DisturbedSwan

Yeah agreed, 1 and 2 are incredible games.

Things.

Things.

Probably not quite as good as the next Horizon/God of War/Uncharted @Nag ? I know there was no Aloy in the demo and it uses a different engine but it just looked vaguely Horizony to me.

That’s gotta be Horizon 2 right? Fingers crossed it’s not just a tech demo! Who’d of thought after Microsoft made such a fuss about that ‘Gameplay’ in IX last week the first actual next gen gameplay* we get to see would be on a PS5.

Had a quick go on this last night on Stadia and had a blast with it I have to say. Reminds me a lot of Forza but the handling model isn’t quite as good, it feels a bit more skiddy too for my liking but still really enjoyed it. What surprised me the most was the visuals, I (stupidly) thought this was a bit of a budget release and didn’t expect much in the visual department but everything looked incredible. Car models are great, the little fireworks/powder effect that comes out as you cross the finish line. All looks phenomenal. Not sure if this version looks better as it’s essentially the high end PC version or not, but yeah, very impressed. Ran like an absolute dream on Stadia too, not one single hiccup the whole time and it was outputting in 4K picture the whole time.

Yeah same, kinda wish I kept my copy now but then I never play DLC despite buying season passes numerous times so perhaps it’s for the best. ?

Kotaku: Valhalla is bringing back the Hidden Blade

Been making some decent progress on this now, think I’m about 14 hours in or something like that. Almost every session I’ve had with it has just been a joy. I love the world and lore to this game, I can’t get enough of the combat system either, it just seems to malleable and forgiving which is great for someone like me. I mentioned this previously I think but the ability to switch party members in and out without any penalty whatsoever is fantastic. Some interesting revelations have happened in regards to the story now as well. The whole bit in the Luca Blitzball stadium was pretty mad, Seymour gives me bad vibes but at the same time seems like a decent bloke so far so we’ll see how that goes. Then shows up again and reveals that Sin and I was just like ? WTF?! Blitzball itself seems quite fun. I had no idea what I was doing really, especially when it asks you to ‘break’ or pass, I didn’t really have a clue so guessed most of the time (and it turned out the wrong choice) and hoped for the best. Lost the story match 3-0 - which I’ve read is the hardest in the game - then drew another 1-1. The Jecht shot is definitely amazing but I’m so poor with the rest of the Blitzball stuff that it doesn’t fully make up for my own inadequacies. I read a tips guide on PC Gamer before I started and it said not to fully commit to BB until 20 or so hours in so I’m going to leave it for the time being then come back and play some more later on. The part on the Highroad in-between Luca and the Operation Mi’Hen Command Centre was probably the worst part of the game so far for me as it just felt like a bit of a slog at times and wasn’t too interesting - until you ride the Chocobo - but even then I was still having a cool enough time battering a load of monsters along the way. Compared to other FF’s I’ve played (obviously not many) this has got to be one of the easiest so far which is great for me. Things have definitely ramped up a bit as the game has gone on though. I had a few of my party faint on me on the Mi’Hen Highroad and had to use a few potions, healing spells - during and after battles -and Ether for the first time to be able to make it to the next save point. Operation Mi’Hen itself floored me though. The longer I go on this game kinda reminds me of Pokémon a bit. The routes are all linear and feature random battles, you reach a temple and get awarded a new aeon - which is similar in my mind to reaching a Gym Leader - and the combat system itself is quite similar aside from the fact you don’t have a collection of Mons you can call on. But yeah, still really enjoying it so far. I’ve been streaming it a bit so I’ll put those links below along with some more pics:

I’m not sure to be honest @Hendo this is more of a ground up remake (my bad on my part for the original title) than just an HD remaster. On the announcement stream they had an interview with Tony and a VV rep and the revert from 3 is in this @one-armed dwarf @mfnick The series has been on such a downward trajectory for such a long time that I hope this’ll finally be a great entry in franchise. VV did wonders with The Crash Trilogy so hopefully there’ll do well with this.

GamesIndustry.Biz Article

Streamed a bit last night:

Probably one of my least favourite AC’s this. Just felt the city format was stale at this point and the RPG route Origins took was a breath of fresh air. I was initially excited by the thought of exploring Victorian London but found it pretty dull overall. I disagree @Maryokutai, I think Origins and Odyssey still feel very assassin’s creed at their core, it’s just they pretty much expanded on everything from the city based games.

After what must’ve been 20+ hours of watching streams I finally got a Closed Beta code for this yesterday. You play a 5 v 5 best of 24 round match in a round based format, attacking and defending the ‘spike’ which is Valorant’s equivalent of a Bomb. On attack it is your aim to set and detonate a Spike at either A or B objective points, on defence it is your aim to defend those points, you can also win a round by taking out all the opposing team. Each round goes very quickly and seems to last no longer than 2 minutes or so. You play with an array of 6 characters with various special abilities, this will (presumably) be added to as time goes on. Every round there’s a buy screen which enables you to buy a variety of weapons, armour and abilities for your character. To look at the game is a mix between Overwatch and CS GO, watching streams of it I was incredibly daunted by it as it seemed the skill level required may be above my remit, but it looked fun and satisfying enough to satiate me so I definitely wanted to try it and see what it feels like with my own hands eyes. Only played a couple of games so far but it’s safe to say first impressions are incredibly positive. Unfortunately I’ve rarely played any CS GO so I can’t give too much of a comparison with that but I will say that from the little I’ve played of both, Valorant seems a little more fun, is a bit less intense and overwhelming. The closest comparison I can give for how it feels to play is like everyone is a Widowmaker (from Overwatch) alt of some kind - but not just equipped with sniper rifles - on one of the smaller Overwatch maps. As soon as you jump into a much everything immediately feels very colourful and vibrant which help the different maps remain distinct and full of character. You’re greeted by the buy screen, once this ends you’re put straight into the action. Almost immediately things feels quite intense, all the maps are quite small but are just about the right size I’d say and with a reasonably degree of verticality to them, there’s a lot of corridors to necessitate the angles necessary to get good shots off onto your enemies. It’s just incredibly fun though, I‘ve played a lot of Siege so there’s some similarities there trying to get headshots off at tight angles and the intensity between rounds is familiar but there’s not the same level of destructive or defensive abilities/characters here and most of the abilities are focused on offence or cutting off sight lines I’d say. What I struggled with the most is getting used to your characters abilities. In the thick of the action it’s very difficult for me to even think about them really, I just hunker down and try to get the shots in rather than sussing out what ability might be effective in a certain situation. There are some abilities like an ice wall, icey floor, an arrow that shows enemy positions etc. That are quite similar to Overwatch and are handy at the beginning of rounds before the action begins but as soon as you’re sneaking around corners looking for an enemy to appear in your crosshairs I struggle to think about that stuff so far. On top of all the abilities and characters you’ve got to get used to you also have to get used to the various weapons on offer and how the operate. It’s a lot to take in and will take time until everything comes together completely but just in my second match I saw a marked improvement in my KDA, it does feel a bit easier to get in an Siege surprisingly as you don’t have to have such a photographic knowledge of the maps in this as you do in Siege. Will play some more at some point and hopefully add some further impressions here, it’s safe to say my initial thoughts are wholly positive though. If you’ve got a PC it’ll come out for free in the Summer at some point, I’m not sure how much longer the Beta is running. Definitely well worth a go though with such a low entry fee, I definitely think for someone who isn’t into CS:GO (like me) there’s lots to like about this.

Will run at 30fps on Series X according to Eurogamer Portugal