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yeah so this is insanely good. i mean it's always looked ace from the videos of the pc version which i was well jelly of. but now it's out on psvr so i've been playing it the last few nights, only stopping because my arms/legs need a break. so imagine you're darth vader or some other dude with light sabers, and you're listening to some banging tunes, and there are blocks flying towards you. obviously you smash the blocks with your light sabers - and that's the game. it's a rhythm action game so the blocks come at you in time with the music. you slice the blocks up in the direction indicated by the arrow, and with the hand indicated by the colour of the block/light saber. the scoring is based mainly on how big/exaggerated your swing is, and a little bit on how well you hit the block in the centre. doing big swings goes out of the window pretty quick as the difficulty ramps up. the music is mostly, i don't know how to describe it (techno?/industrial?/dubstep? i'm rubish at categorising music), it's a bit like the music in aaero, and works really well with the game but it's not the sort of thing i'd listen to outside of a game. there's a campaign mode (exclusive to psvr for now iirc) with loads of different challenges/modifiers on the songs, beat a score, the song is faster, move your arms over a certain distance - which is really hard work. i was a bit worried about the moves not being as good as the pc equivalent but it's no problem, they work great. i'm still jellous of the pc version though as that can have custom/imported songs. it's VR only, but if you have a way of playing it i'd recommend giving it a go.

Space Dave! is a follow up to Woah Dave! that came out a few years ago. It is a retro style arcade game with clever little twists that make it an interesting little game. Woah Dave! is an underrated score attack game and it seems Space Dave! is gonna have the same fate, though I don't think it's as good as Woah Dave!. So I guess that's why I'm starting a thread for it. So what Space Dave is is like a combination of Space Invaders, Galaga and Missile Command. You get waves of alien ships in formation, scrolling along the screen in different ways and you have to shoot them down and protect six trees. You're attacked by simply being shot at but they also dive bomb the ground, destroying the tree and turning the section of screen into a pool of lava, which you then have to avoid while you're protecting the others. You can fix the ground and eventually grow back the tree by killing certain enemies that drop skulls but you have to throw them at the pool of lava yourself. It's taking known, classic arcade gameplay and mixing in these new mechanics that keep the gaming loop really interesting. Oh! and you only get points for picking up pennies so having to pick up items to score adds another element of risk/reward. I think the problem with the game is the visuals. I know they're going for an a look reminiscent of pre-NES games but I just don't think it's striking enough to pull it off. But they're functional so fine. I also think they could have added more types of enemy patterns because there isn't that many and they do loop a bit too often. The bosses are pretty good, though. The fucker I'm on now can fuck off, mind. It's currently under £2 on Switch at the moment and I do think its at least worth that as a score attack game to play for 15 minutes. Or get something that plays Woah Dave! instead.

So this is the third game in the Bit. Trip Runner series, the sequel Bit. Trip Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien. First impression is I'm disappointed with the title of this game. Runner3 does not do the legacy of the series any justice in terms of title. It sticks pretty well to the formula made in the earlier games so if you've played one you'll know what to expect. It's an auto runner game where the obstacles and collectables create a little tune along with the game's music, and as you progress through the levels the obstacles get trickier. Simple, really. But Runner3 adds a few things to make things trickier. One of them I'm not the biggest fan of and that's vehicle sections. They just turn a very tight and nuanced game into something that feels like it comes from a much worse game. There isn't very many of them but I can't help but have an inner little groan when one comes up. The second addition doesn't seem much but it is applied in some genius and evil ways: a double jump. When I first started playing I thought the double jump was just their to make things easier, like you can correct some badly timed jump. But as you go through the game you start to see that creative use of the double jump is the only way to traverse the obstacles and get all the collectables. And sometimes double jumping is dangerous so you can't do it at all so it's not something you just do all the time; far from it. And combining it with the slight glide (hold the jump button) and the hard drop (dress down to fall quickly which was introduced in Runner2) you get some evil level design to make use of it all. These moves also make it so the levels can have multiple ways of doing them and that is explored in Gold Runs and Gem Runs where the latter is a harder route to collect everything. Sometimes the paths just fork off into a different place but there are also situations where you're required to traverse the same bit of level but in a different and harder way. And it is very hard. I think I remember Runner2 being a little easier than the original but this is much harder, at least to get everything. Maybe just going through the game not doing the gem runs would be easy enough but there is evil, evil stuff in this game and I kind love it.

Put 16 hours into this over the weekend. I will preface these impressions with the fact that I'm nowhere near a Battlefield expert and won't be able to go into the nitty gritty detail about what has been improved, balanced, implemented differently etc. over BF1 and other past titles (I've only properly played a tiny bit of BF3, BF4 and quite a decent amount of time into BF1). So let's dive in shall we? To play, it very much feels like a sequel to BF1 rather than anything else, with some Battlefront 2 elements sprinkled in there. The maps are all pretty good but personally I haven't been as impressed with them as the BF1 launch maps, I guess part of it is when you get a WWII game you expect to have all the infamous locales like Berlin under siege from the Red Army, the D-Day landings and so on but none of that is in here. They've focused on the 'untold' battlefields of WWII like Norway, Northern Africa along with including some Western European locales like Rotterdam, Appas and Twisted Steel in France but everything just kind of feels incredibly familiar if you've played BF1, I actually think the variety isn't as good too, there's one that I jokingly refer to as 'Hoth' as it feels so much like a Battlefront map as well. The only real things I've noticed that's different from BF1 is the customisation options and the ability to repair fortifications at command points around the map and build/destroy bridges. The customisation is roughly what you'd expect of most multiplayer shooters nowadays really but there seems to be less variety of weaponry (for the Medic class anyway - the only one I've played as) than BF1. In the previous game I had the choice of rifles or SMGs etc. but here if you're a Medic you've only got one choice which is the SMG, if you want other weapons you need to be another one of the classes, so as you progress with your particular class you unlock more weapons, outfits for your character and skins for your guns. There are also specialisations (which work a bit like perks) for your gun but I haven't really figured out how to get this to work without resetting the points already assigned to it so I've left it for now. Being able to repair fortifications at the command posts is a bit more of a bigger deal though. As the scenery gets more and more deformed as a match goes on having a decent set of sand bags and other fortifications around a command post when you're defending it can be make or break for some matches, you seem to be able to peform these repairs as any class as well which is cool. Similarly with the destruction of bridges or building makeshift bridges, they can make a huge difference in not allowing vehicles to easily access a certain area of a map and be a huge help to a defence or thorn in your side to an attack of a certain area or command point. I've only played the Grand Operations and Conquest game modes, both are fun enough but incredibly familiar to BF1 players. Not got round to any of the single player 'War Stories' aside from the astoundingly good - but brief - introduction. I want to briefly touch on the technical side of things. I believe this is a pre-launch build of the game that doesn't have the Day 1 patch but I have had a number of bugs, all of them are of the silly variety that break the immersion a little at times but nothing else. There's currently a bug when you're reviving someone that you lean through scenery when reviving them, I've had a few issues where a hand is seen at all times when operating a turret of an APV/Tank, I also struggle on occasion to activate the supply/vehicle drops using LB + RB and the left analog stick and also once it wouldn't let me deploy into the game from the map screen and I had to quit the match. Networking issues and graphical/framerate issues seem to be nonexistant as far as I can tell, I've had a very solid 60fps at all times and the networking has been fast and smooth, there's no micro-transactions in here at all either as far as I can tell. So yeah I quite like it, it is addicting and compelling as ever and I've not really been able to stop playing it all weekend. It does feel like a direct sequel to BF1 with more of that games personality than any from WWII or the previous BF games but yeah it does everything it sets out to do really and at this point if you're a BF fan you know what to expect and this will deliver in spades. Some pics:

The demo lied to us, the full game is rubbish! Only kidding, it’s fucking amazing. I installed the dynamic theme that came with it and it loops the hook of the song from the first level (and trailer) in the dashboard and moving around the dash does sound effects from the game, so that’s pretty sweet. I put my headphones on and started the journey mode. The first level after the ones in the demo has the most amazing music. The level is called Jellyfish Chorus and it starts really minimal and at some point it just kicks in and I was wishing I still did drugs.

Started this earlier, wasn't quite sure what to expect as its been quite some time since I've played a peripheral based rhythm action game but everything I saw from this gave me Donky Konga GCN vibes rather than Guitar Hero/Rock Band vibes so I decided it was different enough and been enough time since my foray into those band-based titles that I'd give this a shot. At £90 it isn't cheap for the drum & game bundle, and then there's lots of DLC to buy on the eShop if you so choose. For your money you get 74 songs which are a mix of Anime soundtracks, storied Bandi-Namco franchises like Ridge Racer, Pac-Man etc. and then there's a few Anime theme tracks along with some K-Pop, some classical music and some Nintendo medleys (my personal favourite being Jump Up Super Star which is just a delight every single time), there's even the theme from Moana on there too - but sung in Japanese. There's two main modes in the game - Taiko Mode and Party mode. Taiko mode just has you playing through the songs on offer in the soundtrack with up to 4 players, you can choose 4 different difficulties in Easy, Normal, Hard and Master and play through the song using the Drum controller. The two main notes are 'Don' and 'Ka' the former uses the face of the drum whereas the latter uses the edge, sometimes you're required to hit both sticks onto the drum at the same time in these big notes (can't remember the name of them now) and when a mallet icon, balloon icon or long yellow bar appears on screen you drum roll as hard as you can for the number of beats required or as long as the yellow bar lasts. Party mode is much stranger. It features a variety of party games like Fireworks, Baseball, Tower Climb, Jump Rope etc. That all have you and 3 others (CPU controlled if you don't have many real life friends interested in playing something like this like myself) competing and racking up some kind of score. I have been pleasantly surprised by how zany some of the mini-games are already but a little disappointed at the same time that you can basically game the system by just drumming repeatedly and pretty much get through most mini-games with a decent score. Still quite a bit of fun and a good workout at times though and it'll be an absolute blast after a few drinks with a bunch of mates I'm sure. The Drum itself is very good quality wise. It's made by HORI and although it's all plastic it feels well put together, my only real complaint with it is that despite the rubber feet it does tend to slip around a bit when you're deep in the middle of a song - the instruction booklet recommends you remedy this with two small water bottles placed in a convenient holder underneath, I've also had a few hits not register early on but that doesn't seem to be so much of an issue now I've broke it in so to speak. The drumsticks as well are made from plastic but have a nice weighty feel and heft to them that makes them feel like they're sturdy and not going to snap or break on you when you're drumming away hard. As this only has a local multiplayer mode and no online this may put some folks off (I believe the PS4 version has an online Ghost Mode) but with all the various difficulty modes in Taiko mode to experiment with, an extensive track list and some bonkers - albeit flawed - minigames to have fun with its a decent package overall. If you're into rhythm games (particularly peripheral based ones) and are looking for one with a lot of charm and depth to its play then I can definitely recommend this wholeheartedly, I do think the drum is essential though as the motion controls are less than ideal from what I've heard.

So this is a top down racing game. That's the nutshell at least. I saw that trailer for it a while back and just from looking at it I got a strong impression that it had some nice handling in it. And it does. It's like I have a sixth sense or something. But to be honest, apart from the handling and general act of racing the game has some frustrating things about it. So how the career mode works in MBR is you have a path to work through with it splitting off from time to time so you can get extra money, xp and "gears". Gears are obtained by doing special little missions in a race like "drift for so many metres in total" and "beat a lap in xx:xx time". There's actually quite a lot of them and do add a little pressure to the races. You then use the gears to unlock further races. The progress actually reminds me a lot of 2D Mario games; especially the "New" series if you think of the gears as the big coins. The way its done isn't too bad but since there are a limited amount of tracks, at least a lot less than there are events, you play the same tracks a lot. They are very good tracks, but they certainly could be placed in the progression in a way that makes the number of tracks seem less limited. What also is limited is the amount of vehicles. There are three in each speed class: one light, one medium and one heavy and you have to buy these with the money you've earned, and you need all three as some races require a specific weight class so I don't know why they just don't have them selectable instead of going through this buying process that doesn't add anything. It's not like you have multiple cars in each weight class to commit to. Well, there are others but they are in their own speed class and have their own races. Also, the upgrade system is as clear as mud. You get upgrades to engine, tyre, gearbox, etc and they are like consumables and they seem to be finite and when you remove one it is gone forever. It also isn't clear if it upgrades your vehicle. Like you can use it and find it has no effect. I dunno, I could be being an idiot but it kinda sucks. I also don't think the upgrades that do work even affect the performance much. But apart from the puzzling stuff in the menus the racing itself is really damn good. It has some really nice drift mechanics. When I think of Wipeout I think of how cornering is like smoothly carving the apex and this has that too; it's just as satisfying. And I think the perspective benefits it too since you can see more of the track (more specifically what is coming next to the side because of how they are laid out) the game can run faster. It's like a Scalextric track in that there are a lot of u-turns you can speed around nearly at top speed. It feels really good, especially in the lightweight buggies. The tracks as a whole are so good. They group a lot of u-turns together pretty often and there are a lot of angular turns that make me think of F-Zero on the SNES or any Mode 7 racing game except much more elaborate in that they often loop back and cross over themselves. The only thing that catches me out sometimes is because of the top down view seeing ramps and other gradients that affect handling can be hard to see until you're familiar with the tracks. I've been hankering for a good drift-y racer for a while and this is actually doing a pretty good job of satiating that. Thumbs up.

The controls are really weird, I keep pressing the Touchpad for map and calling my horse with the wrong D-Pad button (thanks AC Odyssey). The gunplay doesn’t feel like it’s evolved since the OG RDR. It’s so incredibly clunky having to click in and out of cover and move up to the next position, felt like the analog stick was stuck in treacle. I’ve only had a few gunfights but every one has been a chore so far because of it, you just feel like just staying in one cover position so you don’t have to keep moving. I really didn’t think I’d be saying this but the R* game it most reminds me of is LA Noire. Early on there’s a cabin you have to search and I was just going around hugging walls and inspecting/picking up objects like LA Noire, you can do this with almost every richly detailed interior too. The quality of the writing, cinematics and atmosphere created though is truly phenomenal. The opening feels like you’re in and the attention to detail of the world and environmental design is astounding. I’ve been overwhelmed already with everything there is to do, I sat down and played Dominos at the camp for 40 minutes last night. I haven’t even discovered a lot of the side activities either, it has all been so bewildering that I haven’t quite got a handle on it. I’ve been a little disappointed with the ‘talk to strangers’ thing too as a lot of people in the only town I’ve been in have only had the ‘Greet, Antagonise, pull weapon’ commands which don’t really seem nuanced. I have had a couple of cool stranger interactions outside of the town though. Overall though, it’s just intoxicating and I can’t wait to dive back in and properly get used to my surroundings and all the different systems at play. The gunplay is easily my biggest grievance and if I don’t get used to it or it improves I feel it’s going to massively drag the game down in terms of enjoyment for me.

So, Soul Calibur is out and it's the first game i've played in the series since SC on the Dreamcast, so I have absolutely no idea what's changed since, though I understand it's a bit of a series reboot - with the story continuing on from the first SC. The weird thing is, after one match everything game flooding back. I remembered a few moves with some familiar characters and it soon set in how to get enemies in the air and juggle. I managed to play around ten games online with a mate and the experience was pretty smooth, with only a little stutter happening in a couple of the matches. One of the new features is the reversal edge - where everything slows down and you're both locked into a rock-paper-scissors situation with the winner pulling off some visually spectacular move. One thing that hasn't changed over the years is it's wardrobe, with a lot of flesh in display. Ivy looks like she's just stepped out of an Amsterdam window display, and clothes can be knocked off during a match. So yeah, really enjoyed my brief time with it last night. I'm surprised how natural it all felt after not playing an SC for 19 years. It has two story modes and a character creator to get stuck into so looking forward to getting stuck into the meat and potatoes of it over the weekend.

I've put around 12 hours into this since starting it Tuesday morning. I'm mainly going to focus on the additions and changes to the formula since Origins as I feel like there's many posts of mine already extolling the virtues of that game. Exploration mode is one of the major new additions. It lets you strip away a lot of quest markers and gives you clues as to a place/person etc. you have to find, so instead of just pointing you towards your target and placing a marker down for you it'll say 'South of Mount Apollo', 'West of Athens', 'near Fort Marmaris' or something like that and you'll have to use your own deductions to find your way there, sometimes having to speak to someone who will then point you in the direction of your destination or having to investigate an area to find where a certain person of interest went next. As soon as you get close to your destination it'll pop up with 'you're close, use Icarus - fucking eagle - to find target' which takes away a bit of the mystery but it still remains more satisfying and engaging to play this way, I was sceptical and didn't think I'd bother with it but it's the intended way to play the game and I can't recommend it enough, just helps immerse you in the world that little bit more. They've also added a dialogue tree to almost every conversation you can engage in. Almost straight away the game starts you off engaged in conversation and you have to choose your responses for the first time ever in an AC game - which as a long time fan I was genuinely exhilarated about. On the surface of it it's a small detail but having that ability to pick your own choices deeply enhances your engagement to certain quest-lines and conversations, instead of sitting passively by and waiting for a conversation to be over so you can get on with the quest at hand you feel more proactive and engaged every step of the way so when you finish the conversation. It also means you've got more agency to make your own choices, I've had one mission where I saved some villagers from some enemy soldiers and they thanked me by giving me their life savings in Gold - you can either take it or tell them to keep their money and go on your way. There was another mission where some villagers stole some supplies from a Spartan caravan, I found them in a cave and could've slaughtered the lot of them but I decided to let them live and went back to my Spartan soldier quest giver only to end up empty handed, save for a 'Sparta thanks you' as a reward. Certain quests that have you finding select treasure you can lie about and say you found nothing, pocketing the trinket yourself and things like this. Granted, none of this is new in the RPG-sphere but it feels very new and fresh when implemented so superbly in an AC game. The new romance options are sure to delight too, so far I've only managed to sleep with one lady but I had to work to get her to that point! Complimenting the new dialogue tree is a brand new quest structure which I've not really seen before in an AC game. It kind of makes everything meld into one, even the main story quests aren't given particular gravitas at all, they're just on your quest menu and have you doing small tasks which will eventually add up to something bigger later on, they can also run into a variety of side quests and overlap. Again, other RPGs have done this before so it isn't anything special per se but to see them overlap to such an expert degree that it feels incredibly organic is a real triumph. Origins had a similar idea but everything still felt a little disjointed at times but here everything feels seamless. Full fat Naval Combat returns from AC4. In Origins there were brief sections of Naval combat but most of your time on the seas was spent in rafts and basic sail boats. Within the first 5 hours of this you're given your own boat and free reign to go wherever you'd like on the high seas complete with Naval missions like sinking x number of ships and being able to board enemy ships and slaughter their crew - just like you could in AC4. Another return from AC4 are the sea shanty's, which just are a delight and help add to the tranquillity when you're sailing around on the open seas. I don't yet know whether other AC4 naval options like hunting down legendary ships, taking over Naval forts etc. are going to be in the game but I hope they are. You can also fully upgrade your ship by picking up supplies floating in the sea and sinking ships. Making it stronger and stronger by upgrading the Hull, archer capacity, adding new weapons like a flaming pot and things like that. Along your travels you can recruit lieutenants who work on the ship and give various perks to you and your crew along the way. The Phylakes system in Origins - where certain actions would make a strong enemy hunt you down throughout the world - has been expanded into the new 'mercenary' system which acts quite similarly to the Nemesis system in the Middle-Earth games. You start off on the bottom tier and work your way up hunting down - and being hunted - by stronger mercenaries eventually working your way up to the top. I really liked the Phylakes in Origins and I like the system again in this, it definitely feels more fleshed out this time around and the incentives for working your way up the leaderboard to be a legendary mercenary make the whole system more compelling. Without giving anything away about the story, it is already quite a bit better than Origins’ so far. Whilst I did like Origins’ freeform mission structure (and the way you could pick and choose which targets you want to take down and when) the story feels much more focused in this - at the moment anyway - with a lot of cutscenes, flashbacks and interesting, intriguing characters who you can’t quite tell their motivations. The dialogue tree plays its hand in the story missions too with you being able to make key decisions about whether you want to let a certain person live or die and the narrative shifting based on your decision, I’m sure there will be many more like this as the game goes on as well. This helps keep you invested in Alexios/Kassandra’s story quite a bit more, and it took me a good minute or two to make my first key decision and was an unusually emotional for an AC game. The combat and upgrade system is largely the same as Origins but you seem to be a bit more limited in the abilities you can equip at any one time which means you can’t just spam special attacks over and over until an enemy is defeated. If you liked the combat system in Origins you’ll like it here, it is still very satisfying to take down a difficult enemy and the new abilities help you feel like more of a badass, especially the Spartan Kick which feels amazing to kick some high level fort boss off a cliff. The ability tree itself seems to be much more toned down compared to Origins as well with far less clutter and superfluity, you can only equip 4 melee and 4 ranged abilities at one time as well which helps you not get overpowered too quickly in the game. The Greek setting itself I haven’t found quite as fascinating to explore as Egypt so far. Egypt felt so distinct and different in its art styles and environment whereas this can feel at times like a lot of other RPGs with European settings. Nevertheless, it is still incredibly beautiful and walking through a town and watching the inhabitants go about their daily routines or seeing the sun go down over the Mediterranean is spellbinding, it is still such an incredibly easy game to get utterly lost in. I’m sure once I experience more of the Aegean Islands and Athens things will begin to feel more distinctly Greek. Safe to say I’m besotted with it so far, it's maybe got a little less of the evocative magic that made Egypt feel so vivid and memorable in Origins but it makes up for it in pretty much every other way. I’d put it on the same level as Witcher 3 so far and it’s probably one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played.

I'm a little surprised there isn't a thread for this already, maybe that highlights the problems Telltale had, but it was on PS+ which is why I have it. I've just finished the 2nd episode, so I guess still fairly early impressions, but the story is pretty good so far. I was wondering if they just packed some good stuff in to episode 1 to get people invested, but episode 2 carries it on pretty well. I'm not sure how much of it is cannon, because I'm not sure there'd be any coming back from it, nor do I think it could have been kept quiet for 20 years, but without going in to spoilers it's not worth getting in to. If this is it's own thing it means they can at least write the story they want Gameplay is fairly standard telltale stuff, picking conversation options and things being remembered. So far there hasn't been anything where I've picked it and it's illicited a response I wasn't expecting, I'm not sure how much it really matters beyond people just criticising your behaviour or praising it. What is new, to me at least, is the quick time events. I'm not sure it matters if you fuck them up, I'm pretty sure I've missed a few and still connected. Some feel like they don't give you enough time to respond, others give you an age. There's also sections where you explore an area, looking at evidence then linking it together, which is also how some fight prep works. It's all fine, certainly nothing that detracts from the story I was kind of impressed with how it looks, in episode 1 at least, then I had a conversation where Bruce Wayne's neck was round the wrong way. Episode 2 has more problems, it's framey and clips a lot, I'm guessing because they had less time

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.