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More detailed thoughts later, but for now what difficulty is everyone playing on? Hard is kicking my arse.

I’ve played about 3 hours or more of the campaign which I believe is about half way. It’s alright but it’s like a ‘best of’ of the series. Think of it as a Now That’s What I Call CoD! Track listing includes: A swimming bit. A sniper bit. A gunner in the skies bit. All the hits dating back many years. The story and overall attitude of the game is awful I’ll say that. Dude bros with guns. No one is likeable or too much different for anyone else. The game is very linear as to how you can tackle each short segment. Be a few metres away from where it wants to be and you’re killed. I look forward to multi once the campaign is done with.

Well this pretty much came out of nowhere. Like, I didn’t even realise it was out. I remember it being announced, but not much after that. The original Tales game was one of the best things Telltale came out with (Walking Dead peaked after their first season, and by the end was crap). I’m not an expert of the franchise, I’ve only finished 1 and 2, and some of the DLC. But that didn’t stop me from having a great time with Tales. So, now we have the sequel. Though it’s “episodic”, it plays out as one big game, giving you a break between episodes. I’ve just finished Episode 1. And so far, it’s off to a good start. The dialogue has been amusing enough. The story, which switches between 3 playable characters, seems solid enough. There’s zero puzzles, so you’re mostly down to making dialogue choices, and occasionally wandering around the area to trigger the next set piece. There’s a fair few Quick Time Events, but they’re easy enough. One review said that the hacking mini game is laughably easy. It is indeed, and makes you wonder what the point of them even is. It warns you “failure has repercussions”. But honestly, you’d have to put your controller on the floor, to fail them. The IGN review said the final episode is a train wreck, and almost ruins the game completely. We will see how that plays out. But so far, yeah, this seems decent enough.

Roller Drome seemed to get talked about a lot right before release, then no one mentioned it again. It's a CEL shaded roller skate arena game with similar muted colours to Sable. Presumably deliberately it reminds me of old 70s genre films. The concept is kind of Running Man, you enter arenas and have to shoot the house players. To reload you have to do tricks, this refills your ammo, killing enemies gets you health back,and there's a bunch of different enemy types. I wasn't feeling this originally, it just felt flat and boring, frustrating even. Movement can be a bit odd, you don't control your momentum, press forward to start then leave it, concentrate on steering, jumping and tricks. Get close enough and there's an auto aim to shots, with some of the weapons having slight tricks to them. There's a dodge, time this with the slow down time mechanic, usually used for aiming, and you get an extended period of slowed time. There's challenges to the levels, things like performing certain tricks, kill enemies with certain weapons, and I think it's this stuff that was annoying me. It's probably best to just beat a level then revisit it and try to get one or two challenges each time, that's not how I was approaching it. You need to beat a certain number of challenges to unlock the next set of levels, so I was trying to beat everything all at once, you just don't have that sort of control early on, or I didn't, I did much better when I came back after a break and went back to the earlier levels. I'm still not sure I see the really high scores for it, but when it does all click with you it is fun, really fun at points

Sam wants meaningful feedback so I'll try and give some here. It certainly is a follow up to Fallout 3 in that it is still that at it's core. You have a big, dilapidated open world for you to rummage through, explore and have your own little story. It's that stuff again. But the introduction to this game makes it difficult to like. Your character and equipment just aren't up to snuff when you start off. I died a ridiculous amount on my first proper task, and even when I found a craftier way of completing the mission unforeseen things would happen and I'd have to go again. I just felt like the game was slapping my hand every time I tried something which didn't happen nearly as much in Fallout 3. I also got attacked by a high level glowing Ghoul when I was minding my own business just after I'd talked to a merchant and was killed instantly... while on the main road just outside the starting area. They have improved the shooting but it seems at the moment that V.A.T.S isn't as good so I'm unsure how to play it now. In F3 since the shooting was so shit I only ever used it as cover fire while V.A.T.S charged up then I'd go for a full attack but that doesn't seem to work as well here. During the mission mentioned previously I feel like it wanted me to go full CoD since enemies were lobbing grenades and molotovs like confetti and I just couldn't do anything about it. I just ran off. Maybe it gets better as more unlocks become available but I don't remember being this frustrated during the intro of the previous Fallout games. They had their issues but not like this. It feels really slap dash and unconsidered. But I think the game looks fine. It's the least of my worries.

I don't know how to give impressions on this without getting in the weeds. In terms of features it's an old fashioned 2D fighting game. You have an arcade mode (which is kinda interesting in that the better you do the harder the end boss gets) and there is a story that is literally an anime that you just watch, which is what the last game did too but it's still wild to me. There's also a pretty intense Mission Mode that does it's best to teach you the deeper mechanics of the game which if you're the studious type could work pretty well. I could do with spending more time in it myself but getting wrecked by someone using my character then trying to rip them off in the next match is more fun for me. It's the good netcode that saves it though. Well, the matchmaking is pretty rough at the mo but it plays really well in game. It just means there's always people to play with. This came online at midnight and I was ready to play it so I went to the east coast of USA since it was a more sensible time there and while it was a little choppy visually my inputs were barely delayed, if at all. I really hope they put this in a DBFZ2, in fact it would be shocking if they didn't. I've not saved many fights yet since I think I'm still pretty scrubby but my Gio is coming along a little. And this fight with Zato was fun when I wasn't put in the corner with all his nonsense:

Been hammering this pretty hard since I got my PS5, haven’t actually played anything else yet ? about 13 hours in. Going in I was pretty confident I was gonna like it but a little bit cautious due to my time with the previous game. I ended up loving it a lot in the end but had a lot of issues with the side activities which felt like they were stuck in the PS2 era, which brought the game down from the highs of the phenomenal story. So with that in mind, this has far exceeded every expectation I ever had for it already. It’s safe to say it plays very similarly to the previous game, the mechanics, the combat, the stealth sections, the Arkham-style Predator sections and - unfortunately - some of the side activities are all very familiar if you’ve played SM 2018. So in lots of ways it doesn’t really innovate, it merely tweaks the formula from the previous game adding in new powers for Miles like the ‘Venom’ Power stuff, but when the core is as strong as it is there was no point starting from scratch. Everything works, and it works really well, the combat is still fun, the swinging is still addictive as fuck and the side activities are still a little PS2-esque but trimmed down a bit from the previous game. It feels a bit like being reacquainted with an old friend really. Whilst that core from the previous game is very much in tact the game still manages to have a very different feel to it thanks to Miles. Miles is just a very different character and a very different Spider-Man than Peter Parker and his identity and charisma is running through pretty much every facet of the game. Whilst the previous game had you taking charge of a confident, assured Peter Parker that had honed his craft over a number of years, Miles is still a teenager who has a lot to learn in general. He is becoming a man, has just become ‘the other’ Spider-Man and has to deal with a lot of strong emotions from the events of SM 2018 coupled with moving to a new neighbourhood and his Mother running for a local Council position. Miles just makes the game so much more refreshing. We’ve seen and played as Peter Parker’s Spidey in so many games and films over the years that getting to pilot Miles in this and see New York from a totally different perspective just feels fresh and unique. The best way I can describe it is akin to ‘The Lost and Damned’ DLC from GTA IV, you’re playing a new character that starts off in a totally different district that it makes the game and the environment itself feel totally fresh and new because you’re coming at it from such a different angle. I think the Christmas setting this time around lends the city a totally different feel to the Summery New York of SM 2018 as well. This being a PS5 launch title I have to mention the graphics. They are extraordinary. Not just the big things you notice like the Ray Traced reflections on every surface (playing in fidelity mode) but the little things like the squirrels that now roam about and run up trees or the little ornate gardens outside some of the opulent buildings that are scattered across Manhattan. Every single building you come across seems to have so much more detail to it than in the previous game, Manhattan in that game often came across as a little bland for me in some of the outer districts but in this every single one has its own identity. There was one section quite near the beginning of the story where you’re walking through a Harlem street market with Miles and his friend and it just blew me away, getting this level of graphical quality this early in the generation is just insane to me. My only real criticism of it would be the side activities again. Don’t get me wrong, they are far less of an issue here and I’ve enjoyed them for the most part but every now and again they’ll get on my tits a bit, nothing to the level of SM 2018, but yeah there still is some room for improvement there in my view. The story moves at a quicker pace this time around. It did take the previous game a while to get going but here it seems to throw you into the deep end a bit sooner with some twists coming relatively early that I never saw coming. I just love hanging out with Miles and his friends really, some of my favourite moments are just walking around his Mums apartment studying various bits and pieces in there and listening to all the banter in Spanish (and English) between them. I will say as well, to anyone that was worried about this being a short jaunt back into Spidey’s Manhattan, don’t be. It has taken me 13 hours so far and I’m only about 50% through, considering the previous game took me 34 hours to Platinum, this will likely end up taking me 25 or so. I’ve just loved being back in this Marvel version of New York again and piloting Miles, he really is a breath of fresh air. I really cannot recommend this enough, this is one of the best ever PS launch titles already in my view, definitely shits all over the PS4 and PS3 offerings that’s for sure. What a start to the next generation! Pics:

cheers for the games Duck! it's early days, and a bit all over the place, but i quite like what i've played of this so far. i worry i'll get annoyed with the aiming in the long run. needs more auto aim imo.

Looked for a “played” page for this, but didn’t see one. So here goes. I just completed the main story for this, and really enjoyed it. The Yakuza series has always been my favourite, with its excellent combat, and tone that goes all over the place (serious one minute, utterly insane the next). Judgment was pretty good for the most part, only really spoiled by the clunky stealth sections, and exceptionally tedious “tailing” missions, where you have to follow a person round for ages without being spotted. I’ll always remember one part of that game, where you have to tail someone for what feels like 5 minutes at least. Only for it to then immediately follow that up with another, equally long one. Fucking tedious pretty much summed that part up. Thankfully, that’s been stripped back quite a bit for Lost Judgment. There’s not much tailing, and even less stealth, which remains awful. Though they’ve put in a few platforming/climbing sections, which are a bit shite. In as much if you fall, you have to repeat an entire section. Combat wise, I much prefer it to the RPG style of Like A Dragon. I am going to give that another shot on PS5 at some point, but the unfair difficulty spikes really ruined that game for me. It’s more of a serious game than Yakuza, by that I mean there’s not really any zany side missions. Yakuza chucks things from adult baby clubs, to god knows what else. In comparison, things are a bit more serious in LJ. Though with a story involving bullying, suicide and murder, it’s probably to be expected. There’s an entirely seperate section where Yagumi investigates various different clubs in the local school. I’ve done some of them, but a lot are locked out to me, and I’m not entirely sure why. It says i need to raise my Appeal. How do I do that? Not a bloody clue. Google to the rescue, then. I’ve got the “Kaito Files” DLC to play next, then I’ll have a crack at some of the other side missions. I’ve already sank 20+ hours into it, and though it’s not on the same level as Yakuza, it’s still a lot of fun. I gather that because of some issue with the Japanese voice actor for Yagumi, there won’t be any more Judgement games. Which is a shame if so, as it’s always a joy to piss about in Kamurocho.

I’m about two hours into this on the Switch. I’ve been playing the main game, haven’t tried the visual novel prequel thing yet. But I’ll probably play them concurrently. The game takes a few twists and turns early on, but nothing overly dramatic. So far, typical jrpg opening (as jrpg stories go). The combat is quite unique though. Enemies have elemental types and during battles there is an elemental field, which, depending on the elemental spells used causes certain elements to get stronger and the opposite type weaker. For example blue and red (water and fire) are opposites. If you use a blue elemental spell, the blue area of the elemental field (this is shown on the screen) will grow larger, and blue spells will become stronger and red spells weaker. One interesting tactic connected to this is when fighting enemies of different element types, their spells can antagonise each other, which can affect the order in which you might want to take them down. In addition to that, when you do a normal attack, you can choose between weak, medium and strong. Weak attacks have high accuracy and strong attacks low accuracy. Every hit that connects raises the accuracy of subsequent attacks. It’s up to you how you choose to string combos together. There’s more to combat than that but those are just a couple of interesting points.

Played about an hour of this, which is not a lot but you're looking at apparently 6-10 hour runtime. Walking sim-esque, echoes of Miyazaki about it (Ico, Last Guardian), seems like a companion based puzzler with lots of pretty environment puzzles, but what I played was pretty linear. What might make it more interesting is it seems to have a strong environmental narrative focus on it, why are things the way they are. What is this city, what is going on with its inhabitants. I'll leave it at that, seems interesting but nothing mind-blowing really in the opening. I would have played more but I got about 2 hours sleep last night so I'm running on fumes. Will update with thoughts when I actually complete it I reckon It's a very pretty game, lots of screenshots and wallpaper material. At the same time I think the game is pretty enough that spoiling lots of views will rob people of the better parts of the game. So check out this screenshot of a cat hanging out in what is considered to be a pretty upmarket apartment in the cyberpunk dystopia FWIW, no HDR or ray tracing or anything like that. Lack of HDR is strange but I like the muted look tbh, don't really need the eyeballs seared right now. The game is so linear that the lighting they use is good enough as is. Runs at 60, these are PC impressions btw but I imagine it's identical to PS5

About time for some impressions, I think. So its a 2D fighting game made by ArcSystem Works, a studio famous for its 'Anime' fighting games. They usually have a lot of systems and movement options as well as combo systems that can be extended to let players do some crazy stuff as long as they have the execution to do them, which is usually quite hard to do. They have made it simpler here. The first thing is its very easy to 'get in' in DBF since you have a button that activates the 'Dragon Dash' which has you fly across the screen and home into your opponent, and it also goes through most projectiles so for beginners fighting each other having that is useful for swiftly getting in. But it is very punishable, so learning when to use it properly is an early lesson. It has a few mechanics to aid beginners because I'm sure they recognise that this is a Dragon Ball game and a number of people playing it won't necessarily be into fighting games, they'll just be fans of the show so letting them have a good time is a priority here. One of the other ways they do this is by having auto-combos (performed by repeatedly pressing the light attack (LA) or medium attack (MA) for a more powerful variant that ends in a metre costing super). They're not a thing I'm fond of as they won't teach you the game that well but they do make for some cool looking action. The auto-combos, in fact, are totally unique combos. In a lot of other games, they are the same visually as manual combos but do less damage. And since they are unique here its a shame to see them locked into the auto-combos and not be able to do them manually. For example, Frieza, a character I use has a really cool looking move in the first part of his auto-combo which launched them into the air. So what I sometimes do to mix things up is perform the first half of the A-C then go into a manual one when in the air. But I wish I had the option to do this move anytime. But while there is a very flashy and basic fighter there is a high skill ceiling here as well, which you will discover at the time of writing when you go online. It isn't as high as ArcSystem's other games but there is still quirky stuff. Since this is a 3v3 fighter you can call in a member of your team to do a one-off move and jump out again. Using these can give you the ability to get hits in and continue combos where you couldn't without. Or they can be used to cover approaches, help defend etc. There is also the little mechanic also found in ArcSytem's other games; the jump cancel. Its something I've always known about but I've not really put serious time into learning but if you want to get beyond hammering out basic stuff you gotta get used to it. Essentially any medium attack can be jump cancelled. A common thing to do would be crouching MA (which puts them in the air a little), standing MA (pops them up a little more) then hit up while the animation is still happening to quickly meet them in the air. Since you can only use your proper launchers and Dragon Dash once per combo link it frees you up to use them later in the combo and its the mastery of this that really frees up the fighting system as a whole. It's here where it really gets fun. I've not really played the story yet but I hope to get round to it soon (it's kinda bonkers it's about the Dragon Ball gang being controlled by an entity and they turn to the camera when referencing this entity) and it also has this weird turn-based map system between fights. There's other stuff. Sparking Blast and how the online seems to be kinda borked at the moment in that the games run fine until it kicks you out of the lobby for no reason, but this will do for now.

I have very mixed feelings about this. I love the feeling of adventure, of not knowing what's down the road and if you'll be able survive. It's brilliant when you do overcome the odds and press on after a tough battle. The combat system is great with loads of customisation on offer, you're even encouraged to change class altogether. The Pawn system works really well, being able to hire and fire helpers and changing the composition of your group entirely as the situation demands. Despite all the good bits, the game so far has felt as though i'm playing the middle portion of an RPG where i'm clearing up fluff quests just to pad out the leveling process. There's been no gravitas or urgency to the quests so it's difficult to differentiate between the story and side quests. Things like not having fast travel I can understand why they left out even though it's annoying to have to walk to the same places over and over. I'm surprised more games don't use the MMO style flight paths to get around. You still get to where you're going quicker but you have to travel to a specific place, rather than just magically teleporting everywhere. It's a happy medium between the two. There's other things which are pretty minor and affect my enjoyment more than they probably should. For instance, why did they overlook mini-map markers for people who have something to say? It's incredibly frustrating having to run around looking for colored speech bubbles above NPCs heads. Likewise with the Pawns. As good as the system is it grates when in combat and you're unable to issue commands for something as simple as a weapon buff - the option just doesn't exist. Most of the time you just have to wait for them to apply the correct buff which is very frustrating against the larger enemies. For all it's issues, there are times when this incredible game shines through, and that's what makes it worth playing. I just wish it was more consistent.

Played an hour, on PC. The game defaulted to High graphical settings, so I left it at that. I chose the Vagabond class. So far, so Dark Souls. Looking forward to losing my life to this game. The opening cinematic is very cool. One of my Steam friends has already played this for 8 hours.:.

Started this off on Thursday, put around 10 hours into it so far. I don’t want to spoil any of the story so I’ll keep details as vague as possible. But it’s safe to say that the game really doesn’t pull any punches at the beginning. You're put into Protagonist Amicia’s comfortable shoes almost straight away and after a brief tour around her parents Estate things start to slowly unravel. After the events at her homestead she ends up on the run with her estranged Brother Hugo. From here you travel around differing Medieval French environs trying to keep your brother safe and find a sanctuary to escape to horrors of the outside world along with meeting others who’re in just as desperate a situation as you are. In in terms of gameplay, it’s very much a stealth game mixed with light puzzle elements and a little bit of ‘the floor is lava’ thrown in for good measure. The first few chapters were quite basic really with serviceable stealth you’ve seen in countless other games - hiding in bushes, throwing objects to distract the guards and all that jazz. Things do get a little more difficult with a variety of potions thrown in that you can use against Guards along with lots of fire puzzles with the rats which then intersect with then Guards at some points to make things a little more complicated. It’s still all stuff you’ve seen before though, there’s nothing new in it at all in gameplay terms aside from the rats. The rats are incredibly cool and are easily the most distinctive part of the game but with fire sources abundant they’re never all that threatening to get through. The setting is incredible distinctive too. The grounded Medieval setting doesn’t get done an awful lot and there really aren’t too many comparisons to make, the only other games I can come up with is Vermintide and parts of The Witcher too. It it is a game that thrives on melancholy. Chapter after Chapter features tons of horrific scenes like a battlefield filled with dead soldiers or a hillside of dead pigs, it’s difficult to explain but it does well to create a constant feeling of misery, death and decay and it never really lets up, it is relentlessly miserable with only slight moments of brevity here and there. I do like it so far and I am incredibly Intrigued to see where the story goes next but I don’t love it. The stealth gameplay is often frustrating, not knowing when you’ve been spotted by enemies or not and the check pointing is poor, often putting you back at the start of an area. The voice acting is a bit wooden and I haven’t exactly wholly warmed to the characters. For a AA game from a somewhat unknown studio though it is pretty incredible what they’ve achieved with this. The Rats are a fantastic enemy that hasn’t really been done before, the graphics and lighting in particular is phenomenal and the setting feels incredibly fresh. It’s surprisingly long too, I thought it’d be finished at this far into the game but I’m not sure I’m even half way through. Lots of pics:

I'm pretty sure the venn diagram of this forum and this particular game is just two completely separate circles situated three miles from one another. However, I'm nothing if not weird in my game choices, so let's talk about it anyway. This is Animal Crossing meets Kingdom Hearts as far as I'm concerned. The Magic Kingdom has been taken over by a weird darkness (which also has the side effect of making famous Disney characters lose their memories), and it's up to you to cast out the darkness, visit different characters and restore Disney to its former glory. You do this by completing various tasks , whether that's finding Goofy's fishing rod, setting up Scrooge McDuck's store signs (more on him in a minute) or simply by planting and harvesting different crops. So. Mr McDuck. The Scottish, money-swimming capitalist. He's Tom Nook. Buying/upgrading stores or buying clothes and decorations all goes through him. And his prices are just as disgraceful as Animal Crossing's awful banker. I've paid him to make a little store for Goofy (and subsequently upgrade said store). I've paid him to build his own store, and then spent MORE money in there. And it seems he exists solely to leech from my wallet. At least he's true to character, I suppose. It seems to have a lot more focus than AC right now. While I've never played it, my understanding of AC is that you don't really have a specific goal list where you can change your tasks and set new ones. This has an actual focussed goal list. And while that might mean the end game could end up a bit pointless, Disney have almost a century's worth of content to draw from, so they should have no trouble keeping it interesting. The music is just so. Fucking. Charming. From symphonic takes on Let It Go and How Far I'll Go to the simple When You Wish Upon A Star, there's an awesome little tracklist that rotates, and it gives the game this unique personality that's incredibly sedate. Graphics are... functional. They do the job, but they definitely aren't made to impress. There's tons of character, though. Especially in the Disney character models. My biggest negative, and something that keeps niggling is that the controls feel really loose. It's almost as though your avatar is on a slight delay whenever you press buttons. There's no combat and nothing that needs a huge amount of reaction time, but it's just a little distracting when it looks and feels like you're floating slightly above the floor, rather than actually walking on it. After doing my first batch of goals, I've chosen to go to the Moana-themed level. I've stopped it there, because I started last night when Oscar was in bed and I want him to see it, but it's seemed to worm into my brain already, and I definitely want to see more of what it has to offer.

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.

Put just over an hour into this. First things first, it’s way more traditional narrative focused than the last From action RPGs. Loads of cut scenes and it defaults to Japanese voices but I switched it to English because evidently I’m some kind of monster. If I can switch it back, I’ll give it a try. Combat feels superficially similar to Souls but really very different. It’s all about parrying and timing, whereas a lot of Souls you can cheese quite easily. I can’t imagine anyone’s ultra sensitive about spoilers from an hour in, but just to be sure: So far it feels great to play, very smooth and satisfying when you pull the combat off properly.

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:

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

Quoting the kickstarter - "Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Descend at your peril!" Anyway, it was funded for over $300,000 in March 2014, spent a year on Early Access and eventually released in January this year. It's due out on PS4 later in the summer. It got good reviews and and has a "very positive" Steam user rating with around 15,000 votes. I've played it for an hour so far, it's cool. The game is structured like Sunless Sea in that you have a base, a safe haven, where you can buy provisions, recruit new members, take on quests etc etc. You can only set out with a party of four each time, but you can have way more than four people hired. One of the things you can do in the base camp or "hamlet" is assign people to certain activities which will reduce stress (like dread in Sunless Sea). If someone is assigned to an activity, you can't take them with you on your next trip. I'm not going to drone on about the mechanics in the game, but it is pretty similar to Sunless Sea really. Combat is turn based. Your party stands in formation and different characters have a preferred position...it's not what it sounds like. Both yours and the enemies position will affect the range of your attacks. That's all I can say about it so far. I did the introductory quest.

Played the first 3 hours earlier. I like it so far but it barely feels like I’m out the tutorial really so very early days. A lot of mechanics are being introduced still and it feels like the reigns haven’t been let go of yet so I’m not free to fully explore the world yet. First things first. There’s a lot of cutscenes. Almost all of them during the Prologue are ones we’ve seen from past trailers so in some ways we’ve all seen the opening hour but without the context you’ll get in the game. After that you’ll start to see some new stuff but at this early stage most of it is just introducing you to characters and locales with not an awful lot going on in terms of plot or anything. I’m not sure I need to go into a deep dive over the way the game plays as we’ve seen the gameplay trailers in the past. If you’ve seen those clips with Sam delivering packages that’s pretty much all I’ve done so far, the tone has definitely been on the serious side - thus far at least - with the piss grenades and Kojima wackiness completely missing during the opening stages of what I’ve played at least. The way it feels to pilot Sam though is probably what has surprised me the most, I read someone else somewhere compare piloting him to driving a car in GTA or something which had me a little bit worried because I assumed he’d control like a tank but instead he controls like a Sports Car if anything. He is incredibly nimble and controls very intuitively which I was shocked about, the walking speed is a light jog as well which means you get places really quickly. Holding L2 and R2 in will enable you to keep your balance much better and it’s a godsend when you’re carrying something heavy or traversing mountains as it will stop you flailing from left to right wildly. The way you load and unload packages feels very intuitive as well and it’s somewhat novel in letting you pick it up and then rearrange it on your person, it feels very tactile. I’ve made 3 deliveries in total in my time with the game so far. It seems fun enough to me to simply get lost in the world and walk about eventually getting to your delivery point but as mentioned previously I haven’t been fully let off the reigns so far so have only been able to explore very linear corridors which have been funnelling me to the next exposition point. I have met the ‘BT’s’ once so far and the whole experience completely weirded me out. I fucked it up first time around and was flailing wildly not knowing what to do before being chased by some kind of monster thing so I reloaded and gave it another go. The atmosphere in those moments is so damn tense creeping around them whilst crouching and holding your breath, the BT’s themselves give me the creeps, they’ve got such fantastic sound design. It probably goes without saying but the visuals are absolutely phenomenal as well. They world design has a really unique art design to it, I don’t really know what I can compare it to really other than possibly Nier Automata maybe? It just has this washed out melancholic but vivid quality to it that I’ve not really seen much elsewhere. If you like somber indie tunes you’ve come to the right place as well, in particular moments the music will swell and the camera zoom out to give you a sense of place whilst adventuring along. Kojima has a great music taste. As far as negatives go, so far the writing has been a little ropey in places and I couldn’t help but laugh when Kojima’s name comes up under every casting title during the credits as well. So yeah, so far so good really but it’s still very early days. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with it this far but am eager for the leash to be loosened so I can fully explore the world.

Still spelt wrong Bit of an odd one so far. The intro isn't great, I won't spoil it but it's so rushed. Basically it's the bare minimum to justify another game and it's dealt with within about 4 minutes. There's a couple of people you're supposed to feel something towards, but you've literally just met them, you didn't catch their name, and really, ultimately, couldn't give a fuck I can't remember at what point the first game told you about the benefits/consequences of killing people or knocking them out, but I've played 40 minutes, kind of might have killed a few people, and I don't know if it matters. They deserved it, but am I spreading plague, will I face some big consequence later in the game, I've no idea That said, you get to the game part and it's good. I fucked up the combat a couple of times, because you're robbed of your powers there's been a couple of times I've had no idea there were other guards around and so I've tried stealthing someone to sleep and ended up alerting 3 other guards, There's a weird inertia to the movement too, I think it was in the first game too, it takes some getting used to, but I think it will ultimately give the game some character and identity. I might regret it but I'm playing as Corvo, He doesn't shut up, again, I can't remember the first game that well but I don't remember him talking that much. You can play as Emily, and I think the game would like you to play as her, maybe I'll restart it and play as her at some point. Looks good, I'm managing to run it on ultra on my 970 at above 40fps (non-pc players stop reading before this bit, yeah), so I'll probably drop it down to very high and see what happens, either way I can't say I'm seeing the performance problems others have complained about

Ok, so this is awesome. i grew up with the Turtles in the ‘90s. Spent a small fortune on the arcade games. Loved Turtles In Time, which was the second SNES game I ever played. Scrolling beat em ups remain my favourite genre. So I was always going to be all over this. Thankfully, it was totally worth the wait. It looks fantastic, you can tell a lot of love has gone into this. The combat is satisfying, with each character having slightly different moves. If you play through Story mode, you gradually unlock more stuff, such as extra health and lives, and abilities. Each level has 3 challenges, ranging from do-able (kill 3 enemies with a specific move), to “not bloody likely” (don’t get hit once). There’s secrets to find, which help to level up a bit faster. The soundtrack is pretty catchy, and I love that the voice cast for the original series is more or less present and correct. I’ve played a few online sessions, and the net code seems pretty stable, even with 6 players, though that can be a bit chaotic. Fairly easy to get into an online game as well, which is good. Trophy wise, most of them are alright, though there’s a few pretty tough ones. Not sure I’ll manage the Platinum. But I’ll definitely have a fair few online sessions. It’s been scoring pretty high with reviews. And it’s totally justifiable, as it’s so much fun to play.

I really liked the original Cat Quest. It's an action RPG that takes place on a pretty small map. It gates you by having huge spikes in enemy levels, so if you wander in to the level 15 area at level 6 you're going to get very fucked up. It worked though, despite retreading a lot of old ground it keeps feeding you more, keeps you on the train, and it's not long before you're wrecking previously unkillable enemies The second one is effectively more of the same. This time there's co-op, you can play as a dog too. In single player you can switch between the two with the other character being controlled by the AI. It works, the a.i. is invulnerable so it can deal damage while you back away from enemies to dodge their signposted attacks. It kind of suffers from 2 problems, the first is that it's more of the same. The combat works the same, the progression more or less works the same (I no longer have to stick to landmass). The gear system works the same too, you can find repeats of the same items that will level it up, or you can pay to level it up. This obviously can make a huge difference along with your level as to how much damage you give and take. It's not something you have to be thinking about all the time but it does help The most obvious difference between the two games, and something I'm not sure is either a problem or a benefit, the map is now significantly larger. It still works the same way, going in to certain areas is suicide, but it's more gradual now, there's more space to spend your time in during the lower levels. Equally though it can mean trecking around is a bit more of a slog, when you're hunting for side quests or ticking off the explorable caves, the end game is going to be slower Ultimately if it has a problem it's that it's more of the same. Given that it's now a much bigger and longer game that's probably magnified, but it's still good fun and I'd still recommend it, it's simple, a bit mindless, but that's kind of what I want at the minute