Disclaimer I want to thank everyone for the gilds, replies and suggestions. I just do not have time to reply to everyone, but I am reading everything. I am not sure how much bigger the thread can be, I already typed this but it vanished so I think I'm at the limit. I will try to keep updating, but I don't expect the thread to be up top for much longer and will likely vanish soon, so if you need anything save it.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers

• Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
  
• Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
  
• Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
  
• Disney+
  
• Britbox
  
• Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder
  

If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV

• Pluto TV
  
• Viki
  
• Roku
  

If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is

• Crunchyroll
  
• Funimation
  
• HiDive
  

The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design

• Humble Bundle
  
• Fanatical
  
• IndieGala
  

Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts

• Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
  
• Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
  
• GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
  
• Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
  
• Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
  
• Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
  
• Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.
  

Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months

• Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
  
• Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
  
• EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
  
• PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.
  

There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks

• Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
  
• Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
  
• Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.
  

Education

• Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
  
• BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.
  

If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change

• If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
  
• Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
  
• Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
  
• There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
  
• Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
  
• Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."
  

That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish

• Duolingo Numerous people have suggested this So I haven't used myself. Thanks to OhHiGCHQ StephanieMecredy & Allorie_95

Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:

• Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
  
• Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
  
• Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
  
• Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
  
• Communal religious worship
  
• Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house
  

I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)

• To flee the threat of harm or violence.*
  
• CoronaVirus Symptoms
  
• CoronaVirus government site You can check your location and how many cases here.
  
• Worldometers Shows cases around the world.
  
• Interactive UK Map Another easy to read map with cases in counties and local area's.
  
• World Health Organisation
  

Support

• Samaritans
  
• Mental Health UK forum on reddit
  
• Link to above's stick post for support outlets
  
• Mindful
  
• Mind.org
  

FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted these links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:

• https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/
  
• https://www.goodsamapp.org/
  
• https://vaccinationvolunteers.sja.org.uk/roles/volunteer-vaccinator.html
  
• https://nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk/getting-you-started-guide-steward-volunteer
  
• https://peoplesmomentum.com/evictionresistance/
  
• https://londonrentersunion.org/
  

Update:
Digital Art
These are Free

• Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
  
• Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
  
• Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.
  

You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.

• LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
  
• Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.
  

Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here

Disclaimer I am posting this here because I got a message from the mods asking me to. I'm not from London so links aren't London centric (but hopefully still of help) and the main post is here so any updates will likely be there (I will try here but it's hard to keep up with the amount of suggestions)
Thanks.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers

• Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
  
• Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
  
• Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
  
• Disney+
  
• Britbox
  
• Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder
  

If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV

• Pluto TV
  
• Viki
  
• Roku
  

If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is

• Crunchyroll
  
• Funimation
  
• HiDive
  

The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design

• Humble Bundle
  
• Fanatical
  
• IndieGala
  

Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts

• Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
  
• Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
  
• GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
  
• Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
  
• Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
  
• Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
  
• Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.
  

Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months

• Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
  
• Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
  
• EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
  
• PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.
  

There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks

• Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
  
• Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
  
• Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.
  

Education

• Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
  
• BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.
  

If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change

• If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
  
• Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
  
• Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
  
• There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
  
• Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
  
• Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."
  

That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish

• Duolingo Numerous people have suggested this So I haven't used myself. Thanks to OhHiGCHQ StephanieMecredy & Allorie_95

Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:

• Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
  
• Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
  
• Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
  
• Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
  
• Communal religious worship
  
• Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house
  

I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)

• To flee the threat of harm or violence.*
  
• CoronaVirus Symptoms
  
• CoronaVirus government site You can check your location and how many cases here.
  
• Worldometers Shows cases around the world.
  
• Interactive UK Map Another easy to read map with cases in counties and local area's.
  
• World Health Organisation
  

Support

• Samaritans
  
• Mental Health UK forum on reddit
  
• Link to above's stick post for support outlets
  
• Mindful
  
• Mind.org
  

FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted this links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:

• https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/
  
• https://www.goodsamapp.org/
  
• https://vaccinationvolunteers.sja.org.uk/roles/volunteer-vaccinator.html
  
• https://nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk/getting-you-started-guide-steward-volunteer
  
• https://peoplesmomentum.com/evictionresistance/
  
• https://londonrentersunion.org/
  

Update:
Digital Art
These are Free

• Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
  
• Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
  
• Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.
  

You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.

• LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
  
• Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.
  

Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here

I dinged 30 about a month ago and as the last few shreds of my youth slip away my thoughts have turned more and more to the past; to nostalgia and comforting symbols of the familiar - to nobody's surprise here this includes more than a few video games.
I was playing games even before I had the coordination necessary myself as I would sit in my dad's lap while he played the original rotoscoped Prince of Persia. When I was gradually and inevitably lulled to sleep I would be woken, in an instant, by any hint or suggestion that he was finished playing, to insist as only a toddler can that he continue, to my satisfaction, because I wasn't sleeping and I definitely wasn't tired.
In mentally cataloguing each game that has meant something significant to me I landed on a dust-covered half-memory of the first game I was ever uncontrollably addicted. A memory perhaps intentionally buried as the game is one I can never actually play or experience again - a game lost and disintegrated by time's pitiless march forward.
You might assume it's simply an old game - some vague amalgamation of shapes and sounds that is just so old it's been lost to the ceaseless accumulation of more , hidden among a sea data too large to sort, but the game I can't play because it no longer exists was released in the ancient bygone year of 2003.
In 2003 I was 13 and had a Playstation 2. The PS2 didn't release with built-in online functionality and network play on consoles wasn't really a thing yet but by 2002 you could purchase an adapter that slotted into the back of your console and connected to the Internet via ethernet (or a phone-line for those of us still cursed with a dial-up connection). One of the games that not only took advantage of this functionality but in fact required it to play at all was Everquest Online Adventures, a console spin-off of the quintessential PC MMORPG from 1999 that had exploded in popularity and come to define a genre - a game that prompted mainstream discussion about its addictive and all-consuming nature.
For a prepubescent dweeb that didn't have a PC playing online was a revelation - it was something totally new and never experienced before - it was novel. The 'gameworld' wasn't just some static background, some illusion that vanished when you turned the game off, it was a real virtual space with permanence that actually existed despite you - people were standing in Freeport all day whether I was there or not and that wasn't just cool, it was mind-blowing - for a teenage turbonerd that had never even heard of an 'MMORPG' before it was genuinely unlike anything else I had ever experienced or really even thought was possible - the game was so much more than just a game, it was a game contained within a vast and expansive world, a world that felt dynamic and alive and was filled with real people and, most importantly, adventure.
Everquest was famously a fairly hardcore game - progress was generally glacially-paced and when you died (and you would die - often) you dropped all of your equipment, lost a portion of experience (you could even de-level) and had to run all the way back to your corpse from wherever your soul was 'bound' (sometimes 30+ minutes) to retrieve your stuff before everything despawned. There was no in-game map to speak of and quests, the initial few there were, weren't done by following any indicators or markers and could often only be discovered by 'hailing' and talking to each NPC individually. There were absolutely no floating exclamation marks pointing you towards progress, you had to read and pay attention to dialogue and discover the path to progess yourself - or by asking!
EQOA, while made slightly more 'casual' than its PC progenitor was still decidedly an 'old-school' MMORPG at heart - a game that required (and rewarded) a large time investment with very little guidance and a game that was supremely socially-oriented. While the death penalty in EQOA was made a little less punishing than EQ (no more 'corpse runs', now you only lost some money and accumulated XP 'debt' which had to be paid off before you could start to level unimpeded again) but for the most part EQOA was as similar to its namesake as possible given it had to be playable on a Playsation 2 with only a controller.
The game had fifteen classes split between ten races with many race/class combinations being limited. It maintained the 'trinity' dynamic of EQ with different classes serving distinct but fundamental roles in the success and efficacy of a group. 'Tanks' 'pulled' enemies individually, kept their focus ('aggro') and absorbed ('tanked') most of the damage - 'Healers' top priority was keeping everybody alive (especially the tank) while occasionally casting buffs or debuffs and resurrecting anybody if things went south - 'Damage Dealers' or 'DDs' were split between Magic and Physical damage-based classes focused generally on outputting a lot of damage quickly or serving some other secondary function like dealing with additional pulls ('crowd control').
Not every classs fit neatly within a single archetype and some were more versatile or focused than others - A Druid or Shaman could serve competently as a group's primary healer but a Cleric would perform that singular function more efficiently. This distinction and delineation between classes meant group composition mattered and felt important - playing in a group with 2 Mages, 1 Necromancer and 1 Wizard required a different strategy and approach than playing with the traditional trinity of Tank/HealeDD.
EQOA also carried over the faction system where different groups and races reacted to you based on your own race and faction relationship. Trolls weren't welcome in Rivervale and likewise Halflings weren't welcome in Grobb. There was nothing that prevented 'unfriendly' races from grouping together but if you were an Ogre you wouldn't really be spending much time in Klick'Anon, the clockwork-city of the Gnomes. Every location in-game could be travelled between freely without a single loading screen - the world was totally open and felt vast which was quite the feat when you consider the limitations of the available hardware and the demands of an MMORPG.
Playing on your own (soloing) wasn't totally impossible (it sort of was) but it was markedly more difficult (and slow) to make progress so people would naturally form groups to explore, quest, and level together. In EQOA quests weren't a main source of experience although they did reward it - more often quests provided class-specific spells or equipment and were available at certain levels. For most people, the bulk of levelling was done by grouping with 4-5 other players and then finding an appropriately levelled camp and then 'grinding' out XP at that single spot pulling mobs one by one for multiple hours at a time.
Sounds monotonous, right? Well it was, but it also had the unintended consequence of facilitating socialization - you weren't only mindlessly grinding, you were probably chatting with your guild-mates or shooting the shit with your party while you waited for the Rogue that just joined the group to find somebody to cast SoW on them so they could make the trek to wherever you were camped. SoW or 'Spirit of the Wolf' was a low-mid level spell available to Druids and Shamans that significantly increased movement speed - if you had to travel anywhere you sure as hell didn't want to do it without somebody casting SoW on you.
Because the world was completely open and without instancing popular spots or 'camps' for quick experience or particular loot were highly contested - if you and your party wanted to level but your favourite spot was full you were put in a tough spot - you could either wait for a place to open up, find somewhere else to go, or, if you were a real asshole you would run around and intentionally aggro a bunch of mobs and then lead them towards a group with the hopes of overwhelming and wiping them so yours could take their spot - this was called a 'train' because the aggro'd mobs formed a line as they chased after the player and this kind of behaviour was super common at some of the more popular camps - I remember a zone called the Deathfist Citadel was infamous for overcrowding and constant train-ing.
End-game raiding and bosses are a whole separate beast - just imagine everything I said above but now factor in a single infrequent spawn that drops ultra-rare loot being fought over by large coordinated and competing guilds for hours at a time - I never made it to the end-game myself but I can still tell you it was super serious business.
Now, thinking back all of these distinguishing features sound sort of burdensome, like they might have slightly improved the atmosphere or sense of exploration and discovery but only at the expense of convenience and actually playing the game - as an example, a lot of time "playing" might have been spent doing literally nothing besides travelling, and that can seem kind of like content is being stretched out artificially and while this might be true it is at the same time true that this kind of non-consideration or passivity towards a player's time and/or convenience had the benefit of making the world feel large and making travel feel significant.
I think many of these period-specific examples of design standards and expectations embody the idea that the journey was the experience, not the destination. Progress in EQOA was, by todays standards, slooooooooooooooooooooooow - not just slow, glacial - it might take somebody up to a year (or more) to reach max level by playing fairly casually but MMORPG's of this era weren't yet standardized and moulded to make the experience as streamlined and accessible as possible or making sure every moment was filled some something - sometimes nothing can be something - the passive downtime of travelling can offer a kind of punctuation between the more engaging activities like running through a dungeon or grinding out levels - they valleys make the peaks all that more impressive, in other words.
EQOA was shut down in 2012 and is no longer playable. There is a fan project attempting to resurrect it but their progress is fairly slow as you would expect from a passion project requiring reverse-engineering that is only being worked on when free time allows. Since the servers were shut down recreating the game world as it once existed requires manually placing mobs and NPC's and rewriting their pathing and AI - as it stands now you can run around an empty world and I suppose that's something, but it's it EQOA.
Now, nearly everything I've said above is also a whole lot of bullshit influenced by my own fond memories - EQOA isn't just a game for me, it's a game and a specific span of time in my life - EQOA was being an awkward teenager with a life full of possibility and potential. EQOA could be recreated identically or copied mechanically today but the pangs in my heart aren't really for EQOA the game, they're for a forgotten time in my life where summer's stretched endlessly in front of me and I could spend 8+ hours playing video games without a care or concern about my other responsibilities.
I'm now 30 and have a (relatively) decent fulltime job, a supportive partner, a beautiful dog and a space to carve out a life, a space to call home. In spite of all of these wonderful things, sometimes I still want nothing more than to go back. I am unbelievably fortunate in so many aspects of life - I'm an adult and now I really can stay up all night playing video games if I wanted to, but I also can't really do that even if I wanted to - life at 30 just doesn't allow it the same way life did at 13. As far removed as 2003 is from 2020 so is the idea that a game could be reimagined and exist exactly as it once was. EQOA might be able to exist in 2020 but not without being poisoned and diminished by modern sensibilities, conventions, and expectations or manipulated by predatory monetization schemes.
Time speeds up as you get older - eventually the weeks just start flying by and the days blur together, indistinguishable - one weekend comes and goes in the blink of an eye and the rest of your time in-between is spent just justifying your right to exist through hours of mindless, exploitative labour and what little bit of free time you're afforded by a society ruled by capital is only enough to grant the shortest respite possible, enough that you won't off yourself because the cycle is just too fucking unbearable.
EQOA might be recreated but it will never be 2003 again. EQOA is dead and that's soul-crushing - EQOA is dead and that's okay - EQOA is dead and life goes on, its mere memory possessing infinitely more beauty than the tangible thing it was once - a time and place when responsibility was limited and free-time was abundant - a time and place most adults will never visit again except in brief flashes of recollection inspired by the familiar.
Remember kids, games aren't just games - they're unique points in space and time that capture a reflection of what is now but at some point will be what once was.
Nothing escapes entropy, not even fantasy.

​

Quick Links

• GUIDE PROVIDED BY: SocomCommunity
• JOIN THE DISCORD SERVER
• VIDEO SETUP GUIDE by Dill

Things you'll need

• PCSX2 or Homebrew-Enabled PS2
• One-time patch needed for downloading the R004 Update. This patch will also be needed if you use the emulator or a backup copy of the game. https://socomcommunity.com/downloads/r0004v002.elf

Network Setup

• Before you begin, you will need to make sure you have a valid network configuration set up on your console. If you have set up SOCOM I or any other game from SocomCommunity, you may skip this step. This portion of the guide differs for PCSX2 and PS2 consoles.

PS2

• Boot up the game and go to the Online Menu. Once you are there, click on "Edit Network Configurations"
• Edit Config
• Create a new network config and use all defaults by pressing X then Right-Dpad until you get to the DNS server option.
• Edit DNS
• Once you are here, you will need to select "Manual", then press Right D-pad.
• Enter the DNS IP Address of `104.237.9.163` into the Primary DNS field
• Leave Secondary blank. (0.0.0.0)
• Complete the rest of the Network Configuration and save it to your memory card.

PCSX2

PLUGIN SETUP

GSdx

PCSX2 has some graphical glitches for some games and the network configuration screens do not work. * A patched version of the GSdX plugins for PCSX2 are available for download here: https://socomcommunity.com/downloads/PCSX2-VideoPlugin.zip * Simply download the file and extract the contents into your PCSX2 plugins folder.

DEV9

Make sure you are using the newest Dev9 Plugin (0.8.9) * Download is here if you need it: https://github.com/TheLastRaCLR-DEV9/releases/download/V0.8.9/CLR_DEV9.X86.7z * Simply download the file and extract the contents into your PCSX2 plugins folder.

DEV9 Network Configuration

Setting up your network configuration for CLR_DEV9 is very simple. Once you have confirmed your plugin is up to date, go back to the main PCSX2 window. * Select Config -> Dev9 -> Plugin Settings * Next to "Enable Ethernet" click on Options * Under "Connection Method" select Sockets (Winsock) * For "Adapter" you will need to select the adapter you use on your computer for connecting to the internet. If you are on wifi, select the adapter that resembles your PC's wireless card. If you are connected via an ethernet cable, select your PC's ethernet card. (It will be something along the lines of 'Ethernet # - Some Manufacturer') Do not select TAP if it's an option! * For DNS1 IP enter the value "104.237.9.163" * Make sure "PC IP" is UNCHECKED next to PS2 IP Address * Click Apply on both windows.

HDD

Installing DLC Maps on PCSX2

SOCOM II r0004 contains support for 3 additional maps for online play via the HDD. PCSX2 with CLR_DEV9 contain support for loading these maps from an HDD disk image. The HDD image file needed can be downloaded HERE

Setting up the PCSX2 HDD

• Download the file above and extract it to your PCSX2 directory.
• You will now need to configure the DEV9 plugin on PCSX2 to use this HDD Image
• Open PCSX2 and in the main window menu navigate to Config -> DEV9 -> Plugin Settings
• Check the box next to "Enable Hdd"
• Click Options
• Click "Browse" and select the file you extracted earlier to your PCSX2 directory.
• Click "Apply" on both DEV9 windows.
• DO NOT CHANGE THE HDD SIZE OPTION!
• At the main menu of the game, select "Options"
• Enable "HDD" option in settings, and return to main menu.
• Save to your memory card when prompted. You are now ready to use the Online DLC!

Downloading the R0004 Update

A one-time patch is needed in order to bypass the DNAS authentication on the base version of SOCOM II. Unfortunately this is unavoidable at this time. If you have not downloaded it from the link at the top of this guide, it can be found here: https://socomcommunity.com/downloads/r0004v002.elf

• Put the ELF file on your PS2's flash drive if you are on a console and boot it via FreeMcBoot.
• Once the game has loaded, select "Online" and connect. The bottom of the main menu will still say "SOCOM 2 r0001" at this point! After a successful connection, click on the shown universe.
• Download the update when prompted to. \*The download can take a few minutes. Please be patient.*
• Once the update has downloaded, save it to your memory card and restart your console manually. \*If you attempt to let the game restart on its own, it will freeze. This is expected.***

You are now setup to play SOCOM II ONLINE! G^

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.

Warning : boring post only reflecting my experience and opinions on crts.
I think I always was into CRTs in some form or an another, as far as I can remember I played N64, PS1, Gamecube on some good old cube televisions. I moved on to lcd when the Wii era came and everyone was buying plasma and "flat screens" but eventually found myself digging crt screens from the dumpster during high school to play shooters without refresh delay issues. Even when I stopped playing those games I still kept one big 17" nec display along with my gateway PC.
Eventually everyone threw away the old tvs, and the only one left around me was a giant 32" Thomson in my friends basement that we would use when watching DVDs. A few years later, I would take all my old consoles out of storage to play them again, and for a while I played them on a LCD like everyone did but often wondered why everything looked so shit?
I started looking online and the answer was pretty obvious : I needed an old cube tv to experience the "quality" I missed. I got on the local ads, and picked up a nice 16" little tv for free. I was finally going to experience everything the way it was meant to be played!
After a while, I began reading online, mostly retro gaming forums about the whole CRT/retro gaming craze. People were talking arcade cabinets, old school TVs, monitors and everything. The first thing that I picked up is I should do "RGB mods" and it should dramatically improve everything! The thing is, because of some obscure French regulations, all my stuff was already in full RGB and all my cables were Péritel (French name for SCART). I did mod some consoles like my 64 but the improvements were barely noticeable.
The second big suggestion was looking for the "trinitron" TVs. Once again, I hit the local ads and the search was on. I picked up a nice 20" Sony flat screen that had the "Trinitron" badge I was after. I was ecstasic! I got home, plugged my snes in and indeed it looked better than my small tv! But that wasn't enough : I was hooked and in the meantime had heard about the ultimate displays : Sony's incredible "PVM" and "BVM"! I placed alerts on the different local ads and thus started my quest for the holy "BVM". I spent nights awake brwsing classifieds, looking up ressources and reading online.
About a year passed with no pvm or bvm in sight. I got my friends to help me pick up a massive kv32something that weighed a ton, so at least I had something bigger to game on. This set was awesome, big screen, great colors and everything but eventually died for unknown reasons.
Then one day this was it. I got the email from the local ads website: a pvm was for sale! I checked the ad, called the guy and was on my way. I drove a few hours, picked it up and brought it back home. It was an older 19 inch model apprently nicknamed "cube". I set it up and played for a while on it. Some time later, a 14 inch pvm popped up in the local ads and I picked up this one as well. I now had two of them! I was very happy. But I kept reading stuff about the incredible BVMs and how they were the best. At that point I should have taken a step back and think about what I was even doing, but I needed to know what was so incredible and experience it for myself. I saw a few posts on this subreddit warning about how even if the BVMs are great, they are nowhere near the experience we had back then playing on janky cheapo 14" TVs. Looking back at it, it makes me think of people chasing METAL tapes and old high end cassette tape decks with dolby and stuff. Most people I knew listened to basic ferro tapes on crappy radio-cassettes and never experienced this level of audio quality.
One day, I was talking to a guy about buying another pvm. I had sold the 19" one and only had my 14"pvm and 20" sony TV. We agreed on a rendezvous at his house to talk about what he had on sale at the time (this was before covid). I can remember entering his house and seeing two giant BVMs sitting on a table. We sat down, talked a bit about old screens, and he told me how he had the biggest one imported and spent almost 4000 for this almost unused unit. He had it oriented and tuned perfectly. This was it. The moment I've been waiting for this whole time. He powered the monitor on, plugged in a snes and a ps2. Something broke in me at that point. Here I was looking at this almighty very expensive very high end BVM and all I could think of was "damn, that's litterally the same thing as my 32 inch trinitron tv I got for free". I let the shock wore off, thanked the guy and drove home.
This was the moment I realised how stupid this whole ordeal was. I never needed a production monitor as the only thing I was pluggin in it were old consoles. I wondered if I had a "quality" bias from experiencing everything on RGB scart from the beginning and not composite or s video like in other countries. This is where my quest for the ultimate CRT ends, as even if everyone around me praised BVMs as the ultimate CRT experience, playing old consoles could never justify dropping 2 grand on something that's litterally a wega trinitron with fancy controls that I'll never use. Even today, a nice 32 or even 40 inch wega can still be had for free on any local ad website.
I had a great time exploring the world of old school production grade CRT screens, but ultimately I ended up reality checking myself and realising the only thing I needed was a nice Sony TV from the end of the CRT era and I would be 100 times better than everything I experienced as a kid back when CRTs were relevant.
I'm sure there are people out there that use BVM and PVM to their full extent and have a great time with them, to everyone else on a holy grail quest like me, take time, think about it, find someone that owns one and test it for yourself before making stupid decisions like I did.

Hello, fellow MNFH members. I hope everyone is wearing their masks and practicing social distancing while having a good time. This is going to be a long post and I don't want to TL;DR it. It's also going to be fairly personal for me and depressing topics will be covered. If you want to take the time to read it, I appreciate you. This is a post that I've been wanting to make for a long time. I've made posts on this subreddit and others in the past as well as used apps and other websites to try to fill a void I've felt in my life for years now. I'm going to talk extensively about my past, my thought process, my feelings about things, and so on. I am going to rant and ramble A LOT and thoughts may come out jumbled at times.. you've been warned. This first section let's just call "things you should know about me and facts about my life". I'm a 26-year-old male born and raised in Arkansas, USA, though I have lived briefly in other states growing up, namely Georgia. I have 2 half-sisters who currently live in other states. I'm the middle child and we were all born 2 years apart. We're half-siblings because of different fathers. I've never met my biological father and was legally adopted by a new dad at the age of 9 or so to take on a new last name. Keep in mind that my mom married said man, I didn't go to a new family.. Just wanted to clarify to avoid confusion. I'm a mama's boy, and my mom always said I was a little different growing up. I know all kids are unique, but I was very particular about things and excelled academically when I applied myself. I've always been an avid gamer and this started when I was 3 with the game Frogger: He's Back! on the PS1. I then moved onto Centipede and Spyro the Dragon. When the Gameboy Advance came out, I got it for Christmas and always had it in my hands anywhere I went for years. I played stuff like Pokemon and Yoshi's Island.. you know.. your standard issue Gameboy games. I currently live in a small town with my mom who has a lot of health problems and is on disability, and my best friend who I refer to as my brother even though we're not biologically-related. I met him in approx. 2005 and built a lifetime friendship that started on Halo 2 splitscreen and Linkin Park. I'm on disability as well. I also have 3 birds and 2 cats. Casper the African Grey Timneh parrot, Zeus the Yellow-crowned Amazon parrot, Ra the Sun Conure(Parakeet), Luna a lean female cat of the solid-black variety, and Pax the fat older brother with grey tabby fur. I myself am also on disability for various mental issues that I'll get into soon so I always have ample free time that I spend sleeping, watching Youtube videos, and gaming. I own a PS4 but 99.9999% of my gaming is done on PC and has been this way since 2008.. which is also the year I got into World of Warcraft but that's another novel on its own. I used to be an avid book reader back in high school, but I stopped as soon as I graduated in 2012. Since then, my life has been a downward spiral...
Which is the perfect segue into the next puddle of word vomit which will cover my mental illness and the history behind it. This section is going to get very personal for me and I've never openly shared it all on a public forum like this. Before I go into the story about what happened to me, I must first give a bit of background information to help you understand the context. My mother drank a fair bit when I was growing up because of physical pain she was in and couldn't deal with due to complications with smallpox vaccine (I believe, it's been a while) and weight problems she's battled as long as I've been alive. My grandmother (AKA my mother's mother) is, in my eyes, an evil woman for various reasons, but my bias aside, she had a favoritism thing for my older sister. I guess things like that aren't too uncommon which is a tragedy. And the last bit of backstory is my legal father. He is very tempermental and prone to losing his temper quite easily. He is also a bit of a player... Always needing a piece of a**, so to speak. OH, and he is also very selfish. With all that out of the way, let me begin... The year is 2006... I turned 12 this summer and had a blast spending it with various camping trips with my family and friends. Fast forward a few months and it's now September 28. I remember this day vividly though I honestly which I could forget all of it. It was very overcast, looking like it was to rain that evening, but I didn't let that stop me from bouncing on the trampoline we had in the backyard. My mom was across the street with neighbors hanging out and drinking. It started to get late so I went inside.. I don't remember what I was doing, but at some point my mom stumbled in the front door and faceplanted with a puddle of blood forming around her head. She was plastered. My sisters and I were in a panic. I was trying to help her up but unbeknownst to me, my older sister called my grandmother and told her what was going on... My grandmother being the evil woman that I think her to be told my sister to call the police on my mom. See, my G-ma had a hidden agenda. She wanted custody of my oldest sister so what better way than to get my sister taken away then swoop in for custody? Afterall my mother would have never given up custody willingly. So, my sister called the police. It was starting to get dark now and it started to rain, but in the commotion and with the door open so frequently, our male pitbull named Valor managed to get outside and ran around like an idiot. I remember the dark grey skies, the rain, occasional thunder, the wet grass as I chased Valor around. We eventually caught him and hauled him inside. I was sitting on a chair in the living room, soaking wet with the police outside talking to my mom and I assume my sisters. Eventually, the officer came inside and said I had to go with him. I remember sitting in the chair screaming, begging to stay. I loved my mom and didn't want to go. I refused. I told them I wasn't gonna leave.. but I was just a kid. The result is my sisters and I being put in the back of a police car. We were whisked away to the police station for who knows how long before we were taken to a DHS office in a nearby city. The DHS worker was a nice woman from what I can remember. By this time it was probably 3-4 in morning. The worker, my siblings, and I were the only souls in the large, dark office building while she was on the phone trying to arrange for our new homes. My sisters went to a foster home together, and I went to a separate one. I remember the trip to the home. It was just me and the lady at this point. She got out to greet the parents and I sat in the car just staring at the clock. It was 5 AM. I remember going inside and they showed me where a bed was while the fosterdad and the worker talked in faint whispers in the kitchen. I don't know how long I laid there but at some point I fell asleep. All I remember of the next day was sitting on the sofa just staring blankly at the TV. I was completely numb. I stayed in that foster home until Dec. 15 when I got news that my legal father acquired custody. I was thrilled that I would be living with someone I was at least familiar with. He was married at the time to some other woman who had 2 daughters who coincidentally shared the same first names as my biological sisters. What are the odds? Things were great. I had a new family that I wanted to be with, I had a PS2 again, and we had a basketball hoop outside. This was shortlived because it wasn't even a few weeks before both parents started fighting and I was standing accused of spying on the older sister while she was changing, which I never did. All of this resulted in him getting kicked out, which by extension included me. He didn't have much at all so we found a really, really shitty apartment that had one of those wall heaters and a window A/C unit. The timing was awful too because was also extremely cold outside and was snowing heavily. We didn't have a bed or electricity yet so we had little lamps and an air mattress for the first few days. I remember just sitting at the small table we had doing jigsaw puzzles while he was at work and school was out for either holidays or just because of all the snow.. maybe both. Fast forward several months and we've got beds and I made friends with the kid who lived across the street. I always got left with the house chores and mowing the lawn, even though the mower was extremely old and barely functioning. Every day I would do the hourlong bus ride home, turn on the TV to watch Dr. Phil, do the dishes, and eat a pack or two of ramen. This is a very recurring theme. While I had to often make due with ramen, my selfish dad would go get himself fastfood and eat it before coming home and I would never get any. He also had a habit of spending any child support he got on Rent-A-Center things like big TVs and sofas that we couldn't afford to upkeep once the money was gone. All-in-all, he was not a smart man and didn't care for my wants/desires. It wasn't all bad living there with him though. The friend I mentioned earlier that lived across the street became one of my best friends and we would play games together all the time in his room. And in the summer we would ride bikes all over the place. It was some of the most fun and memorable times of my life despite the home life. My dad being the tempermental type, he would often get so angry he would punch/break things which was a bad habit I picked up from him and became as short-tempered as him. I lived with him from Dec. 15, 2006 which was when I left the fosterhome, until early August 2008. The entire time I lived with him, my mom would give him messages for me and tell him to tell me that she loved me... and also hoped that the money that was going to him would be used on me. It wasn't. And my dad never gave me any of her messages and made me feel like my mom didn't love me anymore. Then one day while I was at a friends house with whom I was staying the night, I was on his PC on my Myspace page I made and my mom added me. She was relieved that it was her son and not some random person and told me how much she loved/missed me. I was shocked and wanted to go back to home with her immediately. This eventually culminated in me persuading my dad to talk with my mom to arrange for me to go home. She even had him sign an agreement which I would later discover wasn't allowed, but my mom was given false information at the time. I went home and I was so happy. I got to see Valor again and our other dog Grace.. And Ra, which we had back then. My mom bought me a computer from Best Buy and that started my PC gaming lifestyle. World of Warcraft started in early October 2008. Life was good. She spoiled the hell out of me which was a drastic change from living with my dad who only looked after himself. Fast forward to January 2009 or so, and my older sister got kicked out of her dads house and my mom got her a plane ticket and flew her back to us. Now I should mention that at some point during the initial fosterhome ordeal, my sisters went to their respective fathers, just as I did. My younger sister lived across the state, and my older sister lived in Colorado. Another 2 months go by and things are great. I have my blooming WoW addiction, back to school, my older sis was there. But one day in March I'm at school and intercom goes off telling me to get my things to leave school for the day. Confused, I go to the office where a DHS worker is waiting. I was very, very confused and scared at this point, and she tells my sister and I that things are fine and that my mom was in court at the moment and we were needed. The result was the judge deciding that my mom still wasn't fit to be a parent despite not drinking since 2006 and doing everything in her power to prove she was capable. We were taken into fostercare again that very day. This time though we were taken to a different town over an hour away, not the one we went to before, and since they couldn't find homes for us, we had to live in a juvenile delinquent center for 3 weeks until places opened up. There we slept on mattresses on the floor, weren't allowed cellphones, had strict eating/showering schedules and were generally treated just like any other delinquent even though we had no business being there. After that, I went to an actually nice fosterhome while my sister went to another. I got to call my mom frequently and got weekly visits with her, so this period of time wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as the previous time at the juvenile center, but I still wanted to go home. I remember during the time at the center, we were smuggling cellphones and my older sister was texting mom. We were waiting to get picked up from school by the Center van and we knew there was court that day to maybe let us go home. You know by now that we didn't go home then, but when my sister got the bad news from my mom, my sister yelled in my face saying it was my fault we couldn't go home because I missed too much school and my grades weren't great. We weren't allowed to cry or anything because then they people at the Center would wanna know why we were crying and then they would figure out we had phones... because how else would we know the court results? I spent that nights shower time just crying. I know I'm jumbling up the timeline here and I'm sorry. On June 15, after a few months at the new fosterhome, I was allowed to back to my mom. My older sister as well. My sister would eventually turn 18 and move out, and leave for Colorado again. Though that was the last time I would have to deal with DHS and fostercare, the damage was done and I feel like my psyche was broken at that point. At that point forward I wasn't the same kid that enjoyed his summer in 2006, or even the kid who got his new computer and started WoW in 2008. Being taken a second time like that, after believing the nightmares were gone.. it just ruined me. I don't know how else to say it. I had friends at school, but I didn't talk to them outside of on the schoolyard or in the halls. I would read books in every class every day just to pass the time, not caring about anything else. And when I got home, I would get on my PC immediately and escape. Once I graduated in 2012, I no longer had the obligation to go anywhere so I fell into a deep isolation that I'm still under to this day. I wouldn't leave the house unless my mom made me for groceries or doctors appointments.. But now, in 2021, I don't even leave for those since COVID is a thing and all my appointments are on mobile.. and my mom doesn't ask me to go anywhere because she knows the answer. The PTSD from the ordeal, the trauma, has given me severe anxiety about change and leaving the house. Even thinking about lifestyle changes or any drastic change that can occur is enough to stress me out. Because of this, I never go anywhere and I hate change. The result is me just existing, hardly living. I've been living like this so long that sometimes the outside world doesn't feel real at all. Like nothing is real. I question the point of living.. wondering if I'll ever find a purpose, because I don't have the will to do anything on my own. I also have sleeping problems, depression, and Dependent Personality Disorder. I feel like I'm undiagnosed Asperger's because I tick all the boxes perfectly and it fits the way I act and respond to certain things. I take medication for the anxiety/depression/sleep parts and currently not seeing any therapists. I've tried therapy in the past, but it's complicated. With me being afraid to even think about change, I won't think about it at all once I leave the therapists office. So it's yielded no results. I also have a defeatist outlook on things wondering what's the point of doing anything anyways since we'll eventually just die all the same.. and I also neglect my physical well-being, not exercising or eating healthy, and just being a potato. Luckily, my current mood-stabilizer really suppresses my anger and mellows me out, so my developed anger issues aren't as much of an issue these days. I feel like I could've included so many more details about things, but this post is already getting really long.
Finally onto another section and it will be about what I'm looking for on here or just in general. I would love it if the girl of my dreams rode up on a gallant steed and saved me from my own hell. Someone who understands every facet of me, knows what I need to improve as a human, and wants to help me achieve it together.. but this isn't a fairytale and in the real world, there's hardly ever happy endings. So what I'm really looking for is just.. people who understand what I've been through. People who can fathom the idea of someone having differing opinions from them or different ways of dealing with things and still want to be there for them, in this case: me. Being a gamer is also huge. I'm not saying I can't be friends with non-gamers, but I would likely have nothing in common with you otherwise and I would never have anything to talk about. Us long-time gamers refer to non-gamers as normies, a silly way to call someone a "normal" person. Really, I don't know what I want (or need). The truth is, I've just been in a dark place for a long time now and venting about all this is done in hopes to reaffirm that I'm still real. If by some miracle an actual friendship blossoms out of this, I will be very surprised... and the reason for that I will discuss in the next section..
Speaking of which, this bit will be about my mannerisms, general social behaviors, and by extension: a bit of my gaming habits. I am brutally honest. I will often tell people how I feel about things even to theirs or my own detriment. Most people don't expect this behavior and are caught offguard that someone would be so open about said topic or have the gall to confront them about said issue. I also feel emotionally detached at times and sometimes even detached from other people. All of this together means I very often come across as cold, abrasive, and/or combative.. but trust me when I say I always have good intentions, despite how it comes across. Being isolated and always online, if I dislike someone, I'll either say it to them directly, or just block them, removing them from my life. Not to say I don't gossip sometimes, but that's usually just to vent some frustration, not to cause problems. I have a lot of common sense and apply logic where I can (I'm Atheist, btw). As a result, I'm nearly impossible to surprise as I can just look at all the slight clues and hints and can infer the surprise before it happens. It kinda sucks because surprises are fun. I also have good problem-solving skills in video games. As for my current online friends, some I've had for many years. We can go months without a word but the moment a game comes out we both wanna play, we're on it like nothing happened. I don't really talk to anyone daily, and go most days without messaging anyone at all. Most of the time, a new person will come into the picture, sometimes for only a day or two and sometimes longer but eventually suffering the fate of us just not talking anymore. This is a curse I've long dealt with. I'm just not good at maintaining friendships. I get hooked into a game and I lose interest in talking until that current addiction dies, then I come back down to Earth. It happens EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. But usually by then it's better to just remove them and move along because we're back to being almost strangers. I'm a variety gamer. I have lulls where I'm trying to decide what to play, then I eventually get hooked into something super hard, I'll play it for weeks or months, however long it takes for me to burnout on it, then go back to a lull. You can see why it's hard for me to make/keep friends. When I quit a game, I usually just stop talking to friends I made on that game because they're still playing and we have nothing else to talk about since I'm moving onto other things.... I almost never message first. I guess most people say that and that's probably why I never talk to anyone. And sometimes I can get kinda clingy, so that's fun. Lastly, I'm a memer. I like my internet memes, classics and new, and I regular TwitchTV so those memes are apart of my repertoire as well.
Too much rambling, AAAAAAH! Last section, game preferences! GO! As I mentioned, I'm a PC gamer, but I own a PS4.. even if I never touch it. I'm a huge variety gamer, my library containing a large number of various RPGs, FPS, etc. My favorite games of all time (in no particular order) include: Terraria, Darksiders, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and World of Warcraft. I love many other games, but this is just to give a taste. I'm not a very competitive person. I don't do "ranked" modes in games, but I DO like winning and will try to win where I can. If I feel like I can't win, I'm not against just giving up since logically it would be a waste of time. When I play shooters like Call of Duty (my current addiction), I'm very conservative in my playstyle. When it comes to RPGs and MMOs like WoW, I'm always DPS(Damage Per Second), never tank or healer. Also, I really love co-op games, or any game where there's teamwork so I can feel useful and validated in that regard. Long story short, I play whatever makes my brain give me happy brain chemicals that day. If I stop getting happy brain chemicals, I stop playing that game. Makes it near impossible for me to enjoy games that aren't my current addiction, even if I've enjoyed those games in the past.
Anyways, this post is coming to a close. I want to apologize to anyone who reads through all of it because it sure ain't pretty to look at. Is the post too long? Probably. Do I care? No. Do I feel better for having written it? Yes, even if nothing comes of it. This post could've been much longer but every corner I was cutting stuff and scrapping details. I was just typing what came to mind and there's very little structure. Maybe I'll hear from you, maybe not.. either way, have a good one.

Welcome!

Welcome to /Utawarerumono, a subreddit for discussing and sharing things about Leaf's visual novel and anime series, Utawarerumono. We're glad to have you here! Please make sure you mark your spoilers, and try to link to the sources for artwork.

Wait, What Is This?

Utawarerumono is a trilogy of visual novels with tactical RPG elements, plus a couple of spinoffs. The original was developed by Leaf, a subsidiary of Aquaplus, and subsequent games were developed by Aquaplus directly. The first two have also had anime series based on them. All three of the main games have received official English translations by NIS America and Atlus.
The games are set in a fantasy world influenced by Japanese and Ainu culture. They're commonly praised for having intricate stories, complex character development, beautiful music, and mind-blowing plot twists. In terms of story structure and breadth of plot, they have often been compared to Nihon Falcom's Kiseki / Trails series.
The first game opens with a man who has lost his memories waking up in a forest and discovering that he has a mask permanently attached to his face. He is taken in by the people of a nearby village, and in turn he helps protect them from bandits and would-be conquerors; over the course of the story, he leads a war to unite the country and also seeks to discover the truth of his past. The story explores themes of war, political intrigue, love, and identity.
In terms of gameplay, the games are primarily visual novels and involve reading quite a bit of text accompanied by character and background illustrations. The VN segments are occasionally broken up by tactical RPG battles in the vein of games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, or Fire Emblem; I would personally estimate that the games are about 80% VN and 20% TRPG.
By the way, there's also a lot of kemonomimi.

That Sounds Neat, What Order Should I Play / Watch Everything?

tl;dr version:

1. Play Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen (PS4/Vita/PC)
   1. Alternately, you can watch the 2006 Utawarerumono anime; streaming for free at Funimation and available for purchase on DVD.
   2. There's also a fan translation of the original 2002 PC game, but finding the original game legally can be a little difficult nowadays; it is not sold digitally, so you would need to find a physical copy of the DVD version of the game on Japanese used goods or auction sites.
   3. (Optional) Watch the 2009 Utawarerumono OAV; streaming at HIDIVE and available for purchase on Blu-ray & DVD.
2. Play Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (PS4/Vita/PC)
   1. (Optional) Play Utawarerumono Zan; it's the same story but highly abridged and with different gameplay
3. Play Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth (PS4/Vita/PC)
4. (Optional) Watch Utawarerumono: Tusukuru-koujo no Karei Naru Hibi, the final OVA (no official English release)

• Warning: Don't look at anything about Mask of Truth until you've finished Mask of Deception; there are massive spoilers!

I've got a few minutes, what's the non-tl;dr version?

The original Utawarerumono was an adult visual novel released for Windows in 2002. It never received an official English translation. It is no longer for sale digitally, and physical copies are out of print; it can sometimes be found cheaply at Japanese used good stores such as Suruga-ya, if you're willing to go through a proxy shopping service. There is also a fan translation of it that is designed to work with the DVD release of the game. In addition, the erotic scenes in the game are commonly considered to be superfluous, if not actively detracting from the quality of the story; the game was developed during an era when the common belief was that visual novels needed to have adult material in order to sell well, and so they are present in the game despite not being a major part of it or important to the overall story.
It was ported to the Playstation 2 in 2006 as Utawarerumono: Chiriyukumono e no Komori Uta and had voice acting added to it, various enhancements to the gameplay, and the adult scenes removed. That version would later be ported to the PSP in 2009. Neither of these versions received an English release, and these versions are easier to import nowadays, but there is no translation patch for them.
An anime series based on the game was produced in 2006, and an additional three-episode OVA that covers some side-stories not present in the original series was produced in 2009. Both were officially licensed and released by ADV Films, although the license has since been sold to Funimation. The anime series omits a few details that were present in the original game, but overall it is considered to be a good adaptation in the story, and it's the best way to experience it in English.
The series was then dormant for several years, and fans were surprised when two sequels, Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen and Utawarerumono: Futari no Hakuoro, were announced, and they were released in 2015 and 2016, respectively. An anime series based on Itsuwari no Kamen was announced simultaneously and released on Crunchyroll as Utawarerumono: The False Faces. The anime series received a lukewarm reception; while it covers the same basic story, the general consensus is that compared to the game, the anime has significant changes to its tone and pacing, plus it omits or changes a number of minor but important plot elements. No anime version of Futari no Hakuoro exists at this time.
Atlus later announced their licenses of both games, and they released Itsuwari no Kamen as Mask of Deception on May 23, 2017 and Futari no Hakuoro as Mask of Truth on September 5, 2017.
The three games all happen in sequential order and the stories are tied together. After the original, Mask of Deception introduces a new cast of characters and is set in a different location, but several characters from the original return in minor roles. Mask of Truth is a direct sequel to Mask of Deception and continues with the same characters, but it also has strong references to events from the original and concludes some of its open plot threads. If you really want to jump right into a game, you could play Mask of Deception before watching the original anime, as long as you keep in mind that you'll be missing some references and there will be a few characters it assumes you already know; on the other hand, you definitely need to have finished both before playing Mask of Truth.
On April 26th, 2018, a remake of the PS2/PSP remake of the original was released for the PS4 and Vita. In addition to the upgraded combat system from the PS version of the game, this version has retouched character art, completely redrawn backgrounds and an expanded soundtrack. The game was released on May 26 in the USA and May 29th in Europe as Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen by NIS America. The Japanese release also included an all-new animated OVA set between the original Utawarerumono and Mask of Deception, but due to spoilers, it's recommended to not watch it until after you've finished Mask of Truth.
On September 27, 2018, they released Utawarerumono Zan, an action game based on Itsuwari no Kamen. The game was developed by Tamsoft, developers of the Senran Kagura games, and has similar gameplay; it tells a heavily abridged version of Itsuwari no Kamen's story, and during the action segments you control a group of four characters and fight waves of enemies. Every controllable unit and Ukon from the original Itsuwari no Kamen are playable, and Oshtor and Munechika are available as DLC characters. This game was licensed by NIS America and released on September 10, 2019.
On October 18, 2019, all three of the main games also got released for free on iOS and Android. Unfortunately, the mobile releases are only available in Japanese, remove all of the battle sequences, and have all of the bath scenes removed, presumably to comply with content restrictions on the Apple and Google app stores.
At the same time that those games were released, the director of Aquaplus announced that they are producing an anime series based on Mask of Truth, but no other details have been revealed yet.
On July 2, 2019, Aquaplus announced a new game in the series titled Utawarerumono: Lost Frag, an iOS/Android mobile gacha game. It was released in Japanese on November 11, 2019. It's not available in English, but it's very easy to play the Japanese version; there's an English wiki with more info about the game at https://utawarelf.miraheze.org/.
On December 10, 2020, Aquaplus released Dokapon UP! Mugen no Roulette on PS4 & Switch, a crossover between the Dokapon and Utawarerumono franchises. The Dokapon series are board game-like games that involve rolling dice to move characters around a map; sometimes they're compared to Mario Party games, but they tend to be much longer.
As of January 22, 2021, all three of the main games have also been released on Steam! Prelude to the Fallen, Mask of Deception, and Mask of Truth are all available for Windows PCs in English, Japanese, and Chinese.
After 18 years, all three Utawarerumono games finally have official translations. It's a good time to be alive.
Unfortunately, on the same date, Atlus delisted the digital releases of Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth from the PSN Store, so the only way to buy those games on PS4/Vita now is to find physical copies.
To sum everything up, here's a list of major Utawarerumono game / anime releases. Platforms with an official English version are highlighted in bold.
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JP Release	US Release	Title	Platform
April 26, 2002		Utawarerumono	PC
April 3, 2006	January 27, 2009	Utawarerumono	Anime
October 26, 2006		Utawarerumono: Chiri Yuku Mono e no Komori Uta	PS2
May 28, 2009		Utawarerumono: Chiri Yuku Mono e no Komori Uta	PSP
June 5, 2009	April 12, 2016	Utawarerumono OAV	Anime
September 24, 2015	May 23, 2017	Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen (Mask of Deception)	PS3/PS4/Vita
October 3, 2015	October 3, 2015	Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen (The False Faces)	Anime
September 21, 2016	September 5, 2017	Utawarerumono: Futari no Hakuoro (Mask of Truth)	PS3/PS4/Vita
April 26, 2018	May 26, 2020	Utawarerumono: Chiri Yuku Mono e no Komori Uta (Prelude to the Fallen)	PS4/Vita
April 26, 2018		Utawarerumono: Tusukuru-koujo no Karei Naru Hibi	Anime
September 27, 2018	September 10, 2019	Utawarerumono Zan	PS4
October 18, 2019		Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen, Mask of Deception, and Mask of Truth	iOS/Android
November 26, 2019		Utawarerumono: Lost Frag	iOS/Android
January 23, 2019	January 23, 2019	Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception & Mask of Truth	PC
December 10, 2020		Dokapon UP! Mugen no Roulette	PS4/Switch
January 22, 2021	January 22, 2021	Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen	PC

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FAQ

Where can I talk to more Utaware fans?
There's a Discord chat server at https://discord.gg/b8vj65f! Come join us.
Do I need to play the original game (Prelude to the Fallen) before Mask of Deception?
I strongly recommend it.
Longer version: Mask of Deception, coming out over ten years after the original game, was written with the expectation that there would be a lot of new people coming in to the series who had never played the original. You can play it without being familiar with the original, and you won't miss much, but there are several character cameos and references you'll miss. Also, the opening scene of Mask of Deception spoils a major twist from the ending of the first game.
Mask of Truth, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely, and the final plot arc ties very heavily into the original game; you definitely need to have played both of the first two games before Mask of Truth.
So exactly what is Utawarerumono Zan? Should I play it?
Zan is an action game developed by Tamsoft (developer of the Senran Kagura series) based on Mask of Deception. Its story is the same as MoD's except massively abridged; it compresses a 40-hour visual novel into under 10 hours of action game. It's a fun game if you want to play as your favorite MoD characters and beat up some mooks with musou/Warriors-style combat, but if you're interested in the story, I would not recommend playing it as a replacement for MoD.
What's the deal with Lost Frag?
It's a free-to-play gacha game with an original story that also features characters from all of the other Utawarerumono games. It is not a direct sequel to any of the other games and seems to take place in an alternate universe. It's only available in Japanese, but there's a wiki dedicated to documenting translations and information about it if you'd like to learn more.
And what about Dokapon UP!?
Your guess is as good as mine. The Dokapon games were developed by Sting, so I can only assume that some crazy executive at Sting thought, "What if we made a new Dokapon game... with Utawarerumono characters??" and somebody at Aquaplus decided to go for it. It adheres to traditional Dokapon gameplay pretty strongly, but features Utawarerumono characters instead of classes, and it has an original story that features characters from every game in the series being trapped inside a board game world together. It's fun, if you're interested in that kind of thing. No localization has been announced yet, but it's possible we could get an English version.
Are any other Utawarerumono games in development?
Aquaplus also announced that they have another console title in development, but no details are known about it.
Will there be a third season of the anime?
Aquaplus has announced that a third season based on Mask of Truth is in production, but right now there are no other details about it.
I'm not really enjoying the original game or anime series. Will I like the others? Do I have to be familiar with the original?
While I like the original, I do think it's the weakest part of the series, and there are a lot of people who like the sequels much more. If you're just not getting into it, go ahead and skip to Mask of Deception and see if you like it more. There are events late in Mask of Truth that tie heavily into the original, but the game is still understandable even if you haven't finished it, and seeing the end of the series might give you more appreciation for the beginning.
Why can't I buy Mask of Deception / Mask of Truth on the PSN Store?
Atlus' publishing contract with Aquaplus expired and they decided not to renew it, so the games were delisted. That means the only way to buy MoD/MoT on PS4/Vita now is physically, and while physical copies aren't too hard to find as of this writing, they will probably become rare quickly. Buy them while you can, and hopefully another publisher will pick up the license.
I watched the The False Faces / the Itsuwari no Kamen anime, should I still play the game before playing Mask of Truth?
Yes! The anime made a lot of changes from the story of the game. Character introductions and backstories are different, a lot of character development was cut out, story arcs were removed, and details around major plot events were changed enough that some things in MoT just won't make sense.
I try not to be too harsh on the series -- I know people who enjoyed it and got into the Utawarerumono fandom because of it, and that's great -- but it really is not a good adaptation of the game.
What's up with localized names like "Hakuowlo", "Karulau", "Atuy", etc...?
Some older fans of the series are surprised by this because they're used to the fan translation or ADV's translation of the 2006 anime, which translated 「ハクオロ」 as "Hakuoro", 「カルラ」 as "Karura", and so on -- but Aquaplus' official English versions of these names have always been as seen above in every official release since then.
As mentioned before, the series takes inspiration from Ainu culture for many of its fictional terms and aesthetics. The Ainu language is distinct from Japanese and doesn't have its own native script. The decision was made to romanize Ainu-inspired names differently so that they are distinct from Japanese-inspired names, which do also appear in the series; in a sense, 「ハクオロ」 is just as much a localized name as "Hakuowlo". Putting it through a Japanese-to-English romanization system to produce "Hakuoro" is effectively doubly-localizing it, and making the name "look" Japanese to English speakers is adding meaning to it that is explicitly intended to not be there.
Where can I buy Utaware merchandise?
Many online retailers such as CDJapan or Play-Asia carry CDs and DVDs.
If you want things like figures, posters, or other collectables, those are hard to come by from English retailers. Aquaplus and Toranoana, a chain of Japanese doujinshi stores, are owned by the same company, and Toranoana is the only place where most Utaware merch is sold. They have an online storefront at https://ec.toranoana.shop/aqua/ec/. Almost everything there is limited edition; they put new things up every few months, and sometimes they will make reprints of things, but very often after something sells out, it's gone for good.
Sometimes you can also find merch that is in used-but-good condition at used goods retailers such as Suruga-ya or Yahoo! JAPAN Auction.
All of those sites are in Japanese and don't ship internationally, which means that if you want to buy from them, you'll need to do so through a proxy shopping service. I have personally used From Japan and White Rabbit Express many times and like them; also, Buyee specializes in Yahoo, and I've used BuySmart Japan, too. There are others out there, so feel free to share if you have success or failure stories. Be forewarned that proxy shopping can be expensive, and often the shopping fees combined with shipping and handling can be almost as expensive as the items you buy, especially for anything bulky like tapestries or fragile like figures.
Last, sometimes you can rarely find merch on eBay, but the sellers there have markups so high that often it's more expensive than proxy shopping.