Random Gaming Thoughts

[Sload Soap]

Picked up a PS3 today. Traded some games in so only paid around £45. So far I have all of two PS3 games: MGS4 and Valkyria Chronicles. I know I want Ni No Kuni, Journey and The Last of Us but otherwise I'm cool. PSN Store looks like it has more interesting indie titles than the Xbox store as well.

[Exhuminator]

So far I have all of two PS3 games: MGS4 and Valkyria Chronicles. I know I want Ni No Kuni, Journey and The Last of Us but otherwise I'm cool.

Those are some nice choices (I recently beat VC for the first time and LOVED it), but I think there are a few other PS3 exclusives worth getting:

3D Dot Game Heroes
Aquanaut's Holiday: Hidden Memories
Atelier series
BEYOND: Two Souls
Drakengard 3
Folklore
Heavy Rain
Puppeteer
Tales of Xillia 1 & 2
Uncharted 1, 2, 3
White Knight Chronicles I & II
Yakuza 3, 4, 5

Just for example. There's quite a few PS3 exclusives:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... only_games

Congrats on picking up the system though. I only got one myself last year, but I've enjoyed every game I've played on it thus far.

[BoneSnapDeez]

That's why i barely play any JRPG's, they go on and on and on (actually i think i only played like 5 in my whole life).

Stop playing crappy modern ones. Retro JRPGs are frequently shorter than today's action and shooter games.

[Erik_Twice]

That's why i barely play any JRPG's, they go on and on and on (actually i think i only played like 5 in my whole life).

Stop playing crappy modern ones. Retro JRPGs are frequently shorter than today's action and shooter games.

You mean less than six hours?

[Exhuminator]

In my experience, pre-PS1 era JRPGs averaged 20-30 hours. Around the PS1 era JRPGs started averaging 30-50 hours. In the PS2 era they started averaging 40-80+ hours.

Personally I prefer my JRPGs to be 20-30 hours long. But it's hard to find that and also have the higher production values of PS2 and beyond era games.

[Sload Soap]

Thanks for the recommendations, Exhumie. 3D Dot Game Heroes and the Uncharted games will get a look in at a later date I'm sure, they seem to get a lot of love on these boards.

Personally, I'm not so keen on the Quantic Dream stuff. Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy was probably enough David Cage for one lifetime. And Yakuza is another one I will look into but only after I get round to playing Yakuza 2, a copy of which I have owned for too long now.

On a related note I have started MGS4 and it's some good old fashioned crazy shit. Can't say I'm too pleased to see Johnny Shitpants has been elevated from running gag to actual character but whatevers. I do love how the Gecko Gears moo but still manage to be intimidating. Just seen the Beauty and The Beast unit aka The Knock-Off Spider-Man Villain squad. Good times.

[noiseredux]

RGT: I know there are a lot of front-ends for MAME or emulators and stuff. But what if I wanted an arcade style front-end for launching Windows/DOS games? Does something good exist?

[nullPointer]

RGT: I know there are a lot of front-ends for MAME or emulators and stuff. But what if I wanted an arcade style front-end for launching Windows/DOS games? Does something good exist?

All of the top shelf frontends (and probably most of the second tier stuff) should provide the tools necessary for the integration of DOSBox at a minimum. Further more if you can configure your Windows games to launch via shortcut they should be able to support that as well.

(Full disclosure: I'm an admin on the GameEx forums) Of these I feel like GameEx is probably the easiest to configure and takes the least amount of time to go from square one to in-game. GameEx positioned for the release of GameEx Evolution, which will offer more customization options within the frontend itself. Hyperspin is also a very popular option, although if you're going this route, I would suggest integrating it with Rocket Launcher which will save you a ton of time and effort faffing around with XML files (At this point Rocket Launcher becomes the launcher for your DOS games whereas HyperSpin is acting purely as the frontend). Whichever route you take you may also want to look into EmuMovies as a means of putting some bling into the frontend (box art, label art, title screens, videos, and the like). GameEx provides seamless integration with EmuMovies which makes things look really nice with absolute minimum of effort.

[noiseredux]

thanks, null.

I had also stumbled upon Maximus Arcade. It looks pretty flexible and easy. Any thoughts on that one at all?

[fastbilly1]

LaunchBox will do all types of roms, and pc games, and will do most of it automatically. Not expensive and works really well.

I used a dozen of them, then found Launchbox by chance. Installed the demo and goofed around with it for a couple hours. Bought the premium version. Now all my cabs that have more than one game installed, have Launchbox set to launch with windows.

Launchbox + Retroarch + Blissbox 4 play = emulation heaven