I have been regressing for some time. With the announcement of the PS4/Xbone I decided I didn't want an underpowered PC as a console and even at the time sold my Xbox360 and PS3 as I thought I was done... I'll have to borrow a PS4 to play Drake 4 when it comes out as that's about the only game I really want to play on it. Shame they've stopped them developing for the PS3 when
it's totally capable of playing these sorts of games and still has a massive user base. It annoyed the crap out of me when they pulled the rug from under the PS3 long before it was due to be replaced because they felt they had to respond to Xbone. So we get a half arsed console instead that's a little bit prettier and it looks like they're already looking at a PS4k soon... Which is what the PS4 should have been IMO (it's bringing VR to the table) and given the lifecycle of the PS3 (should have been 10 years), would likely have happened if they'd held on... Bah!
Anyhow... Not having anything to play, I got my GameCube and Dreamcast down from the loft and hit the JRPGs hard. I did Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II in turn and realised that there were a tonne of games on the old console that I'd simply missed out on that were f**king awesome. So I started buying them up on the GC and DC...
Which brought me to the conclusion that I enjoyed playing more old school games than modern stuff. This led me on to buying a Wii U because it seemed to be echoing what the DC did in terms of, there might not be a lot of games for it, but they're quality titles and proper games. I also really like what the gamepad brings to the experience. Then I discovered it had Wii backward compatibility...
The Wii was a console that passed me by because I thought it was for non-gamers. All that Wii-sports bollocks and the like. Well I couldn't have been more wrong. There's a HUGE amount of great title on that, so I thought I'd get those bought up while they were available and cheap (this has become a theme, and a bit of an addiction).
All of this made me realise that I'd been a bit harsh getting shot of the PS3 (luckily I'd kept the games for that), so I bought a new (old) one. The Xbox 360 doesn't really get a look in because quite frankly, other than online stuff, there's only Forza III and Kameo on there that I'd ever want to play.
By this point, I think my regression kicked in proper and I decided I was going to get all the consoles I used to have (not going back as far as the Atari 2600 or pong clone I had, that would be excessive). So I finally fixed my biggest console selling error when I got shot of my Super Nintendo and bought another. Games can be a bit pricey on this one to be fair, but I've managed to get most things I'm after. Some of the horrifically expensive games I've managed to cover with Virtual Console on the Wii and Wii U for very sensible money. I'd love to run them on original hardware, but I'm simply not prepared to pay the silly money they've become for some of them.
Ah virtual console and the PSN classics have managed to score me a great deal of old titles for the SNES and PS1. That's been an absolute cash saver as they cover a LOT of old JRPGs (which I have a particular weakness for). Oh yeah, and the PS3 plays PAL PS1 games, so I started hoovering them up too.
Finally, because I sold my old PS2 compatible PS3 and bought a slim (non-PS2 compatible), I should have a PS2 landing at my door any day now. This one has proven to be a bargain machine as the games are literally a couple of quid each.
Oh and computer gaming has also been resurrected (sold my gaming PC a few years ago). I sold my ninja iMac and bought a 2008 Mac Pro with a very specific graphics card that allows it to be fully compatible across multiple OSs. Allowing me to run Mavericks, Snow Leopard, Windows XP and Windows 7. So I've got a tonne of old games on XP, and a few new on 7. It's pokey enough to run Fallout 4 ok, so it's fast enough for me. I really should play that at some point... Also gotta give a shout out to GOG.com for being an awesome place to snag old games.
Almost forgot the N64 (which covers NES also via an emulator)! Mainly because I suspect I'm still struggling to get the video performance that I want from that. Partly the N64's fault, mostly my modern TV's terrible low res analogue signal handling. I've done an article on that side of things also that covers my woes with old consoles vs modern TVs (that keeps getting updated also... It's very UK-centric)
here.
While this has been going on I haven't really been able to play a lot of games. Currently, when my bro comes over once a week we're hitting Super Tennis, Bomberman and Sensible Soccer really hard on the SNES, but that's about it. I still need to complete Xenoblade X on the Wii U (I'm 100 hrs in on that...), but that's on hold while the hording is taking place.
