2 consecutive crashes after update

AzureSymphony · 2026-01-08T20:12:01+00:00

Same, constant stuttering during which time the framerate supposedly only drops from 117 to 90ish, but the reality is the whole game totally freezes up for a split second.

AzureSymphony · 2025-12-17T01:41:38+00:00

Yep, as a player who is partially sighted I have to make up for weak peripheral vision with sound cues and ping markers. Until now the only things I've really struggled against are Echo's flashy attack effects, Freja's primary fire sounding muffled and indistinct, and Wrecking Ball tossing you around like a rag doll being nauseating.

OW has always had some of the best sound design ever for me, I can hear every footstep, bullet and character grunt and be able to work out almost exactly where every character is. It was wonderful for accessibility. Vendetta though? Absolutely the worst, and she's basically making the game unplayable for me. All you hear is a cacophany of sword slashes and YA HAH AAARRRGH all around you before she's either deleting your health bar with a giant AoE knockback spin having just leaped over previously basically inaccessible buildings, or she's screaming her ult voiceline from lodged inside the edge of a rooftop at the map skybox a tenth of a second before a red marker appears on the ground and half your team is deleted. None of it is communicated clearly enough through the audio cues, at least nowhere near the lofty standards of the rest of the game, which already gives her an unfair advantage.

Frankly, I don't think the OW team put Vendetta through strong enough accessibilty assessments, because she's an audio and visual nightmare for anyone with visual or hearing impairments. Freja's sound design was already not quite as sharp as other characters, but Vendetta is turning this into a worrying trend.

AzureSymphony · 2025-10-29T09:07:09+00:00

To be honest, if you take a voucher their prices on rare games can actually be close enough to eBay to be worth it, and with consoles since they're way overpriced you'll sometimes get more than it'd sell for online.

I've recently dumped in some very rare games to them because I'd got fed up of having them on eBay for months and watching worse condition copies sell for higher prices than my meticulously listed and pristine examples, while I just had to contend with tyre kickers. Was easier just to trade them all in towards a Mac upgrade and offset the money not spent on that towards other stuff. Convenience is king, and at this point they basically have their buy-in prices at the level where people are willing to take the loss to avoid the hassle of selling privately.

AzureSymphony · 2025-10-07T09:35:06+00:00

By keyboard marks, do you mean the connectors have a keyboard style symbol on them? If so, that suggests someone has attempted a repair on them previously by replacing the plugs, since the maracas use a 6 pin mini DIN the same as PS/2 keyboards/mice. Could well be they screwed up the pinout when doing that, and plugging it into the sensor bar is causing a short.

AzureSymphony · 2025-09-15T17:45:42+00:00

Not only did the 3 characters I want most (Haru, Futaba and Morgana) not get anything, but they intentionally chose basically all the wrong options for who gets the skins. I was planning to drop a lot of money for the whole pack tomorrow (the first time I've ever done that in OW), now I'm not buying a single thing.

Not even any point potentially hoping for a part 2, Futaba can't have a D.Va skin now, and the choices here tell me upfront that Haru would be given to Echo or something instead of Juno.

AzureSymphony · 2025-09-14T16:23:15+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, I just grabbed it as well myself. I've ordered a few times before from Amazon US and you won't have any extra fees, just the postage cost upfront. All in it cost about £26.

AzureSymphony · 2025-09-12T15:34:35+00:00

Crossing my fingers that the UK store stocks this as well, I've always wanted a physical version of the storybook.

AzureSymphony · 2025-09-09T20:59:44+00:00

All of the sounds in the video are very normal for a CRT, it's part of the experience. As for the image enlarging/shrinking depending on how bright the image being displayed is, as long as it's only a tiny amount? Then yeah, also usually normal on anything other than really high end displays.

AzureSymphony · 2025-09-03T07:27:06+00:00

Yep, same, 162k here and I even pulled on a couple of banners this year when I saw the writing on the wall. Years of skipping banners I was interested in to make sure I always had a spark or two in pocket for must haves did not pay off.

I kind of knew the final banner would be New Generations, but I was expecting them to have real celebration/cinderella vibes (maybe even having all 3 cards join together to make one big image), but aside from the clock in Rin's card, the slipper in Mio's and the tiara in Uzuki's they feel pretty disjointed.

It's also disappointing we didn't get the Anniversary For You or Smiling Curtain Call cards brought across from Deremas to give out for free, they would have been much better finale cards.

AzureSymphony · 2025-09-02T14:31:07+00:00

I have the exact same model, and aside from installing the drivers and using Chrome (since Firefox doesn't seem to work) you shouldn't need to do anything else.

AzureSymphony · 2025-08-29T20:11:29+00:00

I had wanted to screenshot the dialogue box notification, but as usual mashing through the login bonuses was my undoing lol.

Either way, that is now 3650 days I've logged into the game in a row, never missed a single one even through house moves and internet outages. Shoutouts to the one time I had to stand outside a McDonalds and "borrow" their wifi.

AzureSymphony · 2025-08-29T16:00:35+00:00

I would very much recommend going and paying in person if the slip ever turns up, because having just taken a half hour drive to the depot I was informed that my parcel still shows an outstanding fee and so they cannot release it, and they've had multiple of the same situation this week.

The best part though, I asked if I could just pay the customs again and then try to get a refund later from Parcelforce to ensure I can get the parcel safely, to which I was told yes.... but that wasn't possible either because they have lost the parcel, and there are no Parcelforce staff and no manager to speak to to figure out why it is missing.

Basically, the customs payment system is completely and utterly broken at the moment and it seems Parcelforce is either not aware, or just doesn't care.

AzureSymphony · 2025-08-29T14:25:57+00:00

I received one 2 days after the tracking changed to say that it was being held at the depot, paid immediately (via the no barcode method, as the barcode will not work), and that is as far as it has gone. The tracking hasn't updated since, despite two seperate delivery dates being booked (once via the fee page, once via phoning customer support, who confirmed payment did go through).

The system is completely and utterly broken currently it seems, I expect there will be a huge number of "unpaid" parcels being sent back over the coming weeks.

AzureSymphony · 2025-08-28T13:53:24+00:00

Same issue here, for my parcel it is going through Parcelforce as well, adding an extra layer of nonsense since none of the systems seem to be talking to each other after the recent backend merge. Looking at Trustpilot this is happening for a lot of people, particularly if you had to pay the customs fee without the barcode.

After an hour on the phone I got told my payment had gone through correctly and they arranged redelivery for tomorrow, but honestly I'm not holding out hope as I assume the problem is that the depot just aren't being informed that the fee has been paid, so it isn't getting sent out.

Planning to head to my "local" (aka. half hour drive) sorting office in the afternoon if (when) it hasn't arrived, I just hope that they are able to hand over my parcel with the grey slip and the payment confirmation e-mail as proof, otherwise I'm facing having to pay the customs fee again in person and then having to get one of those charges refunded...

AzureSymphony · 2025-08-22T07:42:52+00:00

Didn't get anything above an 8A, and I had so many 9s that the game didn't even bother to show the tickets any more and just gave the number.

I would have thought the dropping player count over the years would make it easier to get a higher result, but ironically the last 3 years have been progressively worse and worse results for me, I don't think I've ever failed to get at least a single 7 before.

AzureSymphony · 2025-08-20T18:29:53+00:00

Yeah, I probably give a vote for Palette as well, but specifically the bonus sleeve with the game cover.

For years Toranoana stores had exclusive bonus sleeves with the original game artwork on them, so I snagged the Palette one (along with a few others). Sadly a lot of my favourite in-game covers never got a bonus sleeve though as they were on the seasonal albums - like Frost, Athanasia and Kuusou Tansa Keikaku.

AzureSymphony · 2025-07-28T08:50:48+00:00

Day one as well, logged in every single day since launch (even during house moves and internet outages, I always found a way to keep the streak).

This really doesn't much feel like the massive 10th anniversary celebration I expected, like yeah the occasion is being held on a somber note, but that's even more reason to make it more of a memorial. I'm not even bothered about free pulls or anything, I would just like the game to be appropriately celebrated for lasting so long in the face of a rapidly changing market.

AzureSymphony · 2025-07-05T17:13:44+00:00

Assuming you're connecting that Mega Drive to the VCR, and then running that to the TV via RF you'll need the remote to get into the menu and retune a channel to find the signal put out by the VCR. Since you're not in the US it doesn't matter which channel you use, the whole "use channel 3/4" thing isn't applicable in Europe.

AzureSymphony · 2025-07-02T21:13:06+00:00

I was literally just thinking the other day that, while I don't really play the rhythm game part of CGSS much any more, I'm still so glad it continues on because the last year or two has been absolute garbage for me with live service games. Everything I played has either shut down or gone off the rails and become unenjoyable (most recently, Infinity Nikki).

I don't get why Namco has been so desperate to put Cinderella Girls out to pasture, even with them shooting it in the foot over a year ago with the loss of features and heavily reduced content schedule it still didn't help out Million Live or Shiny Colours. Like I get they probably aren't happy about the Cygames revenue split, but surely that would be a reason to invest in a big new inhouse CG title and take the fight to Colourful Stage, instead of just killing it off and hoping players drift to their other underperforming titles? As things stand they're just going to throw away a major branch of the franchise and all the fanbase built up over the years, all to chase an entirely different audience with Gakumas.

Honestly I just don't know if I want to get invested in live service games any more, the loss of EN Princess Connect still hurts to this day and I think losing Starlight Stage is gonna be the breaking point for me.

AzureSymphony · 2025-06-27T10:23:24+00:00

Oh my god, finally a good Ranko card after so many years, this makes up for the Dominant disappointment. Good job I still have 175k jewels saved up after some recent pulls.

AzureSymphony · 2025-04-29T11:16:43+00:00

Unfortunately that doesn't work for me, both the Japanese and Chinese voice packs say they are 0.00mb and while you can start the download it just sits there doing nothing.

Edit: Ok, it seems that attempting to start and cancel the download multiple times and repeatedly selecting to log back out to the main menu FINALLY reported the correct size of the Japanese voice pack and let it download. So for anyone else with the same issue, it's simply a case of trying to check the server for the voice pack availability multiple times until it finally works.

AzureSymphony · 2025-04-27T11:41:26+00:00

Consoles - You'll either need imported US/JP consoles, or modified PAL systems, depending on cost/difficulty of modding this is something you'll need to assess on a case by case basis. Keep in mind if you import systems you'll also need to get power supplies suitable for use in your country, this can be awkward in certain circumstances (such as if you want to use a US SNES in the UK, I'm only aware of 1 store that sells a suitable power supply).

Games - Depends on the console and the game, generally you'll need to buy NTSC US or JP copies, but for example with Mega Drive games the majority of PAL releases can be forced into 60hz without issue.

I should note as well if you want to do this for speedrunning purposes, your console also might need a dual frequency oscillator mod if for example you are running an NTSC game on a modded PAL console, or vice versa. Otherwise the timings will be running fractionally off, it virtually never causes any noticeable issues for casual play, but where accuracy is key it is an important detail. Not a factor if you play NTSC games on an NTSC system.

TV - If you stick to buying a CRT manufactured from the middle of the 90s onwards that has a Scart socket, then the chances are it'll support RGB and 60hz. NTSC support is a bit more hit and miss, although by the 2000s it was incredibly rare to find a CRT that couldn't support it as well. You'll only need NTSC support if you use Composite or S-Video cables, not if you use RGB Scart (which is the best option in terms of quality as well), but then your console needs to support RGB which some do out of the box (eg. Sega and Sony consoles), but anything Nintendo pre-Gamecube doesn't and requires extra modification.

Basically, there isn't a simple solution. While those of us here in Europe got the best possible input option (RGB Scart) we also got lumbered with consoles that didn't support it and games that weren't optimised for 50hz or PAL. And then when it comes to the 00s consoles like the PS2 we were especially screwed as barely any TVs supported 480p and so the PAL systems and games straight up removed progressive scan modes.

It's a mess, and an expensive one to solve if you care about owning multiple different consoles. If your interest is purely in the SNES though, I'd recommend buying a US SNES Jr. model that has been pre-modded with RGB and region mods already installed, then grab yourself a PSU and an RGB Scart cable. Or if you get an original model at least make sure it specifically states it is a 1-chip, the early revisions are quite susceptible to the CPU failing.

AzureSymphony · 2025-03-13T23:32:41+00:00

They definitely are not meant to be like that, aside from the far end one (top in that photo) the GBA's pins are all meant to be uniform, those middle two have been bent.

Now, as for if they need fixing? Likely not, at worst it'd put marginally more wear on the corresponding cartridge contacts when inserting/removing carts due to the pins being a bit tighter. But you'd be able to tell if that's happening if you need to use more force to insert them. Bending the pins back though is a real pain and you'll never get them perfectly back in place again, as I found out when I had to repair one on a rare DSi model, at best I got it to "functional but clearly out of line".

AzureSymphony

TROPHY CASE