Unofficial Controller Podcast
Your number one weekly gaming podcast for all the latest Sony Playstation , Microsoft Xbox , Nintendo Switch and PC News. Retrospectives , Readers Mail and Industry Chat.
Unofficial Controller Podcast
The UCP Subscriber Special: Where Gaming Memories Meet Collector Stories
What happens when the passionate supporters of a gaming podcast get together to share their stories? The Unofficial Controller Podcast's subscriber special answers that question with a delightfully candid conversation that wanders through gaming history, collecting adventures, and technological evolution.
Meet the faces behind the names you hear at the end of each UCP episode as they reveal their favorite games and consoles. From Battle Brothers' brutal strategy challenges to the immersive western world of Red Dead Redemption 2, these selections paint a portrait of diverse gaming tastes. The Sega Saturn's 2D prowess gets particular praise from one collector who reminisces about hunting Japanese imports during the system's heyday.
The conversation meanders organically through current gaming experiences, collecting war stories, and technical tips. Witness the genuine excitement as they discuss Xenoblade Chronicles' technical marvel on the Switch, or hear the reverence in their voices when describing how the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller creates unprecedented immersion through haptic feedback. These aren't just casual observations but the passionate insights of lifelong gamers who've witnessed the medium's evolution firsthand.
Perhaps most fascinating are the collecting tales – from heartbreaking stories of sold collections worth thousands today to ingenious methods for repairing scratched discs with household items. When one subscriber describes finding seven discs jammed inside someone's PlayStation 4, you'll feel both horror and recognition of how differently people treat their gaming hardware.
Whether you're a longtime listener curious about the community surrounding UCP or simply love hearing authentic gaming stories spanning decades of console history, this special episode offers a warm, unfiltered glimpse into what connects dedicated gamers across generations, platforms, and collecting philosophies.
Hello and welcome to the Unofficial Controller Podcast, your weekly gaming podcast. And yes, it's me again, rgt. And this week I'm not only joined by well, I'm not actually joined by a presenter, I'm joined by a few other people because this is a special show, this is our subscriber special, if you don't know what a subscriber special is. Basically, these guys are good enough to help us financially with the subscribers list each month and in return, as one of those perks, we do one of these shows and we thought do you know what? We're going to record this and we'll put it out. So then, these names you hear at the end of the show each week, you'll start to know who these people are. So, without further ado, let me introduce, and I will start with Mr Firm Returns.
Speaker 1:Hello, let me introduce and I will start with mr firm returns. Hello, uh, do you want to give the rundown of that? Yeah, well, just I'll tell you what you know give us, like you say we've done, your firm returns, give us your favorite game, your favorite console of all time uh, yeah, uh.
Speaker 2:I think my favorite console now is probably the switch. It's the one I use most regularly at the moment. But my favorite game actually goes back a bit further and it was one I played on the pc called battle brothers um by a german studio. It's a really hardcore kind of strategy game with a sort of random world generation, sort of procedural generation elements to it, so you can sort of play it, uh, infinitely or whatever, and I think I've put about 200 plus hours into it.
Speaker 2:So I've never heard of that one it's brutally, brutally hard, so you want to save before every battle. One of those kind of like oh right, yeah, very good. Anyway, I'll pass the mic over no, that's good.
Speaker 1:That's nice to hear games that you aren't normally in. You know sort of mainstream games with people say mario kart and bits and pieces. It's nice to hear something where you know someone's found something a bit more obscure.
Speaker 2:That's good it's got that great sort of 2d art style and all the. There's a joke about all the characters not having any legs because they're just like almost like chess pieces. Oh, brilliant, animated cut yeah oh, that's awesome, it's good yeah right, then we move next to.
Speaker 1:You've probably heard us say this name a few times and you're probably now going to meet the man and the legend. It is fat zangief. How are you, my man?
Speaker 3:I'm great tom. How are you mate?
Speaker 1:very well, yeah, very well indeed what's gonna give us? I've got probably a funny feeling what your favorite console will be, but I don't know what your favorite game will be go on, have a guess at my favorite console.
Speaker 3:Then ps3 yeah, he's. Yeah, I got it. Yes, um, it's weird really, because I haven't really got into it, uh, until recently, and because it came out round about when I was starting to save for our house and stuff and that's when all the gaming sort of went out the window. But got one later down the line and I thought you know what? I'm just going to start picking up all these games that I've never played. I absolutely love it, but my favorite game isn't on there, believe it or not. Yeah, my favourite game is probably Candy Crush. Really, I was going to say George would be well proud of you. No, it's a little independent game called Red Dead Redemption 2. Oh yeah, absolutely love that game. Get lost in that game. I could play it over and over again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm with you on that. That game is. That's in my top five. I mean it is for an open world game that nails the setting they're in. That's probably one the best ever made. I mean absolutely fantastic. Still looks good today.
Speaker 3:You know, it's absolutely brilliant game it was weird, though, because I got it. I think it was the christmas after release and I played it in the new year and I think I got probably just into chapter two and I just wasn't feeling it and I put it down for about six months, and then I think I completed it in about three weeks yeah, my mate done the same thing he was.
Speaker 1:He was his favorite game of all time is red dead redemption um, obviously, the first game which is actually after this, obviously, and he loved that, but he weren't feeling Red Dead Redemption 2. He'd done the same thing put it down, then come back to it and then that was it. You know he was in that world then after then. But, yeah, brilliant, Right, we'll move on to George's redhead. Stepson Ginge, how you doing my man? Hey?
Speaker 1:mate you all right, yeah, very well, Now I'm going to be intrigued. I'm imagining your console's going to be a PlayStation of some sort, but your game I don't know, because this is the guy that's got 616,. Am I correct in saying?
Speaker 4:No, it's gone up now. It's gone up now. I'm on 657.
Speaker 1:I need some easy ones. I stack padded dinner 657 platinum trophies, which is mental. So out of that lot, I have no idea what your favorite game is going to be. I'll have a guess. I'm gonna go.
Speaker 4:I'm gonna go ps4 for your favorite console that is yeah, you're correct yeah, the reason that is because, to be fair, I wasn't really gaming that much. I spoke to you before nirgt about I'm a bit of a bad lad, yeah, and my life was going a bit squiff and I got that it was this ps4 slim and I bought a 4k tv and then I realized I'm gonna have to raid my um ps4 to to a Pro. That set me back even more. But yeah, the PS4, I got into it late as well. I didn't get it until 2018. So, like in the life cycle, there was already so many great games out. It was like you know what I mean we had to pick a lot really, yeah, it was a fantastic generation for playstation.
Speaker 1:Now I mean, I bought one on release and I remember people being disappointed with the sort of the small jump between the ps3, ps4, but they always are until they get, yeah, they just get up to speed. But then I mean the amount of games or physical games I've bought and I've got in my collection um, so many good games on that generation. Yeah, such a good system. And I've recently gone back and played my ps4 pro um when I had the old shed before that was taken down, as was building a new one, and um still looks fantastic on a 4k. Telly pierce sounds a lot of chinook taken off, but it still looks good, I actually.
Speaker 4:I got rid of my pro and got the standard first release PS4, because the Pro wouldn't run Modern Warfare. It just kept overeating, really, yeah. So I downgraded and it worked fine.
Speaker 1:That's crazy, isn't?
Speaker 4:it. I'm mad at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's mad, but yeah, brilliant. All right, we'll move on to our last guest, and that is the one man george fan club himself. It is carlos. How are you doing, my friend?
Speaker 5:very well. Thanks for having me, mate. Thanks for having me good, good, good.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to be intrigued. I'm going to have a stab in the dark at your favorite console. But you've got quite an eclectic taste when it comes to gaming a lot of import shooters, you know you've got a real nice collection. But I'm going to have a stab in the dark and say Dreamcast for you.
Speaker 5:Close, close. Yeah, I was just looking across the room at all the different consoles and I'll probably say the Sega Saturn. Yeah, I loved arcade games and that had some real quality series on there and everything and it was mainly the fighting game. So probably some of my favorite game if I one I've gone back to the most and played across so many different systems probably street fighter 2. That's probably the game that really that was the alphas on there was it the alphas they had on on?
Speaker 1:yeah yeah, yeah, really good, lovely art style. And I mean the saturn was just a 2d powerhouse, really. Yeah, you know, it's just a sort of made a bit of a misstep with that 3d everyone wanting 3d but as a 2d machine, brilliant, absolutely brilliant oh yeah, it's absolutely amazing for 2d.
Speaker 5:And now it's a thing when I was reading like the official sega saturn magazine back in the day and they were saying, oh, all these games are coming out in japan but they're not coming out in the uk. So that's what led me down to a place called raven games. It's been beckoning. I used to buy all my saturn imports there. They chipped my machine for me. But I mean, I've got several sega saturn consoles now. You know like japanese models and stuff, but it was for x-men versus street fire. That was a game I had to have. I had to have it and through playing street fighter 2 down this local little uh computer center that the the cab next to it was a. I think it was like a multi-slot mvs. That's my metal slug for the first time and that was coming out on saturn in japan only. So yeah, I went down there and got it done, yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I've bought a couple imports myself for saturn and main one I got was because I was, uh, that's my same mate who's into red dead. He's really into his uh old school resident evil and bits and pieces like that um, so what to get deep fear, you know, oh, yeah, obviously, being the last release for the pal saturn, um, even at the time when I was looking, it was four or five hundred pound, you know, and it's it's gone up more than that now. So I imported, uh, the japanese version, um, and it was like 24 pound delivered. And you know what it's like when you import a game for japan. It's absolutely mint spine card, they pack your sweets in, they'd written me a letter, everything absolutely superb.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, a couple of games I've imported that way and it's a good way of doing it. I mean, some of you know the shooters now are expensive, but they're, you know, especially if they've only been released in japan. Yeah, they are expensive, but there's such a big library in japan to look at. I'd love to go one day and just buy a load of sega saturn games because that's, yeah, it's a proper treasure trove out there, but yeah, I was out there 2007 for three weeks um the Misses and you couldn't back.
Speaker 5:Then the phones didn't work. They had a totally separate network. You weren't, like you know, go to the States use your phone. You couldn't use your phone at all. I mean, we didn't have any Google Maps or anything. I just wandered around Akihabara going into all these different shops. You know, I went in Super Potato. I didn't know it was Super Potato. I just saw a game store. I bought a bag full of games from Japan and, like you say, they were all mint, every single one of them. It was amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. Them shops are so good and they know how to look after their hardware and software. I mean, everything's immaculate out there and, yeah, unlike when you buy a game off eBay here and it's covered in chewing gum and doesn't look like it did in the pictures, when you import them to Japan you can almost guarantee it's going to be pristine condition. They always look after their stuff. But, yeah, really good, but, yeah, brilliant. So you've met the guys there who are on the show tonight. You'll probably hear their names again later on when I do the subs list later in the show.
Speaker 1:But this show we basically do it as a bit of casual. This is literally us having a bit of a nerd out, a bit of a meetup. We're going to talk everything games or movies, whatever, whatever goes afloat. So it's going to be a casual show. Um, yeah, just talk, I'll start. We'll just talk any in games. Um, today you've probably seen the show I've got a new Evercade game which I got Indie Heroes 4 I got. I've never the indie cartridges. I haven't really bought, I only bought this one. There was a game, a lot of platformer on there and I looked at it and thought, god, this looks really, really good. I'll have to remember the name myself. I can't remember now. Hang on.
Speaker 5:Is it Murtop's on that, isn't it? Yeah, Murtop's on that, isn't?
Speaker 1:it. Yeah, Murtop's on it. The Curse of Ilmore Bay Looked really intriguing, little creepy sort of platformer, and it looked such lovely. Always remind me of Amiga graphics. So, for the sake of you know, 20 quid.
Speaker 1:I thought, yep, I'm going to pick that up because that's you know, 11 games on there. As I said earlier on on Discord, it's a bargain really. As I said earlier on on Discord, it's a bargain really for all them indie titles for 20 quid. But yeah, and then also, you probably all know what I've been playing, which is Xenoblade. I'm 26, 27 hours in now.
Speaker 2:Have you got the scale yet?
Speaker 1:Nope, not yet. I'm doing side missions and stuff. I think I've got one more chapter doing and I get it. Um, I'm still learning a lot about the game. Um, still don't know everything about it yet. There's so much to learn but I'm absolutely loving it.
Speaker 1:Um, I still a feat to have that on a cartridge like that. And I I kept thinking when I, when I bought this, surely there's going to be part of the game on the cartridge and part of the game is a download for a game that big. But there isn't if the whole game is under 12 gigs on the card, and I find that amazing because that doesn't. I mean the map is bigger than um breath of the wild or Tears of the Kingdom and there's no load times between maps. You can run everywhere just freely and that's all in time, and you just think I don't know how they've done that.
Speaker 1:But still loving it, still loving how big the game is, loving the exploration, loving the world of setting, really really good game. I'd probably go as far to say so far, definitely one of the best games I've played on switch. Um, yeah, yeah, um, I've just loved it. I think it's, I think it's awesome, you know, I think for how the other big two have been at the moment with release and stuff has been a bit patchy and taking different courses in the market. I think this has come along at the right time for a lot of switch owners because it's a great game to pick up. If you like open world games, you've you know, you've got 100 hours plus in here to lose yourself in. Yeah, really good. Um, and also mrs rgt has been playing firewatch.
Speaker 3:I don't know if any of you guys have played firewatch yeah, started started Firewatch with my daughter, but we never got around to finishing it, even though it's only a few hours long, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you can complete this in about four or five hours, but I played it. I think when I looked at my save on there, that was, I think it was about 2015,. 2016,. I originally played it and I loved it so much I was was going to get the physical, but then that came out for a limited run and didn't get one, and then everyone was wanting 300 pound of copies. I never ended up getting a physical for it. But, um, I was listening to a uh, audio drama. I've said this on the show before but, um, for those who haven't heard, I was listening to an audio drama called Tower Four which, like the first season of that, is very Firewatch. And then I just suddenly come back in my mind and thought, oh, mrs RGT would love that. So we put it on last weekend and I just sat there to help her with a few of the controls. But yeah, she's loving it. She's loving it Wandering around there, keep getting the map out and looking where she's got to go and stuff.
Speaker 3:But yeah of go and stuff, but yeah, I'd definitely recommend it if anyone's got a rainy sunday where they're stuck in the house and yeah, it's so good. Yeah, those are really my type of games. Those are small, narrative driven ones like what remains of edith finch and stuff like that that was up there as one of my favorites. I nearly said that rather than red dead, but I think because the amount of time I put into red dead, yeah, but, yeah, but yeah, stuff like that, I absolutely love it Do you play strange games at all.
Speaker 3:Sorry, the Life is Strange games. Have you tried those?
Speaker 1:Yes, I played the first one and I absolutely loved that game. So I bought the little collector's edition one with the CD in and the music and the art book. I thought that was another one that was really clever, really different. Um loved the story and and the animation and story and and sound effects all went so well in that game. You felt so part of it were max and everything and really loved it. I played the second one. I just can't get into the second one really struggled.
Speaker 3:That's my favorite out of the lot. Or do you mean I played the second one? I just couldn't get into the second one Really struggled the one with the Diaz brothers. That's my favourite out of the lot. Or do you mean Before the Storm?
Speaker 1:Yeah, before the Storm was the one. I haven't played the other one yet, so the only one I've played right through is the first one, which I thought was fantastic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like Great Two with the Diaz brothers, that's probably the best one.
Speaker 4:Is it really really? Yeah, it's an amazing story. All right, I'll put that on download then.
Speaker 1:Yes, um, a quick if you're missing lights out, fireways, is it like a walking sim narrative, like driven type? Yeah, slightly bit more so. It's a walking slim, first person walking sim. But you have, um, you have a few things to do so you can. You can obviously look at things, pick up a bit like peter finch, but you also have a map, um and action, so you can pull your map out, check where you're going. You have to read your map to try and find your way around to all these areas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's well done, so some places you can't double back because you can't climb up. So yeah, you're investigating the map, although you're going a long way around. It's quite clever, so there's slightly more in it than the wharton sim, but yeah very good.
Speaker 4:I was going to say have you ever played? Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.
Speaker 1:Yes, I have played that. My missus hasn't, but I've played that.
Speaker 4:I like the fact that Zangief says you know them games, you don't expect them to be that good, yeah, and they just take you on a journey, mate, I played it during lockdown and I don't know if that made it seem more like believable, because obviously you know the story of it. Yes, yeah, yeah, and it's like everyone's just disappeared. You know, like lockdown it was never, on the screens was there they? Were all in like signs up and I was playing it like this is like bloody real life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd never seen. I'd seen sort of a bit of a YouTube thing at the time about the designers of that. It was that as a British studio done that and I thought, oh, this looks interesting. So when it came out, I got it and played it on my PS4, and that was in my shed one day and that was actually, funnily enough, a rainy day I locked myself in the shed and I played it from start to finish in one day and that's another one. That whole game is just the setting they give you and you feel. You literally feel like everyone's gone, but the sound effects and everything work so well in that game, even though you're just walking around. It's brilliant, but you, yeah, it almost feels creepy at times.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it does. I was off expecting something to jump out.
Speaker 1:You know the whole game I was like what's going on? Yeah me too.
Speaker 4:But it's like all, just you know you find, like bloody tissues on the table, yeah, and then you know, when you find bloody tissues on the table and then you find a half-drank pint in the pub.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. You're like what's gone off it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and you hear a radio in the distance and you have to use your earphones on.
Speaker 1:That sounds so good. You've got to try and find where the radio's coming from. Or cars with the doors left open.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so good, if any of you have played it, lads. I'd.
Speaker 1:I'd recommend it, actually not very long, but it just took me on a journey yeah, and that's something that's nice as well, you know, with these games like life is strange and everybody's gone, the rapture of edith finch, they're they're that bit different. They sort of take you out of the mainstream of your genres and you play something completely you know, and they all are almost completely random, but they're so good, fun, because you come away from it thinking wow, that's an experience, you know, brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Um, anyone else had any pickups lately or games have been playing, or I've just come off Outlaws after about a hundred and I don't know.
Speaker 5:I mean, if that app on the phone is correct, it's getting on for a hundred and thirty hours I've been playing that game.
Speaker 1:Oh no way, yeah, that got you that game, didn't it?
Speaker 5:yeah, I think, because, like I say, I was mostly into arcade games back in the day, so short games, just short bursts, you know, shinobis, outruns, anything like that. But then I think, more recently, the sort of style of game I really like is like you know, like that it's third person, you know. So like like Mafia 3, I played that through not long ago, thought that was a great game. I know people didn't really rate it too much, but I really enjoyed it. Like the Uncharted games I've played all of those.
Speaker 5:The new Tomb Raider games, those ones those three were amazing. I think that's just. I don't know, it's just the Star Wars universe in it it's brilliant, where you're creeping around the bases and popping stormtroopers, and that I just loved it. I got so into it I didn't even play my first game as a back to. I'd pretty much finished the whole game. I was getting so into just doing bits and it was just taking all my time. Um, much to my missus's frustration with the bathroom that I've just been painting a little bit. Completely, I just got into that game. But yeah, finally taking it out and put astrobot in, and that game is amazing. Yeah, something else it's brilliant. It's it's the controller, what, what? The feedback? It's amazing. I mean it's it's, it's a mario 3d game, but I mean god, the the amount of um feedback you're getting and the oh, it's brilliant.
Speaker 1:The immediacy of it is brilliant I've said this time and time again for what this generation has been and it's been a funny generation. You know it launched, you know lockdown and all the trouble with consoles and parts and bits. It's been a funny generation. But I still think the the best thing about this generation is the dual sense. Um, for the haptic feedbacks, adaptive triggers, I think, are such a leap forward. You know microphones, speakers in the controller, um, I just think this adds so much to the game.
Speaker 1:What started off to be a bit of a gimmick with six axis and rumble, they've actually made into part of the game. Now. You know and it's you know even going back to you know, if you played last of us, part two or or 1, and your batteries are running out and you're torched and you have to hold your controller this way and you can hear the batteries rattling in your controllers. You're trying to get the last bit of charge out of them so you can see where you're going. Little things like that all add to it. I know they've tried other things in the past, like with the Vita with the back screen and stuff, and didn't quite work out. You know it's a bit of a gimmick, but I think this, I think you know other game. I remember xbox was saying that they were thinking about then bringing out a later controller that had haptics and that in because they then realized how well that is implemented on some games.
Speaker 1:My, my worry from the start was longevity and reliability of the controllers. There's a lot of moving parts in there. I've still got my original two controllers from you know the launch when was that 2020? So I'm still using them. I've got two extra ones I bought for the colors, but still using them. I've and they've been they've played hundreds of hours of fifa and bits and they've been, you know, absolutely destroyed at times, but they still keep working, you know. So I don't think the you think reliability is a problem, but yeah, I think they're brilliant. And, like you say, an Astro Bot when you're feeling hail on the controller and sand and wind, yeah, it's brilliant. It's real ads to the games, I think.
Speaker 2:Anyway, Is it still just mainly Sony titles that use them?
Speaker 1:No, ubisoft, actually Ubisoft have really took it on board. I mean, I played Avatar, which for me was a really average game, but the actual controller feedback is superb. You know they've really took it on board. I think once they've done one game and put the time into that one game going forward, they know how to implement it. And quite a few of them do, and quite a few of the games like the Crew. The Crew is another one. If you play the, what's the latest Crew one?
Speaker 4:I can't remember the school I know it.
Speaker 1:That's the school. But the triggers and that for your brake and accelerator and all your gear shifters, all the gear shifts and everything all come through the speaker and the controller. Yeah, it's brilliant. It sounds so good. You can even feel the car sort of let go a bit, you know if you're in a rear-wheel drive car Really good.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I think it was at the start that it was mostly the Sony games that used it. Others just sort of avoided it a bit, but more people have come on board now and avoided it a bit, but more people have come on board now and you do find quite a few games, um, use that. I mean, like, even if you play afc, you know you score a goal and when your ball hit the net, the sound of the net come through the controller and, um, they even had it. You can set it. So I'm not sure about the latest title, but you could set it. So when your player's running out of energy, your sprint, but your sprint triggers even harder to pull and you can feel them, right, you can feel them that's pushing against your finger because they're struggling to run. So there's all little bits like that people have added in which, yeah, me personally. I love it, I think it's brilliant, I think it's handy as well.
Speaker 4:You know, like, um, sometimes you just be chatting quickly because you can use it as a mic. You know me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, my nephew invited me to a party. He's only like 11, so I know it's gonna be five minute chat before he doesn't be at him, I've got, you know, he's gonna get your headset.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's brilliant I went to play online with a mate a couple of years ago. He then just picked up the ps5 and then he said we'll play online. Then went oh no, I ain't got a headset. I said don't worry, just set your mic on your controller. He's like what I said I'll come for your controller.
Speaker 1:And he was coming through clear as day on my headset and he was just talking through the mic on the controller. I mean, it's little bits like that are brilliant. I think you know it makes it very usable and also, I know, a good price for what you get the tech, really. But yeah, back to you, carlos. I mean, did Ubisoft implement that a lot on Outlaws the controller?
Speaker 5:Yeah, if you get a wanted level and like the Stormtroopers' voices all come through the controller and things like that. Yeah, it's not overly used, but it is good. What they've done is effective. Yeah, it is effective.
Speaker 4:Yeah, very good, I've just got the platinum for it as well. So when you suddenly know the blaster's cost, like the different attachments, whatever you're using, like the one where you power it up and obviously it's like shaking and then it lets off like oof you know what I mean it open obviously it's like shaking and then it lets off like I mean, oh, that's cool if you got the fast one you like does really do?
Speaker 4:I mean like the fast shooting, the blasters, like really fast on the trigger, sort of thing. So like connor says, not, not loads, but enough, enough just to make it that more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then be involved yeah, that's good and I liked it in, like last of us too and that you can feel the bows. You know, you could you hear it through the controller and you hear the if you'd call it the cord or string, whatever on the bow getting tight in here and then you can feel it when you let it go. Yeah, it's really good, that, really really good. But I don't know if you heard the other day Fat Fats and Gief. I was playing Dishonored on my PS3, which I started and I've got so used to the DualSense. Now I went to take a screenshot and I put my thumb on the button in the place on the PS3 controller, looking for a screenshot, and I thought what kind of? And I thought I'm on a PS3, I can't get a screenshot. But then actually George did message me after the show. There was a certain amount of titles. You could do a button combination and actually take a screenshot on a PS3.
Speaker 3:I just used to use my phone on the TV.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I've done in the end, paused it, zoomed my phone into the TV. But it's so weird how these things like screenshots, which I don't suppose I use that much, but they just become part of it. I'm just used to that button and because obviously on the switch you've even got a screenshot button as well in this you know left hand side, similar location I'll just instantly go to press it. And I was thinking why is that not taking the picture? Oh, select button.
Speaker 5:that's why yes, you guys on the playstations, if, if you get that portal portal thing for the playstation 5, does it, does it feel the same as the controller? Then Does it do all the same feedbacks as a controller?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think so, yeah, yeah yeah, I've only had a go on one. I don't own one, but I know with George having his. But that's got all four haptics, adaptive triggers and everything. Yeah, oh wow, yeah, it's literally, I think they've just hacked a DualSense in half and put a screen in it.
Speaker 4:I think it's actually more comfortable than a DualSense, as mad as that sounds Like. I think it's slightly thinner. You know the handles? Yeah, I think you would be saying that actually. Yeah, it feels slightly thinner, but it just feels. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been really tempted myself because building my new shed I was thinking, do I get? Because I like to have a PS5 on my main TV. And I was thinking, do I get a secondary PS5 for the shed or do I keep my PS5 in the shed and then maybe get a portal for at home? And I'm thinking, oh, I might get the portal, I think instead.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'll just. Obviously I've got it. It's just the internet. You know, like the connection, it's a tough one to sort out. George has sorted it all out. I know he's like unlocked all his root with everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a bit of a guide.
Speaker 4:You shouldn't have to do that, should you? It should just work. No, no.
Speaker 1:I know in, I think, some regions I don't know if that's here yet. I know inica. They've done a bit of an update to the system which made it a lot easier to connect and do. But I think, um, for over here I think you have to there's a certain procedure. You have to unlock your, your route, a box to accept a certain band, I think. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:But, um, yeah, I'm tempted with them because they do look a nice bit of kit. I mean for the money as well. I think I think they're quite affordable really for what they are. Yeah, they're not bad, no, but also you know if, if you go on holiday and you've got decent internet, that's nice that you can you can still play your peers well, as long as they're digital games, obviously. Or make sure you leave the game you want on disc in the system. So even that, I'll be ringing my mum up to go around, but she'll be trying to put it in a toaster. I suspect Anyone else picked anything up lately or what you've been playing. I know you've had a bit of an epic adventure, haven't you? James? On your Switch at the moment Is it Fire Emblem you've been playing?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, I think I've been playing that game for like six months now or something, because I kind of with my gaming I'm kind of split between.
Speaker 2:I often do it sociably, so I have some kind of like online multiplayer games I'll play.
Speaker 2:Like I've been playing a lot of one called Deadside, which if you've ever played any of the Operation Flashpoint games from back in, the sort of hardcore shooter games where you die in a couple of hits and you have to like patch yourself up all that kind of stuff. It's like an online multiplayer version of that, effectively, where you can do either player versus environment servers where you can't be killed by the players and you're just fighting AI and stuff and they've got missions that spawn in around the map and key points of interest and stuff, or um, or you can do pvp servers where you then have to throw fighting other players into the mix, which obviously escalates the difficulty and so on, and if you die, if you can't get back to your body before somebody's raided it, then you lose all your stuff. So it's kind of like of those kind of quite hardcore harsh games. But but yeah, I played that or I was playing um other ones I've played. I did quite a stint on this switch, so we had, we were playing, we were played through um broforce.
Speaker 2:That was a good fun on this yeah, I've heard a lot of good things about broforce it wasn't particularly great doing an online multiplayer, because it's one of those ones where it kind of streams off one person's switch and so one person everything's great and the other one like assets don't like pop in right, and so sometimes there'll be like a enemies on the screen that are actually visible to the person who's hosting it but not visible to the person who's. Oh no, like this session. So you're just going around going where are all these bullets coming from? I can't see. Oh no, there's things like that to deal with. So we do have to deal with quite a lot of bugs, but it could someone work in your favor, because sometimes you can sort of beat the bosses by catching a glitch in the game and like, yeah, you use that to your advantage to find some corner where they can't get you or something. But, um, but yeah, I did that one, and then we were playing uh, aliens, uh, fireteam.
Speaker 2:Elite was another there was another good one for online sort of co-op session with uh guys, but yeah, I do those ones and then um in between that then I'm trying to. I then have limited time to just play a solo game, so that's why it's taken me so long. I think I'm about 65 hours in now. It normally ends up whenever I'm traveling. That's why I like having the the switch, yeah, particularly because you can just take it um on you on the, on the train or whatever, which is actually that's probably something else to touch on. I guess that's something that will be covered in the nintendo direct episode.
Speaker 2:But something I a big standout for me from that actually was the the virtual, how they're switching for digital games to virtual game card, which means that we own, because I've, I've got a switch light as my, which I got one of the nice gold ones, the limited edition ones like you've got, yeah, actually, yeah, that same that um zelda special edition one. And because that's now my secondary switch, um, I can't. You can't play any digital games um on it when you're away from wi-fi. So it just means that you can only go, you only have physical games, and so that's a real limitation if you travel on a train or something, so you can't play any of you, any of your digital games. So the fact that they're now switching to a like a virtual game card system, where you'll be able to like lock a game to a certain device between two different switches, and then also a bit of like a lending system as well, so you can, if you're physically near someone, you can lend a game for two weeks to them, and so on.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I'm so glad they've done that, because that weren't long ago we were talking about this, weren't we? And um and my wife got me that gold switch light for for christmas. Um, and I thought this is going to be ideal because I've got my oled. But you know, it's always it's a bigger case and I'm always a bit worried about taking it with me. But I've got this smaller switch, the switch light. It's so much more compact, it's there, it's a real good screen. I thought it'd be ideal. And then I suddenly, suddenly thought, oh, hang on, if that's my secondary switch, that means I can only play physical away from wi-fi. And I said, if I don't know, that's going to be a pain.
Speaker 2:So when they come up with this new card system, I thought, ah yeah, brilliant, there, that's, that's going to be ideal, that's going to be brilliant I think the I think there still is there's definitely a place for the, the Lite, for handheld I do definitely prefer it and I know the screen is not an OLED, so you've got that disadvantage. But there's something about having a solid unit and it's lighter and not having the flimsy controllers that feel like they're going to fall off. I've sort of got to the point where I'm using my main Switch OLED just in the dock connected to the TV and then using it whenever I want to do handheld.
Speaker 1:It's always the light. I'm exactly the same and also, I always feel like when I take my OLED, I'm taking three things. I'm not taking one because, like you say, the joy cons, you know so. But with that, with the switch lights, form factor and, like I say, it isn't an OLED screen but it's actually still a lot better than the standard switch. It still looks really good. That's ideal. Just that form factor is brilliant. Um, I mean, my wife plays, she's got a switch light and she, she plays hundreds of hours on her, she loves it just for how small it is and she just take it wherever she goes. You know it's brilliant. Um, but yeah, that's. I'm so glad they've done that. There was a while now I think they were never going to do it, but suddenly just to chuck it in that direct I thought I'll get in at the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was like what we can do this now. Why are you doing this now? So that tells me something leading up to the switch to. As you know, there's a reason. They're implementing that now, I think at the end of the, at the end of the life cycle of the switch. But yeah, um fat saying geef, what's your last game you're playing on your PS3? Then you can see some part of your collection behind here, your awesome PS3 collection that's building rather well yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 3:It's sort of two thirds PS3, one third PS4, but um, one that I picked up a couple of weeks ago was that Enslaved? Yeah, brilliant game and I started it and it's beautiful the colors. You know it's normally you get ps3s a lot of browns, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The one thing that bothers me is it runs like gash that's, that's because of the that's adding them colors in and all. Sometimes it really stutters, doesn't it, if you get a real big, busy action bit.
Speaker 3:It's like a flip book, you know, and the actual gameplay is amazing, you know, sort of mixing in the hack and slash type of elements with the Uncharted style traversal. It's great. The fact Andy Ser, the circus, is in it, their voice acting's amazing, you know. But it was just getting so difficult, you know. As soon as there was more than two or three enemies on screen, it really chugged. Yeah, yeah, it was. Uh, I've put about three hours into it. I don't know if I'll carry on. It was getting on my nerves that much I think the bit I really struggled with.
Speaker 1:You know, when you're on that, you're sort of on that airship sort of thing, aren't you? Is that near the start and you?
Speaker 3:have to crash and you gotta jump onto the other and all yeah as the explosion started, mine really chugged.
Speaker 1:It sounds good as he jones thinking I'm struggling to keep up with you know it's nice they tried it, but oh, he's struggling there. It's a bit going through treacle playing that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's also work on the ps4. Could you get a bit of extra juice out of it if you did that?
Speaker 1:no, you can't. You can't play your ps3 on ps4, unfortunately. Um yeah, they didn't do. They didn't do the back, but I think it's just because the ps3 was such a uh hard system yeah it was a really difficult one for developers to to code, for it's a very unique sort of system and even now, if you play a ps3 game on on your playstation premium, you only stream it at the moment because they still haven't even worked out a way of emulating it you just, you're just connecting to a remote ps3, basically yeah yeah, because they.
Speaker 1:That's so difficult. I haven't even worked out a way of well, I say they haven't. Rumors are they have at the moment and there's going to be ps3 games added to to the, you know, the, the premium collection on ps5, which I hope they do. It's just something. I mean the streaming's okay, but it's not the same when you're playing on a cloud and what it is when you've either downloaded or got the disc in the system. But I'd love them to put the PS3 in that premium package or the extras package. That'd be a brilliant way to play it. But is there any other PS3 games you've been playing lately or any recommendations?
Speaker 3:not ones I've been playing, but it's a couple of pickups I've been after for ages and I've actually dipped into some of my cex credits to get them, and it's that one oh yeah god, I bet that's.
Speaker 1:I bet that's going up in price now, isn't it?
Speaker 3:it's about 50 quid, I think, and duckted Ooh another one that people are after that. Yeah, I just saw them in my local CX, both at the same time. I thought right, forget it, I can see what condition they're in. I'm getting them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you probably aren't going to see them in there for a very long while, if at all. So, yeah, grab them while you can sort of thing. Grab them while you can sort of thing. Um, yeah, I know that spiked as well that lollipop chain.
Speaker 3:So when I done the remaster didn't I? And yeah, a little bit I think. I think it got up to about 55 quid and then dropped back down to about 48, but even so I thought it's not going to get any cheaper.
Speaker 1:So you said that cex, are you guys in um? You can now order your games um. Who's the not Deliveroo? Who's the other one? Who?
Speaker 5:do the food.
Speaker 1:Just Eat yeah, you can order your CX games through Just Eat there, yeah, you can literally order anything from CX and they'll deliver it to you within 30 minutes, obviously within certain regions, but they're implementing it through the cities in the country. So if you desperately need that duck tail, simon or another game, just look on your local cx and you have someone go around the bike and deliver it to you. I know it's mad, but a lot of people have been all for it because obviously they do like phone cables and phones and laptops and bits and they said it could be quite essential if you, you know, need something pretty quick or at work and you, you need a laptop charger driver and ask if it's got a manual yeah, yeah take it back, otherwise yeah exactly or a reprinted cover
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah don't give him a tip. I've just got a reprinted cover. But yeah, pretty. I saw that story and thought that's mad, isn't it world we live in? Now you can actually order a second hand game and get it delivered to your door within 30 minutes. That's crazy.
Speaker 4:I recently looking through some DVDs. My lad once watched Ghostbusters 2 I got that from Sex and it had like, what's that space film with Matthew McConaughey? Matthew McConaughey, oh, interstellar, yeah, interstellar. I was like what, yeah? And then another one. This was years ago. It was Shadow of War. You know the Lord of the Rings mm-hmm well, I bought that just for the collection because I played it on like the past thing years ago, but it was a free game and it had the other one, shadow of Mordor. Yeah, I was like brilliant, yeah.
Speaker 4:I sort of checked. You know when you just get home and you just like chuck it in the cupboard on the shelf and I was like, oh god, sorry yeah, I know sometimes there was.
Speaker 1:I think was it the one last time I was in Norwich. I think it was the Norwich one, it might be Manchester, I can't remember. Anyway, I bought a load of games. There's one game that I really I'd saw it and thought I've been off this for ages went up to the counter. They were gone for ages. Come back, went, oh, can't find the disc for that one, and I was like, of all the ones you can't find a disc for, so what I really wanted? You know, I know these things happen, but you know it is frustrating, especially if you get a different disc in the case I ordered god of war ascension.
Speaker 4:Remember there was like a collector's edition with it and they're like chaos on a rock. I ordered that during lockdown and, uh, they sent me just the ascension game. I was like, for god's sake, so obviously they look like you're lying, though, don't it?
Speaker 4:like yeah you've been taking the game back like, oh, they didn't send me the thing. Look at that, the guy who worked there was Sam. Do you know what I mean? I used to speak to him all the time and he was like, oh, but he wouldn't let me take it back in the shop because it was locked down. He's like you're going to have to send it back and, of course, you know what I mean, so I had to mess around sending that off in the post and then waiting for the other ones straightening it.
Speaker 1:you know, and that's I mean you get a lot of youtubers do the cex roulette because they'll order a game, because obviously you get your generic photos of the games, especially your rarer titles or your more collectible retro. I order them and then open them up on camera and literally see what you do get, because, yeah, I mean I know a lot of them now they've started adding in with manual, without manual, but other than that, yeah. But then sometimes they turn up and you think that disc ain't mint, that has just been kicked around someone's driveway for half an hour.
Speaker 2:So, yes, I can never understand it how discs get scratched, because I don't think I've ever scratched a disc of any game I've ever played.
Speaker 4:People I think people use it for coasters've ever scratched a disc of any game I've ever played. I think people use their coasters. I think a lot of people. Obviously we're all gamers, as in. We care for our hardware and software and all that, and a lot of people don't do that. They just want to play something for five minutes and they just chuck it on the side. I've been around some mates of ours and I'm like what are you doing? You open the case and it's a completely different game and you have to backtrack eight games to find the game you want.
Speaker 4:You're like why have you got this and this and this? You know what I mean? It's just never-ending. You're like no, you don't know where anything is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had a won't read discs anymore, just keep making a funny noise. I was like, okay, I said I'll have a look. I said I'm no tech guy but I'll have a look. And I sort of got a torch and looked in. That was a slim model. So you know, I just looked in the in the little area there and I thought that looks absolutely loaded in there. So because that hadn't it's one of the first discs they put in was scratched. They just kept putting discs in. Oh no, and I like you have to take the other disc out. So I took seven discs out and I managed to get tweezers in. I got one, which then they were like sprung loaded in there, and I managed to get one out and that sort of freed up. And then once I got to about three and four, I loosened them up and I got them all out and then ejected the last one. They said, oh yeah, yeah, I didn't, I didn't think of, uh, ejecting the first one.
Speaker 2:I was like, yeah, don't keep putting them in. It's like one of those cd players that used to have the turntable that rotates.
Speaker 1:Yeah, put the different discs in the other scene, yeah it was literally it, and I mean I was just like right, just put one disc in at a time. But yeah, that was. I said you must have forced the last three or four in. He said, yeah, it was a bit tight, it it would have been. You've got four other games in there, mate. But yeah, that's. That's crazy, isn't it? But I've had. I think I bought a game really cheap. That was the game cube, I think it was the twilight princess and ocarina time double pack and the both. Both of those discs honestly looked like someone had used a sanding disc on them and I was thinking how did they get to that state? I mean, I got it for like two quid because they said they didn't play. But I just done the old trick. I got toothpaste and water kept going around as a light abrasive and I buffed it all back up. They're still scratched but they play. They both play Is that the technique.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because obviously you can get discs wet. Um, don't obviously put them in your machine wet, but yeah, you can get them wet. So toothpaste is a light abrasive um you can use, literally use it as you would polish in your car what do you use it?
Speaker 2:to actually rub it?
Speaker 1:just your finger yeah, yeah, just go around at your finger, rinse it off, get a clean cloth and buff it up and that'll take it down a little bit. And I have used if you get a clean cloth and buff it up and that'll take it down a little bit. And I have used if you get a very light Canuba wax that you'd use on your car. I've done that before and brought discs up. Lovely. As long as it's a really light cut and compound, you can. You can bring them up as long as they're not like scratched to surface. They're just, you know, um light scratches. You can, you can. I mean a lot of these game stores have these discs. You know disc machines where they polish them. You know disc polisher. I mean they're a lot of money you know they're going to be following.
Speaker 4:You know every big gaming yeah, I've heard, yeah, yeah yeah, so he's.
Speaker 4:He lives near me, he's my mate. He always drops him off, but if I ever get any deals I just take him to him because he's got a million, because he sells me. I mean, he's got his own little business. Might be good for you, carlos. He's got a lot of Japanese imports, loads mate. Might be worth looking into. You know what I mean? He's got his own little website. He's got loads mate, because I don't really I'm not really into the Japanese side, but anyone is. He's got loads of them, mate. You know, when they go around his house it's just shelves full of Japanese games brilliant, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's obviously ideal for him to have a resurfacer then and resurfacing discs and yeah, they're good. I know some people don't like them. You know you might as well if the disc isn't playing or a scratch it's a great way yeah. I know you can only do it a certain amount of times before you take that layer completely off. But yeah, if it brings your disc back and that game works again, ideal, isn't it really? You know, like I say, for a small business, yeah, spot on, really.
Speaker 4:But yeah, you've got, I think you've got a couple of them. Actually really nice lad. He like does little bits and bobs, you know, tries to repair consoles, um, and stuff. Yeah, lovely bloke. Um, I was going to say I actually got um a press release copy of Crash Bandicoot 1 from him. Oh, no way, I know. I was like he was like oh, you might I forgot to say that Crash Bandicoot 1 was my favourite game of all time. Oh, because it was my favourite game of all time. And he was like oh, I've got some that you might like I don't know. I said have you got your hands on that? He's like I don't know, just buy job lots. Do you know what? I mean? It was in there, amazing, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I bought a couple of the PS4 press release ones. I think I've got a couple of the Uncharted ones and I've got a oh, I can't remember. I think I've got three of them press release just discs only. There was a while that you could pick them up quite cheap where obviously the press guys were getting their packs and once the game died off a bit they were flogging the packs off and they were spitting them up.
Speaker 4:And I've got a couple like that, but obviously not an earlier one like that this it says crash bandicoot like press release, not for general resale. Do you know what?
Speaker 4:I mean play exactly the same. I was trying to put them aside, you know, like playing at the same time, to try and see the differences, um, but there's not many really. I think it's like you think if you press triangle it used to bring, it brings down like how many boxes you've got, or whatever. I don't think it does that. On the press release one ah, right, so there was.
Speaker 1:there was probably some bugs they fixed after, but also things they added in as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Now I can't remember either. I don't know, even though it's my favourite game, I can't remember, but obviously you get the gems and you get all the boxes and I always thought it's just if you get the boxes, it doesn't matter if you die. I don't know if it's on the press release or just all of them. If you die but get all the boxes, you don't get the gem. I'm going to have to look into it yeah, maybe, yeah.
Speaker 4:I always thought, as long as you get the boxes. I know there's a couple of levels where you have to do certain things to get the coloured gems, but I couldn't remember. I'll have to have a look yeah, have a look.
Speaker 1:That's worth it, because it might be a little thing game.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's maybe even harder, you know, I mean because again it can be trickier, especially then if you have to do it without dying.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it was just.
Speaker 4:That's just the way the original was, or if it was out of press release yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. Um, I was going to say do you, carlos, with all your sort of japanese games imports, do you ever struggle with sort of the the languages on there, for do you have many games with the sort of text boxes or do you get like I know you've got a few modded consoles for do you get like sort of fan translations or anything like that, or have you had to use those or yeah, the fan translation thing with.
Speaker 5:one of the things I've got is a Mr System, which is probably the best retro thing I've ever bought, to be honest with you yeah I've been tempted to miss that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh, they're so good. Um, I think there's a. There's a new one now. It's called mr pie. My brother ordered one. I don't know why it's called pies very confusing. It's got nothing to do with pies, but, um, yeah, it's. Uh, it can run everything up to ps1 at the moment, and and and Saturn as well. It runs N64, all the old eight bit stuff, all the micro computers, everything, so you can do fan translations on that. But yeah, back in the day it was, it was a lot more difficult, obviously, because you couldn't. I can just put my phone at something now for that I understand what it is.
Speaker 5:I remember getting a game called silhouette, mirage by treasure silhouette, uh, mirage by treasure. To a point I was like I have no idea how to get off this screen now. I was completely stuck. I had no idea what to do. Yeah, sussing it out. You know it was back in the day. I didn't have the internet, I didn't have you know anything and google translate nothing. So, yeah, but generally I was. I was buying a lot of arcade conversions, so it didn't really matter.
Speaker 1:And some of them, if you can, as long as you can work your way to options. They did have sort of English options on. You could change over, didn't they? On some of them? And I found out with Deep Fear, because obviously the text is in Japanese but the actual speaking on there is in English. But you just get to that point where you go up to a button and you're thinking, well, I'm not sure what it is to press it on or press off, and we're not. I'm going to press the wrong thing here.
Speaker 1:So I'm a bit stuck with that. But I I kept humbling har and whether to um, I'm sure I saw online someone had done a repro of it, um, not a translated repro and also done the pal versions as well. So I was a little bit tempted to get one of those because I did buy. I bought um snatcher from a mega cd from a guy that does repros, um, and they're like all these repros are like 16 pound but it comes in a double jewel case. You get the manual, full color manual.
Speaker 1:And to the untrained eye, you'd you'd be, you know to us, we'd know, obviously your colors are slightly washed on the disc and bits. And and to the untrained eye, you'd be, you know to us, we'd know, obviously the colours are slightly washed on the disc and bits and pieces. But the untrained eye, that's Snatcher on a mega CD, do you know what I mean? But it's 16 quid, not 1,000, you know. So that was just an affordable way of getting, just wanting to play Snatcher really. But yeah, so I've been a bit tempted with that for um, for deep fear. But yeah, we'll see. I mean, obviously I suppose you've got quite a big shooter collection of you, for your, for your saturn and whatnot.
Speaker 5:You have a concept oh yeah, yeah, I've got loads of shooters across the saturn dreamcast. I've got quite a few on switch. Now, to be fair, um, xbox switch is good for shooters.
Speaker 5:Yeah yeah, xbox 360 was really good for shooters as well yeah, it was yeah, all the cave games and that, yeah, yeah, I've got there's one. I want to get um. It's. I think it came out on PS4. It's called um. What's it called now? Ketsui, I think it's called um. Yeah, I really want to get that. I was looking at it on PlayStation 4, but you can put the PlayStation 4 disc straight into the PS5, can't you?
Speaker 1:yeah, there's only a handful of games that struggle or won't play, one of them, funnily enough, being Mafia 3, you can play it, but it really glitches the graphics for some reason. I don't know why or whether they've ever optimised that for the disc. But I mean pretty much most stuff. 99% of the stuff plays fine. You just pop the disc in and it's probably the best way to play it at the moment.
Speaker 5:Really, You're talking about Mega CD there. Remind me, I got a Mega CD from Mega Drive off a bloke at work. It was in his van in a plastic bag and he said, oh, I've got something in the van, you can have a look at it. So I took it home, cleaned it all up and I didn't actually realise it was worth quite a decent amount of money. Yeah, and I just took him like just the next day I took him like 50 quid, I think it was, or 40 quid. He was going on and on. I said do you want to take 40 quid? Get yourself a meal? It might be 50, I can't remember. And he was like, yeah, cheers, mate. And then when I actually looked into it, to buy a mega CD these days is I don't really know why I've got this now I've got an import adapter thing for it because I really really wanted to play that Final Fight remake they'd done on the Mega CD with all the different music and that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So I got that Japanese and used this adapter and it worked. And because my Mega Drive was, I've altered it so you can switch between the languages and the 50 hertz and all that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you start it off in whatever language the Mega CD has to be. I say it must be English. You know, 50 hertz, start everything and then switch it over and obviously then you've got full screen display, full speed and everything With this adapter cartridge that you put in the Mega Drive. Brilliant, oh, that sounds awesome. To be honest with you, it's sitting down there. It's not even connected anymore. I was thinking about chopping it in. To be honest with you, it's the down there. It's not even connected anymore. I'm thinking about chopping it in.
Speaker 1:To be honest with you, it's the only thing I mean. I might have said this on a show a couple of years ago, but I had a friend up to about six years ago. He was mad on Mega CD. It was from a kid, it was his console, always was his console, and he had the full collection, sealed, of Mega CD games.
Speaker 5:Oh God.
Speaker 1:Yeah and yeah, wanting to go on a bit of a jaunt, on a bit of a holiday with his mates. So he traded them all in and it's his biggest regret. He's been trying to build it back up. I mean he even had like the Batman and Robin special big box edition. He had everything all sealed, the whole lot.
Speaker 2:He's got a lot more to build it back up.
Speaker 1:I think he's given up. Now he's given up. It's just an impossible task because some of the games, like you say, your snatches and bits are, you know, £1,000, you know it's a pricey thing. But yeah, he was mad on his Mega CD. I mean was lucky when I I've been collecting so long show me age but been collecting so long.
Speaker 1:I mean I bought mega cd, um and mega drive together for I think 30 quid and I bought a mega drive, mega cd2 for like 25 quid and then had them both recapped and done a few years ago. And I I've done it with most of my consoles. I always bought one or two spares and it sounded a bit much at the time. You think, god, what do you want on them consoles? Now, with the prices I'm going up. I'm so glad I did, you know, for the sake of spending 30 quid on an extra console and 50 quid to get it recapped. I mean you've got a machine now it'll last, you know it'll outlast me with those and I haven't got to go out and pay £150, £200 for a new system. So yeah, things are getting pricey. I find that even with GameCube games now, I mean so expensive, aren't they? They go in these waves where suddenly everyone wants that system.
Speaker 2:In the world of the limited runs and stuff like that, I had my first experience. I bought a um. I bought iron meat a pre-order and it wasn't it. I didn't have a major sense of urgency in buying it either. I think it had already been announced for a few months, um, that it was gonna gonna go on sale, and I think I bought it like a a week after the pre-sale started and it was just like 30 quid, and now that game is like I don't know, six months later, it's now 150 quid. It's just ridiculous that's mad.
Speaker 1:The only time I got my fingers burnt with not so much limited run themselves. I don't think it's their fault. I pre-ordered about a year in advance the street rage 4, rage 4. As far as we knew, this was the only physical edition you could get of it. Obviously, I've got 1, 2, and 3 on my Mega Drive, so I was like, yep, I've got to get the physical out, so pre-ordered that with Limited Run, waited God knows how long for it to come through.
Speaker 2:They did a wider release, did they?
Speaker 1:They did a wider release and released them all before the Limited run come out. Oh, brutal and released them at like 30 pound. I'd paid 45 for this, uh, limited run version, which is now probably worth about a tenner. You know, it says there was physical copies with two other publishers and I was like, oh, you're joking, not saying that's necessarily a limited run problem, but obviously publisher I guess, yeah, yeah, you know, I was like oh man.
Speaker 1:So all my mates had physical copies that You're joking. I'm not saying that's necessarily a limited run problem, it's the publisher. I guess. Yeah, I was like oh man. So all my mates had physical copies that had literally just gone out and bought for 30 quid and I was still waiting for my £45 one three months later. It was crazy, so I got my fingers burnt a bit with that. But I've bought two or three limited runs in the past. I've got Shadow Complex that's one of them. Ps4 great game, if I know. I think I had that as a hidden gem. That's a great game. If no one's played that, that's brilliant. I think that's on on the store. Might even be on premium on PlayStation, but yeah, that was on 360 as well, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:Shadow Complex 2D yeah 2.5D side scroll and shooter yeah, it was originally on 360, and Limited Run done a version for the PS4, which is what I got, and then after that I think it was they ported it so well. They then popped it onto the store on there and I'm sure it's still on there. But that's a great little game. That is All that Xbox Arcade days and Xbox Live and I used to get some great little still on there. But that's a great little game.
Speaker 2:that is All that Xbox Arcade days and Xbox Live and I used to get some great little games on there, which sadly, are no more, but if I didn't have a physical but yeah, there's some great games on there- it seems like it's strictly limited and super rare or a bit more dependable with the timings, because you pre-order it and when they go on sale it's then like in a couple of months from then you know definitely it's going to be sent out. You know, I've not had to like the situation where some people have limited run, haven't they? Where it's like you're a year later or something you're still waiting for for it to be sent out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, I mean I think I must have been a good year for streets rage 4, but some of the youtubers I watched, like um happy Console Game. He buys quite a lot of limited run stuff and sometimes it turns up and he's even forgotten he'd ordered it. He had to look back through his history in emails like, oh, I did order this because it was like 18 months ago for this special edition, whatever. So yeah, it can be quite a while. I mean, I suppose people who use limited run are used to that. I suppose it.
Speaker 2:I suppose people who use Limited Runner are used to that. I suppose it's a bit more like Kickstarter or something isn't it the way that works the long lead time like that?
Speaker 1:I suppose they put the orders out for us. They get the orders in before they've even actually produced the game and got it over. They get the money in first and then develop or convert the game and then merch and whatever bits and pieces you get with it. But because of that you're obviously waiting on production times.
Speaker 4:But yeah, you know it does my head not necessarily with like limited running stuff, because obviously they're like the only ones doing it. So you either go with them or you don't get a physical copy. But you know when that it's a wide release physical copy but they release like the digital version, like three months before. Well, I used to really like physical copies and I'm like, well, I want the copy, but I want to play it now and I've. You know what I mean? I've.
Speaker 1:I've either bought it and I buy it the game again, or wait, yeah, yeah it's annoying, but I mean I there's certain games now which I do, if it's a game I want to play, but I'm not desperate, for there's always a good bit of advice. I saw I think it was Radical Reggie on YouTube and he always done it. He said if it's a game you want to play and you know it's going to be popular, but you're not in no rush to play it. If you've got a bit of a backlog, wait a year, because then you can get the definitive edition for about half the price and you'll get all the deals. And that's what I've done with the Witcher and games like that, you know.
Speaker 2:I think, or get a reprint, that doesn't that's actually got all the patches, because they never run perfectly these days, do they?
Speaker 1:No, that's right. Yeah, and then you're getting the premium edition of it and all the deals. See in there. I think I paid like Witcher 3, I bought brand new from the PS5. You know the full shebang. If it was about £12, I paid for that, for a brand new physical copy, and you just think you know that's the way, as long as you don't mind waiting a bit to play, isn't? It.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I always went, nah, unless it's like you've got a War of Ragnarok, I think, ordered. Other than that, I just wait, like like say six months a year, yeah, yeah, one sale or as well. You know, when I was a kid I don't know why I never bought like secondhand games, like I don't know why. Yeah, but now I'm not bothered, like if it's gonna get, I mean, as long as the case is all right, it's not absolutely smashed the bitters yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:I mean I found as well this generation of. I've ordered most of my games I order or bought brand new. We've been on my switch, my ps5 my collection's nowhere near as big as it was on the ps4. This generation around ps4, I was pre-ordering brand new games all over the place and I was was constantly getting new games all the time.
Speaker 1:Ps5, I found it very dry this term round. You know it's really strange. I mean I was looking back at, I went up my lockup with my stuff stored. I was looking the other day at all my PS4 stuff from like R-Type, final 2 and all games like that, all real obscure. You know, velocity 2X, all these games are pre-ordered, brilliant games. I just think I hadn't really sort of seen that on the on the ps5. I know there is, um, there is a lot of smaller devs making games to ps5. You just don't see them. You know you don't as much as you know they're really pushed on the ps4. It's a bit of a shame really. But yeah, this time around it's really, uh, been a lot more quiet. You know I tend to just wait, man.
Speaker 4:I think a lot of them, independent like them, indie developers have got like digital only as well, haven't they just stayed on the cost of? You know what I mean, so you don't see the physical additions in the shops. You know what I mean? Just by chance, like what's that?
Speaker 2:yeah, might be a year or so later. You get like release if the game did well enough initially.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, obviously you've seen all them games, you've got physical copies or they've been. I mean, they've popped up, unless you miss that what's Hot this Week, or whatever, or you don't want a PS5. It's just gone, isn't it? You know what I mean? See a video of it, or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, they don't seem to be in the media. I remember the PS4, I was constantly getting emails and just seeing all these really smaller dev teams making these physical games. It used to be about all over the place, but you just don't tend to see it now. I mean you can look through Amazon. They do stock a lot of these smaller PS5 titles, but there isn't the fanfare around them because half of them you're just buying blind. You just don't know unless you've really researched. You don't know, whereas in the PS4 days you knew what was coming along. It seems that was better pushed then. You know, I don't know, maybe it's just you know a lot of it's all digital store now, I suppose. But you know, most people just look for their games on there and look at reviews, I suppose.
Speaker 4:But Like I say, a lot of people now coming with a PS5, younger kids and stuff. They're probably not bothered about the discs. Do you know what I mean? They never grew up with collecting. Do you know what I mean? We've all had to buy physical games as kids. Yeah, do you know what I mean? There was no other option For all of us. Me anyway, I love having the game, I feel like, even though now obviously most of the games are too big to fit on the disc a lot so technically I suppose you don't really own them, because if they shut the server down to download it off yeah yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4:I always say that to my missus. I'm like I've got all these games, but one day they might have to shut the server off and none of them will work.
Speaker 2:I think there's something about that. It's also about the quality of it, because sometimes they'll cut corners, like the Switch ones, because you can buy cheaper carts, can't they? Sometimes the developers or the publishers will use cheaper ones that can't handle a 30 gig game, but I think in reality handle a 30 gig game. But I think in in reality the switch card could handle most of the, the large, you know size games. If you bought the, potentially the card itself might have cost 20 quid then. So they're getting lower margins on it and things. So uh oh, do you?
Speaker 4:mind a ps5, still blu-ray, or the upgrade um, I think they're still Blu-ray. Because obviously you've got Ultra 4K now, haven't you? I don't know if that's a different disc. I mean because when you went from normal CD to Blu-ray, the data they could store on was a massive jump, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they've gone up again. I know they've literally just done. Simon will probably know this as well. They've just done an update on the ps3 and that, and that's man, if you chomped on my coffee I did. I went to play dishonored and I said oh, you got a new update.
Speaker 5:Sorry, this console came out 20 years ago. What are you on about?
Speaker 1:but yeah, apparently that's to do with the blu-ray drives, because obviously sony are a leading to do with the Blu-ray drives, because obviously Sony are a leading shareholder in the Blu-ray tech. That's what they pushed and even though it's a very small margin now, they're still worried that people might find a loophole around and pirate and Blu-ray DVDs and maybe using the PS3. So they've patched it on the PS3 to make sure that you can't. You, yeah, which is mad to think that people have been sitting at sony headquarters making a patch for a 20 year old console. It's mad. It's even mad to think that it's 20 years old. It's crazy, isn't it, to think the ps3 is 20 years old, you know?
Speaker 3:it's fantastic, unless you're playing enslaved.
Speaker 1:But um, yeah, like you're playing in slow mo.
Speaker 4:If you know, I spoke about years ago in the discord. I was playing dead space on a ps3. I picked it up and thought, oh, I love this. I'm 360 originally and I was like this looks amazing still, I mean, it plays well and it looks great. And then I only needed one more trophy for the platinum. And I still haven't got it to this day right, because I was moving ass and stuff and I never got around to finishing it. It was just doing a game on art, the hardest, difficult.
Speaker 4:And then the Dead Space remake came out. So I played that that amazing, and I thought, oh, I know the game. Now again, I'll go back and finish that dead space on ps3. And jesus christ, it was that awful, you know, I mean, I was like this looks horrendous. I played so bad. Like, well, you know, before playing that dead space remake and playing it on the ps3, I was like this is amazing. Yeah, still holds up really well. Well, you know, just the remake, I don't know if anyone played it and you go back to the original. It's like worlds apart.
Speaker 1:The thing is, when you play these remakes, you think oh, this, this looks different from the original, but you, that's how you remember it. But when you go back and play it you think, oh yeah, they have done quite a lot of work to this.
Speaker 4:It's a little remake like see, when I played the Dead Space the original I was like, oh, the lighting still looks great, the sound's great, you know what I mean. It looks good the armor, you know, like the light shining off the armor. I was like, oh, this is still look good, you know what I mean. And then I went back and I was like no, it's not.
Speaker 2:I used to play. We used to go over mates and we'd play probably hundreds of hours of Star Wars Battlefront on the original Xbox and like we used just my memories of that, like thinking back to a kid. I felt like I was. It was so realistic, I was really in a Star Wars battle. It was indistinguishable from reality. And now I look back at it and play it. I go how did that when? And play it. I go, uh, yeah, how did that? When you compare that to the new ones they've done, you know you're thinking, hmm, yeah, I think I definitely got the rose tinted glasses here, but yeah, still great games. But yeah, it's kind of like a struggle to to put yourself in it and feel like it's reality now.
Speaker 1:But I had the same thing with red dead 2. I played through red dead 2 and thought, right, I'm gonna play back through red dead 1 part of my ps3, and I went. I went back to it because I remember playing it at the time, thinking oh, this western world is so alive and so filled with things. It's brilliant, unbelievable. You go back to it and it is literally empty. You ride through the land on Red Dead on the PS3. There's no one there for ages. Then you start realising, ah, I've remembered it a lot, I'm playing Red Dead 2. There has been a big difference in the population and what's there in the world, you know. But yeah, crazy.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm 46 years old, so my eyes are knackered anyway, I don't know. I think it's the it depends on the game, because I was playing Burnout 3 Take Now, and that still looks phenomenal. Yeah, oh yeah, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 4:Like I say, it was only because I played the remake. It made it. Do you know what I mean? Otherwise, I was like because I was obviously on PS5 by then, I think, and I went back and forth listening along, oh, this looks great, it plays great. And then the remake came out and was like jesus, you know, I mean, because you had the comparison. I was like whoa, that's I think as well. You know, um, not just visually, you know, when you go back in the controls sometimes I think, like you know, the more, the more complex the game is.
Speaker 4:I come and play like grandpa's daughter was a kid son andrea, this is amazing. And then I booted up on the ps2 and I was like how on earth did I ever play this? And I actually was like this is amazing. And then I booted it up on the PS2 and I was like how on earth did I ever play this?
Speaker 1:And I actually was like I finished it as a kid and I was like I can't even do it. I can't even shoot anyone.
Speaker 4:I don't know what's going on If you do Grand Theft 3 or Vice.
Speaker 1:City.
Speaker 5:Obviously they altered it for San Andreas, because obviously you had a locked camera on them too.
Speaker 4:Trying to shoot with camera sometimes. That's why I think, like you know, you know simple games still like pretty, like crash, bandicoot, rayman. You go back to them and they still play well, right, because it's so simple. I mean, mario did still play really well, you know, when it started getting more complex gameplay, it's like because how far we've come from that. It it's like Jesus Christ, have you played? Have you played Rayman Origins on the PS3, fats and Eve?
Speaker 3:I probably have.
Speaker 4:Oh, they're gorgeous yeah.
Speaker 3:well, yeah, the 2D stuff still does it's yeah.
Speaker 4:Like it's so simple. It's all hand-drawn, like you know what I mean. That's.
Speaker 3:Maybe what I'm looking at at the moment is the Puppeteer. I don't know if you've seen that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's still beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a cracking looking game. Again, it's that bit different, isn't it? They went off piste and done what they wanted to do, and some of them just look so good. Yeah, that Puppeteer does look really good.
Speaker 3:I think, that's what's sought after now, isn't it? So I don't think it's many standard games that are like over 40, 50 quid. That's a really expensive game, unless you're going for sort of the hd collections and the god of wars and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think the last, I think I said in previous show, I think the last hd collection I bought was a couple of months ago and that was the splinter cell one. I think that was about 30, I think. But I've got a few of them. I was trying to collect them all, but some of them are a bit they're getting a bit pricey now.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like the Sly Cooper one and the Killzone one. Ridiculous Crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the Killzone one that's pushing 100 now, yeah, killzone one that's pushing 100 now, yeah, that's pushing about 100, I think. But then I keep thinking to myself well, when I do buy a PS5 game, if I buy one on release, and very often I'm paying 70, so you sort of think, ooh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think one of the most expensive on it at the moment is Godzilla. I mean, it's expensive on the PS4, but it's even more on the PS3. Is it really? I didn't know that? I think so, and I think it's rubbish as well.
Speaker 2:Do you play as a soldier?
Speaker 1:or as Godzilla it's really slow framey, I think you have to turn him by using the bumpers on your. Oh, that's a really really old first person shooter game, isn't it? They first brought over the console and you had to use use the bumpers to spin around, and normally very slowly which is like a tank simulator.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, terrible, um, but right, I think after that little chat us guys will be carrying on chatting after this show's finished. Um, we're going to carry on for a little while longer but as far as the show go um, you'll probably want to know, like I said, about these guys that's there. From our subscribers, um, I chip in monthly to us which really helps us, um, just really does help everything from from equipment to you know, when we go to events to um, our um not subscribers, our um payments we have to make monthly for our providers and bits and pieces. So everything just keeps the lights on with us at ucp um, and you'll probably hear their names again here as I'm going to read out our subscriber list. So we've got all. We've got Seanox, our friend from Sweden. Thank you very much, my friend. Then we've got the one-man George fan club, which is Carlos, who's here with us. Thank you, carlos, I appreciate that. And then we've got the legendary Firm Returns, who's also here. Thank you, my friend. Then we've got Trestles of New York, long-time supporter of the show. Thank you, trestles, as always. Then we've got the wonderful badda binkster I won't put on the italian accent, that's george's job for that. Um. Then we've got the awesome tingle tuner, the wonderful digital monkery, and, as of recorded, that's his birthday. Very many happy returns today to you, digital monkery. Hope you have a good night, um, and don't have a headache tomorrow, but I would imagine you will be.
Speaker 1:Then we've got the Game and Graham Thank you, my friend the Wonderful Bald Border. And then we've got Gern Bran. We've got Boba Loba and then we've got George's red-headed stepson, ginge. He was here with us as well. Thank you, ginge. Then we've got Harvey Retro, the Lord of Darkness. Then we've got the wonderful Emma Sharp. Thank you, emma. Then we've got Greg and, as always, he's nowhere near Berlin, but he's probably busy at the moment because his game Forever Skies is now released on console. So I would imagine he's a very busy boy at the moment. So we'll have to catch up soon, greg, get you on another show and see how the game's going.
Speaker 1:Then we've got Mumsy. Thank you, mumsy. Then we've got the awesome RGT Fan Club, thank you. We've got Pete Brocklehurst as always, the hardest man who's ever been on this show. He's the man who juggles breeze blocks for a living. Then we've got Billy Marmite, the wonderful Simon Pryke and then the one you've all been waiting for it's. Oh, fat zen geef. Come on, look in my eyes, simon. Oh, there we go. That is our wonderful subscribers. But, yeah, thanks for all those guys. Like I say, it's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1:If you're ever interested in that um, jump onto our discord, send us a dm. You can contact us at questions at unoffensivecontrollerspodcastcom. Um if you want to know about the tiers or you're interested in that. If not, as we always say, the show will always be free. It's always going to be a free show. That's just that little bit extra and we always try and give that little bit back as well. But if you'd like to say, if you're interested, jump on our on our discord. Great community as well. All these guys are on Um and you can just tell from this show. We love chatting games, anything and, like today we've talked anything switch PS three, even Godzilla, that doesn't even play very well. We've even been chatting about that. But, like I say, just thanks to everyone who does subscribe. And it just leaves me to say the final thing that we always have to end this show on and it's don't worry if you're given the unofficial controller, it's what you do that counts. Cheers, guys, see you later, yeah.
Speaker 5:See you later. See you later Outro Music.