I'll say I'm not the biggest fan of first-person shooters. They've just never clicked with me. However, I spent a lot of time with buddies playing Halo multiplayer and having a blast. We would mainly do Slayer, but would often come up with our own rules for each round, like someone gets a vehicle and everyone has to try and take them out, or hide and seek sort of like Hunting Huber, everyone (or just one person) gets a sword in 2. I remember we thought the maps were so big at the time, and so we would have "safe zones" and "war zones". We would have a hard time finding each other on certain maps and so it was expected that you'd venture over to the specific part of the map for firefights.

While my friends tried to rope me into the lore and the story of the games, I really never cared. As many times as I tried the campaign or cop-op campaigning, the real fun for me was always those long nights battling together online, not in finding out who Master Chief, Arbiter or the Flood were. We kept it up through Halo 3 for the most part, but after that we all sort of went our separate ways in life. The games after may be fun, but I never got that same fire to pick them up after that. The first two are definitely my favorite memories of the franchise.

Can't believe it'll be 20 years since the first game with Infinite coming out.

Is this a case where I can buy the DLC if I've already purchased the base game and will automatically own the Ultimate Edition, or am I required to buy the base game again through this specific edition to own the upgradable copy?

@dmcmaster same, my sister has one and I tried to play Donkey Kong Country and a couple NES games we had growing up at one point and it just never felt right to me. I don't want to make it seem like it's the wrong option for people because it likely will work for like 90% of people who just want to pop their stuff in and play on their television. But I think for some people that look for super accurate console and emulator authenticity, it may not be the best option. I'm just hoping Polymega scratches that itch for me as a retro hardware enthusiast.

Has anyone tried upgrading their system's original hard drive to a SSD and noticed improvements in light chugs? I've sometimes had to do the database rebuild on my system, but wonder if it may just be bad sectors in the hard drive itself, and if a new one would fix small issues like chugging.

Also side note, I'm not too interested in a lot of the Xbox exclusive games, but I'd be way down to get a One X when they go down in price. I never had a 360, and being able to play my original Xbox games and 360 games I missed out on is really the selling point for me there.

Personally, the appeal is less about the games you can play and is almost more about how well or accurately the console plays them. I frequent the My Life in Gaming series, and really strive to get all my old games running as accurately as I can in their original forms. With this particular system, it's not FPGA based anymore, but the developers strive for a good scale on accuracy vs easy to use.

While there are other methods to play a lot of the games, there aren't many options that play as authentically or as easily in a legal way. For example, some of the clone consoles like the Retron 5 had poorly used and stolen emulation software. The Polymega team are working firsthand with the developers of all of the emulation software involved to make sure each system runs with a certain amount of quality.

All that being said though, it is definitely an expensive option if you just want an easy way to boot up CD games. It's not going to be for everyone, I think it just depends on what you're looking for in your setup.

I was lucky and got the ultimate bundle when the pre orders first launched, so I'll definitely check in with videos and such when it launches and I get it in my hands.

I had my Pro in a little cubby when I assembled our new entertainment center. When I booted up FF7 Remake or tried to play Call of Duty WWII, the cubby just amplified the jet to make anything else in the room obnoxiously inaudible. I settled on putting it on top instead, and its still loud, but not obnoxiously so or noticeable like when I had it in the other part. It's really not a system you can put into a small space in that way. Even if it doesn't upgrade all the games in a substantial way though, I don't regret the purchase in any way, and still love it. I'm personally happy with the convenience of just turning the game on and having things run reasonably well in a high resolution option without having to tinker in settings.

My base system also had a super annoying power issue. It would randomly go to sleep when dust or air brushed the power sensor because it wasn't a physical button. I am very happy to have a physical button to turn the system on and off now, but it was a godsend back when they introduced suspending games in sleep mode, especially to my then roommates and I when we were going through Bloodborne.

Youtube Video

Here's the video in the article that is basically the Nintendo Life article 1-1.

I'm in a similar boat to @TokyoSlim. It wasn't a necessary upgrade for me, but the timing was right. I had just purchased a 4K TV, and my buddy was getting married, so I gifted my standard model to my friend and picked myself up a Pro. I've noticed certain games running smoother, but it's not an enormous difference. I have heard that if you use a Pro on a 1080p display, you may see more drastic differences with the Boost mode, as I think Digital Foundry did a couple videos talking about The Last Guardian and other games that had technical performance issues and how to get the best frame rate.

While I'm typically pretty impressed by the higher resolutions that I get on a lot of the 1st party games, it is still questionable that some games just don't take advantage of the hardware whatsoever. I was going through Life is Strange's first season and that still just runs a little... rough. God of War though? Runs great. So I think it's on a game by game basis of the upgrade being necessary or not. I just wish that every game did take more advantage of the upgrades.

Yo everyone,

I've been following this hardware since it was called Retroblox back in 2017, but for those who haven't heard of it, Polymega is a modular system that lets you play a myriad of different retro systems on your HDTV with a very high level of authenticity and accuracy. On the base unit, it can play CD games on PS1, Sega Saturn and Neo Geo CD, but with additional components that you slide onto the system (the modules are sold separately unless you get a big bundle), you can play NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbographx and more.

It's been a frustrating process watching as the system has been delayed through the pandemic and other stumbles, but they are currently in the second run of beta consoles in consumers' hands. Videos, articles and impressions all seem to be exceedingly positive, and Playmaji is currently looking to ship to everyone in November.

I'm extremely excited to be able to play my physical collection and install it to a database with a high quality system for capture and review, but wanted to get the word out there to people who may not have heard of it and are interested in retro gaming!

Here's a write-up from Nintendo Life: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/08/hardware_review_believe_the_hype_polymega_is_the_ultimate_all-in-one_retro_machine

And the official website:
https://www.polymega.com/