Search the Community

A Space for the Unbound is an adventure game set in Indonesia in the 1980s. It’s about a couple of high school students but there are magical elements to it too, which gives it the atmosphere of something like a Studio Ghibli or Makoto Shinkai film. I’m impressed with it so far. If nothing else, l would love to see a Final Fantasy game made in this style.

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.

Played for a couple of hours and I'm happy to say that, so far, I've loved every minute... everyone already knew it was going to be a spiritual successor to Dead Space and apart from the inclusion of melee combat that's just how it feels. You play as Josh.... sorry Jacob.... who for reasons finds himself locked up and awakens in his cell with things very much already fallen to shit... not long after you receive your first melee weapon and after a quick tutorial you're left to it... I was worried by the dodge mechanic in this for a while but it's actually not too bad... there's no timing window, something I'm immensely grateful for as I have none, instead as long as you're holding left or right when the enemy swings you'll dodge... just don't dodge in the same direction twice. As for the hitting things, it feels meaty as in The Last of Us 2 meaty... and messy which I suppose trying to batter a monster to death would. I've picked up a pistol but so far I've not had much cause to use it... ammo seems sparse. As expected it looks really nice, they nailed lighting and sound... something that would've been criminal coming from the guy who gave us Dead Space... he sure knows his outer space. I've already died a number of times on the middle difficulty with some pretty disturbing death scenes... I think I'll be seeing lots more of these during my run time.😂

Started this earlier (didn't try the demo earlier in the year) played for around 2.5/3 hours. Not sure what to think of it yet, it OK to play I guess... definitely not as tight as Elden Ring, there's been a few times where it's seemed like the buttons were a tad unresponsive... and I've also been stun locked which is very annoying. Looks wise it could quite easily be a sequel to Bloodborne... it's very similar. Looks pretty decent though, nice and sharp... I'm playing in quality mode but I have no idea what that does to resolution and framerate in this though. Like most Soulsborne games I'm feeling a little lost at the moment tbh... what with the amount of random items I'm picking up and the amount combat notes being thrown my way... we'll see how far I make it in this as I've read it's fairly difficult and unlike Elden Ring I can't ride on the coat tails of better players so don't be too surprised if my next post on the game is in the "Sacked that off mate" thread.😂

This is like a fps parkour shooter type thing, like super meat boy in 3d, like cloudbuilt, or ghostrunner with more shooting. Also its like a timetrial thing where you have to beat levels asap to get gold/silver/etc medals, which you actually need to progress. You need gold or above on a certain number of levels to progress to the next set, so far anyway this hasnt been too tricky. The levels are between 10 seconds and about a minute long so far, ive done the first 20. theres a jump button, a fire button, a switch card button, and an alternate fire/ability button, all on bumpers/triggers which is good. You pick up card and that decides what fire/alternate do, it sort of works like a context sensitive button, so youll pick up a pistol just before you need to do a double jump (pistol alternate fire is a second jump). Alternate fire also throws the card away. Other cards have alternates like a boost, or a grenade launcher you can use to blast yourself up high. Its a good system as it keeps the button count low so they can all be on the triggers. I found it can confuse me at times though because the same button does loads of different things which sort of fries my brain a bit. Theres some talking/story stuff but it seems unnecessary and can be fast forwarded. its not surprising i like this as i like stuff like ghostrunner and cloudbuilt, and so far its been really good. Unclear if the confusing multi use button stuff will halt my progress later on. anyone giving it a go?

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.

I bought this off the Epic store (hiss, booo) while I should have been working. Put about 20 minutes into the demo and got a 300000 high score but the Nvidia capture failed to record (honestly no really). Anyway it seems pretty great but I can't put my finger on it but the physics are weightier than I remember. But this is 15 years ago so it's possible I just forget how it feels and have gotten bad from being older all the time. Or more likely this is base stats Tony Hawk I'm playing Anyway I'm excite. I actually never played THPS2 beyond just renting it once so that will be fun. edit forget it, 300000 points isn't even that good apparently. This guy did 100 million in a single combo

Mixed emotions! I play for hours having relaxing fallout adventure fun and then it'll freeze, I'll get stuck behind something or worst of all its bugged and I can't get a character to do something they're supposed to. So I'm stuck.

Kinda surprised there's no thread on this yet, it seem like something a few people here would enjoy. Anyway, this is an awesome little title based on Scandi fairytales. It starts as a delightful, personality-filled romp where you, as young boy Olle, climb out of your log cabin window and follow your sister through a forest. Along the way you skip through peaceful, flower-filled meadows, play hide and seek with gnomes, and even shepherd some cherub-like flower pixies into a paddock. You then explore with your sister, climb a mini-mountain and all is right with the world. Obviously this would make for an extremely short experience, so let me be clear. This is the last good thing that happens to you in this title's brief runtime. Amongst other things, your sister is kidnapped, you're hunted by a character called The Butcher, you wade through a lake of lost/sacrificed souls, and you battle against some naked forest lady whose heart is visible through the open cavity of her back. This is truly one of the darkest, most horrifying games I've ever played, and the huge contrast between the gorgeous visuals and the awful undertones means every aspect has a real impact. Gameplay-wise, it's not going to win any awards. A couple of bits are really awkward to control, and at times Olle doesn't quite do what you want him to. Everything else is so, so good, though, especially considering this is the studio's second ever title. The graphics, at times are stunningly beautiful, with this unique saturation that makes the grass and flowers look almost real. The character models swing from charmingly stylised to incredibly creepy. Sound is great, except for one section set in a village about two-thirds of the way through. I love the fact it's based on Scandi folklore, too. Essentially, imagine Little Nightmares if it was cranked up to 11 and you'll be running along the right lines. It only has a 4-6 hour runtime, so if you've got an afternoon or evening spare, it's definitely worth downloading (especially if you have Game Pass, as it dropped there last week). It's one of the more unique titles I've played in a while. And the music for the final boss is In the Hall of the Mountain King. AKA the Alton Towers advert theme.

-

I'd like to preemptively say that I'm enjoying this very much, but I want to start off by mentioning two major flaws because the game can potentially put you off initially before it sarts to come into its own. First of all, do not play it unpatched. Because I have a very slow internet connection but wanted to give it a shot right away the day I got it, I installed it offline and dear god. Whatever "gold" version they pressed on the disc here is basically an alpha version. It looks and runs significantly worse than the finished release, it lacks fundamental gameplay elements (no lock-on for example) and even the settings menu barely has half the amount of options you eventually have at your disposal after it's been patched. Deep down I think it should be unacceptable to release a game in this state but we're so far down that path already that I feel like wasting my energy to point it out. So, tl;dr: don't play this without the Day One patch. Secondly, the game itself has an incredibly weak opening. Think back to how masterfully The Last of Us introduced us to its world, its protagonist and his motivations in a very effective 15-minute rollercoaster. Now imagine the complete opposite if that and you have a good idea of what Atlas Fallen's prologue is like. It's magic mumbo-jumbo mixed with a visually very unappealing tutorial area and leaves a very unappealing first taste. That said, now to the good stuff, because at around two and a half hours of playtime the game does its own 180 and turns into what I'd summarise as a surprisingly enjoyable mix of open world action game and light RPG. After the tutorial it throws you into an open world hub that's big enough to be believable as a place but small enough to not feel overwhelming in a way few modern games are. And while the game's structure with quests and areas being gatekept by enemies above your level is very RPG-esque, the actual progression system does kind of its own thing. Instead of collecting XP and levelling up, your character becomes stronger by upgrading their armour and unlocking Perks associated with that progress. In parallel to this you find, in a very motivating pace I might add, a lot of active and passive "Essence Stones", which are basically skills and buffs that enhance your options during combat. Combat itself is a mixed bag and also a clear indication that this doesn't go all the way as an RPG because there's only one way to approach it and just a couple of variables through the aforementioned stones. The game is build around the so-called momentum gage, which fills up as you attack and do other violent gamey stuff. Said gauge is split into three segments and every segment is linked to one skill you previously equipped, with the third one obviously being stronger than the first. The higher the gauge, the higher your damage and the lower your defense, which is described as a risk-reward mechanic but doesn't really feel that way because you have no control over it. Generally speaking, this all works rather well and is good fun, but I have two problems with it: firstly it's very, very easy to miss the indicator for off-screen attack prompts, so I'm getting hit quite often. Might be a me-thing though. The other one is not though and that's the very wonky lock-on. Bigger enemies have multiple body parts you can destroy for better loot but the lock-on is so finicky against those enemies that you sometimes can't get the right part locked or the game refuses to let go when you'd rather want to focus on the small mob running around etc. There's ways to work around this – my solution is not using lock-on at all until there's only the big one left – but it's still something to point out as a flaw. Outside of combat the game basically just consists of exploration, which is fun both thanks to the world's verticality and the protagonist's mobility, who can double jump and air dash. Moving around feels very good and it's here the game feels most polished. In other areas, like dialogue sequences, you can tell this is at max a double-A, sort of euro-jank title marketed as a big-hitter. Visually it's very pleasing, but with noticeable pop-in and very outdated character models that wouldn't look out of place in a PS360 game. I do want to point out though that Deck13 is using its propriety tech and hasn't jumped on the Unreal-bandwagon so huge respect for that, because all things considered this is a technically very impressive game for such a small studio. Six hours in the story hasn't really evolved much beyond the initial mumbo-jumbo and still resolves around the protagonist's gauntlet and the spirit of a Navii trapped within, but when the actual moment-to-moment gameplay is this rewarding it's not a big deal for me yet. How on earth this is sitting below a 70 on metacritic I have no idea, but then again the same thing happened with Venetica back in the day. I think US outlets in particular have a really hard time accepting the space in-between triple-A and indie, you rarely see them really value the effort put into these games and maybe looking past a flaw or two. Or maybe I'm just too partial because it's a German game, I don't know. Anyway, I think a few people here might end up enjoying this, you just have to be prepared for a sub-standard opening and be ready to play around some QOL flaws during combat encounters. I've also heard it only takes about twenty hours to complete, which I think is a good sign in this day and age of bloated open world releases.

Played my first 70 minutes of this earlier. I'm incredibly impressed to say the least, I tend to say that a lot nowadays but first impressions are excellent. It looks phenomenal, the lighting effects are spot on and the texture quality has got an slight stylised look to it that makes everywhere feel rich and vivid, if you've ever had a dream to go through a Jack The Ripper era London with all the typical accompaniments of the period then you're well catered for, it definitely looks the part and recreates an incredibly moody, rich, dingy and dank 19th century London. There are compromises though as it is a AA-Indie title like the facial animations and obviously the overall texture quality, lighting and things like that can't match a AAA title, but you know what it is still so damn good and the atmosphere they create with it is better than a host of AAA titles out there. Part of what makes it feel so special is the music as well, it is just sensational. I don't know how they've done it but it feels so in tune with the aesthetics, like they playtested for hours on end to get the right atmosphere at the right times when you're exploring the streets or speaking to someone, it has this eery, mysterious, noir-esque feel to it that just makes you want to explore every nook and cranny of the environment and pulls you deeper and deeper into this world. Combat is better than I expected in all honesty, I seem to unlock more stuff via an upgrade tree as I go along but at the moment it's simplistic but fun with a stun, bite, knife slash and ranged move in my arsenal. When you've got more than one enemy on you it feels satisfying going from one to another and slicing them about, but it doesn't look that fantastic on screen if that makes sense, it feels a bit rudimentary and the animations are lacking but it works well, feels great and I'm sure it'll only get better and more complex over the course of the game. I won't say anything about the story so far - I'm so early on there's not all that much to say in all honesty - but it starts incredibly well and has only built up more and more intruige and mystery as its gone on, I just cannot wait to see what happens next and nothing much is even happening, the early signs of an excellent story to me. Lots of photos:

I've played a few hours of this and I think I get it enough for some early impressions. It looks kinda out there but it also sticks to a lineage of Hero Shooters for the most part. There are 10 classes to choose from: 4 damage dealers, 3 tanks and 3 support. But one of each are unlocked as you rank up (or available from the start if you pay more (yes, there's a bunch of this malarkey, battle pass etc. 😐 )). So how a general game plays out is you pick a class, anyone can be any, it doesn't force anyone into a certain one but I can't see a lot of success in not having someone be one of each. There's 5 people on a team but you are also pitted against another team who is racing you to different parts of the map to dispose of these dinosaurs that are falling out of portals (I'll get to that). You don't interact with the other team, they're ghosts you're competing with in the first round. The second round it changes to something a little different. There's different modes it might change to but most of my games it became a payload pushing mode. Standing next to it will move it and you have to protect it from the dinos. But your opponents are on the map with you, pushing their own payload and it's here there is some decision making. You can go and attack them but your payload is less protected. Though they do meet in the middle so conflict will happen. Another little trick you have is once a match you'll have the ability to summon and control a dinosaur used to go and make the opposing teams life a problem. It's very clunky to use and quite easy to waste if you're not careful but it can be a tide turner. I'm not gonna say too much about the classes because it's one of those cases where if you've played Overwatch you know the deal. They're mixed up a bit but it's generally a familiar feeling game in this regard. What's interesting, in a way, is despite this ridiculous premise of fighting hoards of dinosaurs in a futuristic city is it does try and contextualise all this with an ongoing plot. You and your team crash land on an island where a chaotic AI is sending people back in time at the point when dinos appeared out of portals and destroyed the city (though at first they think it's a simulation). The AI is then analysing combat data and for what reason? I dunno yet. It trickles this out as you play since your team are analysing as well, to figure out what the hell is going on. I appreciate the commitment to the bit but it does lead to a problem of the game feeling too same-y since you're always in a similar urban area and there isn't much using the environment since it's a very grounded game and pretty close quarters. Add some spongy dinos to that and you end up in situations that feel really limiting. I guess it does feel like a game from a few generations ago. Its been making me think of Monday Night Combat, which is a game I've not thought about since then. That time early in the 360 gen where you had all these shooters with hoard modes. So I've been getting a nostalgic feeling I didn't expect but I don't think it's the kinda game I want to play to the extent it clearly wants me to. It's charming, and I generally enjoy it but... some multiplayer games don't get a playerbase when I can't help but think they should have. I don't think this is that. But this is just after a few hours. Maybe something will click and I'll see something special but it's not obvious from the jump, which you really need in a multiplayer game.

Played the first 90 minutes last night. I'll get the boring part out the way first, played in 1440p on mostly Ultra settings, with some high settings (auto detect) too and it runs superbly, not sure of the frame rate as Origin doesn't have an FPS counter but I'm pretty confident it was a constant 60 throughout with no drops at all, impressive throughout performance wise. First thing I did in the game itself was create a character, straight away you can't help but notice how awful the character models are, they look distinctly last-gen to me, the eyes are incredibly weird too. Spent a whole lot of time configuring my Female Ryder in this (Red head with green eyes as always), designed her twin with ginger hair too and a bit of a beard going on. Combat next up, pleased to report its pretty good. Definitely not as tight as ME2, it feels looser and more akin to ME1's gunplay that any of the other games in the original trilogy, I didn't like the decision to change the cover from pressing a button to stick to auto stick, doesn't feel as good and I got killed a few times when I thought I was in cover but wasn't. Overall though I'm happy with it, its satisfying enough getting headshots and popping out from cover but definitely doesn't feel as refined as ME2. Even though this was a story mission you could still wander off the beaten track, found some caves with loot, alien structures and new bits and pieces to scan, my favourite part though was finding an abandoned alien ship all in darkness which I found very Nostromo from Alien and mysterious, didn't go on long enough but it was a memorable moment. The game also employs Skyrim/Fallout's top compass to alert you to nearby points of interest which I find a definite improvement on Dragon Age 3's mini map. So yeah, so far so good really, it hasn't blown me away and is a little more rough around the edges than I expected, it's also a little more Dragon Age 3 in some of the exploration aspects than I wanted but I'm happy with it so far. Will post further thoughts once I've played more tonight.

Ok, so I was burned out on the Assassins Creed series. The yearly sequels got me feeling pretty tired of the series. By the time 3 came out, I was pretty much done. I tried a few other games in the series after that point, but never really committed to them. Odyssey got me back into it, and what an outstanding game that was. So I was naturally excited for this. I’m playing this on my day one PS4. Naturally it will perform better on next gen. But having said that, I’m not disappointed with the way this looks at all. The game is absolutely stunning, and apart from the initial long load time, it runs pretty smoothly. I’ve seen video reviews of some hilarious bugs/glitches, but haven’t encountered any myself yet. The combat is a bit basic at the moment. Reviews have pointed out that it takes a few hours to unlock different moves and abilities. So I’m looking forward to that. It’s nice that you can respec your character at any time, so if you fancy a different approach that’s always an option. Wandering around the main settlement, I’ve found three mini games. One which involves out-drinking your opponent, one where you use poetry in a battle of wits, and a dice game which I lost horribly on my first attempt. There’s a micro transaction store (because of course there is), but thankfully it’s totally ignorable. You have to search for it yourself (no obnoxious daily deal prompts bombard you). And the vast majority of the items are cosmetic only. There’s no “pay to unlock XP faster” as there was in Odyssey. So although it’s there, it isn’t an issue. Usually in Ubisoft games, I like going to the Ubistore to unlock various exclusive bits. There’s very little to unlock in Valhalla’s Ubistore page. But again, not much of a complaint really. Definitely looking forward to sinking many hours into this.

Just aged through the first 45 mins with headphones. I..think I need a cuddle. It's one of the most disconcerting experiences of recent memory. Maybe not the best choice for late night gaming. Looks spectacular though!

I’ve played this for 4 hours now. And the harsh reviews can honestly fuck right off. They’re way off the mark, in my opinion. Usually, Skill Up does decent reviews, but I don’t agree with his video review of this. He moans that unlocking “Knigthood” for all 4 characters is a massive grind. Is it bollocks. There are two ways to level up. All characters share regular XP, so you can freely switch between them. But each character has a 4th skill tree, Knighthood. This needs to be unlocked for each character, and you do so by killing 3 mini bosses, and solving 10 crimes. In my 4 hours, I’ve got Knighthood unlocked for 2 characters, and almost done it for a 3rd. The way he moans, it’s like it’s a huge chore. He also creams his jeans over Arkham Knight. Personally, I thought that game was boring as fuck. I’ve had more fun with this, than I ever did with that. I’ve also seen some people complain that one fight sequence has the rock remix of Livin’ La Vida Loca. To those people I say “Have you even played Saints Fucking God-awful Row?”. What a stupid complaint. Anyways. Combat-wise, this ain’t Arkham. There’s stealth takedowns, but I’ve not had opportunity to use them much. So far, there’s not the vast array of gadgets that Batman had in Arkham. But, each character has their own play style, and abilities. Robin has been quite fun so far. A lot of people got pissed off when it was revealed this is 30fps on consoles. I’m no graphics expert, and to be quite honest, I’m happy with how this looks on PS5. It looks pretty damn good to me. The story has been interesting so far, and it’s worth swapping characters, as they periodically have their own side missions, which further develop how they’re coping with the loss of Batman. So yeah. I’m having a great time with this so far.

After falling off Final Fantasy XVI last weekend I've been putting a fair amount of time in to this over the last week or so... for the most part I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm not entirely sure what you'd class this as, real time strategy?... the only game I've played that's remotely close to it is Gears Tactics which was turn based this occurs in real time and only slows (or pauses if like me you prefer it that way and change it in the options) when you use skills. Other than that the marines will engage when spotted entirely on their own. I'm playing on normal and the game certainly isn't a push over... so much so that engaging the aliens should pretty much be avoided if possible and trying to be as stealthy as possible is the preferred method of advancing through levels. There's a lot of spinning plates to juggle in regards to the marines themselves ammo count, tools (for welding doors shut and unlocking encrypted doors), first aid kits and stress levels which can give you negative traits if they get too high. Marines can be wounded and require medical treatment which results in lost days, same with the negative traits these can be removed in the medical center but also cost days. This wasn't a problem in the early game but come mission 6 there's a kill clock introduced and a 25 day countdown to nuclear containment protocol... so that sucks. It looks fairly nice and the sound is great with all of the noise you'd expect... pulse rifles and smart guns sound spot on. Some of the marine sound bites play a little too often for their own good though. Unfortunately the games a little buggy at the moment too, to the point where the X button sometimes stops working altogether in-between missions (thankfully hasn't happened mid-mission yet) and sometimes the elevator prompts straight up don't work... quitting out and reloading generally fixes these though. Not my usual gaming fare but I'm glad I've given it a try... just hope I don't get sterilised via nuclear explosion...😂

Only played a few minutes before I go to sleep, but yep, pretty sweet so far. One thing I thought was really cool is that one of the menu options is you can change the appearance of the food in game. Could be as simple as you’re veggie or vegan and you would rather not everything be meat, but there’s also some silly options like “Castlevaniaesque” and “monster”. In related and weird news, IGN (or their freelancer) appear to have stolen an indie guy’s video review script. Apparently IGN hav taken down their review while they investigate.

How long are you supposed to give a game before you can give it up on good conscience? I really liked 3, Blood Dragon and 4. And I mean REALLY liked them. I enjoyed the Ubi-tower system, I had fun hunting shit, and I loved the outposts. This feels like a devolution in every way (sorry for the bad joke). I've not come across any towers. Hunting seems a pain, and weapons feel inconsequential. I dunno, I'll give it a bit longer, but this just doesn't feel like the far cry I've come to be so fond of. I do like the tamed animals and the language though. If I remember right from previews they actually did research into how speech would have sounded back then and crafted it from there. Obviously that could be PR spiel but if it's not it's a great touch.

Bought this a while ago and finally found myself in the right mood to play it this last week. The synopsis for this is rather short: you play as Meredith, who travels to a fictional area in Oakland to simultaneously get away from her job for two weeks and step in for her father who's the local postman. In gameplay terms this means that you drive around and deliver letters and parcels, occasionally getting dragged into a discussion by the townsfolk who you can open up to and build relationships, of either the pragmatic, platonic or romantic nature. The way you handle these interactions does have consequences, but we're not talking Mass Effect here. There are no twists and turns and everything you do either results in people being friendly to you or not. It's a snapshot into a common, unremarkable life, not a blockbuster life-saving adventure. It's hard to talk about this without making it sound boring, but there is something in its monotonous parcel delivery gameplay that helped me unwind and refocus. I'm not going into too much detail about this in a topic about a game, but it did nudge me a little in a certain direction I've been thinking about recently in terms of where I am and what I'm doing with my life. It very subtly deals with issues like midlife crisis and burnout without ever mentioning either of these words. And some themes can hit close to home, depending on your circumstances – Meredith's boss calling her almost every other evening despite her being on vacation really rubbed me the wrong way, but for all the right (read: authenticity, believability) reasons. There are multiple themes like this spread across all those little interactions, from leaving old friends behind in search of personal fulfilment or even making new ones by discovering the next chapter in your life. I might be overselling the game a bit here, but playing it is less about the things happening on screen but more about those that it might kickstart outside of it. That's not to say it's a chore to play. The mail delivery part is roughly a third of what you do per day, with dialogue et al taking more space. It's here the game is at its best, even though it's hardly Shakespearean or anything. In fact, a lot of characters are somewhat stereotypical, but they are grounded enough to be believable and imperfect enough to be likeable. As mentioned earlier, your choices influence relationships and there are multiple endings to the game as well. It also doesn't overstay its welcome with its roughly 9 hour playtime – I played two "ingame days" per day for a week which felt like a good mixture. I don't think this is a game you should (or would) run through in one setting. Being an indie title, there's of course some compromises to be made here. Animations are very limited (the screen fades to black when entering/leaving a vehicle). Facial animations are barely non-existent. The visuals can look sublime in one instance, for instance when you see the sun shine through the leaves, but absolutely horrendous in other moments. But none of this really detracts from the experience. The voice acting, for example, is surprisingly strong, and easily bypasses the slight problems in terms of facial animations. There was one bigger point of critique that started taking shape in my head as I went on and that is the almost romantic portrayal of mail delivery services, which I know, both from discussions in my life and from reports of our local postman @OCH, is far from the truth. Thankfully, the developers do acknowledge this with a note in the credits, which I find really heartwarming and sensible. It's a difficult game to recommend. For me it was one of the most impactful titles I've played this year, someone else might just find it slow and boring. The surprising amount of positive reviews on the Xbox Store seems to indicate that it resonated with a lot of people though. I think it's still on offer at the moment, at least on Xbox. If not, it's on Gamepass IIRC (not anymore) and if just one line of this text block didn't strike you as boring I'd say give it a shot.

Here you go lazy bones @Maryokutai. Not hard is it.

Is this an indie? I think it could be so it gets an 'indie' sticker. But the game! It's pretty good! I say pretty good but what I mean is it's text book good. It doesn't do anything wrong and it uses the 'Metroidvania' template pretty well and has some interesting uses of its mechanics (I'm getting sick of using that word but I don't want to get specific as they get kinda surprising). What I will say is that there is a flip dimensions ability that mixes things up, but only in the same way as Outland does. Remember that game? Guacamelee! is a lot like Outland in some ways so if you liked that you'll like this. But I suppose the combat is better in this. You're a Mexican Wrestler so flinging folks about is important and you do have a big repertoire of combos and moves to do that are fun to pull off and hurt things a lot. You also have a bunch of fun internet jokes to laugh at about cats and stuff in the game, you know, all that referential stuff we enjoy. Like you climb a big mountain and near the top you find the the dead body of the thing from Journey and you go 'hahaha! I know that reference! Choozo Staues! hahaha!' It's so funny, it's like those guys who make the Scary Movie films and stuff made it. In summery: a pretty well made game that is fun but with with shite, incestuous nerd comedy. Play Outland instead.

Put about 30 hours into this so far. For the most part, it’s pretty good. I’m no expert in this series, I finished (and really enjoyed) Diablo 3 on PS4. I tried the Remaster of 2, but it played like arse so I soon gave up. I’ve gone with Barbarian, as I always enjoy being the “tank”, dealing out massive damage while taking a fair bit myself. The skill tree for each class is quite large, but also forgiving. If you don’t like a particular ability, it costs a minimal amount of cash to refund an ability, so you can try something else. One thing i will say, is the game isn’t great at explaining what things are, or what they do. Some skills/abilities use/give ‘Thorns’. I had to turn to google/YouTube to figure out what the fuck they are. Some treasure chests require a specific kind of key. Google/YouTube to the rescue again. There’s a fair bit the game just simply doesn’t tell you, and there’s no tutorial list/lore book that makes that kind of thing easier to find. Performance wise, it’s relatively stable. During the beta, the queue times to get into a game could be astronomical. I’ve not had an issue getting into a game, it usually takes less than a minute. What has been an issue, is constant crashing. Every now and then, I can be about to check the map, spend an ability point, trade in some gear. And the game just freezes completely. Resulting in having to shut the game down entirely, and reload it. On PS5, that takes less than a couple of minutes. And it frequently auto saves, so it’s not like I’ve lost tons of progress. But still, it can be annoying. Some sessions it doesn’t happen at all. Other times, it can crash 3/4 times in a couple of hours. Not sure if it’s just a PS5 issue specifically. But hopefully it gets fixed. Now, onto micro transactions, everyone’s favourite. The mobile version was plagued with absolutely shitloads of them. Thankfully, that’s not the case here. There’s the option of paying real money to unlock character specific gear. But you get plenty of stuff chucked at you without having to resort to that. The seasonal Battlepass hasn’t started yet, that’s apparently in July. For which you have to make a new character if you want to unlock all the stuff in it. Doubt I’ll bother doing that constantly, but I’ll probably run a Necromancer/Sorcerer for my next character. Haven’t finished the campaign yet, but think I’m not far off, I’m on Act 4. Oh, and you don’t unlock a horse until the start of Act 4, which takes quite a while.

I've heard a few complaints about this not having a lot of variety, that there's a handful of areas that you revisit over and over. I'm only about 6 hours in but I can believe it. Firstly this works slightly different to regular Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, but obviously not that differently. You still use elements to attack weaknesses, however rather than now getting extra turns or the chance to pile on, you instead get a 'stack'. Hit a weakness with one person and their demon hovers in the background, do it with another and the same happens, then once you've all taken your turn (it's always your team's turn then the enemy turn) these stacked demons launch an attack of their own, the more of them the more powerful the attack, and it hits across the enemy line. The other difference is in dungeons, unlike the most recent Shin Megami Tensei V, while you do see that there's an enemy, they're just represented as an avatar, you don't see what demon it is until you get in to battle. However, if it's going to be one you need to fight for a mission it does have a marker above them so you know they're worth fighting. This is notable because unlike other SMT games when you do your strike attack, rather than immediately trigger a battle with you having an advantage it instead knocks the enemy down meaning you can just run or fight and probably have an advantage. There's kind of a friendship system like in persona, but it's used to open up sections in their personal dungeon. It's not like Persona in that the story is you going in to their dungeons, generally you're fighting in the real world to progress the story, but in saving these people you soul hacked them, linking them to you, and you need to untangle some of their issues. This is where some of the areas can look a little drag, just generic "computer" style. But you can unlock permanent improvements to them. It's also where the retreading ground comes in. I'd already been to the first area of the game twice, did one guys dungeon, came out and was presented with a list of side quests that meant going back in. The same for the other 2 characters, with the indication that you can only do so much before needing to progress the story Also I've not fused a demon yet, but it is in the game. I think I might be supposed to go and speak to someone about it but I'm doing side quests instead