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OK, so I finished the first episode today and I don't really want to give too much about it away because it is so very special. As a result I don't want to give anything away and will put the everything in spoiler tags for those who want to read about them. Lots of pics incl. my choices:

Played around 2 hours of this earlier. I pre-ordered this on PS4 ages ago but never got around to playing it for whatever reason, with a small gap between finishing SotTR and AC:OD on Tuesday I have time to go back to a few small games and play through them so this is one of the first that came to mind. It's a PSVR title so unfortunately no one without the headset will be able to experience it but I thought I'd write about my experiences nonetheless. I should mention that I have - briefly - played it already as it was included in the PSVR Demo Disc #2 at the beginning of the year, I was so impressed with it then which is why I picked it up. The game is told in a fantasy storybook kind of way with you as the 'reader' looking in on the events of Quill's story. You play as Quill, a small charming Mouse from a leafy mouse kingdom. Everything is jolly at first and the vibrant opening area is a real treat for the eyes but this being a game things predictably take a turn for the worse and Quill must set out on an adventure that will leave the comforts of her home world and take her to some of the other dark, dangerous regions dotted about in her world. You look in on Quill's world as the 'reader' seeing her scamper about in various diorama-like stages with a page turning sound playing when you get to the next diorama in a chapter. You play with a controller - as opposed to the wands or other input devices - and directly control Quill, but you can also interact with various movable objects in a stage using the light bar at the front of the DS4 controller. The way the game plays early on is a relatively simple puzzle platformer where you have to move blocks, staircases and other objects onto buttons so Quill can proceed into the next room. They do quickly become more difficult though with multi-room solutions, turning switches on and off and manipulating enemies into a position using your 'reader' power. All stuff we've seen before really but the feel to Quill, her animations as she scampers about and how lifelike she is draw you in and the feel of controlling her, manipulating enemies and obstacles blocking her way feels really tactile and nice to pull off. The combat is the only thing I'm not sure about yet. It's relatively simple featuring a sword hit on Square and a dodge on X but it is quite a bit more challenging than I was expecting and am worried that it may become a crutch later on. but it does make it way more satisfying to clear a room of enemies than I was expecting from a game like this. The enemy variety has surprised me with one marksman type, one melee type and one that will follow you everywhere and blow you up with Goo if you're not careful. There's scrolls to pick up whilst you're exploring too, placed in some reasonably difficult locations that really makes you think for a few minutes how you get up to it, which keeps you on your toes and looking at every angle of the diorama possible so you don't miss anything. So, so far I'm very impressed with it, it hasn't blown me away or anything but it's a great charming little platformer on an unusual platform

Odd that Blakey just posted a picture in the Latest Purchase thread as I just finished this myself today. Its only a couple of hours long. The immediate comparison in my mind was Katamari Damacy where as you move something around and as you add to the thing you're moving it gets bigger. In this case it's a hole. The more that goes in the bigger the hole gets and the bigger the things you can swallow. It's more set pieces in opposition to Katamari's sprawling playscape and Donut County is much more story driven. Its about a racoon called BK and his pal, a young lady called Mira. Using an app on his phone that controls the moving hole, BK has basically swallowed up the town including himself and Mira. Turns out the Earth is hollow and all the townsfolk have gathered together underground to try to figure a way out. The levels you play are flashbacks leading up to the current event. In the levels themselves you move the whole around, swallowing things up. Each level is split in to little areas and sometimes the hole size resets, depending on the goal. Also there are puzzle elements. Like in the second level you need to launch a hot air balloon by swalling a flaming kiln. The hole then emitts hot air so you can lift the balloon and end the level. It gets more complicated than that obviously but you get the picture. BK the racoon is quite funny, he's a selfish cunt to comedy effect. The games humour continues in the Trashapedia which is basically a log book of all the shit you pick up with amusing(ish) descriptions. So yea, its nice. Looks nice, nice music. You know, nice. It's just quite short. I liked it though, my kind of game. Nice.

Or not-Overwatch. I can't talk about this game without mentioning Overwatch as it is a massive game that a lot of people have played and Paladins is very similar, to the point of being accused of being a clone. But while I don't believe that since games like this take years to plan and the were announced and released very close to one-another I think it's fair to say it isn't strictly a clone, especially since the devs history shows they've made a number of games that look like they could easily and naturally lead to this. But there is also no doubt that they have certainly leaned into being a lot like Overwatch around and post release. So its a hero shooter where you pick a character with specific skills that are tied to a certain class like Defence or Support, but this time you can't change mid-match which is an alteration I'm not against since it potentially requires some creative use out of a character if things aren't going well. If you have played Overwatch then the characters will be very familiar. Some are like character X from OW, and other are like a mix of Y and Z. And there are the odd few that draw inspiration from elsewhere. I kinda like this even as someone who played a lot of OW because Paladins feels like some weird remix where you have a character who is a mix of Tracer and Mei and trying to deal with that combo is kinda fun. On a pure gameplay level it is some OW style fun but it doesn't have the character of OW. A bunch of them are quite fun looking and charming but OW has some straight up modern iconography which is hard to stand next to. And Paladins doesn't have the character or polished presentation of OW. Character voices don't stand out as much and it makes following the gameplay a little harder since you don't have distinct verbal calls and attack effects. You know, the character and the polish in OW helps communicate the gameplay a lot and that's not quite here in Paladins, or at least its not as clear. I'm sounding more down on it than I actually am. Like I said, I'm enjoying what feels like a remix of characters to me coming from OW. And, tbh, since its been a while since I played OW playing a game that has a much lower current skill level is making it kinda chill (though not all the time). Actually, skill level is wrong... I sometimes get frustrated at some players' I've come across and their decision making. Currently I'm into it. Dunno how long for but I'm on Switch if anyone wants to play some not-Overwatch with non psychos.

Played 2 hours of this so far and have got through the Prologue/tutorial section pretty much - the section which Journo's played through during the tutorial. So far I'm incredibly impressed with it I have to say, way more than I was with RotTR and probably around the same as TR 2013 - although admittedly my memory of that is a little hazy by now. The first thing I noticed was how goddamn gorgeous this game looks, this is the first game in the series that I've not played in 720p/900p at 30 on consoles and goddamn what a different experience playing on PC - granted it will still look pretty great in almost 4K 30 on Xbox X but at 1440p/60 with everything set to Ultra boy does it shine ?. I thought RotTR had a distinctly last-gen look to it and here whilst there's still a few rough looking textures here and there the whole engine and graphics as a whole looks much improved. I think the lighting is the most impressive though, going through caves, water and a small Mexican town, the way everything was lit was just astonishingly beautiful. It's a shame that so much of the early story has already been revealed by previews and trailers, but the beginning is pretty spectacular. You start out after the shit has hit the fan then go back before it hit the fan to find out what the hell went on (although I knew this already thanks to previews). And it's pretty damn fantastic, lots of slow exposition through a beautiful Mexican town where you can just take in the scenery, music and vibe of the place as you slowly make your way through and investigate followed by some light tutorial stuff and a tomb (yes an actual tomb this early!) which was great fun followed by a nice light puzzle room. After this things go bananas in a typically TR kind of way and lots of mad shit happens which involves you gunning down lots of dudes and running away from collapsing buildings/mountains. I just like the somewhat slow build up this time around, it feels a bit more organic in some ways than having you thrown in at the deep end for the 3rd time in 3 games and let's you appreciate the bombast when it does come all the more. The things they do with the characters already has me way more intrigued than I was for the entirety of RotTR which helps an awful lot too I just hope it continues to bring home the drama. I guess in terms of mechanics, controls and gunplay you know what to expect if you played the previous two games, although I will say I think the new rappel manoeuvre and the way you can now stalk enemies from shrubbery-covered walls is really cool and feels such a good fit for the Jungle environs. I have had some technical issues though. The photo mode is borked for me, everytime I access it the camera does a weird juddery motion and then as soon as I quit the mode everything is ok again, I have also had some huge framerate dips when hanging from ledges which is odd as its been a solid 60 everywhere else so I've had to turn off a few of the superfluous graphical effects and that seems to of remedied it. But yeah, so far I'm way more impressed than I expected to be with it and I can't wait to dig into it again tomorrow night. Some pics:

Do you dislike giant insects? Are you tired of giant insects running rampant all over your city? Would you like to take your dislike for giant insects out on them with lots of guns? Then sign up to the Earth Defence Force and make giant insects rue the day they descended upon your domicile! Ok, so I've been playing this on and off with @Sly Reflex, and I've finally got enough of an impression to see how I feel about it. First off, I'm going to explain the story. Now it's tough, layered and difficult to fully grasp, but I'm going to do my best to get the nuance across... Kill the giant insects. Pick the right gun (s) for the mission and kill the giant insects. Out in the city - kill the giant insects. Out in the country - kill the giant insects. In an underground cave - kill the giant insects. Not sure if I missed this bit, but while you're doing all this you need to kill any giant insects you come across. In all seriousness, there is a story. The bugs have been gone for 7 years, and in that time they've managed to evolve, become stronger, all the rest of it. Nothing is told through cut-scenes though. It's all told through in-ear communications as you play. The dialogue is horrible though. Laugh-inducingly bad. Which in fairness, I fucking love. Music isn't bad either - low budget, suits the game, but much to say about it tbh. The budget definitely hasn't been spent on graphics either. It's all janky to say the least. But again, I like this. If you see ants on the horizon they use less frames, but it gives them this Jason and the Argonauts quality that makes it more charming - at least for me it does. The levels themselves look pretty basic too, but this means that entire fucking cities can be levelled. And I'm not exaggerating. Trying to farm some armour last night I couldn't get one of the enemies in my sights, so I whipped out the rocket launcher and just started obliterating buildings until I killed the cunt. Very satisfying. Now, gameplay... Choose from one of four classes, choose a couple of guns and, you guessed it, go kill the giant insects. I've only really spent time the Ranger - the generic class that can use plenty of different weapons. It's a nice way to learn the mechanics and, at least on normal, nothing is particularly difficult. It's just a shame that it's so reliant on grinding armour and weapons. It'd feel like it's built better if you could just progress without worrying you're strong enough to do the next level. It's unnecessary padding. I'm having a hell of a lot of fun though. This game is ridiculously low budget, but it has an undeniable charm that makes it loads of fun.

this is so far pretty much what i expected, i don't like open world and this sort of game structure usually, but gravity rush and sunset overdrive i really like due to the fun traversal and i think/hope this will be the same. the city is amazing, been having fun swinging about collecting stuff. it can be easy to die, even on easy, guess it'll get easier as i power up.

My god this game is adorable It's a bit sickly to begin with. I really liked the english voices in DQ8, while it was hardly the Witcher it had the slightest of rough edges to the characters, so far everyone has been far too nice. It's the wrong side of cliched too, you the born-again saviour, abandoned in a small village and have just discovered your origins and this is so far the worst thing about the game. Dragon Quest 5 has one of the great JRPG stories imo, 4 is unique, 7 is fairly decent, but the last couple have a really plain protagonist and a nothing story It's too easy to begin with too. I'm still very early, and I've been running around the area outside the first town, getting in to fights against things I'd actually quite like plushies of, and for the most part I'm one-hitting, or only taking 2hp damage. It will get more interesting later on though, especially once there's a few more party members It's very familiar, which is nice, I like the Dragon Quest games, and it's simple. They've brought back a couple of developments from past games. There's the 'pep' system I'm sure I used in something, I can't remember what though, but essentially, if you get hit a few times you become 'pepped up' (not enraged because, like I said, this game has no edge), and become more powerful. There's also skill points when you level up (once you're a bit in to the game). You'll still unlock spells naturally, as you gain levels, but there's other attributes and skills you can spend points to buy, opening up a hexagonal skilltree with each skill you pick. This might mean picking a special sword attack, a boost to your attack, or extra spells I'm not sure you'd otherwise learn The pc version is very much a console port. I was playing it in 4k before and it looks ridiculously nice, but the graphics options are all on a scale of 1-3 (or 1-5), with stuff like shadows and AA being as far as you can drill down. There's also a console quirk where by, you can shut the game down from the menu in the game, but if you go to a church to save (there's sporadic autosaving, it really could do with something better on pc given you can't suspend), save, then when asked if you want to continue select no, you'll go back to the title screen, but there's no option to shut the game down from there. Not the end of the world, you can just alt F4, and the port itself runs perfectly well so far, just an odd thing I noticed anyway, the main thing is it's adorable

Couldn’t find a thread for these so I made a new one. I played a little over an hour of the first game, just as far as exploring Dobuita a little. Of course this is Japan in the 80s, so thirty years before the Japan I’ve experienced, but still so little has changed. Visually from the streets, the houses, the parks...this is what Japan is like. And the young children in the game that meet Ryo speak exactly like Japanese children do now. The scene with the girl and the kitten next to the shrine was very touching. So far so good! Playing the game on PC by the way, connected to my tv and using a wired controller. Resolution is 1920x1080 or something along those lines.

So, this has been out a while on PC and is soon coming to consoles and now i've finally got around to giving it a go. Like the first game, It's an insanely open CRPG where you can pretty much tackle most situations anyway you like and has an excellent elemental based combat system (cast a rain spell and electrocute it to shock everyone, poison clouds are combustible - that sort of thing). The customisation is nuts - you can spec out your starting character any way you like, even specifying the main instrument used for dramatic musical moments (I went for the cello). You can even choose which specialty you want any other characters who join to have. Once your past the first 'tutorial' area your left to your own devices exploring an area around a fort. There's very little hand holding here and every NPC is worth talking to - the writing is fantastic. The detail level in the areas is bonkers. I'm only a few hours in, and the fights have kicked my arse a few times (still working out a solid character load out) but it's awesome. Oh - and it has full co-op as well which i'm hoping to start up this weekend with three others.

I heard Abby talking about this on the Beastcast a while back and it was finally in the sale so I picked it up. Minit then. So called cos the game is played in 60 second bursts in which you explore as much as you can before the time runs out. When the time runs out you die, respawn at your house but all significant progress is saved Before I say anymore I have to mention this is a Gameboy game. Monocrome look, 8 bit graphics, sound chip tunes but it's cool as fuck. It's kinda like Zelda: Links Awakening with it's one screen at a time exploration gameplay. You find a sword first so you're combat ready. Next thing I found? A fucking watering can. Then some coffee (this gives you more energy so you can push boxes). It's an odd game. However, it's one of good design. It can be tricky to figure out what to do next, sometimes frustrating when the map expands and you have a couple of different ways you could go but due to the time limit you know the answer is never too far away. It has a handy built in kill button so you can end your run at anytime, allowing you to respawn at your current house. There are about 4 places you can respawn at spread across your map, each one becoming your homebase the instant you enter it. It's very satisfying gameplay wise, it always feels rewarded when you figure out what to do next and I was chuffed as a bollock when i finished it. It's not thaty it's that hard, I was just stuck a few times and refused to resort to a guide. It's not a big game, couple of hours I guess but I recommend it. Once you beat the main game...

Anybody else played this? Im about 4 hours in I guess, I'm not in love with it. It is slowly getting better but it's a hard game to go back to after the high of Syndicate and the change of direction that was Origins. My fault of course for not playing them in chronological order. Still, in order or not, the game feels like it lacks a flow. You sail everywhere in your bloody great ship, you slowly pull up to your destination, often stopping too far away then you have to jump in the water and swim to the dock and then you can carry on with the next bit of the story or whatever you are here to do. You do unlock fast travel shortly in to the game but obvioulsy you can only fast travel to places you've been. Also, the controls are clunky. Or clunkier than recent attempts. And you cant enter in to sneak mode either, the game does it for you when you are in bushes and the like. I don't like that. Story wise, you are Shay, you have a terrible Irish accent and the rest I couldn't give a single fuck about. I do like it now more than I did an hour in though, it does have a quality that makes me want to continue playing. It'sgot that big map to explore, it's got those treasure icons and collectibles all spread out, good old sandbox fun if that's your bag.

Anyone else picked this up or are planning to give it a go? My girlfriend and I have cleared the first world with three stars on each and haven't broken up yet so I think we're good for marriage. So far it's a massive improvement over the first. Everything feels tighter, there are loads more recipes to make and more interesting level variations, and you can now throw stuff across the kitchen. It has online co-op and vs too this time around!

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.

I bought this only because it was a fiver in the summer sales on the Xbox. I hadn't heard anything good about it to be honest but I'm a sucker for a bargain. It turns out it's fucking fun as fuck. I'm in the throws of a balls deep love affair with Prey but this has become the game I play every time I turn my Xbox on. For those who don't know, this is miniture golf but indoors (for the most part). You smash the ball around in shops and in kitchens and castle's and the likes, trying to rack up a high score. The aim is to cause as much monetary destruction as possible and you are rewarded at the end of your go by a bronze, silver, gold or platinum medal obviously depending on your score. You have to smash a certain number of objects with your tee shot to unlock a 'Smashbreaker' which lets you launch the ball back in the air and you have control over it's direction and what it smashes in to. This trailer pretty much show you what I said above: It's broken though. I've managed to slip between the boundries of the gameplay field a few times, the camera can be awful, you land inside objects and cant see a goddamn thing. You can drop inside buckets of water to extend your Smashbreaker by pressing both the triggers whilst above the object, the game let's you know there's an opportunity to do this by giving you an on screen indicator yet it's not 100% accurate, you can still miss. You can be square on to a putt and still miss, like it can sit right on the lip sometimes and other times it flys out of the whole like there was dynamite inside. For £5 though i can handle it's janky bullshit, i'm nearly done witht the campaign and it's been 15 hours of mostly great fun. I do love fun. Fun.

Anyone else picked this up at some point? It came out first two years ago but it came out just after Nuclear Throne which is a very similar game so I passed on it back then, but it was on sale on Switch recently so I picked it up as I'm struggling in a gaming rut and for some reason, I felt like playing this. So the game itself. It's a twin-stick shooter and rogue-like, or rogue-lite if you like. You are tasked with getting to the bottom of the "Gungeon"; a dungeon that is very gun-themed. Bullseyes hang from the walls like sigils, revolver-like mechanisms teleport you around the area and other gun-themed devices litter the medieval style Gungeon. You make your way through shooting enemies (a strange bunch; walking bullets and shells with corresponding guns, knights, ghosts, a mini-gun wielding crow. These are the more normal agitators). To help you through these oddballs you have a diving roll with generous invincibility frames and one of the most varied arsenals of guns but in a video game (citation needed). You have four characters to chose from who start with different weapons, consumable skills and passive skills. Even more of both kinds of skills can also be found in the Gungeon along with the weapons. The Pilot, for example, gets a lockpick which means he has a chance of opening chests without needing a key, but if it fails the lock is broken and the chest is sealed shut. The Space Marine starts with a piece of armour giving him an extra hit point. I'm actually having quite a hard time with it. I can sometimes get to the fourth floor but I'm not sure if that is good or not. I did rescue a guy one run where he says he can let me skip floors but I don't know how far down I have to go before he lets me use the shortcut. I bet it's the fifth floor. And while I mostly do okay in the Gungeon itself the bosses can be a bit of a bullet hell nightmare and its here I usually mess up, even on the first boss on particularly bad runs. But it does have that "one more go" factor which is important in games like this. It's just fun to play, rolling through bullets, flipping a table for cover and shooting a switch that makes a chandelier fall on a bunch of idiots. And seeing what guns come up is kinda fun too, in an "I recognise that!" kind of way. Some guns are your usual, Uzis, AK47s, etc; and you also have wackier ones like t-shirt cannons, giant shells that fire shotguns, a barrel that fires fish, etc; and also references! A taste of what I've come across is Barret's from FFVII's arm cannon, Judge Dread's gun and the Proton Pack. And many more! Definitely one for the rogue-like likers out there.

Sounds like someone just drew random words out of a hat innit? But you play as an assault android named Cactus so there. This is free on Xbox One at the moment as part of Games With Gold. It's a frenetic twin stick shooter, hook is you have a constantly depleting battery in the top centre of the screen which you can recharge as and when enemies drop them. Like @Sambob in a zoo, it's rock fucking hard. The play area's are small and the enemy dropm rate is high. You can press the L trigger to switch to a secondary weapon that normally has a bit of kick but it needs charging between uses. You start with a roster of 4 character with as extra one unlocking after each of the first 4 bosses. Each character has unique mains and secondarys and some levels benefit a certain type of weapon so there's abit of experimenting involved. I think i'm on the final zone but by Christ it's not been easy. Some enemies shoot big spikey bombs that can knock you down with one hit, this means you have to tap the button to get up and you get deducted points and lose your kill chain. Some enemies appear in the middle of the stage and shoot 4 way lasers that kill with one hit. It's an absolure fucker but it has that addictive 'one more go' quality. Here's the Giant Bomb quick look to get an idea of shiz:

I started this earlier and haven’t exactly loved it, it’s decent enough with the combat being the standout, it definitely has promise and I want to dive further in but the presentation is just godawful all over the shop. The menus, graphics, presentation, stilted animation, everything about it just looks like a PS2 game, I actually laughed quite a bit the first time I saw a wolf and they jerked awkwardly across the floor. All the aliasing buzzing about when you walk anywhere and the horrendous menus don’t help matters either. The translation and voice work isn’t fantastic either but the latter I haven’t thought as bad as I originally thought it would be, it is sufficient and does the job but nothing more, there are the occasional bad delivery of lines and things like that bad nothing too egregious. The combat is fantastic, maybe not quite as much strategy to it and more button mashy at this early stage but it’s so damn fun and very DMC/Bayonetta than typical JRPG. It’s just a shame that the environs are so stilted otherwise they’d be beautiful, the island is a unique setting but there’s something about the way the game looks and runs that can’t help but turn me off it. Still very early days though, once I acclimatise to the graphics I’m sure I’ll be fine if the game is good enough, playing handheld it won’t be as noticeable either.

Well this is a bummer of a story. In a good way. I won’t spoil any story stuff but well worth a couple of hours of your time and makes me look forward to LiS 2 even more. I’m gonna have to do it again as I think I missed quite a bit. Also I had to google one of the puzzle solutions, to unlock the mobile phone. And I’m glad I did as I would never have guessed the combination in a million years, and it’s not something you can just find lying about the place.

Refunct is cool as fuck, really chilled It's a first person platformer, which ordinarily is immediately bad game design, but it's very generous with ledge grabs and how likely you are to just fall off something. The game is jumping up pillars to activate switches, which will cause more pillars to rise. What's cool is that you pretty quickly start to learn how to play without being told how to (although it is worth mentioning there is a duck button). You go from carefully lining up jumps to rebounding off. It's really short, like 20 minutes or so, but it is also only 65p on Steam at the minute

Arcade race, gimmie. But, an arcade racer with a difference. There's a lot to explain... Made by ex devs of Motostorm under the employment of Codemasters by the way. I've been playing the single player campain which is called Superstar, so called because winning and fufilling certain tasks earns you stars which unlocks further progress. There is a multiplayer but I haven't bothered with it as of yet. The difference as i mentioned is it's all team games, two teams of eight to be precise. You are always Blue team, enemy is always Orange team. There are no positions, just objectives. There are 8 different vehicle classes but what you drive depends on what kind of event you're playing. Sometimes you can drive what you like and even switch mid game, others you are given a specific vehicle to use. Each vehicle type has it's own strengths and weaknesses as well as unique powers. The bikes for example are easily taken down but they are super fast. The other end of the spectrum is the Enforcer which is a fuck off great humvee type thing which is amazing at taking down opponents but suffers a little with speed. There are four event variants: Lockdown - Kind of like King of the Hill. A moving circle will appear on the track and your team has to have the most vehicles within that circle for 5 seconds to win a point. The circle can be disputed, it's green if it's neutral and turns orange or blue depending on the team with the most vehicles inside. Switch - You start off on bikes, fast but vunerable. Each player on each team can be taken down three times, each time you are taken down you go up a vehicle class (bike to buggy to humvee i think). The goal being to be the team that has the most remaining vehicle 'switches', so you need to try and survive in the weakest vehicle for as long as possible. It becomes a game of either being hunted or being the hunter. Countdown - You drive through time gates adding time to a clock that's constanly counting down, the more of your vehicles that go through each gate the moe time you get. So your trying to get through gates whist trying to bash your opponent out the way. Overdrive - This mode counts boosting as score. You earn boost by kumping, taking down both opponents and 'fodder' which are slow, weak and small neutral vehicles that drive round the track and also by tailing and scraping opponents. You try to link all these boost gaining opportunities together so as to use as much boost as possible, the more consistnet the boost the higher the score you get for your team. So the campaign is made up of different combinations of these game types. What's universal across all modes is the ability to activate 'Rush'. I explained how to build up boost, once you reach 100% boost used you can activate Rush to give you an advantage. This always involves you being faster and stonger for a limited amount of time but you also gain a special ability for the duration of Rush which differs with each vehicle type. Some vehicles will leave a harmful fire trail behind them, others leave like a warpfield behind them called Blackout that greatly effects your vision if you find yourself in it's trail. Ohters still have abilities benificial to the team memebers around them, like a shield or boost increase. Fucking hell, i'm going on I know but there's a lot to take in. Each time you win an event you get rewarded with stars for victory and like I said above stars unlock progress. There are also side objectives to achieve whilst racing that range from easy to hard. Easy examples are to take down a certain amount of fodder or hit a certain amount of time gates. Harder examples are to achieve certain types of takedowns or a certain amount of them. With these awarding stars you need to go for them if you want to unlock the latter stages and some are only awarded to you if you fulfill the objective AND win. Just a couple of random things worth mentioning are the fact that the game always tries to keep you in the action, if you fall behind it will automatically dump you back in the thick of things. Also, the tracks are large but circular so you are basically doing laps untill you complete your team objective. It looks great and it sounds great for the most part. It does play well, it's incredibly addictive but equally fucking frustrating, mostly due to the takedowns. It can be bloody hard to catch up to enemy players despite them normally being not that far infront of you. When you do get to them the takedown can go tits up in seconds. Even if you swerve in to them with all your might it depends where you end up hitting them. If you manage to clock them in the rear part of the vehicle the takedown is yours but if you hit the front of the vehicle you yourself get taken down which is horrificly annoying. Actually it borders on pure bullshit. You are then forced to watch the replay of them taking you down (whilst shouting FUCK OFF YOU CUNT I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU DOWN YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE) and then you wait 5 seconds for a respawn which feels like an eternity. Another big problem i have is visability. When it's night time in game you can't see fuck all. You have your objective to concentrate on, other vehicles absolutely everywhere and the track is littered with vehicle destroying rocks, trees and hazards. Sometimes I can barely race for getting decimated by a combination of shitty visbility and poor takedown recognition. However, every time i put it on im hammering it for three or four hours because it's so much fun. Annoying as fuck fun.

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:

After seeing a glowing review at Eurogamer I thought this would be a nice counter game to the gritty/bleak violence of God of War, and an excuse to pry the Switch away from the kids. You have to bare with me on the premise - you play as a dung beetle who's the new postmaster on the tropical island of Mokumana, who's guardians are being attacked by the 'God Slayer'. After meeting the previous postmaster, your given a postman badge and told to go meet some fellow further on in the island. Navigating the island is a joy, you push a ball (of what I hope isn't shit) about in front of you and there are numerous pinball flippers around that you activate with the L and R triggers, launching you all over the place. You meet various strange characters and creatures along the way, who give you challenges and rewards. One example is having to find six soot balls in a lighthouse, with the lighthouse essentially being it's own pinball table. Completing these tasks gets you new abilities granting access to other parts of the map, a la Metroid/Castlevania. The art style is great, the music is fantastic and it's a joy to play. All in all, well worth the £15 entry fee.

Started this earlier, put in about 3 hours. I have to say, so far I've been incredibly impressed with it. The presentation is absolutely flawless, some of the facial animation and models look nigh-on photo realistic at times and the way the lighting refracts in the rain and puddles and has that JJ Abrams-esque lens flare to it, it is just phenomenal all round. This may sound a bit strange but I've always loved in games when they give plot time to breath and grow organically and that's just how it feels like here. I'm super early in all 3 of the characters' stories but I love just doing menial things like cleaning a house or entertaining myself with a game of chess, there's just something fun about going through the objectives and attempting to make sure you've ticked off everyone in each scenario. Of the three characters it's definitely Connor and Kara I've warmed to the most really. Connor takes on the investigator-type role similar to the FBI dude in Heavy rain and seems to be the only one that can do the Batman Arkham-esque investigations and reproductions of crime scenes. Kara's has been completely different to Connor's and it feels more raw and darker at the moment, quite emotional and moving at times and I have to admit I've teared up already at a certain scene. It's Marcus that I've not really warmed to yet, he just seems like a bit too much of a blank slate at the moment, but his story has only really just begun compared to the other two so we'll have to see how it goes. As for the David Cage-ness, I've not really seen anything egregious. Yes, I went through the child abuse scene earlier, but you know what it is actually done very well in my view, the Junkie Dad character is very much a cliche yes but that infamous scene is preceded by another that sets it up perfectly and is the catalyst for Kara's story. Also I thought the way they've set Marcus' motivation lets say feels a bit cheap, a character is introduced out of nowhere and it just feels a bit rushed and shonky how that was handled, but that would only be a minor complaint. What the game absolutely nails is the consequence of choice. So many Telltale games give you the illusion of choice but you're really just filtered down pre-determined routes, there's pre-determined routes here, sure, but they're 5-10 routes instead of 1-3 and those 5-10 routes are available at the end of every chapter rather than at the very end of the season. It just feels a bit like an old school adventure game at times, there's one scene with Kara where you have to find Shelter and there's numerous ways of achieving it and you all by yourself have to decide which is best not only for you but for another character too, you weigh up all the pros and cons in your mind, whether it's right to steal etc. And it just gave me so much satisfaction to feel like I live and die by my own half-assery or not. Very early in, but it is already better than the dreadful Beyond for me so far, definitely shades of what made Heavy Rain so great for me back on the PS3, can't wait to play more. Some pics:

So this doesn't even try not to be Castlevania. It's got the same intro screen and everything. Even the C in "Curse" is the C from Castlevania. This is proper old school retroness - 8 bit music, 8 bit graphics and 8 bit gameplay. If you've played any old Castlevania game you'll know exactly what you're in for and if you haven't you're a cunt and you should fuck off. You only get to pick Normal difficulty from the off but you get to pick between two gameplay variants. Casual in which lives are unlimited and enemy hits don't knock you back and Veteran which plays like the old Castlevania games and offers more of a challenge. You set off on your side scrolling adventure from left to right in control of (i forget his name). He has a sword and that sword has limited range and can only be poked in front of you. You destroy lamps (instead of candles) which drops mostly ammo for sub weapons but also yields hearts for health regen and cash for good old fashioned points! Although they are worth bagging as got an extra life at 20,000. I've only played the first two levels so far but each level has predictably ended in a boss fight. Upon defeat of said boss you unlock a new ally of whom you can control. You can switch between allies with the shoulder buttons and each has their own health bar for tactical switching. The first ally I got was a chick with a whip, a higher jump and a ground slide. This new ground slide technique is handy to go under things that the main guy couldn't (cos for some reason he cant slide). I noticed plenty of opportunities to use this slide on the first level so I guess at some point you can go through it with her, maybe after completion, i dont fucking know. She also has a different set of sub weapons also. I've just beat the second level boss and unlocked a third character so i'm gonna go try him out. The game hasn't been too tough so far, i'm yet to lose a life but I'm expecting that to change. I've enjoyed the music so far as well. Do with that info what you will.