play through it again. I should get around to replacing the battery some time.

It's really easy to do, trust me.

Just get one of those flat Lithium batteries, unscrew the back, carefully remove the old battery and replace it with the new one. Takes five minutes and I had a lot of fun replaying the game right after.

At 2/13/13 07:27 AM, Auz wrote: I have one of those things as well, but I never made much use of it actually. I don't know why, but I just always preferred playing the games on their handheld.

I have a GBC, GBA and 2 GBA SPs. Plus a DS that can play GB games. I'm not exactly short on Gameboys but I much prefer them on the big screen. I used to love handhelds back in the day. They were great for long car journeys or taking to school but now I just don't like playing on such a small screen. I actually wish I had one of the newer PSP models so that I could hook it up to the TV. I have one of the original models and it has no video out.

It's really easy to do, trust me.

Just get one of those flat Lithium batteries, unscrew the back, carefully remove the old battery and replace it with the new one. Takes five minutes and I had a lot of fun replaying the game right after.

How did you actually remove it though? I'm assuming the batteries will be soldered in, so does that require de-soldering or did you just rip it out? I suppose you could do that and then just use electrical tape to hold the new battery in place, rather than soldering it.

At 2/13/13 07:46 AM, Dean wrote:

At 2/13/13 07:27 AM, Auz wrote: It's really easy to do, trust me.

Just get one of those flat Lithium batteries, unscrew the back, carefully remove the old battery and replace it with the new one. Takes five minutes and I had a lot of fun replaying the game right after.

How did you actually remove it though? I'm assuming the batteries will be soldered in, so does that require de-soldering or did you just rip it out? I suppose you could do that and then just use electrical tape to hold the new battery in place, rather than soldering it.

No it's actually clamped in there by a small piece of metal. You can bend it a little bit (I suggest using a knife) and then you can remove the battery quite easily. Once you've inserted the new one you'll have to bend the clamp back again.

I used a small piece of rubber to ensure that the clamp is pressed onto the battery tightly, because I accidentally deformed the clamp a little bit too much. It didn't pose any problems and the game is working fine again.

There should be some tutorials around on the internet if you're unsure how to do it.

At 2/13/13 09:43 AM, Auz wrote: There should be some tutorials around on the internet if you're unsure how to do it.

Yea, I saw a video and it's a lot simpler than I thought. Was thinking of getting a security bit to make removing the old Nintendo/Sega screws easier but the ones I found are a little more expensive than I'm willing to pay. I saw some tricks for turning old pen lids into an appropriate screwdriver, so I'll probably give that a shot whenever I get around to doing this.

This is awesome to see in Liverpool.

At 2/14/13 06:44 PM, Bahamut wrote: This is awesome to see in Liverpool.

I have zero interest in that game, but that artwork is really cool.

Got some more cool stuff in the post over the last few days:

- Complete boxed GBA copy of Breath of Fire. This'll be one for me to use on the Gameboy Player.

- Disney's Aladdin on MegaDrive. I have a bit of a nostalgic attachment to this game because it's the first game I have any memory of playing.

- Zombies (Ate My Neighbours) on MegaDrive. This is up there with Story of Thor as being my favourite MegaDrive game. How people can dislike this classic is beyond me. I'm not that great at it though, I think my best was getting to level 10 out of like 50 odd. This'll be awesome if I can ever get somebody to 2 player it with me though.

At 2/14/13 06:53 PM, Dean wrote:

At 2/14/13 06:44 PM, Bahamut wrote: This is awesome to see in Liverpool.

I have zero interest in that game, but that artwork is really cool.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to pick it up shortly after release. As much as I love MGS, this is a completely different take on the series so my mind can't really be set that MGS mood that I have with the other games. I'll give it a chance eventually, though but there's a few other games right now like BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider I want to hear more about. I have a bad feeling at least one of these games are going to be one of the biggest bombs for 2013.

At 2/14/13 06:44 PM, Bahamut wrote: This is awesome to see in Liverpool.

I love that typography. So beautiful.

At 2/15/13 09:43 AM, Dean wrote: - Disney's Aladdin on MegaDrive. I have a bit of a nostalgic attachment to this game because it's the first game I have any memory of playing.

Oh wow, I just got that nostalgic feeling. Disney games for the MegaDrive were great. Need to make a purchase of some along with Streets of Rage I, II and Revenge of Shinobi.

At 2/15/13 09:43 AM, Dean wrote: - Disney's Aladdin on MegaDrive. I have a bit of a nostalgic attachment to this game because it's the first game I have any memory of playing.

Oh god, that game was so god damn amazing.

MGS Rising looks kinda cool, but I hate the name. "Revengeance"? That's not a word.

At 2/21/13 09:42 AM, Sense-Offender wrote: MGS Rising looks kinda cool, but I hate the name. "Revengeance"? That's not a word.

It's a portmanteau of revenge and vengeance.