Maf

I’m just going to drop like an Easter egg spoiler because it’s important to this thought There’s literally a guy in this game who says the line “Kept you waiting, huh?” and it’s not who you would think It reminds me when playing MGS5, which I thought was really great, but also thought it’s missing that Metal Gear-ness, and that must be intentional. Kojima must really want to make something different and get away from Metal Gear. Disappointing but understandable. I forget why he fell out with Konami over that game but my understanding is that the end of MGS5 is really hamstrung and he didn’t get to do what he wanted to do. Then you play Death Stranding 1 and go, oh, he really did want to do something different and get away from Metal Gear, clearly Then you play Death Stranding 2 and it makes me think the opposite. He loves that shit. If this is the type of crazy he had in mind but Konami cock blocked him on MGS5 and then being a high profile, but ultimately start up studio that had to have Monster energy sponsors to get the first Death Stranding done, he maybe never abandoned Metal Gear he just couldn’t make the game he wanted. Here there can be no doubt or pretence. It makes me think about the whole 10 years differently. Maybe he wasn’t trying to get away from all that MgS madness in MgS5, he literally was not aloud to make it. And maybe DS1 is this weird mixture of cutting edge tech and arthouse aspiration but that game was more limitations pushed it to be that But here the shackles are well and truly off and what you get is the return of that Metal Gear crazy and damn. This is not a MGS sequel, but it’s so good to see that kind of brilliance is still alive and kicking in Kojima Kept you waiting, huh? Since about 2008

Dude. There’s like 3 answers to that 1) The only part of this game that is like what you’re describing is the first 3 hours. Then you remember act 2 of the first game where it’s all roads and driving? Most of the game is that. Then act 3 of this game is MGS4, baby! Lol 2) This game is a sequel in game design with completely different intention. So it isn’t what you’re describing, and I’m still trying to process it, but it’s not failing it’s just different 3) I would say the first game is art and this game is action. Not that it’s all butt kicking by any means. But it’s just a faster game. It’s almost a shame in a way because there’s a lot of traditional video game stuff in this that people would enjoy but they’ll never get through this delivery boy simulator parts to see it. This game is entirely back loaded in that way The ending of this game is fucking mental. Genuinely brilliant, beautiful, unfiltered nonsense. This is as raw as indie x AAA I could imagine. Recently Kojima said he wanted to make a film. Hollywood will eat him alive, he could never do anything like this anywhere else. Not even the scale just the audacious, self indulgent ping pong between irreverence and heartfelt nonsense. It’s just fucking I don’t know man. This is easily his best game since MGS4. It kind of only shows itself in the last 5 hours or so, but boy does this guy still got it like no one else has got it. This is going to take me a long time to process. I’m just giddy. I don’t remember the last game I played that left me in a state of aftershock

Dragon Age: The Veilguard (Xbox) God of War Ragnarök (PS5) Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Switch) Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered (PS5) Hogwarts Legacy (PS5) South of Midnight (Xbox) Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS5) Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (Switch) Sonic x Shadow Generations (PS5) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (PC) Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Steam Deck) Alone in the Dark (Xbox) Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (PS5)

Late game story spoilers I started playing it again this evening and I shit you not in 5 minutes it turned in to Forget that. It just turned in to a music video Well that was short lived we’re back to our regularly scheduled ghost apocalypse I only realised this yesterday but “Dooms” is just the X-Gene

I thought that scene was really good. I like the way Lex calmly picks up the coffee before Clark throws the table 😀 Kind of thought that was on brand for Lex.

On Amazon the next delivery date they have for Switch 2 is 4th Aug 😔 Is the SD card extra really worth it at this point?

Really tried to finish this today and played it for over 13 hours!! Longest I’ve played a game in one go in years, probably. Despite that I’m at episode 12/13 of 17. So close. But have to call it quits today The last 3-5 hours have been just rollercoaster. There’s still some delivery missions in between, because that’s the game so it’s obligated, but every time the story kicks in it’s just massive cinematic or action heavy mission. The last bit I played was reminiscent of Mass Effect 3 ending. Not quite the universe converging on one location, but just the idea of we’re going straight in to the fire and blasting everything in the way I’ve really enjoyed it, but one thing that’s killing me is how often the buttons don’t work. I think I’ve played other games lately that have made me moan at modern games and how they put animation priority over responsiveness and stuff like that. This game might be the best/worst example of that yet. There are so many times, even when I’m just pushing pause, and the game will not respond. It’s super dog shit. And what ends up happening is the game takes so long to be playable I end up hitting buttons really fast and I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. Am I standing, crouching, reloading, not reloading I just can’t tell because I’m pressing the buttons and Sam is pissing around animating It’s not a latency thing. The game is just being a dick It brings to mind Metroid Dread just because that has perfect controls. I understand game design has to fit art style and the appropriate sense of realism and all that. I don’t give a fuck when I press a button I want it to work. Bring back buttons! Moaning aside. It’s been good fun. The story is out and out stupid and there’s definitely criticism to how long it takes to get going, how formulaic the game is, how I think you could even go as far to say this type of cinematic story just doesn’t really gel with open world game. But I can’t lie the last few hours really grabbed me as well and was a really good time Hopefully finish it tomorrow or something. It’s taken me 43 hours to realise this is another PlayStation game about a crying dad

I feel like people should try The Ascent. It’s pretty cool

If Phil Spencer read this he’d need a translator

The Peak social media is brilliant

There’s even more films and such beyond the Zelda movie. The way they’re pushing Donkey Kong has to be one of them. With Miyamoto’s love of Pikmin I wonder if that could be another I like that they say they are deeply involved in all the production. Must be a headache for Hollywood but good for us

If you haven’t already I’d honestly say watch the video because there’s so much more to it than that. At the 18min mark he hits on the real problem. A real vision ruined by desperation

Skillup obviously goes in to more detail and says it better than me. But this is what I was saying in the PD thread, and other threads, about how bad management has got at Xbox and how they can’t deliver. No games company has more workers, more money, more projects. And yet their games either never come out, take far too many years to come out, and eventually on release, most of the games are exceedingly average, with the very rare W. It’s just not right. Because of the layoff news this week it was highlighted MS got rid of more staff this week than Nintendo has total. And however you feel about Nintendo whether their games are for you or not, it’s fucking night and day, dude. Xbox current management, specifically project game management, just does not have it

I know this latest one was supposed to be really underwhelming. But hopefully this is just a rumour and they haven’t given up on this series.

I think it looks cool. Just the weirdest shit ever. My only actual negative is the animations and such look a bit flash game-y. But this looks really weird and interesting over all

Still one of the strangest concepts I’ve ever seen

Not cancelled but in the case of Fable it’s 5+ years and still unfinished. I get this happens to some games but Xbox’s track record for this kind of thing this generation is crazy

I meant Gears E-Day

All of this is years of fuck ups from bad management. And the worse the decisions got the higher up the food chain it went and the bad decisions got even worse. Like one or two games get cancelled. It’s not unheard of. Most games get cancelled before they get announced but still. But studios spending years and never finishing games. This, Everwild, Fable, Gears 6, etc. Like what is happening, dude. You have all the workers and all the money. So where;s the problem?

Looking really dire. I like how in Phil Spencer’s memo he says this This is nonsensical. How does getting more players, games and gaming hours = layoffs. I mean we know it’s because they’re already figuring out how to report profit for next year. But this paragraph is stupid

Please no

I want this for the 3rd Spider-Man game. Let Spider-Man fight big, massive robots again! It’s been too long

I still kind of want to try the old Mana games. But the newest one, Visiona of Mana, is so fucking bad and furry-like it’s kind of put me off The Ascent is a return to Gamepass but pretty great

I think Mass Effect with Swords is a good description for this game. Not for DA:O, though. Mass Effect more evolved out of that and modernised that as opposed to it being a copy. Still my top BioWare games are KotOR Dragon Age: Origins Mass Effect And the Sonic RPG is super underrated/overlooked

I’ve already forgotten my specific thoughts about the game. I liked when you got duplicate weapons it levelled the weapon up. The combat is pretty fun. The characters were ok but kind of typical BioWare and I checked out so hard by the end I skipped all the cutscenes including the ending