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This is very good. The original was a pretty unique take on classic Metroid but this is something else. It still has recognisable hallmarks, especially in relation to the first game but it takes the unique aspects of that and uses those to build off. If anything it proves it wasn't a fluke and the unique aspects can carry a game. I dunno how many people here want to play it as I don't really want to talk about it too much at this point as the abilities you get are unconventional half the time and help keep the exploration a puzzle. It's pretty difficult though since it's mostly melee combat, but it could have been just me adjusting to it from playing the original right before this. The exploration isn't always easy, too. It keeps it a little easier since bosses can just be ran past if you're not feeling like you're ready for them on top of the very light stealth elements for regular enemies. Exploration is the core of the game. I'm stumped at the moment. I'm blocked off from where I need to go but I'm in that situation where do I need an ability I'm missing or is there some hidden way and I gain the ability in the place. I'm leaning to the latter since I've combed most of the (pretty large) map.

This is just for the demo so far... release isn't too far away now though. I'm presuming this isn't too far in to the game, you start out already having met Carlos and entering the Subway train, after a brief conversation you're free to head up to the streets. First impressions... and it's a big one, HDR is vastly improved over RE2... I wish they'd actually go back and fix that but after a year its highly unlikely, anyway it's a lot better in this game. It controls very similar to RE2 but with the added dodge, I actually had to go and change the controller setup as I didn't like where they'd put run (clicking left stick) with the change it felt much better. Obviously it looks lovely, already it's a much more colourful game than RE2, shooting feels pretty much identical... all though I think they may have toned down the zombie dismemberment a tad... presumably because there's more on screen. I've had a good wonder around, it's got some nice little shortcuts you can open up to move around easier and I'm surprised at how many shops you could actually enter. I didn't actually get to finish the demo though... Nemisis killed me...? Everything is looking good to me so far, fingers crossed that shitty real life virus doesn't delay the game.

Made a start on this last night, got about 2 hours in. Not much has happened so far but I do not want to give anything away at all about this game so will put all of this in Spoilers: Needless to say I’m very impressed. I honestly couldn’t put it down, if I could’ve stayed awake I would’ve happily played it all through the night.

Started this earlier, got about 4 hours in. It's pretty much what I expected really, borrows a lot from 0 in terms of the 4 fight styles available in battle (Brawler, Beast, Rush and Dragon), aesthetics and uses the same engine. From what I've played so far the story seems much slower and more convoluted than 0, with 0 I felt that threw you right into the deep-end right at the beginning and had you assaulting the Dojima Family HQ within about 30 minutes of beginning the game, whereas with this for the first 30 minutes or so you're running around a heavily cordoned off Kamurocho (so great to be back) trying to buy a Ring for a Woman Kiryu's trying to impress, with the main thrust of the game taking place after that and featuring tons of time jumps between '95, '96 and 2000 back to Present (2005). It just gets a bit hard to keep up at times, I think if I'd not of played 0 I wouldn't have a clue who most of the main characters are either, definitely helps playing that and having a backstory to people like Nishiki, Kazama-San etc., knowing what they used to be like before this game. So yeah, typical Yakuza really, tons of glorious cinematic cutscenes and beating dudes' skulls in with Motorbikes, Scooters and signage in some lavish locales and office buildings. Only after reaching Chapter 4 did I get full access to Kamurocho as well without any gates, felt so good to be able to run around and go exactly where I wanted to go after quite some time. Of course the first thing I did after seeing the unlocked map was find out where the naughty stuff was and head straight for the 'Gentlemen's Club' also noticed an Adult Video store on the map too which I'll have to explore tomorrow. The first two cutscenes with Majima were the funniest moments in the game so far, particularly when he's in disguise as a Policeman the second time and wants to search you to see if you've got any 'Smut DVDs' on you . Only done two side quests so far and they were cool and kooky but didn't stray too far into zany hilarity of Zero's just yet, but yeah, still very early days. Unsurprisingly then I really dig it so far. It definitely doesn't seem as expansive or grandiose as 0 in almost every way, definitely more of a focused lower-key story with only one area to play around in this time around, less mini-games and none of the cool distractions like Real Estate or Hostess Club Management but yeah seeing as I never played the original game back in the day I'm very happy with the way this is going and can't wait to dive into the open-world distractions more tomorrow.

Started this off earlier and put just under 4 hours into it. This has set the record of making me cry the fastest in a video game, just felt overcome with the music in the tutorial ? also the fountain in the middle of the village at the beginning of the game is just amazing, I must’ve walked around that fountain about 30 times just listening to the lovely music (cried again here), amazing. As soon as I got free reign to explore the village I explored every corner of it, there’s not much to it but it creates such a strong sense of place and unique vibe, it’s already memorable and familiar even in my short time there. Combat feels like a more simplistic version of Automata’s. It looks flashy and feels good but is bit more shallow than Automata’s. If I had to compare it, it feels a bit like FFXV’s (without all the warp-strikes) or one of the earlier KIngdom Hearts games. You start off without any ranged abilities with just your sword to rely on, but pretty quickly you pick up a ranged weapon which has added to the variety on offer and cool abilities you can pull off. Story-wise not much has happened so far, I’ve just been given a few meaningless tasks to do by Popola, been to my first dungeon and met a certain literary figure. I’ve done a few of the side quests too just to see how bad they are for myself, and yeah, they’re not great but I don’t mind them so far, they’re inoffensive, a damn boar kept fucking me up in one of them.

I played 30 minutes of it. It asks you to create a bethesda account before even being able to play which is really annoying but you can get around by setting steam to offline. Anyway it seems good. Kind of more focused on just murder arenas from the look of things. But I'm totally ok with a game like that. You can turn HUD off but it's hard to play. The HUD is a bit much tbh, I need to spend some time figuring out what parts I can turn off. Playing on ultra violent

I started playing this and beat the first boss. It's mostly like Crash 1 I think but with lots of new tricks and gimmicks. So far I'm not loving it but not hating it either. I just find it very frustrating as it is extremely punishing of pixel perfect miscalculations. Depth perception is also a thing I struggle with on it, even more than other Crash games. They put in this shadow circle under Crash so they seem to at least be aware of it but it doesn't always fix the problem. I don't know if it's the level of detail in the stages or something else but I am dying a lot particularly with all the new mask juggling mechanics It's really good looking but I'm looking forward to next gen ray tracing as the screen space reflections here have lots of artifacts. I've just noticed it a lot more in games recently that use that technique. Other than that it's very early Pixar looking in a good way. This happens way too often It's more of the same with some decent ideas so I doubt it will win over any new fans or necessarily alienate any old ones. Unless you really don't like the difficulty in Crash 1 which is the camp I sort of fall into. It's the same ultra linear tightly constrained design but now that they have lots of graphics budget on PS4 they don't need to do the thing where they hide the rest of the level behind obstacles like the ND games so that's a cool difference Pretty cool first boss

You know the first thing about this that made me smile? It comes with a manual! I can't really recall the last game I had that came with a real one? Anyway, this game (at time of writing, I'm not upto the second boss yet) warrants being remade. The original game was made in 1986. Gaming has changed a bit in 35 years and a straight up port isn't really going to garner any positive attention. Which, looking at some reviews and scores, this really has. Which, so far, I can only agree it deserves. Oh and two things. 1) I never played this Alex Kidd game, so there's nothing rose tinted there. 2) I definitely won't be playing this with the infinite lives cheat on. With how extremely generous auto-saving is in this remake, it isn't really necessary.

Continuing my Indie binge with Hollow Knight. Heard lots of good things about this game earlier this year and saw a Let's Play from Easy Allies of the first two-ish hours of it, has been on my Steam wishlist ever since. For those that don't know, it's an Indie Metroidvania game set in an eerie melancholic bug-world. I've enjoyed it quite a lot, being new to the Metroidvania genre I didn't really know what to expect, I've seen an awful lot of great indie Metroidvania games and kind of got turned off them in the past as there's just so many, I'm glad I gave this a go though because it's now a genre I'd like to explore more. For starters it doesn't hold your hand at all, you get a very brief control tutorial and are then left to explore the world. It doesn't explain anything at all, and if I hadn't of watched the EZA Let's Play I would've been a bit lost on where to go and what to do, luckily that gave me a brief idea. It was still a bit disconcerting exploring areas and not knowing where the fuck you are in the slightest, no map, no idea where the next Rest point is, no idea where the entrance to the next area is or anything though. Luckily you realise how the map system works pretty early on and then discover a vendor to add new areas to it, mark your location on the map etc. All incredibly useful. The gameplay loop is pretty similar to Souls I guess, if you die you loose all your 'Geo', you get Geo by killing enemies. The most innovative mechanic is that when you kill enemies you get souls that you then use to replenish your health, which adds to the whole risk/reward system of the game as it makes you want to attack more in combat in order to get more Souls to heal in the heat of a battle, it is a balance at times as your Soul supply can be used for other things too. You use a small sword for the combat (called a 'nail') which enabled you to hit enemies in any 360 degree direction, there's a lot of enemy variety on offer, when you go into a new area you have to learn their mannerisms all over again, there's a few areas with traps for you to fall into (similar to Souls) too, it always feels fresh and involving. It has that Souls feeling about it to about worrying where the next save point is, knowing you've got 1000+ Geo on you and whether to venture into the next area where a boss may be waiting or head back to a previous area and save. I won't give too much away but new mechanics are introduced as you go along that unlock new locales, one changes the platforming significantly and one changes the combat to a significant degree as well, the game never points you to these so presumably you could go the entire game without discovering them. There's also a system similar to the rings in Souls where you can get slightly more Souls when you defeat an enemy, a bit more health etc. but the slots are incredibly limited at this time meaning you have to choose very wisely which you want to equip. The game looks absolutely stunning, it has a really unique art-design about it, it's cartoonish but the backgrounds and levels managed to look realistic and give a very lived-in, ancient kind of vibe. By far and away the best thing about the game is the music though, it is just absolutely incredible and makes the each area feel special and meaningful, when you go to your first town and a certain song plays it's just so melancholic and haunting at the same time, it really is very special. The noises the characters you meet along the way make are fantastic too, they put so much personality in them just from gibberish and grunts. A few pics:

So, this has finally seen a multiformat release (it’s out on PS4 tomorrow but pre-orders get it a day early). The Ghosts series is something I’ve always enjoyed, but rarely managed to finish. I did complete Super Ghouls N Ghosts on the SNES back in the day, which certainly took some doing. In terms of difficulty, this is certainly the most player friendly yet. If you fancy a serious challenge, stick it on Legend. Squire, the lowest difficulty gives you several hits before you die, but apparently locks away some content, though I don’t know what yet. It’s still a tough game. I died several times against the first boss. And it still has the typical death traps that will almost certainly kill you the first time, due to how unpredictable they are. I do miss the double jump feature from Super GnG, as a lot of my deaths have come from falling into pits. Or getting overwhelmed by constantly respawning enemies. I’ve reached Level 3. The second boss was a bloody chore. We shall see how it goes…

So, I just started this up. I’m actually surprised Konami got off their arse to put this together. They’ve been absolute morons for years, and done literally nothing with their numerous IPs. All they did last year was Metal Gear Survive, which I don’t even need to comment on. So I genuinely wasn’t expecting them to bother with a collection like this. Contra is getting one later in the year, and I bloody love Contra, so will naturally check that out. Anyways. How does this hold up? Pretty good, really. The first game in the series i ever played was 4, due to never owning a NES back in the day. It remains one of my favourite games of all time, from the gameplay to the gorgeous soundtrack. I didn’t think we’d see this anywhere other than a Nintendo console. But I’m very glad to be replaying it. As it’s just as brilliant now, as it was then. I never played the Megadrive version, again due to not owning one at the time. So I’m looking forward to giving that a shot, as it’s generally held in high regard. As for the rest? You’ve got all 3 of the NES games, which I will get though after 4 and Bloodlines. Two gameboy games, which don’t look especially great, but I’ll play them for completions sake. And Kid Dracula, which I have no idea if it’s any good or not. As is par for the course in these kind of collections, you can quick save your game at any time. Though on the PS4 version, you access the save menu by pressing the Share button. Which of course either takes a screenshot, or video, depending on your setting. And there’s no way of changing that to say, the Options button, or touchpad. It’s weird. Maybe they’ll sort it out in a future update perhaps. There’s no way to change button configuration either. You also get access to various promotional material/ concept art of all the games, which is a nice touch.

Well,it’s finally out. I’m three missions in,and thus far,it’s off to a very good start indeed. It looks glorious,thanks to the RE engine. You start off as Nero,the only character that was in the demo. And he’s a riot to play as. I’ve never been a master of this series. I can throw down a few SS/SSS combos here and there,get the odd A rank from time to time. But I’ve long since accepted that I’ll never be a top tier DMC player. But that doesn’t matter to me. All that mattters is, “am I having fun?”. And thus far,DMC 5 is absolutely fun. There’s a ton of skills to play around with,the Devil Breakers add a new level of tactics to combat. I went for the Digital Deluxe edition,so have access to the Mega Buster from Mega Man. Which is definitely a favourite thus far. Now,on to the issue of micro transactions. A lot of people kicked off when it was announced this game has them. Jim Sterling has already said in his review that due to his standpoint,this excludes the game from “Game Of The Year” consideration,despite the huge amount of praise has for it. So,are they actually that bad in DMC? Honestly,no. They’re hidden away in the Menu screen,at no point are you obnoxiously told “Hey Kids,want to buy some stuff?”. And the prices of the items themselves,aren’t that much at all. £1.70 gets you either 3 Blue Orbs,or 100,000 Red Orbs. All of the reviews I’ve read have said you get more than enough without resorting to them. And I feel that seems about right. So yeah,it’s not the end of the world that they’re in this. There’s a catch up video that sums up important events in the previous games,which is pretty decent. It made me laugh that DMC2,the worst entry in the series,gets less than 10 seconds mention,whereas the rest get several minutes at least. So yeah. I’m excited to finally have this. Should be fun.

Got my copy early so gave this a go this afternoon after I finished The Inpatient. Starts off similarly to a lot of Monster Hunters, getting you into your camp quite quickly after a few scripted sequences, tutorials and lots of cutscenes. Spent awhile honing my character - went for my traditional ginger lady, had to change her hair as soon as I was able to in camp though as it just looked shite. Went for a tour of the camp and tried to take in where everything is, there’s definitely a lot to take in but I remember quite a bit of the layout already. Chose my weapon - went for the Insect Glaive. Tried it out in the training room afterwards and had an absolute blast with it, felt like Dante or Bayonetta or some shit, I was doing aerial gymnastics like nobodies business. Went on a quest after this to kill some jagras which was incredibly simple, cool to finally get to do my first quest. As soon as I finished all the online stuff opened up, I didn’t even realise the servers were online yet. Messed about a bit with the squads and checking out the new gathering hall which is fantastic. I’ve created a squad for us by the way, it’s called MFGamers - unsurprisingly - if you search for it whenever y’all get the game it should pop up, if not send me a message and I’ll invite you. Hardly got into it really, but it looks and feels phenomenal so far, cannot wait to get truly stuck in to some tough monsters in my next session.

Couldnt see a post for this, feel free to delete if there is one. So, this is my first Metro game and the first thing I will say is that the story/setting is so immersive that its made me want to go through the other ones. As a game its not the most polished although its really good, solid 7 out of 10, theres just a few little things here and there and it sort of reminds me of Elder scrolls Oblivion at points which is a weird comparison but its what it reminds me of, its just got a bit of a clunkyness to it. The load times are absolutely ridiculous at times, 2 minutes to load up the game. The first time it happened I genuinely thought my PS4 had just given up but apparently its standard. It would be interesting to see what people who have played the series think of this one, mainly @DANGERMAN because I seem to remember him being a long time fan. I get the impression that its a massive departure from the series traditional feel, and I dont know if they decided to just do something different because they wanted to make a kind of open world game. The reason I say that is because it definitely feels like an early PS4/late PS3 game in terms of its open world approach, it gives me some slight Half Life 3 vibes.

i've played persona games before but no smt games, i guess so far it seems pretty similar but without the daily routine/social link stuff, and the demons/personas are in your party rather than being sort of summoned. you have to talk to the demons to try and recruit them, although this is often bollocks as they ask for loads of stuff and then just run away, i still like it though, they say weird things and it can be pretty funny. the demons mostly look familiar too as they're pretty much the same from the persona games. i'm playing the super easy mode (which is free dlc), and it's really easy, i could have coped with some more difficulty, maybe a mode inbetween the normal one and the super easy one. but it's supposed to be quite long so the super easy mode should help with that. it's probably a good job i'm on the easy mode too as my main heal spell changed into something useless, and i've probably given most of my good healing items to demons while trying to recruit them. so i don't have many ways of healing at the moment but it hasn't made much difference. minor spoiler for stuff near the start of the game this is a ps2 game i think, i'm not sure if any graphics have been upgraded, it doesn't really look like it, it just looks like a ps2 game in much higher resolution. so far it's alright, i'm quite enjoying it but it's not been amazing or anything. i'm going to keep playing anyway.

There's kind of been 3 types of Ys games over the years. The first couple you just bashed in to enemies, then they became hyper, isometric, all about attacking. Then we got to the 3D versions and it was still a game about going on the attack, but now what type of attack was important. You'd eventually gather 3 characters, a sword character (red), a blunt attack character (blue), and a piercing character (green), different enemy types are weak to different attack types, and you can switch on the fly to suit And that's how it's been for a few games now. Ys IX follows the same formula, but brings in a more traditional RPG structure. Previously side quests would task you with just getting certain drops, you'd get them from your home base, which was a tiny area, and that would be it. 99.9% of the time you were out killing things Ys IX is a little different, structured like a traditional JRPG, it starts slow, with the plot set up, then some short easy combat to ease you in, then a chunk more story. The world is no longer 1 small safe area then a world of combat, instead you're in a city, with combat, shopping, side quests, and exploration taking place throughout, I've not seen this in an Ys game before, even if it's fairly typical for the genre. You're eased in to the world with quests to visit shops and buy gear, it's a little slow going. There's still "dungeons", sections where there's nothing but combat and exploration, but now there's also little dimension pockets where you can enter combat and fight a handful of enemies, then just carry on with whatever you were supposed to be doing The tower defence style sections are still here, now you're whisked away at certain points to fight as a team, protecting a crystal, against waves of enemies. Not especially interesting, and the camera annoyed me a little with this, it maybe could do with being pulled back a bit so you see more of the field, but then they've not been too demanding so far, so maybe it doesn't matter also it's all anime goth now

Well, ive installed it, and my poor little surface is sort of struggling to play it. Unless the main character saying every line is part of the story.... Looks good though, going to have a play around with the setting and see what we can do, more details when I get a chance to play it properly. Music in this game is absolutely lovely so far, im really liking the game from the brief 20 minutes. EDIT: Changed Resolution, and everybody is happy now. Was trying to run it at 2160 x 1440, looks lovely now.

I was just two and a half hours playing the Balan Wonderworld demo. It’s not half as bad as I’d heard on podcasts that had also clearly only played the first two levels of world one before turning it off and deciding to tell everyone it’s the worst game ever. The opening levels are a bit crap but the later sheep and the cog worlds are much better. I’m not talking Mario levels of quality but certainly gets better than the opening world. Plus the later costumes you find you can use when you go back to previous worlds to get to further trophies which in turn opens up more worlds. The music is also better later on. Not completely awful but an alright time waster and with so few games of its kind on xbox and PlayStation beggars can’t be choosers.

Streaming my first look at it now if anyone's interested.

So the next PlayStation 4 exclusive has released and I booted it up earlier, only played for around an hour and a half so I'm still very early in the game... Still doing tutorial stuff if I'm being honest. (This guy has such a shit name...) So not to spoil anything I'll be vague about the opening, after a brief cutscene showing things going to hell your thrown forward a couple of years in to the outbreak and in pursuit of someone on bikes. First thing that hit me with the bike is the weight of the thing, it was quite easy to steer only to think you need to compensate and then just start zigzagging down the road... Obviously that'll change given more time on the thing. Second thing is this game is going to be brutal to it's characters that's obvious from the off and it's something I like. (Like me, Deacon likes to loiter in bushes...) Other things introduced are stealth, melee combat and shooting all of which are similar (if not identical) to a number of games you'll have already played. All these things seem to work fine in this game though, so far, and feel quite natural. The only thing I'm not too sure with at the minute is how the save system works, it routinely makes auto saves and I also made a manual save where I thought I was safe to do so but after booting up the game to check (something I'll do with a new game) I was set back in the story by about 15 minutes, which is a bit shit. Anyhow, it's very early day like I said but I'm quietly confident that I'm going to have a decent time with this.

About 3-4 hours into this so far so thought I'd make a thread (my first in quite awhile!). To start off its made by the same Dev Team that made 2017's Stories Untold and some of the same developers that made 2014's Alien Isolation so I knew going in it's from a studio with some pedigree. You play as SAM. Essentially the 'Mother' computer AI of the Ship you're on - the Observation. You control numerous cameras situated around the ship and can also take control of remote sphere's that enable you to navigate around - in first person - the ships claustrophobic, dimly lit hallways. You interact with the game in a kind of point and click style, navigating from camera to camera around the station to try to find a passcode, a bit of evidence or open a hatch to advance the story. From time to you'll also interface with certain computers and have to complete little mini-games in order to progress. As for the story, I don't want to give too much away but as SAM you'll assist Astronaut Emma Fisher around the station, helping her in whatever way you can. As you progress, more and more things come to light about the crew, their plight, their mission and why the ship is in the state it's in. Things are quite tense around the station with a pervading sense of dread and foreboding, you never quite feel comfortable exploring but at the same time aren't exactly terrified either, I wouldn't really say it's a scary game at all so far - which is perhaps a little disappointing but it is definitely tense. It's definitely a weird one so far, there's a lot to take in and a lot of confusing aspects to the story that I'm still trying to piece together as I go along. It's consistently engaging, mysterious and compelling though and I find myself thinking about what discovery I'll find during my next session which is definitely a good sign. The way it plays isn't particularly revolutionary or anything but the quirky little computer mini-games are really well designed with that 80s Alien-esque aesthetic that gives them a character of their own and searching for items using the cameras is akin to old school adventure games. We'll see how it pans out but at the moment this is definitely up there as one of my most memorable games of this year, there's not really too much else like it. Some pics:

I think this might also be on the PS3 but I don't think we're getting that version over here. Also, I'm under embargo until tomorrow so I can't really say too much If you've not played a Yakuza game before, people initially compared them to Shenmue before other people got a bit annoyed about that and argued they were the Japanese GTA. They're more like Shenmue, there's more to do and there's way more combat, but it's a dense town and as you walk the streets you'll be attacked, then the game turns in to arena combat. The fighting is fairly brutal, it's mostly punching and kicking, which fills your heat meter, this makes you more powerful, but also allows you to access Heat moves (kind of finishing moves), triggered with triangle when the scenario is right. These can vary from simple stamping on people's heads, smashing their faces against a wall, or powerbombing them, stabbing them repeatedly in the guts. They're great There's different fighting styles now, 2 characters, and essentially each has a standard combat mode, a quick combat mode, and a power combat mode. There's skill trees for all, and rather than experience points you now spend money to improve yourself, which you beat out of opponents. This is kind of a mixed blessing as early on it means you can level up pretty quickly, but soon you'll be needing 30million for each move and that's when you'll have to start engaging with some side quests you might have otherwise not bothered with The side quests are plentiful. They vary from entertaining substories you don't get a huge amount from (they do have some rewards down the line) other than it's something entertaining to do. Some of them are very funny, one or two I wish I hadn't started, but all in all my the only thing that's made me regret playing through so many of them is that I'm supposed to be rushing to finish the game. As well as these side stories there's a few old Sega games, Out Run, Space Harrier. There's baseball, bowling, karaoke, some of this you'll be forced to engage with at least once, but of the 3 I've mentioned I've only done the karaoke, and it's great The story is actually very good. You play as Kazuma Kiryu initially, he's the main character through the series, but they have tried sidelining him a little in the past. The game opens with Kazuma beating a guy half to death on behalf of a loan shark, the guy later turns up dead which puts Kazuma in the firing line with his Yakuza bosses. It's a rabbit hole that goes fairly deep, it's got a lot of yakuza morality in there, and there's some cool shitty yakuza to face off against, but it's a story about real estate and power grabs, You'll then switch to Majima Goro, who was one of the antagonists in the first game, but people liked him so they keep bringing him back. They've toned him down a bit, I suspect we'll see something that makes him snap towards the end of the game, because he's not his old future self at the minute. He's been kicked out of the yakuza and is running a club, he has to make enough money to buy himself back in to the yakuza, but that involves doing some stuff he might not want to. It's not as good a story as Kazuma's, but it has started to tie in One final thing, this is a prequel, and apart from one part of Majima's story, I've not seen anything that requires prior knowledge of the serie. In fact, the way the game is structured, holding back content and doling it out slowly, it's probably as good an introduction as you could hope for

This arrived yesterday and I've played 11 hours so far...it's really good, it's a bold statement but I think it's the happiest I've been with a game in terms of expectations and how it's been to play it. It's very skyrim in the exploration. It really isn't linear at all, I'm on chapter three now and it's unbelievably open world. This might be the one in the series that brings people in, it's hardly a final fantasy at all.

Great! A game in a series I've enjoyed on and off since the third installment on PS1 has gone 'free' on Game Pass - let's try it out. Hmmm... It's taken me 5 minutes of scrolling and about 15 button presses just to get to the main menu. This isn't the greatest start. No matter, let's see what's about... Wait, what? It's automatically taken me to the options screen now? Ok, ok, I'll just back out of there, then I'll see what's going on. Mishima Saga? WTF is that? Fuck it, let's go. Oh yay. More menus to click through. JUST LET ME PUNCH SOMEONE DAMMIT! Ok - difficulty on Normal. Finally into it. Punching time. Wait. No. No it isn't - I'm dropping young Kazuya off a cliff. Nice throwback, but I just want to fight. Yay, fighting time! The above was a description of my first 10 minutes with Tekken 7. When I finally got into it, the story mode was AWFUL. I played on normal, because fuck it, it's Tekken, how hard can it be? Turns out it gets very difficult, and extremely cheap. To the point I had to play cheap myself to even it out. One fight pits you as Heihachi against Akuma from Street Fighter (because remember when SFxT was a thing? What happened to TxSF? I wanted that so much more). That was tough, but I got through it. Then a little later it switched the roles, and I almost threw my controller at the screen. Then, putting you back in control of Heihaci, it had you fighting against Kazumi. Who can fire lasers, fly, has a fucking tiger that can attack you, can disappear and has unblockable attacks. But the sidestep isn't responsive enough, so you just end up repeatedly getting wailed on. Oh and she has regenerating health. And the final boss is demon Kazuya. Who can do all of the above (except for the tiger bullshit) but stronger. On each of the 13 chapters you have to beat most characters twice - the only exception to this is where you have to defeat 5 army grunts or 5 of Jack-4/6 in a row. But you can't lose a round either. You have to win two rounds without taking a loss on every single chapter. There's also a final chapter that I didn't see last night where you have to defeat Devil Akuma. Really not looking forward to that bullshit. All I wanted was an old-school Arcade mode. Ten fights, best of 3, stupid character movie at the end. What I got was this fuckery. I'm gonna go back in the next few days and look for some traditional modes, but last night I had to take my Kindle up to bed with me to try and dispel some of the irritation. That shouldn't happen with a game.

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: