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I’m having a blast with this. It’s a completely free rpg in the style of Ultima, but modernised. Developed by one person, Dene Carter, who apparently was the co-creater of the original Fable. I’m about two hours in. It has an overworld map, with lots of dungeons and towns, as you would expect in an rpg. Dialogue is prompt/topic based, which if memory serves was a feature of the old Ultima games. But it’s all done in a snappy, modern way. I feel like I’ve gotten good bang for my (zero) bucks so far. I loaded it up thinking I would play it for 10 minutes today and an hour disappeared.

Made a quick start and done the first set of races/championship & part way through another. Initial impressions, the handling instantly feels great. Just opening up the next set of tours the progression system seems promising with a variety of disciplines to get stuck into. Graphically it’s impressive but I can’t help but be disappointed. It’s a noticeable step down from the initial trailers. & while they do look great the cars have a weird uncanny valley (but in car form) look to them. This is an area GT7 excels, in particular the paintwork and light clusters where I was hoping FM might catch up. So GT7 is still the car porn game of choice. However the tracks themselves along with scenery and weather effects look better here to me & the cars get wear on them throughout the race which gives this a much better visual look & realism overall IMO. Plus when using the chase cam the cars look like they’re actually turning not just pivoting from the center. Huge shout out once again to the audio. They’ve excelled themselves once again. It’s a significant step up even from FH 5 which was no slouch in this department. Only used 3 cars so far but they’re ones I’ve had real life experience with and they sound near perfect. The environmental effects such as heavy rain hitting the roof just fits perfectly too. Top marks. A couple of early concerns though. So far it’s making me do a 3 lap practice sessions before each race. This just feels like a huge waste of time for the most part and should absolutely be optional. Why it’s forced I’ve no idea, I really hope this goes after playing for a bit. Another is the car upgrade path. You essentially level up a car by using it by getting XP for overtakes and nailing sections of the track. What this means is unless you’ve actually used a car for a few races you won’t be able to buy upgrades for it. This seems absolutely ridiculous to me and actively discourages you from using different cars. It’s insane. I’m just hoping it’s not as bad as it initially seems. Apart from those niggles early impressions are still strong though. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my short time with it so far & looking forward to getting stuck in more. It just feels great. It lets you set your grid position too and the satisfaction & fun of starting towards the back & fighting though the crowded pack is pretty much unmatched already.

I’ve only played a little bit but it’s quite impressive so far. I think I have my settings just right. If you just accept the defaults tho I can’t imagine you’re controlling much or getting a challenge. Steering and brake assistance just seems very mario kart. What was doing my head in a bit was that it looked like the gamma was too high. I went in to settings to change the brightness but it didn’t make a difference. Turns out it’s a bug that you just need to quit and restart the game to resolve.

I’m still using my 6S that I bought in 2016. I’ve replaced the battery and screen during that time but I’m on a good run at the moment. I’m sure it will be life changing when I get a new one but I don’t really feel the need.

Really does depend on your use, as someone who only uses 3 or 4 aps and no social medua or gaming anything insane is a waste of money. But for those who enjoy the gadgets then go for it. 👍 I briefly went back to a dumb phone for about 9 months throughout the year. Only reasons for going back to my old smart phone were Whatsap Banking/parking aps Camera And only really the banking / parking aps that swung it for me to go back. Its trained me out of the habbit of picking up my phone needlessly to while away time, I like not being beholden to the phone and way more aware of whats going on around me. Quite happily go out and leave it at home. Maybe im just keen to recapture living in the 90s though😂

I've mentioned a few times, I'm buying somewhere, and have now started packing. Not quite everything, but here's my PS4 collection all tubbed up I'm looking forward to actually getting all my games out on display, that's the plan at least