R(ob)’s Comments (group member since Jun 21, 2021)

R(ob)’s comments from the The Video Game Forum group.

Error wrote: "Thanks for the breakdown. I do a lot of stuff on the rewards app (console stuff), which honestly doesn't seem worth it. I didn't know about the separate Bing app and Micro reward website. I'll look..."

I think I probably get a good 3000-4000 points through the console reward app a month. There is one reward a month that is 2000 points alone. And the weekly reward on the console app has streaks so you may only earn 100 points a week but the streaks build up over time to be 1000 to 2000 to 2500 every few weeks that’s if you keep the streak up. The most difficult thing is earning three achievements a week for the weekly task 😀. And then check in the reward app for game purchases with points rewards. They’re usually new release games.

Error wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "Signed up for Playstation stars. Looks pretty mean on points value. I'm currently making around £120 on microsoft points a year which pays for my Games Pass Ultimate without the need ..."

You have to complete all the daily tasks on the Microsoft rewards website every day including quizzes, looking at links and daily searches in Microsoft edge (you do this on tablet or PC via the edge browser) and the Bing app on a smart phone. The search based points can be done with a single letter and clicking search each time - building a search term of increasingly random characters. It still counts as a search.

https://rewards.microsoft.com/

Complete the daily, weekly and monthly tasks on the console (it’s on the achievements screen). You can also access these same tasks from the games pass app on android or iOS. And also on a daily basis do the console reward app tasks - so you need to download the console rewards app. The console based stuff comes kinda naturally as you game but you do have to keep an eye on it. The console based tasks, some of them, can be done through the cloud streaming app on phone or tablet saving needing to turn on your console.

It does take a little dedication but once used to it I spend 5-10mins a day collecting points. So far I’ve earned in the space of 18 months ish nearly 200,000 points. One month of games pass ultimate is 12,000 points.

Honestly, it sounds a chore, and initially it is, but you get used to it and you become fast at doing it. Like I say takes me no more than 5-10mins a day now.

Signed up for Playstation stars. Looks pretty mean on points value. I'm currently making around £120 on microsoft points a year which pays for my Games Pass Ultimate without the need for any upfront games purchases (although you can earn approx 2000 points for any game purchases in the points scheme). So far I've redeemed 15 months of ultimate for £0 paid upfront. Playstation stars looks not even remotely a patch on this.

Nearly binned off deathloop yet again. Having to repeat the same mission about 5 times just to progress the story has been an absolute pain. There is an insta-fail mission I’ve failed three times. And then there is an insta death mission where I think everyone dies. It doesn’t break the loop mind just there to pee me off. Triggered it twice now. This game does everything it can to frustrate. It’s too hard as well with all of this so I’ve basically changed it to super easy mode which isn’t that easy what with the insta fail stuff. I’ve progressed the story but after played another 4 hours today I think only two hours progressed the story, and the other two wasted time. I’m going to have to look at some guides or bin it off. I can’t keep being this frustrated. There is defo a good game in there behind all the utter miserable shite.

Hi all. Not much gaming for me recently as I’ve been on my annual holiday in the sun. Resumed playing Deathloop today. Honestly I nearly binned it off. The game offered up missions I’ve already done and for powers I’ve already infused. This loop thing is so confusing in how to progress the story. I basically progressed nothing and wasted over an hour. So I think I understand what I need to do now - there seem to be small story elements that I need to progress to work out how to complete all the kills in one day. Although I’m not sure it makes sense that progressing the story isn’t wiped from my memory after each day. How do I remember the story to know what to do. The game is so much fun but so confusing. It’s a love-hate game for me.

Morning all. I started Deathloop over the weekend thinking I wouldn't start a new game for a few weeks. I don't know what to make of it. On one hand I think it's superb and I'm having a lot of fun and finding it hard to put down. I've put in 6-7 hours so far, and assassinated 3-4 off my kill list. I think the world they've realised is amazing. Love the artwork, the exploration aspect even though they're relatively small maps, the weapons and powers are satisfying. Even returning to maps is well done. There have been some really good battles in some really good 'arenas' such as the space theme park. And then on the other hand the game is so confusing - the story is mostly told in countless collectables, the loop thing has taken me six hours to understand it. I can finish a mission with loads of good stuff and then bang lost the lot because it's the end of the day. Then I looked at a guide and there is the ability to infuse powers/weapons but as any mission can be done in any order as long as the time of day is right the ability to infuse has to be found in a particular mission. I've got it now but wish I would have realised this earlier - it was explained in a collectable but clearly with the other hundred or more story pick-ups I collected it didn't pop as super important. And then the revive mechanic - so you immediately respawn after dying- is so flaky. I can litterly respawn without any real chance to escape the current enemies that are right on top of me leading to a quick death. And then I've died literally without warning - stepped off something into a green gas that I never noticed and bang I'm dead. And there are some difficulty spikes. However, the gameplay options can be tweaked to give you more revivals so that has helped - slight cheat I suppose but but makes the game more fun for me. This game was a 10/10 across the board pretty much when it was reviewed last year. For me then yea gameplay, world, fun factor, artwork, asthetic is 10/10. Then it's let down by the way the story is told, and the confusing timeloop mechanic which eventually makes sense but it took some time, I mean I'm six hours in and it's literally still coming up with loads of tutorial pop-ups to help me understand the menus and in-game mechanics - very frequently. It's not intuitive in that sense. So I am absolutely adoring this game but it's by no means a perfect 10/10. 8.5 so for me, and that's only down to everything that is not game play.

I enjoyed Unpacking. A house moving unpacking kinda-sim. Very chilled.

Phil, psn: p4tiny wrote: "Playing Days Gone for a couple of hours here and there. Feel like I've probably played about 10 hours and not been forced to fight a horde yet - although I have seen a few - and ran away every time..."

Yes. I think my first horde I was annihilated. There are various hordes of various sizes dotted around so I think you can try them out and see how you get on. I remember early in the game there is a small horde near a train wreck on a broken bridge (it's kind a landmark). First time I took on this horde (actually I don't think it was a horde as such, more a collection of Freakers) they absolutely completely destroyed me. Later on in the game with upgraded abilities, an LMG and more molotovs etc I took them out with ease. If I had one piece of advice there is an upgrade collectable you pick up to increase health etc. Whatever you do invest every single upgrade you get into Stamina until it's maxed out and then upgrade health etc. The ability to run without immediately going to low stamina makes a massive difference to the difficulty and enjoyment of the game early on. Early in the game for several hours it can be quite a difficult game until stamina is maxed out. And in terms of hordes - VERY MINOR SPOILER TO FOLLOW - the first compulsory campaign horde is actually quite late on in the game, but you can take on hordes whenever you choose otherwise.

Thanks Deckard. Yea I read some more about it from gamer reviews and it seems it can be quite difficult until you start to unlock various weapons/abilities. I'll give it a go.

So I finished Iki Island Ghost of Tsushima DLC campaign and it got better towards the end for the last hour or so. Still, compared to the main campaign I found it a half hearted effort by the devs compared to other DLC campaigns I've played in other games. Main campaign 9/10, Iki island 6/10.

Also played quite a bit of MW 2 multiplayer beta on my PS5. Pretty good - good maps and mechanics. More COD. What can you say. I enjoyed it. But my skills are definitely showing their age lol. I had some good games, some flippin awful ones too. I'm going to play the beta on my Series X too and decide where to buy it - main reason as I think PS5 is vastly more popular in europe than XBox and I was always connecting to local low ping servers/gamers on PS5. On series X I think it will be more American servers, and more of a disadvantage. I find on COD Vanguard on my Series X my ping is always around 90ms which is definitely not europe. Although on BF2042 I always connect to european servers.

Not sure what I'm playing next. I'm away on holiday for two weeks soon and by the time I come back I'll have a choice of Deathloop, Scorn and A Plague Tale:Requiem.

Hi all. Quiet around here of late. Anyone played Deathloop and what do you think of it? The game not having saves mid-level puts me off a little. I think it only saves once you've completed a level.

Equinox80 wrote: "I didn't see that one R. Sounds like the Mad Max game which I thought was excellent.

I've seen gameplay of a game called Evil West, a third person shooter with a wild west/remnant from the ashes l..."

Yea looks good Evil West.

Just checked out the name of the driving game I was referring to: Pacific Drive. I didn't see any on-foot action though so not sure if it's just a car based game.

Anyone watch the State of Play last night? Nothing much in it for my taste. Except for the game with the car in what seemed like a post apocalyptic world. And of course god of war but that’s been known about for ages.

This game to be released later this year took me by surprise: https://youtu.be/RVWf7Bi6YH8. Entropy Centre. Looks so good, with very strong Portal 2 vibes.

Good luck Ron. Albeit at the expense of gaming time but I’m sure it’s worth it 😀.

I see Plague Tale: Requiem and Scorn are out next month. Anyone interested in these?

I liked the first Plague Tale even with its frustrating boss battle so looking forward to this one. And Scorn looks very interesting but at the same time pretty disturbing - I don't normally get nightmares from games (never did from games such as Dead Space, Outlast and others) but Scorn looks truly the thing of nightmares.

Hi all. Finally completed the main campaign of Ghost of Tsushima. Really enjoyed it. Great combat, world and graphics, and a story simple but kept me engaged. 9/10 and I’d definitely play a sequel. Started the dlc campaign Ika Island which surprisingly is absolutely terrible. I don’t know what they’ve done but the enemy are different in some way to make the combat glitchy. Poorly designed and boring missions, I’ve had a few graphical glitches and I really hate the supernatural rubbish which interrupts without warning. I will finish it but only because it’s so short.

And in other news I got a platinum trophy lol. Seems I was only a handful of trophies from the platinum for Astro’s Playroom so thought I’d go for it. Easy one I guess. Actually really enjoyed Astro’s Playroom which helped and loved all the areas and levels and varied gameplay except for the gliding level. Makes me want to play Little Big Planet for some reason.

Phil, psn: p4tiny wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "I started off with an external SSD drive for my series x and transferring games from an external SSD wasn’t too bad but no way an external mechanical drive, it’s way too slow. And my ..."

Yea I couldn't go back to mechanical HDD now after experiencing the speed-up in transfer times and load times on an external SSD connected to console.

I started off with an external SSD drive for my series x and transferring games from an external SSD wasn’t too bad but no way an external mechanical drive, it’s way too slow. And my Internet isn’t slow but no fast either 70Mbps so still hours for a big download. Internal expansion basically nothing to think about and cost wise no massively different especially on PS5.

Decky is doing well. i have 2TB on my Series X and using well over half of that and no where near 59 games installed lol.

Phil, psn: p4tiny wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "Phil, psn: p4tiny wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "Phil, psn: p4tiny wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "Phil, psn: p4tiny wrote: "Phil, psn: p4tiny wrote: "Have just taken delivery of a PS5...bought it from ..."

I thought you bought an internal SSD upgrade? The WD black. I've installed mine can't see me needing an external SDD for my PS5. I use one on my XSX - for XB1 games - but in all honesty I don't need it as I upgraded the internal storage on that too.