afgavinstan wrote:

I can check for you tomorrow. Tweet me about 10am if you can, to remind me.

Ah cool yeah man. Im paid 18th will defo get one of any colour from hmv if they have them

optimark_prime wrote:

Still no Puyo Puyo Tetris from GameSeek

Can't see me using them again.

I gave up mate and cancelled the order. It was 2 quid more from Base.com and it arrived within 48 hours of ordering.

Syph79 wrote:

optimark_prime wrote:

Still no Puyo Puyo Tetris from GameSeek

Can't see me using them again.

I gave up mate and cancelled the order. It was 2 quid more from Base.com and it arrived within 48 hours of ordering.

Thank you, may look into that.

Folks. I've been enjoying the Switch so much recently that I fancy picking up something else to keep me going until Arms comes out. Has anyone picked up Lego City or Bomberman and if so what are your thoughts? Should be able to pick one of them up for free using Nectar/EBay, so cost isn't really an issue.

Syph79 wrote:

Folks. I've been enjoying the Switch so much recently that I fancy picking up something else to keep me going until Arms comes out. Has anyone picked up Lego City or Bomberman and if so what are your thoughts? Should be able to pick one of them up for free using Nectar/EBay, so cost isn't really an issue.

I'm sure Reg has both. Lego City is pretty much the Wii U version I believe, which is no bad thing.

optimark_prime wrote:

Syph79 wrote:

Folks. I've been enjoying the Switch so much recently that I fancy picking up something else to keep me going until Arms comes out. Has anyone picked up Lego City or Bomberman and if so what are your thoughts? Should be able to pick one of them up for free using Nectar/EBay, so cost isn't really an issue.

I'm sure Reg has both. Lego City is pretty much the Wii U version I believe, which is no bad thing.

Yep, I have both. The short answer is Lego City

Cant send you a tweet gav cos my twitters is a cunt. How was hmv stock bro?

Minkymu wrote:

Cant send you a tweet gav cos my twitters is a cunt. How was hmv stock bro?

I checked yesterday, that branch had none in either colour. Any other branches I could check?

I bought NBA Playgrounds, based on watching a video of the gameplay. Perhaps I should have waited.

On first launching it, I found myself scrolling through the bafflingly long EULA. I got concerned; why would a wee Jam-like need such a long agreement? Then I saw the words 'in game currency' in there. Oh no.

The game started up, and I was presented with three foil-wrapped card packs, each containing five cards with a player on each. The dread crept further in.

You're pretty much limited (as is often the case with these games) to an exhibition match for your first game. It would act as a tutorial, it said. Except, it wasn't really a tutorial; it was an exhibition match which was occasionally interrupted by control guides which were clearly in a set order, and bore no relation to what was currently happening.

Not only that, but the only level of vibrate in this (like another game on Switch, I think Bomberman) is full blast highest frequency, which is not only an unpleasant sensation, but also causes a load, shrill buzz as the whole console is blasted by the joy con motors. And, Playgrounds likes to make your controller vibrate A LOT. It was driving me to distraction.

Having lost the first game, I went exploring in the menu to find out about in-game currency. Is Playgrounds an in-app purchasing minefield? It doesn't look like it, thankfully. It seems that you unlock card packs through gameplay, you gradually build up the (differently sized) team rosters. It looks like the more you use players, the more they improve, moving up in bronze-silver-gold rankings. No sign yet of what happens with duplicates, and I can't see any actual in-game currencies.

I went to the options screen to disable the vibration. That's NOT an option. Oh, dear god, no.

I started a second exhibition match, and I lasted less than a minute before I could bear the incessant BUZZ-BUZZ-BUZZing no more. Switched off. Fuck that noise. Literally.

One for the ladies.

That HD rumble eh?

Right, I've played a bit more. Enough to work out that the BUZZBUZZBUZZing usually happens if you're trying something you can't do. So, trying a steal out of position, or a crossover when you've got no stamina. It's still annoying as fuck, but I've managed to reduce the number of times it's happening with an element of giting gud (or, at least, giting btur). I still want the option to switch it off.

With regards to what happens when you get duplicate cards, it turns out that the player gets 100XP towards moving up through bronze/silver/gold. I've discovered a new annoyance, though; while you can 'flip' all the cards in a pack at once (I never understood this pointless step in similar things like Madden; just show me the cards face up as soon as I open the pack) you can't open all your new packs at once. You have to sit through the 'foil being ripped open' animation on every. Single. Pack. Why do they even need to be 'cards' in 'packs'? (Sorry, I forget the name for that kind of design, and furious googling doesn't help.)

AndCallMeCharlie wrote:

...is the gameplay any good other than the issues you mentioned?

In between all this nonsense? Yeah, it's good fun. Although, at times the AI is trouncing me, and at other times I'm trouncing it, and I'm not always sure why.

That's the one, cheers.

While I'm complaining, the in-game graphics are a bit soft and fuzzy. Given how crisp other games look on the Seitch screen, and given how crisp the menus and HUD are in this game, it's really rather noticeable.

'card packs' in games is one of my 'grumpy old gamer' triggers...the whole concept just annoys me to the point I won't go near it in any game.

Did anyone else get tumbleseed? I thought it was shit. The game is too hard for a wonky control scheme and doesn't have the balance to get you into it. Unlike the seminal roguelike spelunky the game seems to go out of its way to hamper your progress at the start.