A bit of double patient-gamering here since I first bought my copy of ark what feels like a lifetime ago, around 2017. Even then, it was on sale and already had a couple years behind it. It then sat on my digital steam shelf til 2020. I only ever got into ark properly over the last year, what with all the indoor time.
This is going to be a niche series comparison if the title of the post hadn't already given it away! See, ARK has a very particular aesthetic, and a very particular design philosophy. Both of these helped it tap into the nostalgia center of my digimon-playing teen brain. We'll start with the game's visual and tactile elements, specifically the UI.
THE SURFACE STUFF
Ark's default UI is, uh, blue. Being exposed to this much Windows XP energy had already made me whiplash back to PSO. But all the dinosaurs also told my brain I was back playing the PS1-era Digimon World games and all the sweet, sweet, nostalgia that entailed. Further, Ark is concerned with presenting a variety of natural landscapes dotted with far-flung technology, another digimon aesthetic staple.
Ark is billed largely as a survival game, but it also exists firmly withinin the 'monster collector' subgenre. If folks remember all the yearning for a game that's 'Pokemon, but like Skyrim!' commonly heard with the release of each new pokemon generation, well, that's just Ark. Except it's actually Digimon, but with dinosaurs. All the game's systems revolve around its critters, they're the main source of conflict, your most reliable tools, really cool mounts, and good eatin'.
I actually think Ark surpasses most of its mon-colle contemporaries in another aspect: its presentation of a curated, pretend ecosystem. I like to call this specific kind of setting "eco-fiction". There's not a lot of media that even attempts this, and when it happens its usually incidental. Pokemon is the primary example, others are Monster Hunter (World, specifically), Subnautica, and more recently, Bugsnax.
What I think sets Ark apart is its focus on fidelity, and monster utility. Ark is a pretty-looking, first person game, and that makes it so much more immersive. Ark also has gameplay systems in place to incentivize interaction with its critters, as most species will have a niche role it can provide tied to the rest of the experience.
THE SYSTEMS STUFF
Digimon and Ark both share a very specific tactile element, or rather the lack of one. They do NOT ever feel polished. For digimon, this would manifest in weird game breaking bugs, slow combat pacing, archaic design elements, or just utterly nonexistent QoL even for the time. Ark on the other hand is just broken in a lot of aspects. First off, its most often going to end up being a pretty big install. The non-dedicated multiplayer will inevitably break in some form or another for everyone involved. It's also famously ill-optimised, requiring a fairly beefy PC even 5 years down the line. While I wouldn't quite call these games 'janky', they do give off the feeling of something rushed out the door.
Another shared trait is the focus on grinding. For Digimon and Ark, grinding is a pillar of design. Digimon as a video game series subscribes to the 'high numbers = win' school of game design. Gameplay goals are leveling goals, and leveling takes a lot of focused, repeated combat. Ark, on the other hand, is grindy because it is granular. There are a LOT of resource conversion flowcharts in the game and you have to perform all the steps involved ad nauseaum, especially if you want to get into the basebuilding aspect. The dinosaur taming can also be particularly bad, requiring you to stand over an unconscious critter for up to an hour or more while routinely force feeding it drugged food.
Ark's granularity may be explained by its nature as an online game. Its basebuilding and resource systems resemble that of an RTS, albeit one where you're controlling just one of the construction units. If you want things to go at pace, you of course bring on more workers. There's thankfully a lot of setting sliders, and a robust modding scene to accommodate more forgiving settings for those who don't want to engage in Ark's darwinistic take on multiplayer.
Lastly, we'll look at the dinos. Arguably Ark's main draw, it's branched out over the years, no longer peddling dinosaurs exclusively. They started off adding in textbook fantasy creatures like dragons and the phoenix, but have since started adding in their own original takes on monster design, all of which I would happily take a bullet for. As mentioned earlier, all these creatures exist both to populate their well crafted maps, and to provide a measure of utility for the play experience. In that sense I feel it differs from digimon, and swings closer to pokemon. Also in that sense, I feel it eclipses pokemon entirely, especially from a mechanical gameplay perspective.
Seriously folks if you want to relive that feeling of setting out on a grand adventure with a trusty animal partner watching your back, I can't recommend Ark enough. Just like the digimon games there is a LOT to dislike, but if you're the target demographic of this very specific fantasy, then the game will fully welcome you into your own personal dinosaur isekai.

Let's talk about controllers...

Why does SoS not have as big a fanbase as Stardew Valley/Where are all the fans?

A feel good Anthem story

I’ve been playing anthem since day one. Since day one, I’ve been in a struggling love/hate relationship with the game. I’m sure all of us who continue to play the game can agree that, to a point, the gameplay and design of the world has kept us going. The thought of reaching that 950 power score, being able to run missions with a few dedicated friends, the silliness of social spaces, that’s what I loved about the game. But at some point, after You’ve played the same 4 strongholds over a hundred times, after completing all the story missions, after you do all the challenges, you ask yourself what other excuse can you give yourself to play the game? If you’ll listen, I’d like to give a small story. I’m not the best writer, so forgive me if I have trouble conveying my experience.
Every now and again I check back into the game to see how things have progressed, or to do that seasonal challenges. Most of the time it just involves me playing for a few hours, doing the exact same moves I’ve ingrained into my body for each mission, then move on. But two weeks ago, I actually had something that surprises me. A kid with his Mic on.
Now, for the most part, with how often we play multiplayer games, meeting someone in an online lobby is nothing special. Well, not to discredit meeting a new gaming friend or chatting with someone for a little bit while doing a long mission, or maybe something like a “raid” from games like destiny where communication is key. But this was different. I was simply doing a stronghold on grandmaster 1, because I like to help players at a lower level get the rewards they need (usually regular players making a new javelin, business as usual) but this kid was waaaaaaay out of his league. He had a power score of 183, and as you freelancers may know, that is basically around the power you have after going through the first few story missions. He was going down left and right, and could stay up for more than 30 seconds at a time. Listening to him on the mic I thought he couldn’t be more than 11-12, especially with the gusto of his shouting and yelling about all the things going on around him. Now normally at this point, any of us would just mute the kid. Who the hell wants to listen to this young chap scream his head off while running away from basic scar enemies? I can’t tell you how many times in other games I’ve had to mute a whole lobby or take the time in the middle of a multiplayer game just to shut one kid up who doesn’t have the wherewithal to understand no one wants to listen to their pre-pubescent screeching through a microphone literally inside their mouth. But I soon realized that on anthem, this “dead game” that no one plays, I have maybe communicated with two other people on mic chat since day one. No one else has had the mind to chat with other people. No one wanted too. Not on the early LFG days in 2019, no one in matchmaking, hell even my friends and I are just dead quiet sometimes. And it’s because of the predisposition we had of the game. No one else was was able to have fun like this kid because it wasn’t a new, exciting world for them to explore, it was the same old shit over and over that made us abandon the game in the first place.
So instead of doing what most people do, I.e mute the kid, I decided to reach out. I told him that this was probably out of his league, since it’s grandmaster difficulty. I told him about the power levels suggested to play those missions and gear set up that might help. To my surprise, the kid (who I’ll call Noah just for privacy’s sake) was incredibly receptive, and was “in awe” that a max level player would reach out to him. I expected more screaming and inaudible English to keep flying out of his mouth at Mach 1, but instead he kind-of toned it down.
I told him that max level wasn’t anything special, just like all of us had experienced, and with time he would be able to get there too. On a whim, I told him he could add me to his friends list if he needed help progressing through the game. As it turns out, Noah has just got an Xbox one for Christmas (the platform I play on) with game pass, and it was the first game he downloaded. This was literally the first game this kid was playing since he got a console. And I guess it kinda struck me that, at one point or another, we had all been like this at some point. Whether it was an original Xbox or ps1, 360 or what have you, that excitement of a new world and multiplayer aspects were incredible to all of us and we just couldn’t get enough of it. My first game like that had to be halo reach, and I still have fond memories of just playing random forge maps for hours a day with my friends I made online, only this kid didn’t even have anyone on his friends list. I was his first friend online. And it hit me like a truck that he was playing for days, weeks even, on a game nobody cares about anymore all by himself. Normally when you branch out into consoles you go for exclusive titles like call of duty, where the multiplayer aspect of the game is the main focus and of course it’s a rough transition for most. Let’s be honest; although it’s much better in recent years in comparison to the past, most multiplayer lobbies are chock full of toxic asswipes, people who thrive on beating people down verbally. It’s a part of the game. Trash talking in any sense is a mainstay for any kind of competition, whether it be sports, videogames, or schoolyard hopscotch. But this kid didn’t even get to experience THAT, all the while still have an absolute blast by himself on a game that should otherwise be dead in a weeks time.
And I don’t know if it was a guilty conscience of being a toxic trash talker in the past, how depressing it was that this kid didn’t have any online friends, or the fact that he was getting so much joy out of a game that I feel obligated to play based on how many hours I’ve put in, but I asked if he wanted to go grind some gear right then, maybe go fly around the open world map like a couple of buddies. Noah was so excited that when he was trying to say something, his mic cut out from how loud he was. I got the general sense that he was pretty excited to do so.
Over the last two weeks we’ve been gaming together and he’s risen up to 612 power level. He loves using the Titan, as it “is the coolest because of how big it is”. He’s got a few armor customizations for it and he loves showing off color schemes he comes up with. I’ve got him through the whole story, often times needing to explain heavy concepts to him, like the elderly woman thinks you’re her son, and what that is/means in real life, like ptsd, Alzheimer’s etc. it was really weird being not only his gaming buddy, but also a kind of mentor. I’ve never had a younger brother, but i imagine this is somewhat what it feels like. It’s cool being able to teach him about the game, but also giving him advice on real world things as well. Of course I keep it somewhat vague, since I’m just a random dude on the internet and let him come up with his own solutions to problems. like mean kids at school, or figuring out what to do in this pandemic (he’s very open about his life, as most kids his age are). Sure, Noah is still very loud and annoying at times, but I’ve honestly become accustomed to it at this point. He’s a good kid.
As of today, he’s officially ran all the strongholds and legendary missions. I’ve got a couple of my buddies online to do one with us for a real “multiplayer communication/tactics”. when it comes to raid-like gameplay and he had a blast calling out enemies and saying what he called “priming combos”, essentially setting others up for combo damage.
At the end of our session I broke the news to him about the conference with EA coming up, whether or not to keep anthem going as a game. I explained about how the game was handled at launch, the bugs and fixes and all the reviews, the lead designers leaving, and EA maybe pulling the plug. Needless to say he was pretty down about it. He loves the game, and he’s got a big hope that it’s going to continue, but I don’t have the heart to tell him about EAs track record with this kind of stuff. Here’s hoping they keep it, at least for Noah 👍
That was really long, and full of grammatical errors I’m sure, but I felt like it needed to be shared. Since Noah’s got game pass, I recommend some other games to download that we can play together. I’m thinking maybe I’ll gift him some newer games that he can try, for a surprise. I got some extra cash after the whole GameStop thing, a new game or two for him wouldn’t bust the wallet. Any recommendations would be great. Anyways, I’m tired and I have work in the morning, so I wish you all well freelancers. Take care, and thanks for reading 👋👋👋
EDIT: wow I really didn’t expect this much love and support for the post, I’ve never really shared like this on the internet before, it’s amazing to see all of you react so fondly to the story! Again, I’d really love any ideas for games to buy for Noah, I think he deserves it for sure. I’ve also seen some people ask about gaming with me/us, and by all means we’d love to have you join! Hmu for my GT, we’re playing on Xbox 👍

In-depth look At Mihoyo's History, misconception about Gacha gaming industry, and Genshin Impact's future

You Are The Real MVP - Why Genshin Impact Is The Real Game of the Year in 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLxgyp0pnMQ
Hi all, I see there is a lot of anger and anxiety toward Genshin Impact due to the wide audience it brought to the table, as well as a lot of misconceptions about the gacha gaming industry. I am 40 years old and have been gaming for over 30 years. I have 300+ DAYS /played in World of Warcraft and recently, over 1000 hours in Path of Exile with popular build guides with hundreds of replies. I also have played just about every major hit of every era on every platform. I really want to tell you who Mihoyo really is, how the gacha gaming industry works, and what Genshin Impact's future looks like.
Mihoyo's History
In 2011, three college students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (comparable to Cornell in America) released their first game, FlyMe2TheMoon. When they graduated in 2013, they used their own money to make the first Honkai game (released as Zombiegal Kawaii overseas). This game allowed players to farm gold coins to buy all weapons and gear, only spend real money to speed up progress and came with glorious two players co-op way ahead of other mobile games at the time. At end of the day, players just didn't pay money for it. When they took it to investors, they were laughed at and ridiculed by everyone. Nobody is going to pay money for this silly anime stuff! You guys don't know how to monetize a game! Both of these games are still available on App Store, feel free to download them to check them out!
In 2014, on the verge of bankruptcy, the team learned monetization model from Puzzles & Dragons, the first-ever mobile game to break a billion dollars, and released Honkai 2 with the same art style and gameplay. The biggest change was moving to the gacha model. The game became a top-10 grossing title in China, released to overseas market as Guns GirlZ - Mirage Cabin and Guns Girl - Honkai Gakuen. Mihoyo the company was born. Today, Mihoyo has over 1000 employees and pays them more money than titans like Tencent and Netease, and runs their office in the ultra-expensive heart of Shanghai business district. Despite Genshin Impact's smashing global success and player's thirst for more content, they gave many of their employees a full 8 days break, standard with the 10/01 Chinese national holiday, for the historic job they did with the global launch. They understand it is a marathon, not a sprint.
For Mihoyo, the most important metric for their title will always be LIFETIME REVENUE, and they do not abandon their titles. All of them are still available. Honkai 2 is still getting content updates six years after release, even if the game itself is nothing more than a piece of history for them at this point. Honkai Impact 3 hit an all-time high revenue month this year, still makes a few hundred million dollars a year in China/Japan, three years after release, and Mihoyo took every dollar they made and spent an unprecedented 100 million dollars on a mobile game we know as Genshin Impact. You can count on Mihoyo to treat its most ambitious title ever with love and care, but you must remember they will always prioritize LIFETIME REVENUE over any other metric, which is what successful companies do because it is the only way to make the product best in class.
Fate Grand Order - Genshin Impact's TRUE inspiration
In 2015, Fate Grand Order was released as a turn-based mobile JRPG, the first six months it scored just $100 million dollars, and was on the verge of sinking into irrelevance. Five years later, the game grossed 4 billion dollars and became the most successful PVE game on any platform since GTA 5. How did it happen?
Many say it is the fate IP, but the truth is fate's IP is nothing special in a sea of big IPs trying to make a splash in mobile and failed miserably, just ask Nintendo how their two Mario games performed, or Square about their countless Final Fantasy mobile games. 80% of the billion-dollar games on mobile are actually brand new IP's.
The biggest challenge for every PVE game-as-a-service is monetization. PVP games like League of Legends and Fortnite do not need huge content updates to stay fresh and can maintain much higher daily active user counts to sell cosmetics, make $5 per player, and still hit a monster year. Monetizing PVE games is much harder. Players simply run out of things to do and quit the game, no matter how quickly you can produce content. Games like Path of Exile and Warframe struggle to break 100 million a year in revenue.
PVP gacha games like Summoners War and AFK Arena can rely on whales dueling each other to force meta changes, and they grew into billion-dollar franchises in their own right. But Fate Grand Order had a different idea in mind, what if you design amazing characters that are truly desirable, and price them at a low gacha rate so it takes thousands of dollars for rich players to max out their box by pulling multiple copies? You are never going to have the player base of a Candy Crush, let's try to maximize our revenue ceiling from whales instead, and make players emotionally attach to their characters because they are so well designed. The rest was history.
While there are indeed many generous gacha games like Granblue Fantasy, Azur Lane, Dragalia Lost, etc, none of them are in Fate Grand Order's tier if you look at their annual numbers, not even in the same ballpark. Other multi-billion dollar franchises like Puzzles and Dragons, Monster Strike also follow the same concept of greatly increasing the limit of what a whale can spend on a PVE game to max out a character. And yes, we are talking about providing strong benefits for getting multiple copies of the same character.
The numbers have proved time and time again, that maximizing whale spending in a PVE game is far more revenue than maximizing the number of monthly card players.
Genshin Impact's Target Audience
Any product that tries to be everything for everyone is doomed to fail. Mihoyo has very clear audiences in mind:

Players who love anime graphic and ARPG, there is simply no AAA game out there in this genre. Tales series, Xenoblade, etc. are all low budget, low sales games. Granblue Relink is single platform and dead on arrival. There is no dominant franchise at all.
Players who love Zelda's open-world exploration and environment interaction, but hate the difficult puzzles and survival/weapon durability/ammo aspect, and want constant content updates. Hey, a co-op mode with a real RPG system sounds amazing!
Mobile players who want more than a simple game like Fate Grand Order. They want to do dailies during commute and don't mind doing harder content on PC/console. The game needs to look good on a big screen at home. They don't want to learn/maintain two different PVE games given how time-consuming these games are.
Players who retired from MMORPG/ARPG's due to real-life commitments. Many of us who played World of Warcraft have kids now, and the outdated graphics, 20 buttons skill bar, the social requirements for raids . . . it is just too much to keep up. We want a simpler game that looks good and takes far less time to learn and play.

And let's just say they hit it out of the park with the greatest launch in gaming history. Never before a game hit PC/PS4/iOS/Android with cross-play on day one in 100 countries, 13 text language and 4 fully voiced languages, never before a game hit top 5 grossing in China/Japan/US/Korea at the same time, I don't even recall a marketing campaign did so well across so many drastically different regions and cultures. The AAA graphics, sound, incredible polish, you don't need me to tell you why this game is amazing. But from the competition's standpoint, the launch itself was like watching a bronze player climb to grandmaster overnight, and the game's biggest strength. Far bigger companies, franchises, do not dare to even think about launching a game at this scale. Mihoyo released the failed Honkai 1 overseas when the company was on the verge of collapsing, they always punched way above their weight when it comes to global releases.
Make no mistakes about it, this was never meant to be a single-player AAA game or a direct Diablo 3 / Path of Exile / Warframe competitor. It was meant to be a game that converts PC/console players to gacha gamers, by casting a wider net than any mobile game ever. They only need a small percentage of PC and console players to change their behaviors. The rest of them can play for free or leave and it won't hurt them at all. The monthly card is designed as a super good deal (look, WAY cheaper than World of Warcraft $15 per month) to get PC/console players to spend for the first time ever, breaks down their "why pay for a free game" defense. Once they pay once, the pity 5 star is always just a few dozen more pulls away, let me buy another pack! Before you know it, monthly cards are converted to dolphins, dolphins are converted to whales. It is by far the strongest business model for a PVE game today, and people who are new to the genre won't know what hit them.
Genshin Impact has an excellent chance to end Fate Grand Order's reign as the #1 most successful PVE game on any platform since 2016, by the virtue of being on every platform, and the same version across all regions.
LIFETIME REVENUE = Active Player Base * Spend Per Player * Longevity
For every game as a service, balancing these three variables is an incredibly difficult task. Can Mihoyo increase the rate on an event (like Cy Games gala events), put up a Diluc banner, and greatly increase spend per player? Yes, but they will provide less reason for people to pull on other days and lose out on long term revenue.
Likewise, the resin limitation is to prevent even whales from maxing out their characters and moving onto other games, that is why they have a hard limit on resin refill. Player progression is meticulously controlled to ensure content can keep up. A huge part of internal testing is to test how quickly a player of each spending level can go through content. Two-day, three-day, seven-day, and thirty-day player retention are critical metrics to F2P mobile games, you will always lose a huge number of players during these transitional phases. These are tried and true methods in gacha gaming to preserve the maximum number of players over the long haul. It is basically a much more advanced progression control than say, World of Warcraft's weekly raid lock outs. You have to FORCE your players to take breaks, or you will lose them way faster than you can churn out new content.
All four dailies, spend resins, and open-world exploration for crafting/ascension materials, a couple of chests/quest you missed, that is a health 60 minutes of gameplay. Gacha games provide resources for the next pull on every daily, every quest, every event. Getting a five star is a better feeling than getting any item drop in MMORPG/ARPG. Gacha games have a much stronger hold on its players because of this addiction, you are always very close to the next pull! Genshin Impact takes it a step further to actually encourage you to do single pulls over ten pulls. Over time resources will inevitably be loosened up as more contents are released, and daily quests and slowed down progression is there to keep you playing.
Behind the scenes, there is an ultra-complex data model that works tirelessly to balance all three variables. Looking at Mihoyo's track record with Honkai Impact 3, they know what they are doing to maximize LIFETIME REVENUE. With every gacha game like this, the developer has a price point they need to hit on a five star, then based on the competition they usually adjust the price significantly higher than what they consider to be acceptable. Whether it is gacha rate or stamina, once you reduce the price, you can never, ever increase it again. Start high and drop it when you need to is a much better strategy, and players think you listened to their feedback, win-win! If the daily active user doesn't drop while you keep the price high, why lower the price? The developer and player are always in a tug of war, with the developer testing player's limit on what is acceptable. It is just like how Apple kept iPhone with 2GB of memory and tiny screen size for a very long time because they are looking at the overall LIFETIME REVENUE, not because they didn't know their product needed these features.
Genshin Impact is priced at a premium because it has no competition, just like how Apple iPhones were priced at an ultra-premium when it first came out. Over time, prices will drop, resources will come easier, but until there is a real competitor, they do not need to care what lesser gacha games do. Do you think KeQing should be priced the same as a gacha character with PS1 graphics?
Genshin Impact's Future
100 million dollars estimate from Sensor Tower in two weeks does not include PC, PS4 and Chinese Android. Chinese Android revenue has been 1.8 times of China iOS for Honkai 3, many in the Chinese gaming industry speculate the true global revenue number of Genshin Impact is easily double of what Sensor Tower shows. Mihoyo is a private company and it fired one of the employees who bragged about the 09/15 China PC numbers, which was 10 million dollars, so we will never know the exact figures unless they go public. Don't expect Mihoyo to ever share revenue/player base numbers, that is just not how they operate.
There is no way the game can continue the 100 million dollars a week pace, that is 5 billion dollars a year, so for haters out there, you will see a massive decline in the player base between content updates, you will see the game falling out of top 10 grossing, you will get your "I told you so" moments when the weekly revenue drops by 50-70%. It is perfectly normal for gacha games between banners, and what Gensin Impact is doing is completely unsustainable. This is called filtering out users and building a stable player base.
However, even with the inevitable massive decline, this is a game destined to be a multi-billion dollar franchise. I personally give it a very conservative estimate of two billion dollars in three years. It will easily outperform the likes of BOTW, Cyberpunk 2077, etc. by the end of the first year in terms of the player base, hours played, and revenue. It will take money away from all other gacha games and force other developers to step up their game. It will take money away from long-standing multi-billion dollar PC PVE franchises like Dungeon Fighter Online, and to a lesser degree, MMORPG's like FF14. It will encourage companies to play with bigger budgets and provide PC/console releases for bigger mobile releases like Diablo Immortal, instead of relying on emulators. It will even change the monetization model for western F2P games. Iksar, lead designer of Hearthstone has been playing Genshin Impact since release. Imagine if Hearthstone didn't allow you to craft cards, and provided benefits to getting multiple copies of the same card. It is way too late for Hearthstone to change now, maybe there is still time to change Diablo Immortal's monetization model, I believe they will need either gacha or real-money auction house to be competitive.
But will Genshin Impact shake up the AAA industry? My personal opinion is no. Japanese developers do not have the technology to make mobile games at this level, you just need to look at the top 20 grossing Japanse mobile games. Western developers do not have the artwork to make characters so attractive, I mean just look at Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 characters, will whales spend $1000 on them? Whales spend enough money in gacha to pick up girls in real life many times over, many of them are ultra-rich and live a lavish lifestyle, just showing anime assets is not enough to win them over.
In all of my years playing Western games I have never been attached to a female character as I did with Artoria aka King Arthur of Fate Grand Order, I played the game for six months even if I don't really like turn-based JRPGs, and always enjoyed listening to her "Excalibur". Mihoyo is coming very close with some of Genshin Impact's character designs. I am not sure if Western culture is capable of creating the type of characters that can connect with players on an emotional level. Lara Croft is definitely not it. I believe Western gaming's general pursuit of realism and grittiness hurts them when it comes to creating an idealistic world and dreamy characters. Top western games tend to expose the harshness of real-world to players, instead of offering an escape. In many ways, Mihoyo's mastery of anime is closer to a Japanese company than Chinese company, it is not something you can just hire a couple of artists for. Likewise, the western market will always be 15-20% of the overall revenue for gacha games at best, it is difficult for western companies to justify making them with a AAA budget.
It is also incredibly hard to make a cross-platform PVE game on PC, Console, and Mobile look this good. It is not something you get from just licensing Unity. There are maybe a handful of companies out there capable of dropping 100 million dollars on a game like this, but until their main cash cow die, which studio dares to take this kind of risk? The tier 2-3 companies are simply not capable of spending 100 million dollars even if they went all in. I don't see a real competitor in two years, not even from Tencent and Netease, the bar is that high.
How You Should Approach It As A Player
If you are not a fan of gacha games, no problem! The best way is to play it like a free AAA game with unlimited free DLC's. With the amount of money this game makes, in a few years it will have more content than any other open-world game, and the developer will also be more generous over time as end game contents become more abundant. As their tools mature, the amount of time it takes to release contents across all platforms at the same time will shrink significantly, there will also be more events they can queue up. Every F2P player can get at least one five star character without rerolling if they complete most of the quests and use up their gifted currencies. I expect 100% F2P players will get at least 4 five-stars per year, 3 from pity, 1 from luck. I believe F2P with limited resources is a lot more fun and only spend money to support the developer. I am still 100% F2P on Genshin Impact as of today, because getting 20 pulls from the monthly card is not that exciting. I will wait for a one-time-only deal later in the game's life cycle.
For players who want to be a bit more involved, you can buy a monthly card, do your dailies, enjoy new content, enjoy the thrills of pulls, and pity 5 stars. Once Mihoyo gets a stable end game loop out there, they will definitely loosen up on resins. Just don't expect to play it like a Path of Exile season start. Save currencies and pity timer for a banner you want. Take it slow! Gacha games are designed to be played over many years, alongside other games. Take your Cyberpunk 2077 break, take your Call of Duty break, but in the end, there is simply no anime ARPG competition on any platform, and if you are into this kind of game, you will be back.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VITA PIRACY AND HOMEBREW (31/12/2020). CHECK THIS BEFORE POSTING!

Hello all,

I have compiled some resources here for those who may have questions or who may be in need of an in-depth guide. This thread was made as the [last "FYI' thread], byInquisitionImplied had become locked due to reddit's 6 month time limit before a thread becomes archived. I volunteered to make this thread as I had some free time, and I am grateful to have been able to build on the work of the previous megathread.

If there are suggestions for further content please do not hesitate to let me know in the comments below and I will add those suggestions to the main post.

It is expected that you read this pinned post before posting. Any post asking for or about material included here will be deleted and the poster will be issued a warning

[MOST IMPORTANT INFO]

• vita.hacks.guide is a good website to help you with hacking your vita
• Nopaystation has been moved to the sidebar
• Those on the discord guide can help you if you want to mod a game and wonder where to begin.
• Every PSVita mod created (also include translation patch) is listed here
• I made a troubleshooting guide which should helps with most of the problems you could encounter as well as some tutorials here

[NEWS]\*
• [June 22] Thread optimizer by graphene is released
• [June 25] HENlo is announced
• [July 16] A legal shader compiler is released. Useful for emulation and port/homebrew games
• [October 27] re3 port of GTA3 released by Rinnegatamante, TheFlow and the re3 team
[EMULATORS]
• mGBA - GB/GBC/GBA emulator
• RetroArch- Multi-system emulator (CSP2/Saturn/MegaDrive/PS1/NES/etc), individually installed by core
• SNES9x - Standalone SNES emulator
• DaedalusX64 – a N64 emulator for vita
• Flycast – a Dreamcast emulator
• pfba – an arcade emulator
[HOMEBREW]
• AccountSwitcher - Switch between multiple psn account
• AdBlocker - Delete the ads in the multi-tasking menu
• Anti-Blacklist - Enable all games for play on the PSTV
• Lua Player Plus+ - First Lua Interpreter for the Vita
• Moonlight - Stream from your PC to your Vita (Nvidia GPU required)
• PSVita DB Theme Installer - Install custom and official themes
• RegistryEditorMod - Edit adhoc username, disable sleep mode, etc.
• Savemgr - Backup and share your saves
• VHBB/Easyvpk - Download homebrew from your Vita
• NOBORU – Manga reader for PSVita
• ThreadOptimizer – Use the 4th cpu of the vita for more performance.
• VITAlbum – A Photo Gallery app so you can view any image format
• IMCunlock – Create an internal partition for fat psvita
• ITLS-ENSO – Add TLS 1.2 support for the PSVita to browse more websites
• VitaIdent– Show useful info about your vita
• Yamt - Storage manager plugin customizable and loaded by the bootconfig
• Enso EX - Customizable enso with script support, intended for advanced users
• PSP2BatteryFixer - Fix errors about wrong battery % or weird shutdown
• mincg - Change the factory version
• Modoru - Downgrader for PSVita
• Cex2Rex - Testkit Installer for PSVita
[HOMEBREW GAMES]
• Zombiebound - Inspired by Call of Duty Zombies
• Tropical Zone - Shooter game on a island
• VitaFighters - Street fighter like game
• Pingo - A puzzle game, paint the whole level with as little step as possible
• Super Drone Racer Ultra - Retrowave style race game
• Speed Run Vita - Parkour game
More can be found in vitadb under original game section
[PLUGINS]
• Revita - Remap buttons for individual games and trigger actions
• DownloadEnabler - Download any file extension to your Vita
• RePatch - Patch your encrypted games (cartridge, digital download, NoNpDRM/pkgj)
• VitaCheat - Cheating tool for the PSVita
• Screenie - Take uncompressed screenshots (.bmp format)
• Shellbat - Display your battery percentage on the Livearea
• PSVshell - Change your Vita's clock speeds/overclock the CPU to 500mhz (saves profiles on a per game basis), display framerate/ battery percentage, cpu usage.
• VitaGrafix - Change the resolution and framerate of many Vita games
• UDCD-UVC – Allow streaming your vita screen to a PC (or a TV)
• MiniVitaTV – Allow you to use a DS3/4 controller with your vita
[TOOLS]
• AdrenalineBubbleManager - Create Livearea bubbles to launch your PSP content from
• FAGDec - Decrypt eboots/modules for modding and prepare games for lower firmwares than they require. Tutorial on how to mod here under eboot modding
• VitaGameUpdateChecker - See the latest update version for a game
• UMDGen v4.00 - Trim/Cut unnecessary files from your PSP ISOs.
• NPS Browser - Download Vita/PSM/PSX/PS3 games+DLC and much, much more!
• pkgj- freeshop for the Vita. Download games on to your Vita
[MISC]
• "Premium" Crunchyroll - Watch anime without ads! (the dramas are still not accessible with this)

I have also included an FAQ in this guide for those who may find it useful;

[FAQs:]
Q: Can I pirate Vita games?
• A. You certainly can, and it's possible on a 3.60-3.73 Vita
Q: Can I downgrade my Vita?
• A. Yes, with modoru.
Q: What's the best firmware to use?
• A. The only differences are that 3.60 and 3.65 are Enso compatible, 3.68-3.73 is not. And that 3.60 has a much easier method to exploit it over 3.65 and 3.68 but also the webkit makes it easier to save you from troubles that can arise as we don’t need a memorycard, psn access or a qcma. I highly recommend people to choose that one. Note that if you have a fat (OLED) Vita, you will need an official Sony memory card in order to use the 3.65 and 3.73 exploits as they require internal storage. If you’re in 3.60 you can use mlthaku
Q: Can I play games with a firmware requirement higher than what my current firmware is?
• A. Yes, you can, thanks to 0syscall6.
Q: What games can I pirate?
• A. Any game out there.
Q: What's the fastest way to play pirated games?
• A. Upon getting your Vita, install the NoNpDRM plugin to the ux0:tai/config.txt or ur0:tai/config.txt (depending on if you are using SD2Vita or not), then install pkgj.
Q: What about PS1 and PSP games? Do those come in .vpk/.pkg files?
• A. PS1 games can be converted into an eboot to be used with Adrenaline or can be left as .bin/.cue for use with Retroarch. PSP games need to be in .iso/.cso format to be used with Adrenaline. You can also see if they're available in pkgj
Q: I require assistance, can you help me?
• A. Yes sure, but first read the faq, if your question is about a generic issue (plugins not working, hack installation, downgrade) check first the troubleshooting guide and ask help in the VitaPiracy discord where people are available to personally help you. If you feel that your issue is not generic or complex, make a post about it. For exemple, "nonpdrm is not working help" shouldn't need a post. "I haven't touched my Vita since 2009 what updates do I need" are ok
Q: How do I install Adrenaline to play PSP/PS1/PSP homebrew?
• A. Here's the github for Adrenaline
Q: Can I still play games I downloaded from PSN or use my cartridges?
• A. Yes.
Q: How do I update my game?
• A. With NoNpDRM dumps, you can use the Livearea to update your game. If you're using the anti-blacklist hack on your PSTV, you can download game updates with pkgj without having to disable the blacklist
Q: My PSTV isn't installing a Livearea update. How do I fix it?
• A. If you have a antiblacklist hack installed, it may prevent installing for some games, but certainly does for games originally not allowed. Disable the antiblacklist hack to install the update.
Q: How do I know if a game update requires a certain firmware?
• A. Use VitaGameUpdateChecker
Q: What is NoNpDRM?
• A. It's a plugin by TheFloW that lets you play encrypted, untampered Vita games. Read more about it here
Q: What differences are there between Vitamin, NoNpDRM, and Maidump?
• A. See this chart
Q: What differences are there between 3.60 Enso, 3.65 Enso, and h-encore
• A. See this chart
Q: Can I transfer my saves if I'm still on Vitamin/Maidump dumps to be used with the NoNpDRM plugin?
• A. Yes. savemgr is a useful tool to easily backup/restore your saves. Alternatively, you can backup your savedata folder in ux0:use00/savedata.
Q: My dumps are currently Maidumps. Should I swap them out to play with the NoNpDRM plugin? How do I do that?
• A. You'll be fine with sticking to Maidumps if you're updated to the latest version possible and used the method to prevent your saves being wiped after you resume your Vita from sleep (detailed in "Q: I lost my savedata after I started my Vita up from suspend mode!..."). To swap the dumps, you can either use savemgr or manually copy/paste the game's savefolder (ux0:use00/savedata) to backup your saves before deleting the game in question to restore it after downloading and installing the NoNpDRM rip
Q: How do I rip/play games with NoNpDRM?
• A. Use this guide
Q: Where's NoPayStation and how do I use it?
• A. You can find a bunch of links to games, the tool and a tutorial here
Q: How do I use pkgj (freeshop for the Vita) to download games right on to my Vita?
• A. Making sure you have NoNpDRM working prior to this, get pkgj from here and install it.
Open the app, and refresh (triangle to open the menu, then select refresh) and you will be able to select which game you want to install.
Note: You can press L when a game is highlighted if you want to download its compatibility pack (0.31 pkgj or higher). You don’t need that if you use ref00d/0syscall6
Q: I've installed pkgj, but it does not work. It says "install failed" when trying to download the game.
• A1: Your NoNPDRM plugin might cause this issue. Check your config.txt and make sure the plugin is listed there correctly.
• A2: Try changing the plugin's path in ur0/ux0:tai to "ur0:/tai/nonpdrm.skprx" or "ux0:/tai/nonpdrm.skprx", wherever it's placed (It's best to keep all plugins in ur0: and keep a backup in ux0:).
• A3: There is an issue with size (you need to check it out on pkgj's github, I'm not sure) some people are experiencing.
• A4: If everything fails, it may be that the zrif is invalid. Use NPS browser on your PC instead (as a bonus you get access to PSP/PSX/PS3 titles and DLCs (including Vita DLCs)
Q: Can I delete my game, but backup my saves?
• A. Yes, use savemgr.
Q: How do I mod NoNpDRM games?
• A. To mod games, install RePatch and treat ux0:repatch as ux0:app, then put your decrypted, modded files in the correct file path. Follow these github instructions for savemgr. For mods that require a modified eboot, follow the tutorial for modified eboots
Q: NPS browser is giving me "PKG Decrypt Err!" on everything
• A: You are probably using pkg2zip parameters with pkg_dec. You should download pkg2zip and use it instead in order to use all of NPS browser's features.
Q: What else can I do with my Vita?
• A. Some other things you can do are transfer files using a FTP client or direct transfer using Vitashell 1.60+, configure controls past the game's options, modifying game files (undubs, translations, graphical hacks, etc.), playing PSP/PS1 games with native emulation, use microSDcards as storage, or whitelisting your PSTV to play all games.
Q: Where do you find the "refresh livearea", "mount uma0:", and "refresh license database" options in Vitashell?
• A: While viewing all partitions (ux0:, ur0:,...), press triangle.
Q: Can I play online, download, and update my games?
• A: You can update your legitimate games regardless of your firmware. As far as online is concerned, PSN spoofing still works, so you can use the PSN store, sync trophies, play online, etc.
Q: I'm not going to bother with Playstation network services. Can I use a Vita without having an account?
• A: Yes, you can set up a trial account when you set up your system.
Q: Can I use a USB as storage with my PSTV?
• A. Yes. It needs to be formatted to FAT32 and you need to be using Vitashell 1.60 or later. For your first time using it, when viewing all partitions in Vitashell (ur0:, uma0:, etc), press triangle, mount the USB as uma0:, disconnect and connect the USB again if it asks you to, press triangle again, and mount it as ux0:. Making sure you have Enso installed, use usbmc_installer so that the USB will be mounted on boot every time.You can also either use storagemanager using the UMA option in the config (for exemple set UMA=ux0 in storagemgr_config.txt) in order to mount the USB storage as the memorycard at boot
Q: "MicroSD cards as storage? How do I do it?"
• A: To use a microSD card on your Vita, You will an adapter that will need to take up your cartridge slot or one that will replace your 3G modem (only for the 3G Fat model). I am only aware of Yifanlu selling those type of adapters, but here is a thread for one of the latest SD2Vita designs. They've yet to ship, but there's a place to look. Check the other pinned message for other adapters. Use this guide from cfw.guide to use it.
Q: "How do I upgrade from my memory card/internal storage to a SD2Vita?"
• A: Make sure you can view hidden folders and unhide protected operating system files in your Windows' folder options (picture), then back up all the files from your memory card and ur0:shell/db/app.db (which you can access by opening up a FTP server with Vitashell if your Vita's not in safe mode) so that your bubbles are in the same place. You can copy the entire memory card to your PC using Vitashell. After that, copy everything onto your microSD card (provided that you formatted your microSD card correctly as pointed out in the Wololo tutorial.
Q: How do I move to a bigger microSD card, say 128GB to 256GB?
• A: It's the same deal as upgrading from an official memory card to your SD2Vita card, except you obviously don't need Vitashell to move files across the memory cards. Another thing to take into consideration is that you need to manually set the cluster size to 64kb since the size of the microsd is bigger we need to adjust it.
Q: Where do I put PSP/PS1 games?
• A: PSP games go in ux0, ur0, or uma0:pspemu/iso/[isoname].iso. PS1 eboots go in ux0, ur0, or uma0:pspemu/PSP/GAME/[GAMEID]/EBOOT.PBP If you have put it on uma0: ur0: you need to change the memory stick path in adrenaline settings to ur0/uma0 (long press PS button to open the quick menu, then press settings button for adrenaline)
Q: "Where can I get normal PSP ISOs and special modified ISOs (translations, etc.)?
• A. You can use Emuparadise with a workaround script for normal ISOs and NextGenRoms for modified ISOs. There's also a spreadsheet that has some links still active (backup to that spreadsheet)
Q: How do I launch my PSP games from the Livearea just like a PS Vita game?
• A. Use AdrenalineBubbleManager
Q: How do I install .vpks without needing double the space of it?
• A. .vpks are basically renamed .zip files. Either rename them to a .zip for extraction or use an extraction program (I use 7-Zip) to extract the .vpk as-is. You can then install it as a folder in Vitashell
Q: I lost my savedata after I started my Vita up from suspend mode! What happened?
• A: Vitamin and Maidumps required a work around for games to work, so their metadata gets messed up. Savedata can as a result disappear from these dumps. You can check ux0:use00/savedata_backup and see if your save is there. To stop this from happening, create a folder in ux0:use00/savedata and rename it to "list.dat".
Q: Will I get banned for playing online with pirated games, syncing trophies with pirated games, or using any PSN service with spoofing?
• A: No, you won't. There haven't been any reports of bans as a result of any of these activities, but there have been unconfirmed ban reports of syncing trophies with a pre-release vpk of the US Criminal Girls and a developer build of Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom back in November-ish and September, respectively. Another case of temporary IP bans came as a result of the near app excessively pinging Sony's servers. At this point, there's no chance of you getting banned.
Q: I've been told that the Vita has no games. Is this true?
• A: If all you care about are exclusives, certain Vita publishers (Spike Chunsoft, Koei Tecmo, XSEED and NISA) have been porting their Vita titles to the PC, with the most recent being Valkyrie Drive and Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls. Some Vita ports (Virtua Tennis 4, Rayman Legends, and Dead or Alive 5+) have content exclusive to the system, which make them worthwhile to visit. Gematsu has a very accurate list of the status of the exclusives. Otherwise, the system has quite a few strong ports. It's weak in some genres, like racing games or first-person shooters, but is very strong in role-playing games and anime tie-ins, so your mileage will vary.
Q: Will oclockvita/VSHMenu damage my system?
• A: No. Sony kept the system underclocked from it's maximum clock speeds. Oclockvita and VSHMenu only take the Vita's clock speeds to the maximum allowed by the Vita's SoC.
Q: Do I use Lolicon or PSVshell?
• A: PSVshell should be what you need. It’s a better lolicon version
Q: I have heard about or have experienced a savedata error which made me lose my savedata! What can I do to keep this from happening?
• A: If you're using only NoNpDRM dumps, you will not have this issue. If you're using a Maidump, use this method to keep it from happening again.
Q: I want to request a dump, translation, or save file. Do I just make a thread on that?
• A: No, you need to use the correct thread underneath the subreddit info. Making a thread will result in the post being deleted and a warning.
Q: I need help with an emulator. Can I ask about my problem here?
• A. Emulator discussion is better suited over at vitahacks.
Q: Can I post anything I create on Vita here?
• A: We'll make an exemption to the rule here (yes, even with uncensored mods). If you think it'll better suit this subreddit instead of vitahacks or just want to cross post, go ahead. This subreddit has several thousand people subscribed to it and we don't want to deny community created creations that exposure. 99% of things will be allowed. You'd have to make something like a bricker vpk for it to be denied from this subreddit. If too much stuff gets posted, however, we'll dial this back and remove more lesser quality or less relevant creations. Lastly, try to post it when it's as finished as possible. ;)
Q: Can I post a thread asking for help with my creation?
• A: Translation and mod threads are 100% acceptable here, but you need to know what you're doing and/or have at least some part of it done. You can also ask in vitahacks.
Q: What letters in the game's ID (ex. PCSA) go with what regions?
• A: Here's a guide for that

I just beat Final Fantasy VIII for the first time. My lengthy review (SPOILERS):

A few days ago, I finished Final Fantasy VIII Remastered as this was my first time playing FFVIII. After finishing FFVII for the first time last October, I decided to play FFVIII next as it was the cheapest option available on Switch. Plus, I really liked FF8’s battle theme even before playing the game, so I was very interested in actually playing it. I took a break at different times to play some other games, but I finally finished it after 3 months. Overall, I thought this game was very good!
What I Loved
My favorite part of FFVIII is the music/OST. The music is GOD-TIER, and the moment I heard "Liberi Fatali" from the opening cutscene, I knew I was in for a fantastic-sounding game. While "Fighting" (battle theme) and "Fight On!" (boss theme) from FFVII may be more iconic to a general audience, I think "Don't Be Afriad" and "Force Your Way" from FFVIII blow their FFVII counterparts out of the water. The synth and drums of "Force Your Way" adds an epic and fast-paced nature to the song that is emblematic of boss battles, and the instrumentation shares similarities to "The Man with the Machine Gun" (Laguna’s battle theme), which helps connect the two stories. I can’t forget about that chilling piano for “The Extreme” in Ultimecia’s final batgle. Nobuo Uematsu is a master composer, and this game further proves why. It's easily one of the best video game OSTs I've heard in my entire life.
The battles were relatively smooth in their operation, which really surprised me coming from a PS1 game. What I mean is that the UI in this game is infinitely better than FFVII’s UI. One thing I HATED about FFVII’s battles was that the cursor to target enemies was very inconsistent due to the changing camera angles and enemy formations. With FFVIII, each option led to a top-down sub-menu, even when deciding which enemies you targeted, so navigating through the battle menus was much less annoying. I also enjoyed the Draw function as I liked the concept of stealing weapons (in essence) from enemies to kill them in return. While I didn't appreciate Limit Breaks at first due to their low HP requirements (as opposed to damage accumulation in FFVII), I began to realize how broken they were with Aura magic. Hell, I only needed 2 Aura spells on Squall to spam Renzokuken throughout the Ultimecia battle.
As far as the characters are concerned, I enjoyed the dynamic of the main cast. I wasn't 100% sold on the Squall-Rinoa romance, but I liked Squall's overall development, especially concerning his connection to Ellone. My favorites of the main cast are definitely Irvine, Selphie, & Quistis. I love the chemistry between Irvine & Selphie, and there's something particularly charming about Quistis having a fan club called the Trepies. Fujin was also hilarious with her short ALL-CAPS dialogue. When it came to the villains, I really liked the story surrounding Edea and her connection to the main six. It's unfortunate that Ultimecia wasn't necessarily the most developed final boss (especially compared to Sephiroth from the game before), but she worked for what she was. On a side note, I looked at images online of the original game, and the remaster definitely gave more skin and “enhancement” to her . . . assets.
I won't talk much about the story itself since it's mostly a JRPG plot where the story starts out small but ends with you killing some kind of god-like figure. What I will say is that the main story is much more coherent than FFVII's main story. I did a review of FFVII on the FFVII subreddit back in October, and one of my main criticisms of that game was that so much important content was made optional (such as Aerith's backstory and Zack's story with Cloud), so because I missed out on some of that optional content, the plot itself got pretty confusing by the end until I looked it up online. Thankfully, FFVIII's main story was much more coherent and understandable even if you didn't do sidequests. I did miss out on the "Laguna is Squall's father" hints, though, so I'm pretty ashamed of myself on that end, but I'll explain more of that later.
Enemy Scaling and Junctions
I’m sure this criticism is nothing new to those who’ve played this game, but the enemy scaling is awful! I’m not against enemies getting tougher over the course of the game, but the fact that enemies constantly level up at a stronger rate than your party as you gain EXP is ridiculous. It essentially forces you to cheese/abuse the Junction system in order to complete the game, but the in-game tutorial did not do a good job of preparing the player for the BS enemies in Discs 3 & 4. You easily fall into the trap of spamming GFs while hovering around 1500 to 2500 HP, but once you get to Lunatic Pandora, the game fucks you over HARD.
To be clear, I like the Junction system in theory, and once I understood you had to hoard 100 stocks of every magic to boost your stats, things became much more manageable. I can totally imagine a 2nd playthrough being much better now that I understand the mechanics—I loved Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia even more on subsequent playthroughs. The problem is that the game itself never gives you junctioning tips after the opening section. Once Adel kicked my ass, I just threw my hands up and watched YouTube tutorials on how to properly junction. The game never made it a point to max out your magic or to discourage casting spells, so I regularly had 30 to 40 of each magic, which is clearly not optimal. How you ‘90s kids completed this in 1999 with no Internet guides is beyond me.
Gameplay: Lack of Progression
In most JRPGs, you gain EXP to get stronger. Enemies have fixed stats, so in case you’re not strong enough to fight someone, you have the option of grinding so that you become stronger. This was the case in FFVII, so I found the game to be mostly simple outside of the endless random battles that ambush/overwhelm you (like Shinra Manor). In FFVIII, not only does EXP not help you get stronger over the course of the game, but it essentially makes you worse in the long-run. Why even have EXP and random battles if it’s going to actively hurt you? For example, Odin is supposed to make random encounters easier, but his presence actively hurts you when you’d rather flee. You need to kill enemies to gain AP for your GFs, so EXP shouldn't be a liability.
Those who like enemy scaling will tell you that it’s a good system because it reduces grinding, but the issue is that random battles still exist like it’s FFVII even though this is a fundamentally different game. I didn’t unlock Diablos until late in the game (my fault since I chickened out and didn't use that magical lamp for the entire game due to its cryptic description), so I didn’t unlock the ability to remove random encounters for most of the game. Yes, I technically do have the ability to turn off random encounters on my Switch, but I chose to use it sparingly (only for lengthy backtracking) since I didn’t want to feel like I was cheating compared to those who couldn’t utilize that option in 1999.
I guess the point of random battles is so that you can collect magic stocks, but the gameplay loop of endlessly drawing and retreating feels counterintuitive to how the game actively presents itself. If you accidentally get a kill, you hurt your long-term viability, which shouldn’t be the case. I actually really like the Draw function since it reminded me of using thieves to steal items from enemies in Fire Emblem, but the fact that using magic actively harms you makes the Draw function feel very limited in its purpose. What they should've done is allow you to surpass 100 uses of each magic but cap the junctioned stats as if you have only 100 uses. That way, you can still use magic while emphasizing the importance of junctions.
A Suggestion
If you really want to keep enemy scaling in a game with an EXP system, here’s my suggestion as to how you utilize EXP: Instead of using EXP to minimally increase your default stats (while heavily increasing the enemy stats), use the leveling system to increase your max stats rather than your default stats. Have your default/base stats stay the same over the course of the game, but your max junctioned stats increase the more levels you gain. While enemies will grow stronger than you at base the more you level up (like in the actual game), your max stats will increase at a better rate than the enemies. That way, enemies do get tougher for your party at low amounts of magic, but enemies become easier for you at maxed junctions.
That way, the game gives a natural message to the player that junctioning is necessary. It subconsciously tells the player, “Hey, maxing your junctions is VERY important to completing the game, and grinding doesn't mean shit if you don't junction properly.” With enemy scaling, the system will be relatively similar to what's already in the game, but the difference is that a first-time player will intuitively realize the importance of junctions through the game's own mechanics. The in-game tutorial could show Squall's junctioned stats increasing upon level-up while his other stats stay the same, and Quistis could tell him that drawing 100 of each magic is key to taking out the toughest enemies later on.
I’ll compare this to Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (another game I completed relatively recently). In most FE games, you’ll have “growth units” and “base units.” Since growths are RNG-based in those games, there’s always a debate as to which units are viable. Growth units have low base stats but amazing growths, so if you train them and get good RNG, they can become gods by the end of the game. Base units start out at a decent level with good stats and abilities, but they have shaky growths that limit their long-term potential unless you're lucky. In Radiant Dawn, however, different class types have specific stat caps that limit the maximum potential of certain units, regardless of their growths and bases. Like my suggestion, it tells the player that max stats are more important than base stats.
For example, paladins have good overall stats and insanely good movement/versatility, but due to their low stat caps (especially their low speed cap), they won’t be able to double-attack or one-round most enemies until they promote to their next class. In previous FE games, paladins were OP and would dominate the entire game (good strength, good speed, good durability, insane movement, etc.), but Radiant Dawn put a ceiling on their viability. Paladins are still solid overall due to their movement alone, but their lower stat caps allow sword units (who have a higher speed cap) to carve their own niche since they can consistently double enemies throughout the game despite their lower strength. By the end of the game, Trueblades (the highest tier of sword classes) were the only beorc (human) units outside of Ike who could deal decent damage and reliably double endgame enemies.
Hidden and Hard to Remember
This isn’t necessarily a criticism of FFVIII in particular as this is something I can also say for FFVII. Because I played this game over the course of several months, a lot of scenes and references flew over my head because they relied on you remembering maybe one or two lines from earlier in the game. Most of what I’m talking about has to do with Laguna and those connected to him.
For one, I completely misread the ending FMV. I forgot what Laguna’s last name was at the time because it’s literally mentioned twice in the entire game, so it didn’t occur to me that Raine married Laguna even when we see her gravestone as “Raine Loire.” I just thought that was her normal last name. Speaking of Raine, I completely forgot that was Raine in the ending flashback scene. We barely see Raine in the flashbacks, so I thought that was Julia for some reason. Hell, I didn’t even remember that Raine was a brunette, so I completely misread that ending until I went online.
The “Person” section in the tutorial should've listed the names of all the significant characters throughout the game rather than just a handful of extras. Most RPGs have a character profile section or some kind of affinity chart to reference all the different characters you meet throughout the story, but one thing I wish these early FF games did was have character profiles along with pictures. As I said before, we barely got to see Raine in the flashbacks, so after months of playing (which included breaks), I completely forgot what she looked like.
I didn’t even pick up on the “Squall is Laguna’s son” hints until I read some online discussions. For example, the one scene where Ellone mentions Raine being pregnant is so brief and brushed aside that I completely forgot about it. Plus, the scene in the Ragnarok where Laguna and Kiros allude to Squall being Laguna and Raine’s son is completely optional and missable (since it requires walking to the meeting room before you reach Lunatic Pandora), and I definitely missed that when I played as I was sprinting to the finish line.
Another thing is that we know very little about Julia. We only learn about Julia and her dying through the “Eyes on Me” entry in the tutorial section—not even a character entry. While it’s obvious through the game’s dialogue to pick up that she’s Rinoa’s mother since she married General Caraway, where did everyone get that Rinoa’s last name is Heartilly and not Caraway? I even looked up the game’s transcript, and not once is Rinoa ever referred to by her last name. Rinoa never even talks about her mother.
Now that I think about it, I don’t remember Squall’s last name ever being said throughout the game. I know it’s Leonhart due to his appearances in other media, but the game never states it. I remember Cid Kramer because his last name is said and referenced numerous times, but most other characters’ last names flew over my head. Was there more character info in the game manual back in the day?
Summary
Overall, I'd give Final Fantasy VIII Remastered a very high 8/10 for a 1st playthrough. The only thing that held it back from being a 9/10 was the relatively obtuse gameplay system in conjunction with the enemy scaling. If it was a bit more intuitive to understand, then I'd give it a much higher score. In fact, I was ready to say this game was leagues above FFVII throughout the first 2/3 of the game, but the gameplay during the final stretch sort of soured on me until I completed the game. Still, I’d put FFVIII just above FFVII since FFVIII has more replay value in my opinion. I wouldn’t be surprised if my score goes up on a 2nd playthrough.
Anyways, I'm glad I've now played two Final Fantasy games in my life (having played none until September 2020). I don't know if I'll play another one quite soon since I still have to finish Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light. Plus, I have to play Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country someday as it's been 3 years since I finished XC2. If I were going to try out another FF game, I'd probably buy the FFX/X-2 HD Remaster. For the record, I don't own a Playstation console, so I can't play FFVII Remake. If you made it this far, I apologize for the excessive length, but I wanted to give my honest thoughts while clarifying where I was coming from. On another note, do you all have any suggestions for FF games I should play?
P.S. The Triple Triad minigame is awesome, and the invisible key in Ultimecia’s Castle is BS.

Resident Evil 3 Remake (2020) is an absolute blast and worth your time (mild spoilers)

Things I like, Dislike about Stadia (From a casual player)

Hello Everyone!
Just wanted to give some input into Stadia's gameplay as of today in my opinion.
To give a little intro. I'm not a pro player nor I own any other consoles aside from a SNES and a Anbernic RG-350 although I have played Ps1 and 2. this should tell you a bit about my taste in games and how ignorant I am about newer consoles (Xbox, ps4 & 5, and others)
I decided to buy the Stadia simply because I wanted to play Cyberpunk and racing games with my brother. we had been thinking about a PS5 but as we all know... they don't exist lol
so we googled a few options in terms of gaming and came across Stadia. we bought and we loved it!!! but after a few weeks of play and learning about it, I have a few notes I would like to share and also hopefully some of you can help as well.
This is all my own opinion so feel free to disagree/agree.
THINGS I LIKE🙂:
CONTROLLER: the Stadia controller OMG!!! it feels amazing, the weight distribution and size fits perfectly. And I really enjoy the clicking noises, they sound precise and not mushy.
EASINESS OF USE: the installation of the whole thing is simple and fast.. the app is really easy to use and its pretty much straight forward. (notes on this under things I don't like as well)
MULTI LOCATION PLAY: Its all wireless, which to me is actually really cool as I can simply take my controller anywhere and play on the go.
COST: the cost of the whole thing is a no brainer. compared to $400-500 for an actual console.(more on this under things I don't like) Stadia pro ($10 extra monthly) is really good if you are definitely putting more time on this platform as you get access to multiple free titles and 4k if available I believe.
LAGGING/GLITCHES OR POOR CONNECTION: I have experience 0 lag when playing even thought this is a 100% cloud gaming. (I do have fast internet and I also have an ethernet connection to it) compared to SNES and Anbernic, the graphics are amazing (I know I know lol)
FAMILY SHARE: there is family share!! which means I can share my games with someone else and they can play it without buying the actual game.
STORAGE: Unlimited free storage space from games!
GAMEPLAY: Games are smooth and quick. The controller is quick and responsive there are no loading screens!!!! at least from what I have seen Achievements!! This is a guilty pleasure as I get really excited to see achievements unlocked. I guess it gives me a sense of playing in a regular console. There's a free tier of games and Stadia's library is only getting bigger which means more games under the free tier. Streaming, and although I haven't used it I can see the potential specially for YouTube monetary gains or simply to showcase your gameplay. Online free play!
There is a lot more I cold go into such as State share, but I'm not too familiar it so I won't speak on it
THINGS I DONT LIKE👿:
I definitely dislike that after a year, there are multiple AAA titles missing such as Fortnite and COD but I assume they will be available in the near future.
MULTIPLAYER: my brother and I bought Stadia mainly to play together. Whether it's split screen, online, or multiplayer... This has proven to be very difficult in certain games.. we spend almost 30 mins trying to figure out how to multiplayer DBZ With no luck. We were able to play a few other titles together but very limited and I hope this changes....
APP: The chat app is POINTLESS!!!! It's like texting but with extra steps.(Unless there's an online keyboard I'm not using) NO SEARCH BAR!!!!! Like seriously..... That's like Instagram without pictures 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️ I'm not even sure what the reasoning behind it is... (IOS APP) Seems a bit dumb....Stadia needs to have a native app on the TV ( I believe it's in the works) Simply because everything you do on Stadia has to fall on the phone at some point. which is annoying because I don't see the reason behind having to go back to your phone for messaging, adding games, settings etc, when I could easily do this directly from my TV... I guess the reasoning behind it in my opinion is that your phone is essentially the console or an extension of the "cloud console" it just seems weird.
COMMUNITY: The Stadia community is still bare compared to renown consoles but I have a feeling that it will grow eventually making online player games more entertaining.
CONTENT: I think this will change and has been changing but Stadia needs to add more games faster to start competing with the big consoles. there is a lot of work to do before this platform can be taken more serious.
IT COULD GET PRICEY.... Soo this one could definitely be subject to each individual.... In my case it seems odd that you have to buy the game at retail price.. but it's cloud gaming so you technically do not own it... If you want 4k and a couple of monthly free titles then you need to pay $10 monthly for pro. And that's not including pre-orders and add … Again this one is subject to each individual...
SIDE NOTES AND PERSONAL OVERVIEW:
To end this lengthy P.O.V discussion LOL I want to add that Stadia has definitely filled a gap of free time I previously had. And I enjoy playing the available titles such as cyberpunk, ff, and Hitman and the new additions of exclusive games and smaller titles is definitely welcomed
For the average player looking for a time pass that does not want to drop a huge amount of money, or simply wants to play casually, I think the Stadia is a great choice.. I think Google is definitely adding improvement and I think Stadia is starting to be taken more seriously by not only players but also 3rd party gaming companies...but as I stated before, I think Stadia needs to move quickly or it will fall behind Luna and other cloud gaming services.
For whoever is reading. Please correct me if there is outdated/incorrect information or if you want to add additional information.
Thank you for reading!

Here's Every Game I Played In 2020

I had a lot more time at home this year, so this has definitely been my most expansive year in gaming ever. I played 49 new games in 2020 (with only a few impatient splurges) and I wrote up a short review for each one. There’s some predictable praise for this subreddit’s most popular games, a couple controversial takes, and maybe (hopefully) some games you haven’t seen before.
You probably want to know if my gaming tastes align with yours. I’m a fan of unique experiences, action-adventures, engrossing stories, immersive environments, roguelikes, challenging puzzles, and attention to music. These are a few of my all-time favorites, in no particular order:
· Katamari Damacy
· The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
· Breath of the Wild
· Hollow Knight
· Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
· Crash Bandicoot 2
· The Witness
· Shadow of the Colossus
· SSX 3
· Skyrim
Without further ado, here is my review of every game I played this year, mostly spoiler-free and roughly in order from most to least favorite.
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The Best

Outer Wilds
I’ve been thinking about this one ever since I finished it in September. The sense of exploration this game provides is absolutely enchanting. Every location generated a visceral response at least once: swimming through the underwater rapids on Timber Hearth, reaching the Sunless City, falling into the black hole for the first time, reaching the core of Green Giant, flying through the Dark Bramble (terrifying). The Nomai dialogue is cheesy, but discovering everything they left behind on each planet is an incredible experience. Love timing my exploration around how far into the cycle I was--lot like Majora's Mask. The ending was beautiful and I wasn't ready to say goodbye to the world I had come to know. A spectacular game.
Dark Souls Trilogy
If I had to rank these from best to worst, I would go 1, 3, then 2—but all three are incredible. I love that exploration is rewarded, I love the sense of isolation you feel with minimal UX and overworld score, and I even love the repetition in learning how to fight each boss. DS1 is definitely one of the best experiences I’ve had with any game and the only time I’ve ever wanted to immediately start a game over as soon as I finished. DS3 has the most polished combat of the series and beautiful settings. The level design in DS2 is great and I liked having a more coherent story and some new mechanics like lockstones and fragrant branches (though I didn’t miss them in 3). I’ve already played Bloodborne and loved it, and now I can’t wait to move on to Sekiro and eventually the Demon’s Souls remake.
Celeste
An excellent platformer with a beautiful story about living with anxiety—I really can’t think of any way this game could be better. It’s clear that the developer put lots of love and consideration into the experience. The game is as challenging as you want it to be: you can modify the difficulty if you don’t like constant death, you can play through the solid challenge of the regular story, or you can crank the difficulty up to 11 by finding every strawberry and completing every B-side. If speedrunning is your thing, the game is tailored to that as well. I used to think SMB3 was the perfect 2D platformer, but this just might claim that title.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
This game is so good that I can't believe this hasn't been done before. A battle royale a la Tekashi's Castle. Brilliant. I hit the max level within a week of the game coming out. It’s got a lot of replay value, especially with regular updates, and any issues I had with lag and dropping out of matches at launch have mostly been fixed by now. It’s just so damn fun.
The Last Of Us: Part II
I would say this game is currently the pinnacle of storytelling in video games. It's a little long, and the ending--while totally essential to the story--drags on. But the gameplay is fluid, combat and stealth are both very satisfying, and I loved how I got the story from both sides. Fuck the haters; this deserves all the praise it gets.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
I’ve been a fan of the series since the beginning so I was following this game from the moment they announced it, and the pandemic only increased my wife’s and my immersion in our island getaway. There are some silly quality of life issues (can't buy nook miles ticket at airport, can't craft from storage in house, can't get camper to automatically swap with someone already moving out) but it's relaxing and fun and charming and exactly what we needed. Also the best soundtrack of the series.
Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling
I’m a big fan of the first two Paper Mario games, but I’ve played them so many times that there’s nothing I don’t know or expect. Bug Fables is a beautiful love letter to those games that is somehow both new and nostalgic. The presentation is familiar, but the twists on combat mechanisms and world exploration are welcome additions. I played it on Hard Mode the whole time, which was a decent challenge. Sometimes the dialogue is flat, and there are a few lag issues with the Switch port, but this is definitely one of the best games I've played all year.

The Great

Gravity Rush
This game really surprised me. Extremely fun mechanics, beautiful stages, great music. Combat was too easy, boss fights were alright, story was all over the place. Camera took a while to get a hang of. But I ended up getting the platinum trophy because I just didn’t want it to be over. Overall really good.
DOOM (2016)
An excellent FPS. Found myself interested in all the lore, reading every codex entry. Weapons, enemies, challenges, upgrades, all great. Music was fitting but it got tiresome. Doesn't overstay its welcome. They do a lot of fan service, and I never played any DOOM before but I could tell they cared a lot about its origins.
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
I’m actually still playing through this one (just got the second crystal) and I can see how it both built on the original Zelda formula and inspired all of the 2D Zelda games that came after. It’s the right level of difficulty, the world is fun to explore, dungeons are challenging, boss fights are varied, and it can be quite funny at times. I’m having a great time with it.
What Remains of Edith Finch
This game is really beautifully crafted. I played it all in one sitting, although I kind of wish there were more extras scattered around (but maybe that would have taken away from the story itself). The house itself is a masterpiece in design and storytelling, the overall effect was excellent and I never found the narration invasive. This is a story that everyone can enjoy, and the less you know going in the better.
Prey
Exploring the space station and unraveling everyone’s stories was enthralling; I think I only made it through 5 hours of main story in the first 25 hours of playing. I love how Arkane designs a mission and gives you a dozen ways to complete it. Enemies could have been more varied, but combat and allocation of resources was a fun challenge for the first half (and then you get OP really fast). Didn’t devote much time to Mooncrash, though I am a fan of roguelikes. I’ll go back to that one day.
NieR:Automata
I've only played through the first ending, so this should be taken as a sort of preliminary rating. This game has really good combat, though it does get a little stale. Boss fights are excellent, but too easy. Music is top notch. Story is fine, but I wish they didn't detail the story throughout boss fights because I can't pay attention to it!! Quests are frustrating because you have to go back to the person who gave you the quest so often just to say it's over. I guess I brought that pain on myself by doing all these quests before unlocking fast travel. Excited to see the other endings though!
Darkest Dungeon
This feels a lot like playing through a D&D campaign, which I like. It’s difficult, but fair. After about 15 in-game weeks and a couple failed quests I’m finally getting the hang of things, diversifying my lineups and testing new strategies. I’m sure there are plenty of guides online, but I’m really enjoying learning this stuff on my own. I just encountered a character refusing to do a low-level mission because he’s too high a level, which is a clever way to keep things interesting. Excited to keep exploring this one!
Luigi’s Mansion 3
Room design was great: every room is basically a sandbox and it’s really satisfying to suck it all up. Boss fights were interesting and dynamic. I got bored of going back to get all the gems but that's probably my own fault since I played it so much in one sitting. Only played multiplayer a little bit and it was fine.
Into the Breach
Really good strategy game. Sometimes I spent 15 minutes just staring at the screen, looking for the best move. Not all of the preset teams are great but you can mix and match pretty much anything. It can be a bit repetitive within a single run, but it has lots of variety across runs depending on your build.
Panel De Pon
I’m not gonna say that this is a better tile-matching game than Tetris, but I’m a longtime Tetris fan and I’ve been playing this game much more recently. I've mostly played the 1 player VS against the computers and I don't understand how they're so good!! It just makes me want to get better at the game. Current goal is to clear normal difficulty without using any continues but it's tough. Wish me luck.
Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (2019)
I never played the original, but this was a very good game on its own. I wasn’t turned off by the art style like some people, and I enjoyed all the dungeons and finding all the secrets of the world. I borrowed this game from a friend, and I’m glad I did because it’s a little short to be worth $60.
Risk of Rain 2
Kinda crazy how well they adapted the original game as a 3D experience. Still haven't beaten it because it's *very difficult* but I really enjoy everything I've done so far. One of these days I'll be good enough to get to the end.
Lego Harry Potter series
Instant gratification in a game. Press square and you shoot out magic and something happens. Lots of stimulation, which is good for playing with my wife who is very particular about what games keep her attention. Character unlock is a pain in the ass, though. The story for years 5-7 is basically incomprehensible if you haven’t read the books or seen the movies, but I can’t imagine many people are playing who haven’t done those things.
A Short Hike
Exactly as advertised. I absolutely love the humor of this game. Great dialogue, and a fun, short experience. Easy for anyone to enjoy.
Super Mario Bros 35
I never would have thought Mario could work as a battle royale, but then again I never thought Tetris could either so I guess this tracks. Just kind of a shame that in regular mode my experience hinges on how far along everyone else is in unlocking levels. I'm sick of the first world over and over again. However, this does make me want to go back and play the original game so it's a nice way to broaden the series to people who probably never played this.
Gorogoa
I really like the concept of a puzzle that can only exist as a video game. I did feel challenged towards the end, and I enjoyed watching the tiles interact. I'd say the picture frame portion was probably the most interesting bit. Would have loved for this to be a little longer.

The Good

Yooka-Laylee & the Impossible Lair
A very good 2D platformer, all things considered. Exploring the overworld is fun, those pagie challenges are good, and the Impossible Lair itself is really well designed. The Capital B fights are fine. I never really felt a need to use any tonics. Good for children to get through the game, but don't really make things any more interesting for an experienced player, especially because the filters lower the framerate.
Ori and the Blind Forest
Beautiful game. A well-designed metroidvania with incredible art/music direction. The combat kind of bored me because your basic attack is homing, so you mostly just press a button. Also the story bothered me: the owl was just trying to protect her children!! I don’t like seeing her as an antagonist when the forest caused all her suffering first.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
I recognize why so many people adore this game, but I guess it’s just offering things that I don’t care about in my gaming experience. Probably would like this more if the focus was more on diversifying the combat than on tropey characters. Wasn't interested in anyone's story. I regret playing on normal; if you have any experience with strategy games, normal mode is far too easy and you can’t change the difficulty after you start. Really good soundtrack though!
Final Fantasy VII
Yeah, this is lower for me than what public opinion had led me to believe. The game has very good battle mechanics and the story is pretty interesting, even when I know the big things that happen. I liked the action sequences like the motorcycle and snowboarding. But man, the second half of this game is such a slog. I couldn’t discern the location of anything from the map, so there was hours of “look up next location, go to place, cut scene, battle, cut scene, repeat.” DIdn’t like that. Most of the optional activities are too archaic to be fun for me without any nostalgic connection. Also didn’t like that I put all my effort into developing three characters, only for the story to make them unplayable for a while so I kept failing at everything I needed to do. Maybe I’ll try the remake.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
The obvious success of this game is in the audio design. I don’t usually play with headphones but the game recommends it and I was glad I did. Scenery was great, puzzles were interesting, but combat got a bit dull at times. Story was very cool. Liked all of the bonus narration, which is often bland for many games.
InBento
A good tile-switching puzzle game that does a great job of teaching you the mechanics without invasive tutorials. Art was cute. The later puzzles can be real head-scratchers; I think I spent over an hour on just one puzzle.
Gravity Rush 2
This is a more polished version of the first game with grander environments, improved combat, and equally good music. But this gets docked for the story experience. Waaay too many stealth objectives; in a game where I can literally control gravity, the last thing I want is to be banned from using that throughout the story. I wish this one had way more skill trials and way fewer activity quests because the rewards were all useless. Didn’t need the talismans and I have no interest in earning a character emote. Adding online servers was the wrong move, in my opinion.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Am I supposed to be a longtime Castlevania fan to enjoy this game? To me the movement seemed unnecessarily stiff, even after earning the full moveset. Quests were pretty pointless, and some of the rewards were just immediately traded in for other quests, which awarded me items that were worse than what I already had. But the music was good and I enjoyed it mostly as a fan of the genre rather than for anything this game did in particular.
Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
A solid 3D adventure platformer. I feel like they really botched the jumping though, it never feels quite right. In any event, it's a fun game that's easy to beat and a little more challenging to 100% (which I did). Story is lame but not necessary to follow.
What The Golf? (2019)
A game made by people who love games is always nice. Good entertainment for a few hours. Perfect for when I was on the subway and had a few minutes to kill.
Minit
It's fun! I like the idea of stripping an adventure game down to its basest components and completing it in a time crunch. Played through three times (once per mode) then watched a speedrun to find everything I missed, which wasn’t much. Playing for more than 30 minutes at a time made my head hurt.
Donut County
Love the writing of this game, feels young and fresh (two things that I am not anymore). I wish there was a little more to each level. The gimmicks with the hole are good (catapult, fire, snake tail) but every level went by too quickly. Would really like to see the idea expanded on, if they can.
Axiom Verge
Gameplay is pretty good. Only ended up using like three of the weapons, with the exception of certain boss fights where I had to use a specific one. Story wasn't too interesting but the giant sudrans were cool. Wish there was a fast travel unlocked towards the end but I guess that's not too big of an issue. Sound design was very jarring, couldn't play late at night because it bothered me
Genshin Impact
I guess the f2p gacha model makes a lot of money because there is an incredible amount of content here for a free game. Sure, it's all locked behind level-up barriers, but I found that they gave me enough stuff at the beginning to get there with minor difficulty. The frame rate is often bad, buttons don't respond when they should, and I wish fighting enemies gave you more leveling experience. I reached a point where I was doing the same thing every day and the grind basically mandates paying more money, so I stopped and probably won’t be going back. I had a decent time for about 20 hours.
Mario’s Super Picross
It’d be pretty hard to screw up a picross game, so this does what it’s supposed to do. It was just an easy picross game, nothing more. I think I did all the puzzles over like 5-6 hours in a week.

The Okay

Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
Of all the Supermassive games, this one has the cleanest execution. They made it pretty easy for anybody to play well, whereas Until Dawn is more of a video game than a storytelling device. That said, the story experience here is not good. Voice acting is pretty bad, and every area feels so self-contained. I never felt like I was in one large area like in Until Dawn or Man of Medan, which is weird because the town is arguably the largest setting yet. I did not enjoy most of my time here, and no choice mechanism or on-screen cues can make up for that. And yes, I am disappointed that all the Dark Pictures resolve with “there was never anything supernatural happening.”
Sorry, James
My rating would immediately go up if they just fixed the terrible latency on all non-puzzle screens. I get it's supposed to be like an old computer but all that does is put me off from playing. Entering codes to unlock packs was such a chore. Was definitely entertained by the story though, it was fun to read through. But also, they should give you the login for puzzles directly in the game; I tried all combos and logged into Mariia's account first, which had every conversation that was about to be revealed. Really takes away from the story if you do that first.
Myst
I wasn't really roped into this one. I can tell it's well constructed and it's very obviously an inspiration to The Witness, one of my favorite games ever, but the mechanics and types of puzzles just didn't resonate with me.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
I don’t know, this one just wasn’t for me. The music is decent, but the gameplay just wasn’t what I was looking for. It’s just far too stylized.
Snakebird
This game is so goddamn hard and they barely teach you what to do!!! I want to like it but I was so lost after like five levels.
Night Trap
I love the concept of this game, but no matter how hard I tried I would get a game over after like 10 minutes. It’s an old game, so there’s nothing fancy going on; you really just have to memorize when and where the burglars are gonna show up and trap them. Could be more interesting with some randomization.
Operation Logic Bomb
This rating only goes down because of the Continue mechanic, so I can't get very far without having to start back at the beginning again. I guess better use of save states would fix my problem but I'm never sure where exactly I should save. Ah well. I tried a few times, got a little further each time, then got bored.

The Bad

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing
My friend and I bought this when we were drunk and it is only fun to play in that condition. Otherwise, it is an all-around poor kart experience. There is no reason to play this unless you want one of those “so bad it’s good” feelings.
Ape Escape 2
The first Ape Escape is one of my favorite PS1 games. This one is terrible. All charm has been removed from the game with its new unsettling art style and dull soundtrack. This doesn’t even get the distinction of “so bad it’s good”—it’s just plain bad.
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And that’s it! Gaming really helped me through this year, and I’m glad I had the chance to play some games that will stay with me forever. I have a short list of what’s coming next from my backlog (Return of the Obra Dinn, Ratchet & Clank) but I am always accepting recommendations. Thanks for reading :)

New FAQ XL: Emergency edition. If you have any questions, read here before posting.

Frequently Asked Questions
❔ Hacking makes your 3DS/2DS be able to play any region. You can play EUR games on a USA system and the opposite USA games on a EUR system. If you have issues with games loading try importing the seed first by locating the game within FBI > Titles > Selecting the game > Import seed. If that doesn't work try switching the games region to whatever it is with Luma Locale Switcher so if the game is USA then switch the region of it to USA and try loading it again. For certain games like Luigi's Mansion and Tomodachi Life you do need the right region for the game to work. No idea why and this is usually EUR systems trying to play the USA version of games. If you can't get games to work please comment below for help.
❔ Whatever happened to Freeshop? / Nintendo killed it, along with all other programs that get games from Eshop servers. They are permanently dead.
❔ Can we make a new Freeshop? / No
❔ Can I update to the latest update? / Yes. Update Luma to the latest stable release and then update your system software.
❔ How do I hack my 3DS? / Follow the guide here don't use a youtube video - https://3ds.hacks.guide/
❔ I found a .CIA - now what? / Put it on your SD card and use an installer like FBI to install the game.
❔ Can I get banned for pirating games? / Yes and No. It has happened in the past, but it's been years since any bans. Nintendo does not know if your console is hacked. They do not know if you are playing games you installed from a .CIA. Don't cheat while playing online and you should be fine. 3DS is dead now anyway so Nintendo seems to have giving up.
❔ Can I update .CIA games normally? / Yes if the region of the game matches your console. For example a USA system and a USA game. If a game is prompting an update notice, try to update by normal means. If you get an error you can always download an update .CIA and install it through FBI.
❔ I installed DLC from a CIA file and went to the eShop, but now it's gone. What happened? / Some games like Super Smash Bros. check for your tickets every time you log into the eShop. If you haven't purchased the DLC legitimately, the ticket will be deleted. Redownload the DLC and it'll work again. You can also use a homebrew application called Faketik to restore it.
❔ If I have pirated games on my system can I use the eShop? / Yes, you have all functions just like if you never hacked your 3DS. You can buy and download games from the eshop.
❔ How can I install games if I don't have access to the SD card? / Use Boop (Use version 1.4.0 if the game you're sending is 1GB or larger) or FTPD. Boop is PC only while FTP can be done via PC or your phone. Boop guide and FTP Phone guide for Android and Apple. FTP is easy to use on PC just use a FTP app like Filezilla.
❔ If I have a pirated copy of Pokémon, can I use the Pokébank? / Yes. You do need to pay the yearly fee to use Pokébank and no you can't hack it to use it for free. You can also use PKSM on your 3DS or PKHEX on your PC for a free alternative.
❔ Can I upgrade my SD Card? / Yes. If you want to upgrade your SD card all you need to do is format the new card to Fat32 and copy the entire contents of your old card to the new one. Should just work like before, but now with more free space. Cards up to 256GB seem to work fine. 128GB and bigger SD cards should be formatted with 64KB clusters or else GBA VC Injects may have display problems.
❔ Can I pop in my SD card into a non hacked console and have my games playable? / No, it doesn't work like that. Even a hacked console can't use the same SD card you have in another system. Nintendo made the 3DS locked to a single system with the SD card. Meaning it only works on the one system it's tied to.
❔ Can I do a system transfer to another system and still have my CIA games? / Yes, but the other console needs to be hacked first. Hack the system you wish to system transfer to first (I would advise you to back up your saves with checkpoint before doing the transfer in case anything happens) Then do the system transfer. Once done use Faketik to restore your CIA installed games.
❔ I have some .3ds files how do I convert them to .cia? / If you want to do it on your 3DS use this guide. If you want to do it on your PC use this program.
❔ I have a 3DS game cartridge that I want to dump and install as a .cia how do I do it? / Guide here
❔ I want to backup or edit my GBA VC Inject save how do I get the save file? / How to Backup and how to Restore the save.
HOW TO PLAY DS GAMES
There's 3 ways to play DS games on your system. DS games cannot be a CIA file unless Nintendo released it as DSiWare.

Get a flashcard which has the most compatibility. Ask in the comments here for flashcard recommendations and how to use them.
Use DS Forwarders which place shortcut icons on your homescreen, but doesn't AP patch the rom like Twilight Menu++ does. You'll need to AP patch the roms yourself using this method.
Install Twilight Menu++ which is the best method if you don't want to buy a flashcard. Twilight Menu AP patches your roms on the fly before launching.

Whatever method you choose you need to find DS roms which are readily available online. If you want help with where to find them ask in the REQUEST MEGATHREAD.
MAKING VC GAME INJECTS (GBA, GB, GBC, NES, SNES, PS1, NEOGEO, ETC)
Use NSUI to make VC inject CIAs of these platforms which get added as Home screen icons. Here's an alternative guide on how to use it.
PS1 injects are also available, but only on NEW 3DS/2DS. Compatibility is not perfect so some games run ok and others are buggy.
NEOGEO games can also be injected now, but like PS1 it's recommended for only NEW 3DS/2DS systems. Games also may have performance issues so some run great and others not so much.
All require rom files which are readily available online. If you want help with where to find them ask in the REQUEST MEGATHREAD.
A list of CIA sites
Ziperto
3DSCIA
CIA-3DS
RomsForever
Daniel's Rom Shop
AlvRo's Complete 3DS ROM Sets
QR CODES
hshop - Creator Post
3DSQRCodes Subreddit
CIA COLLECTIONS
PS1 CIAS (Plus other systems) - Creator comment
Juegos de Nintendo 3DS (In Spanish, but has English too)
ROM SITES
Vimm's Lair
DISCORD SERVERS
Piratendo (No piracy talk)
OTHER
Old Megathread for the other old megathreads, use the searchbar
Anything I need to fix or something you think I should add please feel free to comment below or PM me. This post is meant for questions and tech help so any requests for files should be put in the other stickied post labeled REQUESTS MEGATHREAD. Any requests here will be deleted!

PS3 FAQ - Please read before posting.

Seeing a lot of threads with the exact same questions daily so thought I'd compile a list of common questions with answers for them.
Has the PS Store been shutdown on the PS3?
No, the PS3 store remains active and you can access it through your PS3 console. The web store, which you access through a PC has been removed. There are workarounds available for this though.
Which PS3's are backwards compatible?
All PS3's play your PS1 discs. That means a Phat, Slim and Super Slim will have no issues playing PS1 games.
For PS2 games, the following models are backwards compatible:
All NTSC regions = CECHA 60GB (Full PS2 hardware), CECHB 20GB (Full PS2 hardware)
SOME NTSC regions (North America) = CECHE 80GB (Partial PS2 hardware)
All PAL regions (EU, India, Aus, NZ, UK, Russia etc) = CECHC 60GB (Partial PS2 Hardware).
The Full PS2 Hardware PS3's have the highest compatibility but are only available in NTSC regions. PAL regions only have access to the CECHC model.
Additionally, Backwards compatibility with disc games is region locked. You cannot buy a CECHA (NTSC PS3) and play your PAL PS1/PS2 games.
Finally, backwards compatibility was never removed from these models. You can update to the latest firmware and the compatibility remains exactly the same.
Is the PS3 Region Free?
Not exactly. The PS3 DOES have region locking but most games do not use region locking. This means almost all PS3 titles (disc and digital) will play on a PS3 from any region. PS1/PS2 Classics that you buy from the PS Store are also region free. If you want to play an NTSC PS1/PS2 game on a PAL PS3, make a US PSN account and purchase it from the US PS Store.
A handful of PS3 titles are region locked, the most well known example is Persona 4 Arena, which is region locked both via disc or digital.
Blu-Ray movies, DVD movies, PS1 disc and PS2 disc games are all region locked. You can only play movies/games from your region on your PS3.
What is the cause of YLOD?
There are many causes for the YLOD that are being documented by the community. Common causes appear to be the RSX GPU coming away from the substrate, GPU failure, CELL failure, NEC TOKIN capacitors failing but it is unclear what the main cause is at this time. There is a thread on PSX-Place that may help you in identifying the cause of YLOD in your PS3 but take note that it requires soldering skills. For more information on identifying YLOD in your PS3, check the thread here - https://www.psx-place.com/threads/fault-finding-ylod-with-the-syscon-first-steps-and-error-reporting.30100/
I have no image on my TV?
This can caused by multiple things. Try the following:
Reset your PS3's AV settings by pressing and holding the power button when you turn the PS3 on until you hear two beeps and then let go of the power button. This will reset your PS3's video settings and should now display an image on your TV.
If that does not work, you will need to troubleshoot by trying the following:
Try a different HDMI cable - This rules out the cables
Try a different HDMI port on your TV - This rules out the HDMI ports on the TV
Try a different TV (if possible) - This rules out the TV
Try Composite cables - This rules out the RSX on your PS3
If you still have issues after this, it is likely you have GLOD and possible that the RSX GPU in your PS3 may have failed.
What is GLOD?
Green Light of Death is when the RSX GPU in your PS3 has failed completely, resulting in no image after doing all available troubleshooting. Sometimes your PS3 may still produce an image but there will be a lot of graphical corruption on the XMB or in multiple games (GPU artifacting). If this starts to happen to you, backup your save data immediately via USB memory stick of to PS Plus if you have it.
Can I put my old PS3 hard drive in a new PS3 and keep all my save data?
No. PS3 hard drives are encrypted and cannot be read by another PS3 or PC. They are, in effect, tied to the PS3 they were used with. This means that if your PS3 dies and you have not backed up your save data, you cannot retrieve it without somehow fixing your PS3.
Putting the old hard drive into a new PS3 will erase the old had drive as the PS3 will treat it as a new hard drive and format it.
My game is freezing?
Check your disc to see if it has any scratches.
If the disc has no visible damage, try going to 'GAME DATA' and deleting the game from there. This will delete any Game Updates or the Games install, which may have become corrupt. This does not affect your save data. When you next start the game, it will download any available updates again and reinstall the game.
Can I buy a brand new Dualshock 3?
It is extremely unlikely that any brand new Dualshock 3 controllers you find on Ebay or other online stores are legit. Most of these will be counterfeits (fake). The safest way to buy a Dualshock 3 is to buy them used but there are some signs that can indicate a fake DS3. If you need help identifying whether a DS3 is real or not, post an image with it on this subreddit and people will be able to assist you.
When is PSN being shutdown on the PS3?
Nobody has the answer to this. At present there has been no announcement from Sony as to how long they plan on supporting PSN on the PS3/PSVita.
Some titles have had their servers shutdown by their publishers e.g. Killzone, Resistance, Uncharted, Portal 2 all no longer have online support but other titles like Call of Duty are still playable.
You can no longer message PS4/PS5 owners from your PS3 and vice versa.
Some games required an 'Online Pass' and may still require you to purchase one to play online. Please check to see whether or not the games servers are still online before doing so.
Why are my stats not saving on certain Call of Duty titles?
When the PSN name change was introduced, certain Call of Duty titles on the PS3 stopped tracking 'new accounts'. This means that if your PSN account was made after 2018 or you did not play the games before then, your stats will not be saved on some Call of Duty titles, including MW2, MW3 and a few others.
Additionally, changing your PSN name will make your PSN account be considered a 'new account' by these CoD games. This means if you change your PSN name even if you played the games before 2018, your stats will no longer be saved.
If you played the games before 2018, it is highly recommended you do not change your PSN name, otherwise your stats will not be tracked.
If you played the games before 2018 and have not changed your PSN name, your stats will continue to be tracked as normal.
When is the next PS Store sale going to be for PS3 games?
Probably never. The last sale was over a year ago so it is highly unlikely any games on the PS3 store will go on sale ever again.
How can I record my PS3's gameplay?
You will need a capture card to record the PS3's gameplay. It is recommended you use a capture card and component cables to do so.
If you try to use a capture card with HDMI, the PS3 will block the image due to HDCP (you will get no signal or a blank screen).
SOME HDMI Splitters can bypass HDCP and let you capture footage with your capture card with HDMI but there is no definitive list and they can sometimes be inconsistent so your mileage may vary.
My PS3 randomly turns itself on?
If you have PlayStation Plus, it is likely you enabled auto-update for trophies, game updates or save data at some point (you are prompted with the question when you start a PS3 game).
Check to see if you have accidentally enabled this by going to Settings>Automatic Update and enable/disable features as you please. I recommend leaving Save Data and Trophy sync on so your data will always be secure but disabling game updates as these can take a long time to do.
For more information, check here - https://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/autodownload.html
Hope this helps some people. I will update this as and when I can if people find it helpful.

[SPOILERS] Just "finished" FFIX, thoughts

So, a while ago I played a good chunk of FFIX but dropped it right after the Soulcage fight (not sure why though), and a little bit ago I decided to pick it up again and finish it this time. I did just drop it at Necron because he's just way too broken though, so I watched the final boss and ending on youtube. Anyways, thoughts;
The good:
+ The game has a strong charm to it, normally I'm not fond of the really old European medieval style but the way it's implemented in this game works really well. The insane attention to detail probably helps.
+ Zidane is probably one of my favorite FF protagonists (so far at least), most FF protagonists seem to be a bit on the more somber, melancholic side (don't dislike them though, but I like some variety), and... there's Tidus who's kind of an annoying loudmouth. Zidane on the other hand is a super nice dude, not gloomy (for the most part at least), kinda funny, etc. Kinda like the ideal FF protagonist.
+ Though a bit more subtle, I liked Steiner and Amarant's character development. Steiner absolutely couldn't stand Zidane at first and wouldn't budge an inch, but by the end he was totally willing to go through hell together with everyone, and Amarant lost his antisocial attitude.
+ The first half of disc 3 is really nice and immersive.
+ Though it's not Uematsu's most consistent work imo, there are some real great standout tracks on this OST.
+ Though they're super bitstarved by 2021 standards, the FMVs look fantastic. Actually wished there were more.
The middle:
-/- A bit of a technicality thing so I'm not going to put this in the bad part: the prerendered backgrounds upscale terribly in 2021, so while they are quite amazing, they just kinda don't mesh well at all with the rest nowadays and look like mushy jpg files. And yes, I'm aware of the Moguri Mod but I'm on Linux so I just went with the PS1 version.
-/- The ability system is interesting... for a while. It reminds me of Xenosaga Episode I's abilities system but a lot better, and it's kinda fun to use abilities, but at some point they just become a bit of an annoyance and they tend to hinder your progression. "Oh, stuck at this boss who uses heat moves? Better backtrack and get Body Temp on everyone~".
The bad:
- Festival of the Hunt kinda sucks, the game just doesn't work for timed events in general.
- The game has one of the worst world maps ever, the minimap doesn't even show town icons and is a bit hard to navigate with, and the full world map requires you to switch minimap-no map at all-world map which is a bit annoying.
- Very small thing, but that one spot right outside Gizamaluke's Grotto is kind of a dick move. The enemies are suddenly way too strong there and it's kinda just there all of a sudden.
- The Trance system is a bit ok-ish, first of all it really should've been manually activated and not automatically because the way it is it often ends up being activated right at the end of some random encounter and then if you fight a boss right afterwards your bar is all back to zero. Secondly, it takes way too much hits to be activated and the boost Trance provides is not all that great (only Zidane's Trance really matters in my eyes, Solution 9 ftw) so the tradeoff is too much. Finally, for the most part it's a bit of a.. palette swap with not much more to it? Kinda dull.
- Garnet just never interested me, I find her a really boring and often irritating character. I wouldn't mind if they just killed her off to build drama halfway through or so. She's kinda like that character where you feel like you're supposed to like them, but I just don't.
- Biggest complaint: I hate the random encounters in this game. And I say that as someone who's used to older RPGs and normally doesn't mind random encounters. The encounter rate is way too high (often you're going through a dungeon and it's like every 4th footstep triggers one, which is highly aggravating), battles are way too slow in this game, even just starting a fight requires like 10-20 seconds. Also something odd I've noticed is that while (most) bosses take a sharp decline in difficulty during and after disc 3's second half, the random encounters become ferocious and actually more challenging than the bosses themselves. Way too much HP, too much status effect fuckery, etc. Combine all of that together and at some point I'd rather smash my head against a wall than sit through yet another random encounter.
- Soulcage (without the Phoenix Down trick), Tiamat, Lich and Necron are super nasty. Soulcage I could only defeat by learning about the Phoenix Down trick online, Tiamat was a pain because of Jet Fire (luckily 3/4 of my party members already had Body Temp so it didn't require all that much backtracking, but it was annoying anyhow), Lich wasn't too bad but the constant instant kill spam got problematic, and after Necron nailed me I just gave up and watched the remainder of the game on youtube. Grand Cross is broken as hell, not to mention the constant shell/protect spam which barely gives you any chance of hurting him. If the game was realistic, Necron would probably just destroyed the party in the blink of an eye and the game would end there, lol.
- Kind of a shame that Beatrix is only temporarily a party member.
- Those random Antlions before Kuja's desert palace are really nasty.
- The game takes a sudden spike in difficulty during disc 3's second half, beginning with the random Antlions before Kuja's desert palace, the desert palace itself and the forgotten continent, etc.
- Fleeing seems to be broken, I can barely ever run away from a fight and enemies basically just get a 5-10 min period of free attacks. Seriously, I think one attempt at fleeing costed me like 10 minutes or so, maybe a little more even.
- The abilities that end on "killer" are a bit of guesswork since they rely on you knowing your enemies' species, which AFAIK aren't really seen anywhere. Sure, "Undead Killer" is obvious when you're fighting skeletons, but... sometimes it's just not possible to tell what species your enemy is. Could've been easily circumvented by applying the enemies' species in front of their names.
- Mages like Vivi are a bit hard to manage because you can't buy ethers in this game. Sure, I didn't actually run out of ethers, but for a good chunk of the game I basically just had mages defend constantly.
- The game forces you to use certain characters a lot, and if by the time where the game mostly allows you to choose your own party members you disregard some characters, you tend to pay for it later on. For example, I didn't bother with Steiner, Garnet, Quina and Amarant, and during the scene in Terra where Zidane's walking like a zombie, I lost during the fight where I had to use Steiner and Quina, which ruined the flow of the entire scene.
- Virus is a shitty status effect that has no real reason to exist. Apparently poison and venom aren't enough?
- Time based status effects like gradual petrify and doom are terrible in a game with a slow battle system like this.
- Though I encountered only a single one, those Behemoth monsters are insane with their Meteor Counter. Funnily enough far more dangerous than the 4 Chaoses.
- I didn't like Memoria at all, way too many random encounters, had to redo the first Chaos after Tiamat nailed me the first time, the Chaoses come completely out of nowhere which makes it hard to prepare, etc.
- Extra nomination for Necron, broken as hell. He sure makes (FFVI)Kefka look like a pussy, gameplay wise at least.
As for the ending: what was up with Vivi suddenly having a lot of children (and did Vivi die? the youtube comments got all sentimental about Vivi, kinda happened out of nowhere it seems) and why did Kuja do a complete 180 (and what happened to him after Zidane reached him)? Ending was kinda odd.
Anyhow, I rate the game a 7/10. It has it's good points, it has a lot of problems, it's probably the FF I'm least likely to replay, and yeah that's it I guess.

The Week in Gaming #45 [ Raytracing SNES games, Valve & Crytek next games, Nintendo Switch Pro, MK 11 first/third person mod, Tomb Raider Remake leaked and available for download, GPU/components price hike and more... ]

Suggest me a game (every console)

Thoughts, tips and questions about the powkiddy v90!

[USA-CO][H] Vintage PC Games , Playstation One + Controller [W] Paypal

can you play ps1 games online video

Once you setup your PS emulator, you can use your computer to play PS 1 games the same way as you would play on a PS console. You may also enhance your computer equipment so that you can customize it as per your personal preferences and requirements. here at OneHOWTO we will tell you how to play PS1 games on PC with emulator . We are looking for people to play with some Playstation 1 childhood games online! That's right, not only you can emulate and play those games on pc, you can also setup netplay between emulators as if you were both (or 4 of you!) in the same room playing together (well except for some latency). Play PSX Games Online in the highest quality available. Play Emulator has the biggest collection of PlayStation emulator games to play. These PSX games work in all modern browsers and can be played with no download required. Browse more PlayStation games by using the game links on this page. At the moment, you cannot play PS1, PS2 and PS3 games natively on PS5. This means that putting in PS1, PS2 and PS3 discs into your PS5 will not work. Have you ever wonder how you can play PlayStation 1 games on your PC or Laptop computer? You can stop searching. Here are the steps you needed so you can play those old school games from Sony PlayStation 1 - from 1994 till it was phased out. The PS2 can play all ps1 games except for a select few. Here's a list of some PS1 games that are known not to work on PS2 models: Every PS3 game to this date can play PS1 games because they always had a software emulator, PS1 game discs work as well on every version of the PS3 because it's compatible with CD-ROMs. Sony later... How to play PS1 games on your PC. Note, the Iso that you download should be either a Winrar or Zip or 7Z. After you download, extract the file where your game is located at. Next, paste it into the folder where you usually put your games. This will be helpful if you want to organize your library. Play ps1 games online, A huge retro playstation 1 library and many great titles that cant be found anywhere, all playable in your web browser. The original PlayStation turns 25 years old in Japan on December 3rd, 2019. To celebrate, we’re sharing how you can play many of its classic games today, whether you have old hardware or modern

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PS3 Can Play PS1 Games!? - YouTube

You asked for it so, here it is! Time to play your favorite PS1 titles on the go!PSX2PSPhttps: ... Time to play your favorite PS1 titles on the go!PSX2PSPhttps: ... NEW! How to Play PS1 Games on PC! Today I'll be showing you an easy way of playing your favorite old school games on the PS1! The PlayStation 1 is one of my ... Twas a starry night when I was browsing the Internet and saw a very interesting article. The article stated that the PS3 no matter what version CAN play PS1 ... PS1 - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR OLD SONY PLAYSTATION 1. 10 Things You Had No Idea Your SONY PS1 / Playstation One Could Do. 10 Sony PS1 Secrets ... About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators ... Today's tutorial showcases the latest and easiest way of playing PS1 games from USB using Popstarter emulator and OPL using a modded fat or slim PS2 running ... Epsxe http://www.epsxe.com/ Bios + Plugins + PSone boot https://adf.ly/NLSxl http://adf.ly/1Kzfuv Credits for PSone boot http://forums.ngemu.com/showthread.p... The new model of the PS4 is actually backwards compatible with PS1 and PS2 games. You can play ANY PS1 and PS2 games on the PlayStation 4 if you follow this ... This time, I show you how things are when you play Original PlayStation (PS1) games on PlayStation 2 (PS2) and PlayStation 3 (PS3). See what happens when I p...

PS1FUN Play Retro Playstation PSX games online.

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PlayStation Plus

JRPG

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Is there a (populated) place where you can play old games (read: Snes, Genesis, PS1, C64, Amiga, etc.) online with other people.

ARK: Survival Evolved is probably the best Digimon game ever made